Ottos_Jacket
New member
HELLO EVERYBODY!!!! (Doctor Nick voice) After more than 20 years of smoking the sticky-icky, I finally decided to try my hand at growing it. This came about because I was given a bag of chocolope bud indirectly from a dispensary that happened to have many seeds in it. As I've learned in the past couple months, this probably wasn't the best way to start but it is what it is at this point. Next grow I’ll plan better and probably order the seeds. This is probably a good point to mention that I've learned everything I now know about growing in the last couple months. It's amazing how much info is out there! It’s been a great couple months. I’m having a blast doing this!
So... I germinated 12 seeds with 100% success - all systems go! I planted them in ten solo cups (I was short two, I didn't expect them all to sprout!) on May 20th.
https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=55533&pictureid=1296172
I killed two plants as they didn't seem to be doing very well. I now have 10 plants growing nicely. My end goal was to end up with 4 or 5 plants. I figured that several would likely be males and would need to be killed.
I used a mixture of an organic potting soil (Espoma) and perlite in the cups. I transplanted the babies to growers pots, about 2 gallons or so, on June 16th. I wanted to use the same soil but couldn’t get it. I ended up using Miracle Grow Organic and an Espoma organic fertilizer mix (chicken crap, bat guano, fish, etc.) and topped it off with a liquid seaweed fertilizer for root growth. I believe the pots are about two gallons volume. I read that three gallon pots are preferred but I don't have ones that big and I don't want 12 ft. trees growing on my balcony!!
For nutrients, I have been using Iguana Juice Grow at half strength in the beginning and then went up to full strength after transplanting. I just switched to bloom this week. I know that this stuff is intended for hydroponics but I didn’t realize that when I ordered it. Is it bad to be using these hydro nutes for soil? I figure that with the smaller than ideal pots, the hydro nutes might actually be a good thing since they’re getting everything they would get if they didn’t have any soil. The little ladies seem to love it. What else should I be giving them? Molasses? A flower booster?
I had planned to train them but I didn’t do much. I had considered topping them and/or supercropping and tying branches down to make them bushier. But all I ended up doing was supercropping the branches and crimping the stem on the three tallest ones.
Recently most started preflowering. I’m now sure that nine are females and I think the tenth is female also. This seemed too good to be true so I did some research about it. Given that the seeds came in a bag from a dispensary, it seems to make sense to me. Apparently the dispensary was having some trouble with their growing operation as this is what they told my friend they sold it to him at a discount informing him that there were some seeds in the bud. So it appears to me that the seeds were generated due to hermaphroditism and therefore my seeds are feminized. Maybe they had light leaks or something? Maybe they had bad genetics – hopefully NOT!!! Yes, drawing some conclusions but I find 10 out of 10 to be just too lucky to be real. The fix must be in! So I’m hoping that I don’t have hermie problems and I’ll be checking them closely as they start to flower.
My main concern has been starting the flowering period. I’m in northeast US and therefore daylight won’t hit 12 hours until late September. With this strain taking about 9 to 10 weeks for flowering, this just isn’t going to work with the impending cold/wet weather. So I had been exploring options of covering the plants starting right about now, planning to be harvesting in early/mid October. But… alas, I did not realize that plants grown outdoors are less sensitive to the 12 hours of darkness and several of them have now begun flowering on their own. Woohoo!! This makes things so much easier. But I’m not clear on why some appear to be well on their way into flowering and others are sexually mature (preflowers and alternating nodes) but not quite flowering yet. Should I expect the rest to start flowering in the next week or so?
https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=55533&pictureid=1296177
https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=55533&pictureid=1296189
Any comments, questions, and/or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
So... I germinated 12 seeds with 100% success - all systems go! I planted them in ten solo cups (I was short two, I didn't expect them all to sprout!) on May 20th.
https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=55533&pictureid=1296172
I killed two plants as they didn't seem to be doing very well. I now have 10 plants growing nicely. My end goal was to end up with 4 or 5 plants. I figured that several would likely be males and would need to be killed.
I used a mixture of an organic potting soil (Espoma) and perlite in the cups. I transplanted the babies to growers pots, about 2 gallons or so, on June 16th. I wanted to use the same soil but couldn’t get it. I ended up using Miracle Grow Organic and an Espoma organic fertilizer mix (chicken crap, bat guano, fish, etc.) and topped it off with a liquid seaweed fertilizer for root growth. I believe the pots are about two gallons volume. I read that three gallon pots are preferred but I don't have ones that big and I don't want 12 ft. trees growing on my balcony!!
For nutrients, I have been using Iguana Juice Grow at half strength in the beginning and then went up to full strength after transplanting. I just switched to bloom this week. I know that this stuff is intended for hydroponics but I didn’t realize that when I ordered it. Is it bad to be using these hydro nutes for soil? I figure that with the smaller than ideal pots, the hydro nutes might actually be a good thing since they’re getting everything they would get if they didn’t have any soil. The little ladies seem to love it. What else should I be giving them? Molasses? A flower booster?
I had planned to train them but I didn’t do much. I had considered topping them and/or supercropping and tying branches down to make them bushier. But all I ended up doing was supercropping the branches and crimping the stem on the three tallest ones.
Recently most started preflowering. I’m now sure that nine are females and I think the tenth is female also. This seemed too good to be true so I did some research about it. Given that the seeds came in a bag from a dispensary, it seems to make sense to me. Apparently the dispensary was having some trouble with their growing operation as this is what they told my friend they sold it to him at a discount informing him that there were some seeds in the bud. So it appears to me that the seeds were generated due to hermaphroditism and therefore my seeds are feminized. Maybe they had light leaks or something? Maybe they had bad genetics – hopefully NOT!!! Yes, drawing some conclusions but I find 10 out of 10 to be just too lucky to be real. The fix must be in! So I’m hoping that I don’t have hermie problems and I’ll be checking them closely as they start to flower.
My main concern has been starting the flowering period. I’m in northeast US and therefore daylight won’t hit 12 hours until late September. With this strain taking about 9 to 10 weeks for flowering, this just isn’t going to work with the impending cold/wet weather. So I had been exploring options of covering the plants starting right about now, planning to be harvesting in early/mid October. But… alas, I did not realize that plants grown outdoors are less sensitive to the 12 hours of darkness and several of them have now begun flowering on their own. Woohoo!! This makes things so much easier. But I’m not clear on why some appear to be well on their way into flowering and others are sexually mature (preflowers and alternating nodes) but not quite flowering yet. Should I expect the rest to start flowering in the next week or so?
https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=55533&pictureid=1296177
https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=55533&pictureid=1296189
Any comments, questions, and/or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Haha! But I think it's more likely that one of my plants hermed. I haven't been able to find any evidence of pollen sacs though. So hopefully the situation doesn't get any worse. 
