Sweet Amnesic Gorilla Girl in the Hazy Tropic of Canna.

[jadenugs]

@Amo   I thought I was imagining things, must have been you then. 

 

Since I got these TNC Myccos I won't look back mate  

[botanics]

17 hours ago, jadenugs said:

Haha you remembered the Plantsmanship, I think it was @botanics that put that word in my vocab.

 

Glad to know I've had some use around the place Nugs  

 

Usual par excellence in here mucker   Loving those noodles and subsequent myco inoculation too, spot on 'plantsmanship' indeed and bodes well  

[growinggold]

Serious bit if root porn there. Let me just tuck myself in my waist band.   Lol. Ha.   Lovely dark greens bud. When will your introduce the blumats? 

 

So far bud no heater needed. Just room temp rain water and all 6 ,different ladies are happy. Looking perfect as ever buddy. 

 

 

[mikeydoughnut]

@jadenugs I too am doing the Tropicana Poison FV although not for the comp. I’m going to stick a follow on to see how I should have done it.

 

I was going to warn you off on the stretch but then saw you’d topped her. Should keep her manageable. I thought sticking to 5ltr pots would restrict height somewhat but it just seems to grow into whatever space I give it. Really is a thing of beauty. 

 

Looking beaut and good luck with the comp 

[Sweet Seeds Apolo]

Those roots are saying 'he takes good care of me'. 

 

Keep it up, this is going great! 

 

Sweet smokes,
- Apolo
 

[jadenugs]

@botanics Cheers mucker, you're stealing one of my sayings now 'par excellence'  Great to see you bud, thanks for popping in  

 

@growinggold   

Nice to know you don't need the heater mate. I'm gonna lay my main piping on the floor so it's in contact with the underfloor leccy blanket, and just cut the feed tubes longer to reach from the floor up to the pots. That should warm the pipes up. I should get enough gravity pressure from the height of my res hopefully and not need a res heater. I'll be installing them soon. Full explanation of reasons why I've left it late coming up in my update

 

@mikeydoughnut Thanks mate, nice to hear your's is growing with good vigor   Mine seems like she's trying to push away from the others but twice topping seems to be holding her steady for now. Hope it stays that way through stretch.  Cheers for the info dude  

 

@Sweet Seeds Apolo Thanks mate, nice to get encouragement from the Sweet Seeds team  There's nothing to not love about these vars up to press. Can't wait for the flowers  

[jadenugs]

Jan 30th day 27.

 

Hi fellow gardeners, I topped the girls again on Sat night, day 27, so here's an update on that with the usual daily details running up to it. It's not often I top plants twice if I'm looking for a quick veg, unless they're motoring along and these Sweet ladies are moving along nicely IME topping a plant when it's not at full steam slows her down too much. 

I was thinking of bending these over with LST after the first topping for a more even canopy but that tends to cause too many uneven weaker branches from the side shoots for me. Much better if I can use the symmetry of the plant for more even branches, provided they're growing vigorously and won't be slowed down too much. So I'm hoping for nice sturdy branches following the 2nd topping. If not I can always add some 30x30cm screens for support, that I have already cut to size just in case. 

Blumat drippers.
As for the Blumat drippers I'm holding off a bit longer for a few reasons: 

 

1/ I want the pots to be rooted to the bottom first so there's not heavy water sitting at the bottom while the the upper level is drying out and pulling more water in through the sensors, thus keeping the bottom of the pot too wet and creating unwanted conditions for the roots when they get there. I've no experience with drippers but that's what I've decided on. Of course I could have set them up earlier and just dialled back the sensors if they looked over watered. But if possible I want to wait until they're a bit more rooted and the compost is more evenly occupied with roots drinking from the majority of the pot before dialling them in. Hope it works out better that way. If not, it's another learning curve. 

2/ Next reason is I have some regs in the tent so ideally I want them sexed before the final set up. I think one is a male, already starting to show on day 27 but still a bit early to tell properly. Another got stem rot at 3 weeks old due to overwatering in the earlier coco so I'm trying to nurture that back. It will be late to show sex due to it's setback so I'm not too sure what to do with that. I'm not gonna set the whole grow back because of it though and might even bin it if it takes too long to show, it started off with whorled phylotaxy anyway. This grow is all about the Sweet ladies so I'm trying to work the whole grow around them  

3/ As mentioned earlier in the diary I couldn't install my other CMH and clip it to the side roof bar of the tent out of the way until needed in bloom. The circ fan is in the way on one side of the tent and the filter on the other, and I'm not going to move the circ fan as it's doing a great job for my temps where it is situated. So when the other CMH is needed I would have to take the plants out to get in there and feed the reflector cable out through the cable sock at the back. This would be awkward if the drippers are set up and dialled in. I could install it now and hang the reflector to the front of the hanging bar but the lamp I'm using now won't be in the middle of the tent where I want it, as the reflectors are quite big. Anyway, I had a stoned wave the other night. This one CMH lamp with the help of the circ fan has been keeping my lights on room temps (top of pot) up at around 25-26-27C which I'm really pleased about. So @Amo all is not lost with the LED I reckon with that added to the one CMH with newest bulb in I can raise the temps a little more and not have low temps slowing my finishing times like on my last grow. So that's the plan now and we'll see how it goes. Plenty of visible red light in this CMH 930 agro bulb and the LED has dimmable far red so I should have a good full spectrum to play with. I know from my last grow, first time with the LED, that my sweet spot is around 28" when on full power. I've just found a sweet spot with this CMH and it's now hanging at 28" without too much stretch in veg. Bingo Not sure if I'll be able to maintain that distance as stretch commences in bloom, without lot's of training, but I'll more than likely raise both lamps as high as they go when I switch to flower and allow the plants to grow towards them with the least amount of stress as possible and less difference in day/night temps. As the plants get closer to the lamps the canopy temps should rise and finish them off nicely. All sounds good in theory but as usual, this should be fun  

Day 24.
Root temps were measuring a bit lower since pot up so I pushed the probe down further into the pot being used for measuring, about half way down. I lowered the lamp another inch, from 34" above the TP to 33". The girls were praying nicely but still stretching. They had also darkened up considerably overnight since the repot. 

Temps 20-25C, roots 19-21 and RH 46-64%.

Day 25.
Still stretching/growing an inch a day so lowered the lamp again, now at 31". The leaf colour was getting too dark. I knew the compost would be stronger than the low EC I'd left off at in coco but thought the roots wouldn't be far enough into it to cause this. So I gave the original root balls 300ml each of plain water to prevent any salt build up as they dry.  

Temps 20-26C, roots 19-22, RH 44-64%.

Day 26.
Lowered lamp another inch, now at 29".
Changed the 942 bulb to the newish 930, much brighter.

Temps 21-26C, roots 20-22, RH 45-71%.
The 71 being a spike after the 300ml watering. 

Day 27.
The plants had now grown to within 28.5" of the lamp (measured from the TP). Growth/stretch had reduced so I left the lamp where it was.
Topped all 3, top 2 branches only to hopefully see the lower ones grow upwards and level out. 

Well if you managed to read that lot, thanks More of a mission writing it The reading will get easier when I'm all set up and watching the flowers grow, promise 
Some pics then. 

Group shot pre topping.
I'm not keen on the tint the reddish light from the lamp gives the leaves, they're a much better colour in the flesh.

Gorilla Girl.
Before and after topping, then one a couple of hours later to show her unphased. Same for the other plants.

 

 

Sweet Amnesia Haze.

 

 

Tropicanna Poison F1FV.

 

 

That's all for now.
Happy growing, be lucky  

[Amo]

21 hours ago, jadenugs said:

with the LED, that my sweet spot is around 28"

Hey mate, this is the same height I aim for in veg all the way through, like you I’ve found it to be the veg sweet spot 

 

I’m watching your Sweet Amnesia Haze as that one interest’s me, an also the Tropicana Poison as I see a few other’s getting some real nice colour from em, hoping you get some deep red colour’s. 
 

Happy growing dude 

 

ps: I’ve got some off that TNC Mycorr Max on the way 

[Ccs141]

Looking good got a few ammo autos and gg autos for outside this year meself 

[jadenugs]

@Amo Cheers dude, hoping for some colour myself.  I'm not seeing any signs of it yet, barring the leaf stems  The Amnesia is a bit fussy for Ca, more damage appearing on the older fans near the top. Probably due to the earlier problem cos you don't always see it until afterwards. The pot up to compost should have helped her like but I'll be adding some calmag soon anyways  I've a funny feeling I'll be chasing it though.

 

Good call on the TNC myccos mate. Happy growing  

 

 

@Ccs141Thanks bud. Let's hope for a better season than last year, we're due a good one  I might take some cuts from these to try outside, not sure yet. I'm sure you'll do fine with the autos. Just hope July aint too humid if you plant out early to mid May. Be  

[Openairbud]

Hi @jadenugs I'm glad you've joined in again this year, it wouldn't be the same otherwise! Great start and your plants are looking just fine as per mate. Best of luck this year 

[jadenugs]

@Openairbud Cheers mucker. I've finally got an auto fire extinguisher  Not like yours though, it's one of those that looks like a bomb and just explodes powder all over the shop.

[Punta Roja]

@jadenugs I'm considering one of those bombs as well... it's alright having an extinguisher next to the grow but it's another thing knowing if there's a fire. My shed could burn down without me knowing. Good call.

 

Great GP as always.

 

ATVB

 

P

Edited February 5, 2021 by Punta Roja

[jadenugs]

@Punta Roja About 30 quid I think mine was P, they do them in different sizes. Off the top of my head it covers 3 or 4 metres square  

[jadenugs]

Feb 3rd day 31.

Hi folks, the girls were 7 days on since pot up on Wednesday so here's an update for then. They'd only had the 300ml plain water on day 25, the day after their pre soaked pot up, so were ready for watering 5 days from then on day 30, but should have been watered the night before really. I'd not seen any roots under the pots so didn't realise how far through the pots they'd spread. I can't really gauge from the weight of the pots until they've had their first proper drenching after rooting out to the bottom.  

Day 28.
The lamp was adjusted to maintain 28" above the TP's highest top.

Temps (pot level) 20-26C, roots 19-22, RH 39-54%.

Day 29.
Same again with the lamp.

Temps 20-26C, roots 19-22, RH 39-53%.

Day 30.
They'd only grown half inch in height so it looked like stretch was under control.  

I find if a plant is left to dry out a bit much and then watered with a full drench, it shocks them into looking over watered so I gave them a feed in 2 parts. 1st was 500ml of 2ml/L Foundation root stim a couple of hours after lights on and then a further feed, 600ml of the same about 4 hours later. The girls didn't really look shocked, just sagging slightly. 

I put some plant bendz on their top 2 branches to lower them a bit and allow the lower limbs to catch up faster, and then adjusted the lamp height to 26" to see how they'd respond. It was 27.5" before the bending. 

Day 31.
As you'll see in the pics, the girls weren't quite as perky as usual (barring the slightly shorter GG) so I raised the lamp back to the sweet spot of 28". 

I also didn't think the previous night's watering of 1.1L total was enough to fully drench the pots so I gave them another litre each, plain water this time. 

Temps 20-25C, roots 20-23, RH 41-66%, the 66% being a spike after watering the previous night I think. Just to clarify, I check my stats for the 24 hours as soon as I open the tent, mostly a couple of hours after lights on and before I do any maintenance.  

On to the pics then.

Group shot.
Taken with the lamp on, to show their undisturbed state before taking out for individual shots to show their colour better. You can see the Gorilla Girl was totally unphased with the previous lowering of the lamp or the overdue watering The other two were sagging slightly and a bit less happy than usual. 

Gorilla Girl.
Side branching looking strong and pushing on through.

Pre flowers forming on one of her upper limbs. I'll get some close ups when there's some pistils.

Sweet Amnesia Haze.
The tops soon stood back up after applying the bends but it has still allowed the lower branches to grow upwards a bit sooner I think. Also some alternating nodes on the front branch showing she's maturing. If you look closely you can just see her bits appearing on the top left node. They actually look a bit dodgy close up but sometimes the vegetative overlap of female pre flowers can be a bit confusing between male flowers when they're just forming.   

I'm hoping I stopped the calcium problem earlier when in coco and the evidence on the older fans is just old damage showing more as the energy goes to fresh growth. If I could get to her just before lights off I'd give her a foliar of calmag just to be sure but I think she'll be ok. Fresh growth is looking fine, if not a little twisty.  I might have disturbed them on one side a bit when topping. Red stems are disappearing so all must be good  

 

Apologies for not concentrating on the pre flowers here. There'll be some close ups soon when there's some pistils to show The ones in the GG close up were just by chance. 

Tropicanna Poison F1FV.
The side branching has really shot up here, barring the one lagging behind bottom right. As @mikeydoughnut warned me, she looks like she will want to grow into every space possible. Having 2nd thoughts about the Blumat drippers and not being able to move plants about and get in there for tending but at least she will be at the front to be easily tended to. My main worry is checking for hermies on the plants at the back as I have some regs at the back and I've read twice about hermie traits in their lines, after I started them ffs. 

 

Thanks for looking.
Happy growing, be