Class of 2009! 3rd Grow purple bud bagseed

Hi all. Long time no see.

Found these beauties in a bag of bud that was frickin' purple!
Might be some males but I'm willing to risk that.

Got these nice shots with a USB microscope after a few hours in wet tissue. You can see the form of the seed through the shell... the cotyledon and everything. Some of them look like eggs from the movie Alien!

Anyway, nice to be back. As ever, photos will be forthcoming...

 

Germination!

Half of the seeds have sprouted.... I'm going to wait another couple of days before putting them in rockwool.

 

OK, so of the 8 seeds that I had, 6 sprouted
of those, 2 died for reasons unknown
of the remaining, one I accidentally snapped in half but after some rooting hormone and shelter inside half a plastic bottle, is recovering.
so I have 4 sprouts in the grow room now, happily transferred to organic compost under 18 hours light. So far so good.

I just hope they don't all turn out to be males!

 

yeah, I've put them under the 600w light now and hopefully that will do the job. I'm just a bit paranoid about burning them after nearly losing my 2nd grow to a too-close bulb! The stretchiest one keeled over today but it's now propped up and getting shitloads of light. I also have a fan on a timer so the stems will get a bit of movement in the breeze (heard that helps strengthen them)

 

Hi everyone

A few days under the 600w light and all four plants are coming along nicely. The stems are still a bit stretched and even though they are holding up the leaves without much trouble I have made some wire loops to catch them if they feel the need to keel over!

I seem to remember my first grow started out even stretchier than these and they ended up being fine strong plants so I'm not too concerned. Also, I'll eventually be LST-ing them horizontally again with the long tubs as that worked so well last time.

Despite the cold weather it's getting pretty warm in there so I'll have to start keeping the extractor fan on soon. I've cleaned out the water tank after the last grow (it was pretty rank) and will be starting the Tropf Blumat system again in a week or so.

Enjoy the pics!

 

I had no idea the plants would grow so fast with the 600w light on at 18/24! In my previous grows I only had the fluorescent lights on at the beginning but now with the 600w HPS they're practically sprouting leaves in front of my eyes. Tomorrow I'm going to set them up in the long tubs with the watering system because I have to leave them for a week alone. More pics when that's done...

 

The plants have finally moved up the property ladder and are now in their long tubs. My plan is to LST them along the length of the tubs and then train them round the corner to take up any extra space in its neighbour's tub. Then when the whole surface of the tubs is covered, it's time for flowering and if previous experience is anything to go by the flowering colas will grow upward toward the light.

I put the Tropf Blumat watering system in place, though I am not anticipating much water needed as they are still quite small plants. We'll see. The plant in the pot is destined for a secluded spot in the garden as soon as it's warm enough.

See you in a week!

 

Well, 6 weeks into the grow and I had my first crisis! The plants had grown like crazy after my week's absence and naturally were reaching vertically for the light. As my plan was to LST them horizontally I set to bend them back towards the soil, but the stems were so thick by then that *SNAP!* one of them almost broke in half when I bent it over. I quickly taped it together, then held it in place with string and a splint but I don't mind telling you I thought it was curtains for at least half of the plant in question.

Luckily, one week later and not only has the plant recovered (and grown a bulge around the part of the stem that was still intact) but it has branched out all over- becoming the biggest plant in the room! There must be something in that tactic of stressing the stems to promote growth. Not that I'm going to go about snapping the stems on the other plants...

I think I'll give them another 2 weeks and then start with flowering.

Watch this space!

 

OK, I switched to 12/12 light one week ago. I was going to do it sooner but I figured I'd let them veg for one more week. there was so much new growth I can't tell which plants are coming from where. They've pulled up most of the hooks I was using to train them but that's OK as they're all spread out and are now ready to grow upwards towards the light.

Still not sure if there are any males in there, but I've attached a couple of pictures so any experts out there can have a look and maybe give me their wisdom.

It's starting to get fragrant already!

 

well, it's about 10 days into 12/12 light and guess what?
50% of my plants are males! It doesn't come as much of a surprise really, and I'm glad to say it was the smaller two plants that showed the dreaded pollen sacs (see pics)

So on the downside half my crop is gone, but on the upside thanks to this forum I was able to spot the pre-flowers in time and get rid of them.

The really stupid part of it all is I was taking some cuttings a couple of weeks ago and forgot to label which plant they came from, and I'm sure that one or maybe both of them came from the male plant! So I've labelled them with a big question mark and have taken two more cuttings from the biggest plant which is definately a female.

I know you're supposd to only take cuttings from a plant that isn't in flower but what the hell.
Also included are pics of the room before and after the males were taken out. more room for the girls, I suppose...

 

OK, 3 weeks into flowering, and the speed at which these females are developing is outpacing my last grow already (the pics taken under fluorescent light are from the room after 2 weeks, under the HPS are at 3 weeks) - you can see how much they've grown in the last week alone.

When I compare the pictures to my last grow, they are the size at 3 weeks that the last lot were at 5 weeks.

Here's to an earlier harvest and/or bigger buds!