Hyena's Never-Ending Adventures In Growing

[Hyena Merica]

Re: Project 23 - Hydroponic Homemade Hybrids - Amnesia Haze x Blue Dream Plus Widow x

Beautiful ladies!! I know you have a great deal of knowledge about growing, but these honeys look like a rival for brix growers. I'm envious because I'm only on my second grow, drooling over your girls!! Do so enjoy your grows!!

Thanks a bunch my friend...I am always learning, but we are social creatures so as we learn, we share...it's all about everybody getting a little better each time. I appreciate the compliment.

I enjoy this community and I am enjoying making new friends, in an interesting way, through the mag. It's a little weird that nobody around me has any idea what I am into...yet many nice people like you all over the world do. It's just nice to share the results with other like-minded folks. This forum is somewhat therapeutic for those like myself who have to keep quiet about something we are very proud of.

Peace, Hyena

 

[Hyena Merica]

Re: Project 23 - Hydroponic Homemade Hybrids - Amnesia Haze x Blue Dream Plus Widow x

CHAPTER 8

ALMOST THERE

"You're so close...don't fuck up." -My wife, many times

To be honest, the self-discipline I have become used to exerting (to only visit the grow every few days) has made time fly. These girls are surprisingly ripe…I could chop right now and have a very delicious crop. The first hairs are turning color and the tightness of the ripening colas indicates robust development. The fragrance at this point is nothing short of amazing. These aren’t super stinky hybrids, more of a super fruity essence overall. I really like it and hope a lot of it translates into the finished product, especially the witchy Blue Dream x Blue Dream.

The BD x BD is a beast.

The Haze x BD is thick and strong.

Only the single Widow Mix x BD is not being all she can be…lagging bud development and density, many single-bladed leaves (often a sign of genetic problems) and just a generally smaller yield. She has no indications of nute issues and since she shares the same nute reservoir as everybody else it must just be a plant where less-desirable genetic traits emerged from the marriage of two parents. Ahhh, genetics…you fascinate me so. But the Widow Mix x Bd seems like it will be a disappointment. Can’t win ‘em all…


So, without further ado, I guess we must begin Project 24!

I looked at the calendar and suddenly realized I need to drop the beans for the next crop NOW. Assuming I can keep these girls going for 3 more weeks before they snap from the weight of their own colas, I have to get the next bunch big enough to go into the main grow room and be on their own by Christmas. That’s only five weeks and so we splash the new seeds tonight!

What we will be doing for Project 24 is a nice variety. The majority of the grow (I hope!) will consist of my own hybrid, yes, the Blue Dream x Blue Dream. I only smoked one little bud of the current plant and it was absolutely fabulous! Delicious without even curing and stony as hell. Of course, I love what’s going on with the Haze x BD which is the bulk of the current grow but I knew from early on this BD x BD is really special and smoking some only cemented that notion. I want bags and bags of that.


Also, I will be starting two seeds of Plush Berry (from 00 Seeds), and two seeds of Cheese Berry (also from 00 Seeds). They are both higher-Indica content varieties, after the disappointment of the blown Summer grow that left me with a lot of very potent but flavorless Kush, I need to redeem myself and push out some nice jars of body-stone medical bud. I have a lot of chronic pain in my left foot and that’s a main reason I smoke, hard to even walk some days but I fight through it and refuse to let it slow down my busy life. I truly need some of that couchlock weed and this time it will be delicious.


Finally, I will start one seed of Liberty Haze from Barney’s Farm Seeds that I have left over from Project 21. It is the one of the parents of the Haze x BD and made some fabulous smoke though I only got 3 or 4 ounces from the first plant because it had lower priority in that grow. I think I will give it a good position this time around and see what kind of yield it can give.

Then I smoked some White Widow x BD from my Project 21 and two seeds fell out so I dropped them in water too. They don't look completely viable but why not?


Neat idea: I now use a prescription pill organizer to initially crack the beans. Holds them safely in just enough water. No mixing them up! Got to know who’s who…


Fresh sack of rooting plugs ready to rock, and a new sack of Perlite and Hydroton balls. I now open the hatch of the adjoining nursery chamber to start getting it ready.

The outdoor temperatures now are only in the 50’s and falling to freezing at night so the little nursery is cold. I will fill both hydroponic bubblers with water and let it de-chlorinate for a few days, and run the long dual air stones in both all week to really oxygenate the water. A couple Mars Hydro 300’s on 24/7 keep the nursery area in the mid-60’s which is ideal for sprouting. If needed I will add another small heater so it will stay warm enough but that probably won’t be necessary because the way I have the airflow set up the main chamber acts as a lung room. They will sit on a heated rooting pad but the surrounding air needs to come up for the two nursery bubblers to maintain a good temperature, so when the plugs go in there in a week or so they can shoot that taproot right down there in no time. I think that’s the most crucial time of all for little sprouts, they often need a few days of hand watering to keep them moist enough while the tap root develops.


All this work finishes exactly on the 16-week mark. The beans splash into the water, to awaken in a day or two to begin their beautiful lives.

Meanwhile, in the main grow room, the forest of perfumed flower clusters is popping. I can’t even imagine how fat these buds are going to be in about 3 weeks when I chop them! The frostiness is making me kwazy.

Trichomes bursting everywhere, still clear but we’re watching…

A lot will start happening now. It’s about to get exciting. Stay tuned.

After the initial 24 hour soak, I germinate using paper towels marked with what they contain, in a baggie. They all showed a tail within 36 hours...15 out of 15.

Now four days later and my little beans are starting to appear. I started 8 BD x BD hoping for four good ones. Because I calculate that potentially half of my hybrid seeds are from the plant that self-fertilized, I assume half my seedlings will be twisted freaks. Kind of looks like it from the first 4 that peeked above ground, two look fine and two look strange with tiny, misshapen cotyledons. This happened last time. Genetics. It’s soooo kwazy to be God in a mini-universe. J

About half the others are either up or almost up. I get impatient since I want everybody to begin life on approximately the same schedule. I think it’s important since a bean that is more than a week older than another bean has a really big head start and the latent arrival has a hard time catching up.


No matter what, I know I should get at least 7-8 viable little girls out of the 15 total beans I have started, and if I even get six I can make a full grow. Again, this current grow is only seven plants, using only six buckets out of nine available. Seems like more at this point don’t you think? If I get more than nine starters I start doubling up but honestly, I think I get the same amount of bud from six plants or twelve because there is a finite amount of physical space available, roughly 2 ½ square meters, and it’s easy to see where bud production thrives and where it ends. Seems like the actual depth for fully productive bud density using 300-600 watt lights is only about two feet no matter the type of lights are used. Hard to get great buds outside that area, it’s about available light. 1000 watt HID fixtures will give you closer to 4 but in my setup heat must be mitigated and single 1000’s are too hot. So, that means my grow will basically be trying to pack about 40 cubic feet of actual space. One kilo is my goal. Gonna happen.

I topped a couple buds about 10 days ago because some have opined that this technique, applied 3-4 weeks before the end of flowering, will make the buds fatter and possibly more dense. Okay who knows but let’s find out, right? After more than a week I can’t tell for sure if it works. I don’t know if he bud is actually fatter or if it just looks fatter because I snipped off the last ½ inch. Doesn’t look like it hurt anything so today I went ahead and did about a dozen more. It would be cool to find a way to make great colas even better but I don’t know if there is an actual enhancement in the bud’s lateral development similar to the branching effect of topping the plant. It is entirely possible it’s all optical. I left untouched control buds next to the topped ones so by harvest we should be able to make a definitive comparison. Then we will know.


I hope it works because it’s pretty cool to snip the tips off fat colas. Feels like committing some sort of plant vandalism to be honest, but I hope it helps because I would love to have this little mini-harvest every time. In a couple days this will make 4-5 killer doobies. It’s really awesomely scented and sticky.


A few more bud porn images.

I adore doing creative portraits of cannabis buds. I remember hanging centerfolds in my room as a teen…from High Times. Always dreamed of doing such art. I became a professional skydiving photographer for a dozen years then moved to a ground-based photography career that included shooting many sexy and exciting things, but all those years I still imagined the day when I could capture my own centerfold images…of exotic, beautiful buds. Now it’s here and I must say, the reality is even better than the fantasy. How fun when patience and some hard work eventually pays off. The added bonus with our hobby is you get high.

Now it’s the 17-week anniversary of the summer splash and we’re getting pretty close. Under magnification, trichomes are still clear so on we go. I am close to draining the reservoir and going to plain water with a little cal/mag for the final flush. No more than two more weeks in my view…

The little seedlings are all up! To my satisfaction I ended up with 14 out of 15 beans coming up looking great! One BD x BD was a freak, grew out with no leaves but the rest are fine. So I have seven BD x BD, two Plushberry, two Cheeseberry, two White Widow x BD, and even a Liberty Haze. Going to be crowded in the grow room in a month! Okay, it’s more than I anticipated but what the hell. We’ll cram them all in and just do a density grow. 3 pounds…?


Took about 30 minutes and transplanted all the rooter plugs into the bubblers. Nearly every plug had a protruding tap root so in 2 days they will be dipping directly into the nutes and we will be home free. Cannabis is so easy to grow…if you get them to 3 weeks you really pretty much have it wired.


The new kids are under 24/7 which is how I like to start them, then back off to 18/6 when they go into the main chamber. Gets them nice and strong, low and wide. I don’t top until I can do it and leave 4 nodes, that ensures I have 8 branches to work with from every plant. Then scrog until the area is horizontally full. That will take about 2 weeks less this time around because I have so many plants. Sweet.


“Start strong, stay strong, and finish strong by always remembering why you’re doing it in the first place.” –Kushandwizdom


We will finish strong. I must stay strong. This pot is very strong. I was going to make a great point but I lost it. Shit. I shouldn’t write when I’m high.


Until next time.

Peace, Hyena

 

[MagicJim]

Re: Project 23 - Hydroponic Homemade Hybrids - Amnesia Haze x Blue Dream Plus Widow x

Spectacular as always. You have definitely succeeded in becoming a great cannabis photographer. Championship grower too.

I've got to go back and re-read that. It got me really excited about Blue Dream. Cheers.

 

[Ditchweed242]

Re: Project 23 - Hydroponic Homemade Hybrids - Amnesia Haze x Blue Dream Plus Widow x

Beautiful Hyena. Just beautiful.
Not only is your work spectacular, you present it to the world in such pretty fashion.
I shall now sit back, watch, and learn.

Talk to you soon.

Cheers.

 

[SweetSue]

Re: Project 23 - Hydroponic Homemade Hybrids - Amnesia Haze x Blue Dream Plus Widow x

Thank you Jim, for pointing me to this incredible treasure of a journal.

If they're serious about a journal of the month, you sir are a shoe-in. Wait for the inevitable award.

This was such a delight to find. Forgive me for ignoring you up until now. Your photography is stunning and I'm touched that you share it with us. If I had a printer your work would be gracing my own walls. I know what you mean though. There's nothing like the rush you get when you review the shot and realize you GOT IT! These plants demand good photography to communicate the love affair we're having with our gardens. My hands have been known to shake at that moment of recognition. Lol! How I love the creative process, and I adore the way you share the inside of your brilliant mind with us.

You made me wonder why I chose soil. That's the mark of a talented writer with an authentic voice. What a lovely grow. Had to laugh at the wife's admonition.

Thank you for this wonderful start to what is now looking to become a very busy few hours. This visit will have me smiling for the rest of the day. Your holidays look to be as exciting as mine. Nothing better than fresh harvest to greet the New Year. I know, spoiled rotten, aren't we? Lol!

 

[Hyena Merica]

Re: Project 23 - Hydroponic Homemade Hybrids - Amnesia Haze x Blue Dream Plus Widow x

Beautiful Hyena. Just beautiful.
Not only is your work spectacular, you present it to the world in such pretty fashion.
I shall now sit back, watch, and learn.

Talk to you soon.

Cheers.

Thank you so very much. You are very kind.

I'm basically bragging about my grow so I try to toss in some tidbits of general relevance to alleviate the guilt. I suppose it's a little like how great and special we all think our kids are even when we know everybody else's kids are just as special, we love to talk about 'em..

I hope you find things that help you and amuse. Keep in touch.

Peace, Hyena

 

[Hyena Merica]

Re: Project 23 - Hydroponic Homemade Hybrids - Amnesia Haze x Blue Dream Plus Widow x

Thank you Jim, for pointing me to this incredible treasure of a journal.

If they're serious about a journal of the month, you sir are a shoe-in. Wait for the inevitable award.

This was such a delight to find. Forgive me for ignoring you up until now. Your photography is stunning and I'm touched that you share it with us. If I had a printer your work would be gracing my own walls. I know what you mean though. There's nothing like the rush you get when you review the shot and realize you GOT IT! These plants demand good photography to communicate the love affair we're having with our gardens. My hands have been known to shake at that moment of recognition. Lol! How I love the creative process, and I adore the way you share the inside of your brilliant mind with us.

You made me wonder why I chose soil. That's the mark of a talented writer with an authentic voice. What a lovely grow. Had to laugh at the wife's admonition.

Thank you for this wonderful start to what is now looking to become a very busy few hours. This visit will have me smiling for the rest of the day. Your holidays look to be as exciting as mine. Nothing better than fresh harvest to greet the New Year. I know, spoiled rotten, aren't we? Lol!

Wow, I'm speechless. That's rare!

THANK YOU, SUE, you truly are sweet. I have been hoping to get to know many of the people I follow on this site and it's a pleasure beyond expression to think you like my writing that much. Wow, you are high. ;-)

I know getting to know people takes time so I am just enjoying various journals including yours, writing a little, and smoking many bowls. I really appreciate what you said and even more, that you are entertained and perhaps even pick up a tip or two. I'm actually not all that sophisticated a grower (it's an exciting, naughty, secret hobby and I just endeavor to keep it simple), but any help or advice I can ever give you or a friend just ask.

Best regards and please keep in touch, Sue. That would be sweet.

Peace, Hyena

 

[GrizzWald]

Re: Project 23 - Hydroponic Homemade Hybrids - Amnesia Haze x Blue Dream Plus Widow x

Subbed to look at these beauties..

 

[mouser]

Re: Project 23 - Hydroponic Homemade Hybrids - Amnesia Haze x Blue Dream Plus Widow x

I just found this today. Awesome grow! Im glad I can be here for the upcoming harvest! On another note...

"Never assume your wife doesnt know something......If Confucious didnt say it he should have"

Them wimens have a 6th 7th and 8th sense...they see all

 

[SweetSue]

Re: Project 23 - Hydroponic Homemade Hybrids - Amnesia Haze x Blue Dream Plus Widow x

I just found this today. Awesome grow! Im glad I can be here for the upcoming harvest! On another note...

"Never assume your wife doesnt know something......If Confucious didnt say it he should have"

Them wimens have a 6th 7th and 8th sense...they see all

 

[Hyena Merica]

Re: Project 23 - Hydroponic Homemade Hybrids - Amnesia Haze x Blue Dream Plus Widow x

CHAPTER 9

THE END IS NEAR


“I don’t like waiting, but if waiting means having you…I’ll wait until I have you.” -How I feel


Waiting sucks. This is the difficult time for me. I am waiting for these buds to turn so I can finally chop them. I am waiting for my next little girl-babies to strengthen and survive their first three weeks with vigor. I am waiting waiting fricking waiting arrrghhhhhhhh.

Just a minute if you please…



Okay, it’s ten minutes later and you know what I just did. Whew. So I may ramble but at least I’m calm again. Here’s what is going on in my secret little laboratory at the moment…


We are at 18 weeks.


Main Grow: Things are popping generally.

The final two weeks are hard to pin down precisely unless you have grown a strain multiple times. These are my own hybrids so who knows? I believe we are there but until trichomes start to cloud up noticeably we are still in full bloom mode. I see no evidence of cloudy trichomes on any of my three varieties.


Each has its particular characteristics. The Blue Dream x Blue Dream remains hardy and beautiful. Her buds are solid as rocks and her fragrance when a bud is pinched is still fruity but has evolved somewhat into more of a blend of berries with a hint of citrus. I will say these are the stickiest buds I ever remember, I can’t even touch one accidentally without having the offending area instantly rendered as tacky as if I spilled glue on myself and I have to use hand sanitizer to get it off. Trimming these buds will be a mess.


The Haze x BD is still a frosty hedge of stunning colas. Everything I can see looks luscious but it’s been many weeks since I could really see what is happening within the dense back half of this grow. I can’t get behind the grow physically because it’s attached to the side and rear walls. If I start leaning in there and parting plants to get a look I will be ridiculously sticky and risk hurting my buds. But I truly don’t know what all is in there, I only know it’s a lot. I can see some absolute monster buds back there and if they are as dense and solid as the front buds there will be a lot of weight.


As we begin to hit old age we are starting to show it…I mean my plants, of course. The first necrosis of the lower main fan leaves is appearing. I generally leave most fan leaves on the plant until harvest because to me they represent food producers for the buds and general botany theory holds more photosynthesis=more food. I do not know much about this. Just using my spider sense. I see other growers denuding their plants well before the chop and who knows if that helps or hurts bud mass/quality/plant health/anything? It isn’t like weed is corn or some other plant that we have been raising commercially for 10,000 years…we just don’t have enough organized clinical research on the subtleties of marijuana cultivation and development, and much of what we do know is gained from amateurs in tiny labs like mine, which is woefully unscientific I’m afraid. So everything about cannabis is somewhat of a guess, and I guess that’s the fun of it!


I am also not sold on the need to flush for weeks. My guess is if your marijuana has a chemical aftertaste you are using way too much, and/or too many, nutes. I never flushed in the early years and never noticed any complaints. Outdoor growers often fertilize but can’t really flush yet their buds are usually tasty. Plus, some of the dankest buds on Earth are outdoor grown and they use a lot of bat guano, worm castings, and fish emulsion…never tasted anything bad in the buds, even from that crap (literally). Not being deliberately naïve, I just really do believe half the recommended nute dosage is usually more than enough and also that many growers feed their plants WAY too often, and usually way too much, so other grows might be more prone to chemical salt buildup than mine.

The main reason the recommended strength is twice what it probably needs to be is (think, people) these companies sell fertilizer. They are great folks I’m sure and they have something good to sell so they recommend you buy plenty. IMHO about twice as much as you need. As I have stated many times, just because your plant isn’t killed doesn’t mean everything you are doing is optimal.


I ‘sort of’ flush at this point, but prefer to see it as a three-week transition to plain water as opposed to a three-week pure water flush. For the past 10 days, as I refresh the nute reservoir every 3-4 days I top it off with plain water (only some cal/mag added and the PH adjusted). I can see the color of the solution gradually getting lighter and other than just a tiny shot of the bloom nutes (to keep the phosphorous level adequate to support continued flowering), I don’t add anything more. Notice I said “adequate” to support flowering not “blasted” or even “boosted”. How about a little science? Here goes…


Hypothesis: Bloom boosters will increase your yield.


Truth: Not really. I like to step away briefly from cannabis-centric information sources and look to data gleaned from industrial production of flowering plants for more reliable big-picture data. Most knowledge acquired by this industry is applicable to our work. The evidence is clear that these blooming supplements are overrated at best, and at worst can hurt your plants and even render the grow medium toxic.


Looking into it, I found information from several sources. These include:


References:


1) The American Rose Society – Phosphorus Fallacies – Too Much of A Good Thing: American Rose Society

2) The Story of Flowers – The Potassium Myth: Potassium and Flowering | The Story of Flowers | Adam Dimech

3) “The Truth About Garden Remedies”, book by Jeff Gillman

And here’s what I found:

Flowering is caused by hormones, not nutrients. A plant only needs a certain amount of both Potassium and Phosphorous to properly grow to its potential, and the RATIOS of the nutrients N,P & K will ideally change somewhat during different stages. However, past a certain point MORE does NOT produce more flowers. Supplementation of these two nutrients is only helpful if a deficiency exists.


The real possibility exists that adding too much of either P or K can even poison your soil and hurt your babies. Many people create issues in their plants by adding boutique bloom-boosters and such while believing the problems couldn’t be caused by them so they chase rabbits and all the while they are doing it to themselves. The ads for many of these supplements make you think you could never grow a single frosty bud without them. It’s the advertising age, people. Think.


ANY fertilizer with a high level of phosphorus can be considered to be a bloom booster fertilizer, even if the label just calls it fertilizer.

If you look at the fertilizer numbers in bloom booster products you quickly realize that every manufacturer’s formulation is different. Does that make sense to you? If there was a special formulation that boosts flowers wouldn’t you think all manufacturers would use the same formula? They don’t, because there is no such thing. These are just packages of fertilizer with the words ‘bloom booster’ slapped on the label.

Bloom booster fertilizer is largely a marketing gimmick to get you to buy more fertilizer. Many people grow plants for the flowers, and so manufacturers are using your desire for more flowers to sell more products.


Well, that’s what I found.


“Judge my conclusions by my buds.” -H. Merica

Back to the grow, my Widow Mix x BD is a strange plant indeed. The buds are smaller, and slower to develop. I am now convinced the plant is just different, it’s not anything I’m doing or not doing. To further intrigue, I examined it closely and found several of the lowest branches are totally popping with seeds! This isn’t bad news, I chopped them and after a few days of drying I can see I will get over a hundred fresh seeds of a new unknown hybrid. Who knows? Most likely it is residual pollen from the Blue Dream parent during the previous grow. This would result in a backcross with the original parent and we might get a really nice bump in vigor. It could be the next mega strain… I will take what I get from her and chalk it up to an experiment. Can’t wait to grow out some of these seeds and see what we get. Sometime next year.

Now for the new kids. They are coming along as I would expect, looking a little scruffy but growing steadily. They all have a little tap root reaching into the nutes now so they will be all right. With that first critical connection made they can begin to grow at will.


A few months ago I surprised my wife and booked us a Las Vegas trip. We leave in two days. It’s nice to give someone a present, especially a trip since a trip just keeps on giving for months as it gets closer and closer. Since we leave in two days I have to get everything even a little tighter so I can be out of the picture for 5 days and no worry. It’s great to have a system that will allow me to do so with confidence…hydro has many advantages and that’s a biggie.


I will over-fill the two hydro bubblers and the main nute reservoir. They will be fine for five days. The babies grow so fast at this stage I can’t wait to see them when I get back. My guess is they will about double.


To Vegas we go!

Now we are back from a truly wonderful trip. I was a winner in Sin City but the real jackpot has my focus now…a harvest of giant, meaty buds! I certainly had a touch of anticipation, not really worry but no matter how good your setup is you never know what can happen on total autopilot for a six-day period. I open the secret door after six days.

To my relief, the forest of buds is bursting! Frost monsters are everywhere, huge swollen chunkers bending their branches over like they might snap. After almost a week the further development of the buds is noticeable. I have to touch a couple of them to gauge density and it’s an instant super glue on my hand. I have had some sticky buds before but never this sticky. I literally have to use hand sanitizer immediately to un-guck my fingers.

The buds are really, really solid. There are some huge ones in the back. The yield is going to be very good and worth the wait.

These hybrids have not been overly smelly for most of the way which I like, but right now it’s getting ridiculous in here. I’m almost choking on the deep, rich fragrance. Yeah, I’m getting things ready for the chop because I think it’s about time.

After wiping my drool I popped the door on the nursery. Everybody looks pretty good. Whew. Another relief. The new girls have all developed foot long root bundles and are getting plenty of water. Some of them look a little scruffy on a couple edges but they really haven’t had any nutes yet and probably a little too-high a PH so I lowered that and fed some GH Grow for the first time. We should see green perfection in a few days but even now it’s obvious we will have a nice bunch for the next generation.



Now the next day. The 19-week mark.

Exactly microscope time.


The trichomes are quite different this time around…lots of cloudy ones and the ambers just beginning to appear. Five days or less! I dilute the reservoir with the remaining fresh water so there’s only a small amount of nutes left in the water, I can tell by the color which is very light. I would probably go to 100 fresh water at this point just for the last few days but it’s 8 degrees F outside today and the drain line from my grow lab is frozen somewhere so we will just go with what we have. Again, the diluted solution that remains will still somewhat flush the plant and it won’t affect the taste. I know this because I chopped a nice bud from each of the three varieties last week and sampled them yesterday and today. Amazing sweetness and flavor, and a bang bang buzz. The buds will be fine.

I think the Haze x Blue Dream is ready. Don’t you?

Blue Dream x Blue Dream x Yummy!

This Widow Mix x Blue Dream plant still looks like a weirdo but it’s tasty. Already got over 100 beautiful, viable seeds harvested from her last week in my seed vault (I put one in water and it popped a tail immediately so they’re good). Might be the unlikely mother of a super strain!!


So, here are a few final hardcore bud porn shots. Do you think they are ready?

I agree with you. IT IS TIME!

Now to get ready for the chop! I got two new pairs of professional-grade pruning snips, and several pairs of latex gloves. I have an idea I want to try this time around. Every harvest, I trim reasonably well as I harvest before hanging the branch segments. I don’t like automated trimming devices, IMHO they separate a LOT of the trichomes from the buds and even though much of that material is retained in the trim bin, it reduces the amount on the buds considerably. On the other hand, manual trimming is sticky business and I always wonder if there isn’t a better way that might allow for hand-manicuring but avoid transferring so much resin to my hands and trimming device. My idea is, wear latex gloves and keep them wet. Since the buds are fresh and we’re about to hang them up a little water won’t hurt them, and it seems to me since trichomes don’t seem to come off with just water maybe this will enable me to handle the colas (by the stems mostly but you know) but not remove nearly as much of that sticky resin. We shall see.


“Victory belongs to the most persevering.” -Napoleon Bonaparte


My victory is now at hand. I sit down, light up a fatty, and take a massive hit. Pulling on the smooth latex gloves and after getting them a little wet, I heave a semi-sad sigh, look my last on my beautiful garden, and my pruning snips approach the first heavy branch...

Until next time,


Peace, Hyena

 

[Fuzznutter]

Re: Project 23 - Hydroponic Homemade Hybrids - Amnesia Haze x Blue Dream Plus Widow x



Harvest time!

I always wear gloves when I harvest. The very first time I did not and I stuck to everything. It felt like a cartoon where you try to unstick yourself from one thing just to get attached to something else, over and over again. I've never tried wetting the gloves though. I can't wait to hear if it helps. I wonder if just rubbing a small amount of oil (olive or something) would help. Not so much that you can't hold your tools, but maybe enough to keep layers of stickiness from building up.

Congratulations on another grand finish!

 

[MagicJim]

Re: Project 23 - Hydroponic Homemade Hybrids - Amnesia Haze x Blue Dream Plus Widow x

I loved this update. They also did look ready to me...the best of buds to ya Hyena. So cool that you have back cross seeds of Widow Mix x Blue Dream. Licking my chops there.

 

[Hyena Merica]

Re: Project 23 - Hydroponic Homemade Hybrids - Amnesia Haze x Blue Dream Plus Widow x

CHAPTER 10
THE END IS HERE

When we last saw our hero, he was seemingly about to chop down this pristine forest of fat buds…but no! In reality, he wanted them to fatten up/flush for a few more days. Got to be sure, you know!

Today is the 20-week mark! Everything is finally ready. I have been taking small bud samples to test the lettuce and at this point the smoke is absolutely perfect. Delicious, smooth without even curing, the aroma and flavor are fruity and sweet, the buzz strong. Four hits get me toasted like, well, a piece of toast. That’s how high I am, words literally fail me and I just got distracted for ten minutes looking at my own fingernail. I’ll be back.

Okay, it’s the next day and the crop must come down NOW. I got greedy and may have waited too long to have the time to finish that process. I literally have only five days to completely harvest my crop, and reset the entire grow, including transplanting all the next girls into the main grow room. This time, the chop is going to be a crazy process as opposed to just doing it in a systematic fashion, because my own wife still doesn’t know I have a grow laboratory or even that I’m secretly a mad scientist. Since it’s the week before Christmas she is home all week and I have to sneak 30 minutes here and there like a ninja, and reappear as if nothing had happened. This is very hard to manage, my wife isn’t stupid and she knows the smell of fresh cannabis, we have a running joke about there must have been a skunk in here, etc. But she has zero clue that I grow, or that it is literally growing right over her head. The tension as I begin to harvest is high. Good thing I am, too.

This stuff is REALLY tasty!!

The way I get away with this is I count on her being gone for long periods so I can go up there. So now that she’s home all week, PLUS we are going on a week-long vacation starting on Christmas day, I may be screwed. I am a very confident person with nerves of steel, but there is a real possibility that I might not have adequate opportunity to complete my harvest, let alone transplant the next girls from the nursery. There are twelve plants in the nursery and they are huge and must come out now or be lost.

How everybody looks. It's absolutely time!

Kids in the nursery are ready to bust out!

I get up at 4 am. I hate going up there to the grow lab when she (and my teenage daughter) are home. If she just opens that kitchen door to the garage she will see a 20-foot ladder three feet in front of her face leading straight up to my being completely busted. Like a giraffe drinking at a water hole, I am defenseless. So I sit down and begin chopping, almost frantically, trying to work fast but with purpose. I am driven by the need for speed and my manicuring snips fly across the colas, one by one. I am SO pleased by the size and especially the density of the buds. When a branch is really heavy you know what you have and I have achieved great compaction in the main and secondary colas.

Thick bud development in my setup is possible within about a 30-inch vertical zone since I only have a 600w and a 400w main lights. Below that you get popcorn but even all those little nuglets are rich and drippy. The overall frostiness of the crop is fantastic. Wearing latex gloves is essential and I am keeping my hand that handles the buds wet which is actually cutting down considerably on the finger hash. Branch after tasty branch comes down. I work for about two hours and put a dent in the job but it will probably take six or seven to harvest and trim everything. I stay until I can’t stand it but I must be down, de-scented, and back in my pajamas before she gets up. I literally just make it in time. She appears in the kitchen to find me sipping a cup of coffee and surfing the net. As she saunters over and gives me a morning hug, and remarks, “You’re sweating honey.” Am I ever…it feels so crazy knowing that only 10 minutes before, I was a sweaty mess up in the attic, frantically chopping huge branches of marijuana. This is so fucking cool. I feel like a secret agent.

Over the next three days I am able to sneak up and do a little more here and a little more there, gradually making first a dent then a real impact. Some of the buds are fabulous. Some real monsters, considering the limitations of my grow lab. I never try to exactly predict how much I will get in terms of total weight, since so many variables exist in cannabis growing and really in growing any living thing. In the end, all I want is to feel reasonably certain that I got all I could out of the space I have. After all is said and done that’s about 2 pounds.


A nasty process

My guess as I stack and hang the branches is that we will be close, and even if it’s less, the quality of most of this harvest more than exceeds my best expectations. These buds are sticky and there’s plenty. Especially cool since we are growing new hybrids and who knew what would happen? Very pleased am I as I trim and hang the final branch. There’s a nice big drying area chock full...hard to tell from this picture but this goes back three feet. Success.

Now the absolute worst part of growing, besides getting busted of course, is here: the changeover. It’s especially daunting since it’s usually about six grueling hours of sweat-drenched labor to recondition the grow buckets and the hydroponic system and also transplant the new plants in, and it’s messy and physically taxing. This time I have to do it in dribs and drabs because my family is home and I’m not sure I will have the opportunity. I start formulating plan B, which is to either let the new plants grow for another week-plus in the nursery which would completely blow up my grow schedule for half a year, or just shut down the grow rooms and let the dozen beautiful new plants I have in there simply perish.

Two days pass without a single opportunity to go up there. Only two more days until Christmas and we have to be packed and ready to leave at 6 am on Christmas day. With the frantic activity of that season in full play, along with a stack of obligations including having to host all our family members for a lavish dinner on Christmas eve, I am basically resigning myself to pull the plug on the whole deal instead of having them try to complete flowering in an under-four-foot-high nursery chamber. Sadness.

Then my Christmas miracle comes down the chimney! On Christmas eve, my wife (usually the most prepared person in the world for holidays) remembered a few undone things and suddenly announced she would be gone for about three hours. As her car pulled out of the garage, my ass moved so fast you would have thought it was on fire, and I frantically tackled the massive chore of trying to save the next grow. Everything depended on somehow doing something that I’ve never done in less than six or seven hours in about two. To make the stakes even higher, my daughter was still home, in her room on her phone. I felt certain this would be the time she would want to have some meaningful and undismissable interaction and I would be screwed, or worse yet, climb the ladder and see my entire secret. Crikey. So as you can imagine my ass was tight. I attacked like the Indians hit Custer.

First, I have to empty each Dutch bucket and cut up the remaining stem base and fifteen-pound root ball, a surprisingly difficult thing to do and it’s truly messy. Then clean out the bucket, line with a 5-gallon paint strainer, pour in some Hydroton for the bottom six inches, then wet it down and add a couple scoops of perlite.

Halfway done

The new girls gradually leaving their nest

en I have to somehow separate a plant from its sisters in the nursery bubbler without destroying the roughly two feet of roots, all tangled together with every other plant’s roots, and this usually takes me awhile which I don’t have this time so I just do my best, feeling like a surgeon operating in the dark with a kitchen knife. Then I set the new plant in and carefully fill with grow medium (perlite with just a little vermiculite mixed in) until the new girl is in there perfectly. Remount the bucket to the plumbing, and wet in the new girl thoroughly. One down, eight to go. Plus I actually have 12 girls and only 9 buckets so I have to double plant the middle three buckets and that’s even more complicated. I will never finish this in time.


Yet somehow I did! In a frantic blur that I barely remember, I was able to get everybody transplanted and the reservoir filled, adjust the chemistry, and water everybody in.

Everybody in their new home!!

I reset the lights all back to 24 hours on, cleaned the entire room, and bagged up all the heavy, smelly debris of the now-history Project 23. No stoned person has ever moved that fast for two solid hours in all of history. At last, trembling and feeling like I might get sick, I descended the ladder unmolested. I was literally in the shower less than 10 minutes later when my wife came home. All my future grows I will forever owe to that fortunate and somewhat miraculous bit of timing. Yes, I am a ninja.


Twelve hours later, very early on Christmas morning and right before I packed my sleepy family into the van and took off for our vacation, I took a quick peek. The new grow looks beautiful! The already surprisingly mature girls are in their new home and despite the somewhat rough handling during root separation, no signs of any negative reaction in any of them. Cannabis you are so resilient…I love you. Everything back on autopilot and now for a well-earned week of snowmobiling, drinking, and ingesting Cannabis in every possible form. I confidently sealed the secret door and started the van. It was two hours into the drive when my wife woke up and asked me why I was so happy. I just smiled and told her because I love her and it’s Christmas. Merry Christmas! The ninja must keep his secret.

So today it is the day after Christmas and I am sitting in northern Michigan in our delightful winter cabin, just about to fire up the snowmobiles and put a few hundred miles on. I’m so happy I could die. But I don’t plan to. We will be back by New Year’s Day when I will next check on my new babies. Life, and death, in a continuous cycle without a plan, just the endless continuation of the wondrous process. In microcosm we are the Gods who give and take life, in the wondrous world of our grow rooms. And the world turns, and time goes on, and all things in the universe are as they should be. Nirvana. It’s ultimately a state of mind.

The next and final chapter will be the final weight and smoke report, as we ease out of Project 23 and into Project 24. I may just make this a continuing journal if enough people are interested. I have no real sense for how many people even read what I write here, but if you enjoy what you have read and want me to continue, drop me just a line and let me know you are out there. My goal has not been notoriety, but rather to provide some techniques, observations, and especially encouragement that will help others to experience the joy I have found in learning to grow cannabis to a point of reasonable proficiency. To all who already share this journey I salute you. To all who are inspired by the efforts of myself and others to try to do this too, I say go for it! You only live once and time is a thief. Believe in yourself and be willing to learn from others and you can do it. Set a goal and begin your own journey. You can do it, my friend.

“Man is a goal-seeking animal. Life only has meaning if he is reaching and striving for his goals.”
-Aristotle

Strive for your goals. Until next time,


Peace, Hyena

 

[COgrower]

Re: Project 23 - Hydroponic Homemade Hybrids - Amnesia Haze x Blue Dream Plus Widow x

It was like reading a cloak and dagger spy thriller, with early morning rendezvous and sneaking around.

 

[MagicJim]

Re: Project 23 - Hydroponic Homemade Hybrids - Amnesia Haze x Blue Dream Plus Widow x

Great job getting that harvest in and performing that transition. Sign me up for the next project.

 

[Hyena Merica]

Re: Project 23 - Hydroponic Homemade Hybrids - Amnesia Haze x Blue Dream Plus Widow x

CHAPTER 11/1
SMOKE REPORT PROJECT 23 AND TRANSITION TO PROJECT 24

“Every end is a new beginning.” -Disney movie


As Project 23 has ended and Project 24 is now in full rip, I have decided to make this a perpetual journal and continue to chronicle my cannabis growing thoughts and occasional results. I am still deciding how frequently to update, every two weeks is practical but I’m now out of instructional mode and have made a lot of friends so I might just update multiple times a week, or every day, as the mood strikes. We’ll see what happens.

MEANWHILE, the promised SMOKE AND WEIGHT REPORT!


I grew three strains, but most of it was my new strain, a hybrid of Amnesia Haze x Blue Dream, which I have now christened BLUE HYENA. For most of this grow I knew I probably had something special here, but you never know for sure about cannabis until you put it in a pipe. We have all smoked awesomely fragrant and beautiful buds that had lousy flavor or worse, a lousy buzz, so I wanted to wait until it was completely dried and cured and sampled many times by many people. An exhausting test was conducted over several weeks. Now I can fire all barrels: THIS IS AWESOME WEED!


My new hybrid in all her glory!

BLUE HYENA (Amnesia Haze x Blue Dream) is mostly Sativa, and it has retained (and possibly even increased!) the high potency of its haze ancestry (yay!!). Plus it embodies some desirable Indica characteristics from the Blueberry (Indica) grandparent (from the Blue Dream side), including a stouter build than a typical Sativa, a very dense and full bud structure, a powerfully fruity smell and taste, and an amazing stickiness with every bud completely frosted with glistening trichomes.


This is fabulous pot with the fruitiest sweetness I have ever tasted. It absolutely cannot be handled with your fingers, and is unsuitable to roll in a joint because even dry as a bone, it’s so sticky that even after grinding it’s just a mess. But in a bowl it’s incomparable…the inhale bathes your senses in a fruity, sweet, aromatic bouquet and the smoke matures into notes of citrus and oak on the exhale. It is world-class tasty and the buzz comes on very fast, with a soaring head high, almost psychedelic, plus a nice body stone that you can really feel but doesn’t inhibit coordination or motivation.


The five plants produced well over a pound of finished, frosty buds and another 6 ounces of primo trim shake, and a two gallon bag of popcorn buds to boot.


After weeks of tasting and testing I have concluded this is a strain that needs to be shared with the world. PLUS, I got a nice little bag of feminized seeds from a couple lower branches which represent a Haze x BD backcrossed with BD…possibly even better and more stable...possibly a super strain! Blue Hyena Gen 3. More on that later perhaps…you heard about it here first!


The single Widow Mix x Blue Dream plant was a bit of a disappointment as a bud producer but may turn out to be the best of all for a completely different reason! It never really filled out like the other varieties, with a more Sativa-like bud structure, not as thick and the buds spaced a little farther apart. It never really developed a strong aroma, and seemed to get behind the growth curve early even though it was perfectly healthy the whole way. The yield was underwhelming, my one plant produced maybe 3 ounces of delicious but smaller buds.

However, the taste when smoked is excellent, very balanced with notes of fruit (but not nearly as strong as the Haze x BD) on the inhale, and a slightly piney finish on the earthy side on the exhale. And the buzz is a nice surprise…quite strong and long-lasting, a great full-body buzz, you can feel the Widow influence but it’s still mellow like Blue Dream. Overall the plant is nice but not a significant part of my final yield…


BUT, yet ANOTHER possibly awesome NEW STRAIN is in seed form, because as I previously described, my rather un-spectacular Widow Mix x Blue Dream plant got very pregnant! It occupied the back-left bucket where the original Blue Dream popped some small amount of feminized pollen and there is obviously still some drifting around back there because the lower rearward branches all produced a number of fresh seeds. This represents an F1 hybrid now backcrossed with the original mother ([Widow Mix x Blue Dream] x Blue Dream) which often produces a super strain with increased potency and vigor. So exciting!

As we know, every seed will be female and I already germinated a couple of them three weeks before the plant was even harvested to prove their viability and they are fine. I got three-to-four-hundred of them so obviously I am dying to find out if it’s a new Cannabis Cup winner, this strain could be fantastic but we won’t know until we grow it out. I have named this new potential super-strain BLACK HYENA. I don’t know why, I just think it’s cool and in keeping with the Hyena theme. Later this year we will find out if it’s the next big thing (along with the Blue Hyena and the Blue Hyena Gen 3!). THAT will be a sweet grow!!


My final plant was the one Blue Dream x Blue Dream which ended up being everything I expected and more. Fabulous fruity smell and flavor. Big whopping colas with ultra density. Ripping high that just soars, it’s a truly fabulous smoke and I knew it would be. That’s why it makes up the bulk of my next grow, Project 24. That will be a nice crop and we’ll be able to compare the yield per plant a little better, though this one plant produced 10 ounces of top-shelf buds so maybe it’s even a better yielder than the RH x BD.


Doesn’t really matter…the current grow is just the prelude to the big show which will feature the two brand-new 3^rd-generation Hyena hybrids. Look for that one by early Fall.

Loads of giant buds...it's just heavenly.

So much weed I could open a dispensary. Cool.

The final total of almost 2 pounds of top-shelf cannabis from only seven plants was nice, but the ultimate quality and taste of the buds is the real reward. The new hybrid has far exceeded my best expectations and I can hardly wait to see where it leads. And now the cycle of birth and death has once again led to the beginning of a whole new chapter in the genetic book with 3 new varieties to explore…a never-ending journey.


So, we officially end Project 23 here, and move into Project 24. Won’t you continue with me?


I will re-name this journal next week to reflect its now-perpetual status then continue on and share the next generation with you. And the ones after that...

However, my original goal was to share basically all the information I know with others, and demonstrate exactly how anyone can grow heaps of frosty herb, and that has now been done. Twice. I feel I have “instructed” enough, so going forward I plan to update much more frequently and make it a little more social. I hope you will follow the continuing adventures of a mad scientist in his secret laboratory, growing ever-frostier new strains and offering ever-more-pithy observations, with a touch of fun. A sick pleasure you don’t have to feel the least bit guilty about.


This journal's new name will be HYENA’S NEVER-ENDING ADVENTURES IN GROWING. Hope to see you there!


Until then,


Peace, Hyena

 

[mouser]

Re: Project 23 - Hydroponic Homemade Hybrids - Amnesia Haze x Blue Dream Plus Widow x

Awesome grow man Though I still think you are kidding yourself that the little woman doesnt know all...they be sneaky beasts you know

 

[Pennywise]

Re: Project 23 - Hydroponic Homemade Hybrids - Amnesia Haze x Blue Dream Plus Widow x

Ill pull up a seat Hyena


Keep em frosty ya'll

 

[Hyena Merica]

Re: Project 23 - Hydroponic Homemade Hybrids - Amnesia Haze x Blue Dream Plus Widow x

Awesome grow man Though I still think you are kidding yourself that the little woman doesnt know all...they be sneaky beasts you know

Maybe she doesn't want to know.

Nah, no way in hell she could not squeak about that. Don't tell her, okay?

Peace, Hyena