Monster Crop Laughing Buddha Clone 2019

Yet another generous gift from @MaxPointy - what a dude. This is a monster crop clone that was taken roughly 5 weeks ago, and I think is a sister to my other current Buddha monster crop grow. It only just started to show normal growth in some places so it will have to be vegged for some time. It was grown in Sunshine Soil #4, and when I received it I top dressed with more Sunshine and some worm castings mix. I noticed some funky growth on the very top, as well as two nice new growths just below, I decided to top that area after snapping a few photos. I also started LST and tied down the main stalks.

Roughly 42 days from the monster crop clone being taken. It has fully revegged and growth is fairly normal. Typical for monster crops, there are many branches so I am tying often. The goal is to snake the plant close to the soil for as long as possible and allowing the main stem to grow.

Day 49 since being monster crop cloned. This plant started to show signs of overwatering, or deficiency, or what I suspect is light intensity/heat stress. At first it seeemd to be the Cough and Buddha, which were older, so I top dressed with some Sunshine soil, work castings, sheep manure compost, and bone meal hoping to amend the soil. All my veg. tent plants suddenly looked tired, stressed, etc. It could be a variety of things but after debating over a lengthy vape session Max Pointy eventually said, “well... you have to do something.” So I moved everything to the original height. I unfortunately have stunted the growth in any case and will have to take extra veg. time to hopefully recover. It still is creeping along and in monster crop fashion is branching like crazy. I have tied many new outcroppings. If this thing can gain some girth there will be plenty of potential tops.

Approx. 55 days since being taken as a monster cropped clone. This plant resisted the light stress compared to other planrs in my veg. tent because of age and size. It hasn’t really exploded, but it seems fine. Heavy watering has it looking a bit droopy. I have regularly cut vegetation off of it and it is still filled out. Just being patient with this one.

Approx. 63 days since being monster crop cloned. This plant resisted the light stress more than the others so it was set up to continue growing. In the last week I did notice some slower growth and limpness regardless of moisture. The streaking on the stems and knowing Sunshine Soil #4 has very low phosporous levels, and that I haven’t fed liquid food since inheriting this plant, led me to applying some Miracle Gro 18-18-21 Tomato plant food - the plant responded! It started to grow vigorously again. I’m surprised by how slow, and mild, my soil amendment and top dressing has been. I have shocked plants in the past with sheep manure compost and liquid food. Looking really good in any case. I will be vegging this plant for a few more weeks so I transplanted to a larger final pot that I acquired. After taking the pics I tied down some more branches and snapped another photo.

Approx. day 70 since being taken as a monster cropped clone. This has so many branches/tops. It is nearing completion and I am just waiting for space to free up in the other tent, and a few other plants to catch up, before flowering. No nutrients this week.

Approx. day 76 from being taken as a monster crop clone by MaxPointy. I have prepped it for flower by heavy defoliating and selecting the best branches. It is still super bushy. I will give it two weeks to recover and then I will make the switch to 12/12. I recently fed some 24–8-16 Miracle Grow All Purpose plant food. I feel like I am only needing to supplement Phosphorous at times, red woody stems, leaf underside pinkish, low manufactoring levels in Sunshine Soil profile.

Approx. 83 days since being taken as a monster cropped clone. I continue to feed 24-8-16 Miracle Gro All Purpose plant food. This plant’s water intake has been increasing. I will be making the switch to 12/12 flowering in one week.

Approx. 91 days since being taken as a monster cropped clone by Max Pointy. The day has arrived, and it has been moved to the flowering tent, so next week it will be in flower. I am excited - this plant is already bigger than the final product of all my other grows. So I am expecting better yield. It sort of had some nutrient or watering problems leading in as I noticed the leaves look drained and tired, pale. I switched to 18-18-21 Miracle Gro Tomato plant food in preparation and into flowering.

Day 98, one week of flowering complete. Still recovering a bit from nute imbalance, the leaves are still a bit pale. But the stretch is on. Just water this week.

Approx. day 105 since being taken as a monster cropped clone. Two weeks of flowering finished. It has been getting 18-18-21 Miracle Gro Tomato plant food during stretch. I majorly defoliated, lollipopped each branch. I will start my flowering feeding schedule now. Its looking great!

Approx. day 112 since being taken as a monster cropped clone, three weeks of flowering complete. Its been just water in the rotation just because of timing and I will be starting a flowering feed schedule now. The plant is starting to smell a bit and looks great. Really focusing on the main buds. Max Pointy and I have been researching the light spectrum, and the specs of the large grow lights, and elected to purchase some yellow/red spectrum LED light bulbs to flesh out the flowering range. It fills in a noticeable drop in spectrum of the large light. They have a 16 actual wattage rating each, so I added 80W (One bulb was a dud, I will be looking to add one more to make six). The plants seem to have responded well and are producing buds at a seemingly faster rate. With timing its hard to gauge the benefits until i grow a few more plants.

Approx. day 119 since being taken as a monster crop clone, four weeks of flowering complete. Roughly six weeks to go. This plant has most recently been fed 0.1-0-5 Earth Alive Big Blue Alga liquid seaweed. No significant damages or change. Everything looks great. The buds are giving off the usual musty/sweet Buddha smell.

Approx. day 126 since being taken as a monster cropped clone, five weeks of flowering complete. Five weeks to go. The deterioration of the leaves is going a but faster than I’d like. No doubt the pesky seaweed. I’ll be cutting back on its use. I most recently fed 0-10-10 Alaskan Morbloom. The buds are starting to pack some weight on and are very frosty. The resin is nice and musty/sweet/tangy.

Approx. day 133 since being taken as a monster cropped clone. Six weeks of flower complete, four weeks to go. I would say compared to other Laughing Buddha plants I’ve had, massive lollipopping/defoliating reduced yield, however there are still some wonderful buds. The hairs are really starting to turn orange. The massive crown bud really strains its branch when disturbed and has some weight to it. The smell is unreal: sweet/musty/fuel. I do have four plants blending smells though. I am preparing for future generations where I’ve been forced to repot to larger containers and/or just need more room. This involved lowering the plants down. Just water this week following all that food, in prep. for one more feeding of molasses.

Day 141 since being taken as a monster cropped clone, seven weeks of flowering complete. Three weeks to go. The leaves are funky, beautiful coloured. I realize that I threw the nutrients and it hurt my yield ... but at least it looks sort of neat. I promise to take better care of the leaves next Buddha. I will make amends. The buds are still beautiful looking. A bit of molasses and then water here on out.

This is approx. 148 days since being taken as a monster cropped clone. Eight weeks of flowering complete, two weeks to go. The leaves are completely dead and this plant is really finishing up. There will be no question if its ready to harvest. Just water and time, so excited!

Approx. 155 days since being taken as a monster cropped clone. Nine weeks of flowering complete, about one to go. I think this plant is already dead and could be harvested but for sake of convenience and rotation I will wait until at least partway through the last week. The dead leaves have all shriveled up, and the buds aren’t swelling or changing much. Its probably been a slow death since the leaves turned yellow. Regardless, the small amount of bud that is there smells and looks great!

Because the leaves yellowed/died so early in flower they dried up and became crunchy. This was a pain to trim and generally ineffective. This effected the final taste and overall trim job. This was a good example of the ineffectiveness of major defoliation/lollipopping. The defoliation wasn’t a big deal, but when I mucked up with nutrients and it lost some leaves, it therefore lost ALL its leaves. So it died a slow death over the weeks until the end. I flowered it for 9.5 of the typical 10 weeks.