Wildberry Bites - Robin Hood Seeds

Starting my first diary at 7 weeks into this run. Strain is Wildberry Bites by Robin Hood Seeds. This strain is a cross between Apple Fritter and Purple Punch. Plants are currently in 5 gallon fabric pots from AC Infinity. I really like these pots. As with everything AC Infinity I've tried so far they are excellent quality and I really like the metal grommets around the top of the pot to feed training wire through. Medium is Fox Farm Ocean Forrest soil. Started in 4 inch nursery pots. Germinated directly in the soil. Transplanted into the 5 gallon pots after 3 weeks. I should have really done the transplant after 2 weeks but I was lazy and didn't order more soil in time. Once transplanted into the 5 gallon pots, I started light feeding cal mag every watering. They are currently taking about a half gallon of water each every other day. I am currently running Dr. Earth Organic Dry Fertilizer and gave the first feeding after 16 days in the 5 gallon pots. As I understand it, the soil has about 21 days worth of nutrients to start (I've heard as high as 30 days worth). My thinking was it takes a few waterings before the dry nutrients become available so I fed on the 16th day. Feeding is 2 tablespoons per gallon of medium which is 10 tablespoons per plant. I did 6 tablespoons of the 4-4-4 and 4 tablespoons of the 4-6-3. I include the 4-6-3 since it has calcium which the 4-4-4 does not have. It might not matter since I'm also using a little cal mag, but this is what I'm trying out this run. Note that the nutrients I selected in the diary are in teaspoons. Just note that it's 2 tablespoons per gallon of growing medium total. Plants have been topped once. Will probably set up the trellis net soon...within a couple weeks. I've been removing a small handful of leaves every time I visit the plants (once a day) and have been doing my best to even out the canopy in anticipation of flower. Light is currently at around 80% power 17 or so inches away from the plants.

Just getting into week 8 of veg now. Set up the trellis net and started tucking the branches under of the bigger of the two plants. I probably could have started flowering a week or so ago but I'd really like the smaller plant to catch up a bit. I'll give it a few more days before switching the lights over to 12/12. The plant on the left is clearly a little bit weaker and has been the entire time so far. Everything about the grow is the same between the two though so I'm at a loss. I checked the soil PH a few weeks ago and everything looked fine. I should probably check again next watering to confirm, but I don't think it's a PH issue as the readings were the same between the two plants. Maybe it's just a difference in the phenos? The plant on the right is super healthy and strong. Hoping it produces some nice buds! My clip on hurricane fan fell and broke. Piece of shit. I set up the window fan which has worked well so far. AC Infinity has some cool looking clip on fans coming out that I need to buy...will probably get 2 of them when they are available. Environment readings seem perfect so far though. Humidity dropped 10 or so points when I moved the humidifier out of the tent, but that's fine as I'm about to head into flower anyway. I had covered up the lights on the humidifier with a piece of duct tape, but I didn't realize that the lights bled underneath and you could see a faint light coming through the water tank when the lights were out. This had been in the tent with the plants for 5 weeks or so....maybe that's the reason the one plant doesn't look as good? I'm hoping I didn't cause any permanent damage, but again the plant on the right looks incredible and it had been closest to the humidifier the longest. Anyway.....thanks for reading! Switching to flower and giving another dose of nutrients in a few days!

NOTE: The nutrients are listed as teaspoons per gallon of medium...in my case 5 gallon pots. This is a dry fertilizer mixed into the top of the soil every few weeks. Heading into the first week of flower. I've given the plant on the left some time to catch up and it's started to look a little bit better color wise I think too. The one on the right has started to look a little droopy in recent days. I think it's just starting to drink a ton of water now. Easily a gallon every other day and I think I might need to give more? The pot feels pretty light whenever I lift it up on watering days. Did a pretty large defoliation that should get me through a few weeks and help with air flow. Temps and humidity are still fine, but I'm waiting on a new clip fan so I can get the ghetto window fan out of there. Side note: AC Infinity looks to be putting out an oscillating clip fan soon. Their facebook page has the details...can't wait to try it out. So hard to find good clip fans...especially ones that oscillate. Still giving some cal mag with every watering..one tsp per gallon of water. Will probably continue to give that a few weeks into flower. Can't wait to see what these buds look like!

Entering the second week of flower today. Just water and some cal mag every other day. Plants take about a gallon each time. Will do the final nutrient feeding as I enter the 4th week. I'm finding it hard to keep up with defoliation. Should I be defoliating a lot each week or do I need to leave me plant alone for a couple weeks to avoid stressing it? I'm thinking of just letting it go for a couple weeks and not picking much off until the 4th week of flower. The plant on the right has a ton of tops on it. There's a lot of leaves and cabbage around the trellis net because there are so many. They are both very bushy but the plant on the right is still looking the best. The one on the left is still a little bit shorter but it's looking ok. I'm wondering if I had the light little too close for a while. It's at around 20 inches now but was at 16 inches before I moved it.

Heading into week three of flower. Starting to see little flowers forming now....it's exciting! The plant on the right is as healthy as ever. The one of the left is hanging in there...definitely not as healthy as the other one. Have held off on any big defoliation sessions this last week or so. Just picking a few larger fan leaves here and there that are covering other flower spots. After this week I plan to have one final larger defoliation session to clean up the canopy, peel off any stragglers, and improve air flow as I head into the final weeks. They are both very bushy right now down near the trellis netting. I'm eager to clean it up but I'm really trying to hold off for now and let the plant stretch and see which tops "emerge victorious" if you will. So the plan for next weekend is to really clean up the canopy one last time and give the plant it's final nutrient top dress. For now it's just been a light cal mag dose and plain water.

Busy morning in the garden. Today was the final feeding as we head into week 4. From here on out it's just water every other day. Maybe I'll continue with a light cal mag feeding for a couple more weeks. The feeding today was Dr. Earths Flower Girl 3-9-4. Ten tablespoons for each plant as we have been going with the 2 tablespoons per gallon of medium rule for this run. Mind the conversion in the table above. The grow diary only has teaspoons since it's probably expecting wet nutrients but the Dr Earth is a dry fertilizer that I am top dressing and just working into the soil with my hands. 30 teaspoons = 10 tablespoons. Today was also the last big defoliation session I plan on doing. Going forward, I'll just be plucking a few leaves here and there whenever I water. I probably could have pulled even more off than I did this morning, but I always worry about stressing them out too much. Reminder, this is my second grow and the first time I've been using a trellis net and training the the branches. There are way more tops here than I thought I would get and I've never had to manage a canopy like this before. I get worried about there being too many tops (is that even a thing?) but I think there's decent air flow in the tent. I can also really drop the humidity if I need to as it's incredibly dry in my neck of the woods this time of year. The photos are arranged chronologically from before defoliation to after. I filled a 5 gallon bucket with small branches and leaves so I took a lot off. It's also still evident that the plant on the right is just so much stronger than the left. The left one is looking alright, but I'm really glad I'm growing two plants this time rather than just one. I'd be fine if i just had the plant on the left, but I'm so stoked about the one on the right. I'm hoping it looks really good in a few weeks. I'm almost more excited about getting good pics than I am about smoking the final product. :)

Heading into week 5 and it's smooth sailing from here on out hopefully. The plants both look pretty good. The one on the left that has been historically weaker has been doing just fine in flower. I feel like both plants are close to the same color now as well. Also, it seemed like they never missed a beat after the big defoliation last week. 48 hours later they looked stronger than ever. Will make a mental note that it's ok trim that much off in the future....possibly more. I'm also noticing that the bud structure of both plants look a little different from each other. The one on the right has it's leaves sticking straight out while the one on the left has leaves that look matted down like it was wearing a hat or something. I have no idea if this is due to an issue of some kind or if it's just genetic differences. If you have an answer, please leave a comment! Side Note: I've been taking video footage every week since veg and will probably put some kind of youtube series together at some point of this grow. If you're interested, follow me on instagram @garrysgrowguide and I'll post an update there whenever I get around to it. 24 Hours Later EDIT: I posted a grow question yesterday related to "Bud Structure." You can check my profile for the question and related photos, but the question was related to the one plant that had matted down leaves on the buds. I was initially chalking it up to genetics, but now I feel stupid. One person suggested it could have been over-watered a little and I was dismissive of that notion in a follow up comment. I had just assumed that my watering was on point but I went to water this morning like I usually do and noticed that particular pot felt a bit heavier still. The other plant was definitely dry and needed the water, but the one with the buds that were matted down still felt damp when I stuck my finger in the soil. I had been regularly lifting up the other pot to see if they needed water and just assumed that because one pot was dry, the other was also dry. Terrible, stupid assumption on part. I can't find a way to re-select the correct answer, because I think this guy might have been correct now. I even had a passing thought for a brief moment, "Damn brah..thEre's sO ManY trIcHs itS wEIghIng tHE lEaves DowN." I'm an idiot...don't be like me.

Been a relatively quiet week as I head into week 6. I've been paying more attention whenever I water to make sure they pot isn't still a little damp. Both plants are honestly looking great right now. I'm also starting to see a hint of color in some of the buds and leaves. I'm wondering if we'll see the Purple Punch parentage (say that 3 times fast) start to shine through in the final weeks. Growing 2 plants this time, it's cool to see the little differences between the phenotypes. The plant on the left that has always appeared a little weak compared to the other, appears to have denser buds and definitely more frost at the present moment. However the buds look leafier than the other plant. The plant on the right appears healthier and taller, but doesn't have as much frost. It's the plant with more of the color starting to shine through as well. So it's just interesting to see these differences. Are they related to something I've done or the way I've cared for them? I have no clue.....but's cool to see. Starting to ease off on the cal/mag now. Next watering might be the last dose I give, then I'll just be going with water for the final few weeks. If I had to guess I would say maybe 3 to 4 weeks left? There should be another week or so left of nutrients in the soil so I'm hoping I've timed everything right. For those unawares, Robinhood seeds are basically untested SquareOne genetics...which is why they offer them at a little bit of a discount compared to the regular SquareOne stuff. As such, they do not come with any notes on what to expect for flowering times. At some point in the next week or so we'll have to bust out the loupe and start watching the trichs to know when we're ready to harvest. I might invest in a nicer scope...one I've seen people use on a reddit...and attach it to a boom arm so I can get some steady pictures at a higher magnification. EDIT: Forgot to mention, the plant on the left has this weird mutated bud. I've tagged the images above for reference. No clue what it is but it has 2 heads and feels dense.

Heading into the 7th week of flower! Needless to say I am incredibly happy with how my second grow has gone. This is miles better than my first plant. 4 days ago I stopped giving the cal mag so now it's just plain water from here on out. Easy peasy. The plant on the left appears to be finishing ahead of the one on the right so I'm not sure what I'm going to do as I need the tent for my dry space. I really need to buy a separate tent for drying I think and will probably make that happen over the summer. I got a new scope on amazon that connects to my phone so I can start getting some good trichome pics in these last couple of weeks. I'm guessing I'll end up with a plant that has 30% amber and the other plant will have almost no amber. Will be interesting to see how each of them smoke. Will treat it like an experiment to see if I can actually tell the difference. I'll try and edit the post later once I can figure out how to get the trichome pics off my phone. Another thing I should have done weeks ago was put something under the shorter plant to make it more even in height with the other. I have the light a little slanted for now...every little bit helps...but I should have raised the plant up higher. I feel dumb.

Heading into week 8 and this grow is shaping up to be a success. The buds look beautiful and healthy. I'm happy to report that the trichomes on both plants are looking a little more similar than they were last week. I was worried one would finish way before the other, but after looking at the trichome close-ups from yesterday, I couldn't tell which photo went with what plant this time. I'm guessing they need another week at least as I'm not seeing any amber and still have a bunch that are clear looking. I have not done much defoliating in the last week or so and will probably just let them go at this point and plan to do an initial trim of the bigger fan leaves before drying. Speaking of which, I'd like to try and hang the entire plants this time around. We'll have to see if I can manage that. Only giving PH balanced water from here on out. I might even stop the ph adjustments in a few days and just use my default tap ph which usually sits around 7.4. Appreciate any guesses as to when they will be finished in the comments! Thanks as always for reading!

A little late with this weeks update. Just getting into week 9 here and I'm thinking I may chop at the end of this week. Maybe another 4 or 5 days or so. The wait is KILLING ME. These ladies are looking so good right now and I'm eager to get them drying. As mentioned previously, since we are using organic dry fertilizers, we have just been giving water for a while now. We were adding a little bit of cal mag up until the 6th week or so but now it's just been 100% water. In terms of the trichomes, I'm seeing about 90% cloudy and no amber so far. The bigger fan leaves started to fade about a week ago and now they are starting to curl up a bit. Lots of colors on display. Please leave a comment with guesses on how much longer I have left. Like I mentioned I'm thinking of chopping this friday or saturday evening but we'll have to see! Thanks to whomever takes the time to read my posts....I really appreciate it. Cheers!