Rabbit's Big Leap - High Brix With Doc's Kit

[KingstonRabbi]

Happier Update - Critical

Today Critical and Hash Bomb 2 got plain water with epsom salt. I cleaned up underneath and removed a lot of small shoots. Thinned a few in the canopy as well. Not sure how much more thinning she needs, or to put it the other way, how many I should leave. Put a 3rd way, what is the ideal number she can support given 6 gal soil and 16" by 28" canopy?

 

[Graytail]

Critical looks good - I wouldn't thin it out any more.

Sorry to hear about the return of the mites. I haven't had to deal with them yet, but no one has an easy time with them. They all say you gotta be ruthless. I've only had to deal with whiteflies, but I humored mine too long - they adapted to everything I hit 'em with.

Trying to grow good plants with insects is demoralizing in itself. Get something in addition to the neem and use it in rotation. Don' screw around with mites.

 

[veinz]

sorry to hear bout the c.....
hope you gonna be ok dude

 

[KingstonRabbi]

Veg Room update, on deck

Spent Saturday clearing space and working on the veg room. Gave all plants in veg a GE drench, starting at full strength for most, heavily diluted by time I got to the last 2 that didn't seem to need a feeding. BCS clone (2nd from right) still has some nute burn so plain water for her. Blue Mystic (2nd from left) still has some yellow but lots of new green. Dance World (middle) also still needs some greening. New Medical Mass not yet growing much topside which I hope means she's focusing on getting roots into new soil. Temps have warmed also but still only in upper 60's. Not as worried about veg room as flower room, but I do need to fix that before soil stops working. I think that's what happened to K-Train that I put aside in favor of an extra Medical Mass last week.

None of the plants is loving this soil as much as first Medical Mass. She has the most growth, densest, greenest, and thickest stems and branches. I had to remove the bottom 3 branch pairs because even if they reached the canopy there isn't room! Also very glad I started training early this time around, because the branches are like fiberglass. The top pair is as thick as some main stems of plants in flower.

6 lower branches pruned. You know I want to clone them all.

And the finished plant ready for her screen again.

 

[AngryBird]

happy and green

 

[KingstonRabbi]

Veg Room, On the Bench

Here's a look at my plants in limbo. I only have room for 8 plants in the brix grow this round. I have 2 Dance Worlds that are fine plants still in 1 gal, I don't have heart to cull them, so maybe I'll veg them long enough to put outside this summer, maybe. 3 BCS clones in 1 gal that have finally revegged after starting to flower in September. 1 will be for the next round, the other 2 may get me started back on juicing. 2 WWs that I planned to use next round, but may replace with new seeds.

K-Train was part of this grow, started off faster than others, but stalled, got leggy and yellowed quite a bit. I'm pretty sure that was due to chilled soil. The others showed signs but not nearly as bad. Now she's coming back with nice green growth and starting to fill in a little. I'll try to keep her happy in veg until next round.

Hash Bomb #8, finally done revegging and definitely part of next round if not sooner. Only reason she's not part of this round is she was still revegging. Bottom pic shows single and treble leaves on older growth up to about 2 weeks ago. Her sister is leading pack in my scrog grow. Can't wait to see what she does in 6 gal brix soil.

 

[KingstonRabbi]

The Catatonic, I mean Cationic update

Can't believe it's been almost 2 weeks since last update. Been working on fixing temp problems in tent. They were barely getting into 70's during day and dropping to as low as 55 at night. That's actually colder than the rest of my basement gets without a tent for climate control. I posted in my other journal about my rebuild of the tent area to give me more room to work and access plants better. Also discovered shortly before rebuild that temps below canopy were often 10 degrees colder than above canopy. Improved air circulation has fixed that problem. Still trying to stabilize the temps. Low is about 65, but high varies from 73 early on to 87 yesterday. Today it got up to 83. Not bad but maybe a shock to plants used to 72. Humidity stays above 40%, except at 87 it was 30%.

Main development since last update is that 3 plants in flower got their Cat drenches. The cationic drench contains strongly reproductive stimulating forms of nutrients. They get 2 of these in a row after bud set, then back to normal schedule for rest of grow. The result should be a massive increase in resin production on buds.

This is Hash Bomb #10, the one I placed all hopes and dreams into and then nearly killed by not watering. She's coming back far better than I every hoped. I was unsure of her future but gave her the 1st cat drench anyway and 2nd cat drench on the 12th when the 2 younger plants got their 1st. I am not seeing results yet. Drying out may have nixed the buds she had, but she is starting to show more pistils again. I hope that continues and drenches were not in vain. (Edit: looking at her again I now see better bud development. I definitely hurt her yield, but she's still going to produce something.)

This is Critical, who clearly loves this soil. Photo is of 1st cat drench on 12th with detail of buds then and again on 16th when I gave 2nd cat drench. Clearly a big change in just 4 days. I was already really happy with her bud development before the drenches. I'm doing my really really happy rabbit dance now!

Hash Bomb #2, a very sativa-ish pheno, not showing as much bud development but still much better than the clones in my scrog grow had at 4-5 weeks. And a very noticeable increase 4 days later, so I have much higher expectations for yield from her.

I still have mites and sprayed again tonight. They are so small I wouldn't notice them unless I was actively checking every time I go in tent. Well maybe I would. The leaves are so much healthier in this grow that the tiny white dots stand out. So I'm still confident that I have them under control. I will be harvesting my other grow starting this weekend and cut the rest over couple weeks. With the extra space I hope to keep new plants separated from the infested ones and eventually get rid of the mites. I also have option of dividing tent into 2 separate tents to keep mites from new plants. Have I mentioned how much I love having the extra space? It just makes it so much more pleasant to be in there, and so much easier when I don't have to pull plants out of tent to work on them.

So I have a bunch of little problems to deal with still, but the big things all seem to be going my way. Happy growing!

 

[AngryBird]

Wow, 2 weeks since last confession..er..update
Better late than never
Looking good

Mites are hard to kill off. It needs more drastic meters. Pull out plants spray them and the tent clean tent empty and every single leaf needs to be checked before moving plants in tent again...and by the looks of your grow.. spray on and clean out after harvest.

 

[KingstonRabbi]

Weekend update

Simple plan this weekend: plain water, clean up leaves, spray for mites, and actually post the photos I took so I go another 2 weeks.

Critical is the star of this grow (so far). She was last of 3 put into flower tent, but the most developed by far. Just 3 days since last drench and due for water today. She has some yellowing leaves inside and underneath but not much to clean up. Canopy is low in front left corner which was last to fill in. Dramatic change in buds after 2nd cat drench as promised. I expected buds to be bigger compared to clones in 2 gal scrog grow, but this doesn't even look like same strain let alone a clone. I'm proud of the training job I did on this one, seen from underneath. She branched into 2 stems as young clone. Gentle curving outward fills canopy evenly and seems to be providing even flow of nutrients. I modeled Medical Mass after this one and am seeing similar progress through veg stage.

Hash Bomb sativa pheno also having a good response to cat drenches, although not as dramatic. A lot of dead leaves to clean out, had the effect of a defol to open up buds to more light.

Hash Bomb #10 aka The Runt continues to recover from underwatering collapse of a few weeks ago. She was first in tent but buds are well behind HB2 above. The collapse destroyed the buds that were forming, cat drenches don't seem to have had much effect. Simply getting anything from her at this point is a plus. I trimmed out a lot of low growth. I had her spread out more but she was too wide for light coverage. I let her pull back, removing old leaves has reestablished light penetration to middle, so hopeful for successful harvest.

Final shot of the night, the veg area with 5 on deck. BCS clone on right ready to move as soon as tent is ready. I want to clearup mites and have extra space in there first. In 2 weeks she'll just be more ready. Others look on pace to fill in by then also but may have to wait a week longer for tent to be clear.

 

[AngryBird]

I just landed on that big tree of yours

 

[KingstonRabbi]

Veg update

I cleaned up a few yellow leaves that appeared since last watering (plain water for most, weak drench for younger Medical Mass.) Oddly it was the smaller Med Mass that dried out first, but they were all due for GE drench tonight. One thing I need to remember is that I'm only feeding part of the grow with 5 in veg and 3 in flower. I'm getting low on GE because I've been measuring out too much, need to use it sparingly or find a substitute.

Up first, the younger Medical Mass, the late substitution for K-Train that wasn't doing as well as others at 2 gallon stage (but is doing better now.) Caught just in time for watering tonight, she perked up as pot was still sinking into the drench bucket. With her leaves drooping I can see how much she needs to fill in still compared to others. She's catching up though.

The older Medical Mass, even though tag says DW I'm pretty sure I mixed tags up. This is the one I had to take 6 branches off of because the top 4 are filling in canopy by themselves and inspired me to include the 2nd MdM over K-Train. I move a few branches to even her out so she can start going vertical soon.

This is Dance World in spite of tag. Those beautiful big leaves give her sativa-ness away. Healthy but clearly behind MdM. 2 other seedlings that didn't make this grow are doing similarly well in gallon pots on sideline, staking a claim for spot in next grow.

Black Cherry Soda, a clone running in a grow for 4th time. She's ready to move to tent but will have to wait a couple weeks for last plants in scrog grow to finish. Then I'll wipe down for mites and divide tent to keep separate from the infested ones.

Not pictured (because I forgot) is Blue Mystic. She's almost as big as MdM, although her branching is a little haphazard, with 8 branches reaching up to find space in canopy. That makes arranging evenly spaced colas a little more challenging. Compared to the stuff I had to deal with in last grow this is a dream. With 2 weeks more to veg they will all be ready, some will actually need some pruning. But I'm getting ahead of myself again. I just need to practice focusing on the present one day at a time.

 

[Lady G2HM]

That kit seems to be hot...literally. I can see the results for sure. BTW, how do you store your seeds? Just wondering what your germination area looks like with the new space? Happy to be learning...from you!.

 

[KingstonRabbi]

In the Flower Tent

Last night I gave 3 big girls a Transplant drench. They've needed water every 4 days for last couple weeks. I let them soak a good 20-30 minutes each and top watered 1/2 gal to make sure water reaches all the way in.
I checked back and confirmed that flip date for HB2 and Critical was 12/18, which makes yesterday day 40. Counting from first show of flower it's 5 weeks.

First up is Hash Bomb 10, the 200 day old seedling. She was 200 days when she went into tent, so over 250 now. Clearly I ruined her by letting her dry out completely last month when buds were setting. There is some sign of bud production finally, so I will get something. If I were a more experienced grower I'd probably toss her to make room for new blood. But she's been a fighter through adversity all her life (which is how she got to be over 200) and I've grown attached to her almost like a mascot. That changed somewhat since my major fart, I've grieved, and I'm ready to move on. This time that means seeing her through to end for what I can still learn from this experience.

Her buds looked like nothing a couple weeks ago, just a few new hairs last week, and this week actually slightly larger than HB2. Nevermind that HB10 is about 4 weeks longer in tent. It's like she started over with new bud set and is starting to swell. Just a little reward for deciding to see this through.

HB2, not showing quite the sativa stretch she has in my other grows. She is spread 4 times larger so I think I'm at or a little past the limit for spread and colas. This line has been really slow to bulk up in first half of flower. My others didn't start bulking up until after 6 or 7 weeks, starting to look good at 10 weeks. I expect her to go up to 12 weeks so plenty of time.

Critical, the last of this line started from a free seed 2 generations back. She seems to be a heavier feeder than other strains. She produced well in first run, a little less in 2nd. This run I've kept up with her feeding this run in kit, but she's starting to show a lot more yellow leaves so I may need to look into supplementing her feedings. She had her Cat drenches last week and is responding as promised. Buds are way fatter at 5 weeks than anything I've grown.

Gave all of them Brix spray. Checked for mites as always. Found eggs but no live ones, so I'll spray with neem again in a couple days. Environment still needs work. Temps are stable at 75 day/65 night. Humidity is above 40% most of time during day since I've been spraying each time I'm in there. Good for now but next investment probably be a central controller for heat and an actual humidifier.

 

[KingstonRabbi]

Sprayed for mites tonight, 2 tbsp neem in quart of warm water, double my usual strength. Used all of it up between flower tent and veg area. I only found eggs so with another spray mid week I may get ahead of them for good.

I was going to get some ladybugs or lacewings, thinking they would be able to get the mites that hide from spray. But by the time I actually order them my other grow will be done and the 3 in tent will be close to done. But then the junior scientist in me want to show my little junior scientists how beneficial insects control pests. And it would be cool to have a room full of ladybugs. Until they got out of the room and into rest of house. If I could get just a few, maybe 2 dozen... maybe.

 

[Radogast]

subbed and all caught up.

You've a lot to keep track of and other grows.

A busy rabbit indeed.

 

[KingstonRabbi]

Thank for stopping by Rad!

It's about to get a whole lot simpler. In about 2 weeks my other grow will be done. I'll be down to the 8 brix girls and a handful of plants waiting their turn. I might actually get down to my legal limit of 15, but I hope not! I have a few clones I want to keep around, plus seeds for 6 strains I haven't grown yet, and 30+ seeds I made for a pheno hunt. I want to behave, but every time I open my sock drawer I hear them call out, "Plant me! Plant me!"

 

[KingstonRabbi]

Girls on Film update

Couple pics of bath night on Wednesday, GE drench for the 3 in flower tent. No sign live mites. I don't think for a minute that they're completely gone, so a 2nd spray of neem this week to stay ahead.

Critical is still filling out at 6 weeks. I'm starting to get concerned about increasing yellow leaves this early. Plenty of green ones still, but even those are getting steadily duller. I'm going to see what Doc thinks first, but I plan to add EWC and epsom salts, also water a little earlier because I think I've been letting them get too dry. I'm guessing 3 weeks to harvest at first sign of amber.

Hash Bomb 2 still dragging her feet. Typically has long skinny buds so she's on pace with other grows, slightly ahead even, but I was hoping for bigger response to Cat drenches. She's hanging on to leaves much better than prior grows, so there's hope for a strong finish.

 

[KingstonRabbi]

Future Starlets update

View of the veg area this morning. All 5 are more than ready for final scrog training. This weekend I'll clear out my old grow and divide tent into two areas. The big 3 in flower now will move to small corner of 'L' and I will scrub other area for the 5 about to move in. Eventually the small area will become my veg area and I will keep only 5-6 in flower area. With my increased yields and reduced need (due to last scan) that will be enough and make my life much simpler, not to mention making it easier to walk through my basement.

 

[KingstonRabbi]

Future of the Future update

Sounds like I need Duggan's DeLorean for this one. Okay, not quite that far into future.

I've been working on a plan to do a SOG grow in the kit. Meanwhile my 2 White Widows on the sidelines have gotten so bushy that I can't do much with them besides make new clones. Collision of opportunities. The ideal strain for the job. So today I removed about 3/4 of the foliage and prepared cuttings for the cloner, enough that I should get 12 evenly sized clones for the SOG. That reminds me, time to order another kit from Doc.

 

[KingstonRabbi]

The Future is Now update

Today I chopped the last of my other grow. Now the entire tent and veg area belong to this grow. Moved the big girls into the small corner so I can clean the other part of tent for the other big girls to move in. Guess I shouldn't call them the big girls because the 2 gal plants are gone and the 5 in veg are full size and ready to flower.

Critical got a Rescue drench like Doc recommended. That's a heavy dose of Transplant nutes and Tea to restore the soil biota and roots. That should help the yellowing and keep her finishing strong. Other part of Doc's recommendation was to raise humidity. It's up to 45% at 77 degrees, out of the danger zone but temporary and well short of target of 60%. I found the humidifier and will get that on timer to run briefly while lights are on.

Got her in some different light. Under a warm white bulb she looks pretty green, but back under grow lights the yellow really stands out.

Hash Bomb #10 also got a rescue drench although it may be too late for her to turn around. She's 2 or 3 weeks ahead in flower but seems to be falling farther behind.

Hash Bomb #2 got a diluted rescue drench with left overs added to plain water. She's front right in their new home. She's also falling further behind Critical. The surge in bud development after the Cat drenches has slowed. I expect her to go at least 2 weeks longer than Critical, maybe more, but I no longer expect much of a harvest from her.

The vegging girls all got very diluted drenches with left over nutes and plain water. All plants took up 2 gallons. Did a lot of prep work to clean up undersides and rework canopies. BCS has already moved into tent. I found no mites and no signs of mites on any plants today. I'll move them into tent this week.

It feels weird not to have 30 plants in the tent and clones piled all over the veg area. I starting to get used to it and I kinda like it. I loved the variety I had before, but it was also a curse of sorts having to juggle so many projects. Today was hard work but very peaceful and calming.