Day 32: I've been looking around at other examples of chlorosis and over watering, and I'm fairly confident that's what I'm seeing with the lower leaves yellowing. I'll keep that in mind from here on in and make sure things are a bit drier before watering With that being the case, I decided to go for topping them both tonight. Everything looked good. I just snipped the newest growth of up to the first node. Here are a couple shots of the topped area and an overall growth shot of each plant
Everything seems to be going pretty good. Just need to get my watering under control, haha. No I'm not going to top the auto, just some LST. The auto is still pretty small. Just got its first set of real leaves the other day. I've been doing a little more than that. But I figured with my lower humidity and the fact that I'm using the smart pots, they could have used a little more. I guess not though
I think I may have figured out, at least part of the reason why I was over watering. I was using the whole, stick your fingers in the soil a couple inches, method to see if I needed to water. I kept sticking my finger in the same section of soil. This was tilling it up a little, so the soil in this area was drying out just a little more than the surrounding areas. Rookie mistake, haha.
Day 40: Things are kicking on pretty good. The top sites for the plants have bounced back pretty good. However, one plant has two new growth spots while the other only has one. Looking back at a couple pics I took a couple days after topping, I could already see it happening. Earlier today I had a little dropping going on for both plants. I gave them both a pretty good water of molasses and alfalfa. They both perked up with in about an hour. Here are a couple shots. The first two are a couole days after topping and the last two are after they perked back up.
You have been dedicated and your work has paid off! Good for you. I almost cringed when you said you topped them.....I was thinking NOT THE AUTO lol. Glad you kicked the over watering. Trust, we have all been guilty of it. You should never top a plant when its weak. You should follow your instinct and wait until you nurse her back to health and then cut her head off lol. And the top did come out nice. I'm wondering also why the other stem didn't grow back double on one plant? Interesting. Have you decided if your going to go for another top off??
Thanks man, I appreciate that. I will definitely top at least one more time. I'm thinking of doing one with LST and the other just topping a few times. Never having done either, I think it would be good to see the effects they both have on the plants. I'll probably continue on with that mentallity for most of the grow. Use one technique on one plant and then another on the other one. For example, I'll probably dry trim one and wet trim the other. Why waste a good opportunity to learn as much as I can, right?
Day 43 A few days ago I decided to go ahead and start doing some LST on the one that only grew back 1 coal after the topping. I basically just pulled down the main stem and zip tied it to the handle of my smart pot. I made sure to get the tip below other branches. She popped back the very next day and had everything pointed back up to the light. This is working out pretty good. This lady happens to be a little bit taller then the other plant. So pulling her down is making the "canopy" a lot more even. I bought a pretty decent sized pump for starting to get some of my ACT's going, and it arrived last night. I bubbled up a little half gallon with some EWC and alfalfa meal. I wouldn't call it brewed. It only bubbled up for about 10 hrs. If nothing else it aerated my water just a little bit more, and that's never a bad thing Now for the really exciting bit (at least to me that is), I think i saw signs of my first pre-flowers. Right at the base of the top site of the taller, LSTed lady is a pre-flower. At least that's what it looks like to me. It even looks like there are pistols already showing. I absolutely could be wrong though. It seems a little early to me (but again, what do I know?). I wanted to make sure I got a decent picture, so I made sure I took it at a couple different angles and one had flash on also. Still no significant issues yet. So I've still got my fingers crossed that I can keep that going for another few months. Oh, and on a side note; The "ACT" that I brewed up went to my little autoflower. She is going pretty great too. No issues with her at all. Which is a good thing. It sounds like having any real issues with an auto can really kill your yield. I've also started looking into breeding and cloning. I'm certainly going to try my hand at cloning this time. I plan on using that air pump also to make a bubble cloner in the next few days. I might, in a grow or two, try to do a seed grow. I would love to not have to buy seeds or clones for a while. That is, unless its a strain I'd like to try. the idea of designing and creating my own personal strain sounds like it could be a lot of fun.
You are ambitious my friend! And with that type of motivation you will get very far and VERY good buds! CHEERS!
Well thank you. I'm definitely hoping for some dank yumminess. So yesterday morning. Before heading to bed. I went into the room to make sure that the top of the lst'ed plant was still down below. When making some adjustments I saw one of the lower branches, the very first one above the cotylden leaves, probably wasn't going to get much light. So I decided to take my first try and cloning. I just used the simplest method I've seen around that had had sucess: -take your clipping -cut the lowest two sets of leaves off -cut the stem to a 45 -put it in tap water -cover with bag I've seen some people have some decent success with this method so I figured I'd give it a shot. Here are a few pics of the process:
Ahh, one last thing before heading off to bed. The little baby clone I took yesterday is still just as perky when I put her in the shot glass. I read that it can take a pretty long while for the roots to start showing with this method, but I had to put a shot up anyway.
Day 47 The little lady that I started LST on has recovered nicely. She's looking pretty bushy and full. She's the one that I'm pretty sure already has her female preflowers. It would be the calyx on both plants. The other lady is looking pretty great as well. The tip sites have been growing great. I'm starting to think about doing my second topping here in the next couple days. I'm still not sure why the other plant only grew back one top last time. Hopefully whatever it was, I don't do it when I top her. Both plants got their watering and a tea. I bubbled up a half gallon of alfalfa meal, kelp meal, and molasses for each. I'm still folliar spraying pretty regularly.
Day 49 Yesterday was another day to do some training, and no I didn't hit up the gym The bushier looking lady is the one that I have only topped and haven't done any lst to at all. I mentioned in an earlier post, but I'm going to only top this one and mainly do LST on the other one (when I topped the other I only got one top to come out instead of 2 so I figure that's that's a good sign to try LST) I went ahead an topped the two colas that I got from the previous top. I may do one more topping but I'm not sure yet. I've read a few different things about topping and it seems like a lot of people stick to topping just a couple times. The other lady, the LSTed one, got some more of her colas tied down. The main cola has been tied down for a second time and I tied down one of the other tops that was sticking up the highest. Right now I've just got a couple zip ties that were laying around, but I'll probably grab some kind of wire or hook or something to switch them out with. I'm still using the Nectar For the gods foliar spray. I have no idea how much or little it's do I no for them since I have nothing nothing to compare it too, but I can't figure it will hurt anything I've also snapped a couple shots to show their height and how far I have the lights from the canopy. I have noticed a few little bugs saying around in the csbinet. I'm not really seeing anything on the plants or leaves but I'm going to try and grab some neem oil to nip em in the bud before it actually becomes an issue. The very last picture is of the little autoflower that I put in a couple weeks after the northern lights. She's definitely looking good as well. No pre flowers or anything on her yet. I'm thinking a week or so more and I should start seeing them. That's all for tonight. Hopefully everything stays going fairly smooth the whole way through.
Hi how ya been?? I'd ease up on the watering. Little droopy. Yeah my mom has been cutting plants and putting the shoots in water for years. Takes like a month to grow enough roots to be potted. Not sure how long with herb though.
Good luck with those clones! I know it will work out for you. Is this technique different from using a clone solution or will a rooting solution still need to be applied? I just went with the Olivia's cloning gel because I read its idiot proof LOL I was going to say the same thing, lay off that watering a little bit to stop that droopiness with your plants. Its not too bad because the leaves aren't turning but its def a warning sign to cut back on the water dosage.
With you guys both saying I'm still having a little trouble finding the right amount to water. Next time I do, I'll document and keep some better notes as to what I'm doing. Amounts, pictures, etc. Hopefully it's just me doing something wrong and its not my aeration for my soil. The cloning method I'm doing is basically this one: http://forum.grasscity.com/indoor-medical-marijuana-growing/1255430-how-i-clone-simple-water-cloning-without-rooting-hormone.html The only real difference is I have my in a clear double shot glass that I have blacked out. I still don't see any signs of roots but the leaves are still looking pretty green and perky. So that's a good sign. In that thread the poster was saying he was getting roots in a weekish, but some definitely take longer than others, some a lot longer. Once I'm actually ready to take some clones I'm gonna build a bubble cloner. I just figured I'd mess around with this.
Your doing good for a first grow man. Let the pots dry out real good to give ya an idea of how much water your actually putting in. You can clone like that, but some rapid rooters and a humidity dome will speed things along.
Thanks man. Very much appreciated. I have one pot all mixed up with the same soil that I left out just for that reason. I've compared the feel, sticking my finger in and watching the leaves droop a little from underwatering. I've been doing some acts, and when I do them, I usually water a good bit with fresh water and then dump the tea in. I may be giving them too much water when you combine the act and the water. I don't seem to be having a problem with the auto that I'm essentially treating the same (I water a little less frequently cause she's not drinking much)