OCKushCollector
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A good friend of mine got one of those Xtreme kits last year and swears by it. He even continues to buy their tea mix to use when he doesn't feel like making his own. Makes all the sense in the world to me.
I go all DIY since (as you can probably already tell) I'm a cheap bastard. I also have a ton of outdoor space to play with, so setting up a few compost bins was a no-brainer. I pickle my compost bokashi style to make it break down faster, and I use the liquid left behind as a way of kickstarting my tea. I combine it with all the wonderful things people in this forum have recommended I use, put it in a couple milk jugs, and pop an aquarium airstone into it for around a week. Your kit is going to work a LOT better than that, because it will aerate the tea and agitate it to degrees far greater than my hooptie system is capable of. It'll get your microherd hyperactive in no time. Looks like it'll also be a hell of a lot less messy.
Oh, about your Myco question. Yes, it's best to put it in the original hole because it needs contact with roots to be effective. They say you can water it in, but what I did during my first grow when I also forgot to apply it to the roots was dig down outside the rootball, mix Myco in with the removed soil, and then replace it all. If you think you can do that without disturbing the roots it'll work better. If not, just water it in and have faith. Also, next time you transplant - or mix your own soil for that matter - mix a bunch of Mike in with everything else. That stuff is amazing.
I dunno if you have the capacity or inclination, but some pics of your setup would be great. It's always more fun to look at pictures than read, and in the past it's allowed experienced farmers to help me catch problems before they get too bad. That said, I can always appreciate not wanting strangers to know too much. Anyway, just an idea.
Compost tea can be used from the start, as long as you haven't added any nutes to the compost that hasn't had a chance to rest. I've never used this trick on MMJ beans, but I always use a half compost tea, half distilled water solution to germinate veggie seeds for my garden. I get close to a 100% germination rate when i do this. Compost tea is magic stuff.
If you find that you aren't enjoying yourself dealing with all those nutes, you should consider SubCool's supersoil mix next time around. It does take some planning, as the mix has to rest for at least a month, but not having to stress about nutes for your entire grow does reduce the stress factor, especially for a newbie.
A simple but effective way to start seeds is to use pure worm casting as a starter plug. just form a small compost ball and stick a seed in it,
germination and accelerated growth should be expected in any viable seed.
100% green and organic
Nice one! Looks like a nice clean and straightforward setup. Wish I'd done that the first time around. Oh well - experience is a great teacher.
The stunting you're seeing may also be tied to your RH. I see in that pic that it's at 45%, which is where mine was at during my first grow. I had a similar issue with the seedlings stalling out, until local hero(-ine?) Seamaiden happened by and filled me in on what is called Vapor Pressure Deficiency. Basically it's the idea that plants have to be 'exhaling' from their leaves in order to effectively be drawing water and nutrients in through their roots. When RH gets below a certain point the plants close their stomata (the leaf pores through which they transpire, among other things) so as not to lose water to evaporation. Side effect being that they drastically reduce their rate of water and nutrient uptake as a result. Seamaiden recommended having an RH around 60, which I reached by putting a crappy $20 ultrasonic humidifier from Wally World in my tent. Sure as shit, the little buggers recovered very quickly, and lived happily ever after. I also transplanted them at about the same time, so root binding might also have been an issue... But long story short, I now maintain a 60-65% RH in my tent at all times and haven't seen any stunting since. Some people will no doubt say that my RH is too high, but I haven't seen a trace of mold or mildew so I'm sticking with it. I would guess that even if you just brought your RH up to 55% and took the little girls out of cups and into those smart pots you would see positive results.
I don't know if you have one, but if not you might consider an oscillating fan inside the tent, pointing directly on your plants. Airflow inside the tent is almost as important as straight ventilation.
Thank you again for sharing, and sorry if my speechifying is all stuff you already know. I just figure that redundant info is better than no info, which is a direct cause of my handle being what it is. Anyway, I look forward to hearing more, and following along as your grow progresses. You picked a terrific setup to begin with, and I think you will be very pleased with your results. Keep up the great work!
Nice i also really like your setup, i would suggest you bring the stuned ones a good amount more near to that led bulb of yours and go 10% up on rh that should do the trick^^ hope you have fun and a good green thumb to see this grow of yours to a real happy ending :)
good luck i will stick around when you do a report i'm very interrested in thouse led thingies would be nice to see how bio plants react to that light of yours good luck anyway^^
Haha! Look at that roostertail the brewer is kicking up! You may have just convinced me to hang up my handyman hat and get out my credit card. Now I see why my buddy fell in love with it.
Yeah, it's a funny thing about LEDs (which I use, as you can see in my signature link) that there's no way to measure just how effective they are. I personally love mine for the fringe benefits: efficient, cool operating temp, no replacing of bulbs, no heat signature, small size. That said, I started with a 200w lamp, then added two more 100w lamps 3 months later, and just ordered yet another 200w a few days ago. It's not that my plants have been suffering as far as I can tell, but I also can't get around the idea that there is further room to bulk them up. Plus, I like being able to position lights along the walls or even angle them up from below the canopy (just an idea - haven't actually tried it). Anyway, I'm sure there's a point of diminishing returns, but I also figure that if most people are doing a 3x3 scrog under a 600w HPS then my girls won't be getting cooked under 600w of LEDs. That said, LEDs are expensive so slowly increasing one's wattage is a great way to go about it. Higher output is also more important during flower, so you've got a little time to think about it even within the context of this grow.
Wet soil is something to avoid if possible. Is it just the soil in the cups that stays damp, or do the smart pots have the same issue? If it's just the cups, have you drilled a couple drain holes in the bottom of them? Or if it's all your plants (and the cups have drains) try putting them up on something like a baker's cooling rack so they can get air underneath them as well. Roots need air to breathe just as much as they need moisture, so making sure that the soil they're in drains quickly is the way to go. It can be painful to watch so much of your tea run out the bottom of the planters, and it can make a mess, but your plants will love you for it. Besides, you can compensate by watering with less volume but doing it a little more frequently.
Anyway, hopefully this concert of a humidifier and an oscillating fan (oh, and a 15-min interval timer for the humidifier, too, so it doesn't provide too much RH) will help get everything into balance. Another benefit of fans is that they strengthen the plants. When the stems are getting lightly bent by the wind the plant responds by growing thicker, and that definitely helps once there are (fingers crossed!) massive buds to support come harvest time! I think I have the same size tent as you, and I run both the oscillator and the humidifier on the same timer. I do 15 min on / 15 min off for as long as the lights are on. But when the lights are off I do 15 on/45 off to keep from inviting mold. I run my vent fan (which also looks to be the same as yours - kudos to you for your excellent taste) 15 on/30 off around the clock. I'm in the high desert though, so my schedule probably won't be perfect for you. Good thing that playing around with all these tools is half the fun!
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