Back for Round 2 with JH and ISS.

[Nathindica]

Hello everyone.

First of all, thanks to everyone who helped me out on my first grow of NYCD. It turned out pretty well for my first attempt. I ended up with just a few grams shy of half a lb from 5 plants.... but I KNOW I can do much, much better. I've built a new cab and I'm all set. Oh well enough talk. Here are some pics.

A Jack Herer bagseed I was holding onto for a few months...looked extra beautiful. Only seed I found in the ounce of top notch bud.

Here she is sprouted in a jiffy pellet.

http://www.icmag.com/ic/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=770934&ppuser=41661

And here's where she is now.

http://www.icmag.com/ic/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=770930&ppuser=41661
http://www.icmag.com/ic/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=770931&ppuser=41661

As you can see, I'm trying my hand at hydroponics this time around withe just the JH for now. But more on that later...

Right now this seedling is in a jiffy pellet (peat) nestled in a homemade net pot (plastic flower pot with a bunch of holes drilled in the bottom and sides), which sits comfortably in a small sized pitcher. There's an airstone and a thermometer in the very small rez. Just plain PH'd water for now at 5.8... and it's working!

http://www.icmag.com/ic/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=770932&ppuser=41661

So here's the little Jack Herer seedling at 9 days old.

http://www.icmag.com/ic/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=770935&ppuser=41661

http://www.icmag.com/ic/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=770933&ppuser=41661

As you can see.... things aren't QUITE perfect. I'm a little concerned with the seedlings leaves feeling a bit papery, and it has some uneven coloring and a bit of leaf twisting. I gave it some nutes (lucas formula dosed in literally drops per gallon, really weak) for about half a day before i decided it was way too early and gave it fresh ph'ed RO from then on. Anyways we'll see how things progress. That light it's under is about 45 watts. I try to keep the daytime temps at about 25 C... and the RH around 55%. There's a small computer fan on a speed controller circulating the air around in the small box it's in. One question I have about this bubbler thing... Should I be moving the water level down as the roots grow to lure them out of the pot? Or will they just keep growing into the water just fine and dandy? I intend on transferring this JH seedling to a waterfarm. I'm currently soaking the hydroton to stabilize the pH at 5.8. It's pretty close to being completely stable after 3 days of intense washing and soaking. I can't imagine having to wash all that crap out of tables upon tables worth of that stuff. Must be a lot of work. Props to those that do it. Anyways here's the waterfarm and bucket of soaking hydroton.

http://www.icmag.com/ic/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=770925&ppuser=41661

I'm really excited to try my hand at the waterfarm. I'm going with the lucas formula with GH micro and bloom being the only additives to my bubbled tap water (soft). Maybe a touch of liquid karma. Good idea?

I don't know if it's appropriate or whatever, but I'm going to give some props to upgradeshafted and his thread which made me go out and buy a waterfarm the day after reading through 60+ pages of his thread....http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=76893&highlight=upgradeshafted

For anyone who hasn't seen the glory of that thread... I highly recommend it. It inspired the shit out of me.

Moving on.... Heres a shot of the new stealthified flowering cab.

http://www.icmag.com/ic/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=770926&ppuser=41661

http://www.icmag.com/ic/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=770927&ppuser=41661

And inside we have...

http://www.icmag.com/ic/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=770928&ppuser=41661

600 W HPS in a cooltube powered by a 6'' vortex. and a handy little odorsock on there for all those lovely smells.

BUT don't think for a second that I've abandoned my precious soil completely! Oh no.I've got a little sumthin sumthin planned to go alongside the JH in the waterfarm. I ordered a pack of Federation's Island Sweet Skunk. One of my all time favorite smokes so we'll see if I can do it justice.

I put 6 in a paper towel, saved 4 as emergency genetics, and so far thre of the six have popped.

http://www.icmag.com/ic/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=770936&ppuser=41661

They are in rapid rooters. I decided to try these instead of the usual jiffy pucks to see what happens. The group of three on the right are the ISS. The one on the left is a Lowryder #2 my roommate is experimenting with. He's tossing the other seeds in his aerogarden too see what happens. But that belongs in another thread. THIS one is for MY grow.

I plan on growing out the ISS in soil. Well... soiless if you want to be technical about it. LC's soiless mix #1 to be exact.
5 parts peat
3 parts perlite
2 parts WC
2 tablespoons dolomite per gallon

I'll be going with the PBP grow and bloom for the soil grow as I already have the nutes. I was using a whole bunch of AN additives and all sorts of crap which I'm going to leave out entirely this time. I was nowhere near experienced enough to be throwing all that crap into my water and feeding it to my plants. This time I'm going to rock the simplicity.

So anyways once I get some roots comin out of the rapid rooters I'll plant them into beer cups until they get a set of real leaves... then into one gallons and finally into 3 gallons just in time for flowering. From the best looking female of the bunch... I'll be taking clones to raise the next crop of ISS. ONE of those clones will be put into the waterfarm to see some serious growth alongside her sister clones in dirt. THAT I'm excited for.

The purpose of the JH seedling is to test my skill at the waterfarm and try to get the hang of it before the great waterfarm/soil side by side. I know its just a single bagseed... i know it could be male... i know very well what could happen... but it's for experimentation's sake. But hey, if it's a female... it should be AWESOME. Here's to hopin.

Welcome to my first grow diary. Thanks for checkin my pics and reading through all my rambling... and I ALWAYS appreciate some CONSTRUCTIVE criticism. After all, it's only my second grow and I have a LOT to learn. But I'll never learn if the more experienced and knowledgeable offer their expertise... so let's hear it! I'm open to all and anything.

 

[Che]

If you're going to use that jug, or any transparent or translucent main reservoir, you better get some SM-90, and some peroxide. You're going to learn about algae!

DWC, especially with RO, needs nutrients earlier. If you're going to use Lucas, the target for young plants and clones is [email protected] conversion scale, so you should slowly work your way up to there.

If I was you, I would be more careful with the only JH bean I had.. maybe thats just me but if you've got 10 of one strain and 1 of the other... wouldn't you use the tested and true method to grow the one that only has one shot? Don't be offended, and if it doesn't work out you can always go from DWC to soil a lot easier than from Soil to DWC (although anything is possible if you're determined).

Good luck with your grow!
Che

 

[Nathindica]

Hey Che thanks for the reply.

As for the little DWC seedling... This is only a temporary setup until the plant builds a solid enough root system to go into the waterfarm. As the water has no nutes in it, there's no risk of an algae bloom? Please correct me if I'm wrong.

If it turns out to be female, I'll be sure to take a couple clones to keep the genetics going.... as long as this turns out to be a solid plant with good characteristics.

I'm also under the impression that nutes should be held off until the plant tells you it needs them i.e., yellowing of the rounded seedling leaves. Would feeding now accelerate growth or stunt them?

I'm being less than obsessive about the Jack seedling because it is just bagseed. I know I've seen some great pics on here of awesome bagseed grows but to me if the plant isn't up to par it doesn't need to be taking up space in the flowering room. the ISS, on the otherhand, I paid good money for. Let's hope for the best!

 

[Che]

Algae will grow if you don't sterilize the water with some peroxide at the very least, which needs to be done weekly.

IME, DWC will do better if you start (albeit very gradually) early with the nutes. 1/10th strength or so, and ramp it up from there. Technically, the Lucas calls for 1/3 to start but I water even that down. The plants will still yellow the cotyledons before long, but if you feed sooner it will grow faster.

I've noticed that a happy seedling in good soil take a LOT longer to lose the cotyledons yet have better growth, on plain water, than my DWC seedlings did. Of course, YMMV, but the way you were describing it that plant could use a leg up.

The ISS will be nice for sure, sweet skunk is always a crowd pleaser. Have fun!
Che

 

[Nathindica]

I gave the JH seedling a bit of nutes... something like 0-.5-1 and it seems to be liking them after a good 8 hours or so. i like the fast results with hydro.

i now have 5 out of 6 ISS seeds with taproots in rapid rooters. a couple are already sprouting. pics tonight before they go to sleep.

anyone know how i get the pics to show up in the thread instead of being links to my gallery? currently im clicking and dragging the pics out of my gallery into the post. is there another way? i did a simple search and couldnt find anything. thanks everyone.

anyone have experience with island sweet skunk? nute sensitive? RH sensitive? let me know your experiences with growing this delicious strain.

 

[Che]

Try using the IMG tags, although it may be a restricted function for new members? Not sure about that..
it goes [ img ] image url goes here [ / img ] - just remove the spaces and add your links

 

[Weedninja]

anyone have experience with island sweet skunk? nute sensitive? RH sensitive? let me know your experiences with growing this delicious strain.

They're pretty easy to grow. You will probably get 1 keeper female out of a pack. Clones pretty easily. They can take a pretty good feeding, but are very sensitive to hard water and high pH. If you notice any spider mites, kill them ASAP or they will hammer her good.

They take topping pretty well, but I find the stems to be a little thick for LST. They are a little stretchy, but your Jack will probably stretch more.

Did I answer your question?

 

[Nathindica]

yes indeed weedninja that's just the kind of answer i was looking for. I've never tried topping before... so I may give it a try this time.

Here's an update.

12 days from the seeds with taproots being put into the rapid rooters.

Here are the two most vigorous...

Followed by the next two...

And finally the less symmetrical one and the slow growing one (which doesnt look bad at all...just lagging a bit behind the others)

And here they are in their home for now. The four most vigorous get to receive their own CFL... as does the Jack in the waterfarm of course...

Speaking of the Jack Herer... Tomorrow is 'her' 3 week mark from sprout. Let's have a gander shall we?

She's been growing AWESOMELY. I love the growth rate of hydro. She's was on lucas at 0-1.5-3 for a week or so, then i decided to bump it up to 0-2-4 when i changed the rez two days ago and got this...

see the leaf edges starting to curl? according to my search around IC looks like the EC is a tid bit too high. So i changed the rez back to 0-1.5-3 and am hoping to see some quick results. I also dropped the plant an inch and a half from the light...just in case light/heat stress was the culprit (pretty sure it wasnt.. but better to be safe than burn up precious new growth.

so everything seems to be going alright so far. everything is green at least. the jack is already putting out a nice bit of a stench when you get your face close enough. im really praying for a lady. but hey, if not... at least i know may way around a waterfarm so i'll be able to supercharge some ISS when the time comes.

i'll update more frequently i promise. i'll let you all know what goes on with the rez change and the leaf curling.

 

[Nathindica]

i tried the

thing and my pics just showed up as those little blue question mark boxes. really frustrating. i personally get quite annoyed when people's pics arent right in their post so i apologize mine are only links to the gallery. is there any way around this? how many posts do i need to have? or rep?


...EDIT... I figured it out! gotta love that search function.

 

[Nathindica]

I've got a question...

When I saw the leaf curling which signaled high EC to me I knew I had to back off the nutes. My QUESTION is should I pour plain pH'ed water (no nutes) through the hydroton to wash out any nutes or salts still in the medium? shoud i let it run with just plain water for 12 hours or so to refresh the system? or is just changing the rez enough?

well i guess if i don't see any improvements by tomorrow with the rez change i'll try the flushing the balls things and see if that gets me any results. i'll let you know what happens.... with pics.

 

[retawgnob]

I think i'll catch a stop in front and pack a fat one... here's to seeing what comes next! Peace Homie.

 

[Nathindica]

Alright here we are at 3 weeks from germ for the Jack Herer in the waterfarm and 2 weeks from germ for the Island Sweet Skunk seedlings in cups of LC's mix #1.

First we'll take a look at the JH.

New growth is coming in fast. I love it. I was worried the EC was too high because i noticed the fan leaf edges starting to curl... so i emptied the rez and poured 5.6 distilled through the hydroton to wash out any salts... and put 2 gallons of fresh 5.6 distilled in the rez to let it run overnight. it was in there about 12 hours... pH rose to 6.1... but nothing really changed... I figured it wasn't the nutes in that case so I returned the rez to 0-1.5-3 in soft tap water. im looking into RO and cal-mag. but no problems with tap yet...

Notice the larger leaf edge curling.

Still looks the same as it was the day before. But on the other hand, it hasn't gotten any worse. I'm not too concerned about it as the new growth looks fine. I thought maybe it was my temps... which sit at 25C sometimes 26 so I brought that down to 23 this morning and we'll see if that has any effect by tonight.

Well I guess the new growth does look like it has a bit of a curled edge. Not too bad... but I'm really striving for perfection this time. Temps are now at 23C and RH is at 50%. It's hard for me to get it much higher. It was low in the pic as I opened a window to get some fresh air in the bedroom where the cab is.

Now onto the island sweet skunk kids...

I don;t know why but this one has a little yellow parallelogram on the rightside 3 fingered leaf in the middle. Can you see it? Doesn't seem to be a problem really. Everything else is green. I haven't fed them anything yet.

The runt... that looks nice, but slow.

And the one I put below to recover from a bit of underwatering now looks the best of the bunch...

And so nice in fact she deserves a second look...

Well that's it for today. Hopefully the lower temp reverses the leaf curling on the JH. Only time will tell I guess. Here's to it!

 

[Nathindica]

Thanks for stoppin by retawgnob! Good to see you in my thread again.

Anyone have any questions or comments about my grow? Chime in! Let's get this thread goin!

 

[Tonatiuh]

lookin like they are lovin life so far bro.i will be watchin.-T-

 

[Nathindica]

Thanks for checkin out my grow tonatiuh. You grow some seriously nice looking nugs my friend, high five. I hope your wisdom can help me out somewhere along the way as this is only my second grow. Nonetheless I've done a fair amount of research and feel confident in my abilities. BUT no amount of research will EVER compare to experience. So I'm glad I can learn from people like you here on this site. And hopefully people can learn a thing or two from me!

Anyways I had a question tonatiuh.... I noticed in your pics you have your larger seedlings in their red solo cup inside of another. And I'm wondering what exactly you are doing... are you cutting the bottom off the first one to let the roots grow down more into the next? If that's the case... do you do that once they start getting rootbound or do you do it as more of a precautionary measure? Or am I just totally wrong? Haha. Your technique intrigues me. I want to know! Thanks amigo!

I've done some rearranging in the room to maximize the potential of the stuff I had lying around. So Check it oooooout.

I screwed some 2x4s together and made a nice little place to hang a floro fixture I had lying around. There's one grow'lux bulb in there (the purple hue) and one regular plant and aqaurium bulb (white one). Seems like it should work just fine.

And with all those leftover cfls.... Hm... What should I do with them? I know a potential lady who needs them.... Jack Hererrrrr! Slam her with light!

Yesssssss LUMENSSSSSSS. This was yesterday's work. I added 3 more cfls and a pinch of this to the rez...

I assume it to be safe to put in my rez. Is this a safe assumption? What does the heptahydrate mean at the end of magnesium sulphate? Is there a difference between epsom salts for plants and epsom salts for achy feet? Anyways 'she' seems to have liked it....Pics from this morning in the next post.

 

[Nathindica]

Here's what everything looked like this morning.

And the Island Sweet Skunk seedlings are quite happy in their new home. Nice even light for all.

Am I correct in thinking the light green in the center is last night's growth? If so... awesome.

Let me know if you can spot any areas of concern! I welcome plenty of constructive criticism. Thanks for checkin out my grow.

 

[Sklander]

Grow looks like it is coming along strong. Subscribing! Keep up the good work!

PS Love the Calculus book in the pic near the top of this page. Beautiful!

 

[Nathindica]

Good to see you ' round these parts sklander. And thanks for the kind words!

And I knew that calculus textbook would come in handy ONE of these days. Just so happened to be the day my plant was 2 inches too far from the light, and not the day I was training to be an astronaut. haha.

Cross your fingers hard. Let's pray for a female in the waterfarm.

 

[SouthernSmoker]

very nice looking little girls . Nathindica
how close to the light are you keeping them ?

 

[Weedninja]

Lookin' pretty good so far. I don't know what the heptahydrate means, but I'm a little concerned that your Epsom salts aren't listed for laxative use. Not that I'm suggesting you need any help moving the mail, but that would mean food-grade and food-grade is usually safer for plants.

If the Iss's leaves keep undulating like that, a runoff pH test might be a good idea.

An interesting useless fact is that C99 was from a "seedless" Jack Herer female which was crossed with Shiva Skunk and triple bx'ed to the Jack.