Footsteps In Becoming an Expert Grower

[Biosystem]

Things are looking pretty damn nice in there!
I’m putting money on senescence, it’s about the right time for the fade to start kicking in.

Those little seedlings are doing alright, too.
Glad they mostly grew out of their old age funkiness.

The peyote purple is just stuuuuck! Haha but the liberty haze came through!

So excited for this promise of new speed, but it does mean I'll have to change my scheduling for seed sowing and veg times. I hate setbacks but good god, I love fine tuning things.

 

[gedLang]

The peyote purple is just stuuuuck! Haha but the liberty haze came through!

So excited for this promise of new speed, but it does mean I'll have to change my scheduling for seed sowing and veg times. I hate setbacks but good god, I love fine tuning things.

It's quite a big difference from your last run! I'm sure starting from clones makes a difference and reducing the light hours... but still makes me wonder if that is all that is going on. Do you remember if it took a long time to see pistils after flipping during your first run with the Zam? That might indicate that they were not sexually mature yet, and thus would have had some extra weeks of veg time even under 12/12.

 

[Biosystem]

It's quite a big difference from your last run! I'm sure starting from clones makes a difference and reducing the light hours... but still makes me wonder if that is all that is going on. Do you remember if it took a long time to see pistils after flipping during your first run with the Zam? That might indicate that they were not sexually mature yet, and thus would have had some extra weeks of veg time even under 12/12.

It did take them a minute to throw flowering pistils the first run, but it was about the same time, and the first run was with plants that were months and months old, so they were all mature plants (though in poor health originally - they were rehabbed before flowering).

 

[Biosystem]

WEEK 9 OF FLOWER
Zamaldelica by ACE Seeds

Okay, guys. So much learned on this run. So damn much. I love this, but there are some drawbacks.

These plants are doing fine.
•11/13 is a huge success, but it does seem to hamper yield significantly.
• These plants (this strain at least) are incredibly light feeders but handle everything well except nitrogen in second half of flower. Must keep at minimum levels even in early flower to keep them happy.
• These plants hardly stretch at all when at 11/13.
•Cane method is amazing. I will be doing this from now on until I find something better. This was an amazing idea.
•So fucking done with this cover crop mix. Do not buy the cover crop mix from build-a-soil. The seeds are excellent quality and the pricing is great, but the plants are just not great for keeping alive while cannabis is running. Does it work? Yes. Is it fun and worth it? No. Get mini clover seeds like I have done. Next run will include only those. When build-a-soil carries mini clover, I'll patronize them with my business again because they seem like a good bunch of folks and have a good mission and high product quality (for what it is . . . ).
• Plant size changes yield immensely (HURDURRR we all knew that), but the most important (easily seen) factor I have noticed is the thickness of the stems. From now on, I will be utterly disregarding the height of the plant, and instead solely focusing on stem thickness for indicator of readiness to flower.

These plants were about 1/4" thick at the base of the BRANCHES when beginning to flower. This yield is going to be truly pathetic for the amount of time spent flowering them, but the lesson is invaluable, and the quality of what I yield will be excellent - possibly better than the last. While all of these colas are very small, not a single one of them looks larfy. They are all frosty and "complete" - they don't have that light-mint-green color, spongy appearance that underlit larf gets. From now on, branch bas thickness will be targeted to 3/8"-1/2" at the very least before flowering for any serious crop.

Even though I'm rushing to try as many strains as possible to find leads for my years-long breeding project, I still need to be conscientious with my time and resources - if a crop is worth flowering, it's worth making sure it yields well. 2-4 extra weeks of veg can make an enormous difference on the yield of a 12-18week bloom.

Anyway, I reckon I will let these sloots groove in the bloom room for 2-3 more weeks so they can wel and truly finish. After all, the next crop is still vegging, so I have time unfortunately. New seeds have been sown for the crop AFTER the upcoming crop since it appears I need more time, especially while it's colder temps. Pica attached in subsequent post for seedlings, seeds and clones.

 

[Biosystem]

SEEDS, SEEDLINGS AND CLONES

Y'all, 2025 is going to be so badass. Much love to you all from my garden, my 8x8 slice of heaven.

 

[Biosystem]

Micro clover is really nice for a cover crop but the seeds are a little pricey. I got mine from outsidepride dot com.

I did a couple soil growers with big totes but settled on pots, bags 5 gallon or smaller. I can't grow a tropical sativa in the same container as an indica dominant poly hybrid and keep both of them happy. Plus individual pots make much easier to keep from over watering using the pot weight method.

Seedlings and damp off: I never had a problem using this method. Start with Solo cups with drainage holes, use a seedling mix, moisten well with PH adjusted water, plant your seed and cover with a plastic sandwich bag. Put the Solo cups in a 5 gallon bucket. Get a clamp light with a reflector from home depot. The 5 gallon bucket narrow enough to keep the reflector from sitting on top of the cups. The light warms the top of the soil and plastic bag keep the soil moist enough until they break ground. Check daily and remove the plastic bags as they emerge.

Simple easy cloning: Warming mat, bowl of water larger than a paper plate, styrofoam plate, Aquarium air stone and air pump. Put a bowl of PH adjusted water on the warming mat, drop the air stone in the water, make holes in the plate for the cuttings, get at least 1/2" of the cutting through the bottom of the plate. Float the plate on the bubbling bowl of water. No humidity dome , no nutes or rooting hormones needed. keep the air temps above 70.

Hey, man, just wanted to let you know I picked up a pack of those microclover seeds you mentioned. You weren't joking about them being pricey! Hahaha, thank you for the lead though, it's going to be perfect for what I do. Excellent, excellent lead there.

If you get a moment, can you expand on your experience with pest repellant plants like mint and rosemary? Did they really seem to cut down on plant pests like a distinct difference, or was it just a cute addition that "might help, we don't know, no problems so far, so I guess?"

I'd run some mint and rosemary mini-shrubs as well (even off to the side of need be) if they really helped and didn't seem to leave an odor on the bud.