bluewizard's rounds 2 and 3

Hello rollitup.org, and welcome to the journal for my second and third grows. As of last night all the seeds for round two and some of the seeds for round three were put into germination.

Round Two will consist of ten Diesel Ryder (NYC Diesel x Lowryder) seeds from Joint Doctor. I will be growing all ten seeds and keeping my strongest male to pollinate select buds of my strongest female. Two females will be going in an approximately 20 gallon bubbler system I'm working on just before they start flowering. The rest will all go in soil. These seeds are automatic flowering so I can use any light cycle I want. I will be choosing 20/4 which I read was optimal for them but will also allow me to be vegetating

Round Three, which is at the moment only 3 seeds in germination. These seeds are B-52 Bomber (White Widow x Lionheart) from Almighty Seeds. I also have at my disposal 3 more B-52 Bombers, 9 Hindu Kush, 10 Super Skunk and 10 mystery genetics known only as 'SEA LEVEL'. Once the males from round two have been relocated I will start more seeds from round three. Still haven't decided on which ones, but I'm very curious as to what Sea Level holds.

As for growing style, I use a 600W HPS full spectrum lamp with a DIY cooltube. When I'm finished building I will have roughly 12 square feet of useable canopy in my walk-in closet (pics when complete). I will employ one squirrel fan sucking air through a carbon filter past the lamp and out into my bedroom (near top of room) and one in-line blower fan pumping a higher volume of fresh air from lower in the room into the closet. My aim is to maintain super positive air pressure to help with temps and humidity but to have it adjustable as need be.

All plants will be fed with the same nutrients regardless of medium. I have the B'cuzz bio bizz line with their bloom stimulator. I also have the Humboldt County's Own line of organic supplements that did wonders for me on my first grow that I will continue to use. I am using ProMix potting soil right now but am running low and I might just go with organing MG afterwards.

As I write this, one of the D-Ryder's has cracked and is in my makeshit starter plug (egg carton cup with promix) and another three have started to crack. None of the B-52s have cracked, but it's only been a little over 24 hours yet so I am still optimistic. The one D-Ryder that had cracked was showing root and even some green less than 12 hours after contact with water while the other ones took over 20 hours. This is one plant to keep my eye on.

That's enough for now, I need some rest but tomorrow I will post some pics of my seeds germing (for the die-hards) and possibly of my finished closet. Hopefully even one of some cotyledons...

Update:

Nine Diesel Ryder eggs have hatched and have been buried in my ghetto fabulous starter cups, as well as one B-52 Bomber. The last D-Ryder has started to crack and will probably get planted tonight after work. I'm going to give the remaining two Bombers another 24 hours before I decide wether or not to germ my last three. It has been about 45 hours since the process began.

I decided to chart this grow pretty meticulously, so every seed gets its own serial number once it goes in the ground. The diesels are my second flowering attempt so they get the 200 series, while all the other seeds I germ to flower after the diesels finish get the 300 set. 201 was given to the seed that cracked and sprouted in under 12 hours, and so forth following the order in which they sprout. When two or more had sprouted since my last checkup I gave the lower number to the larger of the sprouts.

Anway, I looked closely at 201 recently and I think it should break surface VERY soon. The cotyledon leaves are forming and it's started to uncurl quite nicely. I will not disrupt this one or any other ones from now on unless they don't grow for quite some time.

I decided against posting pics for a while because it's so tedious unless there's anything big to report. It won't be long before there is big news as the Diesel Ryders are a vast growing plant, so hold tight.

Update:

When I woke up for work today the last Bomber had cracked. That's a 100% germ rate over 13 beans, compared to 7 out of 22 bagseeds I achieved a year ago. One of the Diesel Ryders, 201, has broken soil. 201 is a good bit ahead of the other ones and will probably go under a blue light tonight.

I'll just take some time now to outline the problems I had last grow and what I've done to fix them.

1) Genetics - last grow was all hermie bagseed, this time bought from Attitude and local seedbanks. I know you can have great success with bagseed, but good stable genes do stack the odds in your favour.

2) Lights - last time used standard HPS from seed to flower (which probably didn't help with the herm situation), now i have some blue cfls and one soft daylight cfl all for seedling/clone stages and an advanced spectrum HPS for veg and flower.

3) Temp/Humidity/Air pressure - this probably contributed to the herm problem too because i was always running in the high 80s before. I only had one fan sucking air out and a passive duct to allow fresh air in. Now I have an exit fan connected to a cooltube for the light, AND a fan blowing fresh air in at a higher cfm than the exit fan. I think this means i should see a good 10-15 degree drop in temps and a good jump in humidity. I've got a speed dial for one of the fans, so i can tune this to suit my needs.

4) Watering - i was always either over watering or neglecting them, by the time i got it down, i could see they weren't going to yield well so i kind of gave up. Now i'm more aware and have decided to measure soil moistness before watering too. I'm also going to do some hydro so even if i still fuck up watering my soil ones, i'll get something

5) Feeding - I only really over fed a few of them once, but i was always underfeeding slightly. this screwed me when i misread the directions on my supplements and cut regular nutrient TO 33% instead of BY 33%. Now i've revised my feeding regimen and will take proper care. the only thing that worries me a little is the hydro, but i'm a quick learner and i understand it's not how much you feed, its how long you run the feeding.

6) Stress - i wanted to experiment with lst but i got a little carried away and didn't know my own strength so i seriously damaged some plants. This time i'm just growing single cola so all i'm going to do is strengthen the main stalk. I might tie down the plants in hydro because they'll probably grom much bigger but only if i have to.

7) Patience - didn't let plants recover from stress long enough before flowering, harvested after seven weeks 12/12. i'm expecting my first harvest in nine weeks so i can afford to give all my 300 series plants a proper veg. I will have enough time to take clones, root them and veg them a bit before starting 300's flowering. when i have the resources i am going to build a dresser chamber for a few mothers so i can run perpetual. then i'm laughing.

Sounds like you are hitting this one very professionally. I think you've inspired me to make a grow diary for my next round. Look for it in about a month no?

Peace

hey, thanks. i'll certainly check out your trees too.

i just woke up but i'm going to post pictures soon. today is day six from seed and all thirteen have sprouted, though some just overnight. i've got two new seeds i planted; one hindu kush and one heirloom skunk hybrid that we're just calling super skunk even though it probably isn't the real ss. they are in peat pellets i bought but haven't cracked yet. 201 is probably my weakest diesel ryder, it's roots were fucked, and then it only sprouted one cotyledon. it's much smaller than the other d-ryders. anyway i'll post pics in a bit.

bluewizard said:

hey, thanks. i'll certainly check out your trees too.

i just woke up but i'm going to post pictures soon. today is day six from seed and all thirteen have sprouted, though some just overnight. i've got two new seeds i planted; one hindu kush and one heirloom skunk hybrid that we're just calling super skunk even though it probably isn't the real ss. they are in peat pellets i bought but haven't cracked yet. 201 is probably my weakest diesel ryder, it's roots were fucked, and then it only sprouted one cotyledon. it's much smaller than the other d-ryders. anyway i'll post pics in a bit.

Click to expand...

I look forward to it

UPDATE:

pics have arrived. after taking them i rearranged the seedlings to the newer ones are right beneath the light. still no sight of the two seeds i've germed over the past two days but all the day 6 ones are doing well. 201 is doing a bit better, getting bigger but i am a little worried for it.

the diesel ryders are the two rows of five 201-205 then 206-210. the b-52 bombers are in front 301-303. all left to right.

without further ado...

update:

wow, even in just twelve hours the difference is impressive. at least half the diesel ryders are clearly working on their second set of true leaves and 201 is doing well enough for me to assume it's rooted properly and now just has to play catch-up. b-52 bombers are standing up straighter and have opened up. still no sight of the hindu kush or heirloom skunk sprouts, but it's only been two days (the seeds wen't directly in the plugs, so i don't even know if they've cracked).

while prepping a joint earlier a found a seed in a bud of c99 i just picked up. that was instantly put in a moist paper towel just to humor myself. i have no expectations. if i keep this up i'm going to have way too many plants in my room at once. i've got 16 on the go as is, with space for maybe 12 in flower.

update:

i'd be repeating myself if i reported anything on the seedlings, but i spent today finishing my grow-room. it's looking good, very diy or as i like to say ghetto fabulous but complete nonetheless. i will probably need to buy a more powerful exit fan when spring arrives because i'm relying too heavily on outside temps to cool the room right now.

we'll see how it runs with my balcony door wide open, if i'm good or too good i'll close it slightly until it's right. i've already got a speed-adjuster on the fan, but it's so strong...

i will try switching the fans also, put the weaker one on intake and the stronger one on exit (there's alot of ducting for the exit fan, so i wonder if the static pressure would balance out the two fans and i'd still have positive air pressure in the room)...

either way, my brand new 600w is pretty bright and the temps haven't surpassed the 'acceptable' range for the time being, it's pretty ideal right now.

i'm letting the seedlings go for another week in the tub before i decide to start vegging any of them under the hps. this will give me some time to experiment and tweak the ventilation. by then i should have two more seedlings on the go, possibly three if the c99 seed i found actually cracks. i will consider any females i get from the 300 series for mothers, and if i get both a male and female of b-52 bomber i will make seeds because i've heard this strain yields a large supply of primo smoke. males of any other 300 strain will be discarded because i still have plenty of those seeds. diesel ryder males will be remove, one carefully selected for breeding with my largest femal d.r.

i will not be sexing any plants until done with the diesel ryders, but if they show before then i will deal with them and consider it time saved. the 200s should be showing sex in roughly two weeks.

i don't know what else to say but that i've been in a really good mood lately and it's 100% because this is underway. a well deserved thank you to this site and it's users.

update:

day 9 from seed, second set of real leaves coming in nicely. plants not really strechting anymore, just building vegeteative growth. 201 is still fucked, it's going to take a while to get this one back, but it's coming along. the second set of leaves has apeared but the first set is still screwed with one leaf much smaller than the other. i've noticed that the first seed to crack and go in soil never does as well as the slower ones (i remember this from my last grow, and the evidence here; 201 and 301 are the smallest, runtiest in their class). 210 is better than 201 and there were almost three days in between them.

the reason i'm posting though is because i'm pissed off. all the work i did over the past two days is in vain. i switched intake and exit fans last night and ran the room with all fans and the light with my balcony door closed. after six or seven hours the temps were bove 91 even with a cooltube. i will have to redo the section where it connects to the socket and tube because i can feel a shitload of air leaks. i really hope this works as i need construction finished. i will post results tomorrow or friday.

sunday is when i plan on transplanting into party cups which will make it day 14 from seed. pics will come then.

..ive got half a mind to hang the bulb vertically with no cooltube because i heard very little heat builds up. the downside is that it throws light around in an undesireable fashion. ideas?

update:

the 304 Hindu Kush has sprouted, seedling has opened up and is looking good so far. 305 Super Skunk has started to sprout too, they were germed a day apart so this is looking good. both were just planted out of the bag into peat pellets without cracking first and both have made it so far so i might just skip the germination step in the future.

201 is still catching up, but the second set is deffinitely there. the one leaf on the first set is still fucked, i blame the sprout only having one cotyledon. the rest of the 200s are doing really well, we're almost three hours into day eleven and they're working on their third set. some of them have really strong root systems, others not so much, but i still have them all in the ghetto starter plugs i made. i will transplant for their first time on sunday.

i fiddled with the fans and exhaust some more and got temps down around 82-84. i will operate in this range when flowering the 200s but if need be i still have some options to lower it even further for round three. when i have more money i will probably buy several more fans.

i am 99% finished building my bubbler dwc system, all i NEED is to patch up one leak with some caulking but i will buy a chiller too because my high temps worry me about res. temps. that said, i'm anxious to start flowering some chronic.

UPDATE:

all fifteen seedlings were transplanted into party cups today. i took a picture of them (roughly 2 weeks since initial contact with water) before transplanting and i'll take some tomorrow to compare.

my room is 95% complete, all i have to do is put up the finishing touches of panda-poly and seal some small air leaks around the door. temps are in the LOW 80s with the light on, will probably drop to low/mid 70s with the light off. the 600W enhanced spectrum bulb is beautiful.

about half the seedlings are working on their third set of true leaves, the other half not far behind. super skunk (305) has an incredibly advanced root system for it's age which will only be made better by transplanting. as it is, i've got the 300 series still under a single 26w cool white (6500k) cfl but i've put the 200s under the 600W HPS. we will see what this does for them over the next few days. the light is just over a foot away right now.

when i transplanted, roots had started to grow out of the bottom of my egg carton plugs. i left the bottoms on when i planted so as not to damage the roots. it's just cardboard anyway, i'm not concerned. if anything, it anchors the plant in better and helps for even root distribution.

seven more weeks before i chop down the 200s, if everything goes well. i can't wait to see the growth spurt they'll have over the next two or three weeks.

UPDATE:

new vegetative growth noticed on the 200s, i guess this means they've started to take to the bigger cups. they are now on 20/4 light cycle. i have finished tweaking the room and i've got temps in the mid 70s with the light on.

i am very proud of myself but could not have done it without an experienced buddy of mine. he told me to cut a hole in my door three time as large as my exhust hole, for passive air intake. this allowed me to use my smaller fan to cool the bulb using fresh air from outside the room, and exhausting directly out the room. the main exhaust fan is running on full blast sucking air from the room through a carbon filter and out. both exhaust holes are at the top of the door and the intake holes are at the bottom. i can't have my curtain closed all the way and there's a 14 inch hole in my door so a good deal of light escapes right now. i will have to strategically hang more poly to combat this as best i can. i can have the curtain closed fully when the light is off and still see a minor drop in temps, so light leaks IN are less of a concern.

the 300s are still under the blue cfl but are starting to grow again themselves. i'm not in a hurry for them, the longer they stay out of the room the better for the 200s. i think a lot of the 300s will be males anyway, call it a strange feeling. one of the bombers' cups fell and spilt it everywhere, but i scooped it up as soon as i noticed (5 hours later). i hope this isn't too harmful for it.

pics coming in two days max.

Starting to look like some happy little sprouts!

yeah.. they're still a little saggy from the last time i watered them, but the cups are drying up pretty quickly so the roots should start searching faster. once i have to water the cups, they should look a lot different.

201 still looks like shit though.. not a lot of recent growth. i'm thinking of mixing some cloning gel in with it's water to stimulate new roots

UPDATE:

so far i've LOST 201 and one more from the 200s. another one is on it's way out too. i'm so bummed. it is not the seeds, it's my room. everything is perfect except one thing: humidity. it's averaging 25%. ive tried every simple solution i can think of but to no avail. two reasons: i live in an appartment building so lower air pressure, and my fan is way too powerful. i need the fan to keep temps down though. i'm hating myself right now... i've done my best to ensure nothing bad happens to the rest of them.. i'd take pictures but i'm not in the mood to share these results.

on the other hand, the 300 series are all vegging away in the bin still, seeing some new growth on all of them. i'm proud of my hindu kush because it looks like all the pics of real hk i've seen here. the super skunk's first set of fan leaves are HUGE. two of the bombers are more stretchy than the third, who looks very healthy right now. too bad they're still so small. i'm not a fan of this waiting game...

other than the upcoming funerals i have, i think everything should go smoothly. it's my fault for letting the plants dry up like that, and i had the circulation fan blowing directly on them on full (stupidest thing to do in hindsight). i've since moved the fan further back and turned it down, and watered all the survivors. i will look into more complex ways to raise humidity, but with that in-line fan going, i don't expect much.

UPDATE:

two of the diesel ryders have started flowering! they're about an inch taller than the other plants now. still too early for me to tell gender, but i'm thinking they're males. the hindu kush and super skunk that i put under the 600W are by far my healthiest plants; they were the ones started in peat plugs instead of the makeshift ones i made. they were fed a lighter nute solution along with the remaining 200s and have exploded since. i gave them all a foliar feeding with purplemaxx just now and i'll check for results after work.

i'm going to get some more pics up soon, but the batteries for my camera are fucked and not holding a charge whatsoever...

the b52 bombers are still under the cfl, i won't be moving them into the room until i've removed my diesel ryder males. they're about the same size as my smallest diesel ryder, and have not been fed nutes yet. they will be asking for them soon.

i am going to FIM the kush and skunk plants very soon and try to keep the tops alive as clones so i can find their gender sooner. probably a week after that i will do the same with the b52s. the diesels will not be topped, i want to see how they grow naturally first. they are supposed to yield up to an ounce per plant and i want it to be as concentrated as possible. also, the reason i'm fimming the other ones is so i can take clones off the females to flower. i think i can fit more than twelve plants in my space (3gal buckets) but i might go for fewer and grow some in larger pots. either way, if i have 2 or three mothers i'll be able to take larger clones and save some time. i cannot keep mothers right now, so the entire plant will be used for clones.

UPDATE:

I was right about the Diesel Ryders being male, but having said that the other five have started to flower and they're all female! 50% living females was all I could hope for from the seeds and I got it. I killed the two males, I didn't want to bother with the seeds because I won't be growing here from much longer.

All the other ones are under the light too, ALL plants have been transplanted into 3 gal pots. Hindu kush and super skunk are looking very nice but with some yellowing on the bottom leaves. I fed higher doses to them to combat this. The bombers are okay, stunted growth for some reason but they're catching up. They're on the nutes now too.

When I transplanted, I layed down clay pebbles first (just over an inch) then my potting soil (mostly promix but some random one too 'cause I needed more) then a top layer of clay pebbles again. I hope they will help with water distribution, aeration and drainage.

When I feed, i give the vegging plants veg nutes and a touch of purple maxx and i give the flowering plants veg nutes, light bloom nutes, bloom stimulator and foliar with purplemaxx. Judging by how well the flowers are coming in, i will be able to foliar for about another week or week and a half then it's on to a different program. The DRs won't be getting any bushmaster because they're short naturally but towards they end they will get gravity to compliment the purplemaxx.

All in all, i saw female flowers at less than five weeks from seed with the DRs. I am impressed. They have started to smell like chronic, not just leaves, i can't wait to smoke them bitches.

im currently doin a diesel ryder sog myself. 75 to b exact, under 2000 watts. im waitin for them to sex. im hopin for 25 fems at least. ill replace the males with newly germed auto kush an more dr.

damn.. you'll have to show me some pics of that setup. some of mine to come once i get new batteries