Diary Bodhi Seeds - Silver Lotus
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UPDATE: I just ordered ~5million Steinernema feltiae online. Should be here between Oct 13-17, so the soil will be inoculated either the next update post or the one after. I hate fungus gnats. I hate them so damn much. I still remember them haunting my carnivorous plant collection 10 years ago. I can't wait to send predator nematodes to go chase them down. I'm going to figure out how to culture them in separate containers if necessary so I can always have them on hand to fully carpet bomb the soil in the event of a fungus gnat outbreak. I'm going to kill them all.
It's interesting you mention the smell. As these plants get bigger, the smell becomes more potent but even now I still can't figure out just what the hell I'm smelling on them. It doesn't smell like any kind of cannabis I've smelled before.
Of course. These all smell largely the same (for now anyway), but it's just so peculiar. It's almost. . . Salty? Like, imagine if a plant could have BO? It's so weird, I don't know how to describe it yet.
WEEK 4 OF FLOWER (DAY 22)
Hello, friends!
It's Saturday again, and that means it's posting day! As always I'm more than pleased with the developments I'm seeing. We've finished Week 3 of flower and are now going into Week 4! The smell is apparent upon entering the tent however it isn't very strong yet. The smell when gently rubbing the stems and finger sniffin' though is quite pungent. I like it although I still can't pinpoint what it is that makes it unique.
A few things of note - firstly, I received some Steinernema feltiae nematodes 3 days ago, and I watered those in immediately. I could see bug activity rising from the soil in response to the water and fertilizer which did enrage me. The plants seemed to be a little thirsty today as well, and to ensure the top layer of soil didn't dry out (for the nematodes) I watered again. Today I did not happen to see any bug activity, although if I'm being honest I was so excited about picture day I forgot to watch like a hawk for bugs. I'll keep an eye on it. By all rights dumping ~1 million nematodes in each 5gal bucket should have been a bloodbath for those root-sucking, motherless, god forsaken fungus gnats. I'll see them in hell, and I'll kill them there too.
Secondly, I'm starting to have to raise the lights up. I noticed recently that the newest growth higher up was looking a little limey and blanched. I'm frustrated by this because some of the plants aren't stretching as much as the others or otherwise responded better to the bending and stayed low so they're going to miss out on some of the light exposure. Maybe that's just how it goes when you don't have a well established training system in place.
Third, I'm beginning to wonder if I am under or over fertilizing. As I said before I'm using a homemade concoction for my nutrients at about 5 cups/5gallons water with 2 tbsp epsom salt. The ingredients are listed in my last weekly post. This mix is then spread amongst all 5 bucket pots. I've taken to using this diluted mix for each watering which is increasing in frequency as the roots and foliage expand. This equates to approximately 1 cup of concentrated fertilizer mix and 1.2 tsp epsom salt per potted plant every 3 days now. Maybe this is too much epsom salt and too little of the other stuff? Hard to say at this point as everything just seems to be growing tremendously fast, and I don't see any leaf burning from excessive nitrogen. If anyone has any experience doing a feeding schedule and mix like this, let me know what it was like for you.
Fourth and finally, the first clones I took are looking like absolute garbage. Just hot trash. But I see some little baby leaves on them so there is hope, and the second pruning cuts I took from the flowering girls are looking impossibly green. Just gorgeous. I think those will preserve the plants that look best to me so far. I'll post some photos of those too.
That about sums everything up for this grow. As a quick aside, I do have seedlings of my next strain sprouting right now, so if you'd like to keep tabs on that strain's progress, I have a link to that grow log in my signature. Thanks a bunch for lookin' and feel free to let me know what you think. It's been great so far - can't wait to see what comes next!
Hello, friends!
It's Saturday again, and that means it's posting day! As always I'm more than pleased with the developments I'm seeing. We've finished Week 3 of flower and are now going into Week 4! The smell is apparent upon entering the tent however it isn't very strong yet. The smell when gently rubbing the stems and finger sniffin' though is quite pungent. I like it although I still can't pinpoint what it is that makes it unique.
A few things of note - firstly, I received some Steinernema feltiae nematodes 3 days ago, and I watered those in immediately. I could see bug activity rising from the soil in response to the water and fertilizer which did enrage me. The plants seemed to be a little thirsty today as well, and to ensure the top layer of soil didn't dry out (for the nematodes) I watered again. Today I did not happen to see any bug activity, although if I'm being honest I was so excited about picture day I forgot to watch like a hawk for bugs. I'll keep an eye on it. By all rights dumping ~1 million nematodes in each 5gal bucket should have been a bloodbath for those root-sucking, motherless, god forsaken fungus gnats. I'll see them in hell, and I'll kill them there too.
Secondly, I'm starting to have to raise the lights up. I noticed recently that the newest growth higher up was looking a little limey and blanched. I'm frustrated by this because some of the plants aren't stretching as much as the others or otherwise responded better to the bending and stayed low so they're going to miss out on some of the light exposure. Maybe that's just how it goes when you don't have a well established training system in place.
Third, I'm beginning to wonder if I am under or over fertilizing. As I said before I'm using a homemade concoction for my nutrients at about 5 cups/5gallons water with 2 tbsp epsom salt. The ingredients are listed in my last weekly post. This mix is then spread amongst all 5 bucket pots. I've taken to using this diluted mix for each watering which is increasing in frequency as the roots and foliage expand. This equates to approximately 1 cup of concentrated fertilizer mix and 1.2 tsp epsom salt per potted plant every 3 days now. Maybe this is too much epsom salt and too little of the other stuff? Hard to say at this point as everything just seems to be growing tremendously fast, and I don't see any leaf burning from excessive nitrogen. If anyone has any experience doing a feeding schedule and mix like this, let me know what it was like for you.
Fourth and finally, the first clones I took are looking like absolute garbage. Just hot trash. But I see some little baby leaves on them so there is hope, and the second pruning cuts I took from the flowering girls are looking impossibly green. Just gorgeous. I think those will preserve the plants that look best to me so far. I'll post some photos of those too.
That about sums everything up for this grow. As a quick aside, I do have seedlings of my next strain sprouting right now, so if you'd like to keep tabs on that strain's progress, I have a link to that grow log in my signature. Thanks a bunch for lookin' and feel free to let me know what you think. It's been great so far - can't wait to see what comes next!
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Hey!
I don't know if anyone's watchin' or if anyone knows or if this photo's not good enough, but I caught one of the little cretins! I don't have a microscope yet, so I can't get any really clear photos, but maybe someone can ID what this is likely to be based on these pics?
In one of the pics I have it inside of a ring for scale. It's very small.
I don't know if anyone's watchin' or if anyone knows or if this photo's not good enough, but I caught one of the little cretins! I don't have a microscope yet, so I can't get any really clear photos, but maybe someone can ID what this is likely to be based on these pics?
In one of the pics I have it inside of a ring for scale. It's very small.
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WEEK 5 OF FLOWER (DAY 29)
Hello, all! I hope y'alls' week has been good.
I'm excited to post again! I'll keep it short and sweet with this part of this week's post and put the pretty pictures here. I'll follow this up immediately with a post with photos I have questions about in case anybody has advice or comments.
Updates on this week though -
still watering about every 2-3 days with my homemade organic fertilizer mix, the Steinernema feltiae nematodes are presumably still hard at work, and I FINALLY GOT MY LIGHT. Spiderfarmer SE 7000. I'm beyond stoked! The only question now is the worrisome power bill, but hopefully that brings no troubles. 730 watts from the wall of LED goodness and stress simultaneously.
Hello, all! I hope y'alls' week has been good.
I'm excited to post again! I'll keep it short and sweet with this part of this week's post and put the pretty pictures here. I'll follow this up immediately with a post with photos I have questions about in case anybody has advice or comments.
Updates on this week though -
still watering about every 2-3 days with my homemade organic fertilizer mix, the Steinernema feltiae nematodes are presumably still hard at work, and I FINALLY GOT MY LIGHT. Spiderfarmer SE 7000. I'm beyond stoked! The only question now is the worrisome power bill, but hopefully that brings no troubles. 730 watts from the wall of LED goodness and stress simultaneously.
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WEEK 5 OF FLOWER (DAY 29)
Okay, so these photos are going to require a little explanation.
The first ones are of two DIFFERENT plants. They are both (thus far) the best contenders for "best plant." My question is this - do you think the plant with the obvious lack of visible tops should have its fan leaves pruned? There are quite a few tops hiding just underneath them, but A) pruning now might be unnecessary stress? or B) pruning those leaves won't actually boost size or potency of the underlying tops? Additionally I am curious as to what I assumptions I can make based on these plants' appearances. Is the one that "shows" more tops showing better traits or is this JUST an expression of uneven pruning/training? They were both treated almost identically. These are things I don't have species cultivation experience to know so any comments on this are welcomed.
The other photos are obviously close ups of leaves that are unhealthy. As I mentioned before I have been dilute fertilizing (8oz/~0.25L per 1gallon/~3.75L of water) per plant every 2-3 days now as my watering routine. I feel that based on these plants' dark hue of green, leaf clawing and slight browning (roughly 2 leaves per plant) I am over fertilizing them with nitrogen, and so I am going to skip feeding for the next watering and then reduce the amount of mix I give them each time to half as much per gallon of water. This will be 4oz fertilizer liquid to each 1 gallon of water every 2-3 days. Each plants takes about 1 gallon of fluid to fully soak the pot every watering. Do you think that my assessment and course of action are appropriate? Do you see signs of other nutrient deficiencies or excesses that I am missing based on the photos? Of note as well, the new growth that is sprouting on the tops seems healthy and green thus far and not clawed or browning - the trouble leaves appear to be 2-3 nodes down, but they're there still.
I also have concerns about tent temperature. The tent is getting down to as low as 61F/16.1C at night. This is not good. It is going to get colder as Winter reaches full swing. Does anyone have ideas to keep temperature up without running a space heater? Power use + fire hazard = BAD. I am currently planning on cutting into the air ducting above the tents and pulling my air intake(s) from there as it connects to the house and would at the very least pull air from the somewhat temperature controlled house if not gaining extra heat from the heat AC running.
I'd very much like to know what you (yes, YOU) think as I am by no means a master at this. I think it's safe to say that we are all still learning and always will be to some extent.
As always thank you for looking and extra thanks to anyone who pipes up on all this.
Okay, so these photos are going to require a little explanation.
The first ones are of two DIFFERENT plants. They are both (thus far) the best contenders for "best plant." My question is this - do you think the plant with the obvious lack of visible tops should have its fan leaves pruned? There are quite a few tops hiding just underneath them, but A) pruning now might be unnecessary stress? or B) pruning those leaves won't actually boost size or potency of the underlying tops? Additionally I am curious as to what I assumptions I can make based on these plants' appearances. Is the one that "shows" more tops showing better traits or is this JUST an expression of uneven pruning/training? They were both treated almost identically. These are things I don't have species cultivation experience to know so any comments on this are welcomed.
The other photos are obviously close ups of leaves that are unhealthy. As I mentioned before I have been dilute fertilizing (8oz/~0.25L per 1gallon/~3.75L of water) per plant every 2-3 days now as my watering routine. I feel that based on these plants' dark hue of green, leaf clawing and slight browning (roughly 2 leaves per plant) I am over fertilizing them with nitrogen, and so I am going to skip feeding for the next watering and then reduce the amount of mix I give them each time to half as much per gallon of water. This will be 4oz fertilizer liquid to each 1 gallon of water every 2-3 days. Each plants takes about 1 gallon of fluid to fully soak the pot every watering. Do you think that my assessment and course of action are appropriate? Do you see signs of other nutrient deficiencies or excesses that I am missing based on the photos? Of note as well, the new growth that is sprouting on the tops seems healthy and green thus far and not clawed or browning - the trouble leaves appear to be 2-3 nodes down, but they're there still.
I also have concerns about tent temperature. The tent is getting down to as low as 61F/16.1C at night. This is not good. It is going to get colder as Winter reaches full swing. Does anyone have ideas to keep temperature up without running a space heater? Power use + fire hazard = BAD. I am currently planning on cutting into the air ducting above the tents and pulling my air intake(s) from there as it connects to the house and would at the very least pull air from the somewhat temperature controlled house if not gaining extra heat from the heat AC running.
I'd very much like to know what you (yes, YOU) think as I am by no means a master at this. I think it's safe to say that we are all still learning and always will be to some extent.
As always thank you for looking and extra thanks to anyone who pipes up on all this.
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WEEK 6 OF FLOWER (DAY 36)
Hello again! It's Saturday!
Things look like they're going quite well. The buds are starting to really shape up, and the aroma is increasing in strength although it isn't particularly strong. Part of me wonders how much of it I'm smelling is the plants and how much of it is the dirt and fertilizer mix I'm using. Anyway - down to pertinent notes.
1) Ventilation - I hooked up intake ventilation from the main air vents, and that seems to keep night temperatures above 63F. This is good, and I hope this can keep up throughout the winter since it's going to get real cold soon. I wish it would keep above 69F at night, but with the heat being run so little it is what it is. Hopefully 63F minimum temp isn't necessarily a problem. It looks like temps during the day are around 71-73F which seems ideal. Humidity ranges from 49-55%.
2) Pests - The gnats are really annoying. They are common on the soil, so I set out vinegar traps that thus far seem ineffective, and I'm VERY disappointed with the nematodes I purchased as they seemed to have no effect. The gnats don't seem to be slowing the plants down, but we'll see.
3) Pruning - I pruned off a bunch of sucker branches that were choking underneath the canopy or were clearly wasting nutrients heading to better main colas. I also pruned away all of the fan leaves that were blocking light from the cola branches, but I left all fan leaves that were otherwise out of the way. The pruning was a little extensive but they didn't seem to freak out from it and so far no bananas.
4) Fertilization - It's really hard to ready these plants. Some of the fan leaves are blanching yellow and look like they're dying, and some of the plants look like they're a less dark green color which makes me want to fertilize on the next watering, but other plants are still darker (though healthy?) green, and it makes me worry I may nitrogen burn some with my fertilization mix. Maybe I'm overthinking it. The plants seem to be doing well overall. I think I'll fertilize half dose from here on as was the plan, and I'll just see how they react.
5) Aromas - Most of the plants seem to have the same citrusy smell when rubbing a stem for the sniff test, but one of them seems to have a different smell - not dissimilar to a hazy New England IPA which is quite nice. Hoppy/grapefruit almost. Perhaps it's a bit of my imagination, but I noticed it more strongly when pruning them and getting my hands covered with gunk which while delightfully fragrant was frustrating to try to get off until I washed my hands with isopropyl alcohol.
That's basically it for this week. I'd really like to hear your thoughts on these things as I can't help but feel as though I'm stumbling through this with one eye open, and I'd really like to maximize potential and learn better practices. I already know how I'm going to run the next flowering which will be featuring my Bruce Banner Fast Version seeds from Homegrown Cannabis Co. Those seedlings are vegging in another tent still. As always, I appreciate y'all looking, and I hope to hear from you. Thanks!
Hello again! It's Saturday!
Things look like they're going quite well. The buds are starting to really shape up, and the aroma is increasing in strength although it isn't particularly strong. Part of me wonders how much of it I'm smelling is the plants and how much of it is the dirt and fertilizer mix I'm using. Anyway - down to pertinent notes.
1) Ventilation - I hooked up intake ventilation from the main air vents, and that seems to keep night temperatures above 63F. This is good, and I hope this can keep up throughout the winter since it's going to get real cold soon. I wish it would keep above 69F at night, but with the heat being run so little it is what it is. Hopefully 63F minimum temp isn't necessarily a problem. It looks like temps during the day are around 71-73F which seems ideal. Humidity ranges from 49-55%.
2) Pests - The gnats are really annoying. They are common on the soil, so I set out vinegar traps that thus far seem ineffective, and I'm VERY disappointed with the nematodes I purchased as they seemed to have no effect. The gnats don't seem to be slowing the plants down, but we'll see.
3) Pruning - I pruned off a bunch of sucker branches that were choking underneath the canopy or were clearly wasting nutrients heading to better main colas. I also pruned away all of the fan leaves that were blocking light from the cola branches, but I left all fan leaves that were otherwise out of the way. The pruning was a little extensive but they didn't seem to freak out from it and so far no bananas.
4) Fertilization - It's really hard to ready these plants. Some of the fan leaves are blanching yellow and look like they're dying, and some of the plants look like they're a less dark green color which makes me want to fertilize on the next watering, but other plants are still darker (though healthy?) green, and it makes me worry I may nitrogen burn some with my fertilization mix. Maybe I'm overthinking it. The plants seem to be doing well overall. I think I'll fertilize half dose from here on as was the plan, and I'll just see how they react.
5) Aromas - Most of the plants seem to have the same citrusy smell when rubbing a stem for the sniff test, but one of them seems to have a different smell - not dissimilar to a hazy New England IPA which is quite nice. Hoppy/grapefruit almost. Perhaps it's a bit of my imagination, but I noticed it more strongly when pruning them and getting my hands covered with gunk which while delightfully fragrant was frustrating to try to get off until I washed my hands with isopropyl alcohol.
That's basically it for this week. I'd really like to hear your thoughts on these things as I can't help but feel as though I'm stumbling through this with one eye open, and I'd really like to maximize potential and learn better practices. I already know how I'm going to run the next flowering which will be featuring my Bruce Banner Fast Version seeds from Homegrown Cannabis Co. Those seedlings are vegging in another tent still. As always, I appreciate y'all looking, and I hope to hear from you. Thanks!
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Did u see any damage on the plants. Doesn't look like spidermite imo(6legs not 8) but the photo isn't clear
Hello!
No, I don't see any damage to the plants that could reasonably be attributed to the pests - absolutely no webbing on the leaves or branches. It was so hard to get a good photo of it since it could fit through the eye of a needle.
I am sort of thinking that it is a harmless "soil mite." It certainly wasn't a fungus gnat larvae although I'm sure gnat larvae are in the soil since there are plenty of gnats in the tent now. Nematodes had negligible or no effect. The gnats came after that photo was taken though.
WEEK 7 OF FLOWER (DAY 43)
Well. This week has sucked. Pretty obvious at this point they're starving for nitrogen, and that's pretty much the problem. I guess I shouldn't have let them go without nutrients for a week. Two of them are VERY sensitive to nutes so they didn't get fertilizer today, but the other three did. I expect they'll recover just fine, but boy. . . I did not want to see that much yellow when I opened the tent today.
Temperatures are stable, the gnats are less numerous today, the light is great. . . I just need to get the nutrients dialed in.
On the plus side, they're getting a bit more fragrant. Not sure how far into flowering most plants get before they absolutely blow a room up with smell, but it's just "pretty aromatic" so far. That, and this week the plants started to really look like they had "bud" on 'em. I've finally got plants that look like the grow pics I've seen online.
RIP leaves. . . You will be missed. But live and learn. Next week will be better.
Well. This week has sucked. Pretty obvious at this point they're starving for nitrogen, and that's pretty much the problem. I guess I shouldn't have let them go without nutrients for a week. Two of them are VERY sensitive to nutes so they didn't get fertilizer today, but the other three did. I expect they'll recover just fine, but boy. . . I did not want to see that much yellow when I opened the tent today.
Temperatures are stable, the gnats are less numerous today, the light is great. . . I just need to get the nutrients dialed in.
On the plus side, they're getting a bit more fragrant. Not sure how far into flowering most plants get before they absolutely blow a room up with smell, but it's just "pretty aromatic" so far. That, and this week the plants started to really look like they had "bud" on 'em. I've finally got plants that look like the grow pics I've seen online.
RIP leaves. . . You will be missed. But live and learn. Next week will be better.
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They are looking good. U could try to give the lighter colored plants a little extra of your homebrew fertilizer and see if they get a little darker. But i won't give them to much at this time of flower. I usually stopped fertilizing 2-3 weeks when i used the canna bio fertilizer before i cut them and give just plain water. Silver lotus is described at 10 weeks plant so imo nutes for max 1-2 weeks now.
Maybe @Jellyfish or @swampthing can share how long they let the silver lotus go?
Maybe @Jellyfish or @swampthing can share how long they let the silver lotus go?
Thank you! I did fertilize the light colored ones extra last night while the darker ones got none. They've only just begun their 7th week, so they should have nearly a full calendar month before chop day. I had figured I'd let them starve on the last 10-14 days.
It's interesting to see the difference on phenotypes. Two of them really don't like heavy nutes, but three do. It makes me wonder which is the more preferable trait for when I'm selecting the best mother plant in case two of them are close in regards to yield and effects.
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As a homegrower i only look at effects and taste. As u said a hungry plant well be less easy to fuck up but thats the only advantage imo. The price of nutes is so less that it will only make a difference for large industrial style grower.
I prefer to starve my plants min 2 weeks with ferts what imo produces the best smoke. Fertilizing till the end always produced a noticable bitter/tary taste for me when smoked.
Do u have a microscope to check the trichomes? A small kids toy should do the trick.
I also noticed that ~2-3 weeks before they are ready the plants need less water.
Do u have a microscope to check the trichomes? A small kids toy should do the trick.
I also noticed that ~2-3 weeks before they are ready the plants need less water.
I agree on those points - especially since I make my own fertilizer and a batch of nutrients for at least two flowering cycles will have cost me a maximum of like 7 dollars.
I don't have a microscope yet, but I have plans to get a pocket microscope before they are close to chop day. Worst case scenario I can just let them go a little long just to be sure or eyeball it.
I have heard that with organic nutrients you don't NEED to do a starve before harvest, but I have my doubts on that as well. I reckon I'll starve them a week or two before just to be safe and then do test plants when I'm working with clones. That will be a little trickier next time though as I'm switching to a 5x5x2 raised bed after this. I'm excited about that. I plan to have three rows (one on two sides and one in the middle) and have them trellis as one main stem (no branches) along pvc pipes stretching across the bed. Sort of like a screen of green but none of the plants will struggle to maintain extra branches so they'll just have pinecones of nug raising up off the "vines" growing across the canopy.
I don't have a microscope yet, but I have plans to get a pocket microscope before they are close to chop day. Worst case scenario I can just let them go a little long just to be sure or eyeball it.
I have heard that with organic nutrients you don't NEED to do a starve before harvest, but I have my doubts on that as well. I reckon I'll starve them a week or two before just to be safe and then do test plants when I'm working with clones. That will be a little trickier next time though as I'm switching to a 5x5x2 raised bed after this. I'm excited about that. I plan to have three rows (one on two sides and one in the middle) and have them trellis as one main stem (no branches) along pvc pipes stretching across the bed. Sort of like a screen of green but none of the plants will struggle to maintain extra branches so they'll just have pinecones of nug raising up off the "vines" growing across the canopy.
