Footsteps In Becoming an Expert Grower

[Biosystem]

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.

 

[Biosystem]

Got the LBL Fighter and the Ortiga x 3HD seeds planted. We'll see which ones perform well and which ones will be outcompeted or turn out to be male. The LBL seemed to be the most vigorous seeds by far. Once they get real leaves, I'll give them tea, but when they develop some decent size to them, I'll bury their stems in muck to fertilize them.

I'm taking some advice and soaking the stubborn seeds in 3% H2O2 for 10 minutes and retrying the paper towel germination. Worst case scenario, they continue to be dead seeds. Sad, but oh well.

I think this next crop is going to be big. Very big.

 

[Biosystem]

Just an update of what's goin' on over here. Seems like the plants have grown too close to the light. There's a lot of clawing, and I doubt it's excess nitrogen due to the color they're showing. I raised the light begrudgingly.
Still spraying for spider mites, but hopeful to get them gone soon so I can flip to flower. Those seedlings don't have much time to get size on them before it's flower time. These main plants are getting large quickly. I can certainly ride lightning, but letting these plants go a lot longer than this will lead to quite the rodeo. They're growing faster and faster as their size increases.
As to the seedling pic, I didn't see it was blurry. It's so bright in that tent. I buried all of the seedlings with active tails, so I'd think they'd have sprouted by now, but only a small handful have come up.

These plants. . . They're beautiful. I love them so much. This species is such a gift to us. I am so calmed by both its cultivation and its flower. I cannot wait until I can begin sprouting seeds for my next chapter in strain exploration! I have seeds for two strains coming from Ace, and they're scheduled to arrive any day now.

 

[JanKowalski]

Do you plan a defoliation? Crowded jungle here , could help a little, better light exposition and air movement.

 

[Biosystem]

I plan to do a significant pruning of the under canopy pretty much the same time I actually flip to flower. That way they will have calmed down by the time they're ready to start throwing pistils. Other than that though, I won't be doing much pruning. Sometimes I think the only thing that matters to the plant is how much access the each branch gets with light - that branch or node counts don't matter. We'll see. I'm tying these girls down now, but I'll be tying them up in a few months.

I'm realizing the last harvest I had is going to be well over a pound, and that's before the larf, so I got a taste of "big plant" flowering last time. I want more of that this time, so I'm really pushing my limits here. I want the tent to be a jungle. A healthy jungle, but a jungle nonetheless.

 

[Biosystem]

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.

 

[Biosystem]

Well, today was crazy. I have been so swamped with everything else in life lately, I haven't been as on the ball about gardening as I should have. And as such, the soil dried out, the plants ran dry on P and K (likely), and the sucker branches ran wild. Furthermore, the mites are still there and still bad.

So I buzz-sawed all of the girls so they wouldn't have as much larf and so that it would be a less hospitable place for spider mites to live and to get back on the plant. I then sprayed with azamaxx and watered with fertilizers. More spray tomorrow and the next day etc. I will be doing more tying down. Flowering is incredibly close. This is going to be a badass crop - I can feel it.

The purple flowers are what is taking over my veg tent which has been horribly neglected. They're pretty, but the veg tent is being gutted, restored and reorganized very soon.

Enjoy, and be safe, y,all!

 

[Biosystem]

Well, y'all, today is day 1 of my 12 Ace Seeds's Zamaldelica seeds going into germination. Let's hope they all pop!

I cleaned out the veg tent today. It still ain't done, but it's a lot better at least. I still have to mop and spray down with bleach before the seeds pop and go in there. I saved one tomato plant and put it in the flower tent along with my aloe vera. Who knows if they'll make it. I'm not worried. Anyway, this is me calling myself out for letting my veg tent get so far out of hand. But it's better now, so yay. I'm looking forward to this next run!

I tied down several of the tops in the flowering tent. They will be going into flower very soon. I want to wait until Saturday.

 

[Biosystem]

From yesterday. Been busy! Every last one sprouted a tail! Good job so far, Ace!

 

[Biosystem]

24 hours since planting in the soil - still no sprouts. There's time.

Flowering officially starts tonight. Photos to document the changes.

Several Big Gun by Seeds Mafia
Several Wedding Cake by Seeds Mafia
1 Mystery Plant

 

[Biosystem]

Quick update on my Zamaldelica. They have ALL popped the surface. Hell yeah, Ace.

 

[Biosystem]

By the way, for anyone interested in the total weight for my last crop - drying, trimming and curing, I ended up with 8oz of unaesthetically pleasing albeit potent flower and 23oz premium, sexy-bag flower. That's one ounce away from a 2lb haul.
I'm astonished by the results. This next crop is going to be even bigger. . . This is going to be a bud tsunami. I'm horrified and excited at the same time.

 

[Biosystem]

Does anyone know what these are?

 

[Biosystem]

Oh, yeah. Uh, here are some Saturday photos. They got a little big. . .

 

[Biosystem]

I don't know if I can express the full size of this grow. There's not enough room to stand inside the tent to get good photos of what's going on very well. I'm wondering if I need to do any trimming on these plants for the rest of the flower cycle. They've been flowering for about 2.5 weeks. Before flipping, they were lollipopped to ~1' of canopy at the top with nothing underneath. Now, it's . . . I mean, y'all, this shit erupted. It's a massive expanse of green. It's between 2-3' depth of canopy on top of about 1.5-2' bare stalks.

There are many branches (even after CRAZY HEAVY pruning) that are no longer in direct sunlight. They were overgrown during the stretch rather than keeping up. They aren't hopelessly buried though I don't think? I'm curious if you trim it if it isn't in direct light or if you'd keep it since it's within the canopy zone. There's just so much. And yes, this will be a big crop no matter how it's swung, but what do you think of pruning branches like that at this stage?

The lights are too close now too. The top leaves are clawing. It's that or these plants are starting to freak out from excess nutrients but only after beginning flowering which seems silly. I'm going to raise the light and try to tie down some of these girls. They're too strong now.

Y'all pipe up now. Who's had this judgement call before? What did you do? Did you regret it?

 

[Bona Fortuna]

That’s a lot of green, looking damn fine!

Personally, I’d just trim a small amount of sucker branches on the innermost canopy for humidity control and airflow.

How are your Zammy babies doing?

 

[Biosystem]

Zammy babies coming along. A big ate one down like a beaver and a tree. Unsure how. Pics soon!

 

[Biosystem]

Like, damn.

 

[Biosystem]

DAY 25 OF FLOWER

Things have changed. Things grew too much for my liking while I was busy with life, so it required a vigorous pruning today to ensure quality of harvest. There are before and after photos here. I just went for it and tried to take off anything that didn't have a fighting chance of getting out of the shade.

 

[Biosystem]

DAY 40 OF FLOWER

I apologize for anyone who was keen to see the transformations in the garden. I have been super busy with other projects that require my attention. I almost lost my flowering plants so dehydration the other night! They're doing okay though, albeit a little overfed somehow (mostly the more sativa mystery plant). I did some more defoliation of dead/dying leaves, but otherwise I'm leaving it as it is. I will use this grow to experiment and find out what kinds of buds can be produced at different canopy levels. Some of these branches will be a waste. But I will have learned what to prune and what not to prune from now on. I hope this crop goes well. For how long they vegged, I had hoped they would be bigger by now, but the buds don't seem large. I hesitate to blame the strains. I will say though - the seeds Mafia plants are much faster than the mystery plant and they look a lot better. They also handle my soil better. Anyway, here are photos. Please ask questions if you have any.

Oh, yes. And the little grub things seem to be the culprit for killing several of my Zamaldelica seedlings (I am guessing. The killed seedlings had their bases chewed off like beaver trees). I killed all of the grubs I could dig up and find. The soil is pond muck that dried for a couple seasons. Apparently the grubs inside were bad. . .

Oh yeah, and for some reason, one of these seeds Mafia plants had a weird branch. It is FLAT and wide, and made the bizaaaaarre cola formation seen in the photo. I am excited!