Baywatcher's Basement Blowout

[Baywatcher]

So, I've had such bad luck with germination recently I decided to use some of my 'b-team' seeds -- strains that I won't be able to get to for at least a year or two. I want to break the process down to see if it's a seed germination issue, or an issue with it remaining viable after it has cracked. Friday I put 5 Dinafem Critical Jack fems in a wet paper towel that I'd soaked with RO water and squeezed out a bit. Today I can safely say they have cracked. I've carefully put them, taproot down, into red cups filled with Happy Frog. Water is RO with CalMag+, adjusted to Ph ~ 6.8. They've gone back into the proofer at 78 degrees until they show signs of breaking the surface. Also, a shot of the bondage room one month into veg. A couple of the HP plants have all 8 heads now growing, and everyone is at least quartered.

Also, one Kaboom actually popped up!

 

[Thundercat]

Great pic of the seeds, looks almost professional.

 

[Baywatcher]

Great pic of the seeds, looks almost professional.

Thanks. I was a sports photographer for awhile many decades ago (back when we used actual film... get off my damn lawn).

All the clones are looking so good that I'm going to have to do a cull in a couple of weeks to get the numbers down. I don't have space for another 15 LSD plants, both legally and facility-wise

 

[Baywatcher]

Trying this again, I realized after the last post that I labeled them backwards.

I have a set of clones from the Hash Passion plants that need to be sexed. They've been under 12/12 for 3 days now. I can't tell anything, maybe someone else has more experienced eyes for it. I tend to think everything is male until I see an actual thread...

 

[Thundercat]

Sorry man, I'm not seeing anything yet as far as sex goes, few more days prolly.

 

[Baywatcher]

Yeah. I'm leaning toward #9 == male, but that's it.

I'm continuing my germination experiment with the Critical Jack. Once I put them in dirt, I left all five in the proofer for 24 hours at 79 degrees F after removing from the paper towel. Today, I moved two of them under my seedling flouro, put one in my main veg chamber, put one in the clone room under the small LED panel, and left one in the proofer. I may put saran wrap over one of the ones under flouro to see if it helps/hurts.

 

[Thundercat]

Tryin all kinds of stuff huh?

 

[Baywatcher]

Tryin all kinds of stuff huh?

Yeah. I have a hard time believing I got three bad packs of TGA seeds. There's something going on in my germination process that I need to figure out, and I need to stop figuring out with strains I really care about

 

[Baywatcher]

4 of the 5 Critical Jack have now broken the surface, so it apparently doesn't make much difference where I put them after the seeds have successfully germed. One of the Pineapple Express also showed up.

 

[Thundercat]

Well that seems like it is ruling out and user error, and makes me think its more likely the beans that were giving you issue.

I just cracked to Sweat Deep Grapefruit from Dinafem, they've been in water about 24 hours, one had a tail the other doesn't. I'm gonna plant them today and see how they do.

 

[Baywatcher]

Assuming that a few more of the Pineapple Express pop, I'm going to be out of slots for new varieties for the next 6 months or so, and germination becomes less of an issue. Although if this Hash Passion doesn't look way better flowering than it does in veg, it may be a one-time thing. I've got seeds for around 55 different strains (about two dozen I ordered, the rest freebies). And I strongly suspect Attitude's 420 sale will suck me back in a bit

 

[Thundercat]

I'm holding out for the 420 sale at this point. I was about to do an order for the birthday sale, but that fell through, so now I'm waiting to see what they do.

 

[Baywatcher]

All 5 of the Critical Jack are now unfurling their green little wings. That leaves me with 4 Pineapple Express that I'm still waiting on, then I can shut down the germination stations for a few months.

edit: 1 more of the PE popped this morning. 3 to go.

edit 2: One more. 2 to go.

 

[Baywatcher]

The first batch of clones are starting to get ready for transplant. I moved 4 LSD today. On the germination front, there's one Pineapple Express that still hasn't popped. I'm going to give it a few more days before shutting it down.

Speaking of clones, the damn Hash Passions ones *still* aren't showing sex. It's time to move a couple of the plants from 2 gallon to 7 gallon, but I really don't want to do it until I know who is male...

 

[Baywatcher]

These damn HP clones have been in 12/12 almost two weeks now, still nothing showing I had hoped to avoid transplanting males into 7 gallon pots, but as you can see, it's time for a few of them...

 

[Thundercat]

Just hang in there if they were imature when they went in to 12/12 its going to take longer to start to flower. The idea you can force flower plants is kinda a missnomer, you get change the lights to encourage them to start to flower. They will not flower until they are mature enough though, this is why 12/12 from seed plants don't start flowering when they are 2 weeks out of the seed. I don't really think any of those plants look like the need bigger pots persay they all look pretty happy to me.

 

[Baywatcher]

Day 1 of 2 on the "completely change everything about my setup" is complete. The big-ass GL145L has been moved into a separate room in the basement and turned into the veg chamber. The GL80L and GL120 have been broken down completely and will be going to a new home on Monday (yay, I don't have to store them). The room that previously held the two big tents will now be a flowering chamber with no tent. This will simplify my cooling by 1000% not trying to keep a tent cool with two big lights in it. The veg tent has the two Blackstar 900w in it. I'll use the Solarstorm 800w along with the 1K HPS in the flowering room.

Pics after I finish up tomorrow. I got another dozen 2G Velcro Geopots, it's time to do a bunch of transplanting.

Related: I hurt everywhere...

 

[Thundercat]

Big days in the garden do that to me also. I'm sure my back will be busting tonight when I'm done.

 

[Baywatcher]

This weekend was uncomfortably similar to honest labor

First, I got a new 16-site EZ Cloner. It is much better than the cheap homemade piece of crap I got from my local store. I moved some of the fully rooting HPs into it, as well as the old clones that have refused to show sex, and stuck it back under 12/12. One way or another, I should know sex before they go into flower. I've also got a ton of extra LSD clones that I'm going to have to either give away or just toss or the numbers won't work.

I moved all four of the Pineapple Express and all five of the Critical Jack out of red cups and into 2 gallon pots (there on the left in the pic below). They're all looking healthy and happy with nice root systems starting.

Here's the new veg tent. Much more space, both for plants and to move around. The four pots in the back corner are 7 gallon, the rest are 2 gallon.

These 7-gallon pots are all Hash Passion. I'd really hoped to have them sexed before now, but oh well. Worst case, my vegetable garden gets some nice soil from the males.

All the rest of the two-gallons got trimmed up a little and a little bondage.

Also did the first topping of the Third Dimension. I think I got a big enough chunk that I'll be able to sex it in a few weeks.

 

[Thundercat]

Awesome man! Some killer bondage you got on those bitchs! The stems are really getting huge on those LSDs and those HPs (7 and look like there gonna have tons of tops.