First grow (flowering stage only) with pics

[crystaliscious]

Good Job!!!

Once you appreciate them- they show you the real shit then….have fun!

[catbuds]

Chromo, do not remove the plastic from around the rockwool cubes! It helps with the capillary action, keeps the cube intact, & once the roots start growing, it keeps them from being exposed. Your buds are awesome! Anticipation is a killer! Makes it oh so tempting to harvest a tad too young, but DONT DO IT! Just follow the trichromes guys, no matter what the leaves, hairs or anything else is doing.... follow the trichromes.....
-- So Chromo, if these clones take off for you, do you think you'll be making a large part of your grow from them? (BTW, when you take cuttings from budding plants, or even veg plants, you can keep them under 12/12 & they will still do their thing, maybe even better. No stress from going from flower to veg & back again). Have you read up on re-vegging? GREAT thing to do. Gives you many, many branches to clone from, or a REALLY heavy producer the second time around. If you flower it out again, you will have to thin the hell out of it though, still almost forcing you to clone it. But you may want to give it a try with your favorite girl. She's worth it.

-remove the plastic only when you plant it into soil.

[Chromophore]

Thanks, catbuds. I left the rockwool condoms on, and I'm glad I did because I don't think it would be easy to get them back on once they're off! My plan for the cloned buds was to return them to veg, and use them as further cloning stock for my next growing cycle, which won't be until August or September. This timing is a problem because I have a number of young clones of varying ages hanging around now with nothing to do until next Fall. I cloned that budding plant based only on feel, because it feels like the mother is going to be killer. And I have a confession to make, of which I am not proud: when I took clones from these plants back in November, before they started flowering, I did not label them properly, and now I don't know which goes to which. Additionally, not all of the mothers produced successful clones, while others produced several. So until I flower them I won't know whether I even have one from that plant. Major brainfart. I also have clones from the batch of plants which are presently waiting to flower (different strain from what is flowering now). So I have to figure out how to babysit all these clones over the period when my basement and grow-room are getting torn down and remodeled this summer.

As for the flowering plants, I have been taking careful notes on the trichomes, and am lucky that I have a nice little stereo-microscope to view them with. As of last night, I see about equal amounts of clear and cloudy trichomes, and no ambers. Some plants are a little further ahead of others but that's the average at this point. Based on how they have developed up to this point, I'm guessing at least another week to 10 days. Though they are looking nice, they still have some swelling and filling to do. Hopefully.

[Chromophore]

Coming up on 8 weeks here in a day or two, and some changes are occurring. Trichomes are definitely moving along in development, probably 20/70/10 clear/cloudy/amber. Odor is intense. The plants are slowing their water intake and fan leaves are starting to yellow. Some buds are still not as filled in as I would like, but I think I got some stretch in early flowering, and many of my upper nodes are fairly far apart. Lots of big chunky nuggets though. I feel like some of the top buds may be close to harvest, but I'm going to wait a couple days and see how fast trichome ripening is taking place. It seems like it has accelerated, while the plants themselves are slowing. Pictures tonight.

[Chromophore]

Well, 8 weeks of 12/12 complete, and the urge to harvest is almost unbearable. But I know they need more time. I'm still getting swelling, the process is moving up the buds, and the in the lower portions the calyxes look like the have seeds in them they're so plump. But the upper parts still need some swelling. Trichomes are on average at a nice distribution of maybe 25/65/10 (clear/cloudy/amber), si that could take a little more ripening as well. But I'm guess by next weekend the clippers and scissors are going to be in action. Some pics:

the widest angle I can get. They've pretty much filled the room with a Sea of buds. Attachment 297958 another pano Attachment 297959

my favorite bud, she is a long, continuous spiral of egg-sized buds. She looks like she's dancing Attachment 297960


this is a shot of my "favorite" plant. I call her "Sativa" because she has a longer, taller habit with long, narrow colas. But her buds are deeply aromatic and coated with sticky, gooey trichomes.

The long bud on the right measures 27 inches in length. So far:smokin: Attachment 297961
This is a shot of (part of) my second favorite plant, I call her "Indica" because she has a relatively compact, bushy habit and fat, pagoda-shaped buds. She is a beauty Attachment 297962 Amazing the variation in this f1 batch of seeds.

[tlranger]

Pretty aren't they

[Chromophore]

ranger they are amazing. I never really thought much about the aesthetics of these plants until I grew them. I always thought of them as simple, kind of boring even in flower. Seeing them develop and getting to see them in person has totally changed my mind. Datura is still my favorite plant in terms of elegance and blossom beauty, but Cannabis is making up ground quickly.

[GrowBitch2013]

@ranger - This is pure art ! Nature and the gardener are the artists :-D
I love the pics of your plants - seeing such great buds make the GrowBitch horny like always ;-)

@Chromophore - I can feel exactly what you are saying about the feeling seeing them developing.
I do this the first time and it's so exciting like the first love in teenager age. Damn this is crazy....

Hugs to u guys...

By the way.. anybody seen catbuds ? I miss her... Hope you're fine sister..

[Chromophore]

I think she's hanging out over at MNS forum.

[catbuds]

Still here. Been forum hopping trying round everybody up. Almost there. I'm a member of several forums & I'm trying to round up those of us who wander 'off topic' a lot & get us all over to MNS where they have PMs (private messages). There are also topics that are taboo here & MNS actually has a sub-forum for. This will always be our 'home forum', we're just broadening our horizons. Come on over!

DATURA!!!! Guess we all know about the wild variety; grows rampant in corn fields here, but the cultivar, Angel Trumpet! OMG! Prettiest thing I've EVER seen! Every garden should have a few! I am so enraptured by the beauty of this flowering wonder that I nearly have an orgasm just looking at it! Now if we want to discuss the wild native, we'll have to do so on the other fourm (& WE CAN!!!!). This flower is so beautiful & HUGE, the one companion that can do it justice is the big beautiful blue clematis, Jackimani (sp). Takes my breath away just visualizing that! There's one new hybrid of Angel Trumpet that I don't care for. Forgot the name, but its purple & the flowers are upright. A huge plant with HUGE blossoms should have pendulus, hanging flowers. On the upright purple one, you only get to see the backsides of the flowers. If I want to see backsides, I'll go to a strip club! Ok, off topic! Got some forum hopping to do!