Bob's Journey into Hybridisation and Genetics - For Dummies

[FullMoonparty]

Very sorry for the personal crisis at home Bob, I've had my share and hope yours resolve well, and soon. Stressful timing for compounding issues related to your farming unfortunately too, but I know you'll be successful growing into the future regardless.

You have way more knowledge and experience in horticulture than I do, so I know that if I was able to get to the point where I can successfully grow now without meters, added nutrients, or really buying much of anything besides a few dollars worth of organic soil between grows…then anyone that doesn't want to sponsor you is being penny wise and pound foolish as you continue to put up dreams, and a big fat chronic sack

Do you think a grow journal where I add nothing but water would be worth doing? It would be a little boring. Once I get the plants into the autopots there is nothing to do but watch. (they do malfunction if not maintained). I do top dress about half way through but that's about it. Is this a good way to get a sponsor? Autopots, Grow dots and Cannatrol. My big secret.

 

[Bob's Auto's]

Hey guys

This morning I took another trip to the tent to check the three remaining doubters...Two of 'm showed sex, one being a male and the other a female. This takes the count to 8 females to work with. The remaining doubter is starting to show something, but I can't make out if it's a girl or boy. Maybe some thoughts? Oh, never mind. By tomorrow we'll know if a pistil is hanging out or if it becomes balls... I'm rooting for a female, that would make 9 females inside the tent.

Yup...I've chosen to migrate the males inside the greenhouse. With the weather we're having right now temperatures won't go below 14°C / 57°F inside the greenhouse and that's at night. As soon as the sun starts shining temperatures soon exceed 30°C / 86°F, so that'll do just fine for these gentlemen.
Day 23 - Junk Dealer's Wedding - small male pheno

All the windows in the greenhouse are closed and the other plants are on a low watering schedule since a week or two, so humidity is also manageable...
Day 23 - Junk Dealer's Wedding - large male pheno

Back inside the tent I'm hoping for 9 females as this will keep the symmetry and let's not forget some extra bud to smoke

Day 23 - Junk Dealer's Wedding - large female pheno

Day 23 - Junk Dealer's Wedding - small female pheno

Day 23 - Junk Dealer's Wedding - small female pheno

Day 23 - Junk Dealer's Wedding - small female pheno

Day 23 - Junk Dealer's Wedding - small female pheno

Day 23 - Junk Dealer's Wedding - small female pheno

Day 23 - Junk Dealer's Wedding - small female pheno

Oh, and also...The stretch is on. The plants are definitely showing acceleration in upwards grow. Please follow along with the time lapse I prepared.
Speed = 30fps, duration = 61 hours. Enjoy

Finally I would like to end with some values...

• Temperature has lowered to 26°C / 79°F, which isn't bad, but I've activated the PID control of the heatbed underneath the tray. It's set to 27°C / 80°F and will switch off when that temp is reached.
• The VPD is a bit high, but I haven't made an adjustment since I removed the males, so there are only 9 plants inside instead of 12.
• The CO² I was so proud of has diminished because of the higher extraction speed of the fan. There's only so much you can do with DIY, but I'm certain the vegging phase has bennefited enormously from the extra CO² during that period.
• Then the light...Since the distance between led and leaf is still more then 40cm's / 15" I've upped the output to a stagering 80%. Never have I had to set it that high. The extra distance really does help in dissipating the heat and dispersing the photons. Either way, the ladies aren't complaining and I'm keeping a close eye on them the next days as I'm trying to contain the stretch by slowly raising the light output, which I've been doing over the last couple of days anyway.

That's it folks!! If you managed to get this far, thank you very much for your time and I hope to see you on the other side



Regards,

Bob

 

[Bob's Auto's]

Do you think a grow journal where I add nothing but water would be worth doing? It would be a little boring. Once I get the plants into the autopots there is nothing to do but watch.

There's nothing boring about a successful grow brother. Just showing your peers that something like BioTabs is worth trying because of the ease of the product is just as informative. As is showing them how to use their products in a correct manner.
I must have done at least eight grows on BioTabs and it was quite the learning experience. If you take the time to read through all those threads you'll see some combinations work while others won't. That's information that stays on this forum until the end of days and might help someone in deciding if this product is good for their use or not.
Also important is the fact that you have an diary in which you yourself can look back upon to see where something went wrong or if a cultivar you once grew looks and acts the same as the same one you are growing right now...
The more information you keep, the more you can learn...
A couple of good tips:

• Learn all you can about VPD and get a VPD meter, it's a temp/humidity meter, but it also calculates VPD. Get one that connects to wifi and has an app for your phone. This will give you way more freedom then when everything is checked locally.
• get a cheap (Chinese) action camera and set it up for a time lapse. One picture every 5min. seems to work just fine. You can learn so much from seeing your plants grow at a faster speed.
• The combination of both will give you a view on which setting will make your plants grow faster or slower. It's always behind the facts, but synchronizing the time for both devices is doable and will give you perfect replicable results.

 

[Emerald Archer]

Thanks for the mention!
i am also a huge fan of your journal/journey. Great cultivation on display (with flub ups and and fails included). The small bit of vicarious breeder fix is good for my soul. And as you know I have a few of my own beans to play around with, plus I have a tent of Sawney Beans brewing. The Nightmare is loving my setup. She is HUGE compared to the other 3.. one of which I stunted hard…anyhow I digress I have updates to post soon enough..

what i did also want to say and the reason I even hit reply, was the time-lapses!! I can watch about any plant in a timelaps, but my favorite by FAR is our beloved Ganj she is made for film. And biasedly IMO one of the most versatile plants on the planet.

keep these pages flowing monn.

 

[Bob's Auto's]

Thank you so much for those kind word my friend!!

 

[Don't Fear the Reefer]

Hi Bob, I just managed to find my action camera that I bought a few years ago and it can do time lapse
How have attached yours to the tent and how do you supply the power over the many hours of footage that you take.
Did you use the waterproof housing?

Any other tips?

 

[Bob's Auto's]

Hey guys

Like I predicted I didn't have to wait that long to find out if the doubter was male or female. Yippiekaje mf'rs!! Nine ladies in all to play with....

Now that I know all inhabitants of the tent are female, it's time to boost the pistil production. How, you say? Well, the answer lies in introducing ethylene gas. Just like CO² this gas is taken up by the plant and given the right dosage it'll induce flower production on any sex!
Yup, If I left a male inside the tent after treatment this gent would express female flowers...Not something you want happening when you're breeding ofcourse. That's why I waited until I sexed up all the tent participants.

There's multiple ways to introduce ethylene gas to the plants, most are to expensive since they involve gasbottles and valves and such. But there is an cheaper way to get Ethylene or at least it's precursor straight into the plant. And that is by using a product called Florel or Ethephon. I'm not going to digress about the ingredients and how it's made, because that'll open up another can of worms. Just keep in mind that these are potent chemicals and that only using the right dosage will have an effect. I've got my information from a well known chem nerd at the WUR and I've used it before inside the greenhouse on all sorts of plants.
What's the right dosage I hear you thinking...wel that's 1µM or if you don't want to do the hard work of calculating 400PPM. I found a supplier that sells it in 10ml vials, which is more then enough to do ten grows, if you catch my drift. It's so cheap I toss the vial after one season and then open a new one. Anyhoo, the concentration in those vials is 40% Ethephon, which if you dilute 1ml into 1L water you get...400PPM.
Don't add any surfactant to the mix as the product is very unstable and will start to break up into water and carbon. And spray the plants from top to bottom, get into every nook and cranny.

When you're done spraying, close the tent immediately. Dim the lights to 10 or 20% and shut off the fan.
Let the humidity spike inside the tent. As soon as the product starts to evaporate it goes from precursor to Ethylene gas, water and CO².
Give the plants one to two hours time before you resume the higher light intensities so they can start basking in the artifical sun again. Oh and don't forget to turn on the extraction fan.

Regards,

Bob

 

[Bob's Auto's]

After +two hours sitting inside the tent with no ventilation and the lights at 20%. This is what the ladies look like...Nicely hydrated like my missus after she comes home from the spa...

Slowly the VPD will be turned up in the region of 0.98 - 1.02kPa. As will the light go back to 80-85% over the remaining hours I have left today before I turn in.


See ya!!

 

[Bob's Auto's]

Hi Bob, I just managed to find my action camera that I bought a few years ago and it can do time lapse
How have attached yours to the tent and how do you supply the power over the many hours of footage that you take.
Did you use the waterproof housing?

Any other tips?

Sorry bro, must have missed it while I was making the posts above.
I use a knock-off gorilla pod, which I can twist around the pole's of the tent.
In the roof of the tent is a powerstrip mounted which has four USB outlets. Perfect for low-voltage appliances
No waterproof housing necessary unless you are going at it with a hose

 

[Don't Fear the Reefer]

Sorry bro, must have missed it while I was making the posts above.
I use a knock-off gorilla pod, which I can twist around the pole's of the tent.
In the roof of the tent is a powerstrip mounted which has four USB outlets. Perfect for low-voltage appliances
No waterproof housing necessary unless you are going at it with a hose

Thanks Bob, that's a great idea with the gorilla pod, I have a cheap one of those too, so I can do the same.
I'll have to look into a usb powerstrip, thanks again Bob.