AKGramma's Perpetual Grow

Well, I did it! I identified the baby balls on each main and secondary branch and cut back to that point. Wherever a node had both a pair of pods and a tertiary branch (twigs, really) I cut off the twig and added it to my edible bin.

I left all fan leaves coming from the main and secondary branches to feed the developing pods. So it's left with the main and secondary branches plus the fan leaves. I guess I defoliated 50% of the boy, leaving just what is sure to develop into mature pods.

My next step will be to take Village Idiot's advice and let it grow out to just before the pods pop. Then, wherever I am going to bag, remove the fan leaves to keep the baggies dry and bag each good branch of pods. The rest will be trimmed away.

His new home is in a sunny window in my living room, away from all others in the grow room. Our days here are rapidly lengthening, and we are at about 15 hour of daylight. If this becomes an issue, I may have to put a large black trash bag over him on a daily schedule to bring him back to 12/12.
 
Something new I noticed about the difference between the Bubblelicious and the OGK. When the BBLs transpire, they deposit microscopic drops of resin on the edge of the bins. S - T- I - C - K - Y !!!!!!!!!! And this is in the veg phase! I can hardly wait to see the trics!
 
After I trimmed BBL#3, I tied him down really low. It was easy, with no breaks, because he was really thirsty and most of the branches were soft. He got a good watering afterwards, tho, and is now sleeping in front of a window, waiting for sunup. I figure, if I can keep most of the remaining branches arched down, they will be easy to bag, and the pollen will fall downwards.

I wanted to do this early, while the pods were tiny and the branches supple, so there won't be any accidents later on. No doubts whatsoever that #3 is male. None of my ladies ever were thin-stemmed and lanky like this one, and none ever showed pods instead of hairs. As it is, he showed sex while still in veg, altho it was a 3-1/2 month veg, and he had stretched a lot between nodes. Plus the fan leaves went from 5 fingers back down to three.
 
Here's a pic of The Boy, trimmed up, tied down, and ready to produce Pollen! Behind the plastic film is a row of flowering shrub starts I bought from a shrub and seed company. Forms a bit of a visual screen from the neighbors.

BBL_3_-_The_Boy.JPG


It's overcast today, but yesterday he got a full day of sunshine.
 
AKgramma said:
Do I need to put him under 12/12 to get the pods to develop properly?
Click to expand...

I read over in the tutorials that most males are going to make pods when they are mature enough, regardless of light schedule, but that giving them some dark time helps speed up the process.

I tended to the grow room today and shortened the daylength on the flower areas to 11 hours. They are being stubborn. The tutorials say sex should show in a few days to a week. NOT!!!!!. I'm going to keep lowering the daylength till I see some signs.
 
Already the pods I took pics of are more prominent, on sturdy stalks.The Boy survived the trimming I gave him lat night and is now bedded down for the evening. I'm going to insert some sticks into the bin, so I can place black plastic over him at night. This will give him the dark period he needs to develop his pods, like he would if he were outside.
 
Instead of sticks, I went with a clear plastic vinyl dome that fits over plants to protect them from frost. It's a bit tight for him, but I don't expect any more veg growth from him. It's much easier to drape the black plastic over the dome for night time. It also keeps his branches down low.

Haven't had time to check the grow room yet. Gotta haul in some more water jugs. All the empties are sitting on the kitchen sink.
 
Today I found that the biggest and most lush of the remaining BBL's s a male, as is its clone. This means I only have 2 BBLs and their clones left. If they show male, then I'm going to have to get more seeds, if I want to raise Indicas. :yikes:

The giant male is going to be dried and ground for cannabudder, buds and all. His clone will be bagged and matured, so I have a genetic mix of pollen, in case I get a female.

I suppose I COULD x-breed with the OGK and get the best of both worlds in smoke. OGK x BBL. Or do you put the male first? Anyone know?

So..... I will be rearranging and consolidating the plants in flower. I think I will put the last 2 under 12/12 today, as I'm tired of waiting for something useful to happen. I'll be able to retire one of the veg areas and give it a good cleaning before I start popping the rest of the mystery seeds.

Triptops, the first of the mystery seeds and its clones are doing well, and the flowering clones of the OGK I took are hanging in there, bushy but no vertical growth. They will need up-potting, since I know they are females. All are Sativa-heavy.

Here I thought I was going to lose the OGK line. Who knew? At least the OGKs stay slow and low, so don't take up that much headroom.
 
Grow room is sorted. I decided to harvest the OGK lady, as she'd been in there 3 months and wasn't doing anything but drop leaves. Almost buds on a stick.

I ended up retiring 2 grow areas. Now am down to one flower and one veg area, which cut my elecrtic draw by half. that is a 460 Watt draw savings (2000 watts output) in CFLs. It sure looks dark in there!

So, I ended up with a large bowl of chopped male BBL leaves and pods, and a bin of OGK buds and lerf, which was dry enough to put in the freezer for the last phase of drying before they go into the jars.
 
While cleaning up the grow room this morning I found ONE calyx with a white hair on BBL#4, which I switched 2 months ago! YAAAY! Her phenotype is very male, though, so I'm pinching her back when she gets into the lights. I have 4 healthy clones from her, so am assured of a supply for the next grow. She is accompanied by Tritops. Tritops seems to be happy in 12/12, and is stretching. it started its stretch in veg a few weeks ago, and is a full 4 months old now.

Now that the last OGK is chopped and drying, I am nursing the 3 rooted clones I have off her. The clones are going to be allowed a 3 month veg, with REGULAR feeding. Will see if I can feed some vigor into them. I like to let them mature till their branches appear in an alternate pattern. The rapid, lush growth at the tips reminds me of the growth spurt most teenagers get in mid-puberty.

None of the clones showed sex under 12/12 until their parents showed sex under gaslight! More proof that the clone is the same age as the parent.
 
BBL#1, which is the one that had lost all its leaves except for a tuft on top of long bare branches, is taking up too much room with its lanky stems. So I took two of the tops as clones. The parent was popped from seed on 12/12/2015, so these are OLD clones. They are also bushy and rather large for clones.

I prepared them like I would smaller clones, with the extra step of scraping the stems to expose the cambium layer to the root hormone and soil. I potted them in a larger container, 12 oz, to allow them more time to develop roots before the next up-pot to the 60 oz juvenile "pots". From there, they will go into their grown-up bins to live out their lives.

I sure hope these turn out female! I'd really like to have clones from two different phenotypes, just in case one fails.

I Up-potted some of the earlier clones to 60 oz containers ( 2-quart juice bottles without the tops) Since the OGK clones grow so slowly, they got up-potted to 12 oz solo cups. As old as these OGK clones are, I'm not expecting much out of them, but I'm going to give them regular nutes, worm castings, and other additive to get as much out of their genetics as possible.

The two male plants are tied down hard and bagged, so it's just waiting now. One is a clone of the other, so they are housed together in a south-facing window.
Bagged_and_Tied.JPG


Think I should remove more leaves? The bags are open for ventilation.
 
The harvest from the last OGK mother was very poor. All larfy buds, which didn't improve with pressing. So the jar is labelled shake. It SMELLS right, however. Will make some good cannibudder capsules!

I am still unwilling to terminate her clones, as miniaturized as they look. It's hard to accept that the OGK strain is finished. So many generations of clones have sapped their vigor, and they are so far behind the 1st generation clones from the Bubblelicious. I already took clones from Tritops, who is a Sativa-heavy freebie from Nirvana Seeds.
 
I'm Seriously considering taking the rest of the tops from the BBL plant who lost all its leaves. The 2 clones I took a few days ago still look healthy in the dome. Yes, I'll do that today and make more room in the Veg unit. The bare stalks are over 12" long.

The harvested OGK I put to reveg looks like it's dying. If I don't see any new growth soon, she will be put out of her misery (and mine). My veg unit will be all clones!

I have taken most of the leaves off the males and localized the bags to the first 6" of the tips, where the most promising pollen sacs are. The smaller of the two males has the largest pods and will probably poof a lot sooner than the other male. Checking my notes, they are from different seeds, not one a clone of the other, as I previously thought. I DID get two males from this grow.
 
I got 8 clones from BBL #1 which left me with nothing but sticks. I trashed those, as my luck with regvegging is nil.

BBL#4 in 12/12 is showing hairs on her growing tips! YAAAAY! That is the only confirmed female from the 10 seeds I got from Nirvana. I hope that the all the clones I took from the now deceased BBL#1 are female! Tritops, also in 12/12, has not shown sex yet, but it got a hard tie-down today. Both are originals from seed.

The veg unit is all clones and juveniles now, clones from the two females, Tritops, OGK, and a juvenile BBL#5, which grew out with a decidedly sativa phenotype. But it smells like BBL, and not like a skunk.
 
My babies are SPOILED! I took care of them before I took care of myself this morning! I trimmed up the rooted clones, gave them some nutes, and sprayed them for mites with neem. The OGK clones seem to attract them. It must be the smell. I proactively sprayed down the BBL clones, too. Don't need any alien invaders from the Sativa World taking over the newcomers!

The flower unit wasn't on yet, so I will tend to that later. I'm going to have to re-arrange the lights, since one is tied down low, and the other (the one with flowers) has grown into the lights. I need to add a couple more lamps, because there are some dark spots about halfway down. The BBL in flower is too brittle to tie down now, so I need to be creative with how I place the lights.

Will also inspect and spray to prevent mites.
 
Re-organized the grow room again, to plan for larger bins and wider plants. The two shelving units that were not being used, I doubled up to make them deep enough to handle one , or possibly 2 large plants. The useable space is 36" deep and 48" wide, and 60" tall.

I also added two more bulbs to the veg and flower area. No shadows NOW, with a dozen bulbs in each! 6 above and 6 in the middle, pointing directly into the plants.

I little more organizing of empty trays, pots and tools, and I'll be ready the next time I up-pot!

You never know how many extra light fixtures you have till you re-arrange everything!
 
Other than feeding and adjusting lights, and rearranging rooted clones, there is nothing to write home about. As usual, the OGK clones are much smaller, about 3-4", than their BBL counterparts of the same age. Most of these clones have been taken from 4-5 month old parents, so the difference in growth behavior is very obvious.

The clones I took the end of April are strong and healthy. I'm still waiting on some sign of roots. There are some emerging veg buds in the nodes, so that indicates SOMETHING is going on beneath the soil!

The tops I cut off the leggy BBL #1 look good, too. Having cut them off a 5-month old parent, I expect them to root quickly.

The death of the Last OGK lady: About a week after I harvested the last OGK lady, and having left larfy buds and leaflets on the branches, the whole plant withered up and died, in spite of being treated like a living plant. This is the last of a string of failures to reveg, so I will stick to cloning, which works well for me, except in November and December. If her clones respond to regular feeding, I may be able to get a viable lady to raise to maturity.
 
All my rooted clones were up-potted into 1/2 gallon containers. I didn't lose ANY! The OGK clones are doing better than their now-deceased mother plant, but still remain miniaturized. I hope with the extra nutes that they grow more normal-sized leaves.

They were re-planted in rejuvenated soil from previous harvests, about 50/50 old soil mix to new soil mix. (Black Gold Potting soil/vermiculite/sand)

I do believe the improvement is because I am feeding them nutes every Sunday and have added worm castings to their soil. I always sprinkle the root mass with MYKOS when transplanting, too.

Plus, they are getting sprayed for mites at the slightest hint of anything moving under the leaves. They seem to do the best on diluted Neem oil, alternating with dish soap/oil. Once the treatment begins to dry, I spray the leaves from the top very well with clean water, so they don't burn. I proactively spray them every 2 or 3 days, and so far I have not seen any new spotted leaves.

The addition of a pair of light bulbs last week made a noticeable difference. With 10 23w CFLs, the growth was iffy and tended to stretch. With 12 bulbs, the growth is more compact, and the leaves look greener.

When these up-potted clones are ready to go into their adult pots, I'll definitely have to re-activate the other veg area.

My new and improved nutes are:

Liquid nutes for edible plants, diluted 1/4 to 1/2 of recommended strength
TSP of THRIVE in the same gallon of water as nutes
Homemade Sugar Daddy: 1 TB molasses + 1 TSP Epsom salts/gallon
Crushed eggshells.

I don't do foliar feeding, but add them directly to the soil on Sundays. I used to feed very sparingly, a little in each pot, but have changed to a full feeding, as if it were a plain-water day. The advantage is that I don't have any stinky leftovers. The rest of the week, each plant gets plain water as needed, to the point of runoff.

Although my schedule isn't as involved as some growers, feeding on Sundays seems to feel right, and I don't forget. The plants like it, I think. :MoreNutes:
 
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