First Grow in over 4 years

[atheist]

Hello all,

This will be my first grow in many years. I while back, I packed away my growing equipment, stuck my seed collection in the deep freezer, and stopped growing and smoking for a while. As an x-mas gift to myself, I decided to pop some seeds and see what I could do. So, I have growing the last 2 of my BCGA Romberry, 2 Nirvana PPP, and 3 of a Romberry/Ak47 cross I made back around 2001. I started them all over a two week period before x-mas and one is beginning to show pre-flowers. Looks like a male, but it'll be a couple more days before I can be sure. I'll be doing a soil grow, mostly (but not completely) organic using miracle grow potting soil from the local Lowes, lots of compost from my leaf and kitchen compost pile out back, Alaskan fish emulsion and EJ Grow during Veg, and EJ Bloom during flowering. I have a digital camera, but I'm not big on taking pictures of my plants. Maybe later in the grow, maybe not.

I have a small grow cab with a CFL in the house for vegging, but I'll be doing the flowering in a home made cabinet in the back of an unheated garage. I may have started the seeds a little too soon though since it's winter here in the northeast US, and it'll be a couple of months before it'll be warm enough to start flowering them. I've got two 400 watt HPS's, but since it will be a small grow for personal use, I'll probably only use one

 

[atheist]

Ok, as I suspected, the one plant with pre-flowers is in fact a male. None of the others has any sign. Most of the plants have purple stems at this point, probably because the room I have the veg box in is an unheated attic room, so the temps outside the cab are in the 50's or 60's. I don't have a thermometer inside the cab, but I'm not too worried about it at this point because I still have plenty of time before I can try to flower them, so a slower growth rate is actually a plus.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I don't take pictures of my plants. The reason just caution on my part. All digital cameras add metadata inside the jpeg images that can include the serial number of the camera. So a picture can be traced back to the camera that took the photo. I did a little looking around here on the site, and I've seen postings from Oldpink stating that that all of EXIF metatdata is stripped from pictures when they're uploaded. It took me about 5 minutes to verify that is NOT the case by looking at images uploaded by other members, so I consider that a big security hole. There are programs that can be used to do it manually, so for those of you who are uploading your images, I would recommend you use them.

 

[Dr Dog]

As I mentioned in my previous post, I don't take pictures of my plants. The reason just caution on my part. All digital cameras add metadata inside the jpeg images that can include the serial number of the camera. So a picture can be traced back to the camera that took the photo. I did a little looking around here on the site, and I've seen postings from Oldpink stating that that all of EXIF metatdata is stripped from pictures when they're uploaded. It took me about 5 minutes to verify that is NOT the case by looking at images uploaded by other members, so I consider that a big security hole. There are programs that can be used to do it manually, so for those of you who are uploading your images, I would recommend you use them.

I dont see what that data is going to tell anyone. I don't use credit cards for anything. So my digital camera have been bought with cash. I have seen the data the camera shows, and it does not give one piece of identifiable data from myself.
Security is #1 for me, reason I choose my screen name as well, google searches come up blank about me, it takes many pages in before you see anything about weed or icmag.

But anyways good luck with your grow man. Hope one day to see some pics from ya, but you gotta do what you feel is right.

 

[atheist]

There is a tag in the exif data called MakerNote that can be used by the manufacturer to store proprietary and encrypted info. you can find more info on wikipedia here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exif

You don't necessarily have to have registered your camera for it to be traced back to you. If you post pics from that camera on line using your real identity then that could be used to match your real identity to your icmag account. Something like that is probably outside the resources of LEO at the moment, but it would be trivial for the big search engines like google.

 

[atheist]

Second plant beginning to show pre-flowers. It also looks like it may be a male, but of course it will take a couple more days to be sure. From what I remember, don't the males usually show first?

 

[Guest]

DOnt be parranoid bro......

Post freely,they dont even look here!
WHY,because they cant use anything in court!
THey cant proove SHIT,so feel relaxed and have fun!!!
Pics please!!!..and welcome back,lets see it boy..

 

[atheist]

Maybe as I get further along. And don't kid yourself, of course they look here. They don't have to use it in court, they only need to figure out who you are and where you live. They can use the plants they find there in court. BTW Lou, you should consider cleaning your images before you upload them. Not all camera's put their unique serial number into their pictures, but that Olympus Model CZ700 you have does.

Back to the grow. of the 7 plants, I have now have 2 females, 1 male and the rest unknown. The male is one of my romberry/ak47 crosses, and I've cut it back but letting it live for now. Since my seeds in the freezer are all 5+ years old at this point and I'm growing the last two BCGA Romberrys, I may cross it with one of those to get more seeds for next time. They're all growing really slow at this point with red stems due to the low temps, and a couple of them show some yellowing lof the lower eaves like N deficiency. They're in Miracle grow soil and I've been feeding them alaska fish emulsion so it probably nute lockout due to PH. They're also outgrowing the starter pots they're in, so when I transplant I'll need to mix in some garden lime along with the soil and compost.

 

[Bigtimer7]

Can you please suggest a camera that does not leave the seial number? youve got me worried atheist. Makes me nervous if you can know what camera lou is using....

 

[atheist]

All digital cameras embed their manufacturer and model number and some embed the serial number as well. My camera is a fujifilm model es510 and it's a couple of years old, and I've checked the images it produces and there isn't a serial number in there that I could find. To be sure there isn't any identifying info, you should strip out all of the camera data from the images before uploading them. The simplest way to do that is to open the image up in paint and then save it as an alternate image type, like GIF. Then open up the GIF and save back as a jpeg file. All that camera data should be gone. I think there are also programs that will just strip it out, but I haven't personally used them. Do a google search on "EXIF Reader" and you'll find a program that you can use to see the data stored in jpeg image files

 

[jiffemann]

Every pictures uploaded to the server will be stipped of the meta/exif data, but pictues just linked to from other sites arnt stripped of the data, of ourse.

 

[atheist]

jiffemann, don't just parrot what you've been told. A simple check proves that isn't true. Click on Lougrew's 63 lb outgrow thread above and look at the images. His images have been uploaded and are hosted here, and contain all of his EXIF data including the camera serial number.

 

[yamaha_1fan]

jiffemann, don't just parrot what you've been told. A simple check proves that isn't true. Click on Lougrew's 63 lb outgrow thread above and look at the images. His images have been uploaded and are hosted here, and contain all of his EXIF data including the camera serial number.

You guys should check the legal/security section every once in while. This was discussed there recently.

Atheist is dead on. The pictures uploaded here contain their EXIF data. I have verified this as well.

Google EXIF reader and you can download a free EXIF reader and verify this.

Google Jstrip. Its a simple free program that strips EXIF info from the picture

I have found the above tools very handy

 

[atheist]

Of the 7, I now have 4 females and one male. I've transplanted the females to larger pots using a mixture of compost from my backyard compost pile, Miracle Grow potting soil, some garden lime and perlite. I was planning to breed the male (one of my romberry/AK47 crosses) with the females to get seeds to relace my aging seeds in case I decide to grow again after this run. I had heard that the pro's actually smoke their males to get a feeling on potency and taste to help make a decision on which ones to breed. I never really understood that since the makes don't get frosty trics like the females and I always assumed you couldn't catch a buzz from the fan leaves, but I had cut the male back to take up less space, so I figured what the hell. I rolled the leaves I had cut off the plant into a doob and smoked them. Given how green they were, of course they were harsh and tasted like shit, but I'll be damned if they didn't get me pretty stoned. Of course I haven't smoked anything for the last 4 years, so maybe it's just because I'm just a lightweight.

 

[atheist]

Since I still have a long time before I can actually flower the plants, I decided to rummage around in my freezer and see what else I had there. I found a pack of skunkman's skunk #1 that I got as freebies from seedsdirect years ago. From what I remember, they were freebies cause they were 5 years old at the time, and they might not have the best germination rates. So now 4 years later they might not germ at all. Anyway, it's good genetics and worth saving, so I've got 4 of my 12 remaining soaking and we'll see if they're still any good. Hopefully I'll get a male and female out of them.

 

[Jack Crevalle]

As I mentioned in my previous post, I don't take pictures of my plants. The reason just caution on my part. All digital cameras add metadata inside the jpeg images that can include the serial number of the camera. So a picture can be traced back to the camera that took the photo. I did a little looking around here on the site, and I've seen postings from Oldpink stating that that all of EXIF metatdata is stripped from pictures when they're uploaded. It took me about 5 minutes to verify that is NOT the case by looking at images uploaded by other members, so I consider that a big security hole. There are programs that can be used to do it manually, so for those of you who are uploading your images, I would recommend you use them.

Be very careful, the FBI and Dea have expended great amounts of time and detectives inspecting your monster grow....naw man, no one cares about a couple plants man, chill out, LOL

Have fun on your new grow, why did you stop 4 years ago? Just curious..

 

[Josh-Skunker]

Good to hear your getting back into growing now man.

 

[atheist]

Jack - Yeah, I know, the DEA and Feds aren't gonna put any effort towards me specifically, but if they happen to cast a net, I don't wanna be one of the one's caught in it. Having said that, I know how to clean up my images so any traceable data is removed, so I'll probably post some eventually. Why did I quit growing? To make a long story short, both my wife and I are alcoholics, and it's been over 10 years since I've had a drink, but we've both been able to manage our pot consumption to where it didn't effect our jobs or lives. The wife fell off the wagon, and at the time it was a dangerous and uncertain situation. I didn't know if I was gonna still be living here, or if I'd have to call the cops or paramedics, so I had to end the growing.

Josh - Thanks for the kind words.

So, back to the grow...

3 of the 4 Skunk #1 that soaked overnight in a glass of water sank to the bottom, so they're now in wet paper towels in a ziploc bag on top of my computer to germ. I'll let the last one soak for another day before tossing it. 3 out of 4 isn't bad for seeds of that age.

 

[atheist]

This morning, two of the seeds germing in the paper towel had a tap root about twice as long as the seed, so I planted them in soil. Still no sign on the other one, so I'll give it a couple more days. The seed that's been soaking in water has finally sunk, so now it's in the paper towel to germ too. I'll be amazed if they all sprout.

 

[atheist]

One more seed has sprouted and I've planted it as well. Nothing on the last one so I've tossed it. So 3 out of 4 for the skunk #1. Not bad for seeds of that age. I still have 8 more of the originals in the freezer, but hopefully I'll get a male and female out of these so I can make some more.

 

[atheist]

Of the 3 Skunk #1, One is a runt, but the other two are doing well. It will still be another couple of months before flowering, so I'll just let them all go and see how they do in the mean time.