Diary Here we go again..

[exploziv]

I watered 5 liters of water (~~550 ml per pot) last night into the tray and they sucked it all till the morning.
I also checked trichomes with the microscope first time and they are virtually all cloudy already. Good sign I would say.
The smell evolved from frutty -floral to vanilla-frutty, and it's first time I encountered this vanilla smell in weed. Its a discrete smell but a very distinctive aroma. As smooth as smelling a just broken into vanilla pod. With some weed and frutty smells in the background.
Some side tops that are not tied started to lean sideways, signs they getting heavy. I had to tie some of them because they were slipping down between the pots (under "soil" level). I didn't even bothered to tie those small branches before because I usually espect them to yeld popcorn buds. This grow might not even have popcorn buds tho. Even the smallest under branches seem to have buds that will yeld at least a gram or two. Should be a nice harvest!! Did I mention Swazi is very easy to trim? I will probably be done with the harvest in hours, without any rush.
As you can already feel, I am preparing for a great harvest. But there is still 2-3 weeks left so stay tuned for more nice pics till then.
See you soon!

 

[exploziv]

Some quick snaps:

Almost end of Week 10 of flowering. (About 2 weeks left.)
They are now receiving only water for more than 1 week and will only get water till the end. Still looking about the same as before, just more ripening happening and more foxtails appeared. Smell in there is fantastic already, very fresh frutty floral with some vanilla undertone. Some plants seem to be a bit behind but I am guessing it's phenotype. I had plants finish anywhere from 12 to 14 weeks before, so some might need a week or so more. We'll see!
Thank you for checking my update! See you guys and gals soon.

 

[bibi40]

That' s budporn bro !!!

Excellent

 

[Mars Hydro Led]

some real monsters

 

[exploziv]

That' s budporn bro !!!

Excellent

Thank you bro!

some real monsters

Thank you for coming by! I must say I am impressed with the results of the TSW2000 led. Even if plants had some problem with nutrients during the grow, the results (as size of buds and yeld) are way better than before when I grew swazi. I must also say that since heat came I dialed back the light a bit at around 75% and put it closer to the tops for better efficiency. Light is now at 30-35 cm from most tops but the taller ones are at about 20 cm away and I see no light bleaching or other problems on them at that distance.

I will check tricomes again soon to see if any amber ones appeared. So far the only water plan seems to work, they just started to fade a bit, and the ones that faded more are the ones that seem more ripe than the others. I was hoping to harvest them all at once but it seems I'll have to harvest about half of them sooner, while the rest may still need 1-2 weeks more. I won't rush this one, as the aromas and high quality really develops near the end, so rushing harvest on a sativa means lost time and energy, as the results are way worse than when the plants are ripen. Also, if you harvest a sativa too early the high will have that "racy" component that makes you feel like you got tahicardy. My plan is to harvest them at around 10% amber trichomes.

Will come back soon to report on the trichomes and maybe with more pics.
Thank you all for checking my thread!

 

[exploziv]

Ok. I checked trichomes and they are still close to 100% cloudy. I have seen some amber here and there but not even close to call it a percent.
Also noticed more nice aromas coming out when brushing my hands and scope on the buds and getting my fine nose up to them to look through the scope. I would say a coffee/chocolate flavour is developing, and it will soon probably overpower the vanilla one I noticed before.
Getting upclose to them also made me see that buds go deeper than it looks and even ones that are under the canopy grew a lot. There is also a monster bud formation as thick as my arm that is completely fallen to the side. That plant should be the biggest yelder, and also looks to be the most advanced in flower by now. Judging by past swazi grows I would expect an average of about 30 gr dried from each plant, but I may be a bit off since some of the buds look more compact than I seen before from sativas.
I have also tried 2 pics with a crappy microscope lens for my phone but ... well, pics ended crappy. Field of view is like slim to none. Much harder to see anything than on my profesional jewlers scope I am using for judging ripeness. But you can't compare a 100 USD piece of kit that has real glass optics to a 1.5 USD toy you clip on the phone that probably has plastic lenses.
Anyway, since I tried, I'll post the best 2 of them:

And finally, sorry for my long writing. But I just finished my morning coffee and I am already on my second joint, and I used kief in them too, not just bud.

 

[Mars Hydro Led]

Thank you bro!




Thank you for coming by! I must say I am impressed with the results of the TSW2000 led. Even if plants had some problem with nutrients during the grow, the results (as size of buds and yeld) are way better than before when I grew swazi. I must also say that since heat came I dialed back the light a bit at around 75% and put it closer to the tops for better efficiency. Light is now at 30-35 cm from most tops but the taller ones are at about 20 cm away and I see no light bleaching or other problems on them at that distance.

I will check tricomes again soon to see if any amber ones appeared. So far the only water plan seems to work, they just started to fade a bit, and the ones that faded more are the ones that seem more ripe than the others. I was hoping to harvest them all at once but it seems I'll have to harvest about half of them sooner, while the rest may still need 1-2 weeks more. I won't rush this one, as the aromas and high quality really develops near the end, so rushing harvest on a sativa means lost time and energy, as the results are way worse than when the plants are ripen. Also, if you harvest a sativa too early the high will have that "racy" component that makes you feel like you got tahicardy. My plan is to harvest them at around 10% amber trichomes.

Will come back soon to report on the trichomes and maybe with more pics.
Thank you all for checking my thread!

Some growers said they got better yield without light bleach issue when the distance is around 20cm for flowering. Next time, maybe you might have a try.

 

[exploziv]

Well, with the SP3000 I plan to keep it as close as I can while still covering all plants. And since will be summer heat soon, I'd rather keep the unit dimmed and closer than too far away and at 100%. Even this grow, I bet the average power was like 70% so it would be wrong to go and calculate the yeld GPW based on full power draw of 280W, when unit was mostly kept under 200 W or so.
Anyway, I am very happy with the TS line, I mean my grows were far from perfect and I still had great results. I actually belive even a newbie can have same results on first grow. I did nothing special. Some light, some water some nutes, good genetics and that's all.
Only thing I want to do better is have my plants look great and no defficiencies. And I am working on that.

 

[exploziv]

Things are starting to get ripe. Some of the plants have 2-3% amber trichs, and the ones that are almost done have over 5% amber ones.
We are at 11.5 weeks flowering out of about 12.5 total. We'll see how things develop, I may be able to harvest them all in the next 2 weeks, or there may be 1 or 2 that need more time. Honestly, there is just one that is really behind, the one in the middle. I suspect that plant developed nitrogen toxicity in mid flower which delayed flowering a bit. I say that because she had the blue tint in the leaves. Anyway, if I leave them for 1.5-2 weeks more, and that one turns out to be the only that's not done yet, I'll still harvest them all. If I get 2-3 plants that need more time I will let then finish in peace with the light closer and dimmed down.
I just took a quick snap now to show progression, better update will come next week.

 

[DARKSIDER]

Great work exploziv coming on strong they are ..

 

[exploziv]

Great work exploziv coming on strong they are ..

Thank you bro! Good to see people still checking my thread. It feels so empty in here lately..

 

[exploziv]

We are now at almost 12 weeks flowering out of 12.5 or so total. I will soon take some small samples from the plants that are more advanced in flower & I'll look at the trichomes with the microscope again and decide when I'll gonna harvest them. (Probably within 1 week for 3-4 of the plants.) The other 5-6 plants will need about a week more, maybe even 1.5 weeks.
Smell is incredible, can't wait to taste them.

Thank you for checking my thread. See you soon!

 

[bibi40]

Huge !!!

 

[JustGrowing420]

Proper jungle, and healthy till the finish! You'll be enjoying in no time!

 

[exploziv]

Thank you guys for checking my thread and update! It's a mini jungle, but yeah, a nice one!
Next time I plan on keeping the canopy even more even. This time I just said fk it and stopped tieing them all one day. I should have tied the taller plants one or twice more for an even better canopy height and uniformity.
Already took some small samples and will be checking them and the plants again in a couple of days or so. By then, 3-4 plants should be ready for harvest.. or at least close & I will able to plan their harvest within the week.
By now plants have at least 3-5% amber trichs, so I guess even the late ones should be ready within the next 2 weeks.
See you guys and gals soon!

 

[Dr Bombay]

That's one heck of a grow!!! Congratulations!

 

[exploziv]

Thank you for coming by and for the nice words Dr Bombay !

Small text update. As I checked trichomes again and I see no change, I started researching more into signs that sativas are done and I also remembered from last time I grew swazi that when no new foxtails appear they are close to harvest. I also seen some burst trichomes, sign they grew a lot since first time I checked them. In a day or two I will harvest the first plants, then the rest might need another week or so.
I also puffed on the samples I took some days ago and I must say the bud is very powerful. 0.3-0.4 gr kills me for hours. I mean it's sativa high but it's so "high" you can't do too much while "enjoying" it. Definely needs a nice cure to showcase the nice taste and aromas inside, but the high is great. And it might get better with a proper drying and a bit of curing. We'll see!

Also, stay tuned, cause after this grow is finished we're gonna start a new adventure.
Kali Bubba from Serious Seeds under Mars Hydro SP3000 led light.
Still thinking on how many to germ and which pots to use since that one is regular seeds as well. I'd prefer 4 females in the bigger pots, but that would mean I have to transplant them after they show sex. It's not optimal but it may be the best option for me. Unless I find 6 or 9 bigger pots that fit better in my space than the 9 small ones I have now. For sativas I wanted small pots to control stretch, there is rumors that kali bubba is a stretcher as well, so dunno, whatever option turns out to be the one I take, I'll have to do it that way till the end.

See you guys and gals soon! I will take pics before and after harvesting each plant, but I will harvest plants as a whole, not keep seperate per plant/pot as before.
I am as curios as you guys about the total yeld, since every day I see a new top or side branch bud that has slipped down from the canopy because of weight. That didn't happened to me before, especially with 100% sativas.
Light is now very close to the tops (like 15-25 cm away from most tops) and dimmed down to 50%.
Humidity is kept under 60% and I hope not to regret I didn't set it lower. Vpd is 11-12 most of the time.

 

[Gypsy Nirvana]

- gorgeous - simply gorgeous -

 

[exploziv]

- gorgeous - simply gorgeous -

Thank you, Sir!

 

[exploziv]

I just harvested and trimmed the first plant, the one in first picture at post 152.
It almost for sure the best yelding plant in there and I would say by the looks of it we'll be at 50gr+ dry on this one.
The high is also fantastic, I just had the scissors hash 15 mins ago and I am flying high. Pure heady pleasure high, no noticeable body effects.
The fade went well on this one, plant was the most deficient one since I stopped feeding nutrients, and by now most bigger fan leaves were already dead or very easy to pull apart from the stem, like almost dead.
Forgot to add smell is very floral, with frutty undertones, no sign of the darker chocolate vanilla aromas i was smelling mid flower. I wonder if they will come back after a nice cure. Since this bud is so powerful and long lasting high some of it will get a proper curing and may stay for a while in my stash. Every time I've grown it I felt half a gr of the swazi equals at least a gr of any other hibrid or indica. 0.3-0.4 gr will keep you entertained for hours looking at the ceiling or out the window or thinking about stuff.