The Neverending Grow

KaliKitsune · Sep 24, 2008

For all intents and purposes, this is the grow journal where I conduct experiments. All serious grows will be in separate journals, while all experiments (bonsai, root-binding/growth restriction, diff. lighting techniques, hormone treatments, etc.) will happen here.

Since I'm the very curious type, guess where I'll be spending most of my time posting?

I've grown pot for half a decade, and I've had many additional years of horticultural experience. I still don't know everything about pot (I know loads, though!) so the experiments will continue.

Think of this journal as the Mad Doctor's Laboratory. Come in and see the freak shows!

Feedback is HIGHly encouraged.

KaliKitsune · Sep 24, 2008

I can already say my first batch of seeds failed to even germinate - something ate the seeds from the inside out before they germinated. Looks like I'm going to be cooking soil tomorrow to kill nematodes and other bad stuff, then reconditioning the soil in a sterile environment.

As always, feedback is encouraged! Ask me questions if you wish!

KaliKitsune · Sep 27, 2008

Light level at 9"

I have four seeds that have germinated, two show roots, two have a first set of leaves going.

The germinated seedlings were transplanted, given water, then covered with press n seal to create a micro-environment for the plants to live in. The white pot you see has mint germinating in it.

Current temp : 78F
Current Humidity: N/A
Light Cycle: 18/6
Day: 3 (I count the day I started germinating the seeds, so as of today's transplanting it's been three days since I've started this batch.)

Comments, questions, and feedback strongly encouraged!

KaliKitsune · Oct 3, 2008

Just did a little goofing off, for once I decided to directly test the water of California and see how it does pH wise.

Well, what do you know? Almost perfect!

i redid the grow room I'll have more on that popping up in the other journal detailing changes and such made to my grow room in the grow closet part of the forum.

KaliKitsune · Oct 9, 2008

Alright, it's been 13 days since any post concerning plants, so it's time for an update.

Of the four plants, one died off, one has some stunted growth, and the other two are starting to take off decently.

So it's been 16 days total.

The best plant:

Next best plant, a little leaf curling and distortion but I expect that to chill out soon.

The stunted runt (I think I'm going to actually label the pot that it sits in that!)

And all three in their little corner of the growroom

Yaya, soil's a little slow at first at times, especially with unknown bagseed. Hey, remember this is an experiment!

Comments and feedback are encouraged as always.

KaliKitsune · Oct 13, 2008

SO.

Motherfucking cat got into the closet, and ATE THE WEAKLING! Natural selection at work, ladies and gents.

Anyways, back to the remaining healthy two plants. There's an extra seed I found and got to show roots, so it's in soil now and covered up with cling wrap to give it it's lil private baby crib for awhile until it shows. The two lively bastards are growing slow, however this slow growth is accentuated by very compact growth. Normally the T5s at their current height would produce about 1/2" internode spacings. These plants are working on sets four and five, and are barely past two inches tall!

^^^^The babies (and now-empty pot where weakling once resided.)^^^^

The front plant. Note how even the cotyledons are still healthy and green. By now, they'd normally have fallen off, depleted of their reserves. The plant should be ready for very light nutrients, however I'm going to hold off on this until the 'yolk' has shriveled up and gone away.

Back plant. This one's going to likely need a fan, as it looks like the added silica to the soil hasn't thickened the stem as much as it did with the front plant. Ah well, that's the unpredictability you get with slightly immature seeds!

The closet is already starting to smell. By the way, this would be day 20. Yea, it's slow, but at least it's steady. These plants should prove quite interesting subjects.

KaliKitsune · Oct 14, 2008

It's noon, day 21. Let's check on the plants!

Larger and larger she grows. When she'll stop, only I know! The leaf curling at the lower leaves has started to straighten out. As hypothesized, it was an over-watering problem. That was also likely a cause of stunted growth. Having never grown in California climate, I was possibly unconsciously trying to compensate. That won't happen again.

I turned the back plant to the side so I could show you the strange leaf deformity on the right. I hadn't paid that much attention (looking at it from the top/angle you couldn't tell it was deformed,) but then I double-checked my pics from last night I noticed it and got a better shot. Also, the stem is actually getting a little thicker, and I have yet to put the fan on it. The silica in the soil is likely starting to take effect. I'm still going to put a fan on it, but I'm going to do so in a couple of weeks when I really start encouraging growth.

KaliKitsune · Oct 17, 2008

I have an oddity indeed with one of the pot plants - It just started pointing it's leaves upwards. It's not heat, pH is fine, not over or under watered, lights are real close.

If it keeps up with this behavior, I shall dub it the "Weed Cup."

KaliKitsune · Oct 17, 2008

Got a minor problem.

Mainly it's with the "weed cup" plan, and a little on the larger one. So far, looks like it's just simple npk deficiency, minus some splotching on leaves, which indicates possible manganese or boron deficiency.

Now to the big one:

This looks more like overwatering or nutrient burn, BUT I've neither watered nor used fertilizers yet. pH on both pots checks out okay. They might need water in a couple of days or so. The 'wet' stuff you see is my crystallized pyrethrin spray for controlling pests that might pop up (seen ants, ain't taking chances)

I'm thinking it's a lack of micronutes in the soil causing some of this. I'll be treating the soil, then I'm going to give the plants a boron foliar feed.

UnderPhire · Oct 17, 2008

check your humidity bro it looks like you might have a little mildew building up on the leaves.

KaliKitsune · Oct 17, 2008

Yes I need a humidity meter. That's one thing I lack. The one I have is not very accurate.

However, it's DRY out here. It almost NEVER rains. Humidity stays below 10% for the most part and I do circulate air bigtime even without a fan.

However, as a side note, I do have other plants in there as well, although it's about time they spent some time outdoors to give my babies breathing room. I'll probably do that tonight with the next air refresh.

UnderPhire · Oct 17, 2008

sounds like your on track for a nice harvest, hope everything goes awesome for you bro

KaliKitsune · Oct 18, 2008

Okay, I grabbed some micronutes in a liquid solution (Yay, Shultz, how I've missed ye!) and I gave it to the babies after a total flush of the soil to make SURE my soil was back to basic. Hopefully this will see some improvement within a week. Here's pics of what they look like right now

The dead giveaway to the magnesium, manganese deficiency is the spotting pattern and the necrosis of the lower leaves. At this young stage of development, the plant should not need potassium or phosphorous (and most garden soils should have enough of this already from decomposed plant material anyways) so a micronutrient deficiency was the most likely cause. We shall see if this all-around soil treatment works.

KaliKitsune · Oct 19, 2008

The treatment is starting to take effect, the necrosis has stopped for the most part but at great cost. The "weed cup" is now nothing but basically a seedling again, all leaves except the top set and blooming set had to be cut away to prevent the necrotized leaves from mildewing or molding and infecting the plant.

The larger one is not much better off, but it's got way more of it's leaf mass. I trimmed away the necrotizing edges and left the still-green parts intact to maximize photosynthesis potential instead of clipping off the entire leaf as I had done with the other plant.

The other tiny seedling is growing. It remains unaffected, though it looks like I'm going to have to move it into another container while I flush and recondition the soil before it gets to the stage the other plants had gotten to.

EDIT: Pics:

The big one (luckiest of the two)

Weed Cup (trimmed back to near-NOTHING

The lucky hapless new seedling

And here's pictures of the AC tubing I made by heat-forming plastic:

I also got rid of my old hygrometer and bought a new one. Now I'm monitoring conditions both outside the apartment and inside the closet, so I can start planning more effective times of opening up the windows and refreshing air.

79 ain't too bad. With one of the 216w lights turned off it'll probably drop even more.

KaliKitsune · Oct 19, 2008

BTW above post is actually day 25 for the two main ones, and like day 6 for the seedling.

KaliKitsune · Oct 31, 2008

Update time.

The little seedling is doing well. I've found a few more immature seeds just like the ones that sprouted these plants, so I've got 6 more seeds going in hopes they'll germinate, which is very unlikely but given what's happened here, still possible.

For the other plant, it's doing much better. There's still some sort of inconsistency in the soil/compost mixture, despite multiple flushings. I'm assuming this has to do with the wood content of the 'soil' itself. As it is, the plant is very healthy and has bounced back very nicely. I'll expect the problems that hit this plant to eventually hit the seedling, but I'm prepared for that and ready to deal with it.

Those 6 seeds i have going will be in a different batch of soil, the powder-fine Miracle-Gro 4-month soil. I'm going to see if that stuff's REALLY good for damn-near a full growing season - I DOUBT IT.

KaliKitsune · Nov 16, 2008

Wow, looking at those old pics of the poor pot plants just makes me laugh.

The entire issue was the wood. I've removed the wood, which does a massive job of robbing nitrogen, and repotted the plants into better soil.

I also topped the bigger one, it's about 7 inches tall now and it's about time it started branching out. I plan on starting flowering at about 1.5 feet.

The smaller one, if not ready by the time flowering time rolls around, will just sit there. I'll force it to flower right alongside the other plant.

Looking at the internodes on the larger plant, I'm guessing at it being a hermaphrodite. That's fine with me since this is just a screw-around project until I get the other larger closet in the other room prepared, and I could use some feminized seed to play with.

That's the larger plant alongside one of my crossbow bolts. Just about 7 inches tall. I'm amazed this plant is still alive let alone growing and so healthy, after coming from seed that was left outdoors in the heat in a matchbox for several months. I never expected it to last the last time it gave me problems.

Solo shot of the plant.

The baby that was in the square bucket in earlier posts. It's doing nicely.

KaliKitsune · Nov 20, 2008

Well, well. I have a nice surprise! The baby is already showing female flowers! Don't know what triggered it, either. The larger plant is just growing steadily. I might, just might go ahead and drop to 12/12, but I'm not entirely sure.

KaliKitsune · Nov 23, 2008

Quick update on the tiny baby that's flowering - more flowers have appeared at lower internodes. Looks like this seed experiment is possibly going to yield a little lollipop bud, I'll keep you posted.

NewGrowth · Nov 23, 2008

Should not mist so much it is causing you problems. That second plant looks nitrogen deficient.

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