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Okay, super exciting! New grow featuring a strain from Nirvana. The strain is called Blackjack. The genetics are Black Domina x Jock Horror.
Day 4 from seed. Seeded in a peat pod in a cup of VPW20 soil and Myka microculture. I am surprised by the substantial stretching so far...
This was an impulse seed buy and has a history, I enjoy stories. For a time before Canadian legalization, my friends and I were purchasing medicinal marijuana for the first time off the dark web and a site called Hashmelt. This was the first time experiencing A+ quality bud and exotic strains. The single most mythicized strain from that experience was called Blackjack, wow was it amazing! So, when I saw Blackjack by Nirvana I had to grab it. Seeking Blackjack was the motivator behind my earlier Sour Jack grows, having unsuccessfully found the strain I was looking for.
Now, I did some research. It turns out there are two strains called Blackjack: one is Black Domina and Jack Herer; one is Black Domina and Jock Horror. I have the latter but we understood the original Blackjack to be the former (w/Jack Herer). Oh well, still fun!
Day 11 from seed.
Okay so props for Blackjack and Nirvana seeds, this seedling has mostly avoided my tent fungus gnat problem. I think its actually just other plants have been more susceptible and Blackjack has been the customer passing on dessert because they are “stuffed.” Perhaps this plant just got lucky. Oh well, props to Nirvana. Check my other grows if you are curious about that fly storyline.
What I will say is this seedling stretched bad! I’m not sure why. I have another seedling (another company) of the exact same age and distance and it didn’t stretch this bad. I do have a fan circulating air so I am not overly concerned about stem strength.
Day 17 from seed. I solved the pest problem in my veg. tent. I have repotted Blackjack using VPW20 soil, Myka microculture, sheep manure compost, worm castings, and a small amount of blood and bone meal. This seedling stretched an awful lot. I’m hoping its not damaged or potentially trashed. Just water.
*Edit: I forgot to add in the picture of the root structure before transplanting. Added the picture*
Day 24 from seed. I can’t help but wonder if I am behind pace. I do think Blackjack is somewhat healthy and will turn into a great plant, but it seems to be taking longer than usual. I think it was a bit overnuted based on the spotted leaves I have at the bottom, and the non waxy appearance of the leaves, but it will come out of it with water. I fed a very dilute mixture of 24-8-16 Miracle Grow All Purpose and I experienced no wilting or Nitrogen claw. I’m also trying to stay ahead of the purple streaked stem. All is good I think just water, patience, and reasonable expectations.
Nevermind all the little clones ready to be taken away.
Day 31 from seed. Vigorous growth, this plant is healthy! A little overnuted going into the weekend but water was already solving the issue. I transplanted into a larger container using HP Pro Mix soil, the last of my VPW20 soil, myka microculture, sheep manure compost, worm castings, and blood and bone meal. I am confident and so I defoliated. The last couple pictures show the before and after.
Day 38 from seed. Just filling in from defoliation and using up nutrients, I suspect its a bit overnuted with the transplant. Its nearly ready to be cloned and eventually tied down - LST. Just chugging along, I’m starting to get excited with this one.
If the leaves look a bit dehydrated and slightly damaged that is correct. I had a plant with spider mites. This enacts a strict ‘Scorched Earth’ protocol of successive sprays of near 99% ethanol. The only real side effect here is a bit of damage that turns the leaf brown. Its worth taking it that in exchange for no pests.
Day 45 from seed. *whew* This poor plant has been through alot at my hand. You can see I took many clones. After getting sprayed down for mites last week and any damage foliage removed, I repotted to one final pot this week. The roots were actually out the bottom holes in my last pot so that shows the vigor of BlackJack. This strain is growing as strong as my other bests.
I want to get more detailed for the public so I’ll share the ratio in which I mix the soil in the big final pot in addition to just the ingredients. This is not exact at all, just slowly got to this rough estimate and happen to do it each time and adjust as needed. Totally random.
30parts soil:3-5 worm castings:3 sheep manure compost:1 blood and bone meal pellets:1 alfalfa meal compost:1 used dried coffee grounds:1 pulverized egg shells. I also add Myke Herbs and Vegetables microculture. The soil is HP Pro Mix, and I am still using up the bottom of the bag of VPW20. The difference between those two soils is particle size and the presence of mycorrhizae in the former. By pulverized egg shells I mean I eat alot of eggs and just rinse them, dry them, and throw them in a mortar and pestle until they are powder.
This is the first plant where I want to sort of test two things. First, I want to test stretch more intentfully per strain by watching each in a fair trial. If I leave it growing as is, stretch amount is a bit more obvious. Also, I am sick of trimming under canopy. I usually use LST, and in the end the buds are so big I have to tie the plant just to stay upright and I waste the undercanopy anyway. If I give this plant 2-3 more weeks growing, how much yield would I get off of four or five top buds (as pictured)? Less, I can safely say, but how much less? I have a really good two tent rotation so yield is less an issue. So I won’t do any more training and in a couple weeks I will flower it and see. I have plenty more BlackJack seeds, and potential clones.
Definitely a little strained with all the action and then an overload of nutrients, on much less nutrient demand post cloning. You can see the coloring differences, and the small twisted new growth. Just water coming up.
Day 50 from seed. I am pushing Blackjack through into flower this week. This is for sure rushed as I’ve only given a week in the final pot. Its just growing so well, and a sizable height for my grow space. I acknowledge that LST allows a bigger plant in a smaller space as I’ve done it many times. But I detailed earlier that this is a test run to see how a lollipopped untrained plant does, with a two tent rotation. It was much less hassle, and takes up a concise space. Obviously you are forced to flower it sooner and after less growth. I suspect LST will win out but we shall see. I haven’t given food and am using up the amendment. I may delay flowering food just by a couple days. A little bit of leaf damage pictured in the second to last photo.
I should mention that I am awaiting a new heating system install that won’t be until November 18th, so another ten days. My entire house, let alone basement, is frigid. This is starting to effect nutrient absorption and growth rate across the board. My flowering tent loves the cold nighttime temps so at least Blackjack will reap that reward.
Day 57 from seed. One week of flowering complete, eight to go. Things are cold in the flowering tent! Still no heat at my place with outdoor temperatures below zero celsius and my basement frigid. I also opened the ventilation up fully in my flowering tent to try to slow the flow in my veg. tent and raise temps. The flowering plants actually like those chill conditions, 15 degrees celsius. Plants that are further along are very frosty. Feeding this week was 18-18-21 Miracle Grow Tomato Food with a popsicle stick dip of blackstrap molasses.
I’m trying something new in using ten hours of light in flower. Good GrowDiary discussions has prompted this experiment, as suggestion by MUDBUG. So far everything is as expected, stretch normal. The triggering of flowering was perhaps a bit quicker on the get go. I’ll update if anything is notable.
I like that GrowDiaries allows for multiple lights, everything is easier. I’ll explain the Frankenstein mess that I’m slowly improving. I have two sets of fluorescents that I scraped together when I started growing. They have been providing ambient light and heat. 152Watts total (26W x 2, 40W x 2). I am looking to replace these. I also have a cheap full spectrum Chinese LED that may be an X6, I’m not going with the GrowDiary light presets but rather listing the 300Watt actual draw as measured by a multimeter. We discovered upon examination that the massive difference between the HPS and LED spectra are the yellow to orange spectra, roughly 500nm-800nm. We bought affordable (cheap) yellow LEDs that bolster that range, 96Wattw (16Watts x 6). In the before and after experience my buds became significantly more dense.
Day 64 from seed. Two weeks of flowering complete, seven weeks to go. I am continuing the same plant food and alternating with water, 18-18-21 Tomato Miracle Grow plant food and a popsicle stick dip of blackstrap molasses. Nothing major to report, I did get heat so my flowering tent is up a couple degrees. You can see the bud sites forming. Really exciting but a but more patience required. Clearly the plants still stretch fine working with ten hours of light.
Day 71 from seed for BlackJack. Three weeks of flowering complete, six weeks to go. Really nice canopy going on as it absorbs all the light, nice buds poking through. It seems I can see a little pink in the pistils perhaps. Not too much smell yet. I am still alternating water and then 18-18-21 Miracle Grow Tomato food with a popsicle stick dip of blackstrap molasses.
Day 78 from seed. Four weeks of flowering complete, five weeks to go. Most recently its been water, but BlackJack has gone through the 18-18-21 Miracle Grow Tomato stage (and a dip of blackstrap molasses), and will be onto the next with the next irrigation. The bud sites are tight and round. The pistils seem to be pinkish which is aesthetically pleasing. Sort of a sweet or fruity smell starting which is quite pleasant. I think I may have some successful clones, which is always fun.
85 days from seed for BlackJack. Five weeks of flowering complete, four weeks to go. Things are looking good albeit small. This strain has a sweet fruity smell which is coming out, I like it!
I must have some nutrient stuff going on because I can see some pinkish in the veins of the leaves. Most recent feeding before alternating water was 2-7-7 Shultz Cactus food with a popsicle stick dip of blackstrap molasses.
Indirectly I added another full spectrum LED identical to the other one. This won’t really effect BlackJack directly as had a spot under the main light already.
Day 92 from seed for BlackJack. Six weeks of flowering complete, three to go. Lots of bad news for my grows, its been a rough few weeks.
I’ve been dealing with temps in my veg. tent so I have been tinker and messing around. It forced me to shut off my output ventilation with jacked daytime running temps and humidity. The first night I didn’t block the vent though, and the heat was sucked out, when I opened the tent again it was 10 degrees! Now I’ve blocked it again and the humidity is through the roof as I watered a plant. This will take time and patience.
More importantly, I have badly overnuted my plants including BlackJack. Its more apparent in another plant that I nuked, but when that happened the signs were so obvious. BlackJack was so veggie, and with so much leaf matter, pesky Nitrogen. In the future my nitrogen fade will be waaaay faster. I have watered and just patiently hoping that I can get some swell in the final three weeks. It would have been no more nitrogen for Blackjack anyway, but definitely none now lol.
Way back at the start of the week I fed 2-7-7 Shultz Cactus food with a popsicle stick dip of blackstrap molasses. I have since given water.
Hopefully I can salvage something...
Day 99 from seed for BlackJack. Seven weeks of flowering complete, two weeks to go. As you can see there is no reversing the nitrogen, the buds are overvegged and the leaves dark green. I can tell catching the nitrogen and flushing has helped return some smell, and they seem a bit sticker as they progress. As stated last week I was set to cut off nitrogen anyway. Most recently was water, but the last feeding was 0-10-10 Alaskan Morbloom with a popsicle stick dip of blackstrap molasses. I’m also using Plant Prod MJ Spike (CalMag) and Earth Alive Big Blue Wave. I’ll be getting product, the trim job will be bad, but I’m hoping for something that reflects the sort of sweet, licorice sort of dank smell.
Day 106 from seed for BlackJack. Eight weeks of flowering complete, one week projected to go. Its clear that with the over abundance of amendment and too many feedings it was not just nitrogen BlackJack had in excess. I had cut out the nitrogen and was only feeding 0-10-10 Alaskan Morbloom, and secondary through blackstrap molasses, Plant Prod MJ Spike (CalMag) and Earth Alive Big Blue Wave. Magnesium overdose maybe? Potentially just phosphorous or potassium. Regardless, I eased off everything as opposed to a straight cut to observe. The green has gotten darker. Now its just water, alot of water, to see if it can do anything more and use up some of the food. I have literally zero expectations at this point as I already had a complete plant loss. With regular flushing, and extending the plant, maybe I will get some yield. I’m prepared to go two extra weeks past the finish (so three weeks from now), but will cut at the sight of mold or further trouble. Hell, it can’t get much worse, right? It wasn’t that long ago for the plant food, but I gave a big flush of water hours before pics. Sucks!
Day 112 from seed for BlackJack. Nine weeks of flowering complete, this was my original projection. I am actually surprised! I absolutely flushed this plant a few times, repeatedly flooded my basement (a perk of having an unfinished basement, or a necessity for a drain in other environments), and it has started to clear the nutrients. The fan leaves are starting to fade and show deficiency. Noticeable swell the last couple weeks. Yes, it looks like veggy crap, but it could have been much worse. There is vapable product here, and I am excited to try it. There are mixes of sweet, black licorice, fuel, it mixes with my tent on whole, its cannabis! I’ll get more honed in on smells and taste when I harvest.
I debated the harvest window all week, on this site, and amongst my friends. I rechecked Nirvana’s website and BlackJack is projected as 8-9 weeks, I made a mistake and forgot that I projected the back window. The top bud certainly looks like its near degrading. Considering the gains, the nice appearance at the moment, and my error already being at the back of the projected window ... eff extending for more weeks, lets rock this. I’m going to give it the dark before harvest and the major flush tonight.
My observations are for how badly I misjudged my amendment, full on killing another flowering plant and turning it purple, BlackJack must be good genetics because it was able to survive and push out some bud at the very end.
This is my first review for Nirvana’s BlackJack. A mixed-bag experience, some good insight with a poor result. The main overarching factor was nutrient excess through soil amendment and then feeding. The details follow:
No problems germinating. Nice, strong growth through its life. This experience has given insight into the vigor of this strain. BlackJack came in just as I was dealing with pests; it sort of avoided the problem, but when damaged from treatment it could easily replace fan leaves quickly. Nice nutrient absorption. This plant also persisted through cold temperatures and a lack of furnace, I really took time to dial in my winter grow operation.
When things are going well you get excited, and I become impulsive, and so BlackJack went into flower with great expectations. With the temperatures being low, and such a streamlined rotation, the plant used up alot less soil amendment than expected. And, I just kept feeding my usual flower nutrient/nitrogen fade! In summer, or when I didn’t have excess amendment, I got away with mistakes. This time, not so much. Blackjack did survive, which was not the case with all my grows, but it was overvegged, i.e. excess nitrogen and nutrients gave way more leaf matter than you’d expect. So the buds were big leafy messes with very dark foliage. I flowered for nine weeks, Nirvana projects 8-9 weeks. After trimming all of it off and drying, I was left with barely any decent product (as indicated). This fact automatically skews the curing, tastes, potency, and density, therefore, I can’t really say I have a sense of anything but early life (which BlackJack seems very solid!).
Regardless, I would say there were smells of sweet and herb while growing. It took a long time before the taste and smells of the dried product really came out. Even then, its faint and barely beyond bland. When I do get the aroma and flavour it, its lovely, a deep, sweet, green with a decent woody or pine finish. But often, the less dense product is just totally neutral. There is a good chance this is on account of overnuting, as the smells while growing were not necessarily ultra strong. I also tried budwashing for the first time, and while I would like to blame that, it wouldn’t be fair either. Its clear trichomes remain on the bud and that would include flavonoids.
Potency seems totally unchanged with washing. It seems to have nice characteristics of both sativa and indica. I flowered for nine weeks, the end of their window, so I did confirm under loup there were many amber trichomes. I like couch lock as specifically what I look for, but much of that may have been on account of an extra week.
Visually, the final product is nice considering the amount of veg. After washing, everything appeared very crisp even under magnifying loup, and the texture is just phenomenal when grinding. It dried very fast, but not overly dried, and it pulverizes to a perfect particle size.
All in all, a harvest of 19 grams is not worth my time, but I can certainly guarantee is was on account of nutrients and environment. My faith in this strain or distributor hasn’t wavered in the slightest. I’ve quite enjoyed the small harvest both solo and more often as a mixer. I had successful clones featured in other diaries and so I am excited to rectify this!
As stated, harvest was a hassle and took most of the bulk away. I would have been more willing to keep more leaf had they been covered in trichomes! I wet trim.
I did budwash for the first time. I just did two buckets. The first, I took the 5 gallon water: 1 cup baking soda: 1 cup lemon juice ratio and just downscaled the volume. If anything, I ran it even more dilute. The second, was water. I only dunked and swirled for say maximum 10-15 seconds each. Water was room temperature/medium. I was not overt cautious or paranoid, nor did I really agitate the bud or beat it around. I scanned the water in both containers after and did not notice any trichomes or regrettable plant matter, nor did the container really have a film or stickiness to it (easily cleaned). However, there was slight discoloration from dirt and particulates. I hung in a contained but ventilated area, the typical harvest method otherwise.
The buds dried at worst at a normal rate, if not more evenly and at a better rate. It could be placebo. It certainly did not stay wet or mold. I also flowered for an extra week so this would have reduced the amount of flavour.
My next two plants have also been nuted, and have dealt with pests, etc. so I will likely try bud washing with them too.
Long process, learning to grow cannabis. Just grind for cheap 🤙🏻
BeanswithPork
