Josh's First Attempt at a Successful Indoor Grow

In soil I have: the four A Train "mothers". They were started in Miracle Grow seed starting soil then transplanted to Miracle Grow potting soil with the moisture retention crystals. The three Northern Light Blues are still only in one quart containers with the seedling mix. The two Sleestack x Skunk #1 regulars (free from Herbies) are in small solo cups with the Miracle Grow seedling mix.

The only thing I have in soil less medium are 35 clones taken from the A Trains. (9 cut and labled from each plant minus one that was culled.)

So those free seeds are pretty pitiful looking. They're like three weeks above ground and I can just barely see the second set of true leaves forming. They get the same treatment as the others, just not performing. They will be culled in about five minutes.

The 35 clones seem to be doing well, responding to the switch quicker than I had expected. So far they all appear to be females. However, I am keeping a very close eye on the plants taken from #4 A Train. These clones had the least root development. Also, they have really shot up after the switch. It appears to pistols forming, but one of them almost looks male-still a bit early to tell.

For nutes I have been following Blue Planet Nutrients 3 part high yield schedule. Today they should be getting their third feeding, but I think I'm going to hold off till tomorrow. Last water they only took 5-6 ounces instead of the typical 8.

I also took another round of 36 clones Thursday night. I'm getting excited to sample the Northern Light Blues. I was able to take ten clones total from three NLBs. The other twenty-six clones were taken from #1 A Train. (I labeled that strain 1-4 for no particular reason other than to keep track of clones for sexing and establishing the best mother.) The #1 had the hardiest clones. They had the most developed root system and started new growth in the cloner.

Other than that, not much to report. I could not use any of my current paycheck towards the garden. I start a high paying second job on the 1st. It's just part time, but I plan on using the majority of that money to add to the mix. Another purchase from Herbies (I'm really thinking THC Bomb and a nice kush, most likely Master Kush or Holey Grail Kush). I also need the inline fan, filter, and ducting. I also need to make an order from Blue Planet Nutrients for the gallon size, not quart, products.

Slowly but surely things are starting to take place. :Namaste:
 
Sorry for the late update. The hard drive crashed in my computer.

The last series of clones I took didn't make it. I ignored the specific instructions included in my cloner by scraping and splitting the stems. Big mistake. Good thing the mothers are doing outstanding.

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Last Sunday I took another set of clones from A Train #3 and #4 in addition to nine clones taken from the Norther Light Blues. I did them the same as the initial batch so they "should" work.

It's two weeks from the flip for the Hempys. Good news, all the A Train mothers are female. So I have 35 of them doing their thing.

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My camera still sucks at the close-up pics. I'm very impressed by the Blue Planet Nutrients. This is my first attempt at hydro. I haven't had any issues with nutrients what so ever.

A week from today I will do a thorough defol and things should continue to fall into their places. If I get paid tomorrow I will order the ventilation system.

:Namaste:
 
Quick update as I'm home from work.

Last night the Mrs. and I were watering the flower tent. Plants are looking great. Unfortunately #2 A Train and its clones are male. Oh well. The rest appear to be females. But man, tomorrow is the 3 week point for since the flip. These hos are going to take a while to finish. Tomorrow night is the first scheduled defoil. I'll take some pics.

On a side note, a friend of mine just returned from Humbolt with 3/4 lb of 5 different varieties. OG #18 was one. Very nice tasting. I think I found something better-Blue Dream. This is the best not only that I've ever smoked, but everyone else that has tried it. I'm hoping to score some clones from a friend. Very top shelf meds.
 
Yeah, blue dream, if done right, can be a very nice med, I typically would use it for day-time use, they really know how to grow blue dream up north. But down south, we have our varieties of OG cuts :) But some OG from Norcal would be yummy too of course :)

Bummer about the male clones, it's just part of the game!

Stunning plants and garden mate, best of luck
 
Sorry for the absence. My back injury really hit me hard. Over a week incapacitated. I lost my full time job because of it. Oh well, I hated that place and it didn't even pay a living wage. I managed to keep up my part time job by my woman getting off work early and driving me. I'm looking at it as more of a blessing than anything. My part time job, only 6 hours a week, pays more than the full time one. I was hoping to be able to catch up on bills, but oh well.

So, I was able to do a little more research on the A Train strain. From what I gather, most strains will stretch to double their height (roughly) in the first two weeks of flowering. These no good mother ****ing plants I have went from 2"-6" when I first put them in to nearly 4'. Not good for me. I only have 5' vertical to work with. Add the pot height along with the light hood, I have closer to 4' of growing room.

Now I've had these plants parked under a 600 watt digi ballast running a Sunmaster Super HPS Delux bulb. The bulb has 85,000 lumens and a 358 PAR rating. In all reality these plants are taking up less than 8 sq feet. That should be more than enough for Sea of Green. Low and behold I have internode lengths of nearly a foot.

Also, I've seen reports of these plants taking around 75 days to finish. I stand right now a day 29 of flowering. While my basement and most of the house reeks of cheesy/fruity goodness, I'm just staring to see calyx formation.

So, with all that in mind, I made an executive decision. I will finish the 26 A trains that I have in flowering and wash myself of that strain. I have no more of the mothers. I through away all the clones. Done.

I have four NLB's in the flowering room and took 28 more clones about an hour ago. Here's a before and after pic of the NLB mothers.

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The lights are off at the moment in the flowering room at the moment. But some time this weekend I'll break out the tape measure and take some pics to illustrate just where I'm coming from.

Oh yeah, I did I pretty massive defol 8 days ago. Those things had side branches just as tall as the main stalk. Now they're covered in fan leaves. The smoke is steller, just not a good plant for my needs.

Cheers.

Added: computer is acting up. Not sure why the duplicate photos.
 
Well, I finally took the time to take some more pictures. Here is a current series of my flowering tent. There are the 26 A Trains. Keep in mind, those greedy no-good bitches are entering Week 5 of 12/12. I tried to document my disapointment as best as I could.

There's also 4 NLB's that are just shy of a week into flowering. The A Trains were the same height when transitioned to flowereing. Talk about stretch. Still, there's nothing to speak of for bud weight. F-ing weird. Glad i got rid of the others.

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I'm really in a conundrum about these A Trains. I'm running out of vertical room for them. They have exhibited a 10X stretch, but seem to be done with that stage. Still, what bothers me is that I am feeding them expensive nutes at the same time that their bud formation at 36 or what ever days into flowering is =< the four NLB's that have been in there for less than a week.

Those A Trains were also nearly completely defoliated on 4-5. They have completely filled out with fan leaves and side branching. I can't afford to feed them forever. My plan was to grow buds, not leaves and branches. For the intense smell these plants produce, a person would think that I have a half pound on the vine.

I have 30 or so clones of the NLB's that will be ready for transition in about a week and a half. By that time, if these A Trains haven't gotten in line, they will be culled with fury and vengeance.

I should be able to pick up my measly last check today from my former place of employment. I have a 4' inline fan and carbon filter that will be order tonight. That is provided that I get that check.

:Namaste:
 
Well, I was able to order the ventilation components last night. I really wanted a 6" inline fan because down the road I want to add another 600 watt fixture. But I had to settle with a 4" inline fan and filter. Hopefully it will be here soon. I also bought a little 6" clip on fan for air movement.

I tried to stop by the guy's house that those A Trains originated from. I wanted to ask him a few questions. I know that Train Wreck has a tendency to hermaphrodite. Most likely that was how the A Train seeds I acquired were fertilized. I always thought that back crossing a plant with itself helped to stabilize the strain. Didn't seem to work with these. Although last night it looked like I may finally be getting some bud growth. Anyways, this guy is a friend, but closer to an acquaintance. By talking to a mutual friend yesterday I've deduced that the guy is willing to trade some Blue Dream clones for some of my NLB's. I think I just might do that.

So, with my new part time job I earn $48.40/hr. Pay days are the 10th and 25th. Since I am on a special contract and working on a salary basis, I won't get my first check until the 25th. Without direct deposit I will most likely have check in hand on the 29th. I really want to add some more variety to my mother plants. I think I will make an order from Herbies at that time. It will probably consist of 1 each femilized seeds of: Bomb Seeds THC Bomb, Pyramid Seeds Tutankhamon, and DNA Genetics Holy Grail Kush. The King Tut is an AK 47 pheno with a super high THC content. The Holy Grail Kush is a cross between Kosher Kush and O.G. #18. It is also the only Cannabis Cup winner to get a perfect score. For around $50 or so U.S.D. I will have some of the best strains in the world. Yep, I'm going to do that.
 
So, for a quick update, here goes:

First, those A Trains are budding. I lost track of the day count, but I believe they were started under 12/12 on March 13th.

I have my exhaust fan and charcoal filter installed.

Tomorrow or Monday i'll get my 1/each femilized Tutankhamen, THC Bomb, and Holy Grail Kush from Herbies. There's an interesting Afghan Kush femalized seed thrown in there for free along with some freebie regular seeds.

I moved 18 Northern Light Blues into flowering four days ago.

Tonight I transplanted two of the Northern Light Blue mother plants, ones I deemed the underlings of the three, into three gallon buckets with the same Mirical Grow potting soil with moisture control. I added a generous amout of Root Magic Mycorrhizae during the transplant. Then I put them into the flowering tent.

So, that makes...25 A Trains with about a month to go, 4 NLB's that have had close to two weeks of 12/12, 18 NLB's that have been in there for four days, and the two NLB larger plants in soil that went in tonight. Things are finally getting interesting.

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Those damn A Trains are 4' tall. Don't know why but oh well.

:Namaste:
 
I have to admit, I'm getting excited to recieve those new beans, especially the Holy Grail Kush. Hopefully, in two months time I'll have four great mother plants. That should work out well for future cloning practices. I'm thinking of putting in 15 clones a week into flowering.

Until now and that point, the only thing I really need is more Blue Planet Nutrients. After that, some more two liters and more perlite and vermiculite. I'd like to add another 600 watt HID to the 4x4' flowering tent, especially if I'm still in this house come winter time.

On a side note, I just have to mention how effective that inline fan w/charcoal filter is. It is only a 4" fan. I bought a stepless speed controller for it also. You can see in the pictures that some of the A Trains are about 6" from the light. They have yet to show sighns of any burn. I'm running that fan at around 1/4 speed. I also have a 6" oscilating fan blowing on the tops of the plants. Temps fluctuate from 72 to 60 F. A little cool but they don't seem to mind. But the best part is no more dank smell inside and outside of the house.
 
Thanks John.

Yeah, today is day 61. 8 weeks and 5 days. According to seedfinder.com they should finish in 55-60 days. I figure that I'm just going to be patient and let them finish. I have, though, drastically reduced their feeding schedule. Just trying to stretch what nutes I have on hand. Pay day is Friday. I plan on making another purchase from Corey at Blue planet Nutrients at that time.

I defoiliated them on day 21. I was going to again on day 51 but they got the second trim at about day 45. They are needing it again. The buds are just starting to frost up. Bud weight is still about nothing. I think they need about another month to month and a half.

When I put the last batch of clones into flower I didn't take any new ones. The tent is fairly full at the moment. The A Trains are pretty branchy and the last two NLB in 3 gallon buckets take up some real estate. I'm not sure how to treat those two exactly. They were "mothers" so they have about 30 or so tops apiece. I trimmed all the inner lying fan leaves to open up the center. Just not sure if I should re LST them or just let them do their thing with propper defoiling.

So, the smaller tent that I use for mothers and clones only has one plant in it. Conventional wisdom where I live dictates that except for peas and potatoes, no vegetable planting outdoors until after Mothers Day. So I have a bunch of veg seeds germinating. They will be moved into the smaller tent to grow a bit before they meet the garden. Tomorrow I'll have my order from Herbies and start making some more mothers. Can't wait. Holy Grail Kush, THC Bomb, and Tutankhamun are calling my name.

:lot-o-toke:
 
The beans have arrived!!!

I decided to germinate the World Of Seeds Afghan Kush femalized bean also. Hopefully I'll be able to take a couple clones in about a months time. That will make 5 mothers for me. Variety is the spice of life and all that. I am happy with all of my selections. I think I'll have some of the top strains in the world. I'm not going to buy any more seeds until these mothers stop producing acceptable clones-which could be a couple of years from now.
 
I was with the plants until after 5 A.M. Managed to move the 2'x4' tent downstairs. That is no small feat. The basement is more like a dungeon. The bottom of the joists are only 5' above the floor. I'm 6'-2". So I spent a lot of time with ventilation and trying my best to seal up any and all light leaks. I'm really worried having one tent running lights on a 24 hr cycle touching another tent on 12-12. The last thing I want to do is mess up what progress I have been able to make.

I had a very hard time getting the shell of the smaller tent pulled up over the frame. Just no room down there. I'd guess it's close to 10'x10' floor space down there. Camping gear, water heater, two tents, myself, and the misses down there made it tough. Well, without realizing it I ripped the zipper off of the top of the left door. This was not brought to my attention until about 4 in the morning, when I was down to 8" of duct tape. I smoked a bowl of hash and pondered the situation. I had to get it sealed up or put the remaining NLB into flowering. Utilizing a heavy duty black trash bag and the last of the duct tape I was able to do a temporary "fix". I was so mad I thought I was going into cardiac arrest.

The main reason for this short update is to mention that all four of the new beans (Holy Grail Kush, Tutankamen, Afghan Kush, and THC Bomb [all femalized]), have germinated and are residing in their new homes.

If anything looks interesting, once the lights come on, I'll take some pics.

Added: Wasn't much to report after looking at the plants. All is well.
 
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