Treehouseman's 2020 Return Journal & 1st Time Breeding

[Treehouseman]

I've come a long way since the abandoned journal I have on here from back in 2013. Got my diy 108w COB
LED going in the flower chamber with an additional 60 watts screw in COBLED fixtures rigged up in a light bar. I love the performance Im getting out of these motherfuckers. Plan was to order more cobs eventually, build more lights but for the price and availability of parts to rig up light sockets and just buy premade screw in COB lights and pop the plastic domes off them Im thinking I'll stick with this for a while.

Lighting: 108 watts approx cree cob leds, have to dig up old journal to find specifics, its been 7 years since I built this rig. with an additional 60 watts, approximately, of screw in cob fixtures

Strains: I had a beautiful bag of Girl Scout Cookies that produced for me two seeds. The GSC1 and GSC2 were born. After some outdoor adventures with the GSC2, and some eviction adventures with my parents, I lost the GSC1 (RIP the most beautiful thing Ive grown to date) but luckily had some seeds to pop from the outdoor grown GSC2. They both came from that beautiful bag that produced the original GSC1, only I dont know what theyre pollinated with. After popping several seeds from the GSC2, I produced 2 females and a Male whose pollen I collected.

Currently due to a fuckup with my lighttimer (always check your bypass switch isnt on) Im somewhere between day 36 and day 56 of flowering. Im treating It as closer to day 36 because thats what the girls look like to me. They'll have about a month or so left before they come down.

The Girls are:

Juicy Fruit #1
She's my heavy feeder, I suspect more on the sativa side. Had a JF#4 male that I considered keeping for pollen stock as well but I decided not to complicate things too much with my first try at breeding. Im really glad I didnt because even though I was pretty succesful with my selective branch impregnation, Im still seeing a couple other seed bearing calyxes throughout the plants.

Girl Scout Cookies # 1
Funnily enough she most resembles the original GSC1 and the goal of my breeding. I want to backcross the GSC genetics I have until I get something as close to or better than what I was growing. It was fucking phenomenal smoke, deep fruity notes with a sweet and almost surprising oregano quality. Buds frosted out the ass. This girl is definitely the more sativa leaning of my two GSC phenos. She has a bubblegum quality to her smell that seems really promising

Girl Scout Cookies #2
She also very closely resembles the previous GSC2 only with the added benefit of not being a mutant. This is a dream. The 2018 GSC2 had r koidiculous trichome production but produced small buds. It had strange, almost ducksfoot like leaves that extended on long slender bracts reaching far out from the stem. Im going to dig up old pics from these grows and post them for reference. This 2020 GSC2 has the same deep green, the amazing frost but holy shit her leaves arent retarded and her bud structure looks excellent. She has been a bit finicky and not drinking as much as her sisters. I've consistently had to water her less so she isnt still pot hesvy come time when the other girls are bone dry and begging for it.

Blueberry #1
A solid strain, best from my first cropout after the eviction. This was the mother plant of the 8 clones I have in my veg chamber currently. Ive never done a grow with a full cab of all one strain before. Thats the plan directly after this grow is to fill the chamber with BB#1 and hopefully have a nice time with everyone wanting the same nutes and finishing at the same time. Its nice to finish together.

All have since been impregnated with pollen from a GSC male Im calling GSC3.

Success!:

Theyre in soil in 3 gallon buckets. I feed Botanicare Pure Blend Pro line along with molasses. Im out of mycorhizzae and some other non essential nutes I was using on previous grows. this is a bit more bare bones. Im not even using enzymes which will hopefully let me make a better decision as to whether I actually need them. Lots of things I want to get more first hand experience with. I used to actually flush, dumping water through pots before harvest. Ive since taken to feeding with only molasses and pH'd water in the last two weeks before harvest. I used to flush outdoors, but have recently smoked through a 3 lb harvest that was fed up until the end. The smoke was great. So maybe I'll get a flush comparison journal going with the BB#1 I plan on flowering next run.

Im also a mycologist and its becoming more sensible to use spent mushroom substrate for compost. I really want to get into making live soil mixes. for now I'll have to settle for my healthy population of hypoaspis mites.

Only other thing that may be of interest is my redesign to my flower chamber. I've got the air drawing up through the floor from beneath the plants. The floor of the flower chamber is a suspended platform with an air gap around it, beneath that is a lip, then another platform, then a lip. The purpose is to keep light out but allow air in for passive intake. I like the performance im getting from the system with the air being drawn up through the plants. it seems to reduce issues with pests and contaminants. I use to have light baffles fitted into the cabinet doors but they protruded from the front of the cabinet and were a big nuisance.

Here's a picture with the additional light bar off (With the lovely GSC1 as a model):

Here's what and extra 60 watts of hardware store COBLED screw ins does:

 

[Treehouseman]

My inspections havent been rigorous enough and I missed a male pod my JF#1 had thrown out. It might turn out that my selective impregnation was a success and the additional seed bearing calyxes im seeing are a result of my Juicy Fruit deciding to hermy. Raised the lights, staked the plants and propped up/rearranged some branches for better light distribution and to keep everyone from getting too much sun. Likely part of why I got a hermy.

Next grow I should experiment with going back to 13/11 time. My COB rig runs hot for sure, by which I mean that the PPFD is high enough to be toxic if the plants get too close. Works great if I back the light off enough not to bleach the girls. I originally built the rig for an even smaller cabinet but found it was overkill. I've hit 1.3GPW with this light and I know I can pull more. I wont be surprised to If I hit 200+ grams this harvest with the additional 60 watt bar I rigged up.

Im excited for winter when the humidity drops so low I actually have to run a humidifier. My hang dry is going to be so much better. I had a big dry box that I sectioned in half to make a veg chamber after I got kicked out of where I was living before. Used to have a small closet that worked for my veg chamber/nursery but I found I wasnt growing enough indoors to fill the drybox. It was worth having because my previous location was excellent for outdoor growing. Cant do that so much here so less need for the giant dry box.

I've rigged the dry box to vent passively off the same 6inch fan I have venting my veg chamber. It works really well to provide air exchange and still lets me get a good 10-14 day hang. Which is why im stoked for the coming winter. Summer has me fighting the humidity and having to accept slightly higher growroom temps. Sometimes I hit 27° Celsius in there but my humidity is steady at 49-51%.
My understanding is that it would be ideal to have higher humidity for veg chamber and clones, and I can tell you that my dry box will perform so much better if I can start a hang dry at 65-70% RH and gradually step it down gradually to 50% by the end of the second week.

Oh yeah, nearly forgot to mention that In response to the hermy JF#1 knocking up my girls, Im going to only pop seeds from the marked branches that I impregnated with GSC3 pollen. That is, If I decide to pop ant other seeds, I will assume them to be JF#1 Fathered rather than GSC3

 

[Treehouseman]

Day 42/62 of flowering. I almost wanna split the difference and call it day 52. Thats about where the girls appear to be in terms of progress. Not developing any new flowers, just ripening up whats there. Going to have to get the scope out and keep a closer eye on the trichome development. They wont all finish at the same time, it looks like the Juicy Fruit#1 will go the longest, followed by Blueberry #1, then GSC#1 and the GSC#2 likely being the first to finish. We'll see how my predictions turn out.

Temperature at 25°C, RH steady at 49% since last check. Everyone smells excellent. Particularly the GSC#1. She's developing some purple that looks very nice and compliments her gassy, bubblegum candy scent. JF#1 very sour and earthy smelling. More of a floral, vegetable smell from the GSC#2 which takes after her namesake in this regard as well. BB#1 has a spicy, fruity smell to her.

GSC#2

GSC#1

JF#1

BB#1

 

[Treehouseman]

I was helping a buddy bring down his outdoor harvest and he gave me a sizeable cut as thanks. Should dry up to around a half pound from the look of it. Very delicious looking buds. So delicious looking I neglected to look deeper into the. to discover how absolutely infested some of the plants were with aphids.

Guess when I noticed? Thats right, after they were already hung up in my drybox beside my veg chamber... Nightmare. Ive been killing the fuckers manually and waging chemical warfare with garlic oil, thyme oil and Dr bronners peppermint castile soap. They get hit with a single spray and I watch as the aphids first seem unaffected, then their movements grow somewhat erratic before growing lethargic to the point where the insect, now corpse, stops moving. Very satisfying.

Basically given the aphid life cycle and the fact that Im so close to harvest, my goal right now is to wage war in the veg chamber and dry box. So far I havent found any aphid activity in the flower chamber. they need a week minimum, possibly 2 more for me to harvest them at their peak. Im at the stage where theres lots of cloudy trichs but im yet to see the first amber trichome head. I know they can swell a little more. If I can keep the infestation out of the flower box long enough to harvest them, the only remaining food source for the aphids will be my clones in the veg box. They can be sprayed directly with my chemical warfare solution since they dont have and flowers for me to worry about getting all spiced up.

I would like to get this harvest dried up and processed so I can fully clean out the dry box before I harvest these girls. Dont wanna go through all this aphid prevention hassle just to move them to the dry box and have a bunch of aphids move off some dry nugs to some nice fresh ones.

Anyways on to the girls. Its 48% RH today, 22.6°C and everyone looks beautiful. The Juicy Fruit looks like shes a tiny bit behind everyone else and might want to spend a few lonely days in the flower chamber ripening up fully after her sisters come down. She smells so fruity and sweet, a lot like Juicy Fruit gum

JF#1

The Blueberry has a beautiful purpley blue colouring, she smells fruity and floral. I like this strain but Its clear to me that the GSC1, GSC2 and JF#1 are superior plants. We'll have to see what the BB#1 x GSC3 crosses turn out like. I have 8 clones of this plant in my veg chamber that Im planning on stuffing my flower chamber with for my next grow. The vegbox will then become a nursery for me to grow my first ever round of indoor bred seeds. I have high hopes for the GSC backcrosses
BB#1

The GSC1 is getting sweeter and stickier and stankier. I could grow her and her sister GSC2 until my dying day. Absolutely love working with these plants. This is the most purpling Ive seen from my GSC genetics so far. This cut looks the closest to the buds I bought years ago that I originally pulled the GSC seeds from. Stanky sweet bubblegum and kushy notes, a bit of an oregano quality. Bud forms are gorgeous. I cant decide which bud to photograph from her, theyre all fucking sexy.
GSC1

I should take a full budshlt so you can see the density the GSC2 displays. She was a bit finicky with the watering, drank less and tended to stay wetter than her sisters. She got a touch of root rot mid flowering and its likely why Ive had to prop her up on a flipped over drip tray so she'll be level with her sisters. This was the same deal with her namesake before, the super mutated GSC2. I have a feeling that If I feed her a bit lighter as she seems to want, and prevent that rot from the start, the performance I will see from this strain will be phenomenal. The buds are crazy, but the yield from this plant will likely be the lowest, although possibly most coveted.
GSC2

And for anyone who wants to know what kind of outdoor could be so sexy that In my excitement to bring it home I would neglect to do an aphid check... Fucking look at this beauty

Ive got about an HP of beautiful buds like that hung up right now. Some of the best outdoor ive ever seen minus the aphids lmao. I did my first ever budwash with this strain and (wait for it, Im about to do that thing every other member does when they try anew technique, are scared at first but then it works gangbusters so they vow to never go back to the old ways) I will likely continue bothering to go through the budwash process.

I did notice terp diminishment from the budwash. I did a peroxide wash and a rinse only. Id like to try the lemon and soda method and see how it effects terps. I choose the peroxide wash specifically because I had aphids in the material. for washing indoor buds without insect infestation Im going to experiment and find out whats the least harsh, most beneficial. From what im reading here it seems Id want to go lemon juice and soda, or maybe even just a clean water wash to help lift dirt and debris off the buds.

Welp, Im off to keep fighting the aphids. If next post isnt harvest post, the one after it likely will be.

 

[Treehouseman]

Canopy Shots

A tad uneven and overgrown due to the fuckup with my lighttimer but otherwise beautiful.

 

[Treehouseman]

Gave my girls the chop today. Was surprised to see everyone ripen up around the same time. I thought for sure there would be a staggered harvest taking place. Its always hard for me to bring down such a beautiful plant but I know she'll go to waste if she doesnt get taken down in her prime. Thats what I tell myself everytime I give my girls the axe "Its what they were raised for, to be smoked and adored"

I didnt reduce my nutrients at all towards the end of flowering. Today is day 69/89 so if we split the difference due to the light timer issue I had its basically day 79 and pretty well right on schedule. This is a bit of an experiment for me. Ive been getting a lot better at gradually upping the nutrients throughout the grow, mostly using ppm as my reference. The last feeding these girls got was around 1200 ppm, and they received it about 4 days ago

I mixed 4 gallons of reverse osmosis water
60ml Botanicare Pure Blend Pro Bloom
22ml Botanicare Cal Mag
60ml Organic Molasses
pH adjusted to 6.3

For my pH adjustments I usually just aim for anywhere between 6.2 and 6.6. I read a while back some journal where a person experimented with varying the pH to ensure that theres no nutrient lockout on either end of the ideal growing range. I
Ive noticed definite improvement since adapting this method.

As for my method of harvest Im hanging the plants whole, minimal leaf removal (just whats brown and crispy or fell off on its own) and Im aiming for a long slow hang dry, 10-14 days ideally. I have purchased a humidifier recently and will hopefully be able to keep my basement RH around 60%. I might drop it down to 55%, even 50% towards the end. Im still playing around and seeing how much control I have over the humidity in my basement. I have my dehumidifier set at 60% but Im considering getting a humidistat to control the humidifier I bought. It would save me some time refilling the tank on the thing too. Definitely considering ghetto rigging a bigger resevoir. For now Ill keep playing with the positioning of the humidifier and dehumidifier and monitor humidity levels in my dry box.

There are virtually no aphids at this point. I was lucky enough to bring in some predator aphidoletes, syrphid flies and minute pirate bugs on the same bra ches that bore the aphids. Alongside my efforts with homemade essential oil insecticide im killing the fuckers dead. I went from counting by aphids per plant, to only finding one winged adult female. A couple more weeks of spraying and there wont be any left at all.

Here they are all topsy turvy in the flowerbox for now while I deal with the aphids in the veg chamber/drybox

Lots of GSC#1 Shots

GSC#2

JF#1

 

[Treehouseman]

RH in the flower box was 49% and temps are getting lower as we get closer to winter. 22.3°C starting to get as low as 21. Thats really good news if I can keep the humidity up and have a nice cool environment for this hangdry.

Looking through the scope the past couple days Ive seen my trichs transition from mostly cloudy, to cloudy with some amber. We all know what that means. The GSC#1 has developed an amazing coffee like pungency that hangs over the bubblegum and oregano notes. Im not gonna lie I've been brought to tears multiple times by this plant. Especially after I saw the seeds she produced. I had been on edge about this since the GSC#1 seemed like she didnt take the pollen as well as the others. Her seeds took longer to develop and I had already collected several from the other strains before today. Finally she yields for me, and her seeds are some of the most beautiful I have ever seen. I havent got any children but I think the joy that I felt when I saw these seeds was some fraction of what one would feel at seeing a newborn child. 12 years its been since my first plant in my closet at my parents house. 12 years since my dad caught me 2 weeks before harvest and he let me keep it only after I begged and pleaded with him not to kill my beautiful girl. I cannot wait to see what kind of strains I can create.

BB#1 Female X GSC#3 Male seeds

GSC#1 Female x GSC#3 Male seeds

JF#1 Female X GSC#3 Male seeds

Naturally I cloned the GSC#1 before I gave her the full chop. I should have done this long before but due to space and time limitations I wasnt able to. I have cloned plants this far into flowering before with success. I usually use willow tea and clone directly into soil, but seeing as im out of willow shoots at the moment, I just cloned directly into soil with water.
GSC#1 Clones

And some more harvest shots:

Group Shot Before Chop

GSC#1 Modelling

Beauty Star Shapes

BB#1 Showing its blue colouring

 

[Treehouseman]

And one final post to wrap up today, just a few final budshots to make sure none of the girls get jealous of each other. Wouldnt want them to start fighting over who gets more time in the limelight. Although the GSC#1 has definitely done a lot to steal the show. The GSC#2 has some amazing purple colour going on. The blue in the Blueeberry is dazzling and check the size of the nugs in the Juicy Fruit! Im really stoked for sample smoke a couple weeks from now.

Everybody smells incredible. the Blueberry is nice and sweet and fruity, while the Juicy Fruit has a nice mix of sour citrus and fruity sweet notes. Oddly enough the GSC#2 has developed more or less the same smell as the GSC#1 just more subtle and muskier. As described above the GSC#1 has become the most incredible coffee/bubblegum/oregano/kush/holy fuck I cant wait to try this girl. I wanna fill the flower box with GSC#1 she's amazing.

JF#1

Group Shot

BB#1

GSC#2

Starting to become obsessed with these GSC#1 Star shots. Love photographing the nugs from a top down view and seeing the plant the way the sun would.

 

[Treehouseman]

Been away for a little while but Im pleased to say my hangdry has gone amazingly well. Maintained temps around 19-20 degrees celsius and 60% humidity for 19-20 days. I got very antsy once I was past 14 days and still had incredibly pliable branches. I slightly overdried the BlueBerry and Juicy Fruit strains but theyre regaining some moisture in the jar. The Girlscout #1 feels perfect, just a bit sticky but still snappy stems, shes only getting up to 58% in the jar but the smoke is phenomenal so Idc.

Hang dry progress pics

Amazing flavour. Girlscout #1 has a sweet, earthy, bubblegum oregano quality to it, its really hard to pin down the flavour. Very potent. Yield was 66grams. Definitely a hybrid, good mix of stony indica and cerebral effects. Just gets you good and chewed.

Girl Scout # 2 tastes quite similar to the above but more muted and with some chocolate notes. Low yield from her unfortunately, only 24 grams but its fantastically potent and definitely more indica leaning than GirlScout # 1

BlueBerry turned out nice and fruity and floral smelling, very pleasant smoke. Yield was 32 grams. Definitely some indica stony traits to this one.

The Juicy Fruit tastes exactly like its namesake, has a nice creative Sativa bent to it, I like it a lot for daytime smoke. Yield was 57 grams, a very hairy strain. Smells so insanely fruity its a shame I didnt bring it down a day or two sooner it would be just a touch stinkier. We'll see how it fares after a cure, same goes for all the other buds.

Overall I pulled down 194 grams. Thats 189 grams at jarring day and 5g sampped over the course of the hang dry. I didnt flush at all either. I was never a flusher in terms of dumping water through the medium in the last two weeks before harvest. I would reduce feeding down to just water and molasses in the past. I want to experiment further with this. I notice as others have that the determining factor in your ash burning white vs black is a proper dry and cure. My smoke is smooth and flavourful, as much so or possibly more than when I had practiced nutrient reduction in the past. Funnily enough the Blueberry is a touch overdried and doesnt burn completely white yet, its fan leaves all became very crispy towars the end. something was certainly not healthy with this plant. My GirlScout#1 jewel of this harvest is nice and sticky, yet breaks apart easily in my hands, I can literally just flick the calyxes off the stem despite them still being sticky. the flower material is soft and burns to a perfect white ash. I adore being able to bring out this quality in cannabis.

3 of my five GSC1 Clones have survived and are now in the nursery. I was very happy with her performance and hope that with better pruning and by avoiding another 20day overveg fiasco I can get even better performance, tigheter nugs, bigger yields. I have many seeds now to play with as a result of my forray into breeding. Next Journal will be a flower chamber full of Blueberry clones, then after that, some GirlScout Clones and some newcomers. Thanks to anybody who comes across and reads this journal. Happy growing!