GuerrillaRed's First Grow (Skunkberry in Soil)

[GuerrillaRed]

The white stuff is crystally looking. I can't see any pests but then again I'm not really sure what I'm looking for. However, I don't see any bugs or anything moving around the plants. For the last few hours I've been perplexed as to how a invasion could happen. Then I remembered the plant I accidently dropped lost about a quarter of it's soil. In a panic I ran out to the greenhouse to get some more soil mix which was left out in a open container for the last two weeks. That would also explain why this plant is starting to trip out and the rest aren't, at least not yet. Now I'm not sure if I'm invested yet but I'm just going to say that it would make sense if I am. I'm really fucking pissed off about this because this has been my biggest fear all along. I'm not going to panic until I get professional opinion though.

 

[GuerrillaRed]

I determined it was a root problem through research and consultation with experienced individuals. It makes sense, I dropped the plant and did fuck up the root system a little bit (and was also surprised how strong it had become at the same time) and now the plant is reacting to this. The plant is starting to look better though as it's showing a better color and most of the white crystally stuff is gone.

I have to say I love this hobby, it's fun researching and investing a lot of time in your plants. I'm already starting to think about running a veg and flower room so I can have a lot of experiments going at once.

 

[GuerrillaRed]

Day 18 Veg

75 Degrees
50% humidity

 

[GuerrillaRed]

It's been fascinating watching these plants grow and even though I think they're growing a little slow, watching the variation in how they grow from one plant to another is fascinating. The one plant I know is Skunkberry from the Vancouver Seed Bank is growing with reckless abandon. The rest are bagseeds from various donations that seem to be happy just doing their thing.

By the way, this soil mix is the fucking shiz-nite! My biggest fear as a n00b grower is figuring out watering and trying not to over or underwater. However, with the soil mix I've gone with every day I look at my plants and they look happy regardless of whatever the fuck my n00b ass is doing. I really credit having a large percentage of coco coir in the mix for making this relatively painless so far.

Probably going to transplant to bigger containers to encourage growth.

Thinking about building a flowering tent in my room for the 1,000 watt HPS. I still have that greenhouse and I feel reasonably certain that temps will be manageable running 12/12 in the cooler parts of the day but since having a horrific time out there at the beginning of this process, I'm feeling a little iffy about it and considering all my options.

I think I'm going to veg my plants for 40 days and then flower for 60 days.

Hoping to harvest on September 11th-15th

 

[GuerrillaRed]

Day 20

 

[Weedninja]

Are you pH-ing your tap water? It looks like you're having some lockout issues. EDIT: I just read that you are, what are you pH-ing to? You might want to consider doing a runoff test. Something funky is going on.

 

[GuerrillaRed]

My plants are having some real issues, I think they're dying. They're starting to wilt and droop and they're way behind where they should be. I did a PH test today and found I have a run off of 7.0 from the plants. I was just working on pics and info for the infirmary.

This really fucking sucks.

 

[GuerrillaRed]

I posted a thread in the infirmary. They're wilting at an incredible rate and seem smaller and less alive today. I think they've bought the farm. I'll give it a few more days and see what the experts think in the infirmary... but I think I've failed again

 

[GuerrillaRed]

You know what dude? Fuck it, I'm going back to Hydro. I had a much better time trying to do hydro in a DWC bucket and that seemed much simpler and forgiving than soil. Also seemed much faster and easier to deal with fuck ups. I'll give these plants another day or two to see what happens but I think I'm going to prepare the greenhouse for a couple of DWC buckets. I'm sad this fucked up, but I got a lot of experience from trying it this way. But fuck it, I'm going to start thinking DWC and hydro.

 

[GuerrillaRed]

Hey dudes, just wanted to give an update and not disappear into that good night... to quote Bob Dylan... no Dylan Thomas...

The soil plants that were having issues, I put outside to let nature do it's thing and euthanize the plants. However, something amazing happen. I just left the plants alone, periodically checking in on them and to my surprise after about two weeks or so, they started coming back to life and looking really healthy. Even more to my amazement, they started flowering about a week or two ago and are growing like crazy now. I think I have two girls out of the eight for sure (the two I started a week before the others, and MY FAVORITE plant made it and is a girl!!! All that time and work and she made all the way so happy about that) and three more are showing girl characteristics (I think one is a hermie though) And only one for sure male out of the bunch. (The other two committed suicide... one literally jumped off the table it was sitting on. The sheer strangeness of that has perplexed me, but it was the sickest one of the bunch at the time.)

I'm really glad I had a fuck-up like this my first time because it taught me so much. It mainly just got me in tune with my plants and made me realize the best thing is to just let them live and do their thing. I water my plants once every couple of days now and they look happy.

I also have one plant going in the DWC (I made a DWC out of a cooler like the ones you see at a football game. You guys should seriously consider this as there's virtually no maintence and you never exposed the reservoir water. You use the spout at the bottom to pour a little water out for PH ratings and you pour the water and nutes in through a hole in the lid. Simple and painless) it's late in week 2 for veg. I'm following the Lucas Formula and I'm growing White Widow. I'm always stunned at just how much faster and healthier plants look in DWCs compared to soil. The white window plant looks like it's on meth compared to the soil plants.

But anyway, that's the update from here.