Orient Express in Organic Soil

[Gelado`]

Garlic/onion to me is classic Afghani, although the anise is something I've only ever heard attributed to Durban Poison. That actually sounds pretty interesting!

I'd definitely put the unknown seeds on the back burner and focus on the Ace stuff. I'm tempted to buy beans, but I have way more than I can grow on hand and that would just be wasteful! Fortunately we can live vicariously through you and watch the OE do its thing!

 

[chappie]

2 more GKxMVTF are down, leaving just one plus the Jack Herer (or whatever it is).

Germination from this seed pack was 100% in 6 days. All 12 seeds came up. This means of course that 2 of them had to be brutally culled. A grim reminder that we are playing an actual game of life and death here, not too different from our own, it could be said. Without much ceremony, despite the heady concepts present, they were cut down. Am I the only one often compelled to pop culled sprouts and even tiny seedlings into my mouth? The mature vegetation leaves those irritating cystoliths (or whatever they are called) behind but the tender little ones lack this.

So with the milestone of hearty germination checked off the list, the first of many waiting games begins. Early veg is a slow phase without much drama nor payoff if all goes well, but being the foundation for all else, it must be executed clearly and cleanly.

And so it begins...

 

[chappie]

The seedlings are up and doing well. The vents are fully open in their little greenhouse, and I will set up a thermometer to see if the space is warm enough for them to get through the night without it now.

The clover has popped up in their future homes, though not enough to warrant interesting images.

I did get ahold of one of the Chapin 1949 sprayers suggested for use not only as a foliar tool, but for watering in general. It is pretty great! The long wand makes it a great addition to the tent-style setup. I'll be using this rig indoors and out this year.

Also added to the arsenal is a chlorine filter for the garden hose. I am hoping to use rainwater as much as possible, but it can get a little dry here in the summer so the ability to use the tap is nice. fortunately, our area does not use chloramine so letting the water stand for a while should suffice, but for watering outdoor beds and filling my tank for compost tea, the filter will be welcome. I am used to living on a property with pure spring water, so this city stuff is a little irritating although I do like having central heat again.

 

[Kalbhairav]

Looking good Chappie.. I dig your style. I try to use rain water as much as possible as well. Having just moved I'll have to buy another tank to collect it. Once you start to get into the purity of what goes into the herb it can get very very interesting. I almost have to stop myself from splitting hairs too much..

 

[dubi]

Thanks chappie for the new grow diary

Please, let me know if you have any doubt with your Orient Express.

Best wishes! dubi

 

[chappie]

Thanks for the well-wishes, dubi. It is apparently a fun strain. The seedlings are impressively vigorous: 100% germing (and thanks for the extra seeds), and they popped right up and kept going for it, leafspan reaching outside of the rim of the Solo cups in less than 14 days (of being unbagged).

Today they were moved into the tent, and are now under 600w for vegging. Undecided how long they will go. I have only 600w for the hopeful 4-5 (female) plants, distributed over 4x4'. With only about 6' of headroom, I generally veg 4-6 weeks. Anyone having experience with these is welcome to chime in.

The lamp is suspended quite high while they acclimate, to be lowered a bit each day. They are still in their solo cups, on top of the soil containers they will eventually go into. May or may not go into an intermediate container before going right into the soil.

Wondering how reliably this strain preflowers. I haven't cloned to sex a plant since the early 90s... my results going by preflowers are pretty good. For those playing at home, I did one time have a plant lie to me, but only once out of hundreds. The plant showed clear female preflowers on several nodes, and then, after reaching about 10' tall in my greenhouse, went completely male almost overnight. It was quite a cascade of emotions; I was really excited about this... the plant was lush and promising. Here is a pic moments before the culling:

For the record this was a "Krystalica" from Mandala. I never had another female to test so cannot vouch for the strain, but this sure was a handsome plant!

I'll try to snap a few pics as the seedlings settle into their new home and continue to grow

 

[chappie]

Here's the setup for these plants:

Yep, ten plants and nine buckets. One of them will go. A grim and brutal world for the little plants. That egg crate has some various herb plants which might become companion plants in there, or might go out into the garden.

Here's one of the seedlings as of today:

They seem to be off to a rolling start. A couple of them have visible proto-branches already, which means I could top them. Not tall enough to begin bending, which I usually prefer to topping.

And here is the mulch along with some clover coming up through it:

 

[Gelado`]

Very clean setup and very nice little clover sprouts! I have a big set of shelves in my tent that hold my ballast/LED lights/power strip/scrubber--I want to get it out of there so I can use my whole tent. :/

 

[chappie]

Moved in

Moved in

I ended up deciding to rush the move into the final containers, although certainly there was some mental resistance. This soil should most probably cook longer, though there are people who know more than me out there saying that it doesn't matter too much. I had a few reasons for skipping an intermediate batch of containers, but those are outside the scope of this journal. Suffice it to say that if this is a fool's errand, it will be unabashedly documented here to serve as illumination for any further considerations. Heed my warnings, if they come to be such. Otherwise, on with the show...

Here are the 9 contenders. Most likely 4 or 5 of them will not last much past showing preflowers. I might keep a male for a small partial seeding, but not sure about that yet. The post-cull buckets will remain in place to grow the clover mulch and perhaps some other companion plants. For now, they have their own areas, thusly:

I had to destroy a bit of the existing clover and mulch to do the transplanting. Clover was thoroughly replanted and a better mulch layer will be added/replaced.

Here is one of the pups to show about where they are. This is 20 days after planting, and 15-16 days after sprouting, so I guess one would say "two weeks old":

I did actually attempt to FIM/top them, since the internodes are so close together that training seems like a tall order.

The plants received a coating of Bio-Ags VAM-endo spore mix, and were then watered with aloe/ful-power. They'll get compost tea soon.

This little one didn't make the cut, but is still hanging out. Not sure what I will do with it, perhaps take it to a friendly spot in town and see if some kind soul wants to give it a new home. Tuck it among the starts at the garden center? Leave it by the door at the library? Dunno... It is nice though that this is the "runt" of the litter. Very nice, vigorous plants. These might be the most powerful seedlings I have grown, in fact. I am used to prima-donna strains that sometimes look a little sickly for a while before finding their feet. Not so with these! Nice work, ACE!

Here's the runt, which is significantly smaller than the rest, but still tolerably decent for two weeks old, no?

 

[chappie]

Very clean setup and very nice little clover sprouts! I have a big set of shelves in my tent that hold my ballast/LED lights/power strip/scrubber--I want to get it out of there so I can use my whole tent. :/

Gelado, what I ended up doing was to hang a piece of pegboard from the tubing in the tent, and then mount the ballast and some other stuff to that. My hood and fan hang from the top support tubes. My circulation fan is the jankiest... it just hangs from bungee cords. It is a really nice wall-mounted oscillating fan that was fantastic in my old space but there is no wall to mount it on now... so it just floats. It does work though, all the plants bend a bit in the breeze.

I used to use a Sentinel controller for the light timer and fan. It was great... it would run the fan at whatever interval I wanted, as well as kick it on full-time at a pre-set temp. It would also keep the lamp turned off for 10 minutes if the power went out, and would also shut off the lamp if tempts got over 100. Then the thing conked out, so now I just run the fan full time and use a cheap hardware store timer for the lamp. Sometimes simple is better?

 

[Gelado`]

I used to have a circulation fan mounted behind the tent blowing in through a passive vent, but it was too powerful and caused positive pressure. I don't even use my smaller intake fan now; just my exhaust/scrubber and I have great negative pressure. I give the plants a good shaking a few times a day and the entire room is dehumidified. I could technically mount my ballast on the wall outside the tent; food for thought. For this run though I'll keep things as is as I use a lot of supplemental LEDs along with the HPS, and they're mounted on the shelves.

Those OEs look great! I'll actually be in Vietnam very soon and hope to pick up some Vietnamese strains there.

 

[chappie]

After realizing I have been using the current bulb probably longer than I should, I swapped it out. Also realized I had not cleaned the lens on the lamp in a while. It looked a little dusty... but when I took it up into actual room light, it was nassssssty. So a scrubbing session was in order. Don't be lazy like me, do this before it needs doing! I don't measure lumens or light intensity using any metering devices, but I am sure there is now a marked improvement.

I also planted some herbs in the side areas... borage, anise hyssop, and shiso. Not sure if they will stay or go out into the garden, but wanted to take advantage of the open space in the tent before the canopy fills in. Had me wondering about companion plants and how much of the benefit remains if the roots are not in contact.

The outdoor gardening season is just about to start here, so have plants on my mind quite a bit. I'll be transplanting comfrey from my old property to the new one soon, but won't see the benefits of that for a little while. Also thinking about setting up a large outdoor worm bin, maybe using one of those 48" round smart pot type deals.

 

[Gelado`]

I think your light transmission to the canopy just went up 10-20% (new bulb and lens cleaning)!

I really like the idea of using clover as a living mulch and putting herbs in the tent along with the, well, herb. I just overfertilized with organic bottled nute (I should've known better), so I need to flush plants that are already too wet, and temperatures just dropped.

The large Smart Pot worm bin sounds really good! Wish I had space for one.

 

[Lester Beans]

Howdy Chappie!

Its EMj from GC. I saw Mayan was here too

I have seen some of your grows and just wanted to pop in and say Hi. Very cool strain choices. I will be popping the Panama here come spring.

I like the living soil! Spent many an hour mixing and cooking soil back in my nursery days .

I'll hang around and catch the show if that's cool.

Best
L (E)

 

[chappie]

I really like the idea of using clover as a living mulch and putting herbs in the tent along with the, well, herb.

The clover is doing quite well, and I believe it is already helping to hold moisture near the top layer. The plants seem to be settling in to their new spots just fine, they are growing noticably each day.

Good to see you, Lester Beans. Mayan's ACE grows have always inspired me. I spent a few years going down the Blue rabbit hole and wanted to try something a little different... ACE seems pretty promising. I'm really enjoying the vigor of these plants already.

There is a slight chance I will try some NepJam outdoors this summer, but not sure if the rest of the household is onboard with that or not. I do miss my old property and its seclusion... though having central heat is pretty nice.

 

[chappie]

Trouble in Paradise?

Trouble in Paradise?

The plants are growing rapidly and looking good BUT have started to "canoe". I do not believe this is a temp or humidity issue; they are staying between 70 and 78 at all times, with humidity around 55%.

I am assuming this is overwatering. I'll dial it back a tiny bit and hope that helps. They are putting out so much good growth and staying so dense that I am not too worried about it, but it is something I am not used to seeing.

It could also be a reaction to the soil chemistry, as this soil is not fully "cooked", the plants may either be slightly undernourished (although their rate of growth and robust structure does not imply this) or not liking some of the "raw" ingredients in the soil.. .but they are not yellowing, showing burning, etc.

I will just watch and learn...

Here you can see about half of the plants showing the "canoeing"

You can also see a few different modes of structure emerging. The plant top-right is the most "sativa" looking, with narrower leaves. The one in the center is super-dense, hardly growing vertically at all. The one bottom right is branching out sideways as much as up. I have never seen that growth pattern before.

And for the fun of it, look at the little plant on the far right, still in a solo cup, same age as the rest.

Here is some compost tea I got going today:

It's made with biodynamic compost (bu's blend... until my own is ready it will have to do) and KIS "microbe catalyst" which contains alfalfa meal, feather meal, potassium sulfate, steamed bone meal, fish bone meal, natural calcite, humic acids, and kelp.

I am now reluctant to water them much, but I will apply this gingerly tomorrow (after 36 hours brewing). Perhaps more as a foliar than a drench? Or maybe I should apply it to a small section of extra soil and apply that as a top-dressing?

Probably overthinking it, but am concerned about the leaves rolling inwards like that... any suggestions are welcome.

 

[Kalbhairav]

Hey chappie,

The leaf curl on only some plants may be because there is a 'hot spot' in that particular area of the grow chamber. If you have a fan then maybe it isn't that.. Whenever I've seen or experienced the same I attribute it to a plant under too much heat pressure. Sometimes certain reflectors generate these hot spots in certain places affecting only a couple of plants.

If this has never been an issue before could it be possible that the light was higher or lower than on previous grows? You could try lowering or placing the blub/reflector higher and see if that helps.. Or if you have one, directing a fan in the direction of the affected plants.

 

[chappie]

It could be that the lamp is too close. I am still new to this tent (this is 2nd grow). The plants seem to be getting plenty of light since they are so dense. I will raise it a bit, thanks for the idea.

Edit: I did just raise the lamp up about 10", hope it will help. The plants look pretty good otherwise.

I also noted that you can see how many of the larger fan leaves have blunted ends... this was from my FIM attempt when they were still tiny. I think it only "took" on a couple of the plants but they are mostly branching so much I am not going to worry about too much training and just let them do their thing.

They are at 5-6 nodes now (I think, some of them are actually too dense to really tell) so preflowers should be coming in soon. They are about 24 days old now...

 

[Kalbhairav]

It could be that the lamp is too close.

I think that could be it. This has happened to me a few times. After a prolonged period the canoed leafs get very brittle and crispy like they're cooked. I could be wrong but hopefully they will straighten out a bit and new growth will be unaffected if they're cooler.

 

[chappie]

Raising the lamp seems to have helped already. The got a dose of compost tea today, and I'll give them a few days to settle.