FINISHING THE CLOSET GARDEN: THE WONDERS OF WICKS

In my “Getting Ready to Grow” article, I outlined the process for setting up a closet garden, choosing seeds or clones, and starting the seeds. I chose to use the wick system—the ultimate in low-care methods, which is also ideal in times of water conservation. Now we move on to the transplanting, growth, flowering, ripening, and final days.

In my “Getting Ready to Grow” article, I outlined the process for setting up a closet garden, choosing seeds or clones, and starting the seeds. I chose to use the wick system—the ultimate in low-care methods, which is also ideal in times of water conservation. Now we move on to the transplanting, growth, flowering, ripening, and final days.

PART ONE: TRANSPLANTING

I had planted 10-cm containers with two Fruity Juice® seeds each. Most of them germinated so there were two plants in each container. I reasoned that these were non-feminized seeds so some of the plants would be males. Planting two per container doubled the chances of having a female plant in each one.

I was supposed to transplant the seedlings on Sunday but my schedule forced me to delay planting by a week. The seedlings had become a little stressed by the time they were transplanted. However, I knew they would quickly recover once they were situated in roomier, brighter quarters.

First I prepared the 16 containers. Since the plants are to be grown in a wick system I cut two 45-cm lengths of braided 1-cm diameter nylon rope for each container, a total of 32. Once they were cut I wrapped packing tape around the rope close to the ends to prevent the strands from unraveling.

Each piece was looped through opposite holes at the bottom of the container so they crossed in the middle. I held the wicks in place using a piece of packing tape. Then I filled the container with planting mix. This step was repeated 16 times.

Each 25-cubic-cm package of soil filled two containers. So I used eight bags of soil. To plant I scooped out soil to create a depression in the middle of each bag. I tapped the seedlings from the 10-cm container and placed the top of the rootball at the soil line. Then I pushed the soil around the transplant to make good contact with it.

After the transplants were in place I placed the bags on top of the pallet that sits in the 120-by-120-cm tray. I made sure that the wicks hung from the containers down into the tray so they would draw water up into the soil. Then I watered the plants with plain pH-adjusted water. Water leaked from the holes in the containers so I knew that they were thoroughly saturated.

At planting time I didn’t have time to fill the trays so the wick system was not operational. Instead the plants were watered manually. It wasn’t until two weeks had passed that I filled the tray with about 12 cm of water with a 5-2.5-5 fertilizer mix plus compost tea, seaweed extract, and humic acid. At the same time I installed a small pump to circulate the water in the tray and an air pump with aerator to keep the water oxygenated because roots need the element.

The plants would draw from this reservoir through the vegetative cycle, which continued for about a month. Since the wicks drew the water from the reservoir into the soil I did not need to water the individual containers. I just had to keep an eye on the reservoir water level and refill it with water adjusted to a pH around 6.0.

Next, I laid a piece of panda plastic over the whole system and cut holes in the plastic over the containers to let the stems through. This serves several purposes. First it prevents light from getting to the water in the reservoir, which prevents algae from growing. Secondly, it lowers the rate of evaporation. Third, darkness promotes root growth from the containers into the reservoir so they have a direct line to water.

PART TWO: GROWTH AND FLOWERING

Earlier I discussed transplanting the seedlings into containers that were part of a wick system. This uses nylon wicks that draw water up to the pots using capillary action. No hand watering is required. Once the plants were transplanted they immediately started growing very quickly.

About four weeks after they were transplanted the plants had filled the canopy, so I switched the light to 12 hours on and 12 hours off using a timer. This light regimen forces the plant to flower.

The science behind it is that during the dark period a chemical called phytochrome builds up in the plants. When it reaches a critical level it switches the plant from vegetative growth to flowering.

For the next week the plants went on a growth spurt, increasing their length by 30 cm or more. The plants grew tightly packed against each other, but I anticipated that some of the plants would be males and would be removed from the garden as soon as they indicated. After about five days it was easy to recognize the males. They had little balls that, if left to ripen, would turn into flowers holding sinsemilla-destroying pollen. The 1/3-cm flowers have five white to pale yellow petals when they open. The females grow the first stigmas, the white- or cream-colored female organs that look like hairs sticking out of them.

These “hairs” are hollow tubes with “brushes” that filter the air seeking pollen to fertilize the flower below. Should a pollen grain reach the brush its sperm is transferred into the hollow tube and then to the egg waiting below. Hopefully, the search will be in vain and the flower will ripen to be part of a tight seedless bud.

Only about one-third of the plants turned out to be male and several of them were singles or were much larger than their container-mates. Once these plants were removed, it left several holes in the canopy, but I allowed the neighboring plants to grow into the space to fill the void. The smaller plants, now free from shading, were thriving and showing a growth spurt even as they flowered.

Before the gender cleansing, the density of the canopy held the plants upright. However, upon removing the males, leaving holes in the canopy, the plants began leaning over. I used plant stakes and twist ties to hold the plants upright while allowing branches to fill void spaces. Now the plants were beginning their flower growth spurt. I anticipated that it was only six or seven weeks until harvest.

PART THREE: FLOWERING AND RIPENING

At this stage, it had been six weeks since the lights were turned back 12 hours daily to force the plants to flower. The plants responded visibly within five days, and indicated sex. Males were immediately removed from the garden. At the same time the plants went on a growth spurt gaining 30 cm in height in about a week. As that ended there was a burst of flower building. Now the colas, the branches holding the buds, were covered with the stigmas and developing more all the time.

When the light regimen was changed to 12–12 the reservoir was drained and filled with nutrient water using a different formula. Nitrogen was eliminated during this part of the cycle so the reservoir was filled with water containing phosphorous and potassium. This promotes flowering and minimizes vegetative growth. Since the water change, no nutrient was added to the garden. Only pure rainwater was used to refill the reservoir. Next the reservoir was drained, removing all nutrients, and refilled with the rainwater, so the plants would receive more than 10 days of flushing—that is, growing with only a small amount of nutrients—to prevent them from having a chemical taste.

To support the buds and keep them within their section of the canopy two nylon nets with 15-cm holes were installed. But most of the plants used only the bottom net.

At this point, the buds were ripening nicely and getting firmer. They had a nice sweet odor typical of Fruity Juice®, but it wasn’t very intense. I suspected that in the two weeks they had until ripening they would become extremely fragrant.

There was not much to do in the garden. The plants were fed automatically as required using the wick system. The light regimen, CO2, and temperature were all on automatic. The plants varied in ripeness. Some were about five days away from ripe, while others had 15 days to go.

PART FOUR: FINAL DAYS

Of the 16 containers that were started only six yielded bud, and two of those plants were runts. By the end, eight of the containers had male plants, which were removed. In all the containers with two plants one plant became dominant and, with loss of canopy space, the other one died. Two containers had plants with failure to thrive. This left only six plants in flowering mode with only two weeks to go before maturity.

The plants were still using the wick system, drawing water from the reservoir below. The reservoir water had just been changed from flowering nutrients to rainwater pH adjusted to 6.0. Using this system each container drew water only as it was required.

As the days continued the buds started the final ripening process. The stigmas, the tiny white hairs sticking out 2/3 cm from the flowers, are hollow tubes surrounded by fine brushes. They filter the air, attempting to capture pollen drifting in the wind. As the flowers mature they dry and turn a reddish-tan, sometimes with purple overtones.

The trichomes are composed of stalks topped with bulbous caps. It’s along the inner walls of these glands that the cannabinoids and the terpenes are manufactured and stored. As these oils build up the caps’ membranes begin to stretch. By the time they are harvested they should look like balloons about to burst.

In some varieties the flowers to which the stigmas are attached begin to swell somewhat and may develop a pod as if there was a seed inside.

Another sign of maturation is the increase in odor. During the last week the aroma intensity increases dramatically.

At the beginning of the day, eight weeks after forcing flowering all six of the plants had top buds that were ready to pick. Rather than stagger the harvest to ripen the lower buds a bit I decided to cut the crop. All the plants were cut at the bottom of the stem and then placed on netting in an unused tent to dry. They lay there at room temperature and lower at night for three weeks, then they were trimmed.

The top buds produced a total of about 112 grams. Secondary buds totaled about 35 grams, and trim leaf totaled about 73 grams. This was a poor yield for 600 watts. I think the reasons were that the canopy was not filled with vegetation because there were only a few plants left after the runts and males were removed, and the LED lights by Apache turned out to be an older model, producing only half the light of the new models.

The Fruity Juice® buds had an exquisite fruity/flowery aroma and a potent, up high that enticed people to smoke more, even though the taste was mediocre as a result of half-hearted flushing.