I am really stoked about this round.
Like I said, they are currently about 2-3 weeks out from the finish line, the first ones have started to show the first hints of orange/browning at the base of a few stigmas and they already look as plump as the finished buds from my first successful round.
The Afghan pheno in particular is going to be something ridiculous in terms of budsize when its done.
Even if the smoke is crap, the trichome/resin production is looking great as well (not sure how much the malted barley/molasses ACT has to do with that).
So at the very least, this is going to make a great hash plant. But I believe to have smelled the acrid berry aroma that I know from the last CM I flowered, when I moved the pheno around.
There is another pheno that wasn't flowered in the first go-around because there wasn't enough space.
I incidentally marked the pheno as number 42
It looks very, very good in veg and had the purpling stigmas (that could have been from cold stress).
So I am very curious about how that one will perform.
I also have two different CMH lights running. In the big chamber is the 630w with the red/warm spectrum and in the small chamber is the 315w with blue/cold spectrum.
Now I did put all the massive looking phenos into the big chamber and put all the spindly/viney/runty looking ones in the small one.
But aside from the phenotype, it seems clear that the combination of spectrum and less wattage produces considerably smaller colas (who woulda thunk it ?!?).
But what is actually surprising to me is that I seem to be able to confirm that the blue/colder spectrum lights seem to cause the plants to finish earlier!
There is one pheno in there, that had the first sign of browning stigmas already a week or so ago and by the looks of it will be done a week or at least several days before all others.
Now it certainly could be the pheno more than anything but I seem to remember I was told that cold/blue spectrum lights cause the plants to finish their flowering earlier as well.
Next round I will have a pheno of the CM 42 in each flower chamber and see the difference more clearly.
If everything goes according to plan... I have 4 plants that will be 5 months vegged when they go into flower. They are basically early stage mother plants.
Gonna have to see how much space they will take up when I flower them out.
Anyway, the real reason I wanted the cold/blue spectrum lights was that it supposedly produces superior terpenes/aromas/flavors compared to the warm/red spectrum. So I will compare that as well in the near future.
I should have gone with a more comparable wattage though ...
It looks like I will move places in the coming years though, new job opportunity and such. I am making sure that I will be able to grow in the new place as well and am currently looking into houses where I will have a higher ceiling for my grow space so I can give the sativas in the future more space. Also will look into improved environment in some other regards, when compared to my current space.
Real bummer too, as I am just about to finish the drying chamber (only a year or so late
) and only have minor work on the grow space left before I can call it finished...
But things might change in the coming years and I might be able to add a third chamber where I could throw in a 315w CMH with red/warm spectrum for better comparison.
I also have a friend who has a friend (you know how it goes xD) who just quit growing and has an entire grow op locked away in storage.
Unfortunately the guy went with hydro and I see no reason, other than a return of the fungus gnats or some other pest, to switch to hydro.
Not if I can grow bud like I currently do with only water and some compost tea (which isn't really necessary imho but doesn't seem to hurt).
Still, the guy had modern LED fixtures and the like. In terms of fans I could definitely still upgrade. Gonna look through his stuff for sure, maybe drop a grand or so one some new, barely used toys.
These opportunities are kinda rare so I plan to buy anything remotely useful to me and depending on my haul, that will also shape the future look of things.
All in all I want to thank everyone here on the board for helping me get to this point.
This is a real good success story for me and I plan to give back whenever I can.
You best believe I will take good care of these genetics and preserve them the best I can.
And when the time comes and the environment allows me to, I plan to share what I have preserved with everyone I can.
The first step has already been taken.
The Afghan leaning pheno looks like a clear cut winner (pending smoke report of course) and even if the smoke is mediocre, it will be a great hashplant simply due to its vigor and production qualities.
I will breed based on this keeper and others I will find in the future and I will make something for future generations.
Just gotta wait and see if I can share them with people where I live or if I someday have to take a trip to the US/Canada and gift a big bag of seeds to someone there. I guess I could always gift some to my favorite shop in the Netherlands or to some Spanish or Italian seed maker, too ...
Let's see.
Broseidon out