Lovie's Blueberry And Chocolate Thai Organic Grow Journal

[Lovie]

Greetings! This will be my second grow, first journal. I am still very novice and welcome advice, even if it is not solicited. If you see something I may not be noticing or know of a better way to do something, or if I am doing something that I shouldn't be doing, PLEASE let me know! I will be growing 2 Blueberries and 2 Chocolate Thais from Herbies Seeds.

I am using the paper towel method to germinate them. If things go the same way they did my first grow I will be putting them in Rapid Rooters, in a humidity dome tomorrow or the day after. I am not done with my first grow yet so while my current plants are finishing up I will have these in an upstairs, walk-through closet until my tent is available. While the plants are in the closet I will be using Vivosun AeroLight Wing AW200SE lights. I live in an old, poorly insulated house so the temp right now is good for a plant in veg. I will provide more details in the next day or so once I make some final decisions.

Strain/s: 2 Blueberry and 2 Chocolate Thai (Seeds from Herbies Seeds)
Genetic Makeup: Blueberry (Indica Dominate) Chocolate Thai (Sativa)
Environment: Indoor, Germinating using paper towel method
Stage: Germinating
Room/Tent Temperature: 76°

I laid 4 layers of paper towels down, labeled seeds and sprayed light mist until damp. Then I laid 2 more layers of paper towels on top of seeds and misted again.

I cannot find the heating mat that came with the thermostat so I plugged a heating pad into the thermostat and set it on low, placed a towel between the heating pad and bottom plate and set the thermostat at 76.

 

[Lady Cannafan]

Hi Lovie!
Nice start.
I would be careful with using black marking pens (if that's what it is) on the towels near the seeds. Markers can bleed on damp areas and might contaminate the little kids inside or any taproots emerging.
I will follow along if that's okay.

 

[Lovie]

Hi Lovie!
Nice start.
I would be careful with using black marking pens (if that's what it is) on the towels near the seeds. Markers can bleed on damp areas and might contaminate the little kids inside or any taproots emerging.
I will follow along if that's okay.

Good to know, it's a Sharpie. I just put them there a couple of hours ago so I will move the seeds away from the writing.

 

[Lovie]

@ Lady Cannafan. This may be a question for Vivosun but I thought I would ask you first since Vivosun is a sponsor and you review products......maybe you have used it. I have Vivosun's GrowHub in my tent. I have lights hard wired directly to the Grow Hub already that are being used for my plants in the tent. Vivosun has a controller you can plug into their devices and link to their Growhub so you don't have to have all your devices hardwired to the Growhub. The lights I am using in the closet have fans built into them. If they are not connected to the Growhub the light intensity will be at 100% and the fan speed at full speed. I just realized that may be a bit much for a seedling. Can Vivosun's Growhub control one set of lights by hard wire and another by plugging the E25 controller?

 

[Lady Cannafan]

@ Lady Cannafan. This may be a question for Vivosun but I thought I would ask you first since Vivosun is a sponsor and you review products......maybe you have used it. I have Vivosun's GrowHub in my tent. I have lights hard wired directly to the Grow Hub already that are being used for my plants in the tent. Vivosun has a controller you can plug into their devices and link to their Growhub so you don't have to have all your devices hardwired to the Growhub. The lights I am using in the closet have fans built into them. If they are not connected to the Growhub the light intensity will be at 100% and the fan speed at full speed. I just realized that may be a bit much for a seedling. Can Vivosun's Growhub control one set of lights by hard wire and another by plugging the E25 controller?

I haven't used or reviewed any Vivosun products at this time, but I think the best thing to do is tag @VIVOSUN to answer this question for you. Hopefully they will respond timely here.
I'll see if they have a thread on the forum as well.

 

[Lady Cannafan]

@ Lady Cannafan. This may be a question for Vivosun but I thought I would ask you first since Vivosun is a sponsor and you review products......maybe you have used it. I have Vivosun's GrowHub in my tent. I have lights hard wired directly to the Grow Hub already that are being used for my plants in the tent. Vivosun has a controller you can plug into their devices and link to their Growhub so you don't have to have all your devices hardwired to the Growhub. The lights I am using in the closet have fans built into them. If they are not connected to the Growhub the light intensity will be at 100% and the fan speed at full speed. I just realized that may be a bit much for a seedling. Can Vivosun's Growhub control one set of lights by hard wire and another by plugging the E25 controller?

You can post your question to the following forum and put Vivosun Grow Light Question in the title, that might get support from other members who use the brand:

Grow Lighting

General lighting discussion regarding MH/HPS, LEDs, PPFD, PAR, spectra and lighting intensity with press releases and articles on sponsor grow lights

www.420magazine.com

 

[Lovie]

1.5 days after starting my seeds and my Chocolate Thai is ready for Rapid Rooters. My Blueberries are being shy. I grew a Blueberry my last grow. It took a day or two longer than the rest for the root to come out too. Maybe it's a Blueberry thing?

Chocolate Thai# 3 is in the lead. Her helmet came off when I went to put her in the Rapid Shooter.

 

[Lovie]

I had to learn the hard way why it isn't a good idea to have multiple strains under the same Scrog net. I currently have a Chocolate Thai and Blueberry in flower. The height and canopy size of these plants are similar. I thought it was a fluke since the Chocolate Thai is sativa dominant and the Blueberry is indica dominant. However, after reading the info from Herbies Seeds I am thinking maybe it wasn't such a fluke.

According to Herbie Seeds the Chocolate Thai grows up to 4ft. The genetics are OG Chocolate Thai F2 x OG Chocolate Thai F3 x Big Sur Holy Weed male. Big Sur Holy Weed, itself a combination of Zacatecas Purple (a Mexican Sativa landrace) and Mazar-i-Sharif (a pure Afghani landrace).

Herbies say the Blueberry grows 3ft to 4ft tall. The genetics are Afghani x Thai x Purple Thai. The genetic foundation for this strain comes from Afghanistan, but Thai and Purple Thai were also added to the mix to spice things up.

Any thoughts on if these genetics are close enough that they will do well under the same Scrog net?

 

[Sativa1970]

Hi lovie.
You doing fully organic soil again?
I'm not clear on your goal and don't use the same controller so this may, or may not help. You want the controller to send 100% to the flowering light and around 80% to another light? Does that light not have a mechanical dimmer? When I add seedlings in with my veg plants I use distance as the dimmer. Adding 6 inches of distance is roughly 35% reduction in light. The reduction is closer to squared than linear as distance increases.

Hope you have a trouble free grow this time around.

 

[Lovie]

Hi lovie.
You doing fully organic soil again?
I'm not clear on your goal and don't use the same controller so this may, or may not help. You want the controller to send 100% to the flowering light and around 80% to another light? Does that light not have a mechanical dimmer? When I add seedlings in with my veg plants I use distance as the dimmer. Adding 6 inches of distance is roughly 35% reduction in light. The reduction is closer to squared than linear as distance increases.

Hope you have a trouble free grow this time around.

Thank you! I learned a lot through trial and error so hopefully this will be trouble-free, or at least less trouble than the current grow I am finishing up!

Yes, I am doing organic again. This time liquid organic food though. I wish I had looked into it sooner. They have compost teas that all you do is have to add water and it's ready. They have grow, bloom, and micros liquid organic formulas with feeding schedules just like synthetic nutes so fixing nute issues shouldn't be too difficult. I have 2 bags of the Coast of Maine left over so no point in not using it. Also, hauling run-off water downstairs and outside during winter does not sound like a lot of fun (I have a bad back and RA, the cold is not nice to me). And worst-case scenario, if things aren't going well, I will switch to synthetic.

The light does not have a mechanical dimmer. The dimmer, timer, and fan speed function is controlled through the GrowHub or Vivosun has a controller you can plug into their devices and control it using their app. I ordered a controller; it looks like a thumb drive and is only $19. I am hanging the light from the bottom clothes rack in the closet until the tent is available. I don't have the option of raising it.

 

[Lovie]

I am growing concerned. Neither of my Blueberry seed's taproots has made an appearance yet. I will give them one more day and if I still have nothing then I will have to choose a different strain. I have 3 Sour Diesels, 2 Do-Si-Do's and 1 Green Crack seed left.

I am leaning towards Sour Diesel if the Blueberry seeds decide not to sprout. Both the Chocolate Thai and Sour Diesel are heavy eaters.......especially the Sour Diesel, they can't get enough N.

 

[Sativa1970]

It can take three weeks for seeds to pop. Impatience has over populated my room more than once. Start new seeds and the old ones pop with the new ones.

 

[Lovie]

It can take three weeks for seeds to pop. Impatience has over populated my room more than once. Start new seeds and the old ones pop with the new ones.

That is good to know. I thought the heating pad and paper towel method was supposed to help speed the process up. Last time I started 8 seeds using this method. All of them except for the Blueberry were ready for the Rapid Shooter within 36 hours. The blueberry did need an extra day last time.

 

[Lovie]

I am choosing to grow organic because I don't want to deal with disposing of run-off water. I want to use liquid organic nutes because it seems like addressing nute problems with liquid will be faster and easier. I notice a lot of products say they're organic, but they are not OMRI listed or certified. My question is........if it is not OMRI-listed or certified is it truly organic? And if it is not OMRI listed or certified does that mean I will need to water until run-off? I want to order everything I may need now so I have it on hand. Finding organic stuff designed for cannabis on store shelves is difficult, and if you do find it, the price is marked up significantly.

 

[Sativa1970]

OMRI certified is a guaranty of organically sourced material. Not being certified simply meant they may or may not be fully organic sourced. The plant does not know or care if the nitrogen you feed it was chemically extracted from manure or the atmosphere. The difference is that synthetics can hit an immediately higher NPK but dissipate faster. The dosage and feed schedule are usually a dead giveaway on the source. Small constant doses would be synthetic and large doses weeks apart would be organic. Feeding what your plant needs now, synthetic. Feeding what your plant needs next week, organic.

 

[Lovie]

OMRI certified is a guaranty of organically sourced material. Not being certified simply meant they may or may not be fully organic sourced. The plant does not know or care if the nitrogen you feed it was chemically extracted from manure or the atmosphere. The difference is that synthetics can hit an immediately higher NPK but dissipate faster. The dosage and feed schedule are usually a dead giveaway on the source. Small constant doses would be synthetic and large doses weeks apart would be organic. Feeding what your plant needs now, synthetic. Feeding what your plant needs next week, organic.

I think I just thought of a better way to ask my question. It's my understanding the reason you need to water until run-off with synthetic nutes is that synthetic nutes are delivered by salts. If you don't water until run-off the salts will accumulate in the soil and cause issues.

If that is true, as long as what I use does not contain salts then I do not need to water until run-off. So, the question is what do I need to look for to make sure the nutes are not being delivered by salts?

 

[Sativa1970]

Salts are a large section of the periodic table. Organic or synthetic makes no difference. N,P,K, iron and many more are categorized as chemical salts. The fact that synthetics are more concentrated and have fewer carbon bonded too them is the difference. Microbes eat the carbon from salts in organic. Synthetic is only is given enough carbon to stabilize. The roots readily absorb salts after the carbon breaks free.

Organic is like cooking pasta (soil) in salt (nutrient) water to season vs synthetic, sprinkling pure salt on the pasta after cooking. Both can achieve the same flavor. It's hard to over salt the pasta in the water but easy to do with a salt shaker. It's easy to rinse off the extra salt from a salt shaker but hard to get it out of your pasta if it was cooked in over salted water.

With synthetic you water, to run off, to flush out all of the leftover uneaten food. Like clearing all of the plates with leftovers the plant didn't need to eat. You then replace it with a new balanced plate of food so the plant can again just take what it needs. Organic is like giving whole pots of food but only part is ready. As the edges cook you can eat more but only as fast as it cooks. The plant just takes what it needs as it is done cooking. If the pots are slowly cooking there aren't as many leftovers to get in the way.

 

[Carmen Ray]

I think I just thought of a better way to ask my question. It's my understanding the reason you need to water until run-off with synthetic nutes is that synthetic nutes are delivered by salts. If you don't water until run-off the salts will accumulate in the soil and cause issues.

If that is true, as long as what I use does not contain salts then I do not need to water until run-off. So, the question is what do I need to look for to make sure the nutes are not being delivered by salts?

Hi Lovie,
I am no expert on salts. I grow in living organic soil that I amend and reuse. The plant gets all of its nutrients from the soil itself. I boost the soil with earth worm compost, kelp liquid, hydrolyzed fish liquids and a mineral mix that I use to top dress. The soil has everything built in though so there is no need for additional feeding with bottled nutrients.

 

[Lovie]

Hi Lovie,
I am no expert on salts. I grow in living organic soil that I amend and reuse. The plant gets all of its nutrients from the soil itself. I boost the soil with earth worm compost, kelp liquid, hydrolyzed fish liquids and a mineral mix that I use to top dress. The soil has everything built in though so there is no need for additional feeding with bottled nutrients.

On my first grow I used Coast of Maine's Stonington Blend, which is suppose to be hot soil designed for cannabis. I started out following their feeding chart and using their plant food as recommended. Things went well at first. As my outside plants got bigger I kept experiencing deficiencies, mainly nitrogen. I transplanted them into 25-gallon containers which helped my Green Crack plants from showing signs of nitrogen deficiency, but still wasn't enough nitrogen to promote vigorous growth until I added blood meal to it. The Sour Diesels seem to never have enough nitrogen no matter what I do.

My indoor plants had a wide variety of deficiencies too, but those were caused by the soil becoming hydrophobic.

I still have a couple of bags of the Coast of Maine left so there is no point in not using it. Maybe I could beef it up some and I wouldn't have all the issues I did this time. Or maybe since these plants will be a lot smaller than my outside plants things will be okay as long as I don't let the soil go hydrophobic again? I want to have a way of addressing nute problems quickly if they occur, which is why I have been looking into liquid, organic stuff. Honestly, I keep changing my mind if I want to do organic or go synthetic this time. I figure I have a little bit of time to decide.

 

[Sativa1970]

Hi Lovie,
I am no expert on salts. I grow in living organic soil that I amend and reuse. The plant gets all of its nutrients from the soil itself. I boost the soil with earth worm compost, kelp liquid, hydrolyzed fish liquids and a mineral mix that I use to top dress. The soil has everything built in though so there is no need for additional feeding with bottled nutrients.

Hi Carmen, I was looking for you months ago but I couldn't remember your full tag name. I haven't made living organic soil in, well, more years than my memory is good for. Didn't you have a thread or am I just remembering a conversation on how you make your soil mix? We would all appreciate if you could share your ratios and process with the class.