Feroce's Coco/Hempy Perpetual Grow #2

[Feroce]

OK, let's try this again...and maybe I'll remember to update once in a while

I started a similar thread in the Grow Journal section a while back, forgot all about it...doh! If you want to see the very start of my...adventures...in growing the coco/hempy style, you'll have to go to another cannabis website, don't want to link it as the mods frown on that sort of thing. Google the title of this thread minus the #2 and you'll find it.

Anyway, I've been growing the coco/hempy style for the last 2.5 years or so, learning a lot as I go. I'm strictly a stash grower, and this is the easiest, simplest small-scale growing method I could come up with. You don't NEED to spend the extra money on dual-bulb hoods and whatnot, that's just me being experimental and having the extra dosh.

My grow area is a 1.3 square meter flowering tent with a Growzilla dual-bulb hood, running a 600w Digilux metal halide plus a 400w Lumatek HPS. I feel this gives me better results than straight HPS as it's closer to actual daylight, and pics are prettier
I also have an area under a 400w MH for keeping mothers, and another small area for seedlings and clones under T5.

I use an extremely basic nute regime, CNS17 Grow (3-1-2) and Ripe (1-5-4). I run Grow until approximately one third to one half way into the flowering period, depending on the strain, then switch to Ripe and taper off to the finish. I haven't bothered checking EC or pH for at least a year, I've learned to read the plants and they tell me what they need. Besides, all that fussing with meters is too much work. I feed with every watering and don't do a clear water flush until the very end.

Enough of the basic stuff, let's get on with what we really like, shall we? Wish I could get these to show up in a higher resolution...check sig for what's growing. Most of these plants are four weeks into flower, with the two Cherry Kandahar and one Selene clone a week behind.

Sugar Punch, six of the plants in the tent are SP clones.


More SP


Mother plants, from left is Heri x Lemon Thai, Sugar Punch, Selene.


Front three are Sannies Jack, clones are Cherry Kandahar.


A tent full...


Selene



Right now the only confirmed keeper is the Sugar Punch, everything else is on trial terms...always on the Perfect Mother search.

Later all.

 

[Slipon]

if you double click on the pictures in your post you get a option to post em at full size

also, tell me, you grow in hemp buckets ? with coco/perlite ? and you don't adjust the PH of your water ?
do you use RO or Tap water and what PH is it to start with ? Im considering to try out Hempy at some point, but I use strait Tap at 7,5PH in my soil..

 

[Feroce]

if you double click on the pictures in your post you get a option to post em at full size

also, tell me, you grow in hemp buckets ? with coco/perlite ? and you don't adjust the PH of your water ?
do you use RO or Tap water and what PH is it to start with ? Im considering to try out Hempy at some point, but I use strait Tap at 7,5PH in my soil..

I'll try that, thanks.

Yup, hempy buckets with growstones on the bottom to just past the hole, then straight coco the rest of the way. No perlite, I hate that stuff.

I used to use RO water, but my tapwater improved to the point I no longer need the added bother of RO. With my tapwater and a normal dose of nutes, the pH comes out at 5.9 to 6.1 every time I test, so I don't bother any more. Try doing a test batch of nutes and pHing it with your tapwater. If it comes out a little bit high, say in the 6.3 range, you'll be able to get away with using pH Down. If it's 6.5 or over, you'll want to go RO for sure. The nice thing about using RO is that you have total control of what you feed your plant...

As far as feeding, I use the shotglass method...1/4 shotglass for seedlings and clones, half a SG for normal feeders, more if necessary. Anything else is too complicated and hard to remember for a dude that's been burning herb for over 40 years...

There we go. Some Sugar Punch tastiness...

 

[Slipon]

my tap is around 7,5 according to my water plant home page`s/test and also according to my own reading, really clean ground water with no chlorine added

so I see no need to go RO, atlest not for my soil grow (have also used coco, but then I lowered my PH to 5,8 for Veg and 6,2 for flowering)

when I hit flowering and add full nuts strengths my tap hit about 6,5PH (one point lower then it come out) perfect, but I guess I would need a PH pen and use my PH down if I was to do a hempy grow

some more Bud porn

 

[Feroce]

There ya go, can't argue with success

Also can't argue that coco is more sensitive to pH problems, soil is a better buffer. Coco definitely likes the 5.8-6.2 range, and will give you outstanding results once you get it dialed in, but is a more hands-on type medium than soil, like any other hydro medium.

I don't want to discourage the use of pH meters and such, they are a great help when getting a grow dialed in. But I've been doing this long enough to tell by eye what the girls need, and just don't bother with them any more.

 

[Feroce]

Morning all

Got some work to do in the nursery area this morning...just as soon as I get enough caffeine and THC into my system.

Time to transplant the Cherry Kandahar clones, they are outgrowing the solo cups. I took two cuts from each pheno, both of the #1 pheno and one of the #2. I'll keep one of each while evaluating the donor plants, the extra one...will get the chop. No room in the tent, I'm afraid. I honestly doubt either of the CK cuts will be keepers...they are indica-dominant, and most indicas tend to aggravate the hell out my RLS. To the point of people asking me if I was trying out for a position in the Ministry of Silly Walks...gah.

I'll transplant the Jack plants also, although it's a little early, and prune back the current mothers while I'm at it. Although first I need to go make the guys at the hydro store richer...need more coco and a bag of small growstones...I want to experiment with a 50/50% by volume chow mix.

I'm kinda on the fence about the next run...the only hot weather we get here in the PNW is scheduled to arrive right as I finish harvesting the current lot. Thinking about a break...and a trip down to the Glass Buttes in Central Oregon, go collect some obsidian examples, camping, getting sun-burned and hungover sorta thing. Why? I'm retired, that's reason enough

 

[Feroce]

Oh boy, it's Oh-My-God-Thirty and I can't sleep again...getting old is such fun.

Decided to thin out the garden a bit. The Heri x Lemon Thai is a pollen-chuck I did a while back, but those who have run Heri know it has a hermy gene...at least the first batch did, and that's what I used, and right now I just don't feel like dealing with a known hermie-prone strain in my garden. Also decided to keep only one of the Cherry Kandahar phenos, getting stretched for space with the Jack plants coming up. Kept the pheno that stinks more and the clones rooted faster than the other.

Had a power flicker recently, maybe that's why my Digilux 600w MH failed
Now running on some backup bulbs, 600w HPS and a 400w MH, all of which probably should be replaced...back to the hydro store. Again.

It's hard to see from the following pics, but my Selene girl is going purple And no, it's not due to cool temps, not with 1750 watts of lighting in the room.

Full house...




Selene @ four and a half weeks, calyxes starting to go dark, although it's hard to see here.










I dipped into the only minimally cured Sugar Punch...oh Goddess this is some amazing smoke already. Absolutely a keeper, and I plan on filling up quite a few jars with this splendid lady. Now I'm mightily tempted to pop a few of her sister strain, Silverfields...

Might as well go start some coffee, ain't going back to sleep for a while. Later all.

 

[growinman]

Looking very good Feroce!!

peace
gman


ps: thanks for the help!!

 

[Feroce]

Looking very good Feroce!!

peace
gman


ps: thanks for the help!!

Thanks Gman, and you're more than welcome...helping folks out is good karma

 

[Feroce]

Tempus fugit...hard to believe it's been a couple of weeks already since I last posted.

Anyway, the girls are fat and happy, especially the Selene. Immense purple buds and geeting almost visibly bigger by the day...lets get some pics up.

The open tent...I had to cut back both the Cherry Kandahar plants. They grew past the lights and were flopping all over, so they got a trim.





Sugar Punch, week six. She will really pack on the weight over the next two weeks.




Selene, with the color startring to come through. Very sturdy and easy to grow plant, nothing seems to bother it...




More Selene...




I did say big buds on the Selene, didn't I?




And the Jack babies, waiting for them to show sex.





Not a lot going on other than that, except that the weather has been exceptionally nice the last few days and all the girls are breaking out their summer taunting gear...

 

[Feroce]

Bad news when I opened the tent tonight, both of the Cherry Kandahar plants had nanners showing...well bugger. I was kinda afraid of that happening after having to cut them last week. Ah well, at least I caught them early, none had opened as far as I could see.

Good news is I have a confirmed Sannies Jack girl, and I'll be pulling clones next week

I'm going to do something a little different next run, I found some of these things at a garden shop...always wanted to try a scrog, but don't like not being able to move the plants around. For three bucks apiece, why not give 'em a try? Beats crawling around under a net...





So here is what the tent looks like after removing the CK plants. Selene plants front left and center, the rest are Sugar Punch.






Selene close-up, about three weeks from harvest.






Later all...

 

[hellraizer30]

Sub'd up

 

[Feroce]

Thanks for stopping by, Hellraizor30.


After looking at the Jack plants again, looks like two girls and one undecided. One of the girls and the undecided plant have whorled phylotaxy, I'll keep the normal girl for a mother...after removing the Cherry Kandahar I have a little space in the tent, so I'm going to get a head start on Jack production and flower out the whorled girl. Will be a good chance to practice my scrog technique...later today I'll up-pot her into a 3g bucket, prune her back a bit and she'll go into the tent tonight. The undecided plant...better decide soon, I'm getting impatient, space is short and my knife is sharp...

 

[Feroce]

Got the whorled Jack plant transplanted and pruned back, but I decided against flipping her right away...just too much stress at once. I'll give her a week to settle down and grow into her new home before she hits the big show.









I'm also testing out a 2/1 coco/growstones chow mix with this plant, just because.

I'm mightily tempted to pop more beans in hopes of finding The Perfect Pheno...and I have such an extensive list of goodies that I have yet to try...maybe just one and hope I get lucky?

Let's dig out the stash box...hmm, ain't popped a freebie in a while...mostly sativa...something from [email protected] we go, Afghani/Hawaiian x Blueberry Sativa

Wet paper towel time...later.

 

[Feroce]

Hiya folks...

Time for an update...

The Afghani/Hawaiian x Blueberry Sativa (what a mouthful, AH x BS from now on) is up and growing in five days from hitting the wet paper towels, not bad for 2 year old freebies...

The whorled Jack girl has recovered well from pruning and transplanting, she has already hit the screen and I put her in the tent tonight. My circle screens work rather well as a solo cup rack also...





The Selene girl is building calyx towers now, so the end is in sight. She's on schedule for a June 1st harvest, looks like.





Tomorrow I'll be pulling clones for the next run...the fun never ends

 

[Feroce]

Hiya folks

I lost the AH x BS seedling...or rather, my cat (aka The Demon from Hell) got into the room and decided it looked really really tasty...bugger. Coco all over the place, he's a messy eater.
Oh well, I have enough to keep me busy as it is...


Took a bunch of cuts for the next run and pruned back the mother plants. Planning on running three each of the Sugar Punch and the Selene, and two more Jack plants to go with the one already in the tent...I always take an extra or two, just in case.




Open tent shot...




I've started bending the whorled Jack girl, she's really taking off.




The Selene plant is closer to being finished than I thought, a trich check showed mostly cloudy with a few clears and a very few amber, so another week ought to do it...besides, the stash jars are running a little low







And a shot of one of the Sugar Punch clones building some serious frost...

 

[proggystyle]

Looking nice!

 

[Feroce]

Looking nice!

Thanks


Well folks, Selene #1 has been harvested @ 61 days, showing mostly cloudy trichs with a very few clears and a few sprinkles of amber...also she fell over from the weight, snapped the main stem. Going to have to careful drying and curing those massive colas...sweet grapes/lemon/fuel odor, not too strong.





A shot of a Sannies Jack girl in mini-scrog, well into the stretching process by now.





Now for the good stuff...some closeups of my Sugar Punch girls. These clones are getting so covered in trichs that brushing against them will leave a shiny trail on your clothes and skin...couple of weeks to go.






Another Selene girl, a clone of the first one, also with a couple more weeks to go.





Another look at the scrog...got my pics out of sequence and I'm too lazy to fix it.






I see that E$kob@r has a new drop at Sannies called Boudica...Exodus Cheese/C99/Santa Maria lineage, sounds tasty...Goddess knows I don't NEED any, got more than enough to keep me busy for many years, but you know how it is

 

[Highocaine]

Sub'd up. When you say shotglass method - is that per gallon?

 

[Feroce]

Sub'd up. When you say shotglass method - is that per gallon?

Yep. I don't even try to give exact amounts...if it varies slightly from feeding to feeding, my plants don't seem to care, so I don't get fussy about it.

If you ask yourself "why does he do it that way"...it's because I'm lazy, pure and simple. Also I've gotten pretty good at judging by eye what the plants need, so I skip a lot of steps that less experienced growers should take.


Well, the recently harvested Selene girl went into the curing jar today, lovely grape/lemon/skunk odor, noticeable but not overpowering. Going to be hard to sit out an absolute minimum two-week cure...

I've got three plants scheduled to meet the knife this weekend, two Sugar Punch clones and the remaining Selene clone. The remaining Sugar Punch plants will come down a week later.

The first Jack plant is now two weeks into flower, still stretching hard and filling out the screen...I'm thinking one more week of bending then I'll let her go.

The next run is coming along nicely, all four Sugar Punch clones have rooted so far. The SP mom is getting too big, so one clone will replace the mom and it will get transplanted and flipped, two more clones will be transplanted and given a week to veg, and the last SP clone will be gifted, hopefully. Then I'll do it all over again with the Selene mom and clones...and two more Jack clones, for a total of nine.

I'll put up a few pics later, if I don't forget.