Exploratory pre-summer greenhouse tent grow (strains Humboldt Seed Company & ILGM)

As a matter of figuring out what to use our time and space on over the summer in an outdoor grow, we decided to do a winter grow in a 4x8 tent in an outdoor greenhouse to see what grew well/was finnicky, or had nice bud, etc.

The plants were all grown from seed. The strains were 2x HSC Magic Melon, 1xHSC Caramel cream, 1x HSC Hi-Biscus, 1x HSC Blueberry Muffin, and 3x ILGM Girl Scout Cookie Extreme.

1x HSC Magic Melon, 1xHSC Caramel cream and 3x ILGM Girl Scout Cookie Extreme were all started at the beginning of december. 1x HSC Magic Melon was started 2 weeks later, and 1x HSC Hi-Biscus, 1x HSC Blueberry Muffin were started on christmas eve.

Soil is a mix of Fox Farms ocean forest, compost, Gardner & Bloome 5-5-5 Paradise (It's made by kellogg, but the ingredients are composted poultry manure, feather meal, bone meal, sulfate of potash, and a surprisingly robust list of bacteria and mycorrhizal inoculants), and royal gold Tupur (a porous non-soil mix that says it is made with "coco fiber, aged forest materials, perlite, basalt"). We have a bucket set up outside the tent running through one of the vents that we use to irrigate the plants with a blumat drip system.

I'll update with more details as it goes.

The pictures, in order:

• 1-gallon pots at the beginning of January
• Transplanting into 5-gallon pots around 1 week later (this was a mistake, I should have gone straight into their final pots)
• The late-started seeds (1x Magic Melon, 1x BBM, 1x Hi-Biscus) in their final 5-gallon pots, about 2 weeks from the last photo
• The others in their final 10-gallon pots, at the same time.
• The Magic Melon that was started around 2 weeks into december, shown at the end of January before flipping
• Around two weeks after the plants have been flipped, early-mid feb. GSCE (and only the GSCE) have had some light burning issues.
• Around three weeks after the plants have been flipped, just recently. Fan and dehumidifier added, defoliation done. Turned off the small diodes on the two-setting light.
• For the next 4 pictures:
  • Ejected two of the GSCE from the tent during the night. Bends had to be made to get the Caramel Cream and the good GSCE a little further from the boards. Moved the two small plants into the 3x3 tray, running one less light. total power consumption for the tent is ~880W + small fan + small dehumidifier.

As a side note, the seedlings are coming along swimmingly. Same plants 4 days apart. Left row: Hi-Biscus #1, Magic Melon, Caramel Cream, Blueberry Muffin. Right Row: Hi-Biscus #2, GSCE #1, GSCE #2. In the picture on the right Hi-Biscus #1 is moved over but everything else is in the same position.

I don't know why we bothered planting the ILGM seeds aside from the fact that I still had a bunch of them. It has at least one pheno with a candy-ish smell and the ejected ones are happier themselves but they're really just remnants of the learning process at this point. Big variations in pheno and vigor as you see GSCE #2 has some gigantic fan leaves even at the single leaf level.

We have soft wire ties, those plastic "poke through loop" type labels, and a 15-foot polyester mesh screen with 6" square openings to help with training for the summer arriving this weekend. We have two cloning buckets in an aeroponic-type setup and a couple of pumps with 24 total holes, but I'm considering cloning in some kind of media instead like rockwool/rapid rooter/ez rooter/root riot cubes to make it possible to take more clones with the intention of throwing out the ones from plants that aren't winners.

Everything is moving along nicely; it's funny how little the plants seem to be progressing in real time, then comparing them to a photo they've grown quite a bit this week. Nothing seemed especially bothered by a little training last week, which is good because there's not much more headroom for them.

These are the lights I'm running, a pair of ecofarm boards. The whites are warm and cool LM301Bs, the UVs are LG, and I believe the reds & IRs are either epistar or OSRAM . At ~$190 apiece I cannot complain.

If anyone has advice or comments, feel free to weigh in; I could make a separate thread in the discussion section but it's easier to have it in one place;l I'll do a separate thread for the summer grow, so I'm not worried about the thread getting too clunky.

The seedlings got transplanted into 1-gallon pots this weekend; none of them seemed bothered which is nice. Looking at their development, most are showing some shoots, except for the caramel cream which is barely showing any and just wants to grow and make new nodes without shooting anything out at them. Both Hi-Biscus, the Blueberry muffin, and the GSCE are showing nice shoots, and in the Magic Melon's defense it's a week behind the rest.

In order: Hi-Biscus #1, Hi-Biscus #2, Caramel Cream , Blueberry Muffin, Magic Melon, GSCE #1, GSCE #2

Here's a neat little collage of the flowering plants 10 days apart; They're 32 days from the flip, 22 in the first picture.

I had to punt another GSCE out of the tent today because it decided to grow some nuts. The GSCE have a pretty beleaguered showing this grow; I knew ILGM sucked but I was running their stuff because had leftover seeds.

I've had to kick 3/4 of them out of the tent at this point and between the sensitivity and herming I'm ready to just call ILGM an exotic birdseed company. Running them alongside the HSC seeds really drives home the difference in consistency and quality.

On a lighter note, some bud shots from a few days ago:
A few Caramel Cream buds:



And a Hi-Biscus bud close-up:

Y'all, they turned purple, I'm so irrationally happy

Blueberry Muffin:



Hi-Biscus:

The Caramel Cream is getting its color change as well!

The Hi-Biscus smells absolutely lovely, I'm so excited. I could harvest it soon, but I'll let it run until probably next weekend? It really is a very sweet, fruity/floral, tropical smell.

The Caramel Cream is bulking up; I'm going to let it run at least another two weeks, I'm in no rush, but it's sweet & kinda gassy


And the Blueberry Muffin continues to do blueberry muffin things. It's shorter than the other plants around it and getting a little less light as a result, so I think I'm going to let it run until it seems like it won't darken or bulk any more.

GlassJoe said:

These are the lights I'm running, a pair of ecofarm boards. The whites are warm and cool LM301Bs, the UVs are LG, and I believe the reds & IRs are either epistar or OSRAM . At ~$190 apiece I cannot complain.

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So how do you like those Ecofarms?

Hugo Phurst said:

So how do you like those Ecofarms?

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So, I would say that in general I feel good about their value per cost, the inclusion of IR/UV diodes, and I feel good about their results overall.

I will say that I can understand the appeal of having separate boards for cool and warm white diodes. Having cool whites on the board during the stretch phase encourages stretching, for one. Also, I do understand that you're going to get better veg out of your plants from cooler light and better response during flowering from warmer light, but for someone who is not going to use different boards for veg and flower I think they're absolutely fine boards, and have good features for their price point.

I've harvested at this point and had some to smoke, I'm very satisfied with the bud from this run; the yields could have been higher but I knew that I was flipping some of them relatively small and the point of the grow was to get a first impression for the genetics and equipment and I feel good about that. I'll make a longer post this weekend.

Thanks.

@GlassJoe how did the magic melon turn out? Any pics of final product? I plan on popping them next.

drDavidHasselCough said:

@GlassJoe how did the magic melon turn out? Any pics of final product? I plan on popping them next.

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I only have pics of the magic melon from chop day; I believe this is the small one in the 5-gallon pot. Light green nugs, about the size of an egg and quite dense. Terps were fruity and pleasant but I did not get specific super strong melon smell. The family loved the smoke, it was a goofy upbeat creative sativa high. I'll definitely be running them again next summer, especially since the fam likes it so much.

GlassJoe said:

I only have pics of the magic melon from chop day; I believe this is the small one in the 5-gallon pot. Light green nugs, about the size of an egg and quite dense. Terps were fruity and pleasant but I did not get specific super strong melon smell. The family loved the smoke, it was a goofy upbeat creative sativa high. I'll definitely be running them again next summer, especially since the fam likes it so much.

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Nice! Looks great thanks for sharing !