Story of a Fighter - One Seed to rule them All

Discussion in 'Micro Grows' started by Jane_Bellamont, Nov 19, 2015.

  1. #1 Jane_Bellamont, Nov 19, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 23, 2015
    Chapter 1


    Sup guys.

    Long story short, I'll be posting the progress of the 2nd microgrow I've ever done featuring a plant that was grown from a single bagseed.

    This is a plant that has been grown from a seed found in a bud, revegged after harvest.. then cloned again into 4 pots.

    It showed only minor hermaphroditic tendencies, and I'm actually hoping to get a couple of seeds after I harvest.. Since it is a very hard plant to clone (14 days minimum till first roots pop out).

    In fact, if I do get a couple of seeds - I hope to be able to breed a hermaphroditic strain that gives both high yields AND seeds, so as to render the whole male/female gamble a thing of the past.. considering also that it's got such beautiful genetics. Imagine if weed was like corn - self-pollinating, high yielding. A single seed that can give you a generation of infinite weed.

    The first grow was done using only 2x 24w CFLs. I didn't even think I would make it. Some really good genetics going on there. However, the biggest mistake I've made was letting it grow too tall. From now on I'll be flowering once it reaches 1/3 of the distance between the surface of the pot, to the lightbulbs attached to the ceiling.

    The second biggest mistake I've made was growing it just as I was about to take a trip overseas (I know.. I was that desperate to get into growing). I was forced to harvest it early, for safety reasons.. but what I did was reveg it and leave it locked inside the cupboard with a single 24w CFL. Gave it a good soaking, it was still wet when I came back. And it worked - the plant is still alive. The clones have rooted, and are growing .. albeit slowly.

    I'm currently keeping them on 70% humidity and 1 light for at least another week (as seen in the picture with the pots), since I nearly killed them by turning on the fan and all 3 lights at once when they were still fragile. I was impatient - but it was a lesson learned. Oops!

    --

    So to sum it up, my current grow will feature:
    - 3x 24w CFLs (Cool Daylight for Veg, Warm White for Flower)
    - USB desk fan for air circulation
    - Carbon filter attached to a PC fan running on a 12v adapter, stuck in a corner in the ceiling.
    - Walls of cupboard are painted Flat White
    - Lightshield to stop light from shining out of the gaps in the edges of the cupboard doors.
    - High quality potting mix with coco fibre and slow release fertilizer
    - Little to no additional nutes

    My goal is to fill the whole growspace with buds, get at least 1 - 0.5 ounce per plant.. considering also that I'm using revegged clones.. which are growing multiple offshoots, and therefore about to become a monster crop!

    --

    Bottom line..

    Cannabis has helped my depression tremendously, especially this strain that I've grown. I think prohibition is a crime against humanity. Legalization is not about getting access to weed - I wouldn't care if all the weed in the world disappeared - Legalization is about stopping our friends, family and hard working citizens from being unfairly imprisoned and marginalized. I believe laws should only ever be made if they are scientifically proven to make society a safer and happier place.

     

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  2. Update: Images resized. Oops
     
  3. Best of luck to you!
     
  4. #4 Jane_Bellamont, Nov 23, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 27, 2015
    Update - Chapter 2:


    It's been 3 weeks since I took the cuttings, and 1 week since they've been kept on high humidity after rooting. I cranked up the whole system to see if they could withstand it, but they still wilted a little bit.. albeit nowhere near as severely as they did about a week ago.

    ..Which means I'll be keeping them on medium humidity for yet another week, and running on 2 lightbulbs this time.


    The plant that seems to be doing the best is the one in the black pot, top left corner. It's expanding at an accelerating rate, very healthy side shoots. This is going to be my clone factory - which I'll be keeping in a PC-grow-box that I'll be building in future. I'm never revegging a plant again - let alone cloning a revegetated plant - it's a real pain in the ass, considering also that it's my 2nd grow ever. Nonetheless, it saved this strain for good.. and I probably won't be having to take any trips overseas within the next 2-3 years to come, hopefully.

    You can clearly tell when a clone has rooted the minute you see the center of the nodes filling up with rich green nitrogen. Will be posting a follow-up next week, so you can see the full transformation from rags to riches.

     

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  5. #5 Jane_Bellamont, Nov 27, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 27, 2015
    Update - Chapter 3:
    (I know I ramble too much - so if you only want to check out the key updates, follow the bold text...)



    So it's becoming clearer and clearer that the clone in the black pot ended up stealing the spotlight.


    What I decided to do is, instead of using it as a motherplant - I might as well repot it, grow it, and harvest the fuck out of it. The leaves are at least tripling in size with every day that goes by.


    I gave the plants a bit of a groom - snipped off some of the dead leaves that were responsible for a lot of the mold I experienced during high humidity mode, sprayed the walls with disinfectant, and gave the plants a light misting of pyrethrum.. in case there's something alive in the grow room that I can't see with the naked eye, such as spider mites. It's summer, after all.


    The new offshoots are growing so fast.. I think I can expect to be switching to flowering mode in about a month. They call it a weed, for a reason.


    The distance between the surface of the pots and the CFL lightbulbs (see Chapter 2) is exactly 44cm. That means I'll be flowering once the tallest plant reaches the height of 15cm. The plant in the black pot is currently 7cm tall.

    I'm not currently running the carbon filter, since the grow room smells more like wet soil than weed at this stage, and because I still need to make a few modifications to it.


    P.s.
    You gotta love the asymmetrical shape of re-vegetated plants. It's very easy to tell clones apart from plants grown from seed. Seeded plants normally grow in a straight Y shape, with a pair of single leaflets at the very bottom of the main stem. I would love to be able to grow plants from seed again, but my country has unfortunately got one of the best customs/immigration offices on the planet - and my smoking buddies are just too unreliable to find me some seeds. They're the kind of people who never return stuff they borrow from you.. show up at 8pm when you say 4pm.. etc. I say fuck it - who needs seeds and clones?

     

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  6. #6 Jane_Bellamont, Dec 2, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 2, 2015
    Update - Just photos ..


    Black pot is starting to look more like her mother (or should we say - her twin sister). At this point, you can't tell any of these plants have been re-vegged.


    It turns out that the plant in the 4th pot had no roots.. which is why it was growing so slowly.. so I just put it inside a jar with some rooting powder and seed raising mix. See what happens, hey?


    The plant is exactly 9cm tall. Only needs to grow a further 6cm for flowering mode to initiate, which may happen in as little as 2 weeks, considering how fast it has grown.


    I won't screw it up. Not this time.


    p.s.
    This growing cupboard has a little history to it. It may very well be 30-40+ years old. Who knows how much it could sell for.. especially after prohibition is over? lol

     

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  7. Following! I plan on growing next yr when I move out. What kinda cupboard are you using? I will most likely grow inside a walk in closet or normal closet in a cupboard as well. Not sure how tall of one I need though :/
     


  8. The inside of the grow room is exactly 70cm tall and 40cm wide. It really depends on how serious you want to get about growing. Do you want to retrieve a couple of smokable ounces out of a small little cupboard - Or do you want to grow a 6ft tall monster plant hiding in a closet?


    None of the above is as important as knowing your local laws, obviously. Some people are adrenaline junkies, and need to do stupid, crazy stuff in order to feel alive. Others desire safety and stability, nothing wrong with it. Varies from person to person.

     
  9. Update - Chapter 4


    Carbon filter joins the crew (pictured below).


    As you can see - this is not your average carbon filter. After doing extensive research and experimentation, I have found that coffee grinds would be the most effective and economic substitute for activated carbon, especially for microgrows.


    http://www.gizmag.com/coffee-grounds-filter-hydrog...


    Make sure you use filter/plunger coffee, or just expresso.. not instant coffee. The consistency of filter coffee makes the clumps large enough to allow air to push through - but fine enough to absorb the smell. As a bonus - your bedroom will end up smelling like Starbucks.


    Again, the coffee-grind filter is not suitable for large grow operations, only for microgrows. It is also still experimental.


    I will show you the inner workings of the filter once I hook it up. I don't have any use for it yet, as my plants aren't currently giving off any smells whatsoever.

     

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  10. Looking very nice.. Cool lil cabinet. I'm curious to see how well those coffee grounds work for you.
     
  11. #11 Jane_Bellamont, Dec 9, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 9, 2015
    Update - Chapter 5


    Alright, so it's been exactly 3 months since my first grow was first harvested and put back on 18/6 lighting.


    The plant has not only successfully re-vegged.. but also successfully split into three, with more nodes than ever before. The queen plant could have up to 15 individual offshoots, while the other two pots only have 3-2 heads each.


    They have been sprayed with a flower & fruit liquid fertilizer, and are ready to be put in flowering mode. No more fertilizers from now on.


    It's a pity that the other two clones took a while to catch up, but they have nevertheless. Those two are going to pretty much resemble a straight tower of buds, towards the day of the harvest.. not unlike a plant that has been flowered from seed.


    My goal is to end up with plants that look more or less like this.. maybe a little taller:


    [​IMG]


    Lightbulbs are going to be replaced tomorrow with 3x 24w 2700k warm white CFLs, which makes a total of 72w. I tried looking online for bulbs of a higher wattage, but there were very little if any to be found, and absolutely no high-power CFLs available in the 2700k color temperature. Shops and hardware stores won't sell anything stronger than 24w, all across town. We're a very environmentally-conscious country, after all.. but the good news is that our lightbulbs emit a lot of lumens per wattage.


    Then again, that's the point of experimentation, as well as microgrows - how much yield can you get using the lowest resources possible? Gotta remember that I had zero access to seeds or clones, so that's another handicap I have to work with.


    I predict I'll be harvesting in about 45-60 days. Let's pray I don't get any inspections by then. If I do - I'll be disassembling the grow room, and hiding my plants in sealed buckets stored inside a box, locked inside another box, with yet another box placed on top of it.. hidden inside my closet. They should easily be able to survive 8-10 hours of darkness and limited oxygen.


    Fertilizers used were:
    McGregor's VegeMax! - NPK 8-8-6
    Thrive Flower and Fruit - Nitrogen 6%, Phosphorus 3%, Potassium 10%, etc.

     

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  12. Subd up. Looks like a cool little grow. Your country sounds mean though. What's inspections? And you can't find reggie there?

    Sent from my LGL22C using Tapatalk
     
  13. #13 Mcjr450, Dec 11, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 11, 2015
    I was just wondering about this flower nutes you plan on using. Have you used it before? The reason I ask i cuz it seems to have alot of nitrogen in it, well the 6% for N is greater the your phosphorus number at 3%. During flower you want to use as little to no nitrogen as possible. And since your using the slow release soil which I'm sure contains nitrogen, I'm kinda worried that it may cause a problem for you during flower. I know your very limited to what you can get but if you can find some flower nutes with a higher phosphorus and potassium number.. You may want to consider it. But if you've already used it with good results don't mind me.. Lol I would just hate to see it cause you a problem. Everything is looking good. :)
     
  14. #14 Jane_Bellamont, Dec 13, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 13, 2015
    UPDATE - Chapter 6



    Alright, we're now 4 days into flowering.


    To my disappointment, I just found out that my third clone didn't have any roots.. which is why it wilted the minute I switched to flowering mode. (Those yellow leaves were certainly suspicious). The rest of them are doing fine.. and stretching like fuckers, too.


    ..so what I decided to do was re-pot my main plant to make up for the wasted space. It kept growing the next day, with only a little bit of wilting inbetween.


    I've also added in an extra light. We're now working with a total of 96w, as well as a mixture of 2x COOL DAYLIGHT and 2x WARM WHITE light spectrums. I increased the contrast in the picture so you could see the beautiful blend of color temperatures inside the grow room. As you can see, one of the lights is placed on the left wall. This will help fill in any dark spots inside the buds. Factor in the white walls - and I think we're onto something.


    Also, the carbon (coffee grind) filter is installed, as you can see in the picture. Looks like a proper science lab at this point. The filter will help get rid of the excess hot air caused by having so many lights running at the same time. I will probably end up doing a tutorial on it someday when I'm bored.


    Spending on my grow room is now up to $250. It's still only about the price of a second-hand laptop. I'll be sure to dismantle it and sell it for parts if I ever decide to quit the growing game. Lots of good stuff in there. There's no way my efforts are going to be spent in vain.


    Let's just grow some fucking buds. Too much messing around. Never wasting my time with clones again. Will be growing from seed next time... if I have to buy an eight of weed from 5 different dealers to find some new bagseed, then so be it. This is my fucking meditation, my therapy. My baby.

     

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  15. Awesome possum! If you can stack them on books or something so they're a few inches from the light they'll really take off. Every things looking good though fo sho
     
  16. Hadn't thought of that, actually! I guess I could just remove one book at a time, as the plants stretch.
     
  17. UPDATE - Chapter 7


    We've just sighted two pistills, exactly 1 week after switching to flowering mode.


    They showed up right after the period of 24 hours of darkness that I put it through, in order to successfully make the switch from running the lights at daytime (7am-7pm) to running them at nighttime (7pm-7am) for greater stealth and temperature control.



    Shit is only going to get better from now on. The main plant is exactly 15cm tall, and is 25cm away from touching the lights. Better hurry up and grow the little bitch!


    Her little sister is also displaying signs of hitting puberty. She'll only be growing a single node, sadly.. but we could always do with more weed, not less, I suppose.


    We've successfully turned the clocks back in time, and we're now witnessing the same event we did 4 months ago. I can now fully grow my buds in peace. I have all the time in the world. No more trips overseas until there's jars full of buds in my closet!


    I've also made some modifications to the coffee grind filter, as the temperatures were getting too hot (38C). I've had to drill two more holes, and downsize the filter.

     

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  18. Just noticed this thread, looks good Jane! If you are afraid your main plant will grow to high you can perform some extra training to her in the begin flowering just to be sure, but it looks like she will be okay :)
    Is it really 38 degrees celsius or was it a typo? If not a typo: I'm surprised those plats are still alive and good looking [​IMG]
     
  19. It used to be, at one point.. until I re-designed and re-assembled the filter. Then again - the thermometer is set up way over where the lights are. The fans were blowing, and heat rises - which is why the plants are still alive.


    The current average temperature is 28-30C. Then again, I had to downsize my odor-filter. The fan is now sucking air from the grow room, and blowing it through a thin layer of coffee grinds.


    My plants are very low-odor, so I feel this should be enough for my microgrow. Plus - the whole house already reeks of weed, with my flatmates blazing 24/7 and all. It's only inspections I need to worry about.

     
  20. #20 Jane_Bellamont, Dec 23, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 23, 2015
    UPDATE - Chapter 8


    Alright, it's been 2 weeks since I initiated flowering mode - and we seem to be experiencing symptoms of resin production.


    I still think this plant is going to hit the ceiling, though.. considering that it's already exactly half-way through to the lights (20cm, 20cm to go). There's still 4 weeks left to harvest, 28 days. It is stretching at a rate of almost exactly 1cm per day, so it should be hitting the lights at about week 3, unless the stretching stops.


    What I might do is anchor a few screws in every corner of the grow room, and then tie it to the stem.. though I'll wait and see what happens first, because I don't really feel like doing it right now; it's actually looking pretty beautiful and healthy, despite the stretch.


    The peak temperature in the grow room with lights on is exactly 35C. There's very little I've been able to do to keep it cool, even with 2 fans blowing.. even leaving the door slightly open won't do the trick. Then again, I bought this thermometer from a $2 shop. Maybe it is inaccurate?

     

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