Jamaican Pearl

Emeraldo

Well-Known Member
I was looking for sativa strains that grow well in the european summer outdoors and ran across Sensi Seeds' Jamaican Pearl. My plan is if the plants can veg during July and early August, they'll start flowering in late August and September and finish by maybe the end of October. I know that is late but since I won't be able to harvest before October, I'll try a late bloomer. The alternative was no grow at all. Sensi states this strain can thrive in cooler temperatures, which is what they will get beginning in October.

So I germinated two seeds. The first popped within 36 hours and the other seed took two weeks to crack and push out its tap root. Both plants are now growing vigorously and doing well in my home-cooked organic soil.

I also wanted to find an outdoor potting technique that:
  • allows use of about 10 gallons of soil
  • does not require re-potting before flowering
  • provides good aeration of the soil and oxygen to the roots while at the same time...
  • retains moisture deep inside the pot, and
  • channels nutrition so that food can reach the roots more directly than in a traditional pot
Will post some photos as the summer progresses.

The first seedling was so vigorous I decided to try something I had not done before. The tap root outgrew the rooter within a day or two, and with that kind of vigor it seemed that root could use a lot of room. So I made an aeration cylinder about 12" tall and 3" in diameter, and filled it almost to the top with: good strong vegging soil in the bottom, milder soil in the middle, and gentle alfalfa-based starter soil / mulch surrounding the rooter nearer to the top of the cylinder. Water runs right through and lets the air into the soil. Here's how that looked. The two rubber pots in the background are where the cylinder will be embedded in vegging soil.

 
Before the seedling's taproot reached the bottom of the cylinder, I laid a layer of good strong vegging soil in the bottom of the orange rubber pot for the taproot to grow into. The black pot then fitted nicely into the orange pot, not too tight but just sitting on top of the soil in the orange pot. Finally, I inserted the cylinder containing the seedling into the black rubber pot -- directly over the hole I had cut in the bottom -- and filled in vegging soil around the cylinder in the pot until the black pot was almost full and the cylinder was about half deep in soil.

A good 4 or 5" of the cylinder sticks out above the level of the soil in the pot, so that the soil in the cylinder is exposed to air and water can run off and evaporate. As the seedling's roots reach the bottom of the cylinder, they will grow through the hole I cut in the bottom of the black rubber pot. The roots will grow deeper into the soil below the black rubber pot. At first that will be the soil in the bottom of the orange pot. Later, after the orange rubber pot is replaced, that will be much more soil in a 15-gallon pot. More on that below.

Throughout this grow, the soil around the outside of the cylinder will serve as a means to top-dress. At the moment, that soil is N-rich vegging soil. But this soil around the outside of the cylinder will, later in the season, be partially scooped out (without damaging the roots inside the cylinder) and replaced with soil containing flowering nutrients. When watered, those nutrients will trickle down into the lower part of the cylinder and feed the roots, flowing through the hole into the root zone.



 
In this setup, this 3 week old seedling has been growing for about ten days now, and entered vegetative mode and is now working on her third node. Today, it seemed to me it was time to make the big move if, and only if, the taproot had reached the bottom of the black rubber pot. I carefully checked and those roots were pushing out as expected.


 
After layering in about 5 inches of nutrient rich soil into a 15-gallon ceramic pot, I watered and gently set the black rubber pot containing the cylinder and seedling, roots protruding, down onto the soil, and filled in the the space around the black pot with soil, much like the space around the cylinder. For the most part, water will go into the soil inside the black rubber pot, which the most efficient way for nutrients to reach the roots. The water will flow down to the bottom of the black rubber pot and through the hole in the bottom into the root zone. Hope this works!


 
In the meantime, the second Jamaican Pearl has been coming along. She'll go into a 5-gallon setup along the same lines. Here she is today, repotted into a larger pot than before. It's a double pot with a bit of soil in between, just like the bigger one for the first JP.

 
Day 24 since starting germination: JP#1 in the big round 15-gallon pot is pushing out her third set of fan leaves. JP#2 (in the second photo) has a long way to catch up, but is also coming along nicely. Jamaican Pearl has a wider, rounder leaf shape and a lighter green color than say Purple Maroc (in the third photo).



 
Day 24 since starting germination: JP#1 in the big round 15-gallon pot is pushing out her third set of fan leaves. JP#2 (in the second photo) has a long way to catch up, but is also coming along nicely. Jamaican Pearl has a wider, rounder leaf shape and a lighter green color than say Purple Maroc (in the third photo).



Looking happs fam!
 
Probably 16 hours per day, sunlight, 10 hours direct. I don't know how mad it is, maybe this is normal for Jamaican Pearl. I've just not seen that before, all these little fan leaf sets popping out at the nodes. She's only a month from starting germination, but she sure is vigorous.
 
If you count the first single serrated leaf as node 1, then she is now at 5 nodes. Since I will fim her, I'll be taking out the tender growth that would be the 6th in the first three photos.

And next there's a shot of the second JP seedling, which is a straggler compared to the big JP since germination started at the same point, June 19, and she popped around July 4, and was slower. But she's vigorous enough now.

Finally after that the last photo is the lineup of the whole grow (minus the big JP). Two Purple Maroc S1 seeds popped right out, beautiful babes. The little one in the middle is a Mexican Sativa, also Sensi, took an eternity to pop, the only one of 5 seeds that did. We'll see what she becomes.





 
If you count the first single serrated leaf as node 1, then she is now at 5 nodes. Since I will fim her, I'll be taking out the tender growth that would be the 6th in the first three photos.

And next there's a shot of the second JP seedling, which is a straggler compared to the big JP since germination started at the same point, June 19, and she popped around July 4, and was slower. But she's vigorous enough now.

Finally after that the last photo is the lineup of the whole grow (minus the big JP). Two Purple Maroc S1 seeds popped right out, beautiful babes. The little one in the middle is a Mexican Sativa, also Sensi, took an eternity to pop, the only one of 5 seeds that did. We'll see what she becomes.





They look healthy as hell man keep doing what ya doing
 
Fimmed her 6th node growth last night. Two snips: one across the fan leaves about 30% up from the bottom to avoid damaging the four little incipient-like next nodes hidden under those fan leaves, and one snip directly on the center area to remove the apical growing tip. This morning looks like the fim did not slow her down, just some rough edges in the middle. Now am really curious about how the new nodes will take shape, how many colas there will be, their spacing, etc. My last season I fimmed a vigorous Purple Maroc and got four colas, and their weight was too much for the main stem, which split and needed taping and support, and probably was the source of the stress that caused her to pollinate herself and give me to get some S1 seeds. Not complaining, hey those PM seedlings are a stable pheno. Remind me of their mom. :D Love getting the bonus seeds, but will try to manage the weight on the stem better for the plant's well-being.
:green_heart:



 
Update time! JP#1 was "fimmed" four days ago. The word "fim" is often used as though it is a special technique, vague and unexplained. Magical. I thought it meant something like "cutting off 80% of new leaf material, while doing that, gouging off part of the growing tip". What I learned is this: It is unnecessary to cut the leaves. Cutting the leaves is not even part of it. All cutting the leaves does is making such an ugly mess out of the top of the plant and, even worse, depriving the plant of the photosynthesis and energy from those top leaves. All I needed to do was gently separate the new leaf material to find and snip off the growing point.

The best discussion I found on this is the thread by Green Cross on r o l l i t u p : FIM Tutorial (taking the guesswork out). The point is: "Fimming" is just a form of topping, but instead of cutting the main stem between nodes, you remove the apical growing point at the very tip of the stem itself, forcing the plant to redistribute growth hormones to all lower nodes, developed and undeveloped. Main difference: Topping, at just above say node #4, the plant will produce symmetrical branching because the two sides of node #4 are fully formed and opposite each other; they will support upward growth and branches in two directions. Whereas with fimming, the top nodes you'd normally expect to appear aren't yet fully developed and will probably be less symmetrical; normally growth in four directions.

In future, I will leave the new leaf growth alone. No mess, no loss of leaf.

Today, the emerging nodes beneath the fimmed leaves are more developed, and becoming visible. In the first photo is the big picture of JP#1. The second and third photos are close-ups of the new nodes. You can see the two below the larger fimmed leaves. The two still emerging under the smaller set of fimmed leaves are coming along.




Two other shots: One of JP#2, a candidate for LST in a circle. Second, the little Mexican Sat is slowly kicking into veg. Also for LST, thinking about training her up a lattice so she can get nice and tall before tying her top down.


 
Here some photos of Jamaican Pearl after fimming. Three times! She was so vigorous, she seemed to just ignore the fact that she'd been fimmed the first two times. Just kept right on growing. The third time slowed her down, and she has not been pushing much past the third fim yet. Below, my bigger Purple Maroc kicked into pre-flowering on Aug 12-13, and today, as shown in the photos further on below, PM has shown pistils clearly.






 
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