That’s quite a catch 22…clover needs moist soil to germinate let alone grow to start with and now its a decent amount, its keeping the soil cool so it retains a more even moisture level. Like I said, you need a mulch on top of whatever else you added to the bigger pots since I left your other thread
You have been doing a fine job at expressing what your soil is doing and how your plants are responding…yes, that would be unreasonable. Smaller pot = smaller volume given in smaller increments so the soil absorbs it instead of running right out
It isn’t though we are getting there unless you closed the bottom vent(s), removed the circulation fan and/or turned your exhaust fan too low we are right on track with making small tweaks as needed
They look about the same as yesterday
They don’t. Forget about the ir gun as its confusing matters…we are only worried about the environment and the Lucky’s responses to it though at 84F they can use a little cooling…~2-5F cooler so you should be at 79 - 82F with lights on. This can be achieved by either turning your exhaust fan up a little bit or moving them (or the lights) to 24"…either/or - not both. Then we will wait for the tent to stabilize again for 12-24 hrs
You said it yourself, boil it to kill everything in it, filter it if you must and store it in some milk jugs or empty distilled water jugs so you have a few gallons ready at a time lined up in your tent…I hated it though that’s what I had to do right after our November earthquake for a few months - shook up everything in the well going from from 220ppm and 7.2ph to 640ppm and 8.6ph
This is why I am only focusing on the Lucky’s…you have everything you need to have a successful grow with them short of the (temporary) bloom drench though that is coming soon along with a pot and enough amendments for 3.5cuft sunshine mix #4 and 30lbs ewc or 1.5cu ft compost between now and say, July so we can start back up in August
@Spacecowboy has some great suggestions that we covered in your other thread before we started this. Do what you want to your other soil just don’t mess with the soil I sent you or try to tweak anything out unless there is a valid reason and I will either suggest it or send it to you while we do this
I’ve been following what you tell me to do to the letter fir the Lucky’s. I’ll be able to get the compost, ewc, and sunshine mix soon. It’s just been a lot lately with everything going on on top of the weather.
You have been and they are doing good getting a nice root system in place…I want you to be successful with a lot less stress involved with easily repeatable results - just have to slow down sometimes.
Yes, it hurts looking at your big girl though she has been through a lot: over water, under water, suffocated, revegging etc. honestly, it hurt more seeing the roots on what you have produced so far…small wonder they struggled though hey, that last auto sure did do a nice turn around enough to finish nice for ya
I know and its going to get even busier as summer approaches…well for me it does.
Everything aside, check this out… I have kept the Lucky Charms f3’s in my micro cabinet sitting at 88F in a small 1/2" flat of seedling soil with lights 16" above them and watering every 3 days
Different strain though pretty much the same genetics in a much smaller, drier and hotter environment with hardly any evaporation from their soil 24 hrs later. When they get settled in and start growing again is when i’ll start losing huge amounts of moisture in the soil and will have to cover it up, lower their temp giving them wind burn from the intake and exhaust in the small area or give small though frequent waterings so oxygen is able to get into the soil before they get wet again but its easier to just move them with the other Lucky’s when that happens and move in some Dr Mendo girls for seeding
Since the humidity is honestly never climbing up no matter what when I’m back home to water them tomorrow morning I’ll increase the fan speed, move the seedlings and the light over a bit, wire in extra length to the wire, open the intake vents all open, try to get a blanket under the tent floor or something to insulate the ice cold floor from the pots as much as possible, and find something to go over the surface of Zelda’s pot. I can break those tasks up over time if I should not do all that at once.
Cool air comes in 1 side → circulation fan (above your canopy for a light breeze) mixes the cool and hot air → carbon filter cleans the air then exhausts it out
The circulation fan can be on either side of the tent to prevent hot spots…some like for it to grab the cool air right away and blow it around while others like it on the opposite side so the cool air warms up a little before its grabbed and blown around the tops of the plants
Circulation fan on low, exhaust fan on low…this will raise your humidity if the plants are transpiring as they should. Heat can be controlled by moving the qb’s which can be as far away as 24" (most indica’s) or as close as 14" (most sativa’s)…any further and the plants stretch, any closer and the plants struggle to cool themselves. If you reach 84F at the canopy and the lights are 24" above then turn up the exhaust fan a little to lower it back to 78-82F. Simple as that though remember any tweaks to your system takes 12 hrs (small change) to 48 hrs (big change) to stabilize for accurate readings
A blanket under the tent is pretty much useless, raise the pots a little off the floor to keep the soil a little warmer
That was the idea with the blanket. It’s a quilt technically, but with the floor beneath them so cold and with me out if ideas on how to raise them up off the floor that’s all I have left for ideas. There is nothing else in my house that can withstand over 20lbs weight and Zelda’s pot weighs around 50-100lbs. It depends on how much her soil is holding. The seedlings are much easier with the box, but the rest weigh a decent amount. Tulip may be fine though. Overall I’d say she weighs 20lbs soaking wet. Very strong comparison for a 7 gallon pot and a 3 gallon pot. I’m pretty sure something isn’t right if my pot gets that heavy
My local store has the composting stock, so I’m ordering it today or tomorrow and grabbing it to use when I need it.
I’m just getting 1 cubic foot of it for now. You said I have until July to grab the ewc, sunshine mix, and compost. Depending on what gets decided on in the end. Would a mix of ewc, compost, and sunshine mix also work or is it too unpredictable for a mix using your amendments?
Sorry I get ahead of myself a lot. I’m a total nerd and when I get into learning something I tend to want to absorb as much information as possible.
They look good today. What’s the amount this time? 6 tablespoons again? Once know what I’m mixing I can get the water ready. Until then I have a pitcher sitting at room temperature now
I checked and you said 6tbsp each. I assumed half a tablespoon at a time. I saw you said to use the drench #2 at half a teaspoon per 2 cups water. Seems that they like it as I see 20% humidity already from 16 when I went in. It feels very humid in there too, so that’s also a good sign they’re drinking happily.
Sorry, I didn’t mean to leave you hanging…my girl Faye (1st time mom) decided to have her 2 puppies in the middle of the night. Whelping time always makes me nervous especially when expecting a smaller than normal litter so I called on my whelping buddies and had an online party. Everything went beautifully then I had to get a couple hours of sleep so I can function.
Anyhow, there are many ways to raise the pots that are sturdy and can handle lots of weight:
Wrap 2x4 in plastic then throw an oven grate on top
milk jug crate upside down
A piece of metal wavy roofing on top of a couple bricks
Just have to think outside of the box with materials that may be around you…better than potentially inviting mold with a blanket though I have known some use an electric blanket as a temporary heat mat out in a greenhouse to get an early start to the season so I suppose if that’s what you gotta do - personally I wouldn’t
Yup. In fact its better to have a mix of compost and ewc with the sunshine mix though if you can only afford 1 then get ewc…you may have a local co -op that composts as a community to help keep compos-table items out of landfills - worth looking into
I get that and try to explain what I can like with the soil seemingly unable to retain water though the pots can be heavy with the plants doing what they can to grow. By pointing out how a plant transpires, there is no way your soil is as dry as you think they are. Just because the surrounding soil is a little loose from drying (allowing oxygen in) doesn’t mean its that way through out the pot…if it was, growth that isn’t woody wouldn’t be upright. I did forget to include that in the long explanation being distracted and apologize for that
Yup! Their next watering will be an actual drench so you really need to remove the soil around the lip of the pots (top 1" puckering out) as that is our guide for the amount of water that we need to use
That’s a great sign! Temp looks better too…looking good!
I forgot to say, but I raised the lights all up in the tent. The light above these was raised up to 20" I double checked the vents around the tent and the bottom ones weren’t closed completely. I increased the fan speed in the filter to about 60% and opened the intake vent you indicated as open as it can be. I’ll work on wiring the light a little longer with a wago to extend the length of the driver more than it has or find a spot in the tent for it.
Just a hour after I did all that they looked a little better, but that may be from the watering too. Though the control seedling and the one next to it in the path of the intake vent are shaking from the breeze a bit.
The driver for the seedlings is honestly choking airflow in the intake. I have a mesh window on that side also, but it’s closed.
You said you were going to so I threw out the parameters to follow
Cool. Yeah close them all completely so the system has to pull cool air in, circulate and suck the hot out though not so fast that smells can’t get filtered
Ok so that’s ~med/high…that’s probably too much as its also sucking out your humidity though if that’s what it takes in your environment, so be it you’ll just be restricted to winter grows inside.
Do me a favor and shut off all your fans, burn 4 incense sticks/cones and close up the tent. Once they are burned completely down and it a bit smokey in the tent, start the circulation fan then 15 minutes later start up the exhaust…if there is little to zero trace of the incense outside of the tent - your good to go. Turn it down if you smell the incense in 1 room away…this is your systems maximum scrubbing capability - do not go above this setting.
If you had access to a fog machine, we can set the air intake speed as well as, scrubbing capability by filling the room outside the tent with fog then watch how it circulates and exits the tent though they tend to go hand in hand together
Definitely
Watering and a respite from being pushed hard… at this young of age imho, its necessary to separate the wheat from the chaff so come flowering time we know their min/max tolerance levels
Thats a good thing to help strengthen up the stems though shouldn’t move more than lightly blowing on them with your breath from say 5" away or fanning directly above them with a piece of cardboard…this will make them transpire more to really exercise the roots uptake water and move nutrients around
Ok so either move it or leave it be and open the mesh window which is probably already measured to double the exhaust hole and adjust the fans as needed…the pic I used didn’t have them and forgot yours did
Thank you! They are the result of 6 yrs of planning through pedigree’s and what we know of this line following the many ancestors that 4 of us are working with and sharing so we are able to preserve the merged line and stay within our maximum allowance under our respective breeding licenses - its going to be fun watching them develop, meet their milestones and pass their physicals. Maybe 1 will continue the line - if not, I have Faye’s’ sister, Cara to give it another go with even more info
Okay, so I’ll lower the fan speed back to 33%. I was seeing 74f around the seedlings and the humidity climbed to 22% average.
I don’t have access to any incense right now.
The plants are overall looking better today. I think the decrease in heat is doing them well. Now that lights are on I’ll clear out the topsoil like you said. I opened the side vent and left the intake vent alone for now while I work out wiring the light. I’ll take pictures after working with the soil
I also turned down the heat in my house to bring the temperature in the tent down that way also.
I could only dig out that much on 2 seedlings. The control and the one that was buried. The rest are down to the Taproot and surface roots covered back up.
I don’t think I transplanted deep enough. Crap.
I don’t want to dig any further down unless you say it’s okay or if we have to fix this. Ugh I need to stop screwing up the small things. They’re very important in the long run.
If the environment seems better at a higher exhaust speed then that’s just the way it is though the intake will change it to help cool the tent…I just don’t want you to dump more than necessary hence using incense which i’ll throw some into your box for mail out on Monday
Tell you what, we’ll meet in the middle and set your exhaust at medium (50%) then adjust with the incense smell test
Thats ok, I should have caught it sooner…this may be a good thing to see the difference between an actual drench vs continued measuring - today is a drench day for my Lucky’s so i’ll pay more attention to how much it takes to fill that 1" lip with water
Now that they have received their 2nd feeding without a hitch, you can go ahead and remove the yellow leaves from the others…they should enjoy the transition foliar (1/2 tsp per 2c) today just go light with it on the runt
I checked up and snipped off the single fingers on all 4.
They’re not in the direct path of the window intake and the fan is as always between the canopy and the lights to keep temperature semi controlled.
I had meant the exhaust fan for the filter though. I put it on 50% as now that I’ve found some of the problem areas the humidity seems to be able to regulate itself better now.
Ok good. Finding and fixing problem area’s is pretty much what this grow is about when it comes to your environment so you know how to regulate it better - thankfully your using leds and not something more harsh like a hid
Yeah, make it up whenever just so its room temp and just before lights out when you spray them because it does have components in it that will burn them being magnified by the light
