A Garden Of Goodies

[MediScrogs]

Hey AFN, I'm back with some new things to experiment with.

Today I've got some sprouts coming up in 1 gal airpots. There are 4 Stone Dragons so far, a Royal Purple Kush auto from Emerald Seeds, Ripley's OG from Mephisto, and a Blackberry from FastBuds. This is day one for them. Some are regular seeds so I'll thin the plants down to my limit after 3 weeks.

I've got some other great seeds lined up for the second half of summer, I'll probably do Muay Thai superauto again as well this year, I sure like it. I've also got Night Queen, Daiquiri Lime, SODK, Purple Haze auto, Blue Pearl auto, Green Poison, Moby Dick XXL, G14, and many others to try as time and space permit.

I'm going to veg them up under leds then transplant the best plants outdoors in Octopot self-watering planters.

I'll be using some mostly water only soil mix but have some Bio Bizz fishmix and Bloom on standby if needed, calmag around too but the soil mix I've cooked has a lot of calcium in it and I'll have to see how far it takes me.

The octopot are a passive hydro planter where each plant has its own reservoir, which bottom feeds the medium by wicking action, but also allows some roots to grow right into the reservoir. I feel it will be a time saver for watering while also allowing the plant to be automatically watered for 3 to 5 days at a time. It was similar to an autopot system but I liked that each plant/reservoir is independent of each other so I can also more easily start plants indoors and move them outside one at a time, and customize any additional nutes I may add to any reservoir. Anyway, I hope they'll work out okay. They do have a one year satisfaction guarantee so I am fairly certain they'll do fine. It'll be up to me to figure out how to use them with autos.

I'll post my results this summer and let you know how it goes. First couple weeks are always the slowest, but will be more interesting in a month when they go into the octopots. Check back with me then and I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[MediScrogs]

These are the nutes I've used to mix my soil. I used oregons only #4, as a base mix, it's fairly lite, and added additional worm castings and compost per mixing directions. I mixed it to half strength, actually cut it to 25% and put an inch of it on the bottom of the one gal pots to get them started and see how the seedlings go.

I'm really stoked to see that kind soil is joining up with AFN, there's also the Revs soil out there too--I didn't actually know much about the other options before I grabbed the kis nutrient pack. It appears they all have a similar ratio of N-P-K.

The kis pack has a lot of calcium, and only a small amount of the N is water soluble / quick release. It is meant to be used for several seasons with just adding a small amount each year from a kis pack (I think like 1 lb instead of the whole 14 lbs.), plus a lil bit of some fresh castings and/or compost. The mix only needs to cook a week or two so it is less hot maybe than other super mixes, from what it sounds.

Again, I'm super glad to hear that Kind Soil is hooking up with AFN and help us learn more about this style of growing. I'm going to be using it for my vegetable garden as well.

 

[MediScrogs]

Well, the first days are always the slowest, but here's the sprouts :

Here's 2 of the Stone Dragons. I have 4, and 2 show fat-ish first leaves, and 2 are thinner. Happy for some variation. ...



Below, we have Blackberry on the left, and Ripley's OG on the right.




Lastly, the Royal Purple Kush auto, looks phatty...I'll be pleased if it's a male as I'd like to make some crosses for fun.

More to see next month.

 

[MediScrogs]

The sprouts are doing fine so far. They all broke soil within a few hours of each other, so they're all basically the same size at the start.

The Royal Purple Kush auto is front middle and the first leaves look a little off, hopefully that will correct itself in time.

In the group photo you might notice some white strands of material. Those are wicks of capillary mat material in each pot, I intend them to help keep the core moist when the keepers go into the octopots.

To that effect, I kinda packed the starting pots hard with soil. It might slow them down a little, plus the temps are in the low range. Otherwise they seem to be getting established okay.

Probably dropping a Muay Thai next week for the long season she'll have outdoors. Waiting to see how these continue on before repeating the process.

 

[MediScrogs]

They're getting more established now, I feel they're a bit slow out of the gate but they're growing. I don't use any root stims, I guess aloe is a good natural one, I'll try that next time.

Purple Kush has been looking a bit off, hope it's not any big deal.

Roots should be hitting that richer soil on the pot bottoms, I'm holding back on any other feed for now, just water and see how they go. The Blackberry and Ripley's OG are fems of course, and will think about plugging them into their octopots in another week or so. I'm not decided yet what strength the soil should be in the final pot.

Any input? I'm thinking a range of 25% at the top ranging toward 40 or 50% as it goes down. The grow doesn't have to be 100% water only since I can add nutes to each reservoir as/if needed. I figured 100% soil strength is not going to be needed by an auto.

What do you guys think? Thanks for your comments and ideas.

 

[MediScrogs]

Things are moving along, got the Ripley's OG and the Blackberry into their octopots tonight. I cut down the mix so that it's about 38% strength at the bottom 5" and 32% above that, we'll see how it goes.

As is, the plants are established and increasing their growth rates. I got an aloe plant and bubbled some tea for them with some Great White mycos and a dash of molasses yesterday and they seemed to like it.

Here's the Ripley's OG :

Here's the Blackberry :

Stone Dragon:

Purple Kush, went from phatty to frumpy, looking for the new growth to look better:

Here's a group shot

 

[MediScrogs]

A quick photo update, they're finishing 2 weeks now. They seem a couple days behind, in terms of growth but the good news is that they are gathering momentum.

All the new growth looks good, good color and so forth. No nutes going in, just the one hit w/ the aloe tea.

Purple Kush auto still looking funky:

Here's a couple Stone Dragons :

 

[MediScrogs]

Here's the two in the octopots, the water level has drawn down in the reservoir, so wicking is taking place. Not sure if maybe I mixed in too much worm castings into the soil--I don't want the heavy N in the final product, but the die has been cast, they are potted in and it will be fun to see what happens and use the info to improve next time.

Here's the Ripley's OG :

And here's the Blackberry :

Thanks for looking in,

 

[MediScrogs]

Gone for 2 1/2 days so I filled water into the seedling trays and their wicks kept them nice and moist while I was gone. The octopots are working fine, even the airpots inside are wicking up water--I think the capillary wicks were a good idea, glad I did that. The top of the Ripley's OG looks dry but a lil poke of the finger says there's a little moisture there. I could always top pour a little water but I think I'll leave it alone for now, maybe poke the soil again later and see if I change my mind.

They're stacking up now, I'm moving the leds a bit higher. The plants near the fan look windswept as would expect. The Purple Kush auto is one of them:

There's a couple spots on her, not sure what's going on.

Here's a couple Stone Dragons :

 

[MediScrogs]

And here's the Ripley's OG, can't wait to see those buds:

And the Blackberry :

So far sogood. Thanks for checking them out.