Cbdstealth, CBD Crit Mass Clone x2, The Purp? Mendo? x1, Small Grow, Mar 2017

[cbdstealth]

2 x Feminized CBD Critical Mass cuttings from my other grow
1 x The Purp seed (believed to be Mendocino Purple)

Just before switching my CBD Critical Mass (see journal) over to flower I decided to do some defoliating because the grow box was getting quite crowded. When I did the defoliating I took two branches to try my hand at cuttings and because the plant seemed to be dealing quite well with the confined space.

The clones I started in clean vermiculite with plain water on March 8th. They were in some plain old plastic cups with
holes in the bottom that sat in a tray of water. The vermiculite wicked water up out of the tray so it never dried out and was just at various stages of dampness. I also supplemented with adding water from the top (watering the vermiculite) once a day. While in the vermiculite the cuttings seemed to survive quite well.

At the same time I decided to germinate a "The Purp" bean. I believe this is Mendocino Purps based on where I sourced the seeds. It was sold to me as "The Purp" but I have found conflicting information around what "The Purp" actually is. The phenotype that is growing appears to be expressing Indica traits with quite rounded leaf shape. I recently topped The Purp (March 21) and it is recovering right now. This is a non-feminized seed so I don't know yet if it is female, here's hoping.

Six days ago (March 18) I transferred the CBD Critical Mass cuttings from vermiculite to soil. Since then they have been hurting. They haven't keeled over dead yet but I am not holding out too much hope, I'll be happy if one survives. My concern is that when I pulled them out of the vermiculite I ripped of some of the roots, either that or the soil I have put them in has shocked them. Regardless next time I transfer cuttings from vermiculite I may wait longer and I will definitely dump out the vermiculite rather than pulling the stalk... I love learning lessons the hard way.

 

[cbdstealth]

My Purp decided to pull an Icarus and climbed a bit into the light. Thankfully just a little bit of burn on one leaf (left side of photo). I have tied it down to 1) prevent more burn 2) hopefully stimulate the internode branches to grow a bit more.

On a positive note both cuttings appear to have survived. I think they are each starting to show signs of new leaf growth . They are in cups right now so I may need to transfer them to pots. If my timing works out I'm hoping both the cuttings and Purp will be ready for flower about the same time I'm chopping my CBD Critical Mass.

 

[cbdstealth]

I'll try to get some pictures up soon but in the meantime a quick written update.

Both cuttings have definitely survived and are forming new growth. The Purp is branching at the top node where I pruned. A couple days ago I pinned those top branches down with the goal of trying to get the lower branches to respond by stretching out.

I'm thinking of pinching again the two top branches with the goal being 6 branches total; 4 top after the pinch and it might stimulate the 2 bottom branches more.

I'm also thinking of taking one of the cuttings and trying my hand at a bonsai mom. This plant has performed so well at staying short (I believe Critical Mass is a mid-sized plant) and also responded so well to cloning I think it might make a good candidate.

 

[cbdstealth]

I finally remembered to take some pictures.

The bonsai mom is pinned down as far as I can get her. The clone I am using for that had a very woody stem so would only bend so far. The other clone isn't looking like anything special but I don't want her to grow too big too fast so I have kept her in a pot that's a bit too small, she'll probably get a transplant soon

The Purp is super short and bushy almost too bushy, it's hard to figure out what belongs where when separating and pinning down branches. I think this will work really well in my small flower chamber. Just pinched the 2 primary grow tips and the bottom branches are starting to catch up so I'm hoping for at least 6 distinct branches about 4 weeks from now.

 

[cbdstealth]

I haven't provided an update for a bit, I'll try to get some pictures but my plans with these three has changed.

The bonsai mom CBD Critical Mass I have decided to flower.
The second CBD Critical Mass, the one that's all beat up, I am going to try to forcibly hermie. I have a second Feminised CBD Critical Mass seed so I want to try to make some pollen to fertilise it with in the future.
I am going to take a few cuttings form the Purp to clone.

All three of these were flipped from 24/0 to 12/12 starting Saturday. I found the roll-off to 12/12 I did previously make things confusing in terms of timing how long the plant is flowering.

I'll get some pictures up soon.

 

[cbdstealth]

I will get some picture soon I promise.

All plants are 3 weeks into flower. I tried to forcibly hermie on of the CBD CM using colloidal silver and I think it may have worked (I'll get the pics up).

I have also taken a cutting from the Purp and the healthier of the two CBD CM clones which should be going into soil in the next week or so. I think this may turn into a bit of a perpetual grow...

 

[cbdstealth]

Finally had chance to take some photos. Unfortunately I lost my CBD Critical Mass clone. All my fault, I missed watering while it was in the vermiculite and it wasn't established enough. Pulled it out and saw there were roots but it was already too far gone. As a result I have decided to try to reveg the plant that I forced-mermie. Should be interesting to see how it makes out.

On a side note. The small female that I stressed has definitely shown nanners but the few that have opened so far don't have pollen inside.

Hermie


CBD CM on the right, Purp on the left


Mainly CBD CM with some Purp on the left


Just Purp

 

[cbdstealth]

Things have gone a little sideways since my last post and these pictures aren't anything I'm proud of but I figure it's as important to record the failures as well as the successes.

I lost both of my clones (Purp and CBD CM) due to missed watering. I didn't realize they could still be so fragile after they've rooted. As a result, I am trying to take a clone from my flowering Purp at 5 weeks, I suspect my chances of success are near zero. I am also reveging the CBD Critical Mass that I tried to hermie with colloidal silver; side note, it produced male flowers but zero pollen.

If The Purp clones fail I will be forced to try to reveg The Purp after harvest.

The Purp clone 1 (smaller cutting)


The Purp clone 2 (larger cutting)


CBD Critical Mass colloidal silver hermie (fail) reveg

 

[cbdstealth]

Something weird is going on with my flowering plants. Last week I pruned a few suckers (only 4 that I could identify) and since then there has been a bunch of growth out of the top of the buds. Long, lanky growth almost like a fox tail. However in that time nothing of note has changed; temperatures have remained stable and the plants look otherwise healthy.

I know near the end of my last grow I started seeing foxtails but I also had higher temps. This grow I have a better ventilation and the temperature never goes above 26c / 79f so this new growth is confusing me. I am thinking of clipping all the tops with the aim of backbuilding the new growth. I still have ~4 weeks left to harvest and I'm hopping that little snip doesn't cause even more problems.

The Purp


CBD Critical Mass with top stretch


CBD Critical Mass with top stretch 2


CBD Critical Mass bud with popcorn below

 

[cbdstealth]

Clipped the tips of the buds that were stretching last night with the hope of back-building the new growth. I'll try to remember to take some pictures in a week to see how they respond.

 

[cbdstealth]

Well this grow has turned into one bad thing after another, I guess that's how I learn and I'm guessing my first grow went so smooth due to beginners luck.

I began harvesting last weekend taking some of the CBD Critical Mass top buds that were showing some amber. This weekend past (July 15) I took the rest of the CBD Critical Mass and ThePurp which was really nice and swollen, rock-hard buds. Things felt really good...

Then I found mold and bud rot!? It has been so humid here that the CBD buds I took last weekend have mold on them before they could dry, I just discovered it last night. As I was going over The Purp that I just cut I used my loupe to have a peak at the trichomes (it's so frosty!) and noticed what I thought was a spider web, but then I cracked open some of the bigger buds and found brown leaves surrounded by a bit of fuzz.

Very small patches and none had reached the surface that I could see. I could only find it when I peeled open colas. In each case it looks like it came from a leaf that I hadn't remove after it died and the leaf moistened up, but it may be that's just how the rot starts. Oddly it wasn't everywhere, a few localized locations but I am throwing out large parts around the infection points I found.

I have cut away portions on the large colas and thrown away any popcorn with signs of rot. All bud I kept to dry looked clean under the loupe but I gave it a wash with a h202/water solution just in case. We will see if it can make it through to dry without more mold showing up. So frustrating! I'd peg the losses at 30-50% of the final product. Faaaak!

Here are some picture of all the stuff before I had to start tossing it. I'm going to take a break from growing for a bit. What little I have produced is more than enough for me for a while and this loss is really discouraging. I don't need the frustration that comes with constant 80%+ humidity in the summer just to throw 3 months of waiting/work in the trash.

Here are some pics of the harvest before the rot parts were found and discarded.

 

[cbdstealth]

I was working through the five stages of grief over my losses to bud rot and decided to try to recover what I could from the parts I cut out. I have a technique in mind but I'll post more on that later to let everyone know the success (or failure).

As I was picking through the cola parts and popcorn I was going to discard I came across this little silver lining:


Many of you probably wouldn't want to find a seed in your bud. Truthfully I don't know where this one came from, I haven't found any others yet and have seen no signs of bananas. Maybe someone else in the neighbourhood is growing and I brought some pollen in from outside? I was trying to hermie my CBD CM clone earlier and I thought the bananas were empty but maybe one did have some pollen... I hope that is the case because the purpose of that hermie was to cross the CBD (showing strong sativa pheno traits) with this Purp (showing very strong indica pheno traits).

Regardless I'm glad I found the seed. I really liked this plant and was not happy that I lost some of it too rot and that I have not continued it on (taking a break + didn't clone successfully). We will see what traits come out from this seed in the future, hopefully it germinates.

 

[Amadeus Forzin]

Hope all is well in your world.

Thanks for sharing this grow with us.

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Sending you lots of love and positive energy.