Grape Ape/ Urkle Grow

Hey everyone starting this journal pretty late just flipped my lighting to 12/12 the other day. This is my third grow from seeds I have made myself which i believe to be grape ape or something very close to it. I was collecting bag seeds I found from different kinds of mid grade weeds that were coming from an old pot farmer in the area. I moved away had the seeds for years and finally decided to try growing them out. I didnt expect the 5 year old seeds to pop but they surprisingly did and as I grew them out I found that the stinkiest plant of all 4 of them was Male so I took it outside and let it keep on growing and all the smell in my grow tent was gone so I knew that Male plant had something special about it. After a few days it started to go purple all over every leafs edge and the pollen sacs also started to go purple. I did some research online and found how I could collect the pollen from this plant and possibly breed the female plants to make some seeds. I used a paint brush to pollinate only a few select bud sites on each of the 3 females around day 21 of flower and it worked like a dream! Only the sites I pollinated and marked off were seeded and one of those 3 females was a major winner in my books. It smelled like grape pop and kush or skunk all combined such a beautiful smell and rubbing a leaf to get your finger a little sticky had the most amazing smell and the buds were so caked in Trichomes I couldn't believe it. The other two females were pretty good but definately different strains. Anyways I grew out a few seeds from what I believe to be grape x with that super purple smelly indica and only one ended up being a female and I was growing some northern skunk by peak seeds and used colloidal silver to self the grape smelling plant because it retained that great grape smell from the mother before and heavy trichrome production but with way more of an indica appearance and bigger bud structure. I let the pollen from that grape plant pollinate itself to produce seeds and just let the northern skunk plant get pollinated too as well as a super purple/black pheno of the grape plant.

Below are some pictures of the female I used for the breeding with the Purple Male on my 1st grow. Will add pictures of the current grow and set up soon!

 

This is the from the first batch seeds I grew that had those grape smelling trichromes and the one that I used colloidal silver on one branch to make feminised pollen this run I wanted the seeds more then I wanted the herb and had to go on vacation for 10 days and the seeds weren't quite ready yet so I let get grow a bit too long completely overdone and dry af after the 10 days but the seeds were perfect. I freshly watered the plants and poked holes in 2 litres bottles and rammed those in the soil for a slow feeder while I was gone and it worked surprisingly well.

 

Here is my current grow of 3 Grape Ape s1 and 1 Grape Ape X Northern Skunk (peakseeds) F1 hybrid.
My set up has a 4x4x6.5 Vivosun grow tent with one small clip on fan hooked to the top bar pushing the warm air out of the top hole in the tent and one oscillating stand up 18" fan with 3 settings blowing over the tops of the plants. Two Vipar spectra lights one Tc450w and one Ds350w. Im just using a plain organic soil with about 40% perlite 60% soil and for nutrients I'm using a personal grow box by hollands secret with all the following nutrients on the recommended dosage for weeks 1 to 4 veg and 1 to 8 flowering Micro, Grow, Bloom, Calnesium, Super-B, Royal Gold, Carbo blast, Propogator, Bud start, Ton-o-bud, Bud boom. Temps are usually around 26 degrees Celsius 60 to 70% humidity with a small humidifier in there

Below are some pictures from the start to about 1 month old topped them then I first started lst. One plant I messed up and the topping didnt work so I topped it a bit later to slow growth and the others caught up to it luckily

 

A little after 1 month I transplanted them from 2 gallon pots into 5 gallon buckets once the roots starting expanding the plants took right off. I started more seedings of the grape ape x northern skunk and the grape ape x grape ape black phenotype. Eventually ran out of room and threw the young ones into my 2x4 tent and bit the bullet bought 2 more cheap 300 watt LEDs to veg those under .

 

With some lst tying down branches to the edge of the buckets I got a pretty nice even looking canopy going on. Plants are starting to smell pretty damn nice! This is a little after after the transplant into 5 gallon and tying down just flipped into flower 3 days ago hoping the best from the untested fem seeds!

 

Week 2 flower update.
The girls are stretching like crazy right now raised the lights a couple days ago and already have to raise them again. I hung my stand up oscillating fan upside down from the tent roof for more horizontal space for growth and took the humidifier out of the tent. Added some Bud start into the last feed 3 days ago and pistils are starting to form everywhere, glad to see the colloidal silver breeding method worked out perfectly!

 

Thanks! Can't wait till a bit further in the grow to see if I get a rare black magic kush phenotype out of this. I ended up with one last run and it was deadly started out purple then the leaves went o dark they became black only on that one out of the batch and was pretty damn potent. Need to find one of these bad boy phenos again and expose to more cold near the end of flower to really make the colour come out.

 

I would definately go for the danker ones too! Cheese strains arent my favorite, I have smoked a couple but never grew anything out with those properties. I swear I watered the genetics down a little with the grape ape because it was my first grow and I could tell the plant was fire my first time growing it and one out of 4 seeds was a purple male that when I took it outside my whole house lost the dank smell then collected some pollen off of it and selectively pollinated certain branches of the 3 females. Then when I grew the seeds from the best plant (Grape Ape) they took on much more of an indica bud stucture but retained the heavy trichrome production and the grape smell so I was pretty happy. Kept having tons of problems with males though. Like my last run 7 of 8 seeds were males I was so mad lol grew them all out just to find that out. Did some research on colloidal silver and feminised seeds and happened to have a bottle of CS laying around from a couple years ago and it worked awesome! I'm just really hoping the grape ape I self pollinated doesnt go all hermie like everyone says online. Never had a hermie in my 4 grows so far so we will see what happens! They are definitely feminised, pistils all over all 4 of big girls. I need to start cloning I tried a test run last time and cut a few lowers off at a 45° angle dipped in water right away got my soil in little pots ready and then dipped the cut into some rooting powder then planted in the soil. Took a week or two but it started giving off new growth and I put a couple just in a cup of water took longer but they also rooted. Discarded the two in the cup and kept the two in little pots keep going I took the clones in early flower and just kept flowering them so it was like 2 buds sticking out of the soil lol and were a little bit behind the mother plants from trying to root.

 

Week 3 flower update.
Little buds are starting to form all over the tops, pistils everywhere! They did have a stinky skunk smell going through veg and now starting to get more pungent smelling every day. When the frost starts coming in should smell like a grape soda skunk party. Plants have also doubled in height since the flip to 12/12. Threw 2 smaller plants in the tent as I had no room in my veg tent to keep them in there after transplanting the rest of the smaller ones. They dont seem to be getting too much light down there might have to prop them up on something if want anything off those two small ones.

 

Here Is a picture of my veg tent had to defoliate so much the other day you couldnt even see the pots anymore, looking good with their new haircuts though.I have 8 plants in2 gallon pots in it atm going to flip these in 7 days when the bigger ones hit their halfway point and see what happens. 4 grape ape x northern skunk and 4 grape ape x with grape ape black pheno. Different brand of lights in this tent these ones are vivosun and seem to be doing a pretty decent job but they produce quite a bit of heat! Was going to veg these out until the other ones finished flowering but they are just growing two fast if I let them grow another month + 7 days I feel they would get too big for this 5 foot tall tent.

 

Thanks guys. This is the first time I actually tried topping and a bit of lst and its paid off nicely so far. Going to defoliate the middles of the plants taking out the bigger fan leaves blocking light to the bottom, I have done this about 3 times but they just keep bushing out with all that new growth. The only thing I'm worried about this run is that I dont think some of those branches are going to support the buds a little later into flower. Some feel pretty floppy and small. Maybe the buds will grow smaller due to the double toppings, but if I get buds like the last run on these stems I think they will weigh down and rest on the edge of the bucket. We will see what happens in the next few weeks I guess hopefully those stems get a bit woodier!

 

My last run growing northern skunk 2 turned out to be female and one topped itself at a very young age somehow and I let those two tops grow straight up and ended up yielding like 1.75x more then the untopped plant. Did the same thing the next run with the grape ape plant that I used the colloidal on I just used a lower branch then discarded the branch after the plants were pollinated. It grew out two big branches of seeded bud, still pretty potent for being seeded at week 3 flower!

 

Got a few big thick stems on the sides from the 1st set of mains that are like a foot long but ya I know when those couple bud il probably need to get some little sticks or bamboo pieces to support a few. Might need an air conditioner too as the temps here are getting out of control 28 celcius main ac in the house can barely keep it 22 to 24 then the tent goes from like 22 to 29 on hot days with the tent door slightly open and the two fans there. Definstely going to need a mini ac in there soon when trichrome production starts up.

 

Ya I think I have that goin on where the walls kind of suck in a little. I have the bottom cover off during the day the little fan blows out the 6 inch hole above venting warmer out then have the oscillating fan on the side where the air comes through the bottom vent then I open the window in the room with a ceiling fan on so theres tons of air movement lights on time. Just feels like 29 would melt trichromes slowly heat them away . The plants do seem to be healthy and good it's just there drinking water like crazy because of the heat hopefully near the end of the month/ early Sept temps drop down a bit.