Chef's Garden a-poppin'

I finally got a grow going after years of lurking. I've been lurking since OverGrow and have had the equipment for years-- just always lived in the wrong place or had a job that consumed my entire life. But anyway, circumstances have brought me here with the following:

I purchased a bunch of feminized seeds and got a bunch of freebies. Fist in the rapid rooters were RD Dank Commander, RD Ghost Train Haze #1, Sweet Seeds Green Poison, C99, CH9 Luther Dogman, Auto Seed Chemdog. Neither of the Rare Dankness seeds popped. Luther Dogman and Green Poison going strong. C99 got a bit long and spindly and is having a hard time supporting itself and is a bit of the slow side to grow new leaves. Luther Dogman got a bit long too but seems to be doing OK. Ms Dogman's leaves are a bit fucked up because I planted the seeds upside-down and she had half a seed stuck to her when I peaked in the Rapid Rooter crack to see why she wasn't popping...

I started them out rough with high temps and high PH well-water but got distilled and corrected PH later and got my meters in the mail. They started under a CFL but put them under a 400w MH as soon as I removed the dome.You'll notice they have roommates-- pepper, cucumber, and rapini. Once the roots were coming out the bottom I transferred to Rockwool cubes that were soaked at 5.5ph with 1.4ec nutes. I transferred the cucumber directly into a net pot with hydroton and have been feeding him ~30ml 1.4 solution @5.5ph here and there since he doesn't have the rockwool to keep him moist until his roots make it below the net pot.

Roots are coming out the sides of the rapid rooters already so I better get my microbe tea brewing TONIGHT! Should have gotten it going sooner but I had to wait for some supplies to arrive in the mail. I also have a Lactobaccilus Serum growing which I plan on using as a supplement as well. I would like to get all of these HOPEFULLY fully female girls into a mother room as long as they dont go gender fluid on me then I'm not sure which bathroom they'll end up in. The auto of course will go right into the flower room under a 1000w HPS whose CoolTube should be arrive shortly! After beefing up the mamasitas I want to cut clones and flower one strain at a time SOG-style in the flower chamber... I figure my autos will be well out of there by then.

No ventilation in my basement right now beyond an oscillating fan. I have the light nice and close and have been maintaining 73-75 daytime and 66-68 night time temps with ~50-60 Relative Humidity 16 hours on 8 off.

Let me know what you guys think and throw me any tips!

Here's the pics:
https://imgur.com/a/m4spd
 
Update:

Just transplanted all into their 5 gallon buckets. They are looking good except my broccoli raab...

Also have had them going on microbe tea for awhile now and mixing nutes as per Lucas Ratio...

What brand nutes are you all running? I'm hoping Lucas is foolproof for most my plants but I have a feeling that will be too good to be true!

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Just checked the PH's... all jumped to 6.4-6.5 overnight... I did not let the nutes sit then readjust like I've read people doing after googling this problem. Also, it is advised not to keep adjusting unless it goes 7+ until I change out nutes... I will change them after a week if I can get away with it...

So everyone is hanging out right now at 6.4-6.5ph and 1.8ec. A couple roots are almost to the water already so we will see if they start eating the nutes when I check the EC next and see if the ph is still rising...

Until then I finally started the second step of making Lactobacillus foliar spray. Should be ready in about a week...
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One of my seedlings looks a bit odd, but was started the same as all of the other healthy looking plants! Also c99 looks a bit odd compares to the rest but seems healthy-- leaves are a bit curled however... Oddball "Luther Dogman" and Sweet Seeds Green Poison are stealing the show right now-- looking great.

Also, the lactobacillus almost has the milk turned into cheese...a few more days until the curds separate and I can preserve, dilute, and foliar feed. Perfect timing I suppose since the roots have made their way to water and I didn't want to start to foliar feed until roots were through the net pots. I'll also start another batch of microbe tea tonight.

EC and PH are staying steady. I think I will mix a batch of half strength nutes tonight, PH correct it, let it sit overnight, correct it again and top off the buckets. Is this an appropriate method?

Most of you probably aren't interested but the pepper is growing slow but strong, cucumber is getting big but has yellowing leaves, and broccoli raab is starting to stand back up image.jpegimage.jpeg
 
Lactobacillus Serum complete and shelf-stable with molassesimage.jpeg

I mixed 5ml of the serum with 1L of nutes at 1.2ec at 5.6ph and foliar fed all the plants with this mix for the first time this morning.

EC and PH have not changed notably the past few days and all plants seem to be thriving with exception to two seedlings that got a bit too dry. We will see if they bounce back. Cucumber looking great and pepper's roots haven't hit water yet so I top fed this morning. I will be mixing more mycorrhizae tea today and trying to decide if I should top the buckets with a lower PH'd water or put them all in fresh nutes.

Any suggestions? Feel free to give my thread some love (or hate) :p
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Got a new batch of tea going. Also scrapped two crappy auto seeds I popped and got a Rare Dankness seed popped and in a bucket. I also have a not-so-hot looking Pineapple Chunk from Barney's, another freebie.

Changed up my recipe on the tea. This is what I'm rocking now. I start the "Heisenberg" Microbe Tea recipe but feed it with my lactobacillus in molasses instead of straight molasses. Let it brew for 24 hours, add some Botanicare Hydroguard, let it brew another 24 hours. Strain and refrigerate. I brew:
  • 2 Gallons Well Water
  • 2TBSP Mycogrow Soluble Mycorhizzae
  • 1 Large Handful Ancient Forrest or EWC in double nylon stocking
  • 20ml Lactobacillus Serum
Brew 24 hours with airstone.
  • 4ml Hydroguard (Bacillus Amyloliquefaciens)
Brew 24 more hours with airstone.
Refrigerate
Use 1C per 5 Gallon Bucket or more if you are having issues

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And here is a photo update of the plants. Hoping I can get some CalMag+ soon for the c99! The older plants just got their buckets switched out for nutes at 2.2ec and 5.6ph. Will be topping off with PH'd Microbe Tea when finished tomorrow.

CH9 Luther Dogman
This is the strongest looking plant and has been since the beginning. The stem is a trunk!
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Sweet Seeds Green Poison
This plant seems to have topped itself somehow. There are two main stems? Very Bushy and Healthy...
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Auto Chemdog
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c99

Think this poor gal needs some calcium and magnesium...
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Barney's Farm Pineapple Chunk
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Chef420

Well-Known Member
I'm following and very interested in your veggies. You must be Italian. Calabrese peppers, rapini, cucumbers.
 
I'm following and very interested in your veggies. You must be Italian. Calabrese peppers, rapini, cucumbers.
Thanks! My family is from Puglia. I am first generation American. The cucumbers are a fuzzy variety from Bari. After I finish brewing my tea tonight I will be starting more vegetable seeds tomorrow or Saturday. I will update then!
 
Quick update: Auto Chemdog showing preflowers today. Exciting but now I must get my flower room ready. I have a 1000w hps in a cool tube with a 6" 420cfm can fan pulling the heat out but am hitting 80 degrees. Going to mess around with the configuration to see if I can drop the temp and get the auto Chemdog under 12/12 by this weekend. I am not familiar with autos (they were freebies) and considering a lot of my knowledge comes from the old days of OG, I simply know lowrider as a mediocre auto flowering cannabis that people grow in small cabs hah. I am assuming, however, that the plant will benefit from the Hps's spectrum, the 12/12 rhythm, and nutes for flowering.
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