20 gal of Gold

Hi, I'm high! Decided to do a grow journal. I currently have a gorilla glue bagseed in flowering, but I've been taking pictures the whole time, so I'll be starting with a lot of photos to fill in the gap! Better late then never

A little bit about myself. I've been growing on and off for a little over 10 years! Smoking for 17. I've definitely had years in between of not growing (bless my soul lol), but I've also had years where I've grown way more than I probably should have! (The law's opinion not mine). I'm located in California and have experience with indoor/outdoor, synthetics and a little bit of organics. I've grown in central and northern CA. I used to frequent these forums a lot before I ever even started growing and I learned alot from Uncle Ben, RM3, and several others. I learn through trial and error and love applying techniques during side by sides to see what is really effective and what is really hype! As you all know there is a lot of hype surrounding this plant! Ive also put a lot of known males or females that I planned to cull through intentional stress (overwatering, underwatering, over nute, deprivation, etc) to know what things look like in different situations as they happen. I may do things a little differently then most but one thing I stress is try something for yourself before you knock it! There is always room for improvement and just because someone uses a method effectively, it doesn't mean that it is the best or the only way to do it! I encourage everybody to keep experimenting (and to not discredit others work until they can prove otherwise) because that is the only way we learn! Get your basics down and try any and all new ideas with an open mindset lol

With that being said! I want positive vibes in here only. Debate is always welcome and brings about new information a majority of the time! But no bashing or useless arguments without data or I will enforce the delete button and clean up the thread!

Anyway, this is just a tiny somewhat unplanned grow for some headstash, but seeing as this is my first post I felt the need for a proper introduction! Growing has always been my favorite hobby and passion, and I'm becoming very passionate about it again. I had several years away because my operation was shut down and I lost some beautiful phenos to some jackboys which was absolutely heart breaking. My goals involve getting some land and breeding for fun. I'm always on here as of recently so I figure I may as well make some contributions!

Pull up a seat if you feel like it and let's get the show on the road!

So its really not that easy to go through the massive amounts of photos in my phone! I'm going to try and get you all up to date as quickly as possible.

All of the pics seem to be named by the date that they were taken, but I wont know if you all see that until I post this so fyi I started 3 seeds in the beginning of may! I started 3 gorilla glue bag seeds. Well, to clarify I gave a buddy some fire gg4 that i got my hands on and one lucky bud was filled with seeds! That buddy ended up growing out some of those seeds(he also gifted some to me that I had stashed and just rediscovered). They were all fire even though he is an inexperienced grower. I'm assuming they were fems from a hermie because all of the beans he popped were females. Well he gifted me some chronic from those plants and I found the occasional seed! Thats what I'm growing. I figured they'd be fems from the passed down hermie trait but one of the beans turned out to be a Male so I believe there was an unidentified male involved. I know I know bagseed is a gamble and whatnot but I grew out some bagseed one time that produced this bud i named "Pinedrop" that was one of my top ten favorites! So I believe it's part of the fun as long as the bud it came from was gas. Anyway lol. I started 2 seeds in a single 20 gal pot and 1 in a 1 gal. First time starting seeds in a pot larger than a 1 gal, and I must say I was impressed! First time putting more than one plant in a single pot and I must say I regret it! at least for an extended grow period. I actually have more research and experimenting as far as that goes because I do believe plants can potentially do better when they know they need to compete to survive!

The seedling in the 1 gal got chomped by something right off the bat and was also stunted because I started it in some miracle grow LOL! As I stated this was a somewhat unplanned grow and I used what was laying around because the last grow that I put money into 2 years ago got jacked, and I wanted to limit the disappointment in case the worst took place. Needless to say I began getting involved when the beauties started growing so I've been taking decent care of them now and have taken preventative measures to decrease the chance of the backyard getting breached again!

Here they are. 1 of the seedlings in the 20 gal pot actually started with trichomes which I found interesting and is now the good sized female that I have going! But we'll get to that

You should prob post a grow journal in the grow journal sub section.

Forgot to mention my soil in the 20 gal pot was mixed 2 years ago in the pot and undisturbed lol. I believe it was just a mix of mostly sunshine 4, a little potting soil from the hydro store, a little perlite, and lightly amended with azomite, dolomite lime, alfalfa meal, and de. I use alfalfa fermented tea and dyna gro protekt, grow, bloom, and Epsom salts. (Actually prefer foliage pro to grow for cannabis but using what's on hand) The latter 2 only in flowering obviously. Mostly alfalfa tea early on until deficiencies arise. Love me some triacontanol lol

Jjgrow420 said:

You should prob post a grow journal in the grow journal sub section.

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You're probably right, and I'm probably lost. That was my intention. If a mod could make the move it would be appreciated. Or if you could advise me on how to do that I will do so

Just @sunni she will help you out

1-2 weeks from the original photos. I have never seen a seed grow as fast or with as much internodal spacing with strong stems as the plant on the left in the 20 gal (RIP it was later on culled as a Male though I regret not harvesting pollen). The future female is on the right. The roots have clearly reached the bottom even at such an early stage. A plant that young for me is usually still in a 1 gal pot, so I believe with fem seedstock or clone I will never start in a small pot again.

Oh ya! I forgot to state my germination method. I've fooled around with various methods throughout the years and tbh most of them are garbage and lead to stunted plants! I've also noticed that a plant stunted from birth will never be as big as a plant that was never stunted! It will try to catch up but remain in the others shadows. The beginning of their life makes a big difference.

My method is similar to good ol mother natures, just with an advantage! You can directly sew seeds and recieve much better results then the all too common paper towel method! The taproot travels up to 4" before it even breaks soil naturally and I want the first thing for my root to touch to be the medium! We all know how sensitive those fine root hairs are and we all know how vulnerable a baby seedling is so why go through the trouble to disrupt the delicate root system?

To give the natural system a jumpstart simply soak seeds for 12 hours prior to imitate the rains that would normally be needed to set germination in motion. I usually wait for the first seed to pop and show its little white tail then I know the rest are about to pop. Sinking to the bottom also helps indicate that they are good and ready, but I like to add a splash of h202 so I know there's oxygen available in the water soak, and sometimes with h202 the seeds will float when they're still good. When seeds crack open in water they dont reach like in a paper towel and the disruption to the root zone is minimal if you are careful.

As far as which way the seed is facing, I've also experimented with that. All directions will still work as long as it is humid enough(even just setting on top with no soil covering it) but I find it's best to make the least work needed for them to get going fast so what I've settled with is putting a tiny depression in the medium(about 1/8 - 1/4") and place the seed in with the pointed side down(the side the root emerges from) and sprinkling a pinch of moist soil on top of that.

I have found it is best when filling a pot for germination to saturate the bottom inch or two, then fill with moist(but not wet) soil and saturate the edges of the pot in a circle, and the immediate area of the sewn seed but not much! This ensures there is adequate moisture for the seedling to start and encourages strong roots that must reach to find water as well as helping prevent damping off due to the majority of the pot being only moist

Pics from the beginning of June and 1 week later. Lighter in the photos for reference. Observe the internodal spacing! That second node is like a foot from the soil line with fat stems LOL really wish I took some pollen because even the skimpy one on the right ended up being a beast! That or I wish he was a she haha

Here they are 6-19. In all reality I should have waited a little longer to yank him cuz maybe he was a she and just trying to trick us! LOL but whatever I got impatient (and felt betrayed LOL) so I yanked him and threw the straggler in the 1 gal in to take its place. (Bad idea I know lol just didn't want to buy more soil at the time)

PhillupJane said:

Oh ya! I forgot to state my germination method. I've fooled around with various methods throughout the years and tbh most of them are garbage and lead to stunted plants! I've also noticed that a plant stunted from birth will never be as big as a plant that was never stunted! It will try to catch up but remain in the others shadows. The beginning of their life makes a big difference.

My method is similar to good ol mother natures, just with an advantage! You can directly sew seeds and recieve much better results then the all too common paper towel method! The taproot travels up to 4" before it even breaks soil naturally and I want the first thing for my root to touch to be the medium! We all know how sensitive those fine root hairs are and we all know how vulnerable a baby seedling is so why go through the trouble to disrupt the delicate root system?

To give the natural system a jumpstart simply soak seeds for 12 hours prior to imitate the rains that would normally be needed to set germination in motion. I usually wait for the first seed to pop and show its little white tail then I know the rest are about to pop. Sinking to the bottom also helps indicate that they are good and ready, but I like to add a splash of h202 so I know there's oxygen available in the water soak, and sometimes with h202 the seeds will float when they're still good. When seeds crack open in water they dont reach like in a paper towel and the disruption to the root zone is minimal if you are careful.

As far as which way the seed is facing, I've also experimented with that. All directions will still work as long as it is humid enough(even just setting on top with no soil covering it) but I find it's best to make the least work needed for them to get going fast so what I've settled with is putting a tiny depression in the medium(about 1/8 - 1/4") and place the seed in with the pointed side down(the side the root emerges from) and sprinkling a pinch of moist soil on top of that.

I have found it is best when filling a pot for germination to saturate the bottom inch or two, then fill with moist(but not wet) soil and saturate the edges of the pot in a circle, and the immediate area of the sewn seed but not much! This ensures there is adequate moisture for the seedling to start and encourages strong roots that must reach to find water as well as helping prevent damping off due to the majority of the pot being only moist

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I've been enjoying reading your journal let us know if you end up moving your thread to grow journals! Great reading here! Thanks for posting!

Some pictures from the beginning of July. They are really taking off but the little one is clearly about to get smothered. I'm a big guy, I stand over 6' and my hands are about 8-9 inches for reference. The bigger one is standing just over 4' from the soil line, over 5' from the deck. I topped her around 8 nodes I believe. I planned to keep bending the initial 2 plants to the side but the male came and I just said fuck it I'll top her and just let them go LOL.

Keep in mind my backyard is north facing and we have some tree coverage so surely that contributes to some of the stretch. Looking healthy though, mostly getting alfalfa feedings alternating with half strength dynagro. Topped pot off a couple times with soil to cover exposed roots, fill the gap caused by soil compaction, and sort of act like a wet mulch to slow drying out and give more space for the roots

Baccamsauce said:

I've been enjoying reading your journal let us know if you end up moving your thread to grow journals! Great reading here! Thanks for posting!

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Thank you I'm glad somebody is following along, welcome aboard! I need to figure out how to do that or perhaps contact one of the mods, but I'm working on it! LOL

I'll be posting about anything that pops in my head that may be useful or insightful from my experiences with any experiments or observations and I'm sure a lot of ppl may learn at least a thing or two as we go along! At least take away a few ways to go about some things and I always encourage everybody including myself to try something and compare! Excuse the stoned ramblings but there will be more! LOL

Jjgrow420 said:

Just @sunni she will help you out

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Thank you! Hey @sunni you think you could help me out here when you have the time? LOL or if there's a way for me to do so myself and you're willing to instruct I'd appreciate it. Thank you!

PhillupJane said:

Thank you I'm glad somebody is following along, welcome aboard! I need to figure out how to do that or perhaps contact one of the mods, but I'm working on it! LOL

I'll be posting about anything that pops in my head that may be useful or insightful from my experiences with any experiments or observations and I'm sure a lot of ppl may learn at least a thing or two as we go along! At least take away a few ways to go about some things and I always encourage everybody including myself to try something and compare! Excuse the stoned ramblings but there will be more! LOL

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Lol hells ya loving it my man I'm just taking it all in! Lol keep rambling it makes great reading lmfao

I threw some bamboo stakes in around the pot and set up a make due trellis netting on July 5th. Love hearing those roots rip LOL. I did this to open her up for air and light, promote branching, and add extra support. That makes 1 bamboo stake at her base and the 5-6 around the pot holding the trellis netting. In all honesty I should have upsized to a 50+ gallon and had the trellis set up farther from the base (especially since the plant isn't centered since I planned on 2 plants in one pot) but space is limited and I didnt want to drop cash on soil so we're making due LOL.

Later on she'll use the trellis for support and you can tie branches to the stakes with stretch wrap. You can also tie stretch wrap from the base to every stake or post to minimize the chance of uprooting or root damage from high winds or extreme conditions and just really secure that base preventing much lean. I learned this while doing a 99 plant grow in northern california back in the good ol medical days, only we'd use T posts around the large holes which allows very tight trellis and firm support.

After watching plants make it through a 55 mph thunderstorm I realized that there's no other way! LOL on a side note I probably shouldn't have been tying the remaining plants up in the middle of the night/thunderstorm in a field full of metal T posts! LOL that shit was crazy it looked like it was right around the block (figuratively speaking since we were on a mountain) and I couldn't count any time between the flashes and crackles! Might have been dangerous but it was truly one of the most amazing things I've ever experienced and the unsupported plants were getting uprooted so I had to! Let me tell you, I wish I still had the pictures. Strong established plants in veg that were 5' in all directions and extremely bushy from the wind in the area looked flat on their sides almost like a peacock closed her feathers LOL with roots clinging on for dear life! Almost had us some tumbleweed

The second pic is 1 week later

Baccamsauce said:

Lol hells ya loving it my man I'm just taking it all in! Lol keep rambling it makes great reading lmfao

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Thanks man will do! It seems I haven't unlocked my "like" powers yet LOL

Oh no she's dying! LOL here I have included some pictures of what she looks like after a heavy rain in veg, or any cannabis plant for that matter. If you spray enough water on the leaves and tops/branches in veg the tips lean over like that. Foliars can be nice but I believe this was done with plain water!

I do this for a few reasons.

1. It cleans the leaves and stomata, increasing transpiration and photosynthesis which are both generally directly related to growth rates!

2. The plant temporarily slows things down in preparation of a heavy rain, then after the spray/rain they go into overdrive to transpire/wick off all of the excess moisture and growth rates are increased!

3. It promotes branching. As you can see from the branch selfie, all the tips/tops are actually the last to fully wick, gain turgor, and stand erect. A time lapse would better showcase my point but those were the pics I found. So the lower growth shoots on each wilted branch start shooting up first and the wet/wilting tips hang down for an added temporary redistribution of apical dominance!

4. It's fucking NATURAL man LMAO But in all seriousness, other then ground water, when is the only time that this plant receives water in nature? The rain! A strong healthy plant in nature would have required water hitting its leaves, unless by a river or whatnot and even then rain wouldn't hurt!

Plus idk if you other stoners ever noticed but the leaves are designed to catch water! LOL The leaves have veins that branch off and the petioles have a line along the upper length of it that connects the leaves to the branches and all branches lead to the main stalk and to the roots! Pretty cool you can watch the journey of water drops from the leaves to the base LOL

Anyway there's those pics and some from about 5 days after. Also a good one of my finger

As far as IPM goes, I started pretty late in veg on this grow, but generally I'll start a little earlier in veg.

Basically all that I use throughout veg and up to the onset of flowers is cold pressed neem oil. Keeps all of the baddies in check! Every 7-10 days. Warmish(very cold makes it hard to mix) water with a squirt of plain ivory or a little extra dr bronners castile soap as a surfactant (you can also use aloe or yucca), 1/2 oz - 1oz per gal shaking vigorously until mixed thoroughly and coat the undersides and all, leaving the plant dripping. The occasional shake while spraying ensures everything stays mixed. The undersides of the leaves are where most of the bugs that we dont want like to populate, as I'm sure you've noticed, so I make sure they are thoroughly coated. Not a fan of spraying developed buds unless needed and I'll rinse plenty before harvest if so. I know some ppl dont like neem for this and that reason, but let me tell you I've pulled a huge harvest in an area known for reputable growers and we were the only farm that had zero PM or bud rot! I'm pretty sure my strict neem IPM had a lot to do with that.
During flower I spray with BT. Every 5-7 days especially in an area that I know is bad with budworms.

Together, those two things will leave your ladies relatively pest free! The occasional bug might show up here and there but far from an infestation.

Some ppl think "I dont want water on my buds" but its perfectly fine as long as they dry off completely, dont have sitting water in any pockets, and you don't use strong pressure that will break trichomes! Theres a waterproof membrane working in your favor and it rains all the time in nature!

Two things to consider when wetting buds!
1. Those surfactants that I mentioned above are your best friends when getting your buds to dry out fast enough! The water does not form droplets, rather it "flattens" out and drips right off leaving a thin layer of water that is much faster to evaporate. In fact, you can spray a plant that is still wet after a period of rain with surfactant water to make it dry out faster and prevent mold! Almost sounds counterintuitive right? LOL but truth be told it replaces the sitting stagnant water with fresh water that will dry out fast! It is not really the water on buds that creates a problem, it's the sitting stagnant water.
Also I would think that if using one of the soap products mentioned above that it would also kill any mold spores before they inoculate? The ? Is because I'm not 100% on that one at the moment, I need to do a little more research and testing in that area. But if you were worried you could add a little h202! I've heard it can effect Terps but I'm assuming that's with high concentrations because I've never noticed any degradation with the rates I've run it at, which like with everything else that touches my leaves/buds, errors on the lower side of the scale!

2. As I stated stagnant water is the enemy! Surfactants are your best friends but sometimes a little shake and some extra fans help if you dont have enough wind!

Anyway that's all I can think of at the moment LOL I'm gonna smoke up, crash out, and try to finish catching up tomorrow!

PhillupJane said:

Thank you! Hey @sunni you think you could help me out here when you have the time? LOL or if there's a way for me to do so myself and you're willing to instruct I'd appreciate it. Thank you!

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it appears someone placed it in grow journals already, is it int he correct place?