Golden Tiger 3rd Version Journal - Seed 1

[Rasterman]

I rolled my percentile dice and they told me that this is a third edition I can sink my teeth into!

I'm searching for a sativa landrace or landrace-derived seed that provides a satisfactory high, with trips and giggles, after smoking only before bed for 10 days straight. That seems to be a limit for me with modern cannabis, which hasn't really been working for me (with a few exceptions).

I hope this strain takes me back to the old days, but it's just one out of a few strains I plan to grow out in my quest for better.

This arrived on 4/21 and I promptly planted one.

The day after sprout I planted her in a 20 gallon pot. Eight days in, and she's a little lonely but doing quite well:

This is a living soil setup. Buildasoil 3 previously used lightly and also amended with composted chicken poop previously. I added about 1/4 cup of Buildasoil Craft Blend before transplanting-as a top dress.

I'm running it in a 3x3x6 Mars Hydro starter tent with their pretty basic light. I've had good results with this light but it's my cheapest decent light. I'll be upgrading to an Optic II LED cob light as soon as the girls under it are harvested next month.

This will be my first SCroG grow and is part of my new mission: I will be cloning and testing every seed in the pack unless my first harvest is so good I decide to save the seeds and stick with the clone.

Here's a zoom out:

 

[Sparkey224]

Nice choice in genetics and "build a soil"
Ace is great, ran their Malawi x Panama. Really nice, big yield. I personally, love Sativas but sometimes need a little more body high.
Still have a pack of Ace Oldtimers Haze, dont know when im going to pop them. It takes about a year to harvest..

 

[Rasterman]

Nice choice in genetics and "build a soil"
Ace is great, ran their Malawi x Panama. Really nice, big yield. I personally, love Sativas but sometimes need a little more body high.
Still have a pack of Ace Oldtimers Haze, dont know when im going to pop them. It takes about a year to harvest..

It's my second living soil grow and I'm a convert! I plan to try the haze too - even at a year it sounds worth it.

 

[Rasterman]

Here's a good omen: I found this near where I unpackaged the Golden Tiger III seeds and have no earthly idea how it got there. It didn't come in the box.

We probably got it from the local Asian grocery store but I don't remember ever seeing it.

 

[Rasterman]

She's still doing well. I moved some plants around in the main flowering shed and freed up a better light - The Optic II Gen4. I'll be able to give her more heat, intensity and penetration - something I'll need to maximize this grow.

I have grown a couple of pure sativas and sativa landraces in the past and haven't had problems keeping them short with one exception. That exception was a Chick Magnet grow, which I learned from.

I have been researching it extensively, and most of the advice I've found online doesn't pass the smell test. 12/12 from seed, small pots to control size especially. I think trying to turn sativas into indicas would cause reduced yields over trying to get maximum biomass in veg and a maximum number of colas. I don't think I'll use all of the height available but with this light I may.

The light is currently at about 60% and about 29". I'll keep lowering it or raising power output until she tells me to stop. As I said before, this is a SCROG grow. I will completely fill the 3x3 space with a flat, dense canopy and let the colas extend for a foot or so before flipping to flower, which will be a 10/14 schedule as most recommend. If past experience is any indicator, I won't have a height problem but if I do I have a strategy to deal with it. I'm hoping for 18" buds but can go to 24" or a little more which is all I can expect the light to penetrate adequately.

 

[Rasterman]

Day 15:

To keep the temperature down I've dropped light output for a couple of days. Right now it's at about 45%. This is going to become a problem in a couple of weeks so I'm planning to get a portable swamp cooler for the room the tent is in. It will help with humidity too - normally I don't care about humidity and it's always pretty low around here. But because this is a pure subtropical sativa, I've been spraying it with water a couple of times a day to compensate.

 

[Sparkey224]

I love it, she pretty small for the container but understand why being sativa. Really love the setup, really watch her on overwatering being in that size container. Im sure you will have no worries
Should be a solid yield too

 

[Rasterman]

I love it, she pretty small for the container but understand why being sativa. Really love the setup, really watch her on overwatering being in that size container. Im sure you will have no worries
Should be a solid yield too

Yeah I have to be really careful with water. It's living soil so can't dry out, but there aren't any large plants to keep the water moving into the atmosphere.

I've been giving it a couple of cups of water every couple of days. I'll stay nervous until she gains some size but she's growing well and handling the heat like a champ! (Temperature reached 98°F for a day or so.)

 

[Rasterman]

Day 23 and her quinciniera was yesterday because day 22 she hit puberty. If you zoom in you can see her first hairs.

I broke down and yanked most of the large fans to give more light to the lowers. In a few days they're in the shade again! Now she's hitting her stride and I expect growth to take off.

I've had a portable air conditioner set to turn on at 79°F for the past almost a week, and humidity has stayed high. She's loving it but I'm nervous and watching her closely. It's really dry here so I've never had to deal with humidity-related problems. One good thing thing is that if I discover a problem it's easy to fix in this climate.

Power is at about 95% and I probably won't be able to exceed that without better airflow. I'm considering looking into a great light with an external driver. But probably not before she's done.

 

[HappyHazmat88]

Wow huge growth since last update....great job... She's gonna have no issues filling that pot.

 

[Rasterman]

Wow huge growth since last update....great job... She's gonna have no issues filling that pot.

Thanks @HappyHazmat88 - That's my hope.

 

[Rasterman]

One month yesterday, and I'm really pleased with how well she's doing. The rice hull mulch was getting mixed with soil particles because I keep digging around to decide whether she needs water and mixing things up. I started seeing a few gnats.

Yesterday I took out the old rice hulls, top-dressed liberally with BuildAFlower Top Dress and covered it with fresh, clean rice hulls. It didn't need water, but next time I water I should see how it likes the BuildAFlower compost.

I also dialed back the light to 1/2 of the cobs capacity and 10% of the colored capacity, so she's getting 110 watts.

 

[Stunger]

Looking great @Rasterman! I have been interested in Golden Tiger for a while and will be keen to watch your's grow. I just recently harvested a couple of Ace sativa strains that had been crossed with other sativas that I am finding really nice.

 

[Rasterman]

Five weeks and look how much she's grown in a week.

I've never had a plant grow this big so fast. I'm sure the Buildasoil living soil had something to do with it but also the strain is as vigorous as hell. I think it's going to be bigger and more beautiful than this:

 

[Rasterman]

I took two weeks away and there was nobody I could trust with my girls. So I watered her to absolute capacity, turned the lights down to 10%,vented the fan duct to the bedroom and said a little prayer. (Actually didn't pray)

Previous post was June 3rd. But after raising the light, this is what I encountered upon my arrival back home. Today: (Remember, it's a 20 gallon pot.)

She didn't even really need water!

Looking at the leaves, one could be forgiven for thinking she only needs 20 watts to survive. I was going to wait to cut clones but decided to do it now. A few minutes later the clones had all wilted. That's never happened before, so I'm sure she's stressed. Not a problem-I can still take clones when I lollipop her if these don't survive.

And I started the scrog training:

On or before 1 July is my target flip date.

 

[Stunger]

She didn't even really need water!

Looking at the leaves, one could be forgiven for thinking she only needs 20 watts to survive. I was going to wait to cut clones but decided to do it now. A few minutes later the clones had all wilted. That's never happened before, so I'm sure she's stressed. Not a problem-I can still take clones when I lollipop her if these don't survive.

And I started the scrog training:

Well done Rasterman and great timing!

 

[Rasterman]

After consulting with my son the master grower, I decided to flip today. I put her on 11/13 and am targeting 15 October as harvest date which is 110 days, though I'll let it go to Thanksgiving and beyond if it needs to.

 

[Rasterman]

5 days from flip and she hasn't started stretch yet, but I can tell from the colas that she'll be stretching in a few days. I hooked up a second 4" fan and the tent is staying just a few degrees above room temperature, so I'm confident heat isn't going to be a problem. I have the light up as high as it goes and it's 22" from the canopy, so we'll see whether height is going to be a problem. If so, challenge accepted! There are too many colas to count so I don't think so.

 

[Rasterman]

12 days from flip and she still isn't stretching, though she does finally look like she wants to start flowering. Over the past week she has filled in a lot with not much vertical growth.

 

[Stunger]

She's coming along nicely Rasterman!