fruit loops journal

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D

dirtysox

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Day 1 thru 5
I will spare the pics concerning 40 "mostly unsexed" seeds that are in germination, as we have all seen trays with plugs in it.
First night soaked the seeds in bowls of water for 8 hours. Some sunk, some floated. Next it was to the papertowel and plate, with a cfl hanging to warm things up to 85 degrees.
heres the tray count:

32 papaya
1 california hash fem
1 blue hash fem
6 bagseed (hope to make better)

The above are currently at day 5 and beginning to poke out of the sponges. Running the lights 24/0 for now, then at true leaves, will go back to 18/6. As soon as roots are visible +1 inch from the bottum of the sponge, the individual 2 inch net pot will go into the homemade aero system. I will post pics of the fred flinstone homemade manifold, prior to sealing the lid. Its simple in design and works well, I left a plug in the bottum so that solution can be drained weekly or as required.

The plan:
The lid will be tightly packed with net pots, overcrowded, as time goes on, trimming and pruning will help. Once sex is determined (after a veg period of 4 weeks), the females will then be divided in half, set at 1 plant per sq ft., and another identical light/tote set up will be made. The one light/tote set up is initially done to keep the costs down, especially prior to flowering. If there are extra females, those will be put into 5 gallon buckets, with drainage and good soil. The tote is 5.25 sq ft and will hold 5 gallons of solution. With an airpump, 4 airstones, a 400 gph water pump, and 30 or so spray jets in half inch pvc; the application of grow juice should be covered.

grow juice: simple, counting on good genetics, and sweet citrus in flower only

Lights: to keep heat down, t5's
 
sounds like you have a plan :smoke1:

i d like to drop in from time to time if i may :48:
 
Day 6 thru 10

Well Im lazy and wont be getting that manifold pic to ya, its just 1/2" pvc with elbow and T's in it to make a rectangle with a piece down the middle, where the pump sends water thru, and the jets are tapped into the whole thing, about 4 inchs apart. That assembly sits in the tote, and the tote cover houses the 2 " pots.

Enough with set up, lets talk the grow, the cali hash and the blue hash didnt make it. 3 bag seeds did, do hope for one to be female, 24 papaya are growing well, and all under the t5's. hoping for 50/50 to 60/40 ratio of females.

The temp at the bottum of the tote is 70 degrees, and at the deck level, under the light, its a little warm at 80. Looks like the stand alone a/c isnt as efficient as when new. I prefer having the tote in the tub for 2 reasons, the tub itself will help keep the water cool, the tote is snug in there and not much light is getting to the sides of it (the tote). The second is when the weekly water change outs happen, I just pull the plug and let her drain. Got to love simplicity. Overall, the bathroom is nice and cool (mid 70), but a little warm around the light, to be expected.

Humidity is low at 33%, I usually run 40%, so I may just let it slide, as the plants get misted with straight ro water 4 times a day.

Was going to run co2, but dont like going for those damn bottles every week, may do it later????

The plants are only spaced 3" apart at best, as they grow, they will be trimmed to main stalk and moved as required. Ultimately in female only flower, the set up as previous is 2 totes, with 1 plant per sq ft.

Have been doing some reading on tieing the buds back over on itself 180 degrees to let them fatten up, this was originally done due to height restrictions, but its also proven to make hormonal changes to the plant, so it is supposed to make bigger buds??

So, at day 10 the plants all have their true leaves and the stems are fattening up. There is one concern, the second set of true leaves on a handful of plants appear to be coming in purple, as the stems have some purple in them also. Not sure whats stressing them, the ppm is 270, the ph 5.5, and the water temp is 23 c at its highest, at night when the property cools down, the temp drops in the reservoir. I am thinking high heat at deck level, or its in the pheno. Pretty wild thou, they are straight up little purple leaves coming in.

Decided to run only 2 air stones on a smaller pump, the roots are sticking out of the bottum of the pots up to 2"

Not sure how to base the 4 weeks of veg, is day 1 the day they went into paper towels, the day they cracked, the day they sprouted, or the day they got noticeable true leaves, I go with the last statement. If they look good at 4 weeks from paper towel, I will consider dropping the light period, my guess they will need atleast another week, putting the plants 4 weeks from true leaves before flower cycle. Im going to use the following hard criteria to make judgement: atleast 15" tall, and atleast 4 internodes, both factors must be met, before flower. One note: previously I mentioned 18/6 for light, Im now going with 24/0 until flower.

How many possible cuttings can be taken from a 4 week old plant?

Thats it for now, to say the least, were in veg, not sure which week, and they are growing, some green and some purple. If anyone has anything on my questions, I urge for your response. This journal is for me to unload whats going on, cause Lord knows keeping yo mouth shut is a big deal, and I thought I could ask you questions as we went along.
Thank you
dirty dirty sox
 
Everything is good, water a lil' stinky, added hygrozyme and thrive, ppm is 273. 5.5 ph, water is 21 c. Will change nutrient on Friday, the air temp is 74. Seedlings with 3 sets of leaves on most. Pics to come soon, as 7 more bag seeds are thrown into sponges, unsexed. 27 seedlings currently going
 
Day 18, 74 to go

Plants have all nose dived since last entry, and all I can say is that every grow is different for me. I have started seedlings at 200 ppm and had them take off, but after seeing my prior entry in this journal; 273 ppm was way to much for little 1 week old plants. As this is why I think the plants crashed and locked up. First I thought overwatering, but I have the spray nozzles at 15 min on and 15 min off, all day, which has worked out great in the past.
However, I do want to point out that when I questioned this site about yellow, brown, and crumbling leaves, I was instructed to go thru the sticky in sick plants. WOW! that thing works, and plants are back on track again! Followed the checklist all the way thru, and concluded its overwater or over nutrient.
I decided to stick with the nutrient issue, due to the fact that the 15/15 water schedule has worked. I believe I was in a rush, and thought that giving them more food would expedite the veg process. What a rookie mistake, and I should have known better, as now I may have to postpone flipping the lights on the scheduled day, to make up for lost time (yellow crusty plants).
On the bright side, lesson learned, and most of the remaining 23 seedlings seem to look to be coming back.
Yep, I lost 4, from 27 to 23. Oh well, those four were males, right?
I did do a 48 hour flush with just ro water, drained it and added new water with 100 ppm, which as I said has the plants looking well again.
It was close, as just last night I was cruising the web for the next seed batch, thinking this one was doomed! How depressing.
I will say this, the 4 that just got removed, the tops were yellowish green and the stems were none existant, so I took the tops in the cup off my hand, and for little bitty seedlings, they allready had a fruit smell to them, and I am not lieing about it, as it totally blew my mind.
I would post pics, but there is not much to look at except recovering seedlings, and my DIY crap set up. I hope to get some pics up here in the next couple days, as long as we continue with positive growth. I planned on having pics by now, but the nukeing set me back a little.

Oh yeah thanks again GeezerBuds for directing me to the sticky it helped!
 
running 37% humidity and 74 degress all day, got to love low heat flouros!

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Not sure if on track or not, with 16 days of veg from sprout and only 12 more days to go until the scheduled flowering. While the plants are currently only 2 inchs tall, and with only 3 sets of climbing leaves . We must now calculate a longer veg period than expected, to get atleast another 13 inchs of growth, for the planned 15" of height before flowering. This is not likely, so perhaps an extra 7 to 12 days of grow time will be required. The priority will be number of available cutting sites, the plan calls for 3 to 4 cuttings a plant. 22 plants makes 72 cuttings, 50% female, would equal 36 clones. Have also made another change in plans, largely due to unexpected space complications, whatever shows female flowers out of the 22 plants will stay in the single tote system, 5.25 sq ft. It will be tight, but we will make it work, with additional lighting, and planned pruning. Good news, one new soil bagseed plant is going, new total is 23 plants.
 
The plants took 400 ppm yesterday, which went well, 530 ppm this morning, really got them going, and waiting to see what 600 ppm does tonight. Papaya has been a hard one to get started, however, the seedlings were not rooted enough to make the transisition from tray to tub. Followed by being over feed, and then recently under feed, all in a shorter period has me thinking user error. They smell good allthough. The strain reads a fast grower, but I have yet to replicate that, due to my mistakes possibly. Now that they finally appear stronger and a healthier green, expecting the rapid growth, as a close watch on raising the nutrient levels will be conducted. Weekly pics next
 
here are the latest pictures, as I mentioned, went up to 600 ppm, and they reappeared ill. Water should be added, in order to bring the ppm back down to 400-500 ppm range.

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With one night of straight ro water and no nutrient, it has the plants looking alot better. The temperature was high at 82 degrees, so the lights were backed off a couple of inchs. At this point, I believe the problem has been chronic over fertilization, 200 to 400 to 600 ppm in less than 2 weeks. Will maintain a close watch on plants and fert levels in the future, with this strain, which I hope is worth it.
 

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