EBG Log for 2010

[eastbaygordo]

I've learned a few things as I've been around the block once.
Hopefully this year I can prevent some of my problems by following my own rules.
I think patience is the biggest asset a grower has.

This year I'm growing Lime, 707 Headband, God Bud, and Purple Kush.
I started on 6/1 and so far I haven't killed any plants but they do look a little stressed from going from indoor to outdoor.
I was seeing some very happy ladies reaching up for light and then put them in the sunlight too long and they got unhappy quick.

Here are a few first picts:

[eastbaygordo]

Only one is looking really good despite my nice treatment but I haven't killed any yet either.
I notice lots of very very aggressive bugs munching on leaves and leaving that scuffed leaf look. I think that means thrips. Neem isn't stopping or even slowing them down much to my chagrin.
Some look like they are turning purple already and the new growth is a little funky with some curl to the young leaves. The outside nightime temps have been cold this year so far but it seems like we are in a warming trend.

[eastbaygordo]

OK. As I mentioned patience is necessary or you're liable to kill them with kindness. Sometimes too much patience isn't good. For example my ladies have seemingly stunted and/or there was a nute lockout problem that almost killed the God Bud. I've since repotted the failing God ladies and they "seem" to be doing better even though all I did was open a new bag of potting soil and gently remove the old soil where the roots hadn't taken off an place it back in a fresh layer. Well, that seems to be greening up the GB so I also inspected some of the Lime, Purp, and 707 Headband and did the same gentle soil refresh on a few. I was expecting to see weak roots in all cases but one Lime root system looked really good and the others were batter than expected. I'm waiting a few days to verify it helps before I do anything to the others as I may just put them in bigger pots if the roots look good.

Can you over do it on mycorrhizae, I did give it a liberal dose?

[LetsSeeYa]

OK. As I mentioned patience is necessary or you're liable to kill them with kindness. Sometimes too much patience isn't good. For example my ladies have seemingly stunted and/or there was a nute lockout problem that almost killed the God Bud. I've since repotted the failing God ladies and they "seem" to be doing better even though all I did was open a new bag of potting soil and gently remove the old soil where the roots hadn't taken off an place it back in a fresh layer. Well, that seems to be greening up the GB so I also inspected some of the Lime, Purp, and 707 Headband and did the same gentle soil refresh on a few. I was expecting to see weak roots in all cases but one Lime root system looked really good and the others were batter than expected. I'm waiting a few days to verify it helps before I do anything to the others as I may just put them in bigger pots if the roots look good.

Can you over do it on mycorrhizae, I did give it a liberal dose?

I was wondering if your plants are clones? I think that they might have been watered a bit much and is why they haven't looked really healthy and prolly didn't need dug out of their pots. Its better to let them fill their pots, then re pot as they grow faster IMO. Its just that i had a issue with my seeds this year an your plant in top right look like they did. They have great branching getting started like mine did, but never really got healthy till i re potted. Its really not a good idea to dig your plants outta of their pots like it seemed you described with words like ''gentle'' and ''refresh. I think if ya re pot you re pot, but don't pull your roots from the soil, its going to stress them bad first, but will do fine if you just give water for now. Let them come back.

Really not trying to put your grow down or what your doing, but if ya wanna get the bud and my hunch is right, its a good thing. But, if im wrong and you didn't pull the roots from the soil and freshen up the roots, then its just of wasted time on my part. Why did you cut the tips of your leaves? There is where your growth comes from. Hey if im wrong let me know man, i hope i am for your sake. But i think ya just have an over water thing going on which is an easy fix, they will just be stressed for awhile.

I posted this pic to show what i did wrong. I couldn't figure it out, but learned i had not enough perlite and basically were drowning in mucky soil. After a messy re pot and some time and they are around 2' now. Really bro just in case im saying this as nice branch growth, without that gidy up:D. My thread is here and if ya wanna post there you can, just curious man. Oh and your look way better then my poor seedling, just similar looking thats all.

Good luck bro an keep er green :weedpoke:



:rasta:

[eastbaygordo]

Thanks for the input. I hate messing with roots and my plan was to upsize pots as the roots got big enough to fill the container. It didn't work out as planned. I agree, from the pic your lady reminds me of some of mine.
I got them as clones and some of them, the GB specifically had really sparse roots upon repot and they looked like they were on deaths dog so I said WTF and tried to save them. I think I saved 2 or 3 of the 5 I had issues with so if they survive it's like free bud.
One little purp had nice roots but was just a midget compared to the others. I met a guy in line at Harborside complaining of tiny purple kush after a month so I wonder if it's bad genetics.
Here is a link to recent pics showing them pre-repotting from the thread where I was talking about my customer service experience there.
http://boards.cannabis.com/northern-california/186476-harborside-customer-service-product-support.html

[LetsSeeYa]

Thanks for the input. I hate messing with roots and my plan was to upsize pots as the roots got big enough to fill the container. It didn't work out as planned. I agree, from the pic your lady reminds me of some of mine.
I got them as clones and some of them, the GB specifically had really sparse roots upon repot and they looked like they were on deaths dog so I said WTF and tried to save them. I think I saved 2 or 3 of the 5 I had issues with so if they survive it's like free bud.
One little purp had nice roots but was just a midget compared to the others. I met a guy in line at Harborside complaining of tiny purple kush after a month so I wonder if it's bad genetics.
Here is a link to recent pics showing them pre-repotting from the thread where I was talking about my customer service experience there.
http://boards.cannabis.com/northern-california/186476-harborside-customer-service-product-support.html

Well man drainage is your first issue with getting them healthy again. Man holes in the bottom is very important as you know, but also adding perlite to your soil will help tons. Thats what help me. But your soil looks ok, just a bit wet. Id try an keep them outside and only water if the pots are very light. While you water, does it come right out of the container? It should. You can save all 5 if you dont mess with the roots and if they get worse before getting better, i would look into adding perlite, with a re pot. But im going to do a re pot and post it today, so if ya get a chance look at it. Iv re potted a lot and have it down pretty well with no stress so if ya do it like im going to your fine. Still think you can save em all, just need to let them dry out really well as in bone dry. Then water but plain water right now. Once they perk up, you will see them get greener and will take some time to get some good roots, but it will happen. Fill these pots before anything with roots. The plants will tell you when they get root bound. The leaves get droopy, but still healthy green looking.

Just try an post pic's and il sure help ya get them healthy, just need to see as much of them as possible. So, now just let them dry out, then a good watering. BTW how often do you water? Il be on here later if you can post some pics.

SeeYa man:rasta:

[eastbaygordo]

The God Bud looks better and the Lime seems to be taking off. One lime looks a little shocked due to not gentle enough handling. LSY, i agree I may have overwatered the god girls.
I water only when the pots are light and they look like they could use some water.
I think I'll save all the god bud, even the last one looks like it has some new growth.
I picked up various starters in case some of the originals died. They include Sour Garlic, Affy 18, Apollo 11, Boulder Creek Kush, and XXX Chemdawg. I also picked up 2 Querkels as clones as they looked gorgeous.
Something is chewing on the XXX Chemdawg but I know why, it already smells tasty.

[LetsSeeYa]

The God Bud looks better and the Lime seems to be taking off. One lime looks a little shocked due to not gentle enough handling. LSY, i agree I may have overwatered the god girls.
I water only when the pots are light and they look like they could use some water.
I think I'll save all the god bud, even the last one looks like it has some new growth.
I picked up various starters in case some of the originals died. They include Sour Garlic, Affy 18, Apollo 11, Boulder Creek Kush, and XXX Chemdawg. I also picked up 2 Querkels as clones as they looked gorgeous.
Something is chewing on the XXX Chemdawg but I know why, it already smells tasty.

I think that the issue is that the soil doesnt have enough perlite in it. After my issue i picked up some perlite and mixed it with my soil and after that they came back healthy. Sometimes the soil gets mucky and doesnt allow the roots to get air, but you cant see it so they appear dry but spots in the soil are still wet.

Great strains. Try and get some perlite, iv learned that just soil will give ya issues, but took me to get the problem before i got some. Now id never not use it.

Good luck man:rasta:

[eastbaygordo]

OK....I went cheap on the soil thinking I could compensate for it but I was wrong again. For any single pot with the same volume of soil, the weight differences of each container are very obvious and some seem to drain poorly limiting O2 to the root zone. The God Bud still looks like crap and the Purple Kush is still smaller than most starters you can get so I have to wonder about genetics.
The lime is taking off and the headband seems ok too.
Today I'm off to a local supplier to pick up some fox farm ocean blend and give up on going super cheap with bad results.

[StickyBuds1987]

OK....I went cheap on the soil thinking I could compensate for it but I was wrong again. For any single pot with the same volume of soil, the weight differences of each container are very obvious and some seem to drain poorly limiting O2 to the root zone. The God Bud still looks like crap and the Purple Kush is still smaller than most starters you can get so I have to wonder about genetics.
The lime is taking off and the headband seems ok too.
Today I'm off to a local supplier to pick up some fox farm ocean blend and give up on going super cheap with bad results.

well cheap soil ill still work you just need to invest in some perlite to mix in with the soil try putting some in the bottem of the pots to before ya add soil if you cant get perlite you can just put like some pea gavel in the bottem and that will hep with your drainage probs

[LetsSeeYa]

OK....I went cheap on the soil thinking I could compensate for it but I was wrong again. For any single pot with the same volume of soil, the weight differences of each container are very obvious and some seem to drain poorly limiting O2 to the root zone. The God Bud still looks like crap and the Purple Kush is still smaller than most starters you can get so I have to wonder about genetics.
The lime is taking off and the headband seems ok too.
Today I'm off to a local supplier to pick up some fox farm ocean blend and give up on going super cheap with bad results.

I think perlite is one of the most important in concern to growing in soil. People that use FF soil sill add 25% perlite. Cant mis with the stuff and is great for clones. Roots need all the air you can get when using clones so knowing this, your plant will be fine bro:cool:


:rasta:

[eastbaygordo]

I repotted the 4 healthiest ones into 3 gallon pots and moved the querkle from a small round to a larger square one with the FF Ocean Blend and some Happy Frog too in a 50/50 mix. I notice ALOT more perlite in the FF mixes.

I also bought a Oakton Ph meter and some PH down and cal-mag as my pool tester and test strips were a pain to use and not as accurate.

I gave them all a nice watering with PH'ed water and captured the runoff to test, PH'ed it back down and ran it through the pots once more.
I was putting in 700ml of 6.2-6.3PH water and was getting 6.7-6.8PH runoff so I'm guessing I have soil in the 7.1 range? Does that sound valid?

Has anyone tried the fabric "GeoPots" that breathe and do air pruning of the roots?



Thanks for the input Sticky and LSY.

[eastbaygordo]

OK....I'm starting to see why I should pay $10 per bag more for Fox Farm vs too hot crap soil and both I and the ladies are loving the newly accurate PH reading for the water. I've also added cal-mag and I have to say the plants are reaching right up for light and have alot less droopy/quasi-claw look to them.
The moisture probe is useful and put the ones that I suspected of bad drainage into a one day longer than usual dry cycle to help dry out the roots and it seems to have re-started the growth process, especially on the God girls.
One God girl is still hanging on barely but I think she'll make it but won't yield well. A Lime I wasn't careful with has now been transplanted into an old pool chemical container but she is already perking up since this morning, she looks like she has claw leaves but the newest ones are reaching up. If I get anything from these units I'll be lucky.
I am having an issue with an Apollo 11 not being very green but I think a little time and accurate PH will help the plant pick up nutes.
Tha last issue I have maybe related to a heavy nuking with Neem. I have some leaves on the Querkle that looked like they had an oil sheen and they started to corkscrew; yesterday I gently washed them as best I could with normal water to get the layer off and the have starightened out almost perfectly. My question is can these oils like Neem clog the breathing pores on a leaf and cause it to die?

[eastbaygordo]

OK so I gave it a good drying out but that doesn't solve the root issue on some god girls who were transplanted once from one poor soil to the next version of bad soil.
The bad soil has a poor ratio of perlite to worm casing that varies throughout the bad, and it gets muddy in the bottom of the pots.
I watered this morning and they looked better initially but one looked like she was unhappy so I checked her and noted a bad root system. The more I dug down the more I noticed a lack of roots. Most other plants have filled up their container and are beginning the growth spurt but this girl has discolored roots. Almost all the other soil fell away leaving me with a little plug with 12" of roots hanging down. I put it in some Happy Frog and will leave it outside tonight as too much light would kill it at this point. I also did the same thing with the plant that is barely alive just to verify my hypothesis and I was correct.
I'm going to go get the geopots and do some re-potting into larger containers with high quality soil.

[StickyBuds1987]

ah sounds good id like to see how those geo pots work out for ya :thumbsup:

[eastbaygordo]

Darn it, I bought a few of the 3 and 5 gallon GeoOots while I wait for the bigger ones to come in and I grabbed one of the God girls I transplanted yesterday. They poor thing is going to be shocked to death.

[eastbaygordo]

Since I had some bigger pots available after putting the God girls in happy frog/ocean blend I put all the 707 headband into half gallon containers and moved a yellowing Apollo 11 out of bad soil into a Happy/Ocean blend with a tablespoon each of blood and bone meal mixed in.
I was weighng the pros and cons of leaving them alone and I couldn't justify leaving them in crap soil any longer.

[deserthealer]

They may be set back for a while, but your plants will thank you for the upgrade. :thumbsup:

[eastbaygordo]

Between the better soil all around and the new geopots the god girls actually are reaching for the sky. I haven't seen that since I got them.
Thanks to Sticky and LSY for the perlite input. I hadn't noticed the variability when I planted the ladies. I have to pick up some perlite so I can add it in and save the old soil and use it a pot filler. When I get the other bags I'm going to also add it to the FF soil.

Back to the kids.
Purp seems like it is in a growth spurt.
707 likes the bigger pots.
God is looking amazing considering how hard I've been on them.
Lime is happy and greening up nicely.
Boulder Creek Kush has some yellowing but will get happy in the geopot.

I am concerned about Affy18, it looks yellow and has leaves turning purple and crumbling away.

I'll post picts later.


Thanks for all the help.

[coyg74]

Where did u get seed or did u grow from clones?

[eastbaygordo]

I got the clone from Harborside.

I suggest getting their starters.

[StickyBuds1987]

hey man no probs its what we are here for to help each other lol but yeah id like to see some pics but your gonna have a nice lil variety i plan on having something like that come next season i wanna try something else besides just good bagseed

[eastbaygordo]

Here is this morning's picts.

Note the happy ladies in the Geopots except Affy18.
Apollo 11 is also yellow but I heard it's finicky.
Lime is in the big green pots with a Purp.

[eastbaygordo]

one more pict that didn't load

[eastbaygordo]

wrong one

[eastbaygordo]

here it is

[StickyBuds1987]

looking good man keep it up :thumbsup::thumbsup::jointsmile:

[eastbaygordo]

The wind was howling and snapped some side roots and now the girls are kinda floppy.
Other than that things are good.

What is in VF11? Is it plant food or what? The God girls didn't like it and got kinda twisty. They didn't like molasses either.

[eastbaygordo]

I got a decent light with good ventilation. Hooked up a 8" Vortex and now have 740cfm cooling the light and venting the room at night.

[eastbaygordo]

Here is an update to my outdoor/indoor grow.
I still am vegging them but will flip end of month.
Since l lost all of June to bad soil they aren't very tall.

Take a look at the ladies and let me know your thoughts.

I grouped them into bunches.

Querkle2 - Querkle X Querkle
God Girls - I love God
Lime Ladies - Maui Wowie-Afghan
Various Ladies - Affey18 BC Kush Apollo 11 (disappointing) XXX Chem (dank)
707 Headband - Three 7's are a good hand
Purple Kush - sunning themselves on the hot tub

[eastbaygordo]

Last two picts

Sour Garlic - Garlic and Sour Bubble
Purple Kush - lounging poolside

[eastbaygordo]

Notice how big the god girls got in less than a month in the geopots.
I'll never ever use a plastic pot again once I'm done with this cycle.