Growin' Again

[philthegeek]

Hi all again. Another Grow underway. Currently day 13 from starting germination in paper towel..

1.2m x 1.2m grow tent.
600W HPS Light on 22/2
Pots in soil mix thats very standard, but 50% vermiculite.

Bottom up watering by an Autopot smartvalve.

I have used the smartvalve and trays before, but issue has always been too much water in the trayaround the pots. Takes a long time to get used and I have wanted the wet/dry cycle to happen more often. Tried a few ways of filling the space between pots, and went to saucers connected to the smartvalve last time.

Anyway, this time got some polystyrene thats thicker than the depth the smartvales cut off at.

Cut holes for the pots so that the the pots drain holes are on the tray floor
Then cut a hole for the smartvalve to sit on the tray floor.
Cut a connecting channel on the bottom of the polystyrene from that to each pot hole to distribute the water.
Sheet sits in the tray, held down by some dive weights and pots go in their holes.
Smartvalves and hoses carefully placed so the vales can operate freely.

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• philthegeek
• Aug 10, 2018

082018 watering system

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• philthegeek
• Aug 10, 2018

082018 watering system

Then planted out the 10 seedlings available.

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• philthegeek
• Aug 10, 2018

plant out 100818

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• philthegeek
• Aug 10, 2018

plant out 100818

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• philthegeek
• Aug 10, 2018

plant out 100818

They are pretty variable. But in a couple of weeks that will even out. Have some more seeds in germination and am hoping over the next few days to get two plants in each pot. Will see how that goes. Would prefer smaller, but more plants.

These are seeds from my last grow all the seeds were from self fertilised hermi plants. So, unless i have screwed up again i think they should all be female plants i have just put in.

Anyway. Will see how things go and post progress photos . Seeyahs!

 

[Lowded118]

Hitchin a ride!

 

[philthegeek]

Howdy! Hope this one will go reasonably well.

Am planning to get 20 plants / 10 pots, and then top each one once.

Have already drilled some holes in the pots perimeter so i can do some LST / defoliation and try to spread them low, make better use of the space and light.

Am doing a bit of reading at the moment to decide if i want to veg under a MH light or just use HPS the whole grow.

Any opinions on that appreciated.

Seeyahs!

 

[Lowded118]

Man I'm all full spectrum LED.
I will be running my first Quantum board flower and can't wait!

All I read is MH veg and HPS flower.
What Type of Lighting is Best?
Maybe this has some info.

 

[philthegeek]

Day 17 of grow.

Have planted the rest of the seeds i germinated. Now 22 plants in 10 pots in the main tent.

Will thin out the two pots with three plants down to two later on depending on which ones take off best.

Applied 200ml of water with Neem as top down watering. Will have to top down water every 2 -3 days until the seedlings have properly taken off and have their roots down the bottom of the pots

Smartvalve bottom up watering with the potting mix being half vermiculite working well.

Soil is slightly damp just below the surface and drying nicely on top.

The biggest seedlings are about 8 days ahead of the last ones i have planted, but another week or so and i suspect they will all look much the same. Early ones got a bit of stretch on while under the LED in the propagation box. Next grow i reckon i'll DEFINITELY wait till the seeds have good tap roots (smacks self) , plant them into jiffy pots (or rapid rooters if i can find them here) and get those into the main pots / tent / HPS light straight away.

Got to remember to just let them do their thing and not interfere too much. Need to chill and wait for at least 4 nodes before topping.

Seeyahs!

 

[philthegeek]

Started another project tonight to run parallel to this grow. A few weeks ago i got two small batches of old seeds of a friend. One lot i think he brought back from Thailand many years ago, and the others are from a stick of what i'd call "bushweed". The common stuff on sale when we were in Uni and of variable quality. Both lots at least 30- 32 years old.

Anyhow, rubbed them a bit in 600grit sandpaper, then into 25ml of water. Dipped a skewer into clonex soft /semi hardwood strength and stirred that into the water in each bottle. Wrapped in alfoil and have the bottles in my propogation kit, dark, on a heat mat set at 25 degrees C.

Be interesting to see if any germinate. If they do its into the main tent while this grow is veging. Will grow them out to 4-5 nodes and then into the Spacebox (i can set up two if i get plant from both lots of seeds) under LEDs on 12/12 for flowering. Hopefully will get both males and females of each variety and get some fresh, viable, regular seed.

Would be interesting to do a grow with the ones i think are Thai. And, i can see the biodiversity value in keeping some of the old varieties going.

 

[philthegeek]

Day 18: Current photos of the grow.

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• philthegeek
• Aug 15, 2018

150818 main tent

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• philthegeek
• Aug 15, 2018

150818 2

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• philthegeek
• Aug 15, 2018

150818 1

Temp nicely @ 27.5 degrees C and humidity @ 45%.

The small ones all seem to have transplanted well and all chugging along well. Will hopefully catch up with older sisters over the next couple of weeks.

Now that the pots are fully watered and stabilised the smartvalve system is going ok. Filling the space between the pots with the polystyrene reduces the amount of water in the trays so it fills and evaporates on a faster cycle which is what i wanted. Had tried this before using expanded clay media but that was messy and i could not pull the pots out or shift them without the clay balls rolling around and making it impossible to get the pots back in properly.

On my old seed germination project, encouraging. The ones i think may be Thai...have had one pop in less than 24hrs and a couple more look like they might. Not bad for seeds more than 30 yrs old.

Seeyahs!

 

[Lowded118]

Looks top notch geek, what's the reason for off centered plants? Means nothing to me but if I can learn it's good?! Do you be free them that way or something?

 

[philthegeek]

Looks top notch geek, what's the reason for off centered plants? Means nothing to me but if I can learn it's good?! Do you be free them that way or something?

Had a an issue with a previous grow as far as seeds / proportion males. With that grow i though i had female seeds from hermies. During the grow those seeds were from i had played around with some male pollen on a couple of branches.....upshot was had some fully male plants in there. Silly me screwed up.

Anyhow, am more confident these seeds are all from proper, self fertilised hermies...but not 100% sure. So thought would use more, smaller plants but wanted to set up the watering for decent sized pots from the get go. Plan is to let em go a bit longer, top them and do LST. If any males do show up when they are flowering, hopefully they are spread out among the pots and i'll train the remaining females into those spaces. and if they are all females yahoodee.

On multiple plants per pot, probably not the optimum thing to do but i as i have a fridge full of tincture and a nice stash cured for smoking i can afford to play around and this layout suits my purposes at the moment. I can say that the individual plants i grew in similar sized pots last time did not finish anywhere near root bound so dont think doubling up on plants will be a significant problem.

Anyhow, photos. Day 21 190818

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• philthegeek
• Aug 18, 2018

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• philthegeek
• Aug 18, 2018

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• philthegeek
• Aug 18, 2018

Some of the seedlings have deformed first leaves. Have seen this before and they seem to grow out of it. Did add some very dilute juice from the worm farm yesterday and will keep an eye out for any nute burn.

On my old seeds project...not going as well as first looked. A few have cracked but not very much in terms of root growth. The first one just stopped.

Seeyahs!

 

[Lowded118]

I didn't see the second plant! And yes I was asking lst, but auto corrected to, be free, lol. Sorry for confusion

 

[philthegeek]

Day 25:

All plants have been topped / FIMed now. All seem pretty healthy and starting to see roots creeping out the bottom of the pots.

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• philthegeek
• Aug 22, 2018

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• philthegeek
• Aug 22, 2018

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• philthegeek
• Aug 22, 2018

Will be interesting to see how this lot fill up the tent space once there are shoots to do LST with?? Will certainly have to do some defoliation along the way i think .

 

[philthegeek]

Day 28:

Plants seem to like the dilute worm juice. Will be giving each pot about 150ml of that with Neem every week or so.

Did the first defoliation on this grow last night. Needed to thin out a bit so the younger plants aren't shaded and the side branches that are taking off after topping get plenty of light.

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• philthegeek
• Aug 24, 2018

opost 1st defoliation

So far i'd say the only real stuff up with this grow is the soil. Ran out of perlite, was impatient and so used vermiculite in the mix instead. 50% by volume. Plants seem happy enough but the soil is more damp than i'd like.

 

[philthegeek]

Day 31.

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• philthegeek
• Aug 29, 2018

Plants happy. Have started to LST the larger ones. Some of the younger plants are not really catching up as the big ones have nice roots and have taken off and gone nice and bushy bit post topping. Some of the smaller ones will get seriously shaded out. No biggie. Will have plenty of stems coming up by the time i finish the veging. And with luck they are all female anyway.

If this lot of supposed female seeds checks out, will trust them next time and will only do one plant / pot . Think will get better value out of that and will have room to properly LST them.

Seeyahs!

 

[philthegeek]

Day 35. 1st day of Spring. Plants all happy even though have been being a bit interventionist of late.

Fed them top down this morning, 200mls / pot of water with trace elements and Neem, and did a bit more LST.

Put in labels for each of my 20 plants as well.

Decarbed and dried out the leaves i have been taking off during defoliation and storing in the freezer. About 1/2 oz dried so far. Will go into the pot later for butter / tincture production. My ex is going to use some green butter have had in the freezer to make some scones for me for Fathers Day tomorrow.

Old seeds project has fallen over as no germination and survival.

Took 13 cuttings, dipped in Clonex and into jiffy pots today. Those are now in the Spacebox under an LED on 22/2 light. Have heat mat under that on a thermostat set to 25 degrees C. Will plant the ones that root properly into small pots and then switch the Spacebox to 12/12 light to get em flowering. That should tell me if i actually did have female seeds for this grow, or some males among my plants. Couldn't get cuttings off all of them without sacrificing some nice branches.

Anyway, all progressing well. Very happy with my smartvalve watering system. Am having to refill the 20l jerry can on the shelf that i use as a tank about every 6-7 days at the moment. Soil mix with the 50% Vermiculite is not the best (should have used Perlite) but plants not showing any signs of wet feet so i reckon i got way with that. Will give them some more worm juice in a few days to keep N available, or maybe some 1/2 strength Thrive to keep a range of nutes covered??

Will do some progress photos in a few days.

seeyahs!

 

[philthegeek]

Day 36: Jobs done and now just letting things settle. Will feed some Nitrogen via 1/2 strength Thrive in the next couple of days. Cuttings in Spacebox and hoping to see roots poking out of the Jiffy pots in 10 - 14 days. Will be interesting to see times here as have bottom heat happening now, where the last time i took cuttings was pretty cool.

Progress Photos:

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• philthegeek
• Sep 1, 2018

Main tent with happy plants.

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• philthegeek
• Sep 1, 2018

The Spacebox.

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• philthegeek
• Sep 1, 2018

Propagation setup at the moment. Nice warm and enclosed till i get roots.

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• philthegeek
• Sep 1, 2018

Cuttings as they are today.


Seeyahs!

 

[philthegeek]

Day 40: Plants happy and growing well.

Some more defol and LST done. Plants using more water now.

Changed the light to a 1000W Lucalox on Lucius Maximus electronic ballast.

The 600W HPS gave about 720 PAR in the center and 520 PAR in the corner @ 100% setting.

The 1000W HPS gives about 1020 in the center and 720 in the corners @ 100% setting.

Defol seems to be giving me good growth for side branches. Accumulating lots of leaf in the freezer though.

Cuttings in the Spacebox doing well. No roots sighted a yet but they all seem healthy and its only been 5 days.

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• philthegeek
• Sep 6, 2018

The 1000W bulb is actually a fairly old one i acquired so will see how it goes.

1000W was a bit of an impulse buy. Anyone have any feedback or experience on the Lucius ballast good or bad??

Seeyahs!

 

[Lowded118]

Looking good PG. I've only used LEDs. I'm interested in the cloning. I'm so afraid to do any as it's a very dissatisfing experience. Lol. You seem to have this down!

 

[philthegeek]

Only done the cloning once before with cannabis. Had a pretty good success rate wit that batch

With those i had long enough stems on them so after dipping in Clonex and planting in the Jiffy pot i had a node underground. The current lot were not such good stems and were stretched a bit. So, most no node under the soil which is the best way to gets roots forming faster. Still, the cuttings all look healthy so far.

Easy to clone. Just cut off and IMMEDIATELY, (so you don't get air in the vascular system ) dip in Clonex. Then, straight into a jiffy pot prepared with a hole poked in it. Squeeze the jiffy to gently close up the hole.

These go in a little trays to hold a little water, and into a clear lid propagation box. You know, the "mini-greenhouse thing??
That sits in my Spacebox under an LED light. Have a heat mat under there that keeps the temp of the jiffy pots around 22 degrees.

At the moment checking them every couple of days and will plant them out when i see roots coming out of the jiffy pot.

Clones i am doing at the moment are mainly so i can switch them to 12/12 and check for any males in the main tent as the clones flower. I have 2-3 weeks to do that as i am at least that far away from switching the main tent to 12/12. Will see how i go.

Changed the bulb from Lucalox to a Powerplant Super HPS 1000W. Want more red in the spectrum. Raised the lamp about 3 inches as the 1000W does alot more heat than the 600W.

Getting 1000 PAR in the center now and 750-800 in the corners. That's in a 1.2 x 1.2m tent so 1000W a bit overkill, but i can always dim it at the ballast.

Would appreciate any comments from people on how they use a dimmable ballast? I use it at 100% setting but am wondering if i can get away with 50 - 80% in veg and crank it up for flower??

 

[philthegeek]

so, lazy Saturday. Victory in finding some obscure parts for the ex's "classic" Bedford Campervan and a mob that can recondition the brake booster, but raining so taking some time to tend the plants in the shed rather than sitting in the rain getting covered in brake fluid.

Main tent grow going well. Gave them a light feed with the diluted worm juice, Neem and added a little of the "flowering" Thrive to start upping K levels as i reckon i'm 2-3 weeks from flipping lights to 12/12.

Set up my Spacebox with a Smartvalve and polystyrene filler for when the cuttings show roots and need transplanting. 12 small pots set in holes in the polystyrene. 50% Perlite in the mix. That's test running now and have the cuttings sitting in their box on top of the pots at the moment. Went to a shallow Nally bin as a base for now so that the 2 COB LED is closer to the plants. Getting 540 PAR at plant height in the Spacebox now. Once these take off veging can go back to the deep Nally bin as a base to give more distance between plants and light if i need to. Still have the heat mat under the Spacebox.

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• philthegeek
• Sep 7, 2018

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• philthegeek
• Sep 7, 2018

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• philthegeek
• Sep 7, 2018

Note. Forgot to put some dive weights between the pots in the Spacebox to hold the polystyrene down. Need or it floats and doesn't limit the amount of water in the box. Fixed now.

 

[philthegeek]

Day 44:

Did extensive defol today.

Before: (well 4 days ago).

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• philthegeek
• Sep 6, 2018

and after.

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• philthegeek
• Sep 10, 2018

Probably not the most informative of photos. There had been a lot of leaf growth and filling in during the 4 days between photos.

Leaves are growing very fast and filling in after defoliation rounds. Need to clear out and get some light to the shoots so large fans, leaves under the canopy that are pretty shaded, and older leaves that are fading or look like they are getting nutrients sucked out get the chop. This should also help with airflow around the plants as a bit of a disease preventative.

Side benefit is that i have quite a lot of leaf accumulated in the freezer that will go into butter or tincture. Have smoked it previously and its actually not bad for a mild buzz.

Not the monsters some people have by this stage of veg, but i'm pretty happy with them so far. Couple of weeks i'll flip them to flower and hope they stretch a bit.

Seeyahs!