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Original Sensible Seeds described Grand Daddy Black as an believably potent 95% Indica with high resistance to plague.
A friend gave me pure Afghani weed a while back but I did not do much to me. Maybe it was the genetic. And maybe it was the way that he fed his plant.
Growing Indica outdoor is not easy in the hot and wet tropic. Humidity is more than 90% and temperature is 33 degree during the day. It will get drier in a couple of month. And that would be just in time for flowering. Let’s see how the work from good people at Original Sensible Seeds would perform in this climate. Let’s see if how yoghurt and molasses influence Grand Daddy Purple X Black Domina genetic.
I grow with 12 hours light schedule from seed but holding them back with light leak. My plants were in perpetual 1st flowering week. So, I expect 10 days less in flower development time than published info.
Germination day 1
I popped all three seeds. And I plan to choose only the best growing one to continue. I dilute one part of hydrogen peroxide (3% solution) with four-parts of very warm water.
Then I checked the seeds after 12 hours. Seeds cover cracked on all three seeds. And after 24 hours, root tip show on each seed.
Germination day 2
I put seeds on flat cotton pads and align root to point in the same way.
I soaked one pad only. And put on three other dry pads on the dripping wet pad. Then the pads are just moist and not too wet.
To keep humidity, and to have roots point downward, I put the cotton pad sandwich in a small plastic bag and prop it up vertically.
After 24 hours, roots are about 3 mm long. I tend to damage longer root during transplant. And short root is good enough for transplant.
I put seeds in soil. Containers were 3-inch X 3-inch. Soil was loose and moist recycled soil from pervious grow. I try to keep the bean part of the seedling on top of the soil and have only the root in. I think this reduces damping off a bit.
Then I sprayed top of the soil with Trichoderma solution. This is to both wet the soil and to reduce damping off risk.
Germination day 4
Containers were kept in another container with transparent lid. This is to protect them from my dog and vermin.
Germination day 5
The next day all three seeds stretched above the soil.
Keeping root growing straight help with placing seed in the soil. Germinating in vertical position is helpful.
Putting just the root in and keeping only the bean part on top speed things up by a couple of days.
Germination day 6
All three seeds popped. Germination rate is 3/3.
Germination day 9
One damped off and died. There are two seedlings left. One looks healthy and another is small. I am keeping the small one for a few weeks as a backup. Later, I would only have space to try just one plant. In this first grow, at least I get to choose which one would go forward.
Grand Daddy Black life in the tropic started.
Grand Daddy Black Healing Sleep Tropical Winter
So far, my grows with highest Indica percentage was around 65% Indica. And there are people who do not want Sativa silliness. 95% Indica genetic would be great.
Grand Daddy Black seedlings moved in a grow case. This is converted from old computer case with fluorescent bulbs.
The case also has a little water pump with timer.
This week entry is documenting seedling progress from day 2 to day 14.
Day 2 – started in grow case.
No watering, soil is still soggy from initial planting.
Fill soil on seedling number 1 container. Seedling number 2 is too short.
Day 4 - plodding along.
No watering needed yet, but I was away for four days. So, I set the automatic pump to minimum watering once a day. The smaller plant had not grown much.
Day 8 – 7 cm tall. Scrap the smaller plant.
The smaller plant look like a dwarf. Not wasting time with her. And only one robust plant is continuing the journey. Took the opportunity to upsize the pot to half gallon.
Day 14 – 8 cm tall.
5 days after transplant, another pair of leave are developing.
Grand Daddy Black Healing Sleep Tropical Winter
After one week, Grand Daddy Black only gain 1 cm in height and put out two more pairs of leave. Her soil is dry. I think she is sucking up enough water. This should mean that she wants more room for her roots.
Moving her out to grow outside to a larger pot.
Granddaddy Black is quickly progressing along. After I moved her outside, she stretched to 19 cm tall. I am keeping her in veg by putting her at a spot where my fence lights cast on her at night.
Transplanted her to 7-liters fern pot. Root wasn’t exactly bound yet. But there seemed to be no transplant shock. Grand Daddy Black just shot up. She is looking like a proper Indica and I think that I am going to leave her like this and not top her.
I don’t know why plants seemed to be happier outside. They don’t get as much light as inside. And they have to brave the world outside.
This week there was no feeding. Fresh worm casting were mixed in in the new soil. And I added Trichoderma in the soil to control water mold.
There is a bug fest in my garden. However, no bugs visited Granddaddy black this week. Since I am going to spray my patch with anti-bugs microbes. I am going to spray her anyway.
Shooting up right on schedule. Grand Daddy Black is stretching and distance between leaf nodes lengthen. She is 40 cm tall. Top fan leaves are big. Roots started to peekaboo out of the pot. And she is big enough to transplant.
Grand Daddy Black also started to stink. This is in veg only and she is exuding skunky stench. This goonna be good.
I like 60/40 Indica/Sativa ratio. The effect is both sociable and mellow down. However, I have quite a few of these strains going already. 95% Indica could be more useful in rest and relax healing sleep.
Grand Daddy Black seemed to prefer going straight up. So, I pinched off the top bit in the beginning of the week. A few days later, leave buds are developing well. And I should have some side branches to make clones later.
Wet drooping leaves since it rained the night before I took this week pics. The leaves are heavy with water.
The runt plant that I tossed aside survived and is doing well in a 2-liters pot. She is small and I am letting her stay in her happy little pot for one more week. Then I would put her into flower. By the time the bigger Granddaddy Black plant is ready for harvest. Buds from runt plant should be reasonably cured for full report.
Feeding, with amino seaweed only. And I sprayed her with one more round of Beauvaria bassiana bugs control microbes. No buzzing buds but this is the season for thrip and white fly. Prevention is better than cure.
Grand Daddy Black is growing well. No transplant issue.
She has four tops and is 60 cm tall. I’ll take two tops as cutting to make clone later.
Leaves are big. Top leaves have seven fingers each and are bigger than my hand.
I put the runt plant in 7-liter pot. And she is a foot tall. In a couple of weeks, I’ll put this runt plant into flower a bit early.
Feeding, lightly fed with potassium fertilizer. There is no bug problem with this plant in spite of major spider mite infestation nearby.
Weather had been ideal. Temperature at 33 C high and 23 C low with 50% average humidity. And Grand Daddy Black plants stay in veg at 11 hours light with help from my fence lights.
After two week in 25-liters basket, Grand Daddy Black stinks. There is no flower yet but as she moves with the breeze, she exude skunky/grape smell. She is also responding well to Mycorrhiza. Her root is spreading all over her planting basket. There is no lack of water and her stem is robust.
Grand Daddy Black does well with topping/FIM technique. And the two main tops sprouted side branches well.
I think she is big enough to go into flower. However, I think she would be much bigger if I keep her in veg for a few more weeks. There is only 11 light hours. So, three weeks in my setting would be like two weeks in a tent set up with 18-hours light.
I have another Grand Daddy Black plant that I thought was a runt. I did not feed her and kept her in 2-liters pot for a month. Then I added Mycorrhiza. After that she grew and is not so small after all. As a matter of fact, she try to catch up. Last week I upsize her pot to 7-liters. Already roots also are poking out from side wall and bottom. I should let her run her course. However, I don’t have enough space in my planning. So, I am putting the smaller Grand Daddy Black plant into flower.
And I put the small Grand Daddy Black plantin a 20-liters basket. Then I put that basket on top of a 50-liters container. If there is root action, then she should have room to stretch. I do wonder if she would ever make it beyond 20-liters soil volume. Any root that come out of the basket will likely to carry arbuscular mycorrhiza.
This week, I fed both plants with sea weed/amino and molasses once. She looks healthy and does not seemed to need feeding. I think I’ll push her a little bit next week with phosphorous fertilizer.
Past week was probably the coolest we’ll ever get this year. Weather had been nice. Temperature at 32 C high and 19 C low with 50% average humidity. Grand Daddy Black plants stay in veg at 11 hours light. And she is 95 cm tall with big stem. This is approaching the size that I want. And I’ll keep her in veg for a couple more weeks.
Branches develop well. I probably fed too much seaweed to her.
Southern seaweed has cytokinin and it promotes buds development. During vegging, these buds turn into branches. Good opportunity to trimmed off small side branches and starting a few clones. I use these as cuttings as back up.
The smaller Grand Daddy Black plant number 2 is stretched from 60 cm to 80 cm tall. One week away from night light she is showing slightest hint of preflower.
There is a mid branch with off color leaves. I did not go away after I fed her with more phosphorus and cal mag. Next week, I’ll try to spray her with micro elements. These are usually immobile and feeding by root won’t do much.
Leaves discoloration on that one particular branch is likely due to plant growing too quickly from the seaweed and compost that I gave her. She was not able to pull in enough micro nutrient and leaf did not develop properly. Top cola is doing very well. So I am not worry.
I like growing Granddaddy Black. She is voracious with fertilizer and very easy to manage.
Original schedule was to keep Granddaddy Black in veg for two more weeks. However, she is big enough at 110 cm tall. Her growth also slowed down. I think the 25-liters pot had reached it limit to support her. So, I am putting her into 40 liters container and in flower tomorrow.
Granddaddy plant 1 has healthy leaves. It means that I have not pushed her hard enough.
I am cutting off a few twigs putting them to root. Hope they would survive so I can if Granddaddy Black could survive higher nutes, 40 degree heat, and a foot of rain each month in the wet season.
Condition this past week, weather got hotter and was more humid. Good thing that it had no rain. Temperature at 36 C high and 26 C low with 70% average humidity. Granddaddy Black responded by growing an inch a day.
The smaller Granddaddy spent second week in flowering spot. And she is in flowering mode. During transition week, she stretched 18 cm and is standing at 13 cm tall.
Figured out that smell was a sign of plant distress. Seemed that under attack by bugs, Grand Daddy Black send out insect repelling smell. After a spraying few rounds of concentrated microbe spore, Granddaddy Black was “quiet” and no longer smell. I overused the microbe and there was white powder residue on top of the leaves. Underneath the some leaves, there were dead mites coved in blooming Beavaria bassian fungus. Same thing happened to aphids on my hibiscus plants.
However, no sign of bug damage on Grand Daddy Black. She has superb resistance to insects and mites. During the same period, other plants were attacked by aphids, mites, white flies, miniature grasshoppers, and caterpillars.
Note on mixing types of microbes, antibug fungus type microbes does not work well with anti-mold microbe. In raining season, both bugs and mold attack plant at the same time. And buds are lost. Regardless of the effort required to go organic, I still refuse to use chemicals. This is a hobby and I rather be extra safe and am not after cost effective solutions.
Merry Christmas fellow growers.
Granddaddy plant 1 is healthy. Pistils started to show, and she is transitioning into flower.
And she stretched to 125 cm tall. No feeding yet. During transplant, I mixed in fresh earth worm casting.
After a week, Granddaddy twigs started to produce root in 1-inch X 1-inch seedling container. I am transplanting them to 2-liters pots.
The smaller Granddaddy was in flowering spot for the third week. Her height is stable at 95 cm. I fed her a half strength of phosphate orchid fertilizer.
New type of bug is infesting my patch. Will be spraying Beauvaria / Metharhizium mix twice next week.
Granddaddy plant 1 transitioned to flowering phase.
Her stretch slowed down a bit and I think that it is about to finished. She stretched from 125 cm to 130 cm. Please do not take this as standard. My plants stretched during veg. They should have flowered in 11 hours light.
Next round of Granddaddy took root successfully. I have two clones going in my light box. I put them directly in tow liters pot. I think they’ll stay there for a couple of weeks.
Fourth week into flower, the smaller Granddaddy buds are already nice and chunky. However, I am used to Sativa small fluffy buds. This type of bud is a real joy to tropical Sativa grower. Stretching had stop and she is slightly under a meter tall. Again, I fed her a half strength of phosphate orchid fertilizer.
I sparay a mixture of Beauveria / Metharhizium twice. And this causes white powdery deposit on leaves. To counter that, I added a dash of humic acid to the mix.
Granddaddy plant 1 flower has nice grape fruit fragrant and starting to gain size after three weeks. I think I have hit a jack pot with this phenotype. Growing nicely, fat flowers, nice smell. I am happy.
Granddaddy plant 1 stopped stretching. Next few weeks will be flower fattening phase. And I’ll be giving her more phosphorus and potassium with minimal nitrogen.
This week, I fed her with guano tea and fish tea.
Clones from the bigger plant are also doing well after a week in the light box. And I have pinched off their tops. These clones will likely to go through our hottest month. And they would produce flowers at the start of the wet season. I am curious to see how they would handle 40-degree C (104 F) heat and 90% humidity.
The smaller Granddaddy plant is about a meter tall after fifth week into flower. Smell is sweet but doesn’t have grape berry in it.
The buds are beautifully chunky. This test plant is doing much better than I expected. I think she will give me legitimate smoke. On the other hand, I don’t think she can give me the taste test. Her smell is different from her bigger sister.
This is a bug season. And I
can see crawling, flying, jumping, biting things. There are predator bugs near by but they are overfed and lazy. So I spray a mixture of Beauveria / Metharhizium once as population control measure. Without rain, the white deposit builds uo.
Wonderful polar vortex weather! Temperature was a teeth-shattering 18 degree C (64 F) in the morning and warm up to 30 C (86) in the afternoon. People broken out their Everest jackets. And I put a t-shirt on my tropical dog.
Granddaddy plant in week 4 of flowering is sprinkled with THC dew all over her sugar leaves. It is not frost. In this heat, trichome get sticky. Fantastic faint grape smell that is a delight when I visit the cannabis patch. And I trim the plant a little.
Smaller Granddaddy Plant 2 passed week 6 of flowers.
There are signs of past spider mite attack. And there is a dead grasshopper on a leaf. Beauvaria did its job but damage was done.
Plant 2 has nice smell that is starting to get a bit more like grape. Pistil tips started to turn brown. Think I’ll feed her one more week with a bit heavier load. Then its harvest preparation time.
At this stage, I don’t want to spray the girls with anti-bugs microbes. The least I can do is spray the soil with Beauvaria to prevent hatchlings. On the other hand, this is good time for antimold microbes. And I spray both Grandddy Black ladies with Trichoderma.
The clones from plant 1 are doing well. I am shaping them early. One has two main branches and another has four. These will go through our hottest months and should end by the start of raining season. I do wonder how they will handle the heat and humidity.
Granddaddy plant in week 5 of flowering. She is in full bloom.
Bugs Issue:
Granddaddy leaves had harden and oozing with juicy sweet trichome. With anti-bugs microbes and hardened leaves, I don’t think I’ll need insecticide for the main plants. On the other hand, I have other plants in my garden under bug attack. And I am spraying spinetoram. If I leave Granddaddy Black alone, she will be bugs love motel. So, I sprayed insecticide on her as well.
Fed plant 1 with twice with potassium based orchid fertilizer to help fatten buds. This was an orchid fertilizer with 9/14/34 ratio and added micro elements.
I fed at the rate of 1 g/liter X 1.5 liters once on Tuesday. This is 1/3rd strength. Follows by dry day, molasses day, another dry day, and then 1/6th strength of potassium fertilizer on Saturday.
Granddaddy Plant 2 was in 6th flowering week and her last feeding week. I sprayed and fed her the same potassium and in the same way as plant 1.
We are having great weather. 32 C High with 20 C low. Granddaddy Plant 2 flower pistils is still having orange color. In hotter season, I get long wriggly brunette pistils.
Granddaddy Plant 2 leaves are okay. No burnt tips. I could push her a little more. Think, I’ll feed plant 1 with half strength fertilizer next week. For Plant 2, it is too late to feed. I think feeding her later will buds smell green after harvest. And it will take much longer to cure.
First set of clones is doing great. Again, the season is warm and dry. Root and leaves are free from mold. This is a blessing of growing in dry season. However, drier ground is the place where bugs have their orgy fest.
Looking things up as suggested by @HerbalEdu, I ordered and received my spinetoram based insecticide. The main ingredient is a synthetic version of what a bacteria produces to kill insect. It is in the same family as Spinosad. So, I spray spinetoram on the clones to prevent mites and thrips.
Granddaddy plant in week 6 of flowering. She is in full bloom.
Bugs Issue:
There are some old caterpillar holes on leaves but I think bugs situation improved. The smell from plant dropped last week after first round of insecticide spray. Smell is like plant crying out in pain after being attack by bugs.
I sprayed spinetoram one more time in the beginning of the week. Late in the week, I used a USB microscope to check. And there was a Protoss tank patrolling a leaf on plant 2. On the bigger plant, I just saw carcass of dead mites strewn around.
Prepping plant 2 for an early harvest. I am always happy on harvest day. Trim her and let the pot dry out for a couple of days.
And plan to spray my garden with third and last round of spinetoram. Next week, I am going back to microbes.
Plant 1 is doing fine. She is bigger and handles pests better. Her flowering cola’s also smell nicer. Plant 1 phenotypes is much better than plant 2. And I removed some leaves.
This past week, I fed both plants with half strength potassium based orchid fertilizer. Plant 2 shows slight tip burn. So, this is the feeding limit. Plant 1 leaves are nice and green. A few leave started to yellow but I am not bothered by that issue at late flowering stage.
Next week I’ll just give plant 1 a dose of yogurt and start pre-harvest preparations. Trimming, flushing, and all that.
Transplanted a clone to 25-liters basket. She started to put our pistil. This is one issue with Mycorrhiza. It over stimulate the root. And root tips put our too much cytokinin that signals flowering.
Runt plant is finished. Weather was hot. And by the time I checked my drying room, flower buds were crispy dry. Still, I got about an ounce dry weigh. One thing is that I do dry harder than most people.
I put bigger nugs in a separate jar. Some people like to fondle precious nuggets before they grind. And I’ll be testing the smaller nugs. Think I’ll blend it with my 100% Sativa and a dash of CBD flowers later. This is like single malt VS blended wiskey.
Tasted dried plant. The smell has not started much but there was in deed a bit of grape after taste. High came gradually and started after 15 minutes after the initial puff. Effect was a relaxing chill out. The stony high lasted quite a while and was potent enough. Granddaddy Black helped me sleep through an unusually noisy night. Good smoke to help me shut down after a highly charged day. Personally, I prefer a bit of Sativa in genetic blend. This one is a totally chill out weed. It is good for people who are susceptible to weed induced paranoid.
One thing that I was not used to is the amount of oil in the weed. I rolled Granddaddy Black in a joint. Lit it up, and it flamed like a torch. Seemed that I was smoking a flaming brand. And I only a few puff in before the joint burned off. The next night I rolled my joint real tight and got a decent smoke with legitimate high.
Granddaddy main plant was in week 7 of flowering. This is 49 days out of OSS 60 days published flowering period. Trichome is all over the spectrum. Some are clear, some are cloudy, and some are yellow.
So, I’ll stick with the 60 days flowering schedule. First half of the week was the last fertilizer feeding. There is about 10 more days until harvest.
Activities
Sunday: Water
Monday: Molasses, trim
Tuesday: Water – it’s hot and dry
Wednesday: Last feeding with potassium and humic acid, tab water was a bit brackish this week.
Thursday: Yogurt, 250 ml:3 liters of water. trim
Friday: Water
Saturday: Trim, take photo, water
Next week all fan leaves would go, one last yogurt feeding, and then flushing.
Clones are okay. They are grown off-season. And buds won’t look good.
There was a storm on Tuesday. Buds were soaked and wet. Humidity was 95%.
And I am going away for a long week end. And there was only one week of flsuing to go.
I chopped her a bit earlier than ideal schedule. However, the nuggets are so thick and I am paranoid about mold risk. I rather have a little less than a major mold damage.
Problem is that the storm also put other plants at risks and I worked on four plants in the evening instead of on my leisurely weekend.
So, I hoses down my Granddaddy harvest to clean off dirt and cruds. Then I hung the harvest on my a tree for a night and a day. Cinnamon tree is nice and clean and is without bird nest.
Next week, I’ll report the dry weight. I already know and love the effect.
Overall, Granddaddy Black was an easy grow. Indica is hard to come by in wet tropical climate. This is a good plant to grow in our dry season. I like it very much. And Granddaddy Black is the most Indica weed that I have grown.
Thank you for coming along and commenting. Not everybody understand why we are growing weed. And I can’t appreciate the kindred spirit enough.
Keep the faith and happy growing.
I do not give her a perfect 10. Granddaddy Black puts out at my standard of yield. But she is not as productive as White Widow, another Original Sensible Seeds strain. Granddaddy Black strong potency doesn’t make up for less yield.
Granddaddy Black is for someone who appreciate Indica stone, smooth smoke, grape fragrance, and thick sticky nuggets.
Granddaddy Black was a joy to grow. She is resistance to over water, over feeding, tropical heat, wind, bugs, and mold.
Granddaddy Black is a communicative plant. She can resist bugs on her own. But when she is under attack, she screamed for help with pungent smell. After bugs are controlled, the smell goes away in the next day. Gotta love this plant.
Buds during grow is thick and heavy. Top nuggets are big enough for four big bowls. Even lower branches produces good balls of buds.
As Granddaddy Black flower mature, danger of mold and white powder mildew rises. I did not use anti-mold microbe in this grow. And during drying, I threw away some chunks that looked like mildew is starting. Just to be on the safe side, I decarbed Granddaddy Black buds. This reduces the aroma but the batch is still smelling nice and sweet.
Med_in_Tropic
