Is it time to switch to 12/12?

[keith1975]

You used the neem before you had solid buds so the oil isn't encapsulated in the calyxes. Curing doesn't get rid of oil unfortunately. Don't sweat that spray but save it for veg.

Another tent means more plants transpiring water, meaning higher RH again. Just a thought.

Couple of things. First is you shouldn't have two weeks of nutes in your soil. If that were true you would only feed your plants every two weeks from the beginning.

Second is that people who flush don't do it save money on nutes, they do it because they believe that flushing clears the buds of stored nutrients. The problem is that buds don't store nutes.

Fantastic! Then it's official, I won't be flushing!

and than you!!

 

[keith1975]

Yesterday we had 24 hours with no electricity due to a fire in our area. Even my inverter, that can last for 2 hours without power, didn't stand a chance. But not having light wont affect everything too badly because even if the one plant in the veg room starts to flower, i can just move it to the flower tent. It just means I lose my "mother plant".

I also made clones a few days ago from the mother plant. I then pulled out one of the clones and it had white stuff on it. Took me a while to realise the white stuff is in fact the roots and they just look like that. They have grown more since and looks more like roots each day. But then I pulled out another one today and it looks like it has that dreaded gross slime stuff I read about. Another one looked like it rotted. I threw away the broken ones.

I have a bunch of news questions related to all of this! Hoping you can help!

1. I want to move the mother plant (from which I made the clones) to the tent for flowering. I can't find it now, but I read somewhere that you can't make clones of clones. Is that true? Because I don't really want to perpetually leave a light on a plant that never flowers. And I want to move this mother plant to flower. Then the idea was to use one of the clone's later to make more clones. Instead of having this one plant take up so much room and always be in the way.

2. Is that what you guys do? Do you just have a spot for the mother plant and you just let it veg forever? Because surely at some point it would get really big?

3. Does the mother plant need that much light? It's had a ton of light for 3 months now, so it's a beast. But if I decrease the light on it, surely it will become weaker etc?

4. I want to plant these clones into soil sometime next week. How can I be sure a clone is healthy and ready for transplant? I used rockwool, so I assume I will see the roots coming through the rockwool? Or will I eventually remove it from the Rockwool? it seems people plant the rockwell cube directly into the soil?

5. What is the smallest size pot I can transplant a clone into? And what is the longest I can keep that clone in that small pot? (i made 6 clones, 3 will prob survive, but I dont have anywhere to put them, so was hoping I could keep them in smaller containers for a month at least)

6. Getting rid of water in the room takes a huge amount of my time and it's very messy. All plants stand in 1.2 x 1.2 meter trays, or in 1 x 1 meter trays. I raised them, drilled a hole in the bottom and put a bucket below them. So any run off water ends up in these buckets. There are 4 buckets that need to be cleaned each time. I do that by transferring each bucket to a "Master Bucket". The Master Bucket has a pump in it which sucks the water out of the grow room. The problem is, moving the 4 buckets to the master bucket is messy. Especially if the buckets are very full. And that's dangerous, because the one bucket has to be moved past the inverter, which CANNOT get any water on it whatsoever. SO my question is: is there a better way to get rid of drained water. Right now the only options I can think of are:
4.a) Get a pump for each bucket
4.b) Get some kind of portable pump that uses a hose... then I can put the "nozzle" into each bucket and just suck up all the water manually (but I dont want a pump for each bucket as it's expensive)
4.c) It looks like the pump allows you to attached a hose to the one end, so maybe I can use the pump i have to suck the water up. WIll try that today, but I doubt it's going to be practically. I bought an expensive pump, but even the expensive one can't really 'suck up' all the way to the bottom of the bucket. It starts "sucking air" with about 3 or 5 cm of water left. Which isnt great, because any water = bad because of my humidity issues.
--> Any better ways to drain water?

7. I have two grow rooms: 1.2 x 1.2 m and 1 x 1m. I use them for flowering. I have one Apollo 8 light in each. Real output = +-250 Watt (but it's LED so I dont know how comparable it is to other lights). I am thinking of putting 2 x photo periods in the 1.2m x 1.2m tent. And 2 lights on them. While 1 photo periods and 1 light in the 1m x 1m. 1.2m is a lot of space, but probably too small for 2 plants. So my question is, which is better:
7.a) To put the 2 photos in the 1.2m tent with 2 lights, one on each <--- my theory is that two lights will cover the whole tent "more", because there's also now more light bouncing off the walls etc.
7.b) To keep only one plant in the 1.2m because then the plant in there has more space.
7.c) To keep only one plant in 1.2m but to add one more light. (Then I have double the light on one plant, but I'm technically stuck without a light for the mother plant that is vegging, but I'm thinking of just keeping her "close" to the flowering autos, so she can just "survive" for now, but not really "thrive")

Thanks again!

 

[keith1975]

NOTE, regarding point 4. It might not be slime at all. It might actually be the rooting gel and the plant just not rooting. Making it look slimey. I'll try to take some pics in a bit.

 

[keith1975]

Here are some snaps of the two clones with “white stuff”:

And the other one:

They are fine, right?

 

[InTheShed]

Whoa! It's 20 questions! No idea about the white stuff but it looks disgusting. I'd toss them and start again. Clean everything with hydrogen peroxide and then clean it again! Your rockwool looks soggy too. And cuttings should not have branches! What's your cloning process?

Let's see how many I can tackle!

1. Clones of clones is fine. I'm on at least 6th gen clones of my AK-47 now.
2. Keeping a mother plant is hard, taking clones is easy. Mother plants need low light, light nutes, small pots, constant pruning, and sometimes root pruning as well.
3. See 2.
4. Tons of roots shooting through the rockwool, which goes directly into your soil.
5. Solo cup (clear, with holes in the bottom, inside a solid color cup). Then 1 gallon when it's completely rootbound and drinking close to every day.
6. Water less! And get a "bucket head" wet-dry vacuum. Snaps on to a 5 gallon bucket.
7. You don't know what light output is without a lux meter. $32 at Amazon. Worth every penny. And it answers every light question you have. Mine is a Dr Meter LX1330B.

[oh, here is a great way to clone: here and here]

 

[keith1975]

I do have a lux meter! I get about 40000 lumens close to the top. Maybe a bit more. And about 20 000 towards the bottom. Does that help?

 

[keith1975]

So the white stuff isnt the beginning of roots forming?

 

[InTheShed]

No roots I've ever seen.

Having a lux meter helps you, not me! Measure lux, not lumens. And each one of your plants should be getting the most lux you can afford. Move your lights around to get the most you can, and more light is needed in flower than in veg.

 

[keith1975]

No roots I've ever seen.

I thought maybe it was moving towards something like this:

But i gues its prob some kind of mold. Im scrapped them and will try again.

 

[InTheShed]

That's below the rockwool!

And disinfect everything with H2O2 or it will keep growing on other stems. Did you look at the links on cloning?

 

[keith1975]

That's below the rockwool!

And disinfect everything with H2O2 or it will keep growing on other stems. Did you look at the links on cloning?

Yip, and read a bunch of different things before attempting this. I think I know what I did wrong (aside from the growing white stuff). The fact that you can make clones from clones changes the game. So I moved the "mother plant" to the bloom tent. So hopefully all three my purple hazes can now start blooming. It's been 7 days for the one plant, but still no real signs of blooming. I definitely made sure light is blocked out. It's getting the right nutrients. It can perhaps be the humidity that's gone up a bit the last few days due to rain. That should change starting today.

My autos are blooming along nicely. They've been blooming for about 25 days. So technically they should be ready in 3 - 5 weeks. They haven't started smelling like anything yet, so I guess it's probably still a while.

FYI: Not enjoying photos compared to autos. A lot more time and effort. But hopefully the yields and the quality will make it worth it. From what I've read, it doesn't really make a difference to quality or yield. If that's true, I'll probably just do autos going forward.

 

[keith1975]

That's below the rockwool!

And disinfect everything with H2O2 or it will keep growing on other stems. Did you look at the links on cloning?

I thought maybe my rockwool was just very short. And so the roots are growing at the top too. I should have probably pulled it out of the rockwool before throwing it out, just to see what was going on there. There certainly were roots when I pulled one out a few days ago. Weird. Will have to wait and see how the one I'm doing now turns out. If it happens again, I'll share it here.

 

[keith1975]

Im also thinking of replacing 2 x apollo 8 lights with this mars hydro light:

Mars Reflector 192 LED - Online Hydroponics Shop

It seems like it is designed to cover a 1.2 x 1.2 meter area, which is exactly how much space i need to cover.

 

[keith1975]

The alternative is this:

Mars II 1600 LED Grow Light - Online Hydroponics Shop

But its almost double the price.

 

[keith1975]

I moved the light question to a separate thread: Best option between these Mars Hydro lights?

 

[InTheShed]

Plants can take up to 2 weeks to start popping pistils after the flip so as long as they're at 12/12 you'll see them eventually.

The advantage to photos is you decide how big they're going to get before you flip them, and you can train them 10 ways to Sunday to get them in the shape you want. Some autos will flower early and stay small. I've gone from all autos to two or three autos a year and the rest photos!

Mars has a thread here, you can ask SmokeSara directly!
Mars-Hydro LED Grow Light Discussion

 

[keith1975]

!!HUGE UPDATE!! I THINK HARVEST TIME IS HERE!! Woohoo! My new microscope arrived today and with it I can clearly see some plants starting to look ready. Lots of questions to follow! @InTheShed, hoping you can jump in and help!

I have 4 autoflowers. 2 x sour diesel haze and 2 x cheese. I first planted one of each, and then a week later, one of each of the other. So I have 2 that's looking more ready than the other two. I'm thinking of chopping those off first.

If I look at the oldest 2, I can see mostly cloudy with a few amber one's. The younger two I can see mostly cloudy but not really any amber. So if I go on this:

In the above image, I think 2 of my plants are on the last stage in the image, and the other 2 are in the second last or even third last stage.

I'm thinking it might not be a bad idea to chop down everything, because:

• Then I have varying degrees of strengths across similar strains and I might actually be able to taste the difference myself.
• Doing this in phases is going to potentially be double the work

The only downside is that if I chop down everything, I won't have 2 more plants to harvest should the first two not work out so well.

Here are images of the older plants in blurple:

And here it is in semi-blurple:

And then the older plants not in blurple: (I am struggling to take good pictures, need to find a better light sometime)

And here are some close ups of a bud that I think is ready to harvest:

And another one:

And one more:

A little zoomed out more:

And another:

And one of the smaller buds:

Questions:

1. Do my buds look ready to harvest and do you think I should harvest based on the trichome inspection I did? Should I chop down all plants or only 2 today and then maybe 2 tomorrow?
2. I could still see cobwebs with my microscope and still had a few crawling mites even after I ISO'd the whole lot. So I again did a quick rinse with a hose to get any other nonsense off. I don't see any cobwebs or mites, but not sure what to do next. Harvesting is soon. Today maybe otherwise tomorrow. Should I do anything regarding the mites before harvesting? Maybe delay it by a day and do one more round of spinosad? Or just go straight for bud washing and hang the suckers up to dry?
3. What happens if I harvest and there are still mites and stuff coming off with bud washing? Does that mean its a problem and I can't cure it? How do I know for sure the mites are off and I can harvest and cure?
4. If most of the top buds are turning amber-ish, do I chop down everything including the bottom one's and cure them? or do I discard the ones that aren't clear because they won't be decently potent?
5. I have mites in my grow room, so drying in the room is probably not going to work out for me. I thought of using another room, a spare room we have, but I'm worried mites are just going to show up there anyway. Is there a way I can make sure the cupboard I want to use stays pest free? Can I maybe do a "wet cure"? I heard some people do that. That would mean I could leave the buds in the grow room because I can air seal it in containers and not worry about mites getting in. Any ideas how to best deal with this? I will lose it if I find mites in my drying buds.
6. I expected the buds to "swell" a bit more. Is that something that happens during curing, or is this as big as they are going to get? Or wait, will they maybe get smaller as they dry out?
7. The leaves are falling off the plants and I dont know why. I think it was because the fans were blowing too much and it was directly on the leaves. So I've changed that and hope it gets better, but perhaps other advice on how to make my plants look less like the walking dead and more like green healthy plants? Note: Only my autos do this, my photoperiods dont and generally look much healthier.

 

[InTheShed]

Whoa that's a lot of questions!
1. Trichomes tell you when to harvest. Clear = not ripe, cloudy = ripe, amber = couchlock.
2. When they're ready, chop and wash. Whatever damage is already done.
3. Washing will take care of the mites. Have you read up on bud washing?
4. You can do a staggered harvest if you like. Take the ripe branches and leave the unripe under the lights.
5. After you harvest and wash, completely clean the tent with H2O2 and you can finish the hanging part in there. Bugs tend to want living plants, not dead ones. Or hang somewhere else. That's fine.
6. Your buds get no bigger after harvest. If they didn't swell that's related to how they were raised. The shrink as they dry because they lose moisture.
7. You leaves could look like that because of the mites and nutrient problems and wind burn...hard to tell at this point. And too late as well. I suggest that next time you create a grow journal rather than a string of "please help with this problem" journals. That way we can follow all the stages of the grow and offer advice along the way. I haven't seen any pics of your plants for a long time and it's not possible to tell you why they look this way now.

Read this link, it's really clear on how to dry and cure your harvest:
Original Guide to Drying and Curing Marijuana Buds | Grow Weed Easy

 

[keith1975]

3. Washing will take care of the mites. Have you read up on bud washing?

Yes, for sure! I just set up my three buckets. (I dont have a fourth and I dont have 3% peroxide, so I'm doing the simplest way). What blew my mind was a video I just watched where a guy bud washes and actual CATERPILLARS come out. So yeah, I am a lot less worried about a few mites.

5. After you harvest and wash, completely clean the tent with H2O2 and you can finish the hanging part in there. Bugs tend to want living plants, not dead ones. Or hang somewhere else. That's fine.

I decided to go with another room. My only problem is the room's temperature is 28 degrees. That will be okay for the night, with night time coming soon. But I will probably need to get fans or an aircon in there. How bad is it going to be for my bud at 28 degrees?

7. You leaves could look like that because of the mites and nutrient problems and wind burn...hard to tell at this point. And too late as well. I suggest that next time you create a grow journal rather than a string of "please help with this problem" journals. That way we can follow all the stages of the grow and offer advice along the way. I haven't seen any pics of your plants for a long time and it's not possible to tell you why they look this way now.

Thanks! I will definitely do that next time! This was my first one and I was a bit clueless (also about how these forums work etc).

I have read about 10 curing/harvesting articles and I've watched many videos. I'm just running it past you to avoid any issues like last time! Thanks so much.

Wish me luck. I'm off to harvest and bud wash.

 

[InTheShed]

If you run higher heat you want lower humidity to prevent mold. Damp and warm are the worst.

Oh, and air circulation is a must during hanging. Fans should be pointing away from the plants but the air should be moving.