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Greetings fellow cannabis lovers. This is a very exciting beginning(aren’t they all), for a much anticipated strain. Back in the days before legalization a few medicinal places had potent strains you count on. Romulan, was one of those master elite. This version is by Lucky 13 and comes as a clone of a regular female. This company only sells regular seeds and so my friend found a female, and voila.
This is day 48. This clone sat for some time and took longer than clones of similar age. I was patient and then one day it sprouted growth, mutant growth haha. Yesterday, before creating this diary, I transplanted the clone that sat in the background. The main mix was 10 parts HP Pro Mix soil: 5 parts worm castings: 1 part Fox Farms Happy Frog soil.
My tent is just hung mylar in an unfinished basement with direct furnace input and output ventilation for summer. My lighting is a 300 watt full spectrum LED, with a smaller pod which is 1/6th that again.
I would probably be closer to acting as a Romulan than acting as a Vulcan.
Day 55 since Romulan was cloned. A bit of a misjudge perhaps this week. It exhibited symptoms in that some leaves had damage and the stems/branches turned purple very quickly. When assessing my tent on whole many plants are imbalanced or deficient, I sort of forgot how recently I transplanted Romulan. After returning from vacation I fed almost all the plants to get things back on track - this includes Romulan. So, we will see what plant food does. I gave 18-18-21 Miracle Grow Tomato, Plant Prod MJ Spike (CalMag), and Earth Alive Big Blue Wave. It will be a few days to absorb. We shall see ... still getting some funky leaf formations as well.
Day 62 since Romulan was cloned from a regular seed. Things have been chugging along and this one has been a quiet addition to things. It has sat back and vegged away. All week it slowly absorbed plant food and got a little bit of balance. I have even irrigated with just water since then. Just trying to gain size and mass and then decide what to do (a smaller sea of green style or a larger veg. job depending on available space).
Day 69 since Romulan was cloned. It has been awhile since it has received plant food so eventually I will look to feed again. For now, no major trouble. Its almost springtime and things are getting warmer, this plant is also by the furnace input, so its drying out quickly. I don’t have room to transplant again yet, and I want it to gain some size so I can take many, many clones.
Day 76 since this Romulan was cloned ... who knows, maybe deep in an underground bunker on Romulas. Nothing major going on, to be honest this clone is oft forgotten. It is sort of out of sight, out of mind. I will look to rotate its positioning this week. It also gets way too much of the furnace output, at least this helps it consistently dry out. What it desperately needs is a transplant, I need to pick up a few containers and recoup some space in my veg. tent. About five or six days ago I fed 24-8-16 Miracle Grow All Purpose, and Plant Prod MJ Spike (CalMag). Its probably a bit too hot on phosphorous and/or potassium. Water will be today, and hopefully a transplant. Slow growing.
Day 83 since Romulan was cloned. I finally transplanted this week. It has taken some time to adjust to the new container and amendment but it is for sure getting bigger. I filled the bottom of the pot with just BX Pro Mix, and side filled with soil amendment. The amendment mix was 40 BX Pro Mix: 5 Fox Farms Happy Frog: 5 worm castings: 1 ASB Greenworld Sheep Manure Compost: 1 ASB Greenworld Black Earth: 1 ETI Greenhouse Gold Seafood Compost: 1 Blood and Bonemeal pellets: 1 Green Gaia mineralized phosphate (guano): 1 alfalfa meal compost: 1 pulverized egg shells. I am only irrigating with water.
Day 90 since Romulan was cloned. Nice dark green foliage that is looking healthier and healthier. Great comeback! Just giving water when needed as there is plenty of soil amendment. I can’t tell if I want to take clones or leave the bottom branches as they are quite thick and nicely established.
Day 97 since Romulan was cloned. Holy moly, the growth has taken off this past week, week and a half or so. The leaves have really bushed out and filled in. I noticed some pest action so I will likely completely remove out of the tent and spray down with 90+% ethyl alcohol. I need to defoliate, thats for sure. I also need to examine for potential clones. I have only given water.
Day 104 since Romulan was cloned. Lots of growth and green. It is actually getting hard to manage. Its in for the long haul as I’ll want clones and for it to fill the pot. I plan on doing a little top dress for the foreseeable future this week and to stay on top of things. Thus, I would only be giving water.
Day 111 since Romulan was cloned. I top dressed much of the tent this week, including this one, with a mix of BX Pro Mix, worm castings, and a small amount of blood and bone meal. Just waiting for space to clone, excruciating. I have only irrigated water once since the soil top dress.
Day 118 for this Romulan clone. Its starting to dry the container out more and more quickly. I am still seeping the top dress down into the container with water irrigations. The leaves with this strain, very elongated and sharp. I took a number of clones this week to keep the lineage going.
Day 125 since cloning Romulan. This strain grows ... so ... slowly. Its unreal. Sort of structured like White Widow. I have taken alot of clones now so my patience is wearing thin, it will be time for flowering soon. It consistently dries the pot out for more water.
Day 129 for Romulan. Growth is still painfully slow. The branches quickly became dark purple with phosphorous deficiency. Its amazing, the strain grows so slowly it barely uses nitrogen, and yet it consumes other nutrients at a normal rate it seems. It has been tough managing this one. I will be glad to have a fresh start with clones I took. I top dressed earlier this week, particularly with Gaia Green mineralized phosphate (guano) which is 0-13-1. I could tell this was a boost and what it needed. I’m not wasting anymore time and so I threw it into flower today. I’ll deal with the small plant and just assume its a strain that grows in a small bush form. Next week will be the first flowering update.
Day 139 for this Romulan clone. One week of flowering complete, eight weeks to go. Just water to wash the top dress into the soil. Nothing until after stretch. I don’t expect much stretch based on the bushy structure. My flowering tent is a 6’x4’ hung mylar DIY similar to my veg. tent. I have two 300 actual watts full spectrum LEDs and 96 watts of yellow LED to supplement that. COVID19 has made maintenance and light construction a pain in the a** so I decided to throw in 64 watts of mixed fluorescents in the meantime, I just had them lying around, why not.
Day 145 for Romulan. Two weeks of flowering complete, seven weeks to go. Just waiting for the next irrigation to apply food. Feeling frustrated with this strain, I didn’t get a single successful clone. Just a tough one, out of my league for now.
Day 152 for Romulan. Three weeks of flowering complete, six weeks of flowering to go. Apologies upfront for picture quality - its been a busy week of real life work, cannabis chores, upgrades, and pest management. I’ll reflect the lighting change next week, but as temperatures rise it exposes pest management. It was time to completely go through my tent, even in flower, clean, defoliate, and spray down with a little 90+% ethyl group alcohol. Yes, I’ll take the hit of the trichomes I dissolved and the stress to the plant, so pests don’t get out of control immediately under the new light. In flower, I’d like to keep to the proven strategy of lady bugs, but the local provider is a couple weeks out of supply, and moving around amongst businesses is complicated these days. Thus, bad photos in my garage (I was taking the task seriously), and the disappearing vegetation. I had fed earlier this week, 0-10-10 Alaska Morbloom with a popsicle stick dip of blackstrap molasses, with Plant Prod MJ Spike (CalMag). I gave water today after the photos.
Day 159 for this Romulan clone. Four weeks of flowering complete, five weeks of flowering to go.
A general address: finally reflecting the new high pressure sodium flowering light. This replaces the LEDs in my 6’x4’ tent. It is a 600 watt Vivosun HPS setup! Still adjusting to the benefits and drawbacks compared to LED, for example taking photos. I have experimented with plastic filters and have been shown some cheap products, for now just taking pictures with my phone with “dramatic” effect seems to be the best combination of colour and resolution for now. I’m not lugging them in and out based on the location of my tents. I will also shout-out to Hellishjam and BudXs 🤙🏻🇨🇦 who are constantly supportive and encouraging.
Since getting the HPS, Romulan has exploded - much like an enemy’s starship 😉. The smell is strong, like sour diesel, but that wouldn’t be accurate. Its really, really good smelling. Not quite fruit or citrus either. Last irrigation was 0-10-10 Alaska Morbloom with a popsicle stick dip of blackstrap molasses and Plant Prod MJ Spike (CalMag).
Day 166 for Romulan. Five weeks of flowering complete, four weeks to go. Amazing smell. Like out-of-this-world, space chase, explosions and phasers aromas. I think I got high just smelling. Due for food again tomorrow or the next. Nice orange pistils already.
Day 173 for Romulan. Six weeks of flowering complete, three weeks to go. Things are looking, and definitely smelling, amazing. Like if you went to a planet in another galaxy, and found life, and asked them what their version of a space alien tangerine is - it would smell like that. Last irrigation was water so looks like it will get the Alaska Morbloom one last time, I might be able to squeeze in two feedings. This plant isn’t too riddled with pests, but any loiterers are about to get got by incoming lady bugs (this week).
Day 180 for Romulan. Seven weeks of flowering complete, two weeks to go. The ladybugs have arrived to take down the mites. Though this plant isn’t heavily infested, they are there in copious amounts, trust me. Sucks that these things take time, as ladybugs aren’t operating on the same urgency as the cannabis grower. I will be sure to budwash as always, but will probably go reverse order and wash first, and dry trim. I fed 0-10-10 Alaska Morbloom with a popsicle stick dip of blackstrap molasses and Plant Prod MJ Spike (CalMag) as last irrigation, will be water from here on out.
Day 187 for Romulan. Eight weeks of flowering complete, I had projected one week to go. I’m going to bail out and harvest a week early in this case. I put Romulan outside in an obscured spot to allow the ladybugs to continue and the harsher mother nature environment and predators to go to town. We even got hit with thundershowers which beat everything around. I’ll harvest at my convenience this evening or night forgoing the dark cycle. I will majorly wash the bud, even more than usual, and see what remains.
Romulan! Some history here, as one of the favourite strains bought online pre-Canadian legalization. It took us awhile to find it online, through Lucky 13 seeds. The efforts did not end there as a female still had to be selected, Lucky 13 only produces regular seeds.
My friend is beast and went through the whole process eventually giving me this Romulan clone. It took awhile, I went through various environment struggles particularly temperatures, and this clone just inched along. I got some growth with new soil, particularly with fresh phosphorous. Overall, I suspect this strain is hard to grow and slow in its explosion.
Unfortunately, I had huge spider mite issues. This plant wasn’t too overrun, but enough it was harvested about a week early and went through an extensive budwash (see below). Worth it, as I salvaged a good amount of bud that was of decent quality.
What is striking about Romulan is the smell, its strong! Tangerine or citrus, but unlike most of those strains, the flavour is not light - its sharp. Overall, thats the best way to describe it - a tangy, sour citrus but the aromas are much more powerful .... space powerful.
The bud produced many red hairs so it has nice appeal, and I would say medium amount of trichomes and crystal. I think it has potential for MASSIVE trichome production though, just a hunch based on the upclose shots.
For the score, I have to deduct for the early slow growth, which I should be able to rectify next time starting off with the clone myself, and the mite issues. Though I did clear them and clean the product up, it was a huge stressful hassle. I also composted a ton of smaller bud. I was ruthless with quality control. Last deduction is general potency and effects. It does have some kick and effects worth vaping on their own, but I want to grow another batch to full flower before making claims about strength. I think its as likely it turns out to be a high flavour, non concussive variety but I am not concluding either way as there are times I feel its strong. I need more sample size.
My plans are to clone and start another Romulan diary, check and check. Watch closely and I plan to blow this grow away. Overall, a 7/10 in a spider mite ridden slow growing mess is probably indicative of the high praise I still would have. The flavour is wild!
What an experience. Hopefully some of y’all learned a thing or two about mites and how to save some bud. Other than general overall quality, I don’t really produce massive giant nugs anyway, you’d never know the problems I had.
Here was the series of treatments:
- entering flower, I had no supplies. All I had was 90+% ethyl alcohol, moonshine, so I sprayed Romulan before stretch. This at minimum discourages, or kills some pests. Not effective or thorough, and high chance of leaf damage
- the mites exploded overnight, instant cobwebs on other plants, despite me already ordering ladybugs. The ladies were dropped into a festing hot zone where they feasted for a week or two. I highly encourage maintaining ladybugs as the best cannabis pest prevention. A few pointers: when you order them, they are tired! They are awaking from a cold induced hibernation, and have starved. They need some honey in very shallow dish, but also water! I did not provide enough shallow water, and many crawled out of the lights in search of hydration. Make sure to cover your output holes, and preferably any fan intakes with mesh or cheesecloth or something. The benefit here are some of these ladybugs hang around long after harvest.
- I live in the Maritimes in Atlantic Canada, I put the plants outside for a week before harvest. The intense heat, night cold swing, massive rains, abundance of predators, wiped most of the mites out before I ever harvested. If you live in a hotter climate, or one where spider mites are common outside, well this won’t work. My plant probably was confused with light cycles, but it was a sacrifice. Too much time would have caused problems (maybe).
- lastly, the most important step, budwash. I added a really intense first step, usually I just do the last two bowls, and its very quick. I would perform this for every harvest. But for major pests, I wanted to do a thorough cleaning. Note this probably did scrub some flavour and trichomes (more residue in the tub after, and it clearly smelt like it the flavour of the weed), but otherwise I would have trashed the bud. The steps are below:
Step One: 1 cup of hydrogen peroxide, three tabespoons of baking soda, three tablespoons of lemon juice, 20 Liters of water.
Step Two: baking soda, lemon juice, water.
Step Three: water.
In this case I only snipped the crowns and anything that looked dense and edible, and tossed it in the big tub. I really dunked my arm and sloshed everything around, fan leaves and all.
Then I wet trimmed as usual. If there possibly anything left, I wasn’t put off or psyched out anything it was clear after a week outside they were clean, the hydrogen peroxide certainly killed everything.
After trimming I dunked and swished it in the second mix. Then did the same and rinsed it in the water. Then hang to dry.
Voila. Even after the intense wash there are plenty of trichomes, and no mites or anything gross.
@Med_in_Tropic, I propose a night of drinking Kali-fal, Romulan ale. I would caution that I am vindictive enough to sit on the other side of a black hole for 129 years, like Nero.
BeanswithPork
