Indoor 60x60 cm: Solos, Sativas, Seedmaking

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I started this batch on Halloween, it's about 15 days from sprout. A few earlier or later, and there's one Ghost Toof tucked in the back that I started ~10 days after the others.

I'm growing in a 2x2x5'5" / 60x60x165 cm tent (Secret Jardin DR60) with two 60W 3500K autoCOBs, using 24/0 for warmth. Everything is in a solo cup. I cut drainage holes/vents in and near the bottoms, added a 1/2-3/4" layer of pre-soaked hydroton, then coco (reused and rebuffered, originally from a Canna Coco bag) with some perlite mixed in.

The cups are sitting in two trays (23.75" x 6" windowboxes), and while I top-water the seedling initially, once I see roots reach the bottom of the containers I switch to mainly bottom-feeding. I dump nutrient water in the trays each morning, they wick it up, the trays dry out before I water next time so no issues with root rot. Easy. I might top-water once every or every other week, just in case there's salt buildup. I'm using Dyna-Gro nutrients (currently Foliage-Pro, will switch to Bloom near the end of flowering stretch), and will use Pro-Tekt throughout the grow.

For this grow I wanted to do mostly sativa-leaning autos, including regs so I can make seeds on lower branches. I've used STS before, but I find growing enough regs to get a male or two a bit more convenient.

- Left: 3x Zamaldelica Express (Night Owl) regs with white markers, Auto Zamaldelica (Ace) with blue.
- Right, front to back: Hubbabubba Haze (Mephisto), Neville's Haze Ryder (World of Seeds), 2x Auto Power Plant (Dutch Passion).
- Not pictured: 2x Wild Thailand Ryder (World of Seeds) that germinated but didn't sprout, probably my fault. Bummer.
- Center: Ghost Toof F3 (Mephisto), still only a seedling, added somewhat impulsively after giving up on the WTRs.

This is probably going to get a bit tight! I've run 6 through to harvest in solos before, but depending on how many males I get there could be 7 or 8 this time.

Sprouting is the weakest link in my growing right now. Keeping the coco at the right moisture for seedlings can be a bit of a tightrope walk, sometimes during summer or winter I lose a few before they sprout. Before my next batch I'm going to experiment with using jiffy pellets and a heat mat rather than planting the germinated (soaked ~24h) seeds directly in the coco. In this case, I lost both of the WTRs (neither sprouted) and one HBH (trouble shedding the seed kept it from breaking ground in time).

The Zamaldelica Express in front is male, not sure about the other two yet. This is the soonest I've had a plant show sex, my previous record was a Blue Microverse on day 16, usually it's closer to day 20. In a couple days I'll set up a pollen isolation bin and move any males in there, but until then they can bottom-feed with the rest.

I'm seeing a few signs of deficiencies: the AZ and WTR look like they want more magnesium, the HBH more calcium. I'm still feeding pretty light, I will increase those soon so I'm not worried. One of the APPs has had some leaf discoloration from the start.

 

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The tent is as tight as it gets now, because a couple days ago I added my isolation bin and pushed the two windowboxes together. When I'm done collecting pollen I'll remove the bin and spread them out again, and it's a little easier to train them around each other after the flowering stretch.

As of this morning, the Zamaldelica Express male has started releasing pollen. Just from the first couple pollen sacks on the stems, but there are larger clusters of pollen sacks forming. Next time I take the bin out to water the tray I'll put cupcake cups around the stems, underneath those. (Thanks to FullDuplex for that idea!) The third Zamaldelica Express has started growing stigmas, so I got two females and one male. Cool.

I moved the Ghost Toof to where the ZE was, but in a small bucket, so I can bottom-feed that one separately and ease it up to the same EC as the others. After increasing my nutrient EC they have all greened up again. There's some minor tip burn here and there, particularly on the Auto Zamaldelica. It's quite dry in the tent (around 30% RH at the canopy), so the plants are drinking up the water from the tray pretty quickly. From what I've read, I'm watering pretty similarly to how the autopot pump does -- whenever I notice the tray is dry, I dump in some more water, but only as much as the plants will be able to drink up within a day or less.

One of the two Auto Power Plants (right windowbox, second from the back) still has some leaf discoloration with curled up / damaged looking leaves. It's been that way since sprouting, it doesn't seem to be causing problems for the plant though. Since I have two APPs and the other is doing great, I might cull it later for space, particularly if I need to cull anything else. I have two female ZEs, but I'd rather keep and pollinate both to preserve a wider gene pool.

 

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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.

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.

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.

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.)

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.

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.

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? ).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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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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.

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.

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

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.

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...)

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.

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.

 

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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.

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.

Neville's Haze Ryder (with flash).

Auto Power Plant.

APP tops, with flash.

Ghost Toof.

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

Auto Zamaldelica, with flash.

Zamaldelica Express #2, with flash.

ZE#2, the tops are getting some color.

Zamaldelica Express #3, with flash.

HubbabubbaHaze.

HBH tops, with flash.

 

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Everything probably still has 3 weeks or so. The buds are swelling, and I see a lot of seed maturing on pollinated branches.

The Ghost Toof has finally stopped stretching, and it's about 31" tall. It's both literally a standout in the tent, and also obviously cut from a different cloth just because it's so frosty. Though I'd bet most of the other sativas would be frostier if they were crossed with Toof Decay, too.

Yup.

Zamaldelica Express #2's tops are all getting color now. My last one ended up with purple-blue-gray leaves on the buds, this is heading that way as well.

The HubbabubbaHaze tops are also filling in. It doesn't have much growth on the bottom, because the neighbors really crowded it, but this should still yield all right for a solo cup.

 

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Approaching harvest now (day 75), though likely still another week or two. A week will be 5 weeks from the last pollination round, which has been long enough for most seeds to mature in my experience. I've occasionally checked trichomes, waiting for mostly cloudy.

Did I mention that I can't wait to try all of these?

My EC meter started going off the rails, probably because the battery is getting low. Now I know the coin cell battery is glued in, so I replaced it, and my new meter (an HM Digital COM-80)'s EC readings have consistently been about 20% higher. I haven't checked them both with a calibration solution yet, but I'm inclined to believe the new meter rather than the really cheaply made older one. I haven't been too specific about my nutrient mix, but I have been watering around 1650 us/cm (which the old meter said was ~1300), and for a couple days was giving a mix that was stronger, leading to a bit more tip burn throughout.

The seventh plant in the middle meant that I couldn't pull the trays a little closer together and get better light penetration down the outer sides, so some of the lower branches I pollinated didn't get a whole lot of light. Their seeds may be underdeveloped as a result. The branches with the seeds I care about most are doing just fine though -- I expect to get plenty of seeds off the Zamaldelica Express in front, the Auto Zamaldelica in the middle, and (probably) the Neville's Haze Ryder.

I didn't take everything out for individual pictures this time, because they're so top-heavy that the cups tip over really easily.

Everything looks pretty different here. There's some fading fan leaves throughout, but also some really crispy leaves that have dried out and curled up after getting light stress several weeks ago, probably made worse by the EC meter issue. There's a lot of smells, but the Zamaldelica Express and Neville's Haze Ryder in front dominate.

Center/back:
- Auto Zamaldelica.

Left, front to back:
- Zamaldelica Express (#3), with the (then) tallest cola supercropped sharply to the right. Lots of color, lots of resin, smells fantastic.
- Zamaldelica Express (#2), not quite as purple, not as filled out, and grew a few pollen sacks in early flower, but none since. I could have culled this one and moved the Auto Zamaldelica to one of the side trays.
- Hubbabubba Haze.

Right, front to back:
- Neville's Haze Ryder.
- Auto Power Plant.
- Ghost Toof.

Auto Power Plant.

The Auto Zamaldelica probably has the most light stressed / dried out leaves throughout. In spite of that, it's got several long, bulky upper colas now, and looks like it should yield well (for a solo cup).

In case the perspective makes it hard to tell, the roots have pushed the Auto Zamaldelica's coco mass up three whole inches. THE WHOLE CUP IS ONLY 5" TALL. I'm not sure if there's that much root growth throughout expanding the coco, a solid soup-can-sized mass of roots at the bottom, or what. I'm not even sure it's a good thing, though aside from making the plant extra prone to leaning/tipping it doesn't seem to be problematic. Adding a rubber training wire bumper around the AZ, APP, and GT coco stopped the leaning. I guess if I had fungus gnats it would give them easy access to the whole cup, but so far I've never had any pests.

The frost on the Ghost Toof runs quite a ways down. The trim on this one will not go to waste.

The HubbabubbaHaze looks structurally like the Hubbabubbasmelloscope I grew last year: long branches separating big chunky buds, and it has mostly white pistils. The HBSS still did at harvest (day 89), but the trichomes looked ready, and I don't think I harvested it early. Mysterious. I didn't take it out, but when I did last it had a distinct sweet pink bubblegum smell. (The HBSS smells more like tropical fruit or juicy fruit gum.)

The Neville's Haze Ryder also has plenty of dried out upper leaves. The pistils look like it's close to done, but the trichomes are still mostly clear. It's had a range of smells, first skunky, then sweet, now sweet + a little skunky + something I can't identify, I wonder how it will turn out after several weeks of curing.

 

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Day 80 now, still probably another week or so to go. Trichomes getting cloudier, etc. I took more pictures, but overall they look about the same, so I'll wait until immediately before harvest to take final pictures of everything.

The pollinated branches are looking pretty mature now, too. Here's a small lower branch on the ZE3 that I pollinated with the ZE male. Instead of getting a little popcorn bud, or just removing it, it should be good for a couple dozen Zamaldelica Express seeds, plus some kief.

 

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I checked the trichomes, everything is mostly cloudy, with amber starting to appear. All the plants have been chopped at the main stem and and hanging whole now. Before removing the lights I took pictures of everything, and I put labels on most of the colored zip ties marking pollinated branches.

It's been incredibly dry here, and the tent humidity has been settling somewhere at or below 30%, which is probably too low for drying. I added two small humidifiers outside the tent, near the passive air intakes (the two plastic gutter extensions, with vent dust filteres duct-taped onto the ends), which brings it up to 40%, but that will need some occasional supervision so I probably won't run them overnight. I might also try adding a wet towel to gradually evaporate inside the tent. I'll dry-trim in a few days, then hang the seeded branches for a couple extra weeks.

Everything in the tent, with the Ghost Toof a head and shoulders taller than everything else.

From overhead.

Auto Power Plant.

One of the mains, up close.

Auto Zamaldelica.

Four main colas, not much popcorn. Just some dried out sugar leaves to trim.

Ghost Toof.

Lots of frost, some dried out sugar leaves. Smells like sweet berries.

Hubbabubba Haze.

This smells fantastic, sweet pink bubblegum. Another that should be pretty quick to trim.

Neville's Haze Ryder.

This has a complex smell to it, a bit skunky. The breeder's description says incense, wonder how it will smell after the cure.

Zamaldelica Express (#2). Smells sweet and spicy. Pretty leafy, but the sugar leaves are covered in frost, so this one may be almost as good for sifting as the Ghost Toof.

Zamaldelica Express (#3), probably won't yield as much as #2.

A lot of frost on the leaves, even underneath.

I'll update again in several weeks with info about flower and seed yield, and once I've tried them.

 

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It's been a bit over two weeks since harvest. I think I over-compensated for the dry winter air, because some of the flower went into jars around 75%, but I aired them out longer once I saw the RH creeping up. Everything should be out of the mold danger zone now, but I'm still burping the jars daily, and it may be a few more weeks before I try them. I got a quart jar each of everything except the Ghost Toof (quart + pint) and ZE #3 (just a pint), but I won't weigh them until everything is stable around 60% RH.

While trimming, I tried using a cannabrush for the first time -- it's essentially a stiffer barbecue basting brush, marketed as a dry-trimming tool. It was about $20; I figured it was worth a try, worst case I'd find uses for it in the kitchen later. It is noticeably stiffer than any brushes I've found for sale locally as cookware, and I've spent more than $15 worth of time checking, so whatever. It's also cheaper than a bowl trimmer. (Did I mention I hate trimming?) It didn't do much with the airier sativas, but was surprisingly effective on the denser Ghost Toof buds -- sweeping up and down the main colas a few times did like 80% of the work in seconds, so I will keep it in mind for a first pass when trimming denser strains.

The pollinated branches have dried out pretty thoroughly, so yesterday I extracted the seeds, then added everything else to the jar of frozen trim for dry-sifting or washing later.

I use a sifter box to extract seeds. Carding small branches back and forth and against the sides is enough friction to shed most calyces from the seeds. Tilting the box slightly and scooping everything up with the card encourages most of the seeds to roll down to the other end, everything else in the box stays put, and the screen collects kief at the bottom.

I got about 300 mature seeds total:

- Auto Power Plant x Zamaldelica Express: 3
- Auto Zamaldelica x ZE: 54
- Neville's Haze Ryder x Anvil: 2
- Neville's Haze Ryder x Blue Microverse: 11
- Neville's Haze Ryder x Blueberry XL: 15
- Neville's Haze Ryder x ZE: 34
- Zamaldelica Express #2 x Anvil: 32
- Zamaldelica Express #2 x ZE: 136
- Zamaldelica Express #3 (hermed a bit) x ZE: 30ish, keeping these just in case

All the pollen besides the ZE's has been in my freezer for at least a year, so that's not bad at all! I was hoping to get a couple dozen of the AZxZE, ZExZE, and NHRxZE, everything else is a bonus. There were some other pollinated side branches whose seeds didn't mature because they were in a corner and didn't get enough light, but the AZ, ZE, and NHR's worked out well.