It's A Fuct World

Oh wow I think this is a first flowering shot i've seen from you. Always been curious. Figured you avoided pictures for safety reasons though.

I've never thanked you for the time you spent on this site and all the words you've wrote, and rewrote for anyone not dedicated enough to skim through all the pages, haha... So thanks for your threads ABF! I've read your stickies all but harvest every 2 weeks thread. But from what I gather Al B FAQt thread covers most topics discussed in the other threads. Not gonna lie it was a chore reading all 180+ pages of the FAQt; Especially seeing the same questions being asked, which I understand, not everyone wants to read it all.

You really did help me out immensely when I was first getting into hydro/growing in general really as i've never grown soil and went straight to hydro. I don't use the table anymore and switched to bubble buckets as I feel they're easier to handle for a newbie, but you helped establish my hydro understanding that carried over to the buckets and now i'm a few weeks away from my first harvest. Its been months since i've read your work, but figured I owed you something. I'll be back to the tables eventually.

Originally Posted by firsttimeARE

Oh wow I think this is a first flowering shot i've seen from you. Always been curious. Figured you avoided pictures for safety reasons though.

There were lots of flowering (and other) posted at one time, but apparently there was a forum software change which made them disappear. A whole library of stuff. Poof.

I've never thanked you for the time you spent on this site and all the words you've wrote, and rewrote for anyone not dedicated enough to skim through all the pages, haha... So thanks for your threads ABF! I've read your stickies all but harvest every 2 weeks thread. But from what I gather Al B FAQt thread covers most topics discussed in the other threads. Not gonna lie it was a chore reading all 180+ pages of the FAQt; Especially seeing the same questions being asked, which I understand, not everyone wants to read it all.

I agree that the archive is a less than excellent way to get the data. The solution is for me to roll it into a grow guide. The rub is that I'm a stoned slacker and that'll probably never happen.

You really did help me out immensely when I was first getting into hydro/growing in general really as i've never grown soil and went straight to hydro. I don't use the table anymore and switched to bubble buckets as I feel they're easier to handle for a newbie, but you helped establish my hydro understanding that carried over to the buckets and now i'm a few weeks away from my first harvest. Its been months since i've read your work, but figured I owed you something. I'll be back to the tables eventually.

Thanks for that, but the only thing you owe me is to pay it forward. Get proficient over a few years and consider helping noobs on the boards.

Surprised to see you say bubble buckets are easier. Flood systems are the dead-nuts simplest watering systems going; near zero maintenance, limited modes of failure and tolerant of pump/timer failures and especially tolerant of power outages. I wouldn't run a bubble system without a UPS for the air pump/s, with enough capacity to sustain air supply through at least 24 hours. Loss of air supply in DWC can trash roots in a matter of hours. Then again, I live in a place where the power goes out just about every time the wind blows...

Hope you get boatloads of buds.

Originally Posted by trichome fiend

...isn't it though?


Attachment 2209381Attachment 2209386Attachment 2209383Attachment 2209384Attachment 2209385Attachment 2209382

Noice work.

Lovely Al! Beautiful SoG canopy you have there with some stellar nugz. Love me some tray 4 lol.

Yes, its nice having the comfort of knowing that I can legally cultivate, but when it really comes down to it its just my name on another list and some people perhaps look at it as a greater likelihood of getting pinched. Michigan changed the legislation to allow state LEO's access to the list which is just plain bullspit. That said, I'm pretty comfortable and careful. My operation is small and within the limitations of the laws, perpetual seems to be the best way to do that. I'm getting security cameras installed soon though, it will be nice to know that they'll be recording while I'm away and I can access them through the web or iphone app 24/7 with a 15 day recording loop.

Thanks for sharing pics Al, and TC, dense and dank as always!

Originally Posted by Al B. Fuct

Surprised to see you say bubble buckets are easier. Flood systems are the dead-nuts simplest watering systems going; near zero maintenance, limited modes of failure and tolerant of pump/timer failures and especially tolerant of power outages. I wouldn't run a bubble system without a UPS for the air pump/s, with enough capacity to sustain air supply through at least 24 hours. Loss of air supply in DWC can trash roots in a matter of hours. Then again, I live in a place where the power goes out just about every time the wind blows...

Hope you get boatloads of buds.

You're right with there being more mechanical issues to go wrong.

It's mostly because I had success with the same time given to each style of growing. Consideration has to be given to the fact that I had experience that carried over from my time in flood and drain which I will go back to after a couple DWC runs, got a strain surplus I need to burn down at the moment. I also find cleaning the buckets are much easier than cleaning a 1066mm square table and 40gal res.

Power failures aren't that common around here thankfully and if they do I have a gas generator that would easily handle the whole room. I also have 2 dual diaphragm air pumps powering 4 buckets with 2 air stones per bucket, 1 from each air pump so I don't have to worry if a pump goes one stone will still be supplying air. If they both go that'd just be some crazy odds and I'd probably just be too amazed to be mad.

Thanks, I hope so too.

This is a picture of a strain i'm growing called Fruity Chronic Juice at 42 days flower. I love the way this plant grows.

DSC04124.jpg

DSC04127.jpg

Originally Posted by firsttimeARE

You're right with there being more mechanical issues to go wrong.

It's mostly because I had success with the same time given to each style of growing. Consideration has to be given to the fact that I had experience that carried over from my time in flood and drain which I will go back to after a couple DWC runs, got a strain surplus I need to burn down at the moment. I also find cleaning the buckets are much easier than cleaning a 1066mm square table and 40gal res.

Power failures aren't that common around here thankfully and if they do I have a gas generator that would easily handle the whole room. I also have 2 dual diaphragm air pumps powering 4 buckets with 2 air stones per bucket, 1 from each air pump so I don't have to worry if a pump goes one stone will still be supplying air. If they both go that'd just be some crazy odds and I'd probably just be too amazed to be mad.

Thanks, I hope so too.

This is a picture of a strain i'm growing called Fruity Chronic Juice at 42 days flower. I love the way this plant grows.

I'm a big fan of redundancy. Wherever possible, having a live backup is a very good idea. A genset is also a very good thing to have.

Fruity Chronic Juice looks ok but I think it'd yield a lot more heavily for you if grown in a SoG arrangement. When growth division is induced by pruning back, you get a larger number of smaller buds, as demonstrated in your pix. As indicated by the browning of the calyxes, this plant is approaching the limit of bud production before the buds have gotten all that large. The bulk of bud production occurs between weeks 6 & 8, so there might yet be a bit more in it, but the calyx browning is telling you that it most likely won't be making much more than what you're seeing now.

Looking forward to seeing this strain's performance in a SoG arrangement.

Originally Posted by Al B. Fuct

I'm a big fan of redundancy. Wherever possible, having a live backup is a very good idea. A genset is also a very good thing to have.

Fruity Chronic Juice looks ok but I think it'd yield a lot more heavily for you if grown in a SoG arrangement. When growth division is induced by pruning back, you get a larger number of smaller buds, as demonstrated in your pix. As indicated by the browning of the calyxes, this plant is approaching the limit of bud production before the buds have gotten all that large. The bulk of bud production occurs between weeks 6 & 8, so there might yet be a bit more in it, but the calyx browning is telling you that it most likely won't be making much more than what you're seeing now.

Looking forward to seeing this strain's performance in a SoG arrangement.

Yeah the only thing that worries me with SoG setup is the number of plants. I might still do it when I go back to the table. Unfortunately this was a freebie seed so this is the only one. I liked it though and would be interested in having some seeds of it on hand.

She just started browning up and still has some white calyxes. Never knew that was a sign of ceased bud production, but now I do. I wasn't sure what I was doing with that pruning, I topped it incorrectly so instead of forming 2 new tops the next node down just grew up and took its place to form a Y shaped stem. Then throughout the grow I was pruning the fan leaves that were covering top bud sites that weren't as high.

Do you harvest when buds reach their limit? Or is there a benefit to keeping them a bit longer? I hadn't planned on harvesting this until another 2 weeks, should I be planning sooner? Trichomes are still clear/cloudy but fully formed head, probably 50/50 ratio. And I wanted to *gasp* flush them for a week.

Originally Posted by firsttimeARE

Yeah the only thing that worries me with SoG setup is the number of plants. I might still do it when I go back to the table. Unfortunately this was a freebie seed so this is the only one. I liked it though and would be interested in having some seeds of it on hand.

She just started browning up and still has some white calyxes. Never knew that was a sign of ceased bud production, but now I do. I wasn't sure what I was doing with that pruning, I topped it incorrectly so instead of forming 2 new tops the next node down just grew up and took its place to form a Y shaped stem. Then throughout the grow I was pruning the fan leaves that were covering top bud sites that weren't as high.

Do you harvest when buds reach their limit? Or is there a benefit to keeping them a bit longer? I hadn't planned on harvesting this until another 2 weeks, should I be planning sooner? Trichomes are still clear/cloudy but fully formed head, probably 50/50 ratio. And I wanted to *gasp* flush them for a week.

Of course, plant count with SoG is a drawback, but with sufficient security culture & behaviours, you can conceivably grow indefinitely without LEO contact. I've been growing for more than 25 years without a single cannabis-related legal problem.

Cannabis plants do flower for a definite, limited period. This character is strain dependent but is usually 8-9 weeks. When 80% of the calyxes have darkened (some brown, some orange), it's time to harvest. Once the calyxes are all darkened, very little new bud material will be produced. At this point, d9-THC in trichomes tends to begin breaking down into cannabidiol (CBD) & other less psychoactive cannabinoids.

If you prune off growing tips, growth will continue from the nodes just below. Pruning off growing tips is how topiary is accomplished in other types of plants. In cannabis, this will make the plant bushier, with more bud sites, but the flowers produced will be smaller than the buds produced from a natural terminal node.

Don't remove healthy fan leaves. They are the solar panels which generate sugars which are converted into cellulose matter that build more plant material, be that more root, leaf or bud.

Plants store about 2 weeks worth of nutrients. You can stop feeding in wk 6 and usually not see any signs of nutrient deficiency til the end of week 8. The only thing that removes stored nutrients from the plant is photosynthesis. This takes time and exposure to light. Despite advertised claims, there is no product which will accelerate this process. You can 'flush' plants if you want but it is unlikely to make any difference to the smoking characters of the buds. You can try it if you like, but the only result I've ever seen from withdrawing nutrients is accelerated maturation (which stops formation of bud matter prematurely).

There's a lot of urban myth around regarding 'flushing,' 'curing,' etc. Most of these myths date back to the late 1960s to early 1970s. At the time (and through the early 1980s), imported cannabis supplied for smoking was generally the whole dried plant, leaves & all- and it was usually wickedly harsh to smoke. Homegrowers tended to treat cannabis as though it was tobacco, employing curing methods used to make tobacco leaf more pleasant to smoke, but mimicked the whole-plant style of the imported product. It wasn't until cannabis cultivation came indoors broadly with the 1986 advent of the SON-T HPS light (which supplies some blue spectrum light) that cannabis bud, without leaf, became the predominant style of supply.

Cannabis buds are much more pleasant to smoke than leaf because there's a very high ratio of resin to cellulose matter in them, the opposite of leaf. Buds, particularly from pedigreed DNA, don't require any any special treatment to make them smooth to smoke, be that 'flushing' or 'curing,' but old habits die slowly. To this very day you will find people insisting upon treating cannabis bud as though it were tobacco leaf. 'Flushing' and 'curing' of buds is quite unnecessary, is generally a waste of time and done badly can (and does) invite mould, which spoils the lot.

Choose wisely, grasshopper!