I’m always blown away how I run stuff in huge pots and his look way better in 1 gals 
6 Likes
Since we are on the topic, hey syzygy can you provide some more details on your methods for flowering in 1 gallon pots? Or point me to a post that already covers it?
You use living organic soil iirc, right? Any more details on that? Do you make your own soil? What do you add? Do you use a stronger mix for the 1 gal pots?
Do you have to feed them often in bloom in the 1g pots? Are you using any liquid nutrients, or teas? Or just top dressing?
Sorry for all the questions. I’m just curious about your methods. I guess I should just spend some time reading your thread first, huh? lol
6 Likes
Oh for sure, I wouldn’t have any issues if I could use larger pots or had more space haha. As it is with the 1 GAL pots the TK is already touching the light almost (again). The one behind it was touching the top of the tent earlier today (pruned back all moms today).
Appreciate the nice comment but really a lot of it is probably just the camera/lens and lighting. I’ll try to take some phone pictures before I harvest the LJ (7 GAL) and TSG (1 GAL) to show the difference.
Slightly related or maybe unrelated
None of my LJ stacks came out that well but I did keep 1 so I’m posting it here to allow me to delete it from my desktop
16 Likes
About to take the dogs but I’ll try to answer the post when I get back. I don’t mind questions but I am no guru either. A lot of what I do is an amalgamation of things I’ve read online on the forums (and most of you have as well I’m sure) and locally doing medium scale non-cannabis gardening. An example would be I learned about bonsai moms from that old OG guide.
7 Likes
That definitely looks like a major PITA plant to keep as a bonsai mom. I see what you mean now.
I would try bending that plant over and tying it down if it were me. I just poke holes in the side of my pot and then use some of that green twine stuff that comes on the rolls. Stick it through the hole and run it up to the plant to bend+tie. Or I use bamboo stakes. (I’m sure you already have your own methods, but just figured I’d mention it anyway (not that you need advise…)).
My goal would be to Try and get a few of the lower branches to start stretching, then FIM them all, tie down again. Not sure if the TK would cooperate though
Worst case, just keep topping it every couple weeks and just throw away the trimmed top. It may not produce a lot of clones that way, but it would produce enough for you for sure.
8 Likes
Yeah it’s very high maintenance (for me at least).
I posted some of the details in a few posts in my first thread but there’s a lot of random gibberish to sort through to find it so I really don’t fault anything for not finding something difficult to search for. Don’t think I posted anything about it really in this thread or the SSDD one.
Here are 3 posts
Also found a few more pictures of the SSDD mom in that thread for you…
As for “living soil” -
I usually measure soil components in 1 or 5 GAL buckets and then mix them in a large sterlite container. From there I store the soil in garbage cans or 1.2 CU ft bags.
For small containers I use a pre-limed substrate that I get locally which is approximately 80% coarse Sphagnum Peat Moss, 15% Perlite & 5% vermiculite. I can get it cheaper than Pro-Mix, which I’ve used as well and is similar enough. This is ‘inert potting soil’
3 Parts inert potting soil
1 Part rice hulls
1 Part Compost (usually commercial worm castings lately)
When mixed together it looks like this
Then depending on the genetics I either
- fill up a 1 GAL 7x7x9" pot and transplant from plug directly
or - fill up 1801s (3" square inserts fits 18 to a tray) or 4" round pots and then transplant from those to 1 GAL pots.
1801 → 4" pot → 4" square pot → 5.5" .4 gal pots (fits 8 to a tray) → 1 GAL 7x7x9 pots
Currently I’m flowering out a Triple Sunshine A in a 4" square pot which only holds 3 cups of soil. TSA performs really well in small pots. Most plants would look terrible when constricted that much.
Sometimes I use these for moms & I used to flower in them as well, but I like the flexibility that the true 1 GAL pots give.
.4 GAL 5.5" nursery pots - a tray holds 8 of them. Dog for scale
For nutrition I’d say pretty much any proven recipe should work. I have access to a lot of bulk amendments so I often just go that route but I’ve tried the various popular organic recipes posted on ICMag and other places. A good rule of thumb is 1 TBS/GAL with most amendments but for some things less is more. I think the rock dusts are probably a waste of money for 1 GAL pots where you aren’t reusing the soil.
The mixes posted on ICMag are all good, coots mix is good, I’m sure buildasoil’s craft blend is good, etc. Whether or not you have to top dress or liquid feed would probably depend on your timing & the genetics you’re growing. I rarely topdress but sometimes my plants also suffer because of it.
16 Likes
Yup.
I use coco and Jacks321, with low light. I don’t pinch or anything really, but I prolly could. I usually just prune, and take cuts when needed. I’ve found I can keep the plants much happier for a longer amount of time in smaller pots (1/2GAL hydro pots). When I feel the roots have maxed out the coco, I pull 'em out and cut off the bottom half with a saw and scruff up the side roots, and transplant into some fresh coco.
On the other hand, I have a clone of Irene, that I moved upstairs as a house plant, and it stays under low light in organic soil and doesn’t grow much. Controlling the amount of light is key with mothers… if you’re trying to pump out the clones, ramp up the light and feed, if you’re just trying to maintain, give them low amounts of everything.
18 Likes
I get a fair bit of branching from the TK just by pinching and laying the tallest tops down. Or by chopping the top off. In that way, it most reminds me of Giesel except that Giesel is more robust.
Regarding 1gal organic growing, I suspect you can hide a lot of sins with a little liquid fish emulsion. Nitrogen is the least concentrated in most of our organic reamended mixes, due to the stuff we amend with, and also the quickest macronute to get depleted. Watering in a plant-available N source can keep that early fade in check. It’s almost like using synthetic nutes to correct a deficiency. I’m not hatin on it, just saying that’s how and when I understand you use the liquid fish. To be fair, I’m larping cuz I’ve never used it, but one of the great gardeners of all time - Monty Don - swears by it.
I don’t know exactly, but it sure looked pretty high PAR to me. Based on the apparent distance from light to canopy in the pics, I’d say 800+ for sure.
12 Likes
Seeing that plant to pot size ratio makes me feel ill haha. Haven’t done anything synthetic since like 2002 but that is seriously tempting. I may actually play around with something like that just for mothers this fall.
I just hacked my Irene down today but it’s been growing without any issues. Healthy with thinner blades on it and lots of branches for cuttings. Not ultra vigorous though but it’s nice to not have to worry about it either haha…
For sure, I have to figure out a better lighting setup. The weak strip lights I have are a bit too weak whereas the other tents with the QB style lights are too bright. I should check to see if I can dim them on the driver.
Sounds right to me. I definitely wouldn’t use it to ‘push’ cannabis, especially indoors. Seems like the risk is higher than the potential reward, but I also don’t really care about yield. I’m going to pick up a bottle of hydrolysate in a few weeks when my GC restocks, seems like a good thing to use (sparingly) going forward with the 1 GALS.
Chem 91 phone shot…
17 Likes
I was using Neptune’s harvest and Alaskan fish fertilizer (the stuff at Home Depot).
This is the one I’ve been using recently.
I’m also using their “rise and thrive” soil conditioner and want to try the “bold FLO” next. I was emailing with someone at that fish brew company. Very helpful and knowledgable. Friendly too. They are a relatively small company.
Instead of just beneficial fungi and bacteria, it also has Protozoa and algae/diatoms too. So, kind of like a living soil ecosystem in a bottle. I sound like a fish brew salesman
I heard Leighton Morrison mention fish brew on a YouTube video about his horizontal soil system. It was an interesting video. I want to give that horizontal soil system a try some time.
8 Likes
Thanks for all the info!
I thought for some reason you were using a living organic soil in those tiny pots and was curious how you made it work.
So you are feeding with organic amendments? Like dry amendments, or…?
I actually use a similar method to you. I keep my little bonsai moms in .4 or .5 gallon square pots and feed with a mix of dry amendments and some organic liquid nutrients (like fish feetilizer, liquid kelp) and teas.
I really like the roots organic ‘uprising’ and “terp tea” dry organic amendment line. I use the 3 part uprising line often for my bonsai moms (fo7ndsrion, row, bloom). It’s cheap and lasts forever, plus it’s loaded with beneficials.
I’ll see it blooming on top of the soil wher I sprinkled it on. A teaspoon of foundation + teaspoon of grow or bloom (depending on if I’m going for more growth or getting ready to take clones) like once or twice a week then I can just use plain water mostly.
Here’s my bonsai Field Trip. I’ve been really slacking on maintenance. I need to clean it up big time. lol
I keep my bonsai moms under t5 fluorescent fixtures. I find that really helps keep them more squat and stacking up nicely.
I found a guy locally selling a bunch of the AgroBrite 4ft 8 bulb fixtures cheap so I grabbed some. I absolutely love t5 lights for vegging plants. Still my favorite to this day, with metal halide being 2nd. Vegging under LED is actually my least favorite. But I also have decades of experience with the other methods.
I wish fluorescent lights weren’t being discontinued, but I understand why they are. I plan to buy a couple cases of t5 bulbs soon, just to have them.
12 Likes
I think it depends on how you define these things. Some of the purists would probably take issue with it but ya - the nutrients are made available to the plants from organic inputs via “soil” biology. I put living soil in quotes earlier because the kind of ecosystem people think of when they think living soil probably isn’t present to the degree that it would in say a 48"x48"x24" bed. If I had the space I’d probably be playing around with some kind of SIP container for simplicity sake but for my area and desire for variety I think the small pots are just the best way to do things. I never got into organics to virtue signal and I find all sorts of grow styles cool. I’ve dabbled in DWC and a few other things long ago and other than being a lot more effort and work I enjoyed doing that as well.
As for amendments they change all the time for me based on what I have, what my GC has, or what I feel like ordering when I run out. I can always get Alfalfa, Kelp, Feather Meal, Blood meal pretty cheap for personal use. Sometimes I order Fishbone meal or Crab. I’ve played around and experimented with pretty much every recipe you’d find on the forums prior to 2012~ and they all seem to work well for Cannabis - though sometimes alfalfa and blood can be a bit hot for sensitive genetics (DJ).
I don’t go to grow stores or anything like that and most of the stuff I use is what you’d find at feed stores or places like tractor supply. I’m not familiar with roots stuff but I assume it’s similar to espomas mixes and other organic dry amendment mixes. Keep in mind often the microbial claims on fertilizers are just that.
Interesting - how long do you usually go before replacing the moms? I need to change up the way I do things. It wasn’t bad before when I only kept 1-2 moms but with all of them now it’s getting really time consuming and inefficient.
Also a good time to add this comparison shot - TS A next to TK - both were pollinated
22 Likes
It really depends. I try to keep them as long as possible, but I often end up replacing them after a year or two instead of doing the whole root trimming thing. I know it would probably be better to keep the moms longer but for my situation it works fine. I couldn’t even tell you how many dozens of generations I am into clones of clones on my cheese candy and GG4xLBL. They still grow as vigorous as they always have, and taste/smell the same. Potency/high seems the same too as far as I can tell, but I’ve never had it tested.
Thanks again for all the info btw!
Here’s what’s in the roots organic foundation:
https://www.aurorainnovations.com/uprising-foundation
It’s just dry organic inputs. You can see the alfalfa and feather meal and all that stuff. It’s not pellitized. All of it is in its original form. I just like it because it’s all those same organic inputs I’d use anyway, just pre-mixed and with a bunch of beneficials added. And for the price (like $15/bag) it’s cost effective for me. I also like that I can see the results from adding it within a day or two.
8 Likes
Yeah, dude. If it feels like a pain in the ass, it probably is a pain in the ass haha.
4 Likes
when you leave one point of growth, it grows very quickly, the largest amount of auxins in one point)… that’s the problem.
if you leave the middle point but cut the fan leaves from the top, then the energy of the plant’s growth will be divided between the restoration of the top point without the fan leaf and the undamaged bottom (distribution of auxins).
11 Likes
You’re trying to show that I should leave more on the plant (blue-green) to slow down the lower growth (yellow) and just trim the red? Guess I could do that but within a week I’ll still have to trim back that upper stuff in blue as it’s pretty much growing into the light as is. My main issue here is trying to keep the plant confined in a really small space. I think I’m definitely going to have to go with the suggestions of pinching. Since I have so many mothers I can’t really horizontally train it either - until I start culling at least…
Appreciate the input either way!
In other related news I sampled the TK bud last night (1 bowl) that snapped off the other day and it’s really nice.
16 Likes
Day 61 - played around a bit with remote trigger to reduce wobbe / shake for stacking. Seems a bit more consistent.
Bubba Kush
Lavender Jack
Pinesoul
Triangle Kush
Triple Sunshine G
29 Likes
You could seriously make a side business from taking bud photos man! Your photos always look so professional!
Makes me want to buy a decent camera. lol
9 Likes
Appreciate the compliments! I have strong feelings towards how the community has changed since it’s been safe for people to monetize anything and everything Cannabis related (post legalization). Don’t think I’d want to do that even if my skills and gear were at that level some day haha.
In my eyes it’s nice to just see that you pop seeds, grow them out, and take pictures! It’s amazing how far phone cameras have come - they really are good enough at communicating enough detail in my opinion.
10 Likes