Trials and Tribulations. Opportunities and Medical Marijuana.

[pineappaloupe]

This is the start of my trials and tribulations as a medical patient in California.

A brief overview: I am prescribed MMJ for chronic insomnia that is not fully treatable with traditional Rx medications. The circumstances surrounding the birth of my garden are amazing. I found myself in the perfect place at the right time, inheriting 6 lady plants under full legal protection from a friend who was in a bad situation. By heart I am a guerrilla grower that has always wanted to grow indoors. This is my first attempt at indoor growing, and I am sticking to what I know, organic soil.

I adopted 6 ladies of various levels of health. The validity of the genetics are unknown but they have been kept for a few grows so they are probably worthwhile. The genetics are: G13 (unknown lineage), Flo, Purple (?? no clue ), Morning Star, and Tahoe Kush (??).

Some of the plants I adopted were extremely stressed from being hidden for over a week, in and out of boxes, no consistent light, etc. I don't know the exact soil mixture, I do know that it contains no dolomite lime, but it has been spiked with mycorrizae and bacteria colonies, so the soil is alive.
In this grow diary I will be trying to solve many problems that apply to many growers. Problems that will be avoided in all future grows if all variables were in my control.


So here we go!
I am an former OG'er, and am documenting this grow for the sake of spreading information. I no longer fear prosecution for my habit and hobby. My background is in guerilla growing, outdoor organics from southeast PA. feed the soil, not the plant. I want to apply this ethos to my indoor grow, even though I dream of another outdoor garden. Its funny how life work out... I can finally do my thing legally, but my location (elevation, temp, snow) prohibits me from expanding on my current knowledge.

Peace!

 

[pineappaloupe]

Ok well I have been under the weather so I never finished my post.

Where to start..... Pictures!

Unfortunately I never took pictures the day I adopted these ladies, but here is the begining:


My modest room



Problems and potential



I decided to go LST on the ladies and here are the results. Again, I have no before and after, but the previous grower had no intention of scrog or lst








Here is a picture of a very sad plant





My plan to fix the ladies were as follows:

The night I received them I flushed them very well, some were very thirsty and some were already very sick. The Blunder Berry was especially sorry, the only happy plants were the G13 and Tahoe Kush.

A few days later I picked up Maxicrop, Earth Juice Gorw, Microblast, and Catalyst.

I figured that the best treatment was mild treatment, so I did not plan on fertilizing for a week, assuming that the soil was alive and had some bone, blood, castings.

Withing 2 days, something very bad happened. All of the new growth had burnt tips, necrosis on established leaves, you name it. So many deficiencies I didnt feel like isolating them
So I tested my water. The local water district claimed a pH of 8, and a TDS near 100. My first thought was a lockout from pH and calcium
Only 2 plants, the Tahoe Kush and G13 were OK, some new growth did have burnt tips.

So I puchased some DI water, and flushed again once the soil dried out a bit so I did not add overwatering to the stack of problems.

 

[pineappaloupe]

When it was time to water, I did another heavy flush with DI, and followed it up with a full stregth hit of maxi crop.

The Purple (unknown type of purple, just very stout indica) continued to grow, but all new growth had burnt tips for awhile. Here is an example, you can see the history of problems:



and

Blunder Berry


Well, I did not do anything drastic, just let time take care of things. I watered again using DI water and my nutrients.
I used 1/3 strength EJ Grow, full strength cataylst and microblast, and full strength maxi. Before feeding I flushed with DI because I suspected the bare tap water was part of the problem.

All of this was on april 12 or so


I have some new toys installed and some on order.
I just installed an 8x8 darkroom Louver made by Doran. It is really sweet, even though the box isnt sealed and vented by a large fan with no specific exhaust hole, the louver sucks in air. I can see it when I hold a lighter near it, the flame gets sucked in.

Also on the way is a Growpro dual 600 HPS ballast, 2 supersun 2 reflectors, a can33 filter, and canfan 6" HO with speed control.

peace!

 

[pineappaloupe]

April 24:

One April 21 I started a guano tea using peruvian seabird guano (2/3 cup/5 gal), maxicrop (full strength), bubbling with air stones until this evening. The mix seemed to foam up well, not a real thick froth but it will work.
I added fulvic acid, earthworm castings, and set the pH to 6.5 (started at 7.7)
The runoff came out at 6.6. i did use dolomite lime last time i watered (in solution) which could account for the little/no change in pH.

I added a can33 filter and canfan 6" HO, with a speedster. Im still working out how I will hang it so for now its elevated on a paint bucket. The box was cleaned out, and BW poly was hung. I purchsed the worlds shittiest staple gun in the history of the world (Arrow JT21), which prevent us from finishing the poly work. Fuck that stapler, it misfired almost half of the time, spitting out 2 staples at a time, only 1 in 5 (at best) were good hits. Shitty tools suck.

Anyway, the new pics:
I removed the scrog temporarily because every plant was removed from the box. It will be back on in a day or so and rearranged.








here's the group of ladies, with the unknown purple up front lookin chubby.



peace

 

[mossy]

Good Luck M8.
I think it is the hardest work taking on plants with someone elses grow problems..but it gives you a bump on harvest time if you succeed.
I get insomnia when my med prob flares..so I will be watching.

 

[ZeusOGrefugee]

Hey Pineapploupe, nice name by the way...Thats quite a grow u got goin there...Looks like u inherited a bunch of problems!. First off, I would check ur PH on the nutrient solution, esp. w/ EJ...then I would give them a low dose of the Catalyst, MIcro and Bloom, as they tend to be "hot"!!!Then let em be for a few days and I think theyll be fine...Just give em some love, and theyll do fine, its a "weed"....remember!!! I think you got urself dialed in pretty much, so roll with it and see what happens...first grow is always a crap shoot, but u seem to have things in check!!! Take care man, and Ill be checkin in on your grow...keep it green. Peace

- Zeus

 

[Grass_Lover]

I like the opener.

 

[pineappaloupe]

Woah, more than a few people are ready, let alone posting! nice!

Mossy: inherited plants are a pain in the ass, especially when abused and not trained for scrog.
Zeus: I never know that micro, and catalyst were "hot". i always used them full strength. that could explain the period of very small tip burn (1mm spots), which was gone away. I know about the resilience of weed very well, and that more nutrients dont tend to fix anything. i like my name too, its a 100% original according to the google.

OK well all of the problems were worked out a week ago. I got my hands on a Ph meter. I really have no idea what went wrong at the beginning, but the plants were not at all happy. Only 2 of the 6 plants I received were OK. The blunderberry right now is thriving, at one point she had dropped 80% of he leaves.

So I always fed at less than 1/2 strength (except maxicrop, cant go wrong with that). The water out of my tap used to be near 8, but is not 7.4 or so. I am aware how acidic EJ is, and now that I have a pH meter I always water with 6.4 fert solutions.

My last feeding was a killer peruvian seabird guano tea, bubbled for 3 days, foamed up fairly well. i added EWC, and fulvic acid.

So next time I water I will use some un brewed high P guano (so that the particles can sit in the soil for flower) and fulvic acid. Oh and its definately time for cataylst ( I will be switching to straight blackstrap soon but I have 1/3 bottle of it left).

tomorrow is a very big day for me. purchasing a dual 600 ballast, 2 supersun2s, and doing a major make over of the box. I have to hang a filter, fan, 2 hoods, and set up a 3.5'x7' scrog, using a single screen for each plant (all different strains).

So if anyone has any input... I need to find a source of K. maxicrop is no good for flowering (hormones). I also need to decide whether I will keep using dolomite lime in the teas, or just using a Cal-Mag solution when I water w/o teas of bloom.

many more pics to come! The plants now are insanely bushy and require some chopping. Sometimes its hard to do but cutting plants is a fact of life, and its better to have too many option to cut than not opportunity.

peace!!!

 

[Black Ra1n]

Hey man, sounds like you're going to have a great setup. Can't wait to see your room, good luck with your grow.

B/R

 

[Sammet]

Alright mate? Looks like you're getting on top of things I have problems with Insomnia too and It can be hellish. Just a question, how far is the light from the top of your plants?

Keep up the good work

 

[ZeusOGrefugee]

I hope ur gonna take some clones when u trim those lovely ladies!!!Looks like ur in good shape Pinapple, Ill be hangin around for this one..Peace

- Z

 

[pineappaloupe]

OK geeez its been awhile. I have been busy, in the garden and outside in the real world. school is complately done but the real world of work sucks.
Minor setbacks. Some P deficiencies a few weeks back immediately following the transplant. that took a good to days to work out.
Since then, the ladies are loving life. I water now at full strength FF bloom and 1/2 strength EJ grow.

I am 11 or 12 days into 12/12. the nutes mixes are down to full strength EJ bloom, and 1/3 strength EJ grow.
There is little to no evidence of burn on any tips. i usually get a tiny bit on the ends of new leaves, but i think they are loving life.

I plan on brewing 1 more kick ass tea in a week or so. hit them with it right before flowering takes on 100%

I will have pictures soon.

oh, I also had my GroPro dual 600 ballast crap on me. it also took out a bulb.
i got it replaced, had to revet to a 1000MH hung high in the box. not suffered much at all. but im getting myself a new bulb,
the bulb never totally dies, but it is noticeably less bright.
fuck that. ill b OK

peace

 

[pineappaloupe]

long overdue update

long overdue update

Now i understand why people dont update their grows more. Well I have been busy. I reconfigured my lights to make them inline and increase efficiency, moved the fan outside the box so it is sucking not blowing.

I trimmed them up nicely to thin out the canopy 2 weeks ago, then 3 days ago I removed all tiny branches that were not developing into anything special.

Today is day 25 since i switched to 12/12.
I really didnt experience much of a stretch at all, maybe because I wove many branches down into the screen. I expected the flo to stretch a good 18 inches. The screen is not as full as I hoped, mostly due to the minimal stretch.
I have no idea why the stretch was so small... any ideas?

I also ran into some spidermites a few weeks back. I totally forgot about pests. it wasnt too bad, I found one web. Bug bombed immediately. I still noticed minimal leaf scars, so I bombed again a week ago, and have been spraying with Dont Bug Me for 2 days. I think they are all gone.

I made my tea with Rainbow Mix flower, EWC, EJ catalyst, and molasses. I bubbled the water with molasses for 2 days with no tea to remove all Cl, then bubbled the entire mix for 4 days. I noticed a foam within 24 hours, and had to add more molasses after 3 days after the foam died down.


SO.... who wants some pictures?

 

[pineappaloupe]

these are the spots I noticed. After a bug bomb and Dont Bug Me, no new damage has been noticed.


the blunder berry (left) and G13 (right) on 6-23 (day 25or so)


and here is the Flo at day 15 after the trim



and the morningstar at day 15 trimmed

and the whole crew:




So, Here is everything from Day 25:

Flo


G13


Morningstar


Blunderberry



under the screen:



close up of unkonw purple:



close up of Flo


close up of Morningstar:





I will get some macro shots as soon as i can. this D50 uses the old nkikon film lenses, which dont do macro with digital.

oh, and they are starting to bring out their own unique stinks..


peace!

 

[pineappaloupe]

Day 33 or so:

The ladies are happy. no sign of mites, nutrient problems, etc.
I increased the dose of earth juice to 1.5 tbs/gal or so for bloom and 1/3tbs with grow.

My most recent watering was another guano tea with rainbow mix and EWC. I really like rainbow mix. It froths up nicely after 18 hours or so.

So here they are:

Blunderberry


G13


Morningstar



Morningstar


Flo


Unknown Purple


and some close ups

morningstar


g13


Flo





unknown purple





thats it for now. i will get a macro lense soon.

 

[pineappaloupe]

day 43:

just got a digi slr. way too much fun.

here are some new shots:

macros:










It is hard to say how much longer they need to go. the Flo is still putting out alot more new calyxs with white hairs. the morningstar seems to be slowing down, maybe half of the calyxs have white hairs.
The blunderberry has much longer to go, maybe 4 weeks.
i might pick up a loupe in a few days.

peace

 

[bounty29]

Wow, looks like you had a great recovery. Should be a nice harvest when it's all over, I look forward to seeing it.

 

[pineappaloupe]

more macros, day 54. morningstar has not showed much amber or cloudy trichs, but there are a few. i check it daily with my 30x lighted magnifier (sooo much fun)

first, the canopy of the blunderberry, which is startin to kick ass.



a frost MS leaf



purple



a FLO cola



a 1:1 crop of the flo



and more MS

 

[DimeBag65]

beautiful ladies you have there Pineappaloupe!

you most certain did an amazing job bringing those ladies back to good health and happiness. and it also appears that those are some excellent genetics that your buddy gave you, some very nice pictures and macro shots as well

I will be watching for your next update and wish you a Happy harvest

 

[AlterEcho]

You gotta love the digicam's.
Nice recovery.....looking forward to the smoke report.

-=AE=-