yet another "Is it ready yet?" thread

[eprotege]

I am in the enviable position of wondering if I get a good harvest or a great harvest. I'm 75 days into growing Mephisto Orange Biscuits. it's been flowering for quite a while. It's been a dream. A few weeks ago, I considered the plant well on its way to produce a normal harvest. Today, it's still putting on weight. So much weight, in fact, that several of the colas are now leaning all the way over. Every time I feed, I swear I can see more flowers popping out.

It's also worth pointing out that this is the strongest smelling plant I've had yet. The general skunkiness smell has passed over into body odor and outright stank. I accidentally brushed against one of the buds and the smell was like if orange marmalade was tainted with gasoline.

As some background, the plant is grown in amended soil. I used a mix of FF Happy Frog, some soil from a previous grow which had Happy Frog, Ocean Forest and had been amended with Natures Living Soil. I water every 2 days with 4 liters of pH adjusted water. Every other watering has Fox Farm nutrients at the recommended levels and once a week, I also add 1/2 tsp Flower Fuel for the PK boost. The plant is in a 12L cloth pot. Due to life, I didn't get to do any real training besides topping above the 6th node. I don't think it cared about training since even the smallest buds have weight.

What I see is:

• White trichomes
• Some orange pistils - the white ones are more visible in the photo, but I estimate 50% have turned
• Huge buds with fat calyxes
• continuing bud growth

What's the judgement? Options:

• chop today
• chop next week
• chop in 2 weeks

This was the plant a few days ago:

This is the largest cola as of last night. This pic is level. As of this morning, a second cola has decided it needed a rest as well.

Trichome shot! This was taken on one of the flowers that I swear is new this week.

 

[automan2]

Good pics.....IMO...not quite there. I say 2 weeks. Very good looking plant. Let those most of the white hairs turn orange and shrink into the bud while it fattens more. Well done.

 

[eprotege]

Thanks for that!

I propped up the branches. Now for some more waiting.

 

[eprotege]

Took these pics last night. Now that the colas have tipped over, the growth is coming out of the side and it’s a little easier to see. To take advantage of the tippage, I moved the light down so now even more light is hitting things.

Some of the flowers sticking out of the side which is now the top. This is a real study in how light encourages the bud growth. Geotropism for the win!

This is a bud shot that actually came out alright for once. Some of the promised color is visible.

Funny story about this grow. The day the seed popped up, my father-in-law moved in with us. I thought for sure I was going to have to have "The Talk", that one where you tell your parents you smoke weed. I kept things on the down low and would only check on my plant when he wasn't in the house. All I could really do for the plant was quick waterings and hope it would do well. He's moved back out and there was never a mention of the constant hum of the fans running nor the occasional smell that would escape. He's moved out now so that crisis was averted.

I guess there really is something to the LITFA method of growing.

 

[eprotege]

Well, I went to water the plant last night and noted that that one leaning branch was now snapped. I interpreted that as she's done dying and ready to ascend to Killer Weed.
Got this pic of one of the buds. You can see how the color has come out.

The trichomes are eye-watering:

Waiting was definitely the right thing to do.

This plant has been amazing. I'm glad I popped that seed. It's been a dream to grow. I'll post the dry weight when I have it. She took 86 days. The only issue was how she wanted more nutrition when flowering started, but I hadn't yet given it.

@mephisto

 

[eprotege]

Just wanted to post an update on the dry weight. It was an astonishing 256g, over 9 ounces! That’s more triple what I was hoping for.

I started the trimming thinking it would take an hour or so, 2 tops. Five hours later, I was just wrapping things up. Before I started, I took out 4 1 ounce grove bags. I’ve never had a harvest of more than 4 ounces from a single plant, so I figured this would suffice. I ended up having to go back for 6 more.

That total doesn’t even count the cola I lost to mold. That cola that fell down developed a touch of mold so I tossed it. I estimate that it was about a half ounce. I think my mistake that lead to that was not leaving a fan on in the tent for the drying. By the looks of it, the mold got a foothold along the central stem, but didn’t spread. I’m glad I had ounce bags because if I do end up with mold elsewhere, I shouldn’t lose the entire batch. The hygrometers are reporting from 58-64% so hopefully no more mold will appear.

I didn’t sleep that night. I was grinning ear to ear. The thought that I grew over a half pound of weed in a 3 gallon cloth pot in soil with my little starter tent was enough to keep me wired and awake all night long. I’m just glad I have you guys who know just how freaking cool this is.

 

[GreenBean]

If you get a set of the high CFM bars for the gorilla lite line tents, I believe that they are 16mm and should fit your tent poles. You can garden wire tie leaning, floppy buds and their stems to them. It helps to stop the branches from snapping and will also keep the area upright to get good light. Just something for future reference. They're pretty cheap through gorilla and if you look around, there's a free shipping coupon out there too.

Plant looks/looked great though!

 

[Drownomatic]

I use a tomato ring to support my buds. They're inexpensive, and don't lock the plant in place the way a scrog net does.