Irq77s Hempy 3:1 Coco/Perlite 400x LED 4x4 tent Cluster Bomb 1st Ever Grow

Yo Jerry!!! 
 
Thanks for stopping bye buddy.  I've not seen those threads, so I'll be checking them out.  The pics you've been posting are FANTASTIC!  Really looking great.   
 
Can't wait until your girls are looking as good as mine?  Ha!  I keep thinking the same about your girls.  I think it really is greener on the other side of the fence.  
 
Purple strains look very cool.  I've not yet experienced an actual purple strain yet I've been very curious.  And I'm behind on your journal still...     I better go get caught up NOW! 

 

Yo!  How you doin' GC???
 
Oh really?  I DID NOT KNOW THAT!  Please tell me more...
 
I hope you don't mind if I      
 
fill this bowl
 
and give this REMIX a listen.  I recommend HIGH volume!   
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3DxtZoY94o
 
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!  That's the stuff.  Kinda electronica-reggae vibe already with the original, but then the remix seems to turn it up another notch. 
 
It's time for another UPDATE about the THC Bomb girls.  Overall my thoughts on the girls progress has been: wow!  Have I said Carla and Carrie are looking rather sexy?    Carla is stacked!  Carrie is packing on the curves.
 
Trisha has "personality" and Terry has special needs if you catch my drift.  
 
Yesterday was what may be my last feed day, but I really haven't decided.  I was planning to do another trichome assessment on Saturday and will either feed again or start flushing.  However, while feeding I generally inspect everyone and Carla is quite vibrant.  Carla's just about to finish her most recent surge in bud growth.  I believe I'm seeing a LARGE difference in lower level bud sizes for this grow and believe it to be attributable to my new 5w LED lighting.  It would seem the more powerful LEDs do in fact penetrate lower into the canopy.  However, Carla has also required little defoliation in comparison to Carrie, so the lower bud growth is even more pronounced.  I tried to capture how striking Carla has become in the pics, but the pics just don't do her justice.  I believe Carla is going to yield some good numbers not because of massive colas, but because of the number of buds.  So far Krissy from my Kush grow was my largest yielder to date (118g), but that may soon change.
 
Not too much else is note worthy as of this point in the grow.  The girls intake of nutes has dramatically slowed for the most part.  I'm almost at the finish line for this grow. 
 
I hope you and yours are doing well.  I love being a ganja farmer!
 
-Irq77
 
Pics are from yesterday.  148 days from germination.  Day 70 of flower (Day 1 of week 10).

 

Yo Jerry!  I think we were literally just posting on each others threads.  I finished posting and saw you posted here. Lol!
 
Thailand!  Sweet!  I've never enjoyed the pleasure of visiting, but would love to. 
 
I'm in the same boat as you in knowing when to flush and wrap up the grow.  It's hard to know when.  I think my girls may be going a little long due to the tent/LED changes to my environment. 
 
From those pics I think I see some new growth.  My take is that if there is new growth then I keep waiting to see what it'll do.  I remember reading that each girl goes through several growth cycles with each packing on a little more bud.  I try to error on the side of letting them go long rather than short.  Of course while trying to figure out what the girls are going to do I'm usually looking at trichomes daily.  Most of my experience has been that if I keep looking at trichomes on a daily basis I get a little bit of a feel for how fast the girls mature.  My gut instinct and anal retentiveness errr...  attention to detail is heavily relied upon due to my lack of experience.  Well, all that AND when I read about when to chop it often seems that each publication reiterates the idea that a big newbie mistake is to chop too soon.  Because I'm motivated to not act "newbie-ish" I try and emulate my action with what the people who've been doing this growing hobby much longer than me.
 
When I wrote about re-assessing in my prior post I actually take my wife down to the grow room and have her look at trichomes in at least three areas of each plant.  Often top, mid, and lower buds.  On a girl by girl basis we won't talk until we've both fully inspected and then compare thoughts.  This assessment process seems to have worked for me fairly well so far, but I also know it probably sounds kinda silly to those more experienced.  Still, this is a good example as to why this ganja farming is so much fun (dinner conversation at my house).  I get to experiment all the time.  This may also explain why I love data gathering for green-girls so much.  Also why I'd love to spend time visiting other growers just to learn other approaches.
 
All that said...  Your girls are looking fantastic.  You're doing great work!  Keep kickin' arse! 
 
Oh, and more sampling is needed for sure! 

 

Yoooooooooooooo GC!  How's it growing?
 
Happy Earth Day!  And happy belated 4/20! 
 
It's been a little while since I've posted what's up, so how about packing a bowl and listening a little background music?
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_sEtNrYlC4
 
What???  Is the world ending?  Something is off!  Irq, did you lose your freakin' mind? 
 
That is NOT Reggae!!  What gives?
 
Okay...  I just came up from the grow room and FINALLY have decided today will be the last day of flushing.    This song was playing.  And it just seems appropriate.  My 4th grow is coming to an end.   Besides, I like other types of music too.
 
Today is day 91 of flower and the first day of week 13 in flower.     This has been my longest and most expensive grow to date.    I'm guessing at reasons for the long flower time and from what I can ascertain it's a result of small Hempy buckets and environment changes, but I really don't know.  Yes.  From what I can tell Carrie and Carla have used every last inch of the 3.5gal bucket.  I believe this yield will show the upper threshold for yield in a 3.5gal.  If someone has bigger plants in this same size I'd love to know their secrets.
 
The girls have been packing it on for a while now, but wow are they looking purdy.   Carrie finally got some color and has buds so heavy she's falling over.  I ended up using some string to hold her together and keep buds from going upside down.  Carla is purple and the lower buds really show the 5w LED difference.  I think I'm going to have good yields from both.  Trisha grew in a little color too.  Not much has changed with Terry as she is my last place "special" girl.  There are several ugly leaves too.  The ugly leaves curl up and get a little crunchy, but don't want to be yanked off I've learned.  Trying to pull the leaves off as if they're dead ends up causing problems, so I've been leaving them alone and choose to respect the maturity.
 
I'll start 48 or so hours of dark when the lights go out tonight.  My next update will be soon including pre-chop pics, weigh-in, and a little info about stuff I picked up for the Harvest party.
 
Limited pics today as I'm planning to take more pre-chop after the girls drop a little excess water weight.  Oh, and I was a little worried about carrying Carrie upstairs with the drooping buds. 
 
I hope all is well with you and yours.  I LOVE BEING A GANJA FARMER! 
 
-Irq77

 

Hey buddy!  Really great timing!  I literally finished trimming Carla 14 minutes prior to your post after starting Sunday morning. 
 
Terry is next on the chopping block today.  Then Carrie tomorrow and Trisha Wednesday.  I'll post something more official fairly soon about some fun stuff then later all the harvest details.  I'm behind on a bunch of stuff including all the grows here on GC.     And I had something unexpected happen that's a life changer.
 
More coming soon!  Now back to trimming. 
 
Thanks for stopping bye! 

 

Good morning GC!  How the heck are you guys???
 
I've missed you all.  It's been the perfect storm of "way too busy" in my world.  How about packing a bowl, settling in to relax, and listening to some deliciously positive Reggae vibes while I try and catch you up a bit...
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWBsZocJfsY 
 
Ahhhhhhh....  This tune from Josey Wales and Yellowman has been stuck in my head for almost two weeks.  I find when I get something playing in my head over and over the best thing to do is enjoy and keep it in my play rotation.  The replays seem to knock the tune loose enough where it's not stuck.  Sometimes this music strategy works.  Sometimes it doesn't work at all.  The longer the tune stays stuck the better my personal rating.  Yellowman has been a favorite for a while which you may have already guessed from my posting history.  All that said, I love music as a medium for fellowship.  Fellowship in the way of connecting with other humans.  Connecting/fellowship with other humans, learning, sharing thoughts, and supporting other growers is why I'm here.  I hope the vibes find you well. 
 
I like staying busy, but sometimes the stack of tasks converge and overwhelm.  The past couple weeks have been one of those times.  I've had engagement and graduation parties, jury duty, unexpected family surgeries, sick pets, broken sprinkler system issues, a flat tire, and some other shit keeping me from my usual scheduled activities.  Then I had a former supervisor talk me into a Senior Systems Administration position.  It's been a little over 2 years since retiring from tech. work at the ripe old age of 37.  I agreed to part-time work and am hoping I don't regret getting back involved.  Oh, and I harvested some ganja lately.  Whew... 
 
All four girls are trimmed, but only 95% of Carla jarred.  The rest is sitting in drying net waiting to be jarred/weighed.  Colorado has been WET WET WET and I believe this to be a very good thing at the moment.  My basement is holding humidity between 55-62%.  For some of my past harvests I've had trouble getting the grow-room environment to stay above 40%.  It's much easier when mother nature assists and I like the slower dry time right now due to the busyness, but also because I think it drys a little too fast when humidity is lower.  Thanks mother nature - you're alright sometimes, when your not flooding or earthquaking, etc.
 
It's a little early to talk about yield or thoughts on harvest, but seems appropriate to talk a little about the mood I try to set around harvest time.  Yes.  It's true.  We like harvest time at my house.  My wife decorated the house similar to what we have in the past.  We have green paper globes hanging from the ceiling in our living room.  A big "Harvest" sign on the wall.  Globes from previous grows have strain, yield, and other info written on them.  We have dried leaves hanging like mistletoe too!  We generally get at least one harvest gift for ourselves too.  This time around we picked up the Trailer Park Boys card game "Supply & Command".  Additionally, this time around I picked up a Magic Butter maker both because I was curious and also wanted to make some oil for a friend suffering with cancer.
 
The Magic Butter Maker machine has been nice.  I've made hash butter in the past via dry ice/150 micron screen method, but thought the process to be a little time consuming and messy.  The new Magic Butter Maker is kinda like a bread maker.  Fast and easy when stirring on a double boiler isn't convenient.  The bread maker description is the best way I can think of to describe.  It's been nice to throw butter, lecithin (an emulsifier), and herb into the machine push a couple buttons and in 2 hours butter is strained via 80 micron screen (i think) and ready to use.  Very easy.  I like easy.
 
Attached are a few pics of the Magic Butter maker.  I used 17g of Cluster Bomb bud and 11g Kush Bomb trim. Yum!  Also, the rice crispy treats we've made and a few of the girls right before beginning harvest.
 
I hope you and yours are well.   This ganja farming gig sure is sweet.  Take care.
-Irq77
 

 

Thanks a bunch for stopping by SickBoy.  Your comment hit me square in the stomach where I could feel butterflies.  Could feel the love for your mom in that comment.  Awesome! 
 

Thanks Jerry.  I love the support man.  Really appreciate the nice comments!   
 
 

Thanks a bunch for stopping by Medsforme!  Yup.  You've got me figured out.   I love the Pro Grow lights.  Lol!  I'll be checking out your grow updates soon.  Very curious about that X5-300!    

 

Irq77's Ganja Farming Road Map:
 
1st grow as a total newb - Bomb Seed's Cluster Bomb (germination 6/15/2013):
      The very beginning - (Post # 1)
      Chop/harvest - (Post #56)
      Yield - (Post #64)
      Analysis Paralysis - (Post #66)
 
2nd Grow - Nirvana's AK-48 (www.ak48.com) (Germination 10/31/2013):
      Start of 2nd grow - (Post #75)
      Chop/Pre-Chop Ritual - (Post #160)
      Grow Review/Yield Numbers - (Post #163)

3rd Grow - Bomb Seed's Kush Bomb (Germination <b>4/10/2014)</b>:
      Start of 3rd grow - (Post #172)
      Pre-Chop Ritual, Chop & Grow Reflection - (Post #243)
      Yield - (Post #251)
      Analysis Paralysis topic "Cost per OZ" - (Post #255)
 
4th Grow - Bomb Seed's THC Bomb (Germination 11/4/2014):
      Grow Configuration, Strain Selection, Goals - (Post #257)
      Grow Room Preparations - (Post #258)
      Germination, Meet The Girls - (Post #259)
      Day 33 of Veg., Terry & Trisha Wierdness - (Post #262)
      Terry: What A Bitch...  Errr "Candycorn" - (Post #268)
      Got Candycorn?  Get A New Tent - (Post #272)
      New Tent Needs A New Light.  ProGrow X5-600 - (Post #277)
      Ganja Farming Sure Is Sweet.  The Magic Butter Maker - (Post #290)

 

Welcome my friends.  Today I'm sharing Pre-Chop & Trimming details to my 4th growing experience.  THC Bomb is the strain.  Chopping and trimming is the game!  Let's begin...
 
Many of you know I'd decided to subscribe to a tradition of what I call "The Pre-Chop Ritual" after my first grow.  No.  There isn't any killing of chickens or chanting.  I felt a strong connection to my girls and chopping a pretty lady after months of meticulous care was tough emotionally.  I was a grown man crying over the cutting of a plant.  I'd never experienced a connection to plants before.  Not like this.  It's still tough for me to cut a green girl, so I came up with a few things I do to give respect and honor the girls and my own experience.  The first step I'd come up with is what I refer to as The Morning Ride.  Some call it sex.  But it doesn't have to be sex.  Really, it's getting myself to a place mentally where I'm relaxed and living in the moment.  A state of living or thinking in the now.  A place where I'm receptive to my own thoughts and feelings about growing and the individual girls.  I do something similar with most of my posts here on GC by listening to a little Reggae.  Something to set the mood and get myself to the place I need to be.  Speaking of such, how about a little Damian Marley?
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJMTVD9rHDQ
 
Oh yes.  That's the stuff. 
 
The next step to "The Pre-Chop Ritual" is what I call the Appreciation Of Grow.  Basically, a reflection of the overall grow.  What worked well.  What didn't work.  What I like about growing.  Etc.
 
My 4th grow was tough for a long long list of reasons.  A mixed bag.  The first reasons being that Terry and Trisha just didn't want to grow the way I'd become accustomed to via my prior 3 grows.  The T-girls were behind the C-girls, were growing like cauliflower, and I didn't know what to do.  I found LST to be impossible with Terry.  Trisha faired somewhat better than Terry, but I've been troubled by the two girls from the early vegetative stages.  I ended up extending the vegetative days with the idea that I could recoup yield by growing Carrie/Carla big enough to make up the difference.  Extending the vegetative time came with other issues like it seemed I'd reached the maximum size of plant to fit in a 3.5 gallon Hempy bucket.  My hypothesis is that the extended vegetative combined with the limits of the size of Hempy buckets lead to a longer flower time.  Then the larger plants required more space and I ended up buying the new LED light and 5'x5' tent I'd considered prior to the grow starting.  All in all I still really enjoyed growing overall.  I've got the right personality where a daily care routine is really fun and measuring and tracking data.  Oh yeah.  Low Stress Training also seems to be a hands on kind of thing that just takes time to really get a handle on.  Though I've enjoyed LST since grow 1 I believe my stems show improvement after every grow iteration.  This grow was my longest as it was 173 days from germination to chop!! 
 
The third step in "The Pre-Chop Ritual" is to Reflect Upon Girls. 
 
Carla - Most purple of the 4.  Most mature.  Not particularly pungent, but I smell very sweet with tones of fruit ranging from grapes to blueberries.  My wife smells citrus on the front end with musty undertones.  Little foliage.  Consistent bud size throughout plant, but no huge colas.  Great lower bud growth.
 
Carrie - Big drinker.  Slow to mature.  Strongest smell producer and very pungent.  Stronger, but similar smells as Carla.  Lots of foliage.  Purpled late in flower, but maintained a lot of green.
 
Terry - Refused all LST.  Moved to window for sunlight prior to new tent.  Very little smell.  Very "special."
 
Trisha - Some purple late in flower.  Very little smell.  Small buds. 
 
Ideas for improvement:
 
- Cycling in Florakleen throughout the grow on a 3week to 1month basis
- Bigger Hempy buckets
- Re-design with wheels to replace the drainage shoe boxes
- Finish writing/re-writing tracking software.
 
Weight prior to chop:
(Tried to judge water absorbtion after dark period in order to choose chop order):
- Carla: 28.6lbs, chopped 1st
- Terry: 27.2lbs, chopped 2nd
- Carrie: 25.3lbs, chopped 3rd
- Trisha: 26.4lbs, chopped 4th
 
Time In Grow: 173 days
- 5 days germination
- 65 days in vegetative
- 8 days in pre-flower
- 95 days in flower
 
Trimming time: 31 hours 55 mins
- Carla: 13 hours 50 mins
- Terry: 1 hour 20 mins
- Carrie: 11 hours
- Trisha: 5 hours 45 mins
 
Dates Trimming:
- Carla: 4/26-4/27
- Terry: 4/27-4/28
- Carrie: 4/29-4/30
- Trisha: 5/1 - 5/2
 
Whew...  Next time I'll talk about jarring and yield.  I hope you and yours are doing fantastic.  I LOVE BEING A GANJA FARMER! 
 
-Irq77
 
BTW - The two close-up pics are of Carrie's main stem (it needed string support from the stem because she couldn't hold herself up.  Fatty!)  and of Trisha because it seemed to be in focus and I liked it.   

 

Yo GrassCity!  How are you today?  I hope you and yours are having a fantastic Friday.
 
I'm back to yap some more about my 4th grow today.  I promised to talk about jarring and yield yesterday and I'll do just that.  But before I do how about a little tune from Michael Rose.  It's called Smoke The Herb.  What a fantastic idea!  I HIGHLY recommend doing just that.  Of course vaping, eating, dabbing - all cool too. 
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrqZvXSMaYE
 
I love that older Reggae sound.  So raw, but great tunes. 
 
Yesterday's post was missing trim pics.  WTF Irq?  I kinda ran out of steam.  Also, THC Bomb produced a fair amount of scissor hash.  YUM!  I've still not partaken of the new bud, but the scissor hash makes the Reggae melt into my brain and makes everything a-okay.  It seemed like every ten mins I was scraping the Fiskars because they'd stick together.  I ended up with the biggest number of scissor hash balls ever.  Delicious! 
 
Also, I talked a little about LST experience yesterday.  I like to keep the main stem from the girls as a reference for my LST work.  Both Carrie and Carla were extremely well adept to training due to being very hearty and long enough legs to separate well.  Terry/Trisha again just wanted to be a cauliflower.  I was afraid to do much to Terry at all.  She acted like she wasn't having no damn Low Stress Training.  She'd warn me and get all bitchy threatening that'd she'd break.  While trimming I couldn't pull her apart and she followed through on her threats as a nice big chunk of cauliflower broke off into my hand.  Ugh...  I included the pic.  Terry was just not right.  I even had my wife feeling like she needed to assist with some additional motivation.  While trying to trim Terry I just wanted to throw her away.  It was tough going, but I pushed through and will have a little bud from Terry which will most likely only be smoked for novilty purposes of saying I tried her.  The rest of Terry is destined for the Magic Butter maker.
 
Jarring & Weighing.
 
What the heck?  My wife and I already put in over 30 hours of trimming...  Can't it just magically pop off the stem and jump into jars?  F%*@!  Evidently it doesn't work that way...   I kid.  I kid.  Lol!    Yes, there is more work to be done.  Honestly, I didn't mind a little extra work at all.  Jarring is the last little bit or work to be done all while the excitement grows.  Excitement because I know what happens after it's dried and off the stem.  I get to weigh it.   Oh, and then burping...
 
The dates/time required to jar and weigh each girl is as follows:
 
Carla - 5/7/2015: 3hours 40 mins
Terry &Trisha - 5/9/2015: 2hours
Carrie - 5/9/2015: 3hours
Total Jarring Time: 8 hours 40 mins
 
Yield.
 
My expectations for yield were rather low for this long 4th grow.  Clear back in the vegetative stages it was clear Terry and Trisha weren't going to contribute much.  I chose to increase my grow space in order to offset smaller yields of Terry/Trisha with what I hoped would be larger yield from Carrie and Carla.  I'd guessed that Carrie and Carla would amount to ~75-80% of my yield.  But it's all guessing until it's weighed.  I still can't look at the girls and really know what they'll yield yet.  It seems the subtle differences in bud size varies enough guessing seems futile.  This time around the new 5w LED grow light seemed to really help the lower bud sizes.  There were no massive colas.  The buds weren't like my prior grow of Kush with monster buds.  But what I did get was consistent medium size bud from Carrie and Carla.  Anyways, without further adew, the verdict is...
 
Terry: 19 grams or 0.67 ounces (1 jar)
Trisha: 83 grams or 2.92 ounces (5 jars)
Carrie: 152 grams or 5.36 ounces (8 jars)
Carla: 185 grams or 6.52 ounces (10 jars)
--------------------------------------------------------
Total Bud: 439 grams or 15.48 ounces
 
Trim: 74 grams or 2.61 ounces (5 jars)
 
Total Bud + Trim: 513 grams or 18.09 ounces (29 jars)
 
FYI: (Terry/Trisha bud: 102g )/(Total Bud: 439g) x 100 = 23%
 
Holy shizzlenit Batman, I cleared a pound of weed!  Again! 
 
I'll be burping for a couple more weeks and then the THC Bomb jars will get added to my weed library.  As I said previously, I have yet to smoke any bud as I've been waiting for the harvest party planned for 5/21/2015 where I'll share the experience with friends.
 
The highs and lows of growing are one thrilling ride, but it's a great fit for me as I LOVE BEING A GANJA FARMER!!!
 
Thanks for joining me on this ride everyone.  Peace!
 
-irq77
 
(analysis paralysis write up coming soon)
 
Pics 1-6 Carla
Pics 7-10 Terry
Pics 11-15 Carrie
Pics 16-17 Trisha
Pics 18+ include my little "helper", scissor hash balls, trim box, drying net, jarring bowl, jars, and the boneyard!     Oh, and the last is Carla in the drying net.  Almost forgot that one.