Mephisto Genetics Awolace's tandem spacebucket duogrow. Mephisto genetics only!

[awolace]

so my first Mephisto grow is under control and it's now time to get my second spacebucket into action. I plan to have two plants on the go at any one time. Each will start in a 120l space bucket under 140w actual led, and then move over into a different 120l bucket to finish again with 140w actual led and a carbon filter for smell. I aim to harvest a plant every 5 weeks with this method hopefully pulling 2oz per plant give or take. I will be experimenting with nutes, soil, additives, and dressings along the way but the one thing that will stay the same is that I will only be growing the awesome genetics from Mephisto.

So here goes. Mephisto grow number two will be Grape Crinkle. I'm looking for a quick finisher from this one as my white and bubbly grow looks like it may become a marathon. I have used a selection of cheap components for my soil mix this time. Was intending to go with the gardenline soil, perlite and vermiculite entirely but when I opened the soil it was very dark, dense and slightly alkaline so mixed that 50/50 with the verve soil I have used up until now. The mix is 70% soil, 15% perlite and 15% vermiculite. I filled my 3 gallon pot with this mix and then added some additives ( 1 oz used coffee grounds and a cup of diatomaceous earth to the remainder) for the final third. I have read that the silica in the diatomaceous earth increases resistance to temps etc. Either way I have shed loads of it so thought why not.

I placed my seed in a shot glass to soak and it sank within 24 hours and then was placed directly in the soil to sprout. Now for the waiting game.

Nutes for this grow will be a mix of biobizz grow, bloom and pk boost, and poundland trio.

 

[awolace]

So after a bit of fiddling with NPK values and such, (all my grows so far using biobizz have shown nitrogen deficiencies) I have come up with a feeding schedule using only the cheap poundland nutes i have got. I will keep the biobizz in reserve incase they do me wrong but I would like to see what they can do on their own. The Grow, Bloom and PK boost are all supposed to be 1 part fertilisers however the NPK values are slightly off for what i prefer so I have come up with a schedule that should get me the ratios i desire. The grow and Bloom nutes are essentially the same in terms of micronutrients but differ in NPK so making my own ratio mixes shouldn't create too many problems.

NPK of grow is 10-5-4
NPK of Bloom is 5-4-9
Boost is 0-13-14

My rough schedule growing in soil is as follows.

Week 1 - Water only
Week 2 - Water only
Week 3 - 1ml Grow (1ml/l @ 10/5/4)
Week 4 - 2ml Grow (2ml/l @ 10/5/4)
Week 5 - 2ml Bloom / 1ml grow (3ml/l @~ 7/4/7)
Week 6 - 2ml Bloom / 1ml grow (3ml/l @~ 7/4/7)
Week 7 - 2ml Grow / 1ml Boost (4m/l @ ~ 4/9/9)
Week 8 - 1ml Grow / 1ml Bloom / 2ml Boost (4ml/l @~ 4/9/10)
Week 9 - 1ml Grow / 1ml Bloom / 2ml Boost (4ml/l @~ 4/9/10)
Week 10 - Water only
Week 11 - Water only / harvest

Would love some opinions and feedback on these values.

 

[awolace]

Came home this morning after two nights away to my sprouted seedling standing strong. Gave a light watering of 50ml water and added a humidity dome for a couple of days. On a side note I fed my other plant with poundland nutes to the schedule above before I went away and came back to an explosion of growth and trichomes. She has never looked healthier or Frosties so looking forward to using them for the entirety of this grow.

 

[awolace]

Day 5. Little slow so far.

 

[awolace]

Day 8. About where she should be I think.

 

[awolace]

Day 11 and liking how she looks so far.

 

[awolace]

Day 13 and she's pushing on nicely. No nutes yet and just a bit of water every few days. Seems to be up to speed, however the room is a bit hot at the moment at around 30 c due to the abnormal heatwave here.

 

[awolace]

Day 16 and I've given her her first feed. 1l with 1ml grow nutes. Mixing coffee grounds into my topsoil was a bad idea. It turns like concrete. Hey ho. Live and learn.

 

[awolace]

Day 19. Think she's a little smaller than I'd like, she's not drinking a lot of water yet. Can't get the soil to dry out so she not had much feeds.

 

[Nuggz]

Day 19. Think she's a little smaller than I'd like, she's not drinking a lot of water yet. Can't get the soil to dry out so she not had much feeds. View attachment 569123View attachment 569124

I had the same problem. Plain old plastic pots don't dry out fast enough and even tho' you know the girls need their nutes, you face them going into a cringing wilt from over-watering if you feed them.

It's a very real dilemma but it's made me realize that if I ever grow in soil again, smart pots or air pots are a much better way to go, especially for autoflowers. I finally had to settle on giving them very small feedings that would only moisten the top few inches of the soil, while it hopefully allowed the soil in the bottom half of the pot to dry out. It's not a perfect solution, but it's about all I could do. It worked and my plants are doing okay, but I had to completely nix the idea of watering to run off.

Also, tho' the prevailing wisdom says "no water or nutes until an autoflower is 10 days old," I saw my plants exhibiting cal-mag issues before that ten day window of time was up.