Carcass' $150 Low Budget Grow 2019

[Carcass]

That is gorgeous! Nice work!!

Thanks, Grh! and thanks for checking out my journal- stop by anytime!

Nice tip Carcass! I’m trying to figure out of those are tongue marks on the top of that mold or a hand swipe...

Lol!- It was a hand swipe!-I looked like a cat cleaning its paw while I was licking it off my hand...in retrospect, I should of just let it set up, then I could've just peeled it off the mold! (but where's the fun in that?)

And while I'm in here, time for Tuesday's Update...

The Super Silver Haze only grew an inch and a half or so in the last 7 days- She's 76 days old, and it's been 27 days since flipping to 12/12...I think she may be done stretching, even though she's only 17 inches tall-
Since she's a photo plant, I thought there might be a height problem in there after the stretch, but It looks like that's not going to happen- that's fine, although another 3 or 4" would have been nice...

The SaugaView®:

It's hard to tell from the pics, but she's a very dark green...a little too dark, IMO, so I lowered her MegaCrop to 5g/gal (from 5.5g)- I left the Silica Blast at 4ml/gal, and continued with 0.3g of Bud Explosion.
She's drinking a gallon every 2 days now-avg. lights-on temp in the box is 80f, and the average rh is 35%

Her buds are starting to frost up a little...

Silhouette shot:

And that's about all for today...

I get to go to the dentist in a little while to get a cavity filled- I don't relish the thought of sitting in there with my mouth wide open for an hour, but I've been putting it off since the beginning of the pandemic...
Back then, I figured I'd give it a few months, and after the pandemic I'd get it filled....that was close to a year ago, so what was a little cavity then, is now real big one...It's within a day or 2 of starting to hurt,so I no longer have any choice...

I'll be back this afternoon to try and catch up...

Thanks for looking, I appreciate the support!
Please stay safe out there!

 

[InTheShed]

That plant is beautiful from tooth to toe! Good idea lowering the MC a bit with that extra green showing up. And maybe the dentist can give you a nose mask to breathe through while they work on your mouth .

 

[Grand Daddy Black]

That plant is really gorgeous, @Carcass. Good catch on the too green Mega Crop reveal.

I'm taking notes here.

 

[Stunger]

Looking lovely Carcass, good luck with the tooth, hopefully all done and dusted before you know it.

 

[VetSmoke85]

Heyyyyy sexy ladyyy She looks fantastic mate.

 

[Carcass]

That plant is beautiful from tooth to toe!

Ha! I see what you did there! Thanks Shed!

Good catch on the too green

Tbh, I didn't even know she was way too green until I took her outside to water her last week, and in the sun, it was a "holy shit!" moment...so I watered one of Mrs.C.'s roses with the 5.5g gallon of Mega Crop, and I mixed up another gallon at 5.0g for the SSH...

Looking lovely Carcass, good luck with the tooth,

Thanks, Stunger! The dentist went fine- It was one of those things where the anticipation was a lot worse than the actual event. I still don't like dentists though....actually, the dentists are fine- It's the stuff they
do that I don't care for...

She looks fantastic mate.

Thanks, Vet! If she ends up half as pretty as your GG, I'll be stoked!

 

[Trala]

Thanks, Grh! and thanks for checking out my journal- stop by anytime!

Lol!- It was a hand swipe!-I looked like a cat cleaning its paw while I was licking it off my hand...in retrospect, I should of just let it set up, then I could've just peeled it off the mold! (but where's the fun in that?)

And while I'm in here, time for Tuesday's Update...

The Super Silver Haze only grew an inch and a half or so in the last 7 days- She's 76 days old, and it's been 27 days since flipping to 12/12...I think she may be done stretching, even though she's only 17 inches tall-
Since she's a photo plant, I thought there might be a height problem in there after the stretch, but It looks like that's not going to happen- that's fine, although another 3 or 4" would have been nice...

The SaugaView®:

It's hard to tell from the pics, but she's a very dark green...a little too dark, IMO, so I lowered her MegaCrop to 5g/gal (from 5.5g)- I left the Silica Blast at 4ml/gal, and continued with 0.3g of Bud Explosion.
She's drinking a gallon every 2 days now-avg. lights-on temp in the box is 80f, and the average rh is 35%

Her buds are starting to frost up a little...

Silhouette shot:

And that's about all for today...

I get to go to the dentist in a little while to get a cavity filled- I don't relish the thought of sitting in there with my mouth wide open for an hour, but I've been putting it off since the beginning of the pandemic...
Back then, I figured I'd give it a few months, and after the pandemic I'd get it filled....that was close to a year ago, so what was a little cavity then, is now real big one...It's within a day or 2 of starting to hurt,so I no longer have any choice...

I'll be back this afternoon to try and catch up...

Thanks for looking, I appreciate the support!
Please stay safe out there!

So beautiful Carcass.

How do you get so many growth points? And how do you keep her so low and thick. This grow look is my favourite and I haven’t achieved it with the Tangerine Trio at all. I’m hoping my Gorilla Glue will flower in the same way as yours. I don’t really like it when they stretch too much. My Tangies don’t look pretty at all anymore.

 

[BooWho2]

The Super Silver Haze only grew an inch and a half or so in the last 7 days- She's 76 days old

Morning Carcass! Wow, has it really been 76 days since the faux-auto SSH was born? My gosh, where has the time gone? She’s looking absolutely gorgeous - too green or not! Her shape is also gorgeous - well done on that too! Wow.

another 3 or 4" would have been nice...

Newbie question here - do you think she may continue to grow (slowly) another 2-3 inches? I always feel like
mine do continue to grow taller but very slowly. Maybe it’s just because I’m stoned, lol.

Have a lovely day Carcass.

 

[InTheShed]

When plants get taller after stretch I find it's because the buds are stacking rather than the plant actually adding length in the stems.

 

[Carcass]

How do you get so many growth points? And how do you keep her so low and thick.

Thanks for the kind words, Trala!
The training I do is quadline training, with a few little differences- I top them once above the third node
at 10-12 days old, then apx. 5 days later, I start tying the branches down.
I leave all three nodes, so I end up with 6 main branches, and all the branches from those 6 branches are what ends up being the growth tips... they don't all make the grade, so the funky ones get trimmed off if they're not likely to reach the canopy.
Them staying short is a "side effect" of the training- they still grow plenty, but the growth is mostly horizontal- if you straightened out the branches on the SSH, she'd be about 25" tall...

Click on "Quadsquad" in my signature and it'll take you to an 89 page thread all about training them to
have lots of tops- Most of what you need to know is in the first 3 pages or so, so you don't have to go through all 89 pages.
Quad training does take a little more time and effort than just letting them go natural, but really, it only amounts to about ten minutes a day (per plant)

do you think she may continue to grow (slowly) another 2-3 inches?

Thanks for the compliment,Boo!
Yeah, she'll grow at least another 3 or 4 inches before she's done, but after the initial stretch the growth is super slow, maybe a half inch per week...

it's because the buds are stacking rather than the plant actually adding length in the stems.

There ya go! Thanks, Shed!

 

[Stunger]

The training I do is quadline training, with a few little differences- I top them once above the third node
at 10-12 days old, then apx. 5 days later, I start tying the branches down.

When I do quadlining I also top above the 3rd node, not from my own brilliance but simply because when I first did so I was following a past poster by the handle of Light Addict, he would micro top above the 3rd node for his Fluxing approach, just a little wiggle/waggle when the shoot is only about an inch long and it falls away easily without a blade or sissors, it heals very quickly and saves wasted growth by topping above the 3rd node when the plant has got to say 5 or 6 nodes and needs a blade. But having said that, with my current Godfather grow I followed the more conventional approach and let it grow out to 6 or 7 nodes before topping because I wanted to try and clone the topping (which unfortunately failed). However, other folk with far more experience than me have suggested that topping later can be more beneficial for letting the root mass build. I don't know, but next time I'll probably go back to micro topping.

Your mention of leaving all 3 nodes to grow out is interesting and makes good sense. Strong growth can come from a low node and if it doesn't as you say, you can just remove them when you prune off weak growth. I had a quadline get topped early by a slug and I only had the first 2 nodes to grow out which still worked well and gave me over half a pound.

What are your thoughts of when you top above the 3rd node, do you let it grow out to 5 or 6 nodes first or just enough to micro top? <edit: I presume you micro top if you are topping at 10-12 days>. Have your growing experiences suggested it better to do so earlier or later? Cheers

 

[Trala]

Thanks for the kind words, Trala!
The training I do is quadline training, with a few little differences- I top them once above the third node
at 10-12 days old, then apx. 5 days later, I start tying the branches down.
I leave all three nodes, so I end up with 6 main branches, and all the branches from those 6 branches are what ends up being the growth tips... they don't all make the grade, so the funky ones get trimmed off if they're not likely to reach the canopy.
Them staying short is a "side effect" of the training- they still grow plenty, but the growth is mostly horizontal- if you straightened out the branches on the SSH, she'd be about 25" tall...

Click on "Quadsquad" in my signature and it'll take you to an 89 page thread all about training them to
have lots of tops- Most of what you need to know is in the first 3 pages or so, so you don't have to go through all 89 pages.
Quad training does take a little more time and effort than just letting them go natural, but really, it only amounts to about ten minutes a day (per plant)

If I get the opportunity to plant some more seeds I'm definitely going to apply this technique.

Can you do it with clones?

 

[Carcass]

Have your growing experiences suggested it better to do so earlier or later? Cheers

I haven't really done it later- I just top as soon as there's enough of a fourth node to cut it off.
That is a good point about getting better roots by letting it grow to 6 or 7 nodes before topping, and I may try that when I do another photo in there...I usually grow autos, though, and if you let them grow out till 6 or 7 nodes, you'd be topping well into flowering, which wouldn't work out very well (imo)

Can you do it with clones?

I haven't, but it can be done...it's a little tricky because clones don't (usually) have the symmetry that seedlings do, so you'd have to adapt the training to tying down uneven branches (clones often have alternating nodes) Other than the clone having to be a little taller to get 4 branches, the training would be pretty much the same.
You know I'm here to walk you through it if you're not quite sure what to do, so I'm
ready when you are!

 

[Trala]

I haven't, but it can be done...it's a little tricky because clones don't (usually) have the symmetry that seedlings do, so you'd have to adapt the training to tying down uneven branches (clones often have alternating nodes) Other than the clone having to be a little taller to get 4 branches, the training would be pretty much the same.
You know I'm here to walk you through it if you're not quite sure what to do, so I'm
ready when you are!

I'm going to take you up on your kind offer, Carcass. I am really quite unhappy with how I shaped the structure of my Tangerines. I have limited branches and they are very gangly.

I hopefully have some seeds coming, but if they fail to get here I could try and clone the plants I have. I'd have to monster a Tangie as they are all in full flower. I have a good solid little Gorilla Glue clone but I'm going to give that to the original owner for him to no doubt fuck up. My last attempt at a Gorilla Glue clone died, so hopefully I can strike another.

As soon as I have one up I'll get you to teach me to grow using your method. That plant pictured is exactly what I want to achieve.

 

[Carcass]

I'm going to take you up on your kind offer, Carcass

Great! I'll help you any way I can...It's actually an easy process, and once you do one, any others will be a piece of cake...
For your first one, I'd suggest a photoperiod plant- they're much more forgiving than autos.
Autos are fine as long as everything goes well, but one little bump in the road can set them back so far they may not ever catch back up...

That plant pictured is exactly what I want to achieve.

Funny- that's almost exactly what I told @Heavenly Hybrid about a year and a half ago- she grew this beautiful quadlined plant, and when I saw it, I thought "OMG! that's just the best plant ever!"
So that's how I've grown my indoor plants ever since...
If you haven't already, you should check out her journal- She's a very nice lady, and she really knows her stuff!

 

[Carcass]

Well, today was pretty much a wasted day, but I did learn something along the way.....

Yesterday, I started wondering (uh-oh...) if there was any way (besides superfine filtering) that could
get all the excess particulate matter out of my infused thc and cbd oil to possibly get rid of that "cooked pot" taste...and I found something...

"Gelatine Clarification"- this involves heating your oil up, then adding 1/2 cup of water, with one packet of "bloomed" gelatine dissolved in it...basically, you pour the gelatine mix into your hot oil, shake the crap out of it for about 3 minutes, then let it sit for 24 hours in a warm enough spot that refined coconut oil won't solidify....(you can just put non-solidifying oils in the fridge)
the gelatine latches on to the particles, and it sinks to the bottom of the jar, taking the particles with it.

The process actually works well...

after 1 hour

after 19 hours

It actually worked, and did what it was supposed to- Most of the burnt pot taste was gone- the oil was light green (instead of dark, brownish green), and all the floaty little particles were gone...

I'll have to not shake it up before using it from now on, but just I suck the oil off the top with a turkey baster anyway...

So, I figured- Great! I need some cbd gummies, so I'll make some up...
Which I did, using the same procedure that's worked fine twenty or more times...but this time, it didn't work...the oil separated out of the gelatine, and I had a mess...($hit!)

No problem, I must've just f*cked up somehow....I'll try it again, but I'll be real careful this time....

So..I made up another batch of gummies, being very careful to follow (my own) instructions....
And- you guessed it...this batch did the same thing...wtf?

I let these harden in the freezer so you can see the separation:

All I can figure (my theory) is that without the particulate matter in the oil, the gelatine has nothing to "latch on" to to hold the oil in suspension, and the oil floats right out of there...

For the second batch, I even let the mixture get way thicker than usual before squirting it into the molds, but by the time I got it into the freeezer, it had all separated out...
as @InTheShed would say: Oof!

All is not lost though (except for those 2 batches- they gone...) I'll just use that oil for capsules - size "0" caps hold a little over half a gram, so 2 caps is equivalent to 1 gummy bear (give or take a little)

So, it looks to me like sediment is a necessary component in the gummy making process, and the burnt pot taste is just something I need to get used to...

I'm really just guessing why it didn't work, (but it definitely didn't)...if anyone has other thoughts on the matter, I'd like to hear them!

Thanks for looking!

 

[InTheShed]

Oof is right!

That's an interesting experiment, and thanks for documenting it here! I don't mind the taste of the CBD oil with all the particulate matter in it, and my wife takes capsules, so she doesn't notice. I also feel like there are probably cannabinoids left in the stuff that settles out which I why I warm and shake the bottle before I use it. After all, this is just oil infusion rather than actual extraction.

Personally, I'm not interested in making anything edible if I can put it in capsules instead. If you want sweets, have some sweets!

 

[Carcass]

I'm not going to worry about a little pot taste anymore, although after filling those caps, I may just start taking my cbd that way...Mrs.C. is the one who eats the thc gummies, and surprisingly, she hasn't complained about the taste since I started using Banana-Strawberry jello...

 

[BooWho2]

Very interesting Carcass. I made a batch of tincture with Everclear and 2 oz Cindy 99 (which seems crazy strong!) as well as coco oil with Cindy 99 this week and was wondering how I could use all the leftover “stuff”.

gelatine has nothing to "latch on" to

Im curious if you added any Lecithin to it?

 

[Carcass]

Hi, Boo!

Im curious if you added any Lecithin to it?

Yes, when I infused the oil at the beginning of December, I added the Liquid Sunflower Lecithin-
I add it after the infusion process is completed, but the oil is still hot and in the MBM- I drop in the LSL, then hit the "wash" button on the machine once to blend it in.
So it's in there already- I don't add any more to the individual gummy mixes.

I'm going to have to infuse some more cbd, since the stuff I have left will no longer work for making gummies- Fortunately, those 3 cbd plants I grew gave me a ridiculous amount of raw material for infusions...