Again, it's still veg so there's not that much exciting stuff to see. But for the sake of keeping this updated, here are some new pics (I took some different ones than I usually do, so that you'll have something a little different to look at this time): Iggy from a kind of sideways shot, to kind of give you an idea of her general size, appearance, and bushiness. Another shot of Honey from the top. And a picture of Honey from the side and close up, so that you can see her stem (which is thicker and nicer looking that Iggy's), as well as how her leaves are hanging. That's it for today, feel free to let me know what you think about the plants. I still have those same questions as before, most importantly if the plants can have clones cut from them yet. How big do the plants have to be before they can handle losing a cutting? I'd like to let them grow bigger before I flower them, but I'd also like to cut some clones so that I can sex them and maybe try to start flowering one in the meantime.
An extra special treat today- I borrowed my friend's camera, and got some nice pictures for once! I don't know how often this'll happen, so get your fill now. Also, I think that my plants are preflowering! It's very exciting, because as soon as the last of my equipment comes I'll be able to build the flowering box and finally put these babies on 12/12! I'll be cutting clones in the next couple of days too, and as soon as they root it's flowering time! Here's Iggy from the top, in focus and everything! Iggy from the side. It's a closeup of the stem, because I wanted the opinions of other people here about it. Do you think it looks good for this stage? I haven't been able to take a good picture of it to ask about before. Honey from the top. You can see how bushy she's become. And finally, here's the shot of Honey from the side. Last of all, here's a 3/4 shot of Iggy, nice and close up. I'm hoping that you can see some preflowers, and make a guess about sex. I'm nervous to try all on my own, although I'm sure I'll be flowering them both to be 100% sure. So today, you've had the chance to properly see my plants. No one's posted here in a while, and so I'd really love to get some feedback now, since I'm at that crucial stage when I'm trying to decide about flowering. Does anyone have anything to say about the plants' sex, or health/appearance in general?
A rare treat for everyone today, I had to take Honey out of the box to do a soil runoff test on her, and since she was out I figured I could take a picture from a proper angle for a change! Here she is, in all her glory. Since she's out of the box the colors aren't bleached from the lights and you can see her true, dark green color. Aside from her topmost leaves, which are drooping a bit, I think she's looking pretty good these days. That's all for today, I'm still waiting on the last of my equipment in the mail (priority shipping... yeah right), but once I get it I'll put my flowering box together and cut some clones from each plant. Finally you'll have something interesting to look at, instead of just veg pictures of my plants getting gradually larger. For now, the work it took to get Honey out of the box has me irritated, I'm going to smoke out of my new bubbler.
Alright, big step tonight. I've cut my first clones, two from each plant. I'm hoping that they pull through, I followed the instructions I saw in GanjaGeurilla's video. I'll update with pics of them once I've got them potted... assuming that they make it. Also, the last of my equipment came today, and I've been building my flowering box. I forgot how difficult it is to saw through the rubbermaid containers though, so I probably won't finish until tomorrow, or maybe Friday.
Sorry I still don't have nay pictures of it to show you (my cell phone camera would never be able to get a clear picture through the plastic bags), but my clones are doing well. They've already straightened up relative to the lights, but besides that it's too early to tell if they'll thrive or not. I'm still waiting on the nute solution I ordered, so I haven't been able to correct Honey's calcium deficiency yet, but she's been sticking it out very stoically.
Kind of a somber report today. Honey's in serious trouble. She's been dealing with a calcium deficiencly, and I ordered some fertilizer recommended by GanjaGeurilla, paid for express shipping and everything, and it still hasn't shown up. Aside from being pissed off that I apparently wasted my money on this speedy shipping, Honey is dying without the fertilizer! Since tomorrow is Sunday it won't show up in the mail tomorrow either, and if it's not here by Monday I don't know what I'll do. I'm nervous about the clones I cut, even though I know it's still too early to tell if they're thriving or not. I switched the plastic bags covering their cups with intact bags (I'd cut holes in the corners of the original bags, but the Jiffy-7's seemed to be drying out so I switched). Here's a sample picrure of one of the clones I cut from Honey: I'm too depressed by Honey's appearance to include her picture here. You can just go to GG's website and look at pictures of plants with calcium deficiencies though, that's about how poor Honey looks. If anyone knows a quick-fix method for upping the calcium in soil, please let me know so that I can help Honey to endure until her fertilizer arrives.
Your plants are ok but you need Magnesium mate. get some Epsom salts, mix 1/4 teaspoon to a gallon or scale that down and feed it to them for their next watering. Look for Mg deficiency and you'll see why your plants are yellowing between the veins. Look at some growguides, websearch for "Cannabis growguide" will give you them and read up on nutes and deficiencies etc. All the info for your questions are on the web in growguides and here and other forums so rather than wait for answers and allow continued deterioration if there's problems or things worrying you, go and look, there's tons of info out there for you mate. I've only just seen your grow but the last few pages have pics which show obvious Magnesium def and you are waiting for answers, not good, be proactive. But you need to get some Mg into them asap mate. Otherwise looking ok. Make sure for vegging you've more N and K and less P and less N & K and more P for flowering when you've finished vegging and start flowering photocycle.
I only noticed this problem myself about a week ago (a little less), and I immediately posted a thread about it on the sick plants forum, because I didn't want to base my actions solely on my inexperienced guess. As soon as my guess was confirmed (GG told me calcium deficiency was my worst problem) I ordered the fertilizer that he suggested, which still hasn't come in. I've read other grow guides and didn't see a solution for a calcium deficiency, and I didn't notice a magnesium deficiency myself (chalk it up to wishful thinking, I suppose). Once my fertilizer arrives in the mail (which should be tomorrow) then all of those nute problems will go away. I learned my lesson: I thought that without nutes the plants would grow just fine, but not be as full or lush as nutrient treated plants. Since I was worried about nute burn this seemed like a good idea, but now I know better, because deficiencies suck! Thank you for your input though, even though it seems I've been very complacent from this journal I've been actively seeking answers in other forums.
No worries mate. I would go and get some Epsom salts though, in your nutes it will not be present in enough quantity to solve the deficiency, when you go into flower a flush through with slightly stronger 1/2 teaspoon to the gallon will help budding growth as well will be most beneficial (Max strength is 1 teaspoon to a gallon, no more.). Mg is really only a trace in most fertilisers. If you were growing Impatiens or something your compost would be fine and support a growth season easily without feeding although obviously thrive more with feeds. Cannabis is a very greedy plant for nutes though, and water as they grow. This is because they are a big chemical factory themselves so need the nutes to convert into the desirable active chemicals we're growing them for but even before then, as they are not in free soil so roots cannot spead out to find more food etc, once they use the nutes in soil/compost, they will suffer quickly, even in large 3-5 gallon pots. Most of the strains we grow are hybrids from selective breeding and sometimes a product of gene splicing in some Dutch strains so they are not as resiliant as their cousins who grow in the wild and are a lot more timid and idiosyncratic and pedantic to certain parameters. We have to keep this in mind. Still, life is a learning curve, now you know for better results next time and you'll get better and better at it and more instinctive as to what your plants need.
My nutes finally came in the mail today!!!!! I imagined I could feel Honey's relief as the nutrient-enriched water hit her soil. I'm hoping to see improvement in her over the next two or three days, now that she's got all the nutrients, secondary nutrients, and micronutrients she needs. The clones all appear to be doing fine, although it's still a bit too early to tell. I've got my fingers crossed that they make it. For now I've just been assuming that I'll see roots come out of the Jiffy-7 that each clone has been placed into, but is there a faster or more reliable way to tell if the clones are thriving or not? Finally, if only because I didn't mention it before, I'm pretty sure that Iggy is a male. I couldn't get a clear picture of the preflowers, but there are little balls at each node on the plant. I'm keeping the plant and the clones for now, so that I can be absolutely sure through flowering. Honey hasn't shown any preflowers that I've been able to notice (although she's much bushier than Iggy, so it's hard to tell), but I've read that for C-99 the female preflowers show later, if at all, and a late display (like Honey's) would be a good sign of a female. It's just too bad that Honey had the worst of the deficiencies. Hopefully by the end of the week I'll have a really positive update, including the recovery of Honey and the potting of the clones!
Maybe Iggy is a male because that's a male name, isn't it. Next time make sure it's a girls name! Make sure that one isn't dioecious as if is a herme you can just keep clipping the balls out if some is female, their natual state is dioecious and it is only breeding and strict environmentals which produce a higher incidence of either male or female, natural state is all plants are herme so you may see some female traits, cut the mnale organs out and keep a watch if you want or you could grow some seeds anyway and retry for more females from free seed and you'll have the clones of female to provide another decent sensi harvest quickly. Here's something you'll find interesting about environmentals and females. www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=59901 Some of that is about seeds but about a third of the way down you'll see about females and growing parameters etc.
Thanks for the info Delta, I promise I'll read it later (finals are almost over...) And for a general update, Honey's picked right back up again! Her leaves still look terrible from their drawn out deprivation, but they're no longer drooping like they were, and so while she may not be as pretty as she used to be she's just as lively. And it's the personality that really counts anyways. I'll update with pictures soon, but again, finals...
This is going to be my last update for a couple of days, I have to go out of town. I couldn't tell if my clones had put down good roots yet or not, but since I'm leaving I won't be able to mist them anymore. I put both of my clones of Honey (the plant I think is female) into soil in party cups, and gave them some extra water with nutrients added. I also gave my two mother plants extra water, to tide them over until I get back to water them again. Hopefully I'll have two healthy big plants and my clones will have grown a lot. That'd be a great surprise, and it's what I'm hoping for. Talk to you guys again in a week or so
Back again! Finally, I'm back home and can get back to caring for my plants. Not a lot to report, and I'm too tired for pictures tonight (sorry, I know it's been a while), so I'll just give you the quick update. Both main plants are fine, although Iggy was drooping a bit and is starting to show symptoms that resemble a deficiency just like Honey's, but I watered with nutrient-added water twice before I left, so I'm not really sure what the deal is. I'm hoping that the issue was just that the week without any waterings caused the problem, and that Iggy'll bounce back. I lost one of the clones of Honey, which I'm disappointed about because I have a feeling that Iggy is a male and Honey a female, so losing one of her clones was sad. But the other is doing alright; her lowest leaves have dried and will be clipped off tomorrow, but her topmost leaves are still green and supple so she's clearly still alive. Iggy's clones, somehow, are as perky as they ever were and not dried out at all (I assume that this is because of their plastic bag humidity tents, but who knows?).