# *LOVE*, Homebox XS, bag-seed, soil, (Long-winded ;-) with Pictures!!!



## GMCORP (Feb 24, 2008)

:spit:I'm new to the forum and wanted to post pictures of our set up and past harvests.  Right now, my man and I are vegetating our third crop in our Homebox XS with 400 W HPS Hortilux with a 400W Sunleaves ballast.

Our first crop (what my man calls the proof of concept as in can this really work?  Like, for real?  Like, we can really grow our own?) was in the kitchen cupboard, which we lined with gutted mylar baloons.  I threw a bunch of bag seeds into two eight inch plastic pots from the grocery store filled with Miracle Gro Moisture Control and put them under 24 hrs of fluorescent light (the twisty regular light bulb kind) until they were ready to flower when we switched it to 12/12 (manually, every day).  I wasnt expecting this to work.  (see the picture of the lady waving hello from the cupboard?):woohoo:

It was successful beyond my wildest dreams, in so far as we got several ladies and some chronic smoke out of it --- we killed all the males at the perfect time just by dumb luck and wound up with no seeds and the stickiest buds I had ever felt after 2 weeks of drying..

[Bear with me, because Im new to the site and uncertain how to add photos---I hope it works and if it doesn't, i'll keep trying!]

For our second garden, we planted bag seeds again, only we invested in them further:

We bought the Homebox XS, the lighting system, a timer, a small fan, and some solo cups and Miracle Gro Moisture control again.  We put the box in our bedroom, so our babies could absorb all the love-vibes.  We planted two seeds in each of the 36 cups that could fit in there.  They were too crowded and didnt have enough room inside the cups.  We still had a substantial (well, much bigger than the first time!) harvest [even though a hermaphrodite snuck in there and impregnated all our virgin ladies!] :hairpull:

Now were on our third harvest.  Weve made some improvements this time so far:

We started them on 20hrs of light and 4 hrs off so the seedlings seemed much healthier in their initial days (i think the 2nd crop was stressed out by too much light!). 

We picked seeds just from one strain of weed, not just a mixed bag.  We saved them from a particularly good batch of . street pharmaceuticals one that really primed us for love-making and enhanced the experience (not that such enhancements are necessary, just, fun!) [the weed was not a pure strain, and definitely unknown, but goooood, so were hoping to propagate the original groovy-ness of the smoke].  Were calling it The Sex Weed, and hoping for the best.  [I did read the site rules about offensive material, and let me know if I am stepping out of bounds here  I dont mean to be crude or offend anyone  my fiancé and I are getting married in May and we strive to live our lives based on love, and love-making is a huge and beautiful part of that, and our beautiful home-grown ladies are our love-children!]

We also picked seeds that were produced by mistake during our second crop.  In our second crop, we had a plant that we called The Princess because she grew so perfectly and had the biggest, juiciest top bud.  We planted some of her seeds too, and one germinated this time around!  Were calling it Princess too, and hoping for another beautiful girl like her mother ;-)  

Three other plants in our current garden were produced from seed from our second crop.  We have 18 current plants, and they have been vegetating for 2 weeks as of today!  I just transplanted the 8 strongest (well, the 7 strongest and The Princess) into 6 inch pots, and 10 of them are still in Solo cups (with holes punched in the bottom).  I need to buy more pots, but the store was out, and Im kinda curious to see the size difference between the plants grown in the smaller and bigger containers and their eventual yield!:yay:


Suggestions ALWAYS welcome--please, please please!!! :-D  We're in a small one-bedroom apartment, and the Homebox XS is all we have room for right now :fid:

Let me know if you can or can't see the 10 photo attachments --- i'm on a mac:holysheep:


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## Dubbaman (Feb 24, 2008)

Not bad growing so far any finished product is always great :aok: IMO though id try to start adjusting the lights as the plants grow though the ones in the pics look really stretched. Ive been trying to keep My 2 400W HIDs about a foot off the canopy. and so far Ive had good node spacing and tighter thicker stalks and buds from it.


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## Ganja_Greg (Feb 24, 2008)

looks like your off to another great start and a first great start here at MP! that one plant top middle look pretty unknown but beautiful non the less rest of those ladys seem alittle stretched but pretty awsome either way! welcome to MP and all be watching!


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## sportcardiva (Feb 24, 2008)

wow there looking great


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## GMCORP (Feb 24, 2008)

one foot away won't be too hot?


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## Puffin Afatty (Feb 24, 2008)

:clap: Very nice plants you have there!!!


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## Dubbaman (Feb 24, 2008)

GMCORP said:
			
		

> one foot away won't be too hot?


 
If the plant is a recent cut clone or seedling id go with 2 foot to be safe but for one that is vegging it shouldnt be so long as you have adequate ventilation for the area, ive had my 2 400s as close as 6 inches to the tops with out burning.


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## GMCORP (Mar 20, 2008)

We just started flowering last Saturday--March 15th!  I wanted to update everyone on the ever-maturing grow---any comments and constructive criticism are very welcome!  We haven't sexed them, we're waiting until they sexually mature on their own, and of course hoping for mostly ladies :hubba:


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## GMCORP (Mar 20, 2008)

clarification: we started the 12/12 flowering cycle on the 15th.


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## Melissa (Mar 20, 2008)

nice looking plants youve got there :tokie:
good luck on the females ratioeace:


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## Joseph James (Mar 22, 2008)

That bowl of weed looks so damn good right now...I have not smoked in a month man! And my grow is only on day 2! aaaanyways, your plants are looking great bro. keep it up. peace!


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## smokybear (Mar 23, 2008)

Looks great there my friend. Keep up the good work. I can't wait to see some pics farther into flowering. That bowl of weed looks great! I wish I had it right now to go along with my rum and coke. Good luck with those ladies and keep us posted. Take care and be safe.


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## GMCORP (Mar 25, 2008)

:holysheep: WOW!!!  We tried to follow religiously that article on here about getting the maximum number of females.  So far, it seems our ratio is WAY better than previous harvests, and we have MP to thank!!!:aok: xoxoxoxo

So far, we've taken out 5 males, which are hanging in our closet, and we have 14 plants that are either female, or yet to show a definite sex.  I'm hoping for fewer hermies than we've had in the past.  dang them.  I'm keeping a fierce vigil for pollen sacs :banana: on my ladies and potential ladies.  

The pictures below are of what i'm hoping are the "lady parts" of the ladies, and of the definite males meeting their doom above my shoe collection.


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## Timmyjg6 (Mar 25, 2008)

NIce, And why are you drying out your mails?


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## GMCORP (Mar 25, 2008)

the old man loves smoking the leaves.  i'm not gonna deny him ;-)


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## Timmyjg6 (Mar 25, 2008)

LOL, nice... Just wondering.... So your the one with the green thumb not your man?


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## GMCORP (Mar 25, 2008)

I'm the one with the B.S. cum laude in Forestry --- just a lot of random botanical, biological knowledge knocking around in my postbaccalaureate brain.  He's more of a technician, very good with mechanical things, so between the two of us, we've got a good thing goin on :aok:


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## Timmyjg6 (Mar 25, 2008)

Thats so cute...LOL, me and my girl grow also. But shes still learning.


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## HippyInEngland (Mar 25, 2008)

Beautiful


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## GMCORP (Mar 25, 2008)

This all seems very ... intimate :watchplant:.  I'm a little embarrassed from taking such up-close pictures of their lady-parts, but, heck, if the OBGYN can do it, i can do it.  

I set my camera for close-up-at-the-beach (because it's so bright!!!) and tried to take pictures of all 14 girls, but this is the best my technology has afforded me so far (these are all of different plants :hubba:


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## Puffin Afatty (Mar 25, 2008)

GMCORP said:
			
		

> This all seems very ... intimate :watchplant:. I'm a little embarrassed from taking such up-close pictures of their lady-parts, but, heck, if the OBGYN can do it, i can do it.
> 
> I set my camera for close-up-at-the-beach (because it's so bright!!!) and tried to take pictures of all 14 girls, but this is the best my technology has afforded me so far (these are all of different plants :hubba:


 
:farm:  _Looking goood GMC, and I thought trolls didnt know how to grow weed, eh?_  :rofl:


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## liermam (Mar 25, 2008)

Man those are some beautiful ladies! In that last picture you posted, it looked like the leaves were starting to dry out and getting cooked. You might want to watch how close they are to the light.

West coast of Michigan huh? Muskegon, perhaps?


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## Timmyjg6 (Mar 27, 2008)

Update??? lets see some pics of your growing area plz....


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## GMCORP (Apr 6, 2008)

So, the old man and i were out of town for 5 days during our second week of flowering. :doh:  We thought about our ladies every second and sent them love and good vibes from afar.  :ccc: When we came back, i was expecting the worst---but amazingly, our ladies had SHOT UP in height!!!  :aok: The Princess II was so tall that she was touching the light (see pictures).  I decided to top her and her two tallest bridesmaids to prevent them from frying.  Then, since we were on a roll, i decided to try cloning for the first time! :headbang2:  I had bought some peat cups (the roots grow through the cups and then you know they're ready for transplant!  Very cool.  Used to use them in elementary school for vegetables or sunflowers or whatever it was they had us plant.  Beans.  I think it was beans).  In any event, we got 10 peat pellets and put them in the peat cups (looks like an egg carton) and soaked them, stuck ten cuttings in some Clone-X, and stuck them in the moist soil, under 200 watts fluorescents in <2sq ft of kitchen cupboard lined with mylar from gutted balloons.  All the cuttings were taken from the bottoms of the plants and had yet to bud.  They're not looking so hot. :huh:  Lights 4 inches above them.  Suggestions WELCOME!  Please? Y'all're so wise!

Anyhow, here are some pictures of my the buds this afternoon!  Three weeks into flowering!  We're so proud of our little girls growing up to become women :hubba:


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## lyfr (Apr 6, 2008)

plants look great...but...topping and cloning a flowering plant? i thought we were sposed to leave em alone during flower. have i missed something? good luck to ya


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## liermam (Apr 6, 2008)

Topping isn't very effective during flowering =\. Great looking plants though. That Ice Queen looks like some sort of haze. It really stretched during the flowering period.


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## GMCORP (Apr 6, 2008)

Well, the topping was out of necessity!  :shocked: The princess and her two tallest companions had outgrown the space and were getting their top buds burnt, rendering them useless.  Getting rid of the apical meristem does funk up the genetics some, and i would never do it to a hardwood, but topping is ok when done to save the plant and her flowering potential.  Taking off the top allows the two buds beneath to grow out more, and keeps the plant from drying out!


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## smokybear (Apr 6, 2008)

Nice looking ladies you have there. I definitely wouldn't have topped them though. I would have tied them down somehow. Why sacrifice when you can improvise? Tying them down would have stressed the plant but not as bad as a topping. Just my thoughts. They look great though. Good work. Take care and keep us posted. Be safe.


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## GMCORP (Apr 6, 2008)

Thanks man.  I'm not really sure how to tie them, but i do know how to top from my forestry background.  I pretty much treat marijuana like little trees.  I've seen tying done so many ways that i don't know where to start.  Anyone have any tying suggestions for my setup?


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## GMCORP (Apr 11, 2008)

Dearly beloved,
Disaster struck my garden this afternoon.  We're distraught.  I called the ladies' daddy at work to let him know the news, and i'm sharing it secondly with you:

Our tallest lady with the longest bud, is a hermaphrodite.  :doh: 

:watchplant: How did i not notice earlier???  Woe is me. :angrywife: 

It was only one sac, pictures below (pretty pictures of a disaster, yes?)  and surrounded by such a lot of bud that i did not notice the one sac until it was too late.  Sac burst, and pollen dusts the leaves below (again, see pictures).  

I know it happened today, and i took the herm out as soon as i noticed. :chuck:  I know that each bud is made up of hundreds (or thousands) of individual flowers, each of which needs one grain of pollen to pollinate it in order to seed.  Of course, we do NOT want seeds.  I'm hoping i caught her/him early enough that the ONE SAC did not destroy my entire crop, but hopefully only seeded a few of the tiny flowers, of which there are thousands on my 14 (now 13) lady plants.  

Any experts care to divulge what they think my prospects of continuing my harvest unscathed are?

Send good vibes for me if you can---pray if you're a pray-er---give a shout out to the Creator on our behalf, and cross your fingers!!  We are.


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## thc is good for me (Apr 11, 2008)

That ***** i know how you feel man i had to kill on of my plants because it was a boy. i feel for ya


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## Melissa (Apr 11, 2008)

oh no  sorry to hear about the cross dresser sneaky little sod :giggle:
good luck with the rest of your ladies and how are your clones doing ? ive took some clones also and they look in the same way as yours ,,,have they perked up at all eace:


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## liermam (Apr 11, 2008)

GMCORP said:
			
		

> Thanks man.  I'm not really sure how to tie them, but i do know how to top from my forestry background.  I pretty much treat marijuana like little trees.  I've seen tying done so many ways that i don't know where to start.  Anyone have any tying suggestions for my setup?



Just remember that in almost all cases with cannabis growing, height is undesired.

Tying them down should be as easy as putting some nails/tacs etc. in the wall, getting some good thread (*cough* hemp *cough*), and tying them down. I'm no expert, but there really isn't too much science behind it. Tying them down forces them to branch out, creating more budsites.

That being side, I wouldn't even bother with it this grow. Everything seems to be working, and LST (Low-stress training, tying them down) is something you generally want to start in vegetation.

Hope that helped.

As far as the pollenation, don't sweat it! You'll get some seeded nugs, thats no big deal man! One pollen sac CANNOT impregnate a whole crop. If anything, I think this will leave you with some VERY solid seeds, and still 95% bud. Pollenation is all random physical chance though, so who knows. The genetics in the hermie look pretty awesome to me though. Don't take any seeds from the hermie itself, but lets just hope the seeds from other plants don't all hermie too, eh? 

Unscathed? Doubtful, no crop is unscathed. Good enough to smoke? You bet .


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## GMCORP (Apr 11, 2008)

:yeahthat: thanks man!  My favorite thing i've read on here is "One pollen sac CANNOT impregnate a whole crop." :woohoo:


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## GMCORP (Apr 11, 2008)

So, we trimmed up the Traitor (who we have posthumously named JUDAS), and s/he is still a long fat bud.  We've hung her/him up to dry.  S/he only flowered for 4 weeks.  Can we still smoke her (after proper drying, curing, etc of course).  I mean, 1]is it safe and 2]will we feel the...:joint4: :ccc: :stoned: :48: ...effects?


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## MeNtAlPaTiEnT (Apr 11, 2008)

Awsome! So incredibly amazing to look at that cola.


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## smokybear (Apr 11, 2008)

You can definitely smoke it but it wont be even close to what it could have been. Sorry about the hermi. Any idea what caused it? I hope everything turns out alright. Keep us posted. Take care and be safe.


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## GMCORP (Apr 12, 2008)

We do know what caused it: sneaky genetics!!!  Never know what you're getting with bag-seed, but we're honing our technique on the bag-seed (it's free and readily available) and the first week in June we'll be on our honeymoon in Toronto, picking up some puuuuure strains (if all goes well)!  It should time out that we'll harvest our current batch a few weeks before the wedding (to be able to smoke it after the festivities), and start a new one when we get back from the seed-excursion honeymoon!!


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## liermam (Apr 13, 2008)

The effects will be radically different, much more head high (which I actually enjoy), and much less potency, but its definetely smokable. Smoke the whole plant at once, and it shouldn't be a problem at all.


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## GMCORP (Apr 20, 2008)

:laugh: Happy 4-20 girls and boys!  We are completely blazed and wanting to show off the ladies.:fly: 

Soooo, here are our happy ladies at week 5.  Their buds are so huge that the plants were starting to topple over by the weight of the buds, so we staked some of them loosely to some dowel rods.  :headbang: 

Also, the clones sprouted roots, and we transplanted them to larger pots in our clone cabinet.

Questions?  Comments?  Criticisms?  :welcome:


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## MeNtAlPaTiEnT (Apr 20, 2008)

Great job so far! Good job on the clones too. Those buds look good enough to eat


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## GMCORP (Apr 26, 2008)

Bad news first: So, the old man and I, embracing the spring weather, have had our patio doors open, which open to our bedroom, which is where our ladies are located.  I think some fungal spores from outside somehow made it into our grow room from having the doors open, due to the symptoms on the leaves, so we decided to cut them early before we had die-off.  They were 6 weeks into flowering when we cut them, but they are still the biggest buds we've ever seen :stoned:.  We were hoping to harvest at 8 weeks, but feel this was the best decision for our ladies.  

Good News: We cleaned out our grow box,  and moved our clones from the makeshift-grow-box-in-the-kitchen-cabinet to the grow box in our bedroom.  They'll get much more light, and much more space!  Also, we turned our fan to blow towards our plants (we had it venting OUT in previous harvests, but, from my reading on here, i think the plants could use the breeze to strengthen their stems) We lowered the 400 watt HPS ballast to about 19 inches above the clones, and will raise it as they grow  

We're experimenting for the first time with some very basic LST from my readings on here.  I used coated paper clips (PINK   because they're ladies!) which i clipped to the side of the pots, and then tied some twine loosely  to the plants.  How do they look?  It's my first time, so i'd love any input!


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## FLA Funk (Apr 26, 2008)

Nice harvest yall, sorry to hear about the mold. keep growin.


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## MrPuffAlot (Apr 26, 2008)

looks like a Dehumidifier is on a wish list..

Goodluck


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## GMCORP (May 6, 2008)

The clones look like they are trying to grow into massive bushes :hubba:.  Of the ten clones we started, 9 have made it to flower.  We are in our first week of flowering them.  However, one of the plants has leaves that have turned upside down.  What does this mean?  Below are pictures of the plants today, bushing and branching out!  I feel like a mad scientist---cloning living things in my secret laboratory :bong1:


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## GMCORP (May 21, 2008)

:bongin: Here are the clones at flowering week 3 :headbang2:


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