GreenSanta's Pollen Chucking Lab

[Gr33nSanta]

For some reason I am pretty sure I have tried them in the past and they did not work. I think they do not work in the flower room, they need 16 hours plus a day. Id have to look into them again, I ll have to go re visit that sub forum. Oh I see you were talking about veg room ... Yes I think when I start over I will veg my plants longer and use predatory mites in veg room and see if I can prevent mites from ever entering flower room, wouldnt that be nice...

I just need to start over, jackie's room has been going good for 9 months without any problems. I am really loving running cycles now...

Anyway, got 3 on the nose in jackie's, I am not gonna lie I was hoping for a bit better but those are great results out of 2000 watts LEDs and 100% organic with not much veg time and not much for labor either.

I am getting ready shut the lights off one at a time, I need a break.

I do not even care about any plants anymore I am so burned out, well except Les Fleurs Bleues, can't lose that one. I am tempted to run mono-crops of her ...

 

[Mikell]

I've found it easier to win in veg and carry that over to flower. Perpetual complicates this but has its advantages.

Predator mites can be tricky. The retailers do not provide enough information about preferences (temp/rh/photoperiod). Misting at night provides hydration if there is not enough of a food source. Supplemental diets can help, but only to a point and are expensive. Like feeding wolves dogfood, they breed out aggressive tendencies. Some sell a "trio pack", which sounds great, but most are generalist feeders and will eat each other if they can not find the TSSM colonies.

The best results I see are with the slow release sachets.

But it is a cost benefit equation. They aren't cheap nor is the shipping and frequent reintroductions. Sachets are usually sold in 100 packs.

Nice yield with LED.

 

[Gr33nSanta]

Big early morning in the garden, I harvested a SIP, again looks to be close to half pound with 3 plants and no veg time after transplant, 6 oz easy.

That SIP was the second I put together 2 years ago and I finally dragged it out of the room.

I plan to dig in it and see what kind of funk is in the reservoir.

I started shutting down some lights, the room is packed though, can't tell I harvested anything after moving the plants.

If this is the end of it for me, I will forever remember that at one point in time, I grew some mighty fine herb, what a trip.

 

[Gr33nSanta]

Holy shit, one of the first LED I bought back in 2011 finally died today, I had to fix it multiple times over the years but it always grew great healthy plants, it was the red and blue style.

 

[Gr33nSanta]

Only one small room running, basement is quiet for the first time in years, kind of nice actually, not sure how long the break will be. I am letting go of almost all my moms, I am keeping les fleurs bleues for sure though but I know if I lose that one I could get her back. She is the only plant I have shared to local growers and I know she is grown in large gardens.

I have a feeling she might stick around for a while, I hope so, it is my goal to create one of them clone only that ends up sticking around for years and make an impact. Les Fleurs Bleues (also known locally as Beamer or Bimmer) has huge potential because it is so rare to find such a good smelling tasting high cbd cultivar.

Life is chaos right now, I want growing to be a hobby again... see what happens over the summer. One thing for sure is I am tempted to monocrop her. She is the most mold and pest resistant plant I have grown, every round, never bothered by mites, always great yields. The 2 I chopped last night had several popcan size colas...

Anyway, I guess I ll be taking a break from the journal too nothing is happening. I might post some pics of the one small room running later on.

Have a good summer everyone, and good luck to all the outdoor growers that have been lurking in or posting.

Bye now.

 

[PaulieWaulie]

Wow, this is unexpected Santa. I mean you mentioned before taking a break in the summer, I thought just because of the heat and what not, and summer vacations sounding pretty nice at that time. Im in a similar boat, that sometimes Ive put so much into this hobby that I expect certain results, and as newbie it seems I make one mistake after another, and the carrot that is that "perfect run" keeps on being pushed ahead. After awhile you ask yourself am I delusional? Will I ever reach that carrot? When, and at what cost though, and will it be what I wanted once I reach it.

Anyways, Ive followed along for over a year and half since I came back to icmag, gonna miss your style!

 

[Gr33nSanta]

I've found it easier to win in veg and carry that over to flower. Perpetual complicates this but has its advantages.

Predator mites can be tricky. The retailers do not provide enough information about preferences (temp/rh/photoperiod). Misting at night provides hydration if there is not enough of a food source. Supplemental diets can help, but only to a point and are expensive. Like feeding wolves dogfood, they breed out aggressive tendencies. Some sell a "trio pack", which sounds great, but most are generalist feeders and will eat each other if they can not find the TSSM colonies.

The best results I see are with the slow release sachets.

But it is a cost benefit equation. They aren't cheap nor is the shipping and frequent reintroductions. Sachets are usually sold in 100 packs.

Nice yield with LED.

I am trying to use less insects and do a better job with IPM, I fried almost every plants with a spray I made using cinnamon, horsetail, hot pepper, and probably too much dr.browner soap. I think the Les Fleurs Bleues is dying. My plants look sad!

As far as insect goes, too bad you can't just buy ladybug eggs, one egg per pot would probably be all that's needed for prevention.

Wow, this is unexpected Santa. I mean you mentioned before taking a break in the summer, I thought just because of the heat and what not, and summer vacations sounding pretty nice at that time. Im in a similar boat, that sometimes Ive put so much into this hobby that I expect certain results, and as newbie it seems I make one mistake after another, and the carrot that is that "perfect run" keeps on being pushed ahead. After awhile you ask yourself am I delusional? Will I ever reach that carrot? When, and at what cost though, and will it be what I wanted once I reach it.

Anyways, Ive followed along for over a year and half since I came back to icmag, gonna miss your style!

Thanks Paulie, lots going on in life, not sure what the future holds.

I have reached the carrot multiple times, the main reason for the break is we have health issues that I am pretty sure are related to my hobby.

I have different hypothesis, number one is dust mites and mold mites, the cucumeris I have been spreading for years come with mold mites that feed on the moldy bran. I used to buy a 1 L tub and spread it in the veg room with the fans on and everything, I did not know how allergenic mites poop can be.

As I clean the basement, the minute I stir dust up I seem to get hives, mildly.

Second hypothesis, is all the SIPs I have been growing in. I think they can become toxic to us even if the plants love them. It was a pain to get them out of the house! Here is what I think happens with SIPs, the upper layer under the plastic mulch starts to dry out, to the point where the whole upper half is bone dry, then when you fill the reservoir, it forces air out of the pot and as the air travel upward as you fill the reservoir it carries mold spores up in the air.

I finally came to this conclusion when I found that mold release it's spores when it dries out.

As I was taking apart SIPs, Id come across old stalks from previous grows and because they got wet and then dried out I could see black mold and gray mold on a lot of debris. (I think gray mold is dead black mold? still toxic anyhow)

Anyway, I think the way around this for the SIPs is to water under the plastic mulch to prevent the upper layer from drying out entirely.

For now we enjoy the house being quiet but I am getting low on weed! Planted 3 plants outside yesterday.

 

[bsgospel]

A combo of Doc Bronners and a couple hundred lady bugs took care of my issue real quick. If you can roll ~3 lady bugs per plant, you should be covered. The number I've seen is that they'll eat 5 adult mites a day...? Working with a lot less plants now, though. With these numbers, I might release ten at a time. I'd rather clean up a shit load of dead lady bugs than toss 100 plants, haha.

Be well, Gr33n. Don't be a stranger Hope you get your health and whatnot back in order.

 

[Gr33nSanta]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrYrFiD0hc8&feature=youtu.be

Last room running, I said Id post a few pics but here is a clip instead, it looks epic for me, I had a little timer fuckup and I know my Blue Spoon is sensitive to stress so I hope I do not endup with too many seeds, I ll keep an eye on them...

I have spent about 10-20 minutes on 4 different occasions since transplant, this room is on autopilot!

I got a few seedlings on the go from crosses I made in the Spring and some other really old stuff.

 

[Gr33nSanta]

Day 2 for 2 Blue Spoon X Strange Brew. About to get ready for the Fall, starting seeds... I'm gonna start sifting through seeds I made in the Spring, lots of SLK X BH crosses and other cool stuff. Les Fleurs Bleues is finally bouncing back, almost killed her! Missjack, Memory Loss and BlueSpoon are the only moms I plan to keep moving forward.

It will be nice to start from scratch, taking advantage of the break to not grow perpetual anymore, I am eager to grow in cycles and have a fresh start every 2-3 months.

 

[Gr33nSanta]

I have started putting some thoughts into running my garden 100% clone free, always from seeds. There is a lot of positive and negative about it, maybe you guys could share your thoughts.

positive:
-more vigor
-entertaining, not so boring
-would take pollen chucking to the next level, constantly evolving
-more diversity
-no fear of losing a cut, because there are no cuts.

negative:
-the quality will be more hit and miss
-managing plant canopy will be more challenging
-having to grow a lot of males (I think the vigor more than makes up for this, I typically sex plants on the edge of the flower room)
-inconsistent flowering time

Here is a few reasons behind my thinking, I always always get bored of a plant, sure I could smoke my keepers every now and again for the rest of my life but on a day to day basis I do get bored with all of them.

I used to love growing 12/12 from seeds because I would smoke different weed all of the time, I would not do 12/12 from seeds anymore but still I would be growing 100% from seeds.

It does not matter how good my Memory Loss or Blue Spoon are, I need something new!! ALL OF THE TIME!

So I think my grow log is about to explode with diversity, my plan is to grow a male from my favorite seed line, every once in a while, maybe 2-3 times a year, hit a bunch of random females, and only save the seeds from the best females and eat the rest.

In many ways, if you look back in the journal I think I talked about this in the past, but if I do many seed runs a year, shying away from inbreeding, I could have the most intelligent herb on the planet many years from now, yeah, smoke another one.

 

[WaterFarmFan]

I have started putting some thoughts into running my garden 100% clone free, always from seeds. There is a lot of positive and negative about it, maybe you guys could share your thoughts.

positive:
-more vigor
-entertaining, not so boring
-would take pollen chucking to the next level, constantly evolving
-more diversity
-no fear of losing a cut, because there are no cuts.

negative:
-the quality will be more hit and miss
-managing plant canopy will be more challenging
-having to grow a lot of males (I think the vigor more than makes up for this, I typically sex plants on the edge of the flower room)
-inconsistent flowering time

Here is a few reasons behind my thinking, I always always get bored of a plant, sure I could smoke my keepers every now and again for the rest of my life but on a day to day basis I do get bored with all of them.

I used to love growing 12/12 from seeds because I would smoke different weed all of the time, I would not do 12/12 from seeds anymore but still I would be growing 100% from seeds.

It does not matter how good my Memory Loss or Blue Spoon are, I need something new!! ALL OF THE TIME!

So I think my grow log is about to explode with diversity, my plan is to grow a male from my favorite seed line, every once in a while, maybe 2-3 times a year, hit a bunch of random females, and only save the seeds from the best females and eat the rest.

In many ways, if you look back in the journal I think I talked about this in the past, but if I do many seed runs a year, shying away from inbreeding, I could have the most intelligent herb on the planet many years from now, yeah, smoke another one.

Sounds like a winner! There is nothing better than diversity!!! From personal experience, the biggest draw back on this perpetual style is the uneven canopy. My solution was to use a separate stretching tent for the first 2-3 weeks of each plant cycle. After they were big enough, plants would get rotated into main room. The really short phenos would get propped up on bucket in main room or just left in stretch tent for their full cycle. Another PITA is the difficulty to do automated watering and feeding with plants at different stages, but I think your organic style makes it easier.

The best thing is vigor that comes from growing from seed. It is like they have an extra gear that results in 20% more yield with the larger plants. I am not sure if you tried before, but you will become the Yoda of revegging if you do this style long enough. It is WAAAAAYYYYYYY easier to reveg (by leaving/sacrificing a fair amount of lower buds and leaves) than constantly trying to start/keep a bizzillion clones going at the same time.

 

[Gr33nSanta]

Sounds like a winner! There is nothing better than diversity!!! From personal experience, the biggest draw back on this perpetual style is the uneven canopy. My solution was to use a separate stretching tent for the first 2-3 weeks of each plant cycle. After they were big enough, plants would get rotated into main room. The really short phenos would get propped up on bucket in main room or just left in stretch tent for their full cycle. Another PITA is the difficulty to do automated watering and feeding with plants at different stages, but I think your organic style makes it easier.

The best thing is vigor that comes from growing from seed. It is like they have an extra gear that results in 20% more yield with the larger plants. I am not sure if you tried before, but you will become the Yoda of revegging if you do this style long enough. It is WAAAAAYYYYYYY easier to reveg (by leaving/sacrificing a fair amount of lower buds and leaves) than constantly trying to start/keep a bizzillion clones going at the same time.

I was a newbie grower when I realized how seeds were more vigorous than clones, undeniably! Not sure why anyone would ever argue with this, maybe in dwc or hydroponic its different but in my organic soil, seeds have the upper hand.

A lot of my keepers over the years were revegged. I ll do it if I really have to of course but I plan to not have keepers at all, so instead of hoping a plant will reveg I will hope I made seeds with it. If I did not make seeds and it was a once in a thousand plant, I ll reveg her to make seeds with it the following cycle but not to keep.

I do not like to stay stagnant, I move quick, I had lost sight of my goals in recent months but I can see clearly now the rain is gone.

Only crazy people do not change their mind, so that might not last, but I have so much gear to sift through and the idea of always harvesting new flavors is very appealing to me.

I know years back I grew tired of how hit and miss growing 100% from seeds was but at the time I was still trying a lot of shit gear from a lot of different breeders, Ive narrowed it down to a few breeders, I being the main one.

I got the rosin area all cleaned up, I have not used the press much lately, last time I made bubble hash rosin I made enough to last me over a month.

I have some fresh frozen Memory Loss cross I harvested too early while cleaning up the basement, last time I made bubble hash with fresh frozen I made great rosin so I am looking forward to that, will share results.

I forget what day it is for the 2 bluespoon x strange brew but here they are, surrounded by the upcoming run.

 

[Mikell]

Hey we have the same crappy press. Lured in by the constant sales (prior to pulling from the market...).

I hope you never need to top up the fluid. What a fuckin' pain in the ass that is.

Mine's currently in the shop after a joint near the ram failed and splurted oil everywhere but thankfully not on the parchment.

 

[Gr33nSanta]

Shit sorry to hear, at least you might be able to give a few pointers when comes time. How do you know if you are starting to be low on oil?


I feel mine was leaking a bit more when I first bought it. I rarely have the plates on for more than half hour as to minimize wear and tear from the heat.

I bought the press for less than $200 at canadian tire.

Next time id buy a 20 ton from princess auto or something.

I feel the plates will last a long time, probably my best purchase ever.

 

[PaulieWaulie]

You can create tiers made of a 2 by 12 on some stacked bricks. Then put the same size plants on to the same tiers. that way you have 100% even canopy with all sizes of different plants. I have 12 rows x 4 plants each and had a perfect canopy. Also taller plants along the edges creates a stadium style effect with the shortest plants directly under the bulb, that way everything is the same perfect distance. All this does take time to manage though, but its possible.

 

[Gr33nSanta]

What I am trying now instead of doing stadium style is having small grows in big rooms, I guess not so practical on a large scale, but in my context, I think it will work great.

The biggest room being 2000 watts, there is probably 1400 watts above and 600 watts of side lighting. With my new defoliation technique ( been going heavier and heavier on defoliation as long as the plants have good momentum ) I think side lighting is really the way to go for good quality product top to bottom.

Room B has about 600 watts above and 500 watts side lighting, Room C has 300 watts above and 270 watts side lighting.

I think side lighting works even better if you have only a 3-4' wide canopy right up against a white wall and the leftover lighting has a chance to bounce back on wall right onto your buds.

Now the idea is to veg plants long enough so that I can have a 2-3 feet high of flower canopy, that way the side lighting coming from cobs is mostly being converted to buds.

I was going to pack more watts per sq.ft like I used to do but now I am really curious to see what kind of quality I can get with proper environment and proper canopy management.

Jackie's room is still kicking ass, I am actually worried something is going to go wrong, how could I possibly be 2ish weeks away from harvesting my very best crop ever and why is it that everything looks so good still??!!! Buds Gods looking after me, as always.

 

[WaterFarmFan]

Side lighting makes a lot of logical sense, but I have never had a big enough space to try it. It could increase your watts/sqft, but you might try and mix up your spectrum as well with a couple of these to blend with your LEDs:

https://growershouse.com/ceramic-mh-315w-low-profile-stealth-package

I originally planned to use some of those myself, but I just ran my 2x Phantom DE HPS at 1150w each (2300w total) and it was almost too much light for space. Some of the best rooms (not mine) seem to have 3-5 different spectrums/bulb types with some serious ass kickers beating down from top.

As for your smaller rooms/spaces, you might use these for early stage perpetual, or get the lights very close to plants. I know it might be hard to do with LEDs, but some of the coolest (and highest yielding per sqft) were vertical coliseum style with multiple hps in cool tubes. It is the same concept of side lighting and shorter plants, but just arranged in an ascending circle around lights.

 

[Gr33nSanta]

That's the Beauty about big room and small canopy it allows for both vertical and horizontal lighting. With heavy defoliation and many flower sites, you get great yield of great quality flowers top to bottom i hope i can demonstrate!

 

[WaterFarmFan]

Nice. Keep in mind that with sativa and sativa hybrids from seed, it is very difficult, even with extensive topping, to keep them under 4-5 feet.