Hey Everyone!

Greetings everyone, thought I'd pop by and say Hi after seeing link to thread in DemonicAngel's sig.
First time growing with this crop, experienced closed-loop organic gardener. My 2 oldest plants are CKS Northern Lights Auto-Fem, 1 is 27 days since popping above surface, next is at 14 days above.
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And I do indeed realize the big one should be higher up in the bucket, tomato planting habits die hard, #2 is at a much higher level.
Also have mystery seeds going from a stash of 30 or so I was given by a friend to play with, no clue at all regarding strains, germed 4 but 2 seem to have been duds as still no movement after 7 days despite having shown taproots, other 2 are coming along nicely @ 2 sets of true leaves each and being hawk-eyed for gender signs, no pregnant ladies in my cabinet full of overpriced auto-fems plz and ty.
 
EndItAll said:
Greetings everyone, thought I'd pop by and say Hi after seeing link to thread in DemonicAngel's sig.
First time growing with this crop, experienced closed-loop organic gardener. My 2 oldest plants are CKS Northern Lights Auto-Fem, 1 is 27 days since popping above surface, next is at 14 days above.
IMAG077212.jpg
IMAG07819.jpg
IMAG077413.jpg

And I do indeed realize the big one should be higher up in the bucket, tomato planting habits die hard, #2 is at a much higher level.
Also have mystery seeds going from a stash of 30 or so I was given by a friend to play with, no clue at all regarding strains, germed 4 but 2 seem to have been duds as still no movement after 7 days despite having shown taproots, other 2 are coming along nicely @ 2 sets of true leaves each and being hawk-eyed for gender signs, no pregnant ladies in my cabinet full of overpriced auto-fems plz and ty.
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Thank you for stopping by. I'm also growing 2 CKS northern light auto fem. They are a nice plant to grow. If you have any questions please feel free. I'm more than happy to help others out. Your plants seem to be happy and not sick so you are doing well.

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yup, so far I'm happy with my progress, a few issues have come along since I started but nothing major and nothing I couldn't diagnose and deal with quickly. Initially it was cold slowing the older girl down, and I lost my original #2 seedling 4 days after breaking ground, she had issues shedding her shell and tore one of her cotyledons pretty much clean off, with the cold and physical damage she never recovered.

Also had a small over-watering issue with #1, not finding anyone growing in a medium quite like mine I've been using best-guesses based on coco, super-soil, and ffof grows, but my water-retention seems to be much higher than all these so it's been alot of trial and error finding the sweet spot, as my mix can feel bone dry for a couple inches down but stays saturated below that for up to 2 weeks outdoors when i grow my tomatoes. What I've disovered is that if i'm getting run-off I've over-watered.

Somewhat related to the over-watering and to my mix being recycled refreshed and amended outdoor raised-bed garden mix, I today discovered I have a case of fungus gnats I seem to have brought in from outside. I am quite sure they are gnats and not root aphids or a similar disaster, and will begin treatment tomorrow, would have today on discovery but it's a holiday, all stores closed. Picking up some BT.i. tomorrow. Took a while to find the source, I've been checking my top mix layer daily specifically to watch for something like this and never saw the larva, which is why I got worried when I saw flyers, seem to indicate aphids. But thorough inspection found the little critters wiggling away in my drainage holes at bucket bottom. Here's a couple pics I managed to get to assist me with gnat/aphid ID.
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As can be seen, long thin antennae, 3 segmented body, no tailpipe, wings not quite as long as body, combined with presence of black-headed larvae in drain holes, 100% confirmed fungus gnats. The great genocide begins with the dawn light, or at least at the opening of the local Big-Box.
 
EndItAll said:
yup, so far I'm happy with my progress, a few issues have come along since I started but nothing major and nothing I couldn't diagnose and deal with quickly. Initially it was cold slowing the older girl down, and I lost my original #2 seedling 4 days after breaking ground, she had issues shedding her shell and tore one of her cotyledons pretty much clean off, with the cold and physical damage she never recovered.

Also had a small over-watering issue with #1, not finding anyone growing in a medium quite like mine I've been using best-guesses based on coco, super-soil, and ffof grows, but my water-retention seems to be much higher than all these so it's been alot of trial and error finding the sweet spot, as my mix can feel bone dry for a couple inches down but stays saturated below that for up to 2 weeks outdoors when i grow my tomatoes. What I've disovered is that if i'm getting run-off I've over-watered.

Somewhat related to the over-watering and to my mix being recycled refreshed and amended outdoor raised-bed garden mix, I today discovered I have a case of fungus gnats I seem to have brought in from outside. I am quite sure they are gnats and not root aphids or a similar disaster, and will begin treatment tomorrow, would have today on discovery but it's a holiday, all stores closed. Picking up some BT.i. tomorrow. Took a while to find the source, I've been checking my top mix layer daily specifically to watch for something like this and never saw the larva, which is why I got worried when I saw flyers, seem to indicate aphids. But thorough inspection found the little critters wiggling away in my drainage holes at bucket bottom. Here's a couple pics I managed to get to assist me with gnat/aphid ID.
IMAG078512.jpg
IMAG078412.jpg

As can be seen, long thin antennae, 3 segmented body, no tailpipe, wings not quite as long as body, combined with presence of black-headed larvae in drain holes, 100% confirmed fungus gnats. The great genocide begins with the dawn light, or at least at the opening of the local Big-Box.
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Ok well what I can say about water is that some people like to get as much as 20-25% run off. This makes things easier to do a PH run off to see what their soil PH is. If you haven't got yourself a ph pen I would strongly urge you to invest in one. They are worth every penny. A little run off is fine. How much/ how often do you water? Those are in fact gnats. To help prevent or rid of them there is the old sand trick. Pour about an inch of sand over your soil. And before you grow pour about an inch after another inch of soil at the bottom. So an inch at the bottom and at the top will trap any in soil and prevent them from getting into your soil through the top. Another great and fun idea is to get yourself some lady bugs. They are predator insects that will eat all bugs such as gnats and spider mites. I have been using them for a long time and have yet to see either gnats or spider mites in my grows. Just a few tricks that you may like. Plus lady bugs look cute in photos protecting their Green Goddess lol

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I don't have a PH pen atm tho I am on the lookout for one, in the meantime I am using traditional PH test strips, less accurate but close enough to spot major deviations, and I have my spring water professionally lab tested twice a year since we drink it, it's never been lower than 6.5 or higher than 6.8, my strip tests before watering give a result consistent with that going in and the runoff i've tested gives exactly the same, my mix has alot of built in PH balancing and buffering so a pen isn't a high priority to me atm.

As to the gnats, for various reasons I don't care for adding sand to my mix, either on top or below, primarily because I will have to account for it when refreshing mix after harvest and don't want to introduce the extra inert volume, it wouldn't be much but over a few cycles it would be enough to start throwing off my ratios.

For my first phase of treatment i'm going to deliberately flood every pot and planter in the house with water treated with Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis, an organic bacteria that makes larval and adult gnats, mosquitoes, and other related species physically incapable of eating and causes death via starvation, while being completely inert to all other life-forms and safe to use from seed right up until harvest day since it stays in the soil and never actually enters the plant, have used it before in my pond vs mosquitoes to great effect. If I don't see improvement 3 days to a week after my biological warfare effort, I will re-apply a 2nd treatment at next watering. A week after that, if the gnats persist, I will have to resort to the nuclear option, which is to hit the pots with a mix of 4 parts water to 1 part 3% hydrogen peroxide. This will kill any larva present in my mix once and for all, but it will also severely damage my micro-organism ecosystem, which will in turn severely interfere with the plant's ability to absorb nutrients from mix until i can rebuild the microbial life and will require some form of artificial nutrient be introduced to keep the plants alive through the process, which will greatly displease my fanatical organic obsessed self. I really hope to avoid that.
Long term I will be adding predatory nematodes from now on as preventive and maintenance measure.

As to watering, "how much" has been variable, originally in the smaller pot as you and others suggested I watered through until I had plenty of runoff, but my plant immediately objected to that. Since transplanting, I've gradually reduced how much since then to the point where I stop the instant I start seeing run-off, and am no longer seeing drooping or yellowing after watering. "How often" has been when I've felt it was needed based on plant's behaviour, weight of bucket, and dryness on top couple inches. I cannot overstate how much water this mix retains below the first couple inches. In my outdoor tomato buckets, in full summer heat with ALOT of daylight and near-drought conditions, I only had to water my buckets once every week or two, and got 20-40 pounds of tomatoes per plant, 1 plant per bucket. It doesn't stay WET, but it stays very moist for a good long while and she's not that big yet nor is her root ball, she isn't doing much to suck the bottom half dry yet, which I believe is why the gnats are only hatching out the bottom.
 
EndItAll said:
I don't have a PH pen atm tho I am on the lookout for one, in the meantime I am using traditional PH test strips, less accurate but close enough to spot major deviations, and I have my spring water professionally lab tested twice a year since we drink it, it's never been lower than 6.5 or higher than 6.8, my strip tests before watering give a result consistent with that going in and the runoff i've tested gives exactly the same, my mix has alot of built in PH balancing and buffering so a pen isn't a high priority to me atm.

As to the gnats, for various reasons I don't care for adding sand to my mix, either on top or below, primarily because I will have to account for it when refreshing mix after harvest and don't want to introduce the extra inert volume, it wouldn't be much but over a few cycles it would be enough to start throwing off my ratios.

For my first phase of treatment i'm going to deliberately flood every pot and planter in the house with water treated with Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis, an organic bacteria that makes larval and adult gnats, mosquitoes, and other related species physically incapable of eating and causes death via starvation, while being completely inert to all other life-forms and safe to use from seed right up until harvest day since it stays in the soil and never actually enters the plant, have used it before in my pond vs mosquitoes to great effect. If I don't see improvement 3 days to a week after my biological warfare effort, I will re-apply a 2nd treatment at next watering. A week after that, if the gnats persist, I will have to resort to the nuclear option, which is to hit the pots with a mix of 4 parts water to 1 part 3% hydrogen peroxide. This will kill any larva present in my mix once and for all, but it will also severely damage my micro-organism ecosystem, which will in turn severely interfere with the plant's ability to absorb nutrients from mix until i can rebuild the microbial life and will require some form of artificial nutrient be introduced to keep the plants alive through the process, which will greatly displease my fanatical organic obsessed self. I really hope to avoid that.
Long term I will be adding predatory nematodes from now on as preventive and maintenance measure.

As to watering, "how much" has been variable, originally in the smaller pot as you and others suggested I watered through until I had plenty of runoff, but my plant immediately objected to that. Since transplanting, I've gradually reduced how much since then to the point where I stop the instant I start seeing run-off, and am no longer seeing drooping or yellowing after watering. "How often" has been when I've felt it was needed based on plant's behaviour, weight of bucket, and dryness on top couple inches. I cannot overstate how much water this mix retains below the first couple inches. In my outdoor tomato buckets, in full summer heat with ALOT of daylight and near-drought conditions, I only had to water my buckets once every week or two, and got 20-40 pounds of tomatoes per plant, 1 plant per bucket. It doesn't stay WET, but it stays very moist for a good long while and she's not that big yet nor is her root ball, she isn't doing much to suck the bottom half dry yet, which I believe is why the gnats are only hatching out the bottom.
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Ebay 20$ no issues with mine. FYI. Lol

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Hello Kingjoe. I assume you mean for a PH pen? Don't get me wrong, I will eventually be getting one, definitely on my "Nice to have" list, but other than pest control, the next money I sink into the project will be going to finishing my exhaust and filtration system. Considering how far out in the middle of nowhere I am and how much of a social recluse I am other than these forums and that only recently, I get a surprisingly large amount of traffic through my home in the form of clients coming to drop off or collect things I've designed, built or repaired for them, and some of them are very much non-liberal and judgemental of other people's private life choices. Once that's done my next highest priority will be adding yet more lights, I eventually want to be above 600w out of wall to really maximize yields. And while I'm comfortable enough to have a nice piece of land to call my own, a home that meets all my and my family's needs, and a good collection of man-child toys to play with, as a lifestyle I'm a cheap bastard who never spends a penny he doesn't have to, and I'm comfortable with what I have on hand for now.
 
EndItAll said:
Hello Kingjoe. I assume you mean for a PH pen? Don't get me wrong, I will eventually be getting one, definitely on my "Nice to have" list, but other than pest control, the next money I sink into the project will be going to finishing my exhaust and filtration system. Considering how far out in the middle of nowhere I am and how much of a social recluse I am other than these forums and that only recently, I get a surprisingly large amount of traffic through my home in the form of clients coming to drop off or collect things I've designed, built or repaired for them, and some of them are very much non-liberal and judgemental of other people's private life choices. Once that's done my next highest priority will be adding yet more lights, I eventually want to be above 600w out of wall to really maximize yields. And while I'm comfortable enough to have a nice piece of land to call my own, a home that meets all my and my family's needs, and a good collection of man-child toys to play with, as a lifestyle I'm a cheap bastard who never spends a penny he doesn't have to, and I'm comfortable with what I have on hand for now.
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Yes we all start somewhere. I was just letting you know oh pens good ones 79$-159$ ebay was 20 no issues. Just lookin out.

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EndItAll said:
Hello Kingjoe. I assume you mean for a PH pen? Don't get me wrong, I will eventually be getting one, definitely on my "Nice to have" list, but other than pest control, the next money I sink into the project will be going to finishing my exhaust and filtration system. Considering how far out in the middle of nowhere I am and how much of a social recluse I am other than these forums and that only recently, I get a surprisingly large amount of traffic through my home in the form of clients coming to drop off or collect things I've designed, built or repaired for them, and some of them are very much non-liberal and judgemental of other people's private life choices. Once that's done my next highest priority will be adding yet more lights, I eventually want to be above 600w out of wall to really maximize yields. And while I'm comfortable enough to have a nice piece of land to call my own, a home that meets all my and my family's needs, and a good collection of man-child toys to play with, as a lifestyle I'm a cheap bastard who never spends a penny he doesn't have to, and I'm comfortable with what I have on hand for now.
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Also ph is a large role of growing . Certain time of changes stages in the plants life require levels if ph to b e withing certain ranges to not have lock out issues. Just read that on here the other day

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I would like to start by saying that lack of tone and speech pattern might make it seem like I am belligerently arguing, I assure you I am not, I wish to clarify some points and engage in friendly discussion and I respect your opinion on this.

Very true PH is an important factor, but one of the nice bonuses of the organic growth medium I use, as well as most truly organic growing mediums is that it's ALOT more forgiving. After much research when I decided to set up my box and start growing, it is really not as important to me as it would be to hydroponic or soil based grows. The good fungi and bacteria I have in my mix take care adjusting it for me pretty much all on their own, based on my experience and research, and while I fully admit to not being an expert and using a very experimental setup for cannabis, I can say with total certainty that in 8 years of using this method and these materials other than the light source, I have produced literal metric tonnes of food from every food-crop that will grow in my Growing Zone, some of which are alot more fragile and sensitive than cannabis, and never had a PH related issue, so as long as I don't do anything silly I should be good giving them anything between 6.0 and 7.5, with 6.5 being the ideal. I do add a little bit of organic apple-cider vinegar to my home-made cal-mag and plant food to lower their PH to around 6.0 - 6.5, test strip showed they were a bit high, somewhere around 7.5 - 8.0, but other than that I haven't had any issues. Careful selection of quality ingredients for my garden seems to have paid off here as well as at my table. :green_heart:
 
DemonicAngel said:
How is she doing now? I'd love to hear of your progress big time

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She is thriving....Thx for asking.
I am getting ready to put her in the flower room she is throwing pistols now. I will have room in a day or two. I will post a pic
DemonicAngel said:
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Day 60 ladies and gentleman!!! Come on buds lol

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anything that occurs in nature cannot be unnatural!
The Birth & Evolution Of A Dragon

Unknown Strain From Seed - First Time Grow
 
ok, so I are confuzzled.

my #1 has started showing me both 4 and 6 fingered fan leaves, and in all cases, the extra leaves appear to be normal shaped but much smaller than all the other leaves on the fan. A brief google search really didn't find much info on the subject of even numbers of fingers, anyone experienced this and want to chime in?
 
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