Mudcat's first grow: A51 XGS190 & Caboose

[mudcat]

This is my first grow ever--I started with seeds on Jan 27, and have been taking pictures with the intent of posting this thread. Just didn't get around to it. And so here we are now, with me playing catch up. I'm a grandpa who picked up a 215 card about 3 years ago when I moved to Humboldt County. My doctor recommended medical marijuana for my arthritis and anxiety issues--I used to take ambien to sleep at night and zoloft for stress, but both of those resulted in weird side effects. Indicas give me good sleep and relaxation, so this endeavor is both for medical purposes as well as a neat new hobby.

So, what lights to use? After lurking in this forum for a few weeks, gathering knowledge and techniques, I invested in 4 of the Area 51 XGS 190s and a 10'Lx10'Wx8'H grow tent. I have been impressed with the results and recommendations folks here had for Area 51, and for their 190 lights. I would not have made this decision without the many posts you folks have made! The light sets were ordered in December and arrived about 3 weeks later. The grow tent seems big, but I'm a big fellow and need room to move around. Also the tent is set up in a garage, and this size fits snug between the rails for the back rollup door (garage has rollup doors in front and back).

So, what strain to start with? A good friend says he bred and named a strain called Caboose back around 2003. He's a really good guy, but came into some hard times and hasn't been a grower for a few years. I trust him at his word, and he said his Caboose strain won a couple of cannabis cups in Humboldt when he was growing. Alas, I couldn't find any Caboose clones at local dispensaries, though a few folks remember the strain fondly. Finally found some Caboose seeds for sale online through Herbies. My friend was surprised to hear that someone had feminized his Caboose strain, as it was a clone-only when he bred it. We're both looking forward to comparing the final medicine with his memory of the strain. Kinda funny, having to order from a shop so far, far away, for a strain invented locally by someone I just happened to know! Life is crazy that way.

Based on my friend's recommendation, I use Fox Farm Ocean Forest and about 25% perlite. He said fertilizers shouldn't be necessary, Fox Farm's soil should be good enough for outdoor or indoor--but just in case, being a nervous nelly, I picked up a couple of bottles of Fox Farm Grow Big and Fox Farm Big Bloom. Trying to keep things as environmentally friendly as possible, with minimum electrical use. Environmentalists here in Humboldt are becoming more and more aware of the extensive damage certain careless commercial growers are doing to the environment, due to pesticides getting into the water system and food chain. Also problems with chemical-laden fertilizers getting into the water supply. I don't want to contribute to such problems, so organic soil and energy efficient LED lights seem like the way to be a good citizen!

Seeds arrived on Jan 26 and were wetted between paper towels at 10 pm on Jan 27. I'll start posting pics as soon as I figure out how the system here works for uploading such.

ps glad to "pay you back" for all of the great advice, journals, data, and updates -- I've learned a lot from all of you, and thank you so very much, each and all of you! hopefully my meager project journal will help someone down the road, esp avoiding some of the goofy mistakes I've made along the way

now how does one go about getting pictures up???

 

[mudcat]

Aha, the little "insert picture" icon. duh!

Here are the seeds, about 10 hours after being wetted and paper toweled:




Within 24 hours, all of the seeds had taproots, so I moved them into a small seedling tray:




One of the seeds had two taproots. I thought this was weird, and made a mental note to check that out later.
Anyway, I didn't have a heater or warmer, so I set up two of the A51s like this:




The next day, after reading here about the importance of keeping things nice & humid for the babies, but keeping some airflow going, I did this:




Will upload more to this journal later, Grandpa Mudcat needs to go run some errands... ciao for now

 

[PSUAGRO.]

subbed up to this grow old timer .............crazy story about the strain..............be safe and happy growing


Edit.....btw, ffof soil alone will not get you through veg & 9 Weeks+ of flower

 

[medicinehuman]

It should be fun, looking forward to seeing them.

 

[hyroot]

Looks good. FYI humidity is bad for seedlings. That's more geared for rooting clones.

 

[mudcat]

btw, ffof soil alone will not get you through veg & 9 Weeks+ of flower

Duly noted, and thank you for the advice!

Looks good. FYI humidity is bad for seedlings. That's more geared for rooting clones.[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][/QUOTED]

Didn't know this! My grow room was really dry, less than 30% humidity, because my homemade dehumidifier worked a bit too well and the top of the dirt was drying out in 2-3 hours. Figured out how to calibrate it. Will definitely make note of the humidity vs seedlings issue for future reference, thank you.

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OK, so here's another pic of Day 3, a little later on, and the seed pods are starting to peek out of the soil. This is about 48 hours after they were put in soil, so I'm feeling pretty good.

I was a little confused on this part: some people say to plant with the taproots down, some say taproots up, some say it doesn't matter. I went with taproots up.

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The plastic device is a remote temperature and humidity sensor, so I can check on things without going out to the garage, opening the tent, etc. About $20 at the local hardware store. Also my friend said I'm paying too much for the Fox Farm Ocean Forest, I paid $13 for 1.5 cubic feet, he told me where I could get it for about $8. Love to save some bucks!

On Day 4, notice out of the 5 seeds, one is a little slow to go? That's the one with 2 taproots. I was concerned at this point, and read that this means twins.



Here's Day 5, everyone is busting a move and stretching for the light:




Day 6, got the twins separated after reading that usually one is dominant and pulls the smaller one right out of the dirt, where it typically dries and dies. That hardly seems fair, everyone loves an underdog right? So I read that a little mineral oil and careful work with a needle can result in getting the two separated... did that:

 

[mudcat]

Day 7, seeing good progress. About that homemade dehumidifier: I took a one gallon bottled water container and drilled a bunch of 1/4" holes in the bottom, filled it with the 100% crystals kitty litter (silica gel, i believe the stuff is called), and put one of my wife's cotton makeup round watchamacallits in the widemouth bottle end to keep the litter from falling out, then stuffed the whole thing into one of the vent ports on the grow tent. I then sealed up all of the other ports except one on the opposite side of the tent, near the ceiling. On the "exit" port, I connected a fan on the outside to suck the air out. So: fresh air comes in the lower port, where it has to pass through the silica gel kitty litter, and old air is sucked out of the exit port on the opposite corner near the ceiling. But I found this made the air WAY too dry, weird because I live right on the coast (house is on sea cliffs) and our humidity is usually 60-80%. I knew mold was a potential problem, but had no idea kitty litter would work this well for drying air! So made some adjustments to let air bypass the homemade dehumidifier, and from here on out kept things between 40% and 60%, and usually right at 50-55% during lit hours. OH YEAH, the lights are on a 18/6 cycle at this point. And I had to set up a little space heater inside in front of the kitty litter intake, to keep the temperature above 55 degrees during dark hours and 65 degrees during light.

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Day 8, things seem kinda stretchy to me, but I'm a noob at this so what do I know?:

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Day 9. moved everyone into new pots, sticking with the 75% FFOF and 25% perlite, except the twins who are looking like they want to take the short bus to school instead of riding with the other kids--that's OK, Grandpa Mudcat has a lot of patience:

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[mudcat]

Here's another pic of Day 9, you can see that I buried the little ladies up to their necks to hide their long legs:



Days 10 & 11:





Day 12, everything looking good. Wish I'd taken more shots of the twins!

 

[mudcat]

Here's Day 13, including a couple of shots of the twins:








Day 14, really pleased with how things are turning out at this point, keeping the temps between 70 and 75 F during light, but did have a cold spell where the grow tent went down to 50:






Day 15, I read that it's a good idea to start blowing a fan gently to encourage strong stem growth and to help the plants transpire... had to look up what transpire means, got edumacated:

 

[gk skunky]

Here's Day 13, including a couple of shots of the twins:

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Day 14, really pleased with how things are turning out at this point, keeping the temps between 70 and 75 F during light, but did have a cold spell where the grow tent went down to 50:

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Day 15, I read that it's a good idea to start blowing a fan gently to encourage strong stem growth and to help the plants transpire... had to look up what transpire means, got edumacated:

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Damn stupid cloudfare or whatever it is... making me type more than once... Anyways. Looks good. With the ocean forest it will probably last you 3-4 weeks or so before you need to start feeding. Also, you are absolutely going to need some tiger bloom for flower too. Though one thing you should know is FF is over hyped BS. For less money you can get more both media wise and nutrients. For soil i.e. roots organics and pro-mix for sure. As far as nutes pretty much anything will do as well if not better, even cheap GH will. Either way looking good so far, just some food for thought.

 

[mudcat]

Day 16, that fan must be magic? Heh ... and for the twins, one looks like it's trying to catch up with its big sisters but the other one is struggling. Don't worry, little plant, Grandpa is still watching out for you! You just keep fighting for your place in the world, and I'll make sure you keep getting light, water, soil, and love








Days 17 & 18:






Day 19, the twins are still going but even the bigger one isn't doing nearly as well as the big sisters... still in the game though:



A tidbit about the Caboose strain: it's Trainwreck crossed with Salmon Creek Big Bud (I guess this is known as just "Big Bud" outside of Humboldt). My friend says he remembers sitting in his grow tent, holding a male flower in his hands and doing his rastafarian thing, chanting and spreading pollen. He had a brain tumor or something, that's why he got into growing and opened one of the first dispensaries in the area where he was living at the time. He wanted to create a good medicinal strain, to help himself with his medical issues and to share with other patients who needed pain relief.

 

[mudcat]

Damn stupid cloudfare or whatever it is... making me type more than once... Anyways. Looks good. With the ocean forest it will probably last you 3-4 weeks or so before you need to start feeding. Also, you are absolutely going to need some tiger bloom for flower too. Though one thing you should know is FF is over hyped BS. For less money you can get more both media wise and nutrients. For soil i.e. roots organics and pro-mix for sure. As far as nutes pretty much anything will do as well if not better, even cheap GH will. Either way looking good so far, just some food for thought.

Thanks for the advice, I don't know what media wise is but will certainly look into this product. I've seen Tiger Bloom advertised in the local papers and on the shelf pretty much everywhere here (hey it *is* Humboldt, this stuff is even in the little co-op grocery stores). What's GH?

 

[gk skunky]

Interesting. Where did he get the male from? If you know. Did he do so by creating herms from stress or a chemical treatment like STS or colloidal silver to force a female to turn male and produce pollen? Unless he had the OG salmon creek cut and then crossed to some other trainwreck seed variety to get a male rather than "transgendering" the arcata cut.

GH is General Hydroponics. Just cheap stuff that's pretty damn effective if used properly. You might also look up some how tos on teas. See if that's something you can do or would be interested in. If you wanted to try and go organic anyways.

 

[mudcat]

Day 20, Feb 16, things are zipping right along for the four big sisters, and even Tinkerbell the tiny twin has sprouted some true beginner leaves:

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Day 21, time to celebrate the twins' coming of age by giving them big pots like their sisters:

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Day 22, seems weird to see such a wide variance in where all six plants are at, given that they all started at the same time--guess that's the genetic wheel of fortune!

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[mudcat]

Interesting. Where did he get the male from? If you know. Did he do so by creating herms from stress or a chemical treatment like STS or colloidal silver to force a female to turn male and produce pollen? Unless he had the OG salmon creek cut and then crossed to some other trainwreck seed variety to get a male rather than "transgendering" the arcata cut.

GH is General Hydroponics. Just cheap stuff that's pretty damn effective if used properly. You might also look up some how tos on teas. See if that's something you can do or would be interested in. If you wanted to try and go organic anyways.

You know, it's kind of weird, but I had to explain to him about feminizing seeds and all that. He's rather old fashioned and a straight shooter--there's males, there's females, and there's weirdos who don't fit the classic mold, ya know? He thinks I'm a nut for using LEDs instead of tried-and-true metal halide & HPS. He's a treasure trove of information but very conservative on doing things the proven way. I have a lot of respect for his knowledge, I'm just really into environmental care *and* geeky tech (for a grandpa anyway).

He didn't think I had "true" Caboose until the plants got big enough, then he said "Wow, that is my strain!"--round about the first week of March. He's coming over this weekend, I'll ask him about how he did it and post the specifics. And of course he says the proof will be in the smoke. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Thanks for the tip on teas, I'll check that out as well.

 

[gk skunky]

You know, it's kind of weird, but I had to explain to him about feminizing seeds and all that. He's rather old fashioned and a straight shooter--there's males, there's females, and there's weirdos who don't fit the classic mold, ya know? He thinks I'm a nut for using LEDs instead of tried-and-true metal halide & HPS. He's a treasure trove of information but very conservative on doing things the proven way. I have a lot of respect for his knowledge, I'm just really into environmental care *and* geeky tech (for a grandpa anyway).

He didn't think I had "true" Caboose until the plants got big enough, then he said "Wow, that is my strain!"--round about the first week of March. He's coming over this weekend, I'll ask him about how he did it and post the specifics. And of course he says the proof will be in the smoke. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Thanks for the tip on teas, I'll check that out as well.

Awesome would be interested to hear. Though if he's been around for some time there is also the chance he had some of the original salmon creek seed stock from back when before it was all clone only too(well before the fem versions and the remake crosses like the hill temple collective version). Uh uh will be very interested to see what he tells ya upon his visit.

 

[ҜЯŬ§Ħ]

I love seeing this, I also am doing the LED's and think they are the future for various reasons, Appollo Horti. 180w (UFO),..450 Viper..Evolution CFL.....I am on day 27 from tap root, I also am using the General Hydro,...ORCA... and the Z7 2part system....I am a disabled Vet and 43y/o,....3 knee operation and hip and femur..cracked pelvic...bruised and several ribs broke.....lots of constant pain now days is the final result.....

AUTO's
2 THC BOMB
2 Big Bang

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[mudcat]

Day 24 (skipped Day 23 oops): after much consideration, I moved the two smaller "big sister" plants to 18 gallon bins with about 14 gallons of 75%FFOF and 25%perlite mix. My friend recommended 5 gallon buckets, and I was right on the verge of doing that... but I'm thinking I can use the bigger bins to finish this indoor grow then use them outside for an outdoor grow around May or June. And reuse the soil, perhaps?







Day 25: I was worried about the two biggest plants outgrowing the next two biggest plants, so I left the biggest ones in the smaller pots. The twins are still growing a lot slower than everyone else, but they're still growing...







Day 27 (skipped Day 26): I think this is where I tried giving the kids a wee little bit of FF Grow Big in their water... a very little bit, like a quarter teaspoon in 2 gallons of water, with the water split between everyone according to size. Just a taste, see how they like it. Also the big plants were getting too big compared to the others... I got a wild hair up my ass and decided to try topping them. Stupid? I don't know. Anyway, I tried putting the tops directly into soil in a cardboard pot, just to see if it would work. Also moved the big plants to the 18 gallon bins on Day 26.



hmmm, that pic doesn't seem to want to load, will try on the next post

 

[mudcat]

I love seeing this, I also am doing the LED's and think they are the future for various reasons, Appollo Horti. 180w (UFO),..450 Viper..Evolution CFL.....I am on day 27 from tap root, I also am using the General Hydro,...ORCA... and the Z7 2part system....I am a disabled Vet and 43y/o,....3 knee operation and hip and femur..cracked pelvic...bruised and several ribs broke.....lots of constant pain now days is the final result.....

Hi Krush, say those are some fine looking plants and thank you for your service, from a fellow vet -- Army, two tours active duty then reserve

 

[mudcat]

Day 29 (no 28 pix), the tops/clones were getting dried out and wilting, so I put some soaking wet shop towels over them. Had to wet them down every 3-4 hours during light, else the towels would dry out. Went from feeling like king kong to herp derp about this time. Also notice the twins' pots are sitting in the smallest of the "big sisters" 18 gallon bin. Topped the next biggest sister, but left the smallest big sister alone.

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Day 30: the wet towels cause my humidity to rise to 55-60% most of the time, and occasionally get above 60%, so I turn the exit port fan up to full speed... which lowers the temperature, which then increases the humidity. god damn it. going from herp derp down another notch to i-can-count-to-potato! But at least the twins are doing well, considering they are short bus kids... thus they are now my kindred spirits in a way

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