Nicky's Garden: Perpetual Grow Journal

[nickeluring]

I'm happy with Banana's structure. She now has plenty of tops that can start growing vertically. I'll only train her more if she needs to.

Banana - day 35-4.jpg

• nickeluring
• Jul 23, 2020

Banana day 35

Banana - day 35-2.jpg

• nickeluring
• Jul 23, 2020

Banana day 35

I found some more Gorilla Glue seeds that looked a bit pale, so I had to see if they were still ok. Apparently so. I'll see how long they'll survive in the zip bag...

Bag seeds 1.jpg

• nickeluring
• Jul 23, 2020

Bag seeds

 

[nickeluring]

I topped DD1 at day 21. The shoots at the first node were removed, I kept the shoots at node 2 since she's growing so slowly and I believe she'll start flowering soon. She was topped at node 4 which is a tripple node.

Dark Devil 1 Day 21 - after topping- 3.jpg

• nickeluring
• Jul 26, 2020

Dark Devil after topping

Dark Devil 1 Day 21 - after topping- 4.jpg

• nickeluring
• Jul 26, 2020

Dark Devil after topping

DD2 is not ready to be topped yet, but its 4 node is a quadruple node, so perfect node for topping. The shoots at node 1 were removed. I'll keep the shoots at node 2 a while longer.

Dark Devil 2 Day 14 - 2.jpg

• nickeluring
• Jul 26, 2020

Dark Devil day 14

 

[Piña Delores]

Looking good Nicky.

More seeds popped I see.

How's the humidity been over your way? Air's been like soup over here most of the week.

I got my Dr Bronners from Amazon a while back, seems to do the trick.

 

[nickeluring]

Looking good Nicky.

More seeds popped I see.

How's the humidity been over your way? Air's been like soup over here most of the week.

I got my Dr Bronners from Amazon a while back, seems to do the trick.

Cheers Piña,
Yes, I was curious to see if the seeds were any good. Luckily for the seedlings a friend adopted them. He's a first time grower, so we'll see how that goes. He accidentally broke the tip of the tap root on one of them. He had to untangle them and they were like 7 cm long in that folded paper towel. This will be interesting. I've read a broken tap root makes the root faster but stupid. Instead of probing its way down through soil, rocks and other obstacles a stupid root will grow super fast straight down, no matter what's in its way. If there's a rock that is too hard it won't be able to grow past it. Interesting indeed...

It's hot here, day and night. We have 29-30 degrees even at night. Humidity is not too bad, about 50-60% which is about as dry as it gets here.

I'll look for that soap. I need something good preventative.

 

[nickeluring]

Dark Devil 2 was big enough to get topped today. I initially planned on keeping the shoots at node 3 but decided to remove them as well. I've never been so lucky before and got a quad node as the 4th node where I top - the perfect quadlining.

Dark Devil 2 Day 16 - 4.jpg

• nickeluring
• Jul 27, 2020

Dark Devil topped at day 16

Dark Devil 2 Day 16 - 3.jpg

• nickeluring
• Jul 27, 2020

Dark Devil topped at day 16 - quad node

 

[nickeluring]

I had to move 2 days ago, so the girls had to go on a 3 hour road trip covered up in plastic. The little Dark Devils didn't care too much but Banana showed some unhappy signs yesterday with drooping branches. Today all is good again, though, all girls are happy.

Banana is spreading out and she'll get pretty big I think. I am seriously worried about being able to fit her in the car again after 1 month. I might have to rent something bigger and do a separate run just for this girl. A 300 km long round trip, so I'm not so keen on doing that.
I had her and DD1 in the car about a month ago, and I was pulled aside by the Police. Luckily they didn't look in the back of the car. She'll be hard to conceal next month...

Banana - day 43-1.jpg

• nickeluring
• Jul 31, 2020

DD1 has bounced back and she is now growing at the same rate as DD2.

Dark Devil 1 Day 27 - 1.jpg

• nickeluring
• Jul 31, 2020

DD2 is happy after her topping, and her 4 tops are coming along fine.

Dark Devil 2 Day 20 - 1.jpg

• nickeluring
• Jul 31, 2020

 

[Stunger]

I had to move 2 days ago, so the girls had to go on a 3 hour road trip covered up in plastic. The little Dark Devils didn't care too much but Banana showed some unhappy signs yesterday with drooping branches. Today all is good again, though, all girls are happy.

Banana is spreading out and she'll get pretty big I think. I am seriously worried about being able to fit her in the car again after 1 month. I might have to rent something bigger and do a separate run just for this girl. A 300 km long round trip, so I'm not so keen on doing that.
I had her and DD1 in the car about a month ago, and I was pulled aside by the Police. Luckily they didn't look in the back of the car. She'll be hard to conceal next month...

Banana - day 43-1.jpg

• nickeluring
• Jul 31, 2020

DD1 has bounced back and she is now growing at the same rate as DD2.

Dark Devil 1 Day 27 - 1.jpg

• nickeluring
• Jul 31, 2020

DD2 is happy after her topping, and her 4 tops are coming along fine.

Dark Devil 2 Day 20 - 1.jpg

• nickeluring
• Jul 31, 2020

That's a bugger to have to deal with that. Can you supercrop her for this month to maybe rein her growth back until you drive back? Would that work? It's a question not a suggestion, as I am wondering too, for my next outdoor grow where height is an issue, and excessive branch growth is not preferred, I have wondered if I can do a run of supercropping to restrain branch growth while the root base can freely get bigger, so when flowering arrives the canopies are more condensed and there's an excess of root base to power out the flowers.
It was just a thought

 

[nickeluring]

That's a bugger to have to deal with that. Can you supercrop her for this month to maybe rein her growth back until you drive back? Would that work? It's a question not a suggestion, as I am wondering too, for my next outdoor grow where height is an issue, and excessive branch growth is not preferred, I have wondered if I can do a run of supercropping to restrain branch growth while the root base can freely get bigger, so when flowering arrives the canopies are more condensed and there's an excess of root base to power out the flowers.
It was just a thought

If I train her to grow wider now I'll have the same problem in the car I think. Also, I don't want to do that since I want my colas to grow as long as possible now. This being a competition grow, I want to present her with really long fat colas at harvest time. At least that was the plan when I decided how to train her.

 

[Stunger]

If I train her to grow wider now I'll have the same problem in the car I think. Also, I don't want to do that since I want my colas to grow as long as possible now. This being a competition grow, I want to present her with really long fat colas at harvest time. At least that was the plan when I decided how to train her.

Next time for me I would prefer to not go as wide as I did, gets too cumbersome. I am hoping maybe I can supercrop to restrain the outward growth. But for your's, I see now for a competition grow you don't want to do that. On the other hand you've got a month to think up a good way to camouflage the plant for the return journey. Hopefully you can come up with something.

 

[nickeluring]

Next time for me I would prefer to not go as wide as I did, gets too cumbersome. I am hoping maybe I can supercrop to restrain the outward growth. But for your's, I see now for a competition grow you don't want to do that. On the other hand you've got a month to think up a good way to camouflage the plant for the return journey. Hopefully you can come up with something.

Yes, I should be able to sort something out I reckon. If you don't hear from me again I didn't make it.

Well, supercropping makes the plant wider by default, so I wouldn't recommend it to stop the plant from growing wide. If you bend all branches inwards to make it less wide it'll not be a pretty sight, and the centre of the plant will get very crowded. I only use supercropping for training branches outwards or to restrict the plant height wise.
Or do you think differently to me regarding supercropping?

 

[Stunger]

Or do you think differently to me regarding supercropping?

No not differently but what I am thinking of I have not tried before, i.e. I previously supercropped to make the canopy horizontal and wide as you point out. That worked great. Now, and I am just speculating, that perhaps I can use the plant's response of branch growth slowing down after a supercrop, and then before it recovers and takes off again, doing a further supercrop to the same branch to suppress it's growth, and repeating until flowering kicks in. So in the end I have horizontal canopy that is not as 'beamy' so I can better move the plant and work around it within the limited balcony space available. The balcony doors are not sliding doors, they are bi-fold doors which when opened they extend outwards and can push/squash into the plant's horizontal canopies when they're wide, the doors opening outwards and the large round canopy size also made it a cumbersome tight space to work.

Last grow I wanted yield and potency, which I feel I got, or at least the yield far surpassed my expectations. So this year, I am no longer bothered about yield because I've got heaps of full jars of buds that should last me 2 or 3 years easily. But this time I have 3 new strains to grow which arrived too late last season because the first 2 deliveries failed to get thru. Those 3 strains (Gold Leaf, Chronic Widow & California Dream) I only have 2 or 3 seeds each as I shared the order (a 3 x 5 420 mixed pack) with a friend. Because I have enough bud stored in reserve, I want to try to reverse sex (1 plant or possibly all 3 plants) on selective branches (on the left side) and pollinate it's own flowers (on the right side), I believe any resulting seeds would be known as S1's because they'd be self pollinated. Anyway, that is my thinking, to try and aim to produce some feminized seeds and hope those 3 strains turn out to be potent ones. If all went well, to plan, and I only got a third of the yield I got last year but in addition I also got a few female hundred seeds I'd be very happy! And plus, I'd have the experience of having had a go at trying to reserve sex a female plant to make some feminized seeds, and ideally to do the same on future grows and thereby build up a seed bank of hopefully top shelf strains.

To further assist in reducing a cumbersome size, I would also look to prune off any weak branch growth, which I didn't do last time as I was out of bud and didn't want to waste anything. So ideally I'd just grow out the strong branches and slow their outward growth as much as possible, to view success as creating seeds and whatever the bud yield is as a bonus. I realize I could just start the plants off later in the season to keep them small that way, but instead I like the thought of letting their root base get as developed as possible to hopefully be able to power lots of good bud and seed growth.

 

[nickeluring]

No not differently but what I am thinking of I have not tried before, i.e. I previously supercropped to make the canopy horizontal and wide as you point out. That worked great. Now, and I am just speculating, that perhaps I can use the plant's response of branch growth slowing down after a supercrop, and then before it recovers and takes off again, doing a further supercrop to the same branch to suppress it's growth, and repeating until flowering kicks in. So in the end I have horizontal canopy that is not as 'beamy' so I can better move the plant and work around it within the limited balcony space available.

Do you mean you'll just squash damage the branches without bending them? Interesting idea.
Otherwise I suggest you quadline, train the branches outwards and removing all side branches in the middle of the plant, then top all 4 branches when they have been trained enough outwards, and let the 8 tops grow colas upwards, training them slightly to form a perfect circle around the centre of the plant. I've tried this and it works very well.

I want to try to reverse sex (1 plant or possibly all 3 plants) on selective branches (on the left side) and pollinate it's own flowers (on the right side), I believe any resulting seeds would be known as S1's because they'd be self pollinated. Anyway, that is my thinking, to try and aim to produce some feminized seeds and hope those 3 strains turn out to be potent ones. If all went well, to plan, and I only got a third of the yield I got last year but in addition I also got a few female hundred seeds I'd be very happy! And plus, I'd have the experience of having had a go at trying to reserve sex a female plant to make some feminized seeds, and ideally to do the same on future grows and thereby build up a seed bank of hopefully top shelf strains.

Cool! I like that. One of my gorillas self pollinated herself and gave me some seeds on my last run. I'd like to try feminizing as well some time.

I realize I could just start the plants off later in the season to keep them small that way, but instead I like the thought of letting their root base get as developed as possible to hopefully be able to power lots of good bud and seed growth.

Yes, that's good thinking. I've changed all my grows to fabric pots after comparing the root balls. There's no comparison really.
I'm actually glad I started Banana so late in the season. I would not have been able to travel with her otherwise I think.

 

[Stunger]

Do you mean you'll just squash damage the branches without bending them? Interesting idea.
Otherwise I suggest you quadline, train the branches outwards and removing all side branches in the middle of the plant, then top all 4 branches when they have been trained enough outwards, and let the 8 tops grow colas upwards, training them slightly to form a perfect circle around the centre of the plant. I've tried this and it works very well.

Yes basically squash/damage them without without necessarily bending them, using the supercropping to initially train the canopy for horizontal growth and continue doing it with the purpose of restraining further lateral growth, just thinking aloud.
I am still planning to quadline them again, but with the addition of pruning off all weak rubbish growth which would clear out at least some of the canopy 'tangle'. But instead of Quadlining into a square/circle shape, maybe more of a slimmer oblong shape so I am able to move about the plants more easily. Your circle approach sounds good. I did also wonder on carrying out a succession of topping for a similar restraining effect.

Yes, that's good thinking. I've changed all my grows to fabric pots after comparing the root balls. There's no comparison really.
I'm actually glad I started Banana so late in the season. I would not have been able to travel with her otherwise I think.

My pots have been heavily drilled out, I imagine they behave similar to the fabric ones. When I reamend the soil of my containers in the next couple of weeks I may get an idea of the root mass if they haven't already composted back a fair bit (which they probably have).

Starting the plants later would be easier, but given I am outdoors and can only grow once a year, I am curious about letting the roots develop as much as they want to see how well they 'power up' a smaller but more focused canopy.

When you changed to fabric pots and you noticed the improvement in root mass size, did you observe an improvement to buds/colas/yield as well?

 

[Piña Delores]

Hey Nicky,
glad your trip went okay, and the plants survived. The return journey is going to be interesting, she'll be a monster in another four weeks . Maybe invest in some fake tomatoes to hang on her .

Liking the look of your training regime, I can see some of that in my future, so watching with interest.

Still as hot as hell here, I slept on the tiled floor last night. At least the humidity has dropped a bit.

 

[Stunger]

Maybe invest in some fake tomatoes to hang on her .

Yes, that's a good one!

 

[nickeluring]

Hey Nicky,
glad your trip went okay, and the plants survived. The return journey is going to be interesting, she'll be a monster in another four weeks . Maybe invest in some fake tomatoes to hang on her .

Liking the look of your training regime, I can see some of that in my future, so watching with interest.

Still as hot as hell here, I slept on the tiled floor last night. At least the humidity has dropped a bit.

Haha, I like the idea about the tomatoes.

Yes, training like that usually give me well shaped plants. And I can't recommend those clips enough - they're superb!
I just put some clips on DD2 as well.

I am very fortunate at my new temporary location. They have air con and it's a bliss when it's time to sleep.

Training clips on DD2 - the perfect quadline

Dark Devil 2 Day 23 - 2.jpg

• nickeluring
• Aug 3, 2020

Quadline training

Dark Devil 2 Day 23 - 3.jpg

• nickeluring
• Aug 3, 2020

Quadline training

 

[NuttyProfessor]

Great job sir ! lovely autos ... Guys if you ever wonder why my posts are short ? its my hands and wrists lol they are aching im waiting to be tested for MS , so this is why

 

[nickeluring]

Great job sir ! lovely autos ... Guys if you ever wonder why my posts are short ? its my hands and wrists lol they are aching im waiting to be tested for MS , so this is why

Thank you, professor.
I'm sorry to hear about your hands. I hope your homegrown medicine makes the pain better. I use my meds from morning til night due to chronic headaches.

 

[NuttyProfessor]

yes i use capsules , make my own but with the price alcohol went up to there for a while was shocking , its down to normal price again so this grow will be for 100s of capsules ( i hope ) they are the only thing that works ! and so simple to make

 

[nickeluring]

yes i use capsules , make my own but with the price alcohol went up to there for a while was shocking , its down to normal price again so this grow will be for 100s of capsules ( i hope ) they are the only thing that works ! and so simple to make

How do you make the tincture? With Everclear? I can't find anything like that here in Europe.