Mack's Perpetual Grow Journal

[MackMcMacMac]

Nothing much to report, just a photo update. Cloney is still looking rough, but I'm not giving up on her!

Dance World, age 53 days (~2 weeks in flower)

Painkiller XL, age 13 days:

Dance World clone, age 12 days:

 

[MackMcMacMac]

On Saturday, I was given a budget 600-watt LED grow lamp from a friend, but I couldn't find much info about it online, such as PAR values, how many watts from the wall, etc. All the product info said was "full spectrum" and "Double Chips 10W (2pcs 5w chips in every led) LEDs, which is (sic) much brighter and efficient than 3W and 5W LEDs."

While I realize that a cell phone's lux app isn't going to give a reliable value for a full-spectrum LED, I thought it would be good enough to compare against the 300-watt LED lamp hanging in the flowering tent. So I took the plants out, set the phone on the tent floor, and took the reading for both the 300-watt and 600-watt: 9000 and 5600, respectively. How strange. Then I ordered a Kill A Watt meter because I just had to know. The wattage these lamps draw from the wall are: 131 and 65, respectively. Conclusion: this "600-watt" LED is good for supplemental lighting, but hardly enough to power a plant like cannabis!

I should receive two 40-watt CFLs today and can hang those in the flower tent to bring the light up to 211 watts' worth, a little more than the 175 needed for 5 sq ft.

The good news is that my 180-watt light draws 108-113 watts, which is above the minimum required for the 4-sq-ft veg tent. I'd like to put the 300-watt in there if I could afford a more powerful lamp to replace it in the flower tent, but I need to get a job first.

Dance World age 57 days, 2 weeks in flower

She is doing well! She's looking a lot healthier than she did in veg. I hope she's done stretching though. I had to raise the light and put the C99 on a box to get her closer.

On 27 Jan, she got 80 oz plain tap water.
IN: pH=7.11 PPM=93
OUT: pH=6.69 PPM=2692

Painkiller XL, age 17 days
She's looking fine! I plan to let her 4th node grow in a bit more, until the 5th starts up, then top her above the third. My plan right now is to "mainline" her to get 8 tops/colas, but I might change my mind and do a mini-flux instead.

Dance World Clone, age 16 days

She's still alive. That's about all I have for good news. I cut off her dead top in the hopes her top nodes would flourish. Also trimmed away the lowest nodes to direct her energy to the two new tops. She's living under a humidity dome (aka clear 2-liter soda bottle), but that might be too little too late.

 

[MackMcMacMac]

Dance World age 59 days, 2 weeks +5 days in flower

Macksine is doing great! I wasn't sure she liked the tomato cage, but it turns out, she just wanted something to drink. Gave her 40 oz plain tap water at pH 6.48

Painkiller XL

19 days old. Her fifth node was coming up, so I topped her above the third. Snipped off the lower growth tips, too, but left the fan leaves for solar power. Fed 16 oz plain tap water at pH 6.49.

Dance World Clone

With deep sorrow, I must concede that poor Clonie has passed away. I blame my lack of knowledge and dart-throwing approach to fixing her. At least she got a few roots going before she kicked the bucket. I'll do better next time!

 

[MackMcMacMac]

Dance World

Macksine is 61 days old, 3 weeks into flower. She was droopy, as I'd expected, this morning. Fed 70oz water with 1T Big Bloom, 1t Grow Big, 2t Tiger Bloom nutes.
IN: pH 6.47
OUT: pH 6.05
Having struggled with her health/pH during her veg period, I must say she really looks lovely now! She's lush and green. You can hardly tell I messed her up earlier!

Painkiller XL
21 days (3 weeks) old. Not a ton of growth on the tops, but she suffered quite a shock the other day. I'm sure she'll pour all her energy into those tops in the next few days.
Avg daily temp: 77.7° (67.6 to 84.5)
Avg daily RH: 41.0% (28.2 to 52.5)
She'll probably need water a little later today. Will update with pH when I get there.

 

[MackMcMacMac]

Amnesia Haze
Guess what time it is! Time to start a new seed! By the time this one's ready for the flower tent, the Dance World will be finishing up. And Amnesia Haze needs 12 weeks in flower, so I have to just grit my teeth and hope the extra 3-4 weeks are worth it!

High-yielding, high-THC, sativa-dominant strain by Royal Queen Seeds. This is a Cannabis Cup winner. The taste of Amnesia Haze is typically Haze-y with fruit and spice notes. THC production is prodigious at 22% with medium levels of CBD. The sheer quality of the effect is immediately apparent; a cerebral high with a stratospheric, psychedelic high. Very potent weed with accompanying short-term memory loss.


I got two of these seeds free with a Seedsman order. Thanks, Seedsman!

2/1/2018 4:00 PM
Put seed in pill bottle and shook hard for a few seconds. Wet a rapid rooter with water (which was pHed to 6.49 this morning), squeezed out excess, and placed in a clear solo cup inside a larger (blue) solo cup. Turned another blue one upside down on top to serve as a lid & provide darkness. This is sitting in the veg tent where it's warm and relatively humid.

Theoretically, I could hang a 23-watt CFL in the veg tent up high and sit the seedling on top of the mini tower fan. The PKXL won't need the extra light, and the AH seedling will get some light without being bombarded by the LED.

2/3/2018 7:29 AM
Something lurks beneath the surface! We have germination! I've never had a seed germinate this quickly. Didn't expect to see sproutage until Monday, but we might have something tonight or tomorrow.

 

[MackMcMacMac]

Gave the PKXL ~10oz water with big bloom @ pH 6.47. Had some runoff, so she probably only needed 7 oz.

I put the Amnesia Haze rapid rooter into a tiny bit of soil with a sprinkle of mycorrhizae. Still in the small, clear cup. Saw the tip of the tap root in the bottom of the rooter. That's always exciting! New life is about to emerge.

 

[MackMcMacMac]

Dance World
Macksine turns 9 weeks old today (3 weeks, 2 days in flower). She's coming along nicely, developing pretty flowers.

Painkiller XL
She's 23 days old. It's been 4 days since I topped her. I think it's safe to go ahead and xplant her today. Once I get her situated in the 3 gallon pot, I'll work on tying down her tops.

Amnesia Haze

2/4/2018 7:22 AM
No sign of sproutage yet. I don't see any roots in the bottom of the clear cup yet either. Maybe later today or tomorrow (as expected).
12:00 PM - hung a 23w CFL through the top vent hole to dangle almost directly above the cup, sitting on the tower fan. It's roughly 3 inches from the dirt.
6:00 PM - We have sproutage! Quickest seed to sprout yet. I like this little eager beaver!

2/5/2018 7:14 AM
1 day old! She's quite small, but her cotyledons are green and the first fan leaves in the center are coming out. Her dirt looked kind of dry, so I pH adjusted 20oz water to 6.55 and fed her 4 tablespoons (¼ cup) of it (aiming for the dirt around the rooter cube, not right on the cube itself).

 

[MackMcMacMac]

Yesterday morning, I transplanted the PKXL into a 3 gallon grow bag. Put down a layer of soil, sprinkled with mycorrhizae, removed plant from pot and set on top of soil/myc layer. Pinched off lower fan leaves, leaving only the new tops and their two fans. Buried stem most of the way to the split, with a little myc sprinkled close to the stem. Added 10-12oz tap water at pH 6.55 around the periphery of the plant to encourage the roots to spread outward. Leaned a pencil against the tops -- can't get it to balance without something under both ends to keep it level, so just left it leaned. It should do the trick.

By 4PM, the tops on the PKXL had already grown past where the pencil was useful. Upgraded to the emery board, but it's almost useless now too. Just about time to move to gardening wire.

Little Amnesia Haze's first fans are about the size of her cotys now. She's rocking out ~2" under a 5000K 23w CFL.

 

[MackMcMacMac]

Painkiller XL
Used gardening staples to hold down her first set of tops and trimmed off the big fan leaves. This morning, I said F it. And I topped her again. IDK why I was feeling so impatient, but it's done.

Here she is before:

And here's one side now:

Amnesia Haze
She's 5 days old and not much bigger than she was at 4 days or 3 days. If she'd been in the space bucket, I'd have turned on one or two more CFLs, but she's not, so I moved her to the tent floor under the Big Girl lights (Apollo 180w (109 actual draw) GL60LED).

The two girls in the veg tent.

 

[MackMcMacMac]

Dance World

71 days old, 4w3d in flower. She's doing great! On Feb 11, gave tap water with bloom nutes (BB, GB, TB): 40 oz @ pH 6.69 plus 20 oz plain tap water @ pH 6.44.

Painkiller XL

31 days old. Trimmed off the four huge fan leaves. Now the plant looks bare again, but her tops are growing out. On Feb 11, gave 20 oz plain tap water @ pH 6.44.

Amnesia Haze

9 days old. She's a slow grower, but I'm in no hurry. On Feb 11, fed ~4-6 oz plain tap water @ pH 6.44

Lemon Candy

Since the PKXL won't be ready for the flower tent anytime soon, and the Dance World will be all alone in there for the last 4-5 weeks of her life, I figured I'd try an experiment. I got 2 free Lemon Candy seeds from Seedsman but there's not much info on the strain, so I hadn't really planned to grow them. But then I realized they were perfect for what I want to do: try a soil vs coco side-by-side grow & 12/12 from seed.

Put both seeds in a pill bottle and shook for a few seconds. Then dropped into water for ~18 hours. I rehydrated two Jiffy pellets, one in pH 5.7 tap water and the other in RO water. Plopped the seeds in the moist pellets and placed in clear solo cups that went into blue solo cups and topped with another blue cup.

They're in the veg tent right now because it's warmer and more humid in there. Once they sprout, into the flower tent they go!

 

[SofaKing Dope]

Im partial to citrusy strains lemon candy sounds right up my ally should be a fun experiment!

 

[MackMcMacMac]

Everyone is doing well. No problems to wrestle with so far.

Dance World
She's 5 weeks in flower today. A little behind where ALL my previous plants were at the same age, but if she needs more than the stated 8 weeks, she needs more.

Painkiller XL
35 days old today. Still has quite a ways to go in veg, but I've identified the next node to top!

Amnesia Haze

13 days old today. She's chugging along, taking her sweet time, but she looks healthy.

Lemon Candy

3 days old. After taking these photos, I transitioned them into their respective media.

LemonCoco: I rehydrated a brick of coco coir with water at pH 5.75 and a half dose of cal-mag. Next, I poked 10 holes in the bottom of a solo cup and put a little circular piece of coffee filter in the bottom so the roots wouldn't try to sneak out. I put about a cup's worth of moist coco coir into the solo cup and sprinkled mycorrhizae on top. The starter pellet went on top (little taproot was visible on the bottom), and I packed it in with more coco, plus a bit on top to bury about 1/2 of the stem.

LemonSoil: Prepared another solo cup in the same way as above, then I put about a cup's worth of FoxFarms Happy Frog soil in. Sprinkled some mycorrhizae on top and in went the starter pellet. Packed in with more soil and enough on top to bury 1/2 of the stem. Watered the soil with ~2 oz at pH 6.39

 

[MackMcMacMac]

The Lemon Candy sisters are hanging in there! Soil got ~2 oz water at pH 6.41. Coco got ~4 oz at pH 5.79. I gave her some extra because the runoff is orange, and I figured I needed to dilute that some.

Coco:

Soil:

Amnesia Haze (15 days old) is growing slowly. She probably needs to be up-potted, but I was hoping to wait until her fourth node is out so I can bury most of the stem up to where I top her. Maybe she knows and is purposely messing with me. LOL. She got ~4oz tap water @ pH 6.41.

Painkiller XL got topped again! Sorry for the purple -- don't have white balancing set up on my phone camera. She got ~22oz water at pH 6.41.

 

[MackMcMacMac]

Dance World
Now that she has the flower tent mostly to herself (but for the Lemon twins), she can sit right under the light. She's 79 days old and 5w4d into flower.

Dance World age 79 days

• MackMcMacMac
• Feb 21, 2018

Dance World age 79 days

Dance World 5w4d into flower

• MackMcMacMac
• Feb 21, 2018

Dance World 5w4d into flower

Painkiller XL
39 days old and doing just fine. Her eight tops are coming in. I was planning to top her once more to get 16 tops, but after the disappointing 192g (wet) from the C99, I'm wondering if the light in my flower tent isn't strong enough to fully develop 16 colas. Maybe I should stick with eight for this grow and see how that works out. Anyone have suggestions? Can't afford a new grow light right now, so I have to make do with what I have.

Painkiller XL age 39 days

• MackMcMacMac
• Feb 21, 2018

Currently growing out her 8 tops

Amnesia Haze
17 days old. She was transplanted on Feb 20 into a 3-gallon grow bag. I put FFOF in the bottom, sprinkled with mycorrhizae, then dumped the rest of the FFHappy Frog soil I had left on top. Now I'm out of soil, so anyone who needs up-potting (LemonSoil) will have to wait. I put a solo cup into the bag before pouring the FFHF, then watered around the cup with water adjusted to pH 6.46. Once it was finished dripping, I removed the cup, sprinkled more myc., and put the plant into the hole. Today, she's looking exactly the same as yesterday.

Amnesia Haze age 17 days

• MackMcMacMac
• Feb 21, 2018

Transplanted into 3 gal on Feb 20

Lemon Candy
The twins are 7 days old today. LemonCoco was watered ~2 oz tap water + Big Bloom (mixed at 2T / gallon) at pH 5.84. Lemon Soil was still quite moist from her last watering on Feb 19.

LemonCoco

• MackMcMacMac
• Feb 21, 2018

My 12/12 from seed experiment in coco coir

LemonSoil

• MackMcMacMac
• Feb 21, 2018

My 12/12 from seed experiment in soil

I'm not sure why LemonSoil (bottom) is so pale. She hasn't received any nutes yet. Could the soil be too hot? Not hot enough? Could be her soil is too wet for too long. Must refrain from dumping water on her...

Dance World clipping #2
A few days ago, one of Macksine's lower sprigs was in my way, so I snipped it off. Throwing away an otherwise healthy cutting wrenched my heart, so I stuck it in a bottle of water @ pH 5.79 for a couple days. On Feb 20, I repurposed the Amnesia Haze's solo cup, layering coco coir and mycorrhizae. Then I used an ice pick to make a hole for the stem, poured more myc. in the hole, and stuck the clipping in it. Put it under the makeshift humidity dome (clear 2-liter soda bottle, misted on the inside) in the veg tent. Here she is this morning:

Dance World clipping

• MackMcMacMac
• Feb 21, 2018

This sprig was in my way, so I snipped it and put it in water pH 5.79 for the fun of it, then...

 

[MackMcMacMac]

Painkiller XL
42 days old. Snipped the biggest fan leaves and spread her tops some more. She can start growing vertical now. I'll top her once more, then let her develop some height before I transplant and flip. She got 30oz water with BigBloom and GrowBig at 1/2 strength. pH = 6.38 and PPM = 348.

Painkiller XL age 42 days (before)

• MackMcMacMac
• Feb 24, 2018

Here she is getting her groove on

Painkiller XL age 42 days (during)

• MackMcMacMac
• Feb 24, 2018

Removed largest fan leaves

Painkiller XL age 42 days (after)

• MackMcMacMac
• Feb 24, 2018

Spread her tops apart

Amnesia Haze
20 days old. Growing slowly. I'll probably top her tomorrow. She's still plenty moist from her last watering on Feb 20.

Amnesia Haze age 20 days

• MackMcMacMac
• Feb 24, 2018

Amnesia Haze age 20 days

Lemon Candy
10 days old. They're still so small, but I guess their growth will be slow on a 12/12 light schedule! Fed LemonCoco ~1oz water with BB (1/2 str) & GB (1/4 str) @ pH 5.92 and PPM = 508. Fed LemonSoil ~1oz water with BB (1/2 str) & GB (1/4 str) @ pH = 6.38 and PPM = 348. She probably doesn't need GrowBig yet, but I was too lazy to mix up some water with just BigBloom for just this one tiny plant. (I'll probably pay for that later.)

Lemon twins age 10 days

• MackMcMacMac
• Feb 24, 2018

Soil on the left, Coco on the right

Dance World
82 days old, 6 weeks in flower. She's starting to turn her leaves yellow. She is supposedly an 8 week strain, so I should have another harvest in 2-3 weeks!

Dance World age 82 days

• MackMcMacMac
• Feb 24, 2018

Dance World age 82 days, 6 weeks in flower

Dance World age 82 days

• MackMcMacMac
• Feb 24, 2018

Dance World age 82 days, 6 weeks in flower

 

[MackMcMacMac]

The GROWant arrived!! (It's an early birthday present from someone really cool! ) It's the G3HiPAR-GR480, and it's noticeably pinker (and brighter!) than the 300w LED that was in the flowering tent. Last night, about an hour before lights-out, I removed the plants from the tent and swapped out the lights. For the fun of it, I measured the lux with my cell phone app -- about 42k at 24" -- much higher than the other LED (not that lux is a useful measurement for LEDs, but WTH). I think my flowering plants are going to love it!

Dance World
Age 86 days, 6w4d in flower. She's starting to drop yellow leaves. I'll be a little sad to harvest her, because of all we've been through together. She turned into a lush, pretty plant despite her ugly duckling vegetative period. Though she shares the tent with the Lemon twins, she's the only plant in flower right now.

Dance World age 86 days, 6w4d in flower

• MackMcMacMac
• Feb 28, 2018

Under the new GROWant 480

Dance World age 86 days, 6w4d in flower

• MackMcMacMac
• Feb 28, 2018

One of her tops

Dance World age 86 days, 6w4d in flower

• MackMcMacMac
• Feb 28, 2018

One of her tops

Painkiller XL
46 days old. After removing the 300w LED from the flower tent, I put it into the veg tent. Its bluer light might be better than the 180w Apollo. The draw from the wall is a difference of a mere 22 watts. PKXL is currently 24" below the light, but she's growing upward now. Not much room to play with up there.

Painkiller XL age 46 days

• MackMcMacMac
• Feb 28, 2018

She's growing vertically now

Painkiller XL age 46 days

• MackMcMacMac
• Feb 28, 2018

Two of her eight (current) tops

Amnesia Haze
24 days old. She's looking fine. Her top is currently 22" below the light. Not much room to raise it without some new hardware (some kind of grid-like shelf ceiling like what SweetSue puts in her tents).

Amnesia Haze age 24 days

• MackMcMacMac
• Feb 28, 2018

New tops are coming in. Bottom foliage will be snipped away soon.

Lemon Candy
The twins are 14 days old. So far, LemonSoil is keeping up with LemonCoco in terms of growth. Now that they're under the 480w GROWant, I'll have to keep an eye on them. LemonCoco got about 3 oz water with FF BB at pH 5.58 this morning.

Yesterday, both were transplanted into 1 gallon grow bags. I sprinkled 1/4 tsp mycorrhizae on the bottom layer of their respective media, filled the pot, and transplanted from the solo cups. Then watered the media around the plant with pH-adjusted water: 6.6 for soil, 6.0 for coco. The coco coir came apart in my hand a little as I was moving her in, so I worried I'd killed her, but she looks fine this morning.

LemonCoco

• MackMcMacMac
• Feb 28, 2018

Age 14 days

LemonSoil

• MackMcMacMac
• Feb 28, 2018

Age 14 days

 

[Sloppy]

Looking really good Mack!

My one experience with amnesia was really positive. It's very strong. It usually comes with a warning. Great high!

 

[MackMcMacMac]

I have high hopes for this one! <hee hee hee>

 

[SofaKing Dope]

Looking good mack! I almost ran amnesia haze also, ive heard positive things! I actually ordered the seeds but that night my wife had me change out amnesia for c99, because in the description it said amnesia got its name cuz after smoking it you tend to forget what you were doing hahaha. She enjoys a more clear headed effect. Cant wait to see how it turns out! ✌✌

 

[MackMcMacMac]

I have a little bit of an amnesia og cross, which I really enjoy. Can't wait to get this one grown up! My C99 is drying in the fridge now. Can't wait!