Hey all, a busy time in the cannabis grow tents :) The Pink Apricot hybrid has been in bloom stage for a week and is already showing female, the hydroponic Pink Apricot is on Week 6, and the Orange Barb seedling has raised up from the soil and is on Week 3.
Above-Left is Hydroponic Pink Apricot week 6, to the right is Orange Barb week 3.
Pink Apricot Bloom Week 1
With one week into bloom, the Pink Apricot pictured below is showing as Female - great news, this cannabis plant will produce buds and not pollen, 7-8 weeks until harvest.
Pink Apricot Bloom Week 1
You can see the pistils forming, translucent and rising up where the leaf stem and main stalk meet.
I'm happy to have made a clone of this now proven female plant - it's doing well, needs at least another week relaxing with the plastic cover while it's growing roots.
For the past week the light has been set to the red bloom triggering light spectrum. More important than the red spectrum is setting the light timer to 12 hours ON / 12 hours OFF - this mimicks the amount of light near the end of the growing season, to trigger the plant to go into bloom mode.
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In the picture below you can see two pairs of pistils emerging. The pistils are appearing at the top of the plant so far. I'll keep the red spectrum light on for a few more days to solidly trigger the plant into bloom cycle, then also turn on the veg light for a high power purple combination for the bud growing stage.
You can see the open air under the foilage - the main stem was bent over, the branches have all grown upwards.
This training technique is especially useful with artificial lighting, for giving a somewhat level foliage surface, with multiple branches growing up as multiple bud colas - then the lights can be brought closer to the plant for the most efficient light usage.
Less than two months away from this Pink Apricot bud harvest, I'm looking forward to that day.
Hydroponic Pink Apricot Week 6
I started this Pink Apricot plant in this Hydroponic System six weeks ago, same time as the other Pink Apricot that is in dirt and in bloom.
This one in the hydroponic setup grew a little slower than the one in the dirt. I suspect.the water level was too low for the first two weeks and delayed it's growth. I had the water level just at the bottom of the clay pebble basket, but it should have been filled to 2 inches below the top of the clay pebbles.
 Week 1 |  Week 2 |  Week 3 |
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A couple weeks after the water level was corrected, the plant caught it's stride with large growth.
 Week 4 |  Week 5 |
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Some of the older fan leaves have an orange dusty drying out, I thought maybe the lights had burned them, but I also suspected that I may have added too much grow juice too soon.
Check out all those oxygenated roots :)
I emptied a few jugs of the resevouir water, then replaced it with a few jugs of pure water, it seems to have halted the leaf drying progression.
By Week 6 you can see the growth has been exponential, the plant has really bushed out - in a couple more weeks I'll put this beauty into bloom. I'm not concerned with cloning this one, I've already reached my limit of four plants, and already have a proven female Pink Apricot clone.
Orange Barb hybrid Week 3
I started soaking this Orange Barb feminized seed, four weeks ago, after four days it had popped and had a long tail on it - it was ready for planting.
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I poked a hole in the already watered dirt, the popped seed went in tail first and was lightly covered with dirt.
Placed a clear plastic cover on the container to keep in the humidity, so the soil doesn't dry out before the roots grow.
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A couple days later, up popped the Orange Barb seedling.
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This Orange Barb seedling has grown quickly.
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Half way through the second week, I transplanted Orange Barb to a 5 gallon container, for more room to grow.
Week 3
Orange Barb has continued to fill in nicely. I'll grow and train this plant for another five weeks before blooming it. After that will be the Pink Apricot clone to keep the flow of bud harvests.