Punani - Ulu Mauu Technique

We got a new journal starting for the next grow! I'm very excited to kick off this new 4x2 season with a run of a strain I grew back in 2018-2019 called Punani by Pakalolo Seeds. I picked up a 10 pack of regular seeds from their booth at the Cannabis Conference on Oahu. By the time I got to their booth, it was the last day of the conference and they were sold out of all their seeds except for 2 packs. I was a little bummed at first as I wanted the ones that were sold out, but that changed once I grew it. This strain has a VERY unique terpene profile. It's a beautiful plant that makes amazing, super sticky and greasy buds. I grew 3 Punani plants in my prior grow. 2 of the 3 were a light green and the other was the purple pheno! The purple pheno, had a branch that would get ambient light on it through out the entire flowering cycle up until harvest. I didn't think nothing of it but once I got to trimming that branch after drying, i found that it self produced seeds. I ended up getting a nice big bag of maybe 50 seeds. I was stoked! I am not a breeder or expert but based on what I have read, these seeds could be feminized. I am not sure as I never actually grew any plants from this seed stock but we will see. If we get 10 out of 10 females, I will have to say that they are feminized. Enough backstory, now onto the grow. Setup: Plants will ultimately end up in the 2x4 tent. Right now, I still have my Wedding Cake growing in there but we are on week 8 and harvest time is right around the corner. I'll be drying those plants in the tent at harvest so that gives me around 2 weeks to germinate and veg these seedlings to get ready for the tent. I did germinate 10 seeds. Because this is the first time I am growing these seeds, I wanted to have more plants than I needed so I could pick the ones I want based on the traits I desire. So I'll be choosing 3 plants that will stay int he 2x4 until harvest. 1 will go outside in a greenhouse and the rest I'll either give away or maybe plant around the property and see how they grow in the ground. I will be making some changes for this grow vs. my current setup so let's go over those changes now. 1. Taller tent - This current wedding cake grow has been great but I did struggle with vertical space issues. I also will be requiring more vertical space due to my auto drainage system so we will be getting a new AC Infinity 2x4 Tent. It will max out the height I can go in my space and solve my height issues. 2. Auto drainage - As the title states, I will be growing these plants following the Ulu Mauu technique. Ulu Mauu is Hawaiian and translates to grow weed in english. Part of this growing technique is having lots of runoff and an auto draining system will save me so much time and headache vs. a shop vac. My drainage system will be gravity drained into a pump that will pump out the water out of the tent. This system will only be 2.5 or so inches off the ground but enough to gravity drain into my pump and get the water out. 3. Full nutrient line from General Hydroponics - After my last grow season, I bought 5 gallon sized containers of General Hydroponics 3 part Flora series. I also got a 5 gallon sized container of CalMag. I stopped growing up until 2022 but am reusing these nutrients. This last grow I slowly added on the full line of nutrients but it was not for the entire grow cycle. This cycle I will be using the full 10 part flora series product line with the addition of Terpinator, Diamond nector, and Flora Nector. 4. Bigger Pots - This current grow, I am using 3 gallon pots. These are too small for growing in the Ulu Mauu technique and I want to stick with a once a day watering vs. currently 2x a day with the need to do a 3rd based off of EC. I am planning on using 5 gallon fabric pots for this grow to reduce the amount of fertigation events needed. I may go with 3 5 gallons or 2 7 gallons. I am not sure yet. 5. Better environment controls - MY A/C and dehumidifier solutions are not powerful enough for my setup. I need a better dehumidifier and a better A/C for greater control of my environment. 6. Defoliate at proper times - I defoliated my plant at week 7 currently and it shocked the plant and I lost 5 days of growth. This next grow I will only be defoliating heavy, 1 week before flipping to flower, and then a cleanup trim at week 2 or 3. 7. Control bottom growth during veg - With a 2x4, I really want to maximize my small space and grow as much as I can. For this, controlling the bottom growth during veg is critical as once the trellis goes up, the plants will be very hard to cleanup in the tight space. This will just allow better airflow and have a better plant structure vs. a wild bush with the small nugs at the bottom. 8. IPM Routine - I currently spray my plants 2x a week until the onset of flowers. I use Mammoth Canna Control and it works GREAT. I want to mix in another brand of a similar product to switch it up on any bugs and pests. Towards the end of my grow, I am experiencing a fungus gnat issue due to not having proper drainage out of my saucer. The drainage system will solve this but I will incorporate a once a week soil drench with the product added to my feed to keep the root zone clean. 9. Prevent shock - My previous goal and growing mindset as to grow as much big dank buds as I could. So I would try and do everything I can to do that. Add lots of nutrients, cut off too many fan leaves to try and increase my yield, watering too much, the list can go on and on when your goal is to grow the best biggest dankest bud. But I realized during this grow, that I should not focus on that. The plant itself is already focused on that. So if the plant is already focused on that, I asked myself, "how can I help my plants achieve their goals?" By simply focusing on preventing shock. With that as my new goal, I make sure the environment is perfect. I make sure there is a good balanced nutritional diet (not too much and not too little), good watering technique, etc, etc. With this new mindset, I believe my entire grow will shift and be better. _________________________ Germination method: I have tried so many different germination methods. Paper towel, direct in soil, direct in soiless mix, direct in seed mix, soaking, then direct, soaking then paper towel then in their pot, paper towel in a ziplock, paper towel in Tupperware, etc. You get the point. The best method I have found, is the paper towel method, BUT, it needs to be in the correct container. I moved away from anything completely sealed. Ziplock, tupperware, etc. It is going to sound funny but I found the best container that works for me is the round ice breakers container. Yes, the breath mints. But any container that can be sealed but allows a little air exchange will work. This is just something cheap that works every time. Anytime I do something else, I get sub par results compared to the ice breaker container. Try it and thank me later! I put these seeds in the ice breaker container on June 11. It is now June 14 and they have all germinated and ready to plant. I will be planting these into peat pellets until they are ready to transplant into 1 gallon containers. Then they will go into their final container. I'll be updating this particular grow very regularly and closely. Excited to see what we get in the next few months to come! Thanks for reading and Aloha!