Emmie's Berry D'licious 2019 True Living Organic: No AACT, SCROG, COB, SuperSoil Production Grow & Seed Run

[irie lion]

Looks like they’re off to a good start Emilya!

 

[Scottsquatch]

I've got poofs, popcorn, and peanuts! Dig in!

 

[Emilya Green]

Appropriately on this first day of Veg all 5 of the expected plants are showing. When I got home from work I found a 4th up about a half inch with spreaded leaves. The first plants up grew about an inch since early this morning and the 5th is not yet above ground, but I see its helmet just reaching the surface, so it will be up and out by bedtime.

There is no activity from either the seed still on the paper towel or the 2mm footed dud that has been planted.

I have also raised the LUX value to 7000, the maximum amount recommended for seedlings, to let these guys know what is up. I am now running the 3 COBs at 16 2/3 W apiece for a total of 50w. Less is more, as they say.

 

[Scottsquatch]

I see those cobbs look like the ones Fanleaf made. Are they based off his design? That is ultimately what I wanna do. It's either that or QB's.

 

[Emilya Green]

I see those cobbs look like the ones Fanleaf made. Are they based off his design? That is ultimately what I wanna do. It's either that or QB's.

They are very close to what @fanleaf has... probably because he helped me design them and had enough scrap left over from his project that he was able to sell me a frame. Even the idea of adding a couple of 5000k cobs later on with no reflectors to even out the CRI number is his.

 

[BeanTownFan420]

 

[Emilya Green]

Welcome @BeanTownFan420, good to see you!

 

[BeanTownFan420]

Happy to still be here with you folks.

 

[Emilya Green]

As predicted this afternoon, the 5th one is up and spreading its leaves. I may see some slight mounding on the 2mm cup... we should know by morning if we are seeing life in that one. The 2000 extra LUX slowed down the vertical growth of the first ones and they halved their vertical growth as compared to the previous 12 hours, so it looks like 7k was what they wanted to see. With each new set of leaves I will be increasing the LUX a little bit more, until we get up to the max for veg, the reasoning being that as more and more layers stack on and more leaves are needing to be penetrated, more intense light is what allows that to happen. This is tricky and will take careful management, since the taller the plant gets, the shorter the distance between the top leaves and the light source, thus increasing LUX due to distance. We will see what happens as we get further into this.

 

[Emilya Green]

Morning has found us fairly certain that we are dealing with a deceased 2mm foot seed. The watering last night should have brought the seedling up toward the surface, but alas, we see no movement in the soil. That is ok though, we have 5 healthy seedlings working on their prime directive.
Prime directive?
Their first job is to find or "tap" the bottom. There is still quite a bit of water in the cups after my light waterings of the seed, even though I was trying to be very frugal with the water, so I am now waiting for the new sprigs to drain that water, while I continue to drip a little water down the middle so the roots can chase it down, at least once a day. These are still babies after all.
The vertical growth has taken an interesting turn after turning up the lights from 5k to 7k. At 5k the first to emerge were very quick to spring up to an inch and 3/4, and rapid stretching at this point always scares me and makes me think they need more light. That was when I upped the wattage and achieved 7000 LUX at the top of the plants and I noticed an immediate slow down in the upward stretch on those first 2 tall ones. The interesting effect is in the other plants. The 2 in the middle group did not rise up as fast, and last night I wondered if they would ever get as tall as their early siblings. It turns out that under 7k, they are just taking their time about it and it seems that there might be a genetically determined height to achieve at this stage of 2 inches, as they seem to slowly be catching up with the early ones.

The interesting one that we will watch over the next couple of days is this last to emerge plant. This one is growing vertically much slower than all the rest, only about 1/2 inch in the last 12 hours. The question we have to ask, and the theory that we are about to prove, is this: does more light cause the plant to remain short? All the bro-science says this must be so... I think we are about to see it.

 

[Emilya Green]

Surprise! Surprise! This is the second time I have seen this happen and I am putting this into my secret tricks notebook. Remember me saying that I was going to plant Ms. 2mm hoping that something in the soil would jump start that seed back to life? Well, that is exactly what happened! Something in the wet soil provided what the water on a paper towel could not. Ms. 2mm just hit the surface this afternoon, in stealth mode! Boom, there she was, without even disturbing the soil. This plant is going to deserve watching because she is obviously a fighter! Now we are at the full legal limit stated in the Missouri constitution, with 6 non mature plants, with Ms. 2mm needing a new nickname.

 

[clrwatrtom]

i guess there is still nuthin wrong with just droppin a seed in some moist soil like growing veggies.

 

[Old Salt]

Ms. 2mm needing a new nickname.

Spunky?

Aries? Mars? (gods of war - bah! they are men)

Dianna? goddess of the hunt?

Athena? goddess of war?

Ah well, you'll come up with something.

 

[irie lion]

They’re off to a good start!

 

[Scottsquatch]

Only six plants allowed? Is that total or can you have some in veg and 6 in flower? It would be hard to do a perpetual grow unless you did 3 groups of two. At least your legal though. We have a governor that wants to legalize it but a couple other politicians (State Senators I believe) that do everything they can to block it. I hate two party politics....

 

[SQl2kGuy]

I have some good news to report! I can see two of our plants just popping the surface.

The two that were planted yesterday still have not reached the top, but I remain very hopeful for these seem to be exceptionally vigorous plants.

The one still on the paper towel doing nothing is still doing exactly that, nothing. I am losing hope on that one, but this is why I started 7 seeds instead of 5... it is not the end of the world.

The other one sitting there with the early 2mm foot still has a 2mm foot, but I planted it anyway and labeled that cup so I can know why it fails to emerge. I am hoping that the good stuff in the soil will jump start this seed back into doing something... a few days from now we will know.

They have all been moved into the grow tent and the lights are still up quite high, taking full advantage of the lights to combine their outputs across the field. At 24" above the soil surface, I carefully adjusted the output to 5000 lux, and with 3 COBs activated, I am pulling a whopping 37.4 watts.

So here we go... day one of veg should be officially marked on the calendar as tomorrow!

I love it that you can actually set the light intensity, measure it ... and know how many true watts you are pulling from the grid. Unfortunately, my lights pull a constant true 300W from the wall.

I'm assuming your COBs are full-spectrum right?

Morning has found us fairly certain that we are dealing with a deceased 2mm foot seed. The watering last night should have brought the seedling up toward the surface, but alas, we see no movement in the soil. That is ok though, we have 5 healthy seedlings working on their prime directive.
Prime directive?
Their first job is to find or "tap" the bottom. There is still quite a bit of water in the cups after my light waterings of the seed, even though I was trying to be very frugal with the water, so I am now waiting for the new sprigs to drain that water, while I continue to drip a little water down the middle so the roots can chase it down, at least once a day. These are still babies after all.
The vertical growth has taken an interesting turn after turning up the lights from 5k to 7k. At 5k the first to emerge were very quick to spring up to an inch and 3/4, and rapid stretching at this point always scares me and makes me think they need more light. That was when I upped the wattage and achieved 7000 LUX at the top of the plants and I noticed an immediate slow down in the upward stretch on those first 2 tall ones. The interesting effect is in the other plants. The 2 in the middle group did not rise up as fast, and last night I wondered if they would ever get as tall as their early siblings. It turns out that under 7k, they are just taking their time about it and it seems that there might be a genetically determined height to achieve at this stage of 2 inches, as they seem to slowly be catching up with the early ones.

The interesting one that we will watch over the next couple of days is this last to emerge plant. This one is growing vertically much slower than all the rest, only about 1/2 inch in the last 12 hours. The question we have to ask, and the theory that we are about to prove, is this: does more light cause the plant to remain short? All the bro-science says this must be so... I think we are about to see it.

Interesting ... I think I learned something new. I originally thought that it was not good for seedlings to stretch like that, so I put the light closer down to them to slow their growth. It makes sense ... the more light ... the more saturation ... so the plant slows.

I thought roots grow more during the dark cycle. So why do some people run seedlings at 24-0 for a while?

If I understand correctly, when the stem stretches, the tap root is also stretching right? And you want it to drive down quickly ... I haven't been doing this ... but it sounds like I should.

Ms. 2mm grows up to be ... Ms. M&M ... Ms. Measure and Manage ... sweet leaf!



Right now I am committed to the liquid nutrients I have bought. But as I research Advanced Nutrients, I am seeing a lot of similarities in the ReCharge and a few of AN products. At least I have read that their products work well together and are based on a bit of science. At the same time, they seem to split their products up so they can charge more ... and also, if they are mostly water based, then transporting them will make them more expensive.

So the ReCharge, you add the water ... let it sit for a while ... and then the fungi and bacteria start to grow using the carbohydrates as food ... and it also includes some vitamins and amino acids. I will read up on this more ... it seems like a good deal ... everything packaged into one product.

I may have missed this in the posts ... but is this the only product you are adding?

All the nutrients and minerals are in the soil for the mico-life to break down right?

Thanks again for your research ... I'm loving it!

Measure and Manage!

 

[Alafornia]

Woo hoo! Count me in.

Love the 1/3 super soil. Had contemplated that this past week.

 

[Emilya Green]

I love it that you can actually set the light intensity, measure it ... and know how many true watts you are pulling from the grid. Unfortunately, my lights pull a constant true 300W from the wall.

I'm assuming your COBs are full-spectrum right?

yes... full spectrum meaning, a close simulation of the spectrum the sun puts out, not that it is somehow even all throughout the spectrum. CRI is the rating that I feel is most important, that measurement as to the closesness of the light's output compared to the sun. The sun is CRI 100, and my lights are CRI 90. I plan on adding a couple of 5000k lights later on to add back some of the blue that is missing, and then my array should be somewhere very close to CRI 100.

Interesting ... I think I learned something new. I originally thought that it was not good for seedlings to stretch like that, so I put the light closer down to them to slow their growth. It makes sense ... the more light ... the more saturation ... so the plant slows.

I thought roots grow more during the dark cycle. So why do some people run seedlings at 24-0 for a while?

I am experimenting with that question in this grow too. It is my belief that veg is a special time that we still are learning to understand. During veg survival is job #1 and this weed will adapt in all kinds of ways to not just survive, but thrive. One of the things that the auto world has taught me is that during veg, why not go 24/0? The plant will adapt to this odd situation and it will just grow faster. Yes, we know that a lot of root growth, and indeed top growth happens during the night cycle... but does it require the night cycle to make this happen? I say no. I intend to push these plants super hard during veg and I am betting that it pays off by the time I get to bloom, when I need to stop stressing the plants. In flower plants adapt, but in bloom plants react.

If I understand correctly, when the stem stretches, the tap root is also stretching right? And you want it to drive down quickly ... I haven't been doing this ... but it sounds like I should.

it cant be a one to one relationship, or a seedling in a very tall container would never be able to reach the bottom. There is an adage that as above, so below... but again, it depends. I drive the tap root down by making it chase the water. I make sure that especially at this stage, a small bit of water goes right down the middle every day.,, even while I am trying to dry out the containers overall before properly watering again. I have just realized that 2-3 inches on my stem prior to the first leaves being fully formed is not a bad thing. It makes for a plant that is a lot easier to manage since its largest fan leaves are not tending to drag the ground. You can move the light source closer and overwhelm the plant with par to keep it short, but I am no longer sure that doing that to an extreme this early on is necessary. Now if I was dealing with a 4" stem at this point, I would be having a fit.

Ms. 2mm grows up to be ... Ms. M&M ... Ms. Measure and Manage ... sweet leaf!



Right now I am committed to the liquid nutrients I have bought. But as I research Advanced Nutrients, I am seeing a lot of similarities in the ReCharge and a few of AN products. At least I have read that their products work well together and are based on a bit of science. At the same time, they seem to split their products up so they can charge more ... and also, if they are mostly water based, then transporting them will make them more expensive.

So the ReCharge, you add the water ... let it sit for a while ... and then the fungi and bacteria start to grow using the carbohydrates as food ... and it also includes some vitamins and amino acids. I will read up on this more ... it seems like a good deal ... everything packaged into one product.

I may have missed this in the posts ... but is this the only product you are adding?

All the nutrients and minerals are in the soil for the mico-life to break down right?

Thanks again for your research ... I'm loving it!

Measure and Manage!

I like the green M&M... this has potential. I will speak to her about it now that she is showing leaves. I like AN overall, as it is a very scientifically designed system... I just don't like spending so much to grow pot. Recharge is great stuff and should only help most grows and allow you to use less fertilizer and have more stable grows. In this grow, all the needed nutrients should be in that supersoil that will sit in the bottom third of every container I move up into, so there will be pockets of the stuff all over, in layers. I also layer my pots with various raw nutrients, and I add spikes so that there are even more raw minerals available to be broken down by the microbes. I would not have to add anything else to this grow but water, but that is not in my nature either. I have a huge heavy bottle of Terpinator sitting here... I intend to use it because it will not hurt my soil any, and it is just good stuff that is needed in abundance during flower. Calmag is another thing that just can't be preloaded into the soil without hurting other interactions, so it is best to supplement both of those elements in small doses throughout the grow.

 

[Emilya Green]

Only six plants allowed? Is that total or can you have some in veg and 6 in flower? It would be hard to do a perpetual grow unless you did 3 groups of two. At least your legal though. We have a governor that wants to legalize it but a couple other politicians (State Senators I believe) that do everything they can to block it. I hate two party politics....

6 mature and 6 immature, per patient... up to 18 when you need to become a grow op to get bigger.

 

[fanleaf]

You know I'm in!
I've been waiting for this. The biggest take away I have from my last TLO grow was pot size is important!
My dry and cure is done and I will be putting final numbers and reports on it soon. A big hint though is that my Malawi in the 10 gallon pot yielded over 7 oz of dried and cured goodness. That wasnt the biggest yielder either. In comparison my 3 gallon pots were 3.5-4.2 oz each.
That said, I'm glad to see you going with 10 gallon pots so we can see what these babies can do! Do you have a veg time in mind or just gonna watch em and decide when?