recoveryville to gravy grand central

[McStink]

Hello everybody! Been a big fan of this site for a while now, figured I'd finally join in on the fun. I've only been growing for about a year and some change now after somehow landing a job on a farm. I have completed 2 quite successful grows so far. I mostly just do this for fun, educational purposes (so any input or tips is good!), and of course to smoke left handed cigarettes.
So to kick off my third grow, a fellow grower gave me two seeds from what he called "Scott's Kush". I planted them back in the beginning of May and there it (kept only the strongest seedling) has remained in the rag tag dresser I use as my veg.
*The veg uses two 62W CFL's (4000 Lumen/6500k) bulbs wrapped over a left over steel dryer vent piece.
Following on the left as follows 8/12 transplant, 8/13 obedience training, 8/14 plant is adapting to new environment.

The soil I used to transplant is homemade. Saved all organic scraps and coffee/tea bags from last year. Even made my own bone meal. Saved up two huge freezer bags of bones up for a few months, kept them in freezer until I had enough for 5gal worth of soil, boiled them on high for 4hrs, baked them @170f for 6hrs, and then pulverized them with a hammer inside a pillow case the next morning. Sifted it and added the bone meal. The pearlite is from an old grow that was mixed in with the compost months back. So far so good, hopefully the soil isn't too hot, but that can be fixed.
I will post updates weekly as this could get intense, there is a lot to recover and fix, due to the long restrictive veg time, neglect, improper PHing and light burn, but one step at a time. I hope to start flowering this pig sometime soon...cheers!

 

[McStink]

I forgot to mention the Scott's is under a 600W MH AC until it recovers, then to HPS.

 

[McStink]

Well, let it veg more and it seems to not be light burn. I believe I gave the plant a nice lovely case of root rot due to the poor veg drainage. I've topped most of the areas I thought "burnt" , but they keep coming back. If I'm wrong on this one any advice would be good. I believe it to be root rot because of the painfully slow growth, some leaves start turning yellow at the tips then get pale and shrivel up, it's not drinking shit for water either. Since I've come to this conclusion, I have not watered and am letting the 5gal container dry out, I've also put another "disposable plant" in there to see if that particular strain is resistant to root rot.
(I had all the other ones elevated, as posted, so that they would drip into the cooking tray, but for some reason didn't do the Scotts thinking it was hardy as the last strain I did.)

I'm in it for the long haul with this one, I've already taken cuttings that have rooted before this problem started. I just want to see if it can be saved. I've read from numerous online sources to use HyrdroGuard in order to add beneficial enzymes to help combat the problem without disrupting the organic nature of the soil. So maybe I'll give it a go. Until then I am foliar feeding with molasses and GO bioweed Ph@ 6.9. I do this one time in the morning 7am, once around 5pm, and then a quick one with plain water at 12am. I won't be able to make it to the store until Monday. Don't want to throw it out, good learning experience , plus I guess I like doing things the hard way haha.
8/19: 8/20

Will post more next week, hopefully by then this is all just a funny memory. Peace.

 

[pashio]

Good luck recovering it! Sometimes it takes weeks...

 

[Popice]

hey its still a good looking plant. taking cuttings is great. now to help her out. From what you were saying about your soil it does seem heavy. if the leaf tips yellowed, the uneven puckering of leaves. do you have percentages you cut the compost in at? id ask about the airation medium, which can be used to thin down pretty well. From my experience if its just heavy nitrogen youll see this overly dark green, which doesnt seem to be there, but photo images can read different. so then theres too much other nutrient. Bone meal is great, but is strong especially if homemade. not too much is needed. i cant read the humidity level, unless that for inside the soil. but what i am assuming is the high nutrient content is inhibiting the water uptake. Also if the airation is just that much perlite with compost, soil density around is high. compost will hold a lot of water, but combine with nutrients. something like cocoa seems to hold water at a good rate to compost without directly adding nutrient content and giving purer/less nutrient combined water. so finding an average of when it needs water (for a schedule) going to the point of slight wilt, can tell you when to water next. in measured bits, not necessarily 1.75C but even like X number evenly topped solo cups amount. at this rate its probably waiting a good part of a year or so to move through the soil while maintaining a certain size/shape. if the compost is too much your next move is either waiting it out or redoing the soil and shaking roots for a repot. if you wait it, the watering in these months should be as infrequent as possible.

a note about airation. the more diversity the better, but understanding what each component does is key. perlite doesnt wick. the space around the perlite is not airated. the roots are very thin. oh and within that year ill bet more and more perlite starts floating upward. its a weird thing, over the years ive come to a weird relationship with perlite. i hafta put $ into it for just one purpose, and usually find whole chunks of unpuffed glass. and it all floats "down here." but i still have tons floating around my soil cuz its a pain in the ass removing it. good luck and no need rushing things.

 

[McStink]

@pashio - thanks for the positives patience is a virtue.

@Popice - Thanks for all the good advice man, very much appreciated! After reading your post, I'll have to be careful of what i put in there next time. The soil is VERY heavy. It appears a bunch of sand and clay got mixed in there when I dug the hole, so that certainly didn't help! I literally just threw anything in that was organic; grass clippings, food, raw meat, cooked meat, and a rotting fox carcass. What really puzzles me, all the other plants I've transplanted in that soil are exploding with life.

Coming up on the 2nd week, things aren't doing too bad. The plant is recovering slowly. Started using HydroGuard on the soil and some of Nectar for the Gods (ended up getting free stuff) in a foilar spray. I think it made a huge difference.
There are still some defs, I don't know why. The cuttings that rooted from this plant are in the same soil and they have been doing fine aside from def's from the cloner, all new growth is green and healthy. Maybe bad genetics or too much stress? The others are not giving me any problems. Anyways, here she is now:

The liquid on the bottom is from me spilling a one gallon jug, I've since cleaned that mess. Now just awaiting on another tent with a vastly inmproved size, 4x4, then hopefully flower o' clock once the defs are fine tuned. Will keep posting more juice to follow. Peace.

 

[McStink]

Well the train to gravyville has hit recovery and just pulled into grand gravy station. It seems the plant has recovered well enough to join the party. Just transplanted it into a 10 gallon pot last night, removed all the shitty compost and replaced it all with roots 707. I was supposed to get some Earth Juice Amazon Bloom (stuff is like the cadillac of soil, hard to find too), but the bozos at the hydro store never ended up ordering it, so I waited an extra 4 days for nothing.

I'm just going to stick to buying soil for now until I can actually keep track of what I'm throwing in there (Come to find out, a bunch of the neighbors had been throwing stuff in there without my knowledge; also when we dug the compost out of the hole, we dug too deep and got a bunch of sand/clay mixed into it). Thanks for all the views and what not, I will post updates once I get to flower. (1-2 weeks)
Peace!

 

[McStink]

Hello Everybody! Hope all is well, have been super busy and haven't had the chance to post some juice.
Since my last post, I started flowering 2 weeks ago. So far, so good. I was having problems with some insects, but managed to quell the problem with some Mighty Wash and exposing it to colder temps at night (60f, 15c). Worked real nice!
Been using the NFTG line to supplement the nutes for now. Gotta say they work great!. I alternate every other watering with just plain water and 2Tbsp/gal honey, 1Tbsp/gal molasses. Seems to be loving it! After browsing my earlier posts and seeing the older pictures, I gotta say it looks great! The smell is REALLY strong! So strong that I had to swap out the carbon filter for a bigger one. Went from a 4" hand me down to a 6" iPower. My only complaint so far is that I let them veg too tall and didn't plan it out as well; the tallest branch is 56". Nothing some good ol padlocks can't fix. Have a goodin'

 

[McStink]

Some more updated pictures taken today, six days from the last batch. (Phone camera ain't the best ha.) Just started adding some Bloom Khaos and Triton's Trawl into the nutrient mixture yesterday. So we shall see how that goes.
I know next time I plan on making teas and such, this NFTG stuff gets pretty pricey.
Here is the Scott's, she is filling out nicely:

Close up:

The In The Pines is getting all juiecy:

Close up:

Looking at the pictures, I think I may have ignored the height of the ITP for too long. It appears some on the leaves have yellowed a bit. However, the bud appears untouched. Oh well, guess I'll have to be more careful next time.

 

[McStink]

Well not too much has changed recently. At 28 days into flower. Just figured I'd update with some good old fashioned pics. Took them right as the light came on, so the quality should be a bit better.

The Scott's is doing well, however, I think the real winner is going to be In The Pines. The buds are smaller around than the ITP - we shall see though, still got another month at least.

Scott's:

In The Pines: