Bob's Journey into Hybridisation and Genetics - For Dummies

[Bob's Auto's]

Hey guys

Growth is accelerating in the tent. Especially for the Skywalker OG x UK Cheese on the left, these ladies are stretching like there is no tomorrow.
Whojah!!!!

I've been tucking the larger fan leaves underneath the side nodes, which gave them just enough time in the light to stretch over them leaves. It doesn't show that well in the picture, but almost all the side nodes have reached into the light. And except for the Skywalker OG x UK Cheese on the left, I don't think the others will stretch that much, except for them nodes of course.

Oh, and I've discovered another advantage of topdressing with the VIANO MIXPROF FERTISOIL 3-2-3...
I don't have to water so slowly anymore, as the top-layer disperses the liquid and it disappears into the soil as fast as it got dumped on top

Mr. Sawney_bean's, Slaughtered Lamb are the furthest ahead. These girls have been flowering for a couple of days now. Still, #1 is looking the best. Tomorrow when I water them I'll be measuring the internodal distances. According to some breeders out there, if there is a 1:1.6 ratio between each next node, this should indicate a great specimen. Got something todo with the Golden Ratio...

The choice between the two Cheese XXL's is clearly an easy one. #1 is the furthest of both. In the back the race is on for #1 of the two Double Grape x 3 Bears OG, as she is doing her best to gain in on her sister.

And finally my male. A nice compact flower cluster, indicating a possibility of compact flowers in the female progeny.

For now the only one besides the two ladies and a undecided one...this undecided one will probably not make it for breeding as I want fast auto's, just like my mate Sawney

Another time lapse, a short one this time, but not because I sped things up, rather to show how fast everything is growing...
Speed = 30fps, duration = 38 hours!! Enjoy

Regards,

Bob

 

[Bob's Auto's]

@hecno, thanks for the rep dude And why yes, it sure is my friend. Learning so much at the moment and I'm sharing it all here

The ladies and gent are growing like their lives depend on it, they are in stretch modus... Check out the time lapse in the end to be flabbergasted

And while stretching the first flower clusters are starting to form...

Yummie

Loads of potential in this little one.

I've also rearranged the plants so they go from high (left) to low (right)...

I've hung my light accordingly

I told you I would share some stuff I learned... Previously I discussed the Golden ratio, when this is also found in nature, I meant to say the Fibonacci ratio.
Most of you have seen The Da Vinci Code, no? If not look it up Anyway, the sum of distance A+B should equal C, and the sum of B+C should equal D and so on. If you find a plant where the internodal distance is following this ratio, then it get's one tick on the notepad behind it's name.

This shouldn't be the only parameter to be used for deciding which one to use, but it helps in selecting that one special parent

Check it out for yourselves...

A great example of above said ratio if you ask me...

And to end today's post...exactly what you guys have been waiting for...An amazing time lapse...Growth is spectacular to say the least
Speed = 30fps, duration = 58 hours. Enjoy

Regards,

Bob

 

[Bob's Auto's]

First of all, thanks to @Emerald Archer for the rep. Tanks dude!!



Day 30 my friends

Ladies have stretched almost double in size. Great to have that extra 40cm headspace now. Will definity be a challenge with the Widow grow next as these guys can get really big!!!...

This is my male which is definitely conforming to the Fibonacci ratio, not that I had loads of choice as this is my only male
He sure has nice clusters of flowers to show for it. I'm thinking on removing the ladies which aren't to be pollinated outside the tent for a couple of days. This dark period will also stress these cultivars and see is any herms show up.

The flowers aren't nearly ready, so I'm not afraid anything will get pollinated right now... I have also been pondering why I just wouldn't let everyone sit inside the tent and let the male do it's thing. If, after a good cure, I dry/cure my buds to 52-54% humidity so I can crush them between thumb and index finget without the need of my grinder, which would definitly crush the seeds.

The advantage of this is, there's only one male. So genetically speaking the rest depends on every female in the group. I could harvest each plant, give it a personal wecking jar for curing and organize a test day. Maybe @Antonio_DutchPassion, would be interested in such an event? I know @Sawney_bean and many more would be, but for those guys, such a trip would have more preparation needed I'm afraid

Some of the leaves on the male are starting to show signs of trichomes...

This one shows it even better. And even though it are stalked versions, they imply a preference to building those structures. This is a good sign

A short clip of my male. Felt a video showed more then a photo. Turn your volume down as the fan is makeing quite some noice...

After taking these pictures I dosed the plants with another 200ml Boom Boom Spray. This should take the flower production in to overdrive.
Meanwhile I've been giving the soil a PK booster, based on Molases, Bone meal (1) and Potash (2).

Spoiler: receipe

These were mixed with the molasse inside a large ketle over a low heat. This allowed the additions to dissolve way better the when just dumped inside the 5L canister.
I added the amount by volume, as is according to EU standards and what the PK value's on the side of them bottles means. And had a hard time to get everything dissolved. 5%P according to volume was about 280gr of the pellets, the 8%K would amount to 340gr pellets. This didn't seem much on paper, but was almost a third of both boxes. To get these additions added to the Molasses I poured out 1L into a bucket, to which I added about 5L lukewarm water to it and mixed it up. This got poured over the Biochar that's still brewing outside. The extra carbs will keep the bennies inside the carbon happy, if I must guess.
Everything got poured back into the 5L canister and was left to cool. Meanwhil I ordered myself the last ingredient I needed. One small bottle of BIO PK 5-8, there's enough PK converting bacteria inside that bottle to seed my 5L canister and if I shake that bottle every day everything gets mixed even better. After one week I noticed the molasses was quite more luiquid then before... Also the additions, which previously sunk to the bottom, weren't there anymore and got emulsified with the molasses. What happend is that the bacteria started munching on the carbohydrates in the molasses and the P and K nutrients, suddenly there's more room for other things and this gets taken up by the additions, with the help of some vigorous shaking.

(1)

For quite some while now. I notice that the first bottle of PK 5-8 I made in the beginning had loads of chunks still floating around in the liquid, but after dumping this back with the original batch, mixing that up again and refilling the bottle, I notice there's more finer stuff floating around. Everything a Organic farmer need, if you ask me
(2)

Everyone got soaked from top to bottom. 200ml is just enough to do this for me and have no waste to throw through the sink...

Nice flower, sadly this lady won't make the cut, if I choose to do selective pollination.

Mhmmmmm....Slaughtered Lamb #2, yummie!!!

This takes about an hour for them drops to dry up, well in time for when the UV light starts up. We're now at the stage that I'm giving one hour exposures, four times a day. This pushes the plants to defend themselves for it and like we use sunscreen, they make use of trichomes, being it bulbar or straight...

Normally I water with a piece of air hose, just to slow down the amount of liquid dumping onto the soil and disturbing it. Ever since I've top dressed with the VIANO MIXPROF FERTISOIL 3-2-3 (+Trichoderma & bacteriën), something happened to that top layer. I can pour an entire cup of liquid onto the soil and it soaks in as fast as I poured it on top. Nothing gets through to the bottom and runs out...
Have a look for yourself, but be warned about the volume again

The values inside the tent are perfect. I've installed my small heater in the lung room, which is on a separate breaker, which is connected to the bathroom residual current switch. Safety first right. To keep it even more safe, I've adjusted it so it only fires up when the lung room's temperature goes below 21°C / 70°F.
When looking at my logs, I can see the heater runs for fifteen minutes, shuts down for over an hour and then kicks in again. I can live with that for now...
This makes that the temperature has been in the upper 24°C / 75°F with a near perfect VPD. I can tell the stretch is nearing it's finish line because the plants are expressing less water then a couple of days ago.
Below is a screenshout about half an hour after dosing the plants with the Boom Boom Spray, so humidity is still a bit high...
Within the hour the room will have found it's equilibrium and everything will run on auto again.

Also have a look at the amount of CO²!! The 10L bucket I made up with the sugar and bakers yeast is still kicking ass. If I hold the sensor against the end of the air hose I get a N/A value on my app, lol. And this is a real CO² sensor, not the cheap E-CO sensors you can buy for a dime a piece. This sensor costs 17€ for one and that's whole sale. One of my more expensive sensors I'm currently using if you must know...So I know it gives accurate values.

No time lapse today as I've been quite busy running around, dropping of kids and to going to a vasectomy appointment, arch...What we do for our better halves. But they are so worth it, aren't they guys At least the s3x will be better...They say...
So, this means I'll be posting again in a couple of days and have an extra long time lapse for you guys. I Promise



Regards,

Bob

 

[Bob's Auto's]

Oh yeah, I've also got some updates for ya'll


These plants are are all so freakin' healthy and vibrant, with loads of budsites and still quite some headroom for the lights to go up
The hygrometer I installed was to check it's value's against my own sensor...It's usually 1% off. It depends on how the fan is blowing on the devices...

Underneath there's still quite some cleaning up for me to do. This will be done tomorrow as why, will become clear in a moment...

My male is almost ready to release it's pollen. I don't mind it to happen now, as it will give the seeds more then enough time to mature and will allow for new budsites to form which won't be pollinated. I don't need thousands of seeds, hundereds is more then enough

The monkey fan is hanging straight above my male directed at him and running at setting 2 of 3. So as soon as a flower opens up, the pollen should go everywhere

A while ago, while trimming everything below a certain point, I also removed the male parts as I wanted the energy going towards less flowers, but with more vital pollen, if that makes sense

Still loads of flowers to mature over the coming days...

@Sawney_bean's Slaughtered Lamb #1. An absolute beauty!!

I don't know if you can see it, but I've used a technique I saw Sawney do many times, which is crushing the main stem. I began to do this to the Skywalker OG x UK Cheese cultivars followed by the other cultivars over the next days.

Dinafem's Cheese XXL, just starting to flower. One of the more later cultivars, but the offspring will most likely be a whole lot faster. Previous crossings with CMD in it's parental lineage will inject a lot of speed into finishing.

To almost end this post, I've made a short clip going through the tent... Borrowed this idea from @St. Tom & @NORBY (without the cool intro and music)

And of course...Another time lapse. Speed = 30fps, duration = 90 hours. Enjoy

Regards,

Bob

 

[Bob's Auto's]

Hey guys


Did some maintenance work inside the tent yesterday...Cleaning up the undersides of the plants. And while the pots where out the tent, vacuum in between the tray and sides of the tent. Getting it nice and clean.

My gent has been spewing pollen since yesterday, so I'll keep him inside for one more day.

Today I juggled the plant and a cloud of pollen flew up, away from the plants. The extraction fan running at 10% is enough to suck all that pollen out.
I tried to make a clip after I saw the cloud, but the pollen for today was spent...

..so tomorrow I'll shut the extraction off, slightly open the tent up and juggle the plant once more, then close the tent and let it settle down for 15min or whenever the humidity get's to high. And that will be the end of it. Afterwards the male will become chicken food.

My Cheese XXL #1 is starting to pile up the pistils.

As are they on the other plants... Double Grape x 3BOG #1 is looking great!

My @Sawney_bean collection is looking very scrumptious, don't you think?

They are really showing lot's of vigor and pistil production

I've supercropped the Skywalker OG x UK Cheese plants as the tips were getting sun burned. I even tried to tilt the light, but that wasn't enough.

Today everything is more or less even in height...

So after I remove the gent tomorrow, later that evening I'll be spraying the entire tent down with a mix of water and Boom Boom spray. One, this will kill of all remaining pollen. And two, it'll boost the plants one more time

Hope you enjoyed today's post. To finish up here's another time lapse from the last couple of days.
Speed = 30fps, duration = 74 hours.

Regards,

Bob

 

[Bob's Auto's]

Good morning ya'll!! Hope Santa brought everything you ever hoped for Especially you my friend Thanks again for the rep!!
As many of you, I'm mentally preparing for the second feast of the season...Christmas day. Off to the family in a couple of hours...

But for now let's continue with this grow...
I removed the male yesterday after dusting the entire tent with it's pollen. A couple of hours later I checked the tent after which I sprayed the plants with Boom Boom Spray. By this morning the plants had stretched quite a bit into the lights...This couldn't be, so I supercropped the flowering tops to create some distance between the plants and the light again.

Doing this will also give the side shoots some extra light to get at the same level as the main tops.
I did go a bit overboard and got cocky ending up breaking a top.

It was hanging on by a hair, but I think I was able to fix it with some tape.
We'll see if the fix will take if I don't see the top shriveling away in the coming days...

Regards,

Bob

 

[Bob's Auto's]

Hey growers and wannabreeders
Hope you guys are enjoying the holidays? My ladies have been non-stop partying

They even shaved their legs

The only thing I need to do is give 'm a cup of water every day. For a good measure I use dechlorinated water, which is tapwater left to air out for 24 hours. I've also noticed that pollination was successful on the ladies that got the motherload. These were the girls I selected for pollination. The rest will also bear seed, be sure of that.

On some of the calyx's you can see the seeds growing.

While new pistils are forming the seedpods can ripen. Making sure the seeds are ready when the flowers are ready!

Frosty Slaughtered Lamb...Mhmmm... ♥

Of course there's another time lapse. As it's +four days ago since I posted, this one will be a doozy
Speed = 30fps, duration = 110 hours. Enjoy

Oh, on a sidenote, I was measuring and calculating and if I lay it on it's side, I would be able to fit a 60x60x140 MarsHydro tent next to the original MarsHydro tent, which I've been using for almost three years now! This would then be used as a clone and mother/father tent for the regular photo Widow project I'm about to embark on. Since this will take quite some time, I was thinking...and installing the cardboard box for long periods of time in a warm humid environment didn't seem like a good idea. Using it as a temporary pollination station is just a-ok, but long periods is just asking for mold... If my plan comes a foot I would be able to hook up the clone/mother/father tent's ventilation behind the original MH tent and use the same extraction fan to vent both tents. For a light inside the tent I was looking at the TSL 2000, which is the bigger and longer brother of the TS 1000 I've also been using for the same time as the original tent.



Regards,

Bob

 

[Bob's Auto's]

Happy New Year everybody!!!


The ladies have gone through a flowering metamorphosis these last few days.

Pistils are appearing on every node and it's looking that they aren't gonna stop anytime soon...

After pollination I added something extra to the water which I used to spray down the plants. Just like the Boom Boom Spray the dosing is very strict, but when you get it right, some extra hormones go straight to where they are needed and results in this kind of spectacle...
If you look carefully you'll notice some seeds forming within the clusters of fresh pistils.

The main stem from Skywalker OG x UK Cheese #4, This one is fattening up. Could this be because it stayed lower and therefor got less light? Anyway, I'm not unhappy about it as my last jar of the Junk Dealers Wedding is almost gone and I need something to take it's place.

The two Cheese XXL's from Dinafem are truely exploding with flowers.

As are both Double Grape x 3BOG ladies. Which are the two closest to the white pole. The one left from them and in front of the picture are the (Double Grape x Toof Decay) x Sooty Bride, which was a cross I made earlier this last year inside the greenhouse.

This is only the lower part of the plant. I accedentally cropped to much. Still wanted to share it as this plant is just full with flowers. From top to bottom, which this is...The rest of the plant you can see stretching behind this piece...

This is Skywalker OG x UK Cheese #1 again. What a magnificent plant this is!! I believe the onion smell is coming from this one...

Oh, and the values from inside the tent...Again, the temperature is the only thing that could be better...but then again the plants are doing exactly what they are supposed to be doing, so...It's all guuuuud...

To end today's post, another timelapse. Make sure to check out the last 3-5 seconds as this is where flower production really kicks into high gear...
Speed = 30fps, duration = 96 hours. Please enjoy

Regards,

Bob

 

[Bob's Auto's]

Hey growers 'n blowers



Today was a "working" day. I've put myself into isolating the lungroom a bit better. For this to work I had to clear everything out of the room, then put up some plaster board and finish off with some holefiller and silicone to close some gaps. All this took me a couple of hours and that was including installing my new....

Yup, a small tent laid on it's side. It fit perfectly... I just need a light to put in there. Maybe one of my friends can help me out? That would be super
Anyway, I'm not one to halter when things get hard, so I've already ordered myself Plan B, a 3M LED Cobstrip, which I'll be sticking onto a piece of extruded aluminum for passive heatsink purposes. That light will have to do for cloning and keeping my mums and dads alive unless I find a suitor

Some of you might also noticed a new light fixture inside the main tent. Yup, this is my newest asset...Another UV light, this time a UV-B light, while the one in the back is the UV-A light I have mounted since last grow.

I'll let you guys know what my experiences with this one will be. The UV-A LED Cob, I'm already a big fan of!!

Ok, enough showing off new toys
Time to show some of the girls...Sawney's Skywalker OG x UK Cheese #1. Nice and lush and full with pistils!!

Cheese XXL #1, beautiful plant I must admit

Cheese XXL #2 in the front and the two Double Grape x 3 Bears OG in the back. Full on flowering!!!

I have absolutely no clue which plant this is, but it's one of the bigguns as I've had to supercrop her main cola. This did allow for several sidenodes to shoot up and get their time in the spotlights.

(Double Grape x Toof Decay) x Sooty Bride, she's pushing for a supercroppin' moohahaha!!

Skywalker OG x UK Cheese #2

Skywalker OG x UK Cheese #4's supercropped main cola. This one is looking mighty frosty, must have got something to do with the amount and quality of light that is reaching her.

I was telling about the usage of UV lights. Well ever since last grow, I've been using this and when plants have the genetics to protect themselves against sunburn (producing loads and loads of trichomes) a multitude of trichomes is produces. Nooice!!

Some examples of fan leaves which are even producing pistils...

Nom nom!! ♥ ♥ ♥

...

And to end today's post and keep my mate @Emerald Archer happy, another time lapse
Speed = 30fps, duration = 80 hours. Enjoy

Regards,

Bob

 

[Bob's Auto's]

Hey breeders and wannabreeders

Pistil production is slowly shutting down on these girls...

Time for all those calyx's to start swelling up and expand them buds.

To do aid in this I removed the largest fan leaves so even more light could penetrate the small leaves surrounding the budsites.

Lot's of Sativa in this Skywalker OG x UK Cheese, they are the largest of the bunch...

This soil is superhealthy boys and girls. And this is the secret to fine gardening... Maintain a great environment for all the soil life and keep them happy.

All I've been giving them is water with some molasses added to it...The molasses has some other ingredients added to it which you can find earlier in this thread

This entire grow will most likely be turned into hash. The amount of seeds inside the buds is just...pfff...too much for one person to use in a lifetime. So buddy, be sure to check you mailbox in a couple of months when all are dry and clean.

The Cheeses are looking very nice indeed. One is wide and has loads of smaller budsites and the other is one large cola with a couple of sidenodes.

And in the back the Double Grape x 3BOG, which except for the amount of frost isn't producing much bud. Has anyone have an idea how long these will go start to finish?

And to end today's post another time lapse from the last days. Not much happening except for the occasional bud theft...See if you can spot the thief...
Speed = 30fps, duration = 97 hours. Enjoy

Regards,

Bob