Leaderboard

Hey there fellow growmies. Thought I'd share what ill be doing for my top dress before going into flower. I have been growing in a super soil mix which I amended and cooked before planting. This will be the ladies first and only top dressing. I am sure there are lots of growers out there who are feeling the pinch of electricity hikes and overall high cost of living. I try to save where i can and diy, making the most of what i have. KNF has been a revelation and im really seeing a big difference this grow using just a little of its practices. My initial planting mix, along with other amendments, was tailored for veg so i used the Talborne organics vita veg. I wss surprised at how much power it had...still no deficiencies showing up. I inculated some biochar with a mixture of EM-1 (Lab) ,mollases and water at a ratio of 1:1:200. Its been sitting for about one and a half weeks. Hopefully my attempt at a bokashi kinda aid will assist with the breakdown of nutrients. I want those feeder roots to come to the top, dance and have fun with my bennies haha. The biochar, once innoculated will be mixed with compost(quarter mushroom compost,half vermicompost and one quarter compost from my compost pile, some left over supersoil. I will then add the following: - Bone meal -kelp meal -home made crab meal -insect frass -Talborne oragmics Vita Fruit and flower (red bag) Im not sure whether or not to add soft rock phosphate as its what i have on hand for a different phosphorus source. Id like your guys input. I would like for these amendments to break down and my ladies to finish with a fade. Open to top dress recommendations that wont cost an arm an a leg. I have a lovely mulch layer covering my pots of leaf mould from difference areas (my attempt at getting some diverse microbes going). Im currently not using any bottled nutes. I feed with bio dyne microbes, labs and aloe juice periodically. Id like my top dress to carry me to the end but allow a good flush and fade on my ladies.

I too dress with talborne fruit and flower, Madagascar bat quango and bone meal. One tablespoon of each. Plus 2 handfulls of worm castings. And then I water it in. Apply Explogrow a couple of days after that.

Organic is the waaaayy your plants seem to be enjoying what you do for them! did you amend a super soil by building it or did you buy super soil and further amended it? super soils usually can be used just like that, out the bag, clean water till harvest. are you aiming for most cost effective or you just looking for a cheap way? you didn't give us any prices? it cost me a total of R180 to reammend 100L of soil for a whole grow and I only give clean water from begin till harvest, with the exception of 1 or 2 biobloom feeds during flower. if needed. the R180 goes to a bag of elemental blend, 10L of this stuff will recharge 100L of soil. You can plant in a craft soil, give clean water till they start asking for nutes then just topdress with 100g of the elemental blend and repeat everytime it's needed. no need to guess what's needed or more of one and less of the other, much less confusion when you just scoop 100g of one thing one time and there you go. those 5 componenets you mentioned there covers a broad spectrum for sure, but it's far from everything. here is a list of ingredients in the elemental blend. quite a few more things and I bet it's cheaper and waaaaayy easier to use

I spent the morning giving the big tent a trim and slight reposition of some branches under the net. I think I have got a good spread going. I am trying to sort out the slight fade I am experiencing with adjusting the feed. The new growth is at least looking good, I am going to let the plants fillup the gaps for the rest of veg and as soon as it looks like it's bounced back from the trim I will start the flip. Really looking forward to it! Before After

I'll definitely keep that in mind. I so excited to see how the changes from last grow translates to the quality of the flowers.

that's what they should be saying instead of "won't burn your plants" muuuuuuch better marketing tactic if you ask me, but if you tell your customers to not use much of your product it takes longer for them to get back in store to buy some more. which I find is kak dom, cause if I use a product and it fucks up my plants cause of advice given on the bag, I am not using that product anymore. a little goes a long way, damn man if I heard that back when I started out I would've saved myself so much time and resources.

A little goes a long way

This is also why I'm not too sure I would use it, but apparently many people are having great success with it so that's good to know. I'm just a bit picky with what I want in or on my soil at any given time, so I'm always doing my own thing in terms of top dressing and re-amending. Now with many batches of my soil that have not been tested i'm basically just winging it in terms of what I add. Its still going pretty darn well thankfully. But if someone were to just be like hmmm kelpmeal, bonemeal, dolomite lime topdress, disaster can be seconds away, so I always just give people friendly warnings.

that's the first cool thing about the elemental blend, we know what's in it. would be cool if you could use just the talborne by itself, but there's a reason why we can't. working in the commercial nurseries between 2012 and 2016 we pushed a whole lot of talborne onto anyone, looooong before the big cannabis wave came over. basically, talborne is generic and not formulated for cannabis specifically, though it works well, it's made for commercial use. for Talborne as a company who wants their products to be used by commercial growers they cannot focus on cannabis specifically, they need to cover a broad spectrum of crops so they focus mainly on the macronutrients, with the addition of micronutrients and trace elements that naturally comes with some of the organic compounds they use. as they say they're not a compost, but rather concentrated organic compounds. elemental blend is formulated for cannabis specifically and using one product is way less of a headache than having to guess between 5 different things. ✌

I dont know what is in Talborn Flower, but im sure it has more than 5 ingredients by itself and its 30 buck for 500g

I like your style man! With top dressing, only want to add nutrients to supplement plants that have outgrown the pot so that they are not wanting during any stage of growth. then also being careful with compost or worm casting, I've had my fair share of compost that has not cured well enough and has adverse effect when applied, this can hinder growth significantly or even halt it completely, so imagine how kuck it would be if applied before flower. You get quality compost of castings you can mound on as top-dress and reap the benefits, but that you got pay top dollar for or make yourself. You are adding a few elements and some have a full spectrum of flower nutrients like the talborn flower, so just add small amounts of the other stuff and you should be fine. Anyway, I'm keen to see this one through, maybe start a grow diary and update up as you go along.

Thanks a lot for including your application rate bro. Just wondering, do your plants finish with a fade. Last grow i top dressed pre flower with bone meal, kelp and talborne red....my leaves stayed green all the way to the end except for one of my girls that was in a pot too small for its size. I really want to get the hang of this and have a feel for my soil. Its so difficult to guage when my tank(medium) is running low in terms of nutes. Im still learning ny soil....what ive learnt is that it takes so long for things to break down in organics, so almost as if i need to anticipate deficiencies.

I learnt it this grow man. Had to give two of my girls a bit of a flush to help with the nute burn. You can def burn plants with these. Alfalfa & kelp...going light is better, these can burn if over applied. Alfalfa prob the most likely to fry your babies

I heard good things about Jamies elemental blend. Nice diversity of amendments lik3 a buffet and seems simple enough. Im in johannesburg and with petrol increases - shipping rates and even product prices just shot up. Its R235 excluding shipping. Willl defintiely give it a try in the future but for now will use what i have. and keep some cash for some new genetics.

I recharge and topdress with one single product - Elemental blend. recharge post harvest, 100g topdress when needed. clean water from begin till end, one product, one move.

this key is golden brother, have made biiig mistakes myself that way this comes down to that thing I mentioned long ago, there's big word of mouth in the organic growing comunity of "it's organic, you don't have to worry about it burning your plants" which is the biggest load of bull I have ever heard. the worst marketing tactic ever. I almost got turned off organics thinking I would never figure it out and everyone makes it out to be so easy... If you can say "it wont burn your plants" as a marketing tactic without having to say how much you should give and not exceed that amount, does that not also go for synthetic nutrients aswell? or well, with all nutrients for that matter.... look at this, I was given some Volcanic Rock Dust this week, first thing I noticed.... that last point, "wont burn your plants".... got me reeeeaaal excited if you know what I mean, so excited I almost tossed the bag in the bin, but convinced myself I could probably make the best of it. I do gardening other than cannabis growing so more fertilisers always welcome. Just below "won't burn your plants" is the application rates and some people will argue that obviously you have to stick to the amounts provided, but that's just my point exactly, if you can say "it won't burn your plants" - ONLY IF YOU USE THE PRODUCT AS ADVISED - then the same goes for synthetics.

But you most certainly cant go wrong with Elemental blend, unless you put too much, as with anything.

I do organic only and use SuperFrass to top dress my grows. Calsap, and ExploGrow. Great results on my plants.

Yes dude, love it!

Your strain, Stormtrooper Normal head Polyploid Thank you @Bay Seeds

My plan is: Tyre's, maybe 2 high. Dig down about 600mm at each tyre position and start mixing in some of my compost that is full of red wrigglers. Then use those holes as mini compost bins for the next 3 months. Dead leaves from the nursery and kitchen scraps. The overall area I'm just going to turn in some compost that the landlady makes. She gives us a few wheelbarrows worth every month. Cannabis soil in tyre with cover crop planted a couple of weeks before I start the season. Then the damn wind. Scrounging materials for a wind break. Sent from my S40 using Tapatalk

flower tent update Blueberry Hashplant Super Cheese Chernobyl Frosted Apricot French Macaron

a week later

I hear you on running them at night I will keep that in mind but I will probably just use the heater and a thermostat so I can do what needs to be done during the day. Good suggestion though I hadn't thought of that. The lights a 550W Leon LED with a 480W driver. It's the 561c diodes.

from the WW's nothing.. the Blue Dream, Blue Cheese and GSC i cleaned about 20-25 cm of the bottom part. They all hover around 75-120 cm now.

Was busy with the tent, so i made some pictures ^^ so far all manageable.. but fucks up my back Nirvana seem to have a special so I create the links to their page if interested White Widow's still strong flowering but the end is also coming.. 1-3 weeks out (some phenos are clearly faster done). Blue Dream's (not on sale) are starting to also do their thing.. still far out, 3-4 weeks. Blue Cheese now the tallest plants (one ^^), same as the Blue Dream, 3-4 weeks out. The WW's are very sexy for a crowded tent grow (25 per 1.2x1.2 rather easy). I would space the GSC, Blue Dream and Blue Cheese a bit more... 16 per 1.2x1.2 the next time I should do something like that ^^ and if you want to try.. think into your climate control first.. really.. do that before you plant the seeds ^^ you need a lot of air shifting inside that growth. Have a fun weekend!

Rain water storage is full.. man it rained the last days Had my snorkel beside the bed just in case. Will not get more wet then this.. so far OK. Some pics I took from the WW's this morning. All plants in the tent got 0.5L feeding.. due to the crap pots. Lens was fogged up ^^ Very much middle flowering, still 2 weeks to go at least.

When I harvest, I remove as many leaves as I can on each plant and hang the whole plant to dry. Once I think I am dry enough.. in general is way more humid as you think.. I remove the buds from the stems and put em in big jars with a Hydrometer. If I am to moist still, I place that jar directly at one of my tent exit fans. Is in general 50% humidity coming out, will dry quick, so a few hours later I close and let the moisture even out, the hydrometer tells me that without guessing. Once the jar stands for 2 days between 63 and 60% I remove the hydrometer and put a 62% boveda bag in. Big jars get a big bag, 67g. As long as I am sure my jars seal 100%, the bag will balance it to 62% over the next 2 weeks. After 2 weeks I remove the bag and simply keep the jar closed in my storage fridge (not powered). I dress the buds in those jars when ever I have the time. They cure in the jars till is their turn. I smoke about 6-10g a day, so if I shut down, I need at least a kg on stock or I will run out for sure before I can do any harvest again. Harvest time is always a bit the point, most people have issues waiting. If somebody always ends with more brown than 'whiteish' buds... Wait for it! Is like a apple not ripe will always be green and sour ^^ once they change color, they get tasty. There are different opinions out there at what moisture level curing stops. Ranges from 58-54%, at least my last stand of knowledge. Once gets too dry, the micro organisms can't survive.. means they will not cause natural decay anymore. I don't like to have my jars go below 58%, due to curing. Batches going dry, usually also end more on the darker side as end result. If the nutrients in the flower can't decay, stays dark and is way more bitter as the smoke should be. Is the tricky part with weed.. germination, veg, flower, harvest, storage.. all have crucial points and if you fuck up one, quality drops. Flower, Harvest and Storage you can very much ruin it and render it worthless.

12 June.. Autos doing what Autos do ^^

Lets skip those ISP's ^^ Friend just went to WebAfrica.. you can't open a ticket without having Whats App installed (not using any facebook products myself) so can't give her support. I tried for an hour on her Whats App to get hold of a technician telling me her login so I can install a proper router, the thingy they send is just junk Try Monday again while she has troubles connecting further as 4 meter from the thingy. Plants ^^ Autos doing what Autos do... today is last day week 7. Tallest plants center and the smaller ones to the outside towards the 4 entries. WW's clear smaller as the rest, top left plants. Have 49% humidity inside right now. I am very happy when this experiment is over.. had every single plant out yesterday to check for any PM and cleaning yellow or dried up leaves... so far so good. My ventilation keeping up so far but it gets crowded ^^ Looking forward to shut down for a bit, need a break, also fly to Europe for a few months August on. Like last year, not planting anything outdoor anyhow. WW's are ahead in flowering. GSC's are the tallest plants so far. Blue Dream the 'weakest' over all, might be temp wise. I reach 28 over day, April even had a few times over 30. The WW's also don't stretch to much and are perfect for such a mass grow. Is what you call a dress friendly plant ^^ WW's should be done in 2-3 weeks. 10 - 11 weeks total. Lets see ^^ I thought the Blue Dream would be the fastest... I was wrong or they do something i never saw.. or weather goes very wet and all ends in a white nightmare I knock on wood, so far so good. Hope I have one more month before the rain starts to go nasty.

Harvested 2 anastasia 99's today, they are loaded with mature dark feminized autoflower seeds. Very happy with the phenos we picked as mothers. Can't wait to start testing the seeds. Let me know if anybody wants to test these new seeds indoors? 3/5 germinated from the fastbuds old school cheese autos and are happy and healthy. Going to make a kak load of cheese autoflower seeds.

If you are in CT, Cannabliss, 202 lower main, observatry, does tests. Last time there 120 first, 90 every follow up, if i remember correctly. Just potency, thc and cbd. They use the same method as Qure, just the Israelian version, Qure uses the Humboldt machine. They told me, tests are accurate compared to the expensive chromatograph versions. In a few years we have cheap machines to test at home, then the seed banks will get into real trouble. Cannabliss also does Brix numbers, if you want your sugar tested, bring 4, 5 fan leaves per plant. Collect at least 4 hours after light is on. i aim to have 15% or more sugar in my leaves.

I think we made a kak load of feminized auto seeds. We're going to need some indoor testers. Anastasia 99 x ak77 and ana99 x old school cheese from fastbuds. All auto