Hi, I'm Mr Stubs, long time lurker, first time grower. I've been wandering these forums for a while and have finally decided to try my hand at growing. I managed to procure 6 Jack Herer clones so they will be my test batch. Hopefully I can learn from any mistakes I make and build up some experience in growing. I will be doing my best to make this as scientific as possible (although it was never a strong point in school) that means I will be keeping a Diary every day about what I am doing to these plants and what feedback they are giving me. I should hopefully update this daily or atleast frequently, more for my own use than anyone elses I spose. I'd also really appreciate any advice any more experienced growers can give me. I'm only a newbie at this and I'm bound to make a whole lot of mistakes (I've already made a couple). Thanks in advance . . here we go. Operation Origins - Jack Herer Soil Grow Goals: - To yield about 5oz of bud from the whole op. (More is always good) - To turn the strongest plant into a mum for future grows. - To be able to farm 25 clones to be donated towards the next grow op. - To gain valuable experience that will assist me in future grows. - To have fun Grow Room Size: 4'x4'x8', Tent Light: 600w HPS Measured Variables: - Plant Height - Soil Ph Level - Soil Moisture Level - Effects of topping on yeild (I will top 2/5 plants in order to study this) Controlled Variables: - Light Distance From Plants - Air Circulation/Wind Speed - Watering Levels - Nutrition Levels - Soil Ph. I have numbered the plants JH1S1-6 but to make things easier for you guys I will simply be calling each plant jack(#). ie: JH1S3 = Jack 3. Day 1 - 20/04/2010 Just received the clones; they all look nice and healthy. Jack 3 is considerably smaller than all the others at 1.5" but I am hoping the grow her nice and strong to become the mum. I set the plants up in the grow tent under the 600w, a friend who has grown before said I should set the light at 1.5 feet above the tops of the plants so I have. (although it seems awfully close. . . I tested the soil with my moisture meter and all of them appear to be moist which is good The Ph is up the duff though at 7.5 and unfortunately I won't be able to pop into my local grow shop for a couple of days due to work. Plants are between 4-5" in height (except for Jack 3). I'll leave them overnight and let the magic start.
Day 2 Something tells me I'm not doing it right . . . When I came it to check on the plants I was confronted with this . . . I don't know if you can see as well in that pic but Jacks 2, 4 and 5 are starting to turn yellow from the middle of the top leaves and the leaves are starting to curl. It looks like light burn from the lights being to close so a have moved the light up to 2' away from the plants. I also thought of heat stress being an issue? Here is a better pic of Jack 5 so you guys can get a good idea. He was the worst affected. Thankfully Jack 3 is ok. I am also noticing a slight bit of what I think is nute burn on Jacks 2/4/5/6 Ph is also still at 7.5. The soil was dry so I added 1/2 a cup of ph neutral water and that seemed to be enough, just coming out the bottom. In order to combat heat stress and strengthen the stems I have put in two large fans in the tent on a low speed. (1/3) In good news the plants have grown around half an inch each Heres a final look at the plants in the tent.
Day 3 Unfortunatly the light burn/heat stess hasn't improved but after talking to the guy at my local grow store it seems as though I was misdirected by my 'grower' friend The guy at my grow store recomended I raise the lights up to 4' away from the plants and then lower them from there. I've have done this now so hopefully I can save my babies. Man I feel like a dumbarse though. This is the damage I managed to do. I had my parents visit today so I had to pack up the tent and keep the plants in the dark for 4 hours. I know it wont affect them in a bad way though. It is a mission packing up a grow room in an hour though I can tell you. Unfortunately my ph is still sitting at 7.5 but I have a plan to resolve the issue. Another interesting point is that my soil moisture levels are lightly moist to dry after only a day. I will wait until tomorrow to water though as I have heard the dangers of overwatering. I've also added two sticky bug traps to alert me to any intruders. I thoroughly cleaned both room and tent before the plants went in so hopefully I will be pest free. I've seen first hand what spider mites can do. Hopefully things get better from here.
Day 4 Yay! The plants seem to be recovering well from the burn/stress. I can see fresh healty growth coming through The soil was quite dry according to my moisture meter so I watered them using: - 3/4 a cup of water - enough lemon juice to bring the water ph down to 6 - 2 drops of superthrive to help the plants recover although after watering I might have been better with 1/2 a cup of water as the plants seemed quite droopy and it seems quite soon after the last water. I may let the plants dry out a little longer next time. I did give them some more lemon juice to help drop the soil ph though as it was still sitting at 7 after watering. Grrr. I lowered the lights by 2" but there is no sign of stretching so I mite leave it at that for a while. Here are some pics of the new growth coming though as well. If anyone sees any problems apart from the obvious light burns please let me know. I'm real tempted to pull the leaves off but I know the plant will let them drop off once it has taken as much nutrients as it can from the leaves. Jack 1 Jack2 Jack 3 Jack 4 Jack 5 Jack 6
yea i was about to say man that shit looked hella close, i dont use hps/mh lights but i no not to have em that close
Day 5 & 6 Plants are looking ok (well apart from the old burned leaves) new vegetation is looking good. PH is still a little High so I'm giving them a few drops of lemon juice each day. Small crystals are starting to form at the tops of the plants Awesome! I do notice that they are starting to show signs of a nitrogen deficiency by some of the leaves getting quite a lot lighter than normal. I'll be mixing up some nutes to add on day 7. I've been told that Jack Herer plants are very sensitive to nutes so I'll be very careful with what I add. Here are some pics JH1 Test Group Jack 3 showing lighter leaf colour
good luck,jack herer is not the easiest plant to start your growing career off!!!but its a hell of a smoke!!...
Hey Guys, Im Back! Sorry I had such a long absence but there was a bit of a 'situation' going on. About two weeks ago every single hydro shop in my country was raided. Employees were arrested (a lot of which were growing themselves) and all their records were seized. The police then traced any bigger/frequent purchasers from the records and over 200 people were busted on cultivation charges. I know a few people who cut their plants early or dumped them but I decided to take the risk with my small set-up. I have however been on the d-low so I haven't had a lot of time to post. Here is a catch up summary: Day 7 - 21 Around day 8 the plants started to develop a slight nitrogen defficiency that seemed to worsen. I added some dried blood tea that seemed the resolve the problem after a while. On day 11 I re-potted into 2 Gallon Pots with organic potting mix. I couldn't fill the pots all the way to the top but I don't think it'll make a difference. An important thing with these pots is that they have an air circulation spacer at the bottom of the pot. It means that the soil sits about an inch from the bottom of the pot allowing air to get in underneath and get to the roots. This will prevent over watering by getting proper air levels into the soil. Here is a pic of the plants in their fancy new pots. Around day 15 the plants started to show slight signs of zinc deficiency. I managed to get them looking a bit better by adding zinc sulfate but the problem seems to have now turned into the magnessium defficiency. Here is a pic of the defficiency: As of now(Day 21) the plants are bushing out heaps and growing at a rate of about half an inch a day. I'm going to have to find something to sort out the magnesium deficiency but with all the hydro shops out it'll be a bit trickier. I have been feeding the plants with various different organic nutrients at half strength to decrease defficiencies but I just gave the plants a full strength nutrient solution last night and there are so far no signs of nute burn. Here is a pic of the plants in their current state. Im back in business.