She Ionizes and Atomizes

[qomop]

Well, hello...

Just started with what there is available. Let's see...

White Widow bagseeds, 2 ft2 - 5 ft long wooden cabinet, currently 2x 50W fluorescent bulbs, temperature is around 28-29 C

Seedling medium is 45% peat & coco, 30% worm compost, 20% perlite, 5% vermiculite, 4 ml/l dolomite lime (watered with "15 ml/l worm compost + 2 ml/l molasses + 1 ml/l leonardite + 1 ml/l epsom salt" tea and rested for two weeks) - only organic stuff...

The seeds were sowed on March 1, 2011 (six days ago) and are under 18 hours of light a day.

I'm planning to make some major changes in the garden as the plants grow. I'll be updating...

I'd appreciate some comments and suggestions.

 

[qomop]

Hello World!

Hello World!

Here they're about a day old after sprout:

 

[SirTOKESalot]

WElcome to ICMAG.... But Thats it?

-What style are you growing?
-How much watts running with the CFL?
-How old are the plants?
-Pictures?

Kind of a lame start to a grow log? Sounds like a nice mix you got going for the medium tho.

 

[qomop]

Day 3: Need a Better Light Source Already

Day 3: Need a Better Light Source Already

SirTOKESalot; sorry for the sloppy intro man, it was lame for sure.

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Well you know, "fluorescent lightbulbs make an absence of dark but the light just ain't there still" they say. True...

I'm planning to have a LED grow light soon. By the way, i guess my grow area is not enough for more than two three plants at a time, if that... Probably not suitable for a "screen" grow either.

I'm a bit confused but still happy to give it a start.

 

[KrazyieFosho]

hey bud your pics are not showing i think you have to set your album public

 

[qomop]

KrazyieFosho, thanks man

 

[qomop]

Day 46

Day 46

Well i was and am a bit busy or rather lazy to post for a while now... So sorry, i got periodic pictures of the process though, i'll post them later.

It may be kind of lame (greeting SirTOKESalot) to ask a question with almost no information but i have an emergency: plants need Potassium (if not Calcium .

Is there a fast acting organic solution? Wood ash? How to handle the wood ash pH issues?

Any idea?

Well, i'm sorry you know, i sould have at least posted some pictures to show you the thing but the server won't let me..

Anyway, thanks.

 

[qomop]

Alright, here they are... According to "The Complete guide to Sick Plants,pH, and Pest troubles!" these seem to be signs of either Ca or K deficiency. Well ok, one of them always looked like a mutant but recently she went crazy. She shoots half "eaten" leaves and branches, three fan leaves at a time and so on... A complete metamorphosis type of thing.

And then again, according to the complete guide to whatsoever, "having too little of Potassium in your plants causes the plants leaves to show retarded growth and show a scorched tip and edges around the leaves."

But these simply look like a Calcium deficiency, and my future bride is a hell of a mutant, no?

And please don't tell me that it is actually an obvious nutrient burn! Damn me, i don't know anything about less and barely know the least about enough...

 

[Supernatural]

I see you like your Modest Mouse (their best album for smoking to)

 

[ladydog]

haha i had to post about modest mouse right when i saw this. their older stuff is the best music ever.

 

[qomop]

Dear Supernatural and ladydog,

I well appreciate your attention. Yes, Modest Mouse is and especially was as the name suggests.

But still, what about the poor plants? They sure need a bit more attention. A bit more than i do i guess.

Thanks anyway.

 

[Supernatural]

Sorry, can't help tell you exactly what is wrong or how to solve it. If it were me I would give them a rest from your feed (still using your organic tea?) for a while. I'm of the opinion that most bizarre behaviour is probably down to something we are doing wrong. They don't look like they will starve if you just give them a good soak with plain water next time they are dry and monitor them.

If you are new to this I would be a bit wary of messing with leonardite and epsom salts as there is a big potential to screw things up if you get your pH all over the place. pH is a bit of a fundamental that can give rise to various defficiencies if way off.

 

[qomop]

Day 8

Day 8

Supernatural,

I think i carefully measured the pH of the water and tea i prepared and let the soil rest and stabilize the pH during a couple of pH measured waterings. Well i know that i tend to overdo things, i burnt many plants with both light and food, so this time i used almost five times less nutrients than suggested by the "less is more type of growers." So maybe it's actually a deficiency of some sort. And maybe this time, a problem occurred and i, with a bright tactical move, eliminated the obstacle, my first! Well anyway, i transplanted them into larger containers containing a bit stronger mixture, they seem to be doing alright for a while now.

See you around...


Ok here starts the story...

Well since fluorescent light was equal empty, and since i couldn't have a LED system nor have room for HIDs, i bought a cheap ass incandescent bulb claiming to have everything a plant needs Well it was strong enough for the babies alright but definitely too hot for my garden, not to mention the ugly color it paints the garden...

I went on with a single 100W incandescent bulb for a while. At this time the temperature was never less than 30 C. There was a practically useless tiny computer fan blowing above the plants just for a bit of sociality. Here are the eight days old leaflings arms raised in a V.

 

[qomop]

Day 22

Day 22

Up to 22nd day they were suffering under a 100W incandescent light bulb. I figured that this ugly bulb generates more heat than a low wattage HID. So i borrowed the 150W compact HID (4500 K) which was shining a bit too bright in a friend's garage.

At this point i also transplanted them from peat pots into 2 liter pots with the same mixture (ok i added a bit more worm compost from a Nitrogen-rich bin, and just a couple more Magnesium sulphate molecules i guess).

Here they're just after they were transplanted and illuminated with some blue light...

 

[qomop]

Day 31

Day 31

They were looking good after nine days of proper light. The temperature was 26-27 C, the same tiny fan gently blew above them while they enjoyed a light wormcast & molasses tea.

Here they are a month old... Except one, all look like females, no?

 

[Supernatural]

So maybe it's actually a deficiency of some sort. And maybe this time, a problem occurred and i, with a bright tactical move, eliminated the obstacle, my first! Well anyway, i transplanted them into larger containers containing a bit stronger mixture, they seem to be doing alright for a while now

Personally I wouldn't give them any feed for a bit. Your compost should provide all they need until probably part way through flowering if you are keeping them small. How tall is the cabinet?

Well since fluorescent light was equal empty, and since i couldn't have a LED system nor have room for HIDs, i bought a cheap ass incandescent bulb claiming to have everything a plant needs

I was always under the impression that incandescents are worse than useless for growing. 100W worth of cfls would give at least 6000 lumens of low heat light that can almost touch your plants.

I am a bit confused though . . is time not linear where you live?

 

[qomop]

You're so right. I will feed them only with oxygenated water for a while.

Well, i'm posting the older pictures for a summary of the whole thing. I answered you in real time though. Still, the time is unfortunately linear here too..

As for the incandescent, this one was supposed to be a special type of incandescent which is too strong and died with some sort of color corrector... The lumen output was above 4000 at 40-50 cm but the thing is that it was so hot that it should be no less than a meter away from the plants. But yea, you're right, incandescent light is the worst of all... But at where i live, grow specific fluorescent light is not available (in fact other than natural sources and bad ass chemicals nothing grow specific is available) and common fluorescent is just too weak and almost as hot as an incandescent.

By the way the cabinet is about 1.5 m tall, but i'll have a grow tent and a proper 400W HPS in two weeks, hopefully.

 

[qomop]

Day 36

Day 36

No major problem. New shoots from the nodes. The Beast (one in the middle) and the Beauty (first one) are the most vigorous of all..

 

[qomop]

Day 46

Day 46

Well at this point the Beauty couldn't hide its pistils anymore and gendered under 18 hours of light but leaf tips started to die (pictures 1-2). The Beast also started to act strange (pictures 4-5-6). And one of the seedlings suddenly died, God's present..

I transplanted them into 5 liter containers. Here they're just after the transplant. With this post the summary ends and the next post will be as of today...

 

[qomop]

Day 52

Day 52

Well well well... Four plants out of five healthy seedlings survived almost half of of the way. One of them actually have pre-flolowers. They started to smell you know. They are about 30 centimeters long. Alternative branching started. They seem to be doing well.

I'd take a few cuttings and let them flower by now but the cabinet is half open and is in my room, and my room's lighting schedule is not suitable for flowering, hence i'm also still at the vegetative stage. A light proof grow tent is on its way here. I'll let them flower in the new garden under a 400W HPS...

The Beast turned back to normal with a few fingers missing (p2-3), she's growing more roots than any other plant i know. And some other earthlings from the worm bin (p5-6)...