I have heard that talked about and some say just go from cup to main pot. Im going to look into it for next time. My next grow is going to be Blue Dream and the seeds should be here any day according to the tracking info from the shipping company. I'm getting ahead of myself but my goal is to have on hand a couple oz of 2-3 strains at any one time with a new crop in the tent pretty much always be it growing or drying. I want to be able to have different strains available not just one and I don't want to have to go thru the hassle we all do in a non 420 state where the product you get is unpredictable and often without any choice of strain. Depending how much yield I may gift a couple friends with some excess if I have it. When my second package from the seed bank arrives I will have seeds for Blue Dream, White Widow and Girl Scout Cookies from Cali Connection. Plus some free seeds that were thrown in. In addition to the NL #5 Im using now.
This morning after I transplanted #1 Friday night near start of light cycle. Lights will be going off in a few hours. No signs of any more adult gnats moving just a few of the same ones on the sticky traps. I watered using gnatrol and it hasn't had any water since Friday at transplant. I am contemplating FIM considering how many nodes it already has but since its still so young and short Im thinking I should hold off. She is only a couple inches tall and you can see my thumb at the top of a couple for size reference. Plant #2 is doing well and should be ready for transplant by Friday I think.
This morning I cut off the two bottom fan leaves. They were pretty much laying on the soil which I am told is not good and they were really not getting much light. The top is so dense with so many branches starting out I don't really see any point in topping or FIM. Yet. Plus its still just a couple inches tall. Im going to put the #2 in the main pot tonight a hour or so after the lights come back on.
When I looked this morning at my plants #1 had a discoloration on or near the tips of a couple leaves. Otherwise they looked good. I had turned on the flower light on the Mars-Hydro Cree 128 in addition to the veg light 2 days ago and the temp was running about 4 degrees higher in the tent. Its was in the 79.5-81.0 range but mostly at the 80 level. I have a good fan and good venting from what I can tell compared to most setups in my class. I went back to the veg only light and its back down around 76. The pic is from last night but now 2 more have the small area like this one. # 2 is doing well and for 5 days younger its smaller than first one was at that point. I also did a FIM on #1 before lights out today. Going to post this pic in the sick plants forum to see if anyone knows if its serious.
I switched the locations in the tent for no real reason other than the more open passive intake is on the left. Figured it might help #2 grow a bit better to catch up to #1. Maybe not but I turn the pots every time I open the tent due to them leaning to the brightest part of the light each plant senses. Only about 10 degrees at most but it helps with the stem strength I read. Today the bigger on is 29 days old and little sis is 24 from seed in water. I turned off the bloom light and raised the light about 50% and the light/heat stress is better. Also no more signs of gnats and I pulled out the sticky traps. I gave the bigger one about 8oz of water since the smaller one is a small bit damp still and tomorrow I will drench both again and use gnatrol again. Im going to continue to drench with gnatrol for another week or so just to be sure. The bigger one is now 6" tall and I FIMd her Saturday and cant tell yet if I got it right or not. I also trimmed off a couple of the low small leaves that are getting no light at all and pretty much laying on the soil. Since the gnats are gone and things look good Im hoping for a continued first grow to be boring and normal.
GNATS!!!! They are back as of yesterday. Got back out the remaining sticky traps and ordered more. I Its been 6 days since I watered with a heavy drench with gnatrol. The soil was dry on top and my finger over 2" in the soil seemed a bit damp but not much. I figured 6 days in a 4.5 gallon pot and I was due. This time I drenched again with a heavy drench of gnatrol and I figured out I was probably a little light on the amount I used in the water. This time I used half tea spoon to 2 quart watering pot and dumped a complete 2 quarts on each plant. I saw a small amount of runoff of one plant and not the other so I figure that is plenty and I wont probably have to water for a week or until its dry. This time Im going to wait until I can tell for sure the pots are really dry all the way. I also ordered more sticky traps and some Azamax to alternate with the gnatrol and will use it next watering. Other than that they look great but still not growing as fast as Id like to see but I bet in the next couple weeks I will see them take off. From what the experts say the roots fill the pots and then the plant takes off even faster. No new pics and when I water again next week I will take a few. As long as they are healthy and the gnats are not a huge infestation and Im dealing with them Im happy and consider it a boring grow. Good.
Well my gnats are still fighting with me. I got some Azamx and mixed it in a 1 gallon jug of distilled water. I then poured 2 quarts into a watering pot with gnatrol, this time I think I had the right strength of 1/2 Tsp for 2 quarts water. Each pot got 2 quarts like that. I pulled the sticky traps for the pics but each plant has 3 traps around the edge in the soil. This is the start of week 5 for the first plant and midway thru week 4 for the second. #1 is now 9" and the other is about 5" Im still a little unsure if this is normal height for NL#5 at this point or not. Oh well we are going to continue anyway. The #1 plant has a lot of nodes and is very thick and bushy for my untrained and inexperienced eye. I tried a FIM on her about 10 days ago. I think I got it right. I also trimmed off a couple of the low nodes a few days before since they were so low they had the tips in the dirt and not getting much light. Is this normal for this to be so short and the nodes so close together? The last couple days she, I hope, has grown a couple inches pretty quickly after pausing it seemed for a few days. Maybe the roots were spreading out ?? #2 is about 5" and I did a FIM on it about 5 days ago and trimmed off the lower nodes 2 leaves since they were also touching the dirt and not getting any real light. This one has paused growing for a couple days now like the other one and I presume it will start gaining some height next couple days. That's all for now. I hope they both get to about 12-14" in a few weeks around week 8 and maybe start showing some signs of sex. I had planed on possibly doing some super cropping but if they stay this dense Im not sure if I could or if it would be a good idea. Any thoughts? Oh and not to get to far ahead of myself I have the seeds for the next crop. Im just not sure which to use first. Im thinking Blue Dream.
Well as of this morning I have a few gnats in the traps but Im not seeing anymore moving. I just watered again with azamax and gnatrol. I will continue this for two more weeks when I go to flower at the 8 week mark of the #1 plant. After I took the pics I replaced the traps with new ones to see if I have still have any adults. I have also decided to continue some mild LST and supercrop on #1 and will let #2 just be all natural other than the one FIM. This is my first grow and attempt at LST and supercrop. I did a couple branches the other day and they bounced back. I didn't do them hard and they didn't quite break as much a I wanted but I didn't want to damage them. Unfortunately I mistakenly broke one of the branches supercroping it this morning. I did the duct tape thing. Im betting it will be fine in a couple days. Im sure that if I hadn't bent over the main stalk for some mild LST it would be 12 inches or a bit more now. The red mark on the bamboo stake is 12". I wont supercrop anymore on this plant and will just do some more LST maybe. I need to read some more on it. Anyway here in no particular order are some pics of how they look today.
Well I have finally got the gnats beat. I am also really trying to do some LST on #1 and a little on #2. I have changed my mind and have built a SCROG frame today but need to get a different circ fan and ordered a Lasko small tower fan that is only 14" tall and oscillates. The tower fan I have now is too tall for the scrog. Next Saturday Im going to flip to flower and see whats up. I didn't get feminized seeds. I got them from DrAtomic and using the YouTube vid about selecting female seeds hope I got 2 gals and I guess I will find out soon. I will get some pics next day or two. Im still kind of disappointed that they are still short but they are bushy and I have been trimming off lower stuff and I hope Im doing it OK. Hell the scrog even set low will only engage the #1 now and # 2 will have to grow into it. Its a learning thing this time and hope to get a stash so I don't have to buy anymore until I get my NEXT grow of Humboldt Blue Dream feminized. I do see several nice bud sites coming up on #1 and even #2 now. If Im reading the signs right. I have edit to add I just checked the calendar and updated my notes. Its only day 50 from seed in water for number 1 and day 45 for number 2. I suppose that's close to on track even though they are a bit short. But thick as hell. Oh I have to add my broken branch from supercrop was OK until I didn't give it long enough to heal and got convinced it was healed and ready to take off the cast. I re taped it but next morning it was kaput. I am to blame. Lesson learned. Patience is a virtue. Im sure it would have been OK if I left it alone. It was looking good at about 24 hours out but had I left it another day or two before I tried to take off the tape it would be healthy and happy. Someday soon I will be one of the ones here who can show heart stopping buds. Well maybe in a year or two.
i had a really bad problem with gnats. i was overwatering my plants. are you lifting up your pots to feel the weight? you mentioned you stick your finger in two inches and it feels slightly damp? the finger method is a poor method to determine if a plant needs water or not. i used this method at first but always had gnats. the part below your finger is always moist and the top dries out quicker than the bottom. so what i did was get some mulch like straw, coco shell husks, or even cannabis leaves to put down on top of the soil very thick. this kept the soil evenly moist instead of the moisture evaporating off of the top soil. by lifting the pots, you get a more realistic idea of how much water to add. after a water, the pot will feel heavy and then in two days, go feel the pot again. it's much lighter. after this, lift the pot each day until you pick it up and are shocked at the amount of weight it has. a plant is better underwatered than overwatered. a plant can stand upright in dry soil for quite a while so don't worry if it's dry and light weight but the plant is still standing upright and uneffected. people are so worried that they won't water the plant enough and tend to over water it which brings in gnats. a good rule of thumb to how much water a plant should be given is a 1/10th (10%) of the container size. so a ten gallon pot gets one gallon of water. even that is a little too much for a freshly transplanted small plant like yours. when i have small plants with small roots systems, i will water more like 6-7% the first couple times and when the plant begins to grow again from the roots getting established, is when i go up to the 10% watering rate. so to get rid of gnats, water with your gnatrol stuff. then add mulch several inches thick as you can get it. then the mulch will dry quickly after watering but the soil will stay wet. the top surface since it is dry, prevents gnats from entering the soil. gnats need a moist surface to enter and make larvae. the mulch is a dry barrier.
I know I probably watered a day early but the soil was dry in the top 2 inches. I note in the calendar when I water and Im averaging about every 3-4 days. Its so tempting to water early but Im determined to go another day from this point forward. They have never showed signs of overwater but I agree the gnats probably benefited from the bottom of the pot still being a bit damp.
that is what makes the mulch so great. it dries very quickly and the soil stays moist evenly up and down. that is very important when you're using organic fertilizer in a water only soil. the top couple inches is where the microbes are doing their thing. the top will dry out quick and microbes need moisture to survive and function properly so mulch keeps the top soil dry until the plant drinks enough of the water to dry out the soil evenly and then when you stick your finger down in the pot, it should be the same amount of dry from top to bottom of the finger. if you don't have the mulch and do the finger test, you will always feel like you need to water. so i suggest picking up your pots to feel the weight because it doesn't matter if you have mulch or not, it works the best. the first year and a half, i had gnats all the time. now i barely have any. i see maybe one or two once in a while. just keep my mulch thick and lift my pots. if i can even pick them up, they need water. lol that is what has worked for me at least.
Here are some pics in no particular order from a few minutes ago. I try to include a tape measure for reference. It annoys me somewhat when people post pics of plants or buds with no reference for size. I mean you see a plant that looks like a pine tree and its only a few inches tall. I still have a trap in each plant and in the last 3 days I saw one gnat in one trap yesterday. My next water wont be until Friday at the earliest will include one more drench with Azamax because I still have a gallon mixed. I don't add the gnatrol until I pour the water in the watering pot as its recommended by them to not let it sit mixed for more than a day or so. The Azamax doesn't matter. Pic above and below Im trying to see any signs of pre flower but I don't think there is any. Pic below you can see the one single gnat,, last one hopefully,, in the trap.
What is the odds if I use some generic bagged mulch that I will re introduce more gnats? I like the idea but at this point I may not and wait for next grow to do that. We actually spent last weekend mulching the yard with bulk mulch from a local nursery and it been on the ground for a few days. I could go grab enough to do the job but the new gnat thing isn't appealing.
the odds are low. its oversaturation mostly that they like. more importantly is what kind of bagged mulch? is it bark? does it say what type of wood? i like to use straw or even hay over wood chips. when the straw decomposes, it releases small amounts of nutrients and has a low carbon ratio which won't bother your plants. that tho is pretty indepth and i don't have time to go that far today. if you search grasscity for "mulch" or even "mulch porn" you will get a lot of different kinds you can use or some to avoid like raw fresh wood chips. Search Results for Query: mulch porn | Grasscity Forums
Well I flipped as of last night. I added the SCROG I built. I have totally changed my plan since I started and am going scrog but WTF. Now I just have to make sure they are both girls. I didn't use feminized seeds so Im keeping my fingers crossed that I have not wasted 2 months plus. I had to get a new fan since there wasn't room for the tower fan and got a shorter one. I accidently ordered two of them and when the second one gets here I will just put it in the opposite corner. It wasn't that expensive and to pay return shipping isn't worth it. Plus a pic of my Mars Hydro Cree LED.
Well my bigger plant went male. Boo. So now its And this is the other one. Im going to give it a few more days to declare sex. Im seriously considering chopping the second plant and cutting my time losses. I don't know or think if its female it will produce enough to justify not moving on. I have some good seeds all feminized and known good yielders.
Gonna cut my losses and I think this one is a male as well. Im not mad but a bit bummed because of the time lost but I learned some things. Mods please close this. Reboot. I have seeds in water of Blue Dream.
For gnats the only thing that worked for me was pouring 3% h202 (hydrogen peroxide) directly on the soil and then letting it dry out for a few days, that killed them ALL for a good 2 weeks.