Mephisto Genetics Grape Crush

[Organic Sinse]

both popped up on d4. one had helmet head but fell off by itself after i added a drop of water.
d4 watered 100ml in a circle around the seedling to try to get the top roots to stretch out.
d7 watered 150ml the same way.
a "heat wave" here - about 40 degrees outside. so my tent has been in the low 80s with low 60s rh. so far so good. i am a little worried about the topsoil drying out.
so far so good - just need to get watering dialed in for the next week or two.

Have you ever tried mulch like small bark nuggets, or ground bark. It does an incredible job keeping the moisture in the soil. If you have worms in pots, they will be lurking right under the bark. You can easily pull it back with your fingers to do a top dress, then just cover it up. I only top dress between rounds, but I just make a little ditch in a circle using my fingers. Sprinkle the top amendments in, mist the amendment, and cover it back up. I make sure the ditch gets a little ways down into the soil. This really speeds up availability of Nutrients in the top dress.
Even ground up leaves make a great mulch to hold moisture in. You are feeding the soil in addition to holding in moisture. Misting the plants is fine, but having to mist the soil too is just too much work.
cheers
os

 

[jmattson]

thank you for the advice! i have some pine bark fines in my garden shed, i'll try sprinkling those on to retain moisture.


d14 today!

watered twice this week with about 200ml water each time, with a wide circle to try to get the feeder roots to stretch along the top. also misted most days to retain the moisture very lightly. the soil is starting to pull away from the sides of the pot.

emps low 80s, humidity low 60s.

on d13 i put the acinfinity bottom watering reservoirs on - i want to see if they'll cause the roots to reach down all the way to the bottom quicker if they sense water. in my outdoor grows this last summer when i put my old soil on my compost pile it seemed like the roots hadn't really got all the way down through the pot. i expect i will be be top watering for at least another week.

one is a bit bigger and one seems a little more of a runt. hoping for nice growth in the week to come.

 

[jmattson]

day 21
-watered a quart ea of ph'd water around day 17
-today when i pulled up the self watering bases to check them out, the strings had pulled out of the reservoir so they weren't bottom watering. knotted the ends to hopefully keep that from happening, i will have to check more often.
-did some leaf tucking.
-looks like some n tox clawing from the BAS.
-watered another quart each of ph'd water with recharge today.
-this time i'm going to wait to train until the stretch to see if this stresses them less.
-seeing the first little pistils, kind of disappointing as i was hoping i would get some more days of growth before that. i'm wondering if i stressed them by letting them dry out.

 

[Mozzy]

i'm wondering if i stressed them by letting them dry out.

They look pretty good and may surprise you in stretch


For future grows with soil, you may want to look into SIPs (like GroBuckets)...I grow in decent organic soil only, and watering at your growth stages now is quick, easy and almost foolproof for me, fwiw. I was at 21 days recently too (when I topped in my current grow)

 

[Arthur]

For 3 weeks, I think they look to be about right where they should be.

 

[jmattson]

d28 - starting to look forward to my weekly update every friday.

-a ton of growth this week. vpd about 1.2.
-my smaller seed is now the bigger plant - it's about 19" now. great node spacing and looks like the sundae thumper spacing i saw on some of the test grows here.
-about three days ago i noticed the top leaves tacoing at about 78 degrees tent temp. i measured and the plant had stretched to within 13" of the light. i raised the light about six more inches (the veg rec is 24-30" from the canopy and the flower 16-20"). it's getting big in there. there's not a ton more room for the plants to go up, but i did not top or lst early because i wanted to get some experience with larger plants in my tent (running mango smile next). DLI is a factor i need to dial in- i found a ppfd chart of my light and have been going off of that. i also have the photone app but haven't got a diffuser yet.
-today i top dressed each pot with 3T dr earth flower girl. i mixed it in the topsoil with my hands as deep as i could go without disturbing the roots. the top soil is very, very dry, but the plants are chugging in the bottom half of the pot from the ac infinity watering bases. so i top watered with 1 quart of recharge water. i'm wondering if the dryness of the topsoil is going to affect nutrient uptake from the top dress and if i should do some supplemental top-watering.
-planning on waiting a few more days and then opening up the bushier plant with some wire to allow better light penetration.
-i have never taken the larf or the undercanopy off of my plants and i am planning on doing this to allow the buds to stack on top. i heard someone say they did this after the stretch so i suppose i will try that this go round, maybe next friday?
-some n tox clawing on both plants as the roots work their way through the bas 3.0 soil - they are growing out of the bottom now. i'm really happy with the ac bases. these plants are taking a lot more water than my last run, and the extra humidity from the reservoirs are helping a lot dial in the vpd.

 

[Organic Sinse]

d28 - starting to look forward to my weekly update every friday.

-a ton of growth this week. vpd about 1.2.
-my smaller seed is now the bigger plant - it's about 19" now. great node spacing and looks like the sundae thumper spacing i saw on some of the test grows here.
-about three days ago i noticed the top leaves tacoing at about 78 degrees tent temp. i measured and the plant had stretched to within 13" of the light. i raised the light about six more inches (the veg rec is 24-30" from the canopy and the flower 16-20"). it's getting big in there. there's not a ton more room for the plants to go up, but i did not top or lst early because i wanted to get some experience with larger plants in my tent (running mango smile next). DLI is a factor i need to dial in- i found a ppfd chart of my light and have been going off of that. i also have the photone app but haven't got a diffuser yet.
-today i top dressed each pot with 3T dr earth flower girl. i mixed it in the topsoil with my hands as deep as i could go without disturbing the roots. the top soil is very, very dry, but the plants are chugging in the bottom half of the pot from the ac infinity watering bases. so i top watered with 1 quart of recharge water. i'm wondering if the dryness of the topsoil is going to affect nutrient uptake from the top dress and if i should do some supplemental top-watering.
-planning on waiting a few more days and then opening up the bushier plant with some wire to allow better light penetration.
-i have never taken the larf or the undercanopy off of my plants and i am planning on doing this to allow the buds to stack on top. i heard someone say they did this after the stretch so i suppose i will try that this go round, maybe next friday?
-some n tox clawing on both plants as the roots work their way through the bas 3.0 soil - they are growing out of the bottom now. i'm really happy with the ac bases. these plants are taking a lot more water than my last run, and the extra humidity from the reservoirs are helping a lot dial in the vpd.

View attachment 1654784

Mulching the soil surface will help keep the surface from drying out and increase how quickly and thoroughly your top dress is broken down into plant available form.
I have Grape Crush at 20 days. I’m using the 420 Autoflower training method. I‘m running 10 gal no till water only SIPs.
Your plants look nice and healthy!
cheers
os

 

[jmattson]

d35

the plants have stretched to about 24" at the canopy. i had to supercrop the main cola on one of the plants that had stretched to almost 30", because i was running out of headroom, but it bounced back very vigorously. right now my canopy is right in the manufacturer's suggested distance for flowering. if i can take these plants to harvest in good health i think i will have a very nice yield.

today, i began to defoliate the lower third beneath the canopy, removing the larf and stems, with the plan to remove about 1/4 of what's needed every other day for the next week or so to concentrate growth on top. i also used plant wire to open up the plant with the tighter structure to allow airflow inside. on days that i defoiliate i will also take a few of the inner fan leaves because they are very large and blocking airflow.

they are drinking heavily from the bottom, and i also top watered 1qt of ph'd water with recharge to activate the top dress.

signs of n tox continue - i had hoped the plants would eat up all the N in the soil but they are still clawing, especially on the left one.

unfortunately, some new signs of deficiency or disease are appearing on a few of the top leaves. i am not sure what it is but will continue to monitor. it looks like some tip burn is also beginning to show. i am planning on doing another top dress, which i will revisit on d42 depending on how the plants are looking. looking at charts, my guess is a calcium or potassium deficiency, but am not very experienced so will continue to monitor.

 

[Bob's Auto's]

i'm wondering if i stressed them by letting them dry out.

Hey buddy,

Just wanted to let you know those ladies look a-ok!
One tip though, never ever let your soil dry out. This kills the beneficials in the soil. One trick to see if it's wet enough is to put your index finger inside the soil and feel. If the entire finger feels cold, don't water...there's enough. If two knuckles feel cold it won't take long before water is needed. If only the tip of your finger feels cold, you should be watering.
I'm currently looking at my VPD. I noticed after watering I should up the extraction fan to 14%. Over 24 hours it dropped to 10%. Now I turned of the algorithm controlling that and set it to 14% manually. Now when my VPD goes to high, I know it's time to water my plants. This method seems to accelerate growth. It's a fine line though...overwatering is a serious risk. That's why I still use the finger tech now and again.

Guudluck with your grow. You'll do just fine

 

[jmattson]

d42
calcium def continues, likely from using too much ph down in the water reservoir. my ph out of the tap is high.

treated it with 5ml of calmag for each plant top watered, will give it another 5ml this week and monitor. also watering with pure tap for a few days before going to 1/4 strength ph down of what i was using before. flowers continue to swell up- high hopes for the harvest!

also added another top dress today of 2Tea dr earth flower girl and a qt of recharge top water - i think this will be enough food to let it finish out as the last top dressing should be kicking in about now.



nice, sweet grape smell developing over the last few days. vpd has been good. they are drinking steadily from the bottom watering.