Indoor Teetee's 2021 Monster Hunt

[Teetee]

Good to be back growing and posting after a couple of months off.

I thought I should do a year long journal this time, I did pretty well last year but doing 4 new journals a year, every year, makes looking back through my old grows a pain.
My esteemed Grow Bro @hope2grow does a lovely running journal, and AFN makes it easy with the Threadmarks feature, so here goes!

I decided to have a break for a few reasons, 2 bumper harvests late in 2020 (including a whopper 20.8 ounce Night Queen) meant I had a load of gear to get through, plus Christmas and New Year is slap bang in the middle of our Summer, and temps up in the 40°C's makes growing difficult.

We rent our gaff, so we have an inspection every 3 months - which means timing has to be perfect.
The last inspection was in mid Feb, so on the 2nd Feb I sowed 4 seeds direct in Coco, in Solo cups.... like I usually do.

The idea was to have 4 seedlings ready to transplant into 20L airpots by inspection day.
After the inspection, I'd put the tent up and get on with the grow.

I put the plan into action and went for:

• Dutch Passion - Night Queen
• Dutch Passion - Colorado Cookies
• Dutch Passion - Daiquiri Lime
• Dinafem - Blue Amnesia XXL

I was a bit impatient.... this germination technique usually takes 2-3 days for the seedlings to show. The Night Queen came up first on day 2, then the Colorado Cookie... so on day 3, I dug for the other two.... the seeds had opened and the tap roots had grown a little, so I covered them up and let them continue.

They didn't.

Gutted about losing a beloved Blue Amnesia and my last Daiquiri Lime seed, I decided to try again, 2 more seeds...

• Dutch Passion - Colorado Cookies
• Dutch Passion - Blackberry Kush

Like a total idiot, after 3 days, with no show, I went for another dig. The CC had a tap root, but the BBK seemed to have completely disappeared.

Back to the seed collection... and decided on:

• Dutch Passion - Blackberry Kush
• Sweet Seeds Cream Mandarine XXL

I left them well alone, and they popped up no problem.... phew!!!
Here they are on day 6 with the bigger pots containing the Night Queen and Colorado Cookie behind and out of shot.....

Here's the NQ and CC that were behind those seedlings.The NQ (day 24) is top, the CC (day 17) below. ...

Looking pretty nasty, eh!

I'll explain what the fuck's going on in the next post.....

 

[Teetee]

I don't think I've ever had such a crap start to a grow!!!

From the first batch of 4 seeds, planted on 2nd Feb, only two made it to the 25L airpots - a Night Queen and a Colorado Cookie. The Colorado Cookie died soon after the transplant.

The next 2 seeds were planted on the 10th Feb, only one survived rushed germination - another Colorado Cookie.... and only cos I dug her up.

The Night Queen seemed Ok after the transplant, but as you can see, by day 24 she was showing signs of heat stress.....

... not surprising as it was well over 40°C in the tent.... right in the middle of a brutal Aussie Summer heatwave.
Look at all that mossy green stuff on the surface of the Coco too. I think that was because I was not watering her to run off in the early days after the transplant.

A week later on day 31, and she looks like an encyclopaedia of Cannabis symptom diagnosis..... every leaf seems to show a different deficiency or toxicity.....

.... and by day 40, it was clear she was not going to recover, so I pulled her out.

... again, look at all that moss. I was well pissed as Night Queen is my favourite smoke. Plus that's 25L of Coco up the spout and a load of nutes.

The Colorado Cookies was a week younger than the Night Queen. She was moved from a Solo cup to the 25L airpot quite early too, and what with the infernal heat and the poor watering, she also went down. Here she is on day 17....

Crispy, curled up leaves and more of that bloody moss. The newer growth looked a bit better, so I persevered.

A week later, on day 24, she was looking terrible, but bigger than the Night Queen behind who was on day 31 and on her way out...

On day 33, you can see she had grown a bit more, the Coco was looking better, and the new growth was picking up a bit. I'd given up on the day 40 Night Queen behind by now.....

.... but in the end, by day 43, she had gone back into veg with no flowering at all, so I pulled her out as well.

So there you go.... Teetee fucks up!

Too many mistakes, I thought I should list them...

• Temps up in the mid 40°C's is never good, especially with young seedlings.
• Why must I insist on digging for unpopped seeds after 3 days???? In the past I had a 100% success rate, but I waited, sometimes for 4-5 days for them to come up. Disturbing germinating seeds is a big no - no.
• I transplanted them way too early, and that affected their feeding.
• My Bluelab Guardian broke down (grrr) so I now rely on my Bluelab truncheon... which has always read EC slightly lower than the Guardian did. When the Guardian read EC 0.8, the Truncheon would read EC 0.7..... grrr.
• I wasn't doing a journal - I do really believe that regular posting on here can keep the enthusiasm going.... I just don't think I was that committed this time, I was slow getting back into growing after having a little break and I wasn't switched on.

Never mind, everything's a learning experience, but to lose 4 plants.... it's gonna take me a while to get over this!

 

[Teetee]

On 21st Feb, I had planted 2 last seeds - a Blackberry Kush and a Cream Mandarine XXL.
The Night Queen was on day 16 and the Colorado Cookies was on day 9, and as you know from the last post, they both died in the end.

With an inspection looming in mid May, I had to get the BBK and CM to succeed, so I tried a little harder and did my best to leave them alone and just do their thing, and iron out some of the issues from before. The temps were dropping too, making it more like 28-30°C inside the tent.

Just a reminder of how they were on day 6, BBK on the left, CM on the right.....

I was too hasty before, trying to repot them on day 9.
This time I let them establish themselves a bit more, and waited till day 13 to repot them.

Here's the BBK on day 13 looking much happier....

.... and the CM was also looking great!

Repotting went well, and by day 22 they had taken off.
Here's the BBK....

and the CM....

On day 32 with CM on the left and BBK on the right....

The BBK was doing really well. She had thinner more spaced out leaves, and there were loads of tops showing....

She had a few old leaves below that were changing but they needed to come off anyway. Otherwise she doesn't need much interference.

The CM was a bit more bushy and I was having to do a lot of teaf tucking, eventually I started to remove some of the larger fans to let light into the new tops......

2 days later I decided to pull my finger out and get staking....

The BBK was fine without stakes, but the CM really needed it doing.
Side by side on day 34 and they're looking great....

So there you go.... 2 plants only but they are doing pretty well.
Normal Teetee service has (hopefully) been resumed!

THE MONSTER HUNT IS ON!!!!!!!

 

[Teetee]

A little bit about my set up... I use 400W Skyline LEDs from LED Hydroponics,. usually one per plant, and I usually have 4 in a 1.2mx1.2m wide, 2m high tent like so.....

This run, I'm only doing two plants, and I can't be bothered to unplug two of the lights, I've kep't all four going. It's nice to be able to hang them at different angles and heights.

Pretty simple set up, 6 inch Hyperfans (with adjustable speed) on the intake and extraction, an oscillation fan at ground level, and that's it.

These two are on day 40, so veg is peaking and they are just in the early stages of stretch.

Closer up, the Cream Mandarine XXL Auto, day 40...

She's got some nice leafy tops coming through all over. I'm glad I staked her out when I did.
Now on day 44 and she's just showing a bit of stretch...

....and from above you can see all those lovely tops!

I'll probably re-stake her once she's gone through the stretch, clear out all the inner foliage and let her concentrate on making some nice fat buds!

The BBK is looking like she'll be huge. Again full of tops all in very early flower, all primed to stretch up and fill half the tent.
Here she is on day 40.....

Now on day 44, again you can see that she's beginning to reach up...

From above you can see just how many tops there are... hopefully she will be a beast!

The lights are on in those pics, but it's clear they could use a stronger feed.... I've been cautious as my Bluelab Truncheon is unreliable.
I've been giving an EC 0.8 feed, and a couple of days ago, I upped it to EC 0.9, as the run off was EC 0.6 for the BBK and EC 0.7 for the CM, and the new leaf tips were a getting a little bit pale. They get through a good 6 Litres of feed each every day.

They seem to be happy, so I'll leave it there for this update. More soon!

 

[Teetee]

Day 50 and they have shot up over the last 10 days...

Cream Mandarine XXL on the left, Blackberry Kush on the right. Previously on day 40 they were just above the level of the lower part of the side window zips, now they are half way.

With only 2 plants instead of the usual 4, I've got a bit more space, so I re-staked them both so that they are pulled out to fill half the tent each.

Here's the BBK from the front. She's stretched quite a bit since the photos from last week...

The tent is 1.2m² across, so she's roughly 60cm wide, but because I pulled her out, she's 1.2m deep....

From another angle, you can she she's full of flowering stems....

Here's her main cola, and you can see she's getting into flowering mode....

The Cream Mandarine is perhaps not as big, but she's doing pretty well.....

Again, she's stretched, but she's a lot more leafy and dense compared to the BBK, so I really had to think about how to stake her out to maximise light penetration. She also is 60cm x 120cm.....

.... and her main cola is looking pretty healthy....

I'll give them a couple more days on their current feed, and within a week consider giving PK13/14 and really getting those buds going!

So at day 50 the tent is full with just 2 plants... lets hope they give me a monster haul!

 

[Teetee]

good to see all has turned out good for ya mate .

Cheers Hecno, not a good time to plant seeds when it's the height of summer and the rainy season!

Hey brother @Teetee hope alls well with ya

Here here! Update please! It's been about a month, should be some impressive results right around the corner if they aren't there already.

Thanks for jogging me back into posting Guys! I know it's been a while since my last post.... I've been getting cluster headaches upto 3x day and it's completely taken over my life. They're also called 'suicide headaches' and I can understand why.
This last month or two, I've had a SPECT full body scan, a full body MRI, a CT of my sinuses and an MRI of my brain..... I'm glowing in the dark, and I'm rattling away with all the medications they've given me. my GP is hopeless so I'm waiting on seeing a Neurologist.

If anyone out there has any experience with them, I'd love to hear from you.

Last time I posted it was day 50, I had just staked them out so that they were 120cm deep and 70cm wide to fill out the tent.

Here they are on day 68....

Cream Mandarine XXL on the left and Blackberry Kush to the right.

Monster hunt indeed! They must be liking the extra space.

They are indeed Bro!

I think that was a good move with only two girls. Ya really have 'em spread out quite nicely!!!
I see Monsters In The Making!!!

Cheers WildBill!

Here's a closer look at the CM...

Viewed from the side, you can see she goes right to the back of the tent....

She's got loads of fat sticky buds...

The BBK from the front....

Again, from overhead you can see she goes all the way back too...

Here's her main cola....

Very sticky gear, and as you can see from the next few shots.... some purple....

Cream Mandarine is supposed to be a 65 day finisher, and Blackberry Kush goes for 70 days, but it looks like these two will go for a couple more weeks.... I'll bring you up to date in the next post!

 

[Teetee]

Moving on swiftly, day 79 as a group...

Now both are way over their due dates, and are just about done.

The Cream Mandarine is full of big heavy buds....

...and those buds go all the way to the back of the tent....

Nice fat colas....

All the trichomes are milky so she's on a final flush ready to chop in a few days.

Blackberry Kush is also nearly there....

The purple is really coming through making her look really dank

I'll start flushing her when I start chopping the CM, so that I can harvest her immediately afterwards.

 

[Teetee]

Here we go then, Cream Mandarine XXL, out of the tent, ready to chop on day 82...

This is the first time I've seen her full width - 120cm.
From above, she's got some girth on her......

I'm gonna be up a few nights trimming that lot!

That means the Blackberry Kush has the tent to herself....

Although she's a good 120cm wide, she looks like she graciously made room for the CM to flourish. Now she has a couple of days to spread out before she gets the chop.

I'll let you know how things go once they're both down, thanks for looking in!

 

[Teetee]

sorry it's been a long time since posting, still getting cluster headaches and it's taken over my life.

hope u get sorted soon with neuro..

I was expecting a full neurological assessment, all she did was give me meds to lower my blood pressure, but there's nothing wrong with my BP, so I'm fucked off at having to do that.
There's some new drug that's available, a once monthly self administered injection that has horrendous side effects, I've got the script but I'm having 2nd thoughts on that one at the moment.

ANYWAY......

Way back in mid May, I chopped the Cream Mandarine XXL on day 82, as per the last post.
6 days later, day 88 and the Blackberry Kush was ready too....

1.2m x 80cm wide and full of bud.

Pretty much the size of 2 regular plants.... hopefully there's some good weight on her!

Some nice long colas with plenty of bud in between, the nugs were compact and hard.

A shit pic, but I was impressed at how purple she was.

You can see it better in this one from day 82....

I dried the buds from both BBK and CM in cardboard boxes for 10-14 days, it's a great time of year for it as the days are cooler (18-22°C) and hardly any rain, humidity in the 62% region!
Once dried, I jarred them with Bovedas, and left them in a cool dark place to cure.

Here's the numbers....

Cream Mandarine XXL 193.3g (6.8 Oz) dry
Blackberry Kush 230.5g (8.1 Oz) dry

Good haul all in all. My previous CM was 5.1 Oz and I did a BBK back in Dec 2017 and she was only 3.9 Oz.

I've been sampling the BBK this weekend, been curing for 20 days now, and already it's a very strong and delicious smoke that bears no resemblance to the last one I did. I figured she was a fussy strain and never bothered with her again, until now!

The seeds are the same, from a batch I bought in Apr 2016, early in my growing career, and I have 3 left, I think I'll be running those in the next few grows, cos it's a lovely bit of gear!

I might crack open the Cream Mandarine tonight and see what she's like - I'm sure I'll be happy with her too.

No more growing for a few weeks, there's an inspection in 2 weeks and we might be moving soon anyway.
I'm looking forward to some new Dutch Passion goodies next time, Lemon Kix, Banana Blaze and Cali Orange.... and almost certainly another BBK or maybe a Night Queen... choices, choices!!!

 

[Teetee]

OK so here we go again..... Teetee's back on the grow!

Bit of bad news first.... I lost my job because of the cluster headaches and had to find another job pronto.
I had a feeling it was gonna happen, so I managed to put some feelers out and jumped before I got pushed.
It meant a huge move some 5 hours up the coast, but the new job had offered to pay for our flights, removals and car transport, so we got very lucky, even more so now because where we used to live is now under lockdown, ha ha.

It was hard to find a place to rent that would be suitable to have a smoke without being rumbled, let alone to do a grow, but again we got lucky, and have a nice spot, about 500m from a beautiful unspoilt beach where loggerhead turtles come every year to lay their eggs and shit. Do I miss being in old Blighty???

The jars are getting a bit low, so I really had to get a grow on ASAP and have it done before the 3 monthly inspection.... so I planted some old seeds again, just to see what happens in this new environment.... it's a bit warmer and humid up here.

I planted one of each (all Autos as usual):

• GHS seeds "Jack Herer"
• The Joint Doctor "Chronic Ryder"
• Dutch Passion "Night Queen"
• Dutch Passion "Blackberry Kush"

The Jack Herer and Chronic are old beans I got as freebies back in Sept 2014.... 7 years old!! They were classics back in the day, and Dr Dre's '2001' is still in my top 5, but Autos have come a long way since then so I'm not expecting miracles.
The BBK is from the same Apr 2016 batch that I grew last grow, it was lovely gear, so why not do one again!
The Night Queen is from 2018, and I love the stuff so much, I try to grow one every run if I can.

They all finish at around 70 days (except the Chronic at 65 days) so we should be done by early October.... just before summer hits which is gonna be hot and wet.

I planted the seeds in Coco in Solo cups, watered with an EC 0.7 nute mix. Covered them in cling film, and left them in a warm box in the garage. A heat mat was set up as well cos of the cold concrete floor.

3 days later they all popped up, so I cut a hole in the box and let a Skyline 100 shine through....

I left them in the box for a couple of days while I set up the tent.

We have two garages, so I was able to set it all up in the bigger (cleaner) one, and then transferred it to the smaller (and grubbier) garage, after fumigating it to kill any massive spiders that might be lurking around.....

I'll have to get a board to cover the window more securely, and have the ducting running into holes cut into it, but that will do for now.

That's a 1.2m x1.2m wide tent, 2m high, but I'm seriously considering getting a bigger tent, perhaps a 3m x 1.40m wide one, and get a double harvest so I don't have to grow all year long.
I think the extreme summer heat and humidity will be a problem time, and having elderly nosy neighbours around will mean I will have to be extra stealthy..... doing 2 grows a year with a 3 month gap between each would be a lot safer than growing 365 days a year.

Here's the new babies at 3 days....

... and here they are in their new home with just one Skyline 400 to get them going....

After taking this shot, it occurred to me I should keep on using the heat mat for a bit until I get them into 20L airpots sometime around the day 10-14 mark.

I haven't fed them since germination, I'll probably give them some nutes again in a few days.

Exciting times! A new grow in a new home, nosy neighbours all over the shop but I bought one of those Eufy cam systems which should keep them at bay. The fans are a bit loud but the sound of the ocean covers that nicely!

Thanks for joining me again, more monsters on the way!!!