Vegging

[Guest guest]

Biobizz
Vegging time.......... So as you may know I had been wondering what medium to use for this grow and I had thought of Swedish Special mix but then I thought..... Hmmm Sweden? Nothing grows in Sweden right? So i thought of a place where plants grow and it came to me...... Tulips from Amsterdam.... So I have went Dutch and I am using BIOBIZZ as my medium!



This Biobizz mix is made up of Peat moss, Spaghnum peat, Worm Casting, Perlite and Pre-Mix

I also went for SQUARE pots - these are 10 litre pots........ When the roots are ready I will get 4 more 10 litre tubs and simply cut the bottom from original SQUARES and will place on top so when flowering will each have approx 18 - 25 litres. I have done this previous grows and it works for me.


It has an E.C of 2.4 and is pH 6.6

I have kept the girls in the original pots but I have cut away the base and also half way up the sides - this should lead to less transplantation stress and also I have found that it makes the stem alot thicker and stronger ...... I like a nice stem......... The Nevilles Haze in top right corner is actually in 3 pots.

White Widow

White Rhino


A.M.S.

Neville's Haze 5 - I topped her 5 days ago



these are the same Widow, Rhino and A.M.S that i have posted in the infirmary section so you can see how they have improved 2 weeks later.

Neville's Haze - I actually germination her late December and had quite few problems with her so gave up on her to be honest and i took her out of the grow room and put by the window and left for 2 weeks - so yeah pretty much had gave up on her but i thought hmmm I wonder........ So i gave her lil bit of care and foliar application and unbelievable she came back to life. I topped her as an experiment because this girl showed she got spirit and i like that in a plant.

These are all Greenhouse girls just incase you really had to ask

Thank You Franco

[Guest superbluehaze]

I think you are giving them too much water. If the roots do not have enough air, they have trouble taking in nutrients. How often are you watering and how big are your pots?

Put your finger down in the soil about 2 inches, only water wen it feels dry.

[Guest samuelo]

yeah i had been giving them a bit extra water this last week I but transplanted tonight and i wont be watering for maybe a week at very least.

The SQUARE pots are 10L and the CIRCLES 5L

[Guest superbluehaze]

The white rhino is the one I think needs less water. The yellow on the leaves, the dark views and the leaf turning up wards; the yellow leaf can be sign of too much water, the rest are signs of magnesium deficiency.

other than that,

they are powering, and look great to me.

[Guest samuelo]

thanks - yeah i have maybe boosted them too much since first putting in infirmary, hopefully with this new soil they should start to feel even more comfortable.

i noticed when cutting bottoms from original pots that the soil was quite moist in the middle but very dry towards bottom so this BioBizz soil that i picked up today should hopefully eradicate that 'clogged up' problem

[vespagreen]

See things are looking better dude,good stuff!,like the step method with the pots might give it a try.

Take it easy

[Guest samuelo]

You f'igured the most man - ' The Step Method' I do this every time

Has a nice 'ring' to it huh 'The Step Method' - gotta start off with the CIRCLES then switch to the SQUARES though - thats the tip

[Ares]

That Biobizz is good stuff! I've grow allsorts of stuff in it not just weed and got great results! You wont have to start feeding your plants until the bloom phase at least so that saves you buying any grow nute's and you can spend your money on a good bloom nute and some PK 13-14 instead! I've found the Biobizz has a nice balance to it, its light and spongy enough to hold air and water but contains perlite as to not hold to much. A good all round soil, good choice, much better than anything you'll ever get from B&Q.

Keep us posted on progress and happy growing!

[Guest samuelo]

Yeah the Biobizz has 2.5kg of fertz per 50 litres so should be good feed. Yeah it does have a real nice spongy texture, I am pretty pleased that thats what I decided to go for, it seems a real nice soil.

For Flowering i have GROTEK Monster Bloom - its a 0 - 50 - 30 npk....... water soluble, Its a Canadian product, I start to use it 2 weeks into flowering until the last 2 weeks of flowering.


I love from this stage to harvest - its just the seedlings that get me spooked

[Ares]

I know what you mean, I'm not far off from my harvest, cant wait. Do you grow from seed everytime?

[Guest samuelo]

Yeah pretty much from seed every time unless i find a 'different' strain or if a girl has some special dna i will attempt to clone. Comes down to space in the end and its a luxury i dont have, idealy would love at least 3/4 rooms to carry out different projects and have new crop every month but at the moment i have 2 'spaces' so am fairly limited to what i can do

What about yourself

[Ares]

I have a whole room for my projects lol I have a purpose built room within a room for flowering, a mother section, clone section and tent for drying and experimenting in. I'll post a few pics in the next few days with a floor plan layout for you guys to see. Taken me a while to get it to what it is but well worth it. I mainly grow from clones at the moment but will be trying out some GHS strains soon, I already have a mother of White Widow but am very tempted by HImalaya Gold but its keeping it under control that could be the problem. But you never know unless you try I guess! I get my seeds from a local shop, they aren't online but are planning to be soon, I'll let you know their web address when they do coz they are awesome! They stock a good range including all the GHSC seeds and the prices are spot on, mixed packs for £24.99 at the most. I think he said his postage will be around £2.50. He said something about allot of other companies ripping people off with high postage costs and he wants happy customers who will come back and spread the word etc Seems cool enough to me, not had a problem with what i've got from there so far anyways

[Guest samuelo]

check out the link HERE now thats a piece of kit


its on 4 levels - Level 1 and 2 Plants, Level 3 Algae, Level 4 Fish and Shrimp, Level 5 Organic Waste

looks like this is designed to move nutrients from top to bottom and back again.

Optical fibers that capture and redirect light during the day and methane from organic waste powers it during the night means that it fuels itself.

Awesome

[Ares]

Nice! Looks a cool concept. Its taken the principal of Aquaponics which already exists a little further. Aquaponics is basically farming edible fish and crops together, i.e you have fish in a pond, you feed the fish which shit, the pond water is pumped and filtered through the plants constantly which removes all the fish shit and other nasty crap which the plants use as food, the water also get oxygenated from being pumped around and allowed to drain back much like a mini waterfall etc the end result crops to harvest and fish to eat! Will be a big thing in the future especially when we have to be more effecient in food production as the population unfortunately keeps increasing!

Search youtube for Aquaponics you'll find loads of interesting video's on it, when I move house to a place with a decent secure garden I'm gona give it a go in a polytunel

[N.W.greenthumb]

Hey samuelo thats a cool system. its similar to the b.o.g (bushy older grower) system of growing. it works well for him from what i read. looks like it could use a little bit more water in the soil. great job! are there spill trays below the last container of soil? and try beneficial bacteria and mycoraezae fungi, it will make your roots huge!!!

[N.W.greenthumb]

i've never heard of aquaponics, sounds like the ultimate setup! very cool

[Jay]

YEah mon, it looks awesome, first time i heard of something like this was on the old Overgrow website i think , on a aquaponics cannabis grow farm..

Aquaponics

"Aquaponics is the integration of aquaculture and hydroponics in a recirculating "closed water loop" cycle. The fish effluent (or fish waste) accumulated in the water as a byproduct of an aquaculture system is collected and channeled to hydroponic grow beds where the nutrient rich fish waste (toxic to fish but rich in nitrogen and other byproducts to plants) fertilizes the planted grow beds. This waste is referred to as "effluent" or "emulsion". The planted grow beds in turn digest the emulsion, reducing or elimininating the toxicity before it is returned to the fish tanks clean and recycled. Examples of aquaponic systems range from small 10 gallon aquariums to large commercial systems.

The aquaponic concept (using fish emulsion for plant fertilization) is not new to civilization, and can be traced back to early Asian and South American horticultural civilizations. However, the modern application of aquaponics can best be linked to the New Alchemy Institute in the 1970's, where researchers experimented with bioshelters and wastewater management via crop production. This pursuit of what was to become the permaculture movement inspired likeminded researchers to advance the concept of fish effluent as fertilizer for crop production. In 1986, North Carolina State University graduate student, Mark McMurtry, along with professor Doug Sanders created the first known closed loop aquaponic system (called an aqua-vegeculture system) that channeled Tilapia effluent into sand planted tomato beds. In the early 1990's, two distinct aquaponic systems emerged;1)Deep Water or Green Water Culture set up at the University of the Virgin Islands under the guidance of Dr. James Rakocy and; 2) Ebb and Flow production pioneered by Tom Speraneo of S&S Aquafarms in West Plains, Missouri.

The unique advantages of aquaponic systems are: 1) conservation through constant water reuse and recycling. 2) organic fertilization of plants with natural fish emulsion 3) the elimination of solid waste disposal from intensive aquaculture 4) the reduction of needed cropland to produce like crops 5) the overall reduction of environmental footprint for crop production.

Distinct disadvantages inherent with aquaponics are: 1) Initial expense for housing, tank, plumbing, pump/s, and grow beds 2) The infinite number of ways in which a system can be configured lends itself to equally varying results, conflicting research, and successes or failures. 3) Aquaponics relies heavily on man-made energy, technology solutions, and environmental control to achieve recirculation and water/ambient temperatures.

Aquaponic systems can be used to replicate controlled wetland conditions that are useful for reclaiming potable water from typical household sewage, in addition to generating a continual supply of food with minimal fertilizer use. Aquaponics takes advantage of synergy between self-organizing biological systems, emphasizing the one element/many functions principle of permaculture. This synergy benefits both systems and allows each to help maintain the other. For example, an aquaponic system consisting of goldfish and watercress would require less human intervention into each system. The goldfish would benefit from the filtration carried out by the watercress, and the watercress would benefit from the nutrient-rich waste excreted by the goldfish.

In practice, tilapia are the most popular fish chosen for home and commercial projects that are intended to raise edible fish. Most green leafy vegetables grow well in the hydroponic filter. Although sometimes selected minerals or nutrients such as iron are added, the main source of nutrients for the plants is the fish waste.

Hydroponics for an aquaponics system varies greatly from a traditional hydroponic system in that the traditional hydroponic system must be kept sterile or it will clog up. In aquaponics, the hydroponic grow bed depends on the bacterial action which converts the fish wastes into a useable form for the plants to absorb. Without the bacteria, both fish and plants would soon die."

[Guest samuelo]

Hey Greenthumb....... I dont know much more about the philips biosphere but i sure would like to own one


Thanks for the aquaponics info Jay

[Guest samuelo]

Added some new pics of these girls in 'advanced techniques' so you can follow their progress

[Peter79]

Hello!

Great pictures keep them coming

Cheers

[Guest samuelo]

Click HERE for Advanced Techniques



Click HERE to see how these girls looked in Infirmary