Orient Express & more from the Buddhist Arc

[Satyros]

Looks like ten "Himalayan Express" started true leaves; maybe a couple more will follow.

Went to top the early starts, and noticed something else rather strange. Pistils. Specifically on the odd Sexbud mentioned previously. Daylight hours are obviously increasing, so this kind of...doesn't make sense...take them back or please wait?? We'll see if it keeps going; I have no "control room" to give it a regulated environment. It perhaps comes from the heat factor, as I have other wildflowers also blooming that generally aren't considered to do it until June.

 

[Satyros]

Looks like we will call it 13/17 for Himalayan Express. Probably not too bad for paying zero attention to seeds that may have been too small/immature.

So I started Krystalica on Cinqo de Mayo; hopefully those will tickle the soil surface soon. Let's say they were pretty generous with the seed packet. This was my main motivation for this year's crop, Nepal x Kerala, so I hope it comes up at least 50%. The Kalichakra is going slow; Himalayan may bypass it. Slow is ok as long as it works right. The two narrow-leafed Sexbuds are also slow. Narrow leafed kinds are perhaps generally slower, whereas the Nemesis and "Sexbud oddities" are about ready to tie, bend, and everything else that impedes their vertical ascent. And I misplaced the main things I wanted to use for that purpose, a set of croquet hoops.

 

[Satyros]

Somebody bit through a Kalichakra. Probably a grasshopper like before, but this time round I'm not going to try to re-root a chopped plant in order to grow a joint. Although that was impressive. With only one of these Kali's, that could easily be male.

Fortunately the Krystalica started sprouting and at least multiples, so we have a better chance of enjoying her. Next up will be from the Thai island near Cambodia.

 

[Satyros]

Looks like 10/15 for the Krystalica, but one probably won't make it. The seedling has one cotyledon too long and one too short, like Frank Zappa. Most likely nine of those to play with. Perhaps not the highest germination rate ever seen, but the little ones are beautiful. The Kalichakra is not coming along that great, and the narrow leafed Sexbuds no longer seem particularly satisfying. Too many plants to get involved with nursing anything, might have to scrap 'em.

There are mixed reviews about World of Seeds who provided the Thai strain going in now. It seemed like on their own site, they only have feminized, but these are supposed to be regular, which was certainly reflected in the price, which was barely there. I can understand if that would sound discouraging to some people. We'll do them anyway. It can't possibly give me less smoke than I have now.

 

[Satyros]

On Himalayans vs. the heat, I haven't found this to be a problem. They seem to love the sun just fine and outgrow the Kalichakra, if that one is in fact even growing. But two of them wilted. This looks a lot like pinch off, the major difference being, if you catch it in time, it can recover.

Unfortunately those two got tossed in less-than-ideal containers as I am running low on resources. They are conical and probably too short. The base of them was much warmer than the top. May have been fine indoors or in a cooler area, but I'm pretty sure the containers caused the wilt, as all the other Himalayans are ok.

I need more mediums. It's not really an option to raise twenty or forty seedlings in large buckets, and apparently smalls are unreliable even for temporary use.

 

[Satyros]

I'll have to say the narrow leafed Sexbuds were going slow because they are autoflowering. SB has that "running around in the background". So, out with those, and it does not appear that young Kalichakra can tolerate the conditions. The Krystalica looks much better, not too far off from Himalayan and not what I would call narrow leaves to start.

I never found the croquet hoops and had to use a cheap alternative. Nemesis seems like it wants to be a tree...

 

[Satyros]

We can credit Wild Thailand with something, which is to come up fast and regular. I saw one poke out of the soil, and then in less than twenty-four hours, there were eight of them. No helmet heads or other kinds of weird sprouting. You can't swear a whole lot on something that new, but the indication is lighter colored, narrow leaves. We'll see if they still look that way tomorrow, and if so, maybe in November as well.

 

[Satyros]

All of the Thai sprouted; I think it only stopped because it got to the end of the pack.

They are nice but maybe a little stretchy; after being in the desert for a while, it's been a week of clouds and rain; probably another one to follow. So I'm temporarily out of the solar intensity that something tropical would like. It's good for established plants, but some of the younger ones are starting to look a little waterlogged, and, if you ever grew some cannabis, you know that if it doesn't find some bright light quick, it will reach for it until it falls over.

I might have to bookmark it here for a while. Running out of space and resources to grow any more. Three batches yet to come. More important to make sure the current stuff doesn't drown.

 

[Satyros]

Confession..."Himalayan Express" mix has thrown a few runts, so, we'll probably go with a reduced number of these.


Some Krystalica probably drowned or rotted from the rain, they were very young and I probably pushed them too hard. Those losses are operator error I suppose. However, for the ones that are chugging along, nothing seems undesirable or runt-y. It will probably turn out to be a pretty nice strain, although probably fair to say it would like a more tender treatment for germination & seedling than I gave it.


Since I didn't drown it, the Thai stuff not only came up 10/10 but also has a really groovy energy for some sprouts....it whispers grow me, grow me, grow me...so far it's good jazz from experimenting with a relatively unknown thing. Just needs to make it to "invulnerable to grasshoppers" stage. I left some kind of metallic multi-colored stag beetle there as a deterrent. Hope it's not vegetarian!

 

[Satyros]

Currently I just can't see any room for two whole batches of Mekong & Orient Express. I may just hold those until next year and just do three feminized White Bhutanese. The inn is pretty much full and, I can probably only go on a general formula of toss males, pot up females, which I would guess will keep the same area filled.


The small Thai seedlings were not fazed by a couple days of sun. As it goes back to a rain cycle, we just have to be careful, there isn't much of a protected dry area to use. Looks like two Krystalicas drowned from the last. The Thai probably wants a shower, not one or more per day.

 

[Satyros]

More of the Sexbud based stuff looks like it's going to flower. If I was trying to get an autoflower on purpose, the complaint would still be "this is too small". So it doesn't seem to work out very well in this kind of mix.


Both Himalayan and Nemesis appear to throw a good amount of viable offspring.


Even if the Sexbud falls apart, there could be twelve or sixteen females in the rest, so I think going for the Bhutanese would be the best, and the others will just have to wait on the backburner.

 

[Satyros]

Here's what happens.


You sit on a "special" seed for a while until the right opportunity. You get the pack and it's exciting because there are extra, which seems unusual for a three pack of feminized. Yay! Then, due to the nature of the packaging and the fact that you can't see tiny little details, you have sliced open the inner lining and they all rolled out.


I *think* I recovered them mostly, however, there is at least one extra that came out of a bag of the frizzy little hydro stuff we smoke. So I have planted...more than three Bhutanese, but with one or more random visitors. All I can do is keep combing the area for any more loose seeds, and hope the visitor is dead or at least distinguishable.


Hope there's only one random. Functioning flashlights are not allowed around here, and it will be tough to find any more seeds if they haven't jumped out yet. That was fairly ham fisted of me to spill them, but what's done is done.


I was encouraged to keep the Sexbud on a "why not" basis. Prospecting these Bhutanese to perhaps be that reason. Meanwhile, it's supposed to start raining after midnight and just keep going. That's exactly the thing which gets dangerous for the younger seedlings.

 

[Satyros]

Looks like perhaps dropping a couple more Himalayas out of the run; they are being outgrown by the younger stuff. It should be showing some kind of "hybrid vigor". None of them have the "whorled" shape of their mom, they're kind of plain.


Krystalica is maybe a bit sensitive about starting, but at this young point in veg it is already impressive. Bold and distinct. Quite vigorous. Memorable and award winning. I could recommend this to anyone who likes "stuff that grows".


Fortunately, I believe at least some of the Bhutanese is going to come up, and I'm pretty sure it's really them. I probably never will get anything 100% like the Thai was, but you don't stop trying.

 

[Satyros]

I got five from the Bhutanese-bag seed shuffle, and, I can't tell any difference in the sprouts. I suppose it will take a while to have any kind of guess. The seeds rolled into a right mess; I think I got all the real ones.


I'll have to plead ignorance about any difference between auto-flower and pre-flower. I found a couple Sexbuds start flowering as tiny little toothpick plants, and more at about a foot tall, and really these are all the least impressive of any plants, and all I can say is if you were to mix it on purpose, it would probably go best with C99 or something very close to itself.


Now it comes to the Nemesis. I'm guessing these are "pre-flowers", as, the plants have at least reached a reasonable size and age to be thought of as mature. So far, all I'm finding is female pistils. As far as I know, there is no "auto-flowering" even in the background of China Yunnan from OE, so I have more reason to suspect that they will veg out more in a couple weeks. At the very least, these will be much different than the "column" it was last year.



This makes my first time attempting a whole season outdoors, so in all my experience, whenever I found pistils, I tossed the plant indoors to flower. If I had indoor stuff now, I would be much happier to apply it to the Nemesis rather than the Sexbud. Instead, we just have to watch its behavior.

 

[Satyros]

I did wind up culling one Nemesis that wasn't keeping up. So three of those are reasonably medium-sized plants, probably about the size of what we flowered last year. It's changed to mostly narrow leaves and looks about like Orient Express; not sure if Nemesis alone should really do that; maybe it's from the mix.


I found the swankiest thing which is to water with a sprinkler. Sounds trivial, but it's quite exciting compared to most of what goes on around here.


Zero losses to the Thai so far. This one seemed to do pretty well in the sun from a small size. Don't know if it's any good, but so far, best survival rate on starts I have seen.

 

[Satyros]

After being asked to keep the Sexbud, I think it has that Gary Coleman disease where age is accelerated. It's not pre-flowering, because it didn't go back to veg...it's not "really" flowering because it just made a few hairy wisps scarcely appropriate to call it "bud"...and now it looks like it's running up on the end of its life cycle. The parent was great, but these mixed kids are just not right.


So far, the Mandala stuff looks slated for outdoor growth. All of it has the long node spacing that you probably wouldn't want indoors. They would probably be majestic if allowed to run free, but, in a stealth garden, they're getting topped and bent, and, even so, they still might be getting big. I did fry a couple Bhutanese. I try to be careful with the hardening off and overwatering, but, the reality of the situation is that sometimes I get pulled away and things happen. Even if there's only a few, they're femmed, so shouldn't be any losses with males. I need there to be some males in the other stuff so I can get more room, but all the pre-flowers I've found are female. I think that would be the right term to apply to Nemesis since it looks like it kept going.


The Himalayan mix doesn't suck, but it's not impressive either. Seems kind of average and indistinct. It hasn't gotten close to the Nemesis, and the Mandala stuff is starting to surpass it. No reason to scrap it, they can go slow as long as it's not stupidly slow.

 

[Satyros]

No real news and no additional casualties.


I am finding that Nemesis looks a whole lot like Orient Express, not sure if that's due to mixing it, but nothing much broad-leafed left to it.


Unlike their mom, a fair few of the Himalayan seem to have reverted to what's taken to be an undesirable jungli aspect of North Indian weed, which is a lolipop plant. I tried bending them for a while, and two or three set branches, but at least half of them are probably going to look like mops.

 

[Satyros]

The Thai and Mandala stuff are no joke.


There won't be any "top it once". These all blew by the older plants and I have to start topping them a second time.


I have achieved what people call a "dense canopy" and there is no more room for LST. And because it is dense, I clumsily broke a main branch from a Krystalica and then overwatered it. It can probably make a comeback, but isn't very pretty right now.


I can't find wide leaves anywhere. The Himalayans, now resembling the seven dwarves, are probably closer to "medium" than the other stuff, which ranges from narrow to very narrow.


So I don't really know if these newer plants could be made bushier by bending, because there was only room to do it to Krystalica very briefly. Thai and Bhutanese are definitely both skyrockets. Really seems to have outdoor growing at heart. If I could do it openly, I would love to try all three of those full season unlimited. Instead we're going to pot up and hope there are some males to toss.


I can't remember when flowering starts, but there's nothing left you'd call a bad plant and say why bother.

 

[Satyros]

It looks like we hit two or three weeks of "not really flowering" but at least showing sex. Probably none of this stuff has the tendency of a Kiss Dragon to churn out massive clusters on day two.


So while it's good to find female appearances...considering only three of about sixteen plants are feminized...I'm slightly aghast at finding a singular male. You'd expect there to easily be five or six, which I was planning on, to cull for space. Probably should give it a couple days to be sure, but the removal of one won't accomplish much. They are vaccum packed and can't really get individual attention that way. So, erm, a few more males please? A normal ratio would be fine.

 

[Satyros]

It was more than that. Managed to hack out 3/26 males...didn't gain any room.


And, it's going to outgrow the partition. Going to have to shore it up with some kind of material. It will probably be between something ugly that lasts forever, and something ugly. A few of them are about as tall as me. One of the Bhutanese I either didn't top or didn't hit it right...looks like a single stalk, and it is shorter than the ones that got cut. Plants are weird.


Nothing is really bursting with pistils yet, but if they produce colas, they will definitely be taller than me. Not the Nemesis. It got a good bit of bending and squashing so, kind of shrubby. Even with phased planting, the tropical stuff still gets unreasonably lengthy. So we'll mask that with, erm...something inconspicuous.