Hello, first post, first seeds. Kali China and Orient Express

[Common Sense]

Flushing

Flushing

here is some interesting reading on flushing. You probably have read this already:


https://www.rxgreentechnologies.com/rxgt_trials/flushing-trial/
https://www.rxgreentechnologies.com/blogs/flush-trial-event/


HT also reported on this, made me think

 

[brickweeder]

here is some interesting reading on flushing. You probably have read this already:


https://www.rxgreentechnologies.com/rxgt_trials/flushing-trial/
https://www.rxgreentechnologies.com/blogs/flush-trial-event/


HT also reported on this, made me think

very interesting, goes against conventional wisdom. It would have been great if they threw in some organic samples when they distributed them to the taste-testers so that we can see its relative ranking.

 

[DNM1]

here is some interesting reading on flushing. You probably have read this already:


https://www.rxgreentechnologies.com/rxgt_trials/flushing-trial/
https://www.rxgreentechnologies.com/blogs/flush-trial-event/


HT also reported on this, made me think

"These results may not be replicable with cannabis grown in soil"
Atricle 2,last paragraph

 

[dubi]

Hi Common Sense,

Looks like Kali China will be done in the upcoming days I would harvest her in a peak of strong terpenes, when you think she is at her best.
You can harvest different parts of the plant with a few days difference just to learn what moment works best for you.
But i wouldn't recommend to experiment with different drying and curing methods unless you have a big harvest, try first with the classic drying and curing process in jars.

Lovely Orient Express pheno Small, compact, yet very sativa and high yielding.

 

[Common Sense]

"These results may not be replicable with cannabis grown in soil"
Atricle 2,last paragraph

Yes, of course. But I'd think if it made any difference, it would be more so in a coco grow with nutrient solution than in an organic soil grow.

But what do I know...
I flushed mine anyway. Should be dry soil until saturday. Still looking good.

 

[Common Sense]

Hi Common Sense,

Looks like Kali China will be done in the upcoming days I would harvest her in a peak of strong terpenes, when you think she is at her best.
You can harvest different parts of the plant with a few days difference just to learn what moment works best for you.
But i wouldn't recommend to experiment with different drying and curing methods unless you have a big harvest, try first with the classic drying and curing process in jars.

Lovely Orient Express pheno Small, compact, yet very sativa and high yielding.

Thank you dubi, both plants are looking really, really good to me, these are fantastic genetics. I already can't wait to re-grow these.
The colors of Kali China are spectacular, as are the buds. The Orient express is soon going to be one big bud. As you said, very compact and high yielding. But that smell! Incredible and totally overwhelmes even the Kali China. Also seems to be a very strong and resilient plant.

Can't say much about the effects of both, yet, but I already feel like the Orient Express pheno would have been a keeper had a veg room been available.

 

[DNM1]

Yes, of course. But I'd think if it made any difference, it would be more so in a coco grow with nutrient solution than in an organic soil grow.

But what do I know...
I flushed mine anyway. Should be dry soil until saturday. Still looking good.

Try her
A small bud, quick cure?,with vaping I think it has to be slightly moist?
Why not start forming your own opinion( with curing, flushing,what % of amber and so on)
Why not?
You'll feel the difference since you last did a test

 

[Common Sense]

Harvested Kali China yesterday (59 days flowering), she's now slowly drying and smelling up the neighborhood. Since the Orient Express is still running full speed in the tent, I had to hang KC in the bathroom.



Here she is naked





the stuff I took off gave me a picture I really like

 

[Common Sense]

A quick undried test vape yesterday didn't yield much flavor, just "green hay" and a rather narcotic effect, but I was quite tired starting in. Expect some change in a few weeks.


Upon closer look, Orient Express is getting ready to be flushed as well. She's now under the spotlight of the seven 25 W LEDs, the main cola receiving more light than i can measure on a bright sunny day in direct sunlight, using the app Lux Light Meter. Too much?

 

[DNM1]

A quick undried test vape yesterday didn't yield much flavor, just "green hay" and a rather narcotic effect, but I was quite tired starting in. Expect some change in a few weeks.


Upon closer look, Orient Express is getting ready to be flushed as well. She's now under the spotlight of the seven 25 W LEDs, the main cola receiving more light than i can measure on a bright sunny day in direct sunlight, using the app Lux Light Meter. Too much?

What where the readings before? Maybe,a spot or two have to go?

 

[Common Sense]

What where the readings before? Maybe,a spot or two have to go?

On a bright, sunny cloudless winterday I measured 114000 lux. During the grow I had near 100000 at top cola level and around 50000 to 60000 at other well exposed flowers. Little further down ,I noticed somewhere between 20000 and 30000 was required for good growth.


Yesterday, I measured over 200000 at the top cola.
Removing a bulb, maybe center one, would be the energy saving solution.

I just hung the lamp up higher until I got the readings that were slightly higher than 100000 on top and now have more light for the side branches.


Flushed the Orient Express later today after examining a few more macro shots. From looking at the pistils (about 60% brown) and the trichomes (20% clear, 70% cloudy and 5-10% amber), it looks like she is at her peak as well.


Of course I had to repeat the somehow flawed vape test today:

very! relaxing. Good feeling

 

[DNM1]

Very happy for you my friend

 

[smilley]

I love seeing SIL grows. Old school ingenuity meets modern technology. Now for the tinkering... side lighting anybody? Good job man, you hit this one outta the park!

 

[Common Sense]

Thanks guys!


Time for an update and some more pictures. While Kali China was drying and getting jarred, Orient Express finished this past week and just got put in glass for curing as well.


As mentioned, KC was harvested after 59 days in 12/12 lighting, but both plants weren't sexually mature when I switched them from the longer lighting 18/6 after just 2 weeks. I did most of the manicuring right after harvest. She hung drying for 5 days, which was probably a bit too long, as she felt very dry and bristle then. The hygrometer in the jar now is pretty steady at 61% with a room humidity at 45%. The stems snapped earlier, but I thought 5 days would be the minimum for drying. Buds were fluffier than I expected, even more so on the Orient Express (but still very resinous and sticky), so I learned from that and only dried her for 4 days.
I got 37 g from the Kali China harvest, weighted after 6 days of drying and the mentioned 61% humidity (73 g for the OE after 4 days, but she feels just as dry). Way more than I expected, this is going to last me a looong time


Here are some pictures of the progress Orient Express made during the last week:


Orient Express day 60:





day 61

 

[Common Sense]

Orient Express at harvest time

Orient Express at harvest time

these pictures are at harvest time, exactly 9 weeks in 12/12


large leaves already removed:

View image in gallery

View image in gallery

View image in gallery​

after the drying

View image in gallery​

 

[Common Sense]

Thank you everybody

Thank you everybody

Well, I guess it is now time for a very big thank you to everybody helping me to get to this point



Always dreamed of not having to stretch the two or three grams for weeks and months...



I would like to reach out and extend a big hug and thank you to all the people on this forum helping me with their experience and advice in my first grow. It was really good to come here and I feel this is kind of a special place, friendly and helpful people. Of course this is in great part the result of dubi's guidance, effort and moderation which he is putting into this place. His passion for the plant combined with a clearly showing diplomatic talent seems to reflect upon most other forum members and that seems to be part of the secret here.
As has been mentioned in countless grow diaries, smoke reports and threads: thank you for these wonderful genetics and I hope your quest to keep these magic landraces alive will remain as successful as it already is.


It was great fun and very exciting to grow these two strains. I learned so much and no matter how much you read and research, at one point you just got to do it yourself. I will write up a summary of the grow and my experience later. As well as a smoke / vape report of course after some curing. I now have almost three weeks of time until I have to let the jars sit for two weeks while I am away, should be just perfect I guess. The smell coming out of the jars is already very convincing...

 

[DNM1]

Well, I guess it is not time for a very big thank you to everybody helping me to get to this point
[URL=https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=81844&pictureid=2012552&thumb=1]View Image[/URL]


Always dreamed of not having to stretch the two or three grams for weeks and months...



I would like to reach out and extend a big hug and thank you to all the people on this forum helping me with their experience and advice in my first grow. It was really good to come here and I feel this is kind of a special place, friendly and helpful people. Of course this is in great part the result of dubi's guidance, effort and moderation which he is putting into this place. His passion for the plant combined with a clearly showing diplomatic talent seems to reflect upon most other forum members and that seems to be part of the secret here.
As has been mentioned in countless grow diaries, smoke reports and threads: thank you for these wonderful genetics and I hope your quest to keep these magic landraces alive will remain as successful as it already is.


It was great fun and very exciting to grow these two strains. I learned so much and no matter how much you read and research, at one point you just got to do it yourself. I will write up a summary of the grow and my experience later. As well as a smoke / vape report of course after some curing. I now have almost three weeks of time until I have to let the jars sit for two weeks while I am away, should be just perfect I guess. The smell coming out of the jars is already very convincing...

Are there going to be any buds left when you pop Zamaldelica?
Has that been calculated?

 

[Common Sense]

Summary and pros and cons

Summary and pros and cons

Seeds:
these were Kali China feminized and Orient Express feminized, each from a 5(6) pack labelled 1/3/18
Soaked for 12 h then put directly into soil in their final 9l air pots


Pots:
have no comparison, but these somehow worked, no question. They definitely prevent overwatering because if you water generously, the water starts coming out from the side holes before seeping from the bottom. I found it impossible to water near the rim of the soil surface, that will drip right out from the sides, even if the soil is well above the highest holes. But I guess this is ok, the water will be wicked evenly throughout the soil. But you need to water near the center of the pot.



Soil:
this was a good quality potting soil from a well known brand that I would definitely use again. However, fearing the soil might be too hot for the seedlings, I used much lighter seedling soil for the top 1/3rd of the pots. This worked well for the seedlings and early vegging plants, but next time, I would start the seeds in much smaller containers and then re-pot into the final pots later. The reason is that my plants ran out of nutrients rather suddenly and much earlier than I expected (week 4-5 overall). I contributed to that problem by using mainly RO water during the first weeks out of fear of a too high EC and concern that my tap water might be to alkaline.


Water and feeding:
as said, I used RO water exclusively during the fist weeks, believing that the soil would contain all that is needed. This was tedious because I had to fetch the RO water bottle by bottle from somwhere else.

My tap water comes out at 430µS/cm and a pH of 7.45 and reaches 8.0 once the CO2 that is added by the city to prevent calcium and magnesium carbonate deposits in the pipes has evaporated. Took me a while to titrate -measure -titrate until I found out that adding 3-4 ml of cheap vinegar to my tap water makes it just right with a settled pH around 6.5. This is what I used during the second half of the grow instead of the RO water.

The fertilizer I used was a salt based NPK fertilizer from the hardware store. Cheap, moderately strong (4+3+3) but lacking calcium, magnesium (both I replaced separately for a while after the RO water phase) and the rest of the trace minerals. Clearly, the potting soil with the seedling soil in the top part did not provide enough nutrients for the whole grow when using only 9l pots! Having a conductivity meter in combination with plant observatin greatly helped in getting a feeling for dosing the fertilizer.
As predicted, OE bravely took about twice the feeding in comparison with KC.


Tent:
60x60x160 cm was just perfect for me. Would hold 4 x 9L pots like the ones I had without problems.



Air:
the setup has been described in the beginning of the thread. The inline fan was way overkill for my grow, so I had to transform the voltage down to about half, mainly to reduce noise. The carbon filter worked perfectly, I had no cannabis smell in the room when the tent was closed.

I did use an additional small fan inside the tent to create some more air circulation and leaf movement when the lights were on. It was off during the "night". This worked for me.


Pests:
Had a few fungus gnats during the first weeks, but got rid of them simply by putting up yellow stickers and killing a few by hand. Never saw more than 3 or 4 at the same time and they were completely gone after a while. Obviously these came with the potting soil and I probably killed them before they could lay eggs.


Light:
10 x 25 W SIL 80€ (3 spare bulbs, needed one of these after a failure)
7in1 socket 23€
cable, socket (one that was more solid than the plastic cheap ones rated only 60W) ~10€
Adjustable hanging ropes with snap hooks ~20€
Timer 5€
So I spent about 130€ and had a perfectly adjustable and scalable LED light that sucked in 175 W during most of the grow (flowering phase). Would definitely recommend. I had it as near to the plants as possible, but developed the feeling that it would have been just as good if hung higher. Haven't tried it yet, but my impression is that the 175W would be sufficient for more than the two relatively small plants I had and that it could easily supply the 60x60 area with enough photons.


Plants:
what can I say? Totally fell in love with Kali China and Orient Express. Despite their common origin, they turned out quite differently. This won't be my last run with them.

I mainly just let them grow as they wished, just some LST of the top part of KC when it started to stretch a bit during the first two weeks of flowering. OE was then put on a small cardboard box to equalize their height, no problem.


In the future, there are definitely some things I would do differently:
-use full strength potting soil in the final container exclusively (need to re-pot of couse as a downside)
-keep it simple and don't mess with the RO water. My tap water is actually pretty good, just needs some light pH adjustment
-use a more balanced fertilizer and start using it earlier at small dose to prevent running into severe deficiency so suddenly
-definitely longer veg time (on the other hand I harvested more than I can consume already....)
-use larger pots only if bigger crop is needed
-win the lottery, live in a legal country and invite the whole ACE forum for a barbecue and harvest party



Hope this first timer experience helps other newbies a little. I gained a lot from this forum, would be happy to give some back.

 

[Common Sense]

Are there going to be any buds left when you pop Zamaldelica?
Has that been calculated?

They need to last until I harvest Zamaldelica!

We will see. With my usual consumption rate: easily
I have a >50h/week job where I need a very clear head, so for me it will remain a weekend pleasure apart from an occasional after-work microdosing.

But who knows what will happen? My wife might develop a habit... (very low probability).

I think I will take a break for the summer and start the Zamaldelica once it cools off a bit. At least that would be a wise thing to do. Emotionally, I am ready to plant tomorrow
I am sooooo curious to find out the differences in bouquet and effect of the whole ACE catalog!

 

[SolarLogos]

Very nice job my friend, that OE looks mouthwatering, so does KC. Great job timing those harvest too. They should be a very kind and enjoyable smoke. The tough part is going to be waiting for a good cure. Don't worry, soon you will have enough smoke and variety in your curing cabinet you will forget all about some of the stuff you've grown and one day your will go through your stash and say, wow I forgot I had this.
Keep up the great work!
SL