Mephisto Genetics Samsquanch x FS in 10 gal SWP

[Suki]

Thanks for sharing your experience with the grow dots, I am making those same observations. Maybe I won’t use them on my 3BOG run, stick with the devil I know and ditch the dots.

I was reading somewhere that the pk they use doesn't start breaking down and becoming available to the plants until 45 days in, so they may work for photos but with autos the time table is way off. Shame too as it would be nice for peeps to have a water only option without having to commit to organics.

 

[idiopathic neuropathy]

Day 38 update:

View attachment 1425561
Into full flower mode now, the stretch seems to be done and flowers are now beginning to gain mass. She is only about 18 inches tall but about 2.5ft x 3ft wide. I never let her grow vertically much, just kept tying the branches down and doing regular leaf plucking to try and keep the canopy more open. Now that the stretch is done I will do one round of heavier defoliation to get some more of the lower bud sites exposed.

I was having a hard time getting the reservoir dialed in so I just pulled her off the reservoir and I am going to treat it like a drain to waste coco grow. I knew using coco in an SIP would present some challenges getting the calmag dialed in and dealing with the high CEC of coco coir. My hope was that I could take her off the reservoir about once a week to fertigate and that would be good enough to keep things in range. The plant stayed healthy, but growth would slow down a little after 24-36 of being back on the reservoir. The ph of the runoff was creeping up while the EC was dropping. I have used SIP before, but it was with super soil. I knew there would be additional challenges with coco, but I have always wanted to try it because I like the idea of an SIP and I prefer coco to peat or soil based mediums. The Grow Dots probably made it harder to get it dialed in since I am not sure how much calmag or NPK they are releasing.

I am keeping my watering solution at 1.0 EC for now. The same mix seemed a little hot when it was in the planter reservoir, but it seems just right for drain to waste.

I am planning on keeping it off the reservoir for the rest of this grow, the plant is so huge and beautiful I don’t want to screw it up. If anyone has experience growing in coco with SIP maybe you can share some tips with me.

In my experiences with coco/perlite with several years of growing in DTW and SIP and monitoring ph and ec----ph has been "for me" an unreliable indicator of plant health. I no longer use it---i have had great grows with ph runoff where runoff ph was 5.5 and couldn't change it no matter how I tried to adjust it and runoff at 6.6 and couldn't adjust it down and plants still turned out great. So, I gave up checking ph runoff. This is just my experience. There are several research articles that support this if you do a search. But, I'm sure others may differ. Not looking for a debate-just sharing my firsthand experience.

 

[Organic Sinse]

Thanks for the comments!

She is eating more than I expected, pretty much eating and drinking like a big photo period plant. I am going to try another cycle with grow dots soon and I will use a full strength dose next time. I am planning on three Mephisto 3Bears OG in 5 gallon pots with coco.

I am still sort of new to autos, and I did play it safe after my first auto grow, which I totally overfeed. The next two cycles I backed off the nutrients and got beautiful but small plants. Now I have a better method for the first month and they are going into flower a similar size to most of the photo plants I have grown. I just harvested three Double grape and the largest plant yielded a little over 6 oz!

I think you are right on that a healthy auto in a big pot can take feeding at about the same level as most photo period plants, and produce a comparable yield as well.

From listening to Scotty Real talk about his grow dots, I get the impression they think autos are more like 2 oz plants. I think their directions would be based on more like Sour Crack sized plants. Sam x Forum is a beast compared to that. For sure dose her like a big photo.
Your plant looks great. I have a Sam x FS going myself. Its at about a month grownbin 10 gal sip with notill soil.
Cheers
Os

 

[Organic Sinse]

I was reading somewhere that the pk they use doesn't start breaking down and becoming available to the plants until 45 days in, so they may work for photos but with autos the time table is way off. Shame too as it would be nice for peeps to have a water only option without having to commit to organics.

You are correct on the timing. I have heard them say that many times.
Cheers
Os

 

[MIAutomatic]

In my experiences with coco/perlite with several years of growing in DTW and SIP and monitoring ph and ec----ph has been "for me" an unreliable indicator of plant health. I no longer use it---i have had great grows with ph runoff where runoff ph was 5.5 and couldn't change it no matter how I tried to adjust it and runoff at 6.6 and couldn't adjust it down and plants still turned out great. So, I gave up checking ph runoff. This is just my experience. There are several research articles that support this if you do a search. But, I'm sure others may differ. Not looking for a debate-just sharing my firsthand experience.

I don’t fuss over PH much either, but I have a combo meter and I always check the EC of my runoff so I am seeing the PH also. If the PH had been staying in the mid 6 range I wouldn’t have bothered about it, but it was creeping up into the mid 7 range, 7.4 is when I decided to pull it off the reservoir. I have had 4 waterings since then and it’s getting back to about 6.6 PH now. The plant never looked stressed, but growth slowed a little and I was starting to get very small rust spots on the older leaves as well as red leaf stems. Two days off the reservoir with regular fertigation and those issues seem to be resolving.

I have a feeling it wouldn’t have been such a problem if I was just using regular nutrients in the reservoir, but I think the grow dots as a somewhat unknown variable really threw everything off tilt.

 

[MIAutomatic]

From listening to Scotty Real talk about his grow dots, I get the impression they think autos are more like 2 oz plants. I think their directions would be based on more like Sour Crack sized plants. Sam x Forum is a beast compared to that. For sure dose her like a big photo.
Your plant looks great. I have a Sam x FS going myself. Its at about a month grownbin 10 gal sip with notill soil.
Cheers
Os

I really like this 10 gallon SIP, but doing something with soil probably makes more sense, and I think what they are really intended for. This is my first time growing an auto is such a large container, but with a larger plant like the Sam x FS it seems to be paying off so far.

 

[MIAutomatic]

Day 45:

Still coming along quite beautifully. The bud structure is filling in nicely and she is throwing out lots of trichome. The smell is already quite wonderful and pretty unique, I am not sure I have ever grown a plant with a similar aroma profile. I have been including 5ml/gallon of Canna PK, but the grow dots PK should be kicking in now so I am going back to start backing off, cutting it to 2.5ml/gallon and see how that goes.

This plant is so huge and has so many bud sites I wouldn’t be surprised if she takes close to 90 days and yields around a pound of dried flowers. She is drinking a lot, I am only watering twice a day about 5 quarts per watering with 10-15% runoff, so she is drinking around 2 gallons a day.

 

[MIAutomatic]

Day 58:

Doing well overall, but I am having issues getting the optimal nutrients dialed in. The grow dots have too much N going into flowering and I think caused the plant to grow too many leaves. This could be somewhat strain influenced, but I usually keep my N levels pretty low compared to a lot of nutrient schedules, and I generally get a lot less leaf than I have on this plant. I also think I could be pushing the P & K a bit more if I didn’t have the unknown factor of the nutrient contribution from the grow dots.

I am getting just a little bit of leaf cupping on the upper part of the canopy, mostly the brighter part right under the light. I have seen this happen with other strains mid flower and have usually been able to resolve it by raising the light a bit and increasing airflow. I am pretty sure it’s just light stress, the PPFD is quite a bit higher right under the light, so I think this is the cause, but if anyone has any other suggestions?

 

[Suki]

View attachment 1434772View attachment 1434773View attachment 1434774

Day 58:

Doing well overall, but I am having issues getting the optimal nutrients dialed in. The grow dots have too much N going into flowering and I think caused the plant to grow too many leaves. This could be somewhat strain influenced, but I usually keep my N levels pretty low compared to a lot of nutrient schedules, and I generally get a lot less leaf than I have on this plant. I also think I could be pushing the P & K a bit more if I didn’t have the unknown factor of the nutrient contribution from the grow dots.

I am getting just a little bit of leaf cupping on the upper part of the canopy, mostly the brighter part right under the light. I have seen this happen with other strains mid flower and have usually been able to resolve it by raising the light a bit and increasing airflow. I am pretty sure it’s just light stress, the PPFD is quite a bit higher right under the light, so I think this is the cause, but if anyone has any other suggestions?

Exact same experience with the dots for me, too much N for too long, not enough Pk soon enough.

 

[Organic Sinse]

I have a Samsquanch x Forum Stomper at day 57. She is a little slower than the others I have seen here. She is growing in a 10 gal Sinse sip. It’s homemade soil, notill 3rd cycle, water only. She is about 50” tall and pretty wide.

Samsquanch x Forum Stomper 57 days

• Organic Sinse
• Mar 22, 2022

My room is pretty crowded or the pic would be better. I ran a Forum x 3 BOG last round, and I think this is a better cross. I like the Sam buds better than the 3 BOG buds. Don’t get me wrong, I’m having a blast running lots of forum crosses lately.
cheers
os