Ase's Multi-Strain Quadlining In Coco
- Thread starter Asesino85
- Start date
I agree! My GSC/crack was all cookies and bloody fantastic!
Resin rails for days coming soon to your tent! #nothingnew
Resin rails for days coming soon to your tent! #nothingnew
- Thread starter
- #1,103
I'm excited for all of it to be quite honest. Gorilla Glue is my all time favorite. I've always wanted to grow GSC, nothing but good things to say when I've smoked GSC. I grew up smoking a lot of Blue Diesel so excited to try Red Diesel. Trying another one of Stank's strains is always really fun. The only real wild card for me is the Triple Cheese. I'm also extremely excited to do the Gorilla Glue by itself in one tent. I've wanted to do that since I started researching on these forums because @Mono was one of the first journals I stumbled across and always admired his tremendously huge one tent plants.
- Thread starter
- #1,104
Always a pleasure having you stop in! You've been following me for a minute so I must be doing something right. Although I feel like I haven't seen you around much lately so I got pretty excited to get a post from you. I think you are about ready to be in for a nice harvest as well. Those colas are huge and frosty! Stop in anytime you please JM!
- Thread starter
- #1,105
Germination Update Pt. 2
Not much good news to report today! This round of germinating seeds has seemed to be moving really slowly for me. After stating on someone else's thread that I don't have problems with germinating ever (minus Durban Poison), well here we are and Karma is a bitch! So when I put the seeds in coco 4 of the seeds had taproots coming out but the two that hadn't were the DTF. Since we no longer have cable TV I had decided to whip the warming mat out and just germinate them in my tent. I think the warming mat was too hot and pretty much fried my seeds. The taproots of the 4 that had them popped already aren't doing anything and have stayed the same length. One DTF is popping out of the coco and is healthy and the other doesn't look to be popping at all.
Long story short I tried a new method (kind of the same method but different source of warmth) and learned what I did wrong. Originally I had the warming mat down, then a dishtowel folded up and then another dish towel on top of that with the seeds in the top one. This next time I am going to put a plastic saucer on the mat and then put a shoebox on that and put the towel with the seeds in it in the shoebox. Basically I learned my mat is way hotter than I think. You live and learn but another good example of not just assuming something will work right because it's a "heating/warming mat". I have a temperature gun and there is no reason I shouldn't have checked it.
With that being said, I will be keeping the DTF that popped and will be starting more seeds today. The Red Diesel and Triple Cheese are done for sure so I tossed them. I am keeping the Gorilla Glue, Girl Scout Cookies and the other DTF to see if anything happens but if nothing happens by tomorrow they are getting tossed too. I am 99% sure I will get nothing out of them and they are toast but I'm just not 100% ready to dump them today. I will start germinating today both another DTF and GSC to replace the ones not doing anything so that's an easy fix.
The Red Diesel, Gorilla Glue and Triple Cheese were only ones that I had a single seed of so nothing to replace them directly. Instead I will be running Double Berry (Feminised Seed Co.) and Purple Trainwreck (Humboldt Seed Org.) in the Multi-Strain tent and I will be running Tangerine Dream (Barney's Farm) to replace the Gorilla Glue in the single tent grow. The Purple Trainwreck I grew before was maybe my smallest runt ever so I wanted to give it another shot and I love Trainwreck strains. Diesels and Wrecks I had a lot of in college so that kind of takes the place of the Red Diesel. The Double Berry is my wildcard to replace the cheese and I wanted to get it in this grow considering next grow I'll be doing Stankberry. The Gorilla Glue is not replaceable though and as much as I like Tangerine Dream, this is the one I am truly bummed about. It's not a big deal considering how many other strain I still have to try in my seed drawer but it's one I want to grow for sure so maybe I'll make a seed purchase for the first time in years. The seed companies usually have a Black Friday special so I'll wait for the that and get some Gorilla Glue for the next round.
If for some reason the 4 I have left (2 DTF and the GG and GSC) all pan out then I will have 3 DTF, 2 GSC, GG, Double Berry, Purple Wreck and Tangerine Dream. At that point I'll just run two Multi-Strain tents. If things play out like I think they will (2 DTF, 1 GSC, 1 DB, 1 PT, 1 TD) then I will run one Multi-Strain and one single plant in a tent. The fate of my tents and what I will do are in the ganja Gods hands now! I'm banking on the latter though because the realistic/science side of me says these seeds are toast.
Not much good news to report today! This round of germinating seeds has seemed to be moving really slowly for me. After stating on someone else's thread that I don't have problems with germinating ever (minus Durban Poison), well here we are and Karma is a bitch! So when I put the seeds in coco 4 of the seeds had taproots coming out but the two that hadn't were the DTF. Since we no longer have cable TV I had decided to whip the warming mat out and just germinate them in my tent. I think the warming mat was too hot and pretty much fried my seeds. The taproots of the 4 that had them popped already aren't doing anything and have stayed the same length. One DTF is popping out of the coco and is healthy and the other doesn't look to be popping at all.
Long story short I tried a new method (kind of the same method but different source of warmth) and learned what I did wrong. Originally I had the warming mat down, then a dishtowel folded up and then another dish towel on top of that with the seeds in the top one. This next time I am going to put a plastic saucer on the mat and then put a shoebox on that and put the towel with the seeds in it in the shoebox. Basically I learned my mat is way hotter than I think. You live and learn but another good example of not just assuming something will work right because it's a "heating/warming mat". I have a temperature gun and there is no reason I shouldn't have checked it.
With that being said, I will be keeping the DTF that popped and will be starting more seeds today. The Red Diesel and Triple Cheese are done for sure so I tossed them. I am keeping the Gorilla Glue, Girl Scout Cookies and the other DTF to see if anything happens but if nothing happens by tomorrow they are getting tossed too. I am 99% sure I will get nothing out of them and they are toast but I'm just not 100% ready to dump them today. I will start germinating today both another DTF and GSC to replace the ones not doing anything so that's an easy fix.
The Red Diesel, Gorilla Glue and Triple Cheese were only ones that I had a single seed of so nothing to replace them directly. Instead I will be running Double Berry (Feminised Seed Co.) and Purple Trainwreck (Humboldt Seed Org.) in the Multi-Strain tent and I will be running Tangerine Dream (Barney's Farm) to replace the Gorilla Glue in the single tent grow. The Purple Trainwreck I grew before was maybe my smallest runt ever so I wanted to give it another shot and I love Trainwreck strains. Diesels and Wrecks I had a lot of in college so that kind of takes the place of the Red Diesel. The Double Berry is my wildcard to replace the cheese and I wanted to get it in this grow considering next grow I'll be doing Stankberry. The Gorilla Glue is not replaceable though and as much as I like Tangerine Dream, this is the one I am truly bummed about. It's not a big deal considering how many other strain I still have to try in my seed drawer but it's one I want to grow for sure so maybe I'll make a seed purchase for the first time in years. The seed companies usually have a Black Friday special so I'll wait for the that and get some Gorilla Glue for the next round.
If for some reason the 4 I have left (2 DTF and the GG and GSC) all pan out then I will have 3 DTF, 2 GSC, GG, Double Berry, Purple Wreck and Tangerine Dream. At that point I'll just run two Multi-Strain tents. If things play out like I think they will (2 DTF, 1 GSC, 1 DB, 1 PT, 1 TD) then I will run one Multi-Strain and one single plant in a tent. The fate of my tents and what I will do are in the ganja Gods hands now! I'm banking on the latter though because the realistic/science side of me says these seeds are toast.
Bummer about the seeds Ase, hate to see anyone have germination issues, especially on single beans. Hoping for the best with the lone survivor!
Trainwreck will be a good run.
- Thread starter
- #1,108
Multi-Strain Update
To start things off a quick update on the germinating girls. My logical thought process went as plan and I basically lost everything from the first round of seeds minus the one DTF. The good news is that it looks like I fixed my problem and 4 out of the 5 new seeds have reached the surface of the coco and I can see their helmets coming through. The one that hasn't yet is the GSC and I'm sure it won't be too far behind. I expect to call Day 1 for all of these tomorrow. The one DTF will just have a couple days head start.
The Multi-Strain girls are doing fine. I think the Aurora Indica and Honeysuckle are both trying to pack on the flowering weight without much plant to be able to do it with. Since I didn't get much veg growth due to being in the 1 gallon pots forever, it's like watching one of my normal plants try and pack all the weight into 4-6 colas. I've never had plants with so few of main colas and I really don't like it. Colas are huge but things are already getting a bit floppy. The Durban Poison grew like crazy and is holding up relatively fine so far on it's own. The buds are way less developed so this one might go a week or so longer than the others.
Crazy Durban Poison all super-cropped.
Need to tie the Honeysuckle to the pole I put in there ASAP.
Aurora Indica tied up already.
To start things off a quick update on the germinating girls. My logical thought process went as plan and I basically lost everything from the first round of seeds minus the one DTF. The good news is that it looks like I fixed my problem and 4 out of the 5 new seeds have reached the surface of the coco and I can see their helmets coming through. The one that hasn't yet is the GSC and I'm sure it won't be too far behind. I expect to call Day 1 for all of these tomorrow. The one DTF will just have a couple days head start.
The Multi-Strain girls are doing fine. I think the Aurora Indica and Honeysuckle are both trying to pack on the flowering weight without much plant to be able to do it with. Since I didn't get much veg growth due to being in the 1 gallon pots forever, it's like watching one of my normal plants try and pack all the weight into 4-6 colas. I've never had plants with so few of main colas and I really don't like it. Colas are huge but things are already getting a bit floppy. The Durban Poison grew like crazy and is holding up relatively fine so far on it's own. The buds are way less developed so this one might go a week or so longer than the others.
Crazy Durban Poison all super-cropped.
Looking stellar! Glad to see some babies
Everything looking great Ase! 
- Thread starter
- #1,111
Germination Update Part 3
All is right in the world of my grow area and 6/6 have germinated now. Turns out tomorrow will really be day 1. I'm so ready for these girls to get bigger so I can train them. It seems like it has been forever since I've done a true quadline.
This whole germination issue that I had is one I could see a lot of people making. It just goes to show you that no matter how much experience you have growing, if you are doing something different than usual then you should probably keep a close eye on it and double check things more often. It is a similar mistake to the one I made a while back where I turned off a fan and didn't notice for a week in flower. Well it was my canopy level fan and the buds got mold and I lost almost all of one plant and half of another. A simple double check of the equipment every few days can save a ton in the long run!
All is right in the world of my grow area and 6/6 have germinated now. Turns out tomorrow will really be day 1. I'm so ready for these girls to get bigger so I can train them. It seems like it has been forever since I've done a true quadline.
This whole germination issue that I had is one I could see a lot of people making. It just goes to show you that no matter how much experience you have growing, if you are doing something different than usual then you should probably keep a close eye on it and double check things more often. It is a similar mistake to the one I made a while back where I turned off a fan and didn't notice for a week in flower. Well it was my canopy level fan and the buds got mold and I lost almost all of one plant and half of another. A simple double check of the equipment every few days can save a ton in the long run!
Sorry to hear about the loss of the seeds there Ase but glad you fixed it for the new ones! Everything is looking great lush and green and the colas are stacking up in the multi tent!
Keep it green my brother
Keep it green my brother
mouser
Well-Known Member
Finally got to the end here 
Awesome journal. Lots of things I'd like to try for my next grow. My current is more of a tester batch for the F2s of my Harlequin/Kosher Kush cross. See whats in there. That said. Im pulling up a cushion to watch the training.
Peace
Awesome journal. Lots of things I'd like to try for my next grow. My current is more of a tester batch for the F2s of my Harlequin/Kosher Kush cross. See whats in there. That said. Im pulling up a cushion to watch the training.Peace
- Thread starter
- #1,114
Thank you for the compliment and I dig your profile picture. I am a big cat guy and our housecat sits just like that up against a wall. I chuckled pretty hard when I saw that. It's a good time to be joining as I will be getting as in depth with quadlining as I can. Hopefully you will give it a shot sometime!Finally got to the end here
Peace
Glad to have you along and props for going through the whole journal.
- Thread starter
- #1,115
Seedlings Day 1
Things are back on track! All seedlings are out and a couple have grown a bunch overnight. The Tangerine Dream and Purple Trainwreck both shot up quick. This is good news as the Tangerine Dream will end up in a tent by itself and the Trainwreck was a runt last time so I'm happy to see those two springing out strong.
Things are back on track! All seedlings are out and a couple have grown a bunch overnight. The Tangerine Dream and Purple Trainwreck both shot up quick. This is good news as the Tangerine Dream will end up in a tent by itself and the Trainwreck was a runt last time so I'm happy to see those two springing out strong.
Off to a good start Ase ! Glad things are strong so far. Hope your well pal
DobeWan
Well-Known Member
Now that I know you're a cat guy, we can no longer be friends.
DobeWan
Well-Known Member
That said... I've been bugging newty and Derby to start seeds with me at New Years... what are the chances you'd be interested in a little #QuadSquad group grow?
- Thread starter
- #1,119
Hah! Well I like all animals really. I've always had awesome cats though with lots of personality and were all very friendly. Also I must say that I'm not like a crazy cat guy, I've never had more then one cat at a time. Only reason I don't have a dog is I'm waiting to get one when I buy a house. That should be within the next year. Technically the cat in the house right now is my roomates so I'll get a cat and dog at the same time! It's pretty 50/50 but if I had to chose, I think it's 51/49 cat.
I will have these current seedlings flipping about then and I'll still be vegging the Tangerine Dream in the other tent so looks like I can't. I will follow along though for sure. All the seeds I just sprouted were for two tents so I'm full until probably March.
- Thread starter
- #1,120
Chapter 2 : A Fresh Start - The Revamp - Newcomers Start Here!
As some of you know I was contemplating starting a new journal. I just am afraid when a journal gets too long that new people will be scared to look into it. Plus I got far away from quadlining a while back so it seemed like the right time to start over. This thread feels like home to me though and I decided to do something a bit differently. I am going to keep this one updated as my personal journal and I will likely start a communal journal for people doing quadlining. The opening of that journal will be a very detailed and long post that explains everything. People will be welcome to post pictures and put up updates and have an open place to discuss quadlining. I've always been open to pictures and questions here but I know most people don't like to junk up someone else's thread with a bunch of posts and right now there is no great place to share quadlining together and just enjoy it. So be on the lookout for that soon.
Introduction
I grew up in an area that had zero diversity and was pretty conservative. I have a great family but they are pretty religious and drugs are bad mmmmmkay! So in high school I hadn't been exposed to much partying. I knew one or two kids that smoked weed and never really thought they'd amount to anything. Funny part is at that time I didn't even know them but now one of them is my best friend (not because of weed). When I got to college I started a party phase and really quickly learned I can drink a lot. I'm Irish, Germany and Scottish so I'm pretty sure holding alcohol well is in my blood. The amount of alcohol I had to consume to get drunk was a lot more than everyone else and alcoholism runs rampant on both side of the family. I didn't want to go down that path and was tired of feeling so tired the next day. I didn't get hangovers like most people but I did feel exhausted (likely from bad sleep and my body trying to process all the alcohol I always had to consume to have fun). Then the day came where I got peer pressured into smoking weed. I do have a mindset in life that you shouldn't have too much of an opinion on things if you haven't tried them so I was reminded of that by a friend and gave it a shot. It was a moment I'd never forget and that's about the same time I stopped drinking to get drunk. It was a game changer for me. I was in college at the time and was beginning to realize how much it also helped with stress and helped me sleep. It also helped me study and take tests without anxiety. Being somebody who looked down on it without basis for so long, I didn't really know why or how it worked, I just liked being relaxed all the time. It wasn't really a once a month kind of thing for me. Basically from that point on I was going to be a daily user.
Of course weed was still illegal back then and I remember scraping pieces until I could link up with someone or really trying to ration it out as I didn't have a main guy that I knew. Prices were all over the place and you'd find "a guy" for a while and then they would disappear. Friends would get extra and I would do the same for them but sometimes there were droughts and getting it could be frustrating. I don't like the whole black market scene too much. I've been in some sticky situations, and not in the "holy crap that bud is so sticky kind-of-way". Up to this point I bet there is quite a few people saying that this sounds like a similar story. Some of you might still be having to go through this but in July 2015 Oregon legalized the recreational use of marijuana and by October 2015 you could buy it at a dispensary with just your ID. I still remember the giddy feeling of seeing so much weed and so many different kinds on my first few trips to a dispensary. Prices (especially when the tax finally hit in January of 2016) were high for the quality of stuff I liked to smoke but with so many varieties I began to realize they all have different effects and times if the day I like to use them. I began always having a sativa and indica but for how much I smoked, it added up. Really the prices weren't a ton different than I was already paying on the black market (pre-tax) so I didn't think much of it but when the 25% tax hit, it was just a bit more then I wanted to allocate to weed from my paychecks. By this time I started viewing this as more of a medicine and necessity and my expenses were low so it was important to have but I started thinking about growing. Even though I was a heavy user since college (15-16 years ago) I had never thought about growing.
Some people at this point are thinking, why am I reading this again? Well here is the link. I began researching on how to grow and by April 2016 I made some purchases to grow. It was 4-20 week and there were deals everywhere and I pulled the trigger. I had gone back and forth for a few months if this was something I really wanted to dive into and spend money on. I didn't really know what I was doing and had never seen a real grow. That's what ultimately landed me here. I went to many sites and forums and asked questions and got no responses. I came here and asked a question and got like 6 responses that day, and everyone was so welcoming. Well I remember stumbling across the contests and seeing some plants that just made me drool. That right there was the bait and I took it. I found my home and figured if I could follow these people's journals then I can grow plants like that too. I setup a journal in May 2016 and did my first soil grow and had success. But not the plants some people had. At the time coco was just kind of becoming big and I tried it knew I found the medium for me. I love coco and started to see plants that were way bigger which meant better yields.
I ended up winning my first Plant of the Month award from that first coco grow with the training of my White Rhino. I was stoked but it was a close win and I didn't really feel like I deserved it. A win is a win but I wanted one of those ,"oh, wow" kind of plants. Even though it was to others, I just had a different mindset of the kind of plant I wanted to win POTM for. It was a scrog and was kind of a pain in the ass so I wanted to figure out how to eliminate the screen and have the same results. I had taken clones of all the plants and had seen some guys really train their plants and started to think I could do the same. I began my own way to train these plants which eventually became quadlining. I didn't understand why people just mainlined 2 branches instead of 4 and I also wanted to flux so quadlining ended up becoming the combination of mainlining and fluxing, but with doing it with 4 branches. So I tried my idea and finally grew the plant of my dreams. It was HSO Chemdawg and it is the one in my profile picture. If I never grew a plant like it again I'd die happy as a grower because it was my favorite plant ever. I won POTM with it and felt good about it. Took 2nd in Plant of the Year and lost to someone who had some amazing colors. I still felt like I grew one of the best plants of the year in terms of size and shape but the color of the plant that took POTY was amazing. I was more than happy with the results considering it was just the beginning of my 2nd year of growing. It was at this point that I wanted to try to give back to the forums and maybe catch the eye of some newcomers to help them. I remember what it was like just starting out and being super confused. I was hoping to show people that if you follow what I do then you can grow plants that are just as good within your first few grows.
For my next journal I decided to make one that had everything I did in it. I had my feed schedule and how I did almost everything throughout the grow. The one thing that seemed to really stick with people was the training. People began trying quadlining and kept having great results. The feed schedule helped some people but for the most part training seemed to be my area that I could make more of a difference with. The feed schedule is at the beginning of this journal and if you aren't using General Hydroponics then you can kind of take the PPM with a grain of salt. I haven't tested the PPMs across any other nutrient lines to see similarities but I guess it shows a flow chart of when I bump feeds up and start backing off. I just don't know if the ppm numbers really are viable for any other nutrient line exactly. The N-P-K ratios and additives I use (and when) are important and the only difference to this day of when I am making feeds is that I add a little bit of Silica to every feed. Anyways, I realized that my expertise really resides in training. There are plenty of other journals on these forums that are better at explaining nutrients, or lights or all sorts of things but I want people to come here for two things. Growing in coco and training. Non-coco growers can still come here for training and Coco growers can come here for just growing in coco. Doing them both together gives a synergy to quadlining but both can still be done well separately. So I will be showing how I do things with coco and will be very detailed with the training. The intention for this whole journal was that way and it started off pretty good in the beginning but I ended up with too many plants and was unable to grow them wide. Quadlining keeps plants low and wider so if you are using tents it can get tight if you have too much going on and that's what happened. Since my other plants vegged for so long they all became massive and I needed a revamp. This is now the beginning of the revamp!
As always any questions are welcome here. I may be shifting my focus a bit and dialing in on training and coco but I can try and help with anything. I'm definitely not as active as I once was but I usually check in once a day. Sometimes I can't respond that day but I'll usually get back to you by the next day. No questions are dumb questions at all and I encourage lurkers and newbies to participate. There are a lot of veteran growers on this thread that can help. Also I would encourage anyone who does any quadlining at all to throw a #Quadsquad up in your sig. It has been a great tool/discussion starter (thought of by @newty! ) for people that are interested in quadlining. Its also connected a few people that are now pretty good forum buddies that may not have really connected before. I enjoy seeing people pass this method on and being proud that they train their plants!
As some of you know I was contemplating starting a new journal. I just am afraid when a journal gets too long that new people will be scared to look into it. Plus I got far away from quadlining a while back so it seemed like the right time to start over. This thread feels like home to me though and I decided to do something a bit differently. I am going to keep this one updated as my personal journal and I will likely start a communal journal for people doing quadlining. The opening of that journal will be a very detailed and long post that explains everything. People will be welcome to post pictures and put up updates and have an open place to discuss quadlining. I've always been open to pictures and questions here but I know most people don't like to junk up someone else's thread with a bunch of posts and right now there is no great place to share quadlining together and just enjoy it. So be on the lookout for that soon.
Introduction
I grew up in an area that had zero diversity and was pretty conservative. I have a great family but they are pretty religious and drugs are bad mmmmmkay! So in high school I hadn't been exposed to much partying. I knew one or two kids that smoked weed and never really thought they'd amount to anything. Funny part is at that time I didn't even know them but now one of them is my best friend (not because of weed). When I got to college I started a party phase and really quickly learned I can drink a lot. I'm Irish, Germany and Scottish so I'm pretty sure holding alcohol well is in my blood. The amount of alcohol I had to consume to get drunk was a lot more than everyone else and alcoholism runs rampant on both side of the family. I didn't want to go down that path and was tired of feeling so tired the next day. I didn't get hangovers like most people but I did feel exhausted (likely from bad sleep and my body trying to process all the alcohol I always had to consume to have fun). Then the day came where I got peer pressured into smoking weed. I do have a mindset in life that you shouldn't have too much of an opinion on things if you haven't tried them so I was reminded of that by a friend and gave it a shot. It was a moment I'd never forget and that's about the same time I stopped drinking to get drunk. It was a game changer for me. I was in college at the time and was beginning to realize how much it also helped with stress and helped me sleep. It also helped me study and take tests without anxiety. Being somebody who looked down on it without basis for so long, I didn't really know why or how it worked, I just liked being relaxed all the time. It wasn't really a once a month kind of thing for me. Basically from that point on I was going to be a daily user.
Of course weed was still illegal back then and I remember scraping pieces until I could link up with someone or really trying to ration it out as I didn't have a main guy that I knew. Prices were all over the place and you'd find "a guy" for a while and then they would disappear. Friends would get extra and I would do the same for them but sometimes there were droughts and getting it could be frustrating. I don't like the whole black market scene too much. I've been in some sticky situations, and not in the "holy crap that bud is so sticky kind-of-way". Up to this point I bet there is quite a few people saying that this sounds like a similar story. Some of you might still be having to go through this but in July 2015 Oregon legalized the recreational use of marijuana and by October 2015 you could buy it at a dispensary with just your ID. I still remember the giddy feeling of seeing so much weed and so many different kinds on my first few trips to a dispensary. Prices (especially when the tax finally hit in January of 2016) were high for the quality of stuff I liked to smoke but with so many varieties I began to realize they all have different effects and times if the day I like to use them. I began always having a sativa and indica but for how much I smoked, it added up. Really the prices weren't a ton different than I was already paying on the black market (pre-tax) so I didn't think much of it but when the 25% tax hit, it was just a bit more then I wanted to allocate to weed from my paychecks. By this time I started viewing this as more of a medicine and necessity and my expenses were low so it was important to have but I started thinking about growing. Even though I was a heavy user since college (15-16 years ago) I had never thought about growing.
Some people at this point are thinking, why am I reading this again? Well here is the link. I began researching on how to grow and by April 2016 I made some purchases to grow. It was 4-20 week and there were deals everywhere and I pulled the trigger. I had gone back and forth for a few months if this was something I really wanted to dive into and spend money on. I didn't really know what I was doing and had never seen a real grow. That's what ultimately landed me here. I went to many sites and forums and asked questions and got no responses. I came here and asked a question and got like 6 responses that day, and everyone was so welcoming. Well I remember stumbling across the contests and seeing some plants that just made me drool. That right there was the bait and I took it. I found my home and figured if I could follow these people's journals then I can grow plants like that too. I setup a journal in May 2016 and did my first soil grow and had success. But not the plants some people had. At the time coco was just kind of becoming big and I tried it knew I found the medium for me. I love coco and started to see plants that were way bigger which meant better yields.
I ended up winning my first Plant of the Month award from that first coco grow with the training of my White Rhino. I was stoked but it was a close win and I didn't really feel like I deserved it. A win is a win but I wanted one of those ,"oh, wow" kind of plants. Even though it was to others, I just had a different mindset of the kind of plant I wanted to win POTM for. It was a scrog and was kind of a pain in the ass so I wanted to figure out how to eliminate the screen and have the same results. I had taken clones of all the plants and had seen some guys really train their plants and started to think I could do the same. I began my own way to train these plants which eventually became quadlining. I didn't understand why people just mainlined 2 branches instead of 4 and I also wanted to flux so quadlining ended up becoming the combination of mainlining and fluxing, but with doing it with 4 branches. So I tried my idea and finally grew the plant of my dreams. It was HSO Chemdawg and it is the one in my profile picture. If I never grew a plant like it again I'd die happy as a grower because it was my favorite plant ever. I won POTM with it and felt good about it. Took 2nd in Plant of the Year and lost to someone who had some amazing colors. I still felt like I grew one of the best plants of the year in terms of size and shape but the color of the plant that took POTY was amazing. I was more than happy with the results considering it was just the beginning of my 2nd year of growing. It was at this point that I wanted to try to give back to the forums and maybe catch the eye of some newcomers to help them. I remember what it was like just starting out and being super confused. I was hoping to show people that if you follow what I do then you can grow plants that are just as good within your first few grows.
For my next journal I decided to make one that had everything I did in it. I had my feed schedule and how I did almost everything throughout the grow. The one thing that seemed to really stick with people was the training. People began trying quadlining and kept having great results. The feed schedule helped some people but for the most part training seemed to be my area that I could make more of a difference with. The feed schedule is at the beginning of this journal and if you aren't using General Hydroponics then you can kind of take the PPM with a grain of salt. I haven't tested the PPMs across any other nutrient lines to see similarities but I guess it shows a flow chart of when I bump feeds up and start backing off. I just don't know if the ppm numbers really are viable for any other nutrient line exactly. The N-P-K ratios and additives I use (and when) are important and the only difference to this day of when I am making feeds is that I add a little bit of Silica to every feed. Anyways, I realized that my expertise really resides in training. There are plenty of other journals on these forums that are better at explaining nutrients, or lights or all sorts of things but I want people to come here for two things. Growing in coco and training. Non-coco growers can still come here for training and Coco growers can come here for just growing in coco. Doing them both together gives a synergy to quadlining but both can still be done well separately. So I will be showing how I do things with coco and will be very detailed with the training. The intention for this whole journal was that way and it started off pretty good in the beginning but I ended up with too many plants and was unable to grow them wide. Quadlining keeps plants low and wider so if you are using tents it can get tight if you have too much going on and that's what happened. Since my other plants vegged for so long they all became massive and I needed a revamp. This is now the beginning of the revamp!
As always any questions are welcome here. I may be shifting my focus a bit and dialing in on training and coco but I can try and help with anything. I'm definitely not as active as I once was but I usually check in once a day. Sometimes I can't respond that day but I'll usually get back to you by the next day. No questions are dumb questions at all and I encourage lurkers and newbies to participate. There are a lot of veteran growers on this thread that can help. Also I would encourage anyone who does any quadlining at all to throw a #Quadsquad up in your sig. It has been a great tool/discussion starter (thought of by @newty! ) for people that are interested in quadlining. Its also connected a few people that are now pretty good forum buddies that may not have really connected before. I enjoy seeing people pass this method on and being proud that they train their plants!