Doing the root pruning thing again, this time with MicroKote

[OldUncleBen]

If I didn’t have bad luck I’d have no luck at all. Am finding more macho males, guess that’s what pure indicas do. Out of 10 indicas started since Nov. 2021, only 2 have been females.

Am finding MicroKote works on some of the roots @Oldjoints. Destroyed a male yesterday and some of the perimeter roots showed some root pruning, most did not. The root system is extreme on my plants, as usual. Remember amigos, forget about the buds, IT’S ALL ABOUT THE ROOTS!

I am NOT seeing any Mycorrhizal fungi filaments on the roots either. Pretty disappointing when you pay a good price for that stuff.

I tore into the rootball with my fingers and a shovel, beat this thing to death on the ground trying to salvage the soil. Finally gave up and tossed the whole thing. That’s a good thing. If you haven’t produced a huge mass of roots, you have not reached the full potential of your efforts.

This Hazeman Monkey Balls (Deep Chunk F2) is a fine plant. Love the structure. Unlike Deep Chunk which looks like a huge mass of leaves someone stepped on, this one has a nice branching structure with some space between the internodes. Flipped 12/12 March 26.

Grow hard,
Uncle Ben

[Oldjoints]

I still haven’t pulled the trigger on the MicroKote yet but I am sure I will give it a try!

[Dirt_Wizard]

I’ve got a small sample bottle of it that this thread has me convinced to get out today and paint up a set of ProCal 1g with, I’ve got a bunch but switched to 2G fabric transplanters for veg, would love to get those back working for my spring seed pops and the Vortex run I’ve got coming up, I’ll need a lot of smaller pots for that and have to keep them healthy, I’m hoping hard pots with MicroKote will make the watering regimen easier with that small volume. Will post updates later today.

Happy Spring to all, it finally hit the Northeast hard and this week has been all running around finding soil mix components and other stuff, I got more Espoma Lightning Lime and Bio-Tone Starter, and a few bags of some really nice and cheap ($7/bag) composted cow manure from a company in CT that keeps the whole farm-compost-bagging-sale chain local since they get their poop from CT dairy farms and I get it from the local pet and garden co-op that stocks up hard for the spring on pallets for some three-plus bag discounts and 3-for-2 deals.

I’m about to mix up 4cf of ProMix moisture control (the red compressed mini-bale from Walmart $13.50 for 2cf, organic yellow mini-bales are supposed to be $11.50 but nobody had them in stock yet) with a bag of that manure, lime, EWC, soldier fly frass, a bag of Espoma Raised Bed mix, some Bio-Tone Starter, DTE Bio-Fish, and some Dr Earth 4-4-4 for good measure. Once plants are maturing in their pots I’m gonna top dress with some Osmocote Plus 6 month, since most of these will go late in my sunny valley spot and some will overwinter on the sunporch or living room bay window.

Thanks for all the soil mix tips, @OldUncleBen ! We don’t always see eye to eye 100% but I value your agricultural/nursery approach to things generally, especially mixing up soils and using the good stuff from commercial ag suppliers for IPM and the like. My local little grow shop is run by a couple who bought it from the founder about five years ago as a retirement business, and they’re former Florida and New England orchard/nursery folks, with a splash of “probably used to run some big room with a few dozen lights back in the day” from one of them. They’ve held my hand along with the better forum members here since I started growing a few years ago, and the advice to stick to the organic basics instead of product lines has been great for me and my plants. It feels like I’ve spent a ton of money on five and eight pound boxes and bags of inputs, but when I think about how much it would have cost to buy the couple hundred gallons of excellent soil I now have, it doesn’t seem so bad. And sticking with the farm and garden products has meant that they all go in my yard and veg garden too, and I give them away to friends, family etc because they’re so cheap. It’s nice to be the organic wizard with a couple pill bottles and ziplocks full of secret sauces that you can share with someone and say actually it’s not a secret it’s just back to basics and it’s really cheap! Or just as much I say here’s a spice jar full of Osmocote Plus, this little thing will make all your houseplants boom with just a few tablespoons, which is like magic, pure ag science magic, especially that the slow-release coated salt fertilizers play nice with organics, which is the middle road I’m starting to explore, fully healthy organic soil food webs juiced up with a safe salt like Osmocote for maximum performance with no ideology behind it.

And @Oldjoints since you’re here- thanks for doing that Blue Tara F3, I’ve got one finishing right now and it is such a beautiful plant, much thinner leaved and long-maturing than I expected, did you select toward the Blue Moonshine sativa phenos?

[shag]

@OldUncleBen

Deep Chunk which looks like a huge mass of leaves someone stepped on

Now that is funny.
This may be due to the paclo. if you used it on that plant that is.
Do you think the paclo contributes to better roots?

[OldUncleBen]

Watering requirements all depends on the root and leaf mass. The more the mass, the more water they require. My only lady left requires almost a gallon a day. Pot is about 2.5 gallon. It’s so convenient to grab the water hose and flood the pot with well water while it’s outdoors. Easy peasy…

I’ve got maters in RootMaker fabric pots. PITA as they need watering often.

Temps have been in the mid 70’s, sunny skies. I’ve been giving her full sun about 10 hours out of the day if skies are clear. No leaf burn. Osmocote is still chugging along as you can see in the pix.

Off to shit can my last male now. Will post pix if I find something relevant.

UB

[OldUncleBen]

Studies have shown that paclo contributes to not only better fruit and flower set but good root development too.

No, haven’t used paclo on anything in quite a while which was on 2 Maui Wowie last year.

“Deep Chunk” is a perfect name for this variety. It’s just a giant, THICK mass of leaves. I know I’m going to regret not saving pollen from it and doing the dirty deed, but I’ve got bigger fish to fry now.

UB

[OldUncleBen]

You’re doing good amigo. Have you seen the prices at A.M. Leonard lately? DAMN, they’ve gone up 2-4X. Example - I was buying big 3 cu. ft. bags of Berger’s BM7 for around $19, shipped free, and now it’s tripled to $64! https://www.amleo.com/berger-bm7-bark-mix-3-cu-ft/p/BM7-P

Gardening season is on and they’re taking advantage of it. Don’t blame them a bit.

UB

[Dirt_Wizard]

@OldUncleBen you ever use perlite wicking beds for plastic or fabric pots? I’m thinking to give that a spin this time around with some trays for my potted plants outdoors, thinking a white plastic cover over the tray with holes cut out for the pots, to keep the perlite clean and from blowing away when it dries down.

[OldUncleBen]

When I say it’s all about the roots, I mean it. I’ve concentrated on root development for decades and have mastered it. Case in point, i have a key lime tree which has 4 varieties of oranges grafted on it and one Moro blood orange tree. Like all my “in ground” greenhouse trees, the roots are thick. I got 223 Meyer lemons over the last few months and am still working on 100’s of oranges.

Here is a shot of me adding three 13" W X 16" panels to my RootBuilder pot. To expand the “pot”, you cut the old cable ties holding the ends together and add the new panels with new cable ties, backfill with soil. Notice there is little to no spin out. The root tip termination is due to exposure to light/air via the downward pointing “nipples” extruded into the material. There are 1/4" holes in the nipples. If you look at the bottom left you can see thick white roots rooted into my heavy clay loam. 2014:

Griffin’s Spin-Out on cannabis, Scratched some of the soil off with my finger. Note no spin out.

Fibrous root ball.

UB

[OldUncleBen]

No I haven’t. Sure you’re not overthinking this @Dirt_Wizard?

The easiest way for me to grow outdoors is to dig a 3" deep hole the perimeter size of the pot and sink the pot into the hole. Make sure the drainholes are well covered. I run a drip irrigation emitter into the pot, like a 1 gpm, which is what I fed a field of trees with, 2 miles of 1/2" black poly pipe. The roots will grow through the drain holes into native soil. Easy peasy…

I’ve grown some pretty big sativas this way - O. Haze, a very sativa dominant Peak19 backcross (Colombia parent influence), etc.

In spite of staking the colas flopped over.

UB

[OldUncleBen]

Dumped another male. This time MicroKote worked for some strange reason. Maybe I painted this pot a bit more @Oldjoints. Again, the rootmass is extremely thick, so thick it’s hard to beat the soil out of the roots.

UB

[OldUncleBen]

Here’s a trick, pure indica, Tom Hill’s Monkey Balls. This is another indica that’s a bear to pinpoint when to harvest. Took this shot this morn - it is covered with a very fruity, bubble gum smelling resin albeit no long pistils to speak of and you’d have to have a 1,000X microscope to see inside the trichomes. Been in 12/12 for 7 weeks. Think I’m going to do the chop this weekend.

The shaded buds are not thin and are covered with resin.

UB

[shag]

Lookin’ good as usuall @OldUncleBen
Quite the stout little plant you have there.

[OldUncleBen]

Harvested the gummy Monkey Balls yesterday. This thing was like trimming something covered in goo. I noticed the black “charas” on the scissors and thought of those villagers that rub plants out all day with their fingers to make it. Had to clean the scissors often.

Even the lower colas were thick and chunky.

Plant got rain water the last week or so. Probably pulled a dozen yellowed fan leaves recently.

Still had a lot of nice lower leaves. Was thinking about re-vegging this. Gonna take a break for a while. Grow “room” is broken down.

Best,
Uncle Ben

[OldUncleBen]

I did re-veg the Lapis Mtn. indica. It’s going on about 6 weeks 12/12. Color of the leaves is a hoot!

Uncle Ben

[OldUncleBen]

The coating worked well. Root mass is thick and healthy. No spin out.

Knocked off as much soil as possible to show the root mass.

[PTron]

This is amazing info. I’m in need of all the help I can get so I just ordered a quart. I’ve just gotta get the soil mixed and pots painted. I’m psyched
TY @OldUncleBen

[OldUncleBen]

Good luck with that. I just got thru harvesting the re-veg of Lapis mtn. indica in such a treated pot. It did well being in that pot for about 6 months with a very dense healthy root system. Need to post a pic.

Got a lot of gooey, fine nuggets BTW. Am curing it now.

Uncle Ben

[OldUncleBen]

Here’s some pix of that re-vegged. This lady has been in this pot for at least 6 months. Root system and plant were very healthy. The X worked this time.

Uncle Ben

[PTron]

Been very busy but had to say thanks for this technique. It’s been extremely helpful in a way I don’t think I expected.

I have comments and questions

Makes up potting a breeze for my system.

I typically place the root bound seedling in its new home and pack all around the solo cup with new soil until I get it set height wise. (Currently all went into pre painted one gallon nursery pots)

I then remove the seedling/cup and spray the soil (the hole and perimeter with rooting liquid hormones)

The magic happens when I remove the seedling.

I also spray the root ball with rooting liquid before sprinkling it with micorrizae. This process often led to a bit of crumbling or soil loss AND it would often be impossible to get micorrizae to adhere to the perimeter of the root ball.

Not anymore!!!

I can rotate the seedling in one hand and gently shake the micorrizae onto the root ball with confidence it won’t crumble in hand.

I then place it in its new pot, tamp soil, water well, and on to the next.

Huge anxiety reliever.

My questions/observations might be stupid or wrong.

I noticed the plants needed watering more often and it seemed I had to take a longer slower approach to watering.

I guessed it was due to the massive root system and very little air space in the soil (which alerted me “time to up pot”)

Did I get this wrong?

I even painted my solo cups so I lost the visual cues of seedlings being root bound.

Just hoping I missed this info here. It’s not like I spent hours researching this, I knew I was gonna do it.

Hoping this helps others that might also be lazy like me before starting a new technique, and hoping I figured it out accurately.

Thanks again @OldUncleBen