2nd Grow - 3x3 - Mars LED - Female Seeds

[ConstantGreen]

Hello! Welcome to my 2nd grow's journal! ​

Strains: 7 [White Widow x Big Bud], 1 [SexBud] (femaleseeds.nl)
Indoor: 3'x3'x6' tent
Light: 1200w Mars Hydro II
Soil: Fox Farm - Happy Frog
Nutes: Advanced Nutrients - Iguana Juice, General Organics - CaMg, Blackstrap Molasses

It's been hard holding out on you guys, but I decided not to bore you with the 42 day veg stage. Mostly so I could surprise you with another timelapse.

I transplanted them 3 weeks ago into their final ~3 gallon pots of happy frog soil. Tent climate is 77 degrees F with 55% humidity. Light is 20 inches above. They filled up the tent right on schedule and I put them into flowering today. I'm pretty much doing everything exactly the same as my first grow except a little change with the feeding. I'm going to continue feeding Iguana Juice - Grow nutes for this first week of flowering, then switch to 50/50 Grow and Bloom for week 2, then full bloom the rest of the 6 weeks.

I've also reviewed LightAddict's training tut and it's really similar to what I've been doing. I plucked the first two nodes and topped at the 6th node, leaving 8 main branches that I have tied down to the rim of their pot. I defoliate every day to keep as many shoots in the light as possible. This quickly fills up my space and creates a dense, shallow canopy that I think is best for LED flowering. These plants are only 7-9 inches tall at the moment. I expect them to be about 16-18 inches tall at harvest. Here is how the tent looks today on Day 1 of Flowering:

Can you guys tell which one of the eight is the SexBud? She has very skinny sativa leaves. Here is a closeup of one of her branches. She is growing much faster than the other strain; the top of every shoot is densely producing 4 pairs of leaves at once compared to the others only working on 2 pairs at a time:

Here's a closeup from a couple weeks ago of one of the White Widow x Big Bud, from now on referred to as BBW. It naturally grew 3 branches from the same node, known as whorled phyllotaxy.

Cannabis usually has opposite decussate phyllotaxy but can also be whorled, or alternate distichous while re-vegging. I think it's kind of rare, but 2 out of my 7 BBW are whorling at the 6th node. This is supposedly FemaleSeeds.nl's highest yielding strain - coincidence? This one actually switched twice lol; from alternate to whorled, back to alternate, then back to whorling:

2nd angle - Two branches sharing one fan leaf at the 4th node:

The center BBW is incredibly short and has been quite mutant since germination, but also had the strongest root system when being transplanted. It had huge fan leaves initially and slow growth, but it's starting to smooth out and catch up. Because it was so behind, I had to wait a few days later than the others before there was anything to top at the 6th node, and then I apparently fim'd it. A single surviving shoot is growing out of the top scar:

I also got a cloning machine! I really wanted to preserve this sexbud strain, I think it wants to take over the world. But because all the BBW are so varied as well, I took 2 clones from each. Except for the center-right BBW which was mysteriously damaged during training, as if an animal sat on it... I taped up two branches that split about an inch off the stem somehow. The branches seem to be recovering but at least one of them will not be able to support much weight, so it unfortunately won't be a good representation of itself.

Anyway, here are the clones, 6" under 60w of fluorescent light. They've been in the aeroponic cloner for 36 hours and already the cutting closest to the center handle (from the center BBW) has a tiny white root showing. Go figure, the strong-rooted mutant is the first to root.

Okay, that's all for now.
Thanks for checking in! I'll update every few days until harvest.

 

[ButADream]

First! (THAT can't be right)

 

[arteekay]

Wow, wasn't expecting anything like this for level of detail and effort.

Just wow.

Subbed, looking forward to seeing your next post.

 

[ConstantGreen]

Glad to see you here, ButADream.

Aww, thanks for the kind words arteekay! I try to make it juicy for you guys.

 

[Richard Richardson]

Great intro, nice cloner

 

[OlderGrower]

Holy mackerel I am far from the last one woot woot

Very nice opening page, that was an impressive read and your plants look simply stunning great job

 

[ConstantGreen]

Tom Jones - 'She's a Lady'

Well, she's all you'd ever want
She's the kind I like to flaunt and take to dinner
But she always knows her place
She's got style, she's got grace, she's a winner
She's a lady
Oh, whoa, whoa, she's a lady
Talkin' about that little lady
And the lady is mine

Well, she's never in the way
Always something nice to say, and what a blessin'
I can leave her on her own
Knowin' she's OK alone and there's no messin'
She's a lady
Oh, whoa, whoa, she's a lady
Talkin' about that little lady
And the lady is mine

Well, she never asks very much
And I don't refuse her
Always treat her with respect
I never would abuse her
What she's got is hard to find
And I don't want to lose her
Help me build a mountain
From a little pile of clay, hey hey hey

Well, she knows what I'm about
She can take what I dish out, and that's not easy
But she knows me through and through
And she knows just what to do and how to please me
She's a lady
Oh, whoa, whoa, she's a lady
Talkin' about that little lady
And the lady is mine

---

The cloner has also been effective. I'm not using any nutrients or rooting hormones in the water besides pH adjustment. I had 60w of fluorescent lights over them 18/6 for the first week but they seemed to be vegging before rooting so I turned off 30w.

I was wrong about the center clone rooting in 36 hours, I think I was only seeing a reflection. The first definite roots could be seen from one of the center-left BBW clones at 8 days from cutting. 13 of 14 clones were rooting by day 11. 100% of clones rooted by day 13. The strongest root systems are from one of the center-left BBW and one of the Sexbud clones.

Hope you're having happy holidaze.

 

[Stage]

Hello! Welcome to my 2nd grow's journal! ​

........

Thats one of the best intro's I have ever seen. Well done, duly noted.

 

[ConstantGreen]

They appear to almost be done stretching. I think it helped to continue the grow nutes into the first couple weeks of flower. I will probably keep them using them at quarter strength throughout the entire flowering period. Plus full bloom nutes starting today.
I give each plant 2 liters of water. (1ml/L Iguana Juice Grow), (4ml/L Bloom), (2ml/L Gen. Organics CaMg), (1ml/L Blackstrap Molasses).

I usually defoliate every day but I let them celebrate the holiday then caught up with a major defoliation yesterday. They recovered with a vengeance.

I also transplanted the clones into 1 quart of happy frog with added Glomus intraradices.
Some clones had much longer root systems than others. In retrospect I should have cut them down to equal size during the transplant. Oh well, they'll be bound to these pots for a couple months anyway.

 

[CBDstrainman]

Very nice ladies in you post thanks and stay green enjoying the fruits of your labor.

 

[hockeybry2]

Looking solid sir...I've always had great plants come from female seeds

 

[rhetorrikz]

Very nice work!

 

[ConstantGreen]

Day 28 of Flowering:

I have nixed the grow nutes, they are plenty green and didn't want to be given too much nitrogen. Otherwise feeding has been the same. I water about every 4 days, when the pot feels light and lower leaves look limp. The smell has become strong the past few days. I was expecting a more earthy smell but so far it's fruity and sweet. Maybe the molasses?

Both of the whorling plants on the left side have slightly smaller buds, perhaps because of their extra branches. The one in front of the fan hardly stretched at all and looks especially small and the pistils are already turning orange. The plant that I had in this same position during my last grow was also petite and pistils matured early. The watering runoff pools to that side of the tent, it might be a possible factor. But this pheno is also just very unique, it stands out from the others in the clones.

Each column is a pair. Which pair is unlike the others?

The two from the petite whorling BBW are very bushy with tiny skinny leaves. It has stayed short with tight nodes and each branch is growing as much as the fan leaf. Growth everywhere but slow and small. The others have stretched a fair bit under these floros with big fan leaves and not any lateral growth.

This picture is of the petite whorling bbw when she was vegging on the high end of the tent. She practically trained herself into a nice bush shape with even tops. None of the fan leaves are longer than 2 inches which helped her from covering her extra branches and saved her from some of my defoliation. I'll see how she yields and smokes but she was the most beautiful veg plant.

 

[ConstantGreen]

Day 35 of Flowering!

The buds are getting bigger except on the center left BBW, still small and orange. They all smell lovely and are getting frosty. Trichomes are mostly clear, few cloudy.

The clones are doing well. I think most of them are rootbound already because I fed them just 3 days ago and they're already dry and beginning to wilt some. I have four 4' T8 daylight fluorescents on them right now.

I might top them soon to control their height and focus on the branches. My goal is to shape these into bonsai moms, so I want to keep them small with several possible clones to take every few weeks if necessary. Can't wait to find the best pheno!

One of the center left BBW has two well developed branches now, as well as one of the Sexbud which has started to work on branches after apparently topping itself. The growth at the tip is so dense and small I can't really tell what's going on, but it slowed down and is growing bushy now.

 

[ConstantGreen]

Hello!

Day 50 of Flowering:

There appears to be about three phenotypes among the seven BBW. The four in the back right have similar foliage growth and are producing plump, full-bodied flowers. The two whorling ladies on the left have smaller leaves and flowers with that white widow effect, looking very frosty (pic below). Then the bottom BBW looks like an average pheno; with average foliage, flowers, frost.

The fan leaves on the BBW in front of the fan have been severely burned. I'm pretty sure that's because the watering runoff pools to underneath that pot and the plant is absorbing the extra nutrients that build up in the flood pan from each watering. Either that or it has been maturing so quickly that it no longer has use for the same amount of nutrients I give the others. Some cool colors tho - deep reds, orange, purple.

The nugs on this plant are small but very dense and well developed even lower in the canopy. Trichomes are still partly clear though so I'm just waiting to see what happens. Might harvest it earlier than the others. In my opinion, it kind of stinks now, like you can smell nutrients in the flowers when you touch them. But a 2nd opinion didn't notice that and was actually raving about how great it smelled.

I fed them all at half strength this week and will be giving them only water and molasses throughout these last 2 weeks. Going to let them go a week longer than planned. The center plant still has many straight white pistils, I think it could put on a lot of weight still. And my last harvest felt a bit early in retrospect.

The Sexbud is looking good too though I haven't taken a new picture of her. She doesn't seem to be producing as much, but the buds look tropical and smell like pineapple.

Here's a shot of the clones from last week before I topped them:

I've since pruned them all down to six main branches. I'm starting to shape them a bit for their potential bonsai motherhoods. Only the best will be kept, the rest I think would be cool to see flower in a SoG.

The Sexbud clones are standing out lately. There were pistils on the mother at the time of cloning; one of them is apparently monster cropped. I haven't done anything to this clone and it has produced eight tops from one node! And one of those tops has whorled into three more.

The other Sexbud clone has calyx, pistils and even trichomes lol. Light cycle is 18/6. A few BBW clones have pistils as well.

 

[arteekay]

Just beautiful.

 

[ConstantGreen]

Thanks guys! Here's a pic of one of the Sexbud buds.

Also when I was louping around the tent today I saw what looked like a charred calyx on the nute burned plant. When I poked the spot tho a seed stuck to my finger!

I was wondering if this plant would hermie or if something was different about it. I've been watching for nanners but haven't seen any. Nonetheless the seed looks fully developed. I found 2 but I'm sure there are more. Haven't seen any on the other plants tho. In this pic you can see the husk that the seed emerged from at the top of the bud:

What should I do in this situation? Should I remove the plant to prevent it from affecting the others? It's pretty much finished I guess.

 

[JuanCarlos]

If you haven't found nanners, I would finish it out and deseed it as much as you can.

 

[CBDstrainman]

Hi Versai I would most definitely agree with JuanCarlos, pull it out of your grow room, deseed any more that may be on that plant, then harvest, dry and cure it. Because you don't want to take the chance of it possibly pollinating any of the other flowering plants in there.

 

[ConstantGreen]

Day 56 of Flowering:

Pulled the burnt BBW and trimmed her up. Found 19 seeds from her and I can see that two other plants have also been pollinated and will have mature seeds soon. Not too happy about it but I think they're developed enough to not have lost much yield or potency. Still going to wait a week to harvest the others.

I got to test out my new digital microscope too. It's pretty cool, got some good looks at the trichomes, seeds and pretty sure I found a pair of bananas. The suspect bananas were at the very tip of a cola and so tiny: