Juniper's Vernal Follies 2015

[juniper]

Osage @ 23 days:


D. Walker @ 27 days:

Flowers developing nicely. Powerful funky scent.

Island Sweet Skunk is perking up nicely.
She's liking the re-pot into rock-wool mini cubes.
I removed the older, spotted leaves and watered
a couple times with flowering solution and she
already looks almost good as new.

Willowy, dark red stems and petioles.
Palest green leaves w/ 3-5 points.
Leaves are delicate. Inter-nodal length average.

I feel very fortunate to have procured this particular
clone. I had dreamed of growing I.S.S. since college.

 

[juniper]

Osage @ 27 days:


D. Walker @ 31 days:

The odor on this plant is outrageous. I ordered a replacement
carbon filter. The current one is nearing the end of its effective
life and isn't scrubbing odor 100%.

Farmers, I'm suspicious of most additives/supplements, but
research suggests fulvic acids have great potential in hydroponics.

Too expensive to use long-term in drain-to-waste, but I'm trying
dosing it in the feed solution at 4mL/L for a few days to test how
the flowering plants like it. In the next few days, I'll try to apply
a foliar spray to the vegetative plants to see how they react.

Notes on using BioAg Ful-Power so far:
-It does not alter pH at 15mL/gallon (4mL/L)
-Same light-golden color as an American lager
-No detectable odor
-Touted by several growers I've talked to as the bee's knees

 

[juniper]

Fulvic Update:

Yesterday, I sprayed the clones n' veg. plants w/ 6mL/L (23mL/gallon) solution
of BioAg Ful-Power. I used a touch over the recommended limit, which for foliar
application is 20mL/gallon. It is very cost-effective, even for cheapskates like
myself, when applied as a foliar at the maximum recommended dose, weekly.

Here's the Island Sweet Skunk clone:

It darkened several shades of green overnight. I have a picture of this plant two
posts up, you can clearly see the difference. Leaf blotching disappeared. I'd have
thought it was a fluke if not for:

The foliage on my Purple Elephant clone did the same thing. Clearly, it improves,
at the very least, N and possibly Fe uptake. I had read about it's wondrous work on
delivering chelated/complexed nutrients but I had expected an improvement over a
week or two, not within 18 hours.

I'd swear it looks like the flowering plants had gotten 10% bigger overnight after
their fulvic root drench yesterday, but that's, like, half wishful thinking on my part.
I'm going to continue with 4mL/L root drench on the flowering plants and report
my findings. The flowering plants are probably too far along to spray (botrytis risk).

I don't want to say much more, lest I start sounding like a shill for BioAg. But:

I have liked most of GH's products, but their Fulvic line, Diamond Nectar, has a
concentration of 0.01% fulvics. Ful-Power was 0.06%. Botanicare's Fulvex doesn't
even list it's concentration, which is unacceptable. I'd rather buy the watered down
stuff, since it's a known quantity. Don't much care for unknown variables.

...which brings me to my next point: We as growers should demand more transparency
in our nutrients/supplements/additives. Yeah sure, Roots Excelurator doesn't have any
PGR's and Snow Storm Ultra is just a K supplement...In fact, our whole fertilizer law
system seems woefully anachronistic, and I'm just a hobbyist, man. I'm sure someone more
educated on fertilizer jurisprudence can chime in here...

I'm rarely the person who says "there ought to be a law" but here, I'd love to see a guaranteed
analysis on every agricultural/horticultural product listing EVERY ingredient. I'd never have
thought in a million years that the USDA should be involved in my Cannabis garden, but here
we are, post legalization in CO.

 

[juniper]

Key upgrades have been made to my ventilation setup.

Added 4" Active-Air w/ carbon intake filter for veg.
tent. Got a speed controller on lowest setting. This
tent needs only light ventilation; LED produces almost
no heat. Fancy-pants new lightproof ducting as well.


Also snagged a replacement carbon filter, and this duct
muffler. I'd say it reduced noise about 50%, such that
I can barely hear it. Phat Filter 6". Does what it says;
therefore, worth the price.

 

[juniper]

Osage @ 31 days:

25 or so days until harvest. Skunk aroma
is really starting to set in.

D. Walker @ 35 days:

Even the stems are crusty w/ trichomes.
This is a very, very nice strain and I feel
a twinge of remorse that I'm not keeping
it. However, if I have an indica plant, I'd
want a much different scent profile. I like
piney and incensey, rather than pure funk.

As a side note, I am considering adding Calcium-25
(triacontanol) to my foliar feeds.

 

[FlyinJStable]

Diggin the Hempy grows J-man
great thread and beautiful ladies
Peace FlyJ

 

[juniper]

D. Walker @ 39 days:

Pistils are rapidly turning. 2 weeks until harvest.

Osage @ 35 days:

Getting real frosty! 3 weeks until harvest.

I'm used to clones taking 3 full weeks to root with just clipping them and placing them in moist media.
It works every time, but it takes far too long. With Dip n' Grow at 1/20 dilution as directed and a fulvic
foliar at 5mL/L, perhaps I can cut down rooting time to 1.5 weeks.

Took 3 cuts off Island Sweet Skunk. Updates to follow.

 

[juniper]

Osage @ 38 days:


D. Walker @ 42 days:


They are both drinking a little less than they were a couple weeks ago.

 

[juniper]

Vertical space is scarce; plants in my setup ideally finish under a meter.
This takes a really long time to do but I have 8+ weeks in veg. cycle.
I think I can really make this run produce the yield I'm looking for.

Banana Kush hedge.


LG x SQ on the left, Banana Kush on right.
Cadmium Green doesn't roll off the tongue nicely.
Going back to calling it Lemon G x Space Queen.

 

[juniper]

D. Walker @ 47 days:

Harvest next Saturday. Caked in frost. Should yield well off this plant.
Starting 1/2 strength nutes tomorrow, no silica needed.
Maxibloom at 1/2 tsp. gallon usually puts me at 5.9-6.2.

Osage @ 43 days:

Harvest in 2 weeks. Still expecting maybe 2.5 zips.
Leaves doing that resin taco thing I like...reeking pungent fruity kush.

 

[juniper]

D. Walker (Albert Walker BX1) @ 50 days:

85-90% of pistils have turned. Upper leaves yellowing and getting spotty.
Drinking lightly on 1/2 strength nutrients. On track for this Saturday.

Osage Orange (Tahoe Alien x Indiana Bubblegum) @ 46 days:

Being fed 1/2 strength 3 days now, drinking normally.
Right on track for next Saturday.

 

[juniper]

Elephant Purple transplanted into 5 gallon hempy:

This cut trains readily.

Albert Walker harvested @ 55 days:

To harvest, I removed the largest leaves, but all the sugar trim is still on the plant, and I
haven't yet decided on whether to dry-trim or leave it untrimmed. It'll hang for 5-7 days
before it hits the jars.

ISS clones I used Dip n' Grow rooted a week or so faster, and had larger, more developed
roots than my clones usually throw. I'll use it from now on.

 

[juniper]

Island Sweet Skunk transplanted into 5 gallon and tied down.

Super lanky girl, moreso than A13. Very branchy, all around aggressively fast growing plant.
Will need lots of training, I imagine.

Harvested the Osage a little early @ 52 days:

Seemed ready enough. I cut the whole plant past the crown, just removing the roots. I'm hanging the
entire plant to slow dry. I did not trim it, though I removed the largest leaves a couple days ago.

The idea is that the plant will cure much faster if it is semi-alive for an extended time. Wet trimming and
cutting the plant into individual branches "kills" the plant much faster, as it dries out too quickly, meaning
biological/enzymatic processes cease. The microbes that assist curing would likely be much more active in a
more moist substrate (your buds). As long as airflow is constant, mold shouldn't be an issue. We'll see how
it turns out. I separated the stems and dry trimmed this cut last time, so I have a nice reference point.

The D. Walker I harvested a couple days ago was too big to hang whole in my current setup.

 

[juniper]

Always improving the tek:

Used 99% isopropyl alcohol instead of my usual 91%. It CAN be bought at Safeway; the rumors are true.
I still need to step my game up and acquire a set of screens and/or filter syringes for these little runs.

This is the 1st pull: exactly 3g from about 2.5 oz of sugar trim and lower buds. The second pull will be used for edibles.

This extract came out runny, but, a few hours later it polymerized (waxed up) a bit so it's more easily handled. In a couple days it'll be 100% earwax texture. Isopropyl extracts seem much more prone to waxing up (polymerization) than butane ones. I haven't the faintest idea why. If I winterize butane oil w/ isopropyl it stills rapidly polymerizes, so I don't think it's somehow related to the amount of plant waxes/lipids in the hash oil.

Taste is just OK, better than some butane oils but worse than others. I feel like I've finally dialled in the purity part, just need to work on taste. Suggestions for improvement are always welcome.

 

[juniper]

2nd pull:

After the initial wash, I poured in another 200mL of isopropyl alcohol, this time 91%, to catch any remaining cannabinoids. I let it sit overnight.
What I found surprised me, 2.2 grams of fairly clean hash. This stuff set much "harder" and the thinnest layers turned to shatter. It leaves a faint residue on the quartz nail, but is better than most of the BHO I got back in the Midwest (that ain't saying much). Doesn't taste as nice as the 1st pull, but hits silky smooth like all clean QWISO.

 

[juniper]

Banana Kush @ 10 days:

Leafy girl. Thinned, defoliated, and retied.

Lemon G x Space Queen @ 9 days:

Long internodes, thick hollow stems, gigantic fans, long petioles. Everything about this
plant is "big". Thinned, defoliated, retied. 7 weeks to go...

Osage from last round still in jars but looking pretty on point. Whole plant drying seems
the way to go whenever possible, at the very least 100% dry trimming.

 

[juniper]

Banana Kush @ 16 days:

Stretch has been fairly minimal. I haven't really been defoliating or pinching much.

Lemon G x Space Queen @ 15 days:

Lots of pinching and defoliating the lead shoots. Canopy is staying pretty even.

These are both on 1.5 tsp/gallon MaxiBloom. I couldn't help but feel the plants last round were
a bit hungry and my suspicions were correct. Really loving the extra fertilizer, no burning.

 

[juniper]

Banana Kush @ 20 days:


LG x SQ @ 21 days:


Both are starting to stack nodes and develop trichomes.

 

[juniper]

Banana Kush @ 28 days:

Floral clusters are stacking better than the LG x SQ. An intensely sweet smell, it could be construed as banana-like.

Lemon G x Space Queen @ 27 days:

This cut smells very very similar to the Ohio Lemon G clone, which to me smells like bitter orange rinds and dry gin.


Everything is done stretching now. 4 weeks to go.

 

[juniper]

Acquired a new cutting:

Bodhi's "Pinesoul" pheno of Goji OG F2.
A couple months ago, I sampled some of the flowers from this cut and they were connoisseur quality dank, so I am appreciative of receiving this cut.

Here's the D. Walker buds dried n' cured a month later:

Turned out somewhat nice despite the early issues w/ media, all around solid plant.