Hola Granjeros Sweet Seeds Auto Fantasico

[Guest]

Hola, ....jars are full, help yourself to a canuto....thats about it for my Spanish!

 

So, many thanks to SS for running this comp, great prizes guys and show case for you. I was lucky enough to win some seeds from SS for a Cream Caramel picture last year. So not wanting to be greedy, I'm using those seeds for this diary. I got a nice selection to choose from  

 

So, times ticking and all, and having some other stuff to grow 12/12 when the weather warms a tad, I've gone for some auots. Cream Mandarine and Dark Devil and Trainwreck. Never smoked any other them, so always nice to try new strains.

 

I grow in an old wardrobe in the garage. Chilly for sure this time of year. All under 140w draw of LED,... and I'm one of them dirt growers, not quite full no till, but Living Soil, recycled & amended with plenty of  worm castings and topped up with regular Compost teas and occasional kelp tea. Indeed in this grow i've gone no till in one of the pots, having just chopped the last plant down a few weeks ago and kept the pot ticking over, plenty of worms munching away under the mulch.

 

Only bottle you'll find in my cupboards is Silicon and some left over fishmix for the toms. Everything else is in my soil mix or topdressed. Been growing this way for about a year now. (for transparency CM#2 is in mixture of Jacks magic, perlite & coco. I was running low on soil and just mixed some more, which is cooking. So I'm going to grow her with just kelp tea and see how she goes. )

 

Last grow I used  SIP's and was well happy with how the SIP (perlite tray) kept the soil nicely moist. Its quite different to wet dry cycle, and the aim is top keep the soil at a decent moisture all the way. 

 

Right then, these were popped on Boxing Day and had surfaced by New Years day. So we are on about day 23.

 

Had a few issues after these popped up. The first cream mandarine looked like she wasn't going to make it, so i popped another about 4 days later. Of course, she made it....as did the other which is about a week behind the rest. So i have Cream Mandarine #1 and #2. The Dark Devil came up like an absolute studd and hasn't blinked since. The Trainwreck started well....but unfortunately she's lagged behind and is going to be sacrificed to the others as mulch. Sad...but you'll see below that shes not worth keeping. I'll give her another week....more mulch ! 

 

So here some pics from when they were first potted up to the finals after about a week. The train wreck is the top left. She was started in that pot.Cream mandarine 1 bottom left, Middle is a gatecrasher and has no place in this forum (its an autoberry), Dark Devil far right and down at the bottom was the young cream mandarine #2. This was Jan 9th so 2 weeks ago.

 

 

 

 

Today....23rd Jan...

 

 

 

 

The Dark Devil has just started to get a bit of a bending. I'm only going to give her a couple of days, get the lower shoots up and bit. Shes about 2 days into flower. Left  to her own devices she looks like shes going grow a big solid main cola! Shes got a lovely dark almost purple look in her leaves already....so i'm hoping I got luicky and shes going give me some nice dark buds. Shes also putting out a fair old stench 

 

 

 

 

 

These are the Cream Mandaines, Number 1 and Number 2. 2 in the Jacks.

 

 

 

Cream Madarine #1 I decided to top......and see how she gets on. I topped her last night and responded well so far.....

 

 

 

 

 

CM#2 is a beaut looking plant, so deserved a picture all of her own

 

 

Almost forgot....the trainwreck...well as you can see, whilst shes perfectly formed shes a midget! Time is running out lady....

 

 

 

 

So, thats its.....let the stretch commence . Just seen the rules about clean grow rooms,,,,,, @Jaypp do a get a pass on the cleaniess front as its all about the microbes mate

 

Take it easy and my your Sweet grows flourish

 

eta - uploading pics with this new software on the PC is a doddle! Nice 

Edited January 23, 2017 by bobnudd

[Guest]

good luck dude

[Guest]

Nice selection @bobnudd

 

All the best for a good'un

 

peace

[Sweet Seeds-tommy]

Welcome to the contest mate

 

Seems like the ladies are doing great and they look very healthy

 

Keep us updated and all the best to your diary!

 

tommy

[AustrianToker]

Interesting way of doing things and the plants seem to love it.  Sometimes i wished i would recycle my compost...  perhaps one day.  And what is SIP?  What is wrong with the traditional watering compared to SIP?

 

[Guest]

 

 

Hi @AustrianTokker, thanks man. SIP is Sub Irregated Planter, the idea being that the plants sit on the perlite tray (or anything that wicks well).

 

Water wicks from the perlite in the SIP via capillary action to the plant. The fabric pots help a lot in the process. The plant takes water as its needed. 

 

All you do is pour plain water into the trays. I pour about 2-3 litres every 3-4 days at the moment. The only thing I add is Silicon every other watering, straight into the SIP.

 

This is really aimed at growing with Living Organic Soil / No-Till  though with a healthy microlife. You don’t want to be top watering organic nutes as its going stink the res out. I don’t know about chemical nutes as I don’t use them. Maybe you could put them in.  Anyway, pretty much everything the plants needs is already in my soil mix.

 

 

 Theres a few benefits  as I’ve noticed

 

1)      Potential for growers with mobility issues. This isn’t why I started using them, but I think its something that could be a big benefit. No shifting plants around, draining pots, run off etc. If you had your SIP on castors even easier to move around.  To me this could be the most important point. Once that pots on the SIP, you could leave it there all grow. You could even fill it will soil sitting on the SIP.

 

2)      It avoids a Wet / Dry cycle. Whislt this is suggeted when growing in normal dirt, or coco for aeration and soaking of the rootball, I’d noticed that growing organically it seemed counter intuuitive to either soak or let the soil dry. My aim is to keep the soil nicely moist to provide the best environment I can for the soil life. Flooding and drying out creates extreme of envionment. With the SIP you keep a farily even moisture level throughout the pot. If I feel the plants are slightly overwatered, just sit them off the tray for 12hrs. Although the top can dry out a bit, the mulch helps.

 

3)      No soil compaction ^^^.. so no need for wet dry to pull oxygen through the pot. Make sure theres plenty of aeration in your mix, and then fill your pots and give them a light  top watering. As the majority of watering is done from the bottom, the soil stays light and aerated. Its given me happy plants…..roots grow right through the fabric pots into the SIP’s within days of sitting them on there.

 

4)      It seems pretty idiot proof so far, so particualry good for me   Hard to under / overwater.. 

 

5)      Self Sufficney - I’ve been away for 5 days with no issues at all, using fairly small SIP’s. The larger the SIP, the more water you can add, the longer you can leave your plants. I reckon I could go two weeks at a push with a bigger SIP. 

 

6)      You can still top dress and apply light drenches. I’ll apply a kelp tea or compost tea every 7-10 days. I just avoid run off into the SIP.

 

Downsides…..

1)      Perlite can be messy. I’d recommend filling and wetting the trays outside initially. Once they are wet though theres no dust etc.

2)      Perlite can start to grow bit of algae on it. You can cover it with weed matting or something though to stop that. I might do that next time, but tbh its only cosmetic. 

3)      You need to add a tube to see how much water is in the SIP. You want the max water level to be about 1-2 inches below the surface of the perlite so the pot is not sat in water.

4)      It was a bit tricky at first keeping the soil temp up in depth of winter. Sussed that though by warming the water to about 25-30c before pouring into the SIP and not having a fan blowing on the fabric pots. Now its around 19-20c.

 

[AustrianToker]

Wow and thanks @bobnudd for the extensive explanation.  Not sure i will ever apply the technique myself, but it makes sense.  

[rabthegrower]

Hi and welcome to the competition  I was having hassle getting on-line or I would have said hi sooner   cracking start to your diary mate, looking forward to seeing your grow. all the best

[Fragg]

@bobnudd Nice to see this diary appear in the comp mate! Great start too with all the plants looking nice and healthy even the wee runt! Good choice of strains too, Trainwreck was recommended to me by Sweet Seeds as a pain relief strain awhile ago and because she finishes so fast I've grown her out 4 times now as the quickest way to get some usable meds when supplies are low

 

Like the SIP idea as I dont use wet dry either as dry is not desirable for the wee buggers imho, constantly moist I aim for and your technique seems great for that plus the added advantage of being able to leave my grow, 3 days max atm which can cause issues :/

 

ATB for the rest of the grow and I'll park my butt at the back here for the rest of the show

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, Fragg said:

I'll park my butt at the back here for the rest of the show

 Always a pleasure to see you bud. I'll let you sort the tunes out   Be interested to see your thoughts on the sip if you do try one. The root growth is incredible

[Guest]

nice diary and yet another grow method which is new to me which is no problem as your explanations make everything quite clear. all the best with the rest.

[vince noir rock n roll star]

you gonna have some of the tastiest buds in this competition ..just a shame you arent allowed to share it all at the end .

[Guest]

@Elvis Reg cheers mate, yours are looking beasts   @vince noir rock n roll star anything you grow yourself taste better hey, but a big sweet seeds smokeadoke would be awesome...who knows what could happen in the dam! 

 

Quick update, made easier not having to duck around with bb codes! Man alive it brass monkeys up here, pleased I'm running 24/7. Pity the boys on 12/12 at the moment 

 

 

 

So the ladies going well, gave them a good inch of worm castings out my bin. Production halted in protest at temps in the shed, but fair bit to harvest so in that went, with a couple of worms no doubt. trainwreck got chopped up last night and mulched. Cannabis cannibalism   . 

 

Dark Devil Praying to the led god above

 

 

The topped CM popped 4 tops, but twisted might have over done it a tad, and CM2 loving the jacks. She's drinking well and had 1 1/2l of  kelp tea tonight

 

flicked the lights to bloom, want some more height please!

 

 

 

Keep it sweet 

[vince noir rock n roll star]

looking happy campers in there .all nice n green chap ,crack on

[Guest]

This is interesting to see, looking very healthy