Wild Thailand (WoS) in Hydro

Changed from a 20/4 light schedule to 12/12 early this week. Reservoir PPM is running ~600.

It's been a big week for veg growth on both girls, even though they've been on 12/12 for 2 weeks. No sign of flowers at the terminal buds, although, the axial calyces are starting to put out pistils so at least it's reached sexual maturity. My one-time experience growing a 100% sativa previously took a full 3 weeks in 12/12 before flowers started to develop, so another week or so and we should start seeing "girl parts." I LOVE Megacrop. There. I said it. The plants love it and it's so simple it takes a moron to screw it up. I've gradually raise the PPM to ~1000 and am just starting to see some burnt leaf tips, so I'll hold it there for a couple weeks before making any change. The pH has held fairly steady at 5.8, raising by 0.1 every 2-3 days, so when it gets up around 6.2 I use H2SO4 to lower back down to 5.4. Takes about a week, which is completely predictable and reveals a healthy system.

The girls now have names: Bo, the skinny one on the left, and Sophia, lush and fast growing on the right.  No health issues that I'm aware of, and growth has been vigorous. pH had a bump this morning but I suspect my measurements were a bit careless from being in a hurry so I'll check it again tomorrow. The roots look healthy and clean. These are some hungry ladies. They were at 1000 ppm with megacrop alone early in the week and I added 60 mlcal-mag bringing up the ppm to 1100. But together theydrink/transpire over 8 liters a day and I have to add 5 g of megacropto maintain the ppm at 1100. They’re both green and healthy withouta sign of nute burn, so I’ll raise it up every few days until I getsome burnt tips.But for sativas, they both have very thick stems and short internodes -- which is something I'll appreciate when the buds thicken and needsupport, but it’s PITA now while I'm ScrOGing these tree trunks. I broke offone of the lovely tops this morning trying to get it poked under thescreen. It was big enough to use as a cutting so it’s trying toroot as I type this but it still elicited a few choice expletives when it broke. Crap! I've also lowered the air temp to get it better alligned with optimal VPD.

Progress, but I could use some experiential input. Bo's side of the screen is about half full and Sophia about 80% (for scrog newbies, a screen is "full" when you have a terminal bud poking out of almost every hole in the screen). I haven't broken any more tops but the thick, brittle stems make it a challenge to bend them under the screen without snapping them off. When the screen is close to full, I'll stop bending the tops under the screen and let the tops stretch above the screen. I'm feeding them heavy veg nutrients to encourage them to stretch, but will cut back on N, light, and add hammerhead to boost flowering activity when the tops reach the height I want, probably about a foot or so above the screen. My experience with my only other sativa hydro grow -- Malawi from Ace -- suggests when the nutes are adjusted to a bloom formula and the dark hours are increased to 14, they stop growing taller and just add weight. PLEASE chime in if your experience suggests a different approach.

I;ve been through scrogs of hybrids multiple times and have become quite adept, but I'm not used to sativa growth habit so am becoming concerned that I put it in flower too soon. Buds are developing, but alot of bud is developing below the screen and the tops aren't gaining that much height. The girls are transpiring 5 liters of H2O a day so I top it off every 2 days along with hammerhead in their regular feedings this week at the rate of 20 ml per 15 g of Megacrop every 2 days, which bumps the nutes from 900 to ~1300 ppm. I'll continue with this regiment until the buds are a foot or so above the screen. I have a UVA/B tube running down the middle of my light and will fire it up next week to see how it does in enhancing tric development. Any input as to what to do or expect would be appreciated.

Well, the plants continue to appear healthy, but my plan is failing miserably due to unexpected growth patterns. The Malawi I grew in the spring, my only other sativa experience, was a monster (see the pre-harvest photo above) that continued to stretch like crazy all through flower until I cut the light schedule to 10/14 and the nutes down to ~700 ppm. Expecting the same pattern from the Wild Thai, it should have continued to stretch, but it seems to be done growing taller and focused on fattening the buds, even though the nutes are stil at 1400+ ppm and the lights 12/12. What appears to be happening is the gals finished stretching about a week ago, and are developing buds below the canopy, so it appears I'll end up with some small, nicely developed buds in the canopy, and a bunch of underdeveloped popcorn buds. Oh well, lesson learned. It seems the Wild Thai needs to be treated more like an indica in scrog -- i.e. Let it fill the screen in veg before flipping to 12/12 and keep feeding it full-spec nutes until late flower. The girls will start getting a dose of UV light twice a day for 30 minutes each. I'll increase it by 30 minutes every week until it gets to 2 x 2-hr exposures then maintain that level through harvest. Research indicates a significant bump in Canabinoids and Terpenes with the right UV exposure, so we should starting seeing some really frosty buds in a week or 2. How many weeks left for each? I'm thinking an xmas harvest for Bo, and post-New Year for Sophia. What do you all think? 10 Durbans fems for the best guess!

Flowering on. Could be my imagination but the addition of UV seems to be doing its jog: Trichome production is in high gear as the buds and sugar leaves are taking on a nice frosty coating. The girls are definitely adding bud mass, but surprisingly, no longer stretching. If I'd let them veg for a couple weeks longer and stopped training 2 weeks ago, I'd have 20-30 foot-long colas poking out of the screen, but alas. Next time....

Feeding schedule has been steady with the girls transpiring 5 liters of water and "eating" 8 g of Megacrop and 20 ml of P-K booster per day. It's about that time when it would be wise for me to freeze my pruning shears in a gallon of ice to help with my impulse control. Geezuz these gals are getting dank. I had been running the 6-in carbon filter only during lights-on but noted a serious spike in terps during dark hours lately that I'm sure drifted to the neighbours, so the grow room air is now being scrubbed 24/7. That doesn't help with the stank that sticks to me whenever I touch the plants or even just go in the room. Candidly, I the smell is addictive to me, but the wife ain't no fan, so I have to do a body douche with alcohol, soap and water whenever I've been in the grow room. Bo is on the home stretch -- or fattening, at this stage -- with pistils browning across the canopy and trichomes starting to cloud up. I'm starting to believe @PirateJoe and @SativaKid in their mid-December estimates, for Bo, at least. Sophia continues to plug away, getting thick, but pistils are just starting to brown and trics are crystal clear, so 2 weeks behind, at least. The buds on both plants are developing a texture similar to the Kilimanjaro I grew outside this summer, @PirateJoe and @SativaKid have alluded to this as well: Dense, mushy buds that have an almost oily feel. I'm guessing this is characteristic of Sativas in general? Community input would be appreciated. I've been increasing the duration of UV exposure by 30 min during each of the 2 daily exposure periods every few days. Now up to 2 hours each period, and since I'm seeing no damage, I'll probably continue to increase the UV so it's on continuously for 7 hrs straight during the middle of the "day."

The end is on the horizon. Bo's calyxes are nicely swollen with a thick coating of frost and most of her pistils are brown and retracted. Sophia, as always, a week or 2 behind. I'm waiting on ~10-20% amber before harvesting, but we'll see. Right now Bo is mostly milky with a few clear, so probably another week. Problems are two-fold: Botrytis appeared this week on both plants and Bo had a nanner pop up yesterday. The bud rot is under control in the canopy, but there are areas of the canopy that I can't see through (I know, better foliage management needed) and I'm reasonably concerned they might be hiding pockets of rot that only harvest will reveal. The nanner I'm not particularly concerned about. They tend to be sterile and I picked it off anyway, but I'll keep my eye out for more.

more to come....

With a few of Bo's buds left for further ripening and for seed, Sophia has the scrog pretty much to herself. She has a few monster buds and all are continuing to ripen. She continues to throw a few fresh pistils but they're 95% brown and retracted. She might go 2 more weeks, but I doubt it.

Sophia continues to plug away. No noticeable growth, but I suspect bud density is increasing. Still throwing out a few pistils. The look of this plant is very different. Bo's buds are noticeably lighter green and pistils wilt to a redish color. Sophia's buds have taken on more of a brown/gray color and as mentioned before, much leafier. I've stopped feeding. The res PPM is dropping about 100ppm/day, so she's still eating. I'm expecting yellowing in the lower leaves to start developing. Trichomes are mostly milky with a few amber. Right now, Monday looks like the day she comes down. I'll let her rest in the dark for 24hrs and cut her before lights on.

Sophia was mostly harvested on Monday. There are a couple of buds remaining on both plants that I'd brushed with pollen from a reversed female, so fem seeds are pending. This site is weird in that once you save a harvest, it can't be edited, so I've gotta wait for eval and weight until after the buds are dried. It'll be another week for final data... stay tunded.

Sophia was harvested and all of the buds that haven't been converted to edibles yet were jarred at ~57% humidity and curing. In the end, Bo yielded about 150g and Sophia 250g, so not a bad yield. The buds are hard and dense. The cured smell will be amazing. There are either features on this site that I'm not familiar with, or it remains incredibly awkward; only allowed 1 harvest? No edit of a harvest to update weights, etc. What's up? Last time for me here....