Waxwing's Back! With Dark Velvet and Blueberry Cookies

[WaxwingSlain]

Felicitations,
After a month’s respite I’m starting a new run, and this time we’re not foolin’.

For the past few grows I was wedded to the romance of an organic product, and the results have been underwhelming. It’s time for a heel turn! My base nutrient lineup for now is still organic, but I’m eager to try new and more exciting additions; what I used for the previous grow (Waxwing Grows: Organic Photos) was:

-Jack’s nutrients + epsom salts (“Jack’s 3-2-1”/321)

-ReCharge and sometimes Maxicrop

-Tribus probiotic

-Mykos

I’m out of Tribus and don’t feel the need for a direct replacement. The others are still on deck. With the 321 base, nutrition is nice and cheap, but I’m willing to spend more for better results; any synthetic add-ons, lesser-known supplements/silver bullets, or dirty tricks y’all might have to recommend will be considered.

Tomorrow I’ll clean up and prep the tent; for now we’re germinating four seeds, two “Dark Velvet” and two “Blueberry Cookies”, all of them fem-photo:

They’ll move in to cups and later into ten-gallon grow bags. I’ve got a fresh stock of coco coir, perlite, and Mother Earth soil, and will probably grow in some mixture of those three unless someone can talk me out of it.

The main light is a Diablo 750, and I’ll run a UV bar along with it, and maybe introduce supplemental LEDs or something later on- insufficient lighting will not be an issue, and with the UV, pests shouldn’t be either.

So what might rock the boat? Keep this tab open to find out more!

Your pal,

-Waxwing

[Crazy81]

Following along growmie

[SausageMahoney]

I’ll foller ya along.

[Growdoc]

Good to see you around, riding along!

[Growdoc]

@WaxwingSlain

So what might rock the boat?

Lots of grower tricks out there, some work, some….well you know! @Dman1969 and I have been working on getting frosty buds lately, which has found me putting together something I call Docs Dust, here’s the results from my current grow of ILGM Pineapple Cream Cakes.

Happy growing!

[Dman1969]

I’m gonna tag along if you don’t mind. I do deceptive things to my plants to fool them into frosting up. And I try to duplicate Mother Nature in my Grow Room. I found out a lot by mistake. For instance my HLG Scorpion Far Red pulled out the ceiling and decapitated one of my plants. The plant exploded with trich’s over night. Before the accident it had just started to show trich’s. This is a pic a few weeks before chop

Here’s one a lil closer to chop

So now I break on purpose at the rite time and it makes them go nuts

[Reed71]

@WaxwingSlain I wouldn’t use the coco you will regret it but that’s me lol

[Reed71]

You thinking by damaging it. it put out more tricks @Dman1969

[BobbyDigital]

Triches are a defense mechanism for the plant. The damage could have triggered the response by thinking it was being eaten.

[Growdoc]

Exactly, D and I both are “chewing” leaves to illicit the response of producing trichs. I just grab a fan leaf and mangle it between my fingers.

[Dman1969]

That’s exactly right My Brother like @BobbyDigital said it thinks it’s being eaten and to save itself it produces more trich’s to deter the critter. I’m just trying to duplicate nature and fool the plant along the process. I also snatch a few leaves at the right time to stimulate it. Or supercropping at the right time can make them explode. You can stem pop. All kinds of cool stuff can fool them.

[Reed71]

That’s awesome to know going to have try that out @Dman1969

[WaxwingSlain]

It’s a delight to see so much activity!

All four seeds are in the soil now (FF Happy Frog), and we are off to the races.

The BC seeds are in the pink-tape cups. Lighting is set to 18 hours a day, and fans are running at low speed.

Next steps: prep grow bags and if I feel up to it maybe recalibrate pH meter (it’s probably just fine).

[WaxwingSlain]

Why’s that?

[Dman1969]

You definitely want to calibrate your meters on every grow. And you don’t want light hitting those roots in the clear cups. You can put them in colored cups or wrap it up with tape. Like you did on a couple. I use the clear inside an opaque so I can monitor root development and I poke a bunch of holes all up and down the sides of the clear cups to help get oxygen to the roots. Fabric bags are the way to grow.

[Dman1969]

Coco and soil are 2 totally different substrates. Coco has no nutrients in it. And it delivers nutrients differently than soil.

[WaxwingSlain]

That was the reasoning behind the pink tape. I ordered some black tape to put on the other two cups, but it arrived later that I wanted and I decided to plant the seeds and then wait a bit before taping just in case there’s some accident that spills the contents and I’m stuck looking for a seed instead of a seedling to put back.
These cups have draining slits at the bottom and the grow bags they’ll move into should be a good breathable fabric.
I’ll get off my ass and recalibrate that meter, I know it’s important I just hate doing it~

[WaxwingSlain]

There are styles of tea that encourage certain bugs to nibble on the leaves because of the yummy defense compounds the plants respond with- cool stuff!

[Growdoc]

@WaxwingSlain

I ordered some black tape to put on the other two cups,

All you have to do is drop them into a colored cup, put some drain holes in bottom. You can pull the clear one out to inspect.

[WaxwingSlain]

I’m about to order some KCL for my pH probe; should have everything else I need to calibrate and maintain it.
For this grow, should I get more soil and perlite and just use those two for the medium? I’ve had no obvious problems combining coco and soil- I simply figured the textural benefits were worth it- but if it’s truly suboptimal I’ll save the coco for a proper hydro grow.