tried, tested and true.

[ta2dguy]

well i had an absolutely horrible day yesterday and today dont look any better. long story short.... landlords are re-assessing the house and need access(along with an appraiser from the bank) to the house on friday afternoon. i was notified of this yesterday afternoon leaving me 48 hours to tear down and relocate everything i have going on right now . this consists of a 10x10 flower room just emptied and being renovated, 2 4x4 staging/sexing/play rooms and a 4x8 mother/cloning/seedling room full of all those. needless to say it was a long day yesterday and i think a longer one today . i will have everything back in and running by friday night/saturday morning. then i am going to start on my journey of putting the myths to the test . i have 35 seedlings right now that i was doing a feeding test on but will start it over after this inconvenience. right now i have to go clean up a bit and get the house ready.

it is nice to see some interest in this thread and i hope there is more to come. so far the most prominant myths are early feeding of seedlings, early removal of healthy fan leaves, and another good one is different veg. + flowering times i.e. 24/7 veg cycle vs. 18/6 or a 12/12 flowering cycle vs. a 15/10 cycle.

anyway, my time is gone for the next couple days but i will be back to finish what i started. happy growing.

 

[Chewbongo]

man that is very sad to hear, im sorry for ure troubles.

My first grow i cut leafs of constantly,i knew nothing of growning,still dont know much, my plant never got over 16 inches tall and produceced maybe 5 grams, lmfao
Im on my second grow with the same set up and havent cut any leafs unless they looked unhealthy,i have thre plants all over 3 ft and doing a beautiful job of budding, well atleast to me they are

 

[BBFan]

Im on my second grow with the same set up and havent cut any leafs unless they looked unhealthy,i have thre plants all over 3 ft and doing a beautiful job of budding, well atleast to me they are

And that's all that really matters!

Congratulations on your improving skills!

 

[Chewbongo]

Thank u very much.My first two grows were just some bagseed. Just got some super skunk, orange bud, and pure afghani seeds yesterday, gonna start them tomorro i think

 

[legalize_freedom]

Hey Ta2....man sorry to hear about your troubles...at least it was fixable! Could have been worse...you could have had a flower room full, and stuff hanging from the rafters drying!

 

[ta2dguy]

hey chewey, thanks for stopping in and thanks for the info. i am glad things got better this time around for you. i am sure that they will get better next time by the sounds of the seeds . feel free to post that kinda info anytime too

bbfan got it on the nose right there, improving your skills i like to see that in others as well as myself. thanks for the interest bb.

lf, you are right, it could be worse.... it could always be worse. even though the trouble i have to go through right now sucks soooo bad it is ok cuz i try to look for the positives. my space gets a great cleaning and i can now finish my grow with a nice clean area and start the next one the same way . it needed a good cleaning so this gave me the kick in the arse that i needed. my only concern is the stress on the girls cuz they are gonna spend half a day out in a shed without lights or heat but i cant do anything about it right now. they are 6 weeks into flower right now and a couple strains have only a week to 10 days to finish and the others still have 3 and more weeks to go.

once back in the house and reset up and once the flower room renovations are done i will get back to playing with these tests.

 

[monkeybusiness]

Right on! I seem to always seem to learn something invaluable when i'm experimenting

 

[ta2dguy]

ok, after a boatload of work and a little stress the storm is over. today i am setting all that i can back up and gonna try to finish the reno's on the flower room. over the past couple days all plants and seedlings have gone through some light schedule stress and enviroment change stress and so on so i cannot continue with the seedling test right now. i will do the feeding seedlings test next seed run. right now i am going to focus on the reorganization of my spaces. over the next couple days i will be set back up and ready to go. i am going to be cutting clones soon so i think i will prep for some fan leave removal testing and get a bunch of identical clones ready for that. i am also going to do some light tests on some clones, mostly different light schedules and their effect on quantity and quality. i just stopped in quick to get away from all the setting back up . happy growing.

 

[EsC420PoT]

well i had an absolutely horrible day yesterday and today dont look any better. long story short.... landlords are re-assessing the house and need access(along with an appraiser from the bank) to the house on friday afternoon. i was notified of this yesterday afternoon leaving me 48 hours to tear down and relocate everything i have going on right now . this consists of a 10x10 flower room just emptied and being renovated, 2 4x4 staging/sexing/play rooms and a 4x8 mother/cloning/seedling room full of all those. needless to say it was a long day yesterday and i think a longer one today . i will have everything back in and running by friday night/saturday morning. then i am going to start on my journey of putting the myths to the test . i have 35 seedlings right now that i was doing a feeding test on but will start it over after this inconvenience. right now i have to go clean up a bit and get the house ready.

it is nice to see some interest in this thread and i hope there is more to come. so far the most prominant myths are early feeding of seedlings, early removal of healthy fan leaves, and another good one is different veg. + flowering times i.e. 24/7 veg cycle vs. 18/6 or a 12/12 flowering cycle vs. a 15/10 cycle.

anyway, my time is gone for the next couple days but i will be back to finish what i started. happy growing.

Ey man sorry to hear bout that ta2. I would have been pissed!! Hope your babies dont get to much dmg. And for the feeding seedlings and unrooted clones, they will die... Iv done it before and had to fight my bro lol. But then again mabey I fed em to much, so I don't wanna cliam to have busted that myth...

 

[ta2dguy]

Ey man sorry to hear bout that ta2. I would have been pissed!!

...

i am not pissed at all esc, they would have given me more notice if they could but it was what it was. they are aware of what i do here and have no problems with it as long as i am not trying to make a profit which i am not, i am just trying to grow enough to make sure i get by and dont have to buy it(even though i think it is almost cheaper to buy it here than grow it ) and i do alot of playing around at times as well instead of full out growing. its all good now, back in working order and time to play again.

the feeding the seedling thing is getting more interesting because the ones i have going i had been feeding one bunch a 25% solution, one bunch a 50% solution and one bunch no nutes starting 3 days after the seed casings were shed. after 5 days i increased the fed ones by 25% each, putting them up to a 50% and a 75% solution and the others i fed none. after 3 more days i started to feed the ones the were fed no nutes a 25% solution cuz they were not looking good. half the size of the rest and getting a little "yellowy" color. so after 11 days out of the seed casing and a total of 13 days from germination they were definitely behind and lacking.
the ones being fed a 25% solution to begin with looked good. green and happy and even after the increase to 50% after 5 days they took it well and kept a happy green color.
the ones that started on a 50% solution had a bit of a rough look to them in the beginning. there were some curled/twisted leaves and a very dark green color. they slowly grew out of it and are now doing great at 75%(still darker green).
the ones fed 25% at the start are almost as big as the ones started on 50%(almost )
i did not end up killing a seedling from too much feeding or too little(this time) but i didnt do enough variables and the testing got a little messed up so i am gonna do it all again very soon(outdoor plans) with pics and proper documenting but right now i got seedlings that show that feeding them a 25-50% starting 3 days after they shed the seed case and increasing regularly and slowly will produce seedlings that are 3 times(easy) the size of seedlings that are fed no nutes for the first 12(approx) days.

the reason i believe that seedlings need nutes shortly after losing the seed casing is in my eyes that is the baby losing the yolk. not long after a baby is born and loses its casing, whether it is a shell or placenta it is not long after that food source is unattatched and whatever it was attatched to is crying for food. if plants could talk .... they do they just use sign language food for thought.

i cant wait to get a new camera but till then i am going to put together a better test with more variables that i can still manage for the feeding seedlinds. i dont grow in dirt but know that a dirt test is very important to this as well so if i cant find a dirt volunteer i am gonna have to give it a try i guess. i have grown in dirt but with little success and alot of headache so i went hydro and have not looked back.... yet.

it is good to be back in action and i cant wait to get this thread rolling. happy growing.:48:

 

[legalize_freedom]

Thanks man, interesting stuff. I have fed seedlings to at times. It all just depends on the plant IME. Also the medium being used plays alot to. If I'm growing in a good rich soil like FFOF I usually don't have to feed anything for about 4 or 5 weeks.

I have killed them before to though by overfeeding...this was yrs ago when I fisrt started growing.

 

[Killuminati420]

nice to see a mythbusters thread
. The most experimenting i do is LST and topping plants...but im hella still a noob at this

 

[ta2dguy]

hey there lf, always a pleasure.

Also the medium being used plays alot to. If I'm growing in a good rich soil like FFOF I usually don't have to feed anything for about 4 or 5 weeks.

that has alot to do with the starting of this thread. i got told absolutely that if i fed seedlings a 50% solution before 2-3 weeks i would kill them. my brain says seedlings started in soil get nutes as soon as the roots touch soil..... hmmmmmm. i dunno if you meant it all depends on the plant or all depends on the strain but either way i disagree a bit(for now) cuz i had a variety of 5 different strains and there were 35 different seedlings which is 35 different plants. i think it all depends on how much you feed them(depending on medium). that is why i need to use more variables such as amouts fed and schedules and maybe different lights too. please keep stopping in lf and giving a little, as i said before it is always a pleasure.

hey killu, how are you doing? thanks for stopping in and hopefully this thread can be useful to you at sometime. i love the "lst vs. non lst" test or to top or not to top question. i will guarantee you that they will be put to the test in this thread.

happy growing.

 

[surreptitious]

i also have an opinion on the subject. i wrote this in another thread on this forum:

"i just read an article in the Jan/Feb 2010 edition of Urban Garden that's called The 'Sweet Zone' - Pruning Indoor Plants for Larger Yields.

the "Sweet Zone" is defined as not too near and not to far space under the grow lamp that receives the most light energy without being so close to the lamp that the heat from the lamp interferes with the plant's health and metabolism. The aim of the indoor gardening game is to shape and position your plants so that many growth tips / fruiting sites are basking in the 'sweet zone'

Whenever a plant grows (roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits) it takes energy. The rate of a plant's development is limited by the amount of light (energy) it receives. This energy is distributed throughout the plant in order to grow and bloom. The aim of pruning is to focus this energy to where it's most needed - the fruiting sites in the 'sweet zone'

then it talks about the 'clean-up'. if left "un-cleaned", a light loving plant grown indoors will generally produce many small, low quality fruits and flowers, especially on the lower branches. The best time for the clean up is immediately after the initial stretch in flowering, but before the plant has shown much sign of fruiting. If too much is pruned off too soon, the plant will stretch even more and become somewhat leggy. If you clean up too late, you will be removing green matter that the plant has already invested a lot of energy into, some of which will be small fruits or flowers. The later you prune into the flowering stage, the more the plant is focusing its energy on generative growth instead of fruits. A good rule of thumb is to "clean up" the plant in the second week of flowering just as the first smalls signs of fruit appear and after the plant has stretched a little.

There is a fine line between pruning off too much and ending up with a very sparse canopy and a loss in yield, and leaving too much on an lowering the size and quality of the fruits.

Generally, I'm trying to prune off all branches lower than halfway up the plant. As the plants start to flower you should be able to crouch down and peer right through your garden underneath the dense canopy, but i've heard of people keeping only the top 3 nodes and cleaning up the rest.

not only will this focus the light energy on the tops making bigger, better quality fruits, but it also allows for better circulation throughout the garden.

while this article was not written about marijuana specifically, it's logic is sound to me.

http://www.marijuanapassion.com/foru...t=50787&page=3
here is my latest batch of clones that have been in flower for about 10 days and you can see how i'm doing it. my last batch of clones that i flowered got over 5 ft tall after the stretch. i have done some LST training on these guys, used bushmaster to reduce the space between the nodes (most of the tops it's hard to see the stem between the nodes, that's how close they got, i'll try to take a picture tomorrow to show how close they are) and put them into flower after they were only about 12 inches tall or so."

 

[ta2dguy]

thanks alot surreptitious. articles and studies like that make me think alot about what will benefit the plants most. i am still going to give trimming fan leaves off a test but i think i know how the tests will pan out.

i am going to start a small test again on the early feeding of seedlings but want to do it as fair and right as i can so i wil ask for a little help from everyone to come up with some variables i can use.
i am going to use 5 groups of seedlings that are started in 1" rockwool cubes and transferred to 4" blocks after they have popped. i am going to start feeding them 3 days after they shed the seed casing. group 1 will get no nutes(for a period of 14-21 days), group 2 will get a 10% nutrient solution, group 3 a 25% solution. group 4 a 50% solution and group 5 will get a 100% solution. they will all get fed at the same time and they will get fed by hand for 2 weeks and then put into an auto feed setup. i am going to divide the 5 groups each in half and use a different nutrient solution on those. each group will consist of 8 seedlings, 4 fed one solution and 4 fed another. this i think is a good starting point and i am open to other input and suggestions. gotta go hit the vaporiser right now but i will be back .

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

If you are going to do experiments on nuting your babies, we need EC or PPM readings, rather than saying you are using 25% or 50%--those figures really do not tell us anything. Can you report your PPMs?

 

[Droopy Dog]

...
the reason i believe that seedlings need nutes shortly after losing the seed casing is in my eyes that is the baby losing the yolk. not long after a baby is born and loses its casing, whether it is a shell or placenta it is not long after that food source is unattatched and whatever it was attatched to is crying for food. if plants could talk .... they do they just use sign language food for thought.

The seed casing is just that, a casing. The COTYLEDONS are the yolk or placenta or whatever you want to call it and supplies seedlings with everything they need.

When those fall off, THEN it is time to start very mild nutes.

DD

 

[ta2dguy]

hi there hemp goddess, good to see you here. i agree with you that there should be ppm readings and i will provide those when i start. it will be good to use ppm's cuz there may be a big difference between the 2 brands. 25% of one solution probably wont have the same ppm's as 25% of another. it would of course be optimal to have a ppm reading for each specific nutrient in each solution but until then i will give a ppm reading for each solution mix as well as the ppm reading of the water i start with. i appreciate the input THG. it is little things like that that can easily get overlooked and i in no way would call these absolute scientific experiments that anyone should base their own decisions on but i would like to keep them thorough enough to maybe give some experienced guidance to some and to start a bit of controversy with others .

thanks droopydog, all input appreciated. so you are saying that i should wait until the little round set of leaves that appear first drop off? you dont htink there is a stage before that where there may be signifigant growth benefits if a certain amount of nutrient solution is introduced. i am doing this test in hydro, not soil. there will be no nutes available at all till introduced manually(except for whats in the water). what do you think is a good starting solution after the leaves fall? i dunno, i think that is waiting too long.....but i will find out .

i am going to add another group to the test. it will be a group of seedlings that will get fed nothing but water until the little round set of leaves falls off then i will use a light solution for feeding(i will wait and use what droopydog says to if it is ok with him/her).

this is the kinda info and questions i was hoping for. thanks to all for your help so far. im not far along yet but appreciate the help. happy growing.

 

[kal el]

I grow in a lil tub with all the plants crammed together.
I average 7 grams per plant. When I started chopping the large fans off, the yields increased due to more light actually hitting the buds. I increased my yield per plant up to 10.5 grams, that is a 50% increase.
I can sit and argue about it all day. Google a fellow named jrosek, he advocates this style of growing and his grows will show you.

 

[Droopy Dog]

thanks droopydog, all input appreciated. so you are saying that i should wait until the little round set of leaves that appear first drop off? you dont htink there is a stage before that where there may be signifigant growth benefits if a certain amount of nutrient solution is introduced. i am doing this test in hydro, not soil. there will be no nutes available at all till introduced manually(except for whats in the water). what do you think is a good starting solution after the leaves fall? i dunno, i think that is waiting too long.....but i will find out .

i am going to add another group to the test. it will be a group of seedlings that will get fed nothing but water until the little round set of leaves falls off then i will use a light solution for feeding(i will wait and use what droopydog says to if it is ok with him/her)..

I'm a him and it's fine by me. I grow in soil though, actually a soil less mix that I make myself. Hydro is a whole different ball of wax.

As to strength, perhaps you could do some in 1/8, 1/4, perhaps 1/2 strength?

I just do seeds every now and then. Once I have a strain I like, I stay with that and do clones and very seldom run more than 1 strain at the time.

I'm trying to think back (been close to 2 years), if the cotyledons had actually dropped, but for sure, there were no nutes added till after 3 sets of true leaves.

DD