Grow #3: Organic Mix

[Seamaiden]

Oh my God, I thought my fungus gnat problem was bad. I've got one plant inside right now, she needs to be trimmed back and made into a momma. For some reason there are NO fungus gnats in that box. But they're in the garage, as always. So, this year I've got some OGBiowar and concocted SNS formulations to try.

 

[Crysmatic]

Pretty much watering, and a little pruning the undergrowth. Especially with these tall sativas.

I still have a little pm. I found a product called RX10. It works very well as long as l keep on top of the pm. It can be used up until harvest. It needs several applications. $40 per 8 oz bottle of concentrate. I find it a better value than a gallon of pm wash for $60. I'm not going to eradicate pm in my room at this point. Two months left

One apple pie is two, 3' long colas :/. One is super compact. Large calyxes, and showing trichomes. A nutty aroma that l consider "old school". AP F1 went 90-100 days iirc.

Hawaiian x sweet tooth is more compact, thick pistils, large cola and fruity. Allegedly a 9 week flower...

Jamaican: mild smell that l can't place. A little geen and spicy. I have no clue on flower time. These seeds were a special gift from the breeder to a med grower. 10+ weeks would be a safe bet.

Cheers

 

[green bastard]

lookin real nice rockin the sativas

 

[PButter]

@Crysmatic if you have a chance go ahead and spray your plants and room with an EWC tea- pm won't stand a chance.

 

[Seamaiden]

And, have you ever tried adding aspirin to their feeds or water?

Aspirin Water Helps Plants

 

[PButter]

And, have you ever tried adding aspirin to their feeds or water?

Aspirin Water Helps Plants

Learn something everyday- Sea, have you tried this out? results? I'll need to go get some aspirin..

 

[Seamaiden]

Not for PM, but for helping boost stressed plants I have. I can't recall, but I think CelticEBE uses it regularly. If you overdose, I understand you can cause hermaphroditism to be expressed, so no more than 1 tablet/gallon water I'm guessing.

 

[PButter]

Right on, I'll have to do a test group and see what I see.

 

[Crysmatic]

thanks for the replies!

RX10 is taking care of the pm nicely. it just needs application every third day until it's gone. l have some ewc left, l can spray with a tea in a couple of days.

most of the last run had a similar euphoric buzz. vortex 5 was very different. we may have lost the genetics, or at the very least have to reveg a flowering plant to make a mom. harper fecked us :( he cut off our clone sources, made it impossible to pheno hunt, and now he's forcing us to destroy our stashes and buy his crappy irradiated weed. wtf

good news: two qush which l was told were male, are actually female. l threw them into flower just to be sure, and they showed pistils today. they are back in veg to get to a good size before flowering. so l have four qush :D they are definitely bubba dom...golf ball buds. no "poodle" colas like sub says :/

 

[Crysmatic]

Qush1 much bigger before l flowered it.

Qush5 most vigourous of all. Huge fan leaves. I can't wait to try these.

Qush3 has a week or two left - around 7 weeks. Really small but perhaps l didn't veg it long enough. Golf balls. Fruity and purple.

 

[Seamaiden]

Those leaves are the fatness.

 

[Crysmatic]

My last coco run was fat, but perhaps lacked some potency or aroma. My aim was to make it stupid easy to manage. Accomplished.

Now I want a little more flavour. Considering all the additives available, I decided to start with epsom salts, and potassium sulfate. I've since added molasses, silica, and iron. I feed lightly, every other watering. It's more complicated having over a dozen different genotypes, at different stages :/

I was intrigued by a thread that said Canna Bio uses hops extracts, and that it gives plants a putrid smell. I went to the nearest u-brew and picked up some hops. He showed me a dozen varieties - from cascade, bullion, hollaback, etc. I liked the smell of citra - which has a grapefruit note (and the non-skunk weed smell). I steeped a tbsp in hot water to make a tea, and another tbsp in two shots of gin. Both will be run through a coffee filter. Boiling dissolves certain terpenes (and denatures them), and alcohol will extract others. I should have a strong leaf spray tomorrow.

Does anyone else use "secret" sprays or additive to boost flavour?

 

[Seamaiden]

You don't think you're giving too much S between the MgSO4, KSO4, and molasses? I have a LOT of leftover hops, don't recall what strains, but they came with my husband's brew kits and since he stopped brewing, may as well use 'em, right?

Think about what may be present in the blossoms or spent blossoms of other plants. ;)

 

[Crysmatic]

What do you mean you have leftover hops?? Don't you put them in your beer? ;) fwiw don't try chewing on hops pellets...and then make your friends try it.

Hops lose their volatile aromatic compounds within days if not refridgerated. I don't know if it's these that help cannabis - at least I'm extracting these with the alcohol. Canna list humulol et al. I will consult my merck index on how best to extract them. And I don't know at what rate to feed.

I didn't say how much of each I use...I'm adding 111 ppm each of K and S with the minerals. 25 ppm Mg so I don't mess up the coco. My soil mix is already very low in K. I ran my S higher in hydro. I haven't heard of S toxicity. I should lower pH, especially with the silica (25 ppm iirc) and DL. So that's my rationalisation.

I give up. What "may" be in other blossoms?

 

[Seamaiden]

I can't stand the taste of hops, so my husband held them back. Also, he had a few leftover kits even though he'd stopped brewing, so I'm using what's in there. These are all dried, old as hell, if nothing else they can go into the compost.

What may be in other blossoms, like hops? P, K, and secondary plant metabolites. Maybe some N, some Ca, probably depends on the blossom to a large degree. I'll tell you this, once I started putting my Camellia's spent blooms as top-dressing on my spendy, formerly non-blooming rhododendron, it's been blooming more like it should.

Seems to me that any element can be given to the point of toxicity, even if by no other mechanism than antagonism.

 

[Crysmatic]

There is, but I would ignore the few ppm in a tbsp of hops.
My mix is likely deficient in S in the first place...especially by mid flower. 111 ppm is not a lot, especially every other watering.

I opened my Merck Index, and here's what it has to say about humulon and lupulon. To sum up, it's most soluble in (petroleum) ether, just like THC, nicely soluble in alcohol, and somewhat in water (although other components are dissolve). So maybe I should steep the hops in alcohol first, decant the liquid, then make a tea with the slurry to pick up every last bit.

 

[Seamaiden]

I did that with my own culinary rosemary when fighting spider mites last summer. Worked great.

 

[Crysmatic]

Humulon. 3,5,6-trihydroxy-4,6-bis(3-methyl-2-butenyl)-2-(3-methyl-1-oxybutyl)-2,4-cyclohexadien-1-one; alpha-bitter acid; alpha-lupulic acid. C21H30O5; mol wt 362.45...Antibiotic constituent of hops (humulus lupulus L., Moraceae). Isoln from commercial hops: Bungener, Bull. Soc. Chim. 45, 487 (1886); Barth, Lintner, Ber. 31, 2022 (1898); et al...

crystals from ether, mp 65-66.5*C. Bitter taste, esp in alcoholic soln. More stable to air than lupulon. Monobasic acid. (1.0g in 15.5g 96% abv)...soluble in the usual organic solvents. Slightly sol in boiling water from which it separates as a milky precipitate on cooling. Forms a sodium salt which is readily sol in water. Suffers no loss of bacteriostatic potency against Staphylococcus aureus upon autoclaving 40 ppm in phosphate buffer at pH 6.5 or 8.5. The presence of ascorbic acid in low concns extends the duration of bacteriostatic action.

Lupulin. Glandular trichomes separated from strobiles of Humulus lupulus L., Moraceae (hops). Habit. Europe, Asia, North America; widely cultivated. Constit. Lupamaric acid, humulol, about 3% volatile oil; resin, choline, wax (myricin), tannin, asparagin. Not less than 60% of lupulin is sol in ether.

therap cat: Aromatic bitter, sedative.
therap cat (vet): formerly in nymphomania

Lupulon...
Antibiotic constituent of hops...

Prisms from 90% methanol, mp 92-94*C. Biter taste esp in alc soln. Turns yellow and amorphous within a few days with development of an odor. Perfectly stable in vacuo even at 60*C. Slightly acid reaction. Monobasic acid. Optically inactive. Soluble in methanol, ethanol, petr ether, hexane, isooctane. Slightly sol in neutral or acidic aq solns. Forms a sodium salt which is readily sol in water. The addition of 0.1% ascorbic acid exerts a marked protective action on the bacteriostatic activity of lupulon steamed or autoclaved at a concentration of 4 ppm in phosphate buffers at pH 6.5 and 8.5. LD50 orally in rats: 1.8 g/kg.

therap cat: Antimicrobial

bacteriostatic: inhibits the growth or multiplication of bacteria.

 

[Crysmatic]

The last few weeks have been shite. In and out of doctors. I messed up my shoulder after xmas and now l have a hernia. It makes geoponics tricky...

I'd usually prune no later than week 2, but the road kill unicorn needed a trim. Half a grocery bag later...

Feedback from another grower on qush:
Funny,
Upon further review the round of sub cool did not turn out that bad.
Plush not impressed.
Jack 5 not impressed maybe you will find one.
Vortex5 winner
Both Qush 1 and Qush 5 winners.
Q1 looks taste like bubba hits like JTR 70-30 Sativa
Q5 looks like bubba, taste like space queen, hits like bubba. 80-20 indica.
Good mix from 1 pack of seeds.
I like Qush bubba better than bubba.

I can't wait to bring them in :). Anybody else enjoy qush?

 

[Seamaiden]

A hernia? God damn, that DOES suck, I'm sorry to read that. Take care of yourself, mang!

Don't take this the wrong way, but after the Jillybean I ran last season turned out so terribly, I'm eschewing that source of genetics. To say I was unhappy with the results is putting it mildly.