Outback - Australia, Stealth grow: first crack at the whip in grow closet.

smokedup12 said:

Keep in mid if your using just cfls your soil is going to take a while to dry. HPS a day or two , CFLs a week +.

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Very well said, this is true when i was using cfls on my first grow i was guilty of over-watering too, i was watering every 2nd-3rd day which was no good,
then i started watering once a week and they were loving it this was in winter though so you might have to up the watering a tad in the summer heat,
i'd water them really well till i get a little run off from the bottom making sure the soil is evenly wet with no dry spots, then leave them for a week unless they dry out real quick, better to underwater then overwater, you want the soil to dry out a abit before watering again to help the roots breathe, instead of suffocating them
Im watering every 3-4 days under my hps, my soil mixture seems to hold water very well

smokedup12 said:

Generally nute burn can cause the tip of the leaf to brown or stay a bit yellow. A strong indication of nute burn is tips of new growth are browning and yellowing which is present in your picture.
During a deficiency you would see the lower leafs go yellow then brown, this is because the plant is sucking the energy from lower leaves and using it on the new growth.
Now during a PH fluctuation i have seen entire plant go yellow and slowly go brown and die. I have only seen this type of issue in hydro. Soil is usually pretty good for ph stability. But depending on what your soil additives were orginaly in the mix and such this can defenitly be the issue.

Keep in mid if your using just cfls your soil is going to take a while to dry. HPS a day or two , CFLs a week +.

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Hmm, I see now. Bugger, I was pokinh my finger inthere and obviously not far enough. It's going take some considerate personal discipline to let them go a week without give them some "love" - water.
Got guests/family over at the moment so can't put the plants outside for some full blown Aussie sunshine so I'll just have to try and provide them with energy telepathically.
Thanks for your contribution towards my grow, it's informative and obviously useful.

Big Ups to you.

yarndi

MasterHemp said:

Very well said, this is true when i was using cfls on my first grow i was guilty of over-watering too, i was watering every 2nd-3rd day which was no good,
then i started watering once a week and they were loving it this was in winter though so you might have to up the watering a tad in the summer heat,
i'd water them really well till i get a little run off from the bottom making sure the soil is evenly wet with no dry spots, then leave them for a week unless they dry out real quick, better to underwater then overwater, you want the soil to dry out a abit before watering again to help the roots breathe, instead of suffocating them
Im watering every 3-4 days under my hps, my soil mixture seems to hold water very well

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Thanks for the help and guidance, me and my plants are grateful for your visit and contribution. As I said earlier...it's going to be hard to not feed them but one must do what one must do.
I'll report back in three days.

Regards,
Yarndi

Day 28
After three days of dieting, the girls were watered.
I simply gave them filtered water until there was 'plenty' of run-off as per my reading of both Riddleme, and Uncle Ben's work.

Lucy (Easy Rider 1) responded almost instantaneously, I've also removed here from her sub-standard soil into a new pot with soil which is a little better. By 'a little better' I mean les peat, some lime and fresh potting mix with some perlite. I didn't get to the store but I did find some old 'garden lime' in the shed so I put some of it into the soil mix (I also sprinkled some on Ruby's soil).

I am going to discipline myself to NOT give into temptation and feed the girls for at least 2 1/2 days whence I shall commence with the nutrients.
Nutrients - I understand that Riddleme does not recommend Miracle Gro, but that's all I have aside from some Orchid food.
I will mix a less than 1/4 strength MiracleGrow chemical nutrient with a dash of Orchid food.
This Orchid food is 12 -13-16 NPK, the packaging recommends foliar feeding it to orchads starting to flower. However I will simply sprinkle a little into my watering container.

Henrietta will only get filtered water again, she also had some garden lime sprinkled on her soil.

I do believe Ruby has commenced the journey into WOMANHOOD - someone please confirm via my pics please.
After all she is an Autoflowering strain so it stands to reason that this is in line with the timing (being Day 2.

I think Lucy is also trying hard to become a woman (you can just make out pistils and the top looks like a good attempt at a flower. Comments/observations anyone?

Lucy Day 28 (Easy Ryder 1) Should she be on the 2700k lights too?



Ruby Day 28 (Easy Ryder 2)




You will note in the last picture here the yellow tone of the picture, this is because Ruby is now surrounded by 2700k CFL lights as opposed to the 6500k.



Henrietta Day 14 (Auto Hindu Kush) The plant in the bachground is just a reflection, I have mirrors around them to reflect the light and to also give the plants positive self-esteem.



Thanks for reading/stopping by and for your conributions.

Yarndi.

Lucy's new growth certainly looks like she has got over her little problem.

Update Day 31
The girls have responded extremely to the nutrients.
Ruby has put on the expected growth spurt, Lucy has become a bit of a runt due to my earlier over-zelousness with overdosing her on nutes, however her new growth is green and healthy (as observed by his grumpiness-G.O.d).
Henrietta is also developing nicely.

Point of Interest - Note that the soil has become quite dry already, this being 36 hours after watering them with nutes. I have commenced the "Make it Rain" regime as described by 'Riddleme' and I have been surprised by the amount of water that the plants have absorbed in such a quick time. I will water them with filtered water again tomorrow (making it 48 - 56 hours later).
Obviously my soil does not retain the water as one would expect.

Temps - It has been very bloody hot around here, I have had to leave the doors slightly ajar with the Aircon practically directed straight into the box for the whole time that the lights are on. A few nights ago I fell asleep without turning off the aircon and discovered in the morning (reading the thermometer records) that it had dropped to 13 degrees celsius inside the box. They pulled through it ok.
Having said this I have learnt the importance of temps. The power bill ... I have it under control






I would appreciate comments/observations on the pictures of the girls which have identifying circles in them. Thanks.

Lucy (Easy Rider 1)
I have trimmed two of the early large fans leaves which had yellowed and browned. Only one needed to be snipped with scissors, a few smaller yellow/brown leaves practically came off by themselves when I tugged on them slightly.
You can see some evidence of flowering, it is tighter than a fish's bum in there that I wonder if there's room for any more buds down below. Reminds me of another grow I'm following "The Angry Midget", and "La Diva" ( https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/363197-crazytrains-pc-case-perpetual-autos-7.html ).
I left the other yellow/brown leaves on there if there was still green on them, comments?



Ruby (Easy Rider 2)
Ruby seems to be going just fine, there is one small confirmation I'd like from you guys please...I have circled a small sac which I think is normall even for females but please comment/guide on this please.
Note the soil is dry again after only 48 hours. Still waiting on replacement 2700k lamp (130 watt CFL).



Henrietta (Hindu Kush Day 17)
A little bit of input requested on this one. She is only 17 Days old but the lower fans leaves are yellowing as if they are being drawn of their energy/nutrients.
I wonder if it's because I let the soil dry too long? Obviously this one cannot maintain the same watering regime as the bigger girls so that may be the case, ideas? Comments? Advice?
The other discoloration id purple/maroon, it's only happening on the edges of the leaves. I wonder..is this a trait of the Hindu Kush?




Update again in a few days, Thanks for visiting and for your input/contribution to this grow.

Stay Fit, Keep healthy.

Yarndi.

Hey bud, my feeling on your prob with mainly Lucy (but im also seeing some similar symptons in the others) is some sort of ph imbalence. This is why the leave seem to be twisting and distorting. Some overwatering also seems very possible. But defiately look into the ph of your soil and they should start growing much faster. Only feed that 1/4 strength about once a week. Theyre still too small to suck up tons of water and nutes. GL, peace.

Oh rats.. I should have scrolled to this last post before leaving my comments. They are looking better tho but ph still needs to be monitored diligently. Bump the two easy riders up to 40-50%.. but starting very soon you should really supplement in some form of flowering food. Kush isn't bad tho.

RDGgreenthumb said:

Oh rats.. I should have scrolled to this last post before leaving my comments. They are looking better tho but ph still needs to be monitored diligently. Bump the two easy riders up to 40-50%.. but starting very soon you should really supplement in some form of flowering food. Kush isn't bad tho.

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Mr. Grenthumb,
Thanks for coming back, I'm trying very hard with the PH but I'm still only using the colour charts that really is only used for fish tanks. The packet came with PH Up a,d PH Down but it was just a cheap brand which I could get at the time. I am anxious to receive my order digital item soon, at least before I really start making kistakes during this stage of the game.
Evidently I have turned poor old Lucy into a garden gnome when she should have been the star of the show, Oh well...we live and fight another day.
I have high hopes for Ruby and better than high hopes for henrietta the Hindu Kush.

Comment on CO2
Just wanted to inform any readers that the DIY CO2 contraption works a bloody treat, by that I don't refer to the plants getting super growth (my poor management probably the reason) but my room smells like ten drunken sailors have spent the night in there.
All I did was throw some sugar into a half litre of water and then added some yeast, at first it smells like bread or beer. After a few dyas...BAM ..like the inside of a rugby team's tour bus.

Update Day 35 for Easy Riders, Day 21 for Hindu Kush
When I got back home I found that the Air Con had shit itself once again, the tempreture inside the box was 44 Degrees Celsius!!!!!
I panicked a bit, but simply took them out of the box, watered them and hoped for the best.
Today was nutrient day. They took twice as much water today as the last couple of times. This "make it rain" regime really does work.
Have a look at the growth rate, especially Henrietta the Hindu Kush.

Note - The very hot conditions burnt the shit out of my plants, you can clearly see the damage in the photos.
Any suggestions from you guys as to how to help recovery or negate the damage? I'm just going to ignore it and push on with the same regime.

Lucy Easy Rider 1 Day 35



Ruby Easy Rider 2 Day 35



Henrietta the Hindu Kush Day 21

So you are keeping the ph in the 6.5-7 range? 44 is to hot but like you said there not much you can do at this point except baby them the rest of the way! There still looking good so just try to keep a close eye on them from here on out! I'm assuming you've been watering with regular water every other feeding too?

SmellyTreez,
Thaanks for coming over here. Sadly no I haven't been keeping the Ph at that parameter. I was using the colour chart PH solution until just recently. And since I have recently got a digital PH reader I have been (trying to) maintain a PH at between 5.5 -6 .
But I have adopted the 'make it rain' technique so the plants get ordinary PH 6.4 water every second watering ( 3-4 days between watering).

Thanks,

Yarndi.

https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/378553-outback-australia-stealth-grow-first.html

Congratulations with the newly born, hope all is well.

Gentlemen, Thank you for your kind words and well wishes. We are over the moon.

Update Day 46
Tempretures have been the bane of my existence. Local ambient tempreture is in the mid-high 30's then dropping to 14 -16 degrees over night. So just imagine what kind of drama I'm having inside my grow box, bearing in mind that all of this has been with CFL's only.
Let's push on - After reading thorugh every literature in my possesion it is clear that every deficiency in the world will produce 'yellowing of the leaves', bloody drama this is, so the way to determine your specific problem is to assess your environment/plan. I believe that my problems were due to mostly inexperience but..a. Heat, early over-doseing on Nitrogen (nute burn) and then lacking the Cal/Mag due to over-use of the peat, poor PH control.
I've rectified most things with lime, new digital PH meter, regulating the watering cycle according to what the plants say, and adding trace elements to the feeding.

Lucy Day 46 (Easy Rider 1)

I wonder - is this going to get any bloody bigger or what?? Should I move her to a bigger pot?
The white residue on the leaves is Magnesium Sulphate from when I foliar fed her Epsom Salts solution.


Ruby Day 46 (Easy Rider 2)

Pride of the pack. I think another 3 weeks to go??



Henrietta Day 32 (Auto Hindu Kush)
I think the massive hdrama with the 44 degree heat stunted the poor hindu kush into submission and she stopped growing, thoughts? Ideas?
Or isi it just the way they grow?

hey man glad they all still alive well done

Theory on why the hindu Kush is so small
After much thinking and deep profound things inside my head....(Madagascar), I think the hindu kush may havebecome so short because of the way I germinated it i.e into the peat pellet and then into the soil.
Apparently these autos decide when it's time to stop vegging when the tap root finds some sort of resistance - Hazaar I say!
Notice how the Hindu Kush was germmed - in a peat pellet in a cup.
BUGGER! Now I know better.

Hey bud how's everything going. Keep it updated

Cant you grow outside in australia throughout the year?
Or am I incorrect?

I've heard of people growing outdoors in winter but they start there plants off indoors to harden them up abit to handle the weather

Update Day 56
Ladies and Gentlemen, Ruby has left the building. Her intended target is now in possesion of her. She was always going to a sick relative and that is where she is. I am unsure of the weights at this stage but I will post the final weights once she has cured and they have sent e the info. It will be in a week or so from now (we estimate close to one ounce for ruby).
Lucy is also done and weights are still pending also.
The grow box has been dismantled and packed away, henrietta the Hindu Kush will be left in the natural sun for a few days more.

It has been a real pleasure growing these wonderful plants indoors, however difficult it had been to maintain the tempretures. I for one will be resuming my outdoor adventures as I relocate to a different environment/area.

Things I have learnt from the Easy rider - it is very sensitive to nutrients, it is a delicious smelling plant, and a lovely girl to look at also.
The power bill has determined that to make it viable an indoor grower should really have 5 or 6 on the go at the same time.

I will be continuing to grow this wonderful plant as it is very easy to conceal and a pleasure to grow, however I will be growng it outdoor in a discreet fashion. I believe that it will be very very easy as a guerilla grow as it requires very little nutrients.


Ruby at day 55 (Easy Rider 1)

Here is a Ruby just before I was about to 'drown' her for five days, however the brothers showed up on this day and they took her to her new home.


Lucy(Easy Rider2)

Lucy ended up being a lovely christmas tree shape just like Ruby was, I didn't get a photo due to technical difficulties with the camera. She was drowned for five days and swelled accordingly.


Henrietta the Hindu Kush
She's still not ready although she could probably come out of the ground right now:
She has that old school smell which brings me back to my younger days: