New Grower A Newbies Attempt at Flash Cobra & g13 Poison Dwarf Autos

[fullauto]

This is my first journal and makes me a tad nervous posting -breaking the 1st golden rule! I am a total newbie and apparently the worse grower on the planet.In the last 2 months i have started white widow regulars and ww fems and lost them to various ph problems,deficiencies.I ruined my freebie la diva auto seeds in germination to overwater.My new attempt is at flash cobra auto and g13 poison dwarfs.I currently have 3 cobras that are 9-11 days old out of 8 seeds and 1 poison dwarf auto that has made 16 days old out of 10 seeds. I seem to be doing an excellant job at killing everything i put in dirt and these are no exception. At the moment i am having soil ph problems-soil was testing in the 4.5ph range right out of the bag-which i didn't catch until the last few days when i actually tested it.My runoff water has been in the low 5's with water going in at mid 6's. I've tried the ph up solution and phed the water 2 days ago up to 8.0 and it still came out in low 5's. The plants were looking ok even though the ph was off,the dwarf was showing very faint yellowing along leaf edges. My last water was on the 20th 3/4 liter to 1 gallon pot.On the 21st i decided to add fine dolomite lime and again rewatered with lime mixed in water 1tbsp to 1 gallon,after water i topdressed soil with 1 tsp of fine powdered dolomite and mixed it into top layer of soil. I know i watered too soon-i usually wait 4-5 days in between but i panicked and wanted to use the lime to correct the soil ph. Today the dwarf has little brown tips on some of the leaves and has yellowed a little bit more,a few leaves curling down at tips.The cobras are holding tight and don't seem to mind the abuse i've put them through so far although i'm sure something will pop up as they are very small at 9-11 days compared to what the dwarf was at that age. My setup is t5 lighting 2foot 8 bank overhead with 6500 growlux tubes-2" above pots,i have 3 single t5s single bulbs for side light. Pots are 1 gallon plastic with happyfrog soil and extra perlite. Closet temps run 72-74f day and 65f night,light schedule 20/4. Ventilation is small fan for air circulation and carbon scrubber hooked to 200 cfm fan to draw new air in and blow it into attic. The water i'm using is storebought 1 gallon jugs of springwater which run around 6.0-6.2 ph right out of jug. Thats about all i can think of to catch up on 2 weeks of my new attempt. I'm finding it hard to believe i can grow an awesome vegetable garden and these plants are kicking my butt! Lesson learned so far is to check soil ph before planting and correct it before putting plants in pot-i think this is what done in my other attempts as i'm still working off the original bag of happyfrog with 4.5 ph. any suggestions would be appreciated as i'm about at the end of my rope and seed supply! got 5 g13 pineapple express auto fem seeds,1 dinafem blue widow fem seed,1 dinafem blue hash fem seed,and 1 ch9 afghan haze 33 fem seed left for backups.I guess if this doesn't work out i have an awesome veg closet setup to start my tomatoes and peppers lol!

 

[fullauto]

Just a quick update to my grow,2 days after i limed my hf soil to get the low ph under control my girls were looking worse so i decided it was time to kill or cure'em.I transplanted all into ffof that had a ph of 6.5-6.8,the poison dwarf actually had a huge rootball that had started to come out the bottom of the 1 gallon pot.I took off as much of the hf soil as i could without losing to many roots and put them into 3 gallon smartpots filled with the ffof soil.The flash cobras had very small amount of root growth maybe palm sized.After transplant all were watered in with a 1/4 strength mix of growbig from foxfarm.The next few days they pretty much sat dorment probably from transplant stress and the last 2 days all new top growth is green on the poison dwarf and it has started to preflower at 3 weeks in.Not sure what i got for sex on that one as i only have a few little knobs poking out in the branch corners.How long before i should be able to tell male from female? My 3 cobras are growing slow at only 3"-4" for 14-16 days old but appear green and healthy,wish they catch up to the dwarf which is bushy and 9" at 22 days old.Aside from some yellow spotty leaves with brown edges the dwarf seems to be unkillable with all the things i've put it thru.

 

[fullauto]

Watered my 4 diehards last night with the aereated water method i read in Fd's thread and can't believe how lively they look today as well as they grew some. Lookin like my poison dwarf is a boy as much as i wish it wasn't as its the lone survivor of the poison dwarf seeds.I'm assuming a ball on stick is male and it looks like one of the flowers is starting to open. My 3 cobras are growing some finally-approaching their 3rd week and starting to get some smell.Unfortunately it looks like 2 out of the 3 are going male on me as they have the same little balls as the dwarf.1 of the cobras is looking female-no balls and has a pistil sticking out of the little knob by the branches.I finally get a grow to sex after tons of trial and error and many lost beans to mistakes and i get 1 female for my effort.Guess it could be worse all 4 could have been males.I'm gonna give them a few more days before i do anything to be sure what i got.I was hoping to make some seed if i got that far and i guess i still can with the 1 female.Now to cross a dwarf with a cobra or just go for straight cobras?Any opinions or suggestions out there?

 

[sniper]

Im not familiar with the poison dwarf but what ever you choose to pollenate with you will have more seeds to learn with and they won't cost you shipping

 

[fullauto]

Guess i'll have to make a decision soon which breed will be the father.on the bright side when i get a rid of a few out of the growroom i''ll have room for some g13 pineapple express autos for the 32oz. grow competition!

 

[Muddy]

I'd suggest you pollinate two branches, one with each pollen.

 

[fullauto]

Thanks Muddy i just may try that,i didn't know you could do that. Kind of a bummer to have to get rid of the males especially the poison dwarf after all they been thru in their short life.Hopin my next round goes alot better now that i know what to do for the ph problems..Going to throw some g13 pineapple ex autos into germ in a day or 2.Would like to try some dragons and maybe some bad bettys so i can see a seed order in my future!Even after all the troubles i had and probably will have i think i'm addicted to growing.

 

[Muddy]

You may get some pollen transfer to other parts of the plant and won't know for sure which those seeds are. To minimize that, just place a clear plastic bag over the branches for 4-5 days until the pollen sets. I use a small artists brush to "paint" the pollen on the buds. The males usually drop their pollen before the females are quite ready. Usually by around week 5 the buds are formed enough to accept the pollen. Also, the seeded branches will probably need more time than the rest of the plant. I harvest all the other branches and main cola and leave the seeded branches on the plant. I find the seeded branches usually need to go at least 12 weeks for the seeds to fully mature.

 

[fullauto]

You may get some pollen transfer to other parts of the plant and won't know for sure which those seeds are. To minimize that, just place a clear plastic bag over the branches for 4-5 days until the pollen sets. I use a small artists brush to "paint" the pollen on the buds. The males usually drop their pollen before the females are quite ready. Usually by around week 5 the buds are formed enough to accept the pollen. Also, the seeded branches will probably need more time than the rest of the plant. I harvest all the other branches and main cola and leave the seeded branches on the plant. I find the seeded branches usually need to go at least 12 weeks for the seeds to fully mature.

Should i turn off my ventilation for this or the thats the reason for the bag? Right now the poison dwarf is a week older and alot bigger then the cobra female,noticed she has a few pistils showin today-little white spears stickin out.Would like to see her get taller and maybe throw a few more out there.since i got the soil changed and the ph is right on they have grown great the last few days.The dwarf male actually hit the lights this afternoon where in the morning it was 2" away.Actually it kills me to have to chop it after pollen as it made one heck of a comeback-its bushy and thick.Thanks for your help-much appreciated!

 

[Muddy]

You're welcome. Yep, it's hard sometimes to trash a good looking male. But he's served his purpose.

Turn you fan off while you apply the pollen so it doesn't get blown around. After you have the bags over them you can turn it back on.