As I’m following along on your grow @DissidentPriest I thought I’d show off my Little Lady. I germinated the seed between 2 sheets of Kitchen roll, potted up on Day 2 and by Day 12 she was looking like this…
She’s a UK Cheese Auto in a 3 Gallon pot and I’ll have her in my tent under T5 6400K lights. I have been lightly misting her with PH 6.2 water and after top dressing with a little more soil I gave her a small drink (about 1/3 pint) of the same water this morning.
A friend who saw her Thursday and again yesterday (Sunday) thought I had switched in a Ringer, she couldn’t believe it was the same plant! Hopefully things will continue like this on both our grows.
Any and all advice or guidance from anyone would be welcome.
She looks good! It has been many, many years since I grew in soil. Granted, soil grows are slower, and your strain is different, but look at my Gold Leaf at (pic #1) 13 days from sprout, and (pic #2) 12 days from sprout:
Tomorrow I begin defoliating. Those 3 point leave need to come off, and I need to start prepping them for the LST. At this rate of growth I think I’ll be tieing them down by Friday of this week! Well done Robert!
We Irish are known as “Sons of the Sod” so as a real new grower Soil seemed both the simplest and fastest way for me to get started. I’ve been reading a lot on the Hydro systems in the Forum and think at some point I’ll give it a go. I’d like to build on my basic knowledge first before trying Hydro. I’d love to know more about DWC which I see talked about regularly, so if you know of a thread entitled “DWC for Dummies” that starts with an empty bucket please steer me in the right direction. I’d like to start at “Turn your bucket the right way up” Level and read from there.
BTW I would have to break from tradition completely. In this part of the Emerald Isle we have a very historic use for Water…
I was actually planning writing up a tek, complete with photographs, about DWC and a DWC build. I’m still collecting all my supplies. I have to get them a little at a time… My 3 rapidly growing children suck up so much $ in food that finding extra is an excercise in creative thinking/innovation.
If you do get that up and running I’d be very obliged, if you remember, to be tagged in so as not to miss it. For Health reasons I’m not working so I’m trying to cut out the middlemen for my “Meds” and learning to grow is my kind of Occupational Therapy. As far as kids are concerned, mine are grown and gone. After researching how they grow I found that kicking them out helps in their development and speeds their learning curves. It also reduces the food bills.
@HighRoller
I use coco coir pellets. Technically coco can go directly into your hydroton without contaminating the system. I don’t though. I wait for my seedlings to have a nice long root system spiraling around the bottom of my starter cup. Then, I gently remove it from the coco and rinse the roots with pH’d to 5.8-6.0 water. After rinsing, I split a pre-soaked in pH 5.8 rockwool cube in half, and place the seedling into it. The colored part of the stem should be flush with the top of the rockwool, and I usually have 1-2" of root coming out the bottom of it. This is then squeezed from the sides and gently placed on a layer of hydroton pellets at the bottom of my net pot. DO NOT push down on the cube! Young roots can be damaged VERY EASILY. Holding the cube, and squeezing from the sides, I fill in around it and over the top with pellets. Within 2-3 days you’ll have 5-6" roots in the water and be off to the races.
I’d happily end my days wearing Tie Dyes in a convoy of VW Campervans searching for the Golden Cola of Enlightenment. I am long past the days of creating life other than my little weed however a very close friend tells me that whilst I am unproductive I haven’t lost any of my enthusiasm for regular practice.
Peace
Thanks for the help, not sure how but I am trying to stay away from Rockwool. Reason being later on if I have Rockwool next to the stem it will wick moisture from the hydroton and could cause problems. Rockwool holds so much water, compared to hydroton. I like the idea of coco, that may be the way to go, just drop the water leval and let it root in the bottom third of the pot and cover it with hydroton.
Your rockwool shouldn’t get wet, except when you first transfer to rockwool. You want your water level right at the bottom of the net pot, and no more than 1 hydroton layer (~1/4") into it. Having water too high will cause all sorts of problems: namely rot. As you already accurately identified.
I’ve seen you’ve mentioned it a couple of times on the forum; defoliation.
I’m curious of your technique, and why you would want to strip the plant of it’s leaves?
Here on ILGM, Robert teaches distribution of sugars, with possible pruning & trimming, but never defoliation. In fact, he recommends leaving all the leaves on, and letting the plant self prune.
Defoliation is a yield enhancement technique that is an attempt to simulate predation by grazing animals. Ever notice how bitter tasting MJ leaves are? Fresh young seedling leaves are quite sweet, but as the points increase, the bitterness does as well. This is because the bitterness is an attempt to ward off predation as the plant nears and enters into flower. The bitterness is actually generated by the resins in the plant.
All life has 2 common, core motivations: self preservation, and procreation. The MJ plant is a professional at both of these. By removing the correct leaves, in the appropriate spot, at the right time, the plant goes into a hyper self preservation mode. It thinks (yes… Thinks) it is being eaten and going to die before it breeds. It knows that if it can make itself resinous enough, it will no longer be sought after as a food source. This is also why it stinks (only a select few bipedal monkeys seem to enjoy the smell of skunk), and you’ll notice a marked odor and a stickiness increase very early on with defoliation.
So now we have this hyper responding plant that really believes it’s going to be dead any day. If only she could reproduce! We’re going to be the carrot now for her, instead of the stick. Every internode can produce a branch. Every branch has the same potential as the main stem. Every internode is a flower production site. The idea, and this is where the LST makes this so cool, is to convince the plant that while she may be dying from predation, she has a bunch of internodes exposed to direct light. She will go into a self preserving reproductive push and begin generating a branch at every exposed internode. Since every branch carries the same potential as the main stem, she, and the clever defoliator, will attempt to use it for reproduction.
Do not be mistaken. This is like bonsai for your pot plant. It is exceptionally tricky, has taken me years to get the hang of it; and, I am sure I can still, and will, screw it up. Thank the maker he gave me such a resilient plant to monkey with!
I intend to journal this process for you in this thread. I am saving one of the Gold Leaf as a mother. Nature always has a backup plan. So do I.
Of course! When I joined the medical co-op I dedicated half of my plants in proving to the others the efficacy of the practice. Indica strains do better than Sativas, probably due to their shorter cycle in general, and some individual plants take to it better than others regardless of their strain. The power of DNA, no? As I said above, it is tricky. This is my first Gold Leaf grow so I have no idea (outside of generalities) how they will respond. I am pretty optimistic though, as another “mentor” told me the Gold Leaf proved to be a very hearty and resilient genetic.
My Gold Leaf hit 2 weeks from sprout today! I haven’t picked which one I want as the mother yet, and I may hold off another day or 2 before beginning this process. I would prefer to do the LST at the same time as beginning defoliation if possible. Pictures and observations to follow.
Btw… This concept works on any magnoliophyte that has a decent lifecycle. We do the same thing with our tomatoes, and I produce enough to keep my family well supplied in tomato sauce, paste, and salsa throughout the year… And then some. In point of fact, I learned this technique on tomatoes when I was but a wee lad from my grandmother. She was a horticulturalist and Biologist who taught at the University of Washington for many years.
