If at first you don't succeed. Run 2

[flylowgethigh]

Run #2, and this time I mean it, dammit! One each fem seed wet (touch of H2O2 and aloe) this afternoon.

SB - Reserva Privada Strawberry Banana
AK47 - Serious AK-47
SA - Serious Strawberry Akeil
HOG - Humboldt OGK

 

[gizmo666]

good luck hope its successful for you

 

[Fitzera]

You got this brother!

 

[Fakir710]

Good luck and best wishes dude, wich medium you planning to use?

 

[flylowgethigh]

Thanks for stopping in and the encouragement, folks. I made a lot of 'living soil', and really want to try to make that system work. I pulled 40 more gallons from my tub (it had the edges frozen in Feb), tried to get the worms I saw, and filled 4ea 10 gallon fabric bags. Now comes the tricky part - feeding the soil and worms. I still do not have a handle on that, but do have more stuff here that is supposed to help. I need to know what stuff and how much to use. The plants will flower in 4 SWICK tubs with 10 gallon fabric pots.

See https://www.icmag.com/forum/marijuan...r-my-first-run for the big screw-ups I made on the first attempt, which are still on-going.

I have two tents side by side, and the best 4 of those 8 poor plants (7 gallon fabric pots) are gonna be guinnie pigs for my SWICK. The plan is to start these new seeds in dixie cups with the soil as-is (basic mix, Ph 6.7). These 2nd run plants will go from the cups to the pots with the soil already fed (as best as I can figure), and that I plan to be growing a cover crop on in the meanwhile in the pots. They can veg with top watering, until I am ready to kick out the guinnie pigs, and put these new plants on the SWICK.

This time things are better. I have tents to go into, and they are working pretty well. Plus, it's not 15*F outside. And a bunch of mistakes already have been made. I'm collecting IPM supplies too. This lung room needs a storage cabinet for all the stuff I am accumulating, so I can keep the clean look. Stay tuned, and please help when you see me screwing up.

Meanwhile, here are the guinnie pigs sitting on the wet SIP tubs in the flower tent. They went in today, and will help me get the ventilation dialed in with lights running. If this SWICK system works (it looks like it is working great), it will be nice to only have to fill the reservoir every now and then.

 

[flylowgethigh]

Hooray, that SWICK system is working and the plants are taking water. I replaced what was in the reservoir cause it had a little chem smell (being all new, including the rinsed perlite), and replaced it with Ph 6.9 tap (tap is usually 7.8 here).

A tale of the tails: All 4 have tails, and are in dixie cups! I heated a nail and burned drain holes in the bottom of the cups first. They will be on "stands" in the nursery, and I will not let the roots dry out this time. Need to build my nursery up proper now.

In the meanwhile waiting for them to pop on the high tech windowsill. If it ain't broke...

I dug out this thread below, and will get my soil info from the true sources now... There are direct quotes from those first posts on the BAS site.

https://www.icmag.com/forum/marijuan...cling?t=241964

 

[flylowgethigh]

Tails are nice but I want heads. Three have popped up so far, waiting on the Serious Akeil to join the party.



End of the day and still no joy on the Serious Strawberry Akeil freebie.

So today I wet another Strawberry Banana, and one of these:



Day ana half later on 3/13 we have two tails... put 'em in cups and set them on the window sill. Poor little Strawberry AKeil isn't coming up, even though I swear the seed had a tail. These certainly do!

 

[flylowgethigh]

The three pack leaders are still doing OK. Nothing from the other three cups, yet.




Edit. 3/17 and the status is the same. Three sprouts (Strawberry Banana in the middle is doing the best), but the other three no joy, yet.

The pack leaders, next to a very miserable transplanted sorry azz misfit. Strawberry Banana in the middle. I so want that to finish well.

 

[VerdantGreen]

Good start, and good idea to run the wick system with test plants..... i personally don't use wicks all the time because i think it keeps the soil a little too wet, but that may well be just my soil. I use them when i go away for a few days though...
Anyway, good luck, and my advice is to try and keep it as simple as possible... the more variables, the harder it is to know what is or isn't working or making a difference.
VG

 

[flylowgethigh]

Thanks Mr VerdantGreen! I have 3 cups still with no head, that the beans had a tail but the plant won't come up. I have moved them to a warmer spot. One of them is one of your Lemon Bubba, as I am calling it.

Take a peek at my first grow thread to see the four plants that made it onto a SWICK. They are in 7 gallon bags. Automated watering is the way for me. The other four in the other tent are being top watered, and one is in a 14" self watering hillbilly sip. I will have automated top water for the four or five plants in this batch in 9" bottom watering plastic pots, that I think should be easy to transplant from, into the 10 gallon bags that this 2nd run will be using.

 

[flylowgethigh]

The three amigos are chugging right along. These are on the 18/6 cycle like the misfits. They are getting a good watering daily. Sure hope they aren't catching any bad habits in there. The other three cups have issues.

 

[flylowgethigh]

I have no idea what went wrong with the 3 seeds that had tails and didn't pop, but only one has shown any sign of life. It is the second Strawberry Banana (SB2), and here is a pic that you can see how the root coiled like a snake (can see the tip of the root on left). I suspect the coarseness of the soil, or bad luck on the seed drop into the hole. Never had issues at the seed pop stage before. An autopsy of the 2 cups that failed had one with root about 1 1/2 long, down in the middle of the cup, no head. Nothing in the other cup found. The seeds had tails when they went into the cups..

3/18:



I covered that root tip, and gave it a chance... Never underestimate he will to survive in nature. This is 3/20:



Since I have a SB that is doing well, and they are all fems, I have wet 2 more of the Lemon Bubba seeds, hoping to find a 4th plant for the run. This time they will soak 12 hours tail or not, then go into more finely graded soil to hopefully come up, using gravity to determine which direction to go.

I hate to lose the 2 weeks the others have as a head start.

 

[Im'One]

I think if you popped a light down on top of her she will straighten herself out...too much water can create damping off problem but I'm wondering if a bug ate the heads off? I'm growing in soil also but I do not use home made soil indoors. I get way too many bugs if I do. My indoor grows are always with new soil such as happy frog. I cut my happy frog with perlite and coco or peat moss. The peat is a pain because it has to be soaked to charge it or it repels water.

 

[flylowgethigh]

The three amigos are doing well. One had some leaf issues when I put them under the new nursery set-up, so they went back in the tent. SB on the right has been stout since the initial soak, when it had the biggest tail. Now it has the biggest leafs. Man I want that one to do well. Such delicious dope.



The two LB seeds are in cups after soaking 12 hours. One started a tiny tail, and both had sunk. Little SB2 is fighting for dear life. No bug ate him, but I have seen some red colored mites on the top of the soil. I sprinkled some neem meal on top, but I need to get going with an IPM regimin.

SB2 is a real fighter, just won't quit. The 2 Lemon Bubbas, no joy. We need a 4th for the big tent.

 

[flylowgethigh]

Well, I had nematodes in the fridge, and I broke them out. There haven't been any mites seen, and more importantly the LBs are showing some signs of life. SB2 is also hanging in there. Once again, lessons are learned. It looks like I will have the experience of seeing how healthy and wimpy plants do on the same run again, and the lesson is I should pop 2 of each bean I want to run. It takes 4 for a tent.

And IPM, so I am getting beneficial nematodes for the soil that will be in the 10 gallon bags for the 4 winners.

SB1 and the AK47 are doing great.

AK47 on left, SB1 on right. that plant has been stout all along!

The HOG seems to be a little LED shy for now. I put it down on the floor.

SB2, what a fighter. So much happier without mites. The granules are what the nematodes come in.

Lemon Bubba 1, also recovering from the mites

Here comes LB2 to join the party. I had written that one off as a goner.

Edit 4/8: Turns out LB2 was a goner. It never developed any leaves, so the live stalk is headless.

 

[flylowgethigh]

The three amigos got moved into a bottom watering 1 gal pot. These had fine long roots that had started to wrap in the cup. Soil inoculated.
SB1:

AK47:

HOG:

Contenders for the 4th spot SB2 and LB1. LB2 has yet to show green.

 

[flylowgethigh]

They lived through a good watering with nematodes to kill off fungus gnats. LB (on top) is looking stronger than SB2 at this point.

 

[flylowgethigh]

A little update. All are doing OK, except SB like crinkled leafs. I like the lankiness of the HOG. As usualAK47 just soldiers on. LB is still growing. i m going toleve them alone for a couple daze and see how they fare.

HOG:

SB:

AK47:

LB and SB2:

 

[VerdantGreen]

coming on ! If the fungus gnat problem persists i would suggest taking the straw off the top in order to let the surface dry out more quickly, and maybe stop the auto watering and let the pots dry out a bit inbetween waterings. the gnat life cycle relies on consistently wet soil, and access to the soil for the adults.
One good skill to learn is to 'shuck' (as in pick up ) the pots to see how heavy they are and judge if they need watering or not. a handful of neem meal scattered over the surface would help kill them... some people use a barrier like sand/perlite, dryer sheets or fabric to stop the adults access to the soil. they can also lay eggs through the holes in the bottom of the pot.
VG

 

[flylowgethigh]

Thanks VG. The new plants have clean sticky pads but they are in the same tent as the rejects from my first run, and those are the ones with bugs. I have a bunch of nematodes in the soil, and have been spraying with PureCrop1, but there are little black (thrips?) that are still alive and getting on the sticky. I will order some Spinosad and see if that works.

The SB is wrinkling the leaves. Why? I have not watered in 2 days. The pot waters from the bottom.

AK47 is doing fine (as usual)

The HOG is a very stretchy plant. Nice change

LB1, almost ready for a bigger pot This will probably be the 4th plant for the big tent.

and little SB2, just won't give up