New grower, new to forums seeking advice

[Wrangler556]

Hey Cyclone,

 

Ive already recieved a few packs of seeds, ordered them roughly when I set up this mystery bag seed grow.

 

Used PlanetSkunk and Nirvana seedbank, both got through ok

 

Got "Bigbud" from Nirvana - I read its a easy strain for begginers.

 

From Planetskunk got "Jorge's Diamonds #1" and they chucked in a free batch of "Australian Blue X Sugarbabe(whatever that is)

 

Plan was/is: Learn as much as I can on these unknown bagseed, move onto Bigbud and fine tune my growing skills some more, then the Indica/Sativa Diamonds if alls going well.... then who knows

 

Actually... I still have a few bagseed left, might germinate them and use them as a few extra guinea pigs first

 

I'm learning more and more everyday, spend heaps of time on these forums going through almost every topic , even if it has nothing to do with my growing situation or setup

 

Anyway, thanks for the input

 

Oh, , just another general question for anyone thats nice enough to answer: These plants have had a rough time so far, are they likely to recover at all if everything is corrected, or will they always be stunted and rough as guts, ie: is it worth trying to fix them, or should I just plant some freshies?

Wrangler.

Edited September 1, 2008 by Wrangler556

[Cyclone]

Oh, , just another general question for anyone thats nice enough to answer: These plants have had a rough time so far, are they likely to recover at all if everything is corrected, or will they always be stunted and rough as guts, ie: is it worth trying to fix them, or should I just plant some freshies?

Wrangler.

 

I would personally go with fresh seeds, asuming your not in a great hurry. Mainly because, well yeah, Firstly the plants since birth have been traumatized with such acidic water.

Secondly there is a pretty high chance the strain your growing is an outdoor, or an all round strain. You wanna go for the hydro engineered seeds imo, especially if you want to get the biggest and best buds possible.

thirdly the mother plant, and father, probably a herme, I doubt they were Prime plants, and you cant beet a specialist marajuana breeder from Holland or Canada who use the best plants to mate with, and get the best seeds possible. Its more like getting a mut from the pound, or paying $$$ to get a Bloodline pedigree. hehe, how you train it, and how you feed the dog will obviously make a massive difference too

 

But in the end of the day, if your plants are recovering, and you get some females, may as well keep them if you dont have any other plants growing, or focus's. Speeking of which, how are they going? and have you figured out what mediums your going to use on your new seeds?

 

Good luck

 

- Cyclone

[Wrangler556]

Im thinking fresh seeds sounds like a good idea. Im not in a huge rush, but I use the smoko as pain relief, as nothing prescribed has ever helped... and my stash has almost run out, but I can cope for a couple of months, did much longer before I got onto weed.

 

As for the condition of the current plants.... well, 2 are bloody terrible - rough as guts, surprised they havent keeled over yet.

 

And the 3rd, isnt nearly as bad.

 

Heres some pics:

 

 

It actually doesnt look nearly as bad out of under the HID. Mind you, I trimmed of all the really sickly looking leaves, pinched the top off when I transplanted it. Its got spots on some leaves which I believe is from the PH issue. Leaves I trimmed off had necrotic patches, twisted, burnt, you name it. This plant also has a lime green color on the very top - doing research, thats from either a nute lock out due to PH... or getting to cold at night, but my min temps at night are 19-20°C, so I dont think that could be it, but who kows, maybe its fussy Also, it would be over 7 weeks old now, and it only 15cm tall.

 

I think I can save this one. I would have thought it would look like the other two being fried in acidic medium. must be a tougher plant to kill.

 

Ive put them in coco/perlite, I dont mind it, and I think i'll keep using it as a medium for future grows, although im having trouble getting the PH right, in a 10litre pot put 30 litres of PH adjusted water of 5.8 through, and the PH runoff barely moved Ive got the pot with the plant above to 5.2, id like to see it go a bit higher. PH in the other 2 plants didnt move at all... thinking their a lost cause now... Flush was yesterday after i discovered my PH meter was way off.

 

Should I keep flushing, or just add some coco nutes and see if it comes up gradually with regular waterings?

 

Other thing im trying to get a hang of too... is watering coco, kinda hard to tell when it needs it, unlike soil, just after watering moisture meter says moist right down to bottom, atm, im watering about 1litre every 2nd day.

 

Im stoned and feel like ive been typing here for hours

 

Oh Bonus: My partner just agreed to let me turn unused back bedroom into a grow room! More room, easier to control everything, im excited! 3m x 2.7 x 2.3, that will keep me busy for next few hours planning

 

Right, im off for now! No wait... just checked plants before lights out, the plant above has pistils!!! First node right below that light green patch on top, has 2 sets of little white hairs on either side! Im keeping it now for sure hehe! I hope it can be mended.

 

Ok, now im off, thanks again for advice/input

 

Wrangler

Edited September 2, 2008 by Wrangler556

[samboo]

sounds like things are coming together Wrangler. Adjust the PH of the water to what you want the PH of the coco to be.

Good to hear you have a female!

 

Any more updates?

[danoz]

hey dude even a pH of five will hardly affect your plants even though its not an ideal pH. pH only causes major problems when some nutrients are marginally deficient already. High pH >7 can be pretty bad for weed because iron (Fe) aquisition can be impaired amongst other things.

 

In my opinion here are some things you could look at.

 

1 - your plants are young and 600watts is a fairly strong light 60cm is too close (for seedlings) i have had this exact experiance personally plants looked like yours do/did with the edges all burnt looked like a nutrient deficiency. Furthermore the growth rate was very slow. For young plants lift the light at least 1m above plants even higher is better. When i did this with my plants within a 2 weeks they looked 200% better and bigger.

 

2 - water. You said your using a organic soil mix. Is it a pot mix or a soil mix?. You also said that the bottom of the mix is still wet?

i have a rough theory as to what might be going on here. It has to do with soil physics.

Ever wondered what makes a potting mix potting mix,? and different from soil?. Its all about the way the water flows through them. A potting mix is very free draining and is so course that water can flow from it to air. In other words when you water a pot mix the water can run from the bottom. Soil on the other hand cannot (unless its a very light soil) pass water from it (the soil) to air, in other words water is conducted through soil rather than flowing through it.

 

Its all about the average pore size of the soil. With pores being the tunnels in the soil. Soil has a small average pore size, pure clay has a very small average pore size, and potting mix has a very large average pore size.

 

Now what happens when you fill a straw with water blocking one end with your finger, take your finger away and water falls out. This is like potting mix pores - very large. large enough to allow water to fall through.

 

Soil pores are more like pen ink tubes (you the no the plastic tube holding ink in a pen) - if you filled them with water and turned them upside down they wouldnt empty the water stays inside. Therefore if you fill a pot with soil it will not drain because the average pore size is so small the water will not flow from the soil to air EVEN IF U PUT A LAYER OF GRAVEL.

 

So then could explain whats happening with your pots they could be water logged. hahaha long way to explain i no but usefull principal to know none the less.

 

 

Aside from the physics of water infiltration and average pore sizes.

 

Move your light up!

Dont stress so much about pH. Its called weed for a reason its ment to be fucken tuff and easy to grow. Secondly man nitrate is nitrate whats the diff between nitrate from cow manure and from fert - None. If your soil has enough organic matter in it then dont be afrain to give it a good all purpose feed with something like thrive or osmocote - but thats all personal opinion stuff. the pesticide side of organics though yeah alot of merit.

 

With all that crap aside forget your bad seeds bastard seedlings kill them and start with your new seeds. again been there done that couldnt wait for seeds to arive to planted bag seeds in the mean time - 2 X hermaphrodites later and one very long fucking maturation time i learnt my lesson the weed wasnt to bad though.

 

anyway welcome and have fun learning above all.

remember weed growers are like the worst mix of fishermen, hunters, and home gardeners, they talk more shit then fishermen and hunters put together and have more pointless remidies and garden advice than a retirement home.

[Wrangler556]

Heya fellas,

 

Thanks samboo, think I got the PH sorted out, its now steady around 6.0 in the runoff.

 

Update-

 

Well, its only been a week since my last post, and I think ive made some progress.

 

For the plants this week, made up a new grow room (Unused bedroom), adjusted their PH to about perfect, gave them some good feeds every second day - Canna coco nutes, silica, Rhizo + Zym, Superthrive in RO water, and I gotta say their loving it.

 

Even the rough as guts plants are showing new healthy looking growth.

 

Picies:

 

Heres the plant from last post: She's becoming a bushy little thing. Thinking maybe I should of let her grow up before topping her.

 

 

Pistils!

 

One of the roughies: has some nice new growth... if ya can ignore the dead leaves eveywhere Still has a way to go...

 

 

New plant: decided to give the girls a companion, shes really healthy (its a her too). Was sitting on the window sill for last 4 weeks, and as soon as i put her under the lights and gave her some nutes, she exploded!

 

 

And, heres a quick shot of new room: Going to put a 1.8 x 1.2 meter piece of MDF on that table and install a Flood and drain table for next grow, might even try a Sea of Green with it.

 

Exhaust Fan: 250mm Centri was a noisy bastard, so made a box for it. Complete inside is lined with carpet underlay. Fan is sitting in a rubber lined cradle within, and every spare ounce of space in the box is stuffed with foam/pillow fluff. Can barely hear it now, even when in the room

 

 

So, its coming along nicely now

 

Thanks again everyone for the advice to getting me back on track

 

Cheers,

 

Wrangler.

[Wrangler556]

Heya Danoz,

 

Thanks for that info on soil

 

I actually transplanted these troublesome buggers to a coco/perlite mix bout 2 weeks ago, and they've taken to it like a duck to water.

 

Not sure I Like soil yet, might try to get some Searles Premium Potting mix, heard lots of good things about it in these forums. Main reason I changed them away fromsoil is I wanted a more hands on medium, soil was a kinda a water and forget type deal, although, I screwed that up haha.

 

As for the lights, I completely get ya on the too close thing, been reading you need to let them adjust from a young age and move it closer as they grow up, and I clearly had them too close as seedlings( yet another contributing factor to them performing piss poorly)

 

Right now, their actually only 45cm from the light, but are liking it at this stage- Ive got pretty good ventilation in the new room now too, so its not as hot under the light, cant even feel the heat with my hand at plant tops ( have fan blowing right at the light/ plant tops)

 

For my next grow ive built a little cabinet with CFL's to go easy on them during first couple weeks, then i'll move them under the 600 to finish vegging/flowering

 

Just some veggie/various herb seeds testing it out atm

 

Im learning heaps every day here Next grow = big bud = All good....hopefully

 

Cheers,

 

Wrangler.

[danoz]

No Worries and yeah after all that dribble about porosity and stuff all i was trying to say is dont use soil in pots use potting mix seems obvious but i no alot of people try it. Soil doesnt drain properly in pots.

 

Neway seems like you might be on a steep learning curve have fun.

[pisspotgrower]

Great lookin setup mate....very nice and clean....good luck:)

[Chronmasta]

Great lookin setup mate....very nice and clean....good luck:)

I agree ....plenty of room for a very productive garden ........

 

Thinking ya could have a mother/veg(250w or 400w MH) section with a couple of bloom sections(400w + 600w HPS`s) .......that way you could harvest every month .......

So yeah, i rekon if ya decide to top any, maybe ya might like to use the top(s) as a new mum(s)?.........cloning in rockwool is bloody easy mate .......

 

Keep up the good work mate

 

 

All the best,

 

Chron