Year 2: Off-Grid Spring-Fed Hillbilly Soil Grow

[Simon Limon]

This is Chapter Two of my grow journal, which began last year with "Off-Grid Spring-Fed Hillbilly CBD Greenhouse".

This year's grow will be in vegetable garden soil but I'm not yet ready to go from pots to soil so I'll post details of amendments and preparation later, once the plants are ready to go into the ground.

To review: I'm just south of the border with Canada, close to Mount Baker, deep in the forest. I have a 15 plant permit. The plants this year are 4 Critical Mass and 5 Jack Herrer from a commercial clone farm. I also have clones I've taken myself from these commercial clones, not because I need more plants but as an exercise in learning to clone.

Another new twist: 3 plants from seed, "Grampa's Medicine". I got these tiny plants from a neighbor my age (76) who has been growing since the late 60's. He suffered serious nerve damage during the Viet Nam war, began smoking pot as a DIY med, and has grown his own using this same seed for well over 40 years. (Does this make his seed "landrace"?). I'm not sure where he got the seed but I hope to find out.

We use the Critical Mass to make topical and edible oil for pain but I have found that I need a stronger med for my seriously arthritic shoulder and PTSD. That is why I'm growing the Jack Herrer -- I have never actually tried Jack but based on the reviews it sounds hopeful for my needs.

So... here we go again!

 

[Chago0122]

This is Chapter Two of my grow journal, which began last year with "Off-Grid Spring-Fed Hillbilly CBD Greenhouse".

This year's grow will be in vegetable garden soil but I'm not yet ready to go from pots to soil so I'll post details of amendments and preparation later, once the plants are ready to go into the ground.

To review: I'm just south of the border with Canada, close to Mount Baker, deep in the forest. I have a 15 plant permit. The plants this year are 4 Critical Mass and 5 Jack Herrer from a commercial clone farm. I also have clones I've taken myself from these commercial clones, not because I need more plants but as an exercise in learning to clone.

Another new twist: 3 plants from seed, "Grampa's Medicine". I got these tiny plants from a neighbor my age (76) who has been growing since the late 60's. He suffered serious nerve damage during the Viet Nam war, began smoking pot as a DIY med, and has grown his own using this same seed for well over 40 years. (Does this make his seed "landrace"?). I'm not sure where he got the seed but I hope to find out.

We use the Critical Mass to make topical and edible oil for pain but I have found that I need a stronger med for my seriously arthritic shoulder and PTSD. That is why I'm growing the Jack Herrer -- I have never actually tried Jack but based on the reviews it sounds hopeful for my needs.

So... here we go again!

Any pictures?

 

[Simon Limon]

Where to begin?

On March 21 I picked up my order from the clone farm I'd used last year, for my first grow: 4 Critical Mass and 6 Jack Herrer.

The weather was quite chilly here, often freezing, so the clones went onto a south facing window ledge.

To my great confusion, all of the clones soon began exhibiting signs of flowering. As the days went by they even developed sticky leaves and a very nice spicy perfume. What the hell, they are barely a foot tall!

I called the clone farmer and also asked for advice here at 420Mag -- everyone said "be patient" they will go back to veg but put them under longer light.

I have a simple two light LED bar, 4 feet long, so I left them under that for 24/7, for weeks. Once the weather turned warmer I moved them into a greenhouse. This is what they look like today:

Here's one of the Critical Mass, up close, today:

This is a Jack Herrer.

I have no idea what these plants are doing -- the rate of growth seems very slow, at least compared to the tomatoes that are nearby. The odd looking leaves, the bumps and warts and pistils -- are these plants actually going to develop properly or are they too confused?

Hellllllllp!

 

[2Crispy]

Iam excited to see what becomes of this.

 

[greenjeans]

Hey Simon - I'm going thru a bit of the same - I had a bunch of "experimental" plants that I didn't plan on using to term but I planted three of them outside and they had all gone into flower and now they just look a little funky!! I hope my other plants can take their place as we progress.

 

[Simon Limon]

Greenjeans, do your odd plants look like mine? My main concern is that they won't mature properly and produce buds. I do have the 3 plants from our neighbor, "Grampa's Medicine", but we need the Critical Mass for our oils.

 

[oldsmokey]

Looks like they are trying to reveg but are really far into flowering. I would be asking the clone Farm why they're giving you a cones that are in flower?

 

[Simon Limon]

Looks like they are trying to reveg but are really far into flowering. I would be asking the clone Farm why they're giving you a cones that are in flower?

The clone farm owner told me that the plants had been under much longer light than we were having naturally in March. Do you think these can recover and return fully to veg? If not, I'm pretty sure they'll make it good at the farm.

 

[oldsmokey]

I think they might recover but will take sometime. You want to put them outside your losing valuable time. If they will replace them with good clones in veg I would go that route.

 

[Simon Limon]

I think they might recover but will take sometime. You want to put them outside your losing valuable time. If they will replace them with good clones in veg I would go that route.

Thanks, Oldsmokey... I've sent photos to the grower and asked for help.

On May 23 I decided to attempt cloning my store-bought clones, both for the experience and perhaps as a life saving measure in case the parent plants don't make it. They have been in a humidity dome in the greenhouse. Having never done this before I'm not sure if they look good enough or not. (The 4 tomato clones were for practice.)

One of the CM clones is looking pretty dead but I have hope for these Jack Herrers:

In the next episode of this year's journal I'll be asking for advice on treating discoloration on one of the Grampa's Medicine plants, grown from seed by a neighbor.

 

[greenjeans]

Greenjeans, do your odd plants look like mine

It's kinda hard to describe - they just look "funky"??? Some of the new growth is just single leaf, or twisty leaves - just seems to be a lot of stuff a weird angles.

 

[oldsmokey]

Do you have any roots showing on clones? If yes you want to feed a weak dose of nutes. What ever you have in the bottom of the tray I would get rid of you don't need it. Just the Rockwood cubes in there make sure they are kept moist. Rockwood not may fav it holds a lot of moisture but it does work.

 

[oldsmokey]

It's kinda hard to describe - they just look "funky"??? Some of the new growth is just single leaf, or twisty leaves - just seems to be a lot of stuff a weird angles.

The single Leafs is it trying to reveg has to start over with one leaf than 3 and so on.

 

[Simon Limon]

Do you have any roots showing on clones? If yes you want to feed a weak dose of nutes. What ever you have in the bottom of the tray I would get rid of you don't need it. Just the Rockwood cubes in there make sure they are kept moist. Rockwood not may fav it holds a lot of moisture but it does work.

Thanks for the advice... I've removed the potting soil from the humidity dome. Yesterday I peeked at one of the cannabis clones (one that I made) and also a tomato clone -- neither shows roots. Does this call for panic or patience?

My next question is about the discoloration on the Grampa's Medicine plants.

Could this discoloration be a disease or is it a nutrient deficiency? We up-potted them yesterday and the roots were well developed.

thanks!

 

[oldsmokey]

Patience roots should be coming soon. Monitor the new transplant to see if it progresses. The upper part looks good most problems at this stage are related to over watering when in soil.

 

[Simon Limon]

I had a nice reply from the clone farm about my confused clones. The message was basically, "Good luck with that!"

The good news is that my first grow last year left us with a generous stash of Critical Mass so if this new grow doesn't work out well we won't be left begging others for leftovers.

Last night the neighbor gave me a sample of Grampa's Medicine buds, the first I've been able to try -- and it does the job. With three plants of that strain I think we'll be okay.... but holding our breath for a good crop.

 

[oldsmokey]

You should remember the customer service next time you are buying clones. Glad to hear you have a back-up plan.

 

[Bush Doctor 77]

Thanks for the advice... I've removed the potting soil from the humidity dome. Yesterday I peeked at one of the cannabis clones (one that I made) and also a tomato clone -- neither shows roots. Does this call for panic or patience?

My next question is about the discoloration on the Grampa's Medicine plants.

Could this discoloration be a disease or is it a nutrient deficiency? We up-potted them yesterday and the roots were well developed.

thanks!

Use a loupe to check under the leaves for critters.

 

[Simon Limon]

In a separate discussion Magnus commented: "
You should count yourself lucky. These might turn into monster clones (that's what I call them at least) where, because your clone was in flower and then revegged, it will turn out not one cola but a monstrosity of a plant with many many colas.

I know it works if you take your clones from a mother already about 3 weeks into flowering. This really is the best time to take clones. Then just reveg them. No big deal. And grow them out!
Good luck to you!"

My photo-confused clones continue to grow very very slowly and continue to develop as if each plant is nothing but a single big bud. The leaves are sticky and have a delicious smell, the plants are using plenty of water, but they don't seem to be adding much weight or size at all.

As Magnus suggests, I've come to the conclusion that I have something potentially wonderful here -- a crop of delicious premature cannabis that will currently yield about an ounce of bud.

The good news is that we have enough left over from last year's grow, my first, to carry us over until next season. We also have the promise of a crop from Grampa's Medicine, the three heirloom plants a neighbor gave me. Here they are:

The plant above looks exactly like the pot plants I struggled to grow over 40 years ago. But.... this Jack Herrer is nothing like my grow last year.

Can you see the little brown pistils? Those are new and I wonder if that is a further indication that this plant is still devoting most of its energy to flowering?

How about these Critical Mass clones?

At this point I am holding off on planting the clones in outside soil as they seem happy enough in the greenhouse. Unless they start to show signs of serious vegging I expect they'll be inside for the duration, whatever that turns out to be.

Adventures in gardening!

 

[oldsmokey]

Wow They really are confused.