Indoor Winter Sun

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Time for a new batch. I started soaking the seeds on Christmas, most are 14 days from sprout. It's pretty much the same setup as last time -- I'm growing in a 2x2' / 60x60 cm tent, in reused 1/2 liter polypropylene food containers (ice cream pints) full of coco and hydroton, bottom-feeding with Dyna-Gro hydroponic nutrients. I'm using ~110 watts of LED COBs lights, 24/0 for extra warmth.

Left row, front to back:
- 2x Wizard's Apprentice (regs)
- Grape Crinkle x Anvil (reg)
- 2x Wizard's Apprentice x Blue Microverse (regs)

Right row, front to back:
- 2x 24 Carat (fems)
- Grape Crinkle x Anvil (reg, a week younger than the others)
- Wizard's Apprentice (fem, the F5)
- Fantasmo Express (fem)

This group is kind of a hodge-podge of Mephisto, Night Owl, and pollen chucks of mine. I started four Wizard's Apprentice regs last time hoping to get a male or two and make a bunch more seeds for later, but all four turned out female. I really like the flower from the two I kept, though, so I'm trying to find a male in my remaining two regs before they get too old, or failing that a WA x Blue Microverse male. Otherwise, I've been wanting to try 24 Carat for a while, as well as some of the crosses I've made, and added Fantasmo Express to get some relatively early-finishing Haze in the mix. The regs have white plant markers, the fems blue.

I had another Grape Crinkle x Anvil that germinated but didn't sprout -- I later found the planted seed with an inch-plus-long radicle that went a ways and then changed direction, so I think it got turned around and ran out of energy before it broke the surface. After a couple days of waiting for it to sprout I got another soaking, and that one (GCxA3) germinated and sprouted very quickly. I also soaked a couple really old 3 Bears OG x Grape Crinkle seeds (Illuminauto #20, circa 2015?), which germinated lethargically but didn't sprout. I'll give more of those a try again later, with care specific to old seeds.

At the moment, 24C1, WAxBM2, and WA2 are in the lead, already forming their fifth node. Most of the others are filling out their fourth, with the Fantasmo Express a bit slower than the rest, and the GCxA3 a week younger but catching up. As usual, I'm planning on topping everything between days 15-20, as soon as there's a clear shot to cut above the fourth node. They will probably start showing sex over next week or so.

Most have some significant leaf tip burn on the first and (to much a lesser extent) second nodes' leaves, stress from a cold and dry first week. Adding a heat lamp to warm up the tent made it even dryer, and my small humidifier couldn't keep up. I've kept the coco damp and their roots are drinking plenty now. The newer growth looks better, so I'm not too worried, and the water in the trays from bottom-feeding will help raise the RH a bit. There's some algae on top, but as the surface coco dries out that'll go away. Some are also a bit pale, but improving -- I started out really low nutrient-wise, but I've been raising the EC gradually, and also acclimating the seedlings to my (somewhat hard) tap water.

 

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Day 18.

Four of the six regs have shown sex already. Perhaps because the universe has a sense of humor, both Wizard's Apprentices this time are male, to match the 4/4 female last time I guess. I also included a WA fem in case that happened, so it's not a big deal -- I'd rather have more than one male to collect pollen from, anyway. The Wizard's Apprentice x Blue Microverse regs have one male (WAxBM1) and one female (WAxBM2). Neither Grape Crinkle x Anvil regs have sexed yet, but one is a week younger, and Anvils have always been late to show sex for me -- around day 25 rather than day 18-20. On the other hand, Blue Microverse has tended to sex early (around day 16), and the BM side may have influenced the WAxBM regs. I have a second small tent coming for isolating males, so those will get moved out in a couple days, well before they actually begin releasing pollen. Keeping one male in an isolation bin right in my tent has been super convenient, but I'd like more flexibility.

I topped everything this weekend except the younger GCxA3 and the Fantasmo Express, which has still been finishing up its fourth node, but that too will probably get topped soon. As usual, they bounced back pretty quickly from the topping, with resumed growth visible in the time lapse less than two hours after. The topping was done at the same time as adding chopstick supports to the two in the right tray. (I kept the animated GIF small to keep the file size down for AFN so you might need to zoom in, sorry.)

The first and second node leaves that were dried out during the hot & dry start won't recover, but the newer growth looks fine. I've acclimated them to my tap water, which is around 350 us/cm, and to the full nutrient mix I'll continue until the flowering stretch: 1/2 tsp per gallon of Pro-Tekt (silica), 1 tsp per gallon of Foliage-Pro (one-part veg nutrient), and enough pH Down to bring that to around 5.9-6.0. That ends up around 1200 us/cm total. The GCxA3 is still partially getting a lighter mix, but not for long.

Edit, later in the day: FE is topped now too, probably could have done it yesterday. WAF5 has also shown sex (F), not that there was any suspense.

 

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On day 22 GCxA1 showed sex, female. I was really hoping at least one of those would be female. Only GCxA3 hasn't shown sex yet, but it's a week behind the others (day 17). I topped it yesterday.

The males have been developing rapidly and seemed ready to start dropping pollen any minute, so a couple days ago I moved them into my isolation bin. I had a second tent coming, but keeping them in the open seemed too risky.

WAxBM2 has started flowering, and has very quickly moved along, already developing big pompoms of stigmas. The couple Blue Microverses I've grown have all started flowering quite early. I don't think it's "stunting", but it may be a moot point since I'm growing it in a half liter container. It will still get harvested at the same time as the others, one way or another, and it may be waiting an extra week or so for seeds to mature. Nothing in this batch should run super long, but I would have bet on the WAxBMs finishing a little earlier than the rest.



On day 20, the 24 Carat #2 paused growing. I looked it over and noticed that there was some kind of brown rot choking the stem right where it broke the surface. I've had that happen before, but those plants were way too damp and there was mold on the top surface of the coco. I don't know why it happened to that one, but I treated it as a canary in the coal mine. Watering a little less, cranking up the fan, etc. I did what I could but it didn't recover, and over the next few days I saw it completely stop growing and then start drying up, so I culled it. I started two 24Cs in case one didn't make it, though, and the other 24 Carat is doing great.

24C1 had a lower node side branch in the corner that was a little less developed. Since there was extra room from culling 24C2, I decided to try rooting it as a clone. I haven't really cloned cannabis before, just kitchen herbs. The stakes are really low here -- if I get extra flower out of it, cool, but I would have pruned it either way. The branch had about two inches of stem, then two nodes. First I made a perpendicular cut with freshly cleaned trimming shears, stuck it in a cup of water for a couple minutes while I got a pot ready for it -- I put some leftover buffered coco in another cup, wet it with my remaining half-strength nutrient mix I've been using for GCxA3, and made a hole for the cutting. Then, I cut the end of the stem at 45ish degree angle with a razor, peeled off some of the outer stem near the cut to help expose adventitious roots, dipped it in rooting hormone, planted it in the coco up to the node, and pressed the coco tight around it. It's been two days so far, it hasn't wilted or anything, but I don't really expect it to get up and dance either. We'll see if it takes off.

I finally got a second tent, specifically for isolating more than one male from my main tent. There are three males in there now, two Wizard's Apprentices and a WA x Blue Microverse cross of mine (WAxBM1). A few of the earliest stamens on the stem opened, possibly while I was moving them (inside the isolation bin), and they will probably start dropping significant pollen over the week.

And now there's more space with the bin removed. Only WAxBM2 has really started to stretch so far, so hopefully they can benefit from the extra room. Usually my isolation bin is still in the tent until after the flowering stretch.

 

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Everything has started flowering, most are in the flowering stretch.

The 24C1 clone seems to be doing all right, definitely not wilting/dying and possibly some very minor new leaf growth? It's only been a week so far, so its growth is probably still focused on roots. It's partially shaded by neighboring plants, but if growth picks up I'll find a better spot for it. If it does end up rooting fine and flowering, it'll be interesting to see what the root ball looks like post-harvest.

GCxA3 (a week behind) still hasn't shown sex yet. Hopefully that one will be female, the timing won't work to collect pollen if it's male. GCxA1 showed on day 22 from sprout, it's day 23 for GCxA3 now.

I swapped 24C1 and FE because 24C1 is the currently tallest and FE the shortest, now 24C1 is in the back of the right tray. (FE may stretch a lot in flowering, though.)

The Fantaso Express has been a bit behind the pack because its stem was being attacked by the same mold that killed 24C2. In the time-lapse its growth slowed around D21-23 and then picked up again, and now I see that its stem recovered from some damage. The stake should keep weight off that part of the stem. Clearly I was watering the right tray too much around 10-15 days ago, probably over-compensating for the dry air. Lesson learned (again, unfortunately).

Grape Crinkle x Anvil (1) is big and branchy, with six "main" colas from topping and side branches catching up, and looks like a leafy bush from above. It seems to be doing great all around, and I'm really excited about trying that cross.

Wizard's Apprentice x Blue Microverse (2) started flowering earlier than the others and is quite ready to pollinate now; the others should have pompoms like that in a few more days. WAxBM2 also has lots of side branch growth due to topping.

Wizard's Apprentice F5, with 24 Carat (1) behind it.

There are some details that stand out in time-lapse. For example, a few nights ago WAxBM2 and WAF5 both suddenly drew in their fan leaves, closing up like umbrellas overnight. I think it's just them responding to drying out a bit, and they reopened within a few hours after watering the trays again. Looking back at the previous week, those two have always drooped more than the others between watering.

Meanwhile, in the male tent, they are starting to drop small amounts of pollen. It's pretty cold in there -- the tent is in my basement, and the partially dimmed light isn't warming the tent that much, so it's probably around 60-65F -- and growth has been a bit slow. I just set up my heat lamp to warm the tent temporarily, will see how much difference that makes.

There are lots of stamens on all three plants ready to go, though.

Over the next week or so I'll collect pollen out of the cups, mix it with flour, brush some onto a few branches on each plant, and freeze the rest.

 

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It's now 35 days from sprout, and they're stretching and flowering. (Ignore the water droplets, I took that picture right after misting to deactivate excess pollen after I was done pollinating.)

But first! In my male tent!

The males have been dropping more and more pollen each day. I've collected enough for two rounds of brushing pollen onto individual branches on the females, which is probably plenty to use fresh, but I'm going to keep them a little longer to save more pollen. I've had great luck with storing pollen in my freezer and using it on subsequent grows, so I might as well collect extra while I'm at it.

Here's this morning's pollen from the two Wizard's Apprentice males (mixed, but before stretching it with flour), plus a few stamens and anthers that fell into the collection dish. I also collected at least as much from the single Wizard's Apprentice x Blue Microverse male.

And here it is packed in microcentrifuge tubes, destined for the freezer. Each of these 0.5ml tubes is only about 1/4 full (and has a few desiccant beads), because partially using a tube and putting it back in the freezer would risk condensation deactivating the pollen. Each is a single serving...like ketchup packets, but pollen.

Back in the main tent, the Wizard's Apprentice x Blue Microverse female (#2) has lapped the others. It already had big pompoms when the others had just started flowering, and now it's getting frosty. The BM genes are keeping things moving along quickly. The growth structure looks more like BM, too, but it's starting to smell more like WA. I put both WA and (WAxBM) pollen on it, the branches are marked with green and yellow zip ties respectively. It's about 13" / 33 cm tall.

The Wizard's Apprentice F5 female is also well into flowering now, getting impatient for me to switch to a less nitrogen-heavy nutrient mix. A few leaves are clawing, some are also curling up, probably because I was waiting until after I finished pollination to water them today, and it's also pretty cold right now. I've added several training wires to help hold up the side branches. It's about 18" / 45 cm tall.

The Fantasmo Express has been stretching a lot, but its first couple nodes stayed quite short while recovering from damage to the stem in early veg. It wound up with funny proportions, like a giraffe neck on a corgi. All told it's about 14" / 35 cm tall. Still pretty short for a Haze, but I topped it, and all the side branches are taking off.

Grape Crinkle x Anvil #1 grew five stamens as it started flowering (on day 30). I removed all of those and have checked it daily, it hasn't grown any more since. All of them looked like they formed on nodes that were at the same stage of growth, right at the transition into flower, so hopefully that was a one-time thing. Other than that, it's been doing well. It's 17" / 43 cm tall.

Grape Crinkle x Anvil #3 finally showed sex yesterday, on day 27 (it's a week younger than everything else) -- it's female, which is what I hoped. I finally spotted a pair of stigmas above the fifth (!) node, which may be the longest any auto I've grown has ever taken to show sex. Probably the Anvil's influence.

GCxA3 looks like a bunch of broad leaves from above. So does GCxA1.

The 24 Carat is also doing well, aside from leaning far outside the cup. It's actually the tallest in the tent, at 19" / 48 cm. I had expected it to be almost as squat as Strawberry Nuggets, but I like this growth structure better.

The 24 Carat clone has apparently also rooted, with about a node and a half of growth since I took the cutting. I haven't watered it directly in a while, it's wicking from the tray like everything else. It's growing with alternate phyllotaxy (zigaggy flowering branching, rather than symmetrical veg branching), so I don't know how much veg growth it will get, but I was mainly taking a clone just to see what happens.

 

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I'm done pollinating now. I did a couple passes with fresh pollen, collected enough to freeze couple dozen single-use tubes, and culled the males. I've started cleaning out and packing up the tent until next time. Having a second tent was nice, I could comfortably fit at least four males in there without risking them knocking into each other and dusting pollen into the air as I water. I can only realistically fit one in the isolation bin, or two with careful training.


From here on things tend to move pretty slowly. I've rearranged the plants a bit so that the currently tallest plants (WAF5 and 24C1) are in the back, adjusted the lighting so that nothing is getting too much intensity, and I'm setting up automated watering again. Flooding one big tray with an autopot aquavalve didn't pan out last time, this time I've got a pump, timer, and irrigation line with 0.5 & 1.0 gph drippers. I'm going to see if I can find a configuration where N minutes on a timer waters a consistent and reasonable amount, relatively even between the two windowboxes, then stops (rather than slowly siphonining in the whole reservoir...). Edit: It looks like one line winding back and forth between the two windowboxes with three drippers in each should do like I want.

- left, front to back: GCxA1, GCxA3, WAF5
- right, front to back: FE, 24C1c, WAxBM2, 24C1

Wizard's Apprentice F5, in the back/left corner of the tent. If you see white powder that looks like powdery mildew, it's actually from flour that was mixed in with pollen. I misted it to deactivate excess stray pollen, which left a little dried flour paste on the fan leaves under some hand-pollinated branches.

24 Carat, in the back/right corner of the tent.

Tops from the Wizard's Apprentice x Blue Microverse, which was the first to go hard into flower. It's shorter than the others now, but has several branches with nice bud sites.

The clone I took from the 24 Carat lower branch. It's stretching a lot now -- a week ago it was only as tall as the blue plant marker, now it's about 9" tall and may soon overtake the WAxBM.

Close-up of the clone's top growth site. I probably won't get much from it (if I keep it to harvest), but it's just tucked in between WAxBM2's branches anyway. I didn't cover it or really do much of anything to help it root, just top-watered it twice and let it wick up water from the tray.

Fantasmo express, still stretching, starting to get frosty. It's about 18" / 45 cm tall now, and it may end up taller than the rest if it doesn't stop stretching soon.

Grape Crinkle x Anvil (1).

Close-up of GCxA1's tops. Stigmas everywhere, should fill out nicely.

Grape Crinkle x Anvil (3). It has a similar growth structure to GCxA1, but it's a week younger and took a couple days longer to start flowering, so it's not as far along. It's stretching now, nearly as tall as the others.

 

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Day 48. Not much happening day to day now, they're slowly build frost. Except for the clone, which took off like a rocket!

Also, I got an irrigation system set up. I attached a 185 pump on a timer to a two-port manifold, and after some messing around trying to get flow even between the two ports, I realized I'd be better off using just one line, zigzagging it back and forth between the windowboxes, because that way I could eliminate any water pressure inconsistencies entirely. There are six 1gph drippers, three in each windowbox, all positioned so that they drip directly into the windowbox for bottom-feeding, not into a particular cup's coco or onto the line so water can flow between the trays or drip on the tent bottom. After some fine-tuning, setting my timer to run for fourteen minutes waters a good amount, then stops, and I can hear air hissing so a vacuum doesn't continue siphoning out the entire reservoir. The timer also drives an airpump in the reservoir.

The 24 Carat is bulking up now, putting out lots of frost.

Yup.

Meanwhile, the cutting I took from the 24C is stretching, stretching, stretching, nearly as tall as the 24c, but it's quite skinny.

It's flowering, but only just, clearly several weeks behind the others. I don't know if it'll be done by the time I harvest everything else, but it's not a big loss if not. It was an interesting experiment, good practice taking cuttings, and also nice to know that I didn't really need to do much to get it rooted.

The Fantasmo express has several upper branches going, and it's starting to smell a bit hazy.

Grape Crinkle x Anvil (1) is bulking up now, no sign of purpling though.

Grape Crinkle x Anvil (3) isn't as far along, but it's catching up...

and its bracts have started to turn purple, too.

Wizard's Apprentice is also bulking up, and now it's got the distinct WA smell. I can see several bracts on pollinated branches swelling with seed growth.

Wizard's Apprentice x Blue Microverse may be wider than it is tall, with chunky frosty WA buds on a short BM frame. Its smell reminds me of both parents, with some sharp OG funk cutting through a sweeter berry smell.

 

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Day 58.

I was away for about a week, the first time I've had a grow running on autopilot since before the start of the pandemic. Before I left I set up a script that encrypted and uploaded my hourly camera images, so I could still keep tabs on how things were going. Unfortunately, I botched the part that was supposed to periodically run it and didn't realize it until I was already away, so that didn't do me any good. If I had, I would have seen the GCxA1 doing this trust fall onto the WAxBM:

There was a pretty serious winter storm here, but the power didn't go out, and my hacky automated irrigation didn't flood, leak, or fail to water at all, so given the circumstances things still turned out okay.

Here's what the tent looks like now, after standing GCxA1 back up and removing the irrigation lines.

(scrolling, scrolling...) The 24 Carat clone has stretched quite a bit! It's about 27" / 70 cm tall, now the tallest in the tent by a ways. It's flowering, but several weeks behind the others, so I don't know if it will finish by the time I need to harvest everything else.

Meanwhile, the 24 Carat it was cut from is well into flower, filling out and smelling sweet and fruity.

Close-up of the 24C tops.

The Fantasmo Express is also getting quite a bit of resin.

As is the Wizard's Apprentice, though its growth is a bit more sparse.

The Wizard's Apprentice x Blue Microverse cross is further along than the others and may be ready to harvest soon, though I'm planning on harvesting everything at the same time. It's got more tip burn than everything else.

Close-up of the WAxBM tops.

Meanwhile, the Grape Crinkle x Anvil cross #1 is also getting quite frosty and smelling sweet (distinctly like Grape Crinkle), but it's getting pale on one side. It was leaning over pretty sharply for several days, with several of the leaves in front there not getting much light. It has a lot of root growth underneath the bottom of the cup, which probably didn't air-prune because of the automatic irrigation watering <more and a bit more consistently than I do by hand. Eventually there was a wedge-shaped ramen brick of roots leaning it progressively further, until it fell over, held up by the side of the windowbox and by part of the WAxBM.

Here's a picture of GCxA1's roots in the tray, with GCxA3 behind it.

Grape Crinkle x Anvil #3 also had a lot of extra root growth, but unlike GCxA1 it mostly stayed in the cup, so the coco has been lifted up out of the cup by almost two inches. The same thing happened with the WA, to a lesser extent, and to some of my other plants in a previous grow. I think my automated watering was just right for the right windowbox, but the plants in the left tray (WA, GCxA3, GCxA1) weren't drinking quite as much, so the tray didn't dry out enough for the roots to air-prune. Not necessarily a problem, as long as the roots aren't causing them to tip over.

Unlike GCxA1, GCxA3 is also purpling. There are lots of purple bracts, and it's extending into the sugar leaves.

 

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Day 63.

Much less drama this update. They are flowering, seeds are maturing, at this point I just need to keep watering them and making sure they don't tip over for a few more weeks.

I rearranged them so that the tallest are in the back and I could even out the light they're getting, now (front to back) it's:

- left: Wizard's Apprentice x Blue Microverse, Wizard's Apprentice F5, Grape Crinkle x Anvil (3)
- right: Fantasmo Express, Grape Crinkle x Anvil (1), 24 Carat (clone), 24 Carat

The 24 Carat clone is well into flower, but a couple weeks behind the others.

Grape Crinkle x Anvil (3) is really purpling now.

 

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Most of them are either done or very close, but I'm still waiting for GCxA3 and the 24 Carat clone, which probably need a week or two still.

The 24 Carat is super frosty and looking done. Smells really nice too, sweet and fruity.

24 Carat top.

The 24 Carat clone is a few weeks behind, but it's filled out a lot. Probably another week or two for it to finish. It's only a single cola, but should be good for a couple grams.

24 Carat clone top.

Fantasmo Express, also nearly ready.

FE top. Yum.

Grape Crinkle x Anvil #1, nearly done. Smells like Grape Crinkle (sweet, fruity, a bit bright, almost minty) but the Anvil bulked it up a bit.

GCxA1 top.

Grape Crinkle x Anvil #3, probably needs another week or two; it was started later than the others.

GCxA3 tops. Some light stress on the upper fan leaves; it's so prone to tipping that it's been difficult to position it where it won't get too much light intensity.

Close up of the base, root growth inside the cup has lifted up the whole coco mass about 2 inches. The space around the raised up coco is part of why it tips so easily. That mass tends to swell when it's watered, then lean as it starts to dry out.

Wizard's Apprentice (F5). Finishing up. Same WA smell as in my last batch, super resinous.

WA top.

Wizard's Apprentice x Blue Microverse. It's been ready to harvest since my last update, and I don't know how much longer I should push it. I could improvise somewhere else to hang dry it, possibly attaching a storage bin to my tent's air intake. It smells pretty strong, so I want it behind a carbon filter. It's very heavily seeded with both WA and WAxBM pollen. I see both WA and BM's traits in this, though unfortunately including WA's weak stems. It's a bit mangled looking, in part because GCxA1 fell over onto it a few weeks ago.