Planting my seed

[Zealious]

if u have a light meeter I find that 300 ft candles is the best to root under. anything over 500 will make them want to grow taller instead of rooting. another good tip thats always worked for me is to trim off the leaf tips on each clone. ruffly 1/3 of each leaf.. this does two things it makes the plant need less moisture so it keeps it from wilting... and it also does something to its hormones to force it into root mode quicker.

temps.. for clones u want the medium to be warmer than the ambient air temp by aroubt 3 deg. this includes ur water temperature. if water is ur medium. the ideal is 78deg air and ur medium at 73. owever its ok to have ambient air around 80 and soil around 70-75

soil temps anywhere from 70-75 are great and air temps from 75-78.. u might want to aim for 75 and see how that does.

the expensive way to do this is a heating mat. use a cheap 60 cent aquarium thermometer..

if ur going to use mainly a hydro cloner .. spend 20 bucks and get a small aquarium heater..

now.. the way I like to do it.. the cheap way that is

get a pack of regular incandescent light bulbs from the dollar store ... use a desk lamp or get one of those lightbulb to power plug adapters and a extension cord and place the bulb under your clones so the heat will rise up and warm ur medium.. check ur temps and increase the amount of bulbs untill u get to ur ideal zone.


im sorry for so much info here but clones will suffer if too cold.. this should make a huge dif.

those are the best cloning tips i got for u friend ... Its tricky at first but once u get ur first ones rooted u will be off and running.

 

[IamNug]

Thanks for the real good tips Zealious, many of those factors you mention are important and I'm kinda doing the keep it simple method. Maybe I'm just keeping it so simple I keep killing all the cuttings. I have a perfect little heater to put in the cloner res, but I've never had to use it in the past, actually it's a brand new heater I've never used it. So I'm really tempted to try putting that heater in I'm just a little worried about rot issues but I guess just using the aquarium heater until roots form would be safe.

Right now I am just using plain tap water, and bubbles. I cut the cuttings, then scraped the side of the stem where it was cut with a sharp blade. Then dipped in rooting hormone powder and carefully set into the cloner.

In the dome I have a heating pad underneath and plastic bags with soil. I did the same cut, scrape, dip, and plant into the dirt. Carefully packed the dirt and watered in. I have a feeling this method is bullet proof except I should I run rapid rooters or rock wool cubes because they can be placed into hydro which Is what I prefer 100%.

I'm going to see what happens with this batch of cuttings, next batch I will set up one cloner with a heater and one without and I can do a side by side with the only difference being the water temp.

 

[IamNug]

breaking news! I found a new dispensary yesterday, it's quite well stocked. Anyways I got some special o the day bubble wreck and there was a bud that had a nanner and possibly a viable seed inside?! oh boy a new bag seed for me to try!! from know genetics as well. bubble wreck. That is some awesome smoke too!

oh yea and i got some bubba kush (my all time #1 fav) and some sticky wickits or something, I haven't tried that one yet.

 

[IamNug]

bag seed cuttings in rdwc...

bag seed cuttings in rdwc...

They are drinking lots of water and have pretty massive roots. Check out that 1 plant on the right side.

 

[IamNug]

cloning updates

cloning updates

uh oh, my max photo size increased again?! and I can hold more pictures now too. I was just getting worried about running out of space. But not now.

Here is the mini heater I'm going to try.

This is the cloner water temp before putting in the heater. Will check it after a few hours to give the temperature time to stabilize.

 

[IamNug]

filling up the res...

filling up the res...

there are 4 plants in this picture the one on the left is the mother in soil. the other 3 plants on the right are it's clones in dwc. all are going into flower.

 

[IamNug]

3-15-2010 to 3-29-2010 , = day 14 flower? dang already been flowering two weeks as of today.

I planted the bubble wreck seeds on 3-25-2010 and this morning 3 of them have broken through the surface. Yes!

My cuttings in the bubble cloner have been in for 2.5 weeks. only the tiniest cutting I took just as a test to see if it would survive has roots. Lately I have been heating the water to bring it up from around 68 to around 75 for rooting. The soil cuttings have the dome removed now and should root well into the soil...

So the 3 genetics are now: the bag seed, afgoo cut, bubble wreck seed.

 

[IamNug]

update: make that 4 bubble wreck seeds breaking the surface today! yay!

 

[IamNug]

week 2 flower, LST

week 2 flower, LST

uh, yea, week 2 flower, doing the LST thing... tell me what you think, suggestions? questions?

 

[chloro87]

Man, you have some serious plants, they all look so healthy, what kind of grow tent is that? and are you vegging your herb in a hps too? or do u have some flouros or a MH to veg em?

 

[IamNug]

hi chloro87, the tent is a model GL120L. I vegged these ones under the 400w hps, yep. I'm using a couple 42w cfl's for cloning and starting seeds. I think at this rate the 3 plants are going to fill the entire 4x8 tent. It's an 8 site rdwc setup using only 3 of the 8 sites. 3.5 gallon buckets + 3.5 gallon control, + 5 gallon reservoir. Currently drinking about 5 gallons of fresh water every 3 days or so...

 

[chloro87]

very cool, my room is only a 4x 6.5 .. split into 2 one for veg and clone, law allows me to have 12 plants. in my veg i use a 400w halide bulb, what is rdwc and that stuff? im pretty new to growing, but i have common knowledge and read alot.. i grow in soil i would love to do hydro but i know really nothing of it yet. so startin the easy way.. i keep my veg light on for 20/4 .. if my plants get to big idk what im gonna do, ive already started LSTing them after the first 3 nodes

 

[IamNug]

Hey chloro87, Right on for describing your setup. I'd like to add a 400 mh to have one of each in the flowering area. Generally cloning and seed starting takes very minimal space where as flowering out trees takes as much space as they can get. This may be something to consider when sectioning off areas. In my opinion, it's critical to have at least 2 areas, one for veg and one for flower. So I think you're on the right track chloro87!

I have grown in soil in the past and it seems more forgiving to mistakes or mishaps than hydro. Hydro to me is the only way to grow now, for cannabis. The system I am using is a culmination of years of reading these forums and practicing cannabis gardening for personal medical supply.

rdwc, is the fancy new acronym which stands for recirculating deep water culture. I believe most hydro systems recirculate and the deep water culture technique is more commonly referred to as dwc. But I like to use the new rdwc version as the recirculation to me is the whole benefit of the system. putting water and nutrients into 1 bucket, topping off the reservoir with plain water (which automatically maintains the water level via float valve), then watch the rate at which the plants drink the water. I think these ones grew like a foot in a week during the beginning of flower. The only reason I had to start LST was because the tops were hitting the light.

Later I will take a picture of the cute little bubblewreck babies, I'm pretty stoked about them!

Late!

 

[EstimatedProph]

Dude, where did you get those GH Nutes with the groovy animation on them? I got the bullshit ones, damn it!

Edit: Your lights look as if they are hung an adequate distance from your canopy but it looks like your ladies are stretching for some reason. Do you know why they are doing this?

 

[IamNug]

EstimatedProph, thank you for commenting! a grow shop gave me the GH samples of floralicious grow and bloom (i believe that is what you are referring to?), they also gave me a sample of the GH flora nova grow and bloom which I already have been using in the past with success.

the light could go up maybe 3 more inches... I hung it there when the 3 clones were just wee cuttings. I vegged them for a month which bushed them out to create a canopy, perhaps the stretch is due to several factors... #1 the light was hung so high they stretched to reach the intensity, #2 genetics, #3 its the beginning of flower, thats know commonly as 'the stretch'... yea they are too big.. but, I'm trying to overgrow! I'd rather have too big a plant than vice versa. The tops were hitting the light before I bent and tied them all down.. will be doing LOTS more tying.. down and up.

 

[EstimatedProph]

Wasn't trying to insult your grow at all man I was just wondering for my own good lol. It looks like you have your shit dialed but yeah I would probably assume its just the stage of growth they are in that is causing this. Looks great man keep on keepin' on.

 

[IamNug]

No harm, I appreciate your feedback. Yea they are surely NOT compact in structure. I don't really know other than the leaves look happy to me, that's a good sign that they are happy. Sorry if I seemed offended, not at all. Just trying to explain as good as possible. It's an adventure for myself, definitely always room for improvement! I might be doing some things wrong but I can't complain about a tent full of plant. Plus I barely ever have to do anything. I am considering thinning out some of the lower leaves and branches, but not a single leaf is yellow so I am hesitant.

 

[IamNug]

time for more LST

time for more LST

 

[IamNug]

after cleanup / LST:

stemage:

reservoir needs nutes:

scrap bio mass, hoping to reduce RH during flower:

pre-cleanup momma flowering:

post-cleanup momma:

me and LST:

hows it doing?:

fresh tap for the reservoir:

post cleanup:

air cooled air pump:

 

[Fat J]

Nice man, got some serious treez there in dem buckets! Can't wait 2 see how they turn out - loves me some lucky bagseed.