Stunger's Organic Balcony: Growing Daughters Of Mulanje: Watering Via Root Aeration Chambers

[Stunger]

Just a suggestion but if you could circle ️ what you are seeing so we would know for sure what your looking at. Thanks. CL

A good suggestion CL, I tried to reply last night but the forum went down. I am not well versed on photo editing and I did think of putting arrows on, but then I thought they'd probably end up looking a bit rough, but your suggestion of a predefined circle would be neater and in hindsight I probably could've done that. Although, the anatomy of the plant's structures are quite obvious in these pictures, they're been taken so closeup that the gender structures can be easily seen next to the base of the stipules when one or both are present. Once you realise one then you'll see all the rest. Cheers.

 

[Stunger]

Great stuff bud. A little late to the party but looking forward to seeing the balcony of dreams again this year.

Thanks Vet!

 

[StoneOtter]

Hi Stunger, been waiting for your new journal and low and behold you've been at it! Looking fabulous! I'm sexing a few now myself, thanks for your insight! Best luck SIP'n! I'm in as well for my single plant 3 x 3 grow.
When a weed plant comes along
You must SIP it!

 

[Stunger]

Hi Stunger, been waiting for your new journal and low and behold you've been at it! Looking fabulous! I'm sexing a few now myself, thanks for your insight! Best luck SIP'n! I'm in as well for my single plant 3 x 3 grow.
When a weed plant comes along
You must SIP it!

Thanks Otter! Altho I understand mine are not SIP grows because there is no water reservoir, but they do provide an 'air chamber' to help oxygen get to the roots, so very similar.

 

[StoneOtter]

Thanks Otter! Altho I understand mine are not SIP grows because there is no water reservoir, but they do provide an 'air chamber' to help oxygen get to the roots, so very similar.

Yep, a bit different. Nice to watch!

 

[HashGirl]

Thanks for the wonderful write-up on sexing your plants. I'm growing regular seeds for the first time and am trying to determine sex them. I was told sex could be determined by Week 6 of veg but mine are Week 7 and so far, I just don't know. Your pics should prove helpful when I look at mine.

 

[Stunger]

Thanks for the wonderful write-up on sexing your plants. I'm growing regular seeds for the first time and am trying to determine sex them. I was told sex could be determined by Week 6 of veg but mine are Week 7 and so far, I just don't know. Your pics should prove helpful when I look at mine.

Thanks HG! Most important to me is taking good quality closeups, and ideally from multiple nodes. Good luck, and I like your Blueberries by the way!

 

[Stunger]

Update - Culling the (alleged) males to make some space for the (alleged) females

Greetings 420 enthusiasts! In my last update I posted closeups of the nodes and gender structures in an attempt to make a prediction on the sex of the 6 plants that I have been growing from regular seeds. That last update contained a 6 photo set for each of the plants featuring closeups of their gender structures. This is a topic that will be of more interest to those who grow regular seeds, it can be found ---> here.

The balcony has been getting rained on most days which has made it difficult trying to examine the plants for further signs of gender confirmation or not as the case may be. Today has been fine weather, but more days of rain are forecast ahead, so even though it is only about 5 days since my last picture taking update, I have taken a load more closeup pics today, which I will go through later to see if we have any confirmation of gender, and then I will probably do another update about that.

The 6 plant line up

The original balcony lineup of 6 plants grown from regular seeds

• Stunger
• Dec 15, 2022

After removing the (alleged) males

Balcony lineup after (alleged) males chopped and removed

• Stunger
• Dec 15, 2022

The chickens are also taking a close inspection of a male!

Chickens checking out 1 of the males!

• Stunger
• Dec 15, 2022

Chickens checking out 1 of the males!

• Stunger
• Dec 15, 2022

Chickens checking out 1 of the males!

• Stunger
• Dec 15, 2022

Balcony space, watering via Root Aeration Chambers, and training

Getting rid of the (alleged) males has made a good difference on the balcony. While I would have been happy enough in a greedy way, to take 4, 5 or 6 females, but those numbers are really too many, 2 or 3 females is closer to the ideal number to allow space for maintainance the plants (and just being able to open the balcony doors!).

So far all the watering has been via the Root Aeration Chamber downpipes. I bought handy yellow silicone type funnel, so now watering each plant is done in barely more than 10 seconds, which is great because I used to have to spend so long slowly watering the surface to avoid hydrophilic run off.

My intention for training was going to be LST, but 6 plants are a handful for available space, it was too hard to rotate the pots when branches snag on one another. Now that there are reduced to 3 plants, they are starting to motor, and it is past the point for LST so I will instead look to supercrop their canopies down to a lower level once I go through today's closeups if they confirm my predictions made last weekend. No point training males.

From L to R; Mulanje Sherbert; Mulanje ME; Mulanje HP

• Stunger
• Dec 15, 2022

Looking for confirmation of gender

This evening I will go through today's closeups and if they are helpful, I will do another update.
In the meantime, thanks for dropping by and may your own gardening efforts be going great!

 

[InTheShed]

I have taken a load more closeup pics today, which I will go through later to see if we have any confirmation of gender

So you're checking just to see if you missed any males among the remaining three? If you guessed wrong we might have to have to wait for next November to watch you grow!

What's left looks beautiful, whatever sex they are.

 

[Trala]

Omg!

They are absolutely beautiful

 

[Stunger]

So you're checking just to see if you missed any males among the remaining three? If you guessed wrong we might have to have to wait for next November to watch you grow!

What's left looks beautiful, whatever sex they are.

Thanks Shed! Basically I will be checking for progress or changes to the gender structures, because I am looking to confirm my earlier predictions when I said it looked like I had 3 males and 3 females.

In the immature stage, before they are showing pistils or pollen balls, the structures can be confusing as to what gender they really are. At that stage, to me, it is easier to identify the males because (to me) they tend to, sooner or later, throw out clear signs of male gender structures, e.g. may show a 'crab claw' appearance,or have low ball shaped structures that sit on a pedestal, at that stage, I'll call them to be male because I have grown out such plants and seen them to go on and develop pollen balls, and I feel there is no longer a need for me to go as far as growing them out, I want to skip that long way and take a short cut.

I must stress, that in my opinion we should not be taking chances with fuzzy poorly lit photos. Why? It is simply too easy to misidentify. I have done it myself many times from making conclusions from poor pics, and drawing the wrong conclusions or because of the angle the structure has been photographed at, it causes it to look like the opposite gender.

But of females, I take real confirmation of a female to be when pistils are visible.

 

[Stunger]

Omg!

They are absolutely beautiful

Thanks Tra!

 

[Carmen Ray]

The remaining plants are bulking up beautifully Stunger.

 

[Stunger]

Update - more closeups seeking early gender confirmation of plants grow from regular seeds

Greetings 420 enthusiasts! We have rain forecast for apparently every day next week, which if true would make any closeup photography difficult. So today I took a lot of closeup pictures in an attempt to 'find' some pre-flowers with pistils which to me would then confirm that I have females remaining on my balcony. I concluded 5 days ago that these 3 remaining plants were female, but at the time I only had confirmation (seeing pistils) on one plant, the Mulanje Sherbert which was a nice early surprise.

My initial post made 5 days ago with closeups to evaluate the gender structures of regular seeds was posted --> here. I would have preferred to have waited another 2 or 3 days, but if rain is ahead then it has to be now, because if I have gender confirmation then at least any training I do won't be wasted.

Before I get to the closeups, I wanted to stress again some points that me are important for reaching the right conclusion (for anyone interested).

Please note: Early gender structures can look very different - it may be from structure, the angle, or quality

For a start, photographing/viewing gender structures at an enlarged level that has clarity is quite challenging. I would say for myself, that without clear and multiple pictures I cannot be sure about the gender, not enough information! Many times I have seen a structure that I was sure I knew what it was, but I misidentified it because I didn't seek out more and compare them. So, in this and my previous mentioned post, I have tried to stress how important this is if you want to feel most confident in your conclusions.

Last week I attempted to make labels and criteria for the different appearances of early gender structures. I hadn't formulated them as such previously, and I only put that together for the post to this thread as a way of trying to describe my thinking around determining gender with the hope that someone else can benefit.

Don't let angles cause you to misidentify

Pictures taken at a certain angle can look really convincing that they're one thing when they are in fact, the other.

A curious example of gender structures found on a damaged piece of limb that survived

About 10 days ago I accidentally caused the end of a prime branch to break. I actually broke off 2 and couldn't be bothered trying to save one but decided to do so with the other just to see what would happen.

The break looked pretty terminal

Bugger! A Mulanje HP second from the right in one of the big pots

• Stunger
• Dec 5, 2022
• 1

But I managed to cut a bit of electrical tape and sort of bind it up a bit. I thought afterwards I should have used a kebab stick as splint. Anyway, I didn't think it would survive but it did and was growing new growth too, so I decided to take off the tape because I thought the plant must have made a big knuckle to repair itself. But when removed the electrical (perhaps a little rougher than I wanted) it broke off completely.

Mulanje HP: Previously broken off limb that was reattached and got broken off again

• Stunger
• Dec 16, 2022

And interestingly, there was no big knuckle of self repair, instead most of the break was dead tissue and only a little bit of white live tissue at the bottom

Mulanje HP: Previously broken off limb, lower white bit was the remaining living tissue

• Stunger
• Dec 16, 2022

So I thought, never mind, I use it to take some close up pictures to see if I can see any pistil development.

Here are 3 closeups I took of gender structures seen on that broken piece of branch. I have to say I was a bit surprised at how they looked more male than female. Here, take a look..

Mulanje HP: Gender structure that has developed on broken limb and looks a bit 'male-like'

• Stunger
• Dec 16, 2022

In regard this picture, It is not of good clarity. I think the angle is from above perhaps falsely suggesting a male 'ball shape'. Uncertain on it's own.

Mulanje HP: Gender structure that has developed on broken limb and looks a bit 'male-like'

• Stunger
• Dec 16, 2022

This picture is also not of good clarity. It has a bit of a male 'fronded' appearance, but the main thing we have to say here is that it is not clear, and therefore we are likely to 'see' what our imagination sees, or wants to see.

Mulanje HP: Gender structure that has developed on broken limb and looks a bit 'male-like'

• Stunger
• Dec 16, 2022

This picture is also not of great clarity. It does concerningly look a bit 'crab claw' like. I have seen where a female structure can end in a pointy tip, and yet others may have a split tip or square tip. Once again, take many pics and compare to get confirmation. I have seen pointy (very female indicator), and also split, square, and 'fronded' female gender structures. But 'crab claws' and balls are quite male indicators.

Once again while those 3 pics weren't pretty (in the desired female sense), very importantly they were also not great quality, so altho a bit disappointing in that they look a bit more male than female, let's move on to the rest of today's closeup pics.

For purposes of brevity, I am showing just several pics of each plant. I actually took a lot, and I need to take a lot of pics to find a sufficient number of high quality pics of different gender structures on the same plant to view and compare. Of course with digital photography it is easy or almost unavoidable to not bang off lots of pictures. I have pointed out in my own photos where the quality is poor and causes it to be hard to evaluate.

Mulanje HP

Mulanje HP: very female appearance of the gender structure

• Stunger
• Dec 16, 2022

Mulanje HP: very female appearance of the gender structure with thumb for size comparison

• Stunger
• Dec 16, 2022

Mulanje HP: looks like the tip of a pistil is emerging

• Stunger
• Dec 16, 2022

Mulanje HP: looks like the tip of a pistil is emerging

• Stunger
• Dec 16, 2022

Mulanje HP: looks like the tip of a pistil is emerging

• Stunger
• Dec 16, 2022

Mulanje HP: emergence of double pistils

• Stunger
• Dec 16, 2022

Well, this look pretty female to me. It may take me a very long time to find the one node with 2 pistils coming from a single structure. So generally I feel 'reassured' when I see a bunch of pistils on the plant. But to me, I am pretty convinced that this is indeed a female.

* I just added this as I'd meant too originally but forgot. I had wondered if the male-like appearance of the broken piece was actually some sort of male/hermie response to being nearly wiped out?? But regardless, the 6 pics above say female to me.

Mulanje ME

Mulanje ME: a very pointy female in appearance gender structure

• Stunger
• Dec 16, 2022

Mulanje ME: a gender structure with a square'ish top

• Stunger
• Dec 16, 2022

Mulanje ME: a gender structure with a 'split' top

• Stunger
• Dec 16, 2022

Mulanje ME: very female in appearance

• Stunger
• Dec 16, 2022

Mulanje ME: there appears to be a single pistil erupting from each gender structure

• Stunger
• Dec 16, 2022

Mulanje ME: a gender structure with a square'ish top showing a possible pistil erupting

• Stunger
• Dec 16, 2022

As above, I'd prefer to see a bunch of double pistils erupting, but used as an early sign it seems to be working. To me, the above pics are confirming a female.

Mulanje Sherbert

We saw pistils on her last week but here's a couple of her feminine 'pollen catchers' to complete the trio.

Mulanje Sherbert: beginning eruption of a single pistil

• Stunger
• Dec 16, 2022

Mulanje Sherbert: 2 pre-flowers on this side of the node both showing double pistils

• Stunger
• Dec 16, 2022

Mulanje Sherbert: 2 pre-flowers on this side of the node both showing double pistils

• Stunger
• Dec 16, 2022

Mulanje Sherbert: gender structure showing eruption of single pistil

• Stunger
• Dec 16, 2022

So, this is great, 3 females (at least that's how I'm reading them). I would have taken more, but seriously 3 is plenty, even 2 would have been great.

I would add one more thing, the commonality of the above 3 plants is none of them have a pedestal base. That is a biggie to me.

* Sorry, added this too.
Anyway, I hope this closeup business is of some usefulness. All the best.

 

[DV8]

Looks like a positive start mate, and they look healthy, happy, and at home adorning The Balcony Of House Stunger, Grower of Outdoors in the Land of the Long White Cloud.

I couldnt organise the trumpeters sorry, perhaps at gender reveal.

Already before Xmas sensing the inevitable challenge of height. Maybe you should buy a couple of those sea shell sandpits/kidspool thingies and go low wide, trimming a few inches height of those pots and grow them like a box hedge.....Im kidding of course.

Looks like an early thumbs up for the aeration configuration.

 

[StoneOtter]

That whittles it down to female fire!

 

[Stunger]

Looks like a positive start mate, and they look healthy, happy, and at home adorning The Balcony Of House Stunger, Grower of Outdoors in the Land of the Long White Cloud.

I couldnt organise the trumpeters sorry, perhaps at gender reveal.

Already before Xmas sensing the inevitable challenge of height. Maybe you should buy a couple of those sea shell sandpits/kidspool thingies and go low wide, trimming a few inches height of those pots and grow them like a box hedge.....Im kidding of course.

Looks like an early thumbs up for the aeration configuration.

Thanks Deeve, so far so good!

 

[Stunger]

That whittles it down to female fire!

Cheers Otter, yup I'm pleased about what they're showing.

 

[stinker]

Good calls and predictions. Great pictures, it feels like i'm there. Here's hoping for 3, its the luck of the .. if I break a branch or limb I now secure with wire above and below break and sometimes splint. If more is needed I wrap with damp paper as easier to remove. It only takes a little plant tissue to repair itself.. the knuckle takes time to build.

 

[Stunger]

Good calls and predictions. Great pictures, it feels like i'm there. Here's hoping for 3, its the luck of the .. if I break a branch or limb I now secure with wire above and below break and sometimes splint. If more is needed I wrap with damp paper as easier to remove. It only takes a little plant tissue to repair itself.. the knuckle takes time to build.

Thanks Stinker!