A Newbie's Comedy of Errors

[LurkingInTheGrass]

ya, that plant was hoser, pass me a beer, eh

[Eigholte]

'e told that male Passion plant to take off, eh?

[LurkingInTheGrass]

Cooo, loo, coo, coo, coo, coo, coo, coooo!

[Eigholte]

Congrats. It looks like you have three very happy, healthy looking plants on your first grow! Best of luck to you as you guide your plants towards harvest!


- Another Newbie in the Great White North

[9fingerleafs]

Looking good and healthy

[aintdedyet]

pretty cool … within 48 hours the cola sharing the same stem as stumpy showed significantly greater growth than the other remaining 6. Maybe she'll make up for the loss after all. Amazing the punishment these ladies can take. Also a pic of Afghan's pistils, and one of the ladies overall … 10 days into flower after a 57 day veg.

[aintdedyet]

thanks all … bulk of the deceased now rotting in local municipal compost facility … carcass pinned to garage wall, w/o sacs.
too bad it takes so long to tell. On a positive note, Afghan's a lady! Cost recovery may still be possible for this 1st grow. Fingers crossed. Idk about tarantulas … not common around these parts.. Don't know what Ohgr is either.

[LurkingInTheGrass]

poor stumpy, but, she could turn into a beast.

the root system she developed, to support all those colas, and now it supports one less

😁😁😁

[9fingerleafs]

Hey there. Loved the detailed description, if the plant is not showing preflowers durin late veg there is no real way to determine sex before flowering except for sex dna testing and it’s expensive. Your second set of questions about how the plant grows is almost completely genetic, so the strain mostly and then the pheno expressions that gonna make each plant unique within its genetic possibilities

[alltatup]

Putting plants in the dark for 24-26 hours before switching to 12/12 may speed up the transition slightly, but you still gotta go through pre-flower. Sometimes you can tell a male plant cuz they're lankier than female plants (this is true for tarantulas as well), but I always wait to see pollen sacs, and since I'm diligent in keeping my eyes on the plants, I wait for proof. You got the proof.

And yes, what furley says: Get rid of any trace of the male. You don't want even one bit of pollen to hang around, stick to your clothes, find its way back into the grow room and wreak havoc.

[Mr.furley]

And even though it's dead that plant can still pollinate your girls, get it away from your grow room.

[Mr.furley]

Yes that's a male.
It is a biological thing. I find that a male is most likely the last one to the party.
You can instigate preflower by putting your plants in the dark for 24 hours, or so I've heard. Some other voodoo tricks out there are crossed stipules = females.
Keep a good eye on your other plants.

[aintdedyet]

A belated Happy New Year to y'all! Thanks to everyone for their support so far, and to alltatup for the sage advice and link.

Been an interesting last few days. Day 8 of flower after 57 day veg., a few trials and tribulations, a new faux pas, and an old one come back to haunt me.
All the ladies (and gents?) were humming along nicely, and the most recent runoff pH has climbed to 5.3 after sitting at 5.0 for what I thought was too long, but I did nothing about. However, things are starting to get a little tight in the tent, and while trying to work my way around the pails, I snapped a cola on Jack 1 beyond repair … doh! Recall I had already snapped her right at the main trunk early on in manifolding. She seemed to recover, although hard to say whether or not her growth was slowed a bit given the 3 toppings she got. Be cool if the remaining (lucky) 7 cola made up for my blunder by increasing yield 1/8th each . For now Jack 1 has earned the nickname "Stumpy" …

Not my biggest problem. Been patiently waiting for the plants to show their sex … yeah, you know where this is goin'.
Wasn't worried about Jacks 1 & 3 … bought them as feminized seed, and saw pistils a few days ago. Can't tell with the Afghan yet (what a Newb eh?), but 2 nights ago I saw what I had been dreading for quite some time … Passion turned out be a male! Didn't really need by microscope, a loupe, or my phone to see the little buggers … little sacs visible to the naked eye as something not quite right … bummer! So my newbie mistake of using an inherited mystery seed comes back to haunt me …

So a couple of newbie questions. Why did it take so long for me to conclude definitively that I had a male? Any other signs I could have looked for? Pretty much used the info on this site to make the determination, can't help but think there's a better way to tell earlier than 60+ days.

Passion survived a comparatively massive defoliation with the first topping, and I manifolded him into 16 colas in a futile effort to slow his growth, to allow the others to catch up. Another newbie question: is this behavior strain related, plant specific, or perhaps gender related?

So what to do with Passion? Immediate removal from the tent was a no-brainer, but what then? I thought about misting him and setting him out on the deck, where the wind chill made it felt like a wee bit nipply -22C (-7F). But then I thought about all he had given me, his inner strength and resilience, the cute little way his colas liked to try and hide, the hours I had spent looking for those damn sacs! So I decided to move him into the garage, where he spent his last day at a rather chilly -5C (23F). Please DO NOT LOOK AT PIC 4 if you have a weak constitution or are member of a cannabis plant rights group. I'm sorry … it's what we do to stowaways here in the Great White North!

Anyhooo … he got a fitting send off … I took the skeleton as a trophy and pinned it to the wall … as a reminder of the dangers of mystery seed, and not a bad 1st try at manifolding. Interesting the way the outer cola seem consistently larger than the inner, despite the intent to uniformly distribute the nutrient flow. Could it be light related? Any thoughts?

Always look on the bright side right? Space concerns have been eliminated from the tent, runoff pH is on the rise, and visible confirmation that flowering has begun. The 3 remaining ladies (gentleman? …. sure hope not!!) have survived their period of mourning and appear to be doing well …

And now the ultimate newbie question … it was a male I froze to death …. right?

[RagWeedDWC]

"older hippie-type folks" Well most anyway :-)

[alltatup]

Lo lo lo lo lo la,

It's a mixed-up, muddled-up, shook-up world
Except for Lola, lo lo lo lo Lola

And they ain't frustrated: they get busy making amazing buds, glistening with trichomes. No frustration there.