Blue Cheese - A Grow by an Office Working DINK

Nitegazer

Well-Known Member
nice LST you got there. plants look healthy and that one that had stress from nute burn seems to be really pulling along nicely!
Thanks! I took more pictures this morning, and will post this evening. The ladies are really branching out nicely now. I was going to start flowering in a week, but since I will be working with 3 plants in 4 sq.ft., I think I will wait an extra week or two before putting on 12/12 (June 13- 8.5 weeks from sprouting). I also have to take some clones soon, and I want to give them some time to recover. They now need a full watering every other day, so I will also transplant this weekend.

Since I want to keep each of the plants going, I will take 2 or 3 cuttings from each plant. This will also lead to more branching, which will be fine for the Scrog. There does seem to be a fast grower (the one with the yellow stripe), but who knows how it smokes (vapes)-- I will not be able to commit to a clone mother until some time in August.

As for the poor stunted lady-- she's doing great. Last weekend, I topped her as Uncle Ben recommends. She is now developing 4 strong branches. I found the outdoor spot for her and will plant her in a burlap sack'o'soil hoping for the best. The spot where I will set her is fairly close to foot traffic, although it is off the beaten path enough that it should be safe. It is surprisingly hard to find a spot in my area that is accessible, sunny AND hidden.

Meanwhile, the sprouts for the next generation (G13/Haze and Acapulco Gold) sprouted two days ago, and are looking great. I haven't yet updated my other journal yet, because, well, I've been pretty busy! I'm getting the flowering cabinet ready. I want to be sure I have adequate cooling power as we approach the heat of summer. I'm thinking about venting the lighting fixture directly out of the cabinet. It would keep things cooler, and make it possible to utilize fermentation CO2.

It's sooo much fun when the plants start to reflect the effort I am making.
 

Nitegazer

Well-Known Member
Had a bit of technical difficulty for the past couple of days, so I have some catching up to do on this journal.

1- Here are some pics of the girls from Day 41:
Day 41.jpgOutdoor 41.jpgDay 41 Stripe.jpg

They are continuing to branch quite nicely, and the burn victim plant looks like it's coming along nicely. I topped her ala Uncle Ben, and the four branches are looking strong.

I just took cuttings last night, so they are not quite as full today, but, I won't be flowering them for another two weeks, so they will have plenty of time to repair the damage (and branch out more!). That will make them 8.5 weeks old when I flower-- a bit later than I normally would, but I have 1.3 sq.ft. per plant, and I want to be sure they fill the space.

I also moved them to the flowering cabinet, only because the vegging cabinet now has the clones in it:
Blue Cheese Clones.jpg

To clone, I follow a super simple process. I just cut with a fresh razor blade, and immediately place the cutting in distilled water. Then I prepare the Oasis cube for the cutting by soaking it in more distilled water. The cutting is then trimmed a bit and put in the cube. Cubes are kept in a deep container with plastic wrap over the top for humidity. The container is set on a heating pad and the cuttings misted with more distilled water daily. No rooting compound, vitamin dip or anything.

The start of a grow cycle is always the most challenging, because I am juggling a large number of plants. I don't want to commit to a clone mother until I get high from each candidate. Now I have these clones and my Gen2 (see my blog/journal for that story) sharing the veg cabinet. It's a small space (3 sq.ft), and eight weeks from now will be holding seven vegging plants (Gen2, plus three candidate mothers)
 

eightenough

Well-Known Member
hey man, i have been following your grow. just keeping quiet. looks good man. we should get result close to each other. cool.
 

eightenough

Well-Known Member
tell me about it. my brother doesnt have the passion for growing that i have. i think it make all the difference. i have had ppl tell me that my weed is better than my bro's and thats the same strain too. ask laceygirl. she has met my bro.
 

Nitegazer

Well-Known Member
Sweet. Caring attention makes all the difference; it's like the difference between factory raised beef and free-range, grass-fed beef. It requires individual attention. Lately my ladies are into being all tied up... I worry that I'm rewarding their baser desires, but they are responding positively.:twisted:
 

sonar

Well-Known Member
Looking good man. Count me in. I have a Blue Cheese I got for free from Attitude on 4/20. Was going to add it to my outdoor grow this year, but at the last minute I changed my mind and germed the Ceres Purple I bought with that order instead. Considering my next grow will be indoor with a 250w hps, I'm interested to see how yours turn out with a similar system.
 

eightenough

Well-Known Member
tie them up they will love it and reward you for it. my SLH loved it. check out my journal. in the home stretch now.
 

Nitegazer

Well-Known Member
Looking good man. Count me in. I have a Blue Cheese I got for free from Attitude on 4/20. Was going to add it to my outdoor grow this year, but at the last minute I changed my mind and germed the Ceres Purple I bought with that order instead. Considering my next grow will be indoor with a 250w hps, I'm interested to see how yours turn out with a similar system.
The more the merrier, Sonar. I'll have to let you know when I put my one Blue Cheese outdoors. Given my location, I have to keep it small, but your plants will be monsters.

I'm not going to dig any holes, though--- going to use Shaman's idea of a burlap sack. It's supposed to help keep the soil moist (catching dew), and roots grow through the sack into the ground-- not sure how big a plant I would grow out of one, though.
 
Your girls are looking good Nitegazer, nice and leafy.

I want to do the same as your plan, keep a nice constant grow going. LST seems like a good technique to me, probably going to experiment with that, though maybe not on the first round. I want to get used to baseline growing before I go all crazy experimenting.

Why did you choose Blue Cheese to grow? Had a good experience with it?
 

Nitegazer

Well-Known Member
Your girls are looking good Nitegazer, nice and leafy.

I want to do the same as your plan, keep a nice constant grow going. LST seems like a good technique to me, probably going to experiment with that, though maybe not on the first round. I want to get used to baseline growing before I go all crazy experimenting.

Why did you choose Blue Cheese to grow? Had a good experience with it?
Glad for the vote of support. They grew a lot more this week--- I'll put up pics tonight.

I have never grown Blue Cheese before; just read about it prior to a friends trip to the UK. Word is that it works great for Scrog, and I would have to agree. The strain branches like crazy. I have generally grown sativa doms, because I like their high, but wanted to give a shot to something more indica. This way, I alternate between a longer flowering (G13/Haze) and a shorter flowering (BC) in the flowering cabinet.

What technique to you typically use? I go with it because I have lots of time to veg (while waiting for the flowering cabinet to clear), and it gives great results in a low-wattage scrog.
 

Nitegazer

Well-Known Member
I'll put up pics tonight.

Just did some transplanting this morning. The three girls that are going to be flowered next week went into 3 gallon square pots. I put 1 in. of perelite in the bottom of the pots, followed by a 3:1 blend of Perelite to Pro-mix BX. They were due for a flush, so they just got ph adjusted water today.

The root balls looked good and healthy, so I'm sure they'll move in to their new digs quickly.

I will be switching to 8ml/gal. of Tiger Bloom, along with 30ml/gal. of Big Bloom. I don't use any of the boosters. I have heard good and bad about them. Since this is my first time in a soiless mix, I'll play it conservative. I figure I will be able to quickly add Phosphorus when needed.

I will also start to shift the ph of my ferts down to 5.8 from where it has be at around 6.2 to boost the P uptake. In keeping with my low budget, devil-may-care attitude, I'm still avoiding a Ph meter ($100 each year for 3 plants is too much). I will be using ph tester strips (the ones used for folks concerned about the ph of thier diets). After some research, I found out that the strips work pretty well (brewers use them all the time). The only issue is that the strips tend to read about 0.3 points lower ph than the liquid really is. So, I will be looking for 6.5 on the chart that comes with the strips.

I know the strips won't be as accurate as a meter, but that could actually be a good thing. Hydro folks seem to like to vary the ph a bit from feeding to feeding, since different levels allow for more uptake of different nutrients. Instead of intentionally modifying the ph, I'll let my measurement errors take care of it for me.

I also planted up the outdoor lady! Goddamn, that was a PITA. I send out a lot of respect to guerrilla growers-- dirt is HEAVY.

I dumped about 8 gallons into a burlap sack (Compost, soil, Perelite and Ocean Forest ferts), and lugged it out to my site last night. The site is not far from foot-traffic, but it is very swampy around there, and in order to stay out of sight, I had to go through all sorts of muck. If the soil weren't heavy enough at the start of my trip, it was certainly heavy once I dropped it in the swamp once or twice!:roll:

I'll check on it once every month or so, and otherwise just leave it alone-- unless it gets really dry. I give it about a 30% chance of success. It was a great learning process, though, and if it IS sucessful, I hope to get about 4oz off it.
 

Nitegazer

Well-Known Member
Sorry to have been away so long. Unfortunately, I was called away on business last week. Since I was not comfortable posting from my work laptop, I had to wait until I was back home.

Here are the updates:

I was not thrilled about having to leave when I did. I had clones sitting in Oasis cubes for a little over a week, and roots weren’t showing. I just plunked the cubes into some of the ProMix and Perelite (my standard blend—3:1 Promix to Perelite with 1 Tbs per gallon of dolomite lime) and hoped for the best. When I arrived home, five of the six clones had made it, so I was relieved. They look a little worse for the wear, but no worries. Since I am switching to G13-Haze and Acapulco Gold, these clones will be the mothers for a future generation (flowering in late October).

Here is a pic of some of the clones.

Clones.jpg
Here is the whole veg cab.

Next Kin.jpg
The larger plants are the G13-Haze and A. Gold. I just put them on half-strength ferts. With the Blue Cheese, I didn’t add Perelite to the mix, and I think a lack of air at the roots slowed growth. I am happier with the growth this time around. When I got back I started to LST, so I can get some branching going. I will take clones some time next week, which will hopefully be ready to move to the flowering cab right after the Blue Cheese is harvested (August 15th).

Here is the Blue Cheese right before I put the screen in. I shifed to Tiger Bloom and Big Bloom ferts at full strength. By a stroke of luck, my low ph water natrually balances out to 5.8 with the ferts in it, so I don't even have to adjust ph when feeding.

Day 59.jpg
For the fun of it, here is a picture of the outdoor Blue Cheese that I planted in a burlap sack on June 3. The camera got all fogged from the humidity, and I was such a mess from lugging that sack through the swamp, I couldn't clean it.:lol:

Outdoor.jpg

Haven’t been back to the growing site yet. Since there has been ample rain, I’m just going to check on it when I have the time and motivation. I have my doubts that the planting will come to anything.
 

Nitegazer

Well-Known Member
In other news: the spouse is not too thrilled with the fan noise from the flowering cab. The good news is that I now have the go-ahead to build out the space under the basement stairs for a more permanent (and stealthy) grow room!

I’ve been playing with the numbers, and should be able to upgrade to a 6x3 flowering area, a 2x3 vegging area, and some storage. With a 600W light on a rail, the space could produce at least 4x the amount I am used to growing.

I will start by using just a 3x3 space and 400w (love those switchable ballasts), and will grow with the same technique for a while. I find it amazing that I can double my yield for an average of 75w over the day. I probably won’t expand beyond that unless I can sell to a dispensary—I just don’t consume that much.
:joint:
 

Nitegazer

Well-Known Member
Here is a pic from yesterday. It is a bit unruly-- SCROGing from seed means the plants are too mature, and they tend to overfill the screen--->
Flowering Day 10.jpg

The plants are good and healthy, but they have too much vegetation for the screen. I would normally wait a full 2 weeks to let it grow up through the screen, but I let that happen on day 11 with this generation-- so some of the buds may be uneven.

I use a simple wooden frame with fishing line having 3x4" holes. Last night (after this picture), I spent considerable time making sure there was a good bud site for each hole. My goal is to pull 2oz from each plant (I have three plants in a 4 sq.ft. space)-- totaling 6 oz.

Here are the BC clones-- one will be the mother for future gens--
BC Clones.jpg

I have them under floros, mistakenly believing that floros are cooler than MH-- I just read a debunking of that myth here on RIU yesterday--- always something to learn.

Last pic, showing the G13Haze and AG.NextGen.jpg
 

mouthmeetsoap

Active Member
Nice man! We put our girls into flower at the same time. I would like to follow and track progress. Good way to see if we're doing something wrong I'd say.
 

Nitegazer

Well-Known Member
Great to have the new company: fffuuusesu, mouthmeetsoap and schmoker--- I'll have some more pics up tonight (Day 16 Flowering)
 
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