A Slightly Seedy Summer Sativa Grow

[UndergroundFarmer]

Coconut Grove is finally in flower mode! The flower tent now has its scrog net! Tangie is getiing frosty and MF got a haircut.

Coconut Grove:


Flower Tent:


3x3:


Tangie bud:


Mother's Finest after a trim:


I left a few big fans on the smallest one so it wouldn't be too naked. I added cannabenders to the larger ones' top branches to keep that bend I put in them.

[3Berries]

I like the clover. Have you gone full cycle with some as a soil cover?

[UndergroundFarmer]

All of these pots in the nursery have had their soil used, reamended and put back in action. The clover was the only part of the 12 seed cover crop I cared for! The clover on the edges survived in a few of these pots. It's supposed to be a good nitrogen fixer so it isn't much competition for the weed. The other three pots don't have any cover crop grown up yet (just mulched fan leaves for the worms to eat) but I've noticed a few seedlings coming up that resemble lettuce and pepper plants!

[UndergroundFarmer]

FULL FLOWER MODE!

All tents are on 12/12 now. The Mother's Finest was getting too tall so I moved them to flower at the same time as the flower tent. I've had to start watering twice a day in the 4x4s. I reamended on Sunday and noticed that the top of the soil had dried out too much. Those mulch covers are porous and don't help much keeping moisture in. I won't be using them next time - clover did a better job! Tangie is getting frosty fast and stinky too. I'm seeing two different phenos - one with compact buds like Orange Cookies x Nicole and another with chunkier buds and longer internodes. I also dialed up the humidity in the 4x4s after noticing signs of underwatering at the growth tips. Here's the pix:

Coconut Grove:


Flower Tent:


Tangie:


Mother's Finest:

These guys look a lot more like the stuff in the Build-A-Soil videos. The system works when the bugs stay away.

Happy extended weekend to those in the states!

[UndergroundFarmer]

Flowers are forming! Some are the wrong kind! No biggie, I've dealt with that enough by now. I've use the long weekend to give attention to rewetting the dried-out places in the pickers. I exhausted the mite spray then refilled with plain water and gave them a good top watering. Here's the pix:

Coconut Grove:

I'm still trying to keep the foliage thinned. It is a chore in here.

Flower tent:

This was take 1. You can see the gnarley barley added to the TXBB at right.

This is the TXBB on the left:

At least it wasn't both of them.

Here's take 2 of the Flower tent:

The whole plant was cut up and worked into the soil for worm food. I added clover seed and top-watered to help with germination. These mulch covers are only good for keeping weeds from growing, not for keeping moisture in and that is a problem.

Tangie:


Here's the differences in the two phenos:

Tangie on the left - compact stacked buds and the extra petiole leaf/bud mutation only seems to be on this plant.


On the right the Tangie buds are chunky.

Mother's Finest:

Flowers are just forming in here. Back left is likely a male. Back right is probably a female. If it is, I will remove it to the 3x3 to finish up along the Tangies for some seedless bud. The front two might both be female but it's way too soon to guess. The orange bits on the bigger MFs are Cannabenders. I should probably use them more often and with a bit more thought beforehand.

[Mr.furley]

Nice looking plants UndergroundFarmer both male and female. People are so quick to kill males that we hardly ever see them grow beyond a fuzzy picture so... hats off friend.

Sorry to see that you've been battling Russet mites the last couple grows, Iv been following and if I could have I would have drop this on you earlier.

https://organishield.com/

First one and done organic Iv seen work.

[UndergroundFarmer]

Thanks for the tip. I will check it out. I've been using up a bottle of Lost Coast Plant Therapy in the battle and still have about half of it left. It seems that very frequent sprayings with a solution of it and isopropyl alcohol finished them off after the neem oil ran out. LCPT isn't cheap and neither are any of the other effective mite sprays! Funny thing, I seem to be getting males everywhere in this grow except where I want one.

[UndergroundFarmer]

MIDWEEK UPDATE: Heavy watering has fixed most of the issues in the 4x4 tents. I'm still seeing some dried new growth so I changed the settings on the Niwas to allow higher humidity and a lower VPD while the lights are on. I'm seeing no signs of any for-sure male plants anywhere in the grow room right now. I may not have one in the Mother's Finest after having to mulch three males from the other tents. But - stretching continues unabated in Coconut Grove. There will be so much Acapulco Gold in another month or so! The Tangies are continuing to build bud at an incredible rate and stink up their space with a funk that punches you in the gut and screams "ORANGE!" in your face.

[UndergroundFarmer]

Everything is blooming! Some are still a little slow because of bug trauma but I should still see a decent harvest. I finally have confirmed a male in the Mother's Finest and I also sequestered a female in the Tangie tent (the biggest MF) for some sinsemilla. I've started top watering through the mulch covers, just letting it soak through to the surface to try and fight drying out.

Coconut Grove:

Acapulco Gold and Sweet Amnesia Haze are taking over up front. Lavender and Liberty Haze in the back are doing their best.

Flower Tent:

I've got sprouts in the empty picker. Super Lemon Haze seems like it is still trying to bust out of a funk. Durban and TXBB are cruising.

3x3:

Last pic of the Tangies before company arrived.

Tangie porn:

Two definitely different phenos. Both stink up the place.

Mother's Finest:

It was getting crowded with five pots and four plants.

Next chance I get with the lights on I will try to get a shot of the male flowers. This one turned out female:


I ordered some goodies from BaS during their Black Friday sale. It's the first time I've spent money for supplies in about six months. If you've got a worm bin, this way of growing is stupidly cheap.

[UndergroundFarmer]

Yes indeed, one boy and three girls! Mother's Finest delivered. Photo was taken under green light. I like the atmospheric look. Trichomes show out big time under that light but I've never been able to capture that effect on digital film.

[Mr.furley]

Sweet flower picture, so misunderstood.

[Blowdout2269]

Agreed.

[UndergroundFarmer]

Thanks. More budshots to come very soon.

[Franklin]

Looks so great. I did a hard shift to all organics in my current grit and it did not go well but I'm committed to living soil now. Probably shouldn't have shifted two weeks into flower! Have a couple of worm buckets, made my first aerated worm tea the other day, been sprouting barley and corn for enzyme tea, the whole deal. To build a soil videos are so helpful. I hope that my next grow looks more like yours.

[UndergroundFarmer]

Living soil seems to do best in peat-based media but I have mixed in a fair amount of coco to their 3.0 recipe with no ill effect. Once you get the soil to where worms are able to live in it, the plants will respond. Keep the top of the soil mulched and moist and be proactive with pest control are the two biggest things I can advise. Good luck with this and future grows!

[Going2fast]

Do you have problems with humidity or fungus gnats with the earth boxes?

[UndergroundFarmer]

Humidity is rarely a problem. I plan to dodge the problem months for hot & humid air by taking a growing sabbatical June-August. The RH in the basement has been 30-40% lately, so the dehumidifier fan doesn't have to run long to dry a tent out. I've had the opposite of too much humidity. Some of the tops of the plants are damaged from the air being too dry when forming leaves. I countered that by raising the target RH for the fan to run and by spritzing the plants with plain water when I open the tent to work and then I spray the soil surface to keep everything from getting crusty. If you keep the top of the soil covered with either the cheapo covers that came with the pickers (the rubber bands that held them in place deteriorate under grow lights!) or with clover and straw, the gnats won't be able to get established.

[UndergroundFarmer]

It's getting more fun with fewer problems and less work now that everything is flowering. As I mentioned above, I'm spraying the plants as soon as I open the tent now and then I turn the sprayer on dried soil after that. I have more budshots of both sexes to post, so here goes.

Coconut Grove:

Stretch is mostly done with budsites all through the canopy. Even Liberty Haze is getting a bit more height.

Flower Tent:

I'm doing most of my remedial topwatering in this one. All of the rubber bands that came with the picker mulch covers have deteriorated and broken off! I gave them a good soaking this morning. Flowers are just starting to show.

3x3:

One of these things is not like the others. I took the largest female from the Mother's Finest seed project out so she can make usable bud. Tangies are ripening and showing some fall colors.

Tangies:


Nursery:

It's getting hard to get a good shot!

The tall one is indubitably a boy:


MF has a mutation in common with Tangie:


Chop for the Tangies may happen within two weeks. I'll need the space!

[UndergroundFarmer]

Argh. It's been a tough start to the week so the update is late. The garden stuff is fine though. Just a few days after reamending with gnarly barley and homemade worm castings, the flowers got swole compared to these pictures. Also, I have to work the Nursery tent last because it is radioactive - meaning pollen clouds happen just from unzipping the tent.

Coconut Grove:

I took these pictures at a higher angle so you can see Liberty Haze at back left again. Flowers are really starting to swell and stack, especially on Acapulco Gold.

Flower Tent:

These girls are moving along about a week behind the other 4x4 but flowers are happening. Did I mention that the flowers are much larger today?

3x3:

MF is dwarfing the Tangies. She grew into and over the lights, true to sativa form. After the Tangies are gone, I will bend those branches down and center her pot. Here's close-ups of Tangie:

An overhead shot to show the fall colors she is putting on. It won't be long.

Mother's Finest:

I forgot to take a picture of the Nursery tent! This is the one in the 3x3. Male flowers are open all over and he is dumping spent flowers and pollen dust all over the neighbors.

Next grow will feature some auto seeds provided by Going2fast in a bean swap! I've got four varieties: Scarlet Grapes, Scarlet Runtz, Scarlet Sunset and Scarlet Galaxy so one of the 4x4s will host one each of these.

Have a great weekend, however you choose to celebrate it!

[Going2fast]

Kinda jelly of the earth boxes. May give them a try. That second tangie pheno is unique.

[UndergroundFarmer]

It is pretty odd. I'll have to compare it to the TXBB later on. I don't think any Blueberry pollen got into the Tangie tent last year. The TXBB seeds came from not isolating a Kosher Kush female before dusting it with BB pollen. A Blueberry and a Tangie for sinsemilla got a whiff of the pollen cloud too when the oscillating fan swept across.

I'd recommend the Earth boxes or pickers to anyone.

[Franklin]

You do great work, UF, you definitely helped inspire my switch to all organic living soil. I've been having a blast making and using worm bins and aerated compost tea and sprouted seed tea and such. My next round, which will be starting within the next couple of weeks, will be my first shot at fully loving soil from the start. I hope it will look as good as yours. What size of pots do you use? I just bought four 15 gallon fabric pots as they will nearly completely fill my 3x3.

[UndergroundFarmer]

Thanks! I think each of the pickers holds between 12-15 gallons of soil. The smaller pots I use are five gallons. Four of the pickers fit in a 4x4 and the 3x3 holds four and maybe five of the five gallon pots.

[UndergroundFarmer]

Happy New Year! I've been busy and not making it here to post but there is news and pics to share. Tangies are hanging to dry in the room because lights are still going in all grow tents. I bumped my head into them a few times today and now I reek of oranges. My Mother boy is about to come down too now that his tentmates aren't showing many white hairs but do have plenty of swelling calyxes to show for the past few weeks. The others in flower continue to build flower and drop lower fans as they go. I'm on the fence about installing a second net in Coconut Grove - the buds are getting heavy but they aren't that significantly higher than the net that's already there.

Oh yes, here's some Tangie bud porn:


Coconut Grove a week ago:

Most of the difference now is that buds are fatter.

Flower Tent:

Again. buds are significantly fatter now, especially Super Lemon Haze (left rear)

3x3:

She's a sativa. She grew into and over the light, so I've had to bend and tie her to get buds back under the light.

Nursery:

Pollen dust and spent flowers litter the place. He's done his job and he will soon be mulch after a good wash to kill remaining pollen.

[UndergroundFarmer]

Week whatever of flower! I haven't kept track at all this grow. It's helpful to have a big enough stash that I don't count the days until I should be able to chop. Speaking of chop - Tangie filled two and a half jars and is more potent than the last batch! Drying was a challenge because the micro tent I started out drying in stayed too humid. I moved them into the grow room to hang there after three days and they dried a bit more than I like them to be. On the plus side, It burns clean. Thirst is a constant in the 4x4s. I'm still misting the plants with plain water every time I open the tent. I'm having to double the water I'm giving Durban Poison - I've never seen such a thirsty plant. The pictures will show some of the damage low humidity did to the plants in early flower. Most bounced back OK but they'd be much better off if I'd corrected the humidity settings on the Niwas sooner.

Coconut Grove:

The lower angle shows the "forest of bud" better.

Flower Tent:

Super Lemon Haze is starting to get stinky! You can see timothy growing in the vacant picker from the hay I used for mulch last time around.

3x3:

Not shown: tomato plants as cover crop. Tomato seeds can hide in compost then sprout months later because the seed coat needs to ferment before the seed can sprout.

Nursery:

The smaller MF suffered from too-high humidity and too-low temps for a while and won't make very many seeds. Big sister is doing fine. Natural selection I guess!

I think I can have this summer grow end before February, who knows?

[Going2fast]

Nice. Tomatoes and peppers. I will get seedlings popping all thru the grow.

[Franklin]

How are you handling humidity through your niwa? I just got a controller, no humidifier though, I don't want a humidifier in my tent but would like to pipe humidity into the tent but not sure how to do that. I don't see a humidifier in your tent so figure you might have similar circumstances.

[UndergroundFarmer]

I tell the Niwa that my exhaust fan is the dehumidifier. The RH outside the tents is hanging around 30-40% so bringing in fresh air will bring down the RH after plant respiration drives it up.