Crop #3: Deadhead OG, PurpleBerry BX, Chem 40G, Blue Cheese, and Qrazy Train

Hello all,

Well, this Crop reaches 6 weeks from 12/12 tomorrow.

I have handled the gnats issue. They were far more involved
and far more damaging than I realized at first. This crop has
been stunted somewhat....though I also started six new breeds,
and this may also be a factor. (a friend suggested that OGs need
more Veg time to produce well)

Another effect of having to deal with this issue is that my last two
waterings had to be used to deliver first Go-Gnats (Yay Gnats!) and
then the nematodes that seem to be solving the problem.

As a result, this is the first feeding that the ladies have gotten in
a few weeks. They do have some pale leaves, but I expect this
to improve soon.

The Qrazy Train is "scheduled" to be done next week....plus one at least.

Here are some shots, no specific order:


See? Tiny. I gave these plants one more week of Veg than my last crop,
and that made huge budsicles. (2 weeks vs. 1 week)

They are pretty and will improve with the feeding, but I am already looking
forward to my next Crop. :0)







I added some boards to help keep the sides of the tent from being sucked
in too far by my fans. BTW: I turned on my second carbon filter and opened
a second port for an intake. They may be smallish, but they are stinky!



I guess that they do not look too small....but my AK-47 were half again taller.

I know the main cause for all my issues of this build: the new soil.

I used FFOF last two crops and decided to try Kelloggs Patio Plus. I know
of very good growers that swear that PP works fine.

Well, for me it was a disaster. It was way less nutritious than FFOF.....even where
the PP smelled way more of manure. PP holds no water at all....I am using smart pots
and had a swamp in my tent until the blocks absorbed it back up.

Now, I am not sure if it was due to very porous nature of PP, or the strong shit-smell,
but I got gnats hard this Crop. I cultivate mushrooms, and know the fungus gnat
very well. Even in a room stuffed with fruiting mushroom blocks they never bloomed
like I saw this crop...unless a mushroom block began to rot or fail.

I already have my bags of FFOF, with a few bags of Happy Frog thrown in, in my garage,
ready for the next Crop.

On that front, I may need some advice.

As I have written, I am thinking about flowering my mothers. They have gotten
too big. I want to take clones of them and try to bonsai them better. I also want
to try flowering plants that have more Veg time and these fit the bill.

The problem is that they might be too big....they are 2-3' right now, and will not be
in the tent for a month or so.





Should I perhaps chop another foot off?

Timing things seems to be one of the harder parts to nail.

Take care all,

JD

Its like a jungle in there bro.

Thanks J. I am learning a lot. These are all new breeds
to me, and their needs vary. When I flower the mothers,
I will have the same breeds again, and will be in fewer,
larger, pots. I will be mixing their feeds separately.

I am happy to have you on board Deisel!

JD

JD with your moms, since you have a month to go, I'd take those top shooting stalks chop at least a ft off (top below the side branch height)

And there is a huge difference in flowering a well matured mom and a young 2wk veg girl.

Thank you Watt. I had gotten that advice from another friend as well.

He suggested that with a month to go, that the matter is settled, and
I suppose it is....I will chop that foot off. I want to have at least X2 free
space for the stretch.

I get the feeling that you are suggesting that the stretch might be stronger
for more established plants?

Thank you very much for the time.

JD

FWIW
I am not a great grower...but I did not have much success with PP, either.

Hry AZ,

Thanks for popping in!

Did you mean "PB" as in PurpleBerry?

It is the most finicky of the breeds that I am growing, but I love
it's back-story and look forward to smoking it.

I need to add to the thread that *finally* being able to feed my
plants (I have been fighting gnats and Go-gnats and then nematodes
took the place of nutrients in my last two waterings) has caused a
growth explosion....not so much height or breadth as much as bud size
and especially frostiness.

The gnats are not gone. Fuckers. However the worms seem to be
keeping them from exploding again.

It is a good thing that I do not sell, as I would have little tolerance for
complaining about the gnats stuck to my buds. LOL, they are not that
bad, but there are a couple that have at least 3-4 stuck to them. I will
be taking my long and sharp mycology tweezers and removing them
when I take them out next.

Take care,

JD

Sorry about that...Kellogg's Patio Plus

I'm curios about the DeadheadOG. I grew a Pandora'sBox/Deadhead cross and am wondering which influenced what...

Thanks, yeah....I got gnats so bad that they seem to be there to
stay. I am still certain that they are reduced and seem to be
staying that way, 1.5 weeks after applying the nematodes. I am
thinking that if I were growing plants that were not going to be
harvested in a few weeks, that the worms would win the day.

I appreciate that I will be able to use this soil in my garden after
harvest, as the worms will go with it.

As to the Deadhead, I have never smoked it, and will post it's
lineage when I find it (I am forgetting the site right now).

I thought that the reviews on Leafly were pretty funny....so many
refer to "nap". :0)

http://www.leafly.com/hybrid/deadhead-og

It smells very nice at 6.5 weeks, but is stated to go 9-11 weeks,
and if my math works, then this means as long as 13 weeks.

This is only my third serious grow (I did light bulbs in cardboard
boxes for tiny mexi-buds 25 years ago, but that does not count)
and I have found that the time-to-harvest estimates on the seed
websites are a tad short.

This is to say that my retarded gardening skills make them take
a tad longer to finish. :^)

Take care,

JD

I haven't tried this gnat elimination method myself, but have heard from several sources that it works.

Take fine play sand and put at least a 1/2" layer. Do it right before you need to water, water slowly so as not to wash the sand too thin in any area. The sand will settle really tight, preventing the newly mature gnats from getting out of the medium, so they can't reproduce and will die out.

Hi JD,
Our storoes sound the same. This is m 2nd after a 30yr "lay off"...I'm legal now.
I grew 3 femmed DeadheadOG X Pandora'sBox and got 3 different plants. They all taste the same and are similar in quality...good, but not Wow!. They have a musty lemon flavor smell. The basic difference I swa in the 3 was mturing time. They came in early Sept, late Sept and mid to late Oct...I grow outdoors.

Watt, I even used diatomaceous earth. They walked around on the stuff!

What happened to me is that I was too accustomed to seeing fungus gnats
around, and I did not notice that a serious infestation was starting.
(I cultivate all manner of edible and medicinal mushroom)

What really added to why this happened is the soil again.

I did an identical SOG for crop #2 and it rocked. (see the link below.
I got 30+ very nice budsicles.)

That grow used FFOF.

The Patio Plus so allowed the water to just run through that the sides and
bottoms of my sacks are really getting funky. I actually caught this as well
and cleaned a couple sack that were actually molding up. This also *never*
happened for Crop #2.

Others have mentioned the swamp that PP makes, but also that it is sucked
back up....well, not well enough for me it seems.

Adding the worms has helped, alot, and the top dressing that I did to try
to get nutes to the plants has also improved the saturation of the blocks,
at least at the top.

As I wrote, I already have my FFOF, with some Happy Frogg thrown in, to
be used for my next grow, purchased from the local grow shop. :0)

I also trimmed the mothers, to allow time for crop #3 to finish.

I just took this photo of the mothers:


This is the tent tonight:


Take care,

JD

Looking real nice in there Java, got a great thread happening . ATB!!

KC

Thanks KC.

While I am still sure that these babies will be a tad shorter than
they might have been, they are getting fat, and still have at least
two weeks to go.

JD

Javadog said:

As to the Deadhead, I have never smoked it, and will post it's
lineage when I find it (I am forgetting the site right now).

Click to expand...

I found the genealogy of Deadhead:

• DeadHead OG »»» Chem 91 Skunk VA x SFV OG Kush F4

http://en.seedfinder.eu/strain-info/DeadHead_OG/The_Cali_Connection/

Take care,

JD

so did u get rid of the gnats or no?

Well, no is the honest answer. They are still in the tent....but have been knocked
down pretty well.

Getting back on track with the feedings is making the buds swell nicely, but there
is little doubt but these ladies are going to end up a tad stunted for all the activity
they have gone through.

I am only a couple of weeks away from harvest, and so if the worms can continue
to prevent any real explosions of gnats, then I should be able to close this grow
successfully.

I already have the FFOF to switch back to for my next crop. I am going to be
flowering my mothers, taking clones to restart them.

Thanks for checking in.

JD

soil is the only thing u plan on doing different?.......

As far as gnats go, yes.

I will first clean the tent and room well. Zero gnats to start.

I will also be watching my plants closely for signs and will act much
sooner (this is key, IMHO).

I am also going to water nematodes into my grows at the start,
but I will want to find the right supplier. I need a combination
of species to do this right, and will not spend $40 on each of two
or three species.

...but the most important change will be the soil. I had zero gnat issues,
and got large and strong plants, for both of my previous grows.

Now, *if* I get gnats again, then I will just have to re-think the whole thing
if the FFOF gets gnats like the PP did, but for now I think that I have a game plan.

Take care,

JD