Shiva Jones' Orinoco Watermelons

[sybarite]

Ey up! Thanks for all the kind comments. Time for another late update, just past end of week seven.

I'm clearly no master of the no-till method as my yields have been very poor since using it. The plants mostly look very healthy, always praying and not showing much in the way of deficiencies but the buds are always so small. When I grew Orinoco before in Canna Terra Pro+ and BioBizz nutes the buds were at least three times the size. I'm lucky if I get more than 150g out of my 1x1 tent now, whereas before I could get around 350-400g. I'm not blaming the soil at all, just my lack of skill with no-till - it is really excellent soil and I have loved using it. I think it's probably a watering/temp/humidity issue and might be best not using the self-watering base tanks (except as a last resort when going on holiday) but top water only instead, which I'll try on my next run. Having humidity constantly above 65 doesn't help and nothing I can do about that. Temps are also too low with trying to avoid using heating due to insane energy costs, so VPD is a constant issue in my place.





Orinoco:



Shiva's Soul:

[Greenfingers]

Who gives a shit on quantity when your smashing out quality stunners like this

[2-Scoops]

Super looking plants Sy. Stop wikkling your smashing it man

[sybarite]

Who gives a shit on quantity when your smashing out quality stunners like this

Lol, thanks mate. I only give a shit because I keep running out before my next harvest. Having to buy weed from other people sux baws!

[sybarite]

Super looking plants Sy. Stop wikkling your smashing it man

Cheers dude. What's wikkling?

[2-Scoops]

Super looking plants Sy. Stop wikkling your smashing it man

Cheers dude. What's wikkling?

Kinda depends how its used and can mean a few different things "worrying/worrier or whinging or moaning or going on about summink " its used a bit more light heartedly than lots of those words here in S Yorkshire, usually when someone is getting flustered or going on about summink, you may get back a "stop wikkling" about it man or "your a reyt wikkler" It`s how I've always spelt the word and i use it lots in RL usually when im down boozer having a bevvy with mates.

[sybarite]

Super looking plants Sy. Stop wikkling your smashing it man

Cheers dude. What's wikkling?

Kinda depends how its used and can mean a few different things "worrying/worrier or whinging or moaning or going on about summink " its used a bit more light heartedly than lots of those words here in S Yorkshire, usually when someone is getting flustered or going on about summink, you may get back a "stop wikkling" about it man or "your a reyt wikkler" It`s how I've always spelt the word and i use it lots in RL usually when im down boozer having a bevvy with mates.

Thanks for explaining. I learnt a new word. I'll try to be less of a wikkler, and a snowflake!

[sybarite]

As I consistently got buds like this back in 2020 and before it's hard to not want to go back to that method, because it worked pretty well for me, but no way I'd go back to that because BioBizz is too stinky for a bedroom (rotten corpse smell is not sexy, except maybe for necrophiles) and hand-watering daily under a low canopy is backbreaking with my condition. I must reiterate that living soil and no-till is not the problem. I am the problem - I know I lack the skill and experience for no-till/living soil method. I think it's something that takes time to get a feel for. I love the whole idea of proper, organic, living soil - it's my dream and it's a pretty chilled method but I need more practice to get the yields I want. I'm not giving up yet though.

[Keeno]

I think the whole organic soil grown is a nice idea but it's also quite difficult to be consistent in. I think it's more about what suits your style of growing that count. A plant in any medium/system will be as good as any other if everything is spot on. If being spot on means using a system/medium that suits your style then thats the way forward.

[sybarite]

I think the whole organic soil grown is a nice idea but it's also quite difficult to be consistent in. I think it's more about what suits your style of growing that count. A plant in any medium/system will be as good as any other if everything is spot on. If being spot on means using a system/medium that suits your style then thats the way forward.

I agree. I see people growing great plants with decent-sized buds with no-till/living soil in general, and with the same soil I have too, which suggests I have much to learn about the method. I've also seen friends grow the same strain as me from a F9 clone I gave them and the buds were easily quadruple the size of mine, so I'm definitely not doing something right. To me this method seems more about maintaining an environment for biology within the soil than about feeding plants and I find that harder to gauge because there are fewer visual indicators when looking at soil vs looking at plants - yes, plants in living soil will eventually display deficiencies if the soil is lacking nutrients and biological activity but those take longer to correct, so if the setup is not dialed from the start and a simpleton like me is involved it's likely the crop will be ruined before I had chance to even attempt to correct any problems. A person with more experience or luck would do better. Soil analysis might help but I don't know much about that or if I can be bothered doing it in the long term.

I harvested this and won't be posting more photos of it, so the diary can be closed please, @Keeno.

Thanks to all who looked and commented!