Olderfart does mixed grow in Sunshine #4, autopots, DIY lights, and DIY growdrobe.

CQ cola2.jpg
CQ cola2.jpg

Well peeps, I am back after shutting down the soil attempt. This grow will be in Sunshine #4 mix, in ~3gallon fabric pots in the XL Autopot trays. Pretty much the same setup as last winter's grow in my sig, except SS#4 instead of coco.

I will be running these:

Dinamed Auto Kush CBD - I will reverse a stud plant with CS to make pollen, and use the pollen to make seeds with a separate mother plant. The stud plant is now above ground on Day 2, the mother will hit the dirt later.

Seedsman Auto Strawberry Cheesecake - Also on day 2 above ground.

Mehisto Genetics Creme de la Chem x 3 Bears OG - This was a freebie from last year's Mephisto order. I germed two seeds, both are above ground today, I will grow out the best once they show their enthusiasm.

The auto strawberry and CDLC cross will be in the growdrobe, as will the mother of the kush CBD. The growdrobe may get a bit crowded, but the CBD plant should be modest sized, and I will top and trim the others to keep them under control. The CBD stud plant will be in a 2 liter pot to be finished elsewhere in the basement away from the growdrobe - loose pollen being such a nuisance. :biggrin:

I will also run a Seedsman Northern Lights Auto, but given it's regular refusal to auto, I will be doing it in its own jimmy rigged "tent" so if needed I can put it on 12/12 without buggering up the other autos. It will be in a 2 liter pot fed by an autovalve, the small pot size intended to speed it up and limit size. I am interested in this strain for sleep, which makes the extra mischief worth it to me. This one is also on day 2 above ground.

Given my somewhat inconsistent germination results during the soil attempt, I tried something different again. With one modification, I used the technique described on Cocoforcannabis.com:
  1. light abrasion of the seed coat in a 220 grit sandpaper tube,
  2. 2-4 hour soak in ~1.5% hydrogen peroxide, followed by a distilled water rinse (the peroxide soak is my modification)
  3. placement in wet paper towel until tap root is ~10mm or so long (I did this in a vertical holder instead of horizontal - my reasoning being oxygen from both sides, less likely that the root will drill into the paper towel)
  4. placement of the rooted seeds in peat plugs until roots appear outside the plugs,
  5. transfer of rooted plugs into either an intermediate pot or the final one.
I have now done this with five seeds, all with perfect results. Every seed was ready for its peat plug within 36 hours of first soaking, and every one was above ground in the peat plug within 24 hours of placement there. All five are now in their peat plugs on day one or two above ground.

There are lots of ways to germinate cannabis, and I have tried many of them. There is logic behind the suggestions made at Cocoforcannabis, so for anyone interested in another take on the topic, the site is worth a gander: https://www.cocoforcannabis.com/germinating-cannabis-seeds-a-step-by-step-guide/

That will do for now peeps, photos in due course.

Update page for December 11 added under separate page title.

Ditto for New Year's update.

Update on seed run of Dinamed CBD Kush now posted.

January 23 update now posted on its own page.

Feb 4 update now posted on its own page.

Feb 12 update now posted on its own page.

Feb 18 update now posted on its own page.

Feb 28 update on Colloidal Silver results posted on the El cheapo CS generator page.

Mar 13 update on final results of Dinamed Auto CBD Kush seed run are reported on in a new page

Final grow results and weigh in posted.

Comments

Looks like you might very well have sorted it out. Watching close and rooting for the crop!
 
Looks like you might very well have sorted it out. Watching close and rooting for the crop!
Thank you kindly. If both of us keep thinking good thoughts...

I took the two problem plants out today and removed a bag of dead fans and probable larf. The thinking being that I don't have a lot of producticve fans left, so more light penetration and less energy diverted to larf might be good.

At any rate, the decision was made, so we shall see. Thanks for checking in @olegren, and good luck with your grow. :pighug:
 
FWIW, After trying all the different types of recommended germination methods none with 100%, and some where I simply damaged the seedling while transferring it, I have finally settled on a method, that sort of had me laughing to myself because it is as simple as it can possibly get. I did a lot of thinking about why people soak, and why they put it between wet tissue and so forth and my reasoning told me that perhaps I should just put an unsoaked dry seed directly into an Eazy Plug. About 2mm below the surface and cover the hole with a tiny bit of the plug torn off from a corner. Sprouts in 3 to 4 days, like clockwork.

Welp, ever since it's been a 100% success rate and I can't see any point in making it more complex. That's what I've come to anyway. My thinking was that since the Eazy Plug after it's been allowed to soak up some water, remains the perfect environment, it doesn't dry out nor can it drown the seed. And the Eazy Plug protects the new root while it establishes itself.
 
Glad you have things turned around @Olderfart . I was surprised to see EC @600 to 700 for flowering autos. Just seemed way low to me for all my auto grows as i was usually around 1200 to 1400 with a bit of leave tip burn.
 
FWIW, After trying all the different types of recommended germination methods none with 100%, and some where I simply damaged the seedling while transferring it, I have finally settled on a method, that sort of had me laughing to myself because it is as simple as it can possibly get. I did a lot of thinking about why people soak, and why they put it between wet tissue and so forth and my reasoning told me that perhaps I should just put an unsoaked dry seed directly into an Eazy Plug. About 2mm below the surface and cover the hole with a tiny bit of the plug torn off from a corner. Sprouts in 3 to 4 days, like clockwork.

Welp, ever since it's been a 100% success rate and I can't see any point in making it more complex. That's what I've come to anyway. My thinking was that since the Eazy Plug after it's been allowed to soak up some water, remains the perfect environment, it doesn't dry out nor can it drown the seed. And the Eazy Plug protects the new root while it establishes itself.
Pretty much where I am now at, although I still like an initial soak and paper towel time to allow development of the initial tap root, which quickly confirms whether a seed is good.

The only reason that I might choose a transfer cup instead is because it would allow a bit more development before transplant into the final container, and this could be done under a clear cover on my heat mat.

OTOH, it is hard to argue against how the roots on my cbd girl developed. It would be nice to see a serious comparison, but I am not set up to do it, clones and a larger grow space being minimum requirements.

Thanks for chiming in, good to hear that someone else here is thinking along the same lines. :pighug:
 
Glad you have things turned around @Olderfart . I was surprised to see EC @600 to 700 for flowering autos. Just seemed way low to me for all my auto grows as i was usually around 1200 to 1400 with a bit of leave tip burn.
Yeah, my initial feeds were too low. I am pretty sure that I was starving them for quite a while, and the damage to the two older plants was remarkable. What I think I learned from the experience, aside from the EC levels needed, is that by the time significant symptoms show up, a hell of a lot of damage has already been done, and it will take multiple days after correcting before damage stabilizes. Put another way, reading the plants is a great idea for fine tuning, but major screwups like mine are far more difficult to identify early enough to avoid significant damage.

The reason that I was keeping feed levels down in the first place is that I was concerned that the autopot/fabric pot combo does not allow runoff, and salt buildup is a definite threat. I just went too far with it, and by the time symptoms showed up, a lot of damage had been done. The fact that initial symptoms were so ambiguous did not help either.

Every grow is a learning experience... :biggrin:
 
Yeah, my initial feeds were too low. I am pretty sure that I was starving them for quite a while, and the damage to the two older plants was remarkable. What I think I learned from the experience, aside from the EC levels needed, is that by the time significant symptoms show up, a hell of a lot of damage has already been done, and it will take multiple days after correcting before damage stabilizes. Put another way, reading the plants is a great idea for fine tuning, but major screwups like mine are far more difficult to identify early enough to avoid significant damage.

The reason that I was keeping feed levels down in the first place is that I was concerned that the autopot/fabric pot combo does not allow runoff, and salt buildup is a definite threat. I just went too far with it, and by the time symptoms showed up, a lot of damage had been done. The fact that initial symptoms were so ambiguous did not help either.

Every grow is a learning experience... :biggrin:
I went through the same thing with some clones I grew a few months ago. Starved them and then they slowly made a decent recovery. Good thing mine were photoperiods and I could let them veg longer.
Onward and upward. :watering:
 
Yeah, my initial feeds were too low. I am pretty sure that I was starving them for quite a while, and the damage to the two older plants was remarkable. What I think I learned from the experience, aside from the EC levels needed, is that by the time significant symptoms show up, a hell of a lot of damage has already been done, and it will take multiple days after correcting before damage stabilizes. Put another way, reading the plants is a great idea for fine tuning, but major screwups like mine are far more difficult to identify early enough to avoid significant damage.

The reason that I was keeping feed levels down in the first place is that I was concerned that the autopot/fabric pot combo does not allow runoff, and salt buildup is a definite threat. I just went too far with it, and by the time symptoms showed up, a lot of damage had been done. The fact that initial symptoms were so ambiguous did not help either.

Every grow is a learning experience... :biggrin:
Bro you said it if your not learning your about to be bit lol great job though on the seeds they look super good and a cbd harvest also. I forget if you said but are you going to extract any to make rso or something? I really love a 1to1 thc/cbd by far wat I prefer and I found mixing a pure cbd strain with normal variety to give me the same effect. I hope to grow some cbd this year outdoors.
 
Bro you said it if your not learning your about to be bit lol great job though on the seeds they look super good and a cbd harvest also. I forget if you said but are you going to extract any to make rso or something? I really love a 1to1 thc/cbd by far wat I prefer and I found mixing a pure cbd strain with normal variety to give me the same effect. I hope to grow some cbd this year outdoors.
Yes, the whole idea of growing the pure cbd strain was to be able to combine with THC strains to play with ratios. I will do this with coconut oil extract for sure so that I can make a salve for my wife who may be able to use it for relief of joint pain, and I may just mix a bit in the grinder to see how it works with other strains in a vaporizer. I might try tincture at some point if I can ever get down to the US to pick up some everclear.

Thanks for checking in Fitzy. :pighug:
 
No worries mate, the blogs work better for the grower's record, but sadly not for the readers. Not sure what I will do for the next one. Maybe both a blog and a grow journal. It wouldn't be a lot of extra effort to throw the basics in a separate grow thread and leave the details to the blog.

Thanks for checking in @Trichome farmer. :pighug:
 
mmm, my apologiez brotato chip :toke: u actually shoulda made it into the club a long time ago, lol, but hey, i smoke weed & ur name simply got lost in the shuffle that is me brain, so...:coffee: :rolleyes2: welcome to the club! :headbang: ppp
No worries at all my friend. I just didn't bother with it earlier. Not a big deal for me one way or the other.

Anyway, thanks for the prompt response, and for all your effort helping keep AFN friendly and fun.

Cheers mate! :cheers:
 

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