Emeraldo's 2019 Semi-Guerilla Balcony Grow: Jack F1, G-13 x Haze, Critical Mass, White Widow, White Strawberry Skunk

[Emeraldo]

I started a new semi-guerilla grow. With some improvements over last year's setup.

I'd planned to grow Sensi Jack Flash #5, but of a pack of 5, zero seeds popped. Some strains I thought might grow well on balcony in California: Spliff's Jack F1 and White Widow, Barney's Farm G-13 x Haze, The Plant's Critical Mass, and Strain Hunters' White Strawberry Skunk. Of these, the big Jack F1, Critical Mass, and G-13 x Haze were the first to germinate around April 1, and they put down nice roots and were about 4 inches tall when I put them into their pots. They've almost doubled in size in the last week. More later, when I come back to do some pruning in early July (about a month before flowering starts).

Clockwise top row from far left: G13xHaze, Jack F1 (sativa-looking pheno), WSS, Jack F1 (indica looking pheno), White Widow, Critical Mass.

 

[Swagymcfly88]

I started a new semi-guerilla grow. With some improvements over last year's setup.

I'd planned to grow Sensi Jack Flash #5, but of a pack of 5, zero seeds popped. Some strains I thought might grow well on balcony in California: Spliff's Jack F1 and White Widow, Barney's Farm G-13 x Haze, The Plant's Critical Mass, and Strain Hunters' White Strawberry Skunk. Of these, the big Jack F1, Critical Mass, and G-13 x Haze were the first to germinate around April 1, and they put down nice roots and were about 4 inches tall when I put them into their pots. They've almost doubled in size in the last week. More later, when I come back to do some pruning in early July (about a month before flowering starts).

Wow I've ever heard of 5 of 5 seeds failing was it user error or just bad seeds and if so were u able to get a refund from the breeders at least ?

 

[Emeraldo]

Wow I've ever heard of 5 of 5 seeds failing was it user error or just bad seeds and if so were u able to get a refund from the breeders at least ?

Seeds were bad. Goes with the territory. I'm happy to have the six seedlings in the great shape they're in.

 

[Swagymcfly88]

Seeds were bad. Goes with the territory. I'm happy to have the six seedlings in the great shape they're in.

What breeder did u buy from?

 

[Emeraldo]

What breeder did u buy from?

The Jack Flash #5 were from Canna-Seed. I got them a year ago, but who knows? I wanted two Jack Flash fem plants, but none of them really sprouted. Two of them cracked but didn't come out. Germinating, I kept them in moist paper towels at 78-80 degrees F.
After two weeks I didn't have more time to waste, so I switched over to Spliff's Jack F1 and got two great seedlings in a day or two. I also had Sensi's Mexican Sativa from Canna-Seed last year, and 4 of the 5 were duds. The one plant I did get was awesome, though, and that more than makes up for the disappointment in the seeds that didn't sprout. Also, I might add that Canna-Seeds did respond to my complaint about the Mex-Sat duds by gifting me some nice seeds.
The Spliff's Jack F1 and White Widow, and Barney's G-13xHaze I got from Cannapot.at
The Strain Hunters White Strawberry Skunk was from Santyerbasi, and the Plant's Critical Mass was a freebie from Santyerbasi and this seed was the first to pop. I also got a free T-shirt. But the freebie that tops all of them is the 3 Jack Herer regular seeds Santyerbasi gave me along with my order of about EUR100.
So if you have good experiences with seedbanks, you go back...

 

[irie lion]

Hey @Emeraldo, nice setup and selection of genetics man!
I love a balcony grow, looking forward to see how this plays out

 

[Emeraldo]

Hey @Emeraldo, nice setup and selection of genetics man!
I love a balcony grow, looking forward to see how this plays out

Thanks irie lion! Welcome to my grow.

The setup is automatic at this point. They'll get about 1 gallon each twice a week. Water is on timers. Supersoil in the bottom 2/3 of each pot. In July I will top dress with some flowering food (Flower Girl by Dr. Earth).

The balcony faces North, so indirect light until about noon, then direct sunlight all afternoon. In July and August the sun is intense with temperatures in the 90s and even reaching 100 F (38 C).

Last year (same setup) I noticed the plants in the top row (at the railing) got riper sooner because of that 2-foot difference in when the sunlight hits them. Will watch this year too to see if this is true.

Never grown any of these strains before. Going to be interesting.

 

[irie lion]

Really awesome @Emeraldo - seems you've got it all planned out perfectly! i love an automated system. What was your yield from your last balcony grow? With all that light and your pot size i'm sure you will grow some monsters

 

[Emeraldo]

Irie lion, the two HSO Sour Diesel #2 plants in the 2018 balcony grow (same setup) were about 7 feet tall and in the end I harvested 5 mason quart jars full of that strain only. I also had two Female Seeds ICE plants that produced all together another 5 mason quart jars full. The fifth plant was an excellent strain from Female Seeds called Blueberry Cheesecake (which I got as a freebie) that produced one jar and it was wonderful (I would like to try Female Seeds' "Dreamberry" some day, a cross of the BC with a haze).

 

[Emeraldo]

So here's how the setup looked on the final day when all was done. 6 fabric pots 2/3 filled with supersoil were placed on a wire horsefencing support framework resting on various lengths of 4x4 construction timber that are laid within a 5x3 foot condenser drainage pan that drains out a hose to the yard below. That's the Infrastructure. Then all hoses were connected and placed on timers (two separate systems, in case one fails), each timer running once a week for 15 minutes, so the systems alternate on Sundays and Thursdays. Finally, I clamped some 2x6 boards to the railing top and nailed a piece of horsefencing to serve as support when the plants reach that height. It won't be long, yeah, yeah... These plants get more and more light the higher they reach.

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• Emeraldo
• May 19, 2019

sunny afternoon.jpg

• Emeraldo
• May 19, 2019

The White Strawberry Skunk is what GHS calls a Swiss landrace call Erdbeer (literally "strawberry"). Legend has it the breeder found the strain growing in a field of strawberries. Anyway, it's supposed to smell like strawberries somewhat, although I'm not sure about any of that. Will control with a Spliff's Strawberry just to make sure.

WSS @ 4 weeks.jpg

• Emeraldo
• May 19, 2019

White Strawberry Skunk @ 4 weeks.jpg

• Emeraldo
• May 19, 2019
• 2

 

[irie lion]

Love the look of the setup @Emeraldo!

 

[Emeraldo]

Ok, fans. Enough suspense...

Let's get down to it.

But wait, no, we're not there yet. Miles to go. It's only early July. But what? The babes are friggin over 5 feet, some are over 6 feet, one is almost 7 feet. What the f**k is going on?!

Oh, yeah, we're in friggin Calnifornica! Now that makes perfect sense,sorry!

Out front is GHS's version of the Swiss strain Erdbeer (Strawberry), aka Strain Hunter's "White Strawberry Skunk"

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• Emeraldo
• Jul 6, 2019

IMG_0947.jpg

• Emeraldo
• Jul 6, 2019

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• Emeraldo
• Jul 6, 2019

In the back row, from right to left: Spliff's Jack F-1 (sativa-looking pheno), Spliff's White Widow -- hard to tell these two apart -, and The Plant's Critical Mass, very tall and leafy at this point in time. Great stuff!

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• Emeraldo
• Jul 6, 2019

Next step will be to clear out the jungle below the stability screen, giving more light and airflow.

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• Emeraldo
• Jul 6, 2019

 

[big bud fan65]

How long have you actually been growing cannabis man..??

 

[big bud fan65]

This thread may help you produce more, those are nice tall plants but seem to be kinda stressed and ragged.. If you check out the Qaud thread it will help you out a ton with LST tactics and training in general in order to produce a lot more flowers... Last year was my first year and I had a ton of help from this site and My BIL... We had six plants and cured out over 8 lbs easy... Good start, just trying to help... I am somewhat a noob myself...
https://www.420magazine.com/community/threads/the-quadsquad-thread-a-community-for-quadlining.464769

 

[Emeraldo]

Thank you for your thoughts. Mine will start flowering in about 5 or 6 weeks. It's hard to say now whether they will produce 8 lbs. It's July. I'm glad you had such a great grow last year.

 

[Emeraldo]

I cleared out the light-starved leaves and branches below the wire fencing.

room to breathe, more light for the marigolds

• Emeraldo
• Jul 7, 2019

I cleared out the lowest branches and leaves to give better light and airflow

Here two photos show the full length of the grow. First, the left side, then the other...

July 5, 2019, nice color

• Emeraldo
• Jul 7, 2019

the grow has gone well without me being around; here the left end of the grow

the other half

• Emeraldo
• Jul 7, 2019

here a little more on the right side of the picture

I think I will top the tallest plant and clone the cutting.

big picture

• Emeraldo
• Jul 7, 2019

tallest plant front right is Swiss strain "Erdbeer" (strawberry) and is about 7 feet on July 5...

 

[Emeraldo]

...those are nice tall plants but seem to be kinda stressed and ragged..

Thanks Bigbud. I think the plants all have good color and have grown nicely over the past 6 weeks. They are healthy. They did have a heat wave a few weeks back, and that might be a stress factor, but I haven't seen any signs of stress. Ragged? I'm not sure what you are saying. To me, these are good-looking plants, wonderful color! Maybe the photos don't convey it well.

The ragged effect might be the look of the big one in front, the Strain Hunters' Erdbeer indica-leaning White Strawberry Skunk! yawow! Gotta hand it to her, she looks ragged because, unlike any of the other strains in this grow, the WSK has like huge side-branching, fewer but much stronger than usual -- maybe that is ragged. I had a plant like that last year, Sensi Jamaican Pearl, and the side-branching really benefitted from topping, or FIM-ing, as I thought I was doing but wasn't.

But this year these plants have basically grown themselves, I have not been around to fuss or obsess over them, they've had no training of any kind, just three months old and never been trained except the support given by the wire fencing. Now I've cleared out the density of the undergrowth, am thinking of topping the tallest plant and cloning the cutting for my neighbor.

 

[irie lion]

Ok, fans. Enough suspense...

Hey Emeraldo! Damn these girls took off! They're looking healthy to me. They sure stretched a lot!
Nice job on trimming the lower growth. I'm looking forward to see these girls produce their flowers!

 

[Emeraldo]

Hey Irie congrats on being elected MOTM!

Anyway, the girls were germinated first week of April and have been vegging along. The flowering stretch per se hasn't started yet, I think that will start in a week or two. But the nodes are alternating, so they are mature and ready to start flowering in about three weeks.

I topped the White Strawberry Skunk and Critical Mass and have two clones going. Will probably top the G-13 x Haze as well to keep it shorter and bushier and lower in the front row to let the sun more into the back row. Also, another reason to go shorter: the white butterfly is only attracted to highest bud sites (now have marigolds growing in most of the pots to repel the butterfly, too -- am curious if that will really work like they say).

Probably would consider trimming a bit more leaf material below the stabilizer-screen, the best bud will all be above that. The main stems will be naked poles (sort of like manifolding/mainlining), but my guess is the leaves above the wire fencing will be enough to support the plants going forward. Any thoughts?

 

[Emeraldo]

... They'll get about 1 gallon each twice a week. Water is on timers. Supersoil in the bottom 2/3 of each pot. In July I will top dress with some flowering food (Flower Girl by Dr. Earth).

The balcony faces North, so indirect light until about noon, then direct sunlight all afternoon. In July and August the sun is intense with temperatures in the 90s and even reaching 100 F (38 C).

Last year (same setup) I noticed the plants in the top row (at the railing) got riper sooner because of that 2-foot difference in when the sunlight hits them. Will watch this year too to see if this is true.

Never grown any of these strains before. Going to be interesting.

Noticed the Sun-Thurs stretch results in droopy leaves along about Thursday morning. Plants looking underwatered.

Conclusion: 15 minutes for each watering day Sun & Thurs no longer enough. The heat of the sun here is immense, and there is breeze every day. Dry conditions. The amount of water received in 15 minutes in mid-May or June 1 is a lot less than what is required in July or August. Even the marigolds looked like they were at death's door.

Droopy was new. I arrived on Thursday night and on Friday morning saw the plants were happy. They got the set 15 minutes of water again on Sunday, happy. But... four days later, on a Thursday morning in a week where 100 F is expected on Friday, all the plants -- cannabis and marigolds -- looked dry. The marigolds I thought were beyond help.

So I've upped the watering to 20 minutes 3 times a week: Sun, Tues, Thurs. That's twice the amount they got in May and June. I think it is about 1 generous gallon 3 times a week. I'll be back to check on them in August.