Aaarrrrgggghhhh!!! I did it again - left the darn compressor off this time and the system ran out of air. They got no mist for about 3 hours. Not as bad as last time, but Ive lost a huge part of the fuzzies - again!
I was draining water out of the air tanks when my mom called. She got me going on a project for her and I totally forgot I had turned off the compressor until later in the afternoon. Thats twice in just the last few days!!
I am such a dippy stoner!
The universe overrides your decision not to prune the roots. 
Damn Larry, wish I had something of value to add, but you madmen are on a whole other level! Keep up the good work!
Dont know what kind of space you have but you could add second tank to your air system. Would have 2 effects, first larger volume so less cycle time and the second tank won’t need to be drained half as much. Downside would be that when the compressor does cycle it will run longer.
LOL!!
Yeah, I was planning something about like doing a FIM - just a small snip off the very tip end. This ended up being like a super crop from hell!
Thanks! I appreciate the sentiment 
Yeah, thats the trade-off. This is a small “silent” compressor Im using. Its very quiet, but only has a 1 gallon tank. I hooked up my old 5 gallon water accumulator tank so I have a total air tank volume of just over 5 gallons. Right now it takes about two minutes to re-fill when it runs down to the minimum pressure. I could add another tank easily, but Im not sure I want to make the compressor run that long at a time.
Right now, the system will run for about 90 minutes between cycles - starting from full. To make a real difference, I would need to triple the volume.This is considered a light duty compressor. I think it has a 50% duty cycle, so I dont want to push it too much.
Im only using 7 PSI of air and that seems to be plenty. Im thinking that if this compressor takes a dump, I may just get an old refer compressor and use that. Im pretty sure they can do at least 200 PSI or more and they are designed to run all day. The problem is they are probably relatively low CFM’s. The silent compressor I have now is rated at 1.2 CFM. I might need to use two of the refer compressors in parallel. It will take some testing. I would also need to be more careful with filtering the air. I know those refer compressors can spit out a fine lubricating oil mist when running.
Day 21
Its been two days since my latest attempt to kill these babies off, and the roots are starting to recover nicely. Even as little as 12 hours ago there was little sign of any fuzzies on #2 and #3. Number 1 came through the best and only lost maybe 1/2 its fuzzies. Number 2 lost more like 60%-75% and #3 lost maybe 80%-90%.
All three are now showing nice new fuzzy growth.
One and two
Three
The leaves look pretty good but still possibly a tad pale, so I upped the EC from 0.6 to 0.7 Number one still wants to droop periodically and I cant figure out why. I thought it was changes in humidity for a while, but the humidity has been very stable between 49% and 53% the last several days.
I also FIM’ed all three. Normally with my photo period grows I FIM twice before I start LST with the scrog screen, but I think one is all Im going to have time for with these fast autos. Im going to start LST in the next day or two. Its probably a bit soon for 2 and 3 - they only have 3 sets of leaves. Number 1 has 4 sets.
Can you take a close up of the cut for fim please sir. Every time I try I end up just getting half leaves that grow from the tip lol obviously not cutting in the right place lol
Here you go @Daytripr69 This is all three cuts as close as I can get without a scope.
I am no expert, but its my understanding that you want to cut the top most, absolute newest set of leaves. FIM stands for ‘F’ck I Missed’ when you’re topping a plant. The idea is to cut just at the base of the very newest leaves that are just forming, but NOT to cut the stem. Cutting the stem would amount to topping.
I think I cut a bit low on number 2, but the other two were cut as close to the base of the leaves as I could get. Its ard to see exactly what you are doing with such small parts of the plant - especially when its half burried under the larger leaves.
Day 24
Im getting worried. I am now more than 1/3rd of the way through the grow if we assume 9 weeks total from seed to harvest. IM almost 1/2 way through if these are 8 week babies. Im worried about the small size and apparent slooooow growth rate.
Number 1 is the largest, but it is only 3" tall and the widest fan leaves have about a 5" spread. Number 2 is almost as tall but about a 4" spread. Number 3 is a 2" cube.
I think I must have stunted them badly by letting the roots dry out twice. If these babies are even vaguely close to normal growth for autos, then they are going to have to have one heck of a growth spurt at some point.
What do you guys think? @ReikoX - Am I wasting my time continuing with these three or should I keep going?
I think you still are doing well. Here are what the mothers of these seeds looked like at around 23 days or so.
Here is what they ended up like in 10.5 weeks. I got about an ounce each in the small pots.
Thats a relief - thanks!! That is going to mean one heck of an intensive growth spurt once they take off!
Im guessing that will be around the time they start to show flowers? Four to five weeks maybe?
I still think Im behind the curve to some degree. My biggest one is on par with your plants, but the other two are lagging.
Its been just over 24 hours since I trimmed the long hanging root tips, and it kind of looks like its working as intended. The roots do seem to be throwing out more side branches rather than growing down like they were. Its not a big thing yet, but clearly visible.
Here are some pics.
This was three days ago. The center plant - num 2 - has just reached the bottom of the root chamber. The other two are close.
This is yesterday right before I did the trim. All three have reached the bottom of the chamber.
This is a better side view right after the trim.
And today
This is a side by side. Today on the left and yesterday on the right.
Here are some current pics of the plants. I started LST yesterday, but its really tough when the nodes and leaves are so close together. Bending them at this stage doesnt really open up the lower layers to more light all that much. I am seeing some new growth stems starting though.
Looking at those pictures again, its clear that the plants are putting a LOT more growth energy into expanding the root system than they are into the plants above ground. Im kind of surprised at that.
Holy crap! I just noticed number 2 is showing sex!!
Number 1, the bigest one isnt so obvious. There may be one small pistle showing or maybe not. Number 3 still looks bare.
Day 26
Fair warning - Kidney stones are acting up bad, so I am stoned to the max and doped up on narcotics as well.
The good news:
The plants look like they are starting to grow much faster the last couple of days. Its almost like they heard me complaining about slow growth and decided to get it in gear 
The root pruning is really working as far as forcing side growth and slowing the downward plunge. It took almost 3 days before the roots sent more shoots straight down, but they filled out to the sides a lot in that time. I did a second trim last night of a couple that had just started to go for the bottom again.
Im not 100% sure this is a good thing over all, but it is very interesting and more fuzzy side shoots seems like a good idea to me. Probably not all that practical in most situations anyway.
The bad:
My rez keeps turning cloudy after two to three days. Im keeping the temps way low - under 65F max, plus Ive been keeping at least 2 PPM chlorine in the rez. But if I dont refresh the chlorine every other day, the rez turns cloudy and the PH shoots up to 6.4. From everything I have read, I should not have to refresh the chlorine that often. I shouldnt even need chlorine if Im keeping the rez that cold. Im starting to wonder if my bag of nutes got contaminated somehow. Moisture did get inside and caused it to clump up a lot, but I ground it up in a coffee grinder.
This is really annoying.
More good: The crap in the rez does NOT seem to be infecting the roots, so thats good.
Also, these levels of chlorine are not killing off all the fuzzy hairs. They actually look pretty darn good over all.
Im too stoned to process a bunch of pics…more later…
Well crap. I did it again. 5 hours this time. crapcrapcrap I am my own worst enemy at times. crap
I noticed the same thing with the autos I’m running. Nothing happened up top until the roots were fairly well established
Ouch man, that hurts. That’s one of the big reasons I gave in on aero – too much tweaking of the timing for my liking and it was too easy to mess it all up. Now I just run a pump 24/7 and never worry about it.
Good luck!
I know that feeling. Ive been under the weather lately and that just makes the downer part that much worse. After finding the compressor turned off last time, I just wanted to shut the whole thing down and go to bed for a week!
Im not going to give up just because Im stupid and have CRS! Besides, if I didnt grow this way, it would be back to some horribly boring technique (like soil) that would put me to sleep and then I would screw that up too. I figure I may as well do something interesting if Im going to do it at all 
Day 30
The roots are recovering nicely once again. Number 1 and 2 are doing best with number 3 lagging behind as usual or maybe a bit more than usual. Im starting to think that the larger plant, with a larger root mass, is more tollerant of stress.
This is one and two on the day of the last murder attempt.
And today:
Number 3 roots still looks like crap. If you zoom in, the roots on the ceiling look happy.
The plants are growing faster than before - especially number 1 ans 2, but it still seems low to me watching it every day. Im getting some noce side branching on the big girl, but the other two are lagging with number 3 way behind. You can actually see what leaves look like after you starve the root of water for several hours
Oh, by the way @Daytripr69 - remember I said when I FIM’ed that number 2 looked like I cut it too close? Well, turns out that its the only one that worked! The other two just grew out cut off leaves instead of sprouting new side branches at the node. So, looks like Im no better at this FIMing stuff than you are!
