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[MEGA]Community Growing advice, tips, tricks, & experiences Part 5 (2012-2013)

Quick question, was repotting a seedling today that is about 11 days old, the soil appeared to be totally dry but it seems about half way down there was a bit of moisture. Anyway, as I tried to remove it from its initial container the dirt sort of split into two halves, with a horizontal split maybe a third to half the way down the container. I couldn't see whether the root mass severed or what happened, but it fell apart fairly noticeably, anyway I got it all back together best I could and got it out the container and transplanted anyway. Wondering what the likelihood of this plant surviving is and how serious the stress this would cause the plant is? Cheers.
 
Did you notice the cloud of em' after you heard the heleCOPters ?
Yup, a good amount of growers think they were sprayed by the feds. I wouldn't put it past them. Damn copters, they are so sketch.

Quick question, was repotting a seedling today that is about 11 days old, the soil appeared to be totally dry but it seems about half way down there was a bit of moisture. Anyway, as I tried to remove it from its initial container the dirt sort of split into two halves, with a horizontal split maybe a third to half the way down the container. I couldn't see whether the root mass severed or what happened, but it fell apart fairly noticeably, anyway I got it all back together best I could and got it out the container and transplanted anyway. Wondering what the likelihood of this plant surviving is and how serious the stress this would cause the plant is? Cheers.
It should be fine man. The most stress comes from severing the main tap root, so as long as that isn't broken you should be good. I have transplanted and had a good portion of the bottom fibrous roots completely separate and the plant turned out fine.

I would recommend getting superthrive or another vitamin b supplement for plants when you transplant them :)
 
I would recommend getting superthrive or another vitamin b supplement for plants when you transplant them :)
Good advice freehugs, most liquid plant food has vitamin B complexes as well as other important nutrient profiles. Bigga Buds is a great aussie plant food and bloom booster that has B vitamines, Potassium, Magnesium etc and added bee's wax and honey! Think the honey both acts as a disinfectant and as a ready supply of dextrose, not sure about the dissolved wax though?? I used to use "Iguana" a Canadian companies organic liquid plant food along with "Piranha" from the same group Mycorrhizas benifical fungi.

A bit on mycorrhizas from wiki: "Endomycorrhizas are variable and have been further classified as arbuscular, ericoid, arbutoid, monotropoid, and orchid mycorrhizas.[26] Arbuscular mycorrhizas, or AM (formerly known as vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizas, or VAM), are mycorrhizas whose hyphae enter into the plant cells, producing structures that are either balloon-like (vesicles) or dichotomously branching invaginations (arbuscules). The fungal hyphae do not in fact penetrate the protoplast (i.e. the interior of the cell), but invaginate the cell membrane. The structure of the arbuscules greatly increases the contact surface area between the hypha and the cell cytoplasm to facilitate the transfer of nutrients between them." wiki. These fungi can create a root area 100 x larger and more efficient than control plants with no mycorrhiza present. The bigger the root system the more food the plant can absorb and the bigger the plant will grow and the denser the buds!!

As for the seedling don't stress at 11 days it'll be fairly small if your using an 80 watt bulb (different story if it's a 400 watt on a 18 hour cycle ;) )and will only have a small root system. The fact the soil fell away means the plant has not developed a very extensive root system. You should have no problems at all. A little stress makes the dope stronger at the end of the day, too much stress will kill though. As freehugs has stated severing the tap root will cause problems like death of seedling due to stress, infection. Have you ever used the green foam like hydroponic substrate for raising seedlings? It works well and the only issue I ever had was drying out of the seedlings under light as I'd neglected to program a mid cycle water of the seedlings and they were crispy critters when I checked the grow cupboard :(.

That said I visited my brother and he has a few little mullies on the go. They sound about the same stage as yours drug_mentor. He's grown dope for almost 20 years and just does the minimum of fussing especially when they are seedlings. He usually plants 15 or so in case some die (seedlings are a bit prone to this lol), turn male or transgender (male and female sex organs on the plant aarrrghhh I hate that!). He really just does the bare minimum and he still gets chronic bud. He does put more effort into them once they start to mature and even more once they bloom. He uses a similar fertilizer regime to the one I have outlined in my previous post (except he uses a watering can every few days with nutrients added) with a H20 flush 10 days prior to harvest.

When did you water them last? If it's standard soil it'll retain the moisture more than well draining soil/substrate. This may result in root rot but if you watered them yesterday and their is only moisture at the base of the pot it should be fine. I always have had issues growing seedlings using standard soil or potting mix as I usually get root rot. After changing to high drainage sterile substrates this issue became null.

A little about root rot from wiki: Many cases of root rot are caused by members of the water mould genus Phytophthora. Perhaps the most aggressive is P. cinnamomi. Spores from root rot causing agents do contaminate other plants, but the rot cannot take hold unless there is adequate moisture. Spores are not only airborne, but are also carried by insects and other arthropods in the soil.
A plant with root rot will not normally survive, but can often be propagated so it will not be lost completely. Plants with root rot should be removed and destroyed. Excessive moisture reduces the ability of aerobic bacteria and fungi to maintain a healthy micro environment. Aerobic bacteria and fungi such as mycorrhiza out compete the harmful bacteria if the soil is well drained and oxygenated.
 
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Lovin it AE, you're going to have some chronic, thats for sure. I'll try to get some pictures next time I head up to the garden.

Everyone, what is your way of dealing with plants after a heavy rain?
Make sure your soil drains REALLY WELL! If your running a drip or trickle system and you see storm clouds stop the nutrient feed/watering system. Inverted bottles require one to run around to each plant and remove them but you can just leave them right side up and wait until the weather clears and the plants need water. I can't stress enough how important really good drainage is especially if you get high volumes of rain.

Another tip is to plant on the side of a hill/valley facing E-W. This is so the plant can track the sun throughout the day. Clear the area well but keep low level shrubs to help camo your plants also lantana can be a good screen and it makes some good soil. Make sure the plants receive full light from morning until as late as possible the higher on the slope the more light you can get over the day. Planting on a slope with good soil drainage reduces the impact of excessive water when storms occur however make sure the area has plenty of large trees to prevent any land slip or alternatively you can use trellises to make raised beds for your plants and retaining walls to prevent slips.

Loads of strains I have grown in the past have had purple leaves, hairs, stems etc. Not bad dope at all although I prefer the white crystalline buds such as the white widow, white rhino etc. I have had a variety of mullies like white widow hybrid's that had so much trichomes present on the buds once I dried them and stored them in a glass jar for curing that I had white powder at the base of the jar from all the trichomes falling off the buds!
 
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Hello Peoples. Just wondering weather or not its a bad idea to put my plant outside in the sun for a couple of hours even tho its ment to be a hydro plant???
 
Quick question, was repotting a seedling today that is about 11 days old, the soil appeared to be totally dry but it seems about half way down there was a bit of moisture. Anyway, as I tried to remove it from its initial container the dirt sort of split into two halves, with a horizontal split maybe a third to half the way down the container. I couldn't see whether the root mass severed or what happened, but it fell apart fairly noticeably, anyway I got it all back together best I could and got it out the container and transplanted anyway. Wondering what the likelihood of this plant surviving is and how serious the stress this would cause the plant is? Cheers.


wont be able to do anything about real damage but a dose of h20 followed by a real light dose of bud fert after the system is hydrated can do wonders for shock. Like if you have a organic 2-5-5 0r something along that line then a couple of drops mixed with a solo glass should be enough.. like 10 eye drops will usually do fine.. kinda the same dose you use to prevent transplant shock when reporting clones.. maybe a little less.
 
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Hello Peoples. Just wondering weather or not its a bad idea to put my plant outside in the sun for a couple of hours even tho its ment to be a hydro plant???

I learnt the hard way that this will cause insect issues very quickly ( if using soil )
 
If your babies are going outside place a few snail bait pellets around them. Also possums love mull seedlings so make sure they come inside at night. Aphids and other bugs are a pain but a well diluted spray of neem oil should see most of the critters stay well away. :)
 
Thanks guys :) It's really risky with the work going on in the nearby forest so I'm anxious about the plants being seized or ripped.

freehugs do you mean with respect to mould? Personally I inspect the each and every one of the buds by eye every couple of days and every time I spot any bud rot I cut it off with sharp scissors to prevent it spreading. You need to be careful to avoid disturbing the grey mould too much to avoid the spores blowing onto the rest of the plant, infecting the healthy bud.
Also a dab of diluted honey on the area of bud removed seems to help. Silica products can also be of benefit but should not be used at least 4 weeks prior to harvest. Are most of you all growing outdoors in reserves or other forested areas? This would make things tricky as hell. I used to grow on my own property (well my folks land) and it was a few hectares so I guess I could show the babies a lot more love and attention than a guerrilla grow.

It's sad people can't just grow a few nice plants in their back yard or balcony/ hydro setup. You really notice the quality of well cared for and loved mullies. Not saying people don't do their utmost but guerrilla growing means you can't always give your plants the love and care they need. I have never encountered bud mold/rot in any of my crops a 100% no bud rot rate from over a dozen grows.

Forestry work in a reserve area your growing in means a very good chance of them being found and A: destroyed and police bought in to investigate or B they get taken by the workers (more often than not B occurs lol).
 
If the plants are small you can use a heat mat. Even a reptile heat mat would work, with a cheap thermostat with probe like the TC-10.

Here's some more pics of my outdoors:
Heat mats are great for seedling/clones during the first 3-4 weeks! They really make a huge difference. Top advice artificial emotion! :) Also I used to separate 1-2 male plants and ensure they could not pollinate any females until they developed a few nice flowers. I'd then cut a few nice flowers and store them in a freezer bag in the fridge and destroy the male plant. When the females were at peak I'd carefully tie the plastic bags around 1 branch ensuring no air/pollen escaped and leave the bag over night. The next day remove the bag carefully and dispose of the male flower. This will basically set just the one branch with seeds and the rest of the plant will only develop a very small number. This also prevents cross pollination to the rest of your crop by limiting the male pollen's spread. :)
 
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Information On Last Few Days Of Plant....Anyone Welcome.

Hello im Asty86.
im in my last stages of my WW plant and i was just wondering weather or not it would harm the plant if i was to cut off some leafs to allow the bud to get more light ?????

Also would it harm the plant if i was to take one or 2 of my stems before harvesting all the others???

Answers Welcome Thankyou.
 
If it's in the last of the blooming stage I'd say go ahead. I always cut off the larger leaves that are covering the buds. I read somewhere the plants make THC as a protection against (sun)light. Hence, the more light touching the buds, the more psychoactives it'll produce.

I don't know anything about stemming.
 
Be careful, don't trim much, just a few leaves to increase the amount of light lower buds get, and trim the really small popcorn buds on the bottom of the plant, so the bigger buds have more nutrients. You can harvest some early, just don't cut a huge stem off and shock the plant. Also the bud won't be as good.
 
Cutting off leaves lowers your plant's ability to photosynthesize, and I have heard from a few growers that keeping fan leaves on during drying helps add flavor to the bud. Apparently there are sugars that are left in the leaves that get transferred the the buds when drying :)

So I would not do it.

and merged.
 
Cutting healthy leaves? Surely common sense would tell you this is not a good idea. It's not the light shining on buds that makes them swell, it's the light that shines on the green parts of the plant which produce energy via photosynthesis that makes them swell. So if you cut healthy leaves off, you are cutting the plant's food supply off and the buds will get less energy and be smaller.
..............................

God I absolutely loooove mattocks. It is by far, my favorite garden tool. There's no way I would be able to cultivate the earth at my guerrilla site with just a garden fork.

Cutter_mattock.jpg


Heat mats are great for seedling/clones during the first 3-4 weeks! They really make a huge difference. Top advice artificial emotion! :) Also I used to separate 1-2 male plants and ensure they could not pollinate any females until they developed a few nice flowers. I'd then cut a few nice flowers and store them in a freezer bag in the fridge and destroy the male plant. When the females were at peak I'd carefully tie the plastic bags around 1 branch ensuring no air/pollen escaped and leave the bag over night. The next day remove the bag carefully and dispose of the male flower. This will basically set just the one branch with seeds and the rest of the plant will only develop a very small number. This also prevents cross pollination to the rest of your crop by limiting the male pollen's spread. :)

Thanks mate.

About pollination, personally I've come to really think highly of purpose-made pollination bags. They are manufactured with a special breathable, washable, re-usable material and a viewing window made of a special plastic used for this purpose. The male produces it's pollen, and is collected in the pollination bag which keeps it safe inside, away from neighboring females. It's great for outdoor breeding and IMO is one of those things that is an investment.

gallery_51167_3924_41937.jpg
 
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Also a dab of diluted honey on the area of bud removed seems to help. Silica products can also be of benefit but should not be used at least 4 weeks prior to harvest. Are most of you all growing outdoors in reserves or other forested areas? This would make things tricky as hell. I used to grow on my own property (well my folks land) and it was a few hectares so I guess I could show the babies a lot more love and attention than a guerrilla grow.

It's sad people can't just grow a few nice plants in their back yard or balcony/ hydro setup. You really notice the quality of well cared for and loved mullies. Not saying people don't do their utmost but guerrilla growing means you can't always give your plants the love and care they need. I have never encountered bud mold/rot in any of my crops a 100% no bud rot rate from over a dozen grows.

Forestry work in a reserve area your growing in means a very good chance of them being found and A: destroyed and police bought in to investigate or B they get taken by the workers (more often than not B occurs lol).

I managed to harvest all my plants with no problems. The forestry workers don't go into my area since it's fenced off with barbed wire. Anyway a little bit of fear gets the heart pumping.

As for bud rot, you're blessed with a much better climate than mine, so bud rot is much more of an issue here compared to where you live. In the UK, even the south of the UK, we need to grow highly mold resistant strains in order to be able to get anything outdoors. It requires some skill to avoid mold in many cases, but it is possible.

It's more effort but during the grow I visited my plants daily, despite it being a guerrilla grow. Next year I am not going to be growing in pots, which is why I've dug over the ground with a mattock so it should take much less effort and save my back. The soil is very good so I'm lucky in that respect. I am factoring in a loss either from pests, diseases, police or rippers so it's something I take into consideration when I plan my grows. If the plants all survive that's just more bud but losses are something I can afford to suffer.
 
Hello im Asty86.
im in my last stages of my WW plant and i was just wondering weather or not it would harm the plant if i was to cut off some leafs to allow the bud to get more light ?????

Also would it harm the plant if i was to take one or 2 of my stems before harvesting all the others???

Answers Welcome Thankyou.

I agree about not taking the leaves off. With regard to harvesting different parts of the plant at different times. The answer is that it can be done with out killing the plant. It will probably stress the plant and it will open up sites for infection to enter so there is a risk but it is possible. The other thing is that if it is much too early you are sacrificing some nice big buds later on for a tiny amount of smoke now, better to wait if this is the case.
 
I agree about not taking the leaves off. With regard to harvesting different parts of the plant at different times. The answer is that it can be done with out killing the plant. It will probably stress the plant and it will open up sites for infection to enter so there is a risk but it is possible. The other thing is that if it is much too early you are sacrificing some nice big buds later on for a tiny amount of smoke now, better to wait if this is the case.

I think that he is talking about harvesting the main colas so that the other buds can adequately mature. We do that at our garden and harvesting the main tops especially allows for the side branches to bulk up and kind of become tops. I also have a theory that stress = more THC so stressing them out a little bit might make them danker.
 
Yeah if the tops are ready but the other parts aren't then it makes sense. I think the underneath parts have more flavour anyway: might be because they arent subjected to the brutal dry heat we get in autumn here. I have done the sequential harvest thing several times before with no problem. Once there was an infection where I had cut it and I put some honey on it which seemed to help. I don't do indoors so I'm not sure if there is more chance of complications there.
 
Hello im Asty86.
im in my last stages of my WW plant and i was just wondering weather or not it would harm the plant if i was to cut off some leafs to allow the bud to get more light ?????

Also would it harm the plant if i was to take one or 2 of my stems before harvesting all the others???

Answers Welcome Thankyou.

Getting a little eager to smoke hey? Pruning poorly can lead to infections so best to just let it grow unless you know what your doing. Pruning paint will stop infections but if you plan on harvesting in say 2-3 weeks forget it as pruning paint is chock full of toxins that will naturally end up in your plant and require 3-4 weeks before harvesting (read the instructions on the side of the bottle). Try staking the branches to spread them if it's a big enough plant. Also a few shade leaves (the larger leaves at the base of the steam, they eventually die off anyway as the plant and bud matures) trimmed shouldn't do to much damage. Seem's some people are anti pruning and some people (like myself) have used pruning methods. Just depends on the plants density. A small tightly compacted shrub needs pruning and possibly staking while a lanky tall plant needs bugger all, just removal of the odd dying leaf (the brown ones that end up making a brown mat under your plants when they are all headed up). If you can get away with 12 foot plus dope trees just remove the dying leaves as the plant matures.

If your making dwarf bonsai type plants staking and pruning are essential to allow light to penetrate to the buds just don't overdo it. This type of plant manicuring does really well in hydroponic setups especially with additional low watt (2 x 120 fluorescent bulbs one each side) side lighting and overhead tracking with a 400-1000 Watt as the main light source. Alternatively you can just let the bugger grow until it's almost touching the 1000 watt bulb as it tracks during it's cycle. Obviously this may cause the crown to burn so restraining the beast by tying it down is essential, just try not to snap the plant. Everyone has their own techniques and experiences and no one grow is ever identical. Some grows I've seen you don't even realize your surrounded by dope until you are standing with your face almost pressed against a tree (outdoors).

As much as I love outdoor grows I'd really like to get back into hydroponic growing. It's much more scientific with Ph level testing, timers, substrates, nutrient cycles and adjustments during the plants growth, CO2 to increase bud density, good microbial colonies and their management, oxygenation of liquid nutrients and substrate, refrigeration of nutrient feed to ensure no bad/excessive microbial growth, misters, tracking your lights to mimic the natural pattern of the sun, fans, side lighting, carbon filters on your exhaust vent, intake vent. Best to use an entire room or shed for the home enthusiast. So much to play with and the different techniques and methodology creates different yields/taste etc as does the art of hybridization/cloning plants and the special care you can devote to your own strain of home grown goodness. Sadly that is behind me and will remain so until maybe I grow very old, retire and begin my own hobby cultivation...
 
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