DBS - All CopyCat Run

Hi all This run is going to be all CopyCat strains, I am hoping to find some fire! I am running all organic soil in 15 gal pots. This is my third grow in this room, so I still learning and hope I can again improve over my last grow. I have a few thing I am going to do differently this round to try and import the overall yield and to aid in pest prevention. I gave them their first compost tea yesterday and they have all reacted very well. Yield: Last time I only filled my SCROG about 65% and tried to let stretch fill in the rest. This worked OK, but I still didn't fill the screen fully and all the flowers were very tight to the screen. So my plan this time is to veg until the screen is completely full, like I mean branches running out the sides and up the wall ;). Then I will flip and just let them go allowing stretch to pull away from the screen more. Soil: I am reusing the soil from my last grow, check out my previous diary (Flipping New Years Babies) for that simple FFOF recipe. I have re amended it with the below items. The neem cake was added for pest prevention and I added less of the Gaia 444 to accommodate. I also added the Bokashi flakes to help with adding beneficial bacteria to aid in breaking down the amendments. -Amendments to each 15gal pot: 2 gal EWC, 1 cup Gaia 444, 2tbs Gaia 284, 1 cup neem cake, 1/2 cup oyster shell flour, 1/2 cup gypsum, 1/2 cup diatomaceous earth, 3/4 cup Bokashi. Mulch: I have added rice hulls as a mulch to all my pots, this is to allow to surface of the soil to stay moist longer and to aid in giving beneficial's a place to hide. Found them at a local home brew store and that save me shipping from the other side of Canada. Stupid Thrips - The battle: Thrips got me bad on the last run, I tried using predatory mites but they didn't seems to help and by the end of the last run I had a lot of leaf damage because of it. Once the last run was done I covered my pots in pyrethrin's powder to kill anything still living in the soil, not sure how it actually worked but shortly after I was finding them all over the room so I figured most must have left the pots . I then did serval deep cleans on the room, vacuuming up bugs daily, wiping everything daily, adding new sticky traps to my rom daily to monitor progress. After a couple weeks I could no longer find any thrips, so I at that point moved the pots back in after re amending the soil. Within a few days I was noticing thrips on the tape again so they must have still been in or on the pots, this time I sprayed pyrethrin power all over the entire room with a gas mask on, I also turned off the exhaust fan and turned up circulating fans to kick up the power then left the room for a couple days. After powdering the whole room I went back in and had to do one final top to bottom clean. After that I had not seen a thrip for a few weeks, but sure enough I just saw the first one yesterday. I have now started spraying with spinosad the last couple days, haven't seen another thrip yet but its still two early to tell. I will continue to spray with spinosad every couple days for a few more weeks to ensure I have taken these bastards out! Automated Watering Plans: I have plans to setup an automated watering system soon. I have decided on a drip system to start with and am either thinking of 1/4 soaker hose or PC drippers or maybe the PC dripper with the soaker hose. In any case I am excited by the thought of having water automated. I had considered and almost pulled the pin on Blumats but due to their tendency to clog and run away I wanted a system I maintained more control over. Compost Tea: -5 gal water -1 cup EWC -1 tbsp EM -1 tbsp molasses

The plants have adjusted very well to the reused soil and are growing very quickly now. I have my lights dimmed to about 600W at 25 inches giving them a lux of around 45k, will start increasing intensity once I get closer to flipping them. I am getting lots of growth daily, not sure how long its going to take to fill the screen / room but I will go as long as it takes. The Sour Apple Gelato and Apples and Bananas are smelling dank as can be already, the Cherry Runty has a mild smell and ECSD almost no smell. I am going to be working on setting up a drip watering system over the next week, looking forward to getting this going! It will make watering and vacations much easier ;) For the thrips, I have not see another one yet but will keep applying the spinosad every couple day for a couple of more weeks as I am sure they are still hiding in the room somewhere.

Hi everyone The ladies are doing great and growing like mad. Maybe only another week or two before flipping them! I gave them their first top dressing this last week, it was a small one as I figured their root are still expanding into the new soil. I also gave them a nice compost tea to keep the beneficials up. I am loving the organic thing, will never go back to bottled nutrients. I have all the component for my drip watering system, just need to start putting it together. Bugs: Luckily I still have not seen another thrip yet! I am still spraying with spinosad at lights out EOD just to be on the safe side. I also noticed that the beneficial mites I put in the pots last round are still doing their thing despite all the spinosad and pyrethrum, that is great news as they are supposed to help with thrips and gnats, spider mites ... The beneficial mite are hypoaspis miles and amblyseius cucumeris. I am not sure if I am seeing both still as I can't tell them apart but they seems to be flourishing this round. I think the rice hulls mulch layer has created an optimal environment for them to thrive in. East Coast Sour Diesel: This lady has been a crazy grower since day one, when she gets stressed she tilts her leaves sideways instead of just drooping them. She has also been a bit sensitive to the nutrients and makes me a bit nervous doing top dressing, but she handled this first one fine. She also has the crazy node spacing with the average being 6-8". I think she could be a stretchy one after flip, her Sativa side is certainly showing. Sour Apply Gelato: She is growing like crazy and has a nice dank smell already. Seems she is a bit more on the Sativa side of thing. No issues or concerns. Cherry Runts: This is a very strong growing vigorous plant. She is already developing some resin glands on her fan leaves, hoping this means she is going to be frosty! Seems more Indica, but who knows with these hybrids. No issues or concerns. Apples and Bananas: She is also growing like mad and has a nice dank smell to her. This ones also seems a bit more Indica, no issues or concerns. Tops Dressing: -1/4 cup of Gia 444 -1/4 cup of neem -1/2 cup EWC -1 TBSP bokashi Compost Tea: -1 cup EWC -3 tsp Kelp extract -2 tbps EM -2 TBSP molasses -2 tbsp insect fras

Last week was a busy one. Lots of tucking to spread the SCROG out, and even a bit of topping. The screen (4.5' wide x 4') is 99% full now . I did my first bloom top dressing yesterday, recipe below. Plants seem very happy with the top dressing so far, but will give them a few more days to adjust before flipping them. I have mostly setup my automated watering system. Only thing left todo is to put in the PC drippers (4 per pot to start with) and to configure the timer, I will finish that up this afternoon. Looking forward to getting these ladies flowering. I have some compost tea bubbling now that I will water in after its has been bubbling for a few days, I try to do one tea shortly after each top dressing to keep the biological herd active. Top Dressing: Per 15 gal pot, mixed then scratched into the top few inches of the soil and lightly watered in. -1/2 cup Gaia 444 -1/2 cup Gaia 284 -1 cup EWC

I flipped the ladies five days ago, for the first three days I went to 15hrs of light, then to 13 hrs for the last two days and today I have finally moved them to 12/12 today. They are in full stretch mode now growing lots daily. The last top dressing did the trick, they all look very happy and healthy during stretch! Now that I have the drip watering setup I am mainly focusing on getting that dialed in. I am going to add two more dripper to each pot to see if I can get the coverage a bit more even, but overall this seems to be working great so far. Hopefully I can get away with my 10 day vacation in July and this will keep the ladies happy while I am away. I have not seen another thrip in over a month, fingers crossed I have taken care of those bastards. No pests thus far and I hope that continues. My beneficial mites seems to be doing very well. I can see hundreds of them them on my drippers / drip lines in each pot. Glad they are staying happy and multiplying, hopefully they will help prevent pest problems going forward! East Coast Sour Diesel - Back Left: She is a stretchy one and is requiring more bending and tucking then the others. But she bends very very well, as soon as I bend her a bit the branch just goes limp. She is a funny one. Sour Apple Gelato - Back Right: This girl is also stretchy, I would say second most Sativa after the ECSD. Her leaves are already nice and dank. This plant is going to be a beast, lots of tops! Apples and Bananas - Front Right: Starting to get some resin glands on the fan leaves and they are have a great smell. She is stretching nicely. Cherry Runtz - Front Left: This girl is also has a decent amount of resin glands on her fan leaves as well and a great dank smell. More of an Indica but she still is stretching lots.

Just over a week into flower. Plants are all well into stretch with budlets starting, probably not much more stretch left. All of the tops have grown away from the screen nicely, glad I fully filled the screen and then let them go after flipping to 12/12. I am going to do my next top dressing tonight, and will follow that up with a compost tea that I already have bubbling. Then I am off on vacation for 10 days. Hopefully the automated watering I setup does its thing and keeps the ladies healthy, also hoping stretch has mostly stopped by then. Plants are looking very healthy and I hope I come back to the same after vacation.

Back from my 10 day vacation and things are looking good! Looks like the automated watering is working well and maintained them nicely. I do see a tiny bit of Mg deficiency on the Sour Apple Gelato (back right). The ECSD (back left) seem to need a bit more N even after the last top dressing before I left, seeing some yellow leaves on her. I am bubbling a tea (recipe below) for the ladies now to give them a boost, I will add some Alaska fish fertilizer (511) to the ECSD when I water in the tea and will also do another small top dressing for her at the same time. Had a bit more stretch since I left but think they are finally done. The canopy is thick with tops wall to wall, should make for a good harvest. I am thinning out the fan leaves all over to prevent shading of tops and to get a bit more light penetrating into the canopy. I will also raise my lights and and increase the wattage, this should help give a bit more even spread edge to edge. Will keep the intensity on the tops maxing out around 65-70k Lux with my lights, anything more seems to be a bit to much. The ladies' are a couple day into week three of flower. Starting to show buds nicely with all plants looks frosty and smelling divine. Maybe its wishful thinking but the Apples and Bananas seems to have a bit of banana smell and Cherry Runtz seems to have a bit of a cherry smell, would be great if that continues. The Sour Apple Gelato smells sweet n ECSD doesn't have much of a notable smell yet. Tea: -5gal water -2 tsp calmag -4 tbsp kelp extract -2 tbsp EM -1 cup EWC -2 tbsp molasses Extra Top Dressing for ECSD only: -1/4 cup 444 -1/4 cup 284 -1/4 cup bokashi -3/4 cup EWC

Pretty much on auto pilot now and the ladies are looking great except the East Coast Sour Diesel (ECSD). The smell in the room is absolutely intoxicating, with a sweet funk aroma. Not sure why the ECDS is having so much issues, I tried tops dressing to no avail. After tops dressing the issue got much worse and developed quicker. I have my suspicions that there is an issue with the soil in this pot as the last plant I ran in this soil (Crescendo RBX1) had the same issue in flower. I have a feeling that this soil has to much bloom nutrients in it, next run I will replace the soil in this pot. This pot also seems a bit slower to uptake water and I feel the issue has been exacerbated by over watering caused by the automated watering while I was away. I have recently purchased wifi soil moisture meters for each of my pots, I am currently working on dialing them in for monitoring but think they are going to be very useful for keeping the soil moisture just right along with the automated watering. I feel fortunate that I haven't see any pests as of yet. I do a ton of gardening outdoors and need to take a shower before going into my grow room as I can feel the thrips and mites crawling on me from being in my outdoor garden. I have spider mites in a bunch of my outdoor garden beds and I am very worried that they might get into my grow room, so I am taking all precautions I can. Apples and Bananas: This strain is filling out nicely, she is looking very healthy and still has a nice mild banana smell. Nice and frosty! Cherry Runtz: This strain is also very frosty and filling out nicely. She has a sweet smell with a hint of fruit, not sure I can smell cherries though. Sour Apple Gelato: This strain is a looking like its going to be a frost monster with nice large buds. Smelling sweet with a nice dankness. ECSD: This strain had the potential to be the frostiest strain I have ever run, unfortunately she has taken a turn for the worse and is going to be far from what she could have been. Will try to limp her along until the end but I am not counting on much out of her at this point. Will try to take a clone of her for next run to see if I can do better next time.

Last day of week six today. Love this part of the grow, minimal effort and buds are starting look great. Should be doing their final fatting up in the next couple weeks. I have been giving a light compost tea about once a week and did my last top dressing around week five. The ECSD didn't make it, at this point I have to assume it was from overwatering due to my automation and the individual needs of the plants. Next round I plan on configuring a solenoid for each plants water line, that way I can adjust amount time for each plant separately. That combined with the individual wifi moisture sensors should allow me to fully dial in each plant so they are getting optimal watering and dry cycles! Sour Apple Gelato: This strain looks crazy frosty and has an excellent nose. The amazing dark purple leaves looks rad, very excited for her to finish up. Looks like it should finish in the next two week. I took some clones last week incase I want to run it again, hopefully one of them takes. Cherry Runtz: Nice fat nugs on this one with an light sweet cherry smell looks like it should finish in the next two week. Apples and Bananas: Has a mild banana smell with a bit of funk, trics look chunky on this one. Seems to have the most white pistols I suspect this plant will take a bit longer to finish then the others. Maybe another two - three weeks? East Coast Sour Diesel: RIP - To much water makes for a dead plant. The buds that were on her seemed to finish so she will be made into concentrates. Compost Tea - Final flowering - 5gal bucket bubbled for 3+ days: - 2 tbsp EM (microbes) - 3 tbsp liquid kelp - 2 tbsp molasses Final Top Dressing at week 5: -1/2 cup Gaia 444 -1/2 cup Gaia 284 -1 cup EWC

This is a great strain that I will grow again, would love to do a pheno hunt of this to find something special.

Will defiantly grow this one again. Nice strong weed with great affects and some of the nicest terps I have ever smoked. Can't wait to see how it cures up over the next six months.

Very nice smooth day time smoke with decent terps. Nice and strong, my new go to day time smoke. I would grow this again but it did yield a bit less than my other strain so will keep trying to find a nice yielding sativa. Ended up with just under 7oz off this one, smaller buds but that seem typical with gelato strains I have grow before.