Indoor Maybe I was expecting too much... anyway, onward and forward!

[Corum59]

Nothing much happening, hope the seedlings are just putting roots in cups, oh and a little bugger has popped up in the outside pot among the failed auto's, forgot all about her. outside it been quite cool, rained constantly for a couple of weeks, however the gorilla cookies seem to be taking it in their stride, the rain appears to have have flushed the toxic soil???? so that might be fun to watch how they turn out, although its only February so plenty of time for a freeze to come along and kill 'em off. it may also offer the opportunity to grab some STS and see if I can turn one male and and let them pollinate for a lifetime supply of Gorilla cookie seeds... possibilities, but when possibilities depend on the weather, you have to look at the situation with a smile.

 

[Corum59]

the lights out periods can be a little cool, but nothing to worry about, 4 plants look healthy enough if not great.



i think another week or so in the cups under the 5700k starter lamp, that will give me time to mix up some soil, coco and perlite (if the bloody rain ever stops long enough)
Speaking about rain, here are some shots of the almost drowning Gorilla Cookies out in the cold.





I dont think there has been a single day that it didnt rain all day since they went outside, along with near freezing nighttime temps, hailstones in last weeks storm, not more than 10 mins of actual sun light in gods knows how long.... gotta give it to these little buggers, they are tenacious.

 

[Corum59]

Time to do some dirty work in the sun shine.

pics in order:
40ltrs of rather expensive bio soil, 20ltrs coco, 20ltrs perlite,
Some fungus growth ion the Bio-dirt hope its good fungus/mycellium???
Ready to mix,
Mixed,
Thought I might try something different on two bags for the rear, a light layer of perlite for air in the middle, two towers of coco for wicking up through two corners (who knows... maybe), removed the containers once the soil at the level by pressing my fist on the coco and pulling up the milk cartons.
ready to aclimatise for a few days.

 

[Corum59]

My memory must be really poor, I dont remember so many roots growing through the bottom with an air gap... ah well. I guess I had better get around to dropping them in the new dirty stuff and been very carefull not to damage the tap roots. (carefull not being one of my string suits)

 

[Corum59]

hopefully I didnt damage the tap roots, planted the 4 best looking in the 15ltr bags ( which is funny cos I mixed up 80ltrs of dirty stuff and barely filled the bags)
Any way, now under 4x CLU048-1212 3500k cobs @ 122watts, on 18/6, dli 25-26 according to PPFDapp.

 

[Corum59]

So here is the thing, these plants have been in what I think is a good soil mix, only one light watering with tap water.. and i see that the initial leafs have turned this shitty brown-ish colour and basically died off, I saw the same thing with the last grow of autos that I classed as a failure, and if I think about it most of my house plants have not done well over the last year, neither did the balcony plants last year...

I am pretty sure that my soils are ok, because the house plants and balcony plants grow well as a rule, and I do not imagine that house plants, balcony, grow tent, 4 different manufacturers of potting soils over 2-3 years are all complicit.

ph has been high for the past months 8-9, I have been lowering it to 6.5-7.0 but that didnt seem to make any difference.

So I am now 100 convinced that its a chlorine/chlorinate issue.

looking at these plants lower leafs I believe I am looking at classic chlorine toxicity, anyone have any others ideas I would be happy to hear them.

The autos that I dumped on the balcony which suffered in much the same way and which I put down to bad soil, seem to have picked up a little even after 3 weeks of none stop rain, which may or may not support my theory of chlorine toxicity.

I have set a bucket of water aside for the past 3 days to allow the chlorine to evaporate and watered today with that water. ph 6.5, the soil was shrinking visibly around the edges of the bags but still damp in the middle.
tbh I am stumped as to any other possibilities now, This last year and last 3 grows have all been very problematic and the only common denominator is the water.


This is one of the autos, drowned by rain for 3 weeks and suffering a little from that, but none of the signs of bad soil or Chlorine toxicity, I think that this also cancels out any thoughts of overwatering been the cause. these girls on the balcony have been in a soaked state since going out there, rain, rain, rain....



I guess the next step is to start bubbling the water with a pump and airstone, and then carbon filtering......... or maybe just quit and head back to the coffee shop.

 

[Corum59]

So here we go again, more fun...
When I opened this bag of soil I noted some fungus/mycelium and was wondering if its good or bad stuff



the results are in!
No Idea what the hell they are are but they do not look like I will be putting them in an omelette. the good thing is, as far as I remember shrooms of most types prefer a 6-6.5 ish ph level so i guess flushing the pots may have done some good.

 

[Corum59]

Pretty sure the flush worked out, the plants look much happier and appear to have started growing again.
The failed Auto's on the balcony have been cold the last few days and nights and are still rain soaked to the point of drowning... ah well, what will be will be.

 

[Corum59]

things are looking up, flush seems to have worked well, reducing ph and aerating the water for chlo

rine evaporation seemed to have done the trick, also the 4 backup seeds have all sprouted, ( a bit of a panic plant really, still better safe than sorry)

 

[Corum59]

The 4 Blonde Russian ladies have bounced back quite well, dropping the ph to 6.3-6.6 +/- and aerating the water for a couple days seems to have cleared the problems, I am pretty sure it was ph issues rather than chlorine, but will continue to aerate because, well, why not.
pic's in order:
the full view, side view, each plant






I also have the gubbins to mix up some STS,


1st need to make sure the scale is calibrated, working and level, then see how well I can get the measures sorted. This is all new to me, being a heavy handed kind of guy, working with small measures isnt really my thing.
BUT, well, why not...

The three "very hardy auto's" out on the balcony are around 6 weeks old now, the cold, rain and lack of direct sunlight has very obviously held them back, no signs of Autoflowering as yet, the others from these seeds were flowering quite obviously @ six weeks when grown in the tent, Gorilla cookies from Dutch headshop ( private label) they are so hardy and tough they should be called "ships biscuits" you know rock hard... anyways.

the plan: if the scale is good enough. it should work down to 0.001, but, well, you know...

Mixing Stock Solution "A"

Fill your 50ml measuring cup with 50ml of distilled water
Measure out .05g of Silver Nitrate
Mix the silver nitrate powder into the 50ml of distilled water
in a brown glass bottle and seal tightly
Label the bottle

Mixing Stock Solution "B"

Fill the 50ml container with 50ml of distilled water
Measure out 0.39g of sodium thiosulfate pentahydrate
Mix the sodium thiosulfate with the 50ml of distilled water
in a brown glass bottle and seal it tightly
Label the bottle

Measure 5ml of stock solution "B"
Measure 5ml of stock solution "A"
mix with 90ml distilled water, and a little surfacant,
test for application spread on a leaf. add more surfacant if required.
pick a plant and give it a damn good spray, take it from there.

but, The plans of mice and men and all that jazz.