Grow Report – White Domina

Welcome to Kannabia’s new grow report, where we check out the cultivation of one of our best-selling varieties: White Domina, a 100% indica with a strong personality that derives from the cross of two black queens, magically resulting in a white princess that delivers compact buds brimming with resin. A true festival of trichomes that comes seasoned with an aroma and flavour which are as intriguing as they are delicious. Despite facing difficult growing conditions, White Domina emerges victorious in this grow report thanks to her enormous resilience.

If you’re looking for a faultless classic from the great feminised seed collection by Kannabia Seed Company, White Domina is definitely the one for you. This is an indica-dominant strain (almost 100% indica) that is one of the crown jewels of our seed bank’s genetic pool. A highly improved and stabilised strain that offers the best qualities of her indica ancestors. Because the spot-on backcross (or intravarietal crossing) of two Black Domina strains has been the key to this wonder of nature.

This is an extremely vigorous plant that grows in the shape of a Christmas tree and produces monstrous yields: she grows a dense and compact main cola jam-packed with flowers, as well as some satellite branches which are also loaded with buds as hard as rocks. White Domina withstands both nutrient deficiency and nutrient excess very well, recovering from these issues in just a few days, with the typical indica strength which is also evident in her high resistance to pests and diseases.

When grown indoors, White Domina can flower in only 50 – 55 days, so she’s the perfect strain if you want to grow as fast as possible. And all of this is embellished with a flavour reminiscent of lemon and lime, with some added spice, which lingers on the palate while you ask yourself why on earth you haven’t tried her sooner… Which is exactly what happened to the grower of this grow report!

White Domina’s step-by-step grow guide

This grow belongs to an American couple. It was carried out in the middle of the winter in the northern hemisphere, and had to endure various natural problems, from one of the biggest snowstorms of the century to a thrip infestation (one of the most lethal pests in marijuana cultivation). Thanks to a wise combination of HST (High Stress Training) and LST (Low Stress Training), together with their great passion for Lollipopping to defoliate the lower branches, they managed to stretch the vegetative period out to 12 weeks, which led to the emergence of flowering buds all over.

• Lighting: 240W LED Custom (vegetative) / 650W LED Mars Hydro (flowering)
• Grower: Kitties_and_Colas
• Number of plants: 3
• Nutrients: Fox Farm
• Irrigation: Manual
• Growing medium: Substrate
• Vegetative period: 12 weeks
• Flowering period: 8 weeks

Germination and seedling phase

4 White Domina seeds are germinated in a glass of water. The main root breaks through in all 4 seeds after about 30 hours of soaking. A 100% germination rate for all of the Kannabia seeds, plus one of the seeds has the fattest main root that the grower has ever seen, which clearly shows that these plants really want to grow! The final goal is to select 3 plants out of the 4 to place in 5 gallon (approximately 20 litre) square pots. The 4 seedlings are kept in individual pots with Pro-Mix substrate for a few weeks before transplanting the best 3. All seedlings grow at about the same rate.

Grow parameters:

• Daily temperature: 24ºC
• Night temperature: 13ºC
• Hours of light: 18
• pH: 6
• Distance between lamp and plant: 76.2 cm

It’s been a fairly standard (and easy) planting week. All White Domina seeds are growing at the right pace. The growing medium selected is 75% Pro-Mix substrate and 25% perlite. All seedlings are given a (very) mild nutrient solution 2 days after they show the first cotyledons. In week 3, the grower chooses 3 plants to move to the grow tent (this is a random choice because they all show identical growth). The colour begins to brighten, and some develop small brown spots on their first set of true leaves. Therefore, a light nutrient solution is applied in the hope that these will disappear in one or two days. All babies are transplanted to their final pots.

Vegetative phase

It’s been a great week! All the plants are recovering after being transplanted and are adapting well to their new home. Nutrients are increased to 17 ml/L, with a solution made up of Grow Big + Big Bloom + Bush Doctor Cal-Mag. They seem to enjoy being under the LED Mars-Hydro FC-E6500 lamp (at 60% power). One of the plants is slightly smaller than the others, but it seems to be at the same stage of development (only much stockier and with tighter nodes). The plants are topped at node 4 to start stretching the branches horizontally as they grow, with the aim of letting the plants vegetate for longer so they can recover from the LST conditions.

To continue with the training, the grower decides to top the secondary branches again, and will probably do some Lollipopping as well before the plants flower. Their colour is not very uniform any longer… It doesn’t really look worn out right now, but it’s kind of strange. All plants are in a growing medium with equal parts of perlite, and all of them are given exactly the same nutrients / pH. However, each plant seems to be responding in a different way. The larger fan leaves are trimmed. Then, the plants are lightly fed, and the branches are bent a little more. Ties haven’t been used in all this time, but the branches have been bent every few days in the direction that they want to be grown. This seems to be working well. OH NOOOOOOOOOO!! THRIPS HAVE BEEN SPOTTED!! This explains the discolouration in some areas. The substrate is covered with diatomaceous earth, and both the top and underside of all leaves is treated with insecticide soap containing Spinosad… Fortunately, these creatures have been detected early and damage is minimal.

Grow parameters:

• Daily temperature: 24ºC
• Night temperature: 13ºC
• Hours of light: 18
• pH: 6
• Distance between lamp and plant: 76.2 cm

Things seem to be going much better, although these poor plants have been growing slowly and have been looking unhappy for the last few weeks. But it seems that the treatment has quickly made all the difference. The grower cannot find any moving bugs or any damage in the new shoots… So he intends to make a few homemade traps (molasses in a cardboard square) to see how many thrips are still around.

Decent growth occurs this week (in comparison to previous weeks) as the grower hasn’t spotted any live thrips for several days. The affected shoots were removed about a week ago, and the new growth looks pretty good. Light is increased to 80% and the plants continue to be given a moderate nutrient solution. The grower decides to thin the plants by trimming the lower branches. The internodal spacing is incredibly short; the FC-E6500 lamp is decreased to 60%; the centre of the plants continues to be hollowed; and the lower third of growth is eliminated. Week 9 is practically on autopilot.

The last couple of weeks have been difficult for the grower… He was hit by one of the biggest snowstorms in the US in the last 40 years and ended up having intermittent power cuts for a few days. In addition, he realises that the pH must have been wrong, because calcium lockout was occurring. All roots are flushed with 3 gallons (11 litres) of water for each plant, with a pH of 6.5 and a solution of mild nitrogen and a little Cal-Mag in the last gallon. It’s been around 4 days since the plants reddened, and they now look much healthier. He waits for them to be perfectly healthy before moving on to the flowering, probably a week longer. Most leaves with signs of calcium deficiency have been removed, and the new growth seems healthy. It is the perfect time to start the flowering!

Grow parameters:

• Daily temperature: 24ºC
• Night temperature: 13ºC
• Hours of light: 12
• pH: 6.5
• Distance between lamp and plant: 35.56 cm

Flowering phase

It’s the first week of flowering, finally!!!! It’s been a tough journey to get to this point due to the power problems, constant storms, thrips, and all the pH and calcium-related drama, but the new shoots look perfectly healthy, and all the plants are finally praying to the skies! The nutrient plan is changed to a light dosage of Big Bloom+ Tiger Bloom to boost the flowering (this strain seems extremely sensitive to overfeeding). The FC-E6500 stays at 50% but will be increased to 75% after the flowering period is finished.

Buds are forming quickly and the internodal spacing is surprisingly short. Technically speaking, it is obvious that the plants have been exposed to a lot of light at just over half the power so far. There was an odd sulphur smell the last time the grower watered thoroughly; he believes that the pots may have become anaerobic… or maybe the roots have rotted? The grower prays that it’s the former!

The buds are now prominent and the internodes keep getting shorter. You can see some yellowing in the taller plants, which is attributed to the previous pH drama, although it’s probably a sign of mild stress. Therefore, the lamp is moved a few centimetres higher, and the pH is raised to 6.8, to see what happens. The plants are beginning to smell of citrus fruits / lemon, but the atmosphere is soft. As the yellowing continues (although it’s now much lighter), the grower dims the lighting to 60% (down from 75%), but there aren’t any new signs of calcium deficit, so the plants are finally happy.

Grow parameters:

• Daily temperature: 24ºC
• Night temperature: 13ºC
• Hours of light: 12
• pH: 7
• Distance between lamp and plant: 35.56 cm

Ripening stage

The buds swell up quickly and their scent is extremely piercing. The lemon aroma dominates the grow tent. In week 18, the grower decides to change the nutrient solution to only water, so the green colour of the leaves begins to fade slowly as the plants use up their food reserves. The buds keep fattening up and become frosted with a thick trichome layer. They’re almost bluish against the pale yellow leaves; they’re absolutely stunning. There’s not much time left until harvest time, maybe 2 weeks at the most.

The plants continue to be fed with only water, and they keep producing trichomes; it is crazy! These buds are incredibly dense and are completely covered in frost. She really feels like one of those strains whose buds end up being as hard as rocks. The smell is SO intense, much stronger than that of other Kannabia varieties that they have grown before. Every time the grow tent is opened, you get a strange citrusy smell mixed with something indescribable but totally delicious. Trichomes are inspected with a magnifying glass, and you can see that 50 – 75% are ‘sky-high’ (i.e. milky). It’s time to cut the plants and put an end to this treacherous grow. All’s well that ends well!

Harvest

After the manicuring of the buds, the yield of White Domina amounts to 161 grams per plant. With the 650W LED light used, this offers a ratio of 0.25 grams/watt.

This has been a difficult and strange grow dominated by the unexpected, in pots perhaps too big for indoor growing, which may have had an influence on the delay in growth. Plus, there was also a thrip attack and a nutrient issue, which obviously didn’t help much. And to top it all off, a huge snowstorm caused intermittent power outages, which may have stressed the plants and led to premature yellowing from which they didn’t manage to fully recover.

Even so, White Domina has been a champion, showing remarkable resilience and high adaptability to the changing circumstances. And her buds emit a really unique smell, which starts with hints of citrus fruits but finishes with something more interesting, sweeter and more humid, with touches of earth and hot spices. The smoke is incredibly soft (despite being a 100% indica strain, the grower claims that it’s a great smoke to enjoy during the day). “We made a tincture with the sugar leaves of Kannabia’s White Domina, and it was incredibly potent”. There’s no doubt the grower will grow this strain again… “It’s so good to have her around”, he concludes.