The Doctor - Story Of An Abused But Resilient Plant

[Clancy]

Hi,

I grew my plant from seed--badly. My plant is now in it's last few weeks of flowering. I'll explain the abuse my heroic plant has endured as I go along. The seed is a hybrid from Greenhouse Seeds, called The Doctor.

I knew nothing about seeds or growing when I walked into a head shop and asked for seeds. I told the sales guy that I was a rookie, that I wanted to grow indoors, and I wanted something very strong. He recommended a few varieties but pointed out The Doctor's alleged narcotic effect----that sold me. What I want is to be as couch-bound as possible---comatose would work too.

Here's some basic info about the plant from the seed co.:

Green House Seeds - The Doctor
Genetics: Great White Shark, South Indian, Super Skunk.

Effect: very strong indica with instant body effect, stoned and very long lasting.
Flowering indoor: ready to harvest in 8 weeks. An extra week will give amazing resin and a sweeter taste. Yield up to 800 gr/sqm.
Flowering outdoor: ready around the end of September in the Northern hemisphere; or around end of April in the Southern.
Yield up to 1200 gr/plant.

THC: 18.4% CBD: 1.1% CBN: 0.4%

 

[Clancy]

re: "The Doctor" - Story Of An Abused But Resilient Plant

So here's how things began for The Doctor.
This all took place before I had done much research on forums like 420, so I was a real newbie...and an uneducated one at that. I germinated 3 seeds out of the 5 seeds that came in the pack which cost me 40.00 Canadian. That was in May, last spring. (We're in Mid-November now so you can start to see the kind of journey my plant has been on...it's a few weeks from flowering now.---7 months later.

I germinated under wet paper towels and all 3 seeds sprang to life no problem. There was a problem though. I would have to plant my seedlings outside in my garden and leave them on their own while I was away for 2 weeks. I travel a lot and sometimes for weeks at a time.

So hoping they could live on their own was a mistake...so was the way I prepared the garden for them. I thought that the seedlings would need the richest soil possible so I loaded up a spot with fresh garden soil and a shitload of composted sheep manure plus some other ferts like Miracle Grow. Then I left for 2 weeks.

A friend called me about a week in and told me my plants were dead. No surprise really in retrospect. But when I came home I saw nothing in my garden...all the seedlings had disappeared...dead or eaten by birds maybe. But then I saw, one tiny bit of green tip in the wet black soil and sheep shit. One had survived, amazingly. Here's that plant today:

It had survived on it's own unattended for 2 weeks in early spring and buried in soil that was way too wet and too "hot" for it. I tired to baby that plant since then but there was more abuse to come.

 

[Clancy]

re: "The Doctor" - Story Of An Abused But Resilient Plant

So, as I said...the abuse continued. In early June I rescued the struggling survivor and replanted it in a small plastic pot. I kept it outside though and tried to nurture it back to life. It was really hot all summer and sometimes the soil would really dry out before I could water it. But it lived...barely. From one day to the next I couldn't tell if it was alive or not most times.

It was still really small like a quarter of inch. And it stayed that way until around Aug 1st when it started to grow. When I saw it growing I began feeding it really tiny drops of fertilized water. I used Miracle Grow at the teeniest concentrations. (Some would say Miracle Gro alone is abuse

In mid-August it was about 3 inches tall and surprisingly healthy looking. So it was time for a journey.

I had to leave again and this time the plant had to come with me. This was a special trip for the plant because it would take about 15 hours of driving over two days. During these days The Doctor lived in a pot with a clear plastic coke bottle top protecting it. Still, the truck, the heat, the horribly bumpy ride...put another heaping spoon of abuse on my plant. The Doctor held up though. I don't have pics from those days though.

 

[Clancy]

Re: "The Doctor" - Story Of An Abused But Resilient Plant

Once The Doc arrived at her new home I still wasn't ready with a proper grow room. I had an old 18 inch CFL grow tube from an aquarium and a CFL lamp that held 2 4 foot tubes. I have no idea what the wattage is for those or the lumens, etc. There's nothing marked on the tubes. I found two old white end tables and flipped them on their sides one on top of the other to make a kind of open box.

I dropped my plant in the bottom of the end table box and put the lights across the top. It was sloppy. But surprisingly a lot of light got focused down into the box and the white MFB the tables were made out of really reflected a lot of light. The Doctor actually liked it and started to grow. It stayed in there for for about 6 weeks. I left the lights on during this vegging period 24/7

Here's what The Doctor looked like just before the switch to flowering:

 

[Clancy]

Re: "The Doctor" - Story Of An Abused But Resilient Plant

That last picture was taken a bit after I built a better grow box and had added some small CFL bulbs. I built a 4 X 2 X 2 box out of some scrap plywood and painted to insides with one coat of white paint. It's not great looking because it really could use another coat of paint for best reflection. I was in a hurry to get the box built because of upcoming travel again. Thanks to the forums on 420 I learned about different lights to use for vegging and flowering. Here's the complete run down of the lights I'm using and the soil The Doctor has been growing in:

Lights
2 X 4 ft (?watt) long CFL tubes
3 X 60 watt 2700K bulbs
2 X 60 Watt 6500K bulbs

Soil 3-Gallon pot
See Pic:

Sorry it's sideways. The analysis is: Nitrogen 0.08, Phosphorus 0.12, Potash 0.08

Once in awhile during begging I added a litre of Miracle Gro with water. I'm really afraid of fertilizers because I've seen what they can do to plants so I only used like a teeny finger pinch of Miracle Gro in a litre of water.

 

[Clancy]

Re: "The Doctor" - Story Of An Abused But Resilient Plant

Once It was in flowering I started to use some economy blooming fertilizer that I found in my wife's garden supplies. Again here though, I pretty much ignore the directions for use and just use a tiny pinch of it..say, a quarter of a quarter teaspoon. The blooming fert seems to have much more of everything. It's 15-30-15

 

[Clancy]

Re: "The Doctor" - Story Of An Abused But Resilient Plant

So this is supposed to be the tale of an abused plant. Just about 2 weeks before it was supposed to go into the 12/12 flowering stage I had to make a short trip.

I was supposed to be gone a week...but things happened which caused me to be away for 17 days !!!. During this whole time my plant had no one attending it, no tender loving care, no frets and worst of all--no water at all. I don't have a picture of what it looked like but it was near death...all stringy leaves hanging down. Looked like a dirty old mop.

I thought I'd be only away for one week so I prepared my plant by soaking it really well and then taking some old wool scarves and soaking them in water to place on top of the soil as a mulch to keep the water in the soil rather than evaporating. I think that's what saved my plant while being all alone and unwatered 17 days. I hadn't intended to be away that long but there was no way around it...I couldn't return home.

When I finally did get home and did some emergency care...my plant recovered...see how resilient The Doctor is...ya can't kill it!

Here's what The Doc looked like after 2 weeks of recovery:

 

[Clancy]

Re: "The Doctor" - Story Of An Abused But Resilient Plant

So after a poor start that almost killed The Doctor and then a 1500 kilometre journey, begging in an open top fake end table box, and then being abandoned for 17 days locked up in my grow box on a timer but no water, The Doctor is doing all right.

I don't expect I'll be getting a great deal of product from Doc but anything I do get is really more than I deserve after that kind of start. Here's The Doc today:

 

[Clancy]

Re: "The Doctor" - Story Of An Abused But Resilient Plant

 

[David Bowman]

Re: "The Doctor" - Story Of An Abused But Resilient Plant

Hope all is well in your world.

How did your grow turn out?

We would love to be updated with some pictures and info.

How about posting a 420 Strain Review?

If you need any help with posting photos, please read our Photo Gallery Tutorial.

I am moving this to Abandoned Journals until we get updates.

Sending you lots of love and positive energy.

 

[Clancy]

Thank you Colorado. I'll sum things up here and give my results.

My grow was one plant I grew from seed. It was named "The Doctor", by Greenhouse Seeds, bought at a grow supplies store 5 seeds for 40.00. Germination was easy.

The Doctor seemed very tough and very resilient for sure. Almost 'ya can't kill it' tough.

Easy plant to grow for a beginner for sure. I just gave it the basics and was a real Scrooge with the Miracle Grow.
Never measured ph or humidity
Constant above 90-95F temperatures during flowering with lights on. Dark period temps and vegging temps were in the 65 - 73 range.

The plant grew to about 3 feet not too bushy but not stringy at all either. It didn't seem to be to smelly but I had a filter going.

Yield: 1 dried ounce of higher potency plus 5 or 6 grams of smaller less potent buds. I'm pretty sure that someone who really knew what they were doing would be getting several ounces at a time.

Stone: The literature says The Doctor hits 18% THC. In my book that's strong but not very strong. And that's the way I'd categorize the effects-" strong enough for you to space out here and there and lose track of time in your thoughts but not strong enough for someone who wants be spaced out and lose 2 hours while melted into their couch. I can't remember its taste but it pleasant enough.

Summary: I'd recommend it to anyone, except those who prefer less THC. Potency grade was A-minus or, on a scale of 0-10, I'd call it 7.5 to 8.

Final Note: I guess a good way to describe it is to say, since I've run out of The Doctor and had to start buying again, I've been disappointed with my purchases.