Sweet Deep Grapefruit (Sweet Maria)

This was my first grow ever, and I had had little over 5 years of being teased with the thought of growing my own cannabis; however never awarded the correct opportunity. Finally, after all the conditions were placed in my favour I proceeded with my first properly informed grow operation. In South Africa, I only easily have access to Dinafem seeds, and this is something I am more than happy with as they are from my perception and incredible seedbank! The content they produce on their website is more informative than almost everything I have been able to find on the internet as a cannabis enthusiast. Check their article on landraces! F*CK! After much thought, I came to the conclusion I wanted to try a strain I hadn't smoked and that was sure to blow my tastebuds away. Sweet deep grapefruit became the subject of choice. My aim with this grow was to keep it organic, and give it all my love. I used a super soil mix, that I pre-mixed about a month beforehand and let sit. I germinated my seed in the same 40 litre container I harvested it in. Worth-mentioning, is that I used a top-coat of nutrient-less organic potting soil to ensure safety of the little one.

Ive just been watering her, no nutrient plan but all thought out in her super soil mix. Ill link the recipe shortly. I had no grow tent, the bulb was attached to the side of my cupboard which I used to create a little space in the corner of my room to grow in. This meant I was living in a room with a HPS bulb on in the corner of my room for 24 hours. This grow meant a lot to me.

After putting her through the cardboard screen i left her for 3 weeks with no maintenance other than watering. I literally just left her to bush out. I went on holiday at this point so a friend looked after her during my absence. Kept on the 24 hour veg schedule, and watered every 3 days with a 1.5-3 litres depending on dryness of the soil on the third day.

I switched her to flowering. After returning from my Holiday I decided I would be moving cities. I wanted to veg her longer but switched the bulbs at 8 weeks. I am finally able to sleep in the dark! This rocks! Ive also been removing a lot of the excess leaf growth just to keep her fresh and not too crowded. The cardboard screen was removed and I used 4 chopsticks to press down on the lower branches and press the tops a little further apart; This really helped to space the branches out wider and allow light to breakthrough on some of the lower nodes. I started feeding her a little bit of molasses in her water, just to aid in the flowering. I also added wood ash to the top layer before watering. Also a little compost tea every now and then.

So just a quickie for ya, Maria is two weeks into flowering and she has slowly started to show the signs of the tentacles (le-tenticle'). She has also shot up about 15 cm taller than she was (WOW!). Using LST to try keep all the branches a little further apart from each other- just gentle bending.

Another week and a half later I believe. The tentacles have started to take more of the baby nuggetito form. Slowly you can see the flowers starting to make little bud-nuggets. Same 12/12 lights, 3 day water cycle, LST, and removing any extremely small looking buds on the lowest nodes branches. The fan leaf stems have gone a little purple in colour, and the trichomes are starting to show up (Wazzzaaaaa). I presume the purple because of the drop in general temperature because of winter.

So this week she has started to really put on some chub. She's frosty like a frosty flake. I also just love her light green. Super super light green. But strong dark green healthy leaves still no sign of stress (although I can't really know deeper than what I can see- she might be mashing for some KNF shit-which I rate all plants probably are). I wanted to use supplements like OHN ( Oriental Herbal Nutrient), FPJ (Fermented plant Juice) and trying to create more living soil but I was just very busy with work at this point and did not get to making the pro-biotic supplements. Next grow I have already made some ferments and intend on making more to aid nutrition during the next ladies that get laid. But Maria's got about 11-12 Big colas, but looking back I would maybe have continued to try to keep the heads a little further apart so more light could break through to the lower nodes. I also think an investment in a proper HPS bulb-reflector would do wonders, I was using a homemade foil device to reflect light back down to the plants (NOT EFFICIENT, or sexy, but ay.)

So Ill start by talking about her smell. Maria has been super super low key in that so far my room has not stank of weed super badly. My room was fresh and had a herby comforting lining, but no blue-cheese-skunk-on-the-loose type scenario. But when you frisked up Maria, a persons nostrils might describe it something like ...walking through a mystical forrest eating your favourite candy, after you've just blessed a fat one with Bob Marley.. its a feeling not a smell. But if you were to describe it, its like a summer fucking cocktail' bish. She has also started to show some red hairs, Id say about 1/3 of her hair is ginger at this point. I think a point to note is that she has been drinking a lot more water (About 3l water every 3 days) as she's bulked up and started to shine. Im super happy with the grow so far; Ive made mistakes, and not all circumstances have been ideal. BUT, its been such a rewarding experience so far and I'm also glad I got to start with fucking dank genetics from Dinafem. You guys are fuckin' super stars. Ive been supplementing her with some LOVE. I can not get over how beautiful it is?! Cannabis is just so mystical? Being my first grow I'd still never got to see a late flowering cannabis plant in my life! I grew up in Dubai where Cannabis is hecticly-illegal, and lived in cities thereafter most my life. Maria is like a child who I will later kill in her sleep before she wakes up and hang upside down in my cupboard to dry out. But I truly love this plant.

This was an amazing experience for my first grow. Was super unsure of what I was going to yield, but I think 27 grams is a realistic harvest and Im looking forward to see if I can get bit larger of a yield on the next run. I want to try main-lining, see for better energy distribution and more equal bud growth. Also investment into a proper reflector and possibly enclosed space. Note- I trimmed my plant the night before harvest morning. I removed than fan leaves to start, and then proceeded to trim the plant. I pulled out a lot of the leaves with no frost by hand. The sugar leaves had so much crystal on it I thought I would leave the smaller ones on the bud. I gave it a light trim, and used all the trim to make Isopropyl Alcahol (99%) based extract. Got about 1 gram from the run. I also had a nice little ball of finger charas from the trimming. I harvested it in the morning at about 04:30 am before the light cycle triggered at 7am. She hung and dried for about a week, where I then chopped her into buds. She cured for 2 weeks before i started smoking. Ask anything you want to know! Or if I can be more clear on any areas of the grow! One Love!