Random Thoughts: Plants & Genetics

[Jackalope]

I got the timing on the second tent worked out about right. Everything is pretty packed in right now. Generator will be finished next week. The plan is to move these to a 4 x 4 tent. Square foot is the same between the 2 tents. I can position them better in the square tent. Here is how it is looking today.

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• Jackalope
• Sep 27, 2020

I will be trimming the second C-99 today. Totally different plants LOL. The early one looks like it is going to produce less but is frostier. I thought I would post a couple pictures of it. They don't do the plant justice but they do show how frosty it is.

early C-99.jpg

• Jackalope
• Sep 24, 2020

Cinderella bud.jpg

• Jackalope
• Sep 24, 2020

c-99 close.jpg

• Jackalope
• Sep 24, 2020

I also have rigged up a back-up battery system for my charcoal filters. The day they install the generator I will be without power the whole day. 2 months ago that would not have been a problem. Now I have no choice but to continue with the project. Flowering plants are bad enough. Now I am going to have 3 to 5 plants drying at the same time.

I have 2 back up batteries for my boat. I also have a power inverter for my truck. I did a trail yesterday and they run my 4" fan fine. I will get a new inverter today for the 6" fan. I will be able to clean the air from the drying tent and the flower tent. That should do wonders. Which brings me to plan B. One of the best cover scent I have found for emergencies is old kitty litter. I keep a 5 gallon bucket with a lid to collect daily gifts. I then empty it once a week. The lid keeps all the nasty inside. Leave the lid off and you can really tell I have cats LMAO. Sounds nasty but it works. I will be deploying every thing I have have to keep everything hidden like it should be.

 

[Dankman_420]

Nice frost on Cindy The cover scent made me laugh

 

[Stunger]

Beautiful frosty buds there!

 

[Jackalope]

Nice frost on Cindy The cover scent made me laugh

Funny and disgusting at the same time LOL. I figured this one out a couple years ago when my furnace went out in the winter time. It works amazingly well. Funny how nasty smells can travel all over. Opened the bucket down stairs and the whole house smelled like cat piss 1 hour later LMAO. The new air fresheners in the kitty litter give it a slightly less than disgusting smell which helps. On the bright side. It went away about as fast as it came on after the bucket was covered again.

 

[Jackalope]

There is still a chance with the last Flo F-5. The first plant is weak at best. Even as a low THC daytime sativa it is lacking. Years ago my mentor told me he didn't like D.J. Shorts genetics because of how it grew. I now know what he means. While the way he bred his strains did wonders for flavor profiles. It did nothing for growth patterns. There is a reason you rarely see pictures of them in my journal. Normally they are the ugliest plants I have. I guess if I grew them better things may be different. The problem is, I am not finding enough I like to even learn how to grow them better. It really isn't a problem. There are plenty of other strains to grow.

Which sucks. I still have 3 strains I want to look at in time. Of course I will grow the Blueberry F-5 and the Temple Flo someday. What is funny is I expect more from the older Temple Flo than I do the new Blueberry. Thank god there are lots of new breeders doing a better job at making seeds. I really thought a supply of older genetics was the way to go. It seems just because the breeding was more consistent didn't make them better. There may be more phenotypes from the newer strains. There is also lots more chances of something great popping up.

 

[Jackalope]

After having to give away the Katsu hoodie to my daughter. "It was too small". Katsu came out with a Headband Hybrid. Perfect time for me to get MY freebie Katsu gear. Great coffee cup I have to say. I hate small cups and this one is bigger than average.

I am caught up with trimming for a day or 2. 4 plants finished before the 50 day mark. I knew I needed to get to the Cinderella early. When checking them I also found a couple of the Purple Afghani that had amber trichomes showing up. Of course 2 of the 4 plants were very leafy and time consuming to trim right. I was worried that I would be behind from here on out. Looks like that isn't the case. That is going to be put off for a day or 2. I will still be behind when it happens. All 5 of the Purple Afghani that are left will be done right about the same time.

Lemon Cheisel is a weird one. Lots of amber trichomes on top, the bottom still needs a bit of time. I could harvest the top and leave the bottom but decided to just harvest it when the bottoms are done. I raised the lights back up to help slow the amber trichomes. Not sure if that will work or not. One can hope.

Still going to be a big question mark when it comes to production. There has been very little lost buds on these plants. Most everything is big and firm enough to make it to the bud pile. That is going to help. These would have produced more with a longer veg. I just didn't have the room for them to do that with the plants being so wide. I hope to be surprised.

I do have to admit. If the highs are what I expect them to be. There are 3 keeper plants that would make good mothers. One is a throw back to older Kush genetics. It is big and dank. The Afghani leaning pheno I trimmed last night has a similar dank smell with lots more trichomes. Both look to be pretty heavy. Plus there is the wide Purple Afghani that has great smell. All 3 of these plants would produce enough to be keeper mothers.

 

[Jackalope]

Back up generator has been installed and wired to the house. They still need to come back and plumb in the natural gas and do the start up. That will be next week. All the work in the house is done. The did a great job. It was a pain in the ass. Originally power went through the roof to the breaker box. The pole has now been rerouted under the trailer and up through the wall to the box. I heard lots of cussing during that process LOL.

The light and the filters worked great on battery power. My flowering plants got light all day like they should have. I don't know that low light worked better than no light. Till I am proved wrong I will think it did. I ended up leaving the timber light going on its lowest level. The 2 light set up put out around 50 watts on low is my guess. Now that I can set up the 4 x 4 tent. I think I will be changing the flowering tent to night time light instead of daytime light. So tomorrow they won't get light till 6 pm.

I am going to have to keep a good eye on everything. A couple weird light days, then going with a 1000 watt light might cause a couple plants to throw out a flower or 2. I am not adding a lot more power. Only 200 watts worth. They may not even notice. If they do I should be on top of it. Even if something happens it shouldn't cause anything more than stress flowers. Those can be cut off. In the 4 x 4 tent. A 1 light set up is a lot easier to set up right than a 2 light set up. I know I don't "NEED" a 1000 watt light in a 4 x 4 tent. From what I have seen the plants really like it. Air cooled lights are the key to running 1000 watt lights in smaller spaces. It might just be a strain thing. I am getting the impression that HPS lights are better for terpene production. While I can, I plan to keep using them. When and if I need to drop my power bill. I will do more with the Timber lights. Till then I plan to use 630 watt CMH for veg and a 1000 watt HPS for flower.

 

[Jackalope]

I got the 4 x 4 tent set up and running. I didn't like the temps that I was getting from the 1000 watt light. I decided to go with the same lights I had before. It worked out fine. As weird as it sounds. The plants seem to have more space. That can't be true because they have the same square ft. or close to it. It is just different shaped. You can tell by the before and after pictures.

Before

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• Jackalope
• Sep 27, 2020

After

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• Jackalope
• Oct 5, 2020

 

[Jackalope]

I am now at 58 days of flower. Plants are all looking close to ready. The 2 that I took on the early side did not meet expectations. They had mostly all cloudy trichomes. Looks like I took them too early. The high is nice and flavor is pretty good considering. It just doesn't have the body this needs to make a good indica. Pretty sure all that can be solved by a later harvest.

I don't harvest for early for head high. On some strains this would have been perfect timing. This one does not do well with a early harvest unless you are try to avoid the body part. If that is the case then why grow a indica?

The plant I am posting pics of is becoming a new favorite. This plant is different than the rest. Smell and growth patterns are both different. This is one of 2 plants that don't have the same smell. One of the 2 that smelled different has the same flavor as the others smell.

Purple Afghani fat.jpg

• Jackalope
• Oct 7, 2020

PA fat, cola.jpg

• Jackalope
• Oct 7, 2020

As you can tell this plant is making some FAT buds. It also stayed green a lot longer than the others. "Everything is showing some stages of purple now".

PA fat, close.jpg

• Jackalope
• Oct 7, 2020

Trichome coverage is pretty good but nothing like you see in some modern hybrids. Not that it matters. Lots of great strains that don't "look" impressive.

I have decided that I think this is supposed to be the older Purple Afghani. I have found 2 different Purple Afghani in my research. One that was used to make Purple Kush and one that was made from Purple Kush x Afghani #1. My guess is this is the older version. Other than growth type there is not much deviation between these plants.

 

[Jackalope]

Today I am going to post a few cola pictures to show all the different shades of purple. The last pictures cover one of the plants. These will cover some of the rest. Most of the leaves on these plants have a lavender back side. Only one is showing purpleing in the buds. I will show it first. It has exploded in the last few days.

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• Jackalope
• Oct 9, 2020

This plant has come from behind and is becoming quite impressive. Bud size has almost doubled in the last week.

Which brings to question. Which ones are going to bulk up and which ones won't. At least some of the Afghani leaning phenos don't look like they will. I have seen the same thing in older Afghani genetics. They do most of their work while budding. Branches are falling over now on the next plant. It grew more like a Kush butseems to bud like a Afghani. It still hasn't had the explosion of growth the Kush pheno's are having.

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• Jackalope
• Oct 9, 2020

The next plant looks similar in bud formation only. It grew and budded like a Afghani.

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• Jackalope
• Oct 9, 2020

Everything is still growing. With the 2 different phenotypes. It is making it harder to decide when to harvest. With some plants bulking up and others not. Amber trichomes are not helping me much. Most of these plants have amber on top but not down into the lower buds. Some plants I know are not done have the same thing. Pretty sure that is because of me and lighting. The 2 plants I harvested right away when I saw amber were not quite finished. High was great but they have no real body to the high. This being a indica I am sure that part is supposed to be there. From what I am seeing now I wasn't wrong. Now I just need the weed to get stronger like I think it will.

 

[Dankman_420]

Beautiful plants Jack! Sometimes I have a hard time seeing amber under the grow light. Ill take plant out of the tent to look under natural light or remove a bud to do that with

 

[Jackalope]

I will have to give that a try Dankman. I have looked in normal light a couple of times. Most of the time I do it under the lights. I still only use trichomes as part of the equation. If I could ever figure them out that may change.

Waiting for the buds to swell is how one of those plants came to pass. I almost harvested it before It started to change. It really surprised me with how it changed in a week. It went from a random Afghani leaning plant to a new favorite. This plant is also the smallest of them all. If things were different I would consider trying to regenerate this plant. Something tells me this plant might be special. I figured it out this morning why. It has that pink look that I have seen on a couple of Purple Betty plants. Something about purple covered in so much frost it seems pink that is appealing. I hope this is a indicator of great flavor. Something those pink plants had lots of. It has something to do with the color and the terpenes that tend to go along with it.

I tried to get good pictures of that plant yesterday. These plants have been flushing for about 10 days and are kind of scraggly. From a distance it doesn't look very impressive. You can just barely see the color.

Purple Afghani pink pheno (2).jpg

• Jackalope
• Oct 10, 2020

Once you look a little closer it gets better.

Purple Afghani pink pheno.jpg

• Jackalope
• Oct 10, 2020

Purple Afghani pink close.jpg

• Jackalope
• Oct 10, 2020

The weird part is the red hairs on this plant have been red and withered for almost 3 weeks. Like I said I almost harvested it.Then everything started to change, it totally changed in a week. This is the first time a plant has come from so far behind to being so impressive. Before this plant was only noticeable because it was so average LMAO.

 

[Jackalope]

Harvesting is going smoothly. These Purple Afghani plants are a dream to trim. I can pound out a couple plants a day with no problem. Only 2 of the PA left. I will be trimming the Lemon Cheisel today. It never really got to lemon smelling. It smells fresh and nice but not really lemon. The Cheese part is going to have to wait till I get it dried and smoke some. The weed looks like it could be strong. My only worry is amber trichomes. This plant was a weird one. I started seeing amber trichomes on the fan leaves and sugar leaves well before the buds were done. The trichomes on the buds were not even all cloudy at the time. I left this plant flowering till I thought the buds were done. We will see if I was right.

Some time in the next couple days I am going to have to trim the Flo F-5. What a ugly plant. I hate how Blueberry strains grow. D.J. Short might have had the right combination for flavor. He sure screwed the pooch when when it came to growth type. Leafy buds are a bitch!

One of the Purple Afghani looks like it wants to go another few days. That is going to be tough as it is only running on fumes now. I started flushing this plant 2 weeks ago when I started flushing everything else. This plant may not have what it needs to finish strong. The main reason that this is a concern. 2 days ago a small part of a bud came off the stalk when I tried to pull a bad leaf. The smells from this bud is amazing. This could be the most flavorful of all of the phenotypes. If I can't get this plant to finish right I may loose some of that flavor.

 

[CannaFish]

really nice looking kush

 

[Dankman_420]

Congrats on the smooth harvest brother Jack

 

[Jackalope]

Trimming is about done. I still have one plant I want to take a few more days. That won't stop me from moving the new starts to the big tent. I can finish the last plant in the tent that has the new plants now. Sooo that means I will be re-potting plants this weekend. Work load is picking up now that I am setting up for year round growing. I still don't know how next summer will go but till then I am good to go lol.

Next summer will be a clone thing. I am hoping my plan works. I got a new propagation box for doing clones. What I used in the past worked great it just didn't have the room I needed. I could only take 6 clones at once. I want to take that many clones of just The New. That would leave me no room to take any others. I want 2 clones of each selected plants. All 3 of "The New" plants will be cloned. I will probably want to try and self one of them. That plant will pollinate itself and selected other clones if I find some. I am thinking the next 4 x 4 grow will all be clones. Along with The New, I want to get clones of one of the Super Lemon Haze and 1 or 2 of the Golden Berry plants. I expect The New will have the greatest plant. There are lots of good genetics in it. The very best weed of all the clones will be my new mother and father if I decide to make seeds. If I have to get rid of any weed I want it the best around.

Speaking of the 4 x 4 tent.

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• Jackalope
• Oct 16, 2020

It is looking great. Sorry about the yellow. 2 strains are really jumping out at me. The Grimm Glue is looking quite impressive. Both plants are already as frosty as my great Cinderella from last grow. The other is the Cookies Og. It has a great look and great smell already. Not that the others are not doing good. It is just that these plants are the most impressive now. Monty Pythons pedigree is good enough that I expect good things from it. The big question is the California Diesel. I know one thing. I don't see any Headband in these genetics. That is the main reason I bought it. They are on the corners on the right side of the tent. As you can tell they are looking mostly sativa. If the NYCD was the mother that would explain things. Mostly I question these genetics is because they were a mistake. I wanted to add another strain to a order and choose it on the fly. I thought I was looking at Humboldt Seed Org. not Humboldt Seed Company. All I can do now is watch and wait to see what happens. I might get lucky and find a new breeder. Last but not least. I have the one Zanadu from Katsu. It is in the center of the back row. This plant could take up to 100 days to flower. That is 20 days longer than most the others in the tent. That is why it is in back. I have the LED light on that side. I am going to have to move this plant to a small tent to finish right. I don't want it freaking out with a light change. I have a single light COB led to use for it when the time comes.

 

[Jackalope]

Few things make me as happy as seeing seeds I sent to people grown. This person has been doing it for the last few years. Growing Critcal, Blue Dream, and Green Crack seeds my mentor made. This is pure Tennessee hillbilly weed. Great soil there so they live on natural nutrients and are grown in the woods. Not only did he not top them he gives them very little care. They do this all on their own.

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• Jackalope
• Oct 18, 2020

You got to love weed in the wild!

The tallest plant was over 9' tall. You can see it in the back ground. Here is a separate picture of it by itself.

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• Jackalope
• Oct 18, 2020

The only thing that sucks is my friend is so far away I never get to try any LOL. I have tried some of his previous grows of White Widow, and Medicine Man on a fishing trip. They were really good for a guy that knew so little about what he was doing. Over the years he has perfected no care growing LMAO.

 

[Dankman_420]

Im sure they have good soil. I spent a vacation at gatlinburg few years ago. Beautiful state with super friendly people

 

[Jackalope]

When the oilfield was booming last. We had a bunch of guys from Tennessee working out here. I met some really good people and great workers. They worked their ass's off and were just happy to have a job. Spoiled ass local hands were a bunch of pre-madonna's.

For years that is how I found my friends. I didn't even bother to get to know the guys that wouldn't put out and make a hand. It is amazing the diversity you find in people who do great work. Even the people that did not become close friends were a lot more respected than the people that never put out effort.

People and cultures are different in every state. With work ethic being key. I met some great friends from all over this wonderful country we live in. No matter how different we were culturally we all got along. Keep your eye out folks. If someone is a hard worker there is a good chance they may be worth knowing.

 

[Jackalope]

I have got a chance to at least try most of the Purple Afghani. Drying is going so much better now that I have a humidifier. What used to take 3 to 5 days takes 7 to 10 now. Which is why I have only tried some of them. They are dry enough to smoke but not to take off the stem yet.

The later harvested stuff is a lot better. I harvested most between 60 and 65 days. While I don't think THC levels would be considered high by any means. It does have a great high though. This is not a stoners indica. It identities more as a sativa in lower dose's. Later in the high or after you have smoked more the indica starts coming through. I have no trouble at all sleeping after a joint. I really like the type of high from this strain. What is funny. No matter what they smell like. They all taste similar. I suck at putting a name to flavor. It is on the sweeter side and defiantly has no dank or earthy tones. Everyone likes the flavor so far. Another couple weeks of drying and curing will be needed to really know for sure.

I still don't really know which Purple Afghani this is. THC levels are on the lower side so that would suggest it being a older strain. The flavor and type of high tell me this could be a hybrid of a clone only plant. Those 2 factors have a lot more to do with popularity than pure THC. I can see a special Phenotype of this strain being quite popular. If I was only going to grow one strain. This could be a good choice. With varying levels, this strain can kind of do it all. Uniformity is really good. Everything ended up with really firm buds except the last plant. It is a bit fluffy compared to the others. Smell seems a bit stronger too. It might be why they needed the Afghani to firm up the buds.

All this is just guessing. My mind wants to know but it really doesn't matter. From what I can see. It is good weed and it was a interesting strain to grow. Glad I grew it. It has been a while since I have grown true F-1 hybrids in regular seed form.