Wow, those nugs look super dank Trusted. Are the purple highlights a strain characteristic? Or did you blow cold air over them for the last couple days? I was thinking about getting a larger pot and trying one large plant vs several smaller ones. But everywhere I see them online, they say "discontinued by manufacturer." So what size of the grow pots are you using?
Day 47 flowering... The Matanuska in the Eco Grow Pot The Church in Smart Pots The Church in Eco Grow Pot
Dude two of those pics are great. I love pics and I'm a photog on the side and would love to see more detail. If you could try and back up an inch or so and hold your camera with two hands so that that flash doesn't over power and so everything is in perfect focus. I know it's a pain but. If you start taking great photos now you will always be able to track them over the years of growing and testing and always be able to compare visually the true differences is your buds at different stages. I will go take 3 pics of the BB right now even though they already started turning color that way we might be able to see the change in 5 days. Okay so here's the first 3 pics I will try to make it the same 3 buds in 5 days also
Hi Trusted. Those nugs look super heady! Nice job. Great detail on the pics. Do you use a digital camera or just a cell phone cam? I just have my iPhone 6 camera. I took your advice for taking pics, let me know how these pics turn out.... This is a one of the main colas for the Church in a Smart Pot. This nug is probably about 16" long with a diameter a little less than a soda can. Here is some of the Church in the Eco Grow Pot. This nug is about 8" long with about an 8" diameter. And here is the Matanuska mother in an Eco Grow Pot.
So today is day 50 of flowering! I think I am starting the beginning of my harvest window. Trichomes are about 75% cloudy 25% clear. I plan to give my final nutrient watering today or tomorrow, then just plain pH'ed water for another two weeks as my trichomes turn amber. Right now I'm just using a standard 60x-100x microscope, but I hope to get digital microscope I can take pictures of on my laptop.
iPhone 6 also. Dude you are rockin! They look great. Pics are much better too. Also, if the flash is too bright, you can back the phone up 3-5", then go to the pic and click edit. Then crop it the way you want it and you can even darken it if you need too. So are you liking the eco pots? I'm finally installing my drip system this next round and all you do is throw a spaghetti drip 1/4" line down the tube with out a dripper on it. So when are you making the decision to fill the reservoir ? Do you lift the pot and check weight and water when it's totally dry before wilting? Or do you dig down a few inches and check if it's dry or wet?
Thanks! It is kinda of a funny method I use to water... before the flowering stretch kicked in, I would actually blow bubbles down into the reservoir using the dipstick like a soda straw. I would do that for about 20 seconds per pot, 3 times a day. Then when I didn't hear any bubbles, I would fill the reservoir. Not sure if that little bit of oxygen helped or not, but it was fun. Since flowering has started, my timer has been set at 8am-8pm as my on cycle. Also since then, I have also been on some new projects at my real job that have me going into my office about 5 days a week. So I really only have about an hour in the evening to get all my work done in the indoor garden. So now, I really only refill the reservoir when the plants feel light in weight when I pick them up. So now when I feed, I usually give about 2 cups as a top feeding to get the coco re-moistened, and then fill up the reservoir. So far I like the Eco Pots. Not as messy as the Smart Pots. The only downside are the eco pots are a little tricky to water down that tube, especially once the plants really start growing. Since this is really only my third indoor grow, I really don't have much to judge it by yet. That is why I have Matanuska clones in my veg closet with the same 2 Smart Pots vs. 2 Eco Pots set up. At the end of the day, it will come down to the quality of the smoke and the yield off each plant. Only time will tell.
Day 52 flowering... So last night was my last nutrient watering. I will be giving these girls just plain pH water until harvest. I am also thinking about trying the "3 days of darkness" method in the final days leading up to harvest. All of these nugs are rock-hard dense and getting super heavy. The larger nugs on the thinner stems are even beginning to bend. I am sure this is super ghetto, but I have tied a little soft rope around the bottom third of two of my plants, to give the girls a little more support. If I ever decide to grow the church again, I will definitely have to do SCROG. Super stinky, and super sticky!
Day 54 Flowering... So the tall girl in the front here, most of her fan leaves have started to yellow. Since I'm so close to harvest I'm not going to worry to much and assume it is just do to the aging of the plant. Don't mind my messy room. This plant might very well finish earlier than the others. The trichomes are totally milky with even a stray Amber one every couple glances. A small popcorn branch snapped when I was pulling the girls out for a watering. As you can tell, this branch is very premature, but I decided to trim her up and hang to dry anyways.
Day 56 flowering.... Getting into the final days of harvest. I still hope to harvest on November 3rd. Trichomes are still all milky, but you will see an amber one here and there.
Day 59 flowering... 6 more days until planned harvest. So it has been getting into the mid 40's at night here. Since the grow room is in a wing of the house that we don't spend too much time in, we don't run the heater over there. This causes the grow tent get down into the mid 60's and lower during lights out time. And guess what that causes?.?.?. Purple buds on the plant closest to the window side of the tent. Also, these buds are finishing up their final growth spurt by just stacking the calyxes up. So are these good foxtails. And of course the Matanuska is getting super dank.
Day 62 flowering... I'm at approx 5-10% Amber trichomes on two of the Church and the Matanuska. The other two Church are 100% milky. Still plan to harvest all on Tuesday. I am taking the day off work and have recruited my wife to help trim. I'm not even going to guess at what my wet yield will be, but I have a feeling Christmas will be coming early this year. Nom nom nom nom.
Day 64 flowering... 1 more day till harvest!! That little nug that fell off two weeks ago spent a week drying and a week curing and turned out awesome. No harshness at all. Can't wait to taste the mature nugs in a couple weeks! I took these pictures last night right after the lights went out. I also unplugged the lights and will be giving the plants 36 hours of darkness until I start chopping down tomorrow. I have heard mixed opinions on this method, but I figures I would try for myself. Here is one the Eco Grow Pots Here is one of the Smart Pots And here is the Matanuska Thunder Fuck showing her colors.
Harvest Day!!!! In anticipation for today, I got my trimming supply's ready last night. I'm going to be doing all my trimming on the bar top in the man cave. It is high enough so I can work standing up or sitting on the stool. I have a feeling this is going to be a long day; don't want to stress out my back. Good morning girls.... Who should I pick first? How about the Matanuska Thunder Fuck... More updates to come as the day moves along...
Harvest is finally over. It took about 7 hours to trim all 5 plants. I got my wife to help for about 2 of those hours, so that helped. The Matanuska Thunder Fuck These Matty nugs are super dense and sticky The Church in Eco Grow Pot Nice hints of blue. 40 gram cola from the Smart Pot All the nugs sorted for drying This closet stays at about 70f with about 50% humidity. Should make for a consistent dry. These are my starting wet yield weights. Matanuska Thunder Fuck (Eco Grow Pot): 161 grams - tops 95 grams - popcorn nugs 256gr (9oz) - total The Church (Eco Grow Pot 1) 192 grams - tops 49 grams - popcorn nugs 241gr (8.5oz) - total The Church (Eco Grow Pot 2) 165 grams - tops 67 grams - popcorn nugs 232gr (8.1oz) - total The Church (Smart Pot 1) 118 grams - tops 67 grams - popcorn nugs 185gr (6.5oz) - total The Chuch (Smart Pot 2) 198 grams - tops 46 grams - popcorn nugs 244gr (8.6oz) - total Well so far it looks like the Eco Grow Pot gave a slightly higher yield. Let's check back in a week to see how the dry is going.
I cleaned out the grow pots today and wanted to show pics of how different the root development was in each pot. The Eco-Grow Pot has very visible hydroponic qualities. The entire medium was just filled with roots with a lot of root development at the bottom where they grew into the reservoir. Also, when cleaning the pot, the coco just slid right off and didn't leave any residual stuck to the pot. Simple cleanup. So now the Smart Pots had a totally different root development here. The entire pot was a massive root system but no bounding at the bottom. I had to literally rip the plant apart from the cloth pot. I am not sure how I'm supposed to wash this and get all the roots out. Alright, time to get this room cleaned up and ready for the next run. So anyways the grow room has been vacuumed, cleaned and disinfected. This Matanuska Thunder Fuck strain is oh so dank, and oh so rare, I'm planning on keeping this strain going for another two generations. I have four clones already that have been vegging for the past 10 weeks under CFL. They have been screaming to get under some HID lamps for a while now. I already have a grow journal on here for that run, just check out my profile. I will update this journal with my dried weights in a week or so followed by a smoke report a couple weeks after that. As this journal lives on the net for years to come, feel free to pop any questions you might have here. As long as I'm still alive, I'll do my best to answer. Cheers y'all. And happy growing!
Ok all. The girls are done in the dry room and ready to start their life in the cure jars. But let me give you some weights on the dried product first. I went ahead and married the same style of pots herbs together. So these will be totals. Matanuska Thunder Fuck (1 plant) 63g (2.22oz) The Church (Eco Grow Pot, 2 plants) 114g (4.49oz) The Church (Smart Pot, 2 plants) 102g (3.59oz) Smart Pot Nug Eco Pot Nug
Ok, the nugs are now all in the sweet spot cure zone! Humidity inside the jar has been holding steady at 62% for the past 24 hours. So now I will just have to open up the jars only briefly, once a day. I took a couple sample tokes last night. These girls smell and taste like they are ready right now! No "fresh cut grass smell". No harshness in the smoke. Here is some of the Church. And the Matanuska
I don't have the means to test THC content. But I smoked the Matanuska about 6 hours apart from some Bubba Kush I got from my local dispensary, and that tested at 21% THC. I got higher off the Matanuska, than I did the Bubba Kush. I know that is not science, but I'm glad I have kept this strain going for a few more runs.
It's hash day!! So I ended up with about 150 grams of dried sugar leaf. I just mixed it all up, didn't sort it by strain or anything. As far as methods go, I've always thought bubble hash gave me the cleanest product. I first layer ice then trim, then more ice and more trim Then top with more ice cold water Once the mixture is nice and ice cold... It's time to do some mixing. 15 minutes should be good. Then 15 minutes of rest And what do you get? 14 grams of bubble hash!