Nine Leafer's Hydro Jack Herer/Pineapple Romulan/God's Gift Grow Journal - 2010

[Nine Leafer]

glad you invited me over cause your ladies are rockin'

have you grown in coco before?

what brand of coco are you using and how did you prep it?


your grow nicely demonstrates the performance of coco/hempy.


on your first indoor grow!

SS, !

First off, thanks for stopping by and checking through my journal!

I am using the same exact bag of Coco Coir you used. I picked it up from a local OSH/Orchard Supply Hardware(Mini-Hardware Store with a great hydro section). This is my first time ever using Coco, I didn't know what to expect. So, I grabbed a clean 10gallon trashcan, filled it with water from my bathtub faucet (LOL I know, I live in an Apartment, can't exactly do this outside.) and waited for it to absorb and slowly broke it down. Once it was all moistened up, I could feel the texture and thought about how easy it must be for the roots to get around through the Coco, I was excited! I then grabbed as much as I could with both hands and squeezed out as much of the water as possible before placing the coco in the Hempy's, on top of the perlite/CRFs. I didn't have any pH Down yet at that time, and didn't worry to much about it. I figured as soon as I got the pH Down, I could dose the buckets with 5.5 pH'd water and slowly bring it down without too much worry. As for rinsing, I did none. I just let the Coco Coir get moist then straight into the Hempy's it went. I mixed in the rest of the CRFs and perlite once the Coco was in the Hempy's, just seemed easier.

Yes, seeing your Hempy's were the first I'd laid my eyes on, ever, and it took me a good, few reads to understand why the hole was on the side of the bucket... LOL! Thanks to your careful explanations and photos, I caught on rather quickly.

Hempy's rock!



Here is the Coco Coir, I think it was like $9.95.

 

[Setting Sun]

yes, they do, I love hempys.

how are you collecting and disposing of the runoff now that the plants are bigger?

yep, that's the same brick of coco I used, but mine must have had more salt, because just hydrating it and putting it in the buckets didn't work. I rinsed the hell out of it next time and had no problems, and the texture of that coco is nice.

I checked out your ladies again and they are niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice .

 

[Marley15]

Hey Nine Leafer, nice grow you got goin here. I love me some Hempys. I've been entertaining the idea of using coco in mine for the future, but have had pretty good success thus far in 100% perlite.

I'll be keeping an eye on this one.




Marley

 

[Nine Leafer]

yes, they do, I love hempys.

how are you collecting and disposing of the runoff now that the plants are bigger?

yep, that's the same brick of coco I used, but mine must have had more salt, because just hydrating it and putting it in the buckets didn't work. I rinsed the hell out of it next time and had no problems, and the texture of that coco is nice.

I checked out your ladies again and they are niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice .

What up, SS!

Yeah, I love my girls. They are sexy as hell. Thank you sir!

I am currently collecting the drainage in a large rectangular rubbermaid type bin, and throwing it out. And it only fits two plants at a time. So its quite the pain in the ass. I figure by my next grow I'll have something like a Wet/Dry vac system figured out. This is "working" for now.


Yeah, I don't think I had any salt issues. Although, this is my first indoor grow, who knows what I'm not seeing right now.

Hey Nine Leafer, nice grow you got goin here. I love me some Hempys. I've been entertaining the idea of using coco in mine for the future, but have had pretty good success thus far in 100% perlite.

I'll be keeping an eye on this one.




Marley

Marley, !

Thanks, I've had a lot of fun messing around with these girls! Coco is something that will be hard for me NOT to use every grow, honestly. 100% perlite though huh? Looks very nice, your scrog is a sexy sight to see! Very shiny, dark green leaves. Gets me to think about using that method on my next grow. I'm using 400w bulbs, I'm using two for better coverage, so that could be quite nice for scrog'in!

Thanks for stopping by!

 

[Nine Leafer]

Here are some shots of a bud in more natural lighting. My phone can't correct the colors under the HPS lighting. Also, I think that the 60Hz buzz of the HPS ballast messes with my phone and leaves those "bars" through all my photos. Arrghh!

I took a clipping yesterday, which was Day 30 of flowering. I snipped the lowest branch off of Godz #2 for a sampling(just a small nug that wouldn't amount to much by the end of the grow). I dried it out today, about 3 inches away from a 100w reptile heat lamp. It took about 30 minutes to dry it out, flipping it every 5 minutes. I was surprised that the smoke wasn't at all harsh even after quick drying. I could tell the flavor had been changed, but was still very pleasant and not at all bad. I'm feeling good about these God's Gift strains.

 

[Nine Leafer]

Weekly Update - Week 8 (Day 35 Flower)

Day 35 of flower marks the half-way point for the flowering stage. I am looking forward to the next few weeks. I hope they really start packing it on. I ordered a new 400w Philips CMH bulb for only $41.50 and $9.95 to ship it to me. $51.45 is still under the cheapest I could find it, which was $53 just for the bulb not including shipping. Anyway, I'm excited to replace my HPS with CMH. It should be here by mid-next week.

The last 3 photos are of natural lighting. See those trichs!

 

[IrishBoy]

looking good bro.

my Jacks are maybe 10days into flowering and their not showing too much singes of flowering, how long did urs take to show? i think my cold temps are maybe messing with them

 

[Nine Leafer]

Hey IrishBoy!

Thanks! My Jack, I have just one, actually showed the quickest of the bunch in my setup. I would say it was about 3 days into flowering when I first saw the hairs start to pop out, but I saw the girls changing after the first day of 12/12. Here are two shots, both, at 8 days into flowering.

I stay in the mid 80's, what are the temps currently in your Jack setup?

Day 8 Flowering Jack Herer

​

 

[IrishBoy]

mine kinda look like that. its just weired looking compared to other plants at that time. my temps have been cold and thats why i think their lagging. 70F lights on and its gotten down to 56F lights off, i put heat in the room last night and things are doing better now.

 

[Nine Leafer]

Yeah, you'll be fine then. Within the next week you'll see good pistil growth for sure. The Jacks run about 75 days for flowering, if my memory serves me. I saw constant changes everyday after switching to 12/12. It's such an exciting time after the switch!

 

[Jozo-sha]

What a beautiful grow! I love that last set, those nugs are gonna be all kinds of frosty

I'm getting ready to go coco/hempy too, I'm thinking for my little one gallon totes I'm using, I'll just go 100% coco, but for the 3 gallon buckets, I'll go hydroton to about an inch up past the hole, then coco to almost the top, then after I get the clone established, a layer of hydroton?

I'm going to be using my remaining Flora Nova Grow/Bloom and on Irish's advice, will add cal-mg to the feedings.

 

[syncal1]

Good afternoon Nine Leafer. I was wondering if you would go out on a limb and guess the pheno type of your Jack. Along with your reasons. I also have Jack's growing and would like to know what are the signs of each type. Thank you kindly for your time.

 

[Nine Leafer]

What a beautiful grow! I love that last set, those nugs are gonna be all kinds of frosty

I'm getting ready to go coco/hempy too, I'm thinking for my little one gallon totes I'm using, I'll just go 100% coco, but for the 3 gallon buckets, I'll go hydroton to about an inch up past the hole, then coco to almost the top, then after I get the clone established, a layer of hydroton?

I'm going to be using my remaining Flora Nova Grow/Bloom and on Irish's advice, will add cal-mg to the feedings.

Thanks for stopping by, Zombo!

The natural lighting makes all the difference in the world when it comes to pictures. Then you can really see the frost much more easily.

About using the hydroton for the bottom, I only use it to slow down the amount of evaporation that will occur when using Coco Coir. I don't have any mixed in the Coco or at the bottom of the Hempy buckets. Also, I like the fact that the hydroton evens out the amount of water applied, instead of causing a "rut" to form after top watering. Hydroton can be use for the bottom 2'' but I prefer to use perlite. No major differences in using either one. Although, the perlite will hold back some of the smaller Coco bits. But, if you decide to use hydroton, after a few waterings they will eventually get flushed out. Adding the perlite to your Coco Coir is also a good idea as it will allow for quick access to oxygen for your young roots. I've seen 100% perlite work. I've also seen 100% hydroton work.

I would suggest you use or start with what you are most comfortable with. Confidence is a huge part of finding out what works for you. If you don't have confidence in something, don't use it. You will always find yourself questioning those elements during your grow.

I add CaMg+ every watering(shouts to IrishBoy, the man(boy) know his shit), even if I only give them R/O water and no nutes. The plants love it. I currently use a mixture of different General Hydroponics additives. Great brand, great line of products in general.

You are heading in the same direction I did before starting my Hempy Grow. You are on the right path!

 

[Nine Leafer]

Good afternoon Nine Leafer. I was wondering if you would go out on a limb and guess the pheno type of your Jack. Along with your reasons. I also have Jack's growing and would like to know what are the signs of each type. Thank you kindly for your time.

Welcome syncal1!

Guessing, at this point, is all I could do as I am new to the Jack Herer strain. I obtained this Jack Herer from a local shop(SB420/Prop215) and this is my first time growing Jack. I would guess to say it is of the Sativa Pheno. Jack Herer is a mixed plant, showing signs of both Indica and Sativa, but the sativa is more prominent in my particular pheno/clone. Having said that, of the Sativa type Phenos, I would venture to guess I have the Haze Pheno. Only guessing from photos and comparing what I have.

This is the most relevant information I could find on the different Jack Pheno's, hope this helps!

Strains like Silver Haze, Silver Pearl and American Dream (plus the various Skunks) have Sativa in them but they’re what we’d call Sativa influenced Indicas. They’re Indica-dominant and thus more homogenous

Strains like Jack Herer, Mother's Finest and Jack Flash are all around the 50/50 mark, and so have phenotypes that can express slightly different combinations of Indica and Sativa. At a rough estimate, Jack Flash would be 60/40 I/S, Mother's Finest 40/60 I/S and Jack Herer 50/50. Individuals from each strain will usually strike their own balance between the two 'ends of the spectrum'.

In my experience, Jack Herer has four distinct phenotpyes, Jack Flash has two and Mother's Finest has four (some people would argue MF has two phenos). IMHO, the more a hybrid strain leads towards Indica, the more uniformity can be expected.

The Jack Herers that grow in the Hash Marijuana Hemp Museum are from a single pack of seeds that we test-germinated about 18 months ago. From that pack we got nine females and, due to space restrictions, kept four as mothers (labelled A, C, D and H). These expressed the four main phenotypes of Jack Herer.

EDIT - The labels of A, C, D and H were a result of labelling the females, in random order, from A to I, then selecting our favourites from that group.

For the sake of clarity, I've changed the labels below to A, B, C and D

Phenotype-A (my favourite from that pack) takes around the full 70 days to finish and grows long strings of inflated calyxes, very much like the picture in the Sensi catalogue. This pheno can multiply its height by a factor of five or more, so we usually flower it very small (10-15cm), unless we happen to want a 2m plant. For Jack Herer with the 'highest' effect, choose the most Sativa-influenced phenos, with the biggest calyxes.

Pheno-B is compact, adding about 150% to its vegetated height in flowering and finishing in under 60 days. If speed, weight and compact growth pattern are the qualities you're most interested in, choose Indica-leaning Jack as a mother.

When we last grew A and B together, in similar conditions, they were all flowered at about 15cm. B finished at 40cm, A was about 90cm. Yield would have ended up quite similar, with A producing slightly more. The much stronger Haze high in the A pheno is well worth the extra flowering time.

Sadly, we subsequently lost pheno-C, which produced a thick, running bud with swollen calyxes (though not as inflated as the calyxes on A) and long, frosted pistils. This one filled out more like Northern Lights #5 x Haze (outwards as well as upwards) and also took about 70 days. Plant for plant, the C pheno was heavier than A, even though the (larger) dried buds of C were less dense.

Phenotype-D could be considered the least desirable in terms of its growth pattern – very tall and growing large, solid clusters of buds at the internodes, often with big gaps between those internodes. However, it's such a spectacular producer of resin that it's well worth growing.

The other three didn’t suffer from the problem of gaps between internodes – B grew thick clusters to obscure its short stem, A grew ropes of calyxes to cover its long stem, C does a bit of both, and has the largest volume of buds, overall.

The reason that we kept D was that its resin production was even greater than the other three (which were very well frosted).

From what we’ve seen of many other phenos, they mostly follow one of these four patterns.

Some general tips for flowering all the Jack Herer phenos –

Flower small.

Good coverage with bright light makes for tighter buds and more resin. The Jack Herer in the Museum flower under a pair of 400w HPS or a pair of 600w HPS. This is true of all strains, of course.

Jack doesn’t need high levels of nutrient, even in its more Indica-leaning phenos. We don’t go over EC 1.9, and 1.8 is often fine all the way to the end of flowering.

Herer can deal with more moisture than some strains, but you should still avoid keeping its growing medium constantly wet, unless the water is also constantly moving through the medium..

This is probably not much you don’t know already. The main reason for the nice results in the Museum was selecting the best mother plants by flowering a few clones of each of the nine females as early as possible.

Flowering seed-plants as small as 10 or 15cm can still yield nice results, but you will not see the best of the plants this way. It’s much better to be able to flower many small clones, cut from an older plant.

In my experience, it's often been the case that clones cut from mother plants (especially Sativas) improve their performance and resin production over the first year or two.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

[Nine Leafer]

Day 40 Flower

Lowest bud/branch from God's #1.

 

[Nine Leafer]

Weekly Update - Week 9 (Day 42 Flower)

Today I am going to add the dry KoolBloom additive from General Hydroponics. It says to use the last 2-3 weeks of flowering and leave 3-5 days without before harvesting. Starting today gives me the perfect amount of time to apply this additive correctly. I started them with Liquid KoolBloom in the first week of flowering, which is labeled 'Bulking Formula'. Whereas the dry KoolBloom is labeled 'Ripen Formula'. Everything is going good except for two MAJOR issues. Two of the plants fell over completely. Not a branch bending over but the entire plant at the stock! I flipped out and quickly tied them up. I didn't think it was time yet to tie them up but apparently they are getting heavier then I thought. So, next grow I will definitely be tying them up sooner. These girls stink so good!

Oh, my 400w CMH came in the mail and its been in three days now since it's been in. In the pictures now you can see the white/blue CMH lighting and the yellow/red HPS lighting, since I have one of each currently running.

 

[BurmeseKush]

Looks amazing!!!

 

[Jozo-sha]

Thanks for stopping by, Zombo!

The natural lighting makes all the difference in the world when it comes to pictures. Then you can really see the frost much more easily.

About using the hydroton for the bottom, I only use it to slow down the amount of evaporation that will occur when using Coco Coir. I don't have any mixed in the Coco or at the bottom of the Hempy buckets. Also, I like the fact that the hydroton evens out the amount of water applied, instead of causing a "rut" to form after top watering. Hydroton can be use for the bottom 2'' but I prefer to use perlite. No major differences in using either one. Although, the perlite will hold back some of the smaller Coco bits. But, if you decide to use hydroton, after a few waterings they will eventually get flushed out. Adding the perlite to your Coco Coir is also a good idea as it will allow for quick access to oxygen for your young roots. I've seen 100% perlite work. I've also seen 100% hydroton work.

I would suggest you use or start with what you are most comfortable with. Confidence is a huge part of finding out what works for you. If you don't have confidence in something, don't use it. You will always find yourself questioning those elements during your grow.

I add CaMg+ every watering(shouts to IrishBoy, the man(boy) know his shit), even if I only give them R/O water and no nutes. The plants love it. I currently use a mixture of different General Hydroponics additives. Great brand, great line of products in general.

You are heading in the same direction I did before starting my Hempy Grow. You are on the right path!

Thanks so much for your detailed reply! I decided after all the reading and researching and following my gut hit on this, that I'm going to be using a 75/25 mix of coco and coarse perlite, and OC+. The water analysis from my town was all contaminant based, nothing useful, so I'll pick up a saltwater testing kit and do it myself. Otherwise, I'll just water with RODI and CaMg+

 

[shawaa]

wow nine leafer that grow deserves some kind of a award + reps buddy
oh and ahh you should share

 

[IrishBoy]

Girls are looking good, sorry i am too lazy to look and i dont remember but that girls in the back right witch i think is a Jack? was she LST'ed? and the others weren't? she is very bad ass looking with lots of spears