CANNABIS LOG : Winter 2017-18: BLUEBERRY OG & The Incredible Bulk - part one

My last grow was the Tutanhkamon (King Tut) and Northern Highlights.
The yield was decent, but should've been better. Mid Summer heat and all that comes with it was hard to shield from.
Still nothing to complain about, but I absolutely MUST give King Tut another go.
Kinda screwed up last time around.

As I enjoyed the early Aug harvest, I germinated a few new seeds.
I gave 5 types a try, all feminized seeds:
Dark Devil Auto
Northern Lights x Big Bud
Super Iced Grapefruit
Blueberry OG (from DJ Scott's original gene stock sold by Dutch Passion)
and Dr Kripling's "The Incredible Bulk"
(the name is extra funny when you realize a porno star used it in the 70s)
The germination and subsequent mother plant grows were in long stem sphagnum moss.
A superb media to grow in, absorbs and holds something like 20x its weight in water.

I had 5 Blueberry, 5 Incredible Bulk, 6 Dark Devil Autos, 2 NL x BB, 1 Super Iced Grapefruit
19 seedlings of mostly INDICA this time around, with the exception of the Dark Devil Auto.
Frankly, I do not like auto flowering Ruderalis bred strains.
These 6 DD Autos should've been kept to themselves on their own lighting schedule.
Instead I kept them at 18 hours light along with the rest.
All the kids were loving life and acting as expected, except the DD Auto.
It began flowering at 8 inches (about 18cm), not ideal for cloning.
I just let them go, they were freebie seeds from purchasing the others, didn't care much.
They wound up finishing in the back yard in Nov, yielded about 1/4 ounce (6 - 8 grams) total from all 6 spindly little trifids

In this image they have buds but not nuggets, just stretched out little stems with individual flowers strewn along them.
Made it difficult to harvest, tweezers came in handy.
But MAN was it ever oily and potent.
If you ever get the chance to grow the Dark Devil Auto, you might not want to pass it up.
As bonus freebies, they performed the role of taste testers rather admirably.

The NLxBB and Super Iced Grapefruit were growing nicely; tight nodes, very bushy, but when it came time to clone the bunch, there simply wasn't much to choose from on these 3 plants compared to the Blueberry and The Incredible Bulk.
Those two strains... literally... stood above the rest screaming CLONE ME DAMMIT!!!
So I did.

Blueberry is legendary.
When I first encountered it back in 1997-98 I was blown away, the aroma of fruity blueberries drove me bonkers.
Didn't know the history of it (from the 70s), but when it began winning Cannabis Cups (1999-2001) I was not surprised.
That moment remains one of my fondest memories of new strains discoveries, and the yummiest!
For a couple years there, each and every weed lover I knew would ask if I knew of where I could find it.
Or I'd be asking them.
It was a time when Blueberry herb ruled our collective weed consciousness.

The Incredible Bulk is a Big Bud derivative.
Bred from Big Bud crossed with a bunch of other Big Bud hybrids, it apparently is some of the the most dangerously big cola producers on Earth. They warn all prospective growers to stake them, or support them somehow; if not, your plants top with fall over absolutely guaranteed. Colas the size of footballs are not uncommon, especially when growing these outdoors.
We should consider ourselves warned... he he.

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I needed to re-rig the grow tables, re-configure the layout and feeder placements.
My last 'sea of green' was so forest-like thick, with each plant only 4 inches (10cm) from each other, made it very difficult to maintain the drip emitters and check on how well they operated.
Some went dead, and so did those plants.
This time, I doubled down, each plant has two tubes running to them, with emitters placed at the head of the feed tube, not at the dripping end. This keeps all emitters "up front" with me, not placed under the plant where I can't easily access them.

Since the set-up is custom made from 3 ft x 3 ft plastic trays, the kind used for placing under refrigerators, clothes washers, etc, I needed to create a pvc distributor pipe, running along the edges of the tables I have access to.
I planned a total possible of 25 clones per tray. So 50 nozzles were needed per tray for the redundancy required.
Three trays mean 150 nozzles, cemented into the pipes.

In this close up, the nozzle layout can be seen with the layer of clear epoxy cementing them into place.
First I drilled and cut threads into the holes, screwed the little tubing nozzles (or "nipples") into the pvc pipe.
Then I built a wall from corrugated card board, wrapped in duct tape (so the epoxy wouldn't soak into the cardboard).
The wall needed to run the full way around the assembly of nipples, and the epoxy needed to flow fully around each.

I "hot glued" (hotmelt glue gun from any hobby & crafts shop) the strips of card board to the pipe and carefully taped up any leakage points, used some clay to fill in some spots, brushed a little petroleum jelly into the trench then poured the epoxy into it.
A few hours later, the cardboard released pretty cleanly and the water clear epoxy was set.

In this pic you can see how I have all the nozzles capped with a short piece of tubing, doubled over onto its neighbor.
I capped them when testing for leaks. From these I added a Y connector to split each into the redundant double tube feeders. (not shown)

As well, I added a "flexible air stone" or air diffusing tube.
Bent into a winding snake pattern, I have three 1 meter tubes per table, so I needed 9 tubes total.
These can be found on Amazon - extremely important for de-gassing the roots.
TRUST ME! Your plants will LOVE you for it.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002RO0MF0/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The trays are only about 2 inches (5 cm) deep; so the air stones are sank into the clay pellets and atop that rests rockwool slabs. The slabs are pacakged 1 meter long, so I had to cut them to fit my custom grow table.

Once all rockwool slabs were laid in place, and primed with 1/4 strength nutes, the rooted clones went into them. This time 7 inches (17.5 cm) apart. Close neighbors for a SEA OF GREEN.

After one week, they've all filled out nicely and are into root growing overdrive at this point.
And I am happier than a pig in mud!!!

The mothers plants were all numbered: 1 - 5 for both the Blueberry and The Incredible Bulk.
In the far tray are Blueberry numbers 1 and 2.
These cuttings for whatever reason rooted and grew at a variety of different speeds.

I try to remain impartial but fair when it comes to how I treat the little ladies.
Some cuttings root faster and take off quicker than some, and I do not relish the idea of pulling out little failures once they've become weak from being out grown by their neighbors and shaded by them.
I've had some grow grey and moldy just sitting in the dark shade under their sisters.
Not a nice thing to find.
So in an attempt to give a few of the smaller runts a fighting chance, I had to cut those extra tall plants to slow them down a tad. Here you see the situation prior to snipping the tall ones.
Row 1 was all mostly very tall, row 2, 3 & 4 had a few as well, row 5 was a bit more reasonable but also growing faster than the average.
This is the tray with mothers 1 & 2, apparently these individuals REALLY want to get big fast.
The other 3 sister seedlings were happier taking it easy.
The other trays were not growing as lopsided, not at this point anyway.

I had since become a bit worried about leaks in my distribution pipe construction, so I slipped some plastic bag material up under the setup; just so any tiny leaks would be directed into the tray.
It never leaked anyway. But you can see the plastic in the foreground.

This is after the cut. (Note the credit card added for scale)
Notice the row 2 & 3 clones up front. They're both double stem cuttings, each stayed at about 2 inches tall for the first week. Would've been overgrown in no time.

With the decapitations complete, I wait.

Beginning of week 3... new growth has filled out, and the 2 little runts appreciate the chance to catch up.

At the end of week 3 (Thanksgiving Day here in the US) I switched from 18 hours of light to 12 hours.
At the start of week 4, just a few days after the 1 month mark, things have gone very bushy!
After one week of 12 hours light vs dark, the only flowers are the preflowers swelling up.
It took about 2 weeks for any decent flower action to begin.
It December now, the grow room is in the back of the house, the coldest room in the morning.
I'm sure those roots are getting quite a shock upon receiving their first morning feeding.
They'll need warmer nutes in the morning - I need to buy an aquarium heater.

At this point I'm thinking back to last Summer with the Northern Highlights and King Tut.
Never saw anything as thick as this from those two.

I didn't photograph week 5 or 6.
Buds began to form and across the 3 tables and I now have white cottony flowers galore, dispersed throughout.

Week 7 now, and these are some of the most impressive.
Blueberry - supposedly NOT a great yielding strain - is making me crazy with the fast growth!

Incredible Bulk started off a bit slower but has caught up very well.

I'll write another post with more pics closer to harvest. Its approaching pretty quickly, by the middle of Feburary at the latest. After seeing how the colder temps are affecting them, I can easily expect the ripening to be delayed a bit.
Dutch Passion recommends a 9 week flower cycle for Blueberry.
The Incredible Bulk is an 8 week ripen.

We'll see.
Thanks for reading!
I'll be back soon with ripened goodness - I hope!

(all pictures by me)