new pH meter

I had to go buy a new pH meter today and I am damned glad I did. I would have killed my plants without it. Hopefully I can get things back in check before I have to flkush them.

well you can't win them all....

I woke up this morning to check the plants and found ficve dead clones and the others were pretty fried. Out of the corner of my eye I caught a gnat diving into the soil as I was trying to clear my half woken vision. Being half asleep I went into instant panic mode trying to figure out what kind of bugs I had in my sterilized tent.

Now mind you this is not my first grow but it is only my second attempt at indoor ever. The first was taken over by spider mites and fungus down in Arizona. Bugs are bad. I soon figured out these were fungus gnats and most every commercial soil has them. Anyway I bought a nicotene based pesticide and decided not to use it and  wwithinh nematodes instead. I bought enough to treat all my soil as well as the plants and that problem is solved I hope.

On to the next problem. I fired up the second light yesterday and my ventilation wasn't good enough. Anyway I just opened the tent up and left the vent system on high. I never thought about the clone cabinet. It must have been hot enough to cook an egg in that box.my solution was to move the clone  equipment out of the tent and create a new environment for them. I was given a used nano dome and bought a 10x20 tray to go under it. I put a nano t5 on it and the clones perked right up withing about 20 minutes.

some new pics.

It is crazy how well things are going here. I had some very sad looking clones to start with and now I have some really healthy plants! I also have 9 clones in soil and another 11 that need a day or two more for root growth!
 I think I am more into growing it now than I thought I would be. It is kind of relaxing getting in the tent and inspecting things. I am really looking forward to harvest and sending the finished product in for content testing.

Sorry about my lack of content here. I am  not creative enough to describe the same type growth on a daily basis. I will still do my best to keep you updated on my success and possibly failure as well.

A few pictures for you all.

I had to trim the fan leaves on the clones because they grew over night. It was pretty insane, everything looked absolutely amazing today! The plants themselves were in excellent shape as well. I expected more signs of shock.

So I am a bit of a slacker when it comes to the blog.

I planned on doing daily entries here but there simply isn't that much to talk about. Yesterday was my first real trim and I pulled about 15 clones off. I built a cool little cubboard for my clone king areoponic clone table out of a used TV stand I found on craigslist. I was shocked to see how well this all went.

Anyway since this was my first attempt at cloning I expected a major fail yet the cuttings look so healthy. It is almost like there was no shock to them, like they actually like a soilless life?

Well if anybody is interested I will have some Northern Lights clones for donation in helping my grow. Make me a reasonable donation and I will give you your own plant ready for your love and nurturing.

A few shots of the ladies. These are two days old. Im slacking in the blog dept!

a great day.

Again no pictures. I took the day off and got away from the house. I was very happy to come home and see my plants are looking better every day. I will make it a point to take some fresh pictures tomorrow.  I really am happy with the overall health of my girls right now!

Some of my ventilation is in.

Not going to say much about this because it is pretty self explanatory. I put a intake and exhaust in. The intake is from the inside room and exhaust is outside through a nifty little vent I built. Oh yea all I can say is these 1600 Watt Mars 2 are fucking insane bright.

A few pictures of the clones.

After placing them in the room, inside a box with a plastic bag over it I gave them 24 hours to acclimate to their new home. The strain is Northern Lights and they were soil cloned about 9 days ago. I took them out of the box and did a thorough inspection to see if they seemed healthy. I think I am going to lose one but not sure yet. The others seemed to perk right on up but this one is still pretty droopy but I have hope for the new growth on the lower part of the plant.

 This is Miss Droopy. I have my doubts about her survival but she might pull out.

 This is a closer view of her.

 

This is what the overall health of my plants is like at this point. I am sure there is quite a bit of shock associated with being cloned, imagine having somebody chop your arm off and then stick it in chemicals forcing it to grow a whole new body.........













This little girl on the right looks bad in the picture but she is much better looking in person.
 

This is an overall shot of the grow room.

Soil Choice.

Again some changes have been made to my plan. This whole project is turning into a lot of fun as well as being a major learning experience. I think for now I am going to just wing it. If I have an idea I come across that looks like it may be good, I idea will just go for it.

At this point I have decided to go with a 100% organic soil and super soil combination. I will pretty much be taking Roots Original and enhancing it with other nutrient rich organics. At this point I will not be adding any extracted nutrients. What this means is I am growing as natural of a medicine as possible.

I am not going to post my super soil formula here, but I will come back at a later date and put a link to it. I will just kind of describe a little of the process used and why the soil works so well.

As we all know the marijuana plant can be extra sensitive to nutrients. Too much can be much worse than not enough. With the super soil method I am using it helps, in fact there are several growers who swear by it and don't even think about Ph levels. It is a pretty simple method really.

First thing you do is track down all your minerals and composts that you use to enrich the Roots Original. Mix your concoction well and add water. Give it a few days to settle in and mix again adding a bit more water. After it has cooked in real good, usually about 30 days then it is ready to use.

So with your pre mixed and aged super soil ready it is time to get going. Fill the transplant pot about 1/5 of the way up with super soil. Add enough of your uncut base soil to get your plant to the right level in the planter. Set your plant in and fill the remaining space with a 50/50 mix of super soil and base soil. As the roots grow and the plant matures, the roots will be growing into the enriched super soil. This will make sure the plant is always growing into fresh nutrient rich soil. At this stage I will be transplanting into a 1 gallon container. I will keep it in the 1 gallon pot until it gets close to being root bound. At this point I will switch to a 5 gallon pot and repeat the same process. The five gallon bucket should get me through until harvest.

step one done

Today I picked up my grow tent. The 4x8x8 size is bigger than anticipated so I changed my light plan. I dropped about $1200.00 on a set of Mars 2 1600 watt LEDs. I expect to have plenty of light in this confined space.
I have also ordered my pots. I went with five gallon nursery buckets with trays this time. I know it will be harder on the plant growth but the price was right and I might use them for something outdoor later.
Along with the above decision I also ordered my nutrients selection. I'm going to keep it simple and use the fox farms soil trio. I want to keep it as simple as possible with this grow.

There was a delay in getting my clones but it is working out for the best. I will be picking up 10 Northern Lights clones tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully the little 180 watt LEDs keep them happy until my real lights arrive.

I made some decisions today.

Well for starters I am going to do my first grow in a tent. I am arranging to squire a 4x8x8 mylar grow tent with a 6" fan setup on both intake and exhaust.

I also decided to use LED lights. The tent comes with a 180 watt veg and a 230 watt flower setup. I am planning on going with adiddional lights as well. I am looking at a set of  2 1200 watt LEDs with  5 watt LEDs. That should give me more than enough light to grow the meds I need.

Join me as I go on an adventure into the land of THC!

Over the last few months I have reacquainted myself with the world of marijuana. I am now a medical authorization holder and getting ready to start my first indoor grow. I am going to use this block to document my adventures!