3rd Grow - Time For The Light Show

[Thebreeder]

I mean right on guys ha!

 

[UncleCannabis]

My guess would be that there are some excess salts that are built up that need to be leached away. In addition to what you put in, the plant will also release salts through root exudates.
In nature, periodic rains will cause light leaching of the soil every time it rains which evacuates the salts and root exudates from the root zone. We must mimic this process when growing in pots otherwise the built up salts and root exudates will slowly poison a plant.

Excess salts are likely to cause more harm than having a wet soil medium for a few days.
If your soil drains well and has adequate aeration amendments then there is little danger in doing a light leaching of the medium.

 

[UncleCannabis]

Correction - I mistakenly stated that root exudates contain salts which is not the case.

Composition of root exudates -
A systematic study to determine the complexity and chemical composition of root exudates from diverse plant species has not been undertaken. Low-M r compounds such as amino acids, organic acids, sugars, phenolics, and various other secondary metabolites are believed to comprise the majority of root exudates, whereas high-M r exudates primarily include mucilage (high-M r polysaccharides) and proteins.

Note to self, don't give grow advise while medicated.... LOL!!

For optimum plant health you should still leach a bit of water out of your pots every so often to prevent build up of salts and exudates as Mother Nature does in the great outdoors.

 

[B A R]

I've just given the LSD an emergency feed. She had 1litre of water with 5ml of Canna Vega, 2ml of CalMag and a few ml's of my Humboldt's Secret Golden Tree. I pre watered 15 minutes earlier so that hopefully the plant will be able to absorb the nutrients easier.

So what's the verdict? Give us a looksy Kraize.

 

[Kriaze]

Hey UncleC, nice bit of info there, appreciated.

Hey BAR when I looked yesterday there did look to be a little improvement but that could be wishful thinking. I've not had time to update properly as of yet due to time limitations but I'll be sure to get some pictures up for reference. I may have lost a couple of seedlings whilst transplanting them too, a lot of brown roots were on a couple of them and after feeling how soaked the soil was I'm guessing it was down to over watering. I'll update properly ASAP later today, in the meantime I need to work out what I'm going to do with this plant pot with 20 gallons of soil sitting in it that I have here in the middle of my room, no way it's fitting in the tents

All the best everyone and apologies for the slow update, it seems as though as soon as I'm done with one thing I'm already 5 minutes late for another lately.

 

[Kriaze]

Hello everyone. It seems I can finally manage to do my update so here it is <rubs hands together, cracks fingers and cracks on>.

So first and foremost I got myself another composter so that I can leave the first one alone and let it work it's magic. Here it is in the part of the garden that I've taken over

Hopefully in the spring I may have my own soil to use instead of using synthetic nutrients...Here's to hoping.

Now the smart pots arrived but I had to wait for the saucers so everything was a bit of a mess in here for a couple of days while I waited, now though everything is all repotted up (even the IB1 which I was wondering whether I could get to fit).

Here are the smart pots which I have transplanted the little girls into:

Before being built:

and after:

The little girls in their old pots:

Here they are all potted up in their new homes:

The Big Freeze is more like a little wet at the moment. I'm guessing I have overwatered this too much as the roots were all grey or brown depending which part of the plant I was looking at. I'll be taking more care with my watering regime as although some strains seem to thrive on the amount of water I feed them a few of these seem to be the opposite:

The Amnesia VIP seemed to have been hit with the same thing:

The Bubblegum XL is plodding on, although it seems to be leaning a little today:

Whereas the White Widow seems to be a rigorous grower and pretty much takes everything in her stride:

Now I was wondering whether I could get my IB1 to fit in a tent as I soon realised that I had underestimated the size of this pot. It's another seriously big one, I won't be buying anymore of these =]

Update on the LSD. I'm not sure whether it's just wishful thinking but two days after the feed she seems to have a little new growth that doesn't look as ill as the rest of the plant. I'm thinking she may well just be a greedy little plant and as holding back on the feed didn't help I'll probably push a little bit more feed into this than I will the other plants. But this is all theoretical, it could just be wishful thinking like I say and she may well kick the bucket yet. Here she is:

From the side:

From the top:

Any thoughts on this? I'm not sure if I'm just seeing things.

Here is the IB1 before her transplant:

I love that little plant, she gives no trouble and just seems begging to grow.

Here is the IB2:

Finally here is the Paradise Nebula, plodding along but showing some signs of deficiency. This will all be fixed (hopefully) over the next week or two where I'm just going to go with the flow and feed as I see fit and only as I see fit.

I've since transplanted the IB1 into the 20 gallon fabric pot but have yet to update the pictures. She wouldn't even have been transplanted if it wasn't for not knowing what to do with 20 gals of soil sitting in my room lol. In the end a quick switch around in the main tent was all that it took and she is now in her new home. I'll update on that once I manage to upload the next set of pictures. All the best everyone, have a fantastic week and weekend

 

[Amadeus Forzin]

Look like your all set for a big finish. How big is that 20 gal pot, hight and diameter?

 

[Kriaze]

It's 19" in width (I measured it when I went looking for a tray to sit it in) but I'm not sure on the height, maybe 12/14" but I'll have a measure up later to be certain. It's too big, that's what I know for sure

 

[Amadeus Forzin]

Thanks man, I'm throwing a few ideas around in my head, I NEED bigger pots but I got no height to play with. 10 inches is my limit with pot height.

 

[Kriaze]

Ah sorry mate I just managed to measure it up, it's 15" tall. You could cut it down easy enough though I reckon. If you want the width without the height, it says it's non woven so it shouldn't unravel

 

[Kriaze]

Here's the Incredible Bulk 1 transplanted into that pot, it's a lot bigger than I imagined but fingers crossed it should make for a big bush later after veg. I've got a couple more LED's coming that I'm going to put into the CFL/HPS tent so that I'll have some good lighting to give the girl growth during veg and she'll also be toughened up and ready for the bloom. A man can dream

Here she is in her new space:

The main tent now:

Something I'd like to share:

Peace

 

[UncleCannabis]

Hey there Kriaze. Looks like you've been busy playing in the garden since my last visit.

Your LSD girl is looking like she's starting to pull through her difficulties. The difference between the new growth and old growth is like night and day. I hope she keeps up her recovery.

 

[Kriaze]

Hey thanks UncleC I think this girl is a bit of a big feeder. Now I just need to get the others back on the right track

 

[Kriaze]

Hello everyone. It's been awhile since I last updated due to being busy here along with the fact that I think the servers block my IP when I upload too many pictures at once. Quite frustrating but it does mean that there will be plenty of pictures even though we're still in veg phase here. I've made a few changes since I last updated, mainly being that the CFL/HPS tent is now an LED tent again. I ordered two of the new 'old' style Mars 300w lights and I have to say that I'm impressed with their build quality and the plants do seem to like them. I'm considering doing a grow run with these lights too, they don't put out as much heat as either my 300w CFL, or the Reflectors that I have, in fact if I had bought these earlier I think there would be no Reflectors in my main tent at the minute as I might not have felt the need to buy them. Oh well we live and learn.

I also invested in some acoustic ducting which I still haven't gotten around to fitting yet, and a cheapo fan controller which I use to lower the noise coming out of the fan...It actually works These last two items are more for my quality of life more than anything to do with the plants, I do notice around a 2 degree Fahrenheit difference but as I'm keeping the plants between 80F and 84F this isn't a problem since I fixed up the old ducting. I'm not even sure I want to take it down now as the temps seem stable and within reason so long as I don't leave the reflectors on for too long. Mind you I could do with the setup being just a few decibels quieter so I reckon I'll still be giving it a try, maybe even later today if I still get the time for it. All depends on what 'she who must be obeyed' has planned for the day.

OK, so as it's been six days since the last update and I've constantly been getting into the room to take pictures whenever I can there will be quite a number of pictures. Apologies if there isn't much difference between the pictures but I'm going to try and get them all up so that I follow the timeline of proceedings as they occurred.

First and foremost let's start with the main tent. Three days ago I gave the LSD a big feed of around 4 litres of water mixed with Canna Tera at a ratio of 5ml per litre along with CalMag at a ratio of 2ml per litre. This was all mixed up in a batch of 6 litres and the remaining 2 litres were shared between the other three plants. Each plant was pre watered with tap water 15 mins before (I didn't have the time to wait an hour unfortunately).

Here are the girls in the main tent three days ago after their feed:

Here is the LSD:

I still wasn't sure whether she would pull through her sickness and create new growth but the signs were favourable. She could still keel over on me yet and if so then I have no idea why, apart from a few minor deficiencies the other plants are all plodding along and they're in the same soil, light, tent and being fed from the same batch of nutes. Although as stated earlier the LSD is having extra nutes for the moment to see if I can get her back on her feet.


Meanwhile in the other tent I didn't think that the one CFL bulb even being 300w had enough coverage for the newer plants now that they've been potted into bigger pots. So when my two LED lights arrived I swapped out the older lights and gave the plants a couple of nights under the one LED to get them accustomed to it.

The Big Freeze was really struggling, she is small, weak and very limp. Even a little watering had her falling over from side to side and I was ready to throw her in the composter but I thought I would give her my best. Now I know that it's too early to feed but I'm wondering whether because people are saying that plants need more Iron due to speeded growth under LED along with more Cal/Mag I decided to give them all the tiniest amount of nutrients and CalMag in a litre of water shared between them. They really looked like they needed something.

Here is the Big Freeze on her one spindly last leg so to speak, this was three days ago after her feed:

That's her, not much to see is there? She looks as ill as the LSD did and maybe even more so. Only time will tell if she will make anything of her life, but I do the best I can and try to give them as much as I can to help them along the way, damn it's like having children all over again

The White Widow seems to be bearing up to my mistreatment quite well, she still has some lovely colouring but is now showing signs of yellowing in her lower leaves, maybe these babies are growing up and want more than the few nutrients that I'm currently giving them.

Here is the white widow three days ago after her light feed:

Here is the Amnesia VIP taken the same time:

Unfortunately it seems that my picture of the Bubblegum XL has failed to upload. I'd say that she is in between the Big Freeze and the Amnesia VIP healthwise, I'm not too concerned about anything with this particular plant sofar. I'll be sure to get a shot of her for my next update.

Well when I went into the tents the day after their feed they looked a little better, all except for the Big Freeze who had bent over and was again touching the soil. Now the night before this I had a bit of a rough day and drank/smoked myself to sleep. Upon waking at my desk (uncomfortable and stiff but with my head feeling better) I noticed that I'd left half a pint of beer when I fell asleep. I got to thinking of what TheBreeder had written earlier regarding beer, milk and water being a good remedy for sickly plants. Now I don't know why this is or whether there is any evidence to support it but I did think 'Why not?", it couldn't do much harm I suppose so I went down and mixed up a 6 litre batch using my flat beer and a half pint of milk. I had so much that I decided to give all the girls a dousing in both tents. If it causes problems later down the line I will cross that bridge when I get to it, the way I see it my grows are full of problems anyway so why change things now?

I left the plants alone for the rest of the night, what with my big feet stomping all around them taking lights down and hanging lights up I think they deserved a break from me. I went into the tent yesterday to see how the plants were and maybe you can see for yourselves from these pictures:

Here is the main tent the day after the beer, milk and water dousing:

I couldn't believe it, there was my sickly LSD actually praying to the light. I don't think she had had the strength to do this before yesterday so although I knew I had pictures waiting to add to my journal I had to go and grab the CannaCamera (this is my name for the Pentax I bought for the room lol. I had a sticky situation when a client had wanted to look through some pictures on my main camera and I couldn't remember if there were any pictures of my plants left on that particular card...Not very professional I know, but I can't claim to be perfect all the time, or any of the time for that matter but we can all pretend ). I did warn you all earlier that there would be a lot of pictures, but we're getting towards the end now, you may like some of what you see hopefully.

Here is the LSD after her beer, milk and water dousing:

I'm not sure that I captured the majesty of her upraised leaves as well as I wanted to but as I say I have been very busy here and as it's a personal project I don't have to put too much work into it. I mean it's not like I'll be selling these pictures.

Anyway after getting so excited it was with a little trepidation that I went to look into the second tent.

Here are the younger girls under the Mars 300w that I had put in for a couple of days to get them accustomed to the LED.

Now this time it seems that the White Widow picture hasn't uploaded correctly so I'll be sure to make sure she has her chance to shine the next time I get in there with my camera, for now here is the Bubblegum XL that I managed to upload yesterday:

Here is the Amnesia VIP:

Here is the Big Freeze that I was fully expecting to have keeled over and died:

I don't know how she survived but I would like to say a big THANK YOU to TheBreeder for his beer, milk and water tip. It seems to have done the trick, she was stood upright and does seem to have a little better colouring on her. If she stays alive I might consider using this remedy a lot more often. It definitely didn't kill them overnight like I was half worried as to whether it would

After seeing the improvement and the fact that the plants had been under the LED for a couple of days I decided to add the other light to the tent so that they get a more even coverage.

Here is the second tent that is using LED's again:

I can't claim to have a good growing technique or even a steady one, I chop and change my mind all the time and try to adapt to each new situation as it occurs but luckily some of these plants are hardier than my inexperienced mistreatment of them and should pull through whether or not. Now, it's time to see if I can make time to try and fit this new ducting, or maybe I should wait a few days to let the plants have some time to settle instead of having me stomping around them. I don't know, it will be a spur of the moment decision if I do.

Until that time though I wish you all well, and I'll leave this particular part of my journal with a repeat picture of my little wet Big Freeze. Although she looks so sad still, she fills me with hope. That's all I can wish for. Good health to all of you and peace

 

[Amadeus Forzin]

Great update my friend

 

[Robert Celt]

Dr Kraize to the rescue with a beer and milk cocktail LOL

 

[Kriaze]

Hey Mr Am4zin thanks. I wish I had more time to come on and update more often but I just seem to be non stop lately here. Things should die down as winter approaches so I'll be able to get online a lot more then.

Hey TheCelt, I only wish it had been my idea but it was TheBreeder that dropped by and gave me that tidbit of advice, along with some other useful scientific facts regarding the temperature ranges of LED and MJ. I know that you know your organics well so I don't suppose you know what exactly makes this cocktail work? I was pretty amazed at the recovery overnight, I'm just wondering if it has any nasties in store for me in the future

 

[Robert Celt]

Other than a sour smell if you use too much, I don't see much in there to hurt your plants. Milk for the most part consists of fat, lactic acid and water as well as some minerals. Stale beer is just alcohol and starches. Alcohol is the only thing that might hurt a plant but its such low concentration when diluted like that I doubt it would have any adverse effects

All the other things are likely to be quite beneficial to both your plant and the soil. Lots of micro nutrients in the milk for the girls, and the starches/sugars in the beer would feed the micros in the soil

 

[Kriaze]

Thanks for that TheCelt. I love that you don't mind sharing your knowledge with newbies like me, much appreciated that you took the time to let me know. Cheers mate

 

[Robert Celt]

No worries Kraize

As it stands when it comes to cultivation, I am a noob as well LOL I just have an extensive background in engineering and science that I can apply to growing