First grow in 10 years.

[Elements001]

Ah, so many things have happened in a short couple days. I sadly have found the she's hermied out, and more than just one or two little nanners. (I think I did say this came from what I believed to be a seed that was from a plant that hermed out alittle and self pollinated itself. Was expecting this, but was really hoping it would happen later, and at a slightly less extent.)
I've pulled off about 15 so far, and decided to go ahead and chop most of the lower growth where it was all happening. Hopefully that will hold it back some and help the colas up top devolp further. Not a big fan of popcorn buds anyway.

Any ideas for all the pop corn buds I cut off? Threw them in a bag. Probably just gonna go in the trash unless i can think of something.

She's looking really nice up top. I havnt seen any pre-seeding so far thankfully. A couple sacs did open up and drop onto lower leaves, but the fan doesnt really blow on the plant, and that's about 2.5 feet above where the sac dropped.

Nothing hermed out up top. Just a bunch of rogue bastards on the lower nodes, and a few commando fuckers hiding inside of female flowers at the very bottom.

Got my TDS meter today, that was definitely a plus with the sadness of the Banner Nanners....

OK, so..
Tap water pH 8.1 ppm 115
Distilled pH 7.0 ppm 0

Nutrient Mix: ppm
Distilled Water 0
+ 5mL CalMag 181
+ *5mL(not 2mL) FN Bloom 856
+ 2mL KoolBloom 894
+ 1mL Floralicious+ 902
+.75mL pH Down 918

So, Roughly an EC of 1.8 and a pH of 5.9 is what I have been feeding at, higher than what I previously thought. Think I will take the FN Bloom down to 4mL.
I fed her tonight with those exact mesaurements, and the run off was a bit surprising. The pH was good at 6.1, but the ppm was pretty high. My pen was reading 1440 ppm, or 2.8 EC.
(I have a HM meter, which Im about 90% sure is the .5 NaCl measurement or whatever. Should just be 2x the ppm for EC)
Not sure if this is salt buildup in the coco since I have been feeding her every watering, or what really. Must be that actually I guess, can't imagine what else.
Should I feed with more run off, or maybe give her some water and just calmag, or possibly FloraKleen? I bought some of that for use in the final flush. Wasnt sure if I would have to flush at all through flower, or if I'd be good giving her feed everytime.
I usualy have about 10-15% run off, but this time I only had about maybe 5%. Just enough to get solid test numbers.

Oh yeah, and with that tap water at 115 I'd proably be just fine using that without calmag. Guess I'll be saving money here very soon. Right? I mean that tap ppm of 115 isnt too bad or...?

 

[Tonygreen]

Heh Ive seen some early nanners like that in casey jones on the bottoms. Regardless looking good youll get some sins, she dont look like shes gonna go full blown on ya heh. Id say after this youll have your feet on the ground spend some loot and get some prven genetics.

 

[Tonygreen]

Id be more aggressive lollipoppin that bottom too.

 

[Elements001]

The clones are doing really well right now too. The only thing is I dont really know what I should do with them now. Not sure it'd be a wise idea to mom one out. Pretty sure this trait is gonna come out, even now that I have everything under much more control now.

I'm thinking I'll probably just turn them here really soon and get what I can out of them. Looking around for some good seeds, want to get a mom started and not have to worry about this herming out issue in this Banner.

 

[Elements001]

So I shouldnt worry about taking off to much at one time? Was thinking it might stress her more and make her pop them up top. Didnt know if it'd be a good idea to leave a couple tiny ones down below so if the stress did force it out it would possible come out on those ones.
You can tell Im stoned as shit right now from that probably, but thought, maybe, possibly...
I dunno, Guess I'll go get the rest of the little scrap thats not going to so me any good. Proabably gonna cut off twice as much.

brb in 20 minutes.

**and when it comes to clearing out the bottom, should I leave the large fan leaves attached to still ative colas( at the bottom, the ones you can see in the picture), or just chop them to clean it up. Figured they werent hurting, but not sure if they're helping or worht keeeping around for the final flush


p.s. Thanks TonyGreen, really apprecaite the really quick feedback. Want to get this dealt with as much as possible asap.

 

[Elements001]

Good call. found a few more nanner hiding in there. Cut off about same about as before, so 2x as much now. Think its a good start, not sure how much more is necessary.

 

[Tonygreen]

Looks way better, them fans on the bottom are useless pretty much. Id just scrap them clones personally unless its gonna take you awhile to get some solid genetics, otherwise smoke whatcha got! Worst case scenario with hr you get some beans but it wont all be seeded, doubt shell hermie that bad.

 

[Tonygreen]

I use tap water mine is similar to yours never have cal mag issues unless you got a hog heh.

 

[Elements001]

Right on, think I'll start using the tap. Once I get some good genetics I'll have a nice litte grow going for me.

 

[papaduc]

You ok mate

it's all happening in here innit...

First of all, find the conversion factor of your pen. I've read on the HM website that most of their pens use 0.5, like you say. They also say some of their pens allow you to choose which factor you use. Make sure you're on the right one.

I hope you can now finally drop the calmag. Your tap water is good and you should never need to use calmag again. I've said this before so you know what I think about it anyway. From now on, straight water from the tap and nutes into that. Keep it under the bed for a rainy, calcium-deficient day.

Like TG says, strip everything on the bottom which looks airy. Get rid of it and be ruthless. No need for it.

With regards the banana outbreak and whether you should keep the genetics... well...

First of all, I wonder whether strains which throw out male flowers on the very bottom nodes, will throw them out again when cloned and grown out a second time. I'm not talking about a full on herm, just the very bottom flowers.

Whether they do or not, isn't an experiment for a plant which will take up a lot of your garden. It's something for a 3L pot and a straight up single cola, so it's easy to check. Even then, you would probably only do it if you either wanted to experiment for the sake of knowledge, or that banner is a cracking smoke and made finding out worthwhile. Otherwise, scrap it and go again.

That bring me onto genetics and the search for a keeper.

In a tent like yours - a square meter or so of manageable space - I'd personally not train an unknown plant into a large flat canopy like you have. Instead, grow out a larger number of plants in smaller pots and do them single cola style. You'll get to choose from a larger selection of females first and foremost, but, just as importantly, with single cola plants it's so much easier to give them all that once-over to check for male flowers. If any appear on the lowest bud-sites, they're easy to remove. Any go full blown herm on you, you can scrap them and still have enough females to make a selection from. Any suspicious ones, or any which have shown male flowers, can be rotated to the front to keep a closer eye on.

On tester runs, just as a double precaution, keep the fan trained between the top of the canopy and the bulb; not underneath circulating amongst the plants as you normally would. The difference between a dropped sack, and one blown all around the room, is enormous.

Don't worry about running lots of different strains, with a simple feeding regime it's easy. If I were you, and you've got a little clone box, or somewhere to start seeds I'd get them ordered now, and be looking to pop them in a couple of weeks. If and when you start a new diary drop me a pm and I'll help you out.

 

[papaduc]

With regards the ec and the floranova, is this per liter or per gallon?

+ 5mL CalMag 181
+ 2mL FN Bloom 856
+ 2mL KoolBloom 894
+ 1mL Floralicious+ 902
+.75mL pH Down 918

 

[Elements001]

definitely papaduc, thank you so much for the input. Hopefully I'll be getting some proven gentics here in the next week or two. Luckily I have had the fan up top between the light and the canopy, mainly for heat reasons. THANK GOD for that man. Saw what must have been 95%+ of the pollen on the leaf below the sack on the 2 thats fully dropped. I have been popping off the nanners with my fingers after moistening them to keep the pollen from flying all over the place, then throwing them into a saucer with water to hopefully neutralize the pollen.
So many good ideas in that last post. I have the clones in 2 gallon buckets, was figuring I'd just throw them straight into the tent now that I dont have much use for them. they should be nice little 1 cola plants, easy to keep an eye on too.

When working with unknown genetics like you said and having mutiple girls in flower, how would you know which one was the best to keep as a mom? I figure you'd take a couple clones off each before flower, then observe how she does through flower to determine which clones should be kept, and which should be tossed.
I've got like 50+ seeds I've been collecting ever since I started working at this dispensary, but I feel like practically all of them are going to have this problem. I'll save them for a rainy day or something I guess. Once I get some real genetics and get my grow going I'll probably just go toss em in the mountains next spring.

As for the 5mL calMag, 5mL FloraNova and all that, it was in distilled water. I guess I'll save the distilled water I bought and use it for cleaning up my pens and maybe use it in my cheap humidifier that just throws the water around instead of misting it. Definitely wont need the cal mag with my tap, you can see the Ca building up in my bathroom sink. Was very surprised that the ppm were right about on what they said in the water report, 115. Guess they cant lie, but I felt like if the water gave me horrible headaches it wouldve been testing at least 200+.

I've been to HM site a few times in regard to their EC conversion factor. They only have one pen that you can set which factor to convert from, and thats not this one. 99% sure its the .5 conversion.
That pen was cheap, but man does it work great. Stores dry, (big plus) works incredibly fast, and looks very accurate from what it and my water report say. Just rinse it off after use and flick off the water and your done. So simple. Only cost me $18 on amazon too. Really great purchase.

 

[Elements001]

my bad, it was per gallon, not liter.

 

[papaduc]

When working with unknown genetics like you said and having mutiple girls in flower, how would you know which one was the best to keep as a mom? I figure you'd take a couple clones off each before flower, then observe how she does through flower to determine which clones should be kept, and which should be tossed.

Yep. That's what you do. You can take them during flower as well if you want/need to.

Keeping your pens clean: just dip into clean water, flick once, put the top on.

2ml of FNB in a gallon brings the ec to 1.6? Jesus that's f'in strong shit. I mean really, that is insanely concentrated. Post a thread in the relevant section and just clarify that... ask other people what EC reading they're getting in mls per L or gallon. I'm curious to know if that's right.

If it is, I'd be thinking about shaking it thoroughly, putting a small amount into a separate quart size bottle, half filling it with cold tap water, and using that to feed with.

 

[Tony Montana]

Sound advice from papaduc as usual

How are you bro?

 

[Elements001]

oh my bad, no it wasnt 2mL of FNB, it's actually 5Ml of FNB per gallon that brought it up that high. well approximately 5mL (used a teaspoon from a measuring spoon which I believe is 5mL.)
Definitely gonna start using the pipette and give her 4mL of the FNB. Hopefully that'll be closer to 500-600 ppm or 1.0-1.2. Maybe I didnt shake it enough either too. Usually I do but was pretty tired last night and didnt shake the stuff as much as I usually do. Requires like 5 minutes of vigorus shaking at least

 

[papaduc]

Sound advice from papaduc as usual

How are you bro?

Is that you gunner?

 

[Elements001]

Still doing really well. I only found one tiny decreped herm today on a tiny bud I couldnt decide whether or not to keep. Ill chop it if I see any more, but it seems under control now *knock on wood*

Starting to get really frosty now too, especially on the under side of the leaves. Never really noticed that in the strains I grew before. Too bad this Banner hermed out, it really is some bomb shit.

 

[Tonygreen]

Looking good for what its worth, dont let a few beans spoil the parade!

 

[Elements001]

Man, I'm feelin a lot better about this girl today. DIdnt find any herms today, that was nice. When I opened the tent I smelt the most incredible smell. I'ts was like some sort of strawberry or something. Smelt so good. This pheno must have a lot more of the strawberry cough in it that what I got before.
Just smelt incredible.

Not sure why I've not noticed this smell until today. Was thinking it was maybe cause I left the thermostat down at the house today and she got down to about 60-62 during the off period. Don't know what it was, but holy shit she smells amazing.