Super nOOB's Grow Journal...1st germ lol

[stackz]

cool thanks man. appreciate it. I'm leaving town on sunday for 2 weeks and on top of that my fiance's mom is coming for that time lol!!

somehow I have to be able to get on the phone with her about watering and checking on the plant while trying not to tip off her mom to whats going on. haha.

I'm hoping I can see what to do change wise for the plant to cure the yellowing areas on the leaves in the next few days while I'm all ninja covertlike before I leave town.

[stackz]

alright I managed to get my humidity back up into the normal range by keeping the pitcher I use to water with...full of water and in the corner of the grow box so that as it evaporates in the temperatures in the box, it keeps it humid as well. It doesnt look like the plant is yellowing too much more even though it's pretty spotted now.

should I trim off some of the lower leaves to spark it into growing fresh fan leaves??

I'm starting to notice little bumps at the bud sites on the leaves so I'm guessing trich production has begun??

edit: oh yeah, also, for the past I'd say month. I've had about 3-4 of these little knat like things flying around in the grow room. anyone know what they could be and if they could be contributing to anything?? I was just going to fog the box after this plant is done to kill any that stay in there as I dont see any weird munching spots on leaves or egg pods or whatnot. I'd take a picture but that's pretty much impossible to do lol.

[Medical Marijuana]

Trimming bottom leaves will not spur new top leaf growth. Leave them if they are green, or remove them if they are blemished.
The flying insects are fungus gnats and are not good.
Racefan found this which will help.
Description
Fungus gnats (family Sciaridae) are found in and around damp areas such as wet floors or benches with decaying vegetable matter, algae, and/or fungi present. Adult female fungus gnats lay eggs in soil or growing media. The eggs hatch into larvae that feed on plant roots. As their name suggests, the wings of adult dark-winged fungus gnats appear light to dark gray.
Unlike houseflies or other kinds of flying insects, adult fungus gnats tend to remain near plants (in indoor situations) at soil level and can be found resting on leaf litter and foliage. Larvae dwell in the soil until they pupate; they are legless and have transparent bodies with distinctly black head capsules. Pupae are difficult to detect without magnification, but are stouter and more brown than larvae.
Life Cycle
Female adult thrips deposit oval eggs under the soil surface. The following are the life stages and their approximate duration*:
1. Egg (hatch in 4-6 days)
2. Larva - four instars (10-14 days)
3. Pupa (5-7 days)
4. Adult (lives about 7 days)*
*Adult females can lay up to 1000 eggs in a lifetime!
Damage
Fungus gnat larvae feed on various parts of plant roots and generally diminish plant health. Plants infested with fungus gnat larvae can show signs of stunted growth. Larval feeding can also spread plant pathogens and/or make plants more susceptible to disease. Although adult fungus gnats can help spread pathogens, they do not feed on or otherwise harm plants and are considered a nuisance when they occur in indoor settings such as offices, malls, and apartment buildings.
Control Strategies
Monitoring for adults. Regular monitoring for winged adults using yellow sticky cards will help identify a fungus gnat infestation in its early stages. Disturbing the foliage of plants suspected to be infested will cause fungus gnats to leave plants, and can help trapping efforts. Trapping alone is not recommended as the sole means of control, but when used in conjunction with other methods can reduce significant numbers of adults.
Physical and cultural controls. Do not overwater plants. Keep growing areas as dry, algae-free and weed-free as possible. Pull and bag weeds that may harbor pests. For office and home situation with a relatively few number of plants, cover entire soil area with plastic wrap to prevent adult emergence and egg laying.
Chemical controls. Although the use of insecticides to control fungus gnats on small numbers of indoor plants is not recommended, pyrethrins or pyrethroids may provide short-term relief from adult gnats. (See Physical and cultural controls.) For commercial growing operations, consider adding a biological insecticide such as Bacillus thuringiensis subspecies israelensis to growing media. For more information, consult your local pesticide product dealer to see what works best for your situation.
Biological Control. Several species of beneficial nematodes are available to help keep fungus gnat larvae in check. Other predators such as rove beetles (family Staphylinidae), ground beetles (family Carabidae), and soil centipedes (family Geophilidae) may occur naturally in your growing area. Predator mite Hypoaspis miles and biological insecticides such as Bacillus thuringiensis can be applied to growing media to control fungus gnat larvae. Consult a supplier of biological control agents to see which agents will work best for your situation.
Predators. Soil-dwelling predator mite Hypoaspis miles; rove beetles such as Atheta sp. (family Staphylinidae).

Parasitoids. Synacra pauperi parasitizes the larval stage of fungus gnats. (Note: S. pauperi is not yet commercially available in the U.S., but is being used in Europe for fungus gnat control in mushroom houses.)
Nematodes. Steinernema carpocapsae or Steinernema feltiae nematodes attack the soil stages of fungus gnats. Consult with a supplier of beneficial nematodes to find out how to apply nematodes and about other beneficials that can be used in conjunction with nematodes for additional control.

[stackz]

well cool, thats easy enough to just cover the soil in the pot with plastic haha.

[CharlieMopps]

You're wattering too often.

[stackz]

lets hope its that easy lol. Its only getting watered 2x weekly right now by my fiance and I've got plastic on the soil so hopefully it'll be good to go when I get back in town.

she watered it for the first time since I left town yesterday night and said it looked ok to her.

[The Prof]

How does removing the damaged leaves help the plant?? I've had a neut burn problem ealrier and some of the leaves got burned i left them and it doesnt seem to have had any negative effect should I remove them??

[stackz]

alright, I've been doing to searching and reading on here to try and address why the plant is browning and to better figure out exactly the cause.

I dont think the knats have much to do with it as they were around for a while. I also dont think the watering or nutes are the problem as I've only had my fiance water it twice since I've been gone and it still is browning some.

I'm thinking its root bound into that pot I've got it in. When I get home this weekend and check the plant by pulling it out of the pot, how dense will the roots be on the outside of the dirt to know if it's rootbound or not?? I was reading other threads where people thought their plants were rootbound and when they took pictures of the root system, guys said they werent rootbound even with roots on the outside of the dirt.

Also, once I pull it to transplant (which I'll do one way or the other at that point) how do you properly wash the roots?? do I just sorta shake the loose dirt that I can from the roots and then toss it in a new pot and fill around with new dirt?? or should I wash the roots clean with water and start with pretty much fresh dirt??

I'm thinking the latter will shock the hell out of the plant.

[stackz]

I could cry, in fact, I did haha




The problem is obvious to me now. I need to reverse the rotation of light for night time so it doesnt get as high during the day. The poor plant was dry as a bone. I pulled it from the bucket and it had roots on the outside of the dirt. as soon i turned the plant over, 80% of the dirt fell off and i had hardly and root system left.

I put fresh soil in the bucket and WET the hell out of the dirt and I also added more water pitchers to help with humidity the next couple days.

I hope I can bring it back. I KNOW its dried out because before I left it had white hairs...now the leaves are slick and dark. poor thing was starving.

[DaMagoMan]

I dont think the knats have much to do with it

They may have damaged the root system beyond repair.

It's real tough to fix problems like these during flower.

[stackz]

her mom leaves town tomorrow so I'm gonna bring the plant (whats left of it) inside and replant it in a new pot with fresh soil and I'm going to trim all of the leaves so it will focus on root growth.

I was going to completely wash the roots off and then powder it with the root growth hormone I have as well. anyone think this might do any harm to it?? I mean hell, it's already in sad shape after I left town.

I think it was getting too hot in the grow room I built so I'm going to drill some holes between the chamber I use and the one that still works as a fridge and put a thermostat inline on the one that works so it'll kick on above 80 degrees and kick back off @ 70ish so I dont have to worry about heat being a problem anymore.

I'm also going to put some fine mesh on the inlet and outlet for air circulation to keep bugs out.

I can do nothing but learn from this as far as I'm concerned.

I just really really hope I can pull this plant out of this but I think it might be a lost cause...

it was doing SO well too...damn women not watering when they should...sigh.

[stackz]

ok, well its last ditch effort time for this plant. I dont see it making it as a whole through this so I decided to get crazy and see what would happen haha. I even moved it back into the spare bedroom since the family is now gone so I can keep better tabs on the heat and humidity.

I watched a bunch of cloning videos and followed one that spawned a few others with good results so I followed that method. basically making a solution of water with "superthrive" that you kept the clipping in until it was in the soil. Then prep a pot of soil with the same solution and mix it in until you had watery mud and then trimmed the clipping's leaves, etc and slit the bottom and rerinsed in the solution and then went into the root compound and then into the dirt with a tight pack around the clipping.

I'd be amazed actually if one these makes it but we'll see. I even went out and bought a pH meter and moisture meter to get the soil prepped correctly to nice and moist with a pH of between 6 and 7.

I even left the bottom portion intact with what roots it still had and then I clipped the ends of the roots off, rinsed, and dipped the roots in the root growth hormone haha. I'd laugh...but be happy...if this was the only part to survive lol.

anyway, here is death row!

[Boss]

lol ..death row :-)

[stackz]

Originally Posted by Boss

lol ..death row :-)

oh man....


dead men can be pardoned!!! Hopefully their DNA will prove their freedom (hopefully some poorly grown swag so it is a "heartier" strain??).

sniffle, we'll see.

I hooked up a makeshift lightbar over them this afternoon and put them on the 24hr timer with a 18/6 light period. I did the 24hr "tug" test and only had 2 that sorta moved up a bit....so maybe...just maybe...some rooting is going on??

[stackz]

lol, I guess this must be the gas chamber for death row??

sigh....