What would YOU do?

[shoot five]

Hi everyone, I hope the world is treating you all well.

Not posted in ages but have been plugging away with my little grow room
(grow-wardrobe is closer). My first grow was on here in the Journals
section and was a relative success - decent smoke, mids I guess, but better
than almost anything around these parts (UK).

A little background:

I'm now on the third generation of the plant I grew from seed earlier this
year under CFLs. I took a clone of the first grow, and this
second-generation plant was harvested a short while ago - it's just finished
drying and will be put into jars today for a little curing. I haven't tried
any yet but I honestly don't expect it to be up to the standards of the
first grow as I didn't have the time to put as much effort into it. The
first was a massive learning curve, but I was really eager and tried my best
once I had some advice on here. The second was left pretty much to its own
devices, fed on plain water almost all the time, with occasional small doses
of tomato feed, and no pH checks.. . Wish I'd put more into it, but still,
it looked a pretty healthy plant and I'm glad to have some more to smoke.

As it went into flowering I took 5 clones, which due to space constraints,
also had to go straight into flowering (only one set of lights, so if one
goes 12-12, they all go 12-12. These are now healthy little plants of about
6-9 inches approximately. Buds here and there, quite crystally in places,
which is nice. They all seem nearly ready to harvest.

Here's my quandry:

All five plants are flowering, and I don't know what to do.

1) I guess I could harvest them now (haven't yet looked under the 30x mag,
but they're close), but that would leave me with nothing for the future, as
it was a bagseed on the off-chance and I don't have a stock of seeds.

2) I could harvest most of the plants and try to force a remaining one to
be a hermie with a wierd light cycle to try to get some seeds from it for
future grows (or is it too late once it's definitely a girl and is
mid-flower).

3) I could harvest most, and leave the last one to grow and grow and grow
under the current 12-12 light cycle (possibly past the point of being a good
smoke?) til she's bigger, then take more clones from it. Is this a
reasonable idea? Do clones from a flowering female have a decent success
rate? Would they need to be continued on 12-12 or could I try to make them
veg? (I'm under CFLs by the way).

4) I could harvest all but one (or two?) and let it grow, but under 18-6
lights to try to make it re-veg. Or can I? Is it too late for this? Will it
be successful using CFLs (especially with only one 6500k and four 2700k
bulbs)? I'm tempted towards this as the plants are small enough to almost be
able to write-off if it doesn't go to plan, but I'd like one or two to
re-veg so that they get to a reasonable size and can have clones taken more
easily in the future.

5) Harvest them, smoke them, and try to get better seeds and "do it
properly" from scratch next time.

Sorry if this is ramble-oscious, but I'm just typing the thoughts as they
pop into my head.

Any advice or ideas on what YOU would do with this situation would be
gratefully received.

 

[ptg701]

I vote for #5.

5) Harvest them, smoke them, and try to get better seeds and "do it properly" from scratch next time.

 

[Steve McStoferson]

i vote for #5 too.. Once you smoke bagseed you grew and then smoke good genetics, you will never want to smoke bagseed again.

If you keep growing them past the point of harvest on 12/12, the THC will continue to degrade and the plant will eventually go hermie and die after a while. You could remove most of the buds, leaving some on the bottom and then give them 24hrs of light to put them back in veg, then take clones, but for bagseed, it's probably not worth the hassle.

 

[AK GreenLover]

You can still take clones. Just do it from the bottom growth. It will root better then the middle to top growth. The clones will re-veg but the first 3 or 4 nodes and leaves will look strange, but thats nothing to worry about. I've noticed that if you clone from late flower plants the clones will be mega bushy with even more branching etc. There is nothing wrong with your bag seed, but I agree with the number 5 option. Get some good fem seeds and you'll be good to go for quite some time.

 

[shoot five]

Thanks for the suggestions, folks.

The strain is quite a nice smoke, a heady high. I would like to try something with better genetics though. Paying a lot for seeds would mean I'd need a better set up to justify tha expense, though, which in turn would be an expense. That's a factor to consider; I'm broke at the moment so if I can keep going with this for another grow or two until I've got a little more to spend that'd be ideal.

With that in mind, would you harvest and reveg what's left of the plants, or try cuttings and hang these plants? Then onto better weed after Christmas...

Sorry if this is badly punctuated, i'm on my mobile

 

[TorturedSoul]

due to space constraints

You can keep a small plant alive with nothing more than a small single CFL and a little box, watering it when it starts to lay down and feeding it... Well, just enough that it doesn't turn yellow all over, lol. You can keep it in a little drinks cup filled with 80:20 perlite:vermiculite. It won't GROW, but it's a way to keep your genetics going until you harvest and can put it into the grow room under 18 hours of light. It'll soon grow enough to cut plenty of clones from it. It it's a stable line that isn't prone to going hermie then it should be fine. Just keep the light hours high so that the poor thing doesn't try to flower.

Doesn't help with your current predicament, but it's good to keep in mind for the future when you want to decrease your "down time" - and also when you want to be sure that what you're putting into your grow is a female. While not EVERYONE can keep a plant going - say, people who are in prison (or homeless) - the vast majority can. I have in times past kept a plant going in a 30-gallon aluminum trash can - which actually made a pretty good mother chamber when needed - and in a foam cup on the medicine cabinet in a spare bathroom. Both were kept alive for months and months.

 

[Steve McStoferson]

Thanks for the suggestions, folks.

The strain is quite a nice smoke, a heady high. I would like to try something with better genetics though. Paying a lot for seeds would mean I'd need a better set up to justify tha expense, though, which in turn would be an expense. That's a factor to consider; I'm broke at the moment so if I can keep going with this for another grow or two until I've got a little more to spend that'd be ideal.

With that in mind, would you harvest and reveg what's left of the plants, or try cuttings and hang these plants? Then onto better weed after Christmas...

Sorry if this is badly punctuated, i'm on my mobile

It's really not that costly, I mean some strains are, but check out Nirvanas fem variety. I got 5 wonder woman beans for $40 shipped. So that's less than $10 a seed, and since you know how to clone, you're sure they're female so you don't even need to plant all 5, just plant one and clone the shit out of it. Then your $8 plant turns into $8 for 10+ plants and you still have 4 female seeds left over.

 

[diggler35007]

re-veg ? anyone ?

 

[shoot five]

i vote for #5 too.. Once you smoke bagseed you grew and then smoke good genetics, you will never want to smoke bagseed again.

If you keep growing them past the point of harvest on 12/12, the THC will continue to degrade and the plant will eventually go hermie and die after a while. You could remove most of the buds, leaving some on the bottom and then give them 24hrs of light to put them back in veg, then take clones, but for bagseed, it's probably not worth the hassle.

Is it assured that it'll go hermie? Assuming it's healthy and kept on 12-12. That might be good, i could harvest all but one or two and if they'll go hermie I may end up with seeds, which would be nice to keep for any future grows. The more seeds the better, I guess, as I expect to move house in 4-6 months. It'll be nice to be able to set up again and start some more plants off.

 

[Steve McStoferson]

Is it assured that it'll go hermie? Assuming it's healthy and kept on 12-12. That might be good, i could harvest all but one or two and if they'll go hermie I may end up with seeds, which would be nice to keep for any future grows. The more seeds the better, I guess, as I expect to move house in 4-6 months. It'll be nice to be able to set up again and start some more plants off.

its not 100% sure to go hermie, but when the plant is past its harvest point, it usually goes into defense mode sensing it's life is almost over and if it hasn't been pollinated, it will try to do it itself. If the genes aren't favorable to allow females to grow male pollen sacks you have a better chance of it not going hermie, but the only way to know is to try it.

 

[Motherhugger]

I would go with #5. Smoke it, enjoy it, and start again.

You already know what you need to do the next time, which is a far better way to go about your growing than to simply give up and try something completely new in the future.

good luck!

 

[shoot five]

Thanks. I think that might be the answer then. Need to source some good seeds in the UK now

 

[TorturedSoul]

Need to source some good seeds in the UK now

Several of our Sponsors are located in the UK. And I assume that the ones that are located in the Netherlands such as Nirvana and Green House (also sponsors) ship to your country.

I get the feeling that there are many more places in your country where a person can walk in and purchase seeds than there are in mine. (Probably less places where you can walk in and purchase clones, though, lol.)