A grow diary.

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bunkerking

bunkerking

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Nice! I got lucky with my 1st grow. Well... ok no. First 5 seeds died. This is the second round that grew out.

One auto was a male I tossed. Won't forgive myself for that lol.
 
SDjs4ODl
AnselAdams

AnselAdams

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Sorry for the lack of updates, life has been a bit crazy and ptsd has been kicking my entire ass.

But, trying to push through that and become self-sustainable with my meds, I've developed a method for making shatter with isopropyl alcohol and some kitchen nerd equipment that I wanted to share.

It's essentially a refined quick wash iso technique, so it's still legal in Canada after the new hydrocarbon laws.

Equipment:
A French press (put in the freezer before starting)
99% isopropyl alcohol (also in the freezer before starting)
Coffee Filters
Clothespins
An immersion circulator (Mine is Anova)
A pot
Salt
Ice

Break up fresh frozen bud into small pieces and put them into the already frozen French press. Don't pack them in too tightly or else the isopropyl won't be able to reach all of the trichomes. Think of it like steeping tea, it's gotta have room to expand or else the alcohol won't be able to permeate the trichome membranes. When it's full and loosely packed, put it back into the freezer, uncovered, for at least 12 hours. This will dry it out a bit more and make sure that it's cold for the extraction.

Make a super saturated salt solution ( https://sciencing.com/prepare-supersaturated-salt-water-solutions-8559439.html ), cool it to room temp, and pour it over ice in the small pot to make a very cold water bath. Put the whole French press with the herb in it into the icy salt solution (decreases ambient temps), and pour the also as cold as possible isopropyl over the herb and steep that for 1:30. The colder the ambient temp at extraction, the less chlorophyll gets removed. I've got some other hypotheses for refining this that I'll post later after testing- nitrous oxide, dry ice, liquid CO2, and liquid nitrogen could all theoretically be used to lower the ambient temp, which would potentially mean more pressure could be applied to the extraction, potentially increasing yield.

Filter that out into a mason jar and winterize, then pour the alcohol solution out into a silicone baking pan. Place that on a water bath at 86.5 degrees F, and walk away. The evap process (which I haven't refined enough to recover the iso yet) depends on the surface area of the silicone pan and how much you're running.

It's done when it looks dried out. But don't just eyeball it, put the evap pan onto a hot baking tray and move the mixture around with a silicone spatula until there are no bubbles appearing to evaporate. Collecting it all into one place makes getting it out of the pan easier, as well. It'll cool to a hard candy consistency that's pretty easy to work with when cold. Dab at 620 and get medicated! 😊


Yo man! Interesting methodology. You may be interested in what we are doing on this thread. 😊 source-turbo-tinctures-oils-shatter-methanol-alcohol-extraction
Come join us and add your experience and 2 cents....
 
Kanzeon

Kanzeon

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That Violator Kush from @Dirtbag is stretching a week or so into flower. Hope it's still got another 6 inches of height or so to go.

Screenshot from 2020 03 21 16 59 39
Screenshot from 2020 03 21 16 59 25


I definitely think the 3g pots are the right size for the inside space at the moment. 5 gallon ones are being reappropriated to grow melons, squash, and pumpkins as the ladies get chopped.
 
Kanzeon

Kanzeon

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Screenshot from 2020 03 28 18 23 43


There it is, my first ever intentionally created seed. Not a huge deal, but a cool milestone. Nepalma (Nepal highland x Panama Red) x Uzbekistan IBL. Very curious to see how it turns out.

Here are the two Nepalma phenos in flower. It's just so cool how many different expressions this plant has.

Screenshot from 2020 03 28 18 22 06


I picked up a cheap blurple with UV+IR on amazon for the flower room. It was the same cost as the Kingbrite one, but with a few less far red diodes. At that point I figured I might as well beef up the whole spectrum.

Screenshot from 2020 03 28 18 22 50


Here's the veg area, rearranged and tweaked for better light coverage. The clones are in the empty water jug near the wall.

Screenshot from 2020 03 28 18 23 16


And now another grow closet for the males! Those Uzis are stingy as hell with their pollen so far so I'm hoping this will help open them up.

Screenshot from 2020 03 28 18 23 25


I'm happy to be alive.
 
Dirtbag

Dirtbag

Supporter
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That Violator Kush from @Dirtbag is stretching a week or so into flower. Hope it's still got another 6 inches of height or so to go.

View attachment 952866View attachment 952867

I definitely think the 3g pots are the right size for the inside space at the moment. 5 gallon ones are being reappropriated to grow melons, squash, and pumpkins as the ladies get chopped.

Nice bud! Just wait till you get a whiff of that girl. It starts out citrusy but turns to an outright dank kush smell that goes through walls by week 7.
And yeah she still has a couple weeks of stretching left. That one really grows in flower.
 
Kanzeon

Kanzeon

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Wicked. I read a bit about nepalma, that would probably be an awesome cross since violator is also from a hash making lineage, malana. Could make a hashmaking super plant.

We'll see! With what I put on her today I'll likely get 25-35 beans. Would be really cool to run it all out and pick the keepers over the winter.

Yeah, looks like it will end up being Nepal (Malana,), Nepal (whatever indica leaner was used in Nepalma likely wasn't from Malana or else it would stretch more), a Hindu Kush indica, and Panama Red Hair. The violator that I've tried out here so far hits like a pure indica and the Nepalma is a mentally stimulating sativa, so it looks like there's real possibility for legit hybrid vigor.
 
Kanzeon

Kanzeon

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So I was experimenting with different ways of curing, and a couple of the strains molded. Just my fuck up in not burping the jars they were in long enough.

I was really pissed at myself and was about to throw them away, a combination of HSO Bubba's Gift and Ketama, when I figured I had nothing to lose by making some hash with the buds. Neither were my best work by any measure in terms of growing, but the mistakes I made on those aren't being made on the very happy ladies in the flower room now.

But this is a story of making chicken salad from chicken shit.

I washed them in H2O2, froze the buds, broke them up and laid them out on a tray, froze them again to where they were getting freezer burned (I think this might have actually been a good thing), and then rehydrated them in the wash water. Just used a standard kitchen immersion blender once they were hydrated, and then kept going until they didn't feel oily anymore when I would reach in and touch one. Everything was super cold the whole way through, the whole wash maybe was 15 minutes. I didn't want to do multiple washes and stuff while I am still learning the operational concepts of hashmaking in general. I had no hopes at the beginning that any of this would be full-melt.

But mother of god, it turned out delicious. And potent. And an amazing addition to any sticky dab. I'm so happy with it that I made another batch, this time combining Gelat.OG and the top of that Wild Thailand. That one is even better- straight mango, cream, and diesel.

I may have just fallen in love with making hash...

Also, I got 23 seeds of Nepalma x Uzbekistan from that pollen chuck, and I think that's going to be a lot of fun to pheno hunt. The Uzi and both Nepalma phenos are thick, vigorous, mold and mildew resistant, and sticky as fuck, with smells ranging from bing cherry to black currant to pine/spruce to lemon to cat pee. The highs on both have been lovely. Uzi is a slate clearer, a muscle relaxer, but not a sedative one. Nepalma is a ponderous, introspective, euphoric, focused smoke.

Here's everything in the flower room now:

Violator Kush, DB cut 💪 (Also being crossed with Nepalma and Uzi- I have a feeling that [(VK x Nepalma) x (VK x Uzi)] will be an incredible pheno hunting base for hash. You know, in a couple years.)
Kalashnikov Seeds Moscow Blueberry
HSO Gorilla Breath, Three Blue Kings, Blue Dream x 2 (threw some Nepalma at that, too)
USC Seeds Nepalma x 3 and Uzbekistan x1, (Uzi absolutely is gonna be revegged- the first buds harvested vaped magnificently and it'll only get better with a cure).
NAW Seeds Green Manalishi F2 Honey Hashplant x2<-Very glad I made more seeds of this. These buds are thicker than an Atlanta stripper and smell amazing.
World of Seeds Wild Thailand (top already chopped, bottom branches making seeds of crosses with Uzbekistan, Nepalma, and GM)
DNA Genetics Blood Orange Sorbet
Europa Seeds Heavy Grapefruit

Forgive the lack of pictures, I'm likely going to be immobile if not tripping for the next few hours. 😆 I just did a monster dab of some sour diesel rosin made by an awesome local company combined with that hash and I'm... stuck.
 
Kanzeon

Kanzeon

1,899
263
Sooooooooooooo yeah, more tinkering. 🙂

New veg section, under a hodgepodge of different lights of different spectrums between 3000k and 5000k.

Screenshot from 2020 04 09 11 30 15


USC Seeds' Ducksfoot and Kurdish Kush, alongside Hungarian Black and Matchbox pepper seedlings

Screenshot from 2020 04 09 11 29 07


Silver Fields x 3, Motherlode Kush, AK Kush, HSO Bubba's Gift, RQ Northern Lights Auto, and the first of my Uzi/Nepalma cross.

Screenshot from 2020 04 09 11 29 00


I've been training Kubanskiy Ubiyza like I feel Killer Kowalski would. She loves it, she's into the rough shit. Stem split after manifolding, she barely noticed. She's about 30" wide now.

Screenshot from 2020 04 09 11 30 01

Screenshot from 2020 04 09 11 29 41


I'm trying a new thing with some plants in flower. On-branch cloning! I mixed some sterilized coco with iba and put it inside these starter pots around the branches.

@Dirtbag 's Violator Kush, the hardiest Nepalma female, and Uzi, from top to bottom.

Screenshot from 2020 04 09 11 28 51
Screenshot from 2020 04 09 11 28 45
Screenshot from 2020 04 09 11 28 37

More of that Uzi, she's so sexy in flower.

Screenshot from 2020 04 09 11 28 04


Screenshot from 2020 04 09 11 28 26


And the whole flower room. Red beans and rice didn't miss some of these ladies.

Screenshot from 2020 04 09 11 30 25


I love this shit, y'all.

Has anyone tried adding iba to their normal waterings?
 
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Kanzeon

Kanzeon

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263
So I realized where the initial fungus gnats came from after I bought a bag of Promix for the vegetables a month ago. They've been very manageable, but it's still annoying to see them around so I'm going to clean the crap out of that room today. From now on it's my homemade soilless mix (with PFR) for everything and peat to adjust the pH for different crops. Looks like I've gotta agree with Stone Cold, DTA. Especially when it comes to dirt.

Dropped 5 Seeds of Africa Sotho Heights yesterday, looking forward to seeing what those do. They're a landrace from Lesotho, in southern Africa, that are supposed to have a limited stretch and slightly shorter flowering time than other genetics from around that area, with that racy, energetic, euphoric high.

I'm thinking about starting them off at 12/12 until they show sex, then once they differentiate, putting the females back in veg and training them. The flowering time is 3 months, so they'll be keeping me company for a while. Anyone ever tried this?

That last Uzi in veg ended up popping balls, even at 19 hours of light, so that's gonna be my pollen keeper. Got a tiny bit of pollen today, so I'm gonna cross it to the lower branches of the Nepalma with the most sativa-structure buds and get more of that cross with the parents' sexes reversed. Got 25 seeds from the lower branch of Uzbekistan that I pollinated with Nepalma earlier. Once these seeds are ready, I'll grow all of them out at once and select for the best.

So one of the things that I've noticed on the pollenated plants is that they seem to be going much longer than advertised in flower. Not that i'm complaining, because they're still stacking buds and throwing out white pistils weeks after the advertised maturity date. I wonder if pollinating lower branches actually could increase yield on the higher ones by extending flowering until the seeds are made?
 
dire wolf

dire wolf

4,921
263
Sooooooooooooo yeah, more tinkering. 🙂

New veg section, under a hodgepodge of different lights of different spectrums between 3000k and 5000k.

View attachment 959288

USC Seeds' Ducksfoot and Kurdish Kush, alongside Hungarian Black and Matchbox pepper seedlings

View attachment 959285

Silver Fields x 3, Motherlode Kush, AK Kush, HSO Bubba's Gift, RQ Northern Lights Auto, and the first of my Uzi/Nepalma cross.

View attachment 959284

I've been training Kubanskiy Ubiyza like I feel Killer Kowalski would. She loves it, she's into the rough shit. Stem split after manifolding, she barely noticed. She's about 30" wide now.

View attachment 959287
View attachment 959286

I'm trying a new thing with some plants in flower. On-branch cloning! I mixed some sterilized coco with iba and put it inside these starter pots around the branches.

@Dirtbag 's Violator Kush, the hardiest Nepalma female, and Uzi, from top to bottom.

View attachment 959283View attachment 959282View attachment 959281
More of that Uzi, she's so sexy in flower.

View attachment 959279

View attachment 959280

And the whole flower room. Red beans and rice didn't miss some of these ladies.

View attachment 959289

I love this shit, y'all.

Has anyone tried adding iba to their normal waterings?
Hey kanzeon , then you are going to re veg the clones ?
 
Kanzeon

Kanzeon

1,899
263
Hey kanzeon , then you are going to re veg the clones ?

Oh yeah. This Uzbekistan is way too nice not to run again. In addition to how beautiful it looks, it smells like cherry liqueur and leather and has a lovely, euphoric, slate-clearing high. Plus since I only had one female, I didn't get to do all of the crosses that I want to. The Violator is already looking great, and the Nepalma is outstanding, though I'll have more seeds of Nepalma coming. I'd snap a picture but the lights are out.

Here's the veg table, updated again. Replanted the Kurdish Kushes into 3 gal cloth pots after cleaning everything today. The two big containers on the left are Siberian Haze seedlings that are being filled with dirt as they grow.

That absolute monster on the back right is Kubanskiy Ubiyza. That's a 5 gallon pot, and she's grown about a foot past each side. She might end up being a mother, I haven't decided yet. That's a 1 quart mason jar, for scale.

Screenshot from 2020 04 14 20 09 38


40 plants in since June, I'm feeling like I'm kinda starting to get the hang of this. Starting to.

Just like learning any skill, it's all about figuring out what variables need to be controlled, the techniques and theoretical knowledge to do so effectively, and how to make that sustainable.

Seems like the more I follow VPD and hit DLI while watering at the right interval for and with proper technique, the better the buds get and the happier the ladies are.
 
Terpz719

Terpz719

545
143
Sooooooooooooo yeah, more tinkering. 🙂

New veg section, under a hodgepodge of different lights of different spectrums between 3000k and 5000k.

View attachment 959288

USC Seeds' Ducksfoot and Kurdish Kush, alongside Hungarian Black and Matchbox pepper seedlings

View attachment 959285

Silver Fields x 3, Motherlode Kush, AK Kush, HSO Bubba's Gift, RQ Northern Lights Auto, and the first of my Uzi/Nepalma cross.

View attachment 959284

I've been training Kubanskiy Ubiyza like I feel Killer Kowalski would. She loves it, she's into the rough shit. Stem split after manifolding, she barely noticed. She's about 30" wide now.

View attachment 959287
View attachment 959286

I'm trying a new thing with some plants in flower. On-branch cloning! I mixed some sterilized coco with iba and put it inside these starter pots around the branches.

@Dirtbag 's Violator Kush, the hardiest Nepalma female, and Uzi, from top to bottom.

View attachment 959283View attachment 959282View attachment 959281
More of that Uzi, she's so sexy in flower.

View attachment 959279

View attachment 959280

And the whole flower room. Red beans and rice didn't miss some of these ladies.

View attachment 959289

I love this shit, y'all.

Has anyone tried adding iba to their normal waterings?
Yeah I did try a little IBA for seedlings waterings. It was off the cuff. When I up potted to 1 gals I didn't notice any real difference in root development. I had a similar experience A/B ing with and without Great White. That was more controlled, and I didn't see any real difference there either.
 
Kanzeon

Kanzeon

1,899
263
Yeah I did try a little IBA for seedlings waterings. It was off the cuff. When I up potted to 1 gals I didn't notice any real difference in root development. I had a similar experience A/B ing with and without Great White. That was more controlled, and I didn't see any real difference there either.

Yeah after a bit of research it seems like IBA is really best for cloning and germination, since its function is to make the plant produce undifferentiated cells

https://www.cannabisbusinesstimes.c...erdoses-rooting-hormone-iba-nutrient-matters/

But that led me down a research rabbit hole about the benefits of salicylic acid, another ingredient in a "germination bomb" that was posted on here years back.

"Salicylic acid (SA) is an endogenous growth regulator of phenolic nature and also a signaling molecule, which participates in the regulation of physiological processes in plants such as growth, photosynthesis, and other metabolic processes. Several studies support a major role of SA in modulating the plant response to various abiotic stresses. It is a well-founded fact that SA potentially generates a wide array of metabolic responses in plants and also affects plant-water relations. This molecule also found to be very active in mitigating oxidative stress under adverse environmental conditions."

"Salicylic acid or orthohydroxy benzoic acid is ubiquitously distributed plant growth regulator [5]. Salicylic acid has positive effects on plant growth and developmental processes [57]. Research findings demonstrated its roles in seed germination, glycolysis, flowering, fruit yield [8], ion uptake and transport [9], photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance (gs), and in transpiration [10]. Salicylic acid can modulate antioxidant defense system thereby decreasing oxidative stress [11]. Photosynthesis, nitrogen metabolism, proline (Pro) metabolism, production of glycinebetaine (GB), and plant-water relations in abiotic stress affected plants were regulated by SA [1214]. Induction of defense-related genes and stress resistance in biotic stressed plants have also been reported [15]. Moreover, exogenously applied SA showed putative positive effects on stressed plants [1620]. Salicylic acid induced genes encoding chaperone, heat shock proteins (HSPs), antioxidants, and secondary metabolites of different types. Moreover, SA was involved in mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) regulation, and in the expression [21]. There is no doubt about the vital roles of SA under abiotic stress condition. So, we will review and cover the area regarding the biosynthesis, involvement, and role of salicylic acid on abiotic stress affected plants."

https://www.intechopen.com/books/ph...regulating-abiotic-stress-responses-in-plants

Okay, so awesome. Then I found this.

"Acetylsalicylic acid (C6H4OCOCH3COOH) is the ubiquitous pain reliever known as aspirin."

Salicylic acid (C6H4OHCOOH; it's aspirin's parent compound)...

Salicylic acid is a natural analgesic present in the leaves and bark of certain plants. It is generally unsuitable for internal use, since it is a strong gastric irritant and can cause internal bleeding. In fact, aspirin was invented for this very reason; the acetylated molecule isn't as rough on the digestive tract, although it does hydrolyze to some degree in the stomach."

http://www.crscientific.com/article-aspirin.html

Given that aspirin is much more readily accessible than pure salicylic acid, I'll be incorporating it into every feed going forward as well as putting together a foliar spray with it and kelp extract for the tomatoes and peppers.
 
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Kanzeon

Kanzeon

1,899
263
Also, Kalashnikov's Katyusha is highly, highly recommended. I barely remember the first plant of her I grew, but remember that I liked it. Today I went through about 15-20g of it dry herb vaping and it's fucking thunderous. Pine cone, candied spruce, and kushy charred lemon notes with a high that's figuratively disemboweling. Euphoric but grounded, full body tingly buzz without anxiety, all kinds of tracers in my peripheral vision, and I just had a feeling of being thankful that my heart is not a muscle that can only be consciously operated so yeah I'm pretty fucked up.

Fingers are working at about 50 percent right now, eyes are losing focus. If I breathe out through my nose, I can still taste it okay yeah my eyes are closin
 
Terpz719

Terpz719

545
143
Yeah after a bit of research it seems like IBA is really best for cloning and germination, since its function is to make the plant produce undifferentiated cells

https://www.cannabisbusinesstimes.c...erdoses-rooting-hormone-iba-nutrient-matters/

But that led me down a research rabbit hole about the benefits of salicylic acid, another ingredient in a "germination bomb" that was posted on here years back.

"Salicylic acid (SA) is an endogenous growth regulator of phenolic nature and also a signaling molecule, which participates in the regulation of physiological processes in plants such as growth, photosynthesis, and other metabolic processes. Several studies support a major role of SA in modulating the plant response to various abiotic stresses. It is a well-founded fact that SA potentially generates a wide array of metabolic responses in plants and also affects plant-water relations. This molecule also found to be very active in mitigating oxidative stress under adverse environmental conditions."

"Salicylic acid or orthohydroxy benzoic acid is ubiquitously distributed plant growth regulator [5]. Salicylic acid has positive effects on plant growth and developmental processes [57]. Research findings demonstrated its roles in seed germination, glycolysis, flowering, fruit yield [8], ion uptake and transport [9], photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance (gs), and in transpiration [10]. Salicylic acid can modulate antioxidant defense system thereby decreasing oxidative stress [11]. Photosynthesis, nitrogen metabolism, proline (Pro) metabolism, production of glycinebetaine (GB), and plant-water relations in abiotic stress affected plants were regulated by SA [1214]. Induction of defense-related genes and stress resistance in biotic stressed plants have also been reported [15]. Moreover, exogenously applied SA showed putative positive effects on stressed plants [1620]. Salicylic acid induced genes encoding chaperone, heat shock proteins (HSPs), antioxidants, and secondary metabolites of different types. Moreover, SA was involved in mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) regulation, and in the expression [21]. There is no doubt about the vital roles of SA under abiotic stress condition. So, we will review and cover the area regarding the biosynthesis, involvement, and role of salicylic acid on abiotic stress affected plants."

https://www.intechopen.com/books/ph...regulating-abiotic-stress-responses-in-plants

Okay, so awesome. Then I found this.

"Acetylsalicylic acid (C6H4OCOCH3COOH) is the ubiquitous pain reliever known as aspirin."

Salicylic acid (C6H4OHCOOH; it's aspirin's parent compound)...

Salicylic acid is a natural analgesic present in the leaves and bark of certain plants. It is generally unsuitable for internal use, since it is a strong gastric irritant and can cause internal bleeding. In fact, aspirin was invented for this very reason; the acetylated molecule isn't as rough on the digestive tract, although it does hydrolyze to some degree in the stomach."

http://www.crscientific.com/article-aspirin.html

Given that aspirin is much more readily accessible than pure salicylic acid, I'll be incorporating it into every feed going forward as well as putting together a foliar spray with it and kelp extract for the tomatoes and peppers.
Very cool. Thanks for sharing! I've got it bookmarked for when I have a bit more time.
 
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