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Well I decided about a month ago that it was time to get started on a grow with seeds supplied from a professional seed bank. Admittedly I have little expertise in the strain game and being one who takes the words of the internet with a huge lump of salt, I found myself at a loss for what I strains I should start with. My choices were Greenhouse's Arjan's Haze #3, Big Bang (both feminized), and Reserva Privada's Purple Wreck. All provided by the good
Interestingly it seams Sirius and Herbalonics made at least one of those choices at approximately the same time. I think this is excellent considering that I will now have to opportunity gain experience independent of my on observations.
The medium I've chosen for this grow is a 33/33/33 mix of vermiculite, soil, coco. I've chosen this mix to facilitate an easer transition when I transplant to strait coco/ perlite. Currently the plants are growing comfortably under a bank of 24" T17's and I have upgraded my veg area with a T12 shop fixture along each side so that there will plenty of light once my plants start branching. Ultimately I will have a T5 setup for keeping a mother and her babies.
My plan is to take clones from all the prospective mothers and run the parent plants to harvest and choose the best one or two. I even have one in mind already. A few days after germination I transplanted my peat pellets into pots and the roots of one of the plants (Big Bang) had already branched into a few root tips. I also kept track of which plants were showing their tap roots 4 days after germination. Enough babbling, here's some pics.
You may have already seen this one:
The Happy Family:
Haze #3 on the left, Big Bang on the right
Haze #3 closeup:
Big Bang closeup:
Its hard to tell from those pictures but there's a big difference in the leaves of both strains. The Big Bang's leaves are much broader and almost look like giant flat leaf parsley. The Haze #3 has much narrower leaves and this observation lends at least some credibility to the assertions Greenhouse Seed makes in their advertisements.
I'm now at 3 weeks, out of the 10 seeds I attempted to germinate 9 were good. of those I had to remove one for lack of space. I have also decided to go with a L.S.T to S.C.R.O.G grow. It's apparent that I would have had a much higher yield on my last grow if I had done a better job keeping all of my growth tips on an even plain relative to my light. The L.S.T. method I'm using can be found here Grass City Forums(L.S.T.). In a few days I will be re-potting so that I will have enough room train my "vines" in order to maximize side branching. I think this method might be more efficient in producing colas than topping. I have also settled on Botanicare's soil nutrient line. Not only can I use them in soil but botanicare suggests that they would also work in a coco substrate.
Here's some pics, Keep in mind that they are being tied down and they're not going to look that pretty.
The next two pictures will show the benefits of L.S.T:
Here's one from the top
Lifting up the top leaves you find a nice supprise
Looking closely at those last two pictures you may notice some yellow stripes running lengthwise down the leaf. I believe this is representative of that plants phenotype (Big Bang strain). None of my other plants are showing that trait and it was there from the first set of true leaves. I wont know if it's a nutrient problem or just the plants phenotype until I'm able to flush my pots and add a balanced nutrient solution.
If you remember in my original post I mentioned there was one plant in particular that got my attention due to some interesting root growth (multiple root tips). Another anomaly I failed to mention was that the plant grew not one one but two sets of single bladed leaves after the cotyledons, that in itself wasn't so strange except there was no growth tip sprouting from between the topmost set of leaves. For shits an giggles I decided to top it, seeing as how there were sprouts peeking out from the next node down. I left this plant alone so that it could get to growing out it's branches and I decided not to tie it down.
Now it gets trippy. When I finally decided it was time to tie it down I discovered something very strange. Inverted was the first to notice Whorled Phyllotaxy (three leaves per node) in one of his plants, and one of this specimens branches is showing the same anomaly. However, the other branch is only producing two leaves per node. I'm kind of excited to see if this plant has any other surprises in store.
Today I decided it was finally time to flip the lights. The last couple of weeks have been kind of rough. First I noticed what appeared to be calcium deficiency on one plant and a magnesium deficiency on another. At the time I was still using a dilute solution of Miracle Grow and I as soon as I switched to a more expensive organic nutrient my leaves started turning yellow. It had to be done because all the new leaves were puckering do to the harshness of the Miracle Grow. I solved my dilemma by mixing 2tsp of hydrated lime to my nutrient solution. A week later I was gone for a couple of days and missed an important watering day. I came home to limp plants that were clearly starving the older leaves for nutrients. I knew it was time to start flushing my coir and get my babies transplanted. Here's a pic of them just after I transferred them from my veg closet to my bloom closet.
My setup now includes 1 new 400w MH and a 400 standard HPS. Botanicare Pure Blend PRO soil nutrients and Liquid Karma as an additive. This formulation is also good for coir and it's organic. I have other additives hanging around in case I need them. I repotted to 50/50 coir/perlite although the root ball still contains some soil. I also have 2 decent size fans, 1 blowing air between the lamps and 1 blowing cool air into the closet. So far I've been able to maintain a temp between 82 and 90 degrees, with an average RH of 40%.
So far the LST technique is going fairly well. I now have as many growth tips in an 4x8x8in area as I had before in a 2ft3 area. Tomorrow I will borrow a camera so I can take a close up of the stems to show you how much better this method is than topping your plants. This next picture will give you an idea of the canopy LST produces in a very small space. The plants in this picture have had most all the leaves from the main stem removed, what you see is a canopy of smaller leaves that belong to all the branches growing from the vine underneath. Half of them still have the original growth tip on top of their main stem. The others are topped, we'll see which makes better looking buds. Keep in mind that the stems on these plants are between 8 and 12in long with between 5 and 9 good branches. I'm glad I flipped the lights now cause I can see the empty space I have left filling up fast.
Arjan's Haze #3 on the left, Big Bang on the right.
One advantage to this method over SCROG is that I can easly move my plants to the tub in case they need a flush. This is important to me because with the fan blowing across the surface of my substrate I'm worried I might get a nutrient buildup before my plants can absorb them. One disadvantage is that I could see in some circumstances having your plant so close to the moist surface of the pot could cause some mold problems. Another potential disadvantage is there won't be as much popcorn and I've found it to be the most convenient to smoke.
The prettiest and most vigorous of the AH #3 was fortunately never topped and right now it has 5 well formed 2-leaf nodes within 2in of the top of the plant. Keep in mind that this strain is supposed to be a pure sativa and the leaves clearly show this, it was also grown under florescent lights until 3 days ago. I'll get a pic tomorrow before it starts to stretch. I can already tell that its going to give me a fat bud and I was able to clone it. I'm hoping it doesn't go hermi on me.
Ghetto Cloning:
So far I've attempted to take several clones but none of them ever produced roots, even though I was able to keep a couple alive for weeks. I finally acquired some rockwool starter cubes and I took clones from the side branches of my plants. Instead of buying the starter tray I took the advice on the packaging and put my clones in a zip-top bag with a small opening left in the top. I also have a small fan mounted parallel to my fluro's that blows air along the top of the bag for air exchange. I've only misted a couple times a day and my clones never wilted a bit. In fact getting them away from the fan caused them to perk up a bit.
Arjan's Haze #3 with my star performer on the right.
Well here we are. The pics I'm about to show you were taken 6 days after those in my previous post. I'm glad I flipped the lights when I did because it's becoming a jungle in there.
I'm also excited to share the news that both of my AH #3 clones took root despite my newb skilz. Two of my Big Bang clones are still alive and I figure at this point there's about a 20% probability that one will survive. Despite my haphazard cloning skilz the AH #3 really wanted to thrive and put down roots if that information is of any use to anyone looking for a strong mother plant.
At this time my nutrient regime consists of full strength Pure Blend Pro Bloom(soil), Liquid Karma, 1.2ml/gal molasses and 1.2ml/gal lemon juice. I've found that the molasses drops the pH and the lemon juice just takes me where I want to go, target 5.8. Greenhouse suggests the AH #3 needs a P-K boost every couple weeks during flowering so I will comply.
All my ladies are showing white hairs and so far, I see no balls. Hopefully I haven't stressed my ladies enough to go hermi. I also have one lady that is showing signs of Mag deficiency so I will add some epsom salts tomorrow. I don't figure there's much else to say until harvest. I will update with pics as things change. + TITS (or GTFO)
Things have been running smoothly so there isn't much to say. In the last week my ladies have stretched from 4 to 6in and all the terminal buds are pointing strait up and flowering. I hope they don't stretch much more. I have a viable AH #3 mom, so if chose to grow her progeny I might try some Bushmaster to stunt the vertical growth but that product is said to decrease potency.
I also inoculated my pots with Fungi Perfecti's MycoGrow™ Soluble for Potting Soils & Rooting Media. It's the most diverse blend of Endo & Ecto mycorrhiza and bacterial endospores that I could find.
It's also the cheapest. Who knows if the spores are even viable, maybe I will streak some agar and investigate. My intention is to not have to flush my pots until the last two weeks of flowering. I've been adding minute portions of molasses to prepare my coir for the inoculation, hopefully my inoculation doesn't turn into an infection.
The only other news I have to report is that I have started my PurpleWreck seeds in hopes that I will be able to maintain a 4 plant / 4 week schedule. I think by the time my AH #3 finishes that I will be able have them sexed and flowering.
As promised in my previous post, I thought I might add a pic of my prettiest ladies.
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