Brightlight's Strain Fest: Organics & LED

re: Brightlight's Strain Fest - Organics & LED

brightlight said:
Conrad, my whining about trimming jinxed me. Never mentioned here that I have major bone on bone arthritis in left shoulder caused by epic failed, lousy surgeries. When it acts up bad like right now, I am literally a one armed man. So I'm asking myself how the hell am I going to trim w/ one arm & hand? Time for lots of aspirin & this::lot-o-toke:

Most of my remaining plants are sativas & shouldn't be left growing beyond another wk. at most. Oct. is a good grow mo. here except the rare rainy Octobers. I've gone deep into Nov. w/ a few seemingly interminable sativas, but Nov. days get quite short & isn't good growing weather even in CA. Nothing like that in yard this yr.
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Sorry to hear that, man. I have major spine problems, so I really get it :passitleft:
 
re: Brightlight's Strain Fest - Organics & LED

Man I'd damn near kill for them fall's again. I did settle into a hard road to do outdoor flip's. Not so much the longitude/latitude thing, just this area, Portland. A lot of deep water real close and that bring in a lot of extra moisture besides early rains and mold spores so thick they build up on your weather stripping on the car.
Bummer bout the arm. Myself all the bumps and bruises of life are catching up with me. I had some of that bone on bone crap. Had the hip replacement. I didn't listen and went fishing second day after the surgery. Well while climbing down to the river toking acouple car batteries I snagged my foot on a root and really sent a stabbing pain. Well my hips popped out over 15 times since 1991. But all this we do is a labour of love. Even a one arm man will handle it. And it's cool you got a day of choice to start plucking leaves. Seems like you got your jars filled and that's great. Here I got to have things that finish by Sept 28th give or take acouple days. Hard to find a GOOD 40 day finisher. I'm going to try the special again this month. But I guess I pick a random item for 12 bucks. This order is going to be kind of hefty. Well Keepem Green
 
re: Brightlight's Strain Fest - Organics & LED

Just this seasonI found out two great varieties for my own, very humid climate. One is Trainwreck from HSO and the other one is Orient Express from Ace Seeds. My Trainwreck was ready by 25th September, but could have been chopped even around 20th, cause trichs were almost perfectly cloudy by this point, and this is very sativa-dominant strain. Orient Express on the other hand was ready by 1st/2nd week of October, but this Vietnam Black genetics makes it absolutely perfect anti-mold material.
 
re: Brightlight's Strain Fest - Organics & LED

Sorry for an even longer lapse since the last update. A few more pictures & wrap up on this year's outdoor garden.....

HARVEST
Outdoor harvest was completed on 10/10. Fans were mostly removed on live plant, then plant cut the next day. Then into garage to hang old school upside down for a few days before going into 2nd stage boxes for another few days. How long depended on plant moisture, bud density & temperatures. Luckily October was not as hot as usual. A couple of seasons ago I also insulated the metal garage door, which keeps garage not higher than low 70's no matter how hot it gets outside. After the box stage untrimmed buds go into 1/2 gal. canning jars to wait for trimming. This year I added Bovedas to the box stage as well as the jars. The result is a very, very slow drying process despite the warm & dry early Fall weather here.

I was told to dry this way after hang a long time ago. It seemed to work well so kept doing it. DJ Short also recommends a similar 2nd stage dry.
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THE LAST PLANTS
CHEESEDOG
I wrote some details on this strain last update. It was fun to grow....light green, not too leafy, fat buds from top to bottom, smelled great. I don't even attempt to label the fragrance as I'm lousy at it. My son said raspberry fragrance, which now makes sense & seems right. Effect is pretty strong & getting stronger. As the last plant harvested, it hasn't gotten enough attention yet in the vaporizer.

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2 STRAINS NOT YET MENTIONED
SAGE N SOUR
I've wanted to grow this strain for awhile, & it didn't disappoint. Being a Santa Cruz Mtn. guy for a long time, we'd always heard of Big Sur Holy Weed, but even in the pot rich Santa Cruz Mountains, none ever came my way. Supposedly developed by a monk named Perry at some Big Sur monastery. TH's SAGE is supposed to be Big Sur Holy Weed or some close derivative. I love Sour Diesels & TH has a good one as I found out when I grew it's UltraSour inside earlier this year. Sage N Sour probably gets my Power Award this yr. as the strongest & most potent high. The other award is my personal Grower's Choice Award (best overall plant), and that went to the Lost Coast OG. Just a little game I have with my plants each year. Sage n Sour is ridiculously sticky and still hard to trim more than a month since harvest. Sativa style high all the way. To repeat....really, really strong! Definitely not a one & done strain for me.
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GIRL SCOUT HAZE COOKIES
This is a Connoisseur Genetics cross of its SSSDH (Ojd cut) & Girl Scout Cookies. I'd grown SSSDH before & wanted to grow more of it, but when I was buying seeds, I went for the cookies cross since I had never even tried cookies of any kind or cut. The plant was tall, narrow, & dark green much like the SSSDH. A bit too leafy for my liking. Never did get any good bud pics while it was growing. The buds are leafy & really sticky like the SnS. I gummed up 6 pairs of shears today trimming 15 grams. Hard work. But it is a potent up type high, quite social, & long lasting. In hindsight, I think I prefer straight up SSSDH, which is close to the "happiest" weed I've ever grown & vaped. Maybe sometimes crosses of 2 good strains end up quite good, but not as good as each parent? IDK...just a thought.
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Next time I'll post a few bud pictures, and also an update on my current indoor grow that's about 3 wks. into bloom & starting to be exciting. Thanks to everyone who's visited & posted!!
 
re: Brightlight's Strain Fest - Organics & LED

Lovely update bright!! Really. I just wish I saw more of them, you grow great plants! And I love to read about your strains.

I hope you're enjoying those well deserved buds. Thanks for the update :)
 
re: Brightlight's Strain Fest - Organics & LED

So this is where everyone is. And having caught up I can see why. I'll just quietly sit at the back and learn more about strains if you don't mind.
 
re: Brightlight's Strain Fest - Organics & LED

Hey SoilGirl. Very good to see you! Thanks for kind words. I guess you missed the commotion on your thread this morning? Not to worry....a few of your friends had your back.

Welcome Mr. T! Great to have you visit. Heck, don't "sit quiet at the back", everyone always enjoys your great input.

:circle-of-love:
 
re: Brightlight's Strain Fest - Organics & LED

Fantastic plants, bright.
Hope that you got everything you were shooting for this year.
 
re: Brightlight's Strain Fest - Organics & LED

Congrats Bright. Nice haul...
 
re: Brightlight's Strain Fest - Organics & LED

Looks like you got your stash jars full for awhile. Hey for outdoors I've been using this green vinyl tie ribbon. Stuff's 1/4" thick up to a inch and really stretchy. Makes for good soft ties to tie your plants up and double as good Band-Aid material, for tying branches back together. I know I've had the main stem split on some big plants and had to fix in a down pour, I tied them back together with panty hoses. Worked. Congrad's on the harvest Keepem Green
 
re: Brightlight's Strain Fest - Organics & LED

Relaxed Lester said:
Great harvest and plants brotha :thumb: :bravo:
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Thank you to all for dropping by & your kind words. I am very happy with the 2014 outdoor grow. The ultra low feeding approach surprised me. I expected lower yields and small colas....but ended up with greater overall yields & some very large colas. Quality was good across all 8 strains...by my own stringent standards, but I always like my own bud. Hahaha.

Jason King in Cannabible writes on how herb takes on its grower's vibes/energy so unless the grower doesn't like him/herself, it follows that one should like the type of high that one grows...even allowing for strain differences. Potency is best judged in my opinion by a consensus of those who've enjoyed the herb....so I'm pleased by patient reviews. Well enough in my mind & good to hear, but to me it's always what I could've done better & what I learned to get even better next time. That's what we do, right friends?
 
re: Brightlight's Strain Fest - Organics & LED

conradino23 said:
Fantastic plants, bright.
Hope that you got everything you were shooting for this year.
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B A R said:
Congrats Bright. Nice haul...
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nhteatime said:
Love that box of bud and Your plant pictures are beautiful! Great update :peace:
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Norcaliwood said:
Looks like you got your stash jars full for awhile. Hey for outdoors I've been using this green vinyl tie ribbon. Stuff's 1/4" thick up to a inch and really stretchy. Makes for good soft ties to tie your plants up and double as good Band-Aid material, for tying branches back together. I know I've had the main stem split on some big plants and had to fix in a down pour, I tied them back together with panty hoses. Worked. Congrad's on the harvest Keepem Green
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Relaxed Lester said:
Great harvest and plants brotha :thumb: :bravo:
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Sorry...my thanks were intended to all but with my sporadic posting, I forget how to even do things here.
 
re: Brightlight's Strain Fest - Organics & LED

Back to the LED Garden.....

In post #65 way back in August, I started to journal my current indoor grow. Two months later (sad...I know) I'm picking up where I left off. To recap the strains are: Chem 91 (Cali Connection), White Master Kush (OG Raskal), Em-Dog (Humboldt Seed Org.), & Bella Donna (Paradise).

Germinated on 8/13. One week under T5 lighting before switching to the LED. Using the dimmer I vegged mostly at 300 to 350 watts. Watts increased gradually toward end of veg. Light to canopy distance in veg was kept ~15".


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Bottom fans yellowing so time to transplant. I like to wait before transplant to allow more root development.
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After transplant into final 2 gal. soft pots....around 3 wks.
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Defoliation started ~4 wks. Pretty much ongoing from that point. Hundreds of leaves have been removed. Before & after of Bella Donna. I knew early on that this one was going to be hard to deal with....so thick & dense. All plants fimmed several times. I try for max. nodes for selected height of ~24" max. This time I got 10-12 on all 6.
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A few more veg pictures.
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Chem 91 on left, White Master in back, Bella Donna in front.
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Veg went ok. I had planned to start this grow earlier but had to delay 1+ months due to high summer heat. So the soil cooked for almost 3 months. This ended up being very "dank" dirt. I mixed at full outdoor proportions whereas I went only ~50% in my 1st grow earlier this yr. The plants in veg were really dark green without showing toxicity. Made me a little nervous though. No nutrients used until just before 12/12.

Enough about veg. I'm in 4th wk. of bloom now & will update to present soon.
 
re: Brightlight's Strain Fest - Organics & LED

brightlight said:
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Veg went ok.
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I like your understated style, Sir. *tips top hat and raises ebony cane in salute*

If you have a moment, could you explain the principle of defoliation to an eager student please? You take off fan leaves which are covering potential bud sites, yes? Don't LEDs claim to have penetration through the canopy?
:thanks::circle-of-love:
 
re: Brightlight's Strain Fest - Organics & LED

It's wonderful to see an update Bright!! I love the way you do things, the way you get such full and even canopies you're a great example for any grower :) ...such perfect looking plants.

I can't speak for bright's personal defoling style but yes Mr. Teddy you have the jist of it. Sometimes you don't need to remove the fan leaves though, you just have to move them out of the way of nodes that want to grow :hippy: which would be training instead of defol, but achieving the same thing. Looking at the progression of bright's pics, it seems like he only removed fans from the tippy top growth :P -and got great results.
 
re: Brightlight's Strain Fest - Organics & LED

SoilGirl said:
It's wonderful to see an update Bright!! I love the way you do things, the way you get such full and even canopies you're a great example for any grower :) ...such perfect looking plants.

I can't speak for bright's personal defoling style but yes Mr. Teddy you have the jist of it. Sometimes you don't need to remove the fan leaves though, you just have to move them out of the way of nodes that want to grow :hippy: which would be training instead of defol, but achieving the same thing. Looking at the progression of bright's pics, it seems like he only removed fans from the tippy top growth :P -and got great results.
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Thanks for kind words Mr. T & SG. And thanks SG for chiming in on defol. I do it to aid lateral branching growth & hopefully grow a fairly even canopy. I try to max out on # of nodes when deciding when to go to 12/12. Outdoors I've never done much defol, just to expose buds. So this is new for me too.

I don't have any side lighting so I take out leaves that are blocking light to desired branches/buds when looking from the top of the plant. If the leaves aren't blocking any sites where I want to push growth/budding, then I leave them to do their work. I agree with SG....that's why you see more leaves at bottom of plant. I actually hate to cute off any leaves, but do it as it seems necessary indoors. I do it slowly & ongoing...thinking less plant stress. The ultra thick stubby indica w/ dense leaves & buds on ea. branch are throwing me for a loop. Maybe need a severe, heavy defol...IDK? I even thought "too many nodes?":rofl:
 
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