A Calamitous Cascade Of Catastrophes

[Kriaze]

As the title states this will be a grow that should have a fair few problems, mainly because most of my grows do.

This one in particular will be revolving around the Killer Skunk clones that I have in the veg tent. A couple of them will be organic and the rest will be chemically fed using Advanced Nutrients PH perfect basic range along with their Calmag. I will also be using Fishmix and Humbold's Secret Golden Tree on the chemical plants, they will be planted in Clover with John Innes Compost plus I will add Perlite for aeration. The organic plants will be run using my own compost and worm castings along with some Sphagnum Peat Moss which I am going picking up shortly and I will add Perlite for aeration again.

In the veg tent the lighting will be 1 Cree CXB3590 COB and 2 DIY built Citizen Cobs, they are all running at around 50w output.

Once they are moved into the flowering the lighting will be a SunSystem 315 CMH light supplemented by 4 prebuilt COB systems running at 60w and 2 Cree COB lights each at 50w.

The plants in the veg tent were started awhile ago and the cuttings are in various stages of growth, it's pretty messy in there so I will be culling a lot of the plants whilst I repot those that seem ok, I will post pics of the veg tent later when I get back home and I am ready to repot.

In the meantime the flowering tent is holding two of my own seeds which are Incredible Bulk crossed with White Strawberry Skunk plus one plant which is a fully grown Killer Skunk. We can have a look at those now but they won't be the main focus of this journal, although they may make an appearance now and again:

They were flipped 2 nights ago and are just about showing signs of preflowering

I will be back later with the veg tent update. May your buds be forever bountiful.​

 

[Kriaze]

Organic preparation and veg tent update:

I went and picked up some Peat Moss and cracked on making the organic soil preparation.

Here is one of my compost bins as it currently stands, things are growing in there so I know there are some nutrients:

So a quick turn of that compost tumbler and on to the next. This is the compost that I will use, much more refined and broken down, smells Earthy and full of goodness:

A few scoops of worm castings added (no pictures as my worms don't like the flash) and some Perlite:

Gave it a good mix up and added the peat moss:

Organic soil done, let's see how it fares

This is how the veg tent looked before I started, this is after culling around 4 plants that were looking poorly, this will happen a lot:

The marked plant will be the one going into the organic soil. She'll need her strength plus she needed watering:

Here she is repotted, a Killer Skunk grown organically could be a good thing, if she survives.

Here is an out of focus shot of her cover crop, I wanted Clover but I will need to order those online, for now I'll be using Alfalfa:

But there was something wrong with that picture and I didn't get time to rectify it. Little did I know that 5 minutes later a 33 hour hospital visit was due....let's roll on past that visit ​

 

[Kriaze]

Fast forward to today and it was time to get back to the girls, let's see how the Killer Skunk is doing 34 hours later and her cover crop sown:

She's alive and kicking, we'll let her do her own thing from now on. I'll see how she goes but if the worst comes to the worst I will use a dibber and spike some nutrients in there. I'm not sure how I will do it as if the roots grow too far outwards and hit uncooked nutrients there will be some burn going on, I may cook some up as batches of high Nitrogen (N), high Phosphorous (P) and high Potassium (K) so that I can use them as I see fit. I can't see it being hard to keep the micro herd alive as nature does it well enough without any interference, such a resilient sense of nature she has.

This girl was planted into the Clover compost that I bought and also had Alfalfa sown. Don't ask me why it just seemed ok at the time, even if she will be chemically fed:

Another girl was also repotted into the Clover compost too:

This girl is staying as she is for now, she's spindly too so I'll decide what I'm doing with her at a later date:

The only surviving member of the older Killer Skunk clones, she was the best of the bunch that I did not cull and will be fed chemical nutrients:

Let's see how the tent is looking overall, pretty bare I'm thinking:

Next up I will plant a couple of my seeds but until then may your buds be forever bountiful ​

 

[ShiggityFlip]

Hey my last grow started in catastrophe and is ending great! So I'm signed along for this ride!

 

[Kriaze]

A minor update tonight to show the growth of the Alfalfa cover plants and a quick overall view of both the veg tent and the flower tent. I know I said I wouldn't be showing too much of the flower tent but while I was there I thought I would grab a picture of them.

I watered all the plants in the veg tent with plain water yesterday and today the Alfalfa had grown quite nicely in my own organic soil:

They seem to like my soil and they are also growing in the Clover soil that I sowed them in too, although not quite as vigorously, I'm sure they will pick up soon enough:

A quick overlook of the veg tent as it currently is:

Also a quick look at the flowering tent which has the Killer Skunk plus my two own seed plants which are named Incredible Skunk (Incredible Bulk x White Strawberry Skunk). Let's hope my seeds live up to their name:

These plants were fed 5 litres each of water along with AN nutrients Micro, Grow, Bloom and CalMag over the past two days and are seemingly doing ok so far.

The next update will be next time. Until then may your buds be forever bountiful ​

 

[Kriaze]

Veg plants, flowering buds, pollen and seeds

Today both my big bag of Peat Moss and my order of seeds came so it is time for an update.

We can start by taking a look in the veg tent to see what is happening in there.

The first of the tied down girls is showing good growth and every time they pop their heads up I am in there pushing them back down. She looks happy enough with her Alfalfa cover crop and is pretty healthy too:

The second tied down girl is not growing as much, the only difference between her and the first girl is the lack of a cover crop, we will see if she can catch up in the future:

The eldest Killer Skunk clones are doing well too, apart from one but we will get to her later. First let us take a look at the eldest girl:

After being left to her own devices when the tent was last full she seems to be enjoying her space and is looking much healthier. Now on to the second eldest Killer Skunk clone:

This girl too does not seem to mind her Alfalfa cover crop and is seemingly looking healthier than ever. There is hope for my soil mix yet, time will tell.

The third Killer Skunk clone I have not been impressed with for awhile, she looks spindly and weak in comparison to the other two:

So it was out with the secateurs and here is her pot now:

This is how the veg tent is currently looking:

She will be remembered fondly, nah just kidding. She has gone up to the green spirit in the sky to make way for the seeds that I will be planting shortly, talking of which let us take a look at those seeds:

I have grown Bubba's Gift before and found her to be very slow during vegetative growth which seems to be the norm. She was a beautiful smoke though so I thought I would have another crop of the same. We can take a closer look at the packaging and read all about them here:

The front:

The back that has the details of the strain, 48 days flowering seems a little optimistic especially as I like a little CBN in my smoke, still I remember this strain as being a standout smoke and I look forward to harvesting from these:

The Blue Dream was a last minute change of mind from Green Crack. I was browsing the web when I came across it and remembered that I had read grows of this strain on the forums, if I remembered rightly they were all decent reviews and the write up made it seem even more so. Let's take a look at the front:

Again let us take a look at the back of the packaging too where all the strain information is:

These seeds will either go into paper towels tomorrow or I may plant directly into soil, which is why I watered the pot that I had removed the weak Killer Skunk clone from. I am not too sure which method to go with yet and will play it by ear tomorrow.

While I was in the room I decided that it was about time to back cross the Incredible Bulk x White Strawberry Skunk (Incredible Skunk) seeds that I created as I hear that it makes for a more stable strain, not that the strain seems unstable now. Both seeds germinated and they have grown into strong healthy plants, but if it does help then why not give it a try? Plus more seeds are always welcome, especially if they have the qualities of the parents. I really cannot wait to see what the harvest and smoke is like.

Let us take a look at one of those Incredible Skunk plants:

There was also a branch that stood out on the Killer Skunk so I thought why not? Here is that branch:

Here is the pollen that I had in the freezer, I hope that it is viable still:

Both the Incredible Skunk and the Killer Skunk should hopefully be pollinated now. If not then it is no great loss, I will have to back cross with a new batch of pollen.

This concludes todays update and the next one should hopefully have some seedlings growing. Until then may your buds be forever bountiful ​

 

[Skullman420]

Hope you don't mind me subbing up your catastrophe I love experimental shit

 

[SweetSue]

Think I'll keep an eye on this one Kraise.

 

[JoetheChro]

Organic preparation and veg tent update:

I went and picked up some Peat Moss and cracked on making the organic soil preparation.

Here is one of my compost bins as it currently stands, things are growing in there so I know there are some nutrients:

So a quick turn of that compost tumbler and on to the next. This is the compost that I will use, much more refined and broken down, smells Earthy and full of goodness:

A few scoops of worm castings added (no pictures as my worms don't like the flash) and some Perlite:

Gave it a good mix up and added the peat moss:

Organic soil done, let's see how it fares

This is how the veg tent looked before I started, this is after culling around 4 plants that were looking poorly, this will happen a lot:

The marked plant will be the one going into the organic soil. She'll need her strength plus she needed watering:

Here she is repotted, a Killer Skunk grown organically could be a good thing, if she survives.

Here is an out of focus shot of her cover crop, I wanted Clover but I will need to order those online, for now I'll be using Alfalfa:

But there was something wrong with that picture and I didn't get time to rectify it. Little did I know that 5 minutes later a 33 hour hospital visit was due....let's roll on past that visit ​

Hello mate I hope this finds you and your plants well. I hope you don't mind me saying this but anticipating a problem is like acknowledging it's there and then ignoring it!

There's a reason you have to cull poorly plants. I assume they were healthy when they arrived as seeds/clones? So either they were healthy and it's your set up or you need to find another seed/clone source!

Why do you think you have had to cull plants?

 

[Kriaze]

Hello mate I hope this finds you and your plants well. I hope you don't mind me saying this but anticipating a problem is like acknowledging it's there and then ignoring it!

There's a reason you have to cull poorly plants. I assume they were healthy when they arrived as seeds/clones? So either they were healthy and it's your set up or you need to find another seed/clone source!

Why do you think you have had to cull plants?

It's not so much a case of anticipating problems and ignoring them, more a case of hoping to cause some and embracing them.

The reason that I cull plants is down to a few factors. Not enough tent space, weak looking plants and plants where I'm testing soils, nutrients or playing around with things such as trying to run soil as hydro. The odd snapped stem can claim a few, as can messing with Colloidal Silver, pretty much a case of one million ways to die in the west.

It's all for fun and I'm pretty sure that they forgive me, can you?

 

[SweetSue]

I'm pretty sure we can forgive you too Kraize.

 

[Kriaze]

Thanks Sue. I'll try to treat them gently as I send them on their way

 

[Kriaze]

Seedling update


3 days ago I prepared some more of my soil and decided that I would plant a Bubba's Gift and a Blue Dream, I also used the pot that I cut the weaker girl from to plant one of my own seeds.

Pictures of the pots they will start in:

Bubba's Gift sown with Clover:

Blue Dream sown with Clover:

My Incredible Skunk (IB x WWS) seed in the old girl's pot:

Tent overall as of 3 nights ago:

I checked in the day after and there was no change but after going in again yesterday look what I found:

Bubba's Gift and Clover:

Blue Dream and Clover, she still has her seed on but she's through:

No show from my seed yet, I'll keep on waiting but I am also hoping I am wrong in that the seeds may no longer be viable after being left out of our broken refrigerator and my forgetting to put them back in until I saw them a couple of weeks later. Keeping my fingers crossed though:

May your buds be forever bountiful ​

 

[JoetheChro]

It's not so much a case of anticipating problems and ignoring them, more a case of hoping to cause some and embracing them.

The reason that I cull plants is down to a few factors. Not enough tent space, weak looking plants and plants where I'm testing soils, nutrients or playing around with things such as trying to run soil as hydro. The odd snapped stem can claim a few, as can messing with Colloidal Silver, pretty much a case of one million ways to die in the west.

It's all for fun and I'm pretty sure that they forgive me, can you?

Fair enough, my gardening isn't for fun (even though I enjoy it) a culled plant is good out of my mouth!

 

[Skullman420]

At least one of your airpots are put together incorrectly. It will still work, but you won't get the "water reservoir" effect due to the first rows not being the right ones. You'll notice most of the water will disappear out the sides. I did the same mistake first time I put em together. They work so much better when they're mounted correctly. Just a tip

 

[Weaselcracker]

Subbed in Kriaze.
Those seeds should still be as viable as ever. They can last a few years even stored improperly.
If it comes to it- I was reading on Feral9x's journal about an interesting and seemingly amazingly effective way of germinating borderline seeds. Will have to try it myself when I get time. I have those old and badly stored N Lights seeds that so far I've failed to sprout.

 

[Skybound]

My entire current grow is from 3 year old improperly stored beans, 2 different strains, 3 different gene pools. I just used the paper towel method in a ziplock baggie on a heatmat with 2 magazine between to lessen the heat.

 

[Kriaze]

At least one of your airpots are put together incorrectly. It will still work, but you won't get the "water reservoir" effect due to the first rows not being the right ones. You'll notice most of the water will disappear out the sides. I did the same mistake first time I put em together. They work so much better when they're mounted correctly. Just a tip

I have noticed that I put the airpots together differently but I have no idea which way around they should be, if you could let me know that would be great as I will fix it next time.

Subbed in Kriaze.
Those seeds should still be as viable as ever. They can last a few years even stored improperly.
If it comes to it- I was reading on Feral9x's journal about an interesting and seemingly amazingly effective way of germinating borderline seeds. Will have to try it myself when I get time. I have those old and badly stored N Lights seeds that so far I've failed to sprout.

Hey Weasel great to hear but I'll have to try a different method than germinating directly into soil as in the update you will see that my seed still has not appeared.

My entire current grow is from 3 year old improperly stored beans, 2 different strains, 3 different gene pools. I just used the paper towel method in a ziplock baggie on a heatmat with 2 magazine between to lessen the heat.

Great to hear Skybound, I will be using the paper towel method for my next attempt with these seeds.

​

 

[Skullman420]

Check the top row of my airpots. You see the cones are uncut? That's so they can form a water reservoir on the top and then distribute the water equally downwards. There is only one row of uncut cones and they go on the top

 

[Kriaze]

Thanks Deville, I will switch them around next time.