End of week 6 and all is well within the tent. The plants are still stretching a bit but have slowed considerably and I’m very happy with the overall height/size of this strain. As the plants purple out, resin production has also begun and the smell is becoming more noticeable- a lovely fruity assault of the senses when opening the zipper of the tent. I have done some light defoliation this past week focusing on the largest, oldest fan leaves first and then removing leaves blocking prime bud sites. Temperatures have remained cooler than average in my area so the plants are drinking a little less water than I originally expected. I am still watering every 2-3 days or as needed so 2x 1 gallon jugs or 2 gallons between all three plants per feeding. I am really happy with my 1st all organic grow using the CoCo LoCo and the Gaia Green fertilizer. It’s been way less work when watering/feeding, way less $ going out on bottled nutrients, no flushing and no major health problems with the plants so far. Thx for stoppin by and I’ll update again at the end of next week.
@BermyZH, so apparently putting the plants into the dark for 2-3 days/no water really stresses them out. Causing them to think and react to "the end is near!" Some growers feel that the plants produce more resin/trichomes in a desperate last effort to pollinate= seeds= self preservation. I’ve never tried this before so i’m going to shoot before/after pics and see if i can notice any real difference. Hopefully i open the tent up after 3 days and they’re dripping with sticky goodness, we’ll see!
@kitkat332986, i hope these girls fatten up a lot more too... the lower buds have doubled in size the past week but the upper buds are just putting on resin- lots of resin. Although the upper canopy could have been better, the buds are rock hard. All three plants have been staked up now as they are leaning dramatically without any support. The weight on the top half of these girls is impressive and i look forward to a decent haul from just 3 plants. Gotta love Dutch Passion- always reliably good bud and healthy, heavy yielding plants! Thx for checking out the grow.
@Philindicus, hopefully they’re huge! As large as my Auto Ultimate’s would be nice but I don’t think they’ll grow quite as big. Looking forward to the dark purple buds though, hopefully I end up with 3 different phenos!
@Philindicus, actually i take a small break to start my summer outdoor grow every year. I enjoyed a few weeks in beautiful Portugal too! Thx for welcoming me back and the sour crack is running a little low...😏
Nice haul they held their color nicely after drying. I have heard about stressing plants out to increase resin/terpene content. In the first week or two of bloom I have been using some branch pinching and something I've coined "half cropping" which is essentially super cropping to a lesser degree. Instead of bending the branch to 90 degrees I lightly roll and slightly squeeze the branch then slightly bend the branch creating some stress to the site it heals very quickly. Then using a bit of drought stress during the last stages of bloom. I've been backing my lights off during the last 10 days during ripening. I believe California LightWorks recommends decreasing the amount of red spectrum light during the ripening stage. https://news.californialightworks.com/what-is-the-best-led-spectrum-for-growing/
Although there have been some studies claiming uv-b light increases trichome/thc development no studies to my knowledge have been done to disprove that uv-a light doesn't do the same thing as uv-b. A lot of LED light manufacturers are adding uv-a to their bloom lights. I am not a chemist so I'm reaching here but I would think the 72 hours of dark would slow down or stop photosynthesis which will force the plant to stop producing chlorophyll and force it to feed or move sugars to its extremities like the leaves and buds. I would think it would be helpful in speeding up the curing process we go through getting the chlorophyll and sugars to break down to improve the over all burning/smoking quality. I would also have to say that Auto flower strains potentially may produce less terpenes than photo period strains based on how much Cannabis Ruderalis genetics they contain.
"update- plants have been chopped", ha, I know that one, you're thinking 'hey I'm gonna leave it till it's fully ripe', it doesn't change much day by day then one day you walk in and suddenly everything is screaming the 'time has arrived'. It's almost magical.