First Grow in 25 Years!!!!

[Guest]

I would not use any nutes at all yet. They are still feeding off the inert nutes in the peat and they are much to delicate to take the nutes.

I use strait r/o water for the first week or so of sprouting. Then start at 1/4 strength and ramp up from there based on how the plants are responding

Tex

 

[Rellikbuzz]

RM, Big Toke, Leeroy - Thanks to you all for stopping in. My babies are obviously in esteemed company and I, for one, am very glad for it and honored that you took the time to pass on your kind words. Thanks again.

Tex - By mentioning the Advanced Nutrient regime I didn't mean to leave everyone with the impression that I was about to start ferting them. You taught me better than that! I won't even touch them with anything other than the original solution of superthrive, Voodoo Juice (which is a root colonizing formula w/5 beneficial microbes) and the dishwashing liquid until they are a two to three weeks old. There is just a bit of it left and I was planning on switching to plain water when it runs out. Only was just planning on discussion what the nute regime would be once I did starting ferting them.

Everyone's kind concern has been heeded and I promise (scout's honor) to not fert them until their old enough to handle it and, believe me, before I do hit them with ferts I will be asking you guys if it's okay to do so at that time. I'm not gonna F'up this grow . . . (now remember you said that Buzz). Thanks again everybody! I'll be doing an update once we have all the germing accomplished. See you then!

 

[Guest]

Yo Rellikbuzz... way-to-go man... your room is looking real sweet.

Log me in for this ride... I received my Blue Thunder beans a few days ago... show me what they will do!

 

[MsHerbalivation]

Hey rellik... lovin the new grow so far... I'm curious as to the use of the dishwashing liquid. I'm a newbie too and haven't heard of this. Can you please elaborate a little. And the solution that you mixed of the superthrive, dishwashing liquid, and voodoo juice... you soaked your jiffy pellets with this before you planted the beans in them? I'm definately going to keep a look out on this grow! Good growin so far. Congrats on the new babies!

 

[Rellikbuzz]

Thanks for the kind words, Mrs. Herb! Yes, I used the dishwashing liquid as a wetting agent for the jiffy pellets and the soilless medium. I had read in a grow book and seen grow videos advocating the use of it as a wetting agent for initially wetting your medium. If you have ever used it for washing your hands then you may have noticed how you have rinse a while longer to rinse your hands clean of it. This is because it holds the moisture to your skin longer than bar soap does. Well, it acts the same way in soil. Instead of watering in your soil/medium and having it run out of the bottom before it actually moistens the soil, the dishwashing liquid helps the soil to absorb the water more thoroughly.

I soaked the jiffy pellets and the soilless mix overnight to assure that the medium was well saturated before planting the beans. Since then, I have mainly misted them under the humidity dome to keep them moist but today them seemed pretty dry and I water in a moderate amount of the original solution to make sure they were good and moist. That Tek5 flouro really seems to dry them out fairly rapidly.

As far as the Superthrive goes, many fine grower here on IC have used it with great results! As I remember, the is a hormone in it that helps establish the root system and has vitamin B-1 in it as well. The Voodoo is an exceptional product put out by Advanced Nutrients. It is a formula that contains 5 beneficial microbes that also help establish the root system and also breaks down organic matter in the medium to help the plant better absorb it. Root systems have explosive growth when Voodoo Juice is introduced into the medium. It's important to note the Voodoo is NOT a nutrient/fertilizer so when used in it's proper amount doesn't burn the plant. It's a bit pricey but the results are well worth the investment IMHO. And it certainly doesn't take much. I used just a 1/4 tsp. in the one gallon solution. Even during the veg and flower stages, not much is used in the nutrient mix. The 1 liter bottle is enough for three full grow cycles based on my size of grow (eight plants). Here is a link to the Advanced Nutrients website and you can read more about Voodoo Juice as well as their other products. This link will take you to the home page and then you can click the link for "Dr. Hornsby" on the right and then just select Voodoo Juice from the menu that pops up. Also, be sure to check out the Nutrient Calculator that they have as well. It's bad ass. It allows you to enter the size of the resevior that you mix your nutes in, allows you to choose the strength/PPM of the mix you want and it automatically tells you how much of each ingredient to put in to achieve that mix. It couldn't be easier! I was originally attracted to AN because they are the only nutrient company that develops their products specifically for cannabis (and the only ones with the balls to admit it!).

 

[Rellikbuzz]

Stupid me, I forgot to post the Advanced Nutrients link, so here ya go:

http://www.advancednutrients.com/new2/homeframe.html

 

[rule35sub1]

That's the same thing that attracted me to AN also, made for resin producing plants.

 

[Guest]

Go to go Rellikbuzz .... love the setup. I am interested in those Tek lighting Flos. Hope to hear good things from you and your grow. I'll be watching bro.

Good Growin to Ya.

Mo,

 

[kingslayer]

Lookin' good Buzz, keep giving us the pics...

 

[giantmanbags]

I find myself twisting and squirming with anxiety for ya buzz.....just hopin that everything turns out great. If you never said you were doing your first grow it would appear that you are a seasoned veteran!!! Your research on the topic is so thorough that I think in your mind and heart you already have 25 years of growing under your belt!!! Goodluck bro.

 

[Rellikbuzz]

Kingslayer and Giant - Ask and ye shall receive!!! Sorry it's been a few days since last update. Things are going pretty well. Twelve of the twenty beans have germed and I'm about to transplant some into 1 gallon containers tonight. I have to get to band practice shortly but I promise an update with photos is coming later this evening.

Thanks to all for your encouragment and interest in my little grow. Some interesting things to come soon I hope!! See ya in a bit.

RB

 

[MsHerbalivation]

Thanks for the 411 Rellikbuzz. I'm amazed at your grow. I'll have to check out the AN website as I've been trying to figure out what nutes to purchase for optimum fruitage!!!

 

[Rellikbuzz]

Hey Mrs. Herb - Thanks for checking in. I highly recommend that you do check out the AN website. Their nutes are the bomb! Also, be sure to give Mike a call at the tech support line (it's toll free). He's is an awesome human being. In fact, I just spent well over an hour on the phone with him today picking his brain some more. Even if you don't use their products, the guy is more than willing to help you out, he's just that way. He's forgotten more about growing cannabis than most growers ever knew to begin with and that's not an exaggeration!! When you call him, tell him Rellikbuzz from Texas sent ya!! He'll get a kick out of that!

 

[Rellikbuzz]

Update Time!!

Update Time!!

Sorry this is coming a bit late as practice went a little long. Well, as I said earlier 12 of 20 have broken ground . . . oh, wait a minute . . . make that 13!! Not too bad I guess for a newbie. Still giving the other seven a chance to make the show though.

I have been a little disappointed as I have only gotten one of Joey Weed's AK47 x C99 to pop. In fact, the only one that did pop got it's head stuck underground for about 24 hours. I kept thinking it would stand up straight but I had to intercede and gently move some of the medium, that was keeping it from standing, out of it's way. Once the cotyldons did clear the soil, one of the cotyldons looked like it had got rotten underground. Two days later it still hasn't grown any but the stem and other cotyldon are still green and Mike at Advanced Nutes told me that he's seen worse end up being big, bushy plants. So, I'm rooting for the little guy. I'm going to give the other AK's a couple more days and, if they don't germ, I'm going to split the jiffy pellets to see if they are popped at all. If they are, I will try to gently move them to a Rapid Rooter and see if they will respond. If they are still unbroken seeds, I may try to scuff them with some sand paper and resoak overnight one more time and then plant them. I'm not ready to give in on this strain as I have heard WAAAYYY too many good things about it not to have a couple for this run. I'll let you know what I found in an upcoming update.

Here's the little damaged guy I was talking about. This is the best pic I could get of it but you can see the rotted cotyldon on the left.



Here's some pics tonight of the rest of the babies.









Here's my Big Boy, eerr, Girl (Hopefully ), Blue Thunder #4







These little things have been drying out their medium pretty quickly. Especially the one's in the jiffy pellets. So, by the recommendations of the fine growers of ICMag in chat last night, they said it was time for their first transplant! I made a quick run to Texas Hydroponics today and picked up some of Fox Farm's Light Warrior medium.



This stuff came highly recommended by several kind Canadian folk. It seems they don't get this stuff up there and wish they could. They gotta sneak it across the border from the US when they can get it. It's a organic medium that already contains Mychorizzal Fungi and Humic Acid. It's not a "hot soil", so to speak, but contains these ingredients to help colonize the roots. The craps expensive as hell!! It's $12.99 for 1 cubic foot (26 dry quarts). It already has a lot of perlite in it and is a really, really light mix. Very airy!! But I added about 25% more perlite to it anyway. What the hell, you can never have enough perlite and it helps stretch the quantity a bit more. So, I transplanted five of the bigger seedlings tonight into one gallon containers. Damn, I haven't been so nervous since my daughter was born!!



I can already tell I'm going to have space issues in my Mother Cabinet. I planted 20 seeds thinking that I was only going to get 14 or 15 to pop. I may end up with more than that. I can already tell I'm going to have to make some decisions about weeding a few out. It looks like I'm only going to get about 14 pots in the cabinet total! As it is, I had to stack my seedling trays.



** Note to myself** Should've found square containers as I could probably fit 16 in there like I wanted to. Oh well, maybe next run. Also, check out the hooks in I put in the one gallon pots. What do you think is coming down the road a bit?? :wink:

Thanks again to everyone for all their blessed help and kind wishes!! ICMag is the best!!!!!!!!

 

[Rellikbuzz]

Tonight I transplanted four other seedlings into the one gallon pots. Space is running short for sure. I'm only going to be able to fit 12 pots in my Mother Cab, which will probably ended somewhere around three of each strain. When I transplanted these seedlings last night and tonight, I watered-in the new medium with one liter of the superthive/voodoo juice solution in each new pot. The solution has been in a pale overnight with an air pump in it to aerate the solution. Hopefully this will give these babies a jump start. So far, there is no indication that the transplant procedure has caused any shock at all. I was expecting to see the seedlings wilt a bit and then come back but, thankfully, no wilting or discoloration at all!

There has been one more germination of sorts from the AK47 x C99. Once again, the cotyldons of the seedling are discolored and not opening right. This one did manage to stand up on it's own but is having difficulty completing the germination process. Here's a pic of the new AK.



I'm beginning to think that this particular strain might be more suited for germination with the paper towel method. I think I am going to take three more of the beans that I have and try to germ them that way to see if I can get one of these to get a proper start.

Heres a couple shots of the newly transplanted seedlings.





And now a couple of shots of the seedlings transplanted last night.



Here's a pic of my Apollo Mist #4. She's looking pretty good, don't you think?



Blue Thunder #2



Blue Thunder #3



And the star of the show so far, Blue Thunder #4



So far, so good. I really don't know what to expect from these plants in the way of growth rate. I assume that until they acclimate and get some underground development happening, I won't see much happen above ground. Maybe some of you fine growers can shed some light on this for me (no pun intended). How much growth should I expect in the coming days? I'd love to hear your comments.

Well, that's about it for now. I won't trouble you with needless posts of miniscule growth. I'll probably wait for several days until there is visable progress to show. In the meantime, I will be working on completing my flower closet and I'll try to post some of the construction progress of that soon as well. Until then, thanks to all of you who have tuned in on this "newbie" grow and we'll say ya next time!! Same plant time, same plant channel!

 

[Mr GreenJeans]

Rellikbuzz

You're doing a great job so far guy, giving them plenty of love, they're going to reward you for sure. Love your journal style, very detailed.

Keepin' my fingers crossed for ya! -MGJ

 

[Guest]

Awesome stuff Relik, rock on bro

 

[Freakazoid44]

Great stuff. Man, you're going to have a lot of weed when this grow is done....

My question is this - 25 years since a grow, and you've done a lot of homework to bring yourself up to speed on "best practices".

What was your grow like 25 years ago? Where'd you get your seeds, what was your setup like? What didn't you know then? What were the results?

I find the "then vs. now" aspect kind of interesting.

 

[Rellikbuzz]

Mr. Greenjeans - Thanks for kudos, bro. I'm new at posting a grow (as well as growing ) but I'm just reporting the facts, man, just the facts. I'm glad you're enjoying it and welcome to the show.

Leeroy - It's great to have such a fine grower on board my thread! I've learned many things from your posts and always love watching those hydro grows of your . . . simply "top-notch" my man. I hope I can honor you by bringing these babies home with some good results. Thank you for your kind words and your masterful direction since I have been on ICMag.

Hey Freak - Glad you could join us. Well, let's see, my last grows were around 1978-79 when the very first 1000 watt Metal Halides had just come out (parabolic reflector). I had my grow in a spare bedroom at my Mother's house ! It was rather hysterical as she was a devote Catholic Charismatic. She knew what it was and definitely did not approve but she was rather tolerant as I was her baby boy ! I never could keep a secret from my Mom and, frankly, I always told her when I was F'd up and I think she appreciated my honesty with her. Hell, there was many times I would call home and say, "Mom, I can't get home right now. Would you please water my plants for me?" and she would do it. God rest her soul, she was a good woman.

Anyway, as far as what I did and didn't know back then, well I didn't know much. I had about 15 plants or so under this 1000 in a bedroom that had a window. I didn't block light from coming in the window at night, so I had light leaks there and around the door to the hallway (1st mistake). I only had litmus paper to test the PH and it wasn't very accurate (2nd mistake). The only ferts I had was fish emulsion (God, that shit stunk) and I ferted them at EVERY feeding with probably too much ferts (3rd mistake). I definitely did not know how to identify sex back then (not positive that I still do and am VERY nervous about that part ) and ended up with several males pollenating the entire room(Big 4th mistake). I also had no conception of training or proper pruning (or any other method to controll their heighth) as the plants ended up over 8' high and started growing across the ceiling (5th mistake). I'm sure the were many other mistakes but I can't remember off hand.

Oh yeah, the seeds I was growing were from some fantastic California sensimillia that was going around Dallas back then. Red haired bud that smelled like a Christmas Tree. Very piney scent with a sweet, sweet taste. Really some good herb. The funny thing is that the prunnings of my plants (when dried) were some of the most electric , best tasting smoke I have ever had, still to this day! Sadly, as I said previously, I ended up with seeded bud. It wasn't a bad high at all. Just overrun with seed. I ultimately adandoned growing after two grows with similar results.

Believe me, as I have read and learned so much over the last 7-8 months or so, I have looked back on those grows and thought about how great those grows could have been if I'd only known this stuff at the time. Even with all that I have learned I am still nervous as hell this time around. I feel like I've got a pretty decent handle on enough things to be able to get this crop to completion. However, it's just a bit nerve wracking and probably will continue to be until I get to the point of sexing and removing the males. If I can get through that part, I should be able to finally relax a bit and just let these babies do their thing. Time will tell and so will this thread. Stay tuned as the "newbie" goes through his paces!!!

 

[Freakazoid44]

That's quite a mental picture you paint of your old grow! lol

Though, to be a twit about it (me that is), the seeds you got weren't completely from "sensimillia", since by definition it's seedless. But hey, who hasn't bought the stuff that had a least a couple seeds when it shouldn't.

Having done your homework, I'm quite confident that IDing sex will be no problem for you. I can do it pretty easily without confirming with a magnifying glass, though I do confirm with a magnifying glass, and I still have excellent eyesight...

I'll be checking back to see how the forest is going. Good luck!