Twist's Tropical Indoor Garden

MrTwist1

Well-Known Member
Ok so a little flower update here. I finally finished tweaking my tent setup (for now lol) by adding vertical smd strips in the corners, remounting my far reds (including 2 more fixtures), and getting all of my LED drivers connected to the Bluefish lighting controller. I also retrieved 16 clones from my buddy who was vegging them for me and flipped them immediately along with the 3 small Jawa Pie seedlings - it's gonna be kindof a SOG in the right side of the tent with one plant per sqft in 1gallon fabric pots. The Blumats are all in and everything is cruising along already.

First pic is of the Dark Plasma at 19 days and cruising. As you can see these girls got huge and stretchy!! I have been told it's a stretchy strain, but I also left my far reds on for about 48hours straight at the start of flower which did not help. The tallest one is pushing 6ft now and almost touching the light at it's highest hanging... oops. The rest are tall AF but manageable. You can see the vert Bridgelux EB strips attached to the corner tent poles helping to get some love and light to the lowers.

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This is the newly installed right side of the tent with 13 clones of "Queso", Special Queen #1, Critical Plus, and a Cali Random bagseed. Front left you can see the 3 small Jawa Pie that I decided to flip a little early as I don't want to run any veg right now (I have clones vegging at my buddy's place). I also managed to squeeze in 3 extra clones in the space between the Dark Plasma and the SOG as backup for my unsexed seedlings. Hopefully I will not need them, but I will prob leave them in there anyway - they're not getting a ton of light but it would otherwise be unused space.

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Here's a few pics of the Dark Plasma setting buds at 19 days.

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I am really stoked with my Bluefish controller. I now have badass simulated sunrise and sunset with white LEDs and Far Reds on separate channels, and the two sides of the tent on separate channels too. Being able to dim the Far Reds to off is a nice bonus and I was able to get rid of a timer thereby simplifying my life in a small way. It has really inspired me to seek 0-10v (dim-to-off) for all of my fixtures so that I can get rid of timers altogether and let the Bluefish do it's thing. I also love that I can remotely dim my lights using the app on my phone - which may not sound very useful for most folks, but I am personally loving. I plan to further make use of this feature in the future with some techy additions.

Looking ahead slightly I plan to have the vert strips on a separate channel so that they can come on first in the morning giving only light from the sides, before the overhead lights come on and the vert strips slowly dim around midday. There is likely no real benefit to this... I am just a nerd who enjoys trying to imitate the natural environment for my ladies :weed:
 

lukio

Well-Known Member
sup dude!

mannn, ive missed a lot! the corner strip lighting is wicked! simulated sunrise and sunset, posh controllers and rather enthusiastic very healthy lookin plants! pretty jelly - i need to to stop slacking (:

constantly tinkering is what its all about. im changing my drip feed system again so that i have more control over this multistrain situation i have going on...

lovin your diary bro
 

MrTwist1

Well-Known Member
Hey good to see you bud!

Yeah it's all about the tinkering for sure - I refuse to "finish" any of my setups because I'm constantly tweaking and improving them - that is half the fun!

I've just been hit with an infestation of thrips... so all is not rosy here currently lol - there's always something to deal with eh :)
 

lukio

Well-Known Member
shit yeah forgot about the thrips, saw that on insta. tricky in flower - what ya thinking?
 

MasterpieceNutes

Well-Known Member
Thrips are out in force this year. Easy to kill though in a very non-toxic manner. They die with spinosad exposure, which is super low toxicity, and rinses off even. Probably the best thing for killing thrips as far as I know. I did one treatment and fixed the problem. Week 2 flower happened, ran a week before I identified and remedied. Week five flower now and I'm not seeing any bad effects of the attack or treatment. Plants were noticeably happier with bugs gone.. Probably triggered an immune response.

I've seen people kill em with cinnamon water (seep it overnight and sift drain then spray), but it literally tortures those bugs to death.. They violently wrack until death.. Seemed like bad karma route..

$20 solution: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BWY3OQ

Enjoying thread btw. Great small grow. But why do 6' plants?! Scrog!
 

MrTwist1

Well-Known Member
shit yeah forgot about the thrips, saw that on insta. tricky in flower - what ya thinking?
It's a little tricky cos I've got the 2 halves of the tent at different stages...

I tried some neem oil foliar spray on the 10day(ish) right side the other day, but I that did not do much to slow them. Spraying just one side is a joke. I immediately ordered Spinosad and yellow sticky traps, which should arrive today, fingers crossed.

So yeah, the plan is to spray the whole thing down with Spinosad today including the left side... should be plenty of time before harvest. Then I'll prob spray again in 5 days, and maybe again after that just to be sure. I read loads about the lifecycle of the thrip last night, so I feel like I know how to beat it. It seems the key is to go hard at the start and then repeat spray to catch any larvae that survived the first batch. Wish me luck!
 

MrTwist1

Well-Known Member
Thrips are out in force this year. Easy to kill though in a very non-toxic manner. They die with spinosad exposure, which is super low toxicity, and rinses off even. Probably the best thing for killing thrips as far as I know. I did one treatment and fixed the problem. Week 2 flower happened, ran a week before I identified and remedied. Week five flower now and I'm not seeing any bad effects of the attack or treatment. Plants were noticeably happier with bugs gone.. Probably triggered an immune response.

I've seen people kill em with cinnamon water (seep it overnight and sift drain then spray), but it literally tortures those bugs to death.. They violently wrack until death.. Seemed like bad karma route..

$20 solution: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BWY3OQ

Enjoying thread btw. Great small grow. But why do 6' plants?! Scrog!
Thanks for the words dude, I appreciate it :)

That is the same Spinosad I ordered - fingers crossed it does arrive today, cos I can tell my plants are not happy with those little fuckers crawling around. I'm sure I'll lose some yield because I can see the plants have really stalled since the thrips came along. Oh well. Thanks for sharing your experience man.

Honestly I kinda fucked up the left side of the tent time when I accidentally left the far red flower initiator on for around 48hrs straight at the start of flower while I was moving house! That combined with a stretchy strain has given me crazy stretched plants, but it was not the plan haha. The right side is much more manageable at around 3-4ft tall. I have scrogged in some tiny spaces in the past, but I feel like a trellis is better for 4x4 or larger. In the future I think I'm gonna try and source tomato cages locally as I like to keep things modular where possible.

Cheers all
 

MrTwist1

Well-Known Member
Hey Grow friends

So I sprayed down the whole 4x8 tent with loads of Spinosad 2 days ago. I ended up using like 2.5gallons of mix trying to get under all the leaves - note to self; a pressure sprayer with a wand and hose would really have made my life so much easier ha! I figured I wanted to avoid the chance of them building resistance to the Spinosad so I tried to be thorough. Immediately afterwards I could still see a few of the flyers wiggling around, which made me nervous... but it seems I didn't need to worry yet. I have hung a few yellow sticky traps and been checking frequently and there's no signs of bug life since I sprayed. I'm thinking about spraying again in around 5 days as there may be new larvae hatching then. Anyway i can certainly attest to the effectiveness of Spinosad!! breathing a small sigh of relief.

The only downside is that some of the buds got a bit sprayed and it has turned a lot of the hairs orange prematurely. When you combine that with the stress damage from the thrips and maybe a tiny bit of overfeeding, I am looking rather behind. These Dark Plasma are at the end of 4 weeks, and haven't grown much in the last week or so. Hopefully they will find their swing in time to swell those buds, but I'm not overly optimistic. Oh well, I have learned something new at least... Spinosad is an essential for the armoury!!

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lukio

Well-Known Member
theyll be fiiiiiine man (:

i use an essential oil peppermint foliar i make myself as a preventative, and sooooo far soooooo good...its cheap as hell, smells amazing and bugs apparently hate it! 10 drops in 1 litre of water and done. ill probably now get an infestation tmrw!
 

MrTwist1

Well-Known Member
theyll be fiiiiiine man (:

i use an essential oil peppermint foliar i make myself as a preventative, and sooooo far soooooo good...its cheap as hell, smells amazing and bugs apparently hate it! 10 drops in 1 litre of water and done. ill probably now get an infestation tmrw!
Nice! I plan to do preventative through veg with the neem in the future (was intending to do that this run, but just got too busy with moving house etc) and hopefully that will act as a good deterrent like your peppermint oil. The Spinosad worked wonders and I, like others, seemed to have wiped out the entire population with one spray! And yeah the girls are definitely bouncing back despite the high temps here :) Cheers :bigjoint:

p.s. how about that election eh?! Positive signs for the future I would dare to say :)
 

MrTwist1

Well-Known Member
And on the right side we've got a kinda SOG thing going on with 16 clones in 1 gallon fabric pots...

These are just approaching the end of week 3 and cruising nicely. It's a bit of a multistrain run, but at least 75% is the same cut of Special Queen #1. Need to clean up the lowers today, bud the buds are setting nicely.

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Jawa Pie #3
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Special Queen #1
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Hybridway

Well-Known Member
Hey Twist. Good luck ridding the Thrips. Last run I had a full infestation of them n didn't realize it till late, right before flower. Knew I needed to bomb after that but hadn't cuz I was in flower.
Now I just found the beginning stages again. Caught em early this time.
Spinosyn is all that I could find to rid them. So you know, it's my understanding that it does not kill them on contact but starves them to death & effects their nervous system killing them within a few days. They love Neem n other oils though.
Spraying now & all last night.
When I used Spinosym last time, it cured the whole infestation In One shot (spraying thoroughly). Guessing when the eggs do hatch, they have nothing to eat n die right away. So, I don't think you need to worry about the life cycle like you would a mite. But maybe. Just sharing my experience.
Well, back to work. It's a nightmare spraying plants this big. Going through 3/4 gall a plant.
Hope all works out.
 
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MrTwist1

Well-Known Member
Hey Twist. Good luck ridding the Thrips. Last run I had a full infestation of them n didn't realize it till late, right before flower. Knew I needed to bomb after that but hadn't cuz I was in flower.
Now I just found the beginning stages again. Caught em early this time.
Spinosyn is all that I could find to rid them. So you know, it's my understanding that it does not kill them on contact but starves them to death & effects their nervous system killing them within a few days. They love Neem n other oils though.
Spraying now & all last night.
When I used Spinosym last time, it cured the whole infestation In One shot (spraying thoroughly). Guessing when the eggs do hatch, they have nothing to eat n die right away. So, I don't think you need to worry about the life cycle like you would a mite. But maybe. Just sharing my experience.
Well, back to work. It's a nightmare spraying plants this big. Going through 3/4 gall a plant.
Hope all works out.
Hey man

Yeah my findings suggest that you're right. I treated once with Spinosad and made sure I sprayed down everything really thoroughly. My Dark Plasma are pretty big too, so I definitely used a lot more of the spray than I expected. It seemed like most thrips died immediately, but some were still wiggling around after, so maybe you're right about the nerve gas. I was expecting to have to spray again, but I've been monitoring with yellow sticky traps and they seem like they're all gone. I too was a bit late diagnosing the problem, and then it took me a few days to get hold of the Spinosad so they really had a good hold on my tent, and I can see my yield is gonna suffer a bit. But with that said I am also really impressed with how well the plants have bounced back since I got rid of them. Definitely not as catastrophic as a spider mite infestation... I had that once years ago and still remember how bad that was.

Anyway good luck with your battle - I'm sure you'll banish them with the spray. Cheers
 

Hybridway

Well-Known Member
Hey man

Yeah my findings suggest that you're right. I treated once with Spinosad and made sure I sprayed down everything really thoroughly. My Dark Plasma are pretty big too, so I definitely used a lot more of the spray than I expected. It seemed like most thrips died immediately, but some were still wiggling around after, so maybe you're right about the nerve gas. I was expecting to have to spray again, but I've been monitoring with yellow sticky traps and they seem like they're all gone. I too was a bit late diagnosing the problem, and then it took me a few days to get hold of the Spinosad so they really had a good hold on my tent, and I can see my yield is gonna suffer a bit. But with that said I am also really impressed with how well the plants have bounced back since I got rid of them. Definitely not as catastrophic as a spider mite infestation... I had that once years ago and still remember how bad that was.

Anyway good luck with your battle - I'm sure you'll banish them with the spray. Cheers
Thnx! It's the blue stickies you'd want. The yellow are for flys n fungus Knats. You should be good though. I bought a bunch of them blues last time & hung them everywhere around the plants n didn't catch one thrip. The Spinosyn works.
Takes the thrips awhile to grow wings n some don't even. But they can do damage by sucking the plant n laying eggs.
I found them this time early. After hrs. Of inspection, only one adult & 5 larva in the veg room.
Nothing but a few slime trails in the flower room so I got that one plant n the 2 next to it. The silvery spots are a sure tell tail sighn. Knowing this will allow you to catch them early.
Still can't get where these fuckers come from though? I keep a super clean opp.
Some say soil but I'm not to sure that's where mine came from.
Time for the seasonal Pyrenthium bomb anyways.
You'll be fine now that you Spinosynd them.
 

MrTwist1

Well-Known Member
Thnx! It's the blue stickies you'd want. The yellow are for flys n fungus Knats. You should be good though. I bought a bunch of them blues last time & hung them everywhere around the plants n didn't catch one thrip. The Spinosyn works.
Takes the thrips awhile to grow wings n some don't even. But they can do damage by sucking the plant n laying eggs.
I found them this time early. After hrs. Of inspection, only one adult & 5 larva in the veg room.
Nothing but a few slime trails in the flower room so I got that one plant n the 2 next to it. The silvery spots are a sure tell tail sighn. Knowing this will allow you to catch them early.
Still can't get where these fuckers come from though? I keep a super clean opp.
Some say soil but I'm not to sure that's where mine came from.
Time for the seasonal Pyrenthium bomb anyways.
You'll be fine now that you Spinosynd them.
Cheers yeah it's all always a learning experience and that part of the fun!

I actually read that both blue or yellow stickies work for Thrips, but blue only works for Thrips whereas yellow will catch most other bugs too. Seemed like a good plan.

Anyway yeah, here's to being bug free right now. Cheers :bigjoint:
 

MrTwist1

Well-Known Member
It's fryday again so here's a quick photo update on my Op by the Ocean...

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So the Dark Plasma are at the end of 6 weeks and recovering nicely from the hiccup. Seems like they're starting to bulk a bit in the last few weeks since we eradicated the thrips. This closeup is pheno #3 which shows the best bud structure this round, but I feel like a little excess Nitrogen around week3/4 has negatively affected my leaf-to-calyx ratio across the board this run. Oh well.

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And on the other side we've got the multistrain SOG thing coming along nicely near the end of week 4. This is Jawa Pie first and "Queso" underneath. Not too much to say... they got a little over-nuted too, but hopefully it won't affect them too badly since they were right at the start of flower when it happened. They seem to be budding nicely and I've dropped the Veg+Bloom back to 1.0EC. Cheers everyone and have a good weekend :bigjoint:

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