Nano Grow #1 - Maple Leaf Indica

cactoman420 The seedlings were transferred to small terracotta pots, they are approximately 0.5l to try and keep the plants as nano as possible. The 2 seedlings with the deformed leaves (bottom left 2 plants) still look different but have caught up with the others and look quite healthy so I decided to keep them.

cactoman420 Plants are growing very fast and healthy now. I was initially intending to do this first run as 12/12 from seed but after some reading decided to go with 2-3 weeks of veg first.

cactoman420 Well so much for 'nano'.... Was not expecting such explosive growth after the switch to flowering. Even in their tiny 0.5l terracotta pots, and with low nutrient levels these little plants went absolutely crazy. As you will see from the first photo the tallest plant was within 2 inches of the top of the tent so I had no choice but to perform some emergency trimming. I was half expecting the plants to die after such a heavy prune but amazingly 24 hours later they bounced right back. How this will affect flowering remains to be seen. This first grow was intended as an experiment to learn the basics and produce some seeds, so maybe not all is lost yet.

cactoman420 Well the big chop I did at the end of the first week of flowering evidently did not shock the plants too badly. Unfortunately the plants refuse to stay 'nano' and have regained all the height that I removed. It's almost 20 days since the flip to 12/12 so I am hoping they will slow down soon, otherwise I am going to have to start chopping again... It seems that from the 9 seeds that germinated I have 8 females and a single male! The male was one of the 2 slightly deformed seedlings early on, so I am especially glad that I did not discard them. Still hoping to be able to produce some seeds from this first grow, but I think the chance of producing any smokable bud is very slim now. Whether this strain is just completely unsuited to growing nano sized plants, or I have provided too much water/nutrients to keep them small I am not sure..... however the next grow will definitely be autos.

cactoman420 Despite my best efforts with defoliation and bending stems, the plants just do not want to stay nano sized. Whether this is because the strain is just not suitable for growing as very small plants or something in my cultivation techniques I am not sure, but it's pretty clear that the plants will still need some more breathing room. Time for a new tent!

cactoman420 Upgraded from a Secret Jardin DP60 to DP90 this week. Life has been so much easier this past week with the extra space, the plants continued to stretch a little but seem to have almost reached their final height now at around 18 inches. In the end from the 9 seeds that germinated I had 7 females and 2 males. I decided to discard one male and one female because they were lagging behind all the other plants in development by at least 1-2 weeks. The remaining male has grown very strongly and has a nice citrus/caramel smell when you rub the stalk so hopefully it will make a good pollen donor for all the females. Today is the 3rd day he has been releasing pollen so the female plants should be well fertilised by now. As this is my first ever grow it has been really interesting to watch the buds develop on the female plants, although I don't expect to see them grow too much more now that they have received pollen as I am sure the plants will focus their energy on producing the seeds. The females all have quite similar scents so far, very sweet and floral with a nice hashish undertone. I am definitely looking forward to smoking whatever bud there is at the end of the run.

cactoman420 1 week since I removed the male, all plants are heavily seeded and doing good so far. I have upped their feed and they seem to love it, no sign of nutrient burn at all. They are actually still producing a lot of new pistils and filling out the colas so I may end up with a little more smokable bud than I expected.

cactoman420 Not much change in the plants this week, the colas are very slightly fatter but it definitely seems like 99% of the plants energy is going into the seeds now. Added a couple of close up shots of some of the different phenos from this seed pack, some variety in there but they all smell quite similar. Also received some Bio Nova additives so I have just started adding those alongside my usual fertiliser. Too late in this grow to know if they will really make much difference but we'll see how it goes on the next run. Little bit of fade starting in the lower leaves this past week, I haven't decided whether I will flush the plants or keep going with the fertiliser till the end.

cactoman420 Disaster! We are having a mini heatwave here, and due to the fact I have no air conditioning available the plants have received temperatures of 32c+. To add to this I had my second dose of the Moderna covid vaccine that wiped me out and I missed a watering yesterday. I have completely soaked all the plants now, I just hope they can forgive me and recover enough to finish ripening some of the seeds. EDIT: 24 hours later and the plants have made an impressive recovery! This first grow has certainly been a learning experience...

cactoman420 Well these girls are really looking tired now, in no small part due to nearly dying of thirst last week I am sure. Lots of fan leaves have wilted and died, and the tips of the sugar leaves are going brown and crispy too. Pulled a few test seeds from the different plants and they all look pretty mature - this is exactly 4 weeks since I removed the males so they have formed pretty fast. I think this may be the last watering I give them, time to let the plants dry out for a few days and then chop. Has been a fun and interesting first grow, learned a lot which I can apply to my next run which will be Purple Lemonade autos from FastBuds. I've sown them already into coir pellets so fingers crossed I get some decent germination.

cactoman420 Decided to let most of the plants run for another week to make sure the seeds are fully developed. Not much to report other than the buds are smelling super nice now! When I chop them at the end of this week it will be exactly 6 weeks since they were pollinated. I did chop the front plant last week and 90% of the seeds already seem done but I've come this far I might as well give the remaining 5 plants the extra time. The seedlings in the middle of the tent are Purple Lemonade from FastBuds which will be my next run.

cactoman420 Overall a very interesting grow and learned a lot. I was not able to keep the plants as 'nano' as I would have liked but they still only reached about 24in / 60cm in the end. Maple Leaf Indica seems to be an extremely tough strain, with all the mistakes and stress I put my plants through they still produced some nice buds and thousands of healthy seeds. No sign of any hermies even after being heavily defoliated during flowering and also being severely drought stressed in week 9.