My first grow

I'm not sure if I mentioned this here before but if you're thinking about chopping (or taking testers) than it's a good idea to test whether you have flushed for long enough. Pull off a tiny nug, just a few calyxes, and chew them up. The juices from bud with nutes still in it will have a bitter taste and a burning sensation in your mouth. Flushed buds will taste nice and clean like fresh water. I wouldn't bother hanging a tester nug. All hanging does is prevent your buds from being flat on one side. But definitely let it dry out for at least 5 days. Wet bud tastes shitty no matter how good it really is.

highjulypool said:

hi. been reading this thread regularly and i must say its tops. well done and keep up the good work. its a real fountain of information. i hope you get pounds and pounds of great smoke from this and your future grows. best of luck

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Thanks man. I'll get pounds one day...

Tatan said:

Shorty is still my favorite ... hehe, but it looks like you are getting some huge colas my friend ! Congrats !!

And by the way... spider mites are very very small.. but dont worry you arent going to see them flinging around. Im sure it wasnt a spider mite that you saw.

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Thanks dude. That's reassuring about the spider mite thing as well.

mared juwan said:

Patience Jerry! Restrain yourself my man! Unless you don't have any other bud at all. Testers will set you up for disappointment IMO. Not only will it still have nutes in it but unless you want to let it dry for at least 4 or 5 days it's gonna taste green and immature. Even after a dry and cure it wouldn't be a proper representation of what you have. I swear the most dramatic change in smell and flavor in my plants happens in the last week or two. Skunks get skunkier, hazes get fruitier, kushes get kushier. But like I said premie bud is still better than no bud at all so I guess it depends on your situation.

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Thankfully, I'm not so desperate that I'm going to be chopping down entire branches (even if I do run out of the shitty weed I've got at the moment).

However, this is a learning experience, and I want to know for myself what premature bud tastes like. So, in the name of science, I snipped a very tiny half-a-bowl-pack little bud from the bottom branch of tall girl. I put it under a 60w desk lamp for about 20 minutes and fired it up (still a little on the damp side). As you said Mared, it probably wasn't worth my time. It tasted nice indeed, but it was a far cry from what the final product will be.

So at the end of the day, it was worth it just for an experiment. I will never do it again though, regardless of desperation. I can either buy some or live without it. I'm not going to jeopardize my ladies.

Marcus66 said:

As always, great journal Jerry G. Since your plants are a couple of weeks ahead of my first plants, I'm using this journal as kind of a blueprint. I do have some questions on snipping some samples from my plants. I've been buying tree since I started my grow and have been looking forward to ending that soon. Some tips on samples would be appreciated. So, what's the proper way to take a tester nug? Should it be hung for a couple of days just like the main harvest will be? Can the curing process be skipped? Is there a way to tell when it's a good time to chop a branch down to try (trichomes aren't cloudy yet)? Thanks in advance, and thanks again Jerry for all the good work, and enjoy the summer off from filling out unnecessary essays. Good luck, and I hope your harvest yields a plentiful bounty.

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Thanks Marcus. Regarding the taster nug, I just took some scissors and snipped off the lowest little grouping of calyxes from half of the node. If you're not in a hurry I guess you could just dry it normally. Mine went under a 60w incandescent bulb that puts off a little heat. I've heard you could put it in the oven on a setting below 150 or in the microwave on half strength for 10 second bursts. Both sound like bad news to me though.

If you're going to take testers, I recommend very small amounts. My trichs are still clear, but there sure a lot of them. I don't think there's much of a right or wrong way to do it, as it's probably going to be more of a waste than anything.

satuple said:

Hi Jerry,

I was just reading your journal and the only thing I have to say is your girls look wonderful. I'm thinking about ordering some seeds from Nirvana.. maybe some AK-48 and Jock Horror... BTW I'm from Colombia and if you are interested in some Colombian seeds we could talk about trading some seeds.

And once again... beautiful work, keep on going... wana see some dried bubs and read your smoke report.

Jürgen

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Thanks Jürgen. Other than the leaf issues they are coming along nicely. Jock Horror and AK-48 both sound like nice choices for sure. I would be happy to grow either.

Stay tuned to the thread and you'll get a full report as it happens. I think it will be fun to try and give a smoke report and describe the sensations...never really thought about it much before, so I'm sure it will be a mind expanding experience.

Sleepless said:

Looking mighty scrumptious... I want some.

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I want some NOW...but I've got the (will) power!

mared juwan said:

I'm not sure if I mentioned this here before but if you're thinking about chopping (or taking testers) than it's a good idea to test whether you have flushed for long enough. Pull off a tiny nug, just a few calyxes, and chew them up. The juices from bud with nutes still in it will have a bitter taste and a burning sensation in your mouth. Flushed buds will taste nice and clean like fresh water. I wouldn't bother hanging a tester nug. All hanging does is prevent your buds from being flat on one side. But definitely let it dry out for at least 5 days. Wet bud tastes shitty no matter how good it really is.

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That's a pretty neat little test there, and one I will gladly try in the next few weeks!

I snapped some photos of the plants earlier, but I'm tired, so I'll give a full update in the 'morrow. Until then...

Sorry guys, I've got to throw up another post real quick because I'm sitting on 666 right now, and that just feels unlucky. So, here's a shot of the new light up and running. You can see the wooden slat things I described earlier. I've got a drill and will be taking those bad boys out sometime soon...

Well as I promised here are the pics from last evening. I went out and got a $25 dehumidifier (off craigslist) to try and get the humidity down when the a/c is off...it hovers around 60-65%, which is too high (I think...?) I'm not sure how well the damn thing works, but it uses almost as much electricity as my damn a/c. I may just go buy a new cheap/energy efficient one and see if that does anything. This one puts off a great deal of heat and seems to only be minimally changing the humidity.

Anyway, the buds are looking nice...

Tall girl. Leaves still dying, but much more slowly now.


Lots of orange hairs on her top, but still pushing out new white ones...


One of the lower buds...there are about 4 that look like this one


Middle buds. Each node along the stem looks like this.


Wide girl. A little blurry, sorry.


Wide girls top. Note little bud projections sticking out the side. She's doing that all over...


Shorty. A little droopy (needed water...got it immediately after the pic was taken and perked right up), but otherwise great.


Top cola, nice and wide


One of her side buds. These little things are many nodes grown together, easily over a couple inches in length.


The adolescents. Almost every one of them is a confirmed female. I've trashed 3 males and counted at least 6 females...where was this ratio on my first go round?!? I think I have a hypothesis on why so many are females this time...I remember reading that a Russian study determined that seedlings with at least 4" to grow straight down have a much higher (I think it was 80%) chance of going female. I used 24oz clear plastic cups this times (wrapped in black duct tape to keep light off the roots) instead of the usual 16oz red and blue beer cups, so maybe the added inch or so of depth made a difference...or maybe I just got lucky this time...either way, I'm definitely going to use the deeper cups from now on.


Here's a close up of the first female I identified and topped. As you can see, I topped above the second true node (cotyledon node counts as node ZERO) and got 4 main colas. Now that I know some of the others are females, I'll experiment with some fimming, and maybe a little supercropping...


I've been thinking about putting them back in veg for a while and letting them grow a little, but I've got these quality seeds just sort of collecting dust, longing for me to germinate them...once all sex is known I will either continue with the 12/12 (maybe throw a couple under the 400w hps) or put them back to veg for a couple weeks...but then I'll have a log jam of plants going into the flower room...I guess these little girls are going to stay 12/12 and just flower away then...

That's about it. The a/c must have been working hard last night, as I had to empty the reservoir after only 4 hours of use. I'm going out today to get a hose and run that shit into a bucket or my bathtub or something...

Wow Jerry, congrats on all those females man...and since you topped them, their shape will be completely different than your first ones. Speaking of which those buds are really thickening up, plus you got extra new growth going.

Thanks man, I'm excited to see how different they really are...but I sure with I had 4 colas on my big girls right now...

Looks GOOG JG!

They will like that new light. Just wait till the next round. You may have to raise the roof! lol

Those are some awesome colas you have there my friend....

About the bare root transplant...no, I don't suggest that for your bigger plants.
I DO suggest that you rid of that dirt on the babies though.....and any other houseplant you may have. I'm going to say it again--it only takes one of those little bastards flying around to keep them coming.
As Mared said......before starting your next batch, rub down your room with an alcohol solution. Definitely take my advice here.........do the bare root transplant with the clones. AND LOOK CLOSELY AND INSPECT THOSE LEAVES!!! Kill those eggs with the rubbing alcohol. You just don't know.....I'm not joking around. Look, I have seedlings galore right now. The f'ers are attacking THEM TOO......and this is just with ONE SINGLE gnat I see (and I'm constantly scrutinizing)--but you don't have to take my word for it.
As for the neem oil.........it won't hurt your plants at all. Spray it down upper and UNDER leaves.
I'm going to get some HUGE bags of some expensive soil today. ALL of my plants are getting the bare root transplant! ALL of them.......and trust me, that's a whole lot of soil I'll be dragging home today......well, tomorrow. They're closed today.
I hate having to do this, I really do. I'm betting I have at least 300 bucks, if not more, of soil I will be dropping into my outside compost pile. The only possibility of them still being around after the rub down in your room and harvesting the bigger ones will be the leaves on those clones. I'm going to drive you nuts with this, but USE THE RUBBING ALCOHOL on those leaves of the clones.......and no, it will not hurt them at all. Don't spray it, just very careful apply with a qtip. That stuff will evaporate before it even has a chance to hurt the leaf......but it zaps that egg on the spot. As for the soil in the clones, sure, you could cover with sand, but I just don't like the idea of having dead eggs in my soil.....yuck.
I'll be happy to do your transplants for a nice bud off your plant, LOL. I'm sure you'll do fine.

Very nice info with the rubbing alcohol. Didn't know about that one. Thanks, babs!

Jerry, 6 females under a 400 HPS = huge buds. Great news, man.

Babs, just keep hammering that point home, and one day I swear I will listen! They just don't seem so bad right now that I feel overly concerned. I'm going to take them out and give them a good inspection in a few, so maybe I'll just give them a once over with a q-tip and some alcohol...the only stuff i've got is the 91%, not the 70%...probably won't make much difference though.

Mared, I hope so. I'm going to top most of them. A couple I might just let grow.

And I think my struggling top-clone may have turned the corner and is going to live...maybe...

great grow. I have learned a lot from reading the past hour. I will be dropping by. good luck, and happy growing.

atlrhysdavis said:

great grow. I have learned a lot from reading the past hour. I will be dropping by. good luck, and happy growing.

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Thanks for stopping by atlrhysdavis, glad you learned something from my thread! Feel free to stop by anytime!

Well guys and girls, I suck at updating these days, I'm sorry. I thought I'd have more time with classes finished, but it turns out posting updates was a good way to procrastinate and not do work, so I did it way more often when I should have been studying...oh well, got a 4.0 for my last semester

Anyway, the plants are doing fine. I've seen only one gnat and that was 2 days ago...I just keep adding a layer of dry sand after I water and I think it helps.

The little ones are almost all females. Really?!? I think there are 9, 10 if you count the top I planted as a clone (which has probably rooted by now and looks like it will pull through!). That is just absurd. I believe I started with 13, so 9 females is a crazy good ratio. I think it has to do with the deeper cups I used this time (24oz clear plastic) allowing for a longer taproot. If only I could have ONE or TWO more for my first grow I'd be sitting pretty right now...oh well, I've still got three lovely ladies.

Temps have finally cooled down here lately, and along with it the humidity. Should help my situation I think, even if only for a couple days.

Otherwise, not too much to report. I gave a water only feeding last time (3 days ago) and I'm wondering if I should continue with the water and stop with the nutrients altogether. I haven't checked the trichs lately, so I'll do that tonight when the lights come back on. So if I flush for two weeks starting with day 51, that would put me at day ~65 for harvest. I don't know if that is enough time...

They are due for a watering tonight, so maybe I'll give one more round of nutes and then just water from there on in...

I took these pics 2 days ago and never posted them. I'm such a slacker these days...

Tall girl. Pretty much the same--tall and turning orange. Smells nice though.


Top cola. Looking nice beneath those tattered leaves


Lots of good sized lower buds on this girl


Wide girl--her top has just exploded with new growth over the last few days. Those little projections I alluded to before are now serious chunks of bud sticking out!


It's kinda hard to tell from this pic, but she is getting FATTY!


Another top shot.



I didn't plan the above picture to turn out like that, but I thought it looked cool so I left it.

And of course we do it for the Shorty's!


Lower buds are the biggest of all the plants by far, and look nasty!


Close-up of a side bud.


And a top down shot...lots of leaves shooting out from the bud.



Once again I forgot to take pics of the babies, who are now truly budding under my 6 6500k 26w cfls. I topped three more of them, for a total of 4 topped plants, but I don't know quick the others will respond. The one I topped a few days ago already has 2 or 3 nodes per cola and growing fast! I left the best looking (i.e. closest node spacing) plants to just go through life normally. As I said, some have full blown buds already.

I'm debating whether or not to grow them out the entire way in the 24oz cups. I've got pots that will allow the roots to stretch horizontally, but they aren't any deeper than what I'm using now. Maybe I should find some 2 liter bottles and finish them out in those...I'll probably leave one or two in the plastic cups though just to see how it works. I'm also about ready to transfer a few into the flower chamber and let them start getting some 400w hps love. I'm going to really spend some time in the grow room tonight and make some additions...(hint: it's going to be stadium-like).

And it's almost time to crack some new seeds...thai super skunk, ppp, blue cheese, and more...

Sorry again for the delayed absence

Nice grow +REP

Thanks man, just checked yours out and it looks great!

Hi Jerry,

Those girls are doing so well… They look really beautiful. I hope you are really enjoying this nice experience. I’m going to order some seeds form Nirvana this week (hope they don’t take too long to arrive), maybe AK-48, Jock Horror and Aurora Indica… wanna try one of sativa, one indica and one mixed.
BTW are you going to give that buds some flavor or just go natural?
This is a interesting page about that..
http://www.seedbankupdate.com/cure.htm

Best wishes.

Those leaves are looking kind of sickly, you know why?

Jerry Garcia said:

Temps have finally cooled down here lately, and along with it the humidity. Should help my situation I think, even if only for a couple days.

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In the mountains we call it 'blackberry winter'. It's the last cold snap of spring that gets the blackberryz growin.
Doesn't last that long on the coast tho.

Sleepless said:

Those leaves are looking kind of sickly, you know why?

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Yes, the leaves are in dire straits these days...I believe they went through a period of nitrogen and phosphorous deficiency caused by a pH lockout. I watered with some filtered tap water that turned out to be 7.9 pH. I only did it once, but I think it was enough to stress tall girl and wide girl. Shorty didn't seem to mind much though, but I overwatered her as a youth and really stunted her growth.

But that is why this is my first grow, so I can learn this stuff now and then use my knowledge for my next (and more serious) round of plants! I'm just happy it hasn't really affected the buds.

discobisco said:

In the mountains we call it 'blackberry winter'. It's the last cold snap of spring that gets the blackberryz growin.
Doesn't last that long on the coast tho.

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The girls probably didn't even notice any difference. It stayed about the same temp with the lights on (81ish) as it usually does in there. But without the a/c I'm sure it still would have gotten over 100...that 400w puts off some heat!

Looks like it will be in the high 70's lower 80's for the next 10 days or so, which is a nice little break.

Discobisco, lets play some disc golf today! Hit me up!