Indoor Off to Seed the Wizard

[parsing_trees]

Day 23.

I took everything out and checked them for any issues. No signs of herming or anything like that. Everything except the WTR4 (6 days younger) has shown sex. Most of them are getting pretty branchy now, post topping, and have started to switch to alternate phyllotaxy for new growth.

Time lapse of the last two weeks, with one frame per day to keep the file size down.

I took out the WTR4 to top it above the fourth node, but apparently it topped itself over the last couple days -- the main stem forked and there are two fifth nodes growing out of it already. I may leave it, I may supercrop it to bend the main stem down, but decided to stop and think about it. It's got a pretty thick main stem already, so if I'm going to bend it I should probably do so soon. It looks like I'm going to need to do something to manage its height.

The Mango Smile is clawing a bit, probably telling me that it doesn't want nitrogen to increase further. The current veg nutrient EC is as high as I will probably go, but I'm giving the same mix to all the plants, and the WAs and BB#3 look like they wouldn't mind more. It is what it is. Otherwise, the MS has a pretty much ideal branchy structure, and all its new growth has very thin leaflets.

I'm not going to cull anything yet, but the WW1 is still the least vigorous of the bunch. WW2 is doing great, and while I FIM'd it, the straggly cut has two mains growing out of it and it wound up with the sort of structure I wanted anyway. As the tent gets more crowded (particularly since I'm keeping the isolation bin in longer, for reversing), the WW1 may have to go, but I'll keep it if I can.

 

[parsing_trees]

Day 27. In the flowering stretch.

From above. WA4 (back-left) probably has some light stress on the big fan leaf, or maybe a magnesium deficiency? Not sure.

Another picture, parallel to the canopy. The tent is crowded but after stretching there's a decent amount of airflow.

It's hard to see when it's in the tent, but the MS has a very branchy, spread out structure. I'm mostly able to fit its branches in between the other plants' branches, but the lower branch on the right got pinched between the side of the tray and the isolation bin for a little bit.

In marked contrast, I haven't even topped the WTR4, because the main stem split into two tops above the fourth node on its own. There isn't much growth on the lower branches because of the mains' auxin, but the tops should be able to hold their own finding canopy space amidst the other plants that are a week or so older. Hopefully some of the lower branches will develop enough to get a bunch of seeds off it.

I'd noticed that it had a very wide main stem, but hadn't made the connection between that and topping itself -- it'd actually started growing wider and wider after the first node because it was diverging into two stems.

WA3

WA4

The WA3 and WA4 are tall and branchy, but not as spread out. Both have lots of lower side branches to pollinate. Even if I don't get any fem WA pollen from the reversal attempt, I have Anvil pollen for making WA x Anvil regs.

 

[parsing_trees]

The flowering stretch is in full force now, and most of them are getting major pompoms.

Everything is taller, particularly the MS tops poking out in the back.

The WTR isn't as branchy, but its two self-topped mains are stretching, so after taking this picture I tied them further apart to spread out its wingspan in the canopy. Since the mains are bent lower, into a T shape, that might mess with auxin flow enough to get some extra growth in the middle. We'll see.

Overhead view. The BB#3 is darker green than the others, and the WTR4's ties are visible near the middle-left.

The BB#3 is growing pretty similarly to the WAs -- tall, branchy, responding well to topping.

The MS is the stretchiest of the bunch, with branches going every which way.

The WW1 and WW2 look pretty similar, with the broadest leaves, but WW1 has a more orderly structure from a clear topping, whereas WW2's FIM-ing led to a bit more varied branch growth.

The two WAs in the isolation bin haven't started to show any sign of reversing yet. (I started spraying them with STS 10 days ago.) They too have been stretching, so they've been trained and supercropped to keep them from pressing up against the top of the bin.

The one on the left seems to responding better to bottom-feeding, with lots of roots spreading out into the tub.

 

[Franklin Sinatra]

Such an interesting grow to be following along. Strong work m8. May many seeds come your way.

 

[parsing_trees]

Thanks!

I hope the reversal timing will work to reproduce the WA genetics without an outcross, but I've also got Anvil pollen from three different males in my freezer that should mostly still be viable, and based on peoples' Purple Pope F1 grows that pairing has a lot of potential.

 

[parsing_trees]

Based on time-lapse, it looks like the flowering stretch is finishing up. Everything is about 18-20" (45-50 cm) tall except for the WTR4, which is a little shorter because I bent the split top stems to the side.

The WAs, MS, and BB#3 have lots of pompoms (big clusters of stigmas), the WWs and WTR4 aren't there yet but should in a week or so. I only have one tube left of Zamaldelica Express pollen, and I mainly want to put that on the WWs and WTR4, so that will have to wait until they're ready. I could do a pass with Anvil pollen on the WAs and BB#3 pretty much whenever, but will probably wait for the WWs.

I know it's got a long way to go, but I really like the structure on the MS. The tiny container has kept it manageable height for my setup, but it's got wide shoulders and looks like it should fill in a lot. It seems to have acclimated to the nitrogen levels, and it's starting to smell good too.

Bending the WTR4's two main stems down seems to have helped encourage growth in the middle. I'm hoping to get some small branches to pollinate there, the lower node 1-2 branches haven't developed much since I didn't top it.

 

[parsing_trees]

Day 37, first pollination.

They're all done stretching now except for the WWs, which are still going. I haven't noticed any signs of reversal from the WAs in the isolation bin yet.

I started pollinating today, following the process I described in this post.

I used Anvil pollen from my freezer, some from my previous batch, and also remaining Anvil pollen from about two years ago that seems to still be viable. I brushed a bunch on major side branches on the WAs and BB#3, and a small branch each on the others.

After bending the two main branches down, the WTR4 has grown a couple small branches with pistils at the top. That will mainly get the Zamaldelica Express pollen, but probably enough for a few seeds of other crosses too.

Every time I take the MS out I'm more excited.

 

[parsing_trees]

Day 41. Mid-grow update. Well into flower now, things are slowing down a bit.

So far the plants in the bin haven't shown any sign of reversing. The other plants have stretched enough to shade the bin, so they may have been starved for light. I decided to pull out the bin and set it up on a shelf in another room, with a light on it (and the exhaust fan blowing at a carbon filter, the WAs are pungent). If they don't reverse by a certain point I'll cull them, but if they do I can at least save the pollen for another grow. The other plants in the tent could really use the space, though.

Everything back in the tent, after spraying some pollinated branches. I can move the trays apart with the bin out, which allows more air and light through to the lower growth.

Overhead view. A couple of the upper fans have been showing symptoms of light stress, I adjusted my lights and I think it's stopped getting worse.

Bruce Banner #3.

Mango Smile, clusters of stigmas continuing to spread.

Wizard's Apprentice 3, a bit blurry but showing the structure.

One of WA3's tops.

WA4, a little more sparse and open than WA3.

WA4's tops.

Wild Thailand Ryder 4, with a couple pollinated branches in the middle.

Walter White 1 (FIM'd).

WW 2 (topped).

 

[parsing_trees]

Day 48.

I culled the plants in the isolation bin, after a couple weeks of spraying them they still showed zero sign of reversing, and it was too late to use any pollen from them in this batch. Oh well.

In a couple days I am probably going to move the plants over to a single 2x2' bottom-feeding tray and try watering them with an AutoPot aquavalve for the rest of the grow, as a trial for using it in later batches. At this point my plants will happily drink up everything if I water twice per day, so I'd rather give them as much as they want while they're getting frosty and bulking up. I can switch back to hand-watering if necessary.

Buds forming everywhere, but decent airflow.

From above. The WWs' and WAs' uppermost fan leaves have some light stress, whereas the BB#4 is dark green and seems like it would happily take more light. The MS's leaf tips that were clawing from nitrogen before have burned a little and curled up, but otherwise it seems to be doing great.

Bruce Banner #3.

BB#3's buds are getting some purple here and there.

Mango Smile!

One of the (many) MS tops.

Wizard's Apprentice 3.

WA3 tops.

Wizard's Apprentice 4. Not quite as much bulk as WA3, and it's struggling to hold up the side branches. Pollinating little side branches doesn't do any good if they break off, so I've got ties holding them up now.

The Wild Thailand Ryder is filling out now, not likely to yield as much as the others but should be enough to try + some seeds.

WTR4 top.

Walter White 1.

Walter White 2, a bit branchier.

WW2 top.

 

[parsing_trees]

Day 55 (some pictures from yesterday, some today). Over the last week a couple major things have changed:
- I moved everything to my bottom-feeding tray and set up my aquavalve.
- Some of the pollinated branches have visible seeds developing.
- I finally bought a good pH meter.
- Some sort of issue with WW1 has gotten worse.

Full tent, before adding a bunch of hydroton to the bottom. There's quite a bit of open space when everything is in one tray the full width of the tent, vs. two fairly narrow windowboxes. The aquavalve is set to flood the tray a 1" depth, and with a 2x2' tray that's a volume of almost exactly 2.5 gallons. I've typically been hand-watering around half a gallon per day lately between the two windowboxes, and I don't want to flood the tray with substantially more than that at a time, so I needed to fill in more of the space. I added a bunch of hydroton, but since hydroton floats, I needed to add a bit more to keep that layer in place. In the mean time I've removed the excess and I'm waiting for the rest to get absorbed before iterating further.

The two Walter Whites (left-middle and front right) have a lot of yellowing going on in their upper leaves. It's probably related to light stress, the WWs are a little taller than the others (~24"), but I'm starting to wonder if it's also a pH issue. After using GH test kit drops for years, I finally bought a good pH meter (an Apera PH60), and it's telling me that what I thought was around 5.8-6.0 was probably actually much higher (6.2-6.4), and that could make a substantial difference with the nutrient uptake. Magnanese needs a lower pH range than that, and could be consistent with the symptoms I've been seeing (yellowing, particularly between leaf veins, like magnesium deficiency, but moving from younger to older growth). If so, it's immobile, so it probably won't improve substantially but it shouldn't get much worse? Whatever it is, the WWs are most affected and the BB#3 the least. It's separate from the Mango Smile's dried out / curled up tips, which were probably due to wanting less nitrogen and a lighter EC in general.

The flooded tray, with hydroton. The water doesn't seem to be going through the aquavalve "pot sock" so well, but that may sort itself out eventually? It's supposed to keep roots, stray floating perlite, etc. out of the way that could cause the pump to get clogged and fail open. I folded one of the sides down a bit so water could flow out before the valve stopped, but once water can pass through it better that shouldn't be necessary. I'm going to be watching closely for mold in the next couple days, though the humidity at the canopy level hasn't risen.

Bruce Banner #3, about 20" / 50 cm.

The BB#3 is probably the most photogenic of the bunch.

The pollinated branches are starting to visibly swell with forming seeds. There are a few peeking out, but it's only been ~2 weeks, so they're still quite green.

Mango Smile. 22" tall, nearly as wide, and the buds keep spreading and smelling great.

I can't wait to try this one.

Wizard's Apprentice 3.

Wizard's Apprentice 4. While taking all the plants out to swap out the windowboxes for the tray, WA4 suddenly tipped over, falling a couple feet. It didn't seem to obviously suffer for it, and the coco/root mass held together, but things got tense for a minute.

Wild Thailand Ryder 4, which has stretched a bit more and is now 24" tall. It's still a week younger than the others, but the branches have started to fill out.

It's also getting some frost now.

Walter White 1, with some yellow fan leaves up top and also a few at the bottom.

WW2 has similar issues, but seems to be in better shape all around.