it all started so well with 10 sunk #1 and 5 super skunk feminised seeds from sensi seed bank. To my utter delight all 15 seeds germinated under a 125 cfl blue lamp but I couldnt leave it alone , I brought my lamp too close and light stressed 4 of the skunk #1. As it was just about spring time and not wishing to burn up electricity ruining my grow I decided to move all my plants into my garage, where with the aid of a corrugated clear plastic roof I do all my summer growing. Things started to improved but that was not good enough for me. These plastic corrugated roofs degrade in the sunlight, mine were over 10 years old, so how hard could it be to change a few, just enough to light up the main growing space , which is a work bench and a set of shelves up against the back wall. I got 3 2400 x 1200 sheets from B&Q, picked a fine day and set about changing them, not too bad a job, the old sheets are really brittle, they shatter and scratch your arms but I got three sheets off in the middle. Sadly the manufacturer has subtly changed the profile so my little patch has to become a bigger patch and 3 more sheets have to be bought. Wow lots more light beaming in exactly where I want it, its going to be great year, my plants loved it.
I normally start my plants on the shelf up against the wall as April is not such a warm month and heat rises, things were going well all through April, Super Skunk growing twice as fast as skunk #1 . On 3 rd of May we had a cloudless day, tee shirt weather what a boost couldn't wait to see how my girls were doing. It was hot inside my garage very hot above 40c in the shade and what a mess, a vista of burned and dying plants. Some were complete goners, these included tomatoes and coriander. None of my skunks were completely dead, some looked almost unaffected and the 2 runt plants they looked the best, one of the skunk #1 was basically a stalk with 1 small leaf attached but they all had good roots soIi hoped they would recover. i had to buy tomato plants. I moved the worst affected plants into the shady side of the garage and the healthier ones into the sweet spot I had created with my new roof panels , in this position I had previously grown some monster plants and I never expected 15 plants from 15 seeds, so things are still good, I even had a bag seed plant whichIi put in the garage in the winter and had flowered due to spring equinox.
25 may was another cloudless day and once again devastation has occurred, 4 plants which where just about to go into 12/12 and were in the sweet spot had turned into withered stalks, it looked like a flame thrower had been used, one plant actually died, the rest will take a long time to recover, so I ordered some more seeds. I have renamed the sweet spot as the "death zone" and have become very vigilant where the weather is concerned leaving my plants on the floor of the garage when the sun threatens to come out. I have manged to flower 2 of the super skunks and have another about to go in the 12/12 cycle, the skunk #1 plants are more badly affected and I don't expect to be able to flower them till september.
Its is with further dismay that I have to report that one of my super skunks has gone hermie in its first week of flowering, I had tried to convince myself its was some sort of super bud you only get on skunks, skunk novice you see, but today I got the modelling knife out and castrated all 8 little balls so I hope to salvage something, normally I would have just chopped it but I am in a dead end here.
So what I am wondering is how likely is it that the hermaphrodite was caused by heat stress as apposed to genetics and if it is heat stress will plants that have been left to veg for a long period after the hot event recover and not turn out hermie.
Bookmarks