Limey's 2009 Paradise seeds Opium crop

[limey]

Loving the look of that cola Limey. Did that take off towards the end or was the growth for that quite consistant?? My biggest cola is currently 23cms big through nearly six weeks.

Awaiting more pictures.

Hi MG

the big cola established its length quite early on, I guess it didn't grow significantly length-wise from about day 40 in 12/12. It did fatten up ALOT in the last few weeks though. So much so, in fact, that I began to worry (justifiably, as it turned out) about mould. I would guess that your will end up at about 30-35cm long and be quite fat.

Bear in mind that I took a slightly different approach and trimmed off the branches from the lower 1/3rd of my plants, so they almost inevitably stacked up more up top. that's because of my floor space restrictions. What you lose from your cola you may well gain down below. At 6 weeks into flowering though, don't do anything drastic with yours - stick with the approach you have taken as major clipping at that stage could really stress out the plants, which (at best) will reduce yields and may (at worst) spark off hermaphroditism. Perhaps though worth getting under your canopy and clipping off any growth nodes/buds that are really small and, being shaded and low down, unlikely to produce much (you can always process the cuts into butter or BHO if you go in for that sort of thing, so it's not a total waste). Be very conservative though: I wouldn't cut off anything of any size.

 

[MasterGrower]

Funny you should say that! Yesterday I took the liberty of removing lower growth without being too drastic. I say that but I didn't actually remove any growth with bud on it!! All sites are producing a nicely structured bud....to the point where some lower nodes have developed better than nodes above it....gotta love this plant!!! I'm about 3 weeks from finish and am introducing my PK tomorrow so we'll see. Buds have definately moved into the next stage of production and have started to swell up now.

Looking forward for more of your pictures...I like to see someone else growing the same strain, allbeit using different methods.

 

[limey]

Final day before harvest

Final day before harvest

30th October - Harvest day.

In the last week, the main colas began to "horn up" - to produce lateral horns of buds. This was the final "swell" before the cut.

In the run up to harvest, I continued my programme of flushing out any remaining nutrients (fizzy water at the beginning of the week). Though the remaining plants didn't show any of the red colours that the indica pheno offered, all of the fan leaves yellowed out. I started to see a few dead leaves poking out from the biggest colas and so knew I had to cut the plants, as this is usually a sign that some bud rot is setting in...

I drained as much water as possible from the sump on the Wednesday and didn't add any more and the plants went into 24hours of dark in the period immediately before the harvest.

Here is a set of shots of the cab (2 plants only by this stage) on the day of harvest...

 

[MasterGrower]

Those buds look lovely limey.

How many days was the flower in the end then??

You gonna post up dry weight??

 

[limey]

thanks, MG. They went in to 12/12 on 24th August and the final cut was 29th October.

I will post dry weight in a week or so. Hanging the main branches for 4 weeks: I will know then. I am guessing about 7oz

Here are the buds (from the sativa phenos) after the cut:




And for scale, with a CD:



Nice!

And here are the buds hanging up to dry:




That's all for now. I hope to post some nice shots of the dried bud early December, with dry weight...

 

[mixin]

sweet grow

 

[MasterGrower]

hey limey impressive pictures.

I see you did get hit with some mould. Do you think you run enough extraction/circulation?? I ask because I'm wondering if you need to be doubly vigilant with opium. I lost my whole main cola to mould last run but conditions were really poor.

Conditions seem good this time, new pics on my thread.

 

[Masterlow]

Nice yield, very nice looking buds. good job man

Peace

 

[apollonio]

nice colas! well done!!

 

[love?]

Great report Limey, thanks for posting!

And congrats on the good yield!

I noticed you're vegging with a 125W CFL. Would you say you've been satisfied with it? I ask because I've got a similar setup to yours (Homebox S/250W HPS) and have been wondering whether or not I should get a CFL like that for veg...

 

[limey]

Great report Limey, thanks for posting!

And congrats on the good yield!

I noticed you're vegging with a 125W CFL. Would you say you've been satisfied with it? I ask because I've got a similar setup to yours (Homebox S/250W HPS) and have been wondering whether or not I should get a CFL like that for veg...

thanks

yes, I thoroughly recommend a 125w CFL, especially for the early part of veg. I think it's probably worth switching to a 250w MH bulb when they reach about 6-8" (this is something I will be experimenting with next time around) but for shaving off a bit of cost and risk early in the grow, the CFL works a treat.

 

[limey]

hey limey impressive pictures.

I see you did get hit with some mould. Do you think you run enough extraction/circulation?? I ask because I'm wondering if you need to be doubly vigilant with opium. I lost my whole main cola to mould last run but conditions were really poor.

Conditions seem good this time, new pics on my thread.

Hi

yes, I think I ran the circulation adequately. I extract into the room in which my rig is placed not to the great outdoors which helps but is not ideal. I think that when you get buds that big and dense and the leaves are beginning to die off at the peak of ripeness, some mould is inescapable unless you can keep humidity pretty low (about 60%) which would mean I would need a dehumidifier, something I can't really justify.

 

[limey]

[apologies for the break, have been out of the country]

Ok, to wrap up...

My buds have all now had their 4 weeks hanging and are in kilner jars for the cure. I weighed them up and the yield were almost exactly the same as last year: 170g dried, trimmed bud (no stalks showing)...

.... from this I'd say that it would be not too hard to get a gram per watt from this strain, if you grew from a heavier yielding clone. In hydro with all the bells and whistles, a long veg period and under a more efficient lamp, like a 600w, I reckon it might even be possible to top 1g per watt...

The smoke, as hinted at previously, is fairly (though not dramatically) strong (I would guess about 10-12% THC). Tastes and smells good - there are certainly citrus notes in the taste with a bottom end I find hard to define. The smell is definitely much stronger after even only a few hours of curing. I don't get the grapey-astringent flavour suggested by BigBookofBuds3 on either of my phenos. Maybe my taste-buds work differently?

The high is distinctly psychedelic and middle of the road in terms of body/head high. it's not a sedative weed particularly and certainly not soaring or energetic either. I would describe it as a classic stoner weed, comparable perhaps to a gently upbeat hash high. It is very nice but perhaps a bit generic for my tastes. This, the phenotypic variation (shows both classic sativa and indica characteristics) and the above average yields suggests to me that Opium is bred from a good selection of reliable "standards" - in other words I don't think it brings anything (much) new in terms of genetics. My guess is a skunkxafghan or skunkxnorthern lights selection of some kind but, hey!, it's not easy to tell...

... would be a great commercial strain (easy, quick, generous, serious bag appeal)
... would be a great beginner/getting in to the swing of things strain
... would be (is) a great strain for a grower looking for something reliable to produce a daily supply from a small rig [which is what I was looking for]

... is not "gourmet weed" - it's too generic being neither very "high" or strongly narcotic nor is the flavour (which is very strong and nice, don't get me wrong) especially distinctive
... is not (well, I doubt) particularly useful medicinally as it doesn't strike me a pain killer, relaxant or anxialitic

So, I will try to get some pics of dried supply up as a post-script in the new week or so...

 

[love?]

thanks

yes, I thoroughly recommend a 125w CFL, especially for the early part of veg. I think it's probably worth switching to a 250w MH bulb when they reach about 6-8" (this is something I will be experimenting with next time around) but for shaving off a bit of cost and risk early in the grow, the CFL works a treat.

Thanks for the info! I think I'll have to buy one of those.

 

[limey]

Thanks for the info! I think I'll have to buy one of those.

cool. Just one thing to bear in mind, they are really heavy so if you have budget reflector with a weakly attached lamp fitting, the weight of the bulb will (if hung horizontally) bend the bulb downwards, which make it difficult to get the light reflecting evenly. Not really an issue when the plants are tiny but becomes more so as they grow...

 

[limey]

Put the trim through the ice-o-lator at the weekend (small returns as there wasn't that much trim)...

the hash from this opium is some of the best trim-resin I have tried/made... it is tan in colour and tastes fabulous, quite floral with citrus notes. Takes 5 mins to come to a peak. Quite intense in-your-forehead high. It is a high too - not a knock-out hit. Very nice gear. Would be a significant bonus if you were growing this stuff commercially, having enough trim to make hash from this weed in quantity...