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Been a minute and after a brief, necessary hiatus - I’m back at it! Germ week for the latest stage of the hunt for a stable batch of WalkerBerry OG.
Seeds for both of these strains are still very lively and viable - no duds whatsoever. Approx. 13/14 seedlings have been potted to id the strongest and most lively. We’ll pare it down to however many we can cram in the tent in 2gal pots. Here’s hoping we get a good batch of females🤞.
Strain details as follows:
Walkerberry OG (F2 - Indica Pheno)
This is the second generation of my signature cross that’s been in the works for about 3 years now. It’s a cross of a particularly finicky Strawberry strain that is no longer available. Strong hybrid sativa qualities with excellent yield and growth characteristics matched with similar Indica leaning characteristics from a Skywalker OG. Notable unique traits will be some inherent fasciation from the strawberry and bright purple and blueish bud hues from the Skywalker. If grown right, I expect good things and may consider taking some clones in case we pull out a gem pheno for use with a 3rd generation.
Pole Dancer (F1)
This strain was a kick-in experiment, part of the last Spicy Bitch pollination. It combines the vigour and yield of a Spicy Bitch sativa, crossed with a female Boogie Nights Indica. The Boogie Nights strain was meh in terms of indica effects so we’re hoping the added spicy bitch characteristics will push that end of the cross to another level. This is a straight test run - no clones here.
Week 1 of veg in the books.
Walkerberry OG - all but 2 popped from the medium giving us a solid 10 plants for the first tent to grow out and sex. A couple seeds did have issues with shedding the shell and that’s not uncommon in well used coco so no biggy. Growth has been predictably vigorous over the first week which is an excellent sign.
Pole Dancer F1 - these ones have been a little slower to start which isn’t a bad thing for this run as we’ll be running em out in the Dutch bucket system which isn’t yet ready for planting. All told we only had one seed fail to pop so alls good for this run as well. We’ll pick the best, most vigorous 8 to grow out and sex for a pure test run of bud.
Lot going on this particular week. We had em all repotted and hooked into the manifold drip feeders and then half of em have since grown big enough to do the initial topping. The grow always speaks for itself around here but if conditions are right - I’d like to 4 way scrog it all in the hopes of getting a solid group of females. Only time will tell there. Changed out one seedling for another as it was growing mutant and so far there are early mixed results. Too early to tell but woulda preferred more consistency amongst these plants. We’ll see where it goes
Hit a snag the last few days with stalled growth due to nute deficiency. Mix simply wasn’t strong enough for how quickly they grew and the demand went up fast.
These have all been topped save the two smallest and we’ll see how they grow and train accordingly. The coco drip dtw is gonna be frustrating and a lot of filllups for the next 3/4 months. I’d much prefer to have it on an automated system but didn’t have time to do the necessary retrofit. Either way - just a few more weeks of boring veg. Before we find out who’s got balls and gets the toss.
Week 4’s in the box and these plants are lightning quick outta veg. We’ve confirmed the presence of at least 3 males and 1 guaranteed female so far. They’ve all started to hit vegetative maturity in full stride so it won’t be long until we look to flip. A couple have been topped once more for the sake of additional colas and if we get lucky, the remaining females may be suitable for a scrog. Either way, can’t be much happier about how well they’re growing at this stage. Here’s hoping it remains so through flower🤞.
***Notes: strongest plant to this week is first confirmed female. Prob a prime candidate for cuts and back pollination with the F1 pollen dump.***
Week 6 in the books and all of em have absolutely exploded with new growth. All have now hit veg maturity and happy to say that the remaining 8 look to all be females. Last pic in the series is how it looks after a pretty heavy chop session. I pulled out a lot of undergrowth and trimmed out a number of fan leaves that were impeding side branching growth. Now real formula to it - just trimming what can’t be moved out of the way and anything that might impede airflow to the bottom of the canopy. It’s crammed in there which is great to see.
It’s here where I’ve given each one a number with the odds (1,3,5,7) repping the back row as the strongest candidates for cloning. These plants were generally the strongest throughout veg. So their bud development and pheno traits will be the biggest focus throughout flower.
Given the size of all of them and how well they’ve advanced, I am expecting to lay down a scrog net to maximize the production yield of the run. It’ll be a lot of additional work but this is an important run to get right if we can.
The next week will represent the first week of the flip and transition and that’s where we’ll earmark where to lay the net and clip clones for the aerocloner. No deficiencies or issues at all and I’m extremely happy with how well this cycle is going.
***Grow notes: veg. Maturity at week 5. Fast growth and development all around so a prime candidate cultivar for all types of grow method. 2 males, 8 females this run. Internodal spacing is consistent and tight. ***
End of the first few days of the transition. They all got a significant defoliation to open up space in the canopy for branching and the plants responded incredibly well to it. Plants 1&2 started to show immediate deficiency signs after defoliation and I upped the nute ratios by about 50%/liter with the Berkana. Voracious feeder and growers these are for sure. That said, their growth rate is phenomenal and the side branching is especially impressive and responsive to training. Veg. Maturity on all of em for the last week so it’s a fast growing strain all around👌.
Well throw down the scrog net in a couple of days after we hack out the lower portions of each plant and take clones for all of em but the runt (#8). The clones will be flowered fast in the aeroponic cloner and pollinated for F3 generation seed. Bud characteristics on this run will then determine which clones get tested first based on best characteristics of the lot.
So far this run has been incredibly impressive but only the bud quality will tell the true tale. Here’s hoping for continued good progress.
***Grow notes: stretching at about 1/2” per day over the last 3 days of transition. Side branching reaching enough maturity to start taking cuts. Minor deficiency signs post-defol. So increasing nute ratios on a slightly accelerated basis continues to be the norm.
2nd week of transition in the books and development has been advanced and remains very vigorous.
Had to pull out one more plant that was showing balls and we’re now down to a total of 6 plants of the original 10. Regardless the scrog net has filled in substantially while the canopy remains airy and light in terms of overall foliage space. The mains have been tied to the net over 2 or 3 rounds of bending and training to allow the lower side branches opportunity to catch up to the same rough height.
No deficiencies and we’ve now apparently found the sweet spot for nutrient ratios. Everything remains on point and we’re mostly on auto pilot to the finish now. Alls good!
Through the 3rd week of stretch now and the plants are doing great. Cottonballs everywhere and the scrog is relatively even with minimal tie backs in only weeks 1&2. Chopped out and lollipopped a bunch of foliage and we’ll prune various fan leaves around the canopy to expose some of the smaller side branch heads.
What would a grow be without at least one issue. I hate doing this dtw crap manually - I forgot I left the pump on and accidentally ran like 30L of solution. Flooded out the tent and part of the basement at the same time and thought I had drowned out the plants…. They took it just fine and were looking great by the next morning so minus the cleanup it wasn’t really a bad thing I guess.
We’re generally on autopilot while we wait for the buds to fatten and finish. So far - we’re still on track and well on the way to mid-flower phase👌.
Video pretty much says it all. Plants are doing great.
*Grow Notes: limit defo. In most stages. Little tip burn overall so prob. At the high end of the Berkana. Good internodal spacing - look’n at a quality stack. Lowers were still too low on launch, would’ve benefited from a little more veg. Time.
*minor light burning in localized areas has begun to show up elsewhere. There is a chance it’s early and very slight nute burn after the tent was flooded out last week. Running 20L of water through em over the next two days to dilute the current Rez mix and flush out any lingering solids and minerals that be throwing em off. That shouldn’t cause any issues and will isolate the problem if it’s localized light burning. Moved up the lights a touch regardless as well.
*update - there was definitely a little light burn in one hot spot but the leaf issues are now prevalent on plants 2,6&7. It’s repp’n like P&K deficiency which would track with previous runs and further support how nute hungry some of them have been in the past. We’re changing out from the Berkana to Maxi-Bloom anyway due to need and the GH nutes are generally somewhat stronger in content than Druid so that should solve the problem🤞. Either way - on this basis alone, plants 1,3&4 are starting to look like our prime candidates for seed from the clone cabinet. Only time will tell on this issue but prefer we breed it out as best as possible when we start the back cross against the F1 pollen.
TheBudWhisperer
