BREWTUS presents: Blackberry soda and bubblegum

[BREWTUS]

Week 15/week 6 of flower-
Didn't pay alot of attention to them this past weekend as it was kind of a hard partying/lost weekend. The older I get the longer it takes to recover and I remind myself everytime why I try not to do that shit anymore. Anyways enough of that story. All was still well with them as of Monday. They just needed topped off more than normal. Another thing is that changes are usually more noticeable when you haven't seen them for a couple days.



Bubblegum:
I'm starting to notice her bulking up more and some of her pistils start to mature. She'll still finish after her sister, but she's looking like she'll be heading toward the finish line too. I will probably be adding MOAB (mother of all blooms) starting next week. To get the race to the end jumpstarted. The complexity of the bubblegum smell seems to change a bit. It's still there but I'm not trying to press my fingers too hard on her at this point to give a squeeze.

Ph: 6.1
Ppm: 1815
Res temp: 71°F


Blackberry soda:
Also getting more mature and looks further along than bubblegum. Her hairs are starting to change by the day. She'll also be getting MOAB powder starting next week. They are both (especially bubble) a few weeks atleast from finishing but I'll start putting them under the microscope to see. She's been real easy to grow. Her smell is still that of grape candy.

Ph: 6.1
Ppm: 1046
Res temp: 71°F

 

[BREWTUS]

Week 16/week 7 of flower-
Ah.. now we are at the latter part of the journey and the excitement to reach the end builds. Did the first trichome check on Sunday evening. To my surprise (kind of), I am starting to see some cloudy trichs come in now. Even on bubblegum and she still has what seems to be a fair amount of white pistils. Both of their ph was in the 6-6.1 range so I just been giving them water the past week with the exception of adding MOAB, which started on Sunday to get them to hopefully get more dense and thicken up more on their way to the finish line. There's still a few weeks to go give or take, but I'll just keep checking every couple days or so. The best news of all is that I can comfortably say that these didn't herm! (I've been scared to even mention that word til now) I've been paranoid and very cautious as I've dealt with that issue more often than not the past few runs. So to finally have a run where that didn't happen, I'm the most happy about.


Bubblegum:
As I said above I'm a little surprised to see her putting out cloudy trichomes in comparison to what I'm seeing for white pistils still. No nanners aside from the first initial stress induced one I saw earlier in flower. I hope this one builds up more density, and I'd say that's probably my only concern. I anticipate she will in the coming weeks. As for the classic bubblegum smell, it's still there. I finally got the wife to take a whiff and she agrees that she can definitely smell it too. My other hope is that it stays around when it comes time to harvest and medicate.

Ph: 5.9
Ppm: 1800
Res temp: 71°F


Blackberry soda:
As stated before she's an absolute joy to grow once I got to know her. Perfect structure, ease of growth, never wants a ton of nutrients, wonderful density, and a sweet grape candy aroma. Tony greenhand and super seed co. did well with this collaboration. She's got more pistils turning orange than her sister so I could see this one possibly coming down atleast a week (give or take) ahead of her sister. I'll just let the trichomes do the talking. For the record, we usually harvest when trichomes are anywhere from 10-25% amber. I like to wait til around maybe 15% before chopping, personally.

Ph: 5.8
Ppm: 1245
Res temp: 72°F

 

[BREWTUS]

Week 17/week 8 of flower-
These two decided it would be a good idea to increase their nutrient uptake the night I posted my last entry. I've been adding ph and nutrients ever since. Last Friday I premixed some more and increased my base nutes back to 123 plus added 2 teaspoons per 5 gallons of the MOAB. I take it they must be doing one last push of nutrient uptake before harvest. I anticipate seeing them swell in the coming weeks leading up to the chop.


Bubblegum:
Been doing some more reading about this ones characteristic traits and even looking at other breeders versions of this. The original is supposed to be an indica dominant hybrid, but she sure stretched otherwise. Maybe I ended up popping a pheno that leaned more on the sativa side? Hard to say and I wouldn't call myself an expert by any means. Either way I'm looking forward to trying out the "fruits of labor" so to speak..

Ph: 5.8
Ppm: 3075
Res temp: 72°F


Blackberry soda:
Just noticed the other day that a "cherry soda"(cherry pie x Seattle soda) has dropped. I'm gonna need to clutch my wallet tightly. I have enough beans (I think,lol) and have other expenses coming up anyways.. she's (sister as well) looking as if her orange hairs have increasingly been coming through. The end is nye and I'll be busting out the loupe to take another closer look. My cheap jagermeister macro lense sucks but I tried to get a picture of her and sister. They turned out like shit..lol. but this one has some pretty purple hues coming in, and I'm ready to say she's good to get chopped in 2 weeks.

Ph: 5.8
Ppm: 2181
Res temp: 72°F

 

[Streetpro09]

Week 17/week 8 of flower-
These two decided it would be a good idea to increase their nutrient uptake the night I posted my last entry. I've been adding ph and nutrients ever since. Last Friday I premixed some more and increased my base nutes back to 123 plus added 2 teaspoons per 5 gallons of the MOAB. I take it they must be doing one last push of nutrient uptake before harvest. I anticipate seeing them swell in the coming weeks leading up to the chop.
View attachment 98132View attachment 98133

Bubblegum:
Been doing some more reading about this ones characteristic traits and even looking at other breeders versions of this. The original is supposed to be an indica dominant hybrid, but she sure stretched otherwise. Maybe I ended up popping a pheno that leaned more on the sativa side? Hard to say and I wouldn't call myself an expert by any means. Either way I'm looking forward to trying out the "fruits of labor" so to speak..

Ph: 5.8
Ppm: 3075
Res temp: 72°F
View attachment 98134View attachment 98135View attachment 98136View attachment 98137

Blackberry soda:
Just noticed the other day that a "cherry soda"(cherry pie x Seattle soda) has dropped. I'm gonna need to clutch my wallet tightly. I have enough beans (I think,lol) and have other expenses coming up anyways.. she's (sister as well) looking as if her orange hairs have increasingly been coming through. The end is nye and I'll be busting out the loupe to take another closer look. My cheap jagermeister macro lense sucks but I tried to get a picture of her and sister. They turned out like shit..lol. but this one has some pretty purple hues coming in, and I'm ready to say she's good to get chopped in 2 weeks.

Ph: 5.8
Ppm: 2181
Res temp: 72°F
View attachment 98138View attachment 98139View attachment 98140View attachment 98141

I'm not sure I've ever seen anyone run ppms that high in dirt let alone hydro. I'm surprised they're not burned to a crisp.

 

[BREWTUS]

I'm not sure I've ever seen anyone run ppms that high in dirt let alone hydro. I'm surprised they're not burned to a crisp.

I'm actually a bit surprised myself, but they look fine and keep on trucking. A bit of quick research resulted in varying information. I'll be interested in heading down and taking a ph and ppm reading after work today. I'm gonna calibrate the ph pen again before I do

 

[BREWTUS]

Ph pen was actually fine, but I calibrated it anyways. It read perfect at 7.0 and then 4.0 (pic below). I used it in the veg tent first, then went on to the flower tent. Of course the ph read at 5.6/5.7. So then I added more premixed nutrients, which only brought the ph up to 5.7. Soooooo, I added a fairly aggressive amount of ph up. Final reading is 5.8.......WTF. I mean the tips of the leaves look burnt which I expected since I'm pushing them but damn.. the Ppm meter supposedly is one that "doesn't need calibration" and I've never had to do it nor do I really have any solution aside from to clean the probes. So.. I really don't fucking know. Lol..


Regardless, I think Blackberrys last week is next week, and bubblegum is starting to fall over on herself so she may be going the following week. Pending on a 2nd opinion from the wife of course if I can get her to take the time to look.

 

[Streetpro09]

Ph pen was actually fine, but I calibrated it anyways. It read perfect at 7.0 and then 4.0 (pic below). I used it in the veg tent first, then went on to the flower tent. Of course the ph read at 5.6/5.7. So then I added more premixed nutrients, which only brought the ph up to 5.7. Soooooo, I added a fairly aggressive amount of ph up. Final reading is 5.8.......WTF. I mean the tips of the leaves look burnt which I expected since I'm pushing them but damn.. the Ppm meter supposedly is one that "doesn't need calibration" and I've never had to do it nor do I really have any solution aside from to clean the probes. So.. I really don't fucking know. Lol..
View attachment 98191

Regardless, I think Blackberrys last week is next week, and bubblegum is starting to fall over on herself so she may be going the following week. Pending on a 2nd opinion from the wife of course if I can get her to take the time to look.

From my experience, the higher the ppm solution, the more ph up or down it takes to adjust.

Truthfully i run mine at about 500-550 in veg and haven't really gone over 900 in flower.

Here's a chart that helped me when i started.



Going by a couple ph uptake charts for hydro and it looks like the most optimal spot for max uptake of the three is closer to 5.5. So i currently am running one system at 5.25 up to 5.75 and then back to 5.2. What's your thoughts on ph and its effect on uptake?

 

[Streetpro09]

Here are some logs for that 5.5 system since 8/8. Left column is ph, middle is the ppm i set them in the evening, right column is the ppm the next evening before adding anything. That allows me to see how much ppm the plant up takes each day.

 

[BREWTUS]

Thanks for the input and you're right. I fucked up, and got my shit discombobulated. Ph goes down and Ppm going up means less nutes. Rookie mistake over a basic rule of thumb on my part. I even had it in my notes that I typed out years back. Admittedly there are days I've gotten lazy with checking Ppm everyday when it gets this late into flower. For ph, in Veg I usually try to keep it between 5.5-5.8. In flower I keep it between 5.8-6.1. I have used those charts that you shared alot when starting out. Hence why I use those ph zones for veg and flower. As for my thoughts on uptake in correlation with ph, I was reading the Ppm and ph first to base what they needed, then adding either water or nutrients. I still do in veg and early flower. I guess once it starts getting late in the game I don't as much or really at all, and maybe I've been lucky so far. Either way it's a waste of nutrients.
So with these ones I have going now, I'll be adding water back to them and adjusting properly until the end. As of last night Blackberry is mostly cloudy but bubblegum still has clear. So they may gets pushed back another week or two yet anyways. The Orangeberry smoothie and the wham bam I have going on in the veg tent right now are doing good and I've been treading carefully and will strive to continue to ensure they have successful growth. Thanks again for your input @Streetpro09

 

[Streetpro09]

@BREWTUS good good. Glad that you're back on track. Some of us just need a reminder now and again.

Didn't mean to overdo it but I guess i was in a sharing/helpful mood last night. Lol.

Admittedly i usually ph around 6.0 for everything. It just seams to work for me. This round i ran a few at the 5.5 range like i was saying. Well that's strain specific. Just last night i was reminded this when one strain wasn't looking so good and then it clicked. That strain has to be above 6.0 in order to not have magnesium deficiencies. Others strains I'm running seam to be loving the 5.5 ph. So i guess what I'm asking is; do you think that by allowing ph to fluctuate it helps to mitigate deficiencies? If so, whats the optimal range?

I try to get them around 6.0 most days but it has me wondering if there might be a better way?. Could you let it swing from 5.5 to 6.5 and not run into deficiencies? I feel like I've tried that large of a swing before and it wasn't good.

I hope you don't mind me picking your brain a little.

 

[BREWTUS]

@BREWTUS good good. Glad that you're back on track. Some of us just need a reminder now and again.

Didn't mean to overdo it but I guess i was in a sharing/helpful mood last night. Lol.

Admittedly i usually ph around 6.0 for everything. It just seams to work for me. This round i ran a few at the 5.5 range like i was saying. Well that's strain specific. Just last night i was reminded this when one strain wasn't looking so good and then it clicked. That strain has to be above 6.0 in order to not have magnesium deficiencies. Others strains I'm running seam to be loving the 5.5 ph. So i guess what I'm asking is; do you think that by allowing ph to fluctuate it helps to mitigate deficiencies? If so, whats the optimal range?

I try to get them around 6.0 most days but it has me wondering if there might be a better way?. Could you let it swing from 5.5 to 6.5 and not run into deficiencies? I feel like I've tried that large of a swing before and it wasn't good.

I hope you don't mind me picking your brain a little.

Yea for sure I get lazy, stoned and forgetful at times. So I'm glad and grateful for any and all help to get me back on track. I've been adding water back ever since and watching my numbers on my Ppm slowly go down. As for my input on ph swings..
In my personal experience:
I have let it swing so any given strain could run the gamut of different nutrients. In general, I've never ran anything above 6.2 or below 5.5. I also add calmag and macro nutrients so this might also allow me to let some ph swing? Granted I don't let it do giant dramatic swings as I guess that's not a good thing. I may just let it tick up slowly over the course of a few days say if it started out at 5.5 then gets up to 5.9, I'll bring it back down. I've had journals in other forums (afn) and was told it should be 5.8 throughout the whole veg and flower cycle..?! I basically chalked that up as someone's opinion based on their personal experience. Although based on the ph chart and what I have read it is said 5.8 is an optimal ph as it seems to be in the right spot to get a little bit of everything. As for in flower, I've let it and try to keep it at 5.8 to 6.2 at the highest. As based on the chart the 6.0ish range has the best available calcium and magnesium which can pose a problem in flower. It's possible me adding calmag may not make it so there's too much of a difference as long as the ph isn't too extreme one way or the other. Now back to veg, the chart to me shows there's more available amounts of nitrogen which is more beneficial in that stage. I've experimented with those ranges in different stages, let the ph gently fluctuate, and have just tried to keep it at around 5.8. I really haven't noticed anything to devastating and the most concern I've gotten is from nute burn. But I will say I have had calmag issue before, adding more calmag and adjusting my ph up has seemed to alleviate the problem before. 6.0 to me wouldn't seem like a bad place to keep the ph at all to be honest. I guess I would just watch pending on the stage of life and see if any deficiencies happen if a certain strain happened to be finicky. So i guess I would say I try to keep ph at 5.5 to 5.8 in veg and 5.8 to 6.2 in flower. Letting them fluctuate between those numbers in the 2 different stages of life. Do I see a huge difference? Not exactly unless a strain is picky. Now running straight up 5.8 the whole time I also never noticed a difference either, aside from more pg up and down usage. Which is also said isn't a good thing either. I suppose either way could incorporate some sort of risk no matter how the kitty cat is skinned. All in all I guess I'd work with whatever is easiest or how ambitious I may feel at the time or lazy. That can factor in alot as well. I only do 2 perpetual plants at a time so that definitely makes it easier for me to go at my own pace or style, as long as the ladies are happy.. and no worries on the brain picking. Sorry if I rambled on, and hopefully I made sense and not contradictory..lol

 

[BREWTUS]

Week 18/week 9 of flower-
I have spent almost the last week just adding water back to these 2. I even let them be for a couple days so I could add back water even more at one given time. The Ppm is going down on both but ever so slowly. So it's either take out solution and add mostly water back, or just wait. I think I will wait as I switch the res anyways and add florakleen at the end. Since it's so close to the end I'd just keep adding water back, switch solution with florakleen, then harvest. Decisions will have to be made on when to take them. I do know for sure one will be going a week before the other. This will make trimming time easier anyways


Bubblegum:
Her buds have been bulking up and as a result she is being top heavy. I have had to use plant ties to keep some of her branches up. Being careful as to not break any as some of them are bending real easy, and have super cropped themselves. As of Wednesday no ph adjustment is needed although the Ppm is still up there. Her airstone is starting to clog up, so I'll need to replace it soon.

Ph: 5.8
Ppm: 3122
Res temp: 62°F


Blackberry soda:
She's also been bulking up but I haven't had to use any plant ties. It's been the perfect balance of structure and size this whole time. If I could get 2 plants of this size or slightly bigger of the same structure about everytime I'd be happy. She's got more purple coming out of her by the day. Now the question that still remains, is when to take her. She will be going first that is for sure. Same thing with this one. No ph adjustment needed.

Ph: 5.9
Ppm: 2313
Res temp: 62°F

 

[BREWTUS]

I admit I'm sort of stupid with some technology. I figured out I can take closer bud shots now. So here is a couple for starters. First is bubblegum 2nd is Blackberry. As I've said before probably too many times, Blackberry will go first. We have milky and amber goodness coming through on both

 

[BREWTUS]

Week 19/week 10 of flower-
The end is nye and these are looking to get chopped. I've been adding just straight R/O water back to both of them to get the Ppm down. Blackberry got drained and refilled with plain R/O water and florakleen Wednesday late afternoon. We like to try and plan these out so trim jail lands on the weekend or as close to the weekend as we can.


Bubblegum:
Finally changed the airstone on her. I didn't really want to since she's so close to finishing but it had to be done. There's alot of salt build up on the airstone I took out. She is just falling all over herself now and fattening up. I've been using plant ties and bracing her against the wall of the tent to try and keep her up. She will remain on her water diet until she gets her flush sometime next week.

Ph: 5.8
Ppm: 3200
Res temp: 77°F


Blackberry soda:
Officially got the flush going on Wednesday. The target date she will be getting chopped is on Sunday. She could have actually got probably another week, but the window of opportunity is open enough I guess.. The wife wants to wet trim. I really don't want to do that. I don't want to risk any smell being affected from it if not done quite correctly. At the very least we will remove alot of fan leaves, then I'll create the environment in the closet for her to dry as slowly as she can using a humidifier set to 60%. I anticipate we will be trimming her up by next Thursday or Friday. I like to atleast have them dry for 5 days.

Ph: 6.2
Ppm: 126
Res temp: 77°F

 

[BREWTUS]

Chop chop! And blackberry is down!

 

[BREWTUS]

Week 20/week 11 of flower-

Bubblegum:
And then there was one.... I had put baby in the corner. As she was falling all over the place to the point I was just gonna keep her there. As of Tuesday I scooted her to the middle, and rotated. I get a whiff of bubblegum everytime I move her and when she brushes up against my arms. She's looking pretty crazy right now,haha. She's been on a diet of R/O water since the past few weeks. This week, I haven't been as vigilant on her numbers and just keep adding water. I will start Flushing her today, and chop by Monday so we can trim her that following weekend.. more than likely by next Saturday. Trying to have it timed out appropriately, as she'll have more to trim than her sister.

Ph: 5.8
Ppm: N/A (Getting flushed today)
Res temp: N/A


Blackberry soda:
As you all know, she got the chop on Sunday and is hanging out (literally) in the closet. I have a fan in there to circulate the air and the humidifier is currently set to 60% RH. After doing the usual continuous research, it is recommended (per Ed Rosenthal) that humidity should be lower the first few days, and then raised. I missed the bus on that, but may drop my humidity down to 55%. So it would be from Wednesday til Friday late afternoon the humidity would be a touch lower. I'm not too worried as I've always pretty much run 60% with past runs but am always looking to learn something new too. If I didn't have plans on Saturday I would probably just leave it alone altogether and trim then. Looks like her leaves are starting to curl in and droop. I can usually smell her in the morning before going in to work. The closet has no scrubber in it.

Closet RH: 61%
Closet temp: 73°F


And here's a sneak peak at orangeberry smoothie by @thenotsoesoteric and wham bam by relentless genetics. These were just flipped the other day so we can save time when we move them to the flower tent

 

[BREWTUS]

Week 21/harvest:


Bubblegum:
She is all flushed with florakleen and will be chopped today as opposed to Monday originally as I forgot we had plans for this Saturday. So that way we will more than likely be trimming by this upcoming Monday. I topped her off with water on last Saturday and this past Monday and letting her drink until she gets the chop today. She's sitting in the dark from Monday to Wednesday. There are tons of kief hairs on the floor from her. I even had enough to smoke a bowl of it. Didn't taste that great. She's definitely a hot mess and I'm ready to get her out and move the other two in.

Ph: N/A
Ppm: N/A
Res temp: N/A


Blackberry soda:
She was all trimmed up last Friday. Although I am somewhat disappointed by the yield, she still looks and smells beautiful. I opened both jars Saturday morning and can get a Blackberry smell coming through. I'll continue burping for 15 minutes a day until next Friday. Another thing I noticed while trimming was a few stress induced nanners. I think it was when I was over feeding her. Luckily, I only found 2 under developed seeds. The wife didn't find any.

Yield: 1 ounce, 22 grams. And 1 ounce of trim for making edibles with coconut oil

Current jar RH: 55-56%

 

[BREWTUS]

Bag em and tag em!

Bubblegum:
Just took her down. Huge whiffs of Bubblegum while moving cutting and hanging her. The closet is all set. Humidifier is set to 60% and I have the fan angled towards the wall to not blow directly on her.

Closet RH: 58% currently..
Closet temp: 73°F

 

[BREWTUS]

Harvest:
And we've arrived to the end. Just wanted to thank everyone for following along and for any feedback and advice. I may just conclude this journal now unless I have anything else I feel like I needed to add. I'm gonna go back to lurking and commenting for now I think, but will more than likely start another journal in the future. Is there a smoke report somewhere on here?

Bubblegum:
Trimmed her up some on Monday. Probably around an ounce worth but came to the conclusion to wait atleast another day as what we trimmed so far, is still hitting 69% RH in the tub. So we have what we trimmed chilling in the tub and back into the controlled closet. Checked again Tuesday, the RH was at 57% in the closet and 60% in the tub.. So we broke out the trimmers. Found 2 little stress nanners and a couple under developed seeds but nothing else too out of the ordinary. The candy sweet bubblegum smell is definitely there along with an earthy/spice kind of smell on the back end? I really hope the bubblegum translates to the smoke and flavor terp wise...burping the jars Wednesday I could really smell the bubblegum sweetness.

Final Closet reading from Tuesday:
Closet RH: 57%
Closet temp: 73°F..

Final yield: 3 oz. 2.5 grams.
Which is more like it imo.
quite a bit of popcorn buds that we salvaged this time instead of just leaving with the trim. I'd estimate there's still atleast 1 oz. or more of trim too.

As of Wednesday afternoon:
Jar RH: 58% seems to be the average at this point.




Blackberry soda:
Been burping her still. The terps are real nice. As I was typing this on a Sunday morning, I did dip in and take a taste by rolling a blunt and having some coffee. We went to a Renaissance fair Saturday and ate mushrooms so we're slow to move around on Sunday.

Current jar RH: 57% in one jar 55% in the other.

She'll hit week 2 this Friday and is smelling better with each passing day. The berry terps are coming to the forefront. I'm glad we didn't wet trim either of these two. I'll say that for sure.

Once again, thanks everyone for tuning in.