Zupreme, Star Killer, Rare Dankness 2020 Grow

[Finesse69]

Hey brother, everything's good good in the grow so far! Hope you don't mind me tagging along and seeing how things go.

I like how detailed this journal is and im sure there's people watching the journal even though they don't reply doesn't mean there isn't anyone behind it! Regardless if anyone is reading or not it's good to have all the notes and progress you made so you can compare how you did now to how well you'll grow in the future!

Those seeds kind of looks to me not very mature but they do look like the same as the ones you got before and they still germinated so I guess they should be fine if you store them well. Glad to hear that they gave you some free seeds, gotta appreciate a company that will back their products like that.

Are you planning to feed them nutes or have you already? If so what are you using?

Happy growings bro!

 

[2Crispy]

To answer your question Finesse69, thus far I have given them just a bit of superthrive. After I transplanted I dont think I have watered them more than 4 times. Really trying to get the root growth going.

 

[2Crispy]

Well the cuttings are done. I still have not sexed the Star Killer so maybe I am wasting some rock wool cubes but I guess I'll find out soon. Also, this god damn pandemic is a pain in the ass for supplies. The garden supply stores can be hit or miss, not only in terms of actually being open, but also whatever they have in stock. I was unable to get the smaller rock wool cubes as I had only a few. I cloned in the jiffy pellets before but that was when transplanting to soil. I dont feel like the peat is going to hurt my hydro flood and drain set up, hopefully nothing screws up the pump.

Anyways....tomorrow I intend to put the soil pots into flower. I still have a few more cuttings to take root, I'll let them veg in the rock wool for a week before putting my flood/drain into a sea of green flower. I might also veg 2 weeks on the rock wool, TBD. If my questionable plants all turn out to be females I want to be able to stagger the harvest so as not to have to much to trim at one time. I know, tough problem to have.

 

[2Crispy]

Today is the day. I got the tent all cleaned up and ready to roll. I removed the 1000w HPS I had in there for the last few years. We had a heat wave in the 80's a few weeks ago. Every summer I have had trouble maintaining the temp of the overall grow space. I have two 4 X 4 tents and used to have a HPS in both, but i switched one of them over to LEDs last year and will to the same to this tent. Hopefully this will keep the temp down as we start to roll into summer. I dont expect to hot of temps to either late July or August. That should be right around the time these guys are finishing up. I never reached tripled digits, but I did have temps in the high 90's last year and feel that maybe the reason for the hermies.

The fan is not ideal, but it works. I aim it towards the wall and it circulates the air adequately. I do have and inline fan connected to a carbon filter just outside the tent. You can hardly see the vent hose, just behind the base of the fan. I dont imagine I'll need to use the plant pulleys, the are better suited for the sativas, but I leave them in there anyway

 

[2Crispy]

I got 9 plants total going for this ride. For the purpose of this journal I am only planning to document the Zupreme and Starkiller OG. Just FYI, the others are Blue Ox, Pineapple Express, Double Black, Blue OG and a Sundae Driver from some bag seed. I will keep a eye on that one as it will probably be a hermie.

Anyway, taking a look at the Star Killer first. Both these plants are 56 days old. The first one that got the FIM cut has 3 branches that have had some LST. Im pleased with the way this has grown so far. This is the one that I am most hopeful is a female. I think I can get a decent pay load from this one. I was hesitant to remove the growth on the elbows and just above the union where is splits into 3 branches. I guess I'll see after 2 weeks worth of stretch if those sites will be producers or larf. Its difficult when growing a strain for the first time to know how much to trim.

Star Killer number 2 I am not as excited about. This one streched quite a bit and has grown lanky like a sativa. During veg, the pots were one the same shelf, under the same kind of light, at the same distance so I would think the variance is more pheno related rather than growing conditions. i took off some side growth that was about 6-7" long with only 2 nodes and the second node has about an inch or less from the top. There doesnt appear to be as many bud sites on this one, I want to see how it reacts in stretch phase. Also anticipating that this will be a female.

 

[2Crispy]

The Zupreme is quite bushy. These are both feminized so at least I got that part going for me. The first one is 56 days old. She had been topped and given some LST as well. This is another second guessing on how much to trim off. I have had some 1 node and flip type plants in the past. Because I wont be overly crowded in the garden I wanted to keep a few more nodes to see what kind of production I can get. However, in my past with some indicas I have found them to grow squatty and busy. Buds just grow right on top of each other and dont give itself space for light penetration. Again, first time with this strain, I'll have to see how she reacts and make adjustments. Some people get scared to trim after transitioning to flower, says it stresses the plant.

I didn't notice under the lights, but now that I look at the photos I see some lighter green. This seems to be on the new growth though, I dont think its going to be a problem. I watered with some super thrive yesterday. I know technically speaking super thrive is not a nutrient feeding, more like B vitamins. i don't want to use my hydro nutes on these guys so I might need to go out and get some tiger bloom tomorrow.

the second supreme is 1 week younger at 49 days. She is bushy too, like a 70's porn star. I feel like the tops were getting some heat stress as they started getting close to the light. I am happy that they are all getting some more space and look forward to what is coming down the road. She has grown pretty strong and I am please with the development of the stalk and branches.

 

[2Crispy]

Everything is in the garden now and I should be good for a few. I checked the temp and the tent is at 69F, humidity was 59%. I plan to water and feed in a few days, nothing left to do except monitor. I like to run a 7am to 7pm cycle with the lights on. For us working folk it allows me some time in the morning and evening to do whatever needs to be done. Im somewhat of a Dolly Parton 9 to 5er so that works good for me. I returned to work about 3 weeks ago so things are somewhat of normal, at least schedule wise. Before with this stupid pandemic bullshit being stuck at home all day I would find myself checking on the garden all say. Watching plants grow....

The Zupremes are front row left and middle. Star Killer Front Row Right, Middle Row Right. In the past I have thrown 16 pots in here, 4 X 4. Its worked out pretty good. All these plants except the middle one are from seed, 5 feminized the other 3 have to wait to see.

 

[2Crispy]

I ended up adding a 5th light. something about the way the lights are positioned made me feel like the middle of the tent was being neglected. I got the lights, may as well use them. I also positioned the pots closer together. As the garden progresses I plan to spread them apart some more. Thanks for checking out my grow. Can't wait to see what this garden brings me.

 

[Dankman_420]

Looking good in here

 

[2Crispy]

Well the first week of flower is in the books and the transition week is not telling me a whole lot. I have not made it to the garden supply store this week...actually I did go to the garden supply but they were closed again. Either hit or miss. The name is called Lucky Greenhouse and Light, I guess you need to be lucky to find them open. I like that store cause its like a costco for garden supplies...anyway. I couldnt get any fertz this week but the plants are doing alright as is. I gave them some super thrive with ph water today. I also sprayed them with some flying skull nuke 'em. I found some mites on another plant in a different garden and now have to resort to pesticide maintenance. I havent had mites in years so this is a bit demoralizing.

Overall the rest of the growing conditions are fine. I am happy with the LEDs and the lack of excessive heat that the HPS used to bring.



Overall garden on day 8

Comparison from last week..sorry about the lights

 

[2Crispy]

First one to take a look at is the Zupreme. I have not seen any pistols yet. She remains short and if anything continues to bush out. I am a little concerned about how compact it grows being that I just discovered some mites. I plan to defoliate after 21 days so I got 2 more weeks to go. Notice is the first pic that I got some 9 bladed fan leaves. Just continuting to monitor as I want to maximize air flow and pest maintenance.

This is the first girl. She is growing healthy and thats all I can ask for thus far.

The second one is healthy as well, I included a close up. Still need some time for the pistols to emerge.

 

[2Crispy]

Next is the Star Killer. This one comes from regular seeds. I feel like the Im seeing signs of one of them being a male. Im not certain at this point so I'll give it some more time. I just hop at least one of them is a girl.

Can anyone tell if this is a male?

The second one is still growing lanky with long branches. signs of sex are inconclusive at this point.

Not a very good focus on the node union, only time will tell what becomes of this one.

 

[2Crispy]

Lastly, the hydro comparison cuts. All have rooted into the rock wool. I need to clean out the tent and set the flood and drain back up. This is going to take some time so I plan to veg them out for another week. They could use it anyway. Honestly some of them seem to be going slow a could possibly use more than a week. I find that starting flower at about 8" tall will bring me 16" plants about double the original size which is fine for the SOG set up. I try to keep it as minimally crowded as I can to be able to observe whats going on. I used to try to cram as many plants as I could into the garden but I have finally turned a corner from being greedy to patient.

I do think I am better at maintaining the hydro over soil. I want to become better at soil and need some more experience though.

For this garden I use the general hydro 3 parts, my tap water is really soft so I supplement cal-mag, phosphorus. I also use terpinator and Kool Bloom. Most importantly is the hydroguard. A while back I had a crop coming along real nice but had some root issues towards the ends. More about the hydro garden after getting it set up next week.

 

[2Crispy]

It's official! that is a wrap on the comparison....Maybe no baseball this year, but I am batting 0-2 on the star killer. I had a hunch with the size that they were, there would be a strong chance of them being males. Turned out that hunch was correct.

I ended up saving one of my cuts from the stronger of the 2 plants just in case I want to throw in the breeding chamber. Not really sure what I would cross it with as I have never seen a female of this strain to have a characteristic to want to copy. anyway....moving forward this will just be a documentation of the Zupreme grow. If you were tuning in for the Rare Dankness, there is nothing to see left to see.

 

[2Crispy]

Although I set up the flood and drain table today, I am going to give it 1 more week. I ended up having to throw out 4 star killer clones that were pretty nicely rooted in the rock wool. I got 4 random cuts ready to replace but the will only have 1 week of veg vs 3 weeks on the other clones. Im not really concerned with the height of the plants as I can lower multiple lights independently, I just want to make sure I start on the same nutrient feeding regimen.

Some of the fan leaves look a bit scraggly and the algae is building on the top of the cubes more rapidly than usual. I got to let this one ride and hope for the best. The hydro is my secondary garden to compare the same strain with different mediums. On the bright side, the spider mites seem to be non existent. I sprayed the clones a every other day for a week and will spray once a week for the first 5 weeks of flower. After that I will let it ride until harvest.

 

[2Crispy]

I have to say, I am please with the weeks results for these zupreme plants. I was a bit concerned because of their level of bushiness and the evidence of mites in my veg room. I was sure I was going to have to aggressively defoliate, but the stretch created some more breathing space and everything is looking healthy over all. I am pleasantly surprised at how even the canopy is looking and feel like its getting some good light all the way around. Its only been 2 weeks in flower but I am pleased thus far. I did end up feeding them. I finally made it to Lucky's and there was a good selection to choose from. I couldnt decide, I went in for Fox Farms Tiger Bloom and walked out with not only that, but a gallon of the budswel liquid bat guano as well as a bunch of other crap. Today I gave them half strength on the Tiger Bloom and Budswel as wellas some cal-mag. I know my tap water is soft and the cal-mag is needed. Check out the flics of the Zupreme sisters

And the other

I plan to do some light defoliation next week and then let them ride for the remainder, only cutting off any discolored leaves. They need to be watered 2 times a week but I will only feed them every other time. Starting with half strength and take it from there.

Until next weekend...keep it between the ditches, as the the truckers like to say.

 

[Dankman_420]

Looking good brother. Sucks about the mites but we all go through it. Have you heard of green cleaner spray. Works good with not being to rough on the plants

 

[2Crispy]

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there. Hope you got a fat juicy steak to throw on the grill. My pops passed away this past February so this is my first one without him. RIP pops. Back in the mid 90's my pops found a grow light in my bedroom closet on a few different occasions. He was so pissed. "Get that shit out of my house right now!" It took me twenty years before I started growing again.

Here is the latest...I am very please with the health of the plants. Bright green, bushy and perky. I didnt really notice any signs of mites. Nothing. But I know the mites are kinda like the corona virus. You can stop it you can only flatten the curve. I gave a rudimental spray of the nuke 'em today as well as fed them some tiger bloom and budswel liquid guano. I dont really like to spray, but the more I speak to growers, it seems may do a weekly spray as a preventative measure. Maybe I should start a pole and see how growers feel about spraying without any signs of trouble. I plan to spray the next 2 weeks and then will back off for the final 5 weeks of flower and flush.

Not much to see under the LED, but an observation I made is for the size of the plants, maybe the pots are too big. Note to self, check out the root ball when this is all over, maybe in the future I should only fill the halfway with soil. IDK?

I did a small amount of defoliating today. After 3 weeks I wont touch them again unless the growth is dead, yellowing and shriveling up. Not a whole lot today, only a few fan leaves to open up the top a little bit, here is a before and after, see if you can tell the difference. This is the #1 pheno of the Zupreme strain.

Hard to tell but I can see a few of the lower buds a little better. That being said, I expect to have some larf on this one. The first time around with any strain takes a little patience to see how she is going to fill in, but I can see the lower portion hasn't grown to much.

One more angle of Zupreme #1

All in all i'm very pleased on how this one is coming along. In the future I would like to veg it out some more, but my flower tent was sitting empty and Im glad I didnt veg out those star killer and longer since they ended up as males.

 

[2Crispy]

Pheno #2 of the Zupreme is doing just as well. Matter of fact,this one seems to grow a little stronger. Same as before, minor defoliation and a nute feeding today. She seems to be a happy girl.

After posting this, I might run back down to the basement and take a few more fan leaves off.

Here she is from the side

And another from undercarriage.

In about 2 to 3 days I'll give her some fresh water and then the following water when I feed again, I plan to add a splash of cal-mag cause I know my water is soft and she will need it. There ya have it, 3 weeks down about 7 more to go.

 

[2Crispy]

I activated the flood and drain today. Day 1 of flower. I dont plan on documenting this too much or the cuts I took to be mother plants. This is just my back up, as I stated earlier in the journal, I am not as comfortable with growing in soil as I am in hydro. Because this strain was advertised as some heavy duty terpene stinky shit I wanted to compare the 2 growing methods. More to follow

Sorry about the lights, what can I do? Turn off the lights and use the flash?