Indoor Heavy Metal Ice Cream

[parsing_trees]

Like my previous journal, I'm growing in a 2x2x5'5" / 60x60x165 cm tent (Secret Jardin DR60) with two 60W 3500K autoCOBs. My lights are 20/4 this time, it's no longer winter. Instead of solo cups, I'm using translucent plastic ice cream pint containers I've drilled several 3/8" holes through, plus a couple 1-liter airpots. I'm growing in reused and rebuffered coco, with a little perlite and hydroton mixed in. The ice cream pints have a layer of hydroton at the bottom, and I sanitized them by soaking in a dilute bleach solution. They should be more reusable than solo cups (less single-use plastic! ), and their wider base should also make them less prone to tipping. They're translucent enough to see root growth, but hopefully not so much that algae is a problem. Pretty soon the canopy will mostly shade them and it won't matter.

The plants are sitting in two trays (23.75" x 6" windowboxes). I top-watered everything for the first ten days, now that the roots have reached the bottom of the containers I've switched over to mostly bottom-feeding, though I will still top-water once every week or two to wash out any salt buildup in the coco. I'm using Dyna-Gro nutrients (Foliage-Pro in veg, Bloom in flower, Pro-Tekt throughout), supplemented at various times with GH CALiMAGic, epsom salts, buildasoil coconut powder water, and occasionally Recharge because I've got a couple sample packs.

This batch is all shorter-cycle / indica-leaning autos. They will probably get rearranged throughout the grow, but the current layout back-to-front is:

Left row:

- 4x Anvil (regs)
- 1x S.A.D. Sweet Afgani Delicious (fem)

Right row:

- 1x Purple Nuggets (fem)
- 1x White Crack (fem)
- 2x Grape Crinkle (fems), in 1-liter airpots

Grape Crinkle is the one I'm most excited about in this grow -- I'm a big fan of the GC crosses I've grown before (Grapey Walter, Double Grape, DGxWC, 4AM) -- so after a Gold Glue germed but didn't sprout I started a second GC in its airpot. GC #1 started out slowly, probably because I let the airpot's coco dry out a bit too much early on (the airpots dry out faster). GC #2 sprouted a week behind the others but has otherwise been doing fine, and GC#1's growth picked up once I stopped letting the airpot's coco dry out as much. I don't know if I'll keep both, because flowering more than six will get too crowded, but I wanted to get a decent yield of flower and seeds from at least one Grape Crinkle.

I've grown Anvil and Strawberry Nuggets (closely related to Purple Nuggets) before, but this is my first time for everything else. My previous Anvil didn't yield much, but I could tell from the flower that it was a keeper. I was still figuring out solo cup growing, insufficient drainage led to root issues in veg that kept everything in that batch pretty small. I find both Anvil and Strawberry Nuggets excellent for insomnia (or just getting a good nap in after work), so I'd like to keep those on hand.

I plan on doing some pollen chucking with any Anvil males. Definitely making more Anvil reg seeds, and everything else would probably cross nicely with Anvil too. My frozen Zamaldelica Express pollen from the last batch will go on the GC and WC, possibly the others, and I have a little frozen Anvil pollen from almost two years ago, which proved to still be viable in my last batch.

It's about 15 days from sprout. Anvil #4 and WC have been especially vigorous and are a day or two ahead the others, GC#1 a few days behind. I topped A#4 this morning and expect to top everything except the GCs in a day or two, then those as they're ready.

Anvil #3, first roots to explore the tray outside the container.

Anvil #4, ready to top. I usually top above the fourth node, as long as the plant is working on its fifth between days 14-20.

Pre-top.

Topped.

 

[Meatball]

Another worthwhile grow to follow. Good luck Parsing!

 

[parsing_trees]

Thanks!

 

[Lil Dab]

 

[parsing_trees]

Day 19 from sprout. Everything has been topped now except for Grape Crinkle #2, which was started a week behind the others. In time-lapse, it seems like nothing missed a beat from topping, they just started putting more growth into the other branches. Cool. Everything has some roots leading down into the tray now, and bottom-feeding is working well. Dumping water in each windowbox is so much easier than watering each individually.

The left tray seems full with five broad-leaf plants, but once they start showing sex any males will go -- first to my isolation bin, then the compost. When I grew Anvil before, they didn't show sex until around day 25. I checked all four with a loupe today, A#2 has very early growth starting that could be stamens, but it's too early to tell, and I didn't see anything on the others at all yet. If one of them suddenly gets taller than the others that will be a clue it will probably ID male later, but so far they're pretty even.

 

[parsing_trees]

Day 22.

Big fan leaves everywhere. There's a bit of yellowing creeping in, especially in lower fans that aren't getting light. It looks like some want more nitrogen, some want more magnesium. When I mix nutrients today the higher EC + some epsom salts should smooth things out.

Everything has shown sex except for the Anvils, but #2 and #3 have gotten a bit taller than #1 and #4, so I wouldn't be surprised if those two prove to be male in a couple days. Two males and two females would be ideal.

Everything is topped now, did the second Grape Crinkle today. It's about to lap the first, despite starting a week later than all the others. Whether I keep both will depend on how many of the Anvils are male or female, but I've got a very vigorous Grape Crinkle now. Been wanting to grow that for a while!

The Purple Nuggets is leafy and symmetrical, with a couple upper side growth tips picking up steam after topping. I've been tucking the upper fan leaves under them, hopefully they'll grow past soon and become multiple "main" colas.

 

[parsing_trees]

Day 25.

Two of the four Anvils are finally showing sex -- with a loupe, I found a few stamens forming on A3 (taller, male) and a few stigmas on A4 (shorter, female). I couldn't find anything definitive on A1 or A2 yet, but A2 is taller like A3, so it seems like good odds I'll have two males and two females. I'll move the male(s) to my isolation bin eventually (and then rearrange everything else), but it should be at least a week before they release any pollen.

I posted about the isolation bin in a standalone thread about making seeds.

I think I FIM'd the S.A.D. There was enough new growth on the stump from topping that I pruned it more cleanly.

 

[parsing_trees]

Day 26. Found a stamen forming on A2, with a distinctive filament, so it seems like that one is indeed male. Nothing on A1 yet.

 

[parsing_trees]

Day 29 (yesterday).

A lot has happened since the last post. I noticed mold attacking the stems where they met the top of the coco, probably because I've been watering too much and haven't let the top surface of the coco dry out. (I've had problems with damping-off before, though it's been a while.) Small amounts of mold aren't necessarily a problem -- the coco I'm using is inoculated with some kind of trichoderma, apparently because it out-competes other pathogens? I've also been adding beneficial microbes -- but mold choking the stems is bad news. While checking the plants, GC#2's stem started to break. I caught it, propped it up, then taped it so that it wouldn't twist and damage the remaining stem further.

I checked the others, the two Grape Crinkles are most affected (perhaps because of the airpots), PN, WC, and A1 have minor stem constriction, the others are fine. I added a stake (well, a plastic chopstick) for extra support for the ones that might need it, further support for GC2, and have been watering shallower so that the roots and hydroton can absorb it but not the coco as much. GC2's stem appears to be healing, but it will likely need support for the rest of its life. When I've broken the main stem while adjusting LST ties (oops), the whole plant wilted and died within a few hoursd, but it's been a few days and GC2 has seemed unaffected. I don't currently plan on culling either GC, even thought it will be a bit crowded until the isolation bin is removed.

Everything except GC2 is flowering (GC2 is a week behind), and the flowering stretch has started. A1 hasn't shown sex yet, but I expect it will prove female soon because it's shorter. This is the first time I've had a plant not show stigmas or stamens before its growth structure changed as part of early flowering, but all the Anvils I've grown have shown sex later than usual, so I'm not worried.

As flowering approaches, the node/branching structure changes from two opposite each other (decussate phyllotaxy) to zigzaggy alternating (alternate phyllotaxy), as visible on A4 here. There's a good diagram of this on page 7 of Marijuana Botany. The changing structure can be a clue for when they matured and switched from veg to flowering growth.

The SAD is stretching, vigorous, and looking like it's going to have five or six "main" colas. The perspective is a bit skewed here, it's about 14"/35 cm tall. The others are all around 12-14" / 30-35 cm currently.

I've moved the two male Anvils (A2 and A3) to the isolation bin. I needed to supercrop both to manage height. In a couple days I'll add cupcake cups underneath the forming clusters of pollen sacks, and they will start dropping pollen in a week or so.

There's more space without the males, but the right tray is still pretty crowded.

- Left tray, front to back: A1, SAD, A4
- Right: GC1, GC2, WC, PN

With the trays pushed together and the isolation bin on the side.

Isolation bin, from the side.

 

[parsing_trees]

Day 36 (yesterday).

I think the mold problems are under control now. Between the dry winter air and growing narrow-leaf plants, my last grow had much more margin for error. I decided to cull GC2, though -- it wasn't going to recover, and reducing crowding would improve airflow for everything else. Also, I realized that I had plugged my circulation fan into one of my light timer's outlets, so when the lights turned off and humidity jumped, it also stopped running. Whoops. I'm also having second thoughts about using the autopot aquavalve, in case it tends to keep everything too damp.

Flowering is moving along, all the plants are stretching and have big clusters of stigmas ready to pollinate (except A1, more on that later). The male Anvils are just starting to drop pollen and I haven't collected enough yet, but I have frozen pollen from males in a couple past grows, so I did a pass with some of that. Some is from 2 years ago, I wouldn't have expected it to still be viable, but I still made about a dozen seeds with the oldest in my last grow. After a pass or two with fresh Anvil pollen from A2 & A3, then collecting more to freeze, I will cull them, remove the bin, and give everything more space.

I'm betting The PN will cross particularly well with Anvil, and its big pompoms of stigmas should make a good stash of seeds later. The bagged branch got frozen Anvil pollen, another lower branch will get fresh pollen soon. I see trichomes forming on the sugar leaves, along with the first hints of purpling.

The other female Anvil, A1, is lagging behind. It also had some stem damage from mold, not enough to weaken and break the stem but apparently enough to slow down maturation. It didn't show sex until day 34, whereas the other Anvils did on days 25-26. I'm considering culling it, because I can't delay harvesting everything else too long to let it finish (I dry in the same tent), and the others could use the space. I'm waiting to decide until when I cull the males, but if it starts getting pompoms I may keep it tucked in the corner and mainly grow it for seeds.