Paradise Ice Cream / 250W MH

[Gelado`]

Lammy, I hear that can prevent air flow into the pot. I use Smartpots anyway, and I've seen the aphids crawl through the fibers, so that wouldn't work for me. The worm castings are great for the plants and are doing the trick, so I'll stick with them for a little while at least (I have 10 lbs on the way to me now)!

 

[Lammy]

I did not think about the airflow nor did I realize they could crawl through smart pots. it is beautiful though to see the white pot topped off with white sand and sitting on a white flood table.

I don't think I could even afford to go to worm castings route but what is it about that that works do you think? beneficial bacteria maybe if I just started running my bennies again.

 

[Gelado`]

White sand on white flood tables...kinda like being at the beach? hehe

That's a good question, Lammy, but I have no idea what it is in the worm castings that does the trick. Interestingly worm casting tea has proven to be beneficial for human skin conditions too. It appears there's a lot more to the black gold than is immediately apparent! The bennies may do the trick, and I'd give it a shot. Worm castings aren't expensive though (I paid $1 a lb, shipping included), and with a grow your size, it might be cheaper just to start a worm bin outside, which will cost you nothing but old newspaper and table scraps!

I'm still working my way through the plant I harvested around seven weeks ago...I jarred it a touch too wet, but not enough for mold growth. It smells like fresh organic mangoes today. I've been using a Moroccan pipe called a sebsi that takes very small amounts at time...perfect for one nice, cool hit before you repack. Perfect for smoking all day with a pot of Moroccan whiskey (Chinese gunpowder tea with peppermint leaves and lots of sugar) by your side!

 

[Gelado`]

So my first Ice Cream clone (which is in a Smartpot of its own now) is extremely vigorous and healthy--perhaps more so than the mother! It's growing very rapidly and has huge fan leaves. All of my other cuttings appear to have rooted and are slowly but surely putting out new leaves. I'll give them a few weeks to really get going before I transplant at least two of them into the five gallon Smartpot.

My little Skunk, however, seems to have slowed to a crawl. Hopefully it is expending energy putting out new roots...

My flowering auto seems to be flowering all over again, and foxtailing. Still 80% white pistils, and it's not as stinky or resinous as the other female I harvested just yet. Hopefully she does finish with a good resinous coat and strong aroma!

 

[Gelado`]

Harvested my last auto AK/Widow. It still had fresh pistils, but too many leaves were yellowing, and after 11.5 weeks of flowering, I decided it was time. She doesn't smell as strong as the other plants, and she isn't as sticky or resinous, but I think she'll be decent smoke, and she practically manicured herself!

Now the tent is all Ice Cream except for one skunk female. Repotting in a couple of weeks; I have six rooted clones, and once they are vegging vigorously, I'll transplant them into Smartpots.

 

[wildgrow]

Nice job, G. Some fresh bud is always nice.

 

[Gelado`]

Thanks WG, it's going to be good to switch light cycles on the other girls. The skunk is doing just fine again and is starting to speed up. I think the clones need another couple of weeks to really get vegging as they're just putting out new leaves now!

 

[Gelado`]

An ounce dry from that plant after removing large stems...not bad. I definitely have enough smoke to last me until the end of the year (and then some)! As for trimming dry...wow. I don't think I'll dry before trimming again. It's not easy working around the leaves after they shrink!

 

[Gelado`]

Just hacked over a foot of growth off of my Ice Cream mom. She was getting too tall again. The pile of tops looks bigger than the plant itself, but I know she'll bounce back in no time! All of the clones are vegging along and should be ready for transplant in about ten days I think. Then two to three weeks of veg time and they'll all be ready to flower!

I wish I could make clones with all of the healthy branches I hacked off, but I'd have nowhere to flower them! Growing from clone sure is efficient!

 

[Gelado`]

Everything is doing beautifully! The worm compost I was originally using appears to have had quite a few springtail eggs in it. I watered with the pure castings I just got in and they jumped ship. I killed about 100-150 of them by hand yesterday.

The clones are ready to transplant too. I just need to reamend the five gallon Smartpot and I think I'll stick four clones in there, and switch cycles in two days. The plants will be small, but should finish small. Everything else is around a foot tall now. Now that I have my pH locked in and know how to use my organic amendments a little better, I expect a much better yield.

 

[944s2]

An ounce dry from that plant after removing large stems...not bad. I definitely have enough smoke to last me until the end of the year (and then some)! As for trimming dry...wow. I don't think I'll dry before trimming again. It's not easy working around the leaves after they shrink!

yeah,,gelado,,trimming dry is a nightmare and takes ages,,how about the little sugar leaves that "cup" around the buds like a closed fist!,,,so labour intensive,,,keep well,,,,peace and regards s2

 

[Gelado`]

Cheers S2, I'm not even going to bother trimming those buds!

 

[944s2]

Cheers S2, I'm not even going to bother trimming those buds!

of course gelado,,,the thought of that trimming session when left it all to dry before i started,still sends shivers down my spine lol,,,s2

 

[Gelado`]

My Ice Cream mom! She was over two feet tall, so I cut her down to a foot. She's put on 2" in the last week and is ready to take off again!

Tall Ice Cream clone. Around 13".

Two little Ice Cream clones. The little tiny one will be removed.

Three freshly transplanted Ice Cream girls. The taller ones have been vegging very rapidly, perhaps due to an application of alfalfa meal that I watered into the plastic cups they were vegging in. I think two of them were a little too dry to transplant, so I watered them well after moving them into the 5g bag. Hopefully it doesn't stress them out too badly.

My skunk fem. She was not doing well in the old potting soil, and then the stem snapped. I let her reveg a little, and then transplanted her into the old soil cut with 50% coco + 5% perlite. She's doing much, much better now! She had barely any roots when I transplanted her. Around 11" tall with nice, long leaves!

I will probably flip the switch in a week. I want the new clones to take off like the older plants before I stress them with a cycle change! The way they're growing, I may have to tie them apart to give them more light.

 

[wildgrow]

They look great! You must really love the ice cream smoke. Any plans to try some other strains?

 

[Gelado`]

Thanks WG! I haven't harvested an Ice Cream yet! These are all clones from one plant, so hopefully it's a female, and a good one!

After this run I'll run something else; maybe another Paradise strain or something from Mandala. I don't know just yet. If the Ice Cream and Skunk phenos are good, I'll reveg in case I want to run them again in future.

Well, I switched to 12/12 today. Hopefully the new clones keep on keeping on. They're all praying for the light, so they look to be doing very well! Once I see preflowers I'll start running the HPS. Right now it's just 130W CFL and approximately 90W of LED.

 

[944s2]

gelado,,keep an "eye out! for the big girl,,a few of us have had that pheno and you will know her when she her,,great producer,,,s2

 

[Gelado`]

Good stuff, my pots and space are limited, but this pheno appears very vigorous. I wish I could let her go full-size in a five gallon!

 

[Gelado`]

Added a HEPA/carbon filter sheet to my intake. Everything is growing nicely. I just turned the halide on to take them through the stretch!

 

[Gelado`]

After a good cure, the nugs from the AK/Widow plant with the bad curl taste much better and cleaner than the White Widow I had in Amsterdam. It smokes extremely smooth too...I don't feel the smoke going down. +1 for light organic feeding.

Group shot from just now: they're doing great. No organic grower should ever grow without worm castings! I watered in enzymes, castings and neem oil today, along with 1ml of Plagron Alga Grow per liter.

All Ice Cream except for the plant on the bottom left (feminized skunk).