Learning what not to do.

You doin organic? Im not familiar with fox farm stuff, plan on using Botanicare myself this next go round.

Mostly I went to trying organic because of my water ph'ing problem, I'm still using the fox farm line just as a supplement, that and I don't have trace minerals yet which the FF line does have.

I just watered the ladies for the first time since transplanting them. I may have waited a day too long, as there is some yellowing on the lower leaves of the Kandy Kush and Quasar. But because I had dosed them with some organics after transplanting I decided to test the ppm.

Kandy Kush (F) 1220ppm 6.5ph (Needs an individual scrog net as it has way to many branches for me to try and tie down.)
WW x Crit+ 998ppm 6.5ph (a little bushier then the last crit, you can see a little of both in her, not as vibrant as I would've thought but keeping up)
Quasar 916ppm (Stopped testing ph here as they all looked fine, this one has a really nice uniform plant structure)
EJ x GFK 1140ppm (looks just like the last EJ)
SSOG x GFK 1010ppm (Same look as before, for that matter all three from last grow look exactly as they did last time.)
S47 x GFK 1590ppm (flushed with 3 liters of water to 867ppm) for future reference 2 liters would've worked better.

So far I like the organics as they simplify things, I do wear a paper mask and was carefully, as it is bat crap who knows what you can catch from that crap. But it's just sprinkle on and forget about basically, that's my kind work. None of this testing water ph, only using 1/3 doses etc...

I want to start flowering soon as they will still double in size, but I need to make sure the roots fill out so I'm less likely to run into root rot like last time. Plus I did want to go 6 weeks, while it is 6 weeks they had that 10 day stunting incident. I would also like to get the canopy under a little more control. I need to rig up some kind of individual scrog net for the Kandy Kush as it has way to many branches for me to try and tie down.



I finally settled back to the cool tube even in winter and using the closet doors to trap in heat so the pots dry quicker. I tried the bat wing again for awhile, but the loss of one of my 6" fans to cool the bulb was leaving poor circulation around the plants, so I switched back. The temp hangs around 73 which is a little cool for my taste, 75-77 is preferable. I think I can manage as long as they develop a decent root system, which they were a little under developed last time.

You had a MG soil incident too haha thats funny. The stuff grows awesome seedlings and great veg growth from my experience but I messed up during the cross over to 12/12, my plants were looking stellar and I started in with Flora bloom and they took a nose dive lost one of my five and damaged the others. Lesson learned and they're back on track but I lost a fair amount of foliage unfortunately. Your photo 2 above looks identical to what my plants did in the beginning. What you got goin on for lighting and what not?

I always figured people were over exaggerating about the moisture control. It worked out even if it was pia getting the soil out basically root bound plants. That's cool you got them back on track, they grow pretty quickly so you should make up that lost foliage fairly quickly. My first grow I destroyed, but they still somehow produced some decent stuff.

Light is a 400w (cheap $12 hps bulb), it's sad I'm even using it for veg. It's mostly ghetto, cheap $80 tent, 6" carbon 440cfm and filter. basically just the cheapest "decent" stuff I could get off amazon, which seems to work well enough for the now.

Still not sure how I'm going to proceed after the site problems "hack" that resulted in the loss of nearly a month of journal entries. I was looking into reconstructing the journal, but it seems like a lot of work, so I may just do a small recap of what was lost then add the pics to a slide show like previously. It might be a few days though, as Skyrim has my attention at the moment.

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Learning Links

They just recently re-organized the knowledge tree, which has thrown me off some even if it's over all better design. Lots of videos.
http://www.khanacademy.org/

They send daily brain teaser and have a really good section on mnemonics (memory techniques). I've tried the Loci method and it works very well even with just some basic knowledge of the system. They also have a few memory exercises.
http://www.braingle.com/mind/memory.php

Not as in-depth as the other two, but still a decent one to rehash some basics.
http://www.aaaknow.com/equ-mulequ1.htm

Learn to code websites with HTML
http://www.codecademy.com/

A bunch of stuff over at Reddit university.
http://ureddit.com/


Free college course material (I have not checked into the college credits)
http://education-portal.com/articles...es_Online.html
https://www.coursera.org/

Languages
http://www.memrise.com/welcome/
http://duolingo.com/

User created flash cards (lots to pick from)
http://ankisrs.net/#windows

Nutrition
http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/...roducts/2626/2

So onto the recap:

I had a difficult time getting them the right amount of nutes using organics. At first I had no problems but later it was either too much or not enough. I had the SSOGxGFK revert back to male, so I planted a new one. But I think it was too late as it hasn't even shown sex yet and the others are starting to get brown hairs "too many for my comfort". I pollinated some of the lower buds this time and was a little careless, but not overly careless just enough to wonder. That's all I can think of off hand,


Here is the first one as I broke them up into two slide shows, the first is of all of them. It starts at the beginning of flowering and ends about 4 weeks into flowering.

The second one profiles the ladies, the first two pics of each is right before they enter flowering and this one ends at the 4 week mark as well.


Picture was taken ruffly at day 28 give or take a day. Started flowering 2/18, poor babies they look so butchered.

Day 28 Flowering


Another month of getting frostier, I can not wait to see what that looks like. WWxCrit


Kandy Kush, It has a very pungent odor, but strangely familiar.

The SSOG has shown it self to be a female, all of the seeds I've tried so far of my own creation have been females. The exception being the first SSOG which was stressed into showing itself as a female only later when flowering was induced did it revert to a male.

Difficult to see, but you can see the slender shape and pointy tip of the pre-flowers and if you look really close you'll see a hair or two.


The width of the leaves is insane, they are so wide, the middle blade is like 3-4 fingers wide and this is just a baby right now.


Edit: for example of leaf width.


The S47 seems to be the only one really having any issues now. All the rest are looking much better, the Quasar is borderline OD'ed on nitrogen, the EJ has it's color back from a mild N deficiency. This time it's the KKxS that I can't seem to give enough nitrogen, although the color has come back to a much healthier shade of green. It was about a week again before the pots were dry enough to water/feed after transplanting. I gave them a 1/6th dose of FF tiger bloom mixed with the organics, as I wanted to give them a heavy dose of nutes which I have a difficult time with straight FF. I only tested the WW and S47 both came in around 1100ppm, on the low side, so some organics were sprinkled on top of the soil of those two "P & K". Being so late in flowering it's doubtful the roots will fill the pot. Making feeding them more of a challenge as the pots won't dry out for 4-7days, if it's 7 I can handle. But when it's every 5 days it makes feeding them once a week difficult. I'm still learning, but I seem too keep revisiting this mistake, if I would have had 4g pots it would've been ideal, the 5g were just too big.

The WWxCrit+ is maturing very rapidly, to quickly it has me concerned as nearly half of the hairs are brown, at 5 weeks? The rest of the ladies look right on track and should be done in 3-4 weeks. The smell is too much for my carbon at times and you get the smell every so often. It smell like fruity pebble most times and it's driving me crazy.

Here's older picture of WWxCrit taken on day 34 to give an idea of how quickly it seems to be maturing. Actually days flowering as of this post is 37.


S47 for comparison, it should be ready the same time as the EJ and Quasar. The Kandy Kush is progressing slower.


I thought I had the S47 and WW under control, it seems like once they show a deficiency it's a real bear to correct, as I'm still losing a few leaves. The others show some nutrient burn signs as well as heat stress on the upper canopy next to the bulb. I've moved the bulb fan over to the side with the other fans so the air circulation now moves from the left side of the tent to the right. Previously I had the bulb fan in a cross current towards the other fans, but slightly above their trajectory. I believe this was causing some minor heat pockets. However, now there is about a 6-7 degree difference between the bottom and top of the tent. Upper (near carbon) tent hangs around 80, while the lower part where the vent is stays around 73. But around the bulb area is staying much cooler now, so it's a wait and see how it goes thing even if it appears well.

Because of the closet doors and how the tent is wedged in the closet it's really difficult to get a pic of all the cola's.

The fan leaves pointing up can be a sign of over heating or they are reaching for a light source.

I believe that's the Kandy Kush in the background. In the back right corner you can see the heat stress I mentioned, the leaves are curling like tacos.

I've decided to try and reconstruct at least one entry of the lost journal. Which was the part on pollinating the lower buds.

This is about when I separated the male from the other ladies, I pulled off a few of the more mature pollen sacs before this point in order to have more about the same time. A few days later I started pulling off pollen sacs, the ones that were stripped dark/light colored where you could almost see the pollen through the membrane of the pollen sac. Another thing I noticed was once the little tips uncross they tend to open within the next 24 hours.


They were kept in an open container "pill bottle" and allowed to open over the next couple of days. When trying to get the pollen, I tried cutting the tips off and scooping up the pollen. But found it much easier to light smash it open or cut the tip then take some tweezers and just shake the pollen into the container.


The container was wrapped in tin foil then tossed in to freezer for long term storage, the remaining pods were used to pollinate this crop.


There were two application attempts at pollinating the buds to insure they were pollinated correctly. I used a q-tip for the application, making sure to turn off all ventilation and fans. After each application I lightly misted down everything not pollinated to minimize any residual pollen. Mostly just the lower section of the tent, being careful to avoid misting any pollinated buds. About 5-6 days later, you can see the tips of the hairs browning as they have been pollinated.



Late Edit: Looking back I should've used a puffy q-tip like I had previously, as I ended up with 40-60 seeds per plant instead of 15-20. I should've realized the cotton swab was to hard when I saw the puff of pollen, on my first application attempt, better figuring it out later then never I guess.

So I've reevaluated the ladies growing issue "on three plants now" of leaf curling (taco leaf). Based on the fact the temperature has been drastically reduced in the bulb area, I can get my hand 5-6" away and not feel any discomfort. Also I had been pushing the nutrients most of the time and they showed it with burns and some dark green foliage. Since the Afghan's did nearly the same exact thing in my last grow. I came to the conclusion I likely have a salinity build up in the soil.

I flushed S47, KKxS and Quasar with 3l each of water "tap none chlorinated" since I've been going organic I have been de-clorinating the water by leaving the cap off for 24 hours. Then followed with 1.5l of a vinegar solution (1tsp per liter of water) , then finally a 1liter 1/3 dosage of nutrient solution. A little more then I normally would flush with, but I think I let the soil get a little too dry in between waterings. As it was running right through the pot and not really absorbing into the soil, so a good soaking might help. I contemplated doing the EJ and WWxCrit, but I'll wait on those if they show any signs I'll flush them as well. Maybe I'll try sugar or molasses this next time to break up the salts, at least I finally got to try the vinegar method. Hopefully it works out alright.

Here's a pic to show how much it's spread.



Edit: In the off chance it's a magnesium deficiency I've added a small amount of dolomite lime to the the three ladies that were flushed. They did get some cal/mag in the final liter of flush, although I really don't think that's the issue. At the moment I see no recovery, but it's not getting worse either. If I can hang in for two more weeks. Oh ya I went back and edited a few old entries as I mixed up the WWxCrit and S47 once again. The WWxCrit is the one nearly done and super frosty. If I remember right I believe the Critical+ was nearly done in 7 weeks last time as well. With all the damage from me playing with the new nutrients I've hurt my yield moderately. But I think I've learned how to do this right next time, which is a repeat of third grow using the FF line and I'll just add the organics I have to compensate for the short comings. I'm also thinking if I go a 6 weeks of vegetative growth I will flush with a vinegar or sugar solution before flowering to break up any remaining salts. I may end up flushing the WWxCrit next watering since it's so close and they've all been OD'ed even if it is mostly organics. I likely do the EJ in another few days to week as well.

Bad news, strikes again!

I pulled a male pollen sac from the WWxCrit+, it's so so close, likely caused my liberal use of nutrients. I'm really considering giving it another week. I've scoured it and can see no other offenders, but logic is telling me to pull that bastard or at least separate her from the others. I really have no place to put her except the bath room which has no direct light, but plenty of indirect light. And I'm thinking she will need at least a little bit of extra dark time with the days getting longer to avoid re-vegging.

Also I saw some crystallized webbing, about the size of a half dollar, I'm thinking spider mites. But I can't be certain, it was a very odd looking webbing. Almost like the trichomes were growing on the webbing. I haven't dealt with spider mites, but I vaguely remember seeing some about two decades ago, I must be old. It's odd they would show up this late into the grow, as I can see no way they would have been exposed to the little bastards. With all the leaf damage from over fertilizing, it's really difficult to pick out any mite damage. It just happened to be on the WWxCrit, so isolating her just seems like the logical thing to do.

Also I don't know how well the vinegar is working to break up the salts in the soil I may need something designed for that task. It looks like the leaf curling is slowly starting to progress some more. It's mostly just the KKxS, but the Quasar shows some mild signs of leaf folding. It may just be the extra heat and air circulation. As I did recently kick up my fans on high to avoid a repeat of last time with the bud rot. So I've dialed back my fans to low for a couple days to see if that helps. I also adjusted my lighting so it's about 12-14" away from the plants, it was about 8-10" from the plants.


Here's the WWxCrit+, 10 more days that's all I need, stupid reason and logic will likely prevail, even though it's so heart breaking.


Under the canopy, the buds haven't filled out like they have previously, possibly from the leaf damage or the extra thick canopy this time.


What it lacks in bud density, it's trying to make up for in crystallized goodness.

Warning, do not touch or brush against. As it will result in very sticky fingers and smelling like dank weed until you shower.

I got busy and distracted and never separated the WWxCrit+ from the others, I did just manage to go over her again and I could find no more pollen sacs, so maybe I'll get lucky. I can see no other signs of mites, so unless they are regrouping for a final assault I think it may have just been miss-identification of some type. The KKxS is just now starting to get some brown hairs, likely another 3+ weeks on her, the others should be ready in ruffly two weeks. The exception being with the WWxCrit+ which I've begun taking samples from the lower buds. I started with the buds that have been pollinated as they seem to mature more quickly.


I took a very small sample, a couple hits. Which I felt wasn't enough to make a good decision, so I took a larger sample size "photo below". I've been putting it in front of my tent exhaust to dry it more quickly. It's leaning more towards a mellower White Widow high at the moment even though it shows mostly Critical+ characteristics. That being said based on the current sample letting this one fully mature wouldn't be a bad idea, as it's still quite an energetic high.


The SSOG revived, she needs watering more frequently and I almost forget about her sometimes. Which is surprising with her fat leaves.


And finally a group shot at day 45


I'm only feeding the KKxS nutrients at the moment, which got some Fox Farms tiger bloom and cal/mag. the EJ, Quasar and S47 got cal/mag in with molasses this watering and are just getting water with molasses from here on out, as will WWxCrit which had only water and molasses this watering.

Edit: lol forgot about the SSOG again, it's getting nutes as well. And I'm thinking of just going with cane sugar every other watering as it will be easier. Also so I don't foget, I just read that flushing salts from the soil should be done with tepid water, so maybe I'll try that with the KKxS, although it hasn't gotten any worse it's still not improving.

The tested bud has me concerned, as there were some immature seeds and there shouldn't be based on when I pollinated. I've gone over the others and even the WW and can see no buds that look seed heavy other then a few of the lower buds as expected. But it does have me concerned enough to consider taking another sample or two from various areas.

It may seem a bit of a re-harsh, but seeing as the WWxCritical+ is so close I figured I would do a final profile. She's taken quite a bit of damage, but she's still producing fairly well. All things considered I think if she where properly cared for, she would be a solid producer. Thick nuggets, beautiful frosting and a very pleasant aroma.


Sometimes I can take a clear picture and other times I can't even get close.


Not many hairs left, the white hairs seen have mostly started showing in the last day couple of days.


I wouldn't mind a few more hairs receding, possibly 4-8 days or depending on how the other samples turn out.



Here's some pictures of the other buds.
http://imgur.com/a/ceKdQ#3

So because tomorrow is Friday the 13th and the fact she wanted water, I pulled the Critical+ x White Widow. I haven't found anymore immature seeds yet, although there have been more then I had anticipated. I generally end up with about 15-30, with a few exceptions, this is one of them. The buds I have tried have all been seeds, this could be where that puff of pollen went off, oops! The upper stuff doesn't appear to be seedy and I have a little bit drying, so I should find out for certain in a couple days.

Here's what I'm calling done, as Ive only been smoking leaf the last few weeks.


Secondary cola, this is about what I was aiming for, althoguh the above cola could've gone another 3-4 days.


I left some foliage and longer stems as I've had problems with it drying to quickly before.


How ever it is pretty compact, so I will reassess how quickly they are drying in a couple days and trim more if needed.


The next one that should be ready will be the Emerald Jack x Grapefruit Krush, which is in the best shape. A very sturdy plant, it seems to handle what ever I throw at it it pretty well. Currently I'm projecting her to be finished in another 10 days, but she is browning very rapidly so it may be sooner.

So I'm not sure what happened, perhaps I misdiagnosed the KKxS, but the upper spear leaves have started yellowing and shriveling. Seeing as it happened shortly after giving her more nutes I'm thinking it was either the salinity build up "if that is what is happening" or it was a mag OD and not a deficiency. Or it's possible still heat related, I really don't know. I feed her just water the other day, hell it could even be my watering habits. As looking at the root system of the one pulled as I thought it was underdeveloped on the bottom and outside of the pot, that may have thrown off my watering system. Which is to water when the pot feels empty, problem is the center where the roots are dries out much faster. It's not to bad right now just a few leaves, but it still has 2-3 weeks left so I'll wait and see how she progresses from her before deciding on what to do next.

Also I was getting bored and found a new game to preoccupy my short attention span. I'm not a big fan of hunting games, mostly because they just don't offer enough content to warrant the purchase. And they are most often basically just arcade type games. But I stumbled on a half way decent hunting simulation type game. The basic part is free, it takes a subscription to go beyond that. But I do like the direction of the game "genre", just a big sand box you go around tracking and hunting.

Here's a video.


Here's the game link, it's about 1gb
http://www.thehunter.com/pub/

I'll likely edit out the game part once I can get an update on the ladies.

I just decided to leave the game part in and make a new post as I would like to get to the next page as there will be less scrolling involved. And I would have to leave out one pic, since I added the video I think I can only get 3 pics in the previous post. So I'll do the EJxGFK profile here instead and leave the previous post. Before that though, I've checked some of the upper buds on the CritxWW and they seem fine, a pre-flower or two had been seeded but that's no big deal. I'm guessing I may find a random seed or two in some of the upper buds.

Emerald Jack x Grapefruit Krush Day 56, not quite as an impressive cola as it's predecessor. But it is a little more evenly distributed, my set backs have really hampered with production. As I don't see myself getting much more off each plant then I did last time with a 5 week flower and this was closer to 7 or 8. The MG issue I experienced and me playing with nutrients reminded me of something I suppose I had forgotten. I'm still a novice and while trying new things and learning are good things, I should try to keep it as simple as possible until I get more experience.

I've also decided to start using the cool tube again, I figured I would get better penetration with the bare bulb and I do. It's just with such a thick canopy, there's really no penetrating the thick foliage, nothing really reaches below. As I really didn't see much improvement in bud size on any of the upper or lower branch buds. And with the temps starting to climb and the possible heat issue, I figure it's the logical conclusion to revert back to the cool tube.


Emerald Jack x Grapefruit Krush Day 56


Nutrient burn signs along the leaf edges and tips in this and the previous pictures.


Reddish/purple leaves indicating a phosphorus deficiency.





Edit: also my concern of it drying to fast happened. It's to smelly for me to dry any where but with a carbon filter and in the tent it dries to quickly. So I'm doing as I did last time and I've trimmed it all up and tossed it in a large mason jar("2/3's full). I put the lid on for about an hour just to get a little moisture back to the surface as it was a bit dry, but it's still to damp to jar up. So I just have it in the jar drying with the lid off and I mix it up a couple times a day. I'll let it slowly dry like this for a few days if it appears to damp I'll lay it out on a screen for half a day. And try to stretch this out another 3-4 days to avoid it drying to quickly, then I'll start sealing the jar up for curing. Checking on it every 4-6 hours aiming for burping the jar for 5 minutes every 8-10 hours, for the next week. Then scaling down from there so I burp less frequently over the next 3 weeks.

What I've sampled so far from the upper buds the CritxWW tastes excellent, even with no cure and a quick dry it's some of the tastier weed I've tried. I think this may be the one that smelled like fruity pebbles. However, I often have a problem bringing out the smell or keeping it long term, that may be a side affect from the quick drying.

I started curing as it was drying to quickly. Also I really should've setup the cool tube yesterday, as the temps hit 77 in the lower section of the tent. To make it worse, I thought I could get an extra half of a day before watering. Thinking I had been over watering slightly, since the pots still felt slightly heavy. As mentioned before, the edges appeared to be drying slower, so it made the pots feel heavier. Causing me to doubt my watering routine and as a result the KKxS and Quasar sustained some heat and moisture related stress.

I gave the KKxS and Quasar nutrients as both look to have at least two weeks remaining. I went with 1tsp of FF in 3L of water and 1/2 tsp cal/mag, I also gave each a small amount of organics. To bring up the PPM as it dropped radically to around 670ppm in both. That could be what was wrong with the KKxS, The S47 came in at 757ppm and the EJ at 1127ppm. The S47 I left, although in hindsight I probably should've given her a some as well, as it may be more then 10 days from here because the damage may have slowed down her flowering.

I'll try to get some pics of the curing bud, later. Also I'm really impressed with the smoke at the moment, it's so tasty. I'm almost wondering if I mixed up my White Widow x Critical+ seed with a White Widow x Blueberry Hash. Because it has nearly the same fruity smell and taste except more pronounced. And that same cough syrup type high, that knocks you out. Or possibly the organics really do bring out the flavor, because it's just delicious. Weight at the moment is around 50 grams, I do see it losing a little bit more weight as it cures. Still the most pulled in grow three was around 1.7oz off the S47 I believe. The extra 2-3 weeks of veg may have helped, but with all the stress they encountered it's difficult to say how much.

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To conserve space I'm going to add a Emerald Jack update here. Cooltube is setup again, temps read the same but feels a bit cooler. I may need a new thermometer, I'll try another spot in the tent to see if there's any change.

She's getting really frosty, also showing some clear deficiency signs as pointed out earlier. It may slow her down, but there's not much longer now.