SlowToke's High Brix Cancer Killer Grow Journal - Blue Dream/Critical Cure/Darkstar

[SlowToke]

Re: SlowToke's High Brix Cancer Killer Grow Journal - Blue Dream/Critical Cure/Darkst

Hey, Cajun! Thanks for dropping by. I agree they are close. In fact, close enough that I decided to prune them and go ahead and flip to a 12/12 lighting schedule. Let the games begin!

I've been tying the colas down to help even out the canopy, and it has worked pretty well. I didn't give it the same amount of effort that Sue and Graytail give their training, but hopefully it will be good enough. Thanks for the preview I have coming with my strains. They all sounds like will be winners!

 

[SweetSue]

Re: SlowToke's High Brix Cancer Killer Grow Journal - Blue Dream/Critical Cure/Darkst

Let the games begin!!!

 

[SlowToke]

Re: SlowToke's High Brix Cancer Killer Grow Journal - Blue Dream/Critical Cure/Darkst

Day 71/Day 1 Bloom

That's right, folks, we are finally in the bloom phase of this grow!

Yeah, I know, kind of anti-climatic seeing as how I spilled the beans in the previous post. But on the plus side, I'll have pictures in this post. So we have that going for us here.

So I get up this morning to check out the girls, and decided that there is enough vegetation to go ahead and flip them to bloom.

Here's what I saw.

Yeah, things are getting a little bushy in the grow room. So much so that I could no longer see my thermometer/RH monitor that has been residing at the base of the plants. So I hung it from one of my light fixtures close to canopy height. I found out that not only could I not see it at the plant base, but it also read 6 degrees cooler under the canopy shade.

So decision to flip made, it's time to first prune the plants, leaving between 3 and 5 nodes of growth. This is recommended by Doc Bud in order to better direct growth to the flowers. So far he is been dead on with the soil amendments and drench components. So no time to get creative with the pruning. Just get in there and make 'em look like Doc's plants. It took a ridiculous amount of time to prune the eight plants, with all that counting of nodes, and trying to see what I was cutting with all the leaves in the way, and pulling out anything that looked like it might make a good clone. Plus I thought I would be able to just march along the line of plants and keep clipping. But in the end it was just too tight in the room to prune each plant in its place, so I would bring each plant up to the end of the tray where I had the most room to see what I was doing.

Here's Blue Dream #2 after pruning.

And the rest of the plants in the tray.

Even though there was a lot of material removed, I tried to make sure there was still enough canopy available for the bloom. At least I hope so! It seems to work for Doc, so hopefully it will for me also.

A little frightening, for sure. Not that I'm having any doubts are anything...

And as far as the next generation, the clones are looking pretty good, for the most part.

Here are the Blue Dream Clones. I started with four clones, but one didn't make it.

The Darkstar clones all are doing well. I have more of them then I know what to do with.

The Critical Cure clones may be ok. Some look better than others.

I have another batch of clones under the dome that are a week old. No roots yet, though. I also added six more each of Blue Dream and Critical Cure cuttings from today's pruning. Hopefully that will be enough to keep me going without having to germinate more seeds.

That's it for today's update. Let's hope I'll have some buds showing next week. I'll keep my finders crossed!

 

[STIHL LOGGER]

Re: SlowToke's High Brix Cancer Killer Grow Journal - Blue Dream/Critical Cure/Darkst

Damn ST. A long you have come, garden impressive it is.


P.s. try not to read that as Yoda.. Bet ya can't!

 

[SlowToke]

Re: SlowToke's High Brix Cancer Killer Grow Journal - Blue Dream/Critical Cure/Darkst

Thanks for the compliments, Stihl! Even though they were in Yodish, I got the jest of it.

Thanks for stopping by. I need to spend more time over on your journals as well. I'll see if I can't correct that!

 

[MagicJim]

Re: SlowToke's High Brix Cancer Killer Grow Journal - Blue Dream/Critical Cure/Darkst

I really like what you've done here. Spending all that individual time with each girl will pay HUGE dividends in bud development.

 

[SlowToke]

Re: SlowToke's High Brix Cancer Killer Grow Journal - Blue Dream/Critical Cure/Darkst

Thanks, Jim. I appreciate the comment. I'm still a little freaked out about what I did to my beautiful plants, and it's good to hear I did the right thing.

One thing I for sure did right was put them all in 10-gallon pots. A while ago someone made the comment that you just didn't have the issues that were common to 7-gallon pots by going with the 10-gallon ones. And Doc Bud said he would switch to 10s except he was so invested in 7-gallon pots. These pots can get expensive, so I can appreciate his reasoning. But the plants sure are loving the 10-gallon growth media real estate!

 

[Major PITA]

Re: SlowToke's High Brix Cancer Killer Grow Journal - Blue Dream/Critical Cure/Darkst

Beautiful before AND after the haircut!

 

[SlowToke]

Re: SlowToke's High Brix Cancer Killer Grow Journal - Blue Dream/Critical Cure/Darkst

Thanks, Major. Much appreciated! First Jim, and now you...

I'm beginning to think I didn't totally fuck up my plants after all!

 

[Graytail]

Re: SlowToke's High Brix Cancer Killer Grow Journal - Blue Dream/Critical Cure/Darkst

Beautiful plants! They look a lot like a tray Doc may have started.

Do you have a refractometer? I'd be interested in the Brix at this stage.

 

[SlowToke]

Re: SlowToke's High Brix Cancer Killer Grow Journal - Blue Dream/Critical Cure/Darkst

Graytail, I don't have one yet, but have always planned on getting one at some point. Just haven't gotten around to it yet. Refresh my memory. Isn't there some special requirement on what type of meter to get? Something about getting one calibrated to measure sugars, or something like that? Now's as good a time as any to get one.

But the funny thing is, or actually more like the amazing thing... I haven't really done that much to my plants since transplanted those sorry little hurting specimens from the 1-gallon pots to the 10s. An initial transplant heavy watering, and two weeks later a growth energy drench. A couple of Brix treatments, and one plant got a rescue drench a week ago, and that's it. So I doubt the brix numbers are that great right now, but they sure look good anyway. But help me with the meter specs and I'll order one straight away.

 

[SweetSue]

Re: SlowToke's High Brix Cancer Killer Grow Journal - Blue Dream/Critical Cure/Darkst

I don't know mi amigo, I think you probably have some decent veg Brix numbers going there. Well done SlowToke. That's some excellent trimming. Watch the difference in just a week.

Congrats on the flip! Now the fun really starts.

 

[Graytail]

Re: SlowToke's High Brix Cancer Killer Grow Journal - Blue Dream/Critical Cure/Darkst

Search for refractometer on the 'bay and the first one on the list is the one I got a few years ago, in the gray plastic case with dropper and screwdriver. I see there are a few others even cheaper. You want the model that measures sugars and reads from 0-32%.



I'd guess they're already reading 12+

 

[SlowToke]

Re: SlowToke's High Brix Cancer Killer Grow Journal - Blue Dream/Critical Cure/Darkst

I don't know mi amigo, I think you probably have some decent veg Brix numbers going there. Well done SlowToke. That's some excellent trimming. Watch the difference in just a week.

Congrats on the flip! Now the fun really starts.

Thanks for the kind words, mi amiga. LOL! It's been a roller coaster ride so far. I wouldn't mind I nice laid back stroll into harvest, but something tells me there is more adventure ahead. Nothing worthwhile is ever that easy!

 

[SlowToke]

Re: SlowToke's High Brix Cancer Killer Grow Journal - Blue Dream/Critical Cure/Darkst

Thanks, Graytail. Got it. Heading to the 'bay now.

 

[SlowToke]

Re: SlowToke's High Brix Cancer Killer Grow Journal - Blue Dream/Critical Cure/Darkst

Day 78/Day 8 Bloom

A day late with the update, but since the pictures were taken yesterday, I'll use that date for the update timeline. The bloom plants are starting to stretch pretty good, although the plants in the middle of the tray have been and remain smaller than the other plants. I took this to be the result of genetics, but have been wondering if air circulation issues may also have an effect here. I wonder if the air flow from my two fans is being blocked to some extent by the plants at either end of the tray. The fans are located at either end of the tray, and while the end plants show some movement due to the air circulation, the center plants don't show much movement at all. I'll have to think about getting a wall fan I can mount high to blow down on these plants, but would appreciate any opinions about this. Have any of you had this issue in your own gardens?

But other then that, the plants are looking good. Not much bud formation yet to speak of. But I guess that's to be expected with only being in flower for one week. I gave them a Growth Energy drench mid-week, which was about 10 days from there last watering. The prior waterings had been done at 14 day intervals, so I guess the roots are growing well. Maybe the stretch has caused them to suck up more water, as well.

At any rate, here's some pictures of the bloom gang:

Here's a side view shot of the plants that shows how much they have grown in a week, and two shots of the two end Blue Dream plants with a tape measure. looks like they have both grown between 3" to 5".

And here's a few pre-flower shots from the tray. They should be looking good in a couple of weeks.

Now let's see what's happening in the veg tent. The clones in solo cups are not responding to their usual watering, so I take that to mean they need to be repotted to their 2-gallon homes that hopefully will give them enough space to suit them until bloom time. Here's a picture of one while I'm repotting. Yep, they needed to be repotted alright.

And I also have a tray of clones in peat plugs showing roots that need to move up to Solo cups. Here's a couple in the tray, and few shots of the roots.

Potting accomplished, here's how things now look in the veg tent.

And some closeups of the clones in the 2-gallon pots.

The clones are looking good enough I may not even need any of the Solo cup clones. But I'll keep the around for the time being as insurance. You can't have too many clones!

That's it for this week. I did get a refractometer last week to check Brix values of my plants. But I'll save that for another post. Thanks for stopping by. I hope everything is going great in your garden!

 

[Major PITA]

Re: SlowToke's High Brix Cancer Killer Grow Journal - Blue Dream/Critical Cure/Darkst

That's a lot of excellent looking green goodness!

 

[SlowToke]

Re: SlowToke's High Brix Cancer Killer Grow Journal - Blue Dream/Critical Cure/Darkst

Like I mentioned in my last post, I ordered a refractometer to check the Brix value of my plants, and it came in Friday's mail. Just in time for the weekend festivities!

The meter came in a snappy box with cutouts for the meter and all the accessory items.

The first thing you have to do is calibrate the meter. To do this you use a drop of distilled water on the prism surface, then close the prism cover to spread the water evenly over the prism.

Then you make small adjustments to a screw on the meter to align the separation of blue and white background colors right at the zero point. This is what you see through the viewfinder after calibration.

Ok, now we are set to take an actual reading from a plant. Here's where some judgement call comes into play with selecting the leaf for the sample. I'm not 100% sure I did this right, but I picked a smaller new leaf a little lower on one of my plants.

Then you roll it up into a small tight ball.

Then crush the leaf between two "slugs". Mine came from an electrical junction box I bought at the home improvement store.

Here's the leaf wad after this initial crushing.

Then I roll it up again into a smaller ball.

After the second crushing I was able to extract a drop of plant fluid I could use to test the brix level. Here's the reading.

So I have a 10% Brix reading from my plant. I was a little disappointed at the reading, as I was hoping to get a reading of at least 12. But at least I know what the true value is at this point in time.

And of course the value will shift depending on where you took your leaf sample. Let me know if I should have taken my sample from another area of the plant. At any rate, a cool little device that helps give you a sense of how well your plants are doing. I'll be making it a habit to check on my plant's Brix numbers to gauge the general plant health as I move further with my grow.

 

[DrZiggy]

Re: SlowToke's High Brix Cancer Killer Grow Journal - Blue Dream/Critical Cure/Darkst

Like I mentioned in my last post, I ordered a refractometer to check the Brix value of my plants, and it came in Friday's mail. Just in time for the weekend festivities!

The meter came in a snappy box with cutouts for the meter and all the accessory items.

The first thing you have to do is calibrate the meter. To do this you use a drop of distilled water on the prism surface, then close the prism cover to spread the water evenly over the prism.

Then you make small adjustments to a screw on the meter to align the separation of blue and white background colors right at the zero point. This is what you see through the viewfinder after calibration.

Ok, now we are set to take an actual reading from a plant. Here's where some judgement call comes into play with selecting the leaf for the sample. I'm not 100% sure I did this right, but I picked a smaller new leaf a little lower on one of my plants.

Then you roll it up into a small tight ball.

Then crush the leaf between two "slugs". Mine came from an electrical junction box I bought at the home improvement store.

Here's the leaf wad after this initial crushing.

Then I roll it up again into a smaller ball.

After the second crushing I was able to extract a drop of plant fluid I could use to test the brix level. Here's the reading.

So I have a 10% Brix reading from my plant. I was a little disappointed at the reading, as I was hoping to get a reading of at least 12. But at least I know what the true value is at this point in time.

And of course the value will shift depending on where you took your leaf sample. Let me know if I should have taken my sample from another area of the plant. At any rate, a cool little device that helps give you a sense of how well your plants are doing. I'll be making it a habit to check on my plant's Brix numbers to gauge the general plant health as I move further with my grow.

slotoke, I believe Brix goes up as the plant matures. looks great!!

(+) reps

 

[Major PITA]

Re: SlowToke's High Brix Cancer Killer Grow Journal - Blue Dream/Critical Cure/Darkst

Your plants sure look like more than a 10. The only numbers you should compare is with yourself. I've read about huge discrepancies being found when different people or plants are involved. Consistent technique is what counts. Same type of material, from the same part of the plant, at the same time of day, after the same amount of time after feeding/watering, etc.