FirstGrow - BlueRhino - VanillaKush - SharksBreath

[Cheeforest]

Greetings and well met!
First I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to all who have posted in these journals. Much of my knowledge was gleaned from perusing this site. Your generosity and kindness are nearly overwhelming.

I am currently a few days into week 4 from sprout, here's to catching up:

3 strains from seed:
Blue Rhino, Vanilla Kush, Sharks Breath, all feminized

Grow Tent: ~3'x3'x6'

Lighting: 250w MH/HPS
Plantmax MH
Hortilux Super HPS
Plants are now on 24 hours of MH goodness

Medium: 2 parts Fox Farm Ocean Forest to 1 part perlite
3 gallon pots

I use distilled water from a couple of big grocery store chains
Nutrients: Fox Farm Grow Big, Big Bloom, Tiger Bloom
Supplements: Fox Farm Open Sesame and ChaChing

Temps in the box have been 75F - 87F; I try to keep it down
RH has been pretty steady 38-40

4" inline fan, purple duct-taped to the exhaust vent (Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yuk it up, fuzzballs. The bright purple duct tape was a stocking-stuffer for Christmas. Let's just get all the giggles out now. [Doubtful])

Let's see if I can post some photos from Week 2:

View 2:

Blue Rhino:

Vanilla Kush:

The Sharks Breath grew some weird leaves; definitely a mutie on my hands:

Well, I'm going to submit my new journal; will try to post pics of week 3 & 4 tomorrow. Thank you in advance to anyone willing to bear with me through the learning process. Good night/morning!

 

[Richard Sativ]

Re: FirstGrow-BlueRhino/VanillaKush/SharksBreath

I have a mutant aswell. Not a Xman, but it seems to grow almost as fast as a normie. Mine's probably one week older then yours, but a different strain.

 

[Cheeforest]

Re: FirstGrow-BlueRhino/VanillaKush/SharksBreath

My thanks for dropping by, Richard! I promise to check out your Child of the Atom when I have a free second. My lil mutie grew super-low and bushy; I even moved her away from the light to try to get her to stretch just a bit. No dice. But I s'pose I should count my blessings...

 

[Cheeforest]

Re: FirstGrow-BlueRhino/VanillaKush/SharksBreath

Here are some pics from week 2. You can see the early results of my first attempts at LST. More pics of late week 3 - week 4 to come shortly...

Group shots (take special note of and make sure to comment upon the purple duct tape!):

The Sharks Breath, my lil mutie:

Blue Rhino:

Vanilla Kush - Now, everything I read on the internet indicated that VK from Barney's Farm is a mostly-indica hybrid; however both times I have seen it grown, the phenotype has been pure sativa in both structure and smoke. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

I have a jar of Diesel and a jar of Purple Haze waiting for me, so I'm tuning off for tonight. Thanks in advance for stopping by!

 

[Cheeforest]

Re: FirstGrow-BlueRhino/VanillaKush/SharksBreath

Sorry; I misspoke: the pics above are from week three

 

[Cheeforest]

Re: FirstGrow-BlueRhino/VanillaKush/SharksBreath

Here are a few pics from the end of week 3 - beginning of week 4:

First the Blue Rhino; I think she looks healthy and beautiful. I am happy with the way she is growing; I don't think I could ask for healthier-looking plants. They seem to drink up the MH light and they have stayed low and bushy.

This is a closeup of the LST bend:

Next, all three Lovely Ladies:

Next is Shark's Breath, the one that started off with crazy-leaves. She has grown into a thick little (big?) bush. Her thick, squat leaves seem to form in a spiral; it's mesmerizing to look at. I tell you, a man can get lost in the jagged edges of emerald...

In this second pic of SB, you can see that early on, she grew two stalks, almost as if topped. SB is the one in the background:

Now the slim, slender, sensual... Vanilla Kush:

I topped or FIMed (still unsure what the difference is) the VK in an attempt to stimulate more growth to the side branches. My last VK grew nothing but popcorn buds on the side branches, but this time my setup is greatly refined:

Well folks, (even though I pretty much talking to the empty multiverse at this point ) I think it's about time for that long journey home at the end of the night. Stay up, and farewell until next time!

 

[Cheeforest]

Re: FirstGrow-BlueRhino/VanillaKush/SharksBreath

My HPS lamp has still not arrived, but I went ahead and flipped the light to 12/12. They are starting to get close to the lamp; I will probably lower them after I get home from work. (3rd shift anoche) Will post up-to-date pics soon, but for now here's a little peek at How We DO

And for them as don't know it yet (sic), this is the year for the Cubbies. You heard it here first. This is the year.

 

[whitey78]

Re: FirstGrow-BlueRhino/VanillaKush/SharksBreath

Awesome job with the LST dude, they also look great in general. Using the distilled water have you ran into any cal./mag issues yet? I think 4 plants on my current grow are about 15 days older than yours and last week I was thrown a mass amount of deficiencies, name it and you could diagnose it in my garden. Iron, cal./mag./P/K/everything..... except N I think... I was also using fox farms, I used everything from FF, grow big, big bloom, kangaroots and microbrew, I also used an ocean forest/perlite mix but I added some coir to mine also. Although I am using RO water, is distilled stripped of all the trace elements/minerals like RO? They are growing great but fox farms told me that I should have used decent tap water, something I dont have so.... RO it is. I'm gonna switch back to BC grow/bloom and that line of products for now.


And that nugget just looks unreal. Looks like you spilled juice on it to make it that color dude, LOL...... utterly amazing though. Something purple is now on my to do list.....

 

[Cheeforest]

Re: FirstGrow-BlueRhino/VanillaKush/SharksBreath

Thanks, Whitey! I couldn't have done it without the awesome people on this site. Plus this time I have already learned so much that I can apply on the next grow.

So far, I have seen no deficiencies whatsoever. There are a couple of burned-looking leaves but that's because I spilled nutes on them. These plants all stayed so low that the lowest fan leaves are literally resting on the ground.

I am not 100% on this, but I do think distilled and Reverse Osmosis water should be pure H2O, no trace elements. How true that is in practice, I have no idea. My good friend has been growing for several years and he recommended distilled because it keeps the Ph in check. I have not checked into what it would take to get tap water suitable for growing, but I have seen that many of the users on this site use Cal/Mag+ religiously.

If you have a journal I will be sure to stop by soon. Keep it tight.

 

[whitey78]

Re: FirstGrow-BlueRhino/VanillaKush/SharksBreath

What strain is that nug of chee? Is that purps, purp kush.... what? I am dying to know cuz that is the next thing I am going to grow dude. That coloring is what you call bag appeal in every sense possible.

And that mutant is cool looking man, I've grown a soft spot for mine. She started out pretty weird looking, not as mutated as yours but at this point mine is looking just as good as the others. One day I was doing my thing in my room and I dropped my cell phone on one of my plants that was planted along side my mutant, basically the same age, it kinda half topped it in the same manner that my mutant had grown, basically thats how my mutant grew, the main site at the top of the plant was kinda halved and had some weird 2nd set of leaves growing. The one that was accidentally topped looks just like the mutant except for the weird looking set of leaves the mutty has and they are both doing awesome, I thnk the mutant is out growing the accident though.

 

[HempRocket]

Re: FirstGrow-BlueRhino/VanillaKush/SharksBreath

Looking good dude.

 

[RastamanJames]

Re: FirstGrow-BlueRhino/VanillaKush/SharksBreath

all your plants are looking real good. love the purple bud

 

[Cheeforest]

Re: FirstGrow-BlueRhino/VanillaKush/SharksBreath

Thanks, Rastaman and HempRocket! I am a rank amateur: I know I got lucky with healthy plants. I think if I can pay attention and keep on top of the grow, I can keep them that way. BTW, Hemp- I majored in Phil. Read too much Bedau.

Whitey, I hesitate to even say the name because the Purple Haze came to me through the grapevine (weedstalk?) THEY told me it's PH, it's very stringy and airy like a sativa. This strain has dark purple calyxes and mostly green leaves. Definitely grown indoor < 600W. Has both bitter and sweet notes, earthy then fruity. More strawberry than anything else, at the end. Definitely earthy up front. All in all, not as powerful as the last "Purple Haze" I smoked, but a delightful high. And the bag appeal is truly spectacular; if you sell your herb, then this is the best stuff to have in the sack.

*IMPORTANT*
I would like to mention here, for anyone following along, that although I shall essay a smoke report at the end, there will never be any mention of mass or weight. I will sell nothing I cultivate; and at this time I am not a caregiver. This is strictly for personal stash, and all decisions will be made in favor of quality before quantity. Besides, anyone who has ever sold can eyeball it to within an amazingly accurate figure, even from a 2D photo. Hopefully didn't just lose everyone right there... ;-)

 

[whitey78]

Re: FirstGrow-BlueRhino/VanillaKush/SharksBreath

Even though you dont sell your stuff, there is nothing wrong with posting your weight if you have a scale. Most journals end with everyone looking at a pic of the harvested bud and a guessing @ the dried/cured weight. But nothing wrong with not weighing it either, thats the good thing about growing bud, your the bud king.....it goes your way (hopefully, LOL)

Also, I only said bag appeal because I was reading another thread somewhere about something and it said "if you sell your goods, this bud has unreal bag appeal" rhymed that shit and everything, LOL.. But when I saw your pic of that bud all purply and sexy lookin, bag appeal was the first words that came to mind, LOL...

 

[Cheeforest]

Re: FirstGrow-BlueRhino/VanillaKush/SharksBreath

Whitey, I completely agree, there would be nothing wrong with posting the mass of the end product. I simply want to emphasize and make perfectly clear the fact that mass is the least important factor in my operation. Of course, I am trying to grow some bud rather than no bud; however I think it should be clear that quality is my ultimate goal.

I finally received my Hortilux Super-HPS, so the pictures today regretfully are a tad yellowish. Today these pics are finally up-to-date; I snapped them a few minutes ago. We have journeyed into uncharted waters, blissfully unaware of what lays ahead...

Lovely Ladies:

Vanilla Kush: That one side-stalk is growing taller than the others; I pointed the fan directly at it last night to try to firm it up as it was bending. I might need to incorporate some trellising if that becomes a problem, prolly some bamboo stakes.

Blue Rhino, looking lovely:

Shark's Breath, I love how she grew several stalks right from the start, as (hopefully) visible in this first shot:

After gathering many datums (sic) from other soil grows on the site and incorporating elements of the Mean Value Theorem, I came up with a preferable air temp. range of 76-83 degrees F and relative humidity of 40%. Surprisingly, the temperature at canopy level stays down even though the lamp is within 7" of the leaves. I guess I did okay with the box cuz my environment hits the mark. (Again, this is luck, not experience):

I am going to use the end of this post to just bitch a tiny bit about current events. You see I hail from Chicago (I moved away a little over a year ago) and I happened to see on the Web last night the Rahm Emanuel (Barack Obama's right-hand man) was elected mayor of the Chi. That scares the shit out of me. These people are frightening. I guess yeah, that's Chitown politics for ya, but still. I watched these people come out of nowhere with just an insane amount of undeserved hype. I am not saying he's the Antichrist, but I'll be damned if there's not a strong argument. Anyways, that's enough; don't want to wax with the preaching. I am going to call it a night; Man U is about to wail on O. Marseilles (Yes, I am one of the few Americans who loves The Beautiful Game), and I spy a lonely-looking bowl of that Purple Haze mixed salad-style with a Diesel cross. Goodnight, fellow 420s!

 

[HempRocket]

Re: FirstGrow-BlueRhino/VanillaKush/SharksBreath

Your grow is looking awesome. I agree with you that quality is more important than quantity but I think that in order to improve on your technique, you have to pay attention to both (my opinion). I think we all are trying to grow the best possible meds but I also want to grow the most as well. Don't get me wrong, I won't sacrifice the quality just so I can end up with a little bit more product. But at the same time, I will try to maximize my yield for each grow because I want the biggest possible reward for my labor.

I also grow for my own personal consumption but I think that in order to gauge how much you will need for a period of time (say 6 months) you also need to know approximately how much you will yield. I say this because I do not want to buy my meds on the streets. It's bad enough having to deal with dealers that might have ties to organized crime, but I have also heard stories of meds being laced with other stuff which totally scared the shit out of me.

That's what I love about growing my own...knowing exactly what went into it and how it was grown.

 

[Cheeforest]

Re: FirstGrow-BlueRhino/VanillaKush/SharksBreath

Hemp - you are totally right. Every bit of data is important. I think I just really want to emphasize the true purpose of my operation. I am not sure why I am so set against measuring the mass. I guess it just seems that when people are discussing their yield down to the last gram, I perceive them as trying to find out how to squeeze every last dollar out of it. I s'pose I am too altruistic with my money. It's gotten me in trouble before.

I'm not sure exactly why I am even going to mention this next paragraph, but I do want to show the effort I put into infusing every leaf and calyx with peace, love, and light. I planted under a strong, silver moon. I play my guitar to them every day. I know they haven't ears to hear, but they are living beings, aware of and dynamic in their surroundings, and I firmly believe that they can receive the vibrations I send. I harvest and trim naked, by candlelight. This is all to impart that air of magic and love, and even if I'm the only one who knows, it still makes it that much better for me.

Awhile ago, I did some math in my head. I saw how much money I could make if I turned this into a commercial operation. At that point, I saw, very clearly, two paths before me. I could feel the significance of this choice; I can remember eidetically the weight I felt regarding this crossroads. I do not know if I made the "right" decision (no right and wrong, only good and bad), but I will stick to it. I guess I am attempting to convey that this was an important step for me, and I will follow my heart.

As a man of science, I am starting to see that perhaps it would be a mistake to disregard one of the fundamental factors in any horticultural endeavor. It's just that I want to be clear about my goals here. No selling until I become a caregiver.

Thank you so much for posting on my grow. (I am going to gush - I can't believe someone whose grow I read thinks I have a good one going!!!) This community's kindness and generosity are inspiring, to say the least. I am proud to be a part of it. Everyone - stay green and stay growing!

 

[whitey78]

Re: FirstGrow-BlueRhino/VanillaKush/SharksBreath

Well I know who not to invite over for a trim party..... LOL....

 

[Jackel420]

Re: FirstGrow-BlueRhino/VanillaKush/SharksBreath

Everything is looking very good, man these VK must be a popular strain I have 1 going right now as well. I have a sativa pheno as well, wasn't expecting that but it will a nice treat in the end.

 

[whitey78]

Re: FirstGrow-BlueRhino/VanillaKush/SharksBreath

Everything is looking very good, man these VK must be a popular strain I have 1 going right now as well. I have a sativa pheno as well, wasn't expecting that but it will a nice treat in the end.

What caught my attention was where it says in the description "one of the highest THC contents we have ever offered" or something like it.... that sealed the deal for me.......