Lee's stinky house of mirrors. Organic soil room from the beginning.

[lee van keef]

I'm starting this thread to add content to the site. I enjoy looking at the pictures posted here so I figure I should try to give back.

However, this thread's primary purpose is to solicit custom advice from the huge pool of knowledge that is this site's membership.

So please feel free to school me if you see a chance.

-Lee



Edit: Guess I should add: Death star, chocolate chunk, mosca tsi fly pheno hunt, rez chem ibl pheno hunt, pre 98 bubba kush, (lemon g x durga mata) x pre 98 bubba, grape ape. More to come.

 

[lee van keef]

Ceiling framed out.



Getting the osb put on.



Finished and hoisted into place.



Shit, should have taped those seems, gonna run sealed in the warm season. Back down.



That's better. Now, framed out and painted.

 

[lee van keef]

Walls getting put up. May or may not have spilled beer on the camera.



Walled up. Mylar is cheap. It's also tough to get it smooth when you don't have any help.



Ventilation.



Can't hear it upstairs.



Lights.

 

[lee van keef]

Water getting hooked up. I've since run the RO through a float valve on the main reservoir. No floods yet.

 

[lee van keef]

I know hps lighted photos kinda suck to look at, but here they are.

Edit: Non hps photos a couple posts down.

Chocolate chunk around 6 weeks.





Chocolate chunk at 50 days.



Death star at 50 days. Grape ape in foreground.



Pre 98 bubba, (lemon g x durga mata) x bubba in foreground, grape ape nestled in middle. Had to slot in the cuts I had vegging, all gifted to me by a super kind friend. He made the lemon bubba cross, really complex aroma.

 

[lee van keef]

Last of the hps photos.

Pulled 4 fems out of the pack of mosca tsi fly. One was always funny looking through veg, kinda grew out of it in flower. She throws out some of the tiniest calyxes I've seen. 32 days.



The more vigorous of the tsi flys and probably my keeper. She smells like some kind of candy from my childhood that I feel like I should remember but can't. 32 days.



Pre 98 bubba cola. 50 days.

 

[BrownThumb]

With a name like Lee Van Keef, I doubt anyone is going ta school ya....that and the pictures. I wonder how many here remember Mr Van Cleef? He was one cool, dude!

 

[lee van keef]

With a name like Lee Van Keef, I doubt anyone is going ta school ya....that and the pictures. I wonder how many here remember Mr Van Cleef? He was one cool, dude!

There are world class growers here. I'm just some guy in a basement. I'll get into my problems here soon.

There was a mr van cleef, eh? When I was coming up with my username I searched it on google and was surprised it hadn't been used anywhere. I'm a big fan of lee van cleef.

thanks for stopping by

 

[lee van keef]

So it turns out that it is really, really hard to properly light a cannabis plant for photos. Here was my first attempt.



Some time later...



More time later...



Decided I needed to do some research after this. That and a new camera.

Top down view of the plant, which is (lemon g x durga mata) x pre 98 bubba day 50. Smells like bubba, lemon, and something spicy like sandalwood maybe. Been a while since I smoked it, can't wait.



Attempted macro of a cola with my point and shoot. A new camera is high on my priorities, so I promise the thread should get better.

 

[lee van keef]

I'm sure some of you have noticed that I have what looks to be phosphorus issue. It crops up around day 40 or so in everything. I have some ideas on what could be going on. I'll get into that and my mix etc. tomorrow. Hope some people can help. Lemon bubba leaf day 50, getting the P sucked out of it.



Grape ape day 50



Grape ape day 50 macro attempts

 

[lee van keef]

Chocolate chunk day 50. Stinks, but not like chocolate.









So I somehow got a macro in focus. Pretty sure it's because it's a lower bud and I can steady the camera better with my elbow on my knee.

 

[organic_fanatic]

Lookin good Lee, nice professional looking setup.

That last macro shot came out looking nice, tripod always helps.

Good luck getting your lighting down on the full plant shots....I'm still working on that.

 

[lee van keef]

...Speaking of world class. What up fanatic.

Been checking your thread. You definitely got the photography pretty much down. I did some research and I think the diffuse/indirect lighting is the key. Like those white umbrella looking things with the spotlights shining into them you see in portrait studios.

I think I'll hold off on too much more photography until I get a better camera.

thanks for stopping by

 

[ThaMagnificent]

Damn those plants are a beauty to look at!

What kind of soil did you mix up?

 

[lee van keef]

Hey magnificent. Thanks.

My base super soil mix is nearly identical to the Rev's TLO 2.1 recipe. I do a few minor tweaks but it's essentially the same.

That makes up 50% of my flower mix and then recycled soil, perlite, napa 8822, coco and some dry amendments added to layers.

I am having some phosphorus issues so I don't want to go into detail until I nail down what the problem is. Going to post about that in a second.

 

[lee van keef]

So I had a moment of clarity last night while I was in my veg room. Think I might have solved the mysterious case of the missing phosphorus. Nearly all of my veg plants were exhibiting some varied leaf necrosis and just not looking like they were happy. A few days ago they were just fine. Then I looked at the four males I have in there. They were happy as hell. I tried to think what could be the difference.

Then I realized I had given everything but the males a weak veg tea a few days ago. The fems are in square pots side to side and in small pots in trays, so I just used a watering wand to give them a shower with the weak tea mix. But not the males.

Over the past couple months I have noticed some strange smells and sliminess in some of the teas I have been brewing. I only give them a couple real teas in flower starting around week three, so I very stupidly and naively just blew it off and chalked it up to brewing larger batches than what I'm used to. Some of them had a bit of a sweet smell that I should have been way more concerned about.

So I went and checked my air pump and realized that it was not operating like it should be. It was pushing way less air than normal. Then I thought back and realized that it had been so gradually crapping out on me that I just didn't notice. Shit was busted.

My theory now is that I have been under-aerating my teas for the past couple months and letting them go anaerobic or more likely alcoholic. So basically I was killing off my fungus with the bad teas and disrupting the phosphate uptake of the plants.

This would make sense with the problems cropping up around week 4 when I had started giving them real flowering teas the week before. Everything is perfectly happy up until that point.

Last night I took out the unused 60 watt air pump that I had let sit in its box while I used the piece of shit 4 watt pumps because they are quieter. I also had read a few places that it is possible to over-agitate or over-aerate a tea, which I let contribute to my reasoning that the 4 watt pump was enough. Maybe it was for the smaller teas I used to brew but not what I do now. I also replaced my old slimy air stones that were probably harboring more yeast than good bacteria. In addition I made an air diffuser from some tubing that really seems to be kicking ass on the tea I have going now. Nice and earthy smell.

This is all a theory. The five plants I have in there at about week two will be the test as they will be the only ones to receive only the new improved teas.

I will post some pics tomorrow of a death star or bubba that seem to really be showing the phosphorus issues more than the others.

Anybody that made it through all that text think that sounds plausible?

 

[organic_fanatic]

Sounds like you could be onto something...

I used to have the same issues as you with the phosphorus deficiency, as well as others, starting in mid-flower. My issues were being caused by too MUCH available phosphorus, which would piss of the microlife and lock out all sorts of stuff. A flush would usually fix the problem for me.

Do you top dress them at all or add anything high in p or k during flower (bulb food, guano, etc)?

It could really just be your air pump though....

There are some good threads here detailing how to build some nice tea brewers.

Are you using spikes or dry amendment layers?

 

[BrownThumb]

Interesting, I have had the same issue in flowering my soil based units, but had not considered it could be too much P. Just wrapping up my first run of hempy and this is not an issue there at all using GH Flora series.

Nice looking plants on the last page, BTW, real nice, Mr. Humble.

 

[lee van keef]

Sounds like you could be onto something...

I used to have the same issues as you with the phosphorus deficiency, as well as others, starting in mid-flower. My issues were being caused by too MUCH available phosphorus, which would piss of the microlife and lock out all sorts of stuff. A flush would usually fix the problem for me.

Do you top dress them at all or add anything high in p or k during flower (bulb food, guano, etc)?

It could really just be your air pump though....

There are some good threads here detailing how to build some nice tea brewers.

Are you using spikes or dry amendment layers?

I add 2tbs of high nitrogen top dressing under the mulch at about 25 days for most everything. The bubbas and lemon bubbas didn't get any as they are smaller and they show the P issue as well, so I don't think that is a factor.

I don't add anything high P or K other than the Rev's flower tea which they get twice starting early mid flower. Even then I reduce the guanos in the teas ~30% from the recipe.

I'm experimenting with adding dry amendments in different amounts to the layers, so there is some variation. I add 1 or 2 tbs of high n dressing on the floor of the 10 gal smartpot and 1 or 2 tbs under the mulch when I construct the pots.

I'm also experimenting with the spikes too now that I have the space. They get 1 or 2 TLO N spikes and 1 or 2 TLO P spikes. They are not so aggressive, I use a control wizard soil probe to make the holes so they aren't very wide. I'd estimate ~2 tbs per spike.

I've got 4 plants in there at week 4 with no spikes at all and varying spikes that all show the same relative P issue.

The variance in spikes and layers seems to have no effect on the P issue.

I'll have to check those tea brewer threads. I've had a design in my head the past few days similar to the large commercial tea brewers you see but I can't think what exactly I'd use to build it.

I might try a flush on a few in there to see if that makes any difference.

thanks man, time will tell

Interesting, I have had the same issue in flowering my soil based units, but had not considered it could be too much P. Just wrapping up my first run of hempy and this is not an issue there at all using GH Flora series.

Nice looking plants on the last page, BTW, real nice, Mr. Humble.

Thanks brownthumb.

I'm humble because I am pretty much parroting techniques developed by other people. I got turned on to organic soil by a guy willing to answer all the questions I hounded him with and I also take a lot of inspiration from TLO.


Once I truly understand the way all the components in the soil interact with each other and the plant, and am able to confidently alter and tailor things specifically to do what I want for specific plants...then maybe I'll swing my dick around a little bit.

 

[lee van keef]

Warning: HPS lighted photos, but I want to keep the thread alive.

I de-leafed the five chocolate chunks I had under a light in there. Very sticky job. I let these plants get way too sloppy in veg and I will be paying for it now that it's harvest time. I finally got a hint of chocolate smell during the process. I've smoked it before and the cured product doesn't really have it. So I guess the name kinda sorta makes sense. (never bothered to look up the lineage) Gonna let them stress for a couple days and then string 'em up.

She is pretty chunky though.



I also noticed something strange on one of the tsi flys I have in there. A leaf decided to grow in upside down. The petiole doesn't look twisted or anything. It's just doing's its own thing for some reason. Anybody seen this before?


I think was right about the tea issue. Veg plants are back to glossy and happy. The flowering plants that weren't exposed to any of the bad teas aren't looking like they'll show any of the issues the others had. The tsi flys were affected pretty severely. Burnt tips and you can see some necrotic spots on the leaf in the photo above.

Oh well. I feel like a dumbass for letting it happen but at least I seem to have figured it out, so I'm happy.