AcrylicGoblin Auto Sativa project

[AcrylicGoblin]

Liking your style! Ever try growing honeysuckle vine up a tree - it'll make a spiral groove in it, your woven willow reminded me of that. Careful with supplemental light and light hours, I'd still give them a dark nightime

I have an old walking stick with a spiral groove from a vine, that's what gave me the idea for these.
Thanks for the tip on the supplemental light. I was questioning the light decision earlier this evening, though I was mostly thinking that it was a waste of effort and electricity.

 

[Persianfarmer]

Hi everybody, thanks for stopping by. This is, for the most part, an outdoor grow. I decided to start the journal early as part of my overall strategy to avoid driving myself crazy with current American politics. I should say from the outset, a lot of this might end up off the topic of cannabis... I'm an off topic kind of person. "Shit growing in my yard" might be a more accurate title, but documenting the sativa auto project is the purpose of the journal, so I'm going with that.


This year, I'm trying to move past all of the silly endless crosses I've been making over the years and focus on a specific project: a long flowering sativa that will finish in my environment. I live on the California coast near the Oregon border. It rains a lot here, but the rain doesn't start until September. I can theoretically start a plant inside on groundhog's day, put it out at the end of March after the frosts pass, and let it go outdoors until mid September. That's 7 1/2 months and long enough for a decent sativa if only I can get the flowering to start early. That's the hope, anyway.


So...where to start? I suppose with the easy part... for the photoperiod side of the equation I'm going to try ace seeds new Caledonia, Ethiopian, and maybe a couple others.


The auto side is a mix of two strains from Flash seeds. One of those is called Ace, not to be confused with the brand of ace seeds. Here is the genealogy of the two strains used to make the auto I'm starting with:
View attachment 19143119

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View attachment 19143120
First phase of the project is to select the auto I want to cross with the photoperiods later in the year. After much deliberation (multiple crosses and a few generations to choose from) I've decided to go with one called *75 [Ace x (strawberry jam x ace)] seeds from 2021. I decided to go back one generation to do better selecting before moving forward. I just started soaking a couple hundred seeds and will gradually cull my way down to one male and a few females for seed production and then smoke test to decide which seeds to move forward with. I'm starting early in the greenhouse hoping to get an extra generation in before crossing to New Caledonia and Ethiopian in late summer/fall. Or maybe I'm just starting early because in a month or two my wife will have already claimed all of the greenhouse space. The ace x strawberry jam can take a long time, but growing in one gallon pots and pollinating both decrease the time to harvest, so I should have plenty of time to grow out the seeds again. Unfortunately, I haven't been good about taking pictures in the past. I'm pretty sure, though, that these are representative of the parents. The one with the red stem is ace x strawberry jam and the other is ace.
View attachment 19143124

View attachment 19143121

Finishing the new Caledonia and Ethiopian might be a challenge, but my goal is just to produce a few viable seeds. I should be able to do at least that. I'll try to take some clones so I can grow a few smaller plants in the greenhouse into the fall.



Finally, let me say that I'm not trying to grow the best cannabis in the world. I'm playing around in my yard and having fun. So if somebody feels the need to say, "dude, your weed sucks", you can skip the comment with the satisfaction that I wouldn't totally disagree. Besides, 90% if it will be made in to hash anyway (that's what I usually smoke). And for you sticklers for terminology out there, you can think NLD whenever you read the word sativa if that helps you sleep at night.


I'm going to try to keep this journal for a few years, at least until I can grow out the first New Caledonia x *75 auto. I'm really looking forward to this project as well as sharing it and discussing it with you.

Hello my friend! Above all thanks for doing this project, love your passion it is inspiring.

Like yourself I was a backyard grower and loved it till i had to move to an apartment.

I grew an Amnesia cross, Chong’s amnesia on my balcony and it took about 7 months, but at the end it foxtailed madly and was reveging a bit, hope you will not encounter that… anyways super intersting stuff you got going, mad respect and best of luck.

A pic of what i grew

 

[AcrylicGoblin]

Hello my friend! Above all thanks for doing this project, love your passion it is inspiring.

Like yourself I was a backyard grower and loved it till i had to move to an apartment.

I grew an Amnesia cross, Chong’s amnesia on my balcony and it took about 7 months, but at the end it foxtailed madly and was reveging a bit, hope you will not encounter that… anyways super intersting stuff you got going, mad respect and best of luck.

A pic of what i grew

I am certainly blessed to have my own yard to grow in, I'm very thankful. I lived in apartments for many years... mostly without the luxury of a balcony, so at least you have a little space to grow.
We're you satisfied with the quality of the effect from your plant? I know foxtailing isn't great for bag appeal, but does it change the quality of the finished product? I actually like the look of buds on a plant that are foxtailing but I don't think I've ever sampled them on their own (because most of my plants just get mixed up into the yearly hash run)
I've found that the oneness will just keep growing if it gets too much water towards (what I thought was) maturity. I'm not sure if that qualifies as revegging or not Because it's mainly just throwing out new buds. I don't necessarily mind, it's an additional harvest, but it ends up being a bunch of immature larfy stuff.
Thank you so much for the kind words my friend, I truly appreciated hearing from you

 

[Persianfarmer]

I am certainly blessed to have my own yard to grow in, I'm very thankful. I lived in apartments for many years... mostly without the luxury of a balcony, so at least you have a little space to grow.
We're you satisfied with the quality of the effect from your plant? I know foxtailing isn't great for bag appeal, but does it change the quality of the finished product? I actually like the look of buds on a plant that are foxtailing but I don't think I've ever sampled them on their own (because most of my plants just get mixed up into the yearly hash run)
I've found that the oneness will just keep growing if it gets too much water towards (what I thought was) maturity. I'm not sure if that qualifies as revegging or not Because it's mainly just throwing out new buds. I don't necessarily mind, it's an additional harvest, but it ends up being a bunch of immature larfy stuff.
Thank you so much for the kind words my friend, I truly appreciated hearing from you

Hiya dear friend,
Thank you so much for taking the time to respond. Tbh, you are raising in interesting point, regarding the quality of smoke. Personally I did not see a real difference, so if the quality is less it is not very obvious. I was lucky regarding terpenes, had a good percentage of Caryophyllene more than Myrcene and the taste in the mouth was very close to a spicey, oud mango. The intensity of the high was medium, but very social upbeat and maybe lasted 30-40mins before burning another J (I am a joint smoker, retired from Bong, pipe and elevated bongs, knife hits when poor)
Also with the fox tails, i did cut a few and tried to grow them the same way you would super crop. And it is a bit challenging as compared to a normal clone cut, but it does work. I agree the looks of fox-tailing is visually appealing.
Lets stay in touch and have conversations whenever you are free.
Good luck with your grows and hope your weed will give you wings (as redbull)

 

[Baba Karuna]

Loving the thread my brother super cool to see your setup. I love the crab guts! Must make for some nutritious soil! Do you grow full season in the greenhouse or is it just for starts?

🪷Om Śivamastu🪷

 

[AcrylicGoblin]

Loving the thread my brother super cool to see your setup. I love the crab guts! Must make for some nutritious soil! Do you grow full season in the greenhouse or is it just for starts?

🪷Om Śivamastu🪷

We use this greenhouse for various starts early in the season and then hot peppers and tomatoes for the rest of the year. We also have a larger greenhouse (a cheap tunnel from Amazon), but any cannabis I try to grow in there is guaranteed to fail due to mold and mildew...the moisture is high and ventilation low. That one is somewhat useful for me to bring pots in to avoid frost and rain.

***If anyone here hasn't checked out Baba's Garden, I highly recommend it. It's my favorite grow journal on the site, full of good vibes and good weed. Feel free to skip over the multiple half-page posts where I write about things that have nothing to do with his garden***

 

[Baba Karuna]

We use this greenhouse for various starts early in the season and then hot peppers and tomatoes for the rest of the year. We also have a larger greenhouse (a cheap tunnel from Amazon), but any cannabis I try to grow in there is guaranteed to fail due to mold and mildew...the moisture is high and ventilation low. That one is somewhat useful for me to bring pots in to avoid frost and rain.

***If anyone here hasn't checked out Baba's Garden, I highly recommend it. It's my favorite grow journal on the site, full of good vibes and good weed. Feel free to skip over the multiple half-page posts where I write about things that have nothing to do with his garden***

I get that brother, our the hot summers of California do not mix well with low ventilation greenhouses I once got some nasty mold before installing some fans but it was a good experience.

I appreciate the support and your good vibes and generosity my friend


🪷Om Prthivyai Namah🪷

 

[AcrylicGoblin]

The plants are off to a slow start. I've never started seeds quite so early in the year before and am not loving the slow growth. Every morning I walk out to the greenhouse, cup of coffee in hand, and think, "yep, still small"
The temperature has been between 25f-50f since they sprouted and it's been cloudy basically every day...so I will just be happy everything is still living. We finally got some sun yesterday. I'm going to start moving the plants to an area of the yard that gets full sun during the day, so that will help. By the time March rolls around, it's usually sunny most days (after the morning fog burns off) so the growing conditions will improve soon. If not...well... I am trying to select for things that will do well in my environment, so I'll just consider this mother nature helping me in that endeavor.

I'm leaving town for a few days and decided to pot some seedlings up into 2" pots before I go. Due to the number of seedlings I'm starting with, this run will get transplanted one more time than my autos normally would.
Love and peace to all of you.

 

[gedLang]

The plants are off to a slow start. I've never started seeds quite so early in the year before and am not loving the slow growth. Every morning I walk out to the greenhouse, cup of coffee in hand, and think, "yep, still small"
The temperature has been between 25f-50f since they sprouted and it's been cloudy basically every day...so I will just be happy everything is still living. We finally got some sun yesterday. I'm going to start moving the plants to an area of the yard that gets full sun during the day, so that will help. By the time March rolls around, it's usually sunny most days (after the morning fog burns off) so the growing conditions will improve soon. If not...well... I am trying to select for things that will do well in my environment, so I'll just consider this mother nature helping me in that endeavor.
View attachment 19152910
I'm leaving town for a few days and decided to pot some seedlings up into 2" pots before I go. Due to the number of seedlings I'm starting with, this run will get transplanted one more time than my autos normally would.
Love and peace to all of you.

My indoor growing environment is probably 55-65 F during the winter. It slows things down but that can be nice too - more time to observe the plant and respond to its needs. These sprouts look nice and healthy!

 

[AcrylicGoblin]

I'd mentioned earlier how much chickens love cannabis. Well, it turns out finches and/or sparrows do as well. I'm glad I started so many seeds.

Rotten little fuckers ate about 15 starts this morning. My wife noticed and covered the trays with wire cages that we use to protect young plants. One of those cages had a small opening and when I went out to put the plants away, one of those winged devils had gotten inside and eaten another 5+. Before I let it out of the cage, I told him I'm only buying the cheapest of birdseeds from now on. That'll teach 'em!

 

[gorilla ganja]

Well, it turns out finches and/or sparrows do as well.

That sucks. Glad you have plenty. Maybe try a silhouette of a Falcon or a plastic Owl to keep them away during the seedling stage.

Owl

 

[bonghopper]

I'd mentioned earlier how much chickens love cannabis. Well, it turns out finches and/or sparrows do as well. I'm glad I started so many seeds.
View attachment 19155548
Rotten little fuckers ate about 15 starts this morning. My wife noticed and covered the trays with wire cages that we use to protect young plants. One of those cages had a small opening and when I went out to put the plants away, one of those winged devils had gotten inside and eaten another 5+. Before I let it out of the cage, I told him I'm only buying the cheapest of birdseeds from now on. That'll teach 'em!

Hemp seeds are they're favourite food, get a bulk bag and feed them those ; )

 

[AcrylicGoblin]

The first seeds popped out of the soil 18 days ago. Here's where we are at so far...

Progress is slow, but they all look healthy. I've got 100 pots left. Some have two plants because the roots were intertwined, but I'm going to pinch off the extras and be left with 100 plants.

**Only stoned rambling from this point on**

All of the remaining runty plants got stuck into one of the crab gut planter boxes, thunderdome style. If something out there can survive the birds, slugs, a few more frosts, it's siblings etc. I will be impressed. If it's a girl, I'll save seeds out of respect and admiration.

I'm thinking that in a few weeks, I'll start some more seeds. Probably a few oneness and the rest CBD and CBDV autos. I'm blessed to have three growing locations, so I'd like to be able to bring new maturing autos to the other two spots every 4-6 weeks. Do I need that much cannabis? No, I probably grow 10x what I can use. But there is always someone who's really happy to get a free ball of hash (or sick and appreciates some RSO). Plus, I need an entry for the hash library.
As I've mentioned before, almost everything I grow gets made into a yearly hash mix. The cannabinoid ratios are a bit different every year, but I always put a bit of CBD in. The batches I've made out of exclusively THC plants weren't nearly as pleasant. I used to just give all of the extra hash away, but after hearing someone mention on a podcast that the best hash he ever smoked was aged for 12 years, I decided (5 years ago) to start saving a good sized ball every year, imagining a 25 year hash collection. A couple years after that, I realized that I couldn't both save it and smoke it so I started saving two separately packaged hash balls... roughly "shooter" marble sized, if that means anything to you. Sometime soon, I'll open the extra 2022 ball and see how it's going. I'll report back and let you all know if it's gracefully aging or just getting old.
In other news: I dyed my hair blue, like every respectable 50+ year old should.

Goodnight patient readers...

 

[AcrylicGoblin]

I've put about 50 plants in gallon pots. Growth had been pretty slow, but looks to be picking up. Everything looks healthy except for a few crinkly leaves here and there. The soil I used to pot most of the seedlings up into 2" pots slowed those down a lot. It was reused potting soil that had a lot of our very dense native soil mixed in. I should have gotten some perlite to loosen it up (or a fresh bag of an appropriate potting soil) but was feeling too lazy to do so. Also, it's still been mostly cold and cloudy... not the kind of weather these plants love.
For the gallon pots, I mixed some of that previously mentioned dense soil with perlite, Royal Gold Kings Mix, and mix of compost, chicken manure, bone meal and kelp that I've had ageing for a month. I think I overdid the perlite a bit. I usually grow in much larger pots or raised beds and rarely add additional fertilizer. These will definitely need additional nutrients.

I've also got some tobacco seedlings coming up. I'm growing a couple different varieties of nicotiana tabacum (regular smoking tobacco) and one of nicotiana rustica. The rustica is an heirloom variety named Louisiana Pirogue. Most of the tobacco will be made into swedish snus. I'll post about that process when the time comes.

Obviously, I can't grow all of this stuff without taking some serious security measures, so I had to acquire a guard dog.

3 pounds of fury! After the nap, of course.