Well, kind of as it’s Labour Day so a lot of people are still enjoying the tail end of their long weekend but we wont bother splitting hairs. Not when there’s five new clones that have been added to the garden to talk about…
Before I indulge in a bit of nug nerdism and geek out about what I’ve added and why, let me go through were the garden’s at and what I’ll be doing this week to keep things green and growing. Starting in the Dopository not much is new other then the clones that is. Everything was sprayed this morning with safer’s End All, the newest girls were sprayed again as they were treated last night before moving them into the garden. The Sunshine are showing a bit of nutrient stress as I was feeling sick Friday and forgot to water them, so I’ll give them another day before flipping them to flower.
The rest of the girls are doing well, the René’s are starting to fill out and grow full sized leaves, the Violeta were transplanted last week (except #8 and 10 which took longer to root and were only transplanted yesterday) and the Sunshine look like they’ll be rooted soon. The Medi-Glue is just starting to grow 5 fingered leaves so it’s taken awhile to recover from being cloned. The Blueberry #1 on the other hand is looking good and is also showing some signs of nutrient sensitivity, which DJ Short strains are known for. Until they’re flowered though they’re just another plant that hasn’t proven itself yet, I love my girls but I also hold them to a high standard. So it’s only fair that I hold myself to that same standard and provide the best quality of care and life, so they can perform at their best. I’ve always thought of growing as a partnership between me and my plants that depends on how well I steward them through their lives. I choose steward specifically there as I love semantics and was just debating the genesis verse the other day which is often translated as “…and have dominion over the fish of the sea…” but alternately could be translated as “…and have stewardship over the fish of the sea…” which is an entirely different context and begs the question; do you control your garden/pets/children or do you serve them as their steward in life?
I digress though and we still have to get through the Chibatorium before I divulge my newest treasures from the latest trip into the Big Smoke, aka Toronto. The René (and lone Blueberry) are looking good as they start the 5th week and the buds start to fill out. I’ll start cutting back nitrogen this week as the leaves are very green and I want them to fade by harvest. They’re all showing crystal to one degree or another, they also all have a fairly consistent smell at this point; fruity bubblegum with a funky acrid undertone that gets me excited every time I smell it. The only one that’s significantly different at this point is #6 which has a stronger diesel/acrid smell with slight fruity undertones. So far though René #1 is still stealing the show with the most crystal and strongest smell but as I just said until they’re harvested, dried, cured and evaluated it’s too early too form strong opinions. Time will tell and what looks like gold isn’t always treasure, patience is a huge virtue as a grower.
The Blueberry freebie (single fem seed from Canuck seeds for ordering from True North Seeds) is turning out to be quite beautiful and absolutely coated in sugary crystals. The smell and look are entirely unlike the DJ Short Blueberry I grew years ago; it’s incredibly vigorous and nutrient hungry, branches heavily instead of growing to a more central stalk, has a light to medium green colour and none of the vivid colours all of DJ’s seed produced but mostly the smell is a more earthy, acrid, musty smell instead of the pungent, sweet and creamy berry tones I got from the originals. Which makes it more exciting wondering what the smoke will be like. Maybe not as exciting as the René with it’s delicious fruity goodness.
The Violeta are looking good, I’m really happy with how they’ve filled the space in as I was worried they wouldn’t fill it in entirely after just being transplanted. Luckily they branch fairly heavily with longer internodes so they filled the space almost perfectly. I imagine there will be a lot less popcorn buds to clean up in the harvest compared to the super densely packed René’s. I also picked up some more drippers and enough tubing to set them up on a drip line; beyound being better for the plants by creating a more even water distribution what I’m really enjoying is the time savings. Which I spend looking at plants, inspecting the under canopy for pests of mold/fungi, clean up or if nothing else gaze at lovingly while I deeply inhale the intoxicating smell. Well, intoxicating to growers or aficionados but maybe not so much to the rest of the population. I was right about placing my faith in the two slow-to-show-girls as they finally produced stigma’s (the white hairs that are often wrongly called pistils, as a pistil actually refers to the entirety of the female flower parts; stigma, style and ovule). So I’m lucky my (informed) gamble paid off as I had already transplanted them to give the roots time to spread out. Which seems to be a theme with Violeta as I just noticed the first purple bracts (commonly misnamed calyx’s) appeared on #3, which sadly doesn’t really show up in a pic that well yet. So far my betting on Ace seeds seems to be worthwhile as I’ve gotten my purple plant.
Which finally brings us to the new clones, so let me introduce you to:
THE RINGERS
So in case anyone is wondering why I bought more clones when I already have René, Violeta and (soon) Sunshine clones lined up to veg and eventually flower, there is a logic to it all. I swear it wasn’t purely driven by my compulsive urge to collect plants (among other things). That may have been a big drive but not the only one. I realised I was making a potentially costly mistake since my first three crops were all seeds from untested companies. For all I know they could all be bunk smoke and I’d be tied into smoking them for months if I assume the clones will be worth growing before they’re tested. Since the goal is to reduce my costs while improving the quality (and quantity) of my medicine, I decided to play it safe and invest in some known clones that are already in production. So the newest plan is to flower all the Ringers out when the René is harvested, which creates enough of a break to be able to test the mothers before deciding if I want to flower the clones. The astute readers may notice how willingly I break plans as the situation changes, good thing I had a whole rant justifying it previously. Chances are I’ll flower most seedlings at least a couple (ideally 3 times) before chopping them as I find that way you really know a strain before jumping to conclusions. So, without further ado, let me introduce The Ringers:
InZane in the Membrane is a creation of Ethos seeds it’s a cross of Noneya x Bizniss and other then that I don’t know much about it. The reasons for buying this clone were purely facetious; the seller looked sad that I had already bought clones and I like the Cypress Hill song.
Tangerine Dream was release by Barney’s Farm and is a cross of G13, Afghani and Neville’s Haze. We’ve bought it a couple times and it has a nice citrus taste with decent sized buds and a nice cerebral high. So it’ll be a nice quick flowering crop with a good yields that I can smoke during the day when I don’t want to be sedated.
Super Skunk #1 is a classic from Sensi Seeds that’s been around for decades. A cross of Skunk #1 and Afghani it has a quicker flowering time and better yields then most skunks with a more balanced body/head stone. It’ll also be a nice daytime smoke like Tangerine Dream and I’m long overdue to include one of the original into my garden.
Strawberry Cough: A newer classic that was popularised by Kyle Kushman in the early 2000’s, gaining notoriety when it was mentioned in the superb movie “children of men”. While there’s a bit of confusion about it’s exact origin’s the generally accepted story is that he was given an unimpressive clone from a sad grow room in Connecticut, bagged it up and threw it in the car. When he got home and opened the bag he was overwhelmed with the smell of fresh strawberries and the legend was born, even more so after he moved from New York to Cali and spread clones along the way. It’s supposedly a cross of Strawberry Fields x Haze, known for it’s incredible smell and taste as well as uplifting and stimulating high. This was the clone I went to collect, if it’s an original Kushman cut of Strawberry Cough it’ll be a delight to grow and even more of a pleasure to smoke. That’s a big if though.
Black Tuna: The hidden gem of the weekend but originally bought on a whim. When I was arrested for smoking a joint I met a fellow victim of the war on drugs that was telling me his crew were going to revolutionize the scene with “tuna bud”, packaged in tuna cans. So I had to laugh when I started seeing the cans and hearing people rave about Black Tuna a couple years later. So for the sentimental attachment I decided to pick it up but was pleasantly surprised to learn about it when I got home. I was especially pleased to learn it’s not a kush but a cross of Herijuana and Lambsbread from 5 Star Organic in B.C. and has become something of a Canadian legend. Which fits nicely into my passion for collection Canadian cultivars it’s also the most sedative bud I picked up over the weekend, ideal for night when the pain is worse and sleeping is good.
Along with the Blueberry 1 and the Medi-Glue from last weekend that gives me 7 girls which should fill the space ideally and also give me a harvest with a lot of diversity in it. I can barely wait but you learn pretty quickly how important patience is a grower, not rushing the plants and accepting that all great things happen in their own time.
Modern Cannabiseur 
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