Mephisto Genetics Samsquanch x FS in 10 gal SWP

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Day 58:

Doing well overall, but I am having issues getting the optimal nutrients dialed in. The grow dots have too much N going into flowering and I think caused the plant to grow too many leaves. This could be somewhat strain influenced, but I usually keep my N levels pretty low compared to a lot of nutrient schedules, and I generally get a lot less leaf than I have on this plant. I also think I could be pushing the P & K a bit more if I didn’t have the unknown factor of the nutrient contribution from the grow dots.

I am getting just a little bit of leaf cupping on the upper part of the canopy, mostly the brighter part right under the light. I have seen this happen with other strains mid flower and have usually been able to resolve it by raising the light a bit and increasing airflow. I am pretty sure it’s just light stress, the PPFD is quite a bit higher right under the light, so I think this is the cause, but if anyone has any other suggestions?

 

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Day 72:

Coming along quite nicely. The flowers seem to mostly be done stacking and are now starting to get nice and fat. Resin production seems to have really ramped up in the last week, the smell is loud and the trichs are really plumping up.

I dropped the canna A/B and PK completely, just using calmag, cannazyme, boost, Rhizo and some molasses every few waterings. She is starting to get a little fade and might be done a little sooner than I originally thought, maybe by day 85ish.

For the last year or so I have been experimenting with light spectrum, to the limited extent my Sun System CMH will allow. I start the cycle with the 4200k bulb. When budlets form I switch to the 3000k bulb. When most of the flower formation is complete, 2-3 weeks before harvest, I swap back to the 4200k bulb. It’s generally accepted to give plants more blue light during veg, but I don’t see much talk about shifting back towards blue at the end of the cycle. This is naturally what happens to plants outside as the angle of the sun becomes greater and the light passes through more atmosphere reducing the intensity and also filtering out more of the red light. This reduction in DLI and the shift towards a bluer light spectrum help to signal to the plant that the season is coming to an end. I have also noticed that if I continue to give the plant the same DLI into late flowering that it causes foxtails in most strains. Starting with the stretch and through to late flower I keep the DLI at between 60-70. As soon as the flower stacking slows down I swap back to the 4200k bulb and start backing off the DLI to about 35 for the last couple of weeks. Since I have been doing this I believe I have been getting better terpenoid development than when I finished them under the 3000k bulb. This cycle I will be using a Growers Choice 10000k CMH finishing bulb for the first time, it produces the most intense blue light I have ever seen. No idea if they really work, but the bulb was not that expensive, and I have wanted to try one for a while. I will only use it for the last 2-3 days.

 

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Really putting on the fade now, lots of nice purple and yellow coming in. Yesterday (day 79) I strategically cut 4 smaller satellite branches from the most crowded part of the canopy to get some better light penetration to some lower branches that have nice flowers, but just weren’t getting enough direct light to ripen at a reasonable rate. I was also excited to sample a few flowers, so that works out. The trichomes are mostly cloudy with 20-30% still clear and just a few, maybe 5%, starting to go amber.

I switched to the 10000k Growers Choice CMH today. I will give her till at least day 85, but could go a bit longer depending on how ripening goes. I want to make sure she gets at least 5 days under this new bulb so I can get a sense if it’s doing much or not.

 

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Harvest - morning of day 88

I flipped the lights off last night at around 1:00 AM so the light wouldn’t kick back on this morning from the timer, and she would get a slightly longer dark period before chop.

I did one last trichome check just before chop, there is still not much amber only 5-10% at the most, with more amber on the sugar leaves than calyx. In the past I would wait for a bit more amber, but the small branches I cut a week ago are already starting to smoke really nice, and she is definitely riper and stronger smelling today than a week ago. I think it should be a nice balanced high. I find as I have gotten a little older I prefer a bit less of a couch lock buzz, but getting it dialed in is always a little different with each plant.

I think the camera never quite does a plant justice at this stage, and my poorly lit basement is not helping, but she is a very pretty plant. The branches filled in well and the stretch was pretty minimal, bud structure is good, but not too dense. The flowers are very frosty top to bottom and she smells wonderful. I usually continue with light feeding all the way to harvest, but the grow dots seemed to be supplying plenty of NPK so I have just been using calmag, cannazym and boost for the last few weeks. She got a lot of nice purple and yellow fade, but stayed healthy right up to harvest.

Without a side by side comparison it’s hard to say if the 10000k light made a huge difference. The last week I had it running she definitely had significant terpene and resin production, but hard to say if it’s any better than with the 4200k bulb. I am pretty sure that it did no harm (and possibly a small amount of good?), so I will likely continue to use it the last week of flowering for continued observations.

I don’t think I will hit my goal of a 1 lb plant, but I bet it’s pretty close probably in the 13-14 oz range.

 

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Dried the plant whole for the first 4 days at 45-50% rh. I got her trimmed before anything got crispy, but after the flowers lost the majority of their water weight. Then onto the drying rack for a couple of days before the tubs to sweat it down to 62% rh.
It took about 5 days to get it down to 62% then I added a Boveda 62 pack.

Been curing for going on 2 weeks and it’s shaping up to be a lovely smoke. I haven’t grown either of the parents, but based on description from Mephisto I think this plant favors the Forum Stomper side of her heritage more. It definitely smells a little bit like a chocolate mint cookie. It smokes nice, tastes good, and has a good buzz that is strong but not too much couch lock.

I didn’t quite hit my goal of a 1 lb plant but I came very close at 15.4 oz, definitely the largest single plant I have ever grown indoors (photo or auto). Good even quality buds top to bottom for the most part as well, very little larf. Bud structure is nice, not too loose or dense. Overall a nice plant, I would grow it again.