Blackberry Kush - Platinum Girl Scout Cookies - 400W MH/HPS

TheFertilizer

Well-Known Member
Starting up on my new grow, got seeds planted last night.

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I've planted 8 Blackberry Kush and 7 Platinum Girl Scout cookies. They're all feminized.

I am only planning on keeping 5 of them in 3 gallon pots but I don't really know for sure yet, just waiting to see which sprout. A friend of mine recommended a technique where you place shrink wrap over the top after the seed has been in the freezer, I guess it's supposed to mimic the conditions of spring thaw and the change in barometric pressure. The last time I germinated seeds I put a little bag on the top of the solo cups and they were pretty air tight over the top and it worked well, so I figure it can't hurt to try.

I'm not sure what I want to do with the "extras". I might buy a couple more pots an some more dirt, but right now I have the perfect amount for 5 pots, and I think that's a good amount and size of container for my 4x4 tent without getting things too cramped. I have a lot of one gallon pots though I was thinking I could just leave the extras in, but I also have a spot I can put them outdoors. I'm not sure if it's already too late in the season though, I guess worst case scenario they'd just be a bunch of tiny outdoor plants. At least they would finish up sooner...

Anyway I don't have much of a plan right now but I figured I would just get going on it already. I'm trying to finish up around mid December so that late flower and harvest doesn't compete with my attention to local community college classes, I think I might have timed it just right to be done flowering a couple weeks after finals on winter break.

I am using some different soil than I have ever used before too. Usually I use Black Gold Natural and Organic but I have had a lot of problems with fungus gnats with it and I think that the Fox Farms Happy Frog I got is probably a little better anyway since it has a lot of beneficial bacteria already built in and I have read somewhere on the internet that the NPK rating was pretty low, so I don't think i will have to alter my feeding routine and really have much of a learning curve with it. Mostly I just had to get rid of a whole bag of the Black Gold that wound up getting infested with gnats, or had them laying dormant in it, either way I don't know but that stuff seems like heaven for those little buggers.

I've got some organic nutrients that my neighbor gave to me that I want to try out as well. It looks like pretty good stuff...

"Molasses, Feather meal, Alfalfa meal, Bat guano, Fish meal, Kelp meal, Oyster shell, Volcanic ash, Earthwork castings and Mycorrhiza" and has a NPK of 14-12-10. He actually sells and markets the stuff under the name "Skinny Chicken Organics".

I am just not like, psyched to use it because I am more one of those people that once they found something that works, doesn't really like to deviate too much. I was getting really good results with Flora Nova and Crystal Burst, but when it comes to nutrients and beneficial bacteria I think it's probably better to play nice and use organics. But I wanna give it a try and see how it goes, I know what my trich deveopment with these strains should look like from my last grow so if I don't see the same I will just use some P and K booster along with it.

Not messing around with 12/12 from seed this time because I just want a good yield. I am planning on starting flower in mid Octoboer to get done in that mid December range, so I should have plenty of veg time to get them nice and big.

So anyway, now it's time to wait to see what pops. :D Pretty sure these Blackberry Kush ones are going to sprout super fast. I didn't remember if I had planted one in a cup and started digging to make sure if it had a seed or not, just being in the medium for a matter of minutes the seed had already gotten all moist and soft looking and beggining to crack! I wouldn't be surprised if I have sprouts tomorrow morning.
 
OH yah...
I use a method Sweet Sue told me about for seeds... Take an old pill bottle.. orange ones...
Float seed in it for like a day.... Then lightly wet a piece of cotton... put seed in cotton and put it in the lid of the pill bottle and cap the orange top onto it. (pill bottle sits upside down) Open it once a day for air.. 1-3 days you it will be all popped... Have only lost one seed since I started this method and it wasnt a good looking seed..lol


FE
 
OH yah...
I use a method Sweet Sue told me about for seeds... Take an old pill bottle.. orange ones...
Float seed in it for like a day.... Then lightly wet a piece of cotton... put seed in cotton and put it in the lid of the pill bottle and cap the orange top onto it. (pill bottle sits upside down) Open it once a day for air.. 1-3 days you it will be all popped... Have only lost one seed since I started this method and it wasnt a good looking seed..lol


FE

I may have been try that. So far I don't have any sprouts :O Well it only been two days though, but so far this is definitely the most nerve trying time lol

Edit

Eek I see one of the Blackberry Kush seeds got planted upside down so the tap root is coming up and down and it was exposed, I covered it up so hopefully it pulls through. I can see the bottom of one pushing up through the dirt too so I think it's probably in its way up. Then I can see like a little hint if green or something sticking out of the very black soil in one of the Platinum Girl Scout Cookies ones but it doesn't really look like a leaf so I don't know, call that a maybe. Probably just something in the soil.

I nixed the saran wrap because it was making it too hard to see if something sprouted though the weird texture. I like the cotton ball idea more. Do you just plant the cotton ball directly afterward?
 
Once you see they have sprouted... yes remove the plastic... No more watering for several days... They drown easy and rot... They barely need anything for probably close to a week...atleast several days if the soil is damp...

patience!

:peace:

FE

I hate the delicate balance between over-watering and underwatering with seeds the most. I basically just mist them gently if I see the top of the soil starting to get dry, but that could be why I got so few last time.

Good news is I can see a Platinum Girl Scout Cookies seed pushing up and a hint of green poking out from the cracked shell. That's really fast considering how long they took last time.
 
I have life! It's interesting to see how they come up out of the seed shell...

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The Platinum Girl Scout Cookies have not only sprouted much faster but more of them have successfully germinated than last time. I think I can attribute this to scoring the outside of the seeds with some sand paper.

So far 6 Platinum Girl scout Cookies, and 6 Blackberry Kush. They were all female last time so I don't expect any different this time around.

These are the nutrients I am thinking about using... Still haven't made up my mind with how good they turned out with my bottle nutes.

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Well things are going okay still. This Happy Frog stuff seems to dry out a little on top making me think they need water, but if I brush off just a few MM of top soil then I can see it's still pretty moist underneath. I was worried about having to get used to a new soil. Oh well, this stuff is very well rated, whereas I don't really hear much about the Black Gold stuff I was using.

Two of the seeds didn't sprout, and another two are pretty deformed looking, so it looks like I will have 10 to choose from. Nice even playing field. I am thinking about just going and buying a few more pots and a bag of soil and plant them all, but I am really not sure if I'm ready to work with ten plants inside of my 4x4, and I have yet to even get a filter so I am pretty sure that would develop into an odor problem rather quickly even before flower.

But they're babies I have plenty of time to decide how to raise them :p One problem with these little cups is that they're not tall enough for the fan to really blow much wind on them, I had to put it on the highest setting just to whip up enough turbulence to get them blowing around a bit. I am keeping the light pretty darn close, I would estimate like 8-12 inches, but I have it dimmed to 200 W for now just to make sure it doesn't really light stress them. I just don't want them to get too stretchy like last time, and in combination with my low room temperature, the cooled hood, etc. I could practically have this thing right on top of them and it wouldn't be too warm.


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Blackberry Kush bud porn :D
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Seems odd they would "all" experience under watering at that stage at the same time? Not saying it isn't possible, just seems unlikely. How are temps? Any chance they are wind blown? At that age, I aim my fan towards a wall and not towards the plants.

I suspect it's posted in a previous journal, but what type of light are you using? They don't look like they are beyond repair, just a bit stretchy and obviously distressed. Good luck!
 
Seems odd they would "all" experience under watering at that stage at the same time? Not saying it isn't possible, just seems unlikely. How are temps? Any chance they are wind blown? At that age, I aim my fan towards a wall and not towards the plants.

I suspect it's posted in a previous journal, but what type of light are you using? They don't look like they are beyond repair, just a bit stretchy and obviously distressed. Good luck!

The fan is on pretty high but it doesn't seem to be blowing them that violently. It's one of those tower fans and the impeller is just slightly above the "canopy" level of the plants, so it merely makes them sway a little.

I am using the 400w MH apollo that came with my kit. Temps are between 68-74, I let it get a little too cold one night. RH is usually between 35-40%
 
Sounds bang on. Is the 400 at 100%? If it's underwatering, they should perk up by morning. Happy Frog is built for young plants. Only thing I can guess is that they got a little "leggy" and can't quite take the breeze. Hope they perk up soon. Keep us posted

40% RH is a bit low but that's what I deal with here as well. Just a bit twisted when very young but they always seem to acclimate in a couple of weeks.
 
Sounds bang on. Is the 400 at 100%? If it's underwatering, they should perk up by morning. Happy Frog is built for young plants. Only thing I can guess is that they got a little "leggy" and can't quite take the breeze. Hope they perk up soon. Keep us posted

40% RH is a bit low but that's what I deal with here as well. Just a bit twisted when very young but they always seem to acclimate in a couple of weeks.

40% is a little higher than I'm use to seeing actually, last grow it would hang out around 25-35%. Oh yeah I forgot to mention I had the ballast at 75%. I guess they're ready for 100% if they're getting stretchy.

They are looking better now, I'll forego for the pics since there's not too much difference. Didn't know the low humidity is what causes those twisted leaves like that. Look like Ruffles potato chips lol

Someone pointed out to me that these containers are pretty shallow, and I am kind of thinking I should put them into solo cups before they get much bigger but I'm not really sure how much of a rootball they've formed either. It does seem like the Happy Frog dries up WAY faster than I'm used to with Black Gold, so some bigger pots might come in handy. I want them to end up in 3 gallon pots, and don't have enough 1 gallons to transition into though, but the perfect amount of solo cups...

At this point still not even sure how many I'm going to end up with. Right now I have 15 gallons of dirt, 5 3 gallon pots, and negative 10 bucks in my budget. So you know, looks like I got just enough for 5... Trying to get enough for more pots and soil before it's time to transplant again, and I'm not sure if the solo cups have enough room to grow into.
 
Still looking a little rough. I think I need to put them into deeper containers, going to try to switch them into solo cups as soon as I can, but I don't think there's much of a rootball formed in the yogurt cups so it could be a little messy and I'm worried about damaging the roots :/

They're still flopping over so I decided to make more braces for them. Just a wire coat hanger cut to length, then put down through the eye-loop formed by a bread tie. Worked pretty good last time, some of these other ones seem to be staying up okay but are just leaning over like palm trees reaching for light. I took them out of their trays and put them in a grid pattern to try to distribute the light out a little better.

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Have you checked the soil isnt too heavy are your drainage holes big enough sounds quite similar to how mines started off till i transplanted them into better pots
 
Put them into solo cups tonight, their roots were already twirling away down at the bottom. They're really not looking that good, hopefully they perk up soon. One of them has some yellow cotyldeons but I think it's still too early for nutrients.

Has anyone ever put multiple plants in one pot? I am not sure about running ten 3 gallon pots in a 4x4 tent, but I wonder what would happen if I put two plants per 3 gallon pot and had 5 pots.

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