Yeah, you shouldn’t use fulvic in compost teas, from what I’ve read. Just EWC/compost, molasses and water. Anyway, I’m sure you’ll be fine. If I can do it, anybody can haha.
Your plants look fine. What was your watering schedule like once you put them in the SIPs? Don’t remove the covers from the SIPs. That’s a cardinal sin!
Organics only usually show leaves like that when you under/overwater, or if they’re sick. Gnatrol, watered in 3-4 separate times per dosage directions, once every 5-7 days, will kill your gnats 100%. But you probably don’t want to top water much since that undoes the wicking of the SIPs. Once you figure out the watering, they’re the truth.
None of them have gotten bottom watering yet, the mix seems so moist all the way through that I’m scared to drown 'em. That’s been about two weeks now? I stuck my finger all the way down in one of the boxes today and it was still pretty water logged? Maybe they’ve just not started drinking enough yet? Everything is improving though, except the Rudeboi, which seems to be getting a little worse. Everything is also branching like crazy though, which makes me think they’re just filling the space with their roots and acclimating. I’ve really only watered in the Gnatrol through a sprayer, about 1/4 gallon each container, for 2 times now. Hopefully that helps. But yeah, you’re right, I gotta figure out how to water these things. I’m so used to being very hands on, it’s hard to just fill 'em with water and leave them alone!
Hope everybody had a good week! Things are going pretty well in my garden, things are moving in a positive direction.
The TER tent is looking nice. Buds are starting to develop, starting to smell a bit. Nothing definable yet, beyond skunky weed smell. Found a couple of pollen sacs on the one in the front right corner. Maybe five or six. I picked 'em off, but will keep an eye on this plant. I do have a back up plant if I need to pull it. The ‘male’ went full-on intersex. It was just in a closet with the Mars Hydro SP and may have had some light leaks, but still nothing I want to make seeds with. It got the axe.
Not sure what’s up with the curled leafs at the top of the two TERs… It may be light stress… I remember seeing something suggesting it could be not enough calcium too. I’m not really worried about it, the rest of the plant seems healthy.
The other plant that was growing a leaf on top of a leaf also it growing 10 leaflets… it’s a weird one!
Cleaned up some of the lowers and took a clones of the one in the back right corner, it just reeks every time I touch it, so figure it may be worth keeping.
The 4 x 4 is coming along and looking better. The gnats are dying off… flyer numbers are lowering. I’ve literally been vacuuming out of the air though, haha, and put up some bug zappers that get some outside the tent. I’m keeping some sticky trap underneath the cover too, which seem pretty effective. Also, traps right at the hole where the plants come out of the covers, that seems to trap a lot that are attracted to the fresh air. Been using Gnatrol as well, heavy dose, every five days. I also removed some of the straw, as I felt it was too good a hiding place for the gnats and it couldn’t get covered in Gnatrol as effectively. I want to get to the point where I can feel comfortable top dressing with some worm castings, compost, and bokashi, without re-igniting the gnat cycle. I’ll probably just top water with Gantrol when I apply those things.
I bottom watered the GG4 and it responded well, so I did the same to the T-1000 in back. The Blueberry and Rudeboi will get bottom watering tomorrow.
Even the new growth on Rudeboi is looking good, I did take Minitiger’s advice and hit it with some Humic top watering and seemed to perk up.
How much longer do y’all think I should veg? I was thinking maybe another week or two?
Looking great in there! I think another 2wks should do it. The TER F2 look like they’ve reached the limits of those small bags, but maybe it’s just me.
Has it been super rainy out there in the PNW since Oct. 1?
Haha, yeah damn rain, today is first sunny day in two weeks! It doesn’t pour or anything, but does rain some everyday, y’all weren’t lying to me!
Yeah, thinking any longer than two weeks and may get out of hand.
The TER’s are getting Botanicare PBP since they’re in tiny bags. No way I’d be able to flower 'em out in such small bags without help
Get yourself some of these . They work great at monitoring and keeping numbers down. I have one in each corner of my flowering tent. Their stickiness lasts for a longtime as well. If you have gnats really bad you can even lay them across the tops of your pots.
Nice, I’ll have to pick up some with the grids on them so I can better track the numbers. They’re definitely diminishing. I can live with a few of them, just can’t deal with an infestation!
I honestly don’t even pay attention to the grids lol I have never seen them without it . Just don’t buy the small ones with the green plastic stakes for in your pots. The price is insane compared to those large ones.
And to give you an idea of just how long they last . One of the 4 currently in my flowering tent is still sticky and useful and it has been hanging since this time last year.
Alright, weekend update!
Everything in the boxes took off this week. After I started bottom watering, they seemed to put on visible growth daily. I’ve been tucking away, and the screen is just about filled. I’m going to go ahead and flip to 12/12 today, as I don’t want things to get too unruly. I don’t know anything about the stretch on these cultivars, the Rudeboi has the longest internodes so far, so it looks like it could be in for the biggest stretch.
I was having some doubts about the SIPs and organics, but this week squashed my concerns, everything is just in full beast mode. Deep green leaves, crazy branching, just really healthy plants. I’m going to top dress the boxes with EWC, Oly Mtn Compost, and Kashi Blend within the next few days and top water with Gnatrol.
I ended up picking up some Rove beetles from a source near me and have enjoyed watching them reproduce and help with gnat problem. Every time I peak under the covers I see them surfing along the surface doing their thing. Seeing some of the larvae pop up too, so cool that they are reproducing.
I’m still figuring out the bottom watering schedule. Should I fill up the boxes every time they’re empty? The Blueberry is drinking the whole gallon in a day, so not sure if I should just keep dumping water down there or what? Just following my intuition for now and trying to keep the boxes moderately moist.
Excited to see what happens in the next few weeks!
The TER F2 tent is doing great too! Buds are starting to stack a little. I’ve grown a bit of the 88g13hp crosses now, so I’m recognizing some similar smells as my BBHP grow in the resin. The one in the back right has the only real discernible smell, straight lemon candy hash. Like fake lemon smell. Early still, so that’s bound to change. Most of the plants looks HP dominate to me, except the one in the back left, maybe a little more Snow Lotus there?
Hope everyone’s grows are going great!
I’m dreaming about the next beans to pop… I wanna do a preservation run. Trying to get a new 4x4 for x-mas just to run small plants for preservation or breeding. Thinking about doing a seed run on Bodhi’s Silver Lotus since the dad is gone. Let’s hope Santa is good to me this year
Yeah, man, everything’s looking really good! Got me itching to start flowering, but I’ve got about a month to go haha…
So what’s the “official” name of those SIP box things you’re growing in? I wanna look into those. Yours is the second log I’ve seen in the last few days utilizing those things and y’all’s plants look really good. I maybe might wanna buy a couple of those. They looked like they take up a lot of room, but you’ve got a really nice canopy going now. Is a SCROG kinda necessary to get the most out of them?
Thanks man! I’m a believer now that I’m starting to see such good results. The ones I have are called City Picker’s. There are two sizes, I think small one is like .75cu/ft soil and the larger is 1.5cu/ft soil. You can find them at Lowe’s or Home Depot. You might be able to find some on sale since it is kind of out of the normal growing season. There is another brand called EarthBox that is similar, their box is in between the two sizes of the city pickers, and it uses a plastic cover instead of nylon. It’s also more expensive. You can get them through Build A Soil or directly from Earthbox I think.
I must say they are super easy so far. I left some extra room so I can top dress and hopefully build up the soil to get multiple runs out of the same box without changing anything. Just chop and plant the next one, keep the cycle going.
They do take up a lot of floor space, but the big ones come with casters if you need to roll them around. I actually moved the wheels to the smaller ones, cause the are slightly shorter in height, and I wanted them all even. I may put them all on wheels at some point. You could fit four of the big ones in a 4x4 but I like the floor space to be able to put the humidifier.
I wouldn’t think it’d be necessary, but I’d guess that seed plants, left un-topped in these things would out-grow the tent. Especially anything with “Sativa” in it. So far, most of the grows I’ve seen using the boxes use some sort of SCROG.
That’s it? I thought they were at least twenty gallons, just judging from the size of them. They looked really big in that last round of pics you took.
Glad they figured it out finally! Keep them bottom watered as soon as you see them take off. Don’t let the rez go completely dry if you don’t have to. They’re going to need all the water down there - that’s the beauty of SIPs. 100% sub-irrigated planters. There’s no top watering required anymore because the top shower cap acts as a little rainforest, collecting moisture and raining it down on the topsoil. Just top dress heavy and make sure to mound it a little bit under the shower cap, but leave space to be able to do it again in 3wks cuz you’re gonna need it.
Let the rove beetles eat all the gnat larvae and you can probably stop worrying about them at this point.
Personally I think earthboxes and city pickers are too small to properly do notill, so I’d suggest just recycling and reamending your soil after ever round. But that’s just me and what I’ve seen from people who’ve tried to notill such small containers. It’s OK, but not as good as recycled.
Yeah, I was just checking out the user’s manual on those City Pickers, it doesn’t seem like they’re ideal for a no till grow, just because of the amount of soil they hold. Also, I didn’t realize they were plastic containers; I thought they were like those 4x4 fabric beds that some people use for no tills, but smaller. Honestly, I don’t get it haha. With the pots themselves being plastic and then covering the top with that, uh, cover thing… How does the soil get any oxygen? I think I’m gonna skip them, even though iamyou’s grow is looking really good.
@minitiger You should really grab one and just see for yourself. Personally know 2 people using them and multiple threads. Think you will be amazed at the growth!!
That’s the whole thing. SIPs prove that cannabis doesn’t mind wet feet. The reason they work so well is that, with the right soil and by not watering the topsoil after the initial watering or two, the soil and all of its roots becomes this self-regulating, self-watering system that stays wet but encourages just the right level of both anaerobic and aerobic life, which becomes greater than the sum of its parts. Hence how they can rival hydro when you dial them in. When they clearly start beast mode, usually in 1-2wks from putting plants in the SIPs, it’s because the roots have found the rez and are drinking it directly.
And, if you build your own SIPs with bigger rezzes and bigger pot sizes, like from totes or whatever fits perfectly into your tent, you can leave for a week or two at a time and they water themselves. It’s genius!
@nube I use Octopots. Don’t know if they are considered sip or not. But the growth is amazing. Have to actually plan on how to control the plants or they will outgrow the tent.
@nube and @Joker Yeah, I’m gonna research this a little more, if for no other reason than
I have to be at home every fucking day when I’m growing. Still probably have to, just because it gets so hot that I have to open the tent during lights on, but if I can figure out a way to keep it cool enough, leaving for a week or two sounds amazing haha…
Damn! How warm is it in LA? Do you have a way to vent that heat out of your house? That would probably be most ideal. I’m not venting outside though, and running my Timber at full blast (~600watts), and don’t have any issues with heat. It’s stays around 68-70 outside the tent. The AC Infinity is set to kick on to speed 5 or 6 at 84 degrees, or 75% humidity whichever it hits first. I hear the fan kicking on about once every 20-30 minutes for air exchange and to exhaust the heat. I measured the leaf temp with laser thermo and only hitting about 75degrees. I also programmed the Controller 67 thing to kick on the fan all the time for lights out, so there’s no humidity build up in the tent during lights out. But anyways, yeah gotta get that heat moved out of the grow space somehow, or run tons of AC…
Everything is continuing to explode in the 4x4. Trying to tame these beasts. I’m been pulling out stuff from under the net and smaller branches all week, though it doesn’t look it from the photos.
I top dressed the boxes a few days ago with EWC, Oly Mtn compost, bokashi, craft blend, and watered in with a little Full-Power since I had a sample. Looks like the bokashi is starting to do it’s thing, I’m seeing threads of mycelium running through the tops of the beds.
Everything is definitely getting it’s stretch on. I hope the T-1000 in the back left fills up the back part of the screen. It’s the only one lagging behind a little. The Rude Boi OG definitely has the most stretch going on right now, with GG#4 not far behind. The Blueberry is about on par with the T-1000, just filled out the screen better.
All my clones/moms are looking happy, running them under T5s these days.
Some bad news in the TER F2 tent… the plant in the front right ended up herming pretty bad on the lowers. I pulled in from the tent and sprayed things down with water, but I’m seeing some signs of pollination here and there. Looks like it’s only minor and I’ll still end up with mostly sinse…
No big deal, they can’t all be winners. Smells are mostly developing still. I get the hashy fruity smell from all the 88g13hp crosses at first, they seem to really develop their nuances close to when they’re done. Which is hopefully sooner than later. Weed is fuckin expensive when you have to buy it from someone else!
Thanks for stopping by and taking a look! Hope everyone enjoys the weekend