Chemistry's persoanl grow.

[chemistry]

Morning toker and growers, how are you all. Its Saturday morning, update time. Well, as you can imagine, buddies turned up last Saturday, so not a lot got done, apart from a half ounce through various pipes, so this week sees us flip, done it this morning first thing, plants are now on 12/12, so hoping for some white hairs next week, on all four plants, but you know how it it is, there's always a straggler. LED wise, the plants are green as you would like. Nuit wise, I'm using around 100ppm to 150ppm less in veg per feed, don't know if other folk are having the same sort of thing, not that I'm unhappy about saving on nuits, but in the back of my mind, I can't help but think I'm on a looser due to less nuits being eaten, but the plants tell a different story, and are lapping up what they have, so maybe in the long run the LED will pay for its self with the savings I've made in veg, if the light lives that long. lol If this trend carries on, it could be a big saver over a longer period, or the plants will go on a stretch frenzy and eat twice as many flower nuits, we'll have to wait and see how that works out, the economist in me has his fingers crossed. All four plants are looking lush, what more can I ask.
Right, pics, not as many as I normally post, this is due to being flat out at work, and its been hot, so nothing bar the essentials was achieved this week. Pics time, all week seven of veg, apart from the Super Lemon Haze which is a week behind the other three.

Pure Kush.

Holy Punch.

White Widow. A bit tippy.

Super Lemon Haze. Best looking plant of them all at the minute.

Gelato Auto. Outdoor auto is doing well, no deffs or bugs at the moment, we'll see what happens when it starts to flower and starts to smell, not that it doesn't now, but you know what they're like.

Eating Apples are doing ok, a good mixture of rain and sun has them swelling up, fruit is around two inches wide.

Final pic is this rose, was going to leave this pic out, but after a quick smell of this rose, and the colour, thought I'd post it anyway.

And that's about it for this week, hope to have white hairs for the next update, as this would be in keeping with the HPS, which produces white hairs in seven days, so can the new LED produce white hairs in the same time scale, is it as capable as the HPS, you know what's coming, find out next week. Until then, just keep tokin folks.

 

[chemistry]

Morning tokers and growers, hope your all well this sunny Saturday morning. All is well with the plants, all four are chugging along, and have just finished week one of flower. On the HPS vs LED race, the plants don't seem to make as much initial muff under the LED as they did under the HPS, but then there is less heat to make the plants drink more with the LED, so maybe this has some thing to do with the equation, as the plants under the LED are drinking less, so eating less, but it doesn't seem to have any baring on the colour or any part of the plants well being, so maybe the reason HPS is deemed better is because of the heat it throws out, plants also seem a bit shorter than when they're grown under the HPS, so will I wind up with another Icarus cola growing into the light, a wait and see job I think. I thought there would be slight differences between LED and HID, but the differences are quite wide, heat being the main difference, and how I had my grow room hardware was set up, every thing was set up for heat and its removal, but now I find my self looking for a bit of heat after lights out, and this may be a big problem in the Winter, so a supplemental heat source will have to be employed for the colder months, it wont take a log burner, but a subtle little green house heater looks to be the way forward. Another technical problem I solved (very cheaply) is the height loss using the supplied cabling that the LED came with it, lost me nineteen inches from ceiling to LED, using the cables supplied, this is more than the HPS, with hood. So I've designed some thing cheap that any one can cobble together to reduce the height indifference, got some pics of the construction, its so easy to build, you could build it after a bong, or two. Lets see some pics.

Pure Kush. Getting to be a bushy thing, biggest plant of the four.

Holy Punch. Smallest plant of the four, and its in the same spot as the Franco's Lemon Cheese that grew into the HPS, so its in a good spot.

White Widow. Second smallest plant of the four.

Super Lemon Haze (Barneys Seed) Second biggest plant of the four after the Pure Kush.

Super Lemon Haze, you can see the white hairs growing out of the centre, should be prominent amount of muff by next week.

Gellato Auto outdoor. Doing well, just needs more sun.

Other things. This is what I came up with during a stoned moment after clearing a bench in the work shop, needed space to do a bit of house maintenance, so I had a bong and got side tracked, no surprise, work or a bong, work or a bong. Got to thinking about the hanging wires supplied with my new LED light, and the height loss. So here I am with a hand full of bits, what I was looking for was some thing fully adjustable, that wouldn't take more than a toker to adjust on the spot, and this is what I came up with, a bit Heath Robinson, but it is super shiny and blends in with the aluminium heat sink on my light. Don't think it takes much explaining, and you most likely have some or all of the parts knocking around in your shed if you want to knock one up for your self. First pic shows you the parts and how I put them together. I'm going to put a bolt either side of the carabena's connected to the original holes on the light fixture, not done this as yet, purely because it is solid as a rock. Balance was a big thing, so I used two small carabena's to keep the light central, one on its own was a bit wobbly, but two is perfect. The other reason I used the threaded bar is because it makes the whole bar adjustable, I didn't use a spanner to tighten things up, as I wanted the freedom to adjust the bar with my fingers. It all works fine, and I've reduced my height from 19 inches down to 6, although at six, it will be touching the ceiling, so a four to six inch gap should see me through, with a bit of luck. Any way, tech pics.

The new hanger, fully adjustable for any hanging light situation. The bolts on the end of the thread bar will be joined by two more, one on either side of the carabena's, this will stop them sliding, not that they do, as I had to screw the bar through the carabena's to get them on, so they're going no were.

New hangers.

The old hangers.

Left side fitted.

Right side.

And there you have it, easy and cheap to build, would cost you a couple of dollars if you don't have the bits already, been running with it all this week, works well. All I did when fitting the bits, was to mark the centre of the threaded bar to give me a good starting point for balancing the light when it was hung, a couple of twists of the bolts and it was bang on, height adjustment is by upping or downing the carabena's on the chain, easy fix. And that my friends, is the end of this weeks update, will the lights fall down, will we be inundated with muff, only one way to find out, tune in next week and find out, until then, just keep tokin folks.

 

[Madmax]

Worked a treat and looks neat mate .i cant see that falling.you could even put a nut ea side of the hanger clip so it wont slide.

Your plants look great chem...that outside one is stressed over something..is it hot there bro.

 

[Frankster]

Looking great man. I like my ratchet rope hangers, but that certainly looks a lot more solid and fail safe.

Last thing I want is lights crashing down on the plant, that would not be good.

 

[Moshmen]

Looking great man. I like my ratchet rope hangers, but that certainly looks a lot more solid and fail safe.

Last thing I want is lights crashing down on the plant, that would not be good.

Been there and ya it sucks , may b his supper cropping got started?

 

[SSgrower]

Great innovation and plant's, keeps us movin & groovin! Cheers.

 

[chemistry]

Worked a treat and looks neat mate .i cant see that falling.you could even put a nut ea side of the hanger clip so it wont slide.

Your plants look great chem...that outside one is stressed over something..is it hot there bro.

Outdoor Gellato pic was taken first light this morning, just after a heavy down pour, I thought it looked a little down when I posted the pic, it just needs a week of sun, all we've had lately is heavy rain, my tomato plants look the same. What they both need is light rain and wall to wall sun, but I won't be holding my breath. lol

 

[chemistry]

Looking great man. I like my ratchet rope hangers, but that certainly looks a lot more solid and fail safe.

Last thing I want is lights crashing down on the plant, that would not be good.

I used to use ratchet hangers, but I found that the heat from the light degrades the ropes over time, so I've moved back over to good old chain, which should see me out, and hopefully avoid another plant flattening occurrence, because that's a heart breaker, and twice as bad if your in week 7 of flower. lol

 

[Frankster]

I used to use ratchet hangers, but I found that the heat from the light degrades the ropes over time, so I've moved back over to good old chain, which should see me out, and hopefully avoid another plant flattening occurrence, because that's a heart breaker, and twice as bad if your in week 7 of flower. lol

Yea, fuck that would darken you day for sure.

Would be my luck it would start a fire or some shit. You just never can be too careful. Like daisy chaining a bunch of so called surge protectors (very bad idea). I've even seen area's get flooded before. Not good if you got lots of wiring sitting anywhere below. I'm always looking at what can possibly go wrong. Half measures are never a good thing, and it's always wise to investigate stuff and/or look at multiple ways of doing something.

You would think the average moron would know butane is explosive, but not always.

Dabs—marijuana's explosive secret

From exploding kitchens to super-intense highs, making and smoking marijuana concentrate—aka “dabs”—is getting more attention in the move toward legalization.

www.cnbc.com

ie. Doing things with a sense of purpose, instead of working on a wing & prayer.
The longer you do these things, and adapt, I think the natural progression is generally toward becoming more highly organized.

 

[chemistry]

Yea, fuck that would darken you day for sure.

Would be my luck it would start a fire or some shit. You just never can be too careful. Like daisy chaining a bunch of so called surge protectors (very bad idea). I've even seen area's get flooded before. Not good if you got lots of wiring sitting anywhere below. I'm always looking at what can possibly go wrong. Half measures are never a good thing, and it's always wise to investigate stuff and/or look at multiple ways of doing something.

You would think the average moron would know butane is explosive, but not always.

Dabs—marijuana's explosive secret

From exploding kitchens to super-intense highs, making and smoking marijuana concentrate—aka “dabs”—is getting more attention in the move toward legalization.

www.cnbc.com

ie. Doing things with a sense of purpose, instead of working on a wing & prayer.
The longer you do these things, and adapt, I think the natural progression is generally toward becoming more highly organized.

Organised with a sense of purpose, that's the plan Frank.

 

[chemistry]

Morning tokers and growers, grab your reading glasses, grab a coffee, its Saturday, its sunny, and its update time. Not a lot to report on the def side of things as the plants are green and mean. But on the bug front, the mites are back and kicking off, normally they stay at the bottom of the plant, but these are at the top, for week two of flower this may become an issue later in flower if they don't move back to the base of the plant. I've upped the fan speed to try to cajole them into my way of growing, but this stain of mite might just web every thing in the last week of flower, little bastards. As you know, I'm not a fan of pesticides on my food, or my weed, so nothing non organic will be done to sort the problem, cant see the point in slowly killing my self to eradicate bugs. The plant most effected is the Pure Kush, the biggest strongest plant of the four? Work that one out. The other three plants are not effected as bad, you can see the bites, but the mites are not moving up the plants like they have conquered the Pure Kush. Why are some plants more resilient than others, or is it some thing that triggers the mites to attack at the start of flower? Maybe a scent the plant gives off in flower attracts them as I mainly see them when I start flower, rarely in veg. I'd be happy if the mites stayed with the Pure Kush, but some how I don't think they will. Anyway, the other three plants are not really effected, would be nice if it stayed this way. Made a minor change to my light hanger to make it easier to adjust the height. Right, pics, week two of flower gone, six to go.

Pure Kush.

Pure Kush. If you look at the leaf in the bottom right hand corner, you can see the mites on the move.

Holy Punch.

White Widow.

Super Lemon Haze.

Gelato Auto.

Other things. Had to adjust the height of my light this week and found the two small carabena's a chore to move up the chain, four small carabena's as apposed to one big one. I didn't want to swap out the small carabena's as they keep the light stable, so I added another, twice as big carabena to sort the problem out, this also stops me from placing the light to high and it over heating, as this now gives me six to seven inches from the ceiling to blow a fan over it if need be. You can see the larger carabena looped through the two smaller ones, kept the two smaller one for stability, saves having to make some thing better, yeah, I know, lazy, but it works already.

Right side, big carabena looped through the two smaller ones.

Left side, chain on both sides needs tidying up, but I do that when these four plants have finished flowering.

So there you go, another quality update logged, time to kick back and enjoy the weekend, so enjoy yours people, see you next week, and above all, just keep tokin.

 

[SSgrower]

And that's Farmed Out! You gotta love it, mites & no worries.

 

[chemistry]

Good morning tokers and growers, hope your all super well, and raring to go on this drizzly here, Saturday morning. All is not well, the mites have taken over about a quarter of the Pure Kush, so this plant may not make it to the end of flower. The other three plants look fine, with just a few bites, but I have a feeling that after the Pure Kush is conquered, the mites will move over to the other three and they will fall to the mites too. Been looking at some organic'ish methods for eradicating the mites, but even then, you still have to smoke the stuff, and will this be a hazard to your health? Who knows, and this is why I don't want to spray any thing on my grow, as even some of the organic stuff will still be more than toxic when you smoke a cured bud, dilemma or what. I'm going to try a few things while the mites are in action, purely to see if any thing works really, the best time to sort them is when the mites first arrive, that's the time to annihilate them, but as we all know, this is no easy thing to do, as even if you spray, you cant reach every nook and cranny. I've been lucky that when I've had mites before, they stayed at the bottom of the plant out of the way, and only destroyed the leaves on the bottom branches, and not the buds. But this time they started at the top, don't know why? Maybe the heat from the HID's kept them at bay, the LED's run cooler at canopy level, so maybe this allowed the mites to climb higher. I'm sure there's a trigger that wakes the mites up, always flower time for me. Anyway, moving on. Lets look at some pics.

Pure Kush. You can see the bites on the leaves, and the colour is draining.

Holy Punch. Nice Sativa leaves, you can see the bite marks on it too.

White Widow. Quite a skinny plant for a White Widow.

Super Lemon Haze.

Gellato Auto outdoor. Week 13 from seed.

Short update, been really busy at work this week, so just hit been hitting the sofa instead of getting on with things. Next week I think we'll see the mites over come the Pure Kush, as it doesn't seem to have much of a defence against the mites, would be nice to see it turn around, but I think it will fail, only one way to find out, tune in next week and see who wins, mites or kush? until then, keep tokin folks.

 

[SSgrower]

Gotta be something you can do for those mites? I have one gal flowering her arse off, but the other two won't start showing flower??

 

[chemistry]

Gotta be something you can do for those mites? I have one gal flowering her arse off, but the other two won't start showing flower??

Its the spraying I don't like, I've sprayed with chemicals before, and the weed made me wheeze, leaves me wondering why I did it. lol

 

[chemistry]

Gotta be something you can do for those mites? I have one gal flowering her arse off, but the other two won't start showing flower??

Maybe you need more light?

 

[Frankster]

I've been down this road so many times, and kicked there asses out. (russet mites) had them for years...
I tried to PM, but that's not possible, there is no button anymore. Hmm..

I would try https://www.purecrop1.com/

But I've got some even better/cleaner/more organic methods that I've used. Pure Glycerin pH adjusted to around 8 will kick there asses really well when mixed at around 2tbsp per gallon.

zero residue afterwards, the plant will effectively be cleaner actually, and it will enhance the defenses, and protect against mold even.
But there's a few things you need to do religiously.

 

[chemistry]

I've been down this road so many times, and kicked there asses out. (russet mites) had them for years...
I tried to PM, but that's not possible, there is no button anymore. Hmm..

I would try https://www.purecrop1.com/

But I've got some even better/cleaner/more organic methods that I've used. Pure Glycerin pH adjusted to around 8 will kick there asses really well when mixed at around 2tbsp per gallon.

zero residue afterwards, the plant will effectively be cleaner actually, and it will enhance the defenses, and protect against mold even.
But there's a few things you need to do religiously.

Thanks Frank, I'll give it a go, got some Glycerine here, I'll give the Pure Kush a splash and see how it goes, lights are out, so tomorrow morning it will have to be.

 

[SSgrower]

I'll get the pic you want today, I have 2 Viparspectra 450w pulling 250w ea from the wall. Not great lights for a 4x4 but adequate for now. I may put them in my new 4x2 and buy a bar style led for the 4x4. Go Glycerin.

 

[Frankster]

Thanks Frank, I'll give it a go, got some Glycerine here, I'll give the Pure Kush a splash and see how it goes, lights are out, so tomorrow morning it will have to be.

What I do is this buddy. I've got a shower with one of those hand held handle deals on it, I take the plant in there, and give it a good spray, all along the undersides, and blast the bugs off the undersides (that's were there located, the eggs, the nymphs, everything), So lean the plant over, and blast away, ensuring your rotating the pot while you do it.

LOL, I'm usually nude or in my shorts when I'm doing something like this actually. Just don't stick your Johnson into the plant, because the mites might decide to migrate or something....

Once there sprayed off well, shake the excess water off, and give them a good spray with you glycerin solution, (especially undersides) I would start off with 1tbsp per liter, but you can go upwards of 2tbsp per liter, with some cultivars, but I would watch as some strains seem more tolerant than others. If you've got a little coco glucoside to add for foaming. It's an organic alcohol joined to a glucose, and it's a great foaming agent. The plants really tolerate it well.

Tiny amounts of xanthan gum, (1/16)tsp or guar gum (1/8)tsp will screw with their mouths and guts and interfere in there ability to digest food, and eat. It blocks up there mouths up, and is also effective. But don't go overboard, a little is good, and goes a long way. I would mix tiny amounts first, then add them to the solution.

Other more aggressive techniques involve using VitC (1/16 tsp) and/or GABA, (1/4 tsp) then titrate the solution back to alkaline with glycerin, guar gum, or castile soap. It will actively dissolve the eggs, and you can do body counts right after spraying it. But I think these techniques should be reserved when the above techniques are insufficient, and your dealing with a stubborn situation.
Certainly GABA (gamma-Aminobutyric acid) and VitC can be sprayed around or on the plant with improved vigor and general health. Gaba basically breaks down and is absorbed by the plant as nitrogen, and OH- I've even used citric acid, but it's a little more harsh, and needs to be titrated closely.

With anything you use, I would always go back and adjust your pH back up to say 7.5-8, so your inhibiting any mold growth. I usually use potassium bicarbonate for that one, if I need any major adjustments. But even calcium hydroxide might be a good candidates also. But now were not talking "organics" any longer. So take that information for what it's worth. Castile soap, guar gum and coco glucoside all are alkaline. The key here is using the least intrusive means IMO, so the plant comes out on the other side of all of this clean, and fresh tasting.