My First Grow in Many Years.

Decided to feed and water today instead of just water.

The new soil I added for the transplant was quite a bit and should have a decent amount of food for awhile, but why risk it?

Jacks nutrients call for 1/4 per gallon or something if memory serves. It's in the tent and it's dark time now

I fed the AF's Jacks bloom, a very small portion in about 75 oz of water.
Blueberry got Jacks classic, same amounts of food and water.

I realize that 75oz is a bizarre number to come up with, but it's because the plastic water bottles we get to drink, are 25oz. I reuse them because they are not so messy and I don't splash water in the leaves and on the floor and such.
So, 3 of those to get some run off from the pots.

Nothing else really special going on. I will look into the supertopping and so forth in the morning.


B

Just a watering update. Nothing serious.

So, the amount of water I fed with the other day seems to have been seriously lacking in quantity, or, these things went on a rampage of thirst. Because the pots were dried out this morning. The plants were all fine, but the pots they were in were extremely light. Probably would have started falling over by tonight if I hadn't checked, I would guess.

So, a tablespoon of sulphur free molasses in about 3 gallons of water. Just eyeballing, over half full of a 5 gallon pail of water, but not 3/4 full. So, should be close.

No scientific measurements this grow if that is what you were hoping for.

Divided it fairly equally between the 3 pots, dumped it in. Had some soil drop again in each pot. I need to find out what causes this.. I expect root growth or something?

Anyway.. just sugar water for the plants and mountain dew for me. something oddly similar here somehow.



B

Welcome to November!
Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween.
It was bright and clear here, but once the sun went down a breeze kicked up and made it freaking cold out. We only had about 50 kids the whole night and we usually get a hundred or more. I am not sure if it was the weather or that the neighborhood seems to be changing, and hopefully not for the worse.


Anyway ----- on with the show!

No pictures this week, at least for now, they look pretty much the same except for being slightly bigger, and since my pictures are always crappy fuzzy I am not bothering for now.

10-28 - Topped the Blueberry plant. Dipped it into rooting hormone and put in a rockwool cube, then placed it into a dish with the other 2 cuttings and 2 carmelicious seeds that I am trying to germinate. (see prior postings for details on dates and so forth)

10-30 - Tossed one blueberry cutting into the trash, it was developing some rot in the stem and refused to stand up no matter what I tried.

10-31 - Placed the first blueberry cutting and the first carmel seedling in dirt, in small pots. I watered the new soil with plain tap water. (well, it has been sitting out to evaporate out the chlorine, and a few caps of lemon juice added, but no nutrients). I will keep misting the little ones because there are no roots out of the rockwool, which dries out quickly.

I am hoping that the "top" cutting roots and the other cutting both live. If they do, show progress this week and appear to be ok, I am going to switch the lighting over to 12 hours in the tent and flower the original blueberry. And move the cuttings into another room for now. Maybe I will put them in the phototron! Brilliant!

I finally decided I want to flower the original blueberry rather than keeping it just for clones. I will take a cutting to be a mom from one of these cuttings that are starting out now (provided of course this plants lineage is female which hasn't been determined yet). If it's a male, I still have 3 blueberry seeds left to try again.

If things work well, with the carmel and blueberry being females, I should finally get what I wanted to begin with, come early spring time. I just want 2 blueberries and 2 carmelicious growing, with 1 nice mom plant for each kind. I don't want this getting out of hand, I just don't have the space or need for many plants. I can understand how people can let this run amuck though, I am having a great time growing these weeds and I find myself wondering, what these bonus unknown seeds are that came with the carmelicious.

Hell, I haven't even gotten one crop harvested and found myself thinking about what a carmelicious x blueberry cross could be like while I was driving to the store yesterday. Blueberry Sundae!

Finally found a little more data on the seed lineage from the original seedbanks this weekend. (purchased through attitude). The two AF strains are 70-80 days flowering. Figuring from when I saw the pistils, this puts harvest around December 24 (merry freaking Christmas!) or so. The blueberry hasn't even been put into flower yet, and I don't even know if it's a girl yet, but I plan on finding out soon.

Starting to have some odor problems though. I notice it when the furnace kicks on and pulls the air from that room and spreads it through the house. I had never thought about blocking the cold air return line from the furnace, (noob) but going to tape a piece of garbage bag over it though. I can't risk the wifes clothes smelling skunky. It's not severe yet but it is becoming noticeable. I had a few fabric softener sheets in the room and it had stopped the problem dead. But this morning the furnace kicked on, and about 30 seconds later... freshly laundered skunk wafting through the house... how pleasant! It might be that the dryer sheets need replacing too.



B

Hey! We have frost today!

Actually inside on both autoflowers.
Barely visible on the Roadrunner, but more noticeable on the Haze.

First when I saw the little bumps on a leaf this morning I had a twinge in my stomach that it was bugs, but its frosty goodness instead! woot!

.... and the bad news... the blueberry top that I am trying to get to grow as a clone, is doing very poorly. I expect it is not going to make it. I am still hoping though.

Now, I really have to figure out how to get these lights worked out. The clones and AF's need 18/6 until the AF's are done flowering. I thought I had read they could do well if converted to 12/12 in flower, but on further research the consensus is that they do better in a higher light cycle as if they were still in vegetative growth.

So, I have 1 carmel seedling that is trying to live. 1 blueberry clone that is doing quite well I think, that will become the momberry (I think), and 1 sad little dying blueberry top (unless it dies) that can sit with the AF's on 18/6. But, the big blueberry needs to go to 12/12 and this room is not something that will be easy to arrange this in. The phototron ( lol ... I know ), is far less than optimal to flower that blueberry in. Its got 3 U fluorescents that I don't even know what the spectrum contains, but I know its not reddish-orange when I turn them on. Looks more like a regular softwhite.

I wonder if they make u-shaped fluorescents in the proper spectrum. I will have to investigate.


B

yes, you read that right and hopefully you didn't hurt yourself from falling off the chair and rolling around on the floor laughing your ass off.

Necessity is the mother of invention, and well, trying to get this room situated for veg and flower for my current group of misfits has been... a real mother.

So... I am going to use what I have. I dug the ancient phototron 3000sx (ooohh.. ahhhh... impressive I know!) out of the storage room and cleaned it up yesterday afternoon, plugged it in and it does, in fact, still work. For how long, I don't know. I honestly expected the ballasts to be useless after 20+ years, and, I did break one of the bulbs while I was maneuvering it back through the doorway from the backyard where I hosed it out. So... I needed to find out about the U bulb spectrum's for necessity as well as curiosity. Low and behold... tadaa! Indeed they do still make different spectrum U bulbs. http://www.topbulb.com/find/t8_ubent_fluorescent_lamps.asp

Not ideal perhaps, but, they are the right size and pin configuration, and I can get different temperature values to replace the 4k bulbs that it came with. So, I order a 3k and a 5k to go with the 4k that I will keep and we will have a new home for 1 blueberry plant to flower in, in a separate area and will not be bothered by all the others on 18/6 lighting. sweet I could not and have not as yet found a spectrum chart for the bulbs. I would feel better if I could see what the breakdown is for them, but we will just have to see what happens.

Looks like I will be watering again tonight or tomorrow. I noticed the humidity in the tent has dropped down to around 50% today. I haven't had to run the humidifier lately because they have been transpiring enough water to keep the tent in the upper 50 to low 60% range, but, I have to get in and check them shortly because they were feeling a touch light this morning when I looked in on them. Going to rain on them again I believe. There isn't any apparent deficiencies anywhere, so just a ginormous drink of water and we'll see how long it takes them to dry it out in there.


PS Edit: Watered each of the big plants about equally from a 5 gallon pail. Runoff was quite a bit, and there was a bit more settling. Still haven't found out what causes this, but I expect its something to do with root growth. Also, the wife HATED all the burned leaves.. so I pruned them. well, that's fine... they do look better I suppose, without all the awful burned brown leaves, just now they look more scraggly. oh well.. it's a weed right?

now what to do with this handful of leaves?


B

Sounds great and it sounds like you got everything under control. I remember when I was a teenager I wanted a phototron sooooooooo bad but they were like real expensive. I think it's cool you broke it out, dusted off and brought it back to life. Can't wait to see some pics of it in action.

Grow on.

Dropastone said:

Sounds great and it sounds like you got everything under control. I remember when I was a teenager I wanted a phototron sooooooooo bad but they were like real expensive. I think it's cool you broke it out, dusted off and brought it back to life. Can't wait to see some pics of it in action.

Grow on.

Click to expand...

Thanks Dropastone

Ya, I will get some pictures of everything for this weekends update. Hopefully the bulbs will be here and I can get the blueberry in there and have it set up with a picture or two of the incredible Phototron 3000sx! lol


B

Hi everyone.

Lots of updates throughout the week, so I won't bore you all with lots of nothing.

Some pictures to follow. Again, I apologize for the incredibly bad quality. I just can't seem to make this thing work well every time.

Blueberry in a phototron. Flowering switch starts tonight at midnight - 11/08/10


Roadrunner AF - 23 days in flower. Can't see the buds worth a damn.



Haze AF - 23 days in flower.



So, this blueberry..... reeks. All this time I thought the odor was from the AF's in flower. It's not, its from the blueberry that until tonight is in veg and it stinks. whew.

I am going to have a serious problem running 3 of these at a time if they stink like this in veg, and flowering gets even more odorous.

On another note. The caramel seed that sprouted last week is a long spindly stick, just like all my others have been. The blue berry clone that looked so good last week, is showing lots of yellow splotches on the upper leaves, but seems to still be growing ok. The blueberry top that was doing so poorly, is ... still alive, but looks pretty awful I think. The wife doesn't agree, she says it's doing fine and will be great.

Oh... and as a special surprise bonus. If any of you remember me saying, I had taken two blueberry cuttings and put two caramel seeds in to germinate. Well, you may have noticed I never mentioned the 2nd caramel sprouting. Because it didn't. I assumed it was a dud when I took the other three little ones out to put in dirt last weekend, and just left the rockwool cube sitting in a dish on the shelf.

So, I am doing something yesterday and my wife asks me, "Hey, are you doing anything with this seedling or am I throwing it out"? I told her to toss it cause it was a dud. She asked me why it was a dud and I told her because it never sprouted. She told me I needed glasses as she handed me the dish with this tiny little sproutling in a mangled rockwool cube that was dry as a bone. The seed husk was stuck on the cotlydons and it was trying to push that up in the air like it was wearing a helmet. So, it's in the grow tent on the shelf, after a splash of water.

These plants amaze me. I gave it up for dead 2 weeks ago. It took 3 weeks to sprout but so far it's working on living.

Nothing else really worth boring you about, though I reserve the right to ramble on endlessly about nothing should the need arise later.

Have a good week everyone, be safe.


B

Everything is looking great dude. I love the phototron man, it's like a blast from the past. I can't wait to see how she buds out for ya.

Peace.

Premixed 1 Teaspoon of Jacks Classic (20/20/20) into 5 gallon (US) of water. It was out overnight to evaporate chlorine off.

Temperature unknown at time of watering.

The Haze and Roadrunner each received approximately 2 Gallons (US) of water. 1.75" of runoff in the tote, and taking account the size of the 4 small pots and 2 large pots remaining in the tote, that leaves approximately 1.04 gallons (US) of run off.

Blueberry received the remaining 1 gallon (US) approx.
Runoff is harder to estimate in the phototron but it was much less than in the tote, as would be expected. Blueberry is the same size pot as the two auto flower strains, and received half as much water as one of them. So, maybe 1/4 of the run off?

Not very scientific I know. Sorry. I will work on that later when I can figure out what where and how I want to continue this growing process.

Have a good week everyone, I will update if something happens.


B

hey everyone,
I hope you all had a good week. There wasn't much change this week really. Some growth. The seedlings and cuttings are still hanging on. I swear this top I took as a cutting is determined to live but never grow another inch just to piss me off.

Haze AF - about 17" tall.


Roadrunner AF - About 14" tall


Blueberry - 6 days in flower and about 18" tall. (I will have to remeasure this)


Nothing really to add this week guys. Just growing and soaking up the light.

I expect to have to water mid-week or so. The pots are still very wet and heavy even though its been about 6 days since I watered.

Have a safe week and talk to you all soon.


B

Just a watering update. Nothing important at the moment.


1 Teaspoon 20/20/20 to 5 gallons of water. 1 teaspoon of dynagrow protekt in 5 gallons of water.

128oz each big plant.
split a 25oz water bottle (from pail) to the 4 sprouts, some needed more than the others.

I will be posting a picture of the roadrunner leaves later tonight or tomorrow. I have a feeling something is wrong but I am not sure. The leaves are changing color somewhat. I am not sure if this is normal for flowering or not, but something tells me it isn't right. I can't get pictures at the moment until the wife gets home with her phone.


B

So...

I know the pictures are not great.. but maybe you can see the leaves and see what I am wondering about.






About a month for harvest, according to the vendor data sheet on this strain. 12/24.



B

What's up bud? It kinda looks like a calcium deficiency. I've had problems with this as well in the past. But lets be clear, I'm not qualified to diagnose your plants but here are a few links to help you figure it out.

http://www.marijuana-seeds.net/Thanks-ThankYou.htm

https://www.rollitup.org/marijuana-plant-problems/216537-self-diagnose-your-plants.html

You might also try to post a question about your problem with pics in the marijuana plant problems section. I'm sure there will be some qualified people in there that can help you out.

So how it going with the phototron? What kinda of bulbs do you have in there. Are they like 6500k or 2700k bulbs?

Good luck.

By the way I just started a new journal, the link is in my sig. Come on over and check it out.

Peace.

Thanks man I will come check it out this weekend.

Phototron Blueberry is fine, though I haven't seen any flowers yet but this is only around the 10th day or so. There is a picture a couple posts back from this week. I have a 3k, 4k and 5k u-bend fluorescent in there. I replaced 2 of the 4k ones that it came with. so, we'll see how it does.

and yes, thank you.. I was looking through the diagnostics posts here and on a couple other sites since last night, but this doesn't really seem to match any of the descriptions very well. I wasn't sure if it is even really a problem yet, or this is what they do in the flower stage. But, yes, I should post them in a thread where people are looking in case it is a problem. You are right, thanks.


B

So, in looking through several dozen diagnostic threads on this site and others, it appears that I have either a calcium or magnesium issue depending on which expert of the moment responds to a given thread.

It also appears the problem has spread to my 2nd plant in flower (the haze af). This thing happens damn fast. I looked all over the haze and didn't notice anything just last night, and this afternoon, I have 4 leaves that are all plastic looking and yellow / brown splotchies like in the pictures of the Roadrunner.

The Roadrunner looks worse today.

So, per the most common answer I could find, I used 1/2 teaspoon of epsom salts in 2 quarts of water per plant. I hope this helps and fairly quickly, they seem to be degrading fast. I would hate to lose them with only a few weeks to go.

Updates when I see something happening.


B

Ya, sorry guys, for those that have subscribed. Nothing really noteworthy, just watering and making some notes to keep track.

Both AF's are still showing that strange mottled appearance on the leaves, almost all of the leaves on both plants are like that now with that lime green tint. But, it doesn't seem to be progressing at this point. There are a few leaves (fan) on both that have really yellowed, but I am not certain if it's from the lurking problem or possibly a light burn, because one of the cfl's wound up a little to close. I didn't think it was that close, but it could have been.

all 4 cuttings/clones/seedlings are doing quite well at the moment. I will take some pictures this weekend in the regular update. The carmelicious seedlings are really taking off well, I am very pleased, but the leaves are very different than the blueberry or AF's. They are quite roundish in appearance. Not sure what strain that comes from but it's interesting and something new for me.

The original blueberry has started showing some pistils in a few places... at least I think that is what they are, maybe they are preflowers? I am not sure what that looks like, but I will do some research for my own satisfaction. The blueberry was dry as a freaking bone today and drooping quite pathetically when I looked in on it. I wasn't expecting it to be nearly this dry all ready. So, I gave it 4 quarts of water with 1/2 teaspoon of protekt in it. I think I should have added some epsom salts, but I forgot. A couple of the leaves are showing darkened spots on the leaf tips, which appeared a couple days ago. They haven't progressed since I gave it epsom salts with the AF's the other day. I am not sure yet whether it is likely nutrient burn (blueberry is a fussy wench for feeding so I understand), and the tips discolored a couple of days after the big full strength feeding last weekend... whatever day that was.

Lots of runoff into the basin of the phototron, which I haven't had in the last 2 waterings, so I think that will help the soil stay moist a little longer. The plants wick that water up out of the run off areas in a couple days. The last 2 waterings really didn't have any significant run off, so that may be why it seemed like it needed water quicker than usual, it didn't have that reserve water in the bottom to pull up.


B

Where ya at brah. Got any updates.

Hi everyone.
Hey Dropastone

sorry it's been so long since updates. Holiday season has made it a busy time around here.

So, here is where things are at.

Both Autoflowers are cut down and drying. They never recovered from the slow death that was taking them over. I still don't know what caused it or why. Everything I checked into made it look like magnesium deficiency, but the problem I found is that all the sites on the net that go into any detail about mag def are using the same stolen article and pictures from the same source. So all the pictures are the same and so forth. My problems looked very similar to what I saw there, but I never really could say 100% that it was the problem. Since it never recovered after doing cal-mag, epsom salts and molasses (not all at once of course, but over the last month or so), I am not certain that was my problem.

Then again, maybe its something to do with Autoflowers in the flowering stage?
or maybe they were just well past their "done" time... even though the trichs never really changed color from what I could discern. At any rate... they turned crispy brown and died, from the top down. The leaves I am talking about. Buds and those little leaves were dark green and very sticky.

Who knows? I wish I did.

The Blueberry is well into flower now. has about another 4 weeks according to my timeline and is doing ok in the phototron. Though it keeps growing into the bulbs and crisping the leaves from laying on them. Oddly enough, it seems to be doing just fine. I think I will do another this way. Though, the wife says find something less "pungent".

The clones and carmelicious seeds are doing very well, except...
I have a few with yellowing leaves that are developing that necrotic splotchy crispiness. So... I am deeply concerned that it's something I am failing at.

I am getting a few books for christmas that I hope will help me figure it out. I want to take clones from the carmel and see if at least one of them is a girl this week.

So, that's a whirlwind update. more or less.

Have a happy holiday everyone that celebrates one or more of them.

See you on the other side of the season dropastone. Thanks for all your help.


B

Right on bro, I'm glad to hear your doing alright. Sorry to hear about your ladies. Just chalk it up as a learning experience. I'm sure you will have better luck next time.

Shoot us some pics when you get a chance.

Peace.