~Kief Junkie & QueenKief's 250w Organic Medi-Cab (soil) Grow!~ ~Pure & Blue Mystic~

[K.J]

yea i would use the guano in the mix i tried bone/blood vs. guano and i really like the guano alot better it seems to me it become usable alot sooner and the nugs are always bigger with guano in my case anyways i also felt like i had more nats with blood/bone meal

Yeah, that's one of the downsides to blood/bone meal, they attract bugs. If it's a major problem for us, then we'll look for a replacement next time around. They do take some time to breakdown and become available, but that's why we're cooking our soil for a few weeks.

 

[K.J]

This morning Peanut was looking a little lanky; she's grown a good amount just in the last 24 hours and the cotty's are turning upward. After talking it over, we decided it might be best to put them under the CFL for now just to keep her stretch down (it might also warm them up a tiny bit). I'm a little worried that the light will be too sudden and intense, so I left them under the hood so that it'll block out some of the UV.

What do you guys think?

First day under the lights!

Peanut is still looking great though. She's turning more and more green every hour. Here's a recent pick, one you can actually see her true color in!

Peanut, basking in the CFL glow.

We'll keep checking up on them of course, and at the first sign of light shock we'll pull the light up a bit, or maybe take them out from under it. Hopefully that's a decision we won't have to make!

So when should we be concerned that the others haven't even broke the surface yet? It's now been 5 days since they showed their radicals and were sowed into the rockwool. Shouldn't they at least be showing something by now?

 

[j.guit.err]

I wouldn't worry about light shock at all personally, I always put mine right under the light when they pop. As far as growth goes, it is a little concerning that the others haven't sprouted yet...normally it takes mine 3 days to show the taproot and then another 3-5 to sprout. Give it a bit more time and remember that some just don't sprout. It could be that they dried out, got too wet, or didn't get enough light. You get the idea. GL, your grow box looks like it will be awesome.

 

[foescan]

Yeah, that's one of the downsides to blood/bone meal, they attract bugs.

I had some gnats too. They don't really seem to cause any harm, but I top dressed with diatomaceous earth, mixing it about an inch into the soil, and in the weeks since I only saw a few gnats, where before it was a few each day. I haven't seen any in a month, so it appears to be effective. I do let my soil get fairly dry before I water though.

Great detail in your post BTW. I like the cost breakdown. I know I have over $500 in my cab. It adds up quickly. But once you have that initial investment, maintenance and future expenses should be minimal.

 

[K.J]

I wouldn't worry about light shock at all personally, I always put mine right under the light when they pop. As far as growth goes, it is a little concerning that the others haven't sprouted yet...normally it takes mine 3 days to show the taproot and then another 3-5 to sprout. Give it a bit more time and remember that some just don't sprout. It could be that they dried out, got too wet, or didn't get enough light. You get the idea. GL, your grow box looks like it will be awesome.

Thanks for the advice. I'll give it a few more days and then I'll take a peek in each of the cubes to see what's going on. You may be right, we might have had some bad germination luck with the others. I sure hope not though!

Thanks for the props on our box...we think it'll turn out pretty sweet too!

 

[K.J]

I had some gnats too. They don't really seem to cause any harm, but I topped dressed with diatomaceous earth, mixing it about an inch into the soil, and in the weeks since I only saw a few gnats, where before it was a few each day. I haven't seen any in a month, so it appears to be effective. I do let my soil get fairly dry before I water though.

We'll be doing some top-dressing (for insect control) with the diatomaceous earth we purchased and we'll also be dusting it on the floor of the cab and on the floor of the room the cab is in. Glad to hear it works!

Great detail in your post BTW. I like the cost breakdown. I know I have over $500 in my cab. It adds up quickly. But once you have that initial investment, maintenance and future expenses should be minimal.

Thanks for the props on our posts. I've so enjoyed the many detailed grow journals on IC, that I thought we'd make ours as detailed as possible without veering into the anal and boring.

 

[K.J]

Edit: I'd loose the dome and put them under the cfl now. The warmpth from it (keep it fairly close) can help them germ, they like to feel the warm above and they spring for it. If you keep the rockwool misted and not dry or soggy then you don't need the dome.

Well Deft, we followed your advice, even if for slightly different reasons.

As I posted earlier, I finally put the tray under the CFL and took the dome off. The main reason was to control Peanut's stretch (and secondarily, to cajole the others to come out and play!). Now I've gone one step further and moved them within 12-16" from the light; after a few hours of it being 24" away, you could tell Peanut loved it, so I figured what the hell. They're only slightly warmer now, but I'm sure it's welcomed.

I also, ever so gently, uncovered the holes in two of the cubes (one from each strain, the bottommost cube in the pics). I could see clearly on the Pure side that the sprout was working its way up; the shell still partially attached, but a fairly long root and stem forming. On the Spice side it was much harder to tell as the bean was a tad deeper than the other and it was pointing directly downward; it definitely wasn't as formed as the first though.

When I covered them up again, I made sure to leave a slight crack so a tiny bit of light could creep in; we'll see how my experiment turns out before I do it to the others. Oh, and if this is a big mistake, someone feel free to let me know.

 

[K.J]

Thought I'd take a few more pics (can you tell I love hanging out here?).

Moved them closer to the light.

Peanut again, this time spreading her arms out to the light.

It's amazing how quick they change. Compare the pic from earlier with this one and you'll notice that she's much more angled upward and flattened out some. Also, the first true leaves are forming! They're itsy bitsy, but they've got character.

 

[snoogans]

Looks good KJ! Cant wait to see them grow up. I like your attention to detail!

 

[Deft]

Good going. I've never used the big CFLs (42w max) but I find with CFL you can get the light damn close, and the closer the better once they start veging for real and get a few nodes out.

A good way to test if its too much heat is to hold your hand at canopy level for like 15 seconds and feel how warm it gets. I do this with my 250 hps and have three tops within 6" without burning since closet temps are only 70.

 

[White]

Looking good K.J.

If one were to judge love by the number of posts, I'd say you're head over heels with your babies. That's great man. Hopefully the others sprout soon.

Best of luck.

Peace,
White

p.s. did you have as much fun making your soil as I did?

 

[K.J]

Looks good KJ! Cant wait to see them grow up. I like your attention to detail!

What's up Snoogs? So glad to see you here! Glad you like the journal and I hope you come back and hang out sometime.

 

[K.J]

A good way to test if its too much heat is to hold your hand at canopy level for like 15 seconds and feel how warm it gets. I do this with my 250 hps and have three tops within 6" without burning since closet temps are only 70.

Yep, I've done the hand test a few times now just to make sure. Though, I kept thinking that even though it doesn't feel too warm to me, might it not to the little sprouts coming up? Regardless, it's worked so far!

 

[K.J]

White: Haha...love judged by the number of posts! Well, you've outed me...I'm definitely in love with our new kids.

Soil making was indeed a blast. I love getting my hands dirty with the soil and amendments (though I didn't much love wearing a respirator mask; totally makes you feel like you're suffocating! But maybe I'm just a bit claustrophobic, eh?). I also love stirring it every other day with my bare hands. Love it!

 

[K.J]

Last night when we went to put the ladies to bed we did an under-the-cover check on each of them to see what's going on. We gently pulled back a small bit of the rockwool to uncover the hole (and seed/ling) beneath.

Peanut's sisters (the other two Pure's) are coming along just fine; we noticed before getting to see inside that the stems were just starting to scratch the surface.

The Spice ladies on the other hand are all still moving at a snails pace. They have less radical growth (one has none at all that we can see) and don't appear to be ready to surface.

We left each of the tops cracked just slightly to allow light/air in (maybe they're too wet?). We still have hope for them though!

I learned from my wife that at least a few of the seedlings weren't quite showing their radicals before we sowed them (she was doing the up-close inspection and pulling them out with tweezers for planting in the cubes, so I guess in the excitement of preparing to sow I didn't notice). They were cracked, just not quite as far along as some of the Pure beans were. I hope that didn't lead to losing a few of them.

I hope to see more growth this morning when I check on them, so I'll try and take pictures later (if they're interesting, that is).

 

[JamieShoes]

nice read KJ - I'll be interested to know how your Spice runs in tehre. A tip I recently picked up for stubborn seeds is to rub unsprouted seeds with a bit of (fine) sand paper until the seeds shell is almost opaque. It might sound a little drastic - but better than tossing a 10 dollar seed in the trash


ps - your avatar? I can see from its composition that its actually 2 piccies - but as a stoner I can only see the bearded solider taking a toke - what else is in there?


j

 

[K.J]

nice read KJ - I'll be interested to know how your Spice runs in tehre. A tip I recently picked up for stubborn seeds is to rub unsprouted seeds with a bit of (fine) sand paper until the seeds shell is almost opaque. It might sound a little drastic - but better than tossing a 10 dollar seed in the trash

I've never heard of anyone doing the sandpaper thing on seeds after attempting germination. The thing is, they're all popped to some degree or another, so I'd hesitate to even take them out of the rockwool. I have heard that scuffing the beans using a small piece of Emory board inside of a matchbox (you pop the beans in and gently shake the box for 10 seconds or so) works great for hard beans that won't allow water to penetrate.

That said, it seems like the initial seed popping and germination went fine, it's just that the Spice beans don't seem to want to grow any further.

ps - your avatar? I can see from its composition that its actually 2 piccies - but as a stoner I can only see the bearded solider taking a toke - what else is in there?

You mean it's like one of those pictures where the black makes one pic and the background, or negative image, makes another? No, it isn't that (at least, I don't think it is). I pulled it off the internet. It's the Zig Zag man!

Thanks for stopping by. Kick off your shoes and stay a while!

 

[K.J]

Good news on check-up this morning. We have two new ladies, Purdy and Petunia! Both Pure's, of course. They're much smaller still than Peanut, but at least one of them (Petunia) really shot up overnight when the light was off.

(from left to right) Peanut, Petunia, and Purdy striking a pose.

I took another peek into the cubes of the Spice beans and I'm a little worried. One of them is definitely trying to come up, so that's good. The other two haven't even sprouted their tap root yet. What should I do? Just wait? Or should I try and re-germ them?

Also, when opening these up to take a look, I did a fair amount of damage to the cubes (nothing major, but it's definitely not as square and firm as it was before). Is this okay? Or should they be housed in new cubes?

 

[Quazi]

No need to open them up and take a look.

The fragile new roots don't like being exposed. In addition, the newer roots don't like being jostled too much when they are so young as they are trying to spread out and grab on with those tiny little hairs.

Looks like you might be able to bring the lights a bit closer to the girls from the stretch you're seeing out of the first one.

Also, I would suggest getting them transported into a small container very soon. Depending on the strain, they'll be looking for room to spread their roots quickly.

In addition: the middle one looks like it's trying to shed it's seed casing. If it's still on there: you can gently pull it off. Normally wind, animals, or rain would have probably knocked it off in nature by now. The first day or so it's protection. After that: it's just getting in the way of the plant reaching up. I believe I picked up that advice from Soma's book; but I don't remember at the moment.

Looking really nice though man!

Keep it up!

-Q

 

[Deft]

Yea I second the closer light. Cracking them open can be good for air movement and a little light/warmth hitting an un-cracked seed is a good thing IMO.

If seeds can take the full on sun I think they can take your floro at 10" from the tops, probably closer.

The tall one will probably be sending roots through the cube soon too so be ready to give them a place to go.