Strain: Urban Poison Sativa Regulars. First proper grow with correct equipment.

Well sorry for the lack of replies. I have been having bother getting the seeds to germinate. I was told to get rid of the Rock Wool cubes and do it the glass of water and paper towel way, so I did and got no results even after 5-6 days. I popped some other seeds into a paper towel and they germinated over night so they are now in pots but the Durban's are sitting in a bowl of water and have only just cracked the shell so tomorrow I will put them in a paper towel and let the tap root emerge to about 5mm then pop them in the soil.

The extra strains I now have to go in the tent are:

Auto Jack x Auto White Widdow Fem
Auto Blueberry x Auto Sweet Tooth Fem
Top 44 x Bubblegum Fem
7/8 Sour Fem

I will choose the best of the non auto plants, keep them in veg, take cuttings to sex, weed out the males and then take it from there. Any over crowding will be managed by donating the least favourite plants to a good cause.

Will keep this updated as soon as the seedlings emerge from the soil.
 
Easiest and most successful method of germination for me is to plant see in dirt and water till it sprouts.. Its very rare for me to not have a seed pop
 
Well I have got 2 of the Durban Poisons to germinate, they are still in paper towel just now. Not quite ready to go into soil yet.

But I have 2 autos germinated, Auto Jack x Auto Blueberry and Auto White Widdow x Auto Sweet Tooth, and they are in the soil with about just under 1cm showing above the soil.

Soon I will have actual plants to show but here is all I have for now.

Auto White Widdow x Auto Sweet Tooth
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Auto Jack x Auto Sweet Tooth
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Time for a little update.

This is a Urban Poison Regular that has just emerged today, I used a little unorthodox method of getting this bugger to germinate! It is 1 of 2 I managed to get to germinage by very gently bursting the seed with tweezers, doing this left one half of the shell very loose so I pried it off and popped it in a glass of water again. A day and a bit later and it had a tap root, popped it in the soil and behold; we have life! Proof a seed can be forced to germinate when the wee bugger wont do it itself. The other 8 seeds are still in water trying to germinate, I have now done the same to 3 more to see if I get the same results.
Durban Poison A Day 01.jpg
This is Top 44 x Bubblegum Fem Day 5. Very slow start for this seed compared to the others, however I do like the fact it is not stretching like the following 2.
Top 44 x Bubblegum Day 5.jpg
This is Auto Jack x Auto White Widdow Fem Day 5. A little stretching, however still very healthy.
Auto Jack x Auto White Widdow Day 5.jpg
This is Auto Blueberry x Auto Sweet Tooth Fem Day 5
Auto Blueberry x Auto Sweet Tooth Day 5.jpg

Still not much to see yet but I am getting there. At least my germination rate is increasing from 0% up to about 33ish%. Still very poor but I blame the seeds, they seem old and the shells are hard for the water to penetrate.
 
Good stuff there.
Once they germinate and start growing is what's important.
You're off and running now:)
 
Auto Blueberry x Auto Sweet Tooth Day 10:
Auto Blueberry x Auto Sweet Tooth Day 10.jpg
Auto Jack x Auto White Widdow Day 10:
Auto Jack x Auto White Widdow Day 10.jpg
Top 44 x Auto Blueberry Day 10:
Top 44 x Blueberry Day 10.jpg
Urban Poison Day 5:
Urban Poison Day 5.jpg

I am a bit concerned about the Urban Poisons as they seem to be growing very slowly. The on on the left is showing signs of growth however the one on the right is not showing much. The soil seemed to be a bit tight around the emerging shoot so I loosened that off to see how it will go as I have not seen any change in a few days. I fear the Urban Poisons may have to be written off but I will give them the chance they deserve before I pull them.

The 2 autos are stretching more than I would like, they look indica dominant so they should not be reaching for the sky, I blame the fluorescent light for that. But the Top 44 x Blueberry seems to be staying at a good height.

So far so good apart from the Urban Poisons.

When should I switch to the HID lighting? I have a 600w dual spectrum HPS bulb, wish I had a separate MH and HPS bulb but I only have the dual spectrum one.
 
Ok so I was poking about at the smallest Urban Poison and noticed that it has pretty much died, the first leaves are going brown and then I noticed that the root hadn't gotten any larger from when I put it in the soil.

When I pulled it from the soil I seen TINY pure white worm looking things. I thought it was really fine roots curling about to start with till I got a real close look.

I have tried to get the best pic I can with my camera. They just a bit thicker than a hair and they are only a few MM long at the most.

What are they? They were latched on to the root and I assume they were feeding from the tiny seedling.

May I have a problem with the rest of the plants also?

Could it be anything to do with Biobizz All-Mix organic soil?

They are only being fed plain water, and are only getting the nutes that were in the soil in the first place.

I'm worried now...

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Those worms are more than likely the larvae of fungus gnats, they feed on dead organic matter and young plant roots, they were most probably in your soil when you bought it.
If you're not letting the soil dry out between waterings they will thrive, letting it dry out completely should help eradicate them and for the adults get some tricky traps.
I've read on this site somewhere that a slice of potato on top of the soil will attract them, other than that you could dilute 1 part 3% Hydrogen peroxide to 3 parts water and water when the soil has dried out, I never had them so those remedies are just what I've read so perhaps a second opinion wouldn't go astray.
 
thanks for the reply fr3d12. yeah after doing a little digging around the net, I have came to the same conclusion as you. i am 100% sure they are gnat larvae and I will be going to my local chemist to source down some hydrogen peroxide. i have read enough to be confident to use that and the issue is apparently not a big issue to deal with.

apart from the h2o2, i will get yellow fly strips and hang a few in my grow tent and a few around the house. can't be too paranoid as the little fuckers were eating the roots of one of my urban poisons, which has killed it and I can't take any more risks with these plants as I dont want to have to start again and I want my xmas smoke lol
 
thanks for the reply fr3d12. yeah after doing a little digging around the net, I have came to the same conclusion as you. i am 100% sure they are gnat larvae and I will be going to my local chemist to source down some hydrogen peroxide. i have read enough to be confident to use that and the issue is apparently not a big issue to deal with.

apart from the h2o2, i will get yellow fly strips and hang a few in my grow tent and a few around the house. can't be too paranoid as the little fuckers were eating the roots of one of my urban poisons, which has killed it and I can't take any more risks with these plants as I dont want to have to start again and I want my xmas smoke lol

As I said I never had them but have read about them especially in posts about soil, I use shamrock multi-purpose mainly because it's the right ph but it is also sterilised.
The H202 will kill beneficial bacteria in your soil also.
 
The h2o2 will only kill off the bennies in the top couple of inches of soil and they reproduce quickly. If concerned you can add a little unsulfered blackstrap molasses to your water (after the gnats are gone) or even better you can make up an EWC tea and that will provide a surge of beneficial microbes.
 
Or if you want to really give them a good time, any insecticide with imidacloprid in it (which is safe and used on crops) will kill *anything* in soil with 1 application (save spider mites), and last for possibly the entire grow. Follow the instructions if you go this route, the products with this in it are plentiful and the gnats will be not just a little dead, but VERY dead along with any other insects.
 
Ok so I got some h2o2, didn't want to use any pesticides. One poster said that the h2o2 only kills the top few inches of gnats, I have read that they only live in the top few inches of soil so I should not need to do anything else.

I have treated each plant with 6% solution diluted down to 1 part h202 to 8 parts water and the soil sizzled for a while and the next day the plants showed signs of growth again and they started smelling! So I believe that I have fixed the problem for now and have spare h2o2 sitting for any future problems, if I get problems again I will let the soil dry out more and do a bigger soak as the plants seemed to love the extra oxygen from the treatment.

So I am down to 4 plants due to loosing one before I got the chance to kill the gnats. I lost an Urban Poison, and the other one looks rather retarded, hopefully he/she pulls through and at least lets me get some cuttings off it.

I have since switched from the fluorescent light to dual spectrum HPS running at 400w and the light is about 20" from the plants to let them get used to the light change. I know it may be a little early to switch to HPS but I have not enough light coverage with the fluorescent lights due to repotting the plants into larger pots.

Temps are approx 24c - 25c during lights on and steady 20c during lights off.

Went from 24/0 to 18/6 to save on elec costs with HPS on now.

Urban Poison Day 10:
IMG_5189.jpg
This has shown lots of promise since treating with h2o2 even though the leaves have grown in with a rather deformed shape. The roots were alot larger than expected when I repotted, they had reached the bottom of the pot and had spread round the bottom. I was surprised.

Top 44 x Bubblegum Day 15:
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I am hoping to get cuttings from this one to continue the grow once the autos have flowered and been harvested.

Auto Blueberry x Sweet Tooth Day 15:
IMG_5193.jpg
Has shown great signs of recovery after getting rid of gnats! Started smelling srong and healthy.

Auto Jack x Auto Blueberry Day 15:
IMG_5194.jpg
This one is also showing great signs of recovery and is smelling the strongest out of the 4 of them.

There is no smell in the room when extraction is on so the filter seems to be doing its job, I will wait till they really stink and check up the attic for smell as that is where I am extracting to.

If anyone thinks that the Urban Poison is a waste of time or thinks it may pull through then please comment. Thanks
 
Good news on the gnat front, h202 will kill pretty much anything but will also kill the beneficials in your soil but what can you do.
The runt will take a while to recover and will probably always be the smallest but you may be surprised also.
 
Yeah about the beneficial bacteria. I emailed biobizz asking about the beneficial bacteria and when I start using the nutes that will reintroduce the bacteria so there aint a problem with that which I am really glad about as I was about to fork out more money on getting a separate bottle of the stuff which I now know I don't need.

Also if I take clones from the runt when its big enough, will the clones also show the same runt traits that the mother had or might they grow strong and tall like a sativa should?
 
Dont worry about your bennies from the h202, it wont kill them all and they reproduce quickly. You can get them going faster with a tea if you like.
 
Auto Blueberry x Auto Sweet Tooth Day 20:
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Is that the start of pistols I see? It was a fem seed but I believe this is starting to flower. From what I have read I will be lucky to get an oz from this auto but at least she will flower under 18/6 light to keep the 2 photoperiods vegging.

Auto Jack x Auto White Widdow Day 20:
S1051796.jpg
This one is also looking good, no signs of any pre flowers yet.

Top 44 x Blueberry Day 20:
S1051797.jpg
This one seems to be growing quite slowly but the nodes are very tight which is not a bad sign. Hope to get cuttings from this one once it is large enough to provide for a SOG.

Urban Poison Day 15:
S1051798.jpg
Still struggling along, really not expecting much from this.

All 4 in one shot:
S1051799.jpg


Now watering every 3-4 days, giving the 3 healthy ones about 250ml of plain water that has ph adjusted to 6. Will need to test runoff at next watering to check ph of soil as a few bottom leaves are curling downwards which I have read may be PH issues.

Temps are still staying around the 25c mark with lights on and 20c at lights off.
 
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