Golden Tiger 3rd Version Journal - Seed 1

[Nine Toed Hippie]

Nice job Rasterman.

NTH

 

[Rasterman]

I planted seed #2 a few days ago. I had put some seedlings outside and they were doing better than the seedlings inside, so I decided to put my new seedling out too. When I got home today it had dried out and was completely prone.

I brought it back inside and watered it but don't know whether it lived or not.

 

[Rasterman]

I figured that it didn't survive, so I dug it up and #2 is definitely dead. With 3 seeds left, that was a pricy mistake. Live and learn!
Not to be deterred, I put #3 on to soak today.

I keep forgetting to let you know that I did have a surviving clone from #1 and it was the apical stalk, so it's still branching symmetrically. I'm going to clone it the same way as many times as I can. As soon as I know a clone from her is alive I'll put her on a flowering schedule. She won't be ready for that for another week, but she is putting on new growth.

For cloning, typically I put each clone in its own baggie and open the bag daily and fill it with air like a balloon. That method works pretty well, usually. This time if you recall, I took the clones the day after a two week absence and the mother was stressed.

Twice I have put clones in a pod and stuck it in a pot with soil. Then I put a large baggy over the whole thing. The first time I did that, my clone rooted faster than the other clones in baggies. This clone was made using the pot method and was the only surviving clone so I'm making it my standard.

FWIW, I have also used a covered cloner and had poor rates of rooting all three times. Now I know what works for me.

 

[Rasterman]

Here she is - in stretch. I've been bending down the taller colas but think it's time to just let it go. I don't think it's going to grow more than another 18" but we'll have to see....

 

[Rasterman]

Weekend update and 28 days from flip. She's technically stretching, but I now feel she's not going to gain a lot of height.

 

[Rasterman]

Weekly update, day 35 from flip:

She's fattening up and still growing vertically but much slower than expected. I bumped her from 11 hour days to 12 hours because according to Ace, 12 hours can cause too much stretch and stretch is what I was expecting and hoping for.

Also this past week she started dropping fan leaves at an alarming rate, to me. I had a thick layer of rice hulls on top and I had covered it with a sheet of reflective mylar a few weeks ago. I wonder whether breakdown of the rice hulls is making nitrogen unavailable so I removed the mylar for a few days to see if it helps. I know there is an excess of nitrogen because I had this soil tested before flipping her to flower.

I started with a foliar spray of light nutrients and some minerals yesterday morning and the bud sites are greener now. Hopefully I've arrested the loss of fan leaves if that isn't normal for this pheno.

 

[Rasterman]

Almost six weeks from flip. For the past 10 days or so, leaves started yellowing and falling off rapidly. A few days ago I started seeing symptoms of magnesium deficiency. I ordered some calmag but haven't received it yet, so Thursday I started spraying it with Epsom Salts and it has greened up really nicely.

It's also finally stretching. It's supposed to stretch for a long time, so I'm still hoping to use all my vertical and horizontal space.

 

[Rasterman]

I added a second light. I'm starting at 90%, which is an increase in wattage from 220 to almost 400.

I've got to get some better hangers - it's a bit lopsided in this picture but I've jerry-rigged a way to keep the new light level for now.

I didn't realize how much her buds have grown in just a couple of days! So here's some eye candy for you...

 

[Rasterman]

~7 weeks from flip, and almost exactly two months from finish.

It's not growing as fast as I'd like. When I went on travel this summer for a couple of weeks, it grew right into the light. I suspect my amendment and reuse of living soil caused some nute problems. I think the chicken poop I added at that time was a bridge too far.

But she's still green, and I think I managed to arrest the leaf loss before it affected the buds. But clearly, the problem has affected growth. If I don't get a handle on this, I'm not sure I'll get that monster harvest I was hoping for.

She looks marginally larger than she did last week.

Here are a few closeups.

 

[Rasterman]

Buds are getting really frosty. If I didn't know better, I'd think this was an 8-week strain. If it is, I just might have found my unicorn, because it's supposed to take longer to flower. Most of the trichs are fully or mostly cloudy, so I'm perplexed because it seems too far along for a sativa.

(Zoom in to see how frosty she is.)

Pistils come out then turn brown like they're pollinated, very quickly. (I haven't seen any balls and there isn't a pollen source anywhere here.) I'll have to take a closeup of a bud and check the same pistils every day to see how long it takes to brown, but it's faster than anything else I grew that wasn't being pollinated.

Buds are lengthening and fattening but no stretch. I don't think I'll see more than 4 oz, but with the long trip I took while she was in veg, the lack of stretch could be caused by neglect early on and not giving her time to recover. I have one clone and as soon as I can take some clones from it I'm going to run her again in a 7 gallon pot and train her out flat - then let her get halfway to the light before flip. If the second run stretches too much, I'll adjust but either way, I'll expect more from that run than I do now.

I noticed the buds at the back of the tent are growing better than those in the front. When taking pictures I turned down the cobs and found out that the light to the back didn't have its flower boosters on. Oops! So I turned off the booster on the other light to see if that was why.

Here's a purplish bud:

Ok, just one more...

 

[Rasterman]

I talked to Ace Seeds and they said it's possible for it to finish in as little as 70 days. They think she's probably about two weeks from done (which would be 70 days) and that too much heat might have hastened her along. So I'm thinking that the recommendation if you want to grow real sativa, at least for this pheno, is 12/12 or even 11 dark hours - which is where I start next flip.

I hope she's not finished in two weeks because that would mean a relatively dismal harvest. Also, I've read on several sites that when you're pheno-hunting sativas, the fast-running phenos aren't as psychedelic and old-school awesome as the ones that take longer.

When I run her next time it's going to be in Fox Farms or Buildasoil. I'll save my homemade half and half mix for less important grows. I prefer Buildasoil but it's a 250 mile drive for me or very expensive shipping. So it'll probably be Fox Farm. I believe my local grow store carries it.

So far there isn't much amber to consider, so I'm hoping they're wrong. My master grower son says it looks like it's just about finished too, though.

 

[Rasterman]

I've been thinking...

Today is day 53, or week 7 + 4 days.

This is where I normally harvest. I was going to wait until I got a good smattering of amber, but that's not what I normally do. All cloudy and any amber at all is usually my cue. Also I was told yesterday that Sativas can go amber very quickly sometimes and I've been spending all my time at work lately. I don't want to miss the window.

A lot of the buds already have a bit of amber. So it's ready as far as I'm concerned. Therefore, I'll be chopping this weekend. I have seedling #3 and a clone of this one. So I'll be running her again by the end of September, and this time I know exactly how to grow this pheno.


I'm not ready to close this thread yet. I'll be posting until cure and smoke test on this thread. - - stay tuned! But I'll be starting a new thread when I start the clone.

I look at these trichomes and they just scream "harvest!" at me (pictures below).

Normally, I'd be super-excited. And I really should be, I mean 53 days is phenomenal. If I run the clone and it finishes just as fast, I'm still going to have a massive harvest. Along with a bona-fide unicorn.

Because recap: I was out of town for over two weeks and nobody took care of her. She grew into the light and instead of bending her over I chopped the main cola she had put all her hopes in. Then I put her to flower a few days later. So she did what she could. If I had handled that differently I'd have one massive cola and a whole lot of fodder for extract.

I am still excited to see how psychoactive these buds are. I'm expecting a lot.

 

[TorturedSoul]

Are those trichomes in the pictures on the actual flowers, or on the little leaves by the flowers? If they're the ones that are on the flowers, I'd be tempted to harvest at least a sample bud soon. Unless it's still actively producing new flowers, then it would be a judgment call. There do seem to be some that haven't gone milky yet.

 

[Rasterman]

Are those trichomes in the pictures on the actual flowers, or on the little leaves by the flowers? If they're the ones that are on the flowers, I'd be tempted to harvest at least a sample bud soon. Unless it's still actively producing new flowers, then it would be a judgment call. There do seem to be some that haven't gone milky yet.

Some fan leaves got into the picture. My $45 handheld microscope makes it hard to be as selective as I'd like but I took a lot of pictures. There are only rare clear trichomes overall, but my understanding is that clears won't completely disappear with some sativas.

Thank you for asking the question though. I'll reevaluate this weekend before making my final decision whether to chop or not.

It's not really growing the way it should. I'm afraid I screwed up this grow, but now I know exactly how to grow the next one.

 

[Rasterman]

She's chopped. Day 54. I think yield will be just under 3 oz., which is pretty dismal compared to what I was expecting. Wait for the clone grow though, because I know exactly how to grow her now.

Early results are encouraging. A bud dried out in the microwave convinced me that now is a good time to harvest. It's extremely potent, creative, awe-inspiring, both uplifting and relaxing with no ceiling, just like they said. And great for music appreciation. It's very close to what I'm looking for in an old-school sativa. There were occasional moments of minor nervousness but they weren't very bad and passed quickly. Mostly I remember thinking how smooth the experience was.

The other person testing it treats insomnia with cannabis, which usually provides 3-4 hours of sleep before having to redose. This person reported sleeping for the entire night.

I was thinking 100 days because at aceseeds.org they said 11-14 weeks (77-98) days. I assumed the lower end was hype and decided to shoot for 100 days. It's still a couple of weeks shy of the earlier part of the range.

I can't wait to see how the other phenos finish.

 

[Mike Wright]

Hope all is well in your world.

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