Strawberry Cheesecake Auto: First Journal!

[Kinghummingbird]

Did some baseline nutrient reading to determine levels prior to beginning a full nute regiment. Interesting the disparity between the 'ocean' based dirt and the 'forest' based dirt. Suspect that has something to do with humic acid, kelp and all that biology stuff. Or to small of a sample.

Can't speak to the accuracy of the test kit but it was recommended by the local Ag extension. Its a LaMotte NPK soil test kit model 3-5880. Color chart takes a little getting used to. I can see myself going down the rabbit hole of analysis. Are there any test kits available that test for other minor elements? Can anyone point me to an in depth look at soil science for growers?

FFOF reads N-High... P - L/M... K-High
FFHF read N-Low... P- Low... K-H

Both base soils mixed with 25% coco and 25% perlite.

Not sure what to do with that info but nice to have an idea of where these plants will start once the roots expand out of core. Still not ready to attribute any color variation in plant to nute diff. as both are currently rooted in the same core. Plants are being watered with 25% solution of OrganismXL and Ancient Amber every 3 feedings. Just a little boost to get them started. Some love to the roots and real low dosed NPK (.1,0,.1 kinda low) for the core.

Each picture label ends in the letter relative to the dirt type. F for Forrest based and O for Ocean.
You can see which plant is which in the other two pictures. Cheers!

 

[Pennywise]

Talk with @Old Salt he understands nutrients as well as anyone.

 

[Kinghummingbird]

Here's the kiddos. The Frog blend does appear to be a touch yellower. Hmmm. So that begs the question: If the O blend is showing normal color, what is the ideal nute range? M M M across the board? Just thinking out loud. Is this desire to manipulate nutrients gonna lead my down the hydro route? Ha!

Just keep an eye on the color, if it gets lighter or starts going yellow then your assumption was right. It’s easier to add nutrients rather than try and remove them.

 

[Kinghummingbird]

Talk with @Old Salt he understands nutrients as well as anyone.

Thanks man. I'm gonna have to save some couch time on Saturday for reaching out to all these names you keep tossing my way.

 

[Pennywise]

Old salt was making his on mixes from raw salts so I think he would know how to test for different %’s

 

[Pennywise]

Look at Megacrop or Foliage Pro from Dynagro. They have very solid ratios.

 

[Kinghummingbird]

So. Here we are almost 3 weeks later. Picking up a lot of good info along the way. Trying to learn as much about growing as I can. Really fascinating and I find myself drawn to the idea of creating a naturally symbiotic environment between the roots, soil (I'm hooked!!!), and plant. Fungi and bacteria and such. Will likely stick with soil grows. Looking a little deeper in to examples of nutrient wateringproblems so I can learn to read the plant. Haven't figured out what all that means practically, but I'm getting there. Certainly wouldn't say I have any regrets about anything I have done but the more I read the more I want to try. Focusing primarily on the organic stuff and trying to get the right dirt and nute combination. Seems like everyone has their preferences and combinations. How far down the rabbit hole of organics I go is yet to be determined. Living soil sounds pretty amazing and warrants some more research. Most notable thing to happen thus far is that I took the chance and re potted the odd ball auto that popped into a different soil mix. Was originally in straight Roots Emerald Forest (plus 10% perlite. I think) with a LW core but it seemed off. Like maybe it was holding way to much water. Even with minimal watering the soil in the pot was always heavy. Anyway, remedied that by pulling the little girl and putting her back in a layered pot. Hotter soil on the bottom (Emerald mixed with 15% LW and 15% perilite) with a layer (5") of LW mixed with 15% of Emerald and 10% perlite.) Hoping the additional perlite allows for more soil aeration and healthier roots. Nothing but a purple pick to show. Will be switching this runt to the Meigs OG fert line. Liquid version. It seems to hit all the high points for nute needs in a soil grow and represents a good balance between controlling the queen and letting her reign. Ordered Tuesday had Wednesday. Put a call into them to ask what soil they think their line works best with. Will still be continuing the use of Roots line but need to refine my understanding a bit more. Watering schedule has been rather intuitively based (read lift the pot method combined with a moisture meter to help me understand water tables). Twice daily watering occurs with a nute feed every 4 days or so. I am a little curious about the wavy nature of the leaves on the girl potted in the ocean blend. Attached are some pictures for reference. Still trying to figure our grow room management. I've put enough time and effort into getting it started and am confident what I have will suffice for the time being. Plus, I am married and plan to stay that way. Ha!

The two bigger plants are some Durban Diamond. One hermied, the other doing good. They seemed to stall. Flushed them both and restarted nutes. Buds appear to be thickening again. Plan to stick with straight water from here on out and let the plants do their thing nute wise. Maybe 3 weeks from harvest. Sprouted sometime in late Jan.

Cheers!

 

[Kinghummingbird]

May 9th - Both plants seem to be suffering from what I am calling 'The Curl'. Probably not much help that I accidentally left the lights on all night on the 7th. Hoping they grow out of this phase cause they ugly! Watered today with 25% percent nute solution. Using Roots Organics. Created watering bottles out of 1qt plastic Canada Dry bottles and am watering on a daily cycle with nutes once a week.

 

[Kinghummingbird]

Started a little LST on the girl growing in the Forest Blend. Just wanna get the hang of bending and such. Twine will be replaced with the rubber coated stuff as soon as it arrives!

 

[Pennywise]

Looking good.

 

[Kinghummingbird]

Former NW Ohioan relocated to TN. Have 2 Strawberry Cheesecake Autos (left side) going right now. So far pretty impressed with the strain.

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• farside05
• Apr 10, 2020

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• farside05
• Apr 10, 2020

Just came back to these to see how mine are stacking up after near 6 weeks. I got a long way to go! Ha! What part of TN did you move to? I lived in North Knoxville for about 8 years. Loved the area. Seemed like 7 outta 10 people in any given room were from Ohio.

 

[Kinghummingbird]

Here's last weeks picture of the girl in the Frog blend. Seems to have taken well to LST. Opened it up for a few more bud sites at least.

Here she is as of 10 minutes ago. Things have been in a suspended state of animation in these parts due to the large amount of rain and very little sun we have been having. It does appear she put on about an inch of growth in the past 36 hours. Things are going again so will need to get another wire on her and bend her to my will.

I do wonder though if the bending has caused this one flower a little faster. Who know. Need to get some stretch happening here!

Next up is an interesting one. This is the runt. It tried to catch up but got to excited. After popping from a seed I thought for sure was never gonna pop, this poor girl got carried away. First pic is from a little over a week ago. The second, today. She stretched more and met a high stress fate. Cut her back to try and salvage the two itty-bitty bud sites that formed at the first node. No idea what happened but after the stretch the stem between node one and 2 swelled up to almost 3 times bigger than anywhere else. Popped it like a pimple and all kinds of clear fluid came out. Maybe water? She didn't look good after the pop so, chop. I did skim read a thing about root aneurysms and am wondering if this is similar.

Final pictures are of the girl in the Ocean blend. She's been topped and I'm doing a little extra defoliation (judiciously!) to get some more light into the bud sights. I think they look she looks pretty good!

Nutrients wise I'm switching things up a bit and trying to takes things a little more hands off. Both soils were pretty hot from the get go so they should have a good dose of NPK in them to get them through into a good flower. Switched to the Formula 1 and 2 from Meigs nutes. Basically a grow/bloom combo that gets applied every 2 weeks. Have supplements should I need them. Have been keeping up with feeding the 'soil' microbes and sugar to keep them alive. Nothing funky looking happening yet! Will keep watering at 2 a day cycles for the next week. Feel like I am getting a hang of not over watering. Any how, dinner time. (Anyone know what that pesky bug is?)

 

[farside05]

Just came back to these to see how mine are stacking up after near 6 weeks. I got a long way to go! Ha! What part of TN did you move to? I lived in North Knoxville for about 8 years. Loved the area. Seemed like 7 outta 10 people in any given room were from Ohio.

About 60 miles further down I-75. I just chopped my last Strawberry Cheesecake this AM. The previous plant harvested has gotten some good reviews from all that have tried it.

 

[Pennywise]

Looking good in here, do you have any pics of the swollen place on the stalk.

 

[Kinghummingbird]

Looking good in here, do you have any pics of the swollen place on the stalk.

Nothing other than the one I shared above. You can see the swelling in the stem and how it appears to be a bit more translucent...

 

[Pennywise]

Not sure what that could be

 

[Kinghummingbird]

Not sure what that could be

Well, it's compost now. Hahahaha!

 

[Kinghummingbird]

About 60 miles further down I-75. I just chopped my last Strawberry Cheesecake this AM. The previous plant harvested has gotten some good reviews from all that have tried it.

I just put two and two together and realized that I was about half-way through a 104 page journal of yours. Ha! Interesting stuff in there. Biggest thing I've gotten so far was an article you linked to about 32 ratios. Still working on processing the macro ratios but it's helping put all this fert shit in an easier place for me to wrap my head around. Thanks for taking the time to put that together!

 

[Kinghummingbird]

2 plants fed the same nutrient regimen. Now I admit, that regimen hasn't been the most regimented, but I am getting there. Ha! (slowly) Anyway, I planned not to nute anything today and just give the girls a little drink (not much as the the water table in the 7 gallon pots is not low enough) but the girl in the Ocean blend seems to have some kind of deficiency. Went back to previous nute style (liguid Meigs Fert) and dosed them both at full strength Week 2 Bloom. Is plant lacking nitrogen at this point? It makes sense that it is. But does that mean the Frog blend has more N from the start? Poor girl is not flowering as well as the the froggie and is def 3 shades lighter green. (Will need to check ratios on bottles to see how closely they adhere to the 32 ratio and what the variation means.) Here is the schedule:

Here is the the girl I have been trying the LST on. I gotta say, I'm really enjoying this bonsai shit! In fact, almost threw out all my nutes accept a general purpose and decided I want to go all Mister Miagi on my grows. Love how the plant looks opened up!

Pretty sure the 'trichromes' you see here are actually pollen from the white pine at the back of the yard. Fingers crossed they're the real deal!

Honestly, not expecting a giant harvest on these cause at this point I am half convinced that I stunted the damn things messing around with them. Could be LST related on the one girl and the result of de-foiling on the ocean girl. Apropos of nothing, I plan to switch all auto plants to 3 or 5 gallon pots in the future.

BUT...I got these to look forward to! 3 More Green Crack (nice smoke, but not long lasting. clean comedown though. very heady. Good stuff for us creatives! and it smells like heaven! They should have named it Fruity Pebbles.) and 3 auto Lsd's from Barneys. Don't ask what I'm growing those in. I have at least 10 different options to choose from. It's a deep rabbit hole! Hardest part to this whole thing is to find a grow style that works for me and sticking to it. Also plan to run a girl in coco, worm castings, and perlite with a 5% bio char amendment. Cause why not? From day one (5/20) they have been in FFLW. Doing pretty sporty so far. Any thing stand out? These will be an indoor grow in a 4x4. Currently they live in a 2x2 that will soon be growing some straight CBD strains in it. Brought them outside so they would develop some chutzpah today.

 

[Pennywise]

All I do is top and let them grow out.