Outdoor Organic Balcony Stealth Quadlining: White Widow/Gorgonzola

[InTheShed]

Great short and long answers!

BT is active for 5-7 days, but the unscented Castille soap spray works on contact. So I would use that and then use the BT the following day, then wait 4-5 days and spray the Castille again, followed by the BT.

Take one of those bugs and spray it with the Castille spray and see if it dies first, because I'm not familiar with that bug, but you're on the opposite side of the world!

BT info source:

EARTH-KIND Gardening | Archives | Aggie Horticulture

aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu

 

[McRib]

Mate, that looks like an aphid. Can't be sure though. If it is aphids then a bit of neem oil and soap mixed with water and sprayed all over should get them under control. I get them in my veggie patch

 

[InTheShed]

If they're aphids I'd go with the castille soap. Less oily, no neem smell on the flowers, and neem can brown pistils I hear. I try to stay away from it in flower.

 

[Stunger]

I am just putting aside my current bug infestation for the moment to go off on a tangent..

Drought Stress to increase THCa and CBDa concentration

I happened upon a posting by @Maritimer who mentioned this in a thread of his titled Exceptionally High FECO Yields What fascinated me was the parallel with my very first plant that I grew on this balcony. It was grown in a small ceramic pot of about 15 liters, and it would get quite dried out each day when it was hot and sunny, regularly I saw it wilting. I'd water it and it'd recover. This was bag seed, so I do not know it's genetics. However once harvested, dried and cured, it proved to be amazingly sticky, to this day it remains the stickiest bud I have grown, and not just that, it gave a really strong resulting high. It was really top notch. But the interesting thing was the bag of bud that it was found in was nowhere near that sticky nor gave anywhere near the same quality of high, it was quite average! I wondered whether the heat and drought stress it received caused it to produce more trichomes or stickier trichomes to withstand the drought conditions. Anyway, I followed up on Maritimer's posting and thought I'd cut n paste some of Caplan/Dixon and Zheng's research article from the American Society for Horticulture Science. As in their testing they obtained a 12% increase in THCa levels and 13% in CBDa levels. It is long and wordy and I am not sure if I am allowed to post the link so I will just paste a few of the interesting bits that give the gist of it, as below...

The historic prohibition of cannabis has stunted scientific research on its production, leaving growers to rely on guides and online resources based heavily on anecdotal information. In the past decade, the regulations surrounding cannabis production and use, especially for medicinal purposes, have become increasingly liberalized in North America and in some parts of Europe, allowing research in this field.

The essential oil of female cannabis inflorescences gives the crop its value as a medicinal and recreational product; these oils are concentrated mostly in glandular trichomes and contain a diverse array of secondary metabolites, including a class of meroterpenoid compounds known as phytocannabinoids. Some cannabinoids, including THC and CBD, have been widely studied for their psychoactive and medicinal properties

Drought stress timing is also essential to minimize dry weight losses and maximize essential oil yield and the concentration of secondary metabolites. The cannabis life cycle includes two growth stages, vegetative and flowering, which are controlled by photoperiod. A short-day photoperiod (≈12 h) triggers flowering that may last ≈7 to 12 weeks depending on cultivar and growing conditions. Cannabinoids accumulate mostly during the flowering stage, but the timing of peak cannabinoid concentration varies by chemotype and cultivar. Drug-type varieties of chemotype I have a high THCA:CBDA ratio (>1.0), whereas varieties of chemotype II have an intermediate ratio (generally 0.5−2.0). For chemotype I, peak THCA concentration is approximately week 9 of the flowering stage, and for chemotype II, the peak is approximately week 7. Peak CBDA in chemotype I is approximately week 11 of the flowering stage; in chemotype II, it varies minimally from week 8 onward.

In the present study, drought stress was applied to a chemovar II cultivar during week 7 of the flowering stage. It was hypothesized that controlled drought stress may be a valuable tool for growers to improve the quality of their cannabis crops. The objective was to evaluate the effects of drought stress on inflorescence dry weight and cannabinoid content and yield in cannabis.

The drought treatment elicited a 12% increase in THCA concentration and a 13% increase in CBDA concentration but had no effect on the concentrations of the other detected cannabinoids (Table 3, top). Drought had substantial effects on cannabinoid yield, expressed as grams of cannabinoid from inflorescences per unit growing area (g·m−2). In the drought treatment, THC yield was 50% higher, THCA yield was 43% higher, CBD yield was 67% higher, and CBDA yield was 47% higher than in the control

To our knowledge, this was the first evaluation of the effects of controlled drought stress on cannabis; although, as previously described, drought can increase essential oil yield in some herbaceous crops. In drought-stressed sage, essential oil and monoterpene yield can increase up to 281%, respectively, over a well-watered control. Likewise, in curly-leafed parsley grown under drought stressed conditions, plants were smaller but had higher oil concentrations than the well-watered control.

Conclusions
This study suggested that controlled drought stress can increase the concentration of the major cannabinoids THCA and CBDA and the yield of THCA, CBDA, THC, and CBD in chemovar II cannabis without reducing inflorescence dry weight and irrespective of decreased Pn. These results were achieved by gradually drying the substrate over 11 d until plant WP (water potential) reached approximately −1.5 MPa during week 7 in the flowering stage. Comparable results can be expected using leaf wilting as a drought-stress indicator with fertigation triggered at a leaf angle 50% higher than in its turgid state. This method for administering drought stress and the results of this study should be applicable for similar varieties of chemovar II cannabis; however, other chemovars or varieties may respond differently.

Anyway, just posted that in case anyone else finds it of interest. And cheers for Maritimer for first highlighting this!

 

[InTheShed]

Nice summary Stunger! Thanks for posting it.

 

[Emeraldo]

Really interesting, Stunger! So there is a dual effect of applying "controlled drought conditions" in flowering: the plant will contain less water at harvest and dry more quickly, plus increased THCA.

Do you have any ideas on what a good method for getting this effect of increased THCA would be? Seems the key element is the size of the container, as you point out.

When -- what week of flowering -- would you think is the best time to start denying the plant water? My guess would be to water plentifully up to week 5 and then impose a drought for the last weeks.

It is already common practice to let the plant dry out several times during flowering, and to stop watering altogether about 2 weeks before harvest. Maybe that can be moved to 3 weeks before harvest with good effect.

Thanks again. How are your quadgirls doing? Photos, please!

 

[Emeraldo]

If they're aphids I'd go with the castille soap. Less oily, no neem smell on the flowers, and neem can brown pistils I hear. I try to stay away from it in flower.

Hi Shed, liked your links to the "no flush club", some good myth-busting stuff there.

Speaking of busting myths, is there really any evidence of any health hazard stemming from using neem oil on cannabis flowers? I've been using neem oil mixed with a tbsp of potassium soap during flowering with success for years. This last grow I had a few fan leaves chomped but this mix really kept the pests under control. No aphids, no mites, no white butterfly, no caterpillars.

So what's not to love? The Neem Oil General Fact Sheet says neem oil breaks down in about 2.5 days, which was a lot quicker than I originally thought. Regular applications are needed, but at that breakdown rate the neem would not seem to pose any problem to humans... only to other, much smaller critters who eat the freshly sprayed leaf material.

I do try to avoid drenching the flowers, just drenching both sides of the leaves. But I've looked hard over the years for some scientific info on a human health hazard and found none.

 

[InTheShed]

Hi Shed, liked your links to the "no flush club", some good myth-busting stuff there.

Speaking of busting myths, is there really any evidence of any health hazard stemming from using neem oil on cannabis flowers? I've been using neem oil mixed with a tbsp of potassium soap during flowering with success for years. I understand it breaks down in a few weeks, so regular applications are needed. And I do try to avoid drenching the flowers. But I've looked hard over the years for some scientific info on a human health hazard and found none. Neem Oil General Fact Sheet

It seems neem oil is fully digestible and passes right through...

Thanks Emeraldo! One of the problems we cannabis folks have is that very little of what folks use on plants is tested for being ignited and inhaled . Almost all research is done on food crops, and burning changes the chemical composition of almost everything.

I don't know if there are any health effects to ingesting or burning neem, but I do know that some folks say they can taste it when smoked, and it can brown the pistils, and it doesn't wash off all that well. If it breaks down in a few weeks then using it up to a few weeks before harvest seems like it would be okay though. I like to stick with stuff I know will come off in the wash water, so I use castille soap spray in flower (along with Spinosad or BT for caterpillars).

I would probably use potassium soap alone (like Safer's brand), but since I use so much I would be spending my retirement income on it!

 

[Stunger]

Really interesting, Stunger! So there is a dual effect of applying "controlled drought conditions" in flowering: the plant will contain less water at harvest and dry more quickly, plus increased THCA.

Do you have any ideas on what a good method for getting this effect of increased THCA would be? Seems the key element is the size of the container, as you point out.

When -- what week of flowering -- would you think is the best time to start denying the plant water? My guess would be to water plentifully up to week 5 and then impose a drought for the last weeks.

It is already common practice to let the plant dry out several times during flowering, and to stop watering altogether about 2 weeks before harvest. Maybe that can be moved to 3 weeks before harvest with good effect.

Thanks again. How are your quadgirls doing? Photos, please!

When I read @Maritimer 's posting it was very interesting to me too, and more so, as if you remember I have from time to time reminisced over the first plant that I grew here. That it came from fairly ordinary bag seed where the dried buds it came with were ok but absolutely nothing special or outstanding. Yet the result was outstanding, the buds were airy but the most rigid sugar leaves I have seen, they were stiff with 'substance', and the stickiest buds I have grown. I speculated whether this was from the heat and drought stress that the plant was getting in it's small container, i.e. the container size was heating up in the sun and the daily watering was rapidly used up so by the end of the day the plant was presumably having to produce more of the good stuff to help it combat the drought stress. I also speculated on whether the layer of scoria lava rocks in the bottom of the pot contributed to this. And it quite possible helped too, but now I feel my original thoughts on what can be summed up by the description of 'drought stress' was probably the main contributing factor. It is interesting too, as popular wisdom often would have you believe that the resulting bud quality is all down to genetics. Well, I think we all have genetics but different gene characteristics will be expressed depending on what environmental and nutritional factors (and others) are present, e.g. in humans people who lived to long lives in Japan when they moved to Hawaii and their kids took up the western american diet it triggered sometimes unwanted genes expression that caused a bunch of health problems and much shorter lifespans. So to me it is clear that there is more at play than just genetics that will produce plants like the breeder's pictures. We know that doesn't happen. When good experienced growers use seeds with great genetics then they will tend to grow out amazing looking plants, but when beginners grow them with too much of this or not enough of that, the resulting plants can look anything but like the ones pictured on the seed packet!

Reading thru the excerpts of that research article, the authors make note of other herbaceous plants where oil production has been increased dramatically by employing drought stress.

The other interesting observation I made from looking thru pics of my 2 plant grow last year. The 2 plants were struggling nutritionally, but the WW struggled the most, I was wanting to wait until I got 20 - 30% amber trichomes before harvesting so I let the plant continue until April 21st. The last couple of weeks it was actually dying in the container, you could see the plant browning off more than the Gorgonzola. However, the WW after drying/curing gave the stronger high. Yes, it may have been from the 'genetics', but also it may have been contributed to by the drought stress.

This brings me to another thought. @nickeluring speaks highly of drying the whole plant even retaining some root mass in doing so. (I am running out of time otherwise I would go look for his post) but he feels when drying the whole plant that when dried the plant is almost cured too. And for the first few days drying the plant in the light it continues to carry out photosynthesis before he would then continue to dry but in the dark.

Anyway, and I am rushing here as I have to go out soon. In the research article the authors carried out a test of 11 days of drought stress at about week 7 of flowering. But it is hard to find the equivalent in one's own grow, as it is tricky to determine just how many weeks of flowering one's plant will require and therefore it is tricky to know how many to go at a given point (as you found out with your Arjan's Haze #1 last grow). I have gone over my pics from last year's grow and seen how the buds noticeably thickened at the middle of March, and really start to increase from around March 21st to maybe April 5th. I am keen to try drought stressing this grow, the question is when to start, my feeling is that I want to let the buds form close to their maximum size first so I don't stunt that potential yield, so any drought stress carried out doesn't inhibit potential bud growth. So my feeling at the moment is to let the plants grow with adequate watering until the end of March, maybe up until April 2nd or 3rd, and then stop watering until I get fan leaves drooping and at that point endeavor to give them the bare minimum of water for the next 2 - 2.5 weeks, maybe 3 weeks, and see what happens. My feeling in that this could also come into line with what @nickeluring is doing with his whole plant drying, that if I water only to the absolute minimum just enough to keep them alive that perhaps then it will provoke the plant to express it's genetic potential to make itself more sticky with THCa and CBDa compounds in it's attempt to survive the drought conditions that have been imposed upon it.

This is all just speculative at the moment, that is as far as I have thought it through. But I had that initial experience of growing out some bag seed that was ordinary, and yet it was completely different from it's mother weed, it's resulting high far surpassed it's mother. And speaking of mothers, it is interesting with my 2 plants grown last year, of how ordinary and unspecial they were. Surely if speaking of genetics anyone would say, they look nothing special, and probably have crap genetics, and I would have agreed. Yet those 2 ordinary looking plants were the mothers of this year's plants! And I think anyone looking at this year's crop would perhaps think that they have pretty good genetics, but actually a lot of it I feel is down to the growing conditions/environment that have caused different genes to express themselves with a completely different and better appearance than how their mothers looked last season. Anyway I'm rushed, there's probably lots of spelling mistakes I don't have time to go over, but I hope it makes some sense and you get the gist of it.

I was going to selectively pollinate a couple of colas of the Quad girls this morning but I will have to try to get that done instead over the next couple of days when I get my next clear/stealthy moment to do so! Besides it is windy so I'd probably end up doing a right royal pollen chuck!

Here's a photo from yesterday of the Quad girls, it's taken in the afternoon sunshine and accordingly looks better than the one I just took this morning as they are in shade.

My 2 Quad girls getting their buds out in the Autumn sunshine!

• Stunger
• Mar 5, 2020

 

[InTheShed]

Pull those plants apart and take individual pics of them in the sun like that, pick your best, and enter it into POTM. Those are beauties!

I tried running the drought test on some of my plants last summer, but in ProMix HP (peat and perlite), they dried out so fast I had to resuscitate them very quickly. I think the longest I could let them go was three days. I believe the original research was in soil, which dries our much more slowly, which may give the plants more time to adapt to the dwindling supplies.

 

[Stunger]

Pull those plants apart and take individual pics of them in the sun like that, pick your best, and enter it into POTM. Those are beauties!

Thanks for that thought! Altho if I did that I'd probably be best to wait until closer to the end of the month or even start of April to let the buds fill more.

I tried running the drought test on some of my plants last summer, but in ProMix HP (peat and perlite), they dried out so fast I had to resuscitate them very quickly. I think the longest I could let them go was three days. I believe the original research was in soil, which dries our much more slowly, which may give the plants more time to adapt to the dwindling supplies.

I think you have to ration the water but not stop watering and not let them overly dry out, just enough to trigger their 'drought stress' genetic response. I am thinking minimal watering to barely allow their leaves to lift when given but so they droop again later in the day, just enough to keep them alive. That may mean a little once or twice a day, to maintain that ideal water WP level they talk about (water potential). I don't think it is to deny them water, but just limit it to the minimum WP to allow them to maintain living but at the same time trigger within them this 'drought stress response'.

 

[Emeraldo]

Seems like you have to be present at the grow full time to be able to apply the "drought effect" in a precise way. It's a precarious balance you would need to strike just right. The dangers of it going too far and slowing flowering would be a concern...

I had that effect with full time absence last summer during veg, I think, between waterings my plants tended to droop in the heat, bouncing back with each watering. But I was not trying to have a drought effect. I was trying to give them enough water to thrive.

 

[Stunger]

Seems like you have to be present at the grow full time to be able to apply the "drought effect" in a precise way. It's a precarious balance you would need to strike just right. The dangers of it going too far and slowing flowering would be a concern...

I had that effect with full time absence last summer during veg, I think, between waterings my plants tended to droop in the heat, bouncing back with each watering. But I was not trying to have a drought effect. I was trying to give them enough water to thrive.

That is why I would consider trying to apply drought stress only when the main 'bulking up' of the buds has occurred. In my small grow I wouldn't want any restriction of watering to impede the growth of the buds as I am after quantity too, unless I had the capacity to grow lots of plants and could afford then to seriously test out different approaches. Besides, in that drought stress article they mentioned 2 'chemotypes', the higher THCa variety they mentioned peak THCa production was around the 9th week of flowering. It is tricky to determine at what point to say flowering has started when growing outdoors. After all, I first noticed pistils in late November. But roughly speaking based on previous grows and referring to pictures taken throughout those grows I feel it is around the last week of March and a few days into April when I have noticed the (final) thickening up of the colas. So if I use the beginning of Feb as when flowering started or from the last week of January then I would roughly guess this peak production of THCa probably coincides with my observation of the final late thickening of the colas that I have noticed occurring from the last week of March. As you say, it is probably something you want to be present for to control it so if automated there is not the danger of too little that would stunt back the plants. But again, if I had the capacity to grow a lot of plants, I would be quite happy to try to maximize the approach with a dedicated test bed to grow a bunch of 'stunted' drought stress survivors just to see if I get a quality that is over and above what is obtained when also growing for quantity.

Re Quad girls; I have noticed some lower fan leaves almost completely losing their color and turning pale yellow. This has only happened in the past 3 days, more so with the Quad girl in the bigger pot (3-WWG). Before 3 days they were still green. Overall their level of 'greenness' is much closer to acceptable than this same stage in last season's grow when lots of yellowing occurred. I know when plants shift their focus into late stage flowering that this normal, but of course within desired limits. Last season, I now realize because I didn't carry out much in the way of top dressing the soil during the grow it became too deficient in Nitrogen. I deliberated with this grow, whether to just continue and hope they had enough to last the distance but then I decided to top dress them this morning with a tablespoon of organic Blood and Bone, it is hopefully not too much to upset the flowering stage but instead hopefully just enough to provide a little extra if the plants need it. If it was earlier in the shooting match, I would have put 2 ,3 or even 4 tablespoons of Blood and Bone in as top dressing (1/8 cup to 1/4 cup), but considering this late stage, perhaps I will consider another tablespoon in a week to keep the application amount small. Hopefully that sounds reasonable?

First pic showing pale yellowed lower leaves on 3-WWG. The 2nd pic showing 3-WWG after removal of 'dead' leaves. 3rd pic showing 2-WW with the Gorilla Glue auto in the background. 2-WW had some yellowed lower growth which I removed but not so much. I recognize that in late stage flowering it is fairly normal for plants to show some yellowing of lower growth, unless perhaps growing in Mega Crop which sounds like it can keep the plants fully nourished all the way thru to harvest, or at least that's how it appears when I look at @DonkeyDick 's pics! I gave both plants a tablespoon of Blood n Bone earlier and watered it in, we'll see how that goes. It is all about trying to avoid f*ckups at this stage!

3-WWG showing some lower leaves gone pale in last 3 days

• Stunger
• Mar 8, 2020

3-WWG after tidying up and removing lower yellowing pale leaves

• Stunger
• Mar 8, 2020

2-WW with 1-GGa in background

• Stunger
• Mar 8, 2020

 

[Emeraldo]

1 tbsp of B&B definitely not too much. What week of flowering have you now? And the NPK ratio of Blood n' Bone is what, 10-10-10? At this stage, if you've got one, I'd top dress with a flowering mix like 5-10-6 or something thereabouts. Think P. The yellowing leaves indicate a slight N deficiency you corrected right on time. Looks like those yellow leaves were in the shade at a lower level node, the plant was discarding them anyway to use the N elsewhere.

 

[Stunger]

1 tbsp of B&B definitely not too much. What week of flowering have you now?

That is a tricky question considering that pistils were initially seen late November. My guess is the last week of January, which if that is the case then they are about day 2 of week 7.

And the NPK ratio of Blood n' Bone is what, 10-10-10? At this stage, if you've got one, I'd top dress with a flowering mix like 5-10-6 or something thereabouts. Think P.

The Blood and Bone I am using has a NPK of 10-4-0.2 But I have been adding Canna PK 13/14 at half strength to the diluted worm wee these last 3 weeks. The Canna PK 13/14 I last used 3 years ago and I thought I'd bring it out to see how it goes with this grow.

Looks like those yellow leaves were in the shade at a lower level node, the plant was discarding them anyway to use the N elsewhere.

Yes, the pale yellow leaves I removed were all quite lower down. The pic showing 3-WWG after their removal appears to me to look OK, the remaining foliage seems alright. My only immediate thought is whether to top dress them with another tablespoon of Blood n Bone. I may do so after a few days to give the tablespoon I top dressed with this morning a chance to kick in.

 

[InTheShed]

The plants are looking great but I agree that they could use some nitrogen. It looks early in the flowering to be eating the leaves, and if it's just pulling green from the lowers, that tells you it's N deficient.

I recognize that in late stage flowering it is fairly normal for plants to show some yellowing of lower growth, unless perhaps growing in Mega Crop which sounds like it can keep the plants fully nourished all the way thru to harvest, or at least that's how it appears when I look at @DonkeyDick 's pics!

I think that some strains are more prone to eat themselves at the end even when being fed, but that's more of a feeling than a scientific fact .

That is a tricky question considering that pistils were initially seen late November.

Assuming you didn't start these inside and them move them out, any pistils you saw in late November were most likely the plant telling you it was a female. Photoperiod plants wouldn't actually go into flower until after the summer solstice in late December. I would expect you would see actual flowering pistils (from the ends of new growth) in mid to late January depending on the strain.

 

[Stunger]

Today I gave some some more blood and bone (slightly more than an 1/8 cup) , plus an 1/8 cup of some seafood/oyster&mussel shell fertilizer bought from some crowd down the South Island which I have used and felt to be pretty good. So that's about 2.5 tablespoons or so of Blood and Bone added to each plant this week. I should have given some more top dressing 3 weeks ago but I had hoped I wouldn't need to and that I could just cruise to harvest without.

My reaction for this is a little bit late but I think they'll be fine. The effect of the plant pulling Nitrogen out of some lower leaves for it needs and my subsequent removal of the leaves gives the plant more of a 'lollypopped' appearance now. This all deepens one's experience by actually seeing and responding and evaluating the different ongoing changes of a grow. Initially in growing I had got it into my head from reading some warnings that adding any Nitrogen in flowering was to be avoided, I now think that distracted me from fully looking after the plants. Anyway, with this grow I should be at least be double ahead of last year's grow if not quadruple so I'll tuck that away for doing an further improved job with next season's grow.

I was going to selectively pollinate a few colas of the Quad girls today, but the wind has gotten up and we just had a little shower of rain that didn't land on the girls but perhaps the next might, if we get a dry patch I'll go for it, otherwise probably tomorrow.

 

[Emeraldo]

Thanks Emeraldo! One of the problems we cannabis folks have is that very little of what folks use on plants is tested for being ignited and inhaled . Almost all research is done on food crops, and burning changes the chemical composition of almost everything.

I don't know if there are any health effects to ingesting or burning neem, but I do know that some folks say they can taste it when smoked, and it can brown the pistils, and it doesn't wash off all that well. If it breaks down in a few weeks then using it up to a few weeks before harvest seems like it would be okay though. I like to stick with stuff I know will come off in the wash water, so I use castille soap spray in flower (along with Spinosad or BT for caterpillars).

I would probably use potassium soap alone (like Safer's brand), but since I use so much I would be spending my retirement income on it!

Hi Shed. Just following up on the use of neem oil + potassium soap as insecticide on cannabis. I do recognize the concern you mention, I guess it could be that neem oil residue on the bud might possibly be harmful when smoked. However, it does seem that there is no information about smoking weed that had been treated with that mixture over the growing season. Statistically, neem oil has been used by so many growers over the years, and no real problems have been reported. So it could well be there is no basis to say that smoking cannabis treated with neem is more harmful than weed grown without neem.

The link I posted before referred to health hazards of actually eating/consuming neem oil, and states that neem oil will break down and be disposed of by the body. Neem Oil General Fact Sheet Not harmful to humans, apparently, to actually consume neem oil. Also not harmful to bees and the environment. Harmful for fish, so you don't want to dump it into a lake or stream, according to that link. On balance, neem seems to be generally eco-friendly non-toxic.

I did find another link, in addition, discussing smoking cannabis that had been treated with neem, which simply says: no information because the studies have not been done. Ask a Stoner: What is Neem Oil, and How Does it Affect My Pot?

For me, I will continue to use it, avoiding the flowers, and trying to wash the bud at harvest.

Thanks for your input

 

[Stunger]

Pollen Chucking on the Quad girls

Today, I bagged up a couple of colas on both Quad girls to keep them dry, then sprayed the rest of the plants wet to hopefully neutralize any stray pollen that falls on those buds. I added 1 tablespoon to a liter of Dr Bronners Castille unscented soap to the water as per @InTheShed 's suggestion as I thought that could kill two birds with one stone by wetting the plant and also helping knock out any aphids/bugs on the leaves. However, I also like the thought that being soap it probably helps wash off dust and crap when it rains and there is a dose of rain predicted here this weekend, plus at this stage of budding it is probably the gentlest anti bug spray to spray them with. In a few days time I will give them another spray of BT just in case any caterpillars return, the last spray of BT seemed to have killed them all off, but I don't want to take any chances at this point. When I harvest and if I dry the plants whole (not decided yet) but if I do, then bud washing will not likely be practical dues to the size of the plant's canopies, so at least there is some chance that applications of liquid soap spray may help wash off some dust and unwanted junk from the buds and leaves.

The pollen I am using is White Widow XTRM from AMS, it's a year old and has been stored high on a shelf in the lounge which gets up to and over 30C on hot Summer days, I can't be sure it is still good, I am kind of expecting it to not work as that is the general expectation of older non fridge stored pollen, but I have read of other folk storing pollen casually and it remaining viable. I do know it has been kept dry so that at least is a positive, dampness would certainly ruin it. It will be interesting to find out if it is still viable when I harvest in about 5 weeks time, hopefully I will find seeds where I dusted.

I am also watching closely to see if the modest application of Blood and Bone a few days ago has helped reverse the leaf lightening that had occurred. It needs a few more days but so far it appears to be having the desired effect.

The breeze has been hitting the back of the house where the growing balcony is, the 'aroma' is quite noticeable in the house and the breeze blows it in. Hmmmm... but now at this point I can only ride it out..

Here's a few pics from today

'aged' White Widow pollen in herb diffusers ready to dust selected colas

• Stunger
• Mar 11, 2020
• 1

smaller Quad girl (2-WW) with LST'd Gorilla Glue Auto in Background

• Stunger
• Mar 11, 2020

the bigger Quad girl 3-WWG

• Stunger
• Mar 11, 2020

Closeup of a developing bud of 3-WWG

• Stunger
• Mar 11, 2020

 

[Stunger]

A quick followup to my earlier post today. I haven't given much time to the sole Auto I have growing, so just focusing on her development in this post.

Gorilla Glue Auto - day 71

She is starting to bulk up a bit in her bud structure compared to where she was. Being the first auto I have grown I am unsure just when she will be ready. Hopefully still 2 or 3 more weeks so she can fill out even more. Today, while up close I could smell her quite strongly, and already her buds have probably surpassed the trichome development of her 2 Quad photo companions, there is a closeup of the trichomes of the Quad photo 3-WWG above. The bud structure of the Gorilla Glue appears quite dense and solid. If the buds on her were dried and cured right now, I would roughly guess she would yield at least 2 ounces maybe even closer to 3 ounces, which is very promising so far! Just how she will continue to develop is anyone's guess.

A couple of pics of the Gorilla Glue Auto and a bud/trichome closeup

1-GGa LST'd Gorilla Glue Auto day 71

• Stunger
• Mar 11, 2020

1-GGa Gorilla Glue Auto day 71, bud closeup showing developing trichomes

• Stunger
• Mar 11, 2020