Blackwater first indoor grow

[Fiddynut]

Update and pics

Update and pics

Watered the girls last night and had a nice close look at them. They seem happy. I used a scope on various parts of each plant. There is quite a bit of variance in trichomes on the different buds. Some are still mostly clear while others are mostly cloudy. I only spotted 1 or 2 ambers and those were on the top of plant #2. I guess it's to be expected that the lower buds are the ones with mostly clear trichomes. My plan is to let them mature as much as possible while keeping a close eye on the tops to make sure they don't get over ripe. I'm guessing another week but I'll be flexible. Not much to do but watch and wait.
I suppose that harvest day will be slightly sad because these plants have become a big part of my life the last 4 months. I've been spending a lot of time with them and have developed a respect for them. They just want to thrive and have been very forgiving of my noob mistakes.
Here are a few pics!

 

[pop_rocks]

spoken like a true grower!
i always feel that same little twinge of sadness when i pull down a harvest
like you said, you have watched over them and cared for them for several months and they have become part of your life
like little buddies that you have watched day to day grow from seed to old age; friends in almost every sence of the word

i used to have a grower buddy who would actually get sad when it was time to harvest
he put so muhc love into his plants
to me they are jsut moving onto the final stage of their life and completing their destiny

but the funny thing is you will almost certainly remember this grow
there is always something special about teh first palnts you grew all they way to bud

 

[Fiddynut]

spoken like a true grower!
i always feel that same little twinge of sadness when i pull down a harvest
like you said, you have watched over them and cared for them for several months and they have become part of your life
like little buddies that you have watched day to day grow from seed to old age; friends in almost every sence of the word

i used to have a grower buddy who would actually get sad when it was time to harvest
he put so muhc love into his plants
to me they are jsut moving onto the final stage of their life and completing their destiny

but the funny thing is you will almost certainly remember this grow
there is always something special about teh first palnts you grew all they way to bud

Good morning pop_rocks! Glad to hear that I'm not the only one to feel a little sad about harvest. I was hoping that I wouldn't come across as sappy or super emotional about it but I think I will miss them a bit. As you said you watch over them from seed to their last day and it does become a friendship. I have developed more respect for plants in general during the last few months. People and plants have a common goal and plants that people cultivate sort of manipulate us into helping them survive. In this case their destiny is to get me high, but also maybe to help me learn some things about life.

One thing that will help me stay busy is getting ready for the next batch. I have my soil baking in my car and will leave it in there for a couple weeks until the tents are clean and ready. Thinking I will have next seedlings started about October first.

I'm sure I will remember this grow fondly for the rest of my days. This has been a great experience in so many ways and I have learned grown a lot. It is an accomplishment that I am very proud of.

 

[Fiddynut]

Update and pics

Update and pics

The girls got what will probably be their final watering this morning and are looking good. I think they are close to being ready. All 3 tops are covered with cloudy trichomes and if you scan around you'll see a few ambers. Most of the side branch colas are cloudy as well and I spotted an amber on one of them as well. I'm sure some of the lower buds will be a bit immature but that's life I guess.
It occurred to me that the only way I could screw this up at this point would be if they grew bananas and pollenated themselves. I've been keeping an eye on them and haven't seen any naners yet. It's day 73 of flower and I've read that the longer you go the more likely you will get them. Having a bunch of seeds in my buds would not be cool at this point. Someday I'd love to do some cross breading but that's down the road a bit.
I think I just need to give them a couple more days. They seem close enough that I could probably harvest today but I think the window will be open for a few days. This may be the last growth update. The next update and pics may be on harvest day.
Here are pics from this morning.

 

[pop_rocks]

not sappy at all brother
maybe to cash croppers who see their plants as just a commodity, but a real grower will understand fully the connection you have developed with your girls ( we even give them names from time to time)

these bushes look beautiful
they have a nice fade going and look like they are really ripening nicely
at this point there is really nothing that is going to ruin your crop unless you purposely did something lame
with the last watering done you are really just watching the plant and waiting the last few days till harvest

way to go f-nut!
great rookie grow!

 

[Fiddynut]

not sappy at all brother
maybe to cash croppers who see their plants as just a commodity, but a real grower will understand fully the connection you have developed with your girls ( we even give them names from time to time)

these bushes look beautiful
they have a nice fade going and look like they are really ripening nicely
at this point there is really nothing that is going to ruin your crop unless you purposely did something lame
with the last watering done you are really just watching the plant and waiting the last few days till harvest

way to go f-nut!
great rookie grow!

Thanks pop_rocks. I stuck with #1,2 and 3 for the names this time but will think about more personal names next time.
They look good to me as well. Even the yellow leaves don't bother me anymore. They look like they should at the end, but the early yellowing really made me feel like I was depriving them of something that they needed. My goal next time is to keep them green until last few weeks.
I'm just going to enjoy the last few days with them and keep a close eye on them. So close now I can almost smell that sweet scent of fresh cut buds. I've learned a lot during this grow and plan on putting that knowledge to use soon. I'll update midweek and then harvest and cure reports after that.

 

[GastroGrower]

I've found I tend to name my mother plants. That connection is real. You appreciate anything that you care for to that level.

 

[Tri_Cho_Me]

I've found I tend to name my mother plants. That connection is real. You appreciate anything that you care for to that level.

Awesome! Sounds like something I would do, haha!

Tri_Cho_Me

 

[Fiddynut]

I've found I tend to name my mother plants. That connection is real. You appreciate anything that you care for to that level.

Looking forward to having some mothers someday GG. Glad others feel the love for their plants.

 

[Fiddynut]

What names would you give your plants Tri_Cho_Me? Marry and Jane come to mind but maybe something more descriptive of their structure, color, hight or something.

 

[pop_rocks]

Thanks pop_rocks. I stuck with #1,2 and 3 for the names this time but will think about more personal names next time.
They look good to me as well. Even the yellow leaves don't bother me anymore. They look like they should at the end, but the early yellowing really made me feel like I was depriving them of something that they needed. My goal next time is to keep them green until last few weeks.
I'm just going to enjoy the last few days with them and keep a close eye on them. So close now I can almost smell that sweet scent of fresh cut buds. I've learned a lot during this grow and plan on putting that knowledge to use soon. I'll update midweek and then harvest and cure reports after that.

i usually stick wiht simple anotation myself for most plants

in the begining i just call teh plant "strain abreviation+#" for ease of identification

its usually the mothers that end up getting a special name

we both learned somehting form that early yellowing you experienced!
in the future i know to look in the soil (or ask about it) to see if there are any pests in addition to considering the nutrient needed

its been fun riding along wiht you and i feel like ive learned a things or two along the way!
cant wait to hear how she smokes!

 

[Fiddynut]

i usually stick wiht simple anotation myself for most plants

in the begining i just call teh plant "strain abreviation+#" for ease of identification

its usually the mothers that end up getting a special name

we both learned somehting form that early yellowing you experienced!
in the future i know to look in the soil (or ask about it) to see if there are any pests in addition to considering the nutrient needed

its been fun riding along wiht you and i feel like ive learned a things or two along the way!
cant wait to hear how she smokes!

Good afternoon pop_rocks. Going to try and take some cuttings from my next batch and learn about this cloning stuff. Would love to have a mother or two once I find some favorite strains and pheno's. If I keep it to two I could just use Mary and Jane I suppose.
Bugs in soil suck but it's almost 90 today and got to be 20-30 degrees hotter in my car so I hope that does it. It's going to sit in there for a couple more weeks at least and it should be ok. I'm going to get a nice close look at the roots in a couple days and I'm hoping that it's just fungus gnats not root aphids. If gnats it looks like there are pretty easy ways for eradicating those. If RA then I will need to make sure they are gone before bringing any soil, pots ect back inside. Really looking forward to finding out what pests I have.
Il be doing a lot of documenting during the harvest and processing so there will be plenty of updates next couple weeks. After that there will be smoke reports.
I'm going to mis the nice conversations we have been having during the grow. You doing any diaries or anything? I'd love to drop in and see what you are up to.
Really happy with how the lower immature bud has smoked even with minimal cure.

 

[pop_rocks]

that is awsome and im glad you are happy wiht the lower stuff
im sure the tops will knock you socks off
plus this is YOUR weed,man!
you grew it and know what went into it, from seed to harvest
it dosent get any more real that than

not doing any journo right now, i might in teh future but not for now
jsut trying to help where i can and have fun
ill be here man

 

[Fiddynut]

Mixed results

Mixed results

I decided to harvest plants yesterday. It was going to be such a happy day and I was really looking forward to this. I set up a nice table to do my trimming and set up my t5 light above the table so we could see well. I turned on some music, opened a beer and got started trimming.

I pulled plant #2 first and striped the leaves off. Then I clipped off branches from the main stem and trimmed them. This plant was looking good and the trim was going quickly. In fact I found that it was taking more time to attach the branches to my hangers with string than to trim them. I think I am going to make some hangers with fish hooks to easily hang from rather than tie everything next time. I was really impressed with the buds on #2. Next I brought out plant #1 and started trimming. The buds on #1 were at least 50% bigger than on plant #2, and both plants were very sticky. My bro and I trimmed #1 and I got all the branches tied up.
Next it was time to move #3 out and start working on that. I let my bro start working on that one while I took the light out of my tent and prepped it to do the drying in. That is when it got a bit depressing.
As I'm removing the light I hear my bro say wtf and that's odd a couple times. I went over to check it out and saw that he was picking a bunch of seeds out of a lower bud on a lower branch. We started looking at more of the branches and finding more seeds. A shit load of them. All over the whole fucking plant. Mature seeds.
I don't know how this happened. I never saw any hermaphroditism on any of these plants. Maybe I stopped looking as close once I saw female flowers on them but I always got a close look at them every watering. I have a lot of questions and I have some reading to do but this is pretty uncool. I'm even beginning to wonder about plants # 1&2. Maybe they are seeded as well. I didn't see any on the first 2 but not sure how the #3 could be so seedy and not any on the others. I guess I'll find out in a few days when they dry and I cut the buds off the stems. I'll keep my fingers crossed.
I wasn't sure I wanted to post about this because I'm pretty disappointed right now. Not trying to be depressing or anything just wondering where I went wrong. If the first two plants turn out to be seed free I will have surpassed my goal on this grow and I think I will be happy in the long run. If not I will be pretty pissed. I suppose that the next few days will be a bit interesting.
I have a few pics but to be honest once we started finding seeds I kind of stopped documenting and I haven't uploaded the few that I did take. I'll put some pics up when I'm in a better spot about this. In the mean time I have to read some and find out what I did wrong so I don't get this next time. Sorry for the depressing story. I'm sure my next post will be more upbeat.

 

[Fiddynut]

Ok I'm over the depression and negativity of yesterday. It took a day and a half to get my attitude back on track. No sense crying over spilled milk I guess.
I am planing to use the seedy buds to make a bunch of hash. Going to make some QWISO for my vape pens and a lot of bubble hash with the rest.
Anyone have any other ideas how to make something good with seedy buds?

Plants are hanging and starting to dry nicely. I am experimenting with turning my ventilation fan on/off for a few hours on then off to avoid drying too quickly. I have heard that drying too quick is bad for flavor and I sure don't want that. I'm hoping to hang at least 5 days but we will see. Really looking forward to cutting the buds off the branches and making sure that the first two plants are seed free. I did some reading and found that seeds need at least 4-6 weeks to mature. That means that this happened mid flower and I totally missed something. I was thinking that I fucked something up late but I guess that was not the case.
Time to start cleaning and setting up for the next grow. I'm going to use the rest of my Cali connection seeds and then go looking for better genetics. Not sure what to believe when I search CC in the forums it's mixed results. Some say there is good genetics to be found and some say it's all hermaphrodite crap. Probably going to avoid using feminized seed too.
Here are a couple pics of trimmed bud from the first two plants.

 

[pop_rocks]

sometimes hard times in life are the best teacher
if so, you are sure learning a lot,man

from the original descripiton i was going to say that these plants sprouted nanners kind of early in their flower
like you said, about 4-6 weeks to mature so it happened a whole ago
it could hvae been stress from any number of sources

light stress is a common way of stressing the plants
you had your light on a timer and kept the tent zipped up tight, no?
im leaning towards these came from hermi prone plants tho, and were jsut doing what they do

i like your idea of running the lot through a bubble bag
the seeds and plant material will be trapped in the work bag
you could also toss the bunch into a pot of water and butter
use it to make edibles

hopefully the pollen was conatined to those plants you already know about and you will ahev some good seedless stuff to puff
otherwise i would just twist up a bunch of fatties and smoke on those

dont be upset, this stuff happens
i dont even thing it was anything you could have helped
sometimes shit just happens
still looks like you pulled down a nice haul

 

[Fiddynut]

sometimes hard times in life are the best teacher
if so, you are sure learning a lot,man

from the original descripiton i was going to say that these plants sprouted nanners kind of early in their flower
like you said, about 4-6 weeks to mature so it happened a whole ago
it could hvae been stress from any number of sources

light stress is a common way of stressing the plants
you had your light on a timer and kept the tent zipped up tight, no?
im leaning towards these came from hermi prone plants tho, and were jsut doing what they do

i like your idea of running the lot through a bubble bag
the seeds and plant material will be trapped in the work bag
you could also toss the bunch into a pot of water and butter
use it to make edibles

hopefully the pollen was conatined to those plants you already know about and you will ahev some good seedless stuff to puff
otherwise i would just twist up a bunch of fatties and smoke on those

dont be upset, this stuff happens
i dont even thing it was anything you could have helped
sometimes shit just happens
still looks like you pulled down a nice haul

Good morning pop_rocks. Defiantly learning many lessons on this one. Closer inspection this morning and it looks like very little pollen got on the other 2 plants and a lot of the top of the 3rd is seed free too. I just saw a couple on the very lowest parts of the 2 and should just be a minor inconvenience.
I will be paying closer attention in the future. Not sure why the pollen was not more wide spread but I'll call it lucky. I would have been pretty disappointed if it was all seedy shit.
Going to get the bubble bags out this weekend for sure.
Update to follow.

 

[Fiddynut]

Closer look

Closer look

Buds were getting crispy last night so I had a feeling that it was going to be a busy morning. Sure enough when I got up and checked on them they were pretty dry. Now I know that 4 days at just under 50% RH in my tent is enough to dry all but the 2 big colas. Going to check on them after work they will probably be ready. So I cut the buds off the branches and did some final trimming.
Plant #1 looking real good and smelling even better. The buds on this plant were the biggest of the 3 and have a lighter green and less brown hairs. This one also has the most skunk/pine scent. Just a couple seeds in the lowest buds that aren't the best anyway. I have a feeling this one will be the best tasting of the 3.
Plant #2 looks good just not as big and the buds are darker and have more brown hairs. Smaller but firm buds and lots of crystals. I haven't sampled any of this one but will be doing so in a few days.
Plant #3 was heavenly seeded the lower 2/3. I did get some nice seed free bud from the very tops of the branches and from the main cola. Buds look and smell much like plant #2.
I will weigh it up for a total once I process the colas and when I'm sure that the moisture has evened out and they seem dry.
Here are a couple pics.

 

[Tri_Cho_Me]

Holy read hairs, Batman!

Tri_Cho_Me

 

[Fiddynut]

Holy read hairs, Batman!

Tri_Cho_Me

These are some furry little buds. Looking forward to sampling them and putting up a smoke report. I hope they taste as good as they look.

I see you got some baby's popping up in your grow. They are a little slow the first couple weeks but once they get some roots and some leaves they will be growing like crazy. Can't wait to see how they turn out for you.