Jackies lil' Tower of Horrors

[zaprjaques]

The Manipuri momma.

 

[zaprjaques]

Manipuri x Lebanese just the top.
Flash / No Flash

 

[zaprjaques]

Four weeks of flowering already passed.

​​​​​I got a little curious s​​o i decided to snip off a lil flower.

Put it in my vape and heated it to 300 F.
Held my nose close to the mouthpiece to catch a couple of whiffs and it smelled like somebody was cooking asian cuisine. Thai basil, curry and other savory fragrances with a sour lemongrass undertone.
Very interesting and unique so far.
She sure is pychoactive, no doubt, even this ridiculously small 'bud' gave me a headchange, a bit of a creeper, nice and warm sensation around the eyes and temples, could become a good stress reliever.
But anyways, its to early to make many conclusions and i probably wont test again until i see that she's reached her peak.

After finishing this one i probably wont be able to sprout another seed for some time...
But if shes turning out to be something special for me i will try and re-veg her.

 

[zaprjaques]

End of week 5.

Last week i plucked some of the lower fan leaves because i was thinking theyre blocking the light to the lower flowers.

Then i read up a bit on defoliating and regretted it instantly... never done it before so i'm not sure if i did a good or bad thing.

I had some atami tester bottles laying around and mixed a low (1/3 of the recommended) dosage of rootfast and atazyme to my water because theyre supposed to provide P and K respectively.
The soil i'm using has a slow release N source mixed in. (Some green colored little dots, they become translucent when they have been used up)
​​​​​
I suppose that because i kept the soil a little too wet there must have been a bigger N release ...

The larger leaves have pretty burnt tips that claw upwards a little. But really just the tips. A couple of millimeters only, then they go straight to lush dark green.

Here are the lower flowers

And the top

The entire plant.

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[TyroneShoelace]

She looks absolutely gorgeous! It's great to see that big top beginning to come together into a single mass. Getting glimpses of her future.

Don't overthink it. The many schools-of-thought on defoliation have coexisted in a virtual standoff for decades without a clear victor (but we all obviously know who is correct ).

IMO as long as you leave enough leaves on the plant to sustain life, you'll be fine. But every time you remove a leaf you are injuring the plant slightly, and reducing her photosynthetic capacity slightly, so it's best to do it with caution. I only prune in veg. Getting rid of the suckers and lollipopping to prevent the plant from wasting energy on larf production. Once flowering starts I don't remove any leaves unless they are obviously dying/dead and detach with a gentle tug.

Trying to understand your medium a little better. Is that coco you're working in, with a res below it?

 

[zaprjaques]

She looks absolutely gorgeous! It's great to see that big top beginning to come together into a single mass. Getting glimpses of her future.

Don't overthink it. The many schools-of-thought on defoliation have coexisted in a virtual standoff for decades without a clear victor (but we all obviously know who is correct ).

IMO as long as you leave enough leaves on the plant to sustain life, you'll be fine. But every time you remove a leaf you are injuring the plant slightly, and reducing her photosynthetic capacity slightly, so it's best to do it with caution. I only prune in veg. Getting rid of the suckers and lollipopping to prevent the plant from wasting energy on larf production. Once flowering starts I don't remove any leaves unless they are obviously dying/dead and detach with a gentle tug.

Trying to understand your medium a little better. Is that coco you're working in, with a res below it?

Thanks Tyrone!

I'm very excited to see what will happen in the next couple of weeks

I dont have much experience, and with all that information and contradictions floating around i try to do my best.

Wasnt caring as much at the beginning but i feel like i'm getting more and more insight to the topic and i want to use it somehow

The medium is Composana soil, but a newer version that claims to have 50 % less weight.
It consists of 95 percent peat and some perlite according to what ive found out just a minute ago. Its supposed to be a bit low in iron....

The res below is just for my personal pleasures, because once in a while i cant water them on the regular and the medium gets so dry that the water just runs through it.

After all the containers are only half a liter if i remember correctly.

Now even if they get too dry i just pour water
into the res and they wick it up. I used some shoelaces, tee-hee ​​​​​​

I'll be away for a couple of days in a week or two so i bought some blumat carrots to test if its suitable.
Ive read that someone used them in his pc grow with good success.

 

[zaprjaques]

I have my fingers crossed.

 

[zaprjaques]

Little update without pics.
I changed the water in the reservoir and throrughly cleaned it with ethanol.
The water was getting a little opaque...
Should have given it a thorough rinse before filling it in the first place.

I forgot to add that one day before installing the blumats i gave the Manipuri a soil refill after throwing away loose old soil and a couple of very fine root 'bundles'(?).
I also loosened up the remaining rootball.
Today i have noticed increased rooting activities, theres fresh thick white ones coming out of the drainage holes and crawling up the half translucent walls of the pot.
Theres also an increase in flowering, trichome production and new nice looking leaves.
I guess she was starving to death...
Still no intersex traits showing! woohoo!
:yay:

As for the cross, its progressing nicely each day.
The scent on the plant can be described as a bit organic, like something decomposing but not offensive like a homeopathic dose of that stale water in a vase with cut flowers that stood there for too long.

Upon a gentle rub though this changes drastically!
Theres an immense bubblegum sweetness, wich was a trait of the Lebanese male i had grown along, combined with a mouthwatering overripe mango and a little citrus.
It had me salivating instantly and i couldnt stop sniffing the flowers.

It was so damn sweet that i almost got a tooth ache .

Now i'm terribly excited for the end results.
Still all white fresh fat stigmas coming up and the resin is coming along nicely too.
Some buds have a wheaty appearance with bracts stacked upon each other.

I hope everything will go well from this point on.

 

[TyroneShoelace]

Thanks Tyrone!

I'm very excited to see what will happen in the next couple of weeks

I dont have much experience, and with all that information and contradictions floating around i try to do my best.

Wasnt caring as much at the beginning but i feel like i'm getting more and more insight to the topic and i want to use it somehow

That's my favorite thing about this hobby. Reading about the competing philosophies and then running my own tests.

The medium is Composana soil, but a newer version that claims to have 50 % less weight.
It consists of 95 percent peat and some perlite according to what ive found out just a minute ago. Its supposed to be a bit low in iron....

Oh interesting. I couldn't find any analysis on the web about it. Is it low in iron specifically for cannabis' needs?

The res below is just for my personal pleasures, because once in a while i cant water them on the regular and the medium gets so dry that the water just runs through it.

After all the containers are only half a liter if i remember correctly.

Now even if they get too dry i just pour water
into the res and they wick it up. I used some shoelaces, tee-hee ​​​​​​

haha that made me snort

I'll be away for a couple of days in a week or two so i bought some blumat carrots to test if its suitable.
Ive read that someone used them in his pc grow with good success.

I see you are going down a similar path as I did with increasing automation and/or decreasing maintenance. I was using coco and hand watering daily was a chore. If I missed even one day the dryback would cause a massive spike in EC and the plant would start to burn. I was preparing for a week away and got the same Blumat carrots out of desperation. They took some fine tuning, which luckily I had time to do before the trip. And I returned to reasonably happy plants.

Coco requires a lot more water than soil, so the carrots just weren't ideal in my situation. The big blumat dripper system was significantly more expensive, and I'd read plenty of stories about people having runaways while they were out of town and coming back to dead plants, or a flooded room. (i'm sure it was user error, but still...). Ended up finding a cheap drip system on amazon that allows a ton of flexibility around the pump interval and duration. That took about a week to get dialed in and then it was like a life hack. I hooked it up to a 20gal res and went on a 3 week vacation with a plant in mid-flower (reckless, i know) and came back to a happy plant that was nearly ready for harvest.

Anyways, enough rambling. Automation is a beautiful thing.

If possible, I'd recommend using an opaque container for your blumat res. When you let light in it gives life to all kinds of nasties in your water. Blacking it out will buy you a lot more time between water changes.

Glad to hear that the added moisture is kicking things into gear. Can't wait to see how things look.

 

[zaprjaques]

I couldn't find any analysis on the web about it. Is it low in iron specifically for cannabis' needs?

No its just some regular potting soil from the store.
Ten years ago i used to use the regular Composana as it was advertised by Mandala Seeds on their website but i got curious when i saw the new one.

I see you are going down a similar path as I did with increasing automation and/or decreasing maintenance. I was using coco and hand watering daily was a chore. If I missed even one day the dryback would cause a massive spike in EC and the plant would start to burn. I was preparing for a week away and got the same Blumat carrots out of desperation. They took some fine tuning, which luckily I had time to do before the trip. And I returned to reasonably happy plants.

This soil i have can retain a big ammount of water so i made sure that the res was located under the pots levels as much as possible.
Now the carrots are supposed to give off like 50ml every 24 hours. If i had the res above pot level they can go as much as 120ml per 24 hours if i remember correctly.
I'm curious how it will work in the long run.
So far no signs of overwatering are to be seen, and the RH is in the range between 45 and 75 percent wich is an overall increase and it seems that its doing them well.

Coco requires a lot more water than soil, so the carrots just weren't ideal in my situation. The big blumat dripper system was significantly more expensive, and I'd read plenty of stories about people having runaways while they were out of town and coming back to dead plants, or a flooded room. (i'm sure it was user error, but still...). Ended up finding a cheap drip system on amazon that allows a ton of flexibility around the pump interval and duration. That took about a week to get dialed in and then it was like a life hack. I hooked it up to a 20gal res and went on a 3 week vacation with a plant in mid-flower (reckless, i know) and came back to a happy plant that was nearly ready for harvest.

Yeah that sounds nice, when i get back from my vacation they should be about ready to harvest.

Anyways, enough rambling. Automation is a beautiful thing.

For shizzle!

If possible, I'd recommend using an opaque container for your blumat res. When you let light in it gives life to all kinds of nasties in your water. Blacking it out will buy you a lot more time between water changes.

Yeah it seems, although i washed it down with alcohol, that its going back to a lil bit cloudy again... put a lid on it (not airtight tho) so no tiny bits of soil get in there but it could be the atazyme or rootfast thats in there and the lack of oxygen thats making it go off, it developed a slightly sour smell that reminds me of one of the two atami juices i put in there...
I'm having an eye on it.

Can't wait to see how things look.

So here are some pics.
First the Manipuri.

Looks like shes still got some ambitions.

And the cross.

I must admit that i'm not totally free of pride so far considering that its grown under 42 watts of SILs in a half a liter pot and first 3 weeks 9/15 light regime and after that i went up to 10/14.
Its probably around half time of flowering but what do i know.

The lower parts.

And a close up of the top, white hair is courtesy of my cat....

 

[zaprjaques]

On a side note.
Yesterday i had the opportunity to vape a bigger more developed one of the lower flowers while taking a nice long walk/hike in the nearby woods.

So far i must admit that its not exaxtly what i was hoping for although it has some very kind aspects to it.

It hits extremely smooth meaning the onset of its effects is very gradual, needs like 20 minutes to reach a not so high altitude. and when youre there you wonder how you got there because at first its like 'hm... this herb doesnt do much does it?'. could be because of a cbd presence coming from the lebanese side.
It is very mellow and dreamy for me, no body effects were felt but it surely isnt energizing.
More introspective and thought provoking but its probably also due to my current personal state of mind. Made me think deeply about stuff that is bothering me at the moment.
It probably would be perfect for an afternoon spent in solitude making some music as it gave a spark to the brain wich was crystal clear and although it was not uplifting it wasnt tiring either.

I hope i can keep my fingers off her till shes ready.

 

[zaprjaques]

The Manipuri is coming back
Had to bend her down.

Today hits the end of week 6 for this one.

 

[zaprjaques]

Weekly pics.

This one is starting to look like a jungle, sometimes it makes me wonder, how long its gonna flower..

Different flower structures for sure.

The Blumats working good so far.
The new reservoirs keep the water fresh for longer now. Thanks for the hint Tyrone .
Also just water in them, nutes are coming back in at the next refill.

​​​​​​​Wishing you all a good prosperous week.

 

[zaprjaques]

Got to do some more testing this week.
In the name of science.
Pic taken with flash.

 

[TyroneShoelace]

Looking good! Glad to hear the new res is working. Light, lack of O2, and heat can muck up your res really fast. Luckily there are simple, inexpensive ways to address each problem.

Looking forward to the results of your testing.

 

[zaprjaques]

So i took some time to evaluate the fruit of my 'labor'.

The material wasnt too dry so i decided to cut it in fine strips like rolling tobacco using scissors.

Mixed it around 50/50 with fresh and pretty neutral tasting rolling tobacco and twisted one up.

The dry toke tasted like when you get to the skin part when eating a very ripe mango.
Really nice i must admit.
This time the onset of the effects was felt after about one third of the joint.
Little pressure around the eyes and temple and a more pronounced heartbeat.

To my surprise there was some sweetish taste emerging halfway through. Very similar to the smell and later on with a mix of turpentine and marzipan on the palate.

Very oldschool outdoor-weedish smell in the room.

After finishing smoking i felt a little buzzy/stoned/relaxed. I had a feeling that it might glue me to the couch if it continued to develop this way. But it didnt. It became very clear shortly after the initial stage passed, no red eyes either. Just a feelgood vibe to it, not overpowering at all.

So i pulled out my portable turntable and chopped up some vinyl with my Roland SP-404.

Good times.

PS: It gradually tapered out so i'm not exactly sure about the duration of the effects, probably around 1 1/2 - 2 hours then it began to fade.


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[zaprjaques]

I wonder what that neongreen thing in the middle is supposed to be.
Surely looks off. Like a single banana without its pod. Anyone seen anything like that?

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[zaprjaques]

Looks like in the post above it was my first time i encountered what people call nanners.
I inspected my plant a little more thorough today and found 2 more. One was completely yellow and almost wilted, didnt open but upon crushing it between my fingers a bit of pollen became visible. The other one is still green.

By the looks of the plant i suspect it has like one or 2 weeks more to go, but i cant really be sure... looks pretty much done but no swollen bracts yet. I hope she will beef up a bit ​​​​​​

I will inspect it daily but i'm going on a trip next week for the entire week so we will see how she does in her final days after i get back.

Anyway, end of week 8 today.

The Manipuri is looking good so far, no nanners whatsoever.
Shes been treated very bad and i could go as far as calling her sexually stable.

If i will go on with the growing i'm surely going to use only the seeds i made with her.
Should last for some time i guess i have like 80 of them.

I will have to cut them both at the same time because i'm moving so not much time left to 'shine' for that one.

I'm gonna grind her up and mix it all togerher once shes dry so i'll have some old and fresh calyxes in the mix. if i get a doobie or two out of it i'm gonna be happy.

 

[TyroneShoelace]

My heart stopped when I saw that pic. Ugh. Nanners are so insidious because they are only the reproductive bits of a male flower (anther and pollen) without all the other parts. Many plants produce infertile nanners, so it may not be too bad. Hopefully the pollen will be sterile, or it won't have long enough to take hold and force the plant to shift its energy away from calyx and resin production.

But either way all is not lost. Sounds like you have some great smoke already. And plenty of new beans waiting in the wings. That cola looks fantastic! Whatever happens from here it will be a joy to smoke, I'm certain.

 

[zaprjaques]

Thanks for the empathy TyroneShoelace !
The nanners are only in an area close to a specific node and i havent discovered any new ones. They seem pretty inactive too, i havent even removed the other 2 as i like to see how or if theyre even progressing or not.

However, i have found some small brown spots on 2 young leaves in the top section and i suspect some calcium might be missing...

I will check the PH and see what might have caused it.

Id like to flower for at least one or maybe 2 more weeks and i dont want to let it slide.

The cola is indeed pretty nice i must admit, and swings around quite a bit when i'm taking the plant out for inspections

So far i can only hope that the aroma will stay like that as much as possible and i wont screw up the cure
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Edit:

Seems like i have screwed up the PH B I G T I M E.

I have always corrected my tap water to 7.0 and since i use the blumats i have no run off obviously.

So i took some water out the res and watered till runoff, PH was like 5...

I paniked watered with pure tap wich clocks at 8.something.
Maybe i should have used something with an even higher PH value....

I dont evern understand how they made it so far, probably the landrace genetics that will let the plants cope with very bad situations regarding soil and whatnot helped a lot, or maybe the ATAzyme ?

The lebanese is supposed to get along in very poor soil...

yikes