McToker Grows Again ~ CFL/HPS Hempy Bucket ~ Bag Seed

[McToker]

Mrs. McToker and I were not able to get our second grow going after Xmas as we had originally planned. One of our kids moved back in with us after getting out of the Military. But, heâ??s moving out soon to take a new job up north. Whoopie!!! I told the Mrs. that weâ??ll be free to get naked or grow another crop. She insists that nobody wants to see me naked so, it looks weâ??ll start another grow.:D

We thought seriously about ordering some beans but ultimately decided to grow from the same batch of bagseed that we used for the last grow. Because we are making a couple changes in our setup, we wanted to see just how much quantity and quality might improve. We figured the best test was to grow from the same batch of seeds. The changes are Hempy Buckets instead of soil and HPS lighting for flowering instead of the CFLâ??s we used last time. CFLâ??s will still be used for vegging.

We are anxious to get this second grow going and apply all that we learned on the first grow.

The last grow was all CFLâ??s in soil.

For this grow, hereâ??s the plan:

Homebox S indoor greenhouse ~ 31.5 x 31.5 inches (6.9 sq. ft.) x 63 inches tall

4â?� Vortex fan

Carbonaire CA-4 carbon filter

Hempy buckets

Regular household CFL bulbs for vegging. 6500k ~ 26 watt bulbs

250 watt HPS for flowering (havenâ??t bought the light yet ~ it will be an air-cooled hood with, most likely, a Lumitek ballast)

R/O water

Nutrients will be Cal-Mag, Botanicare Pure Blend Pro Grow, Pure Blend Pro Bloom, with a little help from Molasses and Sweet

The plan is to LST all the plants ~ No Fimming or Topping

This grow should use up our supply of bagseed. If all goes well (knock wood), weâ??ll go for some â??store boughtâ?� beans next time.

Weâ??ll start germinating in the next couple days. Gotta get the timing right. In the meantime, Iâ??ve been brushing up and catching up on the forum.:jointsmile:

[BeFree]

Glad to see you and the Mrs. back in action. I'll be very excited to see the step by step progress in the hempy buckets as well, my friend.
Count me in.:jointsmile:

beSafe:cool:

[McToker]

Thanks for tuning in BeFree. We're anxious to get started up again.

I'm checking out different germination methods right now, trying to find a good method to go along with using the Hempy Buckets rather than soil. I'm thinking that I might be able to use the "damp paper towel under a bowl method" and then place the sprouts directly into their buckets. I'll be using a mixture of vermiculite and perlite in the buckets.

It doesn't seem that the "start small and transplant to larger container" rule applies to Hempy Buckets.

But, I could be wrong. If I am, I'm hoping someone will point me in the right direction.;)

I noticed that killa put his sprouts into jiffy cubes in one of his grows. Hopefully I'll get some input in time.

[jakezking]

McToker, your last grow was a great one, so I'm looking forward to following this grow. I think you have the right idea to go back and look at killa12345's grows to really get a hang on the hempy buckets; he seems to have them well under control.

Glad to hear you have your house back to you and the Mrs. Good luck with you grow, my friend!

[headshake]

can't honestly say i remember your first grow mc, but i will be following along with this one!

best of luck and good growing!


-shake

[McToker]

The house isn't OUR's, yet, Jakezking. But, SOON.:thumbsup:

He'll be gone by the end of the month.

[McToker]

headshake ~ Thanks and welcome aboard. Our first grow was a quite an education for us. This time, we're hoping to put all that learning to good use as well as try some new (to us) tricks.

Jakezking ~ I hooked up with Killa through his log and he hooked me up with the info I was looking for.

It has begun. We started germinating 16 beans today. It's roughly half of what we had left. We're ultimately hoping to end up with 3 or 4 healthly females.

[KillerBudG]

Good luck man and I will be watching you and the Mrs. grow so please keep it detailed an updated.:jointsmile:



~One~:rastasmoke:
~BudG~:rastasmoke::rastasmoke:

[killa12345]

I saw the question on transplanting...i plant my jiffy pellets USUALLY(90%) in to their final resting containers.....the only time i tranplant my hempys is when im vegging a ton of plants....i go with syrofoan 16oz cups so i can stuff my veg box....but its is a way unneccasary step with should be avoided if can be avoided! it will save you nutes in the long run if you transplant....just trying to give ya the pros and cons!

[McToker]

KBG ~ Thank you and will do.

Killa ~ Thanks for stopping by. Even though I've been saving up, I only have 6 plastic coffee cans. I do have some slighly smaller containers like 2 liter soda bottles, though. I guess we'll just play it by ear and see how many sprouts we get, first. Although, I did see nice sized paint buckets at the hardware store. A little bigger than the coffee container, but not by much.

Last time we just planted seeds straight into the Jiffy Pellets. I don't know how many we planted but we ended up with 9 plants. From that we got 2 healthy females and a hermie.

A side note: We kicked the hermie outdoors and let nature take its course. We're now down to burning the buds from the hermie. It took a while to clean out all the seeds but while not as tasty as the girls were, still acceptable.:hippy:

[Shovelhandle]

Good to see you with a new log. I'm sure we'll be enjoying the updates.

[McToker]

Shov ~ Thanks for tuning in.

I picked up some 2 1/2 quart paint buckets at the hardware store today. They look to be just about the same size as the 2 pound plastic coffee containers I've been saving up. At a $1.29 a piece, they'll work. I just need to wrap some duct tape around them as they are tranluscent.

Just checked on the beans. Nothing yet but, it's only been about 23 hours.

[McToker]

Took a peek at the babies earlier today. At least 4 have cracked and are starting to show some root. :thumbsup:

I have to admit that I was getting a little concerned when nothing was showing at the 23 hour mark. This is the first time we've used the damp paper towel under an up-side-down bowl method to germinate. Last time we just placed the beans directly into the Jiffy cubes. Usually, it did take 3 to 5 days, or more, for them to break the surface.

Right now I'm in the middle of getting everything set up for the kids. The Homebox is assembled. Now, I'll leave you while I go back to work setting up power, light and ventilation. I just have to try and remember where we stashed all the components.:):)

[headshake]

make sure to unplug anything that has to do with power while working! (i'm sure you do this already, but i shocked the piss out of myself the other morning!)

everything sounds good. any pics?


-shake

[McToker]

headshake ~ Nothing much to take pics of, yet. But, you can bet, when those babies break ground the pics will start coming.

We hope to be moving some beans into Jiffy cubes later today. :)

I'm also heading into town in search of Vermiculite and Perlite that is not of the Miracle Grow brand. Finding products without any added time realease fertilizers is dang near impossible around here.:(

[headshake]

now sure what stores are "in town" but i found vermiculite at lowes for like $4 something. i think it was the 8 quart bag. and i've only seen perlite of the MG variety at walmart and home depot.

hopefully you have some nurserys near-by?


-shake

[McToker]

The only place that had either Vermiculite or Perlite was Lowes and then they only had one bag of each. The Perlite is the MG stuff but the nutrient level is pretty low.

Just checked the babies and we have 8 sprouts. We're waiting for the Jiffy pellets to plump up. Using 1/2 strength nutes to start them.

Since someone, and I won't name names, headshake, can't live without pics, here is one of the setup.:D:D:D

There will be plenty of pics to follow as the babies grow up.;)

[fluid69]

that's a sweet setup! is that a velcro or zipper cover to keep the light out?

[McToker]

that's a sweet setup! is that a velcro or zipper cover to keep the light out?

It uses both but primarily zippers. It's a Homebox S.

The sprouts are now in the Jiffy pellets. Turns out that out of 16 beans we got 10 sprouts.

[jakezking]

McToker, I need to start saving up for an indoor grow tent - I think when I finally move indoors, it will be to a tent. I'll be watching your grow even more carefully. I'm glad to see your setup and that you already have a pretty high success rate for bag seeds. I know you will have much success, my friend.

Keep up the good work!

[McToker]

Thanks jakezking. We were very happy with the tent on our last grow. Since we don't have an extra room or even a spare closet we could use, we opted for the tent.

[headshake]

Since someone, and I won't name names, headshake, can't live without pics, here is one of the setup.:D:D:D

There will be plenty of pics to follow as the babies grow up.;)

lmao. thanks mc, i feel special!

for real though, nice setup! that's awesome. i can't wait to see how the details of the story unfold.


-shake

[McToker]

Headshake ~ I'm glad you have a healthy sense of humor.:thumbsup:

We checked on the babies earlier today. No sprouts showing, yet. We've never used this method so we really don't quite know what to expect.

[BeFree]

Still keepin' an eye out McT. I'm anxious as hell to see you and the Mrs.' hempy adventure.

beSafe, friend. :jointsmile:

[headshake]

always mc!

-shake

[McToker]

As of this morning, two sprouts have poked their heads out of the soil. We're hoping the rest will follow suit by tomorrow.:jointsmile:

After that, it's lights, camera and action.;)

[BeFree]

Yeeeeaaaahhhhh.:jointsmile: Bongrip to that. :stoned:

beSafe

[McToker]

As of this morning, only three sprouts have broken ground. The first two are about a inch and a half tall so we moved those two out of the little incubator and into the tent. The lights, only 8 CFL's to start, are set on 18/6 on the timer.

Initial humidity was at 20%. I misted the Jiffy cubes and left a little water in the tent. I'll check on the humidity later to see if I need to put the humidifier in the tent, as well.

[headshake]

c'mon you little f-ing sprouts!

*crosses fingers*


-shake

[jakezking]

I had some pretty bad luck with my bag of old bagseeds. I hope you have much better luck - I'm sure you will, as my last name should be Murphy (for Murphy's Law). I'm looking forward to some pictures of your seedlings, as well as more pictures of your setup from top to bottom.

Like headshake - I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you, my friend!

[McToker]

Well y'all. It doesn't look good.:(

The first two sprouts turned yellow and fell over. They're dead.:(

A couple of the others broke ground yesterday.......... and just stopped. None of the rest broke ground.

I'm thinking maybe the beans were too old. Perhaps 1/2 strength were still too strong. Who knows, though?

Plan B

We decided not to try the remaining few bagseeds or the seeds we got from the hermie from the last grow.

We'll be ordering some beans later today. I'm thinking Beanho's AK-47 and Joey Weed's Blue Apollo if they're both still available.

[McToker]

Order placed late yesterday. We opted for the AK-47 and Blue Apollo.

I guess it was just meant to be. The new beans will arrive after our houseguest is gone. It's been tough to spend enough time on preparations and such with him here.

We'll germinate the new beans like we did them on the first grow, starting the seeds in the Jiffy pellets under a cool white flouro lamp.

Jakezking ~ In the meantime, I'll try to get you some detailed pics of our setup.

[KillerBudG]

Can't wait to see you get them under way will stay tuned good luck:thumbsup:



~One~:rastasmoke:
~BudG~:rastasmoke::rastasmoke:

[syde00]

Well y'all. It doesn't look good.:(

The first two sprouts turned yellow and fell over. They're dead.:(

A couple of the others broke ground yesterday.......... and just stopped. None of the rest broke ground.

I'm thinking maybe the beans were too old. Perhaps 1/2 strength were still too strong. Who knows, though?

Plan B

We decided not to try the remaining few bagseeds or the seeds we got from the hermie from the last grow.

We'll be ordering some beans later today. I'm thinking Beanho's AK-47 and Joey Weed's Blue Apollo if they're both still available.

thats a bummer about them dying :( i'm thinking you were right with 1/2 str being too much... i've never used jiffy cubes, are you suppose to give them nutes right away? gorwing in soil your suppose to wait about a month before nutes... kinda seems ot me like you just instantly over-nuted them and they burned up :\

[killa12345]

sorry about the losses.....the perlite and vermiculite can be found at home depot in LARGE bags....usually found at Large garden center home depots...i have to travel past about 30 to get to one that stocks 4 cu ft bags of this stuff! But once you find it, trust me you will be back....ALso Walmart sells a brand without nutes like the MG.....i have a bag of mg and i just use it for my outdoor flowers...lol good luck....call around some store stock it other dont...sometimes its even high on the racks so you cant even see it! Its there!

[McToker]

Killa ~ I've tried the nearest Wal-Mart with no luck. I'll try one of their other stores next week.

Jakezking ~ Here are the setup pics you requested. Frankenlight is in there but not in use. Went back to a flouro, to start. When we fire up the Frankenlight, we'll start off with about 8 bulbs and add more as the plants get bigger.

One lonely sprout is up and GREEN. Kinda tiny though. Another one has barely broken the surface. We'll see what happens.

[syde00]

nice! hope these seeds work out for ya this time :rastasmoke:

[jakezking]

McT - I'm really sorry to hear about the seedling sorrows. I don't know about readying the seedlings for the hempy buckets, so I won't question the application of 50% nute solution to them; however, I start my seedlings out in jiffy pellets too, and I don't add any nutes whatsoever while they are in them. It sounds like you may have had some other issues with lack of humidity and old bagbeans? I'm glad to see you still have a viable seedling though.

I just threw all of my old bagbeans into the wet paper towel on a plate on my cable box this last go 'round, and only about 8 out of 30 popped; some of the beans were not mature, but the remainder that didn't pop - who knows? Maybe they just were not stored well enough? But, those that did pop and those that did survive the first dog attack and those that have survived an unfortunate over-concentrated Neem Oil spraying incident are really showing how hardy they are!

I'm looking forward to your ordered beans arriving. I've got some nice new ordered beans sprouting outside right now. I'm really impressed with the sheer viability of them over bagbeans - the taproots on my new beans "feathered" with what seemed like thousands of lil' roots fanning out from the taproot itself. I'd never seen anything like it - almost like a rooting agent had been applied, but nothing but tap water and paper towel had touched them.

Your setup looks clean, and I'm all about that Frankenlight, my friend! Is that a serious carbon scrubber up top that exhausts back into the tent? I've been talking about moving indoors since last year, but I haven't got the guts just yet. I know watching your grow will help me figure things out.

Keep on keepin' on - hopefully those new beans will be there soon!

[McToker]

Jakezking ~ On the scrubber; the exhaust tubing runs out of the top of the tent, through the fan and into the carbon filter. It just takes the hot air from the top of the tent. We decided to have the fan pull rather than push the air. The filter is just sitting on top of the tent. Placing the filter inside the tent, at the top, would just take up way too much room and seriously limit the height available for plants and lighting.

We tried a homemade carbon filter and even supplimented it with fabric softener sheets with limited success. With the new, storebought scrubber, trust me, odor is NOT an issue.;)

When we add a HPS light for flowering, our plan is to use an enclosed, air cooled, light fixture, probably the Arctic Sun. Most models, including some of the Cooltubes are just too long to fit inside the tent once you figure how much the exhaust tubing will add to the length. We'll leave one end of the fixture open (for intake) and connect the other end to the exhaust tubing.

We're looking forward to the storebought beans, too.

syde00 ~ welcome aboard.

[BeFree]

heya McT.:D With the Beanho's F4 AK47 and Joey's Blue Apollo, I was curious to know if you are going to be selecting any favorites at the end and consider a re-veg. Because the pheno's vary with hybrids. Some may be leggier, some stinkier, some with higher calyx to leaf ratio. Also, beanho's Ak is consistent with scandalwood and cherry flavored pheno's. A cherry AK mom and a blueberry apollo mom. Jeeze, makes me wish the 'stork' would drop a baby carriage full of gourmet genetics on my front step.:hippy:

be good McT. :jointsmile:
You and the Mrs. have a wonderful day.:)

[fluid69]

that's a really nice setup!

[McToker]

fluid69 ~ Thanks.

BeFree ~ Since we are really not set up for cloning, re-vegging might be an interesting option. I hadn't thought about it, before, but, thanks to you, I'm thinking about it now.;););) Guess I have some more homework to do.:D

[BeFree]

That's great McT. I've seen a couple re-veg threads around here. :thumbsup:
Key is to leave a little veg growth and some spots for the new stalks to grow from. then trim 75% of the root mass off and set 'er in new soil. But i'm not too sure how re-vegin' will work with the hempy buckets, though. :jointsmile:

beGood

[Shovelhandle]

better luck with fresh seed stock, Bub. :hippy:

I'm sure (fingers crossed) that you will have a nice hatch soon.

[McToker]

Thanks Shov. The one lonely sprout isn't doing much so the Mrs. and I are really looking forward to the pending arrival.:)

[Jerry Garcia 2007]

McToker,

Sorry about your loss,

I try keep it simple and start cracked seeds directly in soil that is in 3'' recycled nursery pots, I get them from the flowers and vegetables that I planted in my garden. (Very easy to find this time of year:thumbsup:) Also before you use them wash the pots in bleached water to steralize them from any nasties.

Also You will love the Blue Apollo :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:One of my favorites:jointsmile: Easy to grow to, cloning is about average. Likes a watering Ph of 6 to 6.5 in soil.

JG

[McToker]

Thanks for the info JG.

Our houseguest just took off so, now, we can devote the proper time and attention to our garden.

The lonely sprout still hasn't grown any. But, it's not dead.:)

[McToker]

Just received an email confirmation that our new beans are on their way.

The one lonely bagseed sprout is growing but,not very much. Other than being a runt, it appears to be healthy.:)

[jakezking]

Glad to hear your good bean news, McT! I can't wait to see them poppin'. The waitin' part is no fun, except that it's always so sweet when you go to the mailbox, and see the beans have arrived. To take a line from Bush's Baked Beans - I can't wait to see you roll out that beautiful bean footage!

[McToker]

Glad to hear your good bean news, McT! I can't wait to see them poppin'. The waitin' part is no fun, except that it's always so sweet when you go to the mailbox, and see the beans have arrived. To take a line from Bush's Baked Beans - I can't wait to see you roll out that beautiful bean footage!

Yup. I feel like a kid waitin' on Santa.:madnoel::areindeer::noel:

[McToker]

â??Twas late this morning, just before noon
and all though the house
we were both doing chores
especially my spouse

When all of a sudden
from somewhere up the street
we heard a familiar sound
and jumped to our feet

Since it was clearly not Christmas
Santa must be in stealth mode
â??cause in a funky looking Postal truck
he came rolling up the road

Even though no one could see them
he called to his team
â??On Marley, on JakeZking, on Killa and Clinton,
on Chong, on Phelps, on ShovelHandle and even BeFree

:areindeer::areindeer::areindeer::areindeer: :madnoel:

As he stopped at our box
he turned and boasted
â??Yâ??all are gonna love this
â??cause in a few months youâ??ll both be toasted.â?�

We raced our scooter chairs down to the street
and snuck a quick peek inside
there was just one small present
our grins, we couldnâ??t hide :D:D

There were beans from Canada
cleverly secreted with care
we looked at each other and said
â??Dude, I didnâ??t know Santa had red hair.â?�:jointsmile:

Yup. Theyâ??re here. Told yâ??all we felt like kids at Christmas.

We're going to go for 4 of each to start.

Weâ??ll keep you posted.

[fluid69]

that was awesome mctoker, put a smile on my face! and for that, I want to say thank you.

[headshake]

"you must spread some rep around before repping mctoker again!"

that shit was awesome!


-shake

[BeFree]

That was awesome, to say the least.

I'm very glad you didn't have to report any crushed seeds. One of my biggest fears when ordering. :thumbsup:

'...and even BeFree...' Made me grin, ear to ear. I'm honored to have a front row seat at the |McTokers' Blue Apollo and AK47 Spring Indoor| adventure.

See ya when frankenlight comes on.

You and the Mrs. have a wonderful grow.:jointsmile:

besafe

[McToker]

Glad y'all liked that.

;)

[jakezking]

McT! That was an extremely creative and wicked bit of verse there, my friend! As with all the others, it really put a smile on my face, filling me with cheer. And, you know you're older when you're more excited about others opening their presents, than you are opening your own.

I can't wait to see some bean sprouts! After seeing JG's last Blue Apollo pics and having smoked some AK47, I'm really excited for you. This is going to be an amazing log!

[McToker]

Jakezking ~ Thanks. We hope you're right.

The lone surviving bagseed sprout is actually starting to grow a bit. We're hoping to move it to its hempy bucket in about a week. We'll wait until we can see some roots showing.

[Shovelhandle]

:thumbsup:

[McToker]

After a week, only 1 AK has sprouted.

Starting 3 more of each today.

The 1 bagseed sprout and the 1 AK are in their hempy buckets and Frankenlight is on but with only 14 bulbs going at this time.

[McToker]

Correction: Make that only 10 bulbs going at this time.

With us having to run the house A/C 24/7 now, the humidity in the tent was staying between 20% and 25%. I hooked up the humidifier and have it just outside the tent directed toward one of the passive intakes.

I'm not sure which thermometer to believe. Both are digital (indoor/outdoor) dual mode types. One is inside the tent and the other is outside so I can monitor the temp when the lights are out. The one inside reads 90 inside at the tent floor) and 89 outside (canopy height). The one outside the tent reads 78 (ambient room temp) and 79 to 80 degrees inside the tent at canopy height.

I'll go rummage through my stash of growing stuff and dig out the old mercury thermometer.

[jakezking]

How many AK47 and Blue Apollo did you germ to have only 1 AK sprout after 1 week? How did you germ them? I don't think you can mention seed companies on here (I could be wrong), but if you're not having success with the beans, I don't know if I would order from it again; indeed, you should contact the company to let them know of your issues, so they have an opportunity to correct them.

Best of luck on your 3 more AK47 and BA! I'll be anxiously awaiting confirmation they have all popped and are basking in the glare of your Frankenlight!

[McToker]

Jake ~ After our failure with germinating the bagseed using the paper towel on a plate under a bowl method we went back to just planting the seeds directly into Jiffy cubes and waiting.

I don't think it is a problem with the seeds. I had read somewhere that the seeds should be planted "point down". Afterword, I saw the info on your log that seems to contradict that. I also think we had the seeds too deep and with the combintion they just didn't have the energy to break ground. We planted 4 of each.

This time we're still using the Jiffy cubes and planting directly into the cube without any sort of pre-germination. But, this time we planted them shallower and either on their sides or with the bigger side down. Although, I didn't mark them as to which are on their sides and so forth. We also loosened up the soil in the cube a bit more than we have in the past.

We haven't disected the cubes from the last try to see how many popped as we are still hoping that some may pop up............... eventually. On the first grow we did have some really late poppers.

All the more reason that I wish we had the room to keep a mother or two and do some cloning. But, we don't have the room and still have to be able to tear everything down when the holidays roll around.

[headshake]

you could always get a little storage cube, end table that opens up, or something similar to keep a mom in, that you can take cuttings from as needed. it could be inconspicuous.

just a thought. i hope the other beans pop for you!


-shake

[McToker]

Thanks shake.

[McToker]

After planting 3 more of each variety yesterday........... we woke up this morning to find 2 of the original 4 Blue Apollos had finally popped out of the soil. :D There is hope for this grow after all.:thumbsup:

Humidity in the tent is up to 33%, as of last night, after hooking up the humidifier.

[BeFree]

Glad to hear the good news McT. :thumbsup:

But aren't you a little worried with 14 babies tryin' to get their share of Frankenlight? :confused:

beSafe McT. :jointsmile:

[Shovelhandle]

I love it when that happens...things do happen for reasons. Could be signs of something special here. :detective1:

[McToker]

BeFree ~ Yup. It'll be a tight fit. We had as many as 9 plants in there during veg. on the last grow. Some may just have to go outdoors. I'm just glad they aren't feminized seeds.:D

Shov ~ I certainly hope so.;)

We just got back from taking the dog to the Vet and found that another AK and another BA are just breaking ground.

We may be forced to find a way to fit in a second tent. Hmmmm..... I wonder if our fan and filter will support 2 tents...........:jointsmile: Gonna have to do the math on that one.

[headshake]

sounding good mc! maybe you'll have room for a mum and some clones after all!

glad things are starting to turn around!


-shake

[McToker]

2 more AK sprouts showed up.:) Both are from the most recent batch we planted.

Not using any nutes, other than what is already in the MG perlite, yet. But I'm considering adding 1/4 strength Calmag to the R/O water.

[killa12345]

2 more AK sprouts showed up.:) Both are from the most recent batch we planted.

Not using any nutes, other than what is already in the MG perlite, yet. But I'm considering adding 1/4 strength Calmag to the R/O water.


Nice verse bro....hey id really consider hitting them with nutes within 5 days after sproating....i start off around 550-600 ppm and go up like 100-150 ppm a week....the perlite and the vermiculite dont retain nutes so the MG nutes will be gone with in a day or two! feel free to ask any other questions...I hit my babies with nutes starting about day 2-3 after sproating....after a few day of no nutes they will start to show deficiencies....

http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk229/killa12345_photos/PK%20X%20PR/DSC01911.jpg


This is the size of the plants when i hit them with nutes...Sorry about the pic but wanted to show you how small my plants were and how early you need to start hitting them with nutes

[McToker]

Thanks for the info killa. Since I already watered them today, I'll hit 'em with some nutes tomorrow.

The BA's sure have a nice dark red stem.

[McToker]

There are now a total of 8 seedlings in their hempy buckets.

1 Bagseed
3 Blue Apollo
4 AK-47

2 more Blue Apollos sprouted this morning. 1 will go into a hempy bucket and the other into soil. Any others that sprout will go into soil.

This will give us a total of 9 in hempy buckets. The remaining plants, in soil, will eventually move outdoors.

We started the 2 oldest ones on 1/2 strength nutes today. The rest should start in a day or two.

I'll post a new pic later today.

I forgot to add that we are now running 21 CFL's in Frankenlight.

[McToker]

Here are today's pics.

[headshake]

looking good mc!

i didn't infringe on your copyright on purpose, but my new light looks mighty similar......brilliant minds i guess!

can't wait for the action to pick up.


-shake

[McToker]

Not a problem shake.:) My light is a combination of ideas from others on the forum, as it is. I'm actually looking forward to running an HPS for flower as it will be fewer watts of electricity.

[headshake]

i hear ya about the HPS. i wish i would have just bought one to start with! this little experiment has taken on a life of it's own!

i guess that's why they call it experience.


-shake

[McToker]

You got that right, shake.

I'm seriously considering going with not only an HPS for flowering but also running an MH for vegging. Right now I'm using 483 watts with the CFL's. I can get roughly the same amount of lumens by running a 250 watt HID along with 4 CFL bulbs and use over 100 fewer watts. I'm wondering if it might actually be cooler, as well.

[headshake]

it should run cooler. i've read that CFLs run hotter than HIDs. it's just the heat is spread out over more area.


-shake

[McToker]

I've been looking at a Lumatek digital ballast with an air-cooled reflector. I hope I'm reading things correctly, in that, since the Lumatek can burn both MH and HPS that all I'd need is one system and just switch between the MH and HPS bulbs.

[headshake]

yeah, pretty much. there might be a switch. i don't know much about the lumatek (besides i want one, just too far off to do serious research into, ya know?).

it will run cooler not to mention more efficient. think they say up to 30% (obviously taken with a grain of salt).


-shake

[McToker]

I just realized that I had a major brain fart. I put in the 2700k bulbs instead of the 6500k ones. At least it hasn't been very long. When the timer switches the lights back on, in a few hours, I'll switch them out.

Doh!!!

[headshake]

i just finished building a new grow box last night, and i did the same thing! lol.

another reason to get an HID!


-shake

[McToker]

Well......... after all these months of talking about it, I finally broke down and ordered some HID lighting. I went with an air-cooled reflector and a 250 watt digital ballast so we can run both MH and HPS bulbs. For flowering we'll add some CFL's for additional lumens. I found some clamp-on gooseneck lamps on-line that should fit the bill for the CFL's. We'll just clamp them to the corner poles inside the tent.

We'll just put Frankenlight in storage as a back-up, just in case.

[killa12345]

glad you went to a hid but i will say if you run 250w in CFL the yeilds will be the same....i always get more than a g per watt when running CFL i cant say the same for when i run my HPS.....i got 3/4 a lb with 350w(14- 23w/27w) of CFLs last run and only 9 oz running my 600 hps! i still need to get my number of plants down but i think i can get over 1.5 lbs from my 600 with over 50 plants but the number of plants scares me!

[McToker]

Time will tell, killa. My two main reasons for switching are heat and electricity usage.

With the HPS + 4 CFL's I'll get a few more lumens than I'm running now while burning over 100 watts less of electricity.

I'm also hoping that pulling cool air through the enclosed reflector will greatly reduce the temperature at the canopy height.

[McToker]

It's been several days since the last sprout appeared. I'm thinking that all that will sprout already have.

Final count appears to be:

Blue Apollo = 5 out of 7
AK-47 = 4 out of 7

Now, we veg and wait to see how many females we end up with. The tent will only handle 2 to a max of 4 flowering females.

I'm thinking that we'll move males and any extra females outdoors and let them pollinate and go to seed.

Would a cross between AK-47 and Blue Apollo be "Space Invaders"?;)

[headshake]

space invaders sounds awesome!


-shake

[tokr2153]

thats some very sexy bud man

[McToker]

Here's a progress shot from this morning's feeding.

[fluid69]

lookin good mctoker. that bagseed in the back is going pretty good, it had about a week head start right?

[McToker]

Yup, fluid. The bagseed has a week on the AK to its right which has about a week on the rest of the sprouts.

[fluid69]

damn! that ak caught up fast. I'm curious to see how the bagseed stands up to the other genetics. I've always grown bagseed because i'm cheap and paranoid, but I've almost got the nerve up to place an order after seeing so many awesome strains on this forum. keep up the good work.

[McToker]

We were in the same boat about ordering. After getting only 1 viable sprout out of 12 bagseeds, we decided to bite the bullet and order. We went through the thread on seed vendors and wrote down the name of each that got a good review. Then we added a tick mark for each additional good review that each received. From what we read, we thought that we would have better luck receiving our order by ordering from Canada rather than from the UK or the Netherlands. Nothing against the overseas vendors. It just seemed logical that fewer red flags would be raised coming from Canada.

Our original plan for this grow was to do bagseed again as a comparison but, alas, it was not meant to be.

As for the individual seed providers, we had read several rave reviews on Joey Weed's products so we went with his Blue Apollo. Jerry Garcia's grow log, re: Blue Apollo, helped cinch that decision. We really didn't know anything about the provider of the AK-47 but decided to give it a shot, no pun intended, based on the low price.

[McToker]

The plants were taking about a 1/2 gallon of water/nutes (for all 10) for each watering. Over that last couple days they are starting to take closer to a full gallon at each watering. The babies are really making nice progress every day. Still using 1/2 strength nutes.

Our new lighting should be here today and be in operation by this evening. We'll post another progress shot tomorrow along with a shot of the new light.

[BeFree]

Looking Great McT!

Your logs are always so damned informative and most of the time doesn't give me room to question anything.

But rambling is better than lurking sometimes.

begood bud,
be
:jointsmile:

[McToker]

Thanks BeFree.

We got the new light installed tonight. With the bottom of the reflector at 18 inches above the plants, the canopy temp is running about 8 degrees cooler. We'll see how the plants respond to that lamp height and adjust accordingly from there, if needed. Canopy temp is staying within 2 to 3 degrees of the ambient room temp right now.

Since we only have 31.5 inches of width to work with in the tent, we had to fabricate a 6 inch to 4 inch adapter. A regular adapter just made the whole lamp assembly too wide. We taped a couple sticks to the intake end of the reflector to keep the fan from suctioning to the side of the tent.

Here's the latest progress pic and one of the new lighting.

[fluid69]

the lamp looks good mctoker. are you going to be training the plants?

[McToker]

Yup. The plan is to LST them.

[MRDiff]

Nice plants. Ive been using CFL and LST as well. Light hood looks cool and ventilation seems great on this set up!

[McToker]

Thanks MRDiff.

Some of the plants, particularly the BA were showing signs of heat stress. The edges of the leaves were starting to curl up. I raised the light from 14 inches to 18 inches to see if that helps. If it doesn't, I guess I'll take it even higher. Canopy temp (while the light is on) is running 80 to 83 degrees with the ambient room (house) temp running 77 to 80. With the light off, the canopy temp runs 74 to 77. The house A/C is always set at 78.

The canopy temp is cooler running the HID than running the CFL's. With the CFL's the temp would climb to 85 and sometimes 86.

Humidity is about 36% with the light on and about 40% when it is off. This is with the humidifier set on high and running 24/7. The exhaust fan also runs 24/7.

The light is currently on a 18/6 schedule. Last time we ended up running the lights 24 hours during vegging. We're thinking about keeping it at 18/6 with dark time during the day (noon to 6PM) to help offset electricity costs. Our electricity is cheaper betwen 9PM and 9AM.

The 10 buckets are taking about 3/4 of a gallon of water/nutes each day. Still running 1/2 strength nutes and the plants seem very happy with that.:)

[fdsaasdf]

The grow and your tent is starting to look really nice. Best of wishes to you and your soon to be killer bud ;)

[McToker]

Thanks fdsaasdf ~ We'll take all the good wishes, prayers and karma that we can get.;)

I was tired of seeing such a difference between the thermometer inside the tent and the remote one outside the tent. Last night, as I was trying to fall asleep, an idea struck me. No, it didn't hurt a bit.:D I digress. I decided to mount the "outside" temp sensors together on a bamboo skewer stuck in a chunk of artificial flower foam. This way I can have both sensors in the same place and be able to easily adjust them to the canopy height. For the most part, the two are reading within 1/2 to 1 degree of each other.

AK #1, back row center, is by far the thirstiest of all the plants. But then, she (hopefully) is a full week older than any of the other AK's or BA's.

Raising the lamp seems to have helped. Most of the plants have already lost the curling up in the edges of their leaves. Canopy temp is now running 78 to 80 degrees with the light on.

[McToker]

On another note; I've been studying up on growing outdoors in my hot/arid climate. In another thread on the subject, Kush varieties were recommended since they originated from Afganastan, a similar climate. In Cervantes' book, he says that Afgan strains tend to have broad leaves. Both my AK-47 and the Blue Apollo appear to have broader leaves, especially when compared to the one bagseed plant we have in this grow.

My question is, do either the AK or the BA owe any of their heritage to an Afgan strain?

I suppose I could have asked this in it's own thread but figured some of you that frequent this log may know the answer.

[jakezking]

McT, your beauties are looking... well, beautiful! Your whole setup is really kickin' some ass. All of your plants look like they're going to be some serious bushes, with broad leaves and tight nodes. Good growing, my friend!

As for your question, I think the AK47 has some Afghani in its heritage, but I'm not sure about the BA. Sorry I couldn't help out more. Surely someone here will know more.

Continued good luck, my friend!

[McToker]

Thank you my spandex clad Elvis amigo....... thank you very much.;):D:D

The Mrs. and I have to run to town so, I'll try to get in some research time when we get back.

[lunarose]

Mctoker, I just comment on your heat/humidity problem on Jake's grow (sorry Jake) and didn't realize it was inside grow. I know you have have an exhaust fan but try getting a small personal fan and setting it in the bottom of the tent I use one in my outside GH and it helps it doesn't cool the temps any but just like moving air feels good on us so it seems to with the plants.

[McToker]

lunarose ~ There is a small oscilating fan in the front left corner in the tent. It just doesn't usually get caught in the pics. I guess it's shy.:)

[lunarose]

Ah, a secret agent fan :)

[greenatik]

or spread eagle, dressed like madonna :D

lookin good toker, diggin those long fan leaves.

Ak-47 - Columbian, Mexican, Thai & Afghani - Sativa 65 / Indica 35

"Despite it's aggressive name, AK-47 has many peaceful tendencies. First bred in 1992, the name suggests the power packed in its dark, resinous, compact buds that bristle with red hairs and glistening trichomes. AK-47 has a spiced aroma bordering on skunk, with a hint of sandalwood, but tastes sweeter and more floral than the smell would lead one to expect.

AK has mostly sativa characteristics with one exception: a quick finishing time. The variety was reworked in 1999 to increase stability, so results from seeds are uniform. A tall plant with substantial girth and big fat calyxes, she performs excellently in indoor environments, both soil and hydro, and has been grown outdoors with good results. In low to medium temperatures, this variety produces a denser bud; in high temperatures buds are fluffier and more open, but total yields are roughly equivalent.

The AK-47 buzz is immediate and long lasting with an allert but mellow cerebral effect. Lab tests have rated the THC content at over 20 percent, making it a "one hit wonder" for many smokers. This variety can be a little spacey, but is great for playing and listening to music, or other social activities. AK-47 helped put Serious Seeds on the map with a 2nd place finish in the hydroponics competition and a 3rd place in the overall category at the 1995 Cannabis Cup in the Netherlands."

[greenatik]

Blue Apollo - Apollo 11 x Blueberry

From the breeder:

This is a cross between my favorite blueberry and Apollo 11. The Father is Apollo 11 a high producing super potent strain many of you have heard about or maybe grown yourself. It is low in odor having a faint citrus like smell. The mother is Blueberry I obtained from DJ Short via Dutch Passion. The Blueberry mother is a high yielder with the soaring blueberry high and delicious blueberry smell. It gives large buds that are rock solid. Blueberry has been a favorite of many growers for years now and has won many awards. Your mouth will be watering every time you tend your plants. Try to wait until they finish before you sample some, I know it will be hard to wait. The females have blue/purple stems particularly in the seedlings and the leaves or buds also tend to turn a bluish shade at the finish. Both blueberry and A11 are hardy vigorous plants with very nice buds.

Here's a link to a few bud shots from someone on these boards that grew it out

http://boards.cannabis.com/1810665-post69.html
:stoned::stoned:

[McToker]

Very nice. :) Thanks greenatik.

[McToker]

I read in another thread that growth rate under MH seems to be nearly double of that under CFL's. I don't know if it's true, but, these babies are really taking off. Mrs. McT hadn't seen the plants for two days. When she looked in on them last night it was "Holy growth rate Batman!!!".

During this mornings feeding, I noticed some slight discoloration in the leaves, particularly in AK#1 (2nd pic) and BA #1 and #2 (3rd pic). Not sure how well this will show up in the pics.

They have been on half strength nutes until now. I'm thinking I need to escalate the CalMag and the nutes. I'm not quite certain if I should go to 3/4 strength or just move on up to full strength.

Today, the 10 plants took an entire gallon of water/nutes. I'm guessing that it may be safe to start watering every other day, now. Surely, the tap roots have all reached the reservior by now. I know. Don't call you Shirley.:D

Had to move the light and the temp sensors up about 2 inches, again.

I'm really liking how AK#1 is bushing out. The tips of the auxilliary (side) branches are about the same height as the main stem. The bagseed on the last grow certainly didn't do that.

[McToker]

Today was the first time for "every other day" feeding. They took 2 whole gallons. We bumped them up to a full dose of CalMag and up to the "mid-sized" vegging dose on the Pro Gro.

All signs of heat stress have disappeared. I'm thinking that the lighter coloring is most likely a Calcium/Magnesium or Nitrogen deficiency. The new dose should take care of that.

Just got our new ph pen in the mail today. Sure is a lot more accurate and easier than either the litmus paper or the drops and test tube method. Managed to get the water/nutes right on 5.8 for the first gallon and 5.9 for the second.

We went ahead and ordered a ppm pen this morning, too. The place is not far so we should have it tomorrow.

Time to start teaching Mrs. McT how to do the feedings. She'll have to take over for a while next month while I'm in the hospital. Gotta go back and see if they can put my inards back together. It's the follow up to the emergency surgery last October.

She's a bit aprehensive about doing the feedings. I told her I'll have it all written down for her. I'm sure she'll do just fine.

[headshake]

my wife had to feed my plants one time while i was in jail (i had to turn myself in for a warrant). she did a fine job (well decent enough) and all were fine except one. but it was a male so it worked out for the best!

*crosses fingers*


-shake

[SonicHaze]

Looking real good :)

[McToker]

I just went back through the thread to figure the ages of the plants. Some were closer together than I remembered. ;)

Bagseed = 5 1/2 weeks (a definite runt)
All the AK and BA are within 5 days of each other so I'll call it = 3 weeks

Just trying to figure out how much longer we might be vegging and an approximate harvest time. I'm hoping that they are ready to put into flower mode before I go back to the hospital. It'll be close. I figure it'll be easier on the Mrs. if she doesn't have to deal with the switch. Looks like we could be harvesting anywhere from late August to mid-September.

[McToker]

Plants are taking 2 1/4 gallons now. Moved them up to full strength nutes.

I don't know where I got the notion that vegging takes 8 weeks. We did go that long on our first grow and, afterward, realized we had vegged longer than needed. I went back and looked at the nute tables for both the Pro Gro we're using and the FF table. Looks like we're about a week away from going to 12/12 for flower.
WooHoo!!!

Here's today's pic.

[McToker]

Still some slight discoloration to some leaves. Bumped the Cal/Mag to 2 TSP per gallon with today's feeding.

It's getting a bit crowded in the tent. I have to pull out a few plants just to get the watering done. I'm thinking about tying a band of gardening tape around each plant to lessen the crowding a bit. I'll try not to bind them up so tight that it drastically reduces the light to inside branches.

If anyone has another idea to lessen the crowding, I'm open to suggestions. No, I'm not ready to start moving some outdoors, yet. I was hoping to wait untill they started showing their sex. We're still looking at going into flowering mode this Friday or Saturday. That way we should have them all sexed and be on a stable routine that will be easier on Mrs. McT when she takes over.

[McToker]

Instead of waiting until this weekend we went ahead and swapped out the MH bulb for the HPS bulb and set the timer for 12/12.

I measured the smallest of the plants today. They were already at 10 inches tall. The taller ones are at 14 inches tall.

We'll start the transitional feedings tomorrow (1/2 grow & 1/2 bloom nutes).

We had initially planned to LST these babies but, they bushed up so nicely with side branches (potential bud sites) almost the same height as the main cola. If the main colas get too much taller than the rest of the plant, we'll just do some bending and tying later on. We felt that we ended up with too many plants to have the room to LST like we had planned.

The smell coming from this batch is a wonderful sweet odor.:) It's not at all like the predominantly skunk smell from our all bagseed grow last time. We don't know if it's the AK or the BA that is responsible for the tasty aroma.

Now comes the really fun part.:D

[McToker]

After the first night under the HPS the babies grew several inches. The temp sensors had disappeared beneath the canopy.

Fed them full strength transition nutes and added Sweet and Molassas today.

No sign of sex, yet. I'm thinking the bagseed may show first as it is about 2 1/2 weeks older than the others. Last grow we had some bagseed show while still in veg. But then we vegged about 8 weeks, too.

First shot is from the side. Second one is a canopy shot. Both are after I raised the temp sensors.

[headshake]

looking good mc!


-shake

[McToker]

Thanks shake. I'm really surprised at how the AK and the BA are both leaving the bagseed in the dust. The bagseed is still in the rear left corner in the pics.

[headshake]

yeah, it's amazing as to what quality genetics can do! i can't wait to get my hands on some!


-shake

[killa12345]

mctoker.....id do a heavy prunning about day 21-25 bloom depending how large the bud sites and the leafs are at the time.....i prune EVERY fan leaf which is not bud related! just to show you how hard i prune during flowering...this opens the canopy for the buds!

[McToker]

mctoker.....id do a heavy prunning about day 21-25 bloom depending how large the bud sites and the leafs are at the time.....i prune EVERY fan leaf which is not bud related! just to show you how hard i prune during flowering...this opens the canopy for the buds!

I've been following your pruning efforts on your log. It's something I may have to seriously consider, especially if we end up with a bunch of ladies.:D Thanks for your input, it is always appreciated.:thumbsup:

Shake ~ I'll know for sure after the harvest but, so far, I'm very pleased with the Bean Ho AK-47. We only tried them because the price was VERY right compared to other suppliers. That said, the Joey Weed Blue Apollo seemed rather reasonably priced, as well. Besides, several folks raved about Joey's product.

We will probably be getting our hands on some more bagseeds in the near future and will probably grow another batch of that, too. And........ we're also following several other folks' grows to explore other varieties we might like to try.

They say, "Variety is the spice of life.";)

[headshake]

you got any pics in your log killa? for the pruning i mean? i've been debating wheter to do this or not. my ladies have tons of fan leaves.

sorry, not trying to jack your thread toker!


-shake

[McToker]

No problem shake. I wouldn't mind seeing some pics of the pruning either.

Man-alive!!!

We're wondering when this growth spurt will slow down a tad. The taller plants shot up a good 6 inches since yesterday. Some of the fan leaves on both the AK and the BA are getting downright huge. At this rate we're going to run out of room to raise the light.;)

We haven't run the humidifier for about 36 hours. Humidity is holding at about 42 to 44% without it. We may have to start draining out the overflow water from the drain pans to help keep the humidity down. We've found that a turkey baster works quite well for this.

[McToker]

WoooHooo!!!

AK's #1 and #3 are both girls !!!

None of the other have shown, yet.

Had to raise the light again but they didn't shoot up as much as they did yesterday.

[fdsaasdf]

Yayyyy! Congratulations on the girls Let's hope the other ones turns out to be girls, too! All of your plants are looking so nice, great job, McToker!

[fdsaasdf]

Do you think that you'll be cloning the girls to get a few more plants?

[McToker]

Naw. We just don't have the room to get into any cloning, yet. The Mrs. and I keep tossing out ideas to expand and make our grow space permenant. But, so far, we haven't come up with a workable solution.

However, we are seriously considering taking one female to seed if we get enough females. We're still hoping to cross the AK with a BA to get some seed stock for future grows. Or, a batch of seeds from either one would be acceptable, too.;)

Ok. If AK-47 x Blue Apollo = Spaced Invader, would bagseed x AK-47 be Armed & Homeless or Desperado ?:D

[McToker]

Today's feeding will be the last for the transition period. No more Gro from here on out. Just Bloom, Cal/Mag, Sweet and Molassas.

Turns out AK #2 is also a girl. So far, that makes 3 out of 4 AK's that are females.

One of the BA's may be starting to show that it's a male. It's really hard to tell if it's a male or it is just beginning to sprout a third pair of leaves at the sixth node. Several of the BA's have three sets of leaves at a node.

We were trying to tie down/bend a couple of the BA's as they are really stretching out. One had been tied down for about 30 minutes when the stalk gave way. We straightened it up and put on a splint. We'll see how it does. We managed to get one BA tied down successfully (knock wood).

In the first pic we're trying to give y'all an idea how big the stalks are on the BA's. These babies are just getting huge. They may end up being too big (tall) for our tent.

We're really hoping that a male or two will show soon. It's getting quite crowded in there.;)

[fluid69]

OMG! those babies are boomin'!! don't stress over the one that creased, I was tying down one of my ladies about 2 weeks into 12/12, and she creased bad. I put a splint on, and after about a week or so she was better than new. I eventually did get her tied down like I wanted, I just did it a little @ a time after that. I know where I went wrong though, I forgot to water at least an hour before I tried to tie her down. lesson learned! out of curiosity, did you guys water before you tried to tie her down?

[McToker]

Yup. We watered and went about other farm chores for about an hour first.

[fluid69]

well what a bummer! still though, no worries she'll come back fine. the plants look amazing mctoker! I'm still watching your bagseed, I'm now convinced I need to order some beans. I hope it's female though, I'd still like to see the difference in yield. I really enjoy watching your grow, I always check for updates. keep up the good work guys.:thumbsup:

[McToker]

fluid69 ~ I'm hoping the bagseed is a female too. A comparison would be great, not only to the store-bought seeds but to our last bagseed grow with CFL's.

Couldn't sleep so I got up to check on the babies after the lamp kicked on. BA #1 is looking more like a male. It is by far the tallest of all the plants. I'll give it until, at least, tomorrow. But, BA #2 is a girl !

We were hoping to move some outdoors but I don't think that's going to work out for us. Breeding projects will just have to wait for another time. Just too much going on right now.:(

[jakezking]

McT! I'm floored by all of the changes since last I checked in on your ladies (and possible BA male). It looks like things are about to get exciting for you - I can't wait to see all of those heavy buds.

Also, I hope all goes well with your upcoming surgery. I'll be sure to keep you in my thoughts and prayers, my friend!

Continued good luck with your grow!

[McToker]

Good to see you buddy! Thanks for the prayers.

The BA did turn out to be a male. We have a small window of time to work with so we moved him outdoors. He'll stay in his hempy bucket. Temps here will be back up to seasonal normal (107 F) in a few days. We'll be able to see how he handles the heat and how well a hempy bucket works outdoors.

If all goes well, we'll harvest some pollen for later use.

Here's the score as of this morning:

Bagseed = GIRL
BA #2 and #3 = GIRLS
All of the AK's #1, #2, #3 and #4 = ALL GIRLS

Only two BA's have yet to show.

We tied string around the midsections of most of the remaining plants to support the lower branches. They all are now getting more light to the middle and lower bud sites.

We're a little concerned about the humidity. It was at 55% when we opened the tent this morning. We removed the excess water in the overflow pans and we're hoping that the extra light getting through will also help lower the humidity. We also raised the circulation fan a bit higher to get better air circulation.

[fdsaasdf]

Your log is so fun to watch for me. I can't wait to see the results! You're gonna absolutely love your AK, Mc!

[McToker]

Glad you're enjoying the show fdsaasdf. We're getting pretty excited ourselves.;)

Yesterday's adjustments have brought the humidity back down to 45%. Started more tying down on another BA today. We only have about another inch, or so, that we can raise the lamp.

The first pic is a group shot from this morning. The second is just me playing with the macro setting on the camera. We've been toying with the idea of picking up a USB microscope but the budget is kind of tight. Isn't everyone's these days?:( We do have a 30x handheld scope for checking trichs but the USB one could be fun to play with and we'd be able to share photos with y'all.

[McToker]

We culled out another BA male today. Only BA #5 has yet to show.

The rest of the crop is doing well. Tied down another AK this morning. All seem to be responding well to their little dose of B&D.:D The one that broke when we tried tying it and had to be splinted, healed up just fine but turned out to be a male.

We relaced the factory light hanger attatchments with a couple links of decorative lamp chain. This gave us another couple inches of lamp height.

The BA male we moved outdoors a few days ago is doing well with afternoon temps in the high 90's.

[McToker]

Good news and Bad news.

The bad news is......... it's gonna be really crowded in the tent.

The good news is........ the last remaining hold out is a GIRL!!!

So, here's the final tally:

Bagseed = GIRL
BA #2,#3 and #5 = GIRLS
All of the AK's #1, #2, #3 and #4 = ALL GIRLS

for a total of 8 females out of ten sprouts.:jointsmile::D:hippy::jointsmile::D:

We're considering moving one of the AK's outdoors with the male BA. Just waiting to see how the outdoor plant holds up to the heat first.

The early bloomers are really starting to form some nice bud sites. I'll try to get some pics tomorrow. The girls have already gone to sleep for today.:)

[McToker]

Had to tie down a couple more......... purely for height resons.

They are starting to bud up real nice.

[headshake]

looking very nice mc! i've really got to get me some of those hempy buckets going!


-shake

[fdsaasdf]

I admit those buds are starting to look really delicious. With those male plants, are you going to make a mass of brownies or something along those lines?

[McToker]

Nope. One male was cut up and tossed. The other, the one outdoors, will only be kept around for pollen. That reminds me............ We had to hide him behind some plywood yesterday. Too much stuff going on outdoors. Now we just need to un-hide him.;)

Oh....... and ....... shake ~ We won't be going back to soil grows. Even though we haven't gotten all the way to harvest yet, this hempy bucket thing just flat ROCKS!. I'm really glad we finally listened to killa and SG.

[headshake]

that's what i keep hearing mc! i'm trying to find some good one gallon containers like killa suggests.

maybe i'll have to buy lots of pickles or something.

i can't wait to see the difference.


-shake

[McToker]

Hey shake ~ Try the paint departments of your local hardare stores. I went with 2 1/2 quart paint buckets because they were about the same size as all the coffee cans (plastic) I had already saved. The 2 1/2 qt. ones were about $1.29 each. Both of the big box stores had 1 gallon plastic ones for less than $2. The little store closer to home had 3 1/2 quart paint pails for less than $2, as well. Seems to me that most of the hempy grows have pretty much been in whatever sized bottle or bucket was readily available.:D

The last male we pulled out was in one of the 2 1/2 gal. paint buckets. I expected to see some serious root binding when we pulled the plant out of the bucket. I was actually surprised at how well behaved the roots were.:jointsmile: They had a long way to go before being rootbound. I don't think they would have been by harvest.

[headshake]

the only reason that i made reference to the 1 gallon buckets is because that's what killa recommends as "optimum".

i'll keep looking around. i have various other jugs lying around but i was looking for the recommended.

i think i read somewhere that you have to water once a day? is this correct?


-shake

[McToker]

the only reason that i made reference to the 1 gallon buckets is because that's what killa recommends as "optimum".

i'll keep looking around. i have various other jugs lying around but i was looking for the recommended.

i think i read somewhere that you have to water once a day? is this correct?


-shake

Only once a day for the first 2 to 3 weeks. After that, every 2-3 days was recommended. I water every other day.

McT

[McToker]

Creased another BA stalk today. Got her all splinted up. We've found that we have to really limit each bend with the BA.

The AK is another story. They are very pliant and respond quite well to being tied down to control height. The AK's are showing quite a few more and bigger bud sites than the BA's.:D

Outdoor temps are starting to climb now. Been hitting about 109F in the afternoons. The BA male out back is still alive but, from the looks of it, it won't be for much longer. We're doubting now that we'll be able to successfully move a female out there to get pollinated.:( We'll either have to do it the hard way or hold off until the new grow room is done. But, that will be a while.

[headshake]

thanks for the info mc. i just read that on killas log too.

if you can, try to move the male to were he doesn't get very much direct sunlight. some strains like a lot of direct light, some don't. if you can get it back into a pot you can move it around and figure out it's preference. then when you find a good spot you can plop it back into the ground. just a though.

everything is sounding good.


-shake

[jakezking]

McT, I hope all's good with y'all. You said it - it's getting to be a NYC subway during rush hour up in there. Nice to think of a subway car full of ladies all bumpin' into each other which is almost as good as the pictures of your ladies. You've got a tent full! I hate to read about the BA dude not doing well in the heat. I wonder if it's the heat or the direct sunlight like shake said? It'd be nice to get some beans off a BA mix, but if you lose him it won't be the end of the world with all of the bud from all of those ladies! Ahhh, the silver linings....

[McToker]

How right you are my caped freind.:) The BA male didn't make it. I checked on him this morning and it was a pretty sad sight. He'll become mulch when I mow the yard later today. He was fairly well shaded but I guess the heat was just too much for him. But, no great loss. It was more of an experiment anyway.

Now, moving on the the bright side, there are buds starting everywhere!:D I'm sure it's way too early to call these shots bud porn but the sight of all those blooms starting to form is certainly getting the Mrs. and I excited.:D:cool::stoned:

On another note; After a couple months without, an old freind paid a visit and hooked us up. I don't know what this stuff is but it sure is potent. One doob takes us two days to smoke. The aroma is so strong that we have to keep this stuff in the master bathroom with the exhaust fan on. And, that's before we light it up! We don't dare sit in the living room and light up. Thanks Old Man.

[jakezking]

McT, your pics sho nuff look like bud porn to me - sahweet! As long as they're getting plenty of light, which it looks like they are, being crammed in like that may actually help support all of that heavy bud they'll be bearing here shortly.

Hey, man - when is your surgery? If you've already had it, I take it that everything went well. And, if you haven't had us, give us all an update on when so we can keep you in our prayers, my friend.

Sorry to hear about the BA male, but it's an easy thing to take in stride especially now you have all that bud candy to ogle and smell. Continued good luck to you!

[McToker]

I go back to the surgeon in a week. He'll order some more tests, CT Scans and such, and then decide when I go back under the knife. Mrs. McT wants me to postpone surgery until after the harvest. The Dr. may not want to wait that long. I think she'll do just fine with the feedings. Keeping them tied down may be a different story.;)

They seem to be getting plenty of light at this point. In another week, or so, we'll decide if we're going to do an "SG supercrop" job on any of them. Since SG says they slow down for about 30 days and then burst, this may be the "pause button" that the Mrs. wants/needs.;)

[jakezking]

McT, I hope you don't have to go back under the knife. I don't wanna pry as to the reasons, but obviously I hope it's not anything that is life threatening. Regardless I'll keep you in my prayers.

I'll be interested in seeing the supercropping if you determine to head in that direction. Seems like Dive had supercropped a couple of his BG or B-52s just for demonstration purposes.

Whichever way y'all determine to go, I know it will be a good one. Looks like you'lll wind up with some serious bud weight! Be good out there, my friend!

[McToker]

Jake ~ Actually, it will be good news if I can go back under the knife. It is not life threatening, per se, but it would be nice if they could put me back together again. Last October I had just finished a 2-year treatment of radiation and hormone injections for prostate cancer. That night I started having abdominal pain. Two days later, when I couldnâ??t take it anymore, the wife hauled me to the ER. Two hours after that I was in surgery for a ruptured colon due to diverticulitis that I didnâ??t even know I had. Because of the radiation, they were unable to patch up my colon and I ended up with a gawl-durned appliance hanging off my stomach. They are hoping that Iâ??ve had enough time to heal up inside so that they can reconnect things and I can ditch the appliance.

If they canâ??tâ?¦â?¦â?¦ wellâ?¦â?¦â?¦â?¦ Iâ??m still looking for the bright side on that one but, Iâ??m sure Iâ??ll find one eventually. Yup. Iâ??m one of those whose cup is always half full. No pun intended.:D

Now to the ladies:

One of the AK stems creased a bit, probably during the night. But, it didn't fold very much and the cola looks fine so I didn't splint it. I don't know how much closer to the lamp these ladies want to go. Most are within 12 inches now but aren't showing signs of lamp burn or heat stress.

Here are a few pics from this morning's feeding.

[syde00]

Mrs. McT wants me to postpone surgery until after the harvest. The Dr. may not want to wait that long.



haha, i can only imagine the look on the surgeons face if you tell him you want to postpone until after the weed harvest!

[McToker]

haha, i can only imagine the look on the surgeons face if you tell him you want to postpone until after the weed harvest!

Hey. I gotta have my priorities.:D:stoned::D

[jakezking]

wellâ?¦â?¦â?¦â?¦ Iâ??m still looking for the bright side on that one

McT, at least folks can't say you're full of shit, eh?

My best to you, and I hope you have healed back up. I'm really glad to see your spirit continues to soar - that's probably why I'd wager you have healed. I've seen a lady who was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer - one of the most positive people I've ever come across. She beat the stew out of the cancer.

It sounds like you're made of the same cloth as she. Take good care out there, my friend!

[headshake]

no doubt mc, take care of yourself. you obviously have a good outlook which is the toughest part of the battle!


-shake

[McToker]

Shake & Jake :D ~ I thank you much for your well wishes.

I know we have 2 fewer plants now that the males are gone but the drop in water intake has decreased signicantly. The remaining 8 ladies are only taking on about 1 1/4 gallons every other day. Since MJ seems to prefer wet/dry conditions, we're going to try going to watering/feeding every 3 days instead.

On a number of the plants, the lowest branches are withering away. All are very small even anemic compared to other stems. No great loss as the other stems are healthy and budding.:D

Notes for next grow:

Try HPS light closer to tops to help control stretch.

FIM or top future grows early in vegging and even consider 2 ladies at a time under SCROG.

Going for 1 or 2 moms to clone from a must to control the number of females in bloom at a given time to make best use of small space.

Veg and Flower areas of new room will be 3x3 feet, slightly larger than current space but still good size areas for existing lighting. Will be CFL in Veg cabinet and HPS in Flower cabinet. Plants seemed to grow a bit slower in Veg under CFL's but have far less stretch than under MH.

[Hennessy1414]

ohh those fan-leaves are looking nice n' fat :greenthumb: Nice lookin plants man.

[McToker]

ohh those fan-leaves are looking nice n' fat

........ and that brings up the question of the week. It is time to decide whether or not to do a supercrop.

Pros: Slow down growth & give Mrs. luxury of time.

Allow more light to penetrate past the canopy.

Relieve some of the crowding in the tent.

Cons: Potential to go hermie from stress.

Seems like there's got to be another risk I missed.

Well, we have a window open for, at least, the next 5 or 6 days to decide.

[fluid69]

I did some trimming around week 4 and all was good. I hated to do it, but some of the leaves were blocking light and ventilation, it seemed necessary. My ladies responded really well, and I just harvested with no hermies! Again, those girls look really nice, and you guys are doing an awesome job. Keep up the good work!:thumbsup:

[McToker]

Thanks fluid. You just added one more mark to the "do it" column.;)

[headshake]

didn't you start flowering already toker? you got another sets of young 'uns coming up?


-shake

[McToker]

Yup, Day 20 of flowering, shake. I'm just pondering whether or not to go with Secret Garden's suggestion of supercropping between days 21 and 25.

No new sprouts around here.:) We are also planning our next grow as well as the design of our new grow room. It will be a while until we can get to it, perhaps this fall after I've healed up and the temps drop a bit. After weighing various options, it comes down to building a room in a corner of the shop. The current plan calls for a 3x3 veg area, a 3x3 flowering area and a 4x6 utility/cloning area for overall interior dimensions of 6x7 feet. The walls and ceiling of the shop are already well insulated with 2x6 walls. So, to build the basic room we only need to throw up 2 more walls, one with a well sealed door. Then we'll subdivide the interior into the various areas. A small window A/C unit built into a wall of the utility area will handle cooling while a space heater takes care of cooler months, if needed. Our existing vortex fan and carbon scrubber flow enough CFM to handle lamp heat and odor control. The old Frankenlight with CFL's will go in the veg/mom area with the HPS in the flower area. Our idea is to be able to utilize as much of our existing hardware as possible to keep costs down. That is why we are sticking to smaller dimensions on the veg/flower areas.

[McToker]

For all the photo junkies, like me.;)

[headshake]

they are loving that new light aren't they?!

the new setup sound nice! i might go a bit smaller on the veg area and give yourself a little bit more space for flower. remember the "stretch"? and this should benefit if you want to go with a perpetual harvest. or leave the veg, and take a little from the utility closet/clone room, or better yet a tad bit off of each.

then get a 600W digital setup (~$200) for flower, move the 250W to the veg room and run the MH, you can either use frankenlight for clones (a wee bit overkill!) or dismantle and use some for the clones and then some for supplemental lighting. just a thought that wouldn't stop!

can't wait to see the madness unfold!


-shake

[McToker]

Title above the pics (above) should have read, "Day 21".

Yup, they like the HPS.:thumbsup:

Even though heat will be easier to control in the proposed new room, we still want to avoid bigger, and hotter, lights. We would also like to keep electricity usage down. We figure that with a continuous grow going, we can easily get by with the 250 watt lamp and a small space.

I think we'll leave Frankenlight intact but just not use as many bulbs. The shape/layout can cover a smaller area or a 3x3 area well.

[McToker]

This was the first time for the ladies to wait 3 days for water and nutes. They seem to like it just fine. We trimmed away some of the lower anemic, shriviling and non-productive branches.

The jury is still out on whether or not we will supercrop any of them. But, the wobble-meter is leaning towards DO IT. :) We will decide by the next watering on day 25.

I've been giving more thought to the plans for the new room. I'm thinking I will make the room a bit larger so that I'll have the option to vary the veg and flower area sizes. Only the outer walls will be permenant. Interior divisions will be done with panda and stick-on zippers.

[headshake]

good call on the future projoect mc!

super crop say, one of each or something like that. and leave a control. that way you can figure out what you prefer.

-shake

[McToker]

super crop say, one of each or something like that. and leave a control. that way you can figure out what you prefer.

-shake

My main reason for wanting to try this was to put the whole crop in sloooow motion so that the Mrs. wouldn't have to deal with keeping the ladies tied down. Alas, that is not going to be a problem. I won't be having the surgery for at least 3 more months if not an indefinite wait. And, NO, I didn't ask him to postpone it until after the harvest.:D;):D Two months would have been enough. :D It seems there are other complications and he is giving, not only me more time to heal up, but time for both of us to weigh the risks of going through with the surgery.

So............. bring on those buds!!!!!!!!!!:jointsmile::D:stoned::jointsmile:

[killa12345]

everything looks great mctoker.....i hope all goes well with the surgury....sh*t and i thought i had it bad.....i wish you all the luck!

Keep it up bro....if you ever need any seeds feel free to get at me!

[McToker]

Thanks killa and I will definitely keep the seeds in mind. :)

[McToker]

Yesterday was the second time for watering every 3 days. Both times the ladies have taken on 2 gallons.

It's looking like bud city in the tent.:D There are healthy buds from the canopy down to about 2 feet below the canopy.

Trichs are starting to show up on the bud leaves or, as the Mrs. puts it, "They are starting to get some sugar." She says this part of the grow looks like someone sneaks in during the night and sprinkles sugar on the buds.;)

We opted not to do any supercropping, yet, anyway. While the older ladies look like they are mature enough for it, the younger ones don't. Most of the ladies are tied down, some quite a bit. Two of them are bent into a "?" shape. With carefull arranging after watering, we seem to be getting good light penetration through the canopy. We have to pull 1/2 the plants out to get the watering done. When putting them back, we try to arrange each one so that the maximum number of bud sites get good light. Seems to be working so far (knock wood).;)

We had considered adding a few CFL's to the mix but, we really can't see that they are needed nor do we really have the room in there for them.

[headshake]

each plant takes two gallons of water every three days?

everything sounds good though toker?

i'm not glad you get to postpone surgery, but i'm glad you get to take care of your ladies and get everything in order. does that make sense?

keep up the good work my friend. and get some of those beans from killa!


-shake

[McToker]

:):):) Nope. 2 gallons for all 8 or 1 quart each.:):):)

Since there is no PM option on this forum, I'm at a loss as to how to contact killa 'bout the seeds.:(

The jury is still out on whether or not I'll have the surgery. At least the Dr. took the pressure off. He said he's willing to wait as long as I want. He did add that if I wait until I'm in my 70's, he won't even consider doing it.:D So, that gives me a good 15 years to figure things out.:D:stoned::D

[headshake]

ok. i was like holy sh!t. you know how many bottles of nutes that you would go through!

i've got an idea working for some hempy's. i've got to get a few more supplies though. not exactly sure when that will happen, but i'm excited. you and killa have me ready to go!

send killa some rep with your email addy.

i know you'll do what's best for you and your's about the surgery, either way, best of luck.

and at least you'll have a bunch of meds!


-shake

[McToker]

I've been spreading the love around but I guess it will take a lot more before I can add to rep again.

I can't see us ever going back to a soil grow. The hempy method is just so much easier, at least for us. We will be trying larger buckets next time, though. These are working out OK especially with the crowded conditions. Future grows won't have near as many plants in bloom at one time so we'll have the room for 1 gallon buckets.

Gonna start clearing out a corner of the shop today for the new room. It will take a while just to make enough room.:D

[headshake]

sounds good mc. the new project is starting......i'm excited for you (and for my eyes)!

do you use a pH meter or what? that's one of the things holding me back. that and getting perlite and vermiculite in bulk.

i can't wait to start the buckets.

good growing.


-shake

[killa12345]

:):):) Nope. 2 gallons for all 8 or 1 quart each.:):):)

Since there is no PM option on this forum, I'm at a loss as to how to contact killa 'bout the seeds.:(

The jury is still out on whether or not I'll have the surgery. At least the Dr. took the pressure off. He said he's willing to wait as long as I want. He did add that if I wait until I'm in my 70's, he won't even consider doing it.:D So, that gives me a good 15 years to figure things out.:D:stoned::D

hit me up at [email protected] om//////......ill get them out to you immediately!......i hope if you go threw with the surgery it works out for you!

[headshake]

see mc, it will all work out! lol.


-shake

[McToker]

Thanks killa, looking forward to it. Still haven't decided on the surgery. The pro and the con columns are about even.

Shake ~ A PH meter will be a big plus. I tried the litmus paper and the test tube/drops methods. Both got me close, I thought. With either it wasn't too hard to be off by .5 or better. The meters are pretty cheap online. My R/O water is right at 6.0. After I add the nutes and stuff it is usually at 5.6. Two drops of PH Up and a gallon of water/nutes is on the money at 5.8. Sure beats trying to match colors to a chart. Besides, I'm somewhat red/green color blind.:D:D:D

I don't know that you'll need to get the "lites" in bulk. After making up 10 - 2 1/2 quart buckets, I'm part way through my third bag of perlite and still on my first bag of vermiculite. Both are just the regular size bags from Wally World. Even to make up 1 gallon buckets wouldn't take much unless, you're planning a monster grow.:eek::jawdropper:

[headshake]

thanks for all of the information toker!

i don't think my local wally world even has vermiculite. as a matter of fact i don't think any store that i visit for supplies has both of the "lites". weak.

i think i will get a meter. i've seen those cheap milwaukee ones on ebay. i'll probably start with one of those and then get a better one down the road.

don't have the space for a monster grow at the moment, but i wish i did!

good growing.


-shake

[McToker]

You might also try Lowes or Home Depot. I found the vermiculite at my local Lowes.

The cheap milwaukee is the one I went with. I found it on FleaBay but went directly to the vendor's site to order it. It came with a pouch of caibration fluid. Works like a champ.

[headshake]

thanks again.

"you must spread some rep around ......."


-shake

[McToker]

The ladies are still taking on 1 quart apiece on watering/nute day.

Pics 1 and 2 are of Blue Apollo #2. As you can see, creasing the main stem during a B&D session gone bad doesn't seem to have had any adverse effects.

Pics 3, 4 and 5 are of AK-47 #1. She is budding up right nice, if I don't say so myself.:)

Oddly enough, the lone bagseed lady, not pictured, while being a full 2 1/2 weeks older than Ak#1 is less developed than the youngest AK or BA. It was a runt to begin with but I have to think that the good genetics of the BA and the AK has to play a major role.

We added a taller tower fan to the tent today. The desk size one we were using just wasn't cutting it with such tall plants.

[McToker]

Just a few more pics from today.

The first two are the main cola on AK #1. The last is a group shot.

Now, if only there was an application for an aroma file.:jointsmile:

[Italiano715]

Just a few more pics from today.

The first two are the main cola on AK #1. The last is a group shot.

Now, if only there was an application for an aroma file.:jointsmile:

Things are looking good over here! Looks to be a nice harvest in the future eh?

Paging Dr. :greenthumb: :D

[McToker]

Thanks I-715. Should be enough to last us a while.;)

I'd been noticing some discoloration on the leaves but was having a little trouble nailing down a diagnosis. My suspicion was Magnesium deficiency. Today, the signs actually progressed to the point that I am able to say,for certain, that it is a magnesium deficiency. We had been using 5ml of CalMag per gallon which gave us a PPM reading of 200. I went back and re-read the info on the bottle and it says for hydro to shoot for 300 PPM. Since they are currently deficient, I'm thinking we'll go with 10ml for a while. That should give us 400 PPM. After the plants show that they have recovered, we'll adjust the amount of CalMag down to 300 PPM.

[McToker]

Just a couple random pics from this morning's inspection.

[McToker]

We took a little test bud today. Ok. We're out and wanted to try a little.;)

We were goikng to take a little off of the bagseed plant but the buds just didn't look developed enough, compared to some of the others. It seems strange in that all of these ladies were put into flower at the same time yet some, the bagseed, two of the AK's and two of the BA's, don't seem to be as far along as the remaining ladies. It doesn't seem to have anything to do with how long each one vegged, either.

Anyway, we snipped a bit off of one of the more mature AK's and did a quick micro-dry. Whoa....... The Mrs. and I toked up half of a pinner. At only 4 weeks and not flushed, dried and cured........... this stuff is gonna do just fine.:stoned::jointsmile::stoned:

[BeFree]

All of those ladies...Wow... Glad you managed to pull it off. I thought you were out of space for sure. :)

Good to hear about the test pinner. Betchya'll can't wait til you have a couple ambers in there. you'll be :stoned::stoned::stoned: offa one puff.

Either way, I'm :stoned:. The solution was a solution yet again. :wtf:

You and the Mrs. begood. :hippy:

be

[fdsaasdf]

McToker, those look absolutely mouth-watering delicious. I envy you right now, haha. :D

[McToker]

McToker, those look absolutely mouth-watering delicious. I envy you right now, haha. :D

And that is a BIG problem for us. We're out and keep staring at those buds. :jointsmile: I was going to snip another nug for today but I waited too long. The light has already gone off.:(

On another note: We have started to prepare our new grow room. We picked up the lumber and the door yesterday. The wood is stacked to dry and cure. Shouldn't take long in this heat. When it's dry we'll start the framing. The room will be larger than originally planned for. Since it will have A/C we're making it a dual purpose area. It will also be used to store some antique furniture and art we are saving for our kids.

We also decided to dance with the one that brung us, so to speak. In keeping with the idea that we wanted to utilize as much of our existing equipment as possible and keep electricity costs down, we decided to use our existing Homebox S and add a larger grow tent, probably a 4x4, next to it. We'll use the new (larger) one for a vegging area and mother plants. Frankenlight and 4-foot flouros will go in there. Our current tent will be used for flowering.

Finally, we'll be able to do some clones.:D

[jakezking]

McT, I'm glad to read you are in the driver's seat when it comes to your surgery - it sounded like you had to wait a bit to heal up more, but your doc was giving you some space which should make you more comfortable when moving forward with a decision. Please keep us all up to speed.

In the meantime, you have your hands, your wife's hands, and your tent absolutely full of some seriously burgeoning bud! Those are some big, long, and fat pistils poppin'. And, the dashes of sugar on those bud leaves are looking heavier and heavier with each passing picture. As you said, you and your wife are set for awhile! And, I know killa will blow your hair back with some of his beans - his purp strains are insane!

Keep on keepin' on, my friend - my best to your and yours!

[McToker]

Jake ~ We thank you for the kind words and we are very much looking forward to going purple.:D

We tried to upload some pics from today but I guess we're running into the same problem that shovelhandle had.

[fdsaasdf]

Hey, how are those outside male plants doing?

[McToker]

Hey, how are those outside male plants doing?

They succumbed to the heat several weeks ago when it hit 109. I miss those 109 degree days. Can't wait 'til it starts cooling off again.:D It was 114 yesterday.

Looks like the pics will upload today. Taken with and without flash.

1 & 2 are BA #3
3 & 4 are BA #5
5 is AK #1

[McToker]

Here are the rest of yesterday's pics.

1 & 2 are AK #1
3 is a group shot

Oh yea. We pinched a little off one of the BA's yesterday. Boy oh boy, it sure doesn't take much.:D:jointsmile::stoned:

[fdsaasdf]

Looks like that plant got snowed on, haha! :jointsmile:

[McToker]

Looks like that plant got snowed on, haha! :jointsmile:

Mrs. McToker and I really like this part of a grow since we get to see more and more sugar (as the wife calls it) each day.:D

[Shovelhandle]

Them are looking chunky, Bub. Noice! :jointsmile:

[McToker]

After a discussion with Shovelhandle over on his log, we've decided to hold off on adding molasses pending further research.

We dropped the CalMag from 10ml to 7.5ml. That puts it at 400ppm. Next feeding day we'll drop it to 300ppm.

Buds are getting plumper every day.:) I realize it's like comparing apples to oranges but we can see where the buds appear denser under the HPS than they did under the CFL's on the last grow. We don't know if it's the genetics difference or the light or both.

Almost forgot. We got purpled yesterday. Thanks Killa.

[BeFree]

Who could have guessed? McT is powered by Mopar. :jointsmile:

My everyday driver is a '66 Belvedere II 318wideblock.
Hauled a friend's 89 civic on a 20 foot flat bed for 5 hours off of a homemade bumper hitch just 2 days ago.

begood Mrs. and Mr. McT.

be

[McToker]

Yup BeFree, we've owned 'em all from slant sixes, including a built one, to highly modified 440's. Well, everything except a Hemi. We plan to remedy that as soon as our 4x4 is paid off. I'm leaning towards a Charger but Mrs. McT really wants a new Challenger.:jointsmile: All I care is that I can blip the throttle and make it go WaahPaah.:jointsmile::D;)

Bud weight seems to be becoming an issue. I found one branch broken and the bud just dangling. Couldn't rescue it so we lopped it off. Fortunately it wasn't a main cola.

One main cola (BA #2) just kind of fell over. This one twisted the stem rather than a break so we splinted it and will hope for the best.

As we watered we went through and tied up some of the lesser branches. Gonna have to get some bamboo supports real soon.

I just fealt like snapping a couple pics so #1 is the splinted BA and #2 is the main cola on AK #1 with fill flash on.

[killa12345]

plants look great....glad everything got to you safe and sound......looking forward to seeing other play with some of my hard work! stay safe brotha!

killa

[fdsaasdf]

Haha, you know that you've done well when you are having problems with bud weight. They are looking better and better every day. Job well done, man. :thumbsup:

[fluid69]

:jointsmile:buds look tasty! excellent grow guys.:thumbsup:

[McToker]

We thank y'all for the kind words.

We fed the ladies a day early, earlier this week. Had to run out of town on family business for a couple days. As of this morning they are back on schedule.

Finally got a chance to use the microscope on this grow. On a few buds, the hairs were starting to change color and shrivel up a bit. A once over with the scope showed that they are not ready. Trichs are still mostly clear with no amber ones in sight.

One AK and the bagseed don't look like they'll finish at the same time as the others. Looks like they'll need several weeks longer. A couple others may take an extra week or so.

[headshake]

looking good tokers! glad everything is coming together for y'all!


-shake

[McToker]

Well, I guess we now know why bud weight was becoming a problem. The ladies are pregnant.:(:(:(

We thought we were being quite diligent in our watch for nanners. We missed 'em....... big time. Seems the bagseed hermed on us and pollinated the entire crop.

Bad news: No sensemilla:(:(:(

The Good news: Plenty of seeds for future grows. We'll keep any seeds even though we know the plants may be prone to go hermie. We figure it might make for decent "every day smoke".

As punishment, the bagseed plant has already been pulled from the tent, pruned and currently drying.

I guess we'll just proceed as planned, as far as timing. We have about a week to go until we start cutting nutes and begin the flush.

We're chalking this one up to overcrowding. Too many plants to be able to keep proper tabs on them.

We wanted to get some seeds but not this way.

Now, for a little levity........ We call the bagseed strain Old Man. So, the Old Man x AK-47 will become AARP ( Armed And Really Pissed ) The Old Man x Blue Apollo will be ......... to be determined. Suggestions will be entertained.:D

Hey, gotta find a bright side somewhere.;)

[fdsaasdf]

Oh noooo! :( That sucks so bad, McToker.

[McToker]

Yup, at least we'll have plenty of smoke while we build the new farm.

After discussing it, the Mrs. and I figure any resulting seeds ought to be called Last Resort. We'll save them but with seeds from good genetics on hand it's unlikely we'll use them.

The new grow room begins. Today we're laying out the basic dimensions and we predict that walls (framed) will be up within a week.

[fourkicks]

sorry to hear bout your loss

[McToker]

Hey, it's all good. It's not like they won't be smokable. The Mrs. and I will just chalk it up to a lesson learned.

[fourkicks]

thats the spirit.

[fdsaasdf]

Hopefully it'll just last you 9 weeks, hahaha. :rastasmoke::rastasmoke:

[McToker]

Since we discovered we were with seeds, we stopped regular nutes and went to Ph'd water with only CalMag. Today, before watering, we hauled out the microscope to check the trichs. They are at about 90% cloudy with quite a bit of amber.

All of our homework as far as when to harvest was based on being unpollinated. Now that we are "with seed" I suppose much of that goes out the window. We know that once they are "with seed" THC production stops and all energy is devoted to the seeds.

So, logic dictates that these ladies aren't going to gain any strength. We are not interested in fully developed seeds because, after thinking about it, we really don't want to perpetuate bad genetics so the seeds will not be saved anyway.

Long story short, we held off watering today. Our thinking is to go ahead and harvest in the next day or two after they dry out a bit.

Any thoughts?

[McToker]

We went ahead and pulled them all. The BA seems far less seedy than the AK.

We'll start fresh with a new grow. We're making progress on the new farm. We'll try to get as much done as we can before I have my next surgery. The next grow will have to wait until afterward.

Next grow will be to get 3 moms, 1 AK-47, 1 Blue Apollo and 1 of Killa's Purple Blend. After that, we start learning to clone.

At least we'll have plenty to hold us over until then.:jointsmile:

[headshake]

sorry to hear about the seeds tokers, but like you said, the lessons learned are invaluble! hope all is going well in y'alls neck of the woods!

can't wait to see what you guys do with killas purple!

hopefully my buckets will be up and running soon! the inspiration is nice by the way!


-shake

[greenatik]

I just fell into the same boat toker. My timer messed up and missed almost an entire dark cycle and now the buds are forming seeds. Sigh... If only I was farther along.. Some of em arent even half way. Do you think I should cut em down or finish em out? There's nothing left too get pollinated.

Well, hehe, I guess seeds aren't a bad thing. But I think they will be more prone to hermie in future grows ?

[McToker]

Ditto on the prone to hermie greenatik. I've read the same thing. But, prone to hermie at least means female! We kinda figured there wasn't much point in letting our plants go longer since all the plant's energy switches to seed production. Ours were fairly close to finishing though.

Yup shake, seems the lessons never end.:jointsmile:

[Jerry Garcia 2007]

McToker,

Been one heck of a long time since I checked in. I see you had some Blue Apollo going. That was a nice strain I was growing at one time and really enjoyed it. I also had a plant hermi on me and pollinated only the bottom branches of the other plants. So your tops still may be seed free.

Another thing is pollination did not seem to effect the potantancy one bit. I did grow some seeds out from that grow and ended up with some really nice plants. So I recomend growing a few out just to see what you have. I was plesently surprized when I did.

JG

[Shovelhandle]

Hey JG!

I'll not say anything about the seed plants. I've already made my feelings on that issue.

[McToker]

JG ~ Thanks for checking in. One of the main reasons we selected the Blue Apollo was due to your grow log and your smoke report.

Shove ~ We are probably in agreement with you on the seeds. Since the papa was a hermie bagseed and the bagseed was already prone to hermie, I doubt we'll do anything with the seeds. We still have beans for the AK, the BA and Killa's Purple. With all those good genetics available we just don't see much reason to mess with the other. Our goal is to eventually have one good mom of each strain and just clone from there. The new farm design will have an area for moms/vegging, one for clones and one for flowering.

The buds were dry, after 3 days, and we just finished putting them into jars to cure. We didn't bother weighing them but guesstimate the weight at about 3 ounces per strain (BA and AK) for a total of 6 ounces. The bagseed we pulled earlier produced about an ounce. Weight is pretty light for that many plants but they weren't allowed to finish (as sinsemilla) as planned. Still, it's plenty to hold us over while we finish up the new farm.

We'll give y'all a smoke report in about 10 days.:jointsmile:

[Shovelhandle]

actually, I would not pull a plant because it seeds. I think the pot can be just about as good as sinsemilla. and a shit load better than anythig premature.

.02

[jakezking]

McT! Sorry to hear about the wayward nanners impregnating your beauties. Does the bagseed have any qualities? If so, then I may keep some of those beans, because you never know what you'd find, especially with the BA and AK lineage in the mix. However, it may be a moot point if you harvested early - maybe the beans didn't have a chance to develop.

Nonetheless, from the pictures I last say, you have some pretty sweet bud on your hand. I hope your construction goes well on your new room too - sounds like you have some good grown room plans. I'm looking forward to pictures of your curing buds and framing.

I hope all else is well with you and yours, McT! Continued best of luck to y'all!

[McToker]

All of our studying was geared towards sensemilla. When the ladies seeded it threw us off. We did check the trichs as posted before.

Live and learn.

At this point, neither strain is anything to write home about. Today finishes the curing but, of course, we've been hitting it anyway. Both are a good analgesic. About 3 tokes and my arthritis pain disappears for about an hour.

The AK is delayed release in that after about 5 to 10 minutes the high sneaks up and announces itself. So far it seems to be more of a body high in that it is relaxing but not incapacitating (mental or physical) making it a good daytime smoke.

The BA seems best enjoyed in the late evening as uninterupted sleep generally follows. This is a good thing (for us). One of the main reasons we both partake is to help us get to sleep and to help us stay asleep. More of a head high than the AK but still managable enough for daytime use if you can stay awake.:D

If we were grading this grow, we'd give it a D. Not quite a failure because we did get some usable smoke out of it. But, at least we did learn a few things along the way. We plan to keep trying this until we get it right.;)

We hope to get back to work on the new room today. Thinking about starting a thread when we start building the cabinet part of it.

Ooops. Almost forgot. Jake ~ The bagseed was fairly decent smoke but one of its strongest traits seems to be a tendancy to go hermie. This makes 2 grows in a row with hermie results for the bagseed. Most of the resulting seeds are light and probably not viable.

[McToker]

Revised report.

Our impression of the BA has changed. With additional curing time and hitting a full bud rather than popcorn buds, lets just say, "Whoa".:jointsmile::D:jointsmile:

[bluntpasser]

6 ounces is nothing to frown about...and the fact that your trichs were there is all that really matters...looking forward to your next log...:thumbsup:

[fdsaasdf]

Revised report.

Our impression of the BA has changed. With additional curing time and hitting a full bud rather than popcorn buds, lets just say, "Whoa".:jointsmile::D:jointsmile:
Ahaha, that's great to hear! On top of all that, think about how much money you saved! Getting 6 ounces off the streets would be a lot of cash...