Indoor automaria2 and speed devil grow journal :)

[wheredaweedat]

update day 16 and 5

ok. so im impatient, but this is no big news to anyone who knows me, lol.

im tired of waiting for the Pandora to break soil (Pandora is the one that did not have a tap root after germing 3 days, so it was simply planted), so I started germinating another hahahaha, K is gonna punch me in the head =P. i mean...we've got the light (ample cfl, with a MH and HPS on its way with some mylar) and more than enough space.

So Im giving sweet seeds another go with one Fast Bud bean.
Im 99% that once germ'd I'm going to plant in a large reusable shopping bag...I have a plethora to choose from, most of which have never been used. Also pretty sure Im going to use the same components for the soil. Maybe add just a smidge less perlite..

The other beebees are doing well. I ended up adding a little bit of soil (i used the seedling mix only) around the base of her uber stretched stem.

Watered AM2 with the fish emulsion day before yesterday, skipped yesterdays watering, and fed today. I only fed because she has 3 sets of leaves and per the 'grow at lowes dirt guide' that's what i'll be doing for HER. The AA... Im going to let her tell me when shes not getting what she wants out of her medium. That way theres no questions or confusion (on my part) about what and when, who where and why lol. First sign of a def. I see Ill PH to be sure its not that and give a dose of nutes and see if theres improvement; then just start using nutes...which im assuming with the compost/OF will be bloom nutes.
Im still really iffy about using the MG stuff that the lowes guide said to use...I mean, I do already have it buuuuuutt.....i dun wanna, haha.

Picture time

AM2 @ day 16

AA @ day 5

 

[wheredaweedat]

Update: day 19 & 8

so, the closet still isnt great....its not done yet though either lol. so far all thats been done is put some mylar up on the left hand side of the closet, hung the MH and transferred the plants from the right side with the CFL to the side with the mylar and MH.

So far the bebes seem to enjoy the MH. So much more BLUE than the cool spec CFLs we were using. We actually have a digital light meter/soil ph meter/moisture meter, and we measured the light intensity at plant level with the MH and with the CFL, and ummm....MH wins, lol. 250w MH puts out SO much more light than 250w CFL lol. I can't wait to give it a few days and see if I can see any significant differences in rate of growth. Im not sure that its (the light) close enough though. Its currently 15" above the plants. But I was expecting, at least, a 5 degree increase in temps, with the mylar reflecting and the amount of heat MH gives off in comparison to CFL. Now, maybe its because we're now growing on the side where the intake fan is, but temps have actually dropped. On the right hand side of the closet, temps maintained 78-82 with CFL. With the actual growing, being essentially reversed (in terms of which side of the closet), the temp is stable at 74..which isnt bad, but in terms of adding more light/heat and having temps...drop? Just doesnt make sense to me.

The Fast Bud seed I started was super quick to germ - especially with comparison to the others. It was ready to go, with a thick, protruding, white and healthy tap root in just over 24 hours. K said to give up on the pandora since it still hadn't sprouted so I obliged. Replaced the 2gal smart pot with a new mix of seedling soil, OF, compost and perlite and planted the Fast Bud and put her in her room with her sisters. This was around 4pm Friday afternoon.
Im trying to do my best with this one, as Im sick to death, of - for all intents and purposes, throwing away seeds.

So this morning for some ungodly reason, I woke up at 7am, and I went to look in on the plants, and FB still hasnt popped. So I went ahead and made a little greenhouse type enclosure around it with semi translucent plastic sheet/tarp material and put the pot up real close to a CFL that was still plugged in. There is some airflow slightly poofing up the top of my make shift greenhouse, but I wonder if its even doing it good, since if im not mistaken, needs to stay uber humid until it breaks the soil...ifk.

on the softer side of sears, AM2 has confirmed girly parts. Lets get this show on the road kids.

 

[wheredaweedat]

Update day 20 & 10

ok.
SERIOUSLY?! wtf is going on. Ive been googling my ass off but seems like everything i find is with outdoor grows, and seeing as how im growing INDOORS, the things Im finding dont exactly apply.


This happened to at least ONE of the girls (might have been both, i cant remember) on the last grow.
so Im wondering if it isnt something wrong with/and or/in the soil.
The issue is only affecting the AutoMaria2 - so far...knock on wood, which is coincidentally potted in the same Black Gold Organic that had been left over from grow numero uno.

Last time around we did have a relatively significant fungus gnat problem, due to over watering and lack of drainage (initially they were planted in MG organic and then once we realized we had like...zero run off, when we transplanted they were put in the BGO w/ added perlite.

However, they were planted together in the same pot (noob uh oh), and it wouldve been IMPOSSIBLE to separate them, as Im no surgeon, and their roots were already so tangled together. i think the way it ended up happening was we just tipped the entire 3 gallon pot they started in over, and planted them both in a rectangular flower box all of the MG still intact. So that, ontop of it being the first ever grow and starting it SEVERELY uneducated, we naturally assumed they would have their share of problems and didnt really fuss too much over this particular problem.

SOMETHING.
IS MUNCHING HOLES.
IN MY PLANT.

I will post pictures, just bear/bare with me.
Have you ever been looking at the flowers like, in front of the drs office *random example lol*, and it looked like there were caterpillars or some other omnivore bug was rather enjoying a snack on the leaves? oddly shaped holes and rips?
Thats what AM2 looks like, but its not really affecting any leaves other than my new top growth.
The very bottom single finger leaves look like shit, but im assuming they're the seed leaves which are supposed to turn yellow brown and die off. Now that Im thinking about it though, the seed leaves aren't serrated and these are...hmm...Otherwise she looks healthy, saw a few more pistils when i checked on em this morning, so i mean....idk if all of this is something to be concerned about or what the deal is. hopefully someone can help....

In other news, the AA is looking good - not a whole lot of new growth, but her leaves are definitely getting more broad...broader isnt a word right? lol I did however notice some purple-y discoloration...which may be normal - might be a pheno. or possibly my eyesight. who knows lol
FB is showing signs of life which is exciting news since we seem to be having some issues with seeds breaking the soil.
This morning the partner in crime left for a business trip so i made myself useful and ventured up to the closet and made a few adjustment/changes. I didnt hang up anymore mylar on the walls, cause if I tried to do it mself id end up breaking something lol either on myself OR in the closet. Im not the most coordinated person in the world lol. I blame the MS =P
so I wrapped a large box that once contained an RC helicopter, and wrapped it up in some mylar, and put the FB and the AA ontop of the box to get them closer to the light. I also filled up two 5gallon lowes buckets with uber hot water and put them in the closet as well to help with 1 humidity and 2 add a little bit of warmth.

So here are the updated pictures of AA and teenie tiny baby FB and some pictures of the holes/rips Im talkin about. HELP HELP HELPPP me!! :Sharing One:

the bottom single finger leaf on AM2. Idk why she's so low to the ground, so to speak, I didnt add an soil to her pot after she was planted, but those bottom leaves are hurtin. I wonder if its burn from direct contact w/ the fish emulsion? I reckon it could potentially be light burn from the bottom leaves touching the 'wet' (i use wet lightly) soil? I havent a clue.
this is the only 'mid section' leaf that appears to have a hole in it
these three pictures were taken on the upper most leaves

so, is it my imagination? shadows? or do i actually see purple in the AA?

the FB baby. shes gettin' there!

this was AM2 on the 2.2814
and within TWO DAYS i started to see those holes/rips appear....culprit? anyone?

::edit:: I haven't seen any bugs, with the exception of a fungus gnat 2 days ago - killed it and never saw anymore.

 

[AndyBotwin]

Have you looked up underneath the leaves for signs of any pests?

 

[wheredaweedat]

I have, but I didnt really see anything. I saw a small dark spot here and there so i grabbed my loupe, but I didnt see any legs, but the lense is/was all smudged up, so im gonna clean it and look again when they wake up at 4. You thinkin spider mites?

 

[wheredaweedat]

update with a plan...

sort of - haha.

I been doing a lot of reading for the last 4 hours about these holes. Im still not finding a lot- however I did read that if the PH is really off, then it can cause deformed leaves/and or/ nute lockout causing deformed leaves.

So the babes will be waking up in 2 hours and I will do the following - in no particular order-

Clean the lense on my loupe and check again for bugs and or larvae.

Run 2 PH tests.
Ill run two because i ALSO read, lol, that digital soil PH meters arent the most accurate things in the world. So I'll test with my meter, and then do an old school PH test with the kit we got for the last grow.

Order some Neem Oil from Amazon...or perhaps..I'll make my own insecticide. I found a recipe, if you will, on 420magazine.com for a homemade insecticide..Ive actually seen it around a bunch of places, and im actually thinking about looking for other variations on vegetable gardening forums.

so i'll update once Ive completed the above.

 

[AndyBotwin]

Looking at those pics closely I agree that you may have some sort of pH problem or deficiency. Or it could just be a weird genetic thing with that plant. For mites to make a hole that big and do that much damage, it seems like you'd be able to see them fairly easily. As for soil meters, I had a grow nearly ruined by one and I don't trust them at all. Unless you have a really good one like an Accurate 8 probe, they are more trouble than they're worth IMO.

 

[wheredaweedat]

Update day 21 & 11

okay.
im probably the worst grower...ever, lol. but we'll get to that.

The AutoMaria2. I did check the PH with the meter and it said 6.5. I did a test the old school way, and from myyyy speculations, I would say, the closest color match is neutral. Which is too alkaline for cannabis.

Im wondering if it (the ph) was off from the gate, since to start I had only used the meter.
OR
the other only other thing i can think of, with regards to PH, is the holes/tears in the leaves only started to develop AFTER I had given the Alaska fish ferts, but im not 100% if the brand is known for messing w/ soil PH. gotta look into that still before I add anything.
i also never checked the runoff, im not sure if i mentioned i wanted to do that or not lol, but i didnt, because i forgot that Id watered them earlier in the morning yesterday.
so i suppose, depending on the results of multiple google searches on if the fish ferts will mess with the PH will determine whether or not i bother testing the runoff...though i suppose i should, it wouldnt hurt anything, eh?

so i was researching automaria2 grow journals somehwere, and i was reading one where the person noticed one of their newly germed seeds had broken the soil but still not shed its shell, so they went to kind of...help it along, and in doing so, knocked the whole thing out of the soil. It didnt have actual roots, only a tap root, so the person re-burried it and it eventually came up.

IRONICALLY, haha, when I checked on FB today, she also still hadnt shed her shell. So what do i do? attempt to 'help it along'. and what happened? lol. smh, and the whole time i was reading this story in the journal im thinkin, ugh thats so awful, and what do i do not an hour later? lol

results

AM2. shes not real tall, but shes rather wide.



AA

 

[wheredaweedat]

small update on this potential PH issue

Im about to order some new ph testing equip. from Amazon (gotta love that prime 2 day shipping =p) and this is why.

So the ph stuff we have now is from a SOIL testing kit, http://www.hydroponics.net/i/132817, and as I was going to test the water we use before i gave it to am2, thats when it hit me, that the results will probably NOT be very accurate since there isnt any actual SOIL in the test chamber, only water. However I went on with the test anyways, just to see. It said that the water we give them (tap water that sits out in 5gal water jugs until needed) is DISGUSTINGLY alkaline. But since I dont know if that result is accurate, I gave AM2 almost 3 cups and tested the runoff which looked like a middle ground between 6 and 6.5, closer to 6. I read that when testing the runoff (this was my first time) youre supposed to go between that number or something like that to figure out the PH @ the root zone? Idk i need to look into it more, but at least ive got a tad bit of time to do so before the new supplies get here.

speaking of - if anyone has any suggestions on what exactly i should get, please feel free to chime in!

I started to get kinda worried about why AM2 was still so short and poppin' pistils the way she is, because we arent talkin pre-flowers, we're talkin full out start of flower. Granted, my grow conditions are far from ideal, so I cant really compare my grow to the few others that ive found. For example this is a picture i found of someones AM2 on day 24.

My AM2 is two days behind this one and MY plant is nowhere NEAR what this is. But this guy has his shit together - his set up is -
Tent: Hortilab 80 (80x80x160cm³)
Light: 4x23W 6500k CFLs, 4x23W 2700K CFLs, Lighthouse Hydro BlackStar 180w, and no-name 180w cluster LED (all used according to grow stage, will be posting changes appropriately)
Medium: Seedling soil, Plagron Allmix and Royalmix
Nutrients: Biobizz Bio-grow and Biocanna Bio Flores
Fan: Hortiline clip fan
Climate control: Ventilution MinMax thermo- and hygrometer,Lightscout DLI100 (photon density)
Water control: Checker by Hanna (pH), Hanna HI 96304 (EC)
Exhaust: Ventilution mixed inline 187m³/h, carbon filter


So that is a prime example as to why Im sorta freaking out about mine, but in the same breath, easing my own paranoia as i know that our grow isnt nearly as thorough or even as well planned out as this; in turn not providing the same results.

the girls are still on 20-4, though at noon today will start their switch to 18/6, and perhaps that will start her stretch.
i remember reading somewhere though, that autos wont really start to stretch until week 5 or 6, another site i read though, stated that a week after pistils show is when they will really start to take off.

so idk what to think. I want to just let her go and do her thing in her own time and stop worrying, but i also feel its my fault she isnt thriving since im not exactly providing her 100% of the best care she needs. Prime example is this whole PH thing.

You know, its funny how you get one grow under your belt, and think that you know enough now to be able to, AT LEAST, grow healthy plants, and then low and behold. you fuck up what, 3, 4 seeds, and are now allowing SOMETHING to tear up the leaves.
Nice going, WDWA. Really. Good job.


EDIT: photo and grow information is all credited to Andraxx on ICMAG https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=276007

 

[AndyBotwin]

All things considered, you're looking pretty good. You aren't the first to manhandle a seedling trying to remove the shell, and you won't be the last. If it happens again, try misting it every hour or so for a while until you get it moist & then the shell will usually come off easier.

pH seems high and you'll need to get that in check before more problems occur. You definitely need to be checking your runoff to see what's happening in the soil, and that will help you adjust the water/nutes going in. With the drop kits I've found that it's easier to test runoff if you run it through a paper towel or coffee filter to remove some of the particles. An electronic meter is definitely preferred. As for the fish ferts, they will definitely affect your pH. Most nutes push the pH down so you often have to adjust the solution up before giving it to the plants.