My first grow - journal w/ pics

[Kermit]

cisco, I reckon the dark period stuff is bollocks just like hanging the plants upside down makes the resin flow into the top cola.

Yeh i would agree, tried the 24, the 48, lights on, just before lights on, just after lights out and there is no difference. Its all still the bollocks and as for the upside down one that made me laugh when i was told that years ago.

[Uncle Ron]

My estimate is at least half the gallon of water is running out the bottom of the pot. The water runs through pretty well, and quickly.

Good to know.
What do you use to water the plants?
You may have stated this before somewhere, too lazy to search.

I am also getting a lot of yellowing and drying out of leaves, from my reading this is because the plant has used up much of the nutes in the soil and is now using whats stored in the leaves?

All things considered, you are correct.
Learning opportunity: Look at your plants and identify the various maladies. Use the guide provided in a link earlier in the thread as a resource. My point is that you are able to see what changes the plants go through when deprived of nutrients. Better to learn now, meaning on purpose, than by trial and error during a grow. Wait, sorry, you already did that. Again, welcome to the club. It's not very exclusive although we look good.
A few examples of how leaves can look at harvest. I've seen MUCH worse.
These pics were taken on the day of harvest (34 days veg/58 days flowering).

I have no one to watch the plants, so it's either risk it and leave them from Thursday night to Monday morning or harvest on Thursday night....my frame of reference on this is when I was watering normally, I had to water every other day or they would begin to show signs of underwatering. Now that I am flushing them with 3 times as much water as a normal watering, I am able to go an extra day before the soil is dry, but the additional extra day while I'm away worries me...The last time I tried to go an extra day without water (during veg, not flowering) they wilted badly.

My concern lies with leaving your equipment unattended for four days.
Good points by Boner and Cisco, although I have yet to find any conclusive evidence that dark periods have any affect on increase of trichome production (or when switching from veg to flowering). At this stage - FINALLY - watering really doesn't matter anymore. Water on Thursday, continue the light cycle until you come home.

I nearly fell out when I read Boner's comment about hanging plants upside down to make the resin flow into the top cola.

Happy farming.

[Cal X]

The extra day should not be a problem ZBeebs, in fact, it will give the soil time to dry out, which is what you want before harvesting. It's best to harvest at the end of the 12 hour dark period with grow lights out.

[ZBeebs]

Uncle Ron - the leaves look very similar to that. So it's normal, as I guessed. Some more yellowing than that, but similar.

I'm going to run another gallon of water through them tonight, going to check trichs again as well, if any plants are showing amber they may come down. It's more than 8 weeks flowering now, so it's getting very close...it won't be much longer at all...

Change of plans for this weekend, I forgot we had plans with my brother and his wife for sunday, so we're staying home.

[ZBeebs]

So what's the deal with the Vanilla Kush? I've got 5 of them nearing harvest, and two will have good yields (1.5-2oz), one looks to be a bit smaller, and then two of them are tiny in comparison...less than an ounce at harvest, maybe much less.

What happened here? Is this typical of VK, and just luck of the draw when it comes to the seeds, or did I cause it? Conditions were similar for all 5 plants...soil, water, light, nutes, etc...

The other four non-VK plants all grew vigorously, and will yield way more than those two VK plants...

[Boner]

Just differant phenos, that is why making clones and keeping the better ones is how a lot of people grow.

[StonedSince67]

Is this typical of VK, and just luck of the draw when it comes to the seeds, or did I cause it?

yes and yes

the result (a set of phenotypes as boner says) is a combination of the genes (from the seeds) and the environment (from you)

some of the plants will like the conditions better than others because of the natural variation in the seeds

cloning produces children with identical genes as the parent, so once you have a good plant, you keep it going as boner says because the genes will be the same each clone

btw the result looks delicious, so good job done

[Kermit]

I got a whole pack of shitty yeilding Vanilla kush, shame coz its pretty nice. Will see how the cuts do but cant see the kind of improvement needed happening though. Probably have to run another few packs.

[ZBeebs]

And now 6 remain.

Before flushing another gallon through them last night (the 6th?) I checked the trichs, and saw a bit of amber on both the runty vanilla kush plants, so I harvested them. My thinking was the 3 additional VK plants will go about another week, and I want to compare the effect between the ones I harvested yesterday (at approximately day 59, or about 8.5 weeks) and the ones that go a little longer. This also thins the tent out a bit and the 6 remaining plants will get more light over the last week or so.

Here's a couple pics of the two plants, right before harvest:












So those two plants are now hanging, and will go into jars with hygrometers in about 5 days.

I also went to the head shop yesterday, and bought a vapor skillet. It's a knock-off, but seems well made enough. I haven't been able to get the big hits that I see others get on Youtube, but I think that has to do with learning how to use it properly and maybe the concentrates I'm using. Qwiso might not be the best for this...I'm also not sure I'm getting it hot enough, I think I need something better than a small torch lighter.

I also bought 3 bottles of Vector butane, 320 ml each. Much larger containers than I've seen in the past. I'm going to do a BHO run on the lower buds and trim from the VK plants I have hanging.

[Cal X]

That's a good idea to compare potency at different harvest times, ZBeebs. It will be interesting to see if Bud from the longer harvest is better!

[ZBeebs]

I put the two VK plants into jars last night after 4 days of hanging. You can NOT just assume "7 days, then into the jars" because the buds were very crispy, I probably should have jarred them after 3, maybe even 2 days. These are small buds, even the colas were pretty small. With hygrometers in the jars I was seeing RH (relative humidity) in the 40's. Target range is the 60's, so I took two leaves from the plants that are still growing and tossed them in the jars with the dry bud. Humidity this morning in the jars is spot-on, so I removed the leaves. Will check again on it tonight, can add a leaf to the jars if necessary.

I got a total of 32 grams total from the two small VK plants. Lots of trim and popcorn buds though, most of the buds ended up in the trimming pile because they were so small.

I attempted to make some BHO last night, using the trimmings and popcorn buds. I have a turkey baster tube I used, I packed it full and started to blast a large container of butane (320ml) through the tube. After about half the can of butane it started to come back out where the nozzle goes in so I stopped there. I think I may have packed the tube too tight?

What I got is nearly white, and when scraped up some of it is powdery, like snow. I took a small ball of it, topped a bowl with it and hit it in the bong...One single hit was like a punch right between the eyes, and STRONG! Much stronger than the qwiso I made from the kandy kush trimmings. I don't remember falling asleep last night, and am feeling groggy this morning, haven't had a weed hangover in a long time...

Here's a couple of pics of the bho I made. It weighed out to .65 grams. I have enough trimmings/popcorn buds left to make about 3 grams worth at the current rate. I think I'll get much better yields if I don't pack the tube so tight...I think I'm going to blast the material I used last night a second time to see what I get...

[artymac]

"Zbeebs", first, many thanks for a truely personal rollercoaster of a ride of a thread and with more to come as the final prize gets closer.(You'll have to let us know, when it's all done and dusted and you're sat, stoned by your own exploits, thinkin' it through, if the chase was better than the catch . With every right, you should be able to hear your smugness from a mile away!! )
That BHO stuff you made looks, and by the sound of it is, lethal
Ahh,..the ideas that must be reboundin' around in your head havin taken that first grow step and that bong hit must have helped and hindered in equal measure
Once again, great thread and i hope your final yield is above expectation, the thing that would give me the most sleepless nights
"Zbeebs", just had a thought. When i become very concentrated about any particular thing that continues for many days or weeks, i will often dream about it regularly, sometimes comin' up with solutions to problems!! Did you find that your new very intense 'hobby' wouldn't even give you, peace in sleep

[ZBeebs]

"Zbeebs", first, many thanks for a truely personal rollercoaster of a ride of a thread and with more to come as the final prize gets closer.(You'll have to let us know, when it's all done and dusted and you're sat, stoned by your own exploits, thinkin' it through, if the chase was better than the catch . With every right, you should be able to hear your smugness from a mile away!! )
That BHO stuff you made looks, and by the sound of it is, lethal
Ahh,..the ideas that must be reboundin' around in your head havin taken that first grow step and that bong hit must have helped and hindered in equal measure
Once again, great thread and i hope your final yield is above expectation, the thing that would give me the most sleepless nights
"Zbeebs", just had a thought. When i become very concentrated about any particular thing that continues for many days or weeks, i will often dream about it regularly, sometimes comin' up with solutions to problems!! Did you find that your new very intense 'hobby' wouldn't even give you, peace in sleep

Hey Artymac, thanks for the kudos, I'm enjoying writing this thread as much as anyone who is reading it. Now that I have been smoking my own and have been satisfied with the quality (and the plant that I'm smoking now, kandy kush, was harvested at roughly 6 weeks) I can tell you already that the catch is as good as, or better than the chase.

I had some more of the BHO a little while ago, and man it's tasty. I have only recently started making BHO, and it is much tastier than qwiso. The taste of the bud comes through much better with BHO. The vanilla kush has a very distinctive smell, and the BHO that I made tastes EXACTLY like it smells. I am amazed how when I exhale through my nose it smells exactly the same as the plant smells. I guess that those of you who make BHO know what I mean, but it's new to me.

My yield from 3 plants is 72 grams, with 6 plants left. All of the plants that are left are bigger than the one that was 40 grams. If I get another 240 grams, I will be happy! For a first attempt in a 4 x 4 tent, 300+ grams is pretty good I, but I think I may get closer to 400 grams total.

I also think I'm going to end up with about an ounce of concentrates! (I should be able to get 3-4grams of quality bho or qwiso from each plant from the trimmings/low buds.)

I haven't been dreaming about growing, but it has taken up quite a bit of space in my head...I think about it at work, when I have free time I'm reading something relating to growing on the web on my phone, I'm on forums all the time, I talk about it a bit too much with my non-smoking wife, who couldn't care less about any of the details, yet I have to tell someone...The only way it has affected my sleep is in the beginning, I used to worry about getting busted, that the door could just fly open at any minute...I'd hear a car go by and get paranoid...but not any more. I realize the risk is pretty low. I don't tell anyone, the only one who knows is my wife, and I have never sold any nor do I have any plans to, it's all for me. I don't think I've ever heard of anyone getting busted because of a grow journal either, and there are thousands of them all over the web. The alternative is to continue buying, and in my opinion it's riskier to buy and drive 40-100 miles roundtrip with an ounce or more in the car every couple of weeks. I used to expose myself to that risk about 20 times a year!

[Kermit]

Bho baby, thats how i feel most mornings also looks like a bit of water got into your oil, what butane did you use?

[ZBeebs]

Bho baby, thats how i feel most mornings also looks like a bit of water got into your oil, what butane did you use?

I used Vector 5x refined. Why do you think I got water in it?