ScienceGrow's Bag Seed Sativa - Alpha Clones - Soil - LED/CFL - Grow

[ScienceGrow]

Glad I didn't harvest last night. A bit of expectant mother syndrome, and worries about trichome color. But we're only in week 6, way too early.

I'm glad because the consensus is the last couple weeks can make a huge difference on yield, potency, flavor, and smell.

Plus, I just fed the last nutrient dose only a few days ago. I really want to flush well.

So, quick thing to mention, based on the reading I've been doing, related to the flush and last two week bud swell.

Now, maybe this is just part of the lifecycle, but I have an alternative theory.

Since most nutrients must be forced into the roots via active transport, requiring energy from the plant, and further energy must then be used to convert the nutrient ions to organic materials use able by the plant, it seems possible that the increased growth is being caused by our flushing practices.

Flushing removes available mineral nutrients out of the soil, and forces the plant to consume the reserves. Since much of the work has already been done, the plant can focus all that freed up energy on bud building, vs. nutrient uptake and assimilation. Both of these processes require a good amount of energy, so our freeing that energy up may be all that is happening. Worth an experiment I think.

By the way, since the only nutrients roots uptake are inorganic (mineral ions), flushing would be just as important for organic fertilizers as synthetic fertilizers. The ions that roots take up are exactly the same in every way, whether you use supersoil, organic fertilizer, or synthetic fertilizer. Identical in every way. Period. So, organic growers may benefit with a greater final bud swell if they flush and cease fertilizer treatments too.

Anyway, harvest in 2-3 weeks.

 

[ScienceGrow]

Harvest this Sunday!

Started the flush process last Saturday, just fed water with a little runoff, not a real flush. Runoff ppm was about 500. Did a flush with 5 gallons using AN Final Phase last night, runoff ppms were about 120.

I expect to see leaves yellowing in a day or so, and hopefully we'll be all cleared out by Sunday.

I had to move the plants for the flush. This was not a fun procedure, and I'll need to do something about it for the future. The colas are weighing my branches way down and that made them really hard to move without banging them into walls. I got the job done but I need a better solution. Maybe a big tray under the cabinet, and a drain hole above.

These two plants are awesome, huge, smelly, and look beautiful. I'll do a few preharvest photos friday. I'll be cleaning up all fan leaves and any larger easy to remove leaves, and let it live on the sugar leaves until harvest. Lights out Friday night until harveat.

Oh, outdoor plant was harvested over the weekend. Tiny little nothing buds. So, that's what happens when flowering in the cold. They also turned purple, both the buds and leaves. I assume that's all phosphorous deficiency from the temps. I smoked a little just to see, and it's very weak. I cut her up for hanging, but gave it all to my brother in law. Just not enough bud to justify the trimming required, when I have these other two plants coming soon. Just not worth my time.

Mother plant was culled. She was taking up too much room. I'm gonna take a cutting off this plant and attempt another reveg. I will be going for seed this time, as I really want to grow this plant again.

Okay people, Friday, preharvest pics.

 

[ScienceGrow]

Sorry, preharvest pics cancelled. Wife smelled something and assumed it was my stuff, so I harvested last night so I could get everyrhing drying in the cabinet. I had a few mature buds drying in an unfiltered cabinet. Turns out the smell was dog vomit. My wife is really bad at explaining what things smell like.

I'll do pics tonight of the harvest. I'm a very very happy camper though, let me tell you. Most weed I've ever seen all at the same time. Most of it looks mature, but some is younger, smaller growth. But I'd say I'll end up with at least 8 ounces dry. I predict more to be honest, but 8 seems my low end.

So, it's doing its thing at about 70F and 45-50%RH with good air movement. I am not going to rush this part.

 

[ScienceGrow]

Hard to see the really big ones, bud I'll get individual pics of those when they're dry. But there are some really big ones in there.

I've also got a rack on the floor with some more buds, trying to dry them a little faster with the fan I have down there, get some samples.

It's so much more glorious in person.

 

[ShiggityFlip]

Extremely late but subbed in time for Nug porn!

 

[ScienceGrow]

Hey there, welcome! Happy to have you, I enjoyed the conversation earlier.

If you like bud porn, check the previous couple pages. Lots of yummy pictures IMO.

I'll be doing a full manicure when I snip and jar. Right now I just trimmed off any leaves with exposed stems, and cut sugar leaves back to the sugar line. Bud porn in, well, a while. Gonna go as slow as I can.

Not too slow though, my Snowstorms are taking over the veg cabinet, they need to move in over here.

 

[lazyfish]

Sweet!

Seems like just yesterday I was looking at that tiny sativa in your yard... Now we have this gloriousness! They are of the same strain, right?

Do you have a decent source for breeding info?

 

[ScienceGrow]

These particular plants were from a bagseed. It's definitely a sativa dominant, by appearance at least. It flowered like an indica, and short flower time as an indica. But it smells of Haze to me so far. When I've accidentally touched it, there was a lot of pine and citrus released, but undisturbed, smells like a haze.

I finally got some colloidal silver, and will do my best to get fem seeds from this variety, whatever it is. I'd like to see others grow it, see what it can do in the hands of better growers. So, if I get 100 seeds, any takers?

I've got some books on breeding now. It's all simple enough, mostly a matter of attention to detail and excellent record keeping. And lots of patience.

Made cookies with the trim butter. Very tasty and very effective. It took all day to wrap kids gifts but damn was it a nice , peaceful day.

Moving everything to a paper bag tonight, to finish the dry and get my autos in the flowering cabinet.

Pics soon I'd say. Maybe a few tonight.

 

[lazyfish]

I've read that the use of colloidal silver and stress to turn a female plant male can eventually lead to weak genes. What do you think about that?

I've also heard that if you don't start with pure stock and are using an f1 or f2 variety, you won't be able to establish a pure strain.

It's hard to find a decent source for info. What books do you have?

 

[lazyfish]

Which traits are dominant?

 

[ScienceGrow]

Hey lazyfish. I don't think using colloidal silver is a problem, and I definitely don't think it can lead to weak genes. Weak genes would mean environment had an effect on DNA, which is unlikely except with mutagens and radiation.

That said, I could see it leading to weak seeds, due to hormonal issues. So, I would imagine people have had issues getting their seeds to germinate, or early growth does something crazy and ends up dying. But I wouldn't call that genetic.

What do most of the seed banks do? I really don't know, but I would think at least some go with colloidal silver, since it seems to be more reliable.

On this plant, I only know that the leaves look Sativa, and it smells and smokes like a Haze. I don't know how it would have grown had I not topped and trained the mother early, and these are revegged so they've always looked like bushes. They've all stayed pretty squat though.

Oh, I've got another couple days until I jar. Looks like probably about 6 oz. dry, we'll see. Here's a few shots of some buds I took about a week before harvest.

There's not a lot of flavor right now, just finished drying on a rack for almost 10 days. Smooth though, and effective. Nice heady, happy high, and seems to build on itself. So I'm gonna go smoke some more and see if I can find the ceiling.

 

[ShiggityFlip]

Looking good SG, a nice set of orange hairs and healthy trichomes.

 

[ScienceGrow]

Looking good SG, a nice set of orange hairs and healthy trichomes.

I'm fairly happy with the outcome. I really can't wait to try some fully cured. But, by definition, I guess I'll have to wait.

By the way, I am interested in starting to grow High BRIX, but, I'm not fully convinced of its value. As you saw in that one thread, I value opinion, but, I'd really like to see some studies, or a technical writeup, of what exactly is happening below and above ground. I have no doubt that it works, Im just really curious as to the why.

And I'm also unsure of how High BRIX helps with something you end up smoking, vs. eating. High BRIX produce makes sense to me, and I'll definitely be going High BRIX for my food crops.

Can you direct me to any good, non-biased resources? Type in High BRIX in Google and you get results from companies selling products, and a bunch of biased anecdote.

Plus, and this is admittedly a bias on my end, the guy who developed or popularized this method seems to have been a freaking loony, with such quotes as "God is the basis of life. Life is the basis of energy. Energy is the basis of matter." Which turns science on its head and invokes an all powerful creator, and some very backwards logic.

This doesn't mean he was wrong on High BRIX, it just makes me question the science a bit more.

 

[ShiggityFlip]

I think there is a misconception with High Brix growing. That Brix readings are one of the mainstays and that Brix means sugar. Brix represents to me the overall health of the plant. It also measures ANYTHING in a drop of sap that will cause light to refract differently. That means sugar of course, but also amino acids, bioflavonoids, dissolved mineral content, plant protein complexes, terpenes you name it. Any dissolved solid is going to affect Brix reading.

If you are growing two plants and one has a Brix reading and one a higher Brix reading, which do you imagine is the more successful plant? I think of it this way. This gardening method is trying to develop a super healthy microbiota. It is also doing that with mineral ratios that have been shown to promote higher Brix in plants. These mineral ratios have been chosen scientifically to supplement the plants nutrition in amounts that consistently raise Brix. Why Brix? Because Brix is a window into the health and quality of the plant. The plant that is able to have a higher Brix reading is the one vigorous enough to extract the most nutrition during its growth cycle.

So Brix readings are not necessary but give us a window into what is going on inside the plant besides "wow those leaves are green". Maybe someday we will be able to point a laser at our plants and get a mass spec reading from the laser desorption. Lol that would be something.

Here is a cool article I found on soil cation exchange and the tenets of professor Albrecht a Brix proponent.
Cation Exchange Capacity in Soils, Simplified

 

[ScienceGrow]

Okay, so with cannabis it almost sounds like this is more for the benefit of the farmer than the consumer.

With fruit, I can tell the difference between a store bought 4.5bx and a home grown 16bx tomato. I've tasted it. Not necessarily just sweeter, but fuller. It's a marked difference to the consumer. Could just be that the better tomato was an heirloom that is just naturally more flavorful, too.

Anyway, is there any marked difference to the end user of High BRIX cannabis? Scent, flavor, potency, shelf life/degradation, color, smoothness?

Thanks for the patience. Like I said, if you know of any resources that aren't trying to sell me a product or service, I'm more than ready to do my own research.

 

[ShiggityFlip]

I would think a direct correlation of health to increased potency and flavor would exist. in my next round I will have chem plants and HB plants side by side same variety to compare. That will be my contribution to the dataset.

 

[ScienceGrow]

I would think a direct correlation of health to increased potency and flavor would exist. in my next round I will have chem plants and HB plants side by side same variety to compare. That will be my contribution to the dataset.

Awesome, I'll be keeping an eye on the High BRIX grows, especially side by sides. I love the idea.

Another two weeks and I'll post pics and a smoke report on these clones! Very promising so far.

 

[ScienceGrow]

Yep, one more week, definitely.

 

[ScienceGrow]

Alrighty, happy xmas all! Smoke report and bud shots. Bud shots later though.

Smoke:
Smooth as all hell. Beautiful. The taste has changed throughout, and now we're hitting some berry notes, which was a surprise considering the earthy tones it had earlier. But, smells great.

The effect is moderate for me, but my wife, brother in law, and dad all say it's better than what they usually get so I'll take that.

The high has balanced out since harvest. No raciness, still heady to start but really it's just a nice balanced high. You can get tired after a while but another toke will wake me back up.

It will do well as my daily supply. A good session herb.

Pics tonight for both grows.

 

[lazyfish]

Sweet! Glad to hear it! What was the final weight there?