Bringing Back Bubble Gum - Serious Seed Co

[thumbo]

Hey folks thumbo here
I have not been seeing a lot of bubblegum plants out there so I am bringing it back!
I have 20 bubble gum seeds from serious seed co. Germinated 3, 1 ended being male, 1 is fer sure female, and the other is unknown.
I started this journal kind of late, but vegging is boring anyways.
This journal begins on the first day of flowering ( which to me is the first day I see sex )
They have been vegging for about 4 weeks until about 5 days ago

Soil-Fox Farms Ocean
Food- General Organics Bio Thrive
Lights- CFL ( I am not a pro grower by any means, and actually I am pretty damn poor to afford hps )


I am still fairly new to growing and would love all feedback
And let me try to figure out how to put pictures up hhaha, ill have them up in a jiff

Regards,
Thumbo

 

[thumbo]

Re: Bringing back Bubble gum ( Serious seed co. )

I will get better pictures up soon. But in the mean time I have to go take care of a few things.

Edit:
And also I have questions as to why my bottom leaves are turning yellow and crusty to the touch
I also think I am not lst'ing right.....

And for those who read my 1st journal please disregard it. Some issues happened and I had no time to keep up with it. This journal on the other hand will see its end.

 

[CaliPho3niX]

Re: Bringing back Bubble gum ( Serious seed co. )

Pretty little plants so far; I've always wanted to get my hands on a pure BG but the one time I was supposed to have picked one up (along with a single Blue Dream) from a local dispensary, both plants ended up growing up to be the same strain... Blue Dream. Not a bad thing, just would've liked to get what I paid for...

Anyway, as to your yellowing/crisping of the lower leaves, are you checking/adjusting the pH level of your nutes before feedings? I was recently having mega issues with my flowering plants ONLY crisping up and yellowing rapidly; Turns out the FF Tiger Bloom I'm using was the culprit, dropped the pH of the whole mix down to 4.5... so I flushed the plants for 3 days, adjusted the nutes back up to 6.8-7.2ish and everything's greening back up nicely. That'd be my first guess, if pH checks out then look into a nitrogen deficiency...

I'm fairly new to LST myself but it's really not complicated at all; You're simply tying down the taller/longer branches, effectively 'spreading' them out to form a single-plant canopy that will allow for better light penetration throughout the plant, as well as more MAIN colas/bud sites and less 'popcorn' or shaded buds. My babies are sleeping right now but I'll try to get a good pic or two of my LST's tonite when they wake...

Main thing to remember in LST is there is no real 'right or wrong' way to do it; Each plant grows differently, and each grower has their own preferences as to how the plants will grow. Certain strains are better suited for LST, some don't work at all (like my Hashberry; Stalks are too thick/brittle and tend to snap rather than bend). Also look into topping/FIM'ing in conjunction with LST for some super bushy, multi-cola monsters...

 

[thumbo]

Re: Bringing back Bubble gum ( Serious seed co. )

Hey cali thanks for stopping in. Yeah I WISH I could have got me some blue dream seeds but the seed bank I went to had 5 seeds for $30.... NO WAY! I got a great deal with these BB seeds 20 for 20 hahaha.

I did check my Ph and it was sitting at about a 6.5
Once my little lady and the mystery one is done sleeping I will get some quality pictures.

QUESTION: Is it possible to grow my babies below the pot level to keep height at a minimum? Like lst them that low?

 

[CaliPho3niX]

Re: Bringing back Bubble gum ( Serious seed co. )

My babies all came from clone... this grow at least. So far 8 different strains in a very limited 'perpetual harvest' garden, and they're definitely keeping me on my toes...

Well 6.5 is about perfect (6.8 actually) so I'd look more into a nitrogen deficiency... any other nutes/supplements besides the BioThrive? I don't have any experience with this label personally so I'm not 100% sure if this would make a good full-compliment fertilizer...

And if you mean sacrificing root-zone area for vertical space, this isn't really a height-control measure, the plant is still just as tall and will grow just as fast with or without that extra 1-2" of soil in the bottom of your pot and in the end you'll just be cramping the roots. Better to learn proper topping/LST methods... I know topping/FIM seems like a scary prospect (especially for a new gardener with a very limited number of babies to 'experiment' with) but it sounds like your concern for vertical space might well outweigh the fear of topping, and once you master these method(s) you'll have soooo much more control over your plants' growth, at least most of them...

LST is very non-invasive (no cutting/breaking of the branches) and CAN be used by itself to some extent, but will be MUCH more effective if used together with topping/FIM. I think the biggest mistake most new growers make in respect to topping/pruning is simply overdoing it (too many cuts at one time), or cutting at the wrong location. I personally only FIM the very tippy-top little nub (growth tip) of each main cola, usually only 2-4 at a time per plant; 90% of the time I get it right and will produce 2-3 more growth tips out of each cut, sometimes I actually miss somehow ("F***, I MISSED!" lol) and the plant just continues to grow normally... It happens...

EDIT: OH, you meant bending/tying the branches down below the soil surface/pot level? I thought you meant planting/transplanting the babies lower in the pot, shortening the root zone... Honestly it all depends on your plants. If they're super short, bushy indicas then you might end up tying a branch or two at or below the pot level, but typically most of that lower branching is pruned off just prior to or during the first 2 weeks of flower to promote better airflow below the canopy, prevent mold/disease/pests, and get the plant to focus more on upper cola production, rather than a bunch of airy lower popcorn nugs. Those trimmed branches make great clone chutes, btw, if that is a priority in your garden; It is in mine...

 

[CaliPho3niX]

Re: Bringing back Bubble gum ( Serious seed co. )

Alright, got a couple of pics here showing where/how I top my chutes and what will result, these are both of my little Blueberry baby, last mini-mom I haven't thrown into flower yet. Just to be clear, I'm not positive if this would fall under FIM or simple pinch-topping (or if there's a real difference), but I am in fact pinching these (rather than cutting).

This plant has already been topped once and sprouted 2 main colas; The cola I'm topping in the pic is the SECOND (or the resulting chute, not the one that has been cut already).

So the upper red line (next to my thumb) shows where I actually made the cut/pinch, the lower line shows another (easier) spot to make a cut, but would result in one less chute. The blue circles show the surrounding growth tips that will now grow in to become main colas themselves.

Aaaand that's it... you can see where I made my pinch, and once again where the resulting chutes will grow in. Now once all these chutes catch up and the plant starts bushing out more, she'll be a perfect candidate for LST (I'll get pics of my LST plants tonite when they wake up)... Hopefully this helps a little, at least for the topping.

EDIT: BTW, I probably could have gotten in a little closer and made a more precise pinch on the inner/upper 'nubby' or growth tip but just for simplicity of these pics, I picked a slightly easier spot at the expense of one or two extra tips at the top... No biggie

 

[thumbo]

Re: Bringing back Bubble gum ( Serious seed co. )

So essentially you are cutting a whole branch off at the top?!
And my plant just entered the flowering stage showing the female traits.. Is it still ok to cut the branch?

 

[CaliPho3niX]

Re: Bringing back Bubble gum ( Serious seed co. )

So essentially you are cutting a whole branch off at the top?!

Not a whole branch, just the very tip of the branch (or top in this case), that little piece you see in between my fingers in the second pic is all I pinched... the very newest leaf set growing in. Typically when you 'top' a plant, you count about 3-4 nodes (or branches/V's) down from the top, cut just ABOVE a node (allowing for two new chutes to grow in its place), and most people will attempt to clone the top.

This takes a much larger piece of the plant and runs a greater risk of stunting/shocking the plant temporarily versus a gentle pinch or two here and there, which if done carefully and correctly will actually promote faster and stronger (lateral) growth with minimal stunting.

And my plant just entered the flowering stage showing the female traits.. Is it still ok to cut the branch?

Usually this is done early on in veg (and repeated as necessary) mainly to force the plant to bush out, by the time the plants start showing sex (or pistils/hairs) they're usually close to the end of their initial stretch phase (first 2-week growth spurt in flowering) and starting to slow upward growth while the bud sites begin to take shape.

However, since your goal is overall height reduction (right?), you can still top her if you think it'll become an issue... just don't know how much of a difference it'll make for ya at this point; Probably better to go straight for LST I'm thinking...

 

[CaliPho3niX]

Re: Bringing back Bubble gum ( Serious seed co. )

Here's a couple more quick shots that'll hopefully give a better overall view of what I did...

Kinda hard to see in this pic but the red circle on the left shows where I made my first pinch (roughly 1.5-2 weeks ago now), and as you can see the left side cola slowed her growth while the lower branch on the right quickly grew up and out to form a 'V' in the tops. Also note the small holes drilled around the upper lip of my pots; These will be used later when it's time to tie down branches for LST...

A slightly better view showing both my original and new cuts... note the right side branch is still intact, just missing the very tip now. "Like a moyle, you just... SNIP THE TIP!" Hope these clear things up a little for ya...

ONE more thing; All of that lower branching (below the main colas or 'V' of the plant) is what I'm talking about as far as pruning... All of those lower branches will be trimmed off completely about a week before I start this plant in flower, and all will be cloned for a fresh new batch of babies. I usually end up with anywhere from 3-6 cuts per selected mother, of those I pick only the very best 1-2 to be my future mothers; The rest will be donated, thrown directly into flower for a mid-cycle harvest or experimented with...

 

[thumbo]

Re: Bringing back Bubble gum ( Serious seed co. )

Hey thanks a lot for the info man, I am going to try it on one plant and see how it goes!
I guess you cant go wrong with two colas lol.
On another note, I am going to post pictures up tonight of the second plant I have which is the second pic I posted and I think it might be a male! But I am not quite sure, hoping for some good answers >.<
I will also post some pics of my for sure female!!!! I am so excited for flowering time!!!

Thanks for following!
-Thumbo

 

[CaliPho3niX]

Glad to help bud, I know how confusing the techniques can be, let alone all the dozens of names/acronyms flying your way (FIM, LST, DWC, FIA (that last one was mine, you can probably figure it out... lol starts with a F**K, ends with ALL)

And yer absolutely right, not a DAMN thing wrong with two... On the other hand...

These 3 above are my Maui at about week 2.5, definitely showing a strong sativa dominance (I'm only hoping it's a true island native), so this method of training is absolutely necessary in my garden or this plant would grow out of control. There are already 2 or 3 chutes growing up that now need to be tied with the rest...

Next up are a couple of pics of my one and only Blue Dream (was unable to clone this one... Bummer.) This plant was topped at least twice, all (except for maybe one) of her lowers were pruned, giving her that nice lollipop shape; Unfortunately where I began LST'ing her (simply by bending/holding down the branches each day by hand), I didn't actually tie the branches, so in the end she bunched back up in the middle with two main outer colas taking dominance. By the time I wanted to respread and tie them, they had become too woody/brittle in preparation of buds. Live & learn...

And one parting nug shot for the night...

She's an absolute beaut; Her and her Blueberry sister are both almost identical in size (both height, number of colas and bud density), only way I could tell them apart aside from the tags is a very subtle yet distinct difference in their aromas. Anyways, time to feed the babes and myself as well, hope you learned a little from my rambling slideshow... Will be following closely & looking forward to some updated pics, GL brother...

EDIT: BTW, in case you were curious, the BD will be entering week 6/day 36 on Sunday... so day 34 today. Lovin' it...

 

[Casa Verde]

Nice to see some bubble gummers in here ! be carefull with a high ppm in the soil last weeks to prevent mold !
Mold loves running in the bubblegummers because of the density of the nugs

did i say something ? yes!! looking great in here ,keep em green !

 

[thumbo]

Thanks casa for stopping by!! And sorry but what is ppm?!

But as I said, I just got done having some pints with the guys and now its time to show my lady off. When I came home, I for sure concluded that the mystery plant was also male and just got done cutting him down.

But here is pictures of my attempted lst
My lady Bubble Gum

Everyone who stops by... Let me know what you think so far. Things to be concerned about. Things that could better improve my cultivation skills!

Ohh and I could not cut or "top" my plant because when I had the knife to my girl it felt so weird and I just could not do it haha! Maybe next grow!

Regards
-ThUmBo

 

[CaliPho3niX]

Niiice! I'd say you're definitely getting the LST down, as all of those laterals look pretty damn vertical from here. That's the idea...

As for the other stuff, it's always better to wait until you have a few 'extra' clones around to experiment with. Top one, FIM another, LST, whatever... see how each comes out and which combination works best with your plants and garden setup. And that way if you F one of 'em up, hey... lesson learned! It's difficult to really screw one of these up tho, that Maui pictured above had a small lamp land on her about 3 days after I brought her home (just a weeee baby), snapped the stalk in half right at soil level. Propped her up, couldn't tape where the break was; 5 days later she was knuckled up at the base, standing on her own and grew another 2" or so. Yadda yadda, you see how she's looking today...

One thing I noticed from the new pics is it seems like you got the pH/nute problem cleared up, that or it was the male plant that was affected..? I see a little burn on a couple of the larger fan tips but nothing nearly as bad as the previous pics. Everything else looks great so far, wish I could get a cut of that one myself... might be worth the swim.

Oh, and PPM is a measure of disolved solids in water (or soil); by definition:

"This is a way of expressing very dilute concentrations of substances. Just as per cent means out of a hundred, so parts per million or ppm means out of a million. Usually describes the concentration of something in water or soil. One ppm is equivalent to 1 milligram of something per liter of water (mg/l) or 1 milligram of something per kilogram soil (mg/kg)."

As long as you flush properly, keep your relative humidity in check and don't overwater in the last 1-2 weeks, shouldn't be a problem for ya.

Welp, top o' the morning to everyone, time to get my @$$ woken up and semi-productive...

EDIT: I can't edit my previous post for some reason so I just wanted to make a correction, the Blue Dream is FINISHING week 6 tomorrow (day 42)... 3 more weeks to go, can't wait!

 

[Deege420]

great LST man! IM A HUGE FAN OF LST TOP AND FIM. i have little bit of it all in my few plants! YOURS LOOK GREAT!!!!

 

[Icemud]

Hey Thumbo! You have a very nice journal going on, and its good to see some Bubblegum!!! I remember that from way back in the day in the Midwest, and used to love the heavy stone from it I actually have Sour Bubble going which is bubblegum backcrossed 3x and my leaves look very similar to yours Can't wait to see this one all the way through, hope you got room for me

 

[thumbo]

Hey icemud thanks for stopping by!!
Here is an update on the pretty lady, and her leaves are starting to do something weird!!!
Getting pretty scared..
I tried to take pictures of the white hairs as close as I could I hope you folks can see them
I thought that they would grow more hairs faster but idk.
Tell me what you guys think!

 

[thumbo]

 

[CaliPho3niX]

Hey thumb, lookin' good there so far... How many days/weeks into flower are you now? Most 8-9 week strains don't really start showing hairs until about 2-3 weeks in; In the meantime they go through their final stretch, the nodes start to bunch together and the bud sites get more defined (I call this "getting into attack formation", when they're getting ready to kick our @$$ ) Usually somewhere between the stretch and the nodes tightening is when you'll start to see the pistils...

I wouldn't worry, she's looking super healthy so far, and it looks like the LST is working out for you...

- CP

 

[CaliPho3niX]

Thumb, what's going on with ya bud? Haven't seen an update in a few days, just making sure everything's still copacetic over there...

- CP