GiGaBane's 2nd Grow

[GigaGrew]

Hi guys.
thought i would do a grow journal again. my last one flopped because i split with the missus at just the wrong time, this one should be fine...touch wood, lol

this seed is an 'auto wembley' feminised from pyramidseeds.com
i dropped the seed in a mug of warm water and put it in the boiler cupboard (it sank like a brick, i was well pleased).

woke up on the morning 1st april and a fat tap root was peeking (less than 16 hours after getting wet).
I have planted it in a tiny pot for now while i re-set up my lights.
i am using westlands multi purpose with added john innes and PH 8 tap water.

i will state at this point that i will be doing no PH balancing, no nutes, no nothing except the soil its born in, water and cfl's (and sunlight when i can).

this seed is pretty much getting tested to destruction in the hopes i can understand and find a strain i could 'plant and go' for my geographic area.

my garden is being prepped for future use, but thats at least a year away. i intend the garden to be 30% local clay 30% salt free sand and the rest will be an even mix of westlands and neutral topsoil.

pics and daily progress will follow.

 

[GigaGrew]

Ok so as promise an update with pictures.

I would like to make note of the fact i have planted this seed SIDEWAYS. I believe, just like trying to stand an egg on its pointy end, nature never intended to be pointy end down. from previous experience it seems the tap root does like to curve, so on its side seems most likely to happen (less energy spent than point up and still has enough latteral grip to assist the seed carcas to shed)

this is the seed i purchased. i bought 2 of these and a northern lights auto, but they shall be planted later (i plan to smoke plant 1 whilst waiting for 2 and 3)

This was the soil i used in my last grow and i never had a problem, so here we go again =)

I do appologise for the blur of this picture, my camera is not very good at super zooms, but there is a very fat looking tap root coming out of the shel and bolt downwards.. seems to love birthing on its side.

On a final note, i appologise for giant photos, i will pre shrink them before upload in future.

 

[fish cake]

glad to see your giving it another shot good luck with it just started flower on 3rd grow here. looking good so far. be watching for you.

 

[GigaGrew]

Heya Fish Cake, nice to see you again =)

ok the bad news first. that first wembley died. the seed case didnt come off and it never recovered.

so i have planted my other 2 seeds.
the northern lights seed had the same problem with the seed case, after a discussion on here i tried to soak it for longer then removed the seed shell.

The 2 false leaves came out white and beneath them was all black and ugly.

I was sure it was dead, but just from prudence i put it under light anyway and after a couple of days i saw a sliver of green between the false leaves (litterally like a single pixle of green). i have cut off the false leaves and the true leaves seem to be growing.

the 2nd wembley is fighting fit and reaching for they sky =)

yes there is a little bit of stretching, but im only running on a single 20w compact atm (away from home).

these seeds cracked on the 6th of april.

this is the northern lights plant.

This is the 2nd wembley.

 

[GigaGrew]

fyi even tho the res contains lots of water at the bottom, the pots are 2 litre pop bottles and the water does not climb all the way up, so the soil is fairly dry...the wet look around the plants was just a few drops of water each to make sure they are getting enough till the roots go deep.

 

[fish cake]

well then GiG I will be watching. afreind gave me some fem super lemon haze seeds wich I was very exited to get. but alas they never popped so its all a roll of the dice I geuss. just gotta keep on keepin on=). so back to bag seed here. good luck and again Ill be watching. cheers mate

 

[teSmp]

Hello, glad to see you got one to sprout. You will want to water the container fairly well, until you see run off out the bottom. This will make sure there aren't any dry spots because right now you want your roots to spread out all over. If you are only having water right around the plant they won't be able to do that.

Also above you said water with a PH of 8? That is much to high. You need the ph in soil to be between 6.3-6.8 for nutrients to be available to the plant. Make sure you keep your CFL real close, and in a few days to a week get a few more bulbs on it Good luck!

 

[Deege420]

hey! i got a wembley too! is it auto? Im def subbed for this! u look to be maybe like 2 days ahead of me! HAPPY GROWING

 

[GigaGrew]

heya fellas
yes its an auto wembley and an auto northern lights.

the soil came out of the bag very moist, and it has soaked up about half of the water i put underneath, so they have probably drank more than me in the last few days, lol.

these plants are being transplanted to massive buckets (builders flexi buckets) when i get home. if the roots head down rather than branching out, its of benefit to the plant for 2 reasons, the current pots are transparent so bushy roots may die by light and secondly when its time to transplant i will be cutting these pots open (cut off the bottom then slice the side) so that the current soil will just fit in a hole in the new pot....no root movement at all.

i do own PH down, but last time i used this water in this soil the run of started at 7 and by the time i had finished my grow it was running out at nearly 5.5. so i think i will be fine, but i will continue to monitor the situation and will adapt if things dont go the same as last time.

i now have 2x 20w cfl and 2x 14w cfl in close proximity so that should help stall any stretching, and as soon as i get home they will be under constant wind (3 fans) to thicken the stems.

One thing i have discovered which may be of interest to others who have difficult births, if your seedling sprouts and looks like it wont drop the case on its own, cut a small piece of tissue (small enough not to bend the stem) wet it and rest it on top of the seed (this alows you to moisten the seed for much longer periods than trying to drip a little water on it to soften.

timing is important when contemplating surgery...too soon and you will peel away the nutrients with the seed case and the plant wont survive...too late and the plant starves.
if you can see white leaves, that is the time to intervene. it looks like the plant can survive even without its false leaves if given enough light.

 

[GigaGrew]

just a quick update with todays pics.

the wembley is seriously stretching, im begining to think its only a very small portion of ruderalis in there, lack of light doesnt entirely explain the height, especially as im taking it outside every time the sun come s out.

the northern lights seriously starting to look like it will live =D

 

[teSmp]

I would fill the rest of the 2L up with soil so only a few inches of stem are sticking above and keep that light right where it's at and see how things turn out. If you had the light right where it's at and the sprout was right at where the current soil level was when it came up that would explain the stretching, at least in my eyes.

 

[GigaGrew]

no soil till i go home on saturday night =(
i have been adjusting the lights to match the growth, but to be fair, i only got them lights up and running yesterday. (had 1 of them bulbs in a ceiling socket and tried to go as close as i could)

this is the room i have claimed as my own till i get home =(

that blue shelf is what i managed to jimmy up at the time. now i have some lights here its not too bad, will have much more light and accesories when i get home. this is a serious survival type grow...water, mud, borrowed electric ...giggles

 

[GigaGrew]

ok guys and gals.
im not going to post any pics tonight. im going home tommorow and want them to be a suprise.
ill just say 2 things
1 i have finally found some 6500k's. only bought two as they were eddison screw so i had to buy lamps to fit them in as well =/
2 i am no longer afraid that my NL is a failed germination

 

[fish cake]

sweet gig,be waiting to see those pics cheers mate

 

[GigaGrew]

so....preparing for the return trip was a hugly stressful event that took far too long.so i missed the garden shop on the way back. =(

Never mind, im home now, got my evening medication and i can feel the tentions of the day melting away and im feeling more like a person now and not the spectator of my own life, lol.

My plans for my plants resume at the opening of business tommorow.

question. since these are one shot then dead auto's and i dont care about hermies would this item be ok to put 2 plants in one pot? these are what i grow in (or will, lol )

Mixing Tub - Gardening & Maintenance -Gardens - Wickes

 

[fish cake]

hey Gig how you doin! imo I think that you would be better off having 2 plant sites for 2 reasons 1 if something goes rong with 1 plant and say the other is fine,well your a smart guy alsothe shape of it is rong . say if ti were rectangular and long there would be much more light space between them. and I know that your a hard ass when it comes to the way that your gonna do something LOL but this is my two pence

 

[fish cake]

hey I also posted some of my pics from my 2nd grow its in the gallery

 

[GigaGrew]

sweet, i will definatly take a look in a bit.

im taking an hour or two away from 420, the missus wants to play everquest with me, lol

 

[GigaGrew]

afternoon peeps.
ok finishing this project is taking a long time (life is that thing passing by whilst your busy making plans), so i have taken some pics for your eddification till i complete their move =)

ok so i have gone for a slightly custom approach. these pots have about half a litre of water retainer (50/50 westlands+vermiculite) at the bottom sort of shaped like a vortex for want of a better word right now.

Here are my babies ready to be transplanted from their pitiful shacks.

Those 'bags for life' make an excelent place to mix your medium.

and here are my babies repotted in ther new homes. The rest of the soil in these pots is for airation (50/50 westland and perlite). The westlands has plenty of nutes in them for now, feeding my plants is still a chapter or two down the line =)

!! look at the Northern lights !! There is no longer any doubt that it survived its difficult birth, it had tiny roots tho, im hoping its new home will cause it to flourish.

And finally a cheap and cheerfull check of the soil PH with a brand new meter for all those nay sayers of cabbage juice, lol.

I will post again when i get the chance to show everything put in its propper place, bought 3 rolls of kitchen foil to silver all the surfaces =D

 

[GigaGrew]

ok peeps this should have been posted on the 20Th to be accurate, but with site upgrade and late nights with the little ones i have not been able to keep up.

Day 14

My hectic little grow room. turns out there was no point finishing this cupboard as im goint to be moving my operation to a different room soon.

My Northern lights auto has fully recovered and now has a longer wingspan than the Wembley. even at this size i can see racial differences such as the length of the leaves.

The Wembley auto. baby leaves are decaying quite fast now, i was worried for a while, but the normal leaves look a deep healthy green with no defects.

This was an impulse purchase whilst i was using tap water, i have used it once and seems there is no problem, but im nervous of it neutralising something that the plant needs.

Thats pretty much it for the moment. will post again in the next few days as their growth rate is getting faster now they are settled.