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Granddaddy Purple and friends


Big Sur
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So, last year I grew 4 clone-only strains here indoors over winter and outdoors scone the weather warmed up. They included Blue Dream, White Widow, OH Kush, and Granddaddy Purple/GDP. I will start a thread on each strain here. This was a departure from my earlier grows, which have all been started from my landrace and heirloom seed collection that I got from bag weed in the 1970s through the 2000s. I decided to grow 4 of the best known and most popular medical strains available here in clone form. I started them indoors here last winter, growing under MH 400w lights. I took cuttings as they got larger and rooted them under T-8 floro bulbs in a bubble cloner that I made for about $20 (maybe I will start a thread on that too). I sized them up and in the spring I moved them all outside into two hoop greenhouses and they all bloomed nicely. I harvested them in June and re-vegged them outdoors in the sun, and they grew nicely through the summer. 

 

Of the lot, my favorite smoke is GDP for pain, stress relief and general well being. I also like the flavor of it, as it has a grape taste that is light but pleasing. I do not smoke weed for the flavor, per se, but it does not hurt if it tastes good! A few hits and I am good to go. Too much and it will lock me down. I do not get tired of smoking GDP, (or White Widow) like many other weeds that I have grown. Its a good all-around high and medical weed in one.

 


 

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I hunted down the GDP from a grower that got the clone from Santa Cruz, the said to be origin of this strain. She was an OMMP grower and I got a nice healthy clone for $10 (legal here in Oregon). It grew well and sized up nicely, but I had to harvest it a tad earlier than I wanted because of early rains here. I had to move the GDP indoors under lights in late September, and finish it through mid October. The main issue with GDP was that it was the most prone to getting powdery mildew of the lot. I mean, lots and lots of mildew, indoors and out. I searched the internet for a fix, and some sites recommended tossing out any plants with PM. Not what I was willing to do, so I searched through my box of plant sprays and fertilizers, and I found a bottle of pre-mixed Neem oil spray that I had used on some other plants for mildew. So I sprayed the GPD plants, and whallah! Within a day all the PM was gone! It was like magic! The bottle was a mix of 1:100 strength refined Neem. I later tried 70% Neem oil "concentrate" at about 1:200 like the bottle recommended, but that did not knock the PM down as well. A 1:100 mix is what is needed for PM eradication. So I sprayed the GDP every 3 to 4 weeks through the growing season to knock down the PM as it re-emerged, and it kept that at bay.  

 

GDP is the daughter of Purple Urkle (AKA: Purple Urple, and some say it is a pheno of Mendo Purps) and Big Bud. Like many purple strains out there, many list GDP as the parent of Purple Urkle, but it is the other way around. Purple Urkle is said to result in couch lock or sleepiness. PU is a smaller growing indica-dominant strain with a strong grape terpene flavor. Big Bud is a larger plant that has huge buds with a relaxing high. The combination? For me the result is near perfect. Large buds with purple flowers on what can get to be very large plants. However, the PM on this strain is a huge issues, and I will likely not grow more of it for that reason. It also finished flowering for me last of the lot, which is contrary to what most seed companies and online strains lists say.  For natural fall blooms after growing outside in the sun in a greenhouse just above the 45th parallel, my GDP started blooming in early September and was not finished by mid October when I had to move them back inside under lights to finish. The weather here as cool and wet starting in mid September, and mold became an issue on top of the PM. So I had to harvest it a week or two earlier than I wanted under lights in late October. Another reason to not grow it in future, I guess. In contrast , my White Widow and Blue Dream had finished blooming before I had to move the plants indoors in mid October.

 

 

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I am surprised to hear from you that Neem-Oil worked against powdery mildew.  I had always thought that Neem was good only against leaf-eating insects.  Are you sure it was powdery mildew?  Or is it possible that you had spider-mites which weave a nest of threads that might look like mildew.  I don't mean to insult you at all, it's just that both these conditions are very serious problems for us growers, and if you have discovered a new solution against powdery mildew, that is great news around here.

 

Against mold or mildew problems, I had been successfully using various anti-mold or anti-mildew sprays designed for use on edible fruiting trees, mixed quite weak, of course.

 

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Neem is triple acting, hence the name on several brands of Neem oil and Neem oil extract. It works quite well against mildew, insects and mites. It is also on the OHA list of allowed sprays in the state of Oregon for use on Cannabis which is very restrictive.

 

And yes, I am quite certain that Neem oil knocks down powdery mildew on GDP and strains of MJ susceptible to mildew. I tried the 1:100 spray and it worked almost instantly. Within one day a badly mildew infected GPD plant was powdery mildew-free. I later tried it at 1:200 like it said on one Neem oil bottle, but it was not nearly as effective. So I recommend 1:100 for PM. I will post about Neem and the differences in Neem oils on another thread. As an aside, I know the difference between spider mites and powdery mildew. I am not a novice at this. I have certificates in ornamental horticulture and silviculture, and I have had several plant  nurseries from San Diego to Portland, specializing in cymbidium orchids, leptomorph and pachymorph bamboos, native western trees and shrubs, and cane and blueberries. I also grew and evaluated roses for the AARS in San Diego (where spider mites can de-leaf a rose bush in one day). I also have a pinot noir vineyard in Southern Oregon. Or rather, my ex has it now. It is planted with dijon clones 114, 115, 667 and 777. I have been growing weed since 1972 up and down the west coast, indoors, in greenhouses, and outdoors. I also had a Schedule Q pesticide application license when I lived in California when I had a landscaping business there. I put myself through college doing that. I was also an engineer for 15 years, and retired from that in 2003, after which time I got back into growing plants and moved back to Oregon. 

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Thank you, Big Sur, for that explanation.  I apologise, I did not mean to offend.  I had noticed that you are quite well versed in the laws, and now I see you are a professional in the horticulture world.  I am extremely happy to have you among us.

I had even been encouraging others with specific questions regarding the laws in the states to begin following you and reading your posts.  Now that I fully understand your wide-ranging qualifications, I must say, we need you.  You can add so much to our forum in many ways.

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No offense taken, and no apology needed. But thanks anyway. I am rather froward and abrupt in my replies, mainly for clarity sake. If I do not write things down, I lose track of my thoughts. Glad you want me here. Many amateurs on other sites (I am Big Sur on a lot of different MJ sites) claim I am wrong about a lot of things, including being able to freeze seeds, Neem oil, germination methods, diseases, mites, strain genetics, growing garlic, etc. etc. I am not conventional, but I know a lot about plants. I am a horticulturist at heart, not really a botanist. But I know several botanists. I started growing weed in 1971 I think it was. I was 15 when I got a job and at that job I was exposed to smoking Marijuana, as well as smoking tobacco, as well as drinking alcohol. :) The weed stuck the most, though I drink beer and wine.


 

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I forgot to mention that I also grew over 70 types of heirloom garlic strains when I lived in Southern Oregon. Most were hardneck types. After several years, nematodes got to them though, so I sold my seed stock to a lesbian up in Seattle and stopped growing it. I wish I knew about Need soil drenching then! I could have resolved the nematode soil infestation.  Neem is a real wonder application for may plant diseases and infestations. I only stumbled upon it last year growing the 'newer' indica crosses (mostly early 90's strains). I am used to growing landrace pure sativas from my seed collection. Most of my seeds are sourced from the New World where they have been grown for centuries, and they are for the most part immune to powdery mildew. Mexican weed is actually a sativa that has been grown and bread there for its psycotropic value from early hemp strains that the Spanish brought to the New World as early as the 1500s. The Catholic Church frowned upon hemp being grown for ingesting to get high, but that is what the native Indios did in Central America behind the scenes. It was mainly used by them steeped in a tea. Later in the 20th century it was more common to smoke it. Pancho Villa was famous for it.

 

Anyway, until last year I had never had PM on any of my Cannabis plants ever. Stem and bud rot, yes, but PM? No. Powdery mildew is a western hemisphere disease, and it wreaked havoc in Europe and Asia after it was exported there in trade in the 18th century. Many wine grapes in France have been decimated by PM in several outbreaks since then. I have read on some other MJ sites that if you get PM on your weed, you may as well throw all the plants away. I say BS to that! I read about Neem, found that I had some, tried it on the infected GDP plants, and whallah! No more PM, and happy healthy growing Granddaddy Purple plants. Some say that it leaves a bad taste, but Neem breaks down under UltraViolet light, so growing outdoors at least, that is not an issue.

 

 

 

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I am relieved; I wouldn't forgive myself if you left us because of me.

 

Me too, without notes, I would forget everything.

 

I used to smoke tobacco, too, but man, it kills me.  I can't stand it any more. 

 

Slowed down on the beer and wine recently, though I do occasionally enjoy them still.

 

Cannabis I find good in all its forms, though honestly, the smoking still has the usual bronchial drawbacks.  I have been enjoying cooking with cannabis over the past year, and I see no end to that hobby.  My friends like that hobby too.

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  • 11 months later...

So a year later now... I let my GDP go last winter, and regret it. Stupid me, I thought that I could replace it easy around here. Not so! Real GDP is getting hard to find. Oregon medical strains of old have all dried up after legalization. Rec growers have bought everything up! The one I had was the real deal, green with purple calyxes. I have since picked up another GDP cut from the Midwest in trade (sent to me in a clone shipper) which is thriving under lights this winter. I am hoping it is the real deal. Also in the meantime, I picked up two Grape Ape clones in the summer from a local grower. There seem to be 2 strains of Grape Ape around here, one is just a renamed GDP cut or is an S1/F2 of GDP, and the other is a cross of Mendo Purps, Skunk, and an Afghani. I believe I have the later cut, as it went through a skunk smell phase late in blooming that wafted off, but I still get some hint of skunk now and then after cool curing for 2 months. GA is better than GDP for some things, as it does not put me to sleep like GDP and is as good or better for muscle pain. It is not as good for sex as GDP, and I use GDP if I cannot get to sleep. GA also has a good high to it, clear and not muddled, no rushes, soft mind and body high, not too stony. This GA was super sticky and resinous at harvest. I could not manicure it for at least a month after harvest, or my fingers stuck together after a few trim leaves were cut. I have 2 clones of it going under lights this winter. I am cloning everything to preserve cuts now.

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