Newman’s Own Organics

[FarmerJake]

Welcome to Newman’s Own Organics(no affiliation with the real guy). Trying to grow utilizing only certified organic materials( I realize the integrity of OMRI etc has been degraded by corporate interests ). When OMRI isn’t available preference will be for regionally certified or local products.
Tent: 4x2x5 vivosun
Nutrients: Kreher 5-4-3 w/ 9% Calcium, Neptunes Harvest 2-3-1 fish and seaweed, D2E bat guano 7-3-1, Incredible Bulk .1-10-25, D2E Azomite, granular Molasses
Light: Mars Hydro FCe3000 @75% for 18/6( light is mounted to tent ceiling) AutoCob for supplemental, optional Vivisun vs1000, optional blurple lighthouse hydro ufo
Air: 1x Honeywell personal fan, 1x vornado desktop fan, 1x AC infinity booster exhaust w/ 4” carbon filter, intake filters
Media: CoM Stonington Blend
Water: Reverse Osmosis

 

[FarmerJake]

I just finished my first successful grow, I had 5 plants in 3g pots under 450ish watts of LED/t5 that yielded 10oz of varying density( its fluffy) I grew Fast buds Blackberry, Sweet seeds sweet skunk, and Tastebuds critical banana smoothie, orange cookies, and grape gushers. At about day 40 I began using products to fertilize with little regard for PH. Blackberry began showing stress first but my reaction was too slow. The fade started in early and the blackberry just limped to harvest on day 73(other plants went until 80ish days). Similar problems started at varying times for the other plants too so hoping to avoid those problems again. Here is a shot that shows the old ladies in all their glory, and also the current Mephisto 3bog is the seedling in the 5g to the right and the Californian Snow seedling in the 5g center back. A lot was learned and I have more flower than I ever had before, and while density isn’t ideal the smells are incredible and I got to experience harvesting at varying levels of amber trichomes, though I was unable to get any plants much past 15% amber so maybe I’d like to try achieving that this grow. While I am currently growing in a 4x2 I also own a 4x8 and that was where these ladies ended up, due to cold weather I am back in the 4x2

 

[FarmerJake]

Here is an overview of Fastbuds California Snow up to today which is day 40. She has been vigorous, and a joy to watch. She’s so easy so far you wouldn’t know she’s only my 7th or 8th plant ever!
She broke soil Nov. 20th, she was germinated in a root riot and transferred to her final 5g pot

She was in quite a smorgasbord of light as a seedling as it was before I got my mars hydro

On December 8th or Day 18 I topped her between the 4th and 5th node

She had been very erect and bushy so I restrained from any further LST as she feels like she’d snap.
Here are some current shots

based on some Photone app Light testing yesterday she is getting 660 ppfd at the top center of the canopy. She seems light hungry, and the way the tent is set up she’s actually on the outskirts of the FCe-3000 so I placed an Autocob 3500k dead center above her but have it zip tied to the ceiling so maybe 2ish ft above canopy. She has only been watered with pure RO water up to this point which I know isn’t recommended but my lazy self needs to know what happens when I don’t add anything but top dressings and RO. The RO is 5.5ish ph so no where near ideal for a soil based grow, 6ppm TDS. Less is more right? About a week ago she was top dressed with the kreher 5-4-3 w 9% calcium. ~1/2cup of fertilizer was blended into the top 2” of the soil. There were roots right up to the surface so I think she’ll have good access to even the non soluble parts. Guessing I’ll see issues once flower starts in heavy. She’s only throwing a few pistils and new growth is still putting branches side by side and I noticed last grow most of the plants started not placing opposing branches across from each other once in flower, anyone else seen this phenomenon?

 

[FarmerJake]

Not sure if anyone noticed in the one full tent shot (FTS) my 3BOG is always looking droopy and has been it’s whole life. I’ve tried watering less, watering more, lowering light intensity and nothing has worked. Then on another thread I was reading someone mentioned when blending soil and “layering” it can create hydrophobic scenarios within the soil. Thinking this could be as it was the first time I tried adding dry amendments and putting seedling mix in the immediate vicinity of the seedlings roots. I’d read of adding yucca or another surfactant(hydro guard?) to alleviate these pockets of dry soil. Not having that on hand I figured if I over watered and drenched the soil it might help. So I watered a whole gallon and it seems to have worked! I love AFN!
Here she is all droopy

and here she is after the drenching. Not perfect but an improvement

honestly the best she’s looked ever, hoping it’s only up from here. If I’m looking past something feel free to drop knowledge! Thanks in advance
Noticed on this stem shot that I hadn’t removed the wire I used to center one of node 1’s branches, caught it just in time I think as it almost restricted growth and left indents once removed, see the wire?

Also did some leaf tucking on California Snow and it’s the most even canopy with the most bud sites I’ve achieved yet!

thanks for looking

 

[FarmerJake]

I started my youngest batch of plants on December 11th when I was still running in the 4x8. So these really aren’t going to have much space in the 4x2 once 3bog and calisnow take over. These seedlings have had it rough from the start. First instead of root riots I used CoM seedling mix inside a 6-cell tray, then transplanted to early at day 4. I bought new CoM stonington blend for them but it was frozen solid when I got it. Thawed for a few days I came to realize it was stored outside and waterlogged. Basically unusable crap but given my remaining budget I forged on. By December 23rd the 4x8 wasn’t able to keep above 64 with lights on from a cold snap. Surely growth slowed from that. Despite all odds life finds a way, and since this growing is solely for the purpose of personal stash who really cares how much these produce. It’s more about variety and finding strains I like and that suit my growing style.

2x Mephisto freebies SkywalkerxForumStomper
1x Fastbuds C4
1x NASC freebie Blueberry
and two tastebuds grape gushers that were duds. One of the SxFS went into a 3g fabric pot
The rest went into 1g fabric pots.
3g SxFS

1g SxFS

C4

Blueberry

they are all a bit yellow, more so on the C4 and blueberry but that’s to be expected given their tumultuous upbringing.
I know it’s a bit late especially since she’s already thrown a preflower but I topped the 3g SxFS above the 4th node. I won’t top the 1g ladies.

 

[FarmerJake]

Starting to see some discoloration within the leaves on both of these ladies, though more so on 3BOG. Kind of happy it’s not the same lockout/deficiency as last time but a new one. It’s kind of good bad news, I’m messing up but not in the same way. So what I’ve come up with is a phosphorus deficiency likely caused by my fluctuations in temp. Thoughts?

if you agree it could be temp related, I am currently running 100% intensity for 18/6, would I be doing something bad by running 75% intensity for 24/0 just to see if temp would hold somewhere desirable? Hoping to keep electrical use in similar range or my wife will question me. Any insight would be cool it’s my second grow ever and first winter grow so really not much personal experience here.
Is this going to be detrimental? Will it still harvest something? It’s just for me and my wife to vape at the end of the day so quantity is of least concern quality is more important. The discoloration is definitely strongest towards the bottom fans

 

[FarmerJake]

Switched the lights down to 75% last night for 24/0 and the tent held steady at 72f night and day, success. The tent is really filling nicely, it’s a daily struggle to make sure each plant is happy in these tight quarters, surely I’m not getting to examine the entire plants the way I would like. Learning a lot about timing of successive harvest on this go around, feeling guilty I can’t give my younger ladies the space they need but they are making do and looking great doing it, all four of the younger plants are ladies the blueberry and C4 in the center/center left look so good to me it’s a shame I can’t offer them dedicated space. Maybe in 3-4 weeks if the 3BOG is done by then but even that soon might be too late for them to fully benefit from added space. I raised the younger plants on milk crates

 

[FarmerJake]

So the same PH lockout that happened in my first grow is happening again on 3BOG and calisnow, plus the low temps. I am using pure RO so it’s to be expected, I might try to remedy the issue but I do just loath using a ph meter and adding nutrients. Perhaps I should try getting water from the local stream. I just like the idea of purified water. I think the dolomitic lime in my mix is expended or the plant uses the water so quickly at this stage it doesn’t have enough contact time to alter PH before uptake. The younger generation of plants is doing well still, and I may pot them up at day 35 into larger pots to refresh their soil and see if that pushes them past day 50 without the same issues.
Day 30 for these guys.
Skywalker x Forum Stomper

FastBuds C4

Freebie Blueberry, I love this lady and am defi

SxFS 3g this lady is lanky and flexible. Asking for some LST so I slipped the branches from the upper node under the fans of the upper node to push the branches down and outward

the 1g ladies are smaller than the 3g, so it will be interesting to see what happens when I introduce the smaller plant to a 3g pot and see the differences. Maybe the smaller plant will demand less and fair better than a plant grown in a 3g from the start. We shall see
FTS you can see the bigger ladies expressing their concerns with my husbandry

 

[FarmerJake]

So I noticed on C4 the deficiency that hits at the onset of flower, C4 happens to be the furthest along(based on size and flowering not age) so is showing stress first. So today on day 33 I potted the 1g ladies up into 3g pots using CoM Stonington blend.
Beginning of deficiency/problem

perfectly air pruned roots, ripe for transplant

small amount of new soil underneath, placed rootball on top then backfilled around.

Once full gave it a few settling drops then backfilled more to 1/2” under the cotyledons.

FTS 3BOG and calisnow getting worse, same thing happened earlier last grow so still convinced I will get a harvest but reduced from full potential no doubt.

 

[FarmerJake]

Testing out moving into the 4x8, but I’ve MacGyvered the flood tray to make a partition turning it into a 4x4 tent to conserve the heat produced by the light hopefully. The plants sure do want the extra space hopefully the logistics of it work out. A better fan is in this tent which will surely help the plants as well. The exhaust intake was placed on the floor this time in an effort to not strip the heat from the top. I also preformed a pretty heavy defoliation on both the 3BOG and Calisnow

Fastbuds California Snow back left
Mephisto 3 Bears OG back right
Fastbuds C4 front left
NASC Blueberry freebie front center left
Mephisto freebie Skywalker x Forum Stomper front center right(untopped) front right (topped). In their new launch looks like this gets called the skystomper 2.0?
Seed Stockers Wedding Glue in the Solo
Seed Stockers Bruce Banner in the bonsai