My First Grow in Many Years.

Thanks Uni,
There are some pics but its only the 3rd week from seed. Not much to see but some long sticks yet.

I'll post an update this weekend.


B

looking good bro geat job

Thanks JFA

Hopefully it will turn out well.
I need to find another hobby so I will stop going in to look at them and being pissed that they aren't 14' tall with 5 lbs of bud on each node.


B

hahahahaha get more weed

I wish!

Thanks Uni. Unfortunately, this is my first grow in a very long time, and my official paperwork from the State hasn't arrived yet. So, I just have to keep tending these and hoping they turn out fine in a couple months.

All three are spreading out and the leaf sets are getting better, but I think they are still stretching a little, even though I have the lights right on them now. Still waiting for the new reflector and sockets to get here so I can put the 100w daylight bulb on them.

Updates this weekend good/bad/indifferent. Thanks for watching


B

Hey everyone, I hope you all had a good weekend.

We had some beautiful weather to watch MSU beat UM this weekend. I don't even watch football anymore but you know... college babes.. huge rivalry...body painting.. garbage can punch... etc etc.

enough of that... nobody wants to talk about college coeds after all, right?

Wall of text coming.. sorry. I am long winded.

Ok, reason for the title, I am changing my labeling a bit. Reason being, Week 1 was essentially an entire week waiting to sprout and so forth and that's throwing off my old weary brain when I try and figure out things for upcoming events. So, its week 4 starting yesterday, but I am lopping off the 1st week of nothing to make it week 3 again sort of.. got it?

anyway... some pics... I realize the images are hellabad, sorry. Just can't get good ones with this camera so far. I will see what I can do about it, but don't hold your breath. Holidays are coming and family expects gifts. Maybe the wife is getting a camera. BRILLIANT!

Pic 1 - Roadrunner AF



Pic 2 - Haze AF



Pic 3 - Blueberry



So, this is what's happened this week. As you can see, there is some curling on some of the leaves. The blueberry is cupping "up"... the haze has some downward curling. The roadrunner has a little of both.. how fun is that?!

This week I spent some time looking for information on autoflowering strains, and of course, essentially found the same kind of information you get when you look for anything on the internet. The people with the least amount of experience and actual knowledge are always shouting the loudest about why things are the way they are... because they also, have internet access. If you don't know what I mean by this, look for any post on lighting information and when you find someone telling people how more lumens is always better... you have a perfect example of what I went through all week.

Anyway, trying to figure out what I should be planning for on these AF's is what made me decide to roll the calendar back to the 1st week of actual living plants, rather than counting that week of watching rockwool cubes sitting in a dish.

So, my package came with the new reflector. Fail. Wrong plug. I am sure I ordered the right one according to the description and part information, but this won't work. So, back it goes. I am keeping the mogul connectors and that's what I used for the 100w daylight CFL that I have been planning on using. However, without a hood, figuring out how to hang it efficiently is proving troublesome. I had placed it in a vertical stand arrangement and took the 200w flowering cfl out completely. After a few hours, I checked on the setup and found it was heating the pots and the whole tent had gone up to near 90 degrees. wth?! from 2 CFL's? seriously.. wth?! BAH! I tried a few different arrangements and finally just took it out and put the 2700k CFL back in to shine on the two AF's. That's also why you notice some orange tint on the leaves in some of the pictures. Temperature is stabilized again in the low - mid 80's with 60% humidity. I would like to cool that a bit more, just not sure how yet.

Ok, so I had planned on feeding starting this weekend, but I decided to try Riddleme's "make it rain" technique instead, there should still be a lot of food in the soil for at least another week. So, I ph adjusted some water and I dunked them. After the water stopped draining out I rolled them around to make sure there wasn't any water still pooled inside someplace and put them back in the holding tub. The soil dropped in the pots a few inches. There must have been some air pockets in the soil that settled out. So, now they are REALLY stretchy looking. Hopefully, they will wick out the water in a few days like Riddleme mentions, and not die from being drowned. I hope, this is why they are drooping and cupping like you can see in the pictures.

I will top off the pots with some more soil but not until after they dry out some.
I plan on starting food this next time. Going to start with 1/4 of what Foxfarm calls for and I hope the blueberry doesn't give me problems.

Note to any newbie that might be reading this. Do yourself a favor for your first grow. Just grow 1 strain unless they are similar genetics and don't believe the description provided by the vendors. I understood the blueberry are easy for beginners according to the sales information but every thread I read on grow forums that mentions this strain comments on them being fussy for feeding. I am having good luck so far, and I hope I am not jinxing it.


B

I made it rain on my plant when it was about the same age as yours and it did seem to take a while to wick away the water.
RiddleMe recommends not doing it when the plants are still "seedlings" although in one of his threads he did exactly that ... however, the pots that RiddleMae was using were the coir type of pot that allows the soil to dry out through the pot wall, not plastic pots like yours (and mine).
Be prepared for the plants to take a couple of days extra to wick out the water because a) the pots are plastic, and b) the plants don't have a huge root system to do the wicking.

I would actually top up the soil in the pots now, it will help suck a bit of the water away from the roots, add support to your plants and let them start sending roots out of the burried stem.

Your plants are looking good and in a couple of weeks you will not recognise them.

Just kidding. sorry.

I just filled the pots with more soil to top them off again. So, now they look more respectable instead of pencils with leaves on them.

Thanks G.O.D., You are right, that does make sense. Those long sticks should be put to work with some roots if they will.


B

you had me at PHOTOTRON--always wanted one of them back then!!!!!

LOL

Hey Coalcracker.

Yep, I still have it and it still works. Maybe I will use it for sexing clones or something.
Many failed attempts in it back in the day with a couple of my college buddies. But it did look cool and was always a conversation piece.


B

Cleveraliashere said:

LOL

Hey Coalcracker.

Yep, I still have it and it still works. Maybe I will use it for sexing clones or something.
Many failed attempts in it back in the day with a couple of my college buddies. But it did look cool and was always a conversation piece.


B

Click to expand...

Just do it!! Like Nike--can't believe it still works--hahahahah--use too see that in all the grow magazines in the mid late eighties--might have even seen a tv commercial--it was way cool--just not too today standards--still have me at PHOTOTRON though----will be watching!

Hey guys and gals!

This is a bit early for my weekly update, I hope you don't mind. But I need to get stuff written out before I forget. Old age setting in you know... hard to keep track of everything unless I write it down someplace.

OK, so, this is what we have for week 4.
I dunked the pots earlier this week, Saturday actually, and have been trying to measure and get a feel of how fast they are wicking up the water I gave them, so I could be ready to feed them while they are still on the power vacuum stage of sucking all that water up. I have been rotating them under the 2 lights, just spinning the pots 180 degrees once a day with an oscillating fan set on low blowing across them while the lights are on. Lights are still on an 18/6 cycle. Temps and humidity have been running middle 80's (Fahrenheit of course) with humidity running between 50-60% if I remember to check the humidifier for water each week. When it runs empty, it drops into the 40's in my house.

Now I never really noticed much weight difference in the pots until Wednesday night, when they felt lighter, but just a slight bit. Thursday they were lighter still and I thought I would be able to feed for the first time this weekend. However, this morning when I went in, they were very much lighter, and the blueberry was drooping. DOH!

Quickly splash a little ph corrected water (6.6 range... out of the tap it's 8.0) on it and move it away from the lights a bit. The AF's were and are both standing tall and hugging the lights if I let them.

Now, while I am looking at the AF's for drying out damage... Pistils! Whoa! There weren't any visible on either of the AF's last night and today they are very visible on the one plant, just barely visible on the other. Sprout on 9/25 and hairs on 10/15. Cool

So, feeding change. We have been looking for the foxfarm nutrients that we had set aside for this group, all week. No where to be found. So, the wife takes me to the local feed store and we get some Jacks classic 20-20-20 and Jacks bloom food, I don't have the number's right now but I will update later when I put the pictures up. I mixed a mild solution of veg food in a 25oz water bottle (veg), much less than the 1/4 / gallon it calls for and watered the blueberry. Then repeat in a different bottle with bloom food for the Haze and Roadrunner AF's. Watered until runoff and moved back under the lights.

Blueberry was still drooping when I finished feeding, but I will check again later, get some pics and put them up with numbers and so forth. If not tonight, sometime this weekend, maybe after they get transplanted to the bigger pots.


B

Just keeping records for anyone interested.

Transplanted all 3 this evening into 5 gallon pots into a mix of Fox Farm Ocean Forest, Perlite and Sphagnum moss.

Process I used was to place about 3 inches of new mix into the larger pots. I lined the holes on the bottom and sides with coffee filters (wife is brilliant) dunk (submerge) until air stopped bubbling. Gently squeeze and tap the sides and bottoms of the original (nearly inverted) pots until the root ball slips into the wifes hands while she holds the stem near the soil. Place onto soil base in new pot, fill with some more of the new FFOF mixture. Repeat for other 2 plants.

Place them into a tub on the floor, basically the bottom of an under bed storage tote, to prevent water / dirt / whatever from getting out and finding the carpet under the tarps. I poured the leftover effluvium water from the dunk into each of the new pots until it was gone. I am hoping that all that water will help prevent or at least reduce transplant shock. The root balls were really impressive on all three plants. I wasn't expecting them to be nearly as prevalent and thick as they were. I don't think they were root bound yet, but I think they would have been soon.

Something of note, that I found this week, and for anyone thinking of starting an AF strain. After they germinate, put them in the final pot they will be in for the rest of the grow, or better yet in my opinion, germinate them in a large pot that will support them for the whole grow. Try and avoid transplanting if possible. I found quite a few threads where people have mentioned that they are finding the AF's tend to be more susceptible to transplant shock than standard photo period strains. I haven't found any documentation to support this yet, but it seems to be a recurring observation.

We will find out this week if I did exactly the wrong thing and killed them.

I haven't included any pictures at the moment, because they look ... well.... just awful with being drowned and now filthy dirty from flying dirt, and all drooping and such. I hope they stand back up in a couple days and aren't shocked to severely. I will include some pictures if they stand back up after all this abuse.

Haze AF - 6.75" tall.
Road Runner AF - 5.5" tall.
Blueberry - Just over 5" tall but honestly, aesthetically, the best looking plant of them all. Very symmetric and looks good. Just have to trust me until I can get some pics for you to see. If they stand up and get all pretty again, this week... otherwise... well... maybe grow #2 - Carmelicious and blueberry?


B

I've never tried an AF plant (and never will) but a good way to avoid any transplant shock is to start them in the Jiffy pots (not the pellets) or Coir pots - the roots just grow through the pot wall into the new mix.


It certainly looks like your wife shares your hobby and not just the fruits of your efforts.

Hi Guys and Gals,

Week 5 update time. Pictures are below.

As I hope you can see, the transplant didn't kill them.
So, I'm very happy about that.

They actually responded to transplanting quite well. I didn't notice any signs of shock that I was anticipating from either the new soil or the drenching I gave them.

The haze, I think, is going through the flowering stretch that I have seen people post about. It's being a real nuisance as it keeps growing into the lamps.

All of them have done this at some point during the week, a couple of times each actually. If you can tell in the pictures, you will see some brown burn marks on each plant. That is from growing into the bulbs overnight or through the day before I can adjust them again. Growing like weeds dammit!

Haze - exploded stretchy monster that is growing so fast I can't keep the lights optimal for any of them.


RoadRunner - You probably can't see in these pictures, but the bud sites are very nicely spaced on this one. I bet in optimal conditions this one would be a nice producer.


Blueberry - I like this one. I admit I was concerned in the beginning when I started seeing people say these are hard to grow. But, really haven't done much except water this and it looks pretty good I think. Well, except for the scorch marks on this one. I can't seem to keep them all out of the lights and yet, keep the lights in a good position at the same time.

Yes, I know.. go to MH and HPS bulbs. lol Not something I can do yet. Maybe a CMH eventually if I keep doing this.


Now for my questions.
I have not topped/fim'd/lst'd anything up until this point, and in my current grow situation, lst isn't very practical. I would like to get that Haze under control somehow, but I am not quite sure what would be most advantageous at this point. The Road Runner is growing bushiness more than height and width like the Haze is, which is fine.

I have seen people say to trim some fan leaves under the main canopy to allow better air and light penetration, and I have seen people say never to cut producing fan leaves. I can make a case for either argument. At this point I can't get more cfl's into the canopy for better light penetration with the RR like it is. So, what to do about pruning? Cutting off producing leaves seems counterproductive. Yet, if other growth is shaded it's not doing its optimum either.

It's 8 days now since I transplanted to the 5 gallon pots, and they are just starting to get borderline for needing another watering. So, I plan on watering tomorrow, after I decide on feeding or just plain water again. I am thinking at least feed the bloom nutrients to the two that are flowering, but they don't seem to be lacking for anything at the moment.



B

Looking very good there.
Regarding the "fan leaves" ... I would leave themto do their job, any shoots that are shaded will (or should) elongate to find the light then continue with normal internode spacing when they are out from under the shade - they generally don't just give up and die, they fight for the light.

I took 2 cuttings from the blueberry on 10/25.
They are currently in rockwool hopefully getting some roots. I also put 2 carmelicious seeds in rockwool at the same time.

I may start a separate journal for them at another time, I just wanted to get a date recorded for them.

When the blueberry cuttings get stable, I will sex one of them to make certain the feminized seeds aren't letting me down. Then, I just need to figure out whether to flower the blueberry that is there now, or save it as a momberry.

G.O.D. - I think you are right. I will let them go like they are and just continue to work the lights as best I can.


B

Here is a video for ya on super cropping I used this as a learning tool when I first started using this technique. It will help you to get a handle on your ladies that are stretching out of control.

Enjoy.

[youtube]2FmXHhKFA5U[/youtube]

Here is another good thread to look at that got me going on the technique.

https://www.rollitup.org/newbie-central/288113-step-step-how-super-crop.html

Hope this helps you out.

subbed.

Learning a lot and rooting for you too, looking great!

Thanks dropastone!
I appreciate those links, going to look into that tomorrow.

CVGreen: hey welcome aboard and thanks for stopping in.


B