My Return to Growing by BudRanger!

[BudRanger1919]

Hey!
Its been a while for me. I had a massive disaster I wont bore you with 3 years ago. Life went in raw and it wasn't cool man. I was so devastated that I just left my setup where it was, for 3 years. I went to take it down to make space 2 months ago before I realised what I had in this space was a damn good use of it, so I just cleaned it instead. I then purchased a new veg tent that has a zipper that isn't AIDS like my last tent. I swapped from MH/HPS DE globes to LED lights as heat has always cost me a lot of money to keep down. I also swapped from coco medium with House & Garden nutes to organic living soil with top dressings etc.

This strain is called Grifter (RMQ x Fritters) by the breeder Heavy Dayze and they are feminized. I now have a lot of seeds to grow, number of different breeders and a lot of phenos to hunt, but this is just going to be a quick return to growing run. Some topping, some LST, 1 month veg, nothing fancy. I am just using this grow as my introduction to living soil and LEDs. I started about 3 weeks ago.

I have a smaller seedling tent, a 4x4 veg tent and a 5x5 flower tent. Right now I am in the 4x4 tent with a 6 inch exhaust and 480w LED light on 30% but a fair distance from the plants.

I made some errors early on but nothing that set me back too far, just a few wrinkles and curls that have now stopped. The problem was that my tent was too cold, thats LEDs for you I guess. Lung room is heated now. They are 18 days old from first leaves showing, and I usually top around 4-6 nodes.

By how much I am watering them each day I think its almost time to top and transplant when they recover. Their veg pot will be just over 1 gallon, flower will be 7. They all have 4 nodes, but some are more developed than others.
Thanks for checking my thread out!

 

[BudRanger1919]

Small update. In my last post 1 of my plants was still recovering. I am still getting used to keeping organic soil moist, but I have started to get the hang of it. It is now almost impossible to tell which plant was unhappy. As I am sure you can see they will soon outgrow their communal seedling tray and their small pots.

I have decided I am going to top them on the 20th. I have not been giving them their full watering's until 3 days ago, I was being careful not to overwater. For the past 3 days I have been giving them 10% of their soil capacity in water every morning and they have been loving it. When I water them now they are not dry but too light, and they are heavy when I put them back. Because I have been thrown so many curve balls I check their weight every 6 hours. My fear of over watering my plants got the better of me but I have a handle of it now and they are much happier. This is a huge change from coco & nute growing.

In my next seedling run my small tent will be cheaper and easier to manage when I upgrade the bars to be able to output 100w. That way instead of moving my tiny plants to a large 4x4 space and having to heat the whole room I can just plug in the extra 2 bars and turn my seedling lamp into 100w with a seedlings mat and let the small environment maintain its own heat. Right now my seedlings are under a 100w light anyway, but in addition to that I also have to maintain temperature which is expensive. In my small tent it was very easy for me to keep temperatures up with just a 50w light and a seedling mat.

 

[BudRanger1919]

I have just topped all 4 of my plants. I used the pinch technique like I always do.
All plants had 4 well developed nodes, with 5th and 6th nodes being worked on by all.
Usually I top at 6 nodes minimum, but I have been told this strain requires early topping to bush out

 

[Stokes]

Looking on point. Nice start

 

[budsofgeorgia]

so got busted 3 years ago went to prison did you learn any new tricks in there ?

 

[BudRanger1919]

so got busted 3 years ago went to prison did you learn any new tricks in there ?

HAHAHA!!! Man. I wish I would have gone to prison. I might have handled that a little better I think. Time investment is something I think about a lot.
No, sadly. A disaster separated me from my house for almost 2 weeks, upon my return everything was dead as I hand water.
I lost 4 prized phenos all hunted from a pack of 20 seeds.
I lost 4 female GG4 plants in week 5, those were clones of my pheno I hunted.
I also lost another phenohunt of 20 seeds that was only in the seedling stage.
Broke my fucking heart and killed my love for the hobby until recently.

 

[budsofgeorgia]

HAHAHA!!! Man. I wish I would have gone to prison. I might have handled that a little better I think. Time investment is something I think about a lot.
No, sadly. A disaster separated me from my house for almost 2 weeks, upon my return everything was dead as I hand water.
I lost 4 prized phenos all hunted from a pack of 20 seeds.
I lost 4 female GG4 plants in week 5, those were clones of my pheno I hunted.
I also lost another phenohunt of 20 seeds that was only in the seedling stage.
Broke my fucking heart and killed my love for the hobby until recently.

well believe it or not i been right more times then wrong on that statement

 

[BudRanger1919]

well believe it or not i been right more times then wrong on that statement

I wish you would have been right, then maybe I could have salvaged it by getting a friend to make sure my mother plants don't die or something whilst I'm getting my ass kicked by gang members. GG4, Super Lemon Haze, LSD and OG Bubba Kush were my mother strains I kept after about 4-5 years of growing, and I grew about 6 other strains that I didn't think as much of and didn't keep mothers of. Those were the ones I lost, all hunted from 20 seeds each, was very upsetting.

 

[budsofgeorgia]

I wish you would have been right, then maybe I could have salvaged it by getting a friend to make sure my mother plants don't die or something whilst I'm getting my ass kicked by gang members. GG4, Super Lemon Haze, LSD and OG Bubba Kush were my mother strains I kept after about 4-5 years of growing, and I grew about 6 other strains that I didn't think as much of and didn't keep mothers of. Those were the ones I lost, all hunted from 20 seeds each, was very upsetting.

well you seem like a young man lost of vigor left im sure you can do it again ya just gotta try try try

 

[Green420]

I have just topped all 4 of my plants. I used the pinch technique like I always do.
All plants had 4 well developed nodes, with 5th and 6th nodes being worked on by all.
Usually I top at 6 nodes minimum, but I have been told this strain requires early topping to bush out
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Have you noticed any immediate differences with this strain compared to others you’ve grown? Early topping can sometimes be a bit of a gamble, but it looks like you’ve got a good handle on it.

 

[BudRanger1919]

Have you noticed any immediate differences with this strain compared to others you’ve grown? Early topping can sometimes be a bit of a gamble, but it looks like you’ve got a good handle on it.

Hey there! I haven't noticed much difference at this stage, still very early days though. Topping this early made me nervous, it is a bit of a gambit. I topped all 4 about 24 hours ago now and its like they didn't even notice. I checked on them every few hours, I kept expecting to see them react but nothing happened which is good news.

 

[BudRanger1919]

Hey guys!
Since the topping the girls have been thirsty. They were also hungry for space so I gave them a bit more, but it was very clearly time for them to move'on'up. They are no longer in these solo-sized pots.

They are now in 1 gallon pots with living soil, and I gave them a microbe and a kelp/seaweed product as their first watering to help with root growth and shock. Each plant accepted 1 litre. When I topped them they didn't droop, but when I transplanted they drooped, for just almost 2 days.

As you can see 2 girls in particular took the move a bit hard.

On the evening of the 2nd day they all perked up. It has been 3 days since transplant, all is well. New tops are all growing out, but most branches below are shaded by 4 fan leaves. I am very tempted to cut off the top fan leaves but I don't feel like being too bold for my return. I tucked leaves under branches as best I could but most were not big enough for me to tuck yet.

Temp/Humidity is perfect after much tinkering. Oscillating fan on low above the light. The air circulates around the plants without hitting them directly. I have the LED on 100w at 30 inches. No sign of the girls requesting more light yet, but they are only 1 month old from seed. I am going to have to get the cords/cables off the floor for safety with more water in play. In 2 days they will have been in the light for 1 month and I will be changing their lighting to 18/6.

 

[BudRanger1919]

Hey guys, feel like having a look at something strange?

Anybody seen anything like this before? This doesn't look like balls, nor does it look like a pollen sack. It is not together, they are separate like leaves (can be moved around with a tiny skewer), it isn't a ball, or any kind of "pod". It almost looks like a new top shot out, but a new shoot shouldn't be there.

1 other plant has already shown its female pre-flowers, so I am totally willing to accept that it could be a hermie. This is the very top of the plant. I think I am going to have to wait a while before I know for sure, so I thought I would pop it in my journal see what you guys think. I checked the rest of the plant and I couldn't find any other signs of anything.

 

[Captspaulding]

No way of telling with that shot.
Lights on repost it?”

 

[BudRanger1919]

No way of telling with that shot.
Lights on repost it?”

Ah shit that's my bad, I couldn't get a good picture in the tent so I took her out. I went back and got pics whilst in tent, and I got good ones.
I've got 4 girls, so losing 1 isn't that big of an issue, but it looks like a mutant top to me for some reason. It looks like a few of the tops growing where they should be on lower branches.
Could totally be a mutant hermie though.

Placement on plant.

Update on the girls, just growing along

 

[Captspaulding]

Ah shit that's my bad, I couldn't get a good picture in the tent so I took her out. I went back and got pics whilst in tent, and I got good ones.
I've got 4 girls, so losing 1 isn't that big of an issue, but it looks like a mutant top to me for some reason. It looks like a few of the tops growing where they should be on lower branches.
Could totally be a mutant hermie though.
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Placement on plant.
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Update on the girls, just growing along
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Yeah that’s herming out.

 

[Captspaulding]

I would pluck it off and just watch it. It’s def got the genes floating around though. You may totally dodge the bullet too homie.

 

[BudRanger1919]

Yeah that’s herming out.

Thank you! The way it drooped down did not excite me. It was a bad omen, for starters, that another girl started showing female preflowers at the same time I found it.

I would pluck it off and just watch it. It’s def got the genes floating around though. You may totally dodge the bullet too homie.

I might watch her and see what she does, but I am a bit of a serial killer when it comes to my plants showing weakness, as I see it as a waste of resources and time, and of course a potential threat.

I have done 3 plants in a 4 plant grow before. It is annoying but it gives me and the girls a bit of space in the tent, so every cloud I guess (maximum cope engaged)

I really appreciate your reply man, I have only ever ran into 3 hermies before and one of them was just nanners at week 6 and showed no early signs. But showing a hermie in veg is just too much for my peace of mind and I think its probably for the best I karate chop this dude/chick the fuck out of my garden.

 

[BudRanger1919]

I'm gonna do this to plant number 4.
Its for the best.

 

[SnoopingAsUsualI]

Ah shit that's my bad, I couldn't get a good picture in the tent so I took her out. I went back and got pics whilst in tent, and I got good ones.
I've got 4 girls, so losing 1 isn't that big of an issue, but it looks like a mutant top to me for some reason. It looks like a few of the tops growing where they should be on lower branches.
Could totally be a mutant hermie though.
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Placement on plant.
View attachment 2180443

Update on the girls, just growing along
View attachment 2180444

Little younglings, to become great ladies soon!