Blue Cheese - A Grow by an Office Working DINK

[Nitegazer]

The Plan----

Variety: Barney’s Farm Blue Cheese (fem.)
Style: Two Cabinet Rotation SCROG
Medium: Soiless semi-organic
Flowering Area: 30”x18” 5-foot cabinet
Lights: Seedling- double T5 fluorescent; Veg.- 250W MH; Flowering – 250W HPS


First, let me say that I really have enjoyed lurking on this site, and posting a bit in the past. Folks here are just plain neighborly—so you have a green-light for any feedback, criticism, etc. Thank you ahead of time for your comments. I plan to check for responses daily, and will post about once a week.

I grow for myself and a couple of friends. In addition to quality kind, I value simplicity and stealth. I’m a suit from 9 to 5 and many of my acquaintances are not chill about the good herb.

This is my first grow journal, but it isn’t my first grow. Over the past five years, I probably have 10 grows under my belt (and in my lungs). I am still a novice, and some grows have been good and some grows have been ugly. My goal this time is to develop a successful process that I can make into a routine. It seems that the best growers here find something that works, and stick with it – being consistent has its rewards.

--- on to my babies!

 

[Nitegazer]

These are the sprouts that germed from 5 seeds some friends brought back from a trip to Britain. Seeds germinated in Oasis Cubes soaked in Distilled Water. I’m a klutz; I don’t like to germ in paper towels because I would have to handle the newborns. Four sprouts came up in 4 days (born on Tax-Day April 15). I held off potting 2 days because the plant needs to be able to take up water directly from the medium and having some root exposed gives it a good start.

The one in the round pot is stunted. The little guy was the first up, but had the shell of its seed stuck on it for a day. I was able to carefully remove the little helmet, but damage was done. I figure it will be fine in the long run – besides, my flowering space is less than four square feet, so I may go with only 3 plants.

I also made my first confirmed mistake of the grow I didn’t add perlite to the Jiffy Starter Mix and it compacted as soon as I watered it. I didn’t read about compaction problems with the medium until after I saw it happen. I think it will be ok as long as I don’t over-water and let the roots breathe. I will keep an eye on them for the first sign of stress, though.



Lesson #1 for the next grow: Perilite in the starter mix in a 1:4 ratio.

Also I should note that I only watered them once, almost 5 days ago. The seed starter holds a lot of water, and the pots are a little on the big side. The soil is still damp just below the surface and the stems are firm, so I will give it one more day before watering. It goes to show that you have to go by what the plant tells you rather than rules of thumb like: “Water a seedling every day”—that, combined with my mistake compacting the soil, and I might have killed the poor things.

Saturday morning, I plan to move the seedling out of the bedroom window and under a MH in the basement grow cabinet. I think they will be fine under the light, as long as I keep the fixture at the top of the cabinet—I’ll watch them carefully.
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[Nitegazer]

Quick update: the sprouts are now under the MH in my veggin cab, and they look pretty happy about it. Since I am in the basement, it takes the heat of the lamp plus a heating pad to keep the temperature where I like - 76 degrees. Humidity is a bit low- @32%, but that will steadily climb as the plants take up more space.

I also want to go into one of the problems I have experienced in past grows, and what I am doing this time around to fix them:

Heat Stress - Heat stress makes the buds all feathery and can lock up the nutrients in the soil, leading to nute burn. The trouble with cab grows in the basement, is that when the basement is warm in the middle of summer, it's harder to cool with air circulation. Once I got around to measuring the temperature properly, the I nearly killed off my plants.

Ok, now for a bit of a digression...
When I started growing, it was a scary experience. I was renting, and worried about the landlord. My spouse was not sure it was a good idea to try at all, so I was stressed about her views (would I have to dump to grow to keep the lady?). I didn't have much money, and every time I thought I was set, I had to buy something else: the cabinets themselves, a HPS (T5s weren't readily available at the time), fan, ducting, the damn jigsaw to cut venting in the cabinet...

At some point, something in my head started saying "No way, no more money is going to get spent on this project until I smoke something good out of it." That put me in a penny-wise/pound-foolish state of mind. When the leaves started showing yellowing spots, and I could tell it was pretty warm in the cab, I refused to by a freakin' thermometer to help me ascertain the problem. I went into denial, and decided that it must be some nutrient deficiency (exactly the wrong decision). The plants got all leggy and the larger leaves all crisped and dropped-- I ended up with about a third of the harvest I should have had.

After that experience I paid attention to high heat, but ignored the colder temps, which killed off some clones I was rooting. Unfortunately, it can get pretty cold down there, especially using flouros. Now I have to juggle different lights fans and heating pads in the cabinets to fit the season. I will go into that more later.

 

[Nitegazer]

I was going to post last night, but the evening got away from me....

Here is the update on my grow:

Last week, I put the seedlings under the MH, but by Friday, the leaves on two of the seedlings were curling-- I figured it was stress from the light and maybe the compacted soil mix. Temp in the cabinet is good - 76 degrees, so that wasn't the problem.


I moved them back to the floro, and things looked a bit better in a day or two. I just transplanted into a better soilless mix (3:1 Promix to perlite and some dolomite lime) put them back in the cabinet yesterday. The catyladons have yellowed, so I have also started with 1/4 strength FF Grow Big.

Lesson #2 for the next grow: Don't put seedlings (or rooting clones) under the MH for 10 days, to prevent stunting. 7 days was too soon.


I'll put up pictures by tomorrow. What I find most surprising is the range of development: two seedlings (including little helmet head) are going slow. One of the seedlings is just taking off--- already on the third set of leaves.

 

[Nitegazer]

Ok,

Here are pictures of the plants a few days ago (day 17 from sprout). You will note that one of the sprouts is yellow and stunted. I think I made a mistake feeding it with the others. It was in the most shock from last week when I first put it under the MH. I thought I had recovered by last Thursday, and fed it 1/3 strength ferts with the others. It was not ready for the ferts and I believe is experiencing nute lock-up. The other sprouts just took off, while the weakened sprout completely stopped developing.

I first wanted to let the little guy work it out on his own, but last night figured it would be best to flush it. I'm a little concerned that now it will be too nutrient starved to make it, but we'll just have to see.

Fortunately, I only need 3 plants to go to flower. If the weakened sprout makes it, I will clone it with the others and get it to flower with the next generation.

 

[KushisSweet]

ill be watching this. i hope the stunted girl will pull through. as for the other plants they seem healthy. when do you plan on moving them to MH?

 

[Nitegazer]

ill be watching this. i hope the stunted girl will pull through. as for the other plants they seem healthy. when do you plan on moving them to MH?

Thanks for stopping by. I put them under the MH for good this past Saturday (just about the time I took that picture). They are picking up the pace in growth-- more pics by this weekend.

 

[eightenough]

looking good. i am so excited about smoking the cheese. i cant wait. i am subbed and along for the ride.

 

[Nitegazer]

looking good. i am so excited about smoking the cheese. i cant wait. i am subbed and along for the ride.

Glad to have the company. I will be watching your journal, too, and look forward to learning a thing or two.

 

[eightenough]

lol. i am still learning myelf. my SLH grow is only my second. but i am more than happy to help if i can.

 

[Nitegazer]

Although I was worried for a while about my littlest sprout, that was burned by the nutes, I think she's looking much better. Actually, I must put credit where credit is due: a kick ass pirate that has been taking care of it for me.


I had my doubts at first, but for God's sakes, the man has a monkey on his shoulder. Ever since he's been watching over my weakened sprout, it's been leafing out.

As for the rest of the crew, they seem to be doing fine. I just started LSTing the largest sprout two days ago, and started with the other two last night. They seem to be responding really well to it. I used to wait longer before starting, but I think this works out better. Here is a general shot of the girls.


I am now giving them a half dose of ferts (FF Grow Big and Big Bloom) every other watering (about once per week). It's not exactly a half dose, it is 1ml of each in a quart of water. I use some diluted pure lye to bring the ph down to 6.4. Of course, I have held off on fertilizing the 'special needs' sprout.

When I fertilize, I don't water more than the pots can hold. But, when I use water only, I allow for a bout 25% runoff to flush out any leftover ferts. If this works out well, I will use this technique for the rest of the grow.

Temp has fluctuated a bit. One day it actually was up to 87. I fussed with the exhaust fan position a bit (cheap bit of inline fan from Home Depot), which brought it back down into the upper 70s. I may have to switch to a larger fan soon, as the basement is starting to warm for the season.

 

[Nitegazer]

Another little digression...

I'm high, damn it, and feeling all finger chatty.

Damn, I like dancing with my wife. We've been going for dance classes for about 8 months now, and FINALLY I am getting the hang of a couple styles (Swing and Cha-cha and Rumba). Ok, it may sound totally geeky, but I assure you... Ok, I admit it is geeky. BUT STILL it is super fabulous. NOTHING beats being able to take a gorgeous lady out on the dance floor-- either my wife or someone I don't even know.

I love music, but never had much of an affinity for musical instruments. Dancing is a great way for me to participate in the music. In fact tonight was the first night I was able to get into the music enough to think ahead for steps I want to do at certain points in the song.
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Not sure if I should post what I just wrote. Oh, what the hell.

 

[IMO]

never be afraid to share the simple joys of life.

 

[KushisSweet]

hows the plants lookin Nitegazer? lookin forward to the update!

 

[Nitegazer]

IMO -- Thanks for that. Growin' and vaping puts me in the most grateful of moods.

Kushis-- Just back from a four-day trip and the girls are looking great. I'll put up picks soon. The weakened sprout is leafing out some more-- thinking about prepping her for the great outdoors. Never did that before, but BC is supposed to finish by late Sept, and I figure I might as well give it a go. I live near a nice forested area where I should have little trouble finding the right spot. I'll take clones before planting her, so I have little to lose.

 

[Nitegazer]

Here's the update for day 29 after sprouting:



(The photos are from day 28 )

The ladies are doing quite nicely, and responding to the LST really well. Barney's BC is very responsive to training, producing a lot of branching in short order. In future generations, I will try a variety of 'shrubbing' techniques, perhaps using LST, FIMM, and topping on the different plants to run a comparison of effect. This time round, though, I am just going for a solid baseline.

The 250W light is now 8" from the plant tops, and I am ferting with 1.5ml per quart of Grow Big and Big Bloom every other watering. Next time I will go up to full strength (for me that's 2ml per quart of GB and 3ml per quart of BB).

In the next day or two, I will start the next generation of my perpetual grow with three new strains G-13 Haze, Utopia Haze and Acapulco Gold. If I'm timing it right, I will be able to take clones and veg them in time to start flowering them after the BC has finished.

I like to keep mother plants in the vegging cab, because then I can totally control the size of the plants going into the flowering cabinet. I will cycle back and forth with two different flowering types: BC at 9 weeks, and the Haze varieties at 11 weeks.

The littlest sprout is still slow goin', but I think she will be ready for transplanting outdoors by the end of the month. I know it will be a bit late, but I want to be able to get a couple good clones off her before setting her out. Besides, any yeild from her will be pure bonus.

 

[Nitegazer]

Fed the girls tonight - Full dose for the bigger three (2ml Grow Big, 4ml Big Blume in 1 liter/quart water brought to Ph6.4) and half-dose for the little guy, who is coming a long better, but is certainly behind the others.

I'll put up pictures tomorrow-- I guess I'm a bit vain, I'd rather wait until they are nice and perky before posting the pics. I wonder how many grow journals contain lies about age of plant, grams per plant, etc. I can feel a vague competitiveness with other grows-- silly.

Anywhoo, I am starting the next cycle of the grow-- G13XHaze, Utopia Haze, and Acapulco Gold. These are a longer flowering (11-12 weeks) strains, so I keep them for every other generation. I will be keeping a grow journal using the journaling function, just to see how it works. I will have that journal open for comments, and whatever else.

More tomorrow.....

 

[Nitegazer]

Now that they have been able to have a little meal, here is a picture or two of the ladies:



They are tied to one side of the pots, so I turned them to their most favorable angle, but I have to say that I am happy with how they are doing right now. They have branched out a lot.

Last night, I decided to trim one or two leaves that crowding out and or stealing light from the new branches on each plant. You can see that a couple of the lowest fan leaves are fading, too. I am not too worried, since the plants are producing a lot of new leaves. BTW, check out the yellow stripe on the fan leaf on the single plant-- I must have damaged the leave stem or something.

The big decision for me now is when I will start to flower. They will be six weeks old next week, and should be mature enough to switch to 12hrs. light. On the other hand, I have 4 sq. ft. to fill, and waiting an extra week or two might help fill out the space. I want to give them at least 5 days after transplanting before I start to flower, so I'll have to evaluate them this weekend.

 

[Nitegazer]

Assuming I don't kill off all of my plants, and that I this Promix method works for me, here are a few experiments that I want to run on later generations.

Things to maintain: SCROG, Promix, 25% Perelite mix

1- Vary the training method (FIM, LST, Topping, Branch Trimming)

2- Vary the # of plants and amount of time vegging -- Since I'm using clone mothers, I can start the clones at any time I like up to about 12 weeks before flower.

3- Feeding routine: 1/3 strength every time watered, or full strength every time watering

4- Ph. I have read recommendations from 5.2 to 6.8. I am now running this at 6.4, but will probably switch to 5.8 this grow. I want to try the full range on the plants, through-- I can experiment on extra clones!

5- The amount of Dolomite lime in the soil mix. I now have about 1.5 Tbs per gallon. I have read everything from 1 tsp to 2 Tbs per gallon.

6- Nutrient mix. I think I want to switch to Nature's Nectar because it is fully organic (ie. less salts to have to flush), and I can finely tune the NPK ratio to get the most out of the strain.

So, I think I'll be busy for the next several years. It would be well worth it, though; there is very little out there on Promix Soilless guidance. And what does exist is contradictory.

 

[KushisSweet]

nice LST you got there. plants look healthy and that one that had stress from nute burn seems to be really pulling along nicely!