7 Crosses of Sherb Cream Pie - An als_weed Pheno Hunt

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Wow this is all super impressive....man this would be my dream making a living like this. How long have you been doing this if you don't mind me asking Al?
 
My first taste of real growing goes back to UseNet groups and alt.cultivation. I found like minded folk and migrated to the early websites. Was there when everything came crashing down. HS and Bagdadlian anyone?

Managed to evolve from miracle grow> organics> NFT > DWC > hydro > aero > synthobiotic aeroponic. But only with the help and inspiration from the online communities that supported me.

Michigan laws brought me out into the light, but as they shutdown medical, they are killing off the little guys.

About a year ago a clone company sponsored me to do what I do, but only if I put it online to show all the work it takes and share my tech. I can now be found in many places and formats.

I recently started this thread here at the Passion because someone told me to check the community here. It's a lot like what I remember from the past.

I'm not here to sell a thing. I'm just showing what I do and answering questions. My goal is to help elevate others as I have been helped in our mutual quest to craft the very best.

Thank you for your interest and giving me an excuse to ramble on.

-al
 
My first taste of real growing goes back to UseNet groups and alt.cultivation. I found like minded folk and migrated to the early websites. Was there when everything came crashing down. HS and Bagdadlian anyone?

Managed to evolve from miracle grow> organics> NFT > DWC > hydro > aero > synthobiotic aeroponic. But only with the help and inspiration from the online communities that supported me.

Michigan laws brought me out into the light, but as they shutdown medical, they are killing off the little guys.

About a year ago a clone company sponsored me to do what I do, but only if I put it online to show all the work it takes and share my tech. I can now be found in many places and formats.

I recently started this thread here at the Passion because someone told me to check the community here. It's a lot like what I remember from the past.

I'm not here to sell a thing. I'm just showing what I do and answering questions. My goal is to help elevate others as I have been helped in our mutual quest to craft the very best.

Thank you for your interest and giving me an excuse to ramble on.

-al
I watched some of your videos last night I love your content! Im assuming this is a full time career at this point?
 
I'm glad you enjoyed them. You must be a weed nerd!

SBA is a methodology that requires your attention every 12 hours. I often call my girls cows. It really is the dairy farm lifestyle, the plants never take a vacation or care about your weekend. Juggling multiple projects demands all my time.

I see you are growing out Beleaf crosses. Best of luck, I'll be watching for sure.

I love his White Truffle and have worked with it on many projects. One of my most anticipated strains in this pheno hunt is White Truffle Cream Pie.

I like it so much in fact, I couldn't throw away an extra clone. Had to throw her in some dirt to become our bloom room mascot - Roller Girl.

PH112.jpg


-al
 
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I'm glad you enjoyed them. You must be a weed nerd!

SBA as a methodology that requires your attention every 12 hours. I often call my girls cows. It really is the dairy farm lifestyle, the plants never take a vacation or care about your weekend. Juggling multiple projects demands all my time.

I see you are growing out Beleaf crosses. Best of luck, I'll be watching for sure.

I love his White Truffle and have worked with it on many projects. One of my most anticipated strains in this pheno hunt is White Truffle Cream Pie.

I like it so much in fact, I couldn't throw away an extra clone. Had to throw her in some dirt to become our bloom room mascot - Roller Girl.

View attachment 332153

-al
Beautiful....yeah I fell in love with all his gear just by looking at pics and videos online. I've never had the opportunity to taste or grow anything of his this is my first photo grow and second grow all together. But yes I am very much a weed nerd lol....please keep updating here this is the best forum in my opinion. A TON of amazing growers like yourself who are happy to help all the time.
 
You are in for a treat.

White Truffle has a very distinct deep earthy mushroom aroma.

But it is the buzz that got my attention. It has an immediate head that mellows into a warm massage to the back of the head with good duration. It mows down the uninitiated.

She's not easy to grow and requires training to start in early veg in order to do well in bloom.

For these reasons it makes a great target for cross. Looking for daughters with that buzz, but easier to grow. I know I can't wait to see how Sherb Cream Pie hits her.

So I believe the crosses you are growing have great potential.

-al
 
Getting There..

Cloners:

7XSBCP021.jpg


The plants are starting to hit their veg growth stride. We still have about 4 that have very limited root development.

However most look like this:

7XSBCP022.jpg


I’m using al’s Go Go Veg o Matic recipe now after starting with al’s Rootin Tootin Setup Sauce. We no longer need the B1 and extra vitamins and res ppms are now up to around 400.

I’ll get these trimmed and rearranged into our 2 groups headed to the bloom room. Looks like we are just a couple weeks away from flower!

As always, your comments and questions are welcome.

-al
 
What ec are you gonna start feeding them now that you are switching to veg nutes ?
 
My apologies. Recipes are on another thread. I have gathered them here for reference:


Disclaimer First: This is what I use. Your mileage may vary. You can harm your plants if made, used, or dosed incorrectly.

al’s Dirt Plant Delight Tea

Into a 5 gallon bucket of reverse osmosis water, with a large vigorous airstone add:
1 tspn Great White
1 tblspn Ancient Forest
2 tblspn Worm Castings
3 tblspn Peruvian Seabird Guano
2 cubes compressed alfala
4 tspn Molasses
Here’s a pic:

PH014.jpg


The goals of this mix: To maximize the number of beneficial and commensalistic bacteria and fungi, provide organic based macro and micro nutrients, and allow the use of smaller containers by reducing salt content.

Brew for a minimum of 48 hours. We are letting our little friends multiply and break the food down. Don’t strain it, just make sure it is vigorously stirred before pouring. Those particulates help sustain and reinvigorate the soil.

Dosage: % Tea/ RO water
Seedlings - 10%
Young Plants - 25%
Moms - 50%

Use every third watering.

I love teas. I will share more recipes as we get through the process. You can even flower with this recipe - just substitute the PSG with a nice Jamaican bat guano and a tspn of Epson Salts.

------

Disclaimer First: This is what I use. Your mileage may vary. You can harm your plants if made, used, or dosed incorrectly.

al's Super Feed N Kill Foliar Spray Recipe

Into 1 Gallon of Reverse Osmosis Water add:
30 ml Plant Therapy Concentrate(peppermint oil)
30 ml Heavy 16 Foliar mix
5 ml Heavy 16 Fire
5 ml Super Thrive

Spray lightly. You do not need to fully drench the plants. Spray no more than once every 3 days, you can damage the cuticle with a higher frequency. Spray the bottoms of the leaves first, and then lightly mist over the tops. Keep your fans and modern lights on. Do not spray just before any lights out period.

Looks like this:


PH017.jpg


I used to have a more complicated recipe, but this one is the result of many years of paring and testing. It will feed your plants raw sugars, micronutrients, Cal/Mag/Sulphur, the Vitamin B spectrum, and strengthen the cuticle and cell walls. All the while protecting against mites and powdery mildew.

The plant therapy concentrate is for the peppermint oil. It desiccates Spider mites and other critters, while altering the surface pH of the leaves to prevent mildew, and finally softening the cuticle to allow easier absorption of minerals and nutrients.

I have tried several commercial and home brews, and I was surprised how well the Heavy 16 mix duplicated the results of the best more complicated mixes. It obviously has some form of molasses brew in it that I have found universally effective.

The Fire adds MG/Cal/S complex.

The Super Thrive adds more kelp, vitamins, and minerals.

I use this spray pretty much everywhere. From seedlings to, in some cases, up to a week from harvest. You have to stay tuned to find out more secrets! This one is pretty significant. I’d say it’s worth an easy 10% yield increase overall - for just pennies and a few minutes effort. Your plants will visibly love it.

-----


Disclaimer First: This is what I use. Your mileage may vary. You can harm your plants if made, used, or dosed incorrectly.

al's Awesome Aero Tea

Into a 5 gallon bucket of reverse osmosis water, with a large vigorous airstone add:

1 tspn Great White
1 tblspn Ancient Forest
4 tblspn Worm Castings
4 tspn Molasses

When you brew the teas together, you can see the difference in them. Here’s a pic of Dirt(bottom) and Aero(top) tea together after 2 days brew:

PH023.jpg


So What Does This Do?

Aero Tea is the result of many years of development to create living systems in aeroponic environments. Aeroponics have always before required a sterile system.

I found that the dreaded brown and pink slimes will attack roots and cuttings eventually, even if you are growing in bleach water. The solution is to have your own biological army to defend and assist your plants.

That sounds great until you consider we are working with spray lines or nozzles that will instaclog. And when that happens, you have hours to fix the problem before your plants die. So high particulates and living goo must be avoided.

This recipe maximizes the number and strains of beneficials, while keeping food and particulate levels low. It makes your root zone a hostile place for interlopers, and boosts your plants with commensalent organisms along with micro and macro nutrients.

How Do You Use It?

First give it a good stir, then strain with a regular tea strainer in to a quart cup.

For cuttings in aerocloners: 1 tsp/5 gallons
For vegging rooted plants in aerocloners: 1 tblspn/5 gallons
For bloom in aero machines: 2 Cups/40 gallons

Apply no more than once per week. Excessive application will affect your Nitrogen balance and screw up your plants.

Plants just love getting the bio available partially digested nutes from the tea. They respond with more intense, complex aromas and flavors, along with greater vigor and overall health.

This is how you get organic results with synthetic base nutes while also protecting and boosting your plants.

-----

Additional Information on al's AAT


The tea has to be used sparingly for a couple reasons.

First is that there is significant Nitrogen, enough to tamper with NPK balance, and certainly the bloom cycle.

Second, that too high of population of biota and concentration of food can clog spraylines and create fairy rings of goo. I know what this looks like and its normally a start over situation.

The tea is going to areo devices so dO2 will sustain our friends. We want them to set up shop and live long term with the plants. I use a lot of tea and replace it every week. I have a very green back yard!

Yes it is a simple recipe, but effectiveness is what matters, and you will see the results yourself here.

I use a mesh tea strainer that fits over a cup. You just need to strain out the leftover worm castings bits and suspended colonies of critters. It’s not a lot volume, so particulates are low.


Several others had tea questions so I’ll add them here.

-al’s Mail Bag

Occasionally I will repost questions asked in other forums or mail that seem relevant.

So you just feed plants the tea only? -m

No the tea is designed to be used with base synthetic nutes. You can use any brand, just reduce the concentration slightly until you are familiar with the tea effects. For me the tea changes the base res ppm by less than 10 and is negligible.

Do I really need a big air stone? -k

Yes it’s critical. The stone forces Oxygen into solution. This helps the beneficial aerobic bacteria we are growing, and poisons the harmful anaerobic varieties. A tiny air stone doesn’t have the surface area to keep the bucket bubbling vigorously.

How long is it good for? -b

I make fresh tea once a week. It’s best at 48 hrs and begins to degrade after that.

Do I need Ancient Forest? -k

Any high quality humus will work. We are looking for wild type beneficial bacteria and fungi spores.

What’s with the molasses, and do I need a specific brand? -b

Molasses does several things here. It feeds the critters we are brewing, the sugar metabolites provide critical krebs cycle building blocks for your plants, and has many vitamins and minerals in it.

Molasses is the main ingredient in many expensive bottled products. It’s used in many finishing products and foliar sprays.

Even the cheapest supermarket molasses has awesome stuff in it:

PH024.jpg


The best choice is the least processed. Sulfured Black Strap molasses is the gold standard. But any will do, and I used the cheap stuff to show that here.

Did you really grow in bleach water? -m


Yes we called it Zone or pool sticks, basically Chlorine. It was required to control pathogens in sterile systems. And it certainly did not enhance flavors!

Thank you all for your interest, and feel free to add your questions or comments to the thread, as I’m sometimes slow with mail right now.

-al

-----

Disclaimer First: This is what I use. Your mileage may vary. You can harm your plants if made, used, or dosed incorrectly.

PH028.jpg


al's Rootin Tootin Cloner Setup Sauce

In 8 gallons Reverse Osmosis Water
20 ml A (heavy Nitrogen)
20 ml B (heavy Phosphorus)
10 ml SuperThrive
1 tspn Rooting Agent
2 tspn Aero Tea

This works out for me to about 225 ppm and a pH of 6.0.

You can use any brand of nutes you like. Just keep the ppm under 250. If you increase the nutes any higher, you will slow root development. Why grow roots if you insist on force feeding them?

I use this specific rooting gel because it has B1 in addition to the rooting hormone. This bubbles up in the res, so it tells you when it needs to be refreshed. Don’t dip cuttings in the gel, just add a tspn to the res. Cuts way down the amount you go through and it just rinses off when you dip them anyways.

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Disclaimer First: This is what I use. Your mileage may vary. You can harm your plants if made, used, or dosed incorrectly.

PH028.jpg


al's Rootin Tootin Cloner Setup Sauce

In 8 gallons Reverse Osmosis Water
20 ml A (heavy Nitrogen)
20 ml B (heavy Phosphorus)
10 ml SuperThrive
1 tspn Rooting Agent
2 tspn Aero Tea

This works out for me to about 225 ppm and a pH of 6.0.

You can use any brand of nutes you like. Just keep the ppm under 250. If you increase the nutes any higher, you will slow root development. Why grow roots if you insist on force feeding them?

I use this specific rooting gel because it has B1 in addition to the rooting hormone. This bubbles up in the res, so it tells you when it needs to be refreshed. Don’t dip cuttings in the gel, just add a tspn to the res. Cuts way down the amount you go through and it just rinses off when you dip them anyways.

-------

Disclaimer First: This is what I use. Your mileage may vary. You can harm your plants if made, used, or dosed incorrectly.

al's Go Go Veg o Matic Recipe

In 8 gallons RO water:
60 ml A (heavy Nitrogen)
30 ml B (heavy Phosphorus)
2 Tblspn Aero Tea / 4 after plants established

For me, this results in 425 ppm and a pH of 6.3. They need to be topped off with RO water daily, as allowing them to concentrate the nutes can result in burning all the new growth tips and leaves. This happens when you get above 500 ppm for these nutes.

I replace all veg reservoirs weekly and double the Aero Tea dosage once the plants start to take off.

You can use about any nute line out there, just make sure the mix is Nitrogen heavy for this stage. I prefer a 2:1 ratio for the healthiest results.

-----

Disclaimer First: This is what I use. Your mileage may vary. You can harm your plants if made, used, or dosed incorrectly.

PH053.jpg


Everything needed for a full bloom cycle. Here’s my Syntho/Biotic Aeroponics Recipe.

al’s Syntho/Biotic Bloomtastic Brew

In 40 gallons RO water
80 ml Heavy 16 Bloom A
80 ml Heavy 16 Bloom B
40ml Heavy 16 Fire
40 ml Heavy 16 Prime
2 Tblspn Epson Salts
2 Cups Aero Tea

For me, this results in 360 ppm, with a pH of 6.3. We will have 2 full res changes over the course of the bloom cycle. All adjustments are logged daily.

-----

-al’s Mail Bag

Occasionally I will repost questions asked in other forums or mail that seem relevant.

You never posted your bloom tea recipe. Please? -b

Here’s What You Need:

PH104.jpg


Disclaimer First: This is what I use. Your mileage may vary. You can harm your plants if made, used, or dosed incorrectly.

als Bloom Boom Tea

Into a 5 gallon bucket of reverse osmosis water, with a large vigorous airstone add:

1 tspn Great White
1 tspn Epsom Salts
4 tblspn Papa’s Perfect Poop
4 tspn Molasses
1 Alfalfa cube (approx 2 cubic inches)

Let brew 24 - 48 hours. Stir vigorously and mix half and half with RO water to feed. Never use on wilted plants.

Alternate feedings with plain RO all the way till clear time. You need no changing recipe schedule to produce awesome organic buds with reduced root volumes.

-----

And any tea updates? -b

I have found a cheap grocery store organic molasses that performs better. For 2 additional bucks you get more nutes and foamier topped teas.

PH107.jpg


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al's Dirt Plant Delight Tea in Action:


SDX111.jpg


Here’s our original CDSD2 planted as a sprout last October in this 1 quart cup. That’s 7 months ago!

The secret to this ability is the al’s Dirt Plant Delight Tea these girls have been sipping all along. As I was uppotting these plants, I thought I would show the mycorrhizal network in action.

SDX112.jpg


Up Close:

SDX113.jpg


The tea provides a huge pool of beneficial bacteria and fungi, along with predigested organics. This keeps dirt plants happy with very small root volumes.

The girls are moving into 2 quart containers where they will stay for a year or so.

-------

These are my current recipes. As always, your comments and questions are welcome.

-al
 
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Staging Up to Bloom

7XSBCP023.jpg


I have separated our girls into 2 cloners. The cloner on the right has all of the fastest rooters and will hit the bloom room soon. Our second cloner on the left will happen 2 weeks after the first. Rooting speed is certainly related to overall vigor, but doesn’t tell you if the plant is going to get you high. So don’t get too concerned with a difficult start.

Our Line Up:

7XSBCP024.jpg


We had 3 individuals that did not produce a rooted clone. Unfortunately our only Skunkberry failed and the Strawberry Runtz Pies were feeble from the start. Of course the SBRPs not having drainage for the first week did not help. Meh

Anyone that doesn’t get into this cycle will be added to the next roundup a couple months from now. This is obviously less than ideal, but I really want to see everyone bloom.

As always, your comments and questions are welcome.

-al
 
One Week to Go

7XSBCP025.jpg


I have shoot pruned all the clones. This is where all the shoots except the top 3 are removed, but the fan leaves are left in place. This prepares the plants for high performance in the bloom room, while optimizing the plants energy by not wasting it on stuff we are whacking off anyways. Tallest plants get their first stem pinch.

Our plan is to send the first group to bloom next week, selecting the best from both cloners. We will then send the rest 2 weeks later.

As always, your comments and questions are welcome.

-al
 
Great thread. Interesting read. Thanks al. One question(well , probably a lot of questions but one for now):
Sulfured Black Strap molasses
Did you mean ‘unsulferd’ or is the sulfered stuff better(maybe a source of sulfer?)?

Thanks.
 
My first taste of real growing goes back to UseNet groups and alt.cultivation. I found like minded folk and migrated to the early websites. Was there when everything came crashing down. HS and Bagdadlian anyone?

Managed to evolve from miracle grow> organics> NFT > DWC > hydro > aero > synthobiotic aeroponic. But only with the help and inspiration from the online communities that supported me.

Michigan laws brought me out into the light, but as they shutdown medical, they are killing off the little guys.

About a year ago a clone company sponsored me to do what I do, but only if I put it online to show all the work it takes and share my tech. I can now be found in many places and formats.

I recently started this thread here at the Passion because someone told me to check the community here. It's a lot like what I remember from the past.

I'm not here to sell a thing. I'm just showing what I do and answering questions. My goal is to help elevate others as I have been helped in our mutual quest to craft the very best.

Thank you for your interest and giving me an excuse to ramble on.

-al
Thank you for sharing. Very interesting stuff.
 

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