Cropkingseed BLACK INDICA 12/12 from seed

[ChuffinHoolies]

Hello all.
Starting my first journal ever. I have had experiance helping out with friends and their crops before and I have managed a couple plants of my own over the years but this will be my first indoor soil grow. With "fancy" lights and carbon filters. All on my own. Haha.

Anyways. I will do my best to be as thourough as my stonographic memory can be.

Let's see here. My space is a gutted 18x36x48(60) POS armoir. I ripped all the interior shelving out. Reinforced the structure, lined with reflective, insulated, vapor barrier bubble wrap from HD. Stuff works well.

Last grow I did I used 6x 23w cfl. And a computer fan with diy filter. With random bag seed. Bud turned out ok. But the excess wires were a hassle and the filter failed .

This time for lights I went and bought a sunblaster 200watt cfl. And I have a few 40+watt cfl floating about also. For ventilation I have a 12v computer fan with diy prefilter for particulates as my intake , and a 4" inline duct booster strapped to a 4" fitting carbon filter. The filter is about 8"wide and 8" tall. Works like a gem.

I started my seed in rockwool with intentions of running a bubble bucket. But without proper monitoring gear I decided to stick to simple soil . A blended mix of my own.

Let's see. Stuck seed in rockwool on...Nov 14.2015
She stuck a tap root out the bottom on Nov 16.2015 and poked her first leaves out on the 17th.

Since then I removed her from the bubbler and planted her in dirt.

Today was her first drink of nutes.(general hydroponics maxi-series, veg) Approx 1/4 strength.

I started out thinking I was going to plant one seed every 4 weeks. I think now I will plant 2 seeds every 4 weeks. This is strictly for my own consumption.

 

[Joe Blows Trees]

Looking good so far! Happy growing!

 

[Joe Blows Trees]

Is your soil mix organic? I'm looking for a good recipe to mix this weekend so by the second week of January it should be cooked enough for the next run. I'm choosing to grow as organic as possible.

 

[ChuffinHoolies]

Ha ha ha, I do not know if this is organic grow.let me know what organic means to you and I'll do my best to answer. BUT. It's In a mix of like random bag soil, random bag mulch/compost, random mushroom soil, and cow manure/mulch/compost. More random bag soil. And I'm using GH maxi series nutes. so maybe that will help answer.
Cheers

 

[Joe Blows Trees]

If you're not adding chemical fertilizer it's an organic grow from what I've been reading so far. That sounds like a good soil mix, only thing I didn't see was worm castings. Not familiar with the GH nutrients either. Thanks for the summary of your mix.

 

[ChuffinHoolies]

Hello again, for those of you tuning in, today I have a few pictures for my "weekly" update lol.
Last night when checking on my lady's, I noticed a nice bit of growth, I have three or four nodes putting out branches and my top node has provided me with some signs of lady parts. Approx 3.5 weeks after breaking earth.needless to say I am quite happy.

 

[ChuffinHoolies]

She is approx 8" out of soil. Currently With 6 nodes before "cola". I wonder how many branches I'll get before the stretch ends?hmmm. Puff puff ponder.......

 

[ChuffinHoolies]

Hello again.
This week,she is 10.25" tall with 7 nodes before top bud. I figure most of those will mass together as she fills out. But I like to count them still.
I think she had a bit of a potassium lock out....maybe nitrogen. All due to a detonate ph issue. Haha. Anyways, I think I got her all figured out. flushed, and ph balanced with my nutes using a new found organic, nutrient rich, DIY PH UP source.
In one solution I managed to feed,balance and cure her. Or so I hope. I should know by next week's up date.

I have been looking around, and finding it quite hard to find a "cheap" ?under200$? 250w hps kit (bulb ballast reflector) delivered to Canada. Anyone know a good reliable discrete company? Thanksguys

 

[Afta]

Growlights.ca im from canada too ordered a 600w with reflector 200$ got it within 3 day

 

[ChuffinHoolies]

Growlights.ca im from canada too ordered a 600w with reflector 200$ got it within 3 day

I think I found one localy. My friendly neighborhood hydro shop turns out has some decent prices. I can get a digital dimable 400w hps with bulb and hood for under 250. I've trialed n errored enough with cfl, I think I'm ready for HPS. Just gotta save up all me pennies.

 

[ChuffinHoolies]

Is your soil mix organic? I'm looking for a good recipe to mix this weekend so by the second week of January it should be cooked enough for the next run. I'm choosing to grow as organic as possible.

So what are your thoughts on using WOOD ASH as ph up?
In addition to raising ph it has a bunch of nutes available as well.

http://www.compostjunkie.com/composting-wood-ashes.html

I'm sure there are better links, this is the one I found first.
They suggest including the bits of charcoal too. So far I'm only using the ash and it seems to work great.
I figure, if I were to add the coal I would put it in a blender/grinder, maybe with a small ammount of water. ???just to make it easier to drink?/disolve? Lol. Anyways.
Just a thought. Organic too, err so I think .

 

[ChuffinHoolies]

Alrighty! 12" out of the ground. Her PH/potassium def has been sorted. And buds are coming along. I was hoping to have my HPS by now, but employment changes put a stop on that one real quick.

My food/water schedule goes kinda like food/food/water about every 2-3 days as she dries. I mix between 1/4 & 1/2 strength and she drinks about 1-2L each feeding.

 

[ChuffinHoolies]

Here is an attempted close up of her sparklies with my phone, it's the top nug of a bottom branch. About the size of my thumbnail. As is, it's getting me a bit excited.
I think I will chop her down, harvest early and microwave dry it
What do you guys think? She ready yet?
Hahaha NOT! I will not be doing anything remotly close to that idea, lol not for many a few more weeks yet lol.

 

[Joe Blows Trees]

This is a paragraph from one of the articles I read about wood ash. I'm thinking about firing up my fireplace so using wood ash makes sense. Still learning about it and charcoal. Your plant is looking good.

"Wood ash can be used to repel insects, slugs and snails because it draws water out of these invertebrates. Sprinkle ash around the base of your plants to discourage surface-feeding insects. Once ash gets wet, it loses its deterring properties. Too much ash can increase pH or accumulate high levels of salts that can be harmful to some plants, so use ashes carefully."

 

[ChuffinHoolies]

This is a paragraph from one of the articles I read about wood ash. I'm thinking about firing up my fireplace so using wood ash makes sense. Still learning about it and charcoal. Your plant is looking good.

"Wood ash can be used to repel insects, slugs and snails because it draws water out of these invertebrates. Sprinkle ash around the base of your plants to discourage surface-feeding insects. Once ash gets wet, it loses its deterring properties. Too much ash can increase pH or accumulate high levels of salts that can be harmful to some plants, so use ashes carefully."

Nice huh. I was searching like mad for a diy ph up forever!! I just fell on this one accodentaly , and it's natural and has many other beneficial properties too. Actually helped bring my girl back to stable.
Cheers.

 

[ChuffinHoolies]

It would seem she has reached he max at 12" off the planter rim. Unless it's another fucking issue lol. I mean so far the issues have been small an easly corrected. Perhaps for a more experianced grower with all the right shit on hand, there wouldn't be any issue. But. So far I am liking this strain, she looks good. Smells yummy, definatly has her picky preferences that i still need to dial in.

 

[ChuffinHoolies]

Turns out today, is "halfway" only 4, maybe 5 weeks to go!