Project Murcott

[UndergroundFarmer]

Week 5 of veg brought another hard cleaning for the RDWC. I removed way more crap from the system than I thought could have still been in there on Sunday. Daily peroxide treatments are about to give way to GSE because the bottle has been found. It may be too late for the one at front left - it's on the fence right now and I can't tell if it will make it or not. If you're reading this, never attempt to grow Tangie in hydro. I don't think it cares for it. Good thing those Purple Haze clones produced so well! Meanwhile, the one Tangie in coco is nearly ready to flip to 12/12. That one is also looking like a female and I'm sore tempted to move it into the flower tent with the autos. Ditto for the Kosher Kush.

[UndergroundFarmer]

Yesterday, I dosed with grapefruit seed extract and no peroxide. The crap exploded overnight! This becomes a coco grow ASAP.

[UndergroundFarmer]

I have moved all Tangies to coco this afternoon. Five of six are expected to survive. They are all sitting on top of the RDWC system bucket lids until I can disassemble it because I'm tired. The system is drained and the water and air pumps are unplugged and the tent is far quieter. I expect them to bounce back nicely considering how tough they've been to survive all of this for so long.

[Ckbrew]

Reading through this, it all started with dirty hydroton balls. From an outside perspective, would it not be easier to just get new hydroton each time and not deal with cleaning it to re-use? After spending the better part of a day mixing two 5Kg bricks of compressed coco into something I could use to grow in, I concluded it was to much work for the result, and took all day. After doing this I realized my time was worth the extra $ that prepared coco would cost. Just saying...

[UndergroundFarmer]

Hydroton is supposed to be almost endlessly reusable and cheap to do so. I inherited that mess of it from another grower who used it for years before I got it. It's also more work gathering the old stuff, hauling it to the dumpster and hauling another bag of it home, which I'd still have to rinse and sanitize before use.

I've done new coco both ways and it is much easier buying a bag of loose coco like I did last time.

[UndergroundFarmer]

Week 6 of veg and somehow all eight plants are still alive. I have four autos close to finishing next door and I'm thinking I should put the biggerest Tangie and the Kosher Kush plus a Blueberry in there with them to flower out. I could still try the Kosher Tangie cross later if I save Tangie Pollen.

Tangie. as I learned after handling the big one today, smells incredible even this early on and that they must be stupidly easy to clone. All the hydro Tangies had to keep rerooting themselves to survive the rot. Even more amazing is seeing one come free of the rooter cube and still reroot once buried in coco. This morning is the first time I've noticed its leaves praying in days.

[UndergroundFarmer]

Friday update: one of the stressed Tangies moved from hydro is making triplet nodes now.



Everybody in this project survived the move and I still can't believe it. I will absolutely move the bigger plants from this project next door to flower out this weekend as well as some doing some much-needed transplanting in Project Deuxberry.

[UndergroundFarmer]

Week friggin' seven of veg and the tent looks very different:

The three at left are from top: Lavender, GSC, PPD. PPD has topped itself young and I will stake it out and tie it by next weekend. The rest in the handled pots are the six Tangies that survived the hydro mess. The big ones that were in coco from the beginning are now in the 4x4 flower tent to finish because they are just too damned big for this project now.

At center is the Tangie I nearly threw out:

It is finally sprouting fresh leaves!

Here is a better look at the PPD that already topped itself:


I've started mixing in worm castings with my coco/perlite mix going forward. I'm adding castings as a top dressing to all the plants already in their 3 gallon pots, including the two that I've moved on to flower out. I've got four autos in there now that have anywhere from two to four weeks left. The non-Tangies will remain here just until they are ready to flip to flower. Stability at last feels nice.

[UndergroundFarmer]

Week 8 of veg finds them all looking great. Their "boarders" will likely have to leave in another 2-3 weeks, maybe less. They all got a top dressing of mycorrhizae this weekend for a little boost along with their feeding. They all continue to impress with their rebound from root rot. All but the smallest have been topped and 'popped now. This whole experience seems to have landed me in a much better place in regards to growing technique. Not only that, but ordinary days in the garden are way easier. I only need the pH pen two or three times a week now. I don't have deficiencies or nute burn. Better yet, I'm closer to my original goal of growing as organically as possible. I'll be more sure about this change once I have bud in jars, I guess.

I split my first stem staking out the self-topped PPD a bit early. I probably should have used a cannabender or two first! Live and learn - at least it healed overnight.



Left column is from top: Lavender, GSC and PPD. The rest are Crockett's Tangie.

I also cut down my first auto! Pink Kush CBD was starting to throw up nanners, so it got the axe. It is unapologetically purple and peppery-smelling.



She's drying in the seedling nursery - back in the tent where she began. More autos will be cut down in the next few weeks and I will need that space in the new 4x4 for Lavender, GSC & PPD to flower out. Got fingers crossed that the Tangie just finishing its flowering stretch in there is indeed a female. If not, that could get complicated.

[SoOrbudgal]

Best of luck with Tangie may she be crossed legged

[UndergroundFarmer]

Thanks! I'll post a picture of one of the tops taken today below this.

[UndergroundFarmer]

This is my Tangie I pulled from Murcott. I think I got lucky here!

[UndergroundFarmer]

At week 9 of veg, I for once took before and after pics on a defoliation day.

Before:


After:


I even topped the one at center that I thought was dead at one point. I also got the rare privilege of defoliating a triple-noded plant. Thank Jah the nodes go back to pairs on the branches away from the main stem.

[UndergroundFarmer]

Tenth week of veg may just be the last! I only had to water during the week and this is feeling too easy. Today was the big work day of the week and I put my Cannabenders back to work too. Lavender and a few of the Tangies are sporting them. They're the orange curved plastic bits. You tie your stem to them and they gently bend the stem at a roughly 90 degree angle which would be great for manifolding or fluxing. I got some very nice yields from my Purple Haze clones last time I used them.

Here's the view after much LST and a bit more defoliation. I was too late getting back to my manifolding game with these guys, so I'm generally topping and cleaning up the lower canopy to leave four, six or eight stems radiating from the center then bending and tying down to even out their heights a bit. At front right is the tri-noded freak. I left only the top two nodes on so there are six cola sites on her(?). No sign of boy parts on the Tangies but it is early.

They all got a top dressing of worm castings along with their regular liquid nutes today. I'm doing the top dressing every three weeks and the regular feed once a week and just watering every other day.

Here's a before and after of Lavender:


GSC here. I'm trying for eight colas. I should have taken a before because she was way bushier before.


Here's the PPD that topped itself:


I gave the Tangie trimmings to my wife for tea. The orange smell is intense even in the fans.

[UndergroundFarmer]

It is finally week 1 of flower in Murcott! They all got their last feed of veg nutes and another big defoliation. I won't miss having to take all those fans off once they get fully into flower. I swear defoliation was a solid hour of work this morning! I did shuffle a few of these Tangies so the tallest ones are at the back. The one that regrew from a tap root is front and center now. I snapped a branch on PPD last week and was barely able to save it but the tape worked and I could remove it today. PPD is left front, GSC behind her and Lavender in the left rear. Those three all move to the new 4x4 tent once my NL auto can be cut down. Any guesses on how many males I get out of six Tangies? I've gotten about a 3:1 female to male ratio since I started growing regs for seed. If I get that here, I'll believe my theory that it's the light panels causing it. First round was 5:2 in Project Psychonaut and 4:1 in Project Sam, now 4:1 in Project Deuxberry for a total of 13:4. There are seven Tangies in this grow including the one confirmed female moved to the new tent.

[UndergroundFarmer]

Week 2 of flower starts after a weekend power outage forced me to put every one of these plants outside in the sun for a day. I spent a good part of today's feeding inspecting and shaking them in front of a fan to get the hitchhikers off my girls. And boys - at least two if them! In the group shot, the boys are at left. One more may be a male too with one confirmed female and two others I expect to be girls. Two is plenty, thanks. I've noticed that Tangie stigmas are noticeably shorter than most and they are definitely the fuzziest ones I've even seen on a bud! The smell from the one I pulled from this project smells good enough to justify its existence just with that. The Tangies now have the place to themselves again as the boarders are now in the 4x4 flower tent.


Their boarders may be coming back in a few weeks once the males are gone because the flower tent will be crowded until early September. All the Cannabenders did their jobs and I took them off because the twisty wire was beginning to cut into the stems.

[UndergroundFarmer]

Week 3 of flower is starting off well enough.


As of today, the Tangie tent is radioactive. I found the first open male flower today! It is officially two males to four females (five females when you include the one pulled from this project). This cannot be a coincidence.

I've got mutants, too! Look for the small extra leaf growing from the petioles of two of my plants - one male and one female.

So Tangie has all kinds of quirks to discover. First the super fuzzy stigmas and now the mutations. Oh yes, and it hates hydro.

[UndergroundFarmer]

In week 4, the boys are out.

Before:


After:


As I type, I'm miserable from all the pollen I ate while dealing with 'em. I took all of the Tangies out of the tent. Then I washed down the walls and floor of the tent to make it less radioactive. I gave the girls a last dusting from their mates and starting into saving some of their dust. The fans all came off for tea makings. I started cutting off stems then realized the whole thing was so much faster just shucking all the male flowers off into a dish and being done with it. I did manage to save pollen from both phenos (the taller one was more sativa-dominant) and even used a bit on my GSC so I'll have some Tropicanna Cookies F1 seeds to try out later. I composted all the rest of them and even took all the compostables out from last week that I forgot about.

They may get a roommate soon. My Super Lemon Haze is just getting too big. Here she is at front left in the nursery tent: