Enter the Mind of JimmyJack

I'm not sure how far I'll make it with this journal, but I talk to myself so much I figured I'd put it all down here--about growing, I mean. I'll try to filter all the other stuff out. No one needs to see that.

I was gifted a handful of what I was told were sativa seeds a couple years ago. I dropped one in a soil pot a couple of times and each sprouted and grew, but I never took them seriously. I just watched them get spindly in the shop window over the summers and bud up in the autumns. I might have gotten three or four grams of airy bud out of each one.

Then, by the graces, the wonderful voters of my great state gifted me with legalization. I never thought I'd see the day. After 30 years, I finally don't have to look over my shoulder anymore.

So it was time to repurpose my NASA Garden.

Seeds in peat/perlite 11/25/2020:


Sprouted!


No tent, just open to the shop, but surrounded by aluminum foil panels (just wrapped over cardboard). Lit by a 600W MH at least 24" up.

I heard weed likes high N, so I loaded them up with 100% compost made from years-worth of garden detritus, leaves, grass. In the spring, I turn this stuff over and it's covered with hundreds of little wriggling red worms. Last spring, I dumped three full totes of goat shit and piss straw into it and over the summer it melted down to about a quarter of its size. That's what I put in the two pots.

And so they grew.


And grew.


Oh, you can see cut leaves in the picture just above. After about the fourth node, I made an attempt to FIM. Yup, I missed. They bushed out, but I was left with the one cola. I must have cut too high and missed the apex.

Then disaster struck.

Looking good buddy keep it up.

So I kept them growing a bit longer. They were doing well.


I topped both plants about here, Jan. 18. The larger plant I also super cropped a few of the colas. You can see the top two bent to shit (first time super cropping, got a little too heavy-handed).

As an aside, you can see a rosemary plant at the bottom left which is wintering. I also saved a tomato that volunteered from one of the big pots, and planted a few jalapeno seeds (bottom right).

Everything was going okay for a noob. Until I had some friends over.

So it's winter and cold and we want to crank the heat and hang out in my shop with some tunes going. I usually keep my shop's ambient temperature at about 60dF. In my drunken state, I got it up near 75d. With those temps, add a 600W MH. I fucking FRIED those poor plants, and right after the HST!


That picture was a few days later. I had already chopped off all the fan leaves that were completely destroyed. You can see the despair. Even the poor tomato plant just about kicked the bucket!

There not flowering yet right. They will bounce back.

So I kept after them. They recovered alright. Here are a few pics. Jan 28:


Jan 30. You can see the super cropped colas are really struggling after the heat damage:



But they're getting along here. You can see some cilantro down next to the pepper seedlings.

Also, the heat damage brought to light how heavy with nitrogen my pure compost was. I don't think the damage would have been so bad if it weren't for the plant sucking up that hot shit so fast in the heat. So I flushed both plants with a gallon of water twice each--and saved the runoff for some liquid fertilizer later. It was a few hours of triage and emergency.

All said and done, the heat damage was bad. But I caught it quick. A few more hours and all would have been burnt toast.

So at this point I'll back up and give some more details on the grow.

One of the seeds, the big plant, was the second-to-last gifted seed. The smaller one is just a bag seed.

I pH'd and ppm'd my tap water to 7.2 and 92, and that is all I use to water. No additives or amendments during the grow (at least at this point in the story).

Native soil is alkaline, full of calcium, iron, and lime. With the compost, runoff was testing at 6.2 pH even after using the 7.2 tap water. I just ran with that.

When I noticed some munching on one of the lower leaves (probably a pill bug) I put some diatomaceous earth in a little pile on the top of each pot's soil and blew down on them so they puffed up in a huge powdery cloud and got on everything. It's like an organic bug bomb. No bugs survived that level of scorched-earth tactic. Since DE has a lot of silica, I figured that wouldn't hurt. But it also lowers the pH of soil, so that's something to keep in mind. Additionally, the tactic knocked down the few fungus gnats that were floating around. Haven't seen one of those since.

I'd give info on temps and RH, but the sensors are in most of the pics. It's notable that I've been running a low RH this whole time.

But I had to turn my mind to the future. Cloning was the next step.

My plan was to go through veg on this first run really quick so I could get the first crop ASAP. I am tired of buying weed for so many reasons.

But it immediately became apparent to me that I had a big problem: I have one light, one garden and a need for two lighting schedules.

Now I'm not poor, but neither am I swimming in cash. So, in conjunction with my better half, we determined I was doing well enough with the grow to justify investing in some equipment (I did the justifying). At this point, all I had was ad hoc gear cobbled from my years of starting herb, pepper, and tomato seeds for my garden. But I started small and grabbed a 300W blurple (rated 108W from the wall) and a 24x24x48" grow tent.

When I trimmed and super cropped right before The Heat Event, I saved four cuttings from each plant and stuck them in tap water inside a covered seed-starting tray. When I switched to flower on Feb. 1, I put the clones in the 2x2.


Sorry for the HPS photo, but it's all I have--and it underscores the event.

You can tell I'm not good at cloning yet.

So the bigger of the two plants, the one from the gifted seed? This happened:


Some of you may have expected that by the way it grew, especially compared to the other. Sure, it was supposedly sativa, but it grew so fast, so lengthy. Sure, there's no way to really tell, but looking back it seems like there were signs. For example, the female had two white pistils at four weeks from seed. The male just had little nubs.

To add insult to injury, in five of the eight clones which rooted, four of them were from the male. So I was left with one good female clone in a pot. This is Valentine's Day.


In response to the universe, I planted the rest of my seeds: four bagseeds and the last of the gifted supposedly-sativa.



Oh yeah, you can see the top-right and lower-right plants in the last picture are new clones. I monster cropped from the female on the same day, almost two weeks into 12/12.

Some of you might have noticed the soil in the one female clone. That's not 100% compost! Nope. It's a new day.

The soil I made for all the new plants is equal parts goat compost, depleted garden topsoil, and perlite. It's still a bit of a hot mix, but I think this type of plant can handle it. I may even have to (gasp!) add nutes for this grow later on.

But I've been doing my homework, perusing forums, learning any way I can, so I put more than just the three equal parts in the soil. I also included Epsom salt and diatomaceous earth (DE). I made three large pots with this mix as well.

Since I will be vegging four plants, I took the fourth pot in a different direction. I used equal parts of depleted topsoil and compost, then added about 2/3 part of vermiculite. I included a Tbsp. of Dolomite lime and sprinkled the top with DE (for bugs). Here they are, resting and waiting:


I should probably mention a technique I've put into practice with a lot of my potted plants. I place a layer of river rock in the very bottom of the pot and cover that with landscaper's geofabric, or weed mat, before dumping the soil in. I do it to help with drainage and to reduce uptake for plants in trays/saucers. I don't know how much it helps, or if I clog the fabric too much with fine particulates, or who knows, but it seems to be performing as intended over the years. Hopefully it serves me well with this type of plant.

Well, I backed myself into a corner. I have a NASA garden with a 600W HID, and a 2x2 with a 108W blurple. I have a few clones and a few seedlings. My plan is to grow four plants. How is this possible? Another round of justifying.

Long story short, I got the MarsHydro kit with a 48x48x80" tent, TSW2000W, and 6" inline fan and filter. Happy days! Nothing super fancy, but I think it will take care of my needs adequately.

So I dropped the flowering gal in the 4x4 under the 600W HPS and the 108 W blurple (why not?), then stuck the TSW (rated 300W from the wall) in the 2x2 with the clones and seedlings.


A few days ago, I top-dressed the flowering plant with a Tbsp. of 4-4-4 and some Epsom. I thought it was yellowing way too early in flowering, and some folks here at RIU opened my eyes to the possibility that it's a pH problem. I tested my runoff and it was at 7.2 pH, so I tend to agree. My most recent watering, yesterday, was with water I pH'd down to 6.2 with lemon juice. Between the 4-4-4 and the pH adjustment, the yellowing has slowed and the plant has started to grow faster. I guess as the plant used up all the nutrients in the compost, the soil's pH slowly went up. Thanks RIU!

The clones and seedlings are doing well.


As you can see, the perlite mix is still pretty hot. But with that nice light and good conditions, the plants are sucking up a lot more. I get the feeling that I'm pushing them pretty hard, but they seem to be holding up. I raised the light another inch, up to about 21-22", and turned it down to about 45% just today. I have no real reason to push so hard.

I have watered the seedlings twice in eleven days since repotting. Since the soil is hot, I've been using the 7.2 tap water for these.

And that's it. Backstory complete, I've caught up to myself!

I added two more Tbsp. of 4-4-4 and will let it roll to the end. I don't think pH was a problem. Maybe it got stressed out by low N and way low RH and is pushing flower (if that's a thing).


Still, I'm happy. It's thickening and getting frosty (though it's ready for a watering).

The clone/seedling tent is doing well. I dialed back the TSW2000W to 30% and saved the struggling seedling. Then I took it back to 25% and they're all praying now.

I put my monster crop clone in dirt. It's the cannibalized yellow one. It had good roots, so it should be fine.

Had an interesting nutrient experience yesterday.

The bigger clone was drooping. I know I've been toeing up to nitrogen toxicity, so when it didn't perk up after a watering, I suspected an issue.

I researched Mulder's chart and learned about the interrelationships between N-P-K. I wondered if the high N was locking out other nutes, especially potassium (which can then affect phosphorus). So I researched some good ways to quickly up potassium while giving a little boost of phosphorus.

The local hardware store didn't have anything to supply just P and K quickly without more N. So I dug a Tbsp. of wood ash out of my firepit, made a tea, and hit the clone with it.

It perked up within minutes and started growing FAST. So I put it on the seedlings and they took off.

Most of the leaf clawing went away as well.


So I learned a bit about my compost: all that goat shit is outweighing the food waste.

Good to know.

The little seedling died. It perked up like it would make it, but shook off the mortal coil and dried to a crisp twig within a day.

I topped the clone as well, right above its fifth node. Started bushing out like crazy, especially after I hit it with the wood ash.

Finally gave the seedlings a full water to runoff. They handled it well. I gave them a Mg folial spray as well. Looked and smelled like fresh rain.

Still, they were droopy. I worried they were shocked too much, especially since I added a wood ash and fungus slurry to the watering. But they are fine:

Those two pictures are about 10 hours apart.

I added 1/4 tsp. of that 4-4-4 to the tops. I'd like a balanced organic nutrient to just be on board. This takes some time to break down.

I like that it has the bacteria and fungus.

I turned the LED up to 40% as well. It brought the temps into the mid 70s finally. RH been 50%.

The flowering plant is sucking its fans dry and dropping them like crazy. The buds are getting fatter and the frost is spreading. Nothing fantastic. Weird to me that I flipped it to 12/12 on Feb. 1. But I'm on the railroad to wherever we go at this point.

I keep taking pictures of this one when I'm about to water. So droopy.

I've spent the last few days tring to get my new TSW2000 dialed in on the little plants. I struggled between 30% and 50% on the dial, as did the plants. They just weren't really growing much. And then it dawned on me. Raise the light, bro!


So I raised the light to about 28" above the small ones (just under two feet on the bigger plant) and kept the dial at 50%. They shot up and spread out almost immediately.

Ya like the sad-looking monster crops in back? They are actually doing great! They are both turgid and reaching for light. I imagine they're still filling out some roots, but they have taken to soil. Can't wait to see what they do!

Flowering plant is doing well. As leaves drop, I can see all the budsites. I might get 50g or so out of it. That sure would be nice.

The 2x2 is raging along, except one minor issue. The big clone is too big.


I'm not sure if it's droopy because of light issues or because of root issues, but it needs an up-pot nonetheless. I just have to figure out how I'll do it.

I might have to pull the old gal out of the 4x4 and stick it under the 600W HPS where it started. Then I can get the others in the 4x4 and get that going properly. Hrm. Anyone have suggestions or advice? The problem is that I can't up-pot and keep the plant in the 2x2 since it's only 48" tall. A light would fry it in there. And I don't want to put it with the flowering plant because, yeah, don't want it flowering.

Hrm.

I made the plunge.

All the veg in the 4x4.

The old gal is okay. The 2x2 is empty.

Not even through week six since flip. You can really see the buds with the leaves dropping off.

Repotting and shuffling was a good choice. The plants are very happy.

Growing like crazy, too.

I wish I would have thought to take pictures while I was repotting. The big clone was practically rootbound. All the other plants had roots to the bottom and in the rocks. For most of them I left the weed mat with the root ball and planted it all because the roots were so woven into the fabric.

Maybe using the fabric isn't the best idea. But I'm still sold on the rock layer.

Light got set to 60% yesterday. I put a 1/2 tsp. of Jobe's in each pot. I also put some 12-4-8 MG organic fertilizer (maybe 1/4 tsp.).

The MG had some time-release urea nitrogen, but I'm not worried since it is so little and I'm just hitting veg. But it had kelp, EWC, sulfur--everything but mycorrhiza and bacteria. Between the two fertilizers, the plants should be good. Just gonna drop some of that Jobe's 4-4-4 every couple weeks or so until shortly after flip.

I'll drop some pictures later.

This is the Miracle Grow stuff. I put maybe 1/8 tsp. on each, really.