Brian420pm 3rd Grow Aug 2020: Blue Dream, GG4, Gelato

[Brian420pm]

Lots of changes since grow #2! Now I'm living in Missouri as a legal caretaker/cultivator. I can make a living growing cannabis, how SWEET is that! I'm overwhelmed with gratitude to the universe that brought me here!

If you don't know what's happening in Missouri, you can get a caretaker/cultivator ID for $125, then you can grow and deliver 12 oz a month to 3 assigned patients (4 oz each). You can charge whatever you want, as long as you and your patients come to an agreement. You don't charge for the product itself but for all the work you do growing it. Your plants have to be labeled with the patient name assigned to each plant. You can have up to 18 plants going at once... 6 in veg under 14", 6 in veg over 14" and 6 in flower.

I'm starting with 4-5 plants, seeds are poppin

After a week I'll go into solo cups. Washed the coco and perlite and charging in calmag. No last minute work this time! hehe

I increased the perlite in the coco/perlite ratio because last time I was feeding 3 times a day and the EC was getting much too high over time. I didn't measure the runoff properly, which required a massive flush late in flower for the rescue. I got lucky and still got 4-5 oz per plant in 16 weeks. I'll be trying 3 parts coco to 2 parts perlite for this grow instead of 3 to 1.

I'll be growing Blue Dream, GG4 and Gelato from Nirvana Seeds in Holland.

So far between the Blue Dream, Cherry Pie and Northern Lights I've grown EVERYONE chooses the Blue Dream flower, the smell is INTOXICATING!

Here is my complete recipe...

Let the games begin!
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[Bionic Chronic NZ]

Good luck man

 

[Brian420pm]

DO OVER! When you take shortcuts things don't always turn out well! UGH I'm going to start again.

First mistake was using cloth instead of paper towels to germinate, one seed got caught in the fabric and broke the tap root in half

Second error was not using a low intensity light... I forgot to pack my 30w seedling lamp when I moved to Missouri so I used the regular light in my grow tent instead. Seedlings are showing light/heat stress, deformed leaves, etc. The Gelato seedling (GL) stem turned dark and fell completely over... I stuck it back in but I'm sure it's doomed.

Lesson learned, do it RIGHT! I ordered a new light and will use paper towels this time

 

[Brian420pm]

OK this looks better! 6 for 6.

 

[BeanTownFan420]

 

[Brian420pm]

Day #4

I got lazy and lost a batch of seeds, got my act together, now this clan is exploding

Ahh look at this baby beauty!

My tap water is a whopping 400 EC (.4) yikes, so for the first week until I get the plants worked up to 1100 EC I got some distilled water. I mixed up the GH Flora nutes at 6 PH and 400 EC and will up it 100 each day to 1000 after 7 days. I'll start adding amendments after that.

They've been used to near 100% humidity in the dome their first 4 days so will train them down to 90% by opening up the tops of the clear dixie cups.

Thanks for watching!

 

[Brian420pm]

Day #6

Love it when seedlings are praying

This GG4 already has premature trichomes!?

 

[Brian420pm]

Day #7

This is the first time using solo cups, which will be the only bridge between peat pods and the final 3-gallon fabric pots. I use two cups for multiple reasons, one is the inner cup is clear so I can check out root growth and the other is the inner cup has holes at the bottom to let excess liquid flow out.

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During the week in the cups I'm upping the EC gradually 100 per day, from 400 to 1000. I'm also reducing the humidity from 100 to 85-90 so the plants harden properly. I tried multiple methods of poking holes in the top solo cups until I found one that lowered the humidity perfectly. I cut out 1/8th of the top, like a pizza slice, and a small triangle cut on the lower, opposite edge.

The second set of true leaves are already showing up, and a few of the GG4 plants are almost at the top of the cup... leggy girls! I thought that was from lack of light so I put it closer, but the leaves responded by cupping. So maybe I have naturally stretchy genetics IDK. When I repot to the fabric pots I can bury the stem and get them proportional again.

I'm busily expanding coco from brick, rinsing and buffering and adding rinsed perlite. Next time I'm buying pre-buffered coco, this is too much work! lol

 

[Bionic Chronic NZ]

awesome man...

 

[Brian420pm]

I think I figured out why my seedlings have stretched to the top of the solo cups so soon. I had two nightlights in the same room so it never got dark when lights were off 6 hrs each night, that's the theory anyway

I've also been spending a lot of time brainstorming substrate topics. I place a lot of value in rinsing out my coco and perlite to remove all dust before use. I first heard of it from a botany professor and it makes sense that plants in the wild rarely grow in dusty substrate. They most likely grow where rain washes all those microscopic particles away. The problem is that dust will coat the roots and reduce nutrient uptake. This dust shows itself in two ways... in coco it turns rinse water brown and in perlite the dust turns the water cloudy white.

I use raw, compressed blocks of coco that have no nutrients and to reduce plant shock it should be pre-charged before use... soaked in cal/mag solution and ph corrected. The pre-charging and rinsing is a LOT of labor when you work in a standard kitchen and need to fill 18 gallons of fabric pots! I'm not getting younger and my back needs a different strategy!

I thought the magic solution was to buy bags of pre-charged coco. It seemed perfect, I could just add perlite, fill the pots and proceed. But, what about the dust? There is PLENTY of it, generated by normal transportation while packaged. If I rinse the pre-charged coco with tap water it will ruin the PH and wash away some or all the charge that was already in it. If I use distilled water I would need to buy a TON of it to rinse it all then probably have to REcharge it again!

I brought this up to a hydro store employee and I got a blank stare, "Everyone grows differently". lol

Some would say just use the bagged and precharged coco, add perlite and go with it, but that dosn't address the dust.

Ideas?

 

[Brian420pm]

Day #9:

Seeds are praying shortly after their daily feeding... take me to church!

 

[Brian420pm]

Veg Week #1:

End of the first week of veg, 13 days from seed. All the plants stretched and hit the top of the solo cups a week early because I left on 24hr night lights near them by mistake, always SOME challenge to overcome, mostly MYSELF! lol

Transplanting was a bit difficult because they lacked a week worth of root growth and some of the balls fell apart, but it turned out OK. Girls are in the tent, perking back up and most systems are running. I still have to program the auto-feed and light timers which I'll do tonight.

 

[BeanTownFan420]

 

[steffgrowsweed]

Looking good Brian. Happy first grow in your new home

 

[Brian420pm]

Veg Week #2:

20 days from seed, time to chop chop!

Topped the 4th node, removed the 1st, kept 2nd and 3rd to grow out.

One of the 6 plants is a runt so will wait another week to top that one.

I'm currently using a 15 gallon trash can to hold the nutrients. The goal is to only mix nutes once a week so I'll get a 27 gallon bin, which will be wider and lower than the trash can, less work for the pump as well.

 

[Brian420pm]

Veg Week #3 (22 days from seed):

Of course these girls talk to us, they let us know when a bit down or slow. Check her out when happy, content, alert and ALIVE! "Bring it", she's saying, "Together we'll rise to the occasion!"

 

[Brian420pm]

The 15 gallon nutrient container was not big enough to feed 6 plants for a week, so I upgraded to a 40 gallon. I have a circulation pump and air hose that come on for 1 minute every two hours. The feeding pump comes on for 1 minute every 5 hours.

 

[Brian420pm]

Veg Week #4 (31 days from seed):

Some of the plants had leaves that were mottled in shape, not very flat, so I thought the problem was either over feeding (4-5 times a day) or overdosing silicon dioxide (SD). Since I've fed this frequently before and others that grow in coco/perlite don't seem to have this problem, I'm halving the dose of the SD powder from 1/8 tsp per 10 gallons to 1/16 tsp. I few days ago I topped off the nutes without using SD, essentially diluting the SD that was already in the tub, and they look better already.

I use SD because I've read how others use it to help strengthen stems and other benefits. I have it in pure powder form so I didn't know the proper dosing. One source suggested to wait until the plants are established to start application.

I lowered the feeding frequency to three times a day just in case that was also a contributing factor, I'll revisit that experiment another time.

Pruned today, topped each of the 4 main branches and removed some lower leaves and some that block the middle. For this grow all plants will have 4 branches on each quad branch for a total of 16 colas.

Next week I'll train so the tops are more even.

I think the SD has helped because look at these robust bones! In my two previous grows the four main branches were smaller than the main stem, now they are JUST AS BIG!

 

[Brian420pm]

Veg Week #4 (32 days from seed):

They recovered nicely from their final toppings. Look at this beauty!

Instead of 4 growing points on each of the four branches for 16, I'm going to remove the four lowest points on the lowest node for a new total of 12. I marked how each of the points will fill the space... 16 seemed a little much. This will be my new normal going forward... this engine is purring

 

[Brian420pm]

Veg Week #4 (35 days from seed):

Lots of haircuts lately!