Go for photo’s bro, that way you can make them as big as you want
5 Likes
I can make autos as big as I want, with coco at least, and have them finish in half the time. Which is important to me (finish time) as I’m a heavy consumer and need to know that even starting from nothing I’m only 2 months away from more weed.
All it takes is one killer auto run to really make you think twice about running photos indoor again…
I ran photos for a long time, 3-4 weeks of veg, 7-10 weeks of flower. Topping, fimming, tieing training, keeping a mother going, rooting cuttings, keeping the cuttings going. In some cases 4 months of growing, and then during month 3 something catastrophic would happen and set me back 3 months now I’m 6 months without smoke. And by the time I harvested I could have had two auto runs in with twice the yield, no joke.
If I ever get to a point where I have a surplus of smoke, and money to expand the operation, I might get back into doing photoperiods indoor again.
9 Likes
Forgot to post I chopped the (Thai Hi-Flyer x c99) x Durban 2 days ago. Had a heavy frost setting in and it was the only one left I couldn’t bare to lose.
Pretty nice looking buds though with pink pistils. I’m guessing even the pink pistils turn brown with maturity as the pink ones are mostly just on the tips now whereas they used to all be pink. Or maybe frost damage idk.
14 Likes
They look pretty with the pinky bits.
I think your autos will do better in coco than real soil, especially if you are limited to space and pot sizes. I am going to give some dark sparks a try in my new tent/cab to see what how they will do in 5 gal pots. I hope better than I did outside in soil. At least they wont get eaten alive by bugs in the tent/cab.
5 Likes
No doubt coco grows the biggest ones, but Reiko and some others here have grown some pretty big autos in soil so I know its possible, just what do I need to do to fill this tent with them is what’s getting me held up here.
5 Likes
New soil will take a little time to develop properly. Not sure what you have bought for it so far.
If I was wanting a good soil ready to go straight at the bell, I would use Promix organic vegetable and herb as its pre loaded with food. Mix that with some compost and worm casts and perlite or another drainage item like larva rock at 25% each.
Basalt rock dust, gypsum, bone meal and kelp meal and go with that. the promix will provide enough food to start and the bacteria will catch up later. Your biggest problem is your pot size being small. So you may have to end up adding some bottle ferts in flower to get them to finish strong as a back up.
3 Likes
Its definitely a gamble though, that’s the real worry, will there be enough at the end, when you are dependant on a good harvest to avoid having to buy it. Can you run both coco and a trial soil grow with just a couple of plants at least you know you will get something close to what you need and a bonus if the soil works out for you.
3 Likes
I have the Gaia Green living soil. It’s supposed to be very high quality from my research and has everything (and more) that a good living soil needs. It was pitched to me as a higher quality than the Kryptonite stuff everyone is raving about so I pulled the trigger.
That said, I also ordered 2kgs of the Gaia Green Power Bloom dry amendments that are also supposed to be good, I might add them at the start of flowering.
Theres also the fact that I only need the soil to stay hot for one auto run, so like 60 days, unlike photoperiods which run longer in total.
This is a one-time deal to say I tried doing the organic thing. Unless the results blow me away I’m likely to switch back to coco for subsequent runs.
5 Likes
I’ve went from veg to flower with gaia green soil. Only thing I added was water and top dressed with their bloom dust on flip day. I was happy.
5 Likes
Excellent! Thanks for the testimonial @PoppaPuff ! Were they photoperiod plants? What size pots?
Edit: I see they were photoperiod now (flip day)
3 Likes
Pot sizes varied from 3 to 5 gallons. Costed me a arm and a leg. But I was happy
3 Likes
Yeah I kind of thought it was going to be cheap because of the “water only” aspect of it, but a bag of the soil is $25, dry amendments are $35, perlite to add to it, larger pot sizes than I usually run, it all adds up quick.
With that said the main draw for me is just being able to water and not constantly worry about PPM and pH fluctuations and dialing in my nutrients.
And of course everyone says organic has the best taste, I’d like to be the judge of that! Lol
7 Likes
I think I’m trying bluesky organics soil next. I was able to invest in the company before ipo so ibmay as well support it
2 Likes
No, I still worry if they have enough food and the PH is right, which causes problems lol. It’s hard to stand back and trust the LITFA is working 
I think you will get a good grow with your Gaia stuff, if it comes in a balanced formula, that is half the battle.
You can put your ec and ppm meter away though, I doubt you will need those.
2 Likes
Yip, just ph your water, is all I do
2 Likes
I don’t touch my ph in soil. Just sayin…
3 Likes
There is no real need in big pots, but Trev is using small ones, so it may be better to do so, until he can see how his soil is working, what size pots do you use Meesh.
I only do it to give me something to do, my paranoia that if something goes wrong, I know it’s not the ph which it wouldn’t be anyway, if I didn’t think they would fall short of food in late flower and start over feeding with food and labs lol. I always panic after the stretch and think the buds are too small for the time they have left 
3 Likes
I ph my water because it’s 8.3, I bring it down to 6.3 to 6.7. I like 6.5 but I believe a little fluctuation is good.
That and just for piece of mind.
4 Likes
Throw some finely granulated dolomite lime into the mix… It will stablize ph for ya!.. 
3 Likes