BigBearNTX Perpetual Auto Grow

[BigBearNTexas]

Been a slow time in the garden since the last harvest. I’ve had clones of Tangerine Dream ready to go, but I’ve been keeping them small and in their 1L nursery pots longer than I normally would because I didn’t have room in the bloom space to get them to the next step.
I’ve got the majority of my vegetable starts out of the tent and so that freed up room for four Tangies to get put into their Dollar Tree wastebasket hempy pots. I’ve still got some tomatoes, a couple of peppers, and a weld plant (makes yellow dye) in there, but they should be big enough to transplant outside in another couple of weeks. That will give my clones enough time to grow some more roots and recover from transplanting and a trim before I set them on a bloom schedule.

The mother is still producing, her trunk is getting huge. I can see the need of taking a clone to start a new mother plant maybe later this year, but so far she’s been recovering and putting out new growth like a champ.
I’m playing this round with HD Mix, mixed with more perlite. It’s a different animal than my regular coco/perlite mix, so I’m looking forward to seeing how that changes things. Already I can see a difference the peat is making in retaining water. I will have to watch that more than I’m used to. Also using straight water for a while, but will probably switch over to my Megacrop at some point when I see the plants needing it.
Fun stuff abounds!

 

[BigBearNTexas]

Trimmed up the clones in anticipation of flipping next week.

 

[Amy Gardner]

 

[BigBearNTexas]

Seeds got here!!!!

I had succumbed to the 420 Sale. Couldn’t beat the prices.
Nine Blueberry, six White Widow, four Do-Si-Dos, three Jack Herer, three Sour Diesel, three Critical, three Sunset Sherbet, three Alien Rock Candy, and three Purple Punch.

Bought 15, for 22 for free.

 

[BigBearNTexas]

All the veggies are out of the tent. I’ve got four in flower, five clones going for for the next round, and the mother trimmed back, toots trimmed, and repotted.

 

[BigBearNTexas]

I would go back and edit out the bit about trimming toot, but can’t figure out how to edit past posts.

Tonight’s project was Cinnamon Toast Crunch marshmallow treats. Got a pan made with Fruit Loops cooling in the fridge. Fun stuff!

 

[BigBearNTexas]

A little bit of sparkle after lights out.

 

[Amy Gardner]

 

[BigBearNTexas]

Had to harvest last batch a little early due to mites. The next batch of clones and the mother were only lightly affected, so they got several washes of insecticidal soap, and they seem to be okay. I’m continuing to monitor and have added some neem oil to their feed sor some systemic protection.

 

[BigBearNTexas]

A month later and still dealing with mites. I’m spraying with soap, feeding with neem oil, and defoliating to decrease the mite population. I’ll start spraying with neem oil as well, and maybe add a third spray.

I need to get these five clones to harvest, and then I can shut down the tent for a while to make sure that all the mites die.

before and after a defol session:

 

[BigBearNTexas]

Still around. Still spraying insecticidal soap for mites.

Buds are maturing and putting on weight. I’m about two weeks away from the first harvest. I’ll harvest the marire colas first, let the rest of the plant fo for a couple additional weeks and then do a second and final harvest.

 

[BigBearNTexas]

Harvested today. I probably could have let them go a bit longer, but I’m tired of fighting the mites.

I’m going to let my tent go dark for a while. I hope to do a bit of traveling before I start up again. Hopefully that should also give time to break the breeding cycle of the mites. I may start up again with my old small tent, just to let this one rest and any dormant eggs die.

I plan on spraying the tent down every week or so with spinosad, or soap. That may also kill anything lingering or that has gone dormant.

in any case, here are some pics.
Pic id the water after the first wash Nasty

Picture after my first rough trim.

Next step is bagging the buds and refrigerating before hand plucking. Ive found that the trimming is a lot easier when the buds are rehydrated and crisp. This will even out the moisture. Also, when the buds are wet, less resin will stick to my fingers or gloves when I do the final trim.

after the final trim they go into the dehydrator. Once dry they go into jars with Boveda packs to cure.

it seems a bit of overkill to dry them and then rehydrate, but it works for me, let’s me do a full harvest in a weekend, and kills any chance for mold to grow.

 

[BigBearNTexas]

Did not realize it had been so long since I updated.

The tent was dark for about seven weeks, dropped seeds on 10-31-21 and now we are back in business.

I realized that I made an error when storing my seeds - I forgot to make the date I got the seeds. I can sorta remember some of the timing on some seeds, but I realized that my oldest seeds are four years old now and I should probably grow them out before they are no longer viable.

Soaked three Northern Lights autos, two Pineapple Express Autos and a Blueberry photo.

One of the Northern Lights was slow to crack, I was going to give it some more time in the paper towel, but I wound up tossing it by accident. Whoops!

It will all work out though, this just means that I’ll have room to drop another auto at the beginning of December.

 

[BigBearNTexas]

Fingers crossed, but I’m at five weeks and no sign of mites. I’m hoping that I’ve broken the reproductive cycle by going dark for a while and using pyrethrin spray.

Blueberry photo, three Northern Lights Autos and one Pineapple Express Auto.

 

[BigBearNTexas]

Harvested this week.

The Northern Lights had some thick and heavy buds. The Pineapple Express was taller and more spindly.

I had also forgot to water a few times. Enough so that I got some severe wilt and dead leaves. I’m in the midst of trimming and getting all those small dead leaves and rips out of the bud. The bud itself wasn’t effected, just fan leaves and sugar leaves. Stupid mistake but it will clean up fine.

Northern Light rough chop waiting to be make pretty.

And what they will all look like after trimming. I’m about 1/4 done here.

The Pineapple Express looks even worse. It’s bagged up in a 10L zip lock, washed and ready to be made pretty.

I should be able to get everything into the dehydrators today and into jars with Boveda packs tomorrow.

And then on to cloning Blueberry.

 

[BigBearNTexas]

Been lazy about the tent. Made some cuttings for clones earlier in the week but just now got around to doing anything about them. Also started four autos since these cuttings are too to take a while to take off, and I’ll probably lose half anyway. I’m being lazy, but if I get three or four out of the twelve to root that will be plenty. If by some chance all of them root, then I’ll just run with a bunch of small pots.

Left to right; three pots with Purple Punch autos, twelve blueberry cuttings, the Blueberry mother, and a CBD Crack.

Hopefully I’ll see some green from the autos in a few days, and some new froth from the cuttings in a few weeks.

Weighed out the Northern Lights from last harvest, it’s right at five ounces or 140g at the moment. It’s still pretty dry, so I’ll probably go up to about 150g when it’s fully hydrated to my liking.

 

[DonChiefums20]

Congrats on the harvest glad to see you still going strong. I was gone for 3 years and thread still going. I like it wish I would of never stopped.

 

[BigBearNTexas]

Congrats on the harvest glad to see you still going strong. I was gone for 3 years and thread still going. I like it wish I would of never stopped.

Thanks dude. I’m not on here near as much as I was when I first started growing, but I try to check in and document my grows a few times for each run.

I’ve thought about scrapping this journal and starting a new one, but I kind of like having everything in one place. Perhaps renaming it to something more generic, would be more appropriate.

 

[BigBearNTexas]

I think I’m at four weeks in bloom with the blueberry photo clones. They are looking great despite my occasional neglect.

I’m not showing the veg side of the tent, it’s not pretty. I’ve got the mother there, who does not like it when I forget to water/feed on time, and three clones that were slow to develop.

I’m just going to keep them hanging out in their tiny 1L pots. I really should cut clones for the next round, so lay cut from these extras, that should keep them pretty small as well.