First Grow in 15 Years Multiple Strains CBD Breeding Project 600w 5x5

First grow since 1998. I had some old beans from that time from Brothers Grimm, NCGA, and some NL#5 none of them germinated.

I ended up getting some clones: One each of Jilly Bean, Jack Herer, Sugar Plum, Purple Kush, Purple Diesel, and Harlequin (this one gave me a mite problem).

Ordered 5 regular CBD Crew SNS Widow beans. They all just showed sex, 1 male and 4 females.

Pic of all of the above: 5 in front are SNSW the rest are in back. Widows are 5 weeks old they were topped early to make 5 clones.


I also got some seeds locally and sprouted 1 plushberry x headband, 3 Jack the ripper x Purple Urkle, 2 Harlequin x Jack the Ripper, and 1 Harlequin x GDP. I am hoping I get a male from one of the JTR x Pur Urkle to make some crosses with. The Harlequin (high CBD) and the Harlequin crosses as well as the SNSW ladies will be pollinated by the one SNSW male I have.

The local beans I bought are just being kept on "life support" in solo cups now but will be transplanted soon. They are all about a month old.

I have a veg room in addition to the 5x5.
Here is the gear I will be using:
600w HPS (I also have an old 400w HPS)
6" 434 CFM fan
10" x 22" 450 CFM carbon filter
Insulated ducting for exhaust
5' x 5' grow tent inside the grow area
(2) 100 CFM duct booster fans
4" 150 CFM carbon filter (yet to purchase)
Ionizer
ONA Gel


Feel free to comment or make suggestions,
Cascadian

welcome back. Sweet layout. I see your using some grow bags heard a lot of good things about them. want to get me some. keep us posted how they grow

Would love to hear a smoke report on your CBD strains when the time comes.

Thanks, The Geopots do seem to allow the plants to grow more aggressively even when the roots fill out the available space. Of the 6 clones 5 got the geopots and one got a clay pot (the Jilly Bean in the middle under the light in the pic). The jilly bean was smaller and was completely root bound, I had to break the pot to get it out...


I will be sure to give a detailed smoke report when the time comes. Can't wait to see how they turn out!

The f!@king spider mites came back 2 days after I moved the plants into the tent! They were only on the Harlequin and the Purple Diesel, I removed and drenched both with a homemade rosemary oil solution then an hour later with a pepper, clove, garlic, alcohol, and soap solution. I sprayed the others more lightly while they were still in the tent. I also put a no pest strip in the tent. Will be picking up some mighty wash today or tomorrow.

Damn, I hate mites!

I have not seen any mites since I treated them 2 days ago. I will hit them with mightywash in a day or 2 after some of the eggs have likely hatched. I transplanted and moved the rest of the plants I want to flower into the tent today (into one gallon pots from solo cups). I am still on 24/0 light schedule until I am comfortable with the mite situation and the transplant stress with the new additions.

Itching to switch to 12/12

The "standard" THC strains/crosses are in the square 1 gallon pots and the CBD crosses are in the round 1 gallon pots. The Purple Urkle x Jack The Ripper are showing 2 phenos, 1 heavily indica and 2 more hybrid looking. I am hoping the indica pheno is a male actually so I can cross it to some of the other plants.

Wouldn't let me edit to add a pic so here it is...

I have found that my plants are showing sex very soon after going under the HPS even though the light schedule is 24/0. My SNSW's showed after 2 days and some of the JTRxPurUrk showed after being in for one day. Anyone else experienced this? Could be a coincidence I guess...

Found a mite on the Harlequin today. Soaked the Harlequin and pur diesel with pepper-clove-alcohol spray and hit the rest on the top side of the leaves while still in the tent. Then I sprayed down the tent walls and ceiling with water to raise the humidity. I switched the light schedule to 20/4 today and will gradually move toward 12/12. Hopefully by the time I get to 12/12 I will have the mites under better control.

Hitting the harlequin and purple diesel every other day with a spray of some kind. Today I did a foliar just before lights out and used the kelp/water to thoroughly soak the two problem plants. I hope this every 2 day treatment will work to interrupt their life cycle. Today I am moving to 13/11 light schedule, I am changing it slowly because I am concerned about the CBD Crew plants herming on me.

I had to veg all these plants longer than I wanted, my room took longer to set up than I thought. It is going to get very crowded in there.

The Indica pheno JTRxPurUrk did show sex and it is a male, should make some nice crosses, the internodes are very tight on it and it did show sex early.

I also added a 68watt 2700k CFL and 2 23watt 6500K CFLs. 714 watts total now.

I'm planning on getting the Secret Jardin DR120 4'x4' tent with a 600w light. I thought I'd probably only fit 5-6 plants in there but after seeing your grow, I'm reconsidering. You got them packed in there and they seem healthy enough. Even with the HPS, they don't look all that stretched. I'm interested to see how they do in that space once flowering starts.

Yeah, like I mentioned it took way longer to set up the space than I thought and they got pretty big. They are healthy but it is going to be a jungle in there before long. These were vegged under 400+ true watts of CFL and Flouros and I kept them on average 1.5" - 3" from the lights which really helped to reduce stretch. I also supercropped and LSTed them alot. They have been in the tent for only about 5 days under the HPS, I am noticing that they are starting to stretch a little even before 12/12. Keep in mind that a 5x5 space is 56% larger than a 4x4, I am sure you already know that though.

On my next grow I will probably be looking at doing 8-10 plants but it depends how large they are of course. I would think 6 is a good number for a 4x4, if you want a larger yield I would increase the size of the pots/rootball and do some supercropping and low stress training.

Here is a couple pics of the veg setup and the two DIY CFL hoods I made:

Today is the first day of 12/12. I hit the Harlequin and PurDiesel with an alcohol / water spray just for good measure, didn't see any mites. Also, soaked all tent surfaces with water to raise humidity. The nighttime temps (lights on) are looking good at between 70-79 degrees. Lights out temps are getting down to about 66 degrees but I think that will work fine. A small space heater is set up near the passive fresh air intake for lights out.

I did some reading on defoliation of fan leaves to allow more light to bud sites. I don't subscribe to this theory but if some people claim it doesn't hurt why not try it on the plants with mites. I started to remove fan leaves from the Harlequin today (about 10). I will continue to do this just so I can get any spray under the canopy easier.

I know you should be very careful not to remove too many fan leaves or you can easily stress the plant and cause it to herm. Best to take off a little every day.

Even better solution is to avoid cutting them altogether. If you think they are blocking light to bud sites, use a paperclip or something else to tie them back and out of the way. This way you don't stress the plant and you preserve the energy that the fan leaves are reserving for flowering.

BTW I think you'll find this explains it a bit better than I can: http://www.420magazine.com/forums/budding-cycle/109105-do-i-remove-fan-leaves.html

coming alone nice sorry to here about the mites. ain't had to battle them heard their a bitch. did get gnats, got them almost beat. mosquito dunks and fly strips what a pain but nothing I hear compared to mites. good to see your keeping the thread updated.

Bluntz, thanks for that link. What he states is what I believe as well. I would never cut a fan leaf off of a healthy plant. I am just thinking it will help me get the spray up inside the canopy a little easier. The harlequin is a very dense bush and it is hard to get it thoroughly soaked and kill those little f$@kers! I will back off and be very selective on which if any I choose to remove in the future. Thanks

slowandsteady, I think I have seen a few gnats as well and am going to pick up some mosquito dunks and fly strips as a preventative sometime soon. You are right that they are nothing compared to mites. I had no idea how hard the mites would be to kill until I got them. I see now why some people scrap their whole grow and start over when they get them!

I think I have decided on a course of action for the mites. I am going to pick up a small bottle of azamax (systemic), and a gallon of mighty wash (contact killer). I have them under "control" at the moment, I only saw one this morning before hitting with alcohol / water mix again. I know how fast a full blow infestation can happen though so not going to take it lightly. Today I also put a 2 week old no pest strip and a new NPS into the tent for lights out (one hanging right over the harlequin) and killed all the fans.

Also planning on removing all the plants sometime soon after starting the treatment and mopping the floors with bleach. I will spray down all the walls and ceiling with bleach too.

Found a couple in the veg room as well, and will do the same treatment.

I picked up some azomax, mosquito dunks, neem, and some fly strips. In 2 days I only have 7 gnats on the fly strip in the veg room and 1 on the strip in the tent. I think the no pest strip is doing its job on them as well as the mites. Haven't seen a mite in 3 days. I have applied azomax as a foliar twice and I am using the neem for a soil drench. The azomax will not be used again after this week probably.

The strawberry (plushberry) x headband turned out to be a male which is what I wanted. It is almost as if the plants read my mind, every plant I wanted male turned out to be and none I didn't want. Here is a shot of the canopy, they are starting to fill out pretty fast.


I researched getting some colloidal silver for some feminized beans but it was all pretty expensive so I decided to make my own. It worked great, I just cleaned the gunk off the silver off every 30 minutes or so and let it go for about 4 hours. I am guessing I have a minimum of 20 ppm silver.
Here is what I used to make the colloidal silver, less than $20 in parts (already had the silver bars).

Day 6:
All the plants are looking very healthy and happy. Starting to see some good pistil development on some already. The soil is a little too moist and hasn't had a chance to dry out for several days which worries me a little. I have been soaking with mosquito dunk water, feeding epsom, spraying with azamax etc. which has contributed to the slight overwatering. No mites spotted!

I ended up loosing 4 clones in my veg room. One outright died and the others I axed so they wouldn't spread the mysterious "ebola" fungus to anything else. Pretty sure it was an issue with the fungus gnats spreading something to the root zone (before I killed most of them). I took some new clones to replace what was lost. I may end up losing some of these genetics as a result, if any more are infected or a clone doesn't root etc. Posted a thread in plant problems and nobody could ID what this is.


Also, added another 68 watt (300 equivalent) CFL so have 782 watts on them.