First time grower... come watch and laugh at my misfortune

[speedingsnoopy]

Hi everybody. What started out as an attempt to see if 3 year old seeds will germinate has turned into a full blown dramatic event- full of intrigue and pictures.

I started the grow in the early part of january. I didn't keep an early log because I honestly expected to kill them quite early. However, 2 strong plants sprouted from the 7 seeds I tried to germinate. I babied them along, and was rewarded to find out both were female!

The plants appear to be almost total sativa, but I have no idea what strain. The seeds were from bagweed way back when. I am using a 400w MH, and GH grow, micro, and bloom nutrients. The avg temp is 77-80, avg humidity is 35-45%. Pic 8 shows the closet I'm working in.

I am growing both in a organic pre packaged mix. I also have 8 clones growing in a hydro ebb and flow system. More about them later.

Rather than chronicle every misfortune that has befallen my plants, I am going to link you to my posts where I frantically sought help.

http://forum.grasscity.com/sick-plan...zing-pics.html
http://forum.grasscity.com/general-i...by-hermie.html
http://forum.grasscity.com/sick-plan...very-pics.html

Heres the first diary post:

Jasmine has still not recovered from the attempted drowning. I think I'm going to lose about 60% of her fan leaves, 10% of her nodes. Picture 1 shows what a sad state she is in (too see her former glory, check out the links above). Picture 2 shows a dead node, which effects the bottom 2. However, there is reason to be marginally optimistic, as the new growth looks ok (pic 3).

Kya appears to be doing much better. I only lost 30% of the fan leaves and none of the nodes. Pic 4 shows her in profile, 5 is her cola bud, and 6 is her new growth.

Responses I'd like: Recommendations of how much of the dead plant material to remove. Also, a estimate of how long before normal growth resumes.

Hope you enjoy my plants, laugh at my misfortune, and help me bring them back from beyond. Thanks!

PS: Check out pic 7 to see my hydro set up. I crammed as many rockwool cubes in there as I could, and am going to cut off the growth nodes to make "budsickles". Any Advice?

[speedingsnoopy]

Hi everybody!

Well I cleared off all the dead plant matter, and I definitely lost a ton more than I thought I would. See pic 1 for all the dead leaves I pulled off. The poor girls are down to sticks...

I've been sure that Kya (pic 2) was gonna make it, but only in the last 24 hours have I gotten the impression that Jasmine (pic 3) will survive. Despite not having any fan leaves, her new growth looks quite happy (pic 4), and the hairs on the whole plant are perking up.
Has anyone stripped their plants down this far? Do I need to adjust temp, nute concentration, etc?

While I'm here, I think I'll talk about my hydro set up real quick. I have 8 clones that were rooted in half a 3 inch rockwool cube, which has been stacked on top of a whole rockwool cube (total is 4.5 inches vertical growth space... still not very much). They get solution 3 times a day via a small fountain pump.

Right now, all 8 are crammed into 12x7 in rubbermaid. I didn't mean to cram them in that bad, but when I took the clones I had no idea if either plant was female, so I wanted the best odds. Once they both turned out to be female, I couldn't just throw away perfectly good clones! Should I get a bigger flood box so they can spread out a bit?

I intend to grow "budsickles" by trimming off all the growth nodes, leaving only one main cola. These plants seem to like to spread out a bunch (characteristic of sativa?), so I don't think there's enough space in the little box to let the nodes grow.

Picture 5, 6 and 7 show the progress as of this morning. They are growing like weeds! (ugh, I can't believe how funny that pun was to me) Last night I built that trellis to keep them growing as close to vertical as I can. If anyone has experience with a budsickle style grow, advice would be most welcome!

Laugh, teach, and tolerate my idiocy. Peace!

[speedingsnoopy]

Hi everybody!

I noticed a leak in my former hydro flood box this morning, and decided I should just replace the entire box. I cut a rubbermaid that was the same size as the reservoir in half to make the new flood container.

The plants are more spread out now, 3 in the front row, 2 in the second, 3 in the third. Something I did not consider is now the roots are exposed to direct light. Should I fashion some sort of cover to block out light?

Remember, the goal is to make budsickles. If anyone had advice, I definitely need some.

Laugh, teach, and tolerate my idiocy. Peace!

[Swayze]

WOW. Those Sativas were hagard. I mean, they were just sticks with buds by the end. You really pulled through though, good job. I only quickly checked out those pictures but ill read the thread more thoroughly in the morning and post a reponse.

Nam Myoho Renge Kyo,
Swayze

[speedingsnoopy]

Swayze-

Yeah, they are really rough. I repotted in MG 2 weeks back and they started to burn (4 days later I replaced all loose medium with organic soil-less). So I flushed the soil. The burn got worse so I flushed the soil again. And then they started getting really light green so I watered with nutes (thinking they needed N). And then I read that vinegar is a lousy ph mod, so I flushed a third time. That was all in about 4 or 5 days... Stupid over-reactive newbie mistake.

But I think the potted plants will survive in some shape or form, and I learned some valuable lessons. Hopefully the hydros won't ever have to endure such trauma. Thanks for looking!

Laugh, teach, and tolerate my idiocy. Peace!

[Swayze]

Hey, Im just learning too. I have the advantage of having a partner who has grown marijuana for a couple of decades. That flushing x 10 job you did gave me a laugh, its good that your worried about your plants health and are trying these things. Its better then planting a seed and pissing on it once a week kind of deal. I'm going to read the rest of your thread now (Edit, I just did...).

I noticed you wanted to make budsicles or whatever you called them. If your Horizontal space is more then your vertical thats a good idea. But if you don't have a lot of horizontal room and only vertical I believe you would yeild more taking advantage of growing the plants taller. Versus growing one foot tall buds, and having them littered across your floor, It just seems like with all that vertical space you have you could grow some nice tall, yet still dense, plants.

[speedingsnoopy]

Swayze-

You described exactly what I want to do. I want tall, vertical plants with just one main bud. I got the idea from this picture I found.

Is there anything to it other than just cutting off the new nodes?

I found that pic on this post:
http://www.stonerforums.com/lounge/a...ow-report.html

[speedingsnoopy]

Hi everybody...

Today I finally gave in to reality and removed Jasmine from the closet. Only one node had real new growth on the end, and the poor girl was withering from the top down.

In honor of Jasmine, I posted my favorite 3 pictures of her, taken that day I repotted with the infamous MG. She was so beautiful in her heyday...

As a warning to any newbie reading this as an example of what NOT to do, she went from that luscious plant to shriveled and dead in about a week. DO NOT over react to nute burn and drown your plants...

I also have a picture of the hydro setup, where 4 of her babies now reside. They are circled in the 4th picture (I can tell b/c Kya has red in her stems, as in pic 6). The 5th picture shows the top of the tallest plant (one of jasmine's).

All the plants have been loving the ebb and flow. Since Sunday the tallest ones have grown near 3 inches, and the short ones have averaged about 2 inches of growth.

Rest In Peace Jasmine.

Laugh, teach, and tolerate my idiocy. Peace!

[PennLaxPlayer]

Your not a inept grower. Youve obviously did something right to turn those dieng plantsa into something that looks alive.

[speedingsnoopy]

LoL. Thanks LAX. All I did to keep them alive was stop trying to drown them, but I suppose that is something...

I'm not extremely inept, I'm just really hyper. Every time I get home from class I want to marvel over my plants and do something to make them happier. But I'm realizing hands off for 6 days of the week leaves them happiest. The last 2 weeks of the grow will be brutal. I may have to have my roomie hide all the scissors in the house from me.

Thanks for reading!!!

Laugh, teach, and tolerate my idiocy. Peace!

PS- Does anyone know how much hydrogen peroxide per gallon to add to help out my hydro roots?

[Swayze]

Hey, we're all learning.
You have the right idea, seems like a proper thing to do in those conditions. Glad to discuss this, .

Nam Myoho Renge Kyo,
Swayze

[curtropolis420]

are you gonna smoke what jasmine had on it lol or did you just trash it

[T3h C0rps3]

Hey bro,

I'm in my first grow right now, just posted my first grow journal last night. You have great girls growing, and it sucks that they went down on that. but hell, you wanted to save your girls, and you didn't know... you make mistakes... you learn... you write in your log... and you help people like me learn, before I do the same thing ya digg?

but check it, Jasmine was beautiful in her prime, and look at what your hydro set contains... those voluptuous green babies.. and do I mean GREEN they look wonderful, and I think you will do an excellent job with these ones.

Keep it up and keep updating

[speedingsnoopy]

Welcome back Swayze, T3h C0rps3, curtropolis420, PennLaxPlayer, and any other looker-ons that may pass by this page. It's been a long while since my last entry, due to the frantic nature of college and grad school applications. I got into Cornell but can't afford to go...

Here goes what will be the final update before harvest.

Kya and the hydro babies are now 8 days away from harvest. Kya was flowered on Feb. 6, the clones on 2/17. Which means Kya is going to be harvested on her 73rd day, and the clones will be 63 days old. Damn sativas take forever...

I have already cut off the worthless part of Kya's lower body as practice for when the real buds come off.

I have pinched a bud and am greeted with grapefruit sunrise spice and sticky fingers. I am glad I set the harvest in stone, otherwise I would have started chopping. Plus I haven't started flushing the hydros... (will do tomorrow)

I'm going to let the pictures speak for themselves. Be sure to zoom in on the pictures of the buds... I am constantly amazed by what my camera can do!

Picture 1 is whats left of kya in soil... keep in mind she nearly drowned. Pic 2 is her main bud, 3 is one of her side buds. Pic 4 is the hydro box, pic 5 is the bud I most look forward to smoking (one of Kya's kids). Picture 6 is where Jasmine's (may she RIP) potential beauty is revealed, via one of her kids in hydro.

I know how bad Kya looks. For anyone stupid enough to do what I did, that's what happens when you drown a plant...

The reason the leaves in the hydro are so bad is my low powered fan died, and the replacement fan blew the leaves so bad they smashed each other to bits. Now I have it indirectly rotating the air, and problem stopped progressing.

Hope everyone has a happy 4/20! I'm gonna be busy harvesting

PS- If anyone has 60k they don't need and wants to put a fellow pothead through Cornell, it would be appreciated...

[Swayze]

Those buds look delicious! They DEFINATLY have a VERY CITRUS look to them. I believe you even said that before... Thanks for the welcome by the way!

Peace, Swayze

PS. I'll be BACK! I Wish I could help you out with that 60k.