Death by Radiation

DAY 5 of Vegetation

A different story this morning; both plants are showing signs of very good growth… also, both plants seem to be developing new leaf growth. Yet again my fears of a quick death have been brushed aside by this almighty plant. Is there any plant in the world capable of this? Not just plant, but young plant… a little seedling? Cannabis truly is remarkable.

This is an excellent picture of the tunnelling effect of the leaves I’ve mentioned several times before. Wow.

In this picture we have a very twisted-looking Skinny. The cotyledons are pointing straight up and the leaves seem like they are suffering from heat stress.

Height: 100mm
Left Leaf Length: 20mm
Right leaf Length: 20mm
Leaf width: 8mm

Notes: A short spurt in stem growth, but none in the leaves suggests that Skinny has put more effort into developing the new sets of leaves. The leaves are looking more distorted than ever.

Fatboy seems to be suffering the least, and I believe this is because it is further from the light than Skinny. If I were a betting man, I’d put my money on Fatboy being a female. Not so sure on Skinny being a male, but to my mind Fatboy is showing all the signs of a female.

Height: 85mm
Left Leaf: 20mm
Right Leaf: 20mm
Leaf Width: 7mm

Notes: Leaf lengths have caught up but height seems to be staying at a constant distance from Skinny’s. New leaf growth seems to have found some vigour, and should (fingers crossed) be putting in an appearance very soon.

What is all this male/female talk? sex is not predetermined at "birth".Environmental factors don't begin influencing your plants sex until there are 3 pairs of true leaves.(not counting cotyledons)

1)higher nitrogen levels during the first two weeks of vegging makes more female plants.
2)lower temps increase the ammount of female plants
3)high humidity increases the number of female plants
4)low growing medium moisture increases male tendencies
5)blue light (MH) increases the chances of a female. choose a red light(hps) for males
6)fewer hours of daylight increases the ammount of females (14-16 hours)

this information was taken from Henk's archives. the owner of dutch passion seeds

page 20 Marijuana Horticulture: The Indoor ... - Google Book Search

munch box said:

What is all this male/female talk? sex is not predetermined at "birth".Environmental factors don't begin influencing your plants sex until there are 3 pairs of true leaves.(not counting cotyledons)

1)higher nitrogen levels during the first two weeks of vegging makes more female plants.
2)lower temps increase the ammount of female plants
3)high humidity increases the number of female plants
4)low growing medium moisture increases male tendencies
5)blue light (MH) increases the chances of a female. choose a red light(hps) for males
6)fewer hours of daylight increases the ammount of females (14-16 hours)

this information was taken from Henk's archives. the owner of dutch passion seeds

Click to expand...

If you want to argue this point, please read this entire thread and argue it in there...https://www.rollitup.org/advanced-marijuana-cultivation/36597-seed-predisposition.html

Fine whatever. done trying to help you. -bye

Day 6 of Vegetation


I decided to leave it for a full day this time before updating this journal. I feel now that the plants are not about to imminently die, so I’m sure that I’m fairly safe to just check on them once a day from now on… barring emergencies, of course.

So, let’s start the day with a familiar picture.

As you can see, it appears that there is not enough good light available for the plants to adequately photosynthesise so the plants are continuing to stretch. The transformation in these plants has seemed very quick. Where, at one point, they almost seemed like there would be no new leaf growth and that the plants themselves would die… now, it seems, that cannabis has (dare I say it) adapted.

Skinny’s leaves are curling up, almost as though trying to decrease the surface area of the leaf. New leaf growth is becoming much more prominent now, and the scaly appearance to the leaves is becoming much more pronounced.

Height: 110mm
Left Leaf Length: 25mm
Right Leaf Length: 25mm

Notes: The leaves are getting wider but at the same time are curling over so therefore decreasing the surface area available to the light. Stretch seems very consistent.

Are they getting a light misting from time to time?

Fatboy is getting scaly now too, and has shot up in height during the last 24 hours.

Height: 99mm
Left Leaf: 25mm
Right Leaf: 25mm

Notes: Rather than the edges of the leaves curling over, Fatboy is bending its leaves at the very centre, as though making some type of slide for the light to fall down. Fatboy also has gained some ground in height with Skinny.

Here is a pic of my UV girls

psyclone said:

Are they getting a light misting from time to time?

Click to expand...

Hey psy... no I haven't been misting them... they are on 24/0, and this would do too much damage, i imagine.

The light is too far away, so they stretch... yet too close so they burn. Only it's not a normal burn, it's a radiation burn.

Yet they seem to cope amazingly well. I am thinking of going 12/12 with UV for the last week/two weeks of flower. From what you have done, I do not think the plants will have a problem dealing with it.

psyclone said:

Yet they seem to cope amazingly well. I am thinking of going 12/12 with UV for the last week/two weeks of flower. From what you have done, I do not think the plants will have a problem dealing with it.

Click to expand...

Might be a plan... if you're sure your plants have adapted. If you remember the first guy that did this in flower (i forget who it was now), he actually burned one side of his plant.

But he did just kinda throw it straight on them... whereas you have been giving them steadying amounts over a period of time. Might be worth a shot, and you can always pull back if things don't look right.

Bit of an emergency this day at 2000 hours. On entering the vegetation area I noticed that Fatboy had fallen onto its back.

I really wanted to just kill it… maybe Skinny would be enough to continue the experiment, but then I thought that maybe Fatboy will be the female and Skinny the male. If these two ever get to the stage where they might be able to breed it would be a good idea to let nature take its course. I’m sure the resultant seed would be much more suited to high UV conditions.

So no, let’s try to keep Fatboy alive as long as possible.

Does weakness ever make you feel nauseas? I got to admit that when I first saw Fatboy like this I felt like just calling it a day there and then and pulling Fatboy out of the medium and throwing it into the trash. I have smashed plants to pieces before; by accident… say I dropped a light on it or something. Then I feel no nausea as the plant is in this position through no fault of its own.

I had to rescue Fatboy right at the start too. So let’s give it another chance.

I decided to remove the clay pebbles and build up with coco coir. Fatboy seems stable for the minute. Let’s hope that tomorrow things will still be the same.

Night, night!

Day 7 Vegetation

Today is day 7, and it’s time to up the feed to 0.6ec. There will also be another light added either today or tomorrow. I think it will be a 400W metal-halide. The light will not be shining directly on these two as I’m going to be adding 10 Northern Lights seedlings… and the light is for them. Hopefully the added lumens from a good spectrum (however distant) may aid in Fatboy and Skinny’s development.

It will also be interesting to see if either Fatboy or Skinny tries reaching for the new light instead.

Here are the updated pictures for this morning.

good idea, might be for the best, to get another light spec. in there too.

In this picture of Skinny (clearly distinguishable from Fatboy at the moment due to the clay pebbles) you can clearly see the new leaf growth. The cotyledons are hidden beneath the new leaves in this picture. The new leaf growth seems very vibrant.

Height: 117mm
Left Leaf Length: 27mm
Right Leaf Length: 27mm

Notes: Skinny is starting to look a little unsteady on (his) feet, and I feel that I may soon need to provide (him) with some extra support. The new leaf growth is surprisingly healthy and very vibrant.

Fatboy has repositioned (herself) through the night so that (her) leaves are more directly beneath the light. Due to the heavy build up of coco coir needed to keep (her) upright measurement of length has now become impossible. I could dig away the coir and take a measurement, but that would be cruel. So we’ll all just have to make do with what measurements I can get.

Left Leaf Length: 27mm
Right Leaf Length: 27mm

Notes: The leaves have kept in check with Skinny’s, and the repositioning all adds up to a good night for Fatboy. The new leaf growth is prominent and now clearly visible in the picture. Hopefully these will be the end of the nightmares for Fatboy.