Critical Jack

[Green demon]

Watering with coco has been a lil bit confusing to me. People say treat cuttings and seedlings like they're in soil with wet/dry cycle til the plants have developed their root system. Then start increasing the frequency of watering or transplant. 

 

Well I let the coco get dry between a couple of waterings and didn't see roots when I would've in soil. I figure it was because I fed them and the spike in the EC as the coco dried stunted them. I flushed them and the next day roots were everywhere.

 

I then read a post that described the watering cycle of coco as instead of wet/dry, it should be saturated/moist. When pinching the coco between the fingers, if water comes out it's saturated, if nothing comes out its moist, so water now before it gets dry. He also said roots hate dry coco.

 

This all made sense, so I've been closely monitoring the coco and have watered/fed one a day for two days now. A little too early to tell if I'm over doing it but the one Critical that wasn't happy is starting to pick up. Leaving the eco lights on throughout the night helped the temps dramatically, so it's around 25 degrees Hps on, and 20 degrees off.

 

 

 

 

[Dinafem-Mark]

It looks like the swap to coco has thrown you a bit but this is all a learning process and you now know that coco compared to soil does need to be more on the moist side of things to get the best growth out of the plants

 

Which I must say are coming along very well indeed

 

Your temps are bang on and all is looking well

 

Thank you for the added pictures very much appreciated and keep up the great work! 

 

Until the next one

 

All the best 

 

Mark..

[Green demon]

6 hours ago, Dinafem-Mark said:

It looks like the swap to coco has thrown you a bit but this is all a learning process and you now know that coco compared to soil does need to be more on the moist side of things to get the best growth out of the plants

 

Nail on the head there @Dinafem-Mark, it totally threw me. Like you say it's all part of the learning process. I'll never treat coco like soil again, always moist.

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Which I must say are coming along very well indeed

Thanks again mate. Now I'm watering/feeding everyday to run off the plants have responded pretty bloody quick. Bless them they were looking peaky, stunted, with slow root development and growth. 

As soon as I kept the coco moist they started having a party. Colour has started to look a healthier deeper green, roots are popping out and growth has kicked off. The girls were even praying when I checked on them last so well happy with their improvement.

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Your temps are bang on and all is looking well

Got to love the fan controller for this! I would love a controller for the lights too! Homer drool!

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Thank you for the added pictures very much appreciated and keep up the great work! 

 

Until the next one

 

All the best 

 

Mark..

My pleasure mate, photography is a hobby I know nothing about, don't want to know anything about, but love all the same. Going to get a new camera soon so the pics will hopefully go next level. Panasonic TZ100 the shiznit by all accounts as far as point and shoot cameras go!

 

 

Now for a little update.

For the last two days I've been reading the CMH/CMD thread and all of Golden Syrups works. Legend. I'm definitely going down this route when I upgrade my light system next, can't decide between the Sunsystem LEC or the Dimlux 315, but I'm only on page 60 of 160 so plenty of ways to go  

 

I'm thinking the LEC cause I've never used parabolic and I love the look and sound but I'm not sure if they'll work with a controller whereas I know the dimlux will. 

Anyway in the thread Golden Syrup mentions getting a diffuser for a spare RVK to even out temp and humidity in his tent.

Solid gold nugget that. Everywhere in my house the humidity is 70% except under my light it was 40%. My bud was hanging and on the rack but the humidity was 70% even at the top of the tent. I got my spare RVK, tied her up and dangled her, then left her running, even without a difuser the humidity equalised? at 50% top and bottom of the tent. Cheers Golden you saved my bud!

Heres the RVK on its humidity mission

Reading so much about CMH I kind of feel so old school with my super out dated Hps , and it's shit spectrum with useless lumens. I want umols, I don't know what they are but I want them. Useable measurement of light stupid. 

So I felt pathetic with my seedlings under a hps so I put a bit of effort in and now the seedling are bathing under dual 250W Hps and MH. I feel a bit better now.

Now for the plants.

Now they're being fed everyday this girl below is really starting to get her colour back. She's just a mini Jack version now so with a bit of TLC she'll catch up

The big Jack is looking good, with nice tight nodes considering they've been raised under 600w Hps before the 250w, and then back to the 600 dimmed to 400w  

The two Exodus are a bit smaller than the Jack but looking nice with the same tight nodes.

 

Edited September 8, 2017 by Green demon

[Green demon]

 

Why? Different class.

Seriously get goosebumps listening to this 

[Dinafem-Mark]

The could is bouncing back great and we now have some nice healthy ladies that are looking very happy

 

Nice work so far, keep it up mate

 

All the best 

 

Mark..

[Green demon]

Thanks for the praise, stickers, and seed poster @Dinafem-Mark! Loving the look of a few of these Dinafems strains, and really glad you sent that, handy to have to flowering times of the CJs  Nice to see its pretty short with a good yield, always a bonus.

Heres the smokin tin now appropriately decorated.

The Dinamed looks luuuuush

 

Update on the CJs and XOs

 

I decided to have a little experiment, why not? Just can't help myself. I started watering the girls three times a day. I really wanted to see if it was true, you can't overwater in coco. 

Well the girls seem to be loving it and it make sense from what I've read, just had to see it to believe it.

Ive also started a watering diary having read an article by a cannabis growing consultant. It involves measuring and recording EC and pH, before and after. So once the solution is mixed up and then record the runoff.

 

It seems overboard but it's helped already. I'm too used to organics and guessing how much to feed and when. Which is what I've been doing up until now. So in doing all this measuring and recording I've learnt that I was over feeding and so did a rinse/flush to bring the waste EC in line with what was going in. Two of the plants want feeding at 1 EC, one at 1.1 and the other at 0.9.

PH slightly raises on the waste for all which apparently indicates the plants uptaking nutrients.

 

The Critical Jack that's doing well has been showing signs of stress. The puffed up leaves I think was down to humidity being too low. It's not something I've ever cared about in veg but I'm taking this hobby seriously now, I smoke too much not to!

 

So low humidity in veg isn't good because obviously the plant is stressed, transpiring too much, and not growing as quickly or as efficiently as it could be, not good. So in reading about low humidity I learnt a bit about VPD, or Vapour Pressure Deficit.

 

Relative humidity is a measurement of water vapour in the air. When humidity is high, vapour pressure is high, an unseen force pushing against the plants making it harder for them to transpire. Conversely in low humidity there is low vapour pressure making it easy for plants to lose water via the leaves.

 

So in dropping the lights as close as possible the fans have been working overtime to reduce the temp. The increased airflow reduced humidity, and then the higher temperature also sustains a lower humidity. All this left the CJ pissed off. 

 

Lesson learned, I got too greedy with the lights putting them too close. If one factor is out, everything goes to shit. So I raised the lights which dropped the temp which slowed the fans, and I added a ton of dishes with water and aimed a fan at them. Humidity now at 50% temps 22/26 depending.

Ive left the lights on 18/6 because it's just too cold, and I'm having to run an oil heater to keep the temps at 20 degrees lights off. 

Rvk aimed at the fan

Critical Jack with puffed up leaves

Critical Jack recovering from my coco incompetence 

One of my cats snuck into the tent and left his mark

 

[Green demon]

So the girls reached their sixth node birthday (except stunted CJ). I celebrated by chopping off their heads 

Cruel to be kind  

Here they are after their haircut

I topped above the third node and removed the leaves and branches at the first and second node, leaving just the pair of growth tips and leaves at the third node.

Before topping I trimmed off the branches and leaves at the fourth node, and trimmed the remaining leaves. This is to save time after making the clone cut.

Once the tip is cut off I slice the bottom with a scalpel at a 45 degree angle and then gently scrape the sides of the stem to reveal the white core. The growth tip then goes into rooting hormone, then a hydrated peat pellet, and then into the propagator. I mist the lid but not the plants.

50/50 whether they work or not, there wasn't much stem to work with seeing as the nodes were so tight but I have found tiny cuttings like these can't root quick a fook, in a manner of a few days.

 

Edited September 15, 2017 by Green demon
Double post

[Dinafem-Mark]

Nice job on the topping and hair cut mate going to be very interesting to watch this unfold

 

Lovely looking plants and some excellent dedication to detail also thank you for the added pictures and the detailed update very much appreciated

 

Keep up the great work mate and until next time

 

All the best 

 

Mark..

[Green demon]

Thanks a lot Mark it's my pleasure! It's been pissing down cats and dogs outside so I've had to resort to smoking inside, in a rental, not allowed. So I rigged up an old filter  with an RVK, boxed it up, and hey presto, what smoke?

 

The second pH pen in two days has arrived, got this one for £30 down from £50. Added bonus it measures the temp as well.

So the coco in the pots was a bit dry from a day between feeds so I figured it was as good a time as any to pot up. I had a bag of perlite for years that I've never used so I figured I might as well mix it in now I'm officially hydro it doesn't seem so wrong. The girls as they were.

Layer of hydroton 

Then coco mixed with perlite

Get the shape of the pot moulded in coco

Knock off the layer of hydroton from the roots

Hey presto, into the 7.5l root pruners

Thats all folks!

 

[Green demon]

So this morning the girls looked ready for a bit of bondage, bar one of course.

 

Only trouble being I couldn't find anything other than copper wire for securing them down. Well, as they say one thing leads to another. I found that copper was okay to use but it can be used in a different way.

So the other use for copper wire, grounding. Have a read and watch here

https://www.michiganmedicalmarijuana.org/topic/48531-grounding-your-grow/

I'm a trained sparky so it cost me nothing but five minutes to strip some wire and connect my plants the Earth.

Shit is getting Frankenstein in here

I removed neutral and live pins from a plug, striped the live and neutral from a length of three core flex. Connected one end of the earth to the plug and the other end to an electrode placed into the rootball and daisy chained to each plant.

 

It made removing runoff an arse so I drilled a hole in the 2'x2' tray and raised three legs up, voila, flood and drain low tech  

[Green demon]

And because I've got waaaay too much time on my hands the cuts got earthed too in case they do root bless them.

[Dinafem-Mark]

Some super interesting tech being used in this thread @Green demon I've never seen plants "earthed" before so will be definitely watching this with interest

 

I've started to ask shipping to include one of the growth rate posters in all requests as it is a very handy, easy to read guide also nice to see the seeds landed safe and sound

 

Nice job on the bondage (lst) this has definitely opened up the plants and will now allow for maximum light distribution

 

Nice job Jerry rigging your "anti smoke" device I had to do something similar due to a nosey next door neighbour it was getting to much not being able chill in our own home with out the police being called so in the end we moved

 

Things are looking Great and love the attention to detail and thank you for the added pictures very much appreciated! 

 

Keep up the great work mate and until next time

 

All the best 

 

Mark..

[Green demon]

Howdy @Dinafem-Mark good to see you've still got time to swing by even though you now have to wear two hats @HSO-Mark  Hope you're keeping busy, but not too busy mate!

Regards the earthing tech, I haven't ever seen it used before and to buy a kit can run into the hundreds of dollars  Being a hippy though I'm familiar with the principle of grounding, walking barefoot to connect with the earth, something to do with electrolytes. Good 

To be honest there's no way of knowing what effect it will have until I can compare it on clones, even then it will be far from scientific. My best guess is its another small thing to do that can help optimise growing conditions. If everything is out of whack then there's no magic fix, but if everything is optimum then those little tweaks will have an effect. I really think the grounding tech will come into its own for mother plants aiding with longevity .

 

The growth rate poster is a great idea TBH I'd like to see every seedbank include one with their seeds. Thanks for getting them out so quick mate I'm really stoked to have these genetics in my garden. Not only was the delivery rapid, I'm very impressed with the germination speed. I can't believe the Earthing has made such a difference but right now these seedlings are about a day ahead of anything I've grown before.

 

Ah bro reading that about the neighbours and cops fuckin gave me chills, flash back a year ago. I've got the neighbour from hell, an ex marine that hated weed yet thought being an alcoholic and getting banned from every pub in town was okay. One night I'm chilling, watching a movie, blazing a joint, next thing the front door sounds like it's going to get broken in two. I thought the old bill were coming in. I opened the door and he screamed at me for ten minutes, when I refused to come outside he threatened to kill me.

He started sabotaging my car, doing all sorts of crazy shit. One day I went out and I caught him letting my tyres down. He massively misunderstood me. Thought I was a some stoner pussy to be bullied. No, I'm a stoner grower that don't need no 5 0 turning up. But shit that was my limit. I told him we settle this now. Little punk ran away and a day later the old bill turned up on my doorstep. 

The officer said "I hear you don't get on with your neighbour" I laughed "that mate, is a fucking understatement"

I moved shortly thereafter  

 

Girls looked to be fighting the bondage, I love it when they struggle, so I pinned them a bit more and cut off their heads  

A couple of leaves on a coupl of the cuttings were starting to brown at the edges so I've snipped the leaves off. Some shit photos through the prop lid

 

Looking at them reminds me of Monty Pythons Holy Grail. The Black Knight with both his arms cut off. "Yield?"

"Fuck off it's just a flesh wound"

[Dinafem-Mark]

Looking great in here mate and glad it was not only us with a "plonker" for a neighbour

 

When the girls react to the bondage it is always a great sign and as you be done best to get more tension and pull back down (signs of vigorous plants )

 

When I've got a bit of free time I'm going to give that article a good read as this farthing "tech" is fascinating

 

Cuts look well on the way to being rooted and older plants are looking spot on

 

Thank you for such detailed updates and thank you for the added pictures very much appreciated! 

 

Until the next update

 

All the best 

 

Mark..

[Green demon]

 There's plonkers everywhere, that's why I moved out to the country, the cows couldn't care less about my herbal pursuits. Mind you I'm well aware a lot of people probably think I'm the plonker for electrocuting his plants  

 

Of the four plants I'm most impressed with the vegetative growth of Critical Jack #1, she's a right little hulk! The copper wire wasn't doing the job but I managed to find some soft plant tie to have at em again.

 

Unfortunately I've binned the cuts, I just couldn't be bothered with them. I'll take some bigger ones at a later date.

This stem split So had to be careful not to bend her too far

Roots ahoy