JohnGalt's 2nd Grow (1st Indoor) - Soil SCROG

[Mmmmick]

Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking. Thing is, they have no wings, so not sure how they got there... (just dawned on me...) maybe they hitched a ride on the gnat? Every single one I've seen was within 1-2 cm of a gnat... but I don't know if/how the gnat could fly with 8-10 of them riding along.

Either way, you're right. I'd rather see dead bugs than living.

Wierd, I thought you were talking about adult gnats. I guess the gnat larvae near the soil surface start climbing as soon as they smell suasage, heheh.
maybe a strip of tape with vaseline smeared on it wrapped at the base of the stem will trap them before they climb too far. I wouldn't put vaseline right on the stem, might not be good for the plant.

 

[JohnGalt]

12/15/2010- Watered with Distilled water (store only had RO by the 5-gallon, which required spending about $15 since I didn't bring my own jugs - that's 3 times the price of the 2.5 gallon jugs). Got enough for the last watering, plus some extra for a small water cure.

I've read here and elsewhere that it kills the odor, flavor, and bag appeal, but is the smoothest smoke possible. I plan to only do a half ounce or so this way, just in case I screw it up I won't lose my entire stash.

Pulled a bunch more leaves and checked 5 locations around the screen for trichome development. Directly under the light the trichomes are about 90% cloudy/10% amber. As you move to the outer edge of the screen, they're about 80% clear/20% cloudy. Here's the interesting part: UNDER the screen (where the only light is reflected down from the walls) the trichomes appear to be equal to the outer edge above the screen - 80/20% clear/cloudy.

Most of them are about where I want them. I'm aiming for Saturday for harvest, but will go sooner or later if needed.

And now, your reward for wading through yet another of my lengthy posts: bud porn! (Queue cheesy 70s porn music.)

The money shot:

 

[Tmac12]

Looking very fine~~ Last pic is wild!

 

[Mmmmick]

great pics JG, lots of sugar.

 

[JohnGalt]

12/18/2010 - Harvest. Cut, trimmed, and hung to dry. Too much to weigh wet, and I'm too new at this to estimate. All I'll say is that I'm not unhappy with my harvest. Will report back in a few days with a pre-cure dry weight.

I'll let the pictures say the rest... sorry so few and so late... been a crazy weekend.


Left & Right side of full harvest (had to crop pic for file upload size)

Random bud:

 

[j4s2u0]

Gorgeous!
Cant wait to hear the dry weights ect,the harvest looks great though and buds look amazing!

 

[Tmac12]

Nicely done~~

 

[BurmeseKush]

Looks tasty.. Very good job!!!! Congrats on the nice harvest

 

[Mmmmick]

Nice chop JG, looks like a very nice haul, and tasty frosty buds!! great job


Happy Holidays jG to you and your family. best in the new year.

 

[JohnGalt]

12/27/10 - Drying complete, now curing in jars. Will post pics tomorrow hopefully along with a dry weight.

A relief to have it in a safe place now. Safe from bud rot (been 100% humidity outside for the past week solid). Also, discovered that my care giver (an until recently trusted family member) has told a total of 7 people about the grow. Turns out at least one of them is a meth addict. That shit makes ppl do crazy stuff... like burglarize/kill for the crop & equipment.

So angry and sad at the betrayal of trust... not to mention the compromising of my grow security and personal safety...

I just don't feel it's safe to grow anything right now, so I will be taking a break from growing. Just gonna hide my stash and put the equipment into storage for a while. Got enough to last me a long while if I pace myself, but man it woulda been nice to have more on the way so I could medicate without worrying about running out.

 

[Tmac12]

Very sorry to hear. It is very sad when someone we trust betrays us. Maybe you can just take a short break. Enough so everyone thinks you stopped. When you start back up dont tell anyone~~It's good you have a nice stash!

 

[JohnGalt]

Yeah, I hope to start back up in a few months. Problem is there's no way I can grow without help. There are days I can barely get out of bed and walk to the bathroom, let alone carry a bucket of water, bend, stoop, reach, etc. Sometimes I'm laid up for days at a time. I'm not that bad very often, but all it would take is one time being out of commission for a few days and the grow would be cooked. I could do it on my best of days, but those are few and far between as it is.

The wife is physically capable, but for legal reasons I've kept her out of the grow room. Literally I think she went in there twice during this grow, but made sure she touched nothing. Even though my state has MMJ laws, the feds still bust balls. If anything were ever to happen, I would want to make it as difficult as possible for them to implicate her. No fingerprints/hairs/clothing fibers/etc of hers in the grow room.

So, I'll be looking to find a new helper. I've got someone in mind; someone I trust, but they've just recently come to know I'm a MMJ patient. They were very accepting of that, but did say they dislike the odor, which would obviously be present in a grow room. So, not sure if that will work out or not.

Also, I'm hoping to be relocating in the near future. This would alleviate many of my security issues. But I'm guessing this would be at least 6 months out... I hope to have one more grow before summer, so will probably do another at this location.

 

[JohnGalt]

Without further ado, here are the results:

Buds - 8.26 ounces (234.1 grams)
Shake - 7.16 ounces (202.9 grams, but not all stems are sorted out yet)

I figure that's enough budder to make the equivalent of at least 64 of the edibles I'd pay $10 (+tax) for at the club. So, if I render the budder properly this means a savings of at least $690, possibly up to nearly $1,000! And boy do i love my edibles. Smoking will help put me to sleep, but edibles will keep me asleep longer. Of course I probably don't spend that much at the club in a year, but having grown my own I feel I'll be able to properly medicate more often.

Got a lot of good nights' sleep in my future. Very excited about that!

I'm no connoisseur, but in my judgement of the quality of the buds, I believe it's on par with something I would expect to pay about $300 per ounce. So, my yield of buds should save me about $2,750 on meds from the club. My total investment in this project is around $2,150 (this may seem high, but this project required some carpentry and electrical supplies beyond what the average grower would need).

So, for my $2,150 investment, I'll save about $3,500 on meds in the coming months. What a great investment!

And now for some pics:

Quart jars of buds:

A quart jar of shake:

A little more than an ounce being weighed:

 

[GodSpeed]

wow fruits look frosty prefect for christmas ha do we get a discription of smell taste high? congrads jon

 

[JohnGalt]

wow fruits look frosty prefect for christmas ha do we get a discription of smell taste high? congrads jon

yeah, i meant to get in there and decorate them for Christmas as they dried. But with all the family coming and going I didn't want to take any chances.

And for smell... delicious. Seriously, the stuff I've had curing for almost 2 months now still smells terrible. This stuff smells good!

Taste... you'll have to wait for that one. I'm afraid if I touch this stuff I will never smoke the stuff from my outdoor grow. Plus, I'm patient. I can wait til it's done curing.

I did buy an 1/8th from the club where I bought the clones for this grow. It's a pretty safe bet they all come from the same mother. Anyhow below is a picture of a nug out of that 1/8th. It's way frostier than mine. Under the microscope it's the most trichome-laden sample I've ever seen. Tastes fruity and sweet (the Blueberry in it), smooth, top-notch stuff.

If mine turns out half as good as this stuff I'll be happy.

 

[GodSpeed]

Looks so nice glad you have the patients to wait i always buy an ounce when im just about to harvest that way im not tempted one bit and the fruits get the rest time they desrve and give some of that chlorophyll time to degrade! +REP

 

[Hydrogrown]

You covered the investment thats awesome now its all extra from here

 

[JohnGalt]

SMOKE REPORT!!!

I'm very happy to report that the smoke from this grow is excellent. Under the microscope is comparable to the club-grown Blue Dream, but tastes far more of Blueberry. Theirs has a woody aftertaste; mine is much more fruity.

The past few months I've been smoking my outdoor stuff, which turned out terrible. It was nice to have smooth enough smoke that I didn't cough after every hit, and that didn't taste like ass.

And this smoke test was just popcorn bud that grew below the screen from light reflected around the edges... will be looking forward to some of the bud that got full light.

Also, as a small experiment, I decided to re-weigh the crop after 1 month curing time in order to determine how much weight was lost during curing. Turns out it's not much at all: average was about 0.3 grams per ounce (28.35 grams).

This concludes my grow journal. Thanks for stopping by!

 

[BassPlayer]

Hi John Galt

Thanks for sharing your grow with us!

Don't forget to head over to the 420 Strain Reviews forum and post your smoke report there too!


I’m moving this to completed journals now.

Have you started a new grow you would like to share with us?

If so, please start one here:
Journals in Progress

Hope all is well in your world.

Love and respect from all of us here at 420 Magazine!