BushMaster Experiment

[AeroCrafter]

I just started an experiment with the ultra-hyped Bushmaster. After reading all the posts on all the boards I could find, these are the tidbits I accumulated:

1. It's expensive.

2. It stops verticle growth in its tracks.

3. It can be hard on the plants.

4. Use kelp - Don't use kelp.

5. 5 ml per gallon burns plants in straight hydro - 4 or 3 reccd.

6. Buds have less trich coverage but overall retain their buzz profile.

7. Plants finish faster with larger denser buds, but with slightly less overall yeild


Here's the experiment and findings so far:

For the experiment I am using 16 clones of Killer Widow Queen, 2 Cheese(the cut), and 2 a special TrainWreck Cross. The reason for selecting these is as follows: The KWQ clone produces medium to large size colas with a sweet tart taste, great trich coverage and a quality buzz. The plant is a tank - very tough to kill - so if things start to go south, it should be able to recover(the reason most of this batch is KWQ) They tend to stretch and require extensive trellis work to get optimum results. The goal here is simply to produce shorter plants while retaining the unique flavor and buzz.

The Cheese is shorter and has great trich coverage - included in the experiment to see how much coverage is lost.

The Trainwreck cross is super stretchy and has a unique smell and buzz - the goal here once again is stretch control.

They are grown in an aeroflo-36(checkerboarded sites) with CO2 injection and climate controlled conditions.


Procedure:

Because of the nature of Aero, I know that 4 or 3 mls per gallon will be too much - so I will start with 2mls per gallon and use the manufacturer's instructions to guide the rest of the procedures.

My target day for starting the BM is day 11. The reasoning behind this is that plants have gained about 75% of the height I want them to finish at(they are about a meter high at this point after starting around 25 cm) and just before budset ~ day 13.

day 9 - I sprayed the plants with full strength kelp(Age Old Organics)

day 11 - I drained 75% of the rez and refilled with straight RO water resulting in a ppm of 230. I added 80 ml of Bushmaster. This stuff barely affects the ppm btw resulting in a ppm of 240.

day 13 - Verticle growth stopped. Fan leaves started to curl down.

day 14 - Drained rez - refilled with 80% nutes(~500 ppm)

day 15 - Sprayed with kelp again

day 16 - Brought nutes back up to optimum (~600 ppm)



Impressions at day 20

This stuff really does stop stretch - the main reason I was interested in it in the first place. I should end up with a very nice canopy.

The leaves took a beating. In addition to the curl the large fans got a light toasting around the edges - not enough to warrant removing them - but more than I like to see. If I do this again it will be for 2 days instead of 3.

Bud formation was rapid. These buds look like they are at 28 days right now and I don't see any reduction in early trich formation.


Right now at day 20 I'd say that the main claims of the product are true. Obviously I'm at least 40 days away from knowing anything about the finished plant. But I thought it would be a good idea to try and compile information about this super hyped product and hopefully get input from others that have tried it their application. Point 1 is correct $40 for 250 ml is steep but if the results are as positive as they appear - then $13 per run to control and speed up stretchy plants without negative side effects is truely worth it.

I would really like to hear the experiences of others that have tried this product.

I have pics - I just haven't figured out how to place them in the text. I will add them if there is interest in this post.


-AC


stay safe always

[Green Supreme]

Nice job.You've laid agood foundation,makes it easier for others to follow in your footsteps.GS

[Strawberrycough]

i would highly recommend using 1/4 strength of what ever the label says. I know that future batches of bushmaster is going to be cheaper because they are reducing the concentration of the formula.......
Also, phosphoload is a good alternative to bushmaster...its also the exact/very similar formula to "super bud"
good luck with your grow.....cant wait to see this thread...

[The Cannarchist]

Turns hairs red,lowers trich production,limits terpene production = less taste,causes botrytis by buds becoming too dense.

Temp manipulation works much better IMHO.

[Carpet Muncher]

thanks for taking the time to do this. i have a trainwreck cross that sounds like yours.. real lanky and faster than all the other girls. if this doesn't work, i'm going to have to stagger when i take the cuts.. the other strains i have would need like a 2wk head start.

has anyone tried foliar feeding with it? like @ 1ml per gal? with Penetrator? seems like it would simplify the process if it worked.

[Indica Sativa]

For my critical hash's, I use 3 ml one day along with 20 ml of liquid karma... wait a day or two and do the same thing. Thats it. Once you have it dialed in for that particular strain, you won't see the leaf curl anymore. They still get a little crispy at the edges, but its not noticeable unless you stare at it real hard ^^ If the price is too steep for some people, I suggest having a friend donate some money to you and generously give them a nice sack as a free gift =] Who doesn't love charity work?

Is anyone going to test out the Humboldt's Gravity? Or should I do it? I have a bottle sitting next to the BM, I just haven't cared to experiment with it yet...

[moonunit]

Great experiment, i'm interested in the results on the cheese cut reguarding trics. Personaly i like, as tc said, enviromental controls. Vertical lighting, even just for the stretch period, reduces stretch drastically. Also i have found that even pure sats can be grown indoors using some bondage and vert lighting no problems. Sat stems or for that matter the stems of plants that stretch(sat dom hybrids ect), are almost always thinner and more pliable than their squat fat indica or indy dom relatives. The monitoring of and manipulation of nute regeime during the stretch period can be proactive in reduction of height.
Having said all of that i think that if you find a product that has no negative cost for the reduction of stretch(i.e. loss of trics/potency ect), then it can only be a good thing. I also have to say that having worked alot with sats and sat doms we have developed growing techs that not only cope with stretch, but rely on it for the full potential to be reached. When we have dabbled with indica's we had to rethink and redesign our grow systems to cope with the lack of stretch. Anyways looking foward to your final results.
Much respect
Moonunit

[c-ray]

the side lighting is good as is dropping water temps, and/or feeding with cooler water

[AeroCrafter]

Update and some pix:

The slight burn was rough on the leaves, but flowering kicked in hard and verticle growth stopped. The buds have an extraordinary number of pistils, but trichome coverage is reduced by an estimated 25% from what I would normally see at this point. If these buds fill out, it looks like they will do nicely.

I have a bottle of gravity I want to test as well, but one variable at a time :)

I would really like to hear about experiences with that product as well - I don't expect to get to it for a couple months - so chime in with anything you know.

Some notes on the grow:

- I use chillers and CO2 along with environmental controls. Stretch can be affected but not really controlled in my experience. BM absolutely stops it. Now we just need to find out the effects on buzz, yield and appearance.

- I used 2 ml/gal for 3 days and it really hurt the plants. I will be doing at least one more test with 1ml/gal. Even if I got some stretch creeping back - I'd accept that for healthier leaves.

- I normally continue my pruning regimine up to day 8 -10 of bloom with these individuals. For this test I did no pruning once the plants hit the bloom room. The KWQ were topped and trained to 3 shoots with a final prune the day they hit 12/12(18 days veg). The Cheese was topped and trained to 6 with 18 days of veg.

This plan worked out well because of the vert stop. I would definately reccomend that folks DO NOT PRUNE IN BLOOM with this product.


Here are some pix from day11 of bloom - Day 1 of BM in the res. The shorter plants are The Cheese and the taller ones are KWQ.

[AeroCrafter]

Here's Day 13 - You can see the leaf curl in this shot

[AeroCrafter]

Here's Day 17

[AeroCrafter]

Here's day 24

[AeroCrafter]

Day 26

[Carpet Muncher]

AeroCrafter, in your last pic.. in far back, to the left of the white ballast.. what strain is that? nice frosty spears.

[sky high]

any chance of an update on this grow, AC?

[AeroCrafter]

An Overdue Update:


CM - Those are GrapefruitxMangoBX3 from the boy himself. A long time harem member.


About day 38 I noticed a couple pointy pods on the cheese. :(

Picked at em to no avail as you can see. My first concern was that BM may have been the cause - since they got mighty stressed and burned, however none of the KWQs showed any signs of walking on the wild side. The second factor was the kelp spray doing it. I used Age Old Organics kelp. I don't like spraying kelp in flower as it has caused hermies in a couple other strains I work with notably Orange Velvet and Bubba Kush. I put a cheese clone in dirt the next day, sprayed it with the same dose and schedule - day 35 of bloom it spouts nuts.

I am reasonably sure the kelp is the culprit.

Here's her/his mugshot before heading to the hash pot along with a prettier flower - GFM BX3

-AC

[AeroCrafter]

As for the rest of the test:

I cut the KWQ on day 55, about 6-7 days earlier than usual. Not very photogenic plants after all they went through.

Strain Summary:

The Cheese: DNF - hermed ~day38 appears to be kelp hormone stress related.

TrainwreckxGrapefruit: BM stopped stretch in its tracks. First time I didn't need extensive trellis work. Yield was 1.3z. I normally average around 1.5, however there was only two of these in the test and it suffered the burn and slight K deff - so the jury is still out on this one. Trich coverage was thick as usual. As far as aroma and taste - still the same fuely spice. Buzz was unchanged from original.

KillerWidowQueen: No stretch at all after treatment. Yield was a bit low at 1.2z per plant vs 1.6z normally. How much of this is due to stress, 6 less days of flower, or a Kdef masked by burnt leaves - I'm not sure. It still had its signature sweet tart taste and face numbing buzz, but I felt the overall high was slightly muted from untreated sisters.


Overall I'd say the experiment was worthwhile. While no way near a slam dunk, I certainly learned several things.

BushMaster Experiment Version 2.0 begins soon with two troublesome strains-

Purple Butters - A purple tinged monster with high density trichs, a funkadelic reek, and with so much vigor it snaps the trellis dowells if you dont keep looping it around.

ChocoDiesel - A favored phenotype that was the best of my pack. Tall and fluffy, but very potent - think Chocholate Necco dipped in lighter fluid.

They are currently in veg so it won't be too long.

In the mean time here's a shot of KWQ near finish and todays pic "progress".

Stay Safe

-AC

[Indica Sativa]

nice work =]

[AeroCrafter]

Another Round of Results with BushMaster plus bonus Gravity Disaster!


First let me show you what I trying to avoid and the reason for doing these trials. It

[AeroCrafter]

Here

[AeroCrafter]

BM day!
Emptied the res, filled with RO and mixed in 40 ml BushMaster. Shots are day 11

[AeroCrafter]

Day 12 Stoppage!

As you can see the plants just stopped stretching. Compared to the rampaging stretch from just 2 days ago

[AeroCrafter]

Day 13

I empty the res and fill with half strength nutes. They look a little ragged

[AeroCrafter]

Day 16

Not looking so hot

[AeroCrafter]

Day 19

Looking pretty ugly at this point. Staying with half strength nutes hoping to ride this out. I

[AeroCrafter]

Day 26

Whew!! Looks like I

[AeroCrafter]

Day 34

Chunkin!

[AeroCrafter]

Day 48

The Chunking continues. PB has gotten very dense and chunky. I really like the boost in density. Trich coverage is nice but a little less than I would normally see at this stage. The leaves are ugly but I don

[AeroCrafter]

Day 55

I cut these the next day. I would have let them go another couple days, but a schedule compression required them to go now. These are the last pix in bloom.

The PB is big, chunky and very dense. The buds with the best light track got extreme trich coverage. I didn

[AeroCrafter]

Postcut

PB 16 plants yielded 25 oz = 1.56 z/plant

The final bud structure was very nice. Trich coverage was the same as untreated plants in other grows. It did loose a bit of its pungency, but the buzz was the same heavy/trippy combo as before. In the past I have averaged 2.1 but the plants took up much more canopy space. These results for PB warrant further investigation. I know they could do much better.


CD 4 plants yielded 5 oz = 1.25 z/plant

Pretty pitiful really. I have approached 3 with this plant before

[AeroCrafter]

I decided to give the gravity a shot while waiting for the BM test to finish. The subject was a tried and true favorite GFMBX3(beanboy

[Agent-Smith]

Great job aero, thanks for adding some good info to this site! :thumbsup:

[Evil_Indica]

ever hear of a product NGW sales called "Dr. Node's Plant heighth regulator"

it contains paclobutrazol.