Too Old's Indoor Hempy Auto Fem Candy Cane - 2014

[too old]

Welcome, all. This will be my first time auto grow. After numerous grows with regular seed stock, I decided to venture into unknown territory. Seems simple enough, sprout them, plant them, feed them, chop'em down. But, we all know that's not going to happen. Let's see, what could go wrong? Kids, cats, company. Power outages, deep freezes, fires. Mechanical and electrical failures. Diseases, pests, poisonings. Earthquakes, upsets, shock and trauma. Inspections, invasions, and ignorance. And like they say on the news, "Now for the bad news." Really though, I do look forward to harvest time and the journey from now to then. Enough rambling, here's the goods:

What strain is it? Candy Cane feminized auto
Percentages: 60% Indica, 30% Sativa, 10% Ruderalis
Is it Veg or Flower? Vegetative
How long? Planted today
Indoor
Hempy, 100% Perlite, 10 litre pails
600w MH, on dimmable ballast
Home made air cooled hood
Temperature at pails = 70*, reservoir = 68* (subject to fluctuation)
RH of room: presently 50%
pH of media : neutral
pH of reservoir: out of the well at 7.4
ppm of resevoir: out of the well at 220ppm
Pests: nope, dead of winter, no blackflies, no mosquitoes, no aphids, no gnats, no flies, no mites
Watering: for now, keeping perlite damp. Normally, use lift-the-pot
Type and Strength of Ferts: none at present. Have GH three part standing by.

Four plants (I hope), in their own secured environment, 10' x 10', 1500 watt electric fireplace (spec'd out at suitable for 1000 sq.ft.), four 6" fans, two 12" oscillating fans, 90 litre water reservoir at room temp (ish). Also have a DYI bubbler with two clones (White Rhino) that may be referred to but aren't really part of the journal.

Subbed on a couple or three other auto journals that are about two or three weeks ahead of mine (Colesdad, Catman12, and Soup01) so they can run interference for me. Sure helps to be in the back of the class sometimes. (Thanks guys for answering my dumbs.)



Thanks for looking, hope this works.

t

 

[too old]

Update: seeds germinated by paper towel method, two days to cracked and roots showing. Planted in pelite hempies, broke through today (two days after planting). Moved the light down to 31" from top of buckets. Put them under 600W, 18/6.

Sidenote: the clones didn't make it. Oh well. I'll probably just move the mother in with the autos, it will just be easier than running two grow rooms. When I swap the autos to 12/12, she can finish off too.

 

[Colesdad]

Um, you know we love pictures, right?

 

[too old]

Hey C - ummm.....yeah.......something about pics with vast amounts of perlite in buckets......not really what you would call "crowd pleasing". Had a look this afternoon, and I may have lost one girl. Not sure why, but even at 1/8", she does not look healthy. Wait and see, I guess.

And thanks for stopping in.

 

[Colesdad]

I just killed one of my girls, on purpose (see journal). I'm doing a 100 percent perlite hempy now for my new seed. Just dropped her in her paper towel an hour ago!
How did you transition from paper towel to perlite?

 

[too old]

Very carefully! Most people say not to disturb them in the paper towel, but I check on them at least twice (more like 3-4 times) a day. I like to get them into the perlite as early as possible, for two reasons: first, it is a more stable and easily controlled environment, and second, the longer the sprouted root is, the better the chance of damaging it. Once I see the root emerge, I plant it about 1/2" down into the moistened perlite and carefully cover it, then soak the planting site with about a 100ml of water to settle the perlite around the seed (don't worry, you can't drown it!) I think that I planted this last round of seeds a bit deep, they took a little more than two days to break the surface. To get the seed off the paper towel, I use anything at hand that is flat and easily manipulated. This time I just used a table knife and used a toothpick to roll the seeds up onto it. Just about anything will work as long as you don't crush the poor little girl. Did you sieve your new perlite? DO NOT get that dust in your airway! Good growing!

 

[Colesdad]

Yes, this time I did wash the perlite BEFORE putting it into the bucket. When I pulled my runt I cut my planter open and, just like you said, it was nothing but slush in the resv! My seed cracked after 12 hours. I put in the perlite and barely covered it with vermiculite, just to hold a little bit of moisture. It's been sitting for about 8 hrs, with a little dome over it. Getting ready to check her ina few. Thank you so much for your advise!

 

[too old]

Update with photos: this is on day two after emergence. Three of the four look ok, but I fear for #4. She does not look healthy. Administered first aid with a super dose of superthrive, and a breath of CO2.

 

[too old]

Hard to believe that plants that start this small can end up giving us so much relief! All part of the big picture, I guess.

 

[Catman12]

Hey too old - ran in to subscribe to your journal! Everything looks good so far! And Colesdad had it right for sure: We do love our pictures Happy growing!

 

[Soup 01]

Another auto grow, i like it!. Subbed up, should be fun.

 

[too old]

Catman and Soup - thanks for joining in. Should be fun! Why is it that when you go to check on the girls, you don't see any change or improvement, panic sets in, you check all the environmentals (and of course they are fine), and then you realize it's only been TWO days?

View image in gallery​

Forgot to include their mylar home.

 

[Soup 01]

Yeah i know the feeling, i have that allot at the minute, keep thinking maybe my flowering has stopped because its slowed down a little. I like the set up, all looks very clean and organised, allot more than mine lol.

 

[too old]

Thanks Soup. Had to gut the building, put in new insulation and flooring. What was in there was not going to work for a winter grow. Once the new insulation was up, lined the walls with panda plastic to seal the drafts and then lined the growing area with 2 mil mylar. Also put two inches of rigid styrofoam insulation on the concrete floor and covered that with plywood. With one 600w bulb, it keeps the 10 x 10 room at 78*F. Should keep the girls toasty and happy.

 

[Soup 01]

Sounds good man, good idea with the flooring aswell. i love building a room from scratch. Im quite proud of mine even though its really just a big wooden frame with some hardboard attached lol.

 

[too old]

We all work with what we have. This building just happened to be sitting there, so why not? But I bet you don't have to haul water 100m or so, or have to put on your parka just to go look. But hey, it's all good, if it wasn't, we wouldn't be here, would we?

 

[Soup 01]

No i dont haha, i still get a bit annoyed walking about 10metres to my bathroom to get water . But yeah its still awesome

 

[too old]

Update - Day 9 (from sprout) - #4 was pulled today. It was still green, but severely stunted. It hadn't changed since breaking the surface. I did a plantopsy (?) and found that the root system was still viable (about 3/4" long, pure white, multiple side roots off of main), but that the stem just below the surface of the perlite looked as if it was crushed or collapsed and shriveled, very thin, and almost black. The leaves were still green and moist, so this leads me to believe that nutrient movement was happening, but at a very minimal level. It is possible that I somehow damaged the stem, or it could have just been a weak seed genetics. Either way, it is toast now. Down to three that are doing well, I think. I know I'm not supposed to nute them until the next set of leaves, but it is hard not to. They seem to be growing very slowly. Nine days, 1/2" to 5/8" tall. Not sure if that is good or not. It has been a long time since I started anything from seed. Yeah, Yeah, I know. Patience. Well, they get five more days to show that second leaf or else! Other than that, not much new here. Hope you all have green days ahead!

 

[Soup 01]

Sorry to hear it man, seems we have both had a death in the grow room recently lol. Still onwards and upwards, hope it speeds up soon i know all about being impatient. I check mine a couple times a day hoping for some kind of difference lol

 

[Colesdad]

Easy with nutes. You've seen my journal, I know fo' sho' lol.