Ménage à trois

I am growing in Foxfarm's Ocean Forest soil medium. In the 30 gal. pot, I have one White Widow Max plus two Cobra. In a separate 5 gal. pot, I am growing the Blueberry. Every seed germinated at the same time yet, each is growing at its own pace. The White Widow is the fastest grower, next the Blueberry is as tall but not as full. The Cobras are taking their sweet old time in growing! Both have not reached the first true leaf stage after a week. I guess time will tell.

Week Two is showing mixed results in the individual growth of each plant. The White Widow Auto is growing extremely slow, only just now beginning to produce it's first set of true leaves. It was a Free Gift Seed so, perhaps that has something to do with its ability to grow strong and vibrant? COBRA ONE is a beast! It is approximately 6" tall yet, has approximately 6 sets of side branches. Each are extremely tight/close to the others. COBRA TWO is showing the same growth pattern yet, is half the size of its sister. The Blueberry Auto (another Freebie) seems to be growing at a natural, normal pace. Approximately 6" tall with 4 side-branches. Now I have never grown any of these strains before so, I am unsure what to expect regarding growth patterns or nutrient requirements. Today is the first time I fed the plants with a mixture of nutrients. It was a diluted feeding and depending on how they react to it, I will add/subtract from the mixture. While the Grow Big is the main nutrient, I wanted to see what benefits the Fish & Seaweed might do for the plants. I also included just a dollop of Sensi Cal-Mag for preventative insurance. Each plant will only uptake what they need and since it was their first light feeding, I don't expect any adverse effects. I am still hopeful that COBRA TWO may turn out to be a Male, given they are from the same seed stock yet, having a different growth pattern. Oh, I do NOT intend on performing any Topping in this batch like I did during my first Grow. That is all until next week. ALL comments are welcome as I can use any & all advice. UPDATE: Week Two an One-half - COBRA One had grown so large and filled out so much, the large fan leaves were blocking the light from penetrating inside the canopy as well as hitting the lower side-shoots. The Last photo, I took a before/after of a light Defoliation. I cut the stems of the fan leaves, about 1" from center stalk so as to not cause too much shock.. (vs. snapping off)

Well, it appears all is going good so far. The first 3 photos are of the Blueberry Auto. She's growing at a normal, stable pace. The fourth photo is the White Widow. After heeding some advice from a fellow grower, her health has improved and she has begun catching up with the other plants. The fifth photo is of Cobra Two. She has doubled in size since last week and begun showing her "sex pistols". (Female) - Photo's 6-8 are of Cobra One. One Incredible Beast of a plant! She is growing at such a rapid pace, I had to perform a defoliation on her. I want to give the lower branches a better chance of developing and the Fan leaves were so abundant, I selectively removed those which were shading out the lower branches. The last photo shows a side by side, before and after of the defoliation. She has also revealed her sex so, it looks like any possibility of breeding will have to wait for another grow. So far, so good! I am especially intrigued by the COBRA strain. I'm anxious to see what kind and amount of colas they provide. Well, that is all until next week.

COBRA ONE is 16" Tall and about 20" Diameter. It has grown so much, I had to defoliate 3 times until the inner branches and bud sites could grow upwards to the canopy. Never having grown this strain, I had no idea it would take this shape & growth pattern. Had I known I would never have planted 3 plants in this 30-gallon pot. It would have done much better all by itself in this size pot. COBRA TWO & WHITE WIDOW are both about 12" Tall and have a similar bushy growth pattern. None of these 3 have shown any signs of a stretch as of yet, unlike the Blueberry. The BLUEBERRY is 28" Tall and long spaces between the internodes. It is week 4 and none of the plants are showing any Bud Growth. I only defoliated COBRA ONE so I don't think that is the cause for slow Bud development. As for my rationale in planting 3 plants in the 30 gallon pot, I did so because I assumed the plants would grow similar to the Blueberry. Live & Learn! I will know better next time.

Sorry but, I've been quite ill for the past two weeks. The plants are all in flower now. I did obtain one male and allowed a few pods to open prior to cutting it down and opening up the pot so the two females could spread out more. I have reached inside and removed all low-growth stems & associated leaves. I also allowed the male to hang & dry up a bit, allowing a few more pods to open up & pollinating the Blueberry. While the flowers on all plants are 2 weeks old, I have noticed that some pistols have turned brown. I believe that must be due to those pods being pollinated & producing seeds. ADDENDUM: The Blueberry stretched far more than I expected so, she's tied up until harvest. The Blueberry is about 48" tall, quite a few lower branches & one long center cola. She seems to have gotten pollinated quite well as I can see many pods growing on every bud site. Which is fine with me since I intended to procure as many seeds as possible from this grow. I won't be taking any photos of her until I pull her for harvest but, I did manage to pull out the 30-gallon pot with two plants in it. One Cobra Female & One White Widow Female. You can tell the difference between the leaves. In total, both plants take up a 4-foot diameter and are about 18-20 inches tall. I have thinned them out as best as I could but, there are some many branches each with a cola I dare not cut any further. From this point on I will only be able to take photos by turning off the lights inside the tet and taking photos like that. I truly wish I had known what to expect regarding the growth pattern of these plants. I would have planted one in its own 30-gallon pot. BTW, I have decided to name the seeds I will be obtaining, Blue Cobra & White Cobra. That's it for now. Today I decided to switch tents & plants so the Blueberry could grow without being tied down. Since the 30-gallon pots plants are inside a 4x4 tent & the plants touch every side, I decided to add another light, making that two 400-watt lights on the outside edges with a 600-watt light in the center. That should be plenty enough to penetrate the thick canopy.

I haven't been posting updates to this Grow Diary because it turned into a Huge Clusterfuck. The Blueberry outgrew her tent (6') forcing me to tip her on her side, tie her branches up in various positions. Hoping she could at least finish and produce buds without becoming bleached by being too close to the lights. The only good thing to come out of that plant so far is she definitely got pollinated by my Male Cobra. Yesterday I went in, shook the bush and collected over 100 fully formed and mature seeds. That was just those who were ready to fall to the ground on their own. There is about 50-100 more which should to viable once I harvest her in about one to one & one-half weeks. I labeled the seeds BLUE COBRA and will be offering some seed packs on the Autoflower Facebook page I belong to. See how other growers are able to grow them to their full potential. The other 30-gallon tub which contained three plants, well what can I say without swearing too much? To begin with, there were two Cobras and one White Widow planted in a 30-gallon fabric bag. One of the Cobra's turned out to be a Male, which I was hoping for. That is the reason I purchased Regular Autoflower Cobras. I allowed about three of the pollen sacs to open before I pulled him out. I was able to collect and store a fair amount of pollen as well as, once the plant had been cut out of the fabric pot. I cut off various branches and shook them over the other females. From what I can tell, only the Blueberry's pistols were mature enough to accept the pollen and create seeds. Left in the 30-gallon fabric pot are one Cobra and one White Widow. The Female Cobra is about two weeks away from harvest. It has not produced many buds. I would say about equal to what one would obtain from a Thai Stick plant. I do not notice any seed pods but, there could be a few scattered throughout the plant. I will keep an eye out for any, as well as sweep the floor and inspect the top of the soil medium for any which may have dropped. The AUTOFLOWER WHITE WIDOW? Well, not so much! She is about four feet tall, three feet in diameter and STILL in Veg. mode. It was a Freebie seed so, I can only assume it was mislabeled and is actually a Photoperiod strain. The Cobra has about two weeks until harvest and once I cut Her out I plan on taking the 30-gallon pot with the White Widow outside and allow nature to take its course. Perhaps she will have enough time to begin flowering and finish before First Frost sets in? According to the charts, beginning on September 26 - Sunrise: 7:10am - Sunset: 7:11pm - Equals Day length: 12h 0′. If I allow for 60 days, that places me on November 26 with Day length: 9h 9′ Actually, now that I have written out the Daylight schedule, that isn't going to work. I guess I will need to simply keep her in the tent and switch the lights over to a 12/12 schedule. I would hate to lose her after all the effort I put in. I will need to bend & tie-down the tallest branches though. So, as you can see, my little experiment didn't turn out as planned. Having never grown any of these strains, I had no idea what to expect. The Blueberry turned out to be a thin, Thai/Vietnamese-style strain While it did produce seeds, that may have affected her growth and budding. I am eager to see what this cross-strain breeding produces. The Cobra turned out to be a Huge, Bushy plant which I have had to defoliate at least 4-5 times. Combine that with a Tall, thin plant I have no idea what the seeds will produce. One question for the group, at least those familiar with Breeding. If the Male was a Regular strain & the Female was a Feminized strain. What is the likelihood the seeds will be 50/50 (regular) plants? Or will the Feminized trait be the most likely trait to transfer to the seeds? OK so, that's the story of this Clusterfuck Grow. Now you know why I stopped keeping a Diary. It would've been an impossible task to record weekly reports for each plant. Oh, I left the nutrient section empty but, I was keeping up with a variety of nutrients & waterings throughout the process. I just didn't feel it necessary information given the outcome. BTW, my younger dog (2-years old) has become a verifiable stoner! Every time I would defoliate, she would select the smaller, tender leaves and munch them down like a kid on Halloween night! My older dog (14-years old) has never in her life shown any interest in my plants. Except for the Thickest portion of the Dried stalk, which she would chew and strip the threads along the length of the stalk. Never consuming it, just chewing & ripping it apart. OK, this will be my final entry to this diary. I haven't decided what strains I will grow next. Since I have plenty of the LSD left to smoke, I may be taking a break from growing for a short period. Perhaps I will ask any readers of this log, which plants I should grow next. Below is a list of the various seeds I have available to me. Old Skool Columbian Gold (photo - Reg.) Thai Stick (photo - Reg.) Buddha (photo - Reg.) Blueberry (photo - Reg.) Mango Haze (photo - Reg.) BLUE COBRA (seeds from this breeding) Malana Bomb (Autoflower - Reg.) LSD (Autoflower - Feminized) - This is a 2-toke strain which lasts about 6 hours! Cobra by Flash seeds (Autoflower, Reg) Peyote Critical (Autoflower - Feminized) TRIUNE of M.E.N. - My personal breeding project of over 20-years (Mazar-i-Sharif x Ethiopian x Nepalese) photo - Reg. I have been debating whether I should attempt a breeding of TRIUNE of M.E.N. x Lowryder by the original breeder, The Joint Doctor to see if I can transfer all the traits of my strain into an Autoflower strain. Naturally, I would first need to find some True, undiluted Lowryder Regular from The Joint Doctor before attempting such a breeding. Unfortunately, since becoming involved in growing Autoflowering strains, I have come to find many breeders are using the Russian ruderalis which has more of a Hemp structure. In fact, I believe that is what made the Blueberry grow almost like a true Hemp variety. A Tall, single stalk with side-branching. Well anyways, if anyone actually reads this posting and would like to select their Three favorite strains which I should grow next, please leave your choices in a comment. One thing is for sure, This was the first and only time I will ever plant more than one plant per fabric bag. It certainly proved to be more difficult to maintain the various plants. I have 5-gallon, 15-gallon & 30-gallon fabric bags. I am still confident that the larger the area for the root ball to expand is directly proportional to the eventual size of the plant. Similar to the drip-line of a tree, whereby the roots grow outward to the outside edges of the canopy. The only other factor besides the diameter of the root ball is the depth the roots can achieve. Cannabis roots grow downwards upto 12 inches. If you decide to buy larger pots or fabric bags, besides the diameter make sure the depth is as close to 12 inches deep as possible. Until next time, take care!