KJ's T5/CFL 1st Time Grow

[KarlJay]

Cut down the rest of the plants from grow 1. It was more than I thought! Just spent about 6 hours trimming them down. Filled the 6 tier and 2.5 lines in the clone closet.

Weighed one 1/2 gallon jar and wasn't very impressed, about 46g. If that is the average, that puts it just over 2lbs. Still a guess, it'll take some time to weight it all.

Tested the new RH meter and it's right on the money, the digital meter is way off, says about 55 when it should be 75. I'm using the salt water test to verify them.

The test jar overnight came out to 67% RH, so it's getting close.

It might be me, but the smell was waaay down today during the burping. Might be because I just spent 6 hours trimming.

For some reason, one of the plants did something strange, it was VERY dry! VERY VERY dry. So dry, I put it directly into the jar, no dry time. I don't know if it was too close to the lamp or the fan or what, but it was very dry. I don't know if it's ruined or not, have to run some samples. It was the lower 1/3 of one of the regular plants and it was put in with all the other partial harvest plants.

Reworked the lights in the flowering room so that the plants can take advantage of all 4 of the lights. Still have 1 light running MH, might change that over the HPS until the end of flowering.

I think they are about 3 weeks in or so, getting pretty tall already.

I'll be taking the clones this week for grow 4 from the 10 that were held back from the 2nd grow. Then I'll be able to move the rest of grow 2 into the flower room.

The 3rd grow is overdue for going into 5 gallon bags, that'll be done in the next day or two. ... I think this will get my timing just about right, I'd like to get to about 1 harvest every 4 to 6 weeks.

Pics soon to come.

 

[KarlJay]

Update: The one partial plant that was VERY dry: I added a damp paper towel to the jar and rolled the jar on it's side. Worked like a champ. The color went back to green and they softened up real nice. They are out of the jar and on the drying rack.

The results of the last of the harvest is a full drying rack and a few lines in the clone closet. They'll go into jars in a few days.

The jars are being burped several times a day and are VERY close to 60% RH.

The smell from the jars is a LOT less than it was before, don't know if that's normal or not.

Here's a few pics.

The flowering plants are reworked to take advantage of the lights, the clones should be taken Friday and then the other 10 will go into flowering for a total of 26 flowering plants for grow 2. grow 3 is waiting for the 5 gallon grow bags still.

One sample 1/2 gallon jar weighed in at 45g so I think the 3lb total will be hard to make.

 

[KarlJay]

Update: Got Grow 3 into 5 gallon bags! Too tired to make clones tonight. Have to clear out the clone closet, I'm using that as a drying and storage closet. Last time I did the clones, I didn't use the clone closet and it didn't work as well as before. So I'll have to find somewhere to dry what's in there, probably just share the drying rack.

The roots looked very good, They were probably ready for the 5 gallon bags last week, but had so many things going on.

Up next, clones for Grow 4 and finally move the 10 left over in veg plants into flowering. I hope this helps get the timing setup better. I'm hoping to get 1 harvest / month... we'll see how that works out, might take a while

 

[mountaingoat]

Looking super sweet! love it!

 

[KarlJay]

Looking super sweet! love it!

Thanks! Lot of work between trimming and rebagging, 13 bags of soil, hours and hours of trimming, always trying to make more room for things. But I really think I'll have the timing under control pretty soon. Maybe 1 or 2 more harvests and my schedule should be pretty close. The flowering part is where I really don't have much control, so I have to work everything around that.

 

[KarlJay]

Grow 4 is now underway! Clones taken from the 10 left in veg from grow 2. Also cut off some of the 'lesser' lower branches this time. It seems like the 'lesser' branches don't add up to much and more plant energy into the buds. Grow 2 is all in flower now, 16 are several weeks ahead of the other 10.

26 total in Grow 2 all in flower.

Grow 3 is in 5 gallon bags in veg, about 12" tall.

Grow 4 is in the clone machine waiting for roots, about 50/50 mix of Mr NiceGuy and Rascal. Mostly pulled from the tallest/bushiest plants. Didn't scrape the stems nearly as much as last time. Should have roots in about 10 days or so.

Grow 1: gave out cured samples of both Mr NiceGuy and Rascal for testing to two different people (I don't have near enough background to know good from bad)
The last cuttings from Grow 1 are still drying, they'll be in jars soon. The curing ones are holding pretty steady at 60~65% RH.

At least at this point the clones are timed about 1 month apart, I don't know if this is a good idea or not, might have to based everything on flowering as that's the one cycle I have little or no control over.

Edit: Also got the CFL light bar back in use on the 3rd grow in veg.

 

[KarlJay]

Update pics: of the 10 that were held back for cloning and just put into flower, 4 of them almost got destroyed by the fan. They didn't have any supports and I figured they had enough fan training that they would be ready. ... they weren't ready. Quickly removed the fan and added supports, hope they will recover, one was real wobbly at the base, as if the roots were damaged. Fan's on low, and they are supported.

Here's the Flower room, changed 1 bulb so they are all HPS now, I'll switch 1 to MH for the last bit of flowering. Total plants in flower: 26.

Still working on getting the tall ones on one side and the short ones on the other side so I can get closer with the lights.

Here's the veg room, total plants: 27. Got the CLFs back to work down the center and all the T8's running.

Here's the clones. About 50/50 split Rascal/Mr NiceGuy. All responding nicely.

The results of the 1st grow: about 20% still in drying, the rest are finishing up the cure. The tester said about 1 more week of curing and they'll be done. Had a sample, was nice and smooth, I'll have a larger sample 2nite to see test the overall effect, but seems much more physical than mental.

I really don't know If I want more strains, I've already screwed up a few labels as it is, and that's with only 2 strains.

 

[KarlJay]

Update: The last of Grow 1 is now in jars:
4 gallon jars
17 1/2 gallon jars
4 quart jars

I'll post some more pics later.

 

[KarlJay]

Watering day for all plants in flower, started adding molasses and no KoolBloom this time. Haven't cleared off the lower branches yet but next lights on, I'll have to get on that. Sampled a few more batches and all is great. Clones have really perked up and looking great, running 5 CFLs for the clones.

3rd grow is responding nicely to the move to 5 gallon bags.

 

[KarlJay]

Clear water for the 3rd grow and started taking lower branches off the plants on grow 2. Also, getting rid of some of the inner baby branches and popcorn. I should probably do this before flowering. Hope they don't go into shock.

Many in the 2nd grow are not holding up well to the wind from the fan. I'm pretty sure I'll have to add support all of them.

 

[KarlJay]

Update: Got most of the plants lower/smaller parts trimmed out. Just a few more plants to check. Noticed several are getting fatter colas compared to grow 1. Saw frost developing on a few and the smell is starting to kick up.

Looks like the timing is getting close, I'm still in cure for grow 1, and grow 2 is developing frosty colas. The only down side is that I had to hold back 10 plants for cloning. If I can get the clone timing figured out, I should be able to get the timing down. I'd have to go back and check, but grow 2 could be about 4 to 6 weeks from harvest, so that's pretty close to the target.

 

[KarlJay]

Just about got all the plants trimmed, took off quite a bit from the bottom and inner part of the plant. Saw 1 that was getting heat stress, moved it further from the light.

Bud are really starting to kick in now. They really seemed to like the molasses in the last feeding.

 

[CA215]

Seems like you are getting everything dialed in well Karl, killer good job!
I say hold onto the rascal, she is very nice, would like to find this strain again for the next indoor grow.
Reps+ have a good evening bro!

CA215

 

[KarlJay]

Thanks!
Just got word back from a sampler today and he said 9 out of 10!

I can't really tell the difference between the two strains myself (Mr NiceGuy and Rascal) but they are both similar from what I hear. I can smell a little bit of difference thou.

Several of the new clones are having a bit of a rough time, lost leaves and some brown leaves.

 

[CA215]

How is the bud tasting and clones doing KJ?! Hope all's well

CA215

 

[KarlJay]

How is the bud tasting and clones doing KJ?! Hope all's well

CA215

I've taken several samples and they are all great! The 2nd grow is just starting to get some amber.

I had some cooling issues with the flower room, so I've been working on the 2ton A/C and got it setup pretty good now. I now have 3 vents going into the flower room and the small window A/C... that seems to be just about right because it's keeping it just under 80 deg.

The 3rd grow is coming along nicely and should be ready for the flower room about the time the 2nd grow is harvested.

Clones -
Had some problems with the clones (4th grow). I started out with 27 clones and now have 21. I had a few that never rooted while others had strong large roots, so I don't know exactly what happened.

As soon as I put them in soil, 7 or 8 wilted and now 5 died. One that was very wilted has made a comeback and that leaves me with 21 out of 27.

The problem might have been not changing the water, the 1st clones went perfect and I changed the water after 1 week. This time I didn't.

The next problem might have been not slicing the stems at the bottom. This time I didn't slice the last 1/2 inch like I did before and I didn't scrape the bark as hard as I did before.

The other issue might be that I took branches that were nearly 12" long, they might have been too mature to clone. They might have been too large to live 2 weeks without any nutes.

Live and learn.

next time I'll change out the water at least every week. I'll slice the last 1/2 inch of the stems and I'll scrape the bark more.

The other problem is that the other people involved in this grow have dropped the ball. I'm now holding the 99% of the 1st harvest because the other people haven't picked up their shares.

This was supposed to be a "shared" grow, but it's turned out that the only work I got out of them was 3 hours of trimming. I've been paying all the bills and nobody is stepping up. I'll give them a few more weeks, then look elsewhere.

I kinda expected this, people tend to talk a lot and work a little. Thankfully it hasn't put me in a real hard spot.

I'll post up some more pics soon, it's pretty impressive compared to the 1st grow. 1st grow was basically 10 plants, the 2nd grow is 26 full size plants.

 

[mcloadie]

I've taken several samples and they are all great! The 2nd grow is just starting to get some amber.

I had some cooling issues with the flower room, so I've been working on the 2ton A/C and got it setup pretty good now. I now have 3 vents going into the flower room and the small window A/C... that seems to be just about right because it's keeping it just under 80 deg.

The 3rd grow is coming along nicely and should be ready for the flower room about the time the 2nd grow is harvested.

Clones -
Had some problems with the clones (4th grow). I started out with 27 clones and now have 21. I had a few that never rooted while others had strong large roots, so I don't know exactly what happened.

As soon as I put them in soil, 7 or 8 wilted and now 5 died. One that was very wilted has made a comeback and that leaves me with 21 out of 27.

The problem might have been not changing the water, the 1st clones went perfect and I changed the water after 1 week. This time I didn't.

The next problem might have been not slicing the stems at the bottom. This time I didn't slice the last 1/2 inch like I did before and I didn't scrape the bark as hard as I did before.

The other issue might be that I took branches that were nearly 12" long, they might have been too mature to clone. They might have been too large to live 2 weeks without any nutes.

Live and learn.

next time I'll change out the water at least every week. I'll slice the last 1/2 inch of the stems and I'll scrape the bark more.

The other problem is that the other people involved in this grow have dropped the ball. I'm now holding the 99% of the 1st harvest because the other people haven't picked up their shares.

This was supposed to be a "shared" grow, but it's turned out that the only work I got out of them was 3 hours of trimming. I've been paying all the bills and nobody is stepping up. I'll give them a few more weeks, then look elsewhere.

I kinda expected this, people tend to talk a lot and work a little. Thankfully it hasn't put me in a real hard spot.

I'll post up some more pics soon, it's pretty impressive compared to the 1st grow. 1st grow was basically 10 plants, the 2nd grow is 26 full size plants.

Karl, you should be getting 100% survival outta those clones. You're using an aerocloner......mine runs like this and is predictable as can be; I just cut the clones with a pair of scissors, try to get below a node...which is an area that is meristem..(rapidly dividing cells), I'm putting a teaspoon of Hormex concentrate in ten gallons of water in the res, here is something I'm finding...they like the res water at 80-85 degrees F, I know....but it's working perfect....they are rooting at 10 days every time. I don't wait for the roots to get long......they just get broken off planting them.....I usually get hundreds of quarter inch long roots, they plant without getting broken off......the cuts have been in 100% water while rooting so when I water them in I soak them!, and use a turkey baster to keep em moist right where the new roots are for another 3 or 4 days and they are ready for their final homes. The cuts are never outta the water for more than a coupla seconds when I do this, and if they are...I make another cut just above the previous one.....I never ever even get wilt.

 

[KarlJay]

Karl, you should be getting 100% survival outta those clones. You're using an aerocloner......mine runs like this and is predictable as can be; I just cut the clones with a pair of scissors, try to get below a node...which is an area that is meristem..(rapidly dividing cells), I'm putting a teaspoon of Hormex concentrate in ten gallons of water in the res, here is something I'm finding...they like the res water at 80-85 degrees F, I know....but it's working perfect....they are rooting at 10 days every time. I don't wait for the roots to get long......they just get broken off planting them.....I usually get hundreds of quarter inch long roots, they plant without getting broken off......the cuts have been in 100% water while rooting so when I water them in I soak them!, and use a turkey baster to keep em moist right where the new roots are for another 3 or 4 days and they are ready for their final homes. The cuts are never outta the water for more than a coupla seconds when I do this, and if they are...I make another cut just above the previous one.....I never ever even get wilt.

Yeah, I screwed up something. The only thing I changed was how much I scrape the stems and not changing the water after 1 week. The water did seem pretty rank and that should be a clue. This is actually the 1st failure I've had. Good thing I decided to go with high quantity.

 

[CA215]

Perpetual still perpetuating, KJ?
Did I miss a new journal?

 

[DharmaBud]

KarlJay,

Awesome job! Though I have to say, compared to what I'll have, yours is an Amazon jungle. When you speak of sampling, I'll be worrying about running out by sampling too much LOL! Subbed and rated!

Brother

Jeff