GDP, Annunaki, Purple Buddha-All Organic Grow with Smart Pots

Hello everyone and happy new year! I've had some free time this winter break and it's been far too long since I had a nice little garden in my home so I decided to dust off some of my old gear and get to work. Since it's been 5+ years since my last mentionable grow, I decided to keep it simple and cheap, so I threw down some bag seed that I had recently come across. I found 1 seed in a zip of some Arcata Train Wreck that's been floating around SD for a little while now. And I also found 1 seed in a half-zip of what is rumored to be Lemon Diesel(not 100% sure though)
My hope is that both of these little seeds were hermied and I have two guaranteed females, I know TW has the tendency to do this but not sure about the LD, but we'll worry about that later...

My current setup:
Medium-Two 3 gallon smart pots filled with a mix of 70% ocean forest to 30% light warrior plus a shit ton of big and chunky perlite mixed in.
Lighting-Currently-One T5 light fixture, 4 feet long with 4 vitaLume grow tubes
To be switched to-One 600W halide/sodium conversion

I planted these 3 weeks ago, on 12/14 to be exact so they are both 3 weeks old today. I had hoped to be able to update with daily pics but an extended Christmas vacation scrapped those plans and I don't have any of the early sprouting pics I was hoping for. The first pics we got of them are a week old. Luckily I was able to have a friend come by and water for me. Anyway, they look to be doing quite well and I was pleasantly surprised to see how well they had grown while I was away.
I took the last 3 pics today and just gave them their second very, very, very light foliar spray of guano super tea mix and ff big bloom. I also topped the LD yesterday in a attempt to get four mains. I have never topped that early on but had grown curious while reading about it, and figured that I could afford to experiment a little with this grow. Plus the LD is very healthy and seems to have already recovered from any shock it may have experienced.
They both seem to be growing like little bushes, those vitaLume tubes really do a great job at preventing the s-t-r-e-t-c-h that so many poor seedlings seem to experience with poor lighting. I'm thinking about maybe growing a plant from seed to flower under the T5 fixture, just for shits and giggles.

I plan on vegging these for a few more weeks and then flowering.
All organic, all the way.

Let me know what you guys think, cheers!

ps- the lemon diesel is on the left, train wreck right, in all the pics

 

Thanks for the welcome smoove, yeah I'll def be flowering these under the hid. I should be picking up my grow tent soon and then I can fire up the big boy light. On that note, I actually found my old ballast and hood in the garage today, 600w conversion also. Thinking about using both, 1200w total for 2 plants. Both hoods are air cooled so I should be able to move enough air to keep temps in the tent down. Just wondering if the harvest is going to be worth the extra $$ spent running the 2nd light and xtra fans if I only have 2 plants... Any thoughts on this, anyone?

 

ok, so i just snapped some pics of my garden this morning and am really happy with how things are growing. the lemon diesel has recovered well from her recent topping and has 2 new little mains growing for the canopy.

the arcata trainwreck looks great as well, very healthy even if it is growing more slowly than the ld. looks like a little bush. could be an indication that the lemon diesel is a male but hopefully that's not the case.

i just mixed up a batch of super tea mix that should help put these babies into a major growth spurt. i use the super tea mix from the guano company, 4tsp of that and added 1.5tsp of ff big bloom into a gallon of reverse osmosis filtered water. i use this tea about once per week while vegging and usually mix up a batch using the guano co. budswel and ff big bloom for my flowering tea. in addition to the "soil" tea, i also mix up a similar but much more diluted batch of tea for foliar applications while vegging. i will spray this on the tops and undersides of the leaves about an hour or two after my lights come on in the morning. i typically follow this foliar application with a pure water rinse the next day in order to prevent the stoma from becoming clogged. my plants really seem to love it and every morning when i come down to see them they are super green and reaching for the sky, no leaf droop anywhere in sight.

oh, almost forgot, good news! i will be getting 2 clones from o.c. next week 1 chemdog '91 and 1 purple buddha. can't wait to add these ladies to my garden. anyone with experience growing either of these two? it will be my first time and i'd love any input you guys have.

i almost forgot how much fun "gardening" is....no, not really...

please feel free to fire away with any thoughts, ?'s or input. there is a huge amount of information available here and i am always looking for sound new ideas or suggestions. peace out and happy growing!

 

thats whats left of my foliar tea. i usually just take pics after i pull them out to spray them. thats why i typically do a pure water spray the next day, helps clean the stoma and remove any deposit left from the tea. that's also why my leaves look a bit droopy too, just a little wet that's all...

 

update-got the plants moved into their permanent digs. i just cleaned up half of my closet, hung a white sheet and lined that with 2 mil plastic sheeting. i have my 216w t-5 fixture with grow tubes standing vertically against one wall and one of my 600w hps fixtures hung over the plants. a little over 800 watts of light has done these little plants well, they have both really bushed out and seem to be loving their new home.
again they are in 3 gal smartpots(awesome btw) with ffof and are being fed a mix of super tea from the guano company, floralicous, and ff big bloom every couple of days.
i rotate them every other day in order to keep their growth nice and even. they have both been topped, the lemon diesel twice and the trainwreck once. the ld now has 8 tops at her canopy and the tw has four, they are both very dense at the canopy and if their growth pattern stays as it has i will probably not have to top again.
i had noticed some early pre-flowers early last week, first on the diesel and shortly after on the wreck so i just started adjusting the nute solution towards my flowering mix and will put them under 12/12 in a couple more days. i will post another update as soon as i can tell the sex and hopefully get some macros on here, if the gf will let me fiddle with her new camera...
in these pics lemon d is on the left, and the wreck is on the right.
what do you guys think??? any suggestions?

 

thanks Vtec, it's definitely been a little while and i've certainly missed it. figured i'd get going again with something cheap before i invest the money in clones. for bagseed i'm very impressed with how these plants have turned out so far, hopefully i've got girlies and we'll get to see how they flower...fingers crossed.

 

thanks danky, i've really been blown away by the smartpots. don't think i'll be using anything else for my grows.

update: so i knew there was a good reason that i have never messed around with bag seed before. i woke up yesterday to ballsacks everywhere, on both plants... kill the lights...kill the fans...male plants got moved to the outside patio and I'm on my way up to orange county this morning to pick up some clones and a growlab120. thinking about picking up 6 little ladies, not sure which strains im going to run, i'd like to do some gdp or blue dream. probably gonna do 2 plants of 3 different strains...we'll see. i will update later once i've constructed the growlab and got my new babies in their new home.

 

yeah i was pretty bummed but i can't be too surprised considering what i started with. though i did bring 5 pretty little ladies back home to sd this afternoon. i ended up grabbing 2 gdp's, 2 purple buddha's, and 1 anunnaki. i hadn't heard of anunnaki before but the cut looked super healthy and was the only one of her kind left so i figured i'd give her a run, she's a nor-cal hash plant x cantaloupe haze. just finished x-planting into their 3 gal smartpots and i've got them in the closet about 4 feet under my 600 watt halide conversion. i'll put up some pics later this evening, my bong's full of ice and i've got a beautiful nug of blue dream calling my name...

 

thanks brother. i hadn't found much about her other than the lineage. i will definitely be topping her as she's already quite tall and pretty bushy for a clone. she had grown roots out the sides and bottom of her little gro-dan cube, looks like she was begging to be planted. i really excited to see how she turns out. i'm all about quality these days too, when i first started growing i ran hydro setups and got some great looking plants and some killer yields but my buds never compared to the organic soil "fire" that my buddies would grow. i've really become interested in all the good stuff that's going on in a good organic soil and how i can use that microbiological activity to help my ladies grow to their full potential.

 

here's a couple pics from the cell phone. i apologize for the quality, though you get the idea. nothing too exciting but now it's only a matter of time...mmmwwwwaaaahhhhaaahhh
gdp's on the left in the green dishes then purple buddha middle in the red, and the alien goddess annunaki on the right. thanks for looking guys, any advice or recommendations are always welcome!

 

i've heard nothing but good things about the whole roots line. i'll have to give them a try one of these days. you nailed it too danky, i really love the way a good organic soil helps to buffer the plants and prevent so many of the common problems that growers face. i've really been amazed at how it keeps the ph in check, granted i use r/o filtered water but i've never run across the ph problems that seem to plague growers using fertilizer salts. i've also found out that just testing the runoff for ph can be wildly inaccurate as often times you are just ph'ing nutes that have drained out. i typically do a slurry test every couple of weeks just to make sure the ph is where it needs to be and without fail it's within 6.3-6.8 every time. for my slurry test i mix about 1/2 c. of soil with 1 c. of water, let it sit for about 30 minutes and then i check the ph. Much, much more accurate than testing runoff and after testing i can just add the slurry mix right back into the pot.

so my initial plan is to veg these ladies for at least 6-8 weeks before taking some cuts, and then flowering. it's been a while since my last grow so i want to really blow these girls up and will probably just play it by ear, as to when to flower. i will be moving them into my growlab120 to flower, it measures 3'11 x 3'11 x 6'7 and i plan on putting all that room to use. i also have a buddy who's offering one or two of his pre '98 bubba clones if i take care of his girls while he's out of town. i figured 6 full, well grown plants should do me nicely and provide me with enough smoke to last until the next batch is done.

im stoked to hear good things about the annunaki and am really excited to see how she turns out. i'll have to get some good cuttings from her so i can keep her around for a while, maybe try some breeding with her down the road...decisions, decisions...

happy saturady everyone! now for the wake and bake

 

Whats up boys and girls? I picked up a darkroom 120 yesterday and this morning I set it up, hung my light and moved my little girls to their shiny new home. I snapped a couple pics of the current setup and figured I'd start posting weekly updates of my progress.

The clones have done well over the past week and they actually just started showing signs of new healthy, green growth. I've topped the Annunaki multiple times and started lst'ing in an attempt to really bush her out and she just keeps spitting out new leads, very sativa in her look and growth pattern. I also started some lst'ing on the Purple Buddha girls, looks like they will bush up nicely. My GDP clones were the smallest, slowest rooting of the bunch so I haven't started any training on them just yet, figured I'd give 'em a couple more days to really start growing before I mess with them.

I had been watering with just r/o filtered water but noticed some lightening of the leaves over the past 2 days so i just started watering with a very light mix of guano super-tea and they seem to have responded very well. I plan on increasing the nutes slowly over the next couple of feedings until I'm at full strength.

This darkroom is pretty sweet, I'm impressed. It's much cleaner and more controllable than my closet. So far I have been able to keep the temps very stable at 78F and can already tell that supplying fresh, cool air to my plants while limiting my light pollution will not be a problem. Plus this thing is gonna be flippin' sweet when it comes time to flower, it's got tons of room and no more worrying about opening and closing doors on a schedule.

This is my first run with any of these strains so any advice or tips would be warmly welcomed. Thanks for looking!!!