NorthernCosmos' First Indoor Soil Auto Grow: 2019

[CraZysWeeD]

Sorry for missing out Cosmos... been upside down for a while here but I'm hopefully on the right side again apposed to the flip side of things.

Those last tricome pics looks very mesmerizing, you should enter pic of the month with one of them!

Have a great weekend bro!

 

[NorthernCosmos]

Sorry for missing out Cosmos... been upside down for a while here but I'm hopefully on the right side again apposed to the flip side of things.

You just get the situation with work and treatment sorted - that's the important thing!

...then a new grow perhaps?

Meanwhile, the Seniors, Purple Haze and Blueberry Express, are in the dark box - I'll do the chop tonight or tomorrow morning (I see some spliffs, a little wine, maybe a movie and some good music coming on later today - so most likely tomorrow then...).

The tent is on its way back to more green after the overlapping schedule stalled a little. The lineup, left to right, is Amnesia seedling, OG Kush, Purple Haze and Amnesia seedling. The Purple Haze is a month after the OGK, due to two non-germinating OGKs - but they'll still be run as a pair to keep things going steady:

Have a look at the residue in the humidifier reservoir (I do clean it out regularly!). Looks like crystal growth from minerals, mostly calcium I think (?), and lots of general gunk, some of it from the air that gets sucked in and "cleaned" - none of which went into the air and the carbon filter :

And a bonus trich pic from the Purple Haze that's in the dark box - I can almost not see the leaves for trichomes... didn't even dream of having one of those ... :

 

[StRoostifer]

Congrats on your upcoming chops! That purple haze looks like it’s gonna have a lot of thump!

 

[NorthernCosmos]

The chop is done! This was by far the smallest plants I've had. The colas are very dense though; hard as rock. One sizeable cola on the Purple Haze had rot in it - Ive had rot too may times now I reckon... not the way it should go

Here are the choppees. Yes, they're far into their autumns - the ripeness vs wilting factor wasn't optimal, ref. the rot... :

That's all, I'm afraid, Purple Haze to the left and Blueberry Express to the right:

That's a barren drying box (the back row is hidden by the front though...)! Well, I'm counting on the quality to make up for the lack of quantity.

 

[CraZysWeeD]

Looks like crystal growth from minerals, mostly calcium I think (?)

You know your chemistry Cosmos, that's calcium that's deposited there. Also know as Pann-sten here... it usually gets deposited in boiler heaters and clogs them if the water is to rich with calcium.

I can almost not see the leaves for trichomes... didn't even dream of having one of those ...

Another evidence in your grown skills

The chop is done!

 

[NorthernCosmos]

It's luck & genetics, CraZy!

And both the good and bad kind of those.

I don't have any green thumbs...

 

[NorthernCosmos]

Just had a taster of the Purple Haze. A small nug that's been dried for three and a half day. Very smooth smoke, surprisingly. And very strong effect - best so far, and I have one more on the way

Time for another taster and some music! Guess what the first song is...

Spoiler

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Purple Haze
What else could it be!?

 

[CraZysWeeD]

Sativas is the best smoke according to me, calming in a high energetic kind of way... and a pinch of hallucinogenic state.

Miss smoking Cali's Mistery, Holy Punch and Cheese.... You should try growing Cali's if you feel you have the room for it some day. LoL

 

[StRoostifer]

How’s the taste testing been going northercosmos?

 

[NorthernCosmos]

How’s the taste testing been going northercosmos?

So far I've only had a couple of tasters of the Purple Haze on Tuesday evening. It packs a punch for sure - nothing much happened after the second J

Today I have a couple of Blueberry Express nugs ready, which I'm about to dig into. I'll be back with a report.

I'm just having a couple of these early tasters, then trying to hold off until they're cured for at least a month. I might grab another PH nug to go with some new music I plan on spinning later though...

 

[NorthernCosmos]

The Blueberry Express was nice and mellow, relaxing, has a tiny bit of CBD. I like it.

Looking through the stash, there are 9 auto strains. There's not much left of some of them, but enough for a good variety. I find it hard to say much about strength and effects with any certainty, but here they are, very loosely ranked by potency and with random comments:

Purple Haze (the hardest hitter, little yield)
Stardawg (strong heady fun, best yield)
Amnesia (heady fun)
White Widow (relaxing)
Bluberry Express (heady and relaxing)
AK420 (chill allrounder)
Blackberry Gum (chill)
Babushka Black (nice taste and pretty black'ish buds)
Northern Lights (not so strong, relaxing)

I'll treat myself to a little Purple Haze this evening. After that I'll leave it to cure - honest, guv!

 

[NorthernCosmos]

It's day 29 for Phoebe the Purple Haze - yes, I have one more coming

Kind of small, like the previous one, so I chalk it down to genetics :

Its' day 11 since seed in soil, 9 days above soil, for Ariel and Amelia the Amnesia autos. They look fine for the age even if Amelia is a bit small.

Aaaaand, there's a brand new bag of Mega Crop in its new 10-7-18 formula . These Amnesias will be the first ones to get a taste of the new diet - can't wait to see how they'll like it!

 

[CraZysWeeD]

I'll treat myself to a little Purple Haze this evening. After that I'll leave it to cure - honest, guv!

Plants look promising

 

[NorthernCosmos]

As I've suspected for a few days there's a gnat infestation building. I've set up a vinegar/soap trap, some sticky fly traps, and I gave all the buckets a little H2O2 before the feeding.

It was the first feeding of MC for the Amnesias today, at day 14. They got a strength of ca. 0.8g/l. Let's see how that goes in a couple of days!

 

[CraZysWeeD]

Hope you get it under control Cosmos.

 

[NorthernCosmos]

I've caught maybe a couple hundred on the sticky traps in one and a half day. I don't know what's considered a serious infestation, but AFAIC this is a lot.

Their soil dwelling seems to be happening on the two new Amnesias which were a bit dry and crumbling along the edges of the bucket. Seems like they fancy the area between the soil periphery and the bucket wall where there a little space in the upper part.

I gathered some pine bark last night, and have a layer of it on top of the soil now. Not 100% coverage since the bits are a bit chunky (is that important?). One of my fears is that the gnats will be using the speedholes in the buckets as egg caches - perhaps I should cover up the speedholes with mosquito nets or some fabric.

The Amnesias survived the MC feed. It's a little early to expect to see something I guess One of them went into training today, so direct monitoring of size isn't so easy. I'll leave the other smaller one until the next feeding for a before and after comparison. They also got a dozen earthworms each, with some underground apple rations to get them by.

This is where it's at in the tent: The OG Kush is at day 60, so max a month to go there. The Purple Haze is responding well to the LST - looks like its going to get bigger that the previous rather tiny one.

 

[InTheShed]

Not sure if you can get mosquito dunks over there but that seems to be the be-all-end-all for fungus gnats on this site. The other option would be more fans aimed at soil level to keep the flyers from being able to land and breed. And I think the gnats can fit through standard mosquito netting, so something with a tighter weave (stockings or cotton) will still allow drainage while sealing the holes.

 

[NorthernCosmos]

It looks like the fungus gnat infection is receding. Only two live individuals have been observed so far today. I've found that they so like to hang around the drainage holes in the bottom of the buckets and the run off tray below. There is a danger that there are still live eggs and larvae, so I'm prepared for another H2O2 drenching - however, I fear that it will kill the earthworms too(?).

The UK zon branch has the mosquito dunk as donuts (for hydro?) as well as a coarse powder (for soil?). I may be getting the powder version of that in readiness for the next round of pests.

The Amnesias have had their second MC feed yesterday at day 20. I hope they'll grow a little bigger - I'm used to bigger ones.

The Purple haze LST seems to pay off, with twice the area coverage of the previous one already at day 38. It's still very bushy, so I've started a little careful defoliation - I don't want any rot in this one, and I reckon air circulation is my best tool. The humidifier is not running currently, also for fear of rot. That means the VPD is firmly in the dry portion of the yellow/red at ca 26°C and 35% RH. Perhaps I ought to run it again, at least until there are dense colas with a rot risk(?) I've become a bit jittery with regards to rot

The OG Kush is bulking up nicely at day 64. Looks like it's set for a decent yield, or at least some photogenic colas

All in all it's not looking too bad despite the gnats, and in 10-12 days two new plants will move in.

 

[InTheShed]

The new plants probably won't be thrilled with 35% RH, which is considered low even for flower standards (40-45%). But since the fear of rot is real, you may have to dome the vegging ones until the big one gets the chop!

 

[NorthernCosmos]

Good idea with the domes! I shall see what I can come up with.

This is the problem with the overlapping grow.... different temperature, humidity and light requirements in the same tent. It's not optimal, but I like the schedule itself with the utilization of space and power and giving steady produce.

Perhaps making a two section tent could work. A vertical divider would make different lighting and radiated heat possible. The TSL 2000 I have is divided in the middle and has separate dimming for each half, so that's a good fit. Hmm...