Jus Naturale
Active Member
Hey all,
I'm a long-time smoker, recent MMJ patient, Colorado resident, and new grower. Before MMJ, I was a simple schwag smoker, unschooled in the many, many varieties available. I didn't know that there really were multiple strains (I thought the names were the brain-children of creative dealers, and nothing more). I also didn't knew there was even a difference between indica and sativa. Not to mention, I never grew a darn thing. I was the kind of person who could kill an air cactus, and, in fact, did so once.
In any event, I've since learned loads about many, many things (due, in large part, to these forums). I've since got a bag seed (schwag) that I've grown into a reasonably healthy plant I plan to flower soon, and also have a seedling (or two, if I'm lucky) of some Double Bubble Kush I pulled out of a nug from a local dispensary.
THE BEGINNING:
I started with a bunch of seeds I pulled out of a bag of schwag, and a single bulb 2 foot t5 light. I germed a few in a cup with distilled water, and a few in paper towels. Only one (in the water) popped a taproot, but I planted them all. My soil I had a few small clay pots and some Miracle Grow Seed Starter. I didnt want to use MG, but it was all I could find (I hadn't yet realized the importance of the local grow shop) so that's what I used. Anyway, a few days later, up popped a seedling (Plant 1)! Unfortunately, at this point, I had not yet started to keep notes or take pictures, but the initial growth was textbook. I was running the light 24/0, by the way, to give growth a boost. The temperature was between 72 and 88, and the humidity was between 16-21% (its Colorado, so its naturally dry).
While I had used distilled water from the beginning, and had a pH testing kit (aquarium drops), I didnt routinely test the water. And, like most first-timers, I watered too much. Every other day or so, I would crack open the gallon bottle and wet the dirt pretty thoroughly. I also took to the internet to read and re-read everything I could find about growing.
I discovered what npk meant, that seedling mix soils usually dont provide many nutrients, and that slow growth might be the result of a hungry plant. So I, like so many first-timers, got some nutrients. I knew I needed n for veg growth, and I ended up with a tiny bottle of Daniels Organic Plant Food (10-4-3). Well, for unknown reasons, I decide, Ive got about ¼ gallon or so of water left in the jug, and this says add 1 tsp per gallon, so if I do like a couple drops (directly from the nute bottle, of course), thatll be perfect! Im sure you can tell where this went wrong. The twitch was almost imperceptible, but the second drop suddenly became a drip and my ¼ gallon now had about a full teaspoon worth of nutes.
THE POOR, POOR PLANT
Now rather than act rationally, and simply dispose of the 4X-strength nute-water (which I hadnt pH tested since opening the jug for the first time), I decided that I could simply add a touch of 4X nute-water, and add about three times as much water from a new jug. So, for the same unknown reasons, I did exactly that. Except, the other jug of water wasnt new either; it had been open nearly as long as the first. And I didnt pH it either. Well, I notice over the next few days that my once seemingly happy, albeit slow-growing, plant had stopped growing. The leaves started to shrivel and contort; patches appeared along the leaf surfaces, and burning appeared along their edges. The leaves that didnt burn to a crisp curled under, like arthritic hands, and the entire plant took on a pale, limp appearance.
EMERGENCY TREATEMENT
What could be causing the problem? I wondered, and back to the internet I went. Why would a seemingly healthy plant suddenly become so sad? My mind whirled: Its always been a slow-grower -- what would cause that? It cant be a lack of nutrients because I just burned half the leaves off. Hmm Of course! Plants can only grow as big as the energy they get from the light source. I have only a single t5 bulb. Ergo, I need more light! And, it just so happened that my local grow shop was having a sale on lights. My natural reaction at that point was to peruse the lights online for the next day and a half and decide which one(s) I couldnt live without. A few hours later, I was setting up my brand new 4 bulb 2 foot t5 set-up. I put my plant under the light and hoped for the best.
For the next few days, the plant continued to worsen, and, like a concerned parent, I hovered between checking the plant and searching for answers online. After many too many hours spent online, reading forum after forum about sick plants, seeing the now-familiar graphics of sick leaves from growing books, and determining that my plant was suffering from some of everything, I deduced that after being burned, it locked-out. The poor thing was starving (and, although I didnt realize it at the time, drowning). Reading about lock-out, I further determined that the plant must have a pH problem. Thats when the importance of pH testing really became apparent to me, and so I got back online and went back to the forums to study.
I learned that as the distilled water sits in the jug, its pH changes. It drops, thus becoming ever-so-slightly acidic. I also learned that nutes can lower pH, so I tested some of the 4X nute-water (which I had stopped using since burning the plant), and the pH was super low (around a 4 or so). I didnt have a soil pH tester yet, but I figured the plant must be suffering from pH lockout. It was way too acidic, so I needed to make it more alkaline, and fast. At this point, the plant was really, really looking bad, and, Id say near death. Thus, I was ready to try anything.
I was smart enough (this time) to realize that milk was probably a bad idea, but it was late and I wouldnt have much time over the next few days to do anything to help the poor plant survive. Then I had the brilliant idea of using baking soda. I searched online for a bit and, though some warned against it, others said it had worked for them so long as they used a light touch with it. Yet, I found nothing discussing proportions, so I had to guess. After some initial futzing, I wound up with a solution of 2 tsp of baking soda in 2 cups of (freshly opened and pH tested at about 6.5) distilled water. I pH tested the solution and it was somewhere in the 8 range. Since I was just guessing at the whole thing, I poured the entire 2 cups of baking soda solution into the soil, and again hoped for the best.
Well, lo and behold, a couple days after that and the plant was on the rebound! New growth had started, and the leaves had greened and perked up!
THE REBOUND
The plant was alive, growing, and happy. Though the growth was still slow, it was solid and steady. I had kept the plant from dying, and was hooked! I became much more serious: pH testing the water regularly, figuring out that I was overwatering (which was causing the leaves to curl under) and adjusting, buying some Happy Frog soil, getting a timer and starting to taper off of the 24/0 schedule, and getting a soil pH meter and npk testing kit.
I also picked up a couple larger plastic pots, as the plant was starting to look a bit big for the small clay pot. Once I was convinced that Plant 1 was on the mend, I decided that I should probably transplant it into a larger pot, and into some happy frog. So I did, and the transplant went well. Within a couple days, Plant 1 really perked up and redoubled growth. The happy frog made for a happy plant.
Right around that time, I also pulled a bunch of seeds from a double bubble kush (dbk) nug from a local dispensary, and set a couple of them to germinate by soaking in distilled water.
SECOND GERMINATION
After one of the dbk seeds popped a tail, I planted them both in one of the small clay pots, filled with straight happy frog. A few days later, I had a seedling peeking up from the dirt, so I removed the saran wrap humidity cover. A day later, the seed still sat on the top, though it was a bit taller and a bit twisted. I really tried not to be impatient, but I thought that since the seed was pretty new, the shell may not have sufficiently hardened enough to cleanly crack, so I gave the shell a bit of help popping off of the cotyledon leaves. A small membrane remained on one of the leaves, and wouldnt come off, so I just left it to grow.
Anyway, as the cotyledon leaves unfolded, the one with the membrane grew at a slightly slower rate, though it didnt appear to be an issue. Then, a single first true leaf appeared, with small, white dot opposite it. I just kept an eye on things, deciding to take a much more hands-off approach. Well, the first true leaf grew out a bit, and the white dot grew into a small, white line. The leaf was really, really dark green. The next day, the leaf was a bit bigger, and turning crispy around the edges. The white line was now showing some signs of green in the middle as well, though just as dark as the other leaf. Anyway, as the days went by, the leaves continued to grow but in a very unusual way. It was almost as if the crispy edges kept the leaves from getting larger, thus, as the leaves grew, they simply bunched up. Id never seen anything like it, and despite spending many too many hours searching online (once again), I still havent.
In any event, I had the pot right up next to the light, so the top of the plant was about two inches from the lights. But, given the odd growth of the leaves, I decided that I wanted it to try to grow taller. I wanted to see if it would grow taller, if it would grow more leaves, etc., so I dropped the pot by a couple inches, so the top of the seedling was about four inches from the lights.
TIME KEEPS ON SLIPPING INTO THE FUTURE
As Plant 1 continued to grow, the leaves got much bigger and healthier, and the new growth has been amazing to watch. Plant 1 not only has been growing like crazy, but its also started to develop the little shoots near where it will eventually start growing pistils (hopefully) or pollen sacs. Its also about 7 inches tall. These two things mean that despite enjoying watching it grow, get sick, get healthy, and grow some more it was telling me that its time to start flowering.
As for the dbk seedling, having dropped it a couple inches lower, its color has improved (not as dark), its not crisping around the edges any more, and its started growing a second set of leaves, which look healthy.
RIP DBK2
Not mentioned above are the two dbk seeds I germinated after the first dbk seeds yielded an odd-leafed seedling. I germed in paper towels, on top of the cable box. After three days, one seed had a nice-looking tail, and after four and a half, it had almost a half-inch taproot. I didnt want the happy frog to burn it, so I mixed some of the MG seed started, happy frog, and some MG perlite (which I washed pretty well to try to get the MG out); filled a peat pot with the mix; and planted the seeds. I watered and loosely covered the peat pot with saran wrap (as I had a good breeze going through to encourage strong stem growth in the first dbk seedling as it got taller).
A few days later, another dbk seedling broke the surface! Dbk2 was born! Remembering the issue with the seed on the first dbk seedling, I attempted to help the seed pop off. While the shell came off fairly easily, there was still a membrane on the cotyledon leaves only, thicker this time.
Wanting to encourage strong growth, I put the peat pot on the soil in the pot with the dbk seedling, which meant that the top of dbk2 was about an inch and a half away from the lights. Unfortunately, my new hands-off approach, coupled with my inexperience at using peat pots, didnt bode well for dbk 2. Alas, I let it dry out too much, too often; then watered too much when I found it dry. The poor, poor seedling didnt stand a chance.
Well, between the issues with the membrane (which slowed cotyledon growth a bit) and the watering/drying cycles, the poor seedling died. It was two weeks from germ to all signs of green disappearing.
FLOWERING AND DBK3
Recognizing that its probably time to switch to a 12/12 flowering cycle for Plant 1, that I dont want to continue to have light spilling out in greater increments as the plants grow and I raise the lights, and that I will want to control light coming to the plant during the dark cycles as much as possible, today I made a light dome. Ill be switching to 12/12 soon, but I want to give the dbk seedling a chance to continue to get taller, and its second leaves to develop more; and I planted more dbk seeds (dbk3).
For dbk3, I took two more seeds, and, using a sand paper tube, lightly scuffed them. I then made a soil mix of (approx.) 1 part happy frog, 2 parts washed perlite, 1 part dolomite, and 5 parts MG seed starter. I wet the mix down well while mixing, filled a small clay pot with the mix, planted the scuffed seeds about ¼ inch deep, and added a touch more water. I saran wrapped the top to act as a humidity cover, but poked a few holes to keep it from getting too damp. And now I wait.
The plan is to try to grow the dbk seedling and anything that pops from the dbk3 under a 12/12 from seed (sort of, since not exactly starting all under 12/12), and allow Plant 1 to flower as well. Hopefully, theyre all female, but, again, only time will tell!
I'm a long-time smoker, recent MMJ patient, Colorado resident, and new grower. Before MMJ, I was a simple schwag smoker, unschooled in the many, many varieties available. I didn't know that there really were multiple strains (I thought the names were the brain-children of creative dealers, and nothing more). I also didn't knew there was even a difference between indica and sativa. Not to mention, I never grew a darn thing. I was the kind of person who could kill an air cactus, and, in fact, did so once.
In any event, I've since learned loads about many, many things (due, in large part, to these forums). I've since got a bag seed (schwag) that I've grown into a reasonably healthy plant I plan to flower soon, and also have a seedling (or two, if I'm lucky) of some Double Bubble Kush I pulled out of a nug from a local dispensary.
THE BEGINNING:
I started with a bunch of seeds I pulled out of a bag of schwag, and a single bulb 2 foot t5 light. I germed a few in a cup with distilled water, and a few in paper towels. Only one (in the water) popped a taproot, but I planted them all. My soil I had a few small clay pots and some Miracle Grow Seed Starter. I didnt want to use MG, but it was all I could find (I hadn't yet realized the importance of the local grow shop) so that's what I used. Anyway, a few days later, up popped a seedling (Plant 1)! Unfortunately, at this point, I had not yet started to keep notes or take pictures, but the initial growth was textbook. I was running the light 24/0, by the way, to give growth a boost. The temperature was between 72 and 88, and the humidity was between 16-21% (its Colorado, so its naturally dry).
While I had used distilled water from the beginning, and had a pH testing kit (aquarium drops), I didnt routinely test the water. And, like most first-timers, I watered too much. Every other day or so, I would crack open the gallon bottle and wet the dirt pretty thoroughly. I also took to the internet to read and re-read everything I could find about growing.
I discovered what npk meant, that seedling mix soils usually dont provide many nutrients, and that slow growth might be the result of a hungry plant. So I, like so many first-timers, got some nutrients. I knew I needed n for veg growth, and I ended up with a tiny bottle of Daniels Organic Plant Food (10-4-3). Well, for unknown reasons, I decide, Ive got about ¼ gallon or so of water left in the jug, and this says add 1 tsp per gallon, so if I do like a couple drops (directly from the nute bottle, of course), thatll be perfect! Im sure you can tell where this went wrong. The twitch was almost imperceptible, but the second drop suddenly became a drip and my ¼ gallon now had about a full teaspoon worth of nutes.
THE POOR, POOR PLANT
Now rather than act rationally, and simply dispose of the 4X-strength nute-water (which I hadnt pH tested since opening the jug for the first time), I decided that I could simply add a touch of 4X nute-water, and add about three times as much water from a new jug. So, for the same unknown reasons, I did exactly that. Except, the other jug of water wasnt new either; it had been open nearly as long as the first. And I didnt pH it either. Well, I notice over the next few days that my once seemingly happy, albeit slow-growing, plant had stopped growing. The leaves started to shrivel and contort; patches appeared along the leaf surfaces, and burning appeared along their edges. The leaves that didnt burn to a crisp curled under, like arthritic hands, and the entire plant took on a pale, limp appearance.
EMERGENCY TREATEMENT
What could be causing the problem? I wondered, and back to the internet I went. Why would a seemingly healthy plant suddenly become so sad? My mind whirled: Its always been a slow-grower -- what would cause that? It cant be a lack of nutrients because I just burned half the leaves off. Hmm Of course! Plants can only grow as big as the energy they get from the light source. I have only a single t5 bulb. Ergo, I need more light! And, it just so happened that my local grow shop was having a sale on lights. My natural reaction at that point was to peruse the lights online for the next day and a half and decide which one(s) I couldnt live without. A few hours later, I was setting up my brand new 4 bulb 2 foot t5 set-up. I put my plant under the light and hoped for the best.
For the next few days, the plant continued to worsen, and, like a concerned parent, I hovered between checking the plant and searching for answers online. After many too many hours spent online, reading forum after forum about sick plants, seeing the now-familiar graphics of sick leaves from growing books, and determining that my plant was suffering from some of everything, I deduced that after being burned, it locked-out. The poor thing was starving (and, although I didnt realize it at the time, drowning). Reading about lock-out, I further determined that the plant must have a pH problem. Thats when the importance of pH testing really became apparent to me, and so I got back online and went back to the forums to study.
I learned that as the distilled water sits in the jug, its pH changes. It drops, thus becoming ever-so-slightly acidic. I also learned that nutes can lower pH, so I tested some of the 4X nute-water (which I had stopped using since burning the plant), and the pH was super low (around a 4 or so). I didnt have a soil pH tester yet, but I figured the plant must be suffering from pH lockout. It was way too acidic, so I needed to make it more alkaline, and fast. At this point, the plant was really, really looking bad, and, Id say near death. Thus, I was ready to try anything.
I was smart enough (this time) to realize that milk was probably a bad idea, but it was late and I wouldnt have much time over the next few days to do anything to help the poor plant survive. Then I had the brilliant idea of using baking soda. I searched online for a bit and, though some warned against it, others said it had worked for them so long as they used a light touch with it. Yet, I found nothing discussing proportions, so I had to guess. After some initial futzing, I wound up with a solution of 2 tsp of baking soda in 2 cups of (freshly opened and pH tested at about 6.5) distilled water. I pH tested the solution and it was somewhere in the 8 range. Since I was just guessing at the whole thing, I poured the entire 2 cups of baking soda solution into the soil, and again hoped for the best.
Well, lo and behold, a couple days after that and the plant was on the rebound! New growth had started, and the leaves had greened and perked up!
THE REBOUND
The plant was alive, growing, and happy. Though the growth was still slow, it was solid and steady. I had kept the plant from dying, and was hooked! I became much more serious: pH testing the water regularly, figuring out that I was overwatering (which was causing the leaves to curl under) and adjusting, buying some Happy Frog soil, getting a timer and starting to taper off of the 24/0 schedule, and getting a soil pH meter and npk testing kit.
I also picked up a couple larger plastic pots, as the plant was starting to look a bit big for the small clay pot. Once I was convinced that Plant 1 was on the mend, I decided that I should probably transplant it into a larger pot, and into some happy frog. So I did, and the transplant went well. Within a couple days, Plant 1 really perked up and redoubled growth. The happy frog made for a happy plant.
Right around that time, I also pulled a bunch of seeds from a double bubble kush (dbk) nug from a local dispensary, and set a couple of them to germinate by soaking in distilled water.
SECOND GERMINATION
After one of the dbk seeds popped a tail, I planted them both in one of the small clay pots, filled with straight happy frog. A few days later, I had a seedling peeking up from the dirt, so I removed the saran wrap humidity cover. A day later, the seed still sat on the top, though it was a bit taller and a bit twisted. I really tried not to be impatient, but I thought that since the seed was pretty new, the shell may not have sufficiently hardened enough to cleanly crack, so I gave the shell a bit of help popping off of the cotyledon leaves. A small membrane remained on one of the leaves, and wouldnt come off, so I just left it to grow.
Anyway, as the cotyledon leaves unfolded, the one with the membrane grew at a slightly slower rate, though it didnt appear to be an issue. Then, a single first true leaf appeared, with small, white dot opposite it. I just kept an eye on things, deciding to take a much more hands-off approach. Well, the first true leaf grew out a bit, and the white dot grew into a small, white line. The leaf was really, really dark green. The next day, the leaf was a bit bigger, and turning crispy around the edges. The white line was now showing some signs of green in the middle as well, though just as dark as the other leaf. Anyway, as the days went by, the leaves continued to grow but in a very unusual way. It was almost as if the crispy edges kept the leaves from getting larger, thus, as the leaves grew, they simply bunched up. Id never seen anything like it, and despite spending many too many hours searching online (once again), I still havent.
In any event, I had the pot right up next to the light, so the top of the plant was about two inches from the lights. But, given the odd growth of the leaves, I decided that I wanted it to try to grow taller. I wanted to see if it would grow taller, if it would grow more leaves, etc., so I dropped the pot by a couple inches, so the top of the seedling was about four inches from the lights.
TIME KEEPS ON SLIPPING INTO THE FUTURE
As Plant 1 continued to grow, the leaves got much bigger and healthier, and the new growth has been amazing to watch. Plant 1 not only has been growing like crazy, but its also started to develop the little shoots near where it will eventually start growing pistils (hopefully) or pollen sacs. Its also about 7 inches tall. These two things mean that despite enjoying watching it grow, get sick, get healthy, and grow some more it was telling me that its time to start flowering.
As for the dbk seedling, having dropped it a couple inches lower, its color has improved (not as dark), its not crisping around the edges any more, and its started growing a second set of leaves, which look healthy.
RIP DBK2
Not mentioned above are the two dbk seeds I germinated after the first dbk seeds yielded an odd-leafed seedling. I germed in paper towels, on top of the cable box. After three days, one seed had a nice-looking tail, and after four and a half, it had almost a half-inch taproot. I didnt want the happy frog to burn it, so I mixed some of the MG seed started, happy frog, and some MG perlite (which I washed pretty well to try to get the MG out); filled a peat pot with the mix; and planted the seeds. I watered and loosely covered the peat pot with saran wrap (as I had a good breeze going through to encourage strong stem growth in the first dbk seedling as it got taller).
A few days later, another dbk seedling broke the surface! Dbk2 was born! Remembering the issue with the seed on the first dbk seedling, I attempted to help the seed pop off. While the shell came off fairly easily, there was still a membrane on the cotyledon leaves only, thicker this time.
Wanting to encourage strong growth, I put the peat pot on the soil in the pot with the dbk seedling, which meant that the top of dbk2 was about an inch and a half away from the lights. Unfortunately, my new hands-off approach, coupled with my inexperience at using peat pots, didnt bode well for dbk 2. Alas, I let it dry out too much, too often; then watered too much when I found it dry. The poor, poor seedling didnt stand a chance.
Well, between the issues with the membrane (which slowed cotyledon growth a bit) and the watering/drying cycles, the poor seedling died. It was two weeks from germ to all signs of green disappearing.
FLOWERING AND DBK3
Recognizing that its probably time to switch to a 12/12 flowering cycle for Plant 1, that I dont want to continue to have light spilling out in greater increments as the plants grow and I raise the lights, and that I will want to control light coming to the plant during the dark cycles as much as possible, today I made a light dome. Ill be switching to 12/12 soon, but I want to give the dbk seedling a chance to continue to get taller, and its second leaves to develop more; and I planted more dbk seeds (dbk3).
For dbk3, I took two more seeds, and, using a sand paper tube, lightly scuffed them. I then made a soil mix of (approx.) 1 part happy frog, 2 parts washed perlite, 1 part dolomite, and 5 parts MG seed starter. I wet the mix down well while mixing, filled a small clay pot with the mix, planted the scuffed seeds about ¼ inch deep, and added a touch more water. I saran wrapped the top to act as a humidity cover, but poked a few holes to keep it from getting too damp. And now I wait.
The plan is to try to grow the dbk seedling and anything that pops from the dbk3 under a 12/12 from seed (sort of, since not exactly starting all under 12/12), and allow Plant 1 to flower as well. Hopefully, theyre all female, but, again, only time will tell!
