My first grow

Jerry Garcia

Well-Known Member
Hey Jerry, how do you get your sig to show updates like that?
In order to have the link take you to the proper post (i.e. the most recent update), I copy the URL immediately after the update is posted. Then I just paste it in my "edit signature" section and I'm good to go.
 

Jerry Garcia

Well-Known Member
Hello all and sorry for my absence. The 3 big girls are just about fully harvested. True to my word I've been harvesting incrementally to compare the high from the early buds with the high from the later buds. I've been drying the buds with a combination hanging and bagging approach, where they hang for a few days then go to brown paper bags for a few before transferring to the jars. It has been working pretty well, though I find the wonderful smell gets lost a little bit during this stage. The buds that have been curing the longest (4 days) are starting to come around in smell, but they still have the fresh "hay" smell to some degree.

I've been smoking pieces of dried buds here and there, and they have been getting me high, but they are still a little harsh. So far I like tall girl's smoke the best, but we'll see after another 2+ weeks of curing.

As I said, there are still buds maturing on the big girls. I've also decided that I'm going to let some of seedy buds grow until the seeds have matured. While I will probably never want to grow any of these bagseed strains again, I might as well hang on to a few viable seeds, just in case...

I'm probably gonna harvest a little more tonight, give them one final watering, and give them 24+ hours of darkness. We had a brief discussion about that earlier, so I'm going to give it a try.

I trashed all the impregnated teenagers. They got knocked up at too young an age to produce anything but really seedy buds. The clone, however, appears to not only have doubled in height, but also shows no sign of seeds. Once the big girls are harvested completely I'm going to shut down the hps for a while (not worth the electricity required for the light and the a/c for one little plant) and use cfls. After the topped girls have vegged a little longer I'm going to move them into the flower room and then I can fire the hps back up.

I'm also going to start a new journal for the next round of seeds I planted on Thursday 6/4. After much deliberation, I elected to sow the seeds directly into the soil for germination. While the paper towel method has proven useful, I can't think of a reason why I shouldn't just plant them in the soil, water, and wait for them to sprout. So that's what I'm doing. I planted 2 feminized Blue Cheese, 1 feminized Pure Power, and 3 standard Thai Super Skunk. I've been considering going 100% organic, but I think I'll wait and do that for the clones I plan on taking.

Anyway, here are some pics of what's been going on.

Here are the 3 girls. Shorty in the back, tall in the middle and wide up front. Not too much left of them these days...


My first successful clone is about to be the only flowering plant I have. I guess I could move it back to veg, but I don't think I will.


Tall girl with a good chunk of flowers yet to be harvested.


Here's the scene in my box. All the hanging buds were taken down today--the larger ones went to a paper bag and the smaller ones went right to the jars. All those jars have something in them. Some not very much. And those two boxes of trim are going to be made into HASH. Probably using the gumby method.


Some of the hanging buds. Temp has been ~80 in the box and humidity ~50%. I open the jars 2-3 times daily, move the buds around (shaking lightly) and leave the tops off for 20 minutes or so. Probably overkill, but whatever.


The next generation...I've had my warm-up round, I'm ready for the real thing! The 2 Blue Cheese are in the square pots in back left, PPP is square pot in back right, and Thai Super Skunks are in the three 24oz plastic cups.


Here they are before going directly into the soil. I hope they germinate OK this way...



So there you have it. I'm gradually harvesting. I forgot to take pics of the topped plants...I'll try to remember tonight. They've all got 4 main colas alright, except one that has 2 but will grow into 6 because I topped part of it again.

I'll post a link to my new journal when I get around to making it. Don't hold your breath though, it will be a few days.:leaf:
 

Jerry Garcia

Well-Known Member
Hello all and sorry for my absence. The 3 big girls are just about fully harvested. True to my word I've been harvesting incrementally to compare the high from the early buds with the high from the later buds. I've been drying the buds with a combination hanging and bagging approach, where they hang for a few days then go to brown paper bags for a few before transferring to the jars. It has been working pretty well, though I find the wonderful smell gets lost a little bit during this stage. The buds that have been curing the longest (4 days) are starting to come around in smell, but they still have the fresh "hay" smell to some degree.

I've been smoking pieces of dried buds here and there, and they have been getting me high, but they are still a little harsh. So far I like tall girl's smoke the best, but we'll see after another 2+ weeks of curing.

As I said, there are still buds maturing on the big girls. I've also decided that I'm going to let some of seedy buds grow until the seeds have matured. While I will probably never want to grow any of these bagseed strains again, I might as well hang on to a few viable seeds, just in case...

I'm probably gonna harvest a little more tonight, give them one final watering, and give them 24+ hours of darkness. We had a brief discussion about that earlier, so I'm going to give it a try.

I trashed all the impregnated teenagers. They got knocked up at too young an age to produce anything but really seedy buds. The clone, however, appears to not only have doubled in height, but also shows no sign of seeds. Once the big girls are harvested completely I'm going to shut down the hps for a while (not worth the electricity required for the light and the a/c for one little plant) and use cfls. After the topped girls have vegged a little longer I'm going to move them into the flower room and then I can fire the hps back up.

I'm also going to start a new journal for the next round of seeds I planted on Thursday 6/4. After much deliberation, I elected to sow the seeds directly into the soil for germination. While the paper towel method has proven useful, I can't think of a reason why I shouldn't just plant them in the soil, water, and wait for them to sprout. So that's what I'm doing. I planted 2 feminized Blue Cheese, 1 feminized Pure Power, and 3 standard Thai Super Skunk. I've been considering going 100% organic, but I think I'll wait and do that for the clones I plan on taking.

Anyway, here are some pics of what's been going on.

Here are the 3 girls. Shorty in the back, tall in the middle and wide up front. Not too much left of them these days...


My first successful clone is about to be the only flowering plant I have. I guess I could move it back to veg, but I don't think I will.


Tall girl with a good chunk of flowers yet to be harvested.


Here's the scene in my box. All the hanging buds were taken down today--the larger ones went to a paper bag and the smaller ones went right to the jars. All those jars have something in them. Some not very much. And those two boxes of trim are going to be made into HASH. Probably using the gumby method.


Some of the hanging buds. Temp has been ~80 in the box and humidity ~50%. I open the jars 2-3 times daily, move the buds around (shaking lightly) and leave the tops off for 20 minutes or so. Probably overkill, but whatever.


The next generation...I've had my warm-up round, I'm ready for the real thing! The 2 Blue Cheese are in the square pots in back left, PPP is square pot in back right, and Thai Super Skunks are in the three 24oz plastic cups.


Here they are before going directly into the soil. I hope they germinate OK this way...



So there you have it. I'm gradually harvesting. I forgot to take pics of the topped plants...I'll try to remember tonight. They've all got 4 main colas alright, except one that has 2 but will grow into 6 because I topped part of it again.

I'll post a link to my new journal when I get around to making it. Don't hold your breath though, it will be a few days.:leaf:
 

mared juwan

Well-Known Member
Jerry, that's shitty news about the seeding. It's happened to me before but only like ten seeds in an entire plant. Anyways at least you'll have plenty of room for the new crop. I hope you grow those Blue Cheese into monsters. If it were me I would keep the G-13 Labs plants pretty small so they don't take up too much space and you can test them to see if they're any good. You will have clones from them and you can grow those bigger if the smoke is good. But I would try to get the Blue Cheese as big as you can right off the bat. You can pretty much be guaranteed that will be killer smoke.

And I just made my first hash recently using the gumby method as well. About 1/4 full of a kitchen-size trashbag yielded 22 grams so that was pretty awesome. The siphoning part can be a little tricky and I recommend you save the siphon water to let settle and siphon again. I must have disturbed the hash at the bottom the first time I siphoned because when I did it again I yielded another 50% of what I got the first time. Also I've learned that once you have the finished product you don't want to press it for at least a week. It has to cure like buds and once you press it the resin glands will burst (also causing the color to darken) and the curing process will stop.
 

Jerry Garcia

Well-Known Member
Jerry, that's shitty news about the seeding. It's happened to me before but only like ten seeds in an entire plant. Anyways at least you'll have plenty of room for the new crop. I hope you grow those Blue Cheese into monsters. If it were me I would keep the G-13 Labs plants pretty small so they don't take up too much space and you can test them to see if they're any good. You will have clones from them and you can grow those bigger if the smoke is good. But I would try to get the Blue Cheese as big as you can right off the bat. You can pretty much be guaranteed that will be killer smoke.

And I just made my first hash recently using the gumby method as well. About 1/4 full of a kitchen-size trashbag yielded 22 grams so that was pretty awesome. The siphoning part can be a little tricky and I recommend you save the siphon water to let settle and siphon again. I must have disturbed the hash at the bottom the first time I siphoned because when I did it again I yielded another 50% of what I got the first time. Also I've learned that once you have the finished product you don't want to press it for at least a week. It has to cure like buds and once you press it the resin glands will burst (also causing the color to darken) and the curing process will stop.
Thanks for the Hash advice. I don't have quite that much trim, but I'll be happy with whatever I can get out of it. What do you mean not "pressing" the finished product? After I spoon it out I should just let it sit for a while to cure?

And I certainly plan on growing out the blue cheeses into monsters. I vegged the last crop for about a month, so maybe I'll take these a little farther. I think I'll top one to get 4 colas and maybe supercrop the other. So far both Blue Cheese, the PPP, and 2 of the 3 Thai SS broke the surface.

I've been considering using the flower room to veg the plants under the 400w MH bulb that came with the setup. CFL's worked fine for my last grow, but I know the MH will really do wonders. My concern is using so much electricity, as I'll probably have to run the air conditioner while the light is on, and they are vegging for 18 hours so they use even more electricity. Maybe I can use the MH for a few hours and then just run CFL's?

I feel like the seedlings are growing a little more slowly this time around too...maybe the CFL's have lost some of their power? They are the same ones I used to veg my last grow...so they've probably been used for ~3 total months.
 

mared juwan

Well-Known Member
Yea IDK I've been practicing more with making gumby hash. I don't think that the pressing time seems to matter as much as I was told. I've been doing it right away and it seems the same. By pressing I mean applying as much pressure as you can. When you siphon off all your water you will be left with a wet clay-like lump. I just put it in a plastic bag in the bottom corner and twist up the bag tight so the hash has no where to go and then I put it under a heavy table leg overnight. Will be ready to smoke in the morning.

I don't think you should worry too much about electricity. Cost shouldn't be the problem because any watttage you use should produce a lot more valuable asset in the end. If you are worried about security then I'll say this. I run a 400watt Hps and a 600watt Hps at the same time plus a whole bunch of other shit like a 4amp dehumidifier and fans and such. And then there's my twelve 26watt CFL setup for veg. All this in a two bedroom apt. Plus I have a 42 inch plasma tv.
 

Evil Buddies

Ganja King
I would rather get an 400w hps for flowering than a 400mh for vegging. Its all about the flowering and i bet u would notice the different in the buds. Plus u got to think of it this way when u veg u 18/6 or more that means more time the lights are on. Thats an extra 6 hrs per day elec consumption, i maybe wrong but i know what id be doing the hps over the mh anyday. Weed while flowering need more red light and the hps is the best for that to get more potency and bigger buds.

Anyone please correct me if im wrong thats just my opinion.

Evil
 

Jerry Garcia

Well-Known Member
Yea IDK I've been practicing more with making gumby hash. I don't think that the pressing time seems to matter as much as I was told. I've been doing it right away and it seems the same. By pressing I mean applying as much pressure as you can. When you siphon off all your water you will be left with a wet clay-like lump. I just put it in a plastic bag in the bottom corner and twist up the bag tight so the hash has no where to go and then I put it under a heavy table leg overnight. Will be ready to smoke in the morning.

I don't think you should worry too much about electricity. Cost shouldn't be the problem because any watttage you use should produce a lot more valuable asset in the end. If you are worried about security then I'll say this. I run a 400watt Hps and a 600watt Hps at the same time plus a whole bunch of other shit like a 4amp dehumidifier and fans and such. And then there's my twelve 26watt CFL setup for veg. All this in a two bedroom apt. Plus I have a 42 inch plasma tv.
I'll probably just bag it and put it under my bookshelf...that's pretty heavy. I'll take some pics of the process either way.

Regarding the electricity...I'm not worried about security, it is mostly cost. Though as I look at my 12 jars of curing bud I do realize the value of the asset...

But I'm always trying to minimize cost.
 

Jerry Garcia

Well-Known Member
I would rather get an 400w hps for flowering than a 400mh for vegging. Its all about the flowering and i bet u would notice the different in the buds. Plus u got to think of it this way when u veg u 18/6 or more that means more time the lights are on. Thats an extra 6 hrs per day elec consumption, i maybe wrong but i know what id be doing the hps over the mh anyday. Weed while flowering need more red light and the hps is the best for that to get more potency and bigger buds.

Anyone please correct me if im wrong thats just my opinion.

Evil
You're right. I got the MH setup thinking it was an HPS...ended up only costing $30 for light, ballast and reflector (because the seller mis-identified the equipment on their craigslist ad). So I got a 360w HPS conversion bulb (for my 400w system) and have been using it to flower for the 3 weeks or so of flower. Before that I was using a 150w hps.
 

chickenphish

Well-Known Member
that thai s skunk is gonna need a lot of room i have 1 left from the 5 free that i got very tall plant make sure u got the space or keep it at bay my plant is in 12/12 d 50 and it is a slow plant or i am a bad gardner but either way u gonna need plenty of room very nice grow by the way i have looked in on it a few times
 

Jerry Garcia

Well-Known Member
Thanks purpis and chickenphish. I've heard the same thing about the thai ss...that it gets real tall and takes it's sweet time in flower. I'm sure it has more to do with the genetics than your gardening abilities.

The curing is coming along slowly. I have labeled each jar with name of the plant and the date it entered the jars. The earliest buds went in on June 1, with the latest going in on June 13. So I've got a two-week potency window to see which type of high I like the most.

Right now, Tall girl smells and tastes the best. Shorty seems to pack the most punch, but the smell and taste aren't quite there yet. Wide girl looks and smells nice, but the smoke seems a bit harsh. Either way, the earliest plants still have 13 days of curing left, so the taste and smell should improve dramatically on all of them.

My next generation plants are coming along. 5 of 6 beans germinated (one Thai SS never cracked) leaving me with 2 blue cheese, 1 ppp and 2 thai's.

The four remaining topped plants have been slow to develop...partly from neglect, but also because they are still in those plastic cups. I thought it would be fun to try and keep them in it the entire life cycle, but it's not gonna happen as I have to water them every other day. Most of the topped cola's have been growing with alternating node spacing, causing them to look pretty goofy. I'm gonna transplant them to larger pots and probably throw them back into flower.

I got some pics, but no time to upload right now. I'll be back :leaf:

Oh, and I'm starting a new journal...sometime....I'll post the link
 

Jerry Garcia

Well-Known Member
So the cure is coming along nicely. The earliest buds are 3 weeks in and smelling nice. I've been sampling from each over the past few weeks, and I am pretty satisfied with my results.

Tall girl has the best odor, often described by people who've smelled it as "spicy," whatever that means. I've been smelling them for so long now it's hard for me to discern what they really smell like. Wide girl's smell is getting better by the day as the cure progresses. Shorty smells rather hay-like in the jar, but when broken up reveals her true scent (and taste).

They all look pretty similar, with shorty's buds being more stout and round than the other two. Tall girl has the most pistils, but none are lacking in that department. The exterior of the buds aren't really "frosted" with trichs, which is a bit of a bummer, but the interior of all buds has plenty to behold. I'm not sure if I am responsible for this or if it is just the fact that it's bagseed, but I don't care.

As far as the smoke is concerned...it's still too early to make a decisive statement. Shorty has a "rich" smoke that is quite flavorful and goes immediately to your brain. I accidentally left the jar of shorty I started curing on 6/5 open for four days while I was out of town (my sitter was unaware of this because the jar was somewhere it shouldn't have been...I was high...) and the weed is now quite dry. I took one hit this morning and was fucked. I just took some bong rips of wide girl though, and the taste is much improved since my last sample. I was slightly skeptical of the effect curing could really have on the smell and taste, but I can totally tell the difference already, and it's not done curing yet. Tall girl is good too. Tastes like it smells--nice.

Here are side buds from all three. Shorty on top, Tall in the middle, and wide on bottom. This wasn't the best bud from wide girl, as her side buds are quite small, but for the purpose of comparison it was appropriate.


Wide


Shorty.


Tall.


Shorty.


Tall


Wide.


This was the veg room a week ago (6/16)...


So cute when they're young...and living in a desert...the round ones are the Thai SS, the square pots on the left are blue cheese and the one on the right is PPP.


This was 5 days ago 6/18...


As was this...


This is today (6/23)...


PPP is front right square pot...


The topped ones are really getting big. Also, their nodes are all alternating, making for some funky looking plants. I'm gonna re-pot them soon. They are getting a little big for their pots...I can only image how tight the roots are getting. They need water every other day, and that gets old.


Here's an in-situ shot. I keep the lights 3-6" as best I can.



I haven't really been able to compare the early harvest high vs. the later harvest high, as the later harvest has only been curing for 10 days, and I'm not sure I've smoked any of that stuff...which means I've been smoking a lot of the early stuff...but I'll be sure to save enough from each to have a thorough and detailed smoke report for each jar.

Regarding yield...I don't know, and I never will (unfortunately). I've passed on about 3/4 of an ounce to friends, and who knows how much I've smoked already...and there is still a ton left! As you can see, I don't really care about yield. I think I'm close to 3 ounces :leaf:
 
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