2) Barney's / Wedding Cake Auto / Micro

And off we went. First week should be uneventful. It mostly was. She had a tiny bit of nute burn during the week, which I think happened as a result of early feeding, I started feeding her almost immediately instead of waiting 24 hours after cotyledons were complete and pointing up. She didn't like that, I guess. But it was almost an unnoticeable problem and things progressed just fine. Okay, so let's discuss some goals for this 2nd grow. Well, they were naturally born from what I didn't like about my first grow. Many of you have congratulated me for the "success" of my 1st grow. I even won Newbie of the Month 9/21. Thanks to all of you. No doubt it was a high-yielding grow, especially for its circumstances (4.2 non-larf ounces from a 2 gallon grow in a 2x2x3 tent with a 100w flowering lamp). But bud quality was a bit off, Not getting into those details here. You can read what I thought about those buds in my last diary. But I will tell you what I thought caused the bad bud quality. GOAL 1: IMPROVE BUD QUALITY BY REDUCING HEAT/LIGHT STRESS: Heat stress was the main culprit. You saw me mention light stress in the last diary, but I've had to humbly accept since then that heat stress was the most likely cause. She had clawing leaves all over. I went into denial about this with my 1st grow because I didn't want to stress out myself for several weeks, not knowing how bad a problem it could be as I had no prior experience. During the last grow, my temp/humidity sensor was placed in the shade under the canopy in the coolest corner of the tent. Talk about denial. If I hadn't gone into denial about the heat stress, though, I might have panicked or something. And since there was nothing I could do about the heat stress anyway, might as well allow for denial. What would you lose? So for this grow, the sensor is at canopy level in what I think is the hottest corner of the tent - the corner furthest from the door - the corner where the main cola sits - the corner where the leaf burn and yellowing was first seen during the last grow. We're confronting the truth this time. We're entering fall/winter so managing my apartment's temp will be easier this time, which should also a positive effect on the tent. I might try gradually reducing the light schedule during flower in order to reduce heat in the tent. I've seen YouTube videos of auto grows that the narrator claims was grown under 12/12 lighting and the buds are huge and beautiful. That makes sense to me. Why would an auto NEED 18 hrs when a photo only needs 12? It's different to say you CAN grow under 24 hr lights with an auto than it is to say you NEED so many hours. I think the Ruderalis thing is only that the photosensitivity is gone. But the plant's circadian rhythm is probably the same as a photo. My last auto grow showed a 12/12 circadian rhythm during early flower (leaves would droop / prop up at the exact same time every day -12 hrs apart) even though I was running 18/6. That's how I got to these conclusions. But the real cause of the heat stress was very simply the same thing we all loved about that plant - its size! It was simply too big for the tent. Not big enough to destroy the plant but too big for quality buds. Because the plant was 14 inches tall, the plant could only be 10 inches away from the lamp with the lamp all the way at the top of the tent. That's too close to the lamp and too high up in the tent (heat rises so the higher you are in the tent.. you get it.) So.... GOAL #2: MAKE THE PLANT SMALLER/LOWER IN THE TENT In order to achieve this goal, I went in with these strategies: 1) Install SCROG net lower than last time and use LST simultaneously to allow branches to stretch more horizontally than the last grow. (I'll talk about how this went in my discussion of weeks 3 thru 7.) 2) I would wait longer to install the flowering lamp than I did in my 1st grow. (I'll discuss this for weeks 5 and 6.) 3) Since she's a short strain, and because of the implementation of strategies 1 and 2 above, I decided NOT to top the plant, as I said I prolly would in the last diary. And.. GOAL #3: DEFOLIATE OFTEN AND EARLY I've developed the notion, possibly false, that defoliation is best handled by the plant earlier in its life than later. And since now I have some defoliation experience and favorite techniques, I see no point in not employing them as soon as I see the opportunity. Not sure if I'm right about this. And if worried that defoliation causes stunting, check out goal #2 above. GOAL#4: ADJUST FLOWERING FEED SCHEDULE - LESS CALMAG, MORE PK During the last grow, I lowered the PK part of the NER during flower from what was recommended on CocoforCannabis because I (mistakenly) thought that the leaf burn I was seeing was possibly caused by excessive PK since I was using Liquid KoolBloom. I don't believe that anymore (see goal #1). So this time, I would at minimum be strictly following the CocoforCannabis recommendation to strongly increase PK with Liquid KoolBloom during weeks 9+. In addition, I will be reducing CALMAG levels in the NER during these weeks, because I suspect Calcium (and more specifically Calcium Phosphate) is the reason salt accumulated in my pot during flower last time - leading to high runoff ECs. Buds from last grow came out airy, somewhat grassy smelling and a bit harsh. Sure drying and curing techniques can cause this, but so can having a relatively nitrogen-heavy flowering period, according to a weed-growing podcast I once listened to. So increasing PK and PK uptake ability is key to a better overall quality bud, I hope. GOAL #5: CONTINUE TO TEST THEORIES AND RECORD RESULTS This is a goal of every grow I will do for the foreseeable future. Only by testing different techniques will I be able to see the truths about how this growing thing goes. Sure there's lots of advice out there, but much of contradicts itself. So I want to discover my own truths as revealed by my "successes" and "failures." So the point of this goal is basically to keep me humble and keep me from not get too focused on yields. This goal is just to remind me that the point of it is more about gaining even more knowledge and understanding about how to do this than it is about producing weed or great photos. So it's about not being afraid to tweak things in each grow if you are curious about what effects the tweak might have. Just keep learning and improving. And finally, there are no yield goals for this grow. That was greatly achieved by the last grow. Clearly, I'm chasing proficiency in the art of making a great quality bud with this grow instead of achieving yield. If I succeed at a decent level, I'll combine both yield and quality goals into a happy medium next grow. That would be real exciting. One can hope. Since I think most growers want to see pictures of big plants with big buds (I love them too!), I don't expect this diary to be as popular as the last one I did. That's ok. But if you want to see if I succeed in achieving these goals, and more importantly, what lessons are learned along the way regardless of success, come for the ride if you like. I'd appreciate the company. 😉 Have a great grow day!