Medical Marijuana Grow Strain - Ketama Northern Moroccan 100% Indica

[WildStrains]

I am a medical marijuana patient in Colorado.

I grow landrace strains, both indica and sativa. My favorites to grow are Ketama or Afghan Kush(indica) and Wild Thai or South African (Sativa).

I selectively breed the plants to encourage characteristics that I like. I harvest the seeds, and make bubble hash from the trichomes.

I have always been a fan of landrace varieties, and with the budding marijuana market in the state they are becoming extremely difficult to find, especially the Sativa's.

Marijuana is not a native plant to Colorado. There was a window when Medical Marijuana was first made legal when the State accepted and registered varieties, after that period closed, dispensaries where no longer able to buy seeds from out of state.

Current law today is that a dispensary in Colorado must buy seeds from another dispensary in Colorado. Makes me wonder how many strains are essentially locked out of the state.

I run a T5's on veg and and LED for flowering.

It's a low cost setup and never has any heat issues. My grow setup was designed to be a very low maintenance system.

I can leave my system for up to 2-3 weeks at a time and it basically runs itself.

I am starting this journal 4 weeks into the grow.

I am growing Ketama, this is a great variety for pain, and for insomnia.

THC is usually 14-17%. CBD levels lands between 4-5%

 

[WildStrains]

 

[WildStrains]

1st Photo is about 2 weeks after planting the seed.
2nd Photo is the Indica Tent, have 1 hybrid in the tent (behind the cloner) that is a Afghan Kush/South African Sativa cross that was crossed back with Afghan Kush a couple of times.

 

[WildStrains]

Watering system.

15 gallon drinking water tank, submersible pump hooked into a drip system on a timer.

Roughly a gallon per watering cycle. Lasts almost a month when topped off. Nutrient rich water is sprayed around plants prior to watering.

I am on a well that is dug into an aquifer fed by fresh snow melt. The PH of the water is good coming out of the faucet.

I work a lot and frequently travel for my job, the low maintenance in comparison to hydroponics made this setup ideal.

If I leave for a week or two I have a secondary system that I hook up that provides nutrients just before watering while I am gone.

Call me lazy but the low maintenance is what I love about growing in soil...

 

[WildStrains]

Run dual 2ft 8 bulb T5 ballasts in the veg.

Start with only 8 bulbs on at a time until around 3-4 weeks. Each ballast has two switches, I change the section that is on about twice a week until I am running on all 16.

Generally switch to 16 bulbs around the time the 3rd set of leaves are fully formed.

 

[WildStrains]

With these pure indica strains I generally top twice on this sized grow, and start LST away from the center of the tent when they are about 3/4 of the way to the SOG net. Once they hit the net I train them back to the center.

This strain has averaged about 8-10 weeks before hitting the net in the past.

I currently have topped 5 of the 6 Ketama's, I have one that is slightly behind the others, will top that one next week.

I generally give them a week or two to recover then top for the second time, depends on the vertical growth rate. This strain is naturally bushy so two weeks in generally about the right time.



The hybrid I am working with still has some of the Thai Sativa stretch so I will get fancy with the SOG weave and LST. I put the cloner in front of it so I can train it to the back of the tent, then weave it to the front.

I am trying to breed out some of the stretch. Right now it is running just under 2x Ketama's internodal length. This is actually an improvement over its predecessor who was running 2.5-3X.

 

[WildStrains]

Started LST on the Hybrid. Looks like I am going to have to train in to the front of the tent, then train it back to the tent. Hence the pink string running over the cloner.

Took a picture with the light dropped into their normal position on Veg. About 2-3 Inches above the plants.

This indica strain is a slow vertical growing strain, that 2-3 inches needs to be raised ever 3-4 days.

Fans are at the bottom of the tent circulating the warm air to the top to the exhaust.

This strain has one of the most strongest odors on any strain I grow. Even in veg the odors are getting to the point where I am considering installing my carbon filter. In flower the filter that is a must.

I don't want my house smelling like my flower tent...

Well, okay my wife does not want my house smelling like a flower tent.

 

[WildStrains]

Snowed in, so I decided to switch the veg light setup to LED.

I have a had success with the T5's in the past, so I have never ran the LED in veg.

The light I have is a 450 Watt LED, and has dual Veg/Bloom settings. Does well in flower, with both lights on, we will see how it does in just veg mode.

I'm interested to see how it works in comparison to the T5's.

I will have to wait and see.

 

[WildStrains]

The LEDs increased light output definitely put the plants in a shocked state, for a couple of days. The plants circadian rhythm definitely had to do adjust.

The first two days the plants would start to droop around hour 12-13 in their light cycle. They had absorbed as much light as they were going to for the day. After the dark periods they would be straighten up and ready for the light again.

This took about 3 days to before the circadian rhythm normalized. After the plants had adjusted there was a noticeable increase in the plants growth rate.

So far I am impressed with the LED in veg.

The light may be a little intense for early stage plants, but for this stage in the veg game the LED works great.

 

[WildStrains]

A good organic soil premix or custom mix is a great start and cuts the extra nutrients that the plants need.

There really are only two times in the plant cycle when I give the plants additional nutrients more "aggressively".

I generally with give a nitrogen rich nutrient water solution when around the 2nd/3rd set of fan leaves to stimulate veg growth, and starting a few days after you put your lights to 12-12, to stimulate the formation of budding sites.

I add nutrients 1-2 times a week with a spray bottle.

I don't grow bud for resale, so my yields don't set records. But I do fairly well.

I have had quite a lot of over nutrient/not properly flushed bud in Colorado. If I owned a dispensary I would be more aggressive with the nutrients to try to maximize my yields.

I grow my own medicine, my focus has been low maintenance, high quality grows. I have a medical license that allows me to grow 25 plants. With 25 plants yields are not an issue...


Whenever I get a premix, I always throw the bags in the chest freezer for a week or so. If I am doing a winter grow I will let it freeze for a week or two.

I have never had bug infestations with premixes, I know quite a few people that have had bug issues, and freezing seems help.

This is not something that I know to be true, but so far it has worked for me.

I have recommended it to some growers I know and it seems to have worked for them as well.

 

[WildStrains]

Sorry for not posting. I went to Europe for 2.5 weeks.

Filled up the watering tank, and the nutrient tank, (separate systems), checked by timers and left. Had a great trip!

System worked great, came back to some monsters. Probably over vegged a bit, but with the net and some training that will just increase my yield.

No hydro grower I know can leave for 20 days without worry. Those of you who are interested in setting up a cheap low maintenance system let me know and I will walk you through it.

The plants had grown up to the net.

Started training the plants into the net. Did a nice little lollipop trim, for ventilation during flowering.

Flipped lights to flower.

We are 2 days into flower and are seeing some nice formations.

I kept 1 male plant in the tent to harvest some seeds.

Countdown to harvest

I will post some pictures later.

 

[WildStrains]

Here we are after I got back. Plants Vegged almost to the light. lol

 

[WildStrains]

After Training the plants into the Net Same Day. Looks Ugly!

 

[WildStrains]

Here we are 3 days later. 3 Days into Flower. Looking Much better!

 

[David Bowman]

Hope all is well in your world.

Is this grow still alive?

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I am moving this to Abandoned Journals until we get updates.

Sending you lots of love and positive energy.