Purple Maroc, FTW

[phrike]

Man, I love these Purple Maroc.

They germinate MUCH faster than any strain I've ever seen before.

2012 was my first year with PM, and though I messed up somehow, and only ended up with 2, they were big and productive enough to almost be a years worth for my personal use.

They were ready enough to harvest end of September or so. I'm at about 45.5 degrees North and temps were low enough that I figured there wasn't much growing left. The previous year I had Nepalese Hash Plant clones and I'm thankful the temps were good enough in 2011 that I could let it go to end of October. They NEEDED it and I freaked a bit that they wouldn't have enough time.

My experience level is "low end of medium": 2 successful indoor grows and 2.5 outdoor. The first outdoor was 0.5 because they were looking nice when I freaked out over choppers and ended up sacrificing, sniff, cry.

I'm OK past the seedling stage, but I still screw up too much with seeds and seedlings and clones. That happened with my first batch of seeds this year, but I got a new batch on Monday and have been happy to see the PM poking out by Friday.

The first batch were put in very old now soil-less mix that I keep re-using. I soaked it good, multiple times; I don't know if there were any nutes left to burn the seeds. Or maybe I let them get a little too dry. Or maybe perlite in soil-less mix isn't a good idea for seeds.

The 2nd batch I did in soil. 70% have now popped after 5 days. I still don't know if PH is very important with seeds/seedlings. Or if the PH down is bad for seeds.

I've usually soaked them in water, with the tiniest bit of dish soap, for 24-48 hours and/or use paper towel method. After my first batch died I got those jiffy peat pellets for the 2nd batch, which I recall a lot of references over many years. But then I read something at the last minute that got me googling, and it turns out MANY people think they are awful for cannabis. So I went with plain soil for the PM, but am experimenting a bit with the Easy Sativa and freebie seeds.

So I also read that soaking them in water is now considered not so great, and paper towels almost always damage root hairs. So after just 3 hours in water I planted them in the soil. I'll transplant, with dirt intact, into larger soil-less mix containers when ready.

I think the 2 PMs from the first batch are doing OK now; just transplanted into somewhat larger containers. One PM is smaller pheno, and other larger I guess.

I tend to research the hell out of my important purchases, and given my mistakes I prefer almost foolproof. That's why I went with PM. Nothing but good I hear about PM for mold resistance and early maturation. Yes, it's not the HIGHEST yield or potency, but being reasonably fool-proof, and being a fool sometimes, they're great for me.

Last few years I've got the seeds from Herbies, despite my Canada having a decent selection of more local sources. But I don't know if any even carried the "Female Seeds" line of PM. Nothing but good said about Herb's too.

Looking forward to my best outdoor grow yet.

 

[mycomaster]

I received a purple maroc fem for free from the tude during some deal I can't remember now. I was wondering if you have ever tried to grow this particular strain inside? It was said if I remember that they don't advise an indoor grow with this strain but was curious if you had tried. Best wishes on your outdoor grow friend, I have some cindy99, skunk#1, and Kali mist going outside this year. No room for the purple maroc though thought I might do it inside if possible. Good luck, Good grow, Be safe, out.

 

[Carl Spackler]

I grew PM last year both inside and outside. Supposedly "unreliable" indoors but I had no problems whatsoever with it. Just like any other strain it didn't seem to require any special care. A purplish, pinkish tinge was expressed in the flowers in the latter stages of development but, not the to the degree that I would call it a true purple strain. It did seem to be easier to take successful cuttings vs. other strains I grew at the same time with about a 90% success rate. I never lose much sleep over taking clones anyway as they are free and plentiful if your plant is growing correctly during the vegetation stage. Yields were fairly heavy, with medium density and very resinous. Outdoors yielded predictably more but I saw no noticeable difference in the quality of the end-product. Response from LST, supercropping, and topping/pruning was very good overall.
The biggest difference I saw in this strain was in its flavor. Difficult to describe but count on a very smooth smoke with hardly a trace of harshness. I had grown a indica- dominant strain along side the PM that had been nicknamed "Drooler", this was due to its devastating buzz with profound couch lock. Taste tested with several friends most chose the PM over the other simply because of its unique, mellow flavor in spite of the small difference in the buzz. Highly recommended strain. Good luck with it.

 

[phrike]

I received a purple maroc fem for free from the tude during some deal I can't remember now. I was wondering if you have ever tried to grow this particular strain inside? It was said if I remember that they don't advise an indoor grow with this strain but was curious if you had tried. Best wishes on your outdoor grow friend, I have some cindy99, skunk#1, and Kali mist going outside this year. No room for the purple maroc though thought I might do it inside if possible. Good luck, Good grow, Be safe, out.

No inside experience with PM, other than starting them indoors 1.5 months before they can stay outside at night.

I've read the same thing about PM inside. One seedbanks desription includes "This plant becomes rather an unreliable strain indoors as it is specially bred for outdoor cultivation."

And yet seedfinder says "Indoor, Outdoor".

"Female Seeds", the breeder, only says "We wouldn't recommend pre-growing them indoors, because they are semi-auto-flowering and this would cause them to start flowering..." I don't concern myself with this, because I tend to leave them in portable containers until June, bringing them in at night for more light.

I would certainly try them indoor, given how much I like them. I may even start the 2 from batch #1 flowering indoors within 1 month from now, just so I can replenish my supply a bit earlier.

I built some stealth cabs a few years ago; 2 smaller fluoro and one larger 360w HPS conversion. This is where my seedlings go after a week of life or so, and where I can give them night light when they start going out in the day.

I built the stealth cabs after my chopper paranoia attack, intending to never grow outdoors again. I've gone back to outdoor, because it seems SO MUCH easier with Mother Natures' help, leaves me 6 months a year without grow responsibilities, and because the choppers have been mostly gone for several years and I'm a bit less paranoid now anyway.

 

[phrike]

It did seem to be easier to take successful cuttings vs. other strains I grew at the same time with about a 90% success rate.... Outdoors yielded predictably more but I saw no noticeable difference in the quality of the end-product. Response from LST, supercropping, and topping/pruning was very good overall.

Nice to know about the cloning and topping. My cloning skills have been VERY bad, despite building bubblers and trying all sorts of things. But I did OK, with 50% success the last time a few years ago. I used 100% vermiculite and I think that REALLY helped.

I'm just about ready to top the plants, above the 2nd real nodes to try and get 4 main colas. They have around 5-6 real nodes now and I will try to clone the removed tops.

I really like the idea of 4 almost symmetrical branches. I've tried LST instead of topping in the past but it was WAY too much work and I broke too many branches doing it.

I still effectively plan to LST, with the 4 branches/colas, basically pulling them horizontal, as far away from each other as possible. Last year my mostly horizontal plant seemed like a great setup I want to repeat, without breaking the main branches this time, LOL. (They survived and thrived.)


Oh yeah, last year I think one reason I had great results was the use of breathable fabric containers. I will order more this year; I have 2 very large, and one "humongous" that hasn't even been used yet. May need a few bales of ProMix, LOL.

 

[mycomaster]

Thank you for taking the time to answer my question. I really didn't think growing P.M. inside would be all that of a chore. I really dislike the way breeders will scare you away from a strain saying you can only grow it outside, when all you have to do inside is show a little more attention. It seems like no breeder wants to admit their strain is any harder to grow than throwing a seed in dirt and getting a large beautiful plant in return. I'm just glad there are places like this to get real information(after you've distilled all the bullshit)!! Thanks again and have a wonderful outdoor season. Good luck, Good grow, Be safe, out.

 

[phrike]

Well, in this case the Female Seeds company only recommends against pre-growing indoors. They aren't responsible for what other sites say.

And a seedbank saying they're unpredictable indoors may be targeting commercial growers. For commercial you want consistency in flower time, size, etc. to make maximum use of your growspace. We non-commercial growers don't usually care as much; it's not a real full time paying job to us.

I would pay more attention when a source cautions against certain uses. It's when they present EVERY seed as wonderful that I'd be more suspicious.

It's a buyer beware world, whether you're buying cars, seeds or whatever. I now research every major purchase I make online. And though a "mere" $7 per seed may not be major when ordering 10, the time spent on a grow season is worth enough thousands of dollars that I'd call that major.


So I scanned these sites and read LOTS of threads the last few years to come to my appreciation of Purple Maroc. It's mostly discussed as an outdoor breed, in part I think because it matures so quickly and is resistant enough to mold that it's great for those of us farther north. But maybe in part also because there may be better choices indoors.

User praise for products is worth much more IMO than whatever vendors might say.

In that light, I bought these grow bags last year and intend to buy more this year: http://www.house-of-green.com/#!__oregon-breather

They are also sold on EBay but I prefer to buy from the source, and get the t-shirt, LOL. I google and people have nothing but good things to say about them, whether for vegetables or our favorite herb.

The bags are sturdy and re-usable. They are light green in color so I think they're much more "stealth" than many other grow bags out there. I have no idea why camo'd bags aren't more popular. I threw some mud on them to camo them even better, but light green is much better than white or shiny black I think.

 

[phrike]

I'm trying for a spring harvest with the 1st four, all germinated 7 weeks ago, about March 11.

The two on the left are Purple Maroc, the 1st a good deal bigger than the 2nd. The two on the right are Herbies freebies I lost track of; might be any of these:
1 X Royal Queen Royal Cheese Feminised
2 X Royal Queen Sour Diesel Feminised
5 X Kerala x Skunk #1 Regular

1st 3 are in 11-12" all around containers dating back 16 years to my first few grows. The last and bigger freebie is in a new 15 US gallon Oregon Breather grow bag. It's the largest with handles. I put the freebie in it because I'm concerned about root damage from occasional moving, so I consider this an experiment. If the freebies get too stinky I might sacrifice them early and hash em or whatever.



More pics below as I edit this post, but first the "Spring Harvest", for which I've also put some vegetables outside that were started inside way too early.

I'm around 45.5 Latitude North, USDA zone 3B I think, and it's generally not considered safe to put any plants out before May 24 or so due to frost risk. BUT, I look at the weather trend forecast for the next 2 weeks and it looks great ! All highs from 17-22 C (63-73 F) and over night lows from 9-12 C (50-55 F). We had a super late winter, so I'm hoping Mother Nature pays us back for that...

Historic average temperatures for 14 day period: High 17°C Low 5°C (63 - 41 F).

Yes, weather forecasts are iffy after 4-7 days, despite using the most powerful computers on earth, and 2 weeks out are educated guesses at best. But I can cover the plants if need be, or bring them inside. For now, they get a bit of extra warmth being right next to the house.

The plants have been sharing 360 watts of HPS in my stealth grow cab for 18-24 hours a day, usually 24. Now, outdoor daylight hours are about 14 hours, but these plants will miss the early morning sun and won't get much until 10:00 - 11:30 AM or so. I'm presuming they will flower soon and I can cover or move them to keep them from re-vegging as the days get longer.

Since I'm trying to harvest early, I decided not to top them. About 1 week ago I turned the flexible parts into an upside down "U" shape with tie-wrap to redistribute the auxins a bit. I will probably try further LST as they go. These are the last containers of transplant and they are freshly transplanted tonight.

Closer Pics:
Purple Maroc:



Freebies:


The new crop, germinated 3 weeks ago; Room to grow now that the first 4 are outside. Purple Maroc on the right. The pot in the middle with 2 seedlings is semi-unknown:


These are the Purple Marocs. 8 of 10 were successful germinating. They get the right side of the cab which is a bit brigher:


Bottom 4 are Easy Sativa. Top left is a trifoliate Royal Queen Royal Cheese. Next I think is Skunk #1, and last two at top are Kerala x Skunk.



I get a bit concerned about numbers, so that's just one more reason to harvest some early. I might have to pick and choose which go where or which to sacrifice.

I might try to harvest the freebies early, maybe try to start flowering outside in a few weeks. These freebies aren't the "profile" of plants I want; I don't want stinky, by plant or in smoke, and I very much prefer Sativa qualities and early harvesting plants.

I've been happy doing water "curing" the last few years. Maybe I'll do traditional curing on half this year. I always get around 20-30 seeds, perhaps from some local distant male(s) or a hermied bud, but the water curing leaves them infertile. Would be nice to make my own seeds for next year. Hmm, I guess that means I'd need a male from my freebies...

 

[Timewasmoney1]

Whos the breeder?

 

[phrike]

Whos the breeder?

Female Seeds NL for the Purple Maroc and Easy Sativa: http://www.femaleseeds.nl/en/purple-maroc-61.html

I've read almost nothing but good stories about them, and these varieties (if you don't need indica couch-lock.) And they are active on the forums which I appreciate.

Royal Queen and Unknown for the freebies, but I didn't pick those.

 

[Timewasmoney1]

Who the hell is female seeds. Nve heard of them

 

[phrike]

Who the hell is female seeds. Nve heard of them

A simple Google shows plenty, though you might have to weed out the generic references. They've made a name for themselves over several years and Purple Maroc is among their popular genetics I think, as well as other feminized & semi-auto strains.

Can I post links to "competitor sites" ?

They have their own sub-forums at ICMag and UK420:

https://www.icmag.com/ic/forumdisplay.php?f=78

http://www.uk420.com/boards/index.php?showforum=205

 

[phrike]

I'm trying for a spring harvest with the 1st four, all germinated 7 weeks ago, about March 11.

The two on the left are Purple Maroc, the 1st a good deal bigger than the 2nd. The two on the right are Herbies freebies I lost track of; might be any of these:
1 X Royal Queen Royal Cheese Feminised
2 X Royal Queen Sour Diesel Feminised
5 X Kerala x Skunk #1 Regular

1st 3 are in 11-12" all around containers dating back 16 years to my first few grows. The last and bigger freebie is in a new 15 US gallon Oregon Breather grow bag. It's the largest with handles. I put the freebie in it because I'm concerned about root damage from occasional moving, so I consider this an experiment. If the freebies get too stinky I might sacrifice them early and hash em or whatever.

View attachment 2637054

Spring harvest -> early Summer harvest, but otherwise is going well.

I tried to start flowering 7 weeks ago (14 weeks after germination) outside, with the sun, and partly dependent on AM house shade for a longer dark period. About 4-5 weeks ago I started putting these first 4 plants in a closet at night, and combined with a few extra long dark periods I convinced them to start flowering in earnest.

It's been a big pain hauling them in and out every day, but it's been working it's magic. My stash from last year is down to about 10 days worth, so the timing is looking good now.
Under a cloudy sky: Royal Cheese (or Sour Diesel?), better Purple Maroc, 2nd Purple Maroc, Kerala x Skunk


Impressively, one of the freebies was the most vigorous grower and the first to start flowering. I think it's from Royal Queen and is Royal Cheese or Sour Diesel, more likely the Cheese maybe. It almost looks done now and even 2 weeks ago had some brown in the buds. I've started flushing with plain water and will start some sampling a week from now. Maybe the Oregon Breather container helped ? Main Bud, nice & sticky already. Some insect holes ?


Also coming along well is 1 of the 2 Purple Marocs, a purple stem pheno. We've had some cold the last few weeks and I think that helps the purpling. Main bud, a bit sticky:

The other non-purple Purple Maroc is doing okay, but is smaller and was slower to start flowering.

Main bud, just starting towards stickiness:

Last is what I now think is a Kerala x Skunk freebie, female thankfully. It has been stubborn to start flowering and I note the leaves are paler. If it's the same as Kerala Krush then it should normally mature late around here, mid November. I had another Kerala x Skunk freebie in my 2nd round of plants this spring, but just today I noted it had bananas, so I killed it. I would have kept some pollen, but I don't want genetics from such a late maturing plant for my local climate.
Main "bud" just getting started:

These 4 surviving plants from the first round were all LST'd. I've now loosened or removed the strings on all but the biggest one in the Oregon breather.

HPS light now: The 3 surviving freebies from the 2nd round are Skunk #1 at left and Royal Cheese at right. I started trying to flower them about 3-4 weeks ago, all sharing one container. At top was Kerala x Skunk but I killed it because it seems to be male. Skunk #1 showing pistils: Royal Cheese not so far along: Killed male Kerala x Skunk: Closer showing "bananas":


Still vegging includes 4 Easy Sativa, at various stages of trying to create 4 main and equal branches:

Still vegging but not shown are 7 Purple Maroc. It WAS 8 but my wife freaked a bit when there was a nearby house fire and moved them; I guess one got some broken root.

So that's 11 vegging. I promised my wife that by September, when the chopper risk comes, I will be down to 5-6 live plants. I hate killing plants, and it's too much hassle to "guerrila grow" them, so I will try to summer harvest the excess starting a few weeks from now.

Here in Canada, our "fascist" current federal gov't put a 6 month minimum on 6 or more plants for commercial. I only grow for personal, but I'd hate to have to plea bargain with that threat. I'm "squeaky clean", no arrest ever, no record and I'm close to the half century mark, so the thought of mandatory time for 6 plants seems ridiculous and even a bit sobering. Regardless, them's the current rules of the game, and until (if ??) Colorado/Washington style sanity re-emerges in Canada, ya gotta be careful.

 

[phrike]

...And the 7 vegging Purple Marocs... :



The 3 at the bottom have nice purple stems, the 4 at the top do not.

There's a bit of leaf curling, so I'll back off on the fertilizers for a while. I use cheap All Purpose powder veg and flower ferts from the hardware store, along with a drop of SuperThrive now and then. Foliar feeding when I'm ferting, plain water sprays at least once a day otherwise.

The 3 purple stems will be reserved for main harvest in the fall, along with 2 or 3 of the 4 Easy Sativa's. The rest will be flowered early with the closet technique, starting within the next few weeks, when I chop the current flower-ers.

They are still small enough that I find it amazing they will (hopefully) by end of September turn into something the size of the low but 4 foot wide monster I had last year that gave close to 400 grams. I hope to end up with enough that I don't need to early harvest next year, and can take a few chances with C99 or similar and something more indica.

 

[phrike]

Ah, nothing quite like harvest season.

Currently vaping fresh finger and scissor hash from the 4th of the 6 main purple maroc's.

I don't think I've got the 400 gram monsters I had last year, biggest may be about 200-250 grams, and I had a runt mature (matured too far, actually) first about Sept 15 that was maybe only 80-100 grams. 2 more soon followed.

Sure enough, the breeder says they mature mid to end September. I'm a bit south of the specified Netherlands but the sun minutes per day are similar.

I STILL can't eyeball (with jeweler's loupe) the difference between clear and cloudy trichomes. But I've been able to guestimate the number of amber trichomes, and I let the 4th get to maybe 15-20%, where-as 5-10% might be better.

My best case scenario was a full 2 years personal supply, about 2200 grams. I think I'll get roughly 1 years worth, close to perfect around 1000 grams. Good enough till next years harvest, and I'll get 2+ kilos then.

I should point out I pretty much "water cure" all my pot. I consider this medicine and most of the time (other than with friends) I have little interest in the tastes of pot. It's interesting and cool, but not all day long, and I vape most of it also.

I point out the "water cure" because it reduces the weight of pot, for a given buzz. So my 1000 grams might be equivalent to 1200-1500 of common air cured weed.


The sky has been reasonably clear of helicopters; I'm pretty sure they haven't been here so far this year. But they are close now. But when I consider all the multi-thousand plant grows they've been finding (I google for the latest news, to see if they're getting closer), even my 6 plant grow they'd probably just laugh at, if they saw it.

Now I got just 2 left, which is nothing to them. If I saw them and got nervous I'd just harvest. That converts a much more illegal thing, a living plant, into mere "product", LOL.


Weather is nice, nice, nice right now. Sunny and highs near 70 F. Had a spell of rain 2-3 weeks ago, and got hit with a bit of mold, but I took care of that quick.

I just HAVE to do a few more Purple Maroc's next year; it's hard NOT to love a plant that's ready in September here, where October is pushing it many years.

But I also wanna try that Cindy/C99 that I had no success with this year.

Most important lessons this year:

- Start seeds in real, actual dirt.
- Start indoors early, Feb-March and do at least 2 toppings.
- As soon as feasible, get the plants into the final 50-75 gallon breather bags, so they have plenty of time to max out the roots.
- Remember they mature in September, so stop ferting early enough in August. I've had my 1st 3 plants sitting in water for 2 weeks now, in part because I should have flushed earlier.

See ya next year.

Anyone want pics ?