Jojonetics - Trainwreck S1 & BlowFish S1

[neongreen]

Hi all

I've been doing a bit more work in the garden, making the holes into two continuous trenches.

The idea is to transplant the plant at an angle, and then bury parts of the stem, that will generate their own root systems, a bit like this

With multiple root systems the plants should produce some nice big buds I hope

Silverback has a great thread here with more info http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=81797

I snapped a couple of pics of my plot while I was working on it today.

This is the already finished 6 x 2 x 3.5 trench.

All it need is a headstone now lol

I'm still digging the un-dug areas between the 3 remaining holes, which will become an 8.5 x 2-3 x 2.5-3.5 trench eventually. It's not straight or very even, but that won't matter.

In the above pics you can see the bottom (almost) of the trench, where the clay is. Just above the diamond shaped sticker on the spade handle is where the surface of the ground is, although you cant see it because of the dirt piled up there.

Closeup of the topsoil that came out of the hole

I just got some wormcasts...


and I noticed there are quite a few live worms there...




Not wanting to waste them, I've transfered as many as I could to a small foil tray with some kitchen scraps in it. I'm going to try and start my own colony... I don't suppose anyone could give me some tips? :wink:

Hope to get some pics of the plants tomorrow!!!

 

[neongreen]

Mug shots, and I remembered the lineup this time

Mug shots, and I remembered the lineup this time

I've got the nitrogen under control, but it looks like they want some magnesium now! I did have some epsom salts somewhere, but I can't find them, so I have to get some quickly!

Group shot

Blowfish

Trainwreck #1

Trainwreck #2

Taskenti

The Taskenti lost it's lower sets of leaves since I could not feed it as quickly as the others, but eventually the soil dried out enough so that I could feed it!

Not a great start. I should have been prepared for the compost being a bit on the weak side (seems to be normal here) and added some more amendments. When I pot up I'll include more nutes in the mix. :wink:

 

[JamieShoes]

it's all fun and games eh mate... I still think they look good even the "Task" ...all the new growth looks nice n healthy eh? :smile:

I was fortunate enough to smoke some trainwreck over the weekend too mate. Good luck with that one, I hope you get a ncie yield out of it as the smoke was sensational :wink:


happy growing
j :smile:

 

[SemperAltus]

nice. im tuned in for this def. got blowfish on my list of genes i wanna try... good show so far. love me a good outdoor

 

[wietzaadje]

Nice genetics, very nice pictures.
But I can't help to think if I look at all your pictures twice,
You're keeping them a little to wet, and maybe that's causing the mag def symptoms.
In case I'm right it would be a bad idea to give epsom salts.
But I also could be totally wrong
Good luck with your grow

 

[neongreen]

Hey all,

Jamie - Yeah, now that they are getting fed, they seem allot happier. The Task has me fascinated too. I'm curious to see it's structure once mature. It seems an odd "format" even now, and the first time I've had a plant like it.

Cool that you got to try the Trainwreck. I've never smoked any, so looking forward to trying it!

SemperAltus - Thanks, and welcome aboard. The Blowfish is well worth hunting down. Hope you manage to get your hands on some!

wietzaadje - Thanks. It's a tricky one. I'm trying to be careful not to over water, and I'm fairly sure the Task is the only one that got over watered. Funnily enough, it's the only one not showing signs of a mag. deficiency

I'll go easy on the salts, just in case I am mistaken.

Dialing in this grow has been harder than I thought! It'll be a relief once they are outdoors, and hopefully looking after themselves.

 

[neongreen]

So I've mixed up a new batch of soil mix for the next stage of potting up. How does this sound?

6 parts soil based compost
2 parts perlite
2 parts wormcastings
1.5 parts composted farm manure
2 tbsp. bat guano
1 tbsp. hoof and horn
1 tbsp. bone
1 tbsp. garden lime

1 part = 1 litre

 

[neongreen]

Quick update

Quick update

Last night I gave the Taskenti it's normal dose of EJ grow PLUS a little epsom salts. 24 hours later, and the difference is amazing.

The Blowfish almost doubled in size in 48 hours after it got a dose of blood meal

It should be interesting to see the reaction when it gets some epsom salts

The Trainwrecks got some epsom salts today, so hopefully they should look a bit more perky over the next day or two

 

[JamieShoes]

WOW! amazing differences mate... Task's looking crazier than ever :smile:

 

[neongreen]

Yeah that Task is nuts. I love crazy genetics :wink:

If it's the pheno I think it is, it could be trouble though, since it needs about 70 days with a dry finish, which isn't likely here, but you never know :wink:

I saved this pic of someone else's, which shows the usbek pheno


Of course, mine will probably look completely different by the time I'm through with it, and it could be a male,

Should be able to tell in the next day or two what sex it is

I'm just relieved that the Task is looking happy again, and they are all starting to take off!

On another note, I've knocked up my own "bubble-brewer" for brewing up compost teas. Traditional buckets and bins are so wide, that for any given volume of water, bubbles spend less time in contact with the water, which means less aeration compared to tall/narrow containers where the air bubbles have to travel upwards for a long time. In theory, you should be able to get the same level of aeration using a long thin container with a less powerful air pump as you do with short fat container and a powerful air pump.

So I got a 2.5' section of 4" PVC pipe, and I attached to an MDF base using silicone sealant, having gouged out a ring of MDF to fit the pipe snuggly. It should hold about 6 liters (filled to the brim) by my calculation, but I doubt I'll need to brew more than 4 or 5 liters. Or am I being over optimistic?

Perhaps I need to make a mark-II that's a couple of feet longer - which means YET ANOTHER trip to the aquatics store to buy more air-hose pipe

I should just pick up a 50m spool next time lol

It's still drying, but I'll try and get some pics in the next day or two.

 

[barletta]

Yo ng, everything looks good in here

Your soil mix looks pretty good. I'm thinkin out loud here...
12 liters = 3 gallons
per 3 gallons of soil you are adding ~1 TBSP of everything.
I would make sure that you don't need more perlite (some soils/compost is much heavier than others right outta the bag). I would also recommend doubling (at least) the lime in your mix. People who measure seem to have success from 1-2 tablespoons per gallon of finished mix. You could use a LIL less, due to the compost AND castings, but you prolly need more than 1 teaspoon (1/3 of a tbsp) per gallon of mix. I use ~a 6oz (12 tbs) cup of Ag lime (has no Mg, but is literally DIRT cheap, lol.) per ~12-15 gallons of soil. (50-60 liters)

If you can, mix/water everything in, and let it 'cook' for a week or 2. You will feel the soil mix start to heat up - that's the micro life processing the raw nutes into usable forms. If you can't cook the soil, I would recommend that you lean more towards topdressing the nutes (not the castings/compost/lime, that can be mixed in every time, reguardless of 'cooking'), rather than mixing em in. If they get too hot (from mixing em in), it's REAL tough to correct it w/o stressing the hell outta the plant. If you topdress too much, you can just sort of 'scrape' most of it off, and replace with castings and soil. I recently cooked a plant in transplant, and it stunted and burned and locked out all kinds of nutes. All I could do was put it in bright light and wait for it to process everything I gave it. ~2 weeks later, it is JUST starting to grow normally, and is less than 1/2 the size of the un-ferted (cooked) sisters. If I didn't have the sun to 'use' the nutes, I would have had to 'de-dirt' the roots in some warm water, then re-plant,. and that is stressful as SHIT on a plant.

Looks great so far with the exception of the Mg def. But if you don't see the occasional mag/cal def, you aren't growing enough plants!!!

 

[neongreen]

Hey barletta thanks for stopping by.

Yeah, I was leaving it to cook off for a while. Thanks to you for reminding me to add some water lol. The soil based compost is quite light and sandy, so don't think I need any more perlite in the mix.

The only other thing I was thinking of adding was some seaweed meal (would be about 5-4-5) or comfrey (something like 5-6-20), or both. I'm still waiting for those to arrive though.

Just trying to follow what Burn1 says - "The ratios of the numbers should be 3-1-2 for veg", and I think I might need a little more P in my mix, although trying to work out what NPK I have has been a PITA. Many of the products I'm using don't list the NPK, and even if they did, I'm not sure how to calculate combined NPK! I'm much happier just guesstimating and throwing in one or two spoons full

The water here is quite hard, so I thought it was best to go easy on the lime. So another couple of tablespoons full (or just a tad less) then.

Thanks again for all the tips and advice mate. My plants thank you too, since they'd be sitting in uncooked/partially cooked mix in a bout a week from now without you pointing that out :smile:

I'm still waiting for my tea-bubbler to dry, so no pics yet, but I've stuck some air hoses attached to a pump down into the pipe to speed things up a bit. Should get some shots tomorrow hopefully :wink:

 

[neongreen]

Another quick update

Another quick update

I've been quite busy the last few days with the bubbler project which I'm proud to say, is now complete and brewing its first batch of tea at this very minute

Thread with details/more pics here: http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=119877

In the grow-room the plants seem to be making a quick recovery

I think I'll have to transplant soon. They're all begging for it. Well the ones still in cups anyway

 

[SemperAltus]

nice. always look forward to getting email updates! that bubbler looks nice cant wait to see the tea you got coming.

 

[neongreen]

Hey SemperAltus

The first batch of tea was a bit of a mixed bag if you'll excuse the pun. It made a nice froth, so I definitely got some action going on, as early as 18-20 hours into the brew. I let it go till 48+ hours though, which is a bit long, so I didn't use it on my plants.

The above pic was taken around 48 hours, but the head had shrunk a bit by then. What you see there is actually a ring of froth about 6 inches above the surface of the tea.

When I came to end the brew I had problems getting my "cage" which holds the compost out, but a bit of sanding to remove the widest part of the cage that was getting stuck fixed that.

I just ran my second brew for 24 hours, using mainly castings plus a little guano, and I watered my plants with that a short while ago. They all seemed to like it!

I got some more goodies for my plants, but not sure how best to incorporate them into my potting mix, which has been "cooking" (hardly warm at all) for the last 6 days or so. I moved it indoors to see if that helps get it going.

I also threw some well broken down wood compost from an old tree stump that has been rotting for a good few years now in there, and a couple of small buckets full of slightly less well broken (ranging from "crumbles in your hand" to "can fairly easily snap between your fingers") down chips from that stump went into my trenches top soil.

Also got some of this stuff, which I intend to use once the plants go outside.

The bacteria get taken up by the plant, and help it to take up nutrients. Kind of expensive, but I think it should be worth it.

 

[JamieShoes]

as a coco kinda guy, I havent the first idea whats going on here

sounds like you do though :wink:


great stuff!

 

[neongreen]

Haha Jamie

I'm getting there. Still learning about how to effectively apply organics to my grow, but I studied biology up to degree level, so I have a fairly good grasp on the micro-biology/plant-biology side of things

This should be right up your street I think...

In one word, "organics"!

The ethos is very simple, and the benefits are huge.

The idea is that you let the micro organisms do most of the hard work for you. Once you have a good "micro-heard" going, they will feed your plants and look after them, protecting them from disease and drought (up to a point obviously) providing you feed them (the micro-heard that is). In organics, you feed the micro-herd rather than the plants.

Less is more with organics. Because the micro-herd feed your plants, supplying nutrients to them in forms that they can easily absorb, plants don't have to do as much work (they can expend allot of energy) taking up nutrients themselves, so they can re-direct that energy towards producing more stem/leaf/flower/trich/etc :wink:

The benefits are that, as well as more growth, disease resistance, etc, you can't over-fert, since in organics you only use very weak doses of nutes. The real benefit comes from the bacteria, which "chilate" minerals/organic matter, making previously unavailable nutrients available to the plants.

You don't have to worry about PH much any more either, since the soil (or more precisely the "humates" within it that are due to the presence of fungi/bacteria) keep it in balance.

It also means you can ditch all those "hydro-shop" nutes, and start using your own ingredients in teas, that are brewed to be bacteria laden, and tailored to suit your plants needs. You have much more control, and knowing what goes into your nutes is not a bad thing. It's also more fun. Trust me!

It does mean learning what makes a good soil, acquiring the necessary ingredients, and the bubbler/air-pump, plus molasses (you need the right kind), and things like wormcasts/guano/kelp for ingredients. You should be able to find all the ingredients you need on the interweb.

These threads (and the other stickies over on the organics forum), should fill in all the blanks. If not, just ask :wink:

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=53792
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=101637
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=110620
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=105592

 

[JamieShoes]

I'll check them out thanks :smile:

 

[cfunk]

Looking good neon!

Could I ask what camera you are using?

+k to u

 

[Mister Postman]

Hi all

I've been doing a bit more work in the garden, making the holes into two continuous trenches.

The idea is to transplant the plant at an angle, and then bury parts of the stem, that will generate their own root systems, a bit like this


With multiple root systems the plants should produce some nice big buds I hope

Looking forward to see how this tech. works out for you neon.. I know it's something that's commonly done with other plants/shrubs, as a way of rooting/cloning many plants from 1. Strawberries naturally do this, as well as Forsythia. Though I've never seen a budding mj plant that's been grown in that fashion utilizing the multiple root systems. It's something that I've thought about trying in the past, but never got around to actually doing. Good luck with this..... You got my interest.