Diary Bodhi Seeds - Silver Lotus

[chilliwilli]

I used the canna bio line and did gave only water at the end and got a better taste imo.
With my first time water only grow i was a little worried how to starve them at the end since my mix had nutes for several runs but the plants did that on their own. They got lighter in color in the last weeks like when i starved them.

I tend to let them go very ripe for best effect. You can wait for the final swelling of the buds. Every flower will look swollen and blown up when ripe, normally starting from the bottom. Also the small calyx at the branching will look that way.

 

[Biosystem]

How fascinating. Like they self regulated and started to die off anyway. I had suspicions that that was the case, but haven't seen any plant do that that wasn't a carnivorous plant that grows in soil that has no considerable nutrients ever anyway.

 

[OZZ_]

Looking good Bio…. I’ve used cannas bio line as well in the past, I love it for for soil.

Very easy to use

 

[Biosystem]

Good to know, y'all. I'll have to take a look at what's in there so I can see how I might incorporate some of its ingredients into my mix - mostly the phosphorus and potassium.

I have a ton of bone going into my compost barrel at the moment but I need to make a separate bone collection bucket and start burning it so I can add the ashes onto the soil and water it in. My reading suggests that very little phosphorus is lost when burning bones, and it would make it much easier to work with rather than just burying them and waiting for the roots to consume them.

 

[Biosystem]

WEEK 8 OF FLOWER (DAY 50)

I am at a loss as to what must be happening. I starved all of these plants for one week, and that was about three weeks ago now. Now despite my heavy fertilization of the yellowed plants they seem to be only increasing in their amount of yellow. It makes me think that it is either not a nitrogen deficiency or if SOMEHOW three of these five females finish at 7 full weeks. It's bizarre. Their leaves look absolutely awful now. The two green ones have gotten very little fertilizer if at all for the past few weeks, and they seem rather happy. One of them is starting to turn yellow quickly however, but its bud production is very very nice, and it seems like it may be more on time with its discoloration since this strain is usually one that goes 7-10 weeks based on what I've read.

Anyone else who has grown this strain is way more than welcome to chime in here about this, 'cause this is awful to watch all this happen after babying these girls since August.

Otherwise, it seems like it's just down to watering them and waiting til chop day in early December.

 

[Master_kief_420grows]

Hey man! That yellowing is a very normal thing in all strains when they are reaching the end of their lifes. Of course depending on the strains it will vary a lot when will it start, since even seeds from the same strain can have different flowering times. In this case, it would be better if you stop feeding them. I normally stop on week 8-9 depending on how long the cultivar should go. But the yellowing is a very normal thing in most of the cultivars at the end of their life. Plants look really good! Great job

 

[Biosystem]

I was really really hoping that that was the normal blanching they do, but the trouble gals started this around the beginning of week 6 and these plants are usually supposed to go to 10 weeks. Doesn't that seem really early? Who knows, maybe those three were just really fast finishers. The buds definitely LOOK more finished than the other ones that haven't yellowed out yet. It's just regular water from here on.

 

[Biosystem]

WEEK 8 OF FLOWER (DAY 53) SUPPLEMENTAL POSTING

Here are some extra photos of what's going on over here. It's just the strangest thing. These plants were treated almost identically the whole time, and yet here we are. Fortunately none of the heavily affected plants' seem to be the clear winners as keeper pheno thus far. It appears that there was a dark horse the whole time. One of the "middling" phenos I had had started beefing up like an asian bodybuilder. This thing is getting swole in a hurry, it seems impervious to the "early yellowing," and it smells great.

Given how the yellow leaves have started turning brown and twisting like that, can anything extra be determined as to cause? It's technically still possible these ones are truly just ~8 week phenos in a strain that calls for +-70 days. Unlikely but possible.

I have another idea as to what it MAY be. My homebrew fertilizer - as I said before it's a mixture of fish filter gunk (nitrogen rich poop), molasses, blended beans and bananas and lactobacillus bacterial culture. This mixture has been sitting and stewing since late September. This is mixed with Epsom salt just before application. At first it smelled sweet like molasses and fruit. Now it smells more vinegary. I am wondering if perhaps the mixture got too low of a pH from acetic acid production from the molasses and fruit juice, and now it's dropped the soil pH so low that nutrients got locked out. Maybe? Maybe not? I am pretty sure I have a pH meter knocking around somewhere but I seriously doubt its accuracy and more than that, it makes me wonder what to do about it for next time. I am thinking of not adding molasses at all to the next batch and amending this one with baking soda to yank the pH back up.

 

[swampthing]

Hey brother! Sorry I haven’t been around much. They look fine. Curious what the difference in feed is between the plants?

I do have some recommendations nonetheless.
First off, I’m a major abuser of my plants. This first thing I would do before your next watering would be to tug on just about every fan leaf. Defoliate the ones that pull off easily. The very faded ones should come off with the slightest tug. Sometimes though, even after they’ve faded and crinkled the plants will hold on tight and want to suck everything out of em before letting go. But definitely start low on the plant and work your way up giving em all a tug and remove everything that comes right off and honestly, the ones that are all crinkled/dying too even if the plant doesn’t wanna let those go. Those dead ones can be prone to mildew/break down and risk infection of the plant (Especially since they’re not pumped full of life and nutrients. Think of em like an appendage on your body that’s not getting blood that can be prone to bacteria and can start rotting which can spread infection elsewhere).

After the defoliation and stuff, your plant will be forced to do two things. Eat more food that’s possibly left in the medium and also suck the rest out of what’s left on itself forcing it all to the flowers (as a evolutionary survival mechanism bc that’s where the seeds would be and would nurture it’s offspring, and if there aren’t seeds it would make it more likely to get some bc the flowers would be sticky for catching pollen and attracting pollinators like bees).

More than anything, nutrients…
I think aeration is key for home brew in terms of benificial bacteria etc. I’m not sure about letting it sit. Especially with molasses and other stuff.

In short, I would defoliate & water (but also, as I near harvest I like to spread out the watering so they suck everything up and lessen the change of PM, bud rot, and many other bacterial things that come with wetness).
If you can check the run off pH that should help, but I def do not recommend adding baking soda.
If pH is in fact off only thing I would recommend is dolomite lime. I use empty gallon Arizona tea jugs for hand watering and shake em up (which I would do for the dolomite bc I don’t think that dissolves so at least the particles will be mixed right after you shake instead of it all settling on the bottom).

My only concern is that it’s not a deficiency and maybe excess K/potassium. Either way I wouldn’t worry about the Nitrogen this late in the game, so hold off on the fish emulsion.

Here’s some old pic of my Silver Lotus. I left out of town for a week or so before harvest and some were yellow and drooping, so I understand your concern. I can’t find really any of the super tall haze ones. This one was the lone short one, and she seemed to be hungry and have that salmon and yellow thing going on. Def share some pics after you give em all a defoliation. I think just water molasses kelp and alfalfa should do the trick, but really, just water should be fine too. Either way I think you’ll be super happy. I really enjoyed this strain and the F1 outcross I made with Sakura has been a hit with everyone that grew em. Though no one has grown the cross made with the pheno shown here, just the taller big haze ones (not that the haze wasn’t dominant across the board with this cross, this one was just shorter with tight internodes like most of yours).
Thanks again for sharing
-swampy

 

[Biosystem]

Hey brother! Sorry I haven’t been around much. They look fine. Curious what the difference in feed is between the plants?

I do have some recs nonetheless. I would give em some liquid kelp and molasses and as crazy as it sounds, piss in a water bottle, use like a splash of that piss (ounce at most) for some quick absorbent readily available Nitrogen. For some reason I think they need a lil potassium (K) more than anything. I would also top dress with a lil alfalfa if you have it.

Hey, Swampthing! Thanks for checkin' in!

So, these plants have all been treated the same until a few days ago when I did give extra nutrients to the struggling plants in a hope they would perk up, but not much help there.

Not sure if you had checked my fertilizer mix, but it does have molasses and the nitrogen source (aquarium filter squeezings) is so strong it has nitrogen burned some of the more sensitive plants. It's absolutely wild how differently these plants have reacted to the SAME treatment. I can get more potassium by adding more fruits (bananas) and beans to the fertilizer mix to break down for future grows, but I was concerned with burning them. I feel like I had gone too heavy with the nitrogen this run since I was running from slight to moderate nitrogen burn most of the time. It's been weird. I don't have alfalfa, but I could probably top dress with something similar. Maybe dry out some grass clippings in a box for a while, idk.

 

[Biosystem]

Hey brother! Sorry I haven’t been around much. They look fine. Curious what the difference in feed is between the plants?

I do have some recommendations nonetheless.
First off, I’m a major abuser of my plants. This first thing I would do before your next watering would be to tug on just about every fan leaf. Defoliate the ones that pull off easily. The very faded ones should come off with the slightest tug. Sometimes though, even after they’ve faded and crinkled the plants will hold on tight and want to suck everything out of em before letting go. But definitely start low on the plant and work your way up giving em all a tug and remove everything that comes right off and honestly, the ones that are all crinkled/dying too even if the plant doesn’t wanna let those go. Those dead ones can be prone to mildew/break down and risk infection of the plant (Especially since they’re not pumped full of life and nutrients. Think of em like an appendage on your body that’s not getting blood that can be prone to bacteria and can start rotting which can spread infection elsewhere).

After the defoliation and stuff, your plant will be forced to do two things. Eat more food that’s possibly left in the medium and also suck the rest out of what’s left on itself forcing it all to the flowers (as a evolutionary survival mechanism bc that’s where the seeds would be and would nurture it’s offspring, and if there aren’t seeds it would make it more likely to get some bc the flowers would be sticky for catching pollen and attracting pollinators like bees).

More than anything, nutrients…
I was going give em some liquid kelp and molasses and as crazy as it sounds, piss in a water bottle, use like a splash of that piss (ounce at most) for some quick absorbent readily available Nitrogen. For some reason I think they need a lil potassium (K) more than anything. I was also going to say top dress with a lil alfalfa if you have it.
BUT BEFORE THAT-Question: you say your nutes have been sitting. Are you aerating this mixture? I usually have my home brew nutes in a vessel that’s aerated and bubbling. I found a cheap fish tank pump too weak and got a nicer one for not much more on Amazon. I use that pump to aerate my brew with an air stone (I found a round flat one, and actually found a line that I can split to add more than one stone). I think aeration is key for home brew in terms of benificial bacteria etc. I’m not sure about letting it sit. Especially with molasses and other stuff.

In short, I would defoliate & water (but also, as I near harvest I like to spread out the watering so they suck everything up and lessen the change of PM, bud rot, and many other bacterial things that come with wetness). If you can check the run off pH that should help, but I def do not recommend adding baking soda.
If pH is in fact off only thing I would recommend is dolomite lime. I use empty gallon Arizona tea jugs for hand watering and shake em up (which I would do for the dolomite bc I don’t think that dissolves so at least the particles will be mixed right after you shake instead of it all settling on the bottom).

My only concern is that it’s not a deficiency and maybe excess K/potassium. Either way I wouldn’t worry about the Nitrogen this late in the game, so hold off on the fish emulsion.

Here’s some old pic of my Silver Lotus. I left out of town for a week or so before harvest and some were yellow and drooping, so I understand your concern. I can’t find really any of the super tall haze ones. This one was the lone short one, and she seemed to be hungry and have that salmon and yellow thing going on. Def share some pics after you give em all a defoliation. I think just water molasses kelp and alfalfa should do the trick, but really, just water should be fine too. Either way I think you’ll be super happy. I really enjoyed this strain and the F1 outcross I made with Sakura has been a hit with everyone that grew em. Though no one has grown the cross made with the pheno shown here, just the taller big haze ones (not that the haze wasn’t dominant across the board with this cross, this one was just shorter with tight internodes like most of yours).
Thanks again for sharing
-swampy
View attachment 18782229

Hey, did you edit your post? I didn't see a lot of this at first. Sorry for sitting on it for so long.


Anyway, to answer your questions - yeah, the mix is aerated. I have a ton of pumps around for aquariums and stuff. Tomorrow I was gonna defoliate all the dead anyway and scrounge for that pH meter to see if it worked. Maybe the oH is indeed fine. Moving forward I think I'd just avoid putting the molasses in the mix that sits and breaks down since it seems to just turn to acetic acid in there. I reckon I'll just stick with organic PK amounts for the mix and for nitrogen just add in some dilution before application from my Jadam barrel which is now in full swing. Next grow will definitely go better than this one. And that's a good thing. I'll definitely post pics soon of the plants and how they're doin' as well as pH updates and all that.

 

[swampthing]

Hey, Swampthing! Thanks for checkin' in!

So, these plants have all been treated the same until a few days ago when I did give extra nutrients to the struggling plants in a hope they would perk up, but not much help there.

Not sure if you had checked my fertilizer mix, but it does have molasses and the nitrogen source (aquarium filter squeezings) is so strong it has nitrogen burned some of the more sensitive plants. It's absolutely wild how differently these plants have reacted to the SAME treatment. I can get more potassium by adding more fruits (bananas) and beans to the fertilizer mix to break down for future grows, but I was concerned with burning them. I feel like I had gone too heavy with the nitrogen this run since I was running from slight to moderate nitrogen burn most of the time. It's been weird. I don't have alfalfa, but I could probably top dress with something similar. Maybe dry out some grass clippings in a box for a while, idk.

Yep I didn’t read some of your posts until I edited. I think you’re right the N may be a bit high, and the potassium should be fine from the molasses by itself. I would hold off on the bananas and grass at this point.

Either way, your harvest isn’t too far off and these are gonna be delicious!

 

[Biosystem]

Yes, of course. I may give these ones some molasses next time they get watered but past that I'm just going to flush them til harvest. This has been a crazy learning experience. I have learned a LOT that I really didn't think I would have to. I'm just keeping an open mind - despite the fact that I know most of this information in THEORY does NOT mean that I know this information in PRACTICE. I wish I had better diagnostics tools so that I could test what I know rather than needing to go through the school of hard knocks to find out weeks later that I was right or that there was something I could have done.

But hey, I've started a path towards the goal of learning how to grow cannabis with almost zero expense besides power and water bill, and that's going to take some learning; especially since there is so little good info about organic cannabis gardening in general, much less about the kind of organic materials that are created or found at home. There's absolutely no reason these methods I'm working with can't be fine tuned to be just as good if not better than commercially produced fertilizer products with enough time and experimentation, and that's what these grow logs I'm making are for. I want others to be able to see what I'm doing/did and go "huh, I can do that too!" and get amazing cannabis for dirt cheap (pun unabashedly intended). To this goal, I'm going to start making a checklist for parameters for my update posts, and I'll be a bit more structured with where and how I write my info. By no means do I expect to be a big feature on this forum, but I at least want to create something that really helps other people grow this amazing plant. Hell, I don't even smoke anymore. At this point, I might have a tiny bit of an edible once in a blue moon. I just love this plant and have wanted to grow it since I was just a teenager.


Thanks again for anyone watching this series of goof'em'ups. More updates to come on Saturday as always.

 

[Biosystem]

WEEK 9 OF FLOWER (DAY 57)

Alright, so some updates on what the hell's going on over here. Things are pretty stressful between handling this batch and the one coming up. I hadn't thought that the closer I got to actual harvest the less I would enjoy it. The problems seem pretty immense, but maybe I'm overthinking it. Maybe I'm moreso worried about the Bruce Banner seedlings with their leaf problems. Anyway, these Silver Lotus plants were on Day 57 as of an hour ago.

I did pH tests of all their runoff and it all tested 6.6 across the board as it did with the Bruce banner young'n's. I also found tons of tiny white worms in the runoff which was interesting/disturbing. I think they might be the nematode babies I put in the pots several weeks back (good!) Or some new menace to deal with (bad!). Pictures will be attached.

I did defoliation of the dead or dying leaf matter that would easily come off of the remaining plants. Yay! I say remaining plants because one of the 5 is no longer with us. I still don't know if she may be simply finished early at about 7-8 weeks somehow or what the hell, but she was a withered husk the night before last so I chopped her and have her hanging in a cardboard box on the flower tent since it's pretty decent drying conditions and it's the only smellproof place I can put her. Pictures attached of her as well.

The rest of the flowering plants got plain water tonight and I plan to give them some molasses on their next watering as well. Otherwise, they're just sitting underneath the lights looking generally like shit. Temp is okay, pH is okay, humidity is kinda low (around 30-50%), and they've been cut off of nutes. I will say though they are quite frosty and while their yield looks dismal, they smell pretty good and the one that's already chopped looks crystal covered as hell.

I found out that my fertilizer mix had turned largely to acetic acid. I did a test and added some baking soda and as you could imagine, it exploded (with foam). I can only imagine what damage fertilizing with what is basically nutrient infused vinegar has done to my garden, but I'm never doing that again. EVER. I'm doing separate nutrient mixes of nitrogen bases and PK bases with no other sugars added and I'm going to amend the pH if I start to smell vinegar in there to neutralize it, but I shouldn't since it won't be molasses based and too sugary in the PK mix. What an absolute clusterfuck this has been.


Look, guys, I'm pretty frustrated with this whole grow at this point. No, I'm not giving up, but I sure as hell wish I could go back and change some things. If anyone has the time and desire to lend a hand, I'd really appreciate some eyes on my other journal for my Bruce Banner plants - link is in signature.

Live and learn, y'all. I really hope this account can help other people learn from my mistakes. I know I have. . .

 

[Biosystem]

Worms in tube

 

[Biosystem]

WEEK 10 OF FLOWER (DAY 64)

Things are going okay with these girls I suppose. They're almost done. Yield is small, but the nugs are frosty as hell. They look like they were left outside in February. Some really nice colors and aromas. Temps, humidity, light all good. No nutrients for the past week or so. Most look like they're done, but the strongest one is still going.
I'll probably only let them go another week. Maybe two.

 

[swampthing]

Looking good from here! Push em to the limit.

Bet they’re smelling heavenly.

 

[Biosystem]

Well, if I'm bein' honest the plants themselves smell pretty damn awesome, BUT the tent itself is pretty lackluster in aroma. I am pumping air through a carbon filter like a MOTHER, but it's still not super fragrant in there, and it makes me wonder. I've never smelled a "high quality" cannabis grow tent before so I have nothing to compare it to. I suppose that the fact that I smell it as soon as I open the tent flap DESPITE my air flow is a good sign, but you really don't get the full "das dat gud weed, mayne" smell 'til you actually rub a stem and give it the old whiff. I feel like there's only one plant in the tent that's definitely worth keeping. The yield and temperamental attitude of the other 3 are so pitiful I don't know if I'd even want to grow them again even if they turned out to be more potent than the one that's producing decently and gave me minimal problems. I guess I should do the responsible thing and hang onto the clones for the next 3 weeks or so til I can actually do a halfway reliable smoke test. It's going to be crazy since I pretty much never get stoned anymore.
I'm just glad that these gals are going to make it through to the finish line. 10 weeks is around Dec 3rd I believe, but we'll see if that one keeper wants to go longer. She still has some white pistils growing. Now I'm scratching my head about the drying process. I think I'm going to just hang up some new bedsheets towards the top of the tent to block light from below and hang them from the tent ceiling above them so they aren't touching anything, aren't getting blasted by light and have good humidity and temperature without smelling up the house.

 

[PaperClip]

Well, if I'm bein' honest the plants themselves smell pretty damn awesome, BUT the tent itself is pretty lackluster in aroma. I am pumping air through a carbon filter like a MOTHER, but it's still not super fragrant in there, and it makes me wonder. I've never smelled a "high quality" cannabis grow tent before so I have nothing to compare it to. I suppose that the fact that I smell it as soon as I open the tent flap DESPITE my air flow is a good sign, but you really don't get the full "das dat gud weed, mayne" smell 'til you actually rub a stem and give it the old whiff. I feel like there's only one plant in the tent that's definitely worth keeping. The yield and temperamental attitude of the other 3 are so pitiful I don't know if I'd even want to grow them again even if they turned out to be more potent than the one that's producing decently and gave me minimal problems. I guess I should do the responsible thing and hang onto the clones for the next 3 weeks or so til I can actually do a halfway reliable smoke test. It's going to be crazy since I pretty much never get stoned anymore.
I'm just glad that these gals are going to make it through to the finish line. 10 weeks is around Dec 3rd I believe, but we'll see if that one keeper wants to go longer. She still has some white pistils growing. Now I'm scratching my head about the drying process. I think I'm going to just hang up some new bedsheets towards the top of the tent to block light from below and hang them from the tent ceiling above them so they aren't touching anything, aren't getting blasted by light and have good humidity and temperature without smelling up the house.

Great job on your first grow! As for the clones you took, yes keep them. One thing I've noticed over many rounds of pheno searching and cloning is that each clone will react quite different each grow, depending on the smallest of differences in the environment and other conditions (like gnats, etc.). Point is, if you end up loving the flower from one of the problem plants, chances are the clone will grow much better on the next round and not like the original plant did.

 

[420PyRoS]

Thanks for sharing man.
I've been picking up Bodhi strains lately and throwing into the collection. It's nice to see his gear grown out.

Hoping you got a potent one in there.