Kushash's 2019 TUGC Competition Grow Journal!

Please do not post here until I post the complete grow from the TUGC tournament.

I should be finished by 8-1-2019 compiling the info and then this thread is open to any comments or questions.

I should be able to compile everything with 2 pages and about 40 posts over the next few days.

I'll edit this post and remove the top comment if I can when I'm done.

The comp was great with a great group of growers.
The TUGC threads may be deleted soon now that Dyna-Gro is leaving as an advertiser and I want to preserve my info here.

Here is a link to the comp.
https://www.rollitup.org/t/picture-gallery-for-tugc-players-posts-only-please.985995/

Here is a link created by @Big Perm for any comments or questions about this comp or this Journal.
https://www.rollitup.org/t/results-the-ugc-open-for-everyone.992883/

Happy Growing!

#121

I will fill in details along the way including feedings, environment, setup and everything else I can think of.
I will be happy to answer any questions in the other thread.
Today I want to make sure I have a detailed explanation of my plans so that there are no mistakes, so I'll probably have a few extra pics today.
I have started 14 seeds in soil and will pick my favorite 5 to put in the flower room.
I have started 6 clones that were taken from a mother plant shown in the 1st picture.
Clones are shown before being trimmed and dipped in clonex gel.
Of the 6 clones shown, 2 will be chosen to be put in the flower room.

Last is Beastly!
A clone taken from the top of a plant shown in pictures below.
If Beastly lives she will go into the flower room with the rest.
A picture of Beastly before she was topped shows the 6 smaller clones in soil.

No dome will be used for clones. They will be misted several times a day.

Oh yeah! The picture of soil has some vermiculite added to it to be mixed in.
I add some vermiculite to my soil mix when I amend it then when I'm getting read to use it I add some additional vermiculite as it is fragile so I just like adding some in fresh right before using it.
Happy Growing!

Amended soil with additional vermiculite.

Mother that the 6 clones were taken from.

6 Clones before trimming them back and shortening the stem.

6 clones out of water.

6 clones in soil with the future Beastly clone behind them.

Beastly in water.

Beastly in soil.

Seeds that I am choosing from.
14 seeds in soil.

#121.

I trimmed a few lower leaves on the clones.
They seem to be in good shape.

Of my 14 seeds 8 are 1 1/2 years old and have popped quickly in the past.
2 are about 3 or 4 years old.
The other 4 are older going back maybe 6 years.
The 6 old seeds will be given at least 2 weeks before I consider giving up on them or digging one out.
Most of the younger ones should pop in 4 or 5 days.
I figured this comp would be a good time to start the older ones because I'll be focused.

Between the 14 seeds I am looking for a special trait.
Leaves like the one pictured below that give the expression it shows. It happens about 15%-20% of the time with the 8 newer seeds I planted so I should get one this grow.

Note: One picture has a small #121 in the corner. Thought I forgot the paper then saw it was in the corner so it should be OK.

I'm showing 2 pics below with a #121 simply to show what my goal is. Not sure what the rule is for showing plants that are not actually part of the comp in this thread. If it's not cool let me know in the other thread and I'll edit or they can be deleted.

# 121

The six small clones look good.
The big clone is struggling.
Decided to break out the dome today.

All seedlings have popped.
The two on the right are just popping out and likely to be OK.
A light misting on the two with shells helps loosen it.
They are 36" from an air cooled 400w MH that will be replaced with a 600w MH in a week or two. I will lower the light 2 or 3 inches a day.
Happy Growing!

#121

Seedlings and clones are doing well.

I gave all of the seedlings a good watering yesterday.
They will be given a chance to dry out before being watered again.
One received about 3 TBL of EWC to help prop it up.
The rest were given a tsp of EWC.
All were watered with 70 ppms (my meter uses the 500ppm scale) of seaweed extract shown below.
I will be harvesting EWC soon, in the mean time I'm using the bag shown.

Clones will be misted and covered and kept just outside the tent.

Seedlings are 24" from the 400w MH as of today.

Happy Growing!

Watered the seedlings today and gave them some additional EWC.
Took some pictures to reset the 7 day clock.

#121

I transplanted 4 of my 14 seedlings today.
The 6 small clones look good and I see some roots. The dome has been removed.
The big clone taken from the top of a plant did not survive. There were no roots on it when I took it out of the soil.


The four seedlings to be transplanted are in front of the others.

This one had a small amount of roots wrapping around the bottom so I loosened them up.

Yellow sticky trap strips have been added to each pot.

The six clones.

One clone showing a couple of roots.

#121

Mixed a new batch of soil.
I'll be using this new soil and an older batch of soil that I made in mid February in my larger pots when the time comes.
Wish I started this batch sooner.

Pictures show everything used.
The base is a soil that has been amended countless times over the past four years.
I'll go by gallons to estimate things, looks like about 25 gallons of soil to be amended.
I'll have a better idea when I put it in a barrel and bags for storage. I'm guessing about 40-45 gallons in the end.

Approx 25 gallons of used soil that was leached of any salt build.
I put perlite in the bottom of 3 gallon pots then add the old soil and run water through it. More than 3 times the amount, how much IDK. I use tap from the hose to do it.

I usually use happy frog 6-4-4 but was almost out so I used some DTE Bio fish and crab meal this time in addition to the HF, I hope they like it.

1st things I added:

2 cups Happy frog 6-4-4.
1 cup DTE Bio Fish
1/2 cup DTE Crab Meal
1 1/2 cups Kelp Meal

3/4 cup Lime
2 cups gypsum
1 1/4 cup Azomite
1 1/2 cup Greensand
These were mixed into the soil 1st.

Next I added:
About 5 gallons of sphagnum peat moss and about 2 1/2 gallons of EWC.
After mixing those in I added some additional perlite and some vermiculite.
Total perlite added when counting the perlite I added to the bottom of the pots to leach the soil is about 9 gallons.
Last thing added was about 1 1/2 gallons of vermiculite.

#121

Transplanted the rest of my seedlings yesterday to 1 gallon pots.
Today I replaced the old 400w MH bulb and 400w magnetic ballast with a new 600w MH bulb and digital 600w ballast.

The 400w was 22" from the canopy.
I'm introducing them to the new light at 36" and will lower it 2 or 3" a day.

Before transplant yesterday.

After transplant yesterday afternoon.

This morning.

#121.

I transplanted my 6 clones to 1 gallon pots today.

My soil is a light mix so I fed my plants that started from seed 2 days ago and fed my clones today.
They all received the same ferts.

3 TBL EWC
1TBL Kelp Meal
1 TBL Crab Meal.
2 tsp gypsum

My water is a mix of hard tap water and RO.
The tap can range from 350 ppms to 500 ppms.
I mix it with RO till it gets to around 150 ppms.

I watered in the amendments with:
40 ppms of Epsom salt.
70 ppms of seaweed extract.
90 ppms of fish emulsion.

So with the ro/tap mix plus those additions the total ppms were about 350.
The next several watering days will be water only while seeing how they develop.

The 2nd picture has a red arrow pointing to what I think is a variegated leaf.

Happy Growing!

Water only every other day.
I gave them a top dressing last update so it will be water only until I transplant to 5 gallon pots in a few days.
I'm going to choose 7 plants. 5 from seed and 2 clones.

I took a bunch of pictures so I'll load the max today.

Some are in the tent as I have taken in the past.
5 plants from seed and 3 clones were brought out of the tent to show some front runners that I will consider going with.
It also gives a better look at the color.

Sorry about the 10 pics this time. I took pics of the 4 corners of the plants in the tent and figured I would post them.

Happy Growing!






The 6 clones at the front of the tent.

Pictures below were taken outside of the tent.

5 from seed.


3 clones.

#121

I picked 3 of the 5 plants from seed that I'm going to run with in the comp, as soon as I pick 2 more plants from seed they will be transplanted to 5 gallon pots.

I transplanted 5 seedlings and 2 clones to 5 gallon pots.
These 7 plants will now be the plants I flower.
Probably should have transplanted sooner.
I'll be cutting it close if I leave them in the veg tent for 10 more days before moving to the flower room.
That would leave me 11 weeks to flower.
The 2 clones are in the front of the tent.

Happy Growing!

I topped the 2 clones and lollipopped the 5 seedlings.
I do not snip fan leaves when I lollipop.

Clones being topped.


3 of the 5 seedlings being lollipopped. All 5 seedlings were lollipopped.


A plant with two 12 leaflet leaves.


After being topped and lollipopped.

All 7 plants were given 8 TBL of fresh EWC on Saturday and watered with 100ppms of Epsom salt and 75 ppms of seaweed extract.
Topped the 5 plants that were started from seed today.
Will move them to 12/12 Friday.

Happy Growing!

All plants were moved to the flower room yesterday.
Two one year old 600w hortilux super hps bulbs were replaced.
These plants love Nitrogen and Magnesium during the stretch.
All of my 7 entries were top dressed today.
3 TBL DTE Bio Fish 7-7-2.
1 1/2 Tsp DTE Kelp Meal. Would have been a bit more but ran out of it.
1 TBL Gypsum, also ran out of gypsum lol.

Watered with 300ppms:
150 ppms tap/ro.
40 ppms of Epsom salt.
40 ppms of kelp extract.
70 ppms of fish emulsion.

The two clones 10-1 and 10-3.

2 seedlings New #1 and New #3.

Three seedlings New 4, 5 and 6.

Some additional pics.

#121.
6 days under 12/12.

Watered today, last watering was 5 days ago when top dressing was added.

Watered with 200 ppms:
150 ppms ro/tap
50 ppms Epsom salt.

I measured from the soil line to the canopy.

Clones:

10-1 30".
10-3 25"

Seeds:

#1 29"
#3 27"
#4 30"
#5 26"
#6 27"

These will more than double in height by the end of the stretch.
I will LST the tops at some point.


Pictures are with one light off.
Next set of pictures I'll turn both lights off.

Need to do some more pruning.

Clones side, 10-1 and 10-3.

Clones top.
Seed #1 and #3 side.

Seed #1 and #3 top.

Seed 4, 5, and 6 side.

Take a look next to the plastic label for #5, a dead fan leaf.

Seed 4, 5, and 6 top.

I also lost a leaf on #4, looks like I need to step up my game as we are entering the 4th inning of a 9 inning game.

#121

I'll be replacing all sticky traps today to see how my gnat problem is.
I'll be covering the top soil with layers of perlite and diatomaceous earth at some point.

I made a small bottle of spray from concentrate of Capt. Jacks spinosad with a drop of Ivory. Enough to spray all my plants with a nice fresh mist over the soil a few times during the day.
Best only to mix what is going to be used that day.

Pictures of mycelium on top of the soil of clone 10-3.