Pickling lime for ph soil adjust?

[Guest]

My intent is to promote more sites for cuttings. Particularly lower branches that may not have the pistils that are showing higher on most of the plants. I swear these look like they are budding already No alternating nodes yet. They also have a purple line running the length of the main stem. Man I real impatient right now I want these to grow as fast as possible. Sorry if I'm being pushy.

 

[vonforne]

I have always assumed that when you cut the lower branches, you are cutting something that is in the low light level zone any way. I too use 1ks and when the canopy gets real dense, even the 1ks have a hard time penetrating. So, in theroy, when you cut the lower or weaker growth at the bottom the plant infact does not have to "support" that growth any more and the energy and nutrients go to the top growth. Some say the loser growth will root faster but I find that to be a myth IMO. If I take a cut from the bigger top it generlly roots faster but it depends on the strain. even pheno to pheno but I like to cut the "leads" as much as possible. A skinny cut will always be a skinny cut.

Cracker, when I used to keep "moms" all the time I started to prune at the 4-5th internode. Let those grow 2 internodes and prune again and so on until I sexed the seed mother. Then instead of "pruning" I would let the cuts do the pruning. By the time you start taking cuts the plant would have been a bush. You can take so cuts away from the mom and leave her with just a few sparse branches with a few leaves and she will recover very quickly. So when you get her bushed up, the more cuts you can take at once to keep their age and size all the same.

And it sounds like your girls are telling you "its time" My grapefruits are doing that like crazy and today is their day.


Skeletor, my blockhead arrived yesterday. Looks like next year I will get to try her out.

 

[Guest]

Does the GF actually have a GF smell?How different from cindy99 is it?

 

[vonforne]

I have never grown c99 but the grapefruit (2 of them) smell kind of lemony. the other two have smaller buds are super frosty, have a very sweet smell and are late finishers. Beyond 8-9 wks. I would describe the later two to be closest to the grapefruit smell. But the big ones smell like lemons.

 

[vonforne]

How's it going with the grow cracker? everything OK?

 

[Guest]

How's it going with the grow cracker? everything OK?

Thanks ,All seems to be going ok. PH is still low and they don't have that nice deep green color but they are growing fast. I screwed up by not adding the lime at the beginning. No prob ,lesson learned. I didn't remove any lower branches,only several higher up fan leaves and their stems. I'll be able to take my cuttings soon.

 

[vonforne]

Did you top dress with lime? Anyway good luck and glad to hear things are improving. Keep us up dated.

Von

 

[Guest]

Thanks again , I top dressed with the lime. just a little late. Just now I watered with a shot of the fish stink and and a tad of ph up. I will flush one and check ph and leave the others alone. This is interesting to me, I'm certain six of the seven plants are showing female flowers. Did I just luck out or is there some other plausible explanation?

 

[vonforne]

Sometimes it is that way and some times it is not. I had 12 of 16 Afghans go female a few years back but usually I'm happy with just 50%. Maybe you got lucky and the Karma gods are smiling on you for trying so hard to be good to your girls. Never know.....

 

[Guest]

LOL! I'd like to think the Gods are smiling , my green thumb and the "great" advice I'm getting. It's about
a week since I added lime and started with the fish emulsion. The plants are really taking off. There are quite a few sights for cuttings. Theyre a little short still. I will start the rooting process soon. I will use RW cubes and a 10 gl aquarium as a container to hold moisture. I have fancy aero cloner I built for a friend but feel better using the old fashioned method. So now back to the process or narrowing down which plant or clone of , I wish to keep.
I learned there are desirable traits or phenotypes of a particular strain. I have 7 plants of the same strain at this point. They are all different in some ways. For instance the fastest growing plant is is showing a lot of pistols . I may not want this trait. The
slowest is not showing any preflower yet but seems more bushy and the stalk is thicker. This would be a pheno type. I may want. the others are in between. I will startcuttings from them all . So in this 1st round . Is the fast preflowering pheno a trait I want? I will take cuttings lower down on this plant. The middle plants are prime candidates as they are kinda preflowering . and I want to see how theshortest bushy one turns out because I want the thick stem pheno. As soon as the game is over my lazy photographer promises to take a few picts

 

[vonforne]

It will take some time to get the pheno you want. The early pre-flowers might be one. Each one I grade sometimes. Preflowers=early, branchy, roots fast, then final product, bud size, taste ect......By the end you will compile the points that you want for a winner. Its all in what you are looking for in your smoke. Getting them to grow good is the first thing and everything else will follow. Glad to hear they are improving.

Von

 

[Guest]

I just took 22 cuttings from the seedplants. We will see how they turn out in a week or two. I had good luck with the clones I took from the last bagseed grow. I'm confident these cuttings will workout as well. I wish I knew what variety it is. I understand some types are more difficult to propagate. Anyway , I numbered them all according to which plant and noted what differences I saw. I feel much better knowing this is quality weed to work with. I'lll be back when I see how the clonijng turns out. Thanks again for everybody's advice.

 

[vonforne]

Good to here about the cloning sucess. And yes, knowing before hend the genetics you are working with is always a comfort. I hope you get 100% rooting sucess with the clones.

 

[Guest]

Speaking of genetics, I don't know what they are but they are ALL the same this time! That is a comfort indeed. My cloning experience comes from way back propagating ornamental shrubs. We used soil filled flats with overhead sprayers. Using rockwool cubes are new to me but I like how they hold water and the versatility of them. Anyway I cut the seed plants way back. They took this in stride. I want to keep them around untill, 1) I see if the clones take, and 2) untill I figure out what to do with them. They have been under 500watts of MH lights. Can I put them under 40watt shop lights ? I think I can with out stressing them too much.

 

[vonforne]

Yes, I cut clones off plants under 1k. Cut the lower branches if possible. They are already under less light per sq meter than the top shoots.But usually it is alright. MJ is a VERY tough plant. It can take about everything. that is why it grows almost every where on earth. 40 watt shop lights with cool white is good. I use them with my T-5 for veg and clone purposes.

That is good they are all uniform. It could possibly mean they are a stable hybrid of some kind. someone might have grown them for years. Could have been some genetics from the old days who knows. Next time get some 15.00 Nirvana seeds and grow them out. I have some cheap seeds now that grow great...AK-48 and Shivas. Gives me different times to harvest. Starting at about 50 days to 65 days or longer depending on the pheno of the breed. Good luck and keep us posted cracker. And it will take 5-10 days for the clones to root under normal conditions.

Von

 

[Guest]

OK! Most of the clones are getting root nudes where the stem meets the rw I'm remiss on not knowing the right word for these white bumps. I assume there is more going on inside. No wilting at all and looking healthy.These are taking longer to root then the last ones. Last time I soaked my RW cubes in a very lite nute solution . and kept around 82 degrees F . This round no nutes and a med temp of 75. My biobuckets are ready and I will get my lamp this weekend! Sorry no picts. I really miss my digi!

 

[vonforne]

Some clones take longer. Water the mother plant 24 hrs before seems to help me. I like to mist the clones with Liquid Karma and Seaweed extract. Seems to work great. Good to here of your progress. I have been keeping an eye on your thread. Keep us posted and if we can be of any help just post it up.

Von

 

[Guest]

Von, I do appreciate all the help! Please check out my modest biobucket thread I will have a lot going real soon!

 

[vonforne]

Be glad to cracker. and no problem with the help. that is what we are supossed to do. Its kind of like the free seed thing. give back what was given to you