Afghan and other Experiments Downunder

[sarah louise]

My intro post describes my growing environment, so I wont repeat it here. You can click if you want to read it http://boards.cannabis.com/introduce-yourself/141402-hello.html#post1726523

Sara Lou's Triffid.

The longest running experiment began with a sativa sprout (no name) which germinated at the end April, beginning of May. It survived the first frost, so I stuck a black plastic pot (bottomless) over it and topped it with a sheet of glass until September.

What can I say, I didn't pay much attention to it until I had to move the work bench to give it more room. It survived a cold, but dry and sunny winter and has boomed throughout Spring.

[smokenss]

im supized its so small for a plant that age ive seen plants at 8 foot after alot of tying down

[sarah louise]

Thanks for stopping by Smokenss, there are many variables that effect the plant's eventual size. I'm aiming to keep this thing as low to the ground as possible. I'd estimate the trunk length at about 6 feet, 2 1/2 vertical and 3 1/2 ft near horizontal. I'll measure it tomorrow.

edit ~ I have grow sativa in side by side comparisons before and as a rule of thumb, I have found I can halve the height with a strict tying regime.

C. horizontalis

The same seed as the triffid above, but germinated 01/10/07, growing tied and weighted down in 40 litre pots. The purpose, a novel homecoming gift for a friend due back from the west coast. She likes topiary, bonsai etc, so I think she'll appreciate these.

Soil mix is sieved compost, basic proprietary potting mix, coir fibre (peat substitute), processed lucerne and coarse sand in a 2:3:1:1:1 ratio. Plus a handful of 1:2 blood and bone/dolomite lime worked into the lower half of each pot.

Liquid additives, seaweed extract 1/2 strength second weekly, alternating with fish emulsion if they look like they want more nitrogen. Monty's Organic, once for seedlings and monthly according to the directions during flowering.

(only found a pre tie pic for one of them.) :hippy:

[sarah louise]

Last but not least, Weed Farmer's Afghan sprouts. The postal service here still involves donkeys, I'm sure, so these have spent most of their short lives in the bathroom under CFL's because the weather is already a bit extreme for outdoor sprouting.

Pictured here getting some real sun this morning, between 24 and 48 hours old.

There are a few other random sprouts from some antique bagseed seed, but nothing that warrants me dribbling on any longer tonight.

It's 12:53 am and 18 C outside, goodnight :hippy:

[Weedhound]

That's a BEAUTIFUL looking sativa in that first photo. :thumbsup::thumbsup:

[JackHerer]

Already looking very nice. I'm looking forward to seeing this grow develop.

[Skrappie]

That Sativa will give you some really good times i bet. It looks great!

[sarah louise]

Thanks for the responses :)

The Triffid's trunk measures 195cm from soil level to growing tip, vertical height is now 95 cm and she is over 7 months old. I'm hoping her growth slows in the coming week with the cooler expected nights (last week av o/night 16.8 C, expecting 11-13 C o/night for the next 4-5 days). Between 01/12 and 9/12 she's gained 24 vertical cm.

I've also been decorating the sprout's nursery today. Spruced up the lighting a bit, removed the larger house plants to make some working space and even cleaned the dust and bird pooh off the outside of the window and trimmed back the Hedera that insulates the wall from the outside.

Pic is a canopy view of the triffid a couple of days ago. :hippy:

[smokenss]

thats going to have buds all over the shop:thumbsup:

[hydrocannabis]

holy shit thats freaken huge.
nice job.

[JackHerer]

Trifid looks good how big is the space you want to use her as a hedge for ;)

[sarah louise]

Thanks smokenss and hydro. JH, she has plenty of room to grow into, but unfortunately the shed is producing to much shade for her to be happy about growing into it. I have untied most of the horizontal length of the trunk and am going to give her a couple of days free before guiding the growth off to the side and into better sunshine.

As for the sprouts, many be I should have titled this ~ growing cannabis with a cognitive deficit.

I've recently needed to increase the amount of narcotic and antipsychotic meds I'm using and the short term results are confusion, forgetfulness, sedation etc. thankfully my head is beginning to clear and my seedlings should suffer less as a result.

I've made more mistakes in the last week than I have made in the last 10 years, my own stupidity stuns me :wtf4:

The very next morning after posting this thread, I put my sprouts outside and completely forgot about them... so sun crisp sprouts. If that wasn't bad enough, I realised over the next few days that I had used the wrong sort of coir fibre in my seed raising mix.

4 sprouts overcame the early sunburn only to have the 2nd set of leaves develop bizarre twists as they emerged. Yep the coir fibre i used in the seed raising mix was pre fertilised. Damn.

Flushed the poor little mites and realised there was something weird was happening to the drainage. Tried to slide one out of the pot to see what was happening and the mix disintegrated in my hand leaving me with a bare rooted seedling and half a handful of loose sand. The coir again, ground too fine and separated from the sand when i flushed, then pooled at the bottom of the pots preventing drainage.

So 4 little Afghan sprouts have now been removed from their failed seedling mix and been potted on in a modified propriety organic mix, dosed lightly with seaweed extract, and are slowly recovering. The fifth is still in the nursery in critical condition.

The bondage pots and other random sprouts seem to be doing ok despite my 'out to lunch' brain. I'll put some pics tomorrow, because now I have to go to bed :hippy:

[Shovelhandle]

Don't get too close to the Triffid, Sarah Louise! Wonderful grow though.

Seaweed and fish emulsions have been my staple nutes for 35 years. They're the best.

Shov

[sarah louise]

Thanks Shov,

Been slack so no pics yet, I knew there had to be at least sci fi reader here. Roots still seem attached to the soil, so I'd say she's dormant. I'm keeping her on a short chain just in case.

We have a problem with introduced carp messing up the inland waterways, so I always buy my fish emulsion under the "Charlie Carp" brand name (made from genuine feral European carp).

[sarah louise]

A couple of snaps from today after I finished tying her down again. Instead of growing in a northerly direction and into the shade, now she is facing east and bathed in sunshine once again.

It actually rained on the weekend, immediately after I had watered the garden on Saturday night of course. Shouldn't complain, it has only rained twice this month. In November it didn't rain here at all.

[smokenss]

very cool , hats off :thumbsup:, how thick is the stem ?

[sarah louise]

thanks mate,

the lower two thirds of the stem is thicker than my thumb, the last third thins off pinkie size. The base is getting quite impressive. If my joints allow me that much movement tomorrow and I remember, I will take a pic of the base.

[JackHerer]

I can only fream of having plants like that in my back garden. Not only would I have the old bill banging the door down I would need to have traps to keep the whole housng estate out. :thumbsup:

[Jerry Garcia 2007]

Very, very, very impressive.

Nice to see it is almost summer somewhere. And dream for my next.

Can't wait to see her flower.

I am going to watch this one.

Great work Sara!!!

[sarah louise]

Thanks guys :)

She's eight months old already and I can expect another 4 months of growing weather. Good thing I am a patient sort of person.

Pics of the main stem and an update on the pot plants. :hippy:

[sarah louise]

I feel I should update before the end of the year... so I'd better do it now.

The title begins with Afghan's, so I'll start there. In a couple of words 'pretty shitful' would be a good description. Four out of five sprouts have moved up to 10 litre pots, despite minimal growth, but necessary due to the weather. We have been averaging above 38 C (100 F) during the day and 21 C (70 F) overnight, with low humidity. Roasting weather.

I need to get them out of the pots, but without bed space with afternoon sun protection it isn't worth it. If it had been earlier in the season I would have chucked the sprouts at a week old and started again. Seeing as it isn't earlier in the season, I'll leave them in their pots and save the seed for next spring.

The sativa triffid is doing what these things do for the first month or so of flowering, ie growing, branching and growing some more. Only 2 and 1/2 months or so to go...

The pot plants are growing nicely, both confirmed female and still in vegetative growth.

Other than that, there are 4 sprouts that I manage to germinate from some old seed Nepalese seed. Out of 20 seeds 5 cracked, 4 sprouted and 3 look like goers. Quite pleased with them, I carried that seed home in the toe of my sock in 1994. Haven't bothered to point the camera at them yet.

That's all for 2007 :hippy:

[smokenss]

lookn good have a good new year.



:smokin:ss

[sarah louise]

Ta SS and happy new year to you too. :jointsmile:

Triffid measurements ~ trunk length 240 cm, vertical height 160 cm. Time to take a stroll through the parkland that backs onto my garden. I think I should be right for cover until she gets to 180 cm, but I'll still go and check the lines of sight.

Sara Lou :hippy:

[fUNKYcDOG]

they look g00d and healthy. keep up the g00d work....


w00t

puff - puff - pass

:jointsmile:

[DaddyzCrazy]

WOW!!!!!

Excellent lady you have there Sarah Louise.

Very nice job raising her. She looks healthy and happy in her new home.....

DC.

[Rock.Steady]

wow, and i thought i was patient.
wow, just wow.

keep up the good work.:thumbsup:

[sarah louise]

Thanks guys :)

I dunno Rock, you seem pretty patient. I don't think I would try and flower Thai, or any other long flowering strain, indoors. That is patience and dedication in my book.

The temps are supposed to stay up around 23 - 40C (73 - 104F) for another couple of days before a change. Everything in the garden is looking heat stressed apart from the triffid, she seems to be taking it all in stride.

Sara Lou :hippy:

[Shovelhandle]

Thanks for updating with new photos. I really love the look of The Triffid. I've not grown plants like that in over 30 years! Used to be that sativa was all you could buy here in New England, USA in the 60s and 70s. Mex, Jamaican, Colombian, Panama, Belize and other So. American sativas. The Eurasian indicas seemed to be all processed into hashish (not a bad thing).

Happy New Years Sara Lou and all the Cann.com peeps.

Shv

[sarah louise]

Thanks Shov and happy new year, she really is a pretty shrub. I do like the old fashioned sativas, even if they take forever to finish flowering. I don't function well (cognitively) during the day smoking indica, but have no problems with the triffids, so they will always have a place in my garden.

Sara Lou :hippy:

[sarah louise]

It rained... too much :(

The 22 mm Friday night / Saturday was great, but the 32 mm overnight, last night was too much for my big girl and she has snapped a main branch, taking out about 20% of the canopy.

At least the potted triffids (last image) are doing ok :hippy:

[smokenss]

did u try potting the branch that came off might b worth ago.things r looking very green and bushy in ur garden, very cool

[Rock.Steady]

that thing's so big you'd swear you could buy it at a garden center,LOL!:thumbsup:






i wish:wtf:

[sarah louise]

Thanks guys, the sun is out and she is looking nice and perky again today. The branch was a little large to try and root it SS. It was thicker than my thumb where it broke free from the main trunk and was carrying 11, 2-3 ft long, secondary branches.

Nice idea Rock, I wouldn't mind finding one of these in the advanced tree section, it would probably cost a fortune though.

Time to go rehang all the weights and stop those branches from playing peekaboo over the fence.

Sara Lou :hippy:

[sarah louise]

ok finishing up this aborted grow, obviously no smoke report will follow.

Back to start again once the plods are finished with me.

sara lou :hippy:

ps shit it has been humid, check out the downy mildew on my pumpkins, no sign of it 36 hrs ago.

[hydrocannabis]

so why did U have to get rid of it?