Pyramid Purple & DNA Chocolope Under CFL - 2nd Grow

[Jesstar]

Ahh cool, that makes sense. Thanks GG. Do you think I would lose much in the way of yield only having the purpy under 12/12? I read a thread on autos a few weeks ago by a gent who had done some pretty extensive experimentation but I can't find it again.. Who is a Auto-Guru I wonder..
Anyways GG and everyone else kind enough to check in, here's an update. Do you guys think growth seems slow? I know I'm impatient but it seems verrrry slow.. Anyway, I'll check in with Akisunni and check out the progres over there..

PHOTOS!


Purple @ 15 days(I missed her 2 week birthday..) from the top

More from the side to show the strettttttch..

Sir Chocolope @ Legs 11, side:

..And here's a Choc-Top for the ice-cream lovers..

So what do we think? Slow growth or what?
I also need help to make my mind up on what nutes to start em on and when.. 3 weeks is what I seem to be seeing about the place? Fox Farm is what I hear about the place? I just need to work out if I can get that about this place.. :/

Also wanting be begin a FIM as soon as possible, I'm thinking it may not be such a great idea on the Auto as I may not have time to veg it up enough to make it worthwhile. Not sure about this.
The Choc I'm sure I will, my main plan is to try and keep her as small as possible(within reason) while maximizing harvest. I want to hopefully get a third lass in the pipeline if I have space. I could start her in a smaller pot and transplant but transplanting scares the hell outa me.. hehe.

Cheers for reading my finger-rambles, gang.
I'm going to growl at a ghost called Mary, I keep her in a bottle and let her out every hour or so..

-J.

 

[Jesstar]

So here be thy update..
I was a bit naughty yesterday and put an Advanced Seeds Biodiesel Mass Auto seed in to germ..
Looked a bit dry:

Put it in anyway..

You can see where I gave her a bit of a scratch..

I also made a new home for the girls..

Wardrobe..

Purple x 2:

The Chocksta:

Now the bad news..

My bugs are getting worse and worse. I need help!
Here are the culps:

Much love playaz!

-J.

 

[Pistolero]

^rWhy don't you replant your MJ in a new soil or whatever you are using. Your soil also looks damp and over fed so a perfect breeding ground.
Did you try not watering the plants a few days till the soil dries up? Dig up some parts of the soil (after dampening the soil) without damaging the roots. Do you seen any larvae eggs or tiny maggots? Get rid of these manually and stop watering for a few days.
Seems like your pet shop sold you product that did not work. Immediately cease to use. Another remedy that may work. Add soap detergent to Water till it forms some foam. Water the plants with this and leave for a few days.
Hope this helps. Best as you seek answers to your problem.

 

[Garage Grower]

Wow, yeah, that's a LOT of bugs. I agree with Pistolero, try a watering with a few drops of dish soap. If that doesn't work then you'll need a specialty product. While I haven't had any need to use yet (and hope I don't ever need to) most guys here seem to like the line from Sierra Natural Science (SNS). They have several different formulas to treat different problems.

There are also some more natural, non-chemical options, and years ago when I was more of a hippie than I am now I would've been able to list them off the top of my head... but things like Peppermint oil, ground cloves, raw garlic, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, etc. A little googling can give you better info on that than I can at this time.

Best of luck

 

[Jesstar]

Hi Pistolero, thanks for stopping in.
That's quits a good ides to replant although I have no experience transplanting. That's why I planted straight into a large pot. But these bugs won't go away. I only water every 3-4 days, when I dig about an 1.5" down and it's dryyyy.
I have tried the Trio-Bac twice with little-to-no effect. I spray every other day with a garlic, chilli pyrethrum mix.
I am yet to try dish soap. Is there any specific ingredients I should make sure are, or are NOT in the soap I use?
GG, I have seen talk about the SNS stuff here. I'm just not sure if I can get here. As discussed in another thread, our availability and pricing of anything green related is very nasty compared to the States. I'll have to have a scope around. At this point I'll try anything. I NEED these guys gone. The ammount of them, they must be doing damage somewhere..
do you guys think growth is slow?

Thanks peoples.

-J.

 

[Pistolero]

Hi Jesstar,
Nice communicating with you.
I shift my pots outside and they get a good amount of sunlight and warmth, about 4 hrs pure sunlight. This may be the reason that my soil dried up faster down to the bottom than your indoor growth. Tho, you do not water for a few days, deep down in the soil it's most prob still soggy, giving enough water for those pests to survive due to the slow water evaporation rate and CFls don't really produce that much heat.
So you may try keeping them in the sun to dry out the soil faster.
About the chemicals in the soap water. I can only tell from my experience so as not to be responsible for any more stress to your plants. My maggots were gone after I removed them manually, but you can never be sure as I never did dig deep deep down. While my pots were in the balcony, my mon brought some hand washed clothes to dry. Don't know if she did it on purpose to kill the plants, not exactly thrilled that I am growing it,but she squeezed the excess water from the wet clothes in the pots. So not a lot of soapy water was used,just the excess still remaining in the wet clothes. Thankfully, I saw the over flooded pots and drained out the excess water or the plants may have drowned. After this the plants are doing quite well and not a trace of any pests. I will post some latest photos on the thread aquarium light on how the plants are doing.
Re: your slow growth, it may be due to the stress your plants are taking due to pests and damage to the leaf. Make sure from now you don't leave loose objects to reflect the light. They will have high potential to fall on the plant by accident. Try adding a blue spectrum cfl aquarium light, they don't use much power. The blue spectrum light will compliment your existing CFls and aid in accelerated progress to your plant.
Best.

 

[Garage Grower]

OK, I did some searching, in part for myself - where my gnats are so few it's more a nuisance than an infestation, I figured now that I'm in flower it might give the bud growth a little boost to get ANY of the gnats out of there... but your problem seems pretty bad and this site is all about sharing and learning so here goes...

RE: the SNS I mentioned... it's the SNS-203 soil drench. but until you can get that (or other suitable commercial product) here's a few "organic" ideas from items that should be common in your home - or readily available at a store in town without needing a specialty garden shop...

Sand - Controls larvae
Adults lay their eggs in the top 1/4 inch of moist soil. If you dress the top of your soil with a 1/4–1/2 inch of sand, it will drain quickly and often confuse the adults into thinking the soil is dry. You can use colorful decorator sand and have fun with this!

Vinegar - Control adults
A good trap for both fungus gnats, and especially fruit flies, is to put out baby food jars filled halfway with apple cider vinegar or cheap beer with a couple drops of dish soap added to break the surface tension. Once you’ve filled the jars, screw on the lids, and poke several holes into them large enough for fungus gnats to enter. Place these jars in areas where you are having problems with either fungus gnats or fruit flies, and they will dive into the vinegar and drown. Strain and reuse the vinegar until you have gained control of them.

Potato slices - Controls larvae
Slice raw potatoes into 1-inch by 1-inch by 1/4-inch pieces. Place the slices next to each other on the surface of your potting media to attract fungus gnat larvae. Leave the potato slices in place for at least 4 hours before looking under them. (Be prepared to be grossed out a bit.) Once you have seen just how bad the problem is, replace the potato slices every day or two to catch and dispose of as many larvae as you can, and consider adding additional control measures.

Hydrogen Peroxide – Controls larvae
Mix one part 3% hydrogen peroxide with four parts water. Allow the top layer of your soil to dry, and then water your plants with this solution as you normally would. The soil will fizz for a few minutes after application; this is normal. The fungus gnat larvae will die on contact with the hydrogen peroxide. After a few minutes the fizzing stops and the peroxide breaks down into harmless oxygen and water molecules. Repeat as needed.
my own note on H2O2... while you don't want to go full strength, using a stronger mix (3:1 instead of 4:1) might actually be beneficial... like the paragraph says, after fizzing, it breaks down to water & oxygen... oxygen supplementation is GREAT for the roots

Cinnamon - Controls larvae and damping off
Cinnamon powder is a natural fungicide that has been shown to be particularly effective against damping-off. It helps control fungus gnats by destroying the fungus that the larvae feed on. Simply sprinkle enough cinnamon to form a visible layer across the top of your potting media, and repeat every few weeks, if needed.

Hope some of this is useful for you Good luck and keep us posted

 

[Jesstar]

This forum and it's members surpass all others in knowledge and the readiness to share. Thank you both for your feedback.
I'll do some more research regarding a dish soap mix as I've seen this mentioned a few times..
my problem is well beyond manual removal. When I scratch the surface to check moisture levels, the separated soil is teaming with little beasts.. You're dead on with my soil staying wet too long.. It stays damp for nearly a week and it's very hard for me to get he much natural light..

GG, that's all very useful. I can easily implicate almost all of these measures. I will be buying some good quality soil for my Biodiesel Mass today that I don't want to get infested so I will be attacking this problem quite aggressively today as well.

I'll shoot up a full update when I get home with all of the tools.

Wish me luck and thanks for all the help.

-J.

 

[Jesstar]

Okey Dokey! So, a visit to the hydro shop and I have 1" layer of vermaculite added. Asked about the Trio-Bac and apparently it's primary task it root development and SECONDARILY upsets the fungus gnats. So no harm in continued use. He also reckons my fungus gnats may be fruit flies..
I'm going to set up an apple cider vinegar trap as I think that's a good idea and add possibly add some potato slices however I'm not sure if there is any point with the vermaculite?
Old mate from the Hyd shop suggested to hold off on any more intesive treatments(Neem or SNS style drenches) until we see the result of this. So here's hoping.

I also finally got the Biodiesel Mass in soil. It was well and truly germ'd with a few cm tap root. I have to say, I love the scarification method. So far, 2 out of two extremely fast and stress-free germ's.

Photographs:
First the setup, then a few of Purple then just one of Chocolope and finally a burnt leaf on Purple..

By the way, this is P @ 18 days and C @ 14.
Who's the Auto-Guru here? Does anyone know? I want to know how to interpret the breeder's timeline for my strains..


Thanks for looking guys.

 

[Jesstar]

Felt like I should up/ mix my lighting for a few hours a day..

Thoughts, G's?

-J.

 

[Jesstar]

Hey guys,

Problem! Choco looks very sad..

What is dis?

Purple has a hair, I hope this doesn't mean she's going into flower. She's too small!



-J.

 

[Jesstar]

Magnesium deficiency?

 

[Sphnx]

That's the beginning of a Nitrogen deficiency. The purple in the leaves is a Magnesium deficiency..... Up your base nutrients a tad and these problems will go away.

 

[Jesstar]

Awesome, thanks Sphnx!
I haven't begun nuting yet. I had planned for the next water to give Purple a 1/3 feed(on thursday bringing her to 21 days) and was going to wait for the three week mark for Choco. Do you think it will be safe to give them both a weak feed earlier?

Cheers.

-J.

 

[Sphnx]

Feed em now They're showin the signs early.... Start with a weaker feeding and up the nutrients a little more each time

 

[Jesstar]

Ok cool. Done. Fingers crossed! They were both looking a touch wilty so I'll check them before lights out and see how they're looking. Will the leaves heal from the bleached look or are they damaged for good?

Peace guys.

 

[listen2marley]

whats up man pullin up a seat for this grow. my suggestions are as follows. Veg your photo untill you harvest your auto so stay at atleast a 18/6 schedule (I do 20/4) then once the auto is fibished you can flip to 12/12 for the photo. you will deff hurt your auto alot if you dont keep it on atleast 18/6. im growing 3 autos and 1 photo all in the same room right now and this is the advice that some of the long time growers gave me. also i think your plants are growing perfectly fine not slow at all. i was the same way on my first grow but its just impatience. the auto is in flower which is normal they usually show pistils around 20-24 days which is what most all autos do. it will still keep growing taller while in flower so dont sweat it everythings looking good. Iv asked alot of the same questions as you in my grow journal so if your ever bored give it a read and I am sure you will find some answers your looking for. As far as nutes, go with go box its like 35$ onlime and has every kind of nute you need from seed to harvest it works great and is absolitley worth it. I forget the exact name of the company but Its something like natural organic (im sure someone on here can correct me im kust mind blanking for some reason). keep up the good work my friend everythings looking kosher as far as your plants go just kill those damn bugs. it would deff help to know the humidity your growing in I could be wrong so dont take my word for it but im pretty sure if your RH is really high it could be a part of the reason that its attracting bugs i know alot of bugs like humid areas. good luck!

 

[Jesstar]

Hey L2M,
Thanks for your advice, much appreciated. I'll jump across and sub up. Purps was still looking quite droopy just before lights out, Choc looked a bit better I think. I hope I watered enough.. I watered about 400ml each with a very weak solution. I spose if she still looks sad I'll giver her a dash more?

Night night 420'ers.

-J..

 

[devils letuce]

looks like your getting everything figured out!!! sphnx is a book of knowledge and he's not afraid to share!!!

 

[Jesstar]

Yeah Antics, everyone's so helpful.
Do you think 400mL into 16L pots is enough?

Cheers bro.

-J.