Budtheory - 1st Grow - Hempy - Various Strains

[budtheory]

Happy Holidays! Hopefully you all had a great x-mas.

Update:

Veg room -
Every one is growing. Even the Sour Kush clone I planted too early appears to be doing fine and even shows signs of new growth.

Here are some individual shots of my girls.

White Widow - this most likely will be my mother as she is out growing my other clone of WW.

This shot has the NLxB and the SK both in the picture.

My BT clones all look good. She is definately mostly indica, as she is much stockier than any of my other plants. All of the bt clones have a very tight spacing between nodes.

The spacing on the NLxB is interesting to say the least.

Don't you just love the look of new growth? Even under LEDs you can see the color difference, which makes the veg room very beautiful.

My seedling is growing pretty slow. Her first set of leaves have a funky shape too.

Flowering room - Day 1 - BT mother (aka unknown strain)

OK. Now for some questions. I got some seeds in the mail, but I am having terrible luck with seeds.

So far I have been putting them in wet paper towles after soaking for about 6-8 hrs. Then a day or two later when the tap root has broken the seed, but is super small still, I have been planting it in a little organic rapid rooter plugs....
Amazon: Rapid Rooter Replacement Plugs

Tried jiffy pellets too....but they seem too acidic and didn't do well.

So far I am 1 for 4 with seeds...although I did break one in an accident.

What do you guys use for seeds? Would a cup with soil covered with plastic wrap to hold the moisture in be a beter idea?

 

[oregon crone]

Loose the paper towel germination. Seeds, especially weed seeds, are easy-peasy. I soak mine in a little lukewarm water while I prepare a 3" or 4" pot. 2/3 potting soil, 1/3 perlite. I do not push down onthe soil at all. I water the pot, again with lukewarm water with Super Thrive. When it has fully drained, I make a little hole in the center 1/4" or so deep, drop in the seed. Cover lightly and add dome or plastic top (I usually use a baggie)and Leave. It. Alone. Cut an air hole in the bag when it germinates, and gradually acclimate seedling to no cover. Do NOT water until the pot lightens, and provide good air flow.
You can play around with germinating tomato seeds to get your chops down without wasting your beans. HTH.

 

[budtheory]

Loose the paper towel germination. Seeds, especially weed seeds, are easy-peasy. I soak mine in a little lukewarm water while I prepare a 3" or 4" pot. 2/3 potting soil, 1/3 perlite. I do not push down onthe soil at all. I water the pot, again with lukewarm water with Super Thrive. When it has fully drained, I make a little hole in the center 1/4" or so deep, drop in the seed. Cover lightly and add dome or plastic top (I usually use a baggie)and Leave. It. Alone. Cut an air hole in the bag when it germinates, and gradually acclimate seedling to no cover. Do NOT water until the pot lightens, and provide good air flow.
You can play around with germinating tomato seeds to get your chops down without wasting your beans. HTH.

How much Super Thrive do you use?

 

[oregon crone]

I use 10 drops per gallon on the first wetting for either seeds or clones. After that I drop it to 4-5 drops per gaLlon. If one lives in Orygun and needs/wants Super Thrive, Amazon is your friend. LOL

 

[budtheory]

Loose the paper towel germination. Seeds, especially weed seeds, are easy-peasy. I soak mine in a little lukewarm water while I prepare a 3" or 4" pot. 2/3 potting soil, 1/3 perlite. I do not push down onthe soil at all. I water the pot, again with lukewarm water with Super Thrive. When it has fully drained, I make a little hole in the center 1/4" or so deep, drop in the seed. Cover lightly and add dome or plastic top (I usually use a baggie)and Leave. It. Alone. Cut an air hole in the bag when it germinates, and gradually acclimate seedling to no cover. Do NOT water until the pot lightens, and provide good air flow.
You can play around with germinating tomato seeds to get your chops down without wasting your beans. HTH.

OK. I gave this method a shot last night with a Aurora Indica bean. Crossing my fingers and will keep ya posted.


On another note, DAMN...I could not believe how much my bt mother grew in 12 hours under the 1000HPS. I'll get some pics tonight after day two of 12/12.

Also, the veg room is just taking off like crazy. I pruned all my kids in the veg room last night to get them to branch out. pics to come....

 

[budtheory]

Thought you might all like to peak in my bean library......

Current bean collection:
Nirvana - Bubblelicious - Regular x10
Nirvana - Aurora Indica - Regular x10 (now 9 since I planted one last night)
Nirvana - Blue Mystic - Regular x10
Nirvana - Papaya - Regular x10
Nirvana - White Castle - Regular x10
Dutch Passion - Purple #1 - Regular x10
DNA Genetics - Kushberry - Feminized x1
Reserva Privada - Purple Wreck - Feminized x2
Mr Nice - Critical Mass - Regular x8
De Siamaan - Purple Widow - Regular x12
Seedsman - G13 Haze - Regular x10

 

[Barry Manilow]

Nice collection bt! I have a femmed Bubblicious from Nirvana that I almost popped for this grow, it sounds like a great strain. RedDawg is growing a Blue Mystic, it's a star for sure. Good luck!

 

[budtheory]

Alrighty then, just a quick UPDATE:
In the flowering room my BT mother is growing quicklly. I am alternating between a flowering mix and a transition mix of nutes. Seems to be working as she grows an easy 2 inches every 24hrs.

You can see the new growth....also, I think that originally she may have been loaded with too much Nitrogen and had a almost blackish fan leaves. Things are a much lighter shade...lime-ish green now. No signs of stress of def of nutes.

Overhead...

Veg room.

WW is doing great.

Fam shot:

Seedling update:As mentioned I put a Aurora Indica bean in the ground. 2 days...no action yet.

Gear update: I finally figured out the big ass CFL in veg room is a 2700k.

I really feel like I want a bit more light in the veg room, and 2700k was not what I had in mind. I am tired of huddling all my plants under the one light, and having to pull the light up high enough to spread the coverage and thus lower the lumens at the point the light hits the plants. So I ordered two new additions.

A Feliz 125 Watt CFL Grow Light 6500K: rated for 7,000 lumens and 400Watt equivalent. The 2700K was only putting out 4,200 lumens, so this is an upgrade in spectrum and output.

Also have this coming as well:
90 UFO LED Plant Grow Light 420 7 : 1 : 1features:

• 3 Year Full Warranty
• The number of LED: 90pcs Red : Blue : Yellow (70 + 10 + 10)
• LED Wavelength: Red 630nm : Blue 460nm : Yellow 595nm
• Ratio: 7 : 1 : 1 - Red : Blue : Yellow (70 + 10 + 10)

Additionally, as you know I use CES. I just order some of the "Mag Amped".

"Mag AmpedTM is a pure Magnesium chelate, which is easily assimilated by the plants. Magnesium is the primary element involved in chlorophyll production. Chlorophyll essentially equates to the source of a plants energy. Mag AmpedTM amplifies the overall chlorophyll production in plants. Extra Magnesium helps plants produce chlorophyll in lower light situations (both in intensity and duration). Using Mag AmpedTM in foggy, filtered, or low intensity light, as well as short duration light cycles, helps to enhance a plants chlorophyll and in turn, can boost the plants energy level."

Not sure I will need it but, I got it just in case, so there wouldn't be a wait if it becomes a problem I need to address at some point.

Further, I have been chatting with the CES tech support guys about feeding suggestions. Basically I wanted to know if I should always use nutes or instead have a schedule such as Feed, Feed, Water, repeat.......

Here is their response: "So the frequency of fertilizing in soil or coco blends depends on a couple of factors, mainly the drainage of your medium, the size of the plant and the hardiness of the plant strain. Typically for smaller plants I would suggest using the rooted cuttings mixture and fertilize every time you water, though you will be watering less in both amount and frequency when the plants are small with less developed root systems. For larger plants, when you are watering more, I would fertilize as much as possible to optimize the overall growth.

If you want to play it safe, you could water with straight water every fourth watering or so. If you want to be more scientific, I would suggest monitoring the ruin-off of your pots and comparing it to the desired ppm level of your reservoir. For example, if your target ppm is 1400, and your run off is coming out at about the same level, keep fertilizing. If your run-off is coming out much higher, say 2000+, then you know that you should back off on the fertilizer until it comes back into range. I wouldn't suggest flushing with straight water ever, it tends to stunt plants a bit, as a general rule, I would suggest watering with a diluted fertilizer mixture, rather than just using plain water."

So, with that being said, I also ordered this guy:
Sunleaves TDS Essential Digital TDS Meter for $25 on Amazon.
Amazon: Sunleaves TDS Essential Digital TDS Meter

Seem s pretty accurate and says it does not need calibration..although I am not sure I believe that...we shall see. I did look online for reviews and found a few good mentions by other growers on different forums.

Happy growing guys.

 

[budtheory]

Oh, one other thing concerning seedlings... does anyone have experience with running seedlings/germination in a veg room at 24/7 vs. 18/6

can and do seedlings really act different under 24 hrs of light versus 18hrs of light and 6 of dark?

In veg I know 24 hrs of light doesn't hurt....but could it be partly to blaim for low success rate of seedlings?

Blocking off a seedling specif spot would be a pain, but I could put everything in that room on 18/6...but I just like the simplicity of 24/7, but still want to do what is best for the babies.

 

[oregon crone]

Lights on 20/4 on my veg stands.

 

[budtheory]

Sharing the stoke here........

Just got this in the mail:
Celestron 44302 Handheld Digital Microscope

It is usb and powered by the computer. can be used to take zoomed pics from 10x - 150x.

I was thinking that if I run into problems, pests, or just need to check the color of trichomes..this would be the best way to go....especially if I need some help.

 

[Barry Manilow]

Sharing the stoke here........

Just got this in the mail:
Celestron 44302 Handheld Digital Microscope

It is usb and powered by the computer. can be used to take zoomed pics from 10x - 150x.

I was thinking that if I run into problems, pests, or just need to check the color of trichomes..this would be the best way to go....especially if I need some help.

Nice toy BT!

I run my veg/seedlings 18/6, can't say I've ever seen that question come up anywhere.... it's a good one.

I've seen much smaller ornamental shrubs than your BT momma! I'll bet she'll have a massive number of colas.

 

[budtheory]

I've seen much smaller ornamental shrubs than your BT momma! I'll bet she'll have a massive number of colas.

I hope so!!!!

 

[budtheory]

Update:

the BAD: Ok, I'll start with the bad first. Nothing too major, I am just glad it didn't happen at day 45 of flowreing or something like that.
Anyways, on Sunday morning I woke up around 7am and stumbled into the bathroom to take a piss. As I am mid-pee I notice I can hear no noise from my grow rooms. I rush in and yep...circuit has been tripped.

I had added an additional oscillating fan to myveg room and I must have been very close to 15amps because when the 1000HPS kicked in at 4am...it popped the breaker.

I fixed it...and after popping the breaker almost instantly twice, I realized I needed to really fix it.

Long story short I ran a extension cord from the other side of the house through the crawl space, and now power my flowering room and veg room on completely different circuits in the house.

So, needless to say, all plants went without light for 3 additional hours...although my only concern was my BT mother in the flowering room. Also, the temp got down to around 50 degrees. Damn cold. I got everything up to 75-80 in relatively short amount of time. So far, no worse for the wear. Everyone still seems happy and I am glad I got this out of the way now, before I could really stress out my gals when it would cause problems.

Also, I noticed the room was getting cold (the room that both flowering and veg vent into) at night. I have been running 20/4 in my veg now. Dark time is 2am-6am in veg. In flowering room dark time is 4pm-4am.

Anyways, I put a small heater that goes on in the room if the room now gets below 60 degrees it kicks on. Turns off at 70 degrees.

Does that sound about right for nighttime aka dark temps?

the GOOD

My BT mother is looking great. I used a bunch of zip ties to train her and open her up. I created a ton of space, but I have some questions. Should I thin her out in the middle area? I am not worried about mold as I have tons of verntaliation and oscillating fans in the rooms.

Check it out and let me know what you think I should do....leave be or thin her out?

Here are a few other shots of her:

Notice the stand up mirror my wife gave me. Works great for reflecting light back into the bottom and sides of the plant.

You can also see that my BT mother is raised on a 5 gallon bucket to get her closer to the HPS...but I realized this would not be very effecient as more of the girls get moved into here. So, I re-purposed 2 keyboards stands into a 4 1/2ft bench for smaller plants to be placed on. Then if need be they can be lowered to other things like 5 gal bucket (4 inches lower) or some speakers I have that I don't use that are about 1 ft lower. Also, it fits lengthwide or widthwise in the flowering room.

Something else you might find interesting is my CO2 setup. It is suggested to emit the CO2 near a oscillating fan. Which is interesting because the tube that comes out of the regulator fits exactly into the slats/grill on the back side of my fan. So, it mixes well and gets blown right into my plants from the get go. You can see the tube hanging off the back of the fan.

My lone seedling is starting to perk up and grow. Her roots must be hitting the res by now. Hopfully I will get a big boom of growth soon. As said before I mixed up the two seeds of Haze Mist and Violator Kush (both feminized)...so I am not sure what she is yet.

Also, some plants were starting to out grow others, my BT clones which I believe are Indica dominant are much shorter. So I decided to create some tiers to help out. I used some cardboard packaging for a 55inch 3-D TV I bought last Friday (sorry, had to throw that in...pretty stoked). Here you can see the lifts.

And the even canopy now.

the fam.....

 

[Barry Manilow]

Wow you've been busy BT! Everything looks great, I want to move into that room haha.

IMO cool night temps are a plus, I try for 60-65. You're pretty close, can you change the setting or does it have to be in increments of 10 degrees? If so I'd leave it like it is, otherwise drop the cut off to about 65.

Congrats on the new toy! Nothing like a sweet big screen... except a sweet garden of our favorite plant, and now you have both

 

[budtheory]

Wow you've been busy BT! Everything looks great, I want to move into that room haha.

IMO cool night temps are a plus, I try for 60-65. You're pretty close, can you change the setting or does it have to be in increments of 10 degrees? If so I'd leave it like it is, otherwise drop the cut off to about 65.

Congrats on the new toy! Nothing like a sweet big screen... except a sweet garden of our favorite plant, and now you have both

Haha...living in there with the big screen would be even better

Yeah, I can set it to any temp for on off. I will give it a shot and lower it a little. I definately like to have the results of a cooler nighttime temp...purp and other arora looking colors. Mmmmmmm Mmmmmm good.

I took a few pics this morning, and want to ask for some advice. Be back in 10 with the pics.

 

[budtheory]

Update:


Flowering Room:

I went in this morning to take a look at my BT mother (day 11 of flowering).... the last two days her top leaves and branches were within about 3-6 inches of the glass of the air cooled 1000HPS. The room stays about 80-84 degrees when the light is on...so under the glass it (by feeling with my hand) only feels like the air temp is around 90 degrees tops. Anyways, this morning on the top leave I have some very bleached out areas.

Is this heat burn or light burn (if that is even possible as I thought there is no such thing as too much light).... or is this some sort of nute lock out.

I assume heat, so I dropped her another 4 inches, so there is a good 1ft or more of space between the glass and mother.

Also, I did some more zip tying to even out the canopy.

Still have not heard whether I should thin her out inside or not either.... thoughts?

And here are a few solo shots of my veggin beauties...

White Widow

NLxB (notice how since I started growing her compared to the clone provider, her spacing is much tighter...LED light maybe...) I like it!

SDxMK

BT clones (I love my little unknown bagseed strain. Very tight spacing, seem indica dom)

Thanks for following. Help is mucho appreciated!

 

[budtheory]

Ok, to make it easy for someone to help or confirm my thoughts about heat burn.... here are the pics with highlighted areas of interest.

 

[Barry Manilow]

Sorry I'm no help on either subject, I have cfl's so they only damage the plants on contact, and those are real easy to spot. I currently only prune sickly leaves, but it's one of the things I'm interested in now. Might check out PropaGators grow, he's got good ideas about pruning. Good luck!

 

[budtheory]

Sorry I'm no help on either subject, I have cfl's so they only damage the plants on contact, and those are real easy to spot. I currently only prune sickly leaves, but it's one of the things I'm interested in now. Might check out PropaGators grow, he's got good ideas about pruning. Good luck!

Thanks for the heads up. I couldn't find the exact thread, but I did find one on pruning. Really from what I gathered, during flowering the mother will use the energy stored in the leaves to grow the buds...thus when all nutes are used in a fan leaf if will just yellow and eventually fall off. As such, the mother prunes herself as buds mature.

So, unless worried about mold issues or pests...it seems best to just leave her be...bushy bushy bushy for the lady in the grow room.....I guess they can't all be trimmed up clean like a lady that shares my bed!!!