My Sweecret laboratory. 5th Sweet Seeds competition grow diary 2018/19

[Slugums]

Good to see you reckon you're on top of the spotting... Hope that is the last of that! All very healthy looking otherwise! Nice!

 

You've reminded me, I have a bit of head scratching to do over some spotting on a plant around 40 days into flowering - I'd thought a ph lockout was most likely, but with the big drop in temps recently, I'll be keeping a closer eye root temps from now on!

 

[vince noir rock n roll star]

you need to be getting one of yer pics in the photo comp for this month ..cracking shots ..ive started to notice the quality of peoples photos this year far surpasses the last competition ..nice stuff going on so far jade .

[jadenugs]

@Slugums

@vince noir rock n roll star Thanks for the comments lads, sorry for the late reply. I've been battling with laptop problems for the last couple of days and it's still not sorted.

 

Plants have picked up though

 

Vince there'll be some budshots in there this month so I don't hold much hope for pics of seedlings but I'll try and get a decent or interesting one in there before the month's out.

[grotbags]

hi mate, sometimes little 'uns show probs straight away, but most seem to adjust and go on...thats in compost anyway....good to hear they are picking up...wishing u atb and sending positive vibes.....atb......

[jadenugs]

Hi @grotbags thanks for looking in mate and for the vibes. Back at ya dude

[delagdo]

Fantastic pictures and write-up, thank you for sharing. Good luck!

[jadenugs]

@delagdo Thanks mate

[jadenugs]

Day 10

 

Hi all

We're on day 10 and things are moving along ok now the roots are happier. Still struggling with humidity though, but to be expected up there in the attic at this time of year. I always struggle with humidity until the plants are in the tent and of a decent size.

 

When I checked on the girls tonight temps had been a low of 22 and a high of 29C and were sitting at 28C.

The panel is still the same height, about 22-23" off the plant tops and I've turned the wattage up slightly.

RH was very low at 31% so I gave the sand a soaking to bring it back up. It was about 41 when I last checked. I have a couple of containers in there full of water now to try and boost it a bit and to make sure there's some moisture when the sand drys out.

 

Gave them a feed, 75ml containing 0.5ml/L bio silicon and 0.5ml/L fishmix. They are drinking this amount in 2 days.

 

Here's a group shot in a row so you can better see the differences, they're drooping a bit after their feeding

 

Crystal Candy FV

She's overtaking the others now in size

 

Cream 47

She's the healthiest looking of them all up to press and I'm taking a liking to this one

 

Green Poison CBD

Gone a bit crinkly this one, probably just a characteristic she'll grow out of. Apart from that she's doing ok

 

Sweet Pure CBD

Thankfully she's growing ok now, the root temps must be better. I've ordered a new Thermo/Hygrometer so I can monitor the root temps. When I pot them up I'll stick the probe in this one and try to sort the environment to suit her as she was the first to show signs of cold roots so she must be a bit fussier than the rest.

 

I'm waiting for some 1L fabric propagation pots and they'll be here Mon or Tues. I'll most likely pot them up then.

That's about it for now.

 

May all your gardens be green and bountiful

 

Be lucky

 

 

 

 

[Serpent]

Looking good @jadenugs even the new growth on the Sweet Pure so looks like the issue isn't spreading

 

I'm the same, still suffering from low humidity but I'm in a spare room not a loft, did a loft grow once in winter, never again as it was a constant battle with temps

[ratdog]

Late to the party as usual, some lovely pics in here so far, good luck with the comp mate

[jadenugs]

@Serpent

Cheers mucker, it's not exactly a bare attic. Someone attempted to make an attic bedroom before I moved in here but it might as well be bare Thin layer of plaster with no insulation. I've put some kingspan on the outside of one side but the other side and ceiling has none. It's still bloody cold in winter and scorchers in summer.

 

@ratdog

Thanks for finding the time to pop in mate, there's a lot of diaries in here to keep up with

[Smokebelch]

@jadenugs It looks like you are on top of your minor problems and your little plants are doing great now. I think everyone’s plants had a bit of a shock to the system when the temps dropped suddenly. 

 

Your seedling photos are awesome and your diary updates are well written and full of interesting details. Yet another prizewinning dairy is in the making, the competition is really hotting up now.

 

P.s How are you getting on with the tripod dude? I love my one.

Edited December 16, 2018 by Smokebelch

[jadenugs]

@Smokebelch Yeah man, they're doing ok now thanks The probs did show a little bit further onto the ends of the next set of leaves but halted there. I think Mg and Ca probs tend to have started a bit before you notice them. Anyway they're doing ok and I've potted them up into fresh compost. I didn't realise but I started them off in compost that I'd had for well over a year I dunno if this has had an effect as it's been stored indoors but hopefully they'll appreciate the fresh stuff.

 

The tripod is the business mate, well sturdy and well worth the money. Thanks again for the recommendation

[jadenugs]

Hi folk

 

The girls have been potted up so it's time for an overdue update, my laptop has been playing up so I apologise for the late update.

 

My fabric propagation pots weren't due til Monday but came early on Saturday so I half filled them with a mix of 1/4 Canna coco pro+ and 3/4 Clover multi purpose compost, then dampened them with a seaweed solution of 2ml/L and put them in the cab for 24 hours to warm up. I also put enough of this mix to top up the the pots, separately in a plastic bag to warm up in there.
I wanted to get 2L fabric prop pots so I could root them out well and go straight to 12L fabric final pots but I couldn't get hold of the proper ones and didn't want to settle for copies that might not allow the roots to grow through when transplanted. So back to my options in my original post, I will root these out for a couple of weeks and pot into 6L plastic square pots, root them out, then into the final 12L fabrics. I might even drill holes in the 6L and make them into air pots. I've not tried this before.

 

My current grow that is nearly finished has been the first time I've mixed coco with compost and I've had problems with feeds, especially with the K in the coco robbing Mg from the compost (I think)
I was wary of using it again for this grow but I've had a good result, in that the benefit for the roots far outweighs the problems I've had learning the extra feed requirements. So I'm gonna risk using it again this grow and hopefully I will have learnt enough from my last effort, to get it right this time. If not, it will still be a learning curve for me and make the diary more interesting. Wish me luck
The last grow I mixed 1/3rd coco so this time I'm mixing 1/4 to give myself a bit of leeway, and experience in learning how the mediums react together.

 

So on Sunday the girls were 13 days old and the roots weren't in abundance but there were enough to pot on. This is where the little nursery bags come in handy

The temps before potting up were lows of 21C and highs of 29C, sitting at 27.
Root temps were 23-25 and sitting at 25C.
Humidity was 34-49 and sitting at 35%. After wetting the sand this went up to 49%.
I've been dialing the thermostat up and down in my rad box and the panel is now 24" above the plant tops and set at full wattage. I'll keep it at that and just dial the rad and the prop base from now on. The prop base is turned right up full and will probably stay there.
The last feed up until this point had been 75ml containing 1ml/L fishmix and 1.5ml/L seaweed and this had lasted them 2 days.

 

Here are the girls before I potted them up, looking a bit thirsty as they were due their next watering. I'm pleased that they are all growing at more or less the same rate and I'll be hoping for a nice even canopy come flowering time. I'll be topping and training them anyway.

Crystal Candy FV
Here you can see a mixture of Ca and Mg deficiency which must have been caused with the low root temps as I was dialling in, because my water has an average of 99ml/L Ca and 24mg/L Mg so is quite hard water. Apparently this is a good ratio of 4:1 Ca/Mg but still, it is a bit hard for my liking. No wonder I've struggled over the years. The compost I started them off in was over a year old as well, so this may have contributed to the problem here.
Anyway, as a precaution they had had a couple of foliar feeds of Epsom salts to give Mg direct to the leaves prior to this update.

 

The roots can be seen here poking through the nursery bag and drying up, resulting in pruning themselves. It's difficult to see if there's a good mycorrhiza population here but when I pot up from their 6L plastics to their finals I'll try and get some good close ups of the roots. They were excellent on my last grow, this MycorrMax is good stuff

Cream 47
This is my favourite plant so far, a nice healthy green with no problems from the low temp spell they experienced. Just starting to look a little hungry for N on the bottom leaves.

The roots are slightly less developed than the CCFV

Green Poison CBD
Only slightly affected by the earlier low root temps. She is still producing crinkly leaves but I don't see it as a problem and I think she'll grow out of it. If not, she's still healthy enough and growing well. Nice close internodes and the main stem is fattening up nicely.

The strongest root system out of them all so far

Sweet Pure CBD
Turning into a nice stocky broad leafed indica looking plant but she's took a little stretch to catch the GPcbd up. You can see where the low temp problem was resolved and it never progressed further than the tips of the 2nd set of leaves. She's a nice shade of green like the Cream 47. The white cable at the bottom is a temp probe, my new thermo/hygrometer arrived with my fabric pots so I'm more in control now

The root system is coming along ok so no problems there.

Here's the pots after their 24 hour warm up, ready with a good sprinkling of MycorrMax. If you've used fabric pots before you can see here that the propagation pots are a lot thinner than the bigger ones so this should allow the roots to grow through freely once they are transplanted to bigger pots. I had read that people had potted up with fabric pots and the roots hadn't grown into the fresh medium so I was worried about using these but by the looks of these there should be no problem. I will allow the roots to prune for 2 weeks and then I'll wrap them in clear bubble wrap. I'm hoping that this will prevent them pruning further, thus allowing some roots to grow through ready to explore the new medium. I'll then remove the bubble wrap and pot on.

 

And here they are after their pot up. No transplant shock, just the slight drooping they were already experiencing from needing a watering. I watered them in with 100ml each, containing 2ml/L Shropshire seaweed.

 

I'm pleased with these genetics and their vigor so far. Any problems you see is down to my environment.

Thanks for looking.

 

Happy cultivating and be lucky

 

 

 

 

 

[Openairbud]

Loving it so far mate, lots of great detail and plants are looking ace. 

 

The sweet pure looks especially healthy, and I'll be borrowing the sand tray idea   for next time for sure.