Quest for mold-resistant strains, Hawaii outdoor greenhouse grow

[Porky82]

Yeah, I already saw their website, thanks.

What I'm doing in this thread here is trying out a number of strains based on the criteria on the first page. Part of that is looking at the general idea that high-myrcene and high-resin may be keys to mold resistance.

Here's my checklist again:

high levels of myrcene (or already known to have high mold-resistance)
have blueberry or white widow genetics (both have high myrcene)
heavy resin production (also implies strong odor)
sweet, fruity odor
not a long flowering time
good yield
euphoric/happy effect
high THC

So, it's quite specific. Add to that my desire to find each of: indica-dominant, sativa-dominant, and 50/50. I'm not just looking for one strain. I acquired several strains, growing 'em out now:

• Green Mountain Grape, 90% sativa, from Green Mountain Seeds, by way of Ace Seeds
• Grape Ape, 90% indica, from Canuk
• Blue Widow, 50/50, from Canuk
• HI-BISCUS, 50/50, from Humboldt Seed Co.

I'm also on a budget... I was able to get the above in amounts of 3 or 5 seeds.

A side quest here is to try out some high-CBD strains that can hit at least 20% CBD (I am already growing some 10% phenos). So, I've got two of them and they're doing great so far: Sweet Critical CBD and Seedsman 30:1 CBD.

I've got on order now also Double Black Label CBG, which should produce around 20% CBG. The CBG I'm growing now comes in around 13%.

Sounds like the holy grail of cannabis plants mate!

 

[cbdhemp808]

I did a lot of work in the veg house last night, plus harvested 2 plants, plus trimmed.

The harvest was among the worst scenarios I've encountered, in terms of weather and threat of bud rot. I hung out with the 4 plants for a good while, then decided to harvest 2 of them, even though trichomes were far from ideal. I left the other two and gave them a good spray down with peroxide at 8 fl oz in 1/2 gal water.

One of the two harvested was a Blue Dream hybrid and fairly rot resistant. The trimming was fairly easy, and I only encountered a very small amount of bud rot, which was isolated. My drying method in bad weather is a joke, and involves running a food dehydrator "base" inside my friend's oven with a small fan also going. Bye bye terpenes. Well, not all of them, but enough to be very depressing. Soooooo... once again I get a kick in the butt to get busy on the renovations at my place and building of a legit drying room (closet) with a dehum and AC, with controls, and all wired up with some tech to sense how much DC solar power is available. I refuse to run a gasoline generator just to dry herb!

The other plant I harvested, my #9 CBD pheno was a sad mess... I attempted to trim tonight and just threw it all out. Not a big loss... not a big quantity. The #1 CBD pheno still in the flower house is a lot hardier and rot resistant. My #18 CBD pheno is the clear winner – I don't think I'll flower out any more of the 9 and 1... there's just no point. I've got two #18s in the veg house, to continue the legacy.

In the veg house, the two GMG sativa females. Left one is 5.5 ft tall, so they are over my head already. In the foreground, the petit Blue Widow.

The very handsome and exotic GMG red-stem male, now topped and still not flowering. I believe he's an example of a photosensitive tropical sativa. I'm jazzed at the possibilities... a perpetual male that's available to produce pollen at any time of the year. Theoretically. We'll see how it goes.

My 2nd clone dome is now activated. The top of the GMG red-stem male is center. Cloning tops is relatively new for me, and they do very well.

Here's clone dome #1 yesterday, before I selected 4 of them with roots coming out the bottom, for potting in 1 gal pots. The tallest one in the back is a GMG female top. The big one on the right is a Grape Ape top. The 2nd row is CBG, and I've had some trouble cloning that mother... hopefully these side cuttings will work out... I think a top cutting is in order now... she needs to transfer to the flower house asap.

Blue Widow, 50/50 hybrid.

Looks like the Blue Widow has had some calcium issues, which is very interesting, because the rest of the plants are in the same soil and don't show any of this. I top dressed her yesterday with some oyster shell, kelp meal, and silica, then watered it in.

Blue Widow new growth is solid, if a bit pale. Hopefully the kelp meal will help with iron.

Blue Dream that I harvested last night. A mix of clear, cloudy and a few amber trichomes.

Oh man I need a drying room! The weather's been crap... rainy, cloudy, windy, humid, not much sun. Ugh!

PS> I've never seen such complete browning and shiveling of stigmas, in combination with trichomes not being close to ready. I'm convinced that bright sun is essential for proper ripening! Oh well... unlucky timing on this harvest. There's a much better chance of sun on the next harvest, hopefully mid to late April.

 

[Azimuth]

Looks like the Blue Widow has had some calcium issues, which is very interesting, because the rest of the plants are in the same soil and don't show any of this. I top dressed her yesterday with some oyster shell, kelp meal, and silica, then watered it in.

Don't you run a worm bin? Castings are covered in a calcium carbonate slime which hardens into the castings so they're a great source of calcium, PLUS whatever nutrients you provided in the feed stock which is in an already microbe digested format.

 

[Azimuth]

Did you ever build that aerated SIP you were thinking about?

 

[cbdhemp808]

Don't you run a worm bin? Castings are covered in a calcium carbonate slime which hardens into the castings so they're a great source of calcium, PLUS whatever nutrients you provided in the feed stock which is in an already microbe digested format.

Yeah, I have four bins. There's plenty of it in my soil mix, so as I was saying, strange that this indica is complaining. None of the other plants are showing this. This makes me feel that there's something going on with the genetics which affects nutrient uptake in some phenos. Or, another way to look at it – some phenos are genetically predisposed to need more of some nutrients. Another example of this phenomenon is the Gelato from Humboldt that I grew, which had amazing deep green leaves, and heavy foliation, even though it was grown in the same soil as the other plants. Another possibility is the roots – some root systems may be genetically superior, in terms of interaction with soil microbes.

 

[InTheShed]

I did a lot of work in the veg house last night, plus harvested 2 plants, plus trimmed.
The harvest was among the worst scenarios I've encountered, in terms of weather and threat of bud rot.

Well congrats on the good harvests and oof on the bad ones!

One of the two harvested was a Blue Dream hybrid and fairly rot resistant. The trimming was fairly easy, and I only encountered a very small amount of bud rot, which was isolated. My drying method in bad weather is a joke, and involves running a food dehydrator "base" inside my friend's oven with a small fan also going. Bye bye terpenes. Well, not all of them, but enough to be very depressing. Soooooo... once again I get a kick in the butt to get busy on the renovations at my place and building of a legit drying room (closet) with a dehum and AC, with controls, and all wired up with some tech to sense how much DC solar power is available. I refuse to run a gasoline generator just to dry herb!
The other plant I harvested, my #9 CBD pheno was a sad mess... I attempted to trim tonight and just threw it all out. Not a big loss... not a big quantity. The #1 CBD pheno still in the flower house is a lot hardier and rot resistant. My #18 CBD pheno is the clear winner – I don't think I'll flower out any more of the 9 and 1... there's just no point. I've got two #18s in the veg house, to continue the legacy.

With the number of plants you run a serious drying room sounds like an excellent idea if you have a spot. That or a dedicated frost free fridge!

Nice work on the CBD pheno hunt too.

I'm convinced that bright sun is essential for proper ripening!

No doubt!

 

[cbdhemp808]

Did you ever build that aerated SIP you were thinking about?

Not yet, but as soon as I make more steps in that direction, I'll post it here . A drying room is a much higher priority for me right now, and there's a whole sequence of logistics to make that happen, all tied into some much-needed repair and remodeling of our old house.

 

[cbdhemp808]

With the number of plants you run a serious drying room sounds like an excellent idea if you have a spot. That or a dedicated frost free fridge!

It's definitely going to be a small drying room/closet, and yes, I have a space for it. I've already bought some of the equip... a free-standing, dry-type AC, and a mini dehum. Also a couple cheap temp/humidity monitors. I'm planning to get two Inkbird controllers – one for temp, one for humidity – so I can provide power to either of them seperately. I'm also planning to use an Arduino microcontroller and program it to sample my solar DC power voltage, and based on the available DC power, provide AC power to the temp and humidity controllers, and to the equipment in the room. On my limited solar power system, and due to intermittent sunshine, this is the only way I can effectively power the system. During the most sunny months, I'll get optimum cool drying and curing. In the least sunny months, I'll optimize for the dehum to prevent mold.

 

[cbdhemp808]

I was out in the flower house today with Chunky and the girl cats, harvesting 2 plants during a heavy downpour! Wind, rain, and thunder. Gonna start trimming soon. This was a potential heavy bud rot situation, but the Blue Dream girl did fairly well, with isolated bud rot here and there. The CBD #1 pheno was the winner, though, with a completely clean top cola and very little bud rot overall. This all made possible by frequent application of peroxide spray.

Anyway... this harvest is just a side quest... these are my legacy strains.
(Hey @Marc Ocean , any chance you could fix the emoji set?... the emojis in the editor are way better

than the ones in the thread. I wasn't gonna say anything, but I just really want to see the black cat emoji, and what's shown in the thread is an orange tabby next to a black block )

 

[cbdhemp808]

@Azimuth, do have have a way to pull the nutrients out of kelp granules into a liquid form? Just wondering, thanks. Kelp is some awesome stuff!

 

[Azimuth]

I'd imagine just soaking them in a cup of water for some time would do it. With Jadam we just take the raw product, add water and some microbes and the microbes break it down over time depending on the input.

Kelp granules are likely simply dehydrated and crumbled raw kelp so they should work the same way once they are rehydrated.

 

[cbdhemp808]

I'd imagine just soaking them in a cup of water for some time would do it. With Jadam we just take the raw product, add water and some microbes and the microbes break it down over time depending on the input.

Kelp granules are likely simply dehydrated and crumbled raw kelp so they should work the same way once they are rehydrated.

Thanks. If I did the soak and added some worm castings, that would probably work? About how long do you think in the jar? Allow oxygen in, or no?

 

[Azimuth]

The Jadam extracts are an anaerobic process and the stuff is usually usable in 10-15 days and then just gets better with age (I've got some going on two years now). I usually just cover fresh material with water so I have the same relative concentration over time as I add new material.

The recommended microbes come from leaf mold soil but I've had better luck with fresh worm castings for breaking stuff down.

Just be aware that it will smell like something died but your plants won't mind. They'll love it! So I cover my containers because of the smell, but don't go to any extraordinary lengths to do so. And, after a while the smell will mellow a bit to what I describe as a "springtime horsebarn" smell.

I keep several containers going for each extract I make. One large one where the long term breakdown takes place, one smaller one where I put fresh material for a month or two with worm castings to start the breakdown before adding it to the big one, and a small working container were I keep stuff from the large container that's been filtered and is what I use when applying them.

Most of the extracts are diluted at least 1:20 with non-chlorinated water for use.

 

[cbdhemp808]

The Jadam extracts are an anaerobic process and the stuff is usually usable in 10-15 days

Excellent ... excited to try this.

 

[Azimuth]

I usually just cover fresh material with water so I have the same relative concentration over time as I add new material.

I should also highlight that this 1:1 with water by volume is for fresh material. With dried inputs, like your dried kelp, I go 1:10 with water.

I've found most of my fresh inputs lost about 90% of their initial volume when dried so the 1:10 keeps everything about the same concentration as the 1:1 when using fresh.

 

[cbdhemp808]

This was a potential heavy bud rot situation, but the Blue Dream girl did fairly well, with isolated bud rot here and there. The CBD #1 pheno was the winner, though, with a completely clean top cola and very little bud rot overall. This all made possible by frequent application of peroxide spray.

I had a feeling I might need to revise this! Changed my mind... overall the Blue Dream was better... the buds were just cleaner, bigger, and where there was a little bud rot, it was very isolated and easy to clip out. The CBD #1 buds were more larfy and contained more dead and brown bracts that tend to attract mold, and tend to make me want to toss them out.

Nonetheless, here's that clean CBD top cola:

 

[cbdhemp808]

Big update today... 4 plants moved to the flower house. Veg house has opened up nicely (first photo). I also took delivery on new seeds today, 15 x Double Black Label CBG, fem.

I moved the 2 GMG sativa females to the flower house, since I now have a couple clones in 1 gal pots, and more clones on the way. I also moved the 2 Blue Dream hybrids (also have clones).

Veg house today – all plants solid, happy, doing well. What remains are the best of the quest, plus my CBG mom (tall one in the back/right), and my legacy CBD #1 and #9 phenos (small clones now in 2 gal), and legacy CBD #18 in 1 gal (very back/right - 2 pots). So, in the mix here, all in 5 gal pots, are: HI-BISCUS (50/50), Blue Widow (50/50), Sweet Critial CBD, Seedsman 30:1 CBD. I took a bold move on the Grape Ape (90% indica) and chopped her, because she never fully recovered from the damping off. I do have one clone of her already in 1 gal, and more clones on the way.

Back row on bench above... 7 new clones in 1 gal: 2 Green Mountain Grape, 2 HI-BISCUS, 1 Grape Ape, and 2 Blue Dream hybrids (one of my legacy strains). The older ones on the end are my legacy CBD #18 pheno – highly mold resistant.

Both clone domes now active, 24 clones-in-progress. Left dome is all new, added yesterday and today. Right dome – about half are almost ready, and the other half added yesterday and today. These are all top and side cuttings from the Quest plants, with the exception of the legacy CBG mom (5 cuttings). I need solid clones in 1 gal before moving the CBG mom to the flower house... keeping fingers crossed.

Temp and humidity by the clone domes this afternoon.

Just moved to the flower house today... Green Mountain Grape (90% sativa) in 6.5 gal pots. Larger one is about 5' 7" tall (they were both topped in veg). The point where they were topped is at the level of the green gardening tape.

...And the legacy Blue Dream hybrid in 5 gal, plus a little CBD #18 that was a small mom. (sorry, they are kinda lost in the busy background.)

 

[cbdhemp808]

the emojis in the editor are way better

than the ones in the thread.

Fyi, I'm told this bug is in the queue to be fixed.

 

[cbdhemp808]

100% humidity! Lots of rain here in Hawaii. Fri/Sat may be even heavier!

 

[cbdhemp808]

I also took delivery on new seeds today, 15 x Double Black Label CBG, fem.

They've been tucked into wet paper towel for a couple days. Very lively seed. I planted 3 of them today.