2019/2020 Bulk Seed Bank Photoperiods

A slow start with cold temps early in the season, but going well. The White Widow & Original Orange Bud were a little slower than the other 3 to come up & stretch their leaves, but they're all looking healthy despite the slow start. Just spraying a tiny bit of water per plant every 3 days or so. Being cold and overcast a lot during the first week meant the soil wasn't drying quickly & didn't need much to keep it moist.

The White Widow & Original Orange Bud are catching up. The Caramel King's first 2 leaves are starting to get nice & big and the 2nd set is growing on all of them. Temperatures are warming up more toward the end of the week, so they've been happy in the sun the 2nd half of the week and started feeding them toward the end of the week. Also added Mycoroot... a little late, but better late than never. Hopefully it helps! Update end of week 2 Had a few nice warm days in the low 20's, so they're all happy and working on their 2nd set of leaves. Seems like the worst of the cold is done and week 3 should be warming up. A few of them started to stretch a bit, so moved some soil from the edge of the pot around them for support. Anticipated this when I planted them, so I pushed a lot of soil to the sides of the pots and planted the seed in a dip in the middle. Now the dips are gone & the soil is about a cm or 2 below the cotyledons. Still lots of tiny flies, but the sticky traps are working, just got some ants in one or 2 pots now hunting the flies. They're kinda helping me at the moment, but don't really want them around, so I go on little rampages squishing them and as many flies as I can see. Otherwise all good. Last season I had issues with thrips, so sprayed a lot of pyrol around my greenhouse and a little on the soil before planting & haven't seen one so far. So looks like my "Test Grow" helped me prepare for the bastards perfectly. Overall, they're making good slow progress & just hope the warmth stays around so they can get into 2nd gear & start speeding up!

We were treated to a good sunny week. The girls are still on the slow side, but are starting to get moving now. The Caramel King has put out some big leaves and is looking good. Not too worried about these having a slow start, coz they're going all the way to March/April, so have plenty of time to spread out. A light Fish Mix for foliar feed once a week and the BioGrow & Fish Mix in almost every water and MicroLife once a week.

Another cold week rolled in and growth was slow, but steady. Not much light and temps dropped a bit, so was sun hunting when it was out. The CK & GWS are doing really well and WW is not far behind. Had some damping off issues with the GWS & OOB. The GWS got a bit floppy, so tried to support her with soil, which is probably not the best idea & she has started to droop. The leaves are still firm, so she's not completely gone yet. Will try put some rooting powder on her and put her roots & stem in water to see if there is any chance for her to recover. Can't just give up & the worst that can happen is she doesn't make it. The OOB I caught before it flopped and is still looking good, but will keep a close eye on her. Had the same issue with 2 autos, 1 was too small, but the other has perked up after being put in water, so I have a little hope for the photoperiod girls. Haven't needed to water much because of the cold, so only got 1 feed in this week. Some of the leaves have a few small lighter patches on... not quite sure what it is.

Finally a nice warm & sunny week! All of them are making good progress. The Caramel King has a few small flowers on, so have been sun hunting around the garden all day so they get as much direct light as possible. I topped the Caramel King and Green Scout Cookies yesterday. They both had some good branches developing and want to keep them low as possible, so will try flux with them. Added a bit more Bio-Grow to their feed, but only watering once every 2 to 3 days with a light fish mix foliar feed once a week. Also gave them an epsom salt mix (1 tablespoon in 5l) this week.

Mostly a good warm week, just 2 solid days of rain at the end, but they are all growing well. The Caramel King is my pride & joy & doing so well. Such nice fat indica leaves, can see the Maple Leaf coming through on her. She's up to 24cm now The green Scout Cookies has also been growing like mad & the branches are reaching up after topping her. She's 18cm tall The White Widow is growing well too, she's just not branching almost at all. I have a height limit to my "greenhouse" (it's just a plastic roof outside), so I will probably top her next week & force her to work on those branches. She's also 18cm Upped the feeding and watered a bit more this week due to the warmth and they are getting bigger & a little more thirsty. Skipped the foliar feed this week as we had some cold days when I was going to do it & didn't want them to sit with moisture on the leaves in the cold. Will start LST on the lower branches on the CK & GSC, I want to wait for the top branches to get a bit longer before I bend them. I've seen a few people bend them early and then on the 2nd bend down it pushes the first curve lower & can cause the main stem to split & want to try to avoid that. I also put some cinnamon around all my plants to try to stop the fungus and get rid of the fungus gnats. On;y put it in yesterday & can already see there are way less of them. The Good Wild Shark took a serious turn for the worst after being blown out of the water bottle & am calling it on her, but the Original Orange Bud is still looking healthy & green, so still have some hope for her to recover, but will remove the GWS from this diary as it's no longer part of it. Looks like the next 2 weeks will be relatively good. Might have a little rain, but temps are not dropping below 11C, hope the weather man is right & I can keep sun hunting around the house.

Weather was mild, but good this week. It didn't drop below 11C, so they have been doing much better. I started the training on the Caramel King and Green Scout Cookies. The Caramel King is stocky and stiff, so didn't pull her much, but the GSC worked nicely and has turned up and kept going. All of them are getting a bit further into flowering than I'd like, but the equinox is on the 23rd, so hopefully they'll go back into veg soon. The White Widow is still untouched, just doing her thing, but will top her soon. I started seeing a few spots on the leaves of the GSC and had issues with rust fungus last year, so sprayed all of them with a copper soap mix, which is what left the blue marks on the leaves. I sprayed with water after, but some spots of soap stayed. Also gave the GSC a little epsom salt mix to help fight the fungus, if that's what caused the spots. No foliar feed, just soap and water. Will go back to regular feeding next week. The Good Wild Shark has died, but the Original Orange Bud has pushed a few roots out and there is some hope for her. Will leave her in ICU for another week maybe. I want a few more roots before I put her back in her pot, but they're coming quickly.

1 chilly day to start the week, but warmed up nicely and almost a bit too much. Yesterday was 44.6C in my greenhouse and today was 39.8C, so put them out for some morning sun & then hid them in my greenhouse for the mid day heat and fed/watered them a little more than normal to cope. Looks like they're kicking into flower properly, so might just end up with them being ready way earlier than expected, but kinda happy in a way. I'd rather run more autos and only do the photos at the end of the season so they don't get too big. Guess I learned when too early for photos here hahaha no mistakes, just lessons. All 3 plants are healthy otherwise and the Original Orange Bud that's been in ICU for the past couple of weeks has sprouted some good legs. I wanted to replant her at the end of the week, but with the heat wave I didn't want to risk it. We have rain coming on Sunday, so I'll plant her then when it's cooler and more humid. Played around with some more drop shots of the nutrients, having too much fun with those.

Overall a good week, hot start, but mellowed out to nice mild temps with mostly sunny days. Temp isn't dipping too badly most nights, so has been much better for them. The 3 that have been going all along are solidly in flower & stopped denying it and started feeding them Bio-Bloom and Fire Juice. The White Widow and Caramel King are both doing well with no trouble, but the Green Scout Cookies is getting a bit of rust fungus, so glad they're flowering and will be done soon. Not too keen on photoperiods anymore for the space I have and the rust. I spray with soap and feed epsom salt mix, but it just slows it down. She'll still flower fine, but cut a few leaves off of her to get rid of as much as possible. Also defoliated the Caramel King, you can see in some of the pre-cut shots why I call her my cabbage. She's looking great after her haircut, I try not to take too many off and leave a layer of leaves all over, just take out the overlapping ones and any blocking light from the buds. Also seen a few thrips and squished most of them. They're not too much of a problem if I keep my eye on them, so will keep squishing and spray some more neem oil on them. Gave them all some calmag I made by drying eggshells and crushing them. They are also starting to smell a little after touching the sugar leaves (I have OCD about touching the buds haha can't handle seeing people do it. Any trichomes on my buds stay there and get smoked, not on my fingers. From bits I would trim I don't mind haha). The Caramel King is the strangest smell, woody and earthy, but almost toasted... difficult to describe, but nice and keen to see how it develops. The Green Scout Cookies isn't very strong, but has that typical cookies scent, which I love, so hope she fills out. The White Widow takes me back! I grew a big one back on the early 2000's and as I smelt her it reminded me of that plant and I loved the smoke and high so much. Impossible smell to describe properly, but very smooth & creamy. I have another seed of her, so might pop that in at the end of the season and try get a bigger one. My ICU Patient was released from it's ward on Sunday (Day 58), repotted it and put some Mycoroot and Dynaroot in the hole to help the roots as much as possible. Used a plastic dome over her the 1st night and woke up to her with beads of water on her leaves and had to get a shot. After that I propped the dome up a little to let a little airflow, then right up on the side of the pot and finally off completely. She's looking good and can see the growth point is stretching open and slowly growing. The rots were quite well developed after being in the water for a month, so sure she'll shoot up after the shock of replanting.

A mostly mild to warm week, just 2 cold nights, but not too bad. Switched to only flower food. The White Widow and Caramel King are filling out nicely, but the Green Scout Cookies is looking a bit slim. The Original Orange Bud is slowly starting to grow again. Looks like a branch has woken up much more than the main growth point, but nothing wrong with that. Put a tiny mantis on the Caramel King and it's been eating nicely. Seen it eating fungus gnats twice already.

Another nice warm week. Buds are filling out on all the girls, besides the rescue. The White Widow is closing all it's gaps and still full of white stigma. The Caramel King is getting solid too, took the LST off, the buds were starting to envelope the pipe cleaners. She's also doing something I've never seen before. I chopped all the lower leaves and tiny branches off, but see she has a bud site at the cotyledon's node. Not going to be anything, just a first for me. Green Scout Cookies isn't filling out as much as the other 2, but she's getting there. The Original Orange Bud has got arms. One branch is going like mad & the other is slowly stretching. The top is opening slowly too. Just flower food this week with a few clean waters in between. The tiny mantis has stuck around on the CK and found a nice medium sized girl today and let her model for me a bit. The bigger ones don't normally stay, they need more food than what hangs around the plants, but the tiny ones have a feast with gnats, so they are happy.

A few warm days at the beginning of the week, but the rest got colder and colder. Today was the worst, completely closed in and raining buckets. They are safe and dry, but not great conditions. Still feeding them flower food, but with a few clean waters inbetween and slowed down a bit due to the cold. The Original Orange Bud is still only getting water and seems the main growth point has stopped completely and only the branches are growing, which is fine. Had to take the shots in the greenhouse and had to get ready for work for the weekend, so they're not up to the usual standard. Should be back to normal next week.

A mainly cold and overcast week with a few warm, sunny days in between. All doing well and filling out nicely. Have started the flush, is a bit early, but think the GSC is starting to try to reveg, also found 2 tiny caterpillars on her that are no more and one on my Caramel King. The CK is closest to being done out of the 2 flowering girls and the White Widow is packing on nicely and closing most of the gaps. Still loads of fresh stigma, so might leave her a little longer, she is smelling so good. Really smooth and creamy with an almost rubbery smell hidden in there, like a fresh bouncy ball. WW is one of my favorites since I first grew one in 2002/3, so am really looking forward to try this one. The OOB's main growth point has died somehow, but she's branching out nicely and keeping me busy training them all down. I might donate her to a friend to free up the pot. I recently got Terple and Divine Storm from In House and my local seed bank was amazing and gave me the 20 pack Party Mix of regs from Oni Seeds, so have some wayyy better stuff to play with now. Opened the packs today to see I got 12 in the 10 pack of Terple and 11 in the Divine Storm. So I'm keen to get these out of the way and get those in asap!

A mainly warm and sunny week with a couple overcast cooler days. The Green Scout Cookies had some unwanted guests and had them removed. She's starting to reveg, the White Widow and Caramel King have bulked up nicely. Will take all 3 down in a few days to make more space for some In House and Oni Seeds. The Original Orange Bud is doing really well and sprouting branches all over & I'm just pinning her down. One branch reached the side of the pot, so topped it & will train the branches around the rim. I'll probably take her to a friend to put in his garden, I got gifted a pack of the Oni Party Mix of regs and am so keen to get into those that I am giving this girl up to foster parents haha

A nice warm week with only 1 cooler day. The GSC was reveging, had some caterpillars and found a tiny spot of botritis and removed it & made the call to chop them on day 102 During trimming I found tiny bits of rot in the CK and WW too, but only tiny bits. Removed it all and hardly lost anything, but glad I made the call sooner than later. Those 3 are drying nicely and the Original Orange Bud is starting to go mad, it's trowing branches on branches and doing so well now that it's settled in again after the near death experience. I got some really dank seeds, Terple and Divine Storm from In House, so glad they're done & taking my OOB to a friend to foster her for me, With my In House beans I got the BEST gift ever from our local seed bank, biltongandbudz.co.za. They gave me a 2o pack Party Mix of Oni Seeds! Soooo stoked, gave 2 to a friend and one of the Terple & DS, got a Sugar Cane and 9Lb Hammer by Jinxproof and Strawberry Nuggets from Mephisto. So I need space and am giving the OOB up for adoption. Kinda sad, she's doing so well, but I want to make space for the real goodness, so this diary will end with a harvest report of the 3 I took down and might add some shots if my friend remembers to send me some haha.

I took my Original Orange Bud to it's foster home. This was taken just after the transplant and reapplying the LST. She's in one of my friends gardens and has underground water running through his property, so she has access to as much as she needs. No more feeding, I just asked my buddy to keep training her as low as possible and pluck a few leaves. I basically want her stretched completely flat until she shows signs of preflower, then he can leave her alone and let the branches pop up and flower. Very interested to see how this experiment works out and so glad I didn't give up on her after the damping off, she should bring in a hefty yield!

A proper noob mistake to start, planting her too early in season and having a tiny plant, but I was very surprised and happy with the quality of the flower I got off her. He had the solid cookies flavor, but with a more green aftertaste. Hard to describe, not chlorophyll, more a fresh flavor and a great high. Amazing flower for people on a budget.

I got my friend to take some update shots for this and can't believe how well she's doing! Exactly what I hoped for! He let her sprout up a bit while he was away, but has now done more training and pulled her flat and the branches are reaching for the sky and she looks like some sort of spider creeper haha 5 weeks since I last saw her in person and she's doing so well! Glad I didn't give up on her! Another about 2 months left for her before she starts flowering, so sure she's going to get huge! I have asked him to keep training until mid February and can top any branches for the next 2 or 3 weeks still, but after that it's training only and then let her turn up to get stalks for those flowers. Never done such serious training on an outdoor plant that's in the ground, but it's working so well, next year we try this with the really good genetics 😊

Another one that almost died from damping off. Cut and re rooted her and too her to a friends garden where she could be trained flat and wide. She got to a diameter of a little over 2m and then we let her stretch upward for flower. Got a good pull off her with some great flower with nice subtle orange terps and a nice light sativa smoke that keeps you functioning well. Great genetics for the price, other than the damping off, there was no trouble growing her. I'm not the biggest sativa smoker and prefer to smoke in the evening to relax most of the time, so I haven't dived into her jars as much as my indicas, so I have decided to make hash with all the flower I have left.