Mary and Jane are doing better since I raised the nutrient concentration. However, there's still room for improvement, the leaves should not be drooping and growth is severly stunted. plants should be much bigger at one month in my opinion.
The last three seed are doing WAY better than the first 6 (one died leaving 5), as they are much taller from the get go.
I messed up the labeling of the plants names, as Eeny Meny and Miny are swapped with Moe, Larry and Curley, which is why the labels are turned away. Originally the second set of seeds were going to be Moe (Maureen), Larry (Loretta) and Curley, but when I saw how much bigger the third set of seeds were, I decided to call them Eeny, Meny and Miny. So, when I labeled them, I was so used to thinking of the original names, I ended up reversing name labels. This error is fixed in subsequent photos.
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Group shot of all 8 plants
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Group shot of all 8 plants
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Mary growing very tight and rigid at this point.
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Jane appears to be doing better with nice bright green leaves.
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Mary , Moe (back), Curley, Larry
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Jane, Miny (back), Eeny, Meny
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I had remembered reading something about being careful not to use #44 Peat Pellets or something like that. However, I'm using Coco Coir pellets, but the more I think about it, I probably shouldn't be using any type of these pellets at all. My reasoning is, the fabric mesh casing around the pellet restricts its expansion as the plant's root mass increases and pushes outward, sort of like a woman's corset. Therefore, in my opinion, a small restricted root mass equal a small stunted plant.
This being said, along with my having trouble balancing nutrients in Coco, I decided to try a couple White Widows in Rockwool Cubes which is what I've had experience with in the past.
These shots were taken as the WW seedlings emerged from the Rockwool Cubes....
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At close to 3 days old I placed the WW seedlings and cubes in net cups and filled with Clay Pebbles, a.k.a. Hydrotin.
I covered a 5 gal. bucket lid with white adhesive vinyl and cut a couple 3.65" holes for the Net Pots and two holes for the GH Farm Kit. I then modified the single drip head into two small custom drip rings.
Unfortunately tragedy struck when I ironically tried to make the modified drip system safer.
Thinking that the sticky tabs might let go because the rubber bands holding the lid down and would pull the Drip Rings sideways, thus damaging or killing the plants, I decided to rivet the tabs with stainless steel pop rivets ( Steel or Aluminum will oxidize and corrode in a wet environment.). The problem is, stainless steel pop rivets are really hard to pop by hand. In fact, it took two people to install the rivets. I had to lift the lid and hold the Burr (small washer) in place on the other side, while my friend had to use both hands to work the pop rivet gun. The first rivet was popped with the gun perpendicular to the lid face and everything kind of bounced up when the rivet popped. However, on the second rivet, the gun was slightly at an angle when it popped, and let me tell you, a bunch of clay pebbles went flying out of the net cups, some bouncing off the grow room wall. And somehow, one of the Clay Pebbles nailed the healthiest of the two seedlings dead on. This thing hit so hard, it ripped a layer of skin off the stem bending it over, as well as ripping off a cotyledon which you can see laying on the cover and tearing through a leaf. I couldn't believe it. In hind sight, I should have removed the net pots and seedlings before installing the rivets.
The plants were then given a GH Seedling Solution of 200 ppm and a prayer, with a 15 minute on, 30 minute off cycle.
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This photo was taken a few days later, but I wanted to show the extent of the damage that the Deadly Clay Pebble did to the stem of the seedling.
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Last edited by CoastalCowboy on Sat Oct 12, 2013 7:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Is the drip system just to get the roots to a certain stage for the DWC or are you not doing DWC now?
I'm concerned about the 3 seedlings that are so tall and so skinny. They look like they aren't getting enough light and not enough wind to strengthen them. Perhaps it's genetics but I'm not sure...
Disclaimer: I still use HID and I'm NOT an LED expert. All of my LED knowledge is from other parties or research so I can't say from first hand experience one way or another. I also run a medical grow consulting business in SoCal.
Yes SME, the drip system is meant to stay in place until the roots hit the DWC nutrient reservoir below.
As for the three seedlings, I believe they got the same light and wind as the others. The difference with these, is that I soaked the Coco Pellets in a light nutrient solution, rather than plain R.O. water, and I softened them up by hand before planting the seeds. I thought that they were doing better than the stunted plants, but then again, I don't have a ton of experience with this. Moe is a White Widow from MJ Seeds in Canada, and I understand they can be grown anywhere from 12 inches to 12 feet. So, I'm guessing it's at least partly due to genetics for the taller of the three anyway.
Also, I have no idea what type of plants the others are. I originally ordered 12 Afghan Kush x Black Domina and 12 Skunk-47 seeds from World of Seeds. They were also kind enough to include one sample seed of their Afghan Kush Ryder (Feminized Autoflower), one Delicious Seeds' La Musa (Feminized Autoflower) seed, and one Samsara Seeds' Ultraviolet (Feminized Autoflower) seed.
The problem is, none of these packages were even remotely tamper proof and I believe somewhere along the line, someone with a twisted sense of humor, decided to mix the seeds on me. As you can, and will see in subsequent photos, Mary and Jane are definitely not sisters, perhaps distant cousins, but they definitely did not come from the same mother plant. So who knows what kind of seeds (aside from my White widows) I'm growing? Also, Mary and Jane, as you'll see, started growing Calyxes with two pistil hairs at some stem nodes, which added to my confusion here. At least I know their sex now. But, more on this as I begin to catch up with my grow journal.
Thanx for checking in on things, it's greatly appreciated! CC
Because of the damage I caused to the healthier of the two White Widow seedlings, I decided to crack 2 more just in case. However, this time one was a gift from Seedsman, and one was from MJ Seeds. So altogether, 3 are from MJ Seeds and one is from Seedsman, and all are WW Feminized.
By the way, all seeds in this grow are Feminized, as far as I know. Then again, the mixed seeds from World of Seeds (Mary, Jane, Eeny, Meny, Miny, Larry and Curley) may be from a completely different source, and not just mixed amongst themselves for all I know.
Anyway, I ended making a four net cup drip feed system to accommodate the additional seedlings.
But Tragedy struck again!!! When I was setting up the new system, I somehow managed to Pile Drive the healthier of the two brand new seedlings with my palm! OUCH!!!!! That thing was tall and straight as an arrow. Now it looks like a freakin' Question Mark!!!! Third photo from top....
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I just used elbow connectors for now, rings are added later on.
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This is the Seedling that got shot at Point Blank Range by a Clay Pebble.
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This is my Question Mark.
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This is one of the first two. The one that didn't get shot.
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This is the Seedsman WW from the UK
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Here's a few shots of the entire grow, as well as a couple single shots of Mary and Jane. There is no doubt at this point that Mary and Jane are two completely different strains. This totally messed me up with my nutrient feeding, as they require completely different concentrations. In addition I have seedlings and plants, most of different unknown strains, at 5 different stages of growth that I have to deal with. This has gone from simple to very complex. So now I'm thinking, hey, I really didn't do so bad after all, considering I was flying several planes at the same time while blindfolded.
Unfortunately, some will have to go as the grow gets bigger.
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A (Distant)Family shot under the SolarStorm 400
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Name tags are correct in this photo. No names for the four White Widows, I ran out. I was thinking of calling them the Pussycat Dolls, but I looked them up and there's more than 4 members. I'm open to suggestions.
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Mary
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Jane
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Time to Transplant to DWC! Over the next couple days, I transplanted some of the larger plants into 10" net pots and some smaller plants into 3.75" net cups, both with Clay Pebbles (Hydrotin) as a grow medium.
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Everyone is looking Healthy and Very Happy, except for Miny (in Solo Cup) who is the first to go.
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At some point earlier, as I was about to start fimming and topping Jane (I had already screwed up Mary when trying to Top her a week or two prior.), I had noticed that she sprouted Calyxes with two pistil hairs at some stem nodes, which added to my confusion. See photo below...
The plan was to use the one closet from start to finish for my first MM grow, but then when Jane started flowering, I figured that I need to build my vedge room now if I have flowering plants on my hands. So, just when I thought things were cooling down, next thing you know, I'm right back in the frying pan racing to build my vedge room.
Does anyone out there know if Autoflower plants can flower in a 24/0 light cycle, or do they need a dark period in order to do so? I do not have a clue, because Jane and Mary who both are showing their sex now, have not flowered any further than the few sights already noted.
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I love the color contrast in this photo!!! This photo was taken long after I noticed the Calyxes and pistil hairs, I just wanted to be sure I had a photo of it.
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These are the 1" square aluminum tubes that will be used as my vedge room frame cut to length along with joining corners and Ts.
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These are the 1" tubes with the joining hardware installed, and fabricated ends as well.
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