Bloombox Grow In South America - Jack Diesel Strain

[hydroninja]

Hello Fellow Growers!!
I had post a few months ago about about my bloom box grow here in South America. I took the initiative to bring one in, because good fruits here are scarce, expensive and the ones available are very bad, dirty and of course is one of the biggest reasons for crime in my country.
I had a few seeds but they were a little old and some of my seedlings died during germination phase. Well the one left over was a Jack Diesel which I've been growing in a soil mix with coco in order to have a strong mother to take out clones and later on having my system working 9 flowering plants at once.
I'm using Future Harvest nutrients for the Mother Jack (Grow, Common and sometimes Veg Boom). I'm keeping my PH level now in soil between 5.5 and 6.5 and ppm around 450 now that the mother is a little bigger.
Below a few pics of the last two months that I have been cultivating Mother Jack since the start. My first question is, is she big enough to clone or do I need to wait until the fan leaves fall off or more branches are grown? Any tip would come in hand before I start my cloning and then put them in the hydro system.

 

[hydroninja]

Well, Mother Jack has grew some more, I have stop using Common and Grow and now using just ph balanced water and sometimes 2ml of Veg Boom. She is taller now but has branches with fan leaves which I believe is not cloneable. Is the same thing I used for a Mother Sour Diesel I had long ago. So any tips of how grow good branches for cloning will be more than welcome. I can see new growth on her and new leaves I believe that's a start of the clone. I keeping my lights on 18/6 once I want to have her as mother plant and then clone on my bloom box. Pics below. Any advice?

 

[hydroninja]

Hi again!! Unfortunately the weather here in South America is way too hot!! Is around 98 and using an extra fan I can get down to 96, but I'm giving mother jack water in a daily basis once the soil mix is drying out faster now, so far despite the slowness of the mother's grow everything is good so far, although she is tall, she is no good to clone yet. I was wonder about transplant her to a 7 liter vase and puts a humidifier to increase humidity once the hot weather here is dry. Any thoughts?? Don't want to be the only one to be posting in my own thread LOL!!

 

[Dresney]

Hello, Hydroninja

Yes, the new growth coming in at the base of the fan leaves will be what you can clone when it grows out. I fear that with the temperature being so high the growth may be very slow though.

How old is the plant?

What kind of lighting has the plant been grown under?

Also, the plant looks very tall for the container it is in. Might it be getting rootbound?

There may be some ways to manipulate the plant to stunt vertical growth and promote horizontal growth, but I'm not too certain which are the best methods. I will ask around and see what I come up with.

I'll be following along with your journal.

Happy growing!

 

[Richard Richardson]

Hi Hydroninja

You could bend the plant over or top it (your first clone )

Both of these methods will encourage side branching

 

[donpaul.p]

Hi,

lets see what we can get sorted out,
first high temps causes plants to stretch like crazy, if your 100% sure the seed is from good stock then we know its not a hemp seed, hemp grows strait up with no side branching as such,

so high temps causes the plants to stretch like crazy as they grow taller to get into the cooler air, indoors this is a problem as the air higher up is usually hotter then it is lower down as we grow in confined spaces where heat rises, so you need to try and get the temps down to stop it stretching upwards, the side shoots are not growing as the plant is looking for cooler air before it starts normal growth, so try and play around with temps if its possible,

i also notice the top of the plant is a nice green colour and as it gets closer to the bottom its gets lighter green then yellow, this is usuallt a sign your not feeding the plant as much as it needs as it starts taking nutrients out of the lower leaves so it can promote healthy growth at the top of the plant

in the pics i think i can see small side shoots that are an inch long or their abouts, so it has got some side branches growing but due to the high temp these are not growing as they should be, these will just end up stretching and grow upwards to try and reach the cooler air,

now lets talk pot size, if the roots cant spread outwards very much then this will limit sideways growth, so you might be better off with a wider pot for the plant as this will help the roots spread out more, as you started the plant in that one pot then this means the roots grew strait down to the bottom of the pot and now their just circling the bottom of the pot instead of using all the growing medium to grow in, so id say you need to get a bigger pot and transplant into that, that should give the roots more room to grow side ways.

now if you want to stop upwards growth and promote sideways growth then you have a few options
1, you could top the plant, this is basically cutting the top node off, this will then give the plant 2 main coles growing upwards, but while the plant is recovering from the topping then this will promote growth lower down.
2, low stress training, you could tie some string around the top of the plant and pull it over so its no longer growing strait up, this will give you many tops as the side shoots would grow upwards and become the top of the plant, when i do this i poke holes in the top of the pot and use pipe cleaners and gently pull the plant over a bit each day so it dont snap the branch, so you might have the bottom half of the plant growing up as normal but then the top half you could pull over so it was growing sideways, this would start growing upwards again but this would also allow the side shoots to grow upwards as well,

3, high stress training, now this is basically where you squeeze the stem and bend the plant over, if you roll the stem between you finger and thumb while gently squeezing it then the stem will become pliabe and then you will be able to pull the plant over with ease but as your plant is pretty tall it would fall over on its own if you used this method so you may need a friend to help you if you go with this option.

please read up on all methods above before you try them so you know for sure what you can do to the plant, but i think while the temps are high your just going to keep having problems. if temps are high in flower you will have small skinny buds as they to will stretch to find cooler air.

you can also use a different light schedule that gives you less stretch, now im not a grower who uses 24-0 for veg but it does promote a more bushy plant as plants stretch during the lights out period, plants stretch to find the light during the night time, so by not giving them a night period they have less stretch so this may slow it down some and should help promote a more busy plant.

but if you want to keep the plant tall then id top of fim to try and promote the lower growth,
so you have a few options but before you do anything id try and get a bigger pot and also find a way to get the temps down,

then you can look at topping, lst,hst,fim.

 

[jamthe3]

I'm subscribed. I sometimes leave clones/seeds in my cloning room for months when I have no space to place them elsewhere. The lack of branches could (and prob is) the result of small pot size, ie-rootbound. No worries, I've let some go over a foot tall losing leaf after leaf on the bottom like it looks a couple of your leaves are about to do. Get a bigger pot. One that if you went down 2/3-3/4 of the length of your plant from the top and bent her over at like a 45 degree angle would leave a decent amount of the plant extending over the edge of the new pot. Transplant to the new pot & tie the base of your plant very close to the bottom to one edge of the pot and with a 2nd ribbon bend her over gently/slowly and carefully tie her down to the opposite edge of the new pot. The ribbon should look kinda like this



_ \


with the space in the middle where the plant is. Lo ciento, pero yo no soy artisto

You don't want the plant horizontal more like a 45 degree angle extending over the pot. Now place a long stick (actually plastic is better than either wood or metal) a bit to one side of where the plant goes over the edge and push it down into the soil on the very edge so its in firmly. Gently with your hand pull the end back into the pot tilted a little downward and tuck it into the stick to hold it in place. Water the heck out of the pot. To deal with the heat, if you raise the pot off the ground and let it dry to like a moist spongy consistancy, then you can water frequently a little at a time and she'll ignore the heat and have branches going crazy up from the nodes in no more than two weeks. I subscribed so I'll see when ever there's new posts and we'll go from there or from wherever you are if someone else gives advice you're more comfortable following. I live in the New Mexico desert and keep plants alive for monts sometimes like this with room temps well into the 90's myself so I know it works. I actually am harvesting 3 sour diesals next week that two of which were planted last June and went through this process. I have 1 clone of one and two of the other and all three are doing better than any of the 4 clones I have of the 3rd one flowering with them that never even saw an 80 degree day...go figure.

Salud y feliz ano nuevo,
John

 

[jamthe3]

El otro hombre donpaul sabe mucho como de plantas tambien. Todo con su planta ahorita esta bien exceptamente necesita poquito mas grande casa. Lo ciento pero espanol es poquito deficil para mi y no se como se dice en ingles "pot". Cuando necesita mas, preguntale.

 

[KingJohnC]

Subscribed. What light source are you using for your plant and how far from the top of the plant is it located? Your plant is in too small of a pot, I would transplant it to at least a 3 gallon or 10-12 litre size pot. A plants size is largely determined by its area for root growth. You should feed your plant nutrients as it requires nutrients for growth. You may consider topping the top 4-5 inches of the plant and rooting the top portion as a clone, this will promote more side branching in your original plant. How tall is your plant now?

 

[Dennise]

You have the best of the best helping you now so you should be fine....

 

[hydroninja]

donpaul, thank you so much for your help and tips below a brief update of my project.
The seed is from Postronics I had it for while cause I had an emergency and traveled out of the country for good part of the year, anyways this plant is around 3 months old now, and it was the only one I could save from the other 6 I had.
I was able to ge the temperature down, we had a couple of days of intense heat, I gave her more water during those hot days and I put her outside for a bit to get some fresh air.
Yesterday I topped her and the reason I stopped fertilizing is cause I heard it would root faster that way. I'm only using ph balanced water and I have been cooling down the water to help me with the temps.
I have a question in regards to transplanting, This pot I'm using is a 2 gallon pot but I cut it in a half before I put the 3 inch rockwool in it. Can I use the same pot but without cutting it? Another thing the plant is in a mix of perlite in the bottom, sunshine soil only in the middle of the pot and sunshine mixed with perlite topped with coco fiber on top should I do the same thing in the next pot? The pot needs to be wider? Cause the ones I have are longer, but in a low budget to purchase more stuff for my project but I have a bunch of things that I'm not using like these 2 gallon pots.
I will post a few pics later on so you can see the tools I have in hand for my project (Nutes, environment, etc).
I'm using a 125w CFL for this plant, but I have a bigger chamber where I can use a 400W MH I have.
One more time thank u from the bottom of my heart.

Peace!!

 

[hydroninja]

You have the best of the best helping you now so you should be fine....

Thank you for ur kind words and good energy!

 

[hydroninja]

Subscribed. What light source are you using for your plant and how far from the top of the plant is it located? Your plant is in too small of a pot, I would transplant it to at least a 3 gallon or 10-12 litre size pot. A plants size is largely determined by its area for root growth. You should feed your plant nutrients as it requires nutrients for growth. You may consider topping the top 4-5 inches of the plant and rooting the top portion as a clone, this will promote more side branching in your original plant. How tall is your plant now?

Thanks for the tips, I don't have a measure here but I can estimate is around 20 inches now.

 

[hydroninja]

I'm so happy to find some such helpful people, here are the pics of the tools I have to grow my Mother Jack,

She is actually housed in the veg chamber of my bloom box, I took off the hydro set up just to give her more space to grow and also cause of the noise, which I know now how to sort it out ( I live in a small space). Below Mother Jack under the CFL light and right by her is the 7 liter pot, is ok to transplant her to the taller pot? The pot she is housed in it is the same I just cut that in half to house her when she was a seedling.

I used perlite in the bottom sunshine mix in the middle of the, perlite and sunshine mixed together and topped with coco.
Here is the perlite which I used around 20% in the bottom of my pot that I cut in half.

Here is the Sunshine I used in around 50% in the middle of the pot and mixed with perlite around 20%

and finally the coco fiber I used to top the last 10%.

Below the nutes I'm using.

Grow is 1-2-5 Common is 2-0-0 and Veg Boom is 1-0-0, in the first months I was mixing these 3 and last time i fed her it was around 450 ppm. Any advice how to use them wisely would be more then welcome.
Temps are under control now and Toping has been done on her.
Thanks one more time for the help!!

 

[jamthe3]

I'm so happy to find some such helpful people, here are the pics of the tools I have to grow my Mother Jack,

She is actually housed in the veg chamber of my bloom box, I took off the hydro set up just to give her more space to grow and also cause of the noise, which I know now how to sort it out ( I live in a small space). Below Mother Jack under the CFL light and right by her is the 7 liter pot, is ok to transplant her to the taller pot? The pot she is housed in it is the same I just cut that in half to house her when she was a seedling.

I used perlite in the bottom sunshine mix in the middle of the, perlite and sunshine mixed together and topped with coco.
Here is the perlite which I used around 20% in the bottom of my pot that I cut in half.

Here is the Sunshine I used in around 50% in the middle of the pot and mixed with perlite around 20%

and finally the coco fiber I used to top the last 10%.

Below the nutes I'm using.

Grow is 1-2-5 Common is 2-0-0 and Veg Boom is 1-0-0, in the first months I was mixing these 3 and last time i fed her it was around 450 ppm. Any advice how to use them wisely would be more then welcome.
Temps are under control now and Toping has been done on her.
Thanks one more time for the help!!

Yes, that will work to transplant into especially if its free. You might want to lower your light considerably closer to her top. Maybe try 6 inches or so (15 cm's.) I'd keep your mix of nutrients the same as you use now for a couple of weeks after you change pots and then adjust when you change from veg to flower timing.

You might consider trimming off a little of that very bottom growth and burying that part of the main stem also when you transplant.

 

[hydroninja]

Yes, that will work to transplant into especially if its free. You might want to lower your light considerably closer to her top. Maybe try 6 inches or so (15 cm's.) I'd keep your mix of nutrients the same as you use now for a couple of weeks after you change pots and then adjust when you change from veg to flower timing.

You might consider trimming off a little of that very bottom growth and burying that part of the main stem also when you transplant.

Just transplanted into the 7 liter pot, but something came up I ran out of sunshine and filled out the gaps with coco fiber, is that ok? Specially at the end of the pot where it gets wider I couldn't fill out the gaps with more sunshine so I used the coco fibers, she is now very close to the light. What's the range for PPMs for feeding now? I hope the fibers won't hurt the mixture. Pics below!

 

[jamthe3]

You'll prob be fine. If it was myself, I'd just mix up a bunch of water using the same ratio nutes you've been using and water the heck out of her to set her in well; 450 ppm's should be perfect right now.

 

[jamthe3]

you mentioned before you have a MH there also you can use, correct?

 

[jamthe3]

When its about a day away from when you need to water again (it'll take longer to dry out this time as there will be hardly any root mass "drinking" the water in half your pot) I have a suggestion for you that you probably should strongly consider.

 

[hydroninja]

Yes, Im putting her in a larger chamber tomorrow morning with the MH. Remember that will be a mother plant and will veg for a long time once I ran out of seeds and want to use her clones to grow hydroponically later on.