Mephisto Fantasmo Express and Tyrone Special in Stonington Blend

[Waximus]

They're looking good, from here, Beother

TS#3 seems to be sensitive to watering, methinks. I'm running 3 Onyx right now, and one of them does the sad sack leaf thing when I feed all 3 the same.. So long as she bounces back, not a worry. I've had to water my sensitive one at about 1/2 as much as the other 2, and the droops are gone.

Digging the growth chart!

 

[The Elvis]

@Bekay

 

[Bekay]

Cool grow you've got going, Bekay

You have any thought of bending the tops on the FE's to help the side branches and even the canopy a bit?

Yes I thought about doing it but really wanted to be able to measure growth and compare the soil+water vs the soil+nutes and since these are first time strains I just want see what they do in this new-to-me soil and how they smoke. Also, I'm a noob and this is just my second grow so I wanted to be able to measure the growth rates and extend the growth cycle per the "Lifecycle..." tutorial.
If they are as good as the reports posted here I will be running them again next year. I think the Fantasmo strain would do well with a SCROG. Maybe just two plants would fill my small tent (2'x2.5'). From your experience would you think that four plants in SCROG would get too dense to work with? I'm torn between the idea of two done well and getting more from four left to their own with a little LST. My tent configuration and placement in a corner of the room would make it difficult to get to the rear plants under the screen. Have to view more grow logs for tips on this. I only grow Nov. to June as I like to travel by motorcycle in the prime season. My right wrist just twitched thinking about it, he, he .
For this comparison grow I will just tuck the fan leaves and keep an eye on them. Thanks for your suggestion, Medi.

 

[Bekay]

They're looking good, from here, Beother

TS#3 seems to be sensitive to watering, methinks. I'm running 3 Onyx right now, and one of them does the sad sack leaf thing when I feed all 3 the same.. So long as she bounces back, not a worry. I've had to water my sensitive one at about 1/2 as much as the other 2, and the droops are gone.

Digging the growth chart!

Thanks for affirmation Waximus. I'll pull the girls for a photo line up later as they are in the dark period at the moment. It may or may not be a watering issue (except for my flushing effort) but you will be able to see better in the next pictures.

Sidebar: Where can learn about the slaps, reputation and forum etiquette? Poked around a bit but couldn't find a post.

 

[Bekay]

Thanks for the slap, The Elvis. Wish I knew what it means. I am ignorant about forum features and etiquette.

 

[Bekay]

I see in this post https://www.autoflower.org/threads/mephisto-strains-size-guide.47625/ that FE should normally get to 33 inches or more and TS 24"-31"
It doesn't look like I will getting anywhere near those heights. My hope was that 5 gal. of the C-of-M Stonington Blend would allow them to reach their potential. According to the lighting charts, my 400 watt HID's (both new this grow) would be plenty of light in a 5 sq. ft. tent and once the seedlings were well under way the light has been kept 19"-24" above the plants. Do you see anything wrong with my set up or is this just normal variance?

 

[The Elvis]

the reputation is for the good job your doing.. the more rep you get , you can have acces to other parts of the forum..
those plants are pretty.. and I like charts..

 

[MediScrogs]

Yes I thought about doing it but really wanted to be able to measure growth and compare the soil+water vs the soil+nutes and since these are first time strains I just want see what they do in this new-to-me soil and how they smoke. Also, I'm a noob and this is just my second grow so I wanted to be able to measure the growth rates and extend the growth cycle per the "Lifecycle..." tutorial.
If they are as good as the reports posted here I will be running them again next year. I think the Fantasmo strain would do well with a SCROG. Maybe just two plants would fill my small tent (2'x2.5'). From your experience would you think that four plants in SCROG would get too dense to work with? I'm torn between the idea of two done well and getting more from four left to their own with a little LST. My tent configuration and placement in a corner of the room would make it difficult to get to the rear plants under the screen. Have to view more grow logs for tips on this. I only grow Nov. to June as I like to travel by motorcycle in the prime season. My right wrist just twitched thinking about it, he, he .
For this comparison grow I will just tuck the fan leaves and keep an eye on them. Thanks for your suggestion, Medi.

Cool, Bekay. Yeah, I can see that your tent size would make any extensive scrogging not technically possible. I'm not sure--in answer to your question--whether two big scrogged plants would out yield four grown straight up.

I grow for personal medicine and like variety so I'm more inclined to using maybe 2 gallon pots in my tent and growing more strains. My tent is also not particularly large. That said, you might still find room to bend those FE tops one time and then let them go natural, but you might end up with some pretty big plants as it is. I understand you're interested in keeping the variables consistent for the purposes of tracking the plants' growth in your experiment and I think that's cool as well. I think you can get a good yield either way and probably end quality becomes the primary goal by the end of the grow. I'm quite interested in soil growing and am looking forward to seeing how these fruit out for you. I think they look excellent so far...keep up the good work!

 

[MediScrogs]

I see in this post https://www.autoflower.org/threads/mephisto-strains-size-guide.47625/ that FE should normally get to 33 inches or more and TS 24"-31"
It doesn't look like I will getting anywhere near those heights. My hope was that 5 gal. of the C-of-M Stonington Blend would allow them to reach their potential. According to the lighting charts, my 400 watt HID's (both new this grow) would be plenty of light in a 5 sq. ft. tent and once the seedlings were well under way the light has been kept 19"-24" above the plants. Do you see anything wrong with my set up or is this just normal variance?

Only suggestion I might have would be to get that 400w a little closer, so long as your light reflector still allows good coverage and there aren't any serious problems with heat directly under the lamp. I think light intensity is your biggest variable vs. the final yield and bud density assuming everything else is going ok. Since the plants are what like 5 weeks old, you could probably get the light a bit lower, 12 or 14 inches would give you a significant increase in intensity

Good luck and have fun with your grow.

 

[Bekay]

Day 36 Update
I've got three happy ladies and one resting/recuperating. This grow seems to be going better than my first and I am so thankful to the helpful members that have put so much good info on this site!
Fantasmo Express
Both are doing well. As you recall, FE#1 has not seen anything but soil and water and she's been smiling all the way. 24-1/4" as of yesterday.

Looks to be a bit lanky but has flowers all over. I know you can't see them well in the picture but they will show up better in a week or so. Very healthy looking but there seems to be yellow tips as I was told to expect in the Stonington Blend.
FE#2 has been given MagiCal, RapidStart, Grow and Trinity, on alternating waterings and finally passed her sister in height over the weekend. She was 25-1/4" as of yesterday. At this point she doesn't have the density of flowers on the main stem that FE#1 does but we'll wait and watch.

Tyrone Special
I'll show you TS#4 first then we can talk about her little sister. Sorry for the blurred image it was a slow shutter under ambient and I didn't set up a tripod. Though the details are blurred I think you can see that there are numerous bud sites and the the leaves are nicely shaped. This plant has only seen soil and water.

Now to the problem plant, TS#3. I've taken several pictures to highlight areas of concern. Note the claw on new growth, the red fan leaf stems and the small underdeveloped bud sites.

After presumably having exceeded her tolerance with even a light feeding (which did not adversely affect FE#2) and moderately flushing her on day 29 and day 31 respectively, I am letting her dry out a bit and recover. Waximus indicated that he thought she might be over-watered so we'll see if she perks back up after the roots get some oxygen and fresh water in a couple days. The rest of the plants are getting light and will probably need water tomorrow.
I recall that the red stems can indicate some complaint from the plant but I cannot re-locate the reference. It is the same on both the TS's so I'm guessing it is a strain characteristic. Perhaps someone with Tyrone Special experience can chime in here?
Lighting
As MediScrog suggested I looked at lowering the light. I see no signs of heat distress (that I recognize anyway) and it passes the back of the hand temperature test for over 30 seconds so they are now at 17" above the highest plant matter. According to this chart http://www.cannaversity.com/cannaversity/article.php?id=052 the adjustment will give the plants 24.9% more lumens. That's quite a boost! Any "first signs" of heat or light burn that I can watch for?
Soil based observations and questions
First question is, Can it be this easy? Just keeping the plants properly watered and adjusting the pH to cover the 6.2 to 6.8 range in small increments seems too easy! At least in this grow period. I know that when I used Promix-BX and nutes it was less N and more P in the bloom phase. I wonder if the Stonington Blend has got my butt covered for the entire grow or if I need to make adjustment now that they are in the bloom phase. I was comp'd a bag of "Stonington Blend Organic Plant Food" 5-2-4 and 4% Ca, 2% S and 1% Mg to test. Though I planned on only feeding it to the TS#4 guinea pig, I am having second thoughts. Felicia at C-of-M told me that the 5 gal pots would hold enough nutrients through the grow cycle (5 weeks) and since these TS's are so small I bet there is plenty still available. Waxi grew some plants in this soil mix a few moons ago; I wish I could find his grow log and see how it went. Since TS#3 seemed to be pushed over the edge so easily I think this strain is not going to get very nute hungry in the next month.

Thank you all for riding along and whatever you care to share with this patient.
Peace, Joy, Love and Hope but of all these may Love reign in your lives especially at this holiday season.

PS: TheElvis - more charts coming by Christmas!