Velvet Octane & Chocolate Mint OG Auto | No-Till Gardening

[InTheSystem]

Hello everyone, it’s really great to be back on the forum doing a diary as I had to pack up and stop for a few months due to some misfortune with my residence, then we had the covid-19 virus self containment which hit like a truck where I am located on a draconian lockdown causing further complications. In short - I have had to relocate and start again from scratch near enough... I would like to thank @HSO-Mark and the gang for the opportunity to grow out some of their new strains, which is a blessing given the situation. I am sure this grow will present it’s challenges being a cycle from scratch and through the  summer, but I am up for the challenge as always and the grow will be something positive and fun to focus on.


GENETICS
The seeds arrived with me very promptly, in-fact so fast I had not even got prepared to germinate them really - I am also based in Spain for those who don’t know, so they did not have far to travel. I originally only asked for Velvet Octane, but Mark was kind enough to send me a pack of the CMOG Autos… It would be rude not to give that a bash too wouldn't it?! 

 

 

Chocolate Mint OG Auto
Cross: Chocolate Mint OG x OG Kush Auto
Genotype: 60% Indica – 40% Ruderalis
Comprehensive life cycle: Approximately 75 days seed to harvest
Outdoor harvest time: April to October
Indoor yield: 400 - 500 g/m2
Outdoor yield: 50 - 200 g/plant
Plant height: 1.5 m
CBD: 0.04%
THC: 19.99%

 

Velvet Octane
Genetics: Afghan OG x Geist OG
Type: 70% Indica - 30% Sativa
Indoor flowering time: 56 - 60 days
Indoor yield: 450 - 600 g/m2
Outdoor harvest time: 1st week of October
Outdoor yield: 1000 - 4000 g/plant
Plant height: 3 - 4 m
CBD: 0.1%
THC: 19 - 21%

 

THE BATTLE PLAN
So the plan will be to grow the CMOG Auto in a 50l Smart Pot outside. To start off I have taken a couple of 1l cups and cut slots out in the inner pot and the outer pot acting as a sleeve as such which is just removed on the transplant. This is an effective technique I picked up from another forum and I believe it is nicknamed the “DIY Instatransplant pot”. My experience with auto’s is that they generally will grow the biggest straight in final containers, but it is very difficult to keep soil saturation correct with a seedling in such a big pot - so for me, this gives the best of both worlds without doing a risky transplant stunting it for the entire grow:

 

 

With the Velvet Octane, 2 seeds will be started off in RootIt plugs which have been soaked for 24 hours in Aloe Vera water and some Ful-Power (fulvic acid). After surfacing, they will be moved to 0.5l starter pots, transplanted up to around 3l and then into the final 170l Smart Pot. I will be keeping the best seedling of the two as I am on a 1 plant limit in the house at the moment… So it will be a SCROG grow which to be honest, is my favourite style of growing and the CMOG Auto will be done so quickly I will be back on track with percy in minimal time... Woop! Everything will be on 20/4 lighting until the CMOG Auto goes outside then I will drop it down to the traditional 18/6 veg time. Here is my temporary setup until the tent arrives in the post and some other bits... Using a @diyleduk Highlight Full Spectrum board dimmed to 50 watts and hung around 25 inches or so:




SOIL & NUTRITION

My soil mix is a variation of a Coots mix with influence from Mountain Organics and my own trial/error with a few no-till beds. 

- 35% Sphagnum Peat Moss
- 5% Coco Coir 
- 40% Worm Castings
- 10% Biochar
- 10% Rice Hulls

 

Amendments will be added at 1 cup per cubic foot: 
- Kelp meal
- Crab meal
- Neem cake
- Malted barley
- Gypsum

 

** A couple of handful of composting worms to each container.

 

 

Leguminous cover crops such as clover, vetch, beans etc for a constant nitrogen source from the air via nitrogen mining microbes. Botanical tonics will be used this time.... I am very much all for top dressing organic components such as comfrey, horsetail, nettles, alfalfa, dandelion flowers etc. But to be honest - in the new property I am at, I need to keep inputs to a minimum and cleanliness as a priority to keep this hobby viable right now. As such I have gone for MOB tonics/tinctures which include: Neem, Ritha (soap nut emulsifier + other bits), Seed sprout and Citrus tonics. Not only will these play a large part for pest control, they will also provide a supplemental mineral source, phytohormone & enzyme supplementation. Very simple to apply just at 2.5ml of each in 4 litres of water. Foliar application once a week until early flowering and the odd irrigation drenches now and again.. Simple right?

 

 

The only inputs from myself will be occasional top dressing of malted barley ground fresh, kelp, neem watered in with fulvic acid. Mulch will be done using straw and the plant matter. Water will be plain tap water. I am not too fussed about the whole dissipating of chlorine in living soil, just rain water is preferred being the most natural source of water for the plants. If I can collect rain water though, I obviously will.

 

GO GO GO

I do not want to waffle on too much,  you can find a lot of the No-Till theory on my other diaries and a few others posting actively on the forum. Anything that I do during the grow, I will just document as an update and I welcome all comments, questions and the like. I work from home now so I should not find it difficult to keep this diary nice and up-to-date, it will keep me entertained also as I have missed doing these diaries, especially as the last couple have been cut off early due to misfortune. Banter mode should kick in too once I reconnect with some of you, so I am looking forward to that also  

 

 

Anyway, the next update will be when we have seedlings surfaced which will probably be tomorrow. I look forward to seeing some of the other growers running the new HSO and HSO-Sherb collab strains too, will be some fun reading again for me for sure, 


Stay safe everyone and happy growing! 

Edited May 17, 2020 by InTheSystem

[Amo]

Great to see you back up an diary’n again mate. 
Couple off nice strain’s to be growing, an ur no-till is always interesting stuff to watch an learn. 
Good luck is deserved. 

[InTheSystem]

@Amo - Good to be back mate. I was going a bit cuckoo sat in the house for 2 months not being able to grow. Luckily I managed to get 100g of Royal Wedding through a police checkpoint the first day we went on phase 1 de-escalation last Monday or I would not be smoking still. I spent like 300 euro on weed from the clubs on home deliveries in the first 2 weeks of lockdown. @Sargares and I were having a good giggle on PM's actually.. Anyway had to make some cut backs 


Life is much more normal here now, we can go to bars and restaurants (terrace only at 50% capacity), so naturally we have been out everyday the last few days... I hope things are well your end mate. Best get back to it:

 

 

 

[Sargares]

Excellent. Will follow this man. Hopefully no more lock down disasters this time haha 

Edited May 18, 2020 by Sargares

[InTheSystem]

16 minutes ago, Sargares said:

Excellent. Will follow this man. Hopefully no more lock down disasters this time haha 

Nice to see you checking in mate, hopefully no more disasters indeed. Change of location, new soil, new genetics to grow, sun is shining - f***k it  

[InTheSystem]

18/05/2020 (Day 1 from seed)

Happy Monday all! I already have the first update for you good people so the working from home thing playing it’s part now haha Now, being a diary heavily focussed on soil, I wanted to quickly go over something I did yesterday and forgot to document: which is the seedling “Potting mix”. This was pinched from Mountain Organics as we chat now and again on Instagram DM’s and I obviously follow his feed.. The mix is equal parts of:
- Coco Coir 
- Sphagnum Peat Moss 
- Worm Castings

 

** ¼ of a cup of rock dust was then added to the mix and she is good to go. No amendments or char needed for this sized container. Aeration is covered with the mix itself... Coir is so fluffy and great to work with. It can be omitted of course.. If you feel like your starting out or heavy handed watering - it never hurts to add aeration components such as pumice or rice hulls for peace of mind but it's not vital.

 

Back to our HSO seeds, we have 3/3 up and out the ground as expected. I have always had excellent germination rates with HSO gear so it should pave the way for the rest of the grow:




I have potted up the two Velvet Octanes immediately as they had massive tap roots coming out the bottom of the plugs! Whilst the weather is nice and they are seedlings - I will save a bit of electricity and move the seedlings in and out of the direct sun during the day on the table away from the dog wanting to piss on them  


 

I have also been getting the ‘little’ 50l fabric Pot ready for the Auto in a week or so.. Just need to go grab some straw this afternoon, cover crop has been laid down and some mulch process started from around the garden terrace:

 

 

I will drop another update in a few days, until then you can see the same soil mix in my raised beds made from pallets I pikied at the bin during quarantine.. Looking great considering they basically survived a huge storm with ridiculous winds.. I did lose one Spinach plant. I do Normally shove a lot more in foot square,  but it's not been possible to buy seeds so just made do with what I had in my tuppaware.

Cheers 

Edited May 18, 2020 by InTheSystem

[Kickstand]

Great start mate fantastic looking diary, really interesting seeing how its done in spain. Looking forward to the rest

Atb

 

 

[InTheSystem]

@Kickstand - Thanks for the kind words mate. It will be an indoor LED grow diary for the most part though, full on grows outside here in Spain are quite the commitment. I am still chuffed I will be able to do something outside though and I am a big CMOG photoperiod fan so it was destined to be (Mark being psychic again). I am just going to milk the sun whilst I can move them in and outside to save a bit on the electricity and also as I don't have a grow tent yet  

[tokenroll]

@InTheSystem , nice to see your up and running. Wishing the best of growing. Be nice to compare your Velvet Octane as your going to be a little in front of me with them. 

Should be a great grow by everyone taking part.

 

Take care. Toke...

[InTheSystem]

@tokenroll - Thanks for the good vibes man and will be very cool watching you grow out the Velvet Octane also. HSO sub-forum is going to be very active this next few months, it will make for some great reading and picture drooling for sure!  

[Jibba jabba]

Alright there @InTheSystem

 

Glad your back with another Hso grow on the go.

 

I didn’t realise that the autos could be that quick and I have never really shown any  interested in growing them but 75 day seed to bud is fast, I’ll have to keep an eye on how you get on.

 

Anyway enough waffle from me, good luck and Take it easy.

 

Jj 

 

 

[InTheSystem]

@Jibba jabba - Good to see you checking in mate.... Or rather I should say your majesty?! 


The Auto's grow very quickly indeed and can perform very well yield and smoke wise... I had a rocky start with them at first a few years back and also through experimentation with transplants, pruning, training etc. Dinafem grow last year performed very well for me keeping it simple (I could run more plants last year ) and I have seen people low stress (even high stress on some) without problems. Other brands of auto like Fast Buds for example just go straight into flower with any kind of stress and ultimately yield poorly. None of the Dinafems got less than 90g last year in bagged pre-mixed soil which for me was great:




So I am super stoked I can grow a HSO auto in living soil outside as No-Till is my favoroute way to grow now and I have yet to do no-till auto's.... I will do a second and maybe third cycle with her in the same pot too so we can see the no-till in action truly... Mark gave me enough seeds to be able to do it so it could be a fun concept to the diary to keep it rolling more through the season and maybe find a couple of different phenotypes. I am not sure how much autoflower phenotypes vary though to be honest!  

 

 

 

Edited May 18, 2020 by InTheSystem

[oakland2020]

Nice work @InTheSystem lovely to see the new seed diaries are beginning, hopefully not much longer before the rest of us are playing too. I've gone for Lemon Citron and Passion Fruit Punch. Was very close to picking Velvet Octane, excited to see what you can do with it. Good luck!

[HSO-Mark]

@InTheSystem I'm super confident that this is the first forum documented diary with these 2 brand new additions 

 

The world will be watching so no pressure

 

You'll do great dude

 

Let's get this rocking

 

Kind regards

 

Mark..

[InTheSystem]

@oakland2020 - Thanks for checking in mate. I was debating the Lemon Citron also actually so I will be keen to watch how that does for you. There is going to be some great diaries forthcoming. Much needed for everyone I think!

 

@HSO-Mark - thanks again on getting the seeds to me super rapido especially during a state of alarm in the country! That is what I call service my friend haha! Very excited about both of these strains so I hope I can do them justice. Let's do this!

Edited May 19, 2020 by InTheSystem