Footsteps In Becoming an Expert Grower

[DonKilluminati420]

Damn, the dream project. . . I'll try to keep it clear and concise.
So, the real goal is to find something with
•significantly higher than average potency
•a flowering yield capacity that can justify its length of flower cycle
•A terpene profile that smells both unique, strong and pleasant
•An overall effect that for now I should only describe as "fun"
•Aesthetically, it would be preferable but not necessary to have the plant be as dark purple to black as possible though that's really just a horticultural bonus for my benefit.

For over 10 years now, I've wanted to try more strains, especially pure Sativas as I've never had access to those before, and I want to try many strains to know what effects I enjoy best. It's possible that Sativas are not what I'm looking for, but they always did seem promising.

I always thought it would be interesting to find a very high quality specimen as a base genetic line (usually Malawi Gold from Ace in my mind's ideas), and over the years of meeting people or going places, growing seeds that I acquired from sentimentally significant sources like vacations, friends, etc. Those seeds, if yielding a specimen I enjoy as much as or more than my original specimen, would be crossed to my "base plant." The progeny would be compared to the parents, and if one of the seedlings should be equal to or greater than the sum of its parts and be worthwhile, I'll store S1 seeds of the old lineages for potential backcrossing or fail-safes against disasters, and move on with the new lineage. This would continue over my lifetime until one day I have a stable seed line based on the many adventures I've had. It would be a homebrew strain whose DNA would (in a way) tell the story of my extensive research into favored strains as a foundation, my (hypothetical) trip to Thailand, my trip to Jamaica, my trip to The Congo, my trip to blah blah blah. It's not a 5 year project. This would take a lifetime. Each new addition of genetic material will likely deserve a minimum of 30 seedlings germinated per selfed-gene generation, only selecting one winner and then S2, S3, S4 etc done in the same fashion with likely a minimum of 4 generations of Selfing per cross just to ensure stability and that the genetic addition was really contributing to the pleasant effects rather than diluting them.

I'm really looking for the most mentally stimulating, "fun" plant possible. I expect most any strain would give me the amount of pain relief I need from edibles, so I'd rather focus on finding one that has a very high ceiling and would make something like a kayak-fishing trip be maximally improved. Potency is critically important for me, as my ability to build tolerance is unfortunately very high. But ultimately effect is king. My younger self would not understand that idea, but I do now.

As I've found so far, things are not always as they appear, so maybe I try Malawi Gold and I find it isn't the right fit. But based on what I've heard, I now have a good option B to try if that is the case - the lovely miss Zamaldelica. Either way, I have very strong leads towards finding an excellent foundation line for a project like this.

A man with a plan is a dangerous weapon

 

[DonKilluminati420]

Oh, god, man. I just checked. Bad move. I'm about to have to leave for a bit, but now I'm cursed with the knowledge I have over 10 seeds with over 1" long tails waiting to be planted!
Exciting though. I'll be cramming them in somewhere, that's for sure.

So far it looks like I'll have ~5+ "LBL Fighter" (F2 LBL Phenp) and ~3+ "Ortiga x 3 Head Dragon".
I'll be trying some seed sprouting techniques for the remainders.

Photos will come tonight. Just not yet.

Congrats on getting some of them old seeds going

 

[DonKilluminati420]

Did some more tying down. Broke two branches. They really are easy to pop out of these "joints." The first one did just fine a week or so ago, but these ones won't be propped up the same. So, I did my best to seal up the wounds with aloe vera goooo.

I also trimmed the cover crops a bit more to get some air flow going but hopefully leaving some living roots.

It won't be long until I flip to flower, I can FEEL it! I need to kill all these spider mites first. I need this Azamax to do its job.

I must admit...I have a hijacked . Since my grandson doesn't need his kiddy pool until next summer. I got myself a project this weekend, ffs there goes my football time. Stellar run your having BTW

 

[DonKilluminati420]

WEEK 3 OF FLOWER
Zamaldelica by ACE Seeds

Had to prune a ton of branches from the under canopy since these plants were "monster cropped" by accident. Lots of cuts for clones, and the canopy looks amazing!
Did some supercropping on the taller branches since it's still early in flower. Pretty much done messing with 'em unless I see any glaring under-canopy growth.

Personally I perfer to monster crop. I don't even take cuttings until week 4ish.

 

[DonKilluminati420]

WEEK 13 OF FLOWER
Zamaldelica by ACE Seeds

They look good. Hangin' low like donkey dongs. I think the faster one needs another week, and the slower one needs another 3 weeks. Strain is supposed to flower in 10-12 weeks, so 14-17 weeks is a let down, but for what they are, I'm very excited. I can't wait to do another run of this strain, and the first one isn't even over!

I also cannot wait to see what happens once I upgrade my planting bed so they have more room to put down roots. This is all growth from perhaps 9-10 inches of soil.

The faster plant smells strongly sweet while the longer flowering one is JUST lemon-scented. Anyone come across any Zammy phenos like these?

Lovely

 

[Biosystem]

@DonKilluminati420 , yes! There's always so much more to learn, so all we can do is try to be better growers than we were last cycle. That's the goal - incremental improvement! I'm very excited for these plants to finish as they will be the first pure Sativas I will have ever tried. I accept that these may take even 2 more weeks, but as you said, even with all of the best indicators of finishing, it still has an element of "crap-shoot" to it if you haven't grown the strain before. So I'd rather err on the side of caution and wait to chop rather than make it all this way just to knee-cap their potential because I couldn't wait just TWO. MORE. WEEKS. I'll try to get some microscopy photos soon.

And yes, Bona Fortuna is a hell of a dude and my ICMAG bestie. He's been providing immensely helpful context and insight for this strain and growing in general. There are some really great users on this forum - you just have to find the folks who are active and who are as enthusiastic about the plant as you are. Everybody cares about their own grow - it's bud they get to enjoy. But it takes a special kind of nerd to get excited about watching somebody else's grow flourish over the weeks - to walk with them through that part of their life even though they'll never catch a single whiff of the crop.


It is for that reason that I am seeking other active users who will shoot me a link to their grow diaries so I can follow along. For years and years, all I could do was scour ICMAG watching other people grow wonderful strains I could only hope to smell. I always appreciated the threads with posts that helped clearly describe the strains with photos and deep detail, growing practices and learned lessons. When I got on ICMAG with my first real grow I wanted to make threads like that for other people so that they might get the same kind of inspiration and helpful information that I got back in the day.

 

[DonKilluminati420]

@DonKilluminati420 , yes! There's always so much more to learn, so all we can do is try to be better growers than we were last cycle. That's the goal - incremental improvement! I'm very excited for these plants to finish as they will be the first pure Sativas I will have ever tried. I accept that these may take even 2 more weeks, but as you said, even with all of the best indicators of finishing, it still has an element of "crap-shoot" to it if you haven't grown the strain before. So I'd rather err on the side of caution and wait to chop rather than make it all this way just to knee-cap their potential because I couldn't wait just TWO. MORE. WEEKS. I'll try to get some microscopy photos soon.

And yes, Bona Fortuna is a hell of a dude and my ICMAG bestie. He's been providing immensely helpful context and insight for this strain and growing in general. There are some really great users on this forum - you just have to find the folks who are active and who are as enthusiastic about the plant as you are. Everybody cares about their own grow - it's bud they get to enjoy. But it takes a special kind of nerd to get excited about watching somebody else's grow flourish over the weeks - to walk with them through that part of their life even though they'll never catch a single whiff of the crop.


It is for that reason that I am seeking other active users who will shoot me a link to their grow diaries so I can follow along. For years and years, all I could do was scour ICMAG watching other people grow wonderful strains I could only hope to smell. I always appreciated the threads with posts that helped clearly describe the strains with photos and deep detail, growing practices and learned lessons. When I got on ICMAG with my first real grow I wanted to make threads like that for other people so that they might get the same kind of inspiration and helpful information that I got back in the day.

Well said, I knew you were special growmie, just by the way you expressed yourself thought this Journey. Thanks for allowing us all into your personal space and guiding us with you throughout your journey. Great work my guy, and a great way of thinking. I don't know this place at all seeing I am new here. I ain't a fool for sure, I definitely now every cannabis community. Needs more growers who have your train of thought on other growmies. Great minds think alike, you got my vote chief

 

[Biosystem]

Well said, I knew you were special growmie, just by the way you expressed yourself thought this Journey. Thanks for allowing us all into your personal space and guiding us with you throughout your journey. Great work my guy, and a great way of thinking. I don't know this place at all seeing I am new here. I ain't a fool for sure, I definitely now every cannabis community. Needs more growers who have your train of thought on other growmies. Great minds think alike, you got my vote chief

DM me or post up a link whenever you start a grow diary on here. I want to see what you're working on in this chapter of your life. Show the plants! For the love of horticulture! I'm so excited!

 

[gedLang]

Honestly both plants look like they could be harvested now. I can see that there is some new white pistils and stacking on the tops, but I have a feeling the stuff lower down on the buds is ripe already. So you may have to strike a balance. Definitely take a look at the tricromes, you don't need a lot of magnification to spot the amber ones.

 

[Biosystem]

Honestly both plants look like they could be harvested now. I can see that there is some new white pistils and stacking on the tops, but I have a feeling the stuff lower down on the buds is ripe already. So you may have to strike a balance. Definitely take a look at the tricromes, you don't need a lot of magnification to spot the amber ones.

Thank you! I plan to let them run about a week more while I scramble about to find my pocket microscope, and if I see a bunch of amber on the trichomes, I will chop 'em. I expect next week (16 full weeks of 12/12) will be the day they come down, but the Thai pheno may want to go to 17. Only time and microscopy will tell!
I AM SO EXCITED FOR THIS CROP, Y'ALL.

 

[Biosystem]

END OF FLOWER
WEEK 16 OF FLOWER (COMPLETED)
Zamaldelica by ACE Seeds

I'm chopping today. The longer flowering pheno had started to mold where the branches were too dense. I caught it early and aggressively cut from it, and lost what I will assume would approximately be 20g or so of dried material. But I didn't want to wait and see if the plant would cause more problems, so I chopped her over the weekend. With this one being the faster flowerer and her being the last one taking up room in the flowering tent holding up the next cycle, I'm more inclined to chop her. If I want to do a long-game Zammy grow, I might get a shot at it this next time when I run clones from these girls.

These plants have been a delight to grow, even with the hiccups. They are strong, fragrant, good yielders, easy to train and do not require much in the way of nutrients. Unless this herb is very "meh" I will be growing this strain again in the future.

I am setting clones aside to take S1s and pollen from these plants for later on.

Special thanks to @Bona Fortuna for acting as a mentor in the ways of Sativas, thanks to @dubi for breeding this wonderful plant for all of us to enjoy, and thanks to everyone else who has supported my grows through the past two years - folks like @OZZ_ @chilliwilli @JanKowalski @gedLang @DonKilluminati420 @420PyRoS and others.


Smells: The longer flowering pheno smelled exclusively of citrus-dankness. Thai heavy pheno.
The shorter flowering pheno (my favorite) smelled of overripe pineapple. My nose isn't the best, so I can't tell if that's the mango carrot everyone seems to be clamoring for, but this was the only one that smelled like overripe fruit. African/Zamal heavy pheno.

Microscopy pics coming.

Any questions about the strain or grow process welcome. Thanks for coming along, y'all. It's been fun.

 

[Biosystem]

Zamal Short-Flowering Pheno - 15 weeks of 12/12 and 1 week of 11/13.

 

[gedLang]

I hope that you enjoy the finished product! The Zamaldelica Auto I grew this year has become my favorite, and I think I would like it even more in its pure form. Would love to know what your final yield was, too!

 

[Biosystem]

I hope that you enjoy the finished product! The Zamaldelica Auto I grew this year has become my favorite, and I think I would like it even more in its pure form. Would love to know what your final yield was, too!

Final dried weights will be recorded and posted with finished bud pics. Don't worry!

 

[Biosystem]

Hanging plants! Two plants total with big-ass LED and free nutrient inputs!

 

[Biosystem]

NEXT UP: Zamaldelica by ACE Seeds (clone only).

I'm doing a full flower with the African leaning pheno being favored and the rest of the Thai phenos in a tub to the side just to run them at partial capacity rather than killing them off for nothing.

I will also be doing a STS reversal of a clone from each pheno and selfing each pheno to itself for seed.

Next grow after this one, sometime around March/April of 2025, will be Event Horizon by Exotic Genetix.

Enjoy some photos of everything set up for the next steps. I have temporarily flipped the tents flower/veg cycling so I can allow the clones to veg in place before flipping, but keeping the mobile clones for S1s in flower in the smaller tent. More tidying to do, but everything is in place for plant training and grow out.