Interesting Vertical Grow From 0 to Hero/Pineapple Express+Critical Rapido

I hope with this Grow Journal to bring something new and never seen to Rollitup aswell as share my experience from this wonderfull specimens. This is my second grow, and I decided to jump into vertical growing... although my grow is not finished yet, I would encourage YOU to try it someday . The expected day for this growing to finish is 8-9 weeks.

Im going to use 18h of light, no light cycle changes, just straight 18hours grow full-time.

Im Growing Barneys Pineapple Express and Critical Rapido. I will try to keep it short and sweet (just like the pineapple express
In this journey im experimenting with some fun stuff, such as the C02 buckets and the EcoGrowWall vertical system.



Started 01/04: Week 1/Week 2/Week 3 (vegging stage)

I used a small home made cloner to grow the seedlings on rockwool cubes, with a 400MHS light for 2.5 weeks (17 days). I lost a few of them, I found this to be the hardest stage of growing, this little miracles are too fragile when seedlings. I also learned that all my losts were due to an improper root bounding to the cubes.



The left 20 are Pineapple express while the right one are Critical Rapido and Auto Critic.

Here is after 1.5 weeks, with a view on the vertical system.


NOWWW. After 17 days.
Time to get the 600HPS light running. The plants go to the vertical rockwool slabs on similar carved squares I made, notice.. the stem is still too weak, so Im using straws (drinkin straws) to support the fragile stem verticall.

Pineapple Express are all on the right Panel, Criticals are on the front panel.

Im trying to get 3 plants per slab aproximatelly, this is going to turnout being a vertical Sea Of Green Does that even exist ?...It should right ?
Now.. you can see that by that time they were tremendously small, but dont fear... in just 4/5 more days this happened. I also started to use C02 bucket attatched to the entrance of the fan... I have the feeling that this C02 buckets do work.

Week 3.5
It sort of, went on a crazy rampage of growing... ALL of them. They started to bend up, I had a fan going on 24h/7 which strengthened the stem. Check it out


Week 4.5

The growing continues, I just leave the straws there... No problems at all, the steam thickens so much that they arent an issue, in fact.. it keeps the stem from getting wet, avoiding any type of stem root.


Im using this.. barbacue sticks so separate branches, I simply stick them inside the rockwool slabs, I can direct how I want brances to use the space around, although plants started to grow vertically, I noticed soon enough that there are branches growing towards the light, they are getting more bushy and you can of course smell the glory and see the white hairs,pistills going on.

Week 5.5
WELCOME TO THE JUNGLEE, WE HAVE WEED AND GAMES.


Still 3 week to go, colas are already frosty in some plants, its getting even more bushier and I think the bud production is about to really kickoff.

Well... Until now this is all I got, please if you have any questions just let me know I hope this is of interest to you guys.

Enjoy and have a wonderfull day.

Hi there guys

Just a small update, today is 6 weeks in, and arond 2-3 weeks to go hopefully. I tried to zoom one of the small colas of a Pineapple Express, its getting bushier.

Hello Guys, Time for the latest and final ​update... I have got a few questions on my messagebox, you are welcomed to comment or msg me.

Including
:Final weight (Wet/Dry):
:Tips for Vertical Systems:
:final conclution about this Strains and system:

Well, I continued the same way... and it grew, and it grew and it grew. To the point where I couldnt enter inside the room anymore without causing major damage. This might be one of the few disadvantages I can see when it comes to vertical hydroponic systems (the last 2 weeks you cant enter hence its impossible to sort out the plants for even growth.

I finished at week 8.5, although I belive even 1 more week couldnt hurt (some of the white pistills hairs were present in a few buds, but at least 75% were orangy sexy hairs.).

This is at week 8 with lights off to appreciate the nice canopy and colour.



The system is beautifull, plants grew 2 inches (4cm) away from the cooltube, there was incredibly low heat burn to the leaves.
So as you all know, it all ended with 32 hours of darkness, from which I then started the cutting down process for drying/curing.

Here is a friendly Critical Rapido bud.


This are autoflowering plants!!! giving out 30-40grams colas (wet)... Pretty amazing in my humble opinion. Autoflowering might just be the future, considering how practical, productive and fast they are getting. It might not be the best right now but I see a great future on them.


60% done.. 40% to go, 2 trays of Pineapple Express 1 of Critical Rapido.

I like to cut and trim the buds beforeee the drying process, for several practical reasons... You might end up loosing more bud weight but I have a feeling you get better taste and less lost of Thc since humid fresh leaves adhere thc crystals better than dehydratated leaves.


The Total weight of WET buds.
1164 grams. About 5 trays of 200grams each.
744grams Pineapple Express
420grams Critical Rapido.

The Total weight of DRY buds
361 grams. 2 Trays
260 grams Pineapple Express
101 grams Critical Rapido.

Thoughts about the system/Strains

Think about this... Im still a "young" grower, I was able to get 361grams using 600watts. At 50% of the potential of this system, as I recorded 2 panels, but you are supposed to be working with 4 or at least 3 since vertical light irriadiates light at 360º you should be using 4 panels.

My bet is that with the full system (panels) and a decent strain, even a first time grower can match the watts with the grams. Without using any bloom booster, simple nutrients (just like the ones im using from GreenHouseSeeds). An experienced grower will go to 1.5x-2x+ the amount of watts. I dont think this can be done with any horizontal system in the same space... If it can be done I would be incredibly impressed.

The Stains themselves...
Beautifull, Pineapple Express more fruit than herbal smell.... This is the most pleasant smell Ive ever sniffed on buds... Im not saying its the best WEED smell, aspersay. But its the nicest...Pineapple express do carry the pineapple smell. The taste its sweet... How the hell can smoke taste sweet ?

The critical rapido had an agressive mean smell, in the good sense of course... that was real power plant smell. Exactly the same as the Critical mass, good pine smell and appearance. Taste is pretty average. But it does give you mad munchies and coachlock, its quite clearly an indica lady.

Overall, I recommend growing Pineapple Express.... Its quite a beauty, its one of the best plants you can get for active days.

The high is pretty nice, very energetic... the word is euphoric. It lasts for a good while 2h, the munchies arent too bad. It doesnt gives you couchlock, this is an excellent friend for days you must remain active or need to socialize).

Tips for vertical systems
-Clean your system once every 2 weeks, algae can be present easier than with normal system, but it can be easilly solved.
-Wind man.... you have to put some heavy air circulation, while verticallity gives you more surface area to work with, you need constant movement to make sure that not just a 50% of the area is getting hit by light.
-Trim leaves that get too close to the air circulation or which cover the buds of plants below, light trimming on last stages wont damage the production of the buds.
-Have a long stick or something to work with to sort the plants you cant reach with your hands.
- Do something I didnt do... use nets, that will definitely help with evening the growth.

TRY vertical systems. Clean/Space and light friendly/Productive/Easy to home-made-it
Regardsss!!!

I might start a new vertical grow this time using 4 panels. Would anyone like me to record that ?

Kind Regards

try leaving them longer and you'll be amazed at the increase in quality/yield, id say they have maybe 3 weeks of growth before their ready in future.
wait until 70-80% of the hairs are brown, or if you get yourself a cheap handheld microscope you can check the trichomes, wait till most (60-70%) are a cloudy milky colour and a few (10-20%) are amber.
happy growing