HashGirl 2nd Indoor Grow: Girl Scout Cookies & CB Dutch Treat In ProMix

[HashGirl]

Finally here! Congrats on the new babies and next time a tap root goes through the paper towel, plant the paper towel with it . No damage done!

Yeah, thanks, Shed. Felonious said that that was possible but he thought he could wiggle it out without damage since the paper towel was still fairly damp and it worked out so it's all good.

 

[HashGirl]

Thank you, stone.

 

[PGA Caddie]

Little late but I’d like to sit in

 

[HashGirl]

I'm happy to have you, PGA.

 

[DezmondG]

Looking good so far imma pull up a seat and take notes.

 

[HashGirl]

Welcome, Desmond. Glad to have you along for the ride.

 

[HashGirl]

Hello all.

It looks like the final grow lineup will be 3 CB Dutch Treat and 3 Girl Scout Cookies. CB Dutch 1 and 2 and Girl Scout Cookies 1 and 2 were planted on August 7. CB Dutch 3 was planted on August 9 and Girl Scout Cookies 3 was planted this morning. Here are some photos:

 

[FelipeBlu]

Hola HG

Do you keep the clear cups inside another less-clear container/cup - and just took them out for photos?

edit - Some growers do that so they can eyeball the roots to see how they’re doing. But clear cups let too much light in, and roots don’t like light so much. So it reduces your available root volume if you don’t keep them in another darker cup.

 

[CADBOY]

@HashGirl dollar store cheap blue or red party cups are perfect for cannabis.

 

[TorturedSoul]

clear cups let too much light in, and roots don’t like light so much.

I'm not disputing that statement. On the other hand, even sunlight does not pass through soil very well, lol. If those were the plants' "forever homes," then it'd be a consideration for me, because - sooner or later - they'd have a lot of roots against the cups' walls. But as temporary homes, well... Nowhere near as significant. Some years, I produced clones for a friend or two to use outside. Twice, I used clear half-liter water bottles because I had them - and because they allowed me to easily see when those plants had adequate root systems (in other words, enough so that I had no qualms about giving them to their intended owners, lol). This caused no issues, even when the weather took an unexpected turn for the worse and one of those people ended up leaving them in the bottles for a couple weeks longer than they had originally planned to. Other than a tendency to fall over .

So, if you have a set of opaque outer cups, go ahead and use them. In addition to the light thing, they can be useful if you have a light, well-draining media and want to do the "soak and then drain" thing (water seedlings, wait a few minutes, remove from outer cups and allow to drain).

But if you don't have any... I wouldn't be overly worried about it.

 

[HashGirl]

Well said, TS. As you noted, these aren't their forever homes so I wasn't too worried about what the "boys" (CADBoy and Felipe) advised. I do appreciate your suggestions though, @CADBOY and @FelipeBlu. Never worry about posting unwanted advice. I let TS ramble on all the time. If I have any issues with advice given, I will let you know.

 

[InTheShed]

Here are some photos:

Nice pics of the babies but I was distracted by the retirement brochures.

 

[HashGirl]

I'm planning on transplanting my seedlings to 1-gallon pots tomorrow. Should I be adding MegaCrop to the mix?

 

[InTheShed]

If your seedlings have the root system to deserve a transplant, they are big enough to get MegaCrop! But based on their size on Wednesday I think it might be premature for both.

I don't transplant my plants until the root system is extensive enough to hold the soil completely in place when I move it. I don't think yours are there yet.

Also, MegaCrop is a mix-and-pour fertilizer, not one added to the soil.

 

[HashGirl]

@InTheShed - I know you advised against transplanting them yet but given that the plastic cups they were in were showing roots and because the cups are partially transparent, Felonious and I decided to transplant 4 of the 5 to 1 gallon pots. We also had a space issue since the big tent is housing 2 Big Devil XLs, 1 Dinafem CBD and 1 Medical 49 CBD and we have a bunch of Candida and Hash Plant clones that need to go on the seedling rack soon so my plants needed to move.

However, I'm confused by the MegaCrop instructions. The bag says:

Step 1 - Calculate Amount​

	Vegging Phase​	Late Veg / Early Bloom​	Full Bloom Budding​
EC	1.2	1.5	1.7
grams per Gal	4	5	6

3.78 Liters = 1 Gallon

Step 2 - Mix With Water​

Dissolve into water and feed plants normally every watering.


So, we do have a TDS/EC meter. Do I aim for 1.2 EC? If the meter doesn't show 1.2 EC, what do I do then? Does EC mean "electrical conductivity"? How much nuted water should I be giving them and how often? And, one more thing, just to confirm, I don't need to pH the water, right?

Here are the photos:

CB Dutch Treat 1:

CB Dutch Treat 2:

CB Dutch Treat 3:

Girl Scout Cookies 1 (previously known as GSC2):

Girl Scout Cookies 2 (previously known as GSC3):

The original GSC1 was the one with the curled stem that looked like it had split or was almost split and it died so I renamed GSC2 to GSC1 and GSC3 to GSC2. Clear as mud?

GSC2 was lying down so that's why it's currently being supported by toothpicks thanks to Felonious.

Looking forward to the answers and feedback. I'm going to go and eat dinner. I'll be back. Probably.

 

[InTheShed]

I didn't mean to advise against transplanting them, I meant not to transplant them when they were as small as the pics you had posted a few days earlier. They certainly look big enough in the pics to be transplanted!

And they certainly should be fed by now. I never used a meter to figure out how much MC to give them, and the second line on the chart gives you the grams/gallon, which is what most of us use.

4 grams would be a much bigger plant than yours, so at that size I would be more in the 1.5g/gallon range. Some folks might go with 2g even for the bigger ones.

 

[HashGirl]

Great! Thank you, Shed. That's exactly the kind of advice I like. Simple and to the point.



I was scanning all those charts you've been posting on your grow journal and I can't wrap my head around it because I don't know the terminology yet. I was going to start a thread designated specifically for cannabis-related definitions and acronyms explained but I wasn't sure where to post it so I asked Teddy but then I decided it was a bigger task than maybe I wanted so I didn't bother. I still think it's a good idea but when I feel like it, I have an Excel spreadsheet started with the ones that I learn like PM and WPM, for example.

Back to my grow questions, when approximately would the amount of MegaCrop increase? The ones in 1-gallon pots are currently 13 days old. Don't worry about the seedling. I know what I'm doing there. How much water should I give them and how often?

They're in the small tent (3x3) on a 18/6 light schedule (18/6 if the 18 is the hours of light and 6 is the hours of dark). Is that correct?

 

[InTheShed]

18/6 is where a lot of growers leave their lights until the flip to flower, so that would be fine.

PM and WPM are the same thing, where the PM is powdery mildew and WPM is white powdery mildew. I'm unaware it comes in any other colors though. Any time you don't know an acronym feel free to ask in the thread, or just type it into google and get an immediate answer!

Also, it took 2½ years before those charts became useful to me.

I would slowly increase the MC (MegaCrop) as the plant gets more nodes so that I'm around 4g/gallon when it starts to look like a mature plant. I know that's vague! Most of the time we watch the color of the lower leaves, and when they begin to look a bit paler than the rest of the plant, we bump the MC. When a plant is young though there aren't that many leaves to gauge by yet, so as long as your plant is growing well, you can bump the MC by .5g/gallon every 7-10 days or so.

Once you get to 4g/gallon I would pause and then use the lower leaves before going higher.

Watering small plants in a big pot requires discipline to prevent overwatering. I water in the middle and to a ring just outside where the original soil line is, but no wider until I see the plant begin to grow. That means it's putting out roots into the new soil and you can widen the circle again, eventually watering all the way to the edge.

 

[TorturedSoul]

I was going to start a thread designated specifically for cannabis-related definitions and acronyms explained but I wasn't sure where to post it so I asked Teddy but then I decided it was a bigger task than maybe I wanted so I didn't bother. I still think it's a good idea but when I feel like it, I have an Excel spreadsheet started with the ones that I learn like PM and WPM, for example.

I'll send you a message with some links. If you'd like, you can incorporate some of the information contained within those pages into your file, maybe have someone look at it if/when you get it to the point where you feel like posting it. I haven't even visited the webpages, though, so cannot guarantee the accuracy of the information. I thought someone had started such a thread here ten years ago, but just did a site search and couldn't find it.

If the meter doesn't show 1.2 EC, what do I do then?

If it's too low, add more of what you put into the water, at the same ratio. If it's too high, add more water. (If you're not using distilled or other zero-content water, that'll add something, too - but it'll be less than that what you're adding it to.)

Does EC mean "electrical conductivity"?

Yes. You can measure EC of a solution with a DVOM (digital volt / ohm meter), although it's a bit of a PITA.

one more thing, just to confirm, I don't need to pH the water, right?

Add everything to the water that you intend to add (with the exception of a pH adjuster, of course). Check the solution's pH. Adjust if necessary. If you're not starting with zero-content water, you might check its EC before adding anything to it, because if it contains something that increases its EC, that's going to affect the EC reading you get after you've added your nutrients/supplements and skew the number a bit (meaning it'll not match what a manufacturer's chart leads you to expect).

BtW, I'm currently rereading one of the late Andre Norton's books, Time Traders. It contains two novels that were originally published in 1958 and 1959. It's quite unusual for me to read a novel more than once, but I was seven or eight when I originally read them, and that was over 40 years ago, so... <SHRUGS>. The woman was a prolific author, and wrote science fiction, fantasy, crime fiction, romantic fiction, historical fiction, and possibly other genres. I think she wrote 170 books. Her first one was published in 1934 (although she had written it earlier, while still in high school), and she continued to write until 2005, when she died, at the age of 93. In other words, her literary career spanned more than 70 years! I was impressed by the fact that a novel published 62 years ago didn't really seem dated. Especially a science fiction novel. While parts of the story take place far in the past, the "base" time is set in the 21^st century - and was written before the first moon landing - yet she still nailed the "...and then never went back" thing that, as of today (also in the 21^st century)... remains accurate .

 

[InTheShed]

The plants only care about the pH of your soil, not the pH of your water.