New Grower New member, new grow. Mephisto Cosmic Queen and Mephisto 24 Carat

[Olderfart]

Hello all,

I am new here, more or less a noob, a Canadian retiree living in B.C., one outdoor grow under my belt, and a couple ounces of reasonable bud in jars as a result. The outdoor grow taught me lots, particularly about slugs, fungus knats, and mould. It was a cold wet late summer here. Given the hassles outdoor, and the fact that I am around home more in the winter, I decided to try an indoor grow. Been a lot of years since I got my hands dirty in the garden, and I found that I really enjoyed it, especially with the challenges and rewards of growing weed. An indoor grow seemed a nice solution.

So as not to test the patience of the dearest, I have kept the costs down, while trying to do the best anyway. The setup is as follows:

Grow space is DIY plywood "tent", 26"x50"x87" (~ 9 square feet, with ~6.5 feet vertical height available beneath the fan and duct). Inside grow space is painted with flat white paint.

Odour control is 6" Vivosun with 6" Canfan (yeah I know it is overkill, but the filter has a lot more capacity for the buck). The exhaust will be indoor if odour control is ok, outdoor otherwise.

A couple fans will be used for air circulation during the grow.

Lights are two panels of screw in bulbs, ~15 watts per bulb on the label, actual power used from the wall is 510 watts for the 30 bulbs I installed. The bulbs are separated into two panels of 15 bulbs each to allow independent height adjustment. Half of the bulbs are Noma 5500k, half are Phillips 2700k. I will use the 5500 to start veg, and add the 2700k in bloom.

Auto pot system is 3 xl units with smart pot fabric pots. Nominally, the pots are ~5 gal, but I folded them down and will not fill them completely, so they will be ~ 3 gallons each.

I will be using coco with perlite, Technaflora 3 part nutes, and Black Magic cal mag. I used the Technaflora stuff outdoors, and have lots left. Otherwise, I would have gone with Megacrop.

So, on with the grow.

I am doing three plants, two Mephisto 24 Carat, and one Cosmic Queen. The Queen will no doubt rule size wise, but I am hopeful that all three will fit.

The beans went into the CD case with paper towel two days ago, all three sprouted in between 24 and 36 hours, and all are now in yogurt containers of coco/perlite. The yogurt containers are set up as insta-transplant pots (two containers per plant, inside one with large root escape holes in the sides, plus a removable bottom). The single seed in the photos is the Cosmic Queen, who left her siblings somewhat in her dust growth wise. She drilled through the paper towel, so I had to do a towel rip extraction. One of the two 24 Carat seeds was the slowest, but she got there eventually.

 

[Olderfart]

Happy Halloween girls on Day 3.

Cosmic Queen, the largest by half:

And, the two 24 Carats:

Happy growing everyone.

 

[Olderfart]

Minor update. Day 5 and the girls looked a bit off their stride, so I checked the nute solution for ph, and found that it had gone back up to at least 7. Sigh. So, multiple liters of nute solution later, the girls have been thoroughly flushed, and we shall see how they like it. The new ph meter that in theory I pick up shortly will make the monitoring a bit easier and more accurate.

It seems that my water is pretty determined to remain more alkaline than I would prefer.

I also have an EC meter coming, and will need to recheck and possibly re flush and buffer the coco in the final pots once it gets here. Good old coco...

 

[Olderfart]

Something I learned since the last update is that my lights are too much for the seedlings at ~20", at least they were for the Cosmic Queen when my temperatures got a bit too high (~28C) for part of a day. The lights are now moved up and lowered in intensity. I will work closer and stronger over time as the girls adjust.

The other thing I learned is you gotta buy an EC meter, even if you think that your tap water is great, at least you do when dealing with coco. Did I mention that an EC meter helps? It turns out that our tap water is ~370. And here I was assuming that my nute mix was likely about 800 or so at this stage. Nope, when I got the meter two days ago, I found out that the nute mix was over 1500. Hence the issues I was having with the early growth.

Anyway, the meter is now in the tool box, the nute strength has been hauled back to ~800 with distilled water, and I have found a nice local lake source of EC 25 water. Until the lake freezes up, that will be my water supply. After that, either a hole in the ice, or melting snow. No more tap water for the girls.

Here are the girls on Day 10. The smallest of the 24 Carat is a runt, likely stunted a bit by her slow start and the nute screwup early on, and possibly destined for the compost pile if she does not perk up shortly. 24 Carat #2 is doing not bad, and Cosmic Queen continues to leave her sisters behind. CQ still shows a bit of taco on the new leaves, but I think that should sort itself out over the next few days of growth.

Comments and advice welcome.

Happy growing all.

 

[Olderfart]

Hello all. The girls are doing fine, more on that later. First a couple issues/lessons learned since day 10.

Lesson #1 - CQ was still showing signs of what I figured might be light stress after raising the lights significantly, so I decided to check things. Turned out that the runoff from a nute application was over EC2700 on CQ but not on the two 24C's. It seems that I screwed up a Cal Mag mix on the CQ which got transplanted first. Anyway I figured the slight cupping might have been due to EC stress Instead of too muh light, so I did a couple flushes with nute solution, and a few gallons later, runoff is down to ~1000, so I am happier. CQ still shows a bit of leaf cupping and possibly a hint of nute burn, but unless one of you grow gurus suggests otherwise I will continue for a few days to see what happens once she gets a chance to settle down.

Lesson #2 - New pH meter died. Should have taken the advice elsewhere to just suck it up and get an Apera in the first place. OTOH, the defective unit is headed back to Amazon at zero financial cost to me, and a new Apera is on its way for early next week. In the meantime, the pH drops will keep me out of trouble for a few days.

These are the girls on Day 15:

She who has escaped the compost pile for now. :

The second 24C:

The CQ:

The 24C's seem ok for now to my noob eye, but the CQ may still have an issue with the light, or EC, or nutes, or all of the above. CQ is nonetheless going to be quite the bush if I don't manage to kill her first. If there is anything I should do other than give her a few days to settle down, I am all ears.

Not a lot of height yet especially on the 24Cs. Maybe too much light initially? Maybe the spectrum of the plugin bulbs? The early nute screwup? It will be interesting to see whether they get a move on over the next week or two.

Happy growing everyone.

 

[Olderfart]

Well, here we are at Day 20, and I haven't managed to kill them yet - still lots of time I know...

CQ was topped on day 16, training of her started on Day 17, and the autopot reservoir was turned on for everybody on Day 18. CQ earlier had yet another 2+gallon flush with nute mix to try to get the runoff in spec. Leaf damage from the earlier mixup is now obvious, but the new growth seems healthy, and there is lots of it. The 24 Carats are both doing fine, and will not have their heads removed like their bigger sister. There might be two 24 Carat phenos there, but OTOH, there might just have been two variations on noob mistakes. Time may tell...

Anyway, here are the girls on Day 20:

The smaller 24 Carat, formerly the "runt", still smaller, but starting to boogie:

The larger 24 Carat, seriously in boogie mode now, almost overtaking the CQ.

And the Cosmic Queen, still trying to make her mind up about all this topping and training stuff:

since the last update, I have more or less concluded that I have had the lights too low from the beginning. Internodes on all plants are very tight, and I have had a bit of leaf cupping on the CQ that I have been trying to chase down the whole time. Figuring things out has been hard because of the nute screwup which could have been much of the problem. Anyway, they are all on the autopot reservoir at ~925 EC, and the new growth seems happy, so maybe we are back on track. Keeping some air moving in the canopy may prove to be a challenge the way they are bushing out. Maybe ok once they really get stretching if they do, but I think perhaps the snippers will have to come out.

As always, advice will be received gratefully. Bring it on, I have a thick skin.

 

[Olderfart]

Well, I wasn't going to bother with photo's until Day 30, but couldn't help myself.

Here they are, morning of Day 25:

The three of them together:

The formerly compostable 24C, no longer headed in that direction:

The larger 24C, seriously in boogie mode now:

And lastly, the CQ who, to say the least, has pulled up her skirts:

CQ continues to put up with my training, and the 24Cs with the odd leaf tuck, which is all they will get until I figure some fans need removing.

Some of the leaves on the 24Cs look a hair droopy to me, perhaps just the nature of the phenos, perhaps the beginning of trouble?

Happy growing all.

 

[Olderfart]

Here they are at Day 30. I may yet regret the pot size...

The girls:

Miss former compostable 24C:

Bigger sister 24C:

And the biggest sister CQ (perhaps a good thing I topped...):

I had a hint of yellowing between the veins since the last update, so I slightly upped the Cal Mag, and did a couple foliar applications of Epsoms. The girls are now at ~1000 EC, which may yet prove to be a bit rich, especially for CQ, so I will be keeping my eye on that.

I also had what seemed to be excessively light green color on serration tips of new growth, and a bit more mild tacoing. The combination suggested excess light, so I lifted the lights, and unscrewed some bulbs to dial intensity back a bit. It seems that the ~500 watts is more light than my setup needs, which will allow adjustment of the spectrum just by unscrewing some 5500K, and screwing in some 2700K. High tech stuff.

Hats well and truly off to Mephisto Genetics!

Happy growing everyone.

 

[Olderfart]

Day 39, and I haven't killed them yet. One could argue that I have tried... I had what seemed to be a micro nute issue since the last update. Still chasing it a bit, but the ladies are progressing nonetheless. I switched over to Megacrop from the previous 3 part mix to see whether that would help with the leaf color issue. Jury is still out somewhat.

In any case, here are the ladies after a fairly serious haircut this morning to open things up for air movement:

Miss CQ from the side and top:

The formerly compostable 24C (good thing she escaped):

And the other 24C:

And finally, a wee bit of porn:

Happy growing all.

 

[Olderfart]

Hello all. Still haven't killed them.

The 24C's have stopped stretching, and buds are starting to fatten up. CQ is still putting on height with lots of flowers and branches.

After much fussing, it seems that I have been too heavy with the light for a long time, maybe for the whole grow. Now that I have seriously backed off (down to half power, and up to over 30") the new growth is looking happier. @Waira what do you think?

Here they are, the CQ first:

The 24C that narrowly escaped the compost pile:

And her slightly bigger 24C sister:

The ladies had another modest haircut this morning to open up for air circulation. The CQ is still a serious bush - I would be interested if more experienced growers think I need to thin her out further.

Happy growing all.