2x Hydro Banana Kush x Gorilla Glue #4 Grow Journal - 2017

[BedroomFarmer]

I second the aero cloner. Easiest way to clone hands down especially hard to root ones. I'm no sure if you have seen Dewey but here is what I put together, the prototype, the final product, and root shots towards the bottom.

Air powered aeroponic cloner! No more over heating!

Plant is beautiful! Looking great!

 

[MikkaTheEnt]

In checking out whether DK2 is an autoflower or not (can't tell, no sign on the seed packaging and the distributor didn't know), I found that if I end up flipping to 12/12 on the lights, that will actually keep an autoflower from growing to its maximum. I found this on Royal Queen seeds website at The Perfect Light Schedules For Autoflowering Cannabis

So now I've a conundrum: whether to just keep up the same 16/8 light schedule and trust it's an auto, or change to 12/12 and hope it's NOT an auto.

On the one hand, if I do keep lights at 16/8, I can keep my Blueberry Headband seedlings in the tent, as they are NOT auto and will need 16/8 till I do purposely flip them. In fact, I can put the strongest one in the now-vacant (thanks to DK1's death) WaterFarm, and grow that in hydro, and leave the other two in soil and shove them outdoors eventually, when they are strong enough.

On the other hand, if I flip to 12/12, I will definitely have to push the Blueberry Headband seedling bags outside when I do the flip. And I'll have to trust that I won't be stunting DK2's growth by starving her of enough light during flowering.

What to do, what to do? Well, I think regardless, I'm now going to go ahead and veg DK2 for another week, to get the full six weeks in. In the meantime, I'm watching for signs of flowering, scouring her stems for signs of calyxes and pistils. If I find some starting, I'll just have to trust she's an autoflower and stick with 16/8.

Here's the latest pic, see how DK2 is growing bushier and taller by the day, and she's consuming about 1/2 gallon of nutey water every day now. This is day 39 from seed:

 

[MikkaTheEnt]

So here's my nice 420 surprise. DK2 is really taking off, both in width and height growth. I'm pretty certain she's an autoflower, so I'll be switching her out to flowering nutes today but leaving lights at 16/8 per autoflower flowering advice.

 

[Amadeus Forzin]

Looking nice .

 

[MikkaTheEnt]

Growing cannabis is a learning experience. Don't let anyone tell you any different.

So today I decided to do some more LST, as the canopy has been growing again after just two days of the first LST.

As I was apparently man-handling a thick branch, using a twistie to bring it down, I saw a sickening sight: the tearing of the branch at the main stem. I managed to stop before I pulled the whole damn thing off, and saw that it was separated by about 1/3.

I did some quick reading to find out if this was salvageable, and apparently it is. Some advocate duct taping the branch, but if you don't go very far through, you can just leave it alone. Me, advocating the minimalist approach here, decided to just leave it be for now, and see what happens over the next day or two.

Here's DK2 at day 46.

I've gone ahead and flipped the switch, she's now getting 12/12 lights on/off. Still on aggressive veg nutes till she starts showing flowers. I learned from some folks that she is NOT an autoflower, or she would have flowered by herself by now. So more learning.

 

[BedroomFarmer]

Big and bushy! Beautiful!

 

[MikkaTheEnt]

Alrighty then, it's been a few since my last update, been busy busy busy, but not too busy to tend to my bush. So, here is DK2 on day 60, or day 17 after I flipped the lights to 12/12:

Can't fit the entire bush in with my phone, so this is just the top. And speaking of the top, I keep trying to tie down the upper branches to keep the canopy flat and expose as many of the calyxes exposed to good light as possible. Since there are no actual "holes" to put a tie through, I've been cheating a bit and tying upper branches down to the lower ones, which in effect brings them sort of level with each other, but now the upper branches are so strong that they won't actually bend that much, so I came up with a plan per a suggestion: weigh them down. Searched high and low through the house for a decent kind of low weight that would do the trick, and stumbled across the silverware drawer. Viola! The ties wrap beautifully around them and provide enough weight. So here is my professional weight system:

Soup spoons ... not just for soup any more!

And now, a close up of one of the many calyxes that have formed in the past 17 days since I flipped:

Got lots of these forming on all the branches. I'm interested to see how they grow now. I've seen pics of White Widow x Big Bud and know that some strains form these simply huge buds. Not sure that's going to happen here, but who knows? I am in first-timers awe and delight at this whole process.

And we march on towards harvest ...

 

[MikkaTheEnt]

It's day 68 from seed here on the indoor farm. Donkey Kong #2 is still doing well. I keep weighing her down but she wants to grow still, even though I'm on 12/12 lights and flowering nutes. This is week 3 of flowering. Here are some pics:

Close up of the developing calyxes (I counted about 25 of them) in the second pic. Just three weeks to go! Looking forward to the harvest.

 

[MikkaTheEnt]

Day 35 in flower, and DK2 has stopped growing and is working on developing flower. I now know two things:

1. Start LST much earlier than I did. I waited too long and the bush got out of control, and now too many of the calyxes aren't getting the full benefit of the light.

2. Be more attentive to how close the lights are to the canopy top. I had to leave for a few days and came back to burn.

Here's the pics:

This shows how crowded the plant is down below the canopy. I should have started spreading it out much earlier to avoid this. Now I won't have as big of a harvest as I'd hoped. But live and learn. It's my first grow.

This close-up shows the burning of the leaves on the branches that were nearly touching (some even touching) the light when I got back home from a few days away. I raised the lights up another 12" and now things are back to normal, though the burned leaves will probably persist. Hopefully I didn't screw the buds on those burned branches too.

Anyway, that's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

 

[Amadeus Forzin]

Ouch. Bet the girls don't even notice

 

[MikkaTheEnt]

It's harvest day for the lass. I am busy trimming her ample larboard side and putting the harvest in the drying thing.

In a week I'll weigh the lot and post a pic, then go into two weeks of cure, then I'll be ready for a smoke report.

 

[MikkaTheEnt]

OK, about a week in the dryer and here is the very sticky uncut yield from Donkey Kong 1:

Did a final trim and put the buds into 3 jars for the 2 week or more cure:

Yield was 60.75 grams, or just over 2 ounces that I won't have to buy at a dispensary for pain relief. I figure that I spent about $130 on electricity to run the tent with two plants (one Blueberry Headband CBD still in flower, ready in another week or two). So for DK1, cut that in half to $65, plus $20 for the two seeds (one failed), that makes it about $85 total cost including my free labor of love to get to two ounces. At today's dispensary prices in Los Angeles, it would have cost me $700 to buy this much, meaning I've saved myself about $615. I still have to amortize the cost of the tent, etc. into the equation, but at this rate, it will take just one more successful grow and everything will have paid for itself. Plus I get the satisfaction of making something grow.

So, I am pretty chuffed right about now. I know I did some things wrong in this, my first, grow. First, I let the bush get out of control. I should have started trimming off lower fan leaves from the start so it didn't get so dense. Plus, I should have started LST sooner and done it more often; I had too many calyxes getting substandard light as they were down low in the bush. I didn't accurately measure out my nutes, letting spill happen too often, which probably over nuted the plants. And I went away for a few days when vertical growth was not done yet, so when I got back, I had some shoots actually touching the LEDs and causing leaf burn.

Still, despite all that, I got 2 ounces off my first plant. And I did it all myself, with all the help of the many growers I have read and studied here. My thanks to you all, a great community here at 420, for the much needed assist.

My next grow will be White Widow x Big Bud and Grand Daddy Purple. I won't be making the same mistakes this time out though. I'm anticipating a great harvest, now that I actually know what I'm doing and what to expect at each stage of the game.

Again, many thanks, folks.

 

[MikkaTheEnt]

SMOKE REPORT:

Actually, since I vape, it's a vape report, but that's just semantics.

Opening the jar, I got hit by a sweet skunky smell, not too overpowering but really nice to the nose. Ground up a few buds and popped some into the CFV and started drawing. Nice and tasty stuff, kind of refreshing and you can tell this is fresh weed, rather than something that's been sitting on a shelf for months. As usual, it took a few hard and short draws to start pulling in and exhaling visible vapor, but there was a lot of it as opposed to other strains I've tried.

Effects: Nothing immediate, but then all of a sudden I realized I was quite nicely toasted. It was a pretty heady high. I'm no lightweight though and it usually takes two sessions from my med buys to get as high as I was with one session of this strain. Immediate couch lock too, and soon I was dozing pleasantly off to sleep (it was after midnight anyway).

I can see this will be a great anti-pain strain. I don't necessarily want a migraine, but I'm anxious to put this strain up against my next one to see how well it smashes the pain, and hopefully works on some of the other body effects of migraines as well. It works well against my chronic neck and shoulder pain, though, so I'm sure it'll do well in the crunch of a migraine.

So, that's my report and I'm stickin' to it. I really like this strain and will be growing more. I just started a White Widow x Big Bud, along with a Holy Grail Kush, grows; both are in the tent and the sprouts are doing well (I have already started separate journals for these).

 

[Teddy Edwards]

Hope all is well in your world.

Thanks for sharing this grow with us.

I’m moving this to Completed Journals now.

Have you started a new grow you would like to share with us?

If so, please feel free to start a new journal here: Journals in Progress

Sending you lots of love and positive energy.