The Quest For Trichomes (a Story Of Micro Cultivation)

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SMACKA

SMACKA

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What's up y'all...

Being new to growing, I'm quickly learning that I'm unable to read the plants as well as I'd hoped I could. At the same time, I've seen a lot of noobs become pretty good growers when here, interacting, posting pics, getting advice, and learning from others.

For a year or so I ran a custom made PC Case weed in my box over the last couple years, I know I could be doing way better by keeping a journal and asking y'all for help. Rather than blowing up The Infirmary for the next three months, I decided to track this grow from here.

With a bit of luck, we'll see some trichomes at the end of all this.

THE SETUP

VEG & CLONE: I'm using a small, regular computer case as my mother, clone, and veg chamber under 65W of CFL. That gives me a total of 0.75 sq. ft to work with.

FLOWER: I'll be using a clone tent which is 1.5 x 2.5 x 3ft (75x60x90cm) or 3.75 sq. ft running under Vero 29's.

GENETICS: I started with some Crop Kings fem'd beans, and have a PK and a WW growing. I'm interested in playing around with some tissue culture as well, since they're so small and micro is the name of the game. Currently we're closing in on week 5 with slight nute burn, but not too bad.


Follow along and join me in The Quest For Trichomes!

Pics coming soon.
 
SMACKA

SMACKA

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The following pics were taken a couple weeks ago.


Here's the White Widow, 14 days from seed...

Ww 0408



And here's the Purple Kush, 16 days from seed...

Pk 0408 888
 
SMACKA

SMACKA

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I'm growing in Canna Terra Professional Plus+ and using Canna's nutrient solutions (Canna Vega and Canna Flora) as the guy at the shop told me it's a great way to get your feet wet. I can't find too much info on it, but it's a coco base.

Canna terra professional plus soil 50 litre 99a


I'm loosely working off of Canna's feeding schedule, which says to start from week 1 with nutrients. Everyone and their dog has told me to hold off on feeding them nutes when they first start out so I gave each 2 weeks to get their roots underneath themselves, then hit them with a cup of water mixed at 3mL/L (~EC 1).

After seeing them respond, and the lower leaves start yellowing, I worried that I'd waited too long, and a few days later I hit them with another cup of nutes mixed at 4ml/L which scorched the little things...

Here's the Purple Kush at 3 weeks...

Pk 0415 2


Pk 0415 3



And here's the White Widow at 3 weeks...

Ww 0415 2


At this point, the watering schedules were all mixed up beside the pot sizes were so different. One was the size of a double shot glass, the other was a typical small indoor plant pot so I upsized the White Widow to match, and hopefully allow me to feed/water them the same.

The feeding schedule is (roughly) something like:
  • Feed -> Feed -> Water
But perhaps at this stage is should be:
  • Feed -> Water -> Water, or...
  • Feed -> Water -> Feed -> Water

When the poor things started showing signs of overdose, I posted to the infirmary and a couple helpful people said, "take a deep breath. relax. ease off on the nutes and see how progress. considering the environment they look pretty good." so I took that advice to heart, took a bong rip, and gave them water for their next 2 drinks.

If you're keeping track, so far the feed schedule has been:

Water, Water, Water, Water, Feed, Feed, Water, Water, and finally (yesterday)... Feed.

I'd read that coco is never supposed to dry out, but my first few grows were plagued with over-watering so I'm trying to let them pretty much dry out before feeding each time.
 
Mr Bee

Mr Bee

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Your not in coco.canna pro plus is a well amended soil.make sure to let the plant dry out a bit between waterings and giv just water for atleast 10 days while small like that.
Canna pro+ is an excellent soil.its what I use also wen growing in soil.it has a nice spongey consistency which roots love.i find it worth paying the fewÂŁ extra to get the pro+ over pro terra
 
SMACKA

SMACKA

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Your not in coco.canna pro plus is a well amended soil.make sure to let the plant dry out a bit between waterings and giv just water for atleast 10 days while small like that.
Canna pro+ is an excellent soil.its what I use also wen growing in soil.it has a nice spongey consistency which roots love.i find it worth paying the fewÂŁ extra to get the pro+ over pro terra

Thank you, sounds good. Will dial back the first couple feeds next time but it sounds like things are more or less within range... I waited 2 weeks and gave them mid-upper range of where their dosage should've been, thinking it was an inert media.
 
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SMACKA

SMACKA

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It's been a couple weeks so I'm checking back in with updates and pics.

Things are moving along. After the plants looking puffy in the above pics, I gave them a big drink of water pH'd to 6, and left them alone for 5 days to stretch those roots. They got another drink of water, and a few days later I tempted fate with a 3ml/L dose of nutes.

Was still too much, and it shows in the very tips of the leaves; a few days later they got a drink of water and I'll give them another 2 drinks of plain water before trying some more nutes. I'm trying not to rush things too much.

So where are things at?

Here's the White Widow...

Screenshot 2017 04 30 202223

Screenshot 2017 04 30 202247



Here's the Purple Kush...

Screenshot 2017 04 30 202309

Screenshot 2017 04 30 202341



The bottom leaves appear to show an N deficiency, which I wasn't too worried about at first because I hadn't fed and hadn't pH'd my water, but they've been water and nutes for a few weeks (feed, water, water) and the leaves above are showing a similar yellowing.

The nute burn from a couple weeks ago is showing on the tips, and while the upper leaves are a little hot, doesn't seem too stressed?

Would love everyone's feedback, as always!
 
SMACKA

SMACKA

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I haven't seen you mention anything about pH, it's important bro.

Thanks for checking in - took me a couple weeks to dig out my old pH meter so they'd just been getting filtered tap water.

Now they're being fed with a pH around 5.8–6. Run off seems to be 6.2–6.4.

Hope you're doing well. Peace!
 
SMACKA

SMACKA

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Also, if you have a grow thread going, feel free to link it up and I'll come along for the ride with you.

Definitely down to get to know your spaces, who's growing what, and share in the celebration of your most resinous, stinky hauls.
 
SMACKA

SMACKA

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Not trying to over-think things too much but wanted to give a closer inspection pic to try and better understand what I'm looking at.

Is that your standard nute burn? N def? CalMag issue?

P.S. The white fleck on the leaf below is nothing to worry about. My bad :)
 
Screenshot 2017 05 01 102635
SMACKA

SMACKA

119
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Another two weeks has gone by and what a ride it's been. If you're keeping an eye on my thread in the Infirmary you know that I got hit with some gross deficiency issues.

Having posted here and another forum the answers I got weren't super definitive. Some said pests, some said mold, others said pH was causing lockouts, others yet said nute burn, and others said they were hungry... I was flustered. Part of the reason I started documenting this grow is to get feedback and learn more from people who know more, which left me in a hard place... the plants were hungry and I had to make a decision.

Actually, I woke up one day and the plants were folded over on themselves from being dehydrated. This is what I woke up to...

Screenshot 2017 05 14 110414


It was a sad state of affairs. I'd stressed a lot, read a lot, and asked a lot, but didn't have a definitive answer.

On advice from @G gnome, I decided to feed them more (source). The plants were coming up on their second month and I was still giving them their bare minimum nutrients; she was clearly getting worse by the day. Her leaves looked disgusting...

Screenshot 2017 05 14 111143




So they got fed at 3ml/L and the following day had perked up.

For fun, I took before/after shots. Here's the difference 24-hours can make ;)


Screenshot 2017 05 14 110557


Here's the Purple Kush... looking a lot better but leaves are still droopy.

Screenshot 2017 05 14 111412


Next feed, I followed @G gnome 's advice again and gave them that same strength. Sure enough, things are starting to look better... but they'd got a lot worse in the mean time.

Both girls were getting pretty tall in the PC Case so I went ahead and got kinky with them. I should've mentioned earlier that I'm keen on BDSM when it comes to botany...

Here's the White Widow after I tied her down ;)

Screenshot 2017 05 14 111539

Screenshot 2017 05 14 111558



... and here's the Purple Kush tied down...

Screenshot 2017 05 14 112046

Screenshot 2017 05 14 112108


And last but not least, I'd seen enough of the White Widow. Since the goal was to keep these girls/genetics as mom plants, I'd lost faith in her ability to produce strong and healthy offspring so I threw a new White Widow seed in some paper towel, and a few days later the seedling had been planted and popped her head through the soil :)

Screenshot 2017 05 14 112717

I emptied a half-sip of drinking water from my glass before taking the pic, that's not a typical water pattern ;) It's been two days since this photo and she's showing her first real leafs.

So that's it for my gigantic two week narrative update! If you have any questions please feel free to ask away, or post pics of your girls, your micro grows, or whatever else.

I'd love to learn (and teach, if possible!) and discuss with everyone :)
 
Lbgrower

Lbgrower

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Plants look kinda messed up. It's a shame the start looked so strong. Obviously you're experiencing some problems. That would appear to be over watering/feeding. Your plants should have grown probably not as leafy.
 
Dutch Jon

Dutch Jon

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Plants look kinda messed up. It's a shame the start looked so strong. Obviously you're experiencing some problems. That would appear to be over watering/feeding. Your plants should have grown probably not as leafy.

I concur, its really looking like over watering
 
v12xjs

v12xjs

32
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Good start Smacka but there's some obvious overfeeding signs later on.
Thing with your plants is that they will never grow above a couple of feet, so they will never need full strength nutes even at their biggest. Also there has been a feast and famine approach to feeding that means the plants are not getting fed for long periods. Maybe consider using 1.5ml dose every 2nd watering for a week to give them some grub and start to build up from that. I use Canna stuff and the max dose on the tub is 4ml, so for my small plants I use 2.5ml and they seem to be happy. Max dose for Canna Terra in the stretch phase is only 3ml, so I would suggest staying well below that for now.
Speaking of Canna, I have questioned them at several exhibitions and they know what they are doing. Their food is very well balanced and you will not get any deficiencies if you use it.
What is happening then, is that the ph is out of kilter which is locking out 1 or 2 elements. Monitor what goes in and what comes out for the next few waterings to try and fathom out what's happening, you can then make the necessary adjustments.
The yellowing of lower leaves is pretty natural. They don't get much light so they don't contribute much energy to the plant. So the plant eats all the food in them which is why they go yellow. Nothing to worry about so long as it's restricted to the bottom growth.
 
SMACKA

SMACKA

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Hey everyone, thanks for chiming in. I'm finding myself lost in the answers. Here's some of the feedback I've heard:
  • Kind of looks like a deficiency, manganese and or potassium.
  • Ok so your new pic to me looks like blight. It's a fungus.
  • Add some calmag at half strength and bump up ur nutes.
  • I dont think much of doin that feed water feed water water feed stuff man.....imo, ur better off feeding every time and getting plenty of runoff....ur not giving em a very hot dose even when u are fertilizing....i recommend hitting em every time....ur plants are hungry man...
  • Start of ph lock out / cal mag issue
  • the thing is at full strength those nutes probably are fine how ever at low dosage there is most likely not enough cal mag and also PH stabalizers
  • Nute wise they probably fine just add a lil cal mag to it then when at full strength you can most likely stop the cal mag
  • That would appear to be over watering/feeding.
  • I concur, its really looking like over watering
  • Good start Smacka but there's some obvious overfeeding signs later on.
So I have an honest question from an ignorant noob... How do I know who to follow? I got 1 saying fungus, 1 saying Potassium/Manganese, 2 saying over feeding, 2 saying overwatering, 4 saying calmag, 2 saying bump nutes

Back when I posted the gruesome pics above, I was stressed out and the initial response I got was "you need to bump up your calmag and/or nutes"... it appeared to solve a bunch of the listed issues (Potassium/Manganese, calmag, and bump nutes), and I looked at what I was doing:
  1. Feed was at the bare bones bottom of where the schedule said for it to be.
  2. ppm's seemed to be within what other people were seeing success with seedlings at 6 weeks
  3. pH looked okay (at one point I was wondering if my pen was off because it looked so bad)
So I bumped up my nutes, snipped the gruesome leaves, and the new green growth has looked good.

The guys who'd said to bump nutes initially said "ur better off feeding every time and getting plenty of runoff..." and it had appeared that his suggestion of bumping had worked, so today I mixed up a litre of nutes at 4mL/L together and fed (ph @ 6.1, nutes at 500ppm), runoff was ph 6.1, but 1200 ppm.

That scared me so I mixed another litre of 500ppm nutes, and gave each another 2 cups. Run off dropped to 1000 ppm.

So I blasted another 2 cups through and it was still at 1000 ppm.
 
SMACKA

SMACKA

119
28
Good start Smacka but there's some obvious overfeeding signs later on.
Thing with your plants is that they will never grow above a couple of feet, so they will never need full strength nutes even at their biggest. Also there has been a feast and famine approach to feeding that means the plants are not getting fed for long periods.

Last run I over-watered. I think this is because I'd grown before under HPS's in a typical setting and never overwatered. Then I realized the CFL's aren't going to be able to dry out the soil at nearly the same pace since in a typical grow room, pots don't take up 50% of the space.

This run I've really dialled back and let the pots get bone dry before giving them another watering.

Is it possible the "overfeeding" appearance is actually just a salt build up because I hadn't been getting enough run off?

Maybe consider using 1.5ml dose every 2nd watering for a week to give them some grub and start to build up from that. I use Canna stuff and the max dose on the tub is 4ml, so for my small plants I use 2.5ml and they seem to be happy. Max dose for Canna Terra in the stretch phase is only 3ml, so I would suggest staying well below that for now.

You've got spectacular plants, and anyone who's seen your setup knows that's where my setup was inspired by.

Screenshot 2017 05 18 170651


The chart I'm following shows 5mL/L as the max dose, 3.5mL/L minimum dose. It says to do 1mL/L for 1 week old seedlings, so I figured at 6 weeks that 3-4mL/L was within range?

Canna Terra EN


I'm at week 8 now, and feeding around 4mL/L but up until recently had only been feeding 1 Cup each, now it's 2 Cups each, and today I "flushed" 500ppm nutes which is 1EC.


Monitor what goes in and what comes out for the next few waterings to try and fathom out what's happening, you can then make the necessary adjustments.
The yellowing of lower leaves is pretty natural. They don't get much light so they don't contribute much energy to the plant. So the plant eats all the food in them which is why they go yellow. Nothing to worry about so long as it's restricted to the bottom growth.

Over the last two weeks it's been:

IN: 5.9–6.1 ph, 400–500 ppm
OUT: 6.2–6.4, 400–1200ppm ?? It jumped up over the last month, which is what made me think it's the AMOUNT I'm watering more than it is the levels. Is it possible the burn is caused by salt buildup?
 
SMACKA

SMACKA

119
28
The PC case pic above was last night, soil is bone dry, and the plants look a lot better than they did a couple weeks ago.

I'll go back in tomorrow, take pics, and give an update of things. Here's to hoping bumping the nutes wasn't a huge mistake. Fingers crossed.
 
v12xjs

v12xjs

32
18
If you want to begin learning how to read your plants then go back to the top of the thread and look at the 1st 2 pictures you posted. You can see the 1st cotlyledon leaves on both plants. The leaves that do not have a serated edge.
These leaves are present on all plants and they provide nutrients to keep the plant alive while it builds a basic root system and becomes self sufficient.
The cotyledons are a great indicator of when to start feeding.
If you look at your 1st pic of the WW, you can see the cotyledon is at around 4 o clock in the picture, hiding under the true leaves. It's already loosing its green colour so the natural food is running out and gentle feeding could start any time for this plant.
In the 2nd pic the interest is also at 4 o clock but this time the baby leaf is much more green, so this plant does not need feeding at this time.
From this information we can deduce that the WW is working harder and growing faster while also consuming more food.
The kush is less hungry and is slightly slower out of the blocks.
So the WW will be able to take more food than the kush without stressing if you want to push it along a little more. It will also grow taller so it will need more attention if you are managing canopy height.
Also you should note the clolour of the leaves when they are just using water and feeding on their baby leaves as this is their natural colour.
If they are getting darker then lower the food slightly to accomodate. The opposite it they are becoming lighter.
 
SMACKA

SMACKA

119
28
If you want to begin learning how to read your plants then go back to the top of the thread and look at the 1st 2 pictures you posted. You can see the 1st cotlyledon leaves on both plants. The leaves that do not have a serated edge.
These leaves are present on all plants and they provide nutrients to keep the plant alive while it builds a basic root system and becomes self sufficient.
The cotyledons are a great indicator of when to start feeding.
If you look at your 1st pic of the WW, you can see the cotyledon is at around 4 o clock in the picture, hiding under the true leaves. It's already loosing its green colour so the natural food is running out and gentle feeding could start any time for this plant.
In the 2nd pic the interest is also at 4 o clock but this time the baby leaf is much more green, so this plant does not need feeding at this time.
From this information we can deduce that the WW is working harder and growing faster while also consuming more food.
The kush is less hungry and is slightly slower out of the blocks.
So the WW will be able to take more food than the kush without stressing if you want to push it along a little more. It will also grow taller so it will need more attention if you are managing canopy height.
Also you should note the clolour of the leaves when they are just using water and feeding on their baby leaves as this is their natural colour.
If they are getting darker then lower the food slightly to accomodate. The opposite it they are becoming lighter.

Thanks, this is great - I'd been watching the cotyledon and used it as a gauge for when to start feeding. Going back over those pics, you're right that the PK cotyledon was still green.

I honestly hadn't thought much about needing to customize the feed schedule on a per-plant basis but it definitely makes sense in this case since I'm dealing with two different strains.

Would the fact that White Widow's cotyledon had yellowed, plus the fact that PK's hadn't also support the idea that the deficiencies were from under feeding? Likewise, the growth has been significantly lighter since those early days?

Appreciate your knowledge. Thanks.
 

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