VV is singing the blues. From seed to Perpetual Weed.

I had already ordered seeds and was planning on starting a new journal and there it was, the contest! Wow! Like it has my name on it. I am planning on doing a journal from seed to perpetual harvest, There will be some bumps along the way. Three blue berry varieties. BlueBerry, SkunkBerry and NorthernBerry, all are Dj Short Varieties. 10 seeds of each. I put them in containers inside a wet paper towel Monday night and 14 got planted late last night, I would order from PeakSeeds again.

The plan is to Veg them for around 8 weeks, under the t-5 lighting after the first two weeks or so. I am planning on going to (24) hour vegging. I have put some thought into this. Those of you that have followed my Grow Room Design Thread know I havent rushed my clones before. I just took more clones and vegged them for longer. The blues are supposed to flower in 8 weeks. Reading about the difference 18/6 to 24 I came across an interesting observation. When you run the lights 24 hours you are training your plants to grow rapidly. Thats what I want to do. I am hoping I look at enough information to 'pre sex' them, I have seen a couple of good posts on this lately, thanx Earl, and I am feeling more comfortable with it.

We will cover flood and drain, may discuss some light and ventilation issues, things having to do with the physical Plant, air handling, plumbing and such. I have done all of the work in the grow area, I haven't had to 'hire out' any of it so if you have any questions ask away. Remember, I am a cranky old fart with a bad back and bad eyes so go slow please.

Pictures will be posted sometime today, nothing important, did get a new toy though, worth looking at.

One of the things I am going to attempt to do is establish a cost/ plant for the nutrient regiment I use. I am using the Ionic Series developed in the UK, now produced here as well. I will be using the full line except for the Nitrozime. If I get all the lights I want I may consider adding it right after the carbon filter and co2.

Big plans for a liitle
old man that gets too stoned
to count to five or...
VV

Ok, I decided to use peet pellets for this round. Walmart had a tray of 72 of them for less than $4.00. I only have thirty seeds, so I will of course have some left over. I plan on breaking those apart and using them in the intirim pots, then transplant to finish size in coco-coir. I had been using the coco in the intirim size pots, it doesn't hold together well enough for a slow old man and even though I haven't lost any in transplant I want to be safe with these blues. SO here is the tray with the pellets, soaked in ro water to rehydrate then moistened with 1 liter of water and 5mls. of Nitrozime. The excess water will not touch the bottom of the pellets.
Here are the three 'Germinators', we open to find......holy shit, a couple of inch long tap roots, shit better get them planted, I hate when that happens.
I use a little screw driver to rough up the whole, and then I have these bent needle nose plyers to pick the seeds up ... and place them tap root down in the pellets. Move the peet right around the seed, do not smash it down. Into the propagator, 25 seeds are now planted, 5 more to go.
Now the work begins. You want to keep the bottom of the tray, were the roots are around 80 degrees and the air around the seedling relatively moist. This means the light is a good 6 or 7" above the plants and when they stick there little heads up they will start to stretch for the light, might not kill them, certainly won't help. For the first few days I will remove the lid a few times a day to get 'fresh air in there'. As soon as it is practicle we want to remove the lid, move the light closer, get air moving around our little plants, a nice gently spring breeze.
Check out my new toy in the other thread. VV

Ok, so the adventure is off to a good start. 22 out of the 26 that were planted are above ground. 5 of the blueberry and ten of the skunkberry and 7 of the northernberry. One more of the northernBerry germinated. I would like to see then all up before these first to pop start stretching. VV

Still doing ok. I am hoping you can see the seed pods still attached to some of these so you have an idea what to expect. You should let the plant shed this on its own. May have to help it if it doesn't fall off by itself not for another day or two though. They don't all look exactly the same. This little guy must have been one of the long tap roots, I replanted it in this little pot. Maybe it will make it. VV

Monday I watered the seedlings for the first time. I used Super Thrive, root stimulator and Nitrozime. When I lifted the tray to dump the run off I got a little suprize, the roots were into the tray. I wasn't planning on transplanting so soon. I had just been to the hydro shop and bought some pots, I didn't buy any soilless medium so I had to make use a dofur. Meijer had some potting mix, mostly peet with a little perlite, had to have something.
Here they are in thier original home. Now for the new home.
I fill up the pots first and then use a 1" piece of pvc to make a hole for the seedling. I get the tray all ready first, then I use a screwdriver to help me lift the seedling out... then cut the mesh off the outside......see the little roots...down the hole......labeled and ready. Hope I don't lose any.
As I mentiond I went to the hydro store, these are the nutrients and additives I will be using. Left to right, FossilFuel, Nitrozime, Super Thrive, Root Stimulant, Grow Stimulant, and Bloom stimulant. Back row, the two main nutrient's, Ionic Grow, Ionic Bloom and Boost additive. I tried to figure a months. After my 10% discount the toatl was $340.04. I geuss I better do well with these. VV

Hey are you growing jam or weed? kinda fruity up in here looks good

Are you going to flower with t5's again? Anytime someone wants to see what t5's can do I show them your thread..

CaliGurlNice VV looks good so far!

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cbraaszsyHey are you growing jam or weed? kinda fruity up in here looks good

Click to expand...

edux10Are you going to flower with t5's again? Anytime someone wants to see what t5's can do I show them your thread.

Click to expand...

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Thanx for the kind words. I am still a little nervous about the BB's. SOme of them are getting thier second sets of leaves so I think they have recovered from the transplant. The nitrozime seems to have made a difference, now we will see how the rest of it does.
Yes I will be moving them to T-5 lighting as soon as I feel comfortable they have recovered from the second transplant. They will be vegged under the T-5's as well. Please keep inmind there are several other more experienced growers in here that have been using them for longer than I have.
I don't think I have seen a better set up line than that one, I will pass. We are clearing out the ice, crystal, and widow for the fruits. So far we have less than $10.00 per plant including the cost of seeds @ $5.00ea.
The additives we will be using are pricey, don't know how expensive they are, that will depend on yield. I have used the Green Fuse Root Stimulant for a year now and I liked those results which is why I decided to add the Grow and Bloom Stimulants as well. @ $40.00 qt. thats $1.25/ oz. And I was able to save, this time they had the 2.5 gallon size of the Fossil Fuel. The gallons are $32.00, the 2.5 gallon is $65.00. I started using the Bloom nutes with Humic acids some time ago. When I wanted it in the 2.5 gallon size, they don't package that one that way. Jeff instructed them to give me 3 gallons for the 2.5 gallon price. We both understand, I always get my nutes and additives from his shop, he always treats me right. In addition I get 10% off all of the other items. He is the only hydro shop for 50 miles around here, see why I like my hydroshop. Well, I do have some widows that are calling my name. Later. VV

Good luck maestro. I just bought some peat pellets but have not used them yet-what do you make of them?

I used the peet pellet for my first big grow, they worked fine. My favorite is the Rapid Rooters. I have used rockwool cubes and round rock wool plugs. All of them work, its more personal preference and the system, medium and pots or not that you are going to finish them in. Are you going to do a soil grow? Or one of the Hydro methods? VV

with peet pellets is slow rooting.. havent tried rockwool yet but it just makes sense lighter meium eaier to push through.. maybe? will know within the next couple weeks as i'll be getting rockwool

I apologize, I am a little behind. Between harvesting and the seedlings and having to use two computers I have been busy. On Wed or Thurday can't remember which the plants looked a little dry. Being the anal retentive sort I wanted to make sure and the way you do that is with a moisture meter. This one came from wallyworld less than $5.00. You just push it down into the soil, make sure to check your depth, you want it at least 1/2 way down in the pot, and then follow what it says. I didn't water that day and since this is the number one problem (over watering) for new growers it makes me feel like an 'experienced grower'.
I had been looking for some caster for my vegging stand and ran into a good deal on them at Lowe's. These came in a package of four for $13.99. They are made to screw into the bottom of the stainless steel shelving they sell. A few little part and now they go on 1" pvc. I paid more than that for some of the others I bought and these are better casters, swilval and brakes.

I have been able to keep the temps in the seedling stand at 74 to 80 degrees and the rh is between 40 and 60. Friday when I looked at them they looked a little dry, what to do? Well, lets get them, out and take a closer look. You can see the height, and here you can see some slightly dropping leaves, a sure sign they need a little water? Maybe. How can we be sure? I know, we have that moisture meter thingy, lets try that. Well, it does like it needs a little, and since all of the plants are in the same condition we can go ahead and water them all. Here we go, on the road again......turn the page...VV

...here we go up on stage....So...we estimate it is going to take us about 2 liters, 1.8 oz more than a quart, either will work, too water the 24 plants we ended up with from 30 seeds. Operator error can be blamed for three of those six loses.
For all of our examples we will use a tablespoon= 1/2 oz=3 teaspoons=15 ml. We get our additives together and follow the manufactures recommended doses. To our 2ltrs or one quart we add:10 mil (2tspns) Fossil feul at a cost of $.16, 3/8 tspn (2ml) Root Stimulant at a cost of $.08, 1/8 tsp Super Thrive (couple of drops) at a cost of $.06, 1/2 tsp (between 2 and 3 ml.) Dark Energy at a cost of $.10 and 1 tspn (5 ml.) Nitrozime at a cost of $.33 ( expensive shit ). You will notice, none of these are nutrients, they are all additives. They perform different functions by supplying different things your plants can use to take up and distribute the nutrients you will be giving them. All of them could be duplicated with natural products if you wanted to do the research and had the room and facilities to accomplish it. This watering is going to cost $.73 or about $.03/ plant. I think I will just get what the experts have developed. ....just the same old cliches, are you a woman or a man... Turn the page... VV

....Now we are ready to water. I use a baster for watering seedlings until the second transplant, its about 50 ml. and i use GK's method. I give them one baster of our solution and then wait before giving a second basting. Always check your tray for runoff, do not let the bottom of the pots sit in water. Our runoff was less than 100ml. from the two trays which would tell us we made a pretty good estimate of the amount of water for this first watering after the transplant, and that we should probably plan on 3 liters (1 1/2 qts.) for the next watering.
I am not sure if this will show in the picture, you will start to notice that after a few waterings, the soil will start to pull away from the sides of the pot. This would allow air to get to the roots as they reach the side of the pot. SO you want to rough up that soil a little, I just stick a fork in it, soil growers should do this right up til harvest. Stick a fork in it...I'm Done. VV

Amazing VV.. just amazing..

The details to your success will serve well for everyone here. =)

<pulls up a seat>

thanx for your confidence, I am still a litlle nervous with all the changes I have made. 24 hour light instead of 18/6, all of the additives. I am just using the information I have gathered on rollitup and showing what I do to accomplish what they have suggested. The cost analyisis will be fun for me. I was really suprised that it cost less than $1.00 for all the additives for those seedlings. That will increase of course as they grow and use more water. we probably have 2 more watering before nutes will be introduced. I think I will post prices for the quantity bought and then the cost per ounce breakdown. GK is back from India I think and answered the question about nutes in his book. VV

I've always used 24/0.. you'll be fine. =) I have tons of faith in you.

Looking forward to the results and price breakdown for the additives as well.. I'm looking to try some new stuff. =) Lookin' good.

cool!

i just got a small pack of those pellets to try out some clones in. i've read they work well.