My Grow

Greetings fellow insurgents,

Partly because I feel I've been too lazy in my documentation and, well, in everything else, and partly because I feel like sharing, I've decided to start posting a grow log here. So...

Currently I've got 5 girls in advanced flowering (I think, like, a month already, 2 from bagseed and 3 Jack Herrers) under 400W HPS in my big cabinet (2x4x6 feet). They've been through some serious abuse.... let's just say I've learned a few valuable lessons.... still, the Jack Herrer's have partially recovered and I'm hoping for some nice bud by the end of January.

In my veg cabinet (2x2x3.5 feet, 24/0, 8 tubes of 18W cool white from Phillips - 1200 lumen each) I have 11 plants from bagseed that are a month old and 2 Jack Herrer bonsai mothers I am currently trying to revive (again, abuse, I am so ashamed), at least to the point where I will be able to take viable cuttings from them. JH is one sonofastrain, would really REALLY hate to loose it. I've given them the treatment described in that famous article about bonsai moms, the one originally from Overgrow, and they are showing slow but steady improvement.

The plan is to have both cabinets working in a productions cycle: plants will spend about 1.5-2 monts in veg (depends on whether they are seedlings or cuttings, though I'm still working out the timings), then will be repotted into 11 litre (~3 gallon) pots and moved to the big cabinet, then about 2 weeks in the big cabinet vegging and then I will induce flowering. I intend to create bonsai mothers for all my strains and take cuttings from them - makes more sense that going from seed, saves space.

This is the general picture. Both cabinets are ventilated (good exhaust fans) and my veg cab. also has a fan blowing on the plants. I live in the desert. Winter here is kind of a joke....

I will post updates and pictures and, of course, solicit y'all for advice. In my next post I'll upload pictures of my current great green hope - the eleven young'ns - that are experiencing mild to moderate problems ATM.

Happy brain-feeding to us all,
FR>

 

Below you can see the pictures of those of my plants that display the most acute symptoms of the problem I am experiencing. I've selected the best pics.

Seeds went into the ground on the 27th of November, in small transparent plastic cups (about 150ml). I used pre-mixed soil for cannabis bought from a local growers' supplies chain - the sales guy at the store told me it was 40% perlite size 4, 40% peat pH 6.0, 10 vermiculite and 10% humus. He also told me they needed fertilizing from the very beginning, and when I asked 'why, if there is already humus in the mixture' he gave no explanation. I watered the soil with tapwater that had been ventilated for at least 24 hours, then switched to rainwater. Our tapwater has a pH of about 8.5. Fun.

12 had germinated out of 16 seeds. About 2 weeks ago I had noticed that they were very pale (chlorosis was spreading from below) and some were holding their leaves mostly closed in the shape of a sharp 'V'. I watered them with rainwater to which I added 1.5 ml per litre (a little under minimum dosage) of BioGrow from BioBizz (organic). On the bottle it says 2-5 ml per litre every watering. They improved for awhile, then some relapsed so I fed them the next watering also (1.5-2 ml per litre BioGrow).

It helped a little, but I repotted them shortly after - 8 days ago - into one gallon square pots using a different soil mixture. Only had enough pots & room for 11 of them, and that too, just barely. I used 4 parts of that soil I described earlier, 6 parts all-purpose potting soil from a respectable plant-nursery (containing ferts in slow-release, it said on the package) and 2/3 of a part humus. I watered them with ventilated tapwater after repotting, no ferts (currently looking for a way to get distilled water cheaply). They now look a lot better, but are still showing symptoms, in new growth as well. Since They will need to be watered within the next 2 days - I use the wooden stake methos to see when the soil is almost completely dry before watering - I am thinking of giving them minimum strength ferts again. To stay on the safe side I'll test it first on 1 or 2 plants, to see if there are adverse effects.

I keep them 1-1.5 inches away from the fluorescent lighting, btw, except #1 which is standing a bit further away (2-2.5 inches) from a 45 watt fluoro that's short & thick - not so good for plants, since it's light is too concentrated and cannot be used efficiently, but I was desperate to fit all my plants inside so I added it as a temporary solution.

One more thing: I intend to top/fim them a total of three times, to give the plants more volume & create more bud-sites. The first was performed 2 days after I had repotted them, when they were already beginning to look better and had started increasing in size.

OK, here are the pics:

 

Hey man, thanks : )

They are looking alright, yeah, but still there are signs of deficiencies. I've numbered the plants, for easy reference, and the numbers are parts of the image titles.

#6 is a little stunted and his older leaves are of a dull colour. I've seen a plant recover from a similar condition after awhile, but, well, what do I know? After reading 10 times each of 4-5 sick plant tutorials I only feel very stupid - maybe it's this, maybe it's that, never could make heads or tales.... wish there was a broader selection of pics as examples for each condition.
#8 has pale and somewhat distorted new growth. The leaves of #1 are slightly arched downwards + the burns on the tips and some leaf edges....

I don't wanna neglect anything. You can lose your crop that way....

Anyways, I'm keeping them a little over an inch from the light, should be fine. I've detailed exactly what I did - water, ferts etc - in the post with the pics. A bit long, I know....

 

You mean consistent in regards to the medium? I just thought that a medium with no nutes at all in it would be a little too unstable to deal with. BTW, I've had the same thought: they've been transplanted (very smoothly, I'm proud to say), they've been topped. Roots have not fully grown into the new soil yet. It might be that these symptoms are temporary, and will be self-regulated with time. But how much time would you say I should wait?

 

Good darkness folks,

Today a short installment of the 'Horrors of the Flowering Cabinet' series by yours truly (& pretty high on a finely blended concoction of psychotropics).

So they was looking pale and I was like, worried that they won't be making much THC and stuff 'cause they pretty low on nutes - deficiencies - so I mixed 0.5 cc BioBloom per litre of rainwater, sprayed a couple of my JH girls who had palest countenance & turned off the lights for a half hour. Hope it helps, 'cause they drinking real slo and iss not time to water them yet, but they need the ferts.

Over & out.

 

OMFG!

Yesterday I gave light foliar feeding with organic blooming ferts to two of my females I though were most in need of it. I sprayed the blooming tops, leaf & bud. Today, the one that looked the most deficient yesterday, and that had received more feeding, is showing visible improvement! I will continue that today, of course.

Finally things seem to be going well.....

 

OK, I need to keep the number of messages down, so I'll be posting a new one every now and then, then editing it to add more stuff.


As the evidence will show, I am excited silly about this shit.

----

05/Jan/2011

In my bloom-cab, lights go on at 21:15 and go out at 08:45 the next morning. As you may remember, there are some plants there recovering from serious trauma, but they still decided to reciprocate with some promising bud, so I'll try and complete the cycle. Temps here are 15-10 centigrade (50-59 Fahrenheit) day-night these days, so I keep the lights on at night. Plus, it's always ~5 degrees centigrade warmer in my growroom than outside.

So yesterday I gave foliar feeding to all my females in the bloom cab twice, turning the lights off for a bit each time. I also fimmed all tips of my young'n's in veg. I'll fim the shoots who's tips were not big enough for that today of tomorrow. Then another fimming in a week or so, and that's it, no more cutting, with one exception I will allow for taking clones from the best looking females, when their gender shows. BTW - they've grown half an inch or so in a little over a day. Looking good : )

I've had some bad experience with overtopping plants - I wanted to force them to still fit into my veg cab cause the bloom cab was still busy..... that was the main reason they got so sick. And besides, I believe topping causes them to display their gender signs later than usual, the more topping, the greater the delay, and I don't want that. So three times I'll cut, and then start bending them.

Flight96 - you were right, they are getting better, so I'll hold off on the ferts for now. Rep up, mate : )

FR>

 

Evening,

Well, in the past week I've been noticing that I've got quite a serious odor problem that's rapidly getting worse. Means I've been doing at least a few things right : )

I will divide what I wanna share with you today into 3 posts, each concerning a different section of my operation. Each will be accompanied by photos from, uh, 5 days ago, and possibly also some questions....

As for the odor, I'm installing a filter today that will filter the air of the grow room, see how much that helps and take it from there.

--------------------------------

Let's start with the budding queens (Jack Herrer, all 3):

I've been watering them with well aired tapwater (high in dissolved minerals, pH ~8.5, could be higer....). They'd been through some stress but have since partially recovered. Last two waterings I've been giving them half the recommended dose of the mix of BioGrow/BioBloom recommended for that stage of growing by BioBizz. Before that I had been giving them no ferts for awhile. They say 'every watering', and that what I did. They were also displaying signs of quite serious deficiencies that improved as a result of the treatment.

You won't see it in the pictures but after the second watering with ferts (half-strength, organic) in a row, some leaves started curling downwards a little, or getting a light 'wave' shape. Looks like too much ferts of maybe too high EC. But the severity is moderate, I'd say. Maybe I'll be able to take pics of that soon. I was wondering if giving them a little flush with low EC water (one third tapwater and two thirds distilled water I got at a pharmacy) would be a good idea, even if it's not gonna be time to water them for awhile.

Here are the pics (from Jan 11th), and my question: how long do you reckon, until harvest? Seems like the answer is not the same for each. I've named them 1 through 3, with letters to indicate picture numbers.

Thanks,
FR>

 

My Jack Herrer bonsai mother plants.

They've been through some abuse, well, a lot of abuse.... but I've tried rejuvenating them - cut most of the root mass & foliage and repotted with new soil. Well, one seemed well for awhile, was still OK when the photos were taken (the 11th) but now it looks like it's dying. The other one, where I had left more foliage in the first place, seems to be doing splendidly well. I started seeing some defs so I sprayed it with BioGrow, 0.5 cc per litre of distilled water obtained from a pharmacy, yesterday and today. Whatever anybody else here might think about foliar feeding, I think it could be very useful when the plants are showing defs and it's not yet time to water, when in veg, at least. I always let them stand in relative darkness and absorb the water droplets for awhile before putting them back under the lights.

As soon as my next batch moves into the bloom-box I will take cuttings from the healthy mother, as many as I can - it is growing many new shoots now, around the tops - and two of them will eventually become moms.

And the pics:

 

Last, my next batch. Bagseed, 7 weeks old. There were 11, now there are 10, since one was found guilty of masculinity and briskly executed. Got me 3 more suspects, but I can't convict a plant without having decisive evidence, now, can I?

Repotted from small plastic cups 3 1/2 weeks ago and watered (ventilated tapwater). After 2 weeks watered again, plain water this time as well, since the potting mixture had nutes in it (and some humus). Now, 9 days later, it seems I'll be watering them again this evening or tomorrow. I'll be adding nutes this time, since they are showing deficiencies again. Will use a mixture of 1 part tapwater & 2 parts distilled water and add 2 ml / 1.5 litre of BioGrow. In the past 2 days I've been giving them foliar feeding (same as the mothers have been getting).

The pictures show some of the topping and FIMming I did, but I've since started training them, and FIMmed again. As soon as the males are out I'm gonna take some JH clones, and in ~2 weeks (having spent ~5 1/2 weeks in the 1 gallon pots and FIMmed again) I'll move the bagseed ladies into the bloom-box and into 3 gallon pots, where I'll take clones from the most promising 2 and let them all grow for another week before starting the shift to 12/12.

The pics:

 

Too many pics, maybe, but I just couldn't help it.

Will shoot them again in about a week.

 

Funny how fast they are growing. Seems I'm out of luck, though: out of 11 plants I've almost positively identified 7 males so far. Which leaves me with 4 females, if I'm lucky, one of which is pretty puny.

No matter.

On one of those females I've accidentally dropped a radiator last night. Thought it was dead. When I pulled her out it turned out not to have been that bad: one branch was partially broken and the stem was a bit wobbly. I tied up the branch and finished watering the poor girl. Believe she'll be over it in a couple of days. Weed recovers spectacularly from such physical accidents, much better that in the case of soil problems....

 

Judging by the smell in the bloom box this is gonna be my best harvest yet. And my real first one. Put an odor filter in the room - a 6" fan blowing air through a bag of active carbon. Reduced the smell dramatically, but there's still enough left to make me uncomfortable. Harvest in a week, 2? Not sure. I'll not harvest all of them at once, will leave 1 or 2 to complete their work.
In veg it looks like out of 11 plants I've got only 2 females. Major bummer, and another reason why I hate going from seed so much. Will get rid of all males within the next couple of days then I'll take loads of cuttings and move the females to the bloom box, 3 gallon pots and a 12/12 light cycle.

Time to get this shit under control.

 

It's been awhile.

Out of 11 bagseed plants I have identified and executed 7 males, have one male suspect still in veg and 3 definite females that have been decently shaped through topping, FIMming & training that I've moved into bloom.

Did the move on the 27-29th of January (2 batches of 2). One of the plants from the first batch turned out to be a male.... I took 3 cuttings from each of the 4 plants I've moved, put them inside "humidity domes" in veg, then repotted the plants from 1 gallon pots into 3 gallon pots and moved them to 12/12 with the other blooming girls. The sole male had only 2 cuttings taken... funny. I've also cloned my JH mother on the 28th - 3 clones.

All clones are looking good (the JH looked really miserable after a few hours but picked up about 24 hours after planting). They started showing deficiencies a little over a day ago (growing all them roots, what?), so I gave them all a foliar feeding - distilled water with 0.5 ml / litre BioGrow. I kept them out of the lights, in a warm room, with the domes on for awhile to absorb it, but they were nhot absorbing the droplets so fast, so I removed the domes to help them 'dry up' quicker, then put them back under the lights (with the domes on, of course), and sprayed them with distilled water after another 30 mins. Looks like I did no damage. As for the benefits of this foliar feeding, that still remains to be seen. I might repeat it soon again, depends on how they look.

In case I forgot to mention: got one of the two JH mothers (clones, 3rd generation, could even be 4th, but I'm not sure) very well revived and now it's growing well, having produced a small batch of clones already. The other passed away two weeks ago. I might have removed too much foliage when giving her the treatment. Whatever.

I am expecting a harvest of 2 JH plants - not gonna be very high quality - in a couple of weeks, and a better one in April.

I'm using 75% distilled or rain water and 25% tapwater, all well aired (for at least 24 hours) for my irrigation. Plants are growing very well and look healthy. Had an amazing growth spurt after being repotted. Some minor defs, since I am still titrating the feeding dosages.

That is all for now,
Over & out.

 

Sure will.

I expect to have a steady supply of smoke beginning sometime in mid to late April. A steady supply of meds, I should say. My request for medical cannabis has been denied.... so what if a respectable doctor recommended it, right?

Autoemancipation, then. Actually, I knew I'd get a rejection, wasn't sitting around waiting : )

A lot of work, including a few side projects that I've got planned, and thinking that with every muscle I move doing it I would be also screwing the government back a little bit makes it so much more fun and more therapeutic

FR>

 

A short announcement: from now on I'll be accessing Grasscity from my new Debian 5.0.8 (latest stable release) that's installed on a virtual machine (on VirtualBox). Double the fiddling, double the fun.

 

It seems it takes clones a week to show roots at the sides of the cups using my method of cloning (I use little plastic cups of about 150 ml). Got up today and was surprised when I saw one plant having literally a root explosion going in all directions in his cup. Some will be turned into bonsai mothers, some will be promptly groomed to enter blooming in 5 weeks. I'm considering flowering more plants in smaller (2 gallon) pots since I have an abundance of clones and I want.... well, to get shitfaced and stay shitfaced for a long time : ) This means the clones I'll choose to use for bud will be moved into 1 litre pots and the intended mothers into 1/2 litre pots as soon as they all have a good grip of the soil in their cups.
So I have my Jack Herrer strain, the nameless bagseed concubines and I've got maybe 7-10 seeds of some unknown strain. They came from bud from somebody's home grow, look nice and healthy, so I am assuming they are not bagseed. I'll germinate a couple when I am sure I'll have room for them in veg. As soon as they are clonable I'll top and clone what I've cut, then move the original plants into bloom. I just wanna create moms for it, try the bud out in one of my future cycles.

Happy tokin' all : )
FR>