Heavyweight Massive Midget - LED - 1st Indoor Grow

Greetings everyone!

First off, thanks PhilAndering. I really appreciate your posting the pics of your little girl. I enjoy having something to compare my progress with. Keep the pictures coming! She looks like she fared fairly well through your little mishap. :clap:

So here is an update on my week so far and its been interesting if not rather annoying. While I am embarrassed to a point, some of you soil bound growers may possibly find this helpful if you find yourself in the same situation. So let me start with this little poem I wrote about my week, it pretty much puts it in a nutshell.

BarnacleBill went to his closet to get a shark hook to hone.
When he got there, bugs were everywhere,
So he didn't get to go.
And he was very pissed off at his mistake and he went hungry for the night!:laughtwo:

And this is how it all happened:
The evening of my last post I was in a little bit of a rush to get out of here to go see my girlfriend for a couple days. Knowing I was going to be gone and I was getting near time to water I watered up and left, never considering that I was two days ahead of schedule but I was going to be away. I watered up and left. Planning on a little shark fishing trip I returned home to discover my plants standing in a small pool of runoff from the pots but that wasn't all. This is what I saw with my eyes:

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This is what my mind saw:

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And for those of you who still cant figure it out, this is what it was:

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Bugs! God I HATE bugs! You have no idea how bad I hate bugs! Except for ladybugs, mantis and dragon flies but they all eat other bugs. There wasn't one or even tens, there were hundreds! And I am very familiar with this infestation having worked in greenhouses. It is sciarid flies also known as fungus gnats and I had a full blown epidemic! Although they pose no threat to humans they lay their eggs in the soil and can (and will) damage the roots of plants. They consume fungus from decaying matter in damp wet soil. I over watered the plants and apparently had them in the compost when I mixed the soil. This also shows me that the ventilation in the tent is not correct (I'm still waiting for the in-line fan to get here!!!). So now I'm replacing the small circulation fan in the tent for a larger one to help increase airflow and I'm gonna install the 4" in-line as soon as it gets here.

So for those of you who find yourself in this situation this is what you have to do. It's not hard, its just time consuming:

First clean the area. If there is moisture in the tent, clean it and dry the tent out. Use a mild bleach and water water solution. You want it very weak and make sure you wipe it down a second time with just warm water after you clean it to get any residue up after you clean it.

Second, eradicate any flies that may be present after the cleaning. I use the hose to my household vacuum and suck the little heathens up. They are pretty stupid and not very quick.

The problem is in the larva eggs they lay in the soil. These will hatch into small maggots that will damage your plant. They must be eradicated. There is a very easy solution to this problem without using insecticides.

3% Hydrogen Peroxide mixed at 1 part with 4 parts water. Water the soil and let it drain well.

Improve your air circulation and stop over watering! It doesn't take long for these little monsters to become an infestation but at least they are very easy to control.

Well there is my little story. I hope you wont have to go through it yourself but hopefully this is a learning experience for some of you and now you will know what to do if it happens to you.

I still haven't had the chance to go fishing thanks to these little pests! Just trying to keep it in the channel. :thedoubletake:
 
Bugger about the bugs mate. You obviously have it covered though. Excellent advice on getting rid of bugs.

I trimmed the damaged leaves from mine. I'm still hopeful that it will recover ok

Here are pics after trimming about 4 damaged leaves at 24 days after germination.

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I use sand for playgrounds very cheap and clean 1" of sand and no problem with anything that lives in soil.
The roots grow till the sand and use all soil and it helps to lower humidity.

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Good afternoon and welcome to day twenty two!

Hello PhilAndering, well I don't know if I'm going to be able to catch your grow boss but I'm giving it my best shot! But after the week I've been having and that pesky issue with the bugs (get it? Pesky... bugs... :thedoubletake:) the damage they caused has shown itself. And a slew of other issues I'm contending with! But more on that later. I really miss growing outdoors!!! :biglaugh: Just keep your pictures coming, I enjoy seeing one not fail!

Hey Darkgrow, never considered using sand as a top dressing. I think I'm gonna look into that. I know people who use diatomic soil. It's made of shards that rip insects apart but its too small to injure humans or the plants. They use it just like your using the sand. Insects basically rip themselves apart then they try and dig in.

Well now for my week and let me tell you its been a rough one. So lets address what we've seen so far. Lets talk bugs and the damage they can cause. In particular, lets talk sciarid flies and the damage their larva they can do. Mine was text book classic. The problem is the larva eat the roots. The damage mimics a host of other possible problems. Here is the first of a slew of effects. How about deformed growth! Yuck!

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Now if I was to see that plant I would say boron deficiency. It looks nearly text book classic except for the lack of brown spotting on the leaves. But I know the true reason and have eradicated the cause but as expected I didn't doge the harpoon. So now I have a slightly twisted deformed leaf or two. Hopefully the damage doesn't stunt the plant too bad. I mean after all, who wants a stunted midget!

On to problem number two.

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Well this is bug damage as well. Compound it with the fact that I really let them dry out to make sure the larva were killed off. And compound it with the heat issue. Which brings me to my next story. What can force you too abandon your little darlings in the closet? How about your other half? Yup your girl friend!

So there I was, house full of visitors all weekend. My little darlings hidden out of sight in the closet. Some of the muggiest hot days so far this year and I decide it's time to turn on the air conditioner and it's broken. Temperatures soaring and the inside of my closet wasn't helping keep the temps down as the lights were really heating the place up. That night my girl friend had a hot flash. Combine that with the heat poring in from the tent she turned to me and said "Can you please shut that thing off?". I couldn't believe it! I was shell shocked! :jawdropper: Did she really just asked me to shut off my lights? Yes she did and she meant it too! She had that tone, the one that you know isn't a question. It's basically an order! Don't get me wrong, I love growing but I love her more. I pulled the plug and kept a floor fan blowing through the side vent of the tent. What do you know, the temperature in the room dropped. She was happy and I think in the long run this might have saved the plants from heat stress. The room reached 97 degrees for several hours. The plants hung like troopers through their unscheduled nap. So when I fired up the tent the next day I took the opportunity to adjust their light cycle to where the tent is off (except for the fans) during the hottest part of the day. This helps a lot. This also helps:

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The elusive 4" in-line fan that finally arrived! That and the carbon filter and venting it outside of the closet. I hope this solves the heat issue. Time will tell, keep your fingers crossed.

So as I said before, I really let the tykes dry out to make sure the fungus flies larva died off. Seeing as I didn't want to possibly stress them out further I held off on the ferts until yesterday. They had their first does of fertilizer (4-4-4) and seem to be taking it rather well. There is still visible growth but I have fallen short of where I feel I should be. Chalk up three things to indoor growing. #1: Know your soil and be confident that you are not bringing pests into your grow in the soil. #2: Make sure you have proper ventilation. #3: Your wife or girl friend has the final say about your grow no matter what you think! If you want to stay happy keep her happy! Use that opportunity to upgrade your equipment! :circle-of-love:

Oh, what of the mess? Here are the latest pictures. Were still here and growing away. Please feel free to post your comments. Advice is always encouraged!

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V, the runt of the school. Shes actually making headway.

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C, She was hit pretty hard by the flies.

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H, Battered torn and twisted but still growing.

All photos are at day twenty two from seed cracking. Let me know what you think. Until next time, keep her in channel!
 
Wow Bill. Greater love hath no man than to endanger his plant for his love :love:

Despite your difficulties, your plant is still looking better than mine. I went from overfeeding the poor thing to underfeeding. At the moment, I'm just hoping to keep her alive to the end to see if I can get any usable harvest and implementing what I've learned into my second grow (Heavyweight Fruit Punch auto fem)
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I have been bemoaning the temperamental nature of DWC, but I'm also thinking at least it reduces the risk of bugs. I guess the most difficult part is that you can't see the roots to gauge the damage.

Your plants still look pretty good to me. Both our plants are about the same size for their age (sorry, I don't have the pic because I deleted them yesterday as part of my standard security practices - yes, I am paranoid, comes with the depression and anxiety disorder :yikes:

Really enjoying reading your journal, and looking forward to seeing how your grow progresses.

Cheers,
Phil
 
I had trouble with temps before my inline fan went in and I got the tent in a room with ac. Temps in low 90s. Now in the 70's and I am only using 2 96x3. I am waiting til bloom before firing up the third. My wife isn't too happy about the noise but the speed controller comes today.
Good luck on the temps bro. These lights aren't that hot but you do need cooler air to vent in for sure. Keep on keeping your girl happy and this grow will go much smoother for ya.
 
Greetings and welcome to day #28 (a couple days late and a few dollars short). I'm sorry for the delay but I was kind of busy and I didn't get to do my regularly scheduled post in a timely fashion! I'm such a slacker! :smokin:

PhilAndering , I'm sorry to hear about your M/M floundering. I hope she bounces back if you haven't already scrapped her. So your gonna do a Fruit Punch grow next? Wow, that's freaky! I already have the same seeds lined up for the next grow. I'm gonna SCROG two on my next grow! Great minds think alike! Want to run a joint journal? That could be cool and it would be fun to see the difference. Think about it and let me know!

Sephiroth420 , yeah these fans make a world of difference! Temps are under control and I still don't have A/C yet...lol. I did bring in a commercial floor fan and added it to the ventilation of the tent. I built a cowling and am force feeding air into the tent. Its doing the job perfectly and I have negative air pressure to the tent. My little darlings are swaying in the breeze and loving every minute of it. So did the fan controller make the misses happy about the noise?

Here is a side note and an example of what I posted on an earlier post. I had mentioned that I rotate the plants 1/4 a turn every day due to the fact that that LED lights shine in concentrated beams relative to the LED bulb color. While I was installing the cowling to the tent I saw a perfect example of what I was talking about and I thought I would share it with all of you. This is a reflection of the lights shinning through a vent onto the wall. It's a perfect example of what I was explaining and the reason why I tun my plant every day:

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Kinda cool looking but it's exactly what I was talking about. If you use LED's I say rotate the plant daily!

Well on to my week. It was surprisingly uneventful in comparison to what I had been dealing with. No bugs. No hiding my tent from visitors. No angry better half to deal with. Water consumption has increased and my hydrometer is dunning in overtime and screaming at me every two days. The smell is great inside the tent and I am glad I invested in a carbon filter. It's amazing such small plants smell so much! The plants are developing some nice colas and the stretch is on. The plants went from nice little compact shrubs to reaching for the lights. I took the opportunity to trim up some of the lower leaves and branches that were either in the way of the colas or were not getting enough light due to new growth. I was really surprised at the branching the plants were showing and the diameter of the stems. As for the plants, they showed no problems with the trimming and seem none the worse for it, in fact them seem rather happy. Why waste nutrients on growth that isn't going to yield bud? So here are my pics for the week. I've attached two of each to put it in perspective of the size of each plant. Here they are at day #28:

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V, the runt of the bunch. She has about six to eight colas and I'm starting to think that I still might get something off of her by the time it's all said and done with.

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C, I'm happy with her progress. She has between eight to ten colas.

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H, she looks like a midget of a more advanced plant. I'm very happy with this one and am sure I'm gonna get the yield i'm looking for on this little one. The smell is amazing!

As always, I'm looking forward to your comments, suggestions and advice. Keep the boat on course captains and I will be talking to you soon! Sail on! :thumb:
 
Nice update. Yeah with the controller it's muc much quieter than before. We sleep easy now. :) glad u got the heat issue worked out that would have been a big detriment.
 
Greetings once again everyone! Welcome to day "34!

It's been a quiet week at BarnacleBill's this past week. Which is just the way I like it! Between my OCD disorder and my anxiety issues I don't like unexpected issues or surprises. My life must be totally planned out! That makes me happy and most importantly, calm. :thumb:

So my little darlings in the closet cooperated and that makes me happy. It was full steam ahead on a true heading. A little trimming and a fert application of 0-6-0 (Rain Grow Bloom-A-Long 0-12-0 at 50%) and were on course. The lights were raised another 4" because all of the darlings are between 19"-22". Even V who was the problem child of the bunch from the get-go is trying her best to catch her sisters. :thumb: So lets take a look at whats been happening in Bill's world...lol!

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"V", the symmetry of this plant is turning out to be intense. She not only started to stretch but she's spreading out nicely. I would not believe that this was such a runt as she was from the start. While she is showing some pistols she is still behind her sisters in development and I have a feeling she's going to be in the tent after her sisters are gone. I have no issues with that, better late than never.

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"C", She's looking nice and starting her bloom. Unlike the others, she actually has a Christmas Tree shape to her. She is as tall as her bigger sister but not nearly as spreading as "H".

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"H", Never ceasing to impress me! Wide and dense she has little colas everywhere you look. Iv'e been crimping some of the shade leaves down down to open light to the colas and she's loving every minute of it. I swear I can almost see her growing by the hour...lol

So there you have it, just a quick update for the week. Looking forward to hearing from of you! Keep her in the channel captain and sail on!
 
Hello everyone! I apologize but I have to do my weekly post just a little early this week. My schedule is going to be crazy. So with that in mind, welcome to day #39!

It was a wonderful weekend. 4th of July celebrations, great weather, great food, great smoke and great friends. Top it off with the beginning of "Shark Week" on the Discovery Channel and what more could you possibly ask for! It was a weekend of Nirvana Bliss! Meanwhile, in an undisclosed location, the three little darlings bloom on and even came out for a group shot!

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As you can see, V has caught up with her sisters at last. She's still a little behind but her stretch was impressive. If I can just get her to bud out all will be well. In fact, she is now the tallest of the crew. Talk about a shocker, who would have thought. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Several posts back I posted their height. What I didn't do was exclude the pot from the measurement. I was basing it off of my light height (guess I shouldn't have toked up before that post! :smokin:). So here is an accurate measurement without the pot being included.

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All three plants are withing 2"-3" inches of each other and the stretch is slowing. The uniformity in height is excellent. I never thought that would happen with V being such a runt from the start. In fact H is the shortest of the bunch but her genetics are clearly superior. She is denser and has colas forming everywhere. If you are working with limited space for your grow, this is looking like an ideal strain and in my opinion this would be a great choice. So lets look at the little beauties a little closer:

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V, is she trying to pull off the comeback of the year? I guess time will tell but I have my fingers crossed!

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C, it may not show in the pictures but she has the classic Christmas tree shape and that main cola is looking really nice.

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H, always looking sexy...lol! She is loaded with cola and is stinking my room up! You just have to love this little girl!

Well that's going to have to do it for this week. My plans are to maintain a status-quo for the this week and keep those little buds getting plumper! Until next time my fellow captains, keep the slimy side down and the dry side up! Sail on and keep it in the channel!
 
Looks great. I am growing the same strain and my plant at day 35 is almost twice as tall and bushy. At 5 weeks it's as big as my first MM was at harvest. Is it common for the same strain to vary in size? And is it too late to attempt LST at this point?
 
Hello everyone, welcome to to day 43.

Well dealing with turmoil was the task of the day for the past week. Honestly my depression and anxiety is quite high at the moment so I figured I would focus my attention to my plants and upload my post. So here we go, full speed ahead.

Greetings Light Addict , better late than never! Welcome to the insanity!

Hello and welcome Tinney! Well this is the first grow Iv'e done with autos but as far as I can tell from what I've experienced and read on autos... yes there tends to be great and dramatic differences in size and other features. It's kind of a crap shoot with what you might end up with. LST? From what I've read that's fine but I haven't done it on an auto (yet) and Darkgrow pretty much covered that question. I would love to see what you have on your hands. Feel free to post some pics.

Okay here we go with the update,

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Well I guess V didn't hear the last standing order. The stretch is over, stop stretching and start budding. She's still reaching for the stars and seems to have lost course. While she's popping little buds, she keeps growing taller. I had to raise her light another 5" and she's covered 4" of that during the past week. Not happy with her progress or looks but she better make up her mind and focus on one thing! Typical woman!

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Well here is C. She grabbed another inch or two and is behaving nicely.

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And last but not least (not even by a long shot) is H. She has grown like American Pharoah ran at the Belmont. Pole to pole! She didn't get any bigger, just wider.

So as you can see Tinney, there is dramatic differences in the seeds. I have one growing like a Christmas Tree, one like a bush and one that doesn't know what it wants to do!

Well that's it for tonight. I must medicate because I'm starting to stress over life again. Time to medicate! Sail on sailors! I will be shortly! And as always, "keep her in the channel!"
 
Wow Tinney , that plant looks great for only 5 weeks! I wish mine looked like that! Are you growing in soil? It looks like a 3 gallon pot, is that correct? What is your light arrangement?
 
Soil grow, used a little more nutes this time. Cautious the 1st grow and used Very little. 600 watt CFL in a grow box. Unfortunately grew out of it this time. Now a closet grow. Very little odor with just one plant.
 
morning BB and all

I too have these massive midget's growing, but outside, in 4 gal milk crates. these too are my first try at auto's and this is my 2nd grow, so I'm pretty much a rookie at growing, but with the help of this site and it's members and with all the great info, this site is a true blessing for me at least...... I am 65 yr old and have been puffing since my 1st cruse to Nam, but just started to grow last yr. I'm not too good on these computers yet,so, no pic's for now , I'll learn how when I'm more comfortable with this digital stuff. any hoot, back to the topic of massive midget. I started off with just one and 3 photo period girls. it's doing well, it's 68 days from sprout, it vegged for 39 days, but only got 20'' tall, so now at 68 days it's just shy of 39'' tall and I figure it's got ''maybe'', 2 wks left, it's big fan leaf's have been turning color for 5 days now and lookin really cool......:yahoo: I've heard, and I must say, there isn't much info on this strain, the little I did find, it said the bud's turn purple at the finsh......ummmmm don't know...lol I will take a pic when the time comes, so when I do figure out the posting of pic's i'll post them here first.

BB ya got a great thread going here, I will be back to finish my story on the auto's , got to run.....:Namaste:

l8tr and be well

fringe50
 
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