Mephisto Genetics Frogleg's first DWC Mephisto grow : Deep Blue C and Toofless Alien (testing Frogtech)

Say Froggy - you're in for a treat. I found the DBC to be a nice mellow daytime smoke. But I thought the TxA was a nicer plant. She was taller, bushier, and large frosty dense nugs. Unfortunately I had a mold or mildew problem when drying the TxA so I never got to smoke her, but she made some mighty fine hash.

My footprint is the same as yours. I grow in soil and have found that if I limit my pot size to 3gal I have no problem with 2 plants. I can even do 3 if I stager the start dates about 4 weeks apart. Course you're doing hydro which means bigger plants, so it might get a bit tight for you. My main concern is always height. If I raise my light all the way up, I have 45" from the top of the pot to the bottom of the light. I have had a couple of strains where even with a lot of LST, I had problems keeping them from growing into the light. That may not be a problem with these Mephisto girls though, my tallest was only 18".

I use AN nutes too. I use loose adaptation of one of @TaNgs feed schedules - he has posted 2-3 of these. The most recent has the fewest additives. He isn't doing hydro but it will give a good feel as to when to add what.:cheers:

That's too bad for the TxA really, I really would have enjoyed reading your report on the smoke ! But I'm so glad I have both in my closet, I don't think I'll regret choosing those as my first seeds !
Thanks a lot for the advice Duckster, I just can't tell how much I owe all of you guys for all I have learnt, and am always glad to hear your insight :cheers:

TaNg is actually one of the main reasons I chose AN nutes, as I think this might be the most popular schedule on the forum. I have seen a lot of successful grows using it (including yours brother), so I'll try to adapt it to hydro

Frog,

I'm subbed up! Nice set-up and you are a lot more organized than I was when I started lol. You got this!! Keep on keepin on!

Cheers! :pass:


Thanks a lot brother, I don't know if I'm that organised as I'm already starting to fuck up everything:crying:, but it means a lot!
Cheers!
 
Alright guys, Time to see what the noob Frog has been up to !

Those first few days have (to say the least) not been a great success. Nevertheless, I'm trying not to hide any of my mistakes, in hope that someday someone who wants to get into DWC like me will benefit from those errors.

Added to the fact that I'm still getting the hang of the root riot cubes (those things tend to become very dense when they dry out, as Master @Grim Reefer pointed out last summer in his HBBS journal), my main problem was caused by something I would not have suspected before.. The net pots.

In fact, my net pots were too soft, therefore, their own weight (green arrows) slowly pulled them down, consequently applying a force onto the top of the net pot (blue arrows, they're supposed to be perpendicular to the surface of the pot). As you can see, those arrows have an upward component (yellow), which can be transferred through the clay pellets to the root riot cube, due to its truncated pyramidal shape (damn you truncated pyramids!!).

Freestyle hand drawn illustration :
FreshPaint-6-2016.03.14-01.00.07.png


The consequences were disastrous : the tap root had to endure all this pressure, similar to having someone try to pull out the root riot cube out of the clay pellets. Although the tap root appeared healthy on the bottom, it was as thin as a hair right under the cube, so the plants were unable to pull anything up from the bucket.
They then started displaying signs of both over and under watering, maybe because the root riot was very moist around the small healthy part of the tap root, but it was still too small to pull up enough water.

My conclusion for next time is : top quality net pots, and rock wool.
(Edit: for the real top quality net pots, check the next post by HotBunz)


In the end, it looks like the ToofxAlien didn't make it : _20160314_142300.JPG
I'm about to drop another seed in pH'd water right away.

The DBC, I'm not quite sure.. She's alive for sure, but oh so small (just have a look at Master @Duckster 's, they're the same age https://www.autoflower.org/threads/duckster-does-mephisto.47824/page-29)
_20160314_142458.JPG
Do you think I should start over as well ?

It is a little disappointing to see how small things can harm your plants, especially when they're this fragile. Nevertheless, I'm trying to keep it stress-free as stress and anxiety is what I'm trying to get the hell away from. So in the end, I may have lost a few days but have been learning a lot, and that's what i'm here for :cheers:
Now I hope this will help a few out there too!
 
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Alright guys, Time to see what the noob Frog has been up to !

Those first few days have (to say the least) not been a great success. Nevertheless, I'm trying not to hide any of my mistakes, in hope that someday someone who wants to get into DWC like me will benefit from those errors.

Added to the fact that I'm still getting the hang of the root riot cubes (those things tend to become very dense when they dry out, as Master @Grim Reefer pointed out last summer in his HBBS journal), my main problem was caused by something I would not have suspected before.. The net pots.

In fact, my net pots were too soft, therefore, their own weight (green arrows) slowly pulled them down, consequently applying a force onto the top of the net pot (blue arrows, they're supposed to be perpendicular to the surface of the pot). As you can see, those arrows have an upward component (yellow), which can be transferred through the clay pellets to the root riot cube, due to its truncated pyramidal shape (damn you truncated pyramids!!).

Freestyle hand drawn illustration :View attachment 541770

The consequences were disastrous : the tap root had to endure all this pressure, similar to having someone try to pull out the root riot cube out of the clay pellets. Although the tap root appeared healthy on the bottom, it was as thin as a hair right under the cube, so the plants were unable to pull anything up from the bucket.
They then started displaying signs of both over and under watering, maybe because the root riot was very moist around the small healthy part of the tap root, but it was still too small to pull up enough water.

My conclusion for next time is : top quality net pots, and rock wool.


In the end, it looks like the ToofxAlien didn't make it : View attachment 541801
I'm about to drop another seed in pH'd water right away.

The DBC, I'm not quite sure.. She's alive for sure, but oh so small (just have a look at Master @Duckster 's, they're the same age https://www.autoflower.org/threads/duckster-does-mephisto.47824/page-29)
View attachment 541802
Do you think I should start over as well ?

It is a little disappointing to see how small things can harm your plants, especially when they're this fragile. Nevertheless, I'm trying to keep it stress-free as stress and anxiety is what I'm trying to get the hell away from. So in the end, I may have lost a few days but have been learning a lot, and that's what i'm here for :cheers:
Now I hope this will help a few out there too!
Sorry to read about your problems but you have to remember its all a great learning curve, lessons you wont forget.
Sorry i didnt see your thread before but im subbed now.
Its totally up to you what you decided to do next. If it was me i would start again, but thats just me a lot of members would push through till the end.
 
Frog,

I don't like the idea of making the tap root on autos fight their way out of the net pot. That is why I am using the Rhizocore net pot lid from HTG Supply....

http://www.htgsupply.com/Product-HTGSupply-RHIZOCORE-Basket-Bucket-Lid-6

Hey HB !

Thanks again for following my mistakes.

I had seen this picture long ago, but was unable to find these awesome pots you have for myself.. This is why I tried to cut out the bottom of my pot, so that the tap root could indeed find the opening just like yours. Nevertheless I though you had to have at least a small layer of clay pellets underneath the root riot cube, is this not what you do?

Sorry to read about your problems but you have to remember its all a great learning curve, lessons you wont forget.
Sorry i didnt see your thread before but im subbed now.
Its totally up to you what you decided to do next. If it was me i would start again, but thats just me a lot of members would push through till the end.

It's all good, I believe it's absolutely normal to go through such things as beginner, and I'm really happy to learn this much
Glad you subbed up, it feels great to have awesome growers following! :cheers: And thanks for the advice!
 
Hey man gonna follow along..want to try my hand at DWC next time so I'm interested to see how you do so I can learn. Good luck bud!!
 
Hey HB !

Thanks again for following my mistakes.

I had seen this picture long ago, but was unable to find these awesome pots you have for myself.. This is why I tried to cut out the bottom of my pot, so that the tap root could indeed find the opening just like yours. Nevertheless I though you had to have at least a small layer of clay pellets underneath the root riot cube, is this not what you do?

Frogleg,

Nope there is no clay pellets under my root cube. By design the Rhizocore net pot has the tap root into the bucket the second it's out the bottom of the root cube. In that picture the plant is 20 days old and the tap root was 18'/24" long and looked like a horse tail! Looking at your drawing I see what you did but with your set up the tap root still had to paw it's way through the expanded clay pellets.
 
Frogleg,

Nope there is no clay pellets under my root cube. By design the Rhizocore net pot has the tap root into the bucket the second it's out the bottom of the root cube. In that picture the plant is 20 days old and the tap root was 18'/24" long and looked like a horse tail! Looking at your drawing I see what you did but with your set up the tap root still had to paw it's way through the expanded clay pellets.

Alright, I'll be sure to get that fixed then, in hope this time I'll have a massive tap root like yours ! Thanks again HotBunz :cheers:
 
Hey lads, welcome to a small Sunday morning update !

I decided to keep my DBC, as she was still alive I just didn't have the courage to pull the poor girl.
After a few days of recovering from her severed tap root, It looks like the healthy new roots she started shooting out have just hit the rez :
DSC_1067-01.jpeg

And she seems to be well back on track :
_20160320_143025.JPG


I have lowered the root riot cube inside the net pot so the new roots are much closer to the reservoir, and it seems to be working a lot better.
The splash from the bubbles is more than sufficient to keep the root cube and clay balls wet, and my pH swings are finally out of sight, so for the past week she has basically switched to low maintenance mode : only had to sit back, relax and watch her try to catch up as fast as she could.

I have also been wondering something maybe some of you autoflower experts could help me out with : does a plant with a difficult start like mine take longer to finish in order to achieve its usual growth, or will it finish in 60-65 days like any other DBC, regardless of its size ? Sorry if that's not very clear, it looks like I'm having a bit of trouble with the English language today.

Finally, the new Toofless Alien has shown her head yesterday. No pics to show yet, but she looks healthy for now !


Thanks for reading and a good day to you all !
Cheers :cheers:
Froggy
 
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