SouthernWeed's First at RIU. Violator Kush/H&G Nutrients

So, a little background on myself. I was an outdoor grower for 17 seasons, but circumstances conspired to move me indoors around 2 1/2 years ago. Since then, I've grown continually, sometimes with multiple grows in multiple mediums at the same time. My preference is soil or coco, but DWC is my most commonly used grow method.

Recently my rotation has been Violator Kush, Purple Wreck, NL#5 and Super Lemon Haze, all taken from excellent mothers. In each grow I'll mention the little oddities each strain has displayed and what I've done to get past them.

My flower space is a converted bathroom, basically a mylar enclosed tub insert with some additional ventilation thrown in to keep the plants dry in what amounts to a fairly compact flower area. I have a full size closet for propagation/veg and the keeping of mothers, although you will see my PW mother in the tub with the VK...I like to plop the recently cut mother in with the big light for a couple of days after a major clone donation. Personal thing, no real reason why other than I've always done it.

Lighting is provided by a single 600w light. Currently, I am running my MH as I slowly bring the girls down from 18/6 to 12/12. I take 15 mins off the front and back of the light cycle for 12 days until I reach 12/12 at which point, I change bulbs to HPS, unless I'm growing SLH...then I leave the MH bulb going for an additional 10 days.

Nutrients are 100% House&Garden, regardless of medium. I have all the base nutrients and you use the same additives across all mediums. I attribute a huge percentage of my success as a grower to these nutes. I have used AN, DM, Atami...you name it, and nothing has come close to the PH stability and plant health/yields that I get with the H&G stuff. Are they cheap? No. But if you're looking for top shelf results, give them a go, they are no more expensive, and last a bit longer, than any other top nute/supplement line.

With the introductory and the technical out of the way, I shall get to some pics of whats happening right this minute.



The first two pics of the lst'd plants are the VK...depending on how good the upload quality is...my first time, no idea...you may see some evident cal/mag issues on several leaves...more on that in a second.

Third is the PW mother...last is the clones I took a couple days ago. Just for the record, PW has been a tough strain to clone for me...my success rate is hovering around 60%, where I rarely ever lose a clone from any of the other three strains. I've tried everything ands I still have poor success. Anyone with experience with cloning this strain is strongly encouraged to share their technique. I'm tired of cutting 14-18 clones to get 8 or 9 of these low yielding, nutrient sensitive, aggravating to grow plants. Were it not for the absolutely unbelievable color of this pheno, I'd have long ago given up on her. They're up next, so in about 12-13 weeks, y'all will start to see an insane color show.

Back to the VK. I never have a minutes problem from this strain. Hit it hard with the nutes and watch her go wild. Relatively short, but with exceptional lateral branching, she's a perfect candidate to be tied down tight and growing a garden of tall, thick resin covered colas. Do it all the time. But a few days after moving them over to this new tub, cal/mag problems showed up and I couldn't figure out why. Being such a brain of a grower it never occurred to me to check the obvious first, so I dawdled around for the best part of the morning until It dawned on me I had a hidden, but bad light leak...oops. Algae bloom killed off, res changed, no real harm. Just goes to show you, you're never to smart to make a day one mistake.

So that's where we are. Hope y'all enjoy it and pipe up if you have an idea or question. I love new ideas, and I've learned a few things along the way myself that I'd be happy to share.

SouthernWeed said:

So, a little background on myself. I was an outdoor grower for 17 seasons, but circumstances conspired to move me indoors around 2 1/2 years ago. Since then, I've grown continually, sometimes with multiple grows in multiple mediums at the same time. My preference is soil or coco, but DWC is my most commonly used grow method.

Recently my rotation has been Violator Kush, Purple Wreck, NL#5 and Super Lemon Haze, all taken from excellent mothers. In each grow I'll mention the little oddities each strain has displayed and what I've done to get past them.

My flower space is a converted bathroom, basically a mylar enclosed tub insert with some additional ventilation thrown in to keep the plants dry in what amounts to a fairly compact flower area. I have a full size closet for propagation/veg and the keeping of mothers, although you will see my PW mother in the tub with the VK...I like to plop the recently cut mother in with the big light for a couple of days after a major clone donation. Personal thing, no real reason why other than I've always done it.

Lighting is provided by a single 600w light. Currently, I am running my MH as I slowly bring the girls down from 18/6 to 12/12. I take 15 mins off the front and back of the light cycle for 12 days until I reach 12/12 at which point, I change bulbs to HPS, unless I'm growing SLH...then I leave the MH bulb going for an additional 10 days.

Nutrients are 100% House&Garden, regardless of medium. I have all the base nutrients and you use the same additives across all mediums. I attribute a huge percentage of my success as a grower to these nutes. I have used AN, DM, Atami...you name it, and nothing has come close to the PH stability and plant health/yields that I get with the H&G stuff. Are they cheap? No. But if you're looking for top shelf results, give them a go, they are no more expensive, and last a bit longer, than any other top nute/supplement line.

With the introductory and the technical out of the way, I shall get to some pics of whats happening right this minute.

View attachment 1094444View attachment 1094443View attachment 1094440View attachment 1094442

The first two pics of the lst'd plants are the VK...depending on how good the upload quality is...my first time, no idea...you may see some evident cal/mag issues on several leaves...more on that in a second.

Third is the PW mother...last is the clones I took a couple days ago. Just for the record, PW has been a tough strain to clone for me...my success rate is hovering around 60%, where I rarely ever lose a clone from any of the other three strains. I've tried everything ands I still have poor success. Anyone with experience with cloning this strain is strongly encouraged to share their technique. I'm tired of cutting 14-18 clones to get 8 or 9 of these low yielding, nutrient sensitive, aggravating to grow plants. Were it not for the absolutely unbelievable color of this pheno, I'd have long ago given up on her. They're up next, so in about 12-13 weeks, y'all will start to see an insane color show.

Back to the VK. I never have a minutes problem from this strain. Hit it hard with the nutes and watch her go wild. Relatively short, but with exceptional lateral branching, she's a perfect candidate to be tied down tight and growing a garden of tall, thick resin covered colas. Do it all the time. But a few days after moving them over to this new tub, cal/mag problems showed up and I couldn't figure out why. Being such a brain of a grower it never occurred to me to check the obvious first, so I dawdled around for the best part of the morning until It dawned on me I had a hidden, but bad light leak...oops. Algae bloom killed off, res changed, no real harm. Just goes to show you, you're never to smart to make a day one mistake.

So that's where we are. Hope y'all enjoy it and pipe up if you have an idea or question. I love new ideas, and I've learned a few things along the way myself that I'd be happy to share.

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Nice setup! I'd love to hear and see more of the VK's. I'm starting my own VK grow very soon! Thanks!

xivex said:

Nice setup! I'd love to hear and see more of the VK's. I'm starting my own VK grow very soon! Thanks!

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Thanks for the kind words. As far as the VK goes, from a pack of 5 femmed seeds, I got 100% germination/survival, no hermies and two very distinct phenos. The selected Mother grows relatively short...about 4 ft with a four week veg, with strong lateral branching. This pheno produces 4+ ounce plants with a 63 day flower. The other pheno, which produced an equal quality smoke, grew more leggy and struggled to get over 3.25 oz per plant. About the smoke...Hammering body stone. High cbd/cbn numbers see to that, but it still allows you to function mentally. It's somewhere around 7 or 8 on my personal favorite top ten list. It thrives in a high ec/ppm enviroment and seems to like the PH just a tad on the high side during veg. Easy to grow, never had a mold or budrot issue, cures to an awsome musty smell...somewhat like a good skunk, but more earthy...and has a strong spicy flavor. If you like big gun indicas, it's hard to go wrong with it.

SouthernWeed said:

Thanks for the kind words. As far as the VK goes, from a pack of 5 femmed seeds, I got 100% germination/survival, no hermies and two very distinct phenos. The selected Mother grows relatively short...about 4 ft with a four week veg, with strong lateral branching. This pheno produces 4+ ounce plants with a 63 day flower. The other pheno, which produced an equal quality smoke, grew more leggy and struggled to get over 3.25 oz per plant. About the smoke...Hammering body stone. High cbd/cbn numbers see to that, but it still allows you to function mentally. It's somewhere around 7 or 8 on my personal favorite top ten list. It thrives in a high ec/ppm enviroment and seems to like the PH just a tad on the high side during veg. Easy to grow, never had a mold or budrot issue, cures to an awsome musty smell...somewhat like a good skunk, but more earthy...and has a strong spicy flavor. If you like big gun indicas, it's hard to go wrong with it.

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Wow, thanks for that info man!! Very much appreciated! I've got 20 LSD and 20 VK's fem seeds and starting one or the other soon, still torn on which one. This will be my first "real" grow (about to finish our basement room ).

Any pics of the VK's or mother or any other info?

I've grown the LSD as well. The primary issue I had with it was the wild split in phenos. One was, as advertised, a super indica. The other seemed to laugh at the Mazar lineage and grew into a Sativa dominant Skunk#1. The plants performed equal to the VK, with both phenos yielding roughly 4.5 ounces on a 4 week veg. The high on the indica dominant pheno was pure couch lock. A put you to sleep strain if ever there was one. The Sativa dominant pheno gave a soaring mind high, very social and creative. Mix a little of each into a joint/bowl/bong/vape and you'll get a almost bi-polar high...up and down. I passed an indica dominant cutting along as a gift to a good friend and he's kept that one mother going and constantly producing for over two years now, so the likelihood of my growing it again are pretty low. No need when I can just trade outright with him for finished product, but it's a great strain.

I'd be very interested in knowing about your space/lighting/nutes, as I believe we could help each other some with dialing the VK in as tight as possible. I still believe I can get more out of it, but I'm hung up around .87-.89 grams per watt and I'd like to creep that up a bit more. Hit me up with some of your info and let's do a little comparison.

SouthernWeed said:

I've grown the LSD as well. The primary issue I had with it was the wild split in phenos. One was, as advertised, a super indica. The other seemed to laugh at the Mazar lineage and grew into a Sativa dominant Skunk#1. The plants performed equal to the VK, with both phenos yielding roughly 4.5 ounces on a 4 week veg. The high on the indica dominant pheno was pure couch lock. A put you to sleep strain if ever there was one. The Sativa dominant pheno gave a soaring mind high, very social and creative. Mix a little of each into a joint/bowl/bong/vape and you'll get a almost bi-polar high...up and down. I passed an indica dominant cutting along as a gift to a good friend and he's kept that one mother going and constantly producing for over two years now, so the likelihood of my growing it again are pretty low. No need when I can just trade outright with him for finished product, but it's a great strain.

I'd be very interested in knowing about your space/lighting/nutes, as I believe we could help each other some with dialing the VK in as tight as possible. I still believe I can get more out of it, but I'm hung up around .87-.89 grams per watt and I'd like to creep that up a bit more. Hit me up with some of your info and let's do a little comparison.

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PM'd you some info!

Today is the first day of 12/12. I've been slowly backing the time down, as I said earlier, but now I'll make public one of my personal little tricks to really kick off a hard bud set with this strain. For the last week, the plants have been setting in a week 1 flower mix, taking on higher doses of P-K that they are about to need in the worst kind of way. This strain is easy to grow, but will quickly go P deficient if you aren't rather heavy handed with the nutes. These plants would be in the ball park of 14-16" tall right now, but they're actually less than 3" at the moment. that'll change once the stretch begins and these suckers will be gaining inches per day for awhile...wild to watch all those branches going straight up.

A view of what's happening now...



That's the show for today all, any questions or comments, speak up.

What's Good D!?!?

Man, I've missed your morning updates! All looks well in the garden, so I hope everything's good with you personally as well.

I'm subscribed and very happy to be watching you do what you do so well (again)

Note to all RollItUp'ers: Keep yer eyes on SouthernWeed - he has always put together some of the best kept online Grow Journals.

Andy Botwin said:

What's Good D!?!?

Man, I've missed your morning updates! All looks well in the garden, so I hope everything's good with you personally as well.

I'm subscribed and very happy to be watching you do what you do so well (again)

Note to all RollItUp'ers: Keep yer eyes on SouthernWeed - he has always put together some of the best kept online Grow Journals.

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My Man! Great to see you again. All is well and the growing never missed a beat. It'll be great to have you following my stuff again, your input is highly valued. These VK are a really fun plant to watch explode into a cola garden, so it ought to be entertaining, at the very least.

Absolutely lookin' forward to this round of flowering. What I've always liked about your grows is that you keep a very close watch on Phosphorus demands and try to never let the ladies get anywhere near a deficiency (see: purpling stems/petioles).

Here we go...

Andy Botwin said:

Absolutely lookin' forward to this round of flowering. What I've always liked about your grows is that you keep a very close watch on Phosphorus demands and try to never let the ladies get anywhere near a deficiency (see: purpling stems/petioles).

Here we go...

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Yep, I hate pink stems/petiole more than toothaches and watered down whiskey combined. My feeling is that if you want big yields, and I do, you must give them what they want...pretty simple philosophy, the art is in the execution.

Working on day four days of 12/12 and all four plants are covered in pre flowers and the stretch is just beginning. Counted 18 upright branches this AM with at least 4, if not 8 more expected, along with the original 4 colas...it's about to get interesting.

It's still early and there's not alot to show, but that'll change in a couple weeks.

How bout a few pics...

Note: I'm working with a new camera and haven't got the settings worked out just right yet, bear with me and it'll get better. So many filters/settings, so little knowledge.

nice set up man. And very nice strains will love to see your harvest

Commander Rainbow Veins said:

nice set up man. And very nice strains will love to see your harvest

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Thanks alot, I'll probably be dropping the PW from the rotation before long, I've got a new cutting from a guy I know that he wants me to play with, and I'm getting a little tired of babysitting cuttings for 3 weeks to get 'em going. I'll pass the mother on to a friend, so it'll still be available, but this new strain, a Blueberry cross, shows great promise for yeilds, taste and color, without the pain in the ass nutrient sensitivity.

Anyhow, in 8 weeks you'll get a look at some really nice buds. Thanks for dropping by, glad to have you following along.

SouthernWeed said:

About 8 weeks from now, you'll get your wish...

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goodie goodie gum drops

VK are doing great. They are starting to grow vertically and the root growth has jumped up to it's normal insane level. They are starting to use significant amounts of water/nutes, so all is going as it should. Picked my six best Purple Wreck clones and put them into a veg tub yesterday. Had a minor equipment failure, fan conked out, and they got a little heat stressed, but one has a root through the cup already, so I'm hoping they'll all make it.

Got a new Blueberry cross from a friend and it's starting it's new life as a Mother, I'll get to it in three grows...PW next, then Super Lemon Haze (my personal favorite).

Y'all have a great weekend, I'll toss up some pictures Monday morning.

Nice to hear you got some blueberry, and super lemon haze sounds like it would be good. what kind of high do you usually get with SLH.

I really do hope your babies make it. I know how much it sux to have to see your little girls die on ya

Commander Rainbow Veins said:

Nice to hear you got some blueberry, and super lemon haze sounds like it would be good. what kind of high do you usually get with SLH.

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Oh, I've grown quite a good bit of Blueberry over the last couple years, it just got lost in the rotation due to my chronic curiosity. This strain has a Blueberry mother and an Skunk #1 father, that's been backcrossed to the same mother three times to get it stabilized out, displaying the desired traits. It'll be fun to play with it some.

As for the SLH high, it's like strapping a warp drive to your imagination. A mind high of the highest order, but a very social one. It is far and away my favorite commercially available strain, a little tricky to figure out at first when it comes to really getting the most out of the plant, but well worth the effort.

As for the clones, I believe they'll come back around, but if not, no sweat, we'll just repot some of the leftovers and keep right on rolling...it never stops.

o dang i need to get me some of that strain. I love doing chores when i smoke its very uplifting so it sux when i get weed that gives me a couch lock high. don get me wrong i still love it i just hate feeling lazy its like a love hate thing.

thats cool tho that you can just keep on rolling i acted like it was the end of the world when one of my girls died.

can you recieve pms yet?

Im in, nice grow.
I run Vk in my perpetual grow...it's a favorite w/ all that I share it with. The mainstay of my grow right now. I have to stake mine or the tops will collapse at 5-6 weeks