Csi: Humboldt- Mendocino Purple X Purple Urkle (noob 1st Grow) ;)

[Jasper Geist]

Hello all.. So, I've decided to keep a journal of my first grow. I'll keep it updated throughout... even if I kill my girls from Death By Noob. So here's what I'm working with:

4x8x7 Grow tent
2 600 watt air cooled lights ( Genesis blue MH for veg / Horti red for flower)
Sprouting under a T5 2'x2' - 4 bulb set up
I'm sprouting in Pro-Mix HP cut with perlite. Red Solo cups for containers
The seeds! 8 CSI:Humboldt Mendo Purple x Purple Urkle
I'm planning on using the 3 part base of Humboldt County's Own for 6 of the plants and Veg+Bloom for 2 of the plants.

My plans are to transplant into 1.5 gallon buckets and then onto 5 gallon Hempy Buckets (I might skip the 1.5's and go straight to 5 gallons... any thoughts or advice on this move???)

Day 1
Dropped 8 seeds into a dish of water the night before. They all floated. I've heard this is a bad thing and that they might not be viable. I ran to the computer and checked online growing forums to see if this was true. Some said "Yes" some said "No". After about 6 hours the seeds had all sunk to the bottom and I let them soak for another 6 hours. I planted them at 10:00 am and sat back. I also stared at the top of the cups about 25 times thinking that they might not ever come out or... the soil wasn't moist enough... or it was too wet, etc... the soil was like a nice damp loam. Perfect. Don't tell an ignorant first time grower that anything is perfect though ;)

Jasper

 

[Jasper Geist]

Day 2
Around 10:00pm (36 hours after planting) my first sprout popped up!!! Except it wasn't the stem.. it was the tap root. I need to digress a bit... out of the 8 seeds I selected (out of 14) I noticed one slightly bigger and with a pronounced ridge running up the side. I decided to call this one #1. After looking at online posts regarding "Tip Up" or "Tip Down" and seeing one post where someone tried a test and found it really didn't matter which way the seed was planted.. (they both sprouted at about the same time) I decided to plant them Tip Up. Well, #1's tap root came out first and I figure I didn't plant it deep enough (I did about 1/3 inch). I gently-gently dug around the root and uncovered the seed. I turned her right side up and covered her back up. Temp and humidity have been averaging at 77 degrees and 45%.

On a side note. My tap water is 50ppm and 7.7 PH. I decided to see how Veg+Bloom HD would react with my tap water. I added 4 grams of V+B to the gallon of tap water and checked it after about 15 minutes. 650 PPM and 6.4 PH.

Jasper

 

[Jasper Geist]

Day 3
2:00 PM All seeds sprouted! 8 of 8
So... I've learned that floating seeds aren't necessarily a sign that the seeds are bad.
I also learned that Tip Up and Tip Down doesn't matter (7 seeds that were Tip Up sprouted normally) but the depth of the seed is important!
#1 Sprouted backwards (because of me...)
#2 is the second to last seed to break ground
#3 Good
#4 Last to break ground and I wonder if the placement of #2 and #4 under the grow light is the reason.
#5 Great, strong growth and stem
#6 The second seed to come up and tallest so far
#7 strong and straight
#8 strong and straight

Light lowered from 60" to 36" off the plants
Jasper

 

[Jasper Geist]

Day 4
10:00 AM All sprouts have reached the rim of the cups and are all sprouting their first real leaves. Well, except for #1. There isn't any sign of the first leaves. Just the cotyledons.

10:00 PM I'm pretty sure #1 (Stevie - my sister named her..) is not right. She's half the height to the others and still not real leaves. Just to be safe I'm going to drop another Mendo Purp x Purp Urkle. My original idea is to have 8 plants. Well... I happened to have one of CSI's "Slo Flo" seeds burning a hole in my pocket. Slo Flo is DJ Short's Flo crossed with Purple Urkle. The seeds were noticeably bigger than the Mendo urkles. I figure one more plant will be fine in the tent.
It will be interesting to see the side by side growth between the two strains. I'm not sure if I'll feed Slo Flo Humboldt County's Own or V+B. Any ideas on this?
Jasper

 

[Jasper Geist]

Day 5
Wouldn't ya know it??? #1 "Stevie" had two little micro points between her cotyledon leaves this morning... she decided to sprout some real leaves! I'm not sure in which direction they'll go. As in "Are these the first leaves or were they skipped and the second are coming through? And why am I wondering this? Sheesh. Anyhow, #1 being my problem child.. I will not be in the least bit surprised if she gets her freak on and turns into the best plant. I've seen stranger things.

I noticed that my Red Solo cups were not filling up my girls anymore. The cups are very light in comparison to the two cups with seeds I dropped yesterday. The top of the Pro-Mix HP is very light in color and the finger test left even me thirsty.

I am also seeing the tips on the leaves on a couple of the plants are bending upwards. I've heard that the lights could be too close (T5 though..) so I moved them up to about 15" off the tops of the plants. My humidity was low (30% ish) so I turned my humidifier back on. Here's a pict of the tips (left top plant)

Gave 7 of the plants 1/2 cup of RO water and had about 20 to 25% runoff. I then had to be stupid and not leave well enough alone (Here, hold my beer and watch this!) and I dissolved a TBS of unsulphered molassis in warm water. I poured a gallon of water into a bucket. 0 PPM and 5.5 PH to start. I added .05 ml of Canna Start which gave me 30 PPM and 4.4 PH. I then added 1 ml of Age Old Seafood and Kelp and this gave me 50 PPM and a PH of 5.1 I then poured a 1/2 cup of the molassis water into the gallon and I was now at 170 PPM and 5.9 PH.
Then I gave the last seedling a 1/2 cup of the amended Water. So far so good (after 8 hours). Of course, I might see no change one way or the other... hope I didn't screw the plant up though. Here's a pict of the odd #1 plant

 

[Jasper Geist]

Day 9
All is well... out of the 8 plants, 7 are great and busting out their third pair of leaves. #1 (Stevie) is about half the hight of the rest. Maybe 2.5 inches high. She started out with no leaves and now she has 4 simultaneously.. with two more shooting out in an east west orientation. The other plants are fine so I didn't take a pict. I had to take a pict of this mutie girl though! (It's funny, I get the most kicks out of watching what this particular plant will do next).

Now, the MPU I planted to take the place of #1 has sprouted. Took almost 3 days. The stem was growing in a corkscrew fashion. Has 3 cotyledons and the first set of leaves are in 3 as well. I've heard these can either be hermies or they can be heavy producers. The Slo Flo though is a monster and in 4 days is about 4 inches! This thing is just gorgeous for a seedling. By the way, I figured something out.... just leave the plants alone. They already know what they have to do ;)
'nite

 

[Jasper Geist]

Doh! Meant to write Slo Flo is at 3" in 4 days. Still, fast growing plant.

 

[MirrorZen]

I'm surprised no one has said something sooner. Everything looks great and sounds like you have a good head on your shoulder which will carry you farther than anything else. I would transplant from the solo cups to the 1.5 gals then 5's. Works way better to have that size rather than to waiting forever for your roots to expand and hit the walls. Best of luck mate.

 

[Irietime]

Looks good. Also interested in the mutant plants. Crazy you got two in one grow.

 

[EventHorizan]

I'm at work so I'm gonna have to be brief on my advice and comments. You have a decent start. My best advice leave them alone. Just water when needed and let them griw. Go read about roots and how to promote root growth and spreading. Everything that is important is happening under the soil that you can't see. Good luck and welcome to the farm...

 

[Jasper Geist]

So the plants are coming along nicely. I split the plants up into two groups. One getting Veg+Bloom and the other group getting Humboldt County's Own base nutes. The plants seem to have two characteristics. Some have wider and rounder leaves and the others have narrower dagger shaped leaves. The narrower ones are roughly the same in height but node development is slower. I'm considering transplanting tomorrow. Good roots and the leaves have grown past the rims of the cups. Going into some cool 1 gallon smart pots that have a slit down the side with a flap covering the slit. They say it aids in allowing future transplants to go easier.
Anyhow, back to the nutes... In a gallon of RO I added Protekt. Waited about 10 minutes and added some Cal-Mag+ and the 4 grams of V+B. I ended up with a PPM of 970 and a PH of 6.9. I PH'd down to 5.8 and added another half gallon of water which brought the PPM down to around 600. The 970 scared the crap out of me when I thought of my young girls imbibing it.

I did the same with the HCO's and used 1 ml of Micro, Grow, Bloom and Snow Storm Ultra. The PPM was interesting... 320! PH was at 9.6 and I dropped it to 5.8.

Fed the kids and got about a 20% runoff. About 4 hours later the plants looked fine with the exception of one plant which is the runt and is always kind of drooping in the stem. She had the eagle claws on all of the leaves and was dark green and bent over (Fed the V+B mix) I gave her a good flush of RO and hoped for the best... this morning she had perked up and leaves were uncurled. Well, 24 hours after feeding I took a good look to see how they're doing. All "fine" and all taller than yesterday. The HCO plants seem to be about a 1/4 inch taller than the V+B fed plants. It's still early and this is only the first feeding of these two nutes (I had used a bit of Canna Start once. I think it was a waste of time and the plants were better off with just water) so I'm not saying one is better than the other... just an initial observation. I have to say that growing is hella fascinating and very, very enjoyable. Even when things aren't going "right" I still like it... Should of done this a long time ago. By the way, the plant in the lower right hand corner is CSI's "Slo Flo". A week old and is as tall as the others. Little beast keeps on reaching for the light!

 

[Jasper Geist]

Well, it's almost a month and the plants are doing great! About 10 days ago I transplanted from Solo cups to 1 gallon Smart Pots. My plan is to transplant these to 5 gallon buckets next.

I am encountering a small problem. It's been 10 days and the roots are growing through the bottom of my Smart Pots! I thought these were supposed to "air prune" the roots? Looks like I'll be transplanting these in a couple of days. I'm hoping that the roots that get damaged when I pull the plant from the pot won't screw the plant...

 

[EventHorizan]

They will come thru and hang out on the outside... And that's about as far as it goes. They work awesome. At least for coco they did!

 

[Jasper Geist]

about 6 weeks in. Well, whoever said that Mendo Purps veg slowly weren't making shit up. Damn. Plants doing well though! Short and bushy. Some plants have a wider and more rounded blades while the others are more dagger shaped. Going under the scrog soon. Had some problems that were interrelated... temp problems, lights too close, cal mag, PH.. all kinds of stuff. I should say that the most of the problems were with plants that I was feeding Humboldt County's Own. Once I got the environmental issues taken care of I was able to get the HCO dialed in. Have everything stable now and the plants are thriving.

I started out feeding half the plants Humboldt County's Own base nutes and the other half Veg+Bloom. Veg+Bloom has been really easy to use. I feed manufacturers recommended amounts and when I do a water feed I add some +Life. Nothing else. Some silica foliar once a week. I have to say the HCO plants look noticeably better. Taller, fuller, better development in the nodes-as in the growth tips or secondary stem (whatever ya call it) are longer with more advanced growth. A family member who sees the plants about once a week or so asked "are those plants sick?". They were all the V+B plants. I'll still go forward with the V+B until just before I flip and then I'll have to make a decision to continue with it or switch to just HCO. I know V+B is a good product... maybe it's me and I just haven't gotten it figured out yet? <shrug>

 

[m8ty]

Jasper awesome thread keep it up!! ..let me tell you that I just finished chopping one of these Mendocino Purple X Purple Urkle phenotypes and I can't stop smelling my fingers, the aromas are amazing, grape / Berrie Candy aroma goodness and beautiful purple/ lavender/ burgundy bud colors, covered with a thick layer of trichomes, just amazing!

 

[Jasper Geist]

Hey all, Well... I'm about 2 weeks into Bloom. I did a 2 month Veg. Scrogged all of the plants. I was kind of intimidated with the scrog and had originally thought of mainlining all the plants. I'm glad I didn't. I find the weaving of branches here and there to be very Zen. I'll spend 45 minutes tucking, folding, weaving and it feels like 5 minutes have passed! I did mainline one plant. One of the two runts. It actually turned out to be really interesting... well, until I placed a new heater in the room and I had the oscillating arc set. Or so I thought... fried half the plant and ended up having to chop half of the stems off. Miraculously it's still going. Anyhow, at 5 days I noticed little buds and by 10 days they were everywhere. I continue to weave the stems as they were getting to be up to a foot over the net. Opened up more sites! At this time they're frosting up really well and starting to get magenta and burgundy tones at the bottom of the leaves. Some of the bud leaves are definitely darkening. I's this normal to be getting color at less than 3 weeks? Here's a pict of one of the buds. Anyone know if there are good filters that can produce truer color under HPS lights (iPhone)

?

 

[EventHorizan]

Hey all, Well... I'm about 2 weeks into Bloom. I did a 2 month Veg. Scrogged all of the plants. I was kind of intimidated with the scrog and had originally thought of mainlining all the plants. I'm glad I didn't. I find the weaving of branches here and there to be very Zen. I'll spend 45 minutes tucking, folding, weaving and it feels like 5 minutes have passed! I did mainline one plant. One of the two runts. It actually turned out to be really interesting... well, until I placed a new heater in the room and I had the oscillating arc set. Or so I thought... fried half the plant and ended up having to chop half of the stems off. Miraculously it's still going. Anyhow, at 5 days I noticed little buds and by 10 days they were everywhere. I continue to weave the stems as they were getting to be up to a foot over the net. Opened up more sites! At this time they're frosting up really well and starting to get magenta and burgundy tones at the bottom of the leaves. Some of the bud leaves are definitely darkening. I's this normal to be getting color at less than 3 weeks? Here's a pict of one of the buds. Anyone know if there are good filters that can produce truer color under HPS lights (iPhone)View attachment 666717 ?

I can't really see anything in the pics... but I don't see Def until the end.. week 7 and after. Especially when I start my flush...

 

[Jasper Geist]

Quick update. Putting the girls to bed and I've been really looking closely for hermies. Well... one plant had three little "calyxs" that didn't look like a normal ones. Should of taken a picture.. but time wasn't there. Well it looked like a "spade". One had a red pistil coming from it. They were coming out of the base of nodes. I tweezed them off. Went looking and in a small bud up near the top was a little ball/pod tucked behind the bud. Tweezed it off and it was hard little seed that looked half grown. So, Hermie I figure.

I'm looking at my options for the morning. Go through the plant and get the odd ones off or just plain remove the whole plant. Toss it outside basically. This is the one plant out of the 8 major plants that has the smallest bud development and slowest stretch growth while the others are almost annoying in their vigor and stretch ;)
I should add that this one plant is a Slo Flo (Flo x Urkle) and not the Mendo Purple Urkles I've been growing with it.

 

[Irietime]

Quick update. Putting the girls to bed and I've been really looking closely for hermies. Well... one plant had three little "calyxs" that didn't look like a normal ones. Should of taken a picture.. but time wasn't there. Well it looked like a "spade". One had a red pistil coming from it. They were coming out of the base of nodes. I tweezed them off. Went looking and in a small bud up near the top was a little ball/pod tucked behind the bud. Tweezed it off and it was hard little seed that looked half grown. So, Hermie I figure.

I'm looking at my options for the morning. Go through the plant and get the odd ones off or just plain remove the whole plant. Toss it outside basically. This is the one plant out of the 8 major plants that has the smallest bud development and slowest stretch growth while the others are almost annoying in their vigor and stretch ;)
I should add that this one plant is a Slo Flo (Flo x Urkle) and not the Mendo Purple Urkles I've been growing with it.

Seems risky to leave it with the others. I'd move it myself

 

[Jasper Geist]

Seems risky to leave it with the others. I'd move it myself

Good Morning... Thanks you for the reply. yeah, I think it's the only choice.