This season in NZ, I have started off 4 plants, 2 x White Widow & 2 x White Widow/Gorgonzola. The breeding line of the seeds originally came from AMS, over the last two seasons I did some selective pollination that produced the seeds (regular) that I am using for this season's grow.
For the containers and soil I am reusing last year's organic soil that I have re amended and when doing so was surprised and happy to find a population of worms living in all the containers, even though during the 'off season' they had been minimally watered. The original soil was my own organic super soil recipe that was cobbled together based on reading recipes of other growers and using the availability of what ingredients I could find locally or substitute for. This year I also included some gypsum, dolomite, ground/crushed mussel and oyster shells. The containers I am using have been drilled out in an attempt to create home made air pots and lined with a light porous landscape fabric to prevent the soil being washed out the drilled holes. I was very happy with the root development last season when using this approach. After last season's grow, I started a worm farm, so after several months it is now generating plenty of 'worm wee' for watering the garden!
Also since last season, I have read about High Brix gardening which I find extremely interesting. My soil mix re-used and re-amended from last season may have more Nitrogen than desired for a High Brix approach, but I am hoping the long time it has had to 'cook' may have used up at least some of any excess. I did buy a second hand refractometer cheaply which I will have a go at testing out Brix percentages during the grow to see if I can gain any experience and makes improvements with consideration for the High Brix approach.
This season when picking seeds to germinate I deciding to do so based on the existence of a 'volcano divot'. Something I read said that using this criteria would help to pick female seeds. Now I have read far more opinions disputing this, of which I am in that camp too, as surely if it worked it would be used by everyone. But it seemed like there was nothing to lose in trying this approach when it came to selecting which seeds to germinate. So far, altho I can see preflower structures when I zoom into the area of nodes coming off the stem, I am not 100% sure on what gender I am looking at. So I will post some pics of this too, and welcome any insights from others on what gender they are suggesting. Two appear to me as female, based on similar preflower structures I have observed on previous grows, but the other two I am not sure about as they still appear quite 'pointy', time will soon tell, but until then I am of course hoping I'll get some girls!
The plants are 2 months old at present and as far as I can tell, they are looking good.
Here are 2 pics of the seeds I used, closeup as I am trying to show the 'volcano divot'. Of course by other's eyes who have experience in this I may have not picked good volcano divots, but here you can see what I saw and choose. The first pic with 3 seeds is the White Widow seeds from which I picked 2 from to germinate (sorry I failed to take a pic of which 2). The second pic is of the White Widow crossed with Gorgonzola.
Here are each of the 4 plants at about 8 weeks. 3 plants have been Quadlined (micro topped above the 3rd node) and 1 plant I am letting grow out with the plan to secret it as a stealth grow within a space in my hedge, if it gets too tall I plan on supercropping it.
Plant 1-WW Quadlined - 8 weeks
Plant 2-WW Quadlined - 8 weeks (after topping a snail or slug chewed off the growth shoots of the 3rd node, but luckily it eventually grew back.
Plant 3-WW/G Quadlined - 8 weeks
Plant 4-WW/G no topping - 8 weeks
For the containers and soil I am reusing last year's organic soil that I have re amended and when doing so was surprised and happy to find a population of worms living in all the containers, even though during the 'off season' they had been minimally watered. The original soil was my own organic super soil recipe that was cobbled together based on reading recipes of other growers and using the availability of what ingredients I could find locally or substitute for. This year I also included some gypsum, dolomite, ground/crushed mussel and oyster shells. The containers I am using have been drilled out in an attempt to create home made air pots and lined with a light porous landscape fabric to prevent the soil being washed out the drilled holes. I was very happy with the root development last season when using this approach. After last season's grow, I started a worm farm, so after several months it is now generating plenty of 'worm wee' for watering the garden!
Also since last season, I have read about High Brix gardening which I find extremely interesting. My soil mix re-used and re-amended from last season may have more Nitrogen than desired for a High Brix approach, but I am hoping the long time it has had to 'cook' may have used up at least some of any excess. I did buy a second hand refractometer cheaply which I will have a go at testing out Brix percentages during the grow to see if I can gain any experience and makes improvements with consideration for the High Brix approach.
This season when picking seeds to germinate I deciding to do so based on the existence of a 'volcano divot'. Something I read said that using this criteria would help to pick female seeds. Now I have read far more opinions disputing this, of which I am in that camp too, as surely if it worked it would be used by everyone. But it seemed like there was nothing to lose in trying this approach when it came to selecting which seeds to germinate. So far, altho I can see preflower structures when I zoom into the area of nodes coming off the stem, I am not 100% sure on what gender I am looking at. So I will post some pics of this too, and welcome any insights from others on what gender they are suggesting. Two appear to me as female, based on similar preflower structures I have observed on previous grows, but the other two I am not sure about as they still appear quite 'pointy', time will soon tell, but until then I am of course hoping I'll get some girls!
The plants are 2 months old at present and as far as I can tell, they are looking good.
Here are 2 pics of the seeds I used, closeup as I am trying to show the 'volcano divot'. Of course by other's eyes who have experience in this I may have not picked good volcano divots, but here you can see what I saw and choose. The first pic with 3 seeds is the White Widow seeds from which I picked 2 from to germinate (sorry I failed to take a pic of which 2). The second pic is of the White Widow crossed with Gorgonzola.
Here are each of the 4 plants at about 8 weeks. 3 plants have been Quadlined (micro topped above the 3rd node) and 1 plant I am letting grow out with the plan to secret it as a stealth grow within a space in my hedge, if it gets too tall I plan on supercropping it.
Plant 1-WW Quadlined - 8 weeks
Plant 2-WW Quadlined - 8 weeks (after topping a snail or slug chewed off the growth shoots of the 3rd node, but luckily it eventually grew back.
Plant 3-WW/G Quadlined - 8 weeks
Plant 4-WW/G no topping - 8 weeks