2020 - 2021 Bubble Kush RQS, Bubba Kush Dinafem, Sour Tangie GOG, Strawberry Amnesia Dinafem

[BluePhoric]

Producing my own Feminised seeds :

When the clones grow to be a good size, they will be put in a separate flowering room with 12/12 lighting.

I ordered some Colloïdal Silver... Female clones will be sprayed everyday for a period of time, until male flowers appear.

Male pollen will be collected from each clone, and when the time comes, I will pollinate one cola (or two) from my mother plants. I suppose I will wrap and shake a bag with pollen in it over a female cola.

At the end of the grow, I should be able to harvest a good amount of seeds.

The goal is to be able to grow some of the strains again if some really stand out in terms of yield/effect/potency/taste ...

If some of you have any experience withs this... please let me know !

Thanks,
BP

 

[BluePhoric]

5 weeks :

I did a 2nd topping about 5 days ago. Supercropping (breaking branches at an angle) started at the same time.

This is the ~ shape I created...

I created 4 main branches at 2 different nodes, then topped again, for a total of 8 colas.

I removed much more on the two sativas, choosing lower nodes to keep those two plants shorter. About the same height relative to the two indicas.

Clones :

My 4 cuttings should go into solo-cups this weekend, as it's been 9 days in the "incubator".
As an incubator, I only use an upside down container and I maintain the RH high, misting water twice a day.
I keep a single CFL bulb over the incubator, 24/24.

BP

 

[MotaFina]

Well done. You're really branching out (no pun intended) with the seed experiment and the clones. I wish I had space for projects.

 

[Enjoying]

This time, I'll be growing :

Bubble Kush aka Bubblegum X O.G. Kush, (Royal Queen)
Bubba Kush, (Dinafem)
Sour Tangie, (Garden of green)
Strawberry amnesia (Dinafem)

I've been growing in 2Gal tissue pots, but I bought 3Gals for this grow.
Still growing in coco (used compressed coco before), but got a bag of H&G Cocos this time.

Nutes : General Hydro MAXI GROW and MAXI BLOOM
Lights : MH 450W - 600W / HPS 600W
Medium : H&G Cocos mixed with 25-30 % perlite
Pot : 3gal fabric pots.

Talk to me a bit on how you feed and water your coco please as I have read a lot of different ways people do it. Like do you feed and water daily, when it dries out etc. I know plants feed differently from strain to strain etc.

 

[BluePhoric]

Talk to me a bit on how you feed and water your coco please as I have read a lot of different ways people do it. Like do you feed and water daily, when it dries out etc. I know plants feed differently from strain to strain etc.

I'll water when needed, when pretty dry. But if it is "THAT" morning that I have time to water and the plants would be too dry 24h later... I'll water at that time even if not completely dry.

I did try, in previous grows, various methods, including multi-feed per day using pumps an what not.
This was an excellent method to get a zillion Fungus Gnats, and no big improvement in yield, for me.

I went back to hand watering. I only grow a max of 4 plants, so no big deal.

Frequency :

Watering frequency will vary greatly depending of environment (relative humidity), size of plants, size of pots, etc.

If a plant needs watering every 2 days, in my opinion, she's the happiest. This creates a good O2/Oxygen variation.

When you up-size your pots, there will be more coco, more water, for a smaller plant and root system. It may be several days between waterings. But as the plant grows, it will dry out faster and faster. 2-3 gallon final pots have been great for me.

Right now I am watering every 3 days, for 3.5 gallon pots. And the plants are still small because I pruned so much.
Eventually, I'll need to water every 2 days, and maybe everyday at some point.

For my 4 plants I use 20 Litres (5+ gallons), so 5L per plant. A day before watering I fill 2 buckets and let the water stand (looses some chlorine and also PH stabilises). The day of watering, I'll put Cal/Mag first, then the nutes (check PPMs), then adjust PH.

Nutes:

On this grow I had to reduce the nutes. I'm at 400ppm only right now. My environment is so dry, the plants evaporate water more quickly and uptake more nutes faster.

I always get ~20% runoff when watering. I never need to flush.

Different strains : I use the same water/nutes for all 4 plants. I'll adjust the nutes according to the less nute-hungry plant. The sativas I have would be darker-green with more nutes, but my indicas would find it excessive.

One of my indicas started having problems... At first the leaves were getting too dark. Then lack of Cal/Mag and excessive nutes = lockout. I reduced the nutes, gave more cal/mag, and the situation resolved in a matter of days.

So... It is optimal to adjust everything for each individual plant, but i.m.e. you can have a pretty successful grow by averaging things so all plants are pretty healthy.

P.S.: Depending on how much (if any) perlite you mix with your coco-coir, drainage will be different. I use ~ 25% perlite in my coco. I tried without perlite, did'nt like it as much. More (30%) perlite was fine though.

BP

 

[BluePhoric]

As for the nutes, I use 'hydro' nutes...

General Hydro MAXI GROW and MAXI BLOOM.

Pretty cheap, lasts several grows, works great.

 

[Enjoying]

Thanks for the great info!

I've been debating picking up some buckets to let water sit but have read that chloramine doesn't evaporate like chlorine so I haven't moved forward there. My city uses chloramine unfortunately. I have read that you can fill a bathtub with water, add vitamin C tablets to it and chloramine will sink to the bottom as sediment. I don't have a spare bathtub nor am I really in the position to take on that task lol. Buckets with vitamin C tabs may suffice =]

I was watering my plant approximately every 7 - 10 days but that was to long I think. I live in Southern California so very dry and low humidity. It had nutrition problems also. I plan on making some dirt for this season. I'm actually off to do that once I respond to this. I am just recycling the dirt I used last season adding some Down to Earth Bio Live, silica and compost tea to help the break down process. I think this will get the plant(s) through veg and once it flowers I'll add something for the flowering stage. I haven't decided brand yet and I'll just continue feeding with compost tea, silica and cal mag.

I used about 25 - 35% perlite in the coco along with lining the bottom of the pot with it. It already had some in it but I added a little more. I used the big stuff though like for hydro.

I'm tempted to use compost tea as water =]

 

[BluePhoric]

Thanks for the great info!

I've been debating picking up some buckets to let water sit but have read that chloramine doesn't evaporate like chlorine so I haven't moved forward there. My city uses chloramine unfortunately. I have read that you can fill a bathtub with water, add vitamin C tablets to it and chloramine will sink to the bottom as sediment. I don't have a spare bathtub nor am I really in the position to take on that task lol. Buckets with vitamin C tabs may suffice =]

I was watering my plant approximately every 7 - 10 days but that was to long I think. I live in Southern California so very dry and low humidity. It had nutrition problems also. I plan on making some dirt for this season. I'm actually off to do that once I respond to this. I am just recycling the dirt I used last season adding some Down to Earth Bio Live, silica and compost tea to help the break down process. I think this will get the plant(s) through veg and once it flowers I'll add something for the flowering stage. I haven't decided brand yet and I'll just continue feeding with compost tea, silica and cal mag.

I used about 25 - 35% perlite in the coco along with lining the bottom of the pot with it. It already had some in it but I added a little more. I used the big stuff though like for hydro.

I'm tempted to use compost tea as water =]

Everything I'll say is in my humble opinion...

Perlite on the bottom of a pot is useless. It only raises the water column (water sits at the bottom) and robs you of pot space.

7 days is A LONG TIME between waterings. Plants are drowning. Either the pots are way too big for the plants, or medium is not draining properly. Like I said, 1 to 3 days is what I aim for ine terms of watering frequency.

If using "ordinary dirt" or pre-used soil, add 25% shrimp compost (1-1-1) in it. Cheap, widely available, efficient.
At some point, the soil needs supplemental ferts... at least for flowering.

Chloramine : Ask MotaFina how he deals with Chloramine...

Standing water :
1- Plant prefers room temp water.
2- Tap water is cold... and PH readings are pretty much different when water is at room temp. My water gains in PH (alkalinity) several points when water goes from cold to room temp. After 24h PH is stabilized.
3- There may be chloramine, but may there be chlorine also ???

BP

 

[BluePhoric]

Update : week 6 starting tomorrow.

The plants were sooo bushy... I removed a lot of shoots and leaves.

I also continued the training, supercropping, bending, tying.
Some are pretty-much trained to the shape I want, others are a work in progress...
Like on Bubblegum-OG, internodes are so close, with little separation between the selected branches, after recent topping.

-Sour Tangie is gorgeous, bushy for a sativa, grows like crazy, I really like what she's doing.
-Bubba Kush is the oddball of the bunch. Darker leaves, a bit crispy. But she's fine. Big fat leaves...
-Bubblegum OG is incredibly bushy and has very short internodes.
-Strawberry Amnesia grows the tallest and I do everything to keep her short.

FRONT LEFT : Sour Tangie
FRONT RIGHT : Bubba Kush
BACK LEFT : Bubblegum OG
BACK RIGHT : Strawberry Amnesia

Trunks are getting a good size... as big as my index.

Watering :

They're shifting to a 2 days watering schedule. It was 2 days this morning, and they'll be watered early tonight.
So they are at ~ 2.5 days... A few waterings and they'll be at 48hrs.

Flipping (flowering) date :

Looking at 2 factors :

1- My clones are way too young to flip soon. I will make them do male flowers and I dont need big plants.
2 -The training left to be done on 2 plants...

So I guess in 2 weeks, maybe 3 (damn they will be big then).
They would be at 8 weeks (56 days) or 9 weeks (63 days). Either would be my longest "Veg".

Clones :

The 4 little clones are coming thru. They looked pretty unhappy when put in solo cups about 4 days ago, but they look more lively now. They should all make it.

BP

 

[MotaFina]

his is the ~ shape I created...

So this is sort of like a quadline, right? A manifold would only use the very top node?

 

[Enjoying]

Everything I'll say is in my humble opinion...

Perlite on the bottom of a pot is useless. It only raises the water column (water sits at the bottom) and robs you of pot space.

7 days is A LONG TIME between waterings. Plants are drowning. Either the pots are way too big for the plants, or medium is not draining properly. Like I said, 1 to 3 days is what I aim for ine terms of watering frequency.

If using "ordinary dirt" or pre-used soil, add 25% shrimp compost (1-1-1) in it. Cheap, widely available, efficient.
At some point, the soil needs supplemental ferts... at least for flowering.

Chloramine : Ask MotaFina how he deals with Chloramine...

Standing water :
1- Plant prefers room temp water.
2- Tap water is cold... and PH readings are pretty much different when water is at room temp. My water gains in PH (alkalinity) several points when water goes from cold to room temp. After 24h PH is stabilized.
3- There may be chloramine, but may there be chlorine also ???

BP

I don't take anything super serious. In this case you are telling me what you do for you and it seems to work but that doesn't mean it will for me. Life is trial and error. This is just a side hobby for me and while I am trying to grow nice healthy happy plants with great harvests I am not to worried about it. This doesn't mean I don't want any and all the info I can get so I can try though.

No more perlite at the bottom of the pit anymore. Thanks for educating me on that!

I was watering mine 7 - 10 days but this is outdoors in dry SoCal so it was quite dry when I watered it. There w ere times the medium was pulling away from the edges of the pot so yeah supper dry.

I used Baby Bu's Potting Mix from Malibu Compost. I will be re using this but adding Down to Earth Biolive 5 4 2 now so it can start breaking down into the soil. I will figure out a flower fertiliser soon so I am ready come time. Obv up PK and start adding CalMag if not before.

I would have to reach out to the water company and ask. I know awhile back one of the bills said they were going to either change to or add chloramine. I know it was chlorine prior.

 

[BluePhoric]

So this is sort of like a quadline, right? A manifold would only use the very top node?

Quadline sounds good !

 

[BluePhoric]

I don't take anything super serious. In this case you are telling me what you do for you and it seems to work but that doesn't mean it will for me. Life is trial and error. This is just a side hobby for me and while I am trying to grow nice healthy happy plants with great harvests I am not to worried about it. This doesn't mean I don't want any and all the info I can get so I can try though.

No more perlite at the bottom of the pit anymore. Thanks for educating me on that!

I was watering mine 7 - 10 days but this is outdoors in dry SoCal so it was quite dry when I watered it. There w ere times the medium was pulling away from the edges of the pot so yeah supper dry.

I used Baby Bu's Potting Mix from Malibu Compost. I will be re using this but adding Down to Earth Biolive 5 4 2 now so it can start breaking down into the soil. I will figure out a flower fertiliser soon so I am ready come time. Obv up PK and start adding CalMag if not before.

I would have to reach out to the water company and ask. I know awhile back one of the bills said they were going to either change to or add chloramine. I know it was chlorine prior.

When there is science... there is less trial and error, and more imnediaye success. Most of the time, it takes no supplemental effort to do things right...

 

[BluePhoric]

Day 46 (Veg):

Strawberry Amnesia :

Sour Tangie:

Bubblegum OG :

Bubba Kush :

The clones...

Top left, strawberry amnesia is looking great. New leaves, plenty of roots.
Bottom left, Bubble OG doesn't look like much, but shows several roots.
The other two (Bubba and Strawberry) look alive... but show not roots yet.

Progress is extremely slow with the clones. If I wasn't waiting for those, I'd flip the 4 mother plants.

I think I'll try to put the clones closer to the cfl bulbs to see if things speed up...

BP

 

[MotaFina]

The plants look great! Are you keeping the clones misted? The SA clone looks healthy.

 

[BluePhoric]

The plants look great! Are you keeping the clones misted? The SA clone looks healthy.

Thanks MF.

It's been 9 days since the clones are in solo-cups.

I probably stopped misting 7 days ago. I misted 2 of them this morning.

It always seems to be a struggle to get my clones started, but they always made it thru..
I find its a really slow process for me. Not sure if it's easier for other people.

BP

 

[MotaFina]

It's been about 15 years since I've done any cloning. Back then I grew everything from clones taken off a White Widow mother plant. I used a humidity dome and would mist them a couple of times daily until I could see roots coming out the sides/bottoms of the peat cups. I have no memory of how long it took but I recall having about 75% success rate (~15 plants out of 20 clones).

 

[BluePhoric]

It's been about 15 years since I've done any cloning. Back then I grew everything from clones taken off a White Widow mother plant. I used a humidity dome and would mist them a couple of times daily until I could see roots coming out the sides/bottoms of the peat cups. I have no memory of how long it took but I recall having about 75% success rate (~15 plants out of 20 clones).

The two sativas are doing great. Healthy new growth, plenty of roots.

One indica (Bubblegum OG) seems ok, plenty of roots, but not much signs of new growth.

The last (Bubba kush), always the oddball... is alive and green, but small and I'm not seeing roots or growth.

I had 100% success in previous clonings, but I probably only cloned 6-8 plants in the past.

I don't mind if Bubba does not make it thru, I don't need her since I have other seeds of that strain (unlike the other strains). And I dont even think I'd grow it again... but I'll see if she's worth it in terms of yield and smoking experience. But to date... not impressed with her genetics.

I also use a dome, jiffy pellets and mist, for about 10 days or when I see roots for the majority of plants then put them in solo cups and then soon stop misting. I dont use a heating mat and no professional "cloner"... so that may explain the slow process. And/or I'm not a so good cloner, hahaha. I haven't put too much energy at refining that aspect yet.

Thanks MF!

 

[MotaFina]

You could always take another cutting of the Bubba Kush if that one doesn't make it. Oh, but you're waiting for the clones before you switch to 12/12, right?

 

[BluePhoric]

Yes, I could take another cutting of BKush... But yeah, no time. I wish to flip to 12/12 asap.

I could pollinate some BubbaKush buds with another of my 3 strains... could be fun !
1 ==> Bubblegum OG x Bubba Kush (BubbaGump I'd name it), or
2 ==> Strawberry Amnesia x Bubba kush (Strawmnesia-b-k), or
3 ==> Sour tangie x bubba-k

I guess #2 would be my preferred choice : Strawmnesia is the tallest growing and could benefit from some indica genes. AND/OR the week genetics of Bubba could benifit from the strenghth of Strawmnesia. Could be a fun experiment. Not conviced anything good would come out of it.

- Little Bubba still wants to be alive, but wants to stay a baby.
- Bubble OG has crooked leaves, but rooting is good, so I guess in a week she'll look great.
- Strawberry Amnesia and Sour Tangie are growing great.

I will possibly be able to flip in a week.

BP