Becca Takes A Big SIP
- Thread starter BeccaBuds
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- #62
She's got root-munchies! Res is already down to 2-1/8" on the dipstick. Topped 4th, 5th & 6th node branch tips today. 7th & 8th node branches will be topped as well after they develop a few more flowering sites. After that I'm cutting the lights back to 12/12 and adding Massive Bloom to the watering regimen. Got some interesting variegation on one leaf. The little extra branches continue to get bigger.
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- #63
Amazing, res is down to 1.5" (40%) already. It's amazing how fast all those feeder leaves developed and got huge, and the water usage reflects it. Trimmed off a big pile of feeders, where the node branches were already well developed, to encourage said branches. Also topped the 7th node branches. Water usage will be reduced briefly by the trimming but it won't take the plant very long to fill back in and need more! Going to have to put some stakes in to support it soon as well.
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- #64
Just now did a bit more judicious pruning and took a count of growing tips, soon to be flower sites. Looks like it's up to 47-48 tips. Res is down to 1-1/4", almost time to prep another gallon of aqua with boosts. These planters make it really easy to track water use! Set lighting back to 17 hours per day.
Every time you prune it those shoots will get thicker stems as they push new shoots.
Everything is looking good! Really nice plant.
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- #67
Yea, @BeanTownFan420 and if current growth is any indicator, I'm going to be needing some serious support for some fat flowers. I have to keep it portable, though, so I can access & water the plants behind it.
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- #68
It's really looking good, @Phytoplankton. I am really amazed by the way this SIP is working. I haven't seen growth this fast since dabbling with a hydro setup a few years back.
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- #69
At noon the res had an inch of aqua, so I filtered a gallon of water. It's around 96 ppm after adding 200mg ascorbic acid to drop out the chlorine and filtering through activated carbon with mixed-bed deionizing resin. Added 5mL of CalMag Xtra, 15mL Purpinator & 7.5mL Bud Candy.
Sprinkled 6 tablespoons of Geoflora Veg atop the soil, tilled it in a bit with a bamboo stick and top watered a liter of aqua to activate it.
Refilled the reservoir with the Aqua/CalMag/Purp/Candy mix.
Sprinkled 6 tablespoons of Geoflora Veg atop the soil, tilled it in a bit with a bamboo stick and top watered a liter of aqua to activate it.
Refilled the reservoir with the Aqua/CalMag/Purp/Candy mix.
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- #70
Wouldn't you know it- I made the Mini-SIP so naturally I have to try it out. I found this plastic cup is a perfect humidity dome for germination, like it was made for it.
I've been wanting to try these old (19 years!) Master Kush seeds to see if they will still germinate. I have 5 more I can try if this one fails. These are regular seeds so if one does crack after all this time, it may be male. I got the original seed from Heavens Stairway, a long gone Canadian seed vendor.
Meanwhile the Mystery Seed in the 4-gallon SIP is filling in nicely. Reservoir is 2-1/4" deep today.
I've been wanting to try these old (19 years!) Master Kush seeds to see if they will still germinate. I have 5 more I can try if this one fails. These are regular seeds so if one does crack after all this time, it may be male. I got the original seed from Heavens Stairway, a long gone Canadian seed vendor.
If it does generate you could try setting setting it under 12/12 lighting for the first 10 days above ground and then revert to 18/6. That should allow sexing by day 20-30 and save quite a bit of time and resources if it ends up being male.
Bring that old timer to life Becca! 
ReservoirDog
Well-Known Member
Those wee mini SIPs will absolutely grow out for you and the manageable size only cuts down on the work, and elevates the fun. Turns out this was one of the more potent plants Ihave harvested in the last couple years, so there’s that! I used a turkey baster to get the water/nutes inside (synth nutes in the bottom, organic on top with SIPs is a good general rule to live by, though yer Kelp, humic acid is fine in the bottom at normal mix rates.) weirdly, these mini SIPs also were testbeds for my worm castings which I mixed 1/1/1 with peat and perlite. I top-dressed throughout and put a little reflector/mulch on top keeping it moist. Just water in the rez on this one. Great journal, thanks for sharing with us. I’m a dipstick-er too - in my 27-gal tote SIPs anyway! I hope you hang out in our SIP thread sometime, see you around Becca.
*germinate...
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- #75
In the past, I've set hours back after 4 weeks to see what gender they are, then switching it back up, but I've never tried 12/12 right off the bat. I'm slowly reducing the day length in the cacti tent, which is down to 16 hours as of today. The MS in the 4-gal SIP will start flowering soon too.
I hope to, StoneOtter. Historically I haven't had great luck with old seeds. I do have 5 more dice to roll though if I need them! So far nada...Bring that old timer to life Becca!
That's a lovely plant, ReservoirDog! I've been thinking about how to bottom-fertilize these SIPs with an eye toward microbe health, avoiding chemicals while operating on a shoestring. I've used worm castings as a soil amendment for years but never made a tea, so I may give that a try, and add some other goodies like kelp extract, alfalfa meal, and humic acid. Let it ferment for a week til it's nice and stinky...Those wee mini SIPs will absolutely grow out for you and the manageable size only cuts down on the work, and elevates the fun. Turns out this was one of the more potent plants Ihave harvested in the last couple years, so there’s that! I used a turkey baster to get the water/nutes inside (synth nutes in the bottom, organic on top with SIPs is a good general rule to live by, though yer Kelp, humic acid is fine in the bottom at normal mix rates.) weirdly, these mini SIPs also were testbeds for my worm castings which I mixed 1/1/1 with peat and perlite. I top-dressed throughout and put a little reflector/mulch on top keeping it moist. Just water in the rez on this one. Great journal, thanks for sharing with us. I’m a dipstick-er too - in my 27-gal tote SIPs anyway! I hope you hang out in our SIP thread sometime, see you around Becca.
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- #76
Res is down to 1.5" deep. Plant has filled back in some and is drinking more. It looks like it can use more nutes soon. I count 48 growing tips. It's going to be fun watching them all turn to flowering.
No sign of life yet in the Mini-SIP. I can see the seam on the side of the seed hull with a magnifier and a flashlight. The seed hasn't cracked open yet. Seen younger seed take a week or more to germinate... patience Becca...
No sign of life yet in the Mini-SIP. I can see the seam on the side of the seed hull with a magnifier and a flashlight. The seed hasn't cracked open yet. Seen younger seed take a week or more to germinate... patience Becca...
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- #77
Big SIP Res had 1-1/4" at noon. Everything nominal but no sign of life from the little SIP MK seed yet.
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- #78
Four days in and no sign of life in the MK seed, but I did spot a microscopic soil mite traversing it's hull. I was able to catch it and get a photo via USB microscope.
The divisions on the ruler are 10/1000", so the bug is on the order of 0.020"x0.025". I'm pretty certain these are the harmless variety that feeds on decaying organic matter in the soil. I am really surprised to see this in these Root Riot rooting cubes. If they are in this cube they are in all of them in the bag. I bet a chunk of dry ice in the sealed bag would smother them. Otherwise I'm going to have to heat sterilize the whole bag. Probably harmless but I don't like 'em!
Reduced the cacti tent light to 15 hour days, 7:00AM to 10:00PM. Big SIP Res is down to an inch of water so time to filter another gallon and start thinking about nutes to add.
Reduced the cacti tent light to 15 hour days, 7:00AM to 10:00PM. Big SIP Res is down to an inch of water so time to filter another gallon and start thinking about nutes to add.
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- #79
No flicker of life in the mini SIP yet at 5 days in. The big SIP res is down to 3/4" or about 28 fl. oz. Prepared a gallon of nutes. No distilled in the house, so added 250mg of ascorbic acid to a gallon of tap water to drop out the chlorine, shook it and filtered it through a Brita filter pitcher. I add a 1/3 cup of mixed bed DI resin to the basket of the pitcher to help get the ppm way down. The tap water was pH 8.1, 207 ppm TDS, after filtration is pH 5.1, 32 ppm TDS. The pH is low now because I just stripped out a lot of the ions. I'll fix the pH last. This works fine for small scale, one or two plants, but would be a PITA for larger quantities. I know because I've done that!
To the gallon of "scrubbed" water, I added 5mL AN CalMag Xtra, half tsp (2.25g) GH MaxiBloom, 20mL Purpinator, 7.5mL AN Bud Candy and 2.5mL pH Up. The solution measured pH 6.3 with ec = 1.53mS and 1075 ppm TDS. Dumped most of it into the res. Cacti, agaves, aloe and pineapple each got a little of the remainder . Turned the plant around to try and keep it symmetrical. Adjusted the light cycle to 14 hours ON, 7:00AM to 9:00PM.
To the gallon of "scrubbed" water, I added 5mL AN CalMag Xtra, half tsp (2.25g) GH MaxiBloom, 20mL Purpinator, 7.5mL AN Bud Candy and 2.5mL pH Up. The solution measured pH 6.3 with ec = 1.53mS and 1075 ppm TDS. Dumped most of it into the res. Cacti, agaves, aloe and pineapple each got a little of the remainder . Turned the plant around to try and keep it symmetrical. Adjusted the light cycle to 14 hours ON, 7:00AM to 9:00PM.
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- #80
Whoa, the MaxiBloom supercharged the plant in the supercharged planter. That's supercharged squared! I think I've created a monster, lol!
The Masterkush seed remains unopened. Yesterday afternoon I spotted more mites crawling around on the seed. I carefully lifted it out of the rooting cube with some tweezers and dropped it into a 1/2 tsp measuring spoon with some H2O2 adjusted to 1.75% concentration. It sank and starting forming bubbles as expected.
I then used a toothpick to extract the rooting cube, set it in a small porcelain bowl and microwaved it for 30 seconds with 3 second breaks every 10 seconds. It got plenty hot enough to kill any insects in it as it was steaming.
I took the seed out of the H2O2 dip and after allowing the root cube to cool, reinserted the seed.
As of this morning still nada... my patience is wearing thin.
I think this seed is kaput
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I then used a toothpick to extract the rooting cube, set it in a small porcelain bowl and microwaved it for 30 seconds with 3 second breaks every 10 seconds. It got plenty hot enough to kill any insects in it as it was steaming.
I took the seed out of the H2O2 dip and after allowing the root cube to cool, reinserted the seed.
As of this morning still nada... my patience is wearing thin.
I think this seed is kaput
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