Dusted Does Blue Cheese

[Dusted]

Got the fluorescents hung up again. They are not as bright as I remember but they produced a lot of buds over the years.

I have tried cloning in the past with zero success, so over the summer I bought a $35 kit on Amazon. I hooked up the bubble cloner today. Filled with water, turn on air pump, no bubbles. Check pump. If you hold it really close to your lips you can feel the air. This is not going to power an airstone. Being a good hydroponics guy I have spare air pumps. New one works great.

I spent 15 minutes sharpening a knife. Stone, then steel. Then assaulted the young things. Wait, that doesn't sound good. Oh well, you know what I mean. I guess I should have checked out the cloning section of this website before hacking away but I forgot in the excitement of the moment.

-sever branch and immediately place in pH 5.5 water.
-cut all unnecessary leaves away.
-make another cut, under water.
-scrape stem with knife edge.
-dip stem in high strength rooting gel.
-place with stem just above water surface.
-bubble with dome under 24 hr light.

We shall see what happens. The hydro shop tried to sell me a single use $18 cloning solution for bubble cloners, insisting it wouldn't work without it. That is way too steep when rooting gel is $5 and lasts for many more attempts. It's not that there aren't many new strains out there I want to try from seed if this doesn't work.

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• Dusted
• Oct 2, 2018

 

[Dusted]

The cuttings are still plump and green. I aired the leaves since some were wet and stuck to the dome. I won't even check for roots for a week or so, if they last that long.

Day 30/0. Since I had taken the cuttings, and the plants were looking physically ready, I switched the lights last night. I don't want the plants getting too large at maturity and growing hydroponically they grow so darn fast. Taking a closer look this morning I found that the big Blue Cheese was showing pre-flowers, so timing confirmed. I found out how people have been inserting thumbnails so I will use that instead of the full pictures. So far I can only do it with pictures from my computer but will continue playing. Can you do this with pictures from the gallery?

 

[Dusted]

Well i’ve tested the hps as far as I can go. It has been great producing short dense shrubs that will support large plants but in doing so has effected the overall plant growth. The side branches are overtaking the apex shoot. The new growth that starts out yellow first thing in the morning doesn’t go away all day. It’s not my N level or water chemistry. I expect the new growth to be dark green within half an hour of the lights going on. I was going to wait for the final 30 days to tan the girls under uv with the metal halide but I will have to do it 3 weeks earlier than planned.

 

[Dusted]

Day 37/7. Things are greening up a bit but still not where I'm used to. Maybe it's the strain. There does seem to be variation in the blue cheese phenotype. Still have side branches overtaking the apex on one, but things are finally stretching out a bit. They are all showing flowering.

The cuttings have many little bumps on the lower stem so its looking positive. Tops are still plump and green.

I looked again for thumbnail view in gallery insert but it doesn't seem there.

 

[natureman]

Day 37/7. Things are greening up a bit but still not where I'm used to. Maybe it's the strain. There does seem to be variation in the blue cheese phenotype. Still have side branches overtaking the apex on one, but things are finally stretching out a bit. They are all showing flowering.

The cuttings have many little bumps on the lower stem so its looking positive. Tops are still plump and green.

I looked again for thumbnail view in gallery insert but it doesn't seem there.

Good looking plants.
Nice job.

 

[Dusted]

Thank you nature man. You are very kind.

 

[Dusted]

I had to do a minor defoliation last night. I removed all the primary fan leaves, each of which was twice the size of my hand. There was too much choking taking place getting through the cage hoops. I generally leave leaves alone until they yellow.

 

[Dusted]

Crap. Another rookie mistake. I’ve been watching my plants with some concern this grow. I know my nutrient levels have been correct and the pH at 5.5-6.1, but ther has been something wrong. The apex shoot is stunted on three plants with the side shoots overtaking the apex. The new growth is not green enough. The leaf margins are purplish, which is an indication of too much P. Now the only way to get too much P in my mix is with the 75% phosphoric acid and that shouldn’t be unless the pH is off.

I carefully clean the glass bulb and salt bridge on the pH probe with dish soap and a toothbrush since I knew some bacteria had grown in the probe storage cap and may have put a biofilm on the surfaces. Plop it into pH 7 buffer solution and pH 8 reading. Put it in pH 4.1 and it reads 5. Recalibrate. Check nutrient solution. pH 4.8.

Problem solved. Things should improvement rapidly now that I have replaced the nutrients and got the pH right. I am also going re-inoculate the media with a fresh Great White suspension since the low pH probably had an effect on microbial populations.

 

[Dusted]

I’m embarrassed to show my plants. They are taking longer to recover from the low pH/high P than I expected. The apex shoots are finally starting to grow again. Flowering suspended. I hope I didn’t cause them to become hermaphrodites with stress. They will be at least two weeks behind schedule for harvest now. Maybe pictures tomorrow.

My cuttings have roots!!! Virtually everything up top is brown but this is the furthest I have gotten with cloning. I left the dome on for way too long. They are hardy plants so they may make it yet.

 

[Dusted]

Day 45/15. The plants are looking better every day, but are about two weeks behind due to the poisoning. You can see the blueish purple colour around the leaf edges in the close ups. New growth finally doesn't have that discolouration. I've been stuffing side shoots through the cage hoops so they grow straight up. Let the interrupted flowering resume!

Clones actually look like they will make it. My first successful cloning. I'll get some shots of them later.


.

 

[Dusted]

Well, I seem to have clones. First time ever. Sticking them in water never would work. I bought rock wool cubes, but never tried them. When I saw the bubble system I knew it was the best way. I left the dome on too long and the large leaves all yellowed. After two and a half weeks I had half inch roots. I was told that they don't need to get this big before planting. Next time. As you can see the shoots are about the only thing green. Charged the system with close to veg strength. I have been wetting them down with hydrated Great White to make sure the rocks around the roots stay wet. Here's hoping they survive. The fourth clone is still in the bubble pot since I had no room and it doesn't look as good as the others. It's the biggest blue cheese mom at the moment. I guess I better go get some soil and plant that mother. Crap. Next I will need a breeding room. Sorry about the camera shake. Too lazy for the tripod.

 

[Dusted]

Day 52/22. Finally getting some stretch and solid flowering. I have been doing minor defoliation as needed to open up the centre of the plants. The side branches are still competing with the apex for dominance on some of the plants. They are really sucking up the water with the ventilation I have in the room. Daytime temperature 27 C. Night 18-20 C. RH less than 50% in the house, but the room will be a bit higher. Clones are still iffy.

 

[Dusted]

I have now increase the N concentration 20% over the amount needed for the previous grow, and gone to full flowering P/K content as well. The girls are finally greening up in a decent time after the light comes on, so they need more N than White Widow. The light exposed fan leaf stems are turning dark purple, and the stinky cheese (dirty socks) odour is starting. I didn’t realize this strain is supposed to be very stinky. Skunk #1 x Afghanistan indiga x blueberry. I may play with my camera later and post some pics

 

[Dusted]

All right. I tried out a different lens on my camera and it seems pretty good for bud shots. I need a much, much larger grow room to get the plants further apart and to allow me to get a bloody tripod and camera near the plants. Damn. I thought someone said there was a way to get thumbnails onto this thread from gallery pictures, but I still can't find it. Oh well from my desktop again:

 

[Dusted]

Group shot

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• Dusted
• Nov 1, 2018

 

[Dusted]

Day 63/33. They have mostly stopped stretching. They are a bit shorter than I expected. I guess they could have used a few more weeks of vegetative. Mind you, the pH issue probably held back growth. All but one are now fully green, perhaps a bit too green for my taste. I will have to start cutting back on N next nutrient change. Pretty frosty for this stage. I did a fairly major defoliation today and hung up a couple of branches. There were lots of fan leaves out of the light and packed way too tight into the centre of the plant and lower areas. Also got rid of some non productive branches that wouldn't produce anything. Still quite a bit more that can be removed but I will do it slowly as to not stress things too much. I love the odour of flowering pot. This strain is almost like garlic, with stinky socks nearby, at this point

.

 

[sfgiantsfan]

Nice grow man! I love blue cheese...such a great yielder and awesome smoke!

 

[Dusted]

Well, I gave up on the clones. They were not growing at all so I pulled them. The roots hadn’t grown and may have had a fungal infection. I had 5 seeds each of Blue Cheese, Atomic Bomb, and Eleven Roses in the fridge and an empty grow room, so I started germinating 3 Atomic Bomb. Even if only 2 fully germinate that will fill the smaller upstairs space. If all three grow, I have a container for each. I may have to turn this into a perpetual journal, since having multiple threads would be silly.

Wow, the defoliation from yesterday sure cut water usage. They went from 4 L each plant per day to half that. Oh well it needed to be done. No pics today.

 

[Dusted]

A few new pictures to show progress. I have cut back on N this nutrient change and boosted the K P a bit more. Not sure if I will go N free next change or wait for another week. Depends on how they look. The flowers don't seem as large as the White Widow but new strain, new look. Plus they didn't develop properly at the start of flowering due to the pH issues.

I think I killed my 3 x $15 Atomic Bomb seeds. They were very tiny, but I think they got too hot (27 C), and too wet after the 18 hr soak. Instead of just wet paper towels, there was perhaps too much standing water in the bottom of the germination plate. I started germinating 2 more AB and one White Widow and will make sure of temps and water this time. Just watch, I will end up with 6 germinated seeds in a few days and no place to put 3 of them. Wishful thinking

 

[natureman]

A few new pictures to show progress. I have cut back on N this nutrient change and boosted the K P a bit more. Not sure if I will go N free next change or wait for another week. Depends on how they look. The flowers don't seem as large as the White Widow but new strain, new look. Plus they didn't develop properly at the start of flowering due to the pH issues.

I think I killed my 3 x $15 Atomic Bomb seeds. They were very tiny, but I think they got too hot (27 C), and too wet after the 18 hr soak. Instead of just wet paper towels, there was perhaps too much standing water in the bottom of the germination plate. I started germinating 2 more AB and one White Widow and will make sure of temps and water this time. Just watch, I will end up with 6 germinated seeds in a few days and no place to put 3 of them. Wishful thinking

Looking good man.