[0:14]On this episode of Mr. Canucks Grow, I'll be growing auto flowers again from seed to harvest. But instead of cocoa, I'm back in Gaia Green's Organic Living Soil.
[0:31]I'll be growing one Blue Dream Auto and one Purple Punch Auto using the 200 W Spider Farmer SF2000 LED. This is going to be my second attempt at using cover crops as well. And it will be my first run where I'm only using compost tees to feed the medium.
[1:01]In recent months, I've been experimenting using different mediums, different ratios when amending, and now I'm kind of curious just to see what happens when compost tees are the only source of food the plant will rely on.
[1:24]My last video showed how I grew big buds using just cocoa and Gaia Green amendments and water. If you missed that episode or just want to see how simple it is to grow from seed to harvest using cocoa instead of soil with Gaia Green fertilizers, you can go ahead and check out that link at the top of this video description. Now, to start off this grow, I germinated the seeds directly into the medium as per usual. This living soil from Gaia Green comes rich and ready to be used directly out of the bag. The medium itself is mainly made up of peat moss, cocoa, and fine bark, and it comes pre-charged with organic worm castings and Gaia Green slow-release fertilizers. So, when it comes to starting seeds, I don't add any additional food to the medium. I just plant the seed and water. So for this run, the pH range I'm going to stay in between is 6 and a half and 6.8. This grow is starting off strong, and the cover crop is filling in nicely, and the plants are looking like they really enjoy this organic living soil.
[2:48]It's been 20 days since I planted these seeds, and both plants are growing quick. I'm going to tie them down today and begin the low-stress training process. I'm using a 5-gallon fabric pot for this Purple Punch, and the Blue Dream ended up in a 7-gallon pot because I ran short on 5-gallon ones.
[3:35]It's now day 25, and these plants couldn't be happier, and I'll be honest, I'm pretty happy myself because I have not put a lot of work or thought into this grow so far.
[3:49]The Blue Dream has started to flower, and the Purple Punch looks like in a few days it will be in flower as well. The low-stress training performed last week has created the lower branching to grow up and even out with the top sites of the plants. Every week or so, I'm going to tie down the additional branches that grow up and readjust any of the branches that were already tied down.
[4:42]It's now been 36 days. Both plants are in flower now, and the early flower stretch has started. As they grow taller, the low-stress training method that I'm using becomes even more effective and ensures I'm going to maximize my yield by increasing my canopy size in width, which ultimately means more buds and more yield come harvest time.
[5:34]It's day 40 from when the seeds were planted. I have the 200 W Spider Farmer LED set to around 20 inches for now. These auto flowers have been feeding off Gaia Green's organic living soil. So, for 40 days, the only thing I've really done is water when dry and low-stress train with some very minor defoliation.
[6:02]I'm heading on downstairs to prepare the plants' first feed. I'm using a basic and simple recipe aimed for plants in early flower. It's a tea that has more emphasis on the PK of the NPK ratio. Because the plants are in flower, their demand for phosphorus and potassium increases. So, for this organic compost tea, I'm using 3 gallons of dechlorinated tap water and I'm adding in 4 tablespoons of blackstrap molasses. Now, this stuff gets thick, so to help mix the molasses into the bucket of water a little easier, I'm adding lukewarm water to the molasses first.
[6:57]I'm placing 3 cups of worm castings into a cheesecloth. This worm poop will provide a large number of nutrients the plants need to thrive. Nutrients such as magnesium, calcium, potassium, and phosphorus are practically bursting out of this manure, and the microbial activity in worm castings is 10 to 20 times higher than any soil. It's now a staple amendment I add to both my cocoa and living soil mediums. I'm also adding in 5 tablespoons of kelp, which is going to provide potassium and other beneficial minerals. And the last ingredient I'm adding into this compost tea is 5 tablespoons of guano, which is going to provide phosphorus.
[7:45]The microorganisms in compost tea are referred to as aerobic, and it's absolutely impossible to give them too much oxygen. In fact, having enough oxygen pumping into the water is a very important part of the brewing process. I'm using this beastie 50 W hydroponic air pump with airstones and it does the trick. In fact, it blows the water out of the bucket if it's just slightly too high, which is what you want. It's been 24 hours, and this compost tea is brewed and ready to be given to the plants. This tea is going to replenish the microbial life in the medium and provide the flowering autos with nutrients.
[8:32]It's now day 48, and the Purple Punch has been growing exponentially every week. I'm going to tie down the plants again, but this time from the bottom tray. This allows me to spread the taller sites out than if I attached it to the top of the pot.
[9:24]It's now day 62. This 3x3 frame is completely packed to the gills right now.
[9:39]The Purple Punch is showing how big a long flowering auto can get. This size of an auto comes with a lot more work in the canopy maintenance department. Today, I'm defoliating and removing any leaves that are blocking lower bud sites. Doing this always proved to be beneficial in helping formulate bigger stack cola's that go on for days.
[10:21]I was ready to brew another tea for the two autos, and I used the exact same ingredients, but this time I wanted to increase the PPM. So I used more of everything.
[10:57]I used about 6 tablespoons of molasses this time with 5 cups of worm castings, 8 tablespoons of guano, and 8 tablespoons of kelp, and I brewed it again for 24 hours and checked the PPMs before using it, and it went up to 800. I'm still experimenting with the measurements on everything, so next tea, I'll have to make adjustments and try to aim for something closer to like 1200 PPM. For anyone who's wondering, I'm using the Blue Labs Truncheon nutrient meter. It reads the PPM. It's one of the more reliable ones.
[12:00]It's now day 65, and I'm using my Blue Labs pH soil tester, and I'm going to check the mediums' pH.
[12:13]As long as the soil tester shows a pH between 6 and 7.0, the plant will have zero issues uptaking nutrients in a soil medium. And both plants were reading 6.5. The Blue Dream is further ahead into the flowering cycle, about week 7 now. The Purple Punch is about 3 weeks behind the Blue Dream, and the White Clover cover crop still hasn't bloomed, but it has been providing some good moisture retention on the top soil.
[14:35]I'm going to place the Blue Dream in darkness today, and in a couple days, I'm going to chop it down and hang it to dry and, well, then weigh it up. As for the Purple Punch, it needs a couple more weeks to finish. So, next upload, I will be showcasing the results of the Purple Punch, which should be impressive.
[15:13]As for the Blue Dream, it's time to weigh it up.
[15:37]The final weight is 62 grams, which is just over 2 ounces. The buds on the Blue Dream turned out to be one of the better trichome-producing autos I've had in a while. This phenotype is packed with a sweet, hazy, and heavy, fruity smell resembling blueberries. This run used 200 W to grow these autoflowers, and since the Purple Punch is towering over the Blue Dream, you know, close to three times the size, I'm hopeful I can break 1 g per watt. So tune in next week where I'll be harvesting the Purple Punch and finalizing this run under the Spider Farmer SF2000. All the grow equipment in this video will be linked down below with coupon codes, so if you are interested in anything like this badass budget light, feel free to check it out on Amazon and cop it with that discount code. I hope you enjoyed today's episode enough to leave a like and a comment. Questions and comments, they never go unnoticed, and in case you didn't know already, they make a huge difference for the channel. And if you've watched a few of my videos now, and you still haven't subscribed, just a big heads up, it's completely free. You know.
