Loch's Jack Herer Grow - Harvest in Jan/Feb 2010

[Loch]

I started with 4 Jack Herer seeds in 10 inch round by 9 inch deep pots, filled with Fox Farms Ocean Forest soil.

The Jack Herer strain in a Sativa and Indica Mix from Skunk, Northern Lights, and Haze. I chose this strian after much research all finding similar quotes...

The cream of the crops and perhaps the most exquisite ganja you will ever encounter; this strain ranks as the most awarded variety in the history of harvest festivals. Nine awards and counting would be the pinnacle of recognition for any strain, yet Jack Herer manages to go a step further and bears the distinction of being distributed under prescription by Dutch pharmacies as a recognised variety of medicinal-grade cannabis.

Jack's Sativa phenotypes can also produce a good per-metre or per-plant yield when cultivated skilfully, though it is rare for these crops to be sold commercially. Most growers who have watched their succulent, super-sized calyxes swell and mature will be hesitant to sell such buds, and the best Jack Herer is often passed around a select circle of friends - an example of one of those things that money just can't buy.

Of course this is from sites selling the seed, and I have never tried it, but they sold me.

I need to apologize now, because I didn't take photos until the second week of flowering. I wish I had so I could point of some of the things I learned along the way, I promise to do better on any future grows.

To germinate I took a paper towel, folded it in half and then in half again and then soaked it with warm water. I placed that on a small ceramic saucer, and dropped the four seeds on top. I took another paper towel, folded in half twice, and soaked that and then put that one on top of the seeds. I then placed another ceramic saucer on top, and placed the whole stack on top of my DVR to keep the whole thing warm and dark.

I then obsessed over it for two days, When I saw one seed have a tap root barley a quarter inch long I noticed that two others had started to split the seed and it looked like they were about to put out little tap roots themselves. I couldn't see any sign on the fourth, but decided to go ahead and drop them all in soil at the same time.

I filled my pots with soil, wetted them thoroughly until they water ran out of the bottom, waited an hour, wetted them a little bit more, and then used pencil eraser side down, to poke a whole about a quarter to half inch down in each of the four pots. I tried my best to drop the little seeds in gentle with the tap root pointing down, but some of them would hit the side on the way down, and I didn't think it was important enough to dig them up again to retry. I then scraped a little soil over the top of them and placed them in the grow site, and put the light about 2 inches away from the soil.

First one popped up in two days, the last popped on the fifth day.

I had no plans to use ferts for the first month, as my grow shop guy told me I didn't need to with this soil. So I just watered as needed, the first watering wasn't for about a week and a half or so, and by that time the tallest of my plants was about 5 inches.

I ran my flours 24x7.

After 4 weeks there was a difference in the heights of all of them with the tallest being about 18 inches and the smallest half that at about 9 inches. I used plastic boxes and books to try and keep the tops of each plant at the same height and tried to keep the fluors about an inch or two away. I had my oscillating fan going from day 1.

Also on the fourth week I had procured my 400 watt HPS light, ballast, and vented reflecting hood. So I set that up, and then figured I should probably turn it on in addition to the fluors. The HPS light was about two feet above the fluors.

The next day I went to check on them and they all looked wilted and sore. I figured they freaked on the amount of light so I shut off the HPS lights and let things chill for a day. The next day they looked much better, and I decided to ramp them into HPS system. So I started with only 1 hour of the HPS per twelve hour period. Once from 8am to 9am and once from 8pm to 9pm. Each day I increased the HPS time one hour per shift, so that in twelve days the HPS system was running 24x7.

Things were going good, but I still had a significant height difference between plants and had to keep adjusting books and other supplies underneath them to keep them even.

At six weeks I started 12/12, I moved the HPS system to about 6 inches from the tops (Due to my setup I can hold my hand on the glass of the bottom of the vented reflector and only feel a slight warmth.) I decided not to waste the fluoros and I put them on the side where my runt was to see if I could help it.

Day by Day I looked for any sign of sexing, I think on the third day of flouring I saw little round flowerets forming at some intersections on one plant. To be honest I didn't know if that meant male or female, as it sounded male, but I was concerned that maybe a few white hairs would pop out of them, so I just kept on keeping on. By a week and a half 3 of the four had these flowerets and two of them started growing "buds" of them. I was at a loss, I had not heard that males would grow "buds" so does this mean they are females.... But the sure fit the description of little balls, meaning males. And the fourth plant was stubbornly refusing to show me anything.

Here are some Setup shots...
My Setup
Full Shot

Upper Setup Shot

Lower Setup Shot

 

[Loch]

Here are shots from my second week of flowering...

At this point I had figured there must be a better way than placing books and bins under the pots to keep the tops at the same height. I went and bought some 3 foot meatl poles and stuck four in per pot. I then put them the plants in bondage.

I wanted to get them to spiral around the poles (the circumfrance of the 10 inch pot) and I could get each top to be the same height using this method.

As I mentioned in my first post and my intro this is my first grow, and while I had read about what males looked like and even seen some pictures, I was very concerned about throwing plants out when I didn't know for sure...

These are the males "buds" I was talking about, I held on to them for two weeks of flowering waiting to see if hairs would come out of them.

My tallest plant

My Second tallest plant

My Runt

Throwing 3 of 4 plants out did not sound like a good idea, what if the fourth is male as well? On the last day of the second week of flowering the fourth (my second shortest plant) showed me a beautiful sign...

Female at last

Unfortunatly the photo doesn't doit justice, what you can not see from the photo are that there are plenty of nice white hairs poking out of the top here.

But really, you expect me to throw out 8 weeks of care and feeding on three male plants without a fight. You obviously underestimate my (your choice : newbieness, stupidity, stubbornness)

I searched the web, some said throw the out, they are good for nothing, some folks said they got plenty high of male cast outs.... One of those that said they got a pleasant high off of male castaways, said just cut 'em up, put 'em in an oven at 150 degrees for an hour and toke away...

What the heck, right.. worst case in coughs and headaches...

My results, no headaches, no high, not worth it for me... I'll just trash them and curse them for being male next time. There is only one male allowed in my grow room and that is me.
----------------

On a side note, here is a link back to my intro ... if you want to understand a little of my history and why I am here... Thanks and introduction

,
Loch

 

[Loch]

Today is the start of the fourth week (day 22) of flowering. I mentioned that I didn't use any ferts for the veg phase as I was told the Fox Farms Ocean Forest soil had plenty. One the first day of flowering I used ½ Tbs Fox Farms Big Bloom and 1 tsp Fox Farms Tiger Bloom per gallon, every feeding thereafter I used 1 TBS Big Bloom and 2 tsp Tiger Bloom per gallon.

It seems I fed about 1 gallon per plant about every 4 or 5 days. As mentioned in the post above, three of my four plants were male and were removed from the garden. Leaving all my hopes in my sole female. It seems I go to visit her about every day now, just to check in, and she is doing a great job.

I have been keeping her in bondage and every other day or so I tie down a fan leave to help remove shade from bud sites. As you can see from some of the photos below I have a lot of bud sites and about 50% are within about an inch of the top one. I have been keeping her growing in a tight circle. She is looking pretty good to me, but as this is my first grow I welcome any comments or critiques.

As seen in the picture below, I am able to keep my 400 watt HPS light about 1 inch away from the top. Which really surprised me, but my ventilation system really has no problem keeping the light cool, I can place my hand on the glass of the vented hood and leave it there all day. As a matter of fact I wait until one of the bud sites is solidly pressed against the glass before either rebinding it down or raising the light

Here is a shot of a lower bud site, nice white hairs are starting to grow like crazy, but I also like this shot because you can see the main stalk of the plant right abouve the bud so you can see how I have her wound in a spiral around the posts.

Here is a shot of the full plant. The metal poles are three feet long, however 8 inches of them are sunk into the pot below soil level. So that means currently the plant is around 2 foot 4 inches high. But note that before I started binding her she was around 6 inches taller than the poles. and every other day or so the top bud exceeds the poles and presses her little face right against the glass. Currently that is when I tie her down again. However her node are getting closer and closer together, and I don't know how much longer I will be able to keep her main cola down.

Here is a good shot of how I am manipulating her fan leaves to keep them from shading any bud sites beneath.

On the lower sites I am using the fluoro from veg to help out.

Here is a shot of what I think of her current backside, the side directly opposite from where the top bud is.

A shot of the spiral from underneath...

A shot that shows that I am keeping multiple bud sites at the top, not just one.

,
Loch

 

[SkreezlyCorey]

sux to hear about the cursed males in the bunch bro. but damn that female has some sites on her! Poppin! ha, can't wait for the finished product.

 

[Loch]

SkreezlyCorey - Thanks for the sympathy. While I had planned on a 50% rate, I had secretly been hoping all four would be female. For it to turn on me, and only get 1 of 4, well it bummed me out for a day, I just hope I got the guys out before they let loose.

 

[Loch]

What not to do :>

Ok so remember I am a first time grower, so I get some hands on learning, I guess. Today was a great example...

Everything has been going pretty well, but I was looking at some of the lowest bud sites, and convinced myself that I should trim 3 of them due to the following reasons...
1. I have heard that the lower sites do not produce much, and are a drain on the plant and her top sites... sounds logical, and it also fit item #2 and #3
2. I was thinking it would be nice to sample a bit, I mean waiting for another month + stinks.
3. I am greedy and stupid. :>

So here is what I did and the effects...

I trimmed, put little buds and some trim leaves on a baking pan in the oven at 150 degrees for an hour.
I then smoked very dry and crispy little buds (Boy did they shrink up)
I then had the smallest of highs ever. It tasted like what I figure smoking my dirty socks would taste like.

I also possibly gave up the potential of what those sites could have done over the next 5 weeks. The lower sites were getting plenty of light due to my circular bondage setup. However I did gain in the reaffirmation that I should leave good things alone, as well as the reaffirmation of what my greed and impatience brings.

Here is what I have learned from this grow so far
1. Plan on 25% female ratio, germinate and grow at least 4 seed to get 1 female
2. I now feel more comfortable spotting males earlier, and not waiting until they sprout little Christmas trees of pollen sacks waiting to explode upon my female plants. (I truly hope I got them out soon enough on this grow, but I guess time will tell)
3. With this strain (Jack Herer) and with males at 2 weeks flowering, the males do not contain enough THC to do anything for me, at least smoked... And I doubt even if made into edibles. (Perhaps if they were further into the flowering stage, but then I am risking my females, so it doesn't seem worth anything except to throw them out asap)
4. I had heard that males are usually first to flower — That was certainly true with this grow.
5. I had heard that males are usually the tallest while in veg — That was mostly true with this grow, the two tallest were males, however the runt of the bunch was also a male.
6. Females of this strain are not worth smoking at 3 weeks flowering. (Or my quick drying method vapes THC, but from my understanding this shouldn't happen at such a low temp (150))
7. Buds shrink a LOT during drying. Especially if they are small to start off with.

I hope to not have to add too much more to the list of lessons. At least in this grow.

,
Loch

 

[Doc Bud]

Re: What not to do :>

Ok so remember I am a first time grower, so I get some hands on learning, I guess. Today was a great example...

Everything has been going pretty well, but I was looking at some of the lowest bud sites, and convinced myself that I should trim 3 of them due to the following reasons...
1. I have heard that the lower sites do not produce much, and are a drain on the plant and her top sites... sounds logical, and it also fit item #2 and #3
2. I was thinking it would be nice to sample a bit, I mean waiting for another month + stinks.
3. I am greedy and stupid. :>

So here is what I did and the effects...

I trimmed, put little buds and some trim leaves on a baking pan in the oven at 150 degrees for an hour.
I then smoked very dry and crispy little buds (Boy did they shrink up)
I then had the smallest of highs ever. It tasted like what I figure smoking my dirty socks would taste like.

I also possibly gave up the potential of what those sites could have done over the next 5 weeks. The lower sites were getting plenty of light due to my circular bondage setup. However I did gain in the reaffirmation that I should leave good things alone, as well as the reaffirmation of what my greed and impatience brings.

Here is what I have learned from this grow so far
1. Plan on 25% female ratio, germinate and grow at least 4 seed to get 1 female
2. I now feel more comfortable spotting males earlier, and not waiting until they sprout little Christmas trees of pollen sacks waiting to explode upon my female plants. (I truly hope I got them out soon enough on this grow, but I guess time will tell)
3. With this strain (Jack Herer) and with males at 2 weeks flowering, the males do not contain enough THC to do anything for me, at least smoked... And I doubt even if made into edibles. (Perhaps if they were further into the flowering stage, but then I am risking my females, so it doesn't seem worth anything except to throw them out asap)
4. I had heard that males are usually first to flower — That was certainly true with this grow.
5. I had heard that males are usually the tallest while in veg — That was mostly true with this grow, the two tallest were males, however the runt of the bunch was also a male.
6. Females of this strain are not worth smoking at 3 weeks flowering. (Or my quick drying method vapes THC, but from my understanding this shouldn't happen at such a low temp (150))
7. Buds shrink a LOT during drying. Especially if they are small to start off with.

I hope to not have to add too much more to the list of lessons. At least in this grow.

,
Loch

Hey bro!

I think you did the right thing trimming off the lower stuff. i didn't do it on my first grow....and it was a pain in the ass trying to harvest the lower buds....I finally just started plucking them off and putting them into the hash bag. Probably left 3-5 grams of little stuff on the last two plants I harvested, because I was so sick of trying to get them all.

I wish I had trimmed to lower stuff!

You did, and you'll be happy about it.

 

[CocoJoe]

Hi loch, You might consider making some seeds for future fun.

 

[SkreezlyCorey]

hellz yeah! nice job with the lower cuts, makes sense to increase energy going to mains that you know will treat you right! all in all.....nice

 

[Loch]

DocBud – Thanks for the sanity check. I think it is just a matter of making sure I am trimming for the right reasons and making sure I am not trimming for the wrong ones. :>

SkreezlyCorey – Thanks man, yeah I want all the energy going to the buds that are going to do the most with it. Thanks for the kind words.

cocoJoe – Well I do have six seeds left out of my ten pack. I did plan on making seeds at some point, but I would love to be able to compare the potency of sensimilla buds and buds with seeds from the same strain. So if this is the grow with seeds so be it, but I do think I got them out in time, and if not this grow then the next.

I have to tell you the pleasure I get and the expected sense of accomplishment with this grow is a great reward for me at this point. Watching my girl grow at the bud sites from day to day is just amazing.

Thanks to all for your encouragement!

 

[Loch]

New pics from week 3.5 in flowering...

Here is a size reference, the shot below is the main cola, my finger is 3.25 inches.

This morning she was hitting her head against the glass of the light again..

Close up of a side bud

Two closeup shots...

Two shots of the plant

Grow baby, grow...

,
Loch

 

[remmington]

Greetings fellow J.H grower!
Clipping the lower branches at the start of flowering is a good idea but why bake the crap out of them in the oven? She's your only J.H female... CLONES?!!!
Besides, 150 is WAY too high
Lookin good @ 3.5 weeks but you may well have to go into march before she's finished, she looks more sativa than mine. My first grow (hydro) was pretty poor @ 11 weeks so i cut my losses... but i kept clones of the two females i had. The second crop (just one small plant in compost) is almost ready to come down and must have been flowering for around 11 weeks now, but its worth it this time FAT dense super sticky buds.. Dont rush her.
Maybe its just the pics but it looks like some of the leaves are going yellow (interveinal chlorosis)? At 3.5 weeks thats probably mag deficiency.. 1 tsp of epsom salts per litre of water/nutrient solution should sort that out.
Anyway... TAKE CUTTINGS! They'll flower faster than the seedling did.

Good luck with the grow

 

[remmington]

I tested a little nug from my soil grown Jack attempt last night.
WOW!
I smoke spliffs so i dunno how a bong would hit you (but i can guess) but ten minutes later i thought its just ok.
After half an hour i thought Jack was quite nice in a subtle way... then you realise..
I'm high?? No i dont mean monged from some regular couchlock dutch weed... HIGH!
I'm talkin Kat Williams style Hi h ha ha hi high HIGH!

Serious genetics worth every penny.

 

[Loch]

Remmington - you were so right... and sorry for not posting for a while. Well more new things to learn as a noob. I saw the yellowing leaves, a few days later a few fell. I started to panic, but held back remembering that I had read the bottom fans leaves may yellow and fall as harvest time nears.

A few more days and a few more leave later, I go back into panic mode and think it is a lack of N. So I go and add nutes.

A few more days and a few more leaves, panic, more nutes. Arrggg

Then your post came in and I did water with epsom salts, a few more days and more leaves, and I realize it was probably a lack of Mag, but now she is locked up.

Ok last ditch effort, (cause trust me she ain't worth smoking yet) I chopped a branch nuked her on low power, 10 seconds at a time... She gave me a better buzz than the last time I tried, but really all I got was half an hour with a smile.

So... Emergency flush... 6 gallons of tap water, followed by 1 gallon with 1/2 big bloom, half tiger bloom, and 1 1/2 teaspoons of epsom salts. I also removed all dead or mostly dead leaves.

Two days later, the first signs of life and growth. New leaves!

I'll post pics in a few days.

 

[The Butcher]

How did this grow turn out?
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