AKGramma's Perpetual Grow

SweetSue said:
That's an interesting fact. I wouldn't think outdoor conditions would effect an indoor grow :hmmmm: I haven't been at this long enough to note things like germination or rooting times. Every grow I get a little better at the documentation and I'll begin to notice patterns after a time, I'm sure, although I do tend to sometimes get lazy about the details. I keep telling myself that the more I notice things the better chance I'll start growing better plants with higher yields. Up to now I've really been winging it and getting incredibly lucky.

How long have your cuttings been in the bags? I just made my first three-day check on mine. All's well in their tiny atmospheres. No roots visible yet, but they look ridiculously happy. Lol!
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Actually, the sun's energy is all pervasive. Consider how much larger the sun is than earth. Even indoors, you cannot escape some of the solar radiation, as it permeates most materials we build our houses from. That radiation encircles the earth, even on the dark side. Its one of the reasons we have auroras.

Followers of nature religions use the ebb and flow of the natural energy around us to maximize tinctures, potions, sowing and harvesting. I try to follow the moon cycles when starting a tincture, for example (on the new moon) so that as the moon brightens, it draws out more of the essential substances from the herb.

That reminds me, I have a leaf/Bicardi tincture I started 6 weeks ago in the lower cabinet. I need to strain that and decide what I'm going to use it for. Maybe try it straight for a while and see what it does, besides make me drunk! LOL!

My cuttings have only been in the bag for 3 days, but I opened it for 15 minutes to get rid of excess moisture, while I tended the other ladies. (I got 2 solo cups in one gallon zip-lock). I took these cuttings from two of the chicks that had gotten top-heavy. I didn't want them to pull themselves out of the soil before they were rooted. I tried crimping the branches upstream to lower the amount of nourishment the chicks were getting from Mama, but that didn't do anything. I may have to crimp again.
 
Hey AK, we need to send you some cream down. It does wonders for most everything we have used it for. Our next batch we're going to try out Sues with bees wax and can't wait to try that one out on these old knees :-). My wife loves her cream an uses it daily to aid her in her nerve pain and it helps things out very well.

Send us some of that cheap natural gas would you lol, this heating oil crap is getting old. we miss those nice heat bills from Anchor town but don't miss the crowds. When we were up in Kotzabue the gas price at the pump was $9.44/ gal and heating oil was $7.30 / gal. So we can't complain to badly on our cost but would love that low cost Nat. Gas.

Blessed buds our friend :circle-of-love:
 
I'm copying a reply I made to another journal. The topic was the poor performance of the OGK strain after a few generations of cloning. My experience was with seeds bought locally from the Cannibus club.

I found the OGK fine from seed and maybe the first two generations of clones, but after that, the clones dwarfed: never got more than 18" tall, with tiny leaves, brittle stems, and prone to mites. And they reacted poorly to the various mite treatments, losing most of their leaves before harvest. Altho the buds looked like Hell, they did give a good smoke, right up to the end.

I found another strain to replace them.

BTW, I'm finding a number of the mystery seeds from Nirvana that are Sativa-heavy to be showing the same weaknesses as the OGK clones, only these are from seed. I have come to the conclusion that a sickly, lanky, leaf-dropping plant should just be terminated. They never do well, in spite of all the TLC and tent space spent on them.

Nothing much happening in my flower tent, and the timer built into the power strip doesn't seem to be able to keep time well. This morning, I replaced it with a heavy-duty separate timer. I hope this gets the ladies going.

Three of my gifted seeds are taking a long time to pop. Seeing as winter, with the white stuff, has finally settled in, I'm going to chalk it up to the time of the year and try to be patient. There are some seeds I REALLY want to sprout, as I only had one or two of each, and they are new to me. These are the Arjan's Haze and a Polar Express, both Auto Fems.
 
AKgramma said:
I'm copying a reply I made to another journal. The topic was the poor performance of the OGK strain after a few generations of cloning. My experience was with seeds bought locally from the Cannibus club.

I found the OGK fine from seed and maybe the first two generations of clones, but after that, the clones dwarfed: never got more than 18" tall, with tiny leaves, brittle stems, and prone to mites. And they reacted poorly to the various mite treatments, losing most of their leaves before harvest. Altho the buds looked like Hell, they did give a good smoke, right up to the end.

I found another strain to replace them.

.....Seeing as winter, with the white stuff, has finally settled in....
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White stuff.... oh no... makes my soul shiver.

So, my experience growing the same OGK clones over several years/generations has actually been wonderful. Cloning them sux dog farts, but the rest of their life cycle is awesome. They've been awesome and really fast/sturdy girls that seem to live well in my swampish world. I would sing the Dinafem OGK praises from the mountain top... if we had a mountain anywhere around. When you add to that the heavy hitting nature of it's smoke, I'd have to call it a champ every day.

Had to toss the OGKs some love because they've been providing love to me for many years. I've heard other growers speak of genetic degradation over the generations of cloning, but I've not experienced it.... yet.
 
Tead said:
Had to toss the OGKs some love because they've been providing love to me for many years. I've heard other growers speak of genetic degradation over the generations of cloning, but I've not experienced it.... yet.
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Several years ago there was some speculation/worry that a breeder or two was working on strains that would "punch out" after a few generations (seed) and/or a certain amount of time (clone), thus requiring the grower to purchase new stock. I think David Watson's name might have been mentioned in regards to such things, but I do not remember the specific allegations. But I don't think he (aka "Sam the Skunkman") was said to be the driving force behind it, exactly. And IDK if the rumors were true - but it would certainly be a profitable avenue to pursue for commercial breeders, and ol' Skunkman has done enough in the past that not much would surprise me (then again, if someone is a d**che often enough, then they tend to attract rumors, so... flip a coin?).

Also... Using a population that is too small, over too many years, for one's breeding stock can lead to unwanted consequences, I suppose. By that, I do not mean using the same male and female plant to produce many thousands of seeds over five, seven, ten years or whatever - but, rather, taking a very few seeds from the union of those two plants, breeding them, taking a very few seeds from two "child" plants, breeding them, and over and over. Think of the concept (as unsavory as it is) of breeding with close family members - over successive generations. In other words, lol...

...maybe your plants are retarded ;) .
 
TorturedSoul said:
Several years ago there was some speculation/worry that a breeder or two was working on strains that would "punch out" after a few generations (seed) and/or a certain amount of time (clone), thus requiring the grower to purchase new stock. I think In other words, lol...

...maybe your plants are retarded ;) .
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Now THAT makes sense! The clones never produced the huge fan leaves as did their ancestors from seeds. I wonder if it is related to the roots structure. From seed produces a tap root and large leaves. Clones produce a mass of smaller roots in all directions with leaves 1/3 to 1/2 the size.

However, if my current cloning efforts (both layering and cuttings) don't pan out, I'm going to have to buy more seeds. I doubt that Bubblegum related seeds are going to be available here.
 
No sign of roots on the BBL clones on day 10.
No sign of roots on the soil-layered branches, and I'm thinking 21 days.
The last 4 seeds are still sitting in the peat plugs on day 16.
No sign of preflowers on the mystery plants after 14 days in flower.

About the only thing showing any real progress are some branches reaching for the lights.

I discovered a few very young mites. Plants got another spraying down of neem this morning.

But the veg unit is getting crowded. Even tho I gave them twice the headroom, I still want to tie some of those taller branches down and let them fill out a bit. I need to move the BBL mother plant out of there and fire up the closet to give her room to spread out.

I hate these shorter days. Everything slows to a crawl. At least the days will start getting longer on December 16th (or is that Dec 21st?)
 
AKgramma said:
No sign of roots on the BBL clones on day 10.
No sign of roots on the soil-layered branches, and I'm thinking 21 days.
The last 4 seeds are still sitting in the peat plugs on day 16.
No sign of preflowers on the mystery plants after 14 days in flower.
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I have been having somewhat mixed success with germinating seeds recently. But my strategy of "just stick the cutting in a cup of soil and ignore it" has been working quite well. I wish you lived down here. I let someone talk me out of eight so he could "urban guerrilla plant them" in the permanent plant setups at our "local" mall. You could have had those. Or the four that I rooted a week or two ago to replace them. They seemed to get with the program even faster (roughly half the time I expected). I had been flipping on the supplemental UV bulb. It's only 15 watts, and about four or five feet from the edge where I parked my cuttings - but maybe it helped? Or maybe watering them a couple times with a 1/3 recommended strength of Olivia's Cloning Solution made them race to root, IDK. I received it and a small bottle of Olivia's Cloning Gel three or four years ago for free after sending an email (in which I told of how well I heard their products worked, but how I had never had the opportunity to see for myself and was interested in comparing Olivia's with my current brand). Maybe they'll send you some - and maybe they'll eat the (additional) cost to ship samples to Alaska if you mention that all your friends grow, that conditions are unfavorable for rooting cuttings, and that you would share the results of your testing (of their products) with your friends/neighbors. IDK, but email is free ;) .

I suppose it's kind of late in the year - and IDK if they even grow in your area - but do you have access to any willow trees? You can make a rooting solution by boiling the growing tips of willow trees. This will cause both indolebutyric acid (IBA) and salicylic acid to leach into the water. IBA is a hormone that stimulates root growth, and salicylic acid is also beneficial for this.

EDIT: Honey may also be useful. It contains Triacontanol.
 
Only major change is that I had to move Mother BBL into the closet so she could spread out. I tied her down to make her spread out some and so now all my BBL clones and one Mother are together in one place.

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veg unit #1 during sleepy time. This is the best way to get real-color photos of the plants, using the camera flash.

Veg_unit_1.JPG


Nothing much going on in the flower unit. Pics left and right. I didn't get the Diesel berry Auto's cola in, but I noticed that the pistils are turning dark and there are trics on the sugar leaves. Still seems too early to me, since she was born from seed on 9-5.

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Hey AK, one shop up here opened up yesterday for sales. $21.00 for a gram of Northern Lights though. Sounds pretty high, when we were at one of the shops in Seattle there weed was almost all right at $300.00 an oz. Any shops open down your way and if so how's the pricing? Should be less with utility cost being lower I'd think.

Blessed Buds our friend and be well
 
Arctic Bowl said:
Hey AK, one shop up here opened up yesterday for sales. $21.00 for a gram of Northern Lights though. Sounds pretty high, when we were at one of the shops in Seattle there weed was almost all right at $300.00 an oz. Any shops open down your way and if so how's the pricing? Should be less with utility cost being lower I'd think.

Blessed Buds our friend and be well
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The Valdez shop opens at noon today, and, being the first shop to open, there is going to be no place to get close to the city, much less find a place to park. I'm staying away from the shops until they are open for a while. If I can get seeds locally, I will feel much better, staying legal, than going out of country for them.

I can understand the high price of retail, considering the overhead and the testing the product has to go through to pass. It probably costs me more than that to grow my own, just in electricity alone. I am afraid to calculate the actual costs! But for me, the pleasure and challenge of growing is more important than making any kind of profit. (Since I don't sell, it's a moot point)

I WILL visit the shops, however, just to see what the buds are supposed to look like for public consumption. (and hopefully buy some seeds)
 
AKgramma said:
AB: I cannot tell the difference in the cloudy vs clear or amber trics even with a loupe! Some strains never do amber up. I have to go by the percentage of amber hairs.
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Gotcha, we did read that the HB kit plants don't Amber as well and when the swelling of the flowers stop then that was when they harvest if I remeber correctly...... Lol which may or may not be the case. We used a magnifying glass and it wasn't very good of a tool for us so did the same thing and waited for mostly Amber hairs. We did pick up a teslong scope from the rainforest site, works great, easy to setup ( lol which I need, get electronically challenged pretty easy) and it plugs into our cell phone for use. Let's us see just what's going on. Kinda cool to see them on your own plants.
 
Nice cola AK. When in doubt, leave it a little longer I say, but that's just me. I like the plant to ripen and develop some fall colours. That's when it looks truly ready to me.
Can you PM me please ?
 
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