DIY SIPs Duterte's Nightmare - Mystery S. Asia Sativa - Zkittlz, Runtz, OG UV, God's Gift, GG#4, 1st Grow In 20yrs

[ReservoirDog]

I held my counsel these past days in an attempt to be free of anxiety regarding this adventure and stay focused on what the situation had to teach me.

The soak went poorly with very few splits yet I didn’t dare go longer than 25hrs so I put into paper towel in chamber with gas exchange and 75 deg. No tails. So I decided to move to an environment as similar to their home as possible. A fetid swamp!

 

[Danishoes21]

@danishoes21 !! The Gods have favoured us! This day, just past, Kaya has descended upon us, and we have been blessed with the birth of three Sativa. Irie Brother D!

Blessings from the Sativa gods.
You have the torch, bring the power of creation and propagation, delight us we are worthy.

Amazed how a 4 year old seed can still germinate, insane genetics inside the beans. They are not particularly easy to germinate but once they pop they don’t stop.

Irie

 

[ReservoirDog]

Was not easy to set that seed mat temp so high and walk away, but, it felt right all the same. To awaken they needed the fetid atmo of SE Asia, and for me to be a proper risk-taker. Gotta find comfort with risk to do new things and stretch ourselves, eh D? They are one Duterte’s nightmare and two of the Jamaic Skunk African crosses.

We are blessed this day brother! Irieeeeeeee!

As you can see I had begun already making some changes in hopes a new heir would be born to us.

So my SIPs are essentially 60/40 peat perlite, but when I mixed I had some fun and wanted to put about 250 ppm into the mix with balanced amendments so I could run very light fertigation in the reservoir and avoid deficiencies, plus have multiple sources for most elements. My greatest addition mass-wise was worm castings. My personal, 3-4 yr old high-graded castings that I saved when building my monster hugel-veggie bed this year.

Also some dolomite (not to much, used product Dolopril, very good), and did a silica quick soak, and also used some of the exotic high CEC blue clay I prospected with Liquidirt and Humboldt's Secret Golden Tree in the final moistener. Also a 1/2 cup of aged chicken manure for every 25 gallons of mix. It all finally tested out at 300ppm in a good, patient slurry test so good’nuff.

When I began to excavate these SIPs a month later I was of very interested in what I’d find.

This one I had installed a plastic divider to ramp down competition as they held two plants, skktlz x4, you can see it’s been partially removed here.

I was most interested in what moisture levels would be like and results were very gratifying.

Moisture level at very top, even under 2 layers of burlap was zero for 1-2 cm. Dry as a dust fart. Perfect. Immediately under this it stayed moist and increased moisture every inch down but was well below “field capacity”. This is tested by squeezing a fistful and if some drips out after hard squeeze you are approaching or there. If you squeeze and immediately it dribbles, it is excess, and over field capacity. It only hit true field cap. by the bottom two inches, with the bottom inch potentially over FC where it was atop the wicking foot. I will post pre-planting pics of my DIY in immediately following posts.

Thing is, there were worms everywhere, worms I didn’t put there but I assume we’re seeded in the castings as they were juvies, all. The highest density of worms were in the foot itself, bathing away in Mega. Crop 2 part, just as happy as you please. Wow. Anyway, I’m doing the 10 gal. Geopots now in these too after spending tons of Canadian Tire lucre on gardening essentials, I saved so much cash I could afford the Geos at the Hydro store 6 blocks away. Nice guys, they always give me the “decent bloke” 20% discount. Mr. Fertilizer.

We’re parents D! Will update, soon. Thanks again my friend.

 

[Danishoes21]

I’m really excited brother, congratulations. Looking forward to seeing your craftsmanship and I’m really excited to see what phenos traits come out.

If needed I could reveg and or clone current linage if ever necessary (you know future projects )

Absolutely wonderful news.

 

[ReservoirDog]

OK, just so everyone knows, I'm totally cool with comments, even, or esp., ones tangential to canna growing. I'd be happiest if reader entries outnumbered my entries, so have at it.

We can talk about any grow style, or your last fist fight, making mushroom bags ourselves for co2 (I might grab that one), bennies, Lunar/tidal cycles, salts fertilizers, hydro, guerilla technique, element mixes for grow stages in general or cultivar specific. Also some of the natural, non-toxic plant growth hormones, like triacontanol (sp.?) I'm old enough to have been in my 20s in the 90s living in Canada's green triangle, and I walked the walk Forest Gump-style (cant grow beard like that though).

This last year/two years I'm trying vermicomposting, Korean natural farming/Jadam, and regenerative agriculture ideas but not deeply versed in any of these topics. I'm a ten of clubs of all trades. I think it's partly because I worked so hard to be a journalist coming out of high school and Uni early on, I became the ultimate generalist. Intelligent enough to ask intelligent questions of PhD specialists if given a minute, but that's about it.

I'm into cool spreadsheets we can use and share to get better and record our grows for later reference. Meme sharing is fun too. I dislike bullies but am committed to making sure they feel even worse about me.

I can see my grows from here!

(Re)Developing my propagation zone in the middle there between the tents. Yeah, I realize it’s a picture of nothing, I’m documenting the layout.

I came to some stunning conclusions about the Burn Unit (furthest 5x5). It was the first up, in Jan/feb, and takes up exactly half of a 10x5 room. I had sealed it for Co2, AC t6 automated exiting outdoors. By the usually stated dimensions, setup, location I should have been fine for fresh air intake so I did not seriously consider when plant after plant was tissue paper thin and breathing hard enough to burn itself up. Kept lowering ferts, anything, but no joy.

But, now I have second tent up and it exhausts into same room as it sits in, wide open door and lots of moving air from fans outside tent. I moved plants out of the SIPs in Burn Unit this week for same reasons as last batch was butchered and removed, thin, zero brick, burning on low ferts, but this time, hours after arriving in new tent, roughly handled and transplanted, they were improving leaps and bounds. In hours! I mean huge improvement in 6 hours. Well, damn. It’s the air, jackass. Ugh.

 

[Grand Daddy Black]

I dislike bullies but am committed to making sure they feel even worse about me.

Love this!

Bump that turning the other cheek stuff!

 

[ReservoirDog]

Yes, nuff's enough. Look, they still get to choose whether to experience this commitment or not. nobody is gonna have my, 'beliefs rammed down their throats' (cringe), unless they're hurting someone, by which point I'll be ramming my beliefs down their throats to make them stop.

 

[Danishoes21]

Yes, nuff's enough. Look, they still get to choose whether to experience this commitment or not. nobody is gonna have my, 'beliefs rammed down their throats' (cringe), unless they're hurting someone, by which point I'll be ramming my beliefs down their throats to make them stop.

Did I miss something?

 

[ReservoirDog]

Nope, no drama. I just randomly mentioned a distaste for bullies, GDB egged me on, I extrapolated. We're all safe and good here. Well, ok, I literally shish-kabobbed my own hand making @Carcass carhooks, but other than that, peachy-ish.

But now you're here... how would you proceed with mystery sativas like these? Any fine-grained seedling care deets, next steps; I know you're not a ppm fella at the moment, but you know.... your thoughts?

Each of these is setting about establishing “personality” already, its kinda funny (strange)... first of all, I think it’s raining in The Philippines today. Looks muggy anyway.

This little tyrant tore off his own life support equipment. The birth-goop was still attached to one of the two cotyledon (the first green leaf-like appendage that carries nutritive materials for getting some roots down) but the goop was also stuck to the hypocotyl (stem portion below the cotyledons - above is called the epicotyl, apparently ) something was going to give, you’ve thought it would be the birth goop… hell no, tore off her own ‘gear’. Hardcore! She’s a Duterte’s Nightmare - maybe it was a political protest.

 

[ReservoirDog]

This one… what can one say? First, anyone who’s seen this please tell me how it resolved, or didn’t. If there’s something I should know or do, please let me know. Doesn’t seem like it; I hope the next set of leaves can both emerge next, but looks tricky.

Fingers crossed for that weirdy. (Ha!) This is spagnum amended with worm castings, gently. Water is pH'd to 6.2 pH with the tiniest hint of IBA. Like a shave of a hint's scoche, of IBA.

Last is our sprinting champion. I tried telling her it's a marathon, to no effect. She's madly off in one direction. Slow down ma'am, please!

Maybe it isn't pretty, but it doesn't need to be. Just alive. Alive is enough for me.

 

[Rexer]

This one… what can one say? First, anyone who’s seen this please tell me how it resolved, or didn’t. If there’s something I should know or do, please let me know. Doesn’t seem like it; I hope the next set of leaves can both emerge next, but looks tricky.

Fingers crossed for that weirdy. (Ha!) This is spagnum amended with worm castings, gently. Water is pH'd to 6.2 pH with the tiniest hint of IBA. Like a shave of a hint's scoche, of IBA.

Last is our sprinting champion. I tried telling her it's a marathon, to no effect. She's madly off in one direction. Slow down ma'am, please!

Maybe it isn't pretty, but it doesn't need to be. Just alive. Alive is enough for me.

I wouldn't stress over the weird one. She'll straighten herself out- I suspect it was just due to how she emerged from her shell.

 

[ReservoirDog]

And if the Quad Squad has any feedback… suppose the thread there is where to ask. I wouldn’t mind a moment of hand holding right here, make sure no glaring errors are present.

5 weeks ago these were dry-ass seeds…Ah, almost forgot, so actually yesterday was microbe… Tuesday? Yes, we’ve fallen off schedule a day. Whatev. But point was, I foliar sprayed this time. Now I have a couple weeks in this setup and I have my plan in pocket, not scared of my shadow anymore, so I was happy to foliar even though outdoors there’s a lot of PM about the place (means there is indoors too, mine anyway and don’t kid yourself). I’ve got a pic of my ingredients for you, best I can offer this moment.

These are the shelf-able products that can sit ‘indefinitely’. Some more indefinite than others but Hydroguard the one “wet”product can be stored for decent durations if precautions taken, I am reliably informed. My personal experience now is only an open bottle for 6 months, so now we’ll see.

However, instead of the 50ml per dose you can pop 5ml on the stirrer with some cornstartch for 24hrs and your bacteria will be 5x the originally suggested, 50ml dose. In my research it was clear that for such a single bacc. species product, with the right amount corn starch or similar carb your res will only feed the hydroguard, they’re only meant to be in solution a day or three to sweep out the baddies, not always be at max dose level even though the marketing gives that impression. Controllability is the value of taking the trouble to isolate only the hydroguard bacillus that the seller takes. They know they aren’t seeding your res with something weird, regardless your usage. That gives you some more experimental freedom.

I’m working on a tek but it’s not very sponsor business-friendly. Which is to say, I buy shelf microbes then culture to keep on hand in their most impactful state (motive, or hyphae not spore). This is for my own interest in exploring this incredibly small and ridiculously important universe.

Most important part was figuring out a way to tell if microbes were active in my culture. Many are so small that a sub 1500$ microscope has no hope. They are unaffected by gravity, effectively massless. Yet you, the thing you see in the mirror each morning contains more microbial cells than human ones.

So, how do you know if you are successfully culturing? Definitively? You don’t. But good enough, pH testing is one part, however, I’m growing them on the roots of a mix of red wheat, corn, bean and pea all wildly oversown atop perlite with some vermiculite and dash of peat in 10x20 trays on mesh inserts. It’s very easy to quickly peek and I’ve learned what cultured roots look like compared to plainos, and that’s what the peat is for.

When endomycorhizal fungi and their associated bacterium have entered the root itself and found a workable state of things, they, with the root’s mutual contributions, express tiny hairs out through the roots. When layers and layers of these are present, earth, peat in my case, adheres to the roots in a peculiarly unique way that is your best gardener’s signal that the rhizosphere has been successfully inoculated and functioning. I will find you a pic, very sorry not at this moment.

Inoculating…. So far as endomycos go, the promagule numbers you’ll get will be likely comparable to those of the commercial vendors, however a promagule is counted as any part of the fungus capable of eventual inoculation… and this means, essentially, in a reasonably profitable product with a shelf-life, spores. Spores that have to be hydrated and conditioned-in-place. These and other events mean that it takes some time, more than strictly necessary, to become active and impactful. This is a different process for different microbial life, but a process for each nonetheless.

So the advantages of having fresh on hand here are effectiveness, time to impact and I’m quite certain also, cost. Though that is a variable totally at your discretion, unlike the others.

Now, if instead you were to just pop back to your 10x20 trays of corn, wheat, pea and bean and the promugules you come back with will be 90% hyphae, ready as ready can be and need only copy itself, not awaken, reconstitute from sporulated form. The same can be said for the other complementary , whether bacillus or many others, if faced by no viable competition in the new grow matrix they will immediately take over at moment of transplant as I believe mine did. I am very pleased with all aspects of the grow so far, vigour, turgidity, pleasantly surprised at growth rate.

As a guess, purely for sport, I reckon that I f you were in DWC and didn’t have a pump dribbling on plant before roots hit the nutrient I think you’d be behind this grow. With it the pump you’re likely ahead but only by a few days at this stage is my guess and feel for it. Not an expert, I’ve been around a lot of plants but not my own personal indoor and that’s different, that’s the most telling, and teaching, scenario IMHO.

Anyway, I’m trying to put individual pics of each SIP plant here, ignore the others, we’lll see them take their turn in a SIP and find out what cannabis can do in them. Spoiler Alert: good things…

 

[Danishoes21]

Ohh sativas sativas either you love them madly or you hate them dearly. They are wild and unpredictable, I wouldn’t assume anything good or bad until 4-5 th node has been stablished. Most of the times they don’t show any problem regarding nutrients but they will hit for the sky looking for light, hence if growing indoors a well prepared training plan is handy… Personal Sativa is a lanky pheno (at least the one I did this year got like that maybe the training) and seems like Duterte’s nightmare is a chapo (shorty in cartel slang) el chapo Duterte, just like the real guy…

 

[ReservoirDog]

I'm just going to dump some pics and info here related to the post above, about endomycorrhizal fungi, and beneficial bacterias. Some more of my setup for growing mycorrhizal fungi here. Note also...

The NPK branded, wettable powders are interesting. They contain the primary fungi types we're interested in but they combine them with multiple bacteria, sort of like 'Great White'. Furthermore, NPK divides their microbe offerings into Vegetative and Flower targetted products. Interesting...

Leaving aside the mycos included in NPK's microbe mixes, which I heavily add to in my culture with whatever mycs I have on hand, NPK's 'Grow' pack' bacteria appear to include some of the nitrogen-generating sorts that phase change atmospheric ammonia gas into nitrogen and store it in solid-form nodules attached to plant roots.

I'm only highlighting the differences between their 'grow' and 'flower' combos here that are easy to research and uncover by looking into things relatively superficially. There may be all sorts of entourage effects and other coolness going on. At any rate, its an interesting strategy from NPK that makes a lot of sense to me, someone whose sole qualification in the field is the ability to read English (please keep that front of mind, friends).

NPK's 'Flower' microbes include what some soil scientists believe is a major key to both efficient, sustainable commercial grows, and to regenerating farm soils around the world. That is, bacteria that create 'phosphatase' (sp?) an enzyme that, for example in your living organic soil amended with basalt rock powder, dissolves that powder and releases the phosphates in plant avail. form.

We have been injecting phosphates into our farm and grow soils at fantastic rates, and one might assume that is because the plant's needs are exceptionally high. They are not.

Instead, data reveals quite clearly that our grow methods are extremely inefficient at getting the phosphates into our plants. Worse, in farm soils this phosphate 'overuse' worsens the problems that create this inefficiency in the first place, creating a negative feedback loop. Yeah, another one of those. Ugh.

What is clear is that our plants don't require heavy amounts of phosphates to grow amazing buds, in fact, tissue samples (bud, leaf or stem) reveal that right through to harvest, phosphate levels never exceed 20% of the amount of nitrogen the plant has onboard (in the multiple data samples I've seen).

We container growers wrack our brains trying to figure out how to drastically reduce nitrogen inputs while ramping up phosphates when in 'flower', and certainly the data shows that our plants have stored away quite enough nitrogen for us to seek to reduce input, but the options for delivering phosphates are perhaps more intriguing than just ramping up the 'kool bloom'.

Phosphorous presents a paradox, to be sure, but this new appreciation of the microbiome and emerging research is telling us something, I think, of tremendous importance.

Gawd, if you don't present holding your brains up in a bucket, things can move slowly for you in the emergency ward! Yeah, I'm in the hosp. waiting to see a doctor because I hurt myself growing weed. I stuck a bamboo bbq skewer right through my hand, as close to all the way as it gets. Its fine, I'm fine, as I get, and can obviously type on my phone. It was a couple days ago and I may just leave and wait to see my doctor next week.

Anyway, didn't I say there was going to be a photo dump, like, 1000 words ago? WTF RD? Yeah, I'd better get 'round to that.... I'm'a just post this THEN the pic dump....

 

[Rexer]

Dude that is one heck of a post!
Great info on the microbiology. I love that stuff!
I'm familiar with NPK, and currently use two of their products in my grows. Their Kelp, and Enzymes.
I'd recommend both to all growers.

Yeah, I'm in the hosp. waiting to see a doctor because I hurt myself growing weed. I stuck a bamboo bbq skewer right through my hand, as close to all the way as it gets. Its fine, I'm fine, as I get, and can obviously type on my phone. It was a couple days ago and I may just leave and wait to see my doctor next week.

Is this from yesterday, or hopefully not again? Lol.
Stick around, you've waited already, and you might need antibiotics- best not to wait.
And brother, please do take care of yourself, we all appreciate your writings on here, and selfishly want more

 

[Danishoes21]

RD get well brother, hope you didn’t get your rolling hand

My visit in Vic was a couple hours so no stress on that.

Obviously love the post about microbes and mycology and the dash of militancy within this natural regenerative farming practice.

I believe that the interpretation of the cannabis plant biological chemistry has for long been misunderstood (and of many other plants and veggies). I’m there with you on the mistaken use of Phosphate, once we comprehend the bacteria/fungi responsible for making phosphorus available to plants then we can understand how to use it and when.
Some plants are phosphorus fixers so maybe using them in the ways we are doing (aerobics, anaerobic, composted, tea) is a way to put them back in the soil.

Key word for us;
Phosphate solubilizing bacteria.

 

[ReservoirDog]

Stick around, you've waited already, and you might need antibiotics- best not to wait.

Thanks Rex! I did, and was tended to rather more quickly than I'd initially feared. Yup, antibiotics. Ugh. Thanks, Vic General... see you soon! (gallows humour always cheers me up) And yeah, a single incident I did not shishkabob myself twice. Not sure I could even admit to that. I wasn't "running with sharp objects" like mom warned a thousand years ago, I was doing something even more dangerous while handling sharp objects: Watching TV. Dumbass!

RD get well brother, hope you didn’t get your rolling hand

Did too in fact. Inside palm of left hand and I'm lefty. I taught myself how to roll with one hand while steering a tillered sailboat a long time ago... oh, and in the rain! I love bragging about that. I'd perform it like a card trick or something. I smoked a long time ago, Dutch Drum tobacco, so I'd so much practise and even more motivation. Preroll? Nah, one-handed in the rain mate. What a Dumbass!

I believe that the interpretation of the cannabis plant biological chemistry has for long been misunderstood (and of many other plants and veggies)

Yeah you know, more and more I see that the original science is usually quite solid and nuanced, but then people, politicians, voters, consumers, take a preferential viewpoint that often sort of hacks off a few limbs of the knowledge tree so they can get it in the car to take home. Dumbass!

Some plants are phosphorus fixers so maybe using them in the ways we are doing (aerobics, anaerobic, composted, tea) is a way to put them back in the soil.

Key word for us;
Phosphate solubilizing bacteria.

Yes, very interesting. Phosphates are so paradoxical, (I like the alliteration, so best you just try to get used to my overuse of the phrase) They appear to be nearly absent in the wider cosmos but plentiful and critical here on earth.

I think we've sidetracked ourselves a bit with genetics. Genetics, it was confidently boasted, would free humanity from as many or more disease and pathologies as germ theory did but in 1/100th the time. But genetic manipulation is such a high order perspective, it's uses are really for creating new organisms, not fixing used ones. Scientists will tell you, in many ways genetics have been a bust.

In my thinking, it's similar to the 'promise' of nuclear science. It to was too high-ordered a science to be safely manipulated anywhere but the most secure facilities on earth, and has nearly been dropped into experimental use only status (nearly, I said, nearly).

Genetics and nuclear science seem to me to have great influence of the past, how we got here as who we are, and of the future, our evolutionary future. But we all live in the present, all of the time. The science of the 'holobiont', the entire living biome that makes you you and the cannabis, cannabis, has supreme influence in the present. How we feel, how efficiently we're operating without causing free radicals to kill us off slowly. Free radicals that are within all of our different microsphere's species to prevent and/or exterminate. It's almost like we've been trying to avoid the 'now' and find shortcuts, not solutions. Dumbass!

Thanks for the cheer-up lads, much appreciated. Hope I didn't confuse too many with my high-minded treatise.

Has anyone used ikelp4less extreme innoculation? It looks boss online.

Rexer, that NPK kelp looks boss, 99% is impressive. What's your mix/use? Last long time? I made about 50-60 litres of fermented bull kelp. Don't know if the auxins survived the process, but I picked in spring, offshore, when hormones are highest. Species can grow 1 metre per day. I wish I had more suitable containers, and Im still sieving more out, but as home growers I think its important we don't chase perfection and more stuff, can be pretty detrimental to mental health. Anyway, I'm really stoked to have all these natural fertilizers ready to supplement my grows with....

 

[ReservoirDog]

“What’ll it be, Mac?”
Fill it with premium!
I love this setup. The Carboy is one of the 5, 6 gallon laboratory grade jobbies I got for free, on someone’s yard, out for whomever wanted.

I’ll blow you away with their deets another time b/c I’m all about this pump right now. Takes 4 aa batteries, rechargers natch, even has auto-shutoff like gas station w/ optical sensor.

This is my first top-off since filling 4 weeks ago and still had at least 2 gal but I wanted to start migrating the feed toward transition and I think I picked up early , very slight, signs of potassium def. in one plant. Each SIP also holds 6 gallons.

My main concern with this grow is nutrient build up/retention due to it being a peat/perlite soiless setup. So my fertigation with Mega Crop 2 part is under 1.0ec and I have mild organic nutes in the mix, about 300ppm(Hanna) mostly nitrogen. But should be decent potassium and calcium too from worm castings and some liquids I moistened with, Humboldt Golden Tree, LiquiDirt.

You can see plants are growing well. I have been aggressively removing leaves pointed inward while trying to maintain a skirt effect of leaves around perimeter. I've been pinning every branch into a horizontal partly because I’m making dollys for under each container and it will cost me further grow space. When I flip hopefully the stretch will be enough to get some proper colas, However I don’t expect much more than numerous baseball nugs from the UVOG. It is very stocky and internet pics show a smallish yield. Good smoke though. The Runts (pictured) I hope will produce decently. 1st grow, best to keep expectations in check.

 

[ReservoirDog]

Dolly Deets

My original thoughts were for a three wheeler because they are easier to turn and these aren’t for distance, but primarily for in-tent adjustment. Now, I dunno if 3 would cut it primarily due to the weight of these w/ 25gal wet promix and 6 gal ferts. She’s a big girl. Low profile is obv. A consideration but I bought the casters rated for the weight, not the wee little ones. Shameless cry for help….

 

[Bill284]

Dolly Deets

My original thoughts were for a three wheeler because they are easier to turn and these aren’t for distance, but primarily for in-tent adjustment. Now, I dunno if 3 would cut it primarily due to the weight of these w/ 25gal wet promix and 6 gal ferts. She’s a big girl. Low profile is obv. A consideration but I bought the casters rated for the weight, not the wee little ones. Shameless cry for help….

Hey RD, I apologize for falling behind, I'll have to reread some of it.
Do you want to put them on dollys and leave them?
So each has its own?
Or You want 1 dolly to move one at a time.
Or do you want wheels on the totes?
What's easiest for you?




Stay safe
Bill284