THC Bomb entering flowering stage; may need help.

[Farang]

I'm asking for people to look over my shoulder as these plants attempt to finish.

This is my third attempt with the THC Bomb and the second with F2 seeds. Both prior grows pretty much ended up the same with the plants dying prior to finishing. I've changed a multitude of things over time and this one could go off without a hitch, but if it doesn't.....I'm going to appreciate your input.

The first grow of F1 was a patio grow in and amongst the garden veggies. Those plants were attacked by leaf miners, aphids, caterpillars, spider mites, scale and, finally, fusarium. I intentionally seeded one plant but some pollen made it to a couple of others which is how I ended up with the F2 seeds.

Now before everybody heads to their catalogues of corporate branded products to recommend, please know that none of those products are available here. I'm half a world away from the States and on the same parallel as Palenque. Also, I only have two choices for containers: standard tapered and bags. And even if I could fabricate a hydroponics system, I've not found a supply store here.

The second grow was my first under artificial light. Besides the pests, I had other impetus to move indoors. But starting around weeks 3-4 of flowering in both grows, the plants really began to suffer and, eventually, die.

Now I'm using an unfinished bedroom on the top floor of my building. If one didn't need to move through the room, it would be large enough to host as many as a hundred plants. But the construction is so shoddy that I wouldn't attempt to hang lights from the ceiling.

I've sealed the windows off with black plastic and the room is as light tight as I can make it. It's not air tight and during daylight hours, I leave the door open for better cooling and air exchange. (Bugs have NOT been an issue.) From my reading, almost any light will slow the maturation and I don't want to risk that, so I'm trading off a bit of excess heat for superior dark periods.

While the vertical height of the room is over two meters, I'm limited by the adapted laundry rack I'm using which is substantial enough to hold the light(s). The rack measures about 2X5X5 feet. Because of this, my goal is to keep the plants short.

For cooling and air flow, I have what back home we would have called a portable swamp box cooler running 24/7. This box supposedly has a negative ion generator which I run, but suspect it could be just a light on the control panel and doesn't actually do anything.

During the early stages of this veg cycle, I moved the grow area from the darkest corner to adjacent to the door for better cooling, I'd hoped. From what little I've been able to find on grow journals or threads, this hybrid shuns heat. It cools dramatically here during the winter months, but the cool period is pretty short. Generally by April, it's hot as Hades, so I planted to attempt to harvest by the end of February.

Currently, the temps range from 15-35C. Mostly they want to be 25-27, to my understanding.

Yes, an A/C unit would keep the temps down but I'm unsure that the circuit would support both the A/C and the lights. Also there is my very limited budget to consider as well as the questions as to why I was air conditioning a glorified storage room.

Soil.

The best grow medium I found was a mushroom substrate, but the farm which sold it burned down a year ago and I don't think he rebuilt. Most of what is sold here as potting soil is substrate from rice cultivation. It has too much clay and silt and will not dry.

The best substitute I've found is Van Egmond, which is a peat mix with some clay and some perlite. To this I've added some more perlite plus worm castings and chicken manure plus Azomite (rock dust), bone meal, humic acid and small amounts of bat guano (approx 3-11-1), Epsom salt, potassium sulfate, and Dolomite lime to raise the pH.

I may not have added enough perlite as the containers do not dry as quickly as I'd like. Through the veg stages, watering was only given every 7-10 days. The plants did not show signs of wilting or any indication of under watering whatsoever. They got water when the containers felt light and they medium was dry to finger depth.

Even when they got water, it was either 240 or 480 cc. I do not water through to overflow as that just washes the Azomite and lime out of the medium.

Soil pH is relatively steady at 6.5.

Ferts/Nutes.

When I say water, I mean tea. My plants only get tea and always - sometimes only - with unsulfured molasses. This is aerated water via a fish tank pump and regularly includes some sort of food. This is brewed for a minimum of 24 hours and usually 48.

Here's a list of what I have available for fertilizers/nutrients:

Magnesium sulfate (Epsom salt)
Potassium sulfate
Fish emulsion
Seaweed/Kelp (liquid, local brand named Florigen)
Bat guano
Worm castings
Chicken manure
EM (Essential Microorganisms which I sometimes activate and more often just add to the tea)

I do feed them limited amounts of chemical fertilizers. During veg, they get one and a maximum of two doses of dilute 16-16-16 (1Tbsp/gal) and a single dose (1 Tbsp/gal) of 10-52-17 as they transition from veg to flower.

Perhaps because this is basically a soil-less medium, I should increase those feedings.

As this crop heads into flowering, they are scheduled to get bat guano and molasses for the next several weeks. If they seem to need it, I'll add Epsom salt.

From experience, I know this hybrid really begins to soak up the liquid through the first 4-5 weeks of flowering and requires less toward the end.

While I check the pH and ppm levels, I'm not generally adjusting it. The advice I've gotten from the forums is that the growing medium is enough of a buffer that adjusting the pH levels is unnecessary. (Feel free to disagree, but I'm not unhappy with the results to date.) Tea pH levels range from 5.3-6.5, depending. PPM levels are depending on how much variety I add to the tea and can range upwards of 1,800 gross. My tap water (well water, to my understanding) runs right at pH 7 and a ppm of around 250. The water is not chlorinated and sits in a tank in the house prior to use and then is aerated prior to feeding.

Lighting.

To go back to the first (patio) grow, I'd have to say that this hybrid does NOT depend on 12 hours of darkness to flower. They were planted in March and harvested in mid August. We don't get to 12 hours of dark here until late September.

However, they can obviously be forced into flowering by reducing the light to 12/12 indoors.

The second grow was done under two CFL's, once the plants got into containers large enough that one was insufficient. My CFL's are 250 watt each. That's effective output. Actual usage is 80W. They did pretty well through veg.

When I switched to 12/12, I went with a 400w HPS and removed the CFL's.

This grow I also used the CFL's but added two 'shop light' fixtures with two warm and too cool T-5's, one of each in each fixture. The largest bulbs I could find were 28w. Once the plants were established, I took the hoods off the CFL's and turned on the big light with a 400w MH bulb. My light fixture supports both MH and HPS. It's designed as a weatherproof fixture for lighting signs, a spot light. I've removed the front glass and the cover over the ballast both for weight saving and added cooling.

Next time, I think I'll pass on my MH bulb as it is only rated at 6,000k. The plants seem to do better under the CFL's.


Training.

I'm not always successful with FIM-ing. It's even harder when the plants are small. Each of these plants were at least topped after the second set of true leaves appeared. As soon as those stalks were long enough, I began LST. This continued until they began to pre-flower.

The canopy is relatively even but since the maximum height I can move the HPS is 5' off the ground, I'm expecting to supercrop them if they stretch too close to the light. I'm hoping to avoid popcorn buds. They will be removed if they appear.

The plants are about 12" above the soil and, again, 18" below the HPS.

That pretty much brings us up to date.

Prior to the reduced light schedule, I top dressed the containers with 1 Tbsp of Dolomite. This gets dragged in by the waterings.

There are now six plants in approximately 2.5-3 gallon hard containers. I haven't found them to require more and they did no better in 5-6 gallon containers in natural light.
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Farang Reviewed by Farang on 01-04-2014. THC Bomb entering flowering stage; may need help. I'm asking for people to look over my shoulder as these plants attempt to finish. This is my third attempt with the THC Bomb and the second with F2 seeds. Both prior grows pretty much ended up the same with the plants dying prior to finishing. I've changed a multitude of things over time and this one could go off without a hitch, but if it doesn't.....I'm going to appreciate your input. The first grow of F1 was a patio grow in and amongst the garden veggies. Those plants were attacked Rating: 5

[growdemon]

cool setup,

for nutes, you can start by keeping your banana peels & potatoes skins for Potassium, dry them out then crush them into a powder. Coffee grinds do wonders too

ease up on the watering thou, they look a bit droopy,

all in all, I think your definitely on the right track!!! they look wonderfull

[Chromophore]

What were the symptoms of the plants that died in your prior grows? When did the symptoms appear, and how long did it take for them to die? I am a bit concerned that your soil composition and watering style may have contributed. The clay may be impeding water movement and locking up necessary ions. You mixture is fairly nutrient and salt dense, and since you aren't watering through and you've got clay in the mix, my concern would be root suffocation and salt build-up. But other than looking over-watered, your plants look fine.

[growdemon]

yeap! I would have to agree with Chromophore, Peat moss also acts like a sponge.

so what lights are you using?

[Chromophore]

I really don't like a lot of peat in the soil. Difficult to wet but then when it does, its a freaking stingy sponge as demon says. I like the effort and creativity that you're putting into making your soil, etc. I'm just concerned about proper aeration and salt build-up.

[growdemon]

you know ive seen people who use soil-less mixes, and what they do is they feed straws thru the pots with holes poked thru them, for fresh air to flow thru the soil, so basically straws poking up from the top of the soil going all the way down. You would have to close or melt 1 end so it doesn't fill with soil when inserting. (must have holes poked thru the sides of the straw) heck you could even Rig up a low level air pump,. heh now there's an idea!

the other method I have seen are using smart pots, which are made from a breathable water proof fabric, personally if I was going to use a soil-less Mix, I would go straight to a Hydro Deep Water Culture setup. Much Much easier to regulate a consistent feeding cycle.

[Farang]

Growdemon,

I would never brag on the set up. I have done the best I could given the fact that there is so little available here to compliment our enterprise.

it may be the angle of the photo, but they are not drooping. I'll update the photos next week.

[Farang]

GD,

I like the straw idea. don't know if it'll actually do anything but it might be worth a shot.

as to the other stuff, as I said, I don't have any access to anything more than what I'm using. I'm stuck with soil less mix unless or until the mushroom farm gets rebuilt. I was thinking that it just needed more perlite. I've tended to stay away from vermiculite as it also tends to hold water.

[Farang]

Chromophore,

as I said in the long intro, beginning about week 3-4 of flowering, they began dropping fan leaves. I allowed them to continue with just sugar leaves but they basically went nowhere. as it progressed, even the sugar leaves would shrivel up and die. the plant would go another 3-4 weeks but they were clearly not happy about it.

the stalks would begin to brown and harden, though when cut showed no sign of fusarium.

on the bag of 'soil mix' they are pretty clear that there are enough nutrients for a month, but it is peat, after all and really has no nutrients. as to salts, I wouldn't think that would be an issue as I don't use salt based/chemical ferts much. I'm sticking with organics.

hang in there with me, please. if they do it again, perhaps we can find a solution. in the end, it could just be the heat factor which I can't control.

[d00g]

Hey Farang I am sorry that I cannot be much help related to solving your current grow issues. Your issues are very unique and obviously related to specific resources available to you at any given time. I will say that I am very impressed with your ability to work with what you have, that fact is very admirable. Your situation also shows the resiliency of this plant (and the farmer)! I hope some of the brilliant local forum members are able to help you with your issues, but it seems it will take some ingenuity. I will surely be following your posts, I wish you a lot of luck and I really hope everyone is able to help you through a VERY successful harvest! I am just wondering - in which country is this grow happening? I understand if you can't/don't want to say, I'm just wondering in which country this climate and lack of resources occurs.