Vortex's Lab: 4x4 Secondary Garden & Experimental Thread

[multiVortex]

Does this mean I now have a crack baby???


Green crack in her final home.

Still no sign of either Mexican Airlines sprouting. Dropped a third one just to be on the safe side. I may hold onto the second green crack as well, just in case the MA busts out.




In other news, a week after being given the option from True North on either a refund or reship and replying that I would like the product, I finally received a reply...


They’re sold out of 3 of the 4 I wanted. I was asked if I had any others I would like instead. I said no and to just refund the order.


Once refunded I will hit another bank for the Blackberry I wanted, and maybe one other and call it a draw. Next auto run I'll run those two, and then more Blue Dream and maybe something else. Maybe I can finally get that Night Queen auto from Dutch Passion, or something from Mephisto.

 

[multiVortex]

Interesting tidbit. My little 6” clip on fan seems to be pushing about 275-300 cfm out of the tent. I was shocked, to say the least.

Granted it doesn’t have any muscle to it so it’s not like I can use it for negative pressure or filters, etc.

I did find it interesting though. Heck, I may keep it running until air filtration is needed. 2.5w beats 40w.

 

[multiVortex]

Finally got acknowledged on the refund this afternoon from True North.

Package issues happen, it is what it is. However, I've always said that, "It's not if a company has a problem, but when they have a problem and what they do about it that makes all the difference in the world." -me

And that's quite true. What bums me out is the extremely slow help desk that took over a week to let me know that they couldn't reship the order as they no longer had any of it in stock. At the very least you would think that they could have said that up front before offering a reship option, or once reship had been requested they could have responded. If they were waiting on stock, fine. If not, just say so. Don't drag it out a week and let the customer initiate contact and ask for a status update. Now that isn't a personal knock on the people, just the business process. Any time I've spoken with someone there they have been very friendly. It's the support process that may need a tweak or additional help.



Plant updates: still no Mexican Airline sprouts. For reference, it's been 10 days since they were dropped. The second Green Crack hasn't made her appearance either, but hopefully soon. I would hate to be stuck with 4 when planning on 5, and right now there are 4 seeds that should sprout and be trying to appease me for that coveted last spot.


The Six Shooter did have a slight issue yesterday (Day 6) with being a bit hungry. So I whipped up a 1/2 gal of Mega Crop at 1.5g (3g/gal ratio) and gave her about 8oz, lightly in a circle that was about 3" from her. She was just peachy this morning.

Those two pots were only about 2/3 of the way dry, if not a hair less, when I checked yesterday, but considering all they've had was the 1/4 strength MC that I initially wet the promix with, they're probably getting a little on the hungry side from building all those roots.


I also gave the Lemon Drop a good drink yesterday om Day 11 for her. Her little 3gal fabric pot was ready, so I mixed up a gallon of MC at 2g/gal. Over the course of about 30 minutes, I gave her the whole gallon and she gave me back about 20% of it. She seems quite the happy camper today.

 

[candycane]

I’m in

 

[multiVortex]

Welcome to the slow show!

 

[multiVortex]

Checked in on the ladies this morning, and we're doing alright. Sixie is starting to lighten her leaves back towards the half/half again, so it appears it's definitely time for some real dosage food.

I could have very well done the feeding earlier, but I'm waiting on something for that. What? Silica. Should be here within the hour according to the UPS site. I am guessing I'll be putting on the buffet in a couple hours and getting those things in line.

No Mexican Airlines sprouts, nor the second Green Crack still. I peeked again at the second green crack. Looks like it may be a tick stuck in sprouting, so I left the little piece of plug off in hopes it comes toward the light.

Picky Sativas are picky, it seems.

 

[multiVortex]

Check in today finds us still without a Mx Air sprout, and it looks like the 2nd Green Crack may be stuck in the rooter. (Not that it matters.)

According to the calendar, here is where the current girls are at:

Lemon Drop (Lemmy): Day 14

Six Shooter (Nikki): Day 9

Blue Dream (Jeannie): Day 9

Green Crack (Crack Baby): Day 6

Not the greatest pics. Can’t really get a good, steady shot, so they blur a bit and look a bit funky.

They all have a nice color to them though. Seems like 6 is headed towards being a porker. Feed her and she still wants more and more.

 

[multiVortex]

Gave everybody a little breakfast this morning @ 3g/gal of MC, plus 2g each of silica (Dyna-Gro Pro-Tekt) and calmag (GH Cal-Mag+, to balance the K in the Pro-Tekt) was added per gallon.

 

[multiVortex]

6, Blue, and the crack baby each got a quart sized drink for lunch. The pots aren't overly dry, but trying to help them through the roots chasing down. Seedling in a 7gal pot and all.

Lemmy's pot was light, and close enough to ready for a nice drink. Slowly gave her a quart, waited 15 minutes, then gave her another, waited, and gave her a third. That third quart did the trick, and I got maybe 1/3 cup of run off.

Pics from last night.

Lemmy may need some lady speed stick before long.

 

[multiVortex]

Well, shit. Y'all ain't gonna believe it. I barely do.

Today is...

Week 1, Day 1 for a little Mexican Airlines girl.




That's right. I didn't stutter.


If you're keeping track, the seed(s) dropped on 11/3, and today is 11/18. It took her 15 days to pop. Not only that, but she wasn't that way two hours ago when I bumped the thermostat up for the daytime temp. It's happened in the last 2-2.5 hours.

Of course she's now behind her siblings by 12 days, but whatever. She's still gonna grow! (Guess I may have to move her to the back of the tent and move the Six Shooter (aka Nikki) forward. The flower times are similar, so the Six will harvest before the Mx does. Makes sense in my head, anyway.

Of course now I get to prepare her big girl home, and get that all set, but point being I'm still doing it and it's not a complete bust.

Now for a name... ah well, I'll get to it.


Either way, viva la Mexico.

 

[multiVortex]

So far, this is how the month has shaken out.

I like to mark the start of the week and the corresponding day. I'm a little more thorough with the indoor garden than out, for obvious reasons.

The calendar app has served me well, but I think I'm going to put together my own little local app to do it a little different and more easy. For example, I'll be able to tell it the strain name, number of weeks to create, and it will generate all that for me.

I will be able to plug in what type of grow (like coco, RDWC, etc), and how big of a batch of water I need when mixing nutes.

I will be able to schedule nute strengths based on week, brand, etc.

I can also set it up to send myself reminders, notes, or whatever.

Neither here nor there, and it will take me several months to put it all together, but at least I know where my data is. If I can't trust myself, well, we got issues.


It won't be all super slick and fancy looking, but it will dang sure do the job.

 

[multiVortex]

7gal fabric pot prepped, and drip drying now. Won't take it long, I didn't flood it, but just enough to get the promix an initial soak so it's all settled in and I don't end up with 4" of wasted space at the top of the pot. After the initial settling, then added a lite snack to get her started off right. She should reach it in a couple three days on the race to the bottom.

In other news, Six Shooter and Blue Dream seem to have reached their take off point from baby to veggin like a mo fo. Same thing Lemon Drop did. Build up them roots underneath the first bit, then boom they explode. My little crack baby should be to that point later this week as she's a few days behind the other two.


Then there's Lemmy. She's blowin up and putting out her 4th node pretty good today, with number 5 visibly coming on in between. Crossing my fingers the growth continues, as the last day I can successfully top is Friday (by the 21 day rule.)

Plan for all of these is to quadline, provided they can be topped on or before day 21.

If not, then on day 22 they're going to start getting spiraled around with LST, and try to get similar results that way. I've got a ton of those little binder clips that are great for clipping on the side of a fabric pot, then using soft tie from there.

 

[multiVortex]

Thought I made mention of it, but I guess not. Last week I hit the store for another space heater. That little 200w does the trick and keeps the temp reasonable overnight, but just can't get the whole tent up to the mid 70's during the day. So I picked up a little vornado that is about double the wattage (375w) on its low setting. Its high setting is 750w. It works great during the day and I'm steady at the 77* mark without much fuss. It's hooked up to a temp controlled outlet (like for heat mats, etc) and it's doing great. But what about that little 200w?

One minor inconvenience over the last several days has been ensuring I hit right before and after the dark period so I could change the temp on the controller. Well that's no longer a problem. Why? Because my other heat mat controller has been freed up because of today's events.

What I did was put the main heater on a timer. It turns the controller off overnight so the big one doesn't run. Then I have the little one hooked up and set to a lower temperature. The little one never turns on during the day, but it will overnight when the main heater is sleeping. That's one less thing to mess with, so that's good.

 

[multiVortex]

Time is short, and I haven't been able to get onto my external filter box setup. I may be not able to for many weeks, but still going to need filtration.

So what to do, what to do?


Well, I decided a shelf unit was in order when I came across this one when looking for something else:

My plan to use it will start like this:

Simply put a filter and fan combination on each shelf. Ducting will run from the tent to the intake of the fan, then into the filter. Properly secured, of course. The image is just a basic reference to the concept.


On top of that it gives me a little bit of a work bench, which isn't a bad thing. It also adds a little bit of storage/organization space, which also isn't a bad thing.


At some point I would still like to do the box deal, but for now this will work. While it isn't completely hidden or muffled, it should do just fine, and has a fairly clean look to it.

I'm going to use two 45* duct pieces, properly taped, to route from the top vent on the tent down to the fan. Fan is super quiet to begin with, so not a huge deal running san muffler. If it were to become an issue, I can work something out fairly easy.

 

[multiVortex]

Ladies got a little breakfast this morning at 4g/gal of MC, plus the calmag/silica combo.

All look to be doing well so far. Lemon Drop is getting a hair cut later today. Not 100% sure when, but there's enough stem under the 5th node to get er done. I'll wait until Saturday to take nodes 1 and 2 off, then the bondage on her begins.

Last day to top Blue Dream and Six Shooter is next Wednesday, and they should be ready by then from the looks of em, and the crack baby has to be topped on/by the following Saturday (30th.)


Then there's our little Chica, the Mexican Airlines. She's just getting her feet under her, and putting out her first set. They're pretty tiny still, but she looks good in coloring. She'll be coming on strong in a few days I'm sure. Once those first ones pop, they keep comin, and then speed up about 16 days in.

 

[multiVortex]

Here’s a few shots. Not great pics, but maybe one of these days I’ll take a bit and try to get some good ones.


Lemon Drop:

Six Shooter:

Blue Dream:

Crack Baby:

A combination of the lights and phone cam make them look a bit more pale than they really are, but no real good way for me to turn them off and get better pics. Well, I could, but I'd rather not unless really, really necessary.

 

[multiVortex]

Should have took a closer pic of the top of the Lemon Drop. There's plenty of stem for a careful snip on the top, but if you look really close, and it's hard to see from that pic I know, but the sites are right there with it already. I'll be keeping those, me thinks.


Feck it. Here is a little better view. Well, a little blurry, but closer.

 

[multiVortex]

The damage has been done... muah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha haaaaaa.....


Lem has been topped, and while I was at it, went ahead and gently applied initial quadlining bondage.


We will see how she comes out of it over the next day or two. She's been growing really strong, so I think she should pull through just fine.

 

[N420]

Happy plants you got there and the node spacing is nice and tight. Can you change the color temperature on your phones camera? If you can it will make the colors of your pictures match the color of your plants a little better I try to match the color temp of the camera with the color temp of the lights.

 

[multiVortex]

Happy plants you got there and the node spacing is nice and tight. Can you change the color temperature on your phones camera? If you can it will make the colors of your pictures match the color of your plants a little better I try to match the color temp of the camera with the color temp of the lights.

That's a good question. I should be able to do something like that. Surely apple isn't that whacked up and lets you adjust. I dunno, I haven't really played with it much but I will look into it and see how to get it set up. Can't be that difficult. I used to shoot pro, so it's not like I can't take pics, just haven't messed with this one much (or needed to up to now, lol,)