A Nightmare in the Basement (story of my 1st grow)
part 1- The Rise of the She-males:
It all started 6 months ago when, newly unemployed, I decided to use my free time to grow some high qualityherb in my basement. I knew nothing about growing but hey, how hardcan it be? So, armed with some Miracle Grow, a single Grow-Luxstandard (T12) fluorescent bulb and pile of bagseeds I've beencollecting for a year or so from the medium quality sativa I alwaysget from my friend, I began.
The poor little seedlings suffered greatly at my hands, but I was learning along the way by readingextensively on RIU as well as some other helpful sites. Piece bypiece I acquired more lighting, adding more T12s above the plants aswell as CFLs along the sides. I bought the 5600k bulbs for the vegging stage and the 2700k bulbs for flowering. I replaced theMiracle Grow soil with Fox Farm Ocean Forest. I bought GH Maxigroand Maxibloom.
I have no pics of the 1stset of plants since I didn't realize this would turn into such an adventure, but the plants did grow and once I switched them to the12/12 light cycle they really sprouted into 3ft tall sativas. Istudied the RIU posts on sexing plants. 6 of the original 10 plants were male. Ugh. I killed them without mercy.
The 4 girls produced decent sized buds,about the size of C batteries. I had no idea what a trichome was but I read all about them and, after securing a Radio Shack pocketmicroscope I could study those devils every day. The colas got heavier and heavier, and each day I studied the trichs for amber color. Finally I noticed something odd: a seed in 1 of the buds. Howodd, I thought. How can I have seeds when the plants are all females?
After reading about hermaphrodites on RIU, I inspected each of the plants and damn! Tucked up tight underneath the bottom leafs of the colas on 2 of the plants were little clusters of green footballs. There's a rooster in the henhouse! Sort of...
Despite the trichs being about 5% amber and maybe 50% cloudy, I decided to harvest the buds before any more seeds would appear. I followed the advice of RIU posters about drying and curing and in another month I had a big pile of beautiful buds that smelled wonderful, kind of lemony but sweet. I piled the whole harvest onto a scale and read the results: 1 oz. total from 4 plants! The buds apparently contain helium. Anyway, if I mash them together into a bowl it smokes OK. But just OK.
I did many things wrong throughout thisgrow, so I can't be too surprised that the plants flipped their gender. I over-nuted them once (leaves developed yellow veins and brown spots), which was pretty bad but they recovered after a thorough flushing. I didn't begin pH-ing the water until late in their lives, and all along they were living in my basement which is pretty damn cold most of the year, especially in the winter when I started them.
Part II- The Reveggening
Just 2 weeks after sprouting the 1stseeds, I sprouted some more, mostly because I was bored. I did not expect much from these plants and they endured the same cold basement conditions as the 1st set, although they were never potted in Miracle Grow, just FFOF throughout.
These plants were the ugly stepsistersof the 1st set. I neglected them. I pointed the spaceheater at the older plants and let these new ones get cold. When they stalled their growth in the vegging stage I started to resent them. I called them names. Filthy names. Nevertheless, they hung in there andeventually I moved them to 12/12, although not until the olderset had hermied and been rapidly harvested. These new ones were also sativa and sprouted rapidly under the 2600k light. I even managed to pry open my wallet (imagine a slow creaking sound) and bought a 400watt HPS light. The girls grew well and developed big thick colas,larger than any on the 1st set. After 12 weeks of flowering, I began my daily trich check.
Here's where things got weird.
The colas were getting big and fat, the calyxes were swelling, the hairs on the lower areas of the buds weredeep red, but the trichs stayed clear! I waited. Patience is a virtue in growing herb, I have read. You just can't rush these things.
Weeks went by and there was no apparentchange in the trichs. I stopped all nutes in anticipation of theharvest, giving them only water and a little unsulphered molasses.The plants just sat there, mocking me. I began calling them filthy names again. The leaves began to yellow. Others turned purple. Theplants looked festive in their new colors, like a Mexican Christmas. The plants were starving but I didn't want to feed them since I wanted to harvest soon. The trichs were 80% clear, 20% cloudy, no amber anywhere. I pleaded with them to frigging hurry up and finish already. They just sat there. Somewhere on RIU I read about'never-finishing sativa' and figured this might be normal.
The plants were now at 16 weeks offlowering, a full month older than others had been when they were harvested, but no change in the trichs. No sign of hermaphrodism,which was good, but otherwise they were just losing leaves and looking horrible, except for the big fat colas which had swollen to the size of small cucumbers! Still, the trichs were clear. I cut off the worst of the dying leaves but otherwise left them alone.
Then 1 day I noticed new green shootcoming out of the top of one of the buds. I began scouring RIU for answers and soon I discovered the concept of re-vegging. Any amountof light in the dark cycle can cause the plants to revert to veggingstage. I stood in my grow room in the dark and sure enough, therewere some light leaks. The sun rises about 4 hours before I turn the lights on and 1 of the windows was not well covered, allowing afinger of light to streak across the ceiling early in the morning. It was faint, but apparently enough to completely reverse the growth c
ycle of plants that were in very late stages of flowering! 
I have looked for other examples on RIUand other sites for re-vegging ha
ppening at such a late stage and haven't found any. I am here to testify that it can happen. Even to 24 wk old plants with big fat colas. 
(Mexican Christmas tree)
But hope springs eternal! Here are my newest babies, a mix of LSD and Red Dragon from Barney's Farm, all feminized! They are ready to move to flowering:
I wonder how I'm going to screw these up...
Thanks to everyone here at RIU! The info I get here is invaluable! If a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, I am getting more dangerous by the day!
part 1- The Rise of the She-males:
It all started 6 months ago when, newly unemployed, I decided to use my free time to grow some high qualityherb in my basement. I knew nothing about growing but hey, how hardcan it be? So, armed with some Miracle Grow, a single Grow-Luxstandard (T12) fluorescent bulb and pile of bagseeds I've beencollecting for a year or so from the medium quality sativa I alwaysget from my friend, I began.
The poor little seedlings suffered greatly at my hands, but I was learning along the way by readingextensively on RIU as well as some other helpful sites. Piece bypiece I acquired more lighting, adding more T12s above the plants aswell as CFLs along the sides. I bought the 5600k bulbs for the vegging stage and the 2700k bulbs for flowering. I replaced theMiracle Grow soil with Fox Farm Ocean Forest. I bought GH Maxigroand Maxibloom.
I have no pics of the 1stset of plants since I didn't realize this would turn into such an adventure, but the plants did grow and once I switched them to the12/12 light cycle they really sprouted into 3ft tall sativas. Istudied the RIU posts on sexing plants. 6 of the original 10 plants were male. Ugh. I killed them without mercy.
The 4 girls produced decent sized buds,about the size of C batteries. I had no idea what a trichome was but I read all about them and, after securing a Radio Shack pocketmicroscope I could study those devils every day. The colas got heavier and heavier, and each day I studied the trichs for amber color. Finally I noticed something odd: a seed in 1 of the buds. Howodd, I thought. How can I have seeds when the plants are all females?
After reading about hermaphrodites on RIU, I inspected each of the plants and damn! Tucked up tight underneath the bottom leafs of the colas on 2 of the plants were little clusters of green footballs. There's a rooster in the henhouse! Sort of...
Despite the trichs being about 5% amber and maybe 50% cloudy, I decided to harvest the buds before any more seeds would appear. I followed the advice of RIU posters about drying and curing and in another month I had a big pile of beautiful buds that smelled wonderful, kind of lemony but sweet. I piled the whole harvest onto a scale and read the results: 1 oz. total from 4 plants! The buds apparently contain helium. Anyway, if I mash them together into a bowl it smokes OK. But just OK.
I did many things wrong throughout thisgrow, so I can't be too surprised that the plants flipped their gender. I over-nuted them once (leaves developed yellow veins and brown spots), which was pretty bad but they recovered after a thorough flushing. I didn't begin pH-ing the water until late in their lives, and all along they were living in my basement which is pretty damn cold most of the year, especially in the winter when I started them.
Part II- The Reveggening
Just 2 weeks after sprouting the 1stseeds, I sprouted some more, mostly because I was bored. I did not expect much from these plants and they endured the same cold basement conditions as the 1st set, although they were never potted in Miracle Grow, just FFOF throughout.
These plants were the ugly stepsistersof the 1st set. I neglected them. I pointed the spaceheater at the older plants and let these new ones get cold. When they stalled their growth in the vegging stage I started to resent them. I called them names. Filthy names. Nevertheless, they hung in there andeventually I moved them to 12/12, although not until the olderset had hermied and been rapidly harvested. These new ones were also sativa and sprouted rapidly under the 2600k light. I even managed to pry open my wallet (imagine a slow creaking sound) and bought a 400watt HPS light. The girls grew well and developed big thick colas,larger than any on the 1st set. After 12 weeks of flowering, I began my daily trich check.
Here's where things got weird.
The colas were getting big and fat, the calyxes were swelling, the hairs on the lower areas of the buds weredeep red, but the trichs stayed clear! I waited. Patience is a virtue in growing herb, I have read. You just can't rush these things.
Weeks went by and there was no apparentchange in the trichs. I stopped all nutes in anticipation of theharvest, giving them only water and a little unsulphered molasses.The plants just sat there, mocking me. I began calling them filthy names again. The leaves began to yellow. Others turned purple. Theplants looked festive in their new colors, like a Mexican Christmas. The plants were starving but I didn't want to feed them since I wanted to harvest soon. The trichs were 80% clear, 20% cloudy, no amber anywhere. I pleaded with them to frigging hurry up and finish already. They just sat there. Somewhere on RIU I read about'never-finishing sativa' and figured this might be normal.
The plants were now at 16 weeks offlowering, a full month older than others had been when they were harvested, but no change in the trichs. No sign of hermaphrodism,which was good, but otherwise they were just losing leaves and looking horrible, except for the big fat colas which had swollen to the size of small cucumbers! Still, the trichs were clear. I cut off the worst of the dying leaves but otherwise left them alone.
Then 1 day I noticed new green shootcoming out of the top of one of the buds. I began scouring RIU for answers and soon I discovered the concept of re-vegging. Any amountof light in the dark cycle can cause the plants to revert to veggingstage. I stood in my grow room in the dark and sure enough, therewere some light leaks. The sun rises about 4 hours before I turn the lights on and 1 of the windows was not well covered, allowing afinger of light to streak across the ceiling early in the morning. It was faint, but apparently enough to completely reverse the growth c
ycle of plants that were in very late stages of flowering! I have looked for other examples on RIUand other sites for re-vegging ha
ppening at such a late stage and haven't found any. I am here to testify that it can happen. Even to 24 wk old plants with big fat colas. (Mexican Christmas tree)But hope springs eternal! Here are my newest babies, a mix of LSD and Red Dragon from Barney's Farm, all feminized! They are ready to move to flowering:
I wonder how I'm going to screw these up...
Thanks to everyone here at RIU! The info I get here is invaluable! If a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, I am getting more dangerous by the day!
