[NotaProfessor]

Hi there folks! Welcome to my Sweet Seeds Sweet Afghani Delicious grow. SAD was part of my first seed purchase after growing bagseed and their clones for the past two and a half years. I'm really pleased to have some strains that have some provenance and especially SAD.

Here is the seed card:


This is my sprouting setup. It's just a paper towel and a plastic tub:


I moisten the paper towel to wetness, just short of freely dripping water. I sandwich the seeds between the moistened towel:


Then I seal only one side of the tub, leaving room for air to enter/vapor to escape:


My heater is waste heat from a fluorescent light ballast. I place it in a position where the tub gets 'warm' (sorry for the imprecision):


The light is cycled 18/6 (pretty much my wake/sleep cycle) and within a day all four seeds were sprouted. I moved them to clear plastic cups as soon as the rootlet was >1 cm long. Here they are at 7 days post-sprout (meaning 7 days after I placed them between the moist towel and began warming) The media is Bio-Buzz Coco-Mix. The vegging light is a homemade multiple cfl fixture made from 1"x2" wood, a piece of aluminum flashing and two power strips which holds about 200 real(consumption) watts of cfl lights:


When I see a few roots thru the clear plastic I transplant into 1 gal grow bags. Here they are at 13 days post-sprout:


15 days post-sprout:


22 days post-sprout (which was yesterday):



A question for Tommy or other who have grown SAD: What sort of stretch can I expect when I place them into flower? A doubling of height? Tripling? This is an indoor grow and I don't want to be burning tops by vegging them out too much.

Thank you for stopping by!

[NotaProfessor]

Day 29 update

I transplanted them to 3 gal bags of coco. They are still under the cfl bank 24/0.

Here they are in their 3 gal bags. They look a bit roughed up because this pic is right after transplanting and they haven't had any time to reorient themselves to the lighting. They are very squat and already have 6 nodes. From the looks of them I expect these will be some shrub-style plants.


They have a bit of discoloration on the lower leaves due to them being a bit underfed. I do this so the seedlings don't get nute burn right away, and it seems to drive the root growth which is needed in the seedling stage, IMO. I have adjusted the nute level and they'll be fine from now on.

I expect a week of vegging under these lights before they get put into the 'big house' with a 1K light. Then, depending upon their stature, it may be another week until I flip the lighting to 12/12.

Thanks for stopping by!

[Tommy G]

Hi NotaProfessor!

Nice one my friend, it will be funny to follow this diary, thanks for starting it

Originally Posted by NotaProfessor

A question for Tommy or other who have grown SAD: What sort of stretch can I expect when I place them into flower? A doubling of height? Tripling? This is an indoor grow and I don't want to be burning tops by vegging them out too much.

Thank you for stopping by!

Sweet Afgani Delicious stays short. You can expect some stretch, has with all plants, but this is one of the strains with the "shortest" stretch that I grew in the last years. If you had other strains growing side by side I could tell you that SAD would always end up being the shorter strain. If they have a good quantity and quality of light they will also not stretch in search for more light, so you can expect them to double the size or just a little bit more than that.

When I pass my SADs to 12/12 with 25cm I know they will finish with 50-60cm. But I use a 400wHPS as close as possible to the plants.

Sorry if you wrote anything about it, but... is this the final pot or are you planning to do another transplant to a bigger pot?

See you around buddy, sweet smokes!

tommy

[NotaProfessor]

Hi Tommy! Thanks for the information about stretching. Flowering will be with a 1K HPS in a Darkroom 120 (1.2 m x 1.2 m) enclosure so they will be getting lots of light.

The plants are in their last container, 3 gallons or about 12 liters. I use grow bags because they are cheap and therefore I can throw them away after each grow. That prevents carrying over any fungi or insect eggs which might cause a problem 3 or more grows down the line.

Nutes are Technaflora at half the strength of their label usage (which they call their "Recipe for Success".) I add extra Magi-Cal, which is usual for growing in coco.

The next couple of feedings will have Earth Ambrosia and Earth Nectar added. This combination is a two-part mycorrhyzal innoculant.

Thanks again for your comments and information!

[NotaProfessor]

Day 36 post-sprout Update

Everything is looking good. The slightest hint of nute burn is showing on the leaf tips. In response I've adjusted the nute strength down a bit.



The plants are about 25 cm tall. I'm looking for about 40 cm before I flip the lighting schedule to 12/12. That may be in a week or so. I'm about ready to move them into the Darkroom 120 to get them adjusted to the intensity of the 1K light before they get flipped.

Thanks for stopping by!

[Tommy G]

Hi buddy!!

Very well, the plants look great, not very stretched but with a very short internodal space, as usual with Sweet Afgani Delicious. Maybe they'll take 10-15 days to reach to the 40cm you're looking for.

The bag-pots are very nice, you would have space to put another couple of bags there, or to use them even bigger, but I think that's not very important now and your 4 SAD will do perfect with this conditions.

About the nuteburn, maybe not only you should adjust the nute strength down a bit but also a week or two with only water can be a good idea. But this is just my opinion and your opinion is much more important, because you know the grow parameters you use better than anyone else

Lovely plants my friend, hope they keep developing as well as they're doing so far. Keep passing by, sweet regards,

tommy

[NotaProfessor]

Day 45 post-sprout

Today they all were moved into the Darkroom 120. The 1K HPS is on a 18/6 schedule. The plants were on 24/0 under the bank of cfl lights up until today.

Here they are in place:


They have a touch of discoloring in the fan leaves. I had tried Tommy G's suggestion of watering but not feeding and the plants did not like that. (Confirming that with coco they need constant, but light, feeding.) I resumed feeding and they are recovering nicely.

Currently all are in the 30-32 cm height range. They sure are pretty. (I'll get some pics of what I mean in the next week when I flip the lights to 12/12.)

Thanks for stopping by!

[Tommy G]

Hi mate!!

Thanks for the update!

Yes, you're right, I'm sure that at least with coco you are much more experienced than me, so keep up doing your stuff like you did in previous grows that you did with the same parameters.

I still think that you're not taking advantage off all the space you have and that they would love bigger pots/bags, but once again, if you are used to do it like this, with this same pots/bags, please keep with it so you can compare with previous experiences

Anyway, they look perfect and I'm sure they'll do an explosive flowering for you my friend. Keep up the good work and thanks again for the update.

Sweet regards,

tommy

[paulo73]

Gonna tag along if you don´t mind.
All the best for the Sweet Ladies

[NotaProfessor]

Update: Day 6 flowering

It's been a while since I last posted. Let me bring you up to date.

I had thought I flipped the lighting to 12/12 on Feb 1. When I looked at the timer on Feb 6 it was still on an 18/6 cycle! Well, nearly a week additional veg time didn't hurt.

Here they are on Feb 6, Day 53 post-sprout:


They look a bit droopy, which is something I noticed with SAD. They have a cycle where the leaves perk up and then droop down. They are getting enough water and are fed well so I doubt there's anything wrong. It's just something I didn't notice with other stuff I grew.

So on Feb 6 they were flipped. Here they are today on Day 6 of flower:




I've noticed them developing a 'christmas tree' shape. There's branching all over the place. Although it's early in the stretch phase of flowering, there is very little stretch going on. They are no doubt getting bigger but the internode distance is not increasing...nice and tight. I guess that's what you get with good genetics.



You will notice that some lower leaves are yellowing. That was an aftereffect of the week of water only. They have rebounded nicely and everything else since is looking healthy and happy.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my grow.

PS - To answer a comment by TommyG about adding more plants, I choose to grow 4 plants since I like giving the plants lots of space and most plants I've grown grew out to take up the available space. Maybe SAD keeps to itself and I will find that out in a few weeks. They do look very lonely in all that empty space!

Another reason I like to keep it to 4 plants is because laws where I live make growing 5 plants or more a felony. But the biggest reason why I do 4 plants is they do take up all the space...eventually.

PPS - Thanks for tagging along, Paulo! I've read a lot of your posts and they've been very enlightening.