Zen master's northern light-n-blue venom grow journal

[ZEN MASTER]

hey zen mate hows things?
your journal is looking good! those plants are gonna have some fat colas on them. doing a real good job, well done on the ballasts i'm always for saving coin!!
now u think 240 is dear i live in Australia tasmania , weed prices down here are absolutly off the show!!! u might pay 350 for a ounze. 180 for half is standard. 90-100 a q. this is all indoor hydro, nice but not anything really special.
keep up the good work!

madazz

Oh my goodness, madazz. Wow thanks for stopping by. If i had known you'd be by so soon i would have cleaned up a bit.LOL. but anyways, are you serious????? $350 for an oz. i would definitely turn into a social smoker(that's when you only smoke weed when your friends have weed,LOL). i mean really, that's outrageous. why would people do such a thing. is there some sort of reason why it's that much, is the cost to grow that expensive down there? or are the retailers just buttholes that know they can jack up the price like that because they know someone will pay it. man that really pisses me off, here i was complaing about the $125 price tag here, and you guys(BUTTERS,and MADAZZ)are paying half of a rent payment.


PEACE!!!
-ZEN-

 

[ZEN MASTER]

what's going on everybody? oh boy, got a bit of a problem, SPIDER MITES. i was going through them this weekend cutting off clones when i noticed them . then i checked the flowering plants and they have spiders mites on them too. so i'm going to go and get something to kill them. either some kind of bomb, or spray that safe for vegetables. but anywho, time for the good. cut me some real good clones 5 blue venom, and 3 of indica, and sativa phenos each. so eleven all together. after i cut my clones, i had to say good-bye to my girls for the next 36 hours because they are going to be in complete darkness. that's to kind of jump start the flowering process. i don't know how it works, but it works for me. what it does is decrease the time it takes for the plants to switch from veg to flower after you switch the lights to 12/12. now in my experience, before i started practicing this method, it was taking my plants about two to two and ahalf weeks to start showing signs that it was flowering(pale center of the initial bud site, pistils forming, etc.)which turned 8-9 weeks to 9-10, maybe 11 weeks. but since iv'e been trying it this way it has never been no more than a week maybe nine days before they are showing definite signs of flowering. i decided to go ahead and flower them because under this blue light i think that another week of vegging might get them too tall because they are really getting up there. but anyway, all of them are looking very well(camera phone does no justice). pretty good height on them, the one in the pic is right at 23" that's about the average height of them all. the tallest was 25"(NL sativa), and the shortest was17"(NL indica), and all of the BV were about the same height. i was planning on topping a few of them , but i really dont want to have to deal with tying all those branches up as they get heavier. so i'll just grow them trhe traditional way, like a Christmas tree. its all good though, as long as i get at least .50-.75 oz per plant i'm cool. it's all dank baby. you know what i mean? but hey, please enjoy the pics.
#1 Indica NL
#2 Sativa NL
#3 Blue Venom
#4-5 my cuttings



PEACE!!!
-ZEN-

 

[liljheazy]

dam their looking really good man

 

[(Butters)]

Ha! 84 degrees, man i would give good money for 84. try 90-91, oh yea the heat has brought me a few little visitors,"SPIDER MITES". man i was hoping to God the they would not show up, but now i gotta take care of 'em. any suggestions please give me a holler. but for now a little light reading. Enjoy!






PEACE!!!

-ZEN-

Yeah. I can't believe I'm bitchin about 84 too. I can't believe that you pull entire grows off battling 90 degree temps boss. You gotta look at those tropical, equator based strains to grow in your area man.

Spider mites. Man oh man. You're in for it now. I had these little tiny bugs that were briefly involved in my last grow. They didn't do any damage to the plants though and didn't seem to disrupt anything.

But when I 1st saw them, i was worried they were spider mites and did alot of reading on the forums about'm. Not very good news I'm afraid. Apparently there's a bunch of sprays that you can use but nothing kills the damn eggs.

There like those "agents" from the Matrix. They just keep poppin up throughout the grow. I lost all my links to those grow journals that had this issue but if you just google "marijuana spider mites" you'll get like a billion hits.

I remember that it's much safer to kick there ass when the plant is in veg than when it's in flower as those chemicals do damage to the trichs. But spider mites have natural predators too. And if THEY live in TX, so do their enemies.

As I remember, ladybugs like to chomp on those little buggers. There's other "bug cultures" that you can buy online too but I think that they were expensive and real creepy lookin. Again, the predator route doesn't eliminate the spider mites completely, just keeps'm in check so they don't destroy the crop.

If you get through your current grow, it's probably a good idea to hold off on the next one and thoroughly fumigate those rooms so this won't be a perpetual problem.

You ever had these suckers before?

 

[ZEN MASTER]

naw, this is the first summer that i have had to deal with them. but i tell you what i put all of 'em down. now i don't know about the eggs, but the guy at the feed store told me that the spray i bought would definitley kill the eggs. now i don't know if he dabbles in the culture, but he is very grower friendly, so we will see, but for now those dirty dogs are dead. i ended up spraying everything,execpt for the clones, also i decided to put my girls out to flower (more on them in the next post). hey Butters you mentioned something about tropical strains, now would any of those include some indica varieties because i suffer from insomnia really bad (on average 3-4 hours of sleep a day for the past four or five years)so a strong indica is really tops on my list. also since they are geared to deal with the heat, does that mean that they are resistant to pest that emerge when the temp goes up(spider mites and such)? if so , and if you wouldn't mind could you tell me of any off the top of your head? cause at the moment it is not that important, so just whatever comes to mind. Thanks.


PEACE!!!
-ZEN-

 

[ZEN MASTER]

ok now that the bad is done with, back to the good.
last night i put my babies out to flower and fed them(#1-2). they are looking really good. i wasn't going to spray them at first but i figured what good would it be having sprayed the others and then introducing a brand new batch of mites into the flower area. so yea they got it too. i'll put up a pic tomorrow of the insecticide that i bought. as far as the two headed one(#3 background) i was going to go ahead and transplant it in a 3gal pot and put it into flower but i decided to transplant it anyway and go ahead and let it veg for another week maybe two and see what it does. i didn't take any pics of it close up but it doesn't have any branching, and the nodes are spaced pretty nice and even so i'm expecting and hoping that the will end up being just two long colas, but we'll see. i was going to leave the clones under the floros for two weeks since i just cut them sunday, but i figured that since i had an empty veg closet to go ahead and put the under the 400 mh(#3). not worried about them wilting this time in the drier air in the house because instead of using rockwool and the humidity dome, i put them in the coco an left them uncovered in the cabinet. i decided to go ahead and put them in the veg closet, and see what will be the result in four weeks from putting a basically fresh cutting under straight 400wt mh light, also i figured this would be the perfect time to get the perpetual thing going on. and since that light has proven itself, i figured while the others are flowering i'll let those go for three weeks, take some clones, and let them veg for one more week before i put them out. then after the fourth week i'll put those out to flower, and put the clones in the veg closet, and so on , and so on. so in eight weeks i'll be harvesting the first batch, and from then on every month will be a harvest of five Blue Venoms, and four NLs, and i will probably alternate that every time i take cuttings. right now i have about two more weeks until my initial run of BVs and NLs are done. now the BVs i'm not worried about, but i really need to find out which one of the NLs is the best, the sativa or the indica. i would like to have at least one good indica(because of my insomnia issues)and a good sativa(just because). now the BV i think i'm going to consider that mostly indica from the way it looks, although i won't really know till i smoke it, so until then it will be competing with the NL indica. but really i just plan on keeping the best two of the bunch, so we'll see. but since the all of them can take the same elevation of nutes, even if i decide to keep all three it wont be a problem. well enjoy. any questions, commennts?


PEACE!!!
-ZEN-

 

[(Butters)]

hey Butters you mentioned something about tropical strains, now would any of those include some indica varieties because i suffer from insomnia really bad (on average 3-4 hours of sleep a day for the past four or five years)so a strong indica is really tops on my list. also since they are geared to deal with the heat, does that mean that they are resistant to pest that emerge when the temp goes up(spider mites and such)? if so , and if you wouldn't mind could you tell me of any off the top of your head? cause at the moment it is not that important, so just whatever comes to mind. Thanks.


PEACE!!!
-ZEN-

I know of 2 strains off the top of my head.

Afgan Kush...
Not really "tropical" per say but that was a poor choice of words on my part. You need heat resistant strains, and mostly indica per your request. This strains got both characteristics. Very heat resistant, and does wonders with the introduction of UVB rays late in a grow. VERY strong. I say this from experience. If I'm smokin this, I'm not really planning on going anywhere. I'm planning on being in a coma for a bit. Now, sometimes I'll use the word "coma" more as a jokey-descriptive term. Not this time...I FELT LIKE I WAS IN A COMA WITH this strain (and still do after many trials). You mentioned once that you seem to be very THC tolerant lately...this strain could change that my friend.

Gotta buddy who lives outside the states, in a VERY hot region of the world, for part of the year. Grows it alot and manages to get some back here (he grows it here too though). He swears by it's heat tolerance. His temps come close to 100f for veg and flower. Not sure about bug resistance per say. I know other medical strains are bred for that though (white rhino, church, godbud, etc.). But man, that Afgan Kush really packs a punch. Insomnia-no-more with this strain no doubt. But also funtion-in-public-no-more as well. He also says it clones really well too. He's a SOG grower and deals with it alot.

Hashberry...
Not sure about bug resistance on this one either. Very heat resistance. Tough to f-up on the grow. Very good producer in SOG and SCROG grows. Almost all indica. Definate sleepy time effect a little later on in the stone. Not as "narcotic" effect as the afgan kush though but not in a bad way. In my slightly more limited experience with smoking Hashberry, it's got more of a rainbow effect that's actually quite nice. I start out pretty damn functional and able to do stuff. But after a little while, that sleepy, narcotic effect sets in. Almost suddenly too. It's kinda like a rainbow effect, up then down.

Again, haven't grown this myself but a friend has had lots of good experiences to this (before he switched to growing the NL that you're working with now). But much better for sleep than NL in my experience.


Actually, I have like a whole catalog that I've kept over the past 5-6 years from my own notes about stuff I've tried so I'll have to dig through it to look up more. I'm sure I've got tons listed for insomnia but those were the 1st that came to mind as they met both requirements for heat resistance, indica/sleepy time strains. My sleep sucks ass too so this is a nice characteristic to find for me as well.

I'm really glad you asked as I've been stressing about my future summer grows given the heat and humidity we get here for those 3 months. I'm gonna have to get me some of these seeds for next year.

-Butters

 

[ZEN MASTER]

Oh my God LMFAO. love the illustrations. very cool. but look here where do you get your seeds from? i made my first order from attitude. it took me two years to get up the nerve, but i did it. now i feel fearless. also i've been meaning to ask you where did you get the Auto ab x Auto bb from because i really want to get some fo those going. i'm going to check attitude to see what theyv'e got on the afgan kush, and the hashberry. oh yea, one more thing, what "breeder" would you recommend for those three strains?


PEACE!!!
-ZEN-

 

[(Butters)]

Oh my God LMFAO. love the illustrations. very cool. but look here where do you get your seeds from? i made my first order from attitude. it took me two years to get up the nerve, but i did it. now i feel fearless. also i've been meaning to ask you where did you get the Auto ab x Auto bb from because i really want to get some fo those going. i'm going to check attitude to see what theyv'e got on the afgan kush, and the hashberry. oh yea, one more thing, what "breeder" would you recommend for those three strains?


PEACE!!!
-ZEN-

I've ordered from 3 places.

Attitude
World Wide Marijuana Seeds
Dr. Chronic .........

I would not recommend 1 of the 3. Any guesses?

Can't say enough good stuff about attitude. They just changed their site though and their prices went up a bit. (still great I imagine though).

WWMS. I ordered from them once and was real impressed. AND you can order SINGLE seeds from them (huge selection). Since you have a veg and flower chamber and clone well, you could save some dough by just ordering a single fem'd seed and cloning her for an eternity.

Both sites only sell one breeders Af Kush...World Of Seeds. I think both even sell them as individual fem'd seeds too

The Hashberry is only made by one breeder as well...Mandala. Again, both sites sell them but I don't think they come in fem'd...yet.

As for my Auto AK47 x Auto BB, I got those from attitude (although they are sold at both). No point in ordering singles of those as you have to breed'm, can't clone'm.

I've heard this and that about other seedbanks but haven't tried them yet. No need to I guess. I like to stick with what works.

 

[Katatawnic]

As for my Auto AK47 x Auto BB, I got those from attitude (although they are sold at both). No point in ordering singles of those as you have to breed'm, can't clone'm.

I've heard this and that about other seedbanks but haven't tried them yet. No need to I guess. I like to stick with what works.

Just curiosity, why can't they be cloned? I've heard this a few times, but no one says why. They just don't take root?

I've only ordered through Attitude, twice. They've done quite right by me, so I don't see any reason at this time to go through anyone else. As they say, stick with what you know!

 

[ZEN MASTER]

just curiosity, why can't they be cloned? I've heard this a few times, but no one says why. They just don't take root?

i've only ordered through attitude, twice. They've done quite right by me, so i don't see any reason at this time to go through anyone else. As they say, stick with what you know! :d

now i might be wrong but i think it's because of the way the photoperiod is once they go from veg to flower its no way to turn them around. Because they automatically switch. And i would imagine because of their small stature it woluld be pointless to cut off one of those little branches that has already switched to flower, because you cant reveg it. But i think butters could answer that better. You should check out his thread on the seed run he did with his autos. now as far as attitude, they were the first, and up to this piont, the only place i've ordered from. but man, top notch service, and fast.

 

[Katatawnic]

OK, I just had a real "DUH!" moment.... don't know why I didn't think of that! Thanks for reminding me to use my brain!

And yes, Attitude is most definitely fast. My second order, I didn't spend the extra $$$ on the "guaranteed" shipping options (in a T-shirt or back pack, etc.). I just had them put the seeds in a DVD case. My order arrived in 6 days, with no problems whatsoever. You can still track the shipment without the extra "stealth" shipping options. IMNSHO the DVD case is stealthy enough.

 

[(Butters)]

Just curiosity, why can't they be cloned? I've heard this a few times, but no one says why. They just don't take root?

Zen is spot on with the reasoning. Basically, in cloning regular plants, we get to push a kind of "reset" button on the cloned plant. That's why we clone in veg lighting. Even if a regular plant is in flower, we cut it...clone it...put it under veg lighting...and the new clone-plant essentially "resets". It can go back into veg or go straight into flower once rooted.

But it's a little different with the ruderalis-based strains. As they're flowering times aren't so much light dependent (18/6 vs 12/12) and more "age" dependent ("okay, how long have I been alive for now?"), we don't get to push that "reset" button.

The clone we cut will know it's exact age in "ruderalis years" lol for the entirety of it's life, no matter if it stays as one plant or break it into clones. The clones from an auto will be permanently bound and connected to the time-clock from whence they came. Whereas with regular plants, we kinda "trick" them into thinking they're young again and they forget where they came from. Poor things...they forget their heritage becuase of us -().

The auto's will clone and root, yes, but never reset. And, the bigger problem is, they will start autoflowering at around 3 weeks (late estimate). This means that Mom and any clones will be in flower by the time it's realistic to take clones. So the end result, is a flowering clone that we can't ever stop from flowering. So it has to "waste" alot of energy that it would normally be using to flower in the whole rooting process.

Will the clone give some bud...yes.

Will that same clone give as much bud as it would've if we just left it on the mother...no.

Will the mothers ever make enough branches to clone and make worth while in a SOG set up...no.

Hope that clears things up a little. My guess is that the lack-of-cloning quality may be only a temporary issue with autos. As we play with their genetics a bit more, I think there's a good chance that we can make a cloneable, "resetable", autoflowering plant.

-Butters

 

[ZEN MASTER]

I've ordered from 3 places.

Attitude
World Wide Marijuana Seeds
Dr. Chronic .........

I would not recommend 1 of the 3. Any guesses?

Can't say enough good stuff about attitude. They just changed their site though and their prices went up a bit. (still great I imagine though).

WWMS. I ordered from them once and was real impressed. AND you can order SINGLE seeds from them (huge selection). Since you have a veg and flower chamber and clone well, you could save some dough by just ordering a single fem'd seed and cloning her for an eternity.

Both sites only sell one breeders Af Kush...World Of Seeds. I think both even sell them as individual fem'd seeds too

The Hashberry is only made by one breeder as well...Mandala. Again, both sites sell them but I don't think they come in fem'd...yet.

As for my Auto AK47 x Auto BB, I got those from attitude (although they are sold at both). No point in ordering singles of those as you have to breed'm, can't clone'm.

I've heard this and that about other seedbanks but haven't tried them yet. No need to I guess. I like to stick with what works.

Yea i think i'm stuck on attitude. but tell me this how is dr.chronic still in business when all i hear is people complaining about how they got screwed dealing with him? oh well, thanks for the info Butters i really appreciate it. because if the NL doesn't get me what i need then i will have to try something else. and with a flower time of 45-55 days the afgan kush sounds like a real winner. and if you say that it will answer my tolerance problem then i am on board 100%. and the ability to buy 1 or 2 seeds is awesome, cause i'll clone that joker to death, then ressurect it, and start all over again. so good looking out man. thanks.
well i'm out. i'll see you guys monday with some pics, and we might just peek in on how the new clones are doing.


PEACE!!!
-ZEN-

 

[Katatawnic]

The clone we cut will know it's exact age in "ruderalis years" lol

That's funny right there!

Hope that clears things up a little.

Most definitely does! Thanks for the info Butters & Zen!

My guess is that the lack-of-cloning quality may be only a temporary issue with autos. As we play with their genetics a bit more, I think there's a good chance that we can make a cloneable, "resetable", autoflowering plant.

If/when that happens, it'll be mighty interesting to see how it's done.

 

[madazz]

Hey Zen ,
hows things , just popped in to see how things were coming along. Good by the loks of it. Dam those mites hey! get those little fuckers under control.! How did u go at getting your temps under control ? i saw your other thread & was going to post in it, but seemed like u had quiet a few posts from other people so i thought i'd just wait see how u have gone with it.?? let me know. Good luck with those mites, dam things. i have only had them (spider mites) once but when i got them they were hard to get rid of. I used this stuff called Avid i think, it was a long time ago.
Anyway Drop by my thread, i've updated with a heap of pics i think you will enjoy

https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journal...ml#post2834178

hope to see u there

Madazz

 

[jberry]

wut up zen?
went through the thread... looks pretty good.

how often do you feed/water yer 3 gallon pots?
are u using any pk boost?
are u using tap water with chlorine or chloramine in it? if so than you are killing all your
beneficial bacteria which is one of the main benefits of growing in coco...

canna does design their nutes for high quality tap water with a ppm of 200, but they count on that 200 ppm being mainly usable cal/mag... since thats not always the case you may want to look into that?
i supplement with high quality cal/mag (even tho i have no signs of deficiency) and yeilds went up since i started...
after npk than Calcium is the next most important thing... canna doesnt have enough by its self.

as far as the mites go, only a few things will kill spider mite eggs... what did u use to spray?? bcuz spider mites can bcome a serious problem. they can stop growth and kill yer yield. most of the time the eggs dont die and they come right back ,,, b careful...

floramite is what i recommend.

looks like the plants are happy, but i personally would do things a little different, (just small stuff) but for the most part looks good and i know you have done a lot of homework... just keep it up.

are you getting good yields and quality? cuz thats what matters i guess...

hope you dont take that the wrong way, im just telling you cuz you asked what i thought...

I have had a lot of conversations with david (in person) and ralph (email) at the Canna Research Department and i would be happy to help pass any info i've learned along to you... if you have ??'s, then let me know.

Go Coco !

 

[(Butters)]

canna does design their nutes for high quality tap water with a ppm of 200, but they count on that 200 ppm being mainly usable cal/mag... since thats not always the case you may want to look into that?
i supplement with high quality cal/mag (even tho i have no signs of deficiency) and yeilds went up since i started...
after npk than Calcium is the next most important thing... canna doesnt have enough by its self.

Didn't know that. Thanks for the tip jberry!

Correct me if I'm wrong but you can "counter" the chlorinated tap water issue by letting the tap water sit out for a 24-period...correct? I remember reading that a bunch of times and just wanted to make sure it's correct (that's what I'm using).

What's your feeding schedule like with the cal/mag? Weekly?

-Butters

 

[ZEN MASTER]

how often do you feed/water yer 3 gallon pots? once a week.
are u using any pk boost? no, but i have been a little curious as to see what
kind of benifits i could get as far as yield, by using
other addatives, but i'm trying to the best for the
least amount of money.
are u using tap water with chlorine or chloramine in it? well for that i have
two buckets that i
let my water sit in
for at least 24hrs.
as far as the mites go, only a few things will kill spider mite eggs... what did u use to spray?? i used some sort of insect spray for roses that seems to be working, probably
gonna spray 'em again, just in case, this weekend when i harvest my other plants
looks like the plants are happy, but i personally would do things a little different, (just small stuff) but for the most part looks good and i know you have done a lot of homework... just keep it up. thanks man, and really alot of it was trail and error, but that's why i recommend
to anyone to keep notes in the beginning, so you can always have something to
refer to. but you say small things like what?
are you getting good yields and quality? cuz thats what matters i guess...
well honestly for me and the amount that i smoke, which is a lot, that is why i'm growing NL right now heard it packs a punch, but for what i smoke i have been doing very well. but i wont lie and say that if buying other additives will increase yields, then i would be open to try them, within a reasonable cost that is. but that's one of the main reasons that i want o get two 1000's for flowering.
hope you dont take that the wrong way, im just telling you cuz you asked what i thought...
not a problem man.i am wide open for all comments and suggestions. i would not be able to transform myself into a master grower someday if i wasn't open to ideas that were not mine. so no you are super cool. that's why i asked you to give me a look because i felt like you know what you are talking about, oh yea, and you don't come off like an ass with it.



PEACE!!!
-ZEN-

 

[ZEN MASTER]

ok hey everybody. whats up?got a quick update of my babies. the BV's are really taking to the red light, but really all of them are. they are obviously looking very bushy with a lotta growth. now i dont know how good you can see it but the last pic is showing the first few pistils emerging. now i actually took these on sunday. so it only actually took 5 days to switch to full flower, which is pretty cool. hey check out the leaves, no nute burn. hopefully this weekend i can have my money right, and get me a pretty decent camera and take some better pics. well there we go. enjoy.


PEACE!!!
-ZEN-