Nor Cal dreams

[Gangaman]

So here it is.
Dreams can come true. Cut my teeth in Pa experimenting for many years and now i'm in Cali being given the opportunity to run a 14000W room, which, other than a few ventilation issues (sorry M) and the changeover from Rockwool/Flora series nutes, to a fully organic living soil-less medium, it's fully set up and ready to go. I'm going to be detailing exactly what I've been up to in this thread when I can find the time, but for now here's a pic of end of veg week2/beginning of flower and it's back to the lab to mulch and prune for me.

 

[RIVAL79]

Welcome to the Farm and Nor Cal, bro! Looks like u got ur hands full. I will be watching the progress on this grow. What strains r u guys growing?

 

[MakinGoo]

Welcome 2 the farm.. That's a nice room u got

 

[pork]

nice! excited to see what happens in this space

 

[gooey]

Gl, rock it

 

[Seamaiden]

Lovely! I need some help understanding a living soilLESS medium, though. What do you mean?

 

[Gangaman]

hahaha, you say you guys, but it's just me in there, holding it down all by my lonesome. as for strains I'm running Dream Queen, purple Alien OG, East Coast Sour Diesel, Master Kush and a few Flo. As for what I mean by a living soil-less medium is coco peat amended with dry nutes(Dr. earth bud and bloom as my base along with azomite, guano, greensand, ect) only, no compost or worm castings or anything else considered "soil". I then water this well with full strength AACT and let it sit for a few weeks (Revs method). when it's time to plant w add some lime a bit more Dr earth and water in with AACT again. Then I only top dress and feed AACT or plain water. I'm not sure really what if anything is the proper name for it, this is just what I called it in my head while I was coming up with it in PA and I couldn't talk to anyone about it:)

 

[Gangaman]

So here we are with week two, first pruning completed and mulching finished. Also ran the new irrigation system for the first time and only 2 sites needed fiddling, not bad out of 108. This is starting to look like a proper organic room :)

While I'm at it here are a few flix of the Sour Diesel I ran in my space the last time, so stinky and delicious, my girl says it smells like citrus and feet, still my hands down favorite when cultivated well:)

Glad to see a few heads following along with this tread, this is the first time I've ever tracked a project like this so a little interest will keep me motivated to keep up with my posts.

 

[Seamaiden]

I'd call it organic soilless, just like you did. :) That SD shows very similar structure to a cross I've run a few times.

 

[Gangaman]

Oh yeah, does it have a name? I've actually never had SD look like this for me before, such a fox tail look to it, but this is also the first time I've run it in a really well tuned room ( ie 64+ W/ft2, CO2, mixed spectrum, light mover, environmental control w/ppm co2 measuring) so I do feel like I pushed it harder than I ever have, and the tops just kept running. Super interesting to me since I cultivated SD in the east for many years under a 600W Mh from a cut a got from a source varifyably close to the Mass Super Skunk Fam and was always super happy, but I never saw this. Then I come out here and for almost a year I'm discouraged by what I see people calling SD, I'm thinking either that's not her or you're doing something wrong or both. Then a few months ago I ran across this girl at Harborside and taste and smell/buzz are unmistakeably her but as a growing plant she seems funny to me, finicky sorta, and the foxtail thing, and out of the 33 cuts I got about 5 where super low yealding and totally different structurally, tho I dried and cured those plants apart from the rest and I can't tell any difference in the smoke!!! I don't know what to make of it?? so now I have labled my mothers I-V and taken cutting from each to find the one I want to run my garden on.

 

[Seamaiden]

The cross I ran is called Shut The Fuck Up, and it's NYCD x PKQ (Purps Killer Queen, a Nor Cal strain as I understand it). It showed major foxtailing no matter how it was grown--indoors vs out, coir, soil, perlite hempy tubs, greenhouse. Since it was a cross a friend made I see it every year, and it's a very consistent phenotype in that bud structure for sure. Not many have grown her indoors because she's easily a 16wk strain.

Thing is, I'm terrible with remembering strains, lineage, all of that. I'm waiting for genetic coding so we can just do away with all the confusing strain names.

 

[Gangaman]

bwahahahahaha, love the name, that's the most profound thing my first and only meditation teacher said to me, how appropriate to have a strain named that :) You know I'm terrible with the whole remembering thing but I still find it all fascinating and try desperately yo keep up. and I can def be a little obsessive about the few I've grown that I really love.

 

[Seamaiden]

That's right up there with old Dougie's refrain, "Get your goddam hands outta the fucking tank!" every time a new fishkeeper would come in and complain of all these problems. He was an interesting character, and definitely a little rough around the edges. We got along pretty alright, though.

 

[Gangaman]

Ok, so that earlier flic was a bit preemptive, looking now at my calendar today is two weeks into flower and here is the flic, second round of pruning done and some GoGnats sprayed around the soil surfaces, pots and tray cause I know how those bitches, are and all is looking good I'd say. Next up: Trellis :)

 

[Gangaman]

Aaaalright, so I pulled some beautiful blond water hash day before yesterday and took a nap earlier so it seems like as good a time as any to talk about my soil-lessx mix. For this space I had (108) 3 gal smart pots to fill so that's 324 total gallons. I began with:
(6) 4.5 cu/ft blocks of coco coir to which I added 30 cups of a 50/50 dolamite/oyster shell lime blend I made, 45 cups Dr. Earth Bud and Bloom Formula, 30 cups Azomite, 30 cups micronized humates, 30 cups greensand, 15 cups of a bat guano blend I made that comes out at about 10.5-11-2, and 8cu/ft of peartlite, I also secretly added 6cu/ft of worm castings cause I knew I was trying tho set this mix up on the quick
even tho up there I said I didn't, but we'll see if anyone calls me out on it:) This gave me a bit less than I actually needed but with the coco husk mulch I use on the bottom and top of each pot it was more than enough.
I figured out that each 3X6 tray would be filled by the amount of soil in a 4.5 cu/ft bale of coco plus 1/6 of the nutes and pearlite and since I was making the switch from rockwool I decided to line each tray with a tarp and mix up each batch separately, this saved me much backache and ultimately get a better mix for two reasons: first I was more comfortable working and so took more time breaking up those stubborn chunks of coco and mixing more thoroughly, and I was able to cover the mix after watering it and use a few lights to heat up the space a little and greatly accelerate the microlife:)
After the only two weeks I was able to let this mix sit before I needed to start planting it was still very hot but by testing the pH and watering in with LOTS of properly adjusted water followed up by a full strength AACT made with both Great White (which I usually use) and Caps Bennies (which I am trying for the first time) and after about 36 hrs of "OH FUCK, HERE WE GO", they settled in and took off nicely:)

 

[Gangaman]

I don't know if everyone is as satisfied with a sat night spent in the lab, but I sure am :)

 

[pork]

caps is the bomb

 

[Gangaman]

Indeed Pork, Caps are the shit. Here we are with week three, trellis up and second batch of tea administered and everything looking beautiful.

 

[Gangaman]

Oh aaaaannnd, WooHoo Science, soil microbiology here we come:)

 

[Seamaiden]

TWO scopes and a peninsula! This is gettin' fun. :D