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Again, outta the fridge and into the pot - except I pretreated the coco with water this time. Germination started a day after I harvested my first grow. Since the tent I used for the first grow was being used to dry it, I started this grow in a second tent I have - the 2x2x3 iPower tent, with plans to transfer her later. This earned me a few days of double productivity - a good idea.
There was some complication with this germination, however.
With my first grow, the seed sprouted after 54 hours , so I checked this pot 54 hours after planting as well, expecting to see results. Nothing there. I blew on the coco at the center of the pot hoping it would reveal small leaves sprouting up (this is how I uncovered the sprout last time), but again - nothing. I used my fingers to brush away some coco - still nothing. I kept going until there was notable depression of 3/8 inch - still nothing.
So I immediately went into action. Grabbed a tablespoon, carved out a chunk of coco in the middle of the pot and put all the coco in a bowl. I used the spoon brushing ever so lightly on the coco in the bowl and a few seconds later - there she was. She had a taproot that was approximately like 3/4 of an inch long but in a spiral. Seems she was either planted too deeply or she fell further into the coco somehow. Either way, she had clearly been struggling to get to the top of the coco and was spiraling around. She prolly wouldn't have made it without intervention. This happened to me once with an attempt before my first successful grow.
I inspected her taproot and it looked healthy and intact. I quickly tried to make a hole at the center of the pot, but her taproot had spiraled, so the hole couldn't be a vertical cylinder like you would normally do. This was going to require making a sort of ditch with a valley in it so that the head would be somewhat above the taproot, Understand what I mean? So I dug a sort of imperfect ditch, and then it was time to place the seed inside the ditch without breaking the taproot. I was afraid to use my fingers because I've had them slip out before and if it did in this case, the taproot would certainly break (it was long already) when it hit the floor. So the best I thought I could do was placing the seed in the spoon and guiding into place as best I could by gently using the spoon to place it in the ditch and lightly push it around to the right orientation with the head a quarter inch under top of the coco with its tail underneath. And I succeeded!! Gently buried the seed!
But there was one problem. The seed was now planted like an inch off from the center of the pot.
Oh well. I had to concede that. I'm no expert at this, so I don't know what effect planting the seed off center has on root development and/or overall plant development. I don't know if this affected anything. It would make LSTing the plant slightly more difficult at least, but I'll discuss that in my writeup of Week 2.
Twelve hours later, she emerged helmetless. The next journey had begun, and a twelve dollar seed had been saved from the brink of disaster. LOL.
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!
On Day 7 the plant was moved to the grow tent that the previous grow grew in and had been drying in.
LST started as early as Day 9. It always makes me feel a little bad for the youngling. That seed could have happily sprouted in any of countless other pots or fields and grown tall and unaffected with one giant usable cola - the way she's supposed to. But it had the misfortune of being the seed delivered to me - with this setup. With this setup that says, "I have no choice but to dwarf you, one way or the other. You WILL be stressed!" This breaks the record from last grow (Day 11). Getting crueler as I age, I guess. 😂
Why LST so early?
1)A key component of my training strategy is the "constant even canopy" concept. When the plant is presented as a flat surface to the lamp, better things are happening for your grow than otherwise. Therefore, the earlier you start LST, the faster you'll start getting growth of the other 3 main branches, because the plant has been laid flat. Then you just keep compounding your growth outward across that flat plane as much as you can. The sooner you LST, the sooner you kickstart faster/better growth basically. Why waste time (with an auto)?
2)You also get to the point where the main cola loses apical dominance over the rest of the plant quicker, because you allowed for the faster growth of the underlying branches as quickly as you did.
3)It also makes scrogging the plant easier eventually too.
4)Ultimately, the biggest benefit, I think, is you get to keep the main cola without topping, so more juicy yield potentially? And the main cola is usually the most beautiful and yielding, so keep her! (More on this below.)
So if you read the Germination story I wrote, you might have come here to see how the off center planting of the seed in the pot affected things with LSTing the plant?
Well, I liked the orientation the first grow LST took in that I bent the plant in the direction of the leaves in the first node. In other words, when the plant was bent over, one of the single leaf leaves (1st node above cotys) would be pointing up to sky and the other would pointing directly down into the pot (and I would just remove that hopeless leaf eventually).
With this planting off-center, however, I needed to figure out which edge of the pot I wanted to lean the main cola branch over. I decided that the nearest edge to the plant would be best because it would eventually make watering the plant easier than any other orientation. But the only way to do that was to violate the LST orientation that I chose the first grow, because the leaves would be diagonal to the ground instead of perpendicular and parallel. But then I realized that it would be a fun test to see how the plant would handle it.
So I went with the diagonal decision. I learned it eventually meant less need to defoliate from the plant because every leaf or stem had the opportunity to turn and face the "sun." In the other way, there's either perfect alignment or a pair where one sibling needs to die - so you lose 25%. Maybe I'll keep doing it this way? It did, however, make controlling the N,S,E,W orientation of the main branches a little harder. You'll see in the next couple weeks that some of the velcro straps on the pot are diagonal on the pot because I literally had to wrangle some of the branches away from where they naturally wanted to go, if I wanted that square look (if viewing from above) I like the plant to have during flower.
Anyway, this week is where all the training started. She was not topped. I still have never done that to a plant. I think I might be getting religiously suspicious of the practice. Throw away the BEST cola? Instead of keeping and doing the work to train it? Seems work worth doing to me, if you can swing it. Topping to me seems like trading your best player on your team for draft picks and bench players you plan to turn into starters someday. Needs to be done sometimes I guess? Someday I'll try growing a more Sativa dominant strain that grows taller than these strains I have, and I guess I'll have to try topping then.
Have a great grow day! 😬👍
Week 3 was mostly about continuing to LST the plant - identifying its N,S,E and W branches and starting to guide them in those directions. Why this was slightly more difficult this time was discussed in Week 2.
The other key thing that happened was the first defoliation which happened on Day 15. I removed one large fan leaf that was blocking light from the undergrowth that would eventually become the other 3 of 4 main branches. This is an important step in my process as it marks the first moment when the plant in its final desired form finally really starts to take shape unabated. A couple other big leaves would be removed during the week in order to help light get underneath to smaller developing branches.
Another key thing is that I started going 24 hours with the lamp on Day 18. It's only a 65 watt lamp at this stage, so the investment seems worth it. But what it really does for me is that it allows me 24 hour access to the plant - freeing up my personal schedule. I see no harm in doing this 24 hour thing to an auto during vegetative stage. I don't consider the veg stage to be a highly sensitive time for any good reason when using coco and a feed schedule you trust to work properly. You can even skip a few feedings at this stage. There's usually enough food for 24 hours in the pot.
Have a great grow day!
LST continued this week, spreading out branches. Then I installed the trellis net on Day 26. It was installed only a couple inches above the pot (as it was a stated goal for the grow). Made fertigations more difficult but doable so worth it.
LST was used off and on again simultaneously with the SCRoG effort in order to assist in keeping branches low. I also frequently unhooked the net from the posts and even lifted it off the plant completely sometimes. No need to be so precious with a 2 gallon grow (small). You can unhook the net, spin the plant around and install LST hooks, or defoliate.
Made this grow much easier than the first. With the first grow, because I thought that after the net was installed nothing could be moved ever, I would lie down on the ground and stretch inside the tent to remove a far away leaf. Nah, not this time. This time, the leaf came to me. Much better. Easier and more productive. Daddy likes.
Have a great grow day.
You'll notice from the pictures above, that there doesn't appear to be much growth from Day 30 to Day 35. I believe this is where things start to go very differently between my two grows. If you check my diary for my first grow, you'll see more growth around Day 35 then you'll see here. And if you check THIS diary in weeks 9+ and compare it to the last one, you'll notice this plant is about 50% smaller (as boos rain down the rafters.. lol.)
Now you can put this down under "different strain, different pheno" maybe. Certainly, as subsequent grows happen for me, I'll keep an open mind to this possibility. (I have seen videos on YouTube of Fast Buds/Green Crack Auto grows that go METERS into the sky. It's supposed to be a really short strain. Not sure the sativa side of that strain isn't a bit vengeful.) But what makes me lean away from this conclusion is that this grow was actually slightly ahead in terms of growth than the first grow around Day 30.
Now if you read my last diary, you saw me lament how early I installed the flowering lamp (Day 30). This is because I saw THIS video during flower of the last grow. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfihE4IuFuU&list=PLMcw9X3LP0amFbFymSiTIGiOsH-u907iF
He literally shows you the difference in results between growing with a blue spectrum light vs. red spectrum. And I can corroborate that with both of my grows, there was a noteworthy increase in growth in the plant just a couple days after installing my red spectrum flowering lamp (HLG 100 RSpec). I was literally complaining how tight the internodes were with my first grow during veg, until I installed the RSpec. Then the internodes got MUCH wider. So since a major goal of this grow was to keep the plant lower or smaller in the tent, one of my key tests/strategies was to introduce the flowering later in the process. So I wouldn't install the flowering lamp on Day 30 as I did last time. I would install the flowering lamp during Week 6 this time.
I would eventually install the lamp on Day 41. 11 days later than last time. I think the results speak for themselves. Goal #2 achieved with flying colors. Comically, I'm simultaneously thrilled and disappointed in this result. The scientist in me is happy about these results, but the farmer in me is not. Of course, I'd love to have a monster grow of sorts here, but remember that that wasn't the point of the grow. This grow is supposed to be a further refinement of skills and strategies through experimentation. I only have one tent at the moment, so sacrifices needed to be made for science. That's ok. Consider it an investment with rewards for many future grows. The loss will be recouped. This may end up being, from an educational standpoint, possibly the most valuable lesson I'll ever learn about micro-growing Cannabis properly.
So like Goldilocks and the Three Bears, if Day 30 for flowering lamp installation is too hot, and Day 41 is too cold, Day 35 for my next grow should be just right, if my theory here is true. And if my theory here is true, this means flowering lamp installation timing ends up being one of the most if not the most important critical factors in determining the overall size, quality and yield of any grow done within this tight mini-tent setup. So figuring this out is a home run for this grow. I'm giddy with excitement about my next grow. I can't wait.
Have a great grow day!
Yeah. That's the only picture. Remember that I said I might not even finish this grow in my last diary. Life got stressful around here. I was struggling to give a shit in general - wasn't thinking much about the plant. The plant went 27 hours without a feeding on Day 35 to 36. (When I did feed her late on Day 36, however, I gave her the amount I would have given regularly at the time which was 900 ml, and she gave me back 190 mil in runoff, so I don't think there was much if any root damage by the lapse in feeding.) So I wasn't taking many pictures either this week.
But part of the reason why I didn't take pictures was also that there just wasn't really that much going on visually with the plant. This Day 38 picture looks exactly like the Day 35 picture almost. I had noticed asymmetrical nodes on Day 33, so we were firmly into flower by Day 38 - but she just wasn't stretching much. As I explained in my discussion of Week 5, she was still under the blue spectrum veg lamps on Day 38 and I believe this is the primary reason for the stunted stretch. It was so boring in there for so long that you're gonna see in my discussion of Week 7 that I don't bother taking another picture until Day 44 - three days after installing the red spectrum flower lamp on Day 41. Again, though this may have led to disappointing results for THIS grow, I'm tickled giddy about gaining this knowledge about how to stunt a stretch with your choice in lamp. This was something I was explicitly testing with this grow as I discussed in Week 1.
Other possible reasons for the stunted stretch? She was being defoliated constantly since the first one I did on Week 2. This being my second grow. it was just that I knew at this point when leaves on the bottom/under the canopy were not going to get any light, so I got rid of them. So almost all of the early defoliation was the lollipop kind. But there may have been enough of it to stunt the plant? That just doesn't seem likely to me, though. Another reason? The strain/pheno variation problem with autos? No way to prove that one, yet. Would have to try to grow her again someday. Several times.
I did clearly do one thing wrong here, though. This week should have been when I started lowering humidity in the tent. I didn't. So she was hanging around 70% humidity here, which is too high for week 6. This could have stunted the girl though low transpiration rates. But my first grow grew like a monster in Week 6 with 65% humidity, so I don't think being mere percentage points wrong about humidity could have had THIS MUCH of an effect. The lamp is the more likely cause.
Then again, did I accidentally discover another way to control the stretch of the plant? Maybe this mistake will prove useful someday.
Have a great grow day!
Cannabis just doesn't look like cannabis to me until you get it under the flowering lamp. As discussed in Week 6, I was so bored of looking at her - until Day 44 when I could see that she was finally showing some stretch. She would really only stretch for about 8 days or so, though. By Day 51 or Day 52, you'll see in the next week page, she was pretty much finished stretching. This was VASTLY different from the experience I had with my first grow, which exploded with grow from Day 32 to about Day 54.
Again, if my theory about lamp installation timing in my setup being a critical decision is correct, which I'll try to definitively prove with my next grow if there is one, this experience will have been just as critical in illuminating that path. I guess I have to wait and see how grateful I get to be here. Anyway, it's Day 67 as I write this, and although she's smaller than my last grow, she's prettier at this stage than the last one. And smells more. And if she finishes sooner than the last one, because she's smaller, I'll take that too as a small plus.
And it's not like I won't need another two months at least to get through all that Green Crack I grew last time. I think I can afford one small grow. 😋
Have a great grow day!
This was definitely the beginning of the end of the stretch. Light schedule was reduced from 24 hours to 18/6 this week. Trellis net was raised an inch to accommodate more plant.
The stretch was over now. So I spent some time on Day 60 doing something that I think really enjoy as an activity - defoliation. My method at this stage is to only take away leaves with stems (as opposed to leaves coming straight out of bud sites - those get to stay), unless the stems are so small that I can't easily use my fingers to break the stem (fingernails as scissors).
Why all the leaf clipping at this stage? Because she's a much smaller plant this time. This was intended to some extent, as I've explained. But since she's so tiny, I thought that the best way to increase the yield of the grow was to skip the lollipop defo and defo from up top in order to permit more light penetration to the lower buds, but earlier in flower this time to give them time to develop in a hearty way. In the last grow (my first grow), I didn't do this type of defo until near the end, and about 1/5 of the results were larf and a good 4 inches of the lower part of the plant were just fully defoliated branches because of lollipop. Pretty wasteful. So I hope this type of defo and no lollipop will improve the efficiency of the plant, allowing for good yields even though she's smaller - a little test I'm doing with this grow. Why not?
She's only about 7 inches tall, and she wasn't getting much taller. Not much more to do but watch her grow the buds and look out for signs of stress.
Seems the defo might have stressed her a bit as I noticed some reddening of pistils. But the leaves all looked healthy more or less. No signs of heat/light stress like the last grow. And the buds were growing already and quickly! With a good deal of frost on the top buds as well.
Amazing smell developing here. The word that keeps coming to mind about the smell is "sweet." Maybe that's how she got the name? Cuz she does smell like "weed cake." That's the best I can describe it. LOL.
I had her up at 1.3 EC at the beginning of the week, but I started noticing burnt tips so I pulled back to 1.2. Then after defoliation I pulled back to 1.1 EC.
Runoff EC was holding steady at 1.2 - 1.35 EC.
Have a great grow day!
Runoff ECs of 1.5 as compared to 1.1 input. Once again, I was there wondering why runoff ECs go up so much during flower for me (everyone?). Then it hit me. When I'm in veg, runoff ECs are usually under input ECs, but during flower the opposite happens. But during veg, humidity levels are hovering around 70%+ most of the time and the outtake fan blows less than in flower when I'm running humidity levels at 50% or less if possible.
Therefore, water evaporates more from the pot in flower stage than in veg stage due to lower humidity and higher wind. Water processed by the plant eats nutes from the pot. So if humidity levels are high enough, evaporation from the pot will be low. Runoff EC levels will be low. Water removed from the pot thru evaporation, however, leaves excess salt behind in the pot - thus these rising runoff EC results in flower, caused by relatively low humidity.
Has me wondering if using fabric pots is wise after all? Maybe a good plastic pot keeps your water where it belongs and your salt levels lower? Worth thinking about. But does this also mean that high runoff EC just means you need to increase your watering frequency? Or watering amount? Or include some FloraKleen flushes periodically? Do periodic low EC flushes? Would automatic watering mechanisms be better?
This might also explain why I end up with early red pistils with both of my grows. Last time, it could have been general stress as well, but this time, the ONLY sign of stress is the red pistil situation. I read somewhere this can be caused by soil (coco) pH problems. A pot with rising salt levels might create changing ph levels too, maybe?
Well I'm watering twice a day. It's all I can afford to do. That's the constraint.
Need to think about this. And who knows how important this all ends up being, anyway. I'll think about it after the grow is done. I have one more fabric 2 gallon to get through anyway. Might as well finish the pack, right? 😂
As you can see, I spun the plant around 180 degrees, You can see the LST of the main branch. Strong biceps on that branch, let me tell you. Spinning her around like this changed the angle of attack of the water stream I hit her with at feeding by 180 degrees too. I was hoping that helped loosen up salt patches by creating new runoff channels in the coco.
In an effort to avoid heat stress, (around Day 60-65 is when this started to happen with my last grow) I changed the light cycle to 16/8. Going with the theme of the grow - to serve as a test of several aspects of growing that I was curious about.
As the week ended, I was able to get runoff ECs to stabilize at about 80 points above input EC rather consistently. It's a possible combination of things that led to this result. The 180 spin of the pot was one. The low EC flushes I did early on in the week was another. The reduction of CALMAG in my feed was another possible one.
And an increase in feeding amount was another. Was feeding twice per day as usual - 1.2 Liters per feed at about 1.15 EC/6.2 ph times two. Before this week, though, I was putting in 1L then 1.2L (so 200ml less per day) with rising runoff EC.
The first feed of 1.2 L would now give me 700 ml runoff (58%) but it was an important morning flush that rendered runoff EC at say, 1.21 EC. Then I would do the same amount, 1.2 L, at night with similar stats. But then got runoff of 400ml (33%) at a similar runoff EC of 1.21, say.
Anyway, I was glad this seemed to be working.
Was aiming for 35% to 60% runoff using the same amount of feed the trick to stable pot/salt management?
Checked trichs for the first time on the top cola on Day 69. Saw lots of cloudy trichs. Many clear. Few amber on sugar leaves. But the plant was telling me she wasn't close to ready for harvest. Many white protruding pistils up and down the plant. Buds growing nicely tho - beautiful and frosty - and fast. My guess at the time was that she would be done around Day 84 - like a normally grown autoflower. LOL.
Have a great grow day!
As the week began, I raised EC input to 1.2, which means a range of 1.15 to 1.25, really. Runoff ECs were still staying stable as compared to input. Was very happy about this result. Major goal of the grow seemed to have been achieved.
Tempted to lower the lamp from 15 inches to something like 13, but I'm a cat owner. And I've learned over the years that when a skittish-by-nature animal looks relaxed and happy, you're doing a wonderful job already. She/He doesn't need a new cat bed. He/She is fine. Maybe you're just bored? So I left it where it was. Plus, the previous grow ended with the lamp at 10 inches. Continuing with the theme of the grow, it was better to just continue with the lamp-at-15-inches experiment?
Learned on Day 73 that it's a good idea to have more than one ph pen and more than one ppm pen. Cuz if one breaks on ya... (and my understanding is that getting one of these to last more than a year is a small miracle?).
It's also a good idea to have the good old vial/blue dye method of ph reading in a bucket somewhere, in case you need it. Needed it that day at 5am. Kinda sucked.
Otherwise, no significant signs of heat stress or light stress. Was thinking that lowering light schedule to 14 hours prolly wasn't necessary.
Buds were still rapidly growing and looking frosty and beautiful! 😁👍
Was really enjoying looking at her these days. And I'm sure you've the noticed the same thing that I slowly have - that cannabis is a beautifully strange plant and it is spectacularly awesome to be in her presence with the tent door open. Pictures never really do it full justice, right? I sometimes feel like it would be awesome to spend the whole day just looking at her with the tent door open, letting her stink up my apartment. Except that would be incredibly foolish.
All this science goes into making a tiny and natural work of art that also gets you perfectly high. I would recommend this hobby to anyone with the time to do it. Tis a privilege and honor to do this and to have a community of fellow growers on this awesome website to share the experience with. 😌😊😁
Towards the end of the week, it was a delight to see that most of the pistils around the plant had turned orange/red. The white pistils on the buds on the lower nodes of the plant were now staring to off-white/beige and curl back. Checked trichs on Day 76 and there were many many plastic looking cloudy trichs everywhere I checked, but standing straight up mostly. No amber anywhere. Few yellowing trichs on sugar leaves. So it was looking like we were entering end game. Some places around these buds were extra frosty. Looked like sugar everywhere - a noted characteristic of the strain. These buds were clearly more healthy looking than my first grow, so it looked like the ultimate objective of the grow was being achieved - which would make it 2 for 2 on achieving the ultimate goal of a grow. (First grow only had a survival/reach-harvest objective. The yield I achieved was just a great unexpected, possibly even lucky, benefit.)
So I was thinking at the end of this week that harvest wouldn't be around Day 84 as I thought at the end of the prior week, but around Day 90. So there was prolly only one more week of feeding this plant before I started a 5 to 7 day flush.
Have a great grow day!
Day 78:) She's pretty much only getting PK these days as you can see. Some increased nute burn again, but nothing terrible. She really doesn't like going above 1.15 with the EC. Second time I tried it, second time it started to happen. Fine. 1.1 EC it shall be until I cut her down.
It does seem, however, that giving her a good low EC flush at the end of each week helps a bunch. Yesterday, I gave her one at 0.5 and then one at 0.9, 1.2 L each. Also flipped the plant around 180 degrees. I also right now believe this helps with shaking up salt pockets in the pot. Stable runoff ECs this morning.
Otherwise, buds growing nicely. Right now sticking to Day 90 harvest schedule, which means flush might start as early as the very end of this week - but I'll adjust my schedule according to what I instinctively feel the pistils and trichs are telling me, of course.
One thing of note, she seems to be drinking the same amount of water every day. She isn't slowing down her water drinking any. I'm hoping to see that imminent-harvest indicator over the next couple day so that I feel better about this projected flush/harvest schedule.
Day 80) Right on cue! Yesterday I got more runoff by volume than I normally get. Saw an uptick in runoff in this morning's feed as well. Seems she might be drinking less now.
And I'm starting to understand the depths of the ph pen issue. Read this blog yesterday... https://blog.thermoworks.com/thermometer/ph-meter-care-and-common-mistakes/. So a ph pen is like a light bulb? They go out on you and have to be replaced constantly - like you would for a lamp? Strongest argument I've heard yet towards NOT buying an expensive ph pen ever, maybe? Unless you get one with replaceable electrodes? Also seems learning how to take care of your ph pen is really important, no matter what price you pay. Good thing about this blog is that it helps you understand HOW they work. When you now how something works it becomes much easier to know how to take care of it. So this article was special. I haven't studied it well enough yet to have it change my practices at all yet, but that will come soon. I'll study that blog religiously eventually.
The smell.. I figured it out. Lemons. When you defoliate this plant with your fingers like I do, you end up with a not-so-faint smell of lemons on your hands. Delightful. Wedding Cake is a limonene strain. That's prolly why it smells like that.
And she's super frosty, people. Can't wait to try me some cake! 😍😍😛
Day 82:) Pre-flush begins. Lowering ECs now with each feed. One more day to feed her. Might give her 3 feeds tomorrow at very low EC. Then start flush on Day 84 with FloraKleen.
The trichs are cloudy. She looks sugar frosted all over. Strong smell. Sticky. The pistils are almost all red/orange. There are only a few white fully healthy pistils sticking straight up around the plant - usually the lower buds.. But most of the white pistils left, which are maybe 5-10% total, are curling too.
There's a growing uniformity to the plant too. A week ago, the buds closest to the main cola were developing faster than the ones closer to the first node main stem. But now the lower plant seems to have caught up to the top of the plant. Good.
I will keep flushing her until I have truly yellow leaves around the plant - however long it takes. I want an excellent cure with this one - hopefully. Let's get the (grassy) green out!
Have a great grow day!
THE FINAL WEEK (prolly):
Day 85:) We're in Day 2 of the flush. Runoff EC came in at 0.35 this morning, so she's on schedule to reach below 0.2 tomorrow.
Climate change is causing a bit of a problem. It's early December in a part of the United States where, when growing up here, we would have had a couple snow storms by now. Well, the temperature gauge has been hovering around 50F for weeks. No snow storms. Today, we're getting 65F. Humidity levels are high too. I didn't think I would be running my dehumidifier at this very late stage of the process.
I guess it's something you just have to deal with.
Otherwise, it has been a delightfully low-maintenance grow up to now, and I feel blessed for that. Grateful. I didn't even ask any questions to the forum this time. Pretty smooth going grow. I like growing this strain. Can't wait to see if I can make her bigger next grow. There's a problem with the seedling stage of that grow, however, that I'll discuss in my next diary. We'll see how small or large of a problem it ends up being.
Day 87) That robust green color that she had is fading now. Some yellowing on the margins of certain sugar leaves at the top of the canopy. Runoff EC levels very low at 0.1 now. Just waiting a few more days before I cut her down.
I haven't checked trichs. I want to try just timing the pistils this time. She looks right on track. Red pisitls are curling back now. Very very few white pistils left on top buds - some on buds that don't get much light. But what else would you expect? That's normal. I want chunkier buds this time, but I fear couch lock, so a few white pistils around seems the right balance.
So I think she has 2 to 4 more days left - a little bittersweet. She's not enormous (go to weeks 1, 5 and 6 to read why), but she's my most beautiful grow yet. I consider it my first REAL cannabis grow, believe it or not. My 1st grow was some lucky alien grow or something. LOL. This one is a proper belle at the ball. She deserves respect and admiration cuz she was well-raised. LOL. 😂 - and she's a tiny beauty too! I think, anyway.
Day 89) Paler and paler each day. Leaves closes to the light showing most yellowing around the edges. But she's mostly still a green plant. Buds taking on beautiful colors all over. Shades of purple, orange, green, and white crystal fuzz. Will do a trich check later. I have heard the addage that when you think it's time to harvest - wait a week (Perfect Gardens on YouTube). Hmmm.. 😏 I'll have something to say about it tomorrow. Tomorrow is Day 90.
Big day. My trich check later will be a key moment in all this, maybe. Exciting.
Day 89 Later:) 5 % clear, 90% cloudy/milky, 5% amber (higher concentrations of amber on sugar leaves - like 30%). Very few of the trichs are standing straight up, but they generally didn't have that decayed plastic look either. Bent glassy stems with cloudy to milky heads mostly. She's definitely in the harvest window.
Feeling like a few more days might make this plant more perfect. And she'll tell me when, because it feels like this flush is pretty well timed. But there's also good reason to think I'm gonna do it tomorrow night. I guess I just have to check the plant every day - and I'll know when it's ready to bring out my favorite "growing" tool - the saw.
Day 90) Approaching evening, I was reading blogs around the internets about yellowing caused by the flush. They all said, don't let yellowing happen to the sugar leaves. If it is happening, it's time to cut her down, they all said. I checked the girl. There was definitely yellowing on some of the tinier sugar leaves. I was like, "OK then." I grabbed the saw.
And that's all she wrote. She is now harvested and in the dry tent - the same tent she grew up in. I took some final pictures and videos. Hope you enjoy them.
She was fun to grow, Miss her already.
On to the next stage!
Have a great grow day!
Are there any obvious reasons NOT to harvest this plant right now? Like, do you look at this picture and think, "No way, you shouldn't harvest that yet, because..." Whatever that reason is, if there is one, please tell me. Thanks so much.
Looking at just the picture there are no obvious reasons not to harvest. I always use a loupe to harvest. If you don't have a loupe and you think she is ready to harvest give the plant 4-5 days.
Now this is a Dry and Cure diary, as far as I'm concerned. So....
Dry Day 1) She went into the tent at 75/55 which was exactly where the last dry was. The last dry went 6 days in those conditions, but she was a little too overly dry that time, so I'm aiming for 5 days this time. Things might get colder soon around here (it's 62 degrees F at night in December around here right now - not what you would normally expect.) So maybe when the colder weather hits, I should be able to get better results those days.
Dry Day 1 Later:) Now I got 73/60 in there. I'm not going to try to lower the humidity. I think that's a good sign. I remember with my first grow that a day before I trimmed and jarred, the relative humidity in the tent struggled to get above 50%. So this time, I'm going to not open the tent at all to check anything until I notice that the humidity is struggling to get higher in the tent. In a tent this small, the biggest provider of humidity should be the plant itself. So in effect, the relative humidity of the tent IS the relative humidity of the plant? Maybe? Continuing with the theme of the effort - testing things learned with the first grow - I'm going to test that theory this time.
So if the humidity is high in there right now, then great! It just means I just put her in there. It will come down on its own.
If I start running the exhaust fan to lower rh, I'm just drying out the plant faster. I have the exhaust fan running at its lowest setting - 10%. That's 10% of 200 CFM. Twenty CFM for a 12 CF tent (2x2x3), so running at that level should just perfect. I have the humidifier for my apartment going. But it's not terribly powerful. Eh. We'll see how that goes too! LOL.
Dry Day 3) Temps and RH at 73/59 respectively. Still humid in there but that's what I'm testing this time, right? Maybe I can get a better dry/cure this time. Maybe I won't. Maybe I'm gonna learn what bud rot looks like! LOL! 😂 Might check her tomorrow night.
If not, the next night without question.
Dry Day 5) Just got my head out of the tent. She was closed in there for 4 days before I just checked her.
The grassy smell was overwhelming when I opened the tent. Taking lessons from my first grow, this means she's at least a couple days away from being dry. But I have to admit, this drying stage of the process is the part that concerns me most. I mean, I bent some stems. I bent some buds. All the branches were pretty flexible. No snapping or breaking anywhere. From what I hear, this means she isn't ready yet. I guess I just don't like how un-scientific this process is. But if she isn't ready yet, it wouldn't surprise me. It's been pretty humid in there.
The rule of thumb I've been using is that the difference between the temp and the rh should be less than 20. For example, my last reading was 75/58, so a difference of 18. As I've been tracking this difference over the last few days, it has been getting wider. This is why this is my favorite indicator. My guess is that as the plant gets drier, the humidity in the tent gets lower for any given temperature reading because the vapor pressure from the plant gets lower as it dries. Until I see that the difference widens out beyond 20 consistently, we'll prolly keep this process going.
Dry Day 5 Later): I checked the humidity and RH of the tent an hour or so again and saw that the temp/RH difference had grown to 24.
After raising the hygrometer on my dehumidifier, I was able to get the difference to 20, but that was it. Not only that, the humidity in the tent is only a few points above the room humidity, so I think this all indicates that she's ready to go into the jars. I think this all indicates that the vapor pressure from the plant is low now. I could be wrong, but this is only my second grow. If you've read my diaries you know that I do this expecting to have failures to learn from. So if I'm wrong, instead of smoking good bud, I'll be smoking some good new knowledge.
I'll take it too. Weed and knowledge are both good for you!! LOL! 😜
Another reason why today is a good day to trim is climate change. It's hotter than I'd like in there right now because it's hotter than I'd like OUT there right now. It's 60 degrees out and slightly humid - not winter weather (at least no Xmas tornadoes.) So she's cooking more than she should right now. Combined with the low vapor pressure described above, there's little reason to be hopeful for more.
And finally, though dense with buds, she's a tiny plant. Why would you expect a tiny plant to take two weeks to dry?
So at 4 pm today (point when the dry reaches exactly 5 days), I'll take her out and start trimming, I think, unless I see strong reasons no to do it. I'm hoping she goes into the jars with a RH of 60%+ because I'd like to cure without boost packs this time. Cross your fingers with me? 😊
Have a great grow day..