SlowToke Mystery Bean Grow Journal - 1st Grow - Soil - HID/LED - 2016

[electro gypsy]

glad to help, makes me happy to know that I can make a difference. As far as to the level of whispering, I am still learning all the time. Someday I do hope to hear their whispers, but alas, today I only hear what they are saying when they are to the point of shouting and screaming and violently complaining about something I did to them. Someday, I hope to be good at this.

well put.

 

[SweetSue]

My immediate thoughts on MB-1&2 was that if you buried that stem it would set roots all along the buried stem and give you some killer anchors for a big-assed plant. It was an instinctive thought. The only experience I have with this was one of my plants in my last grow, which I can't recall, but may have been my Carnival. It developed a bend down near the soil line so I buried it and sure enough, it set roots.

You're experimenting with this batch anyway, so why not try that with one of them?

 

[SlowToke]

My immediate thoughts on MB-1&2 was that if you buried that stem it would set roots all along the buried stem and give you some killer anchors for a big-assed plant. It was an instinctive thought. The only experience I have with this was one of my plants in my last grow, which I can't recall, but may have been my Carnival. It developed a bend down near the soil line so I buried it and sure enough, it set roots.

You're experimenting with this batch anyway, so why not try that with one of them?

Sue, I plan to do that with both MB-1 and 2. I just wanted to wait a day or two to see if they would naturally redirect the stalks toward the light fixture and away from the soil enough so the leaves wouldn't be in the dirt when I cover the stems with soil. And I also wanted to see what would happen with the training first to make sure the plants tolerated the abuse. So far so good. MB-2 has even already lifted the stalk up off the small twist tie stirrup support I fashioned. I'll cover the stems tomorrow or Saturday.

The grow room is coming along nicely. The mini-split HVAC unit was installed yesterday. I was planning to install the grow tent right after they left, but one of the mechanics told me they had to pull a permit for the work and that the county building inspector would come by tomorrow to inspect the work. Glad he told me that!

 

[SweetSue]

Yeah, it's hard to explain that big tent. You have no obligation to let them see inside, but...... Someday none of that will matter.

 

[electro gypsy]

Yeah, it's hard to explain that big tent. You have no obligation to let them see inside, but...... Someday none of that will matter.

nah.. if yer in a med state just offer them a hit

watch out for any contractor situations. especially electrical. even the low voltage stuff like alarm systems often require permit and inspection in most counties. if you are legal it's actually kind of fun to explain lol. most of our county guys smoke and med anyways. we see it all the time where i work too. heating and cooling industry. our company has done a lot of work for the farms. one guy even offered to pay us in pot

 

[SlowToke]

watch out for any contractor situations. especially electrical. even the low voltage stuff like alarm systems often require permit and inspection in most counties.

Yeah, that's why I got everything done now that I might ever need! Best to keep a low profile, no matter what.

see it all the time where i work too. heating and cooling industry. our company has done a lot of work for the farms. one guy even offered to pay us in pot

I could maybe see offering up a little bud, you know, for the effort... but for full payment... that's pretty crazy! I guess legal weed makes for some pretty creative entrepreneurs.

 

[electro gypsy]

Yeah, that's why I got everything done now that I might ever need! Best to keep a low profile, no matter what.




I could maybe see offering up a little bud, you know, for the effort... but for full payment... that's pretty crazy! I guess legal weed makes for some pretty creative entrepreneurs.

yeah they still don't have a tracking system in place for the med growers like the rec stuff. it's not really all that uncommon to barter with them on any level.

 

[SlowToke]

Just a quick update, since I just know everyone can't wait to see how the young seedlings are doing. I went ahead and added soil to the two plants being trained to reduce height (MB-1 and 2), as well as to the other seedlings that had enough growth to warrant it.

Here are pictures taken this morning showing how MB-1 and 2 had adjusted to the training well enough to lift away from the twist tie supports I had fashioned, and without any other signs of stress that I could see.

And here are the two plants with soiled added to cover the long stems.

Overall shots of MB-1 thru 4 with soil added to all except MB-3:

And MB-5 thru 8:

The new growth on the plants with light damage looks good. Of course MB-6 still doesn't have any new growth, so the jury is still out on this one. Granted it's only been a few days, so hopefully all her energy is going into new roots. Same with MB-3 and 7, who are still struggling to get past the cotyledon leaf phase. looking close at MB-3, it looks like the stalk diameter tapers down close to the leaves. You can see this in the picture below.

We will just have to wait and see how things turn out with these slow growers.

I did have a couple of questions for anyone. What is the acceptable humidity range for seedlings? My temp and humidity monitor says the humidity is in the 37 to 40% range. Is that ok for the seedlings? Also, in general, how do I know when to move them to the tent under HID lighting for the vegetation phase? I've heard to wait three weeks, but are there any growth clues to the right time? Thanks for any advice on this!

 

[CajunCelt]

Nice recovery!
Awesome job. This is what Sue was referring to.

 

[SlowToke]

Thanks, Cajun!

Hard to believe just a few days ago I was ready to throw in the towel on those two plants. Not it looks like they are going to be the best of the batch!

 

[CajunCelt]

Thanks, Cajun!

Hard to believe just a few days ago I was ready to throw in the towel on those two plants. Not it looks like they are going to be the best of the batch!

I'm still amazed when the plant that got the most abuse, neglect, accidents... go on to be the best producer of the grow.

 

[SlowToke]

Day 14

Time for an update on these little guys. Overall things are going pretty good, given the less than stellar start with the light burn and lack of lighting for MB-1 and 2. The ones with the least light damage are really starting to take off. Of these, most have just sprouted their fifth set of leaves, and seem to have recovered well from my earlier mistakes. Things aren't looking good for the two worst of the bunch. The good news is we have a new addition to the clan, MB-9. I had pretty much given up on the two that hadn't sprouted after the second week of germination, but I checked the closet on Saturday, and found the young sprout. So that makes germination for 9 of the 10 seeds. Not too bad!

Here are some pics. First a group shot:

MB-1 and 2 are looking very good:

I had all but given up on MB-3, and even had the thought late last week that it was time to let this one go, but Saturday morning I saw some this leaf growth. So maybe there is hope for #3 yet!

MB-4 and 5 seem to have recovered very well from the early light damage. The new leaves are all looking good!

MB-6 and 7 I don't think are going to make it. MB-6 has only started one more set of leaves, and they look as bad as the first set. And 7 is only looking worse. I think it's time to cull these two.

MB-8 may have potential. After the damaged initial leaf set it only grew on leaf and stalled for the longest time, but this weekend two new leaves have appeared. I'll probably go ahead and prune the single leaf so it doesn't suck any energy from the new growth, but let me know if anyone thinks that is a bad idea.

I also think it is time to transplant into large pots and move to them to the grow room veg tent. I finally have the grow room set up so have control of temps and humidity, and the veg tent is going up today. I installed a mini-split unit for temp control, but it sucked the humidity out of the air so completely that I couldn't get a reading from my sensor. I think it stops giving a reading under 20% RH. So I got a humidifier that seems to have solved that problem. I got one with 2-2 gallon water tanks, and it looks like I will be able to go two to three days between filings in the winter season.

I'll be vegging under a 1000 watt MH light in the tent, and flowering will be outside of the tent in a 3' x 6' tray with LED lighting. I've been thinking how to best configure HID cooling and the carbon filter, and think I will vent the HID light by pulling air from inside the tent through the light fixture and then out into the grow room. I'll scrub the air in the entire room with the carbon filter hooked up to another vent fan and some flexible duct to separate intake from outtake. The only thing left to get is a 20 lb. CO2 tank and regulator since this will be a closed environment.

I'll post some more pics of the transplanted plants in the tent when that is all set up. Thanks for checking in on my little test grow, and let me know if you have any thoughts or comments. I appreciate all help!

 

[SlowToke]

One other question I forgot to ask. I have been seeing a fair number of gnats around the plants, and I am wondering if this is something I should be concerned about. These are the really small gnats that you can barely see that just kind of buzz around the plants and occasionally land on a leaf for a while. There doesn't appear to be any damage to the plants, so I haven't been too concerned. But thought it would be best to ask if anyone has seen any adverse effects from these little bugs.

I have heard of fungus gnats, and looked them up in wikipedia, but these don't look like those as best I can tell. The gnats we have are really small. Any problems with these bugs?

Thanks!

 

[Emilya Green]

One other question I forgot to ask. I have been seeing a fair number of gnats around the plants, and I am wondering if this is something I should be concerned about. These are the really small gnats that you can barely see that just kind of buzz around the plants and occasionally land on a leaf for a while. There doesn't appear to be any damage to the plants, so I haven't been too concerned. But thought it would be best to ask if anyone has seen any adverse effects from these little bugs.

I have heard of fungus gnats, and looked them up in wikipedia, but these don't look like those as best I can tell. The gnats we have are really small. Any problems with these bugs?

Thanks!

I also have these... they come in with the compost in my garden. They worried me for a while, but I have put mosquito dunks in my soil to stop the larvae stage so I wasn't too worried about them getting out of hand. They are annoying though and even spraying neem on the soil I was not able to get rid of them, so I put a fly catcher strip in the room and caught hundreds of them that way. My fix for this on my next round is going to be to put the compost layer down deeper in my container, but I have learned that they really don't cause any harm if they can find what they need. The compost covers that for them, and I have not seen any leaf damage caused by the little annoying flies.

Fungus gnats are much bigger... if you have them, you will see gnats... big ones... all over the grow area. When I had a problem several years ago, I started noticing the gnats in my radio room, down the hallway from the grow room. If I see those big suckers again, I will know what is happening straight away.

 

[SlowToke]

Thanks, Emmie! Glad to hear they shouldn't be much of a problem. I'll take your advise and add some mosquito dunks when I move them to larger pots later this week. I assume you break the dunks up into smaller pieces and distribute the chunks around the plant, but let me know if that isn't what you do. I also ordered some of the yellow sticky strips as well. All that should keep them in check, I would imagine.

A slight delay on getting the grow tent up and running. Once I unpacked my reflector hood, it turns out the adaptor cord they gave me at the hydro store isn't compatible with either the hood or the ballast. So I ordered the right cord yesterday and should have it on Thursday. I did set up the tent and it looks like it will work great. I mounted the duct fan and the hood, and only have to run the flexible duct and get the right hood adaptor cord and I'll be ready to move the plants to the tent.

Speaking of the HID lighting, any safety tips on where to put the ballast? It will be outside the tent, of course, but not sure if it is okay to just set it on the wood floor. I have read they can get pretty hot. Should a find some non-combustible surface to put it on? The ballast does have mounting screws, so maybe mount it to the drywall? Let me know what you other HID folks do, please!

 

[Dave Groomer]

I'm still amazed when the plant that got the most abuse, neglect, accidents... go on to be the best producer of the grow.

They are resilient little buggers aren't they!!!

 

[Emilya Green]

Thanks, Emmie! Glad to hear they shouldn't be much of a problem. I'll take your advise and add some mosquito dunks when I move them to larger pots later this week. I assume you break the dunks up into smaller pieces and distribute the chunks around the plant, but let me know if that isn't what you do. I also ordered some of the yellow sticky strips as well. All that should keep them in check, I would imagine.

A slight delay on getting the grow tent up and running. Once I unpacked my reflector hood, it turns out the adaptor cord they gave me at the hydro store isn't compatible with either the hood or the ballast. So I ordered the right cord yesterday and should have it on Thursday. I did set up the tent and it looks like it will work great. I mounted the duct fan and the hood, and only have to run the flexible duct and get the right hood adaptor cord and I'll be ready to move the plants to the tent.

Speaking of the HID lighting, any safety tips on where to put the ballast? It will be outside the tent, of course, but not sure if it is okay to just set it on the wood floor. I have read they can get pretty hot. Should a find some non-combustible surface to put it on? The ballast does have mounting screws, so maybe mount it to the drywall? Let me know what you other HID folks do, please!

Easy to get all those hood and ballast adapters mixed up... it amazes me that they can keep it all straight. As far as the ballast goes, I set both of mine right on top of the hood. They don't get too hot anyway, and up there, all the heat from them and the lights is easily sucked out of the tent, because heat rises, and the carbon filter/fan is right up there near them, sending the heat away.

The mosquito dunks (2 per 20 gallons of soil) have been broken up and mixed in with the soil here, and that chemical is all throughout. This will directly affect any larvae that try to live near my roots and breaks the life cycle. It doesnt seem to stop it completely though when you have natural compost... I just know I don't have a problem with these guys, and actually I have read that a little life in my organic soil is not a totally bad thing... we just can't let it get out of hand, and I would prefer not to have them buzzing about. I need a good sprayer that can handle chunky AACT teas... I am thinking I could get rid of them here naturally doing that. As far as your situation goes, breaking the dunks up on the surface is still going to send that enzyme down with the water... it should easily kill any larvae in there. Maybe a little more effective would be to let a dunk sit in some water for a week and then water the problem areas with that.
I love the yellow sticky fly strips. Check the beginning of my grow log to see the cage I have built that allows a flypaper strip to coexist in normal reality without ever touching you or your plants. If I were of a mind to, I could even wield my flystrip like a jedi sword... but then again, that would be silly.

 

[SlowToke]

Emmie, thanks for that information. Very helpful!

I went back to revisit your journal and found the picture of the wire cage you built. Funny how you forget about details like then until you have the same problem. Great solution you came up with, and I hope you don't mind if I shamelessly rip off your solution. If you're okay with that, can you tell me where you found the cage material?

 

[Emilya Green]

I think that was plastic that supported a furnace filter that I bent over to form that cage... but I forget where that came from actually. Whatever it was, it was spotted on my way to my chicken wire roll, and worked just great! Feel free to steal it, I stole the idea from Weezard from Hawaii. I would bet you could find material like that in the shelving or fencing areas of the local hardware store... and I am going to need to find some more... I want to use it as standoff support for my smart pots to keep them from sitting in water.

 

[SlowToke]

Thanks, Emmie. I'll let you know what I come up with.