I met this American guy last night. From North Carolina. Awesome accent, black fellah, with an 11″ penis

He was ripped. Looked like a bigger version of Wesley Snipes in Blade. So anyway I didn’t get round to finishing up Pt 2 last night. Huge penis. I randomly met this porno star last night. Nice guy. Apparently people normally recognise him but porno isn’t my thing. He’s 6’4″ or something but his girlfriend also in the biz is 4’4″ – I’ve only seen pictures, often captioned on IG with “when a hood girl…” People you meet, eh?

So on to the plants.

5×5 Animal Mintz BX1, Black Patronus, Masterpiece w/t Co2

So these are trucking along, I looked for the flip day and umm couldn’t immediately find it. 22nd July in another post I looked at photos – they were tiny, they looked half dead, see below:

Now the plants’ ability to overcome my poor care, and notwithstanding I go by the name Lucky Nick, we always flip on a Sunday, ’cause that when Sparky comes, apart from when he goes AWOL and its Monday. So, wait hold my vape…

I’m going Monday 5th August for flip but as noted elsewhere, it was a really slow flip, the 4×4 was 12 days plus and these were even slower. So that date implies they are approaching the end of Week 5. I’m treating them in terms of feed like they are a week younger, and they present like that. None of them are noted for yield. Its not that kinda of gig. Its like this here in the day:

It gives a pretty toppy VPD of 1.8, really its 1.6 at this point you want to aim for. But, we have a, for once, in the tent, a really steady Co2 supply, its nicely leveled at 1300 without too much variance. Tonight I’ll add dropping the AC for this tent into my 7:50PM reminder pre lights out. We’re starting to see some colour from the Black Patronus – more on colours and tings in a moment. But this is the tent we once got mould in, its a tent outdoors in on a tropical island, not that far from the equator – its a tough gig! Last of the like real measurements for a bit that’s one of only two sensors I have running at the moment across the 5 grows! Skin&Eyes™ 3 Step Plan – Does it feel hot and damp on your skin in veg? Warm and dry and in flower? Are they alive? Fool proof, just needs Skin and Eyes! We’re in a good place here. Great strains I think, with the setup, the environmental stuff under control, for now. Its been a bit cooler and wetter here, but the Rh seems to have dropped off with the increased wind speed from the monsoon.

More on 3.0 Gen Strains

So a buddy of mine, @wastei with may, way more experience than me has been helpfully throwing around some thoughts in comments the last few days. Good questions and thoughts. I think I maybe have more to say on it, probably do a post on it later in this grow when these are a bit more mature. When I mention the sparkle, sure there’s a tendency to think that therefore its “Stronger’ by which most people think THC content. I don’t think like that, nor do I chase it. I think that the added sparkle some of these strains have is probably bred in to make consumers happy. I do think that they have much stronger flavours. I’ve bought a few strains like this, an Amazing Black Cherry, not the one we’re growing, another clone/cut only job that a huge commercial outfit here have. It was so Raspberry you’d need a glass of something strong to rinse your mouth out after a while, it got sickly even.

There’s other strains where I’ve seen buds like they’d had Afghan Black hammered into them. Its a bit cowboy round here so I did check that wasn’t the case! I think there’s going to be a new wave of strains and quite possibly some old favourites reimagined with which ever genetic triggers breeders are managing to isolate. For me? 99% of strains stop getting me high above about a 7/10 after a few days now, my brain seems to figure out the puzzle of how not to get spangled and my best bet is to lay off it for a month or two. It never hits like the first time though. Of course not everyone is the same and not everyone has access to so many strains. Cannabis is one of, under some metrics, the most studied and bred plant in human history. Wheat and rice the food staples are right up there, but they aren’t the sorts of plants that your average Joe starts breeding. An avid fan of Clarkson’s Farm, wheat and barley and all that gets a moisture content check and not much else, pro breeders are testing all the time, growing cuts and isolating genes in gel and all sorts. Isolating things to improve visuals, flavours, yields. Its 3G Growing.

4G Cannabis Strains

And before you’ve even got to grips with 3.0 Strains as obvious is obvious, just like when we were all upgrading our phones for new network speeds, we’re only at early smart phone generation equivalent now. Flash still powers it all, to Steve Job’s chagrin. CRISPR – gene editing, its getting cheaper and easier all the time, I’m sure there must be people in the world already experimenting with it. Its where it will go – but then there will be purists and those consider themselves somehow enlightened – “The 60’s called and they want you and your weed back!” – blah. It depends what you want out of a like the Swiss Army Knife of plants right? For me – I like the mental challenge of experiencing an unknown strain, what its going to do to me, I mostly ignore the IND/SAT rating either than perk me up or on those Sunday nights when you need couch lock and an early deep sleep. I mean sure I think within my expected actuarial life time, see what the insurers come back with, it could be bred to the extent its like coffee machine capsules. Foil capped, colour coded the effects on you, and those effects tailored by some AI based on previous experiences, your phone or watch has been transmitting back data based on physiological and assessments of written or spoken words. The possibility of that, I mean the tech is basically there already! But I briefly owned a Nespresso machine and that sucked. My Roger Federer Jura F50 Bean to Cup machine was tech and choice. And to continue the analogy the best coffee I have had was made in one of these, camping stove on top of my Land Rover which on top of a mountain in Ethiopia (though Italian Illy coffee, which is at least somewhat appropriate)

Anyway that’s Pt. 2 Done

I’m a gonna need some Pt.’s to finish the other grows! To finish up this one to answer another of Wastei’s points. Are we still seeds buying? No not really. The Masterpiece/Black Patronus/Animal Mintz were part seed and the AMBX1 is clones of clones. No pheno hunting. Just what we got. The incoming Permanent Chimera are clones, They had 7 in stock so I ordered 6. I’m a bit naughty. Last time for the Animal Mintz BX1 clones off the same place I ordered two of three available, they were more than 3x the price and thought I’d get one to live! They sent me all three anyway.

So I will add to the collection but I feel like my days of getting 100 seeds across 15 strains twice a year are gone. None of the Serious/Barney’s/Anesia/Sweet/Blimburn/Seedstocker, (and we’ve grown 25+ strains in two years?) really nothing, and whilst no one grow is quite the same, there has been a learning curve, sometimes we’ve nailed it better than others, these plants though, I mean certainly the AMBX1 that was grown amongst all of the above breeders plants. Our laziest tent, really – note the 8×4 has no trellis, no AC or dehuey other than second hand – it just banged. And the 5×5 – the other two strains are even ahead of that.

Cap’n Junky was Seed Junky’s biggest winner and clones/cuts were at $1500 USD – no seeds. And that’s the approach some of these breeders take, lots don’t even sell direct to the public. Only through distributers – Seed Junky, InHouse no B2C. I always said I wouldn’t go this route – I knew early the average price of bulk seeds is like one Euro ’bout a buck. And thought I was a shmoe for paying as bunch as $10-15 But yeah, I see it differently now, there is a difference big enough to call a generational difference. For better or for worse! Not all change is better – coffee in metal capsules def hasn’t improved the world.

One more part to come! Three tents to go!

Nick & Co