Radogast 2 - Return of the Clones

[Radogast]

A new bulb dawns

My digital ballast flashing overvoltage seems to have been an indicator that the 600W HPS bulb was overly consumed.
I brought home a new Hortilux Super HPS bulb. Though subtle, it glows whiter than the old bulb ever did.

My late veg area was overflowing, with the light at 26 inches and two girls growing into the lights each day.

With 2 lights lit in the flower room I was able to move a pair of girls from veg to flower.

Before

After

 

[Radogast]

Hey Rad - try to figure a way to dunk the plants completely in your mix. That will work better than spraying. If you mess up you can always transplant into new pots. Find a way to lay plants down on side and have a deepish tray with mix in it and lay the plant in the mix an submerge. Add some kelp in your mix the ladies love that shit.

Hey there Radogast. Sorry you have so much trouble with the pests. I overcame the little buggers. I started growing Hempy technique in 3 gallon buckets. Used 100% perlite in net bags (paint strainers from hom-edepot). Works great and no pests for two years.

Good Growing Buddy!

WJ

I have now done 4 treatments of freshly mixed neem oil foliar spray.

The girls in flower, who were most affected, have mites but it takes a long look to find some.

The girls in Veg have revived from lackluster growth into vigorous growth.


I do believe that a dip is more effective than a spray.
I have heard that there is virtually no way to rid mites with a mineral oil when flowers have set because the effectiveness depends on total coating of the bugs. Neem is more of a traditional biocide in that it chemically attacks the bugs.

I'm going to continue with the neem oil spray until it no longer seems effective.

I feel I need to find out what works, really works, by direct experience built on the knowledge of others.

So far, it's working

 

[Radogast]

Graduation Day


Snowcap 'Tracy's Mom has got it going on' - 28" - One of the mite bearing clones from July

I removed the lower growth and weak branches after this photo.

Despite supercropping several times in the last few days, Snowcap kept growing into the CFL.
She is a bit scruffy, but a strong young cannawoman.

Northern Lights 'Stella' - 28" - An early favorite. A strong grower. The youngest in the big pots.

In the last week, the foliage became very dense under the CFL. Stella picked up some yellow.
She never had much of a figure, but I still like her a lot.

I need to remember to defoliate BEFORE the graduation photos

 

[Radogast]

Flowering Room - from 4 to 6 plants


The two new girls, Snowcap Stacy and Northern Lights Stella, went under the right side (new) 600W bulb.
Breeder seed Janice moved over from the left side light.

Janice in front of Stacy and Stella

Janice has some nice looking leaves and a very dense canopy

Hard to tell under the yellow lights, but Janice is the darkest green in the room, darker than the Snowcap and Northern Lights.

On the left side, the old girl Caramelicious Quiffa in front of Snow Queen and Lachesis

Caramelicious Quiffa, A clone from May 2014 is a mess. I'm flowering her because I'm stubborn.
Also, she reminds me of what it is like growing with bottled fertilizers.

Snowcap Snow Queen (All the fan leaves will probably yellow and drop by harvest.)

Breeder Seed Lachesis. I'm hoping she can recover her strength enough to turn those buds into colas.

 

[Radogast]

Hani weigh in


Remember Hawaiian Skunk Hani, a small plant who lived her life with mites?

Dry weight of buds = 1 oz (29.3g)

Small, not very dense buds

The buds are loaded with trichomes

 

[SweetSue]

Well done my friend. I loved the notation of

"I'm flowering her because I'm stubborn."

Priceless, and so descriptive of so many of us. LOL! You keep chugging along here. I have all the faith in the world that you'll beat the mites.

 

[Lady Cannafan]

Lots of trichs on those buds Radogast!

I've printed out the neem oil recipe for later use if needed. You keep diligent and they will decide it's not worth losing their lives to stick around. ;-)

 

[Radogast]

Lots of trichs on those buds Radogast!

I've printed out the neem oil recipe for later use if needed. You keep diligent and they will decide it's not worth losing their lives to stick around. ;-)

Thans for dropping by Cannafan.

The neem oil foliar really seems to be working. Growth is obviously stronger. I only saw about 15 mites on two plants last night when I checked and sprayed - I'm sure there were more but the spray has reduced the mites by over 95%. Their numbers have stayed down for over a week. I'll be on 3x per week neem oil spraying for awhile.

The important thing is the vigor and health of my garden has returned !!!!!

The plants may look scruffy (we all wear our history) but I firmly expect to return to 2+ oz harvests per plant.

I am now free to focus on weeding out a few genetic lines to stop slowing plant growth by too much time in early veg. (To be fair, 5 of the genetic lines were 'forced' upon my schedule by outside decisions.) If I aim for 4-6 weeks in cloning and veg, I want no more than 14 genetic lines (11 large Living Soil pots plus 2-3 small pots plus clones.) I currently have 19 plants with 15 genetic lines representing 8 breeder strains, so I guess I'm pretty close to where I want to be. I just know I have to avoid too much time in the seedling pots waiting for a Living Soil pot to become available.

My assembly line flow of plants through a perpetual grow really suffered when growth slows down - and the plants in the seedling pots suffered the worst. So far as I can recall delays were caused by fighting fungus gnats (I did more harm than good), high PH (the worst slowdown), and spider mites(affected yield AND time in late veg.) In all these cases, having no pots and space to transplant seedlings meant my seedlings became root bound and woody. They never seem to fully recover.

so .......

I currently have 5 woody seedlings. As is, they aren't good transplant prospects. They will grow but not neccesarily thrive. They will be even worse prospects in 3-5 weeks when my next harvests comes due and 3 large living soil pots become available.

AK47 'Gaby' and Borderliner 'Bowie' (in small pots since late July) can be replaced with feminized seeds. They are both premium smoke, but I expect the same out of a new seed. If put seeds into soil right away, the seedling should be a good size to transplant in 3-5 weeks using 2 of 3 large pots.

Breeder Seed 'Big Bertha' (in a small pot since early July) can be dropped. She grew more foliage than bud and is second tier smoke.

Snocap 'Snow Queen' (in a small pot for 5 weeks) is a clone of 'Snow Queen' in flower. I expect her smoke to be premium, based on her appearance in flower and the locally avilable Snocap. I have a fully rooted clone in the daisy cloner (for 7 weeks) that I can replace her with. If put it into soil right away, this clone should be a robust transplant candidate in 3-5 weeks, using the third large pot.

Breeder seed 'Lachesis' is looking good in the flower room, but I can't make a guess on her smoke. Her clone (in a small pot for weeks) is the least woody of the small plants, so I will transplant her into a 5 gallon bucket of plain soil and giver her commercial nutrients until I decide whether to keep her genetic line going. I should be able to find a spot in the flower room for the 5 gallon bucket after she reaches a mature size.

.....

As you may have noticed, I made decisions while typing. Advice and criticism of my decisions is encouraged.

.....

Also, the Daisy cloner is looking like a better place for 'holding' clones than small pots. Cloning in rockwool they went green and tended to rot and lose leaves. It was a race between growing roots and losing the clone to rot within a 10-20 day window. so I initially moved the clones into soil as soon as I saw roots.

In the daisy cloner, they are not growing new leaves, but the leaves are staying fresh and the roots grow as 1 inch hydro roots then seem to stop and throw out more roots. I will begin 'timing' my plantings based on availability of pots and expected harvest dates. This should help my plants grow happier and healthier.

 

[SweetSue]

Its tricky getting the perpetual nailed. Graytail finally pulled it off again with his Land 'O Light. There's a lesson there somewhere.

A thought on the woody seedlings. You're holding off on them for a while anyway, right? Why not move their timelines back a bit, veg them out some and take fresh cuttings? Remember I've never done more than take the cuttings and kill them, but the thought was a persistent one as I read.

You work things out the same way I do. I just do it on everyone's journal, not exclusively my own. I've had some of my best insights in a free-form ramble that got sidetracked by my creative brain. Keep it up. You do good work in the end.

 

[Radogast]

Its tricky getting the perpetual nailed. Graytail finally pulled it off again with his Land 'O Light. There's a lesson there somewhere.

A thought on the woody seedlings. You're holding off on them for a while anyway, right? Why not move their timelines back a bit, veg them out some and take fresh cuttings? Remember I've never done more than take the cuttings and kill them, but the thought was a persistent one as I read.

You work things out the same way I do. I just do it on everyone's journal, not exclusively my own. I've had some of my best insights in a free-form ramble that got sidetracked by my creative brain. Keep it up. You do good work in the end.

Northern Lights Stella will be vegged out until she has fresh green shoots, then I will take cuttings and let her sleep with the worms.

Breeder seed Lachesis will also be vegged, smoke tested, then held as a mother plant if worthy.

Breeder seed Big Bertha will sleep with the worms tonight.



Borderliner and AK47 feminized seeds were just started in water to replace Bowie and Gaby
Two Hawaiian Skunk regular seeds were also started to replace Hani (I don't think her reveg will make it, and I have the seeds,)

P.S. I believe Graytail has more flexibility in that he is willing to expand his number of soil pots and lights to fit his needs. I am sticking with my 11 large fabric pots of living soil for the forseeable future.

My breakthrough last night was in recognizing the problem and developing a strategy for timing of early veg in the small pots.

My secondary breakthrough was in a willingness to compromise and use organic bottled nutes and 5 gallon pots for mothering, regular seed sexing, and strain preservation - and thus preserve the flow of the main loop through the large fabric pots.

I am adapting and learning
and also still stubborn in my commitment to living soil and water based growing.

 

[Radogast]

Clone vs Clone & Clone vs Seed

It's a side-by-side shootoff of old and new strategies.

I expect to harvest 3 girls (placed in the flower room on 9/26) in about 30 days.


My premise for Snow Queen is that a newly planted rooted clone will look better in 30 days than a woody old clone held too long in a 1-liter pot. Here are old and newly planted clones side-by-side. It's a competition!

My premise for AK47 and Borderliner is that seeds dropped in water today will look better than woody old clones in 30 days. I will run them both ways and we will see


I am taking a wait and see on Lachesis. I mixed some veg soil plus potting soil and replanted the woody clone from a 1-liter pot to a 5-gallon bucket. I will veg this for awhile. I also have a pair of well rooted clones in the daisy cloner. These will be left in the daisy cloner in a holding pattern as long as they remain viable - planting one rooted clone if neccesary.

In about 40 days, mother Lachesis should be harvested, washed, and dried. After a few smoke and vape tests, we should know if she is top shelf or a lower quality. All harvested marijuana will be consumed, but I'm only going to keep growing the genetics of top shelf marijuana.

Lachesis in her 5-gallon bucket. From now on, only top shelf marijuana gets to grow in the 7-gallon and 10-gallon living soil pots

p.s. Forget what I posted recently about Northern Lights Stella. She just went into flower. Her clones just went into the daisy cloner. She was never one of the woody old plants in 1-liter pots.

 

[Radogast]

hows my favorite bong collector doing

i hope all is good in your world brother, looking forward to some more of that ol' good journal hangouts.

ladies are lookin real fresh

Hey there 420 brother! Welcome back from the lam.

Sorry to be so slow in sharing the bowls.

420 glass purchases, and purchases in general, are slowed way down by the approach of the East Coast heating oil season.
As the Winterfell Stark family motto goes "Winter is Coming!"

Still ....

11 inches was a theme for the 3 family purchases in the last few months.


Florence (Florence And The Machine or Florence, Italy - I don't know )

Captain Jack Cannon (with cannabis leaves) and a long stemmed party bowl (clear to my eye, but blue in the light of the flash.)

 

[Lady Cannafan]

oooohhhh....I fancy the one with the spiral striping in the second pic.

Purty stuff!

I love your current experimentation with the old vs. new clones.

I'm lurking....continuously. LOL

 

[Lady Cannafan]

Also, the Daisy cloner is looking like a better place for 'holding' clones than small pots. Cloning in rockwool they went green and tended to rot and lose leaves. It was a race between growing roots and losing the clone to rot within a 10-20 day window. so I initially moved the clones into soil as soon as I saw roots.

In the daisy cloner, they are not growing new leaves, but the leaves are staying fresh and the roots grow as 1 inch hydro roots then seem to stop and throw out more roots. I will begin 'timing' my plantings based on availability of pots and expected harvest dates. This should help my plants grow happier and healthier.

I totally understand this. Although I always have success with cloning in root plugs, I have had stem rot and loss of leaves which slows the whole danged process down and you wait forever to plant the lil' chits. Several times I've had to cut the bottom portion of the stem off and start over.
I will also be putting my cloner to use now that I'm in full swing growing. The perpetual.....well, I'm still working on trying to time that out as well. I have a lot more leeway on that because I'm not really growing to keep smoke availability as much as keeping my RSO supply ready.

Keep on keepin' on.....

 

[Radogast]

oooohhhh....I fancy the one with the spiral striping in the second pic.

Purty stuff!

I love your current experimentation with the old vs. new clones.

I'm lurking....continuously. LOL

Gandalf, the glass churchwarden style with the white spiral striping, was my wife's second pipe purchase when she began medicating 3 years back. As a long bearded man, I really like the distance between fire and face. It's fun to hold and point with the stem while pontificating.

Felix (the Double Helix,) the spiral twisted stem water pipe in the back is my first ever 420 glass purchase. Felix is my favorite for smoking a bowl by myself throughout a long day.

(Conversation in the background while typing) Which famous person should be turned into a vampire? My favorite so far, Bernie Sanders as vampire president for life.

 

[Lady Cannafan]

LOL....

I thought better of posting what I was going to.

It would give Vampires an unneeded bad seed in their midst.

 

[Radogast]

I totally understand this. Although I always have success with cloning in root plugs, I have had stem rot and loss of leaves which slows the whole danged process down and you wait forever to plant the lil' chits. Several times I've had to cut the bottom portion of the stem off and start over.
I will also be putting my cloner to use now that I'm in full swing growing. The perpetual.....well, I'm still working on trying to time that out as well. I have a lot more leeway on that because I'm not really growing to keep smoke availability as much as keeping my RSO supply ready.

Keep on keepin' on.....

I seem to have been strolling slowly from crisis to crisis this last year and a half.

It's great to actually feel like I can plan the timing a little.
It's humbling to realise I have no idea how long it takes a clone from initial cutting to transplant into late veg. (there must be record of my growing somewhere!)

I'm expecting an "extra" ounce to make RSO in December. Anything over 3oz will be extra. My next 3 plants due up look like they will yield 4-7oz dry by mid-December

 

[GhettoGro]

Nice glass, Rad! Variety is the spice of life

Can't wait to see the competition grow out. I gotta pull for the AK47 bean as that is my fav strain. Great show here!

 

[Radogast]

. . .

I love your current experimentation with the old vs. new clones.

I'm lurking....continuously. LOL

. . .

Can't wait to see the competition grow out. I gotta pull for the AK47 bean as that is my fav strain. Great show here!

I terminated the experiment, as fas as far as over the hill clones vs seeds.

A local grower wanted to get his hands on my Borderliner and AK47 genetics. He is going to grow those two out as mothers and run a few clones of them. I warned him about possible spider mites, but he plans to run them in an isolation tent and treat them with a new 'canadian oil' he wanted to try. I THINK they are spider mite free, but that's not my problem now.

While I would have passed along the genetics out of the kindness of my heart, It was suggested a Tangerine x Blue Dream and Mango Haze would be coming my way soon. I'll set them up to veg in a bedroom closet or somewhere else far away from the basement until I am satisfied they are bug free. I learned my lesson from the last clone share. Unlike that last share (Girl Scout Cookies and Snocap) I have an unqualified good feeling about this one.


I was sure I wanted to grow new Borderliner and AK47 seedlings after I searched back in this thread and saw that Northern Lights Stella had gone from 7/11 planting in a 1-liter pot to 8/16 transplant in a big pot (36 days.) This was with a bit of a slowdown due to non PH treated water for 12 days. Stella is in the flower room now.

In contrast, Borderliner Bowie was cloned on the same day and is still stuck in the 1-liter pot (4 months later.) It's not fair to these plants to keep their roots bound so long and then expect them to veg into happy plants. That's just not the way I want to treat plants.

Seeds planted today shoud be ready for transplant about the time of my next 3 plant harvest. This will be better.


In place of Borderliner Bowie - A new seed Borderliner Iman


Note the lighter colored soil around the seed sprout.

I mixed a handful of perlite with a handful of peat moss for a 1 inch ball of inert soil around the new sprout. Once she grows a few roots they will reach into the more active mix of perlite/peat moss/compost/potting soil. The nutrient poor perlite/peat moss mix should be good for the sprout's first few days.

I took this photo of Borderliner Iman after laying the sprout on top of prepared soil.

In place of AK47 Gaby - A new seed AK47 Bonnie

I lay seed sprout Bonnie down like seed sprout Iman, then used a stick in the soil to tilt the seedling into an upright position. I then lay down a thin coat of perlite/peat moss mix to cover the seeds


AK47 Bonnie sprout (in root down / seed up position) before her final cover of soil.

I mixed the perlite/peat moss in a solo cup sized cup. I didn't get the corners well mixed or wet, so there is a dusting of dry peat moss on top. No worries, the mix around the seed is moist.

+reps to anyone who can identify the real women behind the new names

 

[Lady Cannafan]

Bonnie..as in "Bonnie and Clyde"? (AK47....the guns. Those two were always sportin' their guns. Not sure if they had that one though)
and Iman...as in that model?

Just throwing guesses. LOL

Edit: I love how you did the little seed nest so it doesn't get into too strong soil before it's got good walking feets.