My last update was 11/8/11, so this post is gonna be pretty long; a lot has happened since then.
Also, I started using a new naming convention for the plants after I took more clones. I needed a better way to keep track of them and which plant they came from.
The plants grown from seed are labeled like this: G0-A. This means Generation 0, Pheno A.
It's first clone would be G1-A1; Generation 1, Pheno A, Clone 1.
If I took two clones from that clone, they would be G2-A1 and G2-A2.
When talking about a series of clones it would look like: G1-A2~5; Generation 1, Pheno A, Clones 2 through 5.
Probably too much info there, but it makes it easier for me to keep track.
ORIGINAL FEMALES (from Seed; G0-A & G0-B)
Measured them a couple days after they were repotted on 11/8 and G0-A was 13", G0-B was 14". Both are very bushy.
Watered them with plain tap the first couple times after repotting.
Here they are at 46 days of veg on 11/11/11:
On 11/17 I decided to take clones and do some trimming in preparation to put these to flower. I removed the entire two bottom nodes (otherwise these would be too wide after the initial flower stretch) and used the tips of each for clones. I also trimmed off the bottom 2 nodes of the remaining 2 main branches. I took the best of these from each plant as the 3rd clone. These two clones were much smaller with thinner branches.
The base of the plant is now much more open and will allow better air flow and make the plants much easier to water.
I'll have a section below with more info on the clones.
Before taking clones and trimming:
After taking clones and trimming:
6 New clones (plus two blue cheese cuttings; top two in pic)
On 11/21 (56 days veg) I switched these two females to 12/12.
G0-A was 17" tall and G0-B was 18.5" tall.
Started them on 1tsp/gal 20-20-20 a few days into flower, which they will receive for the first 4-5 weeks of flower as long as they are looking good.
At only one week of flower, on 11/28, they had already grown quite a bit: G0-A was 24.5" and G0-B was 25.5". I checked today and G0-B was 29.5". I thought someone had said their's didn't stretch much in flower, but that's not what I'm experiencing so far. At this point I'm getting worried they may get too big for the tent and have destroyed the two blue cheese I was vegging since there won't be room in the flower tent for them now. Some of the growth may also be due to repotting a couple weeks ago and pruning off the bottom branches a few days before 12/12.
Pics taken at 1 week of 12/12. First 2 pics are Go-A, second two are G0-B:
And some pics taken today. First three show the Querkle flower response at 11 days of 12/12. The next two are the entire flower tent. The two small plants up front struggling through their last weeks are blue cheese.
MALE PLANT (from seed, G0-C)
There were actually two male plants, but a couple days after my last update I destroyed the one I was experimenting on, G0-D. I just don't have the time or room for it right now.
The male in flower, G0-C, has been doing good and has been very low maintenance. I've been feeding it 1tsp/gal 20-20-20. It's stretched quite a bit because of low light conditions and has grow to 2.4x bigger during the first 4 weeks of 12/12:
10" when put to flower (11/4)
15" at one week
18" at two weeks
22" at three weeks
24" at four weeks (today)
As far as flowering, I started seeing a response at 11 days:
The plant put out more and more pods since then (first two pics). Then a few days ago on 11/28, day 24 of flower, the pods started to open (third pic). Fourth pic shows the amount of pollen collected from only a dozen or so pods on the first day.
Since then, they've been opening much more rapidly and I'm getting quite a bit of pollen. One plant will easily give more than I could ever use. I'm glad I put this plant in the basement because the pollen gets all over the place. I can't move the plant any more or it dumps pollen everywhere. I have to change clothes and take a shower every time I collect pollen so I don't risk contaminating the females. I'm sure they will get some seeds just from being in the same house.
I never planned on keeping a male so it has been a bit of a challenge, but when seeds are $10 a pop, it's more than worth the effort. Also, the timing has worked out perfect as I will now be able to pollinate a few flowers on each of the two females in flower.
CLONES
Of the remaining 3 of the original 4 clones, the third (G1-B1) finally showed roots on 11/10 at 26 days. Really small clones plus a poor method (complex FFOF/Perlite mix) made these take forever to root.
I destroyed G1-C1, the remaining male clone, because I am not going to need another male plant since G0-C is doing great.
I have been watering these with .5tsp/gal 20-20-20 and they are doing fine. I am not sure what I'm going to do with these since they would get too big if allowed to veg until the ones in flower finish. I may destroy them once I am certain my next round of clones is well rooted and vegging.
Since they took so long to root, it's hard to believe these were taken when the plants in flower weren't even three weeks old. Both at 41 days since taking cuttings:
I previously mentioned the second round of clones taken from the two female plants on 11/17. I am using my new aero cloner for this. The cuttings were all about 5" total. The fan leaves on the 2-3" above the neoprene were trimmed back. Below, I left a couple inches of stem with one trimmed off node.
At only 8 days, clones G1-A4 and G1-B4 had enough roots and root buds to plant. Put both in 16oz cups of FFOF mixed with 1tbsp/gal lime. Watered thoroughly with tap. Within a day roots could already be seen in the holes at the bottom of the cups.
A3 was replanted on 11/29 at 12 days, and A2 on 11/30 at 13 days. Here's a pic taken today of all the clones that are rooted and in soil:
Unfortunately, I fucked up B2 and B3. They were just about ready for replant (probably today), but I needed to change the aero bucket water because everything was a bit slimy. I used tap last time which clearly promotes faster algae growth than distilled. I normally put a couple drops of bleach, but put a few drops more this time. Well that turned out to be a real bad idea at this stage of root growth. I should have just stuck with plain tap for the day or two they needed to be ready. This morning the roots were brownish and fell off soon after. The clones still looked just fine and there's a good amount of stem so I recut them above the dead tip to see what will happen. I still have two good B clones well rooted so no big deal either way.
Overall, the roots grew much more slowly on the larger cuttings. Some larger ones had root buds 5 days before there were enough roots to plant.
I really do love the aero cloner. After using it for a few weeks, I think I just need to use distilled and change once a week or use tap and change twice a week and I'll be fine. Either way, it's still less expense and maintenance than any other method I've tried. And it looks like with smaller cuttings it's by far the fastest method I've used (and larger cuttings root in the time smaller cuttings used to take me).
