Dark Devil Auto: A Community Grow Record

IMG_20160211_080002969.jpg


40 days above ground
 
"topping" a Auto period cannabis plant, my opinion is waste of valuable time. These strains are small to begin with so making the plant stop its natural growth cycle to develop a new apical meristem is wasting valuable time since these plants are on a time schedule.

Regarding photo period plants and topping in VEG - lots of folks do it. It's a style of growing usually followed by some sort of training. All good but not my style. I tend to gauge the success of my grows by how LITTLE work I have to do to get to harvest. Less work, I'm more successful!! Thats me...

For example: If one of my ladies LST/tied and trained gets me 10 zips but takes up the space of 4 plants that yield me 3 zips each AND I have to work hard to get there, I don't see that as a win for me. What happens if something like pests enter the scene... I've got all my eggs in one basket and set myself up for failure. If I have 4 plants and one gets pests I still have 3 plants. Training also takes more time. My ladies in flower 70-75 days then chop.

Economics comes into play for me, I prefer organic no-til = maybe a little less yield overall, but trade for best tasting buds, less work and WAY less cost.

Glimmer - overthinking for me = paying attention to detail. That is always always a good thing. Just have fun doing it that's my thing, enjoying gardening. All this canna deal for the winter time is coming to an end for me. Spring time we will be growing 100s of seedlings for outdoor gardens so this pales in comparo. It sure is nice to be able to grow pretty flowers all winter long tho, isn't it??

You're doing GREAT, keep up the good work! :high-five::Namaste:

Many wishes for a green and purple harvest, yeah u right!


EDIT: Glimmer I noticed you mentioned "flushing"; you're growing in soil right? Before you do a lot of extra actual work doing that, do a little research into WHY you want to do that. I'm certain that "flushing" in soil grow is a waste of good water with science to back that up.

Cation Exchange Capacity in Soils, Simplified

Hey, bobrown, I just realized I didn't thank you for the REST of your great post :) That's what happens when I browse stoned ... Thank so so much for all your help.

I am a bit obsessive so I try to understand as much as I can about what I'm doing. I have limited space, too, so don't train for the kind of plant a grower like Rifleman produces -- also, I just don't need that much cannabis (so nice to be in a surplus position for the first time in my life!) I'd rather have lots of smaller plants producing a wide variety of different strains.

I think it's so cool that you do this kind of gardening as an off season hobby -- and that your day job is horticulturalist, too. I kinda love that :) I've only been gardening for the 14 years I've owned a house -- now I'm imagining a world where I can landscape with cannabis because I find it so beautiful!

:Namaste:

I dont even flush on a chem nute grow. My beauties from the hunger games got switched to half of regular dosage and then 1/4 in the final week. I do a last watering with no nutrients just to save money. I feel that giving decreasing nutes allows the plant to still grow without deficiency in late flower.
For example, say you are flirting with a late calcium deficiency and just feed water. Your plant will not finish effectively because of the lack of calcium. But giving a decreased nutrient schedule will still allow that plant to flower effectively. In fact, it will supply some calcium that lets the plant use up more stored nutrient like phosphorus. If I just gave water, that phosphorus would still be in storage in the plant, counteracting the effect of the flush we are trying to achieve.

Also, adding dilute nutrient can help release some of the locked up salts in the grow. especially if we water with 1/4 waste and the dilute nutes. The dilute nutes will help solubilize and move the salts from the media.

As a result, with no media flush, the herb I have grown this time is as smooth as silk. I do hang my plants in diffuse light on the edge of the grow. As we know, cutting them down is a death sentence but the plants are not dead yet! While they are hanging the diffuse light will allow photosynthesis to continue and more stored nutrients to be utilized. I have the plants on hangers in big pieces and turn the orientation of the hangers once per day.

Now as bobrown has said this will not work in organic soil as we have a slow release of nutrients from mineral storage. Flushing is not going to remove those minerals from the soil. They are just there and converted to useable forms by the microflora.

OH! my real purpose in coming here today was to say My 5 DD seeds just got put in the mail by Gorilla seeds from the MOTM contest! So excited to join this community grow!

Thanks for this, Shiggs. Really appreciate this -- and your suggestions about drying in diffuse light to encourage the last bit of photosynthesis. Like all beginners I try things because I've read them and they make sense to me somehow. But received wisdom only works up to a point, and I think canna gardeners have an inborn rebellious streak (well, look what we're growing ... we're rebels!) that makes them want to test received wisdom and kick it to pieces if they can :)

Also: YAYAYAYAY! Another DD Dude joining the Community Grow! Woo hoo! Seeds in the mail, how sweet is that?

Hey there Glimmer .. sorry I thought you were in soil. For hydroponics flushing helps get rid of salt build up ... I have no idea why/how but for soil it's a no go. Thanks Shigg for getting me right! :thumb:

No problem -- why on earth should you remember what I'm growing in? :) It's organic soil for me next and possibly forever!

My DD has started her stretching I do believe. She is 37 days old, has been getting Tiresias spray for eight days, and is ten inches tall. Two of those inches since Sunday. :yahoo::rofl:

Wow, Rifleman. That's great! Yay for the stretch! Let me know how the pollen production goes, eh? I'm going to try again with my new DD girl, just popped her germinated seed into soil yesterday.
 
DARK DEVIL - 78 days from sprouting

We're getting near the end and I'm just totally in love with her. I photographed her and was looking at the shots afterwards, and was amazed by the colour of the final few shots. No photo editing, no colour tweaking, just the way the light was hitting her. She's got something going on right now that I've noticed in a couple of other examples grown here -- with the dark purple ones, as the fan leaves fade to lime green, the contrast with the purple is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. What an honour it is to grow this plant. I hope to get some trichome shots tomorrow and get a sense of where I am in relation to her harvest. The other signs are there, now I'm just waiting for some amber.

IMG_6860_2.JPG
IMG_6861_2.JPG
IMG_6863_2.JPG
IMG_68655.JPG
IMG_6866_2.JPG
IMG_6867_2.JPG
 
Goodness gracious Glimmer! That thing is phenomenal! The purple is absolutely amazing! My DD just came down yesterday (no purple) and I think I will have to plant another to see if I can get so lucky. Nice work, she looks awesome!
 
She is a cross of 2 purple strains.says in her info she finishes with 85%red in her flowers.looks cool and pretty;) never smoked purple bud.that will soon change;) ha ha
 
Wow! A lot of activity through here in the past couple days. Greenlid, great job and another on the way!! :high-five: And ShiggityFlip will be joining us. Wonderful!!

Glimmer, those pictures are stunning. Oh please let me grow one like that this time out. Right now I'm still trying to get one to break the surface.

BrixNewb, I missed your harvest. I'll have to swing by later. Congratulations. Addictive little species, isn't it? :laughtwo:

Alright, I was on my way out the door when I stopped here. I need to get to the bakery before they're all out of cupcakes.
 
Wow! A lot of activity through here in the past couple days. Greenlid, great job and another on the way!! :high-five: And ShiggityFlip will be joining us. Wonderful!!

Glimmer, those pictures are stunning. Oh please let me grow one like that this time out. Right now I'm still trying to get one to break the surface.

BrixNewb, I missed your harvest. I'll have to swing by later. Congratulations. Addictive little species, isn't it? :laughtwo:

Alright, I was on my way out the door when I stopped here. I need to get to the bakery before they're all out of cupcakes.

Welcome back girl! Nothing really to see in my thread concerning harvest, so no worries. I will be posting an update on DD once it's dried and tried.
 
Greenlid as soon as she had preflowers there was red and little purp pistils in them.and the more flower has gone on the more the red and purp she has become.she is really showing some deep colour now and red under all the leaves looks cool;)
 
Back
Top Bottom