Orient Express in Organic Soil

[dubi]

Thanks for the update on the harvest chappie

The first one looks exactly like OE mother 3: the small, branchy, big yielding sativa pheno. The second one looks more like the taller Vietnam Black pheno.

Did the brownish color affect the flowers or just the leaves ? Looks like the flowers were burnt by excess of salts, fertilizers or due excessive maturing. This could affect the quality of the terpenes and the effect, making the smoking experience harsher.

 

[Cannabliss420]

ya that one looks quite decrepit. lik dubi said, prolly from excessive salt build up. looks lik itll make some brown frown

gotta dial her in

 

[Gelado`]

How's your water chappie? I've had issues with yellowing/browning until very recently when I started watering in epsom salts...now they stay nice and green to the end, aside from fans yellowing out from the bottom (as they should).

 

[chappie]

The inputs were:

Base mix: sphagnum peat, rice hulls, worm castings, and Bu's Blend biodynamic compost. Minerals etc include glacier dust, basalt, sulpomag, gypsum, fish meal, crab meal, oyster shell, kelp meal, neem meal, and biochar.

I watered with aloe juice, TM-7, and compost tea.

Water was rain water or filtered tap water.

I knew that the soil mix should have "cooked" as long as possible, and only went for a month... but the vegetative growth was fantastic throughout, the problems only showed up in mid-late flower. The calyxes look great, it was only the leaves which turned yellow.

After manicuring, the buds actually look pretty normal.

The soil will allegedly improve with each crop cycle, as the green mulch of clover is worked in and releases nitrogen. I am happy to have a steep learning curve, and don't mind missteps along the way, this is a quest for knowledge and enjoyment...

 

[Gelado`]

Mg demands go way up in flower; try some dolomitic limestone/epsom maybe? I know it worked wonders for me!

 

[chappie]

There is a bit of sulpomag in my mineral mix... it is perhaps an issue of not being available enough yet... I'll keep at it with compost tea, and re-up the worm castings for the next round. I am probably taking a break until later this summer due to some upcoming travel... I guess the longer the buckets sit, the better! I might toss a few worms in there too.

Thanks for riding along everyone, the buds came out rather nicely despite the frazzled appearance toward the end. The yellowing did not penetrate into the flowers, and the buds look totally normal now that they are trimmed. They've only been in jars for a couple days but smoke just fine, very smooth, and I am sure they will improve.

The smell is hard to explain, but it reminds me mostly of some notes I have found with Mandala's Sadhu and 8 Miles High... a bit of a spiciness. There is also a bass note of delicious earthiness and plain "cannabis" aroma. There is no lemon. There are occasional wafts of sweet berry coming out, but this is definitely not dominant.

The high is quite nice, though not unusual. A good blend of relaxing and motivating energy. Can't tell a difference between the phenos in terms of aroma, flavor, or effect. They are visually quite similar once trimmed.

That tiny plant turned out much better than I had thought. Its core was indeed a little light-deprived, with some pale sections and extra leaf which took a while to trim, but quite nice and resinous. The main cola would have been a crowd-pleaser at a party, it could have easily filled a half-gallon jar if left alone, but I cut it up to really trim it.

I'll probably be running PCK late this summer, for a change of pace. Though NepJam is tempting too...

Thanks for making these available, ACE!

 

[Kalbhairav]

Been a pleasure watching your grow chappie. I have a lot of respect for people who are honing their skills and trying out new things. I think your results were pretty good considering you were running a new varietal and a new set up.. Looking forward to seeing more..

The nepjam is a fine plant. Grew some outside about two years ago. Yields are pheno dependent but its a very nice fun high.

I opted to buy x18 instead of PCK.. The PCK is certainly more aesthetically pleasing but hearing better things about the x18 myself..

Good show man

 

[dubi]

Thanks to you chappie

I'm glad you are enjoying with the finished product. You are right, despite you can found different shapes in Orient Express line, the flowers from the different expressions have a similar look, terpene profile and kind of effect. You can say: this is Orient Express.

 

[chappie]

Just wanted to report that after a couple months cure, the rather subtle aromas have become powerful and very pleasant. There is something a bit odd about the resin in these plants... in jars it really does not smell much at first, but once disturbed and distributed into the air, it stinks up the whole house. I have seen bits of this behavior before, but for some reason it seems really intense in this variety. As I move the cured buds from one container into another, and seal the new containers, I can smell extremely powerful dank aroma 30 minutes later, all over the house. It is almost, but not quite, problematic! Nice problem to have...

Anyway, have been enjoying this strain. PCK will be planted soon!

 

[Goatstroker]

Thank you for sharing, Chappie! Have you noticed any change in effect after the cure?

 

[chappie]

Goatstroker, can't say I do, but I am not necessarily the best judge of subtle changes like that. I generally don't perceive differences in herbs during different stages of curing. I do detect differences between early and late harvest, and sometimes there is a mellowing and mild loss of potency after long periods of storage (like over a year) but otherwise, not really... I opened the jars again today and will re-iterate that the dankness has improved mightily.

 

[Goatstroker]

Goatstroker, can't say I do, but I am not necessarily the best judge of subtle changes like that. I generally don't perceive differences in herbs during different stages of curing. I do detect differences between early and late harvest, and sometimes there is a mellowing and mild loss of potency after long periods of storage (like over a year) but otherwise, not really... I opened the jars again today and will re-iterate that the dankness has improved mightily.

Much appreciated, Chappie.

Enjoy your well deserved dankness!

 

[dubi]

Just wanted to report that after a couple months cure, the rather subtle aromas have become powerful and very pleasant. There is something a bit odd about the resin in these plants... in jars it really does not smell much at first, but once disturbed and distributed into the air, it stinks up the whole house. I have seen bits of this behavior before, but for some reason it seems really intense in this variety. As I move the cured buds from one container into another, and seal the new containers, I can smell extremely powerful dank aroma 30 minutes later, all over the house. It is almost, but not quite, problematic! Nice problem to have...

Anyway, have been enjoying this strain. PCK will be planted soon!

That's great to hear chappie, stinky flowers are a sign of high quality terpenes. Best wishes for the new PCK grow!