Hey all. This will be my first grow journal, although it will be my 4th grow. Previously my girl and I (BTW, both of us are card-carrying 215 patients under the legal jurisdiction of the County of Humboldt, CA) did a 4000w HPS run with 80 Sour Diesel + Lemon Kush in 3gal containers as our first time out, followed by another 4000w HPS run with 40 White Widow and Afwreck (AKA Planewreck/Trash?) in 3gals. After a couple of sad yields (ALMOST 3lbs 1st time and 1.33lbs the 2nd time) we tore down the operation and this summer I moved to experimenting outdoors, growing Royal Kush (ready in 2 weeks if it doesn't mold over in our drizzly fall weather), Mr. Nice (prolly 1 more week to go!) Bubba Kush, Lavender, Purple Powder Plant and some mystery strain, all of which i picked up from our local 215 cooperative. This is also where I got my two GDP clones which I will be using for this grow. The plan right now is to top these clones (they are about 1 foot tall each) and root the cuttings. The only problem is that they look like they have previously had spider mites (uggh! I feel itchy just thinking about them!), and since I will be growing them inside a 4x4x7 Sun Hut XL silver and not outdoors I have to quarantine them and treat them as if they had mites (which the gro-op assured me they did not). So yesterday I transplanted them into 1gal buckets using Roots Organic soil and a little bit of Nature's Nectar Nitrogen supplement, after which I sprayed them thoroughly with a weak, emulsified Neem solution (3x more soap than Neem) and Safer's 3-in-one spray with Sulfur and Potassium Salts from Fatty Acids. Our last indoor run we had mites and after trying neem baths as well as every type of pyrethrin and attain bomb out there, a friend recommended we use a neem and potassium salts combo to sterilize and kill successive generations of mites. This was the only thing that worked long-term. Today, unfortunately, the plants are looking kinda thin, dry and curly at the tips, which i suspect was a result of the Safer. They are also not getting the kind of light that they really need. I would put them in the veg closet under a 2-foot 4-bulb T5, but I don't want them to possibly contaminate the OG Kush mothers that are growing up in there (only a couple inches tall and growing fucking FAST under the T5 (only ever used regular shop lights for babies before), which BTW, has 2 blue and two red bulbs in order to achieve the Emerson Enhancement Effect (Enhancement effect - definition from Biology-Online.org)). So, they will stay in the bathroom under a 2-foot shoplight with one cool white and 1 full-spectrum bulb. The bathroom gets good sunlight for nearly 6 hours of the day, so I will probably put them in the window during that time. So there they shall stay, at least until I have done a couple of good treatments with the Neem-Potassium Salts combo (right now I'm no longer using the sulfur 3-in-1 but only the Bug Killing K+ Soap from Safer (which I got on my hands today )) I (hopefully) have included some photos of what's going on, so you can see what's set up at the moment. My 318 watt LED is being manufactured right now and will be shipping directly to me on Friday. So I should have that up along with the tent by the end of next week! By then the GDP will be off of quarantine and I will be able to top them and root the cuttings... hopefully two more days of quarantine and I'll be able to get the cuttings to root by the time the tent is up! Stay posted folks! P.S. The photo w the shot glass full of Mr. Nice seeds (from a bag I got from my local cooperative!!) has the OG babies (will eventually be mothers!), the photo with the tallish spindly looking plants is a photo of my GDP clones (which I paid $20 a piece for from the same Arcata gro-op!!) which I hope I didn't torture by submitting them to the Safer 3-in-1 trying to get piece of mind regarding the mites i suspected may have once been there (again, the gro-op assures me -- no mites! they even gave me a magnifying glass so i could inspect it like they did to see if anything was moving under the leaves with the tiny light spots). There is a close-up of the GDP clones with the curling leaves . Also there is a shot of my whole closet right now with dehumidifier, fan and on the top shelf, mystery clone i cut weeks ago from the one outside which is blooming nicely now (pics tomorrow!). I understand that I am using 160 watts in the fixture at top for just the one clone and that is not really okay in my book, but i am working under some restrictions for the moment and it was all i had available for a clone shelf till i get some more T5s... peace, chronitron
Today I neemed the GDP thoroughly and placed them in the window all day to get some great indirect sunlight... then, i put them on a chair in the backyard to catch the last hour of direct sunlight while I snipped the dried, curled bits of the leaves off. They look much better now, I think... hardier. I dunno, they're gunna survive and they're gunna thrive, much like my Royal Kush that got put in some weak soil in the beginning and looked sad for the first 3 weeks of veg. Sure, it stayed really short, but it got incredibly fat! I have attached a picture I took of it today, next to a 16oz bottle of dish soap. The other bud picture is my Mr Nice.
The best thing I ever used for mites (though not organic) is Floramite. It's pretty low on the toxicity scale, and nothing like Avid. You can get a 1 oz vial of it on eBay for about $25 - $30, which will last you forever lol. I believe that once it's sprayed, it only stays on/in the plant for up to 4 weeks, which gives you plenty of time before bloom even begins. Anyhow the stuff works great if you want to give it a try. By the way, GDP was my virgin weed. I still remember those first hits, and that AMAZING high. I've been DYING to get some GDP clones now for years, and here you have some!!! I may have to figure some way of getting clones from NorCal to WA.
I *mite* entertain that Floramite idea, *if* I have an outbreak... for now I'm trying to keep it organic... just neem oil emulsified with a hippie dishwashing liquid (see photo of 16 oz bottle, above), and I've discovered that a 1:1 rubbing alcohol:water solution will kill them, so i'm going to use that. Neuter 'em with neem, kill 'em with booze. in a bout a week, two generations will have been killed off and rendered unable to replicate. Thanks for the recommendation, tho... I found a nice page chock full of good info about the mites: How to Get Rid of Spider Mites Seems that they thrive in the hot, dry climates typical of the heat output of HIDs, but not perhaps under LEDs in good circulation? Just a thought on the unexpected benefits of using this new technology... Well, on to the journal... today on a whim I decided to check back with the gro-op I like to patronize to see if they had any more of the $20 GDP clones. I was not surprized to see that they did. In fact they still had a couple dozen (along with some small Mr. Nice clones)... I got two more with the intention of chopping them all in half and rooting the cuttings, thus making 8 $10 clones (much more reasonable). will take an extra week of veg time but that's okay for the moment since we got some shit going down at the house the next two weeks (yard sale, garden party, walk-through, etc.). So I walked out of the gro-op with some outdoor blueberry (puffing a solar bowl right now -- it's DELICIOUS!) and feeling $60 lighter. So I took the plants home and put them straight away into 1 gal pots with the same Roots Organics soil. I watered them thoroughly with some Nature's Nectar OMRI-listed Nitrogen and some Foxfarm Big Bloom (the only organic fertilizer product they make, in fact!), neemed just the soil, (not the leaves @ 2pm!) and put them in the sun with the other two (who I think actually look healthier compared to the new ones. Tonight I will neem the new plants themselves and put them back under the shoplight in the bathroom/quarantine area. Every sunny day I will put the plants outside (yes, at the peril of other pests and their natural predators, but at least away from other plants in the yard) so that they get the best Jah can provide. When we get nutrified by the Mos' High we thrive, survive and stay alive! Yes-I! I was thinking how much I like growing plants in soil. How Heaven and Earth interact with the spirit of the plant from a seed's first roots to to it's soulful fruits. Hydro is a strange kind of alchemy into which I am not yet initiated, so all the agrarian symbolism is harder to apply and be amazed by, but I'm sure that there is something to the pure spiritual essence of the element of water and essential nutrients (literally the essential salts of the element of earth) that will blow my mind when the time comes... woah, this blueberry fuckin' rocks! I can't wait to start growing the Kushberry seeds I got from Harborside Health Center in Oakland... Blueberry + Kush = A very medicinal, stony treat! We'll hafta see, tho... next round I'll do OG Kush, Mr. Nice and Kushberry (that's what we've got in the closet, anyway...) Oh that reminds me, the Mr. Nice seeds sprouted tails in the shot glass last night, so we put em in a very moist paper towel... next step some vitamin B1 and a moist earth plug. Here are pics of the plants outside... the 1qt spray bottle is full of Neem. The new girls are on the left!
Last night I played Betthoven's Moonlight Sonata for the GDP. They seemed to enjoy that. I found out about this foliar spray / frequency CD combo called "Sonic Bloom." Dan Carlson, the inventor, holds the Guinness Record for largest Purple Pasion plant ever grown (something on the order of 700 feet!), and has been working with the Indonesian Department of Agriculture to produce an abundant, sustainable food supply ("Sonic Bloom The Solution"). He says frequencies between 3,000 and 5000 cycles per second (hz) stimulate the plant to open leaf stoma so that it absorbs his organic nutrient spray to create huge yields. Anyone seen anything debunking this guy? I might try it out.. it's an interesting concept, near and dear to my heart, especially since ultimately Mr. Carlson aims to solve world hunger through his proprietary technology (this was the reason for its development, he says). Here's his website for more info: The Original Sonic Bloom This morning I took all the ladies outside to enjoy the sunny day... I went to work from 10-4, and when I came home and checked on my babies, I discovered some white mold had developed on the top layer of the soil since i had been gone! I scooped out 1-2 inches of the moldy soil and sprayed a bit of 1:1, Alcohol:Water solution on the new top layer of soil and tilted the pots so that the soil faced the sun, in order to dry out the soil, the moisture of which I suspect was causing the problem. After sunset, I took the girls back inside and put them under the multispectrum shoplight and moved in a dehumidifier to dry out the soil. I think the soil i used to pot them with had become contaminated, since Roots Organic has a lot of woody ingredients and i had gotten the soil in the bag a little wet last time (last sunday night) when i transplanted the first GDP clones. I also kept the soil inside after this (to protect it from pests, no less!) without the dehumidifier on. So it very well could have been the moist soil and all the extra moisture in the air today (VERY humid here). Anyway, it's almost day five since the last potassium salts/sulfur spray, which means generation 2 of mites (if they survived) should be hatching soon... I will hit them with some of the alcohol solution at days end tomorrow. Meanwhile I will play some more Moonlight Sonata for them and let them rest till tomorrow.
I went to the SonicBloom site, and must say that it makes for an interesting read. I've always known that music affected plants, I just didn't know the science behind it. What he's saying makes a lot of sense, and when used in a CO2 enriched environment, his sound device alone should allow for higher uptake of CO2. For $80, with a 100% money back guarantee (although I didn't read the fine print yet), it seems like a pretty decent product. I think I may order it soon, to give it a try. Thanks for the link!
okay... so i know it's been like three days since my last post and a lot has happened... i cleaned out the garage and found a sweet 2'Lx1'Wx5.5'H cabinet! since we are having a walkthrough next week I was a bit worried about where to put the little ladies. I didn't want to put them in the dark where they would be scared (we put about 100 babies in suitcases on our first run and i think they were severely traumatized as it took them several weeks to recover!). So I built a little veg/clone cabinet where i could put them in the upcoming week or so... it's actually pretty sweet and I might use it later for cloning the OG and sprouting the Mr. Nice and Kushberry, but for now the space is pretty sweet... it does get a little warm in there on the top shelf with the two T5 lights and two fans, but not exceptionally so (at least not yet, I may have to cut a few holes in it @ the top and the bottom...) I should prolly get a little thermometer to stick up at the top. Anyway, I have included pics so you can see what I'm talking about. I got a new T5 light (cost me $40 more to get it at the local grow store than on ebay!) and some sweet little 4" fans from target and made two lighted, circulated chambers out of the cabinet. I put up some panda plastic to reflect the light from the T5s and PRESTO!: a super sweet covert place to take care of my girls while the house gets inspected. Meanwhile I hit the GDP with some Nitrozime, recommended by my boy, the Wisewizo, and they are doing pretty good! BTW, i repotted the two new girls with some brand new soil since the mold didn't go away (I looked in the old bag of Roots Organic soil and it was covered with the same white mold!)... i sprayed their rooted soil with some Safer 3-in-1 to get any remnants of the mold before i repotted them... They seem happy now. So yeah, now that I got them off quarantine, they're in the box with the OG, and there they will stay until I put up the tent after the walkthrough (which i think i will do in the garage, so we can use our house for people stuff). So, peep the pics and hit me up with some feedback!
addendum to last post... i cut a perfect triangle at the top right of the cabinet and opened up the panda plastic around the new opening to serve as an outtake vent. to push hot air out of the box, i pointed the fan head toward the new opening. I zipped it up, closed the doors and then i went and watched "spaceballs." when i came back to check the temp, it was roughly the same as the ambient room temperature (cool out in the garage as it rained today). pretty sweet.
Thats a sweet little find while cleanin' the garage eh? Nice, job at utilizing yer space and gettin' it panda'd out. Looks good mate! The girls look like they enjoyed thier spraying of nitrozyme and thier new t5 set. Comin' along nice, the LED's should be in early next week, yes?
Episode 3: ATTACK of the CLONES! So i was reading in Maximum Yield (the same magalog i got my Sonic Bloom inspiration from) about cloning (this was on the cover of their August Issue, i believe) and I thought: "Today's the day." So I followed the instructions, made a 1quart bath of Nitrozyme and soaked the earth plugs in it. Then I put some Island cloning gel (It has a rooting hormone and the article said not to use them, but this gel has worked worked well for me before, and the article's recipe calls for a cloning gel) inside the holes of the plugs with the end of a clean screwdriver taking care to get plenty in there but not too much. Next I took an ever so slightly rusty but CLEAN razor (It had been in the cloning dome with the mystery clone (which started to flower so i threw it out) and I had just sprayed it thoroughly with alcohol solution) and cut each of the GDPs down to the 3rd node or so at a 45* angle. I then pinched the top of the parent plant, dipped the cuttings in the Nitrozime bath and then inserted them deeply into the plugs. Once they were all fitted snugly into their plugs, i poured the nitrozime bath water into the tray so that the bath just bared lapped at the bottoms of the plugs (I'll remove it tomorrow as per instructions on nitrozime bottle). Finally I sprayed the new cutting thoroughly with a nitrozime/wetting agent combo (as per instructions in the article). I have cloned before using only rooting gel and plugs with a pretty high success rate (40 or so out of 50) so I am confident that this method will only improve on my technique. As i was readjusting the lights I noticed i tiny spider-looking red bug in the upper cabinet! I smashed the little bastard, and it left a bright red smear! I'm almost certian that this is a spider mite. check the pic with the light chain for size and color reference. Grrr.... blasted mites! I'll get them... just a steady treatment of all of them with neem, alchohol/water, every 3 days from now on. I started today with the neem, although i did not neem the clones yet. I'll see how they do tonight and give them a chance to recover first before applying neem. If the alcohol doesn't work I'll use the Safer Insect-Killing soap since I know that works. If all else fails, I might try Hydro's suggestion and use that Floramite. Fuckin mites. I'll kill em! Anyway, peep the pics... I also included a picture of my Mr. Nice which I'm think about harvesting in a coupla days... dunno, whaddy'all think? let it go for another week? it rained pretty heavily yesterday and I'm also worried about mold in my Royal Kush.. I'll get a pic up of her in a minute so you can see where it's at. It could go til the end of the month I think, but again, I hope it's not molding over already... this is my head stash till the end of the GDP project!!!
Here's the Royal Kush, as well of a good close-up of the clones before it totally fogs over in there:
Neem oil has always worked for me, usually 2-3 rounds of it and mites are usually outta the picture. Also, when I top plants I take it down the stalk to right above the upper most node. I noticed that you left about an inch or so above, not too sure if its a big thing, but I have read to take it all the way down just above the node.
NNNNOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! WTF?! Before I left for work I decided on a whim to check on the cuttings. Good thing I did 'cause they were all WILTED OVER!!! I thought at first it was because there wasn't enough water in the tray, so I added 3 more quarts, 1 of which had 2 tsp of Nitrozime mixed in for about a 1/2 strength bath solution (didn't want to overload them since i sprayed em w/ Nitrozime too) I thought I did everything right... I left the humidity dome closed like the article said (maybe i should have vented it... we did that before... ) and they had plenty of 1/2 recipe Nitrozyme bath water at the incision level of the plugs... WTF WTF WTF?! Am I yet so unskilled in the art of cloning? was it such a complicated and delicate art in the first place? They were kind of big pieces (1/3 to 1/2 the total height of the plant...) I noticed before when I topped plants that it was very difficult, if not impossible to keep them from wilting. Should I have checked the pH? I've done this before using just island rooting gel, plugs and water and had a pretty high success rate... Shit. well here's some pics of the damage... i can't believe those goddamn clones cost $20 each... Too bad I'm an idiot. Unfuckingbelievable.
Dont worry yet mate, its all a learning experience. Those cuttings look awefully tall, I usually take cuttings that are 3"-4" tall. I also usually cut about 30-50% of the fan leaves off to help take some of the weight off the stalk. What are you using to root them with. I know I saw rockwool, whats up with the fog? Ultrasonic Mister?
Fog is condensation on the inside of the dome.. i used Island brand rooting gel and a Nitrozime bath to root them... i just trimmed the fan leaves and misted them with neem (to close the pores a bit). They aren't that tall.. prolly 4-4.5" we'll see what they look like when i get back from work, but as of this morning they look pretty much the same as last night/before i went to work yesterday I might try super-cropping the potted ones to get a big fatty bush of a plant so i can do more with less... more later.. gotta go to work!
I changed their water (only water now) and misted them with plain water and NOW THEY'RE COMING BACK! The last 24 hours have been like a crazy emotional rollercoaster for me. Jeez. I gots to chill the fuck out. Anyways, I waited for my girl to get home before i topped the OGs today, cause she's the expert, and we did them up nicely... two hours later, they look pretty good. As do the two middle GDP clones... these fucking plants are resilient! I just can't believe they only needed plain water and mist... bloody Nitrozime bottle said 2tsp/quart solution bath, I did half the recipe, and they responded better to water... go figure... maybe they needed a break from the Nitrozime... less is more I'll wager... Anyways.. here are picture updates... looks like they all might make it out alive after all.... crazy.
It's not over yet folks... this morning the two that i had the most hope for are kinda droopy and the two i least thought would survive (indeed i almost threw them out yesterday!) are the tallest and most willful of the bunch. The two OG cuttings are prolly going to be alright, although they look a little droopy today too. Last night i misted them all around 12AM before going to bed. this morning i woke up early (8AM) to mist them. I wil probably try to mist them as often as possible as they seem to be responding to this pretty well. I'll get some pics up in a few hours so you can see their progress (?).
So I kept misting them all day and they seem to really like that. My lady, bless her heart, went and got me a tiny air pump (3w EcoPlus) with a 1" stone. When I got home from work we installed it, putting the pump up on top of the light and the stone down in 1 gallon of water beneath the compartment tray into which was nestled our little seedlings and cuttings. I also put 1.5 tsp of vitamin b1 in the water just for a little rooting support. I will post some pictures in a few minutes when i spray them again b4 bed. stay tuned... i expect I'll get my LEDs this week!