Some updates here. I’ve given both of the BigSur Durbans to @8k_feet to look after. Those were looking like some very hearty plants. We branch pollinated with some CBG Durban pollen off of the star male. Really an excellent, branchy and manageable male. I think this pollen will be superb for some projects in the pipe.
I have one female. It’s very stretchy and branchy. Decent so far, but I liked the male much more. One branch grew too close to the lights and burned itself. MEH. It’s also drinking much more than the JS and suffering a bit from getting underfed.
I took the Lesotho as far as I could. Charming little plant with those pretty thin sativa leaves that stick out straight like pencils from the stem. Perhaps my next run will just be a Lesotho hunt. Wishing I could see the female, but I might just have to bite the bullet and start growing a bunch of them.
I gave the BigSur Durbans to @8k_feet. They have a very different character than my CBG Durban. CBG is pure sativa as you can see below. Very lanky, grew into the lights… pot got dry a number of times. Still, I had that great male and produced some more seeds with her. Also made a cross with my primo’est JS male. Seeds are already nice and brown, but she still has some time before she’s done.
It’s been a bumpy ride for this one. She was on the same autofeed as the JS and had much different requirements that I couldn’t keep up with. I definitely didn’t grow her to her full potential, but she’s still producing a bunch of airy sativa buds. True to form sativa right there.
That sure is a classic sat there! I’m sure it’s in your threads somewhere, but what do you feed? Your plants always look so healthy and happy…well except for that last one haha
I’ve been refining a formula based on Jack’s 321. Actually I’m using Peter’s 5-11-26, which is almost identical, but with slightly less epsom (which I actually prefer). I’m actually finishing my 25lb bag, and I’m moving onto Southern Ag 5-11-26, which is pretty much the same as Peter’s. I just found it cheaper than Peter’s. Anyway, I have a formula adapted for Veg, Transition and Flower. Veg until 12/12, transition until stretch is through and then Flower until the end.
Veg (or what I can Nitrate 321). Adjust to EC 0.6 to ~1.0 starting low and increasing weekly
2.4g Peters 5-11-26
1.6g Calcium Nitrate
0.8g Magnesium Nitrate (instead of Sulfate/Epsom) 0.1g Potassium Silicate
Basically just a sulfur / nitrogen swap. Otherwise, nutritionally the same as 321.
Flower - Low nitrogen with calcium compensate. Hold EC at 1.8/2.0 and reduce to 1.6 in the last 2 weeks.
3.8g Peters 5-11-26
2.0g Calcium Nitrate
0.4g Calcium EDTA
1.2g Magnesium Sulfate 0.1g Potassium Sulfate
This is really geared toward coco… specifically to address the effects of the medium and how it alters the balance of potassium with calcium and magnesium. It should be ok in hydro too, but generally hydro is a little less complicated than coco.
The 0.1g potassium sulfate/silicate is optional. I like to have a little silica in the beginning and sulfur at the end. Those are super cheap, and used sparingly, so you don’t need to buy much.
Magnesium nitrate is also pretty cheap. 1lb goes a long way, because EC is lower in veg and it’s much less time overall than flower.
Calcium EDTA is a supplement to keep the calcium up, while dropping the nitrogen down. In the past, I’ve seen some plants complain about the amount of N in 321 during late flower. I tried dropping the calcium nitrate, but then some other plants complained about the loss of Ca. It gets even more complicated with K, because it’s competes with Ca, Mg for uptake, and it also gets double whammied by coco’s affinity for Ca/Mg2+, which releases even more K. I’ve found that coco has to operate inside a narrow window of K:Ca:Mg… like 4:2:1 to 3:2:1. If you’re gonna go screwing with recipes, you’ve gotta meet that balance. Super important!
My next goal is to develop a weight-based feeding system. You can buy the sensors they use in scales for super cheap on ebay. I think it could be amazing… I’ll continuously weight the plants individually and feed that information back to a raspberry pi or something. Then I can track the weight of my plants, and develop an algorithm to turn on when the plants need to be fed, see the weight peak when the pot saturates and starts draining and then watch the plant perspire out the water.
I think I could really step it up a notch with that kind of data and micro-attention to plant needs.
At those application rates with the potassium silicate, are you seeing much impact on pH?
That’s the one thing I’m not currently using that I actually feel is lacking, and I’d like to work it in if I can do so without having to do much. Right now I don’t have to adjust pH at all with Jack’s 3-2-1, and that’s quite nice.
Yeah it does still change the pH. It sucks, but I think my plants are generally happier. They seem to develop stronger branches. I hate what it does to the pH though so I try to keep it as minimal as I can.
Decided to give her the chop today. Ended up pretty well. Good yields, with lots of fluffy nugs. It wasn’t the smoothest grow, but ended up pretty well. After all the hell I put her through, I only found 1 nanner on the whole plant so far. Not bad for a pure sativa.
Durban smell, good amount of resin. She’s drying now and I’ll get some better shots when I trim the buds.
She’s dry and I’m in trim jail. Str8 up sativa buds, but nice resin content. Smells just like the Durbans that @8k_feet ran.
High is cerebral but not racy. Almost no body high. Great smoke – I can see myself reaching for this one quite a bit in the near future.
And now…
Free Seeds to Testers
I have this Durban crossed to my selected Jungle Spice F2 male. Resin male Congolese x 88g13, a mostly sativa hybrid of mostly African origins… mostly.
I think these strains will complement each other well – JS could stand to lose a little bud density, and Durban could stand to gain some. JS will add a shit ton of resin and the terpenes should be weird and potent as fuck. I’d expect a fairly strong cerebral/euphoric kind of high from these. I’d also expect that topping / training will be important for indoors, but yields could be substantial.
I’ll throw in freebies as well!
PM me if interested and:
Must be in the US (or Canada if you’re willing to pay shipping)
Must be able to grow testers in the next couple months
That sounds like a fantastic cross, exactly the kind of thing I would typically go for. One of my kids works in the legal industry here, and brought me a sample of some Durban a while back that really impressed me. It’s the only time I’ve ever gotten to try it, and I’ve been interested in it ever since. I imagine a cross with the JS has to have some gems in it!
He’s a couple of the Durban x JS testers up and going. I was expecting some skinny leaves and a towering sativa structure but these look like they might be Petty manageable in my little cab so far
That’s really good to know, as I’ve been considering starting mine in my cabinet just so that I can get to them sooner than if I wait for my tent run to finish up. If they can be managed in a cab, I can probably start mine in the next few weeks instead of March.
One thing I’ve noticed is that if a sativa has ever been hybridized, it shows it’s fattest leaves first and then they narrow out as the plant matures. Compared to a pure landrace sativa that will show narrow leaves from the start. That’s just an observation, nothing really tested it proven in any kind of scientific capacity.
I’d still be wary of what kind of stretch may come around week two into flower! Not sure which side will decide to take the wheel just yet
Always appreciate the information brother,I was pissed when my blue dreams all started with fat leaves ! I tried to contact the breeder and didn’t get a clear answer,(I assumed that he didn’t really know what was up),but that makes so much sense to me now ! Yeah ! Always a blast to catch up with your work !
Peace and love brother !
You make this world a better place !
Overgrow !
My plants all got pretty neglected over the holidays and I haven’t had time for many updates. The good news is everybody is still hanging in there and it looks like the 2 Durban x jungle spice testers are both girls
I need to light proof the second chamber and flip these girls to flower soon.
Little update on your Durban x jungle spice testers
Plants are turning around from my neglect and are starting to stretch. So far I can say they are very forgiving!
