Bob's Journey into Hybridisation and Genetics - For Dummies

[Bob's Auto's]

I love a time lapse.

I know you do brother, I know you do

love you're content mate .
always a delight to see.

Thanks mate, you're gonna love what comes next...
I've got a 24 hour time lapse from the moment I dosed the girls with the Boom Boom Spray until today. The acceleration in growth is just spectacular and I wanted to share this special moment with you guys!!

I'm dialing everything up at the moment...

• Went from 20 Mole to 25 Mole in total for the DLI, which equates to running the Mars Hydro TS-1000 @ 45%
• Momentarily the temp is on the low side, but we're ventilating our home at the moment, normally it'll be kept between 27-28°C / 80-82°F
• The VPD is kept between 0.75kPa and 0.85kPa, which really creates a "dryer" environment for the girls and you can see this in the time lapse...
• As I'm typing this I'm cooling down a new batch of sugar water for the DIY CO² generator. As soon as the new batch is connected to the tent it'll run around 1100ppm CO², even with the fan between 4 and 5%. ***

*** For anyone interested in how this CO² generator works...Very easy...

1. Add 3kg/6.6pounds sugar to 5L/1.3gallon water and bring this to a boil or until you can see the bottom of the pot, which means the sugar is dissolved.
2. Add three packets of baking powder and let it fizzle. This is to raise the pH of the sugar water.
3. After half an hour or so, add three packets of powdered gelatin and mix until dissolved.
4. Take a clean bucket (with lid) and spray the inside with isopropyl alcohol or other alcohol. This is to clean out the bucket a bit more and to prevent black mold, which is bad!!
5. Put the lid on the bucket and set aside. If this is your second time making this, the lid will have a hole in it. Plug it with some paper towel.
6. Now let it cool down until the gelatin has settled. It'l be a wobbly mix and you wouldn't be able to turn it uside down like a gelatin pudding, but it'll be firm enough for the next part.
7. While the suger mix is cooling down, take a receptacle and add about 500ml/2cups lukewarm water.
8. Add two spoons of suger, one spoon of flower and five spoons of bakers yeast. You could use brewers yeast as these guys can handle a higher alcohol content, but this is more expensive and bakers yeast hasn't failed me yet. Mix this well and put a piece of foil over the receptacle and set asside until the sugar water has cooled down enough...
9. Wait
10. Wait some more
11. When the sugar water has reached 36°C/97°F it's cold enough for the yeast to be added to the bucket. Add it slowly so the yeast forms a layer on top of the gelatin sugar water mix. It's actually on purpose that you don't mix in the yeast with the gelatin.
12. Finally...fill the bucket, again slowly, with lukewarm water. Fill it up until you have 5cm/2inch left over to the rim of the bucket. This will be your airgap and the room your hose has for extruding the CO². The water will dilute the alcohol formed and give the yeast a longer shelf life inside the generator.
13. Put the lid on the bucket and with a pair of pointy scissors, puncture a small hole inside the lid. The hole has to be just a little bit to small for the how to fit loosely. Rather it has too be pinched between the lid so it stays put.
14. Finally thread the other side of the hose through a hole in your tent and you are set.
15. CO² is heavier the air and will always try to sink to the bottom of your tent. I enter my hose from the top and let the CO² mix violently with the air being pushed out from my internal monkey fan, but it's up to you to find the sweet spot.
16. Guuuluck!!!

 

[Bob's Auto's]

Hey Friends


I've been running the girls kinda hard as of lately and this is starting to show. Running 24/7 with the lights at more then the normal DLI, an super spot-on VPD and double the normal CO²...Some girls are showing this in some leafcurl...

After watering the pots thoroughly they soon recuperate, showing the importance of the right amount of water available to the rootsystem.

The color's are spot-on and all the girls (except one mutant) are looking freakin' healthy.

I'm also lucky with the backcross results as the majority of the plants looks very similar qua height and stature. A few exceptions aside I'm currently favoring the smaller plants. Numbers 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14 & 15 will be kept for future breeding. Out of 12 plants there should be enough males and females to further filter my selection.
I will be keeping the females that don't make the cut for procreation...We want to keep it fun right?

To end Today's post here's another time lapse. Speed = 30fps, duration = 58 hours.
As you can see the results from the Boom Boom Spray treatment is still having it's effect...Oh, look at 'm grow...
Anyway...Enjoy

Regards,

Bob

 

[Bob's Auto's]

Look at those ladies wiggling away

It's fun to look at them this way isn't it
But you can also learn from that. Like what color the soil has when the plants are growing the fastest...Been watering these last two days according to what I see in the time lapses and I'm able to keep the massive growth at high pace.
I've also resprayed the plants with Boom Boom Spray today, which dried up in about an hour...and after which the plants continued there expanse.

Looking from the side you can see the evenness in the canopy. Just a few that are sticking out...

The pictures suck, I know...The lights are to blame, lol. My phone's camera can't handle that amount of light...Neither can my eyes, so I bought me a pair of sunglasses for the growroom. It filters out some spectrum and lowers the brightness quite a bit.

No sexing yet you guys...But have a look at those short internodes...The smudges on the leaves is from the Boom Boom Spray, they will disappear in a couple of days as the leaves expand.

I'm liking this style of growing quite a lot and when dialed in perfectly you can achieve quite some growth in a short period of time.

Fifteen days old Today you guys...

The values inside the tent are also doing very well if I may say so. VPD is already around 0.90kPa. The CO² is staying on the high side, but from what I've read, anything below 5000ppm can't hurt the plants, but might make me sleepy...
Lights are running at 60%, but because the canopy gets higher it also get's closer to the light and so the DLI goes up...from 29 to 33...

Ok, enough statistics and theories...Time for some more wiggly wiggly...
Speed = 30fps, duration 47 hours. Enjoy

Regards,

Bob

 

[Bob's Auto's]

@Redeye Master, thanks again for the rep buddy!!
Today I tried to show you guys how high the light is actually hanging above the canopy..

...This gloriously failed as you still haven't got a clue what the distance was...I couldn't find a roll meter or something similar, so I took a piece of string, measured the highest, lowest point and divided this...Which resulted on average 50cm / 20inch between the led and canopy.
Oh and the light still has about 30cm/12inch left to go up...So I think I'm covered with this cultivar.

I've also been playing with the camera settings from my phone, please bear in mind that I'm colorblind, so if anything is wrong, please don't be a dick and point this out to me so I can prevent that in the future

The day before yesterday I noticed an explosion in fungus gnats flying around in the tent. They've been there since day one, but were being taken under control by the rest of the Organics in the soil. Probably because of my watering style the gnats have emerged the victors as their larvae state loves wet soil conditions.

So I treated the soil with some Spinosad. I diluted 0.6ml of the product into 1L water, which is 25% less then recommended for cabbage worms...
As usual, within a couple of hours the gnats were superactive simply to weather away by the the time I went looking this morning.

Thursday the last generation of eggs should come out and by then the larvea will pupate to flies. It's then I should reaply the product to kill the new generation of flies before they copulate and lay eggs. Then I'll have to wait for five days one last time and reapply to get rid of the last generation of flies that will pupate.

The cool thing about the Spinosad is that it only works on legged insects (also bee's I'm afraid to say, but we don't have many in the tent these days) and that the molecules break up in about three days.

Since I only gave the ladies 1L water divided over 16 pots, I turned everything down to a VPD of 0.80kPa, which gave the plants the necessary time to slow down and let the product do it's thing inside first few centimeters of the soil.

This morning I regretted my idea as the VPD had completely dropped to below 0.72...I quickly adjusted the settings and even needed a fan setting of 16% to get everything stable. That was quite the adjustment

Oh, I also found this one leaf. Only one...The underside has no scars or anything. Anyone an idea?

One last overview shot before we go towards Today's time lapse...

Speed = 30fps, duration = 64 hours. Please enjoy!!

Regards,

Bob

 

[Bob's Auto's]

Thanks for the kind comments you guys!!
This morning I found the first signs of sex in some plants. Found a couple of males and females...the rest is sure to follow in the coming days.

Regards,

Bob

 

[Bob's Auto's]

Hey friends


I'm back into research modus you guys...Just learned I lost my sponsorship with BioTabs. Damn, that meant a whole lot to me...But I've learned something about Organic growing while using their nutrient line, so I'll be alright
Not a bad word about BioTabs, people!! It's a product I stand behind and recommend to anyone, but sadly can't afford. That's where the sponsorship came into play...But alas, all good things must come to an end I guess...

Karel, if you read this. You've got my respect my man!! Peace.



Anywho....let's continue with this breeding thing, right? That's what we're here for

This morning I sprayed the plants again with the Boom Boom Spray. At day 20 this is their third treatment and I don't see any complaint at the moment.

I mixed up 1ml of Boom Boom Spray with 200ml water, which is just enough to give the entire tent a complete wash with the mixture and have nothing left to go to waste...

There must be some surfactant in the product as beading isn't a factor when spraying with the product.

Before such a dowsing I always remove my sensor array. It doesn't like to become wet
Then sprayed every plant from top to bottom and then some.

I took this picture to show you guys how much headroom I still have for these plants. Quite some room for the coming stretch, don't you think so?
Sidenote: The powerstrip is controllable via my smartphone. Each 240 plug can be turned on/off separately, only the USB plugs can't be switched separately, but then I need a constant supply of 5V for all the sensors and esp devices inside and around the tent.

Yesterday I gave the plants 2.5L water and Today, about an hour after the Boom Boom event I noticed the VPD getting to high, which could only mean one thing...The plants needed water. So I went to the tent and low and behold...They were dry, at least the soil looked dry.
Oh and my trusty AFN sticker in the background ♥ So happy you guys are always here for us I wish I could have done more...

So instead of sitting there for half an hour watering with that little tubing, which works fine, but I can't see sh!t through that canopy anymore and the pots are to low for my back to start fiddling around in there. So, I removed one pot and dumped the entire 5L jug with water into the 60x60cm tray the pots are sitting in.

Half an hour later the water was gone and only a couple of wet spots remained on the tray floor.

I've also raised the action camera so today was a good moment to end this time lapse just before that moment. Next one will be shot from higher up....whoohoooo, mind you...people with acrophobia...
Speed = 30fps, duration = 56 hours. Enjoy

Regards,

Bob

 

[Bob's Auto's]

Gooday to you all

This morning I found that almost all the plants had shown sex.

• 7 females in the blue circle
• 3 undecided ones in the yellow circle
• 2 males I decided to keep in the red circles.

The other males, four in total, went to the chickens. In the undecided triangle there will probably be one or two males left, so these will follow the others. I kept those plants close to the entrance of the tent so checking them for sex in the coming days will be a lot more comfortable for my back.
The two males on the sides got their first flowers trimmed, this way these won't pollinate the entire tent by accident.

After reorganizing the plants it was time to give 'm another drink. 5L water with 20ml Orgatrex went into the tray. With four plants gone, they'll probably take a while longer to consume all that water. Don't know if I did right by this, but it is done now...

Regards,

Bob

 

[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]

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!!