same here, currently have a tiny backyard and too many trees so mostly shaded. I put some pots and containers out on the deck is all. Mostly do my veggies indoors in a second tent
A little tip for using rice hulls in homemade seed starter mixes. You really have to get that stuff wet, over wet really and mix it well. I have seen a little bit of differences in rice hulls themselves, and the ratios to use seem to vary quite a bit depending on the hulls and substrate material. What I do is measure one part of rice hulls and soak the rice hulls in aloe water for a bit. Drain the water from the hulls and mix with 1 part compost, peat, or leaf mold. Add water and continue to mix. I then continue to add 1 part of compost, peat, or leaf mold and wet until it looks the way I want it. You want it too wet to use. Then let it stand and allow the excess water to drain out. Here is how I quality check my mixture. If you fill a solo with drainage holes in the bottom and let it dry out for a few days, when you remove the cup, it should hold shape, with the hulls bonding everything together. It reminds me of 'fiber mesh concrete' the way it bonds things together. I really had to play around with for a while, and for at least, the ratio of rice hulls varies wildly between the use of leaf mold, compost, or peat. I agree that buying Light Warrior is expensive and almost against my style of doing things. But, it works so well, and is very consistent. For a first time or newer grower, I always like to recommend a proven winner, cause if they don't get by the sprout/ seedling part of the game, well it game over. I have had good luck with 'Jiffy' brand seed starter as well, and it is cheaper. The only prob with the JIffy for me, is I can only find it during a couple months of the year, extremely seasonal. The LW, I can buy at the feed store year around, as well as the dreaded hydro store year around. The last 4 cycles I have been using the LW to maintain consistency for my own purposes. I wanted some good uniformity in this little game of seeing how many different strains I can run back to back. I also failed to stash enough leaf mold or compost in the house before winter came. ( I had good intentions of having enough, but then I started a couple unplanned very large worm experiments and blew my savings). hth cheers os
That’s awesome, thanks for the guide. I’ll try it for my next grow. My seedlings are stable now since I piled some compost around them, hopefully it won’t be a further problem to them. I also wanted to ask about “nighttime” temps, I like to have lights off for 4 or so hours. I’ve seen some people say to keep a constant stable temp regardless but others say to have it a bit cooler. What do you think?
I run 24/0, nowadays, it’s way easier to keep temps and humidity on point. If you have heat as an issue, like a hot summer, it might be beneficial to have a night at the hottest time of day. HTH Cheers Os
i was running 18/6 at first than went to 20/4. You were the one that convinced me to go 24/0. The temp swings are most definitely reduced and more stable that way. now thinking about it for this post though has me thinking... not sure if it was a coincidence, or what.. but follow me on this: My understanding had been that the dark hours gave the plant time off from the leaves working the light to letting the roots have the energy for a while. So while the leaves were relaxing during the night / dark hours the roots are working harder. basically, the dark hours benefit the root growth because thats where the plant can put it's energy towards. running24/0 keeps the temp stable and perhaps gains some vegetative growth, but if it's at the expense of root growth would it be better to let the plant have dark hours for the roots, and if the roots benefit and gain growth than the entire plant should produce more. now the question is which provides the more benefit overall? stable temps or root growth? On a photo period plant I'd say the root growth is more important but with the shorter life of an auto I wouldn't know. that's how I think about it but maybe I'm completely wrong on how the plants wants to grow. just thinking out loud so to speak I guess - popped in my head with your reply what made me think of it from your post is that when I ran 18/6 or 20/4 my plants were big! when I switched last grow to 24/0 i did see the stable temps you mentioned but any the end of the grow my yields were HORRIBLE. now, I switched SO many things last grow from the previous one I am NOT blaming my switching the lighting on the bad yield, but it makes me wonder if it could have been just one of the many issues I had that grow. Now, I'm still running 24/0 on the current plants and these girls look better than any med plant i ever did. will be interesting to see how they turn out and the yields ::sorry, I know trying to read this is probably a convoluted... was just typing as it was forming in my brain and I'm too medicated at the moment to worry about going back and proofreading.
24 hours later and Dark Devil popped the soil. Shell is off, head still bent down but I bet she will be fine by morning. supposed to be a fast one, listed at 63 days max
Very interesting points man thanks. The reason I asked is that I like to have an off period of at least 4 hours when the weather gets warmer, just to give my electricity meter a rest, and in theory I could maintain stable temps throughout with my thermostat fan controller + maybe timed heating during the off hours, but I've read that plants prefer cooler temps during off hours. Now yourself and OS are saying that stable temps are preferred which is why you do 24/0. But what if you could have lights off AND stable temps? Or maybe I'm kidding myself thinking that the temps won't swing wildly even with the fan controller... PS Hooray for your seedling!
Os has grown enough that I'm sure he may be able to tell you any difference he has seen between lighting schedules, but I'd venture a guess that the optimum situation would be a dark period while still keeping temps stable. Os even suggested what I thought about last summer when temps got to be an issue at times, is to shift the "dark" period to the hottest part of the day, and the lights on scheduled to it's centered in the night hours - use the cooler nights as the time to run the hot lights, and use the dark hours during the hottest time of the day so when it's the hottest you can have your lights off, this can help a more stable temp environment. I understand i few degrees isn't a big deal, but I know I've seen 20f swings with lights on / off depending on time of day or time of year. If you can give them 4 hours of dark and maintain steady temps I've go for that myself. The whole plant should prefer the stable temps and the roots should enjoy the dark hours. keep in mind, I'm offering info I only read about - Os would have real experience to offer more correct info from real-life growing experience. I've read some interesting benefits can happen if you can create an environment that the temps actually go up a couple degrees versus going down during the dark hours my new seedling is looking a bit better today. head isn't as straightened as I had hoped but it's improved. She is a tiny little thing.... shell is still stuck a bit around her stem but f i try to get it off I'll cause damage so I'll leave it and let it fall on it's own. the head is free which is the important thing. Been spraying her with the Aloe vera foliar spray. She will be ok.... BTW, you asked me the other day about my humidity levels... with the warmer weather we are starting to see higher humidity finally. instead of the 20's and 30's I'm not seeing 40's and 50's for my RH %'s.
Yep I was very appreciative of that little off-hours trick during the heat wave here last year What you're suggesting sounds good to me - if it's true that the roots like the dark period, and the plant likes the stable temps, then that should work out well... will have to do some test with my fan controller to see how well it copes with it. I've been noticing more about seedling behaviour... over analysing no doubt since my troubles! But they do spend a little while bent over / with the leaves closed up when they first arrive. It took my Gold Glue a couple of days above ground for me to consider it fully "popped". I've lost 3 seedlings to shells getting stuck this year; 1 took a cotyledon off with it, the other 2 were just straight up decapitated. So I'm quite wary of them at the mo but as you say it's off the head so can't do much harm I would hope. I'm glad for your humidity, seems to be important at this stage as far as extending and getting the most out of the vegetative growth period. Just to share information about how my 2 MG seedlings were successfully germinated and grown: Using the toilet paper in a DVD case method with temps around 25C, they had tails and were plantable within 36-48 hours. They then were put half an inch deep into seed starter. Temps were 24-26C and humidity was 60-70%. They came above ground, opened up and straightened within 3 days. This was in a tent with 1 x cheapo 130W true power LED COB light at 3 feet above. Very important to keep the light high, I roasted several of them before I realised what I was doing. Think that about covers it.
glad you finally got two going!! I sure know the frustration level you must have been having. Now is the easy part, just growing it. lol
The whole plants need dark thing.. oh boy. I just read an article the other day that explained this process, and how it relates to root growth, and how it has been misunderstood or misstated. I am mad at myself for not marking this article as I don't even remotely remember where I found it, I was searching for info on plant specific jobs related to specific leaves (still on my quest to learn more about defoliation). I will leave this one at this, I read an article that I can't cite, that describes how plants don't need that dark period for root development. I will try and look back and see if I can find it at some point. I think most folks still think that plants need a dark time. Its controversial even over at AFN where their seems to be a hardcore group that says 24/0, and another hat says you are throwing money away if you have a day longer than 18 hours. I can definitely say that I get plenty of root development, and see no downside to growing with lights on 24/0, I do think it makes them finish a little faster with the same yields. From a non scientific view point, where I live, it doesn't get dark for months at a time and the plants grow like crazy, whether they are wild, or in a garden. Being that some of the Rudy's come from the same latitudes as I live in, this may be more natural for them. As far as maintaining the environment during lights off. A lot of folks have tents or rooms that can't adapt to rapid temp changes with regards to humidity. IE, in flower, say you are running 80'F temps at 50% humidity, lights go off and temps drop to 70'F and humidity shoots up to 65-70%, this can be a problem. I know this is a bigger deal for folks with HID lighting as opposed to LEDs, with HIDs usually resulting in higher overall temps with lights on, and bigger temp diff at night. When plants are young, is when they like the stable temps the most. Their is much less surface area on the leaves to warm up, and let the plant feel warm. As a result, I think you lose out on growth while things are warming up. Its my personal feeling that leaf temps and soil temps are most important. I have really been studying this stuff closely this last year, and feel real solid about my suggestions. The best way to keep a warm room, if you are fighting cool temps is to go 24/0. (ie winter for me) The other side of the coin, trying to maintain temps low enough, cause its summer is a worthwhile reason for having a 'night' at the hottest time of the day. (not a big deal for me, as 70'F is hot outside at my house, and the rare 80'F is boiling). Those are my thoughts on things. Like most other things, if you have a reason to change, try it. I have never had anything bad happen with messing around with the light cycle. No stunting, bolting, etc. cheers os
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on that subject! I have indeed noticed that some folks at AFN are very heavily against 24/0. I like to have lights off for a bit so I'll do some experimenting with equipment to see how/if I can handle the temp/humidity swings.
my views on the dark hours were based 100% on what I had always read in various places. Never thought about much of anything when growing veggies, and don't have enough experience or grows to really know much about anything on cannabis. Pretty much any reference I've seen mentioned the benefits of dark hours for the plant. I'm sure not claiming it's true or not. if it's not I'm perfectly willing to accept it and apologize for posting misinformation in a thread, i HATE to do that, too many come here looking / needing correct info. I have seen other references like you mentioned though that 24/0 can/will increase growth and yield somewhat. I don't find that surprising at all figuring extra hours of photosynthesis going on. Since it seems a bit controversial, lets see some scientific results one way or the other, but until than I think myself (not based on a damn bit of anything! LOL ) I would venture the opinion that IF dark hours actually did benefit the plant i doubt there would be a significant, if any, difference in the short lifespan of an auto. overall, a 2-3 month lifespan on a plant is pretty quick generally compared to most plants that live years, decades, etc. on a plant that lives a longer time, even a longer vegging photo cannabis plant, THAT's when I'm thinking any possible extra root growth would be seen - in the plants that live longer for any benefits to the dark hours show themselves. maybe a really bad analogy, but when I was doing hydro and i was looking into the neat system of aquaponics (using fish to feed the [plants, and the plants feed the fish. basically, the plants solution reseviour is the fishes tank. the fish poop feeds the plant. whole natural cycle. hmmm, thinking about it it's really an organic hydro system! LOL never thought about it that way. you don't feed the plants, you feed the fish, anyway... there was a study I read that they did a test comparison between a regular DWC hydro and an aquaponic hydro. after 3 months they determined there was no significant growth difference or improvement with the aquaponics over the regular system with normal salt-based hydro nutrients. they concluded the test with those results but they didn't close down either grow and ended up writing a supplement to the test results because about another 3-4 month later the whole life-system in the aquaponics "came together" and all of a sudden the aquaponics system blew apart the results of the regular system, but it took the long-term for it to happen and see the results. who know... hell, at times I'm happy to just be able to keep a plant alive! LOL OS, not too thrilled with the winters you must experience, but I'd LOVE your summers!. I absolutely hate the heat and humidity we get here in the summers and the older i get the less I can take it, so 70f, 75f MAX in summer is dead on perfect for me. 65 - 72f year round would be my dream lol and while i'm dream, might as well make that temp stable day AND night so the plants are happy too! LOL
Hey OS, earlier you recommended "layer crumbles" chicken feed for feeding to worms and top dressing between cycles. I found some chicken feed that seems like it has the good stuff in it and was hoping you could give the ingredients a look before I buy it. "Ingredients: Organic wheat, Organic Soya, Calcium Carbonate, Organic Maize, Organic Peas, Organic Alfalfa, Natural Vitamins, Di-Calcium Phosphate, Organic Linseed, Sea Salt." Does that look good to feed to my worms? Is this something you would also top dress to a plant between cycles, as the salt makes me think it's a problem? We have limited options over here so this is the standout option. It is pellets but surely it's fine if I get them crushed up first.
day 26 on my first two girls. LSD25 is flowering like crazy. white pistols shooting out at all the budsites! never seen this before - plant has only started showing her flowering pistils for a week or less and yet a number of them all over the plant are already turning brown and curling at the tips. this girl is FAST. (sure, NOW I find a fast girl, years and years ago when I was in school and wanted a "fast girl" I couldn't get one, NOW i do! LOL ) blue dream (on the left) is just barely starting to show pistils. both really jumped growth overnight. LSD a full inch and blue dream 2 inches! with the training LSD is stretched out covering the entire surface of the 15-gal pot! BD is a lot more compact. lights are still where they were for the seeding stage. was sitting at 31" over canopy yesterday - with last nights growth 29"-30" over the canopy. Lots of room left to raise them too when needed. little dark devil, only 3 days old is looking great. she straightened out well. definite growth and size improvement from only 12 hours ago.
@JGrewbie That look like a wonderful feed to use. I like that it has peas in it, good N. Believe it or not, trace amounts of sea salt are actually good, lots of minerals. I doubt there is really very much in it anyways. A coffee grinder or a good imagination, can transform the pellets into smaller size, no problem. I also bet they get soft when they are wetted. As far as a soil amendment top dress between grows, I don't see why not. Does the mix by chance have the ingredients listed in percents, it would be nice to know exactly how much sea salt is in it. I would only be concerned with this for long term, in no till containers if the salt percentage is high (I doubt it is high). IN outdoor beds, I wouldn't worry one bit. There is a product out there called "SEA-90", which is basically sea salt. I would encourage you to do a little search and read about it. I think it will answer your questions well. It is used for animals as well as a soil additive. Let us know what ya find, as I am curious as well. I do most of my shopping at the feed store anyway. cheers os
Looking good. Your seedling is exactly what I look for as a textbook perfect one. I like to see a stem that is fat/ relative to its height, with perfect development of everything else. Your other plants look good as well. I get a feeling that the LSD is going to surprise you, and start growing up. Just a hunch, but I bet she is about to stretch, as is normal here shortly. The BD's that I grew were a lot more Sativa looking than yours, but I like the structure of yours. Keep up the good work! cheers os
@Smokey B McBongwater Your training on the LSD is awesome. What you have going on is what I shoot for. I usually keep training out those lower branches till they stop growing. Even if it seems like its too far out, cause they will turn up on their own later and reach for the sky. You got this stuff figured out! Outstanding sir! cheers os
@JGrewbie I came across some info on using sea salt in gardening. In "Cho's Natural Farming", on page 70, he talks about all benefits of using sea salt, as well as how to use it and amounts. This should answer all your questions about the sea salt in the feed. Here is a link to Cho's booklet https://ilcasia.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/chos-global-natural-farming-sarra.pdf My take away is you are good to go with the feed. That whole booklet is a great read, lots of good knowledge and recipes. cheers os
little Dark Devil seedling is looking really good. nice and straight and strong. can't call her "tiny" anymore just a bare hint of the next set of leaves forming in the center.... The stretching on LSD - I was figuring "stretch time" was going to hit anytime soon, especially with all those flowering pistil shooting out of her.Yesterday morning she seemed a bit more "up" but just now this morning i checked her and could see definite stretch on both girls! need to measure but i'd say at least an inch, perhaps two. Time to keep an eye on the light distance now as she goes vertical on me. funny you mentioned how the Blue Dream doesn't look very sativa. I mentioned the same to my wife the same thing! was showing her that BD was suppose to be a sativa but her leaves exhibit more indica structure and the whole plant grows more indica - very short so far, bushy, and the leaves are shorter, fatter, even compared against LSD who is is an indica and yet she is taller, and the leaves longer and thinner and seems more sativa than blue dream. odd. different pheno's I guess. two grows ago (my first med grow) i was doing Tangerine Dream auto and Charlottes Angel auto (nice CBD strain) together but their pheno's were both complete opposite of their breeder description and actually completely matched what the other plant was supposed to exhibit - tangie was suppose to be shorter and bushy she was tall and lanky, Charlotte was suppose to be tall and lanky but was short and bushy and compact. I swore I must have accidentally mislabeled the seeds initially and had them mixed up! wasn't sure until after they dried and I could make sure which had the thc in it LOL. This difference on LSD and Blue Dream is the same - showing very different characteristics than expected