Random Thoughts: Plants & Genetics

Plants have all been repotted and are coming back around. I am still having to raise the light regularly so they are not doing real bad. Now I know how this soil is reacting to what I give it these problems should be gone.

I did order a moisture meter just for good measure. I really need to get everything healthy soon as I will be going to flower with some strains.

Ghost Train Haze are starting to get a little better structure. They are still really tall and lanky for a indoor strain. They are so tall that they will out grow the tent if they stretch to much. I have decided to just bend them over if that happens.

WOW. Clown Royal shows sex early. Came back from 3 days ice fishing to find 2 males. On the bright side. The short bushy plant looks to be female. It is the one plant I wanted to keep a eye on. It has a better plant structure than the rest. If it stays female it will get some of the SSH pollen.

I flip flopped a bit on the Clown Royal males. I was going to kill them then I was going to keep them to look at. When it came time to make the decision I killed them. In a conversation with my mentor recently I came to the decision that I was only going to work with the better known strains for breeding regular strains. Why make seeds I may never look at. I am still going to have more hybrids than I need why make more. With every good male I find I am going to have 2 or 3 hybrids to look at. Combine that by just the strains I want to work with and that gives me more than I will ever look at.

I will still be trying to make feminized strains so they will need to be checked also.
 
Found 2 female SSH plants yesterday. I need to label these 2 for the fact they showed sex before lights were dropped back. One of these will probable be the plant I save to regenerate.

All the Kush plants that were potted into the 2 gallon pot right off are almost ready to flower. Looks like they will go into the 600 watt tent along with the GTH to finish. Not sure what else will be in that tent yet. I might just put the unknown SSH plants in with them. I am going to leave everything else in veg for a while. Plants are doing ok now but still need to grow a little more before flower. As you can see from the picture the plants don't look really bad. I did loose a lot of growth while I was figuring things out. Really feeling like a newbie this grow LOL. You can see how tall the Kosher Kush in the back corners are. Everything should be as tall or at least close.
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A couple plants are still droopy. Some the color is off. Part of that fact came from the fact that the SSH used up all the nuits in the 1 gallon pot faster than everything else. Looks like this strain is going to be a heavy eater. Good thing I found this out now and not when they are in flower. No way I will get the production this strain can be known for. I still plan to underfeed as apposed to overfeeding. SSH is not a beginner strain so I am going have to be on my toes to catch all the signs early.
 
I am up to 4 female SSH. Only 2 left to declare their gender. Pretty much like modern times. You can never be sure of sex till they declare LMAO. Not sure what is next. I am going to try and figure that out today. I set up the 48 x 48 tent with a 600 HPS I am just not sure what plants I am going to grow in there. The fact that the regular strains are showing sex means they are old enough to go into flower. I still want to have a little more height on some of them. The stretch I get from the SSH is what has me confused as to what to put where.

Plus I don't know how many tents I may use. I kind of want to open up the tents some to give plants more room than they had last grow. I may run a third tent with LED just because of that. I will have to drop the wattage of the 60 x 60 tent if I do. Not sure if that drop will be a 1000 watt ballast on 75% or a 600 watt at full power. I have no worries about the COB led's. I now know they will do fine. That is part of it. I really want to see what 3 of these lights will do in a 24" x 48" x 60 tent. I potted 2 of the bushiest plants in 3 gallon pots just in case for this. Not sure if I want to run 2 or 3 plants in that tent. 2 plants filled the 20" x 36" tent. I could probably get 2 to do this in the bigger tent.

The moisture meter showed up yesterday. Figured out I was right and wrong. I was over watering but I was getting dry spots. After the repot to 2 gallon pots some plants are dryer on one side of the plant than they are the other. This is probably my fault. MG soil is so easy to work with it spoiled me. I need to spend more time watering plants with this FF soil. Nothing that can't be fixed now I know what is going on.

One of the things that has slowed things up this grow. All the super cropping and bending. Most of these plants would be 2 foot tall at least by now. Plenty tall enough to flower. I have lots of branching so even if I did go to flower now I would do ok. One way or the other I will be going into flower the second week of Feb. Stay tuned tomorrow to see what I figured out today LMAO.
 
I got all tents built and ready for plants. I moved 9 plants to the 48 x 48 tent under a 600 watt light to flower. I moved the tallest plants and the 2 SSH that I don't know the sex of. This created plenty of room in the veg tent.

The 24 x 48 x 60 is set up with a 3 light Timber COB led. I am not sure yet which plants will be moved to it yet. Moving the tallest plants gave me room to veg everything a little longer. I have also decided that with the lower wattage I am going to be running. I won't have the light penetration I had before. I don't need and shouldn't grow the plants taller than I can get light too. With more room I can spread the plants out wider. I may need to change how I stake my plants. I can't do SCROG but I need something similar. I am thinking of 4 stakes and netting between them.

That new moisture meter is pretty handy to have around. I started watering a lot slower yesterday and though I did a very good job. I checked each plant in 4 different areas. What I found was dry spots in all pots. The weird part is the dry spots are in the middle of the soil. Top has moisture bottom is soaked and still there are dry spots. All this is no big deal now that I know. It does explain how the bottoms of the plants were getting so soggy and the plants still looked thirsty. With the extra wet bottom and dry spots I was over watering and under watering the same Plant. I am now checking all plants and adding just enough water to moisten the dry spot where they live. I found out that it seems to be in 2 of the 4 spots I check. I don't know why it is happening the way it is. I fully water the top of the soil the same.

All this should go away in a couple weeks. Once the roots take more control of what is down there the soil should start absorbing it more evenly. At least that seems to be the case in the past. I don't know the why or the what is going on it just seems to happen all the time. That's the way I grow. Ignore what I might be able to figure out. Over analyze all the stuff I can't change LMAO.
 
I have been to youtube to look into marijuana breeding and male plant selection. I really wasn't sure if I was going to save males or not. I know I really want to and nothing is keeping me from it LOL. Still not positive. It will be one more thing I need to take care of. I going to be pretty busy with what I already am going to have.

Thing is what I found has lit a fire under me to go ahead and do it. Maybe LMAO. It all matters what I get. The one really cool thing is now there is a lot more info on breeding males. I don't know why I never checked before. Oh yeah I remeber know "I'm a know it all" that's why LOL. I found some real interesting things to check for. This adds to the things I already know to look at.

Out of the 2 undeclared SSH plants. 1 is the plant I have loved from the start. It is the one I said would probably be used one way or the other. It is still a great looking plant. Bushy sturdy and has really tight internodes. I am pretty sure it is a male. It has not showed any pods at all but there is something there. I have seen this before and they usually males. One rather neat thing that I learned is it is not always best to use the earliest male. I don't breed for fast so it was never a deal breaker before I still tended to take early males. The fact that all the females are showing sex. My guess is these are not early males LOL. Pretty sharp huh LOL.

I also learned that stem smell is a very good indicator of smell. I have not rubbed stems for years. I normally just wait and see what the buds smell like. Nothing special in either male as of yet. They still only have the basic pot stem smell. This should change once they start flowering. The top contending male now is only slightly different then the second. It is a bit fuller and seems to have sturdier stems. Another new thing I learned to check for. As of now I am just checking for special traits. I am hoping one of these plants will stand out in one way or the other.
 
The plan to grow the bushiest plants in 3 gallon pots under the timber light has changed. They are still really great plants. I am just going to grow them under the 1000 watt light at 75%. I did the math and a 1000 watt HPS puts out around 100,000 lumens. A 600 watt puts out 90,000 lumens Those are just basic numbers. It still gave me a idea of what bulb to use. I still need to do some checking to confirm this thinking.

So now it looks like 2 short Clown Royal will go into the LED tent. Maybe even 3 plants. I still want the big tent to be full. It really helps humidity wise. With less plants I can let the ones in it a chance to grow a little wider and get a bit more light to the lower branches I want these SSH females to have plenty of room to do what they need too.

The Clown Royal plants are plenty bushy and are trying hard lol. Growing them under the Timber light will give me more room to move the light up as stretch happens. The first 2 plants have out grown my ability to do that. If they stretch to much I would have problems.

They refer to D.J. Shorts genetics as stretch indicas. I am not sure what this really means lol. I am seeing 2 basic pheno's. Tall and short. Looks like I may have a female of both. If the undeclared tall plant is female. The G.G. hybrids I have grown to date are taller plants. So early on I see the tall plant leaning to the G.G. side. I guess we will see what stretch indica means when I flower them. 2 females are really short now. Maybe they will stretch a lot when put into flower. We will have to wait and see.
 
Everything is doing much better. Plants are growing right into their places. I will be able to choose what plants go where soon. Good thing as I don't know how much taller I am going to take the SSH female's.

I have to say. That cheap little moister meter is saving my ass. Dry pockets are still showing up when I water. 3/4 of the pot will be watered fine. Then I will find a dry spot on only one side in the middle of the pot. With the meter I can find these spots and add just a little water to that one spot. I am having to build little dam's so water stays where I need it to. If not for the meter I would still be fighting these problems. I hope this stuff goes away when I get a better root ball in the bigger pots.
 
Well what do you know. Looks like I am going to switch everything to flower now. Some plants are not as tall as I would like. That are plenty tall if you consider that they all have been bent at least once. Twice with some strains. The 2 shortest will be moved to the timber LED tent. All strains have showed sex weeks ago. I know everything is mature enough to flower.

The big question now is will I get away with running the HPS light at 100%. I and a 4 light COB led in led tent before and had the breaker flip a couple of times. Something I can't risk for a whole grow. I am going to try it first off. The 3 light fixture might drop the draw just enough. If all else fails I will drop the big light down to 75%. The main reason I don't want to do that is tent temperature. I would like to keep my flower temps in the 80's if I can.

I will be spending today working on moving plants to their new homes.
 
It is the opposite that I need Pennywise. I need warmer not cooler. The tent with the 600 watt light with normal hood. Runs about the same temp as the 1000 watt light with a air cooled hood. I could always disconnect the fan and just use free air to cool the light if I switch to 600 watts. As of now I am going to run the 1000 on full power if I can. Looks like it is going to work. I need to watch it a few days to be sure.
 
Everything is moved and now in flower mode. I ended up moving 3 plants to the LED tent. As long as they don't stretch too much they will do fine. They look really short but it is mostly because of the bends and twists I put into the stem.
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At least there is plenty of room for them to grow. I won't be able to spread these out like I was planning. With 3 plants instead of 2 I will let them do what the want.

The bigger tent is the one that should have lots more room. I have 3 less plants in it than last grow. The tent still looks like it is going to fill up easily. I guess the plants are wider this time. It is weird. Even with oddly shaped plants. I can never get odd numbers of plants to fill a tent right. There always seems to be empty spots lol. There is going to be plenty of room for the plants to do what they want. Stretch should not be a problem. I will probably need different booster seats this grow. I have a feeling by the time flower is over the SSH are going to tower over some of the others.
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There is room for everything to spread out and up. I am used to things being a little tighter at this time. I think it will give me a chance to leave a few more branches on everything. At least the SSH females will have the room to do what they want to.

I moved the males to their own tent. I still had plenty of time as they are not even close to putting out pollen yet. This will give me a chance to start training the plants left in that tent. This tent could end up a mess lol. I have short bushy Cataract Kush and those 2 lanky Ghost Train Haze in it. The 48 x 48 tent will also have a lot less plants in it. This is the last time I will be running this many tents. At least for flower. One more break to work on the house this year and I will be up and running. I am hoping that giving the plants more room might help me get a little more out of them. I do know I will avoid problems later in flower when things are warming up. Or that is the hope anyway.

The males have been put on the fast track with only 10 hrs of light. I would have liked to take them another week before flowering the last females. Not going to happen though. If pollen does not drop in time it will be saved for next year. I may not get to see the natural stretch of these plants now. At least they both are getting the same light.
 
Also I forgot to mention. The Cataract Kush has a amazing dank smell already. This is the most powerful smell I have ever got out of a plant at this stage ever. This strain is going to strong when it finishes. Not a surprise with DNA genetics. I started feeding then yesterday also.

Another random thing to mention. I bought a humidifier for when it is time for drying. I am not sure if I need to use it in the room or in the tent. I will be experimenting with it. I would like to add 2 more days to my drying time. Normally I don't like messing with things like this. My weed drys and smokes now. I know I would get better flavor and a all around better cure by doing this. Even with the tent almost full of drying plants. I couldn't get more than 38% humidity Most of the time it was less. If I can get it over around 45% the whole time I would be happier. No need pushing the limits to close.

I am real happy with what I do but there is always room for improvement.
 
LMAO No. I may need to look at that just for laughs. I will start with a humidifier lol. That should do all I need it too. I have to admit. It is a lot easier to add humidity then it is to take it out. My drying woes are nothing compared to people in humid climates.

The new shit that comes up on the internet came be quite amusing. There is a lot a cool new grow styles and tricks people have come up with. Only a small percentage of the ideas are worth a shit.

What is cool about this whole new world we live in. Mr Nice has a grow forum. A breeder with a grow forum? Now that's some new and interesting shit LMAO.
 
With only just over a week between the 2 tents. I don't think I am going to get pollen in time for seeds this run. No big deal as I now am planning on saving my favorites to be regenerated. After that I will self and make the hybrids.

We will have to see how things work out. The SSH males have finally grown a set. The nubs have turned into balls. Clusters should be here soon. I may just get enough early pollen for a plant or 2.

In the end it barely matters. I have plenty of seeds of all sorts. I now even have hybrids of the strains I like the most. I now don't have to make lots of the hybrids I have planned. Rare Dankness made my GTH x Flo hybrid for me lol.

One hybrid I have yet to see and wonder about. C-99 x Flo or Flo x C-99. As far as I know these are the 2 best earliest sativa's out there and I have never seen a hybrid of it. The genetics are so vastly different it could be real interesting.
 
I thought the same thing when I first heard about that method of drying. But it seems to be popular among growers here. And I've also sampled some of it that had been dried using that drying style. Was really smooth. But I'm not sure if it was due to the drying process or not. Those were just grown by a grower that knows how to grow. He's a organic grower who helped me with my transition into organics. Going fully organic really stepped up my overall quality and smoothness. My yields have went down some. But I'm not in it for production. Less with higher quality is more for me :D
 
Thanks Dank! I will read that. The scary part is it might work lol. Almost worth trying with just one plant first. Or just part of a plant so you could compare the 2.

With so many new growers now. Smart, extremely smart, and stupid. Lots of new things and ideas come up all the time. Lots of times these ideas can be strain specific. What works for one doesn't for another. People very rarely pressure test their ideas before publishing them.
 
Talk to him about organic teas sometime. After last year I am really squeamish about top dressing with guano's now. I know I can water in my nuits with teas. I just need to know more about it before I want to subject my plants to it.

I'm decided I going with the Fox Farm soil to start. When plants start asking for nuits I am going back to the Miracle Grow for supplemental feeding. I ordered some of their organic nuits and it is a till in type thing like quano. I might try them later. This grow I am going with what I know. I have had enough difficulties already. I do feel bad talking about difficulties when my plants look like they do LOL. I really have no reason to whine.
 

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