Starting Mephisto Form Stomper indoors, will move outdoors 1 May

Yeah, gonna be sad in a way to see them go outside, but Mother Nature knows best…

they are growing pretty rapidly now, and I juiced them with 600 ml each of FF Wk 2 at around 75% strength this morning…slow and steady wins the race…

400 ml of full strength recharge and Fish Shit, wait an hour, and another 400ml. I’ve been pretty successful in gauging how much the pots can accept without runoff to avoid a mess. The daytime temps are hovering around the mid 60s/low 70s for the next few days so I might move outdoors for some natural light and drench them so they can drain outside.

giving thought to when the move outdoors will happen. They are growing so well and quickly in the tub, I might keep them there longer than originally planned (1 May). I think I can get them to preflower stage indoors so that might be the trigger, or I might keep them indoors until they reach the capacity of the enclosure…in any event, they are gonna be pretty stocky based on the initial internodal spacing. The stretch will tell the tale…

The strain description talk about two very distinct phenotypes. One is more squat with tighter nodes and the other has more of an OG structure and will have a little larger frame. The first one is much more common and they recommend leaf tucking or mild defoliation of the lower sites to help them get up and out of the shade leaves early. The resin production sounds like it should be really great. I haven't grown anything cookies related in like 4 years. Now I want to do a cookies strain. Damn you

Oh yeah, I’ll be tucking leaves for sure!

Moved them outside for full sun yesterday, and put back in the tub enclosure with lights blaring overnight. Brought them back outside this morning and gave them 800 ml of ph 6.3 water, and 800 ml of ph 6.4 half strength bone meal. They held all that with no problem, later on today I’ll give them another shot of water.

started some prelim LST and leaf tucking to expose bud sites. I lost a small bud site to poor vision in the early morning…no biggie.

gotta love the milk crates…much easier to move around, makes,the cubical bag retain its shape and will offer most excellent points for more LST…my goal is to get the lowest developing flower site (minus the one I chopped) out from under the canopy and headed toward the edge of the milk crate, on each plant. That will take some practice, patience and persistence…

last pic is what the neighbors see - I am perfectly screened. I could not have laid out the patio better with a compass. The long axis runs true east/west; where the plants sit now is in full sun by around 0830 now and will be in full sun by 0745 on the summer solstice. I can move them back toward the other end of the patio as the day progresses, and in that spot, they are in full sun until 1930 now, and will be until 2000 on the summer solstice solstice.

This is their spot at the end of the day…

I’m retired, so I am here all the time. I think I’m gonna run these outdoors in good daylight and indoors in full light in the tub enclosure at sundown until sunrise the next day. I can just keep them inside with full light in the tub enclosure on rainy days. i have a couple feet of headroom in the tub enclosure so they’ll be in that rotation for a month or so, then outside full time.

im putting 3500k bulbs in the pair of two foot 2 fixture T5 lights up in the corners later today. The side lighting is really gonna pay dividends when I get the lower flower sites extended to the edge of the milk crates…

Looking good buddy.

Retired engineer said:

I’m retired, so I am here all the time. I think I’m gonna run these outdoors in good daylight and indoors in full light in the tub enclosure at sundown until sunrise the next day. I can just keep them inside with full light in the tub enclosure on rainy days. i have a couple feet of headroom in the tub enclosure so they’ll be in that rotation for a month or so, then outside full time.

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Nice set up. I love the crates. I gave up on fabric pots outside because they dry so quickly, went back to plastic pots and last year wrapped them in reflective sheet insulation to keep the sun off the sides. That said, indoors fabric are my preference. Do you find that you need to "harden" your plants when you first take them out into the sun?

I grow only autos outdoors at this point, have for a few years. The best years I've had in terms of total production were planted in the ground in well tended garden beds, but that puts a lot of faith in the weather cooperating. Having dealt with too much late season mold, I've moved to pots for mobility, and I start them under a light in the garage, and have come to be prepared to finish them there also. It's sort of a 'hybrid' indoor/outdoor method, keeping them outside for as much of the season as possible, while making sure they start and finish as best I can. Sounds like you are taking that even another step further with more back and forth light optimization.

The first couple of years after switching to autos, I was 100% Mephisto, have had some great harvests with them. Starting last year I branched out to other breeders, but always keep some Mephs in the group. Looking forward to seeing how yours turns out.

I grow autos exclusively too. Not possible to achieve total darkness inside; if I close the bathroom door it gets way to hot, and I have a ton of solar lights on my deck I don’t feel like pulling down. The thing about autos is ya can reasonably get two 4 plant harvests in the growing season, if ya start the first one in early April, and harvest in June. June - Sep is still prime growing season here, but ya gotta be prepared to finish inside if it gets to wet or cool at night. The evening dew plays havoc with the plants and that’s usually when I see bugs. Eight plants in one season is the sweet spot, and I’ll have another indoor grow Sep - Dec. should be a bountiful year.

they’ll get a preventative spray of Spinosad (around 50% strength) an hour before sunrise. I’ll spray them with FF Flowers Kiss in a couple days, an hour before sunup, and might give them some foliar Si. I’ve been adding Si into the feeding schedule at 50% strength every few days too.

here they are in their final position…will be in the sun until around 1915. Drag ‘em back inside, another 12 hrs of light then back outdoors tomorrow. Sunrise is at 0617 and sunset is at 1949; 13h 32m of sun. Supposed to be around 80 and clear. Gonna be a good day, but they all are lately.

FirstCavApache64 said:

Looking good buddy.

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Thanks dude, I worked on a vertical trellis setup over a buddies house today. He uses milk crates too, go figure…I’ll rig mine up similarly in the next couple days. None of them are telling me they want to bent over 90 degrees as I did last year so we might be goin vertical…need another 6 inches of vertical growth before I can muck around under the canopy and bend them over and they might not be bendable at that point…we’ll see…

Humanrob said:

Nice set up. I love the crates. I gave up on fabric pots outside because they dry so quickly, went back to plastic pots and last year wrapped them in reflective sheet insulation to keep the sun off the sides. That said, indoors fabric are my preference. Do you find that you need to "harden" your plants when you first take them out into the sun?

I grow only autos outdoors at this point, have for a few years. The best years I've had in terms of total production were planted in the ground in well tended garden beds, but that puts a lot of faith in the weather cooperating. Having dealt with too much late season mold, I've moved to pots for mobility, and I start them under a light in the garage, and have come to be prepared to finish them there also. It's sort of a 'hybrid' indoor/outdoor method, keeping them outside for as much of the season as possible, while making sure they start and finish as best I can. Sounds like you are taking that even another step further with more back and forth light optimization.

The first couple of years after switching to autos, I was 100% Mephisto, have had some great harvests with them. Starting last year I branched out to other breeders, but always keep some Mephs in the group. Looking forward to seeing how yours turns out.

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These have been in the most intense lighting cabinet I could devise, so they’re pretty hardened off already.

900 ml of ph 6.3 water and 900 ml of full strength Recharge and Fish shit to start the day. I’ve started pretty heavy handed LST to get the lower branches headed toward the edge of the crate where I’ll tie them down, also pushed downward some fat fan leaves so the next node up gets sun, I’ll use some LST clips to get those headed in the right direction once they lengthen/stiffen up.

takes about an hour to move them, trim/manipulate, and water/feed them. Bit of exercise to start the day and part of the routine…

life is good…

Some more LST with plastic clips and wire hoops. A couple lowers are at the edges of the crates where they’ll be affixed in their final position. They always look kinda uneven after the LST, but will fill in as usual.

pretty sunny today, but won’t get to the mid 60s for another hour when I’ll move outside for another day of full natural light.

Make sure you get those girls in tonight. We have a hard freeze warning up here in the mountains for tonight. It was 91 a couple days ago and now a hard freeze... WTF? I'm so glad I didn't plant any spring crops this year.

I left them in for the day, was Just a bit in the cool side. as it turns out, the ends of all the branches I wrenched down this morning, which were running horizontal, have all made the 90 degree turn upwards.

I know I can’t match the intensity of the sun in my grow space, but the side lighting from 90 degrees in to the plant’s central stalks is something Mother Nature can’t manage.

as an experiment (time on my hands) I’m gonna replace the four T5 florescent bulbs (6,500k) in the fixture at the back of the tub with some 5,000k LED bulbs. Lower power consumption, less heat, and adds another spectrum of light; the other T5 fluorescent bulbs are 6,500k and the LED above is full spectrum. As soon as preflowers show, I’ll switch out all the 6,500k bulbs in the other fixture to a mix of 3,000k and 3,500k and leave the 5,000k ones in place. once I get heavy into flowering, the 5,000k bulbs will be replaced by 3,000k.

I’ve Decided to keep them moving between indoors and outdoors as long as I can. nice days outdoors, back inside at sundown for more lighting. Bad days they will just stay indoors for the day/night. In effect, they are on a 24/0 schedule, with as much of the 24 hr part from natural sunlight as possible. Size will probably determine when that has to be adjusted to full time outdoors, I can fit 3 ft tall plants in the grow space, so maybe another month.

This is where they catch the last rays of the day; the setting sun also streams in thru some windows in my dining nook and bathes the indoor plants with light.

the Stalks are strengthening and stretching, and I think I got all the lower branches with flower sites out in the open…should be pretty symmetrical and bushya

Looking good, reminds me of my outdoor grow last year with the plants on chairs trying to catch the sun. My wife thought it was funny as hell. She wanted to know when I was getting them rocking chairs. I thought they'd enjoy the view of the mountains with a cup of coffee like I did. Crazy woman.

Smashing! Bend them over and make them like it!

I think I’m gonna skip the extreme horizontal training this time. That was a cool experiment, this year I’m going for maximum height, and have already pulled all the lowers out into the sun. I’m working my way up the stalk with LST clips to get the next nodes headed that direction, and will keep that up until everything is in the sun, and the main cola is totally exposed. I’ve been adding Si into the feeding schedule so the main stalks are now “unbendable”; the size of soda straws and nearly as stiff as a pencil.

running them horizontally took more attention and time - I’d work the ends of the horizontal stalks a coupe times a day and tie them to the wooden dowel that ran across the top of the crate; I’m in Ron Popeil mode now - “set it and forget it”…

I have some plants that are younger at the GFs house so might mess around with some horizontal training in them…stay tuned…