D34: collecting pollen, pollination
Everything is well into the flowering stretch (except the Ghost Toof, which is 10 days younger, but still nearly the same height). They are taller than the isolation bin, which is about 18" / 46 cm tall on its side. The male would be considerably taller than the bin, it's trained to spread sideways but getting increasingly jumbled.

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It's also quite crowded, of course. In a different season I'd be worried about mold, but it's still rarely over 30% RH in the tent, and the tall thin sativa growth has plenty of airflow.

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There will be a lot more space once the trays are permanently apart. That's just with the bin out, with the exhaust fan's power cord visible.

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The male is releasing plenty of pollen now. I will probably be done collecting and cull it in few days, then remove the bin and reclaim that space. (That's pollen on the leaf, not white powdery mildew.)

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Every other day I gather it, mix it with dried out flour (roughly 1 part pollen to 1-2 parts flour), and then either use it or pack it up with desiccant and freeze it. I've had good luck using frozen pollen on later grows, so I might as well save more while I can.

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I did a pass pollinating ZE2, ZE3, NHR, and APP1 (the others aren't ready yet): I pick a lower branch, mark it with a zip tie, put some pollen/flour mixture on a small brush, and then brush it onto clusters of stigmas, or just drop it on them inside the bag. (Again, that's pollen, not white powdery mildew.) The plant goes back in the tent for an hour or two, then comes out, I mist inside the bag to deactivate any stray pollen, then remove the bag and return them to the tent.

Not pictured here, but I usually tuck the ziplock bag in-between other branches for support, because sometimes the bags are too heavy for small side branches.

The brush I'm using says "e.l.f. concealer brush". It has a small, fine point, and the dark bristles contrast well with white/yellow pollen. I think it was like $2, it's nothing particularly special.

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Here's ZE2 outside the tent, about 19" tall. The stigmas on the left branch are no longer sticking up, I pollinated them on Friday (and again while taking these pictures), they've served their purpose, now they can wither away. That branch will get another pass or two, hopefully I can get at least 100 seeds off it. I also did another small side branch, and the bagged branch in front with the purple zip tie just got some Anvil pollen (frozen, from a previous batch, hopefully still viable, and did I mention I like Anvil? :biggrin:).

While examining all the plants outside the tent, I noticed four very small pollen sacks on ZE3, all fairly low in the plant. Two had opened, so I might have a few stray seeds. I'm going to continue checking ZE3 every couple days; if there are any more I will probably remove it. Otherwise, I don't plan on pollinating it further, but if it has massively better terps or effects I may still keep the seeds and try to select that out later.

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Here's the Neville's Haze Ryder outside the tent, to show the growth since a week ago. I just sprayed it and removed a bag from a branch with Anvil pollen (purple zip tie).

I took those pictures yesterday morning. Last night I decided to cull the second Power Plant, since it still had malformed leaves, wasn't really growing stigmas, the first was doing much better, and I'd rather the Hubbabubba Haze and NHR have extra space.

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Another picture, after removing APP2 and spacing the tray out better. Ghost Toof in back, Auto Power Plant 1 in the middle, Neville's Haze Ryder in front. I think when I do solo cups SOGs I'll try to stick to flowering 6 plants, not 8. There's still 4 in the left tray, but if ZE3 grows any more pollen sacks, it's gone too.

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The GT is getting some big fan leaves. It's already nearly as tall as the others, and while it's shown sex it hasn't started flowering yet. I may need to train it to not stretch massively taller than the others.

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The Hubbabubba Haze is the smallest of the group, not because it's stunted but just because it's been pushed in the corner and the ZEs have crowded it out. I'm going to try to train it to use some of the space freed up by removing APP2. It's a bit sprawling and branchy, equally tall but not as filled in as the others.
 
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D38: removed male and isolation bin
I've collected more than enough pollen, so I've culled the male, removed the isolation bin, and now there's a lot more elbow room. Doing four solo cups in each windowbox was a bit too ambitious, three is just right. There were three (right) and four (left), so a couple hours after taking this picture I moved the Auto Zamaldelica from the left tray (left, second from the back) to a small tub that fits between the trays, and it's filling in a gap in the center of the canopy.

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The plants are drooping a bit here, because they'd gone longer than usual between waterings (I dry the trays out before taking the plants out or moving them around, it's less messy), and they had also stretched a bit close to the lights and the upper canopy was getting stressed. I raised the lights further, watered, and they all perked up within a few hours.

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Here's the last pollen collection, with a roughly even amount of flour to mix in.

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And then, mixed, about 1.2 ml. I used a little on a large Auto Zamadelica side branch, the rest went in the freezer. I have a couple tubes stored, once the Hubbabubba Haze and Ghost Toof have more stigmas I'll pollinate a branch on those as well. I'm not worried about time for seed maturity, it's a bit before day 40 from sprout, and I expect these will all go at least another 45 days before harvest.

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Here's one of the branches I pollinated on ZE#2 (left), showing how the stigmas wither and darken. (The white spots on the leaves are from misting the flour/pollen mix, so that branch is no longer gluten-free...)

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The Ghost Toof has started flowering and is stretching now too. Not a lot of stigmas yet, but it's stretching its legs, filling up the extra space since I removed APP#2, and it has the corner and back third of the tray to itself. It's 10 days younger than the others, but still stretching, and it may end up as one of the largest in the tent.

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The Hubbabubba Haze is also responding well to the extra space, still not a lot of pistils but growth is picking up. It's still lanky and zigzaggy but it's spreading out, getting a lot of light, and hopefully the frame will fill in more soon. I like the shape of its leaves.
 
Things are settling down a bit. Everything is still stretching, but aside from the Ghost Toof they're at the end of their flowering stretch and slowing down. The GT is picking up speed, it may end up tallest overall.

I'm probably done with pollination, unless the GT and HBH start growing a lot more stigmas soon and I decide to do one more pass on those.

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Here's the current head-on view of the tent, with the top canopy 20-22" tall. Everything looks a little wilted, but that's partially because I let them dry out a bit before taking them all out for pollination. A couple are showing some light stress (upper leaves hanging down, leaf serrations pointing up), but I've raised the lights a little further so they should bounce back soon. The cups also get really tippy when the coco dries out, because they're even more top-heavy.

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The Ghost Toof's broad leaves really stand out.

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The Auto Power Plant doesn't have much smell to it yet, but It has so much root growth within the cup that the coco has raised up well above the rim a bit.

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The Auto Zamaldelica currently looks the most light stressed, lots of jagged leaf serrations on the branch stretching above the rest of the canopy. It's 22" / 56 cm tall. Mildly skunky smell, so far. I thoroughly pollinated a couple side branches on it.

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The AZ's roots have pushed the coco up out of the cup, even more so than with the APP.

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Despite planting it 10 days later than the others, the Ghost Toof is really catching up.

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All of them have some roots venturing outside of the cup, but the GT has the most prominent roots so far.

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The HubbabubbaHaze has been a bit of a late bloomer, but it too seems to be catching up. I pollinated a small side branch, but there aren't that many stigmas yet and I only expect to get a couple seeds. It's bulking up now though.

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The Neville's Haze Ryder responded particualrly well to topping, bushing out with lots of prominent side colas and then going hard into flower. It has a moderately skunky smell, not too aggressive but more skunky than anything else in the tent.

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The #2 Zamaldelica Express also went hard into flower, and as of today it's developing the same wonderful smell as a Zamaldelica Express I grew before: sweet, with spices, almost like a combination of ginger and quinine. Really excited about this one. I'm hoping to get a hundred or more Zamaldelica Express reg seeds off it, plus when I smelled it today I decided to put Anvil pollen on another side branch; the tiny one at the bottom with a purple zip tie got Anvil pollen in an earlier pass, but I went for a larger branch with more stigmas.

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The #3 Zamaldelica Express is also flowering a lot, but because it grew a couple pollen sacks early on I haven't pollinated it further. I've checked it (and everything else) periodically, no others since.
 
Stretching is done, everything is slowly bulking up. I should be past the risk of any getting excessively tall -- between the small containers and topping, I was able to keep them between 21-28".

It's been colder, now the tent is typically around 70 F and 40% RH.

I'm still gradually increasing the nutrient solution EC. It's currently around 1300 us/cm EC, but aside from the tip burn on ZE2 a few weeks back everything seems fine with it, so next mix will raise it a little further. Usually the plants tap out somewhere around here and I keep the EC at that for the rest of flower.

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I added a small circulation fan below the canopy. After taking these pictures I swapped the HubbabubbaHaze (front left) and Zamaldelica Express #2, to keep the taller plants in the back. The tent seems full, but not crowded; one less plant would be just right.

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The Neville's Haze Ryder was one of the first to start flowering and to stretch, but also the first to finish stretching, ending up about 21" tall. Without topping it might have been a lot taller, instead it has several "main" upper colas fattening. There are some light-stressed upper leaves, but because the fans are so narrow they aren't shading other healthier leaves below very much.

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The NHR is starting to get trichome coverage, and the smells are changing.

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The Auto Power Plant has been slow and steady. It's also 21" tall.

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This picture (with flash) shows the APP's top cola development.

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The Ghost Toof finally finished stretching. It's the tallest in the tent, at 28". It's not as far into flowering, but it's also 10 days younger than everything else, and now its vigor should go into bud growth.

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The Auto Zamaldelica has had a lot of upward growth, stopping its stretch around 24" tall. The root growth has almost entirely stayed in the cup, so much that the dry upper coco has been lifted up out of the cup by more than an inch. I've never had that happen before, I'm curious what the root ball will look like after harvest. (It does still have good drainage.) While it probably won't yield quite as much as either of the Zamaldelica Expresses, the AZ's buds are filling out too.

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The Hubbabubba Haze is really catching up now, with lots of flowering growth, about where the APP was a few days ago. It's also starting to smell like bubblegum. :biggrin:

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Zamaldelica Express #2 probably has the most bud growth so far. Lots of resin, and it smells fantastic. One branch was several inches taller than the others, so I supercropped it to bend 90 degrees to the side. Now all the tops are even, about 21" tall. It's also quite tippy, since the upper growth is lopsided and very top-heavy. One downside of the solo cups.

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Same angle, with flash. Still another month or more of flower development to go, too!

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And here's a picture focused on the tops, with flash, showing trichome growth on the sugar leaves.

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Zamaldelica Express #3 isn't quite as bulky as #2, but it's not far behind. It hasn't developed the sweet/spicy smell yet. I've been checking it (and the others) for pollen sacks every couple days, there haven't been any since the few ZE#3 had in early flower (day 33).

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The first branches I pollinated on ZE#2 and ZE#3 have obvious seed formation now. A few green seeds are peeking through. I did most of the pollination a week or so after these branches, so there should be a lot more seeds visible soon.
 
I moved my time-lapse camera higher a few days ago, to get a better view of the buds filling out. Hopefully this will make for a nice time-lapse video when the entire grow is done. (The Ghost Toof back/right looks considerably taller even from above.)

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I noticed that the Auto Zamaldelica (in the center) was leaning over and straightening from time to time, almost like it was nodding off and waking back up. The root growth had pushed the coco up so far out of the cup that there was a substantial air gap around the coco/root mass, and apparently as it dried out it was causing the plant's root mass to lean a little. I added some rubber garden ties for a bit of padding.

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D57: mid-flower, individual pictures outside the tent
It's been about a week, now ~57 days from sprout (47 for the GT). There's plenty happening, but it's hard to spot day to day without time-lapse.

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Everything is getting more resinous. Some of the upper fan leaves that got light stress in the last couple weeks are really showing it now. I removed a few of the most damaged ones after taking this picture.

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Neville's Haze Ryder (with flash).

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Auto Power Plant.

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APP tops, with flash.

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Ghost Toof.

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GT close-up in the tent, showing how frosty it's getting.

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Auto Zamaldelica, with flash.

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Zamaldelica Express #2, with flash.

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ZE#2, the tops are getting some color.

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Zamaldelica Express #3, with flash.

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HubbabubbaHaze.

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HBH tops, with flash.
 
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It's been about a week, now ~57 days from sprout (47 for the GT). There's plenty happening, but it's hard to spot day to day without time-lapse.

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Everything is getting more resinous. Some of the upper fan leaves that got light stress in the last couple weeks are really showing it now. I removed a few of the most damaged ones after taking this picture.

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Neville's Haze Ryder (with flash).

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Auto Power Plant.

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APP tops, with flash.

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Ghost Toof.

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GT close-up in the tent, showing how frosty it's getting.

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Auto Zamaldelica, with flash.

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Zamaldelica Express #2, with flash.

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ZE#2, the top colors are getting some color.

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Zamaldelica Express #3, with flash.

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HubbabubbaHaze.

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HBH tops, with flash.
Absolutely killing it Parsings! Nice to see a journal by you!
 
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