Graytail's 3rd: 4x4, HiBrix, Latest LED Tech, Lots Of Light!

[Major PITA]

Is this page 100?

It is from where I sit.

 

[DrZiggy]

Carnival x Utopia Haze is dried and jarred and yielded 62 grams, 2.19 ounces over 130 days = 0.477 grams per day.

And it's every bit as good as I hoped! Yes!

It has Carnival's very strong speedy buzz, which is mainly what I wanted from it. This is the most potent smoke I've harvested in a year. I'm still not sure of the taste - some fuel and ... leather? It smells a bit like fresh suede, and while I haven't tasted fresh suede, the exhale has that same sweet mushroomy note on the tongue. I'm pleased with the yield - getting closer to my 0.5 gram/day target.

So, buh-bye Tikal3 and hello CxUH2! In fact, I found that square #10 Smart Pots fit almost perfectly into a Sterilite crate, and I potted the second CxUH into it. CxUH1 is in my standard plastic 6 gallon and CxUH2 is in the 7 gallon smartie/crate. It'll be a good comparison. I'll get pictures for y'all later.

Here's what the chop looked like:

Carnival x Utopia Haze - 130 days old - 70 days 12/12 - 59 since pistils - Brix 16/16

beautiful job, GT!! with those, you have a new NOTM. POTM, at least!

 

[SweetSue]

I say enter this one Graytail. She's an absolute stunner and has had most of us salivating all along. You have nothing to lose.

Congrats on the harvest and on coming one more step closer to your goals. You keep making it look so easy.

 

[Major PITA]

Do it, Gray!
I have to vote for my favorite plant, but I've not seen many in past months that could beat what you chopped.

 

[Graytail]

Thanks for the vote of confidence on the Carn x UH! I just may enter it next month.

Update time!

These next few weeks are going to be fun! UHxBH and Tikal1 are a couple weeks past cat drench and they're fattening up very nicely, building sparkly calyxes, all the good stuff. And they're not fading! Everything else in bloom is looking great, too. Whatever I've been doing right, I should keep on doing that. I just wish I knew what it is I'm doing right.

Let's start with UH x BH, the Haze cross. I'm still not sure whether this or the Tikal will finish first - I have them scheduled for the same day - but it sure is doing better than any Haze I've grown. Very impressive. And we're down to the last 4 weeks, so I'm starting to get confidant about it. The tallest cola on this plant is 44 inches tall, with seven more just a few inches shorter, and they're all filling out very nicely.

Utopia Haze x Buddha Haze - 125 days old - 55 days 12/12 - 43 since pistils - Brix 18/19

Tikal1 is doing well, too, with fatter buds and a room-filling strawberry scent. It has the same weak stems the mother had, though, and if I didn't have it all propped up it'd collapse into a mess. I imagine it'll become a bigger problem over the next weeks.

Tikal Cut1 - 133 days old - 55 days 12/12 - 43 since pistils

Carnival continues to astound me. I haven't seen this kind if trich production since a couple of my Jamaican Dreams - just amazing. I have it finishing in two weeks, and I'm sure it'll be smokable then, and I'm going to need the space ... but I'd sure like to let it run as long as it wants to. Who am I kidding - Ima gonna let it run as long as it wants to, heheh. I'll work it out.

CarnivalA - 120 days old - 46 days 12/12 - 36 since pistils

Channel+ is finally starting to bloom in earnest. It's supposed to be a very fast bloomer, but this is obviously not that pheno. We're 4 weeks from the flip on an 8 week strain. I don't see it finishing in 4 weeks, but after the spurt of trichs she sprouted this past week, maybe so. She gets Cat drench in 5 days.

Channel+ - 110 days old - 26 days 12/12 - 16 since pistils

DrGrinspoon is thickening up, growing nice chubby nugs all over the place. This is definitely not the pheno I was shooting for, but my goodness it's been a great one to grow - not a whimper of an issue the entire time. And it looks like it'll finish earlier than the 13 weeks I had planned. Its bud shape and pattern remind me of Panama and Tikal, so maybe this pheno has a strong Mexican influence. (But that was HOG, no? ) She got her first Cat today.

DrGrinspoon - 114 days old - 42 days 12/12 - 30 since pistils

I'm wondering the same thing about Y Griega. HiBrix usually brings out the sativa side of the pheno range, but this time both DrG and Y Griega are compact hybrid-looking phenos despite their genetics. I shoulda taken a Brix reading - nice shiny leaves.

Y Griega - 108 days old - 26 days 12/12 - 16 since pistils

Purple Haze is all sativa! The leaf shape and dark color remind me of that first Utopia Haze pheno I ran. It was a beautiful sparse stem framework with thick thumb-long buds at every node - just gorgeous. I can hope.

Purple Haze - 58 days old - 6 days 12/12

It looks like the next one to come out of veg will be CxUH1. It was supposed to be CarnivalB, but the cross is really vigorous. Another week and she'll probably be ready.

Carnival x Utopia Haze Cut 1 - 75 days old

CarnivalB should be ready a week later.

CarnivalB - 71 days old

CxUH2 is happily settled into her new #10 smartie. I was a little concerned because this one showed what looked like transplant shock - something I just never get - but she straightened right out. It was past due for transplant though, so that was probably it. I know I promised pictures of the smartie/crate but I didn't have the energy to haul everything out of the veg space. This one will be a week or two behind her sister, but it'll still be good to see how the two pots compare in the end.

Carnival x Utopia Haze Cut2 - 75 days old

Taskenti got upcanned yesterday. She's been very slow to grow, but I expect that from an indica. Now that she's in a nice big pot I expect things to pick up.

Taskenti - 51 days old

I culled the Tikal and the BHxUH top (finally figured that one out), so there's these three left:

In back -
Y Griega Cut1 - 46 days old
DrGrinspoon Cut1 - 46 days old

In front - Channel+ Cut1 - 27 days old

Here's the feeble CarnA cut at 46 days and Freddy's Best at 34 days. I think the CarnA may still live and the Freddy's is growing really slowly - dunno what's up with that.

Current crop of cuttings, most of them a few weeks old.

 

[SweetSue]

Sweet Graytail. I'm gonna pull my 10-gallon Geo Pot out in a minute and see if it fits my crate as well as yours does. I never thought to try it, but that looks like a great fit. Yep! Fits like a dream!

I'm glad you're gonna enter her. She's the prettiest thing I've seen in a while.

I wish I had your lights Graytail. No way in hell is my Carnival going to come anywhere near that magnificence! Yours is stunning. This super-cultivator spirit you're channeling is amazing Sir. I agree, whatever it is you're doing, keep it up. Stay loose.

Thanks for another wonderful Monday night. Now I can go back to look one more time and hit the threads again. Gosh, they're all so pretty.

 

[SWOGA]

GT, how do you keep the cuttings stalks from turning to mush in the cups?

 

[Graytail]

GT, how do you keep the cuttings stalks from turning to mush in the cups?

I'm not sure. I keep posting pics because I'm kinda puzzled by it myself - it's so simple when it works. I had rot when I washed out cups and re-used them. Now I use a cup fresh from the package. Otherwise I don't take any special precautions. I keep open buckets of R/O water and I just scoop out half a cupful, drop a pinch of Roots in there, snip and strip the stems and plop 'em in the cups. Done. I did learn to keep them in very dim light though, or they'll shrivel up. Some will grow roots in 7-10 days, some take weeks, depending on strain and pheno. If they have some roots, they take immediately to soil.



I think as humidity falls, I'll start to have issues and I'll need to think about a small contained space for them.

 

[Neiko]

Beautiful update Gray! I was reading Dr. G. info again and I see they can get taller than I expected. I think it said 100-175 cm, if my math is right I think that is about 3.5-6'. Is yours done getting tall? I'm getting close to wanting to flip it. It is coming up on 8 weeks since sprout and really starting to fill out. How much do you feed her....ml/gal of soil for drench? I've been dunking the one gal. so I'm not sure how much it has been eating.

 

[Heirloom]

Channel+ is finally starting to bloom in earnest. It's supposed to be a very fast bloomer, but this is obviously not that pheno. We're 4 weeks from the flip on an 8 week strain. I don't see it finishing in 4 weeks, but after the spurt of trichs she sprouted this past week, maybe so.

Two things...

I can't think of a single photo strain that's flowered from flip in the time a breeder/seed maker says for me. I've consistently seen 10-14+ days extra. I can only surmise that they mean from first pistils. Of course nearly every strain out there exhibits minor differences seed to seed. Often flowering time is one of them. So then not only do you have 10-14 extra from flip, then you might also have a pheno that takes an extra week or two. That 8 wk strain just became 9-12. And that's how I plan for space/time when I need to.

On the short flower time strains I've personally watched one go 5 wks (from first pistils) with out trichs or much bulk, then absolutely explode in the end. Around week 4 I started to wonder what I did wrong. End of week 6 I realized I forgot rule #1.....patience.


Heck of an update Graytail. Beautiful plants.

 

[Radogast]

Purple Haze looks delicious

You continue to rock the growroom !

 

[Major PITA]

All of your adult plants could be PotM!
That PH looks a little scary. It will be something special, me thinks.

 

[Kalimaki420]

Great update as ever Grey.

 

[Graytail]

Beautiful update Gray! I was reading Dr. G. info again and I see they can get taller than I expected. I think it said 100-175 cm, if my math is right I think that is about 3.5-6'. Is yours done getting tall? I'm getting close to wanting to flip it. It is coming up on 8 weeks since sprout and really starting to fill out. How much do you feed her....ml/gal of soil for drench? I've been dunking the one gal. so I'm not sure how much it has been eating.

My DrG didn't stretch much. I flipped it at 72 days old and 15 inches tall, and three weeks later it was still only 29 inches. From there it added another 1.5 inches over another couple weeks and that's it - she finished at 30.5 inches, 34 days after the flip. The other grows I've scanned didn't seem to have particularly tall plants, either, but certainly not as tame as this one. I've been drenching at about 4ml per gallon of soil, which is on the low side, and they're bigger and the room has been warmer, so they've been getting drenched every 8 days, as opposed to every 10 days last cycle. I also add tap water to my R/O and haven't seen any more signs of magdef. My water is over 400 ppm hardness, mostly calcium, so I mix it at about 4-1, shooting for 80 ppm.

Two things...

I can't think of a single photo strain that's flowered from flip in the time a breeder/seed maker says for me. I've consistently seen 10-14+ days extra. I can only surmise that they mean from first pistils. Of course nearly every strain out there exhibits minor differences seed to seed. Often flowering time is one of them. So then not only do you have 10-14 extra from flip, then you might also have a pheno that takes an extra week or two. That 8 wk strain just became 9-12. And that's how I plan for space/time when I need to.

On the short flower time strains I've personally watched one go 5 wks (from first pistils) with out trichs or much bulk, then absolutely explode in the end. Around week 4 I started to wonder what I did wrong. End of week 6 I realized I forgot rule #1.....patience.


Heck of an update Graytail. Beautiful plants.

You're so right about the breeder's estimates. In fairness, there's usually a range of phenos, and we may not get a typical one. I always go to s'finder and look at any posted results from growers - they don't have an agenda.

Purple Haze looks delicious

You continue to rock the growroom !

All of your adult plants could be PotM!
That PH looks a little scary. It will be something special, me thinks.

Great update as ever Grey.

I'm pretty damned excited myself, folks! It's been awhile since I had a garden that looked as good as this one.


I want to make a point about a couple terms that we find being loosely thrown around - pistil set, bud set, etc. It's one of those stages that are part of a grower's instinct and style - the art of the grow. This update, I posted the times I've Cat drenched, to help others see what the more experienced HB growers see. And I always post the "days since pistils" in my updates. Basically, I'm calling the pistil-set and bud-set stages as I defined them. I tend to be late. Most growers see that first cluster of pistils and call it pistil set. I wait until that day the tops go all butchy-haired, usually about 10-12 days after flip. In my experience, it's not really important - most plants are consistent if they're mature going into bloom. I also tend to call bud-set later, for the purposes of Cat drench.

In both cases, I'm thinking in terms of the transition stage. Pistils are "set" when the stretch is obviously faltering and the plant has clearly shifted to flower growth. About when the buds set their early frilly-pistiled tops, the stretch will also slow abruptly. For bud set, it's similar. Buds will reach a stage where they look like they're taking a pause - the plant looks like it's finished building them and is now going to fill them out.

We time our Cationic Drench somewhere in that bud-set period. It boosts fruit production, so it'll shift the plant into seed growth, but ... no seeds ... ... so it just makes bigger fatter calyxes. It uses nutrients that have been stored in the soil, unavailable until we switch the soil charge, so the timing of that burst has different effects depending on the growth stage of the buds. The Cationic nutrients in the soil are limited. If we Cat early, those limited nutes cause early fruiting and run out, generally producing smaller harder buds with an earlier finish. If we Cat late, those limited nutrients feed larger buds and often aren't enough to fully fill them out, producing larger but airier buds.

Remember, the Cat drench itself has a similar nutrient content as Transplant, but its purpose is to release minerals from the soil. More Cat can't produce more minerals. You only get what's bound to your soil at the time you drench - otherwise you're just denching with Transplant. So Cat drench is more about timing than the other drenches. We can do Energy or Transplant whenever and as often as we like, but Cat is meant to release stored soil minerals. Heheh, it occurs to me that it's kinda like coke for plants - their own form of seratonin, eh? - flush it into the bloodstream all at once, and then you have to wait until it's refilled.

I seem to be rambling ... maybe I shouldn't have had that last pipe of Carn x UH. I'm going to start calling it Rio. Carn x UH is too cumbersome. Brazilian Carnival? Rio?

 

[Major PITA]

Great ramble, bro.
Much appreciated. Your details are part of what makes your journals so valuable. I know exactly which plant I'm looking at. What it looks like (shape) from the top and side. Exactly where it is in its cycle.

 

[SweetSue]

Thanks so much for that ramble Graytail. I'd asked about this the other day on my journal and no one answered. You just answered it for me, and in such digestible terms. This cleared up a lot of confusion for me.

I don't think you ever need to apologize for rambling Graytail.

 

[Amadeus Forzin]

Such a delightful place to visit. Simply outstanding

 

[Duggan]

Evenin Gray, Awesome update pal!, Maybe we should figure out a way to get that post on "auto pilot" to re-appear again every few months. There's always new growers coming on board and sometimes i forget that. The whole pistel set, bud set thing is something all new DBHBB users should know. Good read there Gray...thanks my brotha! Have an awesome night....oh ya , and BTW you should enter that plant.......BAHHHHHH! some MK-Ultra....for your thoughts!

 

[Graytail]

My DrG didn't stretch much ...

... I've been drenching at about 4ml per gallon of soil, which is on the low side,

I screwed this up. It's 4 ml per pot, not gallon!

4 ml per 6 gallon pot.

 

[DrZiggy]

My DrG didn't stretch much. I flipped it at 72 days old and 15 inches tall, and three weeks later it was still only 29 inches. From there it added another 1.5 inches over another couple weeks and that's it - she finished at 30.5 inches, 34 days after the flip. The other grows I've scanned didn't seem to have particularly tall plants, either, but certainly not as tame as this one. I've been drenching at about 4ml per gallon of soil, which is on the low side, and they're bigger and the room has been warmer, so they've been getting drenched every 8 days, as opposed to every 10 days last cycle. I also add tap water to my R/O and haven't seen any more signs of magdef. My water is over 400 ppm hardness, mostly calcium, so I mix it at about 4-1, shooting for 80 ppm.



You're so right about the breeder's estimates. In fairness, there's usually a range of phenos, and we may not get a typical one. I always go to s'finder and look at any posted results from growers - they don't have an agenda.









I'm pretty damned excited myself, folks! It's been awhile since I had a garden that looked as good as this one.


I want to make a point about a couple terms that we find being loosely thrown around - pistil set, bud set, etc. It's one of those stages that are part of a grower's instinct and style - the art of the grow. This update, I posted the times I've Cat drenched, to help others see what the more experienced HB growers see. And I always post the "days since pistils" in my updates. Basically, I'm calling the pistil-set and bud-set stages as I defined them. I tend to be late. Most growers see that first cluster of pistils and call it pistil set. I wait until that day the tops go all butchy-haired, usually about 10-12 days after flip. In my experience, it's not really important - most plants are consistent if they're mature going into bloom. I also tend to call bud-set later, for the purposes of Cat drench.

In both cases, I'm thinking in terms of the transition stage. Pistils are "set" when the stretch is obviously faltering and the plant has clearly shifted to flower growth. About when the buds set their early frilly-pistiled tops, the stretch will also slow abruptly. For bud set, it's similar. Buds will reach a stage where they look like they're taking a pause - the plant looks like it's finished building them and is now going to fill them out.

We time our Cationic Drench somewhere in that bud-set period. It boosts fruit production, so it'll shift the plant into seed growth, but ... no seeds ... ... so it just makes bigger fatter calyxes. It uses nutrients that have been stored in the soil, unavailable until we switch the soil charge, so the timing of that burst has different effects depending on the growth stage of the buds. The Cationic nutrients in the soil are limited. If we Cat early, those limited nutes cause early fruiting and run out, generally producing smaller harder buds with an earlier finish. If we Cat late, those limited nutrients feed larger buds and often aren't enough to fully fill them out, producing larger but airier buds.

Remember, the Cat drench itself has a similar nutrient content as Transplant, but its purpose is to release minerals from the soil. More Cat can't produce more minerals. You only get what's bound to your soil at the time you drench - otherwise you're just denching with Transplant. So Cat drench is more about timing than the other drenches. We can do Energy or Transplant whenever and as often as we like, but Cat is meant to release stored soil minerals. Heheh, it occurs to me that it's kinda like coke for plants - their own form of seratonin, eh? - flush it into the bloodstream all at once, and then you have to wait until it's refilled.

I seem to be rambling ... maybe I shouldn't have had that last pipe of Carn x UH. I'm going to start calling it Rio. Carn x UH is too cumbersome. Brazilian Carnival? Rio?

excellent explanation of the soil and drenches, Graytail! Thank you. Great name too RIO