Great looking Clusterfunks! I harvested one out of 4 I sowed, super clear and uplifting high while being positive and relaxed. Once cured its like rolling super glue, you have to rub olive oil on your fingers after grinding it, if not you won’t be able to roll cause the paper and crutch will stick to your finger tips. It went around 9 weeks, stellar stuff!
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What a clusterfunk of sunshine daydreams this thread is …
Great job man 
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Big thanks to everyone that has been checking out this log. I love the feedback. Here is a few pics from my tent yesterday. The 3 SSDD are on the left the 2 Clusterfunk are on the right. This would be like day 3 of flower. They are still recovering from the Veg without grow nutes. I feel like Im still trying to figure out light height with these led. Some of the top leaves look off. Like either burnt or deficient. They are skinnier than normal, could just be the beginning of flip having an effect, but it seems too soon for that. I am still using Veg mix to feed, and plan on doing so until they form flowers. Temps are getting as low as 60 with lights off and top out around 70. The rh has been around 60% which is pretty high for around here, but my exhaust fan is running on the lowest speed still. Also if I remember my learnings, cold air holds more rh. I might kick it up a notch or 2 just to drop the rh, but not in a rush, since the flowers arent formed yet, mold shouldnt be a issue.
Here are the 3 SSDD
And the 2 Clusterfunk
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Gave em all a haircut yesterday. No topping. Just removed the bottom 1/3 of foliage and any fan leaves that were more than halfway down the meristem. Showed my co worker a pic and he recommended that I open up the canopy a bit to get better airflow. He was probably right. Today they already look like they are popping up a bit more. I also gave the 5 at my place a bath. Put em in the tub and sprayed them down with fresh cold water in a new sprayer. I realized that I havent done any IPM yet other than cleaning my tent and trays once per week, so this seemed like a good start. At my place I have been cleaning the hardwood floors in front of my tent with a isopropyl and water mix, I do this before I open the tent and after closing, everytime I access it. I use the same mix to wipe down the walls and floors during my weekly cleaning. I take the trays out and wash each one in the sink with hot water. I like it to be clean.
I also changed the position of my circ fans after a bunch of reading on here. Apparently its best to have them blasting the canopy from underneath, as opposed to across the tops, which is how ive always had them situated. Hopefully all this stuff helps them out. I am planning on hitting them with some of that lost coast plant therapy in a couple of days when the pruning wounds have healed up a bit. I will get fresh pics soon, so yall can see what I dun.
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Every thing is looking good in here man. I really enjoy the effect of the SSDD… mine doesn’t have the loudest smell or anything, but really enjoyable high. The Clusterfunk is looking good too! I got some great plants out of my Chem 91 jb x Snow lotus crosses, it will be interesting to see how the 88g13hp dad influences that cut.
I’m changing some of the fan positioning in my big tent too and will be running a fan under the canopy level this next run. Always good to clear out the bottoms of the plants for airflow and get rid of larf if you have no use for it.
Happy growing!
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Being clean is good, but you’re gonna want to start an IPM regimen. I suggest mixing your own IPM since it’s way cheaper and the same stuff you pay for when you buy it. Here’s my recipe for 16oz sprayers, double it for 32oz sprayers:
Organic IPM spray (per 16oz) See bottom notes if you have russets.
16oz sprayer bottle
1/2 teaspoon organic horticultural neem oil
1/4 teaspoon organic rosemary oil
1/4 teaspoon organic peppermint oil
1/4 teaspoon organic rose oil or lavender oil (optional)
1/2 teaspoon cayenne powder (optional, only use if super finely ground or it’ll clog your sprayer)
1 teaspoon dr. bronner’s peppermint castille soap (must be castille soap)Add all ingredients to the empty bottle. Fill halfway to the top of the spray with water, then screw nozzle on and shake well to mix. Fill the rest of the way with water, shake again, and use.
Spray the whole plant, top to bottom, under leaves, until it’s dripping. Spray the top of the soil, too, although this will impact beneficials as well.
You can spray this thru the first week of flower, but not after you see females crown or “pom pom.”
Shake well every few sprays to make sure it stays emulsified.
Don’t let it run out or the last few sprays will be so much oil they’ll burn your plants.
Refill with the same recipe when you get down to the last few mm of spray.
Adjust the recipe to fit your size sprayer. 1 liter is approximately double this recipe.
NOTE You can add wettable sulfur and cinnamon oil to this mix in their recommended solutions if you have broadmites (russets), but that may kill the beneficials soil mites, fungal colony in the soil, and nematodes, so do not spray it on the soil. And don’t use sulfur during flower as it becomes very toxic when smoked.
As for your air movement, I’d suggest don’t overthink it. I think you’re on the right track and I’d give some tips, but since you’ve been growing for so many years, you already know all this stuff. 
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Thanks @nube ! Great advice, and thanks for the recipe. Im definitely battling a couple of issues.
First is with my fresh air intake. I go passive intake and use the exhaust fan to pull air through the tent. The Gorilla tent had 2 options, either use duct through the cinch ports or it also has a fine mesh screen door with a cover flap, like most tents do. I had been using that door with the flap open, however this does nothing to stop light pollution during the dark period. Everything designed for this purpose are expensive, those “mushroom cap” thingys are like $140 ! I decided to use an old charcoal filter that I was no longer using. I ran a short length of duct from it into the tent. This solved the potential light pollution problem, but now the rh is at like 62%, which is too high for flowering. I even turned the exhaust fan up, but the rh is not really dropping. Considering another intake port…or using a fan on the intake, but I really dont want to add more fans.
The more bothersome issue is that I think the broad/russet mites I had 3 years ago may have returned. I am formulating a plan of attack, as these fuckers shut me down back in 17’. I have been reading what @JoeCrowe has been saying he does. Scrub the plants down, and drown them in water. They dont have fully developed flowers yet and are still small enough that I could dunk them in 5 gallon buckets. @JoeCrowe dunks them for about 30 minutes, then rinses them off. He also scrubs all the leaves and stems with his fingers. I was gonna try this, then hit them with the lost coast stuff for about 5 days straight, depending on flower development. The clones will be easy enough to dunk, wash, rinse and repeat. Also thinking about running predators, but not sure, never done it before. Its distressing but I know other folks on here have figured out how to deal with these things. Its gotta be possible.
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Put a cloth pot over the end of your intake duct/pipe, tape or otherwise secure it and that will block most of the light while also allowing good airflow. Also keeps bugs out.
62% humidity isn’t bad until week 6 or so for most polyhybrids. In my experience, the only time that’s bad before bud swell is if you don’t have constant air circulation and some air exchange. As long as your fan is drawing in air and you have it moving around the tent, you’re usually fine. Humidity isn’t usually a problem too often here in CO, especially at altitude and with heaters in use these days.
Get on your IPM asap. Use the recipe I gave, and use wettable sulfur as long as you’re not in flower.
I’m curious what you’ve done in past grows over the last 20 years of growing. How’d you address these issues before?
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Thanks again @nube. The cloth pot idea is brilliant and cheap. I have decent air movement around the tent with the 2 fans mounted in opposing corners. One is pretty much in the intake duct. I am getting on the ipm. I didnt always have these things to deal with. For the first many years of growing I usually used spare bedrooms or homemade spaces in garages and such. So never had rh problems. Somehow managed to never get any bugs beyond fungus gnats for well over a decade without ever doing any IPM. Just kept the same clean clones and moms for years, didnt mess with trying new clones. Started noticing more bug problems only in the past few grows. Honestly dont think Ive ever had anything other than those gnats and these F ing broads. Its tough cause I really tried to take as many precautions as I could. All new gear, sterilized everything I brought in, etc. But I am pretty certain that my container tomato plants on my porch had them bad. I waited until they were harvested and done before starting things back up, but ive heard that if they are even in your area they will make it in to the grow. Like I said I wash and change clothes before accessing the tent, everytime, and between tents. Since I just restarted after 3 years, I really dont want to just shut back down so Im just gonna have to figure this out.
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So I went ahead and gave them all dunk today. Ive always hated doing this because it was messy and I always end up getting dirt everywhere. I came up with a pretty clean way to do it. I took a couple of 5 gallon bucket lids, cut a quarter sized hole from the middle then cut out a connecting strip to the edge. Sort of like a key. I just slide both of them over the container tops around the stem til the holes lined up around the main stem, but the strips were offset. I lost very little dirt when flipping them upside down to submerge in the 5 gallon bucket full of water. I left them upside down submerged for about 3 minutes or so each. Then when I took them out, I kept them inverted at first and sprayed the shit out of them with the pump sprayer, then flipped em over and sprayed from the top down. I dont think I will be able to repeat this during flower again since today is day 7 of flower they are just about to start forming soon. I want to hit them with that free sample of lost coast plant therapy, but like most sprays, it needs to be done at lights out, which is at 9 pm for me. Thing is I work til 9. I can sneak out early if its slow, but that will be the only way I will be able to get to them before lights out for the next 4 days. Should be able to make it happen either tonight or tomorrow, hopefully. I cant make that mix that nube posted just yet. Those things arent readily available where I live and will require a trip over the pass to get, but I am looking forward to trying it. By the time I can get it all together I will probably only be able to use it on the clones, since today is day 7 of flower. Thanks again to everyone that is still following.
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I’m not sure 3 min is going to do the job, I never tested that short a duration in the drowning. I did do one where I used a water pik tooth brush to scrub the plant off, but as I recall a few nits survived. That I later drowned.
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I was wondering what the threshold might be. I tried to imagine the little fuckers drowning while I was waiting. lol ! You think it has to be 30 minutes of submersion to do it ?
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I actually never tested the threshold. All I can really guarantee is 30min kills mites, thrips, and aphids. heh heh that was all I needed for the study, was a simple way to finish them off, so I didn’t keep going with it. My watch has ended with their carcasses. It’s the kind of study you need a sponsor, I mean…crap it takes a long time to test those conditions. You could use bisection, though to speed it up. Try 15 min it works try 8 then 4 etc or the opposite. If 15min fails, try 22min etc… It’s a computer programming trick, but will take a while to see if it failed/worked.
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Did you still scrub them down ? Or was drowning them and spraying off the eggs good enough ?
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In the initial tests I removed all the leaves as well. I would definitely try and scrub them as good as possible. Those little parasites can be tenacious.
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Been reading to dunk in hot water. I used cool water. May give it another shot with a longer dunk time and also use hot water.
I really want to hit em with the lost coast plant therapy but got home right after the lights went out.
I need to be relentless in attacking them. Ive obsessed over this before. These things gave me nightmares for months.
Ive come to the difficult realization that, if after no growing for over 3 years, they came right back, they must be in my area…grass and stuff.
The only way I can continue to grow is to find out how to keep them at bay best as possible. I am always optimistic, but these fuckers have challenged my resolve before.
I feel confident its possible to do this without harsh chemicals. I bought I vial of something nasty back in 17’ when I first noticed the problem. Never used it, and cant remember which one it was, either forbid or avid, still sitting in the packaging somewhere.
I am basically gonna throw everything I can at them constantly. The way I see it the two periods when it is most difficult is during cloning (before they are rooted) and from mid flowering through harvest. That is when you really just cant spray anything. My hope is that with a vigilant attack the entire rest of the time, along with frequent cleaning, good harvests can be had. I will probably spend another couple hundred hours of researching what has worked for other people as well. Hopefully I can provide some insight for others in the same position.
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It took a while to come up with that plan. The secret is to not re-introduce them into the grow! I have a series of doors and a decontamination area, where I can take some hash rips. You can brush or vacuum yourself off or even have a shower and change clothes before you go into the grow. I have a set of “indoor” clothes and “outdoor” ones lol, before I enter the lab I prefer to be wearing indoor clothes. Usually a human or clone brings in the disease, because I don’t think bugs can open the door.
I came up with the protocol 0 aka drown the fuckers when this batch of mites I got specifically for the purpose of seeing how I could clean the plants, resisted all forms of death including gasses and sprays. The answer was that shit doesn’t even work, it would take a while but the bugs would regenerate stronger than ever. I never saw them resist drowning, it’s not something you can build up an immunity to.
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I know you said you shower and change clothes before you deal with the plants (at least, I think you said that), but what about your shoes? Do you wear your outdoor shoes into the grow room? When I deal with the plants, I always go in there in flip flops and shorts (sometimes just boxers), no shirt and I always scrub the shit out of my hands and forearms first. I used to take a shower beforehand, but now I just scrub any part of my body that might brush up against the plants.
Anyway, maybe your shoes are bringing them in, if you’re wearing shoes in there.
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Thanks boys ! @minitiger I pretty much roll exactly how describe. I wash my hands up to my elbows and then put on a clean set of clothes…or just undies. lol. Never wear shoes in. Part of the problem is the extra bedroom also serves as my wifes jewelry studio. She doesnt take the same precautions. To make it worse she still has all the basil containers going still and brings them in every night. She often handles her plants then heads in to work on her bench. Ive talked to her about this repeatedly, but she aint changing her ways. You can take the girl out of Jersey but you cant take dirty Jersey out of the girl ! Truer words can not be said. She was really not into my starting growing again at all. Since she is “letting” me I cant really start shit everyday over this with her. Sometimes its best not to poke the bear. I still think I can manage them. Like I said I wipe down the entire surrounding area with 91%iso or pure bleach before opening the tent, in my fresh clothes. I dont open it when she is in the room.
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Basil containers? You mean like basil, the herb, basil plants, that she’s growing outside? And then she brings them into y’all’s house at night? Dude… There’s your problem. You definitely canNOT say anything to her about it if she already has an issue with you growing haha, but man, that sucks. Can you ask her to at least wash her hands and stuff before going into the room? Or change her clothes? Probably asking too much.
I am soooooo glad my girl doesn’t have an issue with me growing. And that we have a third bedroom. I dunno if I could be with someone who “tolerated” my growing…
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