Alien Genetics - Grow Log from Seed - Pure Coco, CO2

soserthc1 · Oct 21, 2012

Meeks I hate to be a pain with the questions brah, but your answers are educated one's and you know I love to pick your brains man, so if it to much I apologize but what is your take on a full day of darkness or two after desired tricome production before harvest and also curious as to your preferred drying method , hang plant to dry untrimmed or trim then hang..... no rush on answer bro , next update is fine....... much appreciated Meeks..... loving your grow ..... respect soser

nMEEKS · Oct 21, 2012

soserthc1 said:
Meeks I hate to be a pain with the questions brah, but your answers are educated one's and you know I love to pick your brains man, so if it to much I apologize but what is your take on a full day of darkness or two after desired tricome production before harvest and also curious as to your preferred drying method , hang plant to dry untrimmed or trim then hang..... no rush on answer bro , next update is fine....... much appreciated Meeks..... loving your grow ..... respect soser

Thanks for your questions Soser, they are always welcome no worries about that! I know there is a lot of debate on this subject, so I don't expect everyone is going to like my answer here, but I am going to post anyways. The idea behind a 24 hour or i have heard of 48 or even 72 hours of darkness, is that during the dark period, the plants are cooler and less stressed by the light and heat from the light so they put there energy into trichomes rather than general growth. Some people even think you are tricking the plant into thinking there is some weird blackout phenomenon and it goes into overdrive THC/trichome production. . . . . In my opinion, none of this is based in plant science. Sure there will be less heat in the dark cycle, so that might help there seem to be more trichomes after 24 hours of darkness, but only if your bulb is too close to your plants and literally melting your trichomes when it is on. . . . The rest of it is just non-sense from what I can tell, if anything sugar content of the plant will be less after extended dark periods.

The plant has two main processes, photosynthesis and respiration. Both occur during the lights on cycle, but only respiration is occurring during the lights off cycle (obviously) because there is no light. The reason an extended dark cycle makes no sense, is because only photosynthesis can generate new sugar in the plant. . . respiration is the process of converting sugar into energy for the plant, while photosynthesis is the process of converting light energy into sugar for storage or immediate use. . . . more photosynthesis and less respiration = more sugar to be stored in the plant = higher sugar content. . . . . contrary to more dark time before harvest = more respiration and no photosynthesis = plant consumes all its stored sugar = less sugar content in the plant at harvest! I hope that all makes sense, I am sure there are plenty of people that will discount that explanation and say that somehow the extra dark time makes the plant convert the sugar into more THC than normal, but I have not seen any proof of this.

When it comes to drying I like to cut my plants right before I wet trim as much as possible and then hang dry in a drying tent. I have tried waiting to trim until a day later and the leaves are too floppy and takes me much longer to do the same quality job. I have also tried waiting until the leaves are drier and hold shape a little bit again, but that doesn't seem to make things any easier, just delays the process of trimming if you don't have time right away, but puts the buds at risk if there are any pathogens starting to take hold. I think it's really more about how well you dry/cure and not about when you trim that makes the weed taste proper.

-Meeks

Goodsen Cranium · Oct 21, 2012

What's been good with ya Meeks. I've been lurking, peeping out your updates, but haven't said hey in a minute. You're the man. Seriously. You often say that you hope stuff you say is understood, but the way that you explain things is just peachy. (Great question, btw, soser!) The way you explained it leads me to believe that 24 hours of darkness before flowering a plant won't have any effect either, huh?
Your last update was great. Not just great gardening work, I really enjoy your photos too. Thanks for getting the albino bud in there! Thought I was all locked up on the Tahoe Alien as my next score until about that third Lemon Alien Dawg pic! Now I'm back to undecided.:p
Hope school's going well for you & that you had a wonderful weekend!
Lady Goods

soserthc1 · Oct 22, 2012

Awesome answer Meeks and I greatly appreciate and value your an opinion and they detailed explaination. I do understand it (though it required reading a few times to sink in ) I will actually take notes on your responses as they are a educated stand point. Not to belittle others opinion's as I am sure many on here have some horticulture education but I like your detail and well explained opinion/plant fact's ....... much appreciated bro... rap soon .... Respect SoSer

leadsled · Oct 22, 2012

Nice Show. Gorgeous Girls and photos!

bigcheese510 · Oct 22, 2012

NICE! everything is looking out of this fuckin world. my hats off to you bro. you handled those babies perfectly !

nMEEKS · Oct 23, 2012

Thanks a bunch everyone! I am really busy with school right now but I should have time to respond to you all individually tomorrow. I appreciate the extremely kind words!

-Meeks

nMEEKS · Oct 23, 2012

Goodsen Cranium said:
What's been good with ya Meeks. I've been lurking, peeping out your updates, but haven't said hey in a minute. You're the man. Seriously. You often say that you hope stuff you say is understood, but the way that you explain things is just peachy. (Great question, btw, soser!) The way you explained it leads me to believe that 24 hours of darkness before flowering a plant won't have any effect either, huh?
Your last update was great. Not just great gardening work, I really enjoy your photos too. Thanks for getting the albino bud in there! Thought I was all locked up on the Tahoe Alien as my next score until about that third Lemon Alien Dawg pic! Now I'm back to undecided.:p
Hope school's going well for you & that you had a wonderful weekend!
Lady Goods

I was hoping you were still around Goods, I thought I'd toss the albino bud in there to see if you were :p Thanks so much for the confidence boost! It came at a great time when I was cramming for exams that are now past :D I don't know of any reason that 24 hours of darkness would help in the transition to flower other than acting as a stress event that would cause the plant to transition to flowering faster because when a plant is stressed it tries to accomplish its only true goal, to reproduce a.k.a. flowering and eventually seed. But I want to make sure I am clear that I am only speaking to generalized plant behavior when I talk about this kind of stuff, and there are many many variations in specific situations with species that could be different than these generalizations. School is going very well, I am hoping to take some pictures in one of the greenhouses I am taking care of right now that is growing like crazy, so I can post pictures again later to show growth.

Good vibes right back at you Lady Goods!

soserthc1 said:
Awesome answer Meeks and I greatly appreciate and value your an opinion and they detailed explaination. I do understand it (though it required reading a few times to sink in ) I will actually take notes on your responses as they are a educated stand point. Not to belittle others opinion's as I am sure many on here have some horticulture education but I like your detail and well explained opinion/plant fact's ....... much appreciated bro... rap soon .... Respect SoSer

I think there are a ton of great members on this site that are always contributing new and really beneficial knowledge to the site! Especially in the sub-forums like the infirmary or the nutrients and fertilizers section. A lot of what I say here is actually just a condensed version of what is in those sub-forums + some terms from classes. I'm glad you appreciate the information, it makes sharing it that much better when there is a receptive and positive audience. Thanks for always having such good questions Soser.

leadsled said:
Nice Show. Gorgeous Girls and photos!

Always happy to hear from you leadsled, I just couldn't stop taking pictures of these girls, they are looking so damn good!

bigcheese510 said:
NICE! everything is looking out of this fuckin world. my hats off to you bro. you handled those babies perfectly !

Haha, loving the huge font Big Cheese! These genetics are crazy that's for sure! I think I am going to convert to full HPS in the grow room because of how nice I have seen the White Urkle (in the past) and the Lemon Alien Dawg do under it! Of course I always think there is room for improvement, but I am super stoked on how nicely everything is coming along for a seed run with a line of nutrients that is brand new to me!

Quick Update:
The seedling that was behind the rest never made it far above soil before it just stopped growing, and another seedling began to wilt after starting to produce a healthy first set of true leaves, and is now on the brink of death. . . . I am not sure what the cause of these fatalities is, or if they are even related, but I am happy to have 12 very healthy and happy looking seedlings that contain something special, I am sure of it!

The flowering girls are all being flushed now, 0.8-1.0 EC until 20-40% runoff. I am hoping to get some color on a few of these girls, but I think the N might be a little high in this mix so they may stay green until the end. I hope everyone else is doing well, and as always, thanks for reading my journal.

-Meeks:)

ProdigyGrower · Oct 24, 2012

nMEEKS said:
Haha yessir, I wish there was still the dancing man smiley icon to insert, because I would have a whole line of them here! Thanks a bunch for checking out the pics!

I have not harvested anything prematurely, I am still just starting the flush for these plants so I don't think they would have the best of flavors with so much chlorophyll and salt to cover it up. But the smells are insane for sure! The grenades are still putting off lemon smells, but completely overtaken by sweetness, it went from lemon heads to lemon jolly ranchers! And the LADs are all getting a little kushy, but some citrus and lavender are also present! I had a good friend in the garden last night and he helped me check the density of one of the LAD buds. . . he ended up with super greasy/sticky fingers that he couldn't keep away from his nose for the rest of the night, he said it smelled just like a freshly opened box of fruity pebbles, and he was going to go buy a box because he got such a strong craving for it!

Thanks a lot KILLERCHEF! I am very proud of these girls, growing up so fast :D! I can't wait to try out all the different flavors from this round!

Great question soser! When I take my shots I do it all very fast in a very specific way: I wait until a couple minutes before lights out in the flowering room, then I open up the quadruple doors to the veg closet so that light from in there spills out into the flowering room. It isn't much light, but it maintains the photo period of lights on for the few minutes it takes me to snap all the "light out" shots. So when I use the flash it isn't disrupting a lights out period, because the plant still think the lights never went out. Then I close up the closet doors and leave the garden so the plant still get at least 11:55 dark time, which is plenty to not disrupt the photo cycle. Thanks for the kind words!

Haha, yea flowamasta I was gonna message you when these were all said and done and say I thought the Alien Grenades would be a great strain for your garden! The colas are super super tightly packed and the stretch is really limited, I didn't do any temp tricks to reduce stretch so if you did it would probably not stretch at all! A great strain for a height restricted garden no doubt, and I think one of them competes for frostiest strain in the garden right now! Thanks for kind words and the laugh!

Thanks so much KennyP, I have only seen deficiency/burn signs on two plants so far which I believe is based on a little nutrient build up in the media of those plants closest to the fan drinking more than the rest but getting watered just as frequently. Since noticing that at the start of last week I have been watering those plants more often and with more water. My runoff for the trays is now back where I want it and everything is looking happy happy again!

Thanks Ken, I am really surprised how fast they are swelling right now, I was ready to rule out one of the Alien Grenades completely until a week ago when it started pounding on the weight! Now that plant is leading the charge in that tray! The frost is very exciting! I am happy to be running some of my keeper cuts of (strain)xThe White because it really shows of the difference in trichome structure! Both look pretty much the same in photos, especially from a distance the crosses with The White tend to look super caked. . . but in person, close up, it is obvious that the strains from Alien have longer stalks and larger heads on the trichomes and they are packed almost equally as dense on the buds so I really cannot wait to sample these flowers when they are dried and cured!

Wow, thanks a bunch G-rod, that means a lot! I hope you get something really special, there has got to be some absolutely insane stuff in a full pack because I only popped 5 beans and there are multiple keepers on the table right now! Happy to share, makes taking the photos that much more worthwhile.

-Meeks

looks awesome great job your killing it for sure so glad I have these to run myself.

GenghisDon · Oct 24, 2012

Envy Grade.

You'd call me a picky and choosy smoker if we ever met because I'd be picking and choosing everything you got!

nMEEKS · Oct 24, 2012

ProdigyGrower said:
looks awesome great job your killing it for sure so glad I have these to run myself.

Thanks Prodigy, I think anyone with a pack of either of these is lucky for sure! I popped 5 of each and got this craziness, imagine some lucky grower with the space to pop a full pack or maybe even two o_O Hope all is well with you these days!

GenghisDon said:
Envy Grade.

You'd call me a picky and choosy smoker if we ever met because I'd be picking and choosing everything you got!

Haha, I have been called a weed snob before, I think you'd fit right in :D

motiv303 · Oct 24, 2012

Shit Meeksy, minus the hermed LAD's you just landed another one punch knockout homie! Everything looks GREAT! Youl love the AGV you popped and looks like we'll be running the White Fire Aliens at the same time, will be great to see. Keep up the great work man! Peace brother, rap soon! Motiv

Goodsen Cranium · Oct 24, 2012

Yeah, I've been around. I'm sure you'd get the random flurry of 'likes' whenever you'd post an update.:p Looking forward to greenhouse pics... Hope you did well on exams! Take it easy Meeks!

Capulator · Oct 24, 2012

Beautiful shots. Do you think the first screen was necessary at this point? Not being a dick. Genuinely curious.

nMEEKS · Oct 24, 2012

motiv303 said:
Shit Meeksy, minus the hermed LAD's you just landed another one punch knockout homie! Everything looks GREAT! Youl love the AGV you popped and looks like we'll be running the White Fire Aliens at the same time, will be great to see. Keep up the great work man! Peace brother, rap soon! Motiv

This round has been a real pleasure to watch even for me, I really feel like I have been more a spectator than a grower this round, the JRPeters kept 'em all so happy that I pretty much just sat back and watched them do their thing. . . ended up with two tables overflowing with resinous buds! I am pumped for the AGVs, I'm ready for some Blueberry Underdog leaning genotypes! Good luck with your WiFiAliens, mine are on their second set of true leaves and all 7 are looking happy happy :D Glad you could say whats up in this thread Motiv, I'm sure I'll see you around.

Goodsen Cranium said:
Yeah, I've been around. I'm sure you'd get the random flurry of 'likes' whenever you'd post an update.:p Looking forward to greenhouse pics... Hope you did well on exams! Take it easy Meeks!

Haha, yea I really think Logic made the right decision changing the site over to this new system. It took me a little while to get used to, but the larger pictures and the more social-media style to everything has really grown on me, to the point where I love seeing those little red numbers go into the double digits on my notifications tab. My exams have all gone exceptionally well, 96% or higher on all my plant-related-class exams. Have a great rest of your week Goods!

Capulator said:
Beautiful shots. Do you think the first screen was necessary at this point? Not being a dick. Genuinely curious.

Thats a great question Cap, no offense taken. I am still happy with how I decided to ScrOG the plants this run. I used the lower screen entirely for cola training so that once the stretch kicked in full blast the tops were all in the perfect spots and could grow straight up through the second screen layer, which is the layer that now acts as cola support! So at this point, yes it looks like my first (lower) screen layer is doing very little, but during growth it was essential to creating the properly spaced canopy I have now. The reason I think it is a great question is because for some of my plants the first layer (lower) is all that would be needed for training and support, like one of my alien grenades that barely stretched. . . . but there are also plants like 3 of my Lemon Alien Dawgs that stretched like crazy and definitely need the second screen layer for cola support. . . .so because I am running from seed and I couldn't know for sure which plants should be in which table for screen height requirements, I decided two screens would work best, and it has worked just as I hoped! Thanks for checking out the pictures and don't forget to look again after Friday night when I do photo updates :) Hope all is well with you and yours Cap!

-Meeks

nMEEKS · Oct 26, 2012

Just 1 week left farmers, then most of these girls are gonna get the chop!

I hope everyone is having a great Friday and enjoying the start of the weekend! I have a big update of all lights on photos to share with you tonight! :D

First up, the crowd favorite and most photogenic strain in the garden at the moment, the Lemon Alien Dawg! These girls have been swelling all week, and in the last couple days they have been hinting at getting some purple color in the nugs! One of the genotypes is going to be the lowest yielding, but is absolutely the frostiest rock hard buds around! All the rest have much larger buds, and are looking incredible also! I think I will be running two of these plants a week longer than the rest, up to 63 days instead of 56, just based on how they are looking right now.

I think I will need to run some of these pictures into a second post, so enjoy the first 20 and get ready for more!

Lemon Alien Dawg at 49 days of 12/12 lighting:

nMEEKS · Oct 26, 2012

Here are 5 more shots of the Lemon Alien Dawg at 49 days:

Now, onto the sour stinking Alien Grenades :D

These girls have been gaining density like crazy and packing on the frost! Again, a little color on one of the genotypes coming in over the last day or two, I am hoping that continues! Very tough to get shots of these girls because of how closely the buds are packed, but I did my best. I think this strain has huge potential and I cannot wait to try out the flavors of this one!

That's it for the flowering Alien Genetics photos in this update, but photos of my keeper clones and the young seedlings coming up in the next post!

nMEEKS · Oct 26, 2012

So during this cycle I have also had a few of my strains from the keeper stable running in the tray with the Alien Grenades. . . they are starting to live up to their title as elite of the elite! I started flowering these strains at very small sizes, no where close to the size of the main plants in 7 gallons, these clones have been flowered in 2 gallon pots and started no taller than 10 inches, most smaller. I am really happy that I will get to refill my stash jars with all these flavors :D

White Master Kush:

White Urkle B:

And of course, Da White Fire looking dapper as always:

And last but definitely not at all least, the young seedlings that have big shoes to fill. They are now living under the 400w MH bulb and should be growing fast from here on out!

Thanks for taking the time to view/read my thread, have a great weekend everyone!

-Meeks:cool:

soserthc1 · Oct 27, 2012

Well meeks you certainly are blowing that room up my friend and I am starting to think my ARC could go at least 60 now also. So as you know I always prob you brain questions well got another one .... feed my ARC and snow leopards (well the two that are in the 56-63 range) what I was assuming will be there last feed of enhancers before flush day 44 today and last feed was yesterday. Was going to start flush Sunday on the two but now I'm thinking at the very least the arc will take 60-63 - question is do I start my flush now if they could take another week or should I feed one or two more times ......... ? As always meeks you imput is greatly appreciated........ Respect SoSer

GenghisDon · Oct 27, 2012

Meeks AKA Dapper Trapper.

You should hit on someone studying photography and swipe their camera gear around the time these are all dry. They'd make for some real droolers worthy of framing.

Alien Genetics - Grow Log from Seed - Pure Coco, CO2

Alien Genetics - Grow Log from Seed - Pure Coco, CO2

soserthc1

nMEEKS

Horticulturist

Goodsen Cranium

soserthc1

leadsled

GrowRU

bigcheese510

nMEEKS

Horticulturist

nMEEKS

Horticulturist

ProdigyGrower

Alien Junkie and bush master

GenghisDon

nMEEKS

Horticulturist

motiv303

Amputating Fakeness

Goodsen Cranium

Capulator

likes to smell trees.

nMEEKS

Horticulturist

nMEEKS

Horticulturist

nMEEKS

Horticulturist

nMEEKS

Horticulturist

soserthc1

GenghisDon

Alien Genetics - Grow Log from Seed - Pure Coco, CO2

Alien Genetics - Grow Log from Seed - Pure Coco, CO2

soserthc1

nMEEKS

Horticulturist

Goodsen Cranium

soserthc1

leadsled

GrowRU

bigcheese510

nMEEKS

Horticulturist

nMEEKS

Horticulturist

ProdigyGrower

Alien Junkie and bush master

GenghisDon

nMEEKS

Horticulturist

motiv303

Amputating Fakeness

Goodsen Cranium

Capulator

likes to smell trees.

nMEEKS

Horticulturist

nMEEKS

Horticulturist

nMEEKS

Horticulturist

nMEEKS

Horticulturist

soserthc1

GenghisDon

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