Juniper's Gentleman's Farm Fall 2014

[bagseedwndrs]

The winter air here on the Front Range is much drier than, say, a damp Midwestern basement...
Branches dried much quicker than I anticipated.
Apollo 13 has less-dense flowers than most strains though, so that probably contributed to it.
I dry trimmed today. The larger buds are still a bit too moist to smoke but the leaves were crispy:
View attachment 461787
2.5-3 oz. of high-quality flowers in the left bowl. They'll dry another day or two before they go in jars.
26.4 grams of grade-B flowers and trim in the right bowl. At least a half of it is frosty flowers. The rest is sugar trim.

I am currently making Cannabis infused butter with the latter. 2 cups water/1 lb. butter.

Got a shot of the flower tent right after the lamp struck:
View attachment 461788
In yesterday's entry I mistakenly said it was day 48 for the Osage Orange.
Today is, in fact, day 48.

Hell ya 3 zos for turkey day! Happy thanksgiving buddy i hope your cure comes out extra dank.

 

[juniper]

I realized that my commitment to minimalism & simplicity wasn't optimal for my media.
The evidence showed that more water capacity is needed.
A dogmatic approach doesn't do me any favors.

I hadn't considered that LECA holds even less water than perlite, so I'd need a mixed media.
So, I bought my first bag of rockwool (Grodan Grow-cubes).
I like the mixed media buckets thus far; I'll probably switch all buckets to mixed media, from here out.
3 pt. perlite/2 pt. rockwool cubes/2 pt. LECA sounds about right.

I was originally going to run both Osage Orange next round but a friend wanted a rooted clone and I rather
would have seen the Albert Walker flowered out anyway so I figured I'd get two birds stoned at once and
swap out a bucket.

A Prayer Tower cut rooted so that's in a polystyrene cup now; it's life as a mother plant begins.

Pictured:


Nothing new in the flower tent. A13 is stretching like crazy.

 

[juniper]

A13 @ 7 days flower:

I defoliated about half of the leaves to let in some light, airflow, and to slow the stretch a bit.
I'm thinking about topdressing with some rockwool cubes to add water retention.
The canopy on this plant is much more even than last run.
7-8 oz. off this bucket is definitely in the realm of possible.


Prayer Tower @ 4 days flower:

This plant has been average-to-slow in the vegetative stage so far.
It should begin stretching in earnest any day now.

An A13 cut rooted and begins its life as a mother.

Osage Orange is not fun to trim. It is quite leafy.
The flowers themselves were a little smaller than anticipated, but it
was a slightly premature harvest. Looks to be about 5.5 oz flowers
and about a 3 oz. of sugar leaf/airy buds. A hash-maker's strain, for sure.

 

[SeaF0ur]

Whats the parentage of Osage Orange, and does it actually have an orange flavor?

 

[bagseedwndrs]

A13 @ 7 days flower:
View attachment 463158
I defoliated about half of the leaves to let in some light, airflow, and to slow the stretch a bit.
I'm thinking about topdressing with some rockwool cubes to add water retention.
The canopy on this plant is much more even than last run.
7-8 oz. off this bucket is definitely in the realm of possible.


Prayer Tower @ 4 days flower:
View attachment 463159
This plant has been average-to-slow in the vegetative stage so far.
It should begin stretching in earnest any day now.

An A13 cut rooted and begins its life as a mother.

Osage Orange is not fun to trim. It is quite leafy.
The flowers themselves were a little smaller than anticipated, but it
was a slightly premature harvest. Looks to be about 5.5 oz flowers
and about a 3 oz. of sugar leaf/airy buds. A hash-maker's strain, for sure.

That prayer towrr looks damn good buddy I cant wait to see its true colors. I burnt my mk star over nuted again. But my gdp loved the amt of nutes used and is thriving I started another gdp as well.

 

[juniper]

Whats the parentage of Osage Orange, and does it actually have an orange flavor?

Tahoe Alien x Indiana Bubblegum. Just what I've been calling the cut. It's namesake was because it reminded me of Maclura pomifera, also known as Osage Orange, not the citrus fruit. Tahoe Alien Bubblegum was too wordy.

That prayer towrr looks damn good buddy I cant wait to see its true colors. I burnt my mk star over nuted again. But my gdp loved the amt of nutes used and is thriving I started another gdp as well.

Thanks friend. I'm excited as well. And hey that's good to hear. I hope you get a nice frosty purple female out of those beans.

 

[SeaF0ur]

I've been looking for some orange action... I got a good Cali-O and a buddy is crackin some Agent Orange... he's gonna bring me all the males to look at, and he'll take cuts of my keeper males for insurance... its a good system lol.

 

[juniper]

I've been looking for some orange action... I got a good Cali-O and a buddy is crackin some Agent Orange... he's gonna bring me all the males to look at, and he'll take cuts of my keeper males for insurance... its a good system lol.

I'd love to run a really dank, extra orange-y strain. I don't even know if I've ever sampled such a thing, lemony for sure, or just a generic "citrus" flavor, but never straight orange, so far. Something like that would be a nice find.

How's the Cali-O? Is it the original cut? How do you like it/what can you tell me about it?

 

[SeaF0ur]

It is an older cut, I got it rom a buddy and there are many seeds for sale, so it may not be the original, but its a great pheno... dense and sticky... I get more of an orange-lime flavor however... it's not pure orange like I'm lookin for.

 

[juniper]

It is an older cut, I got it rom a buddy and there are many seeds for sale, so it may not be the original, but its a great pheno... dense and sticky... I get more of an orange-lime flavor however... it's not pure orange like I'm lookin for.

If I could get my hands on it, I'd really like to try that AE77 Cali-O cut; all the old-school cuts sound fun.
Let me know how your friend's Agent Orange turns out. I'd be curious to see it.

 

[juniper]

Over the past few days, I've noticed that LECA, in larger amounts, is less pH neutral than I'd anticipated. Over-night runoff in the mostly-LECA Albert Walker BX1 bucket was approaching 7.5 pH, with a morning input of 5.5-6.2.
I figured I'd just flush it out, and it seems to be working, because runoff was about 6.5 this morning. Whatever was causing the pH rise is probably mostly neutralized by now, so when I check tomorrow I'm expecting about 6.1 runoff.

Perlite did the exact same thing, though.
And both perlite and LECA are supposed to be pH neutral. Inert, maybe, but certainly not neutral out of the bag.
Residual hydroxides on the media from manufacturing? New source material? I can only speculate.

Oddly enough, the rockwool cubes have been the most pH neutral media I've used so far. Odder still, several people reported the Plant-!t brand caused pH drop, all the way into the middle-3's.
It would seem most media has consistency issues.

Here's the Albert Walker BX1. I'm going to start referring to it as "Delbert Walker":


Osage Orange, also doing well:

This plant is 6" tall and has at least 10 nodes. It's been bonsai'd, stems crushed and intensely defoliated to keep it small until I needed it.
It's been about 7 weeks from when this cut rooted.

I originally had 3 clones of Osage growing in the same polystyrene cup. It's amazing what limited rootspace can do to keep a plant small.
Now that the other 2 clones are gone from that cup, the main Osage Orange mother is rapidly increasing in size.

Here's the moms n' clones bucket:

Clockwise, from bottom left: Osage Orange, A13, Prayer Tower, Delbert Walker.
After this run, I'll pare it down to 3 strains so I have some space to start cracking some beans.
It's going to be a difficult choice to make, I like them all...

 

[juniper]

Apollo 13 is curing nicely, it's developing a pungency in the jars:


Osage Orange is a trimmer's nightmare haha. Apollo 13 was a breeze.

The A13 in the flower tent has just started pushing pistils in earnest.

 

[juniper]

Best QWISO I've ever made. Non-coincidentally, the lowest yielding as well. Osage Orange sugar trim.

Everything frozen, super fast wash. More of a 40 second "rinse". Used 56 grams of sugar trim. 1.5 gram total yield.
I'd like to try this on cured flower. Flower-run w/ this technique should look like Green Dot Labs shatter.
But, I feel this product is comparable to any trim-run butane oil.

Butane definitely would have yielded better, maybe 3 grams.
However, this cost me $3.25 in isopropanol to make and simple evaporation purge over a pot of warm water.
It took 2.5 hours to evaporate 500 mL of 91% isopropanol.
I did not opt for a second wash, since this was only sugar trim.

 

[juniper]

Here's A13 @12 days in flower.

Today is actually day 13; these photos were taken last night.
Heavily defoliated to slow stretch.
This is the opposite of last run. This bucket is a bit over-vegged w/ 2 plants @ 7 weeks.
I would like to take the A13 to 49 days this run to see if the extra 4 days makes a difference.

Here's Prayer Tower @ 8 days in flower:

She's just begun to stretch. Let's hope she gains about 24 cm in height.
She was defoliated lightly to allow a little more light and airflow.
I will more intensely defoliate when she's done w/ stretching.

The pH issues in the Delbert Walker vegetative bucket are mostly corrected.
Run-off is only a couple points over input. Today it measured 6.2, so well within
standards.

I checked run-off in the Osage Orange bucket and it was in the high 4's.
I do not understand what is causing this, however it is likely the LECA.
I bought two separate bags, and I've read reports of pH issues in Plant-!t Brand, both
high and low. Ran 3 gallons of nutrient solution through until run-off was at 6.0.
Will be checking religiously until this sorts itself out.

Here's another shot of that QWISO:

Total headstash. I'm rather proud of it.

 

[juniper]

Apollo 13 @ 14 days:

She's fast enough that she's mostly done stretching by 2 weeks.
3-4 tiny lower branches were stripped, as well as a dozen "suckers".
I'm just letting the Prayer Tower stretch for now, it's at day 10.

The vegetative plants are doing well. The A13 mother plant is now in straight
rockwool mini-cubes and the root growth has been impressive so far.
The pH issues are mostly solved. The Delbert Walker bucket runoff pH didn't appreciably
rise, and the Osage Orange bucket runoff only dropped from 6.0 to 5.5, rather than high 4's.

It seems unusual that breeders aren't selling fresh pollen.
I'd pay just as much for pollen as beans if I could make my own crosses
without having to test any males myself.

One could reckon that selling fresh pollen from proven or champion males
is the logical future of breeding. No different than a stud horse.
Tiny packets of pollen could be mailed just as easily as a seed.

 

[bagseedwndrs]

Best QWISO I've ever made. Non-coincidentally, the lowest yielding as well. Osage Orange sugar trim.
View attachment 463976
Everything frozen, super fast wash. More of a 40 second "rinse". Used 56 grams of sugar trim. 1.5 gram total yield.
I'd like to try this on cured flower. Flower-run w/ this technique should look like Green Dot Labs shatter.
But, I feel this product is comparable to any trim-run butane oil.

Butane definitely would have yielded better, maybe 3 grams.
However, this cost me $3.25 in isopropanol to make and simple evaporation purge over a pot of warm water.
It took 2.5 hours to evaporate 500 mL of 91% isopropanol.
I did not opt for a second wash, since this was only sugar trim.

Hell yes!! The hard work pays in the end get that torch or pen buddy! That ear wax looks too good.

 

[bagseedwndrs]

Apollo 13 @ 14 days:
View attachment 464805
She's fast enough that she's mostly done stretching by 2 weeks.
3-4 tiny lower branches were stripped, as well as a dozen "suckers".
I'm just letting the Prayer Tower stretch for now, it's at day 10.

The vegetative plants are doing well. The A13 mother plant is now in straight
rockwool mini-cubes and the root growth has been impressive so far.
The pH issues are mostly solved. The Delbert Walker bucket runoff pH didn't appreciably
rise, and the Osage Orange bucket runoff only dropped from 6.0 to 5.5, rather than high 4's.

It seems unusual that breeders aren't selling fresh pollen.
I'd pay just as much for pollen as beans if I could make my own crosses
without having to test any males myself.

One could reckon that selling fresh pollen from proven or champion males
is the logical future of breeding. No different than a stud horse.
Tiny packets of pollen could be mailed just as easily as a seed.

I had these same thoughts not too long ago. I would buy my fav strains top males pollen without the work.it would prolly be easier to sell mail pollinn

 

[juniper]

I had these same thoughts not too long ago. I would buy my fav strains top males pollen without the work.it would prolly be easier to sell mail pollinn

Growing is bigger than it's ever been. There's a huge potential market for it.

Then again, breeders make a lot on seeds, and you can make thousands of seeds
with a tiny amount of pollen. It makes less sense, financially.
I don't blame them. Setting aside the time to find great male stock and
setting aside valuable grow-space for breeding should be compensated fairly.

But organized pollen trading is coming, if it hasn't already.

 

[juniper]

A13 @ 17 days:

I still have to raise the light about an inch a day. Seems to be slowing down a bit, which is great.
You can barely see the trichomes about to form. Looks like dust on the leaves.

Prayer Tower @ 13 days:

She's just now starting to really stretch, thankfully, although flowers are setting nicely.
A little slower than Osage Orange in vegetative stage, but clones as quick as the A13.
I hope the Lemon Thai mother of this cross shines through and she stretches another 25-30 cm.
This cut has been very indica-dominant so far, but we'll see.

The issues with pH in the new media in the vegetative tent are ongoing, but extra watering and diligent
monitoring are being implemented. After a few flushes though, the worst pH fluctuations are over, so
I'm hopeful whatever is causing the pH shifts will wash out soon.

 

[juniper]

I removed some more "suckers" and thinned several wispy lower branches that would have
produced larf on both the Prayer Tower & the A13 in flower. Thinning was also necessary on
the Prayer Tower, so the flowering growth isn't so thick, as with the Osage Orange last run.

I lightly defoliated the Prayer Tower, maybe 20% of leaves w/a petiole, just enough to let in some more
light and air.

I also lightly defoliated the A13 to continue to encourage it to stop stretching.

Post-harvest the A13 actually yielded almost as well as the Osage Orange. The Osage Orange was 1/3 sugar trim,
and grew too dense together, risking mold.

There was almost no sugar trim on the A13, just almost a zip of lower grade airier flowers. But I'd rather have
a zip of airy flowers than two zips of sugar trim.

Right now, the A13 is looking like the better plant. The smell on the Osage is strong, but generic "kushy".
The A13 has cured nicely to a pleasing sweet/floral/berry scent with a nice pungency.

So, it's between Prayer Tower and Osage Orange to see who stays this round. A13 is just too awesome a cut.
It's a better comparison anyway, as it's between two indica-dominant cuts.