Paradise Ice Cream / 250W MH

[Gelado`]

Thanks, I think the skunk does have a good yield in its future, and I'm glad I took clones! I don't like the smell of it all that much though. It smells...old? Like bud that's not happy and has been sitting in a jar for two years or something. Hopefully that changes as it progresses.

I am out of town in two weeks. Doesn't look like they'll be done then. It'll be two weeks before I get back, so I'll really need to ensure those Fauxmats work properly by testing them before I leave, or I'm going to come back to buds that have dried under the HPS!

Hopefully the loss of yield isn't that major. They seem to be very happy that I'm back, and I gave them a good feed yesterday:

Worm castings, diastatic malt, compost with bennies/trichoderma/etc (picked up out of town for $1 a lb), high P Indo guano, finely ground hops, brown sugar and then watered in aza and unsulphured organic blackstrap molasses. That should get them going! I think I'll water in the ol' Plagron Alga Bloom with the next watering.

 

[Gelado`]

Much better weather now; I can switch off the air conditioner for a while and let some fresh air in. Lower temps and humidity and fresh air = happier plants. Everything is gaining mass fast, and the Ice Creams are getting frosty. I moved the light back down a little since they are really getting their bud on now. I don't know if I'll hit 0.5g/W, but even if I get close, I'll be happy considering I am only using half of the available space in the tent!

 

[944s2]

Much better weather now; I can switch off the air conditioner for a while and let some fresh air in. Lower temps and humidity and fresh air = happier plants. Everything is gaining mass fast, and the Ice Creams are getting frosty. I moved the light back down a little since they are really getting their bud on now. I don't know if I'll hit 0.5g/W, but even if I get close, I'll be happy considering I am only using half of the available space in the tent!

nice one gelado,,them ice cream love plenty of light but not heat so with lower temps they will thrive and produce plenty,,s2

 

[Gelado`]

Still running on fresh air and loving it! It looks like 4/5 of my cuttings have rooted. #5 looks healthy, but has no roots yet. You never know though. Not a bad strike rate considering I don't use any rooting hormone, just my own saliva right after cutting and worm castings in the seed starting mix. I am going to grow while it's cooler and then probably take the tent down when it warms up so I can save on power. I should have enough smoke to take me into 2015 (fingers crossed)!

The unsulphured blackstrap molasses I got are good stuff. I've been drinking some every day and it tastes great (to me). I also found out it has a repellent effect on bugs. EWC and molasses alone keep things in check. Gotta love organic growing. Nature really has everything you need!

 

[Gelado`]

Wow, the plants are drinking up a lot more water without the air conditioning; temps are much higher without it on (but not too high). I just gave them a gallon and I think they can use another couple of quarts, easy. Got some work to do, but when I get done I'll work in some good amendments, water them through, and then hook up the Blumats to make sure they're working correctly before I leave. I have a little over a week. Everything is fattening up and a few of the bottom leaves are yellowing and dropping off on all of the girls. The skunk has recovered from the clipping and the new pistils and leaves have already passed the snipping point and are on their way up!

The aphid population appears to be way down. More EWC, hops, aza, molasses, high P guano, quality compost, brown sugar, azomite and sea minerals for all of 'em today! Maybe a few more goodies depending on my mood.

I've noticed the level of my medium is dropping quickly in all of the Smartpots. I attribute this to a healthy microbial herd! I'll have to add more medium to each of the pots before my next run.

EDIT: I ended up feeding them Plagron Alga Bloom and Plagron neem oil. I hooked up a total of six Fauxmat Jrs; the biggest plants got two each from a single quart bottle for each plant. I decided to use two per bottle in case one of the drippers fails. With two, my plants are much more likely to stay hydrated!

I'm going to squeeze in a few more bottles to ensure all my girls have enough water during my absence. The issue with the dripper last time was that I didn't get it thoroughly saturated, so the water dripped out without the requisite pressure remaining to keep the water running up the pipe. Lesson learned!

I think I bought 20 or so Jrs (they were cheap), so I may use up to three per plant. They are really getting stinky, and fattening up every day! Watering them all thoroughly really got that aroma flowing...whew! They smell more like a standard good Dutch indica at this point, but let's see if that changes. Either way I think it's going to be good smoke!

 

[Gelado`]

All the Fauxmats are doing their job and the plants REEK. They're fattening and frosting up well. my biggest Ice Cream girl had some heat burn on the topmost leaves today, so I moved my lights up 4". The skunk had a touch of leaf burn too. I have my scrubber on max now; when I came in today I could smell a hint of greenery right from the front door. The Fauxmats appear to keep the soil nice and moist, which makes the plants REEK. From now on, when growing in Smartpots, I'm going to keep the drippers connected and bottles full because it makes watering much easier and less messy (Smartpots let little streams form when the medium is dry, which makes water go everywhere).

The Ice Cream still smells like good, funky indica. Not garlicky like some Afghanis, but definitely nothing sweet. It is, however, a very potent and sexy smelling aroma.

The skunk's aroma, on the other hand, is much sweeter and fruitier. I don't know if this Ice Cream pheno is for me as it doesn't appear to be as much of a yielder and it doesn't have the sweetness. What it does have, already, is lots of frostiness. The proof is in the pot (forgive the pun lol), so let's see how they smoke when they're done! It looks like I'll need several more bottles to keep the girls hydrated as they are very thirsty indeed, and two weeks away is going to mean they need at least a gallon each at the rate they're drinking!

 

[Gelado`]

OK, this thread needs pics. The plants are filling out beautifully. My scrubber is NOT keeping up with the odor. I need to keep the room cooler and dryer and get myself a proper scrubber because this cheap one is simply not doing its job. As soon as I walk in the front door I get a whiff of that skunky funk. I want to buy a proper scrubber, but don't have time to get one before I leave. FML. I'm not sure how to keep the stank under control now...

The autoflowering AK/Widow (White Russian I guess) is amazing after a two month cure. The potency absolutely puts my dick in the dirt. It's up there with the most potent stuff I've ever smoked, especially from one of the plants. The thing about autos though is you can't clone good phenos, so once they're done they're done. Sucks to lose a pheno that has it all; yield, taste, a good high and potency!

 

[smak]

OK, this thread needs pics. The plants are filling out beautifully. My scrubber is NOT keeping up with the odor. I need to keep the room cooler and dryer and get myself a proper scrubber because this cheap one is simply not doing its job. As soon as I walk in the front door I get a whiff of that skunky funk. I want to buy a proper scrubber, but don't have time to get one before I leave. FML. I'm not sure how to keep the stank under control now...

same thing with smell in my place.

my diy carbon filter is not working..need to buy one

 

[Gelado`]

I have a professionally-made one and it still isn't doing enough...

EDIT: It is now. I had a fan blowing on the tent and apparently that was enough to get the odor blowing. Switched the fan off and everything is fine now. I'm going to vacuum my filters on both the intake and scrubber, as well as my air conditioner, to get everything breathing nicely again.

 

[Gelado`]

40 days since flip...up to 30 to go!

My Ice Cream mom...she's been cut back so many times!

The top on my Skunk #1:

One of the branches on my largest Ice Cream girl. She's branchy!

My smallest Ice Cream girl: only 14-15" tall. This is the top bud

 

[wildgrow]

Nice job man! Pics are good. M'kay?

 

[Gelado`]

Yes Mr Mackey.

 

[Gelado`]

The girls are doing just fine and continuing to fatten up and fill out. I realize now I can't miss applications of castings or the aphids start increasing in number. Molasses is apparently good for keeping their numbers down too! The skunk looks like it will need 2 weeks longer than the Ice Creams, which may not be done in two weeks by the looks of things. The skunk looks like it's going to give me a fat foot-long cola and lots of popcorn. Still lots of fresh pistils all over all of the plants. Even if I only yield 3-4 oz, I'll be happy since it all looks like it's going to be good smoke.

 

[Gelado`]

OK, my filter is not working worth a damn and it frigging reeks to high heaven, and the girls still have a ways to go. I have a Rhino filter on the way and possibly a Mountain Air too. It smelled so bad yesterday that one of my neighbor's gave me a nasty look. For now I'm using essential oils and keeping a window cracked.

Moral of the story--don't use cheap carbon filters!

I'm out of here tomorrow. I considered harvesting early, but that would be a shame. I have the Blumats set up on my two big, thirsty girls and everything got a thorough watering. It's about to get really stinky, I can feel it.

 

[Gelado`]

Switched off my intake, set the exhaust to 25% and turned up the aircon; no smell at all outside my door. Go figure? Either the plants aren't as funky as they were before watering or I had the fan set too high/positive pressure. Either way, it's a lot less funky now. Hopefully the new scrubber will work better. Maybe this one's clogged up.

Everything got hit with a nice, fat dose of worm castings and the good compost I picked up out of town, as well as molasses and lots of neem.

 

[Gelado`]

A bit stinky today, but not offensively so...just a hint of sweetness. Could be air freshener or something. Definitely stinky IN the tent though! Can't wait for my new scrubber!

 

[Gelado`]

New scrubber came in, but ironically the smell outside my tent has dropped drastically....

 

[Gelado`]

In the process of hooking up the MountainAir, I moved my Skunk out of the tent so I could have better access to the scrubber and fan. Well, I managed to drop the fan on the Skunk outside the tent and the largest branch snapped off. It's still got several weeks, but I manicured it up anyway and it smells great! Very wholesome; I can't explain it. It just has a full, fruity, almost vitamin-like aroma to it. Very sweet too, like a pure sativa. Looking forward to smoking it! I estimate 4-5g dry from the branch.

The new scrubber is working a treat. It's much bigger than the old one and cannot be connected directly to my fan, so I had to use more ducting. At the same fan speed as before, I have SERIOUS negative pressure, and the MountainAir is much heavier than my old cheapie. My entire room smells fresh (like mountain air...lol). Not a trace of odor outside the tent. I'm going to wash the old cheapie anyway and save it for the future; it may come in useful during veg. I can use the cheapie early on when things aren't too bad and then switch over to the MountainAir when things get stinky!

 

[Tonygreen]

Watch out for VPD with alot of neg pressure B.

 

[Tonygreen]

Good read https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?threadid=153547

Rock on