Grow Mediums Mr and Mrs AutoOtto's medical cannabis Autoflower grow diary

[GCase]

Nice. Sounds like someone is upset with your neighbor.

Looking forward to the Lemon Juice Expresses. I have looked them over several times. I do wish HS would provide more specific genetic info. because I wonder where the lemon expression D) comes from.

 

[AutoOtto]

6/30/13: Another day in a series of long days and it looks like they're gonna keep rollin' in, something which fills me with not dread, but excitement. We've dreamed so long about having the ability to legally cultivate cannabis, and to now be doing so, in a state where the average citizen, and not only those with a medical need are legally allowed to enjoy the herb, feels great! Watered the girls a few times today. I watered them twice earlier in the day, when I got them up from their first dark cycle at 5am this morning (we will now have them on a 20/4 life cycle henceforth) and then again at around half past 11. Still getting a bit high ph on the runoff, and so we've been watering several times a day, trying to leach the alkalinity out of the medium with water ph'd around 4.5 and our runoff is continuing to drop. Another thing that is good to see is that the frequent watering seems to have flushed most of the dust out of the perlite, I made the noobie mistake of not flushing my medium prior to using it, but I think (hopefully) that I've nipped it in the bud, pun intended, with the intensified watering schedule. I was a bit concerned that I might overwater them, but they look great, and I think the perlite probably drains well enough, it would probably be difficult to overwater them. Whoever told me to be patient, thank you. I stopped checking in on my 6 lagging seeds, and just kept them well watered and left them alone under the medium to do their thing and, lo and behold, one has already popped through the perlite. The Cheese Candy auto, here's a picture of this lovely little lady (please excuse her shyness, she hasn't opened her leaves up yet)

 

[AutoOtto]

...

 

[AutoOtto]

Time to put the girls to bed. Anyone know anything about the nutes my buddy gave me?

 

[AutoOtto]

Nice. Sounds like someone is upset with your neighbor.

Looking forward to the Lemon Juice Expresses. I have looked them over several times. I do wish HS would provide more specific genetic info. because I wonder where the lemon expression D) comes from.

Yeah, or some punk kid was trying to be a prankster, nothing too pro, the bomb didn't do any real damage, I guess.
I'm really looking forward to them too =) The flavor sounds really nice!

 

[AutoOtto]

We're thinking about doing the colloidal silver thing to produce seed. If we exercised extreme caution (i.e. doing all pollination in a separate clean area, quarantining treated and pollinated plants, just pollinating a small bud on each plant) Do you guys feel we could create some seed stock to keep on growing these strains without putting the outcome of the rest of our crop in too much jeopardy? Or would we be better off just biting the bullet and paying for seed? Your help and advice on this matter is appreciated, much thanks in advance,
Mr. and Mrs. AutoOtto
:group:

 

[Roark]

Being new to growing, personally, I would buy seeds. Some day I will get into breeding. I think it would be really great.
I am just not there yet. Patience, one thing at a time. That's my take on it, for whatever its worth.

 

[GCase]

Many would say do it. The CS will produce male flowers and pollen. Once collected you can pollinate another female.

Most only do so, with a new grow, after the strain has been evaluated while growing and is to your liking. There are just so many strains to try before deciding on pollinating.

With a first grow of autos learning how they grow and react to the environment is most important. Most of us, with the exception of the long time growers, are still learning and changing mediums (experimenting) etc. as time goes by.

 

[leeold7]

Perlite does not affect the ph do?

 

[AutoOtto]

Perlite does not affect the ph do?

Yeah, actually I found out the hard way that it does. I've had to flush with low ph water (around 4.5 to 5.2) since we planted these babies, and while we've got most of the granular sand stuff flushed out of the perlite, we're still fighting to get runoff ph where we want it (in the 5.5 to 6.2 range) I hope it gets it there in the next few days before the roots hit the res and we start to get these buckets bubbling up. I did have one other question on that count. If the plant is drinking its nutrient laden water from the reservoir, would it even matter that much if the medium ph is a bit off? Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the reason we have to hit a certain ph range is for nutrient uptake, and if the plant has an endless supply of properly ph'd water to draw on, I don't see (apart from extremes of acid and alkalinity) where the ph of the medium should have much, if any effect at all. New to growing in general, and especially hydro. Would appreciate some advice on this count from you experienced hydro-heads out there :group: