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[Dave Coulier]

Another Round of Durbans

Another Round of Durbans

Well gang, after the last 15 Durban P seeds I started, I ended up with just one female. Bad luck I suppose, so Ive started more seeds. 30 in fact! Ive also decided to do another seedling feed experiment.

This time, 10 plants will be fed with 15grams of Osmocote/gallon of media, 10 more plants will be fed 7.5grams Osmocote/gallon of media, and the final 10 plants will receive 7.5grams Osmocote/g-media + 10% by VOLUME EWC. Always wanted to try out some EWC in my garden, so lets see how it does when we combine it with some Osmocote. Seedlings will be given weekly feedings of DynaGro-Grow @ 300PPM. Within 3-4 weeks we should have a pretty clear idea which group is performing best.

Ive been tired of spending so much money on WSF, and Ive enough Osmocote to last me my life, so Im gearing my garden towards more Osmocote to feed during veg life. During flowering, Ill stay lean on the Osmocote, and use more WSF feedings for greater control over fertility levels.

This run Im not using any Promix. Decided to use some SPM, amended with Calcined DE(10% by Volume), and some Rootshield as well for my base media.

Seeds were put into the media last night after an overnight soaking in a cup of water underneath the T5 lights. I hope Ill have some lil one to share in 3-5 days.

Containers were topped off to full. It kills me when I see others containers only halfway or 2/3rds full of media. The media will settle over time, so we want to maximize our volume from the get go. Not to mention the perched water table that forms in media is more detrimental when containers have shallow media depth versus deep, which is why taller containers are better for our plants than shorter ones.

 

[ReikoX]

I like the osmocote experiment your doing. I expect you will have decent results with the EWC, I've been making my own recently and having positive results.

I hope your DE works out better for you than it did for me. I used quite a bit more as a replacement for perlite, but it seemed to hold too much water and not enough air.

 

[Dave Coulier]

I like the osmocote experiment your doing. I expect you will have decent results with the EWC, I've been making my own recently and having positive results.

I hope your DE works out better for you than it did for me. I used quite a bit more as a replacement for perlite, but it seemed to hold too much water and not enough air.

I hope so too. Ive wanted to try out EWC for sometime, but never got around to it. I hope for good things from it.

Calcined DE is definitely something to be careful with. It holds LOTS of water unlike perlite, but isn't a great amendment for aeration purposes.

When using DE one should reduce how much water they provide plants. If thats not taken into consideration, it can be easy to over-water. I use it at a maximum of 10% by volume.

 

[MaryMaven]

Oh Yay! Another grow show beginning! Can't wait to see how it goes with this next 30. I'll be watching closely to see how your plants respond to the different levels of Osmocote!


Good call on the extra syringes! I'll make sure I pick up a few extra.


And Yep *nodding head in agreement* Earlier in the thread when you talked about run-off being such a waste, it made perfect sense and I've avoided it ever since. When I first pot a plant, I weigh it 'dry' before I water it in. After that, I water it in and weight it again. Then, every time I water, I weigh first, then I know exactly how much the plant is actually using and can replace just that amount and not worry about giving her too much. If she shows she is using the same amount consistently for more than two days, I up the water by 20ml at a time and see if that gets used. Once it stops going back down to near dry weight, then I know that it is getting enough for the time being. Am I making sense? I babble sometimes...


I took the Panama x Malawi and up-potted her to a 1qt pot today. She probably could have stayed in her little cell a little longer - She is so much more delicate-seeming than the brawny indica stature of the Early Bubba Hash plants. I've dubbed her 'L'il Sister'. Hopefully she will start taking off now that she has more room to expand. I'll try to remember to take the camera down and get pics of her one day soon for you since she is a little sativa girl - I'll let her fill out a little first so she can show off better. I started her so much later than the indicas because I want to put them all in flower at the same time and I know that she needs to go in smaller than them because of the way sativas stretch so much in flower.


Looking forward to see how these next 30 turn out for you!!


Peace
Maven

 

[MaryMaven]

*knock knock* Dave?


*Dave's not here, man...*


Quick question for you about the EBH plant below...The fan leaves on these are so big and dense, that even tho I topped them all of the lower branches are still in deep shade...

Would you leave it be and figure they'd grow out of there eventually, or would you remove a couple or so of the top big fans to let more light down to the branches that are trying to form? I've never had this problem before. Normally, once topped, light seems to get through to the lower area fine when they are this small, but the density and size of the top leaves are something else....


And don't be shy if you feel it is inappropriate for me to post this here for you. I just wanted YOUR advice, and wanted to make sure you saw it. If you have somewhere else you would rather I pose questions to you, just point me. I'm still learning my way around this site.


Thanks in advance!
Peace,
Maven!

 

[Dave Coulier]

We've got Durban Seedlings breaking the surface of the soil! Already 17 of the 30 have come up. I also put 21 of the containers on a heating mat, and 9 were left off. I didn't have enough space for all the plants on the mat, so I took it as an opportunity to see what effect the extra heat has on germination.

So far after 3 days since being put into soil, 15/21 have come up on the heating mat, while only 2 of 9 have broken the surface off the mat. Thats 22% for the non-mat, and 71% on the mat. Huge difference so far. Ill follow up on this as more break the surface over the next two days. Ill snap a few pics later on tonight and upload them.

 

[Dave Coulier]

*knock knock* Dave?


*Dave's not here, man...*


Quick question for you about the EBH plant below...The fan leaves on these are so big and dense, that even tho I topped them all of the lower branches are still in deep shade...


View Image


Would you leave it be and figure they'd grow out of there eventually, or would you remove a couple or so of the top big fans to let more light down to the branches that are trying to form? I've never had this problem before. Normally, once topped, light seems to get through to the lower area fine when they are this small, but the density and size of the top leaves are something else....


And don't be shy if you feel it is inappropriate for me to post this here for you. I just wanted YOUR advice, and wanted to make sure you saw it. If you have somewhere else you would rather I pose questions to you, just point me. I'm still learning my way around this site.


Thanks in advance!
Peace,
Maven!

I wouldn't recommend removing the upper fan leaves so more light gets down below. Removing fan leaves attached to a node will directly affect the growth rates of the branches connected to said node. Your lower branches may benefit from getting more light, but upper branches experience growth stunting. Someday try removing a fan leaf on one side of the plant, while leaving the other side intact. You'll typically see slower growth in the branch w/o its fan leaf.

Similar thing happens in flower if you repeat the same experiment. The bud on the side with the fan leaf will be bigger than the other side w/o a fan leaf.


A couple options are to LST it for awhile so the lower branches can be exposed to light. You'll see those lower branches take on a vertical position fairly quickly and grow faster.

You could also trigger the plants shade avoidance response by surrounding it closely with other plants. That should trigger the plant to stretch more, which will give you more light hitting lower portions of the plant.

Raising the lights further away can trigger etoliation as well helping reduce the squatness.

You're more than welcome to pose any questions here. Ill do my best to help out and provide a useful answer.

 

[MaryMaven]

Thanks, Dave! That all makes perfect sense. I didn't have a good feeling about removing those top two fans, I'm glad I asked. And good to know that even just removing the leaf would have a direct effect on the developing branches. Something I'd never considered before in gardening, so never thought to research it any.


I probably was overthinking it anyway - by this evening, you can tell that most of the branches are already starting to try to stretch out and reach for the light. I'll let them go a couple of days or so and see how it goes. Not in any hurry.


The stalks and branches of these little trees are really stiff and hard. I don't know if I COULD bend them, even gently, enough to do much good without them wanting to break. heh. When Ace described it as having a "very strong and thick structure" they weren't kidding around.


WHOOOO-HOOOOOO for 17 new babies! Hope the rest of them are close behind!!


Thanks again - have a great evening!


Peace
Maven!

 

[Dave Coulier]

Thanks, Dave! That all makes perfect sense. I didn't have a good feeling about removing those top two fans, I'm glad I asked. And good to know that even just removing the leaf would have a direct effect on the developing branches. Something I'd never considered before in gardening, so never thought to research it any.


I probably was overthinking it anyway - by this evening, you can tell that most of the branches are already starting to try to stretch out and reach for the light. I'll let them go a couple of days or so and see how it goes. Not in any hurry.


The stalks and branches of these little trees are really stiff and hard. I don't know if I COULD bend them, even gently, enough to do much good without them wanting to break. heh. When Ace described it as having a "very strong and thick structure" they weren't kidding around.


WHOOOO-HOOOOOO for 17 new babies! Hope the rest of them are close behind!!


Thanks again - have a great evening!


Peace
Maven!

Im glad to be of service. I dont blame you for not wanting to try and lst that plant. It does look pretty sturdy. Id hate for any thing to snap.

I checked on my lil ones tonight and we've got new arrivals.

Mat: 20/21 95% Germ Rate
NoMat: 5/9 55% Germ Rate

Pretty significant difference between the two groups. Ill make sure to use that heating mat from now on!

 

[MaryMaven]

Im glad to be of service. I dont blame you for not wanting to try and lst that plant. It does look pretty sturdy. Id hate for any thing to snap.

I checked on my lil ones tonight and we've got new arrivals.

Mat: 20/21 95% Germ Rate
NoMat: 5/9 55% Germ Rate

Pretty significant difference between the two groups. Ill make sure to use that heating mat from now on!

YAY for more little ones!


Yeah, I get much better germination rates on the heat mats as well. Our veg garden is HUGE - no way could I afford buy starter plants for that! We generally put in over 100 tomato plants alone! I've got 2 big nice mats I use to start with, and germ rates have really gone up since I started that!


The EBH plants were up in 2 days on the mats. When I started the PxM plant, I didn't want to get out the huge mat for one seed, so I just started it in the tray the EBH plants were in, no mat - took almost 6 days, I think, for her to arrive. Heat mats ROCK.


Peace
Maven!

 

[MaryMaven]

Here's a shot of my little Panama x Malawi girl for you...

She was a little too close to the light and started canoeing a little, moved her down and she's looking good. She's 12 days from germination now and starting to pick up speed...


Happy Sunday!


Peace
Maven!

 

[Dave Coulier]

Here's a shot of my little Panama x Malawi girl for you...


View Image


She was a little too close to the light and started canoeing a little, moved her down and she's looking good. She's 12 days from germination now and starting to pick up speed...


Happy Sunday!


Peace
Maven!

Thats a nice healthy looking seedling you got there. I hope my new batch of DP will look that nice after 2 weeks. Im a sucker for sativas so please post that lady again when she gets a lil bigger.

 

[Dave Coulier]

Durban Poison F2 Update

Durban Poison F2 Update

Everyone I wanted to share a unique seedling that came up out of these nearly 30 seeds(3 have yet to germ). And when I say unique, I mean ugly lil fucker. Reminds me of a parasite to be honest. This is the second such plant that has came out of these repro seeds. I had one like this on the last run. This isn't something they grow out of. Ive already culled this one, but I snapped some photos of it before I snuffed out its deformed life.

What a sadistic smile...

 

[Dave Coulier]

More Muties!

More Muties!

Well we ended up with 3 more trifoliate plants out of the 27 that have popped. About the same rate as the last run of seeds. 10% of plants seem to be this way, but they tend to grow out of it as they get larger. Still a sight though!

 

[Dave Coulier]

Winter is here, and if you're like me, you may be experiencing lower RH% levels, but Ive got a trick to help solve your problems. We've all heard about setting out a bowl of water to improve RH in our environments, but it works very poorly simply because the lack of surface area for water to evaporate from.

A better method, that produces much faster results is to run a towel through a spin cycle in your washer. Take that towel and hang it up in your grow environment and watch the RH rise. The towel has a tremendous amount of surface area compared to a bowl of water. I tested this last night in my drying closet, and within half an hour RH had risen by 20 points. By morning it was up nearly 30 points!

Ill be doing the same thing in my veg tent, as I dont have a humidifier in there, but I know they could use some extra humidity. Its an 8x4x8ft tent with an exhaust fan running 24/7 so its not likely to work as well as my closet(no fan), but I expect some improvement. Ill update and share how thats doing later on tonight.

 

[MaryMaven]

Awww....that's not ugly!! Reminds me of a little bitty calla lily coming on! Wish you hadn't culled it, I would have loved to have seen what it looked like a couple of weeks or so from now. And I just love those little trifoliates you keep sprouting - just beautiful. Those are great pictures! And just look at her already showing off!


Thanks for the reminder about the wet towel. I've been doing the standard coffee can of water in front of the little heater I use in the general grow room. It's been working fine but we are heading into a pretty good cold snap and that means the heater is going to be running a lot more; I know the can of water won't be able to keep up. I'll take a towel down with me today and be ready! I have a humidifier running in the actual grow space but it's going to have to come out next time I up-pot as there just won't be room for it in there any more. The towel will work perfectly!


Peace
Maven!

 

[MaryMaven]

So it is written, so it shall be done....

So it is written, so it shall be done....

Thats a nice healthy looking seedling you got there. I hope my new batch of DP will look that nice after 2 weeks. Im a sucker for sativas so please post that lady again when she gets a lil bigger.

Showing off her stuff just a little - I have GOT to dig my macro lens out one day soon...

 

[Dave Coulier]

How Dave does Cloning

How Dave does Cloning

I wanted to provide a tutorial of how I do clones for those out there that may struggle with cloning. I know I struggled with cloning for a long time. I tried rockwool cubes, but found them to hold too much water, and I ended up with poor results. I tried rapid rooters, and they worked better than RW, but they too had a tendency to hold too much water for my liking. Sure I could squeeze them out, but that would end up with me having rooters that then dry out too quickly. It was just difficult to find the right balance for me.

So I continued to try new things, and decided why not just use the media that the clone is going to end up in. It'll save me money by not buying any rapid rooters if it works. I dont have to worry about transplanting the rooted clone into media either. Its already done!

Lets get to the steps now..

Step 1: A cup of water to put the freshly clipped cutting into. The rooting powder adheres much better when the cutting is wet too. A cup of alcohol to keep the scissors free of pathogens. Cheap rooting powder from Home Depot. It doesn't have to be anything special for this method to work.

Step 2: I like to take cuttings from lower on the plant for my clones. It lets me remove a sucker branch from the plant that isn't going to catch up to the canopy.

Step 3: Most of the cuttings leaves and shoots are removed at this stage. I leave just 2 to 3 nodes worth of growth at the top and cut the leaves in half. This will slow down transpiration rates helping retain turgidity of the cuttings.

Step 4: The clone is once more dipped into the water and then I dip the cutting into the container of rooting powder. Yep right in there. Get it nice and covered and I do a light tap to shake off the excess. One thing I DO NOT do at this stage is to score the stem in anyway. No vertical incisions, or peeling back part of the epidermis in anyway. I used to do that because thats what I always read works..Then I started to think...why am I making the cutting even more exposed to pathogens???? It seems damaging the epidermis is a great way to invite pathogens into our cuttings. I would often get cuttings that would rot near areas I scored, etc. So I stopped doing that. The only cut is the cut where we separate the cutting from the mother plant. Maybe a second if I need to reduce the height of the cutting some, but I never seek to damage the epidermis beyond that.

Step 5: Time to put the cutting into the media. The media Im currently using is 10%EWC/10%Calcined DE/80%SPM. Sprinkle a lil rootshield in there, along with 7.5grams of Osmocote/gallon, and were ready to stick that cutting in there. I use a small bamboo stake to make the hole for the cutting. Once the cutting is inserted I slightly compress the media around it.

More to follow.

 

[Dave Coulier]

Step 6: Now were using the very same dixie cups to act as our humidity domes for the cuttings. Its very important to poke some holes in the top. If you dont, you have a high risk of fungi/mold growing on the cuttings and eventual death. I experienced about 20 losses this way because they didn't get enough circulation. Even when taking the top off 2x a day for a few moments wasn't enough to keep all alive. Oddly enough some would not struggle at all and would come out of cloning still very healthy with no fungi/mold visible. Maybe its a way to test plants for resistance to pathogens. Now with the 4 holes poked in and removing the tops once a day I rarely have the mold issues now, and my strike rate has improved to 90%+.

It would usually take 1-2 weeks to see roots on the sides of the containers during summer months, which is why were using the heating mat now that its Winter. Im hoping to see roots even quicker with the mat.

After getting all the cuttings finished in their containers, I do recommend checking on them an hour later, and make sure all are still turgid. If you come back and find one is no longer, take a small amount of water and water around the clone. Itll spring back to life by morning. I had the same issue last night, and I gave the cutting 20ml of water around it, and by morning it was turgid again.

One thing I really like about these dixie cups is that some light gets through but not alot, which allows cuttings to remain green and healthy for much longer. Sometimes the cuttings come out two weeks later, and they appear like I had just cut them the day before, except now they're fully rooted. I also keep the cuttings on the far ends of my T5's where the light output is less. Once rooted, then we can move them under more light.

 

[ReikoX]

Sure do it the cheap and easy way. After spending all that money on my cloner, I'm not switching methods now.