Grow Lab: The quest for Infinite Resin

[thebayarea]

Dude those Hindus look FATTY now. Congrats man, you really are killing it in there!

I ran into a lot of really bad lean with my GC and came to the some conclusion: liberal application of silica blast in my waterings from now on. And then I was also like " 'Ey! It's summer too. I bet they'll love me for this."

Also, the new veg plants look HAPPY. Very nice, very nice.

I can't take my eyes of that Chemdawg either. Good luck my friend!

 

[thebayarea]

PS: I think that runt definitely could be PK like you were thinking. She came out looking yummy, nice even blend of purple/green buds. Mmmm.

 

[justiceman]

Dude those Hindus look FATTY now. Congrats man, you really are killing it in there!

I ran into a lot of really bad lean with my GC and came to the some conclusion: liberal application of silica blast in my waterings from now on. And then I was also like " 'Ey! It's summer too. I bet they'll love me for this."

Also, the new veg plants look HAPPY. Very nice, very nice.

I can't take my eyes of that Chemdawg either. Good luck my friend!

Hey thanks! The Hindu's certainly packed on some weight at the end. As you said Silica Blast FTW man. I have been giving it to my girl's in the veg tent and will probably continue to do so forever.

Week 10(Harvest)
Hey everyone I harvested yesterday! So first Off I'd like to show you some last shots of the living Hindu's.

Nug Shots

One of the Hindu's Leaning a little bit hehe. She limped across the finish line but still looks pretty nice.

So I'm pretty damn happy with the results so far(except I haven't smoked her yet) The trichs looks good, and so does the yield, and she smells a lot like lemons. I was able to fill out all 6 layers of my drying net this time where as last time I only filled in 3 layers but the 3 layers were slightly denser, however I know that the 6 spread out layers are still far more then in the last quest. Trimming was rough and it took me all day yesterday to finish up. Here are some Harvest shots. First I cut them down hung them up trimmed them all and then cut them into smaller buds to put into the drying net.

Row 1 & 2

Row 3

The Corridor of Nuggets

even shot

Nug Shots

Net shot

 

[justiceman]

Root Shots.

So as you can see the roots are no different from the Purple Kush. I'm pretty sure it's not rot since it doesn't stink at all. In fact the medium smells like fresh earth. I'm thinking the plants didn't have enough water and so the roots started to die and dry out on the outside. Got any other ideas? I will say that when I was using roots excelurator my roots were nice and white so I might be sold on that product haha. I'm just thinking that If I can get this yield with a mediocre root system what can I get with a pristine root system?

Surprise Banana. I actually cut one branch a week ago just for kicks to see what the difference would be, and I noticed there were absolutely no banana's on her, so she must have started producing them in the last week. Could have been some type of stress, or maybe she has hermaphrodite tendencies in her genes. Maybe She doesn't like to go for 10 weeks or maybe she was tired of getting pure R/O for 3 weeks.

 

[justiceman]

Chronology

Chronology

Last but not least. The Chronology of Hindu Skunk.

Day 1

Week 1(Underfed and Hating me)

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4(Finally Loving me)

Flower(Week 1)

Week 2

Week 3(N def. They started to Hate me again)

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6(Started to Love me again)

Week 7(Started the Flush)

Week 8

Week 9

Week 10

 

[justiceman]

Veg Tent Status

Hey everyone I have a little update for you concerning the vegetating girls. Just in case you don't already know I am vegging Casey Jones, Chem Dawg, and Head Band. I am loving these bad little girls. They are about 3 weeks into veg and seem to be doing quite well. Here is what I have been feeding them from start until now.

Feeding(5/31/10)
Doses per 1 gallon
200ppm cal mag
3ml grow
5ml infinity
1/2 tsp Soluble Seaweed Powder 1-0-4
Roots Oregonism XL
PPM=660
PH 5.85

Feeding(6/4/10)
per gallon
260ppm cal mag
12ml Pura Vida grow
4ml Pura Vida bloom
15ml Ancient amber
PPM=670
PH 5.85

Feeding(6/8/10)
per gallon
250ppm cal mag
8ml Pura Vida Grow
2ml Pura vida bloom
15ml Ancient amber
10ml Cannazym
Roots Oregonism XL
PPM=730(diluted to 500 for Casey Jones)
PH 5.83

Feeding(6/12/10)
per gallon
250ppm Cal Mag
4ml Pura Vida Grow
1ml Pura Vida Bloom
15ml Ancient Amber
10ml Cannazym
2.5ml Silica Blast
PPM=540(almost 1.1EC)
PH 5.87

Feeding(6/14/10)
note: trasnplanted to 3.4l pots of FFOF
per 3 gallon
250ppm Cal Mag
8ml Pura Vida Grow
2ml Pura Vida Bloom
45ml Ancient Amber
30ml Cannazym
15ml Silica Blast
Roots Oregonism XL(poured the powder in the middle of the soil and on the root ball before filling the pot in with FFOF)
3/4tsp soluble seaweed powder
PPM=570(Diluted to 350PPM)
PH 6.2

Feeding(6/18/10)
R/O water

Feeding(6/22/10)
R/O water

I had them in 4" starter pots with Roots Organics Soilless, and then put them in 3.4l white pots with 100% FFOF. In about a week I plan to transplant them into 5gal smart pots with half FFOF on top and half Super Soil on the bottom. As you can see not too much feeding has been happening in the last week. That is because the FFOF is packed with tons of organic nutrients that release over time, so I'm pretty sure fertilization won't be required for at least 3-4 weeks since time of transplant. Lucky for me that is the time I will be transplanting into more FFOF, and SS so I won't really need to feed very much from here on out unless some complications arise. I may try adding some of Atami's Bloombastic as I read somewhere that subcool uses it slightly towards the end of flower for a PK boost.

So overall growth has been quite good, and I am really liking the coloration and leaf definition of the genetics I have at the moment. One of the Chem dawgs did not take well to the FFOF at first and so she suffered some slight nute burn on one leaf. Oh well I could have guessed it might happen since 100% FFOF is quite strong to begin with(another reason why they are so green). If you look closely enough you can even see that some of the plants leafs have a very slight curl going on. All signs are pointing to the high fertility of the soil. That is why many cut FFOF with lighter mixes, but I decided to let them go into it full force since they need to be ready to handle the SS. So it's gonna be a pure R/O water diet for a minute(well maybe a compost tea or something real light). Well let's let the pictures do the talking.

Chem D nute burn leaf

Family shot

Casey Jones shots

Chem Dawg shots

Head Band shots

Art shot

Yup so those are the girls for ya. I hope you like them cuz I know I do right now for sure. I also have two more pictures I'd like to share with you guys. First up is mostly dried nug shot of the Hindu Skunk and Second up is a recently made batch of Hindu Skunk BHO budder. Let me know what you guys think!

Hindu Skunk

Hindu Skunk BHO

 

[justiceman]

Alright guys so it is time for Harvest Statistics. I am pleased to say I have reached my goal for this quest. The Peoples Elbow has been obtained. I only hope that me next quest will go as smoothly as this one went.

Harvest Statistics

Hindu Skunk= 451.8g(15.94oz)
average 56.48g(2.02oz) per plant(8 plants)

Purple Kush= 41g(1.45oz) per plant(1 plant)

TOTAL: 492.8(17.4oz)(1.086lb)

600w light = .8213 GPW

I raised my GPW for sure this round. Look at the last rounds statistics.

Green Crack= 212.7g(7.6oz)
average 70.9g(2.53oz) per plant(3 plants)

Granddaddy Purple= 97.8g(3.49oz)
average 32.6g(1.16oz) per plant(3 plants)

TOTAL: 310.5G(11.089oz)

600w light = .5175 Grams per watt

I achieved 58.711% more then last quest! Although it is apparent that the Green Crack is still the winner in terms of yield per plant since it got a whopping 70.9g average per where as my hindu only got about 56.48. However because of my increase in plant count I beleive I was able to take advantage of my light footprint more efficiently this time around.

Harvest Shot

Veg Update

Hey guys so I finally threw them outside a couple days ago and they seemed to be doing just fine, except for the fact I watered them on the 28th and they needed water on the 29th. Transplant anyone?. So I decided it was time and I put them in their final homes. 5 gal smart pots. The bottom half of the mix is Super Soil(A mix of Fox Farms Ocean Forest/Light warrior(2:1) as the base then added bonemeal, bloodmeal, guano, EWC, humates, trace minerals, etc.) The top half is Happy Frog soil. I may even add a mulch on top for moisture retention depending on watering requirements and such. Here is what I have been doing as of late(Just picked up some Roots Excelurator)

Feeding(6/26/10)
R/O water

Feeding(6/28/10)
R/O water

Feeding(6/29/10)
per gal
15ml Humega
Great White
1ml Roots Excelurator
PPM=130
PH:6.28

Now I know I said that feedings aren't necessary with the Super Soil, but I merely added Humega(humic acid) Great white(fungi/bacteria) and Roots excel(rooting catalyst), so It wasn't actual plant food per say. You could consider it soil building ingredients instead. I only gave them those things in order to help cope with possible transplant stress. I switched them to the smart pots last light. Got some shots for ya before and after.

Before

Casey Jones(yesterday)

Head Band(yesterday)

Chem Dawg(yesterday)

Root Shots

My roots are looking pretty good this time around. I'm thinking it's because of the FFOF in itself. A good medium Indeed.

After Shot

Loving those smart pots. I notice that one can press against the sides and feel water come out. This will be a good way to judge watering times and such. I've actually never dealt with a 5gal pot before haha let alone a smart pot.

 

[vial]

hey guy keep em going

 

[justiceman]

hey guy keep em going

Hey thanks Vial! I'm glad to see you are still sticking around for the show. I appreciate it.

Veg Tent Update
Alright so I realize I forgot to document the fact I took 18 clones(6 from each strain) of the CJ, HB, and CD. I took the cuts about 12 days ago. 14 of them are rooted and are transplanted except for 3 of the CJ, and 1 CD. Here is what I gave them at the initial "cut time" and what I gave them earlier today for the transplant. Now mind you guys this is my second time cloning. I am glad with the results this time because last time I had a 100% failure rate lol.

Feeding(6/24/10)
per gallon
125ppm Cal Mag
10ml flora blend
5ml Soul Bloom
1/2 tsp soluble kelp
Great White
Root tech
PH 5.97
PPM=500(1.0EC)

Feeding(7/06/10)
Transplanted into Roots Soilless
250ppm cal mag
16ml Pura Vida Grow
4ml Pura Videa Bloom
15ml Silica blast
45ml Ancient Amber
3ml Roots Excelurator
25ml Cannazym
Great White
PH 6.0
PPM=590(about 1.2EC)

As far as rooting goes. I can safely say that my cloning game still needs a lot of work. I have heard of people getting roots within 4-7 days. I got roots in about 12. Seem less then ideal for sure. I think the faster the cut roots the less it has to depend on stored up nutrients. Unfortunately my cuts had to depend on stored nutes for too long and are exhibiting some deficiencies. The good side is they have some nice roots, and I am hoping I will be able to nurse them back to health. Not really sure what I plan to do with them to be honest. I merely took them just to test my cloning abilities. Might keep a few as mothers. Anyway here are some shots for ya.

Root Shots

Dome Shots

The 3 CJ and 1 CD with roots that aren't poking through the rockwool yet.

Clone Deficiencies
(I am thinking this one is probably Cal/Mag and Potassium deficiency.

I am having a hard time identifying what this is. Phosphorus? or some type of trace mineral like boron? I am wondering If it happened as a result of VPD? Interestingly enough It only started to happen on the CJ and none of the others.

Cuttings that were transplanted.

Outdoor Veg Update
Hey so the girls seem to be taking to the Super Soil quite well. Although they are not without slight little deficiencies. Mostly what I beleive to be a slight Magnesium coupled with possibly potassium(since the SS mix never really seemed to cover the K side of things) I'm going to remedy this by adding molasses in my water instead of just pure R/O. The molasses contains Cal/Mag, a bit of N, and a nice amount of potassium. So I am thinking next time I make the SS I will cut out the LW part and use pure FFOF for the mix in order to make it slightly hotter. I might also precede to add more dolomite lime to try and cover for what seems like a lack of magnesium. Here are some pics for ya. I didn't get close up pics for the deficiency leaves but you might be able to spot a couple in these pics(not to many though). Oh and mind you they are droopy because night was coming around. I can get some morning perky shots up tomorrow. Here is what I have been feeding them as of late.

Feeding(7/3/10
R/O water

Hehe doesn't seem like much right? Ya those 5gal smart pots are only needing water once every 4 days until those roots get established. I wonder If I will have to water once a day at some point? Well anyway here are some pics for you guys. Let me know what you think!

Here is a mourning shot for ya too.

 

[dachieftan]

the SS mix never really seemed to cover the K side of things

I agree. That is one of the drawbacks from super soil so my solution was to mix in some greensand which will boost K and retain water better. Water retention is important because this recipe is meant for 7gal pots and the more you water, the more the nutes get flushed out of the soil unless you have a badass microheard that binds the nutes to the soil or you have to water less with air/smart pots. I also supplement the soil with a EWC/molasses/kelp tea to boost K and I would suggest you do the same. If you properly mixed in Epsom Salts to the soil I feel you shouldn't have an MG deficiency. I mix in about 1 tbs of epsom to 2 gal of soil. Since Roots comes in 1.5 cubic feet bags that is about 9 gallons of soil needing 3 TBS of Epsom. Since it's too late to mix in any epsom, you can foliar feed the VEG plants that you think have an MG deficiency @ 1 tsp of Epsom to 1 gal of water. Boil the water and add the Epsom so that it dissolves properly. Make sure to foliar feed at night (lights off).

o I am thinking next time I make the SS I will cut out the LW part and use pure FFOF for the mix in order to make it slightly hotter.

If you want to make your soil hotter, why don't you just double the recipe? I feel the SS recipe is a base as to where you can start so that you can manipulate it more or less. I never fully doubled the recipe but I did use 1.5x the reccomended amount of soil amendments with better results.

P.S. I'm not trying to come off as an organic snob but what brand of molasses are you using? If it is grandma's or brer rabbit, I can tell you that those have sodium in them. I recall brer being about 20mg of sodium to 1TBS of molasses. I use Wholesome sweeteners organic molasses which is also fair-trade and has zero sodium. I think those other brands are better for baking as sodium gives bake goods a nice taste. Sodium and plants do not mix very well so if I can avoid that situation, I will

 

[justiceman]

Good stuff man! Thank you for posting that reply. You are always making me pick my brain for info. I like it.

In the last few days I was thinking the same thing(EWC, Kelp, molasses tea). I actually just gave them some molasses yesterday too boost up the mag and K side of things. Hmm it seems like you mix in more Epsom salt then the recipe calls for. I can see that's one of your little tweeks. I put in about 4TBS of Epsom salt for the whole 30gal worth I made. That is a lot less then your 3TBS per 1.5 cubic ft. That would definitely explain why I have a slight Mag def. I'll take note of that. I may end up foliar feeding with Epsom salt, but so far I havn't seen the mag def go any further especially since I started adding molasses to my waterings but next water I aim to do a light tea(EWC, kelp, molasses, and maybe some humus) just for good measure.

Good point on making the soil hotter. Adjusting the amounts of the additives is a far more economical way to go about it. I like this whole SS idea. It allows for us to custom blend it to our specific needs. Great stuff no doubt! I'll take note of that 1.5 times the dose. My plants love the SS but I can definitely see that having that extra .5 dose would really help out later on in their lives.

Haha I don't beleive your are an organic snob. You take Organics seriously and have helped me out with my SS mix. You ensure that the organic products being used don't have excess amounts of unwanted minerals and your even going out of your way to inform me of a good molasses without a high sodium content witch could be detrimental to my plants. I thank you for that. By pure coincidence though I actually happen to use that EXACT molasses brand. Small world ay?

 

[justiceman]

Veg Tent Update
Hey everyone! It's been a while since the last update. I went on a road trip so I have been away for a little bit. Hope everyone and their plants are doing well. Fortunately I had some help in regards to watering while I was gone. I had instructed pure R/O water for a better safe then sorry approach because I wouldn't be able to be their to adjust to the varying needs of the cuts. Thanks to the help I received my plants are still alive. I am truly grateful.

So first up is the veg tent update. It has 6 (Chem Dawg, Casey Jones, and Head Band) cuts of each. So 18 total. Just to remind you I left them alone for 1 week without nutes and had hoped they wouldn't have too many deficiencies. Luckily they are only slightly deficient and I should be able to make them look prime. Here is what I have been feeding them as of late.

Feeding(7/12/10)
250ppm cal mag
16ml Pura Vida Grow
4ml Pura Videa Bloom
15ml Silica blast
45ml Ancient Amber
3ml Roots Excelurator
25ml Cannazym
Great White
PH 6.0
PPM=590(about 1.2EC)

(when I was gone)
Feeding(7/16/10)
R/O water

Feeding(7/19/10)
250ppm cal mag
14ml Pura Vida Grow
4ml Pura Videa Bloom
15ml Silica blast
45ml Ancient Amber
3ml Roots Excelurator
25ml Cannazym
Great White
PH 6.0
PPM=550(about 1.1EC)

Here are some pictures of the cuttings.

So as you can see they need a bit of care but overall they are looking pretty decent. Nothing a little bit of base/micro nutes, humic acid, and beneficial microbes can't cure.

Outdoor Veg Update
So my girls outside are doing quite well now. Without a doubt they have taken to the Super Soil, and they love it. Next time I make it I'll probably increase the strength to see how far I can take it. The watering needs have increased probably because the roots and plant size have as well hehe. They usually needed water every 5 days. Now they need water every 3-4 days. Here is what has been going on lately.

Feeding(7/7/10)
molasses water

Feeding(7/12/10)
molasses water

Feeding(7/16/10)
R/O water

Feeding(7/19/10)
molasses water

As you can see not a whole lot. The only additive lately has been molasses to help fuel the micro heard, and an added bonus of cal/mag N and K.

A few of the bottom leaves seem to be exhibiting slight signs P deficiency. So I will probably have to start adding some type of P or PK additive during flower. Lucky for me I have some extra Roots Organics HP quano laying around if necessary. I also have some extra Roots Organics HPK for a PK boost laying around as well. We shall see. So next time I am going to strengthen the Super Soil mix no doubt. Here are some pictures for ya.

The average stock size

Head Band

Chem Dawg

Casey Jones

So These girls have gotten a bit bigger since I have last seen them. I was very glad to see they are in good health. I can't wait for them to flower!

 

[justiceman]

Hey everyone so I thought I would share a couple items I bought on my trip. One of them slightly more interesting then the other. First off is an Endo & Ecto Mycorrhizae product by down to earth. The reason I bought it is because it is one of the few mycorrhizae products that carries an OMRI listing. Here is a pic.

Now the interesting product I picked up is this.

Wow talk about a mineral supplement ay? I have recently been reading in Maximum Yield about how plants benefit with the addition of sea solids(basically sea salt witch contains more many more minerals besides sodium). It is supposed to provide a full spectrum of minerals in natures intended proportions. Many hydroponic nutrients contain just a few of the necessary elements for optimum plant performance. Plants will survive and grow with NPK alone, but they will not flourish and taste good unless given a wide variety of elements. That is why many organic cultivators use sea kelp as an additive because it contains many different minerals not found in hydroponic nutrients. This is especially important with edible crops, as we humans need to ingest these different minerals for optimum health. As for Cannabis in my opinion the Ocean Nutrient Solution should help to increase resin production, yield, and flavor.

 

[dachieftan]

Glad to see that your back from your trip. Hope you had a decent amount of RR. I can tell that your plant's missed you.
I'm loving the organic route that you are taking (Not sure if those nutes you used beforehand were organic) I think the taste and smell will increase because of this. I've been reading up on Dr. Maynard Murray's "Sea Energy Agriculture" book and the science seems pretty sound with salt water. 80+ trace elements sounds like plants will thrive and be able to better combat pest and disease as well as be overall danker. Remember, that your product has SALT water so use it like Altius Moderato (all things in moderation). For that reason alone, I am leaning towards purchasing Eco Vie instead because it contains the derived trace minerals of salt water w/o the salt. However, your quest might sway me in the direction of uncle harry's. Only time will tell. If you wanna check eco-vie out here is their website...http://www.ecoorganics.com/ (I think it's funny that they call a tomato a vegetable when it is really a fruit)

Do you mind sharing with me your dosage for the uncle harry's product?

 

[justiceman]

Glad to see that your back from your trip. Hope you had a decent amount of RR. I can tell that your plant's missed you.
I'm loving the organic route that you are taking (Not sure if those nutes you used beforehand were organic) I think the taste and smell will increase because of this. I've been reading up on Dr. Maynard Murray's "Sea Energy Agriculture" book and the science seems pretty sound with salt water. 80+ trace elements sounds like plants will thrive and be able to better combat pest and disease as well as be overall danker. Remember, that your product has SALT water so use it like Altius Moderato (all things in moderation). For that reason alone, I am leaning towards purchasing Eco Vie instead because it contains the derived trace minerals of salt water w/o the salt. However, your quest might sway me in the direction of uncle harry's. Only time will tell. If you wanna check eco-vie out here is their website...http://www.ecoorganics.com/ (I think it's funny that they call a tomato a vegetable when it is really a fruit)

Do you mind sharing with me your dosage for the uncle harry's product?

Hey man thanks for stopping by again! Thinking back the original nutes I used when they were in 4" pots were kind of a half/half organic/mineral mix, bus as soon as I transplanted them to the 3.4l pots it was all organic from there on. This Super Soil should provide for some supreme flavor no doubt. I really like the idea of sea solids. To be honest I havn't tried my uncle harry's yet. The dilution ratio states 1 per to 100 parts water so If i do the math that's around 37.9ml per gal. Seems pretty high but I suppose one isn't suppose to apply it very often. I'm interested in that eco-vie. Thanks for the link I'm going to check it out!

Veg Tent Update
Hey everybody so it's time for another update. The clones are starting to suck up water now more then ever as a result of an increase in temperature, and an increase in their root system no doubt. Soon it will be time to transplant the good ones and root out the undesirables. I'm basically looking for 9 good candidates to flower from the pack. Although that's up in the air because I am also considering the just getting 9 cuts of something totally different. If I decide to get 9 different cuts then I'll try to turn the best three CD, CJ, and HB into bonsai mum's. Maybe I'll try some experiments on the others. Here is what I have been feeding them as of late.

Feeding(7/22/10)
R/O water

Feeding(7/26/10)
molasses water
great white
PH 5.93
PPM= 120(almost .3EC)

Feeding(7/28/10)
250ppm cal mag
14ml Pura Vida Grow
4ml Pura Videa Bloom
15ml Silica blast
45ml Ancient Amber
3ml Roots Excelurator
25ml Cannazym
Great White
PH 6.0
PPM=550(about 1.1EC)

Here are some pics for ya.

Now I have an interestingly stressed cut of the CJ. I'm not sure at what point the CJ starting doing this. I think it was around the time when I was gone for a week. Funny how it happened to this one only. I think the leaf mutation is possibly a result of multiple undesirable conditions(temp, VPD and probably over nitrification). Another theory of mine is that this specific cut was too far away from the light and thought it was time to flower but then reverted back quite soon when she grew tall enough?Let me know what you guys think. She has been showing signs of recovery though. She actually created new "tops" from her side branches and is in a sense ditching her mutated original top witch is actually finally creating a new top but is still behind the dominant side branch. Here are some pics

Notice the odd top in the middle, and the side branch on the left surpassing it.

Leaf mutation

another one

Outdoor Veg Update

So the outdoor girls are doing great. I think they will certainly start flowering quite soon now. They have been needing water about once every 3-4 days now. Sometimes a little top off in the second day because it got hot at some points. Unfortunately as a result the CD's and HB's suffered a little bit of apparent heat stress. Seems those strains can't handle too much heat where ass the CJ has no signs of heat stress and doesn't really seem to mind the weather at all.

Here are some pictures I took of them yesterday

CJ

CD

HB

Heat Stress

HB mini stock.

Here is what I have been feeding them as of late.
Feeding(7/22/10)
molasses water
Great White

Feeding(7/26/10)
R/O water

Feeding(7/30/10)
Compost tea brewed for about 20 hours
12 gallons:
3 cups EWC
3 cups Alaskan Humus
12TBSP Budswell guano mix
4TBSP Soluble Kelp
180ml Ancient Amber(Fulvic Acid)
12tsp Molasses

As you can see that last one was a compost tea! Love making those. In my opinion my girls look like they need a slight N boost probably along with some more P and K since I'm pretty sure flowering is about to happen. Plus I noticed a slight amount of interveinal chlorosis on some leaves near the middle of one of the HB's As a result of the slight need for more food, I decided to brew a compost tea. As you can see from the ingredients above it had everything necessary to provide a little boost of sors(NPK, trace minerals, humates, and beneficial's). So I started that tea yesterday and aerated it for about 20 hours. It smelled fresh and earthy and I think my plants will respond well to it. Here I have some pictures for ya.

Here's my bag of compost(EWC, Alaskan Humus, Guano, Soluble Kelp, molasses)

Here are my 3 air pumps(12 gal brew)

4 air stones and one bendable air tube total.

Tea prep. I find it convenient to tie the tea bag to this wood stick so that it stays submerged in the water but doesn't fall to the bottom away from the air stones.

I like to make sure their is enough space between the tones and the bag to allow a decent amount of air bubbles to come between the two.

Filled with about 12 gal worth of water

20 Hours later:gun:

 

[justiceman]

So I'm posting another update here. Well not really an update but just a little bit of extra info I stumbled upon. I'm not sure how many of you know but their is a term called VPD(Vapor Pressure Defecit/Difference). It has to do with the amount of moisture in the air as compared to the amount of moisture within the leaf(100%). You may think I'm talking about RH(Relative Humidity) but that is only partially correct. RH takes into account the temperature of the room. So for instance when you see your Hygrometer say it's 50% humidity and 75 degrees that means that the hair is holding 50% of what's possible at 75 degrees. To put it into perspective If your hygrometer says it's 50% humidity at 85 degrees that is significantly different to say the least. So RH measures the amount of humidity possible within the temperature it's reading. Once again 100% RH at 75 degrees is not the same as 100%RH at 85 degrees.

The warmer the air the more moisture it holds. That is why water condenses out of the air when temps drop at night. That is why dew happens. So 100% RH at 85 degrees is more water vapor then 100% at 75. Why is all this important? I'll tell ya. It's important to know what your VPD is. It helps to give you an idea of the amount of moisture loss your plant gives off and if it's enough or too much. RH and VPD act together in a sense.

When RH is high(100%) VPD is low because the saturation point at the given temperature is met. As a result of this the plant is unable to breathe and starts to suffer from toxic build up, or pathogens(mold, mildew) start coming up because they love high RH or it is unable to uptake certain minerals. Basically that means slow unsatisfactory growth.

When RH is low(20%) VPD is high because their is practically no moisture in the air. As a result the plant goes into survival mode and starts breathing faster then it can photosynthesize. This leads to rapid water loss and a lack of nutrient absorption. It can also cause heat stress and break down enzyme production. That again means slow unsatisfactory growth.

To attain excellent growth VPD values should be somewhere in between the extremes in order to balance respiration with photosynthesis. Not too much RH so the plant can't breathe but not too little so the plant breathes too much. So whats the correct RH to have at the correct Temp? I happened to come upon this graph that gives a pretty sweet general guide line of VPD values.

Table 1 shows the VPD in millibars at various air temperatures and relative humidity. Most cultivated plants grow well at VPDs between 8 and 10, so this is the green shaded area. Please not that the ideal VPD range varies for different types of plants and the stage of growth. The blue shaded are on the right indicated humidification is needed where the pink shaded are on the left indicated dehumidification is needed.

Interesting stuff no? Obviously it isn't easy to keep VPD values within the general guidelines all the time, and I really like the warning they give you as these are just really guidelines but the info gives you an idea of what your plant might be dealing with at the moment. For instance I ran into heat stress in my last grow and the temps were usually around 78 with a RH of about 45% if I remember correctly. That would put me into the blue part of the category witch requires humidification. That easily explains why some of my leaves curled in from too much heat and they obviously wanted to minimize water loss.

I thought that my temps were fine and they were but the correct RH should be achieved to help cope with higher temperatures. Just gotta find that happy medium before you induce mold and mildew growth in the garden with humidity that is too high. Remember "What's important to take from this is that VPD can help you provide a better indication of how much moisture the air wants to pull from your plants than RH can."

 

[dachieftan]

gotta spread some rep around before giving it to justice

 

[justiceman]

gotta spread some rep around before giving it to justice

Right on man Thanks!

----------------------------
Veg Tent Update

So my little clones are doing quite well. I'm happy to say the least that I got a 72.2% success rate overall. Actually 100% of them rooted but I decided that 6 of them were weak, or too stressed to continue compared to the rest. When I say 72.2% I mean 13 out of 19. So I could certainly use some improvement in that aspect but overall I'm pretty happy with the results. Here is what I have been feeding them. Still the same formula.

Feeding(8/3/10)
250ppm cal mag
14ml Pura Vida Grow
4ml Pura Videa Bloom
15ml Silica blast
45ml Ancient Amber
3ml Roots Excelurator
25ml Cannazym
Great White
PH 6.0
PPM=550(about 1.1EC)

So I'm setting up my tent again and I should hopefully have it up and running soon. The reason It's not already running now is because I got an upgrade so I had to put it together. Originally I had one inline fan to exhaust the room and cool the light. Now I added an extra inline fan so I have one fan for the exhaust and one fan for the light cooling. I've run a couple tests just examine temps with the light on for a whole day and it seems this type of set up is a little bit more temperature efficient then my last one.

So If all goes according to plan I will be putting 9 of the clones from my veg tent into my flower tent quite soon. The other 4 will be left in the veg tent to either mother out or preform experiments. I want to try bonsai mums with the cuts left in the veg tent. We'll see. Here is a recent picture of the clones

Outdoor Flower Update
So finally after the long wait my ladies have finally decided to start flowering. I hope to attain a bountiful harvest from them as they are pretty sizable. Here is what they have been getting lately.

Feeding(8/1/10)
R/O water

Feeding(8/3/10)
R/O water

Feeding(8/5/10)
R/O water

Seems like not so much but trust me their are still a nice amount of nutrients left in the Super Soil although I will be brewing up a compost tea in the next couple days for them. Man after I applied the compost tea watering requirements went up haha. It use to be once every 3 days but now it is once every 2 days. Here are some pics for ya.

Casey Jones

Head Band

Chem Dawg

The beginning of bud

 

[justiceman]

Outdoor Flower Update
Hey everyone! So I'm about 2 weeks into flowering with the girl's outside. They seem to be doing quite well for the most part. I will admit that the Chem's probably need a bit of N as they are starting to yellow. The rest are not far behind. I suppose this is about the time that my Super Soil runs out of nutrients. It's been roughly 45 days since I transplanted into it. The next time I make it I'm going to increase the strength by about 25% to see how much longer it lasts. I feel that this current batch turned out quite well and I was happy to see it didn't burn my plants in the least but I would like to see a lengthened nutrient release that lasts at least 60 days. Definitely a good base mix that can be built upon for sure. I can easily see myself using this SS idea for years to come at least as far as outside adventures go.

Here is what I have been feeding them as of late.

Feeding(8/7/10)
Compost tea
12 gallons:
4 cups EWC
4 cups Alaskan Humus
16TBSP Buswell guano mix
4TBSP soluble Kelp
180ml Ancient Amber(Fulvic Acid)
120ml Trinity
6tsp Molasses

Feeding(8/9/10)
per gallon
15ml humega
15ml huvega

Feeding(8/11/10)
250ppm cal mag
5.3ml Pura Vida Grow
1.3l Pura Videa Bloom
15ml Ancient Amber
PH 6.0
PPM=450(about .9EC)

Feeding(8/13/10)
Top Dressing:
EWC(1-0-0)
Vital Earths all purpose guano(7-7-2)
R/O water

As you can see the feeding's actually have some substance to them now hehe. As for the first one that is a compost tea. Here are some pictures of it.

The second feeding was a combination of humic acid(humega) and Trace minerals(huvega). I did that in order to hopefully revitalize the soil with any trace minerals that were missing or exhausted.

The third feeding was my attempt to correct the N def I started to notice. I know I could have fed stronger but I was wary of adding nutes to my soil after not feeding it anything for so long. So I stayed safe and fed it light to see how it reacted. It didn't really do much so I know I can feed stronger without any problems.

The last feeding happened out of an interesting yet annoying occurrence. My HM digital PH pen(PH-200) witch I purchased recently malfunctioned. So instead of measuring PH I applied a top dressing witch does not require PH adjustment. Here are some pictures for you guys.

Head Band

Chem Dawg(first one to produce noticeable resin. A good sign indeed)

Casey Jones(A little late compared to the others in terms of flowering. I suppose she will take a bit longer to mature)

HM Digital PH-200 Story
Unfortunately I noticed I was going to have problems from day 1 of the purchase. For one thing the electrode did not come in a storage solution(It is supposed to be constantly submersed in a storage solution when not in use). What do you know? When I checked it's calibration, it was off. Well I thought it was an acceptable margin for error at the time. I decided to disregard the lack of storage solution since I re-calibrated it and I assumed it was fine. That was definitely a red flag. Now when I used my pen I would first check its calibration every time as I was wary of it's ability(because of day 1). Every time it would drift about .20 so for example. The 4.01 solution should read 4.01 on the meter(or at least really close to that) but every time It would drift to somewhere between 4.15-4.22. Another red flag. So that persisted for about 2 months. I would recalibrate it every time I used it in order to achieve the correct reading(what a pain) Finally the end of it's day's came today witch just so happens to be Friday the 13th LOL. I went to calibrate it and what do you? The probe insists that my 4.01 solution is 7.01, and that my 7.01 solution is 10.01.

Wow so much for the reliability in auto calibration. Fortunately one is able to manually adjust the PH or so they say hehe. Even if one decides to manually adjust the PH on the HM digital PH-200 the numbers will not go above or past a certain point because essentially the meter is still auto sensing the solutions PH so it won't let it go past a certain point. My example. If the Pen thinks a solution should be 7.01 or somewhere around that it will assume that you are trying to reach 7.01 when you manually calibrate it. As a result of this assumption it won't let you go past a certain PH. For instance You won't be able to go below 5.5 or above 8.5. It's probably set up like that as a safe guard to ensure the auto calibration will always see 7.01 as 7.01, but in a sense it is holding me back from recalibrating my pen. Since my pen reads the 4.01 as 7.01 I can only calibrate it down to 5.5(in order to get it down to 4.01). If I try the auto calibrate after I manually adjust it to 5.5 it thinks the 4.01 solution is a 7.01 solution and re-calibrates back to 7.01 LOL. Luckily my pen is still under warranty so hopefully I can get a replacement probe. So either HM digital's PH-200 is unreliable, or I just so happened to get a bunk probe. I hope the correct answer is the latter.

Anyway I thought I would let all of you know about my experience with that pen so far.

Veg Tent Update
So the veg girl's are looking pretty sweet right now. I might even say they look a tad too sweet(as in too much N) so I'm going to start backing off a bit on the food just in case as I don't want to start locking out other nutrients. Here is what I have been feeding them as of late.

Feeding(8/5/10)
R/O water

Feeding(8/7/10)
250ppm cal mag
5.3ml Pura Vida Grow
1.3l Pura Videa Bloom
5ml Silica blast
15ml Ancient Amber
1ml Roots Excelurator
10ml Cannazym
PH 6.0
PPM=550(about 1.1EC)

Feeding(8/9/10)
250ppm cal mag
5.3ml Pura Vida Grow
1.3l Pura Videa Bloom
5ml Silica blast
15ml Ancient Amber
1ml Roots Excelurator
10ml Cannazym
PH 6.0
PPM=550(about 1.1EC)

Feeding(8/11/10)
250ppm cal mag
5.3ml Pura Vida Grow
1.3l Pura Videa Bloom
15ml Ancient Amber
PH 6.0
PPM=450(about .9EC)

Feeding(8/13/10)
R/O water

Here are some pictures of the girls.

 

[justiceman]

Hey everyone hope the grows are all going well. I'll admit I haven't been on posting updates as regularly as I should. Nor have I been looking at others journals as regularly as I should. I'm going to try updating one a week again. That should generally happen on Mondays or Tuesdays. I will also make a greater effort to check out whats happening in the community right now.

Tent Update
Finally the Tent is up and running. It is now set up the way I want it. I have two booster fans pushing air inside the tent(intake). and one inline fan exhausting air out of the tent(exhaust). I then have a separate inline fan that cools my hood(Air cooler). My fans inside for circulation are now hanging instead of being clipped on to the poles so now the chances of them falling on my plants have lowered.

So I have finally transplanted my clones into 2gal smart pots and put 9 of them into the 4x4 tent with a 400w 6.4k PSMH. I'll admit they were quite root bound as I was kind of lazy and didn't transplant them soon enough. As a result of my laziness they started to become deficient in Mg and N. I plan to LST them and then veg them for maybe 1 more week possibly more. I have been playing around with the idea of tying them down with beeline or possibly using string with weights attached in order to LST them. I'll figure it out real soon though. Here is a picture. Pure Coco with Smart Pots and PBP here we go! This is what I fed them for the transplant.

Feeding(8/21/10)
250 calmag
30ml PBP grow
20ml Silica Blast
60ml Anicent Amber
4ml Roots Excelurator
25ml Hygrozyme
15ml Trinity
Great White
PH: 5.9
PPM= 720(almost 1.5EC)

Veg Tent Update
So I took 3 of the clones and decided to turn them into moms/experiments. I transplanted the Casey Jones into the 2 gal smart pot, the Head Band in the 1 gal Geo pot, and the Chem Dawg in the 1 gal Root pot. I didn't vary the pot size on the Casey for any particular reason. The Casey just happened to get the 2 gal. It was all I had left in the archives. Here's a pic of the mom's. They also received this same feeding.

Feeding(8/21/10)
250 calmag
30ml PBP grow
20ml Silica Blast
60ml Anicent Amber
4ml Roots Excelurator
25ml Hygrozyme
15ml Trinity
Great White
PH: 5.9
PPM= 720(almost 1.5EC)

Outdoor Flower Update
So the girl's are finally putting out some decent resin and the nugs are starting to form up. I am quite excited. Not to much to say about them except it seems like the Casey Jones will certainly finish after the Chem Dawg and Head Band. So check them out and tell me what you think. Here is what they have been getting.

Feeding(8/13/10)
Top Dressing:
EWC(1-0-0)
Vital Earths all purpose guano(7-7-2)
R/O water

Feeding(8/15/10)
for 11 gal
250ppm cal mag
60ml Pura Vida Grow
90ml Pura Vida Bloom
165ml Humega
PH 6.0
PPM= 490

Feeding(8/17/10)
R/O water

Feeding(8/19/10)
per gallon
5ml mollasses

Feeding(8/21/10)
13.6ml PBP Bloom(150ml total)
2.7ml PBP Grow(30ml total)
10.9ml Humega(120ml total)
1ml Grow-N(11ml)(For CD and HB only)
PH: 6.3
PPM= 860(about 1.7EC)

Family shot

Casey Jones(the smaller of the two)

Head Band

Chem Dawg