Un-Lucky Queen 12/12 Hempy

Update:

I'm still letting the runt go a bit longer. Here's a pic of the top:
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Not quite ready yet, but it's really starting to harden up.

I've lowered the RH. Here's the temps with the lights on. I'm gonna drop it a little lower next week:
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Here's the whole garden:
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And the Sativa. Hardly any leaves, a few light, airy colas, and tons of calyx's...all over the place. It's starting to get frosty. I pray it finishes....it's going to be unbelievable:
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Finally, here is the micronute mix I'm going to use for the next year or two. It's enough for 50 pounds of fert....but since I'm going to use OC+ again it should last even longer. It came with 2 ten ounce packages....10.95 total. I don't need to remind anyone how expensive Cannabis specific nutes are....and to my knowledge, there isn't a product out there that has all the micro's in it....this one does.

There won't be a lockout or deficiency at the DocBud's.
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Water check

anyone ever seen or used Rapitest Water Check sticks? I just found them at the Dollar General last night. Not sure if it would be good to stick in the top of a hempy or stick one out the hole at the 2 inch level.
 
Re: Water check

Setting Sun said:
holy moly!

your colas always make me say that, lol

nobody would ever guess those are 12/12 plants!

That sativa looks like a crazy woman, lol. Yep, if she fills out, could be some incredible smoke.

here's a link to my LR2's:

300w LED - Sunset Kush
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Nice!

RE 12/12......I'm a believer. I'm gonna stick with it for a few cycles. These things are taking forever to finish, but I really like what I'm seeing! The frosting is the best I've had yet.

Hash Hound said:
anyone ever seen or used Rapitest Water Check sticks? I just found them at the Dollar General last night. Not sure if it would be good to stick in the top of a hempy or stick one out the hole at the 2 inch level.
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I don't think it hurts at all to carefully pH water....but I can tell you that on this grow I've been very sloppy about pH in the hempys......and they're the best bunch I've had yet.

The OC+ has mostly chelated nutrients which the plant can absorb at any pH. The bottom line is that with quality plant food, pH isn't that important.

What is VERY important is total alkalinity, and the balance of ammoniacal and nitrate nitrogen in the plant food.

Total alkalinity is basically a measurement of how much pH down it takes to lower pH of the water 1 point. If your water's total alkalinity is really high, consider mixing with RO.

And, if your ferts are high in ammoniacal N......pH is going to drop all the time. If they are high in nitrates....pH is going to constantly rise.....in spite of whether the mix was pH'd or not.

If your tap water is reasonable, and you use OC+ or another chelated product, you don't need to worry too much about pH, despite the legends, ghost stories and mythology associated with pot growing.
 
Re: Water check

Hash Hound said:
anyone ever seen or used Rapitest Water Check sticks? I just found them at the Dollar General last night. Not sure if it would be good to stick in the top of a hempy or stick one out the hole at the 2 inch level.
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Save your money...pick up your plants after you transplant them before you water them and that is your dry weight (assuming only damp soil from the bag or dry perlite). Then to check their water...pick them up or buy a scale if you have no sense of how much something weighs. This technique is free (assuming you didn't need to buy the scale)...:).

After a little practice you will be able judge how many days your plant has worth of water based on how fast she is using it and how long between waterings. And if your plant gets truly healthy...you will be watering everyday or every other day anyway.

It is my opinion that wet foot to dry foot watering technique in soil builds a stronger root system than wet foot all the time. But any hydroponic setup has to take this need into account. Roots need oxygen to catalyze complex plant sugar's that the plant pumps around with nutrients (it is how she moves immobile elements to the tops in the first place...). So more sugars (dry root zones to gather oxygen) should always equal faster growing tops.

Hydroponic setups supply the oxygen through either adding it to the water or allowing the roots a dry time. And explains why hydroponics can have extremely fast growth rates when all is in synergy.

Just my cents...am in a rambling mood this morn...:)

:peace:
 
This is hempy...the whole point is there's no need for fancy pants stuff like moisture test strips. (besides lifting the container is way better than any test or gadget will ever be)
The 'damn hole', combined with perlite prevents over watering, while the space below the 'damn hole' makes up for not watering often enough. :P
 
My friends grow space is in a shower stall. Sort of hard to reach the plants in the back to lift them. That's why i thought sticking one of those strips in would be a good moisture indicator. I'm testing one out on a regular house plant to see if they even work. And giving one to my friend this weekend for him to test in his hempy.
 
Setting Sun said:
I think the cheap $5 or so moisture meters work fine and are a one-time expense versus those strips if lifting the pots is difficult.
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I've got one of those moisture meters somewhere.

But seriously, you can't overwater a hempy.....and it becomes fairly obvious if you under water.....so just water daily, or every other day.....whatever makes you happy.

Hempy=stoner proof. :cheertwo:
 
Dang, these things are takin' forever to finish! 3 of them don't even have any red pistils yet, and the buds continue to form and fatten.

The smallest plant still has all cloudy/clear triches....and it continues to fatten up. Maybe a week till harvest?

I've got the temps up to about 82 for a while, and the RH down to about 30. We'll run that for a few days, then drop back down into the '70's. I've given them all a dose of Snowstorm, and I'll give the soil plants a drench with Sweet tomorrow.

My pictures are lousy. I seem to be getting worse at photgraphing pot, even though I'm getting better at growing it.
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HermitCrab said:
If you had just burned the hell out of them with overpriced nutes, they'd be done by now!
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LOL! Yep, they'd be dried by now if I had used "expensive" nutes.

Setting Sun said:
good on you for your patience till they're at peak size and ripeness.

it's ain't easy ;)
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No, it's not easy....especially when the specter of vacation lurks again. Oh well. I suppose I'll have chopped a few of 'em by then.

While my little grow is hardly a legitimate scientific experiment, here are a couple of observations I've made which need to be tested out somehow:

1.)It seems that my plants are significantly larger than most 12/12 plants I've heard about. I'm going to break 3 Oz on two of them, easy. I wouldn't be surprised if 5 of them break the 3oz mark.

Why?
Osmocote? That's my guess. The reason I say this is because the AN plants got healthy as soon as I stopped the AN and top dressed them with OC+.

2.)These plants are taking longer to finish than expected. Why?

Well, another interesting thing is that my fan leaves at the bottom are not yellow and aren't falling off. The pic a couple posts above are of the little stuff at the lower end of the plant.

Perhaps the increased N from the OC+ has kept the plant growing longer, which has increased the size and yield and kept the plant from thinking it's about to die? In other words, it's not in a hurry to mature, because it's happy growing.

I dunno....all I know is that these are the best plants I've grown yet, and I've done nearly nothing except water.
 
I've been busy over the last two days:

Paul McCartney concert last night. Amazing doesn't describe it. Historic doesn't do it justice.....you had to be there.

Today, I mixed up several year's supply of micronutrient mix. I have enough raw material left over to make a lifetime supply for me and several friends.

Total cost 122 dollars, less than a medium sized container of Advanced Nutrients Can-a-sewer.

This is all for my next several grows....or, depending on how things go, maybe for the next several hundred grows.

Here's what I started with. Gypsum, dolomite line, sulpher, epsom salt, and a micronutrient mix:
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I'm using FFOF as the base soil.
Here's the batch of pre-plant mix:
7 cups of gypsum, 3 cups lime, 4 oz. Epsom salt, 1oz Borax.
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Here's the "weekly" mix. I may not need to use it every week, because the ferts I like also have micro's in them. 4 pounds Epsom salt mixed with 10oz of the micro mix.
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Here's how much is used:
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Another way of putting it is that I have over 5 pounds of pre-plant, single application micro.....and I use 8 tsp per BAG of FFOF.

I have over 4 pounds of weekly mix. On a weekly basis, I use 3-4 tsp per bag of FFOF. In other words, If I have a bag of FFOF spread out into 15 pots.....I only use 3-4 tsp, spread out into each pot! I'm gonna be using a gram scale to figure out how much to add!

Here's how much material was left over:

Not quite half of the epsom salt used
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Not quite half the gypsum used:
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the bag of lime is essentially full. I've got enough of this stuff to hand some down to my grandkids when they start growing.

And, it was cheap. Really, really cheap.

I know it will work, too. I have a friend who grows amazing vegetables with this stuff....the best I've ever seen or tasted. The importance of micronutrients cannot be over stated.

So, I went ahead and mixed the proper amounts in with the FFOF soil, and put it away in a rubbermaid tub.

I'll start the seeds in Light Warrior, then transpant them into this soil I've made, using OC+......water.....and away we go! I'll try this mix out in a hempy or two also.

I'll repeat this post when my new journal gets started....I'm still checking trichomes to see when to chop the current grow, which is looking better every day.

I LOVE growing pot! In fact, I'm addicted to it. Growing, that is.
 
Nice recipe Doc!

I like to add a little green sand to my soil mix. a bag lasts several lifetimes.
 
SnowBender said:
Nice recipe Doc!

I like to add a little green sand to my soil mix. a bag lasts several lifetimes.
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sounds good!

Green sand is another really great product. If I wasn't such a jackass, I would have just bought some of that, or Micromax, instead of making my own. But I just wanted to learn something new.

The more I learn, the more incredulous I become over the staggering display of very expensive nutrients, fertilizers, boosters and other potions that can be found in hydro shops, etc.

The full line for House and Garden is over 1000 bucks! As far as I'm concerned, it better grow pot with 4-5 times the yield and twice the potency to even be considered a good deal........but no such claims can be made and the results aren't anywhere near to justifying the cost......IMO.
 
Setting Sun said:
looks like you've put a lot of thought into your mix doc, can't wait to see you grow with it.

Did I understand that you're going to run some soil hempys? Would you use a layer of straight perlite in the bottom of those buckets?

thanks for the update and the pics bro;)
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No....no soil hempys. I'm gonna run mostly soil on the next grow and just run a couple hempys alongside. I'll spike the perlite with my new micronute powder.

If it grows well, I'll package it up and sell it to innocent noobs for 40 bucks an ounce. Yeah! that's the ticket!
 
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