SneakyP’s Science Lab

Good morning/day/night to whomever is checking in to this. Having benefitted (and occasionally suffered) the countless journals here it was time to start a journal of my own.

I am not an experienced grower by any means, but have grown a few plants here and there over the past decade.

This will be a continuous thread, covering all things going down in my growing journey. The current plan is to get the system running proper, grow out my remaining seeds and then begin a focus on the following in no specific order:

• Landrace Preservation
• Long Flower Sativas
• Type 2 (High THC x High CBD)
• Creative, Happy, and Euphoric Effects
• High Terpene Levels

I’ve taken pains to ensure that proper science is followed wherever possible, noting that many of the cannibis research is in early stages and primarily centered around hemp cultivars. I will rely on the studies available from both academia and some trusted sources conducting their own trials (ex. KIS Organics.)

The goal is to follow proper scientific method in these grows when making decisions and changes that haven’t been studied. This means a hypothesis, data collection with a control group/individual, and follow up questions that will arise from said data. I will be limited in the number of variables I can study at the onset of this journal due to space and equipment. However, this will gradually work it self into a full on science project as I expand my toolset.

Being in a state where cannabis is still frowned upon, I’ll be handcuffed by lack of tissue sample analysis however I’m working on circumventing the obstacles involved.

Feel free to post on this thread with the following rules:
1.) Be nice. I won’t tolerate any trolling or degrading language here. This is a place for earnest debate and encouragement, don’t bring drama here.
2.) Source your work. If you come with a claim, back it up with scientific journal articles or documented experiments. If you don’t cite your sources or provide documentation then it’s all anecdotal evidence, we are here for science!
3.) Ask questions if you have them. You could very well start a new experiment in Sneaky’s Science Lab, let’s find out if that hypothesis is correct.
4.) Challenge findings. If you find an error in the experiments then speak up! I am perfectly human and liable to make mistakes, if something doesn’t seem right then speak up (with reasoning behind the statement of course.)


Current setup and capabilities:
4x4x6.66’ Tent
6” ACInfinify fan with temp/rh controller and filter
15 gallon fabric pots with diy soil mix
2 HLG QB288 rspec V2 with HLG-150h-54a drivers, with a third waiting on it’s driver to be delivered next week.
20lb CO2 tank on a timed release emitter (Use TBD)
Light meter app Korona calibrated according to HLG’s ppf output guide
Soil Testing at the Agricultural Extension labs

Future expansions to include:
An additional 4x4 (breeding/drying/overflow) and a 2x4 (veg/mother)
7 more QB288 rspec v2 (4 in each 4x4, 2 in 2x4)
Hygrometer (Moisture meter)
Anemometer (Wind speed meter)
Microscope (For soil biology)
Watt meter

Current Veg Strains:
2x Uplift (HAOG X Snow Lotus) [Bodhi]
2x Kush # 4 X Snow Lotus [Bodhi]

Current Seedling Strains:
2x Granola Funk (GSC (forum) X Wookie 15) [Bodhi]

Current Reg Seedstock:
Uplift
Kush #4 X SL
Cindy 99 X Sunshine #4 Testers [Bad Dawg]

Current Auto Fem Seedstock:
*Great American Auto Race Pack*
Trizzlers F2 (Watermelon Zkittles Fx X Triks F5) [Twenty20 Mendocino]
Trizkit F2 (Trizzlers F2 X Biscotti F4) [Twenty20 Medocino]

For the break-in run on the tent I’ll be running the 4 plants I have vegging right now, and adding the granola funk and autos as soon as they’ve had 2 weeks under the Fluorescent.

I’ll number each plant in the pictures for easy reference.
#1 & 2 Kush #4 X SL (Sprouted Feb. 1
#3 & 4 Uplift (Sprouted Feb. 20)
#5 & 6 Granola Funk (Sprouted Mar. 1

The tent will flip to 12/12 this upcoming Monday (3/22/21.)

Current Research available regarding cultivation practices for Cannabis:
Phosphorus Impact on Fertility
Phosphorus Impact on Terpenes and Reproduction
Magnesium Impacts on Growth and Reproduction
Characterization of Nutrient Disorders
Hand watering vs. automated water system
Communal Bed vs. Individual Pots

I’m waiting on a few researchers to send me articles that weren’t made public. If/when I get those then I’ll share them here as well.

Flipping today, will take a couple cuts this week.
I
I expect #1 & 2 to be monsters as they are intended for outdoors. #1 is easily the tallest plant, I’m guessing it will be a male. First hypothesis: Tallest plants in Veg will be predominantly male. I’ll explore this trend through the journal.


#3 & 4 are just starting to fill in a bit more, they are still a couple inches shorter than their tent companions.

Day 7 of Flower
The plants have begun their stretch in earnest over the past couple days. I was slightly worried about a nitrogen toxicity, but that seems to have been more likely an overwatering issue.


#1 still take the cake for height

#3 and 4 are nearly caught up in height with #2

So far, so good!

Day 13 of Flower
My suspicions of #1 turned out true, it was a male along with #4. Both were the taller of the pairs of strains. I killed both and they will be fed to my incoming worm bin.

2/2 on the first Hypothesis. Need a lot more data points to start any sort of trend.

In my daily inspections I found a couple leaves with PM, likely due to lack of airflow and temperatures that swing from the 84-69 (damn springtime night temps!) I removed all the leaves that exhibited symptoms and sprayed the plants down thoroughly with a 50/50 milk and water mixture twice over the past 3 days. The pics show all the dried milk residue, which from a distance looks like PM. Rather that then actual PM though. I caught it really early, so I'm anxiously watching to see if I was able to curb it.

I also rigged up another small fan, as well as hanging the box fan from the tent poles. There is significantly more airflow, but I intend on adding another box fan this week.

Day 7 in flower for 5-10
A few new additions to the tent. Up first we have two Granola Funk’s (#5 & 6) from Bodhi. Hoping to get a girl or two, as these are my last seeds of that strain.

I also transplanted the autos from round 2 of the great American auto race. #7 &8 are Trizzlers and #9 & 10 are Trizkit both from Twenty20 Mendocino. Not an auto fan, but willing to give it them a shot seeing as they were free seeds.



Day 21 in flower for 2&3
The two furthest along #2&3 have really hit their stride, they more than doubled since last week and I’m hoping they stop stretching soon as I’m running out of room!

I’ve done selective defoliation on them to get more light to bud sites, the leaves I’ve been taking off have been pretty damn big. I also turned on the CO2, and raised the temps to 93f with my RH at 80%. Plants seems to be loving it.






And a group shot to round it all out

Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy!

Day 14 Flower
I got lucky and both Granola Funk plants are girls. They’ve bushed out a bit and I’m expecting them to start their stretch in the next week. I’ll take cuttings from them once they get a bit more lanky.



I Velcro’d them to either side of the pot in prep for their stretch.

The Autos are pretty wispy, especially #7&8. Thought I might have seen a ball on #10 so I plucked it off to be safe and will keep a watchful eye over the next couple days. If I see more it’ll be pulled.






Day 28 Flower (2&3)
Things are chugging along. I’ve done a bit of light defoliation for airflow here and there. #3 keeps wanting to grow up, albeit the pace has slowed considerably. Looks like I may have just enough room for it, my light can’t really go up any more.

I light burned both plants, #3 getting it the worst, by being complacent and not measuring my light levels. The PPFD was 3000+ . I lowered it back down to 1400 and will keep it there for another week until the CO2 gets turned off. The plants rebounded well, and I didn’t see much stress besides some burnt tips.


I counted 9 budding branches including the main stalk for #2, and 10 on #3. The bud sites are developing nicely, with both plants maturing at similar paces.



Group shot, including the tomatoes and lettuce.



Wishing everyone a great 420, may you get the seed deals you are looking for

Day 21 Flower (5-10)
The Granola Funk ladies (5&6) are bushing out nicely and responding to their LST well. #5 is showing a really nice structure with a lot of secondary tops coming up at the same height. I'm hoping for some stretch In the next week for both of them. I'm seeing the first clusters of pistils on the main cola, so the are about to start getting pretty.


The Autos are...hanging on. They are overshadowed by 2&3. Definitely could be getting more light, but they are a side show at best. I didn't even take pictures of 7&8, they are kind of pitiful. I'll be happy if I get 14g off them

Day 35 Flower (2&3)
The elder ladies stopped their stretch and are starting to stack. They each have been putting on trichs on their sugar leaves and it's just a matter of waiting for them to fill out now.





Group shot


For the 420 sales I picked up some AKBB packs from JBC and have an order in for a few more Bodhi packs from GLG.

Added to my seed stock:
AKBB
Americanna X Durban
TK X NL5haze F3 (Haze Dom)
Kali Mist X A1
Blue Raspberry (Blueberry X Raspberry Smash)
Coastal Seed
Swazi Burmese (3 seed pack freebie)
Bodhi
Laughing Lemon
Kodama
Skunk Va Chem 91 X SSDD
Lavender Jack

I'm planning on doing a seed increase with a few of them. Going to order another tent for the males and try my hand at a little hobbiest seed production.

Stay safe, baked, and happy RIU.

Ran into watering issues with my blumat system. It's my first run with them and it's been a struggle to keep the reservoir clean. I think it's partly due to the temperatures that they reservoir has been reaching and the citric acid I use to knock out the chlorine from the tap water. I've had to empty the res. every time I refill it and bleach the damn thing to keep it from growing too much shit. That's caused a few issues with air being introduced into the lines and in turn causing the plants on the right side of the tent to not receive water. I plan on letting the water refills off gas the chlorine over a 24 hour period instead of the citric acid, as well as installing a shutoff valve in the drip lines for an easy purge.

I went away for 4 days thinking that I had solved the issues with the system only to come back and have the lines clogged entirely with some slime build up. I was beyond pissed. This system was supposed to make it possible to slip away for a weekend or so. It failed at the worst possible time. User error for sure, I have to get my SOP down and not gunk lines up.

You'll see the extent of the "drought" damage in the discolored and dead fan leaves and sugar leaf tips. Thankfully it seems to mostly have affected the lower large fan leaves and I think I mitigated the most serious damage. Yields will definitely be affected.

Guess it's why it's called "dialing in" .

Day 29 Flower (5-10)
The Granola Funk girls are steadily producing initial buds, looks like they will be short and stocky as their stretch has been minimal.

They aren't showing much signs at all of the soil drying out, partly I think due to their soil being adequately moist prior to leaving this past week.



The Autos are doing their thing, gonna be little runts for sure. #7&8 are struggling and might be culled. 9&10 are doing better than expected considering the dry patch and low light levels.




Day 43 Flower (2&3)
#2 took the dry soil like a champ. It was showing off it's outdoor pedigree and only had tip burn from the soil EC being slightly high and causing damage when dry. It is showing considerably more red hairs than #3. The buds are beginning to bulk up and colas forming at the top of the bud sites.



#3 really took the dry soil the worst. It lost almost all of it's lower fan leaves, which isn't the worst as they were likely more of a energy drain than a benefit. Thankfully I didn't defoliate heavily. You can see how much damage it took, not happy with what I've put her through.





Group Shot


Hoping for a smooth sailing finish for these girls. Fingers crossed that I have solved my irrigation issues.

Stay happy, healthy, and safe RIU.

Blumat fixed.
I feel preeeeetty dumb. I've finally figured out my issue with the Blusoak drip tape not working on the right side of my tent. Turns out I wasn't following the directions for the water reservoir height and was only .25 meters above the sensors. A simple fix of adding a second 5 gallon bucket under the res worked like a charm. Now I'm the proper .5 meters above the sensors and things are flowing properly.

TLDR; Follow directions.

Day 35 Flower (5-10)
The two Granola Funk girls (#5&6) are remarkably similar in structure and development. They could be twins. They’ve seemingly stopped their stretch which was minimal at best. They are a good 3+ feet shorter than the Uplift and K4xSL. #6 has a clone rooted and #5 should be showing roots anytime now. If I like the end products I’ll run them again with double the veg time.



The autos continue to chug along. Not much to report on there


Day 49 Flower (2&3)
Having weathered the watering inconsistencies the buds are starting to swell up. #2 definitely won out on drought tolerance, #3 has its fan leaves pretty fucked up. Fortunately I’m not seeing the damage extend much into the sugar leaves minus the tip burn.






Group Shot


Stay happy, healthy, and safe!

Watering issues as a theme
The plants once again were struck with a lack of water as the Blusoak tape quit working once the water reservoir got down past 2/3rds full. Initially I thought it was some early senescence of the fan leaves, but when the leaves started to dry and die I went back to Google to troubleshoot my system.

I figured it was still a water pressure issue. Having raised the water reservoir past the .5M height, per the Blumat instructions, I was stumped as to why it was failing once again. Then it occurred to me that the Blusoak tape might need higher pressures to push the water through the micro pores. Refining my search to look at the Blusoak setup instructions from third parties, I came across instructions to have the reservoir ~2M higher than the drip tape. Fuuuuuck. That whole lot of difference in the water pressure.

Kind of pissed at the Blumat folks for not including that in their setup instructions. Oh well, c’est la vie. Next run I’ll have it working steadily and things will go much smoother.

Tent #2 on the way
The second AC Infinity 4x4 and in-line fan should arrive tomorrow, and my filter should be in today. I’ve just ordered a 650w 3500k quantum light bar fixture from Meijiu on Alibaba. First time ordering from there, but others on this forum have given me the confidence that it’ll work out fine. Shipping times are a bit long at 30-40 days, but I won’t need it for another month anyways as I wait for these to finish up and I’ll need the second 4x4 to dry the buds in.

The plan is to run a full pack of AKBB TK x NL5Haze F3 (Haze Dom) and do some brands pollination for some seeds. I have 16 three gallon pots I’ll use, and will invest in another Blumat system with drippers instead of the soak tape.

Day 42 Flower (#5-10)
The Granola Funk girls (#5&6) are showing a bit of water stress on their lower leaves. I didn’t defoliate much for them as a precaution from what happened in my first drought condition mess with #2&3.

They are stacking budsites on the main cola, but the side colas aren’t building as much buds as I’d like to see at this stage. Probably due to lack of water.



The autos (#7-10) are busy just hanging on. #9 & 10 are doing much better than their fellow auto sisters, but that’s not saying much. You can see them starting to yellow up at their base, not sure if it’s senescence or watering issues causing it.


Day 56 Flower (#2&3)
Kush 4 x Snow Lotus is showing signs of the dry soil now. She took the first bout of dryness well, and I think she’ll recover nicely as she heads for the finish. She has more brown pistils now, I think she’s going to finish about a week ahead of #3.



The watering woes have taken their toll on the Uplift girl, #3, and I’m hoping to limp to the finish line with no more interruptions or issues. She’s just starting to brown more pistils and the buds continue to swell. Still a few more weeks to go. I’m unsure how many of the leaves I can save at this point. One thing is for sure, she’s sticky as hell. When I was pruning the dead leaves off her, my arm was coated in resin from just brushing her lower buds. She’s smelling like ripe fruit with a little rubber on the back end.




Group shot


Stay positive, safe and healthy!

Been a few weeks since I’ve checked in. Had some things to take care of and got busy.

Still figuring out the watering with the Blusoak tape, next time I’m buying the drip emitters to remove the risk of any soak tape related fuck ups.

Day 63 (5-10)

I let the Granola Funk pot get too dried out due to an issue with the Blusoak tape. Haven’t quite figured out what caused it, but I removed the tomatoes from the tent as they were a wall of vegetation and one less soak tape setup seemed to fix the issue. Idk. I’ll try with 4 next time and keep a close eye on things.

You can see the salt damage on the fan leaves pretty consistent with the earlier drought conditions that wreaked havoc on 2&3.The buds are hairy as fuck, and while the plant structure is the same the bud developments look totally different from each other. One is more of a fuzz ball and the other has a lot of the sugar leaves poking through.


Autos are doing their thing. Got some frost on 9&10, 7&8 are looking pretty damn leafy.


Day 77 (2&3)
They both have been putting on weight and trichs steadily for the past three weeks. #2 is still shooting off a lot of white pistils, #3 has mostly red hairs now. Neither have any amber from what I scoped this morning. Lots of clear and cloudy. I’m thinking another week for #3 and maybe 2 more for #2.

#3 did not recover any of its fan leaves after the second round of watering issues. It’s pretty crispy but has most of its sugar leaves so I’m thankful for that. Uplift doe




Group Shot


Stay happy, and healthy RIU.

Nearing the end here this batch, been keeping an eye on the trichomes and 3 is juuuust about there. I'll chop her on Friday. #2 might be another week as she still has more clear trichs than I'd like. The rest will come down the following week. This week has been problem free, the watering system is working as it should (Finally!)

Day 70 (5-10)
The Granola Funk sisters are chugging along. They've got some good main colas formed and are pretty photogenic. Some areas are super frosty. There is slight phenotypic variation between the two, mostly showing through bud structure and smells.




The autos are close to finishing up now, 7&8 are not frosty at all and are foxtailing bad. 9&10 might prove to be some decent smoke, but we will find out after the cure.



Day 84 (2&3)
So close on these two. I could probably cut 3 down today, but I've only seen a couple amber heads total and I want to ensure its not too racy. The second picture of the main cola is 9" for reference.


#2 is going to be the prettiest plant I think. Big dense nugs all over. Is going to be a heavy producer if I run it again with proper watering. A week left, maybe a bit more. There are still quite a few clear resin heads. The close nug shot is about 3.5" in diameter.



Group Shot

The theme of this week is the ever lasting flower. I thought I’d be chopping #3, but she’s throwing out a ton of new white pistils still and by the way the branches are leaning more she’s putting on weight still. #2 is also going crazy with pistils too. These all might finish at the same time which is gonna be a fun drying experience.

Day 77 (5-10)
The granola funk sisters (5&6) are chugging along, with more pistils turning brown and the frostiness increasing. #5 has more blunted nugs while 6 has those classic Xmas tree looking ones. I think #5 is going to yield a bit better but neither are crazy producers.


The autos have put on some weight in the past week and are closing in on the finish line.

Day 91 (2&3)
Will these ever finish? I switched the lights to a 10/14 on/off to help stop the continuous flowering. I’ll chop them in two weeks even if they don’t stop with the new pistils. These both are taking a while and my best guess is that they are making the best of having a constant supply of water now.




Group Shot


Stay happy and healthy RIU!

CHOPPED Round 1.
I cut down #3 yesterday (Thurs) at flower day 94, and cut down 2,7-10 today at days 95 and 81 respectfully.


I’m guessing 5&6 have a week or so left.

Day 84 (5&6)
It’s all down to these two. #6 is few days ahead of 5 in terms of Trichome development. I expect to chop her by this Friday at the latest. #5 will go until at least Sunday.

Here’s what may be the last growing pics of this first round in my “science lab.”









The lonely tent shot


Stay safe, happy, and healthy RIU!

Day 91 (5&6)

Chop day for #5, 6 still has a couple days to finish.







The plants I chopped down a bit over a week ago are dried and in their curing jars. I sampled a tiny nug of the uplift, I was nice and stoned for a good 3 hours. Some cotton mouth and a huge appetite, overall happy and pleasant stone. Too early to judge the taste of it, will need a couple months in the jars before I attempt to nail down the flavor and smells.

Stay happy, healthy, and stoned!

Everything's been chopped and dried to their curing moisture. Yields rang in at 9.15 oz for everything. Not the greatest yields, but since it's a personal stash I'm not mad about it.

If I were to run these again, which I'm not, i'd imagine I could get that to close to 12-16 oz with consistent waterings and more veg time for the granola funks.