The Beginning of LB1

My first grow began with a brace of buds that my step-son gave me from a hydroponic grow he had finished in his closet. Apparently there was a male (or hermi) which had matured before it was discovered, and it had fertilized three of the flowers in the buds I got.

So while this is basically bag-seed, I have named this particular strain of MJ LB1 in honor of the gardener who gave me the buds.

I dried and smoked the buds and saved the three seeds for a while, and then on a whim, and because I was running out of smoke and was already germinating tomato seeds, I decided to plant one into a peat pellet and let it sprout around the last weekend in March. I don't have any photos of the early stages because I really didn't expect the seedling to thrive. My wife tended it along with the tomatoes and several weeks later it was ready to go into a pot. I transplanted it into a 10" pot and put it out among the peas.


...where it thrived.


After a while, I was getting excited about supplying myself with the herb and not having to score so I began thinking of long term supplies. I decided to keep the plant alive by taking cuttings.

Note that these cuttings are already rooted. I rooted them for two weeks in solo cups before putting them into these containers.

A month later (July 28) the cuttings were growing well and I took another two cuttings. This way, I'm thinking I can keep a constant state of harvest over time. Also found a volunteer growing at the edge of the patio. I had a mixed bag of seeds that I had been trying to sprout but I guess they were too old and uncared for. My son-inlaw had a frisbee full of them that he kept when cleaning his stuff and he poured a bunch into a baggie. I guess I dropped it in the grass and it started growing. When my wife showed it to me I dug it up and put it into its own bucket (on the right).

 

It soon became apparent that in order to provide a continuous harvest, I would have to supplement nature and build a grow box for vegetating clones and also (perhaps) flower my plants out during the winter months. So after a little research, I built this:








Which I am using to produce this:

 

Things are progressing well. I think the original plant will be ready to harvest in about a month...it has been flowering since the end of June. The clones are budding nicely too. The one in the bucket has been growing naturally outside, the one in the center was vegetated for three weeks under 24 hrs light before being set out and the one on the far right was vegetated for 5 wks under 24 hrs. before being set out. I still have three clones in the grow box that I will take cuttings from before putting them into flower in the next few weeks.

 

Thank you. I freaked out the other day when I saw the sheriff helicopter buzzing around and drug all the plants inside. With the bucket, it is dang near 8' tall. The branches are so heavy that they're hanging low now. I'm thinking (hoping) that it won't be much longer before harvest.

 

I brought the girlies together for a group shot and some close ups. Things are progressing well, and the buds are filling out nicely. Still a ways to go but I'm getting excited of actually having grown my very own MJ.


Sept. 15 Group Shot


Sept. 15 Tip Top


Sept. 15 Bud on Clone

 

I had to harvest a little bit early. I freaked out when a gray huey helicopter was circling my house and cut everything down. fortunately I had the foresight to shove everything into garbage bags before I buried it in the garden. Turns out it was a life-alert flight and they were just waiting for the Highway Patrol to clear a landing site so they could med-evac some wreck victim.

After I calmed down, I dug everything up and dried it out. I yielded a little over 8 oz. (14 ea. .52 oz jars and 1 ea. 1.03 oz jar...plus a huge bowl of trim and popcorn buds.

Not too bad. The next girl is looking better though.

 

After my unscheduled harvest, I had murderlized all the girls I had growing outdoors, leaving only one plant vegetating in the growbox. Thankfully, I figured out that the helicopter was not the gestapo before destroying that last lady too. So I took some more cuttings to keep the strain going and set the plant outside to flower...and she is doing that really well.







I'm thinking it will be ready by Christmas...New Years on the outside.

 

I only had one plant grow wild from seed that fell in the yard...it grew into a big beautiful boy...so I chopped it down.

 

I yielded a little over 8 oz. (14 ea. .52 oz jars and 1 ea. 1.03 oz jar...plus a huge bowl of trim and popcorn buds.
This is the dried and trimmed weight.

 

I have not yet done an all indoor grow. My technique has been kind of a hybrid process; vegetate inside in my growbox and then put them outside (it is winter and the days are short...around 10 hrs.) to flower.

The last little bush yielded 42 grams of dried and trimmed bud. The potency of this batch is MUCH higher than those that I grew over the summer. Come summer time, I plan to reverse the process and vegetate outside and bring them into the growbox to flower.

 

Just keeping the process going. I have a nice stash, have gifted, and now I'm going to try some other stuff. I planted 4 seeds around Thanksgiving last year (11-24-07), two C.Sativa and two C.Indica type bagseeds.
Of those two, one Indica and one Sativa seeds sprouted and have been growing in my growbox. Today I brought the plants outside and took two cuttings of each before switching the light to induce flowering.

I also have one of the original LB1's that is about 1/3 way through flowering. I set it out on 12-15-07 to flower after having taken two cuttings.

The two LB1 cuttings taken on 12-15-07 are doing well and will continue to vegetate for another month or so.


All Together - Various Stages of Growth


C.Indica Bagseed


C.Indica Clones


C.Sativa Bagseed


C.Sativa Clones

 

I have just discovered that my latest female is developing male blooms (aka bananas or 'nanners).

This is a clone of a clone of my original grow from last March that I call LB1. I took cuttings in October from another clone of the original LB1 before putting it into flower and veg the cutting in my grow box under 18/6.

On Dec. 9, 2007 I set this clone outside to flower and it has developed big beautiful buds.

While I was looking at the trichomes to gauge when to cut it and noticed the yellow, elongated blooms in the middle of my frosty fat nuggets. The trichs are just now turning milky so I could harvest at this point and get some decent smoke, but I'm considering letting the plant mature in hopes of developing viable seeds.

the original seed came from what I suspect was a hermi that my son grew in his closet.

The original plant grew and flowered normally, and two of the cuttings have done well. I'm pretty sure that this third plant hermied because of the gradually lengthening days since the winter solstice.

 

One of the seeds planted 11/24/07 (an indica type) turned out to be male. When I first noticed, I had the thought to let it mature and fertilize one of my LB1 girls to make seeds. I much prefer to use cuttings, but seeds are a lot more portable and don't require any of the attention that clones do.

When I discovered that my latest incarnation of LB1 was popping male flowers, I changed my plan to use the pollen from the hermie to fertilize some flowers for seed... so I cut it down.

On a positive note, the sativa type seed I planted the same time (11/4/07) is showing female preflowers.

It is probably a coincidence but so far, the two sativa type plants that I have grown from seed were female, and both of the seeds that produced C.Indica type plants were male.