MrHowardMarks' experienced grower journal.

[MrHowardMarks]

Tony- been running this one for three years...

I rinsed it out with water twice, once a year... It's still wroking just fine, but It'll probably need replaced soon.

I blow into it, that's why there isn't a prefilter on the outside... I do have some quilting batting on the inside to catch dust particles...




Multisonic- You might want to get some calibration solution for you meters and check them if you haven't already... And keep your probes clean, I wash mine once a week.


Usually you don't have city water that is that bad, but who knows, you live way out there...

 

[multisonic]

i cant believe ur up this early. i just got off work an hour ago. fuckin lame. well time to do my taxes. ha ha ha

 

[MrHowardMarks]

I was about to say the same thing... What are you doning up this early...

Well, the sun is just now about to rise...



And I'm at work... On a sunday... On Super Bowl sunday...

You must work the late shift huh...

 

[Babs34]

OK, I guess this is a situation where you just have to be there and actually see it for yourself. Take my word, I'm not BS'ing....there are ACTUAL seeds. I've collected them already in hopes that I could at least utilize that particular plant for future growths. I've seen some posts throughout RIU that refer to them as being female seeds. Like I said, I always threw away the males....never encountered a hermaphrodite. It may not make sense, but this is the reality. 7 plants---all kept on the exact same lighting---only ONE turned out this way. No reason to lie here...I've only had it flowering for approximately a couple of weeks. I thought it weird as hell myself....which is why I'm asking whoever I can to enlighten me a bit more regarding the seeds possible use.....AND whether or not I should just completely rid of the plant altogether, plus the seeds. I'd take more time to google it if I "had" the time, but the reality is I just don't really have enough of that "time" to get to the facts I'm seeking. My life consists of "googling" all sorts of topics...many of which are just not for entertainment purposes--thus my directly questioning here to seek a direct answer. Apparently, this is just a random occurrence no one I have asked has encountered. That being said, I will go with my gut feeling and just rid of the remainder plant that is still flowering and hope it has not tainted the others......AND keep the seeds and HOPE they can be of some use because I'm determined to find that strain I grew not too long ago. When I recently moved , I foolishly didn't take the time to properly label some of my seeds.

 

[MrHowardMarks]

I don't know what to tell you man... It takes at least 5 weeks to produce a mature seed through pollination...

My guess is it's a hermie...

*A clear close up pic would help.

 

[Babs34]

OK, well...I will say this. I did not "officially" begin flowering until a couple of weeks ago. Once I see that first pistil, I go back to vegging for a couple of weeks, sometimes more. I gradually cut back the lights to a 12/12 schedule once they are at the right height. I may have played around a little too much with that lighting. Like I said, I was getting a little lazy with this "this" time around. All of the others are doing just fine....looking like they will stay their course and bud. If there were not so much drama entailed getting a picture and uploading, I'd show you. Hmm, I'm thinking I'll keep the seeds for awhile--just incase. It doesn't seem that I'll be getting anymore seeds in the very near future, so wth...all about trial and error.

 

[MrHowardMarks]

Alright man...


If you mess around with the lights too much, they'll turn into hermaphrodites...

Veg at either 24 hours or an 18on/6off cycle, then switch to 12/12... Nothing else works better...

I'm pretty sure you've got a hermie on your hands, a lot of people don't recognize a hermie when they see their first one...


I'm sticking with my gut on this one.


Sorry bro, any of you hundreds of readers agree?

 

[Babs34]

Alright man...


If you mess around with the lights too much, they'll turn into hermaphrodites...

Veg at either 24 hours or an 18on/6off cycle, then switch to 12/12... Nothing else works better...

I'm pretty sure you've got a hermie on your hands, a lot of people don't recognize a hermie when they see their first one...


I'm sticking with my gut on this one.


Sorry bro, any of you hundreds of readers agree?

Maybe so, maybe so...never actually had one before because the males were always immediately taken out. I'm just amazed that the bottom half is definitely all females---with the acception of one bud--obviously hermie. Anyway, let's just HOPE the rest stay on track.

 

[MrHowardMarks]

Increased stress of any kind will make a genetically unstable plant want to herm...

Overwatering, overfeeding, overpruning, messing with the lights...

Feminized seeds aren't as resilliant to stress as their normal counterparts.

 

[doogleef]

Your lighting scheme is causing the problem. Plants will show sex WITHOUT 12/12 light. Preflowers appear at 4-6 weeks from seed under 18/6 lighting. Tossing them to flower, then back to veg for 2 weeks, then back to flower; it surprises me you have not had more hermies to be honest. You must have had really solid genetics in the past to have not seen one yet. Hermies are weird looking and will caise more issues than they are worth.

 

[SlikWiLL13]

Sorry bro, any of you hundreds of readers agree?

100% agreed

 

[Nacho420]

I had that same problem with my last grow. 2 Jack plants and a BC God Bud were what I entered flowering with and 2 of them turned hermies.

To be honest I wouldn't keep the seeds because I got some seeds from the plants that only could have gotten pollenated from the hermies and they haven't turned out too well. Very weird growth like branching out into two major stems and slow growth.

I left them alone and it didn't hurt too much. The top of the BC was producing seeds and the bud from it didn't turn out very good but one of the jacks that turned hermie did so later on and didn't affect it much at all. Still gave some dank bud.

Hope that helps

 

[Babs34]

Thanks "Mr." ...Nacho and Doog for all the feedback. I swear I wasn't trying to hijack this thread. I was just on the quest for "the answer." Honestly, I was hoping you would tell me it was positively some female seeds---one can dream. I'll have to research that one in the future. Nacho, I'm so desperate for some bud, I may just break down and smoke that sorry ass bud, ha. Doog, maybe I did have some really solid genetics at one time because I never ever encountered that problem with hermaphrodites....and I've always played around with the light in the beginning----no such thing as routine with me. That is, UNTIL I get on the 12/12....then I get serious. Life and stress had me playing with it a bit too much this time around maybe. I probably did push it just too far.
Doog, I dig your avatar. I may have to hijack it. Nothing pisses me off more (well, some things) than when I hear about some poor woman who is dying of cancer, WITH SMALL CHILDREN no doubt, and is facing criminal charges----WHILE DYING. WTH is wrong with our society when they will challenge an individual pertaining to their own bodies? The gov't has deemed all so many "Meds" out there as being safe and useful for alleviating every kind of symptom/pain, etc. I'll never get over that either. It's "ok" and acceptable by society to use "prescribed" pills that will royally f&%k you up on so many levels, YET, use something natural--minus all the side-effects--"oh the shame."
Thanks again. Looking forward to seeing your end product Mr.

 

[MrHowardMarks]

It's all good babs...


And I totally agree that the prohibition of marijuana is pointless... Advil and asprin are way more dangerous...


And you were sorta on the right track thinking the seeds would be fem... They would be.


The thing is, in order to get good feminized seeds, the hermie "father" of the seeds has to be extremely resistant to herm... It needs to be forced through one of many methods...

A plant that is unstable and turns herm will carry the unstable genetics to the offspring... And the offspring will have a tendency to herm.


In a feminized cross, no male genes are passed from the parents... So there is no possibility of having a male, only female that carry the possibility of being unstable...



I personally don't mess around with feminized seeds...



And the only herms I've had were in late flowering, during flush, a few banannas pop out of the Silver Pearl... It's common, if you let a plant go for too long, it'll pop out a few male flowers... It's actually the method Soma Seeds uses to get his genetics.

I'd get rid of it entirely.



And babs... Something you really should look into is setting up a veg room, that way you won't have any down time, you can cut clones, and have vegative plants you know are female that can be ready for flowering as soon as you harvest...


That's why this garden took so long for me, I was starting from seeds... Now that I have vegative mothers, I've been cutting clones for the next batch, they're all rooting now, and will be ready for flowering as soon as I harvest, no down time.

 

[MrHowardMarks]

Alrighty...


Let's get some of the cost analysis out of the way...


We'll start with the easy stuff, at least easy for me.





I'm going to put them into groups, so it'll make more sense, and for each group you can add/subtract investment to cut costs... Making the math a bit more easy.



Alright then... Let's start with nutrient costs...

 

[MrHowardMarks]

-----NUTRIENT COST-----

AN- SensiBloom A (1Gal)- $30
AN- SensiBloom B (1Gal)- $30
AN- Sensizym (1Gal)- $94
AN- Sweet Leaf (1Gal)- $86
AN- MEarth Bloom (1Gal)- $48
AN- Fulvic Acid (1Liter)- $28
AN- Humic Acid (1Liter)- $28
AN- B-52 (1Gal)- $116
AN- Liquid Carboload (1Liter)- $20
AN- Barricade (1Liter)- $30
AN- BigBud (130grams)- $23

--Total Advanced Nutrients costs--

$523.00 +tax



FF- Grow Big (1Liter)- $20
FF- Tiger Bloom (1Liter)- $16
FF- Big Bloom (2.5Gal)- $80
FF- Open Sesame (1pound)- $24
FF- Beastie Bloomz (1pound)- $24
FF- Cha Ching (1pound)- $28

--Total Fox Farm costs--

$192.00 +tax



HB- HoneyBee ES (1Liter)- $24
HB- Gravity v5 (8oz)- $27
GH- pH down (1gal)- $27
BT- Clearex (1Liter)- $15
Superthrive (60mL)- $6

$99.00 +tax


-----Total Costs-----

$914.00 +tax


But... I still have enough left over for another round, and a lot of the products are from a previous grow...

So, I have leftovers.

 

[MrHowardMarks]

-----Equipment-----

Just hoods, ballasts and lights...


*Future Brite 600W HPS Digital Ballast- $270

*HydroTek Silverstar Vented Hood- $200

*SolarMAX 600W HPS Bulb- $125

--$595.00 per light

Multiplied by 6
-------

$3,570.00


These are reusable... With a additional bulb replacement every six months... Or $1,500.00 a year.

 

[DWR]

damn u give out more money on nutes than i have ever on my whole system ^^

cheers

 

[MrHowardMarks]

Hahaha...

And think...

S cutting costs by not usding th Dr Hornby stuff.
I wa

 

[DWR]

Hahaha...

And think...

I was cutting costs by not usding th Dr Hornby stuff.

corrected your sentence for ya m8... if thats what u meant

anyways dont know what dr hornby is...

hehe.. i hardly ever use nutes... only when needed :S i guess i just dont know how to use em