Greetings from Southern Oregon!

[DingusKhan]

Another noob trying to grow. I really appreciate the vibe here, friendly, growing for fun, not necessarily for business or dogma.

My first grow, I started 3 Dairy Queen (TGA) seeds on Dec 8[SUP]th[/SUP] in rapid rooters. Now one is growing in bubbleponic bucket, and 2 are in coco-perlite-soil 2:1:1 mix getting hand watered because I found Dutchman on youtube describing his “hydrosoil” method. I'm doing it wrong, but I'm still having fun. It's like soil that I have to water constantly. The plants are doing okay, but they're about half the size of the bucket plant.

So far, I've topped the tops, and have been FIMing the branches, and am going to cut more clones before I start them into flower. My first attempt at cloning is not going well. The second is in progress, applying the lessons learned from the first.

Along the way, I'm going to try a bunch of different things, including bonsai, yogurt cup challenge (from another web site), autoflowers, and finding other weird vessels to grow in. Next grow, I will try main-lining or something. As a new hobby, it's perfect: nature-y, science-y, and above all, solely dependent on me. I own a business, and while I LOVE my staff, (they kick the best ass anywhere!) I need a project that if it all goes south, I can blame only myself because it was ALL my fault. When I start to worry that someone isn't doing their job, it's me. I can fix it, learn my lessons and try again, or take up knitting. It's like a train set that I can smoke!

I suck at keeping up to date on posts and stuff, but I will try to post pics of my grows, I intend for them to be amusing. I will even share my experiences and cautionary tales. Please bear with me.

So thanks for being a fun group on the internet with maximal good grow advise, minimal trollery and friendly folks.


Peace and Blessings,

DingusKhan

 

[Tika]

Welcome Ding. I think you will enjoy this space very much!
The 2 plants in coco/perlite/ soil look like they may be a bit over watered? Coco can afford some (some) drying out. I presume you have enough drainage with the pots.
What nutrients are you using? Your pH?
Hope you report in..I'm following

 

[LuckyAcres]

Hey ding a big welcome from northern Oregon buddy! I do soil and coco so I won't be much help with your bucket, but nice compact green ladies you got there! Cheers!

 

[DingusKhan]

Thanks! I've already been enjoying tons, lurking here since Oct or Nov, and there have been several threads that I've been following, and wanted to jump in, but I felt I should introduce myself first. Check.

I germinated these girls (I hope) on Dec 8, and the picture is from about 3 or 4 weeks in. I'm using Rx Green Solutions nutes and CalMag. I picked the Green Solutions only because they were the only boxed set of nutes that the farm store had, and I got lost staring at all those different bottles of FF and GH, and then mega-this and super-that, big-a-licious, etc... I grabbed the ready to go kit. It's doing the job. Both hydroponic stores in town have soil guys working the counter when I go, and try to help, but admit that they don't know a whole lot about hydro.

That picture is from about 3 or 4 weeks ago, and yes, Tika correctly observed that I was over watering the little ones. They're much happier now. At least they were until I started chopping off fan leaves and training (more pics will follow). One of those had a much larger share of soil in it, and it suffered more from over-watering.

I get why Lucky likes soil and coco. This poopy Oregon winter is making me worry a lot more about power outages killing my bucket plant. I was originally going to do one plant in each medium, just to try everything. I've backed off a little, and will try everything, just not all in my first grow. If any of my clones make it, I will put one of them in soil. Maybe that will be my bonsai.

 

[NA420]

Welcome i have friends that moved there they love it! Nice setup!

 

[alltatup]

Welcome oh great Khan. I just have one question: In your avatar, inside the green hoodie, is that a rabbit, a ferret, a weasel or a dog?????????

Oh, and your plants look great!

 

[DingusKhan]

I can't find how to reply to your comment on previous comments. Alltatup-that was my dog, Duncan. He passed last summer from liver cancer. We kept him comfy for the last few weeks of his life with cannabutter. That photo was taken at a beach house in Bandon, Oregon where we took him for his last, best weekend ever. He's leaning because he's so stoned.

 

[alltatup]

Awwwww, Khan, how sweet. And how cool that you let him go without pain and suffering. Duncan be lookin down on you and lovin you.

 

[DingusKhan]

Thanks! It's a great place, a little weird in places, not just Portland, which makes it greater.

 

[DingusKhan]

No Title

Thanks for the warm welcome, you guys are a blast!

A little point of clarification: I don't mean to say that I want to do this all by myself, and I don't need any of your help. I definitely need and will greatly appreciate all your wisdom and experience! I've already done so much with what I've learned from your grow logs and the many many tutorials!

What I mean to say that ultimately, if these kids turn to mush, I know where full, sole responsibility and accountability lies, that buck will start and stop right here. I find that very orienting (not that ethnicity requires maintenance).

I'm growing in a little closet that I have lined with mylar emergency space blankets that you can get a 20 pack for like $10 on Amazon. It is flammable, so make sure to keep lights and wires from touching. I got a T5 4X2ft, and GalaxyHydro 300watt (equivalent) LED that's going for $80 on Amazon.

A synoptical update: it's day 48 of veg now. I topped them when they got to 6 nodes and tried to clone the tops, and I cut the two lowest branches as soon as they looked like there were a couple of nodes that might possibly survive cloning. I was really hoping the top would live, so I could perpetually clone the same top, and see how long it would maintain symmetrical growth. I also tried an assortment of cloning methods, rapid rooters, soil/coco/perlite, perlite with a wick.

After about a week, the clones hadn't done ANYTHING, so I read that they needed to keep warm, so I set up a seedling mat and promptly cooked the shit right out of them. Very disappointing. ProTip: get the thermostat or do something to separate your tray from the heat. They didn't all die. The survivors of the first cloning attempt are in the large yogurt cup (which rooted nicely in a rapid rooter sitting in coco-perlite and I consider a graduate), and the two small yogurt cups in the little plastic box, which came from the thrift store. Thankfully they represent 1 cutting from each original plant. As soon as these clones are established, I'm flipping them and their mothers into flower. I will grow these really tiny and try to reveg them, and keep the best one as a bonsai mother.

I've been using the rapid rooter cloning box that I started with, and also a couple of upcycled cloners. One is a Costco Rotisserie Chicken container, and the other is from the thrift store. I have no idea what it is, other than big enough to accommate 6 short lower clone cuts from my second attempt at cloning when I was inspired by Green75's methods.

I think I started a little late, my fan leaves were about 9 inches across. I cut the lowest branches to lollipop and clone. I'm semi-main-lining. I find myself a leaning a little on the cut leaves side of the defoliation debate. Not letting them grow giant fan leaves in the middle of a branch lets them synthesize all that plant material at the growth tips. Building bigger leaves at the ends of the lines will cause the plant circulatory system to grow big and fat. The plumbing to support all that growth way out at the extremities will need to be big.

When I was clipping the lowest fan leaves, I accidentally cut off one of the lowest branches, and cut the other one two to match. Now the 4th node is my "main-line" with the 3rd nodes topped at their first node. The two coco plants kept their 3rd and 4th node branches, and again, I kinda copying Green. Each of those two branches got an experimental heavier defoliation than the rest of the plant to see if that branches grows more quickly than the others. So far no. If I were thinking more scientifically, I would have done one of those plants one way, and the other.

They have recovered and are growing nicely again now. The interwebs are slow at the moment uploading photos. I will do some now, then blow it off till tomorrow when I should be working.

Peace
dinguskhan

 

[DingusKhan]

Duh, so I just learned (thanks FurrySparkle!) that what I thought was mainlining for a wuss who couldn't bring himself to cut off a healthy growing branch when I have too many clones dying is what you guys have already been calling LST, creating a star shape. Y'all are dialed in, WOT!

 

[bobsakamoto]

As a new hobby, it's perfect: nature-y, science-y, and above all, solely dependent on me. I own a business, and while I LOVE my staff, (they kick the best ass anywhere!) I need a project that if it all goes south, I can blame only myself because it was ALL my fault. When I start to worry that someone isn't doing their job, it's me. I can fix it, learn my lessons and try again, or take up knitting. It's like a train set that I can smoke!

'scribing based on this ^^^ LOL khan.... for me it'd be like repairing/restoring something that i can smoke but same same. :smile: plus i've been eyeing dairy queen for minute...

 

[bobsakamoto]

really really digging your whole approach....very carefully considered. glad you signed up, khan...

 

[DingusKhan]

Thanks Bob, I've also been following your Lowe's hair strainer thread, I was going to share the rotisserie cloner but the googles seem constipated tonight.

 

[DingusKhan]

No Title

Sorry if these posts are a little out of order. I'm back tracking and trying to cover some of the milestones. These are right after they got topped, bottom branches cut for clones and light defoliation at about 4 weeks of age.

 

[DingusKhan]

No Title

I invented a new technique, called FIRMing! It's like FIMing, except with an "R", as in "Really", as in "F, I REALLY Missed" it.

You simply pinch of the end of the growth tip, but not as close as if you were FIMing. The benefit is it perfectly preserves apical dominance, but the shoot will grow out funny looking from the leaves that torn in half. It will let all your friends know when you need a new lens prescription and that someday, you will be the old cantankerous fart who refuses give up his car keys so easily.

 

[DingusKhan]

No Title

I've been poking around getting a ton from many of your grow journals, thank you for all your work. Thank you too for Pankace and Azslyn sharing your shocking experience. It takes special courage and humility to share mistakes like that, and we're all a lot safer for it.

I've been cutting leaves when the get as big as my hand, leaving them to get that big out at the extremities until the new leaves wide open. Does leaving more, bigger veggie growth out at the ends help thicken the stems? I'm beginning to understand that there is a balance between letting the leaves grow to be the solar panels to provide energy for all the plant's needs, and pruning to selectively build the roots and stem infra-structure that will eventually provide substrate which is combined with CO2 to make this magic work. I don't know where that balance is, but I understand that she is out there, and she must be honored. She seems pretty forgiving, so far.

Black has been getting trimmed the most. New leaves are coming in a bit narrow, skinnier than I'm used to seeing them. Any thoughts? Might I be stressing her (I fear she may be a hermie)? Should I be doing fewer "sessions" in which I cut off leaves, but cut off more of them at a time, and then allow more recovery time between sessions?

I used strips of used surgical drape that I get in vast quantities from the local hospital, my wife sewed them into little grow bags for me, so the plants are called Blue, White, and Black(hydroponic bucket). White is the first to declare herself a girl, YAY! Sorry I can't get a clear picture. I keep thinking Blue has a light green pistil coming out of one calyx, please turn white please turn white... Black's calyces are shorter and rounder, but not quite spherical. I am least optimistic about that. But 2 out of 3 is pretty cool, and I still have 2 seeds left.

I'm also rearranging and setting up for two compartments. We got one of those killer deals on a TV at costco, and like the rotisserie container, the TV box is also getting a new life as grow room divider., getting set up to flip the girl(s) and a yogurt cup grow clone, and start some of my seeds when they FINALLY get here.

 

[alltatup]

Very nice setup, Khan!!!! All I can say about defol. on my second grow is that it's an experiment. I want to see if there is the bud growth explosion I'm hoping for this week...

 

[DingusKhan]

Thanks alltatup. It's coming together slowly, but getting there. I'm getting a better idea of what the closet will look like to be my "setup". Luckily, I think I figured this configuration out before the girls got much bigger. Let's hope I don't think of something better 3 weeks from now.

Definitely a fun experiment. If my work-mind was available for this, I might have done one plant heavy defol and one little to no defol and compared outcomes. But that would have felt like work.

 

[DingusKhan]

No Title

Cloning fun!

Sorry for the long delay for updates, I finally switched them to 12/12. I still don't really know who is a girl or boy yet, but I'm pretty sure I saw 1 white hair sticking out of 1 pistil on White about 1 week ago. They all look longer and pointier than a round ball of pollen. We will know soon enough.

Question: when does one change from Grow to Flower nutrients? What I did was let the last bucket change go a little long (10 days instead of 1 week) and added lots of water, and then switched to Flower nutes, and flipped the lights on the same day. I hope that's okay.

I've been having the most fun and getting my money's worth out of the rotisserie cloner! The first topping and trimming produce 9 cuttings, and these 3 are the survivors, one from each plant. I mentioned before

My second attempt of 2 bottom cuttings from each plant went much better, 5/6 survivors. I'm not sure if I will micro-grow or what yet.