Nivek's Need to Know Nature - First Grow Journal - 2015

[nivek]

welcome. old time smoker, new grower. classic 'do it yourself with materials on hand' type of fella. cheap/frugal/both. i am figuring out my grow style as i go but am working towards an almost 'micro grow' system. my grow room is evolving as we speak and i will be redesigning my flower side into two 'levels' as this journal progresses, yes, there are many issues there, but none that can not be overcome, i think.

strain: no idea,, plants are 3rd generation clones from a gifted plant spring of 2014
cloned: oct 8 014, oct 19 014
indoors in cheap, woody soil
8 inch pots, not sure of volume (1/2 gal?)
full CFL lighting. 8 23w bulbs (or so)
room temp. mid 70's (or so)
watering/soaking twice weekly or as needed. regular misting as well
fertilizing weekly with 24.8.16 fert and :warning, disturbing mental images ahead: urine, diluted 1:15

i will be practicing any method i come across which gives me low, wide plants, including super cropping, low stress training and who knows what else,, splitting the plants? low and wide is necessary for me to split my flower room into two 'levels'. cheers, nivek

 

[nivek]

first off, i must set the scene:

this is my studio/lab, after a record snowfall. come on in please.

inside my studio/lab with the lab door closed:

wifey and i have a lot of fun in here, still under construction as well.

inside the studio/lab with the lab door open

veg side to the left, flower side to the right.

veg side

flower side

and the two 3rd gen clones as of jan 05 015

 

[nivek]

ok, now the boring stuff,, my story.

a gifted baby marijuana plant grew very nicely in the back yard of our new okanagan home. the okanagan is about as prime a growing area in all of canada as there is. lucky me. that gifted plant grew into a beautiful 6 foot mama and gave me, possibly for the first time in my ancient history, a taste and smell i will never forget, fresh ripened marijuana. but summer is too short and winter is too long so i needed a solution.

solution = obvious.

so i tarted building and thinking, probably in that order too which is never good. a few months later and i am now harvesting my very first indoor plant, all the way to ripe.

i am working towards self sufficiency, continuous supply harvested monthly.

four stages of development, 1)new clones, 2) half way to flower, 3)begin flower, 4) harvest.

i am doing this planning with just the one unknown strain so far because that is all i have, however, a package is currently in the mail from england that will change that shortly.

my veg side of the lab is more or less the way i need it as i see now, pretty it's not, but working it is. the flower side of my lab is about to undergo a redevelopment as soon as the plant in there is fully harvested, which will be after it's current 48 hr dark period. some comments on my other clones upcomming.

i am venturing into a style of growing that i don't read too much about, yet, micro growing, almost bonzai type. it simply seems that most grow spaces i see have so much wasted space, usually above the plants, lots of air up there, so i am going to try to fill that empty space by splitting my flower side into two 'levels'. i know, i know, water and electrical don't mix. absolutely correct and my number one priority as i move forward with this project.

please feel free to call me crazy, no worries, everyone does,, just call me, please, and chime in with any suggestions or criticisims you like. i offend easily but will get over it, i promise. cheers, nivek

 

[PeytonManning]

subbed. i'll be here to help ya when you need it

 

[nivek]

this is the second generation clone mere days from harvest. i did about as many things wrong, at the wrong time, as one can do with a plant, including, but not limited to, using the wrong temp lights for the first six weeks of flowering, super cropping three weeks into flowering (my first venture into super cropping, good idea, bad timing), insane fertilizing practices during most of the plants veg phase (i could have canoed in my leaves if they were big enough), inadequate lighting as well.

however, there it is, flimsy, airy, but smelling like a goddess and looks a bit like one too. cheers, nivek

 

[nivek]

detail of the attention this clone 1 has received. super cropping, defoliation and low stress training

detail of c 2 cropping

 

[nivek]

the lighting issue is ongoing and probably always will be. no store bought expensive system here. k.i.s.s. all the way. i started using hanging lights and quicly decided that was a pain in my back, every time i moved something the lights would turn or move over or just cause me grief, so, i built a stable raisable system that seems to work, so far. i might use the same idea in my redesigned flower room

 

[PeytonManning]

Off to a good start with the training and whatnot.

 

[DrewDrop]

Subbed! I like the stealth grows and this one has great potential
Cfls are my cup of tea and i have had some pretty great results with them in both soil and dwc.
Have you tried gradually tying down branches (LST) instead of super cropping (knuckling)? In my experience I get the same end result but the LST is less shocking to the plant and requires almost no recovery time. Tho some say that the extra stress from knuckling is what causes the super yield, i was just curious about your experience and take on it.

 

[nivek]

drew, thanks for the input and welcome to my studio/lab. yes, a bit stealthy indeed. the grandkids you see, their parents don't understand. ha

as for experience, I have none. the one poor flowering plant in the pic there is my first and only real indoor plant, so far. the success or lack thereof is yet to be determined. but, I have some thoughts on your comments acout cropping. I am practicing several methods including low stress training, as can be seen by the green twisties, they are holding down branches, but, the plant is growing wider than the pot so another method is necessary to keep the canopy level.

I either tie down to an object bigger than my pot, thus losing pot mobility, or I super crop, which I am doing. and I will say this about the super cropping I do do, I bend a branch at night and the top is not pointing up anymore, next morning the branch is still bent but the top is straight up. does not even blink. I think the branch is even asking for more. ha. cheers again, nivek

p.s. I am curious what one might think the proper amount of cfl's might be. the pack says 23 watts and 1600 lumens. how many per square foot for veg? and I know the lumens per square foot is higher for flower

 

[gryzzly56]

drew, thanks for the input and welcome to my studio/lab. yes, a bit stealthy indeed. the grandkids you see, their parents don't understand. ha

as for experience, I have none. the one poor flowering plant in the pic there is my first and only real indoor plant, so far. the success or lack thereof is yet to be determined. but, I have some thoughts on your comments acout cropping. I am practicing several methods including low stress training, as can be seen by the green twisties, they are holding down branches, but, the plant is growing wider than the pot so another method is necessary to keep the canopy level.

I either tie down to an object bigger than my pot, thus losing pot mobility, or I super crop, which I am doing. and I will say this about the super cropping I do do, I bend a branch at night and the top is not pointing up anymore, next morning the branch is still bent but the top is straight up. does not even blink. I think the branch is even asking for more. ha. cheers again, nivek

p.s. I am curious what one might think the proper amount of cfl's might be. the pack says 23 watts and 1600 lumens. how many per square foot for veg? and I know the lumens per square foot is higher for flower

welcome nivek, your room is off to a good start buddy. I woukd bump up lights to 65 or 100 watt CFL for flower if your determined to use those, also, plants want to grow, your bonsai method us robbing them of their natural habits and stunting growth, not a good thing. Here's what I would do, you mentioned your back yard is perfect for growing, grow there instead, start your plants indoors in April and come June transplant outdoors and let g him finish off by maybe end of Sept, if your lucky of early Oct. That should give them plenty of time to get done. You can grow enough this way to last all year easily, look for some organic fertilizer as well, not crap like miracle grow either, also if grow outdoors get a soil analysis as well or diy it. I hope this helps a little.

 

[PeytonManning]

drew, thanks for the input and welcome to my studio/lab. yes, a bit stealthy indeed. the grandkids you see, their parents don't understand. ha

as for experience, I have none. the one poor flowering plant in the pic there is my first and only real indoor plant, so far. the success or lack thereof is yet to be determined. but, I have some thoughts on your comments acout cropping. I am practicing several methods including low stress training, as can be seen by the green twisties, they are holding down branches, but, the plant is growing wider than the pot so another method is necessary to keep the canopy level.

I either tie down to an object bigger than my pot, thus losing pot mobility, or I super crop, which I am doing. and I will say this about the super cropping I do do, I bend a branch at night and the top is not pointing up anymore, next morning the branch is still bent but the top is straight up. does not even blink. I think the branch is even asking for more. ha. cheers again, nivek

p.s. I am curious what one might think the proper amount of cfl's might be. the pack says 23 watts and 1600 lumens. how many per square foot for veg? and I know the lumens per square foot is higher for flower

Apparently the guy above didn't read that stealth is needed, so he suggested outdoor plants and to let them grow naturally. He doesn't realize that a flat canopy increases yield, especially indoors.

With CFL, you'll want 100 true watts per plant, and 150 true watts power plant in flower. 5000k-6500k for veg and 2700k-3000k for flower

 

[DrewDrop]

The amount of watts needed will vary as the plant gets larger. A small plant just a few weeks old will do fine with 40w. But a 4ft bush would obviously require much more. But thats as much fact as i can give you. I try to have one 23w bulb for every 8" square of canopy. Ive used 194w for 4 plants. 2ft tall and FIM for 5 tops per plant and yielded 1oz per plant! And then ive also gotten less from using more lights so other things like genetics are also factor. As long as your plants are under BRIGHT direct light your doing it right. Keep those cfls close!

 

[nivek]

i would like to chat about my cloning techniques. first off i must mention about my inexperience , again. i only have a few clones to claim as my own, but i do have some success and also some low budget/DIY ideas to share. i follow all of the usual cloning techniques recommended on this site although i do not get quite as picky as some with the sterilization of everything in site while cutting and handling the babies.

this is a pic of a new years baby, clone cut jan 01

this is the clone 9 days later. same clone, different name tag

i had to rename the clone because i mistakenly thought it was a fifth generation of the plant but in fact was cloned from the third generation plant so is still 4th generation.

so, what do i do different,, well frugal me did not want to shell out for rooting powder so i researched alternatives to purchased powder and i found, well, willow bark tea works good but i had none,, but i did have something i did find during my research,, HONEY. yep, pure creamed honey. melt it down and slather the baby clone cut with honey. can lick your fingers too if you get some on ya. honey has natural bacteria fighting agents and tastes great too. just be careful the honey is not too hot from the melting when you slather. believe it or not, it might even matter what kind of honey. we had some liquid honey in the house and i tried two clones with that honey and both failed, go figure..

because my operation is so small i have the ability to micro manage my plants and give the clones lots of attention. the next 'secret' that i use is no secret at all but not mentioned here much, least in my reading so far. warning:gross mental images ahead: URINE. yep, urine. natures perfect fertilizer. urine has nearly the exact same components as bone meal. high in nitrogen and has potassium and phosphorus as well. it is completely sterile, meaning has no diseases or bacterias when it exits the body. 100% different than the other exit hole which has all the bad stuff. i have a spray bottle with a highly diluted mixture of urine and water, probably 50 to 1 in the spray bottle, and i mist the clones 3 or 4 times a day. kinda gross but, hey, it's my pee so i can live with it. for watering and fertilizing ones plants, urine 10 (i use 15) to one is recommended . never straight pee, which is why it kills your grass. i have noticed a huge difference in the look and health of my plants since i started using urine. yes, there is a bit of a urine smell, but not bothersome, especially with budding plants near by.

then when the little ones are all misted and ready to rest i put a 'clone dome' on it and they sit under a single soft bulb

a little water every day making sure to water around the stalk and all should be ducky. the urine as a spray has actually kept one clone attempt alive and growing new leaves even though the clone never sprouted one new root. i finally pulled the sickly thing and not one root, but new leaves. btw, i use the urine spray on my bigger plants too,, they love it. heavily diluted don't forget.

anyhow, that's what i do and it seems to be working so far,, i will update the clone info as soon as i see new growth. cheers, nivek

all this,,,, for,,,,,

 

[nivek]

gryz, oh that my backyard was bathed in warm glowing sunshine 365 days a year, and i had no neighbours or noseys nearby and the local constabulary were blind but such is not the case. i did grow my first ever 'real' pot plant in my backyard last summer and probably will again, this summer,, but, i live in the great white north, and it 'is' white right now. and below freezing, just a tad,, so indoors i must be.

i am with peyton as far as the super cropping is concerned. that style fits my style, and produces cool looking plants,, a mini rain forest. worth it just for that.

ok, lighting,, thanks for the info folks,, i think i am closer to where i need to be knowledge wise. 100 true watts = 4 23 watt cfl's per plant, minimum,, seems about right with all the other info i have found out. i will really need to up the lighting in my flower room when i renovate. soon. thanks drew and peyton. cheers, nivek

couple more pics of another new years baby clone,, i did three that day,, all looking good.

same clone, different name tag 9 days later

 

[nivek]

tried some close up work with my camera, wishing i had my old gear, but neat pic of my so near ready unknown first indoor grow

 

[DrewDrop]

Urine good shape so far..... I didn't know that about the honey but I'll have to try thst next time. Cloning gel is not cheap.

I like the old school pipe. You can tell that thing has seen some use.

 

[nivek]

well herbies lived up to their name and delivered in 10 days,, this,,

yaay,, very excited. i feel so anti establishment, and it feels good..

i have to decide which two to plant now. i am going to start with two different ones first,, a super lemon haze for sure and one other. maybe an afghani because there is two afghani seeds.

i am going to germinate the paper towel method, between the sheets, like i like to be, soaked in water, like i don't like to be, in a nice warm, dark spot with easy access on top of my hot water tank. for the first time i am moving some operations into the main house. i sure hope the missus does not mind,, ha, she smokes more than me,,,bring em in she says..

this journal is not about these new plants but will have some updates i think,, cheers for now,, nivek

all the seeds are huge except the delahaze.. any significance to that?

 

[PeytonManning]

Some seeds are just naturally smaller.

 

[nivek]

yes, i am sure that is the case,, just seemed odd, out of 9 seeds, only that one is small. i have one super lemon and one afghani soaking in water right now,, ready for me to plant,, i am going to plant directly in soil. i decided after two days of reading stuff, and i liked into soil.

speaking of big,, were we? well i am now,, look at this,, new for me anyway

one honkin big ball of resin,, coming out of somewhere

oh that all trichomes were that big,, cheers, nivek