Skybound's Journal

[bobrown14]

Just a few paragraphs into THIS OTHER ARTICLE about Calcium and Magnesium I learned that Magnesium is likely more important to increasing brix levels due to it being used to make chlorophyll which manufactures sugars, then the enzymes responsible to load and move those sugars.

In soil Mg is not a thing. Here's why:

Chlorophyll chemical formula = C55H72O5N4Mg ONLY 1 Mg atom there on the end.


Gonna be plenty in soil for a plant. The Ca to Mg ratio is whats important.

We like to have a 7 to 1 or higher Ca to Mg ratio. The plant will use up the Ca a lot faster, at some point we get an imbalance of too much Mg - that looks VERY close to a Ca deficiency when its actually a Mg toxicity.

I do not add in any extra Mg to my soil mix.

You have the thing about Chlorophyll and Brix correct. That's where the sugar comes from.

You mentioned Enzymes. They are the catalysts for growth and health. Find yourself some good enzymes and you are on your way to higher brix.

I use Malted Barley, malted organic corn and malted buckwheat grind to a fine powder and mix into the soil. The microbes and the plant take care of the rest.

If you think about how wine or beer is made and then look at whats in the malted barley etc, its the enzymes the brew master wants along with the sugar the enzymes help put the yeast (microbes) into high gear.

To get thicker stems, growth hormones help there. Kelp is a great source. It also happens to have every macro and micro nutrient a plant needs to live.

This is for soil, I wouldn't have any idea how to do it with liquid fertilizer.

I depend on the micro-herd to do a lot of work after the worms break down the soil organic matter into soluble form. All I need is water.

Many ways to skin the cat for sure.

For Brix the plant if she's healthy will move the sugars to the locations that she needs them. They are produced in the leaves but they translocate to other areas of the plant as needed for growth and reproduction.

I'm not a Brix expert. If I was testing I would try different parts of the plant at different times of the day and compare my findings. But that's just me.
If you're using leaves for the brix test, remember leaves have a life cycle and will contain more sugar and different times in that cycle. So age of leaf is a thing.

My brain starts to hurt when I over think this stuff.

 

[Skybound]

Thank you so much Bo for the long winded post! I do enjoy the longer ones indeed! Doc Bud just left me a doozy a minute ago as well. It's amazing you guys have to target calcium to 7 times greater than mag. It's like you have to consider the needs for the next 90 days and put it all in there. For me, I only need to consider the needs of next week. It's because of this hydro and organic discussions will only be able to get so close, but there's always going to be a disconnect.

Someone once mentioned zyme powder, and it never sank in until your post, so I will grab some from kelp4less. They seem to have damn near every organic a grower like me could want. They don't have malted barely though. I'm wondering if the barely couldn't be broken down in a compost tea? I am trying to think of new alternate ways to get more organics into my feed w/o causing any conflicts. I once mistakenly used organic nutes in a synthetic reservoir and had all kinds of snot issues. Perhaps the concern ends with organic nutes? It seems my other organics stay mixed just fine.

Aside from IceMud's video on brix testing cannabis, I have very little instruction. I took a test this morening from the lowest leaves and that got me a 2 brix, lol. Those leaves were 3 tenths acidic too which is surprising as the upper leaves tested 3 tenths alkaline a few days ago, but from top leaves. Should I test the petioles? Some folks say to get upper leaves that have been in the light for a few hours, but wouldn't this skew the results? IDK about everyone else, but I test brix b/c I want to know what mine actually is so I can hopefully make it better. So wouldn't I want to test the part of the plant that would give me the worst readings? Also, how often should I test? Shortly after getting into brix I veered off to leaf sap PH which is a semi related tangent, but it's more for identifying soil weaknesses so farmers can better guess how to amend their soil to bring it all into ideal. That's what I seek. I've already been trying to perfect my feed, but thus far have only been looking at the plants for visual queues and aside from minor Ca def and frequent K def, I had all the rest addressed.

 

[ilikemsticky]

Thank you so much Bo for the long winded post! I do enjoy the longer ones indeed! Doc Bud just left me a doozy a minute ago as well. It's amazing you guys have to target calcium to 7 times greater than mag. It's like you have to consider the needs for the next 90 days and put it all in there. For me, I only need to consider the needs of next week. It's because of this hydro and organic discussions will only be able to get so close, but there's always going to be a disconnect.

Someone once mentioned zyme powder, and it never sank in until your post, so I will grab some from kelp4less. They seem to have damn near every organic a grower like me could want. They don't have malted barely though. I'm wondering if the barely couldn't be broken down in a compost tea? I am trying to think of new alternate ways to get more organics into my feed w/o causing any conflicts. I once mistakenly used organic nutes in a synthetic reservoir and had all kinds of snot issues. Perhaps the concern ends with organic nutes? It seems my other organics stay mixed just fine.

Aside from IceMud's video on brix testing cannabis, I have very little instruction. I took a test this morening from the lowest leaves and that got me a 2 brix, lol. Those leaves were 3 tenths acidic too which is surprising as the upper leaves tested 3 tenths alkaline a few days ago, but from top leaves. Should I test the petioles? Some folks say to get upper leaves that have been in the light for a few hours, but wouldn't this skew the results? IDK about everyone else, but I test brix b/c I want to know what mine actually is so I can hopefully make it better. So wouldn't I want to test the part of the plant that would give me the worst readings? Also, how often should I test? Shortly after getting into brix I veered off to leaf sap PH which is a semi related tangent, but it's more for identifying soil weaknesses so farmers can better guess how to amend their soil to bring it all into ideal. That's what I seek. I've already been trying to perfect my feed, but thus far have only been looking at the plants for visual queues and aside from minor Ca def and frequent K def, I had all the rest addressed.

ya you like those long winded posts lol I got my malted barley on amazon 15 bucks for 5lbs. 2 row according to @bobrown14 you grind it up and add to the tea rite before you feed the plants according to him if you brew it in the tea it ferments not good if you add that to your tea you will need to strain that its kind of chunky!

 

[Skybound]

ya you like those long winded posts lol I got my malted barley on amazon 15 bucks for 5lbs. 2 row according to @bobrown14 you grind it up and add to the tea rite before you feed the plants according to him if you brew it in the tea it ferments not good if you add that to your tea you will need to strain that its kind of chunky!

grind it up how much? dry ice will grind anything organic into very fine powder.

 

[ilikemsticky]

grind it up how much? dry ice will grind anything organic into very fine powder.

I grind mine with a coffee grinder I don't think it matters how its ground I was thinking of your water lines or drippers or whatever ther called could possibly get clogged from the dust I cant run that tea through my spray bottle it clogs it up so I have to strain it first!

 

[Skybound]

I guess this is why they want the PC and not so much the Cheese anymore? The Cheese smells SUPER SWEET, but it doesn't have this much resin.

 

[Lowrider72]

The original Barneys Pineapple Chunk was the more Haw Sativa pheno.
The more Indica version hardly showed originally, was mostly the Sativa one.
Yours seems a nice 70/30. Sat- Ind.
Mine is more a smaller leaf, doesnt stink much at all compared to WW or Peyote Critical.
When I got this Indica pheno, I was blown away other plants in the tent out smelt it or out grew it.

Hope you get the smoko you are looking for.

 

[Weaselcracker]

So what’s the smoke like on yours lowryder? My PC is the stinkiest plant I have by far and is about the only strain that I can instantly identify in veg just by smelling it. Most other strains if I lose the label out of the pot I don’t know what it is anymore.

 

[Lowrider72]

I have only smoked the old Sativa leaning pheno, sensational.
Found the taste with cheese and pineapple a lil conflicting, but yummy.
Chunky buds, had one cola as big as my torso under HPS in 35L pot.
Was a killer mum that was lost.

Havent smoked the Indica pheno yet....still 6 weeks at least from testing it, then theres a decent cure.... Will let ya know.

LR72

 

[Skybound]

Neither of the phenos I got stacked colas all that well. Both grow Kush like golf balls, just bigger, but the thick stemmed plant does a better attempt at stacking a cola, plus also has a fuckton of bud sites and gives me confidence she'll be easy to work with and get me my LB every round. I had no complaints about the smoke from either, whereas with the Cheese, there was a clear favorite PC over the TC with all I spoke to about it. Surprisingly, the little of the PC I did smoke, it didn't rip my face of as I expected and the body high, specifically any anxiety were simply not there. No creep up sneak attack seizures or anything like that for me which made it more enjoyable than most smoke, but generally, it's my experience that all pot is too potent for me, so I can't enjoy it too often without also contemplating a concern which then defeats the purpose, lol.

Here is the thick stem clones. The on on the right I believe will be potted up tonight to get ready to take the place of the fallen Cheese. I do need to insert a stall into my scedule though as I'm a bit ahead of the schedule which means my next chop is about a month away instead of the desired 3 weeks. I'm also going to hang netting on my walls all the way around to if the side branches get too flimsy, I can just draw in the netting to the underside of the plant and tie it all together there. I'm thinking of it as a cross between a scrog net and a tomato cage, but only to be deployed mid bloom if desired. I think this will keep all branching well supported.

 

[ilikemsticky]

Neither of the phenos I got stacked colas all that well. Both grow Kush like golf balls, just bigger, but the thick stemmed plant does a better attempt at stacking a cola, plus also has a fuckton of bud sites and gives me confidence she'll be easy to work with and get me my LB every round. I had no complaints about the smoke from either, whereas with the Cheese, there was a clear favorite PC over the TC with all I spoke to about it. Surprisingly, the little of the PC I did smoke, it didn't rip my face of as I expected and the body high, specifically any anxiety were simply not there. No creep up sneak attack seizures or anything like that for me which made it more enjoyable than most smoke, but generally, it's my experience that all pot is too potent for me, so I can't enjoy it too often without also contemplating a concern which then defeats the purpose, lol.

Here is the thick stem clones. The on on the right I believe will be potted up tonight to get ready to take the place of the fallen Cheese. I do need to insert a stall into my scedule though as I'm a bit ahead of the schedule which means my next chop is about a month away instead of the desired 3 weeks. I'm also going to hang netting on my walls all the way around to if the side branches get too flimsy, I can just draw in the netting to the underside of the plant and tie it all together there. I'm thinking of it as a cross between a scrog net and a tomato cage, but only to be deployed mid bloom if desired. I think this will keep all branching well supported.

clones look very nice!

 

[StoneOtter]

Hi Skybound Good going.

 

[Skybound]

Random photos and captions. First is netted walls. I hope this will work better than millions of yoyos that forces me to climb in there mid bloom. With netting, I hope that when the need arises, I can just pull the bottoms in towards the pot and all of the energy can be deferred to the net instead of yoyos.

The next 2 show the PC pheno that I'm killing off, and rightfully so as this is without a doubt thee biggest PITA plant I will have ever grown, surely thus far. There's gotta be 654,000 bud sites there and I expect each to yield me about 0.4 grams which each will require it's own thorough trim. I loath fighting my way through these end of the road plants. I know they're not gonna make it, but to keep the grow moving steadily, you tolerate problems like these. Oh the joys of pheno hunting.

Finally, here's some randoms of the PC I selected from Veg to get up potted to a 7 gal super roots air pot. I acknowledge that these plants aren't ready for bloom to my standard, but I'm at the place where I need to send my biggest through to keep things timely. Because I already potted to the air pot means (for me) that I need to get it out of veg ASAP because the air pot is too big for the veg tote and feeding the air pot is a big PITA. I already chopped, washed, trimmed and hung the last of the 3Cheese, cleaned the bloom room, hung the net, cleaned all removable plumbing, totes, pots solo cups and other things I reuse, so the room is now empty awaiting a plant.

My cam surprisingly gave me 2 really good pics. The roots aren't as filled into the media as I want when up potting, but once again, time constraints .... I'm gonna grab 2 clones from her in a few hours, then put her into bloom this evening. The camera does some justice to how shiny the leaves are, but IMO, undersells a minor P def. Either way, some good pics for my shitty cell cam. I use a hacked bucket lid for flipping large pots to ensure I don't have a crouton explosion all over the place.

 

[ilikemsticky]

theres a fair amount of work involved growing these plants when you get a bug outbreak it makes a lot more work your set up looks good its always a good thing to keep the grow area clean you do a good job of it keep up the good work!

 

[Skybound]

Maybe I keep it clean enough, but I definitely wouldn't say I keep it clean. The blooms I just wipe the walls after each round with rubbing alcohol to clean off last round's trics. The veg for some reason I can't keep clean. For the life of me, I'm totally perplexed why I've never had bugs. Even when I grew hideous and unhealthy plants, I never got any bugs and I've been in 3 different old homes. Knock on wood I guess?

 

[ilikemsticky]

your very lucky so far ive had aphids that I brought in on a plant I had outside the hemp mites im dealing with rite now I have fungas gnats every grow ive also had thrips so far that's it haven't had spider mights yet and don want them!

 

[Skybound]

Day 1.

 

[ilikemsticky]

looks good so you dry your buds in the tent?

 

[Skybound]

looks good so you dry your buds in the tent?

I alternate between the bloom light and the veg closet, though in bloom I have the best circulation and extraction so I only hang them from my lines in veg while I'm cleaning in bloom. Thin branches are about ready to slow down after about 2-3 days and fat stacked colas at least a day longer in the breezy open air. This gets it all to below 70% quickly, then I slow it down when between 70% and 62%, at which point I try to hold it at indefinitely.

 

[Big Sparks]

Great description of your drying technique.