Grow Room Moonijuana 3: Blue Dream Auto (Humboldt Seed Organization) Organic Grow

[TimeTraveler]

DAY 25

Welcome back, everyone! Life on the moon can be hectic at times, for even as adanced as we are we still can't create extra time in a day. There's some exciting possibilities on the horizon, but for now let's admire this girl, shall we?

Here are the pics, a top down followed by profile:

As you can see, she's getting bushy and thriving! Every one of her leaves is a gorgeous, rich green and she's starting to smell faintly of weed. It's very exciting. This plant is definitely not letting me down, and I don't know whether to chalk it up to genetics or just having more room to stretch out those roots and gorge on nutes. If her yield ends up impressive, I'll do another solo plant run (probably a Fantasmo Express, I liked that strain) and compare to get my answer.

But boy, check out all those bud sites near the canopy already! This thing is threatening to become a monster. There are six lower branches all shot out to the sides and nearly as tall as the main stem itself. As suspected, I did in fact "miss" my "Fuck, I missed", so there's about five potential sites total near the top. Three are clearly visible in that top-down shot, but pushing aside her desne foliage reveals another two: the last one from the FIM, plus the original primary stalk has recovered and has a tiny bit of growth working its way up and out as well. She's turning out to be one hardy plant!

Unfortunately, my homemade SCROG screen was too flimsy to survive a second use: it fell apart while trying to set it down and train her. Not to be beaten by a shrub I pulled out my spool of wire and did some old-fashioned LST on the side branches, but the top stalk is still too spindly to bend over yet. I'll let her put on another few inches before trying that.

 

[budelee]

I have to say @TimeTraveler ,she is looking awesome !!! I would be careful with the scrog net,as she might get a burst of retarded strength and bodyslam it to the ground once she hits her stride,lol...I think we are all gonna be surprised with the results,Ill be germing my Hum BD's this weekend,so im still watching her every move,Thanks for the update !!!

 

[TimeTraveler]

DAY 26

Just a quick, no pic update today. You just can't keep a good plant down, it seems. Already, just one night after training, the trained branches have pushed forward and curved right back upwards. This girl is going to be a rough one to keep trained, I can already tell, and there's still a good week or two of vegetative growth to go!

I'm considering snipping the lower popcorn bud sites; I've read up on defoliating, and while I think my grows are too small to benefit from defoliation, I do think there might be some truth in the belief that removing these lower sites allows the plant to focus all its energy into the top buds, resulting in a fatter harvest. Last time the popcorn sites yield, after drying, was barely a couple grams so it's not like I'm in danger of losing a lot. I'd like to wait until vegging is done though; if those sites end up looking more promising as it switches to flowering I'll leave them be.

Anyway, any thoughts or comments on your experiences with defoliating or snipping bud sites to encourage growth elsewhere are appreciated!

 

[TimeTraveler]

DAY 29

So, it's officially the first day of week 5. This week and probably next week are all that's left in vegetative growth, and then we'll be on to some fat, sexy buds I bet. Of course, the girl is the star of the thread, so let's take a gander at this four week old Humboldt County Cali Girl, my Blue Dream:

Top Down:

Profile:

So, let's talk about her, shall we? First off, those center-most two cola sites you see in the top-down photo were sturdy enough for training, and were pulled to either side of the planter and secured with wire. This opened up the center stem where the other three cola sites that resulted from the FIM to get some serious light and air. I still can't believe I got that lucky and screwed up the cut in just the right way to get five instead of four, but I suppose the ganja gods smile on fools and novices. Either way, that's not even close to all the promising sites she's showing me. Here's hoping the training will encourage even more growth of those sites and a big yield come chop day.

Next point is about her production. Remember earlier in the thread, I said I had very, very high expectations for this strain, and with good reason: the photo version is probably one of the most famous strains to come from one of California's top breeders (arguably the top), and is priced at a jaw dropping $10 US or more per seed (compared to $5-7 US for most others). I'm not exactly an elitist, but as this is my personal favorite strain to date, these three facts combine to make me set the bar very high to be satisfied.

Well I'm obviously a solid 5 to 7 weeks from harvest, but she is giving me every indication this was money well spent. She's bushy and dense, and after that training I noticed that she's already getting frosty around the center. Take a look at this picture snapped of her center sites:

Those are orange hairs and the first trichomes, and we're not even done with vegetative yet. For comparison, my first grow trichomes were first showing up about 35 days in, and on my second grow it was nearly 40 days before they reliably showed up, with orange hairs arriving a few days earlier. This plant has beat my earliest trich production by nearly a week! Again, I can't say for certain if it's all the strain or if it's also the greater container space it's been given, but either way this is shaping up to be a solid grow.

 

[TimeTraveler]

DAY 32

So, here we are midway through week five. Very exciting times, and she's looking healthy and strong. The training has slowed her vertical growth to a crawl, but she's responded by getting bushier and broader from all the opened up space for light. It's getting a little tough to keep training her, so this is probably it. I'm strongly considering defoliating her a bit tomorrow, as she's INCREDIBLY dense. Let's take a gander, shall we?

First, a top down shot:

Next, a side shot:

Last, a close-up of that next of cola sites in the middle:

She's already a little sticky to the touch when I try to pull aside branches to get a better look, and she's really thriving. Lots of trich production already; when I shine a light on her she's starting to sparkle.

So, it's looking very promising as time goes on. We had some scattered showers recently so it was back to rainwater for her again, with some added biological inoculate just to be safe. Probably this weekend I'll sprinkle some dry nutes on top, then cover her with a thin, fresh layer of rich soil. It seems to help after the initial soil has settled with keeping water in and ensuring she can feed. I've also got liquid flowering nutes ready for the big push ahead; I'll want her fat and happy once she hits flowering so she can gorge those buds.

As an aside, does anyone know a good tutorial for rigging a webcam to take pics for a time-lapse video? It's a tad late for this grow, but I'd like to do a sprout-to-chop time-lapse for future grows. Any help is appreciated.

 

[budelee]

I think everything is looking really good..I have only defoliated photoperiod plants(so these are just my thoughts),,,it works but dont go overboard,if "tucking" wont work,maybe try cutting single leaf blades that are blocking light,or cutting the perimeter of the leaf to allow light to get in further,just a thought tho..will be watching till the end bro(having issues with my AU,s which put me behind on starting my next batch)...cheers

 

[Wingnut]

She looks like she took to the FIMing really well....I'll be pulling up a chair.

 

[Wienerwoods]

Very cool looking little trooper! Oh how I envy you that trough... I was thinking of getting a suitable sized metal basket and use that as a frame for something similar. I could get as much as a whopping 5 gallons that way!

 

[TimeTraveler]

I think everything is looking really good..I have only defoliated photoperiod plants(so these are just my thoughts),,,it works but dont go overboard,if "tucking" wont work,maybe try cutting single leaf blades that are blocking light,or cutting the perimeter of the leaf to allow light to get in further,just a thought tho..will be watching till the end bro(having issues with my AU,s which put me behind on starting my next batch)...cheers

Thanks! I had a busy weekend so she got to rest, but I'll definitely trim a couple of the major fan leaves if she's still bushy this morning. I'm convinced, based on how well she handled FIMing, that she'll be fine with a little defoliating. Nothing severe, just a couple big leaves to open up light to the lower branches.

She looks like she took to the FIMing really well....I'll be pulling up a chair.

Yeah, I'll definitely be doing this on future grows. She's recovered quickly and it hasn't slowed her down at all by the looks of it.

Very cool looking little trooper! Oh how I envy you that trough... I was thinking of getting a suitable sized metal basket and use that as a frame for something similar. I could get as much as a whopping 5 gallons that way!

Thanks man! Having the extra container volume is a huge plus, and I'd strongly recommend it to anyone with serious space restrictions. The larger footprint means there's no wasted space, and it is also super short, shorter than a 1 gallon airpot despite twice the volume. For a grow where every vertical inch counts that's a BIG boon. I'm confident the reason I'm getting such decent yields from such a tiny box is the trough. I have a friend who did a number of grows that I discussed the box with over the phone before building it, and he assured me I'd be lucky to pull an ounce per harvest (especially in soil instead of hydro, and he was skeptical even a hydro rig this small would pull 2 ounces).

 

[TimeTraveler]

DAY 36

No pics today, as I'm having camera issues.

Well, we're at the end of week 5 and on to the start of week 6, and vertical growth is at a crawl. I'm really surprised a sativa dominant strain like this isn't stretching for the sky, but by no means has she stopped growing. The buds are starting to swell and get harder, and she's getting frostier by the day. It's beautiful.

I'd gotten everything sterilized and ready to defoliate, but I'm honestly not even sure where to start or how to tackle it, and eventually just sighed and watered her. I'll try it next grow probably, but she's just so damned dense and none of them are really big fan leaves, just lots and lots and lots of fingers everywhere. Of course every time I move a leaf I see another growing bud site. She's looking like she'll be a fat producer.

Her smell is coming in nicely, and I'm a tad bit worried as I haven't had a chance to get more ONA gel for this run. She's sticky to the touch most everywhere I touch her. I figure I'll give her the first dose of flowering nutes later this week, probably on Wednesday or Friday. All in all things are looking good and I'm highly optimistic.