New Grower Grunt's Third Grow

[I <3 AFN]

Turned on both switches, removed heat lamp as 82F is now ambient without it. My cheapo moisture/light/PH meter. The PH part is quite handy, and moisture seems pretty accurate, not sure what exactly the light meter reads (lumens that we see, or...?) but it was pinging in the sun at a reading of 2000, I have my light set so it's at 1750-1800 thinking this will encourage growth towards the light. The coke bottle humidity domes are now serving a new purpose, they are my makeshift hedgerows to deflect air flow through the plants gently, as my small fans are fairly close to the plants on the right, so I had to improvise to keep the plants from being blown too hard on.The rocks are stuff I find here on the bank of the Willamette River, mostly agate, jasper, carnelian, and petrified wood. I used them last year as tie downs for LST, and will again soon enough until the plants being trained are closer to the edge of their respective pots.

This was right before adjusting everything and going to both switches. I just put it on here to show the makeshift table holding my small fans and my "hedgerows" in action... STOP ACTION that is. The reflector is gone now, it was to deflect the heat down from the indoor floodlight bulb (which was significantly closer to the fans when in use), the little fans dispersed the radiant heat nicely!

 

[I <3 AFN]

Thought I would show some more of my gardening exploits, though these are outside and not necessarily cannabis related. And not really sure that it belongs in this thread, but it's related to my current growing season I suppose!

This is just my compost bin, nothing special, but I like to use all my excess rockhounding finds as landscaping around it. Someday I will have a proper rock garden zone!

This is a makeshift enclosure (cats kept fertilizing it for me all winter, bastards!) to keep the critters out, there is chicken wire covering the top so the starlings can't even drop in. It's in my kids area of the yard and they mostly get to maintain it, though I generally do the major prep work and get it seeded and started for them. Anyhow, I raked all the crap out and hand tilled it with some fresh compost. There are about 25 snap peas growing against the right fence, they grew up and over last year My kids pick them from the patio side when they want a snack, and with 5 kids total (mixed family) it sure beats the heck out of buying them! Patch of beets that overwintered and looking good already, we can't eat them fresh cause they are so woody, but they work awesome in smoothies. Both sides of the beets are seeded with more Chioggia beets, the yummy pink and white striped ones Then several rows of garlic behind, and several more rows of green onions that overwintered. Green onions in pots on left are all growing in old Ocean Forest that grew some outdoor dank two years ago, looks like I need to start giving them more than just water, little bit yellow! There is a 45gal pot in the back right (with little terra cotta pot in it to keep the cats out) it has three Goji berry bushes in it, they should climb that fence way before the end of the year. More finger foods for the kiddos! There is also a 15gal planter with strawberries that is hard to see, but there, and a 5gal with some mint that is growing to the moon already. Terra cotta in foreground has a Hummingbird Bush in it, I hope it comes back, my boys thought it wise to use it as their light saber dueling foe, not realizing that it was simply dormant for winter. I think it will come back!

Scraggly looking Lilac on right, it's starting to fill out a bit though. Three new apple trees planted beyond that, they are all columnar varieties on semi-dwarfing rootstock, so should have lots of apples in years to come. I also planted one each of these same varieties in my front yard, as well as a fig and a self fertile sweet cherry tree. There is a fairly small blueberry bush here in the foreground that kind of blends in, and I have two more 3'+ blueberry bushes of other ripening times coming in a couple weeks to be planted on the same plain as the apple trees, and a pink jasmine to grow on the far side of wire fence on left, I will train it up onto the wooden fence. There is a fairly good sized honeysuckle further left yet, with that, the jasmine, and lilac the pollinators will come a buzzing! The wire fence on the left is having two different varieties of grapes planted along it this fall, one starting at each end grown together in the middle. And finally, once the grapes and trees have all grown some I will be able to easily put several Geopots between blueberries and apples... there, finally a cannabis reference Happy growing and adventures!

 

[I <3 AFN]

4/24/18 Day 9 above soil

The plants all seemed to really like the mild foliar solution I have used on them twice this week. Mostly beneficial's in it, but also a small amount of P and K. Last night I also tested out watering/feeding the Seedsman Kush that is being given to my friend and it responded nicely to it, so I went ahead and made myself a 2L batch of yummies for them. Since I do not have any "Grow" type nutrients I made my own blend of a few things. I used quarter strength Dr. Earth Bloom 2-7-2 (so about 0.5-1.75-0.5) and also half strength Primordial Solutions Sea Green 1-0.3-4 (so about 0.5-0.2-2), and 1ml of Kangaroots which adds nearly nothing for NPK at that rate. Add those together and things are pretty mellow at 1-2-2.5, plus there is some EWC, Azomite, and Bat Guano in the soil already that really makes things around 2-4-3. That should be fairly mild for some young plants, most of the seedling nutes I see for sale are 3-3-3 normally with very similar ingredients. I put 1.5 cups of this solution in a ring around the RQS N. Lights and Quick One, 1 cup around each of the Seedsman Kush and RQS Jack Herer, and gave 1/2 cup to the other Seedsman Kush that already got a little last night. That was three hours ago and everyone is looking happy as can be!

 

[I <3 AFN]

4/24/18 Day 9 Update dos...

NL baby has third set of leaves growing minutely, and stubs that appear to be the fourth set coming right along behind. Also, there is visible new growth tips in the lowest node notch on both sides. Pretty stoked to be keeping an eye on this and taking lots of notes. Happy growing!

 

[jingo]

Did I see a petrified stump to the right of that compost bin?

What I'm growing​

 

[I <3 AFN]

That is correct! About 3/4 of one anyway and around 80lbs. The stump and the obsidian my grandfather found between Death Valley, CA and Bend, OR, he never would say where exactly. I acquired them when he died along with some fossilized scallops that are damn near the size of a salad plate in diameter. Love rockhounding, promised my wife I would find her some raw sunstones to wire wrap some jewelry out of, so that's my next big endeavor. Also a metal detector to find some of that special yellow stuff, then I can sell it for more weed growing stuff instead!

 

[I <3 AFN]

4/25/18 Day 10

The weather has been nice and warm here the last couple days, helping the pots dry out nicely. The RH got down to about 38% at the warmest part of the day, so I added two damp washcloths draped over the edge of the pots in front of my micro fans to help bring it up. I read that in another post and thought I would give it a shot. It brought my numbers back up close to 50% for an hour or so. I rotated them every two hours until it started cooling back off for the evening. Anyhow, I made another batch of solution at roughly 2-4-3 NPK, Ph'ed to 6.3 and applied 2 cups per plant in a circle just outside the plants drip line, and another 2 cups of Ph'ed water to each plant at the containers edge to make sure everything is nice and moist and RH is close to 50%. Front left is NL, back left Kush, front right Quick One, back right Jack Herer all in 3gal pots. Happy growing!

 

[I <3 AFN]

4/26/18 Day 12 (I put 4/25 and Day 11 first, oops)

Quick update with a more focused picture from this morning, the coming nodes are developing nicely and the plants all appear to have loved their thirst being quenched last night. The perlite is starting to show brown and tan on most of it, from what I gather this means the beneficials are doing their thing. Light set at 25". I turned off my exhaust fan last night, to keep the humidity up inside the tent, I will turn it back on once the tent hits about 82 or 83F as today warms up again. Supposed to rain for the next 5 days or so and be back in the low 60's starting tomorrow, so the atmosphere in the tent will get way easier to manage. This should be really good timing too because it appears these plants are just about to start growing much more quickly, and that higher humidity will definitely be beneficial. I think overall I am making decent progress, though I will do a couple things different next time to achieve a bit more vigorous growth (Sunblaster T5HO mini greenhouse and Rapid Rooter type plugs). Also, I am still diffusing the Geranium, Frankincense, and Tea Tree oil mix and if the plants don't like it they aren't showing me anything. I personally think it smells nice and may trick them into believing they have companion plants (which someday will be in my indoor garden). Also, I should note that I tell my plants good morning and good night and sing to them most of the times I pop my head in the tent, and I strongly encourage everyone else do this as well. Happy growing!

 

[MickJ]

4/25/18 Day 11

Quick update with a more focused picture from this morning, the coming nodes are developing nicely and the plants all appear to have loved their thirst being quenched last night. The perlite is starting to show brown and tan on most of it, from what I gather this means the beneficials are doing their thing. Light set at 25". I turned off my exhaust fan last night, to keep the humidity up inside the tent, I will turn it back on once the tent hits about 82 or 83F as today warms up again. Supposed to rain for the next 5 days or so and be back in the low 60's starting tomorrow, so the atmosphere in the tent will get way easier to manage. This should be really good timing too because it appears these plants are just about to start growing much more quickly, and that higher humidity will definitely be beneficial. I think overall I am making decent progress, though I will do a couple things different next time to achieve a bit more vigorous growth (Sunblaster T5HO mini greenhouse and Rapid Rooter type plugs). Also, I am still diffusing the Geranium, Frankincense, and Tea Tree oil mix and if the plants don't like it they aren't showing me anything. I personally think it smells nice and may trick them into believing they have companion plants (which someday will be in my indoor garden). Also, I should note that I tell my plants good morning and good night and sing to them most of the times I pop my head in the tent, and I strongly encourage everyone else do this as well. Happy growing!
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My plants would definitely show a deficiency if I tried singing to them, but I do turn them a 1/4 turn a day, it's our dance lol

Sent from my comfy chair.
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[I <3 AFN]

My plants would definitely show a deficiency if I tried singing to them, but I do turn them a 1/4 turn a day, it's our dance lol

Sent from my comfy chair.
[emoji16][emoji41] [emoji43][emoji848]

It's all about saying nice things and encouraging them as opposed to sounding good, you got this Rollin!