NorthernCosmos' First Indoor Soil Auto Grow: 2019

[NorthernCosmos]

Day 64. Full dose of nutes + banana water. Also gave them some chili/garlic juice while I wait for the H2O2 to fight the final battle with.

I only spotted 1 grown up aphid, and it was positively lethargic. Caught what looks like 2 little baby-aphids, and 1 dead larva lying on top of the soil. I have a feeling the aphid attack is receding.

I can see more cloudy trichomes. What do you reckon - ready within 14 days?

Amnesia:

Widow:

 

[InTheShed]

Trichomes look good! I'd wait a few days before checking again. When I check daily my eyes start to deceive me .

 

[NorthernCosmos]

I know... In my lengthy pest spotting sessions, with the highly focused squinting, I almost hallucinate bugs - thinking that little pieces of unusual colored dirt are crawling aorund That's when you realize it's time for a break...

 

[BigD13]

If you're thinking that little pieces of dirt are crawling around, it's probably best to do bong hits AFTER spotting sessions.

 

[CraZysWeeD]

Soon you learn to smell it done! The longer you wait to harvest the more "heavy" the weed gets in high, I think this thumb rule is fairly accurate. If I were you I would already be smoking her but I'm crazy so don't listen to me to much.

 

[NorthernCosmos]

Regarding smell, the Amnesia smells really nice, but the Widow has very little smell so far. However, right now I'm plagued by an overpowering smell from the Scorpion/Garlic chemical warfare substance. Been venting the room all day, but it's still too much. That'll remain a one time experiment.

According to the specs for the seeds, there's another dozen days to go. The day I see some amber trichomes is the day they get chopped, I think...(?) Or at least quite a bit more cloudy. We'll see. I've been reading and watching harvesting and curing guides, hoping that I'll manage to get an acceptable level of quality. The excitement is mounting - three weeks or so of drying and curing will be almost unbearable

 

[InTheShed]

Remember, regardless of how they smell, make sure you're looking at trichomes on the buds and not the sugar leaves, as those can go amber a week before the calyxes.

 

[CraZysWeeD]

Scorpion/Garlic chemical warfare substance

I might order some from you if you are pushing? I have a strong fetish for reactive molecules.

As KCCO says play safe.

The excitement is mounting - three weeks or so of drying and curing will be almost unbearable

Haha lol. I can hardly wait for new strains to finish even if I sit on loads...

Remember, regardless of how they smell, make sure you're looking at trichomes on the buds and not the sugar leaves, as those can go amber a week before the calyxes.

I'm going to start calling you professor soon Shed. If I'm coming out of my closet with what I'm doing there at the painclinic I will start quoting you to them. Lol

 

[NorthernCosmos]

Day 67. Feeding 1/1 nutes. Only a couple of baby aphids spotted - the tobacco-tea, chili/garlic potion and the diatomaceous earth seem to have helped.

It's day 26 for the BCN Critical XXL Auto, with a 1/2 nutes feed. The lower leaves were drying out, but not with any brown spots or curling - just dry as seen in the picture (the lower right one has been snipped off and is just posing there)... Don't know why. There is most likely root aphids there as it's the same soil as the ones where they've been spotted (Amnesia & Widow), so stunted growth, drying/yellowing bottom leaves could be part of that, or...? The rest of it looks fine to me:

I'm now seeing some amber trichomes on the sugar leaves of both plants, with the Amnesia being a little more amber than the Widow. That probably means that they are en route to chopping in a week or so. I plan to give them the 36 hour darkness treatment after the last feeding if I can get a decent dark chamber with OK temps constructed (science be damned - that'll come later ). Amnesia here:

 

[CraZysWeeD]

Looking great so these new ones are in compost mix as well?

I would cut away those damaged leaves too.

Cut! Cut! You promised as soon as you would spot amber!

 

[NorthernCosmos]

Yes, it's the same critter containing compost mix... The BCN and AK420 were planted before I became fully aware of the aphids. I hope to exterminate them early in those two - the H2O2 is due to arrive on Monday or Tuesday...

Cut! Cut! You promised as soon as you would spot amber!

Easy now, CraZy - this is an exercise in patience and discipline - I'm cutting as soon as I see amber on the calyxes

 

[CraZysWeeD]

Yes, it's the same critter containing compost mix...

Ok, good luck with your new weapons against those new pets you invite in your home. I have faith in your WMD- sprays.

Easy now, CraZy - this is an exercise in patience and discipline

Well here is my Akilles heel as you already know...

 

[NorthernCosmos]

Day 70 and 1/1 nutes for Amnesia and Widow. Day 29 and 1/2 nutes for the BCN.

Got the H2O2 today, so I mixed 1l at 1.2% and watered around the stems, where the aphids surface. Have no idea how much I'm supposed to use... I spotted and captured two aphids on the soil of the Widow, spotted one or two more, and I wonder if I saw a couple of dead ones. So not 100% gone, but not so scary anymore, and I only see them around the Widow. I saw 1 gnat flyer, and two dead ones have accumulated on the light , so they're not having an easy life either.

The trichomes are ca 80% cloudy now, almost white, not much amber to see on the calyxes yet, maybe 10% amber on the sugar leaves at most. The Amnesia is a little ahead of the Widow. 5 days to go according to specs - that seems about right, so I'm looking at one more feeding in two or three days, then they get to dry out, possibly in the dark for 36 hours at the very end. And then: chop, chop!

 

[CraZysWeeD]

Sounds like you got a plan.

After this you never ever want to buy street quality... not even the best I ever bought locally is in any competition with what I grown myself, though is this some 20 years ago. I have a feeling the market haven't shifted any since...

 

[NorthernCosmos]

Yeah, they do look delicious. A few days ago I did a last round of tightening and adding LST tie downs to open up the plants a tiny bit more for better light penetration to the lower buds. The buds are getting fatter and the trichs are increasing all the way to the finish line. I just had to squeeze the colas a little, and they're very dense

I put an Amnesia seed and a White Widow seed in water today - I want to compare those to the two first ones, without aphids, with a slightly more generous nute regime and with perlite instead or crushed clay pebbles. They'll probably see soil tomorrow, and with that I've established a triple overlapping grow, with 2 plants roughly each month to keep it going. I'm on a roll

 

[CraZysWeeD]

Great Cosmos! I gave up on LST a few years ago, now I just let them grow wild and let them meet the scissor if they don't behave.

But I have no doubt you will succeed in this field.

You are on a roll now with your growing and I feel I'm falling behind in seedlings. Should have four plants constantly in veg but I had to change the time schedule for some of them due to the heat issue for Orinoco. Looked like she would self ignite from the heat.

Hope this new filter box and Ikaros will change this for me in a few days.

 

[StoneOtter]

 

[NorthernCosmos]

Hi stoneotter!

I'm just back from a compost nuking session, using a microwave oven. I killed a lot of earthworms, which I'm not so happy about, even though I ran an initial earthworm extraction & rescue program. On the other hand I don't think anything else survived - I spotted a couple of aphids prior to nuking, and none afterwards. I've prepared two buckets with a mix of ca. 7.5l peat based soil, 2.5l nuked compost and 2l perlite in each for the next couple of plants.

 

[NorthernCosmos]

Oh nooooo!

My light timer is defect; it won't switch off, so there's constant light. It may have been like that almost from the beginning - I don't know... It was programmed to run a 19/5 cycle, switching off in the middle of the night. I only discovered this today, I was cleaning up into the wee hours after the soil nuking.

I've been reading about the effects of 24/0 and the anecdotes are conflicting, e.g. here. Could this be, at least in part, the reason for the extremely short plants (25 and 35 cm for Amnesia and Widow)? Intuitively, I'd think that the plants benefit from a day/night cycle to perform its natural processes. Does anyone have experience with this?

I'm kind of gutted to have mistreated the pants like that. Well, if nothing else, it makes the second Amnesia/Widow pair all the more interesting as they WILL be getting their day/night cycle.

Now, please excuse me while I'm off to put a sledgehammer to that evil timer

 

[StoneOtter]

Hi stoneotter!

I'm just back from a compost nuking session, using a microwave oven. I killed a lot of earthworms, which I'm not so happy about, even though I ran an initial earthworm extraction & rescue program. On the other hand I don't think anything else survived - I spotted a couple of aphids prior to nuking, and none afterwards. I've prepared two buckets with a mix of ca. 7.5l peat based soil, 2.5l nuked compost and 2l perlite in each for the next couple of plants.

Ooh nice, I didn't think of the nuker for that. Good idea!