New Grower Second Grow - Bubbly Livers (Mephisto) - Auto-fed Coco Topped ScrOG + Runoff Feeding Experiment

[Exivious]

Day 22:

ScrOG creation and installation! Braided nylon at 2" intervals with a cut-out for the oscillating tower fan. I got lucky because it fit perfectly. I figured it couldn't hurt to spray a layer of sacrificial polyurethane onto the center of the net where the light will be intense at times. It might mean I won't have to restring it as soon.

Word of caution: Use strong pipe. If I had gone any smaller, the frame would have been flexing like crazy while I was stringing it. String tension is only uniform at the very end of the weaving process. You could probably get away with a lighter frame if you clamp it to a table while stringing, but the 1/2" furniture grade pipe I used isn't heavy enough to bring anyone's tent down.

Day 27:

Nice close-up of the dwarf plant. Again, this one has eaten nothing but run-off from the other plants. No pH issues, no signs of deficiencies... A normal, if small, plant.

And here's all of them where you can really see the size difference.

 

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Day 30:

Contact with screen is made. The screen is 12" from the surface of the clay pellets. It'll be a little higher next grow...

This is the point where I realized the back plant might be a little leggier than the front plant. I was very careful to make sure the light was perfectly centered and the two big pots were evenly spaced from their respective corners. The height difference would prove to be pheno-related...

Day 32:

The ScrOG proper really begins here. I also switched to 6 feedings per day around this time.

Day 36:

Here's an underneath view which I think is kinda cool. Those are pieces of cardboard I wrapped in mylar.

 

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Day 47:

I already mentioned the difficulty with supercropping these things... The light here is balanced a bit better than it looks, though. I've pulled the taller shoots of the tall pheno off to the sides. There's still some lightburn but it's pretty uniform and seems minor. At this point, the LED is strapped tight against the crossbar at the top of the tent. The tallest colas are, and remain, around 11" from the light, with 14" being ideal for the VIPARSPECTRA 600w, or 18" if the plant's having nute problems or if you like doing high stress dry-out periods.

I want to ask if anyone sees something odd at this point, but the photos thus far are probably too bad to discern. To be honest, I'm a bit proud of myself for taking as many photos as I did this cycle... Now, though, I'm really enjoying growing again.

Finally...

Day 52 (Yesterday):

Same day as the cover photo, but with the growlight on, just for contrast.

Here's where something strange and not very Mephisto-y becomes evident, and I look forward to hearing what you guys think about it. I'd like to think I was spoiled by the strain I used on my first grow, but I used four different strains on my first grow, and while White Crack offered both superior yield and smoke (though it chokes me like a newb when I forget what strain is in the bong), it didn't mature all that different from the other strains. They all developed at more or less the same rate, +/- 3 days.

Erm, yeah... See that? That's one of the most mature colas at Day 52.

This is one of the best colas on the leggy plant. The bud sites go down at least a foot and they all look about like the top one, so in some ways it seems very promising, but, again, this is Day 52?

Can you even order a beer, bro? ... Sis...

I'm not going to compare my plants to those of the other newbs (and the graduate, Damien50) here that are kicking my ass on their second, third, fourth grows, because we know that leads nowhere good. What I will do is hearken back to my own maiden voyage for some comparisons... in my next post tomorrow. But first:

Another from-below pic just because I like these. The thing on the right is my world famous patent-pending Easy (sometimes erroneously stylized as "EZ") Run-off Extraction Tool. (I offer free licensing on the design, and you don't even have to notify me, so make yours today!) These trunks are monstrous compared to my last grow. Too many things have changed since then for me to say exactly, but increased feedings and silicon supplementation probably have something to do with it.

Tomorrow: Comparing the bud maturity, at various stages, of these Bubbly Livers to the bud maturity of the plants from my first run: Forum Stomper, Fugue State, Sour Crack, and White Crack.

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I hope people are enjoying so far. I tend to be pretty verbose and detailed, and I think this quick catch-up style just might make for a less boring thread this time around. I had a lot of early attention in my first diary, then I lost most of it, probably due to redundant or rambling updates. I'm not here for popularity, but I do want it to be less boring for you all to follow.

 

[Need4Weed]

Awesome journal, loving all the detail!

 

[Beerhunter CDN]

You have an excellent grow going! Keep it up. I have a Bubbly Livers at about a week old as part of my first grow so I’m curious to see how they look. How tall are the plants? I’m planning ahead to build a raised platform in my 4x4 tent with my equipment underneath as suggested by Mr.Bubbles. That way I can utilize all 16 sq ft for plants.

 

[Iriee Vibez]

I love verbosity and pics! The plants are looking great, man. I am running the Sour Livers next time, so am very interested in how things progress. Nice job on the detail and getting us up to speed! I feel like I had a front row seat all along! Good job, man!

Those are big Mephisto plants you have! Are they typical for this strain?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

 

[Exivious]

Thanks guys!

Let's see... The tallest Bubbly Livers I have right now is the back one at 40" (counting from the top of the grow medium) and IIRC the height range for Bubbly Livers is something like 34-40". The tallest I had documented last time was Fugue State at 42", and I believe I later measured it at 44". I'd love to refresh myself on the official specifics of Mephisto strains, but their site has been gutted with a redesign. It will be very sad if the old strain information was lost. The 2018 strain guide PDF doesn't list Illuminautos like Bubbly Livers, and a lot of the strain information on artisinal strains never made it into the PDF--it was updated on the site itself later. I'd love to re-read the White Crack page on the site, for example.

Hopefully all the old strain descriptions return when the store reopens early next year. I love having all that information available, and it sucks I missed out on copying it when I could actually use the Bubbly Livers info now. I guess I'll appeal for more info on the Mephisto forum if it isn't available on the new site later.

These plants are similar to my last ones in size, just allowed to stretch horizontally more. I think total combined yield might be similar, despite me having 2.1 plants this time instead of 4.0. Well, unless this cycle doesn't run extra-long (I'm thinking 80 days), in which case yields might be more modest. Photo comparisons coming up.

 

[Iriee Vibez]

Very interested to see them finish. Dont know if I have seen any 40 inch Mephisto plants!

 

[Exivious]

Ok, time for comparisons.

Bubbly Livers Day 54 (this is the dwarf, by the way)

Bubbly Livers Day 54 (5 gallon).

White Crack Day 51

Forum Stomper Day 51

Fugue State Day 51

It's really hard to portray the difference in scale, especially with different leaf sizes across strains, but there is significant contrast in both size and sugar.

Sour Crack Day 40

I don't have a Day 40ish close-up of Bubbly Livers to compare, but they only had primordial buds at that point.

White Crack Day 60 -- anyone think Bubbly Livers will look anything like this in just 6 days?

 

[Exivious]

By the way, such an honor to have The Beer Hunter of Three Sheets fame following along.