This is it. The chop. Cut down the remaining plants this week (3 total). The trichs were around 30-50% amber. It really just depended on the branch I checked. Some nugs were almost 100% caramelized while others were like 20% amber. That was the goal for the remaining plants. This has been a great season.
The Season
This season went really (s)well. Nothing extraordinary other than I opted to use BT for the first time. I applied b.t. twice after I noticed caterpillars were starting to increase on the daily. They still appeared, but the damage was minimized. The 2 things that I made a mistake on was probably (1)not having the right size container for the first up-pot. I should've just placed the plants in slightly larger containers immediately. (2)Tropic orange didn't like getting moved around the garden when in flowering. I can't make this up. I noticed that I had them in the North side of the garden--i moved them 10 feet south in the first week of flowering and they got a little sad looking. Just weird. The plant that I didn't move did not experience that effect. Now it's documented. 😂
The Grow
I grew 5 plants to the end in fabric containers. All seeds were Tropic Orange from Equilibrium Genetics. All seeds germinated. I gave a 6th plant to a buddy who had to harvest early due to rodents starting to eat his flowers. Of the 5: 2 were placed in 30 gallon containers solo, 2 together in a 30 gallon container also LSTd, and 1 plant was grown in a 45 gallon container with pineapple, chilli, and thyme companion plants(this one had purple flowers also--1st time I see that they purp on cold nights).
LST
I experimented with LST a bit more. I was told by a fellow grower that what I missed was the pinch after the pin. That I should've topped the plants that were pinned down to get the yield up. At first I was like nah, but then it makes sense. Maybe I'll try it next time. I forgot to ask around when I should top also. More to learn about this technique on my end.
Watering
I finally got my trigger finger under control. No root rot this season. Summer still amazes me in the peak water consumed (about 3x the normal). The summer peak coincides with the flowering and a couple of weeks later the watering decreases to about 1/3 of the water.
Amendments
I only amended the soil about 5x this season. I think I added kelp meal like 3x and a combo of bud candy and overdrive 2x. The soil I used was also amended initially.
Flowers
The flowers were great. Gassy to fruity smell. Even got a hint of mango peel and orange peel. The last few plants smelled amazingly pungent. Letting them go longer also increases the potency in the aroma and the resin production. These nugs are more stickier than those from a few weeks ago. I think I got hash fingers from touching the stems and a few leaves too much earlier, this plant is resi-nous for sure.
Harvest
Plant 1 (short, bushy, purple and orangey leaf tips, sour diesel/Tropicana cookie lookin, had to hold the branches up, grew like 50" in a 30 gallon fabric pot with chilli companion plant)- OCT 7 chop all white trichromes with some amber here and there (~1 lb)
Plant 2 (tall, but started the shortest, not bushy at all, very sativa dom hybrid looking, dark green leaves that looked maple leafy when young, very little foliage in general, but nugs were dense, turned purple, smell like a fruit smoothie of sorts, always stayed strong but required some support at the end, 62" in a 45 gallon pot with chilli,thyme, and pineapple companion plants) - Oct 7 chop all white trichromes very little amber (~1 lb)
I think you might want to start planning out how to do some LST on your 4 plants in the 30gl pot. 1 plant can become a monster and you have 4 that are sativa dominant. Good luck!
@Big_Rade_SCLA, I'd wait till they show their sex before doing anything drastic. That way you can really go all out on what type of training you do. My 2¢
@Kritkl, my guess is that they won't all be girls and I'll end up pulling one or two out, but LST has been on my mind. I'll take your advice for these four.
@Kritkl, you can smell it from like 15 to 20 feet away. Real sweet dank smell. Close up you smell citrus-mint-orange or mandarin. The tallest one has a hint of purple on the nugs and smells a little like mango. Bomb stuff from Equilibrium.