[FastForward]

Thought I'd better keep a diary of what I'm up to, so I'll dump it all here if okay so others can either learn from or advise this old school caner.

I need to establish a mother room and clones, so that's up first. I've had 5x OG Kush (DNA) in a shotglass of distilled water for about 24 hours until they cracked. Today two have cracked with the white root showing inside and the three others are almost there. Mixed up a 5ml/ltr solution of VitaLink Plant Start and soaked 5 small rockwool cubes in them. Took the cubes out, gave them a squeeze to drain off the excess, and then planted the 2 cracked seeds about 3mm from the surface. The planted seeds are now back in the dark tent (currently 75f/23c, 45% humidity) with another tray upside down on top to try to up the humidity a bit.

NOTE: I spent an hour mucking about with pH levels....wanted to use Nitrozyme and Formulex but it brought the pH of my distilled water down from 5.5 to 4.0....didn't have any pH up and adding more water would screw up the concentration. So, found out that after adding the VitaLink my pH was 5.4 and that was the best I could do so went with it.

Am off to Dam on Monday and I need to get these in rockwool before I go...

Once these have sprouted then I'll start to veg them and select a nice one for a mum, then probably flower the others. I'm winging it so I'll worry about it when I need to

So, in about 2 months I should have my mother room ready and a couple of plants to flower/sex. They're feminised seeds but I think I might just sex her anyway to learn the skill.

At the moment I only have a mother room setup. In the next month or two as the others are growing I'll beg/borrow/steal/rob the money to get my flower room setup.

Currently: Medium Budbox, Nutriculture Mini ebb and flood tub, 2x fluoros (vislux fittings) for veg/clones, 2 tube brightwing (for mum), waterfarm (for mum) (this all came from a Growell Mother Room/Propagation kit)

Planned Flowering: XL Budbox, either a larger ebb and flood, or if I can afford it the 6 pot IWS system, 600w HPS

This all being done with rockwool and clay pebbles and VitaLink nutrients.

Will provide photos of setup and plant shots once I get back from Dam and fingers crossed my ladies will have sprouted.

Loving it already....am overfocussed and super obessive about it

FF

[sokalkush]

Hey bro,

good luck on your new grow, hopefully those OG's you got there are the real Cali flavor =)... no turning back now, hopefully this will be a lifetime endeavor for u!

-peace

[FastForward]

Time for an update. Firstly the bad news - I think either I cocked up the germ of the OG Kush or was just really unlucky (most likely the former). Lesson learned: don't use nice beans for practice. So with this in mind, I've been germing the cheaper seed as I have, so that I get something right eventually without an angry seed producer slapping me around. I've got Lemon Skunk, Kushberry, Pure Afghan (DNA) and G13 Haze (Barneys) in the fridge but am saving them until I'm better at this. Currently in sprouted and in prop:

Violator Kush, fem (Barney's) x 3
White Widow (freebie from DNA) x 5

Cracked, planted but not sprouted yet:

White Widow x 3
Reserva Privada Mix (DNA) x 3
OG Kush x 1

And currently being cracked/germed are 2 more Reserva Privada mix and 2 Lowryder#2 (partly experiment, part backup plan).

My setup in my mother room:

2 tube Brightwing fluoro, RVK100 extractor, desk fan (in corner), x-stream 12 propagator (GH flora nutes, rhizo, superthrive, alg-a-mic), ph 5.8, ec 0.4 (200 ppm). Root riot cubes in 2" net pots. Sprayer and lights on 24/7. Currently building an upgraded sprayer system for the x-stream using ultrasonic pond mister.



Room and tank temps:


Overview:


Violator Kush (born 10 Jul 08):






White Widow (born 13 July 08):






Roots and Sprayer:








The Violator girls had a rough start to life (and may well be boys now) as I left them too long and they looked like cress when I planted them. As you can see I don't think I planted them deeply enough and it looks like they're going to be in trouble when bigger - and if they survive will need staking or some kind of support. I'm concerned that they should be bigger by now...and the White Widow has almost caught up.

Anyhow, that's life on Planet FF atm...

[logic]

Looks like your off to a good start ill be watching this to the finish

[FastForward]

Update:

Things moving along nicely. Have upped the humidity to 60-70% by turning off the extractor and giving the place a good spritz. Have also left a damp rooting cube in front of a fan. pH of the tank isn't swinging quite as wildly but from what I've read it's most likely down to the rhizotonic being used up. Seems like other ppl use rhizo as pH up with distilled water and it's a known effect. I've also added in some fulvic acid into the tank today. Am setting the pH about 5.5 with the aim of keeping it around 5.8. Fulvic acid is also acidic, so handy pH down.

The Violator girls are doing nicely, albeit a bit slowly (compared to the White Widow). One in particular stands out a mile as the loveliest of the three and definitely a potential mother if things go well (Vio#1). Her root system is the most developed of any in the box with lots of smaller hairs up and down the main roots, and she seems strong and starting to pick up the speed developing. Vio #2 is a bit runty and Vio #3 is already too heavy up top to support the weight and is growing with its head on the ground - I put this down to me planting it too shallow and some of this should be below ground because otherwise she seems perfectly healthy. Will see what happens.

The White Widow has blown me away by just how readily and easily it grows. Every seed I've germed has come up trumps every time, and quickly. They're all looking good, but they're unfemmed so I'm expecting to kill a load of males hence a lot of them. They're also my main practice seed for germ.

The others in germ have been giving me a really hard time. The OG Kush and two of the Res. Priv. mix beans seem to be taking ages to break the surface. I'm starting to think they're dead from the transplant because I thikn they've been in there over a week now. Have taken photos - removed the surface plug (light plug, not tight) for the photo...usually relatively light proof with a bit of rootriot corner in the top.

Also have some Lowryder - one planted and waiting to break surface and another few germing.

Overall:

Violator #1

Violator #2

Violator #3


White Widow:


Violator#1's root system:

[logic]

Hey FF please dont host your images on free image hosting....if they close down we loose all your pics.

Host them on the farm and there safe for life!

[FastForward]

Originally Posted by logic

Hey FF please dont host your images on free image hosting....if they close down we loose all your pics.

Host them on the farm and there safe for life!

Cool as - was only doing it to save you the bandwidth costs and disk space...and also my grubby little seedling shots aren't worthy of going into a 'gallery'...but I'll start upping them here.

[power]

Looks quiet neat in there.

[mace]

So then the OG kush grow is out? dang, i have a few clones of it and was wanting to see how they take to things

Everything else is looking quite good. Keep up the work.

[FastForward]

Originally Posted by mace

So then the OG kush grow is out? dang, i have a few clones of it and was wanting to see how they take to things

Everything else is looking quite good. Keep up the work.

I'm ashamed to admit that I killed the OG I know, crimes against beans and all that...

At the mo am trying to save the whole lot - hot neut temps caused algae and browning roots... (widow and violator kush)