Mephisto Genetics Moonijuana 4: Director's Cut (Hubbabubbasmelloscope)

[TimeTraveler]

DAY 27

We're wrapping up week four, and I'm getting nervous...she's thriving under training! I see @mephisto showed up to take a gander, so I'm feeling the pressure to grow a plant worthy of their genetics! Let's see what I can end up with....

Here's a few shots of the girl post-zinc feeding over the weekend:

As you might notice in the last photo, the discoloration is fading. Most of the new growth just has some yellowed tips and that's it. Otherwise she's lush and green all over!

Her branches have been pulled to the four corners of the trough and still she throws up more to compensate along with turning those skyward. It's incredible how aggressively this plant is responding to her training; I can't imagine the FIMing slowed her down even a tiny bit, and I honestly don't know what to do if she keeps pushing up and up. I'm assuming a 10 week life cycle, but maybe the reason she's exploded is because she'll be ready after 8; I suppose I'll know in a week or so. If she's still going strong with her veg state into week 6 I'll have some problems, but if she's an 8-week girl I just need to contain her for a little longer before she makes the switch to flowering.

She showed sex a little while ago and she's female; it's not really noteworthy (I haven't had issues with fem seeds going hermie on me yet) but just in case you were curious. I intend to make the most of her incredible footprint though; once she switches to flowering I'm going to defoliate her; it had good results on my Blue Dream and she's got SO many bud site branches that will thrive once her many, many fan leaves are out of the way. I'll leave her be to encourage good veg growth and numerous bud sites, then once the colas start packing on weight I'll tuck as many lower fan leaves as I can and snip the ones up top that form a canopy over the buds. It seems to do more good than harm if you wait until then, and if she breaks the Blue Dream in yield I'll feel confident I'm right in doing it that way (I'm certainly not afraid of taking the kid gloves off after seeing how hardy she's been in the face of aggressive training already).

 

[TimeTraveler]

DAY 29

No pics today, just a quick update. Looks like she's still acting kind of funky despite the zinc feeding; a few of the lower fan leaves looked sickly (possibly from light deprivation? She's gotten even bushier) so I defoliated them in case it was lack of light and fed her some iron, epsom salts, and azomite to round out her supply of trace nutes. If she's looking worse over the next few days I'll splurge for a proper soil pH tester and see if my levels are causing a nute lockout (kinda rare for a super soil mix but it's not impossible).

Mostly, though, she's a beautiful green color and the yellow tips have diminished. She's pushed a bit further up since Monday (not enough to warrant a tie-down yet), and if the two newest top branches keep stretching I'll tie them tomorrow. I'm set to have a veritable sheet of colas under the light come flowering, and I'm very excited. She looks more promising with each passing day!

 

[TimeTraveler]

DAY 30

She's looking healthier and happier today! The trace feedings are doing their part well and I think we're getting past deficiencies altogether. I tied her down again, and nearly the whole footprint is taken up by branches and potential cola sites. I'm betting she's going to be an 8 week or so grow at this point: she grew a bit more over the week but she seems to be slowing a bit and the colas are starting to get spiky. Let's take a look at her, shall we?

Here's a couple pics:

Since this is a micro grow, I figured you might want a sense of scale for this plant. Here's a couple shots with a ruler to show her vertical height and footprint, in inches (the pics are pre-tie-down so she's a bit shorter now, but only because the branches were bent):

 

[TimeTraveler]

DAY 49

Well, it's been a hectic nearly three weeks! Having some internet connectivity and phone issues, so no pics just yet. She firmly transitioned into flowering about two weeks ago, and she's starting to put on some heft onto her buds. She's a little sickly looking today; I couldn't water her from Friday until today and she's gotten thirsty now that she's fully grown. It's a jungle in there! She's got a ton of branches putting out colas, and she's starting to stink. She got a huge helping of rainwater and she'll get more over the rest of the week; I've got a feeling she'll slurp up everything I gave her today in short order.

Based on the length of time so far and the growth currently, I'd say she's definitely going to 11 weeks, maybe even 12. She's too scrawny on the buds for an 8 week harvest, but she grew and grew when she should have been putting weight on her buds if she was going to be a quick 8-9 week run. I'm looking forward to seeing how she turns out when all is said and done. I'll try and get pics some time this week.

 

[bubblekarma]

She's looking pretty good sir! Most autos you want to take till week 10 at least. 11 to 12 weeks for autos are primo if you can afford the time, the reward is worth it.

 

[TimeTraveler]

DAY 58

Well, it's been a crazy couple weeks. She's recovered mostly, and she's fattening up. I'm nervous about her final yield; the few days of drought and early nute deficiency have done a number on her leaves, but we've got a solid three more weeks to go. There's hope yet she'll be as beautiful as my Blue Dream was. Got a couple pics to share; one from a couple days ago, two from today. Let's take a look, shall we?

First, the one from earlier this week:

This really gives you an idea of the sheer volume of colas thriving on her right now. I've counted about 32 promising sites, no exaggeration (count for yourself in the next top-down shot). Will they all be super heavy main colas? No, but all 32 look likely to be more than popcorn bud and hash stems. She's dropped a LOT of fan leaves and although she's pale in a lot of spots, she's gotten a lot greener over the week as she recovers. It's staggering to me how many branches have responded to the training. I've tied her down every place I possible can and pulled branches as far away from one another as I could, and she reponded by throwing up side branches everywhere to fill the gap. This picture does an excellent job of showing just how determined she was. The lesson is clear to me: train, and train, and train some more if you want a lot of colas. Obviously, FIMing didn't do a damn thing but make her mad.

Now for today's shots:

As you can see she's gotten a lot greener over the week. She's still pale in places, but she's thriving and many of the paler, lime-green leaves are wholly or mostly a deep rich green again. I'm not plucking leaves very hard; if a leaf is pale yellow all throughout I give a gentle tug. If it falls away easily I throw it away, but if it resists and holds fast to the stem I let it go, just in case. Either it'll come back to life (a few near-dead ones are now the sickly yellow and green ones you see) or the plant will slurp up the last stored nutrients and drop it. Another factor seems to be light: in my blue dream grow, even though the soil never went dry and the plant was watered regularly from sprout to harvest, the lower leaves started shedding as the canopy got denser. Obviously some of the leaves here are too high up to be crowded out, but competition for light is FIERCE and a lot have fallen away, seemingly a testament to the plant's ability to adapt.

Here's one of the better colas. It's a bit blurry, apologies:

There's two things to note from this, though. First: we have three good weeks left in this grow and trichs are starting to frost over the colas and sugar leaves. Next, this cola (slightly longer than a bic lighter) is already getting a bit dense, with the buds closing the space on the stem between their original sites. This is one of maybe half a dozen colas that look this big and beautiful.

The smell is getting potent, by the way. I've got the ONA on full strength, and she stinks up the entire place when I open her to water her. It's a mouthwatering, savory aroma that's slightly sweet. I'm not noticing those bubblegum notes now, maybe that will come later (or only during the smoke), but she's a stinker and a half for sure. Probably the most potent smell-wise I've ever grown. Even after closing up the box and kicking on the ONA disperser, the place reeks for a good hour after. It's amazing!

 

[bubblekarma]

Fuck I love weed! Dude they are looking good considering what it sounds like they have been through.
Those purpling stems though.. I'm pretty sure thats a P def causing that, and that would cause leaf loss as well.
However the light not hitting all the leaves is definitely one of those things that just happen. Leaves in full shade will fall out way sooner than those in the light.
In another 3 weeks you will be happy to have some bud. It's truly amazing how much abuse these plants can take and still end up with a good smokeable product in the end. Good luck!

 

[TimeTraveler]

They don't call it "weed" for nothin'. I'll feed her some P heavy nutes this weekend, and see if that helps out.

EDIT: I'm sure another part of the issue is growing in such a small container. Sure, it's about 2 gallons which isn't bad as far as micro grows go, but I'm pushing 2 grams per watt, and there's nowhere near as much soil to draw nutes from as there would be in a 5 gallon pot. Add in the airpot's lovely ability to build an explosive root ball, and I'm sure that a healthy girl like this is sucking the soil dry of more than just water. The more I push her to produce, the more I need to feed the beast.

 

[bubblekarma]

Yes I have seen plants struggle when they are root bound. It makes it harder to properly provide for them at that stage. Good call.