AfricanGrower's 2nd Hydro Journal - Perpetual - Multi-Strain - 2014

[AfricanGrower]

UPDATE

October 11, 2014

Hey all, I want to try and get a solid update in with tangible information. I realized in my last video update that I had a lot of dates and plant ages screwed up as I was going off of memory. I will try and make a clear update this time on how far a long the plants are.

Flower Cycle 1

Starting in the FLOWERING TENT, we have the three original strains of Power Flower, OG Kush, and Cherry Bomb. These three are the first cycle to enter the tent on August 25th 2014, making them 47 days old. Most of the trichomes on the OG Kush and the Power Flower are cloudy, so anticipate a harvest date towards the end of the month. The Cherry Bomb looks like it still go on for another 3-4 weeks, but we will see how that progresses. All 3 of these strains are on a 3x a day, 950 PPM feed, with Kool Bloom from GH as a flowering booster. The OG and PF have stabilized in pH at a 5.9. The Cherry Bomb still is pulling a lot of flowering nutrients from the res, so its pH still drops to the low 5's by the end of the week.

Power Flower

This strain is the most resinous so far, with the a very pungent, skunky aroma. The nugs are really starting to get firm, but still not the amount of bud formation I was looking for. We will see what yield looks like.

OG Kush

What we have here is a very fruity and sweet smelling plant here. Not your typical Kush aroma, but the density is definitely there. This plant only has a dozen or so main tops as the PF completely bullied the tent during stretch. But each of these few branches are just rock solid buds.

A very dense and sticky strain so far. With a little better training, I feel like I can greatly improve on yields of this plant.

Cherry Bomb

Another very frosty strain, with a very pungent aroma, with a hint of tart towards the end. This strain seems like the slowest to finish, but has the biggest nug density. I was able to train this plant a little more without the trellis getting in the way. Another reason why I think these nugs are the biggest is pot size. The Cherry Bomb is the only one I was able to transplant into a 5 gallon whilst the other two strains are in a 3.5 gallon pot.

Flower Cycle 2

As you remember from the previous update, I introduced 3 new plants into the flowering tent to start off the next cycle of flowering plants. I placed the last 3 Royal Medic plants I had in order to make some room in the vegetative tent. Plus the instability of this strain doesn't seem to meet my strain requirements for a successful perpetual system.

g]

Two of these RM's were cut at the same time from the third mother Royal Medic plant. AS you can see, one clone completely fell behind due to lack of space in the veg tent, but as things clear up the end of this month, they will all be given more room to stretch their legs so to speak

All of these plants are 19 days into flowering, and have just started forming trichomes at the node points. They are being feed on a Ebb & Flow system 3x a day at a PPM of 650 and a pH of 6.4.


VEGETATIVE TENT

I have come to realize that space management in the veg room is imperative. I have felt overwhelmed with amount of clones being cycled through many a times, but I feel that I now am getting the hang of things. Starting from the bottom of the tent up, we have the newly rooted clones. I have decided to start counting vegetative growth as soon as these clones move up to the top rack. Right now I have 6 clones, two of each original strain in flower, all being fed a light veg feed 1x a day at 350 PPM and a pH of 6.0.

Moving up, we have 4 plants in the flood trays, 2 Cherry Bombs, 1 Power Flower, and 1 OG Kush. The PF and the CBs are all 47 days into veg, while the OG Kush is 33 days into veg. These trays are being feed a veg feed 2x a day at 650-700 PPM at a pH of 6.2. AS you can see, I barely have any neck room for these plants to grow, not to mention they have to wait another 3 weeks at minimum for the space in the flowering tent to open up. I have fallen in love with super cropping for this reason

OG Kush

PF & CBs

To the right of the tent we have the two new additions of Purple Dream. These clones are doing fantastic, with great growth. I anticipate to have these girls in flower on my 4th flowering cycle at the end of November. These get fed once a day with a 350 PPM feed.

Thanks for bearing with me through the last couple of weeks of spotty updates and infrequent activity on the forum. I don't want to say the dry-spell is completely over, but I am trying my best to provide you guys with usable information.

Thanks again for stopping by.

AG

 

[Skybound]

WOW, the CB's and PF's are absolutely drenched with glands! I would've thought the OG would have that characteristic based on the Kush legends. Just goes to show the lack of knowledge coupled with the fact that I've had little clue what was being packed into my pipe for the majority of my smoking days.

Question(s)
1) do you intentionally allow them to grow pretty much straight up to conserve square footage, or is there other reason(s)?
2) also noticed some algae growth on top of your cubes. Do you have hydroton or something to cover the top?
3) are you pheno hunting amongst your cuttings, or will you keep sending them all through flower? Just a guess as I've not got my perpetual running yet, but I would think it would be easier to keep a close eye on them while in veg and flower and make selections based on performance and harvest quality/yield, then focus mostly on the winner(s) to maximize production of the strongest characteristics.

 

[AfricanGrower]

WOW, the CB's and PF's are absolutely drenched with glands! I would've thought the OG would have that characteristic based on the Kush legends. Just goes to show the lack of knowledge coupled with the fact that I've had little clue what was being packed into my pipe for the majority of my smoking days.

Question(s)
1) do you intentionally allow them to grow pretty much straight up to conserve square footage, or is there other reason(s)?
2) also noticed some algae growth on top of your cubes. Do you have hydroton or something to cover the top?
3) are you pheno hunting amongst your cuttings, or will you keep sending them all through flower? Just a guess as I've not got my perpetual running yet, but I would think it would be easier to keep a close eye on them while in veg and flower and make selections based on performance and harvest quality/yield, then focus mostly on the winner(s) to maximize production of the strongest characteristics.

Yup, I had just as much betting on the OG finishing strong, but these other two strains just have so much more rigor IMO.

To answer your questions:

>>>1) do you intentionally allow them to grow pretty much straight up to conserve square footage, or is there other reason(s)?

No, the original strains in flower now were left in the care of my apprentice, in which I gave little direction on LST and HST techniques. By the time I returned the plants were monsters with a little over 2 months of veg. I will take more detailed pics of the clones in veg now to show you you the difference in training techniques. I can definitely say I have lost a substantial amount in harvest due to this.

>>>2) also noticed some algae growth on top of your cubes. Do you have hydroton or something to cover the top?

Yea that has been happening since the Bubb grows and seems not to affect the plant in any apparent manner. I do suspect that it it can attract pests to the area, however. I do not have anything of the sort, unfortunately.

>>>3) are you pheno hunting amongst your cuttings, or will you keep sending them all through flower? Just a guess as I've not got my perpetual running yet, but I would think it would be easier to keep a close eye on them while in veg and flower and make selections based on performance and harvest quality/yield, then focus mostly on the winner(s) to maximize production of the strongest characteristics

Well if I understand you correctly, I am not pheno hunting amongst the cuttings that I have. To my knowledge, all cuttings from the same mother plant should have the exact same characteristics as its predecessor. I do, however, take more than the needed amount of cuttings and kill of the weakest ones in terms of root growth and development.

 

[stealthgrow]

Hi AG.

Great update!! Your garden is looking amazing, your Power Flower is looking very nice, and so is your OG Kush.
I harvested my OG Kush just a couple of hours ago but its too late to do the update now, I was just smoking a joint before bed, saw your journal and thought I would pop in.
Sending green vibes your way brother.
Cheers.

 

[AfricanGrower]

Hey Stealth, real nice to hear from you dude! Thanks for checking in and the vibes, I hope I am doing the OG justice as you have been perfecting that strain in your super closet!

How's your Bubblelicious doing? I'll go have a look.

 

[Light Addict]

Awesome update AG and some very frosty buds indeed. You have plenty going on nowadays at no mistake! Bravo my friend!

 

[SweetLeef]

Hey AG,

Looks great in there man!

I love how organized and well written your updates are. You paint a very clear picture of what your are dong and how you do it. Very nice indeed. Keep it up man!

 

[TheCapn]

AG, I really enjoy reading your journal. Looking so good. There is nothing in your flower tent that looks weak! My vote is on the power flower. I've heard good things about that strain and yours is looking good.

Why haven't your topped the Purple dream?

What's with those 4 ft tall plants? Are those mother plants?

About veg... you're right... it is where we need to focus a lot of time.

You've certainly come a long way from last year at this time.

But my big question is... is this stuff going to finish in time for the holidays? You know your family is waiting for AG to show up at thanksgiving with some top shelf smoke!

 

[AfricanGrower]

Awesome update AG and some very frosty buds indeed. You have plenty going on nowadays at no mistake! Bravo my friend!

Thanks Light, you are a great influence to the community. Means a lot coming from you. But my friend, even I make mistakes of negligence as you'll come to find out in this mini update!

Hey AG,

Looks great in there man!

I love how organized and well written your updates are. You paint a very clear picture of what your are dong and how you do it. Very nice indeed. Keep it up man!

Thanks Sweet, I appreciate that. I felt as if I was not being as clear recently than I have been in the past. I guess I'm on the right track

AG, I really enjoy reading your journal. Looking so good. There is nothing in your flower tent that looks weak! My vote is on the power flower. I've heard good things about that strain and yours is looking good.

Why haven't your topped the Purple dream?

What's with those 4 ft tall plants? Are those mother plants?

About veg... you're right... it is where we need to focus a lot of time.

You've certainly come a long way from last year at this time.

But my big question is... is this stuff going to finish in time for the holidays? You know your family is waiting for AG to show up at thanksgiving with some top shelf smoke!

Hey Cap, thanks for stopping by. Your like that uncle I never had that would've always made sure I wasn't straying too far from the swings

To answer your questions:

>>>Why haven't your topped the Purple dream?

I will be taking clones from the tops of these plants. There is not enough side growth to take viable and healthy clones at this point, and I'll need them to be rooted in a week in order to be ready to be gifted. This should reduce there height by 4-5 inches and they still have another 6 weeks of veg.

>>>What's with those 4 ft tall plants? Are those mother plants?

Which, the Royal Medics? Those are Sativa dominant, went into flower at 2ft and stretched another 2ft.

If you mean the 3 plants in veg, those 3 plants are the next batch that are going into the tent in 1-2 weeks time. The pictures are deceiving, but those plants do not exceed 2 and a half feet. Yes I agree they are definitely too big, but like you said, I need to spend more time in the veg room, perfecting the rotations. As for mothers, I take your advice and take cuttings from plants going into flower 1 week in advanced. I wouldn't have room for mothers even if I wanted to.

>>>But my big question is... is this stuff going to finish in time for the holidays?

Yup, as you will see in this mini update, I was forced to harvest some of buds due to negligence, but everything else should be expected by the 26th of October. Plenty of time to get a nice cure in for the folks

 

[B A R]

 

[Skybound]

What up Reg?

 

[B A R]

What up Reg?

Same ole BS. At work & wishing I was home with my plants

 

[AfricanGrower]

Mini Update

October 16, 2014

Hey guys, I have some unfortunate news regarding the flower room. Two days a go I caught the beginnings of a mold infestation amongst the OG Kush colas. The mold was mostly concentrated in the most dense areas of the cola, towards the middle-top. Luckily only one cola was completely useless, while I was able to salvage the other larger colas.

I have been constantly pushing off the fact I NEED to purchase a dehumidifier. I kept a constant check daily, but it wasn't going to take long before something happened.

Currently my tent sits at 80F and 49% RH during the 12 hours of lights on. However, when lights go off temp gets to the high 60s with a 85%-90% RH. This combo of cold temps and high humidity is a perfect catalyst for mold and other fungi/spore related occurrences.

The only thing that has been holding me off on purchasing a humidifier are funds. I want to invest in a larger non-electric based unit, so I don't see myself getting one before the end of the month. At this point, it is all growing maintenance and growing the right strain. The OG Kush was the densest of the 3 and the most bushy as it is in a part of the tent with very little access. Fortunately it will another 6 weeks before any more OG clones go into flower.

Here are some pics:

Here is the area of where the colas were cut from:

So far none of the other strains show signs of mold, although humidity is still rising at night, I have been able to keep temps as steady as possible. The trimmed Kush buds are being dried cautiously. They were washed in solutions of H202, lemon juice, and baking soda. I decided to dry them out much faster than normal to reduce chances of more mold.

Depending on trichomes, I should be starting a flush this weekend. I plan for harvest next week.

While you wait here is peak at some flower development on the RM's. Looking REAL goo so far

Update this weekend

AG

 

[Skybound]

Wow, that does suck AG. Is it possible to get mini fans in there to keep air moving which gives a drying effect?

 

[shanker65]

Sux about the mold! Good that you caught it early!

Let us know what de-humidifier you pick.

 

[AfricanGrower]

Wow, that does suck AG. Is it possible to get mini fans in there to keep air moving which gives a drying effect?

Yea man, it does. I have one oscillating fan in there, but without the heat from the HID's dissipating the moisture in the air, a fan blowing 90% RH won't make a dent. I also forgot to add my 400CFM inline fan stays on 24/7, and still doesn't do much.

Sux about the mold! Good that you caught it early!

Let us know what de-humidifier you pick.

Yup I will.

 

[Skybound]

I found a cheap one on target's site for $50, don't know how many cubic feet it can handle though.

 

[AfricanGrower]

I found a cheap one on target's site for $50, don't know how many cubic feet it can handle though.

Those ones are electric-based, which are said to be less effective than the coolant based ones. I will be doing some more research before picking the right one for the tent.

 

[AfricanGrower]

VIDEO UPDATE

October 21 2014

Hey guys, here is a last look at the plants in flower before they start really showing their fall colors. We are almost right on schedule, with about 1 week past the expected harvest date, I can say these plants seem to work fairly well with one another.

Next update will include room improvements, plant cycle changes, and much more. Enjoy

 

[Skybound]

God dang! That Power Flower is utterly drenched in trics. Your fingers are gonna be a sticky mess come chop time. It really looks like your dialing it all in, especially those in veg nearing flower. Nice dense and bushy plants, I just hope they afford that 3rd medic plant enough time to claim her space. I am especially interested in that strain as it is purported to produce near equal ratios of CBD to THC, and I am a strong proponent of CBD use in medical terms for those that suffer any form of brain ailments. Either case, you are gonna have some very successful and plentiful harvestS. I'm hoping to be in similar position soon. God Job AG!