Jon's Outdoor Winter Photoperiod Grow

[Azimuth]

Btw - you quad, I get it, and it works great. But here’s a thought: quading is one thing, but the middle fills up much more quickly if you hex or octagon instead. Same exact idea and execution just doubling the amount of main branches in the canopy, which has obvious benefits. Did you see how quickly I’ve been able to create a fairly full and even canopy on the Tropicanna Banana? It took like a week! That was an octagon, utilizing the two shoots from the topping as two. By the time they reach the outer edge of the ring you’re almost ready. Just an idea for you. You likely already know and have done these things.

Yeah, for me each plant now gets 2.25 square feet of flower space (and that's up from 1.5), so space is tight. I can't have too much in the middle since middle is about all I have.

 

[Jon]

Mandarin Zkittlez
LeiLei
Flower Day 21

This girl is budding up nicely and has turned out to be more productive (from the looks of things) than I expected before flower. She’s a handsome lady. Also kind of a pain in the ass to drag around.

So far I have no male sex organs on this plant. I always worry about my dark spot when I do the outdoor grow. Does it allow too much negative ambient light? Is this plant going to hermie on me? It’s the best I can do for darkness overnight here, so it isn’t as if I have a choice. So far so good. Last winter’s outdoor grow I had one plant go hermie, and I caught it right away and it wasn’t a problem. But it’s such a waste. So I worry. Lol. Generally speaking I’m a relatively worry-free human being, but this one gnaws me. Lmao.

 

[Azimuth]

Last winter’s outdoor grow I had one plant go hermie, and I caught it right away and it wasn’t a problem. But it’s such a waste. So I worry. Lol. Generally speaking I’m a relatively worry-free human being, but this one gnaws me. Lmao.

There's probably some sort of specialized therapy you could get to help overcome that. Might need your medical card and a referral though..

 

[Jon]

There's probably some sort of specialized therapy you could get to help overcome that. Might need your medical card and a referral though..

Lol! I keep my old medical card as a trophy. Shedding myself from the need for it was one of the best decisions I ever made.

 

[Jon]

Mandarin Zkittlez
LeiLei
Flower Day 21

This girl is budding up nicely and has turned out to be more productive (from the looks of things) than I expected before flower. She’s a handsome lady. Also kind of a pain in the ass to drag around.

So far I have no male sex organs on this plant. I always worry about my dark spot when I do the outdoor grow. Does it allow too much negative ambient light? Is this plant going to hermie on me? It’s the best I can do for darkness overnight here, so it isn’t as if I have a choice. So far so good. Last winter’s outdoor grow I had one plant go hermie, and I caught it right away and it wasn’t a problem. But it’s such a waste. So I worry. Lol. Generally speaking I’m a relatively worry-free human being, but this one gnaws me. Lmao.

Very early baby frost!!! Never once seen that be a bad sign. Lol.

 

[Jon]

Is there anyone out there who has tried any of these terpene additives in their grow? I’d love it and others might be interested if anyone wishes to dish on the subject?? I’m not necessarily interested in trying them but am very curious about how effective (or not) they are.

 

[Jon]

Tropicanna Banana

Check out the pre pistilization on the TB. This is way more than I normally get - actually never seen a photo show this much of this before. She practically appears to be transitioning into flower. Odd. She’s telling me that she’s mature enough to go to flower whenever. Not sure of her age - not 40 days yet I don’t think - but this seems pretty clear. Guess she’ll go outside soonish.

 

[Jon]

Crescendo
Veg
Early Sombrero Quad Training

Ok, since I now know it’s repeatable and sustainable, we have given this particular training style the name Sombrero Quad Training. This is exactly how I trained the Watermelon WeddingCake monster from the last grow. It’s painfully easy and very effective in terms of creating yield, and it’s especially effective for outdoor flowering as the sun hits everything.

So all I do is absolutely nothing until
I top above the 5th node. That will give you your four towers up the middle, two from the topping and two from the 4th node below. You let those four grow straight up the whole time. Then you take the branches from the lower nodes and evenly spread them out - in this case I have an 8-cola ring spread out below. With side branching yet to come, this will be plenty to make an nice ring/lower “canopy,” and as the four tops grow out the side branching from them will fill in the sides between the towers and the lower canopy. Does that make sense? You end up with a gorgeous 4-tower Christmas tree with tons of buds. We saw just how effective this training is on the WWC of the last grow, yielding over 13 ounces (an auto!).

It’s hard to see in the picture. You gotta make ‘em ugly before you can make ‘em pretty!

Addendum to this post: I forgot to mention part of the idea in this training is that you get the end skeleton formed as quickly as you can. Once that’s achieved you can let it grow up as long as you have space for it to grow vertically. This allows for longer stems forming the base shape and creates the necessary side branching and nodes.

 

[Hafta]

Tropicanna Banana
Veg

Almost looking like a canopy!

@Jon
The quad is looking good!
You were right about me being a week or two ahead of yours. Mine will have veg'd eight weeks tomorrow. The canopy is getting thick and the plant has expanded 4" in diameter (width and height) in the past week. She is now 27" wide and 12" tall. I need to leave a few inches for training the first part of flower spread. I will probably flip tomorrow.

This is before today's training and defoliation. The stems you see will be trained down to the lower canopy. (the weights will be moved toward the tips) You can see more by magnifying.

Grow Happy

 

[Hafta]

Tropicanna Banana

Check out the pre pistilization on the TB. This is way more than I normally get - actually never seen a photo show this much of this before. She practically appears to be transitioning into flower. Odd. She’s telling me that she’s mature enough to go to flower whenever. Not sure of her age - not 40 days yet I don’t think - but this seems pretty clear. Guess she’ll go outside soonish.

Maybe I'm not so far ahead of you ......

 

[Emilya Green]

Tropicanna Banana

Check out the pre pistilization on the TB. This is way more than I normally get - actually never seen a photo show this much of this before. She practically appears to be transitioning into flower. Odd. She’s telling me that she’s mature enough to go to flower whenever. Not sure of her age - not 40 days yet I don’t think - but this seems pretty clear. Guess she’ll go outside soonish.

I have to be careful, in Missouri that is a flowering plant

 

[Jon]

@Jon
The quad is looking good!
You were right about me being a week or two ahead of yours. Mine will have veg'd eight weeks tomorrow. The canopy is getting thick and the plant has expanded 4" in diameter (width and height) in the past week. She is now 27" wide and 12" tall. I need to leave a few inches for training the first part of flower spread. I will probably flip tomorrow.

This is before today's training and defoliation. The stems you see will be trained down to the lower canopy. (the weights will be moved toward the tips) You can see more by magnifying.

Grow Happy

Damn. Such density!

 

[Jon]

I have to be careful, in Missouri that is a flowering plant

I hear you @Emilya Green!I checked the damn seed packet twice to make sure it didn’t say auto! This does look a bit extreme doesn’t it? In person the plant looks every bit like it’s going into flower. How that would be possible with a photo on a constant 20/4 light cycle is beyond me. I suppose it’s just the tiniest bit possible that TB auto seeds got put in a TB photo pack by the good folks at Barney’s Farm, but the odds of that are infinitesimal at best. So I dunno. This strain is all over the forum and has been grown a lot by people. Maybe it’s a strain thing? If this plant starts to make actual buds I literally won’t know how to proceed. Lmao!

 

[Jon]

Maybe I'm not so far ahead of you ......

Yeah @Hafta - think I’m reading it correctly? It literally looks like it’s going into flower as if it were an auto. I’m guessing it’s just a strain thing and a sign that she wants to flower?

 

[Hafta]

Yeah @Hafta - think I’m reading it correctly? It literally looks like it’s going into flower as if it were an auto. I’m guessing it’s just a strain thing and a sign that she wants to flower?

Looks like an auto to me although every one I grew ( 3 so far, ) started flowering after three or four weeks.
I agree with @Emilya Green , that is a flowering plant. I would be very happy if I was growing regular seeds.

 

[Jon]

I’ve gotten autos from BF before. They say Auto on them. This is unquestionably a photo. Here’s a picture of the seed pack. I am absolutely 100% certain they are not auto seeds.

But then I see this and I’m like wtf?

Does anyone have a theory on this?

 

[Azimuth]

This strain is all over the forum and has been grown a lot by people. Maybe it’s a strain thing? If this plant starts to make actual buds I literally won’t know how to proceed. Lmao!

Sort of related, I have an old clone sitting in my "Limbo Land" area in my veg space that is subject to low water, low watt light (on 18-6), and almost no nutes, and I noticed it threw pistils a while back and now has gone to full little popcorn buds. I guess she got tired of waiting for me.

But mine is a very old clone and I can totally see where it would be frustrated, though I've never had one bud on me in the veg space. Your's throwing pisitls that early, hmmm...

 

[Jon]

Sort of related, I have an old clone sitting in my "Limbo Land" area in my veg space that is subject to low water, low watt light (on 18-6), and almost no nutes, and I noticed it threw pistils a while back and now has gone to full little popcorn buds. I guess she got tired of waiting for me.

But mine is a very old clone and I can totally see where it would be frustrated, though I've never had one bud on me in the veg space. Your's throwing pisitls that early, hmmm...

The most logical conclusion is that it’s an auto. But I know what I bought and I’ve even given a few of these seeds away to friends who grew them out and they were photos. So it’s a mystery. Fortunately a short one. It’ll either start to have actual buds in a couple days or it’ll keep growing and just do this. I don’t see any other possible outcomes.

 

[Hafta]

If it is a photo and on 20/4 won't it reveg?

 

[Hafta]

I was refilling the peroxide in preparation of flower and thought I'd shoot a photo of the roots. It's hard to show the density or depth of these but they are eating/drinking 2 gallons per day.