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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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).
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 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.
Great shots! Unfortunately I just sold off most of my digital gear so there will be mostly phone shots for a bit. New job, baby on the way. It might make me set up the darkroom here soon though…I have lots of film, paper, chemicals in storage…
Cool! I don’t know anything about that stuff but I have a friend who used to do it years (decades?) ago. How would you digitize the pictures after developing them, using a scanner? phone camera? Sounds interesting though.
For sure, I agree. I really like the look of the TK and the smell is pretty good as well. I know it could be grown better so there’s room for improvement as well! Early sample has really sat well with me in terms of effects and seems like it will be a great “OG” expression that I can keep in reserve. Even if I dislike it at day 70-77 I know that I like it harvested earlier in the future.
If they weren’t so expensive I’d probably entertain the idea of TK S1s or those other TK crosses (5150/677) from CSI humboldt. The TS-A F2s or TK x TS E/H will be fun to go through.
I bet there’s some really good phenos waiting to be found in those seeds!
I think the TS-E (only male I have left) is looking pretty SSDD leaning in growth traits. I’m hoping to do it regardless though. If I was familiar with STS and reversing I’d just try to reverse A onto TK or vice versa, but I’m not going to go down that rabbit hole haha.
Have you tried TK sampled around 56-60 days? I really like it, even if it’s not to its “full potential” when it comes to potency… Very calming and euphoric buzz for me. I’ll harvest the 7 GAL later (70+) but future runs I may take one or 2 at week 9.
Early like that it was usually a bit racy for me and didn’t last near as long. I usually try to go to at least 75 days to get the length and calm it down a bit.
If I wanted to digitize anything I would make a final print in the darkroom and then flatbed scan it. My main goal when making photos in the darkroom is to have a physical print in hand to hang in the house or stash away. It’s just a completely different beast in terms of workload and skillset. I like to keep the digital and physical formats separate. If I know I want to end up scanning it and displaying it digitally, I’ll just use a digital camera. Well, until now.
Looking fantastic!! Here’s the TK I just harvested on Thursday. It was chopped at 77F and grown organically in an Earthbox. First time growing it and have never smoked it before so really looking forward to testing it out. Y’all keep talking about it so I figured I’d give it a go.
