"Yes, I really do need all these plants." šŸ¤£ Autoflowers, photoperiods, bugs, breeding, & a Humboldt heirloom (journal)

@RainToday . I really enjoy reading your grow journal. Your plants look great and the whole thing is put together so well. :grin::rainbow:

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Good morning @RainToday anc fellow growmies. @RainToday i wonder what is going on with your soil, is it too hot ?or maybe ph is off .
It is starting to get a little warmer out getting closer to some sunshine,canā€™t wait

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'Morning @Mrgreenthumb :smiley:
Had a 6am work meeting this morning, thank goodness I got to go back to sleep for a bit, but feels like a bit of a late start now. Iā€™m headed out to the yard to plant apricots. I found the Puget Gold apricots at Costco for $20 each nice bare root tree. Thatā€™s the kind known to do well here, and I got one to fruit last year. So I went a little nuts and got 3. :rofl: Some day Iā€™ll measure the square footage of my tiny yard and you guys will really understand how funny that is. :wink::laughing:

Too hot is my soil theory, because when I up potted photoperiods into it they thrived.

I did find out a surprise about that poor stunted seedling in the last picture later when I pulled it up. In this case, the big plant in the pot has gone crazy with its roots and filled the whole pot. It was quite dry and filled up with the root system of the other plant. Cannabis definitely seems to inhibit the growth of other cannabis under or beside it.

I had switched about 1/4 of the soil in that larger pot for the stuff the not-home-bred seedlings didnā€™t like. And indeed thatā€™s where the seedling was. The big plant actually looks a bit nutrient deprived though. Yellowing lower leaves, and poor trichome development.

Itā€™s a home cross tester, so if I ruin it, no big deal. So what I did is take off the loose bits of top soil, spread organic fertilizer, add a quarter inch of fertile peaty soil and then a sprinkle of mulchy / barky stuff on top. Either itā€™ll be really happy, or else unhappy in a way that I might be able to figure out.


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@RainToday package arrived. Thank you!

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Thank you @Raintoday! Seasons greetings to you too :santa:

Will get some of these outside after the last frost. Your generosity is much appreciated.

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I saw this picture and wanted to ask if your plants in the clear solo cups are slid into a colored solo cup or just left out in the clear cups? It is my understanding that the roots do not like the light and it affects them negatively. I too grow seedlings in clear solo cups so I can pull the clear cup out of a red cup to check on the roots.

image

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:laughing: so, the story is I donā€™t actually have any matching size colored cups. I started with what I had, and they seemed to do fine, so I left it, and then forgot about it completely.

I was poking around a bit and found this article Which describes root differences, but in very different plants.
Compared with plants with roots grown in fully exposed light conditions, plants with roots in darkness have increased main root length and lateral root number, while root hair length decreased. Silva-Navas et al., 2016). [ā€¦] Interestingly, dark-exposed roots were less sensitive to salt and low nitrogen conditions compared with light-exposed roots (Silva-Navas et al., 2015).

My instinctual thought was that having the clear cup might keep the plant from ā€œwantingā€ to grow so many circling roots, since it perceives the light and perhaps that could affect it a bit like the air pruning of fabric pots.

I think I ought to run a trial. Will need to wait until after I do a round of veggie starts for the spring outdoor garden. Then Iā€™m thinking 3 categories:
-Clear solo
-Clear solo + opaque one
-Clear solo + opaque + tin foil rim topper to really block the light at the edges of the cups.

Run 10 plants each category, take photos every 3 days, end with washing the root systems once the biggest ones start to outgrow their cups.

Input very welcome!
(@ThePotanist what do you think, has this already been checked out?)

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Roots would simply turn away from the direction they perceive light.

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I would think so too @globalhead but in the limited space it seems they donā€™t quite have enough not to. But I havenā€™t compared closely mine to some grown in a solo in darkness.

Of course the big one was a boy @Kasper0909 :laughing:
RIP handsome dude!
Interesting thing was his root structure was very much tap root focused. I pulled on him and it came up just like this. Normally I get a big chunk of soil held by a bunch of fibrous roots.

Gabagoo Beast Mode round 2, 4 up :seedling::green_heart:


And of the first three Beast Mode, two are males @Carty and one unknown yet.

Also up :heart_eyes: are two Forum Stomper x Chem Candy from @pharmerfil


And something has pierced and sucked or bitten one of them and some others of my babies. It is only in my recycled soil, not the fresh stuff. I do have lots of bugs in there. If I knew which ones it was I could plan better to manage the issue.

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Iā€™ve had seeds germinate and then stallā€¦sterilized those pots with HOT water, hope that fixes it.Beast mode looking bright :heart_eyes:

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Ya my bigger one was male also. :rofl:

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@RainToday the beans arrived safe and sound! thanks again for spreading the OG love!

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Anyone have ideas on what nutrient issue these leaves are showing in my re-used soil? The top third was new stuff, now the plant is reaching lower this yellowing has showed up. Itā€™s an auto and not mine, so Iā€™ve probably only got one shot to fix it quick.

Iā€™ve got the bottom one also, which is a home cross Iā€™ve been messing around with. Itā€™s had extra of an organic n-p-k fertilizer, which increased the clawing, and a helping of oyster shell and epsom salt. Itā€™s looking a little bit better, color returning to the smaller leaves a bit. But I doubt I really nailed the deficiency.

I donā€™t have a full soil test. PH is about 7. Thereā€™s lots of iron from using regular tap water from our old pipes. The plants in fresh soil are totally happy. Just looking for some guesses.

I donā€™t have much success looking at those cool visual charts about what nutrient deficiencies look like. If anyone has a better ā€œfeelā€ for it Iā€™d love suggestions. My next move without other ideas is going to be to dump a bunch of granular humid acid on the baby, and do more research.
Thanks!

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When in doubt, LITFA.

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I havent seen this checked out anywhere, but one potential cause could be that auxin helps control primary and lateral root growth. Light degrades auxin so roots exposed to light could show reduced growth.

The other thing I would wonder with clear cups is algae or bacterial growth on the roots. Roots are white because they lack chlorophyll and donā€™t do photosynthesis typically. But algae love that shit and can compete for oxygen or release chemicals that could also inhibit growth.

Its a great question! If you do the experiment let me know and I can help you plan out how to perform it in a statistically sound manner. Shit, i can even help you analyze data!

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Excellent! I will absolutely do the experiment. Weā€™re about 6 weeks from outdoor vegetable planting time here under plant shelters, so thatā€™s when I plan to start it the experiment. Iā€™ll send you a PM later. I would love to set it up so that the data is as useful as possible.

Here are some current root photos - Iā€™ve up potted most things, but have some tomatoes and an unexpectedly autoflower left.

I did get algae growth in some of the cups, but not right away and only on the sides that had quite a bit of light hitting them.


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Greetings @RainToday, beans arrived safely in the Rain Today.
Thank you for your generosity.
Awesome card.

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The Gorilla Skittlez is looking much better. The big dose of granular humic acid I watered in, which did include some dust, improved the leaf color until only the tips are looking burnt. I added more today, and did a deep watering. Itā€™s had close to 2 cups total now I think.


The other stressed plant, which I tried organic fertilizer, calcium and magnesium on, looks only mildly improved. Iā€™m out of granular humid acid though, so it will have to wait. :wink:

Iā€™m very happy with this Beast Mode girl, and one of the males seems extremely vigorous. Iā€™ve moved both males to less light, to slow them down while this and other girls grow. I plan to let the one I like best bloom and pollinate the very nice pineapple, which has revegged and produced this entire fresh branch from the base. :heart_eyes: Her remaining stubby branches and big fan leaves had mature seeds at last and were looking terrible (effing spider mites) so I cut them off. This fresh branch will be plenty for a seed making. Really itā€™s more flower than is needed, but I donā€™t want to take off any leaves or upset the happy plant so Iā€™m letting it be.

I flipped around the greenhouse and bathroom spaces today. Now the bathroom is the long day space, and after a long night tonight the grow room will be on 12/12. The autos will slow down a little, but I havenā€™t had issues from it in the past. The photos in bloom now are the Woodrose 28 x Grapefruit, the Lemon Pie x Ciskei, a couple randoms, and my Woodrose Ɨ auto crosses. I think I see a male flower on one, so that auto transition ought to be successfully bred this time. Once thereā€™s a blooming boy they will all be leaving the room together. :wink:

Hereā€™s a pretty thing - the not-auto buds I have hanging to dry had some nicely dark purplish leaves, and some of them have pink veins showing as they dry. I bet if it was colder that plant might have gone just about black. Iā€™m trying a reveg with it just in case the smoke is epic.

I love the smell Iā€™m getting from this scarlet grapes, itā€™s more piney, with a bit of skunk and sweet like field ripe grapes. @blowdout2269 @Going2fast

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Well, she looks happy!
Another sativa leaner too it seems.
Right on friend. :call_me_hand:t3:
:slightly_smiling_face:

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Hey sister,
Iā€™ve heard brother @GrouchyOldMan talk about root pruning copper paste in the past when I started my journeyā€¦

Perhaps you may wanna check that route too :wink:

Roots facinate me as much as the plant itself if not more lolā€¦
I did couple of experiments myself to study and understand them from my perspectiveā€¦

Good luck with the experiment sis, Iā€™m rooting for you lol :wink:

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