starting a "Combo" Grow Log ...

I'm more well known as 'the image reaper', but I have recently taken the nickname I am known by, everywhere else on the Web ...
this time around, I will have a mixed crop ... I started 3 Motarebel 'Killa Queen 2006' seeds, two Dutch Passion 'White Widow' seeds, and I have two rescued Joey Weed 'NL99' plants to throw into the mix ... I keep my grow journals in a "Word" document, so I expect I will have to just grab bits and pieces of the document for pasting here ... I will update it as things progress ... :smokin:

COMBO GROW #1
NL99 â?? Killa Queen â?? White Widow
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This is a â??combination growâ?? of the following:

1. two of Joey Weedâ??s â??NL99â??, a hybrid of Northern Lights, and Cinderella 99, tall, stretched, badly neglected, and severely stunted, they were only a couple of inches tall when 3 months old, suffering from low-light levels, etc. â?¦ rescued, and doing much better

2. three of Motarebelâ??s â??Killa Queen 2006â??, a hybrid of Cinderella 99 and G-13, the alleged â??government superstrainâ?? of legend â?¦

3. two of Dutch Passionâ??s â??White Widowâ??, the
famous crystal-laden powerhouse â?¦







As usual, I am hoping for a male plant to appear, for breeding my own seeds, (I seem to be â??cursedâ?? with only female plants my whole life, I have only grown two males in about 41 years of growing) â?¦ ideally, one of the White Widows will be a male, as I would love to add her â??white sugary trichome productionâ?? to the already ultra-potent Killa Queen or NL99 â?¦
Also, this will be my first grow done entirely under a 400-watt high-pressure Sodium lamp â?¦ for years, I used multiple fluorescent tubes, exclusively, with excellent results â?¦ however, I could no longer ignore the growth and yield advantages resulting from use of the big HPS lamps ...

GROW LOG :

After soaking the seeds for 24 hours in a solution of tap water, with an additional couple drops of bleach (to guard against fungus), I placed them into a wet paper-towel, between two dinner plates, to hold in humidity (ziplock bags work well, also) � then, placed into a warm, dark cabinet � germination came about almost immediately with the Motarebel Killa Queens, an indicator of their freshness, I believe � the White Widows opened within another 24 hours � after germination, the seeds were placed taproot-down, with about ¼� of soil for a cover, and lightly tamped down (the emerging seedlings need some struggle in their early lives, this makes them strong and hardy, and it helps them shed their shells better � Mother Nature can be cruel sometimes) �

TIP: I tried using â??Fox Farms Ocean Forestâ?? potting soil, since it is highly recommended as the finest soil available â?¦ unfortunately, I wasnâ??t aware it tends to be too rich for seedlings, (some strains handle it better than others, evidently) â?¦ although the pH is neutral, as desired, it is just â??too hotâ??, and it killed off quite a few of my valuable seeds and seedlings, something that has never happened to me before â?¦ switching to a cheap, everyday potting soil immediately remedied that situation â?¦ when transplanting to a larger pot, I will be using the â??Fox Farms Ocean Forestâ?? soil again, throughout the remaining grow, as it really is an outstanding soil â?¦





Day 1 / Sept 20 â?¦ the germinated seeds were placed into 4â?� clay pots of â??Whitney Farmsâ?? potting soil, an everyday â??mild soilâ??, to which I added a good portion of coarse, washed sand, and more Perlite â?¦ this provides for a good, loose soil, with excellent drainage â?¦ placed under a large CFL lamp (85watts/500) to sprout â?¦

Day 14 / Oct 3 â?¦ placed into my cabinet with a 400-watt, fan-cooled high-pressure Sodium lamp, with plenty of distance, to be easier on the tender seedlings â?¦ this particular bulb is an â??EYE Hortiluxâ?� bulb, that came with my lamp setup â?¦ the lamp supposedly has a bit of â??blueâ?? spectrum balancing in it, for good vegetative growth, but my research indicates it is probably no better than the standard, cheap ($13) sodium lamps â?¦ furthermore, the lamp warehouse informs me, they have inferior results with the â??EYEâ?? brand (a Japanese import) â?¦ they claim a very sub-standard lifespan with these bulbs, so be aware, if ordering â?¦ I use www.1000bulbs.com as my sources â?¦



Photo: Day 14 seedlings

Day 18 / Oct 7 â?¦ snipped the growing shoot of the NL99 plants, (FIMâ??d), as they tended to benefit greatly from topping, in my last grows â?¦ not sure how the Killa Queen and White Widow adapt to topping, so I will wait awhile on those â?¦

a little info for those who haven't seen my prior grows ... I grow indoors in a cabinet I built ... 2' x 4' x 7' ... I use a 400-watt high-pressure sodium lamp, fan-cooled hood, and a couple of additional fans for exhaust and air movement on the plants ... a 24-hour oscillating fan makes for strong stems, and less risk of mildew or molds forming ... I still don't have the temps down where I would like, I'm running around 85 degrees, but am shooting for 75 ... I may build another new cabinet soon, with much more ventilation ... I am playing with the idea of building an 'open-top' design, with the warm air blowing though a cabinet roof-mounted activated charcoal screen, much like a furnace filter ... I use a couple of odor-neutralizing ionizing bulbs http://www.1000bulbs.com/product.php?product=9135 (they work great), so odor has been insignificant, so far ... I use #5 pots, my water is purified reverse-osmosis, and my nutes are 'Earth Juice' varieties ... I have switched to Fox Farms Ocean Forest soil, but, as mentioned earlier, I found this soil was burning up my young seedlings ... I will use the soil when I transplant into my #5 pots, however ... hope some of this helps ... :smokin:

Day 19, from seed ... repotted my seedlings into #5 pots, with 100% Fox Farm Ocean Forest soil (hopefully they are mature enough now to thrive in this rich soil) ... placed back under 18/6 light schedule ... :smokin:

Those little ones look really sad :(

looks like you have a overwatering problem going on those pots are too big right now

they just went into those pots minutes before the pic, and have not been watered yet ... there is no such thing as 'too big of a pot' ... but, yes, they were over-watered in the smaller pots they were in, before the transplant ... :smokin:

I definatly looks like over watering but they usually come back juts fine. As for the too big of a pot, I have not had any problems but it make sence to slowly move up the pot sizes as you would end up with a dencer root ball.
I am sure it will all turn out well, I can't wait untill you flower and we see the differant buds.

just 48 hours after transplanting, they are greening up, getting back to normal ... I overwatered them to begin with ... when starting my seedlings, I place them into a potting soil with coarse sand and more perlite added ... its great for the seedlings, but they drain and dry so fast, its very easy to overwater ... won't be the first ones I've screwed with Pythium Wilt ... but, I think these will come out just fine ... :smokin:

Update: since I have a bad habit of over-watering, my seedlings were off to a weak start ... I transplanted them into their #5 pots, and they recovered almost immediately ...

Day 23 / Oct 12 â?¦ as usual, I have over-watered in the small pots â?¦ the sandy seedling mix, wets and dries so quickly it is hard for me to keep the moisture right â?¦ anyway, transplanting the seedlings in to their large #5 pots of fresh soil (Fox Farm Ocean Forest) revived them before Pythium Wilt could get a foothold â?¦ they are recovering very nicely now, and received their first weak dose of nutrients on their 22nd day â?¦ Earth Juice â??Growâ??, â??Microblastâ??, and â??Catalystâ?? were added to reverse-osmosis purified water about 1/3 of their normal strength â?¦ the Fox Farm soil is very rich, so no need to feed much at all â?¦ :smokin:


Photo: â?¦ Day 23

Nice, they look better for it. I to tend to overwater a little, but as long as i am carefull everything turns out ok.

Day 29 / Oct 18 â?¦ all plants doing very well â?¦ at this early stage, the NL99s are pre-flowering females, as expected, and the other plants all appear to be leaning female, also â?¦ one of the Killa Queens is a bit more sparse then its sisters, and I would normally suspect it may turn out to be a male, except, it was the worst seedling of the bunch, it almost died from over-watering, and was in pretty sad shape for awhile â?¦ well, Iâ??ll just wait and see â?¦ I would love for one of my White Widows to be a male, but I doubt it, at this early stage â?¦ I would like to breed my own WW seeds, plus introduce some of that â??sugar-coatingâ?? to my other strains â?¦ :dance: ... the first photo is how they look to the naked eye, the second photo was washed-out by too much flash, they are really dark green like the first pic (I'm just too stoned to care, right now :D ) ... :smokin:

Day 35 / Oct 24 â?¦ all going well, still being watered/fed about every 4th day, with Earth Juice nutrients diluted to about 30% strength, being careful not to over-fertilize with this rich Ocean Forest soil â?¦ the Killa Queens are supposedly not fond of a lot of water, or nutrients â?¦ the Joey Weed NL99s could care less what you do to them, they are just fantastic plants ! ... the White Widows seem to be sucking it up, a beautiful deep green color to their leaves ... (green doesn't show up too well in these sodium-illuminated photos) â?¦ :dance:

well, my first attempt at cloning finally worked out, so I will try it a second time ... these are cut from one of my old Northern Lights/Cinderella99 ladies ... a very easy-to-clone hybrid, so I'm hoping even with her advanced age under vegging, she will be vigorous enough to take root ... :dance: ... first pic shows where I made the cut ... next, the root shaved on one side, and moistened, then dipped into Schultz's 'Take Root' (same as Rootone, etc) ... then, a pic going into soil ... finally, misted with one drop of Superthrive in a quart of water, and placed into my cloning booth under a 24-hour CFL ... wish me luck ... :smokin:

:D I am happy to find at least one of my White Widows appears to be pre-flowering as a male ... this is what I was hoping for, so I can try breeding the Widow's trichome production into my Killa Queens and NL99s ... not like they need any more potency, but it seems like a good experiment, a cure for boredom :D ... I don't expect harvest for another 12 weeks, or so, (I prefer flowering out fully mature plants)... but, I will be glad for them all to finish, so I can get my Willie Nelsons in the dirt ... :dance:

Ohhh Willie Nelsons huh. I have read about them and they sound delightful.

Respect.
G_V

*Anything I post on this site is purely hypothetical, I do not grow anything illegal, not do I condone any such actions.*

well, like the saying goes: "be careful what you wish for" ... my other Dutch Passion White Widow is also a male ... that's 2-for-2, after going almost forever without males ... :D ... oh well, ya can't let things get ya down ... I put one male WW in another room, until I decide if I will use him for breeding, or not ... since they both looked identical, I kept the one that showed sex first, assuming it is the more vibrant of the two ... the other male went, well .. let's just say he is enjoying the night air ... ;) ... the three Motarebel Killa Queens seem to be thriving, still no definite sign of sex ... I topped the growing tip of all the KQs, as the breeder suggests they do well with it ... and the two Joey Weed NL99s are definitely female (no surprise there) ... more to follow ... :smokin:

:confused:

since I seem to be the only one interested in this thread, this will be the last post and photo ... it's not worth my time and effort ... :smokin: