Blue Dream, Green Crack, and BlueBerry at 5 weeks

I'll let this serve as my introduction. A pic of my first grow tent, plants are 5 weeks into bloom, they're growing under LEDs, the picture illumination is from the camera's flash. From left to right, Blue Dream, Green Crack, and BlueBerry.



I bought some bad soil and used it with this grow on the transplant into this size pot. I vacuum fungus gnats everyday :/ I'm pretty sure the larvea stunted this grow, didn't catch them soon enough.

I'm pretty happy that cannabis is legal in my state, it's a great growing hobby.

nice

I'm heating commercially bagged potting soil to kill any eggs or insects, well in advance of when I'll need to use it. I never want this fungus gnat problem again!



In the future this will rule out the potting soil as a source of insects or their eggs. My target soil temperature is ≥ 160 °F after mixing, then that temperature held for at least 30 minutes, and I think I prefer 180 °F -- for insurance -- per phytosphere's temperature guidelines. This is going to kill a lot of stuff, beneficial organisms as well as pathogenic, however to my mind this is a logical portion of anti-insect strategy, I want to cook them and all their eggs, before anything is planted in the soil.

I can heat about 1/2 cubic foot in a batch, which is governed by the size of the pot. Because I want to mix it in the pot, I only fill it halfway with potting mix. I also didn't want to use an aluminum pot due to soil acids, I'd guess it would become pitted over several or many uses.

The hotplate's initial and first hour setting is at about 240 °F (pictured). After about an 1 hour, if just-mixed soil temperature is over 160°F as measured by a digital probe thermometer, the hotplate gets turned down to a maintain temperature setting for an additional 1/2 hour.

When it reaches about 160°F, the soil mix seems to develop a steam which escapes on stirring. You want some moisture in the soil to begin! I mix it every 1/2 hour, check temperature, and write it down. This is all done outside due to soil-cooking odors.

I noted that the outside breeze exerts considerable cooling force on the pot, so when I'm not stirring, I also place a large plastic trashcan, upside down, over the covered pot and hotplate. If I had an outdoor, spare electric oven, and if it had sufficiently accurate low temperature control, I'd use it instead, it would probably eliminate the hotplate's process of needing to mix frequently.

When the soil is done cooking I put it in a brand new bag, and not back in the manufacturer's bag, which may have uncooked insect eggs. I suppose that bag could be sanitized and reused....

By the end of the day, I got about 1.75 ft³ of soil sanitized as described above. I could easily do 2 ft³ in a day, it's easy, time does most of the work, I just have to be around every 1/2 hour to stir, then reload with a new batch when first batch is done in about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Today is week 6. BTW, if anyone wishes to comment, feel free.

I noted this last week that red hairs were developing. First up is Blueberry (Seedsman). The pictured bud is one which accidentally got sucked into the vacuum hose while chasing fungus gnats! Some leaves tore.



Next up is Green Crack from Garden of Green. This plant has not developed red hairs yet, and has the least-preponderant trichomes and odor.

Final is Blue Dream (Garden of Green):

I've mostly given up on trying to rid this soil of fungus gnats, I was using BTi from Mosquito Dunks and beneficial nematodes along with flypaper and vacuuming. Before I disposed of the unused portion of the bag of bad soil, I saw it had yellow growths throughout it which reminded me of brewer's yeast and brewer's trub, and that was another first! I did some research and found that some folks do amend soil with brewer's or baker's yeast, and that it's not considered harmful to the plant. If that's what it was, the fungus gnats just love it. I can't wait to get these out of the tent and move on to the next bloom which has different soil.

I think that as soon as amber trichomes begin showing up, I'll likely harvest, but on a plant by plant basis.

Here's a pic of the next crop. Same cultivars.

This is the first time I've tried having a veg room and a separate bloom room, and I did not synchronize the ages of the plants well. The young plant on the left is a clone of the Blueberry in the bloom tent, the two others were grown from seed. Blue Dream is in the foreground on the right, and Green Crack is farthest from the camera and is by far the tallest. The Blueberry clone, once rooted, was first repotted into the bad soil, which spread fungus gnats to this room I washed all that soil off the roots, and transplanted into better soil, introducing a transplant shock and delay. Once I harvest all the plants in the bloom tent, I will leave the veg room empty for a few days to try to break the gnat-infection cycle. The soil these are planted in seem to be responding better to BTi and nematode treatments.

The soil I used so many decades ago is no longer available, so I'm having to find a new soil. Unlike so many folks, I avoid peat due to less-than-ideal experiences with it years ago. That restriction seems to eliminate a majority of the products on the market. Per some science reports I read, coir has similar issues, so it is also not desired. I prefer soil products made from compost (composted forest products), and further, want the label to include sand (I read somewhere that made me an "old timer"! lol). The following soils met these requirements and were available locally:



The pH of Palm Cactus & Citrus (PCC) was 6.1, and the Premium Topsoil (PT) 8.1, all figures which I measured with a digital pen pH tester. The PCC is composed of large compost pieces and large sand (pea sized), it drains very well and doesn't hold much water. The PT holds a lot of water, it is composed of fine compost and even finer sand. I did some test mixes of different soil ratios and found with a 3:1 ratio of PCC to PT and no added perlite, there was a 7 pH result; and with a 6:1 ratio, a 6.6 pH result.



I didn't expect PT's high pH soil to have the best growth, but so far that is what I've found.



The Blueberry clone in the middle had been repotted from a solo cup to the pictured size pot with the bad soil mentioned in prior posts, the soil which brought the fungus gnats, and which I needed to remedy ASAP. I bought PT locally and immediately washed all the soil off Blueberry's roots and replanted it in straight PT. I expected a transplant shock. The Green Crack on the right only needed a larger pot size, it also got straight PT, but no root washing. A few days later I made a mix of 6:1 PCC to PT which measured at 6.6 pH, and repotted the Blue Dream on the left, a similar repot to Green Crack but with the different soil mix. I added perlite to all of the mixes, about 10% by volume.

The clone went into an expected transplant shock while its roots regrew, and the pot didn't dry for a long time due to PT's large water-holding capacity. It's now been about 2 weeks, and it has come out of transplant shock and the pot is drying more frequently. It is growing quickly. The Green Crack experienced an explosion of healthy growth immediately after its repot. I expected Blue Dream to also have an explosion of growth, having been repotted just like Green Crack was, but since it is a stretcher, on the same day I cut it back to half height. This cultivar does not like a severe cutback, so the jury is still out on final results. It has been regrowing less vigorously, however it has healthy looking roots at the drain holes. So far, the clear winner has been G&B Organics Premium Topsoil.

I should mention I'm not an organic grower, I fertilize with pH adjusted nutrients every watering.

I'm now into week 7, which is supposedly the beginning of a 2 week harvest window for all three cultivars. Last week Blueberry developed limp stems, and I chose to interpret that signal as time to cut it down. Most trichomes were opaque, so maybe it will be old enough. Blueberry was poorly trimmed and has been hanging to dry.




The left picture was taken shortly after trimming (I leave most sugar leaves), right picture is 5 days later, which is today. While the photos don't have good focus, the sugar leaves have closed their grasp of the bud. This evening I'm going to snip the buds from the branches and put in a jar overnight, then maybe paper bag them for a day.

Today's picture of Green Crack taken through a 40x loupe:



I think it's ready to harvest. There are at least 30% amber trichomes, which is more than I wanted.

Blue Dream is not yet ready:

Blueberry, as of this morning, is too moist and still smells grassy, it is now in the curing stage, alternating between a glass jar at night and a paper bag during the day. I used to hang a plant for a few days, then trimmed off the buds and put in a paper bag. At some point I tried the glass jar method, but was not impressed with the long time of curing and particularly the tedious maintenance of having to open and close the jars everyday. This time I'm putting it in the glass jar overnight, and putting it in a "sealed" paper bag during the day, sealed meaning folded up at the top and clipped. I forgot to write down the day when I started this, but believe it has been 2 or 3 days of glass-jar to paper-bag cycles. During the night it rehydrates a bit, and when in the paper bag, it dries.

This drying technique seems to be working fast. Here's a formula I used today:

Initial Weight of buds when first cut off branches = InWt
Weight of buds after drying for a day = Wt (this data point changes as drying progresses)
And where "decimal" is a variable:

Wt ÷ InWt = decimal * 100% = % of weight remaining

It's an easy stat to calculate to get a ballpark percentage-dried number. I don't know how much weight they lose while they're hanging, and I don't know if it's important.

Per that formula, Blueberry, by the end of today, is at 86% of the weight it was when I clipped them off the branches.

I sampled Blueberry this morning for the first time, and while it's almost dry enough, it's still harsh. It seemed to burn okay. A bud left on the counter all day had lost most of its harshness by evening.

Green Crack is hanging to dry, it will be at least 5 days before buds are trimmed and put into a cure process.

It's now the next morning, and I had a chance to sample Green Crack. I'm disappointed that there are as many amber trichomes as there are. The next crop I will have to pay more attention, if I can.



The buds are more substantial than Blueberry's, which are much smaller, the size of marbles. I don't know if that's typical, or if it was something related to the infected soil.

Blue dream is still growing. I checked this morning, no amber trichomes yet, and quite a few clear ones, so it's still not ready to cut down. I wonder if it will ever progress to mostly opaque. It's mostly all red hairs, just a few white ones at the tips.

Editing this the next morning, it's time to cut Blue Dream.



Amber trichomes are beginning, and I don't want any amber, so it's already past my chosen time. The progression to amber seems fast at this point, unless I misjudged earlier, which is definitely possible.

My harvest is over, the tent is empty and the lights off.

Green Crack is hanging and will be cut off the branches in the next day or two. Blue Dream has been hanging for 2 days, so it's got a few more days to go.

Blueberry is dried and cured, all in one quart jar. This is a good smoke, powerful and long lasting.

I'm revisiting this thread as something I presumed above is wrong. I didn't take a pic, but after harvest, regarding the plant grown in straight PT, its visible root mass was unimpressive. Perhaps that was due to restricted gasses. I've also bought another bag of PCC since the time of this bloom, its pH was much higher. I confirmed with the company rep that there's some pH variability between bags. Trying to adjust the ratios for a pH outcome doesn't work very well under such variability.

There's also a big difference in drainage between the two products. The more PT that is added to the mix, the slower the runoff.

Nice grow bud.

I have a pack of blueberry among others, they are on the short list to grow out next run. problem with buying a variety of seeds, never being able to decide what you want to do next lol

always loved a good blueberry smoke.

The purpose of this post is to daisy chain my grow journals:

Simpleleaf's grows, Sep 17, 2021
Blueberry, simpleleaf's grow 3, Feb 12, 2019
Blue Dream and Green Crack, 2nd bloom, Oct 6, 2018