My intro and bona fides...

[PakaloloFromPNW]

You might guess from my name I grow pakalolo in the pacific northwest. It is legal for me to have 15 flowering plants. I can have up to 24 ounces of medical marijuana here in the state of Washington.

I started growing in the early 70's because I figured I could accomplish two goals. The first being a reliable source of the herb. I really didn't like the drug dealing culture during my hippie days. I never had use for kilos because I only wanted pot for my personal needs. The second was I knew I could grow as good of a quality product as that rag weed from Mexico.

At this time I had a younger friend who also was into to growing marijuana but he had different goals than me. He wanted to take the middle man out of the equation and be the producer himself. He did all of the research and I benefited from his labors.

So now I have a very small organic grow in my cellar. I should tell you that this is my first organic grow and I have read about and studied the techniques of organically growing marijuana. I was a bottled nutrient grower most of my life. I ran across a couple of posts about organic growing and that turned me away from a new project that I was just about to start.

I grew in ProMix using bottled nutrients and while I was successful I decided to try going hydroponics or more specifically DWC hydro. While doing the research into DWC is when I ran across organic growing posts. It only took me a few more hours to more of reading before I was totally convinced that I would be wasting my time with DWC and organics was the only way to grow.

So that's a little bit about me. If you want to follow along then keep reading. If you want to join in than feel free to post on this thread. I would like it to become our thread so please participate.

Enough for now, I'll start my next posts showing you my cellar setup.

 

[PakaloloFromPNW]

Clone and seedlings

Clone and seedlings

It all starts with either a seed or a clone. I have done most of my grows by cloning. I have my own technique for cloning and in a later post I go into the details of how I clone. There are lots of different ways to clone but the goal is to create a new plant from a mother plant. If you can do that successfully than it doesn't really matter how you do it.

I have done some plants from seeds. It is not a technique I use very often but sometimes I do pop a seed or two. Right now I have two plants that I popped from 40+ year old seeds that were breed by my old grow buddy. These seeds were breed to do well in the PNW foothills. I've had them frozen in my freezer for all those years. I'll tell more about them in a future post.

This is more about my cloning/seedling area. I got my letter of recommendation in September so because I was legal I decide to rebuild all my growing areas: clones, teenagers and flowering.

My cloning/seedling area is a bench I built inside of my veg space. I lined it with panda film and hung a 4' 4 tube T5 light fixture. I like to keep my areas clean so panda film is a great way to do this.

Cloning/seedling area


I've got room for about 15 cups for clones and seeds. There is some more room for about 6 1 gallon pots too. I don't use all that space as you can see because I only flower 6 plants at a time.

 

[PakaloloFromPNW]

My veg area, aka teenagers

My veg area, aka teenagers

My normal mode of operation is that once the clones or seeds have established a viable root system I move them to 1 gallon pots. I don't use smart pots. I use those black plastic pots I've had for years. I clean them up after every use and some must be 20 year old or more.

I usually place the 1 gallon pots on the cloning bench and let them grow there for about 1 month or they get too tall. From there I transplant them to 2 gallon pots and move them to the teenage area.

My teenage area is 4' x 3' and I can have 12 plants in this area. Right now I have too many plants but I'm trying to decide what strains I'm going to grow some I have a big variety of strains: Pineapple Express, two types of Trainwreck, Pitbull, Mildred, Chemdawg, OG Kush, Chocolope and my two popped seedlings.

I'm looking for couch lock here so I'm only going to keep the highest quality. I don't worry so much about quantity. To me, it's all about quality. The agreed fact here is that organics produces that best quality herb.


Front row l to r: Mildred, Pitbull, Trainwreck 2
Middle row l to r: Trainwreck 2, Trainwreck 1, OG Kush
Back row l to r: Chemdawg, Trainwreck 2, Eminem (40 year old seed)

 

[PakaloloFromPNW]

My flowering area

My flowering area

When I was using bottled nutrients I was a lazy grower. I just hung a light cloned some plants and water, nutes, water, nutes them until I harvested. I really didn't care for my plants. So I had horrific battles between me and the spider mites. I almost always won the battle and got a decent harvest.

I decided to quit that treadmill and build me a proper flowering area. I wired it up to handle 2 1000W MH lights plus have heater, input and exhaust fan systems and a filter system for scrubbing the air. I live in the woods and I have no neighbors but I do have grandkids coming over so I don't want the place to stink. When they were younger I could tell them it was just a skunk from the woods. Sooner or later they will figure out it's not a skunk.

I built out a closed area that is 6' x 4'. Inside this area I can have 6 10 gallon pots. I am planning to go no till in the future so I got bigger pots. When I originally design the room I had in mind using 8 5 gallon pots.

Flowering area


Clockwise starting on the lower left plant: Trainwreck 1, Pitbull, OG Kush, Pineapple Express

I've decided that I'm not growing PE anymore. The plant seems to grow unruly and I like my plants to be more symmetrical. If the quality was couch lock then I won't care about the structure. It's okay but not couch lock.

I'll come back later today and tell about my 40+ year old seedlings. I need to tend to the girls.

 

[MiMedGuy]

40 year old seeds...that's awesome...just had a guy tell me he did the same thing this past month. He kept seeds from killer herb in the 70's and is just now sprouting them with success!

blessings on your grow
MiMedGuy

 

[PakaloloFromPNW]

40 year old seeds...that's awesome...just had a guy tell me he did the same thing this past month. He kept seeds from killer herb in the 70's and is just now sprouting them with success!

blessings on your grow
MiMedGuy

Thanks MiMedGuy. I think it is pretty remarkable that you can germinate seed that have been frozen for so long. I only got two to pop out the many I had. I'll take some pictures and post them later today.

Stop by anytime. I'll be documenting my 40 year old seed grow for sure.

 

[PakaloloFromPNW]

The tale of my 40 year old seeds

The tale of my 40 year old seeds

I've got my girls taken care of and snapped some pictures of my seedlings so I thought I would share the story behind them.

This is a story that started back in the early 70's when my old grow buddy decided to become a producer. He planted seeds from the best Mexican weed. He grow them out and killed the males and keep the females. It was clone city from then on for the first couple of years.

The plants did okay but they were sitivas so they like to grow tall and proud. This wasn't good and around the same time he found out you could get seeds through the mail from Amsterdam. So he got strains from the Netherlands and decide to start a breeding program.

He did know much about breeding but he lived about 1/2 for the University of Washington and took full advantage of the materials available from the libraries. He learned and later applied this to breeding marijuana.

It took him years but he eventually found a strain he breed and started using it. When he moved he gifted me some of the seeds he had collected over the years. I've popped all of the 'special' seeds he had and grew the plants. But he gave me many outdoor seeds that he developed and I just keep them in my freezer. I didn't grow outdoors. I'm an indoor, small time, personal use grower.

I forgot about them for ages but this last August my old grow buddy came back to Washington to visit his family and we hooked up. I showed him the frozen seeds and he said I should try to pop them.

I had 3 types of old seeds. I had about 15 seeds in an envelope marked Skunk. These were probably seeds purchased from Amsterdam. I tried to grow these and some did pop but didn't sprout.

I had a type that was labeled: outdoor, good quality, tight bud, early mature. The name was MM 1+2 x MTV. I don't know what the naming means. It just what was on the label. One of these seeds was the first to pop. That was about 2 months ago. Rather than typing in MM 1+2 x MTV I decided on the name Eminem.

Eminem


I've got 4 clones so I can sex this plant and keep it going if I decide to. Without actually sexing it I'm pretty certain that this is a male plant. It just looks male to me. In about 3 weeks I'll know for sure because the clones look like there starting to get roots. Nice light green growth in the tips.

The other bag and the seed that sprouted about 10 days ago was name Like MTV and it's description was exactly the same as Eminem. So I shortened its name to MTV. It's just a baby but it is growing and that's what counts.

MTV


I crossing my fingers that this little seedling grows up to be a girl. Then bang, just like Jurassic Park I'll be breeding those two together and reviving something that was thought to be lost forever.

Anyway, that's my story.

 

[PakaloloFromPNW]

My ladies today

My ladies today

I've got some more tasks to finish on my honey-do list so I'm going to make this the last post of the day. I've got 4 ladies on the 12/12 regiment. They started 8 days ago but they're already showing some nice stretch. These are the same ones I took a picture of showing my flowering area on December 14. I like to see a difference each week.



Good night all.

 

[xmobotx]

i like the mulch

 

[canna woop!]

Kewl, Im subbed in

 

[mack 10]

40 year old seed! wow its older than me,
hehe.
You have some interesting clones is it the real Pitbull?
If you are looking for couch lock look into chem D and an some heavy kush /indica strains.
Good luck.
Mack.

 

[PakaloloFromPNW]

40 year old seed! wow its older than me,
hehe.
You have some interesting clones is it the real Pitbull?
If you are looking for couch lock look into chem D and an some heavy kush /indica strains.
Good luck.
Mack.

I've grown one of the Trainwreck using pseudo organic technique. I'll talk about it later but it is definitely couch lock. Keep me high for hours and that is saying something for me.

I got the Pitbull from a local dispensary. I don't know anything about it but that was the label it had. I got Pineapple Express from a blade down south. I got the two Trainwrecks, OG Kush, Chemdawg from my old grow buddy when he took cuttings off them and gave what was left to me. The rest I got from the dispensaries.

I'll see if I can come up with some chem D. I don't know many growers face to face so finding something that is not from a dispensary is difficult for me. Bringing in dispensary clones is always dangerous. I have to watch them like a hawk for PM, mites and fungus gnats.

I could pop some seeds if I find some. I think I have seeds for sour D but I'm not sure. I'd have to look at the label again. I like cloning verses seedlings because I know what I have. Seeds are always an adventure.

 

[PakaloloFromPNW]

Kewl, Im subbed in

Welcome, feel totally empowered to jump in with any post you want. All are welcome here and I enjoy outside input whether it's kudos or criticize me. I'm open minded and ready to learn.

 

[PakaloloFromPNW]

i like the mulch

I stole that idea from another organic grower. I mulch my vegetable garden and my soil was drying out on top. So timothy hay seemed like a good choice. I'll give a report on it later. I just applied it 2 days ago. I'm loving the smell in my flower area. It's an earthy just mowed lawn smell.

 

[yortbogey]

is that a stoney girl "pitbull"....???
had that clone last year it SUXed in the yield, and flavor department... culled it

U got any info on "mildred"....???

 

[PakaloloFromPNW]

is that a stoney girl "pitbull"....???
had that clone last year it SUXed in the yield, and flavor department... culled it

U got any info on "mildred"....???

I haven't got to smoke any Pitbull. My 80's grow friend (yet another story I'll relate later) was going it and I took a cutting from it. Yikes, more PM and mites to deal with but I got both eradicated and under control. He harvested on Friday night and was kind enough to give me a couple of branches to try. I'm curing it now.

I'll give you a report but it wasn't grown in organic soil. I had to watch them for 2 weeks while he was out of town so I treated them like I would an organic grow. I'll tell you more about this later.

Mildred, ah Mildred. I was told when I purchased her from the dispensary that the only back history was the strain came from a Mexican breeder who was telling his wife (the grow was in the basement) that he needed to check on Mildred. So that's all I know. Looking at the plant structure is looks like it's more indica than sitiva.

These are all new to me except PE and I've grown that about 3 times. PE is okay but not the couch lock I'm looking for. So this is my last go with her.

 

[PakaloloFromPNW]

So today I saw one of the Eminem clones was showing roots today. I clone in clear cups just so I can observe this.



I transplanted it into a 1 gallon pot of my soil mix. I dusted the roots with VAM. I then sprinkled some neem cake and covered it with EWC.

 

[PakaloloFromPNW]

My early 70's grow experience

My early 70's grow experience

So in the early 70's here in the PNW no one was growing or at least no one thought that anyone grew. I met my old grow buddy when I got of the army in 1969. Back in those days you purchased Mexican rag weed by kilos and then the kilos got broke down into lids which is what I bought. It had stems and seeds in it and the quality would be compost material now days. It's what it was.

My old grow buddy and I used to talk about growing our own. We had two different agendas though. He was into the production side of it and all I wanted was a reliable source of good quality marijuana. So we had a common goal but different interests. My grow buddy went and pursued his interest and sometimes I would help out on the harvest because he paid me with some of the cured product. He fulfilled his goal and I fulfilled mine. It worked out good for both of us.

One time I decided to take pictures. Now my old grow buddy is so stealthy there was no way he wanted to have his picture taken so he handled the camera. The seeds were from some of the best quality Mexican weed that could be found. These were sitivas and they grew about 10-12 feet tall.



So I got pictures developed and no one batted an eye when I picked them up. I'm sure they didn't recognize what was in the picture. This was on opening day of upland deer season. But that's another story of what excitement we had that day. I only helped with the bigger fields. This is what the field looked like down in the hidden valley.



Anyway that is how I learn to grow the herb, from my old grow buddy.

 

[PakaloloFromPNW]

Enough of the old days here is what I'm up to now. No stealth valley grows for me. These are 3 of my teenagers. This is in my organic soil and I'm loving the light green foliage these girls are putting out.

Mildred


Trainwreck 2


Chemdawg


Mildred and Trainwreck 2 are going into the flower area this weekend.

 

[PakaloloFromPNW]

Here is what the ladies looked like when I moved them into the flower area. This is the first day of 12/12.



They consented to a close up. This is 8 days later.

Pineapple Express


Pitbull


OG Kush


Trainwreck 1


They've really stretched out in the last 8 days. I get the next pictures this weekend.