Soil, Cabinet, CFL, Supercrop, FIM 1st Grow

[Ugwad]

Hey Woodsman and LeenieBean, thanks for being there, I appreciate you guys sticking with me.

Leenie, you had commented in your journal about the smell of your plants early on. I was thinking that was a little strange, as I didn't smell too much from gals. But I have this Northern lights plant that's not yet 3 week old and hooo weee, it's getting stinky already.

The labels came off my Afghani and NL at one point and it's possible I have them mixed up, but I don't think so.

Woodsman, since you're growing NL right now, are you finding them to be a rather odoriferous plant? I have to shut the fans off and get my nose right on the other plants to smell anything. But I can smell some faint NL outside the closet. I'm a little scared to flower that stinky girl!

 

[Ugwad]

Sorry if this is going off topic, but here's that video of the soldiers on L S D One of the funniest parts is the laughing guy almost completely chopped a fairly fat tree down using only a spade.

Soldiers On Acid - LOL!

 

[LeenieBean]

the mental floss has been smelly for a long time, from a week in. I was kind of surprised about that, expecting one not flowering to just be a green smell, ya know? but she is a stinker! Satori is just starting to become smelly now, not really if you put your face up to her, but if you give the stems a rub it will come up. NL is the more classic skunky sort of weed smell- I'm nervous too about the flowering with my mental floss but they won't be in my closet for that... I have 2 febreeze true airs in the closet (a small carbon filter) an ona block, and outside I have febreeze noticeables plug ins. when I walked into my apartment today, I could smell them already :S not that I mind, but my mom has a good nose and she hasn't visited in a while uh oh...

I think afghani is an indica and NL is a sativa, no? the afghani aught to be more "bushy" with wider leaves, and less height, while the NL will be taller and have more narrow spear shaped leaves if I'm not mistaken?

I'm here ugwad, not goin nowhere!! uh oh!

 

[Woodsman]

Hey Woodsman and LeenieBean, thanks for being there, I appreciate you guys sticking with me.

Leenie, you had commented in your journal about the smell of your plants early on. I was thinking that was a little strange, as I didn't smell too much from gals. But I have this Northern lights plant that's not yet 3 week old and hooo weee, it's getting stinky already.

The labels came off my Afghani and NL at one point and it's possible I have them mixed up, but I don't think so.

Woodsman, since you're growing NL right now, are you finding them to be a rather odoriferous plant? I have to shut the fans off and get my nose right on the other plants to smell anything. But I can smell some faint NL outside the closet. I'm a little scared to flower that stinky girl!

I have NL#5 strain, it has a reputation of being without a strong odor, perfect for a stealthier grow. I needed that to grow indoors (the wife). Mine has a feint 'green smell' and is fairly minimal. My Mazar / Afghan was slightly more odoriferous, but not too bad.

the mental floss has been smelly for a long time, from a week in. I was kind of surprised about that, expecting one not flowering to just be a green smell, ya know? but she is a stinker! Satori is just starting to become smelly now, not really if you put your face up to her, but if you give the stems a rub it will come up. NL is the more classic skunky sort of weed smell- I'm nervous too about the flowering with my mental floss but they won't be in my closet for that... I have 2 febreeze true airs in the closet (a small carbon filter) an ona block, and outside I have febreeze noticeables plug ins. when I walked into my apartment today, I could smell them already :S not that I mind, but my mom has a good nose and she hasn't visited in a while uh oh...

I think afghani is an indica and NL is a sativa, no? the afghani aught to be more "bushy" with wider leaves, and less height, while the NL will be taller and have more narrow spear shaped leaves if I'm not mistaken?

I'm here ugwad, not goin nowhere!! uh oh!

NL#5 is a mostly indica the other NL's are variations

 

[LeenieBean]

thanks for the correction woodsman - I think I assumed a sativa because of the high I associate with "biker weed" around here - they use a lot of northern lights and northern lights crosses but until recently I had no idea about the existence of sativa/indica to begin with

Sometimes I pretend to be knowledgeable...

 

[Slowpuffer]

It was definitely funnier the second time I watched it. Make her watch it again! I didn't even have any weed to really enjoy it

The part that wasn't funny was the marijuana spider becoming the crack spider's bitch. OK, it wasn't funny until now... LOL!

I first saw the spider video on this cable TV show and before that they show a real military documentary of soldiers who were given L S D. It's really fucking funny as the soldiers are mostly uncontrollable laughing. It's in black and white and you can't hear them, but you can see this one guy lying on the ground with the back of his head up against a tree and he's laughing so hard you can tell he's gasping for air. It was really making me want to start a mushroom grow journal.

are they majic mushrooms ??

 

[Slowpuffer]

Wish I knew where i could get some good mushroom seeds ?? And the neccessary knowledge to grow them. Hav'nt had any good mushrooms, since the 70s !! They had so many in Florida, that they would put them on the bar for the customers. That was like a very good high and a good time !! What little i remember !! I would'nt think it to be that difficult ??

 

[Ugwad]

Wish I knew where i could get some good mushroom seeds ?? And the neccessary knowledge to grow them. Hav'nt had any good mushrooms, since the 70s !! They had so many in Florida, that they would put them on the bar for the customers. That was like a very good high and a good time !! What little i remember !! I would'nt think it to be that difficult ??

Hey Slowpuffer, about 12 years ago my girlfriend and I grew magic mushrooms from scratch. She sent away for some spores which comes in a syringe containing liquid with mushroom spores in it. There were "how to's" online and grow journals just like here at 420. I'm not really into mushrooms, but just like my current grow, it was tons of fun reading about it and working on our grow project

The big problem with mushroom grows are contamination with other fungi. We lived in Seattle and my apartment was kind of moldy so we had some trouble with the grow. Our yield was poor because of that, but we went on vacation into the mountains of Oregon and had lots of fun tripping on our home grown psychedelics

 

[Slowpuffer]

Ugwad,
Maybe they still sell those kits ?? I'll check it out !! Thanks !!

 

[Ugwad]

I think afghani is an indica and NL is a sativa, no? the afghani aught to be more "bushy" with wider leaves, and less height, while the NL will be taller and have more narrow spear shaped leaves if I'm not mistaken?

I'm here ugwad, not goin nowhere!! uh oh!

Big Bud, Northern Lights and Afghani are all described as either indica or predominately indica. The Bubblegum is 55/45 indica/sativa which sounds like a nice combo. My Bubblegum's fat leaves look like indica to me. But I've seen other grows and the Bubblegum looked very sativa. I suppose there are different kinds of Bubblegum out there.

I'm definitely interested in the sativa high, it sounds appealing to me.

Hey guys, I came across a pretty amazing thread on harvesting. This a must read, as the author is suggesting that most people have got it wrong and harvest their plants too early. The analogy is that it's like picking & eating unripe fruit. He claims that you're really missing out on the full potential of your weed by following the standard amber trich guidelines.

I have to say, I find his reasoning very convincing and there are great pictures to show you exactly what you should be looking for.

When To Harvest Your Weed

 

[Ugwad]

Week 5 Update (Week 3 for Northern Lights & Afghani)

Will flip to 12/12 next week for the Bubblegum and injured Big Bud. I will FIM both of them this coming week. I think I want to suppercrop the Bubblegum once more before I do. The Big Bud didn't recover easily from supercropping, it's a weird stunted plant, though it almost looks bigger than the Bubblegum in this week's pics. The pics are deceptive.

Here's the Bubblegum (right) and BigBud (Left) together...

The Bubblegum aerial view

Bubblegum with Flash

Bubblegum side shot

Big Bud Top side

Big Bud with Flash - This is close to it's actual color

Northern Lights in it's new pot. Needed to save space in case I get all females. Had to make a rectangle pot out of a clear container. It was a pain in the butt. Black spray paint was not opaque even with 3 coats. I ended up covering it with Emergency blanket. These things hold 5 gallons and are really heavy!

Here's the runt, Afghani in it's new pot.

Everyone is growing very well. Though, the injured Big Bud is weird. If I get all females I think I'm going to have a lot of weed in a few months. A real lot for someone that only smokes every year or five!

 

[Woodsman]

I read the thread and it is interesting. I wonder if there is anyone else that can put forth evidence to substantiate it? It seems like a pretty universal 'written rule' that the trichs are the deciding factor. Interesting for someone to test it out and see. Two identicle clones, one grown to the subscribed trich color and the other until it is 'ripe' according to that author.

 

[Woodsman]

Very beautiful plants I must say!

 

[Ugwad]

I read the thread and it is interesting. I wonder if there is anyone else that can put forth evidence to substantiate it? It seems like a pretty universal 'written rule' that the trichs are the deciding factor. Interesting for someone to test it out and see. Two identicle clones, one grown to the subscribed trich color and the other until it is 'ripe' according to that author.

Well you might be the perfect person to figure it out. You have 3 girls right? You could harvest 1 or 2 by the standard method and either 1 or 2 by this method. Then give us a smoke report.

I have the feeling the amber trich thing takes most plants to a fully ripe state. In the majority of journals I've read the person is complaining that they think the plant is ripe, but they don't see those amber trich's and they agonize about having to wait for so long beyond 8 to 10 weeks the seed people claim for their strain.

But it also sounds like a lot of people either think they see enough amber trich's and are mistaken, or they justify a low % amber trich to prevent couch lock, or with certain strains they show a high % of amber trich before being ripe.

I have to go back and look at one of the first journals I read. They guy made a cab out of cardboard boxes. It was a great grow and I learned a lot from it, but I remember how he went for a particular % of amber trichs and it took like a month more than he thought. I recall a lot of yellow leaves, so I really think the amber trich guide took him into full ripeness. But maybe that's because he went for a high % amber and did not give up until he got it.

 

[Ugwad]

Interesting, the guy went 88 days deep into flower - that's 12.5 weeks! Some of the pics look like they are perfect according to this new method and others look like they need more time. The pistoles have not receded in the lower buds. Poor, CFL, Stealth, Maybe a Little Luck?

His was a CFL grow and I have the feeling it takes a lot longer to ripen properly with CFL's and you probably have to harvest the top colas and then bring the lights down on those lower nugs and let them ripen a while longer.

God, this waiting is killing me already and I'm not into flower yet. I'm fearing an excruciating wait with my CFL grow.

 

[Woodsman]

Wasn't my plan to get very technical with this grow. I'm lucky I doing it at all (wife). I'll most likely just harvest the way I learned here. Maybe because I'd be scared to take a chance and waste some of the crop. I can't afford to.

My mazar went very long also but that could have been because of my low wattage and, or the cooler temps I was averaging.

 

[Nicademus]

Thats a female buddy. Congratz. Liking your grow ill subscribe.

 

[Ugwad]

Thats a female buddy. Congratz. Liking your grow ill subscribe.

Hey Nicademus, thanks for stopping by and the comment. I hope you're right about it being female, but I don't see any signs in that pic.

I've learned with CFL grows, you're lucky if they show sex 2 weeks into flower. With HPS & MH lights they all show by ~7 days. My macro pic was from 3 weeks veg I think. A female would have a white whispy pistole. Those are just pre-leaves. Sorry, my mj plant anatomy is total shit, so I might have the names wrong, but I do have a good idea of what sex structures look like.

 

[Nicademus]

I am growing under a 8 tube T5 fixture and i was able to sex all my plants by the 3rd week. I have them on a 20/4 schedule. Those "pre-leaves" would look way different if it was a male. I would bet my current grow that its a girl. I am by no means an expert. Just read a lot and looked at way to many pictures. I am just basing my opinion on what i have seen with my plants. All my females looked just like that before they got the classic white hairs. My lone male had no taper to his pre-leaves. It was just a little nubbin that was round on the end not tapered. Lol here i am ramblin on. You seem to have a good handle on the situation though. Thanks for the article on when to harvest. That guy is completely right about people harvesting to early.


Nic

 

[Ugwad]

Just a lil update 38 days into veg...

I FIM'd the Bubblegum and Big Bud today. If you don't know, FIM stands for "Fuck I Missed" and it's an alternative to topping. The technique will give you between 2-4 tops - I've even heard of 5 tops! But unlike topping you don't remove much plant material. So it's a lot less stressful and you don't lose a significant amount of plant growth. Click here for a great tutorial on FIM'ing.

Also, I supercropped both plants again on day 35. I couldn't get my fingers between the nodes very well on the Big Bud, so I put some duct tape on a pair of pliers and tried that. Not such a good idea I heard a pop and I almost decapitated her below the third node! It sort of hung in there and has kind of healed, but it caused damage in the main leaves coming off the node - part of the leaf just shriveled up. She's still alive and a lil weird. I guess she was just meant for a life of abuse. If it turns about to be a male, I'll just let the cat go to town on it

Here's a close-up of the growth bud on the Bubblegum. I pulled the 4 outer sections of leaves back exposing the very center.

I pinched off about 80% of the growth with my fingers...

Here's a clearer shot of the aftermath...