Blue Kush & Diesel - Soil

[Tony K]

Hello.

 

After a break from growing for a couple of years I’m back at it and looking forward to the next few months. The two other grows I did were a bit of a struggle - but the bud ended up in the jars - largely due to generous help I received in this forum.

 

I learned a lot last time and decided to make a few changes this time out.

 

Firstly, I’ve opted for photos. I think autos were a bit of a challenge to this complete beginner and for me autos don’t really offer any benefits other than a quick cycle.

 

I also decided to opt for Dinafem seeds – I don’t recall reading anything other than positivity about their seeds, so I’m using the best genetics I can to minimise the potential for problems.

 

I’ve also switched from Biobizz soils and nutrients. This tme I’m on Plant Magic and Old Timer. I have no particular beef with Biobizz (I’m not experienced enough to have any valid complaints) but thought I’d opt for a lighter soil just to see if that made things any easier.

 

Lastly, the strains – Blue Kush and Diesel. These came recommended and suit my needs – a sativa-bias with a relatively short flowering period. I’ve got a strict deadline with this grow, everything has to be done by 20 March.

 

Two seeds from each strain were soaked in water for 24 hours. A small pot was filled with soil, gently soaked with (room temperature) water in a fine spray until run off.

 

They went into a propagator on top of one of those heat-pad things, covered with a light-proof sheet and left for a few days...

 

 

Edited December 17, 2019 by Tony K

[Tony K]

After 48 hours, one Blue Kush broke the surface. That was then placed in the tent under a CFL on 24/0. Passive intakes opened and extraction on.

 

 

On the sixth day since planting, there was still no sign of the other seedlings. I tried to stay patient as most people say they can take up to a week, but I got the feeling they were never going to break the surface, and with my grow on a tight schedule, I decided to plant some more. I had bought the seeds in threes, so I only had one Blue Kush and one Diesel remaining. I also planted a free seed I had as well. It’s a Northern Lights one. Not sure of the diary etiquette, so I’ll withhold the breeder name for now.

 

 

Here we are three days later, and all three new seeds have sprouted. The three original seeds are still no-shows.

 

 

 

My guess as to what went wrong – probably too much heat from the heat pad. I didn’t have a small enough thermometer to fit in the propagator so I don’t know exact figures but I suspect it might have been on the hot side of warm.

 

 

I have total confidence in the seeds. The chance of 3 from 6 not showing are almost non-existent. I have way more confidence in the breeder than I have in my own growing abilities!

 

 

I’m pretty confident of my watering method (gently soaked til run-off in plain ‘warm’ water) and I’m not sure what else could have gone wrong. The heat pad did feel hotter than I’d have liked at one point so that’s what I’d attribute it to. After I turned it down the damage had probably been done. I'll conduct a post mortem and see if there is anything worth looking at.

 

 

For the second batch of seeds, I changed my planting method. After three failures, I did yet more research and it seems the old-fashioned way is as good as any - just put it directly in the soil, a few mm below the surface. It seems either light or darkness is fine. So I put the propagator in the tent but not directly under the light. And I’m pleased to say that it has worked.

 

 

 

 

 So the current state of play:

1 x Blue Kush (seven days since sprouting)

1x Blue Kush

1x Northern Lights

1x Diesel

 

 

 

I’m intending switching to 20/4 as soon as my tube heater shows up – it’s probably my best bet for maintaining lights out temperatures, so the sooner that arrives the better.

 

In future grows, I’ll be following the simple method for planting and using the lights as a constant heat source again. I’ll also buy my seeds in bigger packs in case of emergency!

 

 

 

Temperature is usually about 22 (and ranges from 20.5 – 24.5.) Humidity is in the mid/upper 30s.

 

After a week or so of muddling through, getting on top of my reading, and one fuck-up already under my belt, I’m glad to be back at it and looking forward to seeing how this grow develops!

 

 

Cheers!

Tony.

 

Edited December 17, 2019 by Tony K

[golf.007]

Hello @Tony K great to see you back man good luck with the grow. 

[Larry Badgeley]

@Tony K. Looking good man, If the heat mat is too hot just lift your pots up a bit. On a saucer or a small pot. RH could go up a bit. What lights will you be using? Heat Mat and Tube Heater will be fine for temps. I am using an LED in the loft and have kept good temps throughout my grow using the same

[Tony K]

2 minutes ago, golf.007 said:

Hello @Tony K great to see you back man good luck with the grow.

 

Thanks buddy. Hope all is well.

[Tony K]

1 minute ago, Larry Badgeley said:

What lights will you be using?

 

They are currently under 125CFL, ultimately they will be under a 600w HPS.

The lights-out temps are the concern, but the tent is in a bedroom so the ambient air isn't worryingly cold.
I'm hoping a 120w tube heater will do the trick - I'm a bit wary of direct heat now! But I'll take your advice if I do need to dig the pad out again, thanks.

[Larry Badgeley]

12 minutes ago, Tony K said:

 

They are currently under 125CFL, ultimately they will be under a 600w HPS.

The lights-out temps are the concern, but the tent is in a bedroom so the ambient air isn't worryingly cold.
I'm hoping a 120w tube heater will do the trick - I'm a bit wary of direct heat now! But I'll take your advice if I do need to dig the pad out again, thanks.

 

Should be fine with it being in a bedroom but at lights out, when you do flip to 12/12, keep that mat in the tent. It will keep the roots warm. The TH won't do that on it's own.

[Tony K]

Day 10 (since first Blue Kush sprouted).

 

Not a great deal to report - the BK has had a couple of waterings, the other three have had one watering.

I’m employing a wet/dry cycle from the start, with the pots virtually dry between waterings. Round about the time I think they are needing a watering I’m checking them with some small scales and they have about 10% of the water remaining, perhaps a little less.

 

 

Yesterday I switched from 24/0 to 20/4. The seedlings looked strong enough to handle a bit of darkness for 4 hours. It doesn’t seem to have bothered them so I will continue with this for now.

 

I’m using a heat mat round the clock. The pots are on top of saucers , on top of the heat mat. The bottoms of the pots do not feel hot in any way, if anything, just warm.

 

Thermometer ranges from 20-25 degrees, humidity from 35% to upper 40s.

On the 10 day old seedling, I noticed a bit of discoloration at the tips of some leaves so I'm very cautious about the roots this time.

 

Blue Kush ten days old:

 

 

A tube heater is apparently being delivered today, so I'm looking forward to seeing how that affects things as I would rather avoid a heat mat - though I don’t know why.

 

 

Northern Lights about 4 days old:

 

 

 

Blue Kush & Diesel, about 3 days old:

 

 

I’ve been looking down the road a little and I think I’ll have to switch to 12/12 round about 3^rd January.

 

Flowering period is about 60-65 days, plus two weeks for drying, so in order to be done by 20^th March, I’m looking at changing to 12/12 during the first week in January. Hopefully everything will run on ‘schedule’ but if not it’s my own fault for not starting sooner!

 

I’ve read that they ideally need to be re-potted about 10 days before going 12/12. So round about 25^th December and they need to be moved into their final pots.

 

I’m new to the photo game so I’m assuming that my best bet is to transfer them to 6l pots as I will be unlikely to root out an 11l in the time available.

 

I’m not after mega-yields with this grow, so 4 plants in 6l pots would be my best guess at how to proceed. I’m hoping I’ll be able to do a little bit of training when they are in their final pots.

 

I dug up the no-show seeds. One had a small tap root. Not sure what I was expecting to find, but it was nothing exciting.

 

 

If anyone spots any fuck-ups on the horizon, feel free to let me know!

Cheers!

Tony.

Edited December 19, 2019 by Tony K

[Tony K]

It’s been a few days since the last update but a few things have changed with the plants and in the tent.  

 

 

 

 

One plant was re-potted into a 6litre pot a couple of days ago. I think it could ideally have been done a little earlier but I hung on until it needed a watering. In the last couple of days the plant has started looking unwell and I think it requires a feed. I’m using Plant Magic Supreme which I understand to be a lightmix.

 

 

 

I’m going to be using Old Timers Grow and Bloom, they recommend a feed of 2ml/l grow from the first week, but I’m cautious about overfeeding. Some say you should feed from the start with Plant Magic, others who say they don’t feed for the first couple of weeks, so I decided to wait until they looked like they need it, which is now. However it feels like a day or so to go before watering so I’ll just have to sit tight.

 

The other plants are developing and looking healthy.

 

 

Blue Kush:

 

 

 

 

This one (Diesel) has some kind of leaf deformity:

 

 

 

 

The Northern Lights is looking a bit perky:

 

 

 

Root development in the Northern Lights:

 

 

 

 

I’m expecting that these will require re-potting in the next day or so at their next watering.

 

 

I’m still intending that these will be repotted into 6 litre pots as their finals. The plan is to change to 12/12 by about 3^rd January. I know this isn’t ideal but with a flowering period of about 60-65 days I don’t think I’ll be able to root out an 11 litre pot in my available time.

 

 

 

A couple of days ago, the three smaller plants  had what looked like algae on the surface of the soil. I’ve now added some stones to the surface of the soil to try to combat this. But it seems from my reading that algae is a consequence of overwaterting. That has got me re-examining my watering technique (yet again) and I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong. The seedling soil was ‘watered’ with a mister spray  on the finest setting over the space of about 5 minutes. The water temperature was 22 degrees. The soil was misted until run-off. It was left to stand in the run-off for about 10-15 mins. I’m not going to worry about it but it’s just curious when I see another symptom of overwatering.

 

 

I’ll certainly aim to take great care over watering because based on my last grows that’s where I seemed to have some problems. For the 6litre pots I’m using a watering can with a home-made rose with a very fine spray. I also ‘fluffed-up’ the compost while adding it to the larger pot - but it did compact down a lot during the slow watering it received. Again, it was watered til run-off, left to stand for 15 mins, then left to stand on dry trays. It took about 2 litres of plain water

 

 

 

 

The environment is pretty stable, 21-24 degrees with lights on  and 20-22 at lights out. Humidity has gone up since the addition of the watered 6 litre pot, and is now 45-50.

 

 

I think the new tube heater is great. It’s got a thermostat and I can basically just trust it to do what is required day or night. It’s also designed to be left on for days and weeks at a time, endlessly turing on and off. So for that reason I’m hoping it will be sufficient to keep the environment warm without having to try an electric blanket/heat mat solution. For some reason I also feel a bit more comfortable with convection-heating my environment rather than conduction-heating my roots (despite the extractor working against the tube heater.)

 

 

It’s working for now though I’m not sure how the tube heater will cope if we get a cold snap, but I’ll find out soon enough.

 

 

Cheers!

 

Tony.

Edited December 23, 2019 by Tony K

[Greenls]

Other people may correct me but I don't think theres need to water until runoff when they are so small. There root systems are not big enough to handle it. 

 

When mine are that small I just give them 50-100ml of water and no more. 

[Ranec]

How long are the pots taking to dry out between waterings?.

[Tony K]

16 hours ago, Greenls said:

Other people may correct me but I don't think theres need to water until runoff when they are so small. There root systems are not big enough to handle it. 

 

Yes, makes sense. Opinions seem divided on it, some growers seem to favour a wet-dry cycle all the way which is what I opted for here. I stopped at the very first sign of run off, there wasn't a great deal of run-off in total. To be fair the seedlings seem happy enough.

 

15 hours ago, Ranec said:

How long are the pots taking to dry out between waterings?.

 

Without getting too specific for each plant, about 4 days. The smaller pots took about 120ml, the 6 litre pot took about 2 litres.

[botanics]

They seem okay @Tony K but running a wet/dry from the off is risky mate as they absolutely hate an over saturated medium and it's best to work up to it really by feeling the pots' weight and topping up until ready for the full wet/dry (when you intend to plant the seeds, make the starters (small pots of 2 or 3 " diameter)  up beforehand, saturate them and then put them under the veg lamp for a day as this warms the medium to the environment before putting the seeds in.  It also dries it out a little bit after the initial watering when setting the pots up  )

 

I've run Blue Kush and she is a treat   Glad you're on the temps department too as I found her very sensitive to cold roots and really doesn't like it if the temps dip below 20 C.  Lovely choice this man, tastiest I've ever toked (thirty years a toker.   

 

Not tried the Dinafem Diesel though and gonna put me feet up and watch this show  

 

Grow them well bud  

[Tony K]

7 hours ago, botanics said:

best to work up to it really by feeling the pots' weight and topping up until ready for the full wet/dry

 

Yes, I do recall you saying that you gradually increased the amount of water you added to encourage the roots to find water - it did enter into my thinking when getting a plan together! I'll try that method next time.

 

7 hours ago, botanics said:

put them under the veg lamp for a day as this warms the medium to the environment before putting the seeds in.

 

Of course! Seems so obvious now I've read it.

 

Thanks for the tip abouty the cold, I've just increased the thermostat a little bit, I've been working towards the lower end of the scale so I'll move into safer territory.

 

I'm sure you'll have produced top-notch buds mate, but I'll just be happy to see them over the line and learn a bit along the way. At the moment, buds in jars feel like a long way into the future.

 

[golf.007]

Hello buddy, what sort of gravel is on top and did you wash it first? You may want to check it doesn't contain limestone or anything that may throw your ph out.

 

atb