H.A.F. growing stink-flowers in dirt with QB's

Damn. I told you that stuff was good. What was I talking about?

Oh. the Manifold part.

Since I am "shocking" the plants with their first flood and double the light, The manifold will wait until at least next feeding. This is the part where I'll let the plants tell me what to do (with my goal in mind) and they may not all get the same treatment except for feeding.

Doing the 4-prong manifold, I reeeeealy don't want to top the plant or mess with those two keeper-shoots until they have a node. The first nodes off of those two shoots are my plant. Once that node has popped and there is stem above it, I can MANGLE anything above those shoots to get it trained how I want - but I need to just leave those alone and let them do their thing.

So I may do some pruning of upper shoots as they get big enough, but no fan leaves or topping until "the shoots" are ready.

Also, stuff stretches better if you don't mess with it. The only fan leaves I'll prune before topping will be the two that eventually shade those two shoots.

New light, fed, and pruned. one RM just got 2 upper shoots pruned, two got "adjusted".

On this one, the top was a mess

Now it's not.

But it isn't a "manifold" yet. Since the other leaves were smaller, including the ones on the shoots, I kept the fan leaves above the shoots I'm keeping. Probably for just a few days. When the sprouts have enough veg to support the plant is when I go full monty

On the tall one, the top was still going strong,

And still is - but those two big top leaves were shading "the" shoots.

Still waiting on the same thing for manifolding, but this one may get there quicker since it'll have more veg. I'll keep pruning upper shoots away until it's ready.

The one I didn't do much to will probably lose those same two fan leaves tomorrow

Got bored so I wanted to get a flash pic to see if it clarified anything.
One thing I noticed this morning before lights out was a definite silvery sheen to everything. The other thing noticed was that the last round of new pistils was thinning. Still white, but skinnier and tightening up to the bud. In this pic all I can see is what is probably milky trichomes everywhere (will check with loupe) and no "Guy Fieri-hair" white pistils sticking up. And if the flash is a true representation of the milky ones, then they are just starting on the lower nugs - but definitely there.

The leaves are still surprisingly healthy, so the plant itself can keep going. This is a tough one. I think harvest will end up being a last minute decision in the near future, but I would love to see some autumn foliage and those pistils mostly brown.

Based on the dehydrated test joints the potency will be no problem regardless. Especially since this will be more carefully dried. As is one cone is lasting the better part of the day, so these flowers will definitely be bowl material. One hit wonder

And I'm also breaking routine with the clones. The tiny one is fine, but the other 5 got soaked yesterday morning, and this morning before lights-out they were light again and ready for water tonight. So They are getting transplanted to 3-gallon pots.

But then I realized that I have 3 plants in 3 gallon pots that I might not even keep.

So the 2 gallon pots that have the Velcro for easy transplanting I will save for future seedlings. I can only fit eight 3 gallon pots in my tent, and that's jammed together - for no reason because they are tiny while in there - I have just had an aversion to unnecessary transplanting.

If I end up culling 50% of my plants, it will happen right about the point in 12-12 where these clones are ready for transplant.

I would like to end up with 4 females from each run of seeds, which is why I was hedging my bets with fems. I still need to grow one fem each time because some of the seeds are a year old, but I think I can comfortably drop 7 reggies with the fem - 4 under each light - and have a better chance of keeping 4.

So with 7 reggies I can either go all one strain, or do 3 and 4 of different strains and still have a better than average chance of a keeper of each.

Another 12-edit note-to-self...

I also need to remember to wait until the pistils start turning on the clones before dropping seeds, so that the rooms will be emptying out before I am ready to jam them full again.

And it might be better to have the larger room for veg unless more than expected fem-out, and keep up to 4 plants in the small room for flower if that's all that makes it.

I think I had an idea to boost airflow in my rooms.

Right now I have a 6" fan in each room, with a carbon filter on the intake. Both just vent into the attic.

If I had a box in the attic made out of mainly carbon-filter material, I could run the exhausts into that, then just have a dust-filter over the intakes.

Anyone do anything like that?

Day 20 12/12
Transplanted 5 into 3-gal pots. the baby is still in a 2 and sitting on a bucket.
Now I need soil...

Day 67 12/12
Yes, it was a lot of milky, but still very few amber...

I guess the thing is that there are ambers in there where I can't see them. And if new pistils are popping there will be more new trichs etc.

This one is popping new pistils

So at some point I may just tap out.

Here's a better example of why I snip those 2 fan leaves.
Before
After. The 4 shoots I circled will be the 4 limbs of the manifold.

So to expose those 4 little shoots to more light, I can tie on to that stem past those 2 nodes and stretch the heck out of it if needed.

Coffee is on...
I finally found what I was looking for.

Hard to tell from the pic, but looking down each cola all the frost on the leaves is milky. And it seems the amber is very light colored on this strain? On the leaves in the bud pics I posted above actually have amber. Since they aren't new, I think they are probably the best barometer. Chopping tonight, pics to follow.

440g from the final round. Just under a pound wet in the pic.

585g wet for the plant, 20.8oz. And Fat Bastard weighed in at over 2oz manicured.

I am getting the citrus I didn't get the other day, and I could actually see an amber hue to the leaf hash as I was pruning. So I have a vast assortment of all kinds of trichs and terps.

I should end up with over 4oz dry from a 3 gallon pot. I don't give two hoots about grams per watt, because there are too may factors besides just light. So my "gold standard" for a decent grow has been to try and get 1oz per pot-gallon. Regardless of strain it has been surprisingly close, and hard to achieve if you try and kill your plants like me

I have only beat it 3 times, but have been close almost every time. Anyway, I have also seen a direct correlation between plants that overachieve and those that had issues. Hashtag DUH... So that is why I use it as a barometer. All I have to do is not beat the plants up and I win!

Edited: I just looked at the times on the two posts. Less than 3 hours. Not bad for an old dude.

I have really quit obsessing over weight since I am no longer trying to budget what I have until the next grow is done. But I have found it very useful in a few places.

I wash my buds. I want to keep a fan on them until the water/h2o2 I added is gone, so the wet-weight right before wash takes care of that.

Don't really care about the weight after that until it's dry-ish. When I give it a final clean-up I weigh it so I can track if it is still losing weight when I jar it up. I don't care about days or weeks. If it is still losing weight when I burp it I keep burping. When it stops losing weight, then I can let it hang out for a week at a time.

Since I just got the new light for the tent, I'm not in a hurry to move the babies. They seem to be loving it. I also found that the cheap plastic shelving from Walmart fits in my tent perfect - enough.

And some randomness
My "manifold-plus"

And I figured out the ventilation. I rigged a frame with two intakes and I ordered a roll of carbon cloth. I thought about a bunch of different options, but with this, I can just staple the carbon cloth into a sack and slide it over.

Those collars are made from busted vertical blind slats

When that stuff get's here I'll get the vents changed and shift the plants.

PVC

Lego's for stoners

Oh, and there's not much activity on the other site yet, so I guess I'll keep hanging out here until it picks up.

And the cycle continues

Some need water and some don't - and that sucks.

And I did the dirty on @J.James Royal Mystery. They are back to looking similar now.

Right about where the hooks are is where the last topping will be. Same rule on the shoots, just waiting for them to get some meat in their bones.

I think I figured out the airflow. Anyone dissect a carbon filter before?

I'm not so worried about smell that I need 2 layers of carbon cloth and 10 lbs of carbon.
I am either going to put just the outside casing back together as is depending on airflow through that thin carbon-paper, or rip that out and line it with that blue washable filter. Make the lid easier to remove (screws, not rivets), then hang it so that taking the whole thing down to clean isn't a chore. Main worry for inside the closet is protecting the fan from dust.

I'll put a pic up with the attic-rig when the carbon filter shows up. But that and being rural and venting into a musty 100+ year old attic is about the only smell-proofing I need.