JimmieJ's First Grow - Closet - Soil - Bag Seed - CFLs

Thanks 415friendly - I think I'll add another small fan and see how that works. I have an oversized fan in the flower closet... maybe that's why I have no problems in there. :thumb:
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Update.

My portable ac was working great, but Cici is really starting to stink, and the ac sucks room air to force the heat outside, so I had to stop using it - my window is too close to the street to risk the smell getting out, so I got some ona gel. Seemed to work great near the plants, but when I walked in the house, I could smell the plant until I was close to it, then all I could smell was the gel. So the flower closet got moved.

Cici and Sandy in the old flower closet
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The former veg closet, cleaned out and ready for its new job
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Now it's the flower closet
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Back in business :thumb:
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The two closets share a wall and an air duct, so I took advantage of that to relocate my carbon filter. The old setup wouldn't work with the ac overpowering it, but this is working great

Inside the flower closet
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Inside the former flower closet. The air cleaner fit right in the opening with a $5 adapter from the hardware store
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I thought the fungus gnat problem was under control with more airflow. I saw gnats here and there, but the sticky traps weren't catching anything. Cici started to show signs of trouble, so I knew the problem was worse than I thought.

Leaves are showing damage from the gnats
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I picked up some mosquito control. It has BTI, which kills fungus gnat larvae. Fingers crossed.
With these crumbled into a powder, then sprinkled on the soil, watering is supposed to activate the larvae-killing bacteria
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I also picked up some diatomaceous earth. It's supposed to kill the gnats and their larvae. Hopefully these treatments will do the trick and I won't have any more damage.
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When I dried my buds, I think I overdid it. They were crispy feeling on the outside, but sticky when broken up. I picked up some Bovedas at the cigar shop, put them in my jars for a few days, and they worked like a charm. Buds now feel perfect, I highly recommend these packs. Don't know if anyone else makes this type of thing, but this is what's available around here. I got the 60g size and moved them from jar to jar till everything was humidified. I know they have a 62% that's designed for cannabis, but I would need to get them online and I prefer to buy my supplies locally with cash when possible.
My cramazon account is probably looking a little suspicious lately. :thumb:

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Sandy update.

She's been under 12/12 since 7/24, today is the 9th day and she is finally putting out nice white pistils. I didn't think to take a pic of them before lights out.
I wasn't paying too much attention to her, but she stretched quite a bit so I had to do some LST. While I was in there I cleaned up the loose and dead leaves. There were way more than I expected. That could've gotten moldy.

Before
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The burnt looking tips below are CFL burn. It happens when the leaves actually touch the bulbs. You can let the leaves get dangerously close to 27 watt CFLs and they won't burn. Not recommending it but it happens.
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After
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The white powder on the soil is the diatomaceous earth
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I'm happy with how it turned out. She'll straighten out toward the light and by tomorrow I bet she'll look mighty fine after a couple adjustments to the ties. When that settles and she's straight up again, I can start tucking fan leaves because the flowers will be showing and I can try to get this girl looking like her cousin Cici. :thumb:
 
I think this grow might be over very soon. Cici has been losing leaves like crazy and looks terrible, and this has all happened in a week's time. I now suspect root aphids. I haven't seen a single fungus gnat in the flower closet, and I'm still treating for them, so I doubt there would be this much damage without having adults flying around. If it's root aphids, controlling them is beyond what I'm willing to spend. Whatever it is, I'm harvesting what I have as soon as the buds appear to be declining. They actually look fine at the moment, but at this rate, it won't be long. I wish the weeds in my garden and lawn were this finnicky.
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I had two clones in the cloner with beautiful roots, and no sign of pests. I sterilized a batch of soil in the oven at 200F for an hour, so I'm pretty confident that anything that might have been in there is dead. I planted this one in a dishwasher-sterilized container and set up a veg area in the basement to keep them far away from the trouble. The clones are from Sandy (a clone), whose mother gave me some solid 4-hit smoke and I don't want to lose this strain yet if I can help it.
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I saved the fan out of an old pc, and it finally came in handy. :thumb:I wish I had saved the case, it would be cool to try a micro grow in a pc case.
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Sandy update.

She looks great. So did Cici a week ago. It won't be long and I'll have a better idea of how serious of a pest problem I might have.
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A couple crappy leaves. If they all start doing this, I'm screwed. If she makes it through flower, I'll have some more great smoke.
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Steel wool for fungus gnats?

I came across a testimonial from a guy who couldn't get rid of his fungus gnat problem, then he tried steel wool and it worked for him. I don't remember where I saw it so I can't give him the credit, but it made sense to me so I tried it. I've been seeing a gnat here and there in the veg closet, but it didn't seem too bad. Today, I saw one on the wall and sprayed it. Suddenly, a bunch of them seemed to come out of nowhere and tried to get away under the table. I soaked the plants, the wall and the table with my insect spray. Then, I did another hydrogen peroxide treatment, which is supposed to kill the eggs and larvae. I put some fine steel wool over the plants to trap any gnats from getting in or out of the container. If they can't lay eggs on the soil, they can't reproduce. If they already did, the babies can't get out. Fingers crossed again.
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I did the steel wool treatment on my newest clone, too. Supposedly sand will do the same thing, but I've seen warnings that it can keep oxygen from flowing freely. My guess is that steel wool is plenty porous that oxygen can move around just fine.
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I'm stumped on Cici. She lost a majority of her leaves in a matter of a week. Now, the leaves that remain are staying put. Looking back at pictures of her mother, she lost most of her leaves by the end too, just not the same way. I thought it was because I was using MG. Now that I'm using a high quality soil, I wasn't expecting this. Maybe it's the genetics. Maybe it's pests that I can't see. If she's stable now, she'll get through flowering just fine. Her mother looked like hell but gave me some good, tasty smoke.
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Sandy is still doing fine.
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Last clone of Sandy is planted, and the cloner is shut down and put away for now. It has served me well. :thumb:

This bubble cloner makes great roots, for me the key is scraping the stems.
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Here she is on the left, next to her sister. I gave her the steel wool treatment to keep bugs out.
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I took a sample bud from Cici 4 days ago and let it dry slowly. I wanted to know where she's at in case she went downhill and I had to harvest.

Before :drool::drool::drool:
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After :tokin::tokin::tokin:
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Smoke report on this - holy shit. All I did was dry this on paper in the closet for 4 days. Smoked in a water pipe. Super smooth, super tasty already. Needed 6 hits for the desired effect, and enjoyed each one. :tokin:
 
I'm happy to see everything is going well for you Jimmie. I don't have a lot of experience yet as you know, but all my plants have had leaves turn yellow and fall off at some point in flower. I even like my plants defoliated to get the light on all the lower buds better. If I'm wrong, hopefully someone will see my post and correct me.:thumb:
 
Update.

Gnats finally seem to be gone. I'm still treating for them and probably will keep doing it for now.

Cici looks ok. She's not losing leaves anymore, so I just cleaned her up a little. I'm going to grow another clone of her, and if that one does the same thing, I'm going to consider it a "feature" that it defoliates itself. :thumb:
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Sandy is looking beautiful. This is the healthiest she has looked. I just adjusted the ties, tucked some fan leaves out of the way and cleaned her up.
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