A grow diary.

[basscaptain]

where is my bread???? I want some with the coffee Now Too....

 

[Kanzeon]

It's been a solid month, except for the thrips that latched on to this last bag of peat. Before making this last batch of soil, I rinsed both the peat and coco with hot tap water, and then poured 2 gallons of boiling water over that.

Because fuck thrips, that's why. Of course it's a Promix product.

The flower room is looking decent. Humidifier is working well to keep VPD, especially at lights off.

Some of the less terrible looking buds. Silverfields is still bulking up, even with fighting thrips most of the way through flower. These buds are super dense, they need all of this support or this plant bends over like a willow tree.

Siberian Haze, looking wonderful. Likely a 4-5 weeks out.

Serious Seeds' AK-47, also in late flower. There's still quite a bit of bright green growth there, so Ill let her keep going for another 3 weeks at least.

Here are the males. The four on the top right are Uzbeknepanama, next to them are Uzis. The bottom row is Sannie's Jack and two Afghan Mix.

Veg area, chugging right along. The three smaller pots are all males that I'm keeping under 19/5 until there's space for them to start throwing pollen.

710's Mango Bud

HSO's Lemon Citron is going to be flipped soon. She's been a very impressive plant, outgrowing all of the other strains that were planted at the same time as her easily. The thrip damage is apparent on the lower leaves, but the upper ones seem to be clear.

The babies! Orient Express, Sky Cuddler Double Kush, Nepalma, and the last of the Sannie's Jack, Herijuana, and Ukhrul.

The other regs, growing until they show me what sex they are. ECSD x Moonshine, Moonshine x Amnesia, Col'Jam, Herijuana, Ukhrul, and Sannie's Jack.

Now popping: Hazeman's '88 G13 Hashplant! Really excited to run this and cross it with the middle eastern landrace stuff.

 

[BurnzYzBudZz]

Great last couple pages. Nourishment for the brain. Very interesting the mixes you’ve come up with. Sooner or later, I want to give something like you’ve created a truly in my flower room for nutrients. Happy grows.
burnz

 

[Kanzeon]

Thanks! The hardest part for me was understanding how to calculate combined NPK ratios, but as soon as I created a spreadsheet for it, it was easy sailing from there.

 

[BurnzYzBudZz]

Thanks! The hardest part for me was understanding how to calculate combined NPK ratios, but as soon as I created a spreadsheet for it, it was easy sailing from there.

You are some kind of genius kanzeon aren’t you? Haha that’s awesome. I wouldn’t even have a clue where to start other than copying you lol

 

[MIMedGrower]

You are some kind of genius kanzeon aren’t you? Haha that’s awesome. I wouldn’t even have a clue where to start other than copying you lol

Agreed! So much knowledge packed in to this genius stoner. :-)

 

[basscaptain]

keep on keeping on

man your rolling Good ........

 

[Kanzeon]

You are some kind of genius kanzeon aren’t you? Haha that’s awesome. I wouldn’t even have a clue where to start other than copying you lol

There's a ton of knowledge on these boards, I'm just good at researching.

 

[MIMedGrower]

There's a ton of knowledge on these boards, I'm just good at researching.

You are good at remembering. Thats the hard part. ;-)

 

[basscaptain]

Thanks! The hardest part for me was understanding how to calculate combined NPK ratios, but as soon as I created a spreadsheet for it, it was easy sailing from there.

you all know I run by the seat of my pants and gut...... I put the computer in the grow room cause at some point I knew I would have to real myself in and make a file folder for all this info....

I'm going to make a spreadsheet/ template also, for all this like.
I did for my Business back in 95 wow along time ago........
I'm going to dail in this run with alot of info and yes I'll going to go by a book I have never seen..

anyways man your on top of it I like it......

 

[Kanzeon]

Really though it's not that much different from calculating recipe costs. Just multiply the NPK value by the percentage by weight of each ingredient to the total mass.

Like if you're adding 100 grams of bone meal to a final mix that's going to weigh 500 grams (20% of the total weight), and the NPK is 6-18-0, then you just multiply each by 20% (the percentage of the ingredient to the total mix), for 1.2-3.6-0. Do that with all of the ingredients and then add that up. I couldn't do it in my head, but spreadsheets are the perfect tool for that.

 

[Kanzeon]

OH!

Also, not gonna lie, I've made heavy use of Library Genesis. If any of you aren't in the loop, google it.

I firmly believe that all knowledge should be open source.

 

[Kanzeon]

I realized that I haven't really elaborated on the pruning and training process I've been using.

Let's take this little Ukhrul plant. It's still in a 2x2 square pot, always watered/fertigated from below, by pouring the mix into the containers they sit in.

There are 8-9 of these per container, enough to make it impossible for any of them to fall over. Wait, does this mean I'm a hybrid hydro grower now?

The seedlings are started off in only EWC and coco, then that gets mixed with the (sterilized) soil mix.

If that lil' guy is not really a guy, then it'll get potted into a 3g, like this. On the same container of coco, for reference.

Then most of them get their heads cut off. The only exception is the upcoming G13HP, because Duke Diamond said topping it hurts yield. I might clone and do a topped vs. untopped, just because.

Then they turn into a magnificent butterfly! This is HSO's Lemon Citron, 7 weeks from seed. This one was actually topped, but kinda gave me the finger and grew another top anyway. Darn, I guess I've got a keeper. Shoot. Heck.

Here's a peek at her base.

And then they get supercropped a few times, so they can better support the buds. But you all know how I treat my ladies, they get all the support they need once they get to flower.

The only real theory to the pruning is to remove the fan leaves that block the growth of the lower buds, and all of them that end up touching the soil. Usually this means leaving the fan leaves that face outward from where the main cola would be if it weren't topped. Then stem crush to delay the growth of those main colas so the other ones can catch up.

Another thing this lets me do is reuse the soil after flowering, because it's usually only been used for 12-15 weeks. Rinse, boiling water, re-amend with nutes and EWC, and roll.

I think that my technique also contributed to the thrips and how bad they got. I wasn't careful enough and let the mix touch the leaves without peroxiding them right after, and there were definitely baby thrips in there.

Like the good reverend Stone Cold Steve Austin says...

For me, that includes any bags of anything that's going into the soil mix. Because fuck thrips, that's why.

 

[Dirtbag]

Thrips are a bitch. Especially in Canada where the average person can not buy anything off the shelf that kills them effectively. I've been hoarding a bottle of spinosad I bought like 5 years ago when it was still legal, down to like 2 tbsp....
But that shit is OMRI and wipes them out with like one or two applications.

 

[Kanzeon]

They are! On some plants worse than others, too. They've got more places to hide in the skinny leafed ladies.

At this point I've settled on the combination of PFR-97, end-all, and wiping the top and bottom of the affected leaves with hydrogen peroxide. Definitely doesn't work as well as spinosad would, but I feel like it's what I gotta do.

 

[Kanzeon]

Nepalma (top right) and Orient Express (top left) are showing tons of vigor. Both are already outgrowing the seedlings that sprouted weeks before them. Looks like the thrips have been just about dealt with here, too.

The next stop for everything above. Currently holding a combination of Ukhrul, Herijuana, ECSD x Amnesia, Moonshine x Amnesia, Sannie's Jack, and Col' Jam. Probably 3 or 4 of these are close to differentiating.

The males! Looks like the UNP have some serious stretch and vigor.

The vegging plants. Some are recovering from a bit of heat damage, but they're all coming right along! Culled the last of the UNP since it never recovered from transplant shock.

The whole flower room.

Very happy with how this Silverfields is thickening up. Responded super well to topping, very much looking forward to the smoke.

AK-47, also recovering from heat shock and N tox.

It's hard to tell if this Siberian Haze is deficient or this leaf yellowing is part of the natural fade. Looking like 3-4 more weeks on this lady.

 

[Milson]

Man, you have quite the grow going!

 

[Kanzeon]

Thanks man! Just trying to keep myself medicated. Roughly 1/4 of those seedlings will get culled, so it's not THAT many plants.

The perpetual harvest and few repeating strains are tough to do well, but trying to accomplish unrealistic goals is how I learn.

 

[chemistry]

Thrips are a bitch. Especially in Canada where the average person can not buy anything off the shelf that kills them effectively. I've been hoarding a bottle of spinosad I bought like 5 years ago when it was still legal, down to like 2 tbsp....
But that shit is OMRI and wipes them out with like one or two applications.

Same here with thrips, had to dump all of my veg plants and start from seeds, wasn't so much the bites or the bugs them selves, more the plant diseases they carry, and I blame them for PM, and from constantly opening up leaves to feed on them, I believe they let in air born moulds and the scent from the open leaves attract other bugs to your plant, like mites. Its funny, the couple of times I've had mites I had thrips quite badly first and never noticed the mites move in until it was to late.

 

[Kanzeon]

A quick edit to the bloom booster:

100g water
100g molasses
300g liquid kelp extract
100g fishbone meal
45g banana peel powder

Heated to a simmer for 2 minutes, then blended in a high speed blender with:

75g mineralized phosphate
10g hardwood ash
5g epsom salt
5g micronized sulfur

Increase to 2-3 mL/L. Makes about 1.25 liters.

It looked like the carrageenan/agar in the kelp extract and the gelatin in the fish bone meal absorbed water when boiled, which actually works perfectly because I was looking for a hydrocolloid to aid with wetting. Now I won't need to add xanthan gum.

I also knocked out a batch of soil last night, sans humic and fulvic acid blend for the '88G13HP's on the way. It's funny, it's something that I enjoy doing, but I procrastinate every time it needs to be done.

10 gallons Perlite
3 gallons Coco
2.5 gallons peat, rinsed with hot tap water and then boiling water
2.5 gallons EWC
1 cup oyster shell flour
1.75 cups 4-4-4
2 cups dolomite lime
1 teaspoon micronized sulfur

Tried Canna Coco for the first time and immediately liked it better than the other compressed brand that I'd been using. It rehydrated faster, wasn't nearly as dirty after rehydrating, and broke apart easier. Still poured hot water over it though, just to be safe.

I'm hoping that with some treatment, this can be used as a renewable living soil. The boiling water seems to get rid of any pests that may have hung around since the last grow. Since the soil, the bloom booster, and the veg nutes are all pH neutral, it should hopefully be relatively plug and play after plants get chopped, assuming I don't get invaded by bugs.

So after stalking Dirtbag's thread, I went looking for info on Triacontanol () says that there's a range between .001g per L and 0.5g per liter in which it is effective, and then any more than that starts hindering growth.

It also gives the ratio of 15g dried alfalfa per liter of water to make the extraction, and notes that tea made from stalks and roots has less of an inhibitory effect at high doses than tea made from the leaves or reproductive organs.

Seems like a nice middle ground there is .01g/L, so that's what I'll go with to start. Since a 5 gallon bucket is roughly 18 liters, I'll start off by adding 1 gram alfalfa extract to that and .15g/L to the epsom salt/sulfur foliar that gets used every other week during the full cycle.