First Grow - Western Winds & Power Skunk

Thanks Van....Seedlings just started so nothing yet. I'll post a pic when they sprout..probably tomorrow.

I've heard great things about Diesel. And the Feminized seed thing is a big plus.

I'm switching to flowering light cycle today - 12/12 . It's a bit earlier than planned but I really need to flush out the males. The females will get cloned as soon as they identify themselves.

Photo attached. The Super Skunk is about 10 inches tall. The Western Winds are 7 or 8 inches tall.

Darn the luck. The two Western Winds are males....I'm about 95% sure. I'll wait a couple more days to confirm.

The Super Skunk is not showing any signs of sex yet. It looks great....growing quickly now under 12/12. I started a clone of this one yesterday.

The Western Winds and Super Skunk both sprouted. SS in 24 hours; the WW in 48. The Diesel has not sprouted yet but it's nice and plump. It was the largest seed in the lot, FWIW. It is odd that at 3 days it is not showing a root yet.

The 3 seeds that did start are in my cloner pinched into a neoprene sleeve with the root tip showing out the bottom. I read about this somewhere on RIU: keeping plants all hydro from the start. I'll post a pic when the roots start to grow.

I also have one seed that I am trying to start in the cloner as an experiment (no paper towels.) It is in a plug of rockwool about 3/8" in dia in the middle of a 3" neo sleeve. It would be great if this works: I could dispense with the paper towels all together and use my cloner for seed starting and vegging. My goal is to have two setups perpetually- 1 clone/seed starting/ vegging in a cabinet with 24/0 CFLs and 1 flowering in a tent at 12/12.

Here's a couple of photos of the males. In the group photo, the shorter plants are the Western Winds, which both turned up male. The taller plant is the Super Skunk...not a sign of sex yet. Note to self: "don't be so conservative next time. Go ahead, plant a few more beans. Step up to the plate, bro."

I was wondering how difficult it would be to determine sex. As you can see from the photos, not very.

Received Mandala seed order today: 8 mile high, Kalichakra, Mandala #1 and Safari Mix. Very stealth and very quick delivery. I like these guys.

With the new seeds and the discovery of the 2 males, it's almost like I'm starting over. 2 each of the Mandala strains went into dirt today. I put the Fem Diesel (which is still plump but not showing any signs of a sprout) into dirt. And I moved one of the sprouted Western Winds back into dirt. The "dirt" I'm using is a Sunshine professional growers mix - 900 series #950. Nice stuff, meant for starting annuals. I'm rethinking my entire grow one more time. I'm going back to keeping mothers in dirt (hopefully 1 each of the 7 strains I have) and vegging/flowering clones from the mothers. It will take some time to get established but this system has the most flexibility for me and I like the idea of keeping the genetics I really like on a "mother" ship. Mothers in dirt can take a little neglect, etc for vacation and those times when I don't want to be tied to the hydro system.

I also planted two pots with Super Sweet 100. These are great little tomatoes which should do great indoors.

As of this morning all the seeds popped EXCEPT the Diesel. Seedlings are looking good.

My original three are doing well....but the Skunk still shows no signs of sex. And it
s getting tall....super tall. I would estimate it grows about 3 inches a day.

All of the Mandala Seeds are up after 3 days. The Diesel still hasn't sprouted and I doubt it will (it was free after all).

Here's a pic of the sprouts and my Clone/Seedling/Veg cabinet. It's a Sears Tool Cabinet...picked it up for $70 and lined it with Mylar.

Also here's a pic of the original 3. The tall lanky plant is the Super Skunk, STILL no sign of sex after a week and a half under 12/12. The Skunk is 23 inches tall; the WW are 20 and 15 inches tall and much bushier.

I'm keeping the male Western Winds alive until the Skunk sexes....thinking about collecting the pollen. They are nice compact plants for what are supposed to be sativas.

One week into grow # 2: Here is the crop-

2 x Mandala #1
2 x 8 Mile High
2 x Kalichakra
2 x Western Winds ( Kali Mist )
1 x Manadala Safari Mix
1 x Super Skunk

(also 2 tomato plants - front of photo)

Took another look at the Super Skunk tonight...it's definitely a male. Damn... 3 for 3 males on my first grow. I put them down (humanely) and moved the 10 started seeds to the Secret Jardin tent; converted back to MH lighting and set it for 18/6. *sigh*

Well, it's all good. I'm really gonna appreciate the harvest....when it finally gets here.

Last night I saw roots popping out of the four inch pots. Considering that my first grow hardly had very few roots at the bottom of the same pots at Day 26, there is something way better going on in grow #2. I am attributing the difference to the soil: the first grow was miracle grow mixed with some other stuff; this grow is 100% Sunshine #960.

I transplanted to 2 gallon pots, which I hope works out as a permanent home for the mothers (after sexing). They are the perfect size for my stealth cabinet: I can fit 6 pots on a shelf under (26 x 5) 130 watts of CFL. The roots were already balling at the bottom of the 4 inch pots and they were way more substantial than my first grow.

Lesson learned: Buy good potting soil without any timed released nutrients.

Here's a pic of the transplants. The 3 little guys in the front are tomato plants and a stray skunk that started late.

Quick correction......previously wherever I referred to Super Skunk it's actually Power Skunk G13 that I'm growing. (Freebies from Attitude)

Things are looking great. The plants are "thick" looking...with almost chunky leaves. The Mandala strains look especially healthy.

Last night I pulled a slug off of one plant....not sure how a slug showed up on my indoor grow.

I plan to clone all the plants at the end of next week and then put the soil plants into flower. The clones are for my next grow...a hyrdo.

Photo attached.

Put them into flower on 2/18 after 20 days veg. The tallest plant was 10 inches.

Took cuttings for cloner today...4 plants only (all I could fit in the cloner- it's filled with 5 coleus and a tomato). Hopefully I guessed right and have a couple females in there. Two of the cuttings were from the top of plants; two from a lower shoot.

Getting ready to leave for a week....nervous about leaving the crop alone but no other choice.

Returned from vacation today and all is well with the grows. Of the 9 plants in the second grow, 4 turned up male. 2 of the Manadala #1, 1 western winds, and 1 8 mile high are DOA after sexing.

The cloner looks like it is working great. The coleus all popped roots after less than 2 weeks.

looking realy nice man

DWR said:

looking realy nice man

Click to expand...

Thanks DWR!!

Finally I'm getting lucky with sexing....the 2 Kalichakra are definitely female and the remaining Western Wind is looking promising. Not sure about the last safari or 8 mile.

The Kalichakras are about double the size of the other plants with stalks almost as big as a hot dog. They are maybe 2 feet high.

I'm having really good success with this strain. 2 of 2 seeds planted were female. It is the most vigorous of anything in the grow room. First to show sex; first to throw roots in the cloner and best looking all around plant. It grows very upright and will probably need to be tied soon. Also it might benefit from some pruning.

Photo attached; this is Day 35 since sprouting; 16 days into flowering. The two tallest on the left are the Kalichakra (24 ").

Moving a few plants to Stinkbud Hydro System (pics are coming.)

I'm using Foxfarm Nutrients.... 761 ppm to start (with water measuring 170 before adding Nutes.) 3 T of grow Big and 5 T of Big Bloom in 5 gallons of water. (1/2 RO water and 1/2 tap). Water PHd to 6.0 after adding nutes.

One tomato and 1 Kalichakra moving from cloner to SB sys. Technically the Kali has not been vegged, but based on the size in soil, no worries.

I'm down to 2 Kalichakras and 1 Safari. Everything else was male.

In the meantime, I put 2 more of Mandala #1 and 8 mile high into germination. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

The Hydro system is based on Stinkbud's design and threads. The only MJ in the system is my lone female clone. The other plants are tomatoes.