A Little Bit Of Everything - Chemical - Organic - With COB Lights & UV

[Weaselcracker]

Obviously dosing is key.

And the strain. Until I rediscovered sativas I was always in a love/hate relationship with cannabis, and had all sorts of ridiculous paranoid episodes and issues when I smoked. Lots of bad mixed with the good. Sativas don't give me any of that at all - though there's variety among the effects of pure sativa strains too. And everyone has their personal preferences.

All caught up now Kriaze. And I've been staring at this screen way too long so I'm going to run off. Nice to see your journaling again. One thing that caught my eye was from the beginning where you said basically that bottled nutes kill the micro life in the soil. I'm not so sure that this is true. And if it was you would be wasting your Great White. There are many hydro growers using chemical nutes who use weekly beneficial teas and/or do weekly root drenches with things like GW and Recharge, and the results are obvious. It's a bit of a grey area since nobody knows quite how mycorrhizae and whatnot can live in such conditions- but they do seem to have an effect.
Gotta run and go outside into the sunshine for a while or I'll start hating myself...

 

[Kriaze]

Hey Weaselcracker I'm glad that you mentioned that regarding the Great White as I've just been watching loads of videos and reading a lot of stuff online about whether it actually is any good in a chemical grow. The way I see it is if it can work in Coco and Hydro with chemicals then I'm guessing they must survive and do their stuff in soil too.

Sod's law that I start a journal while everything is going fine and yesterday I stumbled into my garden to find a couple of the plants had literally collapsed in on themselves and were lying on the floor, now I have to work out whether it's the extra 15 mins of UV light or the fact that I lowered my lights around 6 inches the other night. Damn, maybe I'll kill them all again lol, 10 more minutes until lights on and I'll see what the damage is.

Whatever I was smoking yesterday was amazing, still not quite sure what it is yet as I've mixed all my jars up and I haven't labelled them

 

[HiddenGrow]

You don't have to feel a need to commit to anything here mate. It's all exploratory, sometimes right sometimes wrong. No need to commit to a particular

Don't worry it's all planned. We will call it a self improvement project. I want to upgrade the light as I have had it for 3+ years. I figure I can talk with members about the chips they use. I know Growmau5 has a video about converting a Mars 400, but I have not seen anyone convert a 1600 yet. I enjoy being able to do research and find someone that has worked with the same equipment, if I can't find the info I will post it myself

 

[Kriaze]

I'll be very interested in reading about that conversion if you do Hiddengrow, I'd look into doing it myself but it's the only Mars light that I ever liked and it is still working albeit after a fashion. Please post a link if you do it

As for my grow there isn't really much happening except maybe one or two things worthy of note. The plants are getting fed whatever their chosen tipple is and they keep on growing but I have noticed a couple of <insert fanfare for our favourite word in the garden> problems, so let's take a look at them.

First of all one of the clones is showing signs of stress, which is a little strange considering it isn't affecting any of the other plants, at least not noticeably anyway. It looks like heat stress combined with a magnesium deficiency, although I'm not sure how the heat can be affecting her adversely when everything else in the tent doesn't seem to be bothered by it. Maybe it's a case of humidity but again it is only affecting her, she is the largest of the latest cuttings so maybe it bodes of things to come for the others. If it gets any worse she'll be having a plastic bag shoved over her head for another week but I don't want to commit to that just yet.

What do you think is going on here?

The other problem is that my untopped IBxWWS and one of the Killer Skunk are getting way too big for their boots, ahem the tent I mean. After discussing it with another member of the forums (thank you Mono) who doesn't mind torturing their plants I decided to do this:

Let's see how she handles that. If she bounces back I will do the same to the other larger plants.

Here is how she looks in comparison to the other girls now:

A nice even canopy, maybe I can become a tidy grower yet


Talking of even canopies here is a look at the one in the flowering tent:

Everything is looking reasonable in there, well at least in comparison to the usual plague of deaths that usually occur anyway. Not one fatality yet, I must be doing something wrong this time around.

Anyway they have all been fed again with their choice of tipple along with some Great White Mycorrhizae (I also gave it to the plants in veg) and a little CalMag for those with yellowing leaves, well those with yellowing leaves that look down to CalMag deficiency anyway.

I'll update when the IBxWWS bounces back, or should I say IF she bounces back, or when something starts dying off properly...Here's to hoping something interesting happens to give everyone something to read about. Otherwise I'll be in there on one of my hammered nights, something always seems to go wrong after one of those, although I can never remember what I did to cause it.

Until then all the best and may your buds be forever bountiful

 

[Keir Stama]

Re: A Little Bit Of Everything - Chemical - Organic - With COB Lights & UV

That's a lot of green. They're looking good.

 

[Kriaze]

Thanks splnter, it won't last. Not if I can help it anyway haha

 

[Advocate420]

Adding two one bulb total UV t5 bulbs to my nice empty flower room. It's all your fault

 

[Kriaze]

Sounds like a good plan Advocate, let me know how it goes...or is that a journal I see below your name now? Very discreet but not discreet enough, I'm on my way lol

*edit tried the link but no go, not sure if it's just a site error though

 

[Advocate420]

Sounds like a good plan Advocate, let me know how it goes...or is that a journal I see below your name now? Very discreet but not discreet enough, I'm on my way lol

*edit tried the link but no go, not sure if it's just a site error though

Seeds in route. I started my journal from square one. Sterilization and disinfecting

Also since I had to kill, demolish and start over. I have ordered two auto's today. Try and get some buds to make up for lost time. Never done seeds or auto before. Should be entertaining if nothing else. Thank you. Hope all is well

 

[Advocate420]

Please try my signature link again and let me know. Much appreciated

I know I'm doing it right I'm not sure why it isn't working



Bam. Should be all set now. Needed a computer not an iPad

 

[Kriaze]

Link is working now thanks, I'll sub in

 

[Kriaze]

Today after checking the breeder's site I realised that the Killer Skunks in the flowering tent should be done in 1 to 3 weeks and the Sweet Cheese around 3 weeks so I decided to get in there and take a closer look at their development, so not much of an update but mainly a lot of pictures showing trichomes.

First let's take a look at the veg tent:

The IBxWWS on the far left is recovering well after the crushing of her stem, it's still not fully recovered as of yet but seems healthy and happy enough, I'm waiting on it healing and forming a knuckle then I will do the same to the Killer Skunk at the side of her which as you can see is getting out of control and reaching for the lights.

The rest of the plants are ok and the clone that was having difficulties is also recovering after she was fed some Plantmagic Grow at 2ml per litre and a teaspoon of Black Treacle added to the couple of litres that she was watered with. Not really much more to say about the flowering tent, the 150w of lights seems to be more than enough to keep everything growing well.


Now in the flowering tent everything has gone to shit. The Killer Skunk grown organically just cannot compare to those grown chemically, and I've even had some problems with those. Mainly that on one drunken nightly visit to the tent I had the bright idea of seeing how one of the KS would enjoy being treated like hydro in soil, basically they don't lol. When I went into the tent the day after the poor girl had flopped over and was lying on the floor of the tent. I propped her up between two supporting sticks but the damage is done. She is still budding though so she should make it to harvest in the next week or two. Note to self, don't do dumb things while drunk.

Here's a shot of the flowering tent as it was last night, there's a whole lot of yellow in there and the plant I overwatered is in the middle:

Now for a lot of bud shots. I decided that I had had enough of using my phone or ipad to take pictures so bought myself a new camera that I could use rather than the one I use for work so that I could at least get some half decent photos. I also took some macro shots of the buds so that I could check the trichomes when zoomed in, quite revealing:

Sweet Cheese smiling for the camera:

In comparison the Killer Skunk grown organically isn't looking so well, she is still budding and frosting albeit at a slower rate:

Here is a Sweet Cheese grown whilst being fed the AN PH Perfect range:

and a Killer Skunk using the same nutrients:

Finally some macro shots of the buds at various focus points, if you like trichomes you may want to zoom in. There are some amber showing already so I will start the flush on these:

The end of flowering is near for most of these plants, I will let some go over time for that narcotic effect as it knocks me out when I want to sleep, I like that.

May your buds be forever bountiful

 

[Weaselcracker]

Ha ha. My gf has made that note 'don't get drunk and do stupid shit' -oh so many thousands of times, but the note always flies out the window after the first drink.
I hear you about wanting a dedicated camera for the grow.
Looking good - funky as usual. Scuze the short post- I'm going to try to get a few minutes sleep before my kid gets up and wakes me up again.

 

[Kriaze]

Unfortunately for the plants my wife usually works nights so there is no holding me back when I decide to go spend a few hours causing mischief, then the next day I spend it in anticipation/trepidation all day until the lights come on so that I can see what I got up to. It's amazing how the memories come flooding back like a tidal wave along with the tent door opening. What a fantastic hobby we have lol. All the best Weasel and I hope you managed to grab some shut eye.

 

[Kriaze]

So one week on you would be expecting these plants to be looking better by now, alas not in my tent lol.

The overwatered plant hasn't recovered and although this is the earliest harvest window of any of these plants I'm tempted to chop her down as her trichomes are looking cloudy and she hasn't been fed any nutrients since a last feed which was water and Humboldt's Secret Golden Tree (this can be used up until the last week of flower). I think that I'll feed her water only and see how she goes, but the end is nigh for that poor girl, plus my reserves of smoke are low

The organic plants are looking terrible, they must have had some nutrient lockouts somehow, probably due to a lot of the shit that I put in the compost which all the organic girls are planted in. there isn't much difference between the ones that were watered only and the ones that were fed feed, for now though that experiment will be on hold until I work out what is what, maybe over time the compost will get better but for now it will be used in my outdoor garden, where it does seem to do quite well as it happens. This makes me wonder why Cannabis is so different in nutrient requirements to the other various herbs, plants and trees that we currently grow. Anyway the buds on these plants are atrocious, scraggly little pieces of popcorn which I'm going to smoke anyway, yum yum.

Anyway let's not be shy and let's take a look at these girls warts and all.

Well not too bad, not exactly the end of the world. Let's pan around a touch more:

Now we're talking! If anybody reading the magazine ever feels that their plants aren't looking so good, feel free to send them over here and they'll feel much better after looking at these. Still I will smoke them, all of them


Let's get a closer look at those organic plants:

These two as you can see are struggling to bud up and be my buddies. I wasn't really expecting much from them after watching them grow (no touching honest, well maybe a little), they do smell nice though. I'll leave them for as long as possible just to see if they can pack a bit of weight on but the signs are not good. At the first sign of hermaphroditism they will be in for the chop chop. They may well be chopped soon anyway but I will at least give them some sort of chance.

Panning round to the back of the tent the biggest of the organics is pretty much the same although she does have a touch more bud on her:

I'll let her run full term for certain as I would like one of these organics to go over and create me some knockout CBN, that's just my thing I like being knocked out for a good night's sleep.

OK this one I know exactly what is up with as I mentioned it in my previous update. This girl was the one I decided to try 'hydro in soil' with in my drunken stupor, she's still looking poorly and every time I prop her up she falls down again and thinks are looking grim for her. Still at least she has a few nice fat buds on her which will go well in the curing jar. She had a last feed of SGT and Maxicrop a couple of nights ago and will now be on water only ready for the chop:

Onto the other chemical girls (which have both been fed a feed of water and SGT last night) they're looking ok but the Killer Skunk is due for chop over the next week or two and the Sweet Cheese in the next two or three weeks. Hopefully they'll have fattened up some by then as these are my main hopes of making up any yield I will expect to get:

This is the Killer Skunk at the back still reeling from my onslaught of stroking all her stickiness, she's got some fair colas on her but I'm so glad I don't have to sell this shit

Also a couple of shots of the Sweet Cheese and I'm quite happy with her considering she still has a couple of weeks left yet:

Finally for the flowering tent let's take a look at the Killer Skunk which has remained dwarf like. I could swear she has more of the look of the Bubba's Gift that I grew out last time, compact but heavy little colas underneath all that extra foliage. I really should keep a diary or journal or something:

That pretty much rounds up the flowering tent update. The next post will be my veg tent and a word of warning regarding using passively cooled DIY COB lights.

 

[Kriaze]

The veg tent, well what can I say about the veg tent except the plants are growing, in fact they're becoming a problem size wise and I can see me having to break another few stems in the near future. Here's a look at how it is at the moment:

They're still going well under two 50w COBs as being the lackadaisical gardener and *cough* guardian of ganja that I am I managed to help one of my DIY COB lights on it's way to the big light in the sky. Basically I moved the lights up as the plants grew higher but forgot to raise the fan that was aimed at them for cooling. I have one fan blowing through the plants and then opposite I have one blowing above the light which acted dual purpose in removing any hot spots over my plants and also cooling these passive heatsinks. I've since rectified the situation but not before this happened:

It's not actually all doom and gloom though as not only have I realised that two lights is enough in there to keep the plants happy and growing but I also have a spare COB from when the test light driver blew on my first build. As everything else is fine it's just a case of replacing the holder and making sure that the soldering is done correctly, as this light too would flicker on and off if it was moved too much. Yeah, that's my soldering skills but this was only my second attempt, at least the others seem to be holding up.

I decided to defoliate (read remove all the dead leaves) some of the plants to let more light through so I took some of them out of the tent for some pictures. Excuse the washed out pictures but as I didn't want to have to do a lot of post processing I thought I would see how the jpeg output settings on my new camera worked out, not well enough at all. Some pictures are over saturated and some are washed out, some I edited but I'm tired and have to do this for a living again come then end of the month so I don't want to overload myself as is. Still post production is going to be a must in the future, I'll have to allow time for that.

Here is one of the Killer Skunks, she's pretty damn tall and one of her siblings is almost the same size now too, there may be trouble ahead:

This is my own crossed Incredible Bulk and White Widow Skunk which after a chat to Mr Am4zin the other day has now been named Incredible Skunk, let's hope she can live up to the name as is although I would like to do some back crossing to iron out the kinks so to speak in the future. This is the one that I never topped:

Here is where I foresee problems with the strain as it is, they just genuinely don't like to be topped from what I've seen sofar. If anyone is willing to prove me wrong feel free to let me know:

Apart from that I had to transplant one of the clones today as she was outgrowing her pot, plus she may have been over watered slightly, ahem. Anyway she is now in her new home in one of my airpots and some Clover Compost with added John Innes plus a little Perlite for aeration. Let's see how she goes as I've heard only good things about this particular compost and Cannabis.

That's pretty much it for now, next time we look in there may be some good old scraggly buds on show ready for drying if not already dried, we'll see how things go. Until then all the best and may your buds be forever bountiful

 

[Crazynewf]

My opinion you need more wattage in your lighting, and try trimming a little more off the centre of you plant ( great time for clones) and PH of your feeding , try and keep it at around 6.5 with your added nutrients into your water

 

[Kriaze]

My opinion you need more wattage in your lighting, and try trimming a little more off the centre of you plant ( great time for clones) and PH of your feeding , try and keep it at around 6.5 with your added nutrients into your water

Hello and thanks for your input. I could well agree with you on the extra lighting needed as this time around with more plants I don't look like I'll be getting as much, even with the addition of the extras since the last harvest. The trimming I tend to get a little bit wary of, I do defoliate just not a lot, I do lollipop though. Now as for the PH I'm running a PH perfect series which is chelated meaning that I don't need to bother with my PH pen and the chemical girls that use that nutrient don't seem to be suffering from deficiencies, only my over watering which I explained in my last update. Organic girls shouldn't need ph'ing, although I think I will go back to rainwater only next time I try them.

Thanks for getting involved and honouring my journal with your first post, welcome to

 

[Jgrowlove]

Gorgeous garden we all are just hoping to improve daily and learn from mistakes and I can tell you are doing just that. How tall are your killer skunks?? I've got some tall veg plants and I've noticed that the plants I train early on seem to have a more sturdy base and don't need support in flower. For my limited flower spaces and plenty of plants it's helped out alot!

 

[Weaselcracker]

Enjoy poking fun at yourself over the issues while they last Kriaze. One by one they go away and you find yourself without so much stupid shit to laugh at (well at least more often you do)
I too was wondering if it's worth checking the soil ph just in case something is wonky with your compost ph or something. Mainly because I don't know shit about organics and everything revolves around ph for me. Yes I know soil shouldn't usually need it but sometimes it does.
Holy shit you've got a lot of trimming coming up. Lots of bud too in the end.
I love reading your posts.
Gotta run and unload stuff.
Happy 420 to you mate!