Quest for mold-resistant strains, Hawaii outdoor greenhouse grow

Greetings Growmies,

Today I went all out with the HI-BISCUS mom and re-potted her. This was exploratory and experimental. I wouldn't normally do something like this for a sick plant in a 10 gal pot, but I wanted to learn something. I have a solid clone of this plant, so I went ahead, knowing she might not survive.

I did this for two main reasons... one being to inspect the roots and soil, and the other to attempt to treat any pathogen that might be present in the roots. (As I mentioned before, the stalk and stems of the plant showed signs of stem rot, which I know can originate in the root zone.) Prior to uprooting her, I noticed that the pot was unusually heavy, which made me think the roots were not absorbing water.

What I found was very unexpected. I thought I was going to find soggy soil, but in fact the soil was mostly dry. What?! But what was causing the weight? Answer: I had used some small rocks and gravel in the bottom of the pot, to help with drainage, because at the time of up-potting I had run out of perlite. So, I had forgotten about the rocks and gravel... fair enough. This had the effect of causing me to under-water the plant, because I was waiting for a lighter weight in order to follow the wet/dry cycle. Curiously, the plant never really showed signs of wilting. But it was definitely stressed.

It gets weirder. When I dumped the soil out, and was removing soil from the root ball, I noticed the soil was quite warm. I immediately thought this could be from microbial growth, which I assume would mean bacterial growth, not fungal growth. I didn't see any signs of fungus. The rocks and gravel I had used at the bottom of the pot coincidentally had a high-iron composition (which I thought nothing of when I added them). That made me think there was bacterial growth related to the abundance of iron. This could have been pathogenic bacteria.

To finish the re-potting operation, I rinsed and massaged the root ball as much as I could to remove the possibly-infected soil. I also washed the pot out with soap and water. Then I sprayed down the root ball and whole plant with 1/2 gal. of solution of Langbeinite powder (K02/Mg/S), rain water, and a little DMSO to help the K/Mg/S penetrate the plant tissues. I used 1 tbsp solution-grade Langbeinite and probably about 1-2 ml DMSO. (First time I've used DMSO on a plant, so this was very experimental. I have no idea if this was an appropriate amount. By the way, it's pharmaceutical grade DMSO.)

I then re-potted in the same 10 gal. pot, using a generous layer of perlite at the bottom, fresh soil that I mixed up about 3 weeks ago, and plenty of myco in the hole. I watered only the area right around the root ball, not the whole pot.

I googled a bit and found a couple interesting articles, one specifically about botrytis (bud rot) and root nodules (but not specifically cannabis), and another about cannabis and botrytis...


Pics from today...

HI-BISCUS clone mom prior to the operation. She's generally stunted. Leaves are somewhat pale and many are taco-ing (i.e. upturned leaf margins). Also some septoria leaf spot mold.
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The soil dumped out of the pot... mostly dry.
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The root ball was abnormally small. I did lose some finer roots in the operation, but this is most of it, prior to washing.
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The root ball, washed. No sign of fungus anywhere. The root nodules are interesting, but I don't know what organisms could be creating the nodules – hopefully beneficial bacteria.
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Close-ups of the root nodules.
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Operation complete. Now we wait and see what happens.
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:ciao:
 
Greetings Growmies,

Here's an update on the HI-BISCUS mom re-potting experiment (above), plus some other pics.

I'm also doing an off-grid, low-power bud dryer project: HERE.

Experimental rescue of HI-BISCUS mom, 9 days since the operation. I decided to trim off the two main branches, leaving one main stalk. I've been plucking off any leaves that don't look right. So far, so good, although I'm not really expecting her to come back strong. New leaves are looking good.
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Humboldt Dream clone doing beautifully in 10 gal. in the veg house. I'm planning to transfer her to the flower house in 2 weeks. I'm now staggering the transfers by 2 weeks. I just moved a CBD#9 to flower today.
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Older clones (L-to-R): HI-BISCUS, Blueberry, CBD#1, and Sweet Critical CBD. HI-BISCUS is from the mom above, doing very well so far, and no distorted leaves.
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Happy clones from the latest, successful batch: White Widow, CBG, Humboldt Dream, and CBD#9.
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Sweet Critical CBD clone in a 10 gal. pot. Day 20 in flower.
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CBD#9 transferred to flower today. 10 gal. pot. She got real tall and bushy in veg, because I had to clone her first, and the first attempt at cloning failed. All good now, and the photo was taken after I gave her a good pruning, including removing about 9" from the very top.
CBD9.jpg


Thanks for stopping by!
:ciao:
 
Quick update... 10 days since the last one.

🪴 The Sweet Critical CBD is around day 30 in flower, still looking good, and buds are maturing. She's healthy, but not very robust... probably the result of vegging over-winter with low sunlight. Not a lot of resin production, but she's giving off a nice fragrance. At this point leaf mold is still only minor, and I've been plucking those off.

🪴 CBD#9 has been in flower for 10 days, but not really showing any buds yet. I'm a little worried, because where buds should be starting, there's a bunch of what look like maybe foxtails. The plant is still very healthy, and no leaf mold to speak of.

🪴 The rescued HI-BISCUS mom is still alive, growing slightly, leaves very small but looking healthy. I'm tempted to just chop, but waiting to see if anything happens.

🪴 The rest of the plants in veg are doing well. I gave the older clones some nutes today as they were looking a little in need of N. I'll be moving the Humboldt Dream to flower on Saturday.

:ciao:
 
Greetings Growmies,

Here's some pics from the flower house yesterday. We've been getting some solid sun which is really helping the girls. Getting ready now to pot some of the clones, with the select ones going into 10 gal pots for flower. The others will get re-cloned. I'm definitely going to flower-out the Humboldt Dream, Sweet Critical, probably the Seedsman Blueberry, and definitely the HI-BISCUS. The HI-BISCUS clone is now at the end of her stay in 1 gal and looking great. I saw one top leaf with some curl (like her mom), but the sun blasted today and the plant loved it. Curl gone. I'll probably also grow out a #18 CBD and a White Widow... love that Seedsman White Widow! Beautiful plant. This will be the first go with a WW clone.

Flower house yesterday. Foreground is Sweet Critical CBD clone in 10 gal, doing great although she's fairly delicate. Resin production ramped up and she's off-gassing some sweet smells, a bit like a vanilla cafè latte. Getting real close to harvest. No sign of bud rot. I did see some dead bracts. She's teetering on senescence, and I'm plucking off the sceptoria-infected leaves as they appear. The leaf mold is really not that bad this time. Left Rear - CBD #9. She's slow to form buds, but the colas could be pretty impressive. Right Rear - A really strong and healthy Humboldt Dream, transferred to flower yesterday.
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Sweet Critical CBD.
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Sweet Critical CBD. I trimmed away some lower larf. Upper colas are sweeeeeeeet.

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Sweet Critical CBD. The branches are delicate and the colas are leaning over.
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Sweet Critical CBD trichomes. Clear, partly cloudy, and a slight chance of amber.
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Close-up of above.
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I got her lab-tested last time and she hit 15% CBD. This grow she got a bigger pot and better attention. I bet it's above 15%.
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EDIT: I think this was Day 38 in flower for the Sweet Critical. Less than 6 weeks!

:ciao:
 
Flower house yesterday. Foreground is Sweet Critical CBD clone in 10 gal, doing great although she's fairly delicate. Resin production ramped up and she's off-gassing some sweet smells, a bit like a vanilla cafè latte. Getting real close to harvest.
I got some buds, but this was a tough harvest and grueling trim job... one of those cases where very minute amounts of bud rot form on dead bracts inside the buds. So... missed the mark once again, and I attribute it to an over-winter plant, not enough sunlight, dampness, and too long in veg. This plant just wasn't robust. I have another clone ready to go and will try again, in 10 gal.
 
In fact, in the future with this pheno, I'm going to just trim off the popcorn as soon as the buds emerge. There's just way too much popcorn. The lower down on the plant, the higher the incidence of dead bracts. So again, I'm seeing two types of bud rot – one is the kind that hits healthy buds with no necrosis, and big top buds as well, and another which gets started on dead stigmas and bracts. In this case, it was the latter. I actually didn't see virtually any of the other kind. I was impressed that I didn't see any mold getting started on dead stigmas – at least I couldn't see it with the naked eye.
 
Greetings Fellow Herbalists,

I did some research the other day, looking into which U.S. states have fully legalized cannabis, which have medical cannabis, and which allow CBD oil only. I did this partly because I'm disgusted that, once again, the Hawaii legislature has killed our adult-use cannabis legislation. I turned up some interesting statistics.

I look at cannabis legislation as a good indicator of the health of democracy in the individual states.

First, I've got to say, the state of Hawaii – although it is dominated by the Democratic Party – is more similar to the Bible Belt states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, all of which are dominated by the Republican Party. All the West Coast states, as well as Nevada, Alaska, New Mexico, and even Arizona (which is Republican-dominated), have all legalized adult use.

Another really interesting fact: Hawaii has no ballot initiatives, i.e. citizens can't introduce legislation directly to the ballot. Now, compare this to the West Coast states, plus Nevada, Arizona, and Alaska – they all have ballot initiatives. In fact, with the exception of Washington and Alaska, citizens in these states can actually modify their state constitutions by citizen-initiated legislation.

In general, full legalization corresponds directly to Democratic Party rule. Republican-controlled states don't like cannabis, although many do allow medical cannabis. The exceptions are: Montana, Arizona, Missouri, Ohio – all have full legalization.

24 states have legalized both adult-use and medical use. I was curious about how many plants can be grown for personal use in states with legalized adult-use, and it varies quite a bit. It's generally, not a lot of plants, and the states will make a distinction between mature plants and seedlings. The clear standout is the state of Maine:

Adult Use - State of Maine:
As many as six mature, 12 immature plants, and an unlimited number of seedlings are allowed per resident 21 years of age or older.
Medical - State of Maine:
Cultivate up to 30 mature cannabis plants, up to 60 immature cannabis plants and unlimited seedlings or cultivate up to 500 square feet of mature plant canopy, up to 1,000 square feet of immature plant canopy and unlimited seedlings.

The following states allow CBD oil only (maybe some also allow CBD buds as well – I don't know): Texas, Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia. All are Republican-controlled. None have ballot initiatives.

The following states allow no cannabis at all: Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, North Carolina, South Carolina. All are Republican-controlled. Of these states, Idaho, Wyoming, and Nebraska have ballot initiatives.

So, why is Hawaii so backwards? I have various theories about that. One thing for sure, if Hawaii had ballot initiatives, cannabis would have been legalized here decades ago. Unfortunately, the state government has a stranglehold on the issue, and the only way to allow ballot initiatives would be to amend the Hawaii state constitution, which of course can only be done through the legislature, with the governor signing the legislation.

I also thought, maybe this situation exists because Hawaii has such a small population, which may imply a connection to the state's finances, funding of police, etc. The Hawaii government is notoriously under-funded. It's kind of like a third world country here. But guess what? There are 10 states with smaller populations than Hawaii, and 70% of them have fully legalized cannabis, including the state of Maine. [EDIT: There are also 15 states with yearly state budgets smaller than Hawaii's, and 47% of those have fully legalized cannabis.]

:ciao:
 
Vape report for Sweet Critical CBD ~

Good stuff! Even though I'm still using a food dehydrator for drying, there's still some good flavor coming through. I recommend this one for anyone wanting a strong CBD flower (my last grow tested out at 15% CBD) plus high-resin production and nice flavor. Sweet Critical CBD, by 00 Seeds. Can possibly reach 18% CBD or more. @CBDMed
 
I think legalization is a little more complicated than Dems or Republicans and their reasons.

As far as political parties are concerned, the Libertarians are the only major party that supports legalization as everyday individual liberty. I think the Dems and Repubicans talk and act only with regards to getting more votes and power. Neither really support individual liberty. :(

Just my two cents. :bong:
 
🪴 The rescued HI-BISCUS mom is still alive, growing slightly, leaves very small but looking healthy. I'm tempted to just chop, but waiting to see if anything happens.

The HI-BISCUS mom is showing some good recovery, but the test is complete, so I'm going to chop... I also need the 10 gal. pot. The clone taken from the mom is doing very well, recently up-potted to 10 gal.

HI-BISCUS mom that was stunted from systemic root/stem fungus showing recovery after a complete root ball extraction, wash-off, and treatment. Also, changing out of the soil. That was done on March 28th – about 6 weeks ago.
HI-BISCUS_mom1.jpg


Close-up of above. Leaves are healthy, normal-size, and good color.
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Here's what the mom looked like on March 22. Pale leaves and taco-ing.
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Healthy clone taken from the mother, recently transplanted from 1 gal to 10 gal.
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:ciao:
 
I noticed that when I chopped the HI-BISCUS mom, the leaves had a strong terpene odor. The buds of this pheno definitely produce a lot of resin and terps. But this was a plant in veg with no flowers.

We all know that the odor of buds comes from the terpenes produced in the trichomes, but why would leaves have a strong odor?

🤔
 
Leaves and stems have trichomes too. There are different kinds of trichomes and "we" mostly celebrate the capitate stalked glandular ones that can be quite dense on the small leaves and calyxes of the female flowering plant. Some plants, like Dinamed-CBD don't have so many of those, but have "basal trichomes" with the goodies. Use a 5x or 10x hand lens and look at the bottom of any leaf and petiole and you will see the smaller basal trichomes. There are also the hairy trichomes, the fuzziness on the surface. Crush a leaf, as you did, and you will smell the aromas. It is like lavendar or rosemary trichomes; they produce terps.
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I'm pasting in some info that I failed to record the source - the words and image are not mine. I will say that the image may seem confusing since popular terminology refers to the bract as the calyx, and the calyx is actually a layer closely appressed to the seed coat....
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Trichomes

Cannabis has six kinds of trichomes: three are non-glandular and three are glandular and resin-bearing. Cystolith hairs are the most visible of the non-glandular as these needle-like “hairs” prominently cover all of the above-ground plant parts: stems, branches, leaves, petioles and flowers.

The other two non-glandular trichomes are visible with magnification. These smaller cystolith hairs with warty bumps and teardrop-shaped trichomes are found mainly on the underside of leaves. The larger cystolith hairs provide defense against insects and likely make the plant less palatable to animals. Cystolith hairs also reflect radiation, reduce water loss, and ameliorate near-surface temperatures.

Resin glands synthesize and hold the cannabinoids and terpenes and are of three types: bulbous, capitate-sessile, and capitate-stalked.

Screenshot from 2024-05-16 08-12-01.png
 
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