ryan's two plant QB grow (afghani and pineapple express)

I don't know how faithful to this journal I'll be but I like sharing my grow so here it goes. I'm growing afghani and pineapple express from clone. They will be grown in 5-gallon smart pots with FFOF soil under a 480W QB in a 4x4 tent. I want to be smoking by Thanksgiving which is 17 weeks from today so I think I will veg for 5 weeks and then switch to flower on September 5th. My last grow got russet mites and I had to throw away my whole crop so hopefully I can prevent them this grow. Feel free to comment in this thread if you want.

I have recently grown Afghani, ran it in 15L pots in a 70/30 Coco perlite mix under a 600w HPS (2 months in vegetative). Amazing results, the aroma is incredible and tastes great.I am considering reducing my vegetative period to a month, so I will keep a close eye on this post for reference. I'm excited to see the developments in your grow!
Happy Growing

ryan s said:

I don't know how faithful to this journal I'll be but I like sharing my grow so here it goes. I'm growing afghani and pineapple express from clone. They will be grown in 5-gallon smart pots with FFOF soil under a 480W QB in a 4x4 tent. I want to be smoking by Thanksgiving which is 17 weeks from today so I think I will veg for 5 weeks and then switch to flower on September 5th. My last grow got russet mites and I had to throw away my whole crop so hopefully I can prevent them this grow. Feel free to comment in this thread if you want.

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I loved growing Pineapple Express! One of my top 3 strains! If grown right will produce big solid buds that are just as potent as they look and smell. Very uplifting, happy high! Nice choice in strains man

glad to have you guys along for the grow

here are some way-to-early photos but I'd like to share my set-up so why not

I have intake and outtake hooked up to the same speed controller, both with carbon filters. In my tent are just the plants, a tower fan and a humidifier. I dimmed my light and now it is running very, very cool. Only slightly warm to the touch... at full blast it gets vastly more hot. Night and day difference and I'm still going to have plenty of light to veg with. (I love my light and I recommend QBs to everyone.) The first plant is the afghani and the second one is the p.e.

not so busy week. I bought plastic risers and saucers to keep the pot out of the runoff. I ordered some Green Cleaner just in case to prevent mites so hopefully that's not an issue this grow. I set up a Botana account because GrowBuddy has been getting stuck at the log-in screen. GrowBuddy you could track how much of each nutrient you used but the UI was jenky so I might like Botana more. I also got a new watering can like Mr. Canuks grow and I'm happy about it because i used to just pour out of the measure master. The plants look pretty happy and have really sprung to life in the last few days. Looking forward to the next week and week after that. I still think September 5th will be day one of 12/12 but since I'm only doing two plants I might delay them to LST and super crop. I may even build a scrog, we'll see.

Another week of solid growth but nothing too exciting. I decided to LST the plants starting today and here's what they look like before and after I tied them down.

cool if you don't mind I'll pull up a chair

I've been saying for a while I want to run a perpetual grow. Decided to pull the trigger on some supplies. I want to buy two HLG 65s to veg with but I don't have the funds to do that today. I'm going to run a closed grow so I might have to get the HLG 65s sooner rather than later if my old blurples get too hot in the tent. I'm going to use a CO2 bag as well for veg since it will be a closed grow. As soon as I throw the afghani and p.e. into flower I will get some more clones. This is what I bought

just talked to my dispensary manager friend, he's going to secure me a cut of Mandarin Sunset by Ethos. I'm pretty sure he said it's an F1 cut and it's only available to employees. If all goes well I'll pick it up in a couple weeks. I'm very excited to share everything with you guys.

ryan s said:

just talked to my dispensary manager friend, he's going to secure me a cut of Mandarin Sunset by Ethos. I'm pretty sure he said it's an F1 cut and it's only available to employees. If all goes well I'll pick it up in a couple weeks. I'm very excited to share everything with you guys.

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I’ll pull up a chair for this one, nice work!

Halfway through week 4 from clone. I began to feed the plants this watering. I added cal/mag to my r/o water. This got the PPM to 190. When I added a drop of pH up, the pH shot up so I added a little veg A and veg B to counteract the pH up. I ended up with a PPM of 300 and pH at 6.8. As soon as I get the clones, if not sooner, I will switch to flower because I don't need more than an ounce every few weeks and with a perpetual harvest, my next run will have vegged 8-10 weeks and I won't have to worry about running out of bud when I'm having big harvests every two months and just want the harvests to start as soon as possible, if that makes any sense. When the lights go out tonight I will spray with Green Cleaner, I don't think I have bugs now so this is just a preventative measure.

Watered today with the left over from the last watering. I received the new tent and have it set up. The problem I am running into is the tent gets way too hot when it is closed. This isn't a problem with the bloom tent because I have active intake and exhaust. I may have to just keep the tent opened slightly at all times. I really want to get 2 HLG 65s and I would be willing to bet I wouldn't have to worry about heat anymore with those lights. Another problem is the tent is adjacent to my bedroom window. I may have to cover the window with panda film to stop the blurple from shining into my cul-de-sac. The last problem I have is that my house is super dry. This isn't necessarily a problem in flower but it is for veg. I believe I will take the humidifier from the bloom tent and put it in the veg tent. Hopefully that will help. If anyone has any experience/advice on these issues, please chime in, I'd love to hear it.

Things are going ok. I got the humidifier in the veg tent and I covered my window with panda film. My homie said I'll get the Mandarin clones next week. I decided to switch to 12/12 in the 4x4, so I turned my light all the way up and did that. I feel like an idiot though because when I was adjusting the timer I realized I was running 16/8 instead of 18/6 for veg. Oooops. Anyway I hope that the plants will be ready to come down in 8 weeks so I have fully cured bud a couple weeks before thanksgiving.

Week 2 12/12
Week 1 has came and went. I really didn't do much this week, just a couple applications of Green Cleaner and watering with r/o water with added cal/mag to make the ppm (500) about 200. I didn't pH the water because it is so low in dissolved solids that one drop of pH up sends the pH to about 8. So 5.8 pH it is. I feel like the soil will do a decent job of keeping its pH. When I use nutes I will pH to 6.5. The pineapple express (right, first plant in the pictures) is really growing nice! Looks like I may pull 70 grams, if I had to guess now. The afghani (left, second set of photos) isn't too bad, but there are some signs that the plant is not super healthy. I'm not sure exactly what to do but if anyone who looks at the last photos can tell me their thoughts, that would be much appreciated.

Week 2 12/12
The grow is going alright. I'm not sure what is wrong with the afghani and the pineapple express, but they don't look 100% healthy. It's not so bad but I wish I could have perfect looking plants.
I received the Mandarin Sunset clones and started them in my veg tent. I can't wait for the next 7 weeks.

Week 6 12/12
Sorry it's been a while but things have just been continuing as normal. The major update here is I switched from Current Culture nutes (made specifically for DWC) to General Hydroponics G/M/B. The reason for this is I just wasn't getting to best results with CC and I just needed to reset to the basics. Depending on how well the Mandarin Sunset grows in my next bloom cycle will determine which nute brand I will stick with.
The Mandarin Sunset is vegging nicely and I've been lightly feeding it. I have been adding a little bit of nutes to the water only part of my feeding cycle for both plants just to correct the pH. I'm anticipating a yield of about 2-3 ounces from the p.e. and the afghani (combined). Hopefully with the mandarin I get maybe 6-8 oz and just continue the cycle after that of 6-8 per harvest every 10 weeks.
Good news so far is my plants are not infested with bugs like my last grow. Here are some photos of the grow. The first two photos are afghani and the last two are the p.e. You can tell the p.e. is the better of the plants and I'm thinking will be double the afghani in terms of yield. Maybe one ounce from the afghani and two from the p.e. The last pic is a close up of a lower branch from the afghani that I snipped because it was growing towards the soil. No bugs anywhere!

End of Week 8 12/12
Things are getting close! The pineapple express looks as if it can be chopped soon; and it probably will be. The afghani is a little behind so maybe like 2 weeks on that one. Most likely I'll check the trichomes on the p.e. and if it looks close I'll throw it in a closet or somewhere dark for a couple days and then give it the ax. I'm happy with the p.e. and not so happy with the afghani which just looks off. Still no bugs! Looking like I'll get a few zips from the plants. Hard to tell with the afghani. Attached are photos of the plants and a picture of the mandarin sunset I have which is ready to be flowered out after these two finish.

The Pineapple Express is dried and in its cure jar. I know it might seem fast since my last update, but trust me, the flowers are bone dry. Over dried really. I got 47 grams off the plant. The Afghani is finishing up now, I will probably chop it this weekend or next. If I can get three ounces off the two plants that won't be too bad. As soon as I chop the Afghani I will transplant the Mandarin Sunset and put those in the bloom tent. The Mandarin Sunset looks pretty healthy now but the leaves are a little droopy, maybe from being underwatered too many times. Hoping to get a lot more off of the Mandarin though.

The Pineapple Express turned out to have very little THC. Tried it in my Volcano and got hardly any vapor. Also tried to make rosin and got nothing back. Pretty disappointed with the cultivar. I haven't tried the afghani yet as I pretty much neglected it since harvest but I'm going to press some of it soon (after my press heats up).

However, it's not all bad news as the Mandarin Sunset doesn't seem like it will disappoint. One of the two plants looks excellent and the other is not terrible but is noticeably behind due to stress. It's weird how two plants cloned from the same mother can grow differently in pretty much the same conditions. Six weeks left and I'm anticipating 6 to 8 ounces of the Mandarin Sunset. I'm hoping the bud from the plant on the right still turns out ok.

The afghani didn't press out either. Maybe I need a more powerful press as I packed about an eighth in the rosin filter bag and got nothing.
I'm not worried about the last run too much, just a horrible grow I guess. I'm excited to watch the Mandarin go at least.
My next round has been germinated. It's also an Ethos strain this time being the CrescendO RBx1. This strain tests as high as 30% THC and 40% total cannabinoids. If everything works out I should have the right amount flower for an awesome 4/20 which lasts all month this year.
Although my last few grows have not been successes, I'm ready to turn that trend around.
I can go through an ounce in two weeks if I try so I really just want to hit 4 good ounces each run and everything extra I'll play with (make edibles, solventless hashes, share, etc).
I know I'm lazy and I don't care enough for my plants, or I'm not experienced enough to recognize and treat plant problems at least. I should be hitting more like a pound a cycle with my light but I like keeping it legal and I don't need so much, as I am more worried about quality.