Bruce Banner / Gorillia Glue scrog dirt grow for octogenarians and more!

Here we go again!

I had some long term (2-3 month) out of town work that got pushed back to spring, which looks to leave just enough time to squeeze in a quick photo crop while I spend a good chunk of the winter upgrading the main grow area.

Disclaimer, for those of you unfamiliar with me, I make long ass rambling posts, but there is usually at least some general grow knowledge in there, just know you have been warned.


Main purpose of this grow is trying to teach my 80ish year old father how to grow his own, he likes my flower way better than what he gets from the dispensary, plus with his medical card it’s a 3 hour drive and he has to go every month or so (plus you know he gets it free from me), I say for the good of other motorists, lets get this man off the interstate and back at his home growing weed and fishing!

That being said, I’m not trying for any specific goal (max yield, full organic, DIY, low budget, high tech, etc) other than to try and give the man a base of knowledge to get through a grow, so there will definitely be things I do that can be done more efficiently, cheaper, etc, but the main goal is to finish a grow with smokeable bud for the man to use.

So without further ado...


I Germed 2 Bruce Banner seeds and 2 Gorilla Glues. Never grown Banner before but curious to see if its as potent as advertised. GG4 is just a good all-around strain imo and my reserves are getting low of that strain, so time to re-stock.

Banners came from up in Maine, north Atlantic seed, the GG4’s were gifted to me by a friend of the wife who has been growing and breeding them out in CO for a few years, so they should be decent. All seeds supposedly feminized, so lets keep our fingers crossed.

Took the 4 seeds from storage, germed them with wet paper towel method, only once the seeds are in the wet paper towels, I place the container on a small heat pad to keep it around 78F in the dark.

24 hours later, we had tails on all 4! Although I suspect I could have left seeds in the towels a bit longer (more on that in a sec)

 

So we germed some seeds, lets get them some true leaves and into a nice healthy veg!

I’ve always had most of my grow issues occur in the first 2 weeks or so after germ, so I might go overkill a bit these days in the early stages, heres my setup for these tiny girls.

I have an old 2x2x4 tent I turned into a germination / veg station. I want the seedlings to get plenty of light, but not too much it hurts them, so here is how I calculate that.

“The internet” variously describes seedlings as needing around 100-300 micromoles of light per second to thrive and grow (umol/s) once again, this is a general range and is to be fine adjusted as needed for your specific grow.

There are 2 main ways to get that level of light on the seedlings, either by reducing the intensity of the light, or increasing the distance between the light and the palnts.

I’m using a mars hydro TS-1000 in this tent for the main light, here is what the manufacturer says it puts out in umol/s of light.


So if I set the light 12 inches above the plants, and put the intensity at 25%, it “should” get the plants a little over 300 umol/s of light, which is on the high end imo. (at 12 inches and 100% it puts out a little over 1,000 umol/s, which would totally fry the little plants)

Alternatively, that same light at 100%, but hung 18 inches above the plants, goes from 1,000 umol/s down to about 650 umol/s.

The point is I’m trying to get the plants to around 200, so here is my “start” calculation.

Light output to plant = max output of the light at distance X (12 inches for this example) / X distance to that power as illustrated below. (called the inverse square rule of light of you wish to learn more).


So looking at the chart above, there are several ways to get there, but I’ve chosen this one. The light puts out close to 1,000 at 75% and 12 inches from the plants, so if I double the height of the light to 24 inches, it should cut the light at the plants by ¼ or about 250 umol/s which is still a bit high for me, so I’ll turn the intensity down to 60% and hang the light at 24 inches.



When the plants are this tiny, I prefer to adjust the light via height and keep the light running at high intensity, adds more heat to the tent, which is typically in a cool (65-70F) area below grade, and I’ve found my seedlings do best a little warmer, closer to 75-80F.

So, now a few days in, both of the banners are doing well, starting their first sets of true (or serrated) leaves. The gorilla glues I should possibly have left in the damp towels longer, as both of them got “helmet head” where the seed shell has a hard time dislodging from the cotyledon leaves.



Typically misting the “head” with a water sprayer can help dislodge, but I got impatient, so sterilized some tweezers , and gently popped the shells off. One did fine, but the other one was tighter than I thought and as I pulled it, I heard the gentle ripping of some roots, shit!

I got the shells off at least, and a day later the one GG4 that pulled a little seems to be doing ok. To be safe I added some more blue spectrum lighting to encourage root growth (and all the associated math and measures like above), worst case if she ends up damaged I’ll just germ a new seed this early in the game.

I still have some high hopes for these 4, so I took the risk of putting their rooter cubes in starter pots rather than risk a transplant as the roots tend to grow past the cubes in less than a week.

I guess this would be a good time to talk about medium eh?

I use dirt, because for me, its easiest, the dirt helps form a ph and nutrient buffer that’s is especially helpful to those of us on the lower end of the skill chain, gives you a little more room for error, plus I just like dirt pots.

I start them in 1/2 gal (2 liter) pots I put about 3-4 inches of “living” soil in the bottom, then fill the rest with happy frog bag soil from fox farms. I like happy frog because its less loaded with nutrients than Ocean forest soil, and less likely to burn seedlings, happy frog plus the living soil is usually more than enough to keep the plants going for the first 30 days of veg. Although if they start to show deficiency, I may add some fox farms grow big to their water. For simplicity, I'm shipping in a cubic yard of OLY mtn fish compost living soil to the old man's house from build a soil website, its never done me wrong as a "living" soil even if sometimes there are more insects in the soil than I'd like.


Bag soil, Fox Farms, I know some of you are out there rolling your eyes right now, yes there are better soil mixes (and even mediums like coco, or hydro, or aeroponics), but the local co-op near my dad started carrying fox farms stuff last year, and being a 5 min drive from his house, and his “cracker barrel” of choice to jaw with the other retired guys, its just gonna work better if every month or so he gets out to buy supplies locally. I know it might sound patronizing, and I love my father, but the reality is hes over 80 and not 100% there mentally or physically sometimes, if he is going to do something, he has to do it his way, and this seems the best fit for his particular way of living.




So yes, no special love for fox farms stuff, just something he can acquire locally in person, which is his preferred way to transact when possible.

So here we sit for another week or two, fingers crossed for good root establishment over the next week or two, then I’m expecting to see some nice veg action in these girls towards the end of September when they can handle transplanting / topping / big lights.

Side note, I know a lot of people will top or scrog at 4 branches (2 nodes) My last grow I did 4 nodes (8 main branches) and it worked very well, but I do think I’ll top them at 3 nodes this time (6 branches) just to keep things a little more open for pics and posts.



Anyway, more plant updates in a week or so, until then, thanks for stopping by, and feel free to stop in to post comments or concerns, or just shoot the shit virtually with me down here in Virginia, not far from Thomas Jefferson’s old hemp farm at Monticello.


Until then, live your best life GC!

 

Quick update of today,

2 girls got their first true leaves, so we are off to the races. One of the bruce banners lost a cotyledon leaf while sprouting, and the one GG4 that had helmet head and some root pull are slightly behind, but they are noticeably opening.

Looks like some stretch too, probably need to adjust the light a bit lower or intensity a bit higher.

 

To be honest, I don't know who is the worse driver at this point, the old man, or my 16 year old niece, they've both hit numerous stationary objects. (fortunately no occupied vehicles or pedestrians)

 

Great to hear it man, had a good friend who did his medical residency at VCU medical center 20 some years ago, during the time he lived in a tiny apt downtown where we would just walk to the minor league baseball stadium to see games (and get loaded).

I've heard good things about the photone app, but I'm lucky enough to have a photo spectrometer I use from work (industrial hygiene / power generation) plus I'm one of those people who just isn't an apple anything fan (much to my kids dismay).

Most of my friends have moved away from Richmond over the years, but still know folks down in charlottesville, glen allen, short pump, areas.

I'm going to see how these plants do, but I may try to top at 4 branches, may do 6 (last crop I did 8 and it worked great, but I'd really like to take a fewer amount of branches and see if I can really stack the buds this time).

Trust me, I still fully capable of screwing this up!

 

Week 1 update:

Plants have germed, and most are getting their second set of leaves, which to me, mean I'm almost out of that critical seedling establishment phase!

One of the Banners and one of the GG4 are really taking off, but are stretching a little much, so I've turned up the light intensity to about 70%, which I think will eb enough to keep them from stretching but not so much it fries the little sisters.

This is the art part for me, just dailing in the lights a bit better than what my earlier measurements suggested.

Tent is kept at about 27C / 80F and RH I let go between 60-80%, still no nutes , just light waterings 2 times per day (using a hand spray bottle to mist in about 100ml of water onto the plant bases)

In other news my 2 bigger girls are getting their first nodes! Big deal to me because once they reach this size they seem a lot less prone to damping down or other "sudden death" issues for me.


Other than that not much new to report, Dad came down to piick up some gear and seedlings to take home and follow along.

He also decided that at 80, he wanted "a man's pipe" (his words not mine)

So now hes rocking in the garage with me while we pack up his gear and plants! He also picked up a raw king sized 6-shooter for rolling monster cones (his arthritis is too bad to roll by hand) showing his first big joint in the forground on the table as well!

Cannabis Trek, the next generation!


Hope everyone else's Sunday is as off to as good a start, more updates in a week (possibly sooner if I screw something up)

 

yep, he just hit the road packed up with his gear, seedlings, pipes etc, so occasionally I'll sneak some pictures of his Gorilla glues / Banners as compared to the mirror crop I'm doing here for him to follow along with.

 

Yeah, I had a good run on the last scrog (1.2lbs from 3 plants once dried and cured) and I didn't top until just before flower, 5-6 nodes per plant (10-12 branches).

I've also noticed that the 2 lowest branches, and the 2 highest (right under where you top) typically produce the biggest buds, but I think I might do the same or better paring it back to 3-4 nodes this time to see if I can do fewer, but better branches.

Of course a lot of that is going to depend on what the plants look like in a few weeks once they have enough nodes to top.

 

Its fine dude, those are some great looking plants though, are they autos or photos?

One thing I've notice as I get better, is during dry / cure having to split up the huge colas some, otherwise they they get mold, which never happened back when my buds and skills were much smaller.

Same deal here I'm sitting on over a pound dried and cured from the recent harvest, so I feel like being a little more experimental and/or casual in this grow.

Since I have 2 plants of each strain I may top one group at 4-6 branches and let the other 2 go up to 8 branches and see.

 

Thanks mate, I've read a bunch of your stuff too over the months, and its all been helpful!

Getting excited as my prior crop is now fully cured and "making the rounds" among friends and family members, and all the reviews on high, smell, and taste have been very good, even from folks like my wife's friend in CO who has been growing commercially for years.

Plus, its shaping up to be a really awesome retirement hobby to grow!