grow diary 2 - jack herer and ice

day 2

thought i'd start a little diary kinda thing to keep notes on my second grow, maybe a few other newbies will find it usefull, and the pros can stop me from doing anything stupid ... like giving the plants birth control pills

setup

this is the same setup i used for my first grow, which, from knowing nothing about growing, with lots of luck, reading and sketchyness gave me a nice lot of bud at the end and i've discovered i actually like growing things!

indoor grow, bit less than a meter in width & depth, couple of meters high, mylar covered inside
250w light, metal halide bulb for veg, sodium bulb for flower
2 * 5" extractor fans, 12" oscillating fan ( for plants ), 6" clip on fan ( for light )
3 * 24h timers ( 2 fans & light )

all b-cuzz stuff - bio-soil ( contains starter nutrients ), root stimulator, a + b nutrients, soil booster, bloom stimulator

perlite, pots, trays, ph/moisture meter, temp/humidity meter, watering can & sprayer and i think thats it ...

except of course the seeds ... sensi seeds jack herer & nirvana ice!

seeds

i germinated the tissue on a plate way. this means get some plates, place wet tissue on it, put the seeds on, place another plate with damp tissue over the top, leave it on top of the amp or somewhere warmish, make sure the tissue doesn't go dry, day or so later the seeds will have popped and have little taproots showing

i tried to germinate 10 seeds, 5 of each the jack and ice. 1 seed never popped, but i couldn't remember which plate had the jack seeds and which had the ice, so i've got 4 of one and 5 of the other, but which is which is anyones guess

planting the seeds

i'd mixed up the soil and perlite in pots so popped the seeds in about an inch or so down, gave a little water and left.

day later and and so far 7 of the 9 have popped through the soil

 

Dude, YOU have done your research. Excellent setup you have going. Just the fact that you are using a pH meter impresses me!!!! Ice is a wonderful strain, you will love it with a passion. Pretty easy to grow and resistant to mold. Jack Herer on the other hand can be finicky. They are nute sensitive and can be very unstable. It is an AWESOME smoke!!!! Just keep an eye on the JH strain and you will be fine. Remember that mj plants like the soil to get a little dry between waterings, not bone dry, just a little dry. I use a moisture meter and I wait until the meter reads at 3 before I water/feed (1 being bone dry and 5 being soaking wet).

 

Looking forward to seeing what is to come ekul.

 

Good tools you got. PH should not become a problem if you do the nutes right>>don't overfeed<< and don't let them be wet/too wet much of the time. I don't add water until my moisture meter drops all the way to 1 but I measure the bottom of the pot and feed water by wicking it up from the bottom. Keep us posted and show pics. b1

[Everyone interested in knowing how cannabis use affects the brain should read the article in the Dec. 2004 edition of the Scientific American: The drugs inside EVERYONE'S brain]

 

day 10

day 10 now and all but 1 seed popped above soil, so i've got 5 of one and 3 of the other. check the pics see if you can work out which is the jack and which is the ice :H

not much of an update cos i've not really done much ... they don't need watering often so not much to do really ... humidity was a bit low so put a few trays in the growroom filled with water and perlite, helped that out. been adding the b-cuzz root stimulator along with the water to help get the roots started nice and healthy. got the oscillating fan on a timer to try and help the stems grow strong. i reckon if you give them a bit of hassle it makes them stronger! when i water i water from above like rain, this will sometimes bend them over, but they get back up again, the strong will survive!! think of it like marine training for weed

guy smiley, i've smoked both these before and loved both. it was kinda the idea of being able to grow my own jack that got me interested in growing! not so often that type of gears available. got to be one of the best smokes i've ever had! and ice is covered in crystals, great smoke! hopefully the jacks will go easy on me and won't be to difficult to grow ...

b1v2w3, wont be overfeeding this time, did that on the first grow ... didn't have anything to measure the nutes with so just guessed! didn't realise a ml was so small luckily didn't seem to do the plants any damage

been making sure not to over water like you both said, easier to sort out under watering than over watering

b1v2w3 do you always water from the bottom? whys that?

 

very nice photography.b1

 

day 18

they've grown quite a bit this week, didn't really notice until seeing the pic i posted last week! nice one of the jacks is growing slower than the others ( bottom left of pic ) dunno why ... it looks fine otherwise, just small

started feeding them nutes with the water and root stiumlater now, just 1 ml of b-cuzz a+b per ml of water, i'll up this over the next week or so to 2 ml. i see something on overgrow about peeps like doubling up on the b-cuzz and getting bumper results ... anyone tried it?!

you can see the grow set up in the photo, 8 plants - 5 ice and 3 jack herer. or 5 jack herer and 3 ice i've been hoping to get 4 females and flower those - last grow i managed 4 6ft something plants in that space. but i was wondering, do you reckon thats the best use of space? do people do scrogs etc just because of height restrictions? i've got loads of height, but noticed on the last grow that the buds lower down were a lot smaller than the higher buds - but that was with no training or pruning or anything, just left to grow natural. i've seen pics of plants that have been worked into like 1 massive cola and just a few short branches full of bud, quite short plants. and plants with like multiple colas! and all this tieing down stuff, is that to keep everything at a similar level so all the buds get equal light? buds are quite selfish if you think about it, the top buds get most light, but instead of passing some of the light energy down to the lower buds it keeps it all for itself!

sorry rambling. stoned

really just wondering if anyone had any ideas of ways to best use the space and light to get maximum bud! i'm guessing just leaving them to grow as they want probably isn't the best way to get the best yeild?!

 

I see what you're asking and it seems to me that the natural tendency of the MJ plant is to put all it's flower power onto a central big, strong stem which will grow as tall as conditions (genetics, food, light, temperature and whatnot) will let it. And that's the platform onto which she builds her flowers. The tieing, training etc. forces the plant to direct her growth hormone output to the alternative parts of the plant, available as substitutes for that central leader(cola). So you get many colas. And then, as a successful grower you hope to get each of your additional colas to put on as much flower as your original (and only) cola would have.
I forgot to react to your question on bottom watering: when pulling mature plants I notice significant differences in the size and quality of the root structures and believe that the plant getting little water from the top but most from the bottom develops a far deeper and sturdier root system. Probably because it finds out right early on that, if it wants to get it's stuff it has to go there(TO THE BOTTOM) and find it. The second advantage is that when you are somewhat off in your fertilizing methods it is far easier to avoid root burn because the plant will still have lots of roots not directly flushed by toxicity. And thirdly, ph fluctuations are avoided throughout the bulk of the soil the plant lives in because you don't mess with it by constantly pouring stuff through that soil that has the potential for altering that ph.
Your grow looks great so far. Keep them pics coming. I'll come back here in a little while and will post a pic of my sugarshack showing the zillion bud sites it has developed as the result of tieing (my first effort using this method). b1

 

day 26

hey b1, that watering tip made a lot of sense, been doing that the last week - just making sure the bottom of the pot is wet, like you say encourage root growth down - that plus the root stimulator should hopefully have got them off to a good start :] been looking more into different growing methods as well. i like the idea of growing massive outdoor bushes/trees, veg it for ages - shame i live in the uk - our weeks worth of sunshine just won't cut it ;]

i dunno if its the ice or jack, but these are already giving off quite a smell, which i didn't expect, not this early! last grow wasn't to bad and although i always planned to fit a carbon filter i never needed to ... but if these are going to stink i'll have to sort it out ... don't want the smell leaking next door or anything lovely smell though :]

as you can see from the pics everythings coming on nice :] the slow small jack is still slow and small ... one of the ice seems to be a bit different to the rest - its a slightly darker green - bit taller, narrower, kinda less bushy new growth - almost like it doesn't want to worry with any branches and just wants to grow up! i might try topping ( pruning? ) this one - cut the top off see if i get multiple growing tips. all of them are looking healthy though, even the small jack :]

having some trouble with low humidity though, dunno if its the weather or what but its dropped as low as 15 this week topping at 40 ... got damp towels hanging in there now! if this carrys on i'll have to maybe look into one of the humidity machine things?!

looks like i might be getting a free 250w light :] if i do i'll be looking into setting up a seperate veg area! i've got my eye on this wardrobe that i reckon we don't really need ... ;] that'll be wicked, means i won't waste time - i can be vegging the next grow whilst the other one flowers :]

 

very good looking crop, yes i woudl suggest if your temps are that low that you get a humidifier.

 

ecul-le-chat, in consideration of what's been discussed sofar in this thread, check out how I've fared in my thread "bad leaves-good leaves. b1
And about that humidity: you mean to say the humidity is like 15% to 40%?? That's arizona desertlike. You need to put some sort of nebulizer in there if thats' the case. b1

 

day 39

forgot last weeks update :& so heres a few pics from the last week or so - as you can see getting quite busy in the growroom now

a few of the plants are showing female preflowers, i think one is showing male preflowers, and the rest arn't showing yet. i'm keeping an eye on the one i thinks male and as soon as i'm sure, ifs it male, i'm chopping it down!

i'm still in veg at the moment, probably stay in veg for another week or so or more. i vegged for a while last time, which gave me massive plants ( 6ft + ) but loads of bud

got 2 plants with a few dodgy leaves - check this thread http://hipforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=71188 - any help would be much appreciated.

 

about as beautiful as you want it to be. b1

 

Beautiful!

 

Wow, Those are very good looking very healthy, and my god are you a professional photographer or something because that is awesome how good those pictures are.

 

cant wait to see em budded out those are fuckin hot

 

day 70 / day 21 of flower!

thats right peeps, the bud jedi growroom is in flower! went down from 18/6 to 12/12 over a week and this week i finally remembered to change the bulb to the sodium, and i've started adding the b-cuzz bloom stimulator along with the feed - just the minimum amount for now, but will probably up to the max over the next few weeks when them buds really start to develop

down to 6 plants now, 3 ice and 3 jack - 2 ice were male. so out of the original 9 planted only 2 males and that 1 seed that never popped through the soil. luckily all 3 of the jacks are females. i was always planning on just keeping 4 plants, but at the moment all 6 are kinda just fitting in the growroom, and whilst they can sqeeze in, i'm keeping all 6. luckily, at least for now, they don't seem to be mad stretching like my last grow ...

like the first grow, i've done no cropping pruning topping tieing down etc, i've just let them grow. probably not the best way to go, but for me at the moment it seems to work alright ... the easy ekul way the ice are great plants, real bushy, lots of growth and loads of bud sites. the ice are doing wicked as well, little less growth than the ice - but from what i read on jack herer when i was looking for seeds its not a massive yielder anyway so i expected that. quality over quantity on these babys. both have been good to me so far though

now these are in flower they really are stinking the house out! way more than the last grow, and they got weeks left yet! i'll probably be getting a carbon filter over the next week or so ... that should be interesting, me, a screwdriver and electrical stuff! ( when i first had the growroom my dodgey wiring for the extractor fans stopped working - when i finally realised the heat in there was comparable to the surface of the sun! )

thanks for the comments and pm's on the grow pics. no i'm not a pro photographer or anything like that but i do enjoy taking pics - glad peeps are into them unfortuanetly its getting harder to get decent close up pics because i can't get close enough and be steady, and see what i'm taking a photo of at the same time! now its more like click and hope for the best pic

how annoying is this forum that it won't let you post a message with to many smileys. angrysmiley here please

 

Fucken hot dude! You never updated on the smell conditions though(Just wondering)
I just started my first grow, Im on day about 4, and one of my seedlings is about 3 times taller then the rest, but the stem is still just as skinny.. Whats with that? I haven't started the nutrients yet, im going to ASAP, and i've been using 1 drop of superthrive per gallon of water.

 

cheers aboutsider there smelling stronger all the time! already they smell stonger than the last grow did in full flower! i think its the ice stinking the house out, i'd seen that the white strains like the ice and the widows etc are supposed to be quite strong smelling. close up the jacks are developing that sweet sweet jack herer smell ... i can't wait to try these!!!

what setup/light you got them under? might

i think you have to be carefull when starting to feed young plants, give it a while or maybe you just have make it very weak - not sure now can't remember i was lucky my soil contained starter nutrients so i didn't have to worry

 

Just had time to go thru this thread ekul le chet and see that your plants are making wonderful progress. They look very healthy and if you can maintain that to the end you're doing as well as anyone.
I thought a little more about the animation for the sunrise (that was in this thread, right?) and I am going to experiment, using a computer control method: I use a nikon d-100 camera and it comes with software to control a whole range of camera functions when connected. As soon as I put the software on a laptop I can use the setup on the porch. In the meantime a pic of the orchid jungle. b1