THC Bomb & WW/Skunk - CFL Hood/Veg HPS/Flower

[Skybound]

Update RD08,

The Jean Gal (WW/Skunk) is truckin along nicely. She is consuming water and maybe some nutes because water retention of the rock wool is decreasing. I pulled the Tbomb seed to see if anything happened and nothing did. I soaked and rung another small cube, poked a hole and carefully pushed the seed in. I then removed all the other cubes to get the seeded cube right on the bottom of the cup (closest to the heat mat). I'm hoping this last stitched effort to sprout this seed produces a young plant. If not, another seed goes into a moist paper towel and if that goes well, she will just get 2 weeks less of veg time. I will do my best to restrain the Jean Gal, and vegging under CFLs might work in my favor for that goal.

Jean Gal - 30-40ml 30% Flora nute in 5.8 distilled water
Tbomb - less than 10 ml of the above solution, just to moisten the couple of cubes on the bottom of that cup. Also have a lid of sorts to hold moisture and heat.

 

[Backpackin420]

Sounds good yo! Hope your little seedling pulls through. I had two seeds that germed but would not sprout so I planted two extra's that are popping up from the rockwool as we speak. planted them 2 days ago after 24 hours in a cup of water.

How's that heating mat working for you? I bought a heating mat for my tray but the thing makes the temp inside get like 100 degrees, so I took the mat off. my ambien temp in my veg closet/computer room is like 80 degrees to stat thoe.

Looking forward to seeing some pic's of your girls

 

[Skybound]

Right now, it's just the Jean Gal (ww/skunk) that sprouted and it was a free regular seed, so sexual identification right now is just wishful thinking. The Tbomb that was my first choice when seed shopping is appearing to be a no show. Likely tonight I will put another seed into some damp paper towels and into a sandwich size ziplock bag, then onto the heat mat. I think I'm gonna hold off on pictures for the moment. Jean Gal (her stage name is Daisy) has her first single blade true leaf stretching as far as she can. Her 2nd set of nodes are just bumps right now, but they will be out soon. I will be looking to flux daisy pretty soon and start contorting her into the L shape I want her to be. I think I might target the 3rd node, but if LA chimes in suggesting to break at the 2nd, I will, just after the first set develops pretty well and can handle having to be the sole provider of light/energy to start the split and push out new leaves again.

So to summarize, I will put up a pic when the 2nd set is out and developed a bit, or if the Tbomb fem seed sprouts.

 

[Light Addict]

Hy mate, I have in all my plants always lost the first two levels of branching as they are normally weeker in structure and build than from third node. My Flux threw herself that way as she was a little mutant bugger. Miwa is fluxing also and I think he has done the same stripping the first two node levels.

 

[Backpackin420]

Working with seeds can suck sometimes especially when you pay good money for say a pack of 6 seeds and then the freaking things break open, but dont grow or dont even germ to begin with. shit sucks

 

[Skybound]

Working with seeds can suck sometimes especially when you pay good money for say a pack of 6 seeds and then the freaking things break open, but dont grow or dont even germ to begin with. shit sucks

Yeah I only got 3 of the Tbombs, they were a bit pricey compared to other selections. I also have 4 more ww/skunk, 2 Pineapple Chunk, 2 Tangerine Dream (for outdoors next summer), 2 Sage and Sour and 1 Akorn/Snowbud. I have stuff to keep me busy for a while, and only the ww/skunk are reg seeds, the rest are fem.

@LA, so are you saying to top the 3rd node leaving only the first 2 sets to reproduce the flux? I want to make sure I understand you correctly before I hack away. Now my train of thought is to abandon the "L" shape from two plants, and just make them grow out horizontally like yours till they touch the side walls, then bend them to the light for a week or two. I think that would be a good time to flip to flower and have each plant grow like single cola style SOGlike times 12-18 per plant. My closet now is only 16"x30" and each plant would have to span about 28" before I readjusted all branches to go vertical, each branch being one of those single colas. The Flux technique will greatly change the height requirements that is put on the grower to furnish. I am eagerly looking forward to seeing that in my closet.

 

[donpaul.p]

if that ww x sk is the same as the ones i got then they grow like crazy, not seen anything like it before, by far the fastest growing plant ive ever grown.

dont worry about the thc bomb, some seeds sprout in 3 days and some can take 2 weeks or more, 3 weeks is the longest ive had to wait for a seed to sprout, so just give it time,
some seeds have a really hard shell and moisture seems to take a while to get inside to allow it to grow, you can scuff the seeds with some sandpaper or a sharp knife just to make it less smooth, this usually helps the moisture get inside a bit quicker and a method ive used when my own strains take a while to sprout, also i find the newer the seed the longer it takes to sprout, so i seed that came out of the plant a week or 2 ago takes longer to sprout compared to if you left it a month or more before planting.

my own gdp cheese seeds took well over 3 weeks to sprout, i always check germ rates by throwing 10 to 20 seeds into paper towel method and see how long they take to germ, nothing happened for the first 2 weeks then slowly the seeds would sprout, but this was only a week at the most from collecting them from the plant, now the same seeds a few months later just take 2 or 3 days to sprout, so maybe the thc bomb seeds was fresh in stock and have not had time to winter or what ever it is they do,

 

[Skybound]

Update: (10)/RD10

I made up a new batch of Heisenberg Tea, 1/5 of the size called for in the recipe. The original called for;
5 gallons of Distilled Water
5ml/gal Aqua Shield (25ml)
2 cups of Ancient Forest
1 TSP of Great White Mycorrhizae
1 TBLS Grandma's Molasses.

A newer better understanding of using the tea is that it must brew and be aerated for no less than 36 hours. The catch is that after 72 hours, the bennies begin to die off, so all unused bennie juice has to be wasted. Because I am on the tightest budget of my life at the moment, I must plan to only make 1 gallon at a time and use what I could. So I mixed up the following and won't touch it till 9:40 AM Tuesday.
1 gallon of distilled water
5 ml Aqua Shield
6.5 TBSP Ancient Forest
1/5 teaspoon Great White, this I slid a knife across the measuring spoon, poured out the rest onto a DVD case and cut it up by eye. I did see the movie "Blow" once or twice, so I'm qualified to divide a teaspoon of powder into equal parts.
0.6 teaspoon Grandma's Molasses (try your best)

So my new weekly tea day will be Tuesday. As far as the grow, the Tbomb still hasn't showed. I have the light close to Daisy the Jean Gal to keep her as short as I can because I want her new nodes to be close to better stand for the coming flux. I am even considering not using scrog at all. Hopefully, she lives up to DP's experience with the strain and grows fast. I'm pretty much set on turning to flower about a week or2 after both arms of the flux grabs a wall. I really think this style of growing complements the SOG style of growing and can possibly be used to grow out a dozen or so forearm sized colas. I know I have no experience to draw from, but it just makes sense in my head so I'm gonna go for it. I hope a 400w HPS can provide sufficient light, we'll see I guess.

I also fed the ww/skunk 60 ml of her 30% flora w/ca/mg.

Question, does anyone's Aqua Shield have little black specs in the solution?

 

[AfricanGrower]

>>>I made up a new batch of Heisenberg Tea, 1/5 of the size called for in the recipe.

SORRY, I remember what I forgot to mention to you when I first looked at this thread. 5 gallons is WAY TOO much. I only brewed about a gallon of tea for both Bubb plants and 3 bagseeds, now I only use 1/2 a gallon of tea weekly. The bagseed get 1 cup each and the rest goes to the Bubb. As long as you are inoculating the crown of the roots then you should still see sufficient development.

>>>Question, does anyone's Aqua Shield have little black specs in the solution?

Yes, after a while these 'specs' will start to multiply and you will see a very thin layer of specs settled on the bottom of container. It is most likely due to the aging of the liquid compost that it is mixed with.


As for the 400w, you should be more than set, considering your watts to square footage. I really do think that this Flux technique will be the future of many growers who are restricted with space limitations. I just hope in the next coming years we will be able to develop a fluxing technique supplemented with less of a required veg time/stress with the same results.

 

[Skybound]

Thanks for the feedback AG! Question, did you mix in the same amount of ingredients as I did? Also, what do you mean by "as long as I am inoculating the crown"? Does this mean by pouring the tea on the rock wool only, and not using any on the foliage? Last question, do you know the PH of the tea? Will that be an issue?

 

[AfricanGrower]

>>>did you mix in the same amount of ingredients as I did?

Yea basically. Per gallon I mixed:
5-10ml of Aquashield (I have been increasing gradually to a steady 10ml now)
.5ml of Great White (I usually just eye this out in a 1/4tsp measuring scoop)
5ml of CaMg

I don't brew my tea overnight anymore since I do not have Ancient Forest. I just use distilled water (or if needed aerated tapwater for 48hrs) and mix ingredients accordingly the day I feed my Tea. The bacteria have enough oxygen and food once in the root mass to multiply on their own.

>>> what do you mean by "as long as I am inoculating the crown"?

Just a fancy way to say pour the Tea as close to the main stem instead of around the edges of the pot. This ensures that the bacteria REALLY finds a home in the root mass to efficiently aid bio-productivity. You won't need to worry about this until you are in a bigger pot and starts getting harder to reach the center of your plant due to sheer bushiness.

>>>do you know the PH of the tea? Will that be an issue?

I used to care about this...adjusting my pH of even my tea. But pH up/down solutions have of all kinds of chemicals that can harm the development of bennies. It may even kill them off. I just mix my tea accordingly and feed once weekly AFTER my scheduled feeding for that day. No need to worry about pH here Sky, as there is no nutrients for the plant to absorb in the tea mix even it was at that 5.8 mark, you just want to keep a steady home for the bacteria to ensure they live ling enough to make it to the roots. from there they take care of the rest.

 

[Skybound]

Thanks again bro! Can I trouble you for one more question? i was thinking to add a little calmag as well, especially since this General Organics CaMg seems to pull the PH of my nutes to right around 5.8, but didn't think it would jive well in the tea. Can you elaborate on this a bit b/c you obviously use it in your tea?

 

[AfricanGrower]

Okay let me rephrase when I said...

as there is no nutrients for the plant to absorb in the tea mix even it was at that 5.8 mark

...Calcium and Magnesium are the only nutrients I add to my Tea as I am following along with previous proven methods of ingredients for Tea. Taking this into consideration, there is still no need to adjust pH for the uptake of these nutrients as Ca and Mg are two of the widest ranging in a hydroponics system (5.0-7.0)

And for the amount, here you go :

Yea basically. Per gallon I mixed:
5-10ml of Aquashield (I have been increasing gradually to a steady 10ml now)
.5ml of Great White (I usually just eye this out in a 1/4tsp measuring scoop)
5ml of CaMg

 

[TheCapn]

Looking good sky. I may have missed it, but are you going to get another seed going? I always use the wet paper towel method, and keep it somewhere warm, and after 48 hours you will see the tail sticking out. As you were saying, the rockwool doesn't hold enough water near the top, which is needed to pop a bean.

Heating from underneath, really does accelerate germination / seedling growth.

 

[donpaul.p]

isnt their anyway to get the plants to stretch for the first few weeks of veg, this would cut the veg time down as the branches being trained would reach the edge of the pot quicker than can grow up as normal,

just wondering if having the light further away would force the ends of each trained branch to stretch up for the light, the stretch would mean less nodes on the trained part which wont matter as this is removed, but would it increase the speed and cut down on the veg time,

 

[AfricanGrower]

isnt their anyway to get the plants to stretch for the first few weeks of veg, this would cut the veg time down as the branches being trained would reach the edge of the pot quicker than can grow up as normal,

just wondering if having the light further away would force the ends of each trained branch to stretch up for the light, the stretch would mean less nodes on the trained part which wont matter as this is removed, but would it increase the speed and cut down on the veg time,

I am conducting research on this VERY thing Don Paul. Results to come in the next few weeks in my journal.

 

[Skybound]

If I can break apart my cfl hood and divide the lights up into pairs (a pair on each side of the box) I will do that. I also am thinking to put a narrow piece of cardboard over the center branch. If the light is on the side, but slightly elevated from the tops growing horizontally, my guess is that the tops will stretch to get a more advantageous position to receive light. If that holds merit, I would then keep adding to that cardboard as the plant grows to keep all the tops stretching for that better light exposure. I expect the side branches will reach the max point I want before the sides get all the way out to the walls, so I will add my T5 2' strip right on top of them to hopefully hold them in position and give more time for the main stems after the flux to stretch as far as I need them to. I am also planning to use a board with 2 - 3.5" holes cut into the center. This will hold the solo cups in a fixed position and allow me to anchor the binders to and not worry what will happen when the metal begins to oxidize in the grow medium.

Cap'n, I will be popping a seed in a few moments. Had to track down some paper towel and a ziplock baggie. I will moisten the paper towel with plain 7.0 distilled water to germinate and place the moist seeded towel into the ziplock, then onto the heat mat with something for shade.

 

[Skybound]

I lightly scarified another THC Bomb seed and placed it onto a wet paper towel. I also added a light dab of rooting gel to possibly aid in root growth once the seed pops. I folded the wet paper towel and carefully rang out most of the water and it is now spongy. I put the PT into a ziplock and sealed it, put it on the heat mat folded vnicely and put something over the entire bag to block most of the light.

 

[TheCapn]

Sky, will you please send me some info on the rooting gel technique? I have never heard of using rooting gel to germinate seeds.

I don't wring out the paper towel. I keep it very wet, and I add a few drops of aquashield.

 

[Skybound]

to possibly aid in root growth

This is it, just trying something different. I left plenty of water, "rang out" was misimplied, gently twisted or carefully squeezed would have better served the explanation.