Sunset Sherbet

My outdoor crop is still a week or two from harvest but everything indoors has been harvested and is now curing... which means it's time to start over for a quick crop before winter. I picked up a couple pairs of clones at my local dispensary and away we go. ---------- I've never gotten clones in a sealed package before with a date but it seems to work out thusly from an age standpoint... the date on the sealed container was 7/26... the dispensary (Magnolia Wellness) lists a "drop date" of 8/17... and I purchased and transplanted these this afternoon 8/28. So I'm guessing that the clone was 3 weeks+ 1 days old when it was delivered in a sealed container... and it's been growing in that container for 11 days before I transplanted it...so the clone will technically be about 5 weeks old I assume after cutting. THAT MEANS the 6/26 clone has been growing in that cup for a month longer than the other clone and look at those poor roots. Jeebus she must be stircrazy by now. You're free now baby. ---------- After transplanting the starting heights were 6.5" and 6". So much for that extra month of life in a cup. 😟 Now... if we were measuring the length of the roots, that 6.5" clone would be as tall as me. ---------- The only difference in plan between this crop and previous indoor grows is the skipping of the stage of using a 1 quart container, which is what I typically transplant clones into in order to better control the amount of moisture... and then I move them into either 3 gallon or 5 gallon containers depending on indoor or outdoor... so I'm skipping a step and the stress the plant sees with that extra transplant. I usually veg a bit longer than 4 weeks also but the plan is a straight 4 weeks here. No nutrients for at least a week. Lights at 40" for the first 24 hours to acclimate to the LEDs.

The plants are getting a good start into veg mode. The older clone with the extensively bound roots is starting to grow crazy I can tell, so I topped her this morning, but I'll wait a few days for before topping the smaller one. These girls can't drink all the fluid in their containers that fast so I'm going to try some foliar feeding later this week. They only received ph balanced water for the first week. The older girl is now 8.5" tall and the smaller is 7.5". -------- Topped the smaller (younger) of the two on Sunday September 9. The larger clone with the months worth of roots is growing like a weed... but sideways. This is one of the differences between plants grown from seed vs clones. Plants grown from seed grow symetrically and straight vertically. Clones are a crap shoot that grow asymetrically. I had a Raspberry Glue plant that had a sideways growth pattern like this and by the time it came to harvest she could not support herself structurally and I had to tie her back to a fence (outdoors). I'm tempted to stick a stake in this baby at this young age and tie that main branch to it to constrain the growth directionally. Gotta put my thinking cap on. Maybe smoke something. 😏

Getting off to a good start vegging. The older plant is starting to grow in various directions that will necessitate restraint eventually. Everybody got some foliar feeding this week and everybody seems happy. Plant heights are 12" and 10". Lots of internodal space on these plants compared to the bushy grape ape neighbors. These will also grow much taller.

I don't know what to think about the older clone. She seems to have a tendency to grow sideways one or two nodes before figuring out that the light be upstairs and then turning up. Part of me says to throw some stakes in there and try to direct her growth but I haven't much messed with that kinda thing so far in my growing travels. She keeps this up and she's going to need a lotta stakes to hold her up when she starts to put on weight. Based on the fact that the smaller clone (which is technically a month younger) has the same widely spaced nodes growing sideways I'm gonna say this is the way she naturally grows. I'm reluctant to top these girls again. The heights of the plants were 14" for the older girl and 12.5" for the younger.

I don't know what it is but these girls seem to want to grow sideways. Switched the lights over to a 12 hour cycle today (9/25). Heights of the girls are 17" and 16".

The was this plant grows, it makes me wonder if it was cloned from something in a scrog. She just seems to go sideways and then throw a shoot up vertically. Weird pattern that doesn't do my tent any favors space-wise. If this was the only thing in my tent I would definitely experiment with a scrog. Alas, the neighboring pair of Grape Ape's have become the favored food of some local spidermites. The Sunsets so far haven't been attacked... but everybody gets the treatment here for the next week... which is a spray every other day for 5 days during the night cycle.

Wow... woke up after getting my butt kicked in a golf tournament yesterday to catch up on my diaries and the community love overfloweth while I was sleeping. I'm tickled, bigly. That and a little Durban Poison has got me off to a rocket start. This pair of girls measure in at 20 and 21" this week... still kinda growing sideways, these plants take up more space than the indica Grape Ape's they share my tent with. The pests bothering my Ape's didn't seem to show much interest in these girls. No accounting for taste I suppose. Node spacing for this hybrid is much greater than the indica. These girls will need staking in about a month to hold them up. Girls were fed only water in the transition from veg to flower, and I even threw in a little drought test by disappearing for 4 days to play golf. No problem at all. Back to flowering nutes, but only at 50% of recommended levels out of habit.

Back on schedule for the start of the 4th week of flowering. Flowers starting to grow. Gave everybody a dose of Plant Therapy as a preventative measure on Monday October 22 during dark cycle.

Flowers are starting to look nice. Starting to put on some weight. Large internodal spacing.

Only a couple more weeks to go on these babies. I think I'll be able to get by without staking anything here but we'll see how much weight the buds put on these last days. I've brought a space heater out to my grow shed to keep the temps up above 68 or so. Nightime temps are dipping into the high 40's outside now and my grow lights were the only thing keeping my girls warm (until now). I actually employed a stake today (11/1) to force one of the branches on the smaller girl upward to get her out of the way of the other plants. Wasn't necessary for weight - but a side effect of growing sideways.

The time has come to employ some stakes for this baby that never seemed to really figure out which way was up. The node spacing and horizontal growth pattern just causes branches to roll over on themselves when they hit a certain weight. I'm using bamboo stakes that I can slip in on the perimeter of the fabric pot and just leaning branches on them at present. Moving the girls in and out of the tent WITH stakes is a freaking nuisance for photographical purposes... so once I move the girls out for a final flush sometime in the next week I'll get more serious with these stakes and start attaching a few of the heavier branches... but at that point I won't move the girls again until we harvest... somewhere a week to ten days after flush. These Sherbets are frosting up a bit quicker than the Grape Ape's so will probably be harvested first just to give me a bit of a break between varieties. ======= Flushed these girls Saturday morning 11/10 at the END of the light cycle.

Actually flushed the Sherbets last Saturday morning so we're in the home stretch here. They're not very far in front of the Grape Ape's so I think we'll be pretty much done by Thanksgiving. ====== Wednesday Nov. 14 - probably the last water for these girls with a plan to harvest this weekend. Either Friday or Saturday evening we'll nix the last light cycle before harvest (which in this case will pull the girls outside the tent and also lower the temperature a bit.)

I'm actually taking the morning off.... it's cold (F40's)... the air quality here in Northern California is officially "very unhealthy" with all this smoke from the world around us far off burning. Last year it was Napa and Sonoma burning (and lots of weed up in flames along with it). Lots of misery. 😞 Time to be thankful I'm home and safe with all my pets and plants. However... abandoned my planned 20 mile bike excursion. Waiting for the temp to climb over 60 before harvesting the girls which are waiting patiently in the dark. Time to consume some of my stockpile of concentrates. =========================== November 17 >>> OK... got going about noon local and done in 2.5 hours with lots of cannabis breaks. Everything hanging to dry after my normal bud washing routine. Not expecting a very large yield here as I did next to no pruning and other maintenance. Will weigh it all after she's dried and trimmed and ready for curing. November 20 >>> Hanging stuff is plenty dry after 72 hours so I got an early afternoon start and was done in a few hours of hand trimming. Finished buds weighed in at about 1.8 ounces with another 2 ounces of trim. Accumulated kief came in at just under a half gram. Time to start curing and this batch should be ready by the xmas holidays.