Hot Diggity's Lab

Chapter 12 - Breeding Results Pre-Review
Introduction

I went back and forth for weeks trying to decide how to test these new crosses, and which ones to focus on. I finally decide to just test almost all of them. It's very risky because I have a max plant count of 24 which means most of these crosses will only be represented by 1 plant. I felt like I needed at least 2 plants per cross to form an initial opinion but I also did not want to omit half of the candidates. So...we're just going to roll the dice and see what we're working with.

Because the seeds were so fresh, I had a little difficulty with germination so the seedlings I have are not exactly the same age. The youngest is only about 1 week behind the oldest so it's not too bad.

I have some cryptic names of these crosses so here is a quick guide:
* Chem 7 - This was the 7th plant selected and kept from a Chem '91 seed run.
* Chem 9 - This was the 9th plant selected and kept from a Chem '91 seed run. This plant was later turned male and used to create the next cross.

Chem 9 (turned male) pollinated Chem 7, Chem 9 as well as 5 Mass Super Skunk derivatives. Each of the Mass Super Skunk x Chem 9 crosses were numbered like so:
* 2-1 meant Mass Super Skunk plant #2 x Chem 9, sample #1.
Hope that makes sense...it's confusing even for me...lol

When I did the big sift late last year, I chose 3 keepers from the Mass Super Skunk x Chem 9 cross:
* 2-1
* 2-5
* 2-16

2-16 was then chosen to be the pollen donor to continue breeding with. I turned 2-16 male and made the following crosses during Chapter 11:

1) 2-1 x 2-16
2) 2-5 x 2-16
3) 2-16 x 2-16
4) Ace Seeds Malawi x 2-16
5) C99 x 2-16
6) Bodhi Mango Lotus x 2-16
7) Bodhi Chem Kesey x 2-16
8. Bodhi App Super Skunk x 2-16
9) Bodhi Diablo Hashplant x 2-16
10) Bodhi Hashplant D x 2-16
11) Bodhi Old Soul x 2-16
12) Karma Genetics Headbanger x 2-16
13) Humboldt Sour Blueberry x 2-16
14) Humboldt Bubba Kush x 2-16
15) (@Houstini Goji OG F2 x Chem 9) x 2-16
16) (Bodhi Sunshine Daydream x Lemon Hashplant) x 2-16
17) (Bodhi Guava Wookie x Lemon Hashplant) x 2-16
18. (Bodhi Forest Queen x Cobra Lips) x 2-16

So...these are the new crosses I just made. More to come soon...

Chapter 12 - Breeding Results Pre-Review
The lineup

(2) Malawi x 2-16
(1) C99 x 2-16
(1) Mango Lotus x 2-16
(1) Chem Kesey x 2-16
(2) App Super Skunk x 2-16
(1) Diablo Hashplant x 2-16
(1) Hashplant D x 2-16
(1) Headbanger x 2-16
(1) (Goji OG F2 x Chem 9) x 2-16
(1) Bubba Kush x 2-16
(1) Sour Blueberry x 2-16
(1) Old Soul x 2-16
(1) (Sunshine Daydream x Lemon Hashplant) x 2-16
(1) (Guava Wookie x Lemon Hashplant) x 2-16
(1) (Forest Queen x Cobra Lips) x 2-16
(4) 2-5 x 2-16
(1) 2-16 x 2-16
(1) Goji OG F2 x Chem 9
(2) Chem 7 x Chem 9

This is 25 plants so 1 will get culled.




I estimate I'll switch to 12/12 in about 10 days. I'll be doing my standard approach of creating a single cola like usual.

Hot Diggity Sog said:

Chapter 11 - Breeding Bonanza
Final Summary

Chapter 11 was a success. Lots and lots of seeds.
@Dr.Amber Trichome - I'm sorry I never took pics for ya. I'll do much better documenting next round.

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Congratulations! no worries. I will look forward to the upcoming photos and I am so interested in how the Rock Wool cubes work.
I would really like to grow with them one day. Thanks

Hey man, I really have enjoyed this thread so far and am psyched to see you are still updating! Really great stuff, especially for people interested in single cola from seed grows.

Hot Diggity Sog said:

I estimate I'll switch to 12/12 in about 10 days.

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I noticed that in chapter 10 doing 12/12 from seed still took about 100+ days. However, I think some of your other chapters you didn't start 12/12 right away and they took less than 100 days total.

In your experience does 12/12 from seed result in a faster finish on average than 10-15 days of veg lighting or are they about the same?

Thanks again for sharing all this, it's a great resource for a lot of solid info.

That’s something I’ve always wondered^. If your plants don’t start flowering for 3-4 weeks why not just run 18-6 for the first few weeks.

edit: I’m doing a bunch in one gallon pots right now actually, I was going to do 12-12 from seed but decided to veg them for 3 weeks first.

Brettman said:

That’s something I’ve always wondered^. If your plants don’t start flowering for 3-4 weeks why not just run 18-6 for the first few weeks.

edit: I’m doing a bunch in one gallon pots right now actually, I was going to do 12-12 from seed but decided to veg them for 3 weeks first.

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Thanks, @Animatey.

Hey Brett - I seldom do 12/12 from seed anymore. These plants, for example, get a 3 or 4 hour dark cycle daily.
But the 12/12 from seed certainly does work. What I ultimately learned is that there is less margin for error running 12/12 from the start. If they get overfed or maybe a little stunted if the LED is too intense, they can simply get messed up and not do well. So I generally don't do that any more and typically flip around 3 weeks after sprouting. I just go by appearance.

Chapter 12 - Pre-Flip Update

Looks like Monday night is going to be their 1st night of 12/12. The plant in the 1st picture is the perfect size. Many others are not quite this far along so I'll give 'em 3 more days to catch up a little.

Gotta finish getting the caps on, hook up the watering lines, and then get the room nice and clean. Then it's go time.







Only 1/2 of the overhead lights are turned on. And the ones that are on are dimmed as low as they can go. I'll start turning more on sometime next week.

Chapter 12 - Day 5 of 12/12

Things are going well. We're getting close to the time when I've been having feeding problems. I've kind of gone back to the drawing board. Redone all of my calculations and software that helps me. We'll see I guess.

The humidity is dreadfully low. I've had 2 humidifiers die over the last 2 weeks. They are almost at the point where they will elevate the RH on their own so I'm just going to wait on that.

8 of the 24 are almost an entire week behind - I had a lot of variance with germination rates and times.

But all in all, going well so far.

This grow journal is incredible & I can't believe I just now found it. Subbed up, amazing setup Hot Diggity Sog!!!

Chapter 12 - Day 11 of 12/12

Things are going well. The ladies are just starting the stretch phase. This will go on for 10 to 14 days. The last picture shows how I like to prune when encouraging one main cola.

I didnt prune enough this run and had too much larve bud and trimming became a nightmare. Will do much more pruning this run for mostly top colas and thick buds only. Waste of time and energy with the popcorn stuff

Chapter 12 - Day 18 of 12/12

I made a pretty major discovery over the last 10 days. It turns out my expensive Blue Lab PH and EC equipment are inaccurate. I started working on a new project - IoT devices for grow room management. Stuff like temp and humidity sensors. PH and EC water management. During development of the PH sensor, I thought my code was faulty. My measurements were coming in at 5.3 to 5.4 when BlueLab was saying 5.8. I ended up buying some additional PH monitor equipment just so I had more references I could refer to. Turns out my code was spot on and it was BlueLab that was wrong. This completely explains the troubles I've been having over the last year. I've been watering with acidic water this whole time and it was not necessarily anything I was doing wrong with my feeding.

I've been watering with correctly PH'd water now for about 10 days - fingers crossed. We are starting to see some minor signs of issues and I have a few plants that are droopy and just look generally unhappy. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears.

Most recent rez mixed yesterday:

Elemental PPM (500 Scale)
N - 80
NH4+ - 8.9
P - 30
K - 80
Mg - 40
Ca - 90
S - 61

Observed/Actual PPM
680 PPM (700 Scale)
485 PPM (500 Scale)
EC: 0.97

This rez is weaker than the previous one. I think the last week's worth of watering was too hot. It was around 1.08 EC. I dropped everything across the board a little.

The girls are finally generating plenty of humidity on their own and room conditions are pretty good.

Hot Diggity Sog said:

Chapter 12 - Day 18 of 12/12

I made a pretty major discovery over the last 10 days. It turns out my expensive Blue Lab PH and EC equipment are inaccurate. I started working on a new project - IoT devices for grow room management. Stuff like temp and humidity sensors. PH and EC water management. During development of the PH sensor, I thought my code was faulty. My measurements were coming in at 5.3 to 5.4 when BlueLab was saying 5.8. I ended up buying some additional PH monitor equipment just so I had more references I could refer to. Turns out my code was spot on and it was BlueLab that was wrong. This completely explains the troubles I've been having over the last year. I've been watering with acidic water this whole time and it was not necessarily anything I was doing wrong with my feeding.

I've been watering with correctly PH'd water now for about 10 days - fingers crossed. We are starting to see some minor signs of issues and I have a few plants that are droopy and just look generally unhappy. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears.

Most recent rez mixed yesterday:

Elemental PPM (500 Scale)
N - 80
NH4+ - 8.9
P - 30
K - 80
Mg - 40
Ca - 90
S - 61

Observed/Actual PPM
680 PPM (700 Scale)
485 PPM (500 Scale)
EC: 0.97

This rez is weaker than the previous one. I think the last week's worth of watering was too hot. It was around 1.08 EC. I dropped everything across the board a little.

The girls are finally generating plenty of humidity on their own and room conditions are pretty good.

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Im using a cheap yellow PH pen that is reliable over the past few years, but I also recalibrate it after each run if possible. That shows me any drift. I had multiple of these pens and only the one that Im using right now was the most reliabel.

Are they droopy all the time or just certain times of the day? My plants sometimes look like that, but it changes depending on the hours of light.
Doesnt look like any burn, so even if it was too much nutes it should have been below what would burn them.

Zett66 said:

Im using a cheap yellow PH pen that is reliable over the past few years, but I also recalibrate it after each run if possible. That shows me any drift. I had multiple of these pens and only the one that Im using right now was the most reliabel.

Are they droopy all the time or just certain times of the day? My plants sometimes look like that, but it changes depending on the hours of light.
Doesnt look like any burn, so even if it was too much nutes it should have been below what would burn them.

Click to expand...

The ones that are droopy are always droopy. Doesnt seem to be the common droopy after the night cycle.

Chapter 12 - Day 22 of 12/12

Going good. It's looking like I'm going to have quite a bit of variance in plant height. The tallest ones look like they are almost done with the stretch. And some of the shortest ones look like they might not stretch hardly at all. I'll be starting to slowly lower Nitrogen and increase Potassium over the next few weeks. Not really sure what the levels are going to end up being. I'll just have to wait and see what the plants are telling me. Each 45 gallon rez I mix lasts around 4 days.

Most recent rez mixed yesterday:

Elemental PPM (500 Scale)
N - 80
NH4+ - 11.5
P - 30
K - 85 (up 5 from last rez)
Mg - 40
Ca - 85 (down 5 from last rez)
S - 57.5

Observed/Actual PPM
680 PPM (700 Scale)
485 PPM (500 Scale)
EC: 0.97

Chapter 12 - Day 27 of 12/12

I think I'm going to have my hands full with these ladies. Starting to reorganize and shuffle things around. I did leave a few of the top most side branches on several of them but I could change my mind and remove those. At any rate, going great!

Most recent rez:

Elemental PPM (500 Scale)
N - 70 (down 10 from last rez)
NH4+ - 9.77
P - 30
K - 90 (up 5 from last rez)
Mg - 40
Ca - 80 (down 5 from last rez)
S - 67.2

Observed/Actual PPM
670 PPM (700 Scale)
478 PPM (500 Scale)
EC: 0.95

Chapter 12 - Day 32 of 12/12

I ran the last 2 reservoirs the same and mixed a new one this morning with updated levels indicated below. Still trying to dial this in just right.
But all, in all, things are going great. I'm watering 4 or 5 times a day now. Running 2 dehumidifers in the basement 24/7 and a 3rd is in the room with the plants. It turns on for 15 minutes per hour when the lights are on and it runs all night during the dark cycle. It's set to kick on at 60% RH but it's not very accurate. Basically, I'm aiming for high 60's, low 70's when the lights are on but I want to keep it lower than that when lights are off. Currently, it's averaging around 65% at night. I'm going to be trying to lower this as they grow.

Today's rez:

Elemental PPM (500 Scale)
N - 60 (down 10)
NH4+ - 8.674
P - 30
K - 85 (down 5)
Mg - 35 (down 5)
Ca - 75 (down 5)
S - 61.5

Observed/Actual PPM
640 PPM (700 Scale)
457 PPM (500 Scale)
EC: 0.91

Chapter 12 - Day 37 of 12/12

It looks like I got a little too aggressive dropping the EC - specifically with Mg and Ca. I was half way thru a rez when I noticed it so I added some Magnesium Sulfate and some Calcium Sulfate. Next rez will either be tomorrow or Thursday morning. You can see some of the signs on the final picture. Hopefully they won't develop any serious issues from this. Otherwise, kind of on cruise control.

Pics 4 & 6 look crazy. So many pistils packed so tight already

Chapter 12 - Day 42 of 12/12

Increasing Mg and Ca seems to have stopped, or at least slowed, the rust spotting. I'm still seeing very dark leaves despite N being only 60 PPM. I'm not sure what Ca/Mg ratio I should be using. I've done 3 to 1 in the past and have been doing 2 to 1 this time. Maybe I'll drop the Mg a little and raise the Ca a little.

Current Rez:

Elemental PPM (500 Scale)
N - 60
NH4+ - 9.417
P - 35
K - 90
Mg - 50
Ca - 100
S - 101.51

Observed/Actual PPM
810 PPM (700 Scale)
578 PPM (500 Scale)
EC: 1.157