Dark Devil Auto: A Community Grow Record

[SweetSue]

Yeah, I'm pretty casual about the whole thing. Just some plants, no big deal.

I lie. I just saw that my order went from "pending" to "completed", and I squealed so loud it scared the dogs. My seeds are flying!

If everything goes according to schedule, it's 44 days until the first planting. That'll be a DD, a Malawi Gold, a Sweet Coffee Ryder, and an Auto Berry. Another set every two weeks for a total of five plantings, each in a different site.

Those first two plantings might be iffy. Days will still be short, and there's a slight chance of a hard freeze. On the other hand, they'll be growing before the insect pests start cranking it up, which might help. I have to push some boundaries to see what works in this area. I've also been scouring Conradino's outdoor grow journals for helpful info, as SweetSue suggested, so that should give me an edge.

Outdoors adds a lot of the random element to the process. I could get everything from maximum-height, maximum yield plants to chewed-off stumps surrounded by purple deer droppings.

I'm pleased to hear you've been reading Conradino's journals. Don't hesitate to ask him directly, if you can find him. He'll be open to helping you. There was an insightful conversation that was going on at one point on Robert Celt's thread on organic soil science. Here's a link to when Conradino jumped into the discussion.

The Organic Way: Soil Science 101

 

[SweetSue]

My new grow journal is up and running. Starting from the ground up and giving myself a head start so I can hit the ground running when I get home on Feb 3rd. Feel free to join us, if you're so inclined. It's always joyful and there's much to learn in the planning and preparation stage.

 

[BrixNewb]

These autos. What a heartbreak for me. One left, Dark Devil. The rest I overwatered and stunted to the point of no return. Dark Devil is healthy and happy, and yesterday she got her first drench, Growth Energy, and I made sure to drain her as well as I could. I was a little apprehensive about drenching her just yet, but today I am happy to report that she is doing great after her drench.

Dark Devil

 

[SweetSue]

Ahhh..... BrixNewb, she's a lovely beauty and she'll respond wonderfully to the kit. You've done well grasshopper.

 

[mb5200]

Looks like she is doing great, are you going to pop a few more beans?

 

[BrixNewb]

Ahhh..... BrixNewb, she's a lovely beauty and she'll respond wonderfully to the kit. You've done well grasshopper.

Why thanks Sue. I sure hope she does well, I could really use a decent yield from her. She has 7 gallons of pot to swim in, so here is to hoping!

Looks like she is doing great, are you going to pop a few more beans?

Thanks mb. I have 3 other seedlings that are chugging along, but nothing relative to this thread.

 

[smokiebear]

Subbing since this is on my to-grow list. Will read all the pages later.

 

[glimmergrass]

Hey, Brix -- so sorry to hear about your other plants, but your DD looks gorgeous. Nice structure and those young flowers are so tender and fluffy!

DD Female pollen update

I'm treating one flowering tip of my DD with colloidal silver (60ppm 2x a day, we're now at day 19) and thought it wasn't terribly successful because I had picked such a low branch. Well, it is working -- the male flowers were so hard to see because they're dark purple! I may be able to get some female pollen from her, which would mean I can make some DD seeds of my own, which would be great! I'll try to get a photo -- it's interesting, but hard to photograph

 

[BrixNewb]

Hey, Brix -- so sorry to hear about your other plants, but your DD looks gorgeous. Nice structure and those young flowers are so tender and fluffy!

Thanks for the love, but it's no worries. Only lessons learned. I have been very fortunate in my grows so far. Don't cry for me sweet Glimmer! I see your tent is looking lovely as usual, nice work.

Last night I happened to measure her, she was 6 inches. It is now a little over 12 hours later (including 4 hours of darkness) and she is 7 inches! Guess it's safe to say that she is in the stretch.

 

[glimmergrass]

Thanks for the love, but it's no worries. Only lessons learned. I have been very fortunate in my grows so far. Don't cry for me sweet Glimmer! I see your tent is looking lovely as usual, nice work.

Last night I happened to measure her, she was 6 inches. It is now a little over 12 hours later (including 4 hours of darkness) and she is 7 inches! Guess it's safe to say that she is in the stretch.

Wow! Bless her little purple heart (and yours)

 

[bobrown14]

I'm pleased to hear you've been reading Conradino's journals. Don't hesitate to ask him directly, if you can find him. He'll be open to helping you. There was an insightful conversation that was going on at one point on Robert Celt's thread on organic soil science. Here's a link to when Conradino jumped into the discussion.

The Organic Way: Soil Science 101

I'm not really digging that link, I.E. the soil "recipe". Suggest anyone looking to go organic soil - do homework and for every amendment do your research, find a good reason for adding an amendment. Don't just dump this or that into the soil mix cause someone posted it.

Conradino pointed out a few issues he had with that one and I have more than a few issues with it myself. That recipe reminds me of Subcools "super soil". I'll leave it at that.

Keep it green and purple my friends!

 

[SweetSue]

I'm not really digging that link, I.E. the soil "recipe". Suggest anyone looking to go organic soil - do homework and for every amendment do your research, find a good reason for adding an amendment. Don't just dump this or that into the soil mix cause someone posted it.

Conradino pointed out a few issues he had with that one and I have more than a few issues with it myself. That recipe reminds me of Subcools "super soil". I'll leave it at that.

Keep it green and purple my friends!

I'm not sure what you meant by that BB. The thread is more about basic soil science and knowing the components, but the link was to the conversation Conradino had with some of the guys on how simple a good soil is. The most pertinent part was his conclusion on the following page:

I'll make it simple, take some soil from your garden or nearest meadow or forest, add 10-20% compost, and make a full grow in it! If it works you can get further, and I guarantee you it will

 

[mb5200]

Me 2 Dark Devil @22 days

This one is 13 days

And the baby at 3 days
front right

 

[Rifleman]

Day 15 and she is still taking her own sweet time about growing.

 

[mb5200]

Day 15 and she is still taking her own sweet time about growing.

Looks good to me, roughly the same size as my 13 day old

 

[SweetSue]

Worry not rifleman. MagicJim showed us why we need to just be patient with them and let them get a good root system under them. She looks just fine to me as well.

mb5200, I'm thrilled that you have so many going at once. I had three in my end run, but they never got to get to their full potential since I had to accelerate everything and cut the light down. I'm becoming more and more convinced that it's the light that makes the most difference. Let's see if I can help prove that with my next grow. Yours are looking absolutely beautiful.

 

[bobrown14]

I'm not sure what you meant by that BB. The thread is more about basic soil science and knowing the components, but the link was to the conversation Conradino had with some of the guys on how simple a good soil is. The most pertinent part was his conclusion on the following page:

Well you posted a link to a convo on "soil science" that I take exception to as being WAY over complicated and TBH not very well thought out and to me it reminds me of "The Rev" or Subcools "super soil" recipes. Neither you nor I use that recipe or even anything close to it.

For example: someone starting out with organic growing I think that recipe is as complicated as just running a hydro setup and probably marginally more "organic". So my post was meant to say to anyone looking at that as a "soil recipe" should be doing more homework on amendments and the base soil as well. Understand what and why we use what we use, and not just cause someone posted a "recipe". It's not that complicated for sure.

That's just me - We take our gardening fairly seriously so that we can be successful and have fun doing it.

Someone could follow that recipe and plants all pretty much die or do poorly because of too much Mg or N or whatever in the mix and would never be able to figure out what was wrong and neither would anyone else be able to help. Conradino got it right - keep it simple.

I'm not banging you Sue for posting that link - I'm just trying to point out other sources that may be more beneficial to folks getting started indoor container gardening. The internet is full of all sorts of "science" which require the end user to do homework and be sure of what you read is good in real world practice.

That's all just do your homework, keep it simple and green/purple - FTW.

 

[BrixNewb]

Dark Devil is 30 days old today. Not much upward growth lately, what I have noticed is the two lowest nodes are growing out and setting themselves up. Not sure that this plant will yield much at all to speak of, but time will tell.

 

[mb5200]

Looking good, I hope mine look that good at 30 days, I'm about a week behind you.

I see the bottom fans are a bit yellow on yours, mine are doing the same thing.

 

[BrixNewb]

Looking good, I hope mine look that good at 30 days, I'm about a week behind you.

I see the bottom fans are a bit yellow on yours, mine are doing the same thing.

Thanks. I was a little ashamed to post it, seems really small to me. How tall is yours? Mine is only about 8 inches tall, although I have been keeping the lights closer than they recommend. I moved them up yesterday to see if I can get it to stretch. Makes me feel a bit better knowing I may not be growing a dwarf after all. Or am I?