Sorry for the bad pics, will turn on regular lights next time I take photos.
I’ve got 8 dark sparks from @Mr.Sparkle, 5 @Sebring Dragon tongue, and 2 sunshine daydream f2s also from Sebring.
Seeds were popped about 3 weeks go. Started off a bit rocky, I had the light way too close.
Still have a bit of work to do w the grow room- need to put up the panda film, build my solstix set up, figure out how/where to run ventilation, set up the sealed flowering space, etc
But I’m not waiting anymore, I’m growing! Excited for the end result!
Link to my room build out thread:
I’m going to stop posting in there and chronicle finishing the room in this thread. Thanks for stopping by!
Ha yep! I’m really itching to pop some more seeds in order to have some nice bushy, pre sexed plants ready to put into flowering as soon as this first round w the autos are done. I think I’m gonna do a shelf system for my veg area to have a couple mom’s, a shelf w plants in veg, and a shelf for rooting clones.
Regular store bought LEDs are great for shelves like that. I’ve got one with two 8W LEDs over it that I set up for clones but have being using it to veg seedlings and mothers without issues. They’re more powerful than you’d think!
Awesome. Thats what I started with that I set up too close. Then I switched over to that cheap viparspectra that I had boight last year for my veggie starts. Will definitely repurpose the bulbs and fixtures for the veg areas. The vipar is likely going into my houseplants tent I keep in my bedroom.
That tent is already rocking. Took a bunch of the stuff that we keep around the house in the summer that just doesn’t get enough light in the winter to stay healthy. I have one of those 7 LED bulb fixtures over it now. I don’t know exactly what it all is but we have a sansevieria, aloe, lavender, rosemary. I’m planning to start some basil and other herbs in there as well. Then I have another little T5 that keeps all my wife’s succulents under it all winter. I’ll post pics up of all that stuff in the “what other plants” thread tonight.
Pic isnt great, but below my thumb, center of the pic there was a small cluster of little white nodules. Definitely not perlite, and the other plants had them too. Something to do w soil fungi? So far this is just pro mix, some extra perlite and a little worm castings.
Oh yeah, forgot to mention I threw in the build a soil cover crop blend into the pot. Had some material from a friends grow that I’m using for mulch, plants that turned out to be male. Not quite living soil this go around, kind of quasi- living soil.
Update: had to cull all the dragon tongues, not sure if it was stressed induced from the bad viparspectra light or what, but all my Dragon Tongues ended up herming or being straight males.
The dark sparks kicked into flower, then totally stalled and hadnt grown. And in fact started looking really bad. I assume it’s a light issue, similar to when I tried to grow veggies under this light and got really zero growth after a few weeks. I’m gone for a few days, if the solstix doesnt look like it’ll help the dark sparks rebound and actually pack on some weight, they’ll be culled. The ssdd looms like it’ll make it so I want to get that back in order. Hoping the solstix get me back in shape after using a bad light.
So if the DS’s dont turn around, after Jan 1 I’ll be popping some new gear. More ssdd, more dark sparks to get going right away, some @paintedfire420 ghp xC99, and the @GrowHard blue OGxsnow lotus.
Anyone care to weigh in on the growth issues? Possible the roots organic soil was too hot to just transplant into? Totally the light as ive diagnosed it? Something else? I was in denial on the light when I had issues w my veggie seedlings but basically the same is happening again, and I find it hard to believe it’s a soil issue when the plants arent that big and feeding much yet.
You get the good and the bad from me. Made some tweaks to the room, got the light cranked up and my sonoff gear installed. Plants definitely are doing better, but not sure the dark sparks are worth running given how small theyre ending up. And this is entirely my fault, not the genetics. I’ll give it another week to determine if I’m pulling them and starting totally over or if I’ll stick them out.
Decided I was going to scrap my dark sparks and start over, focusing on getting the SSDD back in order so I can sex them and start cloning. I hadn’t been using anything bottle nutrient-wise on the 3 gal pots other than a little kelp since it was roots organics and I figured it’d be good for a bit, but doesnt seem so. Picked up some Foxfarm grow big to see if pumping some liquid organic nutes into the soil may help turn these plants around. Also been using a little Recharge for microbes, and top dressed with worm castings last night. I kept a couple Dark Sparks under the light to compare if their buds are able to pull thru and put some extra weight on. Using this set back as a bit of an experiment, might as well learn as much as I can from it!
Last night, mixed up a bit of soil and planted more new @Mr.Sparkle dark sparks, some @paintedfire420 Guava Hasplant x C99, and the @GrowHard Blue OG x Snow Lotus.
Soil mix was just peat, perlite, and worm castings. About a 5:1.5:1 mix of each. Definitely will be more dilligent about giving the younger plants nutrients.
I have 3 primary causes nailed down as to whats been going on, hopefully I can narrow it down to 1 and fix it. I blame a lot on the viparspectra and me not being able to figure out the sweet spot for the plants. Thats changed now w my solstrip set up. I will likely work on fine tuning light height now because I have it set almost as high as it can go and my cover crop seems to be stretching a little.
The other 2 concerns are nutrients/soil mix, and my water which are likely interrelated. I thought since I was going organic soils in larger pot sizes that I wouldnt need to worry about ph as much as if I was in an inert media. But I’m beginning to think my soil doesnt have enough amendments providing nutrients AND I need to be filtering or ph’ing the water. I’m going to play w it again tonight, haven’t checked ppm or ph since the summer when I was doing my veggie starts. Oh yeah, and I’m going to do a tray of lettuce seedlings kinda as a control to determine if this is a cannabis specific growing issue I’m having or if I just cant grow anything indoors anymore!! I’ll get some pics up tonight.
