The following grow was started September 4, 2006. Growing Spontanica and White Rhino Germ Day 1 - September 4th Dropped 3 seeds of each strain into water for hydration. Prepared soil. Will be using Miracle Grow Organic Choice soil with perlite and worm castings. For the nine solo cups, I mixed 9 cups of soil, 4 cups of perlite, and 1 cup of worm castings. Germ Day 2 - September 5th All seeds have sunk. Put seeds in Tupperware container with wet paper towel and placed it over my external hard drive for warmth. Germ Day 4 - September 7th Had to germ one more White Rhino and two more Spontanica in stead of two more Swazi Skunks. Transplanted three Spontanica, three White Rhino, and one Swazi to solo cups. Currently under 24/7 lighting of three 150W CFL's. They will only be under CFL's for a few weeks, then they will be transported to their final home in the grow box that I am retrofitting. Germ Day 5 - September 8th Five of the six plants are above soil and green. Seeds still germing. Veg Day 1 - September 10th All plants up and running. I am calling this Veg Day 1. Veg Day 3 - September 12th Planted the last two Spontanica and the last White Rhino. The others are starting to produce some nice leaves. The White Rhino leaves look a lot different than the Spontanica leaves. P.S. Weed Loves Worm Castings. I highly recommend. Veg Day 7 - September 16th Took measurements and noted a few things: Swazi Skunk - 4 1/2 inches tall. Node 3. 3 point leaves. Bottom sides of leaves are dusty purple. WR #1 - 3 1/2 inches tall. Node 4. 5 point leaves. Deep green. WR #2 - 3 inches tall. Node 3. 3 point leaves. WR #3 - 2 inches tall. Node 2. Single leaves. S #1 - 3 inches tall. Very tight nodes. Node 4. 5 point leaves. S #2 - 3 inches tall. Node 3. 5 Point leaves. Light green in color. S #3 - 2 inches tall. Node 3. 3 Point leaves. S #4 & #5 - 1 inch sprouts. Veg Day 10 - September 19th I just about killed the plants. Had a watering issue with my watering system. I found a few dry leaves and they were limp. Immediately watered all of the plants. thoroughly. Will check back tomorrow. Also made a foliar spray tonight. Mixture is 22 ounces of water to 1/3 tablespoon of Thrive Alive B1 Green. Veg Day 11 - September 20th Check plants. Looks great. Clipped the dead leaves and trimmed the dead spots off of a few leaves. Veg Day 13 - September 22nd Watered all plants. Noticed a few a ready for a light fertilizing. The Swazi actually grew about 2 inches in 12 hours and grew right into the light. Two leaves got a little burned. I am taking new measurements and pictures tonight. I have decided to veg for 35 days (until October 17). If anyone has any suggestions for why I should veg for longer or shorter, please let me know. According to flowering times, they would all be ready around mid December (Merry Christmas to me indeed!). Swazi Skunk - 6 inches tall. 7 point leaves. Ready for ferts. WR #1 - 5 inches tall. 7 point leaves. Ready for ferts. WR #2 - 4 1/2 inches tall. 7 point leaves. Ready for ferts. Some of the lower leaves starting to yellow. WR #3 - 4 inches tall. 7 point leaves. Not ready for ferts. S #1 - 5 inches tall. 9 point leaves. Ready for ferts. S #2 - 5 inches tall. 7 point leaves. Ready for ferts. S #3 - 5 inches tall. 7 point leaves. Ready for ferts. S #4 - 3 inches tall. 5 point leaves. Not ready for ferts. S #5 - 3 Inches tall. 7 Point leaves. Not ready for ferts. I have noticed that the leaves are looking a bit blotchy. I think it is from the foliar spray. I am about to put the plants on a 18/6 rotation. I will mist them on the dark cycle. If that does not help, then I will discontinue use of the foliar spray. Veg Day 14 - September 23rd Here are some pictures I took when I checked on them today.
Veg Day 16, September 25th Gave them their first dose of weak nutes. I cut the recommended dosage in half. I will slowly bring it up over the next 3 feedings to full strength. Only thing of note is that one leaf on one of the Spontanica has a brown tip ( the only on the whole plant) had has some dry spots on it. I have discontinued the use of the foliar spray for the time being. Any ideas? I don't have a camera that can take a picture that close. Anyways, I will put up some new pictures this weekend when they go into their new pots and I start the LST. Veg Day 25, October 4th. I went to the grow box this morning and wanted to cry. The Swazi is a male (balls all over the top of that thing) and one of the White Rhino is male. I will kill them honorably tonight. It looks like at least one of the Spontanica is going to be male also. The rest of them look the same. Has anyone ever heard of plants going male before they go into flower though? I am not really complaining because at least I know and I don't waste time caring for them during flower. I was just wondering since they are still on 6/18. Anyway, I will take pictures tonight when I get home from work of the men that shall be killed. Veg Day 26, October 5th Well, I killed the men. Kind of made me a little sick. Plus I saw two more that may be male. Just a waiting game now. Only four more days until they go into flower. Here are a couple of pictures of what I have now and the two dead males. The two tall ones in the upper right are the ones that are most likely male. Veg Day 28, October 7th 2006 Well, in the past few days I have started to LST the plants. They are taking to it very well. I also have pruned them. It didn't phase them one bit. No slow down in growth. Tonight I finished tying them off and cut the last few leaves. I had another male to kill this morning. I added him to the compost heap for future generations of plants. So that leaves six plants left of the original nine. Three Spontanica and three White Rhino. I am very impressed with the White Rhino (from Nirvana). They are doing fantastic. Very dense nodes and I have counted 12 bud sites on each of the three plants. Many more are coming out every day. A very bushy plant indeed. The Spontanica (by KC Brains) is definitely an outdoor plant. It grows a little too quick for an indoor grow. However, I do believe that I will get some quality bud off of these plants. I am so happy with these guys that I have decided to keep them in veg until I get back from a business trip on the 20th. Perhaps another 5 - 10 days after that. The only problem is that White Rhino takes up to 11 weeks to flower. That is a super long time to wait, but I think letting the plants grow for a few more weeks in veg will pay off. I will still have the Spontanica cut, dried, and cured by Christmas (Merry Christmas to me!) If anyone else has another view I would love to hear it (like if an extra 20 - 25 days are really going to make a difference). I was also thinking about taking a clone of one of the White Rhinos. I am just not sure at what point is a good time to take clones. I have already built a bubble cloner (thanks Creeptic). Just not sure if I really want to risk a clone at this point. Anyway, as promised, here are some pictures after I finished LSTing and pruning. Here is a White Rhino And a Spontanica
The swazi did auto flower male. So I killed it. And I was using CFL's while the plants were just in cups. When I transplanted them, they went into my grow box under a 400W CFL.
Swazi is fantastic bud... too bad I could only get one out of 10 to germ and it went male. But I am not complaining. The seeds were free . Anyway, I have decided to let them veg for 45 days. So I am looking at Tuesday, October 24th. I am not sure though because I don't want the plants to hit the flowering stretch and go out of control. My grow box is only 4 feet tall. I guess if they went crazy I would just have to LST the hell put of them. I am looking and tying the down once more this comming Saturday. Then I will be on a business trip until the following Friday. I have my wife tending to them. I already pre-measured the water for each plant. Well, Until this Saturday (pending nothing major happens).
Veg Day 32, October 11th All I really did today was water and tie a couple of limbs down. These KC Brains seeds are for shit. It looks like out of 5 seeds I will get one female. What do you expect for 15 bucks I guess. The White Rhino from Nirvana are awesome though. I decided come hell or high water, these babies will be going into flower at day 45. I would do it now, but I am going out of town for a week and I don't want to leave them in their first week of flower for my wife to make light adjustments and tie off the plant when stretching. Anyway, here are the pictures.
Flower Day 7, October 22nd Today they got their first feeding. I also killed the last spontanica male. So thats four plants that are female out of nine total plants. I gave them a quarter of the recommended dosage of BC Bud Bloom, Boost, and Thrive Alive Red. I will check them when the lights come on to see how they are liking it. I have notice that I am going almost 7 - 9 days between waterings. Is that normal? They just really don't need the water for that long. That wont effect my fertilizing schedule will it? They aren't having any problems as far as signs of root rot or soggy soil. The temperatures in the room are 72 during the light cycle and 63 during the dark cycle. Well, on to the pictures! P.S. I bought some more seeds. They will be here in about 2 weeks. I purchased some PPP seeds and some Purps. I will start the grow as soon as they get here. Until next time, here are some pictures. White Rhino #1 White Rhino #2 White Rhino #3 Spontanica #5 Group Shot
Flower Day 29, Week 5, November 13th Well, I feel like a total moron. My camera does have a macro function. Amazing what you can find out when you read a damn instruction manual. Anyway, I fed them last night. These pictures were taken about 15 minutes ago. The Spontanica is really packing on the weight. It looks so fantastic. I am tempted to trim off a small bud and try it, but I am going to wait. The White Rhino has really picked up. The buds are smaller than the Spontanica, but hopefully things will pick up. If not, I know why and as long as I get a little bud off of it, thats all I care about. So, without further adieu, here are the *high res* pictures. Enjoy what I have grown! Both of the sisters The Spontanica Main Cola The Spontanica Secondary Colas The White Rhino Main Cola The White Rhino Top Flower