New Grower Creature's Double Feature aka, Welcome to my Nightmare!

[Creature]

Right, let's get caught up, shall we?

Environment and stuffz:

Closet 30" wide x 7' deep w/9' ceiling
400w HPS (ebay china special "kit")
3 Nirvana Bubblicous @ 5g soft pots w/3lbs "Kind Soil" covered in coco (Don't do this!!)
1 unknown AK freebie @ 2 liter bottle 70/30 kind soil/coco mix <- Vey Nice!
1 Dinafem Critical+2.0 @ 50ml container in coco (What? Yep a noob entered a comp elsewhere against seasoned pro's. Ballz of steeel™ but humble enough to know I don't stand a freakin' chance! lol )
Some fans, filters, bamboo, wire, humidifier, ph/ppm meters, temp/RH devices and various things n' junk with more cool implements en-route. :smoking:

K, so. The nightmare begins with Kind soil and coco. With my newly obtained knowledge and more research I read that FF Coco Coir was a good choice on top of kind soil. Well, the local hydro store was out, I was in a hurry after work and saw a bag of fine coco and my brain blocked the "coir" part and purchases happened. I had sprouts in rapid rooters already so the ride home was all .

The next day, this happened:

Things went swimmingly for a while and I decided to name them 1,2,3,&4 because I have a wicked imagination. Named for the order they spawned. 3 is the AK, planted out of boredom and dropped in the 2 liter. She's special for reasons...

In just 2 short weeks of plain 24hr old sh.. er city tap water they were all smiles

At this point [HASHTAG]#4[/HASHTAG] (top left in above pic) was still the runt so I decided she would grow naturally and the other 2, well, they seemed too happy and content so...

This ^^ was NOT the way to do it. Pretty sure I stunted them by NOT supporting the lower stem to keep it upright and then bending them over. And so the nightmare begins...

Plant 1 grew the quickest and I believe her roots hit the kind soil early on as she looked perfect until I yanked her down. She started flowering almost right away and stunted.

Plant 2 suffered def's from living in coco with no nutes so I starved her for water to make her search. Worked out well. Now she's been dealing with crazy burn from the soil but we're working though that.

Plant 3. AK in the 2 liter has been tied, strapped and splinted to a 90 degree xmas tree with tons of bud sites. I supported her properly before bending. She WAS going to be left alone but she asked for it by the way she was looking

Plant 4. The runt. Needs a new name. She shot past her 2 sisters suffering def's, ph issues and hot pockets in the soil and is now standing tall above them all. She's been looking much better the last couple days as I've been watering her and [HASHTAG]#2[/HASHTAG] to about 30-40% runoff trying to even things out a bit.

Feb 10

Top left is 1 (comp baby is sitting on her pot), top right is 2, bottom left is 3 AK and bottom right is 4 the runt.

Since those pics I've switched to HPS so the only "current" pic I have is this from 2 days ago when somehow my camera filtered the light magically.

Like how far that AK (back right) is leaning to the left? :smoking:

I'll get some better pics next time I pull them out. Fairly content with how things are going even with mistakes made and issues with this soil.

Thanks for stopping in!

 

[Creature]

YES! Goods started arriving to start my second run. Now I really have to make up my mind on what to grow next. I have something like 14 strains on hand to pick from. Good Times!

 

[jingo]

Sounds like your learning allot fast! What comp did you get in on?

 

[Creature]

Hey @jingo It's a Mini Party cup challenge. The ones that hold just over a shot. 60ml. lol. Taking place on another forum that seems to be having serious issues. One of tthe guys on the comp is on here too, I'll have to find him. Prolly has thread in the breeders section.

Gotta say the little lady is doing pretty darn good in 50ml of coco being fed Go Box nutes. If I can keep her alive to the end I'll consider myself a winner. Even if I only get a 1/2 joint I'll be happy. lol

I figure learning all the things NOT to do right off the bat is a surefire way to know how to do things right from there on out. My adventures with coco/kind soil fits that bill. Realized what I did about 2 weeks in, could have transplanted into better medium but figured I'd roll with the punches and see for myself what happens and try to fix it. So far so good. I started this expecting to fail in a most spectacular way but it's looking like it'll only be a partial failure. So far.

 

[Creature]

Update: Pics @ day 38

[HASHTAG]#1[/HASHTAG] Bubblicious stunted but doing well. She started flowering about 12 days before the rest. Smells sweet, has a short, fat cola.

[HASHTAG]#2[/HASHTAG] Bubblicious suffering nute burn from the Kind Soil but recovering slowly. She just started to flower. Bonus Critical+ 2.0 in the 50ml cup of coco.

[HASHTAG]#3[/HASHTAG] AK in a 2 liter. Been manipulated to no end! Horizontal xmas tree in the making.

AK top view.

[HASHTAG]#4[/HASHTAG] the runt. Bubblicious, had a rough start with def's then nute burn with a little light burn mixed in. She's blasted right through it all with no signs of slowing. 24" tall today.

Bonus Critical+2.0 in a 50ml cup of coco for a challenge on RIU. You can see how long it took me to dial in the nutes. Using GO box nutes at 125% recommended dosage. Started at 25%. lol

Been a crazy battle so far. Coco layered over Kind Soil is a pain in the ass. The past 2 weeks I've been watering all 5g pots from the bottom one day, 2 days later I'll water with added calmag from the top but just enough to saturate the coco. Also running different pH top/bottom. It's been helping a LOT as the plants appear to be much happier. Things were touch and go for a while.

Close up of #1's happy parts:

Happy growing!

 

[Creature]

Oh yeah. Today, I dropped a Canuk Quarter Pounder (freebie) and a Panama Lime SuperAuto by Stitch into Rapid Rooters.

Going to mix the remainder of my Kind Soil with FF Salamander, coco and perlite in 4 gallon square buckets for these girls. Hoping that mix will be smoother sailing.

In about 2-3 weeks I'm going to set up a coco hempy bucket with a home grown "Air Dome" (ala Autopots) and another hempy minus air. Have to pick a strain for that still. Leaning toward Dinafems Dinamex right now. Maybe Bubble Gum? :smoking:

Too many plans, not enough room!

 

[jingo]

Been a crazy battle so far. Coco layered over Kind Soil is a pain in the ass. The past 2 weeks I've been watering all 5g pots from the bottom one day, 2 days later I'll water with added calmag from the top but just enough to saturate the coco. Also running different pH top/bottom. It's been helping a LOT as the plants appear to be much happier. Things were touch and go for a while.

Happy growing!

That's the craziest thing I've ever heard Rolf

The thing that makes a good grower is being able to figure out the issues, correct them and move on, So.. I'd say you're doing great. I don't think I would have even had the chance of figuring out solution like what you came up with.[emoji106]

 

[Creature]

@jingo Thanks. lol. Short of transplanting after I realized I was in a mess I just looked at the main differences between growing in pure coco opposed to soil. I figured I'd try and treat the pots as 2 separate entities. So far so good but I'm not uncrossing my fingers and toes just yet.

I debated scrapping the whole thing about 2 weeks in but decided pushing on would be a hella learning experience and I learn much better hands on. lol

Hopefully no one else tries this. lol

 

[jingo]

You're getting a crash course[emoji44] but you're right you really are learning a lot menu learned a lot faster this way.

 

[Creature]

Day 50

[HASHTAG]#1[/HASHTAG] Bubblicous She was the best from the start, now the runt of the litter. She's ALL bud, Main cola is further along than the rest of her.

[HASHTAG]#2[/HASHTAG] Was doing bad but woke up and took off. She may be the biggest yield of the Bubbalicous when they're all finished. She has the potential and is REALLY loving the cobs. Looking back at my notes, she started having issues when I switched from MH to HPS. Explains the leaf "burn" and sudden slow growth. Also explains why she's started doing better when I lowered her from the HPS and why she's been reaching for the COB. Look at that stretch! lol

[HASHTAG]#3[/HASHTAG] AK finally filling in a bit.

[HASHTAG]#4[/HASHTAG] Bubblicous just getting fatter by the day.

Still just ph'd water for 1,2, and 4 bottom fed, light cal/mag from above to keep all that coco moist. < That's the only regiment that stopped them from dropping leaves but they still have issues. AK's been getting Go Box nutes pretty much since she started to flower. She went pale yellow right after stretch.

Been very patient these 7 weeks. It's wearing off fast. :bigjoint:

Have a Panama Lime seedling a few days old loving the COBs atm and just dropped a germinated (popped overnight in paper towel) Cheese seed into the same setup. The Quarter Pounder may be a lost cause. Been in the Rapid Rooter for 6 days. Meh, freebie. lol