HOW TO GROW
INDOOR CANNABIS:
A WEEK BY WEEK GROW-GUIDE
I'm so excited to document this Week-by Week Indoor Cannabis Grow Guide using the Gardeners.com Hemp Grow Tent with LED lights! Full Disclosure: we were sent this tent for free from Gardeners as we are an affiliate and they wanted to know our thoughts on their Hemp tent + LED set up. In this article I'll share my full honest thoughts on this set-up and if its worth the money.
It has been 2 years since we've grown indoor, mostly due to moving out to the country and the project of pulling power to our garage has been put on the back burner. But since being gifted this new tent, we figure now that we are going into the winter season- this is the best time to give the tent an honest review and also get back into growing cannabis our favorite way, indoors! We are so looking forward to taking you along each week as we document and share with you our tips, tricks, recipes and more over the next few months of growing from seed to harvest!
A few fun Cannabis related facts about us before we get started:
1) Kyle and I have been growing cannabis collectively for over 26 years.
2) We have been growing indoor cannabis for 8 years.
3) Our first indoor grow, we documented EXACTLY like this 10 years ago over on the old Miss HighTimes Magazine (has since been removed) website as apart of my campaign for Miss HIGHTIMES 2010. This is very much like a walk down memory lane!
THIS GROW ALONG IS NOT SPONSORED BY GARDENERS BUT WE ARE AN AFFILIATE, SO IF YOU CHOOSE TO PURCHASE FROM ANY OF THE LINKS ON THIS PAGE, WE MAY EARN A SMALL COMMISSION BUT AT NO ADDITIONAL COST TO YOU.
Unboxing + Set Up of the Gardeners.com Tent!
Week 0: 10/04/2020-10/10/2020
We are starting real basic guys. Some of the following info that I will briefly cover, you may already know- which is perfect, you are ahead of the game! But if not, no worries, I'm going to touch base on a few things to keep in mind when first setting up your tent, pot, soil & seed to help you feel confident going into this grow!
Choosing the right time of year to grow indoor: Over the years we've grown indoor cannabis during all 4 seasons of the year and through our experiences we can tell you the best time to avoid growing indoors is in the middle of the summer. We usually will grow 2 cannabis cycles indoor from Sept-Dec/Jan and from Jan-March/April. This allows us the utilize the cold weather outside to naturally keep our tent cooler and our energy bill down. Indoor cannabis does best when it doesn't reach over 85 degrees in the tent so by growing in fall, winter and early spring you will use less energy to cool down your tent and we recommend to mainly run the lights at night during the flower stage, which helps a lot with the keeping down the temperature inside your tent.
Light cycle: This particular set up does not come with a timer, so you'll want to go yourself a timer so that later on when we get into the flowering stage, you will have it ready to go. A timer is necessary to regulate the amount of hours your light is on. In the beginning veg cycle you can have in-between 18-24 hours of light, but not less than 18, anything less will trigger flowering stage to start. If we were vegging under a traditional Metal Hallide or High Pressure Sodium light we would set a timer for 18 hours to be the most energy efficient as possible since those are both energy suckers. But since we are using LED we are keeping them on for 24 hours and will set a timer for 12 hours once we head into flower stage. We will show you how to do that, when the time comes.
Setting up the tent: Choose a space that is not in direct sun, so ideally never outdoors or in-front of an open window or sunroom. This is to help keep the longevity of your tent but also to help you better regulate the temperature inside your tent. When the lights are on, it can get pretty hot in there so its important to try to limit the additional heat from other factors. Set the tent up in the space it will be at during the entire grow as it can be very tough to move once its all together.
Choosing the right soil: This ideally is one of the more important topics because cannabis plants are very picky and will do the best in an organic potting soil that has very good drainage and has a coco or peat as it's base medium. Fast draining soil allows for better dry down periods between feedings/waterings. Cannabis plants up take more nutrients when their roots are not consistently water logged and have proper aeration. For this grow-along we used Groundswell from Mother Earth Organics to start our seed in. We have had very high success with Groundswell in the past with our regular food garden seedlings. Groundswell is a all purpose soil that promotes root growth and is a high-aeration formula which provides you with more control compared to other potting soil mediums. It's derived from earthworm castings, feather meal, seabird guano, fish bone meal, kelp meal, bat guano, crab meal, shrimp meal, alfalfa meal, nee seed meal and sulfate of potash, all mild enough to not burn your seedlings but strong enough to promote explosive seedling germination and development.
Choosing the right size pot: This will depend on whether you are starting out with a clone or a seed. If you are starting out with a seed like us, you'll want to use a very small, 3x3in pot so that you are not over-watering your seedling. If you a starting with a clone that is rooting out of a rock-wool cube and not yet planted, you'll want to use a 1 gallon pot filled with Groundswell or similar soil medium, ensuring the entire rock-wool cube is covered. We will upsize the pots as the plants grow and we will cover more about when is the right time for that in detail in later weeks in this grow along. The idea is that you want to match the plant/seed in the appropriate size pot, that's not too big or too small so that you are not accidentally over-watering or root-bounding your plant or seedling. Both of which can cause major stress to your plant, early stress on a cannabis plant can cause the plant to exhibit stress throughout the rest of its life and if you are running feminized seeds (like we are this round) you want to limit stress as it can cause those plants to hermaphrodite. Hermi-plants are not very smokable or I suppose the better way of putting it is they are just not pleasurable to smoke, they are heavy in undeveloped seeds and the buds themselves are airy and tend to give off more of a headache high than a pleasing one.
Adding a fan for airflow: Its always a good idea to have some sort of fan going inside the tent at all times. This helps with airflow, making sure the air doesn't become stale and overly humid and also so that your seedlings will develop stronger main stalks.
pH Meter for Testing Solutions and Water Slurry:
I highly recommend for a consistent and successful grow, to get yourself a pH meter which will help you tremendously when it comes to adjusting your solution or water slurry for your soil runoff to determine if you have some sort of pH imbalance or if you need to use a pH up or down for the nutrient solutions.
Seedling Update: We sowed our seedling in the 3x3 pot in Groundswell soil on Monday 10/5. We watered the soil good before sowing the seed and then only watered it one time over the week. On day 4, Friday 10/6, it popped out of the soil.
Our feminized Cinnamonsour Seeds from WyEast Farms.
Groundswell soil that we use for our seedlings, found at Lowes and ACE Hardware stores.
Small 3x3 pot we started our seedling in, Gardeners doesn't have these exact pots but ones very similar, I've linked a few options below.
Our tent all set up with our light on the bottom trellis and a mini fan.
Week 1: 10/11/20- 10/17/2020
Seedling Update: This little plant is growing fast! Today is Monday 10/12 and the little seedling has already started pushing hard on its first set of fan leaves and even a little second set and it hasn't even reached 2 inches tall! The main stock is growing significantly in girth and is growing in unison with the leaves.
This is quite different than a normal HPS or Metal Hallide and especially different from a T-5 florescent light, all of which would have helped with the growth of the plant but none would have encouraged it to grow this stocky and thick, this early on in its life. T-5's for instance, generally cause the plant to grow more in length than in leaf structure because it not getting all of the necessary light spectrum's needed to grow a denser plant.
Plants growing under T-5 Fluorescents are starved for light so they reach and stretch hard, causing the plant to not grow in unison and creating a taller and skinnier plant with little leaf structure. Just within the first week of growing under the LED, we are noticing major differences in plant structure and development and we really like what we are seeing so far.
Another week or two of growth like this should mean a transfer to a larger pot! Below are pics I took on Tuesday and again on Friday. This week we only watered with tap water, not even filtered water and we didn't feed any sort of root enhancer or fertilizer either.
Seedling on Monday 10/12/2020
Seedling on Friday 10/16/2020
**COMPARISON OF A 5 WEEK OLD SEEDLING GROWN UNDER A FLUORESCENT T-5 AND A 1 WEEK OLD SEEDLING GROWN UNDER THE GARDENERS LED LIGHT:**
We started the T-5 seedling 5 weeks ago in our kitchen window sill. Right around the same time we had just started our fall/winter seedlings indoors in our other grow tent, so we just popped that seed in there too under the T-5 light.
Its pretty amazing to see that a 1 week old seedling under Gardeners LED light has almost the same amount of growth as the 5 weeks old seedling. This shows first hand how much more plants respond to full spectrum lights (similar to the light from the sun) than those that are incomplete or heavy in one spectrum like Fluorescent (blue spectrum), HPS (blue spectrum) and Metal Hallide (red spectrum).
Lanky plants are not strong plants, they fall over just like seen in the pictures below, they make it tough to grow a healthy tall plant and come flower time- you can bet the buds will be just as weak as the plant itself. Airy buds are not tasty buds. Please check out the comparison pictures below of these to plants!
Notice how much leaf structure the LED Seedling has in just one week compared to the T-5 Seedling which is 4 weeks older! Also notice how thin and lanky the T-5 Seedling is compared to the LED Seedling which is so much stockier and thicker in structure. I cant wait to continue to watch this little plant grow under the LED!
Week 2: Starting 10/18/2020
There's not too much to update on little 'Cinny' herself this week. (We have decided to give her a name and that is Cinny, we think it fits well). She has started to stack on some decent fan leaves and is growing like a weed but for the most part we have just let her be and watered every 3-4 days. We did receive the majority of our nutrients this week and that is the biggest update I can give you and well, prepare you for in the month or so to come! That is, if you choose to use the same nutrient lines that we use. We don't use all OMRI certified organic nutrient lines but they are all very clean, all natural products that contain very low salts and mostly organic materials. The main company/line we use is Nectar for the Gods by Oregan's Only, but we also use SLF-100, Xtreme Gardening, BIO-AG and others.
"We are gardeners, farmers, and hobbyists–searching the industry for the most effective and healthiest methods of producing high-quality fruits and vegetables. Like many gardeners, we are tired of the marketing and overwhelming advertising pushes that companies use to promote products that are not worth the bottles that they are in. We target the end users that have the need and the drive to search for the products that will deliver the desired effect that the gardener is striving for." Quoted directly from the Oregansonly.com website
Lets now go over each nutrient we will be using this year and why:
SLF-100: SLF is an enzymatic formula with over 18 years of proven success, it is a 100% organic and OMRI listed formula specifically designed to break out salts. Used as a cleanser for hydroponic systems and soil-less media SLF-100 goes to work immediately to keep your system running smooth and free of toxic build up. SLF-100 is effective in all phases of the growing cycle and is compatible with all nutrients, fertilizers and rooting compounds. SLF-100 is PH neutral in concentrated form and has NO added sugars or NPK.
BIOAG: A superior humic acid liquid, golden in color, that is preferred by growers. Our revolutionary biological processing method mimics earth’s natural processes. No preservatives or chemicals (which cause bio-degradation) are used. Ful-Power humic liquid is a premium product for a variety of applications including foliar sprays, clones and cuttings, bare-root dip, and seed activation. Also use in hydroponic applications and for biological stimulation.
MYKOS: MYKOS® mycorrhizae is a natural and organic species of beneficial soil fungi that create a "sponge-like" mass which collects and stores nutrients and water, increasing the uptake of both. This single species of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi contains only Rhizophagus intraradices, formally known as Glomus intraradices.
ARMOR KOTE SILICA: Grow More Armor Kote Potassium Silicate provides 7.5% soluble silicone to noticeably improve turgidity of leaves and stems, strengthens cuticle membrane for firmer buds. More erect leaves are in an optimum position to capture maximum light for improved photosynthesis. Recommended for hydroponic or soilless growing systems. We wont use this until in the flowering cycle.
NECTAR FOR THE GODS:
Medusa's Magic- To brew Medusa’s Magic, proteins and enzymes are gently extracted from materials and then suspended in a worm casting tea. Nitrogen in Medusa’s Magic is derived from a protein which will result in a healthier, more natural growth pattern in your plants. The healthier the plant, the more efficient the plant’s natural response to produce its own defense mechanisms against pests and disease.
Gaia Mania- Gaia Mania is a careful blend of organic materials, enzymatically processed to extract only proteins and humates. This digestion process is the beginning step in the absorption of vitamins, acids, and minerals by the plant. Gaia Mania has the ability to feed plants immediately and is also designed to promote microbial populations in your medium, offering greater protection to plants’ root systems. All of the nitrogen in this product is protein based. This is the healthiest form of nitrogen for plants, promoting strong, healthy growth without a tendency toward elongation as with sodium-based nitrates. Plants grow healthiest when they are grown with proteins, organic acids, and calcium-based products. Addition of calcium will improve the uptake of Gaia Mania.
Athena's Aminas- Every plant needs certain compounds for growth beyond soil, light, water, and CO2. Athena’s Aminas provides a readily available amino acid source of nitrogen to optimize protein production and allow for maximum growth rates. By adding an amino acid source of nitrogen, you enable your plants to build proteins as quickly as they are able. When using Athena’s Aminas, you can expect to see faster, healthier growth, resulting in bigger, more vigorous plants.
'Many production problems originate with too much nitrogen and potassium and not enough available calcium and phosphate. Calcium is the “queen-king” of all nutrients, aiding enzymatic action, feeding soil microbes, improving nutrient availability and cell wall integrity, encouraging solid stem growth (vs. hollow in a calcium-deficient situation) and preventing stem breakage. Calcium promotes smooth, sweet, aromatic produce, and generally leads to healthier, more vigorous growth." -Oregons Only
Demeter's Destiny- Demeter’s Destiny is Nectar for the Gods’ answer to correcting and preventing deficiencies. This special blend offers microbes and root systems balanced forms of calcium, which help to carry all nutrients into the plant except for nitrogen and potassium, including magnesium. Most fertilizers deliver nutrients via a nitrate. Calcium delivery means nutrients are more accessible to your plant and less likely to be locked out.
Zeus Juice- It is the catalyst in the line and is an essential part of nutrient absorption without a microbial field. Zeus Juice represents the god of all plant nutrition, containing a full complement of compounds that are not generally found in The Industries’ plant foods or supplements. These unique compounds are 100% water soluble and are absorbed immediately, acting as a catalyst to produce accelerated growth and nutrient uptake. With increased metabolic rates, Zeus Juice offers optimal nutrient availability, healthy plant growth, healthy prolific rooting and protection from transplant shock. Zeus Juice can also be used as a germination aid, softening the seed coat and providing nutrients for the first stages of life.
Herculean Harvest- Herculean Harvest increases the availability of phosphorus to your plants and soil, producing a wide range of benefits to plant health, structure, and flavor, contributing to a vigorous soil food web and improving the accessibility of nutrients. The active ingredient in bone meal, calcium phosphate, helps to carry all nutrients to the plant, except for nitrogen and potassium. Calcium is essential for supplying plant growth energy in order to sustain life and growth and promotes solid stems through stronger cell development. Calcium also increases the cation exchange capacity of soils, making nutrients more available to microbial activity and ultimately to the plant. The addition of Herculean Harvest to any nutrient line will increase size, aroma, and flavor of the plants’ fruit. It also aids in washing salt from a potting soil or soil-less medium and can be used as part of a soil flush solution.
Bloom Khaos- Bloom Khaos is Nectar for the Gods’ patent-pending secret weapon for flower production and alleviating hidden hunger. When using Bloom Khaos as a foliar feed, one should notice more flower sites, larger, denser flowers, and superior color, flavor, and aroma. Bloom Khaos improves plant health and vigor while reducing stress at crucial times of the plants’ life cycle, such as transplanting, flower transition, and prior to taking cuttings. Bloom Khaos works best if used daily as a foliar spray in the early stages of growth and up to a few weeks into flowering. After that, it works well as a water-in additive.
Olympus Up- Olympus Up is the Nectar for the Gods pH up product. Most gardeners know to adjust the pH of their nutrient solution before use. By using liquid calcium as a pH adjusting component, you will add more calcium to your plants’ cell structure, promoting cell wall integrity. Residual Olympus Up in the soil will increase aeration, promote microbial activity by offering a food source for the soil biota, and contribute to nutrient delivery. Olympus Up is essential when using Herculean Harvest. We recommend using Olympus Up with Herculean Harvest to form an amazing calcium food source for soil microbes. They may also be used together for a more efficient flush, either at the end of your growing cycle, or in new potting medium to stabilize pH.
Other great NECTAR FOR THE GODS PRODUCTS-
Hades Down, Persephone’s Palate, Pegasus Potion, Triton’s Trawl, Poseidonzime, Hygeia’s Hydration, Aphrodite’s Extraction, Mega Morpheus, The Kraken.
Cinny really starting to push those new sets of leaves this week!
The Nutrient line-up!
Week 3: Starting 10/25/2020
Cinny is really starting to take off! She has grown so much this past week but other than that not much else has changed in CINNYs world. We are continuing to water every couple of days and with the weather being warmer we had a few days that got really hot inside the house and she dried out pretty decently. We also noticed a tiny bit of leaf damage, caused by thrips, more than likely they came from the tent next to cinnys that has all our winter seedlings in it. We will have to treat for that soon and we will go over that process more in detail when we do. When starting from seed, the first weeks are always super slow going. But luckily its a busy time on our homestead so we've been keeping plenty distracted. Just keep in mind, not to over water your plant and all should be well!
Well, I spoke a little too soon.. today Thursday 10/29, our eldest cat Ziggy snuck inside our spare bedroom where Cinny is at and decided to make a meal out of her. He literally ate her down to the stem but she does have some foliage left so I'm going to keep my fingers crossed she comes back with a vengeance. Cannabis plants are pretty resilient but this sure will stunt our grow along a bit! I hope you guys don't mind too much... patience is always a virtue anyways!
I took this pic the day before Cinny got eaten.
After Ziggy ate Cinny down to her stem :(
Week 4: Starting 11/1/2020
Cinny, is coming back yalll! She really has put on a ton of new fan leaves for being eaten a week ago. I firmly believe the reason she has been able to come back so fast is because of the LED light. I've never seen so much explosive and dense growth growing under flourescent, metal hallide or HPS lights. We still have not fed it any of the nutrients or root enhancers yet but we do plan to transplant it into a bigger pot next week so we will feed it MYKOS then. If you have been growing along this whole time, your plant may be ready for a larger pot but if you want to wait one more week when we transplant, you are totally okay to do that!
I'm so thrilled to see how well Cinny is coming back! Its almost liked we topped her on purpose! Shes pushing out so many new tops!
Week 5: Starting 11/8/2020
Cinny has grown so much this week, just like I had thought, its time to upgrade her to a new larger pot! If you transplanted her last week, you are ahead of the game but if not, I'll briefly show you what we do when we transplant our cannabis plants.
1) Fill new pot 3/4 full with the Groundswell soil (we used a 1 gal. pot, I recommend not going much larger than that in the beginning) and using the larger sized scoop from the MYKOS bag, fill the scoop up completely and then sprinkle the MYKOS Root booster on top of the soil.
2) Flip cannabis plant in pot upside down, holding the plant between two fingers and resting the pot in the palm of your hand. Gently squeeze on the bottom and sides of the pot to release the root ball from the pot and then gently pull the pot off the of root ball.
3) Flip the plant back right side up, supporting the root ball with the other hand and then gently set it inside the pot ontop of the MYKOS covered soil. Placing the roots directly on the MYKOS. Cover the top of root ball with soil until you reach 1 inch from the top of the pot, leaving space for watering.
4) Water generously and then set plant back under LED Light in the tent.
Now we just wait and let that MYKOS do its thang! We are leaving tomorrow Friday 11/13 for Washington to visit my big brother and his gf. So I have instructed our farm help to water Cinny every couple of days if she dries out but she wont need much maintenance other than that.
Sprinkle large scoop of MYKOS directly ontop of soil.
MYKOS is a gentle, dry, granulated product so its easy to apply and you cant damage your plants with it!
Set root ball directly ontop of dry MYKOS.
Add soil ontop of root ball until you reach 1 inch from top of pot.
Week 6: Starting 11/15/2020
Technically, this week didn't start for us until we got home from Washington on Wednesday the 18th and I also didn't snap this photo until today, the last day of the week, Saturday the 21st. But boy did Cinny love the MYKOS root enhancer because she TOOK OFF while we were gone, showing you first hand, the power of beneficial soil fungi! Our farm-helper said she had to water Cinny a few times, which means her roots are really taking off and absorbing a ton! This week we wanted to give Cinny a decent feeding but time has gotten away from us because of a few other major incidents that happened on the farm while we were gone. Next week she will be more than ready to be fed so will do the first major feeding on Sunday or Monday, of which I'll show you and explain in detail exactly what to do and feed, step by step! Check out how gorgeous Cinny is! Also, it appears her thrips are gone too! Nice!
It is extremely impressive to see the amount of explosive growth Cinny has made in just 6 days after boosting its roots with MYKOS! I have no doubt the LED light had alot to do with it as well! Those two combined this last week has made Cinny, a very happy girl!
Week 7: Starting 11/22/2022
Cinny got her first feeding this week! We used from the nutrient list above and cut it down to half a gallon. We fed her nearly all of the half gallon but didn't feed all of it because we weren't sure how long it would take the liquid in the tub to evaporate. We found after this feeding, it evaporates really fast so next feeding, we will do a half gallon mixed again but feed her the entire thing.
HERE IS THE FORMULA:
It is the 'Early Veg PRO Schedule' from the Oregon's Only feeding schedule.
1/2 GALLON WATER
Medusa's Magic- 1 tsp
Gaia Mania- 1/2 tsp
Zeus Juice- 1/2 tsp
Demeters Destiny- 1/2 tsp
Herculean Harvest- 1 tsp (we doubled this for bigger roots)
Athena Aminas- 1/2 tsp
Then you have to pH test your solution you just made, I cant stress enough how important this step is. So many people mix solutions up and feed them directly without ever testing but this is doing a major disservice to your hard work and the plants hard work too. Plants just grow better when fed solutions at a certain pH level. So in layman's terms, your plant will still grow if you don't test your solution, it just wont grow near as well and will not produce near as quality product in the end.
(The pH meter we use is linked here)
You want this nutrient solution you just created to be at 5.9-6.1 pH for the vegetative growth, this specific nutrient mix will cause the solution to be on the lower side, so if it doesn't test in that range off the bat, you'll want to use the 'Olympus Up' at a 1/2- 1 tsp at a time, fully mix it up and let it SIT for at least 2 minutes to properly adjust before adding anymore. It takes some time for it to adjust, so if you add more Olympus Up before allowing it to fully adjust, you'll end up with too high of pH. And the problem with that is, once you've adjusted it Up if its too high you will now have to throw the entire batch out because you cannot adjust it back down with a pH down, the batch is ruined and you have to start over again.
If you have ANY questions at all about your first feeding or pH testing, just shoot me a message on Instagram or Facebook and I'd be more than happy to help you out! (@theurbanladybug) Please reference the chart I created below.
Also, lets just take a moment to appreciate what an amazing come back this stunning plant has made! The cat eating her back in week 3 was kind of like a blessing in the long run, he ate or topped her main top which has caused so many other tops to form. Makes me want to do this to all my seedlings because I'm so happy with how well she is performing and how much I LOVE the Gardeners LED light too!
The reason you want your nutrient pH to never go below 5.9 is because it will drop in the "medium acid" range which 'bottle-necks' the nutrients and makes it impossible for the plant to be able to uptake and use them. The nutrients that are available at the range like iron, manganese, boron and copper and zinc are not nutrients needed to grow healthy plants and in-fact those nutrients often cause yellowing, deficiencies and other issues to arise. So always stay in the 5.9-6.1 pH range for the healthiest cannabis plants!
This is the sweet spot for your pH. You don't want it much higher or lower than this (5.9-6.1) because you don't want too high of nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium because they will cause other issues like veins to yellow and the leaves to curl and burn. But most noticeably it lessons the inter-nodal spacing, meaning it stunts your plant. Too much of a good thing is always a bad thing.
After the nutrient solution was mixed.
Feeding little cinny! Who's becoming NOT so little anymore!
The pH meter we use to test our nutrient solutions. Its a good one. Ill link it HERE.
Week 8: Starting 11/29/2020
Cinny took off so much after her first feeding last week, she is starting to push out so many beautiful tops. This week we fed again on Wednesday night the same exact recipe as above but increased the water to a gallon and fed the entire gallon batch.
HERE IS THE FORMULA:
It is the 'Early Veg PRO Schedule' from the Oregon's Only feeding schedule.
1 GALLON WATER
Medusa's Magic- 2 tsp
Gaia Mania- 1 tsp
Zeus Juice- 1 tsp
Demeters Destiny- 1 tsp
Herculean Harvest- 1 tsp
Athena Aminas- 1 tsp
We ended up moving the light up to the top metal rack because she was almost touching it and we also then put Cinny up on a little box to get her closer to the light. Before long she will be reaching through the middle scrog-net trellis! Let me know if you have any questions!
It is incredible how much plants will grow in just a short amount of time after being fed! The picture on the left and the middle and both taken on Wednesday night after feeding, The pic on the very right was taken Friday night, 48 hours after feeding! Amazing!
Week 9: Starting 12/6/2020
This week we fed something a little different to Cinny. We have been feeding our kitchen scraps to our indoor worm farm and discovered it had nearly 2 quarts of pure worm tea in the bottom of the container! We drained the farm and then that same night we poured half of the liquid into a gallon jug, added about a quart of water, pH tested it just to to make sure (and it was at a perfect 6pH) and then fed nearly the entire tea to Cinny.
The tea did wonders for her, earth worm castings contain a wide range of macro- and micro-nutrients which are readily available within the liquid tea. Meaning when we fed it to Cinny she was able to uptake it and feed on the nutrients immediately which changed her leaves to a rich deep forest green and it also helped stretch her roots out too. We pulled her out of the pot on Friday and she has started to spiral her roots around the bottom of the pot. Next week we will transplant her into a much larger pot, probably a 3 gallon. Other than that we don't have much more to update! If you don't have a worm farm, you can buy earth worm castings from the store, mix it with water and feed it to your plant also! Ill suggest a few of my favorite below for you!
Cinnys dark rich green leaves!
Week 10: Starting 12/13/2020
Cinny got upgraded to a larger pot on Monday of this week! We decided on a fabric 3 gallon pot, it wasn't brand new so we hand washed it with soap and hot water. While we were transplanting her we put Mykos in the bottom of the pot directly in contact with her roots to give her soil a boost of beneficial fungus and then fed her the last of this part of the veg cycle feeding, we start the last part of the veg cycle feeding next week.
We did the same formula as we did in week 8 but we doubled each nutrient but kept the same amount of water (1 gallon) and fed the entire thing to her, which was fully absorbed by the next morning. But we had to use around a teaspoon of Olympus Up to adjust the pH to the correct 5.9-6.1 because it was too high and reading around 5.5pH.
HERE IS THE FORMULA:
It is the 'Early Veg PRO Schedule' from the Oregon's Only feeding schedule.
1 GALLON WATER
Medusa's Magic- 2 tsp
Gaia Mania- 1 tsp
Zeus Juice- 1 tsp
Demeters Destiny- 1 tsp
Herculean Harvest- 1 tsp
Athena Aminas- 1 tsp
Allow nutrients to mix and sit for 2 minutes and then test pH before feeding, use Olympus up in 1/2-1 teaspoon at a time to adjust, allowing 2 minutes to adjust before pH-ing again.
But by Friday she needed another little drink so we gave her a gallon of water with a dose of1 teaspoon of Great White mycorrhizae root booster mixed in! Between the new pot, the Mykos, the last veg-feeding and the great white, shes going to really take off now!!! I cant wait to show you pics of her growth next week!
Tap image above to view it larger
Week 11: Starting 12/20/2020
Happy Holidays friends!! This week Cinny got the works! First we added a trellis in the tent, enabling us to really open her up and give more direct light to more areas of the plant, which will give it more "tops" and less "larfy buds". The trellis we use is a white fabric garden trellis which is super inexpensive and easy to use. It comes in a large piece but you can easily cut it and make it the size you need for the plants you are using it for. We use this same trellis in our vegetable garden too, I'll link it in below for you. I'll show you pics of the plant the day we trellised it and then the next day for comparison. The plants always looks kinda rough when you first open the plant up but the tops will all face tops the light in just one day! See photos below for reference.
Cinny also got a big feeding on Christmas Day which I'll write down below for you. We also added another new product to the mix, *silica* which really boosts the plants immune system to help fight against diseases and help bulk up and strengthen the stalks, of course we pH tested it before we fed to make sure it was at the ideal 5.9-6.1 pH range. IMPORTANT NOTE: If you feed silica you MUST add it to the water before adding ANY other nutrient. If you add nutrient first you will not be able to use silica that batch and will have t wait until next feeding. You will notice we skipped the "mid veg" schedule and went straight to the "Late veg" schedule on the nectar for the gods feeding regimen. We do that purposely, we like to baby our plants at first until we know they are strong and then we slam them with a good hard feeding, the plants always go nuts!
HERE IS THE FORMULA:
From the "Late veg PRO feeding schedule" from Nectar for the Gods
Monosilicic acid (Silica)- 1 tsp
Medusas Magic- 2 tsp
Gaia Mania- 2 tsp
Athens Aminas- 2 tsp
Demeters Destiny- 1 tsp
Herculean Harvest- 1 tbs (this went up since last feeding)
Zeus Juice- 1 tsp
We pH tested after mixing it for 2 minutes and it came out in the right range so we immediately fed it to the plants. This is something I haven't mentioned before but just make sure you don't keep nutrient around and feed at a later date, it does go bad after 24 hours and is best when served immediately to the plant.
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Week 12: Starting 12/27/20
Cinny just chilled back this week, we cleaned up some of her lower foliage, we like to keep the bottom 1/3 of the plant completely cleaned of any leaf, that just helps the plant focus more of developing the upper buds, helps airflow get to the upper buds and helps keep pests and diseases away as they like to really flourish in the lower shaded out branches.
We fed cinny just plain water on Tuesday the 29th and on Saturday the 2nd of January, skipping any feedings and enhancers this week. She is looking so stunning and has grown so much these last two weeks. We are going to switch back the light to flowering light cycle (12 hours) starting next week, the plants grow the majority in the flowering stage, so we feel shes big enough now to flip back the lights.
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