WWxBB, WW, SS. Doin' it in the dirt.

[Reverend Willis]

Hey y'all. I've been lurking around and decided to add my WW grow to the diaries. I've noticed several folks are growing WW and wanted to watch them all together.

This is my 3rd grow since getting back to farming after nearly 20 years away. I have a growbox - 4' wide x 1' deep x 3' high. It used to be a bookcase at school. I enclosed it and painted the inner surfaces white. My lights are (2) 125w hortilux bulbs from EzHydro. I use BOGs soil recipe with GH Flora Nova nutes and epsom salt. I keep it simple.
I also have 2 momboxes made from bedside stands. They are 1.5 sg ft each and are quite helpful to have.

IN the garden... from Female Seeds
White Widow @ 32 days
Skunk Special @ 32 days
White Widow X Big Bud @ 40 days
Master Low by Mdanzig @ 40 days
Blue Mystic (Nirvana) mom for clones
10-12 clones in the clone room - wwbb, BM

This is my first adventure with cloning. I began a few weeks ago and have already used several methods... water cloning, in jiffypeats, seed starter soil mix, and water bottle cloning. They all work so I'll mix it up and see what we get.

The first pic below tells a lot about my growing style. I use LST and keep my plants low and bushy. The wwbb is shown on day 18. It has been the most vigorous of the female seed plants.
Pic 2 shows how bushy the wwbb is now.
Pic 3 Tasty doobage from the last grow.
Pic 4-5 are the plants in the clone room.

Good to be here. Good to share grow info. Good to learn.
Rev

 

[THE BROTHER'S GRUNT]

Whats up Rev. Well it sure looks like ya know what your doing. That is a nice setup you have there and your plants look very healthy. You got yourself one nice looking grow going. Great job.

 

[Hick]

Welcome aboard "Reverend". Always nice to have a 'man o' the cloth' around. Never know when we might be in need of some divine intervention.
Nice pics, lookin' forward to your input.

 

[Insane]

Nice lookin plants/setup RW, lookin forward to seein ya around.

 

[Mutt]

Great!!!!!

My next seed batch is going to be Blue Mystic. Can't wait to see this grow.

Can you give us a quick smoke report on the Blue Mystic?

 

[Reverend Willis]

Thanks everyone for the welcome. Good to be here. I've been watching you guys with some grows and I see there are no slackers in this crowd. I still have tons of stuff to learn. My last 2 grows were more productive than anything I had grown in the past under regular fluoros.
Thanks, Insane. Love the avatar. Hick, I am a man of the cloth with the Church of the Divinely Disinterested. TBG, I'm feeling my way through this grow stuff. I have incorporated as many good ideas as I can. Glad to have a guidance counselor/grower/guru available.

Mutt - You asked about a Blue Mystic smoke report... It has been drying and curing for a month and it is smoothe smoking. If you have several BM plants, you'll probably get 2 phenos. The taller pheno has a nice blueberry scent during the grow but it turns to a sweet, lemony citrus that is nice tasting. It has also grown more potent with the curing.
The short pheno has none of flavorings of the tall pheno. It just tastes like good dope. However, the buzz hits much heavier than the tall. I took a big hit and it made my brain swell until it exploded. One of my eyeballs rolled away down the street and I was blinded in the other eye. So, yeah, it's a good smoke. I highly recommend it. The grow reports I've read give it a solid 8 of 10. Besides, if you can't trust a preacher, who the hell can you trust.
The BMs started in hydro and had bad root rot at 4 weeks so I cut their roots and transplanted to soil. They never missed a beat. I had 3 females that produced 2.3 oz of good bud. I was pleased with that considering the root surgery and being plunged into a dirt bath instead of water. They also like nutes. I kept a tall pheno BM and will be using a few of her clones during this grow.

I'm sure all that ramblin' was more than you wanted to know. I get stoned and ramble. So, shoot me.
Rev

 

[THE BROTHER'S GRUNT]

Rev. with a grow like that you can ramble all you want my friend. That is some fine looking bud you have right there. Damn that looks gooood.

 

[LdyLunatic]

nice pics....you got some nice strains there too ....definitely gonna be watching this one

 

[Reverend Willis]

The pix below are the subject of my question. Can you see the roots in the bottle? Aren't roots damaged by light? Should I tape them over to block out the light?
When these and other clones get big enough, they'll go into 2 litre plastic bottles.
I learned quickly from my trial run with hydroponics that roots in hydro need to be kept in the dark. It would stand to reason that would be the same in soil. I've had a brainstorm. Maybe that's why plant containers are opaque and not transparent. Uh-oh. I'm starting to think again. Time for my medication. Did I answer my own question successfully?

 

[Mutt]

Yep, I think you answered it all on your own. roots hate light.

Thanks again for the smoke report. those are some beauties. Also thanks for the harvesting tips.

 

[Reverend Willis]

The plant update pix for today are the WWxBB at 46 days of 18/6. I'll be slipping the 12s to them in 2 days and we'll see if indeed females pop out. These are not an auto-flowering variety so we'll cross our fingers.

The other 2 Female Seeds --> Skunk Special & White Widow are very healthy but are nowhere as vigorous as this plant. One of the blurbs I read from a seed guru mentioned ~ to expect this hybrid to be quite vigorous. She's been trained to stay low with my colorful magic pipe cleaners. There are a lot of bud sites getting ready to show their stuff. She is only 5 inches tall and ready to explode (I hope) with growth. She's never been topped. I bent her over and have been tying off the side branches to make them grow horizontally until flowering. Each branch is anchored to the edge of the pot in a different direction until there is a bushy carpet of bud sites. {pic 1}
Next update I'll show pix of the SS, WW, and Master Low.

The MLow seed (an auto-flowering variety) popped the same day as the wwbb so it is 46 days ---> headin' for a harvest at 63 days. The smell is something different. I haven't grown that many times so I'm still searching for a description of the odor. Okay, I'll take a stab at it. The smell is somewhere between 93 octane gasoline and Extra-Strength Listerine. I'll harvest her in 17 days and cure it so we can see how this high-octane mouthwash smokes.
That's all my lies for tonight. Be back at you later.
Grow big
Rev

 

[THE BROTHER'S GRUNT]

Damn Rev. i love the way you got those babies tied down making a nice even canopy. Cant wait to see those babies really fill out and start budding. It's gonna be nice.

 

[GreenDayGirl]

Lordy, lordy, lordy...hi Rev, your grow looks great btw. I also put my seeds in clear cups until of course it was pointed out to me that i was wrong...again I'll tag along for the ride as well.

 

[Zarnon]

It's not so much the roots won't grow in light, it's that you invite a lot of light lovin' organisms to the table. Roots love O2 and when you get stuff like algae growing in there it will compete for it.

Plus black just looks cooler.

 

[Reverend Willis]

Hey Grunster - Yeah, those suckers are tied way back. I don't know if I can still call it LOW Stress Training. They do look healthy.

GDGirl - Hey. Perhaps we qualify as poster children for "How Not to Clone."
Some of my clones look unhappy like they got nute burn (they've only had plain water) when they went into the seed starter soil. My understanding was clones can withstand more nutes than a seedling (within limits of course). I'm still searching for a non-burning, happy medium. Yuk yuk. {see pic 1-2}

Zarnon - Yeah. The roots don't need to be in that petri dish. I've solved the problem by slipping them into solid blue cups to block the light.

Pictures 3 & 4 illustrate the LowStressTraining I am using. Once the branches are long enough to reach the edge of the pot, they are anchored to one of the many holes drilled around the pot. Now they can start growing vertically! It's just a different method of Scrog without a net. An even canopy is the desired result of all this bondage & domination.

Now, to answer the question -- Why grow such short plants?
CFL lights do not penetrate very far like HPS & MH. There is a big drop-off in efficiency as you move further away. That is why I grow a low bush and keep a lot of the plant lighted and growing evenly. Gotta run. My dog had chili for breakfast and is running me out of the room.
Grow sideways
Rev

 

[Reverend Willis]

Hey all. While I let the big plants veg, I've been killing clones. I could do a whole thread on How to Kill Clones - Rev style. If any of my clones should survive -- they will be placed in the grow rotation after the current ones flower for 8-9 weeks. They will go into 2 liter bottles for their time in the growbox. But, that's another grow down the road.

My veg is done for the 3 plants in the growbox...the WWxBB vegged for 7 weeks. The WW and the SS have vegged for 6 weeks. So, it's time to turn the lights down low and get busy with some flowering.

White Widder w/Big Butt {pic 3} This girl is all over the place. She is rarin' to be turned loose so she can grow straight up. This one remains the most vigorous of the 3. LST only was used. No topping. Rev's Magic Pipe Cleaner Therapy used. Despite a gazillion bud sites, this plant is still under 6 inches.

White Widow {pic 1-2} I attempted FIM for the first time with this girl. I added a pic showing the FIM cut and what it did to other branches. If anyone out there has a good explanation of FIM, please feel free to post.

Skunk Special {pic 4} This one is sick right now. 2 days ago I gave ALL my plants and clones a normal watering with Superthrive added to their water... no nutes. Everyone - LARGE and SMALL- enjoyed the Superthrive but this plant. I have no idea why she tried to crap out like that. I sat her in the tub and gave her a good enema. I sent her to bed without supper and she's looking better today. She doesn't want another enema.

Bottom line at day 49
I dunno. The WW & SS have never really taken off like the WWBB did. Maybe it's just these 2 seeds? I have a couple more of each. I'll see how these finish up and then re-evaluate these seeds.

 

[Insane]

Nice lookin plants you got there Willis, that WWxBB sounds like a killer combo, can't wait to see these once they've packed on some bud!

 

[THE BROTHER'S GRUNT]

Damn those babies are looking great. I like your pics showing what you did to your plant. Your doing a great job and like Insane said i can't wait to see some buds on those babies.

 

[Reverend Willis]

Thanks Insane, Mr. G. I flipped them to 12s today so we will see some buds soon (fingers crossed). Let's see if these Female Seeds are really girls. The WWxBB looks to be a winner so far. She's been showing some pre-flowers so let's see how she does in flower. I'm not sure if Female Seeds will offer this hybrid again. My experience with store-bought seeds is limited. I smoked WW once and loved it. Have either of you gentlemen smoked Big Bud before?

???? Anyone have wisdom about Superthrive to share?
The Skunk Special is still in the corner recovering from her "Superthrive" treatment. My Master Low plant also didn't like the Superthrive either. It has burned leaves too. {I'll add some pix when the lights come on}.

All of these plants have been receiving nutrients (half to full strength GH Flora Nova) since week 3 and haven't had a problem yet. This was my first attempt at using Superthrive. I think it will be a good addition to the feeding schedule once I learned the proper dosage. I'll dial it back a notch or two and try again later.
Have a good Memorial Day weekend everyone. Be safe. Grow big.
Rev

 

[Reverend Willis]

I flipped my lights to 12s in my growbox for the WWBB, WW, and SS. Right now, the wwbb and ss are recovering from the Superthrive incident. I'm too embarrassed to put pix up yet. The wwbb lost about 50% of its fan leaves and the skunk about 75%. They turned brown and crispy. Oddly enough the WW didn't take a noticeable hit. A couple of other growers have related similar ST horror stories but dialed the dose way back. One drop per gallon of water is plenty. Geez, that stuff is really concentrated.

So, while I'm waiting for my plants to take off flowering, I'm practicing my cloning skills to prepare for growing budsicle in 2 liter bottles. I've tried water cloning, straight to dirt, jiffy peat, rooter plugs, humidomes, and seed starter soil. I can kill clones in any medium.

My clone box overheated yesterday due to a spike in outside temps and baked a couple of clones. I have about 20 clones at various stages of growth. I've been cloning mostly my Blue Mystic mom and the WWBB. Tonight, I managed to get a couple clones from the WW and one from the SS.

This is a pic of a BM clone. I cut one of the lower branches from the BM while it was in flower @ 6 weeks. I cloned it and it is beginning to show signs of new growth. The future looks bright.
Rev