Footsteps In Becoming an Expert Grower

[Biosystem]

Howdy, y'all.

Welcome to my thread. If any o' y'all know me, you know I've been having a less than ideal time of growing cannabis. But I do it anyway because I am in love with the process. After posting on ICMAG for almost a year now though, I figure it'd be easier for me and tidier for other members if I kept a "general" thread for myself that I can post all of my garden updates rather than trying to partition strains into different threads. If I collect any good documentation of new strains run all the way through to flower, I'll just make one thread dump at once so that there's still a concise record people can Google if they're looking for info about it.
I digress. Let us commence with the first post which will go a ways towards getting you up to speed with what's going on in July 2023 for my garden. As for you, precious ICMAG members, post photos. Ask questions. I exist. I want to interact with other cannabis nerds. I watch this thing with notifications.

I hope you find something interesting here. Thank you for your time.

 

[Biosystem]

It's late, so I'm going to do a TLDR for now. I just want to get this online and ready for future updates.

•Indoor grow
•700W LED
•Soil (peat, pumice, compost)
•Free homemade fertilizer
•Strain: Bruce Banner Fast Version by Homegrown Cannabis Co
•Number of unique plants: 4
•Day of flower: 23
•Hopeful chop dates: 8.15.23-8.29.23

I also have a veg tent with mothers, clones and another strain I got access to (how rare). But that is a post for another day. Don't worry, it's coming, and it's sadder than you think.

PS - Yes, that's a baby pool. Don't judge me. . .

 

[Biosystem]

Hey, guys! Join me in saying goodbye to July with some plant photos! I have some photos of my veg tent for you. There are some clones, a plant grown from seed that I got on a vacation I went on, and the two current mother plants I have. The tiny feeble clones are solely to become mother plants - some haven't made it and are getting yanked. For organization, I'm following this post up with another so I can ask y'all's opinions on the plants I'm currently flowering. It's ranking time!

Anyway, all the plants in these photos are the same strain - Bruce Banner Fast Version from Homegrown Cannabis Co EXCEPT for the one plant that is younger, healthier and shorter.

 

[Biosystem]

This post needs some votes! I'm currently trying to determine which of these flowering plants from the same strain I should keep as my sole mother plant moving forward. This strain is supposed to flower in 6-8 weeks. It is currently day 26 of flower, so we're almost about to finish the 4th week of flower. There are 4 different plants to choose from. If anyone sees this within the next few weeks, let me know which you think looks like it's going to be the best based on these photos! Thanks!

The options are Plant #2, #4, #7 and #8.

 

[chilliwilli]

I wouldn't judge just by look. I had it often that the best looking plant was not the best smoke. Only after a proper cure i would choose a mother.

 

[Biosystem]

@chilliwilli, I can definitely agree with that possibility. I still reckon that frosting is going to be at least a good indicator of potency, yeah? I still have to take into consideration flowering time, yield, flavor, vigor for cloning and even aesthetics of the plant itself if it comes down to all things being equal. I certainly ain't going to burn any bridges by killing the clones I have yet, but do you really think it's moot to start trying to make determinations halfway through a flower? This is only my 4th flowering ever, so I'm by no means a pro at this. I appreciate the eyes on 'em, man!

 

[chilliwilli]

Only a smoke test can tell which one to keep imo. I had it often that the best looking plant was not the best smoke. Early resin onset is nice and can mean it's a potent genetics but that doesn't mean it's the best smoke. With my last panama malawi i hab one very resinous that started early and a late flowering and fluffy one. The late flowering fluffy one was the best smoke, the resinouse one was the strongest but the effects were mediocre at first testings, only after some cure it got interesting to smoke. I don't keep mothers(what is sometimes a bad decision when u got a gem) but if i can only propper choose after a good cure. Late flower onset, fluffy bud structure and less resinous whould have been kicked out of some grow roomes but it was the best smoke for me.

 

[Mars Hydro Led]

This post needs some votes! I'm currently trying to determine which of these flowering plants from the same strain I should keep as my sole mother plant moving forward. This strain is supposed to flower in 6-8 weeks. It is currently day 26 of flower, so we're almost about to finish the 4th week of flower. There are 4 different plants to choose from. If anyone sees this within the next few weeks, let me know which you think looks like it's going to be the best based on these photos! Thanks!

The options are Plant #2, #4, #7 and #8.

Based on looks alone, I'd probably go with #4, her trichomes show elegant growth.

 

[Biosystem]

I appreciate the considerations, y'all. I'll look forward to testing to make the final decision, and I'll do my best to be fair about it when the time comes. For the time being, I still have my own predictions as to plant superiority based on the plant growth rate, response to cloning, reaction to nutrients and flowering behavior. Having said that it is only the finishing of week 4 of flower today, so hypothetically these plants are only halfway towards being done, and that's not even accounting for product quality after curing. I suppose it could be anyone's guess at this point. They do look quite far along for only 4 weeks to my eyes though, so maybe some of them will end up finishing closer to 6 weeks than 8 weeks after all. That would definitely be a bonus towards the plant as a mother candidate, but even then that won't win the race by itself if the flower is poopoo or if the yield is significantly weaker than its counterparts. It's all about trade offs. If one had 5% better potency but 50% less yield I probably wouldn't pick it. But if it had 15% better potency and only 15% less yield or maybe a 10% slower flower time? Sure, I'd take the more potent plant.

I'm really excited to start making all of the comparisons and judgements once the flowering is done. This flowering run looks really good so far if you ask me!

 

[Bush Dr]

Take cuts of each plant, 2 of each, then you have considerably smaller plants to keep and choose from, then you can choose after the smoke test, keep the best 2 plants and select from there

 

[Biosystem]

Take cuts of each plant, 2 of each, then you have considerably smaller plants to keep and choose from, then you can choose after the smoke test, keep the best 2 plants and select from there

That's exactly what I did, but I took 4 of each. They're in veg right now, but the ones from #4 and #7 are so small and weak still. It's a good plan.

 

[Biosystem]

Hey, guys! I know it's a little late in the week, but here are some photos of the plants currently in flower. These were taken on Day 29. I plan to do a nice photoshoot on chop day so each of them get their due credit.

 

[Biosystem]

Some veg plant sadness lately. It appears I have screwed myself over with some root rot. The two bigger plants I have in veg for plants #2 and #8 have been doing very badly. I know exactly what did it too. I have them in trays so that when they have runoff it doesn't just spread all over the tent. When I saw they had gotten too much water and were sitting in it, I let them carry on, telling myself it was a handy buffer against them drying out for a few extra days. It hasn't caused any problems the other ~10 times I've done that in the past year, so why not? I guess it was just a matter of time before I got unlucky. I unpotted them, cut as much suspicious root material off and repotted them in some slightly drier soil. Oh well! Even if they don't make it I still have backup plants of them. Not to mention that as of now neither of these plants appear to be the strongest, most resilient fastest rooting or best looking plants. The smoke test might show they're stronger, but based on solely their growth patterns I wouldn't be too heartbroken even if they both kicked the bucket.

Also, here's a photo of a the vacay seedling. It's doing awesome, and responds to FIM'ing very well.

 

[Mars Hydro Led]

Continue your attempts, hoping to get them back, and look forward to your continued updates.

 

[Biosystem]

Continue your attempts, hoping to get them back, and look forward to your continued updates.

Thanks, man. Or marketing team. Or whoever is over there at Mars Hydro haha. I'm just working my way through the steps of learning by trial and error as we all do. Every plant species is different, and while cannabis is my favorite to grow, it is also one of the species I have the least experience with. But it's been an enlightening journey thus far. Looking forward to my next harvest. It's going to be awesome.

 

[Mars Hydro Led]

Thanks, man. Or marketing team. Or whoever is over there at Mars Hydro haha. I'm just working my way through the steps of learning by trial and error as we all do. Every plant species is different, and while cannabis is my favorite to grow, it is also one of the species I have the least experience with. But it's been an enlightening journey thus far. Looking forward to my next harvest. It's going to be awesome.

We are here to support our brand and our customers. So what species do you have the most experience with?

 

[Biosystem]

We are here to support our brand and our customers. So what species do you have the most experience with?

Definitely carnivorous plants, both tropical and temperate. I could grow circles around any plant nursery within over a hundred miles of me for those. It's been a few years since I messed with them though, and all my grow energy is going towards cannabis these days.

 

[Mars Hydro Led]

All great experiences, how long have you been transitioning to cannabis?

 

[Biosystem]

All great experiences, how long have you been transitioning to cannabis?

I'm coming up on the 1 year mark later this month. I have done one full run before about a decade ago, but that was with poor equipment and even poorer genetics. I've done a ton of research on how to do it and what practices work the best, but as I'm sure you can imagine, hypothetical understanding of something is quite different from practical experience. Overall, everything has gone amazingly except for the invincible spider mites infestation I had last year which basically stunted my experience for half a year, this most recent root rot problem (which isn't really that bad) and my struggle to clone cannabis reliably, but I think the cloning problem comes from the plants possibly being weak or the clones being too small. I am unsure. For whatever reason, most of the cuttings just fail to thrive and wither to brown sticks of sadness. I still get some to do okay, so I take more than I need so that I can get a viable clone. I keep the humidity between 85-95%, temps at ~75F and expose them to gentle light. I've tried the Klone King box, which was a laughable embarrassment - it's trash, pure water in a jar, which failed horribly, placing in soil - another failure and now a perlite box which has worked better but still yielded low success rate. But I at least got some rooted cuttings so. . . Yay.

 

[Biosystem]

Howdy, y'all. I remembered to take photos tonight. It's Tuesday, and it's the end of Week 5 of flower for these girls. This is what five full weeks looks like on 'em. Looks like some will be done sooner than other. Curious to see how they all turn out. If anyone notices any of the phenos acting remarkably, well, make a remark upon it. I'm still looking for clues suggesting which would make for the best mother plant although the smoke test will be much of the deciding influence.

Also, a single Strawberry seed that has sprouted.