Jon's New Pared Down Setup Soil Grow: 3 Photo & 1 Auto With New Dedicated Auto Rig

[Jon]

Well I'm going to take that as a long way of saying I'm doing something right.

Seriously though, I get it. This is the first grow where I am starting to understand what you just laid out. It's not just proximity to the light that accounts for praying, that is only part of the picture. You're talking about the entire plant being holisticly tuned in and humming on every level at maximum efficiency. And the day after a watering too!

My education plods onward at it's infinitesimal rate. Lol.

Thanks.

 

[Emilya Green]

Well I'm going to take that as a long way of saying I'm doing something right.

I rarely say things the short way.

 

[Jon]

Quickie Pictorial Sour Apple Auto Rig Update
Defol Session

Now that I can see where the buds are and which stems are going to actually produce, it was time to give those lower thirsty buds the light they are craving. Defol time. So that's what I did. Nothing to say really - I took off mostly lower fan leaves and any upper leaves that were shadowing lower legit buds. Easy as pie. Here's a couple pics of what she looks like post defol and what I took off.

 

[Bill284]

Quickie Pictorial Sour Apple Auto Rig Update
Defol Session

Now that I can see where the buds are and which stems are going to actually produce, it was time to give those lower thirsty buds the light they are craving. Defol time. So that's what I did. Nothing to say really - I took off mostly lower fan leaves and any upper leaves that were shadowing lower legit buds. Easy as pie. Here's a couple pics of what she looks like post defol and what I took off.

Hey brother, just wanted to say hi.
Hope you are well.
Stay safe.
Bill

 

[Jon]

Weekend Update - Friday, September 3
PHOTOTOWN ALL INCLUSIVE
Grow/Veg Day 49

Today was a clean watering and MSA day for the photos, Chunky got hers yesterday. Same deal with that as usual. All environmental conditions remain unchanged. And we are still in the week of vertical growth only with no training and only defol as necessary. So no training either. Did take a few leaves to open up the plants a bit. Also added a fan and adjusted the others to get more direct and better airflow onto each plant individually. Still haven't had to kick in the big boy in the corner yet, yay!

One big change, however. As I have assessed that we are around a bit more than halfway through veg (assuming between 70 and 80 days of veg), today I decided it was the right time to pump up the light these girls are getting a whole bunch. We have been around 600 par since we got out of seedling on the photos, obviously Chunky the auto, budding, was moved up way closer to the light since she needs more now than the photos by a ton. Today we did what was necessary to raise the photos until we got them all to the 800-850 par range. They are in late veg now, they want and can easily handle way more light, and they will. The picture of the gang was taken only one hour past giving each of them a gallon of water. By rights, in any other of my grows, they'd look all droopy in this picture. Nope. Already, in just 60 minutes post watering, they look like this. By dinner time they will be praying like madwomen. At the same time as we moved the photos up, we moved Chunky down by 2 inches, ie, one brick level. I have been observing her closely and she wants just a little bit less light than she was getting where I had her. What told me this on the plant was the fact that I couldn't get her upper leaves past horizontal. So down she came just a tiny bit and viola! she's already starting to pray. Shortly she'll be praying just like the photos. So adjusting to what I consider optimum par levels is worthy of note because frankly, and you guys can argue amongst yourselves all day if you disagree, if you were asked to list in only two words what the two most important factors in a grow are, in my humble opinion the answer is clear and immutable:
LIGHT AND ROOTS
Everything else being equal, these are where you get your yield and where the true magic come from, imho. So thus, the move towards the light today. Honestly I'm not being a smartass, I really do encourage any alternate points of view on this, because I don't KNOW that I'm right, it's just my opinion based on what I know to this point.

We did the Sour Apple update earlier as her work was done this morning. So onto veg (and beginning budding) porn:

Photographs:

- Phototown Group Shot - Friday, September 3 - showing new positioning
- Chunkadelic auto full plant shot
- Chunkadelic auto budding closeup shot
- Slurricane overhead shot
- Slurricane side shot
- Ghost Train Haze overhead shot
- Ghost Train Haze side shot
- Hulkberry overhead shot (she's kind of short for a side shot just yet, lol)

Have a great weekend everybody. Grow hard.

 

[Jon]

Hey brother, just wanted to say hi.
Hope you are well.
Stay safe.
Bill

Hey @Bill284, how are you my friend? Are you in the new place yet? Things moving along like the last time we talked in convo? Are you safe, well, and getting happier as you guys get more distance from the disaster? I'd love to hear as much as you feel like publicly sharing here. I have hardly any followers, a handful maybe, so it's not as if it will be widely seen. If that's not the right vibe I know you already told me you were going to be too nice to accept the ViparSpectra from me if I miraculously won the light, but I'm still going to try and give it to you, lol. Don't worry, the odds are very long against me winning, so you likely won't have to refuse a package. Laugh my friend. Laughter heals a lot of things.

 

[Bill284]

Hey @Bill284, how are you my friend? Are you in the new place yet? Things moving along like the last time we talked in convo? Are you safe, well, and getting happier as you guys get more distance from the disaster? I'd love to hear as much as you feel like publicly sharing here. I have hardly any followers, a handful maybe, so it's not as if it will be widely seen. If that's not the right vibe I know you already told me you were going to be too nice to accept the ViparSpectra from me if I miraculously won the light, but I'm still going to try and give it to you, lol. Don't worry, the odds are very long against me winning, so you likely won't have to refuse a package. Laugh my friend. Laughter heals a lot of things.

Good morning Jon. Hope you are well.
How is the new puppy doing?
We are doing OK thank you.
We are in the new place ,managed to get bridge financing woohoo.
Unfortunately it's going to cost us $25 000.00 to sell our old one fek.
The buyers are screwing us.
That and lawyers fees.
We are going to have to borrow money to sell it.
So you have to laugh right otherwise it's misery.
If you don't win the VS light let me know I'll talk to Viper Val.
Maby they will sponsor you.
Stay safe Amigo.
Bill

 

[Jon]

Good morning Jon. Hope you are well.
How is the new puppy doing?
We are doing OK thank you.
We are in the new place ,managed to get bridge financing woohoo.
Unfortunately it's going to cost us $25 000.00 to sell our old one fek.
The buyers are screwing us.
That and lawyers fees.
We are going to have to borrow money to sell it.
So you have to laugh right otherwise it's misery.
If you don't win the VS light let me know I'll talk to Viper Val.
Maby they will sponsor you.
Stay safe Amigo.
Bill

Hey Bill - Well that's a lot better a position than you were in a month ago, eh? F--k the lawyers, I take Shakespeare's approach to them. Glad to hear you're in the new place, I'm sure the wife is getting happier. You are on your way. I love it and thanks for putting it out here.

Stay safe my friend. Peace.

 

[Jon]

Quickie Phototown Training Update
Saturday, September 4
Grow/Veg Day 50
Ghost Train Haze

I was talking to the Ghost Train Haze this morning, telling her about the plan to wait an entire week between training sessions, and she looked straight at me and started cracking up. She was like, "dude, look at me...you can't be serious...." I said "are you sure?" She was like "yes, I'm sure. DO ME NOW." So I did.

Damn this girl is growing out of control fast and robust now. I think we hit another gear or something independent of the spurt caused by the par/light increase. All three photos are going completely nuts. So I trained the GTH just now. I'll do the Slurricane later on. Hulkster can wait a bit longer.

Here's what the Ghost Train Haze looks like from the top and side after a rather serious training/defol session, and a shot of the Slurricane from the side before her training session.

Happy Saturday.

 

[Mdlroad]

Quickie Phototown Training Update
Saturday, September 4
Grow/Veg Day 50
Ghost Train Haze

I was talking to the Ghost Train Haze this morning, telling her about the plan to wait an entire week between training sessions, and she looked straight at me and started cracking up. She was like, "dude, look at me...you can't be serious...." I said "are you sure?" She was like "yes, I'm sure. DO ME NOW." So I did.

Damn this girl is growing out of control fast and robust now. I think we hit another gear or something independent of the spurt caused by the par/light increase. All three photos are going completely nuts. So I trained the GTH just now. I'll do the Slurricane later on. Hulkster can wait a bit longer.

Here's what the Ghost Train Haze looks like from the top and side after a rather serious training/defol session, and a shot of the Slurricane from the side before her training session.

Happy Saturday.

Dayum they look good

 

[Jon]

Quickie Phototown Training Update
Saturday, September 4
Grow/Veg Day 50
Ghost Train Haze

I was talking to the Ghost Train Haze this morning, telling her about the plan to wait an entire week between training sessions, and she looked straight at me and started cracking up. She was like, "dude, look at me...you can't be serious...." I said "are you sure?" She was like "yes, I'm sure. DO ME NOW." So I did.

Damn this girl is growing out of control fast and robust now. I think we hit another gear or something independent of the spurt caused by the par/light increase. All three photos are going completely nuts. So I trained the GTH just now. I'll do the Slurricane later on. Hulkster can wait a bit longer.

Here's what the Ghost Train Haze looks like from the top and side after a rather serious training/defol session, and a shot of the Slurricane from the side before her training session.

Happy Saturday.

ADDENDUM TO TRAINING POST
Slurricane Training Session
Grow/Veg Day 50
Saturday, September 3

Finally got to the Slurricane this afternoon. I'm hoping this series of pictures illustrates my training method a bit more clearly, for what it's worth. We basically widen the ring, let them grow a little, widen the ring, let them grow a little, etc. till they're ready to flip. It's not really much more complicated than that conceptually. If I wanted to end up with three foot tall plants I could easily flip these girls right now and still probably get a decent yield, as there are just tons of bud sites. But of course we're not going to do that.

You can see what she was before the training in the last picture of the attached post. I can see that if you didn't really love what you're doing, this kind of training could get tedious. It takes a while. And it takes fairly consistent attention, especially when you're plants are going gangbusters. A constant struggle to keep control. Lol. But I personally get off on it.

Here's the pictures - there's an overhead, a shot to show the activity now unearthed in the middle, and a side shot to show the "canopy."

Enjoy.

 

[LizardMate]

Jon your a bloody wizard man. The quality of these plants really does show you spend alot of time with your plants, Keep doing what your doin man ur a beast

 

[Jon]

I rarely say things the short way.

Hi @Emilya, how you doing? Glad to see how well your grow is going. It has significantly impacted this one of mine. I have a question for you related to the Fox Farms feeding chart. I am on day 50 and let's say we're going to flip on day 70 for the sake of the question. So I have three more weeks before the flip in that scenario. The chart says to flush before the flip. On the chart it is represented as a purple vertical thick line that says Sledgehammer Flush inside it. Ok, so it won't be between week 4 and 5, but no matter, I still flush before the flip and the beginning of week 5 of the feeding.

My question is, what's the deal with that flush? Does that purple line represent a week (with no weekly number)? And if it does represent a week, should I flush twice in that week (think I could get two in a week)? Or is this recommended flush a single time flush? So let's say it IS a single time flush - would I then flush on that Monday and let the plants get way dry for a few days following that flush (like by Friday they'd be dry for sure, likely way earlier like Thursday), thereby using the entire week to flush as prescribed? And then last scenario, if it's a one time flush and the plants are all ready for water on Wed/Thurs/Fri after the flush, would I then use the rest of the week as the feeding of week 5 on the chart?

I think this makes sense. The flush interrupts my feeding schedule of starting each week on Monday if it's only supposed to be one flush, and I don't know what to do with the rest of the week, or if it's a whole week dedicated to the flush and you just run as much water through them as you can that week.

Thanks. I am certain you'll know this one.

 

[Emilya Green]

Hi @Emilya, how you doing? Glad to see how well your grow is going. It has significantly impacted this one of mine. I have a question for you related to the Fox Farms feeding chart. I am on day 50 and let's say we're going to flip on day 70 for the sake of the question. So I have three more weeks before the flip in that scenario. The chart says to flush before the flip. On the chart it is represented as a purple vertical thick line that says Sledgehammer Flush inside it. Ok, so it won't be between week 4 and 5, but no matter, I still flush before the flip and the beginning of week 5 of the feeding.

My question is, what's the deal with that flush? Does that purple line represent a week (with no weekly number)? And if it does represent a week, should I flush twice in that week (think I could get two in a week)? Or is this recommended flush a single time flush? So let's say it IS a single time flush - would I then flush on that Monday and let the plants get way dry for a few days following that flush (like by Friday they'd be dry for sure, likely way earlier like Thursday), thereby using the entire week to flush as prescribed? And then last scenario, if it's a one time flush and the plants are all ready for water on Wed/Thurs/Fri after the flush, would I then use the rest of the week as the feeding of week 5 on the chart?

I think this makes sense. The flush interrupts my feeding schedule of starting each week on Monday if it's only supposed to be one flush, and I don't know what to do with the rest of the week, or if it's a whole week dedicated to the flush and you just run as much water through them as you can that week.

Thanks. I am certain you'll know this one.

Good morning Jon! You are trying to make this more complicated than it needs to be. Before youtube came along, flush always meant 3x the container size in fresh water in one session, to cleanse the soil. It never meant starving your plant by giving only water for a period of time, interrupting the f/w/f/w schedule you should have all through the grow. So your purple line represents that moment of time when you do that flush. It can be any time during that week, but it only represents one of the water only sessions during that week. Lets say you have plants set up on a 2 day wet/dry cycle going into the flip. You will be giving water or water with nutes at least 3 times during that 7 day period. Pick one of your water only days, and flush. Consider it a cleansing watering. Then carry on with your schedule. The plant that just got flushed is not holding any more water now that it would on a regular watering day and it will still dry out as always, in 2 days. After your flush, carry on with your normal f/w/f/w schedule as if nothing else happened.

 

[Jon]

Good morning Jon! You are trying to make this more complicated than it needs to be. Before youtube came along, flush always meant 3x the container size in fresh water in one session, to cleanse the soil. It never meant starving your plant by giving only water for a period of time, interrupting the f/w/f/w schedule you should have all through the grow. So your purple line represents that moment of time when you do that flush. It can be any time during that week, but it only represents one of the water only sessions during that week. Lets say you have plants set up on a 2 day wet/dry cycle going into the flip. You will be giving water or water with nutes at least 3 times during that 7 day period. Pick one of your water only days, and flush. Consider it a cleansing watering. Then carry on with your schedule. The plant that just got flushed is not holding any more water now that it would on a regular watering day and it will still dry out as always, in 2 days. After your flush, carry on with your normal f/w/f/w schedule as if nothing else happened.

Awesome. That's kind of what I figured. Thanks so much. I think I'll do it first thing of the week instead of post nute and simply switch the water/nute order that week. That way I don't wash out the "leftovers" of the nute watering when I flush if I were to go nute Monday, flush Wednesday. What's the difference if I go flush Monday then carry on with nutes as normal? Same thing, right?

 

[Emilya Green]

Awesome. That's kind of what I figured. Thanks so much. I think I'll do it first thing of the week instead of post nute and simply switch the water/nute order that week. That way I don't wash out the "leftovers" of the nute watering when I flush if I were to go nute Monday, flush Wednesday. What's the difference if I go flush Monday then carry on with nutes as normal? Same thing, right?

Don't worry about the old nute leftovers... out with the old, in with the new. Just carry on with everything as normal, just flush instead of plain water one of the days, and on the very next watering give the new nutes. There is absolutely no reason to give nutes or even diluted nutes on the day of the flush. Despite what you may read, flushing and ending up with no nutes in the soil for a few days does not hurt the plants.

 

[Jon]

Post Training Bounceback Photo Special
Grow/Veg Day 51
Slurricane/Ghost Train Haze Post Training

Posting these pictures this morning for a couple reasons....first, I wanted to show how the girls as a whole look the first thing in the morning. This picture was taken about ten minutes after wake up. At the time of this photo they are still yawning and impatiently waiting for the coffee pot to finish. But they look as if they've been awake all day. Secondly, I wanted to show the Slurricane and Ghost Train Haze the morning after a rather extensive training and defoliation session. If you saw my pictures from just when I got done training each of these plants yesterday, you saw how they look when you just finished a session - they're a mess. And in just about 20 hours they already look as they do in the pictures - even, flat canopy, branches settling into their slightly new positions, and the center interior growth already beginning to decide who's going to go for it and who is getting left in the dust. It amazes me how fast the plants sort themselves out after you mess with them. As you can see from the Slurricane picture, that plant is getting so big and so wide that at the height I have her I can barely get the entire plant in the picture frame anymore. Now that I see how incredibly vigorously this strain grows, I am listing Slurricane in my "potential future one plant in a 5x5 to try and fill the whole tent with one plant" list. She's a beast. They all are frankly, but this Slurricane is just insane, by far the most vigorous strain I've grown yet in the photo realm. I know that's due to many factors, but the most interesting of them is the fact that the Slurricane is the only photo in the Sohum living soil. I wish there was a way to know for certain that what I'm seeing is due to the Sohum, because if so, it will be time to switch my soil for the next grow for everyone. Real curious to see if there is a discernible taste difference in the weed in this soil. I suspect I will taste the difference. But the Slurricane and also the Sour Apple in the auto rig are both in the Sohum, and both of them look every bit as good as the plants in the Fox Farms soil. They also show no deficiencies of any kind as the plants in the FF soil. And the Sour Apple auto, which is budding, is budding like crazy! I've grown Sour Apple three times now, I am pretty familiar with the strain and how it grows, and there is a definite difference this time. Maybe it's due to the Sohum. Maybe it's due to the fact that I have been religiously Ph-ing the water to 6.3 every single time. Maybe it's cuz she has almost the perfect environmental conditions. But I am beginning to think a lot of the increases in elements of the growth that I'm seeing are due to the Sohum. We'll do a more direct comparison in the next grow, with the same strain in the same tent and with the only difference being the soil. That will give us a better idea.

So here's a picture of the girls upon wake up, and top shots one day post training of the Slurricane and the Ghost Train Haze.

 

[Jon]

Don't worry about the old nute leftovers... out with the old, in with the new. Just carry on with everything as normal, just flush instead of plain water one of the days, and on the very next watering give the new nutes. There is absolutely no reason to give nutes or even diluted nutes on the day of the flush. Despite what you may read, flushing and ending up with no nutes in the soil for a few days does not hurt the plants.

Gracias Em, greatly appreciated. You're right - I was making it more complicated than it is and overthinking it. Imagine that. And for the record, I have basically stopped using the internet for my information gathering. The information you find is rarely consistent, much of it is inaccurate, and the people who write about weed often seem to present what is essentially their own style choices as facts about how to grow. It took me about ten seconds to realize that I will find way better answers and information in here than I will on an internet search. Besides, it's kind of hard to interact with an article and ask it questions. They tend to not respond. Bitches.

 

[Jon]

Gracias Em, greatly appreciated. You're right - I was making it more complicated than it is and overthinking it. Imagine that. And for the record, I have basically stopped using the internet for my information gathering. The information you find is rarely consistent, much of it is inaccurate, and the people who write about weed often seem to present what is essentially their own style choices as facts about how to grow. It took me about ten seconds to realize that I will find way better answers and information in here than I will on an internet search. Besides, it's kind of hard to interact with an article and ask it questions. They tend to not respond. Bitches.

Btw, for the first time in my watering cycle, this week the Chunkadelic auto, who is drinking so fast it's hard to keep up with, required four waterings. Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and today. A gallon each time. Astounding. But because of that I had to decide if I was going to feed her the Canna nutes twice in the same week - a situation that hasn't presented itself since seedling. The Canna chart says nothing about feeding twice a week as the FF chart specifically says that you can feed up to twice a week. But I went with what you said a few weeks ago - that veteran growers know the order is nutes/water/nutes/water all the time regardless of how the watering week pans out. (paraphrasing) I fed her nutes two times this week. She looks like and reacted as if she didn't even notice. Not so much as a yellow tip. So I think it's safe to say that you can easily feed Canna nutes twice a week if it works out that way just as you can with the FF nutes, yes?

 

[Emilya Green]

Btw, for the first time in my watering cycle, this week the Chunkadelic auto, who is drinking so fast it's hard to keep up with, required four waterings. Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and today. A gallon each time. Astounding. But because of that I had to decide if I was going to feed her the Canna nutes twice in the same week - a situation that hasn't presented itself since seedling. The Canna chart says nothing about feeding twice a week as the FF chart specifically says that you can feed up to twice a week. But I went with what you said a few weeks ago - that veteran growers know the order is nutes/water/nutes/water all the time regardless of how the watering week pans out. (paraphrasing) I fed her nutes two times this week. She looks like and reacted as if she didn't even notice. Not so much as a yellow tip. So I think it's safe to say that you can easily feed Canna nutes twice a week if it works out that way just as you can with the FF nutes, yes?

Yep, if she is sucking down water that fast, she can use those extra nutes