Mr. Bubbles Brix Journal

[mrbubbles87]

My Kerala was pretty heavily sativa, so it might be a lot more nute sensitive than the indica-based NL.

I've experienced that quite a bit with my Wild Thai. It's a very light feeding strain.

Been awhile since I've had to worry about burning plants. My organic plants are very minimalistic which of course provides a sub par product but I never have to worry about over feeding. I'll definitely be more light handed. Just glad it was the strain I don't like lol. I have another Kerala a few weeks behind it that's looking pretty good but may have a slight nute burn too. Should be able to give her a better run. Hate to cut a strain out without being confident I've grown it properly.

 

[PakaloloHawaii]

I wouldn't quite go as far as saying that the instructions suck. rather, they are open for interpretation. Doc has said that you can grow great plants with just energy.

All the drenches should be used at the same strength. Gray is on the money for 7 gal pots, 2-3mil is what I would use. With regards to frequency, I'd really follow the "less is more" theory. Plants that are real light feeders can go 3x water before needing another drench. While the hungry ones might want it after every 1-2x.

It's taken me a couple rounds to figure it out and my plants aren't like docs yet, but I'm growing better smoke than I can buy...

 

[mrbubbles87]

I wouldn't quite go as far as saying that the instructions suck. rather, they are open for interpretation. Doc has said that you can grow great plants with just energy.

All the drenches should be used at the same strength. Gray is on the money for 7 gal pots, 2-3mil is what I would use. With regards to frequency, I'd really follow the "less is more" theory. Plants that are real light feeders can go 3x water before needing another drench. While the hungry ones might want it after every 1-2x.

It's taken me a couple rounds to figure it out and my plants aren't like docs yet, but I'm growing better smoke than I can buy...

The instructions are confusing and impractical to be perfectly honest. All nutrient regimes are flexible but theres always a baseline to follow. I don't mean to insult Doc in anyway. I'm just being blunt and honest. He has done a great job creating the kit, but there's a lot of room for improvement in the instructions that would make it a lot easier. Maybe a color coded table or chart like many of the big name companies. Maybe a single plant journal from seed to harvest step by step. I know he's done something similar in the past but the instructions have changed several times.

I'm really looking forward to getting a larger kit from him and going all high brix. The cost vs quality is phenomenal and I haven't even harvested one yet lol

After this hiccup I think I've got the measurements down. It's definitely easier to feed per plant in ml.

 

[mrbubbles87]

Just a few pics while I'm watering the girls tonight. I gave each plant 1 gal of water. I also top dressed 4 of them with recharge and EWC.

My 2nd Kerala Krush

Bubba Kush

A Wild Thai that got a little out of hand lol

Easily my best Blue Blood yet!

The amazing smelling Norther Light x Skunk

And a group photo after I supercropped the Wild Thai. You can also see the severely burned Kerala in the back right corner.

Now time for some dabs and then bedtime

 

[Graytail]

I have a WWxSk1 a few weeks away from finish, and its habit reminds me a lot of the Kerala x Sk1 I grew. It's been slow to bulk up, so I gave it three cat drenches in a row, a total of about 8ml in 6 gallons of soil. Look what I discovered today, a week after the third drench - curled up leaf tips and a general dessication across the entire plant.

I had been thinking of giving it a shot of Energy instead of water - glad I didn't! She obviously needed a rest, in hindsight. Oops.

 

[mrbubbles87]

Update Day 77 (Flower Day 50):

Just a quick pic update tonight. All of the girls look amazing! Definitely feeling a lot more confident about my measurements for my feedings. I recently gave both the oldest girls another cat drench but only used 2.5ml per gal for each plant. That was a few days ago and so far they're still looking good. There's still a learning curve and some of the girls aren't perfect. Unfortunately I don't currently have a refractometer so I'm unable to measure my brix.


I can say that I have 1 plant so far that is PERFECT! Easily the best plant I have ever grown. Its a Northern Light x Skunk about 4 weeks into flower. The stems are unreal on this thing! She has bright green leaves and petioles. I'd have to say I'm pretty sure this girl is hitting the high brix numbers.


The older version of this plant on day 50 is really blowing me away too. The fan leaves are covered in trichomes like I've never seen. She does seem to be almost vegging more after the cat drench if thats possible. The flowers started growing vertically again vs bulking so the tops are looking pretty scraggly. Hoping they'll start to bulk up more soon. If that's the case i can easily see much longer harvests dates just like Doc predicts.


Anyways here's a few pics taken a few nights ago....

First up is the burned victim Kerala Krush. She seems to be recovering after the flush and milder dose of cat drench. The upper leaves are definitely scorched but the lower ones still look amazing.

The younger Kerala Krush. Got a little burn but caught her in time.

The super cropped overgrown Wild Thai.....

The older NL x Skunk. See the skinny top? It's like she went back to veg mode after the first Cat drench.

Up close shot of the NL x Skunk. Never seen trichomes going up the leaf stem like this before.

The bubba kush. Can never get these to grow very big since the original seedling. They don't seem to like a lot of water and I think over watering causes me to stunt them.

 

[Graytail]

LOL, trich-coated petioles?!!

Hey, that'd work for me!

 

[mrbubbles87]

LOL, trich-coated petioles?!!

Hey, that'd work for me!

I know right? I've never seen fan leaves so frosty. Definitely going to bump my butter game up

 

[mrbubbles87]

Has it really been a month since my last post?! Its amazing how fast time flys by. I haven't really had much time lately. I have several projects going on right now and my pc has been down for a bit. I feel like I dropped the ball on this journal so I apologize for that. I have still been taking pictures and notes that I have to share with you today.

The biggest update is I harvested 3 high brix plants a few days ago. They included the original 2, NLxSK and Ker x SK, and also a Critical Mass that was put into flower shortly after them. Before we get to the pics I would like to share some of my observations and struggles.

This was a very interesting harvest for me because it was my first time doing the bud wash and also because the harvest time frames were way different than normal. The NLxSK and Ker x SK were both ran for 11 weeks. That's super late for my NLxSK which I usually take down on week 8. The critical mass was ran for 9 1/2 weeks vs 8. Also, I was really confused on whether the plants needed a flush or special feeding prior to harvest. From what I've been able to find myself it seems like you don't need to do a flush and doc recommends a transplant feeding a week prior to harvest but I'm unsure. If anyone can chime in on their process I'd be grateful.

The bud wash was a little tricky. First converting docs measurements I found out I was really short on lemon juice and baking soda. I ended up using only 1 cup of lemon juice and 2 cups of baking soda in a a 5 gal bucket of water with 2 clean water buckets for the rinse. The biggest problem was cutting the branches short enough to fit into the bucket without hitting the bottom. I ended up having three times as many branches to hang as usual. I trimmed them the following day which was a lot more difficult then normal because the leaves were already curling over the buds. I have to admit even though I had to spend twice as much time harvesting the buds and trim they smell and look better than any I've done before. I can't wait to start blasting this stuff!

I noticed a distinct difference between the first 2 original plants and the other 6 high brix I've ran. As you can see by the pics I'm posting today and previous posts the tops on these first two plants went through a short stretch period and then began budding again mid flower. I've never seen this happen before. I've been so busy with other projects I haven't really had the time to focus on narrowing down these problems with doc and the others HB guys. I'm guessing it has something to do with the cat drench. Maybe I timed it incorrectly or possibly it may have been caused by extremely overdosing my feedings early on. The buds from these two plants still turned out superb. Amazing amounts of trichomes and smells I've never had with these strains before. The bag appeal might lack a bit but the quality will definitely make up for it.

The rest of my plants have done amazing. The buds are even and fat with no stretching in between and resin production is through the roof. I can't say i'm in high brix territory though because I lack a refractometer. Based on some of the visual clues doc says to look for, ie. purple vs green petioles, I fear I'm not hitting the high brix numbers which makes me wonder why. I feel like I've really gotten the feed schedule and process down really well but the purple petioles make me wonder if maybe I'm not feeding enough. Just to remind you, I'm feeding 2.5ml of E and .5ml of tea per gal of water per plant. They each get one feeding per week and one watering. I'm curious whether feeding back to back would be better, for example Energy, Energy, Water, Energy, Energy, Water.

My hesitancy to test this method leads to another issue I've been having. It appears many of my leaves may have a nutrient burn but I'm unsure considering how cautiously I've been applying the feedings. I've wondered if it could be light burns caused by the foliar sprays but I doubt it because they are absorbed so quickly.

The final issue I've been having is with my gigantic Wild Thai. Seeing a lot of leaves yellowing and dying off. I'm thinking the plant is running out of juice in a 7gal smart pot. Maybe it needs a second EWC top dress for longer Sativa flowering periods? It's rather frustrating because I ran an identical clone in a 5gal bucket using my pro mix plus jobes all purpose fert and its kicking the crap out of the high brix one.

At this point most of these issues can't be dealt with. The rest of my plants are near harvest so I missed the train on fixing it but I would like to figure these issues out for future grows where I plan to use Docs kit.

Honestly the kit was a struggle for me. I had a really hard time figuring out how to use the kit at first. Compared to some of my other projects it is a much more complicated system with room for a lot more mistakes, however, it has produced the best smelling and most resinous buds I've ever grown. The speed clones root, the amazing dark green veg growth and the awesome new smells I get from my oldest strains have convinced me its worth it. I just imagine if these first ones came out this good after all the mistakes I made the ones I grow without mistakes will be unbelievable.

Thank you Doc and everyone who's helped me along the way! I'll update in another week or so when I take 4 more down. In the meantime I've got quite a few pics. I'll try my best to label them.

(Critical Mass by CBD Crew)

(Northern Lights x Skunk #1 Aka Fruity Pebbles )

Random Cola shots of the tops from the 3 harvested girls. These are the day after the chop and the bud wash. You can def see the stretch I was talking about. First up is the Northern Light x Skunk #1 which I call fruity pebbles. My favorite cereal and the buds taste and smell just like it lol

The Critical Mass. Smells so much different than normal and has a ton of more resin. I have an identical one running in my normal soil and the difference between them is phenomenal. Their like two different strains.

The Kerala x Skunk #1. Have to say guys I can't stand this strain and can't wait to get it out of my rotation. The resin production is nil and the bud just doesn't turn out that great. Guess it was freebie for reason lol.

And the buckets after the bud wash. Wish I would've taken a before pic. Mainly the lemon juice/baking soda bucket turned almost brown.

 

[Graytail]

Quite an update, MrBubbles!

And so much to discuss. I share your degree of affection for Kerala x Skunk#1. I ran three of them in two soils and one turned out "pretty good". The freebie Skunk#1 crosses I've run have been entirely ordinary strains and I doubt I'll run another.

Man, you HAD to wash those branches, eh? Whew, that's a lot of junk we spray on 'em. I'm glad to hear you're happy about it, even if it was a PIA for you. I should try washing before the final trim. I've been pulling any fan with a petiole first and recycling that stuff, but the final trim remains unwashed for me - I just stick it in the freezer for future extraction, but it would be nice if it were cleaner.

It's interesting to see the difference between Critical Mass and NLxSk. The NLxSk looks overfed, dark with claw, while the CM looks a tad deficient. Different plants, different needs? I'm still measuring feed by plant like you do - 2.5 and 0.3 for me, roughly - but I've been considering just mixing up feed like Doc does, and then each plant only gets as much as it's thirsty for. A slower growing, slower transpiring plant needs less feed. I water mine every 5 days, because that's when the thirstiest plant dries out, and I water until I get seepage out the bottom. I feed every other time, so that's every 10 days. Because I up-pot twice in veg, my plants end up getting all Transplant until just before the flip, but I think I should fit some Energy into the schedule. It can be hard to maintain consistency between plants when they mature at different rates.

Anyway, I can hear your frustration and I share it. Even after a year, I don't really understand how to modify things the way Doc and Curso and some others seem to. I pretty much treat my plants the same way, with the exception of boner mistakes and things seem to take their own course, mostly. Some of them turn out to be amazing - others ... meh.

But when they're dried and smokable, ho boy, it's some good produce!

I think next round will make more sense to you. And we're all on the cusp of coming up with some definite does and don't. It's been hard, because the don'ts don't usually screw things up very much.

I really like the looks of those Critical Mass nugs.

+reps for the harvest!

 

[PakaloloHawaii]

That critical mass looks pretty good. I think feeding once a week is too much, and definitely wouldn't do back to back feedings, except for the cat drenches. That northern lights x skunk might have done better with less food.

Generally I like to finish on energy.

I've had issues in 7gal pots with long flowering strains. Bigger pots seem to be one solution.

When one of my girls in 15gal pot is hungry I give her 5ml of whatever drench is on the menu, and water a few times before feeding again. Between 10-14 days later.

I also pour my tea into water and let it sit there for 15-20 minutes before mixing with a drench.

Your lemon juice and baking soda ratios right on you bud wash look extremely successful (and necessary)! Fitting long buds in a 5gal bucket will always be a challenge friend!

Try bigger pots if you can.

Enjoy that smoke!

 

[KingJohnC]

Congratulations on your harvest!

 

[mrbubbles87]

Quite an update, MrBubbles!And so much to discuss. I share your degree of affection for Kerala x Skunk#1. I ran three of them in two soils and one turned out "pretty good". The freebie Skunk#1 crosses I've run have been entirely ordinary strains and I doubt I'll run another.Man, you HAD to wash those branches, eh? Whew, that's a lot of junk we spray on 'em. I'm glad to hear you're happy about it, even if it was a PIA for you. I should try washing before the final trim. I've been pulling any fan with a petiole first and recycling that stuff, but the final trim remains unwashed for me - I just stick it in the freezer for future extraction, but it would be nice if it were cleaner.It's interesting to see the difference between Critical Mass and NLxSk. The NLxSk looks overfed, dark with claw, while the CM looks a tad deficient. Different plants, different needs? I'm still measuring feed by plant like you do - 2.5 and 0.3 for me, roughly - but I've been considering just mixing up feed like Doc does, and then each plant only gets as much as it's thirsty for. A slower growing, slower transpiring plant needs less feed. I water mine every 5 days, because that's when the thirstiest plant dries out, and I water until I get seepage out the bottom. I feed every other time, so that's every 10 days. Because I up-pot twice in veg, my plants end up getting all Transplant until just before the flip, but I think I should fit some Energy into the schedule. It can be hard to maintain consistency between plants when they mature at different rates.Anyway, I can hear your frustration and I share it. Even after a year, I don't really understand how to modify things the way Doc and Curso and some others seem to. I pretty much treat my plants the same way, with the exception of boner mistakes and things seem to take their own course, mostly. Some of them turn out to be amazing - others ... meh.But when they're dried and smokable, ho boy, it's some good produce!I think next round will make more sense to you. And we're all on the cusp of coming up with some definite does and don't. It's been hard, because the don'ts don't usually screw things up very much.I really like the looks of those Critical Mass nugs. +reps for the harvest!

It's always tough for me to determine if its my fault for not growing the strain correctly or if it's really just not a good strain. I always find myself doubting my abilities. I feel like my yields and quality could increase a lot with all of my strains. I can say the Kerala I have coming up is my best one yet so it should give me the best idea of what it's supposed to be like. Either way I don't have time or space for strains that don't compete so out she goes. I did plant some Tangilope, Cinderalla 99, and Cheese to make up for it I was a nervous about the bud wash tbh. It was pretty scary dipping my beautiful flowers in a bucket full of lemon juice and baking soda. I'm very happy with the results though. It was a lot more work than usual but well worth the effort. Especially after seeing how nasty the buckets were. I don't run a very clean air system. There's no filter on the intake and I have dogs in my house so they get a lot of crap on them. Thinking I'll be doing the bud wash on everything going forward. Can't wait to try the oil. Really been getting into extractions and very excited to see what a washed high brix trim produces. I've never included so many leaves in my oil run before but these are covered in trichs.I concur with your theory on the CM vs NL. The CM is a very heavy feeder/drinker in all my runs. The NL is a medium feeder. I wasn't sure because if you recall I accidentally gave them waaaay too much Energy early on which is when the clawing began. Since correcting my feedings I have been giving them 1 gal of feed water on Mondays and 1 gal of straight water on Fridays. So my schedule has been Water, Energy, Water, Energy. I have some plants that are smaller and drink less. Usually I weigh the plants before watering if if one isn't completely dried out I give it less water than the rest. I guess that's my way of feeding less. It's really tough when I'm running so many plants all at different ages. I have been slowly converting to single crops. In the future I hope to run 9 plants per run with 3 different runs. Mainly my frustrations are from my own lack of education. My space is limited which means my rate of learning is limited. I'm one of those analytical people who has to know exactly how everything works lol. It's getting better and I agree it will continue to get easier and easier each run. I can't wait to try these. A few turned out meh but the rest look amazing. Looking forward to the first samples in a few days. Thanks for all your help! The next time I run the kit I'm really going to rock it

That critical mass looks pretty good. I think feeding once a week is too much, and definitely wouldn't do back to back feedings, except for the cat drenches. That northern lights x skunk might have done better with less food.Generally I like to finish on energy.I've had issues in 7gal pots with long flowering strains. Bigger pots seem to be one solution.When one of my girls in 15gal pot is hungry I give her 5ml of whatever drench is on the menu, and water a few times before feeding again. Between 10-14 days later.I also pour my tea into water and let it sit there for 15-20 minutes before mixing with a drench.Your lemon juice and baking soda ratios right on you bud wash look extremely successful (and necessary)! Fitting long buds in a 5gal bucket will always be a challenge friend!Try bigger pots if you can.Enjoy that smoke!

Thanks! I wish my photography skills were better. My pictures just don't do her justice. And the smell is out of this world. I've grown about 6 plants of this strain before and I can tell this one will be a lot different and better. Man I'd love larger pots. I think 15 gal or 10 gal will be in the near future Really want to bump my yields up. Out of curiosity whats your average yield per plant and how many would you run in a 4x4 under a 600? I've been running 9 plants under a 600 averaging 1 1/2 oz per plant. Thinking some of the HB might hit the 2oz mark. I really struggle determining whether a plant is over fed or under fed with this system. For example early on it was clear I'd over fed the kerala because the leafs were burned badly but the curling on the NL didn't shout overfeeding to me because it didn't show any burning. Also, the foliar sprays throw a curve ball because I'm not sure if maybe they're causing a burn. Hopefully after my runs I'll get more confidence so I can try to increase my feed dosages on heavier feeders.I was worried about my budwash ratio because it was only half of what doc called for. He recommends 60tbsp on BS and 30tbsp of LJ. It still worked. Really wish I would've taken before pics but I was in a hurry as usual.Thanks again for all your help. Can't wait to try this stuff!

 

[josh223]

I have three Kerala x Skunk #1 seedlings going. That's quite disappointing to read about the strain. I'm still going to give it a try. They're too small to take clones off of so it'll be a while before I know.

 

[mrbubbles87]

I have three Kerala x Skunk #1 seedlings going. That's quite disappointing to read about the strain. I'm still going to give it a try. They're too small to take clones off of so it'll be a while before I know.

Honestly completely stumped on this one Josh. I've grown over 20 strains now and never encountered anything like this. I've had hermies and severely stunted plants but they still turn out a lot better. I'm wondering if i just have a bad pheno. It's so disappointing because the buds always come out huge and look great but it smells like tea and tastes like cigarettes lol. I have one more left in flower that's my best version yet. Going to really let her go long to be sure but I've already yanked all the ones I had in veg out so this strain is done for me.

On a positive note my blue blood high brix is my best yet. Looks spectacular but definitely not going to be a huge yielder.


Speaking of yields the numbers are in from the first 3 girls. Not what I was hoping to hit but still impressed with the quality.

Critical Mass 24g
Kerala Skunk 30g
NL x Sk 23g

Ive been consistently hitting these numbers in 5 gal pots for awhile now. Not sure what I'm doing wrong to get such low numbers. Longer veg? Better hps bulb? Bigger pots for sure but I would like to hit 2-3 oz per plant in the 7gal smart pots. My best numbers yet have still been the 2L Josh

 

[mrbubbles87]

Also when you guys say you finish with energy do you mean you feed with energy and wait 5 days to harvest or do you still do a water flush in between?

 

[Graytail]

I get my yield from training. I see you run yours naturally.

Some LST and 60 total days of veg will easily get you 2+ ounces in those pots.

Can't wait to see some more of your Blue Blood! Mine's still in the seedling stage.

I've never done anything special with the last week. I either finish on Energy or water for the last feed.

 

[josh223]

I think every indoor grower tries to find the "sweet spot" between veg time and finished plant size for their growing room. I've played around a lot and keep going back to the 2 Liters with zero veg. Just seems to work the best for me with my limited square footage. If I try to grow in larger containers, whether Hempy Bucket or conventional, I seem to sacrifice my grams/watt or grams/sqft.

I know nothing about the High Brix, wish I could help you out. I'd just keep asking questions.

 

[mrbubbles87]

I get my yield from training. I see you run yours naturally.

Some LST and 60 total days of veg will easily get you 2+ ounces in those pots.

Can't wait to see some more of your Blue Blood! Mine's still in the seedling stage.

I've never done anything special with the last week. I either finish on Energy or water for the last feed.

When I first started I lst'd them and probably got my most efficient grow. Then I only had to worry about 8 plants but now I have so many it's tough to spend enough time with each of them. I've slowly been increasing plant size and decreasing plant counts so I can try to spend more time with each plant but I've had to sacrifice efficiency to do it.

I've often wondered how awesome it would be to run a 4x4 single plant Scrog but I just don't have the patients or the guts to risk it all on one plant lol.

The blue blood is a really easy grower. I really run mine lean but I think you could really fatten these up with heavier feedings. It flowers very fast. Definitely my most unique veg plant cuz you can spot the fat indica leaves a mile away. The one I have coming up is easily my best yet. I plan to take her down next week. I'll make sure to take lots of pics for you

Wasn't sure I know some guys who flush organics but I wasn't even sure if high brix would be considered organics.

 

[mrbubbles87]

I think every indoor grower tries to find the "sweet spot" between veg time and finished plant size for their growing room. I've played around a lot and keep going back to the 2 Liters with zero veg. Just seems to work the best for me with my limited square footage. If I try to grow in larger containers, whether Hempy Bucket or conventional, I seem to sacrifice my grams/watt or grams/sqft.

I know nothing about the High Brix, wish I could help you out. I'd just keep asking questions.

I remember reading the grow Bible and Jorge Cervantes swears by the SOG. He says it's the most efficient way to grow using artifical lighting. You can get the same coverage with a scrog but you don't have the same perpetual efficiency. I think that's a big reason behind plant counts. I can brew 100 gals of beer in my garage but only 6 plants? They know that rookie indoor growers will struggle to grow a steady supply with such an inefficient plant count so they'll be forced to buy it for dispensaries and pay their outrages taxes. I think it correlates with big pharma wanting to prevent people from being able to grow enough medicine. Rick Simpson recommends 60 grams of oil to fight cancer. How many people that just got diagnosed will be able to learn how to legally grow themselves enough to provide the oil they need before the disease kills them? Some of the recent legislation makes me question whether legalized cannabis is a good thing. The big guys are getting their cut one way or another.

Sorry I haven't been by the journal lately been pretty busy. Saw your rocking the oc plus. That stuff works great. Some of my best stuff came from promix, ewc, and oc plus Hope the Kerala works better for you. I'm guessing I just got a bad pheno type. I've really been lucky actually. Every strain I've ran I only had 1 seed and this is my first dud.