2nd Grow-1 Barneys Farm Blue Cheese+1 Medical Seeds Sour Diesel-Comments Wanted

After a success with my first grow and prices of bud rising even further in my area, there was only one thing to do....

I learnt A LOT from my first grow, and although i'm not growing the same strain, my previous journal will be used as a sort of guidance as i'm still learning, even though these will have more indica characteristics.

Before starting anything I made a few modifications to my cupboard after my last grow. These are as follows:

• Still have 2 intakes (bottom left of cupboard), however I now have the big computer fan on the the intake near the back face of the cupboard. This was previously on the intake near the doors. The other 2 smaller computer fans have been permanently removed, as they were loud, and not really doing that much.
  
  The far intake has 1 hole going through the wall to outside, and the near one has 3 holes.
  
  I took the 4" inline fan previously attached to the reflector helping blow air across the bulb, and stuck this on the 3 hole intake near the doors to bring air in.
  
  All in all, i should have more fresh air coming in.
  
  
• I replaced the 4" inline attached to the reflector with a 5" inline (only on when lights are on). I'm hoping this will A.) improve extraction and B.) minimise heat coming off the bulb by blowing air across it and helping the RVK extract the heat.
  
  
• I got rid of the extractor at the top of the cupboard for 3 reasons.
  
  Firstly, you could hear it running, which i didn't like.
  
  Also, the ducting going from the extractor to the point of exit was long, and therefore the flow of air was minimised.
  
  I felt my current extraction system would be more than enough to fully vent the cupboard, and this extra extractor was only there to try and lower temperatures. After testing the temperatures with both the extractor on and off, there was 0.1C difference, basically it wasn't really doing much.
  
  
  
• In an attempt to make the extraction even quieter, i bought a silencer that i fit at the exit end of the RVK.
  
  
• As i'm not going to be around as much as i was for my previous grow, i have decided to try and set up a drip watering system. This consists of a pump feeding water from my reservoir into the cupboard, before splitting off into 8 drippers, 4 for each plant. I have my doubts whether this system will water the pots evenly, but have been told it should do so. This system is better suited for coco than soil, but this was my only viable option. Everything is on timer, which will be changed throughout the grow as the plants grow. This new system means the plants will have to stay in the cupboard, with the exception of when they need flushing. Not too sure how i'm going to take them out with all the lines attached but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
  
  
  
  
• I also built an inclined water catchment tray, which sits under the pots. This has a light layer of soil on it. The idea here is to prevent the plants siting in water if ever over watered/malfunctions with the pump/timer. The Incline slopes to the left, away from all the electrical plugs and sockets on the right of the cupboard, and if over watered, hopefully the water will drip out the bottom of the pots, down the slope, and will get absorbed by soil at the bottom and along the way. This will hopefully evaporate between feedings leaving me with no extra work, except for maybe fixing the problem. I left the water proof black lining of the tray under the soil hoping it would attract heat and help dry out the soil.
  
  CONSTRUCTION:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Both MH and HPS bulbs have been replaced with new ones.
  
  
• I now have a 150W nutrient heater, more than enough for my small reservoir. It's set to about 25C
  
  
• Nutrients are constantly being mixed and the water is constantly being aerated by an air pump and 2 air stones in the reservoir. This is left on 24/7.
  
  
• The two pots being used now are 10" pots, slightly bigger than last time but not much. I will consider transplanting into even slightly bigger pots once i see how the plants are growing and how much room they're taking up.
  
  
• All electrical cabling outside of the cupboard has been cut to exact length and there is no longer any multi-sockets on the floor. Everything has been screwed to the wall, just incase of some water flooding or something. Slightly paranoid about electrical fires, especially if i'm not going to be around as much. Tried to take every precaution i can think of.
  
  
• The electrical timers i used last time have been replaced with digital timers, which can turn on and off in minute intervals, as appose to 15 minute intervals like the previous one. This was needed not so much for the lights, but for the dripper system. They came in a pack of 2 so 1 went on the light, 1 went on the timer. You can decide the day and time they operate (within 1 week), which is extremely useful for the watering system.
  
  
• I've stuck a webcam in the cupboard, hoping to take pictures of the plants from a set position every couple days, maybe even every day once i start flowering. Once the grow is done i'll make a time lapse video. I have no idea if this will work but its worth a try considering the pots will be in a set position and orientation throughout the whole grow. Don't think i've ever seen/heard of a time lapse video of a marijuana plant growing. The only problem i've encountered so far is the brightness of the light, which can be overcome by placing a sun glasses lens infront of the webcam. However the colours wont be natural, and the webcam isn't exactly amazing quality, so this will be an experiment.
  
  
• This i think is the last grow in this cupboard. I plan to completely rebuild my set up from scratch next time but re-use all the equipment. This cupboard was more of an experiment than a permanent set up, after this grow i should be clued up enough to make a perfect system. I want to try Flood and Drain next time, and grow in coco. The current set up would not be adequate enough to incorporate such a system in terms of size. Also i'm sure with better planning and better design i can build something on the same footprint with more space inside and better ventilation/air exchange, something which can utilize a CO2 system.
  
  

FINISHED SET UP WITH SEEDLINGS PLANTED ON 13th April 2011

Have a happy grow!

As always - hopefully will be less stressful than the last! (especially during veg)

First set of true leaves have appeared on both. For anyone who's interested germination was done using paper towel method, both seeds sprouted between 24-36hrs, as soon as the seeds had cracked and a tiny bit of the tap root was visible they were planted, tap root facing up.

Soil is again biobizz all-mix and the lights are both 400W.

Approximately 1 week after planting seeds:



Blue Cheese:


Sour Diesel:

Why did you plant with Tap Root up ?

barney's farm blue cheese is my favorite strain to grow outside here in michigan for the past 3 years! i'm excited to see how it turns out for you, if you can you should use some organic fertilizers to really bring out the flavor, you'll be glad you did.

GoldenGanja13 said:

Why did you plant with Tap Root up ?

Click to expand...

This seems to be a bit of a debated issue. I planted both seeds JUST as the tap root split the seed casings. From having a quick read on the boards and seeing pictures of tap roots that have emerged more than mine had done it looked like the majority of them curled back in on themselves, if you know what i mean. So i figured by planting them with the root facing up, they'll emerge, curl back in on themselves, and begin to grow down like they should do. Pretty sure i did the same thing last time and it worked fine so i guess each to their own.

Sometimes said:

barney's farm blue cheese is my favorite strain to grow outside here in michigan for the past 3 years! i'm excited to see how it turns out for you, if you can you should use some organic fertilizers to really bring out the flavor, you'll be glad you did.

Click to expand...

Good genetics i take it then? This might sound like a stupid question but what exactly do you mean by using organic fertilizers in soil? I thought the biobizz allmix was in essence an organic fertilizer, or at least contained some. It's quite a strong pre-mix so wasn't gona introduce nutrients for a while yet, another week or 2. and when i do i'll be using the full HESI range. I'm ALL about flavour, more so than high, so yeh get back to me!

Looks like a good setup, same size as mine but better lights and ventilation, and my girls are 3or 4 dAys ahead- mind if I watch?
Oh yea and better strains, ive been putting off an order to the attitude till I get some cash

GoldenGanja13 said:

If you placed your seedlings on a heat mat, the tap root will grow straight down like nature intends it to do. I have had many seeds placed tap root down and still run a circle before going down lol.

Click to expand...

Doesn't sound like in makes much difference then, its all in the hands of each particular seed.

BuddhaBud said:

Looks like a good setup, same size as mine but better lights and ventilation, and my girls are 3or 4 dAys ahead- mind if I watch?
Oh yea and better strains, ive been putting off an order to the attitude till I get some cash

Click to expand...

Pull up a seat. I can think of so many improvements but dont have the time/money. Apparently you can't get original sour diesel seeds and its in clone form only. Learnt this yesterday. Buying my seeds was a spontaneous decision, with a little more research i probably would've bought these instead

http://www.cannabis-seeds-bank.co.uk/cali-connection-original-sour-diesel/prod_2922.html

I was gona stick a church plant in this cupboard as well and flower her from seed, but have decided against it cos i'm worried about space. Will be interesting to see how yours come out though.

quick update: DAY 12 of Veg

• Lights 18/6
• Temps 31-33C Lights on, 23-27C Lights off
• Been fed plain water twice so far.
• Sour D looks to be ahead of Blue Cheese by about a day.

BC:


SD:

lilindian said:

Pull up a seat. I can think of so many improvements but dont have the time/money. Apparently you can't get original sour diesel seeds and its in clone form only. Learnt this yesterday. Buying my seeds was a spontaneous decision, with a little more research i probably would've bought these instead

http://www.cannabis-seeds-bank.co.uk/cali-connection-original-sour-diesel/prod_2922.html

I was gona stick a church plant in this cupboard as well and flower her from seed, but have decided against it cos i'm worried about space. Will be interesting to see how yours come out though.

Click to expand...

yea i have a church right next to a bagseed in a cup cus i thought it didnt germ - wanna get creative so i'm puttin them in a topsy turvy in a few weeks

Quick Update: Day 17 VEG

• Plants are being fed with plain water 1-2 times a week. Going to add some highly diluted nutrients in today as i think the plants are big enough to start making use of a little extra energy.
• The very first set of leaves have been trimmed off both plants on day 15, they looked unhealthy and were slightly twisted (see pics)
• Lights on temp 28C, lights off 23C
• Sour D still looks a day or 2 ahead, the main stalk is slightly thicker than the BC and the leaves look bigger.
• So far the BC has very tight node spacing, noticably closer than the SD, so i'm expecting it to be the bushier out the 2 plants. The first 3 true nodes are visible on both plants with the 4th emerging.
• A 6" fan has been added to blow over both plants. The aim here is to strengthen up the stalks while they're young, seems to be working well. Will upload a video when i get round to it.
• I'm going to give it a week more before i FIM both plants, not 110% sure on this technique but i figured worst case scenario i'd end up with a topped plant. I want to try and get 4 main cola's on each plant so at the moment i'm planning on vegging for about 6 weeks, depending on how quick the plants recover after the FIM or topping(s).

Plants are lookin good, keep it up

Update: Day 20:

• I decided not to wait another week and attempted to fim both plants 3 days ago. I snipped about 1mm above the node on the Sour D, pretty much just above the node. This was due to very little new growth above the node. The Blue cheese was cut about 2-3mm above the node. After sleeping on it and seeing a little growth on the Sour D and none on the blue cheese, i snipped the BC again, cutting JUST above the node this time. I have a feeling i cut too much off both resulting in a top, not a fim, but we'll see. Due to the 2nd snip on the BC it now seems to be even slightly further behind the SourD (which is definitely looking the better out of the 2 at this stage)
  
  
• Nutrients were also added to the reservoir at around half strength and both plants were given their first feeding yesterday.
  
  The following measurements were used and mixed in with 10L of water.
  
  
  
  Whilst previously i'd been watering the plants for 1 minute, i decided this time to keep watering them at 1 min intervals until i saw some run off. It took 3 minutes for some drips to come out the bottom of the pots with each dripper on its max flow setting. Each of the 3 waterings were 5 mins apart in order to let the water be absorbed evenly in the soil.
  
  Info on organic B, never seen anyone else use this product:
  
  http://www.advancednutrients.com/hydroponics/products/organic_b/organic_b_product_information.php
  
  

BC: 1st Snip





SD:



SD after just over a day:







Whats going on in my reservoir:

Hi, lilindian. I just got done growing 2 medical seeds sour diesel plants, I just put them in the cure jars today. I had a really successful grow, my first one. They yield was incredible and the high is really nice. The high of these buds makes me think about whatever is on my mind until I fully understand it- its awesome. The smell is hard to describe.. but it's different from anything else I've smelled- kinda like a really deep scent of fruit, diesel, skunk, i don't know haha. Here they are about 3/4 they way through flowering:

That first picture is literally exactly how i want my cupboard looking in around 2 months, 1 big dense bush! Can you give me some info on ur grow, i.e how long u vegged for, any training u did, how sensitive they were to nutes ect. Would be really useful. You're the first person I've come across who's also grown medical seeds sour diesel. For a first grow those plants look pretty damn good and healthy, well played! After a smoke report like that i'm starting to look forward to trying this more than the blue cheese, which is saying something.

Appreciate u stoppin by, when u start ur next grow, start a journal and gimme a shout

Those are 2 plants in that picture side by side. I vegged for about 1 month, no training. The genetics are very good and it feels like its an easy grow because the plant is capable of taking a lot of stress, so as long as you follow all of the basic rules of growing I don't think you'll be disappointed. My setup is a 2' x 5' closet with a 400w (MH / HPS) light, appropriately sized carbon filter setup with passive air pulling underneath the door(not 100% light proof BTW, and the plants did not "hermi"), and wall mount fan circulating air. The plants handle overwatering pretty well, but that doesn't mean you should do it lol. I ran into some pH issues throughout the grow and I found that it really is important to keep it in the correct range of 6.4 or so. I should have flushed the soil more frequently, because the fert/salt buildup in the soil was throwing the pH off and/or causing nute lockout. I used fox farm happy frog soil and the entire lineup of Canna nutes. Start giving 1/2 strength nutes when the plants are young, if your grow environment is correct, they will suck it up. I think my advantages were 1. expensive, high quality, engineered nutes. 2. optimal grow environment (small closet w/ carbon filter, air circulation, 75-85dg lights on temp, etc) 3. genetics (original diesel x california indica) 4. I'm a landscaper by trade for around 7 years and I have learned to tell when a plant is not feeling good. Yield was 15 oz of really nice stuff and about 5 oz of smaller less mature stuff on the bottom of the plants. Thats all I can think of right now, I'll be on here to respond to any another questions you have.

just topped my plants too, check em out! little lower down then yours cus i was tryin to get 4 n 2 colas specifically
are your plants feminized, or you just hopin for girls?

Terminal those plants look pretty huge for only a 1 month veg and no training, however saying that my sour D's growth has just taken off. She's looking pretty big for just over 3 weeks old in comparison to my super lemons from my last grow. Much faster in Veg. My cupboard isn't nearly as big as yours, I'd say similar depth but yours is a good foot or 2 wider. Still, similar setup, hope mine fills out as much as yours. From what i tell my environment is nearly perfect, 27C, plenty of air circulation and due to the inlines bringing in fresh air, plenty of air exchange. The real proof is in the plants, which seem to be in nearly perfect health, so things look good! So far..

I've been letting the soil dry out between watering and have started to water until I get some drips out the bottom so over watering shouldn't be an issue/never has been.

So you're saying you got around 7-8oz per plant!? That must be their wet weight surely. 1 Last question, what size are your pots? Looking for a diameter here in inches, the ones I've got are 10" pots, no idea how many gallons. Really don't want to transplant them when I start flowering due to the drippers (huge hassle) but if its really gona be worth it I will. Flushing is going to be another pain, but I definitely want to do this just before I switch to 12/12, will have to disconnect all the lines.

BuddhaBud said:

just topped my plants too, check em out! little lower down then yours cus i was tryin to get 4 n 2 colas specifically
are your plants feminized, or you just hopin for girls?

Click to expand...

Yeh i tried to FIM but somehow... messed it up, and now to be honest i'm not sure exactly what i've done. Have a look at my next update. I see a lot of tops on both plants (all at roughly the same height), but where I snipped, the 2 tops I thought would turn into main branches are still small and thin, so what exactly have i done? Either way i'm happy, they look nice and bushy.

Man i thought i snipped my plants at a young age, you've just gone and shown me otherwise. Getting all the stress out the way nice and early, they're lookin good man. Quite interested in that little hydro set up thing you got going on, I considered doing something like that. I'm sure the slowish growth is due to the small young root system. I was always under the assumption if you top a plant when its slightly bigger and therefore has a bigger root system, it'll recover a lot faster. Yeh both my plants are feminized, no light leaks and stable conditions so i'll be pissed if i get anything other than fat dense nugs!