Zabka & SO - First Attempt - Soil - Cali Jack/Blue Cheese - 2014

[Zabka]

Update - nothing has really changed since the feed/flush two days ago. Nothing looks worse, and there were no new problems, which I guess is a good sign. We have smoked most of the Bag Seed bud we clipped a couple of days ago. It's incredibly sticky and probably still too wet, really, but we are impatient, and might as well break all of the rules on this one bud to save the rest of the harvest. Hopefully. Here is a picture - this is after a couple of days drying in a horrible way, being poked and prodded about. While sticky it went down to 0.8g, so probably we will lose more weight than anticipated, but who cares - we have successfully grown something which can be smoked! Fuckin' A!

It tasted, honestly, like crap. A mix of grass and perfume. But this was before flushing, badly dried, not even fully, and with no cure whatsoever. The high feels a bit uncomfortable, really...a bit twitchy. This might be all right if I wasn't still ill with flu - could be good for doing stuff - but right now I just want a smoke which lays me out flat and eases a dodgy head It's been a few days since it was cut, though. We'll likely leave it another 3-7 days at least before harvesting her. I think I saw an amber trichome or two, but there are also a good few clear ones knocking about.

Despite the negatives of the smoke, it's somewhat better than the weed we took the seed from, which was a weird sandy colour, dry as hell, and full of seeds. Considering our lack of expertise and the current state of Bag Seed, we cannot imagine how her mother must have suffered before being cut down!

Eulalia and Winifred look nowhere near harvest. Mainly clear trichs on Winifred, and no amber on either. The pistils on Winifred are almost totally white, with just a couple starting to denature; on Eulalia maybe 50/50 white and orange. We're aware that pistils aren't a reliable indicator alone, but they look like they've a way to go.

The crispy Bag Seed leaves are starting to do my head in. They occasionally break up and I'm worried pieces will fall on the buds and go mouldy. Perhaps we should clip off the crispy bits and leave any living tissues. Would this be a good idea or invite infection? Does anyone have any experience with leaves this crappy?

We are trying not to be too excited, because excitement causes silly decisions Sadly, we're probably not going to start another grow straight away. I would love to, but our landlord normally inspects in February and the tent is a little too conspicuous for our liking. So we'll probably leave it until after then to plant our Brooklyn Mango. I have been toying with the idea of autos - they would allow a quicker harvest and the light cycle would allow us to overlap with a photo seedling if we chose to. But we'd be likely to burn the hell out of them, given our lack of success this time around in the feeding stakes.

We are happy overall with this first grow - we have learned a lot, and the act of growing something is good for stress relief. We did not expect to get so far, and without this website I doubt the things would even have sprouted, so thank you , and everyone who has contributed their experience. Not least those who have taken the time to read all of this crap and comment on our grow.

Having read some very sad journals, most notably Light Addict's with the beautiful plant that got burned thanks to a faulty timer in the last weeks of its life (the bud that was salvaged was most likely 100% nicer than what we will get, but it was such a shame) we are praying that something, probably us, doesn't kill one of them now or render the bud unsmokeable. In an attempt to stave off the urge to cut those plants and smoke them RIGHT NOW, I would like to begin a list of things we've learned/would change next time. This will hopefully help us in a few months when we start again but are too stoned to remember properly, least of all wade through this rambling book, and might even help some other total noob who hasn't the strength to read the whole damn thing...but somehow happens upon this page. Hmm. I am aware that completion of this list will invite disaster to the grow tent, for reasons of irony, but I'm going to make a start anyway. If anybody would like to add anything, or call anything out as bullshit, please feel free

- we will change our soil to something plainer so we can better control the nutes - something suitable for seedlings mixed with perlite & maybe some lime or something if necessary?...coco is not ideal as we have a few grow's worth of soil nutes left, and no way of testing pH more accurately than to the nearest 0.5 or thereabouts (if we have enough for a real pH tester, and ppm meter if possible, this may become an option)

- we will obtain some cal/mag or Epsom salts as cal/mag deficiencies have been suggested by more experienced growers

- we will grow fewer plants, max. 2, because there is little room for vertical growth and training left no further room for horizontal growth about 1 week into flower

- we might use a SCROG if we can rig a small frame and work out a way to drain the pots without picking them up/losing too much vertical room with a tray or similar - otherwise we will definitely continue LST into flower for a more even canopy

- we may look at obtaining bigger pots - we'll see when we harvest if our girls are root bound - if not we'll stick with the buckets and will likely omit the middle (black) pots next time, resulting in one transplant and less stress

- we will not remove the seed cap from an emerging seedling

- we will not feed the plants too late

- we will not be afraid to FIM or top (thank you again Antics!)

- we will not begin with the light too high (4-6" max when they're a day or two above soil, we have more ventilation to start with this time around so temp control should be easier)

- we will look at increasing the wattage if we have enough cash - if not we'll get a more powerful bulb when one of these breaks, maybe a dual spectrum, but still CFL - at present we use a 125w so the only way is up

- if possible we will paint our reflector matte white to increase reflective properties and reduce hot spots

- we will not get soil/nute water on the leaves and while transplanting will MacGyver (or whatever his name is) some kind of cardboard circle with a slot to prevent soil falling on the plant (forget where I saw this but it looked awesome, and I'm really hoping it doesn't turn out to be a ballache)

- we will cover the buckets, if used, in some kind of tape because I'm not happy with them being covered in foil. I don't know why, I'm just not. We may well drill a few more holes as well, because you can never have too much drainage! Probably. In most situations.

- we might defoliate at appropriate points to increase airflow and light coverage on lower buds. I would like to do this now, but am worried about stressing the plants/removing leaves which might be used to compensate for the deficiencies we are inflicting!

- if possible we will run two of the same strain to better understand how our actions affect the plants

- we will try to worry less and enjoy more

Likely this will be added to with more nuggets of wisdom (read: common sense in the words of an asshole) the next time I am absolutely battered with nothing better to do. Hey, that smoke can't be half bad!

Thanks for looking. Sorry about the lack of plant abuse pics this time around!

Zabka & SO

 

[Zabka]

Small update - Eulalia and Winifred both showed very a very minor increase in nute burn on the very tips of their leaves tonight. I guess they're more sensitive than we anticipated, given the weak dose they received. Unless there's already a buildup in the soil - we never flushed before flowering, figuring that our regular water only feedings would suffice. Something more to add to the list of errors to be rectified next time around!

Otherwise, things haven't worsened. Trich inspection was much the same as yesterday; I could have sworn I saw a couple of amber ones on each plant, but when I tried to reposition the loupe I couldn't find them again. We will not be feeding any of them again, and might flush Eulalia and Winifred on the next watering. The pots are still heavy and the topmost soil is moist, so this won't happen for a few days.

Despite the dire state of Bag Seed, her buds are still slowly growing. The plants haven't been rotated since their last excursion, and the the buds are a little more built on the sides closest to the bulb. The number of leaves shriveling and dying in the lower branches has reduced on all three plants, so hopefully they're a bit happier. Bag Seed is still resolutely gripping its damaged leaves, so we've let them be for the time being.

The cut bud on Bag Seed seems to have fried somewhat; possibly it was a bit sticky after the chop. I carefully picked off the crispy parts earlier, then lowered the light in a last ditch attempt to maximise the last couple of weeks, because the girls haven't grown upwards in some time and parts of Bag Seed were at least 12" from the bulb.

I checked a couple of hours later and all seemed well, but that bud was crisping again. I will check again before bed; if the rest of the plants are unaffected the light will be left in its new position (minimum 2-3" from the top of the highest buds, so it should be OK). It's only a couple of inches difference, but you never know! Happily, the sides of the cut bud which are not crispy seem to have started growing again, a bit like the worst attempt at back building you could ever see and I am tempted to try that next time around, but it seems so counter intuitive...might have to give it a go anyway!

We want to keep our strains separate in case we can actually discern a difference in end product. I really hope it'll be possible; they certainly look different right now. We bought a decent sized glass jar with a clasp seal thing, and will use the first plant's yield to determine if the size will be suitable (probably Bag Seed). We do have backup jars available, but they're full of coffee and bought weed and other useful goods, and we wanted something spanking new, despite being poor as...erm...us.

We've been looking in to trimming/drying methods and have a couple of decisions to make. Most likely we'll just see what's easiest at the time, but if anyone would like to offer advice it would be welcomed, because as with all things in this pursuit, it's hard to know which methods are viable when you have no first hand experience!

Some people recommend keeping the plant whole for the longest dry possible, but I would imagine it's a right pain trying to trim the leaves off and not damage the buds you're not currently trimming, especially with bushier plants (bear in mind I'm a clumsy bastard). Has anyone tried the whole plant vs. individual branch method?

As far as we can tell, fan leaves should be removed immediately to avoid a grassy flavour. Is this accurate or will the plant dry out too fast?

We would prefer to trim as many sugar leaves as possible initially (we'd still keep them and make some use of them - smoking or maybe butter if there's enough) to avoid them shrivelling and sticking in the buds, but many videos etc. seem to show people trimming these when the buds are at least partially dry - which way is best?

The majority of sources we've looked at recommend hanging the whole plant/individual branches until small branches snap and thicker ones bend, then transferring to jars, or possibly paper bags in an intermediate stage. I'd understood bending to mean sort of folding, maybe separating in a fibrous way, but then this guy in a video showed a snap and then a 'bend' and the branch practically snapped, but just hung on a little at the end. Which bend is best?! I have no idea how this is supposed to feel, and I don't know if this guy was right, because it looked like a commercial grow and they might have been trying to dry it too quickly, or something.

We have some awesome little clipping scissor things which look like they'll be great for the close budwork, and some regular secateurs for the heavier cuts. I saw a mirror suggested as a readily accessible surface to trim over while collecting as much kief as possible, so we may well try this if we don't find any better suggestions.

All this talk of harvesting is getting me excited! Missus is snoring away beside me (we love this couch too much) so better call it a night and get off to bed.

Good night, thanks for looking in.

Zabka & SO

 

[Zabka]

A small picture update...photos were taken yesterday, which was Day 100 and Day 61 of flowering (that is, 100 days since Winifred broke ground, and 61 days since we changed to 12/12 and our softer CFL - you know what we're on about!). We have pictures of the meatiest bud on each plant, and the most easily accessible bud on each with a regular cigarette tube for scale (the tube is empty, and the paper's flattened, so it looks fatter than it should).

Also included are crap attempts at trich shots. We can make one amber out on one of the Bag Seed shots. A few more were visible in person, and more have turned today, but it's damn hard to balance that tiny loupe and the phone camera with shaky hands. Apologies for the poor quality. Winifred's trichome picture may as well not be here, because her buds are so weird and loaded with pistils that the pistils are all you can see (her buds look chunky on the photos, but really have weird fingers of calyxes running off the main stem...interesting...).

You can also see Bag Seed's cut bud, which looks mouldy but is just crispy and weird in the middle and very much alive around the edges

Winifred

Eulalia

Bag Seed

Winifred, Bag Seed, Eulalia

We're itching to get sticky fingers now (behave), and constructed a cheapass drying box earlier:

Twine, tape, and a cardboard box, with a few ventilation holes in the sides. Hopefully it will serve! We plan to leave little branches near the bottom of each cola to hook on the twine. We'll likely separate the branches for this harvest since the house is on the humid side, so hopefully it won't dry too quickly. If it does, we can change tactics for the next plant.

We also have a brown paper bag for any buds not held on branches, secateurs and smaller scissor style clippers, latex gloves, a mirror to catch kief, a jar, and a small digital scale for when it finally dries...anything glaringly obvious missing here?

We would really like to cut Bag Seed tomorrow, if her amber trichs increase again...the only thing telling me not to is that her leaves aren't really yellowing. They're screwed in every other way, but not yellow to the extent we had expected to see. The odd leaf will yellow and wilt in the undergrowth, and more so than in Winifred or Eulalia, but the rate hasn't increased much after the flush. Does this mean that we should flush again, or wait? Or should we go off trichs alone? The soil is still wet - if we flush again would we damage the roots?

The remains of the massacred bud fully dried out and we ground it and smoked it. It yielded a surprising amount when ground. It tasted somewhat better than when it was still wet, and made us pretty giggly and silly. That was cut six days ago now, so presumably the smoke has progressed in character. We do enjoy a good stone which takes you prisoner on the couch, or helps you to sleep, but we wouldn't say no to a lighter option for social situations, or for a smoke when you're doing the food shopping, or cleaning, say. So if it's a bit early, we can still make some use of it, and we'll know to let the other two run a bit later so we can mix it up a bit. Whereas if we leave Bag Seed too late, we won't know until it's cured, and if we're still waiting for trichomes to mature on the other two plants it might be too late for them too.

Are we just trying to justify cutting the girls down early like (probably nearly almost) every other first time grower? Most likely! Anybody? Thoughts? Talk us down from the ledge!

This is one of the most satisfying things I've ever chosen to do, and I'm sure this feeling will only increase as we get closer to consuming the fruits of our labour. As long as we don't mess it all up now! I think that GF has enjoyed it too, although it might have been better without me stressing about things beyond our control And subsequent grows can only improve...surely!

Thanks for looking; any thoughts or suggestions or answers are welcome

Zabka & SO

 

[Zabka]

Today was approx. day 62 of flower, and day 101 since first sprout. So Bag Seed must be about 12 weeks old, as she started a little late. It's around 8 weeks since she showed her first pistils - just shy of 9 weeks under 12/12.

Bag Seed appeared to have mainly cloudy trichomes, with some clear ones and some amber/golden. The buds hadn't grown much in the past few days, and the undamaged fan leaves were a slightly paler green. Calyxes were plump, and pistils brown and retracted. Very little new pistil growth, excepting the lowest flowers which are hardly even popcorn, consisting of 3-4 calyxes each. The main colas had an overall darker colour than the other two plants, and looked ripe, with a musty smell.

So, we harvested her She probably could have gone a little longer, but we'll be able to see the difference in smoke compared to the others, and have satisfied our twitchy fingers. Eulalia and Winifred have much more space now, more light, and better ventilation, so they should be happier too! We plan to leave them at least another week, if not two or three, depending on how things pan out.

We trimmed all the fan leaves first, down to the branches. Then we had the following exchange:

Me: OK, so now if we leave some little branches we can use them as hooks...

GF: OK. Which little branches?

Me: Erm...I think...Ah.

So if you plan to separately hang your branches, and have a small yield like us, the little hooks are created from the branches holding the fan leaves. Do not cut them all off and then wonder where the hooks are, like an arsehole. We'd had a smoke before the harvest...some excuse! I guess with a really bushy plant where each main branch held more than one top, you'd be all right. Anyway, we cut the branches right where they came off the stem, kept as much bud on the branches as possible, and removed all the leaves we could. Hopefully, this will give a good trade off between trimming efficiency and a long drying time.

The box has been left in the room where the tent is, as the window's always open and it's not too warm. We don't have a fan spare to sit outside the box, unfortunately. We will check regularly for mould. Some branches have been hooked on our twine with the lowest, tiny bud branches, and some have been attached using the training wires. We ended up with nine branches, 3-4 of which were tiny and the rest of which were halfway decent, but smaller than the biggest buds on the other girls. Small fry compared to what most growers here produce, but we're pretty happy considering it's our first time, we had limited light and space, and the seed was free!

It's hard to guess a weight, but I would estimate that she yielded at least 5g, and definitely less than 15g, dry. We'll see in the days to come! Regardless - buzzing! It took longer than we anticipated to trim, but we were both utterly inexperienced. We used secateurs to clip the branches, and trimmers and nail scissors for manicuring. The smell was intensely strong and awesome. The stem looked quite sad, all alone in the bucket. We plan to check out the roots in the garden tomorrow evening.

GF trimmed most of the branches as she has steadier hands than I. I did a few, but then mainly trimmed up any buds which fell off and sorted through the trim, keeping anything which had a decent coating of sugar. Many of the fan leaves were damaged by the burn/deficiency/pH issue, whatever was ailing her, so we binned most of them and just kept the smokeable stuff. There wasn't enough to make hash or butter from. The bigger buds will go into a paper bag. The rest of the trim - leaves and crumbs of weed which would just get stuck in the corners of our bag - is spread out on the mirror we cut her over, and will be left to dry and smoked as soon as possible This should give the decent nugs a chance to dry and cure well.

We have already smoked one spliff from this harvest, thanks to everyone who has detailed the pleasures of scissor hash. GF nearly wiped her scissors clean, and I would have too if not for reading several accounts here. There was a negligible amount, due to the miniature harvest, but damn that spliff was strong! Scissor hash, a speck of dry weed from the rolling tray, and five of the smallest crumbs of leaf and lone calyxes from the mirror. That was it, and I am still battered now! GF is asleep on the couch next to me. Good times!

Pictures or it didn't happen...sorry they are such poor quality, but excitement was running high. The pictures of Bag Seed were taken after the fan leaf removal. She looks happier than before. I am glad her suffering is now over. R.I.P. Bag Seed

Bag Seed - canopy

Bag Seed - side

Bag Seed - stem

Bag Seed - midsized cola after trimming

The mirror of trim (including little nugs yet to go in the bag)

Bag Seed in the dry box (abysmal quality)

Winifred and Eulalia, looking much happier with more space

We will get better pictures of the whole harvest when we get it together for the dry weight/remove buds from stems.

Thanks for having a gander And, yet again, thank you to everyone who is responsible for this site's existence or who has put their knowledge and experience here, because without it we would not be posting this - yeah, there are other sites out there, and we do a wide variety of research, but the quality of information here is excellent, and people are really helpful. Even if nobody answers your question on your thread, most likely you can find the answer on someone else's, or at least an opinion on it. We will keep reading and learning!

Should really get to bed now...cheers, everyone

Zabka & SO

 

[budstep]

hell yeah, big congrats on 1st real harvest my friend. Nothing beats home grown.

 

[Zabka]

hell yeah, big congrats on 1st real harvest my friend. Nothing beats home grown.

Hey, thanks Budstep! We're pretty damn happy! Smoke report to follow as she dries/cures...probably detail by gruelling detail, haha! We'll update shortly on the other two girls - if either is dry we'll fill our bottles for the next flushing candidate. Bag Seed made it a whole week from flush to harvest. We'll see how a longer starvation period affects things!

Zabka & SO

 

[Zabka]

Today is day 103 of the girls' lives, and day 64 of flower. Week ten begins!

So...we got let down on a bit of smoke and caved somewhat when faced with those little Bag Seed buds. We put the paper bag on the radiator and have smoked some of the smaller, dry pieces of popcorn. It's a crazy, uplifting high, very moreish, and gave us a lot of energy - it's the only weed I've ever smoked which has opened my eyes wider rather than shutting them! After a couple of hours and a few spliffs, it resulted in such a deep sleep that neither of us could wake up properly (we'd been up until 3 smoking what we dubbed as 'home grown speed weed', which is normal for me, but I wouldn't usually be so alert, and GF is dead by 11 as a rule).

It didn't have the best taste or aroma, but we have had much worse. We were very impressed, and GF was filled with renewed excitement for the possibility of growing more. Then we wondered what the hell we've been buying, if our novice growing skills can yield a better smoke from the lowest, smallest buds of the youngest, least healthy plant, grown from bag seed. The mind boggles!

We will do the proper report when the bigger buds are cured & dry. We won't be able to procure anything else until the end of the week, so the trim isn't going to last long (stressful job = need a smoke after work!) but we should be able to avoid smoking anything decent for a good while yet. But we'd be quite happy even if a good dry/cure resulted in the same quality we've already smoked - any improvement is an utter bonus. The bigger branches are still wet, but smell good with no sign of mould.

I'm aware that this pilfering will mess up the dry weight. In an attempt to keep vague track, weighing the remaining nearly-dry popcorn (buds crispy on outside but tiny thin stalks still too damp to grind) gave a weight of 1.6g, and we've smoked at least 1g aside from that. So we'll say a minimum of 1.5g total for the Bag Seed popcorn bag (allowing for any weight loss from drying stem etc - this is a conservative estimate). The trim mirror will hopefully dry fast enough to be weighed as a whole before we break in to it, and we are not going to touch the hanging buds until dry and cured.

Winifred (Blue Cheese*) and Eulalia (Cali Jack) were showing a few amber trichomes on their sugar leaves today. Calyxes still show a mix of clear/cloudy, more cloudy, close to no amber. Eulalia was very dry and wilting slightly, so we have flushed her with 26.5L plain water - all the bottles we had!

I topped the plants off with soil a few weeks ago because watering/feeding was compressing the top layer and some roots were showing. I filled them to the very top of the buckets (adding 1-2" of soil) but will not do this on subsequent grows; lack of roots in this area resulted in the top soil feeling damp, while the soil underneath was dry. We know to check to the first knuckle, but normally only do this when the top soil already feels dry, to avoid unnecessarily disturbing the roots. The fans being lifted has not helped, as there is less direct airflow over the top of the soil. Passive intakes vent right next to the pots, so the roots should be getting enough oxygen.

Eulalia should have recovered by tomorrow, but I had to secure her stem to the side of the pot because she started to lean over! The soil got a bit loose with all the water, and the buds are much heavier on one side. A bit worrying...but I recall saying at one point pre-flower that heavy buds were a problem I wanted, so it looks like my wish came true They do look dense and lovely, and I can't wait to grind one up in a month or so! A couple of lonely pistils have recently sprouted from the very tops of the buds, which some people use as an indicator of imminent ripening. We will keep our eyes peeled!

She is showing what could be a slight phosphorous deficiency - a couple of lower fan leaves have slightly curled, black/grey tips, which seem weaker than the rest of the leaves. It is very minor, and we don't want to feed again so close to harvest. Good/bad move?

I had a small mishap when removing her from the tent for the flush - one of the smallest, lowest tops hit the side of the tent, and snapped. It was hanging down to the soil, so it was removed and trimmed. Looks like we will be having a very early test of Eulalia in the days to come (top couple of buds left on the branch, lower ones removed, hook successfully left). It was really an accident! Honest! Don't think GF believed me...

Winifred is doing well. A few of her pistils have begun to brown, and her calyxes, whilst not particularly numerous, are MASSIVE compared to the other plants. We're very interested in how she will turn out. Not sure if she will be easier or harder to trim, with those crazy shaped buds. Her soil is still a little moist to the first knuckle, and she looks a little perkier, so her flush will commence in a couple of days. Her lower fan leaves aren't quite yellow but are paler green than the tops, so this might be intensified by the flush. One lower fan leaf shows the same slight deficiency as Eulalia.

Pictures! Eulalia's are terrible quality, so sorry about that. I don't think the crappy camera likes the bathroom light much. Trich shots are about on a par with last time (shite, to save you going back a page). I don't think one amber is visible in any of them. There are some on the leaves, so the calyxes can't be far behind...it's not just wishful thinking!

Winifred - her buds look really long from far away

They look odd and straggly close up...

Winifred's trichomes

Eulalia

Eulalia's biggest buds

Eulalia's trichomes

Eulalia's possible mild deficiency (only affects a couple of leaves)

The accidental test nug (one of the smallest and most immature on the plant)

Thanks for taking the time to come by. Comments and suggestions are welcome...

Zabka & SO


* The seed site isn't a sponsor, so I won't name it, but when we bought our seeds Winifred was on offer as a Blue Cheese. We should have copied the info off the website then but foolishly didn't, and the seed's since been delisted. The breeder isn't specified on the order as far as I can see. However, the buds don't really resemble any other strain of Blue Cheese I can find from a decent, but not exhaustive, search. Also, most BC seeds are listed as having 6-9 week flowering periods, and the Cali Jack estimates 9-11 weeks, but the CJ is further along right now. Finally, the buds don't smell of blueberries or cheese at all (I know it's not meant to smell like actual cheese), but more like lemons and sherbet.

The weird branching buds can apparently be caused by heat stress (no idea how accurate this is). Is it possible that high early flower temps have somehow mutated the buds? Can pH affect their shape? Could it just be a really weird offspring of the two strains which took all the recessive characteristics (or however genes work in plants, I really haven't any idea and probably wouldn't understand but might have a vague Wikipedia anyway) and so looks like a different strain? Or might it be an entirely different seed altogether, with the wrong label on?

Gizza clue!

 

[budstep]

Those odd looking buds I believe are starting to foxtail. Happens sometimes. You can try to find and read up on that, but I don't think it's anything serious. Other then that - beautiful.

 

[Zabka]

Those odd looking buds I believe are starting to foxtail. Happens sometimes. You can try to find and read up on that, but I don't think it's anything serious. Other then that - beautiful.

Thanks, man! We never expected to get to this stage, let alone grow anything we would be eager to smoke. I have read about foxtailing but couldn't find a definitive answer on what effect it has, if any. Some people prefer it and state that each 'finger' has the potential to be super strong compared to the rest of the bud, which sounds suspiciously like bollocks. Others say it's just like regular weed but more of a pain in the ass to trim and with a higher stalk/bud ratio, which sounds more likely. I guess we'll find out soon enough...we're not particularly worried or disappointed, but interested in the idiosyncrasies of these crazy and amazing plants!

Thanks for posting - it's good to keep this as a record, and we can't expect many dedicated followers after failing to update at the most crucial stages, foolishly coming back when one plant was burned to hell and back, and writing such a load of shite (GF should not be blamed in any way for this - I take full responsibility), but - it's nice to know that people are still having a look and taking the time to comment on our little grow and answer our noob questions!

 

[Zabka]

Today is Day 67 of flower (Day 106 from seed), so we're approaching the ten week mark!

I've tried to stay away for a few days so that there might be some visible difference in the pictures (while lurking on several journals old and new ). I'm not sure that there is, but we're still feeling happy. Plus, we got our final weight on the Bag Seed trim! The buds are still drying. The tiniest branches feel hollow and dry, but still aren't snapping. The buds feel dry outside but are probably a bit damp in the middle. And they feel beautifully tacky and sticky and awesome, even if they don't smell amazing!

The test bud from Eulalia is a couple of days behind, and was cut before any flushing, but it smells much nicer than anything on the Bag Seed stems We're not unhappy with the Bag Seed produce by any means - we just have INCREDIBLE hopes for the Cali Jack from Eulalia now! The trim and two tiny lumps of popcorn from this branch were dry enough to weigh and smoke today, and half a spliff made from just the tiny popcorn lumps had us both completely ratarsed yet somehow still able to cook steak (leaves remain). It tasted so awesome. I need something which can help me eat more because my appetite is buggered lately! This is really impressive if you look to the weight pictures about 500m down the page

We've smoked all of the popcorn and trim mirror bud from Bag Seed now, and smoked some of the leaves too, as we were left for four days or so with nothing else. The leaves had a decent effect, but weren't very tasty or smooth. The sugar leaves off Eulalia look frostier and more appealing. If we get enough sugar trim off all three plants to make a reasonable amount of butter, we'll do that; otherwise it'll be kept as emergency backup smoke.

We've got a decent amount of average pot which will probably tide us over until the popcorn from Eulalia dries, if we harvest in the next week. So if all goes to plan, we shouldn't have to buy anything for a good long while! We consider smoking the crapper bits without a proper cure a decent compromise; we'll get the effect of the cure from the best, most potent buds, and avoid buying overpriced crap as soon as possible.

The initial aim of the grow was to stop paying assholes for crap weed and save money, and hopefully we've achieved this. If we get a good amount of something which kills pain and really helps sleep, we're going to give some to my brother's girlfriend as she has bad problems with her joints, despite being young, and morphine doesn't work like it used to. She's a great girl and she definitely appreciates a good smoke!

It's a bonus that we discovered an awesome hobby at the same time, not forgetting this quality website! Now we just need to run the final few laps and in future...improve! GF is already talking about how we can get more next time, and we haven't even cut it yet and I'd like to see how we can improve the quality...right now it doesn't seem possible because we feel like kids at Christmas, except high, but you must be able to get much better! I can't imagine!

In other news, we flushed Winifred today. She was getting really dry, but she hadn't started to look too sad yet. It took a long time, and again I impatiently flooded the soil and she leaned over alarmingly...oops! She was drinking very quickly She is tethered and safe now. I just put her back in the tent after a couple of hours draining. Her foil cover came off while I was putting her in the bath, and I could see some roots through the sides, only really in the lower 50% of the bucket. I think is normal, since the bucket kind of tapers toward the bottom. The roots look white and healthy as far as I can tell. Eulalia's soil is still damp, but while moving them around you could really feel the difference in weight, so she's managed to use up a lot of that water despite being totally saturated!

We looked at Bag Seed's roots, but it was too dark outside to really see, and much too dark to take pictures. All the soil came out in one lump which I couldn't break up when I pulled the stem, which I guess is a good sign. Only the top layer I recently added could be broken away easily. The visible roots on the bottom were white. There were a few crazy tangles of roots in the very corners of the bucket, so I guess she would have become rootbound pretty soon if we'd allowed her the resources to grow bigger. Anyway, it all looked good from what we could see, so we're happy with that. We'll compare it with the other plants when they're cut.

There are a vast number of amber trichomes on both plants' fan leaves now, but still virtually none on the calyxes. Eulalia's trichomes are now nearly all milky, though, and some have almost taken on a golden hue. I hope this means she'll be ready soon, because it's getting harder to wait each day! Having a gander back at Antics' grow has helped my patience somewhat, seeing how much weight his Cali Jack packed on in the last few days

The deficiency is spreading on both plants, but veeeeery slowly. And if they want to use up their energy reserves, I won't stop them. Eulalia is looking a bit yellow towards the bottom too, so hopefully her flush had some effect.

OK, enough waffling, down to the pictures!

Eulalia & Winifred

Winifred, before her flush

Eulalia

I constructed a crap tray thing out of foil to increase our scale capacity and prevent sticky stuff from going on the plate. We zeroed the scale before adding anything. All weights are dry.

The Bag Seed mirror trim weighed 2.5g in total

2.2g of this was leaves

0.3g of this was bud fragments

The test stem from Eulalia yielded 0.2g of trim, >0.15g of which was leaves...

and <0.05g of which was bud (this was what got us wasted! We'd already had a smoke of the average, purchased weed, but Jesus! This stuff woke us up and yet spaced us right out at the same time!)

I'm assuming that the scales round to the nearest 0.05g. They're accurate to 0.1g.

So, if you're including the leaves in the dry weight, we're now at a total of 4g for Bag Seed and 0.2g for Eulalia. If you're not, we're up to about 1.8g for Bag Seed and Eulalia has yet to score. These might be negligible weights to some, but when it's as damn effective as this stuff is, I'm going to count it all. And I want to know with as much accuracy as possible how much we've produced per watt and per foot or cm2 or something. I want some kind of tangible measure of the efficiency of the tent, and will compare this to subsequent grows. I know there are other variables to consider, such as the health and happiness off the plants and the quality of the product, but I'll do it anyway because I like that kind of maths.

I reckon that's all for now. Thank you, as always, for coming and looking, or liking, or writing! I will update if anything exciting happens. We're hoping to take Bag Seed off the branches and get a dry weight this weekend, if all goes to plan. Sorry for the length and all the exclamation marks!!!!1111! 11 Too excited!

Zabka & Awesome GF

 

[Zabka]

Veeery quick update - no progress on Eulalia or Winifred, but the two smallest Bag Seed stems were dry yesterday so we clipped the buds off and set them curing. There was no visible condensation on the jar, but it felt cool and sweaty inside, so we'll burp them regularly and keep an eye. The buds were tiny, more popcorn than anything else. We got pictures regardless, but want to weigh all the stem stuff together.

Not long to wait, as I'm going to get right on that after this post! On most branches, the tiniest branches are snapping clean, and the branch itself nearly snapped on one. The others are bending. The biggest two colas have a tiny amount of bend in the small branches, but we're going to cut it all and hopefully the driest and wettest buds will even each other out. If they sweat too much, we can swap the bigger ones into an intermediate paper bag stage for a couple of days.

What we cut yesterday already smells less grassy and more weedlike than before, so we're pretty pleased with this curing lark thus far. She has dried for five days, which sounds respectable considering how small the yield is likely to be. We will not be disappointed with anything, though. After all, the seed was free, and this whole grow has been (nearly!) completed with one 125w CFL in a space of less than a square meter. So we're pretty happy with any outcome

That said...I will be back soon with the final Bag Seed weight! Pictures from the mini snip yesterday; a little preview of the mediocre show you're in for!

The two smallest branches

The yield from these branches, with our nifty trimmers

The biggest (don't laugh!) bud (actually a weird trio of even smaller buds!)

We'll be back...

Zabka & SO

 

[Zabka]

Done and done! Bag Seed is now curing in her own little brand spanking new jar (only £2.50!).

We'd done a pretty tight wet trim job, so this was a pretty speedy & enjoyable task of clipping the buds from the branches and snipping off the odd stray leaf. I got the little bits we trimmed yesterday out of the jar for the big event, too. The tiny branch from Eulalia was still a bit too flexible today, so we'll have that trimmed tomorrow most likely!

Before

After

And the weights...it was pretty dark at this point, so the crap camera was making the little screen glow like...something really bright. It was difficult to get good pictures; this was the best I could achieve in my excitement! And I have the same excuse for failing to rotate them apologies!

The bigger buds alone weighed 6.6g

The total weight of the branch-dried buds, decent and popcorn together, was...

*drumroll*

13.8g!

The reasoning behind two pictures is that they were both a bit crap, so they might equate to one good one

This gives a total of 15.6g of total bud, and 2.2g of sugarleaf, so Bag Seed gave us a total of 17.8g of viable product! Over 1/2 an ounce...we are ecstatic right now, having expected 10g maximum! I know this isn't the greatest harvest, but it's our first time and we still have two plants to go! BUZZING!

The best part is that unless the buds on the other plants are somehow lighter than air, or we have an unfortunate mishap, we should have smashed our uppermost 1.5oz goal, as the other buds are much bigger than Bag Seed's! We are so, so, so, so, so, so happy!

THANK YOU 420 Magazine and everyone who has given us any help or support or posted anything on this great website!

Zabka & SO

 

[budstep]

Congratz, I'm sure you learnt a lot i this 1st grow and will do a lot better on your next. Real good job my friend.

 

[Zabka]

Congratz, I'm sure you learnt a lot i this 1st grow and will do a lot better on your next. Real good job my friend.

Cheers man! Hope you're all right. We certainly have learned a lot, but nowhere near enough. I know, it's probably impossible to ever learn enough! We basically did nothing this round except choose whether to feed weak nutes or just water. The FIM was pretty valuable experience, and we got all right with the watering too. Next time we'll try to get on top of it a bit more. Right now, though, we have enough to smoke and will save at least the value of the equipment, if not more, as well as it being damn decent weed! I would love to put the money back into better equipment, but that's not an option right now as we have more pressing financial obligations Still, this is a good start on the road to self-sufficiency!

Eulalia showed a few amber trichs on her calyxes today, so we're setting Friday as a preliminary harvest date. If she's ready sooner, we'll cut her sooner! If she's not ready...we'll probably explode or something! Her biggest buds are ridiculously thick compared to anything on the other two plants, so we're well excited!

We will try and avoid cutting her when we first really want to and get some pictures up here instead...it's Day 69 of flower today (Day 67 update began just before midnight), and it's supposed to be a 9-11 week strain, so we're right about there! Winifred is looking a little closer each day too, but I estimate at least another 10-14 days for her. We'll see how our patience holds out! Although the multiple strain grow has been difficult for a first attempt, the staggered harvest is pretty cool

Strain details from the site we used...still no info on the Blue Cheese, and Bag Seed was unknown, so this is only good for Eulalia:

Cali Jack is a Sativa/Indica Hybrid which has its roots based in a Jack Herer/pre '98 Bubba Kush mix which offers some amazing properties for an indoor grower, producing exceptional buds encrusted with crystals make this a plant for anyones collection but you have to have some patience because of the 9 to 11 weeks required for flowering (50 — 70 days). This plant has Haze characteristics but has been bred to be shorter in stature to enable the grower to better manage the large trichome encrusted flowers that are produced. We particularly recommend this strain if you suffer from fibromyalgia.

Genetics: Jack Herer x Pre '98 Bubba Kush
Type: Indica (70%) / Sativa (30%)
Flowering time: 9-11 weeks
Yield: High
THC content: 15 - 20%
CBD content 4%
Medicinal Uses: Stress Relief, Anxiety, Nervousness, Migraines, Headache, Nausea, Depression, Fibromyalgia, Ocular relief, Chronic Pain and Many More

Breeder: Medicann Seeds
Seed Type: Regular;Feminized
Available as Single Seed: Available as Single Seed
Flowering Period Type: 12/12 Photoperiod
Indica/Sativa: Indica Dominant
Environment: Indoor;Outdoor
Strength: Normal
Yield: High
Strain Type: Hybrid;North American and Canadian;Jack Herer Strains;Kush Strains
Indoor Flowering Time: Medium (56 to 90 days)

We're well excited! If anyone's lurking about and wondering if this is worth it...yes, it is. The whole yield probably won't exceed two ounces in total, but caring for the plants (or trying to!) and watching them grow and then carefully trimming and drying (one of) them (so far) is one of the most awesome and satisfying things I've ever done. And we haven't even sampled the finished, cured product yet!

I told my GF that I'll be quite sad in one way after the final harvest. I've got used to having these girls around! It was a shame cutting Bag Seed, but she always looked a bit distressed, and the other plants look much happier now, so it's not too bad. Cutting the other two will be harder, I think. It would lessen the blow a bit if we were starting a new seedling - kind of like getting a replacement goldfish when you're a kid - but that's not an option as the annual inspection'd probably work out right in the middle of flower...

GF looked at me a bit weird. She's really good with the plants but hasn't been quite as attached to them. I think she'd be a much better parent I think the cats understand, though. They looked really confused and distraught when we cut Bag Seed down, and one of them was trying to grab the stems when I trimmed earlier. They're definitely in mourning!

Cheers all! Have a good evening

Zabka & SO

 

[Zabka]

Yes, yes, I know...too many updates in one day I just couldn't leave the ladies out on such an exciting day! And GF is asleep here, and I'm feeling very productive. We still have a good amount of regs left, but allowed ourselves a tiny amount of the new weed tonight as a victory smoke. It grinds up much better than you'd expect from the density of the buds. We've not smoked a great deal at each stage of harvest, but it should be enough to gauge the improvement the slower dry and cure should give. And there was a notable, but very slight, improvement tonight compared to the trim and popcorn which had dried for 1-3 days. This could, of course, be a placebo effect. But we like to think it's real!

Day 69 Flower - Winifred & Eulalia

Eulalia's two biggest buds...these are really exceeding our low expectations

Some of her popcorn is pretty respectable too

Winifred's biggest bud

Her lower buds aren't as chunky as Eulalia's

Trichome shots of varying quality...Eulalia only, as Winifred is at the back and she doesn't look quite there at the minute! The first is with a 2x loupe, the rest a 60x currency detector thing. I tried to use both simultaneously, but unfortunately am not an octopus The amber trichs are clearly camera shy. The cloudy ones do look a bit more topheavy and aren't standing so straight as before in some places, which I will take as a good sign

My excuse is that we'll benefit next grow from documenting this final stage in the greatest possible detail, combined with the smoke judgement after the dry and cure...I'll keep telling myself this as I bore the ass of anyone unfortunate enough to pass by

Good night...again!

Zabka & Sleepy Girl

 

[budstep]

There is no such thing as ''Too much updates'' brother. especially if pictures are included

 

[Zabka]

I reckon that today is Day 111, 72 of flower.

A couple of days ago we weighed the test bud from Eulalia, then smoked it. It was very strong, and killed GF. A couple of amber trichs popped up yesterday, and her stems were bending out quite a bit. We decided to harvest her, to avoid me being widowed every evening, and damn, was that a job!



The smell was more intense than Bag Seed. She's now drying in the box, bag & mirror combo. It was sad in one sense, but holding the biggest cola cheered us up considerably. By which I mean we were cackling like a pair of old witches. GF died again, though, and it was a bit depressing looking at her little stem and hacking her to bits alone We're going to keep her pot until Saturday and I will try to get a picture of the roots if possible.

Winifred now has the whole tent to herself. There were a couple of ambers on her too, but her pistils are largely white and the calyxes are only swollen on the topmost buds. She doesn't smell or look quite as ripe as the other two plants have upon harvesting. We're going to leave her for a bit in an attempt to fill out somewhat. I will get some pictures of her in the next couple of days.

Pictures:

Eulalia's test bud after drying (about 3 days, I think)

It only weighed 0.2g, and again the popcorn was less than 0.01g!

It seems to be light weed, fluffy, so we might not have as much weight as we could, but damn it smells dank and looks frosty and beautiful, so we don't care! Anyway, maybe the higher buds will be denser. And we still got two spliffs out of our 0.2g!

GF was ready and raring to go, and had already cut off one of the smallest branches, but I got a last couple of photos of her relatively unsullied

While she trimmed the little branch, I removed most of the fan leaves. You can really see how she was stretching for the light

She trimmed the biggest cola, and we were very happy - never expected anything that big It's a 500ml can. Then she fell asleep, and I had a rather long job on my hands...

Nearly done!

If we'd wanted to reveg Eulalia, would it have been possible with this amount of growth? We'd cut the branches further up because most of them were too long to fit in the drying box. Poor design on my part, but most of the buds here were very small anyway. I wouldn't mind sacrificing them on another grow if reveg is possible, especially since some people remove them anyway.

The sorry-looking stem. RIP Eulalia She was the most photogenic of the three, and grew the tallest.

The full box

The mirror o' trim. The bigger buds are now drying in our trusty brown paper bag; the rest is spread out on the mirror. Her jar's labelled and ready to go

My reward. I finished cleaning up and all that over two hours ago, but I only just finished that spliff, and I am really, really baked. There was a bit of our remaining crapweed in it too, but I could taste the spots of scissor hash...tasty...

This'll probably take 5-7 days to dry, based on Bag Seed. I may check in for partial weights as she dries...we'll see OK, this is highly likely because I'm gonna need to distract myself!

Our experience may be extremely limited, but out of these three plants I would really recommend Cali Jack. The buds look chunky and frosty even with minimal lighting, and she was pretty easy to not kill. She also grew really quickly and didn't seem too stressed by the FOP - half top, half FIM - she had two main colas and one tiny little lollipop bud in the centre of the plant That's possibly the worst review ever written, I know. Anyway, we liked this plant

Thanks for looking. Hope you've got something good to consume in the manner of your choosing...comments, advice, and queries welcome

Zabka & GF

 

[Antics]

There's nothing I can add now other than congratulations.

You were both worried at first, but you see how easy it really is now when you keep it simple! Now that you know how to complete a grow, you can try new things when you see something you want to try (I would try this technique on your next grow: LA's Quick Guide To Simple Backbuilding Technique For Buds! ) It really does work. I did an experiment on my last grow, where I cut one bud on a top branch, but left the other bud uncut on the branch on the opposite side of the plant, and ended up with about .4 grams more weight on the bud that I trimmed.

The Cali Jack is a great smoke, it really kicks my ass, but has enough Sativa in it so I don't just smoke myself right to sleep. And it grows very nicely, as you said! I have another Cali Jack seed that I cant wait to grow under my LED light now. It did so well under CFLs for me, that I'm dying to know what the yield will be like under a stronger light.

Great journal! Now you can sit back, relax, and enjoy the fruits of your labor as you plan your next grow to share with us!

 

[Zabka]

There's nothing I can add now other than congratulations.

You were both worried at first, but you see how easy it really is now when you keep it simple! Now that you know how to complete a grow, you can try new things when you see something you want to try (I would try this technique on your next grow: LA's Quick Guide To Simple Backbuilding Technique For Buds! ) It really does work. I did an experiment on my last grow, where I cut one bud on a top branch, but left the other bud uncut on the branch on the opposite side of the plant, and ended up with about .4 grams more weight on the bud that I trimmed.

The Cali Jack is a great smoke, it really kicks my ass, but has enough Sativa in it so I don't just smoke myself right to sleep. And it grows very nicely, as you said! I have another Cali Jack seed that I cant wait to grow under my LED light now. It did so well under CFLs for me, that I'm dying to know what the yield will be like under a stronger light.

Great journal! Now you can sit back, relax, and enjoy the fruits of your labor as you plan your next grow to share with us!

Thanks Antics! We're really happy right now. We've pretty much exceeded our highest expectations and really want to start a new grow straight away...but it's not going to be a good idea until after our annual visit. Anyway, this is an awesome thing to have done and you're right, simple was a good strategy for the first time round! Thanks again for all your help once again, we could never have accomplished this without everyone/everything here at !

We were interested to see the backbuilding on your last grow, and I think I had a look at the linked journal there too. It looks like a cool technique, and I can really see that it works - when we cut Bag Seed to check for mould, you could see that that bud had the most growth around the edges afterwards. We'd cut it too far down to gain overall on the remaining bud, but cutting really seemed to stimulate growth. I guess it's the same as with a FIM/top situation. What doesn't kill them makes them stronger! However, by the time we had the metaphorical bollocks to do it, we'd missed the optimal back building window. If we have a good, low-stress early flowering period on the next grow, we'll try it for sure.

I found pictures of Bag Seed where you can kind of see this. It's the top left bud on both pictures, and almost looks like two buds together because the sides grew out so much.

We might just have cut it really badly and infected it or something, but the middle of the bud got kind of burnt by the light and the stem looked dark brown and a bit dead. Was this an issue for you or is this a result of us cutting so far down the bud, do you think? Or might we just need to disinfect our tools before cutting indiscriminately like a pair of morons?

It's early days but so far our plan is to maximise the equipment we have while incurring as little extra cost as possible. First thing will be to be more damn patient! Or maybe pick shorter strains I really want to invest in better pH monitoring and control, but our financial situation is bleak right now. We're gonna go with plainer soil and possibly additional Cal/Mag to see if this results in fewer nute issues, although what we have seems to have done all right this time around.

We're hoping to try and weave a SCROG out of twine across the tent frame. Two plants should allow a good balance between a shorter veg time when filling the screen and ease of access to pots. We'll need to rig some kind of apparatus for catching runoff, so the pots might have to be raised. If we can get a really nice full canopy, back building could really help us get the weight up.

What happens at flush time when using a SCROG in an enclosed area? If it's nearly harvest time anyway, can you get away with cutting the SCROG away and taking the plants to the bathroom? I want to try and think this through before we run into problems later. Don't think we have room in the tent to catch 20+L of runoff!

Obviously more light is the easiest way to increase yield, but we don't really want to do this right now for several reasons. The heat is already troubling at times in such a small area, and we're running low on space/money for bigger and better fans. We also don't have many sockets in the grow area and don't want to overload them. Our budget would only allow additional household CFLs, and to make this worthwhile we'd need several, somehow wired together, or using splitters to extensions running off other extensions. We want more yield, but not at the expense of a house fire. Anyway, it'd be good to see how less stress and different techniques can affect our yield while keeping the same levels of light. If our yield is the same when every other condition is optimal, we'll know that light is the only way up. If our yield increases, perhaps we can afford more light anyway!

We're considering using LST only and not topping or FIMming. The thought behind this is that filling a SCROG will require a longer veg period in any case, and cutting the plants will further increase this. Just bending the main colas into the SCROG would result in less stress. But would this have the same impact on growth of the lower branches as you get with a top or FIM? If not, then it might actually take longer to fill the SCROG. Does anyone have any advice on this? We are a long way off starting, so I could just be less of a lazy bastard and research SCROG journals...

I have been down with a shitty virus thing which makes me explosively cough and then vomit for several weeks now, and most available energy had been expended on work until I was sent home for vomiting last week. This is my poor excuse for our absence here, and everywhere else on the site. Need to check back in on a few grows...I do mainly lurk, but I need my fix, damnit! At least there'll be something to get on with in the long months until we can grow again!

Anyhow, it's another day on the couch for me. Damn glad we've done this grow, because my earnings are really poor lately and we'd likely be out of a smoke otherwise. And it's a really great smoke, especially if you feel like crap. We have been naughty and smoked at least half of Bag Seed and about 1/3 of Eulalia too. But that's going by volume, not weight, and we're saving all the biggest buds for last so we can experience the best cure on those bad boys.

Also glad that GF is awesome and lovely, but don't tell her I said that

Eventually (like...in a few years, we know this will take time) we are hoping to have a supply of cured buds, but not smoking isn't an option for me, and buying overpriced crap now in order to enjoy our first grow slightly more later on seems like a false economy. In any case, it's been interesting seeing how the flavour and smoothness improve with time in the jar.

Anyway, better get on with finishing this grow off before boring everyone senseless with the next ones. Eulalia dried and was weighed over the course of a few days. She certainly exceeded our expectations. So far, we've recorded 0.2g of bud and 0.2g sugar leaf from the test branch. Next to come was the mirror trim!

Mirror Trim total - 5.1g (4.3g leaves)

Mirror Trim, bud only - 0.8g

So the total weight of sugar leaf from Eulalia was 4.5g, and so far we have 1g of smokeable bud!

Some smaller buds from the paper bag dried next...

These weighed another 0.8g, so we're at 1.8g total...

Then the smaller stems from the box started to dry! How exciting! It was so exciting, in fact, that I had trimmed a couple before I remembered to take my little picture.

We combined this with the remaining bud from the bag, and weighed it up...8.5g!

Here it is in the jar...

The inital 1.8g had been smoked long ago, so we're at a total of 10.3g now. Sorry that this is the shittiest and most confusing weigh-in EVER.

About 40 hours later, the branches with the biggest colas were dry at the ends with a little moisture remaining at the tips. The Bag Seed weed felt a little too dry, so we took these a bit earlier, and they're still nice and sticky in their jar with no visible condensation or mould!

Before

After

Those buds weighed 13.9G! Off the four main tops! So we nearly got a frigging ounce off this beautiful girl...total stands at 24.2g plus 4.5g leaf trim! We were, and are, so very, very happy with this result. Off both plants thus far, we've got 39.8g of bud, if my maths serves (serve?) me correctly. This nearly meets our top-end goal of 1.5oz total, and we still have a plant to weigh...

...Yes, Winifred was chopped down on Friday. She had been looking mighty thirsty for a couple of days, but we didn't know if it was a good idea to water her potentially 24h before cutting. So we kept waiting like a pair of pussies, and then felt cruel and cut her down. Next time we'll water as required, whether it's after flushing or not, and wait as long as necessary. To be fair, there were a few (approx. 5%) amber trichs on the calyxes, which were maybe 3x the size of those on Eulalia or Bag Seed at the top of the buds. Her pistils had mostly turned orange over the past couple of days, and she did look quite ripe She made it to Day 81 of flower, around 11.5 weeks, and about 120 days from seed. Bit gutted we were too stupid to give her a drink, because she could have gone a few days more...

In terms of flushing time, Bag Seed went 6 days from flush to harvest, Eulalia went 8 days, and as far as I can tell, Winifred went a full two weeks. Wanted to record that somewhere, just in case the smoke differs after the cure. Although if we have different soil next round, everything'll probably be totally different!

Anyway. Harvest pictures, for the last time...this time! First there are some shots from her final days. RIP Winifred!

Winifred, day 75 of flower

Winifred, day 80 of flower

Harvest time, day 81 of flower. Again, GF had begun the massacre before the first picture was taken

I trimmed the bigger fan leaves...here she is all naked

All done! The nodes are really evenly spaced and symmetrical and all that jazz

Here she is in her little box

Here is the mirror o'trim

These bigger buds will be dried in the trusty bag

There was no notable scissor hash this time! Hopefully all of the goodness will be locked in the buds The trim was, to be honest, a ball ache. Still enjoyable, but this'll have to be a hell of a smoke to make us prefer foxtailed buds!

She's been drying around two days, so the tiny bits on the mirror should be ready tomorrow or thereabouts. She still smells more like lemons than blueberries or cheese, but it is a damn nice smell!

I'll report the journal finished after we come back with Winifred's weight and a final total weight. Now I gotta get me another jar, and a recipe for weed butter that requires about 10g of crappy leaves...

Finally, a couple of pictures of the best Bag Seed bud. It glistens more in the jar, but I had to get a shot of it alone because it looks a bit like a deformed cock and balls, in the same way that clouds look like things but really don't all that much.

Thanks for reading!




Zabka & SO

 

[Zabka]

Hey, finally stopping in to finish this off as we're planning on starting our next grow as soon as I get my lazy arse into gear and clean up the tent! We went to Amsterdam a couple of weeks ago and when we came back we had to buy our first lot of smoke from the usual crappy guy, and it was so disappointing after more than two months smoking home grown and Dam weed that we resolved to get some seeds in ASAP. Sod the landlord; by the time they come the plants should still be small and relatively odourless.

No real excuses for not getting this done earlier; work was busy, I was ill, we had some damn tasty pot to smoke...you know the drill. Anyway, at this point this is mainly for our benefit

So, here's the final weigh in for Winifred, our Blue Cheese. The leaf trim picture seems to have been lost forever, so we've only got a bud weight for her.

The mirror full of hanging buds, before and after cutting from stems:

Bag dried smaller buds - 1.5g

Larger, hanging buds (again, took 2 photos to read the screen) - 13.2g

So, Winifred yielded a total of 14.7g smokeable weed. This was a little disappointing considering the height of the buds and the time she took to trim. Foxtailing is not a good thing going off this experience. Her buds smelled beautiful, lemony and fresh, but she didn't taste as good as the others.

Added to the 39.8g yielded from the other plants, this gave us a final yield of 53.5g of bud for the whole grow. Not bad for a first time! This works out at approx. 0.43g/watt, and 148.61g/m2. If I remember, I'll compare this with the result of our next shot.

We ended up with around 1/2oz of leaves, which we used to make around 175g of cannabutter with the excellent and simple recipe on this site (in the how to section). It went well; we've never eaten it before, so have nothing to compare it to, but some delicious chocolate cakes made with most of the butter got you pretty spangled, and a lump of the remaining butter in some hot chocolate was a good relaxant before bed. The cakes tasted pretty good; chocolatey with a weird herbal odour. Chocolate, chocolate...I see a pattern emerging...

My shit smelt of weed, which was pretty funny. The cakes were useful when we were trying to avoid buying weed before the holiday. Really made the girls last longer. We'll be trying this again, but must be more patient in the future. We didn't wait long enough for the layers to separate and harden, so we ended up with slightly brown and mushy butter (it wasn't TOO bad).

The girls in their jars after the final weigh (quite a bit had been smoked by now, as you can see). L-R - leaves, Winifred, Bag Seed, Eulalia

And, mainly for reference, the roots - a bit useless as the cadavers of Eulalia and Bag Seed were none too fresh at this point.

Bag Seed, after a couple of weeks languishing in the yard

Eulalia - we'd left her inside, so she was a bit mouldy and not much of the root ball held to the stem

Winifred, still pretty fresh with an impressive tap root

So, I think this mammoth journal is finally complete. We will be back to bore you soon. Thank you again to anyone who looked in, commented, helped, suffered my longwinded bullshit...and of course 420 magazine for providing a space to post this and loads of cool information!



We'll try to make the next effort a bit less painful, honest!

Thanks again,

Zabka & SO