Laughing Buddha Clone 2019 (III)

Day 23 since being cloned. Transplanted and moved to the veg. tent today. I took this clone as the daughter of another journal, Monster Laughing Buddha 2019 (II). This is a regular clone. I vegged this clone in a DIY clone box, with a 19Watt LED, with only the blue spectrum on (so likely half). I cut and used rooting powder, and then planted straight into VPW20 soil and Myka microculture. I transplanted to a larger container using VPW20, and a light mix of sheep manure compost, worm castings, blood and bone meal, alfalfa meal compost, used coffee grounds, pulverized egg shells, and some Myka microculture. Just a reminder, my entire Laughing Buddha lineage has come from a Barney’s Farms seed. Buddha is large yield, potent sativa that is Thai x Jamaican genetics. This stuff is great, everyone needs to grow it once.

Day 27 since being cloned. No issue for this little one. I think it likes its new environment and repot! Seems to be gaining some size. Atta girl, Buddha.

Day 34 since being cloned. Laughing Buddha usually has no issues, and this clone is no exception. A little hot and dry in my tent, but it doesn’t mind. No adjustments needed.

Day 41 since being cloned. LST is working great, canopy is forming, no issues so far. Just water as there is plenty of nutrient in the soil. Nothing much going on except consistent growth.

Day 49 since being cloned. The plant itself looks great. I’ve been forced to repeatedly top the same branches, attempting to catch others up. It has been tough creating an even canopy. This plant is due for some food but unfortunately it is well soaked as I went away for a few days, and was forced to overwater. I have also noticed a little host of flies enjoying the soil amendment in this one. Annoying and not ideal, we shall see how it progresses. No damage to the plant so far in this case.

Day 55 since being cloned. I recently fed some 24-8-16 Miracle Grow All Purpose plant food as I see the leaf stems and main stem becoming purplish, woody, streaked (phosphorous needed). Everything looks good and its just chugging along gaining size. This has been a quiet entry in my veg. tent.

Day 61 since being cloned. When I built my current setup I built two tents, one that is 6’x4’ and one that is 4’x4’. The available electrical hardware, and timer situation, and my thought process on working with clones made me choose the larger tent for veg. Since then, I realize clones need much less light, the rest of the tent has sat empty, and I’ve been heating my larger tent with two sets of CFLs. But now I’ve upgraded my timer and power bar, and have flexibility, ... I’ve switched my two tents. The 6’X4’ tent is now my flowering tent, and my 4’x4’ is now my veg. tent. As you can see, I don’t need any extra room. The veg. tent is now run off of one main LED that is standard to both tents. Buddha is looking good, but on the fringe of needing phosphorous. I’ve been trying to stay ahead of streaky, purple stems, but Laughing Buddha always seems to use up nutrients. I will be flower this plant in about 3 weeks. In the periphery you can see some possible seedlings and some potential diaries, stay tuned...

Day 68 since being cloned. This plant is just about ready to be flowered, I am essentially waiting for room in my other tent. Just trying to delay growth by selectively topping. I will fully admit I did poorly monitoring phosphorous levels. I caught it before it became a deficiency, but it still got further advanced than i would have liked. You can clearly see the purple, streaked stems. Somewhat deceiving is that I topped the new growth, so I treated the phosphorous sooner than it appears. I recently fed 18-18-21 Miracle Grow Tomato plant food. This is usually my first step flowering food, but I have to start cranking the phosphorous levels.

Day 75 since being cloned. First, what you aren’t seeing this week is a bad fungus gnat infestation. My veg. tent has given me my first experience with pests. Consistent traps and alcohol spray reduced the populations significantly. For this plant, letting it dry out completely also helped. For the most part the worst had passed for this Laughing Buddha. The plant itself wasn’t really effected at all because it was the most mature of the tent. Now, I still see some gnats but the soil dries out much faster in the flowering tent with the fan going. They won’t really have an ideal environment so I’m not worried about it. Moving on. I have and will continue to feed 18-18-21 Tomato Miracle Grow plant food with blackstrap molasses for a little bit. A space opened in my flower tent and so next week is a flowering update. This is more of an ideal size indoors, except for it will stretch a bit more not being directly under the main LED.

Day 81 since being cloned. One week of flowering complete, nine weeks to go. Buddha is a long journey, one of stamina. So grab some popcorn and a drink. Most recent feeding was 18-18-21 Miracle Grow Tomato plant food with a popsicle stick dip of blackstrap molasses. I did some defoliation and monster cloning after this photoshoot to clear up the canopy a bit. Its been awhile since I have monster crop cloned.

Day 88 since being cloned. Two weeks of flowering complete, eight weeks to go. Everything seems to be doing well for Buddha, which is typical. Lots of food with no problems, most recent being 18-18-21 Miracle Grow Tomato plant food with a popsicle stick dip of blackstrap molasses. This plant is just very tall and not necessarily lanky. I’ve taken advantage of the thin profile and stuck it next to an overcrowding plant. However, I then tied the bigger plants as bouquets, and the last two shots show the before and after. Much more light and circulation.

Day 95 since being cloned. Three weeks of flowering complete, seven to go. Most recent feeding was 2-7-7 Shultz Cactus food and a popsicle stick dip of blackstrap molasses. Buds are forming more and more, not really a major smell yet. Distinct clumping up the branches. Everything is looking good but patience is required with such a long flowering period. The yield is usually worth the longer wait time.

Day 101 since being cloned. Four weeks of flowering complete, six weeks to go. Laughing Buddha is due food tomorrow. Battling deficiencies and fungus gnats early make the purple leaf stems stand out in contrast with the white pistils. Visually, very nice. It must have been awhile since growing because these flowers seem more white than I’ve had in awhile. The plant seems healthy, typical Buddha. Really ideal size for my tent.

Day 108 since cloning Laughing Buddha. Five weeks of flowering complete, five weeks to go. Immediately after last week’s update I applied the last of the 2-7-7 Shultz Cactus food and blackstrap molasses, so just water since then. Transitioning to the last food type next watering. The buds are really starting to bulk up, and the bunches of buds down the branches are becoming joined. Lots of pungent sour fuel smells going on. Everything is in line with my previous Buddha experiences! A little bump yesterday as strong winds knocked out my power for eight hours, weak! I’m not worried about anything, but a strange cycle. The lights came on for 4 hours, and then interrupted, and then on again for 30-45 minutes, before a regular dark cycle. Oh well. My province needs better electrical infrastructure.

Day 115 since being cloned for Laughing Buddha. Six weeks of flowering complete, four weeks to go. I recently gave a feeding of 0-10-10 Alaskan Morbloom with a popsicle stick dip of blackstrap molasses. This plant is due one more feeding. As typical, very strong fuel-like smell. The buds are nice and swollen, and dense. Of all my diaries, Laughing Buddha has been the biggest yielder so far - and consistent! With some tent shuffling, and moving, it was apparent it was unable to support itself and so I bouquet tied it to the frame of the tent. I removed a fan leaf or two to expose bud. Now, previously a smaller plant, Buddha is the biggest. I am downscaling in general and its apparent in the new group shot. A major storyline is that my house is waiting on a new furnace install. As of November 9th I have no heat and there is a couple inches of snow on the ground. My basement is getting very cold. 2019 has taught me to see the silver lining in things, and my flowering plants actually love the cold! Check the frostiness of Buddha, even moreso than I am used to. So this is good. Imagine a plant I have awaiting harvest in darkness, just in the general basement space where its even colder. Yum.

Day 122 since being cloned. Seven weeks of flowering complete, three weeks to go. Buddha, bay bay! Wowzers it is looking frosty. I am still without heat in my home and the temperatures outside are well below zero degrees celsius. I opened the ventilation completely last week (and this helped reduce venting in my veg. tent and thus raising temps). Its a cool 15 degrees celsius in the flowering tent. Fortunately, flowering plants generally like that! Laughing Buddha has responded with a ton of trichomes. The leaves are turning colour with the last of the food. 0-10-10 Alaskan Morbloom with a popsicle stick dip of blackstrap molasses earlier in the week. Water until finish. I am trying out ten hours of light in flowering since good GrowDiary discussion, and interesting suggestions by MUDBUG. The 10/14 time won’t really effect Buddha that much as she is almost at the end of the cycle, but if I see a major drop in yield or growth I’ll report.

Day 129 since cloning Laughing Buddha. Eight weeks of flowering complete, two weeks to go. Just water and time to allow this plant to finish up. Nothing to report really, I did get heat so the tent is up a few degrees. The buds are still incredibly frosty and you can see the leaves are quickly being used up. I’m glad to see it draining all the vegetation and will look to clip a few of the massive fan leaves tonight. I’m not normally one for colours but this plant is really producing wonderful aesthetics.

Day 135 since being cloned. Nine weeks of flowering complete, one week to go! Almost there! I’m just giving water as needed, Laughing Buddha is using up all its nutrients and the colours are really coming out. A really beautiful iteration of the genetics. I expect this to be very nicely aged for this strain, the buds are not under finished. Lovely trichome layering and density. Still the Queen of strains.

Day 140 since being cloned. Ten weeks of flowering complete, this is the projected timeline! I don’t have to describe it much, the pictures tell the tale: dense, frosty, dank. This is Laughing Buddha at its best and I can’t wait. I’ve put the plant into darkness and gave it a big flush of water. Harvest tomorrow night, mhmm.

I’m hoping I can get a better setup this time next year to make things a bit better. I’m still dialing everything in as I am realistically a new grower, actually no history before GrowDiaries so this is just into my second year. There are variables I’m not seeing that could improve. And I really don’t have the ability to put more time or money in. I have been trying to get plant size a bit more undercontrol as this plant would have been on the threshold on the verge of what my tent can handle multiple of. Last note: this plant craves phosphorous.