My First Grow
Dr. Krippling Incredible Bulk (Feminized)
Seeds from Herbie's
Connoisseur Grow (Advance Nutrients)
Connoisseur Bloo
Seeds germinated 2/12-2/14
Planted seeds 2/14
Harvested 5/15/16
"Percocet" sprouted 2/15
"Vicodin" sprouted 2/16. She got washed out of her hole when I first watered, so left the taproot kind of exposed. She looks a bit peaky. We shall see.
Started germinating 1 seed as backup in case "Vicodin" doesn't make it. 2/16
"Vicodin" perked up over night. Guess we'll have 3 plants instead of 2. 2/17
Percocet sprouted in dirt 2/20
UPercocet is still the reigning champ on 2/26. New leaves which are growing out flat and broad. Apparent strong indica influences.
Vicodin is sprouting leaves, but slower than Percocet. Stem is still low and twisted, a mistake on my part when I planted her.
OxyContin is holding her own. Obviously smaller because I sprouted her a few days later than the other two.
2/27 took two bottom leaves off Percocet. Two shoots got bigger overnight from that spot.
2/29 Beginning of Week 3 going to measure out a weak solution of plant food: 1 ml to 1 gallon of water.
2/29 Topped Percocet. Removed apical meristem.
3/2 Took 2 more fan leaves off because the shoots at the stem want to bush out. You should see the shoots from just the other day. Wow, this is a very robust plant so far. Main stalk is 1/4 - 3/8" thick already.
3/4-3/5- Have transplanted all three plants. They seem to have tolerated it well.
3/7 am going to make a CO2 generator. J. got me an IV tube with a wheel clamp on it. I'm gluing the end that you normally fit into the IV bag into the tube of an old CamelBack. Going to fill bag with vinegar and set it to drip very slowly into a pan of baking soda. This will make CO2 and my plants should like that.
3/13 I made my CO2 rig and it seemed to work well. Percocet is 1' tall and is really pushing toward the light. The other two are holding their own, but they're not directly under the light. I think that makes a big difference. I watered them well last night and M. is going to come over on Thursday while we're in Phoenix and water them again. Guess I'll try to take some cuttings when I get back and then I think I'm going to put the plant into flower. ****NOTE 6/15/16: CO2 EXPERIMENT WAS A BUST. APPARATUS WORKED BUT TO NO APPRECIABLE EFFECT. ALSO, TRIED MUSHROOM CO2 GENERATOR. WASTE OF MONEY.
3/20 Lollipopped and took clones (6) I hope I did them right. They did alright for a week but then I noticed yellowing on bottom leaves. J. bought some Calcium/Magnesium supplement.
3/28 Treated clones today. Begin Week 2 of flowering. No visible signs yet of any budding activity.
3/30 Counted at least 3 buds today (at least I think they're buds). Tiny hairs are starting to show. Little white nodes are poking up at the tops of the stems. Should know for sure in the next day or two. Also counted 2 clones that have begun to root.
3/31 Three rooted clones today. I asked Jeremy how to nurture clones while your main plant is flowering. He pretty much agreed with my plan but suggested that to slow down the clones, transplant into small pot first, let it become root bound, repeat in a slightly bigger pot, let it get rootbound, etc. Each transplant shocks the plant and it has to settle in to its new environment, Makes sense.
4/2 Gave the girls each 1/3 gallon of Connoisseur bloom solution. Many, many buds are starting to define themselves.
4/3 All six clones show roots. One of them was rootbound already so I transplanted it to a 4-inch pot. That clone is roughly 4"-5". The rest are in that ballpark. They'll probably all be in pots by Wednesday or Thursday. On the subject of clones, I hope that I can time everything right. I've got a batch flowering now and ultimately what I'd like to be able to do is have these clones ready to go into the tent when it's time to harvest the first batch. I just don't want them doing something weird while they're waiting to go into the tent.
4/8 All three plants have buds. Percocet has buds running up 4 strong stalks (staked). The tops are getting bushy blooms.
Vicodin is doing what I think they call "stretching": the stalks are reaching toward the light so its buds are coming out more like "popcorn" that I've read about. Hope that's not the case. Still, this strain might surprise me. According to the books the buds should really start to fatten up this week or next.
Never can remember the last plant's name. Anyway, she's holding her own; not a whole lot of budding bud she's a healthy plant. I broke the rules today (I think) when I pruned #3 so that the buds that are there will get some light.We'll see if that helped or hurt.
4/8 On 3/30 I counted 3 buds. Today there were at least 40. I think this is the end of Week 3. Will fertilize tomorrow Saturday 4/9.
NOTE: start flushing 10 days before end of grow (week 7 or so?)
4/11 Found out from the Green Thumb guys that I should flush plants for 2 weeks before harvest.
Beginning of week 4.a lot of the top buds are about as big around as the last knuckle on my thumb. Percocet has several "wooly" buds growing close together along the stems. I think she's the one to give me some actual colas. Vicodin has a lot of buds but more of the "popcorn" variety. The third plant is showing some buds.
4/12 I wonder if my plants are slow or if they're on track. No frame of reference. If, slow is it because of the LED light? As long as it brings my plants to harvest, I can wait.
From High Times: "Most indoor growers begin taking off the large fan leaves about a week before actual harvest. This is a good idea, especially once these leaves begin paling from green to yellow in color. Continue your harvest by taking off all leaves not associated with the buds and then move on to trimming off the smaller sugar leaves. Look for leaves with little resin coverage first and then move into the interior of the nuggets. It’s easier to remove leaves within the buds once they have dried out a bit, but that adds extra time and a second round of manicuring. By turning buds over and getting to the underside of smaller sugar leaves, it becomes easier to snip away at the stem and remove the entire leaf. Many growers like to only trim off leaf edges that come out of buds, leaving an aesthetic shape to the bud with the heavily resinated portion of the sugar leaves still intact within the buds."
4/12 I spotted the beginnings of sugar leaves on some top buds. Handheld microscope was a bust, but magnifying glass showed some glistening little glasslike beads. Watched some videos of Incredible Bulk at different stages and it looks like I'm fairly on track. ****NOTE: 6/15/16 FINALLY DID GET THE MICROSCOPE AND A LOUPE TO WORK FOR ME.
4/15 Fed the girls today. Week 5 begins.
4/16 After reading a lot of conflicting information, I went against conventional wisdom and did some pruning. Removed a big handful of fan leaves from Percocet and some from Vicodin. Left 3rd plant alone. There is a lot of controversy about pruning during flowering, but it makes sense to me that the buds growing up the stalk (like Brussels sprouts, J. says; apt) should be getting more light, as that's where new sugar leaves are emerging. A lot of resin is being produced; I ran my hands over some and it came back pretty redolent. I'll give it a few days and make a careful observation to see if it made a difference.
4/21 Observed 4/20 yesterday in due fashion: C's Holy Grail Kush was enjoyable. Percocet is actually developing a thick cola along with three smaller ones with a lot of buds. Vicodin has a lot of buds but they're not bunched together as they are on Percocet. Winding up Week 5.
4/25 plants are still thickening up in the buds. I've been fascinated with something I saw at the Green Thumb so today being payday I bought it. It's a bag of grow your own mushrooms. The cool thing about it is that while it's getting ready to make mushrooms it puts out a lot of CO2. The plants are supposed to really take off when you give them a shot while they're flowering. So I hung a bag in my grow tent. We shall see.
Got all clones transplanted to bigger pots. Made a nursery under the stairs with a fluorescent lamp. My clones are doing well, plus I've got another called Big Cheese that C. gave me. We'll see how it takes the transplant. Starting WEEK 6. I figure 2-4 more weeks.
4/26 Damn it. I left the lights on in the garage last night. I've done that twice. I've noticed that these plants are putting out a lot of humidity. When I open the tent door even after just a couple of hours I'm hit in the face with humid, stale air. Will set up a little fan on the floor pointing upward tonight. ****NOTE: 6/15/16 THE LIGHT DIDN'T SET ANY PLANTS OFF; NO HERMAPHRODITES.
4/29 Winding up week 6
5/1 Beginning Week 7. Some pistils are starting to turn brown. Not many, but a few here and there. I'M PREDICTING SUNDAY, MAY 15 AS HARVEST DAY. We'll see how close I get. That's two weeks from today. The end of this week will tell if I start flushing my plants.
5/8 One of the tops of Percocet broke off so I took it. Looked at it closely. 2.1 grams (it will be less if it gets to dry to optimum)
I smoked a little bud and definitely felt a little bump. Pistils were browning (about 40%) but the trichomes were still pretty clear. Don't know if my harvest prediction isn't a little early still.
5/8 Beginning Week 8. I think I'm very close to being on schedule.
5/13 (Friday night) I'd bought a little 420 microscope and also a jeweler's loupe. Finally got the microscope to work for me. The last two days I've been taking samples of leaves and looking at the trichomes under magnification. As of today a lot if not a majority of the trichomes started appearing to be milky. Amber is appearing in splotches. I started flushing like crazy a couple of days ago. Took a bud to the Green Thumb and showed it to J. and I explained my observations. He told me to cut them down, but I'm going to wait until at least Sunday. The bottom line is: WE'RE GOING TO HAVE A HARVEST!
5/13 continued. Here are my fears:
I harvest too early
I harvest too late
I flushed the plants too late and the smoke is going to be very harsh and chemical-tasting.
After all of this, the final product has little or no potency
My Harvest Plan
Chop the plants before the light comes on (before 9:00 am)
I read that will keep the plant from taking up water from root to stalk
Start trimming at kitchen table: get rid of fan leaves but collect all other trim.
Hang in garage, start drying; hopefully about 5 days (optimum temp: 70 degrees; optimum rh: 50%
Start the clones in veg.
5/20: I harvested my plants on 5/15. Trimmed and hung up. Took a couple small branches with small buds for quality control. The bigger plants are taking a while to dry, but that's ok. Have started curing trim and a few buds. I probably could have let them go 9-10 weeks instead of 8, but buds are fairly potent anyway.
Closing remarks. In general, this first time grow was a remarkable success. Incredible Bulk is going to be my mainstay until I find something better. But I think I'll always keep some of that around.
I caught it just when the trichomes were going opaque and catching it in that stage gives a "sativa-first" kick, followed by the mellowing effects of the indica (at least as far as I understand the distinction).
WAIT A MINUTE! Let me talk about the pot itself:
It was really fun to grow. The seeds all sprouted in February (dead of winter) and I started out on an adventure.
When it first went into flower, it was pretty smelly, according to J. I caught a major whiff of smelly gym shoes. That slowly went away and started producing a fragrance in the resin that I think someone should turn into a men's cologne. I loved running my hands through my plants and sniffing my fingers.
It's a very heady aroma, very hard to define. There's a heavy citrus aroma, but it's heavy; it reminds one of the heavily spiced sugared fruit you used to get around Christmas time, back in the day. But on top of that is a sage or some other robust wildflower aromatic that rides along.
THE EFFECT: I was gratified to hear C. say that every grower he's known, himself included, harvested about a week too early. I'm convinced that I'm guilty, too. BUT, here's what I was looking for: a "high" (I hate that term) that would make me more active while at the same time would act as an analgesic, so I could go about a daily routine. I think I came close. I was looking for a large percentage of opaque trichomes under a handheld microscope. I saw a lot of opaques, a less than equal amount of clears and a small percentage of ambers. Having no frame of reference, I guess I panicked and chopped them down. The result, however, especially after curing gave me much of what I was looking for.
********************************************************************************************
On to my second grow which is well under way. Cloning sure speeds up the process. I feel kind of like a baker: while my first batch was "baking" (in flower), the second batch (my clones) were "rising" (in veg). When the first batch was done, the second batch was ready to go under the LEDs (the oven). Of course cuttings were taken from the very best.
6/16 Have 7 plants getting ready to go into flower stage. 5 Incredible Bulks (4, if I really messed one up by chopping the main stem) 1 Big Cheese (from C.) 1 Mystery Plant (also from C.).
7 clones under light, but will probably start over on most of them when I trim just before flower. Want to really pay attention to my best and strongest plant(s) for clones.
6/23 Yesterday I trimmed my plants and took some more clones. I've set the timer to 12-on/12-off: Off at 9:00 pm til 9:00 am. Some roots are showing up from the earlier clones.
Observation: it seems that the maturing plants that I grew from clones are spindlier than their parents (raised from seeds).
July 8. Approximately Week 3 of flower phase. Much has happened. We went to Homer the last week of June, got home on July 2. Shauna watered the plants as I asked her to, but most of them really stretched during that time and a lot of tops got burned. Had to do a lot of trimming when I got home. They were pretty traumatized. I think one plant may be done for, but the rest are coming back nicely.
I kind of let this crop grow wild rather than closely trimming this time. BUT, I topped a bunch of the branches this time. The plants that are coming back are showing a bunch of buds. I'm definitely going to baby these along because they may turn into colas.
Sunday 7/10. What a difference a few days of tlc can make. I more than "closely trimmed", as previously stated; I was actually pretty savage with it. That turned out to be a good thing. I exposed a lot of lower stems that had a bunch of buds on them and now those plants are exploding. I think that it was okay that I topped most of the early branches. The plants are definitely bushier, and they all seem to be throwing out a lot more buds. Only week three. Cool. I also got 4 out of 6 of this crop to stop growing at about the same height. I just kept chopping the tops. Dr. Krippling makes a hearty plant. It can take a lot of abuse.
I'm looking forward to my winter grow. I've ordered some new seeds from Herbie's. Per Colin's advice, I researched a new strain called Super Lemon Haze. It's about 70% sativa and 30% indica. A different effect; it's supposed to give pain relief but it's also stimulate more physical activity. That's what I need, even if I'm stuck in a recliner again this winter, I want to feel motivated to do something like my art or something new. (It'd be really cool to write for HT)
More news regarding this winter's experiment. I ordered a packet of Super Lemon Haze regular seeds AND a packet of Super Lemon Haze Autoflowering seeds. Going to see what the difference is.
I started researching Autoflowering plants and thought I'd found the mother lode. Spent a week trying to find something negative about them. What's not to love? Ultra short growing time, high yield, high potency, short stature, thick colas, etc. Then I finally found the bummer. You cannot clone Autoflowering cannabis. Basically when you take a cutting from an autoflower, the cutting is the same age as the donor. Because the life cycle of of an AF is so short, you end up trying to raise an aging plant to see if it has enough recovery strength to actually flower. It won't.
Anyway, I want to see if there is a difference in potency between the two. If I find no difference then obviously it pays to raise a plant that you can take cuttings from. If it doesn't do the trick for you but is still nice to have around, then grow the occasional round of Autoflowering.
7/11: Back to the present: mixed up some plant food this morning. I'm using the Advance Nutrients Connoisseur system. This is a two-part feeding system. There is one set of nutrients for your plants when they're in the vegetative state and another set for the flowering stage. The cool thing about this stuff is, you mix it with water and let it sit and the nutrients automatically adjusts the ph to suit your plants. BTW,
I'm growing in soil and the soil is Happy Frog. Expensive but worth it.
7/13: Things coming along nicely. My clones are also doing well. I had to put one in the greenhouse. Not sure if she'll make it. We'll see.
Dr. Krippling Incredible Bulk (Feminized)
Seeds from Herbie's
Connoisseur Grow (Advance Nutrients)
Connoisseur Bloo
Seeds germinated 2/12-2/14
Planted seeds 2/14
Harvested 5/15/16
"Percocet" sprouted 2/15
"Vicodin" sprouted 2/16. She got washed out of her hole when I first watered, so left the taproot kind of exposed. She looks a bit peaky. We shall see.
Started germinating 1 seed as backup in case "Vicodin" doesn't make it. 2/16
"Vicodin" perked up over night. Guess we'll have 3 plants instead of 2. 2/17
Percocet sprouted in dirt 2/20
UPercocet is still the reigning champ on 2/26. New leaves which are growing out flat and broad. Apparent strong indica influences.
Vicodin is sprouting leaves, but slower than Percocet. Stem is still low and twisted, a mistake on my part when I planted her.
OxyContin is holding her own. Obviously smaller because I sprouted her a few days later than the other two.
2/27 took two bottom leaves off Percocet. Two shoots got bigger overnight from that spot.
2/29 Beginning of Week 3 going to measure out a weak solution of plant food: 1 ml to 1 gallon of water.
2/29 Topped Percocet. Removed apical meristem.
3/2 Took 2 more fan leaves off because the shoots at the stem want to bush out. You should see the shoots from just the other day. Wow, this is a very robust plant so far. Main stalk is 1/4 - 3/8" thick already.
3/4-3/5- Have transplanted all three plants. They seem to have tolerated it well.
3/7 am going to make a CO2 generator. J. got me an IV tube with a wheel clamp on it. I'm gluing the end that you normally fit into the IV bag into the tube of an old CamelBack. Going to fill bag with vinegar and set it to drip very slowly into a pan of baking soda. This will make CO2 and my plants should like that.
3/13 I made my CO2 rig and it seemed to work well. Percocet is 1' tall and is really pushing toward the light. The other two are holding their own, but they're not directly under the light. I think that makes a big difference. I watered them well last night and M. is going to come over on Thursday while we're in Phoenix and water them again. Guess I'll try to take some cuttings when I get back and then I think I'm going to put the plant into flower. ****NOTE 6/15/16: CO2 EXPERIMENT WAS A BUST. APPARATUS WORKED BUT TO NO APPRECIABLE EFFECT. ALSO, TRIED MUSHROOM CO2 GENERATOR. WASTE OF MONEY.
3/20 Lollipopped and took clones (6) I hope I did them right. They did alright for a week but then I noticed yellowing on bottom leaves. J. bought some Calcium/Magnesium supplement.
3/28 Treated clones today. Begin Week 2 of flowering. No visible signs yet of any budding activity.
3/30 Counted at least 3 buds today (at least I think they're buds). Tiny hairs are starting to show. Little white nodes are poking up at the tops of the stems. Should know for sure in the next day or two. Also counted 2 clones that have begun to root.
3/31 Three rooted clones today. I asked Jeremy how to nurture clones while your main plant is flowering. He pretty much agreed with my plan but suggested that to slow down the clones, transplant into small pot first, let it become root bound, repeat in a slightly bigger pot, let it get rootbound, etc. Each transplant shocks the plant and it has to settle in to its new environment, Makes sense.
4/2 Gave the girls each 1/3 gallon of Connoisseur bloom solution. Many, many buds are starting to define themselves.
4/3 All six clones show roots. One of them was rootbound already so I transplanted it to a 4-inch pot. That clone is roughly 4"-5". The rest are in that ballpark. They'll probably all be in pots by Wednesday or Thursday. On the subject of clones, I hope that I can time everything right. I've got a batch flowering now and ultimately what I'd like to be able to do is have these clones ready to go into the tent when it's time to harvest the first batch. I just don't want them doing something weird while they're waiting to go into the tent.
4/8 All three plants have buds. Percocet has buds running up 4 strong stalks (staked). The tops are getting bushy blooms.
Vicodin is doing what I think they call "stretching": the stalks are reaching toward the light so its buds are coming out more like "popcorn" that I've read about. Hope that's not the case. Still, this strain might surprise me. According to the books the buds should really start to fatten up this week or next.
Never can remember the last plant's name. Anyway, she's holding her own; not a whole lot of budding bud she's a healthy plant. I broke the rules today (I think) when I pruned #3 so that the buds that are there will get some light.We'll see if that helped or hurt.
4/8 On 3/30 I counted 3 buds. Today there were at least 40. I think this is the end of Week 3. Will fertilize tomorrow Saturday 4/9.
NOTE: start flushing 10 days before end of grow (week 7 or so?)
4/11 Found out from the Green Thumb guys that I should flush plants for 2 weeks before harvest.
Beginning of week 4.a lot of the top buds are about as big around as the last knuckle on my thumb. Percocet has several "wooly" buds growing close together along the stems. I think she's the one to give me some actual colas. Vicodin has a lot of buds but more of the "popcorn" variety. The third plant is showing some buds.
4/12 I wonder if my plants are slow or if they're on track. No frame of reference. If, slow is it because of the LED light? As long as it brings my plants to harvest, I can wait.
From High Times: "Most indoor growers begin taking off the large fan leaves about a week before actual harvest. This is a good idea, especially once these leaves begin paling from green to yellow in color. Continue your harvest by taking off all leaves not associated with the buds and then move on to trimming off the smaller sugar leaves. Look for leaves with little resin coverage first and then move into the interior of the nuggets. It’s easier to remove leaves within the buds once they have dried out a bit, but that adds extra time and a second round of manicuring. By turning buds over and getting to the underside of smaller sugar leaves, it becomes easier to snip away at the stem and remove the entire leaf. Many growers like to only trim off leaf edges that come out of buds, leaving an aesthetic shape to the bud with the heavily resinated portion of the sugar leaves still intact within the buds."
4/12 I spotted the beginnings of sugar leaves on some top buds. Handheld microscope was a bust, but magnifying glass showed some glistening little glasslike beads. Watched some videos of Incredible Bulk at different stages and it looks like I'm fairly on track. ****NOTE: 6/15/16 FINALLY DID GET THE MICROSCOPE AND A LOUPE TO WORK FOR ME.
4/15 Fed the girls today. Week 5 begins.
4/16 After reading a lot of conflicting information, I went against conventional wisdom and did some pruning. Removed a big handful of fan leaves from Percocet and some from Vicodin. Left 3rd plant alone. There is a lot of controversy about pruning during flowering, but it makes sense to me that the buds growing up the stalk (like Brussels sprouts, J. says; apt) should be getting more light, as that's where new sugar leaves are emerging. A lot of resin is being produced; I ran my hands over some and it came back pretty redolent. I'll give it a few days and make a careful observation to see if it made a difference.
4/21 Observed 4/20 yesterday in due fashion: C's Holy Grail Kush was enjoyable. Percocet is actually developing a thick cola along with three smaller ones with a lot of buds. Vicodin has a lot of buds but they're not bunched together as they are on Percocet. Winding up Week 5.
4/25 plants are still thickening up in the buds. I've been fascinated with something I saw at the Green Thumb so today being payday I bought it. It's a bag of grow your own mushrooms. The cool thing about it is that while it's getting ready to make mushrooms it puts out a lot of CO2. The plants are supposed to really take off when you give them a shot while they're flowering. So I hung a bag in my grow tent. We shall see.
Got all clones transplanted to bigger pots. Made a nursery under the stairs with a fluorescent lamp. My clones are doing well, plus I've got another called Big Cheese that C. gave me. We'll see how it takes the transplant. Starting WEEK 6. I figure 2-4 more weeks.
4/26 Damn it. I left the lights on in the garage last night. I've done that twice. I've noticed that these plants are putting out a lot of humidity. When I open the tent door even after just a couple of hours I'm hit in the face with humid, stale air. Will set up a little fan on the floor pointing upward tonight. ****NOTE: 6/15/16 THE LIGHT DIDN'T SET ANY PLANTS OFF; NO HERMAPHRODITES.
4/29 Winding up week 6
5/1 Beginning Week 7. Some pistils are starting to turn brown. Not many, but a few here and there. I'M PREDICTING SUNDAY, MAY 15 AS HARVEST DAY. We'll see how close I get. That's two weeks from today. The end of this week will tell if I start flushing my plants.
5/8 One of the tops of Percocet broke off so I took it. Looked at it closely. 2.1 grams (it will be less if it gets to dry to optimum)
I smoked a little bud and definitely felt a little bump. Pistils were browning (about 40%) but the trichomes were still pretty clear. Don't know if my harvest prediction isn't a little early still.5/8 Beginning Week 8. I think I'm very close to being on schedule.
5/13 (Friday night) I'd bought a little 420 microscope and also a jeweler's loupe. Finally got the microscope to work for me. The last two days I've been taking samples of leaves and looking at the trichomes under magnification. As of today a lot if not a majority of the trichomes started appearing to be milky. Amber is appearing in splotches. I started flushing like crazy a couple of days ago. Took a bud to the Green Thumb and showed it to J. and I explained my observations. He told me to cut them down, but I'm going to wait until at least Sunday. The bottom line is: WE'RE GOING TO HAVE A HARVEST!
5/13 continued. Here are my fears:
I harvest too early
I harvest too late
I flushed the plants too late and the smoke is going to be very harsh and chemical-tasting.
After all of this, the final product has little or no potency
My Harvest Plan
Chop the plants before the light comes on (before 9:00 am)
I read that will keep the plant from taking up water from root to stalk
Start trimming at kitchen table: get rid of fan leaves but collect all other trim.
Hang in garage, start drying; hopefully about 5 days (optimum temp: 70 degrees; optimum rh: 50%
Start the clones in veg.
5/20: I harvested my plants on 5/15. Trimmed and hung up. Took a couple small branches with small buds for quality control. The bigger plants are taking a while to dry, but that's ok. Have started curing trim and a few buds. I probably could have let them go 9-10 weeks instead of 8, but buds are fairly potent anyway.
Closing remarks. In general, this first time grow was a remarkable success. Incredible Bulk is going to be my mainstay until I find something better. But I think I'll always keep some of that around.
I caught it just when the trichomes were going opaque and catching it in that stage gives a "sativa-first" kick, followed by the mellowing effects of the indica (at least as far as I understand the distinction).
WAIT A MINUTE! Let me talk about the pot itself:
It was really fun to grow. The seeds all sprouted in February (dead of winter) and I started out on an adventure.
When it first went into flower, it was pretty smelly, according to J. I caught a major whiff of smelly gym shoes. That slowly went away and started producing a fragrance in the resin that I think someone should turn into a men's cologne. I loved running my hands through my plants and sniffing my fingers.
It's a very heady aroma, very hard to define. There's a heavy citrus aroma, but it's heavy; it reminds one of the heavily spiced sugared fruit you used to get around Christmas time, back in the day. But on top of that is a sage or some other robust wildflower aromatic that rides along.
THE EFFECT: I was gratified to hear C. say that every grower he's known, himself included, harvested about a week too early. I'm convinced that I'm guilty, too. BUT, here's what I was looking for: a "high" (I hate that term) that would make me more active while at the same time would act as an analgesic, so I could go about a daily routine. I think I came close. I was looking for a large percentage of opaque trichomes under a handheld microscope. I saw a lot of opaques, a less than equal amount of clears and a small percentage of ambers. Having no frame of reference, I guess I panicked and chopped them down. The result, however, especially after curing gave me much of what I was looking for.
********************************************************************************************
On to my second grow which is well under way. Cloning sure speeds up the process. I feel kind of like a baker: while my first batch was "baking" (in flower), the second batch (my clones) were "rising" (in veg). When the first batch was done, the second batch was ready to go under the LEDs (the oven). Of course cuttings were taken from the very best.
6/16 Have 7 plants getting ready to go into flower stage. 5 Incredible Bulks (4, if I really messed one up by chopping the main stem) 1 Big Cheese (from C.) 1 Mystery Plant (also from C.).
7 clones under light, but will probably start over on most of them when I trim just before flower. Want to really pay attention to my best and strongest plant(s) for clones.
6/23 Yesterday I trimmed my plants and took some more clones. I've set the timer to 12-on/12-off: Off at 9:00 pm til 9:00 am. Some roots are showing up from the earlier clones.
Observation: it seems that the maturing plants that I grew from clones are spindlier than their parents (raised from seeds).
July 8. Approximately Week 3 of flower phase. Much has happened. We went to Homer the last week of June, got home on July 2. Shauna watered the plants as I asked her to, but most of them really stretched during that time and a lot of tops got burned. Had to do a lot of trimming when I got home. They were pretty traumatized. I think one plant may be done for, but the rest are coming back nicely.
I kind of let this crop grow wild rather than closely trimming this time. BUT, I topped a bunch of the branches this time. The plants that are coming back are showing a bunch of buds. I'm definitely going to baby these along because they may turn into colas.
Sunday 7/10. What a difference a few days of tlc can make. I more than "closely trimmed", as previously stated; I was actually pretty savage with it. That turned out to be a good thing. I exposed a lot of lower stems that had a bunch of buds on them and now those plants are exploding. I think that it was okay that I topped most of the early branches. The plants are definitely bushier, and they all seem to be throwing out a lot more buds. Only week three. Cool. I also got 4 out of 6 of this crop to stop growing at about the same height. I just kept chopping the tops. Dr. Krippling makes a hearty plant. It can take a lot of abuse.
I'm looking forward to my winter grow. I've ordered some new seeds from Herbie's. Per Colin's advice, I researched a new strain called Super Lemon Haze. It's about 70% sativa and 30% indica. A different effect; it's supposed to give pain relief but it's also stimulate more physical activity. That's what I need, even if I'm stuck in a recliner again this winter, I want to feel motivated to do something like my art or something new. (It'd be really cool to write for HT)
More news regarding this winter's experiment. I ordered a packet of Super Lemon Haze regular seeds AND a packet of Super Lemon Haze Autoflowering seeds. Going to see what the difference is.
I started researching Autoflowering plants and thought I'd found the mother lode. Spent a week trying to find something negative about them. What's not to love? Ultra short growing time, high yield, high potency, short stature, thick colas, etc. Then I finally found the bummer. You cannot clone Autoflowering cannabis. Basically when you take a cutting from an autoflower, the cutting is the same age as the donor. Because the life cycle of of an AF is so short, you end up trying to raise an aging plant to see if it has enough recovery strength to actually flower. It won't.
Anyway, I want to see if there is a difference in potency between the two. If I find no difference then obviously it pays to raise a plant that you can take cuttings from. If it doesn't do the trick for you but is still nice to have around, then grow the occasional round of Autoflowering.
7/11: Back to the present: mixed up some plant food this morning. I'm using the Advance Nutrients Connoisseur system. This is a two-part feeding system. There is one set of nutrients for your plants when they're in the vegetative state and another set for the flowering stage. The cool thing about this stuff is, you mix it with water and let it sit and the nutrients automatically adjusts the ph to suit your plants. BTW,
I'm growing in soil and the soil is Happy Frog. Expensive but worth it.
7/13: Things coming along nicely. My clones are also doing well. I had to put one in the greenhouse. Not sure if she'll make it. We'll see.
and 
. Get some pics and show it!
