Sons Of Avery's Organic Grow Journals

[SonsOfAvery]

So I’ve been away from here for a while now, and it’s time to get set up again!

Long story short, I had to move home and to a new city, pretty quick. In the process, had to get rid of all my equipment, and my seed collection got left behind in the rush. (Aprox 500+ seeds, original Bodhi Packs, f2s, breeding projects I’d been working on and freebies from members of this forum) all gone .

But the good news, I’ve built a new Led light, set up a new tent and mixed a fresh batch of organic soil!
So let’s getting going!!!

Setup looks like this.

Budbox intermediate white interior tent 75cmx75cmx160cm.
RadAir 4" extractor with rhino hobby filter.
X2 clip fans.
Passive intake.
(Waiting on thermometer and hygrometer to arrive, so don’t have readings yet).

Led light is a homemade DIY job.
8 x 23w TCI strip lights. (X6 4000k x2 3000k)
All fitted to a 5mm aluminium plate, so the whole thing is a heatsink.
I’ve wired it with two switches so I can have either
*x4 4000k strips
*x2 4000k & x2 3000k strips
*all 8 strips on

It’s giving off roughly 1200ppfd at 10" from light with all 8 strips on. So should be plenty of light come flower.

The soil.
After dabbling with organics in my previous grows, I was wondering wether I should try that route again, or go for a bottle nutrient type grow.
I settled on the organics, for a few reasons.
Firstly, I love growing plants. I love the science behind it, and I really enjoy the time spent learning and putting knowledge into practice to achieve results.

Because I chose to go for a organics grow, I decided to fill the small space I have with as much soil as possible, so I bought a 60cmx60xmx30cm fabric bed (holds roughly 90ltrs/24gal as I’m not filling to the brim)

I’ve been an avid watcher of the Build A Soil youtube for years now, and I’m keen to try some of the new things I’ve learned since my last organics run. And this time around I’ve mad my own mix from scratch.

Soil mix recipe is as follows.
50ltr Sheep’s wool/bracken compost (peat free)
15ltr worm castings
15lt pumice
5ltr birchwood biochar

Amendments:
Neam meal 1 cup
Alfalfa meal 1cup
Malted Barley 1cup
Insect frass 0.5 cup
Kelp meal 1cup
Powdered Aloe 0.5 cup
Fish Meal 1 cup
Gypsum 2 cups
Basalt 3 cups
Mycorrhizal fungi 0.25 cup

All mixed by hand didn’t really have a choice, but it was fun to get my hand dirty.

The plants.

Europa Seeds
Purple Diesel Daze fem

710 Genetics
Berry OG Kush fem

No doubt I’ve missed something, but I’ll keep updating this as I go, and add any info I may have missed.

I’m always happy to learn and share my experiences so would love to have people chime in, drop some comments, lesve some good vibes, whatever really.
Peace.

[OhNo555]

Was going to offer you some beans 🫘 to get started, but I see you are good!.

Good luck with your new grow!

[Tejas]

Good to see you back on OG, good luck with your grow.

[SonsOfAvery]

That’s very kind of you! I’ve found nothing but kindness and generosity from the community on here.
I have a few things to choose from as I did an order from Attitude on 420 and got like 10 freebies.

I do wonder where my jar might be now though lol, I just hope it went to someone who’ll use them, but I think landlord will have just binned it if im being realistic.

[SonsOfAvery]

Thanks!!
It feels good to be back, even just typing out that initial post felt therapeutic. And its got me thinking about how this grow is going to go.

Can’t wait to start posting updates with some pics.

[Rogue]

If you’d get regular seeds then you can make a whole bunch of seeds in one go and then you won’t have to buy any seeds for maybe years to come.

And if you topdress with kitchenscraps, grass clippings, tree leaves, dandelion and nettle, etc, then you won’t have to buy any amendments either.
Been doing it quite successfully for almost two years now.

Edit: The nitrogen levels in my bigger pots are at the point where some of the leaves start clawing a bit most of the time but wihout any real tipburn, and I’m still amazed at how little water this method needs. If I do get tipburn then it’s from me overwatering.
When nitrogen levels do get out of hand then one can always add some sawdust.
I was just poking around in there a bit with a little stick and dozens of baby rollie pollies scattered. They seem to be little nitrogen machines and I’ve got entire legions of them!
They can’t climb the walls of a plastic container and so long as you topdress often they leave the cannabis alone for the most part, they mostly prefer decaying stuff.
They also don’t like water, when watering from the top their tiny tunnels flood and in their fleeing from drowning they seek the highest point and climb the plants and then they sometimes chew on the leaves. So bottom watering solves that.

[SonsOfAvery]

Haha I do plan to top dress a little of needed, but I feel like the mix will be good for this first grow woth a few teas here and there.
But yeh, I plan on keeping this bed gofer a long time if I can, so top dressing will be a must, along with some re amends in-between cycles.

I had been looking at growing dandelion as one of the companion crops, I’d like to use some to make tea (for me, not the plant).

With only having such a small space, I need to get once grow done so we have some jars full for the next few months.
Then I’ll probably look at making some F2s.
I picked up a pack of Bodhi’s Old Soul (Pinesol x OMG) which I’d love to f2 and see if I can find some Goji leaning plants.

[OhNo555]

You go brother that’s the OG spirit in You shining through if need something I will help you out just ask.

[A-Loc]

Sounds like it’s gonna be a solid grow

[SonsOfAvery]

Thanks!! I hope so too
Fingers crossed its smooth sailing!

[TopShelfTrees1]

Welcome back my friend, been a while. Awesome to see you back, sorry to hear about the loss of your gems though, truly. Ever need anything just hmu, be glad to help

[SonsOfAvery]

Hey!! Thanks! Really appreciate that.
I’m sad they got left behind, I swear I packed them up and I’ve had everything in this new place turned upside-down looking for them but no joy… it is what it is though! I’m looking forward now and I’ll rebuild my collection now that im settled in my new place.

Did you get round to popping any of the beans I’d sent to you?

[Strainger]

Wondering about living water only soil, should I fill pots prior to transplant to give it time for the microbes to decompose and make the nutrients available for plant?

[HealingHerb]

Pulling up a seat, well done on the diy comeback. You can’t keep a good grower down!

[SonsOfAvery]

I’m no expert, by a long way, but from what I do know it’s ideal to let the soil “cook” for maybe a week if possible. Depending on what amendments you add to the mix and in what quantities, if you’re adding things like Blood &bone, Gauno etc then you may need to let it “cook” for a little longer.

But in most cases you’ll be fine to plant direct into soil.
If you’re planting in a small pot first, makenup the soil mix at the same time and plant some cover crop, by time you’re ready to transplant, the soil will be good to go and you can chop and drop the cover crop to add to the mulch.

Honestly, if you haven’t already, have a watch of the Build A Soil youtube series’ they’re fantastic sources of knowledge for organic growing, and they’ve helped me a lot.

[SonsOfAvery]

Thanks!! I can’t wait to get into the swing if things and get some plants growing, it’s been too long since I grew.

[SonsOfAvery]

Nothing major to update but thought I’d drop a few pics in here to show what I’m working with.

Fabric square bed thing, 60cmx60cmx30cm, but it’s not full to the top, so about 23cm deep I’d say.
With some straw mulch on top of that.
I added a handful of worms today, and a Sprinkle of cover crop mix.

The lights x2 3000k & x2 4000k strips measured at aprox 28" distance.

And the full whack! X6 4000k & x2 3000k strips, again measured at aprox 28"

[HealingHerb]

Very tidy! All set up for no till Always liked the look of soil beds, you could perhaps get a nice cover crop going maybe too

[SonsOfAvery]

Thanks! Yeh looking forward to having this little bed for a long time and re amending after each run.

I’ve planted some cover crop, but only a few days ago, so nothing has came through yet.

[Strainger]

I can never seen to get this app to work right l, but I do only have a android. I heard that Android don’t have the quality sensors to get accurate reading