Graytail Goes LED - 810W Intelligent-Gro II w/ High Brix

[Graytail]

Ok folks, I got pics for an update. It sure is nice not to have depressing plants in the bloom room!

And these are doing pretty well! Once again brix is reading especially high across the board. Most of these girls are growing in third round soil, so I'm a bit surprised after my experience with that bad batch. Utopia Haze is thriving with very little assistance, Nexus is glowing with brix at 15/16, and Dest1 is gettin' all jiggy wit' da trichs. Blue Blood is the only one in newly cooked soil and she's lookin' mahvelous.

First, here's Utopia Haze1. She's getting all ungainly, so I decided to leave her in place and take picks in the room. It's 4 feet wide. Even if I tucked the left branch in, it'd still be a 3 footer. If I hadn't already had a harvest from this pheno, I'd be bummed at all the fluffiness, but this one covers everything with trichs - sugar leaves 'n all. It'll be a yielder.

UH1 - 167 days old - 37 days 12/12 - 25 since pistils - brix 16/17

And here's Blue Blood. It's going to be smaller than I like, but I have a couple healthy cuts and I want to sample this high CBD strain as soon as possible. I already wasted a month in veg getting it into shape. Ain' she pretty, SoilGirl? I gave her the first Cat drench today.

Blue Blood - 173 days old - 35 days 12/12 - 25 since pistils - brix 16/20

Nexus has gone all sativa habit on me. In veg, she had fatter leaves and a bushier habit, but now she's all spikey. I'm enjoying watching this one grow - have great hopes for it.

Nexus - 151 days old - 27 days 12/12 - 16 since pistils - brix 15/16

Destroyer1 is two days behind the other two and sheesh, look at 'er! It's been 35 days since the flip and 24 days of making pistils - about a month til finish. She's yellowing faster than the others, but I think I can keep a grip on it. It didn't seem to bother her mother very much.

Dest1 - 138 days old - 35 days 12/12 - 24 since pistils - brix 15/16

I have three more in veg, which were kept in bad soil in 1.5 gallon pots for too long while I waited for the new soil to cook, so they ain' so fine. Utopia Haze2 looks pretty bad, so I'll probably just keep her for a mother, but Dest2 is looking pretty good and Carn7 really really wants to flower - she's 161 days old, after all. I'm probably going to get her into flower first, in the next few days. I've been tucking each top down as it grows, so it's getting a LOT of tops - time to bloom her I think, even if it isn't as large as I'd like. I want to plump up Dest2 some more before I flip her. Interestingly, Dest2 has been under LED and Carn7 has been under MH. Carn7 is bushier, probably because of the red in the LED. I'm reconsidering spectrum for veg - don't see much use for red.

UH2 - 167 days old

Dest2 - 138 days old

Carn7 - 161 days old

 

[VonDankenhoek]

looking good man.

The U Haze im growing is a squatty, broad leaved porker.

 

[DrZiggy]

Graytail, awesome plants and pics!

 

[Teddy Edwards]

Solid gold (green?) update, Gray.

You The Dude.

 

[Sephiroth420]

Lookin good in flower bro. Wish I could smell those beautiful flowers.

 

[SweetSue]

Ah, since I am currently firmly in its embrace, I can answer that.

Back when I took my first samples, I described the aroma as raspberry diesel and that still holds pretty true. It's a fairly typical scent of fuelly lemon, but it has a soft edge to it with a vanilla sort of exhale, and the citrus has some woodsy taste that softens it to something like raspberry. When I open the moist jar now, in my very dry climate, I get a full pungent blast of ... hm ... buttery caramel hay ... ? Maybe I'm too loaded ...



The buzz is simply amazing to an adrenaline junkie like myself. It's super buzzy. I mean, really really buzzy. It smokes like it's been lightly dusted with speed. It's not what I would call sensual - not a strain I'd smoke listening to music, or for a long walk in the woods. I get fidgety when I'm smoking Carnival, and I go look for something to putter around with. And the stuff will kick your ass - very potent - one hit is impossible to dismiss. I loaded a bat, took the first hit, passed it to a fellow lifelong smoker. He finished it, I reloaded, he took the first hit and passed it back, and that was all he was good for - had to smoke by myself after that. It's silly strong.

Enticing review Greytail. Are you aware of how much you sound like a wine connoisseur? "Buttery caramel hay" made perfect sense to me. I'll have to see if it comes in an Auto. My tiny space wouldn't accommodate one of your monster plants without some serious training. You describe the type of buzz I'm always searching for - one that makes me get up and go looking for something to DO. I guess that's why they named it Carnival. Somewhere recently I spotted one named "Jamaican Dance Hall" and thought "That sounds like one for me".

 

[Dennise]

Beautiful Gray....

 

[Graytail]

Destroyer by Cannabiogen - Smoke Report:

I think one of the reasons I haven't done an actual smoke report of Destroyer yet, is because it's been such a splendid plant to grow and harvest and smoke and, as it's cured in the jar its terpenes have continued to mature. I've had a hard time getting a grip on it. I can turn to Carnival with its powerful amphetamine buzz, or Utopia Haze for its easy peaceful feeling - what is it about Destroyer that keeps bringing me back?

When this Destroyer reached full bloom it began to give off a consistent and especially pure blueberry scent. I'd be reaching around plants to water or spray and they'd fill the air with their various aromas as I brushed against them, but the Destroyer would overcome everything else with that blueberry - poof! - blast-o-blueberry. Puzzling, because I associate blueberry with a Skunk pheno, Afghan x Mexican/Columbian, while Destroyer has no Afghan indica, only Meao Thai. But there it unmistakeably was. But after a few weeks in the jar, the blueberry has disappeared as the terpenes have gone through a fascinating progression. I dried it when humidity was dropping rapidly, so it got a fast 2 day dry on the stems and then went into the jar with a Boveda. The large buds and stems were still moist so they gave the entire jar a slow cure. It's kinda fun to open the jars now because ambient humidity is in the 20s, so you get a really great nose hit when the humid jar air wafts out. So ... get this ... Destroyer now has the perfect aroma of a freshly opened package of ... Fig Newtons!! For reals!! The wife and I were passing the jar back and forth lifting the lid for hits, and she said "Fig Newtons!" and yup - perfect description! You get that sweet packaged pastry topnote with something fruity and dank underneath, the topnote fades and you're left with sweet dried fruit - fig, plum, something in that flavor range. Terpenes be fascinating!

So, I pluck out a fresh nug. It's fairly firm for a pure sativa, and the sugar leaves wrapped around it are supple and gritty and covered in trichs. I honestly don't think the leaves smoke any differently than the calyxes - same trich density, basically. The first hit doesn't really stand out from the crowd. The flavor is subdued and typical of a fruity sativa - not particularly citrus though - very little tang compared to UH, which is very limey. This flavor is in that fig/plum family, with a creamy soft exhale.

When the buzz hits, it's the warm and enveloping, dreamy one. This is one of the "friendly" sativas - no sense of anxiety or disorientation. I'm perfectly content to just hang out. The early buzz promotes talkiness, the kind of high that would fire up a small group of people - sudden animated chatting and giggling. It'd be a good time to go find some snacks, too. It has a good punch - not the strongest I've had, but just perfect for the character of the buzz. It wraps you up and opens your senses, but you can still navigate the world around you acceptably well. It'd be great party pot. By myself I prefer to start with it and then switch to the buzzy Carnival when Destroyer's dreaminess turns to ... hmm ... let's call it inertia - that tendency to remain where you are, doing what you're doing. It's not really sedative, just ... inactive. As the high ages, it slowly wears off with no particular crash.

All in all, this is one of the better strains I've smoked. I feels pure and retro and special, similar to the purple Panama pheno I got, and it has the full fruitiness that I loved in my Jamaican Dream without the indica taint. It definitely fills a niche in my collection and currently ranks near the top. Kudos to Cannabiogen!

 

[CareStaker]

Awesome Review!!

Plants are looking mighty fine GT!

I've always thought that LED lighting was inherently high-er brix than HPS- so maybe that is why your brix readings are higher than normal?

Wider spectrum bandwidth = greater coverage of peak photochemical receptors = more photosynthesis = more sugar/energy

Just a thought.

 

[Graytail]

looking good man.

The U Haze im growing is a squatty, broad leaved porker.

Does it look anything like this?:

That's the first pheno I grew.

 

[Graytail]

Awesome Review!!

Plants are looking mighty fine GT!

I've always thought that LED lighting was inherently high-er brix than HPS- so maybe that is why your brix readings are higher than normal?

Wider spectrum bandwidth = greater coverage of peak photochemical receptors = more photosynthesis = more sugar/energy

Just a thought.

One might postulate so, yes.

But we don't have any data. I'm still grappling with it. Can these be useful readings, or does it simply move the median reading higher? But the measure is still the percentage of sugars and dissolved solids, so ...

I don't much like it. I've cleaned everything thoroughly, I've taken multiple readings from different leaves from different places and I still get readings in the high teens across the board. I even got an 18 from Dest2 still in veg. That ain' normal.

 

[DrZiggy]

W

Destroyer by Cannabiogen - Smoke Report:

I think one of the reasons I haven't done an actual smoke report of Destroyer yet, is because it's been such a splendid plant to grow and harvest and smoke and, as it's cured in the jar its terpenes have continued to mature. I've had a hard time getting a grip on it. I can turn to Carnival with its powerful amphetamine buzz, or Utopia Haze for its easy peaceful feeling - what is it about Destroyer that keeps bringing me back?

When this Destroyer reached full bloom it began to gave off a consistent and especially pure blueberry scent. I'd be reaching around plants to water or spray and they'd fill the air with their various aromas as I brushed against them, but the Destroyer would overcome everything else with that blueberry - poof! - blast-o-blueberry. Puzzling, because I associate blueberry with a Skunk pheno, Afghan x Mexican/Columbian, while Destroyer has no Afghan indica, only Meao Thai. But there it unmistakeably was. But after a few weeks in the jar, the blueberry has disappeared as the terpenes have gone through a fascinating progression. I dried it when humidity was dropping rapidly, so it got a fast 2 day dry on the stems and then went into the jar with a Boveda. The large buds and stems were still moist so they gave the entire jar a slow cure. It's kinda fun to open the jars now because ambient humidity is in the 20s, so you get a really great nose hit when the humid jar air wafts out. So ... get this ... Destroyer now has the perfect aroma of a freshly opened package of ... Fig Newtons!! For reals!! The wife and I were passing the jar back and forth lifting the lid for hits, and she said "Fig Newtons!" and yup - perfect description! You get that sweet packaged pastry topnote with something fruity and dank underneath, the topnote fades and you're left with sweet dried fruit - fig, plum, something in that flavor range. Terpenes be fascinating!

So, I pluck out a fresh nug. It's fairly firm for a pure sativa, and the sugar leaves wrapped around it are supple and gritty and covered in trichs. I honestly don't think the leaves smoke any differently than the calyxes - same trich density, basically. The first hit doesn't really stand out from the crowd. The flavor is subdued and typical of a fruity sativa - not particularly citrus though - very little tang compared to UH, which is very limey. This flavor is in that fig/plum family, with a creamy soft exhale.

When the buzz hits, it's the warm and enveloping, dreamy one. This is one of the "friendly" sativas - no sense of anxiety or disorientation. I'm perfectly content to just hang out. The early buzz promotes talkiness, the kind of high that would fire up a small group of people - sudden animated chatting and giggling. It'd be a good time to go find some snacks, too. It has a good punch - not the strongest I've had, but just perfect for the character of the buzz. It wraps you up and opens your senses, but you can still navigate the world around you acceptably well. It'd be great party pot. By myself I prefer to start with it and then switch to the buzzy Carnival when Destroyer's dreaminess turns to ... hmm ... let's call it inertia - that tendency to remain where you are, doing what you're doing. It's not really sedative, just ... inactive. As the high ages, it slowly wears off with no particular crash.

All in all, this is one of the better strains I've smoked. I feels pure and retro and special, similar to the purple Panama pheno I got, and it has the full fruitiness that I loved in my Jamaican Dream without the indica taint. It definitely fills a niche in my collection and currently ranks near the top. Kudos to Cannabiogen!

Beautiful report! Matches the pictures! I can read descriptive reports like this all day!

 

[Graytail]

Enticing review Greytail. Are you aware of how much you sound like a wine connoisseur? "Buttery caramel hay" made perfect sense to me. I'll have to see if it comes in an Auto. My tiny space wouldn't accommodate one of your monster plants without some serious training. You describe the type of buzz I'm always searching for - one that makes me get up and go looking for something to DO. I guess that's why they named it Carnival. Somewhere recently I spotted one named "Jamaican Dance Hall" and thought "That sounds like one for me".

Wine connoisseur you say ... ... Ya, I do kinda feel that way about the herb. I've been smoking it for almost 50 years, so I have quite a catalog of memories. I'm growing it purely for my own amusement so I'm mainly interested in exploring its amazing variety and finding the ones that stand out. And since High Brix growing produces such strong terpene profiles, I can concentrate on the subtle differences between strains. I'm still into potency, but seriously, it can get to a point where it distracts from the pleasure of the smoke. I find myself much more interested in character, aroma and taste now.



Don't think you can't grow non-autos in your small space, though. Just bloom them from seed. You'll end up with nice little ones, easily managed. Just don't try it with the extreme leggy fluffy sativas - that won' work. Destroyer would work jus' fine.

 

[SweetSue]

Wine connoisseur you say ... ... Ya, I do kinda feel that way about the herb. I've been smoking it for almost 50 years, so I have quite a catalog of memories. I'm growing it purely for my own amusement so I'm mainly interested in exploring its amazing variety and finding the ones that stand out. And since High Brix growing produces such strong terpene profiles, I can concentrate on the subtle differences between strains. I'm still into potency, but seriously, it can get to a point where it distracts from the pleasure of the smoke. I find myself much more interested in character, aroma and taste now.



Don't think you can't grow non-autos in your small space, though. Just bloom them from seed. You'll end up with nice little ones, easily managed. Just don't try it with the extreme leggy fluffy sativas - that won' work. Destroyer would work jus' fine.

If I get enough harvest in my first couple grows to hold the man over long enough I want to try one photoflower and practice some training techniques. It will mean only one plant instead of two Autos, but I should be able to match the harvest amount, don't you think? (Says the woman who hasn't finished her first grow yet. LOL!) I believe there must be a nice tent in my future. I'm looking around our 750 sq. ft and wondering where I can rearrange our lives to fit one in. The dream and desire are the first step to making it happen. First the light, then the tent and additional lights. Shoot, a year ago I was unaware that a cannabis growing community even existed, three months ago I said we couldn't afford to do a grow at all, and look where I am now.

I look forward to the day when I've tried enough different strains that I can discern the subtle tones. Reviews like yours are such a valuable resource to that end.

 

[SmokeyMcFly]

If I get enough harvest in my first couple grows to hold the man over long enough I want to try one photoflower and practice some training techniques. It will mean only one plant instead of two Autos, but I should be able to match the harvest amount, don't you think? (Says the woman who hasn't finished her first grow yet. LOL!) I believe there must be a nice tent in my future. I'm looking around our 750 sq. ft and wondering where I can rearrange our lives to fit one in. The dream and desire are the first step to making it happen. First the light, then the tent and additional lights. Shoot, a year ago I was unaware that a cannabis growing community even existed, three months ago I said we couldn't afford to do a grow at all, and look where I am now.

I look forward to the day when I've tried enough different strains that I can discern the subtle tones. Reviews like yours are such a valuable resource to that end.

I can't afford not to grow anymore the prices they want for garbage is insane :/

 

[Teddy Edwards]

Destroyer by Cannabiogen

Now that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is a smoke report.

, Graytail,

 

[CareStaker]

Found one at least.

Blue-Light Responses

HPS lacks a broad spectrum like LED or Floro, but most notably it lacks blue. It still works really well, but it's more brute force than elegant.

In the above link, you can find at least one plant response to blue (440nm) light aiding sucrose production. In this case, it's increased stomatic opening, which demands more ionic P, which pushes sugar. I've read other studies, where different plant functions tied to sugar production were invloved, but I cannot remember where. I'll post them if I find them again.

 

[Shawnee]

I loved the write up on blue light responses. Thank you.

 

[Graytail]

Found one at least.

Blue-Light Responses

HPS lacks a broad spectrum like LED or Floro, but most notably it lacks blue. It still works really well, but it's more brute force than elegant.

In the above link, you can find at least one plant response to blue (440nm) light aiding sucrose production. In this case, it's increased stomatic opening, which demands more ionic P, which pushes sugar. I've read other studies, where different plant functions tied to sugar production were invloved, but I cannot remember where. I'll post them if I find them again.

Very cool, CS!

I've been wondering about the whole red/blue thing but haven't done my research. That article is a real eye-opener.

Stomata opening, increased P intake = more sugars ... very interesting. ... I've been thinking about some UVB supplemention, too ...

 

[Graytail]

If I get enough harvest in my first couple grows to hold the man over long enough I want to try one photoflower and practice some training techniques. It will mean only one plant instead of two Autos, but I should be able to match the harvest amount, don't you think? (Says the woman who hasn't finished her first grow yet. LOL!) I believe there must be a nice tent in my future. I'm looking around our 750 sq. ft and wondering where I can rearrange our lives to fit one in. The dream and desire are the first step to making it happen. First the light, then the tent and additional lights. Shoot, a year ago I was unaware that a cannabis growing community even existed, three months ago I said we couldn't afford to do a grow at all, and look where I am now.

I look forward to the day when I've tried enough different strains that I can discern the subtle tones. Reviews like yours are such a valuable resource to that end.

You could squeeze two photos in that space if you wanted to, but I think it's probably a better plan to do one of each. My plants typically take up 2 square feet each. That's about 17 x 17 inches. They'll yield about 2 ounces, easily, at that size. When I first started, I ran three NL autos and yielded quite well. I like autos. I wish I lived on a farmstead - I'd grow a whole batch of 'em in the summer!