Shov's Winter Grow

[Shovelhandle]

At the end of October I started a crop of indica leaning hybrids/mutts. All are feminized seeds. Eight are Serious Seeds AK-47 from f-2 seeds, Six home crossed Bubblegum x DP Blueberry, I've run these many times. And there's four 'Cyril', which is a strain from seed that was bought as Neville's Haze but was probably back crossed with Afghani. (story; Cyril Neville is a cool musician and major head. My friend toked him up with this weed and he said it was 'righteous good shit', so when I needed a name instead of 'pretend Neville's Haze' I called it 'Cyril'.

Soil is reused from last grow's fresh batch. Tested for Ph, N,P,K it needed to nuetralize the Ph, and add P and K. Added all organic amendments. Dolomite lime, dehydrated granulated manure, high P bat guano, bone meal, Maxicrop, Excelerite, Plant Success, a small amount of compost and wigglers and molasses.

Here's some photos of the relatives from past grow.

AK-47
288894

Bubblegum x Blueberry
288895

Cyril
288896

[Shovelhandle]

Photos from last week, week two of 12/12. The girls are showing their frillies and some have been supercropped to keep them under 3'.

A sample of each strain:

Ak-47
288897

BG x BB
288898

Cyril
288899

[Shovelhandle]

I had to provide support and there was no place close by to get bamboo sticks so I bit the bullet and went with 4' fiberglass electric fence posts. These will last forever and will be useful in the veggie garden. I moved the plants and lamps apart and now have a 6' x 5' footprint.
The bloom feed is a tea of high P bat guano, EWC and molasses aerated for 24-48 hours. I add Age Old Bloom to this and correct the pH to 6.0-6.5. I've also been adding Plant Success soluble every other week.

288902
288903
288904
288905
288906

Into the end of week three. All the Ak-47 and some BG x BB have stretched over the tops of the 4' stakes. The lights were about 12 or less inches from the canopy. There is 10" above the lights remaining,at the most. So I bent over the tops so they are back to 6" under the stakes to stay even with the rest of the BG x BB and the Cyrils.
I'm feeding/water/water. I increased the rate to one pint of water (or tea) to each gallon of soil. A ratio of 8:1 soil to water. I'll have to see how long it takes for these plants to drink it up (some are thirstier than others). The lights on temp is 72ºF and lights off about 64º. I let the water settle to a temperature of about 66-68º.

[Shovelhandle]

Ak-47

288933
288934
288935
288936
288937

[Shovelhandle]

288938
288939
288940
288941

[Shovelhandle]

288942
288943
288944
288945

[Shovelhandle]

288946
288947
288948
288949

[budregulator]

heyh nice grow iam a new member and I am looking for some advice your plants look good so I figure u no wht your doing

[Shovelhandle]

welcome, Bud. Look around, there is a lot of great information that is "Stickied" at the beginning of many of these threads. Some recent comments too. Thanks for checking out the grow log. I'll try and keep it up to date every week now.

[Shovelhandle]

BG x BB indica dominant289296

BG x BB sativa dominant289297
289298

AK-47 289299
289300

[pushit]

Very nice looking girls Shovel! If you ever need a taste tester Im your man haha.

[32yrslater]

Hey shov...I have Skunk 47 growing for about 3wks now. I just started the 12/12 light cycle but I've never done this before. Is it too late to do this or do you think I'm good? 90 watt LED in Miracle Grow with temps ranging from 40's to 60's or 70's depending on how cold it is outside as the space heater can only do so much when it's zero outside.

[Mainely Growing Weed]

Why is the AK 47 turning yellow? Is that normal for that strain?

[Shovelhandle]

yellow is from the HPS lamps. The green parts you see are in the shade and the camera flash shows it's green. Sorry for the confusion, I was too lazy to pull out the AK for a photo. The BG x BB is on the outside edge so it was easier to do.

[Shovelhandle]

more yellow photos...

289489
289490
289491
289492
289493

[Shovelhandle]

289494
289495
A sativa dominant
289496

[Shovelhandle]

I look carefully and use the loupe today and see bananas starting to peek out on the very tips of the apial flowers of two AK-47 plants. I hate to have a chance of everything being pollinated but at this point I have no place to move these two...bitches. So I'ma gonna try to cut the bananas out each day and move those plants to the downwind side of the area. Shytie

[pushit]

I look carefully and use the loupe today and see bananas starting to peek out on the very tips of the apial flowers of two AK-47 plants. I hate to have a chance of everything being pollinated but at this point I have no place to move these two...bitches. So I'ma gonna try to cut the bananas out each day and move those plants to the downwind side of the area. Shytie

So do you know why they are throwing nanners? Just curious if you found the reason out or not since your grow looks pretty dialed in.

[Shovelhandle]

genetics likely. I'm using seeds I made from F2 gifted seeds and they produced a few seeds (selfed). It's good weed, I just hope I can keep it under control or else I'll have to take appropriate measures.

[Shovelhandle]

289602
289601
289603

[Shovelhandle]

289604
289605
289606

[Shovelhandle]

289763

[painretreat]

WoW!! Awesome growth!

I've tried many strains with 'Blueberry' in it. Yet, I always go back to the straight up, blueberry for medicine. I have some outdoor grown and I haven't used it in many months. Pulled it out yesterday and nothing works better for symptom management, than Blueberry, for me! It has been so long since, I had to use it, I forgot how delightful the taste is and remains.

Bubblegum and Blueberry, sounds like it will be a very good tasting bud! :thumbsup: Enjoying the grow show! thanks;

Still curious how that last outdoor grow in the field did?:jointsmile: pr

[Shovelhandle]

Outdoors I ran on NL5 x Sk1 and it produced 9 ounces of decent green bud. I also had a Mr Nice Seeds Shit plant but it got broken in a wind storm. Next year I'll try again. I'm thinking of trying Mr Nice Seeds Early Skunk outdoors.

These BGxBB have nice fat frosty buds. No color though. I don't mind that, if it doesn't taste 'purple' I don't care if it's blue or not. The bubblegum mother had a nice sweet taste and quality floral smell (not like gum at all).

[Shovelhandle]

Trichome check today shows clear trics in general.

[Shovelhandle]

Almost to week nine and it still looks a couple of weeks out...

289912

289913

[Mal420xl]

mmm yummy. you must be crawlin in yer skin to get some of that dried...i would be

[Shovelhandle]

No hurry, I still have some AK-47 x ChemD and Northern Lights #5 x Skunk #1 in the stash. But these new girls are stinkin' pretty! :hippy:

Well, the gland trics are still clear so no chopping yet. The plants are still pushing them out though. Eventually I plan to harvest just the tops on the AK and BGxBB and let the lower buds finish up.

[Mal420xl]

i can understand that considering your stash. still theres just something about a maturing bud that makes me a little droolish.

[Shovelhandle]

ya, shit ya. I am pumped to get this stuff cut, dried and cured so I can smoke and smoke and....do a smoke report!

[Shovelhandle]

290060
290061

[pushit]

Very nice Shovel!

[Shovelhandle]

Thank you my friends, I do try hard.

This is the first grow in quite a while where the fan leaves didn't start dropping early in bloom cycle. They are just starting Week 11 and the fan leaves on some of the plants are just starting to color up. Nice rich soil and good nutrients will do that. I think I'm onto a good feeding diet/schedule. I also notice that the buds have continued to push out sugar leaves like crazy. I'm not sure that's so great, time will tell. Trics are still mostly clear but I will check again soon. These strains were 8-10 weeks last time I ran 'em so the diet seems to keep them growing and healthy longer. I did taper the feed to 50% about 10 days ago and just aerated water with a little molasses since.
Besides the change in soil and all organic nutrients I started to get fussier with pH measuring and correction. I'm still improving on that. Next grow I hope to do better still.

[Shovelhandle]

AK-47

290155

290154

290153

[Shovelhandle]

290158

290159

290160

290161

[Shovelhandle]

One of the Cyril variety. They haven't done much in many weeks but the smell wicked good. A pitifully small harvest but hoping for that something special.

290162

[low_rdr]

Shov -

I've been keeping up on your log and I love it. I just re-read everything before I asked, what kind of lights are you using? My new HPS is a 600 watter and she's going to be here today (can't wait) but what bulbs are you using?

[Shovelhandle]

Two 400 watt MH / HPS magnetic ballasts with small reflectors. One four tube T5HO 54w. For both systems I have various lamps for veg and grow. Now I'm finishing with two HPS and Bloom Cycle T5HO tubes.

I start with either a 2x4' T8 shop-light, the 4x4' T5HO or 2 CFL spot reflectors running cool white CFLs in 26w and 42w. Add additional light as needed during veg and flower depending on the number and size of the plants. I crowd them right in sometimes.

[Farmer Rich]

Looking great Shovelhandle! On that last picture, what's the scoop on the curling leaves? I had an OG Kush (supposedly..) that had similar looking leaves and pretty much appeared to be a mutant.. ugliest plant I ever grew and was incredibly weak. Yours looks much better from that standpoint.. :jointsmile: Farmer Rich

[low_rdr]

I meant more specifically which bulbs you were using. Mine is coming with an earth grow which is 90k lumens, 2.2k color/temp which I'm fine with, but I'm trying to figure out if I should get a different one and use that as a spare. From what I've read I need to replace them every few months to ensure maximum lumen output, so should I just stock up on the $30 90k lumen output lights?

My veg is still going to be pure CFL, but I've got the 600w plus 8 42w 2700's in flower. This should produce roughly 115k lumens for my flower stage in a 2x4 footprint (LOL) talk about excessive.

[Shovelhandle]

Looking great Shovelhandle! On that last picture, what's the scoop on the curling leaves? I had an OG Kush (supposedly..) that had similar looking leaves and pretty much appeared to be a mutant.. ugliest plant I ever grew and was incredibly weak. Yours looks much better from that standpoint.. :jointsmile: Farmer Rich

Yut, the claw is in the genes. This is my third-fourth run and probably the last unless one of the girls is hiding something. No more beans. The odor of this run is unreal. I'm hoping that the potency is a match.

[Shovelhandle]

I payed $6.25 each for the last few pairs of HPS. I pay quite a little bit more for the grow specific brands conversion MH lamps. And those conversions have less hours life than the HPS.
Decent enough photometers are sold on e-bay that would pay for themselves as far condition based maintenance vs time scheduled maintenance. That means, measuring light output from a measured distance and replacement when the lighting falls to a determined low value rather than re0placement based on hours ran. Either case is much better than run until failure which will be less efficient the longer the lamps run.

[Shovelhandle]

The Cyril were cut and hung two days ago. They are light weight fuckers but smell great. They should dry quickly.

The AK-47 and Bubblegum x Blueberry are finishing up. I watered them well last week and again this past weekend. The trichomes are ripening well, I'll cut and hang to dry as soon as the soil dries out in another couple of days.

An interesting note, the trichomes are changing from clear to some cloudy but many are changing to a clear bright purple/red color. I've not seen anything like this so far. Usually the change would be from opaque to amber or clear with a little amber in the bulb. But this color is the whole stalk and head. Any comments on that, my friends?

[Shovelhandle]

The crop ran to 12 weeks and dried them hanging for a week. I just finished trimming last night. Later I'll jar them up to cure. Wife and I have been busy being old and ill so no harvest photos. I'll try and get some bud shots today.

[Shovelhandle]

290447
290446
290445
290444
290448

[Shovelhandle]

290450
290449

[Shovelhandle]

290451

290452

290453

290454

290455

[Shovelhandle]

290456
290457
290458
290459

[Token LaRoche]

Very nice!!!

[Mal420xl]

mmmm yum

[Shovelhandle]

More amateur photos;

AK-47

290575

290576

290577

[Shovelhandle]

One of each from the BG x BB plants

290578

290579

290580

290581

[giggletwig]

I'd love to know how your BG X BB turned out. Sounds very tasty! I've enjoyed watching your crop growing.

[Shovelhandle]

Thank you, Giggletwig. I matched these two strains up about four or five years ago. It's a good hybrid. Quicker finishing than the straight Blueberry (usually). Nice structure and yield. Great smoke. The first nugget is very frosty and colorful. I can't wait to compare them. It will be a while before I get into that strain but I'll post the results right here.

[TANKJR]

AK 47 looks good Shov! Kinda smallish buds tho it's hard to tell without some frame of reference. AK is, after nearly ten years, still my favorite! I just got 6.5oz from a 3.5 foot plant I bent the crap out of...big buds...question for ya tho...How long do you generally let your AK go for? I have harvested anywhere from 47 to 60 days and I like the earlier stuff the best... How about you?

[Shovelhandle]

Small nuggets, yes. two reasons. I was trying to show the trichome development, macro photo.
290593

I don't trim all the sugar leaf but I do want to break the buds down so there's little or no twig. I have photos of 2 liter bottle sized buds of bubblegum but they all trim down to the same little nuggets in the end.
The AK-47 I've grown out from seed went 70 to 84 days.

[Shovelhandle]

Small nuggets, yes. two reasons. I was trying to show the trichome development, macro photo.
290593

I don't trim all the sugar leaf but I do want to break the buds down so there's little or no twig. I have photos of 2 liter bottle sized buds of bubblegum but they all trim down to the same little nuggets in the end.
The AK-47 I've grown out from seed went 70 to 84 days.

[Shovelhandle]

huh, double post but no edit/delete feature? And I just tried to post this message and it didn't go through.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot???

[TANKJR]

INCOMING! LOL I wasn't raggin bro! The nugs look great! Days under 12/12 was what I was lookin for, not total days....my bad! I don't grow for weight specifically...I don't care how much something yields as much as what it yields.

I think there is a very short time you can edit or delete on this site

[growhand420]

sweat grow how tall is that blue gum I am starting germinating 1 and yours seem to be at a good size and any tips

[Shovelhandle]

yes Tankage, 9 weeks veg, 12 weeks flower this time. other times 10 weeks flower.

no offense taken, Bub. the nuggets are scraggly little pieces. it is what it is. I grow for me also. Sometimes I do jar it up 'on the stick', bigger buds. I actually like that better. This time I sat there and paired them down to nuggets. I don't know why, really. I do know that I ran this grow with a bad thermometer. Son of a bitch! How does a spirit thermometer get fucked up? Anyway, I was looking at 80º tops and thought that was fine. But in the end I checked it and it was off by 12º! No wonder the Cyril crisped up early like it did. I could have easily gotten the temps down, had I known. The buds should have been much more dense. That's what heat does.

[Shovelhandle]

I weighed my yield this am and I totaled 20 oz. Not what I was hoping for. With the (2) 400 watt HPS and 200W T5HO that's about .56grams/watt. About half as much as I expected from this grow. I hope the quality is right up there, at least. No crying...it's still a good stash of jars with a few different flavors.

[TANKJR]

Yea, Shov...That ain't bad for a high temp room...I've learned to ck ck and re-ck things and now I just have redundant everything...LOL I got some AK comin off in a week or so and I'll shoot ya a pic. I just got a new 1000w with an agra-sun HPS bulb, so I'm anxious to get some stuff goin under it. The bulb is supposed to put out something like 152,000 lumens!!! Woo hooo! Next up is some more Hindu Kush...also very tasty and potent and the only "pure" indica I have, but it's a good 6 weeks off...well "pure" as far as I know, anyway! I like the taste of the HK almost as much as the AK, and they both seem to work well for whatever ails ya.

[tlranger]

Small nuggets, yes. two reasons. I was trying to show the trichome development, macro photo.
290593

I don't trim all the sugar leaf but I do want to break the buds down so there's little or no twig. I have photos of 2 liter bottle sized buds of bubblegum but they all trim down to the same little nuggets in the end.
The AK-47 I've grown out from seed went 70 to 84 days. My trimming is often criticized, I hang dry for three days remove shake leaves, then into the slow dry tub. Will leave in one piece until I trim close for use. Complaining usually stops after one hit. Save this trimming for kief. I think in protects the bud.

[Shovelhandle]

First two smoke reports after a week to dry and three weeks cure, so far.

1) Cyril; these plants reacted very early and negatively to the heat. The leaves all sunburned and never did put out many more new leaves. Small yield. The smoke is smooth and has a decent high, 50/50 head body. Buds look good, smell nice and sweet. Rate 7.0

2) Ak-47 #3; this pheno was the only wide leafed AK-47, probably showing the most indica traits. Some purple in the buds. Smooth rich taste. light, fruity smell, good looking buds. High is very couch-lock, probably good medicine for insomnia or other probs but not so great early in the day. Good legs, lasts for hours. For this pheno 12 weeks bloom was just a little too long.
Rate 7.5

There are three other AK-47 phenos and two or three different Bubblegum x Blueberry to try next. I can hardly wait!

[Shovelhandle]

The herb plants showed many different looks from sativa to denser indica, light green, some 'red hair', some purple. No strong odor of flavors, just mild clean smell and taste.
All hit hard and long. Some can be energetic if you get off your ass and get going. All of them can close your eyes and slacken your jaw. st..on..ey :jawdropper:

[tlranger]

Did well, that's what we like to hear, should be real smokeable now. Enjoy