Chernobyl and Wild West in a StinkBud System under 600W HPS

It's been a long time. I've gotta get back at it. Two new strains, one new journal.

I'm starting with 4 seeds of each Chernobyl and Wild West. Germinating using damp paper towel on a plate sitting on the water heater. As soon as they pop I will start very frequent updates.

I am going to be in a room roughly 4'x8' running a Lumatek 600W switchable HPS. Everything will be in soil until sexing and cloning can begin. All future clones will be run in a mini version of the Stink Bud Aeroponic system. For anyone unfamiliar with StinkBud's work you should definitely look into it. It is by far the way to go for so many reasons.

I've included some packaging pictures and the germination setup. Very simple paper towel and a plate method. Has had the best results for me in the past.

Enjoy. This should be a great adventure. Chernobyl is supposed to be an amazing strain. I can't wait to see what Subcool has come up with for this strain.

All comments, questions, suggestions and criticisms are very welcome.

The first two seeds decided to show their tap roots today and have been placed into their first home. I'm starting with a standard soilless mix. 60% Peat moss, 20% Pearlite and 20% Vermiculite in small plastic drinking cups. Once I see a tiny bit of root establishing itself at the bottom I will move them to a more permanent pot.

I'm gonna include some extremely boring pictures of the labeled cups. 3 or 4 more o the 8 seeds have popped open and should be ready to go later tonight or early tomorrow. I'll remember to take some pictures of the taproots when that time comes.

Next post I'll show you the setup I will be working in.

Cheers

All of the seeds are now above ground and ready to start some serious growth. Yesterday the first one made an appearance and the rest have since followed suit. All but one seedling has dropped the seed casing and I am already seeing the first sets of true leaves. It's an exciting time. Now the nursing can officially begin. I will be running a very very low nutrient concentration for the first couple weeks of growth. Currently sitting at 300ppm and will gradually increase to 500ppm over the next month or so. Once they start to really get bigger I will see how much food they can handle.


More detailed posts to come. Feeling lazy.
Here are pictures from the last couple days. Lots of early life. Everything is looking good and healthy. Should be some good genetics.

Here is a quick little video giving you a full view of my current setup. In the end you will see a wild mess of veggie plants. Those will slowly be coming out to make room for the, potential, girls. You get a glimpse of all the growth. A look at the slow one. Also a view of their daily boxing regime. I try to lightly beat them around several times a day so as to simulate having light air circulation. I will get on a fan shortly. I have also been repeatedly turning the cups so that they bend towards the light then get turned and have to rebend in a new direction to find the light again. I am hoping this will promote a stronger stem.

[video=youtube;YcG0yDzFKe4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcG0yDzFKe4[/video]

Veg Day 4

Here is another small update. Roughly 5 of the seedings are getting ready to start their second set of true leaves. Truly an exciting day. Maybe someday soon I won't just be talking to myself. Regardless the trees will continue to grow and updates will continue to flow. You can see in the included snapshots that everything is very green and very healthy looking. I haven't had to water yet since the initial soaking of the cups. I think this is partly because I have been filling the tray they are sitting on with a thin layer of water daily to promote some humidity. I guess they are probably absorbing a good bit of that water through the drainage holes. Win win I guess.

Impressive growth over the last couple days from almost all of the sprouts. I am thinking of canning one of them because of weak growth, but I doubt I will. Set of leaves number 2 is fully out and I think in some cases the third internode is even getting ready to show itself. Somewhere inbetween the third and fourth internodes I will be topping the plants. After topping I will begin bending the two new shoots in opposite directions to encourage some bushing action and keep them short. These girls are going to be in the vegetative state for a LONG time so they gotta stay short. I don't have much space to do cloning inside the little cupboard so it will take place outside the box under the HPS when they are big enough for it. Since this is my flowering space I wont be switching to flower for a couple months still. Once cloning season has passed and I no longer need to make cuts for outdoor friends I will then begin a small small rotational harvest. I am thinking I will be using the Deep Water Cooler method that so many people have had success with on this forum. I love the idea of the cooler keeping the water temps nice and low. I also think I will prefer DWC over the Aeroponics I used to use because I am forgetful when it comes to filling the res. There were numerous times when my Aero res got too low and the pump couldn't push water through the mister. Oh the plants I have lost or almost lost because of foolishness like this. Hopefully I can avoid this with DWC. The roots can chase the water down as the level gets lower if I forget to top it up as I should be.

One more month or so to go until cloning can begin . I will be repotting everything tomorrow. They are already getting pot bound in the little plastic cups. I will be using some of the promix that I originally started with as well as some organic nutrient rich soil. I haven't bought it yet so I can't say what brand. I will be giving them a tiny bit of water with a SUPER light nutrient feed today to get them ready for the transition into the organic soil. I will be using about 1/2 and 1/2 current soil vs organic nute soil and will be putting a 2 inch or so buffer of just the current soil in the hole before transplanting.

Hopefully that wasn't too much rambling. Here are some snapshot as well as a short video of the new growth and some of my setup.

[video=youtube;kYNCNepPa90]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYNCNepPa90[/video]

Veg Day 10
Some nice HD photos of the recent growth.

The new pots are made from water jugs that I used to buy. I got into the habit of hacking the top off and storing them to be used as pots. They are clear and many people will argue that they are bad for root growth and such. I don't feel that this is an issue because they are only in there until I can see root growth and then I know they are ready for the final home.

I purchased some Faford Biosoil Sea Compost. It's an organic soil amended with seaweed. It was reasonably priced at my local garden center and was my only organic option other than miracle grow. I just don't feel good about miracle grow. I included a picture of all the important information from the packaging. The pots were mixed with about 70% of the current bland soilless mix and 30% of the rich organic soil. This will be the adjustment phase. The next pot will have a ratio that heavily favors the organic soil. I will have to add a substantial amount of pearlite to the next pots. The Sea Compost doesn't appear to have the greatest drainage.

Hey Flo glad to see you made it. It's still a little too early to say how the sea compost is doing. They are definitely liking the new pots though. Getting a chance to stretch their legs a bit. Yeah that pH down will last forever. I need the tiniest little scoop to bring my water down to where I need it and that's only on the no nutrient waterings. When I add nutes to the water it brings the pH down to 6.8 which I am plenty fine with. 6.5 is my ideal but I'm not worried about a 0.3 difference. Below 7 is all I really care about. I'm gonna do a soil DWC side by side once everyone is big and strong just for comparisons sake. I usually prefer the taste of soil crops but with the Botanicare pretty much everything tastes yummy.

I decided to put them outside the little cabinet with the rest of the veggies under the HPS at 20/4. They are sitting a little far right now, about 35" or so. I'll move them closer in a couple days after they get adjusted to the new light. Took a couple snapshots. The Chernobyl are looking great. The Wild West are doing okay but nowhere near as vigorous. In the pics the Chernobyl are the far ones, big and healthy and the Wild West are the front a little wimpy looking except for the one which is nice and healthy. The leaves are extremely broad. I was under the impression that Chernobyl was a Sativa dominant strain but maybe not.

Veg Day 14

I topped all of the healthy ones yesterday. I've got a couple snap shots of them yesterday after getting topped and later today.

Veg Day 20

It's been a great week for growth. I have to repot again already! This will be the final transfer to the massive long term pots where they will become big healthy 'ladies'

I'll probably do the transplant in the next day or two. For now just enjoy these pictures.

Thanks for the kind words flo. I am really happy with how they are doing. It is really interesting to watch yours just that little bit ahead. I won't be flowering any time soon though. I have a ton of cloning to do this year before I can leave veg.

Veg Day 24

I ran out of soil while transplanting. I have 3 more to switch to the bigger pots. Here are some pictures of the clan as they sit right now. Also two shots of one of the top performers. They are probably an average height of about 15" and on average they are at their 6th node of growth. Should see some preflowers within the next week or two .

I'll turn the HPS off and take a quick video tomorrow.

Veg Day 26

My suspicions were correct. There was one plant that was growing noticeably taller and spindlier than the others. I was under the impression that it was likely a male. In my past experiences the males have always been taller and showed sex much sooner than the females. This one showed me it's first pollen sacs today. Definitely a boy. Every other plant is short, bushy, and shows no signs of pollen sacs. They were all started at the same time and should theoretically show sex around the same time....

I finished potting the rest of them today. Not going to bother to transplant the male. It can stay in the small pot long enough that it will give me some pollen to play with. I took some pictures of the whole canopy and a side shot or two to try and give an idea of how tall they/bushy they are now. They have all really liked the topping and are taking well to their daily bending. I am far too lazy for an LST right now and SCROG is not going to be practical so I am just doing some light training. I find that if you just push the plants from the center out a couple times a day it will help them bush out. Once they get a little bigger I am going to start tucking the upper growth underneath some of the middle growth. This is a great way to encourage extra lower growth. Kinda like braiding hair.

Oh and for the hell of it I included some pictures of my hot pepper plants. The red ones are SUPER hot and the yellow ones just pretty hot.

Flo I got a question for you. How long should I wait on that pollen sac before I snip that part off and lean it in a glass of water to catch the pollen like you recommended a little while back? It's right at the top of that male that you can see.

I will be vegging for quite awhile so I'll have to watch him.

I found another male this morning. I also found two FEMALES!!
one Chernobyl and one wild west.

Veg Day 30

I took a couple quick pictures today. Not much to report really. Seeing some excellent growth and some nice bushing. I believe I have spotted a third female. I've got a picture of my two confirmed males sitting off to the side. Definitely going to be collecting some pollen from that bushy Chernobyl one. I also snapped a picture of one of the biggest and bushiest of the three females. There will be lots of nice branches to snip off for clones on this girl.

I was really bored last night and in a super productive mood after getting fucking annihilated by the Afghani Kush I just grabbed. (image included, it's BEAUTIFUL) I decided that I would use this mood and my confirmed females to start creating some clones. My method of cloning is probably as simplified as it can possibly get. I have done several hundred clones using this method and have had at most maybe 5-10 that were unsuccessful.

Take 1 cup of water, tap water, reverse osmosis, natural spring water, what ever you have available it doesn't seem to matter. To that water I add NOTHING, that's right nothing I use plain water. Snip a nice big healthy branch at a sharp 45 degree angle. You can sterilize your tools if you want to. I just rub the blade clean with my fingers. Place the cut IMMEDIATELY into water. After sitting for 5-10 seconds I very lightly scrape the tip to expose a little more inner stem. Lastly place your fresh cut in a cup containing enough water to cover all exposed areas. Set this cup out've direct light and change the water every other day or so.

I find people over complicate cloning so much. It is really fucking simple and I can never stress that enough. K.I.S.S. is how I try to go about everything. In 1-2 weeks I start to get root bumps and then they can be put into the desired medium. No misting, no domes, no special treatment what so ever and I get great results.

This Afghani Kush is some of the nicest grass I have had in a long time. Mad props to whoever grew this.