Darclinc

Another question, is it advisable to plant slightly off centre if you intend to do some LST?

I see mixed responses on the subject.

On 6/10/2022 at 6:16 AM, Naughty.Psychonaut said:

when using mycos, you just add a teetsy bit, like half a teaspoon. 

I ended up buying it and I also spoke to the company that makes this product on Friday. He suggested about 1 teaspoon. Thankfully it doesn't look like you can overdo it.

On 6/10/2022 at 6:16 AM, Naughty.Psychonaut said:

you can water it in with the first watering you do, mix the half a teaspoon with the water and stir nicely. preferebly dechlorinated water for this as the chlorine can hinder the living organisms. 

Yes, based on the discussion I had with the company I bought it from, the plan is to mix a teaspoon or so into the Orgasoilux's top layer, most likely distributing most of it more or less where the seedling will go, and water about 20-25% or roughly 2l. Then let that sit for a good couple of days before planting. That way, hopefully when the seedlings reach the soil it will already have some good stuff going on and not be too harsh on them.

On 6/9/2022 at 7:19 PM, Naughty.Psychonaut said:

It's best if you can move them out of the rain into a dry area specialy when they in flower and it's raining for a long time. more because of PM on the plant itself than the rain being too much water in the pot. 

Thanks, I thought as much. Going to be tricky to do that on the roof.

On 6/9/2022 at 7:19 PM, Naughty.Psychonaut said:

In case you have your pots sitting in trays or something and it pools up it can become a problem, but easily fixed by raising the pots and / or removing the trays.

Along with the fabric pots I also bought some plastic pot raisers to prevent any water from pooling.

On 6/9/2022 at 7:19 PM, Naughty.Psychonaut said:

the nutrients, it has to rain quite a lot to flush a only a small bit of nutes out your pot, though it's not impossible. it's a little subjective though, depending on the EC of the soil before the rain. if it's already low or you got a big plant in a small pot that requires a lot of nutes, this all puts you at higher risk of ending up with a few yellow leaves after the rain. if you got good EC you should be fine. 

Thanks, I still need to do a bit of reading and research on EC and what it means. I know what it stands for and what it respresents, but haven't really assembled any information on what constitutes a good or bad EC.

On 6/9/2022 at 7:19 PM, Naughty.Psychonaut said:

except like I said with the small plants, they drown easily if the pot is too big and too wet. 

In my case the pots are quite small (10l) and they will only really be moved to a potentially high rain area once they're about a month old, hopefully by that time the leaf coverage will be more adequate. I guess I could just make a small makeshift raincoat for the pots out of a plastic bag if it gets really hectic.

On 6/9/2022 at 7:19 PM, Naughty.Psychonaut said:

once you get it I would say test your well point and all water round the house, find the best stuff for you

Thanks, that's the plan. I aim to test a few controls as well to see how accurate it is. But at this point I will most likely use the tap water filtered through the carbon filter in the fridge.

Like would this be a good option and, more importantly, enough for my 4 autos?

https://www.takealot.com/plantmatter-s-myco-plantmatter-mycorrhizal-fungi-substrate-250ml/PLID70922347

18 minutes ago, ORGANinc. said:

Then also innoculating with Mycorrhizal. This is scientifically proven to be the biggest dollar return investment a farmer can make at initial planting as the benefits are astronomical. As the roots grow a vast colony of beneficial fungi grow with it increasing root growth exponentially. 

Any specific version of this product you can recommend? Also, how and when is this applied?

Ok great, thanks for the tips.

4 minutes ago, ORGANinc. said:

No plants in there obviously, then wait till that soil is ready to plant, in about a week or so,

Pardon my ignorance, but what does this do?

2 minutes ago, ORGANinc. said:

I would say around 25% watering

Of the pot size? i.e. in my case, with a 10l pot which is filled with approximately 7.5l worth of soil (and some pebbles at the bottom), about 25% of that in water?

On 6/8/2022 at 9:36 AM, ORGANinc. said:

but the person who is growing his first plant doesn't even know where to start, let alone test EC and PH and what is all means. I think just those 2 things are far over many peoples heads is what im saying.

Its the grow stores fault, always insisting you need every nutrient on the shelf, the best thing any person could do when starting out, is just get some CRAFT cannabis soil and water the dam thing.

Sure, it's a learning experience. What you've said above is all I'm going to be doing, pretty much. Well that, basic water PH correction and I also have these two bottles of nutrients, but don't intend to use them or buy anything else unless I need to do it.

My biggest concern is heat and light. I'm going to be moving them around for a bit, at least in the beginning to get them in the full sun as often as possible.

I don't want to micromanage everything, as a novice grower this would be stupid anyway as I have no XP to back it up. But I'd rather have some basic plan and basic stuff on hand. Besides, it sounds fun to do some of the 'sciency' stuff too, so why not?

On 6/8/2022 at 9:27 AM, Naughty.Psychonaut said:

cards are on the table, next move is up to OP

OOH THE PRESSURE

On 6/8/2022 at 9:22 AM, Naughty.Psychonaut said:

I wouldn't plant anything in generic potting soil ever. 

I opted for the Orgasoilux based on a friend's recommendation. He's an experienced grower and has many friends here in CT that swear by it. Good enough reasoning for me.

also it's only R200 for a bag, which covers all 4 plants. For me it was a complete no-brainer to get soil formulated for these plants as opposed to potting soil.

On 6/8/2022 at 9:22 AM, Naughty.Psychonaut said:

as a intermediate grower I would rather give advice that I would have liked to recieve when I started out, because the advice that circulates a experienced growers conversation and a learners conversations is also two vastly different things.

This resonates with me, which is why I have decided to PH the water, for example. It seems like a very simple and cheap thing to do and based on what I've read it's worth giving your plants water within a certain PH range.

If there are issues I wouldn't know where to begin the diagnosis or fixing since I have no experience, so in a way this removes some of the guesswork. At least that's how I look at it. 

On 6/8/2022 at 8:42 AM, Naughty.Psychonaut said:

lucky you guys with year round supply of rain water for all your plants! very few growers have that privilege 

I have a wellpoint, but I don't intend to give my plants that water. I have a very old tank with rainwater, but it's several years old.

20 hours ago, Prom said:

Finding it is not always easy.. but is out there, trust me.

I have no doubt, this place being a great resource already.

20 hours ago, Prom said:

run a grow diary on your first grow

Yes, my intention is to do exactly this. That way, if things go tits up, I can put something up in the sick bay and have some information to back it up.

20 hours ago, Prom said:

Reading a few of those diaries before you start prepares you rather well.

I have read some, but most on here seem to be indoors under much more controlled circumstances. The outdoor ones aren't typically during winter, so I am trying to glean the most appropriate and relevant information to my situation from each diary I've looked at.

Otherwise thanks for the all the other information, appreciated!

D

On 6/8/2022 at 7:31 AM, Naughty.Psychonaut said:

Sorry for all the reading so early in the day!

Not at all, I appreciate the valuable input! FWIW I have bought this combo Temp, PH and EC pen. Hopefully it does the trick.

I had another question which I've been meaning to ask, specifically since these are going to be outdoor plants: 

What do you do if it rains heavily? There's so much talk about over watering, so presumably when it rains for days on end (happens in CT frequently in winter), are you meant to take them out of the rain?

Also, does it typically flush all the nutrients from the soil and means you should replenish it?

D

On 6/4/2022 at 7:19 AM, Naughty.Psychonaut said:

avoid looking for and choosing one thing to carry you through it all, rather get the right mindset from the start and tell yourself you'll do research or run over to the forum here and ask for advice whenever a new situation presents itself. 

Thanks, and agreed 100%.

I guess what I'm trying to do, at first at least, is not to buy every product on the market but take a broad based proactive approach and see where that gets me. Neem seems to be as close to a 'one size fits all' product as I've been able to find, so it seems like a logical starting point. I'm sure there will be many instances where it won't work, and I'll cross those bridges when I get to them (hopefully not).

D 

On 6/5/2022 at 9:06 AM, Naughty.Psychonaut said:

the vast majority of growers, especially new growers, get their water from the tap. with a small amount of those people using 3phase filters, if that. some people bubble their tap water.

Based on my limited knowledge I''ve decided I'm going to most likely do the following:

Get my water from the tap, filter it through the Brita's carbon filter (which we do daily anyway so I'll just get from there and leave it outside for a bit), and PH correct it to around 6.2 (if necessary) before giving it to the plants. 

On 6/5/2022 at 7:05 AM, Naughty.Psychonaut said:

but the best of all is having the probes on hand, because not everyone has years of growing behind them and they don't know all the science on day one and having the probes makes it much easier to understand than just "taking someones word for it".

Exactly. The way I see it, I have no experience of any kind, so in order to give my plants the best chances it makes sense to me to start with a good PH as opposed to being reactive and trying to remedy problems I don't know how to remedy or probably even identify, i.e. not understanding the signs before it's potentially too late. I'm reading up on what I can, and have decided I'd rather be proactive than reactive. I know it's not that simple, but it makes most sense to me as a novice grower.

Worst case scenario I have a shiny new PH pen to also test my 90k liter pool water, yaaaay!

D

Thanks a lot for all the great information, much appreciated.

D

What a beauty!

On 6/20/2021 at 9:34 PM, McMan said:

I was going to use neem oil but decided to opt for Buddi All rounder spray as a preventative measure for bugs+fungi- can't say I've used it before but wanted something where I don't risk getting ratios wrong as I only need a small quantity per application.

How did you find this product? I was considering it vs neem oil.

Hi,

I'm a novice grower and I've started another thread about growing some outdoor autos, here.

After doing some reasearch I've decided to use this particular Bioneem as my pesticide of choice, but want to know a) is it a good all round choice for me b) how to apply it correctly.

Can you start to apply it from day one or is it advisable to wait until the plants are a bit older?

Also, how often do you apply it and in what quantities?

Any advice or alternative recommendations welcome!

Thanks,

D

Hmmm .. I've already bought PH up and down, so I think I'm going to do the PH thing regardless.

Everywhere I've read makes a pretty big deal about PH and how it can potentially stop your plants from taking up nutrients if it isn't controlled to within a certain range. Again, doesn't seem like a massive mission to do, so I'm probably going to do it.

10 hours ago, Bay Seeds said:

A small fishtank airpump with a airstone bubbling away in your reservoir will bring it close to 6.5

Seems like that will be more expensive than getting a pen?

How old were your plants at the time?

I do have the finances, problem is that the taller ones will definitely be visible from the street.

Legal or not, I would like to try and find some kind of low profile option that keeps things on a 'need to know' basis.