Lukes next grow...

[Luke Skywalker]

Okay, let's get in close on these ones. I've kept all these plants deliberately small, through a process of underfeeding, but only just, and low lighting levels. I've also kept them in small pots for their lifespan. The reason for keeping them small as possible, is because quite bluntly, I have bugger all space, and need to economise. If I want to try out new strains tho, I have to grow em out as mums at least. I'll likely be either partitioning my gr at about 2/3 flower-1/3 grow/clone, or be creating a small area for mums to the main gr. Not sure which yet.

 

Anyway, here's a close up of the tops on one of these plants. The tip burn you can see is a slight underfert, not over.

[Luke Skywalker]

And here's a close up of the stem... The red petiole, (leaf stalks) you can see is indicative of a nutrient deficiency also, but it's not too bad.

[Luke Skywalker]

This is a close up of the other purple stars' top...

[Luke Skywalker]

Okay, and this is the top half of that plant. Once again you can see the red petioles, and if you look really really closely, you can just make out some preflowers at the tipping point on the nodes.... I'll indclude a close up to show what I mean.

[Luke Skywalker]

And here's that close up I promised, you can just make out a couple of fem flowers at the point where it's two main branches diverge after tipping.

 

Finding fema;e flowers, or preflowers, doesn't necessarily mean that it's a full female tho. Some hermies won't appear until much later, so all plants are watched like hawks.

[Luke Skywalker]

Now, let us move onto the Blue Widow mum eh?

 

This is an overall shot. You can see she's a bushy one, with fat as indica leaves. They tend to thin out to a more sativa like structure in flowering though, which is a trait I'd not seen before. Indica leaves in veg, sativa leaves in flower. There are some shots in my first growing thread here on this, with a shot of the two different leaves side by side.

 

Anyway, here's the BW mum. The two large white things you can see on either side are called "yo-yo's" and are training devices. Essentially spring tensioned fishing lines with good hooks on the end.

[Luke Skywalker]

Now let's have a look at the top. Nice and compact.

[Luke Skywalker]

Now I'd like to show ya something. These plants are about 2 months old now, and have reached a point where they could be called semi mature sexually. Why? Because of the structure of the nodes.

 

When a MJ plant is getting ready to flower, and is showing itself as prepared to do so, it does a couple of things. One may happen before the other, one may happen loooong before the other. But either sign is usually a fair indicator of sexual maturity. Anyway, the signs are, preflowers showing at the nodes, which are basically individual flowers with or without receptive stigmas appearing on the nodes. And secondly the change from opposing to alternating nodes. Meaning that the nodes are produced on the stem first one side, then another, rather than two directly opposite each other.

 

There is a term for the point where the plants change from opposing to alternating nodes. It's called GV Point. And here's a shot showing you what this is. At the bottom of the pic you'll see a pair of nodes, with little shoots coming out from them, and at the top, you can see that these nodes are not directly opposite, but the one on the left is higher than that on the right of the stem.

 

So, this is GV point.

[Luke Skywalker]

And finally, here's the pics of the mutant... the skxww plant which has defied all expectations and remained strong and healthy. Although as yet showing absolutely no sign of sex.

 

I'm moderately confused by this plant, but I do hope that I'm wrong and it's a girl.

 

This is the plant overall...

[Luke Skywalker]

And close ups...