British Bulldog Meets Rottweiler - Getting Orgasmic With Organic

[Weaselcracker]

If you do have to resort to ordering from Canada again- keep in mind that Canada Post is thinking about going on strike. They supposedly vote on the issue on August 15, so you'd have some time to get your stuff ordered and out of the country. I'm just hoping my seed order (7 weeks it's been now) from Gorilla shows up soon, since a re-order might land me in the middle of the postal strike if there is one.

 

[Kriaze]

Thanks for the info Weasel, hopefully I'll be meeting up in Amsterdam and bringing one home myself, otherwise postage from there will still be a lot cheaper than from Canada

 

[Kriaze]

With a little bit of invention and ingenuity I've replaced one of the LED lights in the veg tent. It's probably an Electrician's nightmare but it works for me

This is pretty much how it went:

One down, two more to go.

 

[Kriaze]

Tonight I planted the immature crossed Incredible Bulk and Lemon Skunk seed, I'm not sure if it's viable but nothing ventured nothing gained so to speak. I also planted another Lemon Skunk and will hopefully get a strong plant that I can use some of my saved pollen on. One more light was replaced in the veg tent too, I wanted to switch out the last light but as the two autos are well into flowering I didn't want to mess with their particular light, but in the future I will move the 5000k light into the middle and have the two 3500k lights one either side. I've no idea how the plants are liking them yet, they've not keeled over and given up the ghost though so far, and I definitely prefer being able to see my plants in 'proper' light

Here are the little babies to be plus the White Strawberry Skunk that was planted at an earlier date:

I used BioBizz Light Mix to pot these seeds as although I'm happy with the Canna Terra Pro that I usually use, I hear that it's not as good as other soils used by better growers than I, so I thought instead of settling for happy I would give some other soils a try. I have BioBizz AllMix for when I transplant the two new seedlings, the older seedling will remain in CTP throughout it's life.

Here is a shot of the veg tent with the two new lights in, not long until I can remove the final purple LED and see if there is any difference in the next autos that I grow:

The flowering tent is lights off at the moment, but I'll try and get a shot of the remaining plant in there when they're on. Until then I will wish you all the best and may your buds be bountiful

 

[Kriaze]

As promised here are some pictures of the remaining plant in the flower tent. I knew a long time ago that this plant had a nice structure and was hopeful that I could successfully pollinate her with the pollen from the Incredible Bulk that I used the Colloidal Silver on. Well, if you look closely at the third picture of that lower bud, you may see those seeds forming nicely in there

This top cola is almost as wide as my arm, and I'm no slim jim:

Here she is in her glory:

Here is that bud with what looks to be seeds! I'm so happy after seeing this:

May all your buds be bountiful

 

[Rascio]

Hey Kriaze,

Just gone through from the beginning and really enjoying the trip. Some beautiful pictures and I'd love to hear more about your micro photography and any other tips to help us amateurs shoot our grows better.

Regarding soil ingredients I think a lot of the organic ingredients are offered at much better deals outside of grow shops. Some of the rock dusts, for instance, are also sold as dietary supplements for animals. Check out feed suppliers, landscape material wholesalers, etc. For specialty manures, check out shops who sell to organic vegetable gardeners ...

Anyhow, congratulations on what appears to be just the beginning of a series of bountiful harvest.

As for the curing, it sounds like your ambient humidity is high, so I think you'll have to find a way to create a drier microclimate. Those boveda packs work both ways I think, aas a dessicant when the air is humid, as a humidifier when dry. Might want to toss a pack or two into your jars.

Cheers!

 

[Kriaze]

Hey Rascio thanks for the kind words. The only real tip I can give off the top of my head regarding taking better pictures is don't get too hammered when taking them, but hammered enough can help The photomicrography is pretty simple really, just a microscope with a camera adapter fitted plus a bit of extra side lighting thrown in for good measure, you can do the same with telescopes too, but I'm no professional at any of it (Photography included) in my eyes and it's all just great fun. But if ever you're struggling with shooting a particular situation I'll be up for offering suggestions or bouncing ideas around.

I've not done too bad with sourcing a lot of items that I was after in the end it just took a bit of shopping around, I'll definitely look into the options you mentioned though as a pound is a pound and a saved pound is a bonus. Thanks for that, appreciated

I wish I could lay the blame of my DDA loss on something as unpredictable as humidity but it was definitely more a case of my mistake, you'll see a lot of those around here. I just left it unattended too long even though I knew I hadn't had time to dry it properly. Silly mistakes are aplenty but I still find them exciting enough to make more lol. I've never tried sourcing Boveda packs over here, I'm not sure they're even available but if they are it's food for thought.

It's great to see a fellow photographer on the magazine it's surprising how many talented artistic minded people there on here, I think maybe the cannabis helps with that a lot Once I get to my PC later I'll have a read through your journal and see how things are done over your way

 

[ganjazz]

Congrats with harvest

Those DIY leds look very interesting but still abit pricey,

 

[Kriaze]

Hey Ganjazz thanks.

The LED's are a little pricey still but I could knock another £10/£20 off that build price probably if I shopped around, I could have also bought cheaper or older COBs and saved but I bought these as kits so I knew what I needed. The kit had reflectors and adapters that I didn't need too so that would be a few quid, in fact I'll bet that lights similar to these but using different COB's could be made for £50. Maybe I'll set myself a challenge of finding out

 

[Kriaze]

Hello and it's a veg tent update due to having both a new born arrived and also a form of personal revelation regarding these lights that have given me food for thought.

First and foremost let's take a look at the new girl:

The Lemon Skunk has said hello, unfortunately there is no sign of my immature crossed Incredible Bulk and Lemon Skunk yet, I've got my fingers crossed on that one still.

That out of the way, my personal revelation is that I've been growing all wrong! Nothing new there I know but when I say all wrong I mean in the sense of my lighting. You see, as I opened the tent today I had a vision of beautiful ladies that seemed to have shot up overnight and looking happy and smiley about it too. They were praying to the light and looking healthier than I have seen a lot of these plants in a long time. So what does it boil down to? I have a few scenarios that I'm thinking over, here they are and if anyone has any opinions, as ever they are all appreciated.

First of all have I been using too much light in veg. Can this cause slow growth and unhealthy looking plants? It certainly causes a lot of heat as the temps have dropped around 3F since swapping out two higher wattage lights, they are still within my 80F - 85F range that I prefer though so the heat part is mainly minor. But can an overpowering of light actually cause the slow growth that I'm thinking of? I know that it can kill seedlings so maybe it's the same with vegging plants, I don't know but it's something I would like to consider, I'm kind of half disregarding the idea as I've probably lost around 300w max but it has to be in the mix. This does lead me to a possible second cause though

Are we overrating the effects of splitting spectrums for 'optimum' plant growth. HPS has always been the best producing light for a reason I think, it contains a full spectrum including the green spectrum of which I am recently hearing conflicting reports about. Some maintain that it is useless while others say that it aids penetration of the plants, I'm not sure either way as I have no concrete evidence to put forth so I have no educated opinion. Either way is there something that these split spectrum LED's are missing? I'm looking at that as a possibility. which makes me ask...

Do some strains dislike certain lights? For instance I have had two plants that have literally looked like dogshit forever, now that will obviously be down to my growing skills, but are we making it harder for ourselves if a plant prefers a full spectrum to a split spectrum, or for that matter is it a case of feeding more/less nutrients under this spectrum causes issues that wouldn't be there under a different light? I'm not sure I'm explaining this exactly as I would like to get it across but here are a couple of pictures of the two girls in mention.

Incredible Bulk reveg, she has been ill for a long time and there is a possibility that she was nute burned at one point but today revealed a startling difference from a few days ago:

Just the feeding issue is certainly plausible, but it still surprises me that she seems to be recovering at a much faster rate with the same environment but a full spectrum light instead of a split spectrum light source.

Here's the old (I think, would need to recheck) Paradise Delahaze that never really took off. She has been sickly throughout her growth, she still has the scars/dead leaves to prove it, yet today she was the happiest that I have ever seen:

Now I understand that her old growth won't grow back but she is looking remarkably happy, and her new growth is looking healthy too. It almost seems like an overnight transformation and this was part of the reason that I started thinking about whether she hadn't liked the old light. Or whether her nutrient needs had been different somehow, as my feeding schedule is pretty regular at being irregular but always 2 feeds, 1 water or 2 waters 1 feed depending on which one is looking suitable at the time.

The Royal Queen Seeds Critical and the Humboldt's Bubba's Gift are two other plants that had their light changed and they too are looking bigger, I mean growth spurt bigger over the past few days. I thought it might just be me looking through rose tinted glasses but my trusty assistant confirmed it when they came to look. Maybe it's just 'that time' where they start growing fast, or maybe something is afoot:

Here's the Bubba's Gift today:

I'm tempted to defoliate her undersides but she just seems so nice bushing out yet. I know it will have to be done, but maybe later

Here's the Critical, she still looks like she needs something for her stems as they're still spindly. Today she's looking happy and reaching for the stars:

Here's the little CrackerDino, that soil is baked hard and it pains me to watch, but I did say I would see if she would grow in soil from the garden. She looks happy enough:

OK so back to the two Think Big Autos. I didn't want to swap their light out as they're so far into flowering, a couple of weeks more and I think these will be for the chop, I had to change the support on DDA1 and pick her up today. She had fallen over on her side and I thought she was a gonner, but I picked her up and she seemed strong enough so I'm not ready to chop her just yet.

Here's the DDA1 none the worse for wear hopefully:

The DDA2 that was topped seems to be merrily plodding on too:

That's all the girls sorted so now back to the questions at hand. Do certain strains dislike split spectrum LED in comparison to full spectrum? Are there different feeding needs for split spectrum and full spectrum? Can too much light mean stunted plant growth and would 640w split into 3 units of LED's be too much light, or too little light for that matter? But if that's the case why are the plants looking healthier and livelier today, could I be mistaking stretching for happiness? Damn the questions are endless, any ideas anyone?

 

[brightlight]

~300 LED watts is plenty during veg.

 

[Kriaze]

Do you think there could be a too much light in veg? Stunting growth too early or holding it back by too much light?

 

[brightlight]

Yeah brother, too much/too intense light especially when they are seedlings or young veg plants could do that. Maybe start ~250w then go to 300 to 350 through veg., which is what I do. No use to spend on extra electricity.

 

[Kriaze]

The difference I see since swapping to less watts from the wall is looking good. I'm not sure if they're just stretching but I like it whatever it is

 

[Rascio]

Great to see your garden looking up, bud.

Re: light intensity in veg.
I'm no expert, just offering another take.

Yeah, there's probably a point where too much light is detrimental to vegetative growth. Pretty much everything has a happy medium. But I don't think you're there yet, not even close. This just based on comparing with other growers veg area setups.

As far as full spectrum vs narrow band, I'm with ya there. Chloroplasts are only one if a dozen or more different coloured plastids. No doubt they all have their functions for a healthy plant, and each respond to different wavelengths.

I suspect the recent growth spurt has less to do with changes in lighting than more favourable environmental conditions. A week or two of growing in the zone of good temps and humidity, perhaps?

Cheers!

 

[Kriaze]

Hey Rascio, I was of the thought that there couldn't be too much light in there too as it was literally 3 small lights, I just have to look at it from all angles. The growing conditions have changed but would 3F be enough to make that big of a difference? As it stands now the tent is around 82.5F instead of the usual 85F that I try to maintain, and usually manage apart from the odd extra hot day. The jury is still out for me at the moment, but whatever it is I wouldn't mind finding out in case it affects growth in a future grow. Maybe I'll give them a weeks holiday then switch the lights back and see if they start to look unhappy again, then I could take more note of any environmental variables that I didn't think to take note of when switching out.

Definitely something I'll think about, thanks

 

[Mono]

A little late, but here finally

I'm not too sure on LED as a whole other than they can be quite an 'intense' light so it could be causing an issue in vegetative growth. I think it all comes down to what the plants are used too.

Currently I am using dual spectrum HPS for veg and it's a heck of a lot slower than the same wattage of 6400k CFL's. I'm not sure why, but a decent wattage of CFL seems to be king of vegetative lights. Promotes compact internodal spacing and healthy foliage.

Cannabis plants don't generally require high levels of light until they are flowering and even that is only really the first half of the flowering stage, once they begin to slow down a few weeks from harvest they require less light again.

Edit -

Best thing to do is tackle one 'issue' at a time. Say change the temperature and see if it helps. Then try humidity etc. I remember a discussion on a thread a couple of years ago where the consensus seemed to be that the light is the least important factor to healthy plants, unless the whole space is dialled in 100%

 

[Kriaze]

Hey Mono glad you made it here and thanks for the input. It could just be a fluke where all the stars have aligned but something changed when I swapped out the lights for smaller ones, albeit with a different spectrum plus possibly more or less light output, I'd need to go into technicals as to which had the higher PPF and everything else that is usually beyond my knowledge, although it does interest me so I read what I can usually.

The temperature will be easy for me to control as I've got it tuned in usually nowadays so that would be the easiest and first thing for me to play around with. For now though I'm not bored of seeing the girls looking happy and I think they deserve a break, maybe a week holiday. After that though it's something that I would like to find out just so I can add it on the list of 'good things to do when growing' and hopefully shorten my list of 'oh shit that was bad' things

 

[GrizzWald]

Hope there's room in a corner here. I won't have much to add but hope to pick up some tips... Subbed...

 

[Kriaze]

Hey GrizzWald welcome, there's plenty of room here. There's nothing spectacular or special, just an old fat guy bumbling around playing mad scientist and showing how things should not be done lol. It's all good fun though, I don't even cry anymore when I kill most of my plants