SoCal Out Coco: Lava Cake & Marathon OG

Week 1 clones under t5 light 18 hours.

Week 2 started moving outside, taking out 1 hr a day in overcast skies and reducing light 30 mins a day. Week 2 600ppm ph 6.0 Week 2 topped and defoliated

***Dog ate one lava cake and topped 3 MOG. Damn dog. Lava Cake is stretching wide PPP is shooting high, up to 16”, couldn’t get rid of the purple stems with an xtra shot of cal mag. Seem healthy. Marathon OG tops are coming in nice. Big leaves at week 3. Week 3 transplant to 5gallon fabric pots, charge, stretch, flush Week 3 800ppm ph 6.0 Chugging along. Fully outside week 3 with no supplemental light Weather Overcast every day for 3 weeks. Less water requirement. 55-75 degrees. No bad leaves or signs of distress.

The girls are coming along. The PPP were approaching 2 feet. The PPP is true to its name, the trunk is purple and it’s pushing to the sky. Didn’t prune or defoliate in week 4, but next week we’re thinning the plants and bringing the grow to a legal 6 plants. This week highlighting how the “dog topped” marathon OG is forming nice branches and spreading. One PPP that was topped, LST and mainlined is looking great. Surprisingly this one has the largest trunk. Lava cake is looking more like some good indica. Water Update: Using tap water at 260ppm and adding nutes up to 800-840 ppm ( adding about 560ppm in nutes). I adjusted down slightly to counter the lighter new growth, and added a small scoop chelated iron to 5G bucket. This worked well. PH of tap water is high, 7.8, so I’m using a lot of acid to bring it down. Water usage is increasing daily and roots are reaching sides of 5G pots.

The Marathon OG and Lava Cake are chugging along and stacking up. 23-28 inches. Defoliating and removing some bottom branches that haven’t caught up to the canopy. Same nute mix but upped the ppm. Forgot to add my calmag to my list, but I’ve been using 2.5ml/G the entire grow so I added it this week. I’m planning on topping/pruning these veg strains again (selectively) to even up the canopy. Transplanting to 15-20G soon. Overall very healthy, happy plants so far. A few tiny inchworms but not too much insect damage.

Lava Cake started to stretch to about 28 inches. I moved one lava and one marathon to another location and planted in soil. Defoliating to push the energy to the canopy. I’m tying down and spreading the bush out. I pruned the lava and marathon OG top colas over the weekend to even the canopy. My ph meter was off for a day, I gave a feeding way off the mark, but flushed and recovered quickly with minimal damage. Darn cheap ph pens! Pushing up the bloom nutes and cutting back the grow. Transplanted 4 to 15g containers (3 lava and one marathon OG) and they’re quite thirsty, so I’ll be dunking the 15G pot in the morning. Slurp. Temp up to 79-82. Cool nights overcast mornings. Nice weather overall. Not too many insects and no signs of moths so far. ETA Sep 25

Spent a few weeks in Costa Rica 🇨🇷 so I haven’t been able to update. I had a great friend take over for me and feed the girls 2x day. The lava cake is in week 2 or so of flowering and the marathon OG looks like it is just getting going. So far I’ve been sticking with a 70 gallon mixture of nutes at 6.0ph. I’m feeding both strains the same mix via gravity hose 2x day (about a gallon a feeding). So I’m mixing about every 5 days. I had a lot of defoliating and small/lower bud removal to perform upon my return. Lava cake is getting some good trichomes and is starting to stack up. Marathon looks like it’s getting started. About a week apart. So far no signs of caterpillars but I do see the moths around the plants so I expect them soon.

Made it through Hilary. Really wasn’t too bad. Girls are coming along. Trichomes are stacking on the lava cake. The Marathon OG seems to be lagging a bit. We’re gonna flush with the high temperatures this week. Then back to the same mix. Added humid acid and blackstrap molasses recently. Time to stake and net as the buds are getting heavy. Also - Time to get diligent with the moths and cats. ******Added a couple of pics of the sisters that were flipped early and sent to another home and planted in soil. The lava is about ready and the marathon is about 10 days out.

Lava cake is about week 5, stacking and showing trichomes production. Marathon OG is about week 4 and just starting to stack up. Moths showed up. Saw my first caterpillars and removed a few buds. Started BT treatment. Weather last week was about 95, cooling off to 75-85 this week with some overcast skies early and finishing with warmer sunny skies. Harvested some lava cake from another soil grow that was flipped early. Last photo is a bud from that plants harvest.

Outdoor coco 15g pots Progress: Lava cake is about week 6.5. Starting to ripen and get heavy. Buds are getting fat. Strong sweet cookie/ ice cream smell. Buds are getting more frosty. Buds are getting so heavy I installed a net on 3 of 4 and doing #4 soon. On my most mature plant - About 25-30% of pistils have turned color. Some trichomes are milky, none amber. Looks like plants are a few days apart. Marathon OG week 5 1/2. Still stacking and getting fat. Smells dank. Trichomes are showing up. The 20 gallon OG is growing into a monster. I’m still waiting for the heavy bud stacks…. Nutes: Bumping up ppm, the dry koolbloom and molasses, stopping regular koolbloom and grow. Looking to starting flushing the lava cake in a week or so. Feeding 2x a day; 3x on hot days. Weather: Had a good week of cooler temps until yesterday, when it was 97. Looking at hugs in the 80s this week, perfect. Pests: The moths and caterpillars are in full swing so I’m applying BT every morning. I’m working hard to reduce caterpillar 🐛 losses. We lost all of the top colas on a plant in another location 💔 . I’m only losing one bud at a time and not the entire colas so far. Wishing fat buds and monster harvests to all.

Outdoor coco 15g pots Progress: Lava cake is about week 7. Ripening and get heavy. Buds are fat. Strong sweet cookie/ ice cream smell. Buds are frosty & heavy so I installed a net on all . On my most mature plant - About 40-80% of pistils have turned color. Trichomes are 20% milky, none amber. Plants are a few days apart. Marathon OG week 6. Getting fat. Smells dank. Trichomes are showing up everyday and getting frosty. The 20 gallon OG is growing into a monster. I’m still waiting for the heavy bud stacks…. Nutes: Same as last week. They’re not drinking as much with the cooler temps. Weather: Had a good week of cooler temps. Looking at highs of 80 this week, perfect. Pests: I’m applying BT every morning when it’s hit, every other when it’s cool. It’s working so far, limited losses. Wishing fat buds and monster harvests to all.

So Cal Outdoor All Coco: Lava Cake Week 8 and Marathon OG Week 7 5-15-20g pots Progress: Lava cake is about ripe with dark pistils, mostly milky trichomes, but limited sign of amber. Fan leaves dying off. Except the main colas, the buds are now mostly supported by the nets, as they’re just so dang heavy. Marathon OG is ripening with about half buds almost ready and about half still with white pistils. Fan leaves getting purple. Trichomes are starting to get milky. The big OG is spread out with 40+ smaller colas and doesn’t need a net yet. Much different plant than the lava cake which is a lower count of straight up heavy top colas that needed support weeks ago. I included a few pics of a purple push pop plant that recently took off. I almost gave up on her… Nutes: Flushing Lava Cake and tapering down Marathon OG. The 350ppm is just tap plus molasses. I flushed straight ph’d water 2 days and then reintroduced molasses Pests: Getting hammered by the cats; although I have had dozens of hits, the damage has been limited to 1-2 buds each hit and not the entire cola. But they did hit a lot of my good tops, so that’s disappointing, but expected at this location. Talking about pests, no visits from the ghetto birds so far. They usually arrive Sep 25. Wishing fat buds and sticky trichomes to all.

Progress: Just finishing up, Lava cake and marathon og trichomes are milky and we’re waiting on the amber; I did see maybe 1-2 percent, but not enough yet. I am noticing the trichomes are getting lengthier and developing more swollen caps. Marathon is showing purple leaves and thick trichomes. Lava Cake buds are so heavy they’re hanging sideways and are fully supported by netting. Purple Push Pops- PPP, which appears more sativa, is a week behind with some pistils still light at the tops; but mostly milky trichomes. Nice purple buds and leaves. Nutes: just water humid acid and molasses. Weather: lows were 56-63 and highs of 76-85; partly cloudy with higher humidity last week. Just slightly cooler this week. Pests: consistent losses on the cats. Right now it’s about an even trade off between quality and quantity, but I’m hanging and waiting for the right day to harvest. I had a fungus just start to hit one marathon og plant so I cut it and fresh froze it for bubble hash. No spreading of the fungus, so that’s good. No ghetto birds so far. 1 Plant Yield: Harvest on the one cut marathon OG looked great; super dense buds full of trichomes - just no amber trichomes. The one Marathon OG plant produced 53oz fresh (no stems or fan leaves - which translates to about ~10oz dried and cured- with 8oz buds and 2oz sugar trim). The buds smell super cheesy. This plant is going to be a💯 hash run. (Update: bubble hash is cheesey, smooth and dank) The other marathon OG plant will be dried and cured. That plant is in a 20 gallon and it is huge. Update: I did dry and cure some buds from branches that broke off (see last pic) - about 1/4 lb.

Progress: starting to harvest. Update 10/9, we’re in the amber zone and will cut it all by 10/11. Marathon OG; 1 plant. Started harvesting earlier in the week, gradually taking down mature or at risk colas. The plant is probably going to be my best this year. Yield so far; I harvested 75%: fresh froze 2gal and cured 9oz. Theres another 4 oz still on the plant. 75% good to high quality dense and resin packed buds. This yield is for a 20 gallon plant. Lava cake: 4 plants (3-15 gallon 1-5 gallon). The main colas were mature with some amber. The sex pods were rotting on some so I took them down first to prevent any bud rot. Colas were mature (mostly mains) with hard dense buds. I took 30% and left about 70% still growing. I froze 4 gallons and harvested about a pound or so, hard to say yet as it’s just starting to dry. PPP is still waiting to be harvested. Funky looking purple bud stacks. Still some clear trichomes, mostly milky. Cant wait to try it. I ran some bubble hash: I ran some fresh frozen marathon OG as well as a pound from last years harvest. Bubble Hash Yield; < 2 0z 3g rosin quality A+quality (use a rig!) 10g high quality (dark rosin hash) A- quality 38g hash C quality (smoke in joints, like OG hash, but cleaner.) 10g low grade d/e quality (edibles or press for rosin) The fresh frozen produced the high quality rosin, but at a lower yield. The dried and cured pound from last years harvest produced so much ( an ounce and a half) it clogged up my micron bags. It’s good hash, but nothing like the fresh frozen rosin like hash. It’s gonna be a busy week of feeding, scoping, harvesting, drying, curing and trimming. The lava and the OG smoke great. The marathon og is so far my favorite to smoke. I have not tasted the purple push pops yet…..

14oz of bud and another ~1 pound of high grade trim for one plant. My best producer this year. My second best smoker. I would grow again.

Although the plant produced huge long gorgeous colas, the trichome production and thx content was not up to par. I would not choose to grow again. Nice smell, decent taste, just no dense buds and weak punch. 🥊 I ended up using this strain mostly for hash. I cured about 10oz.

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