Tom Bombodil's Malawi Gold & Western Winds Bumble in the Jungle

[Tom Bombodil]

One regular Malawi gold, sex unknown.

One regular Western Winds, sex unknown.

1000W HPS, aircooled with 265cfm centrifugal fan.

Hempy buckets! ! !

 

[Tom Bombodil]

re: Tom Bombodil's Malawi Gold & Western Winds Bumble in the Jungle

Hey all u cannabiboyz! And cannabigrlz! It has been damn near forever since I harvested my bagseed soil grow back in April. Finally decided to pop some of those beans from the 'Tude.

I germinated three each of WW and MG, two of each type popped but one of each of those never made it past the cotelydons. Alo tried to pop a freebie Critical Hog but it never made it into this world-RIP sista!

Currently under my old 400w hps with integrated ballast.Just received my relay in the mail so this weekend I'll convert over to the 1000w monster.

After popping the seedlings in vermiculite I transplanted to 2L soda bottles, 3/4 perlite and 1/4 vermiculite. Plan to Hempy bucket these babes in 5gallon buckets.

 

[Light Addict]

re: Tom Bombodil's Malawi Gold & Western Winds Bumble in the Jungle

Welcome my friend and glad your on here doing a journal. 420 is the best site around by miles. Looking forward to your work. What style of grow you going for any training?
Oh and subbed

 

[Tom Bombodil]

re: Tom Bombodil's Malawi Gold & Western Winds Bumble in the Jungle

Thanks for the warm welcome Light Addict! I couldn't agree with you more, 420mag is the best and has always been my fave... highest quality information and the peeps are fantastic. I love sharing my grow with a global community of kindred spirits and consider it an honor to add my voice to the 420 chorus.

Training: depends on the sex... I have 2 regular seedlings in a 3x5 space. If one turns out to be a boy and I end up with just 1 plant in the room, then ScrOG would be ideal, but paradoxically it would be too late to effectively ScrOG that far into flower (do you agree? never ScrOGged before haha). So especially if I end up with 2 girls (oh please please please!), I think a mild LST would be in order, just tying down the main stem maybe with a little pinch/twist... I'm open to ideas, please give any suggestions you may have!

 

[Tom Bombodil]

re: Tom Bombodil's Malawi Gold & Western Winds Bumble in the Jungle

Disclaimer:

When I started my first journal in late 2012, I weighed the cost vs benefits of posting pics. Ultimately I decided that I couldn't justify the risks. One extenuating circumstance is that I can't get a real internet connection at my house so all my posts are from my smartphone. Last year, I cited some known examples of major wireless carriers turning over their data to the US gov't and explained that I can't in good faith blindly trust those companies with my liberty, Goldberry's liberty, and "all the river creatures that depend on us".

Well, fast forward to 2013, and I had no idea how deep the rabbit hole actually went. Turns out those traitors and sellouts that rule over us have been collecting info for years. All emails, internet activities, phone records, and recently credit card transactions (don't believe me? look up Consumer Protection Agency) have been stored and are accessible for datamining by anyone with a clearance. DEA has been secretly providing info to local LEO along with instructions on how to obfuscate the source.

Just typing this makes me so angry!!! O daughter of Babylon, who shall be destroyed, happy shall he be who rewardeth thee as thou hast served us! ! !

Grrrr....

Bottom line: no pics, sorry.

 

[Tom Bombodil]

re: Tom Bombodil's Malawi Gold & Western Winds Bumble in the Jungle

whoops, double post!

 

[Light Addict]

re: Tom Bombodil's Malawi Gold & Western Winds Bumble in the Jungle

Start training really young check my journal below. You could try it out, gives great results of one plant. Scrog it would be a bit too late I think

 

[Tom Bombodil]

re: Tom Bombodil's Malawi Gold & Western Winds Bumble in the Jungle

I've been struggling with seedling stunt. I can't remember what day I germed the beans, but it was mid-to-late August. These plants are nearly 30 days old, both are on their fourth set of true leaves but they're still tiny! Between 2 and 3 inches tall. No fan leaves. Color is light green, not yellowish but not that deep dark green one should see with a plant in veg.

I gave a light dose of nutes about 10 days ago, and neither responded much although the Malawi Gold developed browning leaf tips on the second set of leaves (the first set did not discolor but the tips were curled downwards towards the stem, no curling up or down along the edge of the leaf though). So, although they were about 3.5 weeks old and had three sets if true leaves, I thought I'd burned them and went back to plain water. They'd only been in the 2L soda bottles (.75 perlite / .25 vermiculite) for a few days at that point and I hadn't been using the 400w HPS, but 2x45w CFLs and 2x23" T12s. So I put them under the HPS @ 13hr on / 11 hr off.

Now more than one week later they have only added one additional set of leaves. They were turning a lighter shade of green so 4 days ago I gave them a very light dose of nutes, probably 1/8 strength. They seemed to darken a little and perk somewhat, so last night I gave them 1/4 strength nutes (I run the lights @ night while I'm home b/c I'm paranoid about fire, my dog is home all day by himself and I couldn't bear the thought of something happening while I was away). This morning they seemed a bit darker still and some tiny new leaf nubs on the apical stem, so I hope I'm on the right track.

Perlite + vermiculite has very little nutrient, so I think maybe I was starving them for nutes with just the plain water unlike the last grow I did which was in FoxFarm Happy Frog soil which has some natural nutrients (worm castings, etc).

I hope these babes will kick into gear, I MUST finish this grow by Christmas. I could kick over to flower and I bet they'd perk right up, but they're so tiny I think that'd be a waste with so little vegetative growth I don't believe they'd produce much.

I KNOW this is pretty much impossible to help me on without pics, but does anyone have experience with seedling stunt that may illuminate my path?

Using Ionic Grow hydro veg nutes.

 

[Tom Bombodil]

re: Tom Bombodil's Malawi Gold & Western Winds Bumble in the Jungle

Ionic Grow is 3-1-5.

 

[Tom Bombodil]

re: Tom Bombodil's Malawi Gold & Western Winds Bumble in the Jungle

Yesterday I hooked up the 1000w light, using the MH bulb (it's one of those Sunleaves switchable magnetic ballasts). Everything was great except the temps went through the roof! If got it air cooled using a 440cfm hurricane fan... in an earlier post I mistakenly said it was 265. However, both the intake and exhaust for the light duct is in the same room as my grow room is in. So two problems: the air used to cool the lights gets warmer, and the air used for the grow room ventilation its likewise already warmed. All of it is contained in a 12x15 bedroom.

Ideally I would be drawing and venting the air for the light from a different area. Since I can't run all those ducts at this time, I'm going to try a temporary solution: keep everything as it is EXCEPT I'm going to run the exhaust for the light into the wall space. There is a plastic panel in the wall to access the plumbing in the bathroom on the other side. Thus there is a pretty large void in the studs and its definitely not airtight in the wall cavity there. I'm hoping that by not exhausting the super hot air into the bedroom, the temps will stay down (yesterday they were reaching 92°F with the grow room door shut, and nearly that with the door open). Still going to have the hurricane fan in the bedroom outside the grow chamber, so I'm expecting that will create negative pressure in the bedroom and keep relatively cool air coming into the bedroom from other areas of the house.

 

[Tom Bombodil]

re: Tom Bombodil's Malawi Gold & Western Winds Bumble in the Jungle

This afternoon I switched out the insulated 6" ducts I'd been using for air cooling the light to 4" flexible foil ducts. Technically the insulated, larger diameter duct should be better, except I had several different connections to pass through the grow room wall and couplers/reducers to match the 4" light flanges. Immediately got better airflow through there.

Now I'm venting straight into the wall cavity. The air is not humid any more than ambient since the air is not from the growroom itself, so I'm not worried about condensation. There are some 1/2" copper water lines in there that I carefully insulated with foam pipe covers and taped up with foil tape... the pipes were quite cool and I was thinking that really warm air moving over them constantly could cause condensation on the outside.

 

[Tom Bombodil]

re: Tom Bombodil's Malawi Gold & Western Winds Bumble in the Jungle

Seedlings are looking up! So far anyway, top leaves are a darker, more vibrant green.

One thing I did to try to improve growth was institute GLR, the Gas Light Routine. I recall Twelve 12's extensive journals using this method and I tried it on my last grow with what I think was great success. For those uninitiated GLR is a veg routine involving twelve hours on and one additional hour on breaking up the middle twelve (dark) hours into two five and a half hour dark periods. The single hour of lights on destroys the flowering hormone, but otherwise allows the girls their beauty sleep whilst simultaneously saving on electricity.

When running HID, especially this 1k MH monster, I use a fluorescent fixture for the single hour. Saves cycles on the big light and also avoids having to run the big one while I'm away (I run lights @ night, so the dark cycle occurs during the day).

 

[Light Addict]

re: Tom Bombodil's Malawi Gold & Western Winds Bumble in the Jungle

Sound like your coming along nicely glad your girls are getting better. Glr is not something Ive tried so good luck and I m very interested.

 

[Tom Bombodil]

re: Tom Bombodil's Malawi Gold & Western Winds Bumble in the Jungle

Thanks light addict! I've been lurking LST journal, your ladies are sculptured like Greek statutes. Your method of tucking the fan leaves was new to me, I'm definitely going to try it out once I get enough vegetative growth to sculpt. Last time I tried heavy defoliation for the first time and I liked the results. But just tucking leaves as opposed to removal seems a great compromise... keep those little carb factories just move them out of the way

GLR seemed to work great for me last time. I switched over to GLR three days ago about the same time I fed nutes and switched to MH, so its hard to say that GLR was the reason my girls started perking up but I suspect it greatly helped. When I first started researching it last year it was not rare but uncommon... this year it seems to be all the rage, at least I've noticed growers using and recommending it as a matter of course rather than some novel technique.

I'm also intending to use DLR diminishing light routine during flower again, tried it last time and I do believe its a great way to cap a flower cycle. I've heard people preaching it for hastening flower, I myself was more interested in using it to increase trich production.

 

[Light Addict]

re: Tom Bombodil's Malawi Gold & Western Winds Bumble in the Jungle

Many thanks for the compliments chap. Lowering the humidity as much as you can towards end of flower is good for trich production. With messing with timing schedule I used a weird one last time for my B Venom. When she hit peak flower I switched to 33 hour day and 12 dark for 2.5 weeks. It really helped with yeild.

 

[Tom Bombodil]

re: Tom Bombodil's Malawi Gold & Western Winds Bumble in the Jungle

That is one crazy photoperiod Light Addict! Did you have to use a digital timer to accomplish that?

 

[Tom Bombodil]

re: Tom Bombodil's Malawi Gold & Western Winds Bumble in the Jungle

Venting the 1000w MH into the wall cavity seems to be working quite well. The only remaining issue to solve is that by axial fan used to extract the cab air (not connected at all to the lights) is only around 50cfm so its still too warm in the cab to shut the door, in the mid 80s (°F). So I've been leaving the doors to the grow chamber itself open and keeping the bedroom door shut (12ft x 15ft bedroom). This keeps the temps in the upper 70's. I need to buy a 4" or so centrifugal fan for cab air, somewhere in the 100-250cfm range I'd wager to be able to totally close up the grow area and still keep enough air moving to have temps in the 70's. But I may have to repurpose a Holmes Blizzard fan to the task until I can free up some $.

Seedlings are taking off, finally woohoo! I've tried to narrow down the potential cause(s) of the seedling stunt, and here are my candidates:
1) not enough nutes in the vermiculite the seeds were started in, perhaps starting in a nice organic soil would be better
2) didn't allow the seedlings to become root bound before transplanting to 2L bottles. I waited several weeks until there were three true leaf sets, but I've read that they should be root bound before transplanting, which they were not. This could also relate back to 1) above, not enough nutes
3) light cycle too short. I was not using 18/6 or GLR those first few weeks, just 13/11.

Anyway, just trying to learn from my experience. Seedling stunt cost me about a month it seems, so my plans to harvest by Christmas are probably not going to be realized. I'll have to decide whether I want to harvest early (too early in all likelihood) or let it keep going into January. The reason I has this timeline is not impatience... the reason is.....

I'm going to be a dad! My son is due at the end of December!

 

[donpaul.p]

re: Tom Bombodil's Malawi Gold & Western Winds Bumble in the Jungle

hi mate, just getting caught up with the journals then seen your comment below
don paul.p, is this a thing? I've been struggling with unexplained slow growth with my two seedlings, and I recall that I did have a 2 x 21" T12 fixture hanging to the side/below for a couple weeks due to a CFL shoplight fixture taking up the space directly over the plants.

Light Addict, sorry I shouldn't hijack your thread, say the word and I'll move this elsewhere.

so ill get subd to your journal and answer your question, its best to have the light above the plants early on so the plants know which way to grow, the plants will always grow towards the light, if you have the light to one side of the plant then the plant will grow towars the light, if you then move the light to the other side of the room then the plants turn round and face the light, so the lights need to be above the plants, when they get bigger you can supliment with side lighting but having lights below leaf level will only confuse the plant as they will always grow towards the light, the tops of the leaves are where the plant gets energy from the light or sun, so the lights need to always be above the plant then side lighting can be used when the plant is bigger.

the only other reason your plants could be growing slow is if your over watering, the roots need oxygen as much as they need water, so let the pots dry out between waterings and they will grow like crazy, i usually water every 4 or 5 days but this time round im trying a different method where i let the pots totally dry out before watering, so im going 7 days or more without watering my plants and the growth im getting this time round is much better than any of my previous grows, the plants seem to be doing much better and im not using as much nutrients either,

when the roots are constantly wet it causes the roots to die then it cant support the plant, so letting the soil dry out between waterings forces the roots to grow so they try and find water again, thats if your growing in soil, let me read your journal and see what it says

 

[Light Addict]

re: Tom Bombodil's Malawi Gold & Western Winds Bumble in the Jungle

Good on ya chap on becoming a dad soon. To answer your question, I tried getting my digital timer planned out but gave up and just set an alarm on my phone manually. big pain but i had no averse effects and got massive yield of her. I found the info on a page here in the How to grow section. (How to manipulate lighting schedule for increased yield.)

 

[Tom Bombodil]

re: Tom Bombodil's Malawi Gold & Western Winds Bumble in the Jungle

Thanks for the info don Paul, my seedlings have taken off (finally). When I read your post in Light Addicts journal, I realized that I had inadvertently had some fluorous to the side and slightly below leaf level for a couple weeks. This was due to the fact that my CFL fixture was taking up all the space directly over the plants since I was trying to get them as close as possible. By the time I red your post I'd already switched over to the 400w HPS fixture and made some other changes, so its hard to say whether the side/low lighting caused the stunting, but its certainly good to know and I'll add it to my knowledge bucket.

Light Addict, thanks for the reference, I went and found that FAQ and its certainly very intriguing! I love learning about photoperiod manipulation! In my case, I probably won't use a lights-on period of more than 12 hours just because I find comfort in knowing that I'm always home at lights on and lights off and throughout the lighting period... I keep a fire extinguisher by the door of the room my grow room is in and everything, if that tells you how paranoid I get. Its funny, I'm normally one of those heavy sleepers who could snooze through just about anything, except during a grow... during a grow, I wake up and jump out of bed at the slightest sound and oftentimes find myself getting up once or twice during the night (lights on cycle) to check things. One time during my last grow, I was awakened in the middle of the night by sirens coming from quite a distance. I live pretty far out in a rural area (love it, btw) so its a rare occasion to hear them. The moment I could tell that they had turned off of the highway onto my road I sprang from bed and rushed into the grow room and killed the lights.... not sure what exactly I thought I was going to accomplish, if that many gov't vehicles were really headed to me in the middle of the night then they clearly would have already known what they were after lol! Not to mention they wouldn't have been using their sirens haha! Turns out an elderly neighbor was having a medical emergency. I check on them once in a while and we take care if each other out here in the stix, part of the reason I love it out here... besides, if there's one thing I've learned about elderly neighbors, its that they are great allies and terrible enemies lol!