so mojo, what gives, you already said you got some big plants outside?
That's cause they took me about 3-4 months to grow inside AND OUTSIDE and then I put them out when the month was right:
1) If you're plants are big enough, and are long flowering Sativas, I would recommend putting them out at the end of January, latest first week of February, for a spring harvest. This is because the days will be getting longer, from 11-13-14 hours by the time June rolls around. What you want is 12 hours of sunlight and 12 hours of uninterrupted darkness, so if your neighbor likes to have raves or shines a big old 1000w mh light out his window like I do, get your plants outta the way of all that ngihtitime light.
2) If youre plants are strong like mine you will get a harvest in mid-April at the latest. i will show you when my plants are done what to look for. If they are Indica dominant, then
3) put them out mid februaary if they are a foot tall. if they aren't that big yet, the latest you have to get them big is March. If they aren't a foot tall by March (and you will probably thank yourself for this later), keep them under the 18 hour schedule until they are like 3' tall. then turn off the HID light inside (when ever you have about 50 tall plants, which by this time you will be hopping up and down for joy about)... And just put the plants outside during the day, take them in at night. and put them in a brightly lit room. This will keep them from going into flowering during late spring, which is NOT what you want to happen.
4) Remember these simple rules and you will be okay.
Sativas: big and outside by late January.
Indicas: big and outside by mid February.
OTHERWISE:
keep all plants under an 18 hour a day schedule until they get big. Then keep them under at least 18 hours/ day of light (IT DOESN'T MATTER HOW BIG THE LIGHT IS, REMEMBER YOUR PLANTS ARE ALREADY GROWN, RIGHT? until June 1st, then it's on like a time bomb.
If you don't want to haul 40 or 50 plants inside at night, consider making a hoop greenhouse and adjusting the photoperiod that way using visqueen, a black plastic. this is also time consuming and you have to be out there at the same time every day in the morning to lift the top off.
or just bring the plants next to a window where they'll get some light at night. (I hope you kind of have a big house)
Remember, I started my clones back in January and theyre barely rooted. So if you want big plants, either take your clones early , take them from good plants, or all three. you can take a clone in April and put it out in June, (no shit, what do you think I bought the seeds for?), but make sure it is getting at least 15 hrs day of daylight or it will start to flower, resulting in a stuck plant come summertime.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
2/20/11 cLONES, SEEDLINGS, AND ARTIFICIAL LIGHT
Okay, now weve got some seedlings and some clones. what are we gonna do? give em light, and lots of it! I think my 1000 watter is running a bit low because the bulb is old so I just put all the seedlings under there and they made it through the night without burning up so I guess they'll be okay.
Anyway, with seedlings as i said before, until they turn into real plants you want to be careful with them. too long out on a hot spring day will burn em up and youll be out youre daddys 130 (Lol) and do you really think he wont notice a second time if the same kind of order appears on his statement? Plus all that nail biting wondering if your seeds are coming (they are)...
So you want to give your seedlings clones about 18 hrs a day of light. if they are clones, stick them all under the mh light as close to the light as they will fit, giving the tops of your plants at least 3-4' of clearance from the bulb, and you will want a pretty big fan to blow through the plants to keep things cool. a 1000w light should be able to cover a circle about 5' in radius. so mark a spot directly below your light. Make an imaginary 5' circle around your floor. Anything within that ciircle is good. You can pull some of the plants out from the middle and rotate them to the outside and vice versa.
So what I do is I set the timer to go on at 7pm, and off at 7 am. around this area of the country that gives the plants about 15 hrs or so of light, if you happen to be fortuneate enough to be facing a big window that is on the South side of your house. Otherwise, wake up early (or don't) take the plants outside. leave them out all day, or at least unitl 3:30. do the math
12 at night
+ 6 daylight hours=
18 hours of light..
the afternoon sun after 3:30 or so really weakens so if youre planning on going out or hitting it for the day, just take your plants in at 3:30 and leave them until the timer comes on again.
Once again you'll want to watch the seedlings closely for any kind of heat reaction or burn. If they get too hot, they will fry. take them to a cfl (flourescent lamp) and leave them under there for a while until they look okay agian. then do the three hour at a time thing. only stick the seedlings under the HID lamp or the outside sun for three hours at a time, watering with the spray bottle before and after.
As far as the clones go, at this point they cannot get too much light. You can test em the first day by setting them outside for 3 hours and then just go hell bent for leather. there's more where those came from anyway.
where I'm sitting FEb 20th
in flower 3-4 WEEKS
2 unidentified sativas
1 skunk x kushberry
1 chem dog.
1 SSH
IN VEG
7 skunk x kushberry clones
2 chem dog clones
2 cherry og clones
EARLY VEG::
11 Blueberry seedlings (M/f)
5 Purple Kush seedlings (M/f)
3 Seedlings, (grapefruit, bubblegum, purple morrocan), from the "feminized" seed company or tab from attitude seeds (don't ask me, they were free)!
HOW TO DO SEEDS RIGHT!!! SEEDS TO THE RESCUE.
So what do I mean by good genetics' I mean the kind of bud that wins the cannabis cup. It caN BE YOURS MY FRIEND IF YOU DO THINGS RIGHT.
what we are basically looking for with seeds are GOOD MOTHER PLANTS. IN EVERY PACK OF 10 SEEDS, IF THEY AREN'T FEM, (m/F), THERE WILL BE MAYBE 2 PLANTS IN THERE WORTH MOTHERING. THESE ARE THE KIND OF PLANTS THAT GO FROM SEED TO 3' IN MAYBE TWO MONTHS. OR THREE.. AS LONG AS THEY GET BIG AND YOUVE GOT THE TIME TO WATCH EM GROW (OF COURSE, THE QUICKER, THE BETTER.
yOU WILL WANT TO TAKE CUTTINGS, OR BABY PLANTS, FROM THESE "MOTHERS" ( see post on "cloning") WHY? BECAUSE CUTTINGS, ALSO CALLED CLONES, WILL TAKE ON THE CHARACTERISITICS OF THE MOTHER PLANTS. THAT IS WHY YOU ARE LABELING EVERYTHING LIKE A OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE CHEMIST. ONCE YOU KNOW WHAT BIG PLANTS ARE WHERE, THAT IS THE TIME TO GO TO BUSINESS. START TAKING CUTTINGS SO YOU WILL HAVE MULITIPLE GOOD, BIG PLANTS OUT IN THE YARD OR IN YOUR GROWROOM COME HARVEST TIME. YOU KNOW THOSE HIGH TIMES PICTURES YOU DROOL OVER OF GROWROOMS FULL OF GREAT LOOKING PLANTS THAT ALL LOOK THE SAME? THIS IS HOW THEY DID THAT.
you didn't think they got all those plants from seeds they ordered from the seed bank, do ya? HA!
I just spent all last week germinating and rooting these. FIRST I WILL TELL YOU MY SECRET TO GROWING FROM SEED SO LISTEN UP!
GET YOU SEEDS FROM http://www.attitude.com/ This is the only seed bank I have ever used. They have a killer selection (if they don't have it, it might not exist). Attitude is an outfit in england that warehouses strains from California, Amsterdam, Spain, Canada, etc. Some good companies that they carry include BC Bud Depot (expensive but good), DNA Genetics, Reserva Privada, Barney's Farm, G-13 (unreliable but they have some good strains), Dr. Greenthumb, Mandala, and the Cali Connection. I have learned the hard way that the seeds that cost $20 a pack cost that much for a reason. They suck. So plan on spending at least $40 on a pack of 5 feminized seeds. Go ahead and get 10 or so because they'll throw in a few free ones, and these are fem too so they're likely to be as good as anything. If you are new to this, don't get mixed seeds, even though a lot of bomb strains come in only mixed. You don't want the headache.
FIRST, BE VERY CAREFUL WITH SEEDS AND SEEDLINGS. THEY ARE EXPENSIVE, SMALL, AND DELICATE. IF A PACKAGE LOOKS TOUGH TO OPEN, DO IT GENTLY AND FIGURE IT OUT. DON'T JUST RIP IT OPEN.
SOAK ALL SEEDS IN APPROPRIATELY MARKED SMALL JARS. I LIKE TO TAPE THE BREEDER PACK TO THE SIDE OF THE JAR.
1) dO THE paper towel thing (SEE SEED BANK SITE.. keep the paper towel moist but not soggy. All the seeds you will get will come within 5 days. Be sure to keep track of which strain is which, at aNY FUTURE JUNCTION IF YOU FAIL TO LABEL THESE YOU WILL GET CONFUSED. tHIS MEANS WHEN YOU PUT THEM IN CUPS, PLANTERS, PAILS, ETC.
2( wHEN YOU SEE SOMETHING THAT LOOKS LIKE A SEED WITH A 1/2-1" WHITE TAIL COMING OUT OF IT, TAKE SOME TWEEZERS OR YOUR FINGERS (BE CAREFUL and wash your hands,especially if you took a dump that day and forgot lol). iNSERT THE SEED WITH THE SEED ON TOP IN A ROCKWOOL PLANT PLUG. THESE ARE CYLINDRICAL IN SHAPE, ARE ABOUT 2" HIGH, AND MADE OF ROCKWOOL BUT ARE NOT ROCKWOOL CUBES. THEY ARE DIFFERENT. THEY ARE SLIT UP THE SIDE SO BURY THE SEEDLING IN THERE NICE AND SNUG.
3) PUT IT RIGHT UNDER A BATHROOM LIGHT (100W COOL FLOURESCENT) AND SPRAY IT WITH WATER GENEROUSLY TWICE A DAY. Meanwhile keep checking the paper towels for popped seeds just like these. remember to keep the paper towels moist.
4) IN ABOUT 24 HOURS THE SEEDLING WILL BE SHOOTITNG STRAIGHT UP LIKE AN ARROW OUT OF THE ROCKWOOL TUBE. THE SEED SHELL MAY HAVE COME OFF BY NOW, EXPOSING THE BABY LEAVES. THIS IS NORMAL. IF THIS HAS NOT HAPPENED, IT WILL. DON'T WORRY. when the seedling looks like this, TAKE IT OUT VERY GENTLY FROM THE ROCKWOOL TUBE. SOME OF THE ROOT MAY HAVE GROWN INTO THE SIDE OF THE TUBE. JUST GENTLY TEAR THE ROCKWOOL AROUND THE ROOT AND TRY TO FIND THE TIP OF THE ROOT. WHEN YOU THINK YOU CAN RIP OUT THE TIP WITHOUT BREAKING IT OFF, DO SO. TRY NOT TO BREAK THE ROOT IN HALF. YOU WILL RUIN YOUR SEED.
5) IF YOU STILL KNOW WHAT KIND OF SEED IT IS (SEE I TOLD YOU!), TAKE A LARGE COFFEE CUP AND FILL IT WITH GOOD SOIL, ABOUT 1/4 PERLITE. SOAK THE SOIL WITH WATER AND POKE A HOLE IN THE BOTTOM WITH WHATEVER PEN YOU HAVE. THEN WRITE THE STRAIN ON THE SIDE OF THE CUP AND BURY THE SEEDLING ABOUT 1/2 WAY DOWN INTO THE DIRT. (THE TOP INCH OR SO OF THE SEEDLING SHOULD BE STICKING OUT.)
6) IF IT IS SPRINGTIME WEATHER WHERE YOU LIVE. YOU MAY PUT THE SEEDS OUT ALL DAY. JUST TO BE SAFE THOUGH, YOU SHOULD HARDEN OFF THE SEEDS BY GETTING THEM USED TO SUNLIGHT. ONLY 3 HRS AT A TIME FOR THE FIRST COUPLE OF DAYS. THEN GO FOR IT. MAKE SURE THEY GET AT LEAST 18 HRS OF LIGHT A DAY, EVEN IF YOU HAVE TO USE A 100W CFL TUBE BULB OR THE BATHROOM AGAIN AT NIGHT.
7) YOU NOW HAVE SEVERAL BABY MARIJUANA PLANTS. spray them with water using fine spray mister twice a day at least, and again if they are going out in the sun or have been there for over 3 hrs. THESE ARE NOT TOUGH PLANTS YET AND WILL DIE IF YOU DON'T TAKE REAL GOOD CARE OF THEM! CONGRATULATIONS! STAY TUNED TO THIS BLOG TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS... OR GO TO THE PART ABOUT CLONES. THEY ARE NOTHING BUT GROWN UP SEEDLINGS THAT ARE CALLED CLONES BECAUSE THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO BEHAVE LIKE A MOTHER PLANT. YOU SEE WHY I TOOK CUTTINGS FROM THAT TALL, BIG GREEN SKUNK PLANT IN THE MIDDLE? BECAUSE I WANTED A BUNCH OF PLANTS LIKE THAT.
BUT not too many. one strain makes for a boring garden, unless you are strictly in it for the cash. Anyway I spent 130 on my dad's credit card and bought 25 seeds. 20 of 'em germinated. I ripped one seedling in half (dang that coulda been the one lol!) so now I have about 2-3 purple kush if I'm lucky,
The expensive ones were like $70,00, Blueberry M/F from BC Bud Depot. I heard on another blog that if you order direct from them yeah you get your seeds but they take like 2 weeks later. Attitude ships in a week always. So I wanted Purps but Attutude was out of stock. So I just got blueberry, it's more of a straight indica anyway (80/20). Next were Purple Kush, from Reeferman seeds. These were cheap and I got what I paid for, only half of em popped. But the bright side is that you get 3 fem seeds free with your order and all of those popped. Grapefruit, Bubblegum, and a Purple Moroccan strain that sounds pretty exotic but you never know. Anyway I am now stocked up for genetics. I know it's early to plant but if these turn out good (not if but when) ha ha, but if these turn out good I want plenlty of time for summer clones. my springtime clones look a little slow getting there so I might have to keep em in veg and carry em out to flower in summer. That's been the plan all along.
cloning
So to do a clone (take cuttings from a mother plant, so you have many big plants instead of just the few you got from your seeds, dickface!
1) Make sure your plant is the kind you want to clone. Iif it is Male, don't clone it! But if it is one of those bushes in Humbolt, that is the kind of plant you want to clone. If it is 3' talll and growing and a known good strain, clone it just for shits and giggles. If it is like my skunk plant, CLONE THE FUCKER! In short, you'll have to wait a while before you know for sure if your plant is clone worthy. if you have the space, or a clone machine, by all means take all the clones you can. but if space is limited, you only want 5-10 cuttings from the best plants you have. otherwise you take up space and plant count and, well, ,it's your garden, but i would rather have 50 plants of the finest Og or bubba kush than 40 kind plants and 30 shitty ones.
If it is May and you still don't have a good plant count, TAKE ALL THE CLONES YOU CAN FROM YOUR BEST PLANTS. Just by using the shotgun approach chances are that if something is wrong, you'll at least get 3 clones out of every 10 cuttings. Remember now that these are going to go right outside, You don't have to worry about fitting them under that lamp. You will be taking more cuttings than getting succesful clones anyway, so Plan for this eventuality. You won't be a Jedi clone master of the clone wars your first year.
2) make your cuttings. I will take a picture of this. Make a cutting of a branch that looks like a small plant. Try to cut the branch off at a 45 degree angle and leave enought end on the stalk so you can stick it into a rockwool cube. Take maybe five cuttings and put them one by one into a glass of water.
EXAMPLE OF A GOOD CUTTING:
The cutting on the right is the kind of thing you want. It looks like a small plant, get it? The cutting on the left is just a pot leaf. It's a good pot leaf, but it won't last long if you stick it into rockwool and try to make a plant out of it.
3) take 5 or so cuttings from the same plant inside to the bathroom or wherever. Get some small rockwool cubes, the smallest you can get. Rockwool is a very specialized product and chances are that if you don't have a hydro store that specializes in Growing Cannabis then you will be shit out of luck and will have to go on the internet. Rockwool is not rocks. Rockwool is not wool. It is Rockwool and if you go to a nursery and the guy just looks at you funny tell him to fuck off (no, don't do this) but just say 'thanks" and go home and go onto your pc.
4) get some rooting hormone. They come in a powder or a gel. The gel is more expensive but probably worth it. get some clonex (it comes in a big liter of black liquid) Add a capful of the clonex to a liter of water in a spray bottle. make sure that the spray bottle is clean, as in you bought it at the fucking store yesterday.
5) soak the rockwool cubes in water for about 5 minutes.
6) then go out and take more cuttings because you forgot to do this before.
7) take a large nail and poke a hole in the rockwool where the small hole already is (after squeezing out most of the water). Write what kind of plant it is on the side of the rock wool. I REPEAT, WRITE DOWN WHAT KIND OF PLANT IT IS ON THE SIDE OF THE ROCKWOOL CUBE. Sometimes this works with a Sharpie and sometimes it doesn't, so you might want to have an alternative way of labeling your clones, i.e. put them into rows, etc.
8) Make sure you have at least a good 2" of branch to work with, strip any side leaves that do not have to be there (see photo).DIP THE CUTTING IN SOME WATER. THEN TRY TO GET AS MUCH ROOTING POWDER OR HORMONE ON IT AS YOU CAN! JUST COAT THAT BITCH!
9) Stick the cutting in the cube. about as far down as it'll go without coming out the other side.
10) lightly spray the cuttings about twice a day. In about 1.5 weeks, you should start looking at the bottom of the rockwool cubes for little white hairy roots. in about 2-3 weeks, these roots should appear. WHEN THEY DO, YOU HAVE ABOUT A 24 HOUR WINDOW TO PLANT THAT SUCKER. OR THE ROOTS WILL DIE. SO GO GET AN 8" POT, FILL IT WITH DIRT, AND SOAK IT WITH WATER, DIG OUT ABOUT TWO HANDFULLS OF DIRT, AND PLANT THE CLONE IN THE POT. USING THE TWO HANDFULLS OF DIRT YOU TOOK OUT, BACK FILL THE CLONE AND PLANT IT NICE AND DEEP.
11) iF YOU HAVE ANY CUTTINGS THAT HAVE NOT ROOTED AFTER ABOUT 3 WEEKS, THEY PROBABLY LOOK AS SHITTY AS THEY ARE. THROW THESE OUT. AND TRY, TRY AGAIN. IT'S A DIFFICULT PROCESS BUT THIS IS THE SECRET TO A GREAT, BIG GARDEN LIKE THEY HAVE IN HIGH TIMES! YOU DON'T THING THEY ORDERED ALL OF THOSE PLANTS FROM THE BC BUD DEPOT DO YA?
12) THESE CLONES SHOULD BE WATERED ABOUT 2-3 TIMES PER WEEK. ANY MORE AND YOU WILL RISK BUGS AND ROOT ROT. YOU CAN GO DOWN TO ONCE A WEEK BUT I WOULDN'T ADVISE IT. 2-3 TIMES A WEEK IS PERFECT. WHEN THE CLONES GET ABOUT 6" TALL, START A small FEEDING PROGRAM. JUST A QUARTER OF WHAT THE BOTTLE SAYS AND WORK YOUR WAY UP. IF YOU HAVE ANY $$$ AT ALL, GO TO A HYDRO STORE AND GET ONE OF THE GOOD FERTILIZERS, MARKED "GROW" AND "FLOWER". THEY WILL COST YOU ABOUT $30-$40 EACH BUT WILL LAST A WHOLE SEASON AND PUT MIRACLE GRO TO SHAME.
13) SEE YOU NEXT TIME!
my set up, lighting indoors.
SHIT CLONES
EXcept for the one that looks okay in the middle, which is another one of the skunk x kushberrys, the rest of these are just clones I took from an undentified strain I had out there. It's a really shitty plant, The buds are about 4 weeks along and they don't even have any trichomes on em. They all have major Nitrogen nutrient uptake problems cause that's the way the strain is. The mom is half yellow and she had mites all over her before she got big and strong (ahem)... anyway I figured I'd maybe flower a few of these for hash but I don't even know if theyre good enough for that. I'll probably toss em but as i don't think i'll reach the limit this spring fuck it maybe I'll have something to go into the hash 0 lator. lator.
Genetics problems.
So these are my clones I've got going now. Seven skunk x kushberry, 2 chem dogs, 2 cherry og's, one of which seems to be growing. As I said, not much for a guy that wants to grow 50 plants plus this summer. and wanted to grow 25 plants this spring. ALL I CAN SAY IS: START EARLY TO COVER UP FUCKUPS IN YOUR PROGRAM. DISEASES, CLONING PROBLEMS, PLAN FOR THE INEVITABLE AND YOU WONT HAVE TO PLAY CATCH- UP
My good plant
Big plants from last Fall
(Rear l-r) - Unidentified mostly sativa strain, DNA genetics Power Skunk x Kushberry, Unidentified sativa strain, a stocky Chem Dog.
(foreground) A small Super Silver Sour Diesel Haze
First coupla weeks, Feb 15th-March 1st
It seems like my big problem when getting a grow op from mediocre to big is planning. iN THIS BLOG I WILL ATTEMPT TO DO EXACTLY THAT. I never have any good moms I can take clones off of when it's time to start. My cloning techinique has improved over the years as has my seed germination technique but I can't afford any fancy gadgets and you really shouldn't need any if you got your shit down. So this time I decided to start early. Well, plants don't come from nothing, so the next couple of entries should get you started.
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