Going earth box for autos

[laf6502 (Robert)]

About ready to chop the last couple plants just in time as the autos are ready to stretch and get busy.

We’re going to do two runs with earth boxes. Most earth boxes will host two plants of the same strain. I am using used soil in all boxes but but adding in some fresh build a soil 3.0 and Oly Mountain along with my normal blend of organic dry ammendments.

The first run has already started and will be 3 earth boxes… Banana Daddy, Forgotten Cookies, and Mephisto’s wedding. These plants are stretching now and are at 20 days from seed.

These will run under 2 Spider Farmer SE 5000’s in a 4x8 at 18hrs light but going to 16 hrs in 2-3 weeks.

The other tent will be all earth boxes as well and hopefully go to stretch about harvest time on the others. In that one I am running ZaMango (night owl), Pineapple Runts (ethos) Runtz (barney) and Grease Gun (atlas). These ones I will run under the cali light works solar system 1100 UVB and set the light spectrum programs all the way through all stages and see if it makes a difference. All the soil and ammendments will be the same as well as the light schedule.

After that and the 4x8 frees up I will run half the tent with autos that will flower at 12hrs since I need to run the mandarin cookies v3 photos.

Banana daddy’s - 20 days from seed.

The mephistos wedding in the middle is always a shorter plant but hoping to get some nice stretch out of them. One Banana daddy is going to be huge as she barley started showing signs of pre-flower and just started stretching the last couple days.

Be interesting how it goes but I will post an update on the earthbox ladies in a few weeks.

[Chasworks]

Good looking ladies! I like the earth box idea. Do you purchase as a kit or DIY? Any info on them would be appreciated

[SomethinCool (Josh)]

I just have a couple AC 2x4s and that looks like a perfect fit for 2 plants.
I also just put 2 Atlas Grape Jam beans in the dirt. Can’t wait to see your atlas grow also!

[laf6502 (Robert)]

I buy them and the wheels from build a soil. The mulch covers come with it.

[laf6502 (Robert)]

I have an oversize SF 2x4 and I can turn them sideways in there. But I think you could squeeze two in there.

Yeah, Im excited about the Grease Gun (I believe its Gorilla Glue and 3 Bears). The only other Atlas ive grown is Fruit by the Foot (both freebies) and if grease gun is as good as FBTF then I will be stoked. That whole batch of freebies (I got zweet grapes and zour apples and mutant as well) was insanely good. I’ll be watching the grape jam… I love some grapes. The ones ive found for my terp profile (grape wine and gas vs. grape kool aid) is Grape Crinkle, Double Grape and planet of the grapes. I am going to do 1 photo per earth box when I do the with some planet of the grape photos and mandarin cookies v3… I have hundreds of photo strains I don’t even look at anymore due to the autos but the mandarin cookies v3 has me intrigued enough to throw down for a cycle.

Im thinking 4x4 with 4 boxes… Two mandarin cookies v3 and two POTG. That should be a crazy stanky tent.

[laf6502 (Robert)]

At 22 days from seed they are hitting there stride in the strectch.

Banana Daddy are going be big gurls… As you can see the one closest isn’t even flowering yet.

Forgotten Cookies with a nice stretch as well. Some of the leading stems as tall as the mainstream.

Mephisto’s wedding - smaller plants strain wise but starting to stretch and the leading stems atleast spreading out so I don’t have to mutilate her.

As far as the earth boxes, chasworks, I would definitely recommend them as they make water so easy once you get the hang of them. And it will really be soil dependent and I recommend big pumice like in build a soil 3.0. I don’t think the small perlite in promix will cut it for earth boxes.

I put one full cubic bag in each, then dig a trough in the middle to bury all my ammendments. Cover the ammendments with Colorado Worm Company casting (tons of live worms and beneficial insects) and then cover it to the top of the box with more soil (3.0 in my case). Once they hit stretch, just heap some ammendments and top dress (I use a craft blend, kashi, fish bone, worm castings, and a build a soil flower builder (top dress blend).

You will not need to feed at all during flower except for very few strains and for them I use some water soluble 2-10-5 build a bloom.

For watering, I top water for the first 10 days or so with a sprayer. After the last top water, I put the mulch cover on and put less than a quarter gallon of water in the reservoir. I will not add any more water until I can see the bottom is completely dry. As they get bigger increase the amount until you are giving them about 3/4 gallon in stretch/stacking. Towards end of stacking back that down to a half gallon and let the bottom sit dry for at least two days… In finishing let sit dry 2-3 days and only add 1/4- 1/2 gallon.

I also top water the top inch of soil about every 10 days if it feels dry. Towards end of finishing you may want to remove mulch cover to let box start drying out. Harvest, pull the root balls, throw a few worm castings and ammendments in and your ready for the next seeds.

[Chasworks]

The are looking really happy. Thanks for the Heads up as i did order my first Earth box So you put the nutes in a trench cover then put your plants over top of the nutes? Or you put your seeds over the nute trench? Your running auto’s? Nutes below Or nutes in trench near the top i have seen in video’s

[laf6502 (Robert)]

I put my seeds about 8 inches or so from either end. Generally Ive been pre packing some coco mix in a cup and fit the seed mix where I want them. Once I have that marked out I know where I want to dump most the ammendments.

Don’t plant your seeds directly over the nutes. In between where the seeds are being planted I will push aside 2-3 inches of soil and put the majority there and a small amount around the edges. Make sure to cover it completely in castings/ soil. With the mulch cover you can heap some top dress pretty high in the middle later.

Basically you want your roots to have clean water available at the bottom while they can send feeder roots out to eat…Which makes the earth box perfect for small indoor grows. They just seem to like it better than constant top watering.

And Yes, all autos in the earth boxes. I run two in each but on a small strain I may try three.

[Chasworks]

Ok, makes sense! Thank you for your time patients and information: i most likely will run photo fem in the earth box would you still do 2 in the box?

[laf6502 (Robert)]

I would only do one per box for photos.

Banana Daddy on the left and forgotten cookies on the right. 25 days from seed and they are stretching out pretty good. The tallest on started stretch a few days earlier so think she doesn’t have much more to stretch.

Also you can see the two auto strains are completely encompassing the earth boxes at 25 days… I will just let them grow into each other and just try to push the flowers away from each other.

These were the biggest seedlings and first to flower and now they are the smallest… I know they are smaller strains but im sure I triggered them some how. At least the are still stretching though and the lead stems are getting some length and pushing away from the main stem (with a little help)

[Chasworks]

They look real Healthy! Thanks for the advise: build a soil only serves USA. So that makes it a little more work on my end to try and get close to their products:

[laf6502 (Robert)]

The question for me is how much can one earth box support, I am allowing quite a bit of side branching of the leading stems. I’ll snip a few lowers when they’re done stretching but really want to see how much quality flower she can handle. I am going to put a pretty heavy top dress on the bigger ones and a little craft blend and worm castings on the smaller one.

In addition to loading the box with a wide spectrum nutes for bloom, I increased the lighting in the 4x8 as well from 900w to 1250w from my last run. The Cali Light Works are actually pretty dope if you have the controller. On the current setting I am experimenting with some programming… I have the lights changing about every 1-1.5 hrs… I am adjusting the RWB slightly for each change as the light intensifies for their afternoon and then falls off to a nice red dominant sunset.

I will try to leave most of what’s on her except a few lowers. It will help in the next week when I pull the last box that’s finishing now and I can spread the boxes out.

So far so good with the lighting… You can see how high the lights are and I am running at 800-1000 par at the top canopy levels and im backed off quite a bit with intensity.

Im hoping the earth box works out or I may have to go to 1 per box or try a couple 3x3 beds. The earth boxes are supper easy though… I have put 3/4 gallon in them may 3-4 times now and that’s it.,

[Chasworks]

Very nicely done! Girls are looking great: i have 2 earth boxes in route looking forward to getting them on line my next grow!

[Darodguy]

@laf6502 I am doing lighting mimicry with my current grow. About an hour before lights out, I reduce the dimmer to 75-80%, then raise it back up after lights on. I also slightly ammend the light spectrum through the grow with drop-down lights, from 6300 Kelvin germ to seedling to 2700 K last weeks of flower. I don’t know if it makes a difference, but my last one came out so good that I am trying it again.

[Chasworks]

Sounds good, they appear to have a newer light that does that same thing. So someone agrees with the logic: i turned my light down a little just passed week 9 in Flower, mimicking Fall. Lol let them coast to their death

[laf6502 (Robert)]

Nice! Let us know how it goes. I’m actually utilizing all 20 settings in the program I set up. I am currently doing about 75-50-50 (RWB) as the base for sunrise and sunset. The intensity graduall intensifies to about 80-85-85 and then starts going the other way back to the red sunset. So far so good… super lush and full all the way through. I’m going to wait till about day 45 to post pics again. I ended up doing some super cropping on one as the main stem and two leading stems were just stretching too far and screwing my canopy up.

Since we are at day 30 and I trimmed them… I will post a couple pics then again in two weeks when they are well into stacking.

Banana Daddy day 30

Forgotten cookies day 30

Mephisto’s Wedding day 30 - Stretched out a little from where she started and still going up.

[Darodguy]

Starting week 5 of flower. You see why I’m so envious of your set-up. I only have enough room to grow one plant.

[Chasworks]

But she is Very Nicely done!

[Darodguy]

Thanks Chas, I do the best I can with what I have to work with. It doesn’t hurt to start with good genetics, though.

[laf6502 (Robert)]

She’s looking great! I remember growing in the 2x4 and that was great at the time. The bigger tent’s definitely more stable though. It evolves every cycle it seems:)