Bopper 2006 (Pot of Gold / Blue Berry / Indian Haze

[Bopper]

Hi all and welcome to my 2nd journal here on GrassCity, this one featuring my revised grow area and some new strains for the new year!

Firstly, nothing worse than picking up something halfway through so as this picks up where the last journal finished, perhaps it's best to link you back to the old one and bringing you up to speed with where we got to.

Firstly then, my previous journal can be found here!

Next, before I'd finished that last one I had posted up a picture of the biggest damned brownie I've ever made as as I hope loads of you come through here and read this, lets start with that as the first photo before I bring ou up to speed with the grow.

Happy new year folks!

[Bopper]

OK, so on to business and lets start by telling you about some changes to the grow room and to my view on ferts and nutes for the first quarter 06.

As regular readers will know, I'm growing in my attic where I had made a rough grow area from cut down sheets of painted hardboard which stood 1.2m tall. The whole space is less than 3m x 2m but hey, I'm still smokin' my way through what I grew last year!

So what changes have I made and why? Well, as you'll soon read, I've had some terrible problems with my current grow due to the extreme low temperatures that my grow area has been experiencing at night (and during the day too) and during the summer I suffered the same as everyone with the heat. Also, last year was my first attempt at growing my own so I didn't want to go and max out my credit card until I'd decided if I was really up for it or not. Anyway, here's the plan.

The sides of the grow area have now been built up to over 12 ft tall and I've painted in one end with white exterior paint (wish I'd done this before - it's lots brighter!) and I've also hung my lamp higher too (my Haze plants all had to be bent over before as they grew too tall for my room last time).

In addition, while it's open at the moment, I will be looking to close off the left hand end completely, probably when I harvest this current grow, when I'll again paint the end white and also look to add a fan and a carbon filter too, just in case!

I'll get some fresh pictures of the new room up once I can shoot some that make sense to look at - should have done it as I was working on it, but that's life!

Also, lets introduce you to the plants in this first 2006 grow shall we? Firstly, I have some Indian Haze from 2005 which I have grown from cuttings taken from the mothers that are still visible at the open end of my grow area. More on those later. Anyway, I have 3 Indian Haze plants in pots which have already had 5 weeks of 12-12 while their mothers were failing to finish off.

On top of that I have grown some Blue Berry seeds (x4) which I have some reservations about already following the supplier being flamed for selling crap goods - fingers crossed that these are OK though and 5 Pot of Gold plants again grown from seed but this time I bought them directly from the Flying Dutchman's stand at the wembley hemp expo in November.

These pictures show the progress made last year when I had to bring my seedlings down from the cold of the attic as they were just not doing anything. I set myself up a little veg area in my house which is where my seedlings stayed until Saturday when they moved up into their new room.

[Bopper]

Here are some more of my new strains, firstly the 5 Pot of Gold seedlings from Flying Dutchman, then the Blue Berry plants which I have the concern about - source to follow if they turn out to be shite.

[Bopper]

Here's another couple of the seedlings in their grow area just before being transplanted up into the grow room together with some of them afterwards. You'll notice another little pot of seedlings up amongst them too - these are 'reserves' of the Indian Haze- just in case!

[Bopper]

Indian b*****d Haze!

OK, so here's where I got to with my Indian Haze grow from last year. After 16 weeks of 12-12 it was clear that these plants were not doing anything. Sure, they started to grow buds but none of them ever showed signs of frosting and when the weather got really cold here the plants seem to just give up.

I don't have heating in my attic and there isn't the facility for me to add any that would have m difference without costing the earth so I had little choice but to leave them where they were. Boxing day should have been harvest day but it didn't happen and looking at the plants, perhaps I should just have chopped them and moved on. Trouble is that being a mean bugger I can't bear the thought of just tossing them aside, I've been ooking forward to smoking them for too long to just give up!

So, what I did was this. Firstly I removed them carefully from their pots - boy were they root bound, no wonder thay weren't growing any more! So I pulled away much of the old roots loostening the soil from around them as I did so. Then I repotted them using a strong mixture of rotted stable compost and non-peat potting compost and I used much larger pots this time too. My grow area only takes my 12 pots which are already accounted for so I've left these Indian Haze plants at the open end of my grow area, not idea, but better than the compost heap, and I've already switched the lights over to 18-6 again.

The thought is that the fresh soil, bigger pots and change in light schedule will provide for a warmer grow area for all the plants but which will also hopefully kick-start the Indian Haze back into life again (and they already look a bit healthier since the move at the weekend) so when I move the ligts back to 12-12 in a couple of weeks, hopefully this will get the haze back into flowering or finishing off from where they got up to before stalling with the cold.

It's as close to a plan as I have so wish me the best!

OK, so that's me again for the new year. Thanks for reading my scribbles last year and fingers crossed for more return for all of us in 2006!

[tetrahydrocanna]

Looking good there mate....i only had time to look at the pics..lol..brb. for a read..

[DierWolf]

a plan is better than no plan... if she comes back alive well enough i dont see why she wount bud out....

keep us posted.

[unoit]

HIGH All, finger's crossed Bopper...but no doubt she'll come back.

[arseface]

Hey man - looking good so far!

I hear you about the loft and the problems with temperature. Our previous grows have all been in a loft. The first grow was during winter, and the plants were extremely slow developing due to the cold. In the end we had to put an electric heater in there, alongside the 1200W of lights, to keep them at a sensible temperature. Electricity++! I don't know whether I would recommend doing this as it gets expensive, but if your plants start really slowing their growth it might end up cost effective.

Our third grow (which is the one we got busted for, read here) was in the height of summer, and the heat was immense. The air temperature would often get above 40C in there, and since we didn't have enough headroom, plants would burn when they got too close to the lamps. It's a hard slog growing in a loft - you have my sympathy!

[tetrahydrocanna]

Im up to speed now...Yeh those loft spaces seem like a good idea at first..lol..

[realdealz28]

Congrats on the second Journal. I'm glad I got in on the first of it this time! No doubt she'll be ok! Keep my fingers crossed anyways. Can't wait to see what you pop out this time! Good Luck!

[Bopper]

Hi folks, normally I'd like to open by thanking you individually for stopping by, but I'm actually a bit staggered by all the messages - so a big global thanks guys to all of you!

Dierwolf, thanks, we'll see shortly I guess but I just couldn't bring myself to walk away from them.
Arseface - I read your link - shit, that sucks but it did read well and gave me a few chortles. No names, no pack drill but I was a 'guest' of our friends in blue over Christmas a few years back (Mindless violence, resiting arrest and and urinating in public - the usual sort of stuff) and all I heard al fn night was 'oops upsie yer head' by the fn Gap Band and the Cops thought it hillarious to keep dancing in a long conga line through our cells.

It takes some sense of humour to see the funny side of that, I can tell you!

Anyway, life goes on and I digress.

I almost forgot to tell you why I popped by today, more seeds just put in to germinate plus I forgot to tell you about my Orange Bud clones too!

OK, so I really like this Orange Bud but I forgot to take cuttings knowing I still had about 3 seeds left. Then I thought, what if they are al male? Shit, so while I know I sholdn't, I did take a few cuttings about a week before harvest. Sure, they look a bit strange but I just want them as a mother for my 6-strain outside grow this summer.

As for the seeds I've just put in, well, someone very kind with a taste for colouring in (no name no pack drill - but many thanks mate) very kindly provided some AK99 and I also popped some Swazi Skunk seeds in that I got at Wembley last year too. The thought being that I'll grow them in my veg area until they are big enough to take cuttings from, then I'll stick 'em up in the attic on 12-12 to find out what their sex is so I've just got ladies for my outdoor pots!

The line up for the outdoor grow is likely to be:

AK99 / Swazi Skunk / Blue Berry / Pot of Gold / Orange Bud / Indian b*****d Haze

Also, I forgot to tell you about my new nutes and ferts too. A picture below - this is the stuff I got from Wembley last year too, it's from House and Garden, another Dutch company, and they were the guys with naked ladies on their stand! It was a giant of a Dutchman that told me 'you'll really love our Root Excellorator, it makes the roots grow like fuckin' crazy' - You've got to imagine it in a Dutch accent, but hey, I had to have it!

Anyway, that's me for another day. Have a good un and I'll be back again later in the week.

Cheers guys!

PS. I added another couple of pictures of my Indian Haze which is looking a bit brghter and less droopy than it was before Christmas now I've re-potted them!

[DierWolf]

IT'S ALIVEEEE!!!! (Shelley's Frankenstein- 1931)

[Bopper]

Originally Posted by DierWolf

IT'S ALIVEEEE!!!! (Shelley's Frankenstein- 1931)

"This fucking haze is doing my head in" (Bopper's Scrog Journal, Grasscity.com 2005)

[polski]

Originally Posted by Bopper

As for the seeds I've just put in, well, someone very kind with a taste for colouring in (no name no pack drill - but many thanks mate)

LOL...........felt tips pens going all over the place by the sounds of it.........., best of luck with the grow Bopper, will be looking in regularly........someone apart from Shamen has to give you some abuse...........LOL..........

Happy growing man..........

P.