Icemud's Far Red LED Journal - Flower Trigger Manipulation - Budmaster LED Lights

[Icemud]

Here are some photos of my plants on day 54 flowering. I apologize that this grow being a test for the far red isn't turning out as planned. I will be running more tests in the future with this light so we will see. I can say that my 1 mystery bagseed looks pretty much done, and I've never had any strain I've grown finish in under 60 days, ever, so either this strain is really fast at maturing, whatever it is, or the light did have some kind of effect. Too hard to tell though since its new genetics.

Well I've been busy pulling dead leaves off the plants, the tangies got hit the hardes, and really haven't shown much growth over the past few weeks. The harlequin is managing to still bud decently despite also losing most of its leaves. The Ogiesel isn't really too effected by any deficiencies and even though the yield looks smaller than usual, the buds look amazing as always. The black cherry soda is chugging along very slowly, but is maturing and even though has lost a bunch of leaves, still is in decent shape. The black diamond og is pretty much junk as I am concerned, it does have small buds forming, but I never really liked this strain anyways because it was a crappy producer, never seemed to be happy, and had really no smell or taste at all. Glad I got rid of it. The other mystery bagseed seems to have that never ending flowering syndrome that you see in a lot of sativas, where it just wants to keep pushing more pistils and growing fatter, which is cool with me.. as long as it doesn't take forever as I hope to harvest all the plants around the same time..

Well here are some pics enjoy!

 

[The Dealer]

Nice blend. I'll be keeping an eye as to how it works. I love doc bud's kit, but if ever for some reason I can no longer get it. I'd like to stay the organic route.

 

[jandre2k3]

You might be shocked at the percentage of coco you can use mixed with soil and still run it as a live soil My recycled soil is easily 80% coco and thrives as a living environment

That 80% does break down and composts to soil, as long as the microherd is strong. So that's a really good way to get fresh soil and keep new nutes composting in.

 

[jandre2k3]

NICE PICS! +REP!

 

[Icemud]

Quick update!

Well everyone... I'm sorry to say this grow was a complete flop! I knew going into this grow that my soil was really starting to give me issues, and with all the imbalances, mixed with the humus from the decomposed leaves lead me to overwatering, nutrient deficiencies and a whole mess on this grow.... so over the weekend I decided to pull the plug on it, clear everything out and start new.

At least the 2 random bagseeds turned out very very nicely, which is very odd why they survived but none of the others did. 2 differences that I can think of that may have been the reasons. First I think that because they were from seed, and have taproots, this may have had some influence. The other factor was that they were not trained (no topping, lst or fim) and all the other plants were. Maybe they were just extra hardy plants, but I doubt thats the case.

The Ogiesel I also may get some nice buds off even though small, as it probably was the healthiest out of the other plants. Both tangies are trash, and I probably won't get more than a 1/4oz off them if I'm lucky, the black cherry soda might surprise me though as the buds are tiny but there are a lot of them. The harlequin probably will yield me about 1/4oz or so and the black diamond og is just a trash plant to start with, so not expecting much there.

I'm bummed, and frustrated, mainly at all the money spent on electricity, time spend, and waiting for really nothing, so I really hope those random bagseeds are good. So for the Budmaster Far Red panel, the test is inconclusive and I will have to run it again in the near future to see if there is any effect. I do have to say, the 1 random bagseed plant was finished around day 55 flowering, which is about 10 days faster than any other strain I have grown, so it could be genetic, but also could have been the light... ? we will have to wait and see.

sorry everyone that I let yall down, but I promise with the new soil, new genetics, new budmaster HPS lights and new goal, I think that this next grow will be awesome. I also have the seed project going strong right now too, so feel free to stop over there and join in the fun as we are about to get started with the CS spraying

I will post pics of any buds that I pull out of this harvest, as well as some final weights of the bagseed plants as they dry and become trimmed

 

[Icemud]

Quick update...

Well one good aspect of screwing up a grow and getting a low yield... well much less to trim!!! haha

Well I just finished trimming up the 2 tangies and 1 of the mystery bagseed plants. What was really odd is one of the tangies hermied on just 1 bud, but all the others were normal, so that bud had seeds which was pretty odd. The seeds were pretty mature so the plant must have gotten pollenated early in flowering, but I didn't notice any bananas either... very strange. I'm wondering if somehow it was pollenated from my last seed project by the pollen somehow getting on the plant.. but everything was sterilized as good as I could last grow... very weird. Anyhow Tangie 3 yielded me 13.7g so almost a 1/4 oz, and tangie 5 yielded slightly more at 18.7g. The mystery plant 1 yielded just over 1 oz at 34.4g. So not a total loss, and still have the other plants to go, which still need more time to dry before trimming and jarring.

One thing I noticed and I'm not sure exactly what contributed to it, but the tangie 3 and tangie 5 both smelled more potent than they every have before. I mean they were very strong before, but the smell on them this run was extremely potent. So I don't know if it had to do with the Far Red light, or some of the new nutrients I picked up or what, maybe all the stress from deficiencies, but wow, do they smell good. Anyhow, this made me curious as how the black diamond og smelled, so I rubbed a bud and then smelled the oils on my fingers and wow! It absolutely stunk like very potent kush, both times I ran it before it had very little taste and virtually no smell but this time it stunk! in a great way! Kind of bummed now that I culled the strain, but had to limit it to the absolute best

Well I will update with pics and all as they come. Definitely feeling better about things knowing that this grow was not a total waste and that I will have bud to smoke until next harvest, hopefully

 

[Graytail]

Ouch about culling the grow! It's such a bummer losing all that time and effort.

With all the money we put into lighting and environmental control, I wish there was a quick and cheap method for testing soil. I've looked into the better field kits and they're petty spendy at several hundred for a basic set, but imagine having some automated little machine. Drop your sample in the top and hit the button ... after a few minutes you get a readout.

I get tired of wondering what's in my soil. I guess the solution is to start with new dirt each time, but I don't want to.

 

[Icemud]

Ouch about culling the grow! It's such a bummer losing all that time and effort.

With all the money we put into lighting and environmental control, I wish there was a quick and cheap method for testing soil. I've looked into the better field kits and they're petty spendy at several hundred for a basic set, but imagine having some automated little machine. Drop your sample in the top and hit the button ... after a few minutes you get a readout.

I get tired of wondering what's in my soil. I guess the solution is to start with new dirt each time, but I don't want to.

I've looked around for the same type of device or kit but haven't found anything within a reasonable price range for anyone who doesn't own a lab and have that type of funding. I would love to have a little device that could be pushed into the soil, like a probe, that would tell soil EC, temps, NPK ratios and amounts, C:N ratios, Calcium content, PH...etc... would be so nice to be able to track this data and see how fast the soil nutrients get used up, and at what rates, how soil factors like moisture effect uptake... so many things would be much easier with something like that oh well, for the price I guess buying soil every year and a half isn't bad either

Yea its a bummer about the grow and having to pull it down early, but I just didn't see a point wasting more time to get nowhere as the buds just seemed to stop growing and the plant health really declined on most of the plants. What a difference the new soil mix is from the old one. Its about 5lbs lighter per pot which tells me that old soil was like a sponge....

Overall I still got some buds from each plant, and I do have to say the flavor so far on the ones I have tried is much better than previous grows so at least something went right for me... LOL at least it will get me by while I get the next grow started. Worst case I call the dispensary and pick up some flavorless hydro buds..LOL

 

[Gaffle]

Sucks Ice! The good news for me is to jump in during some soil talkin, most interesting. I anticipate more, MORE I TELL YOU! Suppose I should finally hitch a ride with LA too.

Edit : Being that you are going with mineralized living soil, are brix levels something you take into consideration?

 

[Icemud]

Hey Everyone!

Well this weekend was pretty much all dedicated to my plants and garden. I will be posting an update later which covers all that is new finished trimming, did some budmaster customization, did some cloning, cleaned the grow tent and even got the new plants into the tent... lots to update so when I get home, its on!

Hope everyone has a great start to the week!

 

[Icemud]

Sucks Ice! The good news for me is to jump in during some soil talkin, most interesting. I anticipate more, MORE I TELL YOU! Suppose I should finally hitch a ride with LA too.

Edit : Being that you are going with mineralized living soil, are brix levels something you take into consideration?

ehhh it happens, and I still managed to get a decent amount off each plant that should get me through for a while. Definitely happy to be starting with fresh new soil this next grow.. well 6 of the 8 plants are in new soil, 2 were potted in the 5 gallons already before I mixed it up.

Well I definitely still built my soil somewhat similar to the organic mineralized approach, and with the added calcium, bennies, and charcoal I think that I should see some high brix numbers, probably not record breaking by any means, but should be probably 15-18 or so is my guess. I don't really check the brix that often to allow it to dictate much of my grows, if it were less time consuming I might but just takes too long to do it regularly, and now I kind of have an idea of where the plants are based on how they look.

 

[Icemud]

Hey Everyone!!!


Well all things come to an end... and this grow journal has come to the final completion. Sorry it was a disappointing grow, but ya can't win them all, and overall, I have to be honest, even though pulled early, deficiencies up the wazoo, and low yield... I still managed to get at least 1/2oz from each plant and the quality was actually very good. The terps were amazing on every strain, the tangie especially is stronger smelling than ever. My 2 mystery plants did very well, and the dense one has a skunky, earthy kushy taste to it where the more airy bud one has a sweet fruity kushy taste to it... can't tell what they are, but it was good...


So the numbers... well definitely this is data that is pretty much useless, unless you want to see what you yield when a grow goes FUBAR...LOL but here they are...

Mystery 1- 34.3g
Mystery 2- 30g
Black Cherry Soda- 28g
Black Diamond OG- 14g
Harlequin- 20g
Tangie 3- 18.7g
Tangie 5- 18.2g
Ogiesel- 23g

Total: 185.9g total in other words!!!! TRASH!! LOL oh well, it happens, and it could have been worse like PM or bugs where the buds had to be thrown away... at least I got about 7 oz of bud to get me though until next harvest.

Well I thought I would save some good news for after that..... one of the new strains I picked up, Candyland I had going in my seed project. I cloned it, and put it into soil after it gained roots and my soil was the old stuff, and it fried the plant, and it died due to that plus a dry weather spell. Then I had the mother in my seed project tent and it too was not doing so well. It ended up dying and luckilly I had taken 1 cutting from a branch I trimmed off the mother that was sticking out weird... and it rooted!! Now i have new soil, the Candyland is in the soil and showing new growth!!! woo hoo!!! so it will be part of either my next flowering, or if it vegges fast enough it may be part of my next seed project as well. Sweet news cause that was such a bummer to lose the mom.



Well other than that, over the weekend I finally got around to making hybrid Budmaster Panels. The budmaster LED lights are modular built, so all the light models are the same size holes, boards, lenses etc... so you can take part of lets say a god panel, and put it in a budmaster cob panels, to make a hybrid cob/god... I tried to do this prior to this last grow, but the screws in the lenses were made of a very weak aluminum and they stripped pretty bad. I talked with paul and he sent me some extra lenses and screws so finally i got to swapping the panels how I originally intended. I wanted to use the 4 module panels. Each one having 2 GOD and 2 CoB modules in them, in a criscrossed pattern. So I spent saturday night building the new panels, and after thousands of cuss words, lots of cannabis and some blood sweat and tears I got 3 of the 4 lights together. Actually swapping the modules is very quick, other than removing the 4 damn screws that hold in each lense... what a PITA! really its just weak aluminum screws that are the problem because they strip really easily if any resistance beyond a normal finger strength is applied. Definitely a recommendation to Budmaster to use much better screws on the lenses on the future models. Not that they need to be changed often, or ever, but if they do.... not fun!

The rest of the screws, disasembly is very quick and takes literally a couple minutes. If you have budmaster panels and want to make hybrids like this... ++++VERY IMPORTANT+++++ if you swap a module from one type of panel to another, lets say a cob to a god panel, you must also swap the cob driver with the cob module as the god and cob drivers/power supplies are different. I used a marker to mark mine so they didn't get confused when swapped, but an easy way to tell is that he COB drivers are much heavier than the GOD ones. SO MAKE SURE if you swap a module, ALSO swap the driver with it.

So for my next flowering, I will be using the same 3 lights as this grow, however now they are blended/hybrid like I originally wanted them. I also will be using the emerson panel again in flowering. No crazy experiments with light schedules, just 12/12 with the Far Red on 15 minutes after dark.

I will be starting a new journal for that grow, so when I do I will post the link here as well as my signature. I thank all of you for following along this grow. I know its been a painfully long trial of the far red panel, and we didn't get a result so my apologies to those I let down... .can't win them all but we can learn from all of them Please join me in my next grow and I will get the journal up in the next week or less



Here are some photos of the harvested and trimmed buds....

 

[Icemud]

I remember a while back, someone on my journal had mentioned they miss the strain "Ducksfoot".

The conversation started off about that "Christmas Bud" that I have searching forever to find, and someone had mentioned that they had the same ordeal with a strain called Ducksfoot....

Well i just came across a strain called Frisian Duck, which is by Dutch Passions, and is a cross of Frisian Dew x Ducksfoot

Anyhow I wanted to post it here, cause I couldn't remember who mentioned it, and didn't feel like searching through my journal.

 

[Icemud]

I'd like to invite you all to my new (2nd journal) here featuring my new strains I picked up (Grand Daddy purple, Candyland, Trainwreck, Mendo Grape Kush, Racefuel OG, Ogiesel and a mystery bagseed) as we finish vegging them out and put them into flowering...

Here is the link Icemud's Budmaster LED grow light journal: Hybrid LED's and 730nm Far Red triggering


Hope to see you all there!!!

 

[David Bowman]

Hope all is well in your world.

Thanks for sharing this grow with us.

Please head over to the 420 Strain Reviews forum and post your smoke report there too.

I’m moving this to Completed Journals now.

You can use the Report Post feature found at the bottom left of every post and we'll move it for you right away.

Sending you lots of love and positive energy.

 

[Ironcity73]

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