Stunger's Last Stand: Banned To The Balcony!

Bud update

I think the CBD Express is ready and I will chop her any day soon. I am also waiting for a dry day to carry out a pollination attempt on the 3 photos girls. Here's a couple of bud closeups of each of the 4 plants, a sort of bud porn but they are still too early in flowering to present much.

Mango Sherbert
Mango Sherbert - 5/Mar/21

Mango Sherbert - 5/Mar/21


Mango Sherbert - 5/Mar/21

Mango Sherbert - 5/Mar/21


Godfather OG
Godfather OG - 5/Mar/21

Godfather OG - 5/Mar/21


Godfather OG - 5/Mar/21

Godfather OG - 5/Mar/21


Strawberry Cough
Strawberry Cough - 5/Mar/21

Strawberry Cough - 5/Mar/21


Strawberry Cough - 5/Mar/21

Strawberry Cough - 5/Mar/21


CBD Express auto
CBD Express auto - 5/Mar/21

CBD Express auto - 5/Mar/21


CBD Express auto - 5/Mar/21

CBD Express auto - 5/Mar/21


Be well everyone, and may your gardens be bountiful! :hookah:
 
Stunger they look amazing! Im with Shed on this one..lol bud porn. Really though those pistils are coming along nicely and Im excited to see how they all end up..especially that Strawberry Cough; I know it was a late bloomer but Im willing to bet she will be worth whatever wait necessary! The trichs looking really good on that CBD auto also. As always is a pleasure to stop by the balcony.. Cheers friend!
 
General Update​

CBD Express Auto
Today, I uprooted the CBD Express Auto. I grew a plant of the same strain at the start of the season, and that plant only grew about a foot/30cm. I thought maybe it was because my balcony was only giving it direct sunlight by 1pm, but this second plant from the same batch of seeds has grown in the peak of summer with better light and still only reached 30cm. However, the buds were very nice and clean, no signs of pests on her, so she is whole plant drying now. And when she's ready I should have a little amount but a decent amount to check out what this CBD bud is all about.

That leaves the 3 photo girls who are all stacking up their buds now. I'm expecting there should still be plenty of time for them to fatten up, how much, I have no idea.

Mango Sherbert
She was LST'd. Her natural tendency was to open out like a big tropical umbrella, but unfortunately my balcony didn't have enough space as she has been sitting at the 'thin' end of the balcony and was blocking me from opening the bi-folds. So I LST'd her to not just keep her height to within my stealth limits, but also I tried to 'condense' her canopy, which was a bit of a shame for visual appearance and it has squashed her beauty a little. She has always had darker foliage and her trichome development has been very generous and shows up quite dramatically on her darker sugar leaves. She has been flowering for about 6 weeks now.

Godfather OG
She has been topped, quadlined, supercropped and LST'd. She's been a powerhouse in her larger 50L/13gal container. She has a lot of cola stems developing now. I am curious how much her buds will fill out considering I am only giving her living organic soil, no bloom boosters or bottled nutes and the like. Her lower leaves are going thru senescence and yellowing off, I have deliberated on whether to give her a final top dress or not. I decided for the purpose of experiment to not do so, I feel she is still 'lush' enough in appearance and has lots of green leaves left, that if she wants to draw more nutrition from them that there is enough there for her, so it seem a waste for me to do any defoliation or leaf pruning, instead it seems better to let her draw from her reserves to see what happens. During my next grow I can experiment with defoliation if I want.

Strawberry Cough
Wow, she has really changed a lot, originally very slow growing, tight internodal spaces, and very very pale lime in colour. Slowly she has picked up her colour to now where she is not pale at all. And size wise she has really had a growth spurt and is now quite a respectable size. She has been flowering now for about 3 -3.5 weeks. It will be interesting when she is ready for harvest, I guess being 80% Sativa and as a later starter she will continue flowering for longer than her 2 other balcony sisters. Her buds are currently behind the others but she's showing signs now of stacking up nicely.

Here a late evening pic from the balcony side window of the 3 photo girls, they're look a bit washed out in the light as the sun goes down.
from front to back; Mango Sherbert, Godfather Og, Strawberry Cough - 7/Mar/21

from front to back; Mango Sherbert, Godfather Og, Strawberry Cough - 7/Mar/21


Be well everyone and may you be enjoying a lovely toke! :hookah:
 
still the best balcony in the neighbourhood. :bongrip:
 
More of a photo update - 7/Mar/21

I going post some pics earlier that I took of the girls this evening, but I didn't because I didn't like them at first, because the setting sun was washing out everything and I thought I can do better tomorrow if the weather is cooperating. But then I warmed to them, because I just love this plant!:circle-of-love: It is so much fun to grow :morenutes:and it's really rewarding to grow and consume your own knowing what's gone into it! :rollit: And right now the plants are humming, :yummy:in few short weeks they'll be harvested and I'll waiting 6 months to start again.:nomo: So to hell with it, if I get any good pics tomorrow I can post them too!:cheesygrinsmiley:

Plus, it is nice as well, when you look back on your journal for reference to whatever you were doing at the time, to see the visual progress of your plants. In the past I have missed the slowly deterioration of Nitrogen deficiency until it has got noticed a bit late, so looking back it can be good to see, to reflect on and learn on as you encounter new grows and reflect on old.

Mango Sherbert
From training, I have unfortunately squashed her otherwise lovely spread umbrella shape because of limited space where I couldn't open the door without squashing her. However, her buds are already getting very frosty and she probably still has 5 weeks or so to go. She was first showing pistils, maybe 4/5 days before the Godfather OG.
I gave the Mango Sherbert a top dressing a few weeks ago as she was yellowing underneath and I thought perhaps if I am going to act that I should do so sooner than later, she seemed to respond with a lessoning of yellowing, but she is still doing it nonetheless so I am not concerned with her, I am sure she has enough nutrition, that's just what she wants to do.
Mango Sherbert - 7/Mar/21

Mango Sherbert - 7/Mar/21


Godfather OG
Currently the Godfather is steadily casting yellow lower leaves, it is a slow progression not a flood of them. I will keep an eye on her for that, but if I am going to give her a little top dressing I am thinking her harvest will be in about 5 weeks she probably has enough in her leaves for her to do fine. Today when I watered the 3 plants, as well as including the usual 1 litre jug of worm wee, I also gave their water a dash of kelp extract, a dash of fish hydrolysate, and a similar dash of folic/humic acids. The dash was probably a teaspoon.
Godfather OG - 7/Mar/21

Godfather OG - 7/Mar/21


Strawberry Cough
The Strawberry Cough seems a nice colour with no real yellowing at all. She actually started flowering probably over 2 weeks later than the other 2 girls and has been now for a bit over 3 weeks. She is very Sativa dominant, I have no idea when she will be ready for harvesting, or how she'll go as the Autumn weather kicks in. But I notice how her wispy bud formations are now thickening up noticeably from just a few days ago.
Strawberry Cough - 7/Mar/21

Strawberry Cough - 7/Mar/21


Be well everyone! :ganjamon:
 
Mango Sherbert update

This is girl is absolute bristling with trichomes, they are growing all over the fan leaves too but who am I to complain :laugh:. They look so good I will do this pictorial just on her!
Mango Sherbert - 8/Mar/21

Mango Sherbert - 8/Mar/21


Mango Sherbert - 8/Mar/21

Mango Sherbert - 8/Mar/21


And for some of her bud porn! Man she is looking nice. What do ya reckon @syenite :yummy:
Mango Sherbert - 8/Mar/21

Mango Sherbert - 8/Mar/21


Mango Sherbert - 8/Mar/21

Mango Sherbert - 8/Mar/21


Mango Sherbert - 8/Mar/21

Mango Sherbert - 8/Mar/21


Mango Sherbert - 8/Mar/21

Mango Sherbert - 8/Mar/21


I look forward to toking on her soon. I you hope all got some nice buds to toke on too. :ganjamon:
 
DonkeyDick said:
:theband:
Sticky!
Click to expand...
It's certainly looking that way DD!
Shaggn said:
Look at the change in frost in only a few days!! Love it, Looks perfect!!
Click to expand...
That's what I thought when I took a closeup today. So far that looks like the frostiest I've ever had the pleasure to stumble over a grow on.
DutchinAB said:
Looks great from way up here, Stunger! Those buds will plump up now!!
Click to expand...
I'm hoping so Dutch, I like the direction they're taking so far, they should still have a few weeks to go, the breeder says 50 days, we'll see, so far about 27 days I think. :bongrip:
 
:morenutes: Pollen Chucking update - 9th March :morenutes:​

Plan A; My efforts to reverse a selected minor lower stem of each the 3 photo girls was unfortunately a failure. I sprayed Colloidal Silver for about 31 days between 4 and 6 times a days, only missing 1 day from rain, I even gave each stem about 40 pin pricks with the idea it might assist, but alas no. I might make another attempt next grow and use an greater strength of CS, instead of 24ppm, maybe 50ppm as that was mentioned by @Bionic Chronic NZ and @NuttyProfessor and others in successful attempts.

Plan B; I have some saved regular White Widow XTRM pollen in my fridge that has been stored with desiccant sachets and rice grains, but it is 3 years old and was 'used' over several weeks before going into the fridge. Plan B was my only backup plan if Plan A's attempt to reverse sex failed, Plan B was my backup which would at least allow me the chance to make regular seeds if nothing else, but only if the pollen was still viable. But along came Plan C. :surf:

Plan C; On my previous grow last year, I made a seed order with a grow buddy, but the orders were seized twice by Customs :lot-o-toke:, and come Spring time we had no female seeds to grow :(. From the previous 2 years I had made some regular seeds, which is what we fell back on for last year's grow. They were White Widow XTRM and a cross I made with Gorgonzola, both from AMS, the cross which I'll abbreviate to 'WG' was the favourite for both of us (based on the percents given for the parents it could be 55:45 Sativa dominant, I think Jack Herer is something similar and I wonder what that is like). The WG gets you feeling nicely enhanced, but leaves you with a clear head that makes it good for doing things and socialising, the pure WW is tricky for socialising o_O. Anyway, I still have several jars of both the resulting WW and WG bud in my stash cupboard, but my grow buddy had almost run out and he had grown some more of those regular seeds this year because he liked it so much. One of the regular seeds he grew turned out to be male. He saved some of the pollen, but unfortunately, he didn't really store it that well, so I don't know how viable it is. It has been in his fridge but he stored it along with the greenery that came with it and sounded like there was condensation in the bag too. I asked if he could take it out of the fridge and try to dry it out and see if there was any dry pollen amongst it.

This was all he could get:
Regular pollen from White Widow XTRM x Gorgonzola - 9/Mar/21

Regular pollen from White Widow XTRM x Gorgonzola - 9/Mar/21


That was all he could get, but it must be still a few thousand grains, but is it viable? We'll see in a few weeks!
So this afternoon with the hint of continued dry weather I attempted to pollinate 2 relatively minor stems of each of the 3 photo girls, including the single stem of each plant that I sprayed with CS (as if I am not going to use them to toke on, I might as well use them to pollinate for seeds as well).

I had planned to dust it on the selected stems but there wasn't anything to pour out, just a little pollen dust coating the inside of the bag. So I resorted to Gandalf's method to pollinate the buds (Gandalf is a 'green fairy' in NZ who kindly grows cannabis illegally for folk's medicinal needs), his method is just to put his finger in and get some pollen on it and wipe the chosen buds with it. I just wiped my finger around the inside of the plastic bag and hoped there was enough to do the trick and that it was viable.

With such a limited amount of pollen I had to think whether I need to make a primary choice first, so I started with the Mango Sherbert, because it's trichome buildup seems really impressive (altho it was the first to start flowering) so if I had to choose one I'd quite like at least a cross of the Mango Sherbert for it's genetics. The Godfather OG is maybe half a week behind the Mango Sherbert, but each day it is looking increasingly very tasty too, I might do an update on her next. The Strawberry Cough is the least advanced in flowering of the 3 girls, but wow all 3 strains are full of promise for their potential genetics, so if I haven't mentioned it a hundred times already, I am really curious to smoke test these babies and see how they compare to last years WW, WG, and Gorilla Glue (an auto). I have been smoking for decades but only recently I have had 'named' strains to grow and compare them with the universe of strains out there that folk are praising and discussing. I have been wondering where my bud experience sits in the scheme of things.

I started wiping my finger from the bag to their pistils from left to right beginning with the Mango Sherbert, 2 stems of each plant, and I put a tag of electrical tape around the base of each stem so I can identify them once harvested and dried.

From left to right; Mango Sherbert, Godfather Og, Strawberry Cough
Mango Sherbert, Godfather OG, Strawberry Cough - 9/Mar/21

Mango Sherbert, Godfather OG, Strawberry Cough - 9/Mar/21


I will post more on the Godfather shortly, as I took a close look and some pics will post them later, need to stretch my legs! The Godfather's buds are looking really promising too, some unexpected lovely purple calyx's that look quite striking.:yummy:
 
Godfather OG update

She has been a powerhouse, I have trained her quite tightly, bringing in her canopy a fair bit to keep her from getting too wide and cumbersome to work around. As no jokes, it can be a PITA to open the doors to access the balcony if canopies are too large. I lifted up some of the mulch layer of her pot to check out the subsurface and several worms were instantly visible, moist healthy looking soil, hundreds of little roots absorbing in nutrients in that top layer, I should imagine the worms are everywhere as I have found them throughout the pot when I have harvested. So for anyone who has wondered how the plants are, growing with worms living amongst their roots, the answer seems to be, that it's not a problem, would the plants look improved if there were no worms, who knows.

When I tried to take a photo the worms moved away quickly from the light but still there were 2 in view by the time I got the camera sorted. There must be a lot of worms in there as there would have been 200 at least amongst the worm casting that I added to the pots upon start of flowering. Hey @Pat Puffer we were both mulching up recently, isn't it good to see soil life in the damp subsurface!

Worms living in the soil visible when the decomposing pea straw mulch layer is lifted
Worms living under the mulch of the Godfather OG - 9/Mar/21

Worms living under the mulch of the Godfather OG - 9/Mar/21


Last year I needed to do several topdressings, but this year after re-amending over Winter the soil was further improved. Time of course allow the biology to develop even better. The Godfather is just going on worm wee with her water daily, and once a month or so, having a dash of kelp/Seasol, humid/fulvic acids, fish hydrolysate as well. At start of her flowering, I added a 'worm castings sandwich' to her pot, with a filling of ground Neem meal and Malted diastatic barley and a mulch layer of pea straw on top. Now that is decomposing nicely and providing food and a habitat for the worms which are providing their castings back to the soil and the plant, it's win/win!

Beginning this grow, I assumed I would do a reasonable defoliation in time, but she's been growing so lushly that I just wanted to let her do her thing. I would just train her only. Now she is in senescence, and slowly drawing up the nutrients from her lower leaves that I would have otherwise cut off had I defoliated, so I'll probably continue to hold my course and let her draw from the soil and herself, rather than add anything and risk upsetting the apple cart. She'll be ready in a few short weeks, and so far I feel she should have enough reserves within her for me not to unnecessarily tinker with her at this point.

I took a look at her buds today and wow, they have visibly developed in just 4 days since I posted the same shots of her, the developing colas already feel more weighty and with more substance than my grow last year, hopefully there is a good amount of 'plumping up' still ahead for them.

Godfather OG - developing cola/bud shots
Godfather OG - Cola top 9/Mar/21

Godfather OG - Cola top 9/Mar/21


Godfather OG - Cola top 9/Mar/21

Godfather OG - Cola top 9/Mar/21


Godfather OG - bud close up 9/Mar/21g

Godfather OG - bud close up 9/Mar/21g


Godfather OG - Cola top close up 9/Mar/21g

Godfather OG - Cola top close up 9/Mar/21g


Godfather OG - Cola top close up 9/Mar/21g

Godfather OG - Cola top close up 9/Mar/21g


What can I say about this lady, she is going really pleasingly.

She is the only one of the balcony girls that was supercropped this grow. Last year I supercropped as well. But for the Godfather this year, I started supercropping a month earlier, this allowed me to get the basic shape I wanted at a lower point from the base, and has allowed me to let her grow her colas vertically. Last year, my colas were much more trained horizontally. This time, I was hoping for more of a baseball bat appearance. They are currently too immature to know but it'll be interesting to see how she goes from here without any special bud enhancing nutes. In taking a pic of her I have to stand back a bit more than I would prefer to, in order to fit her into the lens. You'll have to trust me, she looks better right in front of you!

Godfather OG
Godfather OG - 9/Mar/21

Godfather OG - 9/Mar/21


As a footnote to my earlier attempts of pollination this afternoon, the weather has remained dry in the 5 hours since, so hopefully that means if it was viable then it should have had a reasonable amount of time to work regardless on whether it rains from here. I hope it was viable and I hope too that in spite of the near invisible amount I was still able to get enough on their selected buds to make some seeds, for the stems I pollinated last time I got at least 100 hundred seeds off each small chosen stem. But then I was dusted it on the pistils, this time was a more mechanical wiping my finger on a pollen surface and then wiping it on the buds. Anyway, it'll be a buzz if it's successful. Be well everyone. :Rasta:
 
Pat Puffer said:
Lovely plants. Organic just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy...worms and all. You have taken balcony gardening to a new level, that's for sure.
Click to expand...
Thanks Pat! I love the whole earthy living naturalness of organic soil, it feels very rewarding to build an organic living soil that the plants thrive in, and for the most part they are only watered with a litre of worm wee added to the watering can each day. The only days I don't water them is when it is pouring down with heavy rain.
Reave said:
Great update. I’m going to get me some worms too for my compost.
Click to expand...
I first bought a bag of organic worm castings which still had live worms in, so I added a few dozen of them to a home worm farm unit and now have thousands which generate a nice amount of rich worm wee too give to the plants each day. When I added a layer of worm castings to my pots at the start of flowering just over a month ago, I reckon they each would have got another 200 live worms, as the worm farm has so many that I couldn't be buggered messing around taking them out beforehand.
DonkeyDick said:
Nice one, Koro. Fingers crossed for new crosses!
Click to expand...
Thanks DD, it's in the lap of the gods now. Fingers crossed indeed. I would have really loved to have been successful with my reversal attempt, as making some female seeds for the first time would have been special. But even though the pollen I used is regular it should still made some wonderful crosses. Altho while I still have a few female seeds left, I will probably keep the regulars for a rainy day if I ever have more space to grow or run out of females.
 
Unlike many here, I not only have to be stealthy for outsiders but I have to conduct myself with stealth within the house. My missus is at best tolerant but she makes a few comments every now and then to let me know what she thinks. Funny thing is, that my current growing cycle began when after she realised I was buying bud to vape, she then asked me why I didn't grow instead. Well, lovely, that's all I needed! And now she'll drop little hints, like 'they're pretty big now' or 'why to do you have to grow again you still have so much from last year' haha, geesus wept my love, I'm growing for a rainy day too!

Anyway, she's now popped out for some shopping, so I have kicked off a decarb and hopefully it completes and the faint smell has gone before she's back and I can have it all stored away again!

The jarred buds I am decarbing is the 'WG' from last year (White Widow x Gorgonzola 55/45 Sativa) which enhances nicely, but leaves you with a clear head to be high but still able to socialise, think and do things.

These buds were whole plant dried over 3 or 4 weeks before jarring and I only burped the jars twice, when the plants are biggish and are whole plant dried I find they are practically curing on the plant. Today after almost a year in the jar, they are still beautifully fragrant and sticky and gooey inside when cut, and feel really greasy when handled and zero mould. :ganjamon:
putting some of last year's 'WG' in for a decarb - 10/Mar/21

putting some of last year's 'WG' in for a decarb - 10/Mar/21

 
General flowering plant porn update

What can I say, they're looking great as far as I can see. I am drawn to gaze out on them all the time. Every day they seem to get visibly thicker, more advanced. The second half of flowering is so exciting seeing it all come together. You can imagine the change to the balcony when they are harvested, suddenly that lovely green view is gone.
If you took a view thru the side window this afternoon this is what you'd see :yummy:
Balcony girls catching some sunshine in the afternoon! - 11/Mar/21

Balcony girls catching some sunshine in the afternoon! - 11/Mar/21


And the general lineup front on!

Mango Sherbert, Godfather OG, Strawberry Cough
Mango Sherbert, Godfather OG, Strawberry Cough - 11/Mar/21

Mango Sherbert, Godfather OG, Strawberry Cough - 11/Mar/21


And the last one just to show the progress, as she started so slowly and for a long time was a real pale lime colour, well she ain't lime anymore, but she has been powering up the last few weeks and beginning to look quite the statement now, even though she has a few weeks of flowering ahead of her to go!

Strawberry Cough
Strawberry Cough - 11/Mar/21

Strawberry Cough - 11/Mar/21

Thanks for dropping by, they'll be further porn updates to come! :ganjamon:
 

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