Return to 12/12 from seed in small pots.

[maturesmoker]

Hello, having had to make the tough decision to close down my grow and remove all plants due to spider mite infestation I am back up and running with a new grow I fought the mites long and hard but finally decided that the only way to be 100% rid of them was to break the perpetual grow I had running and start again.

Having given this much thought I have decided to return to a style of grow I last did a few years ago, namely 12/12 from feminised seeds in small but deep containers in my small cabinet. The cabinet was completely stripped out again, everything washed down with Milton and hoovered and cleaned before finally putting a seedling back in there. I intend to make this a regular routine, maybe once a week to keep things clean as possible to prevent re-infestation. So far so good. Unlike previously I wont remove the plants from the box at all, again as a precaution against mites. I will continue to treat all young plants with SMC (spider mite control) up to early flowering.

OK, so we're starting off with just the one Nirvana Snow White but I intend to add a couple of old favourites as we progress, Master Kush and Northern Lights. I will stick with Nirvana seeds having used them for over 10 years with never an issue. I have decided against clones this grow having been growing mostly from clones recently.

Pots are simply cut down water bottles, about 1.5 litres of soil. The mix contains hardly any perlite (works for you tamjam!!) just a small handful. I cover the pot with paper which can be easily removed for observation of the root system and then replaced. Again an old method. Soil is Westlands advanced.

Aims: I'm not a big smoker at all nowdays and I find that moderation means I still get maximum hit from my smoke I only need around 10 to 14grams per month or less to keep me happy.I have days when I decide not to smoke but I still prefer to grow my own weed as I have done for 10 years now mainly.

First pics shows my trusty old cabinet in context of the room, its only a metre sq roughly and 11" deep. Last time I ran this method I used a shallow narrow 'tank' and an air pump to bottom feed/water these pots and I may set that up again as I still have the parts. Pics of that soon. The Snow White is about a week-ish from germination and under 12/12 CFL's.

So here we go again, hopefully a mite free experience this time!

 

[extremist2sk]

good luck! seems good

 

[gumball]

I'm subbed up!!

 

[SimplyBaked]

SUBD! i love your cab man....lol this should b fun

 

[bigman4270]

Definitely subbed for this one MS. Glad to see ya back at it.

Big

 

[SimplyBaked]

how many cfl's u got in there again?

 

[tamjam69]

Yep its good to see you back at it MS RIU isn't the same place without you growing that westlands advance sure is good stuff and i haven't had one problem with it and doubt i ever will it has a fantastic structure to it even near the end of flowering and that's without any perlite.

And that snow white is looking nice and im wondering if shes gonna be the same as any of the phenos i had, at the start i gave one of my snowwhites to a mate but looking back now she may have been a special one.

Are you just gonna keep this thread running now like v12 does and just continue to add new strains and styles and lighting and stuff? thats what im gonna do with my next thread, lots and lots of harvest all in one place

anyway talk soon and good luck with everything not that you need it just gotta hope those damn mites dont come back if it happens again i will personally offer my assistance to come to your place and destroy them

SUBSCRIBED

 

["SICC"]

Hell yeah, another adventure with MS, what else could ya ask for

 

[maturesmoker]

how many cfl's u got in there again?

Cheers all for looking in, not a lot to see at the moment but things will gradually develop again SB, theres just 300watts in there atm, in 3 clusters as you see. I may up that and replace the glass shield later or may even switch over a 250HPS but for the time being I'm just running with the 300watts of CFL,s its done the job for me in the past.

Not a sign of a spider mite anywhere so far. At this stage before my seedlings and clones were covered with mites I just had to break that cycle. I worked hard at it, not just in the cab but also all around it, even wiped the carpet over with a Milton solution.

I want this to go back to my first Bubba Kush grow in this small cab 2 years ago when I used bottom watering and an airstone etc, the pots just sat slightly above a shallow tank of water and the airstones just splashed the bottom of the pots with oxygenated water, I got really good growth on those and I used only compost teas made from seaweed and assorted fishy bits and pieces picked off the beach here, stank after a while but the plants seemed to love it The roots are already around the bottom of the pot so I might well get that set up again tomorrow. I have lots of plans! Soon as I get it set up I'll post pics. I will order more seeds next week.

Thanks all, nice to see so many familiar names again

 

[SimplyBaked]

wow sounds good. That bottom watering technique sounds interesting, I may have to try this. BUt neways yeh man the 300w cfl's have been doing you justice for a while now ) move on up to the 250HPS and u will see tremendous growth!

 

[maturesmoker]

Hi,

I've been delving back to some pics of the first grows I did in this cabinet 2 years ago. Looking back at the pics its clear that thigns have gone downhill since then! I wanted to put these up in my thread to give me something to work at and motivate myself to get back to where I was! All of these plants were started in small pots and bottom watered with a bubbler, grown 12/12 from seed and potted up selectively later, removing males and choosing the best 3 left to grow on. Strain here is AK47 from Nirvana All were fed only seaweed and fishy goodness teas start to finish, nothing else whatsoever.

Hope you like the pics, lets hope I can pull it back together again this grow as its been a while since I've seen buds like this here and I need to get back to basics again. I'll find a few of the early Kush shots maybe too?

 

[tamjam69]

wow those ak47 buds look nice mate and so did the plants I look forward to seeing the bubbler set up if you go ahead with it.

And i reckon you would be alot better of sticking with seedplants like you said before clones really need to have a good veg time and for the cost of a femd seed it wouldnt hurt to just plant one every 2-3 weeks so you get a good rolling harvest and never far away from fresh weed

I may have to pick up some seaweed next time im down the beach what about throwing in some muscles? i expect their crap may be good aswell? lol

 

[gumball]

That old grow sure does look mighty tastey!! What kind of yields were you pulling per plant on your old setup?

Yeah, I would like to see that bubbler setup too! I have been thinking of a hydro/DWC/bubbler setup in the future, and have thought of an idea similar to yours (I think) but with perlite. Maybe 3 parts, perlite/vermiculite/soil??

I can't wait to see the new old MS grow come to life!!

 

["SICC"]

Yeah those pics look great

 

[tamjam69]

Im wondering if you had the bubbler running 24/7? or only when the lights were on. was it noisy?

I would love to try one of those single plant hempy buckets but i could imagine the mrs getting annoyey by the sound of it running all the time

I know you can build one yourself cheaper but for the price of these i would like have one of these running up there what do you think?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/IKON-OXY-POT-DWC-BUBBLER-HYDROPONICS-OXYPOT-GROW-KIT-/250652742043?pt=UK_HomeGarden_Garden_PlantsSeedsBulbs_JN

 

[maturesmoker]

Im wondering if you had the bubbler running 24/7? or only when the lights were on. was it noisy?

I would love to try one of those single plant hempy buckets but i could imagine the mrs getting annoyey by the sound of it running all the time

Those Oxy pots are great, but to be honest tamjam seeing what youre already doing in soil it would be hard to beat!!

Mine wasnt a hydro system just a way of delivering oxygenated water to the roots in soil, I still had to let them dry out between waterings. I'd make up my bottles with seaweeds/kelps/ old crabby bits/ shellfish etc found dead on the beach here at lowe tide then bubble them for hours to kind of break it all down. When I watered I would simply pour the stnky organics water into the shallow tray where the plants sat above it, turn on the airpump and let it splash the bottoms of the pots until well soaked and absorbed, then let the pots dry out as normal between waterings/feed. I'd just top up the bottles with more organics and water and do that until it stank too bad to use then begin a fresh batch Even on 12/12 from seed like you see above I got fast growth rates that method. So its just a different way of watering really.

I've got the tank and airpump set up again, just need to add a layer of shingle from the beach for the plants to sit on as they bubble so theyre not directly in the water soaking it up too fast I'll get pics when its done. The little SW is coming on nicely.

Yields were close to a dry OZ per plant which was good for 12/12 from seed and I had 3 in there most of the time.

 

[lince]

12/12 from seed ? I didn't know that was possible, really good to know I've already been reading about it and I've got 2 clones and 3 new seeds to try this method, I'll also give a try to LST because I've got a very small setup and if it works it'll be brilliant. Good look with your grow. Will keep an eye on it

 

[maturesmoker]

12/12 from seed ? I didn't know that was possible, really good to know I've already been reading about it and I've got 2 clones and 3 new seeds to try this method, I'll also give a try to LST because I've got a very small setup and if it works it'll be brilliant. Good look with your grow. Will keep an eye on it

Hi lince,

Thanks for looking in here. 12/12 from seed is a tried and trusted method now, ideal for smaller grow spaces. But you still get 3 weeks of vegetative growth before they show sex on average and you can train them etc during that time as normal. I've done on and off over the past 10 years and the main points I would say are:

1. Plant them in the pots you intend to flower them in from germination so there is no holding them back by repoting.

2. Dont top them, just LST or bending, nothing thats going to cause them to 'stall' for several days etc. The idea with 12/12 from seed is that you get as much early growth as possible in that period before they preflower. Some do top them and it only makes a few days difference to be honest but I dont do it.

3. The beauty of 12/12 from germination is that you can use just one cabinet and keep adding plants/strains as you wish with no veg cab required.

4. Clones, unless you are growing a quantity of clones I'd advice against 12/12 from rooting, clones are just not as vigorous as seedplants at that stage, its alwasy better to veg your clones up a couple more weeks. Go with sedplants for this method.

5. Start your flowering countdown from the time they preflower.

Hope this helps

Going to be cleaning out the cab again today so I'll grab a pic of the Snow White.

 

[jjmd]

Hey Mature, I was wondering how long of an interval are you going to use before you start the next seed? I figure you are going to still do a perpetual grow.

 

[gumball]

cleaning out the cabinet, so soon? please dont say there is something you HAVE to clean out? please be preventative??!!

good points on the 12/12 from seed MS! one thing that has got me wondering though, the topping, or "stall stress" as you put it. in your opinion, with a plant that is 12/12 from seed, do you think most plants would add on enough veg time to their own biological clock to make up for the growth they lost before they let themselves flower?

i ask because I read a thread recently where a fellow did 3 plants, same strain, 12/12 from seed. it was under a 400 or 600 watt hps. but he did one with LST only, one topped, and the other left to grow naturally. he got 30 grams dried from the LST, 21 grams dried from the natural but lost about 8-10 from bud rot he said, and 40 grams dried from the topped plant. i know the light can make up for the stress compared to lower watts, but that is a substantial difference from a "stall stress" technique.

food for thought. here is the link if you want to check it out. https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/325896-cheese-trainwreck-12-12-seed-15.html