Karma Rado Biker + PUS Wedding Cake x White Widow 2021 Grow

Weed Journal 2021 - TEN YEARS ON ICMAG [with a gap or two]

Strains:
2x People Under the Stairs Wedding Cake x Black Widow Freebie [WCBW]
4x Karma Genetics Rado Biker [RB]



Medium:
Coco with perlite and rockwool pieces
Rooted in 1" rockwood cubes

Lights:
4x LED CXB3590 REALSTYLES Built myself via the tutorial link
18/6 light period

nutes:
Canna Coco
CalMag+

pest control:
Monterrey BT (fungus gnats)
Agromagen Growsafe (pm, spider mites)

Ordered from Real Gorilla Seeds, took 6 days to ship.

The WCWW grew uniformly from seed. The RBs had a wider range, with #4 taking eight days longer to show a taproot.

I did have some damping off issues, most notably with RB #3. It was due to the cold temps and lingering fungus gnats, with spread the damping off disease. All have recovered and have nice fuzzy white roots.

I used Monterrey BT to get the gnats under control from my previous grow. From Hammerhead, every watering rake/stir the top of the medium to damage eggs and keep the top dry, as fungus gnats are surface breeders.

Instead of hand watering I'm going to do a drain to waste system. I already have most of the equipment around (See my "1st Hydro - NFT Rock Star Kush 600w LED thread") so I just need to figure out if I need to buy a drain table, or go 'almost zero drain to waste' and use my cheap trays.

DTW should help my yields, and also take care of business for when I'm out of town.

It's also been a long time since I've dropped serious coin on a weed seed purchase ($90 USD for the rado biker) so I'm really looking forward to some nice buds in a few months.

Current situation:

I'll divide the plants into rounds based on size. Round 1 = both the WWxWC and R#1. All round ones have been topped once, and the main stem bent 85 degrees.

Round 2 = All the rest

Plant Notes:

BWxWC#1: Fantastic.
BWxWC#2: Also great. Everything I could hope for in a vegging plant, both have responded well to topping.

RB#1 Biggest of the lot. Big fat indica leaves.
RB#2 Weakest of the lot. Exhibited severe leaf clawing and poor root development. She's the canary in the coal mine - I watered with plain h2o and she recovered a bit. Since transplanting to the 16oz cup her roots have exploded
RB#3 Not that remarkable. Lowest side shoot growth
RB#4 The was the slowest to develop of the group, about a week slower, but has overtaken both #2 and #3 and is almost as big as #1

Overall the RB group was not doing well, so I decided to test the runoff. RB #1's runoff was over 900 ppm!

Well, dang! I did switch coco brands and I didn't flush. Just didn't come to mind. I flushed all 6 plants to the point where the runoff was under 200ppm.

Interesting how the BWxWCs loved the hot mix, while the RBs exhibited a range of reactions. You'll see the RB are still a bit neon green.

Here's the gang:

and a front recliner for me

10 DAY LATER

I've determined the RB plants issue was lack of calmag, with the help of the icmag infirmary.

The thorough flushing definitely shocked them a bit. A few days after that I doubled my calmag from 2ml to 4ml, and the plants showed improvement.

Both WCxBW plants have healthy white roots coming out of the bottom of the pot. Others not as much, probably because i had them in the black tray instead of water dishes.

Almost tempted to put the WCxBW on top of a bucket and go coco/hydro combo!

13 DAYS LATER

Have a confirmed female, yay! WCxBW #1.

This one took really well to topping and training. I'll take cuts and should probably put her into flower soon, as her nodes are 2-3" long and have a feeling she's going to be a stretchy one. She's about 1.5" tall now.

Both WCxBW are female!

I've moved three of the RadoBikers into the 2nd grow tent. The main tent now has both wedding cake x black widows, and the most vigorous radobiker.

I've also decided to mix up a separate nute solution for the WCxBW as they preferred the hot mix and are currently a bit light in leaf color. Going with about 30ml of nutes as opposed to 20ml for the other guys.

Those WC x BW should be really interesting plants. Cool thread!

day 45 from seed

day 45 from seed

Going to take 3 cuts each off the wc x bw. I've moved the rado bikers to the other tent, so both girls have plenty of room to stretch out.

Both girls took great to training, with all the stems forming a pretty even canopy. I've snipped a handful of fan leaves to ensure they get exposure to light. If a stem is shaded by a fan leaf, it usually won't go far.

Here they are:





This is the rado biker tent. Both the plants on the left are male. The bush on the bottom right is most likely female, which would be fantastic as she's clearly the most vigorous of the lot.



I'm probably going to compost both males, and switch the cake widows to 12/12 tomorrow.

Rado Biker nute details: Coco
450 EC nute solution + 8ml / gallon calmag (4ml for a two-quart bottle)

99% sure this RB bush is female! She's RB#1 for reference.

That' s a good grow here !!!


and i like how you documentate it

Thanks Bibi!

These reports are meant to be a resource for all. It's crazy to see my reports from ten years ago... if I didn't post them here, then their memory and knowledge would've been lost forever!

Particularly when it comes to plants without a lot of info available, posting the info about my experience with growing them, problems with nutes etc, should hopefully help people!

Including myself in 5 years! I hope ICMAG goes for another 10, 20 years! If nothing else, by then the hosting costs should be trivial. Heh

The plants have gone to sleep, so should I!

Hi wooly,

Thanks for sharing your grow with us! I like the with notations on the pics you add, very slick. Looking forward to tagging along!

Unfortunately there's a chance all four rado bikers are male! What luck!

I looked up how much I paid for my LED parts I bought 4 or 5 years ago. I wonder how much they'd go for now?

CREE CXB3590 3500K, CD 36V, 80RA
8 $43.50
MW LED driver HLG-185H-C1400A
2 $47.50
Ideal holder 50-2303CR
8 $2.75

plus $50 shipping, $540 total from kingbrite.

I think the heat sinks were around $42, so a total of around $650 for the two LED lights. I wonder what the current ali baba king brite equivalent would be?

Time for a change in plans!

As none of the rado bikers are displaying female sexual characteristics such as pistils, the whole tent may need to go. I'll give them one week.

(note this isn't the first time. a number of years ago when i ran medman genetics, i got a good 7/10 males I believe)

What is the plan, then? My dreams of sweet OG Smoke are turning into... smoke!

PLAN A
- Germinate 4 more rado biker seeds

PLAN B
- Buy a 3-pack of Ace Seeds Honduras x Panama fem seeds and grow one out in my hydro tub setup from 2015 12/12 from seed

Which will I choose?!?!? Well, I did buy the 3-pack on an impulse buy, and my last order took 6 days to ship. We may see how potent jungle trip weed works with my brain chemistry!

p.s. I use a website called photopea dot com to edit my photos. Its free online photoshop.

DAY 12 OF FLOWER (Week 1.5)

DAY 12 OF FLOWER (Week 1.5)

The plants have grown by a 1/3rd+ Have only done some token defoliation, the structure is open on these.

I've also removed the shoots from the bottom 3-4 nodes. If they keep stretching, I may remove more of the bottom fluff.

#1 is drinking about 1.5-2x as much as #2. To keep the canopy even, i've used green wire to space out the shoots. I also rotate the plants position once a week.



Have not seen many fungus gnats. One or two will pop us when I rake the dirt, but I think I can consider them under control.

I'm still spraying with Growsafe 1x per week. Will stop pretty soon, I'm thinking? I forget how long its safe to use it.

DAY 17 TEXT UPDATE
(typed from my laptop right next to the grow tent)

#1 is a few inches taller, and the leaves are a darker green than #2.

Not sure what that means. Perhaps #2 can handle more nutes, despite the fact she drinks less?

I'll have to make a note of my exact nute levels!

In addition to taking 3 cuts of each in rockwool, for the 1st round, i took a couple of cuts of each and put them in small clear plastic cups with perlite. Kind of as a back-up plan and experiment. I've rooted clones in plain water and perlite in the past.

As of day 17, two of #1 and one #2 cup clone displayed roots. A couple of them were pretty well-formed, with 1/2" or so of healthy growth attached to the perlite.

Basically "free" clones.

Tall one has about one foot of clearance before they touch the lights.

Regarding fungus gnats: I see a couple in the tent in as many days usually. I try to squirt them with my growsafe spray bottle, them squish em'.

Not getting any fliers when I rake the coco with a toothpick. These girls have developed roots throughtout the medium, so there's not much depth for me to rake.

I think I have them under control! yay

week 4 update

week 4 update

WEEK 4

All is going well. I've rooted a few cuts and it seems they are done stretching.

Canopy shot:



Side:


#1


#2


Here's something I haven't seen before, trich growth at the base of fan leafs! This is only on #1:

it's amazing to me that I have these happy plants blossoming in an old-ass tent, in my closet.

Its really a testament to the power of the LEDs. I remember making the two fixtures, ordering the parts, and having to go to home depot to find the right screw thingie. I made it work, but could I do it again?

If I had to do it again, I might just buy a pre-made lightbar from the guys I bought them from originally. Jerry at king brite. Just because the technology has advanced so far from the design i'm using, though functional and perfectly fine, is outclassed by current, simpler rigs.

But lets not prematurely bury these lights. Still have tons of hours left in them!

About the plants, #2 has developed strong purple veins in the smaller fan leaves. this is good!

WEEK 7 UPDATE

#1 is stacking better than #2, she's leaning and requires support. Got a flat of clones.

1:

#2:



canopy:



clones:

Temps look to high ?

Dankwolf said:

Temps look to high ?

Click to expand...

Thanks for pointing this out! The tips of #1 are brown. For some reason I didn't set my fan to run continuously during daylight time. Fixed that! Now set to run during daylight and once every couple of hours during the night,

Got a decidedly gassy/fuely smell opening up the tent today,

WEEK 8 UPDATE

Trichs clear/cloudy. #1 is leaning heavily.

Regarding cloning!

This round I cloned off the tops of the plants, big healthy tops [ per the med man method of 4], but also took a couple of cuts from the bottom, my 'free' cuts.

For the good clones from the top, I used rockwool cubes and some cloning powder I bought years ago. This time, the leaves went a bit yellow and gnarly (you can see them in the photo above), but they all rooted and grew out.

For the 'free' clones, I either stick them in a glass of water, or stick them in a cup full of perlite and water. This time I used the latter method, and it produced the two little clones, second from the left, bottom two rows.

It's good to have the two types of clones, as the tops grow fast, and the ones from bottom are slow.

Today, the tent smell was more piney. Oh, an daylight savings time means I need to reset the timers.

Harvest day is coming soon!

p.s. thanks again to HAMMERHEAD for pointing out GROWSAFE to me! I've been hitting the clones and my flowering plants, have nice glossy dark green leaves and no bugs!

For maintenance, I squirt the top of the medium about once a week, the plant leaves every couple of weeks,

The scientists basically figured out a way to keep regular old vegetable oil suspended in solution, an emulsion, which coats the nasty bugs.

"GrowSafe™ controls and cleans infestations in vegetables, fruits, ornamentals, and cannabis growing facilities (indoor, outdoor and greenhouse), promoting higher yields and healthy, disease free plant growth."

two mechanism of actions:

1. Physical-coating: Repetitive spraying produces a protective layer providing defense from pests as well as their proliferation.
2. Phyto-Chemical: Natural plant protection elements present in the oils, serve as control & repellent.

• Effective: GrowSafe™ is better and safer in comparison to chemical based pesticides, as well as neem oil and (mineral) petroleum-based oil. It can be sprayed with any type of spraying equipment.
• Non-Poisonous: Due to the non-toxic* ingredients contained in GrowSafe™, there is no need to worry about harmful effects to the environment, pets and humans.
• Sustainable: GrowSafe™ is produced in energy efficient and environmentally friendly facilities.
• Regulatory: GrowSafe™ qualifies for EPA exemption as a minimum risk pesticide under FIFRA 25 (b).
• Bio-Pesticide: Safe for bees, ladybugs and many other beneficial insects*.