Grow-A-Long with Dick

Richard Drysift said:

A word of caution…after drying the last plant we found PM on the inside of the largest colas; not a total loss but I will no longer advocate for growing monster size buds. Never really got bud rot like this until this year but recently I’ve been trying to test the limits of my lighting. Wanted to see just how damn big I could grow big ass buds but now that I know how big they can get under a Timber redwood vs we will no longer try. Will continue to drop the hours of daylight gradually to reduce stretching before the flip but no more “monster” cropping. It’s just too powerful and my basement conditions are apparently not as optimal as I once thought.

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Pm grows inside the bud? I thought pm is a dusty like substance on your leaves and bud rot (botrytis) ruins the inside of the buds.
Am I wrong in thinking this?
Can you get pm inside your bud? What's that look like? A dust inside your buds?
Sorry for the stupid question

JustBlazin said:

Pm grows inside the bud? I thought pm is a dusty like substance on your leaves and bud rot (botrytis) ruins the inside of the buds.
Am I wrong in thinking this?
Can you get pm inside your bud? What's that look like? A dust inside your buds?
Sorry for the stupid question

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The stupidest question is the one that's never asked.

JustBlazin said:

Pm grows inside the bud? I thought pm is a dusty like substance on your leaves and bud rot (botrytis) ruins the inside of the buds.
Am I wrong in thinking this?
Can you get pm inside your bud? What's that look like? A dust inside your buds?
Sorry for the stupid question

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Yes…wish I took a pic. Tbh I don’t know the difference…mold is mold to me. The exterior of the buds looked normal but the largest colas were full of what looks to me like cobweb mold. Opening up the buds for trimming revealed a powdery white mold. Cut it all off and hopefully the rest of the buds will be ok. What made it into the jars smell good so far with no visual mold. The rest will be blasted with butane.

Richard Drysift said:

Yes…wish I took a pic. Tbh I don’t know the difference…mold is mold to me. The exterior of the buds looked normal but the largest colas were full of what looks to me like cobweb mold. Opening up the buds for trimming revealed a powdery white mold. Cut it all off and hopefully the rest of the buds will be ok. What made it into the jars smell good so far with no visual mold. The rest will be blasted with butane.

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Oh noooo!!! That's the worst! I dealt with mold like that in a few grows, like one or two sugar leaves seem to die overnight, but the rest of the bud looks fine, until you break it up and it's all brown and dead around the stem... I have just accepted that I cannot flower in my basement in the summer, it's just too dank and not in a good way. I hope you are able to find a solution!

raggyb said:

It looks like something that's going on those tops that should be an immobile nute. I keep forgetting which are immobile. here they are, https://nrcca.cals.cornell.edu/soilFertilityCA/CA1/CA1_print.html . so maybe in order of likelihood Calcium, Mag or Phos

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I agree with ya - recently got my bluelabs soil ph pen, the pots are all around 7.5-7.9, so certainly too high but I don’t believe it’s causing a lockoutrather the high pH is a symptom of excess amounts of Ca and Mg from my hard well water (230ppm, presumed to be mostly Ca and Mg) - this is why flushing. with the same water didn’t work for me lol. This issue has been plaguing me since I started up growing again last year.

I took a deep dive into Ca antagonism and am pretty damn confident that the excess Ca is causing my K def, which is clearly showing in three of four plants. I know there is enough K present in the soil, but the Ca is crowding the cation spaces, leaving little room for K to be available. This can also cause Mg def, and other micro nute defs, even though they are present, they just aren’t available because Ca is a hog.

Having my water tested for a full analysis to really nail down just how much Ca and Mg I’ve got in there, then treat that well water like liquid cal mag and use it to ‘amend’ the RO I’ll start using next run.

This girl was always the runt of the four - but she’s been resilient as fuck, handling the Ca like a champ and pumping out the frost

weedstoner420 said:

Oh noooo!!! That's the worst! I dealt with mold like that in a few grows, like one or two sugar leaves seem to die overnight, but the rest of the bud looks fine, until you break it up and it's all brown and dead around the stem... I have just accepted that I cannot flower in my basement in the summer, it's just too dank and not in a good way. I hope you are able to find a solution!

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The solution might just be no flowering in late summer unless I can find a way to seal the house from moisture. No more tryin to grow big ass buds….

I did some trimming on my bonsai moms today. I prune the above ground parts once or twice a month, and the roots every 6 months or so. Today I did both. Here's that process in case anyone is interested. I basically follow the oldtimer1 method for keeping small moms in 4-inch pots.

Before trimming (this plant is about 6 months old and getting her first root prune):


This pheno is super branchy. I try to keep about 4-5 main branches, and leave a few growing tips on each one. Then I cut 1/2" off all sides of the root ball, including the bottom. In a 4-inch pot that's over half of the soil being removed and replaced:


Re-potted in the same pot, with fresh organic potting mix and ewc:

lakesidegrower said:

I agree with ya - recently got my bluelabs soil ph pen, the pots are all around 7.5-7.9, so certainly too high but I don’t believe it’s causing a lockoutrather the high pH is a symptom of excess amounts of Ca and Mg from my hard well water (230ppm, presumed to be mostly Ca and Mg) - this is why flushing. with the same water didn’t work for me lol. This issue has been plaguing me since I started up growing again last year.

I took a deep dive into Ca antagonism and am pretty damn confident that the excess Ca is causing my K def, which is clearly showing in three of four plants. I know there is enough K present in the soil, but the Ca is crowding the cation spaces, leaving little room for K to be available. This can also cause Mg def, and other micro nute defs, even though they are present, they just aren’t available because Ca is a hog.

Having my water tested for a full analysis to really nail down just how much Ca and Mg I’ve got in there, then treat that well water like liquid cal mag and use it to ‘amend’ the RO I’ll start using next run.

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Cool. I hope your water test tells you you have something you can work with.

77 days for the Sour Compassion. Guess will take her down at 12 weeks. Need to not run out of weed.

weedstoner420 said:

I did some trimming on my bonsai moms today. I prune the above ground parts once or twice a month, and the roots every 6 months or so. Today I did both. Here's that process in case anyone is interested. I basically follow the oldtimer1 method for keeping small moms in 4-inch pots.

Before trimming (this plant is about 6 months old and getting her first root prune):
View attachment 5032493

This pheno is super branchy. I try to keep about 4-5 main branches, and leave a few growing tips on each one. Then I cut 1/2" off all sides of the root ball, including the bottom. In a 4-inch pot that's over half of the soil being removed and replaced:
View attachment 5032494

Re-potted in the same pot, with fresh organic potting mix and ewc:
View attachment 5032495

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Lovin them fat stubby stems…bonsai!!!

JHake said:

77 days for the Sour Compassion. Guess will take her down at 12 weeks. Need to not run out of weed.

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As always that is our goal… not running outta bud. Speaking of this I have two ugly ass lanky plants which also happen to at 12 weeks; one has been hanging since last Monday and the other is about to be cut. Took them off the blumats in the final week to let them dry out in desert-like conditions. The fans have all shriveled up and turned brown but the buds are shiny and green. These plants were so hideously over vegged I will not share pics but im guessing these will probably yield a half pound total once fully dry. Have been averaging about a QP per plant more/less these daze. Since I have some small plants going in to replace them they will be vegged under the Timber Redwood VS for a couple weeks to bulk them up a bit. My veg tent is so over crowded….

Sour Compassion was chopped at day 85.

The other pic is my actual flower tent under a 180W Citizen fixture. I compacted the canopy because i know the led is not enought for the whole tent. It's more of a test grow than anything else. Running some seeds from local breeders and one from Kannabia.

Richard Drysift said:

Take it from an old eye hortiluxe HPS disciple; COB LEDS kick major ass. Cheap-ass led panels are total junk; ok for vegging small plants but that’s about it. I found that COB LEDs on the other hand outperform even the most intense HPS bulbs. My Timber Redwood VS increased yields over my old 600w HPS no question hands down. It pulls the same amount of power from the wall yet it is dimmable. You can dial back to about 70% until the plants are in mid bloom which saves power. The lower buds get just as dense as the colas which means more solid nuggets curing in the jars. What used to be larf/popcorn is viable bud; more smoke instead of concentrate/edibles.
My advice? Wait until you can afford a quality LED from Timber or elsewhere. They really are worth the money.

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Dick, you just have to work with what you have already paid for a decade before sometimes.
This fixer-upper house has projects that were priority so using time and resources to build out the proper grow room had to wait. It is what it is.
Since I expect Captain A-Hat to show up to Troll and Mock I'll post this update and then leave until I have the Seed Harvest. Remember that this is a Seed Rescue of 10 and 12 year old seeds. A wonderful Strain.
I will say that the choice to go with HPS and MH is the right choice for the conditions this Grow Room has going for it. Reusing heat or expelling heat is a net positive. So end of discussion on the lighting choice as I could give a S*** what people think. I know what is best for this room.
Now before we disrespect low wattage HPS have a look. Again I don't care what reader thinks.



All organic-composted soil. Liquid Fish is the only liquid feed other than water.
I now have the time, tools and parts to start adding ventilation, wiring, walls, etc and I am doing it at a time of year that I will truly have perspective on weather conditions here for this build. Too bad my Room Build is shut down or I could have shared much more.

I couldn't decide on Tank based C02 or using the LP burner so I have both. That should offer flexibility because the weather here fluctuates.. One day 60 F+ and tropical like rain then snap cold the next day and 30 F. A bit of extremes.

It is a Seed Grow:
Not bad to go from Solo-Cup challenge under CFLs to six foot tall plants under 250 watt HPS that are ready to be trained and flowered on a net under 4k of HPS and twin 250 MH for blended spectrum.


Best wishes to you all for High Holidays.
I'll post again when I am ready and A-Hat has finished spazzing out again.

Friendly_Grower

Update of the flower tent.

Most of these plants showed some male flowers a few weeks into flowering.
Since the same happened to my last grow with this tent, i starting to suspect is the little red light in the power extension i have attached inside the tent. I did cover it for this grow, but a little light would leak anyways, i already fixed it.
I also put some dark filters in the extraction coolers.

I still have some doubts with these little details making the plants hermie, but if that's not the case, i'm having pretty bad luck with genetics. We are talking about 7 different plants, 4 different genetics and 3 different breeders.

Popping of male parts seems to have stopped.

Because of context, this grow is being done in 3L pot and i am surprised of how good this living soil mix is doing in such small container. Let's hope buds show some weight at the end.
I'm sticking to top dressings and KNF inputs mostly. But i also did some fertilizer teas/brews.

Day 31 right now.

Have been trimming my ass off the past few weeks. Sitting on slightly less than a 1/2 pound of premium cola buds in the jars and a pillow sack of trims/popcorn to run extract and edibles for the holidaze. Ended up with roughly a QP (4oz) of solid nuggets from each one. Timed it right this year… for once.
Figured out that the 2 big ugly severely over vegged mystery plants we just finished up are a strawberry sour diesel cross; one of the lanky phenos. Took getting it into the jars to determine; went back to early this year in this thread to find this out because I got super baked this one time & forgot to label everything. Anyway now we got a couple SSD mama plants; yay for us!
I’m other news we have restarted the bloom room after a good cleaning and scheduled blumat maintenance. Got 3x Sweet seeds Gorilla Girls and a single SSD clone in here right now….

These were all vegged for a real long time; topped and LST trained. The lights were dropped from 18/6 to 15/9 for 10 days and then flipped straight to 12/12. This is only day # one; they are still kind of pale up top from transplanting but should be a deeper green once they reach the high N layer and they get a round of dank aactea.

First time poppin seeds into these yummy looking chocolate brownies (aka root riot plugs).. wish me luck y’all…

Just got in some grown up genetics in from a west coast breeder… friend of a friend.. anyway seeds are an orange cookies cross; let’s see how they do….

just ordered a pack of these - wanting to give them a go. I just popped in a basic 6-cell seed tray thing a week ago, wanting something smaller to transplant into my pots without too much soil disruption, these seem way easier to use tho

lakesidegrower said:

just ordered a pack of these - wanting to give them a go. I just popped in a basic 6-cell seed tray thing a week ago, wanting something smaller to transplant into my pots without too much soil disruption, these seem way easier to use tho

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They certainly look delicious; been trying to pop seeds in the soil as usual for many weeks now but I had some real old beans. They just won’t germinate. So far we got 5 out of 25 to sprout…
These new seeds we got are supposed to be something special so I wanted to try the plugs this time. Let’s see if they are worth the extra few bucks….

Richard Drysift said:

They certainly look delicious; been trying to pop seeds in the soil as usual for many weeks now but I had some real old beans. They just won’t germinate. So far we got 5 out of 25 to sprout…
These new seeds we got are supposed to be something special so I wanted to try the plugs this time. Let’s see if they are worth the extra few bucks….

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You have any tricks for old beans? I have some really old bag seed and the germination rates have been terrible every time I try. I've tried using coconut and aloe and all of that type of stuff, roughing with sandpaper, h2o2, even a old ass bottle of some stuff with NAA in it. Germ rates still sitting around 10%