MadMoustache's Three Musketeers In Coco Grow Journal: Fall 2019

[MadMoustache365]

Welcome to my first ever grow journal! This journal is starting on the way into W3 of this grow, our mission is to re-stock the home supply of bud with two auto-flowering plants, and to veg out a photoperiod and determine the sex prior to the 12/12 flip. I will also try my hand at quadlining during this grow.

Stats:

Two Lemon Skunk auto fem. from seedsman

One Critical Purple Kush reg. from seedsman (freebie)

Everything is being grown in a coconut coir mix made up from a 5 kg brick of dehydrated coco, rehydrated with 6.0-6.5 pH'd water and about 10 mL of CaMg+ (general organics) and amended with 30 qts of perlite.

I will be using the Flora series Micro/Gro/Bloom (general hydronics) as my nutrient source along with the CaMg+ (above) and will be using this as my feeding schedule guide, and adjusting as needed:

I germinated the three seeds in a cup of water for 24 hrs then placed them into a damp paper towel stored in a Tupperware for an additional 48 hrs. Once the 48 hrs were over all three seedlings had 3/4 to 1 inch tap root, one had shed its shell completely. I planted these into coco starter pots filled with the coco mix, and placed these into my seedling dome to begin growing. Once the second set of serrated leaves began to show themselves, I moved the plants into 5 gal (tall) pots filled with coco mix and moved everything over to my 4' x 2' grow tent. I started the LEDs (Philizon 600 W) on an 18/6 schedule with only the veg switches turned on and at the highest height my tent will allow, over the next week, I slowly lowered the lights by a few inches per day until they were about 18" from the plants and two days later I turned on the bloom switches as well.

Critical Purple Kush Reg.:

Lemon Skunk Auto Fem No 1:

Lemon Skunk Auto Fem No. 2:

The three musketeers and d'artagnan (my tomato plant)

The "Plan":

Going forward I have a few ideas on where I would like this grow to go. Like I mentioned at the beginning, our home supply is starting to get low and needs to be restocked. This will be the job of the auto-flowers, I will also be trying out the quadline training method on these autos, I am very curious to see how these turn out. We really enjoyed the lemon skunk bud that we bought at our local dispensary, the smell was unbelievable, like a box full of lemons. As for the Critical Purple Kush, I will be training it the same as the auto flowers, however it will remain in veg for the duration of the autoflower grow, and will be switched to flower once the other two are ready to be harvested. I will try to identify the sex of this plant as soon as it is big enough to take some cuttings, for this i will root some clones and switch to 12/12 in a dedicated closet. If it turns out to be a female, I will probably try to set up a bonsai mother from clones (perhaps as a separate grow journal), while I flower the original. I'd like to dedicate the bud from this plant to making some edibles, I saw a really interesting recipe for canna-caramels that I have been dying to try. If it turns out to be a male, I might be tempted to make a collection of pollen so that I can continue to build up my seed stocks once I find a female plant in this batch of seeds.

Now that I have stated my plan let's see what new variables our cruel mistress, Mother Nature, throws our way!

 

[DonkeyDick]

Looks like you’re off to a great start, MM.
Your chosen strains sound lovely.
Hope it goes well.

 

[MadMoustache365]

Looks like you’re off to a great start, MM.
Your chosen strains sound lovely.
Hope it goes well.

Thanks DD, I am very excited for this grow! I just finished removing the bottom 2 nodes, and will be topping this weekend, I will post the update after topping both here and over at the quadline thread, gonna join the #Quadsquad along with you. This community is great and full of truly amazing growers.

 

[DonkeyDick]

I hope that CPK turns out to be a girl. I did the same thing as you - saw the quadline and just went ‘yep’ - so glad I did. It’s very good for yield. I’ve not grown autos, but from what I’ve seen anything you do to them do it quick, while they’re little. I can see you’ve done your homework. I hope you get lucky and neither of the autos stall.
Good on you for taking the plunge and growing your own supply

 

[MadMoustache365]

Update:

I have taken the first steps towards quadlining these girls.

on Wednesday I removed the first two nodes from each and topped them Friday morning.


Critical Purple Kush:
before

nodes 1 & 2 removed

after

Auto Lemon Skunk No.1:

before

nodes 1 & 2 removed

after

Auto Lemon Skunk No.2:

before

nodes 1 & 2 removed

after

 

[MadMoustache365]

Update:

Well it has been a week of ups and downs in the grow tent. Following the stripping of nodes 1 & 2 and the topping of last week, my girls had a small rebellion, where the remaining leaf tips got a little browned and crunchy. I am no expert, but I have a few theories on what happened.

First theory: it took a few days for the new growth to catch up with the rate of nutrient uptake; for example the plant was pulling in more nutrients to support leaves that just were no longer there, leading to a too high concentration and slight nutrient burn in the remaining leaves (my ego likes this one cause it's easy to blame biology rather than human error).

Second theory: I am using a colourmetric method for determining pH and i have some trouble distinguishing between yellows and greens (especially if I've just been blasted in the face with my LEDs, they really light up the room when the tent opens).

To address these issues, first I flushed the media with pH'd water (using the colourmetric method AND a pH pen to reach a consensus on pH), I went with a pH closer to 5.8 - 6.0. I also reduced the light intensity for a day or two by only running the veg switches on my lights, and raised them up a few inches from the plants so that they could recover. The new growth came in and so far everything is looking a lot happier. I was worried all the stress might force the autoflowers into pre-flowering, but it looks like that hasn't happened yet (may have dodged the bullet on this one).

The plants have now begun the early stages of training and I am very excited to see how these do. The photos below are from the beginning and the end of this past week to show how the recovery has come along.

Critical Purple Kush Photoperiod: early training vs. after recovery efforts

Lemon Skunk Autoflower 1: early training vs. after recovery efforts

Lemon Skunk Autoflower 2: early training vs. after recovery efforts.

That's all for this week, let's hope the next involves lots of new growth!


MadMoustache365.

 

[Preston9mm]

Welcome to my first ever grow journal! This journal is starting on the way into W3 of this grow, our mission is to re-stock the home supply of bud with two auto-flowering plants, and to veg out a photoperiod and determine the sex prior to the 12/12 flip. I will also try my hand at quadlining during this grow.

Stats:

Two Lemon Skunk auto fem. from seedsman

One Critical Purple Kush reg. from seedsman (freebie)

Everything is being grown in a coconut coir mix made up from a 5 kg brick of dehydrated coco, rehydrated with 6.0-6.5 pH'd water and about 10 mL of CaMg+ (general organics) and amended with 30 qts of perlite.

I will be using the Flora series Micro/Gro/Bloom (general hydronics) as my nutrient source along with the CaMg+ (above) and will be using this as my feeding schedule guide, and adjusting as needed:

I germinated the three seeds in a cup of water for 24 hrs then placed them into a damp paper towel stored in a Tupperware for an additional 48 hrs. Once the 48 hrs were over all three seedlings had 3/4 to 1 inch tap root, one had shed its shell completely. I planted these into coco starter pots filled with the coco mix, and placed these into my seedling dome to begin growing. Once the second set of serrated leaves began to show themselves, I moved the plants into 5 gal (tall) pots filled with coco mix and moved everything over to my 4' x 2' grow tent. I started the LEDs (Philizon 600 W) on an 18/6 schedule with only the veg switches turned on and at the highest height my tent will allow, over the next week, I slowly lowered the lights by a few inches per day until they were about 18" from the plants and two days later I turned on the bloom switches as well.

Critical Purple Kush Reg.:

Lemon Skunk Auto Fem No 1:

Lemon Skunk Auto Fem No. 2:

The three musketeers and d'artagnan (my tomato plant)

The "Plan":

Going forward I have a few ideas on where I would like this grow to go. Like I mentioned at the beginning, our home supply is starting to get low and needs to be restocked. This will be the job of the auto-flowers, I will also be trying out the quadline training method on these autos, I am very curious to see how these turn out. We really enjoyed the lemon skunk bud that we bought at our local dispensary, the smell was unbelievable, like a box full of lemons. As for the Critical Purple Kush, I will be training it the same as the auto flowers, however it will remain in veg for the duration of the autoflower grow, and will be switched to flower once the other two are ready to be harvested. I will try to identify the sex of this plant as soon as it is big enough to take some cuttings, for this i will root some clones and switch to 12/12 in a dedicated closet. If it turns out to be a female, I will probably try to set up a bonsai mother from clones (perhaps as a separate grow journal), while I flower the original. I'd like to dedicate the bud from this plant to making some edibles, I saw a really interesting recipe for canna-caramels that I have been dying to try. If it turns out to be a male, I might be tempted to make a collection of pollen so that I can continue to build up my seed stocks once I find a female plant in this batch of seeds.

Now that I have stated my plan let's see what new variables our cruel mistress, Mother Nature, throws our way!

Yeah buddy! I'm in!


I'm a coco grower too.

Can't wait to see what they do. Hit me up if ya ever have questions. I'm around all the time.

 

[MadMoustache365]

Yeah buddy! I'm in!


I'm a coco grower too.

Can't wait to see what they do. Hit me up if ya ever have questions. I'm around all the time.

Thanks Preston! It's good to have you along for the ride. Now let's grow some sweet plants.

 

[MadMoustache365]

Update:

This week has been interesting, one of the auto lemon skunks has begun to show pre-flowers and the other is beginning to show pistils. As for the critical purple kush, that one will just continue vegging out and I will continue to train it until the lemon skunk plants have been harvested. Now I have to mix up different batches of nutrient solutions for the different plants, following the schedule (in the intro) for the auto- flowers, but for the photoperiod I will continue to feed her from the week 3 (vegetative) mixture. So far I am enjoying the quadline for its ease of implementation I can't wait to see how these plants finish off and how well it works on photoperiods.

Lemon skunk 1 showing off her pre-flowers.

Lemon skunk 2 just beginning to show pistils.

Critical purple kush vegging out

 

[MadMoustache365]

Update: The last week has been fairly quiet 'grow wise', the lemon skunk autos are kicking along and the critical purple kush are doing really well with the training. I will probably be taking a cutting or two from the purple kush in the upcoming weeks and run it in a spare closet under 12-12 to force flowering and determine the sex of the plant. I am still struggling a bit with getting accurate pH readings, what are your guys' preferred measurement system?

also from the tent, the tomato plant d'Artagnan, is also doing well and has started to produce her first tomatoes.

Over the past weekend I finally got around to making some Cannabutter using the trim I obtained from my first grow. I had 44 g of dry trim and popcorn nugs stored in the freezer. I decarboxylated the 44 g in the oven at ~220 F for one hour in a covered baking dish, then I allowed that to cool to room temperature while I melted 1 cup of butter in 2 cups of water in a saucepan. Once the butter was melted, I added the plant material to the butter mixture and turned the stove to medium heat until just before boiling, then I turned down the heat to a low simmer and let it simmer for 3 hours, checking in on the pot every 15 mins to make sure it wasn't too hot. After the 3 hours of cannabinoid extraction, I removed the mixture from heat and passed it through a folded piece of cheesecloth and into a large glass bowl. I squeezed out any remaining liquid from the plant material. I allowed the liquid to cool to room temperature before I moved the bowl to the refrigerator overnight. The next day I punched a hole in the solid butter and drained out the water, I patted the butter dry with some leftover cheese cloth. Once I had some looking cannabutter it was time to use it, so following a recipe I found here, I made some delicious caramels. These caramels aren't just delicious they are also deadly, once I had poured the caramel mixture into the dish I decided to lick the spoons and even just that small amount got me buzzing. I ended up with about 50 doses of canna-caramels, they provide a nice body high, at one point I was so relaxed that i didn't know where my body ended and the sofa began. I will definitely be making these again although they were a bit softer than I would like so I will probably heat the caramel mixture up between firm ball and hard ball stage on the candy thermometer next time.

 

[MadMoustache365]

Update: So I didn't post an update last week cause I was just way too exhausted after spending all day Saturday hiking around our area. It was such a nice day and likely one of the last real good hiking days before rain and snow start coming down. We brought some nice bud, a one hitter and some lunch with us and had mid-hike lunch overlooking the city from some of the surrounding trails. Just a really great day.



Now on to the plants! All three plants seem to be doing a lot better, the buds on the two lemon skunk autoflowers are beginning to fatten up a bit and have started to put on some frost, the smell is absolutely amazing and I now have to light an incense every-time I want to work in the tent with the door open (just to keep the neighbours confused). The critical purple kush is getting out of control, but it'll have plenty of room to stretch her legs in a couple of weeks when I harvest the autos. I took a single cutting from the critical purple this morning and placed it in a little homemade aero-cloner that I built this morning. I will leave this to recover for a few days then transfer it to a closet that I set up to run 12/12 lights and test the sex of the plant (fingers crossed for female).

Lemon Skunk No.1 and No.2

Critical Purple Kush and Clone

As an endnote, we have given out a few of the canna-caramels from the previous update and the results have been a great success. One of our friends has trouble sleeping (she only gets 3-4 hours per night), she took one caramel and when it kicked in she went down for 15 hrs. The body stone from these things are unbelievable and that recipe made 100 caramels, I am half tempted to hand these out to strangers downtown and create a legion of zombies for some The Walking Dead cosplay.

 

[DonkeyDick]

Those caramels sound terrific!

One of our friends has trouble sleeping (she only gets 3-4 hours per night), she took one caramel and when it kicked in she went down for 15 hrs.

That, sir, is a commission. I don’t mean for money let’s not be crass. I’m just saying you have to make more now, for your poor friend. I haven’t slept more than 2 or 3 hrs at a time in more than 4 months now. I feel her pain. Each day feels more and more like the zombpocalypse and that’s without caramels.

 

[West Hippie]

Update: The last week has been fairly quiet 'grow wise', the lemon skunk autos are kicking along and the critical purple kush are doing really well with the training. I will probably be taking a cutting or two from the purple kush in the upcoming weeks and run it in a spare closet under 12-12 to force flowering and determine the sex of the plant. I am still struggling a bit with getting accurate pH readings, what are your guys' preferred measurement system?

also from the tent, the tomato plant d'Artagnan, is also doing well and has started to produce her first tomatoes.

Over the past weekend I finally got around to making some Cannabutter using the trim I obtained from my first grow. I had 44 g of dry trim and popcorn nugs stored in the freezer. I decarboxylated the 44 g in the oven at ~220 F for one hour in a covered baking dish, then I allowed that to cool to room temperature while I melted 1 cup of butter in 2 cups of water in a saucepan. Once the butter was melted, I added the plant material to the butter mixture and turned the stove to medium heat until just before boiling, then I turned down the heat to a low simmer and let it simmer for 3 hours, checking in on the pot every 15 mins to make sure it wasn't too hot. After the 3 hours of cannabinoid extraction, I removed the mixture from heat and passed it through a folded piece of cheesecloth and into a large glass bowl. I squeezed out any remaining liquid from the plant material. I allowed the liquid to cool to room temperature before I moved the bowl to the refrigerator overnight. The next day I punched a hole in the solid butter and drained out the water, I patted the butter dry with some leftover cheese cloth. Once I had some looking cannabutter it was time to use it, so following a recipe I found here, I made some delicious caramels. These caramels aren't just delicious they are also deadly, once I had poured the caramel mixture into the dish I decided to lick the spoons and even just that small amount got me buzzing. I ended up with about 50 doses of canna-caramels, they provide a nice body high, at one point I was so relaxed that i didn't know where my body ended and the sofa began. I will definitely be making these again although they were a bit softer than I would like so I will probably heat the caramel mixture up between firm ball and hard ball stage on the candy thermometer next time.

Welcome Madmoustashe like the cooking . Just started doing it .15 hours is a K.O. I’d be scared of those carmels. No I’d break it in half ! You have @Preston9mm and in his signature he has cooking with the chronic , excellent read I’m fixing to make gummies from his recipe! Then I’m headed to @Grandpa Tokin to squish some bud in his rosin thread .
Also going to take a seat if you don’t mind for your grow !

 

[MadMoustache365]

Welcome Madmoustashe like the cooking . Just started doing it .15 hours is a K.O. I’d be scared of those carmels. No I’d break it in half ! You have @Preston9mm and in his signature he has cooking with the chronic , excellent read I’m fixing to make gummies from his recipe! Then I’m headed to @Grandpa Tokin to squish some bud in his rosin thread .
Also going to take a seat if you don’t mind for your grow !

Welcome Hippie, please feel free to pull up a cushion, take off your shoes and cronch some mind expanding candies. I too have been lurking through @Preston9mm cooking thread along with a few others, trying to get inspired for the next batch of edibles. I can't wait to see some of your rosin presses, def something I'd like to get into one day.

 

[West Hippie]

Welcome Hippie, please feel free to pull up a cushion, take off your shoes and cronch some mind expanding candies. I too have been lurking through @Preston9mm cooking thread along with a few others, trying to get inspired for the next batch of edibles. I can't wait to see some of your rosin presses, def something I'd like to get into one day.

Thanks for the welcome! When I start to squish some bud I’ll send a @ to you , but if you go to @Grandpa Tokin then select his rosin thread there’s a pressing every day plus Grandpa Tokin has an oil thread also !

 

[MadMoustache365]

Update: Only a few weeks to go until harvest time on the auto-flowers, and while the plants aren't as large as I would have otherwise liked, the smell is freaking fantastic! We are very excited to try these girls out and compare them to the lemon skunk available at the local dispensary. As for the Critical Purple Kush photoperiod plant, I have taken cuttings for cloning (last update) and this week I've switched the main tent over to 12/12 for flowering, and I am glad to say we have a few early pistil pre-flowers showing on the CPK (see below). I've also been working on putting together a rough sketch/timeline of what my next few journals might look like, more on that towards the end of this journal.

Lemon Skunk No1 auto:

Lemon Skunk No2 auto:

Critical Purple Kush photoperiod:

CPK close-up of pistils:

CPK shot of Quadline structure:

 

[MadMoustache365]

Update: Well we are definitely at the stage of the process where:

Really the flowering phase of quadlining is pretty boring but you get to see all the training pay off in the end.

, as such this will be a small update. The two lemon skunk auto flowering plants are just about to be flushed over the next week and then harvested next weekend. They're showing some nice cloudy trichomes with a couple just starting to turn amber. I am really looking forward to giving these ladies a try, especially since we just used up the last of our home bud this weekend. I suppose a trip to the local dispensary will be required before these are ready (so close with the timing).

As for the critical purple kush, it is coming along nicely. Budlets are forming, and the stretch is still within a reasonable height for my limited space. I will probably have to raise the lights a few inches next week but I've still got a little space to work with. I super-cropped a few of the mainstems before switching to 12/12 and since then I've just been using some LST to keep the canopy as even as possible while trying not to overshadow the autoflowers (an exercise in futility).


Critical purple kush filling out nicely (and yes those are moustaches on my pyjamas)

 

[DonkeyDick]

Nice update MM. It’s funny how the veg period is both the most boring bit to look at, but the most interesting as far as hands-on gardening goes.
Good looking canopy on the CPK

 

[MadMoustache365]

Thanks DD, it's always good to have your support.

 

[MadMoustache365]

Update: Well the time has come to harvest the Lemon skunk autoflowers. I cut the plants down yesterday evening, removed some of the larger fan leaves and they are now drying in a little homemade drying box. So far everything is running smoothly and there appears to be enough negative pressure pulling from the tent to draw any air/smell from the DIY drybox into the tent where it blows through the carbon filter. After inspecting the pots for the auto flowers, I realized that the problem I was having with them was coming from poor drainage/overwatering, because the plants weren't very large, they weren't able to drink up all of the water between waterings and that lead to an anaerobic zone near the bottom of the pots essentially locking the roots from being able to properly develop deep into the pot. To fix this in future grows I will reduce the amount of water used for feedings during the early stages of plant growth and give the plants a chance to throw their roots down in the search for H2O.

Lemon Skunk at harvest:

As for the Critical Purple Kush, she is just starting the develop some of her characteristic fruity aroma from the blueberry line, this plant has been an absolute dream to work with. She responds well to the quadline training, shes thirsty and her trichomes are beginning to come in. The cuttings I took from her right before switching to flower finally started to develop roots as of this morning. This was a huge relief because I thought all the cuttings were just going to die (first time taking clones and they all turned yellow or started dying off). The plan with these cuttings is to try to veg out three of them, 2 will be used for some meds and the last one I am going to try and use as a mother plant. These plants will probably be featured in a future journal so stay tuned for that.

Critical Purple Kush

Future mother plant: