Where are my followers it's time to wake up and read my undate....
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Where are my followers it's time to wake up and read my undate....
I'm here! Sorry I'm late.
You've definitely been dealing with some obstacles. But from the sound of it you're on track to work them all out and get yourself a heck of a nice system going.
That's always the toughest part imo, getting things running smoothly. Trying to scale up or down always throws off the balance and you have to struggle a bit to find the sweet spot again.
Sounds good though!
(did my post work this time? Yes? Good!)
My keyboard works again!
Forgive me I'm trying to write this very fast.
Vacation was great left for two weeks. MIL watered the plants but tha is all she knew how to do so when the temp dropped she had no clue it was even a concern nevermind knew how to fix it. But all is well things are always behind anyways.
Here we go The outside monsters were in the flower room under 1 400w hps. They were a little stunted from the cold but are developing nicely. There were the 2 sativas in that bunch that auto flowered back and forth a few times. When we came back we harvested the very tops but they were so dense with leaves in a tight knot the buds were rather small. After that the rest of the remaining 2 stalks and all their branches filled out rather nicely and another section of them was ready for harvest. The other plants are doing well and look to be in about week 4. Some are doing better than others, and there are some pots(remmber a few have 2 plants per pot) where you can really see the competition for resourses. I fed them right before I left, and again just the other day. They aren't doing as well as they would have since I couldn't take all the roots when I dug them up but right now they are a blessing.
There were also the flowering plants in 1gl grow bags I was moving in/outdoors. I put them in the flower room when I left along the monsters. They barely grew while we were gone and we were lucky to get 1-2 grams off each. (just wait yes I have discovered another weak link and am dealing with it but I will get to that soon). The plants were left under their own 400hps.
We harvested them once we got back and I spread the monsters right out and trimmed out some undergrowth. We have so deficiency issues but we will make it to harvest. I also discovered a small case of mites which isn't spreading at all yet, I removed the most damaged brances and what little of the mites were left haven't made any advances yet, I'm watching closely.
The Mite thankfully eliminated a few choices to make. It doesn't make since to infect the whole cycle once I start it up again so I'm not putting any of my vegging plants in flower until, the monsters are harvested and the room is completely dissinfected. At the same time Buddy is coming in and installing thermostates and heaters and rearranging my existing ventilation system to get ready for winter. After that the vegging plants can move up.
I'll give you a chance to read while I type....
(pause)
Anyways the vegging plants. Remember they were living outside full time on flats. Just to be safe when we left we moved them up allong out back tree line(also the back of out neighbors behind it) It's thick with undergrowth and once we moved some tufts of grass around the flats and pots I couldn't find them all at first when I got home. But like I said it was a little chilly here and they weren't in the direct sunlight they were used to all day so they weren't to much bigger when we got back. They've only ever recieved one does of ferts and for the last 3-4 weeks have had nothing but strait water(remember this for later). The little clones in the 4" pots did well or at least stayed alive which is fine by me, they have never had ferts.
Of course the mothers grew a little but really not much at all. However my acocpolco gold mother is now back in veg, the shoots are small right now but as soon as they are ready they are going to be taken as clones, that poor plant has had it and should just be mericifully killed after I get this one last thing from it. She's treated me so well. The mothers are back inside the veg room under the 400wmh. In front of them are 18 vegging plants in growbags. Before I left I Attempted to fim them all when I left, didn't work again, I'll get it some day. Some of them kept growing some bushed out. But since I've been back I've been bending them all. All the topps get bent over in different directions just enough so that they stay curved over for a while, the longer the better so long as I don't dammage or kink the stalk. They are picking up a little now that they are warm and bushing out slowly, but not as fast as you would think being this long in veg they are between 10-14" and the biggest I've had in veg in a long time(H always rushed me to harvest, harvest, harvest, so yes I am guilty of cutting corners). Some are showing a few deficiencies specifically K which is often linked to an excess of salts, but they've only had water the last 3 weeks, and only been fed a 3/4 dose before(I rarely use full, with all my probles).
Anyways The mothers and vegging plants take up all 4 flats under the light and there is no room for clones. I had way to many to fit them all under my clone lights so I threw about 12 of the sadest ones out. But I still didn't have enough room, and couldn't stand to needlessly kill good plants. So I wen't searching the junk pile behind the garage and the dumpsters over at the trailer park.(No I do not live in a trailer park! We own a 4 Season house in cottage country 2 minutes from the lake.) I found 3 18" long sections of rain gutters and the pots fit perfect so I put them up on the walls above the vegging plants around the grow room under the mh bulb. They all fit now. I'm bending them as I can and have a few at about 8" don't worrky they aren't rrotbound, I know.
Now that you are caught up
great to see your back posting. congrats on your new everythings.
Shov
Ok now that you are caught up the most recent things that have happened.
Now remember how long the vegging plants have been getting strait water, and how little they have been fed. The other day I went out to water and decided to take a pH test of the run off. The water went in 5.8 without having to be phed. and came out at 8. On top of in one of the main causes for the K def I noticed is an excess of salts in the growing medium. So that brought me to the conclusion that my weak link is the coco! I thought it would be so great and had heard such great things about coco and it's stable pH and the fact that it doesn't absorb the nutrients(not that there were nutrients to absorb), and now I hate it I hate it I hate it.
Luckily I had some sunshine#4 from the last house and decided I'm not waiting to start all my new clones and plants in it. So I took my whole nap time(When K sleeps not me) and changed all the 4" clones over.
To do this I filled a 5gl bucket with water. I have another 5gl bucket with holes in the drilled bottom and put it inside. Next I took the clones out of their pots and one by one put the root balls under the surface of the water and gently turned them while applying slight pressure and worked the coco away quickly without damaging the roots. As I needed to I scopped the perlite off the top, and pulled the hole bucket up to empty in the compost pile.
I then took the pot and plants and replaced it with sunshine mix and let it sitt in a bath of 1/4 clone fert water while I did the next plants and moved them back in.
Amazingly today think I actually see a difference. I had no signs of stress on any of them and even the ones that were paling deepened color back to green.
I got more sunshine mix today and I'm going to take a few risks and start with the younger vegging plants and do the same thing, that way as I move through them and the root systems become more complex I can decide whether it is worth it or not. Also if one or all of them suffer stress they will have some time to get over it and I'll know just how many I can get done with out doing/compensate for stress.
Ironically while I was in there changing the clones over my 2 ocsilating fans stopped working, so that caused a heat spike at the tops which climbed to 95,while the bottom stayed at 78 today while we were in the city buying a new fan. But the fan is in and does a better job than the last one and all is well.
Stay tuned I have a feeling I'll have lots more to talk about soon....
CC thank you for so much information. I thought I had subscribed and was watching your grow and just found, I read it and did not subscribe, so I am now! This is very interesting. Particularly the coco! I am wondering if it is a problem in certain conditions or not. I've been reading Puffster's White Widow grow in coco and it came out fine and a first grow person! Guess, it takes beginners luck! Cause you didn't have it!
Will be happy to see if your camera gets dried off! Very interesting read! I am certainly marking this for future reference. I doubt I'll ever have that many plants going on purpose! But, the bug will get to me, as usual! Thanks for all the info and will keep reading! :thumbsup: PR
Ok I dove right in and replaced all the coco in the vegging plants and mothers. It was a little daunting and alot of messy work but I am so glad I did it. Amazingly I started to see results the next day and today everyone is a much brighter healthier green and seems to be perking up just a little more.
I must admit the root systems weren't all what I expected them to be and were on the small side but not all of them. But I did learn alot about the root system and the paths it takes to spread out, and that the top veggitation is not nessessarily an accurate representation of the root system.
Strang thing happened with my AG Mother that revegged. I was looking at the new vegitation and noticed sprout coming from a calyx! I peeled it back just a little and there is a tiny white tap root growing in towards the stem. It is very short and small, I'am assumming the mother plant is somehow feeding it through the stem ans that is keeping the root from growing out and seeking nutrients.
Oh and I figured out part of my yellowing problem. The heat spike when the fans broke seems to have been the catalyst but not the cause of the yellowing. The pattern I noticed was that all the plants that were yellowing had dishes under the pots. I know, I know but when I left for vacation it was hot and the soil dries out so fast I put dishes under all the pots that would fit. So I figure that the plants without dishes have and oppertunity to get a little flush when the water runs through, where as the ones with dishes reabsorbed the water and what ever nutrients were in it as well as stayed a little too wet too long. All fixed now though. I doubt I will see an improvement being so far into flower but I haven't seen much progression.
Oh and I have a little gaurd in my veg room. He's a green tree frog. He showed up after we got back and I expected him to leave but since I had a bunch of flying insects in there I just left him alone. I loose track of him from time to time but then there he is bright green hanging onto a branch in the WR mother, or other times he's climbed up the white walls and has changed grey to blend in. I put a dish of water in with him and slowly the bugs dissappeared. Now I have a bit of a problem. It's too cold outside for him to be able to find a good place to hibernate before he just slows down and eventually freezes in his journey, but he needs food. So should I take the chance and find a log to put him under or put him on the compost heap and let him crawl in and find a warm spot for the winter, or should I just run to the petstore and grab some crickets or mealworms to throw in a dish for him from time to time? Any ideas? I kinda like him and he really likes my lights. Oh I know there are ants in the flower room will he eat those, should I put him in there? Oh and year round I have spiders all over that garage. I think I just like him because he didn't run away like all the leopard frogs I put in there did.
Just love it! I don't know what to do with the frog. But, I'd like to see ya keep the little one and give it a name! It sounds so cute! A bud pal!!!:thumbsup::hippy: pr
Any one have name suggestions. I'd let my 2 year old name it but the last time that happened we came home with a girl mini Dasuhund named Wally.Quote:
Originally Posted by painretreat
Hey guys picture are coming once photobucket starts working again. I have to say that everyone is looking much happier now that they are out of the coco. even the stunted clones are growing well again, I kinda hope they slow down because I need to wait for the monsters to finish flowering so I can make room under the mh bulb to move more clones up. Some of the clones at the back are about 8-10" if they were strait, they are are bent though.
The vegging plants got fed today at 1/2 strength.
The monsters are doing well there are two pots you'll see that have a few issuse we are trying to balance out. A few leaves showed some signs of burn on the very tips(even the healthy ones) the last time I fed them but I couldn't wait any longer and gave them a 3/4 strength dose. It's tricky because it is garden dirt and I don't know what the fuck is in there. I also think that the fact that I had to trim the roots to fit them in the pots is effecting their nutrient take up but I could be wrong. They definately have mites and on the healthy ones it is the same tiny ammount, on te unhealthy ones they are spreading but not rampid yet. So it's a good thing I'm waiting till they are finished to put my next plants in at least for now I have them isolated with and end in sight instead of having to fight them while keeping the cycle going. You'll see my sativas, what's left of them. But I'll tell you more as I post the pics. Oh the frog is in there too, any name ideas yet?