A few questions about AFs, and ethos AFs in particular...

[BlackWaterPark]

UPDATE:

been pretty busy, but all the plants are in the pots, under the tunnel frames and hooked into the netafim irrigation system. I'm using a local company (Living acres) soil mix called "Oat mix"...which is a high aeration medium which uses a liberal amount of oat hulls. It will have more than enough nutrient to sustain throughout veg and into flower, but I've mixed in about 1½cups of a turkey and sulfate of potash derived 4-6-4 product called "Sustain"which is a slow release. Both products have excellent track records for me. I left the top 3"of the pots vacant for when the transition occurs, which i will then top off with more Oat mix mixed with Earth Juice Rainbow mix Bloom gold dry amendment. I may or may not tie in a separate reservoir, with a tee and ball valve, to run a PK booster like MOAB, but for the time being, the netafim irrigation line is fed directly from my pond through the inline filter.

 

[BlackWaterPark]

Apologize for the double posted pics, I guess they went through when i didn't think they had initially.

 

[2budz]

I grabbed some ethos beans because of your experience. They will be here today and will go in my next grow somewhere. You have quite the setup there, can’t wait to see your progress.

 

[BlackWaterPark]

I suspect you'll have similar results. Only one out of 60 or so ethos didn't make it, and the rest look decent to great so far. Of the Mephisto that germinated, 3 of the sour stomper and one mango were so stunted i just tossed em, so the rate of viable seedlings to seed, especially when factoring in the higher cost of the Mephisto seeds, is less than impressive. This could boil down to distribution and stocking issues, but this seed vendor was on the approved list, and what's more, I've used this company many other times and had very good experiences. This means the beans were either too old, or just of poor quality to begin with. Which, I couldn't say, but I'd lean more towards the former than the latter, given their general reputation. In any event, I doubt I'd order their seeds again, unless of course come mid August, I see something I just can't live without thereafter. As is always the case, time and experience will prove the final arbiter.

 

[2budz]

I suspect you'll have similar results. Only one out of 60 or so ethos didn't make it, and the rest look decent to great so far. Of the Mephisto that germinated, 3 of the sour stomper and one mango were so stunted i just tossed em, so the rate of viable seedlings to seed, especially when factoring in the higher cost of the Mephisto seeds, is less than impressive. This could boil down to distribution and stocking issues, but this seed vendor was on the approved list, and what's more, I've used this company many other times and had very good experiences. This means the beans were either too old, or just of poor quality to begin with. Which, I couldn't say, but I'd lean more towards the former than the latter, given their general reputation. In any event, I doubt I'd order their seeds again, unless of course come mid August, I see something I just can't live without thereafter. As is always the case, time and experience will prove the final arbiter.

I’ve grown out numerous Mephisto beans and my experience has been really good with them. But like you said, there are so many other factors. Especially when it comes to supply. I know they pump seeds out like crazy so there’s no telling how old the stock you got was.

 

[Dankerson]

Really cool setup very interested to watch how this turns out!

 

[Mizzo81]

Killer setup. I can’t wait to see this progress.

 

[BlackWaterPark]

Been a spell since last update, with lots of stuff going on with the homestead this year. Planning out a root cellar, excavating more land to site another house, expanding the vegetable garden and auto watering systems, still got to drop trees and turn into next year's firewood, etc etc... Plus just boughta sawmill finally, so that'll be another thing to stay busy with. As for now, sitting here on the porch with a beer cause it's 92°out and just spent the last 3 hours moving a 24 cu yd pile of compost up a hill to my top terrace with the tractor. Figured that'd be a good time to post some progress. Plant growth was pretty anemic for the first 2 weeks, but had ramped up exponentially over the last 3 days.

Decided to bring a 50 gallon barrel i had laying around up to the tunnels and tee in a netafim line with a pair of ball valves to allow me to run a separate ⅙hp submersible in the barrel to feed additional nutes and biologics as I see fit, with minimal fuss and time. I have plans to eventually convert these tunnels to food production raised beds, but I did have the idea earlier today (a kinda a heat stroke vision, you could say) of converting one tunnel into a giant 70' long slip & slide with pressurized misting emitters overhead along the top interior of the tunnel. I had the idea last year to attach a sort of swing attached with chains to the bucket of my mini excavator so that when I sent the turret continuously in one direction with stopping, it would simulate one of those swing rides you see at amusement parks/fairs... You know, for the kids enjoyment... But my wife promptly vetoed that idea, so she owes me the slip and slide I figure.

Anyway, gave them a shot of photosynthesis plus, and for shits and giggles, some advanced nutrients sensie A&B bloom for that nitrogen kick in the face (the advanced ad blurb guys call it "the shift"... It actually does work well I have to say, 5 cycles into using it), and the plants, having started flowering phase 5 days ago, have responded appropriately.

The tunnels are finished (more or less), and we are on cruise control for the next 6 to 7 weeks, I'd say

View from the porch, tunnels up on the second terrace, beer on the first

View from the top terrace, looking down to part of the third, and beyond that, the second terrace with the tunnels, and the panels that power everything here.

Ethos wedding cakes. I'm starting to suspect that my fears of the tunnels being too short at 5'11" are going to be unfounded, after all.

A dozen Mephisto Sour stompers from the front (that pic was 2 days ago... They are bigger now)

so, all in all, they are going well enough. I'm hoping they all, in the very least, double in size from where they are now and those side branches start asserting their authority upwards and outwards.

 

[Mizzo81]

I do believe Colin said they get tall.

 

[BlackWaterPark]

Yea. Colin says a lot of things. He's kinda like the Elon musk of the weed world, lol. But...

:::UPDATE:::

SO, it's not the sea of green I was hoping for. Presumably, we are done with the stretch, and I've had a pretty sunny run of things in general. My apogee meters a fairly uniform 1800 ppfd within the tunnels on full sun days. Which have been plentiful. By the looks of it, I'm looking at around 12 to 14 lb, which is far short of what the ad blurbs told me (not that I put much stock in those anyway). But I usually beat those numbers out in the photo world by a good measure (the advertised yields, that is). Had I gone with my usual cadre of photos, in the same space, all other things being equal, I'd be confident in a 55-60 lb yield. Easy. So all in all, my preemptive conclusion about these autos is largely the same as it was before... Hobbyist level in terms of production, with zero benefit over photos aside from the alacrity with which they finish. Now, had I TRIPLED the plant count, I'd be closer to that imagined sea of green, but with the seed prices, that would be absurd in cost, not even mentioning an the extra pots, soil, irrigation stuff, etc. Perhaps growing indoors, under 20+ hour light would achieve advertised yields, but honestly, all that added cost in electricity and nutes, etc... They still couldn't come close to photos. But hey, this was an experiment moreso than anything else, so on to the findings, thus far....

So the biggest surprise is the mutations that I expected to see... Or rather, where I expected to see them. Mephisto takes first place in mutant morphology, by a loonnnnnggg shot. In that, of the 3 breeders, Mephisto are the only ones exhibiting mutations. THIS was a big surprise to me, considering their pedigree. 3 frond leaves here and there, a couple side branches that mutated into double fan leafs rather than an actual branch, etc. I honestly expected this honor to belong to Ethos, with their F1s/Rbx1s they are famous for... Certainly not Mephisto F7s. It's not likely to impact the overall too too much though... Just surprised me is all. The good news, for you Mephisto fans, is that they all exhibit a pungent terp profile and are developing at the fastest rate. The mangos are the biggest, at almost 4'tall... The sour stompers at maybe 3'-3.5', and are the clear leaders in development in the whole race. They look good, mutations aside. They smell even better.

The Ethos side of things look like they are super stable, with the least genetic variance so far. Another big surprise. They are all substantially slower however. Size wise, the banana daddies are the biggest, @~4'tall. The OG Kush are amongst the smallest, at half the height.

The biggest plants, that look overwhelmingly like they will yield the most, are the Barney's freebie Wedding cakes that came with our order. Those suckers are a good 5' tall, with excellent side branching characteristics... There are 4 of them, and they all look amazingly homogenous. These were germed as backups for ethos/Mephisto failures, and a good thing too, as a number of the Mephisto failed to pop, and a couple that did just up and died anyway. Another 3 freebies that were subbed in are strawberry cookies, but I'm not sure who the breeder is on those. Anyway... Some pics forthcoming...