Hyena's Never-Ending Adventures In Growing

Well hello there! Been awhile, but here comes a whopping

HYENA'S GROW HOUSE HARVEST REPORT!

When we last saw our hero, he was preparing to leave town for a very well-deserved R&R respite from all the world's travails, in the magical city of Las Vegas. That was achieved, a very fun five days (except of course for the flying part.)

The view was particularly cool from Caesar's Palace. Wifey and I had fun on a Caesar level indeed. It's neat to visit a state where weed is so legal they practically beg you 24/7 to buy it...and I brought my own. Not to be a dick but mine is way better than anything I saw for sale in the largest dispensary in Nevada. So much for legal weed breaking the black market. :rofl:

I needed the time because after the mind-numbing flight home, I had to get right back in the Weedmobile and travel up to the GH to settle in and work. The agenda included a complete harvest, as well as the rebuilding of the cloning system and a precise cloning of all 12 Saturn 5 individuals. I stepped into the batter's box and started swinging.

The hedge was daunting but different in a few critical ways...


The previous harvest (Project 7), while yielding a staggering 5 pounds, was dangerously close to being ruined by bud rot. Only saw it in 6 colas but if that had gone one more week I might have ruined the grow. That grow was flipped after over 8 weeks in veg, and it went a few days over 8 weeks in flower. This project was flipped after only 7 weeks in veg, and harvested two days short of 7 weeks in flower. A full 2 weeks earlier overall, and the overall yield was reduced by about 20% but it was all perfect, not a hint of bud rot and everything very, very high quality.


I think I could have gone another week but bud rot scares the hell out of me, I would rather be sure than greedy and ultimately sorry. The other reason is, I began to see small bananas appearing on the very tip of the main colas on multiple plants. Far too many to find and pluck...I knew it was possible that somewhere there was one that was farther along, maybe even bursting by now... I'm sure seeds take more than a week to develop but I don't know if a bunch of mini-seeds appear faster and maybe even everywhere, a tiny scrap of pollen will literally pollute the entire thing if it has a few days to blow around. I am doing this for money so no chances will be taken. Chop chop!

Here's a few final bud portraits before the destruction...




Boy that Incredible Bulk is some pretty shit. Now only a memory, since the new Saturn 5 strain is here!

Before I could sit down to 30+ hours of tedious, mind-numbing chopping, trimming and hanging, I had to assemble the cloner once more and carefully duplicate the grow in Tent #1. Here's how the new Saturn 5 girls look...


They might be the most compact and dense plants I have ever grown! I'm still not really sure what I am looking at here, only a couple have grown vertically very much but each is a fabulously dense bush. Maybe I'll have to veg them a bit longer to get the scrog full but we're in totally unknown territory with a brand-new genetic form here, so we are learning by observing for now. But, since I have no idea which will be the one I'm dreaming of, I am cloning every one to essentially have a duplicate grow. Then when this grow matures and flowers we will see which is the new Godzilla we seek! And maybe establish another line of monster cannabis!! That's how Blue Dream got started, after all...

First, building the cloner. This takes a couple hours. The cloner itself is a very cool device that sprays the cuttings continuously with a fine mist of fluid. In the few times I've done this it only took 2-3 weeks for a ton of roots to form, it's a pretty good system really. I have never yet lost a single clone.


The lid goes on and it uses foam plugs to hold the little darlings.


However, since I can only pop in once a week, I had to add a separate reservoir, with an airstone and a pump on a separate timer that recirculates and refreshes the cloner reservoir 4 times a day. It keeps everything healthy and works like a charm.


I sized the pump and the hoses so the upper reservoir fills but can't overflow. Stoners are plenty clever, we just take a lot longer to develop our ideas. A lot longer. :hmmmm:


Now the exacting work of selecting a good branch from each of the 12 plants. I took them from places where they have no chance to compete for light successfully so I'm losing nothing.


After a surgically-precise recut, they are dipped in a Clonex rooting gel where I let them soak for 4-5 minutes, then into the cloner they go. The Clonex must work pretty fast, since it all washes off immediately in the cloner but the reservoir water is also fortified with Clonex nutrients, as recommended, and they also have a foliar spray which I sprayed all the leaves with. That's it. They look pretty forlorn at first...


But in about 6 hours everyone was perky and happy. Now, a foot of roots on each in only 3 weeks! I hate to have a tent empty for 2 weeks but this multi-grow mother hunt in an entirely new strain is so exciting I might be more excited than I have ever, ever been!

But the excitement faded immediately as I sat down to trim 12 huge plants by hand with one 2-inch pair of scissors. :oops:

Now, the real work of growing was on. BUT, from plant #1 I was pleased as punch with the size and quality of these colas...to say the least!


Chunky monkey after chunky monkey fell to my tiny axe. I trimmed like a beaver on Meth.

This became this, twelve times over 3 days...


The chunkers were hung from the closet with care,
In hopes that no bud rot would ever be there...


Some awesome purple hues this time around, the room really fit the Fall motif


The piles of smiles went on for miles...


The cola parade was not only big, but super-dense, too.


Finally after 33 hours of actual trimming, everything was done! Again, not the amount I got last time but I also didn't have to sweat that the product would be ruined like I had to last time, no chance of any rot. And not a single seed.


So the exhausted ride home on Friday night, a couple day's rest, then the final trip up to buck and bag everything was Monday. Another good 8 hours of total work but in the end here we were, home again, with over 4 pounds of finished, stinky dank! Woo Hoo!!


And the world turns, and the magic cycle of life continues. Every harvest I marvel at the wonder of it all. Dreams do come true...you can make real anything you can dream if you stick with it and never, ever give up on that dream!

Keep 'em green people, thanks for being here. On we roll!

Peace, Hyena
 
And 420 back at ya.



I'll be back with an idea one day. :welldone: :bravo: :ganjamon:

Not holding my breath. :laughtwo:

And thanks buddy, appreciate you being there!

If SATURN 5 is a new killer strain we'll make seeds and you will get some for sure. The future's bright!

Peace, Hyena
 
Highya HM,

Love the update! You've done alot since last post. As with any new strain, there's always that learning curve. Usually steep enough so I screw something up, but not so steep that I still get a nice harvest. You have a steller technique that takes so many problems out of the equation.
Do you have a dehumidifier? I think I'd be running one or two to keep botrytis at bay. I have one in my drying room. Love it. But I only grow outdoors. Happy Smokin'
 
Highya HM,

Love the update! You've done alot since last post. As with any new strain, there's always that learning curve. Usually steep enough so I screw something up, but not so steep that I still get a nice harvest. You have a steller technique that takes so many problems out of the equation.
Do you have a dehumidifier? I think I'd be running one or two to keep botrytis at bay. I have one in my drying room. Love it. But I only grow outdoors. Happy Smokin'

Hey buddy thanks for that!

I got a dehumidifier earlier this year but I put it in the attic lab to dry the harvest a bit more from grow #5...in about 6 hours my buds went from a little too wet to bone dry. I had NO idea they worked in a smaller enclosed space so well, I kind of diminished that harvest by gettingit all totally crispy. Lost some weight and smokes way too fast, crumbles easily, yeah I fucked that up. So, I haven't used the dehumidifier again yet. I just gave the initial drying a few less days and then bucked and brought everything home to gradually dry that last bit until all just perfect which isn't too difficult just allowing the bags to stand open overnight a few more days, dial it right in. Plus I have a 62% RH Boveda bag (67 gram pack) in each pound bag to keep it stable there once it gets there.

I might use the dehumidifier in the grow house next Summer. I turn the air over pretty often, my fans are big, and it's a whole floor of a house so a lot of area, but maybe it will have an impact I'm planning to try it. Don't know if it would just work in the drying closet since there's air flow through it. We'll see next year.

Thanks for being there bro! Keep 'em green!


Peace, Hyena

Peace, Hyena
 
Who’s your hero? Just curious

It was a literary reference to myself, satirical in nature. :p I sometimes write in third person because there are at least three people living in my head. Three Hyenas I mean.

Hope you stop by again. My grow house is on a mother hunt with a totally new strain...

It's gonna be HUUUUUGE!


Peace, Hyena
 
It was a literary reference to myself, satirical in nature. :p I sometimes write in third person because there are at least three people living in my head. Three Hyenas I mean.

Hope you stop by again. My grow house is on a mother hunt with a totally new strain...

It's gonna be HUUUUUGE!


Peace, Hyena

:eye-roll:
 
You can get a humidistat to control line voltage and plug your dehumidifier into that. I looked into that one time. Happy Smokin'
 
Here's this week's

HYENA'S GROW HOUSE update!

This week I had to work with the new SATURN 5 girls, who are growing fast!


I simply can't BELIEVE how THICK this brand-new variety of cannabis seems to be! I have grown over 30 different strains and this uber-compact structure is unique in my experience. I have no idea what that means. Except it's rather hard to get them spreading out into the open spaces in the scrog net like I want them to, at least so far anyway.

Each plant (bush, really) is a complete mass of fan leaves crowded into amazing density because there are a LOT of branches and they have closely spaced nodes as well. Plus lots of shoots everywhere, these could end up being huge producers if there is enough stretch to spread them out a bit.


I removed hundreds of fan leaves just to get some light into the middle of things here and there. Did my best to reposition as many shoots as possible but it's likely I won't be able to completely tame this mass, there are too many places where it's going vertical but isn't wide enough to spread out very much.

Afterwards it all looked a bit beat up.


Next week I may flip it to be sure to keep the canopy low enough to remain manageable. I guess we will learn what works with this strain and its tendencies as we go. That's making this quite exciting. It's kind of cool to not know what's next.

Except I do know what's immediately next...the clones!


Two weeks and how cute and happy everybody looks! This clone thing is the bomb. The process is a bit slower than it might be for others because I have this in the drying closet where the temps are 65 almost continuously. If it was warmer this would happen a bit faster but it's happening just fine.


Next visit, I will plant these girls in the corresponding buckets in Tent #2. I might, however, extend the hoses between some of the buckets to spread them out a bit more. That might give compact plants a bit more breathing room.

That's all for this time around, things are pretty routine as Fall colors take over. I love color. And cannabis has so many beautiful hues as it lives its short but magical life, I never get tired of admiring it...


Or smoking it. I'm so high.

Peace, Hyena
 
I had one go straight cabbage bush on me last winter. I had to thin leaves and puny side branches every 2 days.

She ended up being an 18 zip plant though. :cheesygrinsmiley:
 
Highya HM,

I love your journal! You have some very humerous prose, and a great grow system that continues to produce some top shelf bud!! It's fun to see that! Good luck finishing this grow! Happy Smokin'
 
Here goes another

HYENA'S GROW HOUSE update!

The Fall colors are on full display outside, but inside the GH there's only one color...green! The new SATURN 5 strain continues to impress with it's amazing density!


These are literally pot bushes, if they were separated a bit more they would all look like compact round green balls.

There's just such close spacing between nodes, resulting in a LOT of growth sites but all in a tight space, with zillions of nodes competing with zillions of fan leaves for the available light.


Handful after handful of these removed, yet it's hard to even see a difference...


So even with my best efforts, I failed to get the mass to completely fill the scrog net. However, I am optimistic the final mass will produce more than adequate buddage. We'll see. Additionally, this room has a VERY skunky smell, something neither of the parents had...and it's still in veg. So apparently the stinky gene from Super Skunk (one of the grandparents on the Incredible Bulk side) has emerged in this genetic mix. It will be interesting to see (or smell, really) if this trait continues through flowering. Could be a very smelly harvest!

I flipped the grow to 12/12. I'm actually a little afraid I let it already get too high, but it might continue with this apparent tendency to not stretch very tall so maybe it's perfect...we'll see.

Meanwhile, the clones were ready to plant in Tent #2 so here we go!

In case anyone isn't familiar with my method, here it is in detail. IT WORKS! :morenutes:

In my system the growing media is expanded clay pebbles.


They are inert, once washed, and the perfect medium for plant roots to flourish. They hold just enough water on their porous surface to provide some liquid between floodings, which happen for 15 minutes 4 times every 24 hours. In between, the roots get plenty of oxygen which is how smaller hydroponic root balls can support such a large plant mass. In soil often a larger mass of roots per plant is necessary because nutrient uptake, and oxygenation, are both less efficient in soil.

But first, they have to be rinsed off to remove most of the nasty clay dust they have all over them. The bit of dust that gets into the water sits harmlessly on the bottom of the pots but if there's too much it forms a sludge (and can clog/wear out your pumps fast!) so you have to rinse first.

But it's a MAJOR pain in the ass because I use 200 liters of the damn stuff every grow... so here's my hack to make the rinsing easy and fast...took me awhile to figure this out but it works GREAT.


Stand a bag in the tub, open the top, and fill the bag with warm (not hot) water, then poke a bunch of small holes in the bottom of the bag and let the nasty water drain out. Now the balls are rinsed off and moistened, ready to plant with, without having to handle them or even remove them from the package.

Now I fill each fabric pot with 4 scoops of clay balls...


Then it's time to plant the clones!


They all look great at just 3 weeks since being first clipped, every one has almost a foot of roots!


I use a 6-inch plastic net pot and cut a slightly smaller hole in the bottom, to allow the end of the root mass to poke through. then fill the pot with balls gently, to secure the little tree.


Then into the main pot and fill in the surrounding space with balls...


All done! Nice and tidy, minimal root mass damage and usually no interruption in growth. "Transplant shock" is mostly a soil thing, people...there is major damage to the tiny hairs on the roots if soil is even disturbed/shifted a little (which is almost impossible to avoid as you know), but hydroponically-grown root masses are like a forkful of clean spaghetti, the root hairs are all undamaged, you can drop them into their new media with almost zero harm and they can get right to work delivering nutrition to the plant instead of regrowing root hairs for several days.

So now we have an exact duplicate of grow #1, in tent #2...hopefully the first group will show who is fabulous enough to begin a new super strain and we will be able to clone those individuals from the second group, and establish the new line! And SATURN 5 WILL BE LAUNCHED!


Whew! That's always a chore. I think I'll towel off and roll one up...


You wanna get high? See ya next week!

Peace, Hyena
 
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