Thank you Xare, Little Tommy and Especially Uncle Ben, 15 seeds and 15 female

I started a hempy grow (perlite:vermiculite, 3:1) with bag seed back in September and I had some problems getting it off the ground. The bottom leaves of my plants were spotting, yellowing and then dying with a minimum of upward growth. I made a post in the thread “Hempy Collective Re-vised” pleading for help and Xare and Little Tommy came to my rescue. Basically I had lost 1 month of vegetation because the plants were only 3” tall at the end of 3 weeks. I was told I needed to up my nutrients and lower the pH so I increased my nutrients and started pHing my water to 6.0. I was also told that my well water may be the problem also but at the time I didn’t think it was because I was mixing it 1:3 with RO water. About three weeks later I reconsidered and started using RO water without the well water. After mixing the nutrients the pH was around 5.3 before adjusting. With my well water in the mix the pH was around 6.8 and took 24 drops of pH down to get to 6.0. Because of Uncle Ben I discovered that the NPK values for the Lucas formula are wacked when it comes to seedlings and the vegetative state but will suffice for bloom. I started adding between ¼ to ½ teaspoon Nitrate of Soda (16-0-0). With the abuse I subjected them to it took a while for my plants to recover but they are doing great now. I wanted to get them straightened out before going to flower and 71 days into veg I nipped the top most node and flipped the switch to 12/12.

Now here is the part that has me dumbfounded, amazed, confused, ecstatic, and in disbelief! I am totally flamed! --- I initially planted 21 seeds. After they grew the third set of fan leaves I selected the 15 best because my grow area is only 2.5 x 4 feet. I figured from the 15 plants I would get 7 or 8 females and that would leave plenty of space to flower. Wrong! I put them into flower on day 71 at 12” tall with about 25 nodes per plant. I’m with the understanding that they should have stated showing their sex in 5 to 7 days. After 9 days I was beginning to worry because none of the plants had shown their sex. On day 10 I found a female! This was great but it left me a little confused? Male plants are supposed to bloom a few days earlier than females but here it was, a female on day 10. Day 11 totally blew me away when I discovered I had 9 more females with no males! On day 12, 3 more females for a total of 13 females out of 15; fantastic! On day 13 I still could not definitely say what the sex of the remaining two was but today is the clincher, today, day 13 of bloom, I have 15 of 15 female from bag seed!

Today my tallest plants are 19” and all have branches at every node top to bottom. I did however prune (but no leaves) leaving 9 to 11 upper branches. As you can see in the pics there are plenty of branches left. Ben, I like your 4 cola topping technique and I’m definitely using it on my next grow.

I have two distinct pheno types. Type 1 is shorter with a more compact growth structure. The branches have more of a tendency to grow up instead of out. Type 2 is taller and looks more sativa like with an open airy structure. Bear in mind this is bag seed and I have no idea of the genetics but I’m still on cloud 9!

Does anyone have a clue as to why I’m so damn lucky!


And before anyone ask, “Yes, I do know the difference between male balls and female hairs”.


Grow Room and Environment

Medium
Perlite and vermiculite 3:1 using 2 liter soda bottles

Nutrients
General Hydroponics Flora Micro Hard Water 5-0-1 (dropped after 6 weeks of veg)
General Hydroponics Flora Micro 5-0-1 (started after 6 weeks of veg)
General Hydroponics Flora Bloom 0-5-4
General Hydroponics Kool Bloom Liquid 0-10-10
Botanicare Silica Blast 0-0-0.5
Publix Super Market 3% Hydrogen Peroxide
Epsom Salts 10% magnesium 13% sulphur (Used only 3 times)
Hi-Yield Nitrate of Soda 16-0-0

At present I am using Flora Micro 1 tsp/gal and Flora Bloom 3 tsp/gal, NPK 5-15-13 plus Hydrogen Peroxide 1 tsp/gal to keep the roots healthy and ½ tsp/gal Silica Blast. I was using FM and FB at 1.5 and 3 tsp/gal, NPK 7.5-15-13.5 but I was getting some leaf tip burn so I backed off on the nitrogen.

Water
Wal-mart Great Value Drinking Water, processed by reverse osmosis, no mineral additives for taste, 69¢ per gallon
Well water at 1100 ppm mixed with RO water at 1:4 for a ppm of about 300 total. Used with Flora Micro Hard Water. Stopped after 6 weeks and used just RO water and Flora Micro regular.

Lighting
18 23 watt CFLs arranged in a 3x6 pattern inside a homemade hood lined with metal flashing
Vegetative - 12, 6500K and 6, 2700K bulbs
Flower - 18, 2700K bulbs

Light Cycle
18/6 vegetative and 12/12 flower

Air Circulation
Vortex 449 CFM inline fan on a rheostat pulling outside air through my grow box and exhausting into the attic.

Temperature
Averages 78 day 68 night with swings from 82 day to 62 at night

Humidity
Variable between 50 to 85%








Thanks again and to all a Merry Christmas!

That's amazing!

I am glad that you were able to persevere and get them back on track. The hempy method is very forgiving. Good luck the rest of the way.

Excellent.

If you find a few seeds in a good bag its often Fems seeds.

What happens is if the grower that grew the stuff you got the seeds from had a banana pod in the grow it will spread around a little bit of pollen and make a few feminized seeds.

If a male is around there is usually total pollination of the plant and the buds are fully seeded.

But if you see partial pollination of some nice buds you can guess they are from banana pollen, thus are fems.


Those hempys look happy and its always good to see others having success with this style of growing.

-Xare

Thank you Xare, your explanation makes sense. I've read how feminized seeds are made but I never thought it would happen to me. Every bag around here has seeds, some more than others and none of it great. This particular bag had just enough seed for my grow so it very well may be what you said. If this is the case, then my plants have a good chance of going hermi do they not?