Growing in Soil sure is fun!

[Moleculist]

COME ONE COME ALL! Welcome to my first grow! I welcome any and all advice! Pull up a frontloader and smoke some quap joints! Okay, that's a little excessive, but I'm drowning myself with tincture right now and smoking spliffs of Jack Herer!

I haven't posted anything on ICMag in a long time, but here goes!

I started everything about a little over a month ago after getting a card sorted out finally. Put them under a 400w CMH a few weeks ago. There will be some pics of the setup itself later.

Had a few more plants, but they turned out to be males, though I kept a clone of the best male and am bonsai-ing (for the hell of it) the 2nd best male. going to throw the pollen in some bags for later.

A few of the plants are seeds from some poorly grown outdoor I got, the others are from stray seeds in bags of solid 10/10 weed.

Male:


Closeup of what males look like




This has been an interesting plant. Started off as a runt because it couldn't shed it's shell properly, it lost 90% of its cotyledons, but for some reason I left it in and it eventually turned out all right. I topped it, but it seems to have just turned it into a total shrub. It's been speeding up lately, though. It's a curious strain whatever it is, it grows a ton of 3 and 5 bladed leaves.



This plant has been fun. I've been training the hell out of it and probably will veg it another few weeks. It's got a ton of very even shoots on it. Looks like what you actually try to prune a fruit trees into when growing on a trellis.


Same plant from above:


This girl has been super vigorous. I keep tying her over sideways which has worked really well. Puts on about an inch a day, even though I periodically let her get too close to the lights and she's kinda sunburned. You can kinda see the hunchback of notredame stem she has.


A slightly different angle:



I feed the little vegetating sluts with this stuff, treats them well, I make about 5 gallons at a time and leave it in a trashcan next to them so watering/feeding is always easy.


They're all under a 400watt CMH with another 5000 lumens of CMH (actually more because they're about 1 inch away) hanging among the canopy. They get fed basically every or every other watering. They're all in 3 gallon pots. Just installed a carbon scrubber today, though to keep me from getting robbed since it's all medical and legal here.

Got about 10 beans of blueberry from a medical source that will get cracked after these are finishing up. I'm thinking about switching my 400w CMH for a 400w HPS (the CMH bulb is in an HPS ballast).

I'm debating growing these plants into 4 foot high monsters versus taking a shitload of clones and going perpetual. If I make them monsters, I'll add a decent amount more light.

So far no mites, aphids, thrips, or any other pests at all, none of the plants have any nutrient deficiencies and Ph is about 6.9, though I've been taking it down with vinegar.

 

[NorCalFor20]

looking good so far! I also have decided to use HPS from week 2 of flower to the last 2 weeks then switch back to cmh

 

[Murphy]

Veg with that CMH. After that, it's a mixed opinion. Looks like you're off to a good start!

 

[nightcrawler]

why not flower with the CMH all the way through?

 

[TheGoodStuff]

If I were you I'd grow out some monsters and do a perpetual with the blueberry.

 

[Moleculist]

Yeah, that's more and more becoming my plan. I may end up getting a 600 or 1k hps and using that for flower and 400w cmh for veg. But then, that's a pretty serious grow, I'm not sure I want to cross that line.

I have decent hopes for the blueberry. I only found seeds in 2 out of about 40 nugs and in each one I got about 5 seeds, so I'm hopeful it was deliberate pollination.

Also, stretch isn't a worry at all, I train the hell out of my plants and even if they did, I've got 6 feet of vertical space, more if absolutely necessary.

This is my first weed grow, but I've grown lots of other stuff before. Grew about 30-40 pounds of basil one year for fun, it was great practice for weed in terms of understanding how plants grow and how they develop roots and how to top/pinch etc. Oh, and homemade pesto is soooooo delicious.

Thanks for stopping by, I'll post some more pictures soon, I tied a bunch of stuff down and it's been growing really fast lately.

Oh and one tip for maximizing root mass in your pots: You've probably noticed that the roots grow mostly downwards and that the top inch of soil in a 2+gallon pot is mostly dirt and few roots. Well you can scrape/shake that soil off and take the root ball out of the pot (the entire thing should stick together if you are doing this) and add about an inch or two of soil to the bottom of the pot. It may not add a lot horizontally, but it is adding an extra liter or two of soil in the first place the roots are going to grow.

 

[Moleculist]

I took some new photos:


Setup:


Male shooting pollen all over itself:



Top


Bottom


Bagseed from super dank plant, just recently topped. None of these plants have been watered in about 2 days, I just watered them all though <3



Some sort of trainwreck, iirc.


My most ridiculously trained plant. It's two main branches go waaaaay out and each have about 6-10 fairly equal branches. Hopefully it will work out well.



Only non-topped plant. Bent over though, has led to a cool canopy. Bottom:


Top



This is all bag seed, the females I do not know the strain, they look to be hybrids at least, considering I clearly have 1 indica that barely gets off the ground. Also, the leaves are really pretty damn thin.

Feel free to make any suggestions, I've much to learn!

 

[Pirate138]

Never feed every watering, only every other. Molasses is a waste. Also PBP makes a bloom for soil. I wouldnt waste time with seeds, let the pros make em.

 

[toodles]

Never feed every watering, only every other. Molasses is a waste. Also PBP makes a bloom for soil. I wouldnt waste time with seeds, let the pros make em.

Cheeky advice you give considering your own results. I don't mean to be unkind, but I couldn't let what you said go without comment.

"Never feed every watering, only every other. "

Some find light feedings with every watering to be very effective.

"Molassess is a waste."

That would be news to many organic growers including me.

"Seeds are a waste of time"

That's in your opinion right?

I made something over a 1000 seeds(SSH x SSH) from my last MNS SSH grow. I certainly didn't consider it a waste of my time. Granted the seeds are not going to be the same as the F1 SSH from Shanti. 2nd generation seeds(these aren't true F2's) will have a lot of variation. However, I'm finishing the first grow of those seeds and the results aren't bad at all. The bud below is from seeds from the worst yielding of 3 SSH F1's I grew earlier this year. The three "daughters" won't yield any better, but I'm sure will smoke really well...just like thier mom did

Making your own seeds can not only be fun and interesting, but can save money. This is a picture of the best of three phenos from the first of my seeds. Day 50 of flower.

Toodles


Organically grown SSH x SSH Day 50 of flower.

 

[Murphy]

I won't cross the line to say molasses are a waste but I will say, I never saw anything from it and if you don't have the mix right it will cause your plants problems. Stay safe!

 

[toodles]

Molasses is not for the plants, directly. Molasses is for the microbes (the microherd) in the soil, who in turn break it down into nutrients the plant can take up.

I would agree that molasses is useless for a chemical fert grow. In that type of grow, nobody worries about soil microbes....they are mostly all dead. However, it looks like the thread owner is trying to grow organically. PBPro, Liquid Bonemeal, Molasses

I would also agree that if you use too much molasses in an organic grow it may cause problems. I generally use a teaspoon/gallon every other watering.

However, it is simply wrong to say molasses is useless...unless you define the circumstances where it is being used. And even then, some folks simply disagree about the value of molasses, even for the microherd. I think most of the knowledgable people over on the Organics Forum would tell you though that molasses is far from useless...but I'm speculating there. They can speak for themselves if they want

Toodles

 

[toodles]

Moleculist

Your male is looking good in that first post. I had a lot of fun making seeds with a SSH male I selected, sorta, from 3 males that sprouted and I vegged for a about a month. I chose the first one that popped and turned out to be the most vigorous. I don't have a lot of room etc. for breeding and keeping males around.

I kept the one I had around too long as it was. I ended up overpollinating my plants...2/3 were were really seeded up. I have enough seeds from those 3 plants (3 MNS SSH females I grew out) for 20 lifetimes of growing at my rate LOL!!

So make seeds. You simply don't know. You could wind up with some really SUPER plants.

I like your grow and hope to see what you do with it!

Toodles


Watering correctly is one of the most important things to learn. And you'll get lots of opinions on how to water. Here's mine...and it's not unique. Lot's of folks use some version of it.

Learn to water by feeling the weight of the pot/plant. DO NOT let anyone talk you into some arbitrary watering schedule...like every 3rd day, blah blah. These plants don't grow on an arbitrary schedule.

Pick your plants up every day, whether you need to or not You'll develop a feel for how fast the plant is using moisture by the weight loss. Nobody can tell you exactly how to do it. It's something you'll simply have to do for yourself...and it is not hard. IMO, you don't want the soil to go completely dry. That stresses the plant and not good for the soil microbes. Now, the top layer(s) will dry out somewhat. That's normal. It's the middle and especially bottom you don't want totally dry.(Moisture meters are inherently unreliable. Don't use them).

Water slowly. Pay attention as you water. If you see water running right through, especially around the pot edges, slow down. I scratch up the top 1/2" or so of soil on larger pots. This helps prevent the water from beading up and running over immediately to the pot edge and down. Add water a little at a time. The goal is watering so soil moisture is even throughout the pot. Sometimes soil compacts and shrinks when it dries out too much. Fissures develop and the water runs through. Look out for that.

On larger pots I like to begin watering in the center around the plant stem. I use maybe 1/2 the amount I think the plant will take. Then water around the edges of the pot.

Learn how much water your plant uses at each stage of growth. I think this helps spot problems. I knew something was wrong on my current grow when one of my plants wasn't using water like it had. It's still kind of screwed up. Long story and all my fault because i wasn't paying attention to business caring for my plants....but knowing how much water your plants use is helpful IMO. And last I water till i see a bit of runoff. However, if I see runoff too soon(because I know about how much water it should need) I begin looking to see why. Make sense? Maybe the water is running through a crack in the soil.

Check out the Organic Soil Forum. There's lots of people much brighter than me with more experience. You'll get good advice over there if you are going the organic route.

 

[Moleculist]

Moleculist

Your male is looking good in that first post. I had a lot of fun making seeds with a SSH male I selected, sorta, from 3 males that sprouted and I vegged for a about a month. I chose the first one that popped and turned out to be the most vigorous. I don't have a lot of room etc. for breeding and keeping males around.

I kept the one I had around too long as it was. I ended up overpollinating my plants...2/3 were were really seeded up. I have enough seeds from those 3 plants (3 MNS SSH females I grew out) for 20 lifetimes of growing at my rate LOL!!

So make seeds. You simply don't know. You could wind up with some really SUPER plants.

I like your grow and hope to see what you do with it!

Toodles


Watering correctly is one of the most important things to learn. And you'll get lots of opinions on how to water. Here's mine...and it's not unique. Lot's of folks use some version of it.

Learn to water by feeling the weight of the pot/plant. DO NOT let anyone talk you into some arbitrary watering schedule...like every 3rd day, blah blah. These plants don't grow on an arbitrary schedule.

Pick your plants up every day, whether you need to or not You'll develop a feel for how fast the plant is using moisture by the weight loss. Nobody can tell you exactly how to do it. It's something you'll simply have to do for yourself...and it is not hard. IMO, you don't want the soil to go completely dry. That stresses the plant and not good for the soil microbes. Now, the top layer(s) will dry out somewhat. That's normal. It's the middle and especially bottom you don't want totally dry.(Moisture meters are inherently unreliable. Don't use them).

Water slowly. Pay attention as you water. If you see water running right through, especially around the pot edges, slow down. I scratch up the top 1/2" or so of soil on larger pots. This helps prevent the water from beading up and running over immediately to the pot edge and down. Add water a little at a time. The goal is watering so soil moisture is even throughout the pot. Sometimes soil compacts and shrinks when it dries out too much. Fissures develop and the water runs through. Look out for that.

On larger pots I like to begin watering in the center around the plant stem. I use maybe 1/2 the amount I think the plant will take. Then water around the edges of the pot.

Learn how much water your plant uses at each stage of growth. I think this helps spot problems. I knew something was wrong on my current grow when one of my plants wasn't using water like it had. It's still kind of screwed up. Long story and all my fault because i wasn't paying attention to business caring for my plants....but knowing how much water your plants use is helpful IMO. And last I water till i see a bit of runoff. However, if I see runoff too soon(because I know about how much water it should need) I begin looking to see why. Make sense? Maybe the water is running through a crack in the soil.

Check out the Organic Soil Forum. There's lots of people much brighter than me with more experience. You'll get good advice over there if you are going the organic route.

Your advice on watering is really close to what I do, though the bit about scraping up the top inch sounds like a good idea (though I usually dump out the rootless top inch and replace it on the bottom). I basically am growing these how I grew basil and it seems to be working pretty well.

I make about 3-4g of water about once a week which I give to them in about a quart each every 2 or 3 days, whenever the pots start feeling really dry. I like to let them dry way the hell out because it kills a lot of pests and also forces the plants to grow more roots looking for water.

Basically every other watering I put in ferts. Right now I'm trying to drop my ph so they are getting fed mostly just water and vinegar. After this batch is done I just eyeball maybe 2 tbsp of ferts, maybe a tbsp of molasses and squirt in a good bit of bonemeal. I'm not planning on changing this much for flower, maybe use a higher P fert blend, but they get a good amount of P as it is.

 

[toodles]

Oh My!!

Well good luck on your grow!!

Toodles

 

[Moleculist]

Thanks for the advice and for the feedback that everyone has given. I learned to garden from my mom who was a master gardener, but I'm brand new to weed so I WELCOME ALL SUGGESTIONS AND TIPS

Oh and how many ICMag people prefer smoking in spliffs? I'm totally hooked and smoke about a dozen a day (bowls only if I'm hanging out with friends or if I feel like getting really, really baked). Watch out for spliffs, they hook you

 

[Pirate138]

Cheeky advice you give considering your own results. I don't mean to be unkind, but I couldn't let what you said go without comment.

"Never feed every watering, only every other. "

Some find light feedings with every watering to be very effective.

"Molassess is a waste."

That would be news to many organic growers including me.

"Seeds are a waste of time"

That's in your opinion right?

I made something over a 1000 seeds(SSH x SSH) from my last MNS SSH grow. I certainly didn't consider it a waste of my time. Granted the seeds are not going to be the same as the F1 SSH from Shanti. 2nd generation seeds(these aren't true F2's) will have a lot of variation. However, I'm finishing the first grow of those seeds and the results aren't bad at all. The bud below is from seeds from the worst yielding of 3 SSH F1's I grew earlier this year. The three "daughters" won't yield any better, but I'm sure will smoke really well...just like thier mom did

Making your own seeds can not only be fun and interesting, but can save money. This is a picture of the best of three phenos from the first of my seeds. Day 50 of flower.

Toodles


Organically grown SSH x SSH Day 50 of flower.

Not trying to be unkind? What a bunch of malarchy you were mos def trying to talk shit sayin i cant grow cause i have a N deficiency? So i guess youve never had a deficiency since you can throw stones saying i dont know what im talkin about cause i have a deficiency?

Oh and my girl stitch in the infirmary has always taught me NEVER to feed every watering, but i guess what does she know right toodle? She's only publishing a book on the complete guide to sick plants im sure she doesnt know shit.

And yes of course its my opinion about molasses just like 80% of your tips are your opinion as well. We are all entitled to those.

Making seeds is a very easy thing to do but you will never get the quality seeds that a breeder acquires through selective breeding of hundreds if not sometimes thousands of plants, usually looking for that special male. Thats all i was saying, and yes that is my OPINION.

So good job tryin to one up this girl.

 

[Moleculist]

Not trying to be unkind? What a bunch of malarchy you were mos def trying to talk shit sayin i cant grow cause i have a N deficiency? So i guess youve never had a deficiency since you can throw stones saying i dont know what im talkin about cause i have a deficiency?

Oh and my girl stitch in the infirmary has always taught me NEVER to feed every watering, but i guess what does she know right toodle? She's only publishing a book on the complete guide to sick plants im sure she doesnt know shit.

And yes of course its my opinion about molasses just like 80% of your tips are your opinion as well. We are all entitled to those.

Making seeds is a very easy thing to do but you will never get the quality seeds that a breeder acquires through selective breeding of hundreds if not sometimes thousands of plants, usually looking for that special male. Thats all i was saying, and yes that is my OPINION.

So good job tryin to one up this girl.

I agree that buying seeds is the way to go to get great plants every time, but it is also out of my budget and I'd like to have a big pile of seeds around to get familiar with.

I'm groiwng 100% to keep myself smoking so I mostly want to get the hang of growing. I'll probably turn most of my harvest into hash anyways

In the future I will definitely purchase some seeds, I've heard a lot of good about SSH and it's on my list of strains to find before long. Want to get some sort of deisel seeds, can get cuts of lavender and trainwreck and kush pretty easily, and will probably end up growing some AK or NL or WW.

 

[theoldinout]

So good job tryin to one up this girl.

I agree, his calm demeanor, well thought-out responses (gotta love diplomacy) and the fact that he DIDN'T take everything so personally really makes him look like a tool. Or is toodles a she? Oh crap, I hope no one thinks I'm a chauvinist now.

Sweet Grow Moleculist! And by the way, making seeds isn't a waste of time. You just may have to grow out more seeds to find that 'special girl' ( ) from your own seeds. But as long as the genes are in there, they're in there. If you don't find her, you can still make all your mistakes here and hone your skills for the big show. And that ain't a bad thing.

Peace all

PS: Pirate, stay cool and remember it's just a forum and good advice stands on it's own. No need to cite sources and have a pissing contest to get your point across; it just seems too masculine and immature to ever be effective.

 

[Moleculist]

I'm confident the genes are in there, all are from super dank weed. Thank god for 15,000 medical growers in Oregon pumping out great weed

 

[theoldinout]

I'm confident the genes are in there, all are from super dank weed. Thank god for 15,000 medical growers in Oregon pumping out great weed

You better make good with the smoke reports, then! To me, things have just got a whole lot more interesting.