Tugafox 1st Indoor Grow - Soiless Mix- Money Maker - Grow Journal 2014

[Tugafox]

Congrats fox... Look forward to ur next run.

Thanks!
I still have 2 autos finishing and one Royal Medic half way trough flowering plus 2 other RM in veg. so I´ll have the bloom tent occupied with my current grow until September. Maybe I´ll do another journal then, not sure. Anyways, thanks for being here

 

[Tugafox]

Good job Fox! I'm impressed with your first grow.. Your plants were happy and healthy the whole time. I've had more nutrient issues with my first grow. Can't quite pin down exactly how to use my nutes yet I guess, I'm getting there though. Congrats!

Thanks GC!
MM grow had it´s challenges too. First I had gnats and not as much lights and timers as I´d like to. Then, had a hard time keeping the temps and RH when the weather outside changes so much.
Getting the nutes right was not easy for me too, it was my first time using this brand and all 3 plants ended flowering with leafs tip burn but it´s how one learns to back off.
The challenge I have with nutes and pre-mixed soil/mediums is that I don´t know exactly what´s in the soil, how much of what the plant needs or it´s using unless the plant shows. With so many variables to figure out, it takes a good amount of learning and practicing to pin things down.
Something else I´ve learned: In my next grow I´ll be using text pots, more perlite and vermiculite in the mix as I found the 30 liters plastic pot had the soil compacted in the lower part. Using bigger text pots and watering is something I´ll need to practice more.

Sure you´re getting there too!
The first grow is kinda like riding a bike for the first time, when one loses the fear rides even better

 

[Tugafox]

Thanks BAR!

 

[Tugafox]

Over half an ounce for 'free'. All it took was a little spare time from you

I look forward to a smoke update as well! Well done mate!

Hi Antics
you know, it was the most expensive half an ounce I have ever had if one considers the investment made to set up the tent, growing materials costs and all the time spent but being grown by me was totally worth it.

I did my attempt at a smoke report in my last post but I can tell you now the bigger buds are better cured the effect, smell and taste is still complex - a mixture of sweet, flowers, spicy and earth Indica dominant.

Cheers

 

[Antics]

Hi Antics
you know, it was the most expensive half an ounce I have ever had if one considers the investment made to set up the tent, growing materials costs and all the time spent but being grown by me was totally worth it.

I did my attempt at a smoke report in my last post but I can tell you now the bigger buds are better cured the effect, smell and taste is still complex - a mixture of sweet, flowers, spicy and earth Indica dominant.

Cheers

AAhh I totally missed it the first time. Do they still have the salty/garlic taste after a longer cure?

And yeah, the first harvest is expensive due to start up costs. Same for me.. $200 1/2 ounce lol. But now we have the materials and equipment to continue growing, and after the 2nd grow, we should actually be ahead by a little bit, and then the 3rd grow is completely free, providing we don't run out of nutes and supplies.

I'm about 4 weeks into my 2nd grow now, I decided to wait on the fluxing (which looks really difficult for my skill level) But I have tried to FIM both plants, which I did 2 days ago, so I'm patiently waiting to see how that turned out, and if I get 2 stems, or 4

Even though it has its challenges, I had a lot of fun growing, and I'm enjoying my work now. I'm looking forward to more future grows as well.

 

[Tugafox]

Yes, after curing MM weed still has a flowery taste that turns into a spicy/garlic/earthy experience. I am enjoying it
Oh yeah, if we look at it that way, the next grows will be more profitable as I already have the essentials and in a long term perspective it´s well worth the investment for me. I´ll keep it up

 

[Tugafox]

Quick One Auto Update:

Harvesting 3 plants freed space in the bloom tent. I then had the autos to finish up and one photo plant in mid-flowering plus 2 photos in veg that I´ve been training. Finishing the autos is the priority now so in June 7th I changed the tent´s light schedule to 18 hours on/6 off. This implies that I remove the photo plant from the tent (after 12 hours of light) and put her in a separate room for the dark cycle.
My last Quick One auto update was 2 weeks ago so today´s update will cover both weeks, the pics below were taken after she completed 10 weeks from seed:

I did a minor defoliation and have been keeping her feedings with 1/4 strength of bloom nutes every 10 days.
In 15th June Quick One completed 11 weeks, pics taken this weekend:

She´s finishing up. Had her last nutes in 13th June and from then on only water. Although temps have been a bit higher - 27, 28ºC average she´s drinking much less.
The top bud looks more near finishing than the lower branches smaller buds. Most of her leafs are still so dark green!
I will let her ripen a bit more, next weekend she will complete 12 weeks and depending on how trichomes look then I will decide the harvest day.

Happy growing!

 

[Bubba Zanetti]

Looking good Fox keep the good work

 

[B A R]

looking good fox keep the good work

2x

 

[Antics]

You grow some insanely green plants man!

She looks great, I can't wait to see the harvest lol it's not even mine and I'm excited about it.

I think I need help

 

[Tugafox]

Hey guys!


It´s been a pleasant surprise growing this auto. She´s not very frosty but buds are dense, really easy to grow, thrived in a 9 liters pot under awkward light schedules. It´s kind of strange for me to harvest a plant with so many healthy green leafs like she has.

Antics: You made me smile, the treatment for growing addiction is growing more
This sharing of our grows it´s fun, it´s cool you got good feelings

 

[Tugafox]

Good night everyone,
I´m happy to be here today completing Quick One Auto journal. Yes, completing it with the next 2 posts!

Quick One Auto was showing signs of being close to finish so I gave her last drink of water only (1,8 liters) in 19th June.
Although I´m using Biobizz organic nutes (but can´t be 100% sure of exactly what´s in the Composana mix I used), I have been giving all my plants only Ph´d water in their last 2 weeks of life.

Temps have been stable, max. with all lights on has been 27º C, which helps a lot as I don´t have A/C.
One thought: I could use the heat of an HPS for winter grows for sure cause, early this year, I had to use a heater that is rated at 1400 Watts.

On the other hand, RH has been unstable and higher than I would like for flowering - it rained yesterday and today again - putting RH inside the tent at 60 + %. Considering the place I live, to keep RH lower during flowering cycles, it would be wise from me to invest in a dehumidifier.
My "to buy" list is already big, but I´ve been tackling it a little bit every month within my possibilities. As usual, I´m trying to make the best of what I have.

Ok, pics talk.
Taken last Friday, 20th June:

My usual testing ritual
Harvested the 2 lower branches, one had 7 grams and the other 8 grams (fresh, without trimming):

I decided to let her dry and finish for a few more days.

 

[Antics]

Quick One seems to be a really thin strain. Although mine was really bad, and you're putting my QO grow to shame lol.

A few others I looked at online were about your plants size, so you're doing pretty good man, keep it up!

 

[Tugafox]

Quick One Auto
Pictures taken the day before harvest:

So long Praying Lady

Harvest day was in 24th June.
Dried for 4 days (no waterings), the pot felt really light, and was harvested after 12 hours of dark.

How buds looked like (still fresh):

Quick One total Wet Weight (without the lower branches I had harvested to sample):

The drying & curing method is the same I´ve been using: First dried 3 days in the card box (not totally closed - one lid always open) placed in a dark and well ventilated space. After I put the buds in a paper bag (again, not totally closed) until I feel (to the touch) they are ready to jar for curing.

Sorry for some of the pics quality, they were all taken at harvest night without much light.
I found that I really enjoy taking pictures of the girls. Now I need to go and read my camera´s manual, lol. It surely can do better close ups than the automatic settings I used throughout this journal

Sum.:

Quick One completed 12 weeks in 22th June, 3 months from seed to harvest. She grew with sunlight from seed (germination started in 25 March 2014) until May 20th, the day she was moved to the tent and finished flowering under LEDs.
During her whole life, she had very low dose feedings.
In her last weeks she started frosting more and had an intense smell (specially when touched or moved): Pine, resin like with a hint of a citrus like smell.
She´s def. a hairy lady. Her orange long hairs crowd the buds which have different tones of greens. This hairy feature makes the buds quite beautiful to look at close . She kept her dark green, praying for light, leafs until the end.

The buds are dense and their smell is mild intense, pine, vegetal with some hints of a citrus fruit.
The smoke´s taste is also vegetal, earthy.
(I wish our languages had more words to describe tastes and smells).
The effect is a relaxing Indica like stone. I found it´s not a heavy or couch-lock kind of stone. I felt relaxed, did not feel extra appetite, numbness or sleepiness. Effects are middle: in hitting and lasting.
Good smoke for day time, I enjoy the relaxing effect and both the bud´s smell and taste.

I will complete the journal with a dry weight.

Happy Growing!

 

[Antics]

Nice description of the tastes and smells. But I agree, our languages need more words to describe all the sensations for smell, taste, sight, etc..

I agree. The smoke was potent too, and a nice stone, but I didn't feel couch locked at all.

It's a pretty fast strain, but I wouldn't grow it again. The yields seem too low for the work involved. It's great as a strain to grow for quick bud while you wait for some other better strains to finish, but as the only strain to provide your bud, it's no good. There are many seeds out there in the same price range that produce much higher yields.

If I remember correctly, the QO smoke I had did stimulate my appetite a little, but not too much, so it's not a good strain for patients looking for that effect.

I'd definitely smoke it again. The effects are truly enjoyable. It's a GREAT stone for your day off, or on the weekends. You can enjoy a great smoke, and still go outside and enjoy a nice day. I just wish the strain had less Ruderalis genetics, and higher Sativa and Indica to produce a slightly taller, and much more bushier plant. Which would help contribute to a higher yield.

But with all that being said, when my QO was dried, I pretty much finished it all before any sort of cure ever happened lol.

Nice grow man! I'm looking forward to your next grow, got any plans for your next strains, and growing techniques?

 

[Tugafox]

Hi Antics, good night

Agree with much of what you said.
I still have to read more smoke reports here as guidance.
For Potency, I would give to Quick One smoke a 4.5, maximum 5.
As far as smell of the buds, there´s something more I can add now they´re jared - to me, the citrus fruit smell of Q.O. is like ripe oranges.

I picked this strain not only cause i wanted to grow my first autos but also because i was curious about the Ruderalis traits and how fast it could really grow. I believe it´s the fastest auto of RQS catalog.
It proved to be really easy to grow, no work at all from me except watering and feeding. She even grew in a bag of really cheap soil so the biggest investment for me was lights.
I agree, there are many autos out there better yielder than this one but hey, it was worth the experience and I´m now smoking it
If I had to pick an auto strain to grow now, I would get some Cream Caramel beans from Sweet Seeds. Have been curious about this strain even in photo form.

But with all that being said, when my QO was dried, I pretty much finished it all before any sort of cure ever happened lol.

that was like me with Money Maker, it´s now history

I´m still growing, I´ll get some pics from my archive to show you what I have going on now and will do a post about it.

Cheers!

 

[Tugafox]

Quick One Auto final update:

This harvest was more relaxed, it was only one plant so I took the time to take more pictures, including weights, for this journal.

Dry weight:
(except lower branches a a couple small buds I smoked)

And...Roots, many roots!

I was lucky she completed the cycle. She could have grown more than her 72 cm, or produce more, if given the space. Lesson learned.
Well, honestly one of the many lessons learned in this grow.

 

[B A R]

Congrats Fox...

 

[Tugafox]

For those of you who asked, here´s what I´m growing now:

A Royal Medic from RQS, will be 6 weeks in flower next week.
Pics taken 24 June:

Look what I did to her

Toped, tied to 2 bamboo sticks and super-cropped the 2 main branches to open her more.

One bud site seen from top:

One White Widow Auto, also from RQS:

Top view:

Under the skirt:

I thought this WW seed wouldn´t make it.
It was one of those seeds that have a hard time getting out of the shell. When she finally got out, she had half of a cotyledon damaged - to my surprise it fell naturally along with the shell. She then grew awkward (leafs with 4 fingers instead of 5, for ex.) and very slowly. I took care of her and now she´s finishing flowering.
It´s still a small plant but it´s sure showing some frostiness and has a very nice smell.

In Veg:

2 Royal Medics than I´ve been training. After seeing how the first RM grew, I decided I would start training this other 2 plants early on and in a more "radical" way. The idea is to open them more.

Pictures taken last week after transplant to final pot:
(they lost a few more leafs after this picture)

Loving the sun:

New babies:

Blue Mystic from RQS:

Special Kush # 1, also from RQS:

After, I´ll grow Northern Lights for sure and am thinking of trying Cream Caramel and Bubba Kush.

Happy Growing everyone!

 

[B A R]

Royal Medic! Ah, the cream of my crop these days...