MCS Purple Kush - Spring Grow Journal

[Eigholte]

2020-04-27 10 weeks from seed, 4 weeks from 12-12


Got my updates back on schedule!

I think the buds are starting to put on weight this week, which is really nice. The scent on the plants is subtle, but ramping up. It's got this crisp scent that seems lightly lemony, fruity, hints of grass, and a little skunk. It's proving really pleasant for me - which I usually take as a good sign that I'll like the final bud product.

I've opened windows and closed vents, and ambient temperatures are down to ~14c at night with 18-19c with lights on. No purple color showing on the buds just yet, but I am hopeful that the slightly lower temp will bring that out over time.

RH in the tent seems to be in the 40-45% range, which is going well.

No signs of light burn as of yet, either.

The branch that was pollinated has a fair number of red/rusty pistils, which I am taking as a good sign that pollination took for a few seeds. The main colas are still mostly white, only a stray red hair here or there. So for the moment it doesn't appear I accidentally pollinated the whole crop, either!


I have high hopes for this crop. 4-6 weeks to go to harvest!

[Daskahn]

Don’t you just love when things work out for the best.. way to grow

[Eigholte]

2020-04-21 (One day behind) 9 weeks from seed, 3 weeks from 12-12

Plants are trucking on.
Super-cropping was successful, it appears
One branch was lightly pollinated (and the others seem un-pollinated thus far!)

I'm kind of exhausted, so I am a day behind on documenting, and will keep this shorter.

But the ladies are looking happier.

[SoOrbudgal]

May want to bend over rover LOL i'm alittle caffeinated sorry. I have friends that spin raw wool and alpaca fibers, I've seen hemp clothing and jewelry at last summers art/music festivals here around Oregon. So good to see the comeback for uses. Anyway you will need to pull those away bend or super crop hate to see you burn those trichs.

[Daskahn]

Nice journal I look forward to the end

[Eigholte]

2020-04-13 (8th week from seed, 2nd full week of 12-12)

So... Plant A was a rather precocious male! He started bursting balls on Saturday - I had to to a rapid chop and didn't take any good photos. I am hoping I managed to be gentle enough to avoid spreading pollen all over my grow room. But we shall see! (So far the ladies appear un-pollinated. I'll keep an eye out). I kept a few of the ball clusters in a paper bag to dry out and harvest pollen from. That's still in progress for the moment, but looks promising.

I also kept the really nice, sturdy upright stems from that male to try something a little weird with - I am finally going to do some small-scale processing for hemp fibres. My other hobbies are hand-spinning yarn and weaving, and I've actually grown and processed my own flax fibres before. That same process with a few minor deviations may work for hemp.

I probably won't get much, but I might be able to make enough hemp cord to make a little knotted bracelet or something. We shall see what manner of trophies I can make out of this man-plant.

The ladies are stretching like fiends. I hope it's over, I am really running out of room in there. I might have to consider super-cropping or something else drastic like that if they keep stretching.



But the proto-buds are coming!

[SoOrbudgal]

OK let's have a pregnancy party

[Eigholte]

2020-04-06 (7th week from seed, 1st full week of 12-12)


We are off to the races. Sexes are confirmed for all plants: My two feminized seeds are, no surprise, females. My regular seed (Plant A, that majestic beast) is male after all!

So, that is a little sad, a female plant this lush (and this sturdily trained: Best quadline I've made to date!) would probably have produced a near-mountain of glorious bud. But having a male this nice is maybe a good "second best" - the pollen I collect can ensure that not only am I capable of producing my own "Apocalypse bud" seeds, but that the plants from those seeds at least have a solid set of "growth" genetics. No idea what kind of potency is hiding in that male-plant-genome, but that's something that good breeders spend a lot of time and a lot of test-crosses finding out. I have no illusions that I'm anywhere near that level. I just enjoy screwing around, honestly. And it's reassuring to know I may have a bit of a "just-in-case" way to make more seeds in case this stupid pandemic interrupts some of the normal seed-supply routes going forward.

The nice things about this plant are:
- Fast and robust grower
- Nice thick stems
- Light feeder (Has been very lush and happy on ~500ppm nutrients)
- Very nice scent (Fresh green grass, lemon and a hint of skunkiness)
- Pretty short growth pattern with evenly spaced nodes

Seems like a good enough plant to collect pollen from, at least to me.

So here's the man-plant of the house: Mr. Purple Kush


And here are the two ladies. They seem stretchier than my male plant right now - about 4 or 5 inches taller than him.




All of them were lightly defoliated/trimmed on March 31st.
The main goal was to remove any extra stems that were not going to reach the light, and to try and ensure good air/light penetration. Plant A basically just filled right back in again - you can hardly tell I did anything. Plants B and C are stretchier than A with longer inter-node spaces, and you can still see between the branches pretty easily at this point. Given the stretching though, the trim doesn't seem to have slowed down their growth that much.

Tent conditions:
Both have been around 40%RH, with temperatures ranging from about 18c-23c over the course of a "day". I will be looking at trying to cool the space down a little as we approach flowering - which should be easy enough, honestly. This basement room tends to be a pretty cool place unless I am trying to keep it warmer, as I am at present.

Nutrient data:
All plants have consumed together 16L of nutrient solution this week. (And they will certainly need watering tomorrow, kicking off another good week of feeding)
Nutrient solution has been 18c, ~550ppm total, and pH around 6.5 as measured by my chemical kit (I think I need a more precise chemical pH kit, honestly).
Over the past week, I have been adding a small bit of a PK booster to the solution, as well. That seems to be around 20-30 of the total ppm, as a rough approximation.

[Eigholte]

2020-03-30 (end of the 6th week and start of 12-12)


The most notable change for this week was the addition of a little bit of a PK booster to the original formula. Rough ppm for nutrients is about 500-520ppm and the plants seem to be using about 13L a week or so. Foliage seems to be maintaining a healthy green, so that strength seems to be about right for now. I guess this strain may not be a super heavy feeder.

All of them are starting to look a little larger. Or maybe just taller? Is it time to stretch already?

Plant B, the spotted one, has continued to grow, albeit slower. No sign of whatever is happening with that plant spreading yet, so I've left it be. Also that one bag seed I tried soaking failed to grow, so it's not like I have time to replace that plant anyhow. This will be a bit of a science experiment to see what impact, if any, that mottled condition has on the yield I suppose.

Can't wait to see how the bloom shapes up! I am rather fond of the scent on these ones (which has been subtle so far!)


Plant A:


Plant B and C:

[Eigholte]

2020-03-23 (End of the 5th week)

So, the grow is progressing - the marked plant is definitely much slower growing than the other two. And plant A is a bit of a rock-star, honestly.

I plan to switch to 12-12 on the 30th of March, I believe. That will be 6 weeks of growth, and should be enough to promote a good harvest without ending up with over-sized plants.


B and C:



A, the rock-star:


Water Stats:
Used 13L in total, with average stats of:
~19c, ~500ppm, ~6.5pH (measured with my chemical tests)

Tent Stats:
A: 19-25c, 45% RH
B: 18-22c, 35% RH

[SoOrbudgal]

Interesting Eigholte I did not do anything to the one that showed TMV nothing helps I don't think. And it was just on one side of the plant? And it did not spread to the others but they are pretty far apart? And I think it was a gorilla bomb from bomb seeds? We grew it out and did just fine, weather was the only issue last year.

[Eigholte]

The plant is showing pretty much all of the symptoms described on the Grow Weed Easy Tobbaco Mosaic Virus page. (Edit: https://www.growweedeasy.com/cannabi...saic-virus-tmv) It is pretty dang suspicious. No sign of it spreading just yet, but I am wondering if I should axe that plant as a preventative measure.

On a complete aside, last night I found three seeds in the Commercial Pseudo-Purple-Kush I mentioned above, so a part of me wants to see if I can replace the diseased plant with one of those and do a head-to-head comparison of homegrown strains. That might give me an idea if it's worth my time to sprout the other two 'bagseeds' as well.

[SoOrbudgal]

I saw that In my last summer outdoor grow folks were saying TMV but i'm not sure that's what it is? Grew that way the whole time leaf never changed much it grew OK till I had to hack it early.

[Eigholte]

2020-03-16


The grow is continuing along well. I am a little curious about plant "B" - the new seed I germinated is showing some really unusual growth traits. It should be a feminized Purple Kush, hypothetically from the same 'batch' as plant C (which is doing well), but is growing somewhat differently. The leaves are developing mottling and when they form they tend to have a twisted aspect to them. I thought that plant was just unhappy possibly due to less excellent drainage in that given solo cup, but since it's continued on new growth post-transplant I am wondering if something more is at play. Both B and C have been on the same nutrients, in the same tent, in the same coir blend, with the same exposure to any possible pests (and B has been thoroughly inspected - no sign of bugs that I can tell). And yet they look quite different to my eye:

B left, C right. Strange, right? I am thinking I might go make a "what is this" post later, just to get a few more opinions.



For all that, they seem to be growing - though C is doing so faster than B, but that's been true the whole time. (Again, B left, C right)


But plant A? It's been amazing. It's growing like a weed, deep green and leafy and is my best trained quad-line to date. Also, really pretty. I thought it was a male, but I may not be so sure myself anymore. It has it's own tent now, in case is does throw balls on me (I want to collect the pollen, not disperse it!).



I don't have my watering stats to hand, but they're down in my hard-copy book. Tent conditions for Plant A have been pretty close to optimal. Plants B and C have been dealing with RH 40%-80%, I've been adding more ventilation when it creeps to ~70% to drop it back down, but I do have one challenge in that they are in with a Lion's Mane mushroom kit, so I am trying to keep the ambient RH around 50% - that's been tough.

Still, looking like a decent grow so far!

[SoOrbudgal]

Dang those are just so healthy your doing so good there. Plant A i'm not guessing for me it's too soon. But they sure love your care.