Indoor Jack Herer: First time grow

[Rapha El]

Ok, that makes sense. Thank you for the education! So if u dusted canna buds with pepper pollen would you get spicy weed?

Trying to make a stoopid joke! I gave been growing for less than a year so learning is important to me.

That'd be cool but if you have a look at this chart here you can see that even crossing different subspecies of pepper isn't always that easy.

If you wanted something like spicy weed you'd either have to strain hunt for it or find out the gene(s) that define the trait and manipulate a seed using something like the crispr method. Imaging all the hipsters' reaction to gene manipulated weed though Many only consume organically grown and locally sourced material.. I don't think something like that would go over well.


On a more positive note for all the people in Europe (or close to it) I've spent yesterday evening finding the proper ingredients for a KISS mix similar to Jacks 321.
The cheapest common way to implement the lucas formula is using "general hydroponics maxibloom" which comes out at 0.055476157€/l or 5,54€/plant at 10 weeks total grow-time.
The 321 method does offer better coverage for use in hydro and d2w hydro medium and comes in at 0,011643653€/l or 1,16€/plant at 10 weeks grow-time.

Note that the price is calculated with an average of 1l/day, each day (drain to waste hydro in substrate). You can use this "line" in a more soil like capacity and cut that cost by at least 40%. I see a lot of snake oil and overpriced BS on the markets all over so once my current todo lit of experiments with cannabis is done (should be around february) I will put this to the test and document every step of the way so people stop paying 60 bucks for a single little bottle of nutes and use that 60 for 1388gal / 5257l of nutrient solution.
I know that for most people this seems to be off by a factor of 10.. but if you have a bit of patience I will prove it to you :smoking:

 

[SouthCarolinaYardDog]

Hey I'm going to pull up a chair sorry I'm late.
Your journal and girl is lovely going to tag along for all this great info.

 

[Rapha El]

Hey I'm going to pull up a chair sorry I'm late.
Your journal and girl is lovely going to tag along for all this great info.

Enjoy the ride.

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Hydro Substrate:
I got annoyed with the way pure coco compacts so this turn around I'm going with a mix I've been using for other plants for years.

• 60% Granulate substrate (4mm particle size)
• 40% Coarse coco.

To get the coarse coco I simply sift it by hand. That way you get about 2/3 fine and 1/3 coarse coco; the fine coco works quite well for cuttings and starting seeds. My trees grow in a mix of 20% coco and 80% substrate and love it but as a first test I wanted to leave a little room for error.

I learned this cultivation technique from someone who's been growing bonsai for 40+ years and this is the best method he perfected and uses on all his plants now.

Let me explain why it works and why it's awesome:
You often see ready mixes with 10 or 20 percent inorganic substrate they claim to be for aeration.. that's bullshit. I know it's harsh but I've tested it. The point where you start seeing differences is 2:3 of inorganic to organic substrate. Now the purpose of the substrate is not to hold moisture for a week. If you want that you use soil. This is a hydro medium and you have to use it that way. This medium you water every day. At full strength (ec of 2). You water until you start getting runoff.
The reason you can run such high levels and that frequency is simple. Each time you water.. you are flushing. There are no build-ups and no burning your roots. The organic substrate (coco) is there simply to keep moisture until the next watering and hold on to nutrients until they are flushed the next day.
Now Walter (the guy I learned that from) says you can use anything you want for the inorganic part so long as it is no smaller than 3mm and no larger than 5.. I on the other hand prefer materials with coarse surfaces (more surface area means more moisture can be held).

This is a 3 part system:

1. Substrate (explained above)
2. Feeding (full strength every time until you get runoff)
3. Shedule (every day)

If you want to adopt this system you HAVE TO use it in it's entirety or not at all. With my first cannabis plant I made a mistake.. I listened to common consensus and went with pure coco. I Still feed crazy amounts every day BUT it has compacted like crazy (which you can see on the images) and the aeration is crap because of it. And you can see it in the way the plant grows.

Now to the part about why it's awesome. Plants only take up the nutrients they need at any point in time. If however you have build-ups or are lacking some, the plant is going to suffer. I literally grow all types of plants like that. Ficus, Maples, Pines, etc. Technically they would require different soil mixes and different feeding/watering schedules and plans BUT because there is never enough moisture in the substrate to drown the roots and always enough nutrients of all kinds I can treat them all the same way. And it's structurally stable. If you sift and rinse it after use (after a grow in this case) you can use it forever. When you sift and water it you get rid of the coco fibers that have broken down (meantime for them is ~ 5 years)

Note that my fabric pots are NOT made of the same material on all sides. The sides only let out a minimal amount of water while the bottom is free flow city.

Since I am new to the cannabis plant I don't know if 40% coco is too much; I do however have a bunch of experiments planned to get to know this plant in it's many variations. This is the first one. As previously stated: Jack is a proof of concept, now the experimenting begins.

Once I've dialed in on the percentages and done a comparison grow I plan to write a proper article for the lovely people here. I've learned a lot about the plant from you and this is my way of saying thanks.

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Baby Day -1: This is a combo experiment. Baby will be grown in the substrate describe above and is going to be the first one I'm going to try self breeding with STS on. Baby is a mix of (Northern Lights [HASHTAG]#5[/HASHTAG] x Blueberry) x Ruderalis and quite sensitive to fertilizers. I dug it a little deeper because I've noticed some roots wanting to grow on Jack on the lower stem, so if Baby does the same I can level the substrate an immediately give it room to grow these into. The reason why those secondary roots are very important and you should prune the tap root at 4inches I will go into in my air pruning experiment (which should start around late December).

Jack Day 26: Yes.. those are indeed bamboo cloth pins on that side branch. I massaged it a bit (close to the trunk) and hung some pins on it for a soft LST (it's not big enough for proper LST yet). The "cutting" is not doing too well which is a bit of a bummer but oh well.

 

[Dudeski]

That is a great post druid! i will have to read it again to make sure i am following along. what are you using for your substrate ?

 

[Rapha El]

That is a great post druid! i will have to read it again to make sure i am following along. what are you using for your substrate ?

I assume you mean the inorganic parts? Those are baked/expanded clay pellets at 4mm size.

 

[Dudeski]

Yes, that's what I was referring to . thanks!

 

[Dudeski]

I also wanted to let you know that you should stop in the live stoners chat thread and say hello. A lot of the members hang out there and it is a great way to meet other growers .
It can be entertaining ! its kinda laggy because everyone is so chatty and posts a lot of music.

If you feel like it

https://www.autoflower.org/threads/new-live-stoners-gossip.54005/page-2288#post-1230805

 

[Renaissance Redneck]

Welcome to AFN, Druid!
I'll have to catch up on this thread, but a quick glimpse has me intrigued. Subbed.
I grow peppers and weed as well, I think we may get along great
I'm sort of an agronomist, but soil science is a big factor in that. I love the plant torture!!!!

 

[Rapha El]

Welcome to AFN, Druid!
I'll have to catch up on this thread, but a quick glimpse has me intrigued. Subbed.
I grow peppers and weed as well, I think we may get along great
I'm sort of an agronomist, but soil science is a big factor in that. I love the plant torture!!!!

Oh sweet what kinds of peppers do you grow atm?

 

[Treebrother]

welcome to AFN Druid!