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I dropped each seed into a it's own shot glass of room temp distilled water on Thursday 11/19/2020 @10pm.
Checked on them 10am still floating in glasses. Checked at 10pm on saturday touched each seed which promptly sunk.
Sunday evening I put each seed and the remainder of water into a folded paper towel that was placed inside an open zip lock bag that was placed on a plate that was set inside a super sprout dome with heating mat. All of the seeds had cracked into a V and GG & NB had tiny tap roots starting. PE was unchanged at this stage.
Monday 11/23/2020 GG & NB both had a decent size tap root so planted them into 3 gallon fabric pots w/ Fox Farm happy frog potting soil. No change on PE which has me worried because the others all have tap roots and this one is being pokey.
Tuesday 11/24/2020 10am wellness check on the plants and PE is still at the same stage as Saturday so I decided to wrap a black towel around the ziplock bag to block any light and sure enough tonight at 10pm wellness check PE had a tap root that was an inch long and the 2 first leaves were starting to slide out of the shell so planted her @ 10pm 11/24/2020 with the tip of the seed just barely showing.
Water each with the water from the paper towel and a few drops more and have been misting a couple times a day.
11/26/2020
Much like germination PE was a tad behind the others in sprouting. When she finally did sprout the husk of the seed was stuck on for a couple days so I tried to carefully dislodge the leaves only to rip the whole plant out of the ground twice. Yes, I actually did it twice. This brought her already slow growth to a stop.
@ day 6 of seedling stage NB is far ahead of the others with a serious lean. I have a pipe cleaner there to catch her if she goes over.
Kept the plants damp this week by watering deeply every few days then misting top layer throughout the day.
Temps dipped lower than they should have a couple nights to low 60's and a high of 81 one day.
Not sure I am programing the heater correctly. I also think maybe my initial thinking that it could be cooler at night since it is that way in nature may not have been the best plan of action or inaction in this case. Perhaps since we have messed with the genetics so specifically those sorts of rules of thumb wont always apply.
Also, forgot to check the PH of the water, after watering I remembered so checked the remaining and it was 7.2ish. Not a great first watering. The sting of my arrogance still fresh on my soul. (story below)
Thoughts on the week: I remember reading somewhere before starting this grow "when you mess up your autoflower plant, and you will mess up..." and "When you screw up your first grow & you will screw up" I was thinking how could I mess up? I'm a semi experienced gardener who can follow directions, No, I won't have to worry about those problems. One might consider ripping a seedling from the ground, not once but twice a pretty big "mess -up", not to mention the temp fluctuations & ph issue. Gotta love the universe putting me right back in in check lol
THIS SECTION OF THIS WEEK IS A WORK IN PROGRESS 12/15/20
I wonder if the delay in sprouting w/ Pineapple Express could have been because of temp? I think I read someone else saying something about Pineapple express liking it a bit warmer but couldn't find where I read it when I went to double check so yeah. Once I wrapped it up in the black down it started to grow a tap root and then once I upped the temp in the grow room she sprouted and keeping the temp higher @night the last few days have seemed to kick start her growing or maybe it was just time. I was thinking about emailing the breeder to inquiry but not sure if that is pc in the weed industry. Now that it is legal in many place, I am more confused about what is allowed and what is not lol. Either way I think "This" Pineapple express likes the temp warmer.
Thoughts on this week looking back.
I got really concerned this week about the plants lean and their ability to carry their own weight. Not that I did anything major to address said concerns but I did check on them ...often ... I am just guessing here, but 2-3 times an hour. 😂 In my defense the grow tent is in my art studio so I spend most of the day there already but still. I ready the pipecleaners to prop them up should the be needed. Toward the end of the week the only plant not leaning against a pipecleaner is Pineapple Express. And that is because she is still under an inch tall & even she has a serious lean.
I started worrying about the lights sometime this week as well.
My plants are pretty short and I figured, instead of it being they were supposed to be short at this stage, I assumed it must be the lights because I am not overwatering so I started monkeying around with the lights. Were the plants getting enough? To much? To close? To far? I wasn't sure how long to leave the lights set for seedlings height with 24 hours on schedule? Then wondered why if the sun is full spectrum from the time the seeds sprout in nature shouldn't I have had both the Veg & the Bloom turn on from the beginning? I also thought since my light was an amazon special, perhaps it was not as good as it claims, so I started the search on how to test LED lights. Of course that started a never ending rabbit hole. It became a whole "thing". The user/instruction manual that came with the lights is a complete joke. Seriously... it is 1 piece of paper that I didn't even realize was the manual. I emailed the company asking for one I could download. They sent me the 1 sheet paper I already had. Most of the info I have on the lights is from the amazon page where I bought it. I adjusted the lights several times and the begging of the week. By the end of the week I still was thinking they were not as big as they should be. After some reading & then measuring I realized that I had dropped by lights from 24 down to 20. I also realized that my lights are not supposed to be be below 26 inches till next week so for week 1 of veg the lights were 2 to close and week 2 they were (at least for part of the time) 6 inches to close to the plants. Which from what I read can stunt plants.
The lighting saga continues ...
This week starts off Dec 10th (day 15 veg) with the realization that I had my lights at the wrong height the entire time. This made me wonder if I had stressed them. After some reading & then measuring I realized hat the lights are not supposed to be be below 26 inches from the canopy height until next week, The first week of veg the lights were 2 inches too close and week 2 of veg they were (at least for part of the time) 6" to close to the plants. So I adjusted to the height of the light to 26" above the canopy. I still continued to question the lighting situation. Distance, true PARR numbers, are the light manufactures readings accurate, when to turn on "Bloom" but after much back and forth I left the lights at 26" at 18 hours a day.
I am trying to let the plant medium dry almost completely before watering. I didn't have a scale handy & I am not great on judging small weight difference by lift Not to mention I am very aware that the Universe will body-check me given the chance so I am super nervous about over watering. My solution was to fill an extra pot that is the same size, with the same grow medium, and water the same amount as when the plants are watered. When the plants were little and not using much water I would measure how many oz I gave each seedling and put the same in the extra pot. Then I could just stick my finger deep in the extra pot and see how much water was still there. I would guess based on size of the plant, how much water the plant would be using verses evaporation.
In the tent I have 2- 6" clip on fans at the top of my tent, a tall oscillating tower fan in the corner that run 24/7 and a large box fan that sits outside the tent to blow in fresh are through the bottom window (screened) area of the tent. I water really slowly & deeply on Day 14 of veg. and did not water them again until day 22. The first 24 hours after watering I left the box fan run 24/7. Around day 3-4 after watering I turned on a humidifier during the day. I sprayed them top of the soil with a spray bottle to keep damp once or twice a day depending on humidity and such. Plants seem to be doing fine albeit a tad small despite all I have messed up.
Thinking back I wonder if the lighting issued might have started because at first I was measuring 26 inches from the soil but didn't adjust the lights to the plant canopy as they grew.
This week starts Dec 17th (Day 22 veg) a photo shoot. NB were freebee seeds that came with an order so I wanted to double check it was female. Which of course sent me down another rabbit hole on sexing cannabis plants. I figure I am at least using my pandemic time learning something new so a few hours of reading each day is fine.
Plants are still on the smaller side but have finally started to grow. After over a week of no watering, on Friday 12/18/20 I watered each plant again deeply and slowly. Gorilla Glue & NB got about 1/4 gallon each, maybe a bit more. I gave the pineapple express less water since it is significantly smaller and I didn't think it could use the water before drowning the plant or evaporation could take place and wow did that start a growth explosion! As you can see from the pictures.
They needed to be watered again on 12/22/20. This time I gave each plant a half gallon w/nutrients. Fingers crossed it was not to much to soon but they seem to be really taking off growth wise and as dry as my studio is it should evaporate off before drowning them... I hope! I forgot to check the ph of the water after adding my nutrients. I checked after and it was 7.25 which caused me to panic and I gave each plant 1oz ph. balanced water.. no idea what I thought that would actually do... but then I decided to check the runoff and it is 6.3 so I feel like I might be safe.
Started some LST this week as well. Mainly just playing a bit to soften the stems and figure out how to actually do it. My approach is slow and steady.
It is surprising how quickly they are growing now. Soon I need to venture down another rabbit hole and figure out how to tell when these babies start flowering. These are autos so I know they will do their own thing when they are ready but I also have a photo plant growing so just want to be sure and document all the stages.
If the Universe is listening, all arrogance has left the building and I now realize I will mess things up a lot. 😅
The beginning of Week 5 starts on Christmas Eve, Day 29 from sprout and day one of flower (I guess) I still can't decide if my plants are normal size or if I did stress them with the lights and lower night temps,
Pineapple express is just over 2 1/4 inches tall but very bushy no white hairs yet. I need to look up if short and bushy is good at the start of flowering. Gorilla Glue is just at 3 inches and very bushy as well. Really having difficulty seeing the nods under the this plants leaves. No white hairs on this one that I can see with 3x magnification. The Northern Lights X Blueberry Auto has been the star of the show so far. She starts the week barely over 6 inches. She is much taller and lankier than the other plants and has lots of white hairs all over the place.
On Friday. 12/25/20 Week 5, Day 30 PE & NB both grew a little over .5" since yesterday PE also got her first white hairs. Gorilla Glue didn't get measured.
the plants were dry so I gave each one around half gallon. I forgot to check the PPM so I checked the runoff and it was 2700 which seems high so I have to remember to find out what that number should be. It could mean I need to flush??
12/27 Gorilla Glue still does not have any white hairs and it is starting to make me worry. Mainly because NB has had white hairs since 12/22/20. That is only 4 days but I I also had some concerns when trying to find the white hairs. Not sure I was able to capture it in the photos. This plant is crazy dense. I had to remove 2 leaves to even get a pic of the area If it ends up being a girl I sure hope she starts to stretch soon or she is not going to get enough air circulation.
12/29 Gorilla Glue is looking really rough.
12/30 Water and Moved up to full strength on the Nutes I watered the pots until I had a good amount of run off and allowed the plants to soak up the run off.... I will find out in a few days that was not a good idea.
Week 6 starts 12/31/21 but I happened to notice a weird leaf the night before. The Northern Light X Blueberry auto is very dark green and has sharp downturned tips. Which starts down the rabbit hole of google search to see the cause. I decide that is is Nitrogen toxicity caused by underwatering. At this time I was not really paying attention to when I feed them just whenever the pots were light. I watered them I later realize that while it may have started with underwatering it was so many other problems at once. I forgot to check the ppm or ph going in one day last week so I checked them going out. The run off was 2700ppm and I forgot to look up what that meant. I also doubled the strength of the nutes.
1/2 Saturday I flushed all the plants with 5 gallons of fresh water each that read 6.43 ph & 51ppm. I have Fox farm sledge hammer but for some reason I decided to use just water. The run off was consistently 6.2ph and I rinsed until the ppm was about 450 on NB. 250 ppm on Gorilla Glue and Pineapple express. I then decided that since it was nitrogen toxicity from underwatering that I should not starve the plant so I gave her week 1 of flower nutrients from the Foxfarm feeding schedule at 1/2 strength. I did not use Calmag since it's nitrogen was 2 and I didn't add the boomerang because that has nitrogen as a 1 and I thought since this plant has nitrogen toxicity I should skip the extra 3 nitrogen for now. I set each plant up on blocks so air could totally circulate to dry out the pots. Turned the fans on and waited.
1/6 There has been almost no growth since the flush. NB started off at a little over 9 inches and if I stretch her she is 10 at most.
I had nutrient lockout due to using full strength nutes instead of 50%, after thoroughly drying pots for a week. I Flushed each plant with 5 gallons of water then I added back nutes at 50% minus calmag & boomerang Still no growth in a week and stems are wreaking, new growth twist
Firstly, nutrient "lock out" is caused by either extreme acidity or extreme alkalinity and is a soil condition, not a nutrient problem. To many growers surprise, no doubt, nutrients only become "locked up" with acid conditions of about 4.0 and lower, or alkaline conditions of about 10.0 and up! The often quoted figure of 6.5 is about just right, but nutrient availability is almost 100% anywhere between 5.5 and 7.5 so being anal about pH is not really as critical as some people would make you believe; just google "nutrient availability and pH".
Your plants to me look like they are suffering more from nutrient over load rather than anything else. I would suggest giving them just plain water until (new) growth resumes normally, then progress to feeding the quarter strength nutrients every second or third watering. The substrate needs to be moist all the way through after watering, not soggy wet or with dry patches either. This is a careful balance to maintain, but will get easier with experience. Then let the substrate dry out a while, until the top inch and a half or so is dry, before watering again. This could be anywhere between 1 and 7 days depending on temps, water requirements of your individual plants, container size, plant size, air circulation, substrate porosity, relative humidity, day length etc. You should try to make sure each time you water that there is water coming out of the bottom of the pots, otherwise there is no way of telling if water has penetrated the entire depth of the pot, this also helps prevent nutrient "salts" building up in your substrate. If your substrate is particularly dry, either from under watering or long gaps between watering, your substrate may have become "hydro phobic", meaning rather than wetting the substrate, water will just run straight through the pot with very little being absorbed. In this situation, it can help to give (for example) 2-3 litres per pot, but spread out over a couple of hours, giving 500ml every half hour x four/six times. This way some water will be absorbed before the next dose of water is given. This also allows the substrate to "swell" a little each time, therefore (eventually) preventing the water from just running straight through the pot without being absorbed. Deep watering to run off is what you should aim for rather than giving small amounts of water often. The roots on your plant will be all the way to the bottom of the pots, so unless there is run off, the roots at the bottom of the pot will remain dry, preventing root growth and hindering nutrient availability. Remember too, nutrients are water soluble, so unless the substrate is evenly moist, nutrients will be unavailable for your plants. Have a look at my diary "Holy Mackerel" / Cannabis Conundrums to see the exposed root system of a 3 week old seedling and this may give you an idea as to why deep watering is essential.
So, after all this waffle - give your plants plain water until they pick up growing again, then start with quarter strength nutrients every second or third watering, until they have been happily growing for 2-3 weeks, before upgrading to half strength nutrients every second or third watering. Giving a dose of plain water between feedings will allow the plant to "scavenge" any remaining nutrients in the substrate, as well as helping to prevent nutrient salt build up in the substrate too. Hope this helps and happy growing!! ,.... Organoman.
P.S. - I also would recommend giving your plants a light watering with plain water half an hour or so before feeding them with nutrients. This way your plant is fully hydrated before having to "deal with" the nutrients. This also helps with nutrient assimilation, as moist roots are better able to deal with any human made nutrients without the roots burning or suffering any other problems, if they are already pre-moistened.
Praying my girls are not all in different stages of dying 😭More to follow...
1/9/21 These girls were finally dry enough to water I weighed each post before and after watering. I am going to try weighing the pots and water when the weight is about half as dry.as I normally do. So Maybe I should water @ 3lbs heavier... somewhere between 8-9lbs
1/10 I changed the light cycle so that my "night time" is in the middle of the day for heating reason, so this morning when I woke up, after being under the lights for 18 hours I actually had growth on two plants. Gorilla Glue and my photo plant Chocoloope that is growing with the autos. They were both under the VIPARSPECTRA 2020 Pro Series P1000 LED Grow Light. The other two plants were under BLOOMSPECT Double Chips Series 1500W LED Grow Light Full Spectrum.
I wish I hadn't made so many mistakes with this grow because I know there is no way to know if it is the light that made them grow better than the other two or they were just a little healthier. I don't think so because Gorilla Glue is the worst plant and she actually grew but who knows. Anyways I switched the plants around so they are under the opposite light when their day time starts and we will just have to see.
PE
Length 8'
Height 7'
Width 8.5"
Dry weight 6lb 4oz
Wet weight 13lb 11oz
GG
Length 8"
Height 7"
Width 8.5"
Dry weight 5lb 14 oz-
Wet weight 11lb
NB
Length 11"
Height 10 "
Width 10.5"
Dry weight 6lb 9 oz
Wet weight 12lb
Choco
Length "
Height
Width "
Dry weight
Wet weight
1/11/21 DAY 46S HELP if ANYONE SEES THIS .... last night I decided not to switch the plants around after all, but I did rearrange the tent because I had a plug running through door and I am still struggling to regulate the humidity and temp. I thought I still had good air circulation but apparently I did not and the plants are not happy. Gorilla Glue is not going to make it. She turned real dark green after watering her on Saturday, she had a small amount of growth Sunday but now all the leaves are laying down. I don't know if I should use Sledge hammer but after flushing a week ago letting her dry for a week and then watering Saturday I don't know if I flushed her with sledge hammer if that would finish her off or perk her back up. I weighed her and she was 4 pounds lighter than when I watered her on Saturday and still 2+ pounds lighter than when she is the driest.
Some background on how I tried to kill my plants... 😭
I started this grow by watching a zillion videos with my key take away being
1-don't over water
2- don't transplant autos
3- don't feed full strength.
I took it seriously, so my tiny little sprouts were put into 3 gallon pots of Fox Farm happy frog potting soil. (didn't realize this already had enough nutrients to last several weeks so I started nutrients in the 2nd week of Veg) I use Fox farm nutrients and follow their soil feeding schedule. I bought the Dirty Dozen starter kits and it did not have 2 products in that the feeding schedule but since they were not in the kit I assumed they must not be too important. They were.... Wholly Mackerel & Marine Cuisine fertilizer.
I used a turkey baster to slowly drip a couple ounces of water around each plant I water just like in this picture. https://prnt.sc/wjq0gi for over a month. I didn't realize by watering like this for a month that I was making the nutrients build up just below the the root line each watering. I waited to water till the plants were very dry. Now looking back Way way to dry before watering. I am sure that is why they were not growing. I was only giving them enough to stay alive not thrive. So a little more back info
Day 14 I watered the plants with plan water
Day 23 after not having to water the plants for 9 days I watered them, 1/4 gallon each with week 2 schedule, with the addition of calmag+(2-0-0) @ 50% strength
Day 27 they were light and needed to be watered and they had grown a little. so I gave them nutrients same as above
Day 30 The plants were not quit as dry as usual but I was beginning to think I was underwatering them so I gave them 1/2 gallon of
THIS IS WERE IT ALL GOES WRONG...(Actually after reviewing my grow journal just now my problems started Day 1 and was showing signs I just didn't know it and I still am not sure how to fix any of it Almost makes me think I should scrap it all and start over. These poor plants will be lucky to produce anything) Someone could seriously use my grow journal as a "everything not to do" guide.
Day 35 since the plants were finally big enough to soak the pots fully. I also decided since they had used 1/2 gallon water in 3 days and they grew a ton I upped the nutrients to full strength and the calmag plus as well. This was the first time I had any runoff sadly I let the plants sit in the runoff and reabsorbed all the runoff.
Day 38 Flushed each plant with with 5 gallons of tap water that had a PH of 6.4 & water temp was 62 degrees. My run off started at 4300ppm with a ph of 6.2. The PH was consistent in every plants runoff and all of them had off the chart PPMs. I brought NB down to 250ppm. Gorilla Glue and Pineapple express I brought the runoff down to 450. For some reason I decided that since my plants were probably in shock from no water and nutrients to more water and a whole lot of nutrients and I figured flushing them would reset the soil and I reasoned they would need food after not getting any from being in shock so I gave them each a half strength nutrients. I waited a full week then posted this question.
Day 45 I have each plant plain water and checked the run off. The Gorilla Glue had a run off of 584ppm with a ph of 6.47 , The northern lights X had 750ppm and 6.38ph pineapple express had 1170ppm runoff so I ran a less less than an extra half gallon of water and that brought the ppm down to 706. PH was 6.3. I have a photo period that I didn't add to this dairy but has been with these plants and it is starting to show the same signs as the others they are just all in different phases of whatever I did to almost kill them. I started the next week on Friday so I will be adding pictures and a couple videos I took from today in my grow dairy tonight. I don't know what to do next.
Does it go against community standards to inbox someone who replied to a grow question? 280 characters isn't enough to describe all problems. There are so many experienced growers here that if we could actually talk back and forth it would be so helpful but I can't figure out how
Hi, I have thought the same thing many times. There is the option of contacting a member via the "chat" function on each users page. It is in the top right hand corner and once you click on that, a little, itty bitty box will pop up at the lower right side of the page. After typing in your "chat", click on the paper plane to send. Hope this helps,.. Organoman.
Will plants that have turned dark green with clawed leaves from nitrogen toxicity turn back to a normal green color and the leaves straighten out or will it stay like this?
I flushed her Jan 2 and watered her again on 1/9. She hasn't started growing yet and still dark clawed
Damaged leaves won't recover. Go to half strength on nutrition and check run off ph. Deep green leaves should lighten up. The darkness of green in leaves tells what your nitrogen level in plant is. Good luck and happy growing
AuntMeanie
