Grand Daddy Purple - Hydro

[jandre2k3]

Greetings! Thanks to the help of this community, I can now post this thread as a grow in progress, rather than in the ICU for ailing plants, where it started.

LIVE - ON STAGE

Momma GDP
​

The story of one Grand Daddy Purple cannabis plant's journey into motherhood. A heart-warming tale of the ups, the downs, the life perils, and the triumphs. Follow along as a tender, young plant, in the grip of death, defies the odds to grow into a life-giving mother plant, giving of herself to raise her young, so that they may help heal those in need.

VOLUME - 2​

- Biography by: Jandre2k3
- Published by: (Thanks for that)

​

The Strain:
Strain: Granddaddy Purple Kush
Genetics: Purple Urkle x Big Bud
Type: Indica dominant
Maturity: 8 to 9 weeks. (turns purple when ready... give it time.)
High: Mellow smooth body high
Taste: Signature 'purple' taste. Somewhat fruity
Smell: Sweet skunk
(Personally, I'd say more like a sour strawberry crushed into a bed of sap-laden pine needles.)
Price: $50 an 1/8th
Overall Rating: 9.5 out of 10


The Environs:
Grown: Indoor / Hydro
Light: T5 Cool Blue (For Now)
Light Cycle on/off: 18/6
Temp: 73f - 78f
Medium: GroDan Rockwool (Pre-Treated in 5.5pH vinegar solution - rinse to waste)
pH: 5.3 ~ 6.1
Watering: drip 3x day 5min cycle

Nutrients: Advanced Nutrients: Jungle Juice Grow/Micro/Flower 3-part

• Currently in Cycle 2: General Purpose-Mild after massive pH instability.
  

For backstory: go here
​

 

[Murz]

gotta love the purps man, subbed. lol

 

[jandre2k3]

For all you out there that read the above intro and think, "HA! That was funny!" I say "Thank you!"

For all you out there that read the above intro and think, "Gawd! What an idiot!" I say, "Thank you!"

As Paul Harvey used to say, "And now- the rest of the story. . . "

I fell in love with this strain from first toke. It left me without the pain I had grown accustomed to just dealing with, but without the total foggy-headedness of other heavy indica strains. Although, not as good for chronic migraines as another strain I keep on hand at all times Green Crack, it is effective in my case for back, and knee pain. I find it also is effective, on occasion, to help relax enough to overcome insomnia, and get to sleep within the hour. Of course your own results may vary, but, I urge you to evaluate this strain in your quest to find the best remedy for your specific malady. It may just be the one that stays in your rotation.

It is for this reason, that I carefully selected this very strain to HOPEFULLY perpetuate into a clone-giving mother-plant. After some pH instability trouble early on in her existence, with being a very forgiving plant, I am proud to say that she, after her haircut to remove yellowed and dead leaves, is well on the road to fulfilling her potential. Again, thanks to this community for helping to identify the problem and giving suggestions on how to fix it.

It was that very problem that brought me here seeking a remedy. The generous outpouring of knowledge, helpful tips, and expertise is what has kept me here. Oh gawd this is getting sappy... how to fix that. . . .

STATS!
18cm tall
22cm across
7mm at base

oh... and...
PICS!!

Various views of a now healthy, and recovering plant!

Look at all that "bush". . . .I love "bush"

Speaking of "bush" Note the preflowers... It's a GIRL!

Nice Healthy Stalk.

 

[jandre2k3]

gotta love the purps man, subbed. lol

Wow! That was fast... I was in the middle of starting this up and posting the second piece and you sneaked a reply in there. Thanks for the Sub!

 

[Murz]

lol i didnt care what she looked like, grand daddy purps is an awesome strain. you have good taste my friend. keep her strong and healthy, this is gonna be a fun grow!

 

[jandre2k3]

lol i didnt care what she looked like, grand daddy purps is an awesome strain. you have good taste my friend. keep her strong and healthy, this is gonna be a fun grow!

Indeed!

 

[jandre2k3]

Okay, I get home today to check on my little ones, and immediately I notice that I can't see the topping scar. Since 10-07-2011, the night of the devious deed, she "Scabbed" the scar in hours, and concealed it in 5 with new growth. I'm so proud!

For all those that wonder. Topping as early as they can stand the loss, in my experience, makes for a much better plant for indoors as it helps keep them low and reduces the chance of outgrowing your lighting stand. I personally top after the 9th pair, and trim from the top down for clones. It had always worked for me in soil, I see no reason, with the faster growth in hydro, that this wouldn't be the case.

• [sidenote] If during any of the chronicling of the life amd progress of my grows, you disagree with something, please feel free to correct me, but do so with your own experience, and without the he-said, she-said, or, "I read on somerandomwebsite.muck." Hearsay, and unconfirmed results from less-than-reputable sites are not needed and will only serve to confuse the casual reader. That's not to say that calm, well-thought-out, constructive criticism isn't welcomed, just please have the forethought to bring something else to the table other than muddled slang, abuse, foul language, and your own unfounded opinion without empirical data to back it up.

Sorry, touchy subject, that. This is a journal, not a place for arguments or abuse of others.

On to the happy things in life!

:focus:

Where was I? Oh yes... Topping. Below is a pic of the now concealed scar from the first topping done. As you can see I now have 2 heads and this should work nicely for the small cloning venture of mine. I plan a 4 to 5 week cycle, that should give ample time to replace lost growth before taking another 2 clones to veg. That will give 8 weeks total give or take a week to let the purple shine through at the end during the flush cycle. If it runs long for the color, some extra leaching will occur from the outer leaves. But when it's the flower I want, who cares about the leaves when they will be discarded at the end of the cycle anyway? Anyone with me on this? Deep purple flowers vs. green leaves being tossed. You pick.

The second is just a general full view to simply chronicle the completion of recovery from the pH imbalance and see it to its end. Also, I guess I should point out the shiny new growth that has appeared since the last pruning. I don't suspect I shal need to prune anymore from here on out, as I have not seen any more dead loss. Even most of her leaf tips are perfectly green and I'm not too worried about the .5mm brown tips of the others. Not too bad for a plant that was nearing death only 12 days ago. I just looked back at the first pics of yellowing I posted back then. Not a pretty sight. Happily, the GDP is a fairly forgiving strain, and she lived.

Live well, love well, toke the best! She gave it to us for a reason, the feds try but will never succeed in keeping Mother's medicine from those in need.

 

[jandre2k3]

Just a simple post. I'm a day behind and need to post this pic from yesterday before moving on.

 

[jandre2k3]

Milestone day! Stalk is now all wood. A squeeze test revealed no give. She now stands on a stick rather than a pithy stalk. Perpetual vegitation, here I come! I wonder how long GDP will last giving clones up for flowering. Will a GDP turn a sort perennial tree?? We shall all find out.

Also just for posterity's sake, here are some pics of even more shiny new growth. Check out the tiny hairs on the stems and leaves. I grin knowing how hairy this plant will get in the flower and the give chrystals.

 

[jandre2k3]

Okay. So pH swings in the nutes are down to only .5. And I had a new development. Green algae on my rockwool. So, extra heavy black plastic, some holes for plant and for feed stakes, and VOILA! Algae should die out soon, now.

As posted by Medical Marijuana in What is this Green Slime on my Rockwool? I had to get creative.

The green slime you have on your rockwool is called Algae.
...To prevent this from happening, use light-proof and water-proof material to cover your rockwool, for example black/white panda film or thick black bin liners...

So we have the pics below:

These were taken at the time of the final feeding for the night.

With all the jostling to get the black bin liner around the stalk and for the stake, she bounced back extremely well. Also look at all that new growth!

Till next time...

 

[jandre2k3]

Full veg has begun

Greetings, and welcome to this installment of -

Grow. . . Your. . . Medicine! <Upbeat theme music>

I officially have moved into full Vegetation nutrients for the posted schedule above and as usual, here is the math:

as these rates are for a 100L Schedule, I will break it down per Liter for each additive, since all three are different, then convert it to Gallons and teaspoons for those that are too bad at math to easily figure it out......... or too baked.

GROW
396 / 100 = 3.96/L
so:
3.96ml/1L
1Gal=3.78L
3.96 x 3.78 = 14.9688/Gal
15mL per Gal
- OR -
1.0mL = 0.20288tsp
15(mL) x 0.20288(tsp) = 3.0432
3tsp per Gal

MICRO
264(mL)/100(L) = 2.64/L
so:
2.64ml/1L
1Gal=3.78L
2.64/L x 3.78 = 9.9792mL/Gal
10mL per Gal
- OR -
1.0mL = 0.20288tsp
10(mL) x 0.20288(tsp) = 2.0288(tsp)
2tsp per Gallon

BLOOM
132(mL)/100(L) = 1.32(mL)
so:
1.32mL/1L
1Gal=3.78L
1.32 x 3.78 = 4.9896
5mL per Gallon
- OR -
1.0mL = 0.20288tsp
5(mL) x 0.20288(tsp) = 1.0144(tsp)
1tsp per Gallon

All three of these are added to 1 Gal of water for each gallon needed, as these are all part of a 3-part system. I also add 1mL of SUPERThrive at this point and lower to 5.2 pH and add to empty, clean, and sanitized 5 Liter res... with air-stone to dissolve O2 into the nutes to keep roots healthy.

 

[jandre2k3]

Alrighty! I went up the the Veg Strength with the nutes 2 days ago, right? So I get home to check the pH as I always do, and to say hello to my pretty purple girl here and just guess what happened. . . . no really... GUESS!

<sigh> Fine, I'll tell you. my pH had only risen by .3 it seems the higher the nutrient concentration the better the stability. . . . . Whooda-thunk-it!?

So yeah... I'm glad that a TDS reading of 1100 ppm stays relatively stable as compared to swings experienced at 500-700 in the early stages. Manageable, but still, gawd a 5L res can swing- like a monkey in a tree!

There is a good new double head at the the first topping zone, and supercropping has been performed (GDP is a stiff, woody mahther fahquer) to slow the rise of the two so I can take two well formed strong clones when they get to size. That also serves to keep the light low enough for the diesel baby under the same light. Click "The Experimental" in my sig for the diesel thread. It also seems that with the topping and supercropping that she bushed quite a bit. I may have to bite the bullet this weekend and go get that second light I've been meaning to get as she's starting to crowd the babies in the bin.

On another note, the black plastic seems to be doing the job in killing the algae infestation I had on the tops of the blocks. There was no WAY I was gonna let that get out of control. I just got this setup working right!!! I'm also thinking of getting Hydroton to fill in so 1) they stay off the bottom, and 2) so they are covered on the tops of their blocks. Any thoughts from those following this?

STATS:
Height: 23cm
Width: 25cm
Stalk : 7.5mm

NEW PICS!

Nice pic of the dual head there. They were supercropped last night to slow them down a bit and to make them STRONG. They'll be clones soon.

I had to hold "The Wonder Twins" ("The Gifted" in my sig) back to get a clear shot of this. Yeah, I think a second light is overdue.

 

[jandre2k3]

okay, so the first supercropping(pinch), the bounced back and shrugged it off like nothing had happened. So I did the next step up. I bent them over. 3 hours later they were almost standing straight again. and look at all the new growth bunched up like a salad! gonna be some nice clones. I need to go get some bottles for humidomes

It's official, I'm going to go get that other light this weekend and the hydroton and set them up right. there's now 2" of tap showing out the bottom of the 6" block, so it needs it now.....

Till next time. Namaskaram

 

[jandre2k3]

Cloning time is near.

I have found a good candidate for a clipping and will soon be taking it for cloning. It has lots of prefowers, good head, nice long stem, and no browning or yellowing at all. I just need ponder the environs before I take it.

Here's the pic of clipping/cloning candidate #1:

 

[jandre2k3]

MommaGDP

Today, it is official! Our little GDP that we nursed from near death, has gained the strength, the vigor, and the resilience to start providing clones.

- -

I took the first of those yesterday, and did not announce it because I wanted to be sure that the little one would survive the separation.

For that story, go here --

In other news, I have added Hydroton to the bin to raise the new momma off the floor to allow for the 2" taproot that had grown out the bottom of the 4" rockwool.

Just because I am so proud of her full recovery and of giving life to progeny, Here are a few more!

Look at those 2 heads (below) She's very strong, now.

 

[Kotton Mouthe]

looks good dude, count me in. Keep it green and keep the pics coming. When u planning on throwing it 12/12? Keep it green dude.

 

[jandre2k3]

looks good dude, count me in. Keep it green and keep the pics coming. When u planning on throwing it 12/12? Keep it green dude.

Thank you for the compliments and encouragement!

This plant will be a mother plant until she gives her last. There will be no flower for a while. Her daughters will do that in 2 to 2.5 months. I like the stature, structure, and sheer will to survive of this plant too much to flip her until I absolutely have to, and when I do, she will will taste Colloidal Silver to make her give a few male flowers. That pollen will be back crossed to the strongest one of her clones and the cycle will begin anew. I'm actually also thinking of cross pollinating Granddaddy Purple x Sour Diesel (name withheld for now).

 

[jandre2k3]

There are now 5 stems begging to be removed to make babies. I have to refrain from doing so for at LEAST another three weeks if these seedlings turn out to be male. I'm leaving the fan leaves on for the elongation effect they have on the inner stems. Makes them perfect little clone specimens with nice spacing of leaves and thick head at the top.

Count with me! The new growth clusters poking out show really well in this. . . . . . . .

Latest pic.

 

[Siscokid]

Hey there, J

Curiosity lead me here, I read your post over in Xlr8's journal about lower ph... I'm curious to see the results.

 

[jandre2k3]

Hey there, J

Curiosity lead me here, I read your post over in Xlr8's journal about lower ph... I'm curious to see the results.

High-Hi! Welcome! Didn't mean to hijack, though. Dont forget to read the backstory on this little girl... she was near death. For backstory: go here


NICE SIG, THOUGH!

"you wanna' be a different fish you gotta' jump out of the school" CAPTAIN BEEFHEART I love it!