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Crop King guarantees 80% germination rate... All 5 beans popped. 💪
When I was initially buying all of my equipment, I had not a f*cking clue what I was doing or what I would need. 😂
Swapped out the plastic pots for Vivosun 3 gal fabric pots, bought the 5 gal to transplant but decided against it later since all 5 plants were healthy and growing fast and my space was limited... Also didn't fully grasp the mechanics and procedures of Drain-To-Waste Hydroponics at the time but I'll post the automated build I added at the appropriate week of veg... And it wasn't until a couple weeks ago that I started doing the proper research into lights, spectrums, PPFD, PAR, etc... but these two lights (the blurple came with the tent, the other was from a brand called iSmile on Amazon; 130w and 105w actual wattage) were plenty to make it through veg and into preflower before I upgraded to the Sunraise QB2000...
So I've had the DIY CO2 generator (this one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NWWKQHB?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details) in the tent since weeks 2-3 of veg, but just today went to the dollar store to upgrade my 2L bottles to 96oz (2.84L) bottles and figured no better time to post it than now. Hopefully now I won't have to refill it every 3-4 days since it's been on full blast since flower started. It's controlled by a 12 volt solenoid that's on the same timing cycle as the lights for optimum photosynthesis. Tried the yeast/sugar jug at first but after some digging around found this to be the most efficient and consistent system (within budget) for the size of my tent. For the larger bottles I just took the same standard ratios recommended for the 2L's and blew them up by 2.5x (500g citric acid, 1500mL water; 500g baking soda, 500mL water).
Solid start to flower for these ladies... Starting this grow diary now and filling in as much as I can from the ~8 weeks before this point. I'll keep updating from now 'til harvest.
Struggling to keep the heat down so had to rig up a styrofoam cooler "AC" I found on YouTube, like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpqUr6bEYOs
Keeping the DIY CO2 generator running full blast while the lights are on and have some side-lighting led bars in the works that I'll have installed later this week.
Drip system has been working great, dialed back the feedings so I don't overwater and can give the top layer of coco a chance to dry out a little bit.
Heavy defoliation tomorrow to clean up the canopy...
Discovered a serious infestation of fungus gnats this week due to overwatering, had to water with hydrogen peroxide and let the substrate dry out for a few days before starting watering again and amending their nutrient solution with hydrogen peroxide and epsom salt. Traps have been doing a decent job of picking up stragglers. Thinned out the canopy and stripped everything from the bottom net down. Ladies were a bit sad afterwards but have since perked up, the front two and center one having a growth-spurt of stretching with a little more distance between nodes/budsites than I would have liked... But the back two have stayed nice and even, right where the net holds them, and have some beautifully stacking colas that are starting to get frosty. I included some closer pics of the automatic drip/drain-to-waste system. Bottom is a 10 gal. reservoir with 480 GPH fountain pump, air pump and air stone strips, thermometer with probe... the pump being plugged-in to the NEARPOW timer outlet that lets me schedule their fertigations down to the seconds. At full-frequency fertigation, a full reservoir lasts me about 2 days (5 fert. events at 35 sec. each, daily) and I'll definitely be upgrading to a 20-32 gallon reservoir on my next grow. The top bucket just has a line of 1/2" vinyl (shrouded in 0.7(1/2") drip line to keep the light in/out) coming from the 1/30 HP Little Giant condensate pump that collects all the run-off underneath the drain table. The table was made using a frame of 3/4" Schedule 40 PVC and a piece of dog fencing from Home Depot that's tilted towards the front for drainage. The plant trays/elevators are 13" Square Farmers drilled out with a drain hole, grommet, elbow, vinyl tubing down to the pump underneath. Settled on this design after reading the tutorials on cocoforcannabis.com and scouring the internet everywhere else for ideas that were budget-friendly and would fit a 3x3 tent. Definitely something I'll have set up BEFORE the plants are nearly full-grown and in the ScrOG in the future. Upgraded the CO2 system to bigger bottles/higher output and ran lines around the ceiling and down to the fans to get better coverage. Was doing some research on the quantity of CO2 being produced and the original recipe of 200g citric + 200g baking soda yields 104.79g of CO2, with a slight waste of citric due to disproportionate mass. The recipe I'm using now is 500g baking soda + 650g citric which yields 340g of CO2 spread out over about 3 days with the needle valve halfway open. Unfortunately I'm not running a sealed grow and don't have a meter so no way of knowing exactly how many PPM of CO2 are actually staying in the tent, but CO2 is considerably heavier than air and my exhaust fan isn't running full blast... oh well, a meter is on the equipment list for the next grow, for sure.
The ladies bounced back from defoliation nicely, with the front three plants having an insane stretch burst... The two plants in back that have stayed nice and squat and compact have some amazingly dense colas and seem to be developing/maturing much faster than the front 3. I tried to get ahold of Crop King to get some info on these seeds and their grows but they've discontinued this cross for whatever reason and weren't able to find any information for me. No idea what stage of cross-breeding they're at to know if the differences are genetic or environmental... Oh well. 😐
Was really hoping to be able to leave some flowers on long enough to herm, and possibly seed... But all of the info I've been reading on techniques like Rodelization would require me to have a slightly younger female to pollenate with the 'hermed" pollen from the "'nanas" that would hopefully be sprouting on past-harvest flowers...
Would've been a nice notch on the belt to pull some S1 seeds off of my first Auto grow.... Can't have your cake and eat it too, I guess.
Well, photoperiods all the way next grow and after, but this grow has been the perfect opportunity to catch up on some of the basics and learn as much as I can at a semi-decent pace with a good amount of hands-on experimentation. I heard "Don't train autos" and short of Topping, FIMing, or Mainlining, I tried out a sizable amount of Low Stress Training and eventually some High Stress Training with a bit of supercropping, lollipopping, defoliations, ScrOG'ing, and these ladies responded beautifully. And I lied I did top one in almost the middle by accident and ended up with 4 main branches and 2 of the smaller ones at the bottom of the stalk that only produced a few popcorn buds and were clipped during initial defoliation/lollipopping.
Pulled one of the smaller buds off from the bottom of the canopy to check on the trichomes under this $20 USB "Microscope" from Amazon and it didn't do half-bad. Lol More of a Macro Lense but works for these purposes.
Only a few more weeks 'til the chop. 💪
Anybody with experience on rodelization w/ autos that could provide some guidance? I germ'd all five seeds at the same time but have two plants maturing much faster than the others. Could it give me enough window to force 'nanas and pollenate? If so, how?
No, too late.
You need to pollinate as early as possible to give the plant enough time to grow and mature the seeds, at least 4-5 weeks.
By the time you force any of your plants to grow bananas, the females will be all but finished. If you are keen, forcing some male flowers then collecting the pollen to use for your next crop is certainly viable, as pollen will remain active for quite some time if kept dry. Just keep it in a dark, cool, temperature stable place, like a cupboard in a dark room and it will keep for 3 months minimum. Do not place it in the fridge or freezer, the moisture will destroy the pollen.
The time to pollinate your females is as soon as the first small "tufts" of pistils form and pollinating 4-8 branches at this early stage will provide 100-400 seeds easily. Use a very small paintbrush with short bristles (trim if necessary to about 1/8 inch) as pollen will stick more to Q-Tips than be deposited on the pistils. Pollen can be mixed 50-50 with corn flour to stretch it out if you have a limited supply, or even 10% pollen and 90% corn flour and pollination will still be normal. A seed only needs one pollen grain to land on a white, fresh pistil for successful development. Pollinate in a windless atmosphere if you want to control it and take notes of when and what was done. Also tie a bit of string to the pollinated branches to make identifying them easier. The female flowers can be spritzed with plain water an hour after pollen application and this will kill any remaining pollen and prevent it from fertilizing flowers you want to keep seedless. I always pollinate the lowest branches, this way you can harvest the top of the plant and leave the lower pollinated branches to finish maturing the seeds, if they are not ready at the same time of the main harvest.
Hope this helps,.............
Organoman.
(and very keen home breeder!)
@DoDrugs420, thanks! 🙏 Didn't keep up with the diary on this one as much as I could've since I found this site a little late and had some life stuff going on; but moving to a new place with a much larger grow space and have the opportunity to be a tester for a breeder with some pretty awesome genetics so next diaries will be pristene.
Drewseph
