Estab87’s spring/summer science shenanigans

[estab87]

Hi friends! You may remember me from that weird, long-winded autoflower grow journal a while back. If not, hi! Welcome! If so, hi! Welcome back!

I’m going to be keeping you all up to date on some silliness going on in my tents & back yard this summer here.

Before we get started, let me preface this with, I’m always tinkering, experimenting, and pushing plants probably further than I should for the sake of science, fun, curiosity, or saving a buck. This will be another example of that. I’ll be running side by side, some photo period plants & autos either:

a) fed exclusively with Jack’s Citrus Feed in Promix All Purpose (the cheap stuff, not BX or HP) plus some added Perlite.

or

b) being fed just good old water in high quality Black Swallow Organic Living KIS Soil.

I am going to be doing this silly test with both my autoflowers I consistently run in Tent A, and the photoperiods I’m running outdoors, and the 2 I’ll be running in Tent B (once it’s clear, it’s full of autoflowers I’m running for a competition at the moment). I’ll also be doing this experiment with my outdoor veggies, herbs & fruit that will be sharing space with my cannabis.

The genetics I am/will be running:
-1xRazberry Runtz auto from Rocbud (organic)
-1xCDLCxSODK auto from @BasementBeans / Mephisto (Citrus Feed)
-1xGlue Gelato auto from Barney’s Farm (Organic)
-7xJelly Roll 77xGSD F5 reg testers from COPA Genetics (As close as I can get to half Organic, half Citrus Feed) - these will all be headed outdoors.
-4xBhudda’s Cane fem photos from @SpideyPonics / @ShitSeeds (3 of these are going to my neighbour whose wife has cancer and edibles have helped her pain, one in the back yard) (Citrus Feed)
-1xPink Tourmaline fem photo (Pink Runtz x Cement Shoes) from Cult Classics - going in Tent B when current autos are complete.) (Organic)
-1xGushers x OGKB fem from @Frostygee / @ShitSeeds (if it sprouts a tail, these specific beans have been finicky to germinate - this will likely end up in Tent B but depending on the male/female ratio of the COPA beans, I may decide to move outside) (Citrus Feed)

Here’s how the Auto/Veg shared tent is looking right now (Tent A). The mentioned autoflowers are in the fabric pots, the COPA testers are in the plastic totes, the Bhudda’s Cane are in solos in the corner just starting their journey (you can see some plastic baggies keeping their humidity up popping up behind the Autoflower pots in the back corner), and the Pink Tourmaline & Gushers x OGKB are currently in a DVD case on my modem/router awaiting their tails and will head into solos if/when those appear

Any guesses so far from the photo as to which plants are the ones being fed Jack’s Citrus Feed in cheap Promix vs. the Black Swallow Organic Living KIS soil?

All the best,
-e

[lophophora.ca]

I’ll recon the Black Swallow living organic soil made it to the fabric pots, just a hunch.

This is a great comparison. I’ve heard about Black Swallow (mostly from @Gpaw) and wanted to try their living soil blend. Now we can all try it vicariously through you!

[estab87]

You’re close @lophophora.ca!

The 2x larger fabric pots got the KIS soil, the smaller 1 gallon fabric pot is getting the Jack’s Citrus treatment.

There’s a mix in the 7 plastic bins, which are the COPAs. The darker green larger plants are the Jacks, the lighter green plants are in Black Swallow’s soil.

Early findings:
After transplanting the organic plants from organic seed starter to KIS soil, they went from yellow & almost dying, to light green, on their way back to being beautiful healthy plants. This morning they were thriving when I woke up. It’s evident the nutrient uptake/availability in the soil, and levels seem to be on point.

The Jacks Citrus fed COPA plants are darker green, growing at a faster rate, and have a denser and larger root structure, but it’s evident something is off. Likely due to the time release nutes in the cheap Promix would be my best guess at this early stage. There are brownish, rust colored spots on lower leaves, but generally they are healthy

No noticeable differences on the Autoflowers so far. All seem healthy and growing at about the same rate.

Cheers,
-e

[lophophora.ca]

@estab87

the lighter green plants are in Black Swallow’s soil.

Here I thought the bright yellow and green leaves were the direct result of citrus feed

[estab87]

@lophophora.ca

Here I thought the bright yellow and green leaves were the direct result of citrus feed

Too funny!

To be perfectly honest, the yellowing was more than likely a direct result of my inexperience starting plants in an organic seed starting soil vs. an inert medium, realistically

Edit: I missed a joke here - whoosh. LOL.

[TopShelfTrees1]

Nice brother! Glad to see this, looking forward to the fun!

[Maddawg]

Always willing to up my game with Experiments…

This should be a good one.

Thanks for taking the time to run this and share it with us

[estab87]

@Maddawg

Always willing to up my game with Experiments…

Science & learning is fun! Glad you’re along for the ride.

[estab87]

@TopShelfTrees1

Nice brother! Glad to see this, looking forward to the fun!

Always happy to have your positivity around! Thanks for pulling up a chair!

[estab87]

This mornings update (before feeding the autos):

All the organic COPA plants have definitely acclimated to their new homes and are arguably looking healthier than those fed with Jack’s now, which have been a nice shade of green for the most part since the beginning, minus some rust spots on a couple lowers.

No real noticeable change in the autos other than a slight height increase on each.

[estab87]

Well, day by day the organic-fed COPA photoperiod plants seem to be getting stronger, healthier and seemingly ready to surpass the citrus-fed plants that have been healthy-ish since day 1.

This morning’s update:

1 Bhudda’s Cane from @ShitSeeds in a solo has broken soil since last posting, 3 more im waiting on. One looks like it’s trying but may be struggling.

It doesn’t seem like the Gushers x OGKB bean from @ShitSeeds / Frosty Gee genetics is willing to crack or pop a tail, so I may replace her with something else from the collection, or try popping another. To be determined.

The autoflowers are all looking about the same. Surprisingly, the single one gallon fabric pot (CDLC x SODK from @BasementBeans) being fed Jack’s Citrus is the largest & healthiest looking at this point, although they’re in the smallest container. Pretty much all of the Autos are at a fairly similar stage so far.

Thanks for keeping along with me,
-e

[estab87]

If anyone’s curious about Tent B that I’m waiting to free up, I have no idea what the hell these are - I’m in a Canada vs. USA friendly grow off competition in another community and they will tell us at the end what it is - but these are the Autoflowers currently in Tent B that I’m waiting to finish to clear space for more fun

The only hint we’ve been given about what we’re growing is that one of the grandparents in the lineage is Crystal Meth. From my knowledge of the sponsoring breeder’s catalog, my best guess is that it’s some sort of RocBud PurpleRocBerry cross, as the breeder sponsoring the competition uses it as a staple in a few of their crosses, and Crystal Meth is in the lineage.

I’ve had some fun being silly with the training of some of these plants, and leaving one to pretty much grow naturally minus some slight shaping. I had some issues in the beginning, as I’m running a new line of nutes for this run, and I forgot that they were PH NEUTRAL not PH BUFFERED like my old ones, so lazy ol’ me gave these gals a rough go in the early stages of life. Not ideal.

They’re turning out okay though, just much smaller than I’d typically expect. Whatever they are, they’re frosty as heck, and smell faintly of grapes & dough.

Best,
-e

[estab87]

Quick visual update on the main tent, lovely happy plants everywhere:

Likely headed outdoors on Saturday for the season minus the fabric pots autos.

Other random updates: the Gushers x OGKB fems have been giving me some germination troubles, but I popped another and I’m crossing my fingers this one sprouts a tail for me. Pink Tourmaline (Pink Runtz x Cement Shoes) from CC sprouted her tail this morning and will head into a solo cup after I’m done work today.

[estab87]

Outdoor Copa gear is exploding, might not make it to the weekend as planned before I need to move them outside… awesome.

All the autos are happy and growing at the rate I’d expect at this point. Surprisingly though, the 1 gallon CDLC x SODK from @BasementBeans being fed Jacks is noticeably larger than the 2 autos 3 in gallon pots with living soil. This is neat, curious if it’s the genetics or if the plant is simply loving and soaking up the salt nutes. Either way, very cool observation so far.

Finally had some luck with a new fem Gushers x OGKB sprouting her tail.

She hit the solo cup in regular ol’ cheap Promix All Purpose + extra perlite today, and is currently domed under a plastic bag for humidity in my other tent until my Copa gear moves outdoors, because this one is so full at the moment, it couldn’t even hold another solo cup on the floor!

Catch you all soon,
-e

[estab87]

Little update on the other tent, full of ‘mystery’ autos that I’m waiting to finish.

Sorry for the silly kinda loud collage, in this competition I’m running these autos for, there are “creativity” points for the update posts & the team seems to like the collages.

[PatioMat]

My man, I hate to be the downer, but science is done by controlling one variable and keeping everything else consistent. Too many variables here to call it science. Autoflowers are a different phenotype for each seed. Different container shapes and sizes is another variable. as is the soil comparisons.

But, with that being said, great luck on your grow and I hope your test helps you figure out what works in you set up.

PS. This is my first post, I promise not all others will be critical or negative!!!
I LOVE YOU OVERGROW

[estab87]

Well, that certainly was a downer. I don’t disagree with you at all, but really? LOL. C’mon. It’s just a fun experiment but thanks for the lesson in semantics.

How do I change my title to “anecdotal experimental shenanigans?” instead LOL.

Edit: I suppose I should always welcome feedback, no matter how critical, but yeah. This for the record is not a controlled double blind peer reviewed scientific experiment that will be published in a scholarly journal. I acknowledge it’s not real science and I’m not a scientist. Lol, it’s for fun.

[lophophora.ca]

@estab87

peer reviewed scientific experiment

Your peers on OG have thoroughly reviewed your other auto grow topic. Furthermore the results were chronic and your findings were sound, just as it had been hypothesized that they would be.

Extrapolating from your past successes it can be hypothesized that this topic will be one thousand percent more scientific.

@estab87

Sorry for the silly kinda loud collage

I thought you had unlocked the secrets of the image tile gallery on OG. Now I realize it’s a single edited image.

[estab87]

@lophophora.ca this had me in stitches dude!

Also, thanks for the tip on the gallery/tile function, I’m definitely gonna give that a go in the future, I’ve seen that done in the past & it looks awesome, especially on a mobile device. I’m pretty sure I just figured out how to do it.

I’ll do my best to continue producing peer reviewed chronic and hope your asserted extrapolation comes to fruition

[estab87]

Little update, here’s my “Tent 2” full of autoflowers that I’m running for that competition. Again, sorry for the loud layout & appearance! Lol

Tent 1 or my main tent, will be mostly cleared out tomorrow. These Copa plants are really over growing the space at this point and beginning to shade out the autos, thank god tomorrow is the weekend and I have the time to work the garden out back. Every time I check my camera, those Copa plants are all visibly larger. Been a fun veg.

The three fabric potted autos will remain in the tent

Catch up soon, likely with outdoor garden pics! Fun!

-e