Bob's Journey into Hybridisation and Genetics - For Dummies

[Bob's Auto's]

Hey friends

Every growers worst nightmare, lol...After two hours I readjusted the values slowly back to the nominal ones...When I checked the time lapse pictures last night around midnight I saw this battlefield. Instant heart attack, don't have to tell you guys anything different!!
Day 25 - Junk Dealer's Wedding - Eight hours after applying Ethephon!

So, without waking anybody up I went to the tent and after opening up with a small heart, I felt assured at what I saw...it was the same reaction I saw in the past. The plants didn't look that bad as from above with the time lapse cam. This is actually a normal response to the Ethylene that's currently dispersing inside the plants. A side effect of the product is that the Chlorophyl loses it's bonds with the plant cells and everything stops, but this recovers soon enough. What did I do wrong? Is stepping up the values to soon and to high. As there was no movement of nutrients and water inside the plant, everything that evaporated didn't get supplemented back, resulting in the drooping.
Day 25 - Junk Dealer's Wedding - Eight hours after applying Ethephon!

What did I do after this, is give each plant 200ml water with Orgatrex added to it (20ml/5L), dropped the light back from 80% to 40% and also dropped the VPD from 1.1-1.2 to 0.75-0.85kPa. Dropping both values gave the plants the time to recuperate further, while I though two hours was enough...reading back in my documentation I found that some species of peppers had no reaction, while others took two days to recover...It will take my ladies a bit longer.
We're now 14 hours on and if I compile a small time lapse with the footage I have from 24:00hours until now, I can see the leaves going back up and regaining their posture. We are not there yet, this will probably be for tomorrow, but we're getting there
Day 25 - Junk Dealer's Wedding - twenty-two hours after applying Ethephon!

Regards,

Bob

p.s. Sometimes things aren't pretty, but that doesn't mean they aren't informative. The good, the bad and the ugly baby!!
p.s.2 Thanks to @DOA for the rep points!!

 

[Bob's Auto's]

Hey Guys,


I'm not going to boast that everything is going perfectly in Bob's tent...But it is working like the product describes.
The plants have completely stopped growing and the leaves are hanging like crazy. Still, the leaves feel nice and firm.

Because the fanleaves aren't as widespread as they used to be a couple of days ago, the nodes underneath the fanleaves are starting to gain some extra height. Also flower production is at an all high.

The internals of the plants has been shaken about by flooding the system with Ethylene gas. This results in the plant going from vegetative fase to flowering in two days. And you can see this everwhere where you look, one can see pistils emerging.

I kinda have the feeling like when I did my first Schwazzing, remember @Vapo? That stomage churning feeling....Looking at these pictures I'm thinking to myself, why-o-why did you do that??!!!

My input for keeping all the values right and the plants as happy as can be is very time-consuming. Checking the time lapse footage every few hours to see if the VPD is in check. Also have I noticed that the plants now prefer a temperature af about 25°C with a VPD of 0.75kPa, so that's what I'm aiming for right now.

Every time the temperature goes higher the plants start slacking again...such a horrible view...looking at at those curled up leaves. sigh...

Contacted my buddy and showed him the pictures. He said everything looks like it should be, nothing to worry about...In some species of plants the leaves even start falling off, this is normal Bob! In a weeks time you'll have forgotten this all happened.

I'm putting my trust in science you guys, but will I do this again? Well this will have to be seen when this grow is finished, but if I should have to choose right now, I'd toss all those little vials in the trashcan!!
Should have been listening to the words of Karel...Keep it simple Bob!!
To end todays post, the all to famous time lapse. I would like to warn sensitive viewers as what you're about to see isn't pretty at all!!
Speed = 30fps, duration = 70 hours. Around second 9 I introduced the Ethephon...

Regards,

Bob

 

[Bob's Auto's]

Atleast something happened, they definitely reacted albeit seemingly in the wrong manner. Thanks for being the Guinea pig Bob

At least they are recovering fine now bro. Thanks for visiting btw

One advantage is that they didn't stretch very much and I can't say for sure as I treated the whole tent, which wasn't very scientific of me, but flower production is at an all high...

Everywhere you look there's pistils popping

The plants are also starting to drink again and this since I treated the plants. So today I gave them a light watering, just to keep the soil at a moist level. Trying hard not to overwater the soil.

Another 'benefit' of this treatment is/was that the side nodes got more light because the fan leaves were slouching so much. This resulted in them bulking up quite a lot. The glass is half full my friends

The large pheno lady looks 'mighty' fine. ok, she looks ok. Give 'm another week and the leaves will probably be ok.

Today's timelapse...we're going to wrestle through some rough times, but the end is looking hopeful...
Speed = 30fps, duration = 56 hours.

Inside the greenhouse the males are looking so much better then the ladies inside the tent.

And these gents are even experiencing a day/night cycle, but also a warm and cold period. Luckily we're having a sort of warm streak in this region of the world. Day temperatures of 25°C / 77°F are no exception. This weekend though temperatures will plummet by 10°C /18°F, so I went out today and bought some plastic foil. I'll use this to create a tepee around the table so the heatbed won't have to heat the entire greenhouse.

A nice flower cluster.

The large pheno male.

Regards,

Bob

 

[Bob's Auto's]

First of all, thanks for the rep @DOA & @Antonio_DutchPassion. Always nice to be appreciated
Inside the tent everything is back to normal, actually we're kinda ahead on the schedule. If I compare this offspring with how the parents grew.
The CMD x MW parent was also a very quick flowering cultivar, at least 5 days faster then the Mephisto's Wedding alone. It seems that this Bx has the quick genes from that CMD lineage.

Another surprising effect from the treatment is that the plants start to defoliate themselves. Each visit I find shriveled leaves hanging by a thread on the sides of the plants. Normally I need to pull these leaves myself to create an open structure beneath the plants. The advantage of this method is that the plants first remove the nutrients from these leaves and then use 'm to dump their trash inside, creating what we call senescence. Lovely to see the plants choose the lower to do that with, instead with all the leaves at once.

I could defoliate more, but the ladies look so healthy and full with flowers, I dare not to go that route. I did raise the light output today with another 5% resulting in a hefty DLI of 26 at the sensor height. Every day I'm raising the output by 5% and keeping an eye on the time lapse I make. If the plants respond well to the extra light, we raise it by another 5% the next day. I feel the plants still can benefit from the extra light hitting them.

I'm starting to see the benefit of the Ethephon you guys. Look at the amount of pistils forming, combined with the very short internodal spacing between the nodes, these will expand and create one big bud...

Yum!!

The large pheno girl. Lookin' nice, right?

The time lapse shows life "as is" in the tent...Speed = 30fps, duration = 84 hours. Enjoy

I was curious at the pistil formation, but for that I need to speed things up. This is just a zoomed in version of the above time lapse.

Regards,

Bob

 

[Bob's Auto's]

Your welcome mate! You definitely deserve some credit for the extensive details you always share with the AFN community!

She looks good indeed nice pistils development, but nothing out of the ordinary (extreme development), right? Shame you don't have a control group indeed! But even then, if you really want to know, you need identical clones from the same mother from photoperiod plants..

Keep it up mate, plants recovering very well still

You are completely correct, that's why testing in a controlled environment is so expensive.
The ladies are doing great indeed. I've been slowly adding more light...currently I'm at 45%. With the colder weather were having this results in a comfortable temperature for the ladies to bask in the sun, but still it could be higher.
The VPD is kept between 0.98 and 1.01kPa which is perfectly doable with the extraction between 4 and 5%. And with the extraction at such a low speed, the CO² isn't expelled as much and we have higher values on that ticker... Just the temperature needs to be a bit higher for the plants to benefit from that extra CO².

Today I gave the plants 2L / 0.5gallon water with 5ml Orgatrex, 5ml Bio PK 5-8 and one teaspoon Bactrex added to it. While doing this I noticed the plants had, again, expelled some leaves which I removed while watering the pots.

Picture time...These beauties are doing great once more!! And this at 33 days old, they still have some time before they are finished. Curious to find out how long these girls will take, as Sooty Bride took after Coal Miner's Daughter in it's lineage, qua time to finish. But Mephisto's Wedding definitely needs two or three weeks longer for the fast pheno.
So...This being a Bx from Sooty Bride to Mephisto's Wedding, it could go from anything between 65 and 85 days...

Look at the short internodal distance on this girl. I can only dream how these will close up ranks and fill out on a later stadium. Also, can't complain about all those hairs...

Mhmmm, focus Bob, focus...

@St. Tom, if you wanna use this one...Go right ahead my friend

The "large" girl...If she behaves like I'm thinking, she will take her time to finish and will probably be one of the last to get the axe...

Well...that was it for today peeps. I hope you enjoyed the pictures and my accompanied blabbering.


Regards,

Bob

 

[Bob's Auto's]

Hey lovelies...Have I got a selection of buds for you to enjoy today....

My primo lady, ready to be pollinated...What do you think @Sawney_bean? Wait a little longer or go for it?

Nice set of pompoms aren't they?

This is the gurl I've picked to pollinate. It's the one in the front left corner of the tent.

Ok, that's actually yesterday's post, but my stoned ass forgot to press save...
Luckily AFN saves your progress in a post... ♥


So this morning I went to the tent to water the ladies. As I've started to pick the first ones out of the tent to make it easier for me to water the hind ones first, I saw this girl. She must be doing the worst of all my plants. Flower production isn't what it should be. Still going to let her run as I have the space and can use the harvest. But this show's there's still a lot of work to weed out these genetics out of the genepool.

Same girl, but under her skirt...

The lady beside her is looking very crisp. Flower production is at an proper level and the internodal space is just...mhmmmm. Can you imagine these flower clusters closing up?

Another fine looking specimen...

My selected breeder again...grrrrr.....

Another example of a not so fine lady...

And finally the large pheno lady from the left back of the tent.

To end today's and yesterday's post. The time lapse...Duration = 100 hours, speed = 30fps. Enjoy

Regards,

Bob

 

[Bob's Auto's]

Hey Friends

You are looking at one happy camper you guys...Look at them pompom's.
This is my lady in waiting, the small pheno. But oh, does she produce a nice set of flowers and clearly she isn't done yet.

A lot has been going on lately...One is that I've sprayed them again...with Boom Boom Spray, that is. Guessed the ladies deserved a nice treatment after the distress they've been in. That Boom Boom spray does my ladies good. Some extra nutrition combined with plant based goodies.

Mixed up 1ml with 200ml water and shook it well before applying it from top to bottom. For my 60x60cm tent this is more then enough to give all the plants a nice dousing.

Then dropped the light intensity to 20% for about an hour and slowly took it back to where it was before the spraying. ie, 73%, which gives me a DLI of 42Mole, nice

Healthy looking plants. And also cool how they shed their own leaves when deploid of nutrients...Amazing how nature works, right?

I also helped the plants along by removing the fan leaves which were interfering with the space of another plant.
ie, If it produced a shadow on another plant, it got removed.

This resulted in below removed leaves. Some of them look really healty, which were removed by above mentioned priciple. Other, which look yellow fell off or came of when touched lightly. Better to remove them before they start to mold up on the soil's surface.

This created some space between the plants. Good for air movement and light to get to them lowers. The downside is that I've just removed a couple of the plant's solar panels.

Just before she got plucked underneath her skirt.

My large pheno lady. I'm starting to get high hopes for this one...Let me explain. Since I've always wanted to do a DWC, I'm planning to do a "one big plant DWC" next season. The tank I'll be using is 70L, but only 50L will be used. The rest is to keep the pot secured in the top of the canister. But more on that on a later date.

The underside of the ladies after removing the surplus leaves.

Front left and back left are the two ladies in waiting. The rest is present for my pleasure

Other angle...

Last picture, I promise

Hehe, to end today's post another time lapse. Duration = 55 hours, speed = 30fps. Enjoy

Regards,

Bob

 

[Bob's Auto's]

Very nice indeed mate.
I would be happy with that tent. Excellent

Have to agree , all looking mighty fine .

Thanks for the kind words my friends
I am quite satisfied with the current result myself

I've been watering the plants every day ever since I sprayed them with the Boom Boom Spray...Quite happy with the vigor the ladies are showing.
This is the large pheno girl in the back left. Don't think the pistils are where @Sawney_bean would like 'm to be for pollination, but still I'm sharing you guys...

Zoomed in a bit for your eyes only 007

Right next to her is another larger girl. Almost as covered with pistils like her sister in waiting... Oh some of you might have noticed the first signs of frost...

Zoomed in again

The last time I fed the girls was about a week ago. So today I added 5ml Orgatrex and 5ml Bio PK 5-8 to 2L water and devided it over the pots. Starting to run out. So when it's gone, it's gone...

The value's inside the tent are perfect, for a lack of a better word. I think I've raised the output of the light to the maximum the plants will bear. It'll be lowered in the coming weeks anyway, but I wanted to give as much energy to the plants as possible, while everything is still in growing mode.
The temperature is perfect and VPD is between 1.05 & 1.1kPa.
CO² could be a bit higher, but I'll have to wait a week until I can go shopping again. Need to refill the water/sugar mixture...We'll see

All the ladies look fine...

...even the runt of the group is starting to put on some pistils

As usual...to end today's post another time lapse. Speed = 30fps, duration = 76 hours. Please enjoy

Regards,

Bob

 

[Bob's Auto's]

Gooday to you all


This has been a very short night for me. Just finished making pulled pork. There's no pictures so it didn't happen
It's now resting inside a coolbox, wrapped in foil and a towel to keep the temp from plummeting...

Anywho, were here for something else aren't we? "Yup Bob, we are!!"
So let's get on with the show...


First let me show you the (hopefully) pollinated ladies in waiting or should I say Baby mama's...
This was yesterday, just after blowing the pollen over the ladies. Each separate of course as each had it's own male...

These are pictures from this morning...

Even zoomed in for ya Sawney.

And the other girl...

Inside the tent access has been restricted between the hours of 8 and 9 am & pm because of the UV light that on between these hours.
Luckily by the time I was well and awake, 9 o'clock had passed and I could take a peek at these beauties. Also...they had been calling me from 7.30am for another drink. You would think that near the end of the grow these plants stop drinking, but I have the feeling they are actually drinking more. And that with two plants less inside the tent...

Brother hecno. I've done the deed and removed nearly all big fanleaves. Growth has stopped and the plants are focusing themselves on expanding them calyx's. Take a look...I did see I forgot one or two biggies, but they aren't bothering anyone...

Next up are some close-up shots from the girls in the tent...

Expand my pretties!!!

Expand

Even the runt of the litter is looking scrumptious isn't she?

Nomnomnom

Can't hardly wait for them to be ready...Still out of stash and not enough money to drive deep into holland in search of a shop that does sell to foreigners. If any Cultivator lives near Tilburg-Maastricht region and is willing to go in my stead, please hit me up with a pm...

Ok...Time for a time lapse
Duration = 58 hours, speed = 30fps. Enjoy

Regards,

Bob

 

[Bob's Auto's]

looking very nice.

Thanks brother!! I'm quite content myself.
This morning I put the pollinated ladies back into the tent. The pistils had been shriveling more so then on the others. Gave 'm a good shake before removing them from the makeshift growbox. The growbox got opened up and folded flat so I could put in next the the closet. Next time I need it, it'll only take about 5 meter / 15 feet of box tape to get it up and running.
Once inside the tent I made a @St. Tom style video of the preggy mama...

Here she is again...Looks like I have pollinated enough pistils to get me some seeds...Let the rest fatten up to fill my empty jars.

Have a look at her neighbor...Pistils everywhere and the effect of the UV light is surely showing it's benefit.
I'm running the 30Watt light two times a day for one hour, separated by 12 hours.

Fatten up my pretties ♥

I'm keeping the shorter ladies in the middle of the tent. This way they don't get shaded by anything.

Leaves are starting to crust up really nice. I see trichomes on both sides of the leaves

This is the larger pheno baby mama, put back into the same place as before.

I feel I defoliated more then enough for these girls to still have enough solar panels for energy and not to many leaves overlapping each other. It's a rope balancing trick in which experience comes just by trying what works and what doesn't...
Btw, the plants are doing a form of self defoliating, choosing larger fanleaves to extract energy from, and using it as a trashcan before being discarded from the plants.

To end today's post...The time lapse...
Speed = 30fps, duration = 48 hours. Enjoy

Regards,

Bob