New RDWC grow featuring Mendel’s Æther by Brother Mendel

[SweetLeafGrow]

Greetings Cultivators!

My next medicinal grow is now underway and I wanted to get a diary going to help me keep track of things. I'm super pumped about this grow as it will be my 3rd try at deep water culture and I'm totally loving it.

I'm taking a chance on this strain from Brother Mendel who advertises here at the Farm and I wanted to support the advertisers here. This strain, Mendel’s Æther, is one that I hope will be a great medicinal strain as advertised and comes from a line of limited release medical strains from Mendel. Sometimes you get what you pay for and these were the most expensive seeds I have ever paid for. A lot of good reviews online so I went with it. I'm also planning on growing out Tropic of Censer, which is another strain in this same line.

A month or so ago, I started seeds, one each of these strains from Mendel, Tropic of Censer and Mendel’s Æther. Neither was doing well because I did not have another tent for them to better control their environment. Also had some deficiencies but finally got them healthy and because the Mendel’s Æther was healthier, I took a snip off her and rooted it out for this grow. I still have both plants and will probably cull the Mendel’s Æther mother once this daughter gets up to speed in the hydro tent.

Got my other tent moved to a new hydro friendly room and all set up. Got my other hydro set up put together and this time I got rid of the hump. I just got a straight piece of 3" PVC and cut a hole in my tent for it to pass through, My wife has an idea for closing that up to keep light out, for now I have a towel over the line to cover the hole. I also hard plumbed my chiller lines into the res while I had everything apart, will be much cleaner that way. I also robbed the bucket lid from the res and made a hole in it for the 3 3/4" net pots, drilled 3 holes and tied it down to the lid with bread tie wire. I will figure something out for the res lid tomorrow. I have the chiller all hooked up and ready but have not turned it on. Even though the floor in this room is insulated, it's very cold and I've noticed my other grow the chiller is not hardly working at all. So I left this one off, hooked up in case I need it, but off to see if I can run without the chiller this time of year.

So that's about it, getting ready to rock and roll Brothers and Sisters, here we go!

 

[Moe.Red]

Cool bro

Yeah 64 is plenty cold and will actually slow down root and biological growth. No chiller needed there.

I think you will appreciate no hump.

 

[SweetLeafGrow]

Had time to do an update on this grow today. I was looking at the plant, and she looks OK but I thought the ppm's might be a bit too aggressive so I diluted the res down to the low 500's to see if this has any positive effect. Outside temps have improved and the chillers are all working more now keeping the res temp where it needs to be.

She is showing a tiny bit of growth up top, looks a bit pale but from what I can tell it's not any kind of deficiency. The roots have started to take off. When I put this gal in the system she only had roots an inch long, so 11 days worth of growth and to me it looks great.

Not having the hump is definitely cool. I think it was a good idea from Gary but in practice it doesn't work all that great for more than one reason.

 

[SweetLeafGrow]

This gal is starting to take off up top after about two weeks in the system. PPM's still around 500 and thinking it might be close to time to up that number as I think I am almost out of the "clone/seedling" stage. She is a bit pale but I think that is just the new growth that will darken up as time passes. I trimmed a few of the older fans off and also topped her yesterday. From looking at the mother of this plant, I think she will be much easier to train than the Mac Dragon and I'm hoping to fill the tent better this go around.

I'm super pumped about this strain and this line from Mendel, lots of great reviews I have read and thinking this gal just might live up to Mendel's reputation.

 

[SweetLeafGrow]

I've been thinking about my struggles in LST since I went RDWC and the main issue is needing something to tie branches down to for training the plant to fill the tent. I tried a PVC pipe stand but it was a failure, not heavy enough and the beast I am growing in that tent just lifted it off the floor. So I had a new idea to try and I think this will be much better. Basically I took a 5 gal bucket lid and cut the center out like a big green doughnut. Then I found some plastic screws to fasten this down to the bucket lid. I was afraid to use anything metal that might leech into the water. These were designed to hold a toilet down to the floor and I took what I could get around here. Some eye screws for tie down points and I think this will serve me well.

 

[SweetLeafGrow]

Sunday video update, this gal has graduated from clone to full on vegging young lady. I've raised the stakes to a semi aggressive feeding to see how she handles it, will dial that back if necessary. Ppm's were sitting around 500, I raised that up to ~700. I'm learning to let the ph fluctuate, and how far so not so rigid n keeping everything at 5.8.

Got a Mac Dragon clone hitching a ride in the tent for a while. I also started some LST using my new anchor point system, seems to be working better than my pvc pipe contraption, we'll see how it goes throughout the entire grow.

Other than that, she is starting to take off up top and so fun to watch.

 

[SweetLeafGrow]

Pretty happy with the progress in this tent so far. Almost 3 weeks in the system and she's starting get with the program. I got in and started LST on this gal, broke a main branch but propped it up and looks like it survived. She's putting out a couple of huge fan leaves just like the mother plant she came off of, will leave those for a few more days and then take them off so they aren't shading so much of the lower growth.

Raising the ppm's did not have any noticeable negative effect so we're good to go on that, and in fact she is taking off pretty good up top. The roots look great and starting to get some mass to them.

It's taking longer than expected to get the buffer at 100% in this system, she's wanting to drop off slowly, nothing radical. I've been adding the Silica Boost and bringing the ph up to 6.1 and then letting it ride downward to ~5.5 before adjusting again, been taking a couple of days for it to drop that far and I noticed when I add nutrients, that also throws that buffer off a bit and needs to be built back up.

Other than that, super pumped about this grow and seems to be off to a great start!

 

[SweetLeafGrow]

I've been able to get some more training done on this gal, she is growing fast up top now so I'm getting some good branching to get her spread out. Perhaps it's just me, but training a hydro plant is way different than a soil plant. It's almost like I'm starting all over with learning how to train, they grow so fast, the stems are so thick and get rigid fast, I've already broke one main branch off this gal and I've never done that before where I couldn't salvage the branch in the end.

My green doughnut is working just OK, better than my pvc stand. Remains to be seen how effective it will be once this plant starts to get larger, for now, it's working great. I'm going to amend the res today to get the ppms up around 900 and see how she handles it. The buffer in this res is finally at or near 100% and ph has been super stable with just an ever so light rise.

 

[SweetLeafGrow]

Almost 30 days in the system from clone......

A lot has happened since my last update with this gal. I had previously raised the ppms to around 700 and she was handing it well, been drinking and the ppms have been slowly dropping off and were sitting around the low 600's. There was still a lot of pale green and so, I was going to let her ride but I decided she was hungry so I fed her again and brought the ppms up to close to 800. She seemed to respond well but I did do some training and defoliation this morning and one of the lower fans had gotten a dark green hue to it and had a slight bit of leaf tip burn. I think I may have bumped her a bit high but will watch and see, still learning how to "read" my plants.

I got in this morning and did mor work on her, pulling a lot of the lower branches that, with my new experience with the Mac Dragon, will most likely be larfy and come off later anyway....I'm taking a lot of these now to give her that extra energy where it's needed. She looks a bit bare after this but I'm confident that these prunings are what I should have been doing all along.

Cold temps have eased up some but res temps are still low overnight but the come back up [pretty quickly. Been able to get the room temps up during the day, 80F range and bringing it down to the 68F range at night.

 

[SweetLeafGrow]

Increasing the ppms here have been just what she is asking for from what I can tell, the bump up really started to green her up from the paleness I was seeing. PPM's dropped off shortly after the last res amendment and she was still somewhat pale, went ahead and amended one more gallons worth of brown, green and pink, brought me up to that 800 mark and she handled it very well, a bit less pale this morning and she is taking off pretty good up top. I think I will continue to test that limit to see how much she will handle, so far this strain seems to be a fairly heavy feeder.

Bumped the light up to 60% and working more training, topped a couple of the branches and just working her to get her spread out better than my current DF grow. Roots look great and getting ready to rock and roll this gal!

 

[SweetLeafGrow]

Did a short New Years video update, I do believe that she was hungry (pale) and seems to be responding very well to the raised ppm, sitting around 800 ATM. I might bump that up again by another gallon's worth just to test where that line of too much lies.

I've broken two branches on this gal already trying to train her toward the edges of the tent, one did not survive and the second one is iffy at this point. Seems all the silica makes the branches very stiff, almost brittle especially where the branches join the stem, and I need to do a couple of things differently I think. One, let her grow out a bit more before I try to train so that I have more to work with, and two, try not to go too far with the direction at one time, maybe come back and cinch them down one or two times to more gradually bend the branches over. The nodal spacing on this strain seems to be crazy close very much like the Mac Dragon, maybe not as extreme. I've also noticed this on the mother I got this snip from.

Other than that, I think I'm in the middle of the road and swerving around a bit to find the fast lane. I'm still amazed at how well I can get these plants to look from day one, even when I've had problems, it's been easy to fix. My plants in soil NEVER looked this good early on, I've always struggled especially in early veg.

 

[Aqua Man]

Did a short New Years video update, I do believe that she was hungry (pale) and seems to be responding very well to the raised ppm, sitting around 800 ATM. I might bump that up again by another gallon's worth just to test where that line of too much lies.

I've broken two branches on this gal already trying to train her toward the edges of the tent, one did not survive and the second one is iffy at this point. Seems all the silica makes the branches very stiff, almost brittle especially where the branches join the stem, and I need to do a couple of things differently I think. One, let her grow out a bit more before I try to train so that I have more to work with, and two, try not to go too far with the direction at one time, maybe come back and cinch them down one or two times to more gradually bend the branches over. The nodal spacing on this strain seems to be crazy close very much like the Mac Dragon, maybe not as extreme. I've also noticed this on the mother I got this snip from.

Other than that, I think I'm in the middle of the road and swerving around a bit to find the fast lane. I'm still amazed at how well I can get these plants to look from day one, even when I've had problems, it's been easy to fix. My plants in soil NEVER looked this good early on, I've always struggled especially in early veg.

Yup silica does that… pinch and role stems until they are soft and then bend. I usually do about 2” worth on a stem at the spot i wanna bend. Your here some cruching and cracking maybe even a small split but they heal fast and dont break that way

 

[SweetLeafGrow]

Thanks A-Man, I knew about this technique, thanks for reminding me of it!

BTW, great to see you back on the forum and all those beautiful Canadian flags up and down the threads scattering words of wisdom to all who will hear!

 

[Aqua Man]

Thanks A-Man, I knew about this technique, thanks for reminding me of it!

BTW, great to see you back on the forum and all those beautiful Canadian flags up and down the threads scattering words of wisdom to all who will hear!

Thanks brother… glad to be back with all you great folks

 

[SchwiftyGrower]

Catching up with everything bro, and it’s looking absolutely killer in there! I really love your installation to accomplish your tie downs. Keep it up, really looking forward to their future.

 

[SweetLeafGrow]

Got in there today and did some major defoliation and more LST. I'm getting better at it and trying to stay ahead of the game with this gal and preemptively remove stuff that will get snipped anyway. Took quite a few dinner plate sized fan leaves off and some others that are crowding everything.

Before-

After-

She is drinking quite a bit for her size and also taking off up top, this gal is rocking already! The bump up in ppm is going very well and may push that a bit further see if I can get a bit of leaf tip burn....find that line in her sand

 

[SweetLeafGrow]

This grow is really starting to get fun, riding the RDWC wave into my 2nd and 3rd harvest and loving every minute. Challenges along the way but we're gainin

This strain is so much different than the Mac Dragon, what a great learning experience it's been having two such different strains. Near as I can tell, the Mac Dragon is a light feeder, currently about 500 ppm in mid to late flower. This Aether gal is still in mid veg and seems to me that 800 ppm still is not enough...hard to tell from the photos but the green is pale for sure and has been. After I bumped her up to 800 she greened up some and also started a prayin, which was super cool, she's getting happier. Today I bumped her up again to that ~1000 ppm mark see how she will handle it.

This Aether gal is also not nearly as hard as the Mac Dragon was to train, she's giving me something to actually work with instead of nodes on top of nodes lol. I did break a couple of branches until A-man reminded me to crush those stiff stems a bit before trying to bend them over.

Other than that, I bumped the light up a bit, riding about 50% @ 24". Did some more defoliation and some more LST, snipped some lower branches that I know will not amount to anything anyway, topped a few of the center branches that are starting to get too high, letting the perimeter branches catch up while I spread her out at the same time

So far, the green doughnut is working fairly well but I do have a plan for a new revision, lol. Just in time to get out of the 3x3 single plant site and into a new and updated 4 plant RDWC site I am currently building. Anyhow, will have to come up with a new plan for tying down 4 plants in a system just like the one I am using that only keeps one. The idea I had will most likely not work in that 4 plant system, but we will see.

So, here we are, 37 days in the system and rockin it...

 

[SweetLeafGrow]

Amazing how fast they recover after LST, this morning you would have never known I got in there yesterday. I've also been taking lots of lower branches off which is something foreign to me in the past. Too many branches! Good problem to have.

I'm still seeing paleness here so I bumped her up again this morning, riding at the low end of the GH aggressive feeding schedule but still only using that chart as a guide. So far she seems very hungry so I'm feeding her and watching for signs of too much.

 

[SweetLeafGrow]

I've been continuing to raise the ppm on this gal, she still seems hungry to me. Got everything up to the high end of the GH aggressive feeding chart and still seems very pale green to me, especially on the new growth. Normal for the most part, but still seems to be too pale, hard to show in the photos, they are more pale in person.

Anyhow, still being aggressive with the LST and defoliation, picking my flower sites from the start. Been spreading things outward while at the same time topping the branches coming up through the middle, and snipping branches I know will be too crowded with others or will simply not reach the canopy.

I'm wondering if I can go even further with the ppm's. Not seeing any leaf tip burn yet, riding at 1230 ppm.

I also figure I need to flip soon, maybe a week to 10 days.

 

[Aqua Man]

I've been continuing to raise the ppm on this gal, she still seems hungry to me. Got everything up to the high end of the GH aggressive feeding chart and still seems very pale green to me, especially on the new growth. Normal for the most part, but still seems to be too pale, hard to show in the photos, they are more pale in person.

Anyhow, still being aggressive with the LST and defoliation, picking my flower sites from the start. Been spreading things outward while at the same time topping the branches coming up through the middle, and snipping branches I know will be too crowded with others or will simply not reach the canopy.

I'm wondering if I can go even further with the ppm's. Not seeing any leaf tip burn yet, riding at 1230 ppm.

I also figure I need to flip soon, maybe a week to 10 days.

Hey @SweetLeafGrow that looks like a Sulphur deficiency to me

mag sulphate at 1-2gram per gallon should fix it up quickly.

swapping to potassium sulphate mid to late flower will be of benefit also as the K denand starts to increase also. This is generally what sweeteners or finishers use as a main ingredient since sulphur is very very key to terpenoid and flavonoid production