Chefbjy Dark Harvest Grow Challenge

[Chefbjy]

#1Three of each strain
#2 5x5 with 6inch exhaust 4inch intake
#3 cfls and a daylight led at 100watts seedlings. 1000watt mh for veg 1000watt with adjustable ballast to turn up to 1100 watts for flower.
#4 medium roots organics original and promix mycro ammended into water only. Will list ingredients when my recipe comes together.
#5 jiffy pellets to seedling containers 1gallon plastic pot tbd fabric pot probably 7gallons
#6 no nutes expected but might use some flower boosters...I'll write in my amendments here.
#7 pt 1 five successful harvests 3rd season growing.
pt2 never really grew anything in my life tried growing mj when I was young but grandma always pulled the plug. However I have successfully transplanted numerous trees, bushes, and flowers that thrived. Also did some rose graphting when I was in my 20s and tended to them as best I could. Created some nice rose bushes with my graphting.

Grow philosophy water only, no ph monitoring. Training topping lst and hst and depending how vigorously they grow... Lollipopping and slight defoliating/pruning along with supercropping and bonding. 24 hour seedling veg for 14 days then switch to 1000watt mh on 18/6 for veg sprouts. Switching to 1000watt mh for first week into flower before installing 1000 watt hps to control a bit of stretch if any height problems arise this is where I will get a lot of supercropping done. No defol after 3 weeks flower. I'm sure I'll have more to add along the way 😉.

Why I grow mj. Enjoyable stress relief from everyday bustle. Saves me money from buying crappy weed. I know I can grow better smoke then most dispensaries around me. Medicinal properties have me off of opiates for 5 years and I'm further studying and divulging on the qualities and propeties of this medicine.

What interests me most about the challenge. The strains intrested me most and I've never grown genetics before they invite. I'm curious to see the difference in trichome development after dark period and I always question my ability to grow compared to my peers. Even though I'm not as experienced or as smart as a lot of you I learn quickly. I can process information and understand this is a challenge and we get to see what methods each other uses and we can learn and imply things from each others grow.

Thank you for the invite 😉.

[Chefbjy]

4 & #6....oyster shell, granular humic acids, langbeinite, fish bone meal, feather meal, neem seed meal, and kelp meal. All by Down-to-Earth fertilizers, all products are omni and oni certified. Garden lime 1 and 1/4 cup 1cup epson salt bti bits and de for pest prevention. Mixed 1 cup each except for humic acids 1/2 cup and 1 and 1/2 cup neem meal into one bag of roots organics made 2 bags worth. Topping with roots organics original

Update on my fertilizer amendments 😉.

[Chefbjy]

Will be feeding teas mostly with molasses and maybe top dressing.

[Chefbjy]

Didn't use the promix. I like the roots organics original. The consistency is great, dries out evenly, and it soaks water nicely without worrying about over watering.

[Chefbjy]

Seeds went into jiffy pellets 5:10 pm PST. 5 of 6 had tails 3 dark ghost train haze had tails but only 2 gorilla cookies had tails, all seeds went into pellets under cfls and leds in veg area. 5/12/18. Seedling is a skywalker auto that will eventually be put out in the shop.

[Chefbjy]

Containers after pellets 😉

[Canuck147]

Chefbjy excellent write-up - thanks for letting us in on all the details.
Great luck growing!

[Chefbjy]

Thanks Canuck...glad you're following along 😉.

[oldjarhead100]

are we all supposed to have our own thread

[Chefbjy]

Ojh I figured Campesino was busy so I added my info so he didn't have to do a huge write up. He mentioned that we should probably update on initial thread and to share the link to our journals there. Idk though lol. Reading through 13 pages before any action happens? Seems like it's going to be a super long thread 😆.

[Chefbjy]

Campesino I don't mind using the original thread to keep our subscribers updated. I think our individual threads will keep the new readers occupied and they can catch up if they wish.

I know what you mean about time 😉. You sound like me 2 months ago lol. I've finally got some extra time on my hands and a little stress relief from work after a whole year. Trying to take a break before I load myself up with school work now and just keep myself occupied with growing dank buds 😃.

[oldjarhead100]

I like that we can ramble in our own threads then be to the point in the common thread

[Redwasp]

Great write up. If this is really your 3rd grow wow. I've been growing my whole life. Mostly veggies and trees. Well and ummm outside grows. And yes I started back with mj to get off pain meds. Was on them through Drs for over 10 years. Worst 10 years of my life. Up and down. Pure hell after awhile. Yeah when they work you feel like a God. When they dont you just want to die. Good luck with the challenge.

[Chefbjy]

Thanks Redwasp. It's technically my 6th grow this challenge. I squeezed 3 grows into one year 😉.

[Chefbjy]

Helmet heads are up....waiting for the cotyledons to show. All sprouted up at the same time but looks like dgth is pulling ahead for me.

[oldjarhead100]

gg is ahead for me but dgth is catching right up love the babies

[Chefbjy]

2 gc and 2dgth are having a hard time shedding the husk. The gc seem to be shedding it just fine but kind of worried about the helmet heads. My last seed that did this didn't make it even after I carefully removed the husk 😟. One more day in the pellets to see if the husks fall off and they will be in first container. Stems grew pretty tall out of the pellets on a couple so I lowered the cfls.

After they've grown out of the seedling container they will get a small amount of my soil mix in the bottom of one gallon plastic containers. My other plants seem to be loving my soil mix and I'm confident they will enjoy it too.

Going to buy a couple more clip lights and bulbs and put them in my tent when they go into first container. The tent is calling them 😆. Wish me luck with the hull shedding ✌.

[Redwasp]

The ones I have now Just let them go. Didnt touch them. And after 10 days they popped the shells. I killed all my others that ever did that by messing with them. I'd let them go.

[Californiakid]

Are you spraying the helmet with a shot of water once and a while? Thats what I do and it seems to help loosen it up a bit.

[Chefbjy]

I just did that Californiakid, an hour or so ago 😉. They're not having trouble now, I'm seeing the cotyledons pop out almost before my eyes 😆. So looks like it's off to the races 🍻.

[Chefbjy]

Glad I was planning on putting them in their containers today. Lifted up the pellets and the tap roots were almost 2 inches long on the gc...the dgth weren't quite as long but they're ready to pot.

Decided to put about 1/4th cup of my soil mix into the bottom of the containers. Want to get them used to it before they get transplanted.

Going to pick up some bulbs and some clip lights today...
Was actually thinking of picking up a couple of these https://www.amazon.com/VIVOSUN-Compa...26561562&psc=1 or something similar since I broke my florescent one. I'll go down the road to see if a friend has them before I go buy them. He's going to supply materials and equipment for my modified shop grow 😃. So they'll be in the tent within the next 24hrs.

I don't have enough bulb coverage for 6 plants as I was only planning on doing 2 of each. Things might get a little crowded in the tent and I may move one of each into the shop. But only time will tell 😆. Let's get this party started 😉 🎉 🎆.

[Californiakid]

Those big cfls get pretty warm but great light, fyi. At least more heat than I expected. Great for my winter grows, I used it for root warm last year.

[Chefbjy]

Yeah my bipolar weather here is crazy 😆. 58f this morning but I should be able to pull any heat out of the tent on warmer days. High 70s today partly cloudy for next 3 days mid 80s expected. Warming up to 95 supposedly after that...don't expect to have much of a summer left. It's like we had 180 days in February and then it was August rofl. Can't wait to fire up the mh 😉.

[Chefbjy]

New starter bulb 😉. Girls got put into the tent with a skywalker auto. Loaded up some cfls in there with the new veg light. It's not running very hot so I'm able to keep it pretty close. I 've got to get a better seedling/ starts set up going. Figure this gives me an advantage over my old set up but need to get something figured out for starts. Thinking of taking some clones from the dgth already lol.

[oldjarhead100]

Chefbjy I have a folding table set up in my back room where I start my seeds a 2 foot t5 works great for starting them

[Chefbjy]

Chugging along...day8. Temps between 70f low 84f high 58% humidity. Just another shot of h2o about 1 and half fl.oz. each. One gc is just standing out to me and looks like set 3 maybe coming in on her alone. Did another jumble to utilize my lights but left her in the same spot.

Initially I was planning on running a 24/7 for the first 2 weeks but thinking they're going to need a little rest...the color on a few are prompting me to use 20/4 for the next 6 days. So going on a timer this evening and giving them some dark time.

I can already tell the strains apart by the 2nd set of serrated leaves. The gc leaves look a little fatter to me and the dgth seem to be a little more leggy. Just my observation 😉.

[oldjarhead100]

wow there really taking off looking fantastic

[Chefbjy]

Thank you. Now that they've grown out some the dgth leaves are getting fatter and making me look like a liar with my statement above 😉

[Chefbjy]

So I decided to pot up today probably should have waited till tomorrow morning but a couple of the dgth are looking a little sickly. The center and new growth tips are brownish. I instantly thought root problems but after repotting they weren't as established as I had thought. The soil was pretty dry for just watering 3 oz each yesterday.

Roots organics original has big chunks of perlite and dries out pretty fast obviously. Transplanting may help me monitor it better. I soaked the pots good before planting. The dgth roots were much more developed then the gc but could have waited a couple days. The roots organics bag I used for these cubes was a couple months old and opened but I'm not sure that's the cause, will have to keep an eye on them.

So they're in 1 gallon plastic pots with 2/3 MY soil mix topped off with a fresh bag of roots organics original. Had to do something about lighting so 4 plants are under the full spectrum grow lamp and 2 have 3cfl/leds. The ones that look sickly are furthest away from the lights. The off color makes me think they didn't take to my tea too well, but it's only 2 of 3 dgth that have the brownish color? Hopefully it gets better with fresh soil. Pics in cubes are sick pics and there's some repot pics.

[oldjarhead100]

that brown is strange you didn't spill any tea on it did you , I know that if I water my small plants I sometimes cover them with water. It doesn't look harmful

[Chefbjy]

No I didn't spill or splash it. I use a syringe to water seedlings. We'll see how they progress 😉.

[oldjarhead100]

Chefbjy have you thought about air injectors ,I found them on line but they are real easy to make. I have them in every pot now

[Chefbjy]

No I hadn't considered it. But now I'm interested 😉.