Xlr8's Hydroponic Adventures & Photos From The Garden - 2012

[Foghorn]

Hey xlr8,

I was just reading your first journal with roommate. I laughed out loud when I read your comment about how the room mate should be plenty to supply you and your signifact other. Look at your set up now! My how things change. I can see how the hobby grows, pun intended. I have a full time job and am partners in two small buisnesses. I coach football, work on two committees for local civic organizations. I'v never been busier in my life! I think I picked the perfect time to start growing. Nothing clears my head like messing w the girls, or just sitting and watching them sway in the breeze. Iv actuall had a few epiphanies about things that I had been thinking on for awhile. When I'm at work all night trying not fall asleep, reading your journals are the next best thing

 

[OldMedMan]

I'm pretty jazzed on greenhouse seeds and strain hunters. I really want some of their strains. Would love to get Himalayan Gold and make Charas!

Have you watched their videos ? I was fortunate to d/l 3 of them off the news groups. The one about The Church was high on a mountain top. As far as you could see...there was Church Colas.

Truthfully the Charas are not very good compared to regular hash. Bummer!

 

[Heirloom]

X - Yeah, I love their videos. I have not made Charas. It's on my bucketlist though! Charas is similar to hashish. With Hash you dry and process it however you do it. In Morocco I think they literally just beat the plant on a screen. Charas is an Indian (India) product and is made with the fresh wet bud. They pluck a bud, wet right off the plant, clean the leaves off, then gently roll the bud in their hands. Over and over and over. Then another, and another. You end up with hands coated in resins. Then you collect the resins and that's it, as far as I know. It becomes a sticky little ball. Highly inefficient, IMHO. A lot of waste. It's been said that on average a man can make up to about 6 grams in one day. I only want to try it because it's a cultural thing, a cool, old world way of doing things. I would grow Himalayan JUST to try it.

OMM - Yeah, the sea of Church was awesome!

 

[SurfBuddy]

Mankind's biggest problem as it relates to nature, is that we think we know what we're doing - what a farce!

I agree. I think environmentalism should be caused humanism... the earth will be here long after people kill themselves off... environmentalism is just humans trying to perpetuate their existence here... If the temps rise 100 degrees from what they are now, the people will go much faster than the crust o the earth.

I love growing cannabis. Such a beautiful plant in it's own crazy ways. I can stare at them for long periods of time and just feel peaceful...

I second the motion, it's so relaxing and grounding. A nice respite from the crazy sh*t out there.

My Big Bang Auto was something like 4.7z. The Big Bang Auto I grew though is still also amongst the best bud I've smoked or vaped. Probably in my top 5!

Now THAT is an auto worth growing!

I'v never been busier in my life! I think I picked the perfect time to start growing. Nothing clears my head like messing w the girls, or just sitting and watching them sway in the breeze. Iv actuall had a few epiphanies about things that I had been thinking on for awhile. When I'm at work all night trying not fall asleep, reading your journals are the next best thing

Right there with ya. I need extra hours during the day, but this thing we do seems to slow time down, while also eating it up

 

[donpaul.p]

im going to give the big bang auto a try as it sounds like a big yielder, so im going to order one, i only use herbies due to their amazing free seed offer, only need to buy 1 seed and you get 3 free and at least 1 will be fem,

as for other autos i have only grown 2, the g13 poisen dwarf was not stable and at 6 weeks old around the time it should be nearly finished it was less than 1 inch high and had 4 nodes, it only grew like crazy when i lst the main stem and pulled it lower than the nodes then it grew like crazy, the other auto was greenhouse seeds auto bomb also from herbies, i harvested this twice and going for a 3rd time in the next few days, i harvested the top of the plant first and got 20g dry, then a week later i harvested the rest of the buds and got another 10g, then i left the tiny little buds and thats what i got growing at the moment, the buds are now getting bigger so ill get slightly more off it, so i got over an oz of that auto, i am going to try others as well, just have to see what i like, ill grow them along side my other plants but ill try them under 24-0 from day 1 till finish, i need to find out if they will flower under 24-0 from seed or not, if they wont flower till they get some dark time then this means it could be vegged for a couple of weeks then given some night time then back to 24-0 to finish off,

 

[Xlr8]

Hey donpaul.p - what other auto's would you recommend?

I just grew out a couple of Himalaya Blue Diesel Feminized auto's from Short Stuff in soil... Out of 5 planted, 5 sprouted. Out of the 5, three were males. ( I kept them and saved pollen)

Out of the two females left, they both auto flowered at 18 hours of light per day in about 2 weeks.
They grew to slightly above 12 inches tall, but were quite bushy plants, and thick buds. They smell great, hints of sweet like blueberry/diesel and are sticky, but not as frosty as I've seen. That may be caused by the fact that I had two other plants from some kick ass sativa bag seed in with the auto's, and I turned the lights to 12/12 to throw the sativa's into flower. So the auto's grew about 2+ weeks at only 12 hours of light a day.

I'll be able to give a smoke report someday soon as soon as dry/cure is done.
I think it was worth it because they flowered so quick. But I'm going to try the strain Green -o- Matic Feminized from Greenhouse, but will grow them at a 18 hour day instead.

XL - following your lead - i'm going to try Big Bang, the pollen I saved from the Himalaya Blue Diesel males, I pollenated some of the buds on the bag seed plants, hopefully I'll get some good seeds, and I can't wait to try them if I do, to see if some are auto's.

Time will tell

Kind regards

Cool Naph - I hope you get some good seeds from your pollen experiment. I think you'll get slightly better yield under 18 hours of light, personally. One of the things I did with the auto I grew, was constantly "tucked" leaves that were blocking budsites, trying to keep as many budsites exposed to the light as I could. It'll be interesting to hear what you think of the Himalaya Blue Diesel - that one sounded really good to me.

You got 3 males from feminized seeds? That sounds like they made a mistake of some kind. I bought a pack of 5 feminized "Pure Power Plant" seeds once from Nirvana, and ended up with all 5 being males! I was so bummed, and I still can't believe that every one turned out male (well, I guess one never germinated). I'd have expected much better odds from even non-feminized seeds.

Hmmm. I have to wonder, how would an autoflower plant do using the 12-1 lighting schedule (Gas Lantern Routine) I wonder??? Anyone try this?

 

[donpaul.p]

i had my auto under glr for a while, i found it did not grow as quick as the none auto plants, it seems the more light they get the more they grow, but ive been thinking, what if you crossed an auto male with a non auto female, would this then weaken the auto side of it and make it have a longer veg or even grow better under glr, i know it would take some crossing and back crossing to get it right, but i think this is what needs doing to make the auto a stable strain, im going with the greenhouse seed big bang auto next time, ill order the seeds in the week, now i have got the info it yields over 4oz per plant then i think to me it sounds like the most stable auto so far, i got 35g dry so far off my auto bomb, but i harvested it in 2 halves and now ive left the smallet buds on the plant and cut back all the branches so these buds are now the top buds on the plant, so they have started getting bigger now and should add to my end total,
i was suprised i got that much, it didnt looks that much at first but when i started harvesting it i soon found i had more than i thought i did,

when i get this big bang auto fem ill hopefully have a male ready by then, then ill take the pollen off the male and put it on a couple of the branches, so that way ill have bud from most of the plant but seeds from the rest, now i have planted a load of regular seeds so i know ill have at least 1 male, im hoping the male is one of the ak47 cross uk cherry cheese as this was a big hitter and amazing smoke, so ill be crossing it with that if i have 1 male out of the 2 regular seeds i planted, failing that one of the others will be male, either the californian haze skunk or the other seedling i planted, ill check what it was, but all been well ill be crossing an auto with a regular male so im hoping this will then keep the auto gene and increase the yield and plant size, well thats what im hoping,

 

[Xlr8]

Hey xlr8,

I was just reading your first journal with roommate. I laughed out loud when I read your comment about how the room mate should be plenty to supply you and your signifact other. Look at your set up now! My how things change. I can see how the hobby grows, pun intended. I have a full time job and am partners in two small buisnesses. I coach football, work on two committees for local civic organizations. I'v never been busier in my life! I think I picked the perfect time to start growing. Nothing clears my head like messing w the girls, or just sitting and watching them sway in the breeze. Iv actuall had a few epiphanies about things that I had been thinking on for awhile. When I'm at work all night trying not fall asleep, reading your journals are the next best thing

Hi Foghorn!

Yikes, my first journal... I was pretty clueless when I started this (I guess some things never change!?)

Believe it or not, I still think it could do the job (The Mothership/Roommate). I realized though, that it was pretty limiting as far as being able to ever "get ahead" of things. It's an incredibly capable machine, and I wish I had just a little more room so that I could have kept using it as a strictly veg/mother machine.

But, yes, even though cannabis isn't addictive, growing it sure is! For me, growing has become very therapeutic, and I get a lot of benefit from that side of it, too. My wife was suggesting that I do more to meditate, something I used to do sometimes, but I get a very strong meditative benefit from working with the plants. They make me feel at peace almost always, which is huge for me since I'm literally always in pain now.

I really enjoy making DIY hydro systems now, too. I have a DIY waterfarm/dwc bucket that I used to grow the Big Bang Auto in, that is really a great little unit. I've made several small DWC tubs out of rubbermaid totes. I am in the process now of making my own mini "Flo N Gro" sort of system to see if I can get away from all the hand-watering of the moms and vegging plants I have. I'll post pics once I get it up and running, but it should be pretty slick I hope.

I used to be as busy as you are, but my health has really gone downhill for some reason. When I started growing, I didn't know how much it would really help me, nor was my health nearly this bad. It's become an important part of my well-being, both for the effects, and for the therapeutic benefits of growing.

I'm glad you like my journals - thanks so much!

 

[Xlr8]

Have you watched their videos ? I was fortunate to d/l 3 of them off the news groups. The one about The Church was high on a mountain top. As far as you could see...there was Church Colas.

Truthfully the Charas are not very good compared to regular hash. Bummer!

Aloha OMM!

I'd so love to see some of those places where they just grow wild and abundant. That's where we should all vacation together, I think! I'd never heard of Charas, but it sounds interesting - should have known it's something you've tried!!

 

[Xlr8]

X - Yeah, I love their videos. I have not made Charas. It's on my bucketlist though! Charas is similar to hashish. With Hash you dry and process it however you do it. In Morocco I think they literally just beat the plant on a screen. Charas is an Indian (India) product and is made with the fresh wet bud. They pluck a bud, wet right off the plant, clean the leaves off, then gently roll the bud in their hands. Over and over and over. Then another, and another. You end up with hands coated in resins. Then you collect the resins and that's it, as far as I know. It becomes a sticky little ball. Highly inefficient, IMHO. A lot of waste. It's been said that on average a man can make up to about 6 grams in one day. I only want to try it because it's a cultural thing, a cool, old world way of doing things. I would grow Himalayan JUST to try it.

OMM - Yeah, the sea of Church was awesome!

Hiya Heirloom -

Thanks for explaining that a bit better about the Charas. I really think that sounds interesting, but yes not very efficient! I like cultural things like that, too, and can relate to wanting to give that a try. Sounds like scissor hash a bit, in that you are essentially rolling up a gooey ball of resin. Wouldn't it be great if we could all have our own little mountain top with colas as far as the eye can see?!

 

[Heirloom]

Hell, at the rate this country is going down hill, I may MOVE to The NL or hole up in the Himalayas. You would all be welcome

 

[Xlr8]

I agree. I think environmentalism should be caused humanism... the earth will be here long after people kill themselves off... environmentalism is just humans trying to perpetuate their existence here... If the temps rise 100 degrees from what they are now, the people will go much faster than the crust o the earth.

Sometimes we as human beings, make problems bigger than the ones we try to fix. It's just a fallicy that we think we know more than what we do, and we keep fooling ourselves over and over. Add to that, like you pointed out, we are blinded by the notion that our own survival is the thing that is paramount. Oh well!

I think I'll just keep trying to get by the best I can, and grow my little plants.

 

[Xlr8]

im going to give the big bang auto a try as it sounds like a big yielder, so im going to order one, i only use herbies due to their amazing free seed offer, only need to buy 1 seed and you get 3 free and at least 1 will be fem,

as for other autos i have only grown 2, the g13 poisen dwarf was not stable and at 6 weeks old around the time it should be nearly finished it was less than 1 inch high and had 4 nodes, it only grew like crazy when i lst the main stem and pulled it lower than the nodes then it grew like crazy, the other auto was greenhouse seeds auto bomb also from herbies, i harvested this twice and going for a 3rd time in the next few days, i harvested the top of the plant first and got 20g dry, then a week later i harvested the rest of the buds and got another 10g, then i left the tiny little buds and thats what i got growing at the moment, the buds are now getting bigger so ill get slightly more off it, so i got over an oz of that auto, i am going to try others as well, just have to see what i like, ill grow them along side my other plants but ill try them under 24-0 from day 1 till finish, i need to find out if they will flower under 24-0 from seed or not, if they wont flower till they get some dark time then this means it could be vegged for a couple of weeks then given some night time then back to 24-0 to finish off,

Hi DonPaul -

I think that there is an assumption that auto-flowers can be flowered under any light cycle, but they are hybrids with indica/sativa genes in them, too. I have noticed that some if not most breeders recommend a light cycle for their strains. I've seen some that suggest no more than 16 or 18 hours of light - and I've seen people not be able to get theirs to flower at all unless they switch the light cycle... So, I think the notion they are not light cycle dependant is only partially true... Sounds like you are on to something with the 24-0 thing, and I wouldn't be surprised if that DID give you a little (more) veg time.

 

[Xlr8]

i had my auto under glr for a while, i found it did not grow as quick as the none auto plants, it seems the more light they get the more they grow, but ive been thinking, what if you crossed an auto male with a non auto female, would this then weaken the auto side of it and make it have a longer veg or even grow better under glr, i know it would take some crossing and back crossing to get it right, but i think this is what needs doing to make the auto a stable strain, im going with the greenhouse seed big bang auto next time, ill order the seeds in the week, now i have got the info it yields over 4oz per plant then i think to me it sounds like the most stable auto so far, i got 35g dry so far off my auto bomb, but i harvested it in 2 halves and now ive left the smallet buds on the plant and cut back all the branches so these buds are now the top buds on the plant, so they have started getting bigger now and should add to my end total,
i was suprised i got that much, it didnt looks that much at first but when i started harvesting it i soon found i had more than i thought i did,

when i get this big bang auto fem ill hopefully have a male ready by then, then ill take the pollen off the male and put it on a couple of the branches, so that way ill have bud from most of the plant but seeds from the rest, now i have planted a load of regular seeds so i know ill have at least 1 male, im hoping the male is one of the ak47 cross uk cherry cheese as this was a big hitter and amazing smoke, so ill be crossing it with that if i have 1 male out of the 2 regular seeds i planted, failing that one of the others will be male, either the californian haze skunk or the other seedling i planted, ill check what it was, but all been well ill be crossing an auto with a regular male so im hoping this will then keep the auto gene and increase the yield and plant size, well thats what im hoping,

I hope you have great results with the Big Bang Auto - be sure to let me know if you start a new journal for that, I'd like to follow! I like your breeding plans. I must confess that I'm clueless to breeding autos... I think BigIrishDoode has done some auto flower breeding perhaps? He might be a good source to tap into for that. Too bad God's Trichome isn't still around, he was big into autoflower breeding if I remember correctly.

You have some interesting ideas for crosses - I like 'em! Big Bang (the non-auto version) was a really popular Dutch strain for a while, and the auto version we're talking about was a best seller for quite a while with some of the dutch seed-banks. In the states, we tend to get more locked into strains with genetics that originate in the Emerald Triangle area (think Humboldt county, Mendocino, etc.). There are some awesome Dutch strains though, and Big Bang is one of them. There was a grower that was getting over a gram per watt with the Big Bang reg seeds on here. Stilletto was his name, I think.

 

[Xlr8]

Hell, at the rate this country is going down hill, I may MOVE to The NL or hole up in the Himalayas. You would all be welcome

Haha, yeah man, I'll come visit!!!

 

[Heirloom]

Hiya Heirloom -

Thanks for explaining that a bit better about the Charas. I really think that sounds interesting, but yes not very efficient! I like cultural things like that, too, and can relate to wanting to give that a try. Sounds like scissor hash a bit, in that you are essentially rolling up a gooey ball of resin. Wouldn't it be great if we could all have our own little mountain top with colas as far as the eye can see?!

We would all be very happy growers!

You got 3 males from feminized seeds? That sounds like they made a mistake of some kind. I bought a pack of 5 feminized "Pure Power Plant" seeds once from Nirvana, and ended up with all 5 being males! I was so bummed, and I still can't believe that every one turned out male (well, I guess one never germinated). I'd have expected much better odds from even non-feminized seeds.

Wow. All males? Sounds like Nirvana has issues. Thanks for sharing that.

 

[Xlr8]

Why wouldn't this work? Here's a hydro system that I think would grow monster plants (soil growers, you can choose to avoid reading this if you are bored by such contraptions!):

I'm considering making a combo "top drip" x DWC hydro unit for fun, too. My thinking is, a tote with a botanicare flood fitting/risers keeping the DWC water level consistant, while a top dripper periodically waters from the top down. The drippers are pulling from a secondary res that is recirculated through the flood risers in the unit that contains the plant. (the main reservoir is below, and gravity will be what returns the overflow to the main res underneath through the flood fitting).

Don't know if I explained that properly, but when the drippers water from the top, the excess they add to the unit will drain back through the flood fitting to the reservoir, which is in turn feeding the drippers, etc. With this, there would only be the drain through the flood risers, to maintain an ideal nutrient level in the "local" reservoir at all times. This would be connected to a main reservoir that feeds the drippers, and accepts the overflow through the flood risers. (There is no flooding with this, the flood riser is just for maintaining a consistant elevated level for the DWC portion of this, while still giving the ability to top drip and recirculate somewhat).

Just throwing this out there for inspiration, or for someone to shoot holes in before I try it myself for fun... I have a friend that grows with a combo top drip, dwc in buckets much like the one I did the Big Bang Auto in. He's done some comparisons to just the DWC bucket and is getting much better results with the drip added. Obviously, the Big Bang Auto was a good yielder, so this got me thinking... love any feedback/thoughts. I'm not sure when I'll get around to this, but thought I'd throw it out there.

 

[Heirloom]

Are you still going to use an air stone in the grow chamber?



EDIT: I ask, only because of stratification. If your using 1 air store in your res and none in your chambers, you could end up with stratification. Don't know if you know this already, but top dripping into a pool, then having the run off draw from the top of the pool will create stagnate water and you'll end up with different 'layers' of water (nute) densities in the grow chamber. This is why I always draw return from the bottom and feed from the top. With an air stone in the chamber it makes no difference, the water is circulating.

 

[naphtali5725]

Cool Naph - I hope you get some good seeds from your pollen experiment. I think you'll get slightly better yield under 18 hours of light, personally. One of the things I did with the auto I grew, was constantly "tucked" leaves that were blocking budsites, trying to keep as many budsites exposed to the light as I could. It'll be interesting to hear what you think of the Himalaya Blue Diesel - that one sounded really good to me.

You got 3 males from feminized seeds? That sounds like they made a mistake of some kind. I bought a pack of 5 feminized "Pure Power Plant" seeds once from Nirvana, and ended up with all 5 being males! I was so bummed, and I still can't believe that every one turned out male (well, I guess one never germinated). I'd have expected much better odds from even non-feminized seeds.

Hmmm. I have to wonder, how would an autoflower plant do using the 12-1 lighting schedule (Gas Lantern Routine) I wonder??? Anyone try this?

Yeah, I got 3 males... I was bummed too, but at least I had 2 females. I wonder if it was environmental...will a feminized seed turn male if it is in a bad environment? My tent got hot as crap(91) before I cut a 4 inch hole in the floor. I wonder if the heat did it?

I'll be stoked if I get some good seeds out of the cross, I just wish I knew what strain the bag seed I pollenated was.

pssh... the Himalaya Blue Diesel... after a 1 day dry, I put a little bit of it in my vaporizer and I was blitzed for awhile so I know after it's completely dry and cured, it will be awesome

Kind regards

 

[donpaul.p]

thanks for all the info, ill let you know when i get the seeds, ill start a seperate journal just for my autos, thinking about getting a few and try them at the same time, ill try the one you said and i have just receieved and email saying super skunk auto has won the highlife cup, so that auto must be ok as well else it would not of won so might try that as well, i have also posted a 15% discount code on my journal for that strain, their are 3 auto strains that the offer works for, its from sensi seeds, but the breeder who produced the winning auto was the white label seed co, so if you get it from sensi seeds their is a 15% offer so let me know if you want the discout code or check out my journal and it the last post i made,

ill pm you the link to my journal when i start my autos, hoping to order them in the week, so il start a new journal when the seeds come, it will be easier then starting them under my journal i do now, so ill do a strictly auto journal and all been well ill be doing my breeding on them as well,