4 Crosses of Slapz - All al’s Tech Here

[als_weed]

2 Weeks in the Cloner

We have 15 of 18 represented individuals with some significant root development. I took backup clones of the 3 that have failed to root so far.

Here’s a shot of the tops:

And the roots:

Some are a bit bedraggled, while others are taking off already. You can see how a lot of rooting triggers off the tendencies of individuals.

Another reason is the hormones in the growth tips that we started with. Here’s a shot showing the side shoot cuttings fully rooted, while the top cutting from the same plant is just starting to bump.

This is a common result that proves spending time to develop mom plants is worth the effort.

I am topping off the nutes and tea for another week, letting the cuttings grow. Soon it will be time to figure out who will make it to the veg cloner.

As always, your comments and questions are welcome.

-al

[Jango]

Extremely interesting and well written as usual, thanks for all your work mate👍

[als_weed]

A Time to Veg

We are setting up the cloner in the Veg Room.

This is What We Need:

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

als 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.

Here’s a pic of our girls out of the nursery and into the veg room:

This is Veg Cloner Row:

We will have to start picking winners and losers soon. I would estimate that we are about 3 weeks out from the bloom room. The contest for the 18 grow show spots begins now.

As always, your questions and comments are welcome.

-al

[als_weed]

There Can Be Only One!

We have 4 individuals that are seriously behind or failed to root. I took backup clones of these and a couple have started to root. We will go to the bloom room with whomever is rooted, no matter the size. Pheno hunting requires some compromises to create the largest net and snare those elusive keepers.

I selected the best representative of each individual and discarded the rest. With extra space and go-go juice, the plants have gone into explosive growth. At this rate, we will head to the bloom room in about a week!

1 Week Veg Cloner:

I decided to uppot our moms to 2 quart containers. They were getting raggedy to the point that recovery time to be a mom would be a problem. I could have drug them over the finish line, but giving them the extra space ensures that they all live, and gives me some extra time to rerun anyone that doesn’t make the show on the first try.

Here’s Our Moms:

Just a couple days after the uppot, you can see the fresh green aggressive growth. We are still a couple months from selecting winners and it will be a struggle to keep them small, yet ready to sprout fresh shoots.

As always, your questions and comments are welcome.

-al

[als_weed]

2 Weeks and Done!

The Go-go juice has done its job. The main players all look fabulous, and the stragglers are at least 6 inches tall. PRMZ1,GDPZ1,GDPZ4, and GDPZ5 are not making it to the show. I will rerun them in a future round up run. If they fail to root a third time, it’s just not meant to be for my garden.

Here’s our girls at 2 weeks veg:

Show us your Roots!

Our Moms:

They are loving twice the root volume right now. I will let them coast for a while before we mess with them more.

Meanwhile, it’s time for the clones to go to the bloom room!

-al

[als_weed]

The Bloom Room

Tools & Methods

My weapon of choice for rapid phenotyping is the General Hydroponics Aeoflo 36. It’s an antique, but is unmatched in performance for this kind of work. We can look at up to 18 individuals in a 6x6 footprint, while cutting weeks out of the process of getting to finished bud compared to any other method. At the same time, it uses a quarter of the nutes and the only waste products are root masses and stalks.

There are several problems with these machines, and I keep meaning to replace them with shiny new bespoke engineered pieces, but they keep running with only minor mods.

Nutrition for aero is very different compared to any other method. This was the largest leap in my progression from soils, NFT, and DWC to aero.

When I first went to water, the Lucas formula(developed on Cannabis World) was the best rule of thumb for starting nutes in bubbling buckets. 0-8-16 made some pretty plants and is still used to this day. This formulation results in a base of 1350 ppm. Aero burns at 400, and proportional reduction does not provide adequate nutrition.

At the time, Dutch Master had a line of compatible products that could be tweaked into usability. After they went belly up, the weed world changed, and the focus had shifted more towards drain to waste and other less complicated growing methods.

I however, was hooked on all the benefits of aero. I did many heads up competitions with several lines of nutes to end up with Heavy 16 as the synthetic base of my recipe. At the same time, I started developing AeroTea, taking aeroponics out of the sterile world and adding a biotic touch, combining the best of both worlds.

Syntho/Biotic Aeroponics - You can’t get any further from KISS than this. The pitfalls are numerous, and all have the same result - Start Over. But there isn’t a faster, more efficient, and cost effective way to produce spectacular results.

Enough with ancient history. Let’s get to work!

Main Products Needed:

Secondary Products:

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

-als 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.

Let’s roll on to the plant.

-al

[als_weed]

Bloom Day 0

A Time to Plant

This is our layout for the participants in this run:

The order by size of mom is: Black Rock Lava Cake, Pure Michigan, White Angel, and Gran Dawgy Purps. I tried to group them by strain and size as much as possible.

In addition to our experimental girls, I have included White Angel, Black Rock Lava Cake, Pure Michigan, and Black Truffle for comparison. Black Truffle is Pure Michigan x White Truffle, and the current hotness in these parts.

One of the few good looking GDPZs broke right off in my hand. Hadn’t had that happen in years. I needed a moment. What a tragedy!

Day 0 Bloom:

The light is set to the lowest setting. The droopy girls will be looking better tomorrow.

Can’t wait to see these girls take off!

As always, your comments and questions are welcome.

-al

[mainerJ]

things are progressing along nicely. i see you have already determined an end date about 9wks for the flowers. is this what you do when choosing / hunting for the keeper moms? i am trying to understand the selection process you use, because i am thinking they will finish up at different times / dates.i would think in order to know who the keepers are you would what them to finish properly to gauge potency and yield?

[als_weed]

I use a 10 week window as a rule of thumb for scheduling purposes. Everyone will finish faster than that, and we will gather that data for better future planning.

We are looking for mainly potency and flavor profiles. Overall vigor and yield come next. We have to take into account that we have different starting plant sizes and pruning. They also all share the same base nutes. These are things that we can tweek when we do a confirmation grow.

Thank you for your interest.

-al

[mainerJ]

thank you for the explanation.

[als_weed]

Day 3 Bloom Update

Group Shot:

Data:

Everyone survived and perked. They have that super lush look and happy leaves.

I have shoot pruned everyone to 4, and removed any damaged leaves. This practice makes it easier to spot problems and reduces opportunities for pests and disease. As a rule, I never remove leaves unless there is a good reason.

Today was a big day for the plants. They started eating and got their first adjustment. On the data sheet, you can see the ppm got below my trigger of 345. My response was to add 20 ml of both A and B, while continuing to reduce the pH to below 6.4. This should put us right around 390-400 with this growth rate and age.

The circled s on the chart means they got a shot of foliar spray. This is the same als Super Feed N Kill Foliar Spray from earlier in this thread.

Along with all that, the lights got cranked up to 60%.

As always, your comments and questions are welcome.

-al

[als_weed]

-al’s Mail Bag

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

Wow, under 400ppm. Never knew it needs to be so low in aero. -g

Yeah things start to burn around 420. Like everyone else! Seriously tho, one of the great advantages of aero is that it uses a quarter of normal hydro nutes.

So what’s the short version of how aero works and why you do it? -m

Aero is all about delivering nutrients and dissolved oxygen in water droplets directly to the roots.

This acts like a supercharger, and maxes out the plants metabolism, resulting in crazy growth.

-Advantages:

Fastest Growth - Highest growth rates possible results in faster development, maximum gland and terp production, while finishing faster than other methods. Adding Aero Tea to the mix brings all the advantages of biotics and organics.

Low Nute Load - A quarter of the nutes means a quarter of the cost.

Low Waste - Only root balls and stalks are waste products. Saw a pile of used rockwool cubes on the side of the road the other day and it pissed me off.

Best Product - Aero stacks trichs like nothing else.

-Disadvantages:

High Failure Risk - Exposed roots are dangerous and there is no room for error. Most problems result in start over.

Like Having Cows - The plants require your attention every 12 hours. This is as far from KISS as you can get.

Lack of Commercial Support - Nutes and machines for medium scale aero are scarce. The machines I use are not optimized for weed and required mods.

Sorry, that got long and I still haven’t answered your question of why aero? Well the answer is the same quest everyone here is on - To make the very best.

My greatest hope is that readers of this thread will find something useful for their own growing journey.

Thank you for your interest.

-al

[als_weed]

Day 7 Bloom Update

Unit Shot:

Data:

We had another adjustment as the plants begin to ramp up their growth. I’ve pumped up the lights and aggressively shoot pruned the shortest plants. while leaving the larger plants with up to 5 side branches. This directs all the energy of the short plants into height, while forcing the taller plants to lollygag on side branches that unfortunately will be cut off later.

Happy Plants:

You can see the plants have put on a set of leaves and are looking very happy.

Show us your roots!

Herringbone roots have encircled the netpot on this small plant. Smaller hair-like aero roots will develop next. Once that starts, the roots need to be left undisturbed.

As always, your comments and questions are welcome.

-al

[als_weed]

Mom Update

At 3 months old, the moms are already screaming for root space and Nitrogen. I removed damaged leaves and pruned where needed.

They have 2 months to go, and the challenge will be to keep them small, but healthy enough to be a clone mother.

So for now, I’m adding 4 Tablespoons of worm castings and RO water. This will let us coast for a while longer on tea.

As always, your questions and comments are welcome.

-al

[als_weed]

Day 11 Bloom Update

Trellis Time!

We are in the explosive growth phase, when plants can put on inches every day.

Lush Plants:

Before:

A few plants are falling over and it’s time to put up the trellis. I stole the tech from pepper growers that use an adjustable trellis in commercial hydro grows.

It’s just dowels lashed together, but it allows us ultimate control of every plant in the unit.

Now is the time to move anyone, before they all get locked in.

Here’s our swaps:

One last look at the roots:

Trellis in Place:

I’ve started pinching the tops of the tallest plants while leaving the side branches. Shorter plants are being aggressively shoot pruned. Just trying to keep the tall ones out of the light, while still getting viable results from the smallest participants.

As always, your comments and questions are welcome.

-al

[als_weed]

Day 14 Bloom Update

Unit:

Perky plants with leaves reaching high for the light is just a delight.

Data:

The plants are pigging out, needing more food every other day this week. We will continue to shoot prune the short plants and pinch the tall plants.

Dueling Projects:

Pure Michigan competes to be tallest in the unit.

Full steam ahead with maximum growth rates starting now!

As always, your comments and questions are welcome.

-al

[als_weed]

Day 21 Bloom Update

Unit:

Data:

The plants are eating heavy and growing fast. A BRLC cross is winning the height race. There are several strong plants that just exude hybrid vigor.

Starting to see various bud sizes. Remember one of the goals of this experiment is to make a “crystal cactus” version of each strain, so big buds on a shorter frame is a key indicator.

As always, your comments and questions are welcome.

-al

[mainerJ]

so cool to see them pick up steam and just explode into flower. cant wait to see them “crystal cactus”

[als_weed]

Day 28 Bloom Update

Unit:

Data:

Happy Plants:

The stretch is about done, and it’s time to stack! I’m still pinching tops and getting ready to take out intermediate bud zone leaves.

The first res change was completed, with the only issue being a high pH that had to be brought down.

As always, your comments and questions are welcome.

-al

[als_weed]

A personal update

As you may know, I have recently partnered up with Green Rush Farms to do pheno hunts and crosses. We wanted to have a forum here, but for now that is just not possible.

If you are enjoying this project thread, please join me on Icmag in the Green Rush Farms forum.

In addition to a version of this thread, I have several projects:

23 Strain Cross with Reversed Black Truffle

We have 23 strains spread across 2 units in the bloom boom room. Meanwhile in the transition chamber, we have successfully reversed Black Truffle.

Our She-Male:

Pheno Hunt of 3 Bros. Grimm Strains

We are looking for a trippy buzz. Participants are Cinderella, Apollo, and Rosetta Stone.

Pheno Hunt of Original Chocolate Diesel+ 3 More Diesels!

Yeah, we are popping legendary seeds! Just started.

Thank you for your attention.

-al