My first legal grow!

[unregistered190]

Very nice grow you have going!

 

[rob feature]

I was a little premature in reporting that all the plants had taken a liking to the environment. 3 have, but the MCD is still slacking. Not only is the stem about half the diameter of the others, the leaves are doing funny things and not on a small scale. Over the last couple of days, they've been drooping.

I'm not really sure what they don't like, but I was thinking maybe the floor is too cold or it doesn't like my water. I think I've ruled out the floor thing, but the water could be something. Nothing I can do about that though...I can offer them liquid at a steady pH, but can't so much control everything that comes through the pipes. Or maybe I've overfed it? It's tall enough & still growing, but it looks a little sad. 2nd tallest plant in the tent actually, but sad about something. I almost wanna let it stay around for the first few days of flower & see if it likes the new nutes or maybe the light schedule. Then again another part of me makes me wanna go on and retire it.

Whadda you think?

 

[rob feature]

Very nice grow you have going!

It may have to be demoted to just nice now...not sure Very's gonna pull through

 

[rob feature]

I almost expected that to happen. I'm growing 4 different strains under the same conditions. A random consensus was sort of unlikely, yes?

On a nicer note, the others are still looking good. I wanna yank out the Master Kush & just have it lying around for a houseplant...almost has that Karate Kid bonsai tree thing going

I just realized I've lost all the lighting for these as well (for the camera). I'll have to fix that next time...maybe narrow the depth of field a hair for some separation too. But that's good news...speaks to how well they've filled in. She's at 13 inches and stout. I haven't trimmed for a week now...just letting her grow.

Actually the only plant I've trimmed is the Blueberry Indica and I've been trimming it aggressively to try & slow it down a bit. I also pinched all the stems. I'm pretty sure all that did was speed it up. Planted outdoors, I'm pretty confident I could eventually build a treehouse in here.

It appreciates my accommodations unlike, ehem, you know who. It's at a sturdy 18 inches now and I really don't wanna cut the tops 'cause the spacing is kinda tight up there and looking nice. I'll let it deal with gravity if it gets to be too much. The others I'll support as needed to keep the light as even as possible...if there's any left.

Still the runt, the AK Cherry Lime is looking very strong and is clocking in at right around 12 inches. It's super bushy though with wanna-be colas peppering the canopy.

If I had to take a guess right now, I'd say the Blueberry Indica is gonna be the crowd pleaser. But who knows?

This has got to be, hands down, one of the funnest little hobbies one can have. So many ways to do it. I found the shot glass thread the other day and have decided I'm gonna have to get in on that at some point. Maybe sooner than later. I wanna take some cuttings & carry a mother through the Summer, but haven't quite figured out how to go about it yet. Ima go back and visit my buddies at the grow store later & see if I can't get some sort of cloning apparatus brewing.

'till next time,
peace & cheese
feature

 

[tech138]

Hey Rob..those plants have really filled out. They look fantastic. My initial guess as to the MCD would be a slight case of wet feet. All in all it still looks awesome, maybe a touch over watered. Some plants (not just cannabis) will exhibit those kind of leaf issues when the media does not dry out enough between irrigation cycles. I have several different hibiscus plants that differ vastly in their water requirements..and these are similar sized plants in identical containers/media. Only the color of their flowers are different. I use them as an example since you have a mixed tent. Maybe let it dry out a little more before feeding it (almost to the point of wilting). The damaged leaves will become necrotic and drop from the plant, but don't worry. As long as the new growth remains lush, they will be fine. Again, this just my initial gut reaction...Less is more..yadda yadda. You are still doing a bang up job!
:yay:

 

[rob feature]

Thanks tech. I think I'm with ya on the MCD. I'm gonna let it stay for now.

I switched the lights over this morning, so here we go! I'll be feeding the new nutes starting this evening once they wake up, but I think I'll just give the MCD water if she's nice & light. Then maybe next time see what she thinks about the new food. If that doesn't do it, I'm just gonna yank it.

I think I'm gonna start that feeding schedule I posted at maybe half what's stated. Maybe even less as I believe the + stuff is some blend of chemical and organic substances. I'm also ditching the other stuff I was using - the BG and CalMag. Err, I'm not tossing it, but the idea was to get to more of a KISS philosophy of nutrition - particularly since I'm not exactly a farmer.

Of course I couldn't go a week without a new toy. The new food requires measuring grams reasonably accurately and since I had no means to do that, I set off on a mission. It took me a few tries, but I eventually stopped into a local tobacco store & found one of these for $17...

So far it's a reasonably aggravating little piece of equipment, but it at least appears to be accurate. I keep having to pull the batteries to get it to reset, but maybe I'm just doing it wrong. I gave it the task last night of reading some known masses and it was spot on. It's certainly no lab-quality hardware, but for now I'll put up with its eccentricities. It gives readings in 1/10 gram increments, which is awesome. It's also backlit, but since I used a flash, it's a little hard to tell. Seems solid for $17, but I'll try to keep the thread informed if anything changes.

 

[rob feature]

I just got the ferts mixed up - Veg+Bloom only. Since they've only been on water for a few days now, I mixed 3.0 g/gallon & that gave me a pH of 6.9 - pretty close. I went to bring it down a little and it it looks like it's acting as a buffer. It took a good bit more acid to run it down than usual...good to know. Seems like you have to shake this stuff pretty vigorously to get it broken up. It also mentions using the scoop on the container, but comes with no scoop. The +Life came with a scoop. I feel a little safer using weight as opposed to volume to measure powder though...somethings of a teaspoon as opposed to tenths of a gram.

Gonna hand it out here in a little bit and see how they like it. Next stop, the flower shop

 

[tech138]

Hey Rob..I did a little googlin' of those ferts you have and they seem like a really sound product. I read over their website and now I want to order some! I totally agree with you about the KISS approach. Not only is it easier when mixing the solution and what-not, but in the event problems arise it is much easier to troubleshoot and pinpoint what caused the problem. Years ago I was hooked on all the latest and greatest plant foods and gimmicks. Now for my plants (nothing medical at the moment, but plants none the less) I use aquarium water from my change out once a month and the occasional light application of Dyna grow protekt. My hibiscus blooms have never been larger or more colorful. I damn near killed them when I used all the boosters and plant superchargers. I look forward to trying my bioponic approach on cannabis at some point. I would also agree that weighing powders is a much more precise and accurate method of measuring versus a volumetric method. The powders are hygroscopic and the actual weight of a given volume will vary based on the current humidity. Sorry to geek out like that, but I was born this way...Oh and before I forget, that is some nice looking tobacco in your scale demo!

 

[rob feature]

Yeah, I didn't read anything bad about 'em either. The different varieties for media & water type is a nice touch. It's gonna last a while too. Looks like I'll be using this stuff anywhere from 2 to 5 grams/gallon over these 4 plants. That should get me a few grows after this one.

No worries on the geekout. I'm livin' it myself.

 

[rob feature]

Just a quick little update. I just checked on the girls to tuck them into bed & got what I assume is good news.

I decided to go all or nothing with the MCD. I figured I was either gonna kill it or save it. Instead of trying to nurse it back to health at this point, I decided to go ahead & feed - the full amount I gave everyone else. 36 hours later, it appears that's what was needed. It took on a good bit of new growth in that time period.

Everyone did actually. The AKCL, which was just the runty bush, broke out of its shell and started punching branches out the top. MK grew at about twice its rate. But the stunner was the Blueberry. It put on 3 vertical inches in 36 hours.

I have no idea if this is a response to the food, slight pH drop, a function of early flowering or what, but I'll take it. I can already tell they're gonna be a challenge to manage, but I could have worse problems, yes?

 

[rob feature]

I suppose we all have our noobie 'moments', right? Hopefully they become learning experiences. However, this is one learning experience I never wanted to have. Last night I decided to take some growth off the bottom of the blueberry. They were decent-sized cuts, but I figured manageable. However when I hit 'em with the snips they were pretty resistant and almost woody...different than what I'd seen with all the other countless cuts I've made on this plant. I only cut 2 branches.

Anyhoo, I got up to check on them before the light goes out & found this going on

In just a few hours, it went from hard-charging momma to negative nelly .

Since no other conditions have changed in there, I have to assume it was the clipping that did it. Maybe she'll pull out of it as she was quite strong just hours before I did that.

The MCD continues to improve, but I didn't wanna swap one for another. Maybe some rest will do it some good.

 

[Primalraindrop]

Did you take clones with the lights on? I always let my lights be off for 6 hours. Or pull a plant into the dark for 6 hours. Take a cut and put the cut in darkness for 6 hours. then mother and clone come out. 12 hours after it began... Also using lots of water helps!

 

[Primalraindrop]

Also. The woody stem you have found is because when a plant goes into flower. It grows nugs. To hold them up the stems become woody. It is a sure sign if i can clone or not. If its woody its going to take a long time to root and get to where i want it. usualy 2 weeks longer. If the clone is soft / bendable. It is easy to take cuts and They move quickly with a high success rate!

 

[DrPimpNugs]

Did you water that mother after taking the clones? Alot of the drooping, and lockout issues look like over watering. Let them dry out until they start to droop SLIGHTLY, then give them some water. Also picking up the bags helps but thats a obvious. I don't trust those bags to be honest. I don't know if they dry out well. You may need a more airid mix with more perlite for them since they don't have been gaping holes. Also I don't like the bags because they could small shifts in the movement of the soil(or big ones). That can cause small levels of shock to the plants. I would ditch them for the next round. The mom may just be shocked who knows, but I am going to guess you aren't neglecting them enough to let them really dry out.


Also you could have tap issues, but if you do, just try distilled water. As long as you have good dolimitic lime supplementation, that's what I would recommend if you don't have the cali tap.

 

[rob feature]

Oh, I wasn't taking clones when I did this. I'd intended to do that maybe this evening, but am not set up for clones yet. I was just taking some of the lower growth off. The lights had been on for 2-3 hours when I cut these. I'd fed/watered roughly 48 hours before & the soil was still a bit moist although quite dry & light this morning...that big girl drinks a lot. After posting in the infirmary and reading some replies, I decided to give her a good water & see. I hate to do this right before the lights go off, but if it's water she wanted, it seemed like a bad time to deny it.

Typically I'll let them get kinda dry (pots get light), then water 'till I get runoff. I've been following this same schedule all along, but the big girl is growing so quickly maybe she just ran out of resources? Either way, I thought it happened too quickly to be a water issue, but maybe not.

Never heard that about these pots before...something to think about. Thanks for all the replies y'all!

 

[DrPimpNugs]

Ph reactions begin instantaneously so their expressions can be seen very quickly. The strain may be more reactive to deficiencies from lockout that the other strains are more resilient too.

In my experience plants drink more in the dark so that is if anything the best time to feed as long as dark temps or GH is stabilized.

-DPN

 

[rob feature]

Ph reactions begin instantaneously so their expressions can be seen very quickly. The strain may be more reactive to deficiencies from lockout that the other strains are more resilient too.

In my experience plants drink more in the dark so that is if anything the best time to feed as long as dark temps or GH is stabilized.

-DPN

Good stuff. I've been monitoring and correcting pH very carefully. I have way too much acid/base chemistry under my belt to screw this up - I think. Really the only thing I did differently here was cut some stuff. I've let this plant go this dry before and never had this issue, but maybe it's a combination of things.

Then again, I've trimmed this plant aggressively in the past - a few times and all it did was grow faster. But never cut stems that were resistant to the snips. That's why I'm still kinda fixated on this part, but it totally could be that she's going through water faster than I realized. I'll just hope that's the case.

Thanks again!

 

[rob feature]

Good news - she was just thirsty

Just like nothing happened. She didn't grow any in the last day, but she didn't go apeshit either.

 

[rob feature]

Since I was in there, I thought I'd snap a few pictures.

After feeding the MCD what I almost thought would be too much of the new nutes, she's decided to come back to life! Still plenty of that crusty old growth hanging off, but the new stuff is coming quickly and looks good.

Master Kush is still looking really nice.

AK Cherry Lime putting on some vertical finally

Group Photo.

3rd day of flowering. Things start getting fun soon!

 

[Primalraindrop]

You are about to learn why running all of one strain is ideal.... take this as a learning time. Always run the same strain under a light. Because if you dont they will grow at different rates and either some plants dont get enough light. or you will have some take over. its just a mess I have tried running different strains together too many times too count. See which out of the 4 you like? then run 4 of just that next time happy trails and good luck! ALSO!!!! THEY DRINK 5x as much water in flower as they do in veg. be PREPARED to water often and alot!