Agreed!! That was my immediate thought when I saw this pic. Beautiful!Informative
Beautiful grow
Great yield
Photo of the Month for July
Great grow n smoke report and after following your grow it’s definitely on my list for future growing. CLUpdate - Photo tribute and smoke report of the Mulanje Sherbert!
Greetings 420 enthusiasts! I've not had a lot to post lately so hence my lack of forum time!
<edit> I forgot to mention, for reasons which I still don't understand, my plants didn't seem to get hit by pests like what would be normal for me in a grow, I always think of it as being like the "angel's dram" that the whiskey makers would accept losing from their casks as they age.
Usually I get a rash of white butterfly caterpillars once flowering starts, the caterpillars make damage that you don't often see until eventually big chunks of rot appear. This year I didn't do a single pest spray! Which seems remarkable. I intended to, usually when the bugs are spotted I then whip into gear and commence my spraying, but they didn't really show so I never did. It further surprised me that in trimming the Mulanje Sherbert, I didn't find 1 single rot or dead patch! In my experience there has always been a few bits found when trimming that I have to 'gouge out' or cut out, where caterpillar damage has changed an area of nice bud to be brown and lifeless, or turned it to rot. So I was really surprised to not find a single such bad bit when trimming.
Sorry for the edit, but just saying, that was a first for me.
<end-edit>
This post is a photo tribute and a smoke report of my recently harvested Mulanje x Mango Sherbert, a homemade cross of seeds I made the previous year and this is the first time I have grown it out. To shorten the name of the cross, I generally refer to it as the "Mulanje Sherbert".
A few days before harvest, she is looking quite fierce.
She is 70% Sativa and 30% Indica, and the thinner leaves of her colas show her Sativa dominance.
But up close her bracts were plenty 'gluey'
Even her popcorn rubbish buds looked like sugary jewels and they vaped exquisitely
Like her mother the Mango Sherbert, she looked striking with her red stems
Towards the end of flowering she had purples too
Total 253gm or just over half a pound at 8.75oz!
3 oz - cobs
5.75oz - jarred bud
I initially thought I had a yield of about 5 - 6oz, but as I completed the trimming I felt the brown paper bag that I was dropping the bud into was 'heavier' than I expected. And on weighing it was, over half a pound in total which very pleasantly surprised me.
Buds ready for jarring, and 3 cobs drying before being re vac-sealed for their curing period
Appearance
Fairly airy bud structure while 'damp' with resin. I feel my outdoor balcony grown plants always tend to grow their buds in an airy fashion. I think if they grew hard bats then I'd probably lose a lot to bud rot from the lengthy outdoor periods of rain we get, so I guess it is in response to the outdoor environmental stresses the plants encounter.
Aroma
Present but overall fairly subdued. I read where someone said that Indicas tend to be stronger smelling. I don't know if that is generally true, but in this case her aroma was lovely without announcing it to the entire neighbourhood which I was fine about. A mixture of a nice 'piney' type smell with some fruitiness and a hint of fuel/diesel. Her mother the Mango Sherbert had a fruity fuel/diesel smell, but combined with the Mulanje the fuel is just a tiny hint and now it also has a pine fragrance.
'feel'
These buds are the 'dampest' I have yet grown. I'd touch them and swear the feeling was that they were wet even though they had been drying for weeks. I think this must be the 'greasiest' plant I have ever grown. When trimming her under the lights, with just one touch of her buds my skin looked wet, like I'd wiped oil on hand.
How grinder friendly is it?
I did manage to get some droughting on her in her final weeks with repetitive leaf drooping occurring. And in my experience droughted buds are more 'resiny' than undroughted. To me the objective unbiased way to determine that is from the grinder! I have a lovely 'free to turn' grinder that I am very happy with, but this strain wrecks it! Well it doesn't actually wreck it, but the Mulanje Sherbert's buds really gum it up, and it gums up my vape quicker too than other strains.
Potency
Powerful, strong.
When it comes to strains, I look for outstanding strains, I prefer that they be strong. I am not a fan of 'mid range average' weed. I have smoked/vaped/consumed cannabis for more than 4 decades, the majority of the time it was bought on the blackmarket usually without any idea of what strain it was. So far I have grown barely more than 1 dozen known strains, but in spite of that I would say that this is likely to be strongest named strain I have ever grown (ok, it is a homemade cross but I still know what the strains are that made it). It is hard to say where it sits over my lifetime of indulging, because these days I pretty much consume and vape weed every day so piss weak weed is really disappointing to me, and I am always on the lookout for top shelf contenders!
I have had wild Thai, wild Nepalese, and Columbian Gold decades ago that was really powerful and outstanding, and that was probably helped by the fact that I was not a regular smoker back in those days simply because weed wasn't always available to buy. So it is hard to judge where the Mulanje Sherbert sits, but I feel it is up there and belongs in a place on the top shelf! I felt the strongest plant I grew last year was the Malawi/Ethiopian x Mulanje, but so far I have been solidly testing the Mulanje Sherbert for over a month, and I think this is even more powerful, and so far it's been my one and only go to which says something. Sometimes you can have a strain and think wow, but after a couple of weeks it's effects seem to diminish to become more average, but I have been hammering this daily and it continues to impress me for it's power and potency.
Effect
Uplifting, euphoric, sweeps you up and carries you. It gives a headband type feeling but in a good way where it gently squeezes your head where the feeling is like being supported in an enhanced zone where you're happy and content to be.
Length of effects
Long lasting when vaped, up to 4 or 5 hours. Consumed as a cob, it lasts even longer.
Anyway, thanks for dropping in. I hope your own garden efforts are going great. Be well, keep well and all the best!
. 
Update -Evaluating the appearance of immature gender structures to identify sex in plants grown from regular seeds
Part 1 of 5 - Introduction (due to the number of photos this update will be 5 posts in total)
Greetings 420 enthusiasts! For the past few years, I have grown both feminised and regular seeds. For each regular grow, I have looked very closely to try and identify what the sex of the plant will be from the observation of the early forming gender structures. From these observations I feel I can make a good attempt to identify the gender of the plants. Hopefully this post can be useful for others who are growing regular seeds, those who grow only feminised seeds will probably find this rather lengthy and boring. However, I will use this post myself to reference on subsequent grows, to refresh my mind on some of the different possible appearances of the immature gender structures, as there is no point reinventing the wheel each time!
To recap, I have 6 plants that I have grown from regular seeds. These 6 plants represent 3 strains of 2 plants each. The seeds were made from my grow last year using pollen harvested from an African Mulanje male. Now the plants are 'expanding' and my balcony space is fast shrinking, I need to establish who is a boy and who is a girl.Any male plants I want to chop and remove because I don't intend to make seeds on this grow, so I don't need them. And also, I need to reclaim some space on the balcony so I can grow out the females while allowing enough room to carry out plant maintenance.
Balcony lineup - 6 plants grown from regular seeds
2 plants per strain
The fact that I am growing 2 plants per strain creates a potentially interesting contrast to compare the resulting closeup pictures. i.e. if a pair of plants are one of each gender, then we can expect that there may be contrasting differences when we compare the 2 photo sets. So, once we've looked through each photo set, we can then step back and compare the photo sets of the associated pairs to see if they help us to further identify genders.
6 closeup photos of the early gender structures of each plant
To evaluate early gender structures, I would recommend making multiple closeup observations. I am now in my 60's and my once sharp eyesight has deteriorated to now be quite crap. These pictures have all been taken with only natural lighting and handholding the camera, no tripod. When trying to focus while coping with movement, the glare of the sun on the camera, it isn't easy. Some folks use a Loupe, although I have no experience of using one, and besides, I prefer to take pictures that I can enlarge on the computer to best contemplate what I am seeing.
I have condensed the number of photos I took into just 6 closeup pictures of each plant to show in these posts. Ideally, I feel double or triple the number of closeup pics would be better, but as I don't want to photobomb the heck out of this site, I am only posting 6 pics each. I think this is just enough to demonstrate how some pics if viewed in isolation can cause the wrong call to be made.
Indicators I use to evaluate gender and what I don't use
I am solely looking at closeups of the nodes and gender structures, these are the observations I have used over the past several years. Some folk use other indicators like node spacing or whatever, but I haven't considered these and have no experience in them to recommend. Nor do I consider whether the Stipules are crossed or not, some folks feel when they are crossed that it indicates a female, in my experience this is nonsense, I feel that crossed Stipules are a poor choice of indicator to use because many times I have seen the Stipules crossed whether male or female, in fact I think most of my pictures here show crossed Stipules.
The features I use of the gender structures that may suggest a female
Base: If it can be viewed, they should have a wider thicker base than males.
Shape: Usually taller than males. Usually straight, sometimes curving out then straight up.
'Filling': Usually appears more evenly 'filled'. Sometimes a little 'plumpness' that is evenly spread, not like the males where they can show 'roundness' at the lower part whereas females tend to show it in the middle and it is more gradual, even, and smooth.
Surface appearance: Usually 'softer' in appearance, more 'Yin'.
The features I use of the gender structures that may suggest a male
Base: When viewable, a narrow pedestal base may be seen underneath the gender structure.
Shape: Usually shorter than females, sometime 'bitsy' as a prelude to growing multiple balls at the location. When a 'crab claw' is present the shape can appear curved, sometimes it appears only as a single 'claw'.
'Filling': Often not 'evenly filled', sometimes almost shrunken in, sometimes a distinctly ball shape is seen at the lower part.
Surface appearance: To me, male parts often look more 'armoured', often more shiny and more 'Yang' in appearance.
Crab claw: This is really part of the shape, but when a 'crab claw' is seen, it is the sign that most indicates a male.
If determining gender from closeups they need to be good quality
I have found that when a picture is dark, fuzzy, poorly lit etc, that the resulting appearance can be deceiving where one's own mind thinks it sees something in the blur. If all you have is fuzzy blurry pics, then of course that is all you have got to go on. But for me, I very much prefer to only deal with well focused closeup pictures.
I remember maybe a decade ago, that some young Egyptology scientist claimed from viewing satellite images that she had discovered 17 'new' pyramids. But none of them turned out to be actual pyramids, it was most likely she was seeing what she wanted to see. So, if you have the choice, steer clear of poor quality photographs.
Different angles may present the structure in a biased manner causing misidentification of the gender
Mostly this happens when a male double or single 'crab claw' is viewed from the side where it's curve is not apparent, but from a different angle suddenly what first looked like a tall straight female structure was actually a 'crab claw' viewed from the side,which may have you thinking that it is one gender when it is really the other.
Not all nodes will have gender structures present
At this immature stage before balls or pistils have developed, you should check multiple node sites not just for one structure but ideally multiple nodes sites to obtain the 'range' of appearances of the early gender structures showing on that plant.
Don't make your conclusion on the first gender structure you identify
I will endeavour to show in the pictures that follow, how easy it is to be misled when the structure you have photographed appears to be one gender, but only looks that way because of the angle or lighting or blurriness etc.
Describing what I see
And finally, I will make a comment underneath each photo to say what the photo shows to me. I am not claiming any expertise just my own subjective views.
We need more pictures please, you can’t tell anything from that pic. CLMale or female ?
Edit: It might not be mature enuff to make a I’d.
Can't say yet smokecloud. Soon it looks. Nice work so far!
Thank you. This is my first attempt
Like you've got thrips. First pic, above the flower structure.How's it looking guys ?
Looks like mould or fungus.Is this normal ?
.
Thanks Hombre!
Cheers Tra!Informative
Beautiful grow
Great yield
Photo of the Month for July
Thanks Shed!Luscious plant and splendid haul Stunger! Nice wrap to the summer grow.
One man's rubbish is another man's treasure.
Cheers HH!Agreed!! That was my immediate thought when I saw this pic. Beautiful!
Nice tutorial Stunger, one of these days I want to give a cob a try. Currently stores are a little too lean, but it’s on my to do list for sure. Well done on another fantastic balcony grow
Thanks CL!Great grow n smoke report and after following your grow it’s definitely on my list for future growing. CL
Hey Smokecloud, sorry I missed your question when you made it. Generally when growing regular seeds we have to wait until pistils erupt (confirming a female) or balls if it's a male.
Thanks Otter! Yup, droughting definitely ups the resin content and in this case seemed to help with the weight, no complaints there!
Cheers HG! I am totally with you there, weak highs do seem a waste!
Thanks Hombre! I grew that one 2 years ago and found it lovely, only a tiny bit of it left now, unfortunately I didn't Cob her, but she had such lovely jewelled trichs, and bugs didn't bother her.
I highly recommend the Golden Tiger. Yeah it takes forever to flower but you’ll be rewarded with aUpdate: Coming towards the end of this journal
Greetings 420 enthusiasts! Pardon me for being AWOL over the recent period but it has been the winter outdoor off season here.
I see there's been a few posts in my absence and I will reply to those after this, and I am looking forward to catching up with what everyone has been doing.
Some comments on my last grow
The Mulanje Sherbert has blown me away. It is literally the only strain that I have been using these past months by vaping it and as an edible by consuming the Cobs I made. The Cob high is plenty strong and long lasting whereas the vape gives the more instant 'hit'.
On my last grow I had the disappointment of buggering up a couple of perfectly good plants by some inadvertent over-exuberant watering, but luckily the real bonus for me was discovering that my home made cross between the Mulanje and the Mango Sherbert was outstanding. A grow buddy replicated my grow using some my beans and got the same outstanding result, side by side it was just like mine, it's his top choice too, as well as the few who have also tried it so far. The only downside is it is a real grinder blocker as the buds are so greasy and resinous.
My coming grow
I am making some changes to how I grow on the balcony and I will soon detail this in a new grow journal in the coming weeks once I am underway.
Beans
It has often been such a disappointment trying to get beans only for orders to get seized, a waste of good money when they don't get here
But I am rapt to say I have a selection of new ones to try. I can probably only grow 3 which gives me the first problem of what to choose?
The New Caledonia sativa is a regular while the rest are feminised. For this coming grow I will probably just make a selection from the feminised beans, but I am thinking I may also grow out some regular Mulanje Sherbert seeds with the view of making crosses with whatever I end up growing (as well as getting another harvest of the Mulanje Sherbert!).
-- Sativa or sativa dominant --
New Caledonia (reg)
Super Lemon Haze
Golden Tiger
Nepal Jam
Thai Chi
Zamaldelica
Zamaldelica x Kali China
Killer A5 Haze
Leda Uno
Cinderella 99
-- Indica or indica dominant --
Frozen Black Cherry
Blueberry Cupcake
Black Valium
Black Domina
-- Autos --
Dark Devil Auto
Blue Dream'matic
Panana Lime
I find I really enjoy Sativa during the day, but I like to take an edible before sleeping and so far I have found that (for me) the pure Sativas seem a bit 'trippy' for sleeping whereas some of the Indica dominant strains that I have tried seem to avoid that and allow a really-nice-nothing-disturbs-me-deep-sleep.
The 3 autos I don't have an immediate plan for. Dark Devil Auto is one that has always sounded intriguing and looks striking altho it's yield can be quite small, with Blue Dream'matic I had read of some who had it as their No 1 choice which made me curious about it. If anything craps out in my coming grow then I may kick off an auto to take it's place if I am running out of time.
Anyway, nice to be back and hope all's going well for everyone!
load of some of the hardest hitting bud there is. Imho CL 
