Chocolate Thai F4/NL#2/Meig's OG/Race Fuel/Tuna Kush

tstick

Well-Known Member
First Meig's OG seedling damped off and died so I dropped another seed into a new cup of soil a couple days ago to replace it..Just checked and it appears to be just starting to sprout.

Everything else is growing pretty slowly at the moment. It's a bit too cool in the space for seedlings. I've got everything under a homemade light fixture in a small cabinet. I'm going to wait a bit until their root systems get better established and then I'll transfer them into the tent.

I plan on running "old school" this time...meaning that I'm using my OLD 1980's era 400 watt MH light fixture and magnetic ballast. Starting out with the MH and then switching to a 360 watt HPS conversion bulb for flowering.

My base soil is a mix of equal parts Happy Frog, Ocean Forest, Perlite Coco...throw in some extra perlite, worm castings and some 4-4-4 organic fert. I'm hoping to be able to fit 5 3-gallon bags into my 40" X 40" tent....going to be a bit tight, but I've done it before. I can always break out the other tent and move a couple plants if need be.
 

tstick

Well-Known Member
Was just talking about his Choc Thai F4s with someone else! I like your other choices too, looking forward to this.
Thanks! Yeah, I'm hoping to get a variety of flavors this time. Last time, I just ran two Chemdozer seeds. They grew well and the end results were good, but not super.

By the way, none of these seeds are feminized or auto flowers. I have nothing against running feminized seeds, but it just happened to work out that everything is regular, this run. I won't run autos, though...just something about them I don't like. Anyway, I digress!...thanks again!
 

tstick

Well-Known Member
From L to R: (Sorry about the bad pics...They appear more clear on my phone...Anyway, you all know what seedling look like anyway, right? :))

Chocolate Thai F4

Tuna Kush X Hindu Kush

Race Fuel

Meig's OG (not up yet)

NL#2

garden 2023.jpg
 
Last edited:

tstick

Well-Known Member
I'm just adding some notes...:)

Seedlings: I dampen the soil and try to get it to that "jusssst right" damp level (not too wet...not too dry) and then I weigh out the same amount of soil into the container(s) -(plastic party cups). That way, I know, (by regularly checking the weight), exactly when to water just enough to maintain that ideal moisture level I started with. I can usually tell just by picking up the cup, too, but this just makes everything more consistent for me. And when I water, place the plant onto the scale and use a fine-mist sprayer to add the water to bring the weight back up to the optimal level.
 

tstick

Well-Known Member
Got a Meig's Og to come up and all the plants are looking fairly even, now.

First seed to pop was the Chocolate Thai

Second was the first Meig's OG (RIP)

Third was the Race Fuel

NL#2 took almost two days to pop, but when it did, it caught up quickly. I thought the first seed wasn't going to pop, so after about 36 hours, I put another NL#2 with the first....and then the first seed popped...thought I was going to be growing two of them at that point....but the second seed never popped.

Second seed of Meig's Og went in and popped ~24 hours and caught up quickly.

The first Tuna Kush X Hindu Kush didn't pop...but the second one popped in ~24 hours

Overall, it was about a 5-day process to get everything going. Now everything is up and growing. Race Fuel looks a little weak to me...

(add pics)
 

tstick

Well-Known Member
Also, I decided to go with using the Gas Lantern lighting schedule technique, again. I've used it the last three runs, and now I'm convinced it works great and, since I'm running HID bulbs this time, it especially makes sense.

For anyone who isn't familiar with this technique, it involves dividing up a 24-hour lighting schedule (for veg) as follows:

12 hours "on"

5.5 hours "off"

1 hour "on"

5.5 hours "off"
 

tstick

Well-Known Member
Update: Everything is growing pretty well in the media cart that I use for seedlings and clones. The light is homemade from a galvanized drip pan (reflector) and a 4-bulb light socket with 2 5000K bulbs and 2 2700L bulbs -just regular light bulbs from the hardware store...also a small fan to keep the air moving. Lights on temp is ~75F. Lights off temp is ~68F. Humidity is around 50%.

Race Fuel seems a bit stunted....no idea why...It was one of the first seeds to sprout, but now the cotyledons are yellow and the first, serrated leaves are smaller than the rest.

NL#2 seems the strongest of all the seedlings so far.

Tuna Kush X Hindu Kush is tied with the Chocolate Thai F4

Meig's OG taking a close third

Race Fuel (ironically) is losing the race!
 

tstick

Well-Known Member
Update:

Race Fuel is gone....just wasn't growing well...sluggish. It was an extra bonus that came with one of my other seed orders, anyway, so no great loss.

Everything else was growing too slowly, as well, so I popped the plants out of the Solo cups check the roots. All the roots looked white and healthy...soil was perfect moisture level. The roots were just starting to circle around the bottom of the cup so I decided to pot them up into 1-gallon garden pots....added some Mykos.

I think the slow growth could be because of slightly cool temps in the cabinet at night. Now that they are in the 1-gallon pots, they are closer to the light bulbs in the cabinet. I'll need to keep a close eye on that so that I don't cook the plants. It won't be much longer before I move them into the tent. After that, I'll pot them up, again, into 3-gallon fabric pots.

Sometimes, I just pot them directly into the fabric pots from the Solo cups, but, this time, I wanted to be able to expose the roots to a second Mykos application before they go into the fabric pots.
 

tstick

Well-Known Member
Update:

Just transferred the four repotted plants into the tent. LOL! It took me a minute to adjust the MH light. It was 86 degrees inside the tent in a matter of a few minutes. So, I opened up another intake duct and turned the fan up to 95%. I'll have to keep a close eye on the temps. Fortunately, the cold months are on the way so the bulb's heat will hopefully work as intended. I forgot how bright the damn thing is after using a Nextlight Mini on my last grow. BTW...fuck Nextlight. Apparently, they are out of business...disconnected phone...no email response...tsk tsk. There goes another company down the drain. Oh well, my light was out of the warranty period, anyway.
 

tstick

Well-Known Member
Update:

Plants are a bit chlorotic....possibly too much light when they were in the seedling cabinet....and when I first put them into the tent and was still dialing in the temps, the light was too close to the plants. I thought it might also be a pH issue, but runoff water was 6.0 so that should be okay....

Now, the light is at the maximum height in the tent...Maximum leaf temp is ~78F Minimum leaf temp is ~68F...lots of air movement and exhaust fan is running at max with two 6" fresh air intake ducts open. Hopefully, when the weather cools down, so will the room....Keeping an eye on it.

Some of the stems were red, so the most recent watering included 5mm CalMag (per gallon).

I believe the leaves are beginning to green up a bit more -darker green....so I'm hoping to be moving in the right direction.

*I took some pics...but the lighting messed with the picture quality.*
 

tstick

Well-Known Member
Update:

Switched to 12/12 and changed light to HPS conversion. Plants range in height ~between 12" and 16". Tuna Kush X Hindu Kush is the largest plant and is drinking the most water. The Chocolate Thai F4 is showing female preflowers! The Northern Lights #2 is a beautiful looking plant with large light green leaves....some of the leaves with a bit of a twist or curl. I assume it must be genetic because the plant is very healthy -as are all four of the strains. The Meig's OG is a small, stalky kind of plant -slightly darker green than the others. Most of these plants appear to be very Indica-leaning. I was expecting the Chocolate Thai to be much more Sativa-like.

Temps (lights on) in the tent are holding ~77-81F. Lights off temps are ~64. Humidity is hovering around 40%.

Plants are drinking a lot more and I'm watering them every 2-3 days, now. I expect that to increase as the plants begin their stretch phase.
 

tstick

Well-Known Member
I decided to add the Nextlight Mini (150 watts) to the tent for enhancing the flowering phase. I know the idea was to go old school, but....
 
Top