AKGramma's Harlequin Soil Grow Fall 2018

[AKgramma]

Yesterday I used a small craft file and scarred the seam on the two remaining seeds. Not an easy task trying to hold a small seed and not hit the pointy end.

Today one of them sprouted! I'll wait till tonight to plant it, so the root tip is a bit longer. Might have to run the file over the last seed once more.

 

[Pennywise]

Nice job, I haven't had to use the technique yet.

 

[Amy Gardner]

Not an easy task trying to hold a small seed and not hit the pointy end.

very delicate operation! Nicely done AK. I love gardening

 

[AKgramma]

Today's baby album! Of course, the Afghani is older. Remember she snuck in during harvest.

Harelquin babies 9 days old.JPG

• AKgramma
• Sep 23, 2018
• seedlings

 

[AKgramma]

Yesterday I used a small craft file and scarred the seam on the two remaining seeds. Not an easy task trying to hold a small seed and not hit the pointy end.

Today one of them sprouted! I'll wait till tonight to plant it, so the root tip is a bit longer. Might have to run the file over the last seed once more.

When I checked on the sprout, its cotyledons were already open in the wet paper towel! I didn't see much of a root tip, I hope it keeps growing in its solo cup. I didn't plant it very deep, but gave it a drink after burying it.

The last seed doesn't look very good.

 

[AKgramma]

Last seed popped through the scratch I made with the file. I planted it, too, so no more seeds in the paper towel. They are really slow to develop, and I'm resisting the urge to mess with them. You KNOW how hard it is to keep my hands off them??????

 

[dynamo1]

it can be so hard not to "help"

 

[AKgramma]

it looks like one of the remaining sprouts is withering. This was the first of the hard-to-pop seeds whose cotyledons appeared before the root tip. No root tip = no chance of survival. Still waiting on the last seed to show above the soil.

 

[AKgramma]

Update. The Afghani is 28 days old. The Harlequins are 2 weeks old. really nice growth in so short a time. The Afghani is about ready for its first pinch-out. (FIM) That means pinching out the terminal growth tip to encourage branching. This is done after the 4th pair of real leaves.

Pinching out is used on flowering plants to encourage more branches, and more flowers, so is a time-honored way of increasing the eventual harvest. But the lower foliage is not normally trimmed out on ornamentals.

Once the two branches grow out past 4 pairs of leaves, then both branch tips are pinched out. (FIM) This is repeated once or twice more to end up with 8 growing tips. It is most effective when the lower auxiliary foliage is trimmed out and you keep an even canopy. The idea is to eliminate mini-buds.

The trim is dried and used for tea, cooking herbs, capsules, and edibles. With the Harlequin being a high CDB strain, everything will be used for pain medicine.

Baby shot:

2018-09-28

• AKgramma
• Sep 28, 2018

 

[Pennywise]

Babies looking nice and healthy, fimming can be great if it's timed right.

 

[AKgramma]

it is time for me to plan how I'm going to manage the lighting for this grow.

My two Mars 300's are mounted high, about 60" from the bottom shelf. I don't have a pulley, so I plan to adjust the heights of the plants on crates, stools, or whatever I have on hand to raise or lower them for optimal light penetration.

The recommended spacing for these LEDs is:
************
Mars 300 LED light height

Here is Smoke Sara’s recommend hanging distance.

germination: 24-30 inches above the plants

veg: 18-24 inches above the plants

flower: 12-18 inches above the plants
***************

Sweet Sue uses different sized beads on a string, hanging from the top to measure these distances. Since I don't have any large beads, I just used a black marker on 4 feet of parachute cord, marked at each named interval, and made duct tape flags to label what each interval was for. I used a discarded kitty toy (bell in a plastic ball) to weight the string and then hung it between both light panels.

I wont have to measure each time I adjust the height of a plant. ain't pretty, but it will do.

I also have 4 pairs of 23w CFL's mounted at 12" and 24" for more lower light, at least until I start trimming out the lower branches to gain an even canopy.

The last two seedlings are not going to make it. When you have no growth, the fungus begins to take over. Their cotyledons are still draped over where the growing tip would be, and no new leaves have appeared. I will terminate these in the next couple days.

Kinda bummed out about this, because I wanted to increase the chances I would get both genders from the Harlequins.

 

[AKgramma]

I'm finding that the babies benefit from the close-in CFLs. They are richly green with red stems, with an Indica growth pattern, altho they are supposed to be 75% Sativa. Roots are strong and have hit the bottom of the cups so far, but not yet filled the volume.

At this point in time, they are about 36" from the LEDs. There are no shadows in the grow unit all all.

 

[AKgramma]

Approaching this grow as if it is my first, is refreshing, without pressure or anxiety over their development.

I know from experience that Nature knows what she is doing, and as long as the keeper of the garden gives it what it needs, simply and organically, the garden will thrive.

 

[dynamo1]

I don't have a pulley, so I plan to adjust the heights of the plants on crates, stools, or whatever I have on hand to raise or lower them for optimal light penetration.

This is what I use for my current height adjustment, I have a few buckets and flower pots

 

[Pennywise]

That will work a charm!

 

[Amy Gardner]

Glad to hear it’s comjng together nicely for you Gramma - germination issues aside

Hey - I thought this might be something you’d like to see, so in case you haven’t seen the October site news yet..,

Notifications For New Posts
We have installed and enabled a new feature for you. Currently, for those threads which you are "watching", (i.e. those threads which you have set to "Watch" or that you have posted in), you are only altered for new posts since the last time you visited the thread.

With the new feature, if enabled, you will be alerted/emailed, (based on your settings), for every post in a watched thread as long as you have no unread alerts for that thread. This will allow you to keep a close eye on those threads which are particularly interesting or important to you, such as your own grow journal.

The default setting for this new feature is off. If you would like to enable it, and review all your preferences, just go to https://www.420magazine.com/community/account/preferences

 

[AKgramma]

I dont understand. When I go to preferences, I dont see any "new feature". What am I looking for?

 

[Amy Gardner]

From what I can tell - there’s a check box in the preferences section called “Persistent Alerts Enabled” that, once selected, will make sure you get an email for every new post in your subbed threads.

On my phone - I went to my account > Preferences > and then scrolled down the page - the setting was about 3/4 of the way down the page.

Not sure on another device but it should be somewhere on the list of preferences.

Hope that helps.

 

[Pennywise]

Persistent alerts

F5EF05FB-42AA-49E4-96DC-BE1A400CF5B4.png

• Pennywise
• Oct 2, 2018

Alerts

 

[AKgramma]

The last two seeds I was nursing failed to thrive. Their taproots were slowly shrivelling up and there was no opening of the cotyledons. So I terminated those tow.

The 4 babies in veg are really taking off. Afghani got fimmed yesterday at 5th node. The youngest (by one day) Harlequin has a much bigger root system than the other two. I bet that's the male! It/he has already caught up to the other two and looks like it will pass them up.