H.A.F. growing stink-flowers in dirt with QB's

Ya the old manifold thread is pretty kickass, lots of good info and pics.

Way2-High said:

Ya the old manifold thread is pretty kickass, lots of good info and pics.

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Saw your baby on the contest thread, and I was going to message you but figured I'd just post it here.

This is one of my contest seedlings. I split the cup for easy re-potting. But since it's clear I can also watch the moisture. My seedling mix is more perlite heavy than what yours looks like. That is from the FFLD which looks almost 30-40% perlite right out of the bag - compared to the FFHF which has less, and the FFOF that has little.

I use the HF and LD and adjust it between 60-40% mix one way or the other depending on purpose. Seed cups get the 60% Lucky dog. Pots are between 50/50 and 40/60 the other way with more peat (Happy frog)

On your cup I would take a razor and make slits on the sides of the cup for ventilation. Open them up a little if needed. all that matters is that the dirt doesn't fall out. And don't water it any more other than sprays to keep the humidity up. I know it's a competition, but it's a popularity contest vote - so I get as many brownie points for helping you as I do for growing pretty plants

I got to thinking about that "clutter" and important info. Other than the obvious light/ventilation/water-testing equipment that everyone already has to some extent, what other random stuff do you guys now find indispensable now that you grow?

For me it is "blunt needle craft syringes" rubber-banded to each bottle of nutes, an 1970's Tupperware 1+ gallon pitcher, a generic plastic wire whisk, sanitized 1-gallon juice bottles (for RO water), and a good set of stainless measuring spoons.

I can add them in plant pics if you are curious What do you have?

I also swear by the silicone/rubber/whatever coated wire for LST. I re-use them and have a jar handy, but finally got over keeping the $0.99/1000ft twisty ties

The rubber coated stuff is too hard to fine-tune for some stuff, but way better for "plant-contact" points. I have used the twisty tie stuff by itself, and had sprouts get pinched and die off because I didn't notice the flat edge of the plastic was cutting into it as it grew.

So I combine the 2:

H.A.F. said:

@Covetsculitvars I'll put you on my list - when I start talking about harvesting early and giving stupid reasons that are all completely legit - talk me off the ledge!!! LOL

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Don't feel bad I picked my heAd up from my tablet and my wife smoked the stash!

H.A.F. said:

Here was the method to my madness. On each limb I snipped any shoots popping up on the inside, and most of those had big fan leaves shading, so -gone (purple arrow)
Any that had shoots on the outside (red arrow) were snipped. I left the fan leaf if it wasn't shaded.
And the yellow arrow shoots were side-to-side and looking strong, so I got rid of their fan leaves because they were shading the stuff to the side.
Those shoots may go later, but you can't put them back
View attachment 4305317
@Gollyboy

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Cheers mate makes abit more sense to me what I got to do now

And it popped right back up

First time growing Northern Lights. She has some fat little leaves. Growing her with the original FF trio, since I think I have that one down as far as percentages go. Got a quart of 25% feed just around the outer edge of the pot. Soil is pretty dry, so I may water it in later with RO and calmag. She is 2 weeks old, and I don't usually feed this early, but I wanted some veg-specific nutes in there for the plant to find. Probably won't feed again for a few weeks.

Here's a trick I came up with for bigger pots.

I got those roller plant-caddy's with a drain in the middle, then drilled a syringe sized hole in the catch pan and glued it on. I kept the base part of the syringe to glue and cut the tip off. The plunger is a drain plug, and I can hook a hose up to it if needed.

It is handy for repeated ppm testing during flushing.

This is interesting. I flipped this on the 9th and she didn't show a lower pistil until the 22nd. The tops still really haven't opened up yet, no fluffy-fuzzy pistils anywhere, but are already stacking.

Getting frostier

Day 14 and my keeper-node for the manifold is popping.

The flush earlier was on this girl. I pruned about a dozen more shoots that were popping a second node, but didn't re-tie anything. Next feed will be the transitional, and flip sometime thereafter.

One reason I don't like re-potting is that I had her all dialed in and was building up the nutes, but then there were all the amendments already in the new soil that toss things around ppm-wise.

This is what I meant by the second node popping open. Basically when it get's to be it's own plant with it's own leaves and sprouts. I will cut more right when I flip, but not many.

And I didn't cut any fan leaves - except those on the shoots But these I let get longer (more leaves feeding the plant) just because it was getting close to flipping.

This plant is either going to stay gangly and do nothing, or eventually blow up and have decent size flowers. 17 days from flip and still not fuzzy

Here's my 4 skunk for that contest. I un-domed them this morning at 7am, 3 hours and no ill effects, so I am leaving them off.

Lights go out at 1pm. When they come on at 7pm I will give them an hour or so to get woke up, but then I will try moving them in here.

I think that with 2 on each side of the NL seedling they will be in the safest area, and it will give me a bit longer to get the 5 gallon ready to flip - and figure out what will be where and which room will be for what.
Right now the longest shoots on the 5gal clone are like this:

So in a week they should each have another node opened. I would prune them, but since this is a "monster clone" and in a big pot, I think it can support them, so no more pruning unless they are just on the wrong side of the stem.

Crowded

Looking good bud