Moby Dick - Greenhouse Seed Co.

After a few years of growing, Moby Dick remains my favourite daytime smoke. So I thought I'd pull together a grow report to show how it all comes together. I'm sure the guys on here who are real pros will see 1000 things I can do better - so I'd love any advice. Enjoy.

Grow space:
Main Veg & Flower -
Approx 4'x8'
3 x 600W HPS
Fresh air intake, no CO2 added
Early Veg -
8 x 4'T5 HO Fluorescents

Getting Started
After struggling with cloning a bit, I think I finally have it sorted. I start by mixing up 4l of water with the following nutrients added (stirring between each, of course):

Advanced Nutrients Jungle Juice Grow A & B - 0.75ml/l
General Hydroponics Rapid Start - 0.5ml/l
Super Thrive - 10 drops for 4l

I then drop the PH to somewhere in the neighbourhood of 5.25. Stir well. Place rockwool cubes in the bucket for a nice soak.

I use a sanitized glass bowl full of water for the next bit. I took 20 8" long cuttings from my Moby mom and placed them in the bowl, trimming a few of the lower leaves to leave a good 3" of bare stalk. The process then goes something like this:

- take a rockwool cube out of the solution, DO NOT squeeze it dry... just shake it a touch...
- I always make my own holes in the rockwool using a snip off of a coat hanger - keeping the hole small and depth controlled so as to not go through the bottom of the cube.
- I then hold the end of the cutting underwater and make a diagonal cut with a razor blade, underwater, to result in an approximately 6" long clone. Ideally with a node towards the bottom that will be inside the cube. The theory here as a guy once told me is that the plant takes in water as it is cut. I think this could be BS, but I'm willing to go with it since the whole system seems to work for me. What the hell.
- I dip the end of the cutting in Stim Root #3 Rooting Powder and insert in the rockwool.
- I use a standard cloning tray w/ the cube inserts.
- I take a little bit of the rockwool soak solution and pour it into the cloning tray, making sure not to have the water touching the tray inserts... but almost (the bottom of a cloning tray is dimpled for a reason)
- Then place the dome on top and keep the vents 100% closed for 7 days under a T5 Florescent.
- I repeat. Keep everything closed for 7 days - walk away from the damn thing and pretend it doesn't exist.

Day 7
After 7 days, approximately 50% of clones were showing roots. I use a little spray bottle to spray the cubes and wet them a bit at this stage. My mix for Day 7 is:

Advanced Nutrients Jungle Juice Grow A & B - 0.75ml/l
General Hydroponics Rapid Start - 0.5ml/l
Super Thrive - 1 drop/l
PH - 6.0

I wet the cubes a bit, and then place some of the mix into the cloning tray as before. Starting on Day 7, I open the dome vents approximately 50%.

Day 15
By Day 15, my 20 clones are all showing roots with some going crazy... I should have transplanted on Day 10. Oh well. I transplanted the 20 Moby's into plastic beer cups for the pre-veg stage. I use the ubiquitous Sunshine Mix 4 for the entire grow. My nutrient mix for the start of pre-veg is:

Advanced Nutrients Jungle Juice Grow A & B - 1ml/l
General Hydroponics Rapid Start - 0.5ml/l
Super Thrive - 2.5 drops/l

The 20 Moby's were then placed approx 18" from the T5 HO Fluorescents that run 24 hrs a day.

Day 16
Here are the girls 1 day into pre-veg. They will remain in pre-veg 10 days total, and I have to add water every few days. I use Advanced Nutrients Jungle Juice Grow A & B at 1ml/l throughout pre-veg.



Day 25
After 10 days in pre-veg, it's time to get the Moby's out of the beer cups. In a classic rookie mistake, I didn't have enough Sunshine Mix 4 to do this right - so I transplanted 17 of the plants into 4 gallon pots and had to settle with putting 3 into pots about half that size. Oh well. My intent is that only 12 of these plants will be placed into flower at the same time, so it works out.

My mix at Day 25 is:
Advanced Nutrients Jungle Juice Grow A & B at 1.5ml/l
Super Thrive: 2.5 drops/l

I placed 17 of the plants approx 3ft from my 3 x 600W HPS lights, and kept those lights going 24 hours a day. The 3 that were in the smaller pots stayed under the T5s, and we'll forget about them for the rest of this report.

Day 29
At Day 29, they're thirsty. My mix is:

Advanced Nutrients Jungle Juice Grow A & B at 2ml/l
Advanced Nutrients B-52 at 2ml/l
Advanced Nutrients Voodoo Juice at 2ml/l

In addition to watering the plants, I fimmed all of the main tops. Having grown Moby Dick for a while, I can tell you that this girl can stretch. A FIM + LST combo is the secret to keeping her short and increasing her yield.

Day 35
Here are the 17 Moby's basking under the 3 600W HPS lights:


Day 36
Time for a watering -
Advanced Nutrients Jungle Juice Grow A & B at 2ml/l
Advanced Nutrients B-52 at 2ml/l
Advanced Nutrients Voodoo Juice at 2ml/l

Day 37
Having recovered from the Day 29 fimming, on Day 37 I LST'd them for the first time. The 4 gallon pots I use are cheap and practically disposable, so to tie the plants down I just poke a hole in the rim of the pot and thread a piece of garden wire through it. Loop it around the branch you're looking to train, get her where you want her, and then snip the wire and loop it around the rim of the pot to secure it. Of course, it takes a while to LST the plants, but it's very much worth it.

Here's a little LST before & after:
Before

After

And here's the garden with the LST half complete.


Day 40
On Day 40, I removed another 5 plants from the room leaving 12 to flower out. I then set the 3 x 600W HPS to 12/12 to kick off my flowering phase. Moby tends to stretch a fair bit in the first week or two of flower. Keeping 12 plants at this stage means that 75% or so of my floor space already filled in... I can tell I'm going to be pressed for room.

Day 41
Time for a watering.

Advanced Nutrients Jungle Juice Grow A & B at 2ml/l
Advanced Nutrients B-52 at 2ml/l
Advanced Nutrients Voodoo Juice at 2ml/l

Here is what the room is looking like on Day 41


Day 44
The stretch is well underway.


Day 46
The girls are thirsty and need to be trained again. For the second LST, I go around each plant and re-position almost all of the existing wires while also tying down additional branches that are getting carried away.

The mix continues as before -
Advanced Nutrients Jungle Juice Grow A & B at 2ml/l
Advanced Nutrients B-52 at 2ml/l
Advanced Nutrients Voodoo Juice at 2ml/l

Here's the room, half-trained.


Day 48
Just 8 days after switching to 12/12, the 12 Moby's are really filling out the grow space. The training has resulted in a plant canopy that can take full advantage of the lights. Crossing my fingers that the space can continue to accommodate all 12 plants.


Day 51
Time for watering and here's the mix 11 days into flowering:

Advanced Nutrients Jungle Juice Bloom A & B at 2ml/l
Advanced Nutrients Big Bud - 1tsp per 4gal
Advanced Nutrients Voodoo Juice at 2ml/l

The plants are all showing flowers now as the stretch comes to an end. While the space is tight, I think it's going to be doable


Day 56
The flowers are further along and some feeding is in order.

Advanced Nutrients Jungle Juice Bloom A & B at 2ml/l
Advanced Nutrients Big Bud - 1tsp per 4gal
Advanced Nutrients B-52 at 2ml/l

More flower development with more bud sites arriving daily. Always a fun part of the grow. This is the first time I've tried the FIM / LST combo to such an extent, so I'm curious to see how big the buds get and how well the branches can hold 'em -- I decided not to grow through a net, and may regret it.




Day 60
Things are looking good - More feeding, with the only change being to go to 3ml/l with the base nutrients.
Advanced Nutrients Jungle Juice Bloom A & B at 3ml/l
Advanced Nutrients Big Bud - 1tsp per 4gal
Advanced Nutrients B-52 at 2ml/l




Day 64 June 21
The last feeding I'll take care of for two weeks -

Advanced Nutrients Jungle Juice Bloom A & B at 3ml/l
Advanced Nutrients Big Bud - 1tsp per 4gal
Advanced Nutrients B-52 at 2ml/l

I'm off to Amsterdam for a few weeks, leaving the room to the care of a friend. (fingers crossed....) Instructions are to feed every 3rd day on this schedule:

Advanced Nutrients Jungle Juice Bloom A & B at 3ml/l
Advanced Nutrients Big Bud - 1tsp per 4gal
Advanced Nutrients B-52 at 2ml/l

The buds are almost certainly going to be too heavy for the branches. This Moby mom has always produced nice, heavy, dense nugs for me - and it would seem like this time is no exception. Hoping that things are alright for a few weeks and I can deal with it all when I return.




to be continued....

Day 80
Just back from vacation - and I've returned to some issues. The plants are doing well, but as expected, the bud weight has become too much for the branches to withstand. I have to do something to support the buds as they bulk up and ripen, and I'm thinking that some homemade trellises will do the trick. It won't be pretty. Oh well - too much bud weight is a great problem to have, and the buds themselves are looking fantastic 40 days into a 63 day flower period.



Day 81
FFS. It took forever, but I made some trellises from garden netting and stakes. I wrapped my arms around each plant, tied the branches together in a bunch with some string, placed the trellis around the plant, untied the string, adjusted branches, and voila. As expected, it sure as hell isn't pretty.

The buds, however, are looking fiiiine.

After the staking, I gave them their last dose of the following nutrient combination:
Advanced Nutrients Jungle Juice Bloom A & B at 3ml/l
Advanced Nutrients Big Bud - 1tsp per 4gal
Advanced Nutrients B-52 at 2ml/l

Day 83
Here are a few pics of how the plants are doing a few days after giving them some support.




Day 84
Switching now to the following mix every 3rd day:
Advanced Nutrients Jungle Juice Bloom A & B at 2ml/l
Advanced Nutrients Overdrive 2ml/l





Day 87
Continuing with the ripening mix:
Advanced Nutrients Jungle Juice Bloom A & B at 2ml/l
Advanced Nutrients Overdrive 2ml/l

They are coming along:



Day 90
Continuing with the ripening mix:
Advanced Nutrients Jungle Juice Bloom A & B at 2ml/l
Advanced Nutrients Overdrive 2ml/l

Here are some bud pics, one taken with flash to show the trichs:




Day 93
Continuing with the ripening mix:
Advanced Nutrients Jungle Juice Bloom A & B at 2ml/l
Advanced Nutrients Overdrive 2ml/l

The buds are really maturing nicely. A few more snaps:




Day 96
Time to give the girls a flushing. I use 3 tablespoons of FloraKleen in my 4.5 gallon pail, and flush the plants until I get a TDS reading of less than 200 in the run-off. It usually takes about 5-6 gallons of water per plant.

The buds are looking nice and the trichs are well developed, just starting to turn cloudy in the scope.




Day 100
Everything is looking great 3 days out from harvest. I watered the plants for the final time, using straight up H2O.

Day 103 - Harvest Day!
As we all know, this is when the work really begins. If we could fast-forward and just smoke it all, that would be fantastic. I've always hand-trimmed my bud, but as my yields continue to increase (3lbs+ per harvest), hand-trimming is getting to be insanely time consuming. Ridiculous. So, for this harvest, I've rented a rotary bud trimmer. And let me tell you, I feel stupid for having ever hand-trimmed bud. Sure, you get a nicer looking bud when you trim by hand, but that doesn't even remotely make up for the time.

We harvested 6 plants tonight, taking about an hour per plant to get the plants ready for the trimmer. Then, the trimming took no time. 10 minutes, maybe, including set-up of the machine. The bud trimmer saved at least a dozen person-hours of labour. WORTH IT.

Here's a snap of a typical branch - leaves are yellowing slightly at the tips but, generally, the plants have remained very healthy throughout the grow.



Day 104 - Harvest Day #2!
Harvested the final 6 plants tonight—the drying rack is full and it's all just a waiting game now.

Day 107
The buds likely need another day or two in the rack before they head into jars. Four days after harvest, this is what a bud is looking like.



Based on previous crops from this same mom, I'd bet some decent money that this will be one tasty ass smoke. Plus, I love how this flower delivers an energetic, uplifting high. For less experienced tokers, the first 20 minutes after a good hit of Moby can be a bit too much, a characteristic I attribute to the supposedly elevated levels of THCV in the strain.

I will update in a few days with a smoke report. Until then, happy growing.

Beautiful! very informative, cheers.

I wanted to quickly update with a smoke report.

This crop turned out really nicely, I must say. After 5 days in the rack the buds were moved to jars which were opened daily for a few hours for the next 3-4 days. After 7-10 days in the jars, this bud was really ready—displaying a consistent, even burn throughout a king size 1g joint without any requirement for relighting... resulting in a lovely white ash.

Taste
While the nose of this flower can certainly trend towards citrus / lemon notes, this crop has surprised for the amount of vanilla. On grind, this flower releases a lovely waft of vanilla that forces any citrus notes to the back. Two contrasting tastes predominate on inhale—the ever-present vanilla and a certain peppery spiciness. The smoke is rather smooth and tends not to induce much coughing.

Effect
This flower produces nice, creative, focused up-high with a hint of body stone that increases with dose. In typical Moby fashion, the first 20 minutes or so can be a bit too heady for newcomers. After the initial uplift, Moby mellows out over the next 2-3 hours with a gradual come down that just seems to keep the day moving along. As I've said before, the perfect daytime smoke and an ideal companion to your morning cup of coffee.