PeeJay's Neophyte Breeding Adventure

[PeeJay]

Hope things go well with your Mom PJ......

I laughed at both your mom and your SWICK

I figured it was OK to laugh with you since mom is presumably fine now. - and as you so tastefuly put it - "She's old." (someplace I'm headed.)

*Giggle* Mom will be fine, I reckon. She had a knee replacement 14 years ago and she is now 83. In increasingly rarer cases as prosthetic knee tech has improved, sometimes little particles of polyurethane shave off the artificial joint and result in an auto immune reaction that causes the bone in the vicinity to deconstruct. To fix it they need to do a knee replacement revision that is much more invasive than the original knee replacement. To put that in perspective, a knee replacement is like an hour on the slab with a spinal and the revision takes 3-5 hours under a general anesthetic. The bounce-back time is longer...

It is a hellishly painful situation and Mom has been advised to "take it easy." My chore is to convince her that she should expend her "activity currency" on things she wants to do socially and are fun and not on emptying the dishwasher, going grocery shopping, standing in the kitchen preparing meals, or getting down on her hands and knees to pick up the stray sweet pea I lovingly shelled and cooked with fresh mint and slipped off the back of her fork "English style" before it got smooshed into the carpet, etc. Well, she is a stubborn biatch who wants to be independent and does not fully grasp my strategy. Hence, she took a shower the other day without a spotter. It has been hell, lol.

That same hard-headed attitude should serve her well in post surgery rehab. I have taught several teens to drive and it is never pleasant. That experience pales in comparison to trying to teach my Mom how to navigate on my deceased Father's old mobility scooter... Lordy! It's a shame none of you folks are linked to my snapchat because the clandestinely captured quickly expiring antics I have sent my friends are a riot! Genuflect, genuflect, hail Mary, hail Mary... I'm not Catholic. That was for you Mr. Teddy. Honor thy Father and Mother and all that.

 

[SweetSue]

Hi Oiler! Well, I've away since early Monday morning. I returned to find happy aggressively growing plants. I didn't take much time with pictures but here are the greenhouse girls:

It is hard to put their size in context in that space, but here is a picture where you can see their shadows inside. The greenhouse is 6' across and 7' tall. They are doing pretty ok and have about another three weeks to veg at this latitude. The rosemary, hysop, and catmint in front are sitting on a shelf that is 2' high.

The two very different personalities in the tent have been on 12/12 since Sunday. Not sure if I can call it day one of flower yet. No I can't, but soon! The 4x4 is basically packed...

In my mailbox I found my new genetics! What I paid for:

Freebies:

Here's the rub. I am not home much since my Mother, bless her heart, is old and is having serious mobility problems. She insists she can do everything but she can not. On Thursday I left her alone to go ramble in the mountains. There are some pictures of that in the Changing Seasons. The cell coverage was poor, but a fellow 420er gave me a call and we were discussing some stuff. I had to end the call rather abruptly because I started getting a crazy number of alerts. It turns out that Mom, bless her heart she's old, decided to take a shower right after I left. She discovered that once in, she could not get back out! After trying for an hour to extricate herself from the predicament she finally activated the "I've fallen and can't get up" waterproof pendant she wears. That was why my phone was going crazy...

Yesterday we went to the doctor and got her surgery scheduled, finally. Oh yeah, the rub...

So, my plan has been to germinate a bunch of the regular Pakistani Chitral and Panama, collect pollen and do some crossing. Sadly, babies can't be left alone long in small pots like the big girls can in their 10 gallon containers. I was going to just blow it off but then...

If I can get them up and going, I can put them in a SWICK! Then I won't have to sweat them if I'm gone for five days at a time. Quality isn't a big issue. I just want one male and three females of each. If they aren't prime, who cares?

Yeah, feel free to throw rotten friuts and vegetables in my direction...

There you go PeeJay.

One of those things SWICK is designed for. Gotta laugh at the irony though, eh? Sending healing thoughts for your mom.

 

[Dennise]

PJ got another question for ya on using your mix with an auto outdoors.... I just popped the bean and it is of course in the baby soil... so my question is if I make her a home outside which soil do I use and how do I amend it when it is time? Would I do better to let her do her little bit of veg in the house then after a few weeks pot her up in bloom soil for outside? Sorry to be such a ditz......

 

[Groovy Bud]

Obviously subbed.

I'm kinda new around, I don't recognise you yet, but I know when I see someone good at what he does. That leaf color, the whole greenhouse concept, everything looking clean and optimized, you sure were doing this back before I was born.

Good vibes your way.
Truly inspirational. Simple and effective.

 

[Dennise]

Groovy... PJ's soil is the best grow I have ever done and had to do nothing but water....

 

[PeeJay]

PJ got another question for ya on using your mix with an auto outdoors.... I just popped the bean and it is of course in the baby soil... so my question is if I make her a home outside which soil do I use and how do I amend it when it is time? Would I do better to let her do her little bit of veg in the house then after a few weeks pot her up in bloom soil for outside? Sorry to be such a ditz......

Leave it in the baby soil for three weeks. It should be fine in that green pot (I went and looked) for that long. Pot it up straight into the flowering soil in a big pot. Keep it inside until you pot it up. I haven't done any autos, Denise, but that is what I would do if I wuz you. Happy 4th!

 

[SweetSue]

For the first time I clicked to laugh at your avitar. Yes, I did indeed laugh!

Happy 4th PeeJay.

 

[Dennise]

Leave it in the baby soil for three weeks. It should be fine in that green pot (I went and looked) for that long. Pot it up straight into the flowering soil in a big pot. Keep it inside until you pot it up. I haven't done any autos, Denise, but that is what I would do if I wuz you. Happy 4th!

That is exactly what I shall do Sir... thank you very much and we shall see how a auto works outiside... and I hope you have a wonderful 4th of July my friend....

 

[PeeJay]

What's going on with this?

8 Pakistani Chitral and 8 Panama have been dropped. It's a good side by side SWICK evaluation tool you can learn more about here:

Sue's SWICK journal Post #296

Gotta run!

 

[Lady Cannafan]

So neat and tidy with your grow rooms PeeJay. It looks welcoming.
I think your swick kids are going to do just fine. They have a great babysitter and mentor watching over them on the left of the picture.

 

[B A R]

8 Pakistani Chitral and 8 Panama have been dropped. It's a good side by side SWICK evaluation tool you can learn more about here:

Sue's SWICK journal Post #296

Gotta run!

Dr. Ziggy also has a lot of good info on the SWICK system. Sue and him worked together on tuning it in via 420mag.

Glad to her your mother is getting the needed operation PJ. I just human nature to want to care for ourselves even when it becomes a challenge. As usual, everything looks dandy in your grow.

 

[PeeJay]

Dr. Ziggy also has a lot of good info on the SWICK system. Sue and him worked together on tuning it in via 420mag.

Glad to her your mother is getting the needed operation PJ. I just human nature to want to care for ourselves even when it becomes a challenge. As usual, everything looks dandy in your grow.

Indeed, Reg. Over-caring for her is not productive. I remain tuned in and on-call but must not over-react. Sort of like growing nice weed...

I have stopped topping the greenhouse and tent plants and am just super cropping. Yep I pinch the stem and get a nice juicy popping sound when I do. Then I bend. There is no "whole plant" stress reaction at all. The plants deal with it like a horse swishing it's tail to rid itself of a pesky fly. Very fun. Metabolism is robust.

Took a couple of photos tonight of the stem pinching and bending on the greenhouse plants. I have only overdone it once and lost a top. Like most "procedures" your success will be dependent on overall plant health. If you take a clone from a wonky plant that looks like it came from seed strained through a condom the prognosis is grim. If you take a clone from a plant that is booming, well, it will be much more likely to thrive. If you supercrop a plant that is stretchy, unhealthy, and struggling it will be bad.

So, here are a few pictures of bending taken as things got dusky outside in the greenhouse. The plants are settling in for the sleep. It's quiet time. Check out Canna's time lapses for reference if that puzzles you. All of these bends have happened in the last 48 hours. It was dusky enough that sometimes the flash on auto went off and sometimes it didn't.

I like the way that this low branch on the sage 'n sour is trying to run a sweep. It is likely to have a head-on with the linebacker (my clippers.)

Don't Tiger Mommy your plants.

 

[SweetSue]

Exactly what I did to my Cheese Candy, at the wrong time, on the wrong spot on the stem, and I still got away with it because these are some of the heartiest, most forgiving plants in the world.

 

[Lady Cannafan]

Thanks for the close ups on the super cropping! I'm going to do that on the two I topped outside as soon as they are grown enough.

...........If you take a clone from a wonky plant that looks like it came from seed strained through a condom the prognosis is grim.

 

[Dennise]

I think I am now a complete convert to your soil PJ..... The last grow spoiled me as far as not having to mix nutes and the smoke is by far the nicest I have grown... after I finish this side by side with the FF... which is already failing miserably compared to your soil..... I am going pure PJ... You have made life so much easier........

 

[PeeJay]

I think I am now a complete convert to your soil PJ..... The last grow spoiled me as far as not having to mix nutes and the smoke is by far the nicest I have grown... after I finish this side by side with the FF... which is already failing miserably compared to your soil..... I am going pure PJ... You have made life so much easier........

Ya don't say? I noticed on your Friday update the PJ soil plants were starting to pull away from the FF plants in the growth race. I guess that trend is continuing?

There are a few little extras that can be applied a couple of times a grow. An occasional drench with 2-3-1 cold processed fishy ferts ( I use General Organics Bio Marine.) The stuff stinks to high heaven but if you are running a filter it won't bug you, just wear a clothespin on your nose while applying it.

I also liked the way the plants responded to a foliar feeding with this product:

The plants seem to do just fine without extras, but sometimes it feels good to give them a little extra love.

 

[PeeJay]

The two indoor plants have been on a flowering light schedule for a week now and are only just now showing evidence of setting flowers. I shut off the lights today for a few minutes and got some flash pictures.

The tent is insanely full. This isn't something I planed. When I decided to do the breeding thing I needed more space in the greenhouse so two plants ended up in the tent.

Sitting on the floor and looking up:

Top down, the Cheese is on the left.

Oddly, the Darkstar has stretched more than the Cheese, the opposite of what I expected. Cheese is under the 144x5 so it is getting more light than the Darkstar which is under 128x3. Both lights are a little too close to the plants. The 144x5 is about 16" above the highest growth on the Cheese and the 128x3 is about 18" above the Darkstar. There isn't much higher I can put them without doing major re-rigging.

The 144x5 can only go up about three or four inches unless I remove the yoyos and mount it right to the crossbar at the top of the tent. If I do that I can add about 8"

I have a little more wiggle room with the 128x3

One of the tops on the Cheese is got a bit of whirligiging going on that may be from being too close.

A couple more Cheese shots:

Some Darkstar:

I need to get more dirt mixed today so I'm off to find a suitable replacement for the Excellerite I can't get anymore.

 

[SweetSue]

One of the tops on the Cheese is got a bit of whirligiging going on that may be from being too close.

Is it excess light or heat that would cause this?

 

[Lady Cannafan]

I don't think it's heat. I have the same thing going on with my indoor girls under the same light. Little white tips showing as well as the curling sideways. It needs to go higher, too close now with the growth they have done. There is no heat to speak of with the light. (with mine anyway)

 

[Graytail]

Picture the tightly closed apical tip cluster reaching straight - or not so straight - up to the light. If it's bent, one side will get a blast of light while the other side doesn't. Those edges grow faster as they unfold and presto twisto - curly leaves.

... or not ... seemed like a good explanation.