nw_outdoor
New member
So in late may my best friend got his medical card, and knowing I had some knowledge about cannabis brought me into help.
Worth noting, the last time I was even close well read on this subject was '06 maybe '07, and a lot has changed.
So he got some NL autoseeds from cropking (I know right?) and asked me if I had any bag seed I could contribute. As a matter of fact I did have some bag seed from a bag that was sold as semi-local outdoor bud.
So, in a spirit of friendly competition I sprouted 3 of my seeds, and got them started in a computer case CFL set up. In WA state (our location) med laws were about to change but I could grow for another few weeks as a caretaker.
Things were going good, until I had to some unexpected house guests and had to throw a blanket over the case to eliminate some substantial light leaks for two days
And the heat damn near killed em, they were about 4 inches tall, and on the 5th set of branches.
I felt pretty stupid. But gave them water and hoped for the best.
100% recovery.
I started the plants in margarine containers, and roots were peeking out the drainage holes by week 2.5 so outdoors they went. Into a variety of ~1/2 gallon containers.
By mid june it was clear that I could not keep them in my yard undetected when med laws changed in july so to my friends house they went.
About the time they passed the autoflowers in size it was clear that they needed a bigger pot, so I found some 2 or three gal ones at home depot and a bag or two of FFOF, and transplanted again.
We hit them with light organic veg nutes once of twice but generally let them do their thing.
Now from this point on I was warning my buddy that based on their leaf structure these were sativa dominant that they probably wouldn't finish in time. And that he shouldn't get too attached or put in too much effort.
When they were waist height and almost twice as big as the auto's we topped them, to reduce the height in any way possible (probably late june early july.
They got bigger and bigger, and by early august they had outgrown their 2-3 gal pots, so I got another bag of soil, not FF this time but some "natural harvest" type thing that seemed similar, 5 gal buckets and we added some pearlite we had lying around to the mixture.
BIG MISTAKE. This was miracle grow perlite which is saturated in time release 3-3-3 fertilizer. We realized this about 30 minutes too late.
The 2-3 gallon pots nested perfectly in the top of the 5 gal buckets so we just cut the bottoms out and pressed them together.
As the roots spread we started getting mild nute burn. Fortunately for us, it was hot as hell so we could flush without severely drowning the roots, but definitely hindered growth a bit. Once we dissolved a lot of the miracle grow out, growth really took off.
By mid august they were all 5 feet, We let a male burst its first 2-4 balls before we chopped, even though the females seemed a few weeks immature for pollination. Nonetheless we only got 4-6 sites pollinated between the two, enough to play with the genetics next season.
Late august we got nailed by a gnarly windstorm, the node we topped at split down about 4-6 inches. and in transporting that plant inside the top pot separated from the bottom 5 gal causing some somewhat severe root damage. The other plant survived almost unscathed.
A bit of duct tape kept the split ends together and while they didn't heal, the plant recovered just fine. Later we got a hold of a zip tie and replace the duct tape.
By Sept 5th undeniable pistils were showing. It was official. there was a chance these might possibly finish before torrential rains and mold. And that's when the stakes changed. And they were both 6 feet or more.
By the second week of september, it was clear that we had some sort of issue and bought a all purpose soil analysis from home depot.
It revealed that PH was at 8 (!) and the tap water we had been feeding was at almost 8.5. Rookie mistake. Most nutes were dangerously low.
So got some FF big bloom, Ph up down and started feeding/watering at a 4.5-5 ph. Ph lock out cleared up pretty fast and combined with flower nutes BOOM budding took off.
The smaller of the two plants ( 6 foot even) is about a week maybe two ahead of the 6'8 plant.
As of today, we have the better part of a QP of immature buds but only a week of good weather.
Fortunately the structure is very sativa dominant and we are praying that bud rot will be a minor issue.
The early pheno needs another 2 weeks to show full potential but we only have one week of OK weather left...
We plan to move the early pheno into the garage for the worst of the weather. The late pheno (6 foot 8 ish) will be ready last week of oct, but is too big to fit thru door frame so it will probably get some bud rot
if it finishes at all.
PM is showing up here and there but it isn't taking off. Easy to pluck affected leaves.
Still the PH lock out did a number on the plant and where have 3-4 fan leaves left between the two. and a lot of yellow ( not too surprising given minimal nutes during veg and the fact that all other flora is turning yellow/red/ dead)
Need to scrub EXIF data but will have pictures up shortly.
TL;DR- you can make a lot of mistakes and still end up with a small TREE, whether or not it finished in time is another story entirely.
Worth noting, the last time I was even close well read on this subject was '06 maybe '07, and a lot has changed.
So he got some NL autoseeds from cropking (I know right?) and asked me if I had any bag seed I could contribute. As a matter of fact I did have some bag seed from a bag that was sold as semi-local outdoor bud.
So, in a spirit of friendly competition I sprouted 3 of my seeds, and got them started in a computer case CFL set up. In WA state (our location) med laws were about to change but I could grow for another few weeks as a caretaker.
Things were going good, until I had to some unexpected house guests and had to throw a blanket over the case to eliminate some substantial light leaks for two days
And the heat damn near killed em, they were about 4 inches tall, and on the 5th set of branches.
I felt pretty stupid. But gave them water and hoped for the best.
100% recovery.
I started the plants in margarine containers, and roots were peeking out the drainage holes by week 2.5 so outdoors they went. Into a variety of ~1/2 gallon containers.
By mid june it was clear that I could not keep them in my yard undetected when med laws changed in july so to my friends house they went.
About the time they passed the autoflowers in size it was clear that they needed a bigger pot, so I found some 2 or three gal ones at home depot and a bag or two of FFOF, and transplanted again.
We hit them with light organic veg nutes once of twice but generally let them do their thing.
Now from this point on I was warning my buddy that based on their leaf structure these were sativa dominant that they probably wouldn't finish in time. And that he shouldn't get too attached or put in too much effort.
When they were waist height and almost twice as big as the auto's we topped them, to reduce the height in any way possible (probably late june early july.
They got bigger and bigger, and by early august they had outgrown their 2-3 gal pots, so I got another bag of soil, not FF this time but some "natural harvest" type thing that seemed similar, 5 gal buckets and we added some pearlite we had lying around to the mixture.
BIG MISTAKE. This was miracle grow perlite which is saturated in time release 3-3-3 fertilizer. We realized this about 30 minutes too late.
The 2-3 gallon pots nested perfectly in the top of the 5 gal buckets so we just cut the bottoms out and pressed them together.
As the roots spread we started getting mild nute burn. Fortunately for us, it was hot as hell so we could flush without severely drowning the roots, but definitely hindered growth a bit. Once we dissolved a lot of the miracle grow out, growth really took off.
By mid august they were all 5 feet, We let a male burst its first 2-4 balls before we chopped, even though the females seemed a few weeks immature for pollination. Nonetheless we only got 4-6 sites pollinated between the two, enough to play with the genetics next season.
Late august we got nailed by a gnarly windstorm, the node we topped at split down about 4-6 inches. and in transporting that plant inside the top pot separated from the bottom 5 gal causing some somewhat severe root damage. The other plant survived almost unscathed.
A bit of duct tape kept the split ends together and while they didn't heal, the plant recovered just fine. Later we got a hold of a zip tie and replace the duct tape.
By Sept 5th undeniable pistils were showing. It was official. there was a chance these might possibly finish before torrential rains and mold. And that's when the stakes changed. And they were both 6 feet or more.
By the second week of september, it was clear that we had some sort of issue and bought a all purpose soil analysis from home depot.
It revealed that PH was at 8 (!) and the tap water we had been feeding was at almost 8.5. Rookie mistake. Most nutes were dangerously low.
So got some FF big bloom, Ph up down and started feeding/watering at a 4.5-5 ph. Ph lock out cleared up pretty fast and combined with flower nutes BOOM budding took off.
The smaller of the two plants ( 6 foot even) is about a week maybe two ahead of the 6'8 plant.
As of today, we have the better part of a QP of immature buds but only a week of good weather.
Fortunately the structure is very sativa dominant and we are praying that bud rot will be a minor issue.
The early pheno needs another 2 weeks to show full potential but we only have one week of OK weather left...
We plan to move the early pheno into the garage for the worst of the weather. The late pheno (6 foot 8 ish) will be ready last week of oct, but is too big to fit thru door frame so it will probably get some bud rot
if it finishes at all. PM is showing up here and there but it isn't taking off. Easy to pluck affected leaves.
Still the PH lock out did a number on the plant and where have 3-4 fan leaves left between the two. and a lot of yellow ( not too surprising given minimal nutes during veg and the fact that all other flora is turning yellow/red/ dead)
Need to scrub EXIF data but will have pictures up shortly.
TL;DR- you can make a lot of mistakes and still end up with a small TREE, whether or not it finished in time is another story entirely.
