Diy CXB2530 grow

[Budsturbation]

Getting into the colder october weather and im thinking now will be a good time to switch my intake and start conserving some of that hot air.

Temps are staying around 20 degrees right now. It takes forever for the soil to dry out, way longer than ive ever experienced before. So far its been almost a week since i last watered them and the soil is still pretty moist. Also been holding off on feeding them for a while since they definitely seem burned now. Thanks to majins for bringingnthe overwatering/overfeedingn issue to my attention.

Still fighting the mites. I think im slowing them down considerably and ive killed alot with the iso treatments but im not sure whether ill be able to completely wipe them out or just control the infestation.

Despite the mites some of these girls are throwing out some pretty decent looking little buds. Still got around a month to 45 days to go. I think ive been giving a lot of approximations with these posts. I have a calendar i mark everything down on but unless i have it with me i cant remember anything thats on it. My memory isnt at all what it was before i got hit.

Pics in order are the white voodoo that are sharing a pot, the better looking white castle, the early vixen that are sharing a pot and then some group shots it looks like.

Not the worst looking plants ive ever had but not the best either. I havent talked about my light at all since the first couple posts and in this case its a good sign.
I havent had any issues, it was incredibly simple to set everything up once i decided on my parts and from then on its basically been as straightforward as preassembled light you might buy.

Theres a lot of pride in this grow. Despite all the issues ive had along the way, knowing that something i built myself is working and has almost gotten me through to harvest, thats just awesome.

 

[majins]

Yeah that soil still loots really wet, But the new bud growth is looking healthy which is whats important.

 

[Budsturbation]

Yeah that soil still loots really wet, But the new bud growth is looking healthy which is whats important.

I took those pics right after spraying the soil down with iso so its not the best representation of how the soil is. The top two inches are mostly dry but its very moist beyone that. I actually had a mushroom pop up from down between the edge of the soil and the wall of the pot. The iso evaporates pretty quickly though. So far it still seems to be killing the mites and its not doing any visible damage to the plants.

Checking the trichs, they look like theyre forming nicely. I wish i could get my phone to do a proper macro shot but it doesnt like to capture anything thats closer than half a foot from the lens

As with any grow i aim for quality over quantity so hopefully i can turn this around and get some nice solid little nugs.

I swapped the intake tonight so i should be getting my temps back up a little bit and hopefully dying out that soil. For future grows i might need to insulate the floor. Or maybe not, i need to get a good digital thermometer so i can monitor the temps at different areas in my grow box.

 

[Budsturbation]

will update with pics soon, just gonna do a quick update on the infestation. I've been poring over as much information on various pests as I can and Im starting to think I need to do further investigation into what is really happening in my grow.

every single mite i've collected and observed under magnification has been collected from the soil. which i found odd from the beginning because I know spider mites live on plants. Then I started suspecting that maybe what I was dealing with was actually root aphids.

looking at as many image search results as I can, the insects im observing don't seem to be root aphids. the anatomy doesn't line up. The aphids have these two little appendages sticking out of the back of the abdomen which my crawlers don;t have. this points me back towards mites.

trying to rule out whether or not i've been killing off a beneficial insect unnecessarily, I searched for images of predatory mites and found that they seem the closest in appearance to what i have.

I really wish i had a digital microscope so I could post pics. Im going to be having a pretty good laugh at myself if I've been killing off some good mites and my plant issues have all been due to the soil not drying out.

Now I have to wonder, if they are indeed predatory mites, then why are there so many of them? They would need a food source, so perhaps there is another infestation they are feeding on. further investigation will be required.

I am finding these mites at the bottom of the pot, in the drainage holes. They are just milling about and im not finding them on the roots.

Digging into the top layer of the soil however, i find a completely different sort of insect.
these have proven very hard for me to observe. they are very small and appear to be white. when the soil above them is disturbed they flip around sort of like fleas or possibly springtails. I can't get a good enough look at the heads of the things to determine if they are gnat larva or not.

root aphid larva appears to be much fatter and more recognizable from the pictures i've seen. however the absence of gnats in my grow complicates the situation.

I did see one gnat like insect once and it was a month or so ago. I treated the soil with DE as I have been doing and havent seen any more gnats since. My sticky traps have been killing civilian spiders and moths much more so than anything that might actually be a threat.

look what happens when I try to do a quick update, man do I love to talk. Anyways im gonna be spending a good amount of time looking through a microscope tonight. Hopefully I can pin down whats actually going on in this grow. or better yet I find out I've been right from the start and I need to proceed as I have been.

 

[majins]

Neem oil iv found is better at killing mites and gnats since it disturbs there life cycle and you only need 2 dosages to remove them but id only use it in veg and early on in flower.
I wouldn't be surprised if its whiteflys larvae, They love damp soil and basically start doing back flips when you disturb them. Then when the soil drys out they move onto the roots or leafs depending what stage of there life cycle they are in.

 

[Budsturbation]

Well see thats the thing, ive been using a mix of neem oil, rosemary oil and peppermint soap since the beginning of this grow.

There havent been any flying pests save for the couple gnats i saw a month ago. Everything else on my sticky traps is not a threat and ive been meticulous about checking over every inch of my grow box.

Ive only really had a problem with the soil drying out in the past month as far as i can tell. Before that i was having trouble keeping my temperatures below 90 degrees, and i was doing fine watering every 3-4 days.

Also i tend to take all my pics after watering or spraying the soil so they arent the greatest representation of whats going on.

Right now its been almost a week since last watering and the top 2-3 inches of soil is finally dry. In my other grows this was usually my first indicator that i could water again. Soil pulling away from the side of the pot, soil is dry a couple of inches down. Then if you wait longer you begin to see the plants leaves cupping a bit and you should definitely be watering before or as this cupping begins.

This is how i should be watering regardless of what type of light im using is it not? Just that with the lower temps and longer dry times i should be spacing watering out accordingly.

 

[blackgolem]

For me the best taste is no taste. If I want flavor I use flavored papers, But 90% of the time I use a glass pipe, DWC does this perfectly when I only use PH adjusted water for the last week.
Perlite, Using the same fertilizer as with soil it was the same taste (Use to flush out only on last watering back then with 30L or water then leave it to completely dry in room with dehumidifier on full time then 24 hour darkness before harvest once pot felt dry)
I gradually adjusted for longer and longer flush times which was 2 weeks of just plain water until there was no taste using organic fox farm feed.
Never got to that point with soil since had completely left it behind on my 3rd LED grow.

Of all the mediums Iv used, perlite would be my fav for how forgiving it is.
If something starts to go wrong you just need to give it a flush out and leave it to completely dry before restarting feeding at a low dosage.
Coco was bad as as seemed to be like soil just a bit better draining. But I could achive the same effect mixing perlite 50/50 with soil for a lot cheaper.
DWC is very un-forgiving when just 1 thing goes wrong. But when it all goes right its amazing.

Are you saying to try straight perlite no soil? When using LEDs? Sorry my dumb ass should've looked I will be trying the100% perlite

 

[majins]

Are you saying to try straight perlite no soil? When using LEDs? Sorry my dumb ass should've looked I will be trying the100% perlite

Yes,
Main concerns with it is when tipping it from the bag make sure you have a dust mask or that you have wet it first since it will be dusty and that nasty if you breath it.
Then flush it well before putting the plant in it (to wash all the dust out)

 

[Budsturbation]

Havent updated for at little bit, at least i think i havent. Had a shit day preparing to harvest my outdoor. Went and checked them in the morning to see if they were ready. Got hit with some frost and I was getting kind of anxious about the weather holding up and they were close enough that i was happy to pull them.

In the 2 hours it took me to head back, ready the shed for trimming and drying and thrn venture back out with some garbage bags and clippers, my plants had been taken.

Looks like it was deer. Most rippers would carry tools to cut the plants down properly, they would cut the plants off at the base and leave nothing behind. I was left with about an ounce worth of popcorn nugs. Just devastated. I should have around a pound hang drying right now. Oh well, theres always next year.

On to the indoor. Flowers are lookin frosty as hell, plants are looking like shit. The weather has been all over the place. Ive been lucking out lately with some 20 degree nights, putting my grow room temps up around 25 at lights on and then closer to 15-20 degrees during the day at lights out. That said ive also had days where theyre barely getting up to 10-15 degrees at lights on and closer to 5-10 with them off.

The temperature shift has put a huge dent in the insect population. The larva i was worried about were harmless springtails and theyre a bitch to get under a microscope.

The mites that ive been seeing are still baffling. They are not on the plants at all. Ive checked the roots. Ive observed them countless times under magnification and they have practically all the same characteristics as predatory mites . If that is the case, i wonder what theyre eating?

Anyways theres probably about a month left before the final plant will come down. The white voodoo and early vixen clones (save for the lanky sativa one) look like theyre going to be ready fairly soon. The white castle and canadian cheese will probably finish sometime in november. Fingers crossed that the weather holds up.

 

[majins]

Iv had rippers just snap off the big buds and leave the pop corn behind. Got to be careful when going out for a walk to them since if some one see you go off track they are likely to follow.

 

[Budsturbation]

Iv had rippers just snap off the big buds and leave the pop corn behind. Got to be careful when going out for a walk to them since if some one see you go off track they are likely to follow.

the big colas werent even snapped off. The buds were pulled or bitten off at the stalk. There was no consistency. Some plants were taken completely regardless of popcorn and others had patches left behind. If it was people who took them it was their first time ripping for sure. They took more of my crop with them in the resin stuck to their hands than they did in the buds they mangled

My closest neighbour is about a 10 minute drive away and its about a 45 minute trek from my place out to where i had my girls this year. Theyre basically dead in the center of about 80 acres of unused land. I highly doubt it was people but given that i dont have any video evidence i cant say for sure. Shit it could have been ghosts or bigfoot even, we just have no way of knowing

Either way, makes for a very shitty year for me.

At least ive still got the meager indoor yield to look forward to

 

[blackgolem]

the big colas werent even snapped off. The buds were pulled or bitten off at the stalk. There was no consistency. Some plants were taken completely regardless of popcorn and others had patches left behind. If it was people who took them it was their first time ripping for sure. They took more of my crop with them in the resin stuck to their hands than they did in the buds they mangled

My closest neighbour is about a 10 minute drive away and its about a 45 minute trek from my place out to where i had my girls this year. Theyre basically dead in the center of about 80 acres of unused land. I highly doubt it was people but given that i dont have any video evidence i cant say for sure. Shit it could have been ghosts or bigfoot even, we just have no way of knowing

Either way, makes for a very shitty year for me.

At least ive still got the meager indoor yield to look forward to

That's some foul shit dude but good cautionary info for outdoor medicine growers amazing that animals love the stuff too!!! Hope the indoor turns out worthy!!! Oh and temps with led should be in the 80° range right?!

 

[Budsturbation]

Yeah 80 degree range sounds about right. it depends on whether youre supplementing co2 or not. different strains will respond differently to certain temperature ranges. i dont know the specifics for optimal growth using different types of lighting. from what i remember 70-80 degrees is a good area to shoot for in general but ive read articles stating as high as 86 degrees. with higher temps you wanna start supplementing co2.

Things are slowing down quite a bit with the weather ive been having. still keeping temps in the double digits at lights on and dipping down into the low single digits at lights off. development still seems to be happening, the plants are still alive but unfortunately they may not get to reach their peak before the weather forces me to harvest them.

Checking the trichomes i see the clones are very far along, lots of cloudy trichs and scarce amber ones. the canadian cheese also seems to have plenty of cloudy trichs despite many of its pistils still being white. the white castle looks the furthest behind which is sad because the better of the two has been the star of my grow. i hope the weather holds out and all my plants can get as close to the peak of ripeness as possible.


The yield will be meager. somewhere between 14 and 28 grams im betting but either way, as long as its decent i will be happy to at least have something. the nugs look quite frost. the larger white castle, the wv clones and the more indica of the ev clones are the best looking plants and look quite frosty considering all the hiccups this grow has suffered. the canadian cheese, though the sorriest looking of the lot, still have some decent trichs and a slight musky scent that might actually hold true to their name.

The wv clones are quite fruity smelling and the white castle is a bit more or a fruity diesel kind of smell.

 

[majins]

Few look like they only have a week left to go.
Rest 2-3 weeks easily.

 

[Budsturbation]

Few look like they only have a week left to go.
Rest 2-3 weeks easily.

The forecast is calling for warm weather these next two weeks. I think im gonna luck out. I wonder how much theyre going to swell with how stunted their growth is. at least the cold has pretty much taken care of my insect problem.

 

[blackgolem]

Hey Budsturbation take a look at my Sig. And what strain is this, journal entry and tell me if u can guess the strain. How should I prune or should I prune? Trying to LST for SCROG don't know if it's auto or what!

 

[Budsturbation]

Hey Budsturbation take a look at my Sig. And what strain is this, journal entry and tell me if u can guess the strain. How should I prune or should I prune? Trying to LST for SCROG don't know if it's auto or what!

Theres no way of identifying strain from a pictures. there are thousands of different strain names these days, theyre essentially meaningless unless youre buying your seeds from a seedbank. even when youre buying from a seedbank the strain name really only serves in relation to that particular seedbank. for instance, i have had success growing white castle from nirvana, which is what im growing again in this journal along with the other stuff. You might be able to find another seedbank offering white castle seeds and they end up being totally different than nirvana's.

I dont prune at all personally. my plants dropped a lot of leaves in this grow due to infestation issues mainly along with problems i had mainting optimal temperatures in the grow. LST is a great method ive used ever since i read about it, so pretty much as long as ive been growing.

I checked out your journal, youre growing a seed you found in a nug right? in my experience ive never gotten an autoflowering strain from bagseed but theres no reason why it couldnt happen to you. i have no idea what the chance of that happening would be.

 

[blackgolem]

Theres no way of identifying strain from a pictures. there are thousands of different strain names these days, theyre essentially meaningless unless youre buying your seeds from a seedbank. even when youre buying from a seedbank the strain name really only serves in relation to that particular seedbank. for instance, i have had success growing white castle from nirvana, which is what im growing again in this journal along with the other stuff. You might be able to find another seedbank offering white castle seeds and they end up being totally different than nirvana's.

I dont prune at all personally. my plants dropped a lot of leaves in this grow due to infestation issues mainly along with problems i had mainting optimal temperatures in the grow. LST is a great method ive used ever since i read about it, so pretty much as long as ive been growing.

I checked out your journal, youre growing a seed you found in a nug right? in my experience ive never gotten an autoflowering strain from bagseed but theres no reason why it couldnt happen to you. i have no idea what the chance of that happening would be.

Ok thanks bro guess I will keep bending the branches only grows secondary branch from every other node so this will be fun. Thanks for looking too!!

 

[Trippyness]

Looks killer. Watching this!

 

[blackgolem]

Hey Budsturbation apologies bro appreciated your opinion and hope I didn't do wrong by asking you question about my plant not trying to take over your thread just want to make sure I say that right here and now I for sure will be following your grows whenever you do something else got you locked in bro! Thanks anyone else checking Sig blogs should DM me to let me know what you think or leave comments at blog.