Radogast 2 - Return of the Clones

I stand corrected. :laughtwo::green_heart:

You're a keeper Rad. :love:
 
I was at the hardware store today, when I exchanged names with a wee little man.

T. What's your name?
Me. First or last?
T. First.
So I told him.

Me. What's your first name?
T. Tavish
Me. That's a good name for you. What's your last name?
T. Keenan
Me. That's a good last name for Tavish
T. My middle name is James.
Me. Tavish James Keenan is a fine, fine name.

T. What's your middle name?
Me. Don't you want to know my last name?
T. I already know your last name.
Me. O ho! What is it?
T. DUMBLEDORE

Oh you, JK Rowling. You have much to answer for!
 
A nice size on those plants Rad. It's so exciting to watch you begin to work your magic again and I'm so thrilled to watch in real time. I think the Coast of Maine compost is serving you very well in your soil mix. These look so unbelievably luscious. :high-five:

Giselle is 39" tonight +3".

The lights can go up another 12" inches. I hope she flowers strongly in the next 4" .
 
Wow! 3" in a day? Dang Rad, how will you contain her?

We were posting at the same time. The story is a hoot! You love it! :laughtwo::green_heart:
 
The end of the Build-a-soil soil mix.

I had previously used 80% of the soil mix filling eight 10-gal pots. I divided the remaining rock dust and nutrients into thirds for three 7-gal pots. This is soil designed to be used, and re-used for many, many years. This is enough pots for the foreseeable future of my indoor growing, Soil building is potentially done.

I really enjoy stirring the soil dry, and then again making it moist. When I touch the soil, I feel like an actual farmer and steward of the land. It' not much land. It doesn't stay in one place. As permanent soil, to be ammended and nurtured, the soil that gives nutrients to a mind expanding medicinal herb, it is a special moment when the phase of mixing soil is complete.

I will miss mixing the permanent soil :)
Mixing transplant soil is nice, but that is less than one scoop per pot, not ten scoops per pot (7-gal) or two batches of six and one half scoops per pots (10-gal.)



Measuring the nutrient and mineral mixtures for the soil

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Everything measured and loaded in the feed bucket for a six and one half scoop mixing session.

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While hand mixing today, I sat on a chair and mixed bending down towards the floor.

I treated it as a repeated stretching and loosening exercise. As an exercise, it's little unbalanced since I only stirred with one hand, still, it did the trick. I was looser and free-er in my motions while working outside today.


Hand mixing the dry soil.

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Stacked 7-gal pots waiting for an open space on the six position late-veg SWICK

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Wow! 3" in a day? Dang Rad, how will you contain her?

We were posting at the same time. The story is a hoot! You love it! :laughtwo::green_heart:

I think it was 3" in 45 hours. When I posted the older picture, I had no idea it wold be time sensitive :)

It was so cute. I told this story 4 times today :)

Another cute story from this morning. ....

Red squirrel 'Patches' requested feeding. My wife has him snatching a peanut from her fingers which she holds near the back of a chair. This has being going on for about two weeks. Patches normally does a reconnoiter and then darts in, bounces to the top of the chair, snatches the peanut and scampers back to the deck railing at Red Squirrel speed. If you blink, you miss it.

This morning, Patches bounced to he top of the chair, started to bite the peanut, and FROZE. Squirrel teeth were against the skin of my wife's finger tip - an object similar in size to a peanut. No bite pressure, no broken skin. There was a five second pause (red squirrels move fast, but think slow.) Patches then snatched the peanut and bounce-scampered off to a tree.
 
I think it was 3" in 45 hours. When I posted the older picture, I had no idea it wold be time sensitive :)

It was so cute. I told this story 4 times today :)

Another cute story from this morning. ....

Red squirrel 'Patches' requested feeding. My wife has him snatching a peanut from her fingers which she holds near the back of a chair. This has being going on for about two weeks. Patches normally does a reconnoiter and then darts in, bounces to the top of the chair, snatches the peanut and scampers back to the deck railing at Red Squirrel speed. If you blink, you miss it.

This morning, Patches bounced to he top of the chair, started to bite the peanut, and FROZE. Squirrel teeth were against the skin of my wife's finger tip - an object similar in size to a peanut. No bite pressure, no broken skin. There was a five second pause (red squirrels move fast, but think slow.) Patches then snatched the peanut and bounce-scampered off to a tree.

There she goes, working that Snow White thing again. LOL!
 
That soil building/mixing post was glorious Rad. I missed that yesterday. I can so identify with the sense of sorrow you get when you realize you won't need to mix more because these tiny plots of living soil will serve your needs into perpetuity. I love the texture and weight of this soil and there's an energy I can't explain that I get from handling it. I still have half a tote of some that needs water added and stirred. The mere thought of that makes me ridiculously happy. Think I'll do that tonight. :blushsmile:

Dale got a good laugh out of the squirrel story. Thanks for that. Laughs have been hard to get out of him lately. :love:
 
Very nice post on your soil, Radogast. :thumb:
 
SWICK #3

After watching the different pots of clones and seedlings dry out at different rates, respond to my watering well or poorly, I decided to bring the SWICK technology to the clones and seedlings.


Filling the Early Veg SWICK - this one is shallow (2") but should do the job.

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Early Veg SWICK (2x2.5')

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Late Veg SWICK (3x4')

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Flower Room SWICK (4x8')

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Hmm, I do 24/0 clones and veg and I have noticed the yellowing too. I just let them ride until they get bigger then they get green. I worry about the stretch if you lift the light away.
 
Hmm, I do 24/0 clones and veg and I have noticed the yellowing too. I just let them ride until they get bigger then they get green. I worry about the stretch if you lift the light away.

I don't worry about the clones stretching under the humidity dome. In my experience, they spend all their energy on roots. There is no nodal growth to stretch.
Once I pot them, I get the light as close as they can handle.
 
Flowering room update: Large to small

Breeder Free Seed 'Giselle' is a monster! 43" tall

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31" wide with several promising tops

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She is just barely putting out flowers. The top nodes are kinking and tightening.

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Hawaiian Skunk 'Hani' is becoming a graceful young woman. 31" tall.

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Her flowers are more developped than 'Giselle'. Her fan leaves are just as large.

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Remember the clones in the title of this thread. I am flowering 3 of them out as quick to harvest popcorn plants tucked around the edges of the light. Caramelicious 'Sassy' is typically spending all her energy in FINALLY flowering.

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I left lower, low yield branches on 'Hani' and 'Giselle' in case I needed to take more clones.

'Giselle' and 'Hani' clones look good, so I will go ahead and clean up the base and lower branches of their mothers in the flower room.

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They look so pretty, particularly Giselle. Her tops remind me of skyscrapers in the big city. :blushsmile:
 
I don't worry about the clones stretching under the humidity dome. In my experience, they spend all their energy on roots. There is no nodal growth to stretch.
Once I pot them, I get the light as close as they can handle.
I was mixing up clones with already potted clones I think because I have a some newly potted clones now. Yeah when I am cloning in the dome I leave the light about 12 inches away to allow the dome to be fully condensated which disperses the light better. Plus I know its got a maximum humidity when there are no hot spots on the dome. They usually stay nice and green until I put them in a pot of soil then they go through some stress I guess and get yellowgreen until they relax into the soil then I get the light real close and lots of air flow.
 
I was mixing up clones with already potted clones I think because I have a some newly potted clones now. Yeah when I am cloning in the dome I leave the light about 12 inches away to allow the dome to be fully condensated which disperses the light better. Plus I know its got a maximum humidity when there are no hot spots on the dome. They usually stay nice and green until I put them in a pot of soil then they go through some stress I guess and get yellowgreen until they relax into the soil then I get the light real close and lots of air flow.


Thanks. I've read this three times and I'm still thinking about it. I have only gotten yellow after planting clones when I introduced watering stress - usually 5-8 days after planting in soil. This has happened way more times than I like to admit. The greening up and recovery depends on clone size and how good a job I do at watering.

These plants are hardy - I wrote off another potted plant as dead yesterday, it was probably salvageable, but I have a better clone of the same genetics. 3 out of 44 potted plants lost is not bad considering the struggles of no harvest for one year :)
 
Cleanup on HPS #1

Hani, 34" Hawaiian Skunk, Day 16 under 12/12

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Hani is a friendly little gal with a single large flower site.

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Giselle, 44" Breeder Seed, also 16 days under 12/12, is starting to lay down the flowers.

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Giselle comes from sturdy stock. She has 6 main branches thicker at the tops than a bic pen.

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Giselle's canopy - only one inch taller than yesterday :)

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One of many leaves and lower branches removed. This shows the leaf color away from the yellow HPS light.

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The late veg SWICK featuring Breeder seed Big Bertha at 20" (completely hiding Delilah at 18".)

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The early veg SWICK, I'm a little nervous about Giselle's clone (left side, center), so I took a couple of flowering clones. I prefer veg clones, but if the smoke is good, I like the way Giselle loves to grow and wouldn't want to lose the genes - We will see after harvest.

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