Date: 4/25/22 - Final Journal Entry
Strains - Hindu Kush (Abby), Purple Haze (Jenny), and White Widow (Betty) - All fem and photo
Medium - Fox Farms Happy Frog & Ocean Forest + 10% perlite in 5gal cloth pots
Nutrients -
@Prescription Blend
Water - Carbon-filtered well water (100ppm)
Temperatures
Feeding Notes
They drying closet worked out really well. I'm glad I put the humidifier in there to keep it at 60% as it let me extend the drying time. I ended up bagging some of the smaller buds on day# 9. The rest of the buds were ready on day# 10. I bucked all the buds off the stems and into the Grove bags. I'm monitoring the humidity in the bags with a Govee. It started off at 58% and has risen to 62% over the past couple of days. I'm tumbling the bags and I'll vent them if I see humidity getting too high. Right now they seem to be curing perfectly. Another month in the bags and they should be ready to go.
One of the 'toys' I have is a tcheck. This device uses light refraction to measure total cannaboids in solution. You measure a set amount of bud (at least .1g), mix it with 10ml 99.9% isopropyl alcohol, and shake for 10 minutes. Then you place about 5-6 filtered drops of the resulting solution into the tcheck and it measures the total cannaboids found in the sample. The device is only accurate to within 15% so it is more of a guideline. I've measured a sample of a bag I purchased (20%), my dad's first grow that got seeded then struggled to finish (6.9%), and my brother's first grow that was harvested a bit early due to weather & spider mites (7.5%). I believe the device is giving a good baseline. I measured all of the 'top' buds on each plant and the results are below. The readings are noticeably lower on this grow than my last. I'm not sure if that it the difference in growing in soil or something else. Of course I know that THC% is not everything but it is an interesting data point. That said, on to the plants...
Abby (Hindu Kush) was my first soil plant (sprouted 10/20/21) and she had a rough start. First I was under watering then over watering. When she was topped on 11/22, she was skinny, yellowed and drooping. Then I got
@Prescription Blend and learned how to water and she really took off. She was the first plant I've topped and I really loved her structure. She was a Christmas wreath at one point with all of her buds in a circle. Then in flower she really grew into a star with those huge buds. I had to put bamboo stakes in her pot to keep her buds from flopping everywhere. She was droughted for a full 11 days right before the chop and took it like a champ.
She ended up yielding just over 7oz (199g). She had quite a few seeds in her lowers but her tops looked clean. I think she may have been the one to throw a couple of nanners too. Her buds are very floral and woody and packed with trics. Testing at 16.3% THC, she'll make a lot of good medicine.
Betty (White Widow) did pretty good for a seed that popped up with her root in the air, then had to have her shell manually removed
I may have been too early LSTing her to the ground as she really never grew like the others. She stayed short and squat. I think the fasciated bud may have come from LSTing too early as well. I also droughted her too early the first time. She was actually droughted twice and she looked like it.
Betty came in at around 4oz (114g), which is still better than my previous White Widows. I'm not sure if the strain is just not a big yielder, or perhaps doesn't take to the training I do. Either way it's fantastic daytime smoke. I am interested to see if/how the drought has changed the effects but I'm waiting for more cure first. She only tested in at 10.6% THC, which is the lowest of all of the plants I have grown. Not sure if that was a testing error or something else, I will do more tested in the future. We haven't found any seeds on her yet.
The Fasciated Bud ended up being really neat. The branch is like a flat ribbon, and the buds were growing from the stalk from multiple angles. It really ended up being a lot more bud than I'd expected.
Jenny (Purple Haze) has always been my favorite. From the hint of purple when she first sprouted to those large dark fan leaves, she has thrived from early on. Even before I could smell that spicy berry scent I decided to clone her for the next run. She had a huge trunk and branches and never needed any support for her buds. Every time we watered these girls we would all need to go smell Jenny because she smelled so good. I was able to drop the temperatures a little in flower, which really bought out her purple.
She was the biggest yield at just over 8oz (229g) and 18.5% THC. Her buds are super dense and heavy and the stickiest of the three. From a couple of test smokes she has a fantastic energetic buzz that lasts a while. I can't wait for her to be fully cured so she can get that full berry flavor back. I am REALLY excited for the next harvest now, with four of her clones!
Thank you all for following along on this grow with me. I never set out to grow in soil but I'm really glad I did. I definitely enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I already miss the watering days, smoking and hanging with the girls down in the basement. I really learned a lot from growing in soil that will come in handy in the future with mothers and other plants.
Special thanks to @Emliya for her thread on how to water correctly. I had to read this several times for it to sink in, but it finally did. And thank you as well for helping me figure out how to water all the way through flower. You are a tremendous asset to this site and all of us growers.
Thank you @Krissi and
@Maritimer for the information on droughting. I am still curing the bud but the few test smokes I've taken tell me this may be something special. Thanks for spreading your knowledge and for your help during my drought.
And thanks again to
@Bill284 for your support and guidance. Like so many people on this site I value your wisdom and words of encouragement. Thanks for joining me on another grow.
And of course, Thank you
@Prescription Blend for sponsoring this grow journal. Starting the plants on Prescription Blend was a turning point in this grow. The packaging is great, the schedule is easy to follow, and the nutes work fantastic. I may be moving to RDWC in the future, but I'll always use
@Prescription Blend for my mothers & soil plants. Great stuff.
This is the end of this grow journal. Join me on my
next grow as I grow four Jenny clones in RDWC. And stay tuned for a new grow journal soon. Thanks again everyone, may your gardens be green and your harvests bountiful!
The closet has stayed right around 60/60 for 10 days. The weather helped in the past few days so I was able to turn the A/C off, but I've kept the humidifier filled with distilled water and set to 60%.
I very much appreciate all of the effort and sacrifice that has made this possible. To those that have fought or are fighting now to keep this plant legal, I salute you!
