Switch's First (proper) Grow - Jack Herer (R.I.P)

SwitchUK

Active Member
Hello people,

Let me start by saying thank you to everyone who has posted on this site, providing a wealth of information to all novices like me, who have embarked on this epic journey of cannabis growing with only a basic idea of what to do.

I grew a couple of purple haze plants outdoors in pots of dirt, in the UK about 7 years ago. They braved some brutal English weather and grew to become very aggressive looking 6ft ladies. As a result of the difficult conditions, complete lack of tender loving care and two overly eager schoolboys, it is fair to say the yeild was not magnificent, however, the seed was sown.

I now live in Australia and at the end of last year was given a very small female cutting of an unknown strain. The plant was not healthy. In the bottom of a cut off Coca Cola bottle with soil from a building site, the poor thing had not had a good start in life. Over the next 3 months of growing outside, the small plant grew very slowly and when it reached the flowering season, struggled to produce a very small amount of bud.

I knew that there was much more to achieve and that I should try again having done a bit of research. I spent a fair amount of time scrolling through people's journals on here and looking into all the biological factors, so I could understand why I failed so miserably before.

I will never forget smoking some Jack Herer in Amsterdam that I thought was perfect weed. Never had the pleasure since, so I ended buying some Jack Herer seeds from sensi. Whilst waiting for them to arrive, I went to the nearest hydro shop and bought a 6400k 130w spectrum hygrow fluorescent lamp, a small fan, timer, pH reader, 4 pots, Canna Terra Soil, Canna Vegga and Canna Flores nutes.

Unfortunately, whilst waiting for my seeds to arrive, the great Jack Herer sadly passed away. I was determined to succeed in honour of the man.

After what seemed like eternity my seeds arrived and I put 6 of them in a shot glass of mineral water and put them in the cupboard. After 24 hours or so, They had all sunk so I put them in the soil. 2 in 2 of the pots and 1 in each of the others. Not sure why I did this, first lesson learned. Of the six, 5 grew, so I had just the one pot with 2 seedlings in.

I veged them for a month, using the canna terra around 10 days in. They are in a walk in wardrobe (will chuck up some flicks soon) and have about 3ft x 3ft x 5ft. I read that Jacks can stretch a fair bit so didn't want them to get out of hand, hence only a month veg.

By this time, two were around a foot tall, one was a bit taller and in the pot with 2 plants in, one was much taller and one was a rather runtish looking bugger. All had fairly short internodes and were very lovely to behold.

After the switch, I waited desperatly for signs of sex and nothing was hapenning. By around day 7 there were small changes at the internodes and I started panicking as I thought that they were all male! As it turned out(several worried hours researching) a few days later, there were 2 males and 3 females. Result!

The tallest plant that was in the pot of two was an impressively big boy but got the chop, as did one of the smaller plants.

It's been a hectic couple of months and they are now in week 9 of flowering and look quite considerably different! The plant that veged out to be the second tallest is much taller than the others and has considerably more bud on it. The other two are pretty much the same height as each other but the one which shared a pot with the big chap at the beginning, has quite sparse foliage and less bud sites.

I started adding molasses after the first few weeks of flowering, have no idea whether it is making any diference as I have nothing to compare it to but it seems like the right thing to do.

I don't know if any of you use the Canna products but I must say i'm very impressed so far. I haven't had any problems with nute burn and no deficiancies as far as i'm aware. All the leaves are very healthy and have good colouring.

I will wait for my lights to come on to take some photos of the girls(that sounds a bit sordid), and give them a feed, so hold tight for some flicks.

I would love to answer any questions or hear your feedback and as i'm new to all this, any help or ideas would be much appreciated.

Switch:weed:
 

BlueberrySage

Active Member
I visited the Dam in 07 and was taking naps everyday cuz the herb was so heavy.(i smoke grade A bud everyday in the states) So i asked the guy at the 420 cafe what won't put me to sleep and thats when i fell in love with sativas. He gave me jack herer and holy shit i was high as hell, but ready for whatever exploring my ass off, i hope that closet grow brings back some good memories of the real jack. Next to the SAGE the jack was my fav and definately fav daytime smoke...damn now i want some jack bad lol good luck
 

SwitchUK

Active Member
Haha, yeah mate, me too!! I'm all about the sativas, it's proper get up and go skunk. Been resisting the temptation to pluck a nugget off. I hate the fact I still have to pay $50 for a shitty bag of weed when i've got some proper potent gwaan in my cupboard!! Most of the bud over here is poorly grown, bushweed style shit. Even the bits and peices of hi grade are not cured properly and lack taste. I heard the smoke you can buy in the states is pretty serious these days. Definitely need to head over at some point!

Cheers cavelettas, hopefully it'll turn out alright.

Once i'm ready to harvest what do you reckon the best technique is?
 

cavalettas

Active Member
beautiful! the best method is whatever you prefer. i personally like having to take a lot of time to trim my buds so after i cut the plant down at the stalk and remove all the stems from the base to hold while i cut the leaves off the buds, manicure it like you get in a nice bag. wear gloves and use good scissors then hang them all upside down by the stem in a dark, dry room. you'll need a fan to be blowing on them for about a week or until they're dry enough to snap. cut all the buds off the stem and put them in jars to cure for a couple days/week/however the fuck long you want. the longer the better and make sure to open the ars and shake them around a little so no moisture gets trapped between them. mold forms, ick!
 

JimmyCliff

Member
beautiful! the best method is whatever you prefer. i personally like having to take a lot of time to trim my buds so after i cut the plant down at the stalk and remove all the stems from the base to hold while i cut the leaves off the buds, manicure it like you get in a nice bag. wear gloves and use good scissors then hang them all upside down by the stem in a dark, dry room. you'll need a fan to be blowing on them for about a week or until they're dry enough to snap. cut all the buds off the stem and put them in jars to cure for a couple days/week/however the fuck long you want. the longer the better and make sure to open the ars and shake them around a little so no moisture gets trapped between them. mold forms, ick!

In my exp, it's not always best to blow your fan directly on the drying bud. The outside can dry too fast compared to the inside of the buds, leaving you with too-moist buds that mold during cure.
 
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