SCCA Grow Journal

SCCA said:

i haven't really tried a comparison of flushing vs non, but i dont use any really harsh ferts. the FF solubles i use at a very low dose and they didnt even get much cha ching this run. the Maxsea is fairly natural so im not really worried about it. i developed the habit of flushing because i used crazy harsh products when i first started growing. have you ever seen the salt build up old school koolbloom powder used to leave? now it just feels weird not to flush before cutting them.

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i dont think ive really noticed a difference but i dont think ive used harsh nutes. never seen the salt built up from koolbloom that you talking about but i could imagine for some nutes its pretty necessary for a good flush.

I finally have time to do an update today. since the weather has cleared iv been working my ass off trying to get my landscaping back on schedule. the GdG trimmed up nicely. picking it at 8 weeks, it has a much sweeter smell than the test plants. buds were definitely ready, about 80%-90% orange hairs and fully cloudy trichs with about 10%-15% amber. the sweet grape candy smell is much more pronounced. the buds are beautifully dense and sparkling with trichomes. the yield looks to be about a pound. i think we will do better with the plants that are tied and super cropped.

of the 28 GdG cuts (now called GdG-3 for simplicity) that were put into peat plugs 2 died in a week, 15 had showed roots by day 20 and 7 more by day 22. the last 4 haven't showed roots yet but are green and healthy. the test cuts in soil cells are looking great, green and a few are even growing a bit. total we have lost 8. i popped one cell out on sunday that had a single small root. this sunday ogre is going to pop each cell out and see if they have roots. the ones that have roots will go into 606 bedding plant cells to grow more roots. once well rooted they will be sold or go into 1g pots.

16 of the GdG-3 clones were topped on sunday and will be tied and super cropped. 4 will go into flower in about 12 weeks and 12 will be put outdoors the first week of june. the other 6 GdG-3 will be grow out for stock plants, in about 6 weeks they will be cloned and thrown away.

we started 19 Diesel hybrid seeds and 8 Oregon hybrid seeds on saturday for an interim crop. i scarified and germinated them, in 16 hrs 10 of the Diesel hybrid (Dx) had cracked. by the time i planted them sunday afternoon, 8 more had cracked. by yesterday 3 of the Oregon hybrid (Ox) had cracked, the seeds were at least 10 years old and just stored in a drawer before i got them so i wasn't expecting great results. the germinated seeds went into 4" nursery pots to grow. do to a lack of funds we used a mix of left over soils and cut it with some recycled soil from last years outdoor crop. i mixed 1/4 bag each of roots, happy frog, and kellog patio plus. i cut this with about 1/4 recycled soil.

we will grow them out in the 4" pots until they have their first set of 3 lobed leaves. then they will go into 1g pots for a few weeks. we are going to grow them out and top them at the 3rd or 4th node. we will allow them recover for a week then put them into flower. i hope to put them into flower when the current GdG-2 are at 4 or 5 weeks flower. i may save the Ox and put them out with the GdG in june.

the Sunset cuttings i put into the Bubble cloner test were showing roots on sunday. we will drop them into 4" pots or 606 cells when they show more roots. the plants i took the clones from were getting big and very root bound in their 1g pots. i dropped them into 4g pots and tied and super cropped them. ogre moved them, and a GdG in a 4g that had been kicking around, into flower today. the Sunset we donated stayed in my friend's flower room and are going to be ready to harvest in the next couple weeks or so. im looking froward to a sample.

the 4 large GdG in flower (GdG-2) are beautiful. they were super cropped and tied for the last time on saturday. the plants are only about 10" tall but each one is about 2' wide. im hoping that training will give us better yields from less plants.

These are a few shots of GdG before and after trimming. it took us 15 hrs to trim them all, but it got done.



the veg room is getting kind of full. the tagged plants were topped on saturday. the other six haven't been topped and will be cloned in about a month. our poor moms were so hungry that we bumped their Grow Big up to a full dose.




The Diesel hybrid (Dx) seeds were small but dark and healthy. the Oregon hybrid (Ox) were very large but grey and not so ripe. i scarify my seeds by putting them in a container with a piece of sand paper and shake them for about 30 sec. to germinate them i put them in a food container with a moist sponge and warm water. i place them inside a paper towel and put them in a warm, dark place.



The bubble cloner test is working ok, they are showing tiny roots. a few more days and they will be ready to transplant.




these babies went into flower today, the pic is from saturday



im testing a run of clones in rock wool, i have had requests from a few friends that do hydro for clones. if i get good results, im probably going to pick up an other mat and start doing a tray or two of rock wool clones for them. the tray of soil cells is doing good, the plants have grown a bit.




these 4 plants are as wide as my normal 16 plant lay out and only half the height with way more tops!

that chron looks pretty good with a nice purple thats not too overwhelming. crystally for sure and im glad that the earlier trim helped bring out more of the wanted smell. this is the second time ive seen the method of "scarifying" seeds in the recent couple weeks be the other grower calls it scuffing. said it helps open pores for water to be absorbed and helps a faster germ time. the method with the sponge is new to me for sure, i usually just pop some into a near empty water bottle. i personally have had success in rockwool but lately its just been a pain in the ass some i may switch to something new. i saw a main grower on icmag saying that he clones straight to pure coco which is interesting so i may try that at some point or try some of the sponges that seem to work for a buddy of mine. those plants in flower are beasts! going to be some nice colas in the next month or so! keep up the good work.

Your soil and roots looked perfect in that picture you put up earlier

Thank you!! those plants are huge now, about 3 weeks into flowering. i should be able to do a full update this weekend some time. the veg room is so full i may need to add some CFL's to supplement the plants. im hoping to get working on the outdoor garden this week so we can plant by May 7.

Ogre sent me a few pictures of the grow yesterday, everything is moving along well. he saw some more signs of spider mites so he set off a pyrethrin bomb in both rooms last week. we are going to continue our azamax applications until week 6 if necessary. i know the sprays are doing their job because they were gone for a few weeks. but when we think its safe stop to spraying for a couple weeks they reappear. many people are telling me its just a constant battle in our area, im really looking into getting predatory mites to control the problem. i am anxiously awaiting the results of collective gardener's work with them. i found a couple sources for them but i have to order in quantities too large for our grow rooms. my thought is this may be one of the few instances where more is better. i wonder what could go wrong if i apply the little suckers at triple the recommended rate?

The test cuttings in the soil cells had about a 25% survival rate. they did ok in the cells but they didnt transplant well. the Rockwool test cuts are alive and green but no roots yet. We are working on expanding our propagation set up. There is a huge demand for clones in my area, so i am going to start propagating a few different strains and selling them through a couple local clubs. i had thought of this a few months ago but got caught up doing other things. i figured that the rush would be at the beginning of the out door season and be pretty much dead otherwise. a few weeks ago i was talking to one of the club owners im friendly with. turns out they cant keep enough clones available for their patients. and many of the ones they get aren't very healthy.

After hearing this, and smoking some stuff called Cookies, i decided to get into the clone game. that left me with a bit of a problem, most of the clones i could find were already widely available. After asking around and checking the shelves at my favorite club every couple days, i finally found a couple cuts that i wanted to grow and knew weren't very common. I picked up a very nice 4" Apollo 13 and a 1g Mr. Nice that the guy at the club claimed was a great pheno. the plant was a bit wimpy but i have wanted Mr. nice for a while. i went looking for a clone of Vortex that they had last week but the Apollo 13 was a nice surprise.

Our GdG in flower are at week 3.5 now and are looking great. still very short and wide, the tops are filling in beautifully. The Sunset moms we put into flower are at week 2.5 and are starting to develop nice little buds along some what stretchy stems. Ogre says they are starting to smell nice, but its hard to tell over the pungent GdG.

The Dx seeds are about ready to transplant. We changed our original plan in order to keep somewhat on schedule. we are going to transplant into 2g containers and bury them to the cotyledons. after a few days to recover they will go into flower, hopefully when the GdG is starting week 5. when they show sex they will be transplanted or killed. ogre is keeping an eye out for any particularly vigorous plants to show, male or female. if we find a nice male, i plan to do a little pollen chucking and some pollen storage tests. a strong female will get cloned.

Our GdG3 are still in 1g pots but will be going into 4g this week. they will be tied and super cropped in preparation for outdoor planting. there are a few Black Domina clones still kicking around the veg room, i may donate them to a needy friend who can't afford clones this year.

ogre says the GdG that is curing has kept its sweet smell and is nice and strong. because of my work schedule the current GdG will be harvested at 8.5 weeks, we will see if the few extra days makes a difference in the smell.

These GdG plants are looking wonderful! the buds are already glistening and are filling in nicely. the Sunset looks pretty good too, not nearly as frosty but still pretty good.


The veg room is so full! its going to be worse once everything gets transplanted. it wont be for long though. by this time next month im hoping it will be fairly empty. please ignore the somewhat dead plants scattered about, they will be culled soon.

we transplanted the 1g GdG into 4g pots on sunday. they will grow in these pots for a few more weeks. then 12 will be moved outdoors to harden off and 4 will go into 10g pots to flower. the Dx were moved from 4" to 2g pots, i only had 16 that were strong enough to transplant. we buried them up to the cotyledons and will give them a few days to recover before going into flowering. i have never flowered seedlings this small before but i know several people that grow this way frequently. most of them were on their third set of leaves, and by friday should be about 6" tall. we have decided to go with the predatory mites, so i need to make some phone calls today to source them. the guy at the hydro store will only order P. persimilis. but i want N. californicus because they should thrive better in our conditions. we should be putting the outdoor garden in a week from saturday, right on schedule for may 7 planting.

a grower by the username whodatnation used some predatory mites for awhile with good success then switched to a special tea concoction that he believes took care of his mites completely. i can find his post on the tea for you if want or you can swing by his thread which i can give you the link for as well. ive always thought about getting into the cloning side of profit at the local shops but have never had a consistent cloning rate yet and a place that would be willing to take them. especially since ive mainly done a make shift aero cloner with rockwool cubes that would have to be placed in a medium before i could sell them. have you got your Mr nice to turn around for you and get a bit healthier? you may want to even fork out the cash for buying a ez cloner or build a similar style one so you can pump out clones fast without having to buy a certian medium especially for the purpose. those GDG look real good and are some fat bushes with a condense foilage to them, should be some good producers! they nice and frosty as well. the sunsets do look a bit stretched but im sure they will fill in pretty good since there in some huge containers. plus they can get alot of light dispersed throughout the entire plant due to the LST. cant wait to see the next update and the outdoor plots being formed!

been awhile since weve heard anything. you lost in the outdoor season?

Iv been pretty busy with outdoor prep, work, and a few new projects. Im hardly on here any more. i try to check my pm's once a day, and maybe answer a few questions. i should have time to do a decent update after we finally plant the garden at ogre's house. between my work schedule and the damn weather we aren't going to plant until the end of the month. luckily our plants have been vegging for a long time. ogre is hardening them off this week so the should be good to go once we get the bed finished.

we harvested the next round of GdG. it went a bit over 8 weeks, and thanks to the cooler temps this crop had some beautiful purple highlights. we took the Dx seeds that we had sprouted and put them into flower, at about 4 weeks flower we moved them outside. im hoping they continue flowering an don't reveg too much on us. we needed the space to put 8 large plants into the flower room. we are going to veg about a week and a half until the canopy fills in. the veg room got a little over grown with all the extra plants for the outdoor season. the plants got a bit taller than we wanted but we tied them and gave them room to spread. we are going to be growing 2 or 3 of our outdoor plants in a 6'x8' SCROG to try to keep them under 6' tall.

sounds like a lot going on over there! hope everything works out and you make it back to give us a good update! have a good one.