Snack420's 3rd - Critical Kush - Indoor Grow - Coco - 600W MH/HPS - 2016

[DerekDiego]

thanks for the valuable information

 

[GuttaCannabis]

Oh my bad must have misread your post.

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[GuttaCannabis]

yes it's in my second grow Journal

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[snack420]

Hi friends!

A couple of quick updates. First, I noticed that the blue cheese sprout is looking a bit weak and I've had to prop it up with some toothpicks to keep it from falling over. This is not a good situation. I'm starting to realize how critical the timing is with moving a sprout under light - before the root gets too long and can't support its own weight. So, I may call that a loss and move on. Here is how it looks at the moment.

The other two seem to be doing fine, though they haven't done much over the last 2-3 days. Just very slow going at this point, but I guess that might be to be expected. I noticed the light was too far away at 36 inches, so I brought it down to a more reasonable 20 inches from the pot tops yesterday. No noticeable stress or burn from that change as of yet. Temps are good in the 70s and I'm trying to keep RH above 40%.

One thing I realized when doing some reading yesterday is that moving them directly into 2g pots might not have been the best move. I think I should've started them in something like a solo cup or similar size. I might go ahead and try to sprout a couple of more and start them in pint-sized cups in pure coco. Then, I believe they will have the chance to create a better and more compact root system before getting transplanted to something bigger (1g or 2g). I got that idea from this post which I found very interesting:
The Proper Way to Water a Potted Plant

One question for anyone who might be reading this... If I germinate in a paper towel and then transfer into a solo cup, how is it best to do this? I'm guessing I shouldn't touch the sprouts with my hands, right? Is it recommended to use tweezers and/or gloves?

 

[Stinky Snid]

You can use tweezers to pick it up. Trying not to touch or damage the taproot. And you'll place it taproot down into a 1cm deep hole you've poked in the soil. Be sure not to squeeze to hard. Good luck with this round of germs...

KiG cheers

 

[snack420]

Thanks Snidrajsed, I appreciate that tip!

I got convinced the MH was too intense on the little sprouts and after chatting with another grower got convinced to switch to T5's. So, I've installed a T5 unit and also transplanted my 3 sprouts into smaller pint-sized cups in order to promote the creation of a nice compact root ball. I'll post some pictures tomorrow, but I'm hopeful this will be an improvement of the environment for the sprouts.

In the meantime, I'm trying to germinate another Blue Cheese seed because I think the one I have is a bit weak and it's initial stalk was allowed to grow too long before being show the light.

 

[juststarting]

Hey, no biggie if you didn't add the inoculant. In fact, I'm in the habit of waiting until their stems harden before I start adding micorrhyzae. You can add some to your nutrient later and top-feed.

I'd try germinating them in paper towel and then propagating them in cups full of coco--roots go crazy. Besides, the coco won't dry up as quickly as the cubes will, and as a medium, coco is very clean. Sometimes when the radicle goes through the cube, it snaps at the tip. Injury of an emerging radicle has been associated with an increase in incidence of males and herms on a batch. Unlike animals, dioecious plants do have the ability to switch gender if there is seedling trauma early in the game. Because of this, I'm partial to germinating in loose media first (coco), and save cubes for clones, when gender is already well-established. Besides, coco has trichoderma, which works fantastically well in promoting root health when we use humics, kelps, or other organics. Just a thought ;-)

Here's a scan of an Urban Garden Magazine article on seed germination. It helped me a great deal to sharpen my popagation skills. Some tips, like adding Superthrive and sea kelp, can be omitted, really. All you need is plain water unless you're growing other plant seeds like guavas, etc, which might benefit from a little extra auxin (superthrive amd kepl are auxin-rich). The rest is pretty straightforward. The photos are from the author's social media page. It took a bit of digging to find them but I'm glad they're still out there because my scans of these pages didn't go through. Check it out...

Holy shit, it worked!

Well, there it is!

* personal note: on that last page, step 6: it is best to leave the lid slightly ajar. It prevents sweltering in the container which helps prevent seed rot. I've learned this the hard way. It might require more monitoring and misting the paper towel, but the extra work is worth it. If the radicle goes through the paper towel, simply cut around with scissors. A few paper towel fibers aren't gonna mess things up.
That's pretty much all I have; hope it helps.

Great info!!!

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[juststarting]

I'm probably gonna be the least popular guy in the classroom for this, but hey, I never was and as time proved, the joke was on my classmates. What comes next is not what one wants to hear, but what needs to be said...

. I wouldn't perpetuate anything that came out of a herm. Once a plant herms, there's no win/win--gene pool's fucked. Once hermed, it means that 50% of the seeds will be herms and 50% females (which will carry the herm trait further down the line). Essential oil production will NOT be optimal--the plant can get itself pregnant--no need to produce more sticky to retain pollen. It is a result of adaptation--blame Darwin. If the counterargument is "but I've grown killer plants out of seeds from herms, bro", my retort would be "have you grown it out of a seeds from plants that never hermed?" Relativity at play. Anything resulting from a herm I toss, UNLESS a flowering plant gifted me with one or two tiny seeds at the end of harvest. Those are usually XX selfed females. But a plant that hermed and gave way to many seeds....those seeds end up down the toilet. That's it on that issue--there really is no other way around it. In a grow room, there simply is no room allowed for a transgender bathroom. Also consider that pollen travels. I despise very few things, but amongst the ones I do is the outdoor grower who flowers herms without pulling them because their pollen will shit all over and ruin everyone else's genetic purity. But you're indoors, so I still love ya. Pull them out...
ok, jesting aside..

. H2O2 will kill the beneficials in Great White and Roots Excelurator. Don't use it if you're using either one of those two. Use H2O2 only if you're running into an infection or if you want to oxygenate a poorly-aerated, sterile grow. But to use H2O2 with Roots Excelurator or Great White undoes the goodness these products have to offer.

. pH probe needs to stay wet at all times and with a pH solution. The optimal thing to store it in would be a KCl storage solution (offered by Bluelab) or pH Calibrating solution at 4.0pH on the dot. Notice that KCl is alkaline and the 4.0 calibrating solution is acidic. Why does it need to be extreme? Ion migration--ions inside your probe bulb would leave the bulb through the glass and out into a storage solution like plain or RO water. It's osmosis--not my rule, blame Niels Bohr for that one. How can it leave the solid glass? Because although atoms are in bond, there is a lot of empty space between the electron bonds that keep matter together. They do get through. Dipping a damaged probe in cleaning solution will NOT redo all the damage done by having it dry up: it's a myth. Sorry to be brutal, but reality often is. Solution? Time to replace the pH probe and get a storage solution. I recommend the Bluelab solution; it's kept my one-year-warranty probe up and running for four years straight, and as accurate as the day I bought it.

. My recommendation for a good meter would be the Bluelab Combo Meter. Now, I can already hear the groans in the room because it's expensive. My reply: so what? You get what you pay for. Why Bluelab? Consider this:
1. The Meter has 3 year warranty.
2. The pH probe has a 1 year warranty. If it goes bad, disconnect and buy another one. Mine, as I mentioned, is four years old and properly maintained and I've had no need of changing it...or the meter for that matter
3. The TDS probe is like a bluelab truncheon. That shit will last a lifetime. I know store owners who have a 7 year old truncheon and it still measures right on. The TDS PROBE IN THE COMBO METER IS AS HIGH-quality as a Bluelab TDS truncheon, so, why not go full combo?

If you want a cheap alternative for a TDS pen, I recommend an H-M TDS-1 pen. I cannot recommend a pH pen equivalent from H-M (or any other brand) and I will certainly NOT recommend the cheaper Bluelab pens because they'll last only a year and that's it. Why spend $200 for a year's worth of measuring accuracy when you can pay a bit more and get a combo meter than when properly maintained can last you longer than the stated warranty?
(I don't work for Bluelab. Fuck no, lol. But they do make a quality product. That, I cannot deny.)

If one must go el cheapo for pH measuring, though, there's nothing better than the General Hydroponics pH liquid test kit. $15. Lasts you about a year of constant measuring. "6 is sweet; yellow is mellow" will be the phrase to recall when using this alternative. Clear, golden yellow, that is. Always wash the little test cylinder with soapy water and a bottle brush right after testing, then triple-rinse with plain water (I was a QC lab tech at one point in my life--old habits die hard). Dry with the cap off. This is important! Any humidity and biological residue will alter the next test's values, especially if what you're testing (or have teated) has Great White or any organics in it. Microbes encapsulate when they dry off, that's one. Furthermore, bacteria grow in humidity, encapsulate when it's dry, and secrete enzymes that alter pH readings. Another reason why cleanliness is next to godliness.

So...um, yeah, those are the basic points I wanted to share with you and everyone else, and there really isn't much room in them for dissent. It is what it is. If my tone is a bit more "yeah yeah yeah", I meant nothing by it, really--it's Anheuser Busch's fault. (Boy, I'm shifting blame left and right today, aren't I? Carefree spring weekend here, and the grill is hot.)

I hope this helps. I'm not in the habit of saying something without offering a solution, but when it comes to genetics, I'm a purist and think herms have nothing to offer. I stopped growing a Burmese Kush x Thai cross once, precisely because of the Thai's innate proclivity to herming. That Blue Dream is a good variety, sure! But if it hermed, consider a next-run finish at 720ppm or les...or switch to growing Cannatonic--that variety can usually take a higher TDS at finish and the strength is just phenomenally strong. There's always alternatives...on the pH probe maintenance issue, there's little counterargument--an erratic reading is typically a sign of a faulty probe. If the probe dried up and the machine reading is all over the place, that's 100% chance that it's busted. Get a liquid pH test kit and start saving for the high-tech stuff. Or stay solid-state with the liquid test. Nothing wrong with that in my book. I can't offer an opinion on a budget pH probe because they did not perform to my expectations and I'd rather have someone protest at me for suggesting an expensive item than having them protest because I suggested a shitty item. And as far as no H2O2 with organic additives...H2O2 is an oxidizing agent. It does not discriminate between good or bad microbes, aerobic or anaerobic--it fries everything. It's meant to do that. So no mixey with organickey.

Now...about those beautiful babies you've got going there: they look beautiful! Keep up the good work and let them crowd the pot with roots real good. Tease them into seeking moisture by not overwatering. At this early in the game, they ought to--they'll grow stronger. As more foliage develops, more waterings will be needed. They'll let ya know.
And consider solo cups with straight coco for the next seed-popping session once they're out of the paper towel. It's just gentler on the roots than having them go through the pores of a cube. Cubes for cloning, coco for "from seed". Just a thought.

Looking real good--real good! Keep it up

Best of growing success.

Great post thanks so much from Noobie. Kicking self but you great ppl save our lifes.

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[snack420]

Here is the new setup under T5's. For some reason, the CK is looking a little droopy today - not sure why. The T5's are about 5" from the tops of the top edge of the planters.

The BC flopped over and is looking very sad - the stalk is too long - so I think I'm going to give up on that one. I have another BC (Blue Cheese) that is just starting to germinate in a paper towel, so I will likely plant that in coco in a day or two.

So, here are the two remaining ones now... Do they look alright? Any idea why the Critical Kush seems to be dropping a bit? Is that possibly from overwatering? I might've given it a bit too much yesterday.

 

[GreeenFingers]

Hey snack420

I wish you the best of luck on your new grow, I'm subbing in for this one.

What seed company is your Blue Cheese from? I have a Barneys Farm blue cheese selected from 6 seeds that is my prize keeper even out of the many strains I've grown it's still the best, hopefully yours will be too

Keep up the good work.

GreenFingers

 

[snack420]

Thanks GF. Yes, my Blue Cheese is from Barney's as well. Hoping (one of) mine grows up to be a keeper too!

 

[GreeenFingers]

I hope so All of the ones I grew out were nice, this one was just, special ha ha

I have two clones of her in early veg at the moment that I am going to be flowering next, I'll send you on a picture of her when she builds some structure so that you can have a look for her yourself

GreenFingers

 

[snack420]

So, over the weekend I was getting a little bummed out that things weren't going quite as well as I had hoped right from the beginning, so I decided to change up my strategy a bit. (I know, I can be impatient and have lofty goals at times.)

Because there are always problems that can happen, I figure if I germinate more seeds I'll have an extra opportunity to develop more skills in that area, and have the added benefit of growing some more strains which will really capture my attention. Plus, I'll have a little insurance if one or two plants don't do so well. As far as I'm concerned, more strains means more fun (at least that's what I'm hoping), and I have a bunch of seeds I might as well try to nurture...

So, I ended up soaking 5 more seeds (and strains) and now I have 2 more going - though one is a duplicate strain. All in all I'm thinking of getting 6-9 plants going, first in solo-sized cups, then transplanting to 1g for a veg - a shorter one, especially for the sativa-dominant strains, and then transplant again to probably 3g smart pots just before flipping to flower lighting. I am under some time constraints for when I harvest, so I won't be able to do an extended veg for long flowering sativas, but that works okay for smaller plants. I was originally planning to flower 2 plants in 7g smart pots, but I think I'm now more jazzed up about flowering more plants and strains, so they'll have to be smaller to fit in the tent. If I could harvest a nice satchel of buds from each of 6-9 plants, I'll be a very happy midnight toker

BC1 was looking a little droopy, so I added a little soda-bottle humidity dome and it now looks a little better. I'm trying to keep the temps between 70-75 during light time and 65-70 during lights out time. So far, that's going fairly well with the help of the oil heater. The temps did go down to 57 one time last week when we had a power fiasco, but I don't think it hurt things too much. The RH is generally between 40-50%. I'm using a very small humidifier to keep things as close to 50% as possible. It's tough for me to get it higher than that without bringing in a bigger unit which I'm not sure is really necessary. I do have a second identical small humidifier that I could run in tandem, but I've done that before and the tent gets really wet. I also had a tower fan blowing at the sprouts for a couple of days, but I decided it was a little too soon for them, so I've since turned it off. It will go back on when the light changes to MH when they get into veg mode.

Anyway, here are some pics at the moment...

 

[snack420]

Most of the new seeds have now popped and things are looking good. I decided to try and increase the RH a bit by adding a second mini-humidifier and now the RH ranges between 50-70%, but usually hovering around 55-60%, which I believe is better during sprouting (and veg). Everything is looking healthy right now and I'll post some pics later when I get the chance.

Unfortunately, the veg time I had originally planned is going to be cut short a bit because I need to end flowering at a certain time due to some constraints. So, for the sativa-dominant strains especially, they may only get about 1 month of veg since they are just starting to sprout. And since I only have one tent and grow area, I'll really need to switch everyone to 12/12 at the same time, so it's going to be a short veg for all of them. I think this will be alright and will just mean that they will be smaller plants. I'll presumable harvest the indica strains earlier since they have shorter expected flower times.

If anyone has experience growing indica and sativa strains in the same grow area, I'd be curious to hear of any techniques for dealing with the differing flower times...

 

[snack420]

The growing family...

 

[snack420]

Hi everyone!

I know it's been a couple of weeks since my last post. Things have been very busy for me and it's been a challenge to update my journal. But, rest assured that I've been keeping notes and will post a detailed update here soon - with more pictures too

Things are going along pretty well. There have been a couple of minor snafus, but overall I think the ladies are looking good. I should have time to upload some pics and post more details soon.

Hope you're all having great grows and a very green day too!

for reading.

 

[Stinky Snid]

They must be getting big now.. I'm looking forward to the pictures.

KiG

 

[snack420]

Thx buddy!

Here are a couple of pics from a week ago

And then a couple from today

I changed over from the T5 flourescents to the 600W metal halide about a week ago and growth has really picked up since then. I was a little disappointed by the rate of growth prior to that and I wonder if I left them for too long under the T5's? CK, for instance, is now 45 days from seed, so I would expect her to be more filled out by now. Maybe the T5 should only be used for the first week or two?

Anyway, the earliest girls planted, the Critical Kush, Blue Cheese (1), and White Widow x Big Bud (1) are all looking good and the CK is even starting to get a nice cannabis aroma They are getting more water now, a bit every day, whereas I was only watering about once every 5 days before, so maybe that's another reason they weren't growing as fast as I thought they should've. I took the fact that it was moist on the top layer to mean they didn't need water, but for coco, I noticed it dries out fast underneath the top, so they really can be watered nearly continually, especially since they have fantastic drainage.

I also ran into another problem where my MH light wasn't always coming on reliably . I realized that the 1500W oil-filled heater was probably slurping up most of the amperage available on that circuit so when the light ballast came on, it was overdrawing amps and tripping the power strip. Not good. So, I've plugged the heater into an outlet in an adjacent room with the hope that it is now on a separate circuit and will not affect the ballast any longer. I'm only using the heater to prevent the temps from going down too low during the dark period as I understand I don't really want them getting much lower than 65. However, the weather is heating up around these parts, so I suspect I'll only need the heater for another couple of weeks (at least I hope so).

In other news, I've also switched to the gas lantern routine (GLR) lighting schedule. There are interesting accounts online about people having good results using it, and I also like the fact that it should decrease my electricity bill, so hopefully a double bonus there. I'm curious to see how things go using GLR.

Well, I always appreciate any comments or feedback, so please feel free to send those along and I hope all is well in your world too!

&

 

[snack420]

Since things are now starting to take off, I think it will be time to transplant them soon, at least the more mature ones into 1g smart pots where they can extend their roots and get ready for switching to 12/12 in about a month.

 

[snack420]

Hi everyone!

More pics coming this weekend. In the meantime, I'm happy to report all is looking good in the tent. The ladies have been transplanted into 1g fabric containers and seem happy and healthy.

I do have a couple of questions, and if anyone is still here and might know about these things, it would be great to hear from you.

1) Because of the density of plants in the tent, due to a strong state of overexuberance by me at the beginning, it will be difficult to take out the saucers on a regular basis. However, the plans are sitting on shelves above the saucers so do not sit in water. Is there any issue with leaving runoff water/nutrient solution in the saucers and basically let it evaporate naturally, or is it important I empty the saucers?

2) Is it possible for plants to become root bound in fabric pots?

3) I'll point it out when I post some pics, but I noticed a bit of slight discoloration (lighter shade of green) on some of the leaves. My MH light is about 12 inches from the tops now, but it was down to 10-12" for a little while. I'm wondering if maybe the light was too close or if this is a nutrient deficiency or overabundance. I'll have to check the charts over the weekend.

Hope you're all have great grows!