New Grower Mephisto, Megacrop in soil and autopots (Skywalker, 3BOG, Sour Stomper, and 2 Illuminautos)

[WildBill]

terp182
Rockin' da House!!!!
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[terp182]

Here is some Sour Stomper at Day 76. She is getting close - throwing all sorts of purple and yellow colors in her fan leaves as she fades. Trichromes still are plenty clear enough to wait a day or two. I’m not going to mess with the dark period with her - but I am letting her autopot dry out here and there to try and stress her a little and provoke a response. Other than that, it looks like she’ll come down Thursday or Friday and go mostly straight into the freezer.

The large and small Sweet n Smellys still aren’t ready - I definitely got the longer running pheno in the big one. The 50 Shades of Grape it’s potted with is also fading but the big girl still has fat white pistils and is still stacking. She’s still yellow as hell but continues to grow and smell nice so aside from adding nute concentration (we’re at 625 now) I’m not going to mess with her. This may get interesting, since I just wet through a couple more pots for some Creme de la Chems I just put into water, and she’s got at least a week left.

For anyone thinking about running Sweet n Smelly though, run it with your sativas and long bloomers.

Super excited to pull down the Sour Stomper though! Looking at her trichromes, she looks almost ideal for Fresh Frozen ice wax. And the smell just continues to get stronger each day.

 

[WildBill]

Stomper is a pretty frosty girl! Yours is 18 days older. Mine might go that long. I'm keeping my vpd going strong,
I can see you taking her right to the freezer! That would be a lot of quality hash!

 

[terp182]

Thanks Bill!

I’m taking her down tomorrow. Maybe tonight. Here are some more close up pics. There aren’t many ambers, but so many big cloudy heads! Am I making a mistake taking her down tonight? Any insight is appreciated!

 

[terp182]

After taking down the Sour Stomper and trimming up the dried and now curing Skywalker and 3 Bears OG's, here's some quick math on yields, which are a little higher than I'd expected. I assumed 75% weight reduction from the Whole Plant Fresh Frozen (WP) material, which is how I "converted" the frozen weight to dry/cured weight. I'm hoping for 4% return to rosin from the WP, so I should get back about an right around Oz of live rosin each from the Skywalker OG and Sour Stomper in a couple weeks.

Skywalker OG
Total Return (dry cured equivalent weight) 218g/7.9 oz
= 632g WP (158g dry equivalent) + 60g dried/trimmed

Sour Stomper
Total Return (dry cured equivalent weight) 203.5g/7.25 oz
= 814g WP + 0 dried/trimmed (I just froze it all - kept the zero dried/trimmed to show that)

3 Bears OG
Total Return - 195g dried & cured weight/7 oz
(I dried and cured the whole plant - none frozen)

Overall, an outstanding return so far! I think I have ~8 oz dried/cured (all that's left will be dried) to still pull from the remaining plants, those being the solo cup Sweet n Smelly, the small 50 Shades of Grape, and the larger Sweet n Smelly. Not bad for about 77 days!

 

[terp182]

And then there was one. Day 86.

The bonsai Sweet n Smelly came down yesterday, all buds, all over. A chonk monster that was ripe and top heavy. Can’t wait to start another one.

The 50 Shades of Grape came to an inglorious end today. I hadn’t really noticed significant growth on it in a week, and she never got a good foothold against the Sweet n Smelly she was multipotted with. But I’m whole-plant drying her, so there’s a chance to try that technique, at least. She smells interesting and I’m guessing I’ll get a couple ounces off her. I’m looking forward to trying the strain again on its own down the line.

The large Sweet n Smelly soldiers on, on Day 86. I think I mentioned that I’ve started a couple CDLC’s in the same tent, domed for now. But once those domes have to come off, this is getting yanked. She’s still putting on weight and responded well to Recharge last night. All of the b buds are super frosty and verdant today, despite the yellow and dried top fan leaves.

Incidentally, I’m pretty sure this yellowing is an artifact of top watering with Recharge just before flower, which likely brought some salts down into the soil and is locking out something or other. While she’s not going to win any beauty contests, she’ll weigh out and she smells super interesting, so no complaints! She should come down by this time next week at the latest.

Thanks for following along. I’ll make a couple more follow up posts with final yields, lessons learned (there were many) and reports on the live rosin from the Sour Stomper and Skywalker. Have a great weekend everybody.

 

[terp182]

Here are the final returns after harvesting the large Sweet n Smelly yesterday, in dry flower weight equivalent weights.

Skywalker - 7.8 oz
3 Bears OG - 6.75 oz
Sour Stomper - 7.25 oz
Sweet n Smelly (bonsai and large plants) - 6.25 oz
50 Shades of Grape - 1.36 oz
Total - 29.4 oz

This second crop blew away my expectations, having ended my first grow with a 7 oz return between 3 plants. My intent with this grow was to learn from the first and focus on plant health, which I did. Zero flushes this run, compared to 3 separate flushes the first run. While the grow wasn't perfect, it was a huge improvement. Lessons learned are below.

Lessons Learned:
1. Don't ever top water once the Megacrop and autopots are turned on. I believe this is what lead to the large Sweet n Smelly and 50 Shades of Grape to get so stressed - some indeterminate lockout caused by salts getting half-washed into the bottom of the pot. I top watered with Recharge around day 30 or so. While the other plants handled this misstep fine, the one pot with the Sns/50SOG showed yellowing top leaves for the remainder of the grow.
2. Once lights and feed/water are optimized, VPD is the next most important variable. VPD focus will remain my primary consideration in future autopot grows. Super important if all the other variables are lined up. The humidifier and dehumidifier purchases are well worth it for autopot systems.
3. RH management in late veg and early bloom was an issue, and defoliating for light/air movement/RH didn't seem to have a huge negative impact on the production.
4. 4 autopots in a 4x4 can be PLENTY! This may be the best possible soil-based method to maximize returns for medical patients.
5. I will always from this point on be tending a canna-bonsai. I'm shocked how much I enjoyed taking care of that little plant.

Thanks for reading along and giving me pointers and feedback when needed! I believe now is where I tag @420Forever to get a Cultivator's badge. I'll be skipping the journal for my 2-plant CDLC grow that I'm 2 weeks into at the moment, but back for the next 4 plant journal in June. Cheers!

 

[YoungGrassh0pper]

Great work Terp! Will be on the lookout for your future journals! :smoking:

 

[WildBill]

Great results, ya learned some key points
and ya have some canna
to smoke!!
That's quite the

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