Oni's 2nd grow. Lessons learned

Yeah, its the same deal just with added gypsum…not as fast acting as aluminum sulfate though safer in regards to avoiding adding aluminum. Still have to rely on microbes to break it down and have to apply every 60 days until “desired ph/perfect color is reached”

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You really don’t need much as small tweaks can lead to huge changes. I would go with 2gallons perlite + 1/2 gallon sand then see where it falls…you can always add more as needed

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If the top 2 inches are dry. Time to water

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They are yes. The plants were looking a little lifeless finally. I’m giving them a night to rest and I’ll water at lights on. shouldn’t be too hard on them hopefully. The clovers don’t look lifeless or dying, buy pretty much just a little stressed out. No change other than a little closing of the leaves a bit. Leaf color is the same as it was before I picked it.

I mixed up the water I added 4g aloe vera, 2g megacrop, and 4g molasses as the cilantro is growing pretty fast once the 3rd set popped out and my tap water pH is 7.5 pH today. It dropped to 6.3 pH after megacrop and aloe was added. It’s climbing slowly back up very slowly as the water reaches room temperature. Apparently chlorine or whatever is lost again when water sits out again changes pH :thinking:

I’ll stick to the small watering schedule to counter the soil type. I’ll leave this girl in here and start fresh with the new soil to compare a fresh grow unless someone can advise me on how to transplant to one of the pots?

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My ornamentals and flowers didn’t like MegaCrop. Haven’t tried it on herbs or veggies. Let me know how your companions respond to it.

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Usually very well actually. In a hydro situation they did amazing with just a sprinkle about 0.2g in weight. My Basil kept incessantly flowering in hydro with it. No matter how many flowers and pods I plucked off it kept flowering. Should be great for tomatoes LoL

I’ll be diluting the water further to increase the pH a bit and to make it more seedling friendly. I’d rather start lower than I think and be surprised than burn them by chance. Currently cilantro is in love with it. Let’s see how it likes it after I water again.

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I went from a pint to half a gallon. I don’t plan to use it all, but I’ll mix it to the right pH with as much dilution as needed. They’re still small and straight water might be best. The nutes just seem to keep the pH from going too high. Currently 6.4 pH. I’ll dilute it heavily and water lightly. I’ll toss the rest on a plant outside to not waste it. I’ll find the one full of life or water loving and give it plenty LoL

Diluted to 3.75L and pH is stable at 6.55 pH. Good enough to keep them within range. I. Don’t have a bigger container to mix with to dilute further

I let the bubbles settle and after they did I uncorked it

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No sediment either. That was also enough water to keep everything suspended. It’s at room temperature now. Heat is on 75f to let the soil warm up too as I noticed it was feeling a little cool as I dug down. It’ll probably be negligible as I’m not drenching, but I can hope it’ll help.

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@ModicumGenes I’ll keep you updated on how they go after I plant them

Ok definitely look forward watching them

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It’s lights on and I watered with 10oz of the water mix still at 6.5 pH. Just in time as I finished mixing the soil for now. I’m going to get the sand tomorrow and I’ll mix it in and once it’s all evenly mixed I’ll test the soil and if it’s all good I’ll pop some seeds. I have 3 fabric pots filled rn most of the way. I’ll let them dry out more before I mix the sand in. It’s absolutely amazing how fast the fabric pots dry out the soil.

Before watering

okay idk why this is upside down. It’s normal in my phone.

After watering

Fuck it soil picture

Tomorrow I’ll probably end up with 4 pots filled up with soil. Took me 2 hours of constant mixing in all 5 fabric pots until the mix was evenly spread. It got much better to work with as it warmed up. The pots aren’t dense, but not so loose I could squeeze the bag nearly strength free. With the sand it’ll be completed and I can finally grow some of the seeds I’ve been wanting to grow for so long :slightly_smiling_face:
Just autos this grow, but only because of the time constraints involved as I’ll be using the same lights for all of the plants.

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Growth is still at a good pace. That’s always good to see waking up in the morning.
Especially when you need to visit the ER as it’s too painful to rest, move, or move your neck.

The soil here doesn’t dry that fast. The fabric pots are dry 1cm down on all 3 rn with no plants on them. They were saturated before I mixed up the soil.

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The clover has come back to life in the pot. That’s a good sign.

The auto is doing well still. Seems I gave it what it wanted🙂

The node distance is growing again

The fabric pots I mixed up without the sand yet felt perfect for plants tbh. It dried out in 12 hours almost halfway down from saturated :thinking:

@MomOnTheRun I don’t have the cash for the sand like planned, but with how fast the soil dries out as is I’m wondering if I should try the soil like it is now. I think the permafrost claimed the majority of the clay content in the soil. It was 6" of permafrost I chiseled through. I put it in its own bin before scooping the soil in the fabric ppots before I added the 2 gallons of perlite. I did specifically buy coarse perlite, so idk if it did what I need to do or if the soil beneath the permafrost was that much higher in sand content :thinking:

Either way in 12 hours it’s dry 4" down and pretty loose. It compacts when it’s saturated, but gets very loose once it starts to dry.

@Meesh @ReikoX @Northern_Loki @99PerCent @TrevorLahey @Scissor-Hanz
If any or all of you have advice I’m taking down notes now. I did things my way on my first grow. I’ll be improving as I go, but I definitely should have a game plan

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Dry 4" down after 12hrs doesn’t sound so wet I don’t think you’ll have an issue with overwet soil.

Just so I’m on the same page your soil is too wet?

Perlite/Sand/Gravel

I mix in some with the soil and add a 1-2" layer of gravel to the bottom of the pot. I usually just go across the street and scrape up a few kilos off the side of the road and rinse it to hell and back then use it. Yeah I’m cheap.

Perlite is very very light so you’ll find that over time it rises to the top of your pots especially if you’re overwatering or watering too fast.

Also, with sand adding too much can make things worse as I found out this year.

By the sounds of things though I’d say it’s workable as-is.

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Awesome! :slightly_smiling_face:
3 plants it is. I’ll find out what seeds I plan on planting now.
The blue Zkittlez cross is already going in 1 pot.

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All 3 seeds chosen
1 Platinum Glue Auto x Blue Zkittlez cross from @ModicumGenes the big ass seed on top

1 of the autos from the mix pack from @ReikoX in the middle

1 of the Crystal Candy S1 seeds from @ReikoX on bottom. They’re in separate bags rn as I’m debating on how I’ll mark them RN :thinking: I’m going to keep track.

If the Zkittlez is a photo I’ll deal with it. I’ll practice topping and training on it to keep it in a trellis net if it grows out of control. With the size of the seed I honestly expect it to🙂

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Currently I’m keeping track of them through the picture I took. I added some aloe vera to the spot they’ll be germinating in to keep the area moist and now it’s a waiting game.

So where exactly is this dirt coming from? It looks like it has a bit of gravel in it. It also looks to be lacking in organic matter.

My soil recipe looks something like
1/3 compost
1/3 sphagnum peat moss
1/3 aeration (perlite, lava rock, pumice, rice hulls, etc)

+amendments and minerals

So as a minimum I would do two parts of this to three parts perlite.

Didn’t you mention something about a worm bin? Sorry, you post a lot of long updates and it’s hard for my old mind to keep up. Anyway, if you have rich castings/compost I would do as above 1/3 each.

That would make an excellent base for a megacrop run.

I didnt even realize these were some FAM seeds, I was worried you might be babysitting a male.

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