Footsteps In Becoming an Expert Grower

[Biosystem]

More from the previous post.
All free homemade fertilizer and epsom salt.

 

[Mars Hydro Led]

I'm coming up on the 1 year mark later this month. I have done one full run before about a decade ago, but that was with poor equipment and even poorer genetics. I've done a ton of research on how to do it and what practices work the best, but as I'm sure you can imagine, hypothetical understanding of something is quite different from practical experience. Overall, everything has gone amazingly except for the invincible spider mites infestation I had last year which basically stunted my experience for half a year, this most recent root rot problem (which isn't really that bad) and my struggle to clone cannabis reliably, but I think the cloning problem comes from the plants possibly being weak or the clones being too small. I am unsure. For whatever reason, most of the cuttings just fail to thrive and wither to brown sticks of sadness. I still get some to do okay, so I take more than I need so that I can get a viable clone. I keep the humidity between 85-95%, temps at ~75F and expose them to gentle light. I've tried the Klone King box, which was a laughable embarrassment - it's trash, pure water in a jar, which failed horribly, placing in soil - another failure and now a perlite box which has worked better but still yielded low success rate. But I at least got some rooted cuttings so. . . Yay.

How do you replenish your nutrient solution during cloning?

 

[Biosystem]

How do you replenish your nutrient solution during cloning?

I don't use any nutrients in my perlite clone box. With the nutrients I use, it would cause a microorganism freak show pretty quickly I'd imagine, and honestly I figured adding nutrients to a plant with no roots would likely just fry it somehow. I do use clonex root gel though. I'm unconvinced of its benefit thus far as cuttings seem to do as well or as poorly regardless of its application.

Edit: Maybe I should use fertilizer when rooting? I haven't heard of any use of fertilizer when rooting in the sources I check. With where I live, I'm left with YouTube, podcasts, forums, online articles, and information surrounding somewhat similar species like regular garden plants. I had considered using some of my fish fertilizer (high Nitrogen brown squeezings from aquarium filters - very potent and can save a hungry plant's life or burn a healthy one), but after encountering minor mold appearances in the perlite box, I figured it was too delicate of a system to introduce extra microbes. Maybe I'm wrong?

 

[chilliwilli]

Looking good.

 

[Scrublicious]

Howdy, y'all. I remembered to take photos tonight. It's Tuesday, and it's the end of Week 5 of flower for these girls. This is what five full weeks looks like on 'em. Looks like some will be done sooner than other. Curious to see how they all turn out. If anyone notices any of the phenos acting remarkably, well, make a remark upon it. I'm still looking for clues suggesting which would make for the best mother plant although the smoke test will be much of the deciding influence.

Also, a single Strawberry seed that has sprouted.

Looking very good! Keep up the good work!

 

[Biosystem]

Anyone got any ideas as to what's wrong with this vegging plant? I think it's phosphorous deficiency, so I fed it a high P fertilizer and epsom salt.
Also, I repotted my FVBB clones! #4 was a vigorous cloner.

 

[Biosystem]

Good news! It was phosphorous deficiency! The plant t is bouncing back quickly! Also, I have a question for y'all.

So, I am looking for information about how the size of a plant when it goes into flower impacts the size of the buds it produces.

Obviously harvest weight will be higher if the plant is larger and can make more flowers, but would the bud sizes on a smaller plant be proportional to the size of the plant? As an example, I currently have several different plants in flower. One of the specimens is represented with multiple cloned plants. These were all very small when put into flower compared to be other plants currently running in this cycle. They have flowered quickly and are very frosty. Both things are great signs for what I was looking for. But they have made very, very little bud. I am wondering if I let clones of that plant get larger if they would make more bud IN RATIO to their leaf/stem mass or if the ratio would remain the same and I would end up with larger plant that still has a poor bud to leaf ratio?

I hope this is clearly put. If anyone has any info about this sort of thing - even good anecdotal experience, let me know. Thanks!

 

[Biosystem]

It is Tuesday. I remembered again. Behold the completion of the 6th week of flower! At this point, I have strong leanings as to which plants are worth running again. But I'm still withholding final judgement until after the smoke test in case anything throws a hail mary. If any o' y'all got questions or comments, please leave 'em below. I'm lookin' for 'em. Thanks for any input.

PS - the extra weird seedling is a strawberry seedling, and the little flowering plant is, well, just shitty. She never seemed to get roots and go. She just stayed runty even though the other clones of the same plant took off.

 

[Biosystem]

Well, folks. Some interesting albeit disappointing developments. I would have guessed these plants were closer to harvest date than they were, but I took microscope shots, and it looks like even the farthest along are still a ways away from being ready. Anyway, I hope y'all are bein' safe and having a good Summer!
Enjoy the photos.

 

[Biosystem]

Howdy, y'all. I have more eye candy for you. Wrapped up week 7 of flower for the FVBBs. But first, you need to eat your vegetables. And by that I mean you have to look at my vegging plants first. Sad, yes, but I'm documenting them nonetheless. The new mystery mother is pissy because she got flattened for lighting and she dried out a bit. Fed her tonight, so she'll be boomin' by tomorrow I reckon. Pruners in the photo are for scale. The wee ones are all of the clones I was able to successfully take. I am very very hopeful I can get them to grow quicker since there's not much time before the flowering tent is idle.

You know. . . I think the reason all my clones turn yellow and sad in the cloning box is because the light is too strong where it sits in the corner of the veg tent. I think they're trying to focus on the light rather than putting out roots. But maybe that's bro science I made up, idk. Humidity is 90+%, temp is 27C/80F, PAR is. . . Who am I kidding? I don't have money for a PAR meter. Anyway, on with the show!

 

[Biosystem]

WEEK 7 FLOWER

The tables seem to have turned for #2, the shrimpy one. I think with a good veg she might be the frontrunner on speed, frostiness, good smell and yield for its size. The jury's still out on all that though, so we'll see. As for the rest of them, it appears there's a lot of variation of flowering time between them, and I have to say I'm a little disappointed by the amount of sugaring going on for these. As has been mentioned in this thread, it ain't a big deal if the medicine is good, but as someone who very much appreciates the aesthetic qualities of a good cannabis plant I have to say it's lackluster thus far. Then again, these gals didn't even look close to done based on the microscopy of the trichomes. Perhaps as they finish out their cycle they'll pull through for me. I ain't givin' up hope just yet, but I'm definitely not feeding them anymore. They've been eatin' like worked hogs for 7 weeks now.


Two questions for anyone out there who gives a damn -
1) How do I get the yellow tint to stay out of my photos? Do I have to just lift the lights for photo time or is there a handy setting y'all know of?
2) What's the deal with the crispy fan leaves on the runty ones? Looks like nutrient burn to me? But it might be depletion for them given they look the closest to being done out of all 4 phenos.

 

[Bona Fortuna]

Hello! Very nice garden you got there, looks to be the hitting the home stretch now.

1) I can’t help you there. I’m not very good with photography, but perhaps lights off, flash on picture?

2) looks like a nutrient/ph issue. What’s your phosphorus and potassium use looking like?

 

[Biosystem]

Hello! Very nice garden you got there, looks to be the hitting the home stretch now.

1) I can’t help you there. I’m not very good with photography, but perhaps lights off, flash on picture?

2) looks like a nutrient/ph issue. What’s your phosphorus and potassium use looking like?

Re: Nutrients - I make my own organic fertilizer for flowering using decomposed fruits, fish/shellfish, bones and anything sweet like juice or molasses. For nitrogen I use fresh fish poop and decomposed vegetative material like grass clippings, leaves and the like. I've burned my plants with too much of the stuff a few times before, so I feel like I've been skirting the edge on overfeeding this flower cycle. They've gotten a TON of PK material, and admittedly probably more nitrogen than they should have gotten in the first 1/3 of the flowering cycle. Seems like a lot of people don't do Nitrogen fertilizer at all in flower? Seems like it would be rough on the stretch to me, but what do I know?

The soil's peat, pumice and compost. When I first mixed it, I kicked it off with some good stuff like neem meal, kelp meal, crustacean meal, gypsum, and a couple other things that I currently forget. After this cycle, I'll have a barrel of, well, pond muck that I'll be able to add to the soil as insanely nutrient rich compost.

As to the pH, I don't know it. All I've got is a cheap little vivosun pH stick meter, but I've gotten such wild readings off of that thing that I guess I lost all faith in it and haven't picked it up since.

 

[Biosystem]

Hello! Very nice garden you got there, looks to be the hitting the home stretch now.

1) I can’t help you there. I’m not very good with photography, but perhaps lights off, flash on picture?

2) looks like a nutrient/ph issue. What’s your phosphorus and potassium use looking like?

Damn, man! You're growing that Zamaldelica too? That thing is a tree! The strain seems popular on these forums, and I'm hella curious about it.

 

[Bona Fortuna]

Damn, man! You're growing that Zamaldelica too? That thing is a tree! The strain seems popular on these forums, and I'm hella curious about it.

You have a very rich soil mixture, sounds like a pretty damn good super soil mix. I like the ingredients you’re using. The pond muck being most interesting, are you going to dry it up at all before you use it? Very rich, but I’d worry about pathogens and buggies.
Haha fair enough with the Ph meter.

Some growers go minimal nitrogen, some use it till a certain point of flowering, some till the end. Different strokes. I’ve tried minimal nitrogen through stretch and nitrogen up till bolting/real bud formation. Minimal nitrogen had great flavors and a smoother smoke to me, but diminished yields because the plant self consumes. Nitrogen till bolting was better for yield in my experience. No discernible difference in stretch between the two either.

 

[Bona Fortuna]

Damn, man! You're growing that Zamaldelica too? That thing is a tree! The strain seems popular on these forums, and I'm hella curious about it.

Thank you! On hiatus from growing this year.
I grew the regular zamaldelica back in 2018. The regulars will have more variety, fem are more uniform. I can’t access the pictures from my albums anymore, but hot damn… Zamaldelica.
I have a pretty high tolerance and I thought they were very strong buds. Lots of resin. Somewhat edgier/nervous high to me, which I really enjoy. Absolutely recommended if you’re interested.
The taste/smell was odd to get used to at first, but I missed it when it was gone.
The more recent in the album are 2020 Panama/Banghi, which finished a notch below zamaldelica in raw power, but was better rounded and less edgier. Good for the soul.

 

[Biosystem]

@Bona Fortuna
Thank you for the compliments and perspective on Nitrogen in flower! I will have to keep that in mind.

As to the Zamaldelica - I have considered it, but when I try my hand at a pure Sativa, I'm holding my trigger pulling for the Malawi feminized. I've wanted to try it for over a decade now. But Zamaldelica seems to be making waves, so I have kept my eye on it.

And for the fertilizer, the soil is likely depleted of most of the original additives, so at this point it's ALMOST like I'm growing hydroponically in peat with homemade liquid fertilizers. It's been weird, but I've been experimenting with growing Canna is on ZERO fertilizer bills. None. The pond muck that will be added is going to be composted for a while, but it'll still have bio activity which is honestly preferable imo. Bugs won't be bad UNLESS there are spider mites, but that's doubtful after a compost period and such. We'll see.

 

[Biosystem]

Once I get the funds together, I am going to switch to hydroponics, but I need to find a good way to have multiple DWC buckets hooked up to a mutual, recirculating reservoir. Still research to do and funding to gather, so it's okay. Once I get a solid understanding of how to navigate hydroponics with regular nutrients, I want to experiment with my homemade fertilizers in a DWC settings, but they're SO microbially active I have reservations as to its efficacy.

 

[Bona Fortuna]

@Bona Fortuna
Thank you for the compliments and perspective on Nitrogen in flower! I will have to keep that in mind.

As to the Zamaldelica - I have considered it, but when I try my hand at a pure Sativa, I'm holding my trigger pulling for the Malawi feminized. I've wanted to try it for over a decade now. But Zamaldelica seems to be making waves, so I have kept my eye on it.

And for the fertilizer, the soil is likely depleted of most of the original additives, so at this point it's ALMOST like I'm growing hydroponically in peat with homemade liquid fertilizers. It's been weird, but I've been experimenting with growing Canna is on ZERO fertilizer bills. None. The pond muck that will be added is going to be composted for a while, but it'll still have bio activity which is honestly preferable imo. Bugs won't be bad UNLESS there are spider mites, but that's doubtful after a compost period and such. We'll see.

Youre welcome! You are doing an awesome job and have some really nice flowers.

The Malawi is another one that is exceptionally good. Streches less than Zamaldelica, slightly less branchy. Had a less desirable smell compared to zamaldelica to me. Outright more potent than Zamaldelica with an in your face type stone.
Has a burnout tendency, I always felt sleepy and worn out after smoking the Malawi. Sleepy/worn out was less prevalent with Zamaldelica.
Malawi likes her nutrients, much more than other Ace offerings in my experience.

Honestly, go with both if you can haha. They are both a real treat to work with. Can’t say enough good things about Ace, Dubi, their team and their seed lines. Solid genetics, solid people.

As far as your soil, I’d be concerned of Ph drift mostly. Looks like that could be something going on. It sounds like you have an exceptionally rich soil, so I wouldn’t be concerned of nutrition.
Do you have any amount of drainage for the kiddie pool?

Best of luck if you do switch to hydro, it’s always been a little too complicated for my understanding, but people knock it out of the park with hydro. I’ve heard it can be easier to maintain than soil, but never been brave enough.

 

[JanKowalski]

I agree, Malawi it's a nice strain to grow. I didn't have much experience, and i don't have still , but was really easy to grow, outdoor or indoor.
Fully suggested

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