Serial Ape'ist 2: Monkey See Monkey Kill

Diary Legend: 💧- Watered 🌱- Seedling 🌲- Cut Down 🍃- Defoliation ✂️- Topping or FIM'ING 🚂- Training (LST) Wk1 10/17/21: Day 1. 🌱Seedling is already a full inch about the surface, the most I've ever had a seedling sprout in a day. 10/18/21: Day 2. Seedling has grown even more above the surface, so I placed it on top of another bucket, to get it closer to the light, and more even with the other plant. 10/19/21: Day 3. 💩💧Stretching seems to have slowed for now, thankfully. True leaves are getting longer. I'm thinking I will keep the plant in the cup for around three full weeks before moving to a bigger pot, but overall growth will decide when it really happens. Added in some Gaia Green All Purpose blend, as it's in a small cup, I adjusted the dosage to 1/4 tsp. Watered it in thoroughly, but not enough to run out the bottom. 10/21/21: Day 5. 💧Growth of leaves is looking good, bend in stem is odd, but seems to be ok for now. 10/23/21: Day 7. 💧Bend in stem is straightening out, and the growth is staying strong. Keeping up with watering is much easier with daily checks, and having the pump sprayer handy. Still looking like another full week or more in the solo air cup before transplanting into another pot.

Diary Legend: 💧- Watered 🌱- Seedling 🌲- Cut Down 🍃- Defoliation ✂️- Topping or FIM'ING 🚂- Training (LST) Wk2 10/24/21: Day 8. 💧Leaves are looking great, nice and green, with a pleasant spread. I'm going to start keeping the cup moist by daily watering, or multiple times a day if needed. FIM at the 4th node, which will be coming in very soon. 3rd node is just finishing up, so keep an eye out for it to be ready. 10/25/21: Day 9: 💧Huge growth spurt, leaves are now spread out passed the edge of the cup. It might need to be repotted sooner than originally anticipated, but that's all for the better. I will still give it several days after FIM'ing anyhow, just to be certain it's ready. Plant 10/26/21: Day 10. 💧With the way the growth is going, I think I'll be able to FIM in the next day or two. Leaves are looking nice and fat, and a lovely shade of green. 10/27/21: Day 11. 💧✂️After looking at the plant, I decided it was time to FIM. Whether I did it right or not remains to be seen, but it's been cut either way. I gave it more water, and will keep a close eye on it. If it ends up being an experiment, that is ok with me. 10/28/21: Day 12. 💧Plant does not appear to be in any harmful shock, and seems to have taken the cutting well. Upon closer inspection, I effed up an eff up. Oh well, I can still turn this baby into a real beauty. My original plan was to flower this out as a single plant in the tent, but I feel as if I will be making some additions later on. 10/29/21: Day 13. 💧The leaves are droopy this morning, and I'm not sure if it's from being dry, or if it's crying from being hurt. I gave it a drink, hoping to make it feel better. I will keep an eye on it, and take a picture later today, hopefully the leaves are happy again. 10/30/21: Day 14. 💧Plant is still sad, as nothing has changed. As these plants are very resilient, I know she will bounce back in no time. One more week or so in the solo air cup, and then it's into a bigger pot. Time to relax, and just keep the moisture levels up in the cup.

Diary Legend: 💧- Watered 🌱- Seedling 🌲- Cut Down 🍃- Defoliation ✂️- Topping or FIM'ING 🚂- Training (LST) Wk3 10/31/21: Day 15. 💧I can see visible growth in the area of my pruning, so all is not lost. Slight yellowing of the lower leaves tell me the nutrient dosage was not too much, as I first thought it might have been. I can either add in a little more, or mix up a large batch of enriched soil and keep it safe, and use it as needed. 11/1/21: Day 16. 💧💩I decided to bite the bullet, and transplant today. I have a feeling the leaves are weeping as a sign of a lack of space. Once removed from cup, I see a little bit of circling of the roots, but still with plenty of room. I have a feeling she will come out of her funk either tomorrow, or by the next day. Since I was transplanting, I don't have to rely on top dressing. That being said, I went by a modified transplant nutrient ration. While it lists top dressing ratio at 1tbsp/gal, and the repotting ratio at 3tbsp/gal, I opted to go with something in between, at 2tbsp/gal. 11/2/21: Day 17. Plant is responding to the replanting, and is starting to bounce back. Dropping leaves are visibly moving outwards, stretching out to get more light. So far it seems the issue was the small pot, and not from the pruning. I will need to remember to transplant once leaves reach the edge of the cup, and not wait for a fixed date. 11/3/21: Day 18. Plant is still slowly coming back out of its funk, but the leaves remain a little droopy. I'm sure it will be fine by the weekend. The new shoots are coming in nicely, almost an inch long now. Once they get long enough, I will train the plant as best as I can. 11/4/21: Day 19. 🚂New shoots are still going strong, with the old leaves not reacting much to the transplant, perhaps something else was wrong, and it wasn't just root bound. I will give it a few more days, some changing should have occured by then. Decided to use garden staples to hold top leaves back, exposing the new growth more light. Originally planned on letting those branches grow more before tucking, but I ended up putting them under the staple, along with the leaves. This should allow the new branches to grow more horizontally early on, and also have the lower branches exposed to more light. 11/5/21: Day 20. Garden staple idea worked well, growth is outward, and lower branches are now at an even height with the rest of the plant. If flowered now, I'd have 6 workable branches to produce a nice crop of colas. Flowering will not commence until the plant is at a desirable size, or sooner if things come up. 11/6/21: Day 21. Lower branches are now the tallest branches. Once they extend a bit further out tomorrow, then I will pin them down. Top growth is still coming in strong, with the nodes already showing signs of wanting to grow out further. Top leaves are still strong, and keep trying to pop on top of the branches, blocking out the light. If it keeps up, I will likely have to remove them soon. They are technically no longer needed to keep the plant growing, but it's more food capabilities for the plant.

Diary Legend: 💧- Watered 🌱- Seedling 🌲- Cut Down 🍃- Defoliation ✂️- Topping or FIM'ING 🚂- Training (LST) Wk4 11/7/21: Day 22. 8:00am. Plant seems to be taking hold of it's new home, and growing steadily. While I'm certain the FIM'ing and root binding caused the plant to be stressed and grow slowly, it is still holding on, and going strong. Soon I will defoliate the remaining two top leaves, as they are thick and pulling the stem down. Once removed, the shoots will be managed much easier, with less resistance, and no leaf stem getting in the way. Still a few days away from that, as I want to let it spread out more. Once I move the staples further, try to spread them out to fit into their future home under the other light. Move in two directions, turn it into a big T. As this will be an older plant, and likely a little bigger, I need to get it managed sooner, rather than deal with a bushy mess later on, losing weight to poorly formed buds, from lack of light. 1:00pm. I decided I might as well start the new training today, as it will just be on my mind until I do it. I have three branches angled toward one direction, and three angles in the other direction. New branches are on their 3rd node, so pinching will begin very soon. 11/9/21: Day 24. Last night I decided to switch from the staples, and use the plant ties I bought a long while back. I actually like these way more than I thought I would. They are like coated twist ties, so they hold a bend well, but are also very thin. I will get plenty of use from it next summer growing withy screens. I manuevered the branches in the same fashion, extending outwards in two directions, instead of four. I will need to continue the training as the branches grow out. I will try to leave the plant alone until the next scheduled update, but I can't promise anything, as I've been making small adjustments all along. This time I will try harder, as they need time alone. 10:28pm. After extensive thinking, I decided I'm going to veg this plant out for another 6 weeks or so before switching to flower. That way I can get a head start on another plant, and finally start growing one big plant to flower out on its own. 11/10/21: Day 25. 💧✂️Pot was quite dry, so I gave it a thorough watering. Growth looks great, nice and dark green. I went ahead and did some FIM'ing of 4 branches. I left the two lowest branches alone, which will give them time to catch up and fill out. New growth will only be managed, no more heavy removal of leaves and shoots. 11/11/21: Day 26. I had to readjust the plant ties, as the new growth was taking off. Removed the ties from the lower branches, allowing them to be closer to the top of the canopy. Just under 2 more weeks in this pot, unless it becomes to large to handle, but I'm not thinking it will too bad. No visible growth in the area of FIM'ing, but that's expected at this time. I'm sure the new shoots will start to make an appearance in the next few days. Pot was definitely lighter than yesterday, so it's quite a thirsty little girl. I received some good news today. Mars Hydro will sending a new light to use. It's the same light I'm currently using right now, so it will work out well. I can now reopen my Budroom tent again. In that one, I will do something special, but I'm not entirely sure just which idea I'll try out first. Likely to at least be one large photoperiod. It will have to chosen wisely, as that tent has no air filter, so smell will be a bit of a factor. Just no skunks, something sweet and flowery. I have lots I can choose from, so no need to worry. 11/12/21: Day 27. 💧Pot was a little on the dry side, so I gave it a thorough watering. I noticed there are some more leaves that need removing. I will either get to it later today, or leave that for tomorrow mornings task before I update. Growth is looking good, but I don't see anything visible from the FIM'ing, but that stuff takes time anyway. The lower branches have extended out to almost where they almost match the height of the others. I'm starting to wonder if I should have removed those lower branches all together. We will see if if was helpful or a hindrance later on. I'm sure it will be fine, as it's an added cola anyhow. 11/13/21: Day 28. 🍃🚂Plant is looking mighty fine. Leaves are green, no spots or visible marks. I removed a few leaves that were blocking nodes, mostly the interior. The leaves furthest out don't seem to be causing an issue yet, but I'm sure they will need pruning soon enough. I moved the wires a bit, to keep the tops a little lower. I had also pulled back a few of the small interior nodes, so they grow out, and away from the center.

Diary Legend: 💧- Watered 🌱- Seedling 🌲- Cut Down 🍃- Defoliation ✂️- Topping or FIM'ING 🚂- Training (LST) Wk5 11/14/21: Day 29. 💧Pot was quite dry again, so I gave it a little water this morning, and will finish it off later when I get back. Plant looks excellent, cannot wait until I can transplant it, and continue more training. Right now there will be a minimum of 10 tops, but since there is still around a month to go before I switch to flower, I will likely end up with double the amount of tops. I'm hoping for 24 or so, maximum. I'm not going to remove any more branches, so the new ones will be coming into play. I will use them to fill out the center of the plant, as the other branches will spread outward for a while still, until the switch. I decided to move the schedule of the transplant ahead, even though I already did it once before. This plant will still get 8 weeks of vegging before the flip, so it will still be a decent plant. It's already doing great, and better than my previous photoperiod grow. The growth achieved from the new pot should prove to be beneficial. Watered it more this afternoon, enough to make it heavy. It should be dry by the time it's ready for the transplant. It uses a lot of water, so it's drinking up those nutrients well. The shade of green these plants are sporting is phenomenal. The higher amount of nutrients is certainly visible with this guy. The leaves almost have a blue sheen to them, it's very weird, and unfortunately not visible in the photos. I will be transplanting into a higher ratio of nutrients, as I scaled back for this current pot, as I knew it wouldn't be in there long enough to deplete a full dosage. After transplant, it will veg in the new home for one month, so the additional nutrients will be the proper dosage, for that length of time. Cannot wait. I'm so eager to transplant, I'm doing all I can to not do it right now. Whether I do it now, or in two days, it won't matter much. Waiting at least gives me two more full days to grow it into shape. 11/16/21: Day 31. 💧💩🚂🆕🏠It was definitely time to transplant this baby. It was a pain to move though, as it was stuck in the pot, and most of the top layer of soil fell out, so the roots may have been shaken up a little. I had to bend more branches down, as they were definitely getting in the way. The stem is quite strong, even on the lower branches, so they don't want to cooperate fully, they want to move around. Hopefully the training outward allows the inner branches to get bigger. I feel I may have to cut some off. If I do, I will certainly try and clone them. Not sure if I will grow any out, or just add them back into the flower tent, get some extra little bonus buds. Those would definitely be put to good use. Either as some good oil, or some good butter. I hate making butter, so it's likely going to be oil. This would likely produce some very nice, golden oil. As the plant was transplanted, the new home was filled with premixed nutrient soil, at the recommended dosage of 3 tbsp for every gallon. Pretty much the same ratio as the last repotting. I will maintain the training and possible cuttings over the next three weeks, as that's when it's time to switch to flower. Oh yeah, plant was moved into the other tent. That way I can know for sure how much space it will need, and can train it properly. I still have not achieved the desired shape, but that is due to the additional branches getting in my way. Those ones will be the first to get removed, and likely cloned. Going from 150w of LED, to a 315w CMH and a new home, must be a big change to the plant. I'm sure it will absorb the extra light with ease. Hopefully the added power brings out some larger, and stronger buds. 11/18/21: Day 33. Plant looks great, took to the transplant like a champ. Some new growth has been coming in, and crowding up the insides of the plant. I'm letting them grow a little longer before I cut them off. That way it leave me a node to possibly clone, if that is the route I go. I'm lazy, so I probably won't. 11/19/21: Day 34. 💧Watered plant, and rearranged some staples. Plant is looking good. Extra branches seem to have appeared out of nowhere. They will be removed very soon, along with a major defoliation again. Likey still a few more of those going to be needed before flowering begins, which will be here very soon. 11/20/21: Day 35. I had to staple a few more branches back, but they likely won't be staying for the end of the show. Turns out I really did mess up the FIM. One branch was done right, but others are just mangled. Still not an issue, as it had caused the lower shoots to pop out further.

Diary Legend: 💧- Watered 🌱- Seedling 🥦- Vegging 🌷- Flowering 🌲- Cut Down 🍃- Defoliation ✂️- Topping or FIM'ING 🚂- Training (LST) 💩- Fertilized 🆕🏠 - New Home (transplant) Wk6 11/21/21: Day 36. Plant is looking mighty fine, definitely one great strain to grow. Someday I'd like to see her natural shape, as I could see it being one nice bushy baby. I still need to perform some defoliation and cutting of branches, but it's alright for now. I will defoliate in a day or two, and then follow up with the cuttings a little while after. I still haven't decided if I'm going to clone the cuttings or not. I am lazy enough that I don't want to, but I'm frugal enough to not want to waste good buds. I probably will clone them. If I have room to stuff them in the flower tent, I will. If not, I'll have to grow them out a bit, and then flower them when I can. 11/22/21: Day 37. ✂️🍃 Defoliated and cut some branches, the 6 that were big enough were dipped in rooting gel, and placed in rooting cubes. Now resting inside the humidity dome. Once rooted and transplanted, allow a bit of time to veg, and then move over into the flower tent. If there is no room, see if Crit wants some, and Josh as well. Plant definitely needs watering, which I will administer later on this evening. 11/23/21: Day 38. 💧Love the way this plant explodes with growth, this bugger doesn't seem to want to stop. Hoping at least one of those clones roots, so I can see what an untouched branched will flower into. If I ever get these seeds again, I will definitely grow one out that is untouched, I'm curious to see it's natural shape. At only 6 weeks of life, this guy is already bigger than my previous photoperiods at 8 weeks old. Those yielded around 3 ounces each, so I'm expecting a lot more from this one. I will be defoliating most of the leaves on colas, hopefully forcing them to bulk up the buds. It's a technique I've been reading about, and would like to give it a shot. Gave a fair dose of water, but I don't think the entire media was saturated. That is something I find difficult with Gaia Green. Watering to a little runoff is easy, and a simple way to tell if it's completely saturated or not. Since I don't want runoff, I feel as if I'm using a lot less water than I should be. I plan on buying some Coco coir soon, and that I know I will be needing to water a lot more often, which is fine with me. I may even eventually switch over to an automated watering system. Only gravity fed, with drip emitters, that way it's on autopilot for 3 weeks at a time, minus the tweaking of leaves and branches. That would be ideal, eventually, especially with autos, then I can literally do sweet f**k all with the plants. Even if I don't get an automated watering system setup, I still want to switch over to a Coco coir and sunshine mix combo. I may even use some Coco outside with my outdoor plants, but not likely, as the sand is already very quick drying. 11/25/21: Day 40. The only issue I have with this plant, is that I don't get to grow it as big as I'd like to. It still feels like it's going to be one heavy producer though, the way it grows like crazy. We will see how it reacts to the flip into flower 9 or 10 days from now. I will continue to train some branches to keep it spread out. I really wish I was able to go back and redo this one, have it handled better from the start, and grow it out by itself. I will be defoliating in the next few days, and also removing any small shoots that cannot be trained back inwards. 11/27/21: Day 42. 💧Plant is still looking amazing. It is definitely time for another haircut, but I will leave that for tomorrow morning, so it has less time to regrow a bunch of leaves before the flip. One week left, I can't wait. I'm curious to see how much this stretches during flower. I will be tying more branches down as needed, and will now start training the new shoots inwards, to fill out any gaps.

Diary Legend: 💧- Watered 🌱- Seedling 🥦- Vegging 🌷- Flowering 🌲- Cut Down 🍃- Defoliation ✂️- Topping or FIM'ING 🚂- Training (LST) 💩- Fertilized 🆕🏠 - New Home (transplant) Wk7 11/28/21: Day 43. 🍃Plant is looking amazing, even after another round of trimming and defoliating. Trained a few shoots inward, hopefully they don't require eventual removal. Love the ease of growing this plant provides, it practically been on auto pilot the entire time, I've just been sitting back and watching. Can't wait to grow one out naturally, I'm very interested to see how it develops. 12/1/21: Day 46. Son of a bitch! As last night was supposed to be the first night of flowering, turns out it actually wasn't. I went down just a moment ago (8:50) am, knowing the light shouldn't be coming on for another 20 minutes or so. I decided to look into my other tent while I wait, and all was still fine in that one. So, I decide to open the other tent 2 inches at the zipper, and pried the flaps open, and saw the light was on. Damn, must not have set it for a 9 to 9 schedule, and immediately looked at the timers dial. Nope, still set to come on soon, so I checked the switch. Damn thing was on 24 hours the entire time, 2 autos grown and harvested, and one photoperiod, this one. Perhaps that may explain why the plant grew slowly, it didn't have any time to rest. Perhaps that is also why I had some issues with my autos, or at least the one. Grew tall, and lanky as hell. Very airy buds, something I'm looking to change with my future grows. Switched the timer back on, so the light will turn back on soon, and then back off at 9. Dang, I was looking forward to seeing what it does in the first few days after the flip. Well, I guess I'm waiting until tomorrow now. 12/4/21: Day 49. I can see some new growth coming in, the new yellow growth is a sign I like to see. Very little stretching so far, expecting more to show up soon, along with the revealing of the pistils.