H.A.F. growing stink-flowers in dirt with QB's

[H.A.F.]

Shifted the soaking seeds to a paper towel for a bit. One had a definite mini-tail already.

 

[H.A.F.]

The plants all seem to like the new arrangement.
I think this shows a little of what manifolding does, even if you don't prune everything away. Lots of uniform tops.
All 5 topped clones have actual sprouts now and the others are roughly 2-3 days behind
You can see that this one already has several nodes coming off of it. THIS is the monster part.

 

[H.A.F.]

Almost forgot the drying closet.

@diggs99 - this was an early harvest (week 6) and there are a handful of tops that should be decent smoke, but the rest of the plant was what I was thinking about using the decarb and everclear on. I figure that THC wise, there's not an abundance (about 50% milky at chop) but that might be the most efficient way to get what's there.

This isn't getting cured, or anything. Dry it and use it. I was half tempted to put it in the dehydrator I think once it's dry enough not to be 'squishy' I'll snip everything apart and put it on trays.

 

[SatIndy]

Manifold process for me.
I snip with about a 1/2" left, then flatten a small ball of grafting wax to cover the cut. I form it around the edges, and it will stay there until harvest.
View attachment 4313990 View attachment 4313991
For now I have stakes pushed into the soil, waiting for the height to be able to hook them to the sides. I left the extra 2 leaves for now. they shouldn't grow much more, and it's twice the energy to the plant than just leaving the two.
View attachment 4313992

Thanks for the pics. I love the way you do that, and the pics help me understand how - as I need to control height and width best I can. Next grow will be have to be less plants, or a bigger tent.

 

[H.A.F.]

Thanks for the pics. I love the way you do that, and the pics help me understand how - as I need to control height and width best I can. Next grow will be have to be less plants, or a bigger tent.

Those "two extra leaves"? They are still on the plant and GINORMOUS!

As to controlling height, know your strain. If it is a stretch-er, flip earlier. Even in a manifold, they will stretch how they want to after the flip and you can still get height. So once you have the shape that you want set, be careful about how tall you let each cola get before you flip.

 

[H.A.F.]

Day 26.
They got their first top-feed with FF Jump-start and some Rhize-up. The 4 on the outside are keepers. The 3 in the middle have until I have to add more nutes. Those 4 are already LST'd sideways, and all old growth is removed.

I found that the easiest way was to lay the sprout along my finger, then put the scissor-tips against my finger around the intended snip. It's easier to look close and make sure you don't have the sprout stem before pulling the trigger.

And the verdict is in! I have solved the main mystery I wanted to investigate. You get ONE SPROUT per node. It is the fact that all those nodes start sprouting that I couldn't tell last time.

 

[SatIndy]

Those "two extra leaves"? They are still on the plant and GINORMOUS!

As to controlling height, know your strain. If it is a stretch-er, flip earlier. Even in a manifold, they will stretch how they want to after the flip and you can still get height. So once you have the shape that you want set, be careful about how tall you let each cola get before you flip.

"Know your strain" could not be more apt around here (and ironic) b/c my first attempt was an "unknown" bunch of seeds which were eventually discovered to be gangly CBD sativas - and presented all kinds of problems in a -35 winter. The ugliest plants you ever did see, turned out to be helpful to a couple of pets. Now I have some White Widow clones - and totally agree that growing from seed is more rewarding, and Symmetrical!

When I got these 4 healthy, big-ass clones recently, I was like, "Well now, who are you?" Needless to say, I'm going to pop seeds next time and have more control over everything. Third time's a charm, I hope.

When you say "be careful about how tall you let each cola get before you flip" - how do you do that? Do you still trim what would be the top colas somehow?

Thanks for all the pretty pictures and info.

 

[H.A.F.]

"Know your strain" could not be more apt around here (and ironic) b/c my first attempt was an "unknown" bunch of seeds which were eventually discovered to be gangly CBD sativas - and presented all kinds of problems in a -35 winter. The ugliest plants you ever did see, turned out to be helpful to a couple of pets. Now I have some White Widow clones - and totally agree that growing from seed is more rewarding, and Symmetrical!

The symmetric thing helps, but I have some flower-clones going and I use the exact same technique with each sprout. stretch them out, then only leave selected nodes to grow out and train.

When you say "be careful about how tall you let each cola get before you flip" - how do you do that? Do you still trim what would be the top colas somehow?

For me, I like to keep them growing sideways until they reach the edge of the pot. Every time a lower shoot gets long enough, I snip it. When they reach the edge of the pot, I let them grow upwards, but keep pruning lower shoots until I flip. How long you do this part is the height you get in veg. Depending on the strain, the size will do anything from half-again the size to 2-3 times the height at flip.

Thanks for all the pretty pictures and info.
You're welcome

^Answers above^

 

[H.A.F.]

'maters coming in
Funny thing is that the purple ones are "black" cherry.
The green and red striped (yes, that's ripe ) is a "purple" cherry...
The big red cherry to the right is a "black krim" - the plants are bountiful, but the tomatoes are a little mealy. I roast them and make sauce.

I also have 2 different kinds of roma. One is San Marzano, and they are just now starting to produce. Supposed to be the best for pasta, but they all had a rough start. lots of lines and growth scars on the tops of the first batch. The ones on the vine now look fine, and all the plants are "monster-cropping", sending out a bunch more limbs and the tops ate over 6 feet and climbing. I have been LST-ing everything sideways on the tops

 

[H.A.F.]

No plant update pics, except that I saw a few gnats in the flower room again. On Tuesday I will have nematodes in the mail and give that a shot. More good bugs that eat the gnat (and other ) larva. I think that inoculating the soil with these every grow might be a good investment.

The Northern Lights so far everything weighs 71g

But since this is just "play" weed now, I set a little over 2oz aside to keep smoking on and letting dry.

It was just the 5 main cola that look frosty, but the rest aren't bad. Aside from the above, I put 7g in to decarb and will be trying the everclear wash thing with it and let it reduce down to a tincture. I have a few grams of oil sitting around that I just haven't used because it's such a production. But I think the edible version might be a winner. The rest I have set aside to smoke as is tomorrow with a clean head.

The first impression is "IT'S NOT SKUNK!!!"

It smells very gassy (diesel), with a hint of pine and coffee. And because I had the gnat issues and flushed her a few times, and fed her next to nothing at the end, it's a really smooth smoke. I scooped up all the shake hairs and keif and it was nice. It's very sticky, even though the trichomes weren't amber, they were plentiful. It has a different kind of buzz which is interesting. Skunk and GDP taste different, but hit exactly the same, right in the head. This stuff starts from the lungs out. I felt it in my chest and shoulders before anywhere else. Pretty cool.

 

[H.A.F.]

I was bored yesterday and processed a bunch of tomatoes, and made a "charged" pasta sauce with some infused olive oil I had. Woo-hoooo! I overdid that one! I got me some uninterrupted sleep from just after dinner time until about 3am LOL. I had been tasting for about an hour before I ate. (reportioning the leftovers when I recover )

Anyway, so I'm up now. I did 2 runs on the everclear wash of the decarbed nugs. Then I added just enough to covered them in a jar, and gently swirled it around for a few minutes, then strained it gently (1st run). Then I covered it again and shook the hell out of it. Probably used a cup of everclear total, on 5g of flower.

The wash is in the dehydrator on high cooking off the alcohol in little silicone bowls. I think I will get it close, then put it in a glass jar with the lid off and let it go slower until it looks right.

 

[H.A.F.]

Well, after further review I looked at the 2 runs, and the only difference was sediment. Since I want to guestimate the amount of THC I dumped them both together. I'll filter it as I bottle it.

The good thing about the everclear is that you could just drink the whole mess and it wouldn't kill you. So rinsing things as you go with a little more never hurts.

I figure that after smoking a fatty of this harvest, it is probably in the 15% THC range. As is this would be a really good all day smoke. (Fully ripened should be amazing)

So 5g at 15% (150mg/g) means that the alcohol should contain 750mg THC.

Measuring what I end up with, I can dose it from there.

 

[H.A.F.]

If I reduce it to 30ml, there should be 25mg TCH per milliliter

Or if I reduce it past 30ml, I can just add alcohol to bring it back to that level! WIN!

 

[H.A.F.]

I love it when a plan comes together
30 doses
1ml under the tongue, or in a mixed drink, or whatever

 

[H.A.F.]

I was kind of proud having all those original huge fan leaves still alive and healthy, but I don't think that they were helping the gnat issue. So I pruned the ones that were keeping wind off the soil.

And the clones are performing beyond expectations. Even the slow ones look healthy. The ones that weren't topped actually look more uniform putting out growth right in the middle.

The one in the middle only has one good sprout, but it has a gnarly little green leaf-wad-thing just below that top single blade leaf that looks like the first deformed true leaf of the bunch. I am definitely leaning towards a SOG, and keeping them all, and flipping sooner rather than later.

 

[H.A.F.]

Don't know if neem oil works on gnats, but we'll see. Gonna be Friday before the nematodes show up, and the local grow shop I found is out because the shit works and everyone is having gnats now.

The guys said the only thing about using them in grows is that you can't let the soil completely dry out or they could die off. So it'll be a little bit of a chore instead of watering them in and forgetting it.

But it might be something to cultivate in a tub of grow soil. So I got one pack for each plant, then another for my tub. if I keep the lid tight it gets condensation on the lid, so it should be a good environment. If I can get it well mixed and keep them alive adding a cup or two of nematode-soil to the first repot on a plant might be good.

Kind of like keeping a starter yeast for bread

 

[H.A.F.]

These guys have been getting water about every 3 days. Just got a little big-bloom to go with the jump-start I top fed last week.
I think I need to prune stuff again.

 

[H.A.F.]

 

[H.A.F.]

Didn't see any new gnats on the Banner, and none crawling around, so the neem might work. There was a mess of them on the Skywalker traps, but only a few I saw alive. I doused them both again, and think I might have just not soaked one thoroughly enough.

Biggest thing was that there was no adverse effects on the plants, and they seem to be fine for now.

 

[H.A.F.]

Well, neem oil is a nope. still gnats. I held off watering as long as I could, but they were both light and drooping. The plants still look OK though, so maybe I'm at least keeping them from thriving?

These are chugging along
And I finally have a seed-pop.