MotaFina - 2nd Indoor Grow - Damnesia & Special Kush - Supersoil - HID

[MotaFina]

I'm amazed that mold could grow. The humidity has been very low. It's currently 28 percent. Temps are pretty low generally too, but I didn't think I'd have this problem with such low humidity.

For sure, I'm now pointing a fan directly at the drying D1 buds. They look OK so far....no mold there. They're also in a different area of the basement.

 

[BluePhoric]

I had one big bud last time that seemed to have some white inside. I just split it and let it dry. Did not propagate. Maybe I smoked some molds ;-)

 

[MotaFina]

I think one lesson I've just learned is that with huge buds like these, probably best to cut them up and dry on racks or something instead of hanging the whole buds.

I just now cut the buds all up and have them spread out on paper. There's little specs of mold on a lot of the buds, which I can only see with my loupe. It would be pretty much impossible to cut it all out.

 

[BluePhoric]

Maybe in your environment, for the next grows, it would be a good idea to grow SOG... many little plants grown for a shorter time, that will make more little colas, with less chance of molds ?

 

[MotaFina]

Maybe in your environment, for the next grows, it would be a good idea to grow SOG... many little plants grown for a shorter time, that will make more little colas, with less chance of molds ?

Problem is that this state only allows you to grow 2 plants to maturity. But along the same lines, I could top it a bunch to get more tops, which should then grow smaller. Weird problem to have, huh? "My buds are too big!"

 

[BluePhoric]

It's true you can do like me... have 35+ tops that will be smaller. But it takes a lot of time and effort. SOG is quicker.

You are allowed to grow 2 plants but you grow 4 ? So what's the difference in growin 6 or 8 small ?

 

[MotaFina]

It's true you can do like me... have 35+ tops that will be smaller. But it takes a lot of time and effort. SOG is quicker.

You are allowed to grow 2 plants but you grow 4 ? So what's the difference in growin 6 or 8 small ?

Yeah....I'm bad.

I had determined that I should go legal on the next grow, mainly due to this one being so successful. I really don't need to grow this much weed. Even if I toss all this moldy stuff, I'll still have too much. Again, not a bad problem to have.

In the old days, I used to do more of a SOG grow. I'd have 12-15 3-gal pots in a ~5x5 ft area, and I didn't top them at all. I still got fairly good sized buds, but not like these monsters.

 

[MotaFina]

I just weighed most of the 'moldy' buds....181 grams...~6.5 oz. Man that hurts.

The buds are very dry now and I've been trying to inspect individual buds and remove moldy spots, but it's just not workable. You cut out one spot, and see a tiny bit more. By the time you're done, there's nothing left. Pretty tragic. I mean the mold spots are tiny, can't see them with the naked eye. But they're widespread enough that removal is pretty much impossible.

I've seen some forum posts about making bubble hash with it. They say the mold floats, so you should be able to skim it off the top and collect the trichomes out of the filter bags where there shouldn't be any mold. Any opinions on this?

 

[BluePhoric]

I think molds may pass thru the bags and into the water...

Peace.
BP

 

[BluePhoric]

I'm curious... Did you have a carbon filter running for the grow, and if so... should it have filtered and removed spores floating in the air ?

 

[BluePhoric]

I think air purifiers with Hepa filters are more help for avoiding molds.
Models like the Winix 5300-2 Air Cleaner are not too expensive. Eventually, maybe you should treat the room with something like that and/or grow mold resistant strains ?

 

[MotaFina]

I'm curious... Did you have a carbon filter running for the grow, and if so... should it have filtered and removed spores floating in the air ?

I do have a carbon filter, but it is filtering the air being removed from the tent. This is just for eliminating the smell. I have an intake fan running that brings air into the tent, but I just have a simple furnace-type filter wrapped around the intake. I guess a HEPA filter would remove spores.

But really, I don't think the problem came about from there just being spores...spores are everywhere, especially in basements. But where I blew it was that I thought with such low humidity I wouldn't need a lot of air circulation. I didn't have a fan blowing...just the intake fan nearby to circulate a little air. I also think there must be something about either the pheno or the location (a corner of the basement), because the other plants are drying in a different location and I haven't seen any mold at all on them (knock on wood).

 

[MotaFina]

I think air purifiers with Hepa filters are more help for avoiding molds.
Models like the Winix 5300-2 Air Cleaner are not too expensive. Eventually, maybe you should treat the room with something like that and/or grow mold resistant strains ?

Damnesia is a cross between Amnesia and a strain called AMS (anti-mold strain). Maybe the pheno on D2 turned out more Amnesia-like instead of AMS, while the other two are the opposite. They do seem different. The D2 is absolutely gorgeous when it dries...full of neon orange hairs with light green leaves.

I think another factor in the mold developing on D2 is the size of the buds. It seems to be pretty common for folks with large buds to get some mold on the big ones. It's happened to me in the past too.

 

[MotaFina]

Update - Day 133

I've FINALLY got everything harvested, trimmed, dried and bagged/jarred. All said and done, this was a phenomenal grow! Here's the final tally:

Special Kush = 124 g
Damnesia 1 = 218 g
Damnesia 2 = 253 g
Damnesia 3 = 130 g
popcorn and sugar leaves = 126 g

170 g of the D2 has a tiny amount of mold so will be used for hash, as will the popcorn/sugar.

So that's a total of 725 g (~25.9 oz) of buds plus 126 g (4.5 oz) popcorn/sugar. I'm sure we've already smoked an ounce too. Not too far away from that mythical 1 g/watt. Not bad for a 4x4 tent grow.

I'll post some dried bud photos when I have more time and then do a summary of the grow - what I learned, what I might change, etc. I don't think a smoke report from me would make much sense since I'm such a lightweight, but I can say that, for me, it's literally one-hit shit. And more importantly, my patient is very happy with the quality.

 

[Pennywise]

Congrats on a huge harvest Mota, can't wait to see what you do next!

 

[BluePhoric]

What can I say !!!

 

[MotaFina]

Synopsis

I'm quite relieved to have this grow pretty much under my belt now. Growing is a work of love, but it really is a LOT of work.

Here are a couple of pics of the final product:

Some buds:

Most of the harvest (some is in freezer waiting to made into hash):

Here's a little wrap up of this very successful attempt:

Supplies:

Strains - Special Kush and Damnesia - Both excellent strains. Special Kush was a much shorter plant and ripened earlier, both of which contributed to a smaller yield. But the smell of SK is just awesome. Damnesia is a more potent strain, the plants grow taller and yield is somewhat higher than SK. I wouldn't hesitate to grow either one of these again.

Nutrients - Nectar for the Gods (sample kit) - I will use these again. The sample kit is enough for two grows with the exception of Herculean Harvest, Athena's Aminas and Bloom Khaos, which are almost used up by one grow. I'll order more of those for the next grow. I don't have a lot to compare it to, but these nutes were much easier to pH-adjust than the Earth Juice, and produced fantastic results.

Soil - I ended up with a really mixed bag. Primarily I used Coast of Maine potting soil, but I re-used some soil from the last grow and threw in some ProMix BP as well. I bought about $100 worth of ammendments and created a mix based on Subcool's recipe. It looks like the ammendemnts will last for 4-5 grows. I also mixed in some Earth Juice dry 'bloom' fertilizer with mychorizae into the soil mix for the final transplant.

Lighting - primarily HID (MH/HPS) supplemented with CFLs. I use cheaper Plantmax bulbs in my decades-old fixtures and they seem to work just fine. I see no reason to switch this up.

Pots - 5/7/10 gal plastic pots. The 10-gal pot produced significantly higher yield. Next grow I plan to limit myself to 2 plants and I'll have both of them in 10-gal pots.

Water - sometimes tap water and sometimes store-bought RO. When using tap water, I added campden to eliminate chlorine and chloramine. I'm not sure which is a better strategy.

Process:

Germination - paper towel method - works fine, no reason to change this up.

Veg - 18/6 with 400 watt MH bulb - I like to stay in veg at least until I start seeing preflowers. When I see preflowers, then I transplant and give it one week before switch to 12/12. I didn't fertilize much in veg due to the amended soil. This strategy seems to be working out fine.

Training - I used some LST and some topping. I topped twice to get around 15 tops per plant. I might try topping a third time in the next grow. That would cause a longer veg, and bigger plants with more tops that are not quite so big. The huge size of the tops this grow contributed to mold developing during drying on one plant. Maybe smaller tops would prevent this.

Transplanting - I went from 4-inch pots to 1-gal to 3-gal to 5/7/10-gal. I like this progression as it really fills in the entire pot with roots. That said however, these plants don't appear to have really massive root systems. So, not sure how to improve here.

Flower - 12/12 with 1000 watt HPS supplemented with 6x26watt 6500K CFLs - This worked out excellent. I had planned to switch back to MH for the last two weeks, but never did - just too much hassle to do. Maybe I'll try that in the next grow. I fertilized at 1/4 to 1/2 strength for most of flowering using a FEED-FEED-FLUSH schedule, then stopped feeding at 2-3 weeks before harvest. This also worked out excellent.

Drying - This was a challenge due to the low winter humidity. The buds got really dry on the outside while they were still pretty moist inside. I cut buds into jars and ziplock bags after 2-4 days of drying, then had to be really dilligent on airing them out during the initial cure. And on one plant, I made the mistake of not putting a fan on the buds and ended up with some mold.

Curing - Short term, I decided to use ziplock bags due to the low humidity. Seems easier to get air into them than the jars. I'm transitioning the buds into glass now for longer term storage. I have a vacuum setup to remove air from the jars once they're fully cured.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by, especially BluePhoric and Pennywise for all their advice and encouragement. I'll be back in the spring to start my next grow with Master Kush and Bubblegun!

 

[TheMadDabber]

Be sure to post the link if your gonna start a new journal. Looking forward to the master kush and bubblegum. Beautiful harvest!

 

[BluePhoric]

I hope we start our next grow around the same time in spring... It's more fun ;-)

I'd like to start a grow soon after my current one. I'd grow in march-april-may...

I'm planning to grow in 100% coco coir, with an auto drip system to waste... I'm soon ordering water pumps and stuff... witch will help in doing less hand-watering in my current grow.

Congrats again, great grow MF !

 

[Amadeus Forzin]

Hope all is well in your world.

Thanks for sharing this grow with us.

Please head over to the 420 Strain Reviews forum and post your smoke report there too.

I'm moving this to Completed Journals now.

We look forward to your next adventure in spring.

Sending you lots of love and positive energy.