AKGramma's Perpetual Grow

After trimming about 100 mini-micro buds from the lower leaves, and ending up with jars of bud good only for cooking/baking, I'm going to do away with the lower auxiliary CFL's and trim out the lower branches for clones, in the tall unit. The BBL's, however fill out ALL their buds all the way to the bottom, so the BBLs will get the supplemental lighting and more LST.

The Autos and AK 48's don't develop well below a certain point and favor topical buds over lower growth. That is, with a minimum of LSTing. However, if I cut the number of plants down, I can make room to LST the photoperiods in the classical manner and give them some side room to develop more colas.

I also want to grow a horizontal auto (without pinching out the main growing tip) and see how much yield I get.
 
I've been trimming out the min-buds at the lower end of mama Bubblelicious, as those buds will never amount to anything. I'm plucking out JUST the buds, like one would harvest blueberries, in the hope that she will reveg when I take her upper buds.

I decided to harvest the little Arjan Haze I grew in a 2 gallon recycled kitty litter jug. She never got above 15" tall, but she was crusty with trics and resin. I also plucked just the buds and put her in the veg unit on 16/8. I'll know in a couple weeks if she lives or dies. I'm misting the plants I have in reveg, hoping to keep the twigs alive, but one smaller BBL has all ready desiccated, even with adequate water and light. :-(

Time to replenish more root-filled soil. I'm running out of 5 gallon buckets! LOL! Might have to check the shed for something larger.

Next trash bin will have to have wheels, so I can move it around.
 
I checked the average seed to harvest time for Autoberry and saw I was 2 weeks past that. All that sweet resin and trics just making them lean heavily to one side. So I harvested the last 2 Autoberries last night, from miniature buds all the way up to the colas.

I had to take apart the colas, tho, because they were too sticky-solid to dry properly. As it was, each of the buds I clipped out are as big as my thumbnail. Even the three-fingered leaves were covered with trics, top and bottom, so left them with the bud.

Now all is left is mama BBL, growing in her typical sativa way. :Love:

No matter what I did, it came in rotated. Sorry.

BBL_5-2-171.jpg


and a bud closeup, cat hairs and all. Doesn't do it justice for the trics.

BBL_bud.JPG


I bought a 30 gallon storage tote to mix soil in. I have so much used soil that needs rejuvenation, and I have too many 5 gallon and 3 gallon bins & buckets sitting around. I d' rather keep the "cooking" soil in one tote with enough room for mixing.
 
I have been putting off starting new seeds, because I am sorting out my goals.

1) eliminate mini buds and worthless side branches
2) more colas (8 or 16)
3) more consistency in appearance of plants
4) less maintenance.

So, I have decided to try mainlining. I DL'd two very good tutorials, one for seedlings and one for clones. Since I can't seem to clone worth crap, and I have hundreds of seeds, I will go with seedlings.

I have plenty of photo fem seeds.

I can do this!

:slide:
 
I also want to grow a horizontal auto (without pinching out the main growing tip) and see how much yield I get.
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A method that may work well for an auto is to grow the plant with the pot tipped on its side 90° Till it starts flowering- then you tip it up to normal agin and let it do its thing. A trick from Uptheholler2 thread.
 
Weaselcracker said:
A method that may work well for an auto is to grow the plant with the pot tipped on its side 90° Till it starts flowering- then you tip it up to normal again and let it do its thing. A trick from Uptheholler2 thread.
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When the taproot hits the side, won't it think it hit bottom and switch to bloom?

Update:

After a 3-day dry, the buds from both Autoberrys came to 32g. I dry them to 65% then jar them with one or two Bovedas, then cure them in the bottom of my refrigerator.

Since I can't mainline Autos in the traditional way, I would have to bend the stalk horizontal before it got woody, to force large side growth, then ruthlessly trim out the weaklings to 8 strong growing tips. I have a good stash of Autos between those I bought and those gifted.

I was gifted 3 White Castle seeds, regular, not FEM, so I will sprout these next, and mainline them. If I only sprout these three, I'll have the smaller unit to move a male to, to collect his pollen and in a neat and organized manner, seed just one branch, and still get colas on the other branches. ;-)

Going back to my reference to find the recommended pot size to mainline in. I USUALLY veg for at least 3 months, to get the extra growth for more yield, so might need the 5 gallon pots. The symmetry of mainlining demands round pots, not rectangular trash bins for the tied downs and tomato cage supports.
 
When the taproot hits the side, won't it think it hit bottom and switch to bloom?
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Hmmm- maybe- no idea. He wasn't growing autos, and I think he kind of alternated upright/sideways- would tip them over for a week or two and let them grow up. Pre-bloom timing might be important.
 
I'm harvesting my last lady in flower, the mama BBL. The buds are disappointing for such a large plant. I am fed up with mini-buds that no one, but myself, wants. They think because they are small, that they are not potent. But I have proven that they ARE, esp when used in cooking dishes that have an adequate amount of fat, like chili, stew, soups, etc.

So, end of an era for me. No more lighting the lower parts of the plants, and I am switching to mainlining for this next grow. Even sativa-heavy hybrids should give me buds at least large enough to stuff in a bowl.

I have all the equipment I need: the 5 gallon pots (some use as small as 3 gallons), the tomato rings, good soil and organic nutes.

Oh, BTW, I came across a discussion on DIY air pots! One just has to drill holes all over a plastic pot, and the roots will air-prune without encircling the pot and strangling the feeder roots. The size of the holes seems to be up to the grower, and how sturdy the pot is.

I've never had a problem with circling roots in the 3 gallon tall trash bins.
 
Them dates they put on flowering times is never right. Everything takes a extra week or two. If you harvested at mosts time frame you wood end up with mediocre herbs. Them last two weeks are when they really crank out the trichomes and make your top shelf weeds.. GL and Keepem Green
 
Norcaliwood said:
Them dates they put on flowering times is never right. Everything takes a extra week or two. If you harvested at mosts time frame you wood end up with mediocre herbs. Them last two weeks are when they really crank out the trichomes and make your top shelf weeds.. GL and Keepem Green
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This is true, but Mama BBL's buds were dried on the stems. Since she was a 3rd generation clone, and over a year in veg, she matured very rapidly, and zipped right on by me. I didn't expect her to be ready for another week or two.

I might have a few buds large enough to smoke, but 85% of them were mini, and good only for edibles.

Tonight I'm going to look thru my seeds and sprout 3 more, for recreational use (for the family). The 3 White Castles are for my medicine, and will be my first experiment with mainlining.
 
People do real well with that extreme LSTing fluxing whatever one calls it, but that method does make max use of your sweet spot with most lights, and in the plants canopy level. Hey sometimes popcorn buds can be every bit as good as large cola. Ofcourse they don't look as good,, but bag appeal is only 1/4 of to me, what makes up a good bag of herb. Bag appeal, smell, taste, and last but most important, the stone. All 4 together to me, make a bag of good pot. But if you've got need of good cooking product,, that's always a plus... GL and Keepem Green
 
Hmm... I can't ever tell which buds are wimpy. I even roll some in clear papers and still can't tell! Remind me again what your grow area size is and type/amount of light you are using. My soilless plants far exceed my soil plants as far as density and bulk are concerned. As for final product, no real difference in quality. Again, my sample size consists of 1 and she is far from snobbish.

Great job!
 
Spitz said:
Hmm... I can't ever tell which buds are wimpy. I even roll some in clear papers and still can't tell! Remind me again what your grow area size is and type/amount of light you are using. My soilless plants far exceed my soil plants as far as density and bulk are concerned. As for final product, no real difference in quality. Again, my sample size consists of 1 and she is far from snobbish.

Great job!
Click to expand...

One doubled-up shelving unit is 36" x 36" x 72" tall with 2 Mars 300 LED panels plus 8 23 Watt CFLs of both wavelengths. This tent is my flowering unit, but early in the grow, it become the Veg unit.

One 15" x 36" x 60" tall shelving unit with 2 Mars 300's plus 4 23 Watt CFLs.

In my next grow, which I have just planted seeds for, I'm going to move all the CFLs to the upper third of the units, and mainline the stems.

I'm replenishing my soil with one of the soil recipes outline in the Organic Forum, but still supplement with liquid nutes that I cannot not find in soil/granular form. like seaweed extract and sugar daddy (molasses and Epsom salts). I'm not sure if I will need veg and bloom nutes, with a fully organic soil, however. I'll let the ladies tell me what they need.
 
Spitz said:
Hmm... I can't ever tell which buds are wimpy. I even roll some in clear papers and still can't tell! Remind me again what your grow area size is and type/amount of light you are using. My soilless plants far exceed my soil plants as far as density and bulk are concerned. As for final product, no real difference in quality. Again, my sample size consists of 1 and she is far from snobbish.

Great job!
Click to expand...

One doubled-up shelving unit is 36" x 36" x 72" tall with 2 Mars 300 LED panels plus 8 23 Watt CFLs of both wavelengths. This tent is my flowering unit, but early in the grow, it become the Veg unit.

One 15" x 36" x 60" tall shelving unit with 2 Mars 300's plus 4 23 Watt CFLs.

In my next grow, which I have just planted seeds for, I'm going to move all the CFLs to the upper third of the units, and mainline the stems.

I'm replenishing my soil with one of the soil recipes outline in the Organic Forum, but still supplement with liquid nutes that I cannot not find in soil/granular form. like seaweed extract and sugar daddy (molasses and Epsom salts). I'm not sure if I will need veg and bloom nutes, with a fully organic soil, however. I'll let the ladies tell me what they need.

I had just the opposite experience with soil-less vs soil. My hempy experiment gave me plants 1/3 smaller. But I do have to admit, I couldn't quite get the hang of the watering/feeding schedule.
 
I dumped all my used soil (except that in reveg) in the big tote to mix in amendments. I noticed that the only strain that completely filled the 3 gallon tall trash bags was the Autoberry. But there were no circling roots. It seems that the 3 gallon tall bins are perfect for how long I veg (3 months) and will accommodate anything I grow.

I think I can mainline in those bins. :hmmm:
 
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