Oh No - It's A Green Hole! - Reverse Thrusters! - Dammit - Too Late!

I did a bunch of reading up on the Lucas formula this morning. Mostly positive reviews, and it sounds like a great option if you want to keep it simple. It was kind of hard, as usual, to trust the sources of the reading material because discussions on other forums seem to inevitably devolve into fighting and name calling. One guy says the LF is great, others pipe up to say it sucks, then they argue more. Yawn. A little censorship is the price we pay for being on 420 but it's worth it if it dodges all that silly crap.
In life I typically am a slow learner and learn by a lot of trial and error. One reason I made a journal here is to shame myself into growing better. My feeding routine is a constant battle of too high/too low/along with plenty of WTF? .

Of course one very tempting option is to start growing in soil. I haven't forgotten this and I mean to do it. I move like a slug. Oops I mean a slug careening out of control that is.

I think what I should and will do when I get the right opportunity- is test out flowering 3 or 4 identical clones with different feeding routines, including a constant weak formula like the LF. Right now I'm quite interested in what the feeding regimen should look like if I plotted it out on a graph. I'm seeing all sorts of shapes- varying between a bell curve,a triangular mid flowering spike, and a flat line.
I must say though that I've been very happy with the results of feeding nothing but water for the last 3 weeks of flowering, and I don't think I would want to feed right through to the harvest, based on what I've seen so far.
All this feeding routine stuff has been gone through a billion times but wtf... If I had a growers university nearby I'd enroll right away but instead I'll continue to reinvent the wheel. Or reinvent the whelk, as my spellcheck tried to insist.
 
Haha, I love reading your updates.
I understand what you mean about the feeing being a pain in the ass. Im tinkering with the feeding regime, I will only use some teas and drenches and le the soil do its thing. Recently installed a gravity fed irrigation system because hand watering is killing me.
The Lucas formula always get mixed opinions. I have come to think that no matter how good something is, some people will always have problems with it and complain about it. What you are going to do with the clones sounds interesting.
You should give soil a try, it really simplifies stuff. Compost some good base soil with some nice amendments and things get easier.
I have to say that the real reason I began growing with organic soils is because I wanted to be able to grow even if no supplies were readily available, as most of the soil amendments I use can be bought at the grocery store.
I hope I become a master grower at some point (haha having dreams is free) and I see you as someone a few steps closer to this goal. So please get there to grower masterdom (haha) and once there take me as your pupil.
I will be harvesting twelve plants this month but Im not very happy with the resin production; havent changed the hps bulb in a while (never) and I guess thats the reason (or genetics). Have been thinking of setting up a small AC unit for the grow room. I know it is cold were you live WC, have you considered throwing a bunch of purple plants and take advantage of the colder climate?
 
Ya i hear ya weasel. I am still gonna flush before harvest either way call it habit lol i just know I read a few places that with LF you dont have to. It would be intresting to see you do some side by side comparisons finally we could get some straight foward answers about the LF and others with no bullshit side tracking the reader. I hate reading on other forums and then all of a sudden some stupid fight over nitpicking this and that occurs and then it gets side tracked from what i went there to read. TO THEROACH as far as resin production goes maybe look into supplementing with UV-B lights (aka reptile basking lamps). Can't remember which country it is i wanna say maybe Afghanistan but anyways whatever country im thinking of is known for making hash and they grow up in the mountains where there is elevated levels of UV-B exposure which from what bit ive read basically stresses the plants out a little and in response the plants make more trichomes to protect themselves. Sorry for putting everything in laymans terms im pretty tired and out of it lol
 
Could you guys explain your method a bit? It sounds interesting. If not at least point me in the right direction. I've searched Lucas Formula and Lucas Method but nothing substantial comes up.
 
What exactly are you wanting to know mello? I put the basic information for the lucas formula on page 41. I usually water, feed,water unless the plants tell me otherwise lol. Sorry for kinda taking over your journal weasel lol.
 
Hey Roach.
It's stubbornness and ( I hate to say it yet again but...) lack of time that keeps me using the soilless mix. I have several bales of sunshine mix, a bunch of nutrients, and a system going that is getting me by, even though I am barely there to run it. I hate to throw a monkey wrench into the system, or a whole barrel of monkeys for that matter. Whoever said a barrel of monkeys was fun probably never met monkeys and anyway I'd probably screw everything up and forget to take the time to drill air holes in the barrel.
The hardest part of getting things working in my absences was the watering schedule. It must work out so I can be gone a lot, but not over or under water. (Mainly this is container/plant size ratio). Soil would simplify this ( I hope...) as I could set up autowatering and the plants would be fine for ages with water only.
I also want to somehow master the process before switching. I figure any skills learned will be transferable
I have gardened since I was a baby and for my garden just consider organic soil growing as the regular normal way to grow everything. Never transferred that to the indoor cannabis grow for some reason. I haven't ever tried to really analyze what goes into that soil, I've always just tossed compost and kelp and remains of sea creatures in there and let it run. Maybe you can help me decipher all that amendment stuff sometime? First though, I must get off my ass and read more. Celt and Uncle Cannabis and many many others have written up basic recipes and I haven't taken the time to look at those yet because it's one more can of worms so to speak.
Peat moss is fairly messy. I see a lot of sparkly clean grows but mine is pretty messy. I picture soil being much more so.
I don't live in a very cold place right now. The times I grew outdoors I got lots of purple ( then, later, mold colored ) flowers. Here I worry about the high humidity and mold if I drop the temps. Perhaps venting my dehumidifier would help solve that issue.
I do hope life allows us to stick around and become master growers, Roach. That would so fun.
 
lexort420 said:
What exactly are you wanting to know mello? I put the basic information for the lucas formula on page 41. I usually water, feed,water unless the plants tell me otherwise lol. Sorry for kinda taking over your journal weasel lol.
Click to expand...

Mello136 said:
Could you guys explain your method a bit? It sounds interesting. If not at least point me in the right direction. I've searched Lucas Formula and Lucas Method but nothing substantial comes up.
Click to expand...


No worries about taking anything over, Lex. Stampede around all you want. I also don't have much further info for you, Mello. Just what we have been discussing here. My nute schedule as I mentioned consists of alternating over-feeding, underfeeding, and a third state which is a state of not knowing whether I am currently over feeding or under feeding.
I try to roughly follow a bare bones version of the Botanicare feeding schedule from the bottle but cut back about 20%. I usually measure the ppm these days and try to gauge feeding strength by that.
 
A quick update of sorts

~FLOWER ROOM~

I managed to scrap together an oscillating fan ( one that oscillates ) and put that in. Also I left in the non-oscillating oscillating fan on in the corner behind the moldy PC.

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Yes definitely a bit scary. Looks like I had to chain it up lest it suddenly lunge at someone.

image34864.jpg


The MT bud has a somewhat rumpled look after last night's liaison with Mr Stick. Her hair just a little out of place tonight.
The right side looking jungly. Mama Thai in front.

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I'll do some defol later on. I just do it by feel, when I see that the leaves, especially lower ones which are deprived of light, are naturally dying off and becoming less important to the budding process.

~VEG ROOM~



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Here is a comparison shot of three plants. The Blueberry from clone in middle is 57 days old -from rooted cutting. The Malawi on left is 33 days -from planted sprout. The Blueberry clone on the right has been growing 20 days as a rooted cutting.

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For their age, the younger two are well ahead of the older BB, which is a victim of purple curly wilty syndrome. They have much bigger leaves and are in every way healthier and more typical of my normal vegging plants.
Unless I decide to do a few scrogless plants it will be few weeks yet before anything is ready to flower. If the PCW syndrome plants don't make an obvious improvement, I'm not even sure I want to flower them. I may wait the extra few weeks for the Malawis, and whatever new clones there are, to catch up to flowering stage. No point going through 3 or 4 months flowering if the plant is going to be sickly and not produce well.
 
Morning Mello. If you mean the picture of the right side of my flowering room? It's three largish plants grown into scrog screens. They were topped a few times during veg and have several flowering tops at the same height, and close together. Just a way of spreading the budding sites out in a flat and even canopy so they get good light exposure. In my case I don't get too carried away trying to make it even.
Is this what you meant by clustered together?
 
No. Looking at plants individually, each node site is close to the next node. Is that a result of keeping lights lower on them? Very little if no space between each bud site is pretty nice and would work great in my party cup grow. Sorry for straying of topic, I was just wondering what your strategy was.
 
Oh I see. No worries there isn't any particular topic here to get off topic from. :). Are my plant's nodes tighter than some? I don't know what to compare to.
But yes it could be the light distance. I do keep it pretty close- the 600W bulbs are about 12" away from the buds. Probably less in spots. 18- 20" away in the dark corners.
Possibly the topping during veg helps keep the nodes tight, and I also often supercrop here and there to slow limbs down. This probably contracts things slightly.
Node spacing also depends a bit on strain. If you saw the Thai Stick strain I had going a couple weeks ago it had very widely spaced nodes.
Other than those guesses I don't claim to know anything about why they are how they are. Do you have a comparison?
 
The idea of the scrog is to evenly spread the limbs and end up with only the budding tips growing in the light. Ideally I think that would mean about 8-10" long buds. Normally that last 8-10" does grow into one compacted mass. Everything else besides those tips should be below the screen. Underneath the screen, down lower on the plant where the popcorn buds would normally grow, everything is removed down to the bare stem. Down there it doesn't get much light anyway and doesn't produce much.
This pic of a flowering Mama Thai shows what I mean.
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If you're talking about that crazy P Chunk I have strung up with all the pipe cleaners and stuff- that is a bit of a mistake- it totally overgrew the screen cause I didn't have time to properly control it. Those buds should be freestanding and be waaaaaaay less long. It may have more popcorn buds on it. Whatever it is, it shouldn't be taken as an example of anything to do at home, lol.
 
Yes I think so. In my case I don't put much love into the scrog training.
Basically I'm growing a plant in the shape of a candelabra which uses the screen to keep the branches spread out. It is lollipopped to focus growth at the tips and avoid a lot of leafy mess and popcorn bud lower down. I just put the light as close as I can get it so the rectangular lit area, created by the reflectors, covers the area below the light. With my reflectors that means it gets about 12" away. I mainly only adjust light height to shrink or expand that light footprint. Sometimes buds overheat closest to the bulb but it's rare.

That's about the whole flowering training system in a nutshell I think :)
 
Thank you. I'm looking for ways to optimize my grow the best I can. I'm going with scrog and lollipop 6 plants. Growing is so much fun. I love the research and development of it all. Again, thanks for your help and best of luck with your babies!
 
Yeah it's highly addictive that's for sure. Cannabis is a certified gateway drug to the addiction of growing marijuana.
Anytime you need help Mello just ask. I'm no expert that's for sure but can probably help with the basics. I'll check your journal when I get a chance. :thumb:

----- I stuck the sprouted Thai Stick seed in a pot. Along with the one that didn't sprout. These seeds don't seem very vigorous. I have a feeling they were sitting in the Ace Seeds shelf in the back room for quite a while.
All the more reason to make more seeds. Hopefully this one is a girl. With my luck if I sprout another I'll end up with two girls and the unsprouted one will come up a girl too. I'll take my chances.

Not being a gambler, I've never understood the laws of chance around this idea.
If you sprout a seed or flip a coin, assuming you have an equal chance of heads/tails or boy/girl, and therefore a 50/50 chance...You flip that coin two times and both times get heads. The next flip is still going to be 50/50, though it seems more likely to come up tails. If you get ten heads/boys in a row it seems astronomically more likely that tails/girl is coming soon. But I see no way for the laws of nature to take that into account. That next coin toss will always be a clean slate and a 50/50 chance, right? The idea of third time, or eleventh time lucky just - there doesn't seem to be a place in the universe for that idea to exist- a law of physics on whch to hang it's hat, so to speak.
Not the best explanation but in a hurry...
 
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