2nd Grow - Bubbler Mex Strain

[redaaron]

This is my second attempt at a grow. I borrowed all of the materials, minus the pepsi cooler for my first grow, and added a few more for this one.

Three seeds 1 Trainwreck and 2 X2 (expiriment 2). The x2 is some really good redhair bagseed I was saving the seeds for a later grow. Added some CFL's for this one since I had started my grow around late August and the temps were high.

Used a 5 gallon tupperware painted with a piece of tape removed to check water levels. Two bubblepads with a T-coupling running to one 40 gallon airpump. A drip system on a timer was used in the beginning until the roots were long enough to sit in the water for the most part. 15 mins. every three hours. Water level fill line 3 gallons.

3 5.5" net cups with soaked hydroton.
Fox Farms Grow Big Hydro 3-2-6
Advanced Nutes Bloom 0-5-4
Gen Hydro Bloom Something 0-10-10

I generally go from the Fox Farms schedule and wing it from there. I'm pretty poor and like i said I'm using a lot of my old stuff and do everything I can in between on this one to keep it going in the right direction. I use about 3/4 strength on the nutes and do a rough calculation on the dosages from the numbers on the chart. Tap water is highly alkaline about an 8. I like to let it sit in a 8 gallon container with the lid off for a day or two and then lower the ph to right at 5.5. I know the ph will naturally rise to 6.5 in my system and then I lower again by simply adding fresh water from the container.

I add the nutes the the reseviour directly by the teaspoon and just leave it for about a week making sure the water level doesnt get too low.

Here's a pic some pics. Week 2
http://i712.photobucket.com/albums/ww126/red44ron/week2d.jpg
http://i712.photobucket.com/albums/ww126/red44ron/week2e.jpg
http://i712.photobucket.com/albums/ww126/red44ron/week2.jpg

Week 4
http://i712.photobucket.com/albums/ww126/red44ron/week4b.jpg
http://i712.photobucket.com/albums/ww126/red44ron/week4d.jpg
http://i712.photobucket.com/albums/ww126/red44ron/week4f.jpg

sorry the pics are so big. will update later.

[redaaron]

Ok. So you probably see a few things that should be addressed.

1) The plants could afford to be spaced out. Again I was so poor I didnt have the spare duct tape to move one of the pots to another seat in the container.
2) There are light issues as far as light penetrating inside the container and on top of the grow rocks. Any grower is best advised to make the resevoir completely light proof and on the hydroton to avoid algea growth. Otherwise, rock on.

Some more photos right before sexing

20-24 hours light 8-1600 lumen 6500k CFLs ~5000 lumens/ft squared.
Temp 70-80 Humidity 20% (low i know but i keep a mister nearby with pHed water)

Week 5
http://i712.photobucket.com/albums/ww126/red44ron/week5a.jpg
http://i712.photobucket.com/albums/ww126/red44ron/week5b.jpg
http://i712.photobucket.com/albums/ww126/red44ron/week5c.jpg
http://i712.photobucket.com/albums/ww126/red44ron/week5d.jpg

The TW keeps moving around but it's easy identifiable by the broad leaves. Here's hoping it's female. Hey let's just hope at least one is.

http://i712.photobucket.com/albums/ww126/red44ron/week5h.jpg
http://i712.photobucket.com/albums/ww126/red44ron/week5i.jpg
http://i712.photobucket.com/albums/ww126/red44ron/week5j.jpg

[redaaron]

Week 6

Unfortunately, two of the plants were male. Only the beastly wild one showed calyxs but the grow will still go on. These plants were all topped every 3 nodes until I wasn't sure how much room i would have so about 3 times. This leaves just the one x2 plant and we will continue with the experiment. Covered the resevoir with towels to help keep the water from evaporating and getting light involved. Stepped back to a 12 and 12. Here's some photos that explain things better.
http://i712.photobucket.com/albums/ww126/red44ron/week6b.jpg
http://i712.photobucket.com/albums/ww126/red44ron/week6d.jpg
http://i712.photobucket.com/albums/ww126/red44ron/week6e.jpg
http://i712.photobucket.com/albums/ww126/red44ron/week6.jpg

Week 7
Changed to 400w hps. Temps pretty good about 75-80 because its now November and Im actually using the light to help heat the house. :rastasmoke:
http://i712.photobucket.com/albums/ww126/red44ron/week7b.jpg
http://i712.photobucket.com/albums/ww126/red44ron/week7c.jpg
http://i712.photobucket.com/albums/ww126/red44ron/week7.jpg
Also added a homemade 12"x8" carbon filter with a 240cfm inline duct booster fan. Works great. :jointsmile:

[redaaron]

Week 8
http://i712.photobucket.com/albums/ww126/red44ron/week8c2.jpg
http://i712.photobucket.com/albums/ww126/red44ron/week8c.jpg
http://i712.photobucket.com/albums/ww126/red44ron/week8c1.jpg
http://i712.photobucket.com/albums/ww126/red44ron/week8e2.jpg
http://i712.photobucket.com/albums/ww126/red44ron/week8e4.jpg
http://i712.photobucket.com/albums/ww126/red44ron/week8g.jpg

[redaaron]

Week 10

These pictures are current and were actually taken today. Skipped photos of week 9. This was over Thanksgiving holiday and working a lot so I ran into some heat problems being too close to the light and resevior getting low leaving too many salts in the system. So nonetheless there are some fan leave issues being yellow or spotted. I haven't been as motherly since knowing they are just bagseed but shouldnt hurt the plants much at all to just tug away all the bad leaves. Trimmed a bunch of the smaller brances at the bottome to make way for bigger buds up top.

Got a better camera hopefully the pictures come out better.
http://i712.photobucket.com/albums/ww126/red44ron/week10a.jpg
http://i712.photobucket.com/albums/ww126/red44ron/week10b.jpg
http://i712.photobucket.com/albums/ww126/red44ron/week10c.jpg
http://i712.photobucket.com/albums/ww126/red44ron/week10f.jpg
http://i712.photobucket.com/albums/ww126/red44ron/week10.jpg
http://i712.photobucket.com/albums/ww126/red44ron/weel10e-1.jpg

About a million hairs and the crystals are starting to multiply. No telling and really my biggest question is when do the calyexs start to swell? I estimate about at least another 3 weeks with the sativa but I guess only time will tell. Gonna borrow my buddies microscope to start getting a closer look.

[deleafer2220]

looks like your going to have some nice baseball bat sized nugs there :thumbsup: .. and interested how you hooked up your drip system

[redaaron]

Thanks deleafer. I started off using Rapid Rooters and a digital irrigation timer from home dePOT w/ a battery backup (about $20). Works great until they are ready to work on just bubbles. Or just any timer that will let you set in 15 min intervals. I also add a bubblepad for precation to make sure the pump is drawing freshly oxgenated water from inside the resevoir and directly on to the Rapid Rooters.

[redaaron]

I have a few questions here for the knowledgeable people.

1) I pulled a few popcorn buds from the bottom and dried them out. Inside th buds I found SEEDS ... bummer. This could have been caused from either light interference, low resevoir/high nute concectration (bubbleponic), or just bad genetics. SO, what now?

The buds are still producing THC because the trichomes are still multiplying (is my hypothesis). And some of the seeds are already ripe. only about 10% of the pistils are dried up and turned color.

What should I expect? What should I do with this plant? Wait for the buds to finsish and smoke them? Make hash? What are the side effects of going "hermie" and all that?

Got pictures of it in its current stage. Post them if anyone's interested.

2) How to post pictures? Used to be you could post them and they would have a resize when you hovered over them. I forgot how to do that. Thanks :D

[Shovelhandle]

Super nice looking grow, Bub! I grow in soil only so I don't know but I do know a little about hermies (http://boards.cannabis.com/plant-problems/178593-my-hermies.html)! <G>
I try and elliminate any male flowers when I can. And if I were growing for seeds I would pull any plant with a male flower. But for smoke, it's a judgement call...

Shov

[redaaron]

wanted to post the finished product. I got about a qp from this one plant and it was amazing. too bad it didnt last very long. some of the best bud ive smoked in a long time. the crystals were crazy. the bud didnt really get the full effect until after curing. the taste was earthy and fruity. the stickyness was insane.

i didnt have a problem with seeds at the tops of the plants only the lower 25% of it and all in all I cant complain cuz i got some feminized seeds out of it to save for a rainy day.

was my first harvest ever so bare with it please. haha.

next batch in progress... ww, purple (ceres), and pineapple express....
all of these are new strains to me and all of them are hybrids so deciding whether to ScrOG or just top these will be made later. currently germiniting.

[sum1cull911]

I know this thread is slightly old, but great grow!

[weeddaddy50]

with flor'os 1/4 lb is excellent. I am dealing with possible hermi's on one plant also....I check every day, and have not found them, but I had a light problem for 3 days...and anything could happen:jointsmile: