turnip brain
Active Member
I have spent countless hours reading the forums researching answers to questions that came up as I put together my grow room and first grow. I think the largest amount of info has come from these organic forums, including the subcool section, resulting in my attempt at mainlining and the use of super soil. I have started numerous threads asking specific questions which in large part have been answered. Thanks to all who took the time to answer questions and help me along the way!
I made a few mistakes with this grow, but the plants have been robust and I am really pleased with final results.
I hope what I can contribute here is useful. My thoughts about the mistakes are not definitive, but perhaps worth consideration. I put these concerns and other pertinent learning points in bold below.
The finished plants were started from seed, and clones taken for the second and third waves which are now vegging outdoors.
So here are a few thoughts about things I learned along the way:
-Germinating was done by soaking in a container of water for 24-48 hrs until I saw the seeds swell and crack, then inserted 1/4" into rapid rooters under about 100W of CFL 24hr. Enough heat in that cool part of the season to keep them warm. One seed was quite a bit behind the other two, and seemed in the end to be a more individual pheno, Anyway, this propagation worked very well.
Moved into roots organic soil in 16 oz clear plastic cups that I drilled holes in sides and bottom to mimic airpots. Clear cups were great since I could see root development . Vegging under CFL, mostly cool white with a couple warm white in the mix.
Transplanted into 1 gal paint buckets also drilled bottom and sides to mimic air pots. These pots were not transparent and not seeing the root development, I left the plants in these containers a long time. I think my first mistake was not transplanting again into larger pots and they became a bit root bound.
I subsequently found translucent 1 gal plastic buckets at Walmart that I will use from here on.
Mistake #2: During this time, I had to travel and the plants got seriously dried out to the point where some leaves withered and fell off, but after the trauma they bounced back pretty well. I believe though that this setback ultimately stunted all these plants.
I started mainlining and took clones which I rooted according to subcool's tutorial. They took a very long time to root, but all clones eventually took off.
I wasn't sure how the strain would mainline and having found lots of conflicting info about defoliation wasn't sure how much to prune during veg. I mainlined two plants shooting for 16 heads and the third for 8. Many extra lower bud sites and side branches also flowered so I ended up with heavier main buds and a lot of smaller side and undergrowth buds. The third plant mainlined for 8 has much less of the smaller extra bud sites. My thought after the fact is that 3 plants with fewer mainlined heads and more pruning would have produced neater final results
Plants were eventually transplanted a final time with around 1/4-1/3 Super soil, the two more robust plants into 7 gal fabric pots, and the third lagging more stunted but lankier plant into a 3 gal paint bucket. I didn't think that one would produce so well but I was pleasantly surprised that it hit stride once transplanted. This one also was transplanted int a mix of eko brand soil base mixed with their compost about 4:1(from home depot) with SS, while the other two were all Roots soil and SS. My conclusion from this and the subsequent plants now vegging on the porch is that the eko soil line is just fine, and a heck of a lot cheaper than Roots
This said, the EKO is alot less airy and holds more water longer. I mixed it about 4:1 with perlite, and feel that extra airation is warranted
Plants starting taking off nicely a couple days after this transplant.
They were switched to HPS 400w and 12/12 soon after the transplant.
Flowering essentially went well. It seemed either they were going to be very fast or that there was premature aging; leaves started yellowing/curling and browning after only about 3-4 weeks of flower. I added some molasses, kelp and banana teas, but tea didn't seem do do much of anything. hard to tell. Might be temps were a bit high. At first in the closed space temps hit the 90s. I don't need super stealth for the most part, so kept the door cracked open and temps remained around mid 80s through the flowering.
Then it seemed flowers plumped up and all other signs were flowers were done, except trichomes were not finishing. I asked here on the forum about the possibility to move them into sun hoping extra UV here at high altitude would kick them into amber. Tried it and 3 days in sunlight amber appeared.
i harvested plant #1 yesterday. I believe this one finished first and had the most aging effect from being in the hot spot under the lighting, The other two plants are still looking a bit younger, greener and they are still a few days from amber/harvest.
Harvesting that one, I also wanted to see the roots, so separated the root ball from the soil. i was surprised to find that other than really fine root hairs, the main root system apparently did not extend into the final transplant soil and little to no rooting into the super soil. I wonder if this was from them becoming a little too root bound early. or just that the fabric pots dried out the outer layers so much between waterings that the outer soil was too dry.
And my final though is that i vegged the subsequent clones a good long time under CFL, then transplanted into 7-8 gal and 12-15 gal pots and moved them outdoors on the porch. These plants under the sun are growing hugely much more hugely than the indoor plants under artificial light. I'll be building another larger makeshift indoor grow space to flower the next three indoors under 600W, and it looks like I'll be getting probably triple-quadruple the yield compared to the plants grown completely indoors.
Harvest from the first plant:
The small root ball
The remaining two next to the outdoor plants cloned from same. You can see the smaller pot with 8 head mainline has the larger colas. This one also showed more sativa traits compared to the other two seeds. Supposedly 50/50% hybrid
I made a few mistakes with this grow, but the plants have been robust and I am really pleased with final results.
I hope what I can contribute here is useful. My thoughts about the mistakes are not definitive, but perhaps worth consideration. I put these concerns and other pertinent learning points in bold below.
The finished plants were started from seed, and clones taken for the second and third waves which are now vegging outdoors.
So here are a few thoughts about things I learned along the way:
-Germinating was done by soaking in a container of water for 24-48 hrs until I saw the seeds swell and crack, then inserted 1/4" into rapid rooters under about 100W of CFL 24hr. Enough heat in that cool part of the season to keep them warm. One seed was quite a bit behind the other two, and seemed in the end to be a more individual pheno, Anyway, this propagation worked very well.
Moved into roots organic soil in 16 oz clear plastic cups that I drilled holes in sides and bottom to mimic airpots. Clear cups were great since I could see root development . Vegging under CFL, mostly cool white with a couple warm white in the mix.
Transplanted into 1 gal paint buckets also drilled bottom and sides to mimic air pots. These pots were not transparent and not seeing the root development, I left the plants in these containers a long time. I think my first mistake was not transplanting again into larger pots and they became a bit root bound.
I subsequently found translucent 1 gal plastic buckets at Walmart that I will use from here on.
Mistake #2: During this time, I had to travel and the plants got seriously dried out to the point where some leaves withered and fell off, but after the trauma they bounced back pretty well. I believe though that this setback ultimately stunted all these plants.
I started mainlining and took clones which I rooted according to subcool's tutorial. They took a very long time to root, but all clones eventually took off.
I wasn't sure how the strain would mainline and having found lots of conflicting info about defoliation wasn't sure how much to prune during veg. I mainlined two plants shooting for 16 heads and the third for 8. Many extra lower bud sites and side branches also flowered so I ended up with heavier main buds and a lot of smaller side and undergrowth buds. The third plant mainlined for 8 has much less of the smaller extra bud sites. My thought after the fact is that 3 plants with fewer mainlined heads and more pruning would have produced neater final results
Plants were eventually transplanted a final time with around 1/4-1/3 Super soil, the two more robust plants into 7 gal fabric pots, and the third lagging more stunted but lankier plant into a 3 gal paint bucket. I didn't think that one would produce so well but I was pleasantly surprised that it hit stride once transplanted. This one also was transplanted int a mix of eko brand soil base mixed with their compost about 4:1(from home depot) with SS, while the other two were all Roots soil and SS. My conclusion from this and the subsequent plants now vegging on the porch is that the eko soil line is just fine, and a heck of a lot cheaper than Roots
This said, the EKO is alot less airy and holds more water longer. I mixed it about 4:1 with perlite, and feel that extra airation is warranted
Plants starting taking off nicely a couple days after this transplant.
They were switched to HPS 400w and 12/12 soon after the transplant.
Flowering essentially went well. It seemed either they were going to be very fast or that there was premature aging; leaves started yellowing/curling and browning after only about 3-4 weeks of flower. I added some molasses, kelp and banana teas, but tea didn't seem do do much of anything. hard to tell. Might be temps were a bit high. At first in the closed space temps hit the 90s. I don't need super stealth for the most part, so kept the door cracked open and temps remained around mid 80s through the flowering.
Then it seemed flowers plumped up and all other signs were flowers were done, except trichomes were not finishing. I asked here on the forum about the possibility to move them into sun hoping extra UV here at high altitude would kick them into amber. Tried it and 3 days in sunlight amber appeared.
i harvested plant #1 yesterday. I believe this one finished first and had the most aging effect from being in the hot spot under the lighting, The other two plants are still looking a bit younger, greener and they are still a few days from amber/harvest.
Harvesting that one, I also wanted to see the roots, so separated the root ball from the soil. i was surprised to find that other than really fine root hairs, the main root system apparently did not extend into the final transplant soil and little to no rooting into the super soil. I wonder if this was from them becoming a little too root bound early. or just that the fabric pots dried out the outer layers so much between waterings that the outer soil was too dry.
And my final though is that i vegged the subsequent clones a good long time under CFL, then transplanted into 7-8 gal and 12-15 gal pots and moved them outdoors on the porch. These plants under the sun are growing hugely much more hugely than the indoor plants under artificial light. I'll be building another larger makeshift indoor grow space to flower the next three indoors under 600W, and it looks like I'll be getting probably triple-quadruple the yield compared to the plants grown completely indoors.
Harvest from the first plant:
The small root ball
The remaining two next to the outdoor plants cloned from same. You can see the smaller pot with 8 head mainline has the larger colas. This one also showed more sativa traits compared to the other two seeds. Supposedly 50/50% hybrid