New Grower Cheap organic grow journal - starter kit

[mjdregba]

Hi all, this is not strictly my first grow (will be 4th) - but it will be my first all organic grow... it is also a grow designed to be cheap to setup and hence thought New Growers Forum would be most appropriate for the journal. (I have also yet to have a problem free grow).

So, I am here to grow either a Super Skunk Auto or Super Critical Auto - my first question is; does anyone have a preference? It looks like both have popped and I only have room for one plant.

I am growing in a purpose built grow box of 2ft*2ft*5ft giving me about 3ft of plant height (including pot). The box has a 100mm/250mm cf with a ruck fan connected to a speed controller (built from a variable transformer). For lights I have a range of small 30w CFL's up to larger 250w CFL's - I will use 24/0 schedule due to needing to keep the box warm, I will also adjust the amount of lights to maximize warmth.

In terms of growing medium, my soil mix is providing most of the nutrients, but will be supplementing with BioBizz grow and bloom. My soil mix is as follows to make 10 liters;

6 liters of B&Q seedling soil
2 liters of B&Q perlite
2 liters of B&Q vermiculite
2 egg shells
15ml of Bat guano
15ml of B&Q fish blood and bone

I also have epsom salts and molasses in reserve - will probably use epsom salts every 3rd watering.

So I mixed 10 liters and used 8 liters in the pot - it is a 8 liter felt pot, both seeds are germinated and are showing their heads in the starter pots.

The credit of the above method goes to seraphim19 - who hopefully will be helping out on this thread.

Please let me know your thoughts, and opinion on which plant I should grow... the pics are of the Super Skunk - didnt bother with a popped seed pic of the Super Critical as they looked the same.

 

[RebelRoy]

Nice start and info bro :smokebuds: :karma Cloud: floating your way

 

[mjdregba]

Nice start and info bro :smokebuds: :karma Cloud: floating your way

thanks rebelroy - any thoughts on which strain you would like me to grow?

 

[seraphim19]

Hey MJ

looking good so far.

my personal choice of seed would be the super critical but for now I would advise that you continue to grow both as you never know if one will have problems. If they both don't have any early issues then I would just go with the healthiest looking one.

 

[seraphim19]

here is the bio bizz feeding schedule you asked for MJ

 

[mjdregba]

Both seeds are now young healthy sproutlings; the SC is the smallest one in the pictures and SS the larger. There is only a slight difference between the two, and the SC is about 36 hours younger.

I now have both plants germinated and sprouted successfully, I have my soil mixed (and stood for nearly two weeks) and seraphim has kindly provided the feeding schedule.

Hopefully tomorrow my other grow will be dried sufficiently to move to curing and I can use the full space in the grow box to put the SC into its final pot and install the lights proper. As you can see in one of the pictures, I have put a shelf in the top of the box to provide a drying area below. I also have a 3w heat mat under the pots as it is getting cold. The small pots are also in the tub with soil as I have been away for 3 nights, and the small pots dry up super fast - so this was to just keep them moist.

Getting excited now - also last chance for a say on which strain I grow - right now it is going to be Super Critical.

 

[officinalis]

Subbed! Nice to see more trying the organic route. I've been gardening organically outdoors for years now and I'm finally able to bring it indoors with some herb.

Hope everything goes well. Can't wait to see more updates

 

[mjdregba]

hi officinalis nice to see you subbed - do you have your organic soil recipe handy to share?

My other grow was finally dry enough to cure - so I took everything out, cleaned it all and installed the proper lights (a 125w blue CFL) and circulation fans.

I planted the Super Critical in her final pot - yes the SC won; however I haven't yet binned the Super Skunk - I put it in a 3liter pot in the corner of the box, just in case the SC decides to die on me.

The pictures show the SC in her 8 liter felt pot and the grow box. I have the fans blowing slightly down from the light to circulate the heat, I also have a 3w reptile heat mat under the pot connected to a reptile thermostat - this will keep the root temperature to no less than 16c.

She is 5 days old.

Fed her 1ml/l root juice just to get started.

 

[officinalis]

hi officinalis nice to see you subbed - do you have your organic soil recipe handy to share?

Sure do. I mixed about 1 cubic foot (7.5 gallons/28 liters). 2 part coco, 1 part composted cow manure, and 1 part perlite. To that I added 1/2 cup blood meal, 1 cup bone meal, 1 cup organic veggie fert w/humus and microorganisms, 1 1/4 cup kelp, 1 cup powdered egg shells, 1 cup uncooked rice (I read it's good for the beneficial fungi), and 1 cup of powdered baby cereal (yeah, you read that right, haha).

I then let this mix cook/compost in a container for about three weeks. This gives the microbes a chance to multiply and to break down everything to make it directly available to the plants. Right before I sowed my seeds I also added about 1 1/2 tablespoons of myco fungi.

I had to get this grow going since I will be leaving town for a while during the holidays, so I had to use what I had on hand. For my next grow I plan to add worm castings, alfalfa meal, neem meal, and rock dust.

Come on over and check out my grow journal!


edit: Forgot to mention that the top 2 inches or so of the pot was just a mix of coco and perlite just in case the soil mix would be to hot for seedlings.

 

[mjdregba]

1 week old pics (as of yesterday).

The small pot in the corner is my backup super skunk - big one in the middle is the super critical. They didn't seem much different from the last post, but checked this morning and the new set of leaves are coming on nicely.

One small difference I have found is that the larger felt pot had dried out and I had to water, but the small plastic pot is still fine. I assume this is evaporation - is there anything I can do to reduce evaporation? or should I just water more often but cut down the nutes?

Also just had fun with a new carbon filter - bought from my local hydro shop. As I went to fit it yesterday I noticed rust spots all through the inside and corresponding spots on the outside. So I took it back to the shop and we found all of the same make and type of filters in the shop where the same; ended up paying £20 more and ordering a Rhino filter. Not sure if the rust spots would of reduced the lifetime of the CF - was just worried that water had got into the carbon.