Growing with Mr.Sparkle : Trials & Progression 2020

[TerpSneeze]

I am familiar with MH, except I used it to clean wood before treating it as a boat builder!! I got to get you guys on solvent free extracts, you sir just signed up for a flight of solvent free treats when I make it across the water! Another topic for another time, when you mentioned Ethanol I thought of Denatured Alcohol - I used this on finer wood finishes as MH does leave residue that inhibits chemical bonding in epoxy resins and would suggest checking that out maybe even for extracts as it evaporates completely * oh course I cannot condone it, have no idea if it is safe, never tried, likely won’t buuutttt if one was so inclined might be worth a look over MH Get mine at Industrial Paints and Plastics, not as cheap as MH but IME a much more complete evaporation. Thanks again Spark

Edit: I’m pretty sure the MH has the same warning on them but the “Klean-Strip” Denatured alcohol I use has poison labels on it _ @TerpSneeze is not responsible for those who choose to listen to his medicated ramblings

[cdnBuddy]

I noticed on some plants you use Maxibloom and others MC. Do you find that one has an advantage over the other?

[TheShowMeHomie]

The private lounge one will be updated today though that one may be a little to dirty for your eyes

[Mr.Sparkle]

@TerpSneeze yeah big no to the denatured alcohol just cause of the extra crap put in it to make it well poisonous, methanol if pure is just that sure also poisonous but can be evaporated off pretty completely, and any leftover methanol is way way way less than say one would consume in a glass of beer or wine, mind you inhilation vs ingestion… But I use to also use high % ethanol for the job too, but that was when I was brewing my own alcohol which I just rarely drink now adays and just go out and get some craft beer or rum when I want some.

Also do have a small rosin press which makes excellent fresh rosin, its just a time consumer and waste maker to me so either need to upgrade or continue doing what I’m doing.

@cdnBuddy it’s cause I ran out of MC and was waiting on restock, but I prefer it over Maxibloom

@TheShowMeHomie I have a look

[TerpSneeze]

Yeah that’s what I realized about DA just after I typed… Rather interesting never heard much about MH extractions, very familiar with closed-loop commercial ISOButane extraction but it’s not a DIY or at home sport for most of us - me included!

Headed to the hydromart today for CS and a few others, I will also grab some MH on the way home, Thanks again for the teachings

[Gpaw]

There’s a moonshine thread here if you want to make your own ethanol.

Using stills to make RSO and brewing alcohol to make EverClear from scratch

They are cheaper in the US = $109 Im on muscle relaxers at the moment, but did you say you use this to recover your alcohol? Its hard to tell from the pics, but it looks to me like you would loose a lot to evaporation. How well does it work for recovering the alcohol? If its even 1/2 way efficient, it would be a good investment for me. A bottle of Ever Clear is around $60 where I am, so this could pay for itself pretty soon - maybe? While looking at those water stills, I found a number of…

Cheers
G

[Mr.Sparkle]

Day 38/29/9

Was away for the weekend thus no updates, but came home to some happy plants.

Here’s how the left side was looking yesterday.

But on to the photos from today Cleaned out and filled the reservoirs with more of the new megacrop which has been doing good, seems like the kelp or whatever it is drops out of suspension but it isn’t as bad as the older versions and also doesn’t bother me.

Also went through the GT2xSBR’s on the left side 4 of them showed that lower node pollen sac herm trait and just seems to happen only on the lower most nodes on the main stem, ended up being the two tallest ones and the two smallest ones from the photo above, also got rid of the front left plant from above just cause it was spindly in comparison to the ones left.

Moved over two of the flower plants from the right side as well just for pollen reasons.

Right side did some manual pollination last night with the GSCxDD’s as i had a couple just starting to open pollen sacs but will do a second pollination in another day or two when i have more to use, and moved the other plants to the other side for the time being, i will be collecting some pollen off the reversed plant to hit one or two of the GT2xSBR’s so the reversed plant still has about another week or so till it gets removed completely, and the little ones are growing.

[Gpaw]

Hi @Mr.Sparkle, always look forward to see what you have happening.

How long do you think the pollen will stay viable in your cabinet?
I’ve been trying to work out the details on perpetual grow setups as I want to ‘up my game’.

Thanks and Cheers
G

[Mr.Sparkle]

viable as in latent pollen or stuff i collect from the plant, latent if i give a wipe down after im done then thats as far as i expect with that, stuff that i save, if dried decently 3-6 months but im only aiming for about 2.5 weeks.

Also perpetual always ended up being more work and trouble for me, i just run cycles now in that either start up full batches or when i can dedicate a full reservoir worth of space to new seedlings that way im not trying to match or balance between different plant sizes, mind you once they get past about week 3-4 they are pretty much the same for me unless i wanted to cut feed at the end.

[Gpaw]

Yes, it is the latent I was concerned about.
So ‘cleanup after the orgy’ and wait a week or two before introducing new ladies to the environment?

Thanks and Cheers
G

[Mr.Sparkle]

nah will probably be right after a quick wipe down or those 4 seedlings on the right side will just get the whole space but im typically not concerned of any random pollen that may be kicking around as it has to be airborne or stuck somewhere where it can be airborne which will be next to nill after a wipe, and the exhaust fan would pull any that would be in the air out over a short span of time, and say even if a couple pistils get hit on some other plants just means some extra seeds.

My concern is just making sure i open each cab by themselves and open the pollen side last just to avoid cross contamination by my own part, which is where the real issues typically come from.

[Papalag]

Hay sparkle great thread
Thanks for sharing

[Mr.Sparkle]

Think i found the limit on light for this plant.

Odd that it showed up a bit lower down but just for reference purposes this is at 10cm/4" from some bridgelux eb2’s running at 25w/sqft at 18/6, some light water misting probably helped with it, but i didn’t spray enough to have standing water on the leaves soo…

[Mr.Sparkle]

Day 40/31/11

On the left side the remaining GT2xSBR’s were flopped two days back just to even them out, and their lower under canopy bud sites were plucked. Also added plain water to their reservoirs to bring back down there ec levels from 1.7-1.8ish back down to 1.45 till they run dry and get a refill.

Right side little ones are looking happy, also clipped off some of the lowers on the reversed plant as they weren’t needed, looks like the pollen is probably working as im starting to notice pistil die back a little, so just gonna wait and see and collect pollen as its ready.

[Shadey]

I have been finding the same with leaves lower down exhibiting light burn, I seem to get it on the side the fan is closest to.

[Mr.Sparkle]

Day 43/34/14

GT2xSBR’s are getting bigger and doing better one has a lower node pollen sac and havent check they others but will keep an eye out, i had the light turned up to 75watts on that side but they weren’t happy on the later end of their day, so i turned it back down to 60ish watts and they are doing much better, makes me think about starting light levels and the plants either acclimatizing or expecting certain conditions early on and them growing accordingly to utilize that vs say hitting them with more light halfway through causing them struggle because they weren’t expecting a increase in energy.

Also will notice just the one flowering plant on this side, as i moved the other one back to the other side, this one did get hit by a bit of stray pollen previously, but im unconcerned and wasn’t gonna use that plant anyways.

Right side, the stout GSCxDD at the front has started working on seeds, can see the calyxs starting to swell and most of the pistils have died back, also hit it with a bit more pollen this morning over some remaining white pistil sections but she will be good, as for the plant behind her the RPxSBR i decided a couple days ago to use her for seeds as well, decent smell, decent structure, decent resin production, and i think if given a bigger pot or space she would flourish alot more as i have a feeling she is gonna be a bit longer time wise, so it will be interesting to see the offspring with the GSCxDD pollen, im guessing i will get a bit shorter plants but more bulbous buds with more resin and a bit leafier will be the result of the offspring, but hit her heavily with pollen this morning and did some a couple days ago as well so she should be good to go.

As for the next gen DarksparkGreen leaning pheno seedlings they are looking happy and at 14days doing quite well, the auto watering from the start even though minor amounts i think have helped alot with that.

[Athos]

@Mr.Sparkle

Hey Mr. Sparkle, do you stir your reservoir in any way with an airstone or water pump or something similar? If not, do you ever have issues with the nutes decanting?

[Mr.Sparkle]

No, the runoff mixes the res water a little though, but any heavier sediment usually settles out, saying that some nutrients have some components settle a little like megacrop for example basically just the kelp extract or whatever settles, but the rest stays mixed also my pickup tube for my pump pulls off the bottom 1/4" of the res so it picks up whatever settles around the pump.

[Athos]

Thanks @Mr.Sparkle, I’m thinking of setting either blumats or something like you use, been quiet / silent a must, so having to set a pump to continually stir the reservoir kind of defeats the purpose.

[Mr.Sparkle]

understandable, will say when my pumps turn on with an empty or low reservoir you can definitely hear it if your near by, but its only 5 secs or so every 6 hrs and is decently quite when actually pumping water, also im not concerned about the extra noise when low as its kinda like a “hey im empty, fill me up” which works as a nice mental trigger.