Starting Mephisto Form Stomper indoors, will move outdoors 1 May

shotnva777

Well-Known Member
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…
I’m in Hampton Roads as well! Hola neighbor!

I just started 4 autos outdoors as well, they’re about 2 weeks today and really are starting to take off in this lovely weather we’ve been having!
 

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Retired engineer

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I’m in Hampton Roads as well! Hola neighbor!

I just started 4 autos outdoors as well, they’re about 2 weeks today and really are starting to take off in this lovely weather we’ve been having!
Awesome weather indeed! Couple stray thunderstorms, but gonna be hot and sunny for the next few days! Gonna explode!
 

Retired engineer

Well-Known Member
I love IPA's
great journal, I love your techniques very refreshing
Thanks, had a few I:As last nite and it was good, I so proclaimed…

If ya wanna see something pretty radical I did last summer with the milk crates and some 4 foot wooden dowels check out this thread. I bent them over 90 degrees at the second node, and ran the main stalk horizontally along the dowel to its full length of around 4 feet. Would up with some pretty weird looking plants, the trim was pretty easy since all the buds that grew upwards from the tied down main stalk were completely exposed. Wound with some chunky medium size pine cone shaped buds…

 

Retired engineer

Well-Known Member
Normally I’ve collected a whole bunch of trim on my plants at this point - I keep them pretty clipped and cleaned of damaged or dying leaves. These plants are showing no sign of slowing down or entering the “terminal phase” where they dont have the nutes/strength to support the whole plant and send auxins etc to the flowers at the expense of leaves. All the sugar leaves are coated, and the finger leaves that are still on the plant are getting coated as well. The chop decision might be based on when the finger leaves are fully coated.

the main colas are fully exposed, and around 20 inches long. Many of the lower colas emanated from lower nodes on the plant are just as long, and packed with flowers.

I scoped them this morning, and around 10% clear, 75% cloudy and 15% amber…won’t be long…



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FirstCavApache64

Well-Known Member
Really looking good! I can't believe how fast this grow seemed to fly by. It won't be long before she's in the magic drying machine now. That main cola sure looks like a trimmers dream. It's the exact opposite of what I have to face today and tomorrow with all the golf ball shaped buds on my bubba kush that have fan leaves on each little bud.... arghh. I'm stuck in trim jail for two to three days minimum. Amazon sent me the wrong pair of scissors so I'll have to return them and use my busted up old ones for this harvest. I waited to chop an extra week too for those damn scissors, oh well at least I know the plants are ready for sure. :wall: . Have a good one.
 

Retired engineer

Well-Known Member
yeah, I'm keeping them pretty clean as harvest is around the corner...some finger leaves will come off in the AM, and all the sugar leaves are packed...

if I get a chance I'll bust out the gear for a stacked focus shot later on. one of my cameras is acting up so gotta figure that out. the other 2 are working fine. these were taken with a 500mm lens from around 20 ft, handheld in overcast conditions. the lens has vibration reduction on it...I was too lazy to go get the tripod...DSC_4801.jpgDSC_4803.jpgDSC_4804.jpgDSC_4805.jpgDSC_4807.jpgDSC_4808.jpg
 

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Retired engineer

Well-Known Member
These will be 70 days old next weekend, and will be getting the chop…no clear tricromes at all, and 90/10 cloudy/amber now. I’ll spend this week pruning back the yellowing leaves, and the finger leaves that come from within the flowers. Should be an easy trim, not too much LARF, and the buds are pretty large. Some the size of pine cones.

there are 3 other citronella plants on the patio, skeeters are murder around here this time of year…


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Retired engineer

Well-Known Member
Gave them the NFTG recommended 1 tbsp of Triton’s Trawl, w 2 tbsp of Herculean Harvest, and 2 tbsp of Athena’s Amina’s, with a good dose of pH 6.4 water. Will follow that until harvest next weekend probably. That’ll put them at 68 days, then into the Cannatrol they go for 8 days and then 2 extra days on the hold cycle.

the buds interior to the plant looked like they were sweating, wet and gooey, so I did some late in life LST and pulled down several branches. they stink and are sticky so trends are all in the right direction…2BB22D5B-0DF6-4310-80E4-552C02C7E65C.jpeg84F964BB-E2AE-4A5B-9509-6FAF14A8946E.jpegFC6FC6DB-3255-41AE-9A76-D1BD8C3140BE.jpeg92615FCD-A7E8-4178-BF82-EE22236B5B61.jpeg9C49F44C-3506-408A-920E-9FB6CD308E4F.jpeg6D29A9C8-C431-4968-B0F1-94F078667116.jpegFE66921F-5ECB-4F17-9CB7-E95B69439E6F.jpegE1C87B99-EE63-41FF-AD88-8CB1197C1DEA.jpegCBEAD6FB-305E-4050-A2A2-63A8ACC5154D.jpeg
 

shotnva777

Well-Known Member
Awesome weather indeed! Couple stray thunderstorms, but gonna be hot and sunny for the next few days! Gonna explode!
They’ve definitely grown quite a bit, in just a short week! I went ahead and transplanted them into their forever pots yesterday. Then being autos, I didn’t want to wait too long and stunt/shock the growth at a bad time. Here’s a pic from 2 days ago, compared to those first ones I showed ya!
 

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Retired engineer

Well-Known Member
They’ve definitely grown quite a bit, in just a short week! I went ahead and transplanted them into their forever pots yesterday. Then being autos, I didn’t want to wait too long and stunt/shock the growth at a bad time. Here’s a pic from 2 days ago, compared to those first ones I showed ya!
They are looking strong and well cared for, it is exciting to be off to the races…

Looks like one of them is clay and the others 2 are plastic. Clay pots will wick the moisture from the soil pretty quickly, and if in the sun, that will evaporate quickly as well, and you’ll have to manage that. The root zone will dry out more quickly…doable but cloth pots help in that regard. Clay pots get pretty heavy to move around too for an old fart like me.

I started my growing using plastic pots, I think they were around 4 gallons. They worked really well, then I tried Airpots (link below) and they worked better, then I moved to cloth pots and they work better still for me. I still have a bunch of airpots I’m not using, if ya wanna give them a try let me know or cloth ones are pretty cheap on Amazon.

they’ll be awesome in the pots you used nonetheless and the weather here finally turned to more sun and dry weather, so, all is well…

What kind of feeding regimen are you planning? Lots of good/great options and information available. This is not a plug for their line, but look up Nectar for the Gods Unofficial Bible - it is 96 pages of really interesting information with lots of discussion on managing nutrient levels organically. I’m using their schedule on the plants at my house, and the plants at the GFs house are on the Fox Farms regimen, with some additions.

if ya have any questions or want some more info let me know - a couple of other local”ish” growers are in this thread and know a ton more than I do so we can figure out just about anything…

 

Retired engineer

Well-Known Member
Here is a journal on some plants I grew in the airpots I’m not using anymore. They worked well but if I had it to do over again I probably would have gotten a larger size…

 

Retired engineer

Well-Known Member
Swapped their positions (upstairs/downstairs) and applied some late in life LST to get the lowers flattened out. What once woulda been marginally more than popcorn on the lower branches close to the stalk are out in the light and have 4 days to catch up. All the flower sites on the interior from branches further up the stalk are totally exposed and the main colas are growing into a single mass. I’ll be able to clip off individual buds up their lengths but they are solid flowers now.

decided to make the home stretch to chop this weekend inside - the sun is out today, but I’m tired of lugging them outside, and since I have every bud site in each plant exposed, the side lighting will be better than the sun can manage in terms of coverage, but maybe not intensity. I’ll take the trade off.

so, the next run will be Mango Smile, start indoors thru veg and early flower, then outside with wire tomato cages similar to the GF’s current grow. MS is supposed to get tall, so once I put the cages on they’ll stay outdoors Except for heavy storms. I hope to have them ready for harvest in mid Sep; my experience is mid Sep is when caterpillars and the like start showing up, and the cool humid nights can be a problem with bud rot. On pleasant evenings, I bring them up to the upper level of the deck at sunset and put a couple fans on them for a few hours. Since they will still be sorta portable I’ll brainstorm a place to keep inside during heavy storms.

time to water the yard…tons of flowers all over the place. Every spring I get baked and plant stuff with the soil from previous grows, FD769F2B-D622-4173-BCF9-AC1757D05195.jpegECF80304-5597-4FD7-82A8-D983F9F6DBD1.jpeg49898017-50DA-4EF0-9BE1-D0CAE162E1ED.jpeg548ED0C4-EC62-4053-A4F2-98398C1FE713.jpeg4D09E5AC-DB68-43B1-9898-0498403FF3CD.jpeg3B6D381E-B279-4D27-B326-4C56A0C3955D.jpeg794C2235-A5BD-494B-B1A1-CF4C97CB2814.jpeg49E82250-0A79-43BD-987D-9FD4E99089F3.jpeg37BFDFE5-F20B-4A20-9F20-9FD49B484397.jpegC1A98556-E69B-4C45-A70C-6A4A2849462B.jpegFD769F2B-D622-4173-BCF9-AC1757D05195.jpegECF80304-5597-4FD7-82A8-D983F9F6DBD1.jpeg49898017-50DA-4EF0-9BE1-D0CAE162E1ED.jpeg548ED0C4-EC62-4053-A4F2-98398C1FE713.jpeg4D09E5AC-DB68-43B1-9898-0498403FF3CD.jpeg3B6D381E-B279-4D27-B326-4C56A0C3955D.jpeg794C2235-A5BD-494B-B1A1-CF4C97CB2814.jpeg49E82250-0A79-43BD-987D-9FD4E99089F3.jpeg37BFDFE5-F20B-4A20-9F20-9FD49B484397.jpegC1A98556-E69B-4C45-A70C-6A4A2849462B.jpegand wait until June to be reminded what I put where…

this will be 2 posts to carry all the pics I took this AM. Electrons are free…
 

shotnva777

Well-Known Member
They are looking strong and well cared for, it is exciting to be off to the races…

Looks like one of them is clay and the others 2 are plastic. Clay pots will wick the moisture from the soil pretty quickly, and if in the sun, that will evaporate quickly as well, and you’ll have to manage that. The root zone will dry out more quickly…doable but cloth pots help in that regard. Clay pots get pretty heavy to move around too for an old fart like me.

I started my growing using plastic pots, I think they were around 4 gallons. They worked really well, then I tried Airpots (link below) and they worked better, then I moved to cloth pots and they work better still for me. I still have a bunch of airpots I’m not using, if ya wanna give them a try let me know or cloth ones are pretty cheap on Amazon.

they’ll be awesome in the pots you used nonetheless and the weather here finally turned to more sun and dry weather, so, all is well…

What kind of feeding regimen are you planning? Lots of good/great options and information available. This is not a plug for their line, but look up Nectar for the Gods Unofficial Bible - it is 96 pages of really interesting information with lots of discussion on managing nutrient levels organically. I’m using their schedule on the plants at my house, and the plants at the GFs house are on the Fox Farms regimen, with some additions.

if ya have any questions or want some more info let me know - a couple of other local”ish” growers are in this thread and know a ton more than I do so we can figure out just about anything…

Thank you for the insight, but I did somewhat know that about the clay pots, honestly just from trial/error though. The clay ones you saw, were just half gallon starter pots though. I usually germinate in a papertowel, within a closed Tupperware container, on top of a super low heat pad that has a towel on it. I spritz every day with a spray bottle and then once I see a lil root coming out my seed, I throw the lil lady into a swollen up Jiffy Plug. Then I hit it plugs with two LED flood lightbulbs I have rigged up to a reflector. I check the cabinet every day, spritz as needed, and within a few days, I have me a sprout. Once I see a root or 2 coming from the bottom of the jiffy plug, hunting for water, that’s when I move up. The plugs go straight into the 1/2 gallon starter pots, full of Fox Farm Happy Frog. At last, when I have 3 good leaf sets, I transplant for the final time, into their 4 gallon plastic forever pots! Which are already full of Fox Farms Ocean Forest, with a bit of The Happy Frog mixed in on top (for transition). All the final pots have good drainage holes in the bottom of them, plus I tend to layer about an 1” or so of pea gravel on the bottom of each. All of my soils have about 25% perlite added to them the second I open the bag! Ha! I guess out of habit more than anything.

THAT SAID! These plants don’t get moved, ever. Only reason they’d come in, is if there’s a bad storm or for some other unforeseen reason beyond my control. They are def good and hardened, as they’ve been in 80-95+ degree temps, since they sprouted… basically. It gets awfully breezy out here on “Back River” as well, so they get plenty of wind “treatment” as well. Now don’t get me wrong, I did baby them a lil, during that first week after germ. But, I soon realized that this strain was going to do a-ok outdoors, if not thrive! They Seem to love the hot, super sunny, perfectly humid weather we’re having.

I’ve been wanting to get back into growin indoors for a while now. But to be honest, I’m tired of the zip up tent, that only holds 2 decent sized plants, just sitting in a spare bedroom. So I’ve come up with another idea, that’ll keep me going year around! I have a wooden shed, that i was planning on tearing down this summer. But After examining it? I think it’s exactly what I’m looking for and Is still in such great shape! It may end up needing a small hole here and there fixed, but nothing major. The foundation and frame are beyond solid. I believe I’m going to turn into a greenhouse and a multi grow room. It’s about 14ftX12ft and is framed like a house, with shingles and all. It has running electricity, access to a water hose, some shelves that are already in perfect position and most importantly… plenty of room! I believe I’ll build a wall halfway down it, leaving me with 7ft up front and a 7ft room(s) at the back. That back 7ft will be split in half, using another wall, to divide the 7’x12’ room - making two 7’x6’ rooms. Goal is to have A small door on both rooms, for access. Now, a friend of mine gave me two 400W High Bays, that they replaced out of a school gym. So, I have 2 complete 400w High Bays on stand by. The plan is to purchase a replacement 400W MH ballast for one; then get me a replacement 400W HPS ballast for the other. HPS and MH both use the same bulb socket, wiring, housing, etc. Just one or the other has an igniter, built in with the said ballast. Anyways, I’m thinking about making one of those rooms a veg room, with the MH - at 20/4 light cycle. Then the other room can be a flower room, with the HPS - at 12/12 light cycle. With us Virginians’ only being able to grow 4 PLANTS, I believe 400w will be more than enough for 4 girls, in 5 gallon buckets, sitting in a 7’x6’ room!!

My next outdoor grow, I’m for sure going to try the pots that the OP is using! Ingenious, if I don’t say so myself! I think the bag inside of the milk crate(s) is a freakin awesome idea. It has handles that can be grabbed, to move the girl, no matter the size of the plant. The soils’ “pot” has more than enough drainage, not to mention it probably makes watering a breeze too. And it gives me something to LST to while they’re growing. Thats the only training I do to an auto, normally I have to drill small holes around my pots, to tie string to! Haha!

SO…HOW MUCH DO YOU WANT FOR THE AIRPOTS, and WHAT SIZE ARE THEY?

On that note, did u know that McDonalds Nursery has an entire bin of just about every pot size you can imagine?! All for free?? It’s basically somewhere you can donate old pots, grab whatever you want, or better yet, swap out for what you need. They have a TON of the bigger barrel pots, used for small trees and such. When they’re sold, 99% of ppl just tell them to get rid of the pot the plant came in. Honestly, if I just had a 5 gallon bucket per plant, I’d be happy as hell, but even those are hard to come by atm. Maybe I’ll just get the airpots from you, depending on what we’re talking!

I’ve grown cannabis off and on, for roughly 20 years now. Grown plenty of indoor photos, quite a few autos indoors, quite a few photos outdoors (pots AND in the ground), but these are my first auto ladies outside. We don’t have a single tree in my entire 2 acres that my house sits on. I got a nice, raised deck that I keep the girls throughout the day, where they literally don’t miss a speck of sunlight. It’s perfect really; as we get an almost constant, nice draft of “cool” air coming off that marsh and the Chesapeake Bay.

My PH runoff readings are near perfect. Plus The plants seem very happy for the moment and are growing like crazy. So, my Feeding schedule is as follows: I plan to let the HF and now OF do it’s thing, trying not to add anything to it unless needed. I’m hoping the OF will carry me through veg and into preflowers… then I can start with bloom nutes when she shows her sex. That said, I do have some Happy Frog All Purpose fertilizer that I’ll scratch in, if deficiencies start to show. I do add half strength of Big Bloom every cpl of weeks, now that they’re in their forever homes!
 

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