[Lambuster]

Hey there folks...

Haven't been around to post much over these last few months, but I thought I'd give y'all a quick heads-up on what's happening in the new and improved Lambuster hydro garden!

Some of you may have seen me posting over on OG for the last few years, but I had an enforced break from growing this year due to;

security problems (moved house now!),

a collection of dead clones upon return from holiday (new, fresh genetics in place!)

..and generally way too much going on to be able to keep the garden operating!

My security issues are now resolved to my satisfaction so that I confidently resume growing without fear of being shafted by an ex-friend from OG days... much hassle, but worth it now I'm in my new yard.. :p

The dead clones were a little harder to recover from as I lost not only my prized Apollo11 clones, but also one or two Genius clones as well.. :( I was gutted about the A11's as I'd become quite attached to them - what a strain!

This led me to buy some Killer Apollo beans from Gypsy when I was over at the IC420, as they were all out of the A11 G4's when I got there (my first alternative choice to the A11's I had)...

I'd already bought a pack of Shiesel that weekend (before the Haze kicked in fully!!) so I dug those out last week as well, thinking, well, I can't have just one strain on the go..

Five beans of each went onto the paper towels last weekend - within two days, two of the Shiesel's had popped, and when I looked this morning, all ten beans had poked out their taproots for me!

So where does the Sweet Cindy99 mentioned in the title come in?

Well, I had three female SC99 mother plants on the go which were going to provide me with lots of cuttings for a few runs on my trusty old 424 NFT tables, but I lost all those cuts to an attack by Spider Mites, kindly donated by a mate of mine who'd unwittingly passed them to me on a set of rooted Blue Mystic clones! I put the Blue Mystics on a 424, stuck 'em in the veg room and went away for a few days...

When I came back, the devastation hit me.

All the BM's were nearly dead - my first thought was pump failure... until I saw the webbing covering the poor little things. I'd had a call from my mate while I was away, telling me he'd seen something crawling around on his plants, but it didn't click til I got home and realised in a flash what had occurred...

I've now got some possible cuts I can take from the SC99 mothers, but I'm disposing of the rest of the plants in there as a precaution... I've been mite free for 4 years and now this.

So there we have it.. Killer Apollo and Shiesel ready to go into cubes tomorrow, with the possibility of some clean fresh Sweet Cindy99 clones to join them later this week...

Photos will be following once I've got the pics uploaded into this PC, but here's a little treat I found while packing all my gear away for the move - A nicely cured (9 months!) Apollo11 branch that had managed to hide from me, and raised my spirits significantly one afternoon!



Take it easy folks and keep 'em green!

[Lambuster]

Ok... sorting out a few of my pics now... here's a couple of shots of the ten beans sitting in the dampened paper towels on the 21st August... I can't believe how quickly all these beans have sprouted.. :p

I never understood how some people have such great difficulty germing their seeds - I've only ever had one seed in about four years fail to pop... Maybe it's just the good genetics I've been using, but I always find the simplest methods to work the best...



Moisten the paper towel with water (nothing added at this stage), pop the towels (with seeds inside!) into a plastic saucer, cover with clingfilm to keep the humidity up, put something over the top to keep 'em in the dark, and stick 'em somewhere warm.. I put them on top of my DVD player now as it keeps a nice gentle heat coming up through the saucer, and without fail, every bean pops like a good 'un!



I'll take some more shots of them before I pop them into their cubes today...

Nothing madly exciting at this stage, I know, but as Gypsy says, "It can all start from a seed!"

Keep tuned in for updates as they progress (or not!) over the next couple of months...

[Lambuster]

Well it was a good job I got enough cubes presoaked for these little beauties!

When I got back from work yesterday, I checked on the seeds and they were trying to make a bid for freedom from the germing tray! They'd pushed the paper towels up and out of the way and were aiming for a breakout!



Anyway, I just about managed to squeeze the taproots down into the holes I'd made in the cubes... sadly, I damaged the ends of two of the Shiesel's roots trying to get them down deep enough... Note to self: get 'em onto/into the cubes a day earlier!

After an evening sitting in the propagator, they'd perked up a little and I'm looking forward to seeing them establish themselves fully over the next few days... Fingers crossed!



The new room is pretty much ready to go now, with room for about four 424 NFT tables sitting pretty under a couple of 600HPS lamps - there's another 600HPS as a spare as well as a 400HPS which I use for starting them off vegging and a 250MH for very early cuttings and seedlings.

My preferred nute regimen is the good old General Hydroponics 3 part Flora series, running on a 1-2-3 mix. PK13/14 during late bloom and finish with Ripen... Nice and simple, but effective.

[homegrownsweets]

must be lucky to smoke a 9 month cured bud. They dont last that long here. Nice grow and apollo 11 is a great strain. Peace Homegrown

[Lambuster]

Hey there homegrownsweets! Nice to have you drop by!

Trust me.. if I'd known that piece of A11 was there, there's no way it would have survived that long! It must have dropped down behind my drying cabinet when I was frantically chopping and manicuring that last harvest...

It was a truly sublime experience... the taste of the Apollo11 was brought fully forward - so smooth I could barely feel it expanding in my lungs... and then came the rollercoaster ride as the high kicked in!

If you ever get chance to grow out the Apollo11, do it. She's a magnificent strain - good yields, superfast flowering (49 days) and a real uplifting, creative sativa high. I'm still looking for something to replace her - let's hope the Killer Apollo does the name justice!!!

[homegrownsweets]

i have some apollo 11 g4 clones and apollo 11 x trainwreck in veg now. i havent had the chance to smoke my own. But was lucky enough to have tried the bud before. It was some great while it lasted. I would think Killer apollo will be well worth the grow for you. Peace Homegrown

[Harry Gypsna]

hi lambuster, glad to see another uk grower, and another 1 over from the zoo(overgrow) hahaha, hope u like it herre, its cool, way more chilled than over there.

[Lambuster]

Hey there Harry Gypsna! Thanks for stopping by...

I know what you mean about the afterschool club we often call OG... It just gets a bit too much during the summer holidays when all the kiddies crawl out of the woodwork!

I still post over there, but it's nice to experience the calmer side of things here on IC... :p

[Harry Gypsna]

sorry to read about mis-hap, glad u got things goin again man, ive juststarted sumthing special(ill tell u in pm or every 1 will want 1), anyway, when they in the right stage, i could hook u up with a clone if u want(and if u trust plpls clones after what happened)in a few weeks, just isolate em for a while for ur own peace of mind( im a spider mite dalek, i exterminate them indiscriminately, but to be on the safe side)anyway m8, let me know when the time comes, if u interested, pm me in about a month or so and well get it on the way

[Lambuster]

Nice one Harry! Thanks for the generous offer fella! I'll see how things stand in the garden and get back to ya on that...

Here's a quick update from a few days back... I'll take some more pics when I get back to the growroom today and we'll see how they've grown! (Trust me... they have!)

Incidentally, any spotting you can see on the leaves is just moisture from a quick misting...





These shots were taken on the day I took the Sweet Cindy99 clones (10 of 'em) and shows the 5 Killer Apollo's in their large cubes, with just 2 of the Shiesel's in big cubes in the one propagator, and the ten SC99 cuts plus the remaining two surviving Shiesel's in the other propagator.



When I checked on the plants this morning, I found that the Killer Apollo's are now ready to transfer onto a 424 table, having spread their roots out the bottom of the 3" cubes now, but the Shiesel's are lagging a little behind... The ones in the bigger cubes have just started to poke a couple of roots through the rockwool, whereas the last two seem to be biding their time a bit too much for my liking!

One of the Shiesel's had started poking a little through the starter cube, then seemed to stop... the other little one has gone into hibernation I reckon... If they haven't gotten big enough to transplant into the large cubes by the time the tables are ready, they may well get binned or put on the tables a bit later...

I don't know how the SC99's are gonna fare either... it's still too early to see what's gonna make it from what's not, but the plan is to take the four (or five) healthiest clones and put those straight onto a 424 table, and then pass on whatever survives to my mate. I'm hoping like hell that I get at least five of 'em to root as it took a bit of time to get all those damn mites out of there and the ten cuts I took were thoroughly scrutinised for any unwanted stowaways... Then I can veg them for a week or so and bang 'em straight onto 12/12 without having to go through the whole sexing process facing me with these seedlings...

Ho-hum...