Are you using your teas in veg only? I don’t think I have an interest in using any kind of ewc or compost teas just yet but it’s still very interesting to me
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i dont wanna derail, but i gotta ask, @supershitfuck how do you like the dr. earth stuff?
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I always water with one at some point during veg, the earlier the better, really. Although I do hate brewing a four-gallon tea just to use a few tablespoons-worth on week-old seedlings. It really does accelerate growth, though, and kind of kicks the soil into gear, so yeah, the earlier the better. And I just dump the rest on the houseplants we have outside.
And then I also always try to do one for the first watering after I transplant into the flowering pots, which is usually five or six days, maybe seven, after they get put in there. I looked at my notes yesterday and realized that I actually hadn’t done that for this grow; all the plants only got one AACT on November 6, when they were still in their half-gallon veg containers. But I gave all of the flowering plants the leftovers from that tea I brewed a couple nights ago, which was about three gallons, so hopefully that’ll help. I hope it does haha. I’ve been pulling a LOT of leaves off of some of the plants (that gigantic C. Gold x DE immediately comes to mind)(bitch… haha), I’m starting to worry a little bit about getting them to the finish line. Got at least 40 days left to go, probably longer; pulling leaves off this early doesn’t make me feel great haha.
Anyway, yeah. I’ve never watered with a compost tea this late in flower, I think it’s best to hit them with it right before or just after you’ve flipped. I don’t think it’ll “hurt” anything this late, though. Probably gonna help, honestly.
It’s fine, dude. You’ve seen this thread. I derail it on my own haha. The more discussion, the better. That’s what these grow logs are for.
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cool thread, great looking plants! 
nice to see some leggy girls for once! 
I do have a question! 
how are the plants generally so small after 41 days? held in a tiny pot for a long time? they look closer to 21 days…?
good tea is gold, full stop. people hate on things they don’t know about all the time…
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I mean, I don’t think they’re that small haha. They’re short, compact, whatever, but the pic you referred to, that plant is on its seventh node at 41 days. Is that unusual? I really don’t know, but that’s typically about how long everything I’ve ever grown takes to get to the seventh node. The main thing is, I think, the lights I use (Apache Tech). They seem to grow really, really compact plants. I’m pretty certain that they’re the reason for the “smallness.”
I also plants seeds directly in the soil and start counting veg days the second I do that. I believe the plant in the pic you referenced (and all of the other plants) took about four days to break soil, so if you wanna count veg days from the time they’re actually above dirt, she’s on day 37 in that pic haha.
And with the exception of those Ancient OG x Dragon Energy plants this run (those were planted straight from the starter pots into the five-gallon ones), I always start seeds in those little three-inch “starter pots” and wait for them to get filled up with roots, which takes about a month. Then I transplant to the half-gallon veg pots and wait for them to show sex. The transplant probably makes them stall a little bit. I dunno.
I think it’s the lights, honestly. They grow amazing plants and everything (usually) stays very compact. And I keep them pretty close to the plants right from the start, too, most of the time. I don’t measure the distance, but it’s usually about a foot away, maybe a foot-and-a-half.
I’ll admit that I see people’s grow logs where they’ve got a plant that’s like a foot tall and only on its fifth node and be like,”What the fuck is going on there…?” haha. Or they’ve got a six-inch seedling that’s barely on its first true set of leaves, all stem and cotyledons. Always freaks me out haha. By the time my plants are six-inches tall, they’re already on their fifth node, usually. You can keep your lights pretty close to seedlings and it really won’t “hurt” them, as long as it isn’t super-hot.
I think. I really don’t know haha!
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Forgot to comment on this. It’s not the people who “don’t know” hating on compost teas who irritate me; it’s the people who’d been advocating for them for years, like Coot, Mountain Organics (blue jay, whatever you wanna call him) etc, who suddenly go,”Hah! Compost teas. Gimme a break…” and act like anybody who uses the very thing they’d been advocating for for years is an idiot. THAT pisses me off. I really have to wonder what their motivation is. I mean, Mountain Organics started selling bottled teas or whatever, I wonder if that maybe might have something to do with his sudden “realization” that home-brewed compost teas are supposedly useless? Maybe? “Don’t brew compost teas! Buy my bottled shit instead!” Yeah, no thanks.
Things that make you go,”Hmm…”
In any event, yeah, compost teas are all good in a ROLS. Definitely never not gonna use them.
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You might have already mentioned somewhere else but what model apache are you running? I like your compact plants a lot and definitely seems like a feature not a bug of those lights if so!
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In the 5x5, I’ve got one AT600 and one AT… 120? AT200? I can’t remember haha. No, wait, I think it’s the AT200. It’s the one that’s the equivalent of a 600 watt HID. And I’ve got the same AT200 in the 3x3. They really are very, very good lights, never get hot and yeah, like you mentioned, the plants just really seem to grow kind of ideally under them.
But they’re expensive as shit. That’s probably the only drawback. The AT200’s I bought like a year-and-a-half ago, so I’ve got like ten years left (at least) before I replace them. The AT600 I’m gonna have to replace in about three or four years, kind of debating whether or not I’m gonna go with another one or try out HLG or some other company. I really love the Apaches, though. The only thing I don’t like about the AT600 (besides how much it costs) is that it’s heavy as shit. 65 pounds. Every time I raise or lower it, I worry that the entire tent is gonna collapse haha.
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That’s what my brother said haha, the dr. earth fertilizers i use have microraze it in, there’s a list of different microbes on there, but yeah mostly a nutrient tea. Very nice before and after comparison man.
yes it’s cheap as hell and grows my plants, once you top dress that stuff the plants get to it really fast and it shows almost right away. available at home depot!
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That “available at Home Depot” thing is what interests me, that and the price. I think I remembered seeing that it was OMRI listed, not that that really means much, but it’s at least a good sign. I haven’t looked at the ingredients to know if it’s really organic inputs. I’ve been using roots organics dry nutes and haven’t really been blown away, so I’ve been looking at DTE, Gaia green, and some others, dr. Earth included to see if there’s something I might wanna switch to. So far DTE or Gaia are front running
Edit: just went to thier site and looked, inputs actually look pretty good, bone meal and feather meal are the only “controversial” inputs on the list, but they do say that they don’t use and GMO fed animal product so it might be BAS level organic? @supershitfuck do you follow the regemine on the bag? It says “1/2cup per 5 gals every month” for established potted plants
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Yeah, I don’t really know what that means haha. I mean, as I understand it, mycorrhizae need living roots to survive and thrive. Or they at least can’t just be stored in a bag. At the same time, there’s all kinds of different “weed stuff” that has packaged mycos in it, so who the fuck knows? I like the way I do it, though haha.
Having said that, I’d probably bubble that tea you use. From everything I’ve read, dissolved oxygen is a must when it comes to compost-type teas. If it’s a nutrient tea, like a neem/kelp or whatever, just stirring it every now and then works, but if you’re trying to multiply the bacteria/fungi/etc etc, you have to have some oxygen in the water. Again, I really don’t know haha. I’m not a scientist. But from everything I’ve read, dissolved oxygen is key. But don’t change shit if it’s working for you. Looks like it is, from the pictures I’ve seen.
Why, though? Your plants look good to me haha. Why are you using any “nutes” at all? I realize that being in those three-gallon pots you’re in might make you a little nervous or whatever, but I just saw those pics you posted earlier today, they look good!
Less is more, in my opinion.
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Thanks for the compliment homie! I’m not sure how much thier looks are attributed to this but those 3 gal ladies got top dressings of that roots organic dry nutrient mix from birth. Theoretically it should be replenishing the nutrients the plant uptakes as it breaks down, who knows how much that is realistically happening in a small volume of soil like that, but I’m inclined not to fix it if it ain’t broke . The local shops are spotty with having the RO nutes in stock, and I’ve just been peripherally looking around for another line that might do the same thing but is more readily available like the dr. Earth, so I figured I’d at least inquire as to how it’s working and what the program looks like, curiosity more than anything I think 
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exactly. that’s the reason why i use dr. earth, no ordering, no planning, it says organic, it’s there it’s cheap and it works lol
something is alive in there, the day after i top dress there’s “white fluff” all thru the top dress, and it’s available quicker to the plant compared to the other top dress i tried
BAS level i don’t know but BAS is not much more expensive… i haven’t followed instructions before so no, i just top dress when i think it’s about to need it, but i use their feeding schedule to give me a idea and i probably come pretty close to following in. i recommend it! i like to remind people i’m a pretty new grower so don’t blindly follow what i say lol
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dude i know, drives me nuts! i have low ceiling so i absolutely blast my seedlings with light, heat and high humidity to overcompensate, they grow super compact, i like never had a seedling a inch tall, sometimes i can’t even see the stem, the leaves grow straight outta the ground, i’m exaggerating here but not really haha
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That’s cool. You talking about a little Santa’s Beard-type thing? Well then it must be good. Maybe I’ll look into that. Mental note: Dr. Earth’s something something something haha! Just kidding, I’ll bookmark that post. I haven’t had any kind of Santa’s Beard action in my mulch layer in a long long time, always makes me sad. I loved seeing that going on. “I used to be such a good grower…” haha!
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Just needed a reason to check it out! I remember mean gene saying that he used some generic out-of-box organic tomato fertilizer that he liked, so I figure you just gotta look around to find good stuff that’s easy to use for a good cheap price
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haha, yeah, sure!
look at the microrazee list, something HAS to be alive in there, cause it is! it brews reallly good “teas”
i tend to overfertilize i think, these fertilizers are strong
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Yeah, sure, but again, compost teas aren’t fertilizers. And with organic growing, I’m not gonna add anything with an NPK (arrgghhh…) above 5. That’s just me, though.
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Okay, flower day 49/50.
Bandaid Haze #1:
At this point, I’m fairly certain some of these plants got pollinated by something else. There seems to be a lot of brown pistils for day 50. The only Bandaid Haze that doesn’t have any is the #3, which looks like she’s gonna be one of those “never-finishers” I’ve read about. But maybe they didn’t get pollinated. I really, really hope they didn’t.
It’s possible that they’re just doing the whole “whither and then spit out a bunch of new white pistils over and over again” thing that a lot of pure Sativas will do (or so I’ve read), maybe that’s what I’m seeing. I really don’t know, but, again, I hope these plants didn’t get seeded.
Anyway, Bandaid Haze #3 (the never-finisher haha):
Bandaid Haze #4:
And the Bandaid Haze #6:
The #6 seems to have the thickest colas of the four and looks like she’ll be finishing the fastest, too. So that’s cool.
Here’s the Colombian Gold x Dragon Energy #1 (my favorite):
She was actually really starting to lean last night; like, the entire plant was just sorta leeeeeaning back and to the left. So I staked and tied her up a little bit right after I took those pics. I have a feeling I’m gonna have to do a little more tying before she’s finished. It wasn’t like her branches were flopping or anything, it was more like the whole plant felt like it wouldn’t be too much longer before she just snapped at the base or something.
It’s interesting with these sorta “heavy Sativas” crossed with Doc’s Dragon Energy male. Like the Mexican Melons from last round, I got two females of the C. Gold cross. And like the Mexican Melons, I got one plant that looks very kind of “point of origin,” doesn’t exhibit many (or any) characteristics of the dad, grows kind of “wild” etc etc. And then I got one female that did exhibit a decent amount of Dragon Energy dad influence. It’s the DE-influenced plants (and I’m basing this on four total plants, so, you know, obviously not a large sample size) that seem to kind of lean and sway and feel like they’re gonna tip over etc etc. I mean, that one Mexican Melon straight-up snapped when I was taking her out of the tent to tie her up on day 28 and yeah, part of that was because I didn’t do it when I knew I needed to, but still… That C. Gold #1 felt the same way last night, like if I didn’t tie her up right away, she’d just break at the base the next time I took her out.
I dunno. Just an observation haha. I’m not complaining.
Anyway, here’s the C. Gold x Dragon Energy #2:
There sure are a lot of brown pistils for a plant that I was fairly certain was gonna take at least thirteen weeks not too long ago… Probably got pollinated, gawddamnit. I also did a little staking and tying with her last night, just to kind of get her branches sticking up rather than out and make a little more room in the tent. That #2 thinks the whole tent belongs to her or something…
Here’s the Soar #3:
She actually looks done to me, but I’m gonna wait to chop her until I chop the Skycuddler Kush, which’ll be in six days. I think. Somewhere around there. Soon, anyway haha.
She’s also very sticky and incredibly stinky, no nug-squeeze necessary. Very loud. Smells so good.
Aaaaaaand the Skycuddler Kush #3 f3 #2 haha…:
I DID give her flowers a squeeze last night and they smell so, so, so fucking good. Not the loudest plant, for sure, but the smells are very complex and super-tasty. I’m really looking forward to chopping her soon.
Uggghhhhh, what a long update haha. And we still have the Ancient Og x AfPak to go through. Those won’t take long, though.
Flipped them two days ago, January 24.
Ancient OG x AfPak #1, flower day 2:
Ancient OG x AfPak #2, flower day 2:
Ancient OG x AfPak #3:
Ancient OG x AfPak #4:
Ancient OG x AfPak #5:
Some of them have some big-ass fan leaves for sure.
I glanced at a few of them last night, looking for sex parts haha. I’m pretty sure the #1 is a female. Can’t remember which ones they are now, but I’m also pretty sure I saw two males, which blows. I better get at least two females from these seeds haha.
Anyway, yeah, flower day 49/50.
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