AKGramma's Perpetual Grow

I had mercy on my Mama Bubblelicious and put her in the flower unit. Those flowers were definitely past the preflower stage. The veg closet now has room for the clones of various strains, including 3 successful Bubblelicious clones. So, Hoping I can keep them healthy enough to grow them into replacement mother plants. I switched the veg from gaslight to 18/6.

I'm a bit worried about the arrival of an order out of Canada. Our temps have dropped into the low single-digits, so I'm trying to check the mail box every day for the order, so it doesn't freeze. I SHOULD have paid for tracking....... :straightface:
 
You have been busy here AK and it's looking pretty AWESOME!!!!! We are getting ready for a few test runs of the tent to make damn sure we can keep the environment where it needs to be.

Yes our temps are not very nice up this way either, -33 this morning......not sure why we live up here in the winter lol. Dark and cold, what a great selling point to get people to live up here :rofl: oh and high utilities......we're nuts :laughtwo: :yahoo:

Blessed Buds our friend and be well :passitleft:
 
Arctic Bowl said:
You have been busy here AK and it's looking pretty AWESOME!!!!! We are getting ready for a few test runs of the tent to make damn sure we can keep the environment where it needs to be.

Yes our temps are not very nice up this way either, -33 this morning......not sure why we live up here in the winter lol. Dark and cold, what a great selling point to get people to live up here :rofl: oh and high utilities......we're nuts :laughtwo: :yahoo:

Blessed Buds our friend and be well :passitleft:
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I have gotten spoiled since I moved to "Anchortown". Quite a change from -40 in the Interior! Now I get cold when it creeps to zero! It sux to get old! Looking around the neighborhood, you can tell who used to live up North. We're the only people who plug our cars in. Lots of icicles hanging from the car this morning. LOL!
 
When I went to tend my ladies tonight, I had a very unpleasant surprise. The plants in my breeders unit are in were COVERED with mite webs and mites crawling all over the webs! And I have been using an organic mite spray made of canola oil and various herbs like Rosemary under the Growers Trust Label, alternating with neem oil/dawn dish soap treatments. Apparently those two substances only enhanced their reproductive systems!

Even after soaking down all the ladies and the male in the breeding unit, I still had to cut off about 8" off the ladies, flowers and all, to get rid of the massive colonies. I think my seeding program is DOA. (Strangely enough, the male seems unaffected and is putting out massive amounts of pollen.)

I even found a web full of mites killing the top of my Polar Express!

I am so discouraged! I have been liberally spraying all of them down every few days, at the slightest sign of any mites. Then all of a sudden, a massive population explosion!

Time to break out the SNS a fellow grower gifted me and spray the hell out of my plants, the soil, the walls, everything! I may have to do some serious defoliation, more than usual.

Or do I just toss them all in the trash and start over? :straightface: :yikes::surrender:
 
I wouldn't toss the plants out AK. At worst, you can make hash with them.
Mites can be eradicated, but it takes a complete treatment of all plants in the place with a systemic pesticide. Systemic meaning it's absorbed by the plant and kills the mites when they feed. Thats what solved my mite problem in the end. The other option is to keep spraying. Almost any spray kills them including plain water I believe. Mites are easy to kill, but babies and eggs keep hatching out and it's impossible to get them all and break the reproductive cycle without somehow poisoning their world completely.
Neem is a systemic pesticide and should work. I think. I got rid of my mites with Mite-rid. But I think neem is the main ingredient.
I haven't had to use the SNS stuff and didn't check the ingredients or look up any testimonials on how well it works. But I assume it does or they wouldn't sell it?
Good luck. I hate those nasty things.
 
Weaselcracker said:
I wouldn't toss the plants out AK. At worst, you can make hash with them.
Good luck. I hate those nasty things.
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You make hash with mite-infested plants? It is impossible to separate the webs, mites, and eggs from these plants.

I guess they're not toxic. Crustaceans big and small are "edible". But I don't think there are enough leaves and flowers left to make any hash. They look like something out of a horror film.
 
I heard of the infestation and had to by and at least offer support. :hugs::hugs::hugs:

I'm sorry to hear of this. I've witnessed this kind of explosion in population myself, so I understand how demoralizing it can be. The problem with spraying is you'll never get them all, will you? I spend hours looking for early signs and pulling those leaves before they got a chance to wander and drop more eggs, but you have no life like that. Systemic, eh? I'll look it up. Apparently mites and indoor gardens are playmates. I have lots of neem, if I only used it more effectively.
 
More woes. Lost 1/2 my clones and the 3 seeds in the bead cups. My small Aloe plant rotted in the veg tent, so will have to purchase a healthy Aloe tomorrow. I woould have thought that taking it out of a cold North window and placing it in a nice warm closet under decent lighting would have perked it up. But no, it rotted and died.

I am going to terminate two of the mite-infested mystery plants, and give the married couple (sticky missy and her male) a little more time together. If I actually see any results, I'll let Sticky Missy live through harvest. Otherwise, I'll just store the pollen that fell on the paper plate for Sticky Miss's clones. They are growing very fast, with vigorous root systems. But I will train them low and bushy this time. These are the last real Sativas I have. The rest are hybrids.

Then that shelving unit will be thoroughly disinfected with bleach and retired until I pop more seeds or up-pot more clones. I have 15 Jock Horror and 15 Auto Berrys waiting to be born! But I'm going to wait until the days start getting longer again before considering it. Maybe after New Years. I need a break from the stress.
 
I cut off all the immature flowers off one mystery girl and dropped them in the leaf and trim bin for tinctures. The other mystery sativa is so entangled with Sticky Missy and the male, I can't separate them.

I do believe Sticky Missy is pregnant! Her pistils are gone and I see swelling calyxes wherever I dabbed pollen! Lots of really dry leaves, which fell off with a touch. Yes, WC: I will probably end up with a billion seeds, but the trick now is keeping her alive till the seeds rattle in their cases. It seems to be progressing rapidly, so am hoping I'll get SOMETHING out of this poor beleaguered bvatch of sativas.

I need some good luck.
 
Well that just plain ol sucks AK!!! So sorry those lil critters had to spoil the riches. The up side is you have more ready to go when your ready. This dark crap is sure getting old, it never use to really bother me but the last few years it has really started to take a toll. Now we're getting into the dark and cold time as you know and Florida is sounding better every day :laughtwo:

We're doing grow room clean up this weekend ( not looking forward to it) and getting things ready for the next go at this. Not sure when that will be but hopefully in the next few weeks. Still have to sort a few things out to make sure we can keep humidity where it needs to be, got some things coming from the rain forest site that should be here any day now.

Blessed Buds our friend and be well :passitleft:
 
I was able to clean out the mites and their eggs (between spray and defoliation), and I'm using a pure organic spray every other day as a preventative measure. It's made of of canola oil and herbal oils. I got it off the shelf and I alternate between that and Neem so the Borg Mites don't develop an immunity.

I gave a lovely, totally healthy mystery Sativa clone to a family member for shoveling the driveway. The mystery Sativas clone really fast and their roots are VERY vigorous! I don't know what they are, but their leaves are super thin and there is no smell of diesel to them. I think all my mysteries are the same strain. Same color, same leaves, same odor, same phenotype. If their seeded offspring show promise, this might be a strain to keep.

I am happy to report I have two healthy Bubblelicious clones that made it past the baggie stage. Two more are limping along. Then a number of juveniles of AK 48, Sticky Missy cones, and one Arjan's Haze. The juveniles got their first tying down today and a second-level pinch of the tops.

The seeding experiment is coming along nicely. Sticky Missy (a mystery Sativa with lots of resin) is very pregnant. The male is still dropping pollen in massive amounts, so I'm going to let him do his thing till the pods are spent, then store the pollen. I read somewhere that a good male can be kept alive if the pods are kept trimmed and the light is kept up there at 18/6. I ended up with another male of the same mystery batch, so I did remove all his pods as soon as they began to show. I'll try to veg him, but if I can't control the pods, I'll have to chop him for the tincture bin. I don't have a fourth unit to isolate him in.

Maybe I can demote him to a house plant, move him to the living room, and keep him groomed. He IS a lovely, very bushy Sativa. Once the first male started putting put pods, his leaves started dropping, so he isn't so pretty anymore. But I'm pleased with his "performance". LOL!

So, today my mood is MUCH better than yesterday! All the plants look happy. Mother BBL is thoroughly enjoying her freedom under 12/12. She has 20+ branches and about 10 flower clusters per branch! If she keeps them all, I'll have one helluva harvest of buds (no colas, however). She's in stretch now and is a bush measuring over 30" in diameter. Because I pinched her so often, the leaves and buds are smaller.
 
I harvested all the first male's pollen and pods in a large plastic baggie. I will leave it open until the pods dry up, so the pollen doesn't get wet. I found my head stuffy and me sneezing. I know I have a tree pollen allergy. Looks like that extends to cannabis pollen, too! LOL!

I'm allergic to my cat, too, but I'm not getting rid of either cat or weed!
 
Time for some photos. The Ladies are getting so BIG, having been in veg several months to almost a year for Mama Bubblelicious!

Mama BBL in flower, followed by a closeup of one of her many flowers. Very early in the process.

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Second male after pods all trimmed off.

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A peek at Sticky Missy in early seed.

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Pictures left and right from the Flower unit.

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It's scary how fast mites can make a web. Two days after a through spray, I found a couple live webs on the sativa in seed and one on a clone. I figured using the neem spray can't hurt the seeding process, since they are protected in calyxes, and the clone is in veg, but just barely hanging on. Surrounding plants got sprayed, too.

Since the leaves on Sticky Missy are mostly all dried up, the mites only appear on the seeded buds now. At least today's appearance is a whole lot less than 2 days ago.

And so, the war on the Borg continues!
 
I took 8 clones from mama BBL from way down under her skirts. I can't even tell that I took any, she is so bushy!

I Gave all the plants a proactive spray of herbal mite spray, and checked for dried leaves. The ladies in seed are rapidly fading away, as their calyxes fill with seeds. The first male, in contrast, is still healthy, putting out new foliage, after I cut all his pods. I will have to move him out of 12/12, if I'm going to keep him in control.

I don't know how long I will keep both males. It will depend if I can find some room in the veg closet for them. They ARE in the tall trash bins and wont take up much square footage. But the closet is full of clones and seedlings!''I'm happy with the condition of all the ladies in flower. I must have their nutes dialed in!
 
I happened on a good article from a popular MJ magazine that outlined the special needs of Sativas. Since the fingers on the leaves on my mystery plants are 3/16 inch to 1/4 inch wide, they are very heavily Sativa. Plus they clearly demonstrate the growth characteristics and bud formation of Sativas.

I got spoiled growing Hybrids. LOL!

At least I can say the seeds I'm producing are "definitely Sativas". That explains the extremely vigorous roots system from the clones.

I will grow the Sativas out with larger bins and provide support early, before they get too big. I'm thinking large tomato cages. And they will need extreme attention to their nutes and tendency to harbor mites.
 
Interestingly, this morning I found the second mystery male trying to put out pods. After pinching them off, I noticed a definite Diesel scent, so this male has a different ancestry than the male I used to breed the mystery ladies with. His leaves are also very narrow, much more than male #1, meaning he is more Sativa-heavy.

Since my family likes the effects a diesel gives them, I'm going to let the second male make pollen and pollinate the next batch of mystery Sativa clones. It's too late, I think for those already in seed. Plus I need to keep the crosses separated, so I know who the fathers are.

I'm going to move him back into the breeding unit, so he can develop properly under 12/12.
 
It's nearly time for me to up-pot my Arjan's haze #1 juvenile to its final pot. I have to decide among a standard 5 gallon pot, a tall 3 gallon trash bin (14" tall) or a 2 gallon kitty litter jug. I have been pinching her to force more lateral growth. Articles say she can get 4 to 5 feet in a 5 gallon, but that assumes no training.

I also want to clone her, since she is my only specimen of this strain. She is a vigorous plant, so her clones should root rather quickly. Her ancestry is G-13 x Neville's haze, two strains I am unfamiliar with. But the specs sound good, (strong Sativa) and the family might like it.

Everyone else looked happy and healthy today. Tomorrow everyone gets a dose of Nutes and a preventative spray for mites. Which formula I use will depend on finding a colony, which means a Neem treatment, or if clean, an herbal/oil spray formulated for mites.

Male #2 has been put into the breeding unit under 12/12, while the seeded mystery sativas finish up. I was surprised how quickly they declined, once pollinated, a totally different finish than sensimilla. Now that I have had one successful pollination, and am near the end, I know what to look for the next time I make seeds.
 
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