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Strawberry Gorilla and Banana Purple Punch - Newbie Grow
First time doing this ... you'd think that with all the info online I'd be a pro, but no .. gotta screw things up my own way. For one thing I was trying to germinate with water that had been softened ... a later post someone mentioned that is too high in sodium ... so .. a couple weeks after germination I took straight well water instead. These seeds on a damp cloth napkin in a semi-sealed seedling case with heat mat did not germinate for three days ... but did in less than 20 minutes after I used dilute hydrogen peroxide solution.
Germination start: 23Dec23, Actual germination: 26Dec23, Seedlings sprouted from soil: 29Dec23
I planted them in FoxFarm Ocean Forest. Directly. I had read that auotos do not like transplanting. However, the way this is going (stunted. .. you'll see!) I might as well, and been better off. I'm dealing with substrate that is waaaay too wet from the get go (I watered each 3 gallon bucket as I filled) and in my house interior, heated with wood stove, humidity is very low, so I have to keep them covered.
Not sure what to expect, quite, given that I KNOW my environment is not quite right. I was afraid of too-leggy Banana Purple Punch, so upped the light. Also, I noticed fungus gnats. Strawberry Gorilla looks very small. Trying to keep the babies warm with heat pads half-embedded in the soil, slowly adjusting the temperatures. This closet is upstairs, and has the flue pipe from my wood stove going through it in a chase, so is the warmest room in my house. Electricity here is very pricey, so I'm being stingy and my little girls are suffering. Soon after this I started adding hot water in jars inside the buckets as well as adding holes in the buckets to get crossflow (dry out the too-damp substrate!) and also covering with clear plastic to keep humidity in the 70-90% range.
Basing my Weeks on germination date. So I might be a tad off. Below I will put the notes I wrote, rather than explain myself. Hopefully they make sense to you!
8-Jan-24 Plants are small - the SG waaay too small. Thinking combination of temperature too low, soil too wet. Fungus gnats more in the BPP. Used cinnamon and rice hulls in both on 7-Jan. Upped light output, raised light to approx. 16". Soil temp about 75F, air temp getting there in the day with little jars of hot water, refreshed approximately hourly, up to 95, but generally in the 75-80F range in day. Down to about 64-68 at night. pH seems fine (approx 6.8, tested runoff and also solution, as well as stick meter). Attempting to dry the soil more.
Leaves exhibiting bad sickly looks .. curling down, yellowing, brown spots. Not good! Raised light.
11-Jan-24. Strawberry Gorilla has second set of leaves, small, finally. Banana Purple Punch has third and maybe fourth set starting. Old leaves still look bad. - Added 750 Big Bloom to 1 gallon, watered each plant around plant base circle approx 12oz.
My leaves are looking better, but barely, I think. Still spots on the larger ones of the Banana Purple Punch. The leaves of the Strawberry Gorilla are less yellow than they were .. do I see growth? Hmmm.
A couple days ago I scooped away excess soil, making "cones" for each plant, trying to dry it out some. Added more rice hulls. Still too wet. At least the fungus gnats are gone ... or hiding really well.
Today is the 15th, I watered last on the 11th. Without airflow, the soil in these pots too big for the baby root systems will never dry ... and WITH airflow the plants would dry out in my ambient 40% or less RH. So I blow on them and fan them each time I recycle the hot water. You'll see my temp/humidity meter in some of the shots the temp and humidity change as soon as I remove the covering plastic ... it's logging data, so I can see what the temps dip to at night. Looks like a mountain range ... not a steady constant. I'm sure the plants would prefer a more reliable heat and humidity! I am seeing the wisdom of having a temp/humidity tent that also controls airflow and closer reflectors for lights.
Had thoughts of giving up on the Strawberry Gorilla ... but ... I saw a lot of people recommending keep going .. growth spurts happen. We'll see!
You are the boss you can do whatever you want you can top up also if you want or more... some will say is auto do nothing... Still, I will say no need to cut just because you do not like the leave
What is the consensus on the start date for vegetative weeks? Is it when the seeds pop, or when the sprouts emerge from soil? I'm getting conflicting answers ... and it almost seems like it changes my whole schedule of expectations, especially comparing to others' diaries.
Slightly confused here because different websites gives you different start dates , the same like grow apps that "autofollow" your strains.
Week 1 of Veg should by books and other plants starts with true leaves , but that would mean I would have to turn my weeks back 1 down
5 Days Germ - 1'st week starts .. I would say..
i do not presoak and count first 7 days since seed touched soil as germination week, rest veg till 12/12 flip, then flower.
but everyone counts diferently, its absolutely irrelevant.
When the seed emerges, it has to prepare for vegetative growth. That's why for the first 2 weeks it looks like the growth is stunted and most new growers think something is wrong.......nothing is wrong and everything is right. It's anchoring itself into the soil with it's tap root, and then it begins forming roots that branch off the tap root and begin to explore the soil. That's truly when vegetative growth and begin to take place.
Last week of veg. How do I know this? Look at the last pics ... yep ... stigmas. So ... these plants are pretty pinner, if you ask me ... well, especially the Strawberry Gorilla runt. It's got the beginnings of stigmas too. Gonna be interesting..
So I'm wondering why the bigger guy is so short. Also, the FoxFarm people shorted one of my bags, so the top of the soil is way below the edge of the bucket ... how will I tend the plant? Airflow will be minimal as well, so asking for mold, hey? Thinking of cutting the bucket down to about an inch higher than the substrate.
Been feeding periodically. Not taking notes, as I figure this grow is mostly a fail. To keep fungus gnats at bay I'm watering through holes in teh side of the buckets with a syringe. 7.5ml, a couple squirts every few days for the little guy, adn about 4 for the bigger one. The plants LOOK fine, other than the slightest tinge of nutrient burn. If these were photoperiod there would not be an issue. But they are moving into flower.
You can see the little jars. The little jars are full of hot water. I replace the hot water every hour or so during "day". That keeps the temps up, locally, and also the humidity. Humidity tent DIY hanging from the light, as well. Definitely helps. The RH in this house dipped to 14% recently during the last cold spell. Glad that's over. But it's now around 27%, so I do need to keep some water to evaporate in the area.
Should I cut the bucket down to give airflow and access to the side of the plant? Doesn't look like it wants to poke up, and I wish I had the foresight to add more material before planting, but I was assuming the plant would be taller by now.
and, lol i thought it was some translation error.. no i wouldn't cut the bucket down.. if you have some air currents, it'll be fine. remove any leaves pointing down into substrate..
if you really wanted to, once it's taller you can add an inch or two of substrate if you wish.. i wouldn't bother though. When you transplant, before you bury anything, place the put into the hole you dug... is it at the right level? if not dig some more or fill it in a bit to get it to the right level. i try to get a layer on top of the transplant. if you ahd good watering habits, you shouldn't have any superficial roots, so removing a 1/2" off the top of a transplant isn't too big of a deal either -- one more tool to level it out the way you want.
When i transplant a larger plant in a 1gallon (vs seedling pot), i dig a partial hole with a slgihtyl udnerfilled pot. this way i can level it out and work the substrate around it to hold it steady exactly where i want it - e.g. if tilted i gently lift it and push some substrate under or pack in one side to hold it more vertically. Once sufficiently positions, then pour in some from sides to fill in the rest... hold the leaves up with one hand and dump it in, then level it out. Jst work your way around. this part doesn't take much ... dump and level. I do one half then the other. Make sure if anything is not even it is concave and not convest.. between the two options - water you put on top rolling (gravity/slope) toward center is better than toward the edges. It makes watering more of a pain to ensure no dry pocklets if ther's a slope or uneven top... the low side will sink in faster / gravity will pull it that way as you water the top... i have a sloped platform.. i slightly favor the high side with my drippers for this reason.
It doesn't look like the nodes are too tight. slow growth could be from genetics or the substrate if not the best... even the balance of nutes -- though in regard to nutes they look fine... probably just a bushy, short plant.
You know how I asked whether to cut down the white bucket due to soil too low and people said no? Well, thanks, but I ended up doing it anyway. I'm happy I did, but, the day after, the soil dried super fast and my poor plant almost kicked the bucket. Took all day to get her perking up again! You can see that in some of the pics here. Then I got all ambitious, even though a lot of advice says not for newbies to defoliate (at all?) or to do any LST stuff. Weeeeell sorry but I started doing that too, and I think I'm seeing good effects. I'm using insulated wire and electrical cable clamps to avoid bruising the stalks.
I've turned up the lights and added a side light strip of red/blue. Still on 18hours. I do adjust the Spider Farmer light now and then ... sometimes less, sometimes more, depending on what I "think" the plants are telling me.
The freezer icemaker fan brings the humidity up a tad, as well as helps circulate the warmth. So while I do see as high as 84F it's generally around 77 in day. When I check in morning it's at 71F.
I'm still watering with a 10ml syringe. It just works. I've added an approximation of the amount of Tiger Bloom to my solution, but I also water with mostly straight water alternately. I've also added powdered cuttlebone (calcium, some mag). I've lost track ... I'm watering by the seat of my pants, by gosh and by golly, and simply winging it. Next grow I'll get the fabric pots so I can water more properly. But for now, it's OK ... I'm seeing definite improvement from just injecting solution into the soil in several spots. I'm looking carefully for cupping, nutrient burn, wilting, etc. I did lose some leaf tips to the hot LED strip, and from the previous dry spell, but since then, it's all good.
Noticing a couple cool purple leaves on the top flower of the small (Strawberry Gorilla). The plant looks healthier in general .. the pale, slightly yellow leaves are becoming a deeper green, and the plant is feeling alive and responsive.
I kept the handful of leaves I trimmed from the BPP ... hung them up on the closet pole yesterday. They are crispy-dry now. Gonna make tea tonight. : )
However, I'm worried that if I don't figure out a humidity seal for that closet, when I am forced to open up my current tent, I will have to water a LOT to prevent the ladies from drying out. It is so very dry in there. Of course, I'm hoping that works for me when it comes time to worry about bud rot ... people say "I keep it as dry as possible" well ... I don't think that will be any challenge.
Going to take a few more leaves from the GPP tomorrow maybe. Currently I'm tucking the big shaders down in so the bud sites get more light.
Decided that my time-keeping skills need some work. Kinda looks like I can just base it on the 1st of the year from now on. So we are just past the middle of Week 6.
I think my LST is working, but wondering how long to keep it up. I just keep seeing opportunities developing to potentially improve the light exposure for buds reaching up, and I think it's working.
Also removed a couple more leaves on the BPP here and there, to allow for more buds to get more light, and also better ventilation.
Anyway, it's amazing how much growth has happened in the last several days!
Asking opinions here, preferably with reasoning, or link to such. I find too many opinions, and am unsure of what stage I'm really at. Question: WHen do I stop with the LST manipulation stuff, or does it continue to varying degree until near harvest? Thanks!
You train as long as you need to based off what's happening in front of your eyes, not the internet.
For instance in my current grow I tied branches throughout veg but took them off for the stretch(they were beefy limbs and held their shape pretty well) so it wouldn't pull or bite into branches but then I later reapplied some to even the shape back out post stretch.
Beware any advice that's linked to a certain 'week of growth'. ANYTHING you do training wise should be linked to your plant's growth and not some imaginary timetable someone makes up. Different strains, even different phenotypes within a strain, grow differently and there's no one size fits all answers to growing- no matter how catchy something read in that 6th grade Physical Science book 40 years ago, biology is a little more nuanced than that.
Experiment, learn and have fun with it. Over all my years of growing(yeah I'm old too)one big thing I've learned is it's really hard to screw up so bad you end up with nothing if you're mildly competent, cannabis is a very hardy and resilient plant. In the end you'll become a better grower who can adapt to many situations and environments vs someone who just follows directions. It's like knowing how to bake a cake from scratch vs making a box cake. Both end up as cake but who's really the baker? And what's the box guy gonna do if he's out of mixes and only AP flour instead of cake flour?
There is variation in growth patterns, so there is no 1 answer to that question. I have some seeds from 2 inhouse plants that need to be trained until about 10 days into flower before i let it grow vertically (about as extreme as it gets).. or, i end up with a 3' deep canopy and too much larf at the bottom. Other plants need to be ready at flip to flower in order to give my target of 18-24" deep canopy. Relative to my local environmental factors (lights, climate control et al). This is the best zone of buds for me - YMMV, but the variance in growth patterns are not within our control.
You typically want to leave any tie-downs and such until the end. It may seem like it is rigid, but over many weeks it will try to bend back straight, even if slightly it can make the canopy more uneven than it needs to be. I have some plant benders i remove only because the stems will eventually get too thick for them, but then i tie it down with some wire near that bend. A trellis can help too.
So it's a total guessing game unless you've grown the plant before (clones)... the stretchy ones can be HST'd if they outpace shorter plants .. the unusually short ones just suck a dick. if you can use a riser for those to keep them even that's great but using something like a trellis can often make that very difficult once the plant has grown into it.
don't need 40 years to figure this stuff out :P It ain't rocket science.
you can contiue to lst all the way through flower though because the plant does not grow vertically anymore but what you can do is in a few weeks is try spread the colas out so they get uniform light distribution try ease off on the defoliation because she will stop growing new fans soon and you need them to make buds bigger :) best of luck buddy.
As long as it isn't too early, not likely an issue and normal. Pistils do die, turn color, and coil up / swallowed by fattening calyx around it.
It can also be a sign of pollination. You'd have to look around and consider context to eliminate that as the cause. e.g. i don't worry about pistils turning color as i near 42 days of flower, give or take... development rates vary.
You'd see issues n leaves before pistils, if nutrient related... not sure if tehy can be affected by such a thing under normal contexts... dumpster fires excluded.
Alluding once again to my sloppy method: Which is which?
One is Strawberry Gorilla Auto, (Sativa dom) and one is Banana Purple Punch Auto(Indica dom). Do I have them backward? Tried to keep seeds straight. Based on leaf shape? THX!
once interbred it gets jumbled, see process of "meosis"
so, at that point hard to say one or the other is specifically indica or not because that's just a matter of coincidence that those traits were correlated with a particular plant in a particular region etc etc.. the lankiness is not the cause of any perceived different in high, for example.. merely correlated due to how it evolved in that population of plants.
the 2nd picture is clearly shorter and stockier. Historically that would be the "indica"... but once interbred, you could potentially have very sativa traits that are less susperficial and a short stocky plant that resembles a former "indica" classification despite that fact. These are low-resolution terms that don't always tie to reality of what is occurring.
if the descriptiosn say one is short and stocky, that 2nd one is most likely that strain... can't be 100% certain, but it is the best guess.
THe lost week? I typed stuff here but forgot to save? Or what? Not sure. Don't look at this week, as the stuff I put here is past, and I'm more worried about the next one, which I'm about to create and post. If you see this, please stay tuned: I need help! Thanks!
Not sure how to say this but I sense doom. The little plant is maybe not doing so well indeed, and the big plant is showing starts of nute toxicity.
Please go to the Week 9 to follow and suggest. I'm flushing but confused. Feeling stressed, too reactive, potentially damaging them further.
QUESTION: Is "pH balanced" water for flushing meaning ... you know ... pH 7 ... or ... does it mean "pH'd" which I take to mean setting the pH at target level basing on runoff? IN the last couple days of water only i've been setting water to pH 6.3 or thereabout)
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9
Week 9. Flowering
a year ago
More photos +13
27.94 cm
18 hrs
24 °C
6.3
Weak
300 PPM
38 %
19 °C
22 °C
18 °C
11 L
35.56 cm
Nutrients 1
water ph 6.3 citric malic tartaric acid blend 999.891 mll
The sense is strong that I am losing these gals to all the typical reasons a newbie might. I'm needing help, for sure. Seems whatever I do things get worse. Here's the scoop:
Determined two things: 1) Too much Grow Big 6-4-4 and too long used (so into flowering) Nitrogen toxicity .. affected small plant (Strawberry Gorilla) much more due to lack of room to put it all. And 2) Possible pH error ... thinking my pH 6.8, 6.9 range was OK ... since I was watering with syringe into side holes I never had runoff. Someone mentioned pH 6.9 too high, so I read more on that and yep, I should be around 6.2-6.5 during flower. So I checked my water (well water) which is around 6.9, and altered it with winemaker's acid blend (what I have) until around 6.3.
I've now flushed both plants. My water TDS is about 110 ppm. The small one had a ppm of around 900 at first ... got it down to maybe 400 (ish). That was last night (the 20th of Feb). Today I flushed the bigger plant (Banana Purple Punch) ... it's a 3-gallon pot cut down .. let's call it 2-gallon... ran about 2 gallons through it. Considering doing that again.
My runoff pH seems to be in the 6.4 area .. that's OK?
If I'm flushing to try to rescue plants from nitrogen toxicity/nute burn, what ppm should I be going for? And what pH should I be using? 7.0 or 6.3?
Flushing as a practice itself is debatable ... so I'm not sure about it at all, for the "final flush before harvest thing". I'll keep reading the people arguing about it.
IF (note the bif IF!) these gals survive (I will say the little one is showing signs of improving on some smaller leaves already) should I then use the Big Bloom and maybe a tad of Tiger Bloom? What about a tsp per gallon of molasses?
Probably really close to harvest ... don't want to lose my meager harvest now!
The BPP is exhibiting some really cool development in the trichomes and buds ... the SG has some, but is pretty stressed, and behind schedule so I might be lucky to get a few decent small buds from that and chalk it up to learning.
Thanks for your eyes, time, expertise, opinions, and any support .. even if you have to get snarky to get your point across .. : )
Cheers!
OK, I know .. pretty pinner. I'm still NOT SURE if I got my seeds swapped. This bud is great ... a lovely high, smells exactly like ripe wild strawberries in the jar ... but ... should not my other plant be the one smelling like strawberries? So it is possible that this is actually Strawberry Gorilla.
I wrote to FastBuds and they did not respond. If anyone knows these two strains (Banana Purple Punch and Strawberry Gorilla) I'd love to hear from you. The stuff I have marked strawberry gorilla smells sour and dank and not really fruity at all. I don't like the high from that one, either.
Anyway, I messed up the grow, so the plant and yield were very small. Still, I'm OK with that. Enough to last me a while and share with a few friends.
Harvest sequentially, drying in my beer/wine "cellar" (a basement bathroom converted) at about 51F, 47%RH, and then stored in pint jars with Integra Boost 62% 4 gram packs.
I've already started a new grow ... and so far much better (1 week since germination)
Thanks for the support and input.
EDIT:
Updated smoke report ... this stuff tastes and smells like strawberry now! It's been what, 3 months? But a good bowlful in the DIY conduction vape had us both agreeing that it was definitely was a strawberry vibe. Smooth, and not scratchy. No coughing. The high was clear yet intense. Fully capable of doing things, but also able to relax into the things we were doing. Yummy stuff. Didn't notice bad things like cottonmouth, lethargy or dumbheadedness. Just a good experience.
Had a chance to taste test this again after a good week or so cure. I'm liking it better. Not as uplifting as the other, Banana Purple Punch, "from what I can tell" but I will update if that changes. The smell of the buds int eh jar is really dank? not sure what that is, but it's not fruity at all. Very sour, fuel-like, almost like spoilage, but not really ... dig? Humidity is very close to 62%. Flavour when smoked seems pleasant, and smooth. Maybe a slight bit of cottonmouth. Not really noticeable though. Vaped it on a DIY soldering iron/jar rig ...
Anyway this strain is supsed to be more sativa-ish. Perhaps it is. It's very hard to compare to the effects of the Banana Purple Punch. I wish I knew for a fact which was which.
Very poor performance from me, the grower. This plant barely survived ... mostly my fault. Thing is that I don't like the high as much, nor the smell/flavour. So I'm glad that this one is the one that was by far a lot less yield.
I am NOT SURE if this is actually Strawberry Gorilla. It might be Banana Purple Punch. If you have experience with both of these, I would love some sort of identification help. I may have switch the seeds at germination.
Because the stuff I have here labelled Strawberry Gorilla does not smell like strawberries! The "Banana Purple Punch" REALLY smells like strawberries. This one smells dank, fuel, sour. Kinda unpleasant, really , and not fruity at all. Tastes OK ... but I don't like the high.
I'm a full week into a new grow with two other FastBuds strains ... and so far lots better than this previous one ... I learned a lot!?
Thanks for all input and help.
@Jaindoh, Thanks, and sorry for the delay/confusion. Please do check the updated Harvest posts! Also, I've started a new grow ... this is gonna be waaaay better! I think. : )
Hey, everything is a learning experience. Try mosquito bits (spinosad crumble shit you put in water for mosquitoes) topdressed, works for me. paper if needed is good, but id rather safely poison the bastards. The big one is definitely a keeper. I have terrible luck with autos myself. When they're having problems (which is easier to avoid as you progress, true) you dont get to just veg them out another 2 weeks until they recover. Photoperiod gives you the control. Multiple of my harvests of autoflowers vegged for like 9-12 weeks and took at least as long as photos to finish (suspect its the older "blurple" lamps responsible, but still).
@Jaindoh, Thanks for your encouragement! I kinda came to the same conclusion regarding autos. Especially since I'm indoors and even still because I'm very new at this, as well as trying to control costs (electricity is expensive here) and have not as much climate control as I should have, I definitely should be doing photoperiod plants. I have a couple more auto varieties ... maybe I'll try those outside or in the greenhouse over the Southeast Alaskan summer. It's very foggy/rainy here from August on, so not super sure about that. We've got a pepper plant actually growing in the window over winter, actually has flowers! Not much, but, I could do that with photoperiod cannabis, and take my time.
By the way, I noticed a growth spurt in the little guy just last night. There be hope!
Followed for your first grow! They probably don't quite need fertilizer yet, but it shouldn't hurt anything. If you're trying to increase vigor and growth, try getting a fan to lightly rustle the leaves (not shake the whole plant). Fox Farms is how I started myself!
@Jaindoh, Really appreciate the input. I think I'd do everything a lot differently, were I starting over. But for now, just trying to make the best of things. I suspected stigma formation yesterday ... confirmed today. Not sure my situation is god for autos! I'll work on a small fan ... it's a double-edged situation, that, as the humidity dips really low quickly due to cold and wood stove.
@Rikymaru66, I already responded to this, but the response is gone? This site is weird. Anyway, thanks, the stuff works for us ... the trichs I saw when I harvested some were amber, many cloudy, some clear .. I'd rather have the energising high, as opposed to the couch lock sleepy stuff. So I maybe did early, but I'll try hard next time to make sure it's right.
@Rikymaru66, I don't disagree. Good to report that we are enjoying the results. I was seeing enough ambers that I didn't want to mess up, and I was planning to harvest a bit early on purpose (for the supposed speedy cerebral/functional high). I'll push it a little more on my current grow. Thanks!
Thanks everyone, for your input. For what it's worth, those leaves are looking better today! Tried to mark an answer as "the one" but the clicky thing does not work. I'm leaving th eleaves unless they fall off.
Aleatoric
