Tora Bora late season quickie grow

Got my MMJ license late in the summer and was playing around with a new Rumple cloner and decided to plant a few of the rooted clones in August. Transplanted into 5 gal pots, 3 the second week of August and 3 the first week of September. I grew on my patio until they became too big and obvious then moved into my garden cold frame to finish vegging and flower. At 8 nodes I pinched back to 6 when in veg, then did the same to the branches resulting from the first pinch.

By the time the second pinch had branched out the plants were flowering, so I have to just finish the flower cycle now. Used water soluble 24-8-16 for veg and 10-52-10 for flower along with silicon and molasses during flowering. Flushed for two weeks with clear water and no ferts except the Potassium from the molasses and the silicon.

Starting to ripen now and have cut a few test buds at 80% cloudy, trying to be patient and let a few more turn amber to finish the harvest. Am at two weeks flush on the first three 5 gal and one week flush on the second three pots. Plan on cutting the top colas on the first three in a few days now.

 

Finishing the last of the flushing on the first 3 pots. Fan leaves are yellowing and buds are swelling up now. Resin is 90% cloudy with a few amber, should be ripe soon. Temperatures are getting in the mid 30's to 40's the past few nights and is turning the tips of the buds darker now. Looks like three or four days and they will be ripe to my tastes. I will take the top colas first and let the lower buds grow for a few more days before complete harvest.

 

Thanks for stopping by Capt. I was wondering if anyone was interested in this grow. Still waiting for a little more amber in the resin before cutting, been giving lots of people advice to wait a little longer to harvest, now I'm having a hard time keeping my pruners off the plants for a few more days myself. Checked this morning and still a lot of cloudy resin so I might wait until this weekend to cut the larger colas.

Couldn't help myself and cut a big cola off one of the branches. Also took all the fan leaves I had collected and made a small piece of hash yesterday. Looking forward to the day when it is all cut and cured properly.

 

Got down to 40F last night, buds turning really dark now in this cold weather. Resin is still mostly cloudy, about 15% amber today. I am testing my patience to wait one or two more days before cutting, but I know it will be better to wait. Have harvested about an oz of dried from different parts of the plants while waiting for the big cut. Sunday is supposed to be 35F, so I plan on waiting until then and take the big colas.

Looks like I will get about 16 end colas about 7-8 in each. Looking now like it might add up to a fair amount. At first I was hoping for 4-5 oz but I think it will be greater than that now. Attached a few of the big bud pics for today, hope you enjoy.

Since flowering, the plants have been growing in day temps of 50-85F and night temps ranging from 35F to 50F. No heat is provided in the greenhouse day or night, resulting in the deep purple color. I only wish it were true the purple buds were stronger, but I know this is not the case. The slightly dry test buds have been really tasty and should be really good when fully cured.

 

Today I started the beginning of the harvest. Weather is supposed to get to 35F tonight so I cut the tops of the three oldest plants and left the three others to see what will happen in the cold nights near freezing.

As you can see from the early pictures I don't cut any fan leaves from the plant until all the chlorophyll is used up and the leaf is yellowing and dying, used this philosophy for the whole grow. No ill effects from the fan leaves shading the flowers. With this method my colas are about 1 1/2- 2in in diameter after pruning for drying. The longer colas are 6-8in wet.

I may have to cut everything tomorrow because of the cold front moving in our area, but I am going to let the younger three plants and the remainder of the pruned plants grow for a few days longer if I can.


The popcorn buds on the lower part of the plant are now the size of a marble to a walnut. I don't cut these off before harvest, same as the fan leaves. When I harvest the last of these lower buds lots of them will be golf ball size. I feel cutting these buds for larger top growth is counterproductive and with a little longer to grow will add to the total harvest significantly.

 

I finished cutting all of the top colas today. Yesterday's temps inside the greenhouse ranged from 38F-78F. Winds today gusting to 50 mph and low of 30F tonight, so I decided to take the largest of the colas just in case. The greenhouse is holding temperatures about 8-10 degrees higher than the ambient temps outside. Going to leave the small buds in the bottom of the trunks to size up some more and fill out for a little longer. This will give me an idea of the latest dates I can use the greenhouse.

I will prune these up and post more pics after they are trimmed for drying. I will try to add some trich shots if I can get the magnifier to work. In a few days while the buds are drying and waiting for curing I will total up the cost for this grow and post the results. I think it will be a very small investment for the return.

The remaining "popcorn buds" are swelling every day and will get a big surge now that the tops of the branches are pruned off. They are now the size of golf balls and very dense, glad i didn't cut them off. To those non-believers, I cut no fan leaves off until they had lost all their chlorophyll and did no removing to expose the flower buds. As you can see, some buds are the size of a quart jar at harvest. I hope this helps dispel the defoliation myth so prevalent among new growers. Grow a healthy plant and you will be rewarded with ample colas.

 

I will post the harvest pruning from today and a few trich shots. It will be interesting to see how the small buds do in the cold weather. I am hopeful the weather will stay warm enough to finish two plants that are hybrids of the plants in this grow. Would be nice to get a taste test to see if it is worth keeping cloned until spring. Surprised no more comments have been made, is anyone even watching, should I finish the harvest pictures or hang it up for now?

 

Mostly in a waiting mode, just waiting for the buds to dry completely. Trimmed and stored in jars now and starting the cure. I have harvested about 200 grams of dried weed that has been hanging for 5-7 days. I will loose some more weight during the cure but it is getting close now.

Outside temperatures have been in the mid 20's at night this week, but the greenhouse is holding above freezing so far, 35F inside, keeping my fingers crossed. The next few days are going to be warmer so I will wait to harvest the popcorn buds next week. Added some half strength bloom fert to give them a little boost before cutting. If I'm lucky I will harvest about 2 more oz off the popcorn buds.

 

Thanks for stopping by Dagobaker. Really nice grow you have going at your place too. Late today I cut most of the popcorn buds and have finished drying the earlier cuts. So far 191 G dried and jarred plus 1/2 oz I smoked while harvesting. Looks like an oz + on the small popcorn buds when they dry. After all is said and done I will collect a little over 1/2 lb. I am very pleased with the results. Three pots grown 9 weeks and three pots grown 11 weeks to finish from transplant. I feel if I had started in July and had given the plants three or four weeks more veg I could have easily doubled the harvest without outgrowing my greenhouse. Plan on trying this next year again. Going to be in the 40's here at night for about a week, hope the warm weather lasts for you until harvest is over. Happy harvest to you, enjoy.

PW

 

Tonight I will try to summarize my grow and expenses from transplant to harvest and cure. I took my cuttings from the cloner when they started to flower in the clone bucket. (I was trying to clone on the back patio in natural sunlight but most began flowering except a few before they started rooting.

Transplanted into 2 1/2 in pots and rooted to the sides and bottom of pots. Second week of August placed three transplants into 5 gal pots and transplanted three more first week of September. Potting soil was Sunshine #4 straight from the bag. I used fertilizers I had from my vegetable garden since they were available from home. The vegetative stage was fed with Stearns 24-8-16 at a rate of 1/2 tsp/gal, using this formula on a 10-14 day interval with plain water when needed between fertilizing. During the veg stage, used Epsom salts @ 1/2 tsp/gal once after transplanting.

Pinched the plants twice in the veg stage at 6-8 nodes. No trimming or fan leaf removal was used throughout the grow until the chlorophyll was used and the leaves completely yellow and come off with a slight tug.

After induction of flowering, switched to Miracle Grow 10-52-10 to finish the flower cycle. I used molasses and silicon with each watering at flowering and used the MG flowering formulation twice, second time 1/2 strength and finished with two weeks flush before harvest. Tap water was used completely through the whole grow.

Pests were only a problem when the plants were outside next to my flower beds. I had a few mites on the small transplants but controlled them with insecticidal soap and neem sprays. Upon putting into greenhouse, continued with a weekly spray of neem and silicon. This kept the plants mostly pest free for the finish of the flowering cycle. No sprays were used after the second week of flowering.

Started a staggered harvest the middle of October, taking the end colas first, then the middle branch parts a week to ten days later and the final cut of the popcorn buds 3-4 weeks after the initial harvest. Flowers finished the last few weeks at night temps of 30-45F. Flowering took about 10-11 weeks to finish.
The end colas and mid branch buds dried and cured to 191g, the lower buds totaled 43g dried and the popcorn buds dried to 16g. I also used 30 grams for testing and personal meds during harvest. Totals were 264g of colas and larger buds and 16g small popcorn buds or 280g (10oz) in all. In addition to the 10oz, I took all the trimming and fan leaves and made a total of 4g of 25micron bubble hash.

Fertilizer costs: 4oz Sterns 24-8-16 $2.50
3oz MG bloom 10-52-10 $2.00
molasses 2 16oz jars $8.00
Dyna-Grow Pro Tec Silicon @ $.02/gal mixed $1.00
Sunshine #4 potting media 3/4 bale $26.00
Neem oil 4 oz $10.00
Light from the sun Priceless


Total grow expenses $49.50



$50.00 for 10 oz of bud and 4g hash----------Time for the pause that refreshes, enjoy. Time to hibernate for the winter into my den.
PW

 

StickyNugzz, Justus, and LoGotti, thanks for leaving the good comments. Glad you stopped by. My grow is not the most impressive or the heaviest harvest, I just wanted to show people it is possible to grow good flowers simply by growing a healthy plant without spending a fortune. There are many ways to grow plants, so chose a style of growing and learn to produce healthy, vigorous plants and you are on your way to a successful harvest.

The trick to optimum size and potency is learning when to harvest. The biggest reason for a less than impressive harvest is cutting early, and not letting the flowers size up completely at the end of the flower cycle.

Heavy harvests to all

PW