Tom's corner, a traveller's journey

[tomGT]

Hello OG!

Weekend work in the cabinet…
I will soon need a new round of cuttings so I cleaned the moms :

I cloned the 4 unsexed Ghana plants, first overnight in a cup of water, then in the cloning tray:

!

In the flower cabinet it is now day68:

The first hybrid , “lots of zkittlez” is now cut, maybe a bit more foxtaily than the first time due to the temperature staying over 30c most of the time:

The two bagseed should follow the same path next week.

No feeding issue with either one of the hybrids but the Zamaldelica is starting to eat through its leave very quickly.
ZD1 is a big floppy foxtail mess, the buds are shiny anyway.

ZD3/ZD1 from under:

Not many pictures of the Golden Tiger, a little bit shy compared to ZD3 taking over:

I am now running the lights only 9h per day for a week, I am not sure how long they will need.
I would guess 3 or 4 weeks… if they don’t lose all there leaves before!
I may have to adjust the amendments or feed them differently next time.

Cheers!

[Gpaw]

Hi Tom,
What size of container are you using for your mothers? Same soil as your no-till?

Cheers
G

[tomGT]

Hey Gpaw!

I am using small pots to keep the mothers small.
This round, because I wanted to keep more plants than I should I tried some very small pots (something like 7x7x10cm) for the one you see in the tray.
It is awfull during summer: I can’t miss a daily watering or they start to suffer.
The Ghana are in one liter pots, it is is easier to handle, and I plan to keep the long term moms bonsais in two liters containers but I can’t afford to keep much more than four so I need to make decisions first!

I use some light potting soil when starting the seeds, after they go with a mix of what I have on hands: leftover potting soil mixed with some from the no till container , a bit of Worm casting, a handful of a mix of organic amendments.
It is not enough to keep the plants happy for the long term. Depending what and how much I add, after a month they will eventually start to show deficiencies that I fix with a bit of top dressing or transplanting in a bigger pot.
I manage to keep mother happy for about a year like this, and after that time I find easier to clone and restart.

[Gpaw]

Great info, thanks!

I’m looking at doing similar shortly. I suspected your pots were smaller than the 10 x 10 cm pots I was looking at.
I’m thinking my limitation on a pheno hunt is not how many plants I can grow and flower but how many mothers can I maintain at the same time.
I was looking at the bonsai mother technique for long-term mother maintenance.

Cheers
G

[tomGT]

You are right, my main problem is about keeping the backups in veg.
When I run a pack of regular seed, between the clones for sexing, the ones for backup and the plants to run I may end up with 30+ plants. Everything not used end up in the worm bin!

One other issue I have with keeping the grow side small is about sexing. I find it harder to read on small plants you keep cloning than on a bigger plant grown in a larger space. I find easier to put a clone in the flower cabinet, but it is time consuming:

Bonsaï is the way to go in small place , you can definitely keep mothers in 10x10cm pots. I am sure 7x7 could be OK for long term if you treat them like hydro (think coco instead of soil) but it is more work that I am willing to do.

[tomGT]

Hi OG!

The little heatwave we are going through is taking its toll, the cuttings cooked after struggling for nearly a week :

I will have to wait for a couple of weeks to restart, no big issue but it is always a sad view…

Beside the Golden Tiger and Zamaldelica having their leaves yellowing/dying from the bottom, no big issue either in the flower cabinet:

The next to come done will be the two bagseed clones.

I was curious what would come out of this seed but she stayed small, the smell isn’t really strong, and worst of all I found about a dozen male flowers during the first weeks: unless the smoke is really exceptional I will not run it again.

On the other hand I am really happy with the Lots of Zkittlez 2. Not really strong, it is more a daytime smoke but the smell/flavour is awesome even with the high temperature during the grow.

Cheers!

[tomGT]

Hey OG!

I will blame the heat wave but it is mostly my fault. Because of the small pots, the constant over watering and drought, the deficiencies and the over feeding, the last aggressive topping was to much to handle for a few plants.

The next round of clones is suddenly a little bit delayed

I will take this as a lesson, luckily the three plants that died were the one I wasn’t sure I would run again, the two bad looking ones are the two headbangers F2 I justed sexed, so I will move the clones to reveg.

Speaking about reveg, the GT3 and ZD1 clones I took earlier are now nearly fully back to veg state

I was able to extract half a dozen of seeds of each one I pollinated:

I may have gotten a few more if pollinating earlier, the pistils were already wilting when I did.

On a good note, I was able to get a few cuttings of the Ghana plants and put them in the flower cab to sex. I think I already saw a female! They are getting bumped on the next to run list!!!

In the flower cab, day 81 since transplant/flip:

All hybrids are cut, the remaining plants are in still pushing new foxtails and white pistils and leave are dying:

ZD3, the strange one

ZD1, the floppy octopus

GT3, slow and steady

I saw a few male stamens , now it is to late to worry me, I will just monitor and cut the plants if they are to many.
As it is not limited to a specific plant, I fear it could be induced by heat stress.
I already run the lights only for 9 hours, so in an attempt to help them finish faster and reduce the temperature I disconnected the side bars (the drivers for those are inside the cabinet).

It should all end in a couple of weeks…

Cheers

[tomGT]

Hi OG!

Day 89: foxtails, white pistils and bananas!

No signs of stopping, no signs of amber trichromes, they don’t look like they are ready yet. I will give them one more week and re-evaluate.

So far I don’t see any sign of pollen or pollination.
Anybody has any experience with those late stamens?
Can they be a problem if I keep the plants going for a few more weeks?

I did trim the plants harvested earlier:

Lots of zkittlez on the right, and the bagseed on the left.
I found the bagseed in a biscotti nug, I assumed it could be a S1 but the nose of the flower is definitely matching the GMO I did try. It is such a unique smell/flavour I can’t figure yet if I will miss it or not anyway the clone already died so I won’t run this one again.

No pics of the veg side, it did really suffer…maybe the next run will be another kind of feminized seed run…

Take care
Cheers

[tomGT]

Hi OG!

It is now day 96 in the flower cabinet, not many more new white pistils, a few amber trichromes are showing up: I will wait another week, just to cross the 100days line and next week end I will cut them.

On the other side, I am not really proud of what is happening but it is the sad reality.

On top of the previous issue, I have a thrip infestation and very little time to take care of it …

I lost a few more plants, and this time not the ones I care the less. No more Lots of zkittlez, I checked and they did not seems to grow roots since the last transplant.
I still have seeds of those so this is not the worst, but I also lost one the Ghana mom, in a last resort I moved one of the cuttings back to the veg side and put it in a root riot plug. I just saw roots coming out, but the top of the cutting is already dying so I am not sure it will make it. Those were the only seeds left so I am a bit disappointed… If it was not for those I would shut down the veg side and restart from seeds in a few weeks.

I will learn the lesson and stop sprouting seeds during summer, flowering is already hard enough during the hot months.

Take care!
Cheers

[Gpaw]

Hi @tomGT,
Sorry to read about your troubles, any idea what the vector was for the thrip infestation?

The fight is not over if the cuttings are pushing roots.

That under-story shot (#3) is surreal. Definitely a Jurassic Park vibe.

Cheers
G

[tomGT]

Hi @Gpaw,

I have no idea where the thrips are coming from exactly, they are looking to be endemic. It is mostly the only bug I see but they won’t go away. I am very reluctant to use some strong chemical because I don’t want anything on my flowers and also because I am afraid it will disturb the worms and everything else in the soil. I fear they can stay in the soil a while in-between crops.

Normally I keep them away by immersing the mom and the clones in a bucket of water with potassic soap, nettle and horsetail maceration and it is enough to keep their number low/unnoticed.
Sometimes I also get some swirsky mites but this year I did not order any because of the mail going so slow I was afraid they would all die during shipment.

Unfortunately I also have been slacking on the IPM so I pay the price now…

[Gpaw]

Chemicals are out for me too, from what I’ve read they are becoming somewhat resistant anyway.
Is diatomaceous earth useful against them?

Cheers
G

[tomGT]

I am not sure about the DE, I would guess so but I have not used it for a long time. I started to worry about what it would do to the worms in the container and also to my lungs when dusting the leaves so I stopped using it.I think I would need to much to create a layer of DE all over my tote and after being wet and dry it forms a crust I don’t like.

[tomGT]

All hope is not lost!!!

[tomGT]

Hi OG!

Harvest time! I saw a few seeds maturing, quite a few nanners, less white pistils so I decided it was time… They were still pushing some foxtails, I am sure they could have gone longer but after 100 days and running only a 9h day for a while, I had a feeling it could go forever like this!

Last picture alive!

ZD3 looking better upside down!

ZD1 the centerpiece

GT3 without much space to express herself

The smell is the usual green/carrot/pepper/mango of those strains. Now a little bit of patience for drying and curing and hopefully the high will be there!

First time running so long flowering strains indoor, the stretch wasn’t as difficult to manage starting from clones but the “maturation” is definitely not as good as outdoor. They were eating their leaves for the last half of the grow, so the soil might need some tweaking for another long run.

I just saw what is looking to be my first comfrey leaves:

I received some root cuttings a few weeks ago and the leaves don’t really look like my usual volunteers so I assume it is comfrey starting to grow. I hope to feed the leaves to the worms and also use them as mulch.

Now it is time bro wait! Wait for drying and curing, wait to get the flower bed ready again…
During that time I will pamper the plants in the grow cabinet and check what are the options for the next grow.

Take care!
Cheers.

[tomGT]

Hey OG!

Life is not giving me much free time! Sorry for the time span between updates, it won’t get better for a while .

The first vape tests of the Zamaldelica are quite good, mostly a green carrot taste and uplifting high.
The flower have been in the jar for just a week so I will have to wait for a bit more curing time to assess them all.

Bud and larf, no manicure.
Flash/No flash

I am not sure what will be the next round.
The main small veg cabinet was full of ugly plants full of thrips so I killed quite a few. I just kept the Ghana plants and the Nila Wafers from last round.
I trimmed them, dunked them in soap water and a mix of herbal fermentation. Hopefully I can clone them soon.

Not knowing if I will be able to have some cuts sexed (not all the Ghana are yet sexed ) I started all the remaining fem seeds I had at home so I have a plan B or A or C…

The comfrey is coming up, I am happy for that being successful:

Anyway to confirm it is really a Bocking14 before flowering?

Take care!
Cheers

[tomGT]

Hey OG,

Sorry for the lack of news, life has been keeping me busy, I guess it is a good for the time being!
The unfortunate consequence is that I wasn’t able to dedicate enough time to my Ghana project and I had to trash it. Hopefully I will find another way to spread the love and overgrow the world…

I already showed the plan B, so here is a fast forward of the last months in autopilot:

Cheers

[ReikoX]

Kinda fun watching them grow in fast forward.

[Gpaw]

The curvature of that light keeps drawing my eyes away from the plants…

The plants are loving it! Well done!

Cheers
G

[tomGT]

Sorry Gpaw! Think about it as a way to mimic the sun curvature!!!
Those boards are thick enough support themselves, but not enough for what I did. I will think about making a frame for the next version of the cabinet.