Greenhouse Perpetual Grow In The Tropics

[CBDMed]

Some pics from today. I now have a badass new quad-camera in my new phone, so I'm looking forward to taking some awesome macro shots... once I figure out how to use it! I've got a tripod mount on order. Enjoy!

top of maui wowie... at least a week until harvest

top colas of kush almost ready (left) & thirsty blue dream (right)

possible 20:1 CBD pheno in the veg house, 6 gal pot... will move to flower house when space opens up

"if trichomes were glowing, multi-colored bubbles"

Nice plants!!
I love the trichromes!
What are you using for your roofing? It looks like corrugated fiberglass, except clear?

 

[CBDMed]

This is what I use, 2" square nursery pots. You can get 100 online for about $20. Shipping shouldn't cost very much.

Thanks, but then what do I do with the Solo cups? (I don't use Solo cups for anything, so I would have to throw them in the landfill????)

I think they'll do just fine. They can be topped early to produce a more bushy plant. I have been growing Maui Wowie, which is maybe 80% sativa, and haven't even needed to top. Some of my plants can get well over 8 ft in the veg house, but I need to top them so they fit in the flower house – i.e. pot plus plant must be less than 8 ft.


I would like to grow Harle-Tsu, but haven't found a good seed source yet. Do you know of one? Some Harle-Tsu phenos are supposed to reach 20% CBD. THC is supposed to be 1% or less.

I know Coffee Shop carries both Harlequin Bx4 and also Sour Tsunami, but they are presently sold out.
I am not sure who makes or carries Harle Tsu.
Have you checked the breeders?

That was part of my worst-case hypothetical grow scenario, meaning the grower wasn't thinking about soil micro-biome – i.e. adding things like... fresh worm compost, mycorrhiza, enzyme tea, aerated worm compost tea, biochar, etc.

Ahh, ok.

Yes, the flower house is far enough away, and there's thick vegetation in between, so the light doesn't reach the flower house. I don't have a "constant" harvest... there's a lag between harvests. I can cut down the lag by staggering the addition of plants to the flower house. Currently I typically wait about 5-7 weeks for flowers to finish, harvest, and then move the next batch from veg to flower. The flower house can hold 6 big plants, so I could move 3 in, and then wait 2-3 weeks, then add 3 more. Or better yet, just add 2 at a time, and wait 2-3 weeks before adding the next. Once this pattern is started, then all I need to do is add 2 plants each time I harvest 2 plants. For this to work smoothly, the varieties should all have similar flowering times.

Sounds great!

I'll answer your last question first... yes, it's possible bees would carry cannabis pollen, but it's very much beside the point, because cannabis pollen is easily carried far in the air currents. Cannabis is wind pollinated. So, what you need to do is not release any pollen into the surrounding air.

Yes, I will have to have a separate small greenhouse or two for males.
It will be a cooler climate, but still, you have to have some kind of air exchange.
(Or I suppose I can drag them indoors and grow them under lights, but that kind of defeats the purpose of going to greenhouses...)

I haven't done any breeding to produce seeds yet, but I have collected pollen before. I used tiny amber glass vials with screw-on lids (about 1 in. tall) to contain the collected pollen, and then put these in the freezer where the pollen remains viable for at least 18 months.

Ok, I put some vials in an internet shopping basket, and will check out later.
Thank you.

The way I would approach this would be to select the tallest, best male plant, and then a few days before the plant releases pollen, move it into an indoor isolation chamber – for example a grow tent. You only need a low-wattage, full-spectrum LED bulb in there. The trick is not to release any pollen into the surrounding air, when you are collecting pollen. The pollen is stored in the freezer until you're ready to hand-pollinate your females. (There's a lot more to this process, but this gives you an idea how it goes.)

Ahh, ok. That makes sense!

The height at the apex is about 10 ft. So, pot height plus plant height needs to be less than 10 ft.

It's a custom-built greenhouse with a custom design. It looks like a PVC hoop house sitting on top of sturdy side walls. The side walls have a 2ft base wall of painted masonite, and then 5ft of screen above that.

We are re-doing the roof frame and creating a ridge vent that will contain exhaust fans for cooling. There's also a bunch of weeds growing in there. It needs to be cleaned up, etc. With the ridge vent installed, we'll gain another 2ft of height on one side of the apex.

Sounds great!

This is getting into the fringes of my understanding of the subject. I normally don't think much about what is the ideal vegging time – I just grow a bunch of strains and phenos, and then move plants from the veg house to the flower house organically, as space opens up in the flower house.

Yeah, makes sense.

But I would like to evolve toward timing the move to better coincide with ideal timing, for any given strain, indica/sativa, etc. I don't even know of any particular information about benefits of vegging longer than necessary, or not. So, I have some experimenting to do. In terms of pot size, it's easy to see that vegging longer than necessary may imply a larger pot will be needed.

Sí. Makes sense.
Thank you.

 

[cbdhemp808]

What are you using for your roofing? It looks like corrugated fiberglass, except clear?

On the flower house it's clear polycarbonate panels.

 

[cbdhemp808]

Thanks, but then what do I do with the Solo cups? (I don't use Solo cups for anything, so I would have to throw them in the landfill????)

Save them for your beer keg parties ha ha, just kidding. They are the exact cups we used to use in college for beer parties. Wash and reuse.

I know Coffee Shop carries both Harlequin Bx4 and also Sour Tsunami, but they are presently sold out.
I am not sure who makes or carries Harle Tsu.
Have you checked the breeders?

I have checked high and low... nada. Except for P a c i f i c S e e d B a n k, but I am no longer buying from them.

 

[CBDMed]

On the flower house it's clear polycarbonate panels.

Ahh, ok, perfect. Thank you.

 

[CBDMed]

Save them for your beer keg parties ha ha, just kidding. They are the exact cups we used to use in college for beer parties. Wash and reuse.

Hahaha, yeah, I remember. Oy...
That was another lifestyle for me (and I don't want to go back there).
Seriously, I think maybe the last time I used a Solo cup prior to this was in college, hahaha. I hate plastic disposable waste! We are hoping to start a self-sustaining organic farm, and we re-use everything until it is worn out.
I hate the thought of all the disposable plastic in the oceans! I would not have bought them except I am trying to mimic Em's work (and I've got a long way to go!).

I have checked high and low... nada. Except for P a c i f i c S e e d B a n k, but I am no longer buying from them.

Hmm....
Ok, sorry! I don't know where to look.
The last time I bought Harle Tsu was a clone from an outlet in Washington State maybe 5-6 years ago, haha.
I bought both parents in seed, because those are two of my all-time favorite clear-headed-grounded CBD work strains.
I bought Harlequin Bx4, which is very close, and also Sour Tsunami, so I might cross them one day (not sure, I have a ton of other things to learn first).
I hope you can find it from a source you can trust to do you right. I have had seedbanks do me wrong, and that is no fun!

 

[cbdhemp808]

New pics this morning... starting to get the feel of my new phone camera. Stay tuned... tripod mount on the way.

2 kush plants in the flower house, and bud close-ups

Kush buds almost ready to harvest

The other kush plant

Kush buds in the morning light, reverse angle of first photo above... may need to harvest today to avoid bud rot [Update: I checked and they are looking OK... no sign of bud rot. Seeing some milky trichomes, but not a lot.]

Another angle of 2nd photo above

Kush bud close-up

The realm of the trichomes. Looking forward to using my tripod!

Maui Wowie bud this morning, plant is in a 6 gal pot

Veg house this morning... all CBD plants in view, except for Gilda the giant Gelato

Two different sets of clones. On the left, kush and maui wowie... past ready to up pot. On the right, blue dream cross.

 

[CBDMed]

Looks delicious!

 

[Bill284]

New pics this morning... starting to get the feel of my new phone camera. Stay tuned... tripod mount on the way.

2 kush plants in the flower house, and bud close-ups

Kush buds almost ready to harvest

The other kush plant

Kush buds in the morning light, reverse angle of first photo above... may need to harvest today to avoid bud rot

Another angle of 2nd photo above

Kush bud close-up

The realm of the trichomes. Looking forward to using my tripod!

Maui wowie bud this morning, plant is in a 6 gal pot

Veg house this morning... all CBD plants in view, except for Gilda the giant Gelato

Two different sets of clones. On the left, kush and maui wowie, past ready to up pot. On the right, blue dream cross.

Absolutely beautiful.




Stay safe
Bill284

 

[cbdhemp808]

The plants had longer to go for harvest, but I noticed too much bud rot today, so I harvested 2 plants. The Maui Wowie was actually ready.

MW had a little bit of bud rot going on, but not much. Trichomes were pretty much ideal – lots of amber. The Kush plant was harder hit by bud rot, but I didn't really lose any of the best top buds, mostly very small buds. Trichomes weren't ideal, but there were lots of milky ones. I couldn't harvest the other kush today, so I blasted the buds with peroxide solution.

Trimming time!

 

[CBDMed]

The plants had longer to go for harvest, but I noticed too much bud rot today, so I harvested 2 plants. The Maui Wowie was actually ready.

MW had a little bit of bud rot going on, but not much. Trichomes were pretty much ideal – lots of amber. The Kush plant was harder hit by bud rot, but I didn't really lose any of the best top buds, mostly very small buds. Trichomes weren't ideal, but there were lots of milky ones. I couldn't harvest the other kush today, so I blasted the buds with peroxide solution.

Trimming time!

Fresh Kush.... you are making me drool!
Haha.

 

[cbdhemp808]

Quick update on the harvest and trimming...

The MW was pretty good... nice solid colas and some bigger buds, some decent popcorn, and very little sub-popcorn. Good trichome ripeness. Bud rot was minimal.

Unfortunately, the kush was mostly a disaster... poor cola formation, open-structured buds, not many big buds, not much popcorn, and WAY too much sub-popcorn. From both plants, total, I probably lost between 1/3 and 1/2 of the usable buds to bud rot. The sub-popcorn I just mostly threw away. Trimming this s*** was a real pain, because it was a salvage job, and looking for signs of bud rot gets real old, fast. The mold sort of moves in and fuses with the buds, on the inside of the buds. It's a nightmare, and something I don't want to repeat.

I'm having 2nd thoughts now about trying to grow this particular kush. If I do keep growing it, I'm going to have to keep a close eye on the stigmas, because the more that die, the more the mold is invited to take hold. Virtually all the stigmas on these kush buds were brown, and this variety produces a lot of stigmas. I'd like to find a mold-resistant indica, and one that doesn't produce a lot of stigmas – that would be ideal.

There's a very short window – maybe 2 days – while there are still some white stigmas. This is when the buds need to be harvested and drying started. Missing this window is too risky. To add some complexity to this whole thing, the weather is a factor, too. We've had a very wet and humid summer... not a lot of completely sunny days. So, it's no wonder the mold is bad right now. Humidity in the day is running in the high 80s and low 90s.

The bright side is that I've got 4 more plants in the flower house – 2 Blue Dream-X that are both starting to show the start of buds, and 2 Gelato-X , one of which is starting to show the beginning of cola formation. So I'll be watching those like a hawk as they get close to harvest time. This is the first time I've flowered either of these varieties.

 

[CBDMed]

Quick update on the harvest and trimming...

The MW was pretty good... nice solid colas and some bigger buds, some decent popcorn, and very little sub-popcorn. Good trichome ripeness. Bud rot was minimal.

Unfortunately, the kush was mostly a disaster... poor cola formation, open-structured buds, not many big buds, not much popcorn, and WAY too much sub-popcorn. From both plants, total, I probably lost between 1/3 and 1/2 of the usable buds to bud rot. The sub-popcorn I just mostly threw away. Trimming this s*** was a real pain, because it was a salvage job, and looking for signs of bud rot gets real old, fast. The mold sort of moves in and fuses with the buds, on the inside of the buds. It's a nightmare, and something I don't want to repeat.

I'm having 2nd thoughts now about trying to grow this particular kush. If I do grow it, I'm going to have to keep a close eye on the stigmas, because the more that die, the more the mold is invited to take hold. Virtually all the stigmas on these kush buds were brown, and this variety produces a lot of stigmas. I'd like to find a mold-resistant indica, and one that doesn't produce many stigmas – that would be ideal.

CBD, sorry to hear about your loss!
Just to ask a side question (nd I don't know your budget), is another solar panel and inverter possible, to power ceiling fans, to keep the air from stagnating? Usually a ceiling fan does a pretty decent job of keeping circulation going.

 

[cbdhemp808]

Thanks. The flower house doesn't have electricity (yet), but even if it did, I think maybe our level of humidity and ambient mold is beyond being remedied by fans. I don't know. Maybe someday I'll get a couple small oscillating fans and mount them on the walls. The walls are completely open on the flower house, and we sometimes get nice ocean breezes, but those days are somewhat rare. It usually happens on sunny days.

 

[Bill284]

Quick update on the harvest and trimming...

The MW was pretty good... nice solid colas and some bigger buds, some decent popcorn, and very little sub-popcorn. Good trichome ripeness. Bud rot was minimal.

Unfortunately, the kush was mostly a disaster... poor cola formation, open-structured buds, not many big buds, not much popcorn, and WAY too much sub-popcorn. From both plants, total, I probably lost between 1/3 and 1/2 of the usable buds to bud rot. The sub-popcorn I just mostly threw away. Trimming this s*** was a real pain, because it was a salvage job, and looking for signs of bud rot gets real old, fast. The mold sort of moves in and fuses with the buds, on the inside of the buds. It's a nightmare, and something I don't want to repeat.

I'm having 2nd thoughts now about trying to grow this particular kush. If I do keep growing it, I'm going to have to keep a close eye on the stigmas, because the more that die, the more the mold is invited to take hold. Virtually all the stigmas on these kush buds were brown, and this variety produces a lot of stigmas. I'd like to find a mold-resistant indica, and one that doesn't produce a lot of stigmas – that would be ideal.

There's a very short window – maybe 2 days – while there are still some white stigmas. This is when the buds need to be harvested and drying started. Missing this window is too risky. To add some complexity to this whole thing, the weather is a factor, too. We've had a very wet and humid summer... not a lot of completely sunny days. So, it's no wonder the mold is bad right now. Humidity in the day is running in the high 80s and low 90s.

The bright side is that I've got 4 more plants in the flower house – 2 Blue Dream-X that are both starting to show the start of buds, and 2 Gelato-X , one of which is starting to show the beginning of cola formation. So I'll be watching those like a hawk as they get close to harvest time. This is the first time I've flowered either of these varieties.

Hopefully the 4 left are perfect.
Sorry about the damage Amigo.
Hope you are well.




Stay safe
Bill284

 

[Braddah Waiheesohai]

Part of growing in Hawaii! Even if all goes well it's pretty hard to even hold a good cure when there's 99% humidity outside . Looking good over there my brahdah

 

[Azimuth]

@Bode has reported good success using JMS - Jadam Microbial Solution to fend off (or at least reduce) bud rot. Might be worth a side-by-side experiment in your garden to see if it can work for you.

 

[cbdhemp808]

@Bode has reported good success using JMS - Jadam Microbial Solution to fend off (or at least reduce) bud rot. Might be worth a side-by-side experiment in your garden to see if it can work for you.

Interesting, thanks. I have a friend who has recommended LAB, but I haven't tried it yet. I could also make aerated worm compost tea, which I have made before, but not recently and not specifically to inhibit but rot.

So far, I am only seeing a bud rot problem with this particular kush, which makes me lean toward finding a different indica strain rather than try to deal with the bud rot.

 

[Timhomegrow]

Late to this party, garden's look great! Definitely some cool grow spaces.

 

[cbdhemp808]

Quick update...

The Blue Dreams are coming along in the flower house... buds are growing and smelling great. The Gelato inside the greenhouse is continuing to develop colas, but the buds are still very small. The Gelato on the deck is... well, she's a bit rough around the edges.

I did a lot of work in the veg house tonight, including: making a big batch of recycled soil, planting a batch of clones in 1 gal pots, taking 11 cuttings total from 4 different plants and starting clones from them, up potting 2 clones from1 gal to 5 gal, and up potting 1 clone from 1 gal to 6.5 gal.

The plants I took clones cutting from tonight are 2 of my legacy CBD phenos, my CBG pheno, and my new CBD plant that might turn out to be a 20:1 plant. Tomorrow I will move all the moms to the flower house.

Tomorrow... All plants in the flower house need to be sprayed with peroxide solution. All plants in the veg house need to be sprayed with my neem/soap/limonene solution, to kill the flea hoppers and to inhibit mold. We are well into flea hopper season here... they are everywhere on weeds and in our garden on the squash leaves.

I'm looking forward to harvesting the Blue Dreams and Gelatos that are now flowering. Also looking forward to flowering the new CBD 20:1, to see what kind of flower it produces, terpenes, etc. I am planning to have those flowers tested for cannabinoid content – they are supposed to be around 20% CBD and 1% THC. As for the new clones, I am looking forward to growing the Blue Dream and Gelato ones, and experimenting with topping early to produce 4 main "stems". I'll leave one of each plant un-topped as a control.

The tripod mount for my phone camera has arrived, so I'm excited to take some shots, especially macro shots of buds.