Trying indoor CFL and dirt. Great Googly Moogly. Pics from the first week.

went to the local hydro shop (well... not so much local but anyway). picked up a few things from botanicare. Nutes to help the nitrogen and cal-mag issues. I'll try and get a pic when I get home so y'all can see them with the leaves up.

Oh hell yeah. Got home and looked in on the girls. They were perky as hell I mixed up the nuted water, flush water (just in case) and foliar feeding water. Gave em a nice leaf feeding. My little cheapy meter shows light, moisture, fertility and pH all within the proper areas. Moisture is a little higher than normal but still in the ok zone and I just watered this morning so kinda duh. I'm fixin'a go hunting for a few days so I had to prep the water for the wife for while I'm gone. The Mazar (front plant) grew 1/2" since this morning. The MyDawg (back plant) grew 3/4". Both have had significant receding of the red/purple lines up the stalks and branches. Really a dramatic change for just about 12 hours.

Here's some pics:

On the chem-4's, the one on the right was CRISPY the stem was full on crunchitty all the way to the base. Pulled it. That's a loss. Such is life.

The one on the left I cut off the bit of stem at the top that was showing deep purple staining. Trimmed it back to 2 branch nodes above the only real actual growth on it which consists of 2 baby leaf sets, each has 3 little leaves poking out. They're good color and growing so I'll try to keep it alive for now. It's going to be flowered with the Mazar and the MyDawg just for giggles and to get it to do some aggressive growth in hopes that it'll come back bigger and stronger for the 2nd flowering. I'll be practicing regeneration now that I've confirmed it'll work and is a good idea.

They're over 13" now. 4 more days and they go 12/12

you should pull all of those old and dead sprigs out of the soil........ next time you should plant in individual pots, 2 plants in one pot will eventualy kill the weaker one of the 2 OR they will just fight for space and both will be weak.......

other than that its looking just lovley

its probably unhappy because of those dead plants in its pot

there are no dead plants in there.

there's a chem-4 which is actually alive but barely, I pulled the other chem-4 as soon as it got crispy. I'm trying to save the remaining one but if it doesn't put out any new growth before wednesday then I'll pluck it since I'm starting my next batch on veg tomorrow and I'm tossing these into flower on wednesday. Why so early, well height concerns really. I need to see how tall things will get in my box. I'm still gathering the stuff for a more well constructed grow. I've got 2 more hps and a couple larger florescents coming in and plastic sheeting and all the toys for a proper 6 pot hydroponic grow. Still have a week of hunting and then probably 2 weeks of build time and cleanup work on the grow room.

Red/purple is still receding. About half way up the plant is pretty much clear or clearing. The top half still has a good bit of purple. Gunna run out and get some epsom salt for the foliar mix.

Could someone tell me about or point me to a good source of information about molasses use?

pulled the last chem-4 last night. The newest leaf shoots had started to curl up and get crispy and it's not worth the effort to save them since I'm picking up 2 more clones today. I also kicked the Mazar and MyDawg over to 12/12. I'm going to be super busy the next couple days and I wanted a couple days to make sure they took to the flower cycle without problem.

In other news, the soil had gotten sufficiently dry to get another watering but this is due to another change to the setup. I noted that the drainage holes in the bottom of the bin were in complete contact with the tray underneath and that was slowing the soil dry out and complicating drainage, so I lifted it 1.5 inches off the drain tray with some spacers under the bin. With that air space created and a watering with a 3/4 strength nute blended pH'd water they've taken off again. I love watching them make an inch of growth in a day. All the supercropping has worked brilliantly and I've got nice scar formation. The stems and branches are all thickened up nicely since I first put them in. The leaves are all perky and the red staining is continuing to fade up the stalk.

MyDawg is clearly VERY sativa dominant judging by the loooong skinny leaves and a fairly light green color of the foliage. The Mazar is similarly still showing its indica dominance with broad shorter leaves and a very very dark green to the leaves.

I'm also picking up some coco and another bin today. I'm having a great time evolving my operation and learning. I think the most rewarding thing so far has been taking what I learned here with you hippies and teaching my wife how to use that knowledge to save our japanese maple that has been on a downward spiral for a while now.

Pics of the girls in a little while.

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2 sweet & sour diesel's are in my small veg cabinet in coco and perlite in 8" pots (for now). They'll go into an 18 gallon bin in a about 1-2 weeks after they've had some time to embiggenate. I'm going to be trying my hand at true LST on these in addition to super cropping and topping. Trying to get a ton of modest size buds. Sativas get really tall so I'm aiming these to take advantage of those genetics in a height confined area now that I've had some time to learn and read more. I'm running a 150 watt equiv per plant on the new clones (they're small still) plus a 80 watt equivalent that's shared between them, the lights are all just inches away from the leaves. My flowering plants still have 4 CFL's and the 150w HPS but I had to borrow the other 2 CFL's for a couple days.

pics shortly. Finally have everything together. Need to check on light bleed anyway.

the mazar and mydawg are still going well. looking real healty and growing fast. 1 day of flowering light and I can tell they've noticed and accelerated vertical growth.

Pics:
Mazar front, mydawg back. Just about an hour before the lights went out.


Sweet & Sour Diesel just after I got them into the coco. Took the pic and then gave them a good watering (with nutes).


We'll call the diesel's by tank. This is the right tank this morning:


Both tanks:


I've found a watering regimen that's seeming to work for the traditional soil. They're not spending days drooping anymore. Lifting the bin onto spacers helped too.

The diesels are on 24hr light right now. With as little as I've got in there right now they need it. Later today I'll pick up some more light. I'm pretty stoked to try the coco/perlite mix... it's like hydroponic pretending to be soil, neato. Having to figure out another watering cycle, not so much. I'll also be visiting the hydro store again today for some bloom nutrients.

I exercised a LOT more selectivity when picking my clones this time. I went for a fat green stem with a bushy top and no signs of trouble. There were 4 out of probably 100 clones that met that criteria. The other 2 were starters of GDP and I don't want to do that strain yet. My buddy will eat me out of house and home with that stuff... he loves it. I prefer sativa's anyway.

Today's pics below. I got home too late last night to take a good pic of the Mazar and MyDawg and left this morning before the lights came on but got pics of the sweet & sour diesels. I've got them tied over and I'm going to try to shape them into something of a spiral. We'll see how well it works. All the growth tips coming off the stalk will get super cropped so if I do it right it should look like a pair of upside down chandeliers when they finish. I didn't pinch the stems, I'm just guiding them into shape... dunno if that's a wrong procedure but it has worked with topiary for me in the past (different plant species though).

The pair.


Right tank:


Left tank:



The big plants are still doing well. Perky leaves and they're just exploding with new growth and added height. How long does the stretch usually last?

Fresh pics from last night. The stalks on the mazar and mydawg are thickening dramatically and they're growing bushy as hell. You will likely be able to see a difference in just the last few days. Neato!

I've got most of this dialed in for now. The new nutes for flowering are going to be fun.

Here's the little ones:


And the big girls:

awesome job man..subbed

I did a little inventory of the plants last night. The Mazar has 3 shoots at the top and 17 significant branches down the sides. Every branch has been super-cropped (pinch, bend, wait) and all the scars on the branches are in good shape with nice swells. I pinched them pretty close to the stem so hopefully the scar tissue will help hold the branches up under load (hope there's a load to support too).

The MyDawg had limited super-cropping due to only having 8 side branches and just a few of those were big enough to do at the time that I did them. It's got 2 top shoots. I broke off the 3rd. Yes I feel bad.

Both plants had very minor LST which has resulted in neatly chicaned stems.

The diesels have nice sprouts heading upwards. I need to vent that cabinet though. Temps are execssive right now. About 87 with the lights on 24/0.

A buddy asked me about setting up artificial circadian rhythms in his plants. Something artificially short like starting out 18/2 for a couple weeks then going 16/4 and then down to 12/8. We're computer geeks so setting up the automation for the lights is not an issue. I'd imagine having to build a 20 hour clock might be daunting for non-geek types. The question is what sort of effect is that likely to have?

Subbed, and seeing as no one else mentioned it - that was a beautiful knife that you made, nothing beats practicality, simplicity and beauty in a well made piece like that - apart from durability and the edge holding properties of well made damascus steel. (PS. I like knives)

Thanks! If you ever decide to make one yourself it's really a lot easier than it'd seem. The finish on that took many many hours with linseed oil and 000 steel wool but it was otherwise a pretty fast build. There's a guy that runs a forge in idaho that sells all his blade blanks on ebay. With a sanding roll, a drill and a bench vice you can do everything I did. That knife has a 23deg edge on it now and shaves peaches like a Gillette. I can make more but the're spendy. 300 shipped if you want one with a few weeks lead time to actually build it.

Note, I'm going on vacation for a few days so y'all won't hear from me for a bit. I'll have new pics sometime mid next week.

update-ski:

I'll let the pics do the bulk of the talking. Looks like I'm doing ok. Tons of bud sites on the flowering plants (mazar front, mydawg back). They're 15-16" tall now. Growing super fast. The mydawg is stretching hard on many branches and they're looking hardy.

The 2 S&S diesels are shaping well. Notable growth and they're falling into shape. Plenty of branches headed vertical. The hydroponic feeding schedule is kinda a PITA but it'll probably turn out a much heavier root base in the coco so meh.

PIC-A-THON:

BTW... none of the new growth appears to be showing the purple/red staining in the stem structures.1 full week of flowering complete. about 7 to go for the mazar if it holds true to the available literature. Dunno yet about the MyDawg. I'll have to do some research.

Built my 2nd stage grow room today. This is much larger than the box but easier to deal with. I had a lot of crap to move around before I could use the space or it'd be in production already. Anyway, it's about 4.5fg x 3ft x 7.5ft. I found twin 32W T8 florescent fixtures with ballasts for $9.74 at OSH. The price is really rare for that size. I picked up a pair and a set of daylight and a set of warm light bulbs for them. They're set up vertically wall mounted so I'll get good side lighting and penetration in the lower branches as the girls get taller. I'll be putting in probably 6-8 of those fixtures total.

The big difference is now I have 3ft of head room to grow into. I was plum out of space on the wardrobe boxes as far as vertical goes and area was getting tight too. Hopefully now I can get a lot more mass off the plants. Hoping upon hope for an ounce a plant.

The container for the big girls is clear. Yes I know that's not recommended but I wanted to see the root production rate and volume over the life cycle of the plant. Once they switched over to flower the root production went nuts for a few days along with the leaf and stem growth spurt. I think I'll give the SnS Diesel another week, maybe 2 then put it into flower and grab another set of clones. In about 1.5 months I want to not be buying pot anymore... I want to be producing it. If this turns out the quality I need for my medicinal use then I might just bump up the light wattage to 600 input watts and start getting serious. Right now I think I'm at about half that on real input watts.

I'm taking bets on total dry weight out of just the Mazar. I'll start with a totally pulled out of my butt number of 39grams.

Pics:

First it was a closet:


Now it's a sealed room. 18 bucks worth of 4mil black plastic.


Then move the girls in and get all the light mounting figured out.


A fun pic just to see both plants more clearly.


Daily SnS diesel pics

Update: We're at 1 week +4 days flowering time. The Mazar has grown from 3 inches taller and bushed out pretty intensely. The MyDawg in back has grown 5"+ so far and has some gnarly long branches squirting out. The bud sites now have up to 4 stacked rows of white pistils. Pre-flower there was just 1 row at each site. They grow so fast that I have repeated bulb contact with some of the leaves. It's not doing any major damage and I'm staying on top of it but it's a PITA. I'm working on some more light, something HID (Probably another 150wHPS) and 10 more T8 bulbs. Then I think I'll have more than enough light.

Pic:
Last night. Thought you guys might like one without the HPS lines. View angle is pretty obvious. The lights had just gone off so it seemed like a good time to take a snap.