Colorado High - Soil - CFL - Easy Rider - 2013

[Light Addict]

Keep up the good work my friend!

 

[David Bowman]

Thanks, LA! You as well on your magnificent grow!!

 

[David Bowman]

Day 36 of flowering and nothing much has really changed. The pistils are starting to turn orange and dry up a bit just at different rates on different plants. The buds really haven't fattened up much, but I understand the last two weeks is where the real changes to the buds occur. A trichome check yesterday revealed some fattening up of the trichs but they were mostly clear with just a few starting to turn milky. With 20 days or so left in flowering, I'm going to add the UVB CFL bulbs sometime this week just before I start the final flush in preparation for harvest. My intention with this indica dominate strain (70%) is to maximize the THC levels and resulting buzz high and try to harvest just as the trichs start to turn amber.

Group shots of the ladies on day 36 of flowering -

Single shots of the ladies from left-to-right -

Close-up shots of the individual top colas from left-to-right -

Close-up shots of a couple of buds showing orange pistils -

 

[David Bowman]

I decided to trim the very small popcorn from the very bottom of the ladies. These mini-buds/stalks were not getting enough light and consuming resources better utlilized by the larger top buds. I trimmed, quick dried at 150-170 degrees for 15-20 minutes, and vaped the ground mini-buds. Very nice and clean buzz, no couch lock at all. It lasts only a couple of hours with maximum intensity from around 30 minutes to 1 hour. I was not expecting these early small buds to have much potency, but if this is any indication, the harvest later this month should prove to be quite potent.

Given that, I added the 10% UVB CFL bulbs today so my current lighting is 25,200 lumens/418 watts @ 2700K and 2,640 lumens/104 watts of 10% UVB CFL bulbs. Within a few hours the aroma of my ladies had already become much more pungent and pronounced.

Later this week I will give my ladies their last nutrient feed, after that they will only get molasses water. Would it make sense to increase the flowering nutes on this final feed? The expected final week 8 of flowering ends on Monday, November 25th, Thanksgiving week, not a good time for me to harvest. I'm concerned that if I wait too long, it will get too couch lock for my tastes. So to that end, I intend to harvest/wash/dry by Friday, November 22nd at the latest. I will be keeping a close eye on the trichs so it could be sooner than that but it definitely will not be later than the 22nd.

 

[The303Stoner]

I think your Indica strain should finish first you might have to wait 9 to 12 weeks on your bigger plants they look Stavia and cfl grows take a few days longer to finish. they will start to fall over way before they finish.

 

[David Bowman]

Although they look slightly different from one another, they are all the same strain - Easy Rider which is 70% Indica/30% Sativa. The leaves started to look more Sativa-like when they sexually matured and began their stretch.

 

[Light Addict]

 

[akaman]

hi CH, looking very good, I was just wondering what type of effect were you looking to get, a nice buzzy up head or couchlock because it looks to me like you're heading in the couchlock direction, which is not a bad thing IF that's the way you were headed.

 

[David Bowman]

Thanks, akaman! I'm trying for a more head buzz variety of high rather than couch lock. I know that my strain is indica dominant and that is why I am planning on harvesting when the majority of trichs have turned milky while keeping the amber trichs count relatively low. At this stage right now, the high is very clean and buzzy, almost to a fault since it does interfere slightly with sleep. I did another sample last night on a couple bottom immature popcorn buds and while the high is pretty much the same as my first sample, the effects are lasting longer. I realize that I will probably want a small percentage of amber trichs, probably no more than around 25% or so to get a calmer, more relaxing high. I just checked the trichs this morning and I saw one amber trich, a small number of milky trichs, and the rest were still clear. However, the trichs are developing differently than the pictures I've seen before and I attribute that to the UVB CFL bulbs that I added earlier this week. The stalks are thickening quite readily and instead of looking like a ball on a thin stalk or tapered like a chess pawn, they are becoming more tubular in shape thickening to approximately the same diameter as the ball on top, the closest analogy I can think of is that they look phallic in nature. Given that I have a little over 2 weeks left in flowering, it looks like my planned harvest date of November 22nd is still pretty realistic. I will continue to monitor the trichs and adjust that date as necessary though.

 

[pantyraid7036]

Wow, your plants look so yummy! I think you're right, we're totally in the same flowering stage. Nice!

 

[David Bowman]

Thanks pantyraid! Have you sampled yours yet? The bottom popcorn mini-buds are a good spot to try some without sacrificing your harvest. In fact, I think it helps the larger buds fill out better since those little ones are consuming resources that could better benefit the bigger buds.

 

[pantyraid7036]

Actually, I was considering that, and then last night when I was cleaning the plant, a tiny little bud popped off. I dried it in the microwave (ew) and vape-ed it. didn't seem to notice much.

It does have a lot of tiny little bud sites. Should I sacrifice them now so all the energy goes to the big buds?

 

[David Bowman]

I take a little bit at a time, a few tiny buds or so from around the bottom of the plant, so that I can see how the grow is progressing towards harvest. If you sacrifice them all now, you loose the chance to sample it again later without touching the larger buds which you want to keep until harvest. I dried mine in a warm, 150-170 degree, oven for around 20 minutes or so. One bud probably wasn't enough of a sample or maybe the microwave didn't fully activate the psychotropic compounds. I'd give it another try with a few more small buds using the oven method and see how that works out.

 

[David Bowman]

Day 41 of flowering and the ladies are drinking and feeding heavily while slowly losing the lower fan leaves. They are getting very top heavy and the slightest disturbance sends them swinging like a metronome. The smell is becoming very pungent, thick and sweet. I was finally able to get some decent pictures of the current trichome/resin development on a very small sugar leaf of the top cola of one of my ladies. Based on these pictures I believe that they are at around 20% milky and about 5% amber. The 10% UVB bulbs appear to doing a very good job of increasing overall resin production as evidenced on the very last picture. I have not noticed any leaf damage from the UVB bulbs even though they comprise 20% of the total wattage of lighting.

Topside of Sugar Leaf @ ~200X -

Topside of Sugar Leaf @ ~400X -

Underside of Sugar Leaf @ ~200X -

Underside of Sugar Leaf @ ~400X -

Underside of Sugar Leaf @ ~400X -

 

[Buckshot]

I decided to trim the very small popcorn from the very bottom of the ladies. These mini-buds/stalks were not getting enough light and consuming resources better utlilized by the larger top buds. I trimmed, quick dried at 150-170 degrees for 15-20 minutes, and vaped the ground mini-buds. Very nice and clean buzz, no couch lock at all. It lasts only a couple of hours with maximum intensity from around 30 minutes to 1 hour. I was not expecting these early small buds to have much potency, but if this is any indication, the harvest later this month should prove to be quite potent.

Given that, I added the 10% UVB CFL bulbs today so my current lighting is 25,200 lumens/418 watts @ 2700K and 2,640 lumens/104 watts of 10% UVB CFL bulbs. Within a few hours the aroma of my ladies had already become much more pungent and pronounced.

Later this week I will give my ladies their last nutrient feed, after that they will only get molasses water. Would it make sense to increase the flowering nutes on this final feed? The expected final week 8 of flowering ends on Monday, November 25th, Thanksgiving week, not a good time for me to harvest. I'm concerned that if I wait too long, it will get too couch lock for my tastes. So to that end, I intend to harvest/wash/dry by Friday, November 22nd at the latest. I will be keeping a close eye on the trichs so it could be sooner than that but it definitely will not be later than the 22nd.

Hello ColoradoHigh

I popped in from another thread to have a look around. I see you plan to harvest soon This is always a tricky subject to approach and it seems you are determined to get them in by the 22nd. What kind of meds do you need? cause it looks to me those plants have a ways to go before they are even fully bloomed.

Buck

 

[David Bowman]

This is for personal enjoyment, not for medication. I really like a buzzy clean high, not too much couch lock, so that I can still function at a relatively normal level. Yeah, I know that I purchased the wrong strain for that, but my criteria were cost-based as well as ease of growing. So I'm trying to minimize the amber trichomes on my ladies. It will be quite difficult to properly harvest between November 23rd and December 3rd, inclusive. I'm concerned that if I wait those 10 days that I will end up with too many amber trichomes and it will become too couch lock for my tastes. This strain has an 8 week flower, the end of which falls on November 25th. So my plan is to harvest sometime during the 8th week, but as you said, I'm also concerned about harvesting too early. I'm at a conundrum at the moment.

 

[KingJohnC]

keep a watch on the trichomes from week 7 and on for amber trichomes. you should be able to flush for 1 week and still have 5%-15% amber trichomes.

 

[David Bowman]

keep a watch on the trichomes from week 7 and on for amber trichomes. you should be able to flush for 1 week and still have 5%-15% amber trichomes.

Thank you, KJC. Am I daft for attempting an "early" harvest given what I want from this grow? Am I significantly affecting either the quality or quantity of my harvest? It would still be during week 8 of a strain that has an 8 week flowering stage, but as this is my first grow, I'm not as confident about my plans as I'd like to be at this point.

 

[yuyo]

howdy colorado how the heck are ya?!! you posted on a journal i was lurking so i decided to come over and peek your work
i must say interesting reading, i will be following, i think you have done a bang up job and wish your further endeavors great success

my vote is wait another week =)

 

[David Bowman]

Thanks for the encouragement and support yuyo! I will be posting more pictures soon with some close-ups of the colas as well as some of the other more developed buds.