Mentalpatient's Box Grow

[hachiroku]

haha, it just now clicked with me that the length of day (and how long your lights on the timer either 24hrs 16/8 or 12/12) changes therefore causing the plants to go into flower mode. I suppose it didnt really click, as much as I JUST realized that thats how it happens. haha

 

[MeNtAlPaTiEnT]

May 5/08

Contemplating flowering my mother plant. Pictures soon. Three of the small plants are outside at the moment. Transplanted a clone I took a month ago into a 5 gallon bucket. I didn't realise how pot-bound it was! Holy moly!

Left my dome of clones outside in the sun. I come back an hour later they are all dried up and wilted like they've never been before. Everything is good now that they are inside and heavily misted.

 

[sillysara]

lookin great MeNtAL..

 

[MeNtAlPaTiEnT]

Pics.

 

[MeNtAlPaTiEnT]

Update May 6/08

Today is the last day of vegging for me beloved mother plant. In the morning at 8 o'clock the lights will shut off for the 12/12 schedule.

I decided to take some pictures of everything before it happens... It's a special event after all!

Pic1: The overall set-up. I'm going to purchase another reflector for the cola. I havn't had a light directly over top of her for at least a couple of weeks now. I've been trying to encourage shoots without topping her.

Pic2: The rest of my available lights and Y- plugin plus a plug-in for a powerbar. I have 2x 42w and 2x 27w and 1x15w left to use. Although the light quality and output is significantly reduced due to their age and past usage. The light is almost yellow now, (When I purchased them, they produced a white light).
I have bonemeal for a light feeding organic choice. I have MiracleGro for an inorganic choice with a rating of 30 phosphorous for flowering, along with useful micronutrients.
I have a green light I bought for recreational purposes. Perhaps it could be useful if I ever need to water the plant in the dark period. I have read that plants do not react to green light as much if at all than any other color of light. Meh.

Pic3 & Pic4: Notice the way she's grown her shoots. The majority of her shoots are on the one side due to natural leaning. This has been happening quite often to me with a few other grows I've had. I've also been focusing most of the available light on the one side to create what you see here, almost experimentally.

Pic5: Clones! Cut about 5 more today, from the bottom inner-most portion of the plant. All quite small. No signs of roots from any of the clones... I'm pondering pulling up the best clone from the batch just to see if it has taken root in the cube yet.

Pic6: The entire operation. Nothing too spectacular, just two unprofessionally made boxes.

Pic7: Since the mother plant will be on a 12/12 schedule, so will any plants in the box, so I've decided to move the few remaining vegging plants that have yet to be planted outdoors temporarily into the cloning box so they stay in vegetative mode and not confused as to whether the day light is shortening and hence, start flowering.

 

[MeNtAlPaTiEnT]

Update May 11/08 (Day 5 of 12/12 Cycle)

Took some pics. Slight color variation on mother plant (light green). Soon things will change drastically.

Took a clone out of a rockwool cube to reveal that it had in fact grown a few roots. Very short, but many roots. I put that clone into a styrofoam cup filled with soil and a plastic baggie on top. It served its purpose well.

I think the clones are mostly growing their leaves because I may have left too much leaf on them or because the light is not strong enough or because the PH in the cubes is off. Either way, they are healthy and green at least.

Lights would be closer if bulbs were air cooled somehow. The 42 watters really burn your fingers when you touch them.

Temperatures inside the box without the fan are 28 -30 degrees C. Temperatures with the fan are 21-24 degrees C.
Humidity steady at around 45-55. Fan is 1.5 meters away from grow box.

 

[hachiroku]

any updates on this?

 

[smokybear]

Everything looks great so far. Nice work my friend. Keep us posted on your beautiful ladies. Keep the pics coming also! Take care and be safe.

 

[hachiroku]

mental! Im dieing for some pictures!! Haha theres a couple of really good journals on here, yours is definitely one of em.. haha the anticipation is almost as bad as waiting for my plants to grow!!!

 

[MeNtAlPaTiEnT]

Update May 15/08 (Day 8 of 12/12 Cycle)

Noticed some sort of mold of some sort growing on the top of the soil. Could possibly be from past bone meal. The soil at the top also needed a good working in. It became rather tough and almost crusty.

I have been giving her a 15/30/15 nute formula from miracle gro. No problems with burning... yet. She seems to be sucking everything in. Her water uptake has definately increased. Soil becomes dryer quicker than before.

Pistils are showing in more areas, longer, whiter, fresher. More abdundant.

In the last pic, she seems to have fused two shoots into one. Just by feeling the stalk, you can tell there are two predominant lines going all the way up. I'm interested in how the bud is going to form!

I have two clones that have taken root thus far that I know of. They had roots growing right out of the rockwool (finally) and I decided to place them into some soil in a styrofoam cup. I have plans to build another small box simply for rooting the clones once they are ready to leave the clone dome. I am going to look for more rooted clones tonight and hopefully I have more soil to plant some more.

Enjoy the pics.

Also: Question: If I topped her 8 days into flower, how much of a negative affect can I induce on her? I am more concerned about her shoots growing than her cola. She's gunna stretch and get taller without light up there.

And Hach, thanks for the kind words. All grows are good grows!

 

[THE BROTHER'S GRUNT]

Whats up mang. The ladies re growing real fast and looking great. :aok: Also congrats on the clones rooting. We just made a bubbler for clones and it works great. Roots in 4 or 5 days and transplant into soil in 7 days. As far as topping 8 days into flower i'm not sure as we have never done it before. :confused2: Why do you wanna top her anyway?

 

[MeNtAlPaTiEnT]

I'd like to top her so she could concentrate her energy elsewhere. Unless she's already doing such a thing with most of the light at her sides.

That bubbler sounds great. Very fast rooting process!

Here's more pictures of the fused shoot. I'm supposing a rather large cola? :hubba:
I wouldn't have a clue as to why it grew that way. Perhaps something fell on it and screwed things up in it's grow, who knows! Has anybody seen such a thing as this before?

In the last pic, about the drooping leaves you see. I believe it could be due to colder temperatures in that particular area of the box because of the fan or perhaps lack of heat from bulbs other areas recieve. Temps at the very top of the box are 23 with fan. The drooping leaves are covered by 2x 24 watt bulbs and a 15 watter. So perhaps it's colder temperature causing this. Could overwatering be a factor or this a wilting case? Comments?

Thanks for the good words Grunt!

 

[THE BROTHER'S GRUNT]

MP are you talking about the cluster of leaves at the top? Yes overwatering can cause your plants to droop like that as well as underwatering.

 

[50bud]

Been a while mental, your plant looks beautiful as well as your other seedlings. Cant wait to see the finished product.

 

[Timmyjg6]

So are you flowering with cfl's? How long have you bin doing this?

 

[MeNtAlPaTiEnT]

MP are you talking about the cluster of leaves at the top?

It appears that this cluster is the result of two shoots into one. When I feel the stalk leading up to the top, you can feel two lines like two fused shoots. This cluster is the only one of its kind on the plant. It's quite interesting.

And to answer Timmy's question, yes I am flowering with CFL's. For one, I'm worried about fire hazards of HID lighting and secondly, the upfront cost is too much for me... I need to save some $ for the time being and I already have a bunch of CFL's, so what the heck, they work.

 

[MeNtAlPaTiEnT]

Update May 17/08

Took a look at my cloning box and found 12 rooted female clones. Excellent! Took quite a while. As I see in my records, I placed the first few clones under the clome dome on April 23/08, which was almost a month ago! You would expect crazy roots, but I have witnessed only moderate root development. Most of the roots were very similar to the ones shown in Picture 1. Some a little less but no more than the first pic. I believed too low of temperatures played a role in the slow development as well as incorrect PH in the cubes. Moisture levels were always quite high throughout. Anyways, at least I'm getting progress! Twelve clones planted and ready to go.

I'm going to leave the rest of the clones (in the clone box) out of their little hut and have the rooted ones enjoy the light instead. They are almost touching the flouro which means good light exposure with no risk of burning. (the light is an 18 watter).

 

[sillysara]

lookin very nice MeNtAL

 

[smokybear]

Everything looks fantastic mental. You should definitely consider a small HID system for sometime in the future. You will definitely love the results in flowering over the cfls. Just my thoughts. Great work so far. Make sure to keep us posted. Take care and be safe.

 

[MeNtAlPaTiEnT]

Update May 18/08 (Day 12 of 12/12 cycle)

Gave the grow room a quick dusting today. It certainly is a pain to move her out of the grow room because of a slice of two by four in the way. Fed her some bone meal today along with some miracle gro blooming nutrient solution. Everything seems to be going fine. No deficiencies or burns, great!

The last pic is what I'm assuming is a fused shoot. It looks like there's two shoots welded together. Thoughts?

The clones I potted yeserday are doing excellent. No limping or anything! I'm going to give away a few to some friends to spread the glory of cannabis to everyone.

And smokeybear, I'm afraid HID lighting will be out of the question for the next little while. Currently, everything is run off a simple extension cord! I'd have to purchase wiring and much around with the breaker. I think I'd be rather paranoid with an HID running when I'm away. Perhaps I just don't know enough about the whole HID scene to be confident to use one or two.

Happy growing everyone!