Indoor Head Start

[Hunt-Grow-Cook]

Originally Posted by PureHarvest

Thanks Ricky.
I am a little puzzled by the size and shape of the Black Beauty. I wonder if it has the wilt gene. It is a fuzzy stemmed sucker too. But is the only one that has buds. Can't wait to see it fruit and taste it!

In regards to size and shape, I assume you are referring to the short, wide stature as opposed to tall and skinny? Being that Black Beauty came from a cross of Pink Berkley Tie Dye and Indigo Apple, id say that is the Pink Berkley Tie Dye genes. PBTD has always been a compact grower for me, short and wide just like your picture. Large Barred Boar grows the same.

Your plants look fantastic Pure. I hope to transplant my seedlings this weekend.

[PureHarvest]

Thanks for the info Hunt.
Yeah, its almost acting like the 3 dwarfs in those pics as far as height, but it seems to have "normal" width. Branches are wispier/thinner than I am used to seeing.

[jpop]

Beautiful Pure. In case I missed it, what is your current fert rate and schedule?

[PureHarvest]

Originally Posted by jpop

Beautiful Pure. In case I missed it, what is your current fert rate and schedule?

The last batch I made on Wednesday night was 1,038PPM
I made 4 gallons (leaves enough room to mix and stir in a 5 gallon bucket).

I used the rate of chemgro for the seedling stage at 8 ounces per 100 gallons
4 ounces each of Calcium Nitrate and Magnesium Sulfate per 100 gallons.

So converting to grams and making up 4 gallons it was:

2.27 grams of chemgro x 4 gal = 9 grams
1.14 grams each of CaNo3 and MgSo4 x 4 gal = 4.5 grams each

PLus my source water of 50 ppm and whatever ppm the 10-15 tiny flakes of potassium hydroxide I use to take the pH from 5.2 to 6.5 adds.
All together it gave me 1,038 ppm. Chemgro label says I should be closer to 1200 ppm, but my scale does not weigh fractions of a gram and my chemgro is old and it attracted moisture over the winter (the lid got knocked off my bucket), so maybe it is not as pure as it should be.
When I am mixing 250 gallons at a time (not needing to do fractions of a gram) and have a fresh bag, I expect to be right near the mark.

Prior to Wednesday, I used two different rates.
From day 3 after germination I used the seedling rate cut in half. PPM was 450
After 3 weeks I went to 630 PPM. That was reducing the full seedling rate by 25%
I will probably stay at the full seedling now until the 1st truss of fruit starts to form, then raise the formula up 10%/ week until I get to the next stage rate where CaNo3 will have doubled from where it is now.

[jpop]

Set up on a drip, similar, or hand water?

[PureHarvest]

I used a 100 gallon poly livestock tank last year and pumped out of that through 1/2 poly tubing. I had smaller tubes coming off of that with spray stakes at the end of each tube into each bag. The put out .05 gallon per minute. Full grown plants got fed 8 times a day for 3 minutes at each watering. I had the pump controlled by a timer to do this.
I did not have electric, so I had a marine battery hooked to an inverter that ran the pump. Every 2-3 days I took it down to the house at night and charged it, and took it back up the next morning.
This year, hoping to have electric soon. Might get a solar panel to recharge the battery if the electric line install is held up.
Also have 3 free 250 gallon poly tanks I'm going with this year for holding my nutrient solution. They fit on a pallet. They were used to hold a carbon slurry for commercial Ag application. I won't have to make up a batch of nutrients as often.

Here's the spray stake I use: http://www.farmtek.com/farm/supplies...03_110415.html
You shove the stake down all the way into the media in the bag so just the head is above the soil level and it sprays the solution onto the surface. It covers more surface area than a dripper stake.

Here is the tube/lead that taps into the 1/2" poly line on one end, and the spray stake on the other http://www.farmtek.com/farm/supplies...&rel=nofollow/

It's nice too, because it has a check valve and is pressure compensating so each bag gets the same flow no matter how far from the pump it is or how level the ground is. PLus nutrients cant flow back to the tank.

More info on this thread: http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=39837

[Gerardo]

Sweet Scarlet has a slightly older sister down here, with the same Gobernator build.

Plants are flawless, very nice.

Hope to see your SS soon H-C-G!

[PureHarvest]

So here is the weekly update. 6 weeks from sowing.
Stems are starting to thicken and elongate a little, but the internode spacing is still pretty good:

Sweet Scarlet Dwarf:

IMG_1119.JPG IMG_1120.JPG

Dark Queen:

IMG_1121.JPG IMG_1122.JPG

[PureHarvest]

Week 5 vs 6:
I'm not liking the color going from darker to lighter from last week to this week.
I'm gonna put these into their 5-gallon bags tomorrow and I'm due to make a new batch of nutrients.

IMG_1085.JPG IMG_1121.JPG

IMG_1086.JPG IMG_1122.JPG

[Ricky Shaw]

I get that lightening sometimes, I assumed the plants are getting too big for the pot and the ability to process the nutrients is restricted.

[heirloomtomaguy]

Dude your plants look amazing. Keep up the good work.

[barefootgardener]

They do look good! Good luck with all of them Harvest. This will be my first year growing a few dwarf varieties, and man, they are definitely smaller than my regular varieties so far.

Ginny

[PureHarvest]

Thanks for the encouraging words everyone.

I must say that I am taken with the dwarfs plants thus far. They are just so cool.
Especially in the seedling stage. I have an entire tray (98 cells of rockwool) that look just unbelievable compared to a tray of indeterminates.

Now if the yield and taste are excellent, it is gonna be hard not to lean toward mostly dwarfs moving forward.

I'm really anxious to compare yields and test out how many plants per bag as well as bag spacing.

[jpop]

Originally Posted by PureHarvest

Thanks for the encouraging words everyone.

I must say that I am taken with the dwarfs plants thus far. They are just so cool.
Especially in the seedling stage. I have an entire tray (98 cells of rockwool) that look just unbelievable compared to a tray of indeterminates.

Now if the yield and taste are excellent, it is gonna be hard not to lean toward mostly dwarfs moving forward.

I'm really anxious to compare yields and test out how many plants per bag as well as bag spacing.

This was my first season growing them as well and the yields have been through the roof. There's a thread below this 2016 progression i posted and you will see a picture on the last page of just one of the many plants loaded with fruit. Also, the plants are stunning good work

[PureHarvest]

Here is the second crop of seeds I started about 4 weeks ago.

Purple Bumble Bee

IMG_1125.JPG

IMG_1126.JPG

IMG_1127.JPG

Paul Robeson

IMG_1128.JPG

The Beryl Beauty seems to have stretched much more than other plants I've grown. Very well could have been shaded by other plants in the tray and/or not in the best spot under the light. I am going to put these in 1 gallon pots so I can start putting them out during the day and bring in at night if need be. Hopefully then into 5 gallon bags in 2 weeks or less depending on weather.
Crop 3 is over 2 weeks old and need to go into 4" deep pots, so I need the room. I have 180 that need to go under the light.