Zen Blend 2010

[Zen Master]

So this is my Zen Blend for 2010

got some good genetics in line for this year, should be a fun ride.

I'm into the organics, I know some people debate if Pure Blend Pro is organic or not, but its a helluva lot more organic than GH. Plus its easy and hard to mess your plants up! Always nice when you're constantly expanding your garden.

Got these beauties in a 50/50 mix of coco and perlite in some 2 gallon smart pots using the botanicare line, minimal use of supplements, got some blackstrap molasses and so far.... some great growth. I really like ebb/flow with these pots and this light media mix, it seems to work very well and with uniform watering.

Starting out, most of these are mothers that are under T5 fluoros and put out some gorgeous growth. Later on we'll get to the Zen Garden .

on with the show, lets see some pix!


heres a shot of my moms from a few weeks ago. I don't have detail pix of all of these strains yet, but will add some more pix as we go along here. Got over 30 different strains in this shot

Theres a 600w halide over the 3'x3' table on the left and 324 watts of T5 over the 2'x4' table on the right.







First up the some of the kushs and OG's. Everyone loves a good OG or Kush



Chem Valley Kush (Chem D x SFV OG)
crazy dense internodes, branches out and responds extremely well to topping, would be great in a ScrOG.

same plant lower angle





Next up one that looks very promising


Lemon Kush (orgnkid cut)
Extremely quick grower, thick and strong, looks amazing.

very dense internodes, very thick strong stems.







Larry OG Kush
roots fairly quickly, crazy vigor. At 1 month of veg from clone, I get an around an inch of growth per day under t5 fluorescents without c02.






Sour OG
this plant looks like it's gonna do amazing in a sea of green with a short veg. Very quick to respond to topping with sturdy side branches.






Soul Assassin Crew #2 OG Kush
great vigor and compact growth with lots of branching.

same plant lower angle, very dense growth, great for SOG.



Valley OG Kush
slow rooter, but worth it.
stretchier, yet vigorous.






Platinum OG
(OG Kush x Afghani)
great side development, full tops with nodes all the way up after a good topping.

(OG x Master Kush) x Skywalker
crazy vigorous with gorgeous sativa influence in the mature leafs.




Hells Angel OG Kush
yet to bloom this one, supposedly good yielder. Responds very well to topping, stretchy, seems like it would do great in a scrog.









Chem 4
so far this plant is blowing away my other chemdawg cut in veg strength and sturdiness. Looks to be a real winner, we'll see soon.


same plant top shot



Chem 4 in my Zen Garden





Chemdawg
I dont know exactly what cut this is. It was purported to be Chem D, however doesn't have TMV nor the stink you expect from D. This plant yields well with gorgeous colas, not the most dense flowers, however incredibly sticky with a chem/og lemony/diesely funk to her. Whatever cut of chemdawg this is, its very very potent and I'm looking forward to doing a side by side comparison with the Chem 4.




A good Zen Master tries to bring peace into their life in many ways, growing good organic herbs and produce is one of them for me.

some fresh and crispy organic radishes to toss in an afternoon salad



I'll have to get some better pictures of my other genetics, got a couple more Kush's and a whole bunch of other great strains just waiting to strike a pose.




We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves - Buddha

​

 

[~Shhh~]

Wow dude! Do you think you could find any other OG's lol! Damn fine strain list! I'm about a jealous as Cinderella fat ole ugly sister was...

Can't wait to see what the 'Zen Garden' is looking like

 

[whadeezlrg]

lookin good

 

[Zen Master]

Wow dude! Do you think you could find any other OG's lol! Damn fine strain list! I'm about a jealous as Cinderella fat ole ugly sister was...

Can't wait to see what the 'Zen Garden' is looking like

Hey thanks for stoppin by and checkin it out

speaking of ole Cinderella, I've got two different phenos of her

got the pineapple C99, the one everybody loves, awesome growth. Dont have this one out blooming right now though.

and then a chunkier pheno that has an intense sweet smell with hints of grape and berry. I've got one of these, two actually, finishing up a spring bloom run, I dont have any recent pix but I'll be getting those shortly, at about 4 1/2 weeks into 12/12 the chunky c99 looks like I could harvest now and have a decent smoke, infact I did sample the trimmings I took off when thinning the growth and suprisingly at less than 30 days worth of growth, small little popcorn fluff got me nice n medicated, no cure even .

I've got a wholeeeee lot of this chunky C99 in the Zen Garden, should get some nice lookin buds fresh at the start of summer.

Theres still Cataract Kush, 619 Master Kush, Diablo OG Kush, and Rascal OG (Fire OG x SFV OG) however I still have to take them out and give em a trimming after the photo shoot, dont have any room yet!

 

[Zen Master]

Heres the indica pheno of c99 I've got goin on.

both of these are from week 5, some frosty popcorn and then some nice colors coming on in the other shot.

 

[playboy420]

Hey Zen thanks for posting on my thread, and may I say beautiful buds

In the first post you had a picture of a 600 mh and t5 in veg, both groups looked really healthy and full. Do you see any advantage to on light over the other?

 

[Zen Master]

Hey Zen thanks for posting on my thread, and may I say beautiful buds

In the first post you had a picture of a 600 mh and t5 in veg, both groups looked really healthy and full. Do you see any advantage to on light over the other?

the only real difference I notice between the two tables... is the amount of electricity they use

well at least in regards to plant growth and structure. I can fit a teeny bit more under the 600 than the T5. 16 2 gallon smart pots and 15 2 gallon smart pots, respectively.

however the T5 pulls only 324w of power (6 bulb, want to upgrade to 8 bulb shortly). It covers a 2x4 table very well, however an 8 bulb would be primo.

so ideally (with the 8 bulb) I'd have 432w of T5 over the 2x4 (8 sq feet) instead of 600w over the 3x3 (9 sq feet).

The difference in growth structure is minimal, infact I think the T5 actually puts out MORE growth.

I'd like to get all my mothers on 2x4 tables with 8 bulb T5's over them. I would need three tables for all my genetics (saying I space em out a little more than currently, its gettin a little crowded in there). So it would end up being 1296watts over 24 total sq feet of garden (54w per sq ft). As of right now I've got 924watts over 17 sq feet (54 w per sq ft).

with the T5's though I get perfectly even coverage over every inch of canopy, with the 600 I get a hotspot in the middle and diminished lumens near the edges. Its defnitely noticable in the growth on the plants near the edges of my table, this is usually where I put my stretchier or more productful mothers so as to even everything out.



both the 600 and t5 produce excellent growth for cloning, if I were to be vegging this growth for an eventual bloom (versus for cloning as they are now), I'd switch to a 1000w to get some denser internodal lengths so I could fit more tops and budsites into a smaller plant.

 

[playboy420]

the only real difference I notice between the two tables... is the amount of electricity they use

well at least in regards to plant growth and structure. I can fit a teeny bit more under the 600 than the T5. 16 2 gallon smart pots and 15 2 gallon smart pots, respectively.

however the T5 pulls only 324w of power (6 bulb, want to upgrade to 8 bulb shortly). It covers a 2x4 table very well, however an 8 bulb would be primo.

so ideally (with the 8 bulb) I'd have 432w of T5 over the 2x4 (8 sq feet) instead of 600w over the 3x3 (9 sq feet).

The difference in growth structure is minimal, infact I think the T5 actually puts out MORE growth.

I'd like to get all my mothers on 2x4 tables with 8 bulb T5's over them. I would need three tables for all my genetics (saying I space em out a little more than currently, its gettin a little crowded in there). So it would end up being 1296watts over 24 total sq feet of garden (54w per sq ft). As of right now I've got 924watts over 17 sq feet (54 w per sq ft).

with the T5's though I get perfectly even coverage over every inch of canopy, with the 600 I get a hotspot in the middle and diminished lumens near the edges. Its defnitely noticable in the growth on the plants near the edges of my table, this is usually where I put my stretchier or more productful mothers so as to even everything out.



both the 600 and t5 produce excellent growth for cloning, if I were to be vegging this growth for an eventual bloom (versus for cloning as they are now), I'd switch to a 1000w to get some denser internodal lengths so I could fit more tops and budsites into a smaller plant.

Great answer! But wouldnt going to the 1000w just make a bigger hot spot? If you rotated each plant 90 degrees every day you could avoid the hot spot in the middle and get even growth. At least makes sense in my head

And with the 1000w you'd be even further away from the plants than the 600 wouldn't you? Doesn't that equal stretch? Or I guess the light is more intense from the 1000..I'm just confused when you said you would switch to 1000 to get denser internodal lengths. I would think the distance between nodes would be greater the farther away the light is..

Can you tell Ive never used a 1000w lol

 

[Zen Master]

I used to have a 1000 watter over that 3x3 table. When that was the case, I got reallllly fast growth and it was nice n dense. I use good airflow so my temps aren't too bad, just gotta worry about being close enough to burn/light bleach. I keep it a little over a foot away or so.

The growth under a 1000 is far denser than the 600 just because of the intensity its putting out, and yeah its even moreso of a hotspot than the 600, but I mean that in regards to lumen intensity.

which is also why I want a light mover

I do move plants around after I take cuttings, so usually the plants getting the best light get trimmed up and moved so another plant can get that intense growth.

 

[Zen Master]

Okay now that were underway here its starting to look good


here we are a while back Zen Garden 2010, empty and ready to go.

This is gonna be light depped outdoor hydro (mostly organic: PBP grow/bloom, hydroplex, blackstrap molasses and Cal Mag) with 2 gallon smart pots. No big huge trees, rather an outdoor ScrOG with some fresh summer buds in mind.


So I've got these strains flowering out in the Zen Garden now:

Green Crack

Salmon Creek Big Bud

ET (unknown strain, was supposed to be Trainwreck however looks nothing like my real deal Arcata Trainwreck I've got, so I just went with some initials that are relative to the strain for one reason or another )

C99 (chunky berry pheno)

Grape Ape

Madness

Shit (Mr. Nice Guy)

Grape Romulan

Critical Mass

Lemon Kush (orgnkid cut)

Chem 4

'Chemdawg' (unknown which cut)



Most of these first shots are from the first day they were in the garden I believe. Yes now I'm sure of it, see the beer? gloves, shovels, lots of sun, bud and brews, what a day it was.

Green Crack on the end followed by SCBB and ET, then C99's from then on.

and heres the c99's in place under the screen (hole size on that screen is 2"x4" incase anyone was curious, pretty cheap at Home DePot, just make sure you aren't wearing a nice shirt when you cut the stuff to size)

you'll see I've got mostly smart pots, however am trying out a few small square plastic pots as well, just a small side by side for comparison of buds.

here's the chem 4, one of the sturdiest growing strains I've got for sure.

Ready to rock and roll 2010

 

[mg75]

WOW

amazing

 

[CharlesSprkleaf]

word Zen... hook it up...

 

[PsychoHipE]

Awesome! I just found some Chem 4 clones (from Colorado Alternative Medicine) that are doing beautifully in coco under cool white fluoros w/ Canna A+B. I just started growing it, but it's performing quite nicely; dense, lush, healthy growth. And if the buds turn out anything like what CAM had: holy crap!

Absolutely stunning grow there, I'd be happy with any one of those strains.

 

[Zen Master]

so what I did was hang a CFL in there and just put it on a simple timer. I let em veg out for just a couple weeks, using the sunlight for about 90% of the growth and using the CFL to retain the vegetative photoperiods I wanted.

I also had some extra clones I decided to flower out.

Strains in cups are

G13

J1 (Jack herer x Skunk) smells like green gatorade, Mmmm

Grape Ape

Afghani #1

'Chemdawg'

C99 (same pheno, just one to test it out)

Shit



heres the Green Crack from about 10 days in 12/12

and heres some pix from a couple days ago. Lookin better and better by the day.


Green Crack, day 27 12/12

heres the main cola, lookin good for day 27

GC colas filling in quick

heres a closeup, only day 27! and they look even better now, every day brings more growth

another cola

Heres the Salmon Creek Big Bud at about 10 days of 12/12
doesn't seem very full yet

but then heres the Salmon Creek Big Bud just starting to really develop now at day 27

morning colas

heres the 'Shits' one morning, I like this shot, what you don't see was the cup of joe and bowl of herb sitting right next to me, my favorite way to wake up in the morning.

s'more 'Shit'

day 10

heres some Grape Romulan
slower starter, but just wait n see

10 days

Chem 4 10 days 12/12

Lemon Kush 10 days (see my CFL rig still in there?)

heres the C99 and cups about 10 days in

filling in

now heres some C99 cola shots from day 27

this is one from a square pot

heres a smart pot C99

day 27 frost

Lemon Kush (orgnkid cut)

day 27

Lemon Kush cola, these things get bigger every day

Grape Ape 27 days

 

[Zen Master]

Critical Mass 27 days 12/12

Chemdawg

Chem 4 day 27 12/12, nice n perky, they seemed a bit slower to start (minimally so) than the 'chemdawg', but since then have surpassed them in size

This Grape Romulan is looking to be quite nice

check out the pink hairs, day 27 frost

Heres the G13 in the cups, nice colors, smaller dense nuggets lining a spear of a stem to a decent lil cola, hey they were extra, its all groovy.

and one of my newfound strains to covet, J1, I really enjoy this strain, awesome daytime smoke with a smell that keeps you huffing the jar like a glue addict. Think sweet green Gatorade limeyness.

Well thats all for now, I'll be updating more frequently as the development in a matter of days is quite nice. Thanks for checkin it out.


The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he is always doing both

 

[trichosaurus]

Incredible strain selection there ZM.
They all look immaculate. And the plants in the cups are darling!
Fine work mate.

 

[F_T_P!]

I love this grow, great work Zen.

 

[Zen Master]

Incredible strain selection there ZM.
They all look immaculate. And the plants in the cups are darling!
Fine work mate.

Thanks for stoppin by everyone!

Being honest with myself, I was slacking and didnt pick up my Cal Mag soon enough, I thought I could test the waters with my tap (pretty good quality) and just using the blackstrap to supplement the cal.

nope, not enough

especially for the Shit and Critical Mass, they both started to show a bit of calcium deficiency but as soon as I added a lil cal mag+ into the mix, the green-but-light-green leafs turned into lush healthy green, not over ferted with N, but an overall healthier look in my opinion.



The cups were possibly going to a friend, but upon enough time elapsing, I said, hey I've got 28 holes in my cinder blocks, for every gram average on these plants, thats an ounce. Then I knew I was keeping all those cups right there



Using the CFL to retain photoperiod, what ended up happening was that it would come on at 2 am till sunrise, keeping everything in there vegging, worked out beautifully, if I were to re do it, I'd get more directional lighting and aim, the LED wall wash landscaping lights at home depot (<20 watts too!) would be PERFECT, plus you can string those on outdoor wiring with no worries of shorting or burning anything out, plus its not too expensive, about $30 or so(not including the master timer box). oh oh oh, plus the timer has a photocell so you could easily set it to have lights on for an extra 4 6 or 8 hrs after sundown, or any setting you want really.


So far I'm really liking the outdoor hydro ScrOG.

I definitely notice that the hard square pots have what seems like faster development, especially on the frost levels. The smart pots are catching up very quick and may surpass them in size, we'll see.


depending on how well this crops out, it'll hopefully lead to my next indoor adventure, some doubleD krusty tubs with more overkill than the ones you are seeing now, and a hidden secret idea that I think will push the system over the top, even past the yields its at right now. hehe, this is a ways away though, so its keeping me motivated.


next strains I'm gonna run are going to be a mix of OG's, some Alien gear, and The White. That'll be exciting.

 

[gaiusmarius]

wow, awesome thread, loving it! growing with the sun is always cool.

 

[Zen Master]

wow, awesome thread, loving it! growing with the sun is always cool.

I genuinely believe the spectrum makes better buds, sunlight has great PAR, its debatable which HID bulb is better though.

its also a cost factor, I can spend a few hundred on supplies and light dep a decent sized greenhouse (home made style with PVC and poly), or spend more than a few hundred and flower half as much indoors. However was lacking on indoor floorspace so thats another factor.


All in all I'm enjoying bigger scale outdoor gardening, plus standing in that greenhouse diffuses light, I can vouch it lets in plenty of UV as my tan is getting nicer and nicer as the buds mature