Jon's First Outdoor Grow: Sugar Breath Photoperiod & Strawberry Banana Autoflower

[Joe Brewster]

Mess my thread up? You kidding me? LOL. This is awesome, and you were right, I love it. I'm all over this. Thanks.

It was a mother plant clone that I let grow for about 5 months & let flower for 10 weeks
you can see the bulldog clip on stalk, I broke it so bad it was hanging on just by outer skin on one side. I just wrapped some card board around & put the clip on . It healed right up ,was one of the bigger buds
As far as stinky It has a nice juicy fruit smell & taste but my sweet zombie is over powering the smell right now
some more pics to over any question just ask

 

[Jon]

It was a mother plant clone that I let grow for about 5 months & let flower for 10 weeks
you can see the bulldog clip on stalk, I broke it so bad it was hanging on just by outer skin on one side. I just wrapped some card board around & put the clip on . It healed right up ,was one of the bigger buds
As far as stinky It has a nice juicy fruit smell & taste but my sweet zombie is over powering the smell right now
some more pics to over any question just ask

Nice save on that break. Yeah one more volley - what was your growing medium, pot size, light, and yield? Thanks.

 

[StoneOtter]

CJS Apple Blossom
Canopy Shaping
Veg Day 52

Hey @StoneOtter, this is more like the canopy I was referring to yesterday. She's looking half decent now. I'm thinking I'm gonna keep this girl right here in the tent. Finish her under the 420h so I'll have at least one reference point on a photo all the way under the light, which I currently don't, only autos so far. She sure as hell likes it in veg. Between that and the PB nutes, she's humming right along. So today I did some more canopy shaping in earnest. Today is day 52. I'm thinking I'll let her go to 60 days of veg then flip her. Between the stretch and where she'll be in 8 days from here she will fill this tent nicely I think, without getting crowded.

Here's an overhead and side shot post canopy shaping. You can see in the overhead that having decided on the tent for flower, I also decided on a square canopy. It's sort of taking shape. The side shot is her real colors, she looks lighter than she is in the overhead picture.

She looks like what I try to do and occasionally get! Real nice! She's playing along! Going to be a sweet grow!

 

[Jon]

She looks like what I try to do and occasionally get! Real nice! She's playing along! Going to be a sweet grow!

Insightful comment. A lot of people don't realize who's really calling the shots here, and it ain't us. If the plant doesn't want to play, you won't be able to achieve real "flatness." At least that's my experience. Kind of a strain dependent thing I believe. This one, as you point out, is playing real nice!

 

[Joe Brewster]

Nice save on that break. Yeah one more volley - what was your growing medium, pot size, light, and yield? Thanks.

Sunshine #4 , 3 maybe 4 gallon pot, home made 4 cree 100w cobs running @30w each & 8 Samsung strips (in total 320-350 watts .not a lot ) 42" X 5' room homemade , yield (not dry yet ) Fert ( Holland secret -basics + calmag, royal gold & bud boom ) water (rain )
basement grow room temps varies also humidity Don't even try for ideal , never check PH anymore or ppm

 

[Farmer Reading]

It was a mother plant clone that I let grow for about 5 months & let flower for 10 weeks
you can see the bulldog clip on stalk, I broke it so bad it was hanging on just by outer skin on one side. I just wrapped some card board around & put the clip on . It healed right up ,was one of the bigger buds
As far as stinky It has a nice juicy fruit smell & taste but my sweet zombie is over powering the smell right now
some more pics to over any question just ask

Very nice looking bud(s)!!! These damn plants resilience is absolutely amazing.
Yeah, I found a few plants in my studio (grow room) that have been vegging for quite some time---kinda left overs from my outdoor grow.
Probably ought to think about flipping them.

 

[InTheShed]

I'm wondering if you guys believe that "balance" in terms of training out the plant is necessary or desirable. What I mean by balance is this - you know how the branches come in sets of two at the nodes and go out 90 degrees to each other as each node goes up? Well, in terms of my canopy, I have two 2nd node branches and two 3rd node branches, obviously, only on one side of the plant those two are definitely making the canopy and are basically already there, whereas on the other side the corresponding branches are short and only halfway up. I hope that is a clear enough explanation.

I cut whatever isn't going to make me a solid cola regardless of where it grows on the plant. For example, I just took one of the 4th nodes on my Doug's Varin and left the other.

While I'm at it, do any of you guys have an opinion on whether I should bud her outdoors or leave her in the tent? Take into consideration that in the tent the stealth factor is non-existent, whereas outdoors it is not, and that I have pushed that stealth factor with the first round of outdoors about as far as I dare. The whole outdoor, out back rigs are gone at this point and I have no plants outside. That said, it would only be this one plant, and that makes the stealth issue minimal.

Stealth? I didn't realize that was something you were concerned about since you have been growing plants in plain view of everyone across the intracoastal waterway/canals!

 

[Azimuth]

Check this picture. I already have a real flat canopy, no supercropping or anything else is required. This should clarify. This is from just now. I'm referring to the branch that sits at 6 o'clock and one other like it.



Here's a side shot that shows you the canopy is just fine and also shows you the two lower branches I'm talking about taking.

That short one is likely always going to lag so maybe cleave it like Shed suggested and leave the others that form the flat canopy to fill in the space.

 

[StoneOtter]

Insightful comment. A lot of people don't realize who's really calling the shots here, and it ain't us. If the plant doesn't want to play, you won't be able to achieve real "flatness." At least that's my experience. Kind of a strain dependent thing I believe. This one, as you point out, is playing real nice!

It's the one in every crowd theory. My tent never has all 4 perfect players. sometimes 3 if I'm lucky. I have no perfect ones this run and 3 goodies with 1 bonkers but ok. Maybe 1 perfect one. Time will tell.

 

[Jon]

Cocotown Bud Porn
Strawberry Lemonade
Flower Day 40

Seriously, does anyone think this plant is going to make it another 20 days? I do not. I'm going to have to start checking her trichomes here shortly. I know I've said it before, but I simply cannot believe this is only day 40 of flower and these buds look like this.

So I'll try the pictures and words Shed's way just to see if his point has the validity I suspect it does.

EDIT: Ok Shed, I tried it your way, and I must be a dumbass cuz I simply cannot figure the FUC- out how to GODDAMN do it. It's really pissing me the FUC- off frankly. I feel like an idiot. So sorry, until I find some tutorage on this, I gotta do it my way.

1. This is her main cola. Not sure you can tell in the picture as there's nothing for scale, but this thing is simply massive. This and the Blueberry mains are the largest colas I have grown yet. They both beat the Pineapple Upside Down Cake cola, which was no joke. Glad I put the big boy fan back in. I have learned to not mess around with moving air at all times on the buds in flower. If you have dense or large buds especially, it is, in my opinion, absolutely essential. It will help to mitigate bud rot, it will help lower the Rh, and it will keep the stems strong to the end, as the effect of the stems creating strength in their cell walls against wind never stops. I am checking the colas in particular every single day cuz they are so big and dense and I know how much moisture is in them. Worried a little, despite never once having this issue in a tent grow. The outdoor experience has me a little noid. I removed a couple leaves that were getting hit for days directly by the fan and were real close to the floor fans as they quickly got wind burn, lol. But all the buds are in great shape, no signs of rot or mold, and tightening and dense-ing up nicely.

2-4: Bud closeups pictures

5: This is a picture of as much of a full branch of a lower branch as I could get. This is a node 2 bud. That's as low as it gets on this girl. Nice production from a node 2 branch, no?

@InTheShed, can you please send me a message and help me out on the method to use to post the way you suggested so I can try it that way next time? Thanks!

@Bill284 - Good god man, I can't believe it took me this long to bite on coco. Is this level of bud development at this point in flower typical of what happens in this medium? Cuz no way is this the case in soil, at least not in my experience.

 

[StoneOtter]

She's a monster!

 

[InTheShed]

@InTheShed, can you please send me a message and help me out on the method to use to post the way you suggested so I can try it that way next time? Thanks!

Done.

 

[Jon]

CJS Apple Blossom
Veg Day 53

Further training, one more topping, and a bit of very selective (5 leaves) defoliation up top leaves us with this. I'm ready to go to war now like this but we'll give her one more week to grow out. I'm hoping in 7 days the 3 lower branches shown in the last picture will catch up to the top.

Photos:

Here she is after today's training and defol and leaf tucking session.

Today after a little defoliation and training.jpg

• Jon
• Jan 12, 2022

And here's the three lower branches that I believe will catch up in a week and make the canopy. There are a two others that will go.

these three branches.jpg

• Jon
• Jan 12, 2022

EDIT: Oh, in case anyone wants to know, here's what I'm rocking with her in veg pretty much:

CJS environment.jpg

• Jon
• Jan 12, 2022

Thank you Shed for telling me how to do this, it likely is much better.

 

[InTheShed]

It definitely is!

 

[Jon]

Thursday Early Morning Bud Porn
Cocotown Amongst the Trees
Flower Day 41

Thought this morning we'd take a quick journey into the rainforest. This is pretty much eye level for me when I open the tent doors in the morning. Overnight temps have been in the 59-64 range, today they were at 61 upon wake up. If anyone has any scientific info or studies or papers - OR a lot of experience observing this exact thing over a long period of time - I would love to know if there is a point in flower when applying the cold temps at night is most effective, and for how long. I begin it when I begin it but it's largely guesswork, someone must have done a study on this. Anyway, as usual, all you gotta do is keep these girls wet and fed and ph'ed at 5,8 and they're happy. The freedom of not caring at all where or how you water the plants is refreshing after what feels like years of targeted watering. Just dumping it in makes me smile. We have the final scheduled Sledgehammer flush at the end of the week, then it's finish and fatten time and we'll be on week 11 of the FF chart. The chart is actually going to come in almost exactly on time with harvest on this one it seems, which is pretty cool.

So walk with me into the forest this morning......

 

[Jon]

Cocotown
Flower Day 41
Fun With Colas!

Today we focus only on the colas, and I really can only get one angle on each at this point, as the plants don't do a whole lot of rotating anymore. You'll get the picture on all of these, they're ridiculous in my experience.

This first picture is the Strawberry Lemonade main cola:

SL MONSTER COLA.jpg

• Jon
• Jan 13, 2022

This picture is the Dos Si Dos main cola:

DSD MONSTER COLA.jpg

• Jon
• Jan 13, 2022

And these last three pictures are the Blueberry main cola(s). Yes, I topped this plant one time above the fourth node and that's it. But the third closest branch to that topping became a main of it's own. All three have equal dominance and I consider all three the main colas as any one of these would be a respectable cola by itself. As you can see, all three had to be tied down. The yield on this plant is going to be ridiculous, the buds are beginning to wobble under their own weight and the colas are about an inch lower than they were three or five days ago. DJ Shorty knew what was up. Note in the first picture that this big boy is actually a double unto itself. That bud sticking up is part of it and is no joke by itself.

BB MONSTER COLA 2 DOUBLE.jpg

• Jon
• Jan 13, 2022

BB MONSTER COLA 1.jpg

• Jon
• Jan 13, 2022

BB MONSTER COLA 3.jpg

• Jon
• Jan 13, 2022

Enjoy!

 

[Bill284]

Cocotown
Flower Day 41
Fun With Colas!

Today we focus only on the colas, and I really can only get one angle on each at this point, as the plants don't do a whole lot of rotating anymore. You'll get the picture on all of these, they're ridiculous in my experience.

This first picture is the Strawberry Lemonade main cola:

SL MONSTER COLA.jpg

• Jon
• Jan 13, 2022

This picture is the Dos Si Dos main cola:

DSD MONSTER COLA.jpg

• Jon
• Jan 13, 2022

And these last three pictures are the Blueberry main cola(s). Yes, I topped this plant one time above the fourth node and that's it. But the third closest branch to that topping became a main of it's own. All three have equal dominance and I consider all three the main colas as any one of these would be a respectable cola by itself. As you can see, all three had to be tied down. The yield on this plant is going to be ridiculous, the buds are beginning to wobble under their own weight and the colas are about an inch lower than they were three or five days ago. DJ Shorty knew what was up. Note in the first picture that this big boy is actually a double unto itself. That bud sticking up is part of it and is no joke by itself.

BB MONSTER COLA 2 DOUBLE.jpg

• Jon
• Jan 13, 2022

BB MONSTER COLA 1.jpg

• Jon
• Jan 13, 2022

BB MONSTER COLA 3.jpg

• Jon
• Jan 13, 2022

Enjoy!

Hey Jon, good morning.
I just love when you crank over the main stem and it fills with Buds pointing up still.
It's a cool sight to see.
The main on the Lemonade is a Pringles can, fek wow.
Going to be a stellar haul.
Have you been using tea's and molasses?

Stay safe
Bill

 

[Jon]

Hey Jon, good morning.
I just love when you crank over the main stem and it fills with Buds pointing up still.
It's a cool sight to see.
The main on the Lemonade is a Pringles can, fek wow.
Going to be a stellar haul.
Have you been using tea's and molasses?

Stay safe
Bill

Hey Bill, hell for us it's good afternoon! Thanks! And yes on both. The tea has been applied three times, I have one more to go with the first week 11 feed on Monday, and the molasses and Terpinator both with every feeding beginning when we last discussed it. I'll continue that through harvest. I had to get another bottle of Bembe. It's a full tbsp/gallon for three plants every day. The quart went fast and it continues through harvest. Lol. Mission accomplished. I don't think there's anything else to be done for them. They're happy as pigs in poop. The nutes are tailing off per the chart, we have no Veg nutes anymore and starting Monday the Tiger Bloom is down to a Tsp/gallon. You should see how good I am mixing to 5.8 now. I get everything in, give it a swirl, then toss in the Ph Up, as I know it's about 4.8 in there, and by now I know almost every time the right amount to raise it to 5.8. Ph Up and Down from General Hydroponics. Great stuff. I find all this talk I hear of people using vinegar or anything else beside this product a complete waste of time. That's just me. Just use the up and down. It's meaningless and WAY easier and more accurate by a thousand miles.

 

[Jon]

Hey @Bill284 - it's 1:05 pm here. Girls have been awake since 6:30 am. More than halfway through their day. And guess what? They do NOT need to be watered. All three of them are wet still from yesterday all the way to the top, even the surface is not yet dry as in every day until now. This is the first time in the life of all three of these plants that this has been the case.

So are they finally slowing down on their water consumption? Based on what you see in the cola shots today, doesn't that seem logical? Does to me, looking for confirmation?

Thanks!

 

[Jon]

Hi @Emilya, I have a training/dominance question for you if you have a few moments.

When we trim lower growth, the purpose is to keep non-productive growth from robbing energy that would be much better used by upper growth. So when we actually take the growth, ie cut it off, that sends the signal immediately to redirect energy, or something close to immediately, yes? Which if true means it begins to have an immediate impact on growth in the direction you wish. Ok, let's say that's all copacetic.

So assuming my plant is healthy (she is), is there any reason I shouldn't take the 2nd node growth that isn't going to make the canopy now instead of waiting on the entire strip? Won't that signal the rest of the plant to pick up energy fro what it has going on right now? Or is there some reason to wait and do it all at once? Seems to me that doing it sooner would allow for more positively redirected energy to begin to take effect sooner, no?

Thanks in advance as always! Maybe someone else will benefit from this out of the 12 people who stop by. Lmao.