[A.N.Other]

By way of introduction; hi, hola, olá, salut, ciao, tag, dag, privet, marhaba, habari, o t’ojo meta, ote kwana, sannu, sawàt dii, senang berkenalan dengan anda, dozo yoroshiku and last but not least, yo!

In the sprit of information sharing, let's get this show on the road... and hopefully not ending in a horrible prang.

The Strains

I choose Mandala seeds after the recent great press on a variety of sites, forums and in a variety of Canna-mags caught my eye.

After investigating further and trawling through the various support forums run by Mandala I am impressed with the grows though they are limited so far in number and I am also impressed with the aftercare support offered in the support forums.

Mostly however I am impressed by their recognition that more than just a few good characteristics make an awesome strain and strength and that the strength and virility of the plant is key in making for a great harvest. Breeding for the complete picture and ironing out the weaknesses as well as expanding the positives brings the ethos of Canna breeding - if not the logistics of the practise - closer in line with that of less illicit crops.

IMO whilst many of today's popular strains are awesome in optimum conditions just as many are susceptible to a variety of environmental factors from disease to pests to poor gardening whilst a few lack much genetic virility in the first place.

And let's be honest, incredibly impressive is what appears to be sensibly priced F1 hybrids.

On a different but equally important note, Mandala seem to keep the hippy/surfer trail spirit close to heart and that I reckon is a Good Thing.

Beyond all that, who's not to like someone that says "[o]ur friends thought that we had immersed the flowers into LSD, because they were so potent! That was, of course, ridiculous – but, still, a great compliment".

So, onto the meat and gravy, the breeder’s descriptions:

Originally Posted by Mandala Seeds

Speed Queen - Mandala Seeds

Type: mostly indica
Contains land race genetics from: Himachal Pradesh, North India
Cultivation: indoor/outdoor (up to 45° latitude, balcony, greenhouse)
Light: 400 W/m2
Flowering time: 55 days/September
Yield: 400-450 gr/m2 (dry weight)
High: the “surfers” choice - a stimulating, and balanced indica buzz that does not put you to sleep. Pleasantly relaxing yet leaves plenty of energy for social activities and is a great daytime grass.

The latest addition to our seed catalogue is at the same time our fastest flowering strain. Speed Queen is a stocky and tough indica with a thick main stem (green or with distinct scarlet colouring) and fleshy leaves. She carries compact and resiny buds that have great “bag appeal” after drying. One pheno has the delicious aroma of orange and citrus. The other mixes this freshness with a more pungent/skunky note. This indica will fit well into grow spaces where shorter plants are required. Outdoor cultivation is possible up to the 45° latitude or in a greenhouse. To a large extent the bud leaves are covered in THC glands, but harvesting is a quick operation since all buds remain nice and chunky. Speed Queen is not finicky or difficult to grow. For optimal growth (for all our strains) we recommend that you read our online article on how best to fertilize. Mandala strains utilize nutrients very efficiently and grow well with low levels of feeding on quality soil. Due to her vigour and quick flowering time this strain is perfect for novice gardeners and SOG cultivation that aims for max. Number of crops per year.

Originally Posted by Mandala Seeds

Satori - Mandala Seeds

Type: sativa-indica
Contains land race genetics from: Nepal
Cultivation: indoor/outdoor
Flowering time: 65-70 days/October
NEW: now with a shorter flowering time.
Yield: 550-600 gr/m2 (dry weight)
High: a clear, cerebral high and strong potency sets in quickly; it supports concentration & creativity; very inspiring and stimulating. Ideal for writers, artists, musicians, or other creative people.
Aroma: spicy; fruity-citrus; pungent
Medical Use: Satori shows her therapeutic potential in relieving depression and anxiety.

This season we are introducing our new Satori. We have refined this strain genetically to produce an even more reliable and powerful cross that will delight your connoisseur heart. Satori is an exceptionally easy to grow sativa. She has shown impressive hardiness against spider mites and other pests, and she possesses a good measure of mould resistance. Her slim appearance makes it possible to plant in narrow rows, or in SOG, to maximize her typical record yields even more.

The firm side shoots provide highest quality cuttings. As with all our sativas she is heat resistant - an added bonus for small indoor environments and hot summer grows. The mainly sweet & fruity-spicy aroma is a real treat for the senses.

Satori grows a long headbud with chunky flowers and does not require much feeding on soil; you can almost do without feeding provided you use quality soil and sufficient pot size (approx. 2 gallon pots for adult plants under 250-600W lamps). Keep EC levels low in hydroponics for best results. All Mandala strains are extremely efficient in nutrient uptake due to their hybrid vigour and require only low EC levels/feeding to develop huge leaf, stem and bud structure.

Satori is a high yielding, powerful plant with an exceptional sativa high. The heavy buds are easy to manicure, and from the resinous bud leaves you can produce finest grade hash, comparable in quality to the famous Nepalese "temple balls".

I chose both of these strains for a variety of reasons:

1) For the balanced highs that will hopefully be offered, neither are knock out couch lock weeds but equally neither are racy heart pounding pure Sats. Key words for me are creative and balanced.
2) Both suit my style of low intensity feed semi-SOG seed growing.
3) The therapeutic uses of the Satori may be worth recommending to medicinal user friends.
4) [I hope] the strains show stronger resistance to the eternal threat of spider mites than many Dutch strains I've tried of late.
5) I'm a sucker for a funky name, yo dude, wrap your lips around some of this speed queen! Yeah!

I received my seeds in the original breeder packs, examining these the seeds themselves all look very healthy, large, solid and with lovely tiger stripe markings.

Breeder packs:


Satori Seeds


Speed Queen Seeds


All good in the wood so far.

[A.N.Other]

The Stats

These seedling will be started in 9cm starter pots filled with lightly fertilised John Innes based soiless mix with a touch of perlite, these will go under 30W per square foot of fluorescent lighting. Here they will remain until they have grown enough to have formed two full opposite sets of palmately compound leaves.

Barring any germination disasters they will then moved onto 6” pots filled with a similarly low feed soiless mix, this time with nearly 30% made of a perlite/vermiculite mix under 50W per square foot of fluorescent lighting until they are ~6 inches in height.

At this point they will be moved under 50W per square foot of Metal Halide lighting until they are ~9 inches in height. At this point they will potted up into their final 8” pots. They will be left for around a week to settle into their new homes and begin filling the soil with new root growth before being put into flower under 50W per square foot of HPS at approx 12”.

For veg feeding I will be using biobizz grow, for flowering I will be using biobizz bloom but without the booster, which I found adds a flavour I’m not fond of. I may use a little PK13/14 towards the end of bloom if they look like they could do with it. Throughout veg and much of flowering they will have a little Rhizotonic and Cannazyme added to help keep root growth strong. Rates are yet to be decided and will be done by eye depending on the plants needs. Water will initially be bottled until I have time to check the contents of the tap water (spring sourced).

Ferts:


All areas (except the propagation/seedling one) are actively exhausted with actives intakes drawing cold outside air via a series of old stocking filters (not mine I hasten to add!). Room temperatures stay around 80-82 (with occasional 84 degree peaks) with the lights on and drop to 66-68 with the lights off. This is a 12-16 degree difference, a little off my benchmark 10-15 degrees but a few refinements over the grow period will hopefully bring this back in line.

Ah yes, mites, I’ll mention it here as they seem to be a constant threat in this locale, the room has suffered several fairly virulent populations in recent grows but I have managed to keep them in control and still pull a harvest. Hopefully we will see more resistance in these strains, though I also hope the fact that its autumn now may help a little.

Mite population on crop:

[A.N.Other]

Propagation

10 seeds of each type have been placed directly half an inch down into the mix, lightly covered and watered through. Each pot is covered with a half bottle green house and has been placed in the warm propagation room. This is my usual propagation method when growing in soiless mixes but is also recommended by Mandala seeds for similar reasons as my own. I feel that planting directly into the mix acclimatises the seedlings immediately rather than allowing them an easy birth followed by a stress inducing initial transplant and change in environment.

Let’s hope the seeds agree!

Propagation 1:

Propagation 2:

[MandalaMike]

Aloha!

There's little I can add to the amazing intro. You sound like a devoted marijuana grower and obviously share our vision of what traits a good strain should possess.

I hope you don't mind if I make a few comments to your grow. :wink:

The propogation looks great, only I would recommend that you remove the bottle tops and allow fresh air to circulate around the soil. This is preventive measure against fungus. ;-) The seedlings will do fine without a cover.

Originally Posted by A.N.Other

These seedling will be started in 9cm starter pots filled with lightly fertilised John Innes based soiless mix with a touch of perlite, ...they will then moved onto 6” pots filled with a similarly low feed soiless mix, this time with nearly 30% made of a perlite/vermiculite mix

That's perfect, however if cut down on the % of perlite it will provide much more natural nutrients to the plants and make plant care easier.
Root development is quick and profuse with our strains and therefore good potting soil can be used "unstretched".

Originally Posted by A.N.Other

Throughout veg and much of flowering they will have a little Rhizotonic and Cannazyme added to help keep root growth strong.

I understand your objective, but healthy and strong root growth is part of the Mandala genetics. You can save money by using the products for other strains. Also, it could be that these products may even be contraproductive according to some observations.

Originally Posted by A.N.Other

Ah yes, mites, I’ll mention it here as they seem to be a constant threat in this locale, the room has suffered several fairly virulent populations in recent grows but I have managed to keep them in control and still pull a harvest.

You can keep a good check on mites with regular neem oil treatments up till pre-flowering. ;-) Placing a filter material over your intake fan and not walking in street clothing & shoes in your grow area also helps.

Have a good start to the grow!

Mike

[A.N.Other]

Salam alekum icmag.

And ALOHA straight back at Mandala Mike. Thanks for stopping by, great to have the breeder of these little beauties on board!

I hope I go someway to doing the genetics justice.

Originally Posted by Mandala Mike

There's little I can add to the amazing intro. You sound like a devoted marijuana grower and obviously share our vision of what traits a good strain should possess.

Thanks Mike, I only wish I could be truly devoted but the garden certainly gives me a happy smile on most days! Maybe I can convince my girl it would be a great idea to run away to the Med…. Or convert the spare room! Hehe.

Originally Posted by Mandala Mike

I hope you don't mind if I make a few comments to your grow.

Absolutely not man, you created these things, you know them, go right ahead and teach; you’ll find a willing student here.

Originally Posted by Mandala Mike

The propogation looks great, only I would recommend that you remove the bottle tops and allow fresh air to circulate around the soil. This is preventive measure against fungus. ;-) The seedlings will do fine without a cover.

We have very low RH here during the cold winter nights and even under flouro the mix dries through extremely quickly. I tend to leave the bottle tops on for 6 or 7 hours at a time, removing the bottle top during the day, exchanging air and allowing the soil to dry at a more appropriate rate. This is only until the seedlings show their heads.

Originally Posted by Mandala Mike

That's perfect, however if cut down on the % of perlite it will provide much more natural nutrients to the plants and make plant care easier.

Root development is quick and profuse with our strains and therefore good potting soil can be used "unstretched".

That’s definitely interesting advice. I’ve always used a reasonable amount of p/v in the mix to increase the aeration, maybe this is partly because I have one foot in a hydro growing past..

When you water do you water from the top of the pot, the bottom of the bottom or do you alternate? I noticed on your site (possibly?) that you water often and sparingly, how do you judge that you pots are adequately watered and that roots are being encouraged beyond geotropism to grow deep and strong by having to seek out water as the pots dry top to bottom?

Originally Posted by Mandala Mike

I understand your objective, but healthy and strong root growth is part of the Mandala genetics. You can save money by using the products for other strains. Also, it could be that these products may even be contraproductive according to some observations.

Hmm, again super interesting advice. Anecdotally I have never had a bad experience with either product and have read great stuff on the web but have never really thought of it in the context of it being needed in order to make up for a sub standard root growth rate in the genetic make up of the strain. This is another great example of your holistic view on what positive genetic factors lead to a great harvest!

I’d be interested to read more about the observations you have heard regarding these productsbeing counterproductive.

Perhaps I’ll leave it out of the feeding schedule on all but a couple of plants and see how they compare, not a very fair of scientific test but potentially interesting.

Originally Posted by Mandala Mike

You can keep a good check on mites with regular neem oil treatments up till pre-flowering. ;-) Placing a filter material over your intake fan and not walking in street clothing & shoes in your grow area also helps.

I have simple filters (old stockings – recycle yo!) on my intakes and wondered if maybe there are any better cheap ways of doing it.

I have tried a bunch of different ways of keeping the populations under control and have found neem oil effective, I quite like using predators too but I have to take steps to stop them frying themselves on my lamps so tend to only use them sparingly!

One of my little ladybug friends, Spot (gedd’it?):



Nothing ever seems to quite get rid of them though, I’ve bleached and repainted the bloom room several times and still they reappear.

I guess the source of them is mostly as you suggest; my own clothes and whilst I try my best to have a set of gardening togs with the variety of other plants dotted around to use as base camp it seems whatever precautions I take they always find a way!

It’s funny because they obviously have favourites, I recently had a flowering room split equally between two different sets of cuttings, one set were absolutely infested the other only marginally so.

Originally Posted by Mandala Mike

Have a good start to the grow!

Thanks Mike, I seem to be having fairly good fortune so far.

Four days after the seeds were planted 9 out of 10 seeds from both strains are above the ground. The mix has been watered through again just before these pictures were taken so excuse the moist looking mix in many cases.

The Speed Queen seedlings all look healthy and 7 show the red stem colouring mentioned in the Mandala description and wow, they look delicious. Makes me think how cool red stemmed water cress would be on a salad.

Red stemmed seedling:



Green stemmed seedling:



One however looks to have a deformed growing tip:



The Satori seedlings also mostly look healthy. One looks a little deformed in that the growth tip only has a single leaf but hopefully this is an aberration that the plant will grow through:

Single leaf:



A further plant has exceptionally small new growth which does not appear to be growing, or if it is it is biding time. This was the first up of the Satori and hasn’t changed in the 36 hours since showing.

Slow/not growing Satori:



Many of the Satori also show vivid colouring on the stem:





Looking forward to seeing these develop.

The remaining seeds (one Satori, one Speed Queen) will be left and hopefully they will show.

Grow strong and safe viewers.

[MandalaMike]

Originally Posted by A.N.Other

That’s definitely interesting advice. I’ve always used a reasonable amount of p/v in the mix to increase the aeration, maybe this is partly because I have one foot in a hydro growing past..

If you use quality potting soil they are already composed by the manufacturers to provide sufficient aeration. Excessive stretching of the soil with non-nutritive additives like coco coir, perlite, vermiculite, sand, etc. can be quite counter-productive. I have seen growers get high male ratios in mixes like that, mainly due to lack of nutrients such as nitrogen.

Originally Posted by A.N.Other

When you water do you water from the top of the pot, the bottom of the bottom or do you alternate? I noticed on your site (possibly?) that you water often and sparingly, how do you judge that you pots are adequately watered and that roots are being encouraged beyond geotropism to grow deep and strong by having to seek out water as the pots dry top to bottom?

I recommend watering from the top. This carries oxygen down the roots and prevents the top layer from drying up too much or forming cracks at the sides. Strong root growth is encouraged by smaller and more frequent waterings and preventing over- or underwatering. But at the end of the day it's the genetics that have to provide sufficient potential for healthy root development.
Plants should receive water for daily use (or for 2 days, but not longer) once they start growing vigorously. You can check water content by lifting the pots to see how heavy they are. Always water when the top has dried somewhat. If you have any drain you water too much (or the soil was excessively dried out).

Originally Posted by A.N.Other

I’d be interested to read more about the observations you have heard regarding these productsbeing counterproductive.

This is also only anecdotal, but seedlings and young plants grew better without them. I find that there is not enough scientific testing being done specifically with cannabis. You can't compare cucumbers and tomatoes with cannabis in all categories of plant care.

Originally Posted by A.N.Other

I have simple filters (old stockings – recycle yo!) on my intakes and wondered if maybe there are any better cheap ways of doing it.

Thin cushion foam used for furniture and cushions. It's white fluffy stuff that comes in various thickness. The 1/2" is quite good. You can fasten it around the vent and fill any cracks with silicone.

You can remove the SQ with the deformed tip, it's not going to grow. ;-)

Have a good weekend!
Mike

[A.N.Other]

Buenos dias icmag. I trust you are all well.

Howdy Mike. Hope you and yours are well. All the points above seem sound. I’ve taken note of your mix advice as you’ll see below and am having a trial. I’m also going to lay off the root stimulant and see what happens.

Around a week and some from the last post and growth is steady. The two remaining seeds (one Satori, one Speed Queen) have still not shown and will be dumped after I sift through the soil to see what the problem was. The two slightly odd Satori have turned around and are growing strong. There has however been one casualty amongst the Speed Queen plants. The one with the deformed growing tip shown in the post above has remained static since the last report. I examined the root when I potted up the rest and it is as stunted as the top growth so it has been removed from the grow area.

The remaining plants have grown their first set of simple, almost lobed leaves and in most cases their very first set of palmately compound leaves and as such have been potted up.

They are all now sitting in 6” pots and a further two lamps have been turned on making the wpsf up to 50 (if anyone wants the lumen conversion and spectrum please ask away but W is easier for “by eye” judgements). These pots are ~25% perlite (with a couple only having ~10%) and the rest is JI#2.

I have a feeling that this may burn them as it is a little early to use a reasonably hot mix but I’m out of JI#1 and was feeling lazy. We’ll see how much karma kicks me in the back side for that one!

Potted up:



At the rate they’re going it won’t be long until we have some nice little plants.

[MandalaMike]

So far so good!
If you are worried about hot soil then put them under the MH lamp sooner. This speeds up growth and nute requirements. ;-)

Cheers,
Mike

[A.N.Other]

Howdy Mike, I wish I could!! They are even now still under flo, logistical problems.



O t’ojo meta icmag.

So, we’re now at three and a half weeks veg (from showing above the mix) and development is steady. They have as yet been deprived of HID lighting but are continuing to do fairly well after an week of expected foliage burn from the hot mix. All are showing some signs of recovery with the exception of a single Speed Queen that looks to have bitten the proverbial bullet.

Now growth is back on song everything looks happy, I wonder if it will effect my m:f ratio...

The Satori show little variation from type and all have large full leaves that fall a distance from the stem. So far they are fairly stout but don’t show any inclination to bush. A single example, the same plant that had an odd growing tip as a seedling, has shown some odd whorling and has topped itself but the lower nodes are making up for this and have caught up nicely. There is a little variation in height across the group but this is only an inch and a bit shortest to tallest. Looking stable so far.

Satori:


Deformed Satori:


The Speed Queen like their stable mates show little variation from type, all have smaller leaves that are much tighter to the stem and this strain seems to naturally grow as single cola plants and very little branching is evident. So far perfect for a very tight (4 plants per square foot) SOG. Height varies slightly more amongst these with perhaps two inches separating tallest from shortest but it’s not enough to make the logistics of the grow (even vegging under flo) too much of a pain the arse.

Speed Queen:


Speed Queen profile:


As you can see in the last pic, there is some evidence of the extent of the previous burn, recovering nicely considering.

See y'all.

[MandalaMike]

Happy plants as far as I can tell!
You could still cut back on the perlite though. ;-)
A few more tips:
When you plant try to use as much of the pot space as possible. You have 2+ inches or empty space towards the top. Pots with a broad base (not tapering) offer max. root space and pack in more soil.

Cheers,
Mike