Hiding Spanish Girl In The Loft (vertical 250w Hps)

[net2-3]

Day 53 12/12 (7.5 weeks)

Update from a week ago, most pics from a week ago and a few from a few days later. There's a lot of pictures to come but it will be the last full set.

Harvesting

Most of Cream Caramel 1 was chopped directly afterward along with a about a third of the Wild Rose. I have now chopped the rest of CC1 and some Short Rider as well. Need to chop a decent bit more today too. I'm taking regular samples and examining them under a 10-300x USB scope. CC1 came down with the globular heads all looking well swollen and a fairly even mix of clear, cloudy and milky trichomes. I may let CC2 go a bit riper for a bit more of a bed time smoke The first bits of Wild Rose came down with about 5% amber trichomes as it's developing true amber trichs. I'll let the rest go a bit riper but I haven't found the samples too rushy so don't want it to ripen much more. Haven't looked at the Flash Back for a couple of days but trichs were still looking clear then. Haven't sampled the smoke yet.

Water and Nutes

Still on about 3l every 3 days. I've gradually brought down the bloom by about 1.5ml a watering to zero and am finishing on 2ml Fishmix, The flash back will be the last to hit zero bloom nutes and today.

Cream Caramel 1

With a couple of branches taken.

Cream Caramel 2

Would have been a good mum I reckon.

[net2-3]

Wild Rose

Lot of pics, hope you don't mind but she's my favorite

[net2-3]

Flash Back #2

The bud that I broke

[net2-3]

Short Rider

Had an early smoke of this last night and definitely no longer disappointed. Subtle peppery smoke with an energising, uplifting high

After cutting a few branches, buds are bushing out a bit more now

Can't capture the colour

Box shots

Couple of box shots to finish

I'll have more details on the smokes and try and write up an evaluation of the grow soon. Thanks again for your help and comments uk420, love you all

[Burton Red]

Got to say Net, your diary has been 1 of the best I have looked at just lately. If your not up there with the winners, then the winners will have a shit hot diary's. Also think that you have got some cracking pics of your grow, and if they don't help people choose Sweet seeds as a grow then..... I reckon some of your pics should be in BOTM. It will be a travesty if they are not.

Enjoy the fruits of your labour mate.........

Burton

[net2-3]

Got to say Net, your diary has been 1 of the best I have looked at just lately. If your not up there with the winners, then the winners will have a shit hot diary's. Also think that you have got some cracking pics of your grow, and if they don't help people choose Sweet seeds as a grow then..... I reckon some of your pics should be in BOTM. It will be a travesty if they are not.

Enjoy the fruits of your labour mate.........

Burton

Thanks very much Burton, comments like that make the time and effort of keeping a diary well worthwhile I think there's some stiff competition in the diaries and I didn't finish this one before the end of the competition.

I certainly hope I have tempted a few people to try Sweet Seeds, I'm smoking uncured buds and it's still the tastiest and most interesting weed I've ever had

I chopped down about quite a lot of CC2 last night at 8.5 weeks as well as some Flash Back #2 (just over half remaining) and Wild Rose (now more or less just one big bud left). If they're ready enough I'll probably pull the rest when the new seeds pop up there heads in the next day or two.

I'm having trouble drying in the loft, the sunny weather is making it too hot and the buds are drying in about 5 days . I've put the most recent lot untrimmed to try and slow things down a bit.

[net2-3]

Probably the last shots of CC2 and WR

Cream Caramel 2

Wild Rose

The sides of the bud facing the light are more leafy

[spirit77]

excellent diary/pics mate - enjoy your smoke when it comes round

[net2-3]

excellent diary/pics mate - enjoy your smoke when it comes round

Cheers Spirit, already enjoying the smoke on these, it's uncured but it's all I've got and is still mighty tasty. I tried a little Flash Back last night, it seems very strong I'll report some more on the smokes once I've sampled the finished articles.

Shoving a load more untrimmed bud in my drying box has worked a treat and the weather is a bit cooler. Everything is drying at a more sedate pace now.

[bently]

excellent diary ,you have inspired me to start a vertical grow

cheers Net

[net2-3]

excellent diary ,you have inspired me to start a vertical grow

cheers Net

Thanks Bently, glad you've enjoyed the diary. What size light you going to use? Good luck, I think there is plenty of potential in this vertical growing, hoping to nail it next time

The remaining Flash Back #2 buds have started to look very pretty so I thought I'd get a few pics up

[net2-3]

Evaluation

No further reports on the strains yet until I can try them all properly cured exept to say the Flash Back wallops you round the face as soon as you start toking it I just had a few thoughts about what went right and wrong with the grow and thought I'd get them written down.

Pots and medium

The compost up to the last pot up was fine (B&Q JI #2) then they went into West +. This was full of straw so I mixed a little loam based compost in but in reflection I wish I'd ditched it entirely. I'm pretty sure it was the source of the fungas gnats. The straw also seems to make the compost great for fungi, the bag of compost had a layer of white mold and gnats when I went to use it in the garden a short while later. I think the plants have had a bit of grumbling trouble with fungus too which I think has been kept at bay by a fairly dry, well ventilated environment. I may well invest in some essence for next grow.

I've been thinking for quite a while that I made a mistake with my final pot size/veg period too and when I broke apart CC1s rootball it was dense and healthy in the middle but poor in the final pot's compost (probably partly due to the West +). I should have let the plants root these out a little longer before flowering or used smaller pots, it has been hard trying to maintain a wet/dry cycle when it takes a long time for the compost at the bottom of the pot to dry out.

Nutrients

Feeding has gone well overall I think, I did wonder if the OT bloom was struggling to provide enough P during mid-flowering but in retrospect I think it was my plants struggling to get quite enough nutrition all round because of the pots being too large and some of the root zone underdeveloped. If it contributed to the flavour and aroma of the buds then I definitely want to use it again.

Environment

Temps and humidity overall have been pretty good once I got the oil rad going OK. I will have a new challenge now though as we head toward summer The biggest problem has been having the plants too close to the light, I suspect it would have been better for a 250W as originally planned for. In the end I think it was overkill and the heat and brightness caused bleaching, scorching and I think limiting bud develop to a degree as a result. Next time I'm going for a wider mesh cylinder (at least 40cm) with eight plants (probably in 7.5l pots).

I also suspect that it's better to keep the light higher relative to the plants than I did so that the light shines down on the leaves more. Next time I will cut a hole in the top of the box so the lamp holder can be mounted on the outside so the bulb just pokes in the top for when the plants are fully grown.

btw yes I know I'm a geek

[Yamatoka]

I'll be watchin how the improvements go here

[net2-3]

I'll be watchin how the improvements go here

Cheers for the link Yam.

Day 64/9 weeks 1 day

Everything that's left is coming down tonight to make way for the new girls. The Short Rider could have a little longer as there's still some bud development going on but I get the idea it would go on forever given the chance I may try and get a couple of pics if I have time.

Can't say thank you enough to Sweet Seeds and Witnail for these beans, I haven't had much to compare them too but all I know is that I loved these plants and the bud they're giving me. It's clear they've focused on giving these strains interesting flavours and aromas and a great high, at the same time these plants have been tolerant and forgiving in my first grow. I'm discovering new flavours, especially on the Cream Caramel, as the cure is starting to develop and will definitely be tempted to try a few more of their strains in the future.

Need to say thanks to all the people on UK420, I've learnt so much on this site in the space of a year (about 50% of it from OT1's posts) and everyone has always been friendly and helpful . Thanks especially to those who have posted advice and messages here, it really helps to make the diary feel worthwhile. Big up yourselves UK420

Edited April 22, 2010 by net2-3

[VoodooRay]

Great Diary again Net

I love the last few pics of the Flash Back #2, some beautiful colouration going on there.

Enjoy the fruits of your labour man

Peace