Fools Rush In: Newbie's Adventures In Suboptimal Conditions

The photo in natural light clearly indicates N def - your girl is very hungry!
CCDA8FA2-0990-418A-9B7C-5D5D6297B295.jpeg


Isn’t that a fabric pot? You could put it in a large pot saucer (or the like) with the appropriate nutrient solution, and let it wick up into and totally saturate the medium. That’s how I fertigate this one - to avoid channeling
0EE9DE1F-3020-4B84-B005-2B9BA6DCEFA5.jpeg
 
The photo in natural light clearly indicates N def - your girl is very hungry!
CCDA8FA2-0990-418A-9B7C-5D5D6297B295.jpeg


Isn’t that a fabric pot? You could put it in a large pot saucer (or the like) with the appropriate nutrient solution, and let it wick up into and totally saturate the medium. That’s how I fertigate this one - to avoid channeling

Muchas gracias Felipe! Great suggestion. I will add it to my list!
 
Fully watered and fed after lights came on this evening. Used a large saucer as you suggested, @FelipeBlu. Also prepared double the amount of solution than usual just to ensure saturation.

Well, looks like the saturation point is almost 1L above what I'd been watering to previously.

I'm not sure if this changes anything beyond how long the plant will take to get through it all.

Will still keep an eye on the plant's state after 3 or 4 days to see if it needs a secondary watering.
 
Omg that is genious i bet tht could work for mine too!!
 
I’m glad you tried that - it’s how I determine the weight at the saturation point. So knowing that end and the weight at the dry end, I can really work the wet/dry cycle.

At this point, you probably don’t need to water the top in-between main fertigations. But she is begging for more N, and other deficiencies will also show if you don’t feed her more. This is a feminized seed?
 
BTW, this is the photo I was looking for last night. :rolleyes:
At this point, she was pretty much done wicking up the solution.
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There is also a tek called SWICK that you may be interested in trying. It entails filling a container with the smaller size perlite, pouring your fertilizer solution in, but only to a level that will allow you to nestle your fabric pot in the perlite, but not directly in the solution. The perlite will then wick the solution up into the pot. This constant moisture is beneficial after you have already filled the pot with roots by pumping the wet/dry cycle - and excellent for flowering. SweetSue started a SWICK thread a few years back - it’s worth reading through.
 
I’m glad you tried that - it’s how I determine the weight at the saturation point. So knowing that end and the weight at the dry end, I can really work the wet/dry cycle.

At this point, you probably don’t need to water the top in-between main fertigations. But she is begging for more N, and other deficiencies will also show if you don’t feed her more. This is a feminized seed?

Thanks Felipe! I will see how she behaves under full saturation. I will increase the PPM next cycle if symptoms persist, i.e. the yellow intensifies or spreads.

There is also a tek called SWICK that you may be interested in trying. It entails filling a container with the smaller size perlite, pouring your fertilizer solution in, but only to a level that will allow you to nestle your fabric pot in the perlite, but not directly in the solution. The perlite will then wick the solution up into the pot. This constant moisture is beneficial after you have already filled the pot with roots by pumping the wet/dry cycle - and excellent for flowering. SweetSue started a SWICK thread a few years back - it’s worth reading through.

Yeah I have read SweetSue's thread on this before! Very cool. Will revisit sometime.

When I either begin the outdoor grow for the year or get a bigger cabinet, I'll be looking at a method like this or hempy to study or try out!
 
This is a feminized seed?

Unfortunately this is bag seed! So who knows what will present itself?

If it turns out to be a male, or herms, I think I will simply call it a day and start one of the new seeds.
 
Random life update and reflections

Phew! Been quite the weekend. My partner was experiencing shortness of breath, which got worse over the course the week. Ended up having to go to ER last night. The nurses did the basic triage diagnostics, and thankfully she has no other Covid symptoms, her blood oxygen levels were fine, and her lungs sounded ok too, so we were able to avoid waiting around for 3-4 hours on Sunday night to see a doctor. She'll still see her GP in the coming days, but it helps to know there's nothing immediately life-threatening.

The past week was also interesting and significant for other reasons. For the first time in my life, I've started explicitly self-medicating with cannabis in the morning. I've refined a basic dose of decarbed herb and AVB that turns off the "doom machine" in the morning and leaves me functional for work etc. It took my partner a moment to understand that I wasn't simply looking to get hammered every morning. But now she's happy that I've found something other than benzos to help with anxiety.

It's been a long journey that started in a recreational context, like so many of us. But over time, as I've simultaneously been developing my interest and methods with cannabis and cultivation, and working on my own physical and mental health, it has rather naturally led me to this point. Where I can begin to really refine and closely examine my relationship with this plant in a therapeutic or medical frame, rather than a purely recreational one.

And it was a big deal, for me, somehow. To acknowledge to myself that even though I'm consciously thinking about it in those terms now, that probably I had been self-medicating for many years. It is humbling to acknowledge both the reality of my mental health, and that of my relationship to the plant.

I am grateful to be able to be part of this community, where I don't have to worry about stigma, or let stigma define my own self-judgements or my judgements of others. In fact, I suspect that if I had not been here, I would probably still be in some degree of denial about all of this. This has been a great space of safety and permission.

Zooming out yet again, I marvel at the feedback loops that have arisen between me and the plant. I am responsible for the plant's wellbeing, and in many ways, the plant is also partly responsible for mine.

And it doesn't stop there, for me. It draws my attention outwards to the many things in the world that we tend to and nurture. Our relationships and people, our homes, our bodies, our memories, our capacities to learn, think and do. They are all, in their own ways, "living" things that require care, constant attention and work. And in turn they are also things that will take care of us, in their own ways.

:Namaste: :green_heart:
 
Well done mate. Benzos are shit. I still take Temazepam every night to help with sleep. I’m going to try to wean myself off once I get a nice heavy nighttime strain.

It’s nice to hear that you think you have been subconsciously self medicating. I feel the same way now when looking back on my teens. Mental health wasn’t really spoken about as it is now.

Keep well my friend. Sounds like you are starting to dial it in :green_heart:
 
You’re on a beautiful path
and among friends

Have you read Michael Pollan’s
The Botany of Desire? We are closer to our plants than most people realize.

Thank you for the kind words, Felipe! Really appreciate it.

That book looks fabulous! I will check it out. I am also interested in reading Derek Jarman's Garden. The book is Jarman's account of his garden which he tended until his death.

Well done mate. Benzos are shit. I still take Temazepam every night to help with sleep. I’m going to try to wean myself off once I get a nice heavy nighttime strain.

It’s nice to hear that you think you have been subconsciously self medicating. I feel the same way now when looking back on my teens. Mental health wasn’t really spoken about as it is now.

Keep well my friend. Sounds like you are starting to dial it in :green_heart:

Thanks for sharing McRib! Yeah I have seen too many friends with benzo problems/addictions. I respect benzos and believe they have their place, but they are over-prescribed and too easy to get into bad habits with. I've tried all kinds of things for sleep now. Herb is still my number 1. Not perfect, but good enough. Benzos wreak all kinds of havoc on my mood the next day. In saying all that, I will still happily take one on a bad day/night.

I look forward to growing my first heavy/sedative "indica" for this reason, too! Good luck with weaning off the 'pam whenever you get to that. Lemme know how it goes, eh? :Namaste:

Yeah so many people struggling in silence with mental health stuff. I'm glad it's easier to have conversations about those things these days.

Hope you are well too! Also, congrats on the new lights. They look sick :cool::cool:
 
Random life update and reflections

Phew! Been quite the weekend. My partner was experiencing shortness of breath, which got worse over the course the week. Ended up having to go to ER last night. The nurses did the basic triage diagnostics, and thankfully she has no other Covid symptoms, her blood oxygen levels were fine, and her lungs sounded ok too, so we were able to avoid waiting around for 3-4 hours on Sunday night to see a doctor. She'll still see her GP in the coming days, but it helps to know there's nothing immediately life-threatening.

The past week was also interesting and significant for other reasons. For the first time in my life, I've started explicitly self-medicating with cannabis in the morning. I've refined a basic dose of decarbed herb and AVB that turns off the "doom machine" in the morning and leaves me functional for work etc. It took my partner a moment to understand that I wasn't simply looking to get hammered every morning. But now she's happy that I've found something other than benzos to help with anxiety.

It's been a long journey that started in a recreational context, like so many of us. But over time, as I've simultaneously been developing my interest and methods with cannabis and cultivation, and working on my own physical and mental health, it has rather naturally led me to this point. Where I can begin to really refine and closely examine my relationship with this plant in a therapeutic or medical frame, rather than a purely recreational one.

And it was a big deal, for me, somehow. To acknowledge to myself that even though I'm consciously thinking about it in those terms now, that probably I had been self-medicating for many years. It is humbling to acknowledge both the reality of my mental health, and that of my relationship to the plant.

I am grateful to be able to be part of this community, where I don't have to worry about stigma, or let stigma define my own self-judgements or my judgements of others. In fact, I suspect that if I had not been here, I would probably still be in some degree of denial about all of this. This has been a great space of safety and permission.

Zooming out yet again, I marvel at the feedback loops that have arisen between me and the plant. I am responsible for the plant's wellbeing, and in many ways, the plant is also partly responsible for mine.

And it doesn't stop there, for me. It draws my attention outwards to the many things in the world that we tend to and nurture. Our relationships and people, our homes, our bodies, our memories, our capacities to learn, think and do. They are all, in their own ways, "living" things that require care, constant attention and work. And in turn they are also things that will take care of us, in their own ways.

:Namaste: :green_heart:
wise words my man.... I was able to relate to all of the points you indicated...and totally agree.
Have a great week and hope your wife's health improve's quickly.
 
wise words my man.... I was able to relate to all of the points you indicated...and totally agree.
Have a great week and hope your wife's health improve's quickly.

Cheers Bionic! I appreciated you sharing your own story in your journal! Hope you are doing good :Namaste:
 
Cheers Bionic! I appreciated you sharing your own story in your journal! Hope you are doing good :Namaste:
Yes I’m well thanks. The body is back on board and was pretty excited to get my first bitcoin seeds through today (thanksforthehelp) planning my next grow
 
Not much to report, although last night I decided to decommission the backup box and allowed the backup plants to return to the primordial soup. RIP Baglady and Eponym :Namaste:

No point keeping them around at this point. I’m getting Desert to harvest, and if anything goes wrong I will pop a new seed to replace her!

I also need to rethink the second box design anyway, if I want it to be a proper vegging space.

Apart from that, here’s a shot of Desert soon after being fed:

D203D23A-233D-47E1-B395-06865BEB7323.jpeg


The yellowing could have resulted from me starving her/stretching out her dry phase for too long. Or it could be the concentration of feed. We'll see!
 
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