I’m all ears…
Good, because I wanted to take a moment to talk smack about another OG’er. You ever heard of this guy @Slick1? I heard he is of questionable repute and has peculiar tastes.
He’s not going to live that one down.
Despite all the things he said about you, he did make a fantastic Chocolate Thai x Orange Grove cross. I can’t quite remember the ridiculous name given to this cultivar…
Chainmail Fuckvest.
You just watch your language- oh, right.
Without further ado, here is the photographic record of these wonderful plants from seed to smoke.
What happened?
Dirt date was October 20th and flip was November 20-ish, equating to 31 days of vegetative growth and 84 days of flowering. I had no idea what I was getting into when I germinated these seeds, I had nothing but questions. Does a 16 week flower time denote 16 weeks of non-stop stretch and growth?
Short answer, no.
I started these girls in 1 gallon pots after having read all sorts of online lore about using smaller pots to tame stretchy sativas. When these plants were started I was still limited for vertical space due to the manner in which my lights were suspended. After optimizing my lighting configuration I figured the 3 gallon pots would be a better fit and allow me to take advantage of the newly increased headroom.
Repotting more or less coincided with the time that these plants were moved into the spare bathroom, and 100% coincided with harvesting the previous occupants of the 3 gallon fabric pots. I was expecting a bit of stretch but alas, as soon as these girls got a taste of 12/12 all vertical growth came to a halt.
Days passed, then weeks. With each passing week these little dwarves stood there and mocked me for all my incompetence. As time drew on I was rewarded as the plants really started to show some frost and their smell really started to mature.
What started out as a unique plant smell grew into a distinct and mature aroma all their own. The green one smells more than the purple. But what is the smell you might ask? Here is a series of quotes from me in chronological order trying to describe the aroma:
The smell from each plant is identical, and also unlike anything I’ve ever smelled before. It’s like an intoxicating pepper and pine smell, and as soon as you’re done taking a sniff the lemon citrus undertones suddenly tickle your nostrils.
I was going for a walk few days ago after a rain spell and passing somebody’s yard I smelled the exact CMFV aroma, had to do a double take. Went for another sniff just now. Still no words for the smell but like a citronella, only more grassy.
The smell is becoming really refined, like lemon pledge on an oak banister. An expensive oak banister, in one of those expensive houses where they use the word banister instead of low-brow expressions such as ‘hand rail’.
The smell is very much like lemon on an oak banister, but much more mature now… Not like the childhood memory of the smell of a banister, but like the smell of a banister at a rich milf’s house.
Intereresting growth as well, absolutely zero lateral branching. I did absolutely zero training to these plants so this is as close to their natural expression as you can get, minus all the abuse. I would note that the smaller sugar leaves around the buds were very thick, much thicker than I have seen before. After a few weeks of flower the little leaves were quite beefy, and the fan leaves became very dark.
The buds were also very dense, rock hard with very little give when squeezed.
And then what happened?
After 12-13 weeks of flower the trichromes were finally looking cloudy to my satisfaction, which is right about the time when I started noticing some new growth. These girls were trying their hardest to squeeze out a banana or two.
Once trimmed up the colour variation between the buds is readily apparent. Not the biggest yield, for which I am certainly to blame, but the nugs are all nice and dense from top to bottom.
I found four healthy looking seeds from the purple plant while trimming and while breaking up the buds. If anyone needs more seeds, send all requests to @Slick1’s inbox.
What a haul
You’re telling me, 9.49g baby! Impresssive, I know- let’s look a bit further at the numbers.
Yield: 9.49 g
Duration: 115 days (31 days veg, 84 days flower)
Power: 94 W veg, 240 W flower
kWh/day: 1.692 veg, 2.88 flower
kWh total: 294.372 (52.452 veg, 241.92 flower)
g/W: 0.0395
g/day: 0.0825
g/kWh: 0.0392
g/ft²: 1.186
*Square footage was calculated assuming the 2x4 area directly under the light.
And how about some bonus numbers? What did this whole endeavour cost?
Total cost for 294.372 kWh over 115 days:
@ $0.082/kWh = $24.14 ($2.54/g)
@ $0.113/kWh = $33.26 ($3.69/g)
@ $0.170/kWh = $50.04 ($5.55/g)
The electricity rates vary based on how much the electrical company wants to bleed me dry, and time of use. I run my shower of flower during off-peak pricing, but the vegetation station does cross through the on-peak and mid-peak rates throughout the day.
Using only the cheapest rate I would have paid $24.14 in electrical and at the highest rate $50.04, so the real cost falls somewhere in between the two. For the effort I put into this grow this bud was well worth the expense. Still cheaper than I could buy it anywhere else, and of far better quality.
How’s the smoke?
My initial comment was along the lines of
Oh nelly, I’m baked.
The flavour itself is light and airy, lemon and fancy wood. I also woke up the next day astoundingly high.
Any further questions?
Why do you only sometimes employ the Oxford comma in your writing?
No clue, I’m not an English major.
If I missed anything else I probably meant to include those details but forgot to do so.