Philthegeek - Back For Another Round In 2025

[philthegeek]

Hi all. Been off a lot of forums for the last couple of years, and much less active in the growing field as had life stuff happening. Life getting back together though and as am on holidays thought i would tidy up and get a few plants in.

I have a collection of seeds and had sorted some femininsed ones. Lesson learned that you can just keep those rolling. I found that after 3 generations of feminised grows the seeds became MUCH less viable. However, got some bush weed from a mate down south (which is actually pretty good) and have done a couple of small grows to get a stock of regular seed available. I plan on doing 1 out of every 3 grows with those seeds to keep a viable stock on hand.

Got 14 of those germinated (they need another day or so to get a decent root) and will put them in jiffy pots, then into the growing pots when they start to show roots out of the jiffy. Of course, 30 -60% will be male, but i plan to do a lot more inspection and cut the males off as soon as buds detected. Interestingly, this variety seems to start throwing male buds even before the lights gets turned down to 12 hours. Will then take some cuttings of the females for next grow. And ... if i get some going hermie then yay!! Female seeds for next grow.

Last grow was very unattended, not very pretty, but got seeds. Used a Marshydro TR3000 at 100%. Got a lot of yellowing not solved by nutrients and suspect lights too close? Still using 4 x 10" autopots in a 4x4 ft tent. 40l tank. 6 inch extractor fan. Soil is very standard potting mix mixed 50/50 with chunky Perlite. Once the plants take off i will add hydroponic nutrients to the tank at half strength. I have tried hydroponics and other watering setups. Too much like hard work.

For lights, have gotten hold of another Marshydro TR3000, so have set them up side by side. However, this grow i am going to play with the dimmers on them. From what i have read the two lights will give much better light distribution, and if i dim them appropriately I should get better growth. Yup, i have access to a quantum meter.

Found this article and will try out their recommendations for PPFD:

seedlings: 300
Veg: 600
Flower: 1000

So, off again. Once i have reliable female seeds, or cuttings i will build a frame and do some serious training to grow low and very wide.

Seeyahs!

 

[philthegeek]

So, setting up in readiness for the seedlings to go in. Got hold of that PAR meter and checked light intensity at different % power settings ..... or whatever the little dial on a TR 3000 is. Power use measured on the app that controls the GridConnect timer i am using. Power use by is 2 lights and a 6 inch extractor fan. Light is in umol / m2 /s

Setting Power Draw Pot Height 1/2 way to lights Height

100% 838W 800 1200
75% 620W 570 900
50% 430W 360 550
25% 246W 200 310

Light distribution is nice and even across the area of the pots. Schedule foe lights is on at 1600 and off at 1000. Avoids highest electricity rates and the hot part of the day. Issue here as its summer and 39 degrees outside at the moment. I am not going to the expense of air conditioning the space, but they will get plenty of water and have grown successfully in our summer before.

Before i did these measurements I raised the lights to about as high as i can in my tent with the hangers i have, and am hoping to only grow halfway up before i go 12hr light and they stretch. Thye are considerably higher than the phot in the op.

For intensity, plan is set at 25% on planting the seedlings, go to 50% for veg, and 75% for flowering.

Will be interesting to see how it goes. Any comment or advice welcome.

 

[Bill284]

I'm in .
Great start.
Happy New Year buddy




Stay safe
Bill284

 

[philthegeek]

Calling this day 3. Got 9 seedlings in the pots, watered in.

Will water daily till the roots get out and about.

Measured the light levels. At each pot with the lights on 30% averaging 240 umol.

Just for shits and giggles turned the lights up to 100% re-measured and then back to 30%.

Get average 800 in the same locations. So .... bodes well for rest of the grow i think. Wont have to shift the lights at all.

Will put the pumice on top tomorrow to keep the fungus gnats at bay.

 

[philthegeek]

Hi all. Day 5 of my current grow and all well for now. Seedlings happy, but hopefully, everything happening below the surface with roots growing.

Was doing some tidying up and domestics today and came across some seeds from a grow in early 22 that were collected off female plants that went hermie. I have tired with this batch before and gotten no germination but as a hoarder didnt throw them away.

Anyhow, as of this morning they are in paper towels between two plates, wet down with about 0.75% hydrogen peroxide. Its something i read about ages ago on a thread here about germinating old seed so with nothing to lose thought i would give it a go. They were from seeds i got from a local, pseudo legit breeder who had taken some White Widow and crossed it with something to try and get lower THC and more CBD. First mull i got from this was plenty good enough for me to smoke, and the tincture from it turned out to be very helpful for my aged mother who has chronic back and nerve pain.

So, while i am growing anyway i dug out some homemade gear (yay duct tape!! ) and set up a separate very small grow box.

Plan is to put soil / perlite in the white tray (photo below) and plant up any of my old seeds that germinate, try and resurrect that line. I could end up with 6 to 10 plants if i am lucky.

Grow them to 3 nodes high or so then flip to flowing early, and spray with colloidal silver @ 100ppm a few days before the flip, and daily for another week or so after that. This grow is focused on seeds.

Box as set up:

Watered by a smartvalve and tank. cardboard and duct tape on the end of the top covers an old computer fan and there are holes in the other end to get flow through air. Can access this through the top hole when i lift the light off, or lift the whole top box off. The boxes are just Nally bins, and though i used to have them lined with alfoil, thats too much like hard work at the moment.

Assembled, looks like this:

Light is an old burpleish box. Apollo brand ?? Was one of those that come and go on eBay a few years ago which i kept.

Set up the light meter sensor at what will be seedling height and got 485 umol in the middle. At the halfway height (top of the bottom box i get 1185 umol. So, at these distances have plenty of light, maybe a touch to much? I remember from previous use that as long as the fan works, temps are ok as the ventilation works well.

So, if i get germination i will grow like a very small Sea Of Green, looking for 1 head / plant and hopefully some induced herminess. then let them grow until the seed nicely mature. Thinking about it i will probably only spray a couple of the plants with silver....??

Anyhow, nice little side project i think with nothing to lose. And, if i can get a supply of feminized seed on hand then i can do a more focused grow with training under a net in my main tent later this year.

And, if i get rid of the males in my main tent before they pollinate, then i can spray a couple of branches on the females left and try and get some feminized seed of the bush weed i am growing at the moment.

Lol, have been looking at Oz suppliers for seeds, and would like to get some feminized of some real White Widow but you have to be careful with that kind of thing down here.

 

[Preston9mm]