Zkittlez (First Grow)

5/31/2021: - Seed sprouted up from soil - Shell is off - Cotyledons formed - First true leaves showing - Spraying bottled water currently - Should have germinated directly in grow medium

6/7/2021: - First true leaves growing nicely. - Noticing soil mites. - Gnats are starting to become attracted. Hopefully the neem and karanja cake in the soil will keep them out of the growing medium. Will top dress as necessary. - Made Thai chili pepper insecticidal soap. - Began fermenting lactobacillus + wild yeast starter.

6/14/2021: - Just when you think the shit isn't growing, you're three nodes deep, lolll - Plant and soil seem to be taking well to neem, karanja cake & kelp tea soil drench and foliar spray - No negative effects of spraying diluted mixed lacto + wild yeast solution so far - Combined some lacto + yeast solution with tea in a separate container. After fermenting overnight, smelled of butyric acid. Tossed it - Starting to see red in the stems - Plant is growing well - Thinking about transplant beginning or end of week 4

6/21/2021: - Transplanted to final pot. Next cycle, will germinate seed straight into the soil/final pot. - Bought a pump sprayer for even irrigation. - Fed soil a kelp, karanja, neem & coconut water tea. No adverse reactions as of yet. - Soil went hydrophobic before transplant, will water as necessary. - Branch on first node bent from stalk upon transplant, currently being supported by a stake. - Noticing red/purple stalks and branches, very stoked! - Need to re-feed lacto/wild yeast starter. - Need to brew up more kelp tea. 6/23/2021 - Took off support early, split seemed to heal, but has separated once again. Going to manifold, so not too concerned. - Had to water about .7g of water to keep soil moist for duration of day. - 6th node growing vigorously, birth of leaves for 7th node showing. 6/27/2021 - Topped plant for quadlining at the 5th node, cleared all growth under 3rd. - Watered with a mix of coconut water, DIY neem, karanja & kelp extract. - Foliar fed with DIY kelp extract. - Trimmed leaves already giving off great grapefruit aromas. - Pressing trim for framing.

6/29/2021 - New mains for quadlining growing out nicely since topping. - Watered with un-PH'd de-chlorinated tap water. - Foliar fed with DIY kelp extract. - She's jumping out the gym, very excited. - It's been 5 weeks of alternating DIY nutrient teas (coconut water + kelp extract + neem & karanja extract + water) and un-PH'd Toronto tap water, and I've seen no signs of deficiencies or lockouts. - She's taking well to the various DIY foliar sprays as well, no burning. 7/1/2021 - I think one of my bottle sprayers is infected with butyric acid, 'cause it stinks in here, loll. - SHE WANTS TO GROOOWWW! 7/4/2021 - Growth a week after topping is strong. Hoping the auxins in the kelp foliar, and nutrients in coconut water are responsible. - I barely need to train her right now, it's as if she wanted to be topped. Besides some periodic light bending, she seems to be leveling out her branches herself.

7/6/2021 - Trimmed lower fan leaves as they were being blocked completely, and a few tips were yellowing. - Continuing to lightly bend the upper branches so the lowers can catch up. - Bought some Gaia Green veg + bloom dry fertilizers as I expect I'll be flipping to flower soon. 7/7/2021 - Watered in a little bit of Gaia Green's veg fertilizer. - Foliar fed w/ DIY kelp extract. - Yellowing/browing on a new leaf, can't identify what it is. - Staked down the branches on the upper mains this evening to open her up for more light penetration, she was gettin' real bushy. 7/9/2021 - Trimmed out middle to expose canopy

7/12/2021 - Removed stakes, training mains with periodic bending. - Noticing she's very short, internodal space is really small as well. - Unsure whether to trim out bottom growth on the first set of branches. 7/13/2021 - Did a major trim to really expose all the new potential colas. - Chopped and dropped fan leaves directly onto the soil to be used as a leaf mulch. - Added some fan leaves I had drying to the mulch layer. - Thinking of flipping the lights in about 2 weeks. 7/14/2021 - Re-staked mains to expose more tops. - Continuing leaf tucking for even canopy. - Strategizing feeding regiment for coming light flip. - Can't kill the residual LABs in the sprayer I've been using for my kelp solution, and it keeps fermenting out butyric acid. Upon a quick google search, it looks like indole-3-butyric acid is an auxin. Whether or not that matches what's in the sprayer is unknown. - Any pest pressure I expected to experience has been very light, almost non-existent. A few flies here and there as to be expected with organics, but not to the point of full blown infestation. For soil that's basically bare on top, very unexpected. 7/14/2021 - Performed a major pre-flowering morning trim. 7/17/2021 - Fed her some bloom fertilizer as I expect I'll be flipping the lights next week.

7/19/2021 - Fed her with a mix of veg + bloom + worm castings + insect frass. We're 'bout to flip her. Unsure of the rate of application, going with feel. - Irrigated with a mix of water, coconut water, and unsulfured black strap molasses. - Decreasing the light timer by an hour each day to gently bring her into the flowering stage. - Defoliated again, she gets bushy fast. 7/24/2021 - Been defoliating this one every other day, she get's bushy reaaally fuckin' fast. - Lights finally reach 12/12 tonight. 7/25/2021 - First day of 12/12, gave her ANOTHER trim loll

7/26/2021 - 1st week of flower. - Mites are super active on the layer of trim I left on the soil surface. They're not on the actual plant, so I'm much more confident in thinking they're beneficial soil mites.

08/04/2021 - I SEE PISTILLS!!! Really didn't think we'd make it this far 😅 08/08/2021 - Top dressed and watered w/ an AAEWCIF tea. - Continuing to defol as necessary. - Too lazy to date and re-organize all those photos through the phone. - Photos taken from 08/02/2021-08/08/2021.

08/09/2021 - Beginning of week 3 flowering, noticing buds forming at almost every node I left from defoliating branches. 08/11/2021 - Watered with molasses

08/18/2021 - NOTICING TRICHOMES!!! - Not much else to note, literally looking for things to do to her at this point, maybe a light defoliation. 08/20/2021 - Watered with AAEWCIFT

8/22/2021 - Did some mid-flower defoliation to increase airflow and to prevent mold and mildew. - Split the top right main from trying to train her down and spread out the canopy, supporting with tape and twist ties. 8/23/2021 - Top right main is still vigorous after split.

08/30/2021 - Noticing more gnats than usual. Could be overwatering, anaerobic soil conditions, or both. - Going to set up fly traps, starve both the plant and the gnats of water for about a week. - Will observe any stress responses due to an extended dry period.

09/08/2021 - Fly traps collected a plethora of gnats - Had to till the first few inches of the soil while top dressing, as it was incredibly hard and dry - Fertilized with Gaia Green Power Bloom + EWC + insect frass - Carefully watered with a half gallon tea of DIY kelp extract, molasses, LAB and neem extract

09/14/2021 - If I'm counting from light flip, we're 8 weeks into flower. Counting from pistills, we're 7 weeks into flowe. I'm hoping she takes 10 weeks at most. - Trying to start a water only regiment from now until she finishes, as I don't want to over fertilize her. 09/19/2021 - I think I over fertilized last about 2-4 weeks ago. Going to dry her out, and try a flush, and only water or coconut water until harvest. 09/15/2021 - In anticipation of harvest in 2-3 weeks, I purchased a Koolatron WC20 to dry and cure at the proper temperatures.

09/25/2021 - Gnats are getting out of control, and most likely slowing down growth, deploying a mix of predator mites and BTI - Watered with a Coots recipe for cilantro IPM tea, added garlic to the mix

9/27/2021 - Purchasing predator nematodes today as a final effort to rid the soil of gnat larvae - Starting to believe that the yellowing of older fan leaves is just senescence, but also larval gnats at the roots

10/7/2021 - Starting to think this might go 12-14 weeks, as she's just starting to swell her bracts/calyxes. - Trichome production currently very slow, dunno whether it's genetics or the gnat problem I had - Fan leaves dying a very ugly death, loll. - Some sugar leaves dying as well, starting to suspect I've been overdoing the lactobacillus. 10/22/2021 - Found out the problems I was witnessing with the plant was thrips - Not updating until harvest - Using an essential oil/citric acid/iso spray with blue and yellow traps for exposed thrips, and nematodes at soil level for the larvae - Will use pyrethrin spray as a last resort/grow tent cleaner - Keep the next grow clean and use microbial foliar sprays to keep future pests away - AUTOS NEXT, this shit be taking too damn long - Will probably harvest in a week or two

Crop failure was due to a cascade of negligence: - Getting over confident and slacking on my IPM in the last few weeks of veg/early flower. - I overdid it on the molasses, which put the soil in a semi-anaerobic state, inviting gnats. Soil smelled somewhat like a wet towel by the end of it. - Unaware that the "chop and drop" method of mulching is a prime environment for a thrip party. Didn't notice them until it was too late. - Trying to dry out the soil to make it uninhabitable for pests and larva was severely slowing down growth and basically put whatever system was left in the soil at a stand still. - Anaerobic soil was basically suffocating the roots, when I dumped the container, there was barely any rootmass. All of these mistakes resulted in a terpless, early harvest. On to the next grow, will be my second, going to pop an Anvil autoflower from Gnome Automatics, just waiting for my cover crop to come through the mulch.