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In water Feb 25, in soil in 5L pots on Feb 28. Covered with foil for about a day. In grow tent with a bright light so I’m covering with paper towel to provide some shade for the new seedling.
First shoot above soil by evening of 2 March. So five days under ideal conditions.
Mar 3: had been covering seedlings with a paper towel for shade, but that’s too bright in the tent for them. Now partially shaded with some foil for a while.
Mar 8: raised soil level and watered in.
Mar 24: nice looking plant. Leaves don’t seem quite the right shade of green so maybe I need more N. Replaced broken pH meter so hopefully that helps too.
Mar 25: morning was first use of Extreme Blend from Kelp4less as a foliar spray at 1 tsp per US gallon, and this is only needed weekly. Should last quite a while at that rate. Pics from evening.
Mar 26: repotted into 5 gallon bag with soil, compost and worm castings. Also a handful of dolomite lime and probably could have added more. Looks better 24 h after first Extreme Blend.
Mar 28: first use of sprouted popcorn seed tea (20 mL/L). Some as foliar and watered in. The shade of green looks better again after repotting and the Extreme Blend spray three days ago.
Mar 29: banana peel tea (not needed yet on these plants but oh well), Azomite and Epsom salts as a 700 ppm foliar spray.
Mar 31: mainlined three plants for first time ever. Seems a bit scary but I’m sure it will work having studied up here on Growdiaries and Nebula Haze’s manifolding tutorial.
As always, using vinegar for pH adjustment and a pinch of Epsom salts often adding to foliar or watering. Also using Dr Bronners peppermint soap as a surfactant fairly routinely. Soaps lower the surface tension of the water allowing it to spread out on a leaf rather than beading, or to more readily enter soil pores which allows more even water distribution.
Mars-hydro.com for the awesome light which is really making my first indoor experience pretty easy. I am surprised how much humidity is an issue versus not being an issue here outdoors. Plants can transpire a lot of water, and having the data logging on the AC Infinity T4 is really great to see that in action. Bluetooth connection works to reach my easy chair upstairs so I can check conditions in the tent without having to get up. Being lazy is under rated.
Apr 5: tied down manifold for first time using 12 gauge wire.
Mars-hydro.com 👍👍
Apr 6: weekly foliar with Extreme Blend.
Apr 7: tomatoes evicted from tent to improve air flow. Fourth node forming on each branch, will top again tomorrow morning.
Apr 8: second topping of mainlining to make 8 growth tips. Super cropped so that the outer tip was lower than the inner tips. The supercropped point was wrapped in floral tape which is stretchy and breathable. Will go for 16 colas on these plants I think.
Dialled back from 20/4 to 18/6 to better match natural light cycle.
Apr 9: sprayed with 1 mL/L of fermented plant juice (FPJ) made from the tops removed during mainlining last week. I remember this stuff being particularly potent last year so hopefully 1 mL/L isn’t too strong.
Apr 10: still looking good and apparently not too much FPJ.
Mars-hydro.com for the awesome FC-4800 light and tent. You should buy their gear and enjoy the best hobby in the world.
Apr 13: wow, I’m impressed at the arms on this one.
Apr 15: second Friday foliar with Extreme Blend and FPJ.
Apr 17: still another four weeks at least before she can be outdoors here so I topped a third time for 16 colas. This will keep it a more manageable size for next few weeks.
Apr 19: flushed 5 gallon bag with about 12 L of pHed tap water (250 ppm). Initially about 1400 ppm in the runoff which shows I had some salt build up in the soil happening. Need the 20% runoff with each watering to avoid this.
Added peony ring to keep the colas apart. It is a bit too high for now, but should be a good height as she starts to stretch. Using super cropping rather than LST to control height and location of colas.
4/20. Recovering nicely from the flush and pruning yesterday.
Apr 22: foliar Friday with Extreme Blend, FPJ, but both at half dose from previous weeks. Also some Epsom salts, and a bit of Borax. Plants seem to have a boron deficiency so I added <1/4 tsp of Borax in just less than I US gallon (3.5L). Foliar and then remainder watered in. The two plants showing B deficiency have some tired soil from last year that I didn’t amend with compost before using so a B deficiency is plausible. Likely not calcium deficiency as I’ve been using Cal-Max.
Also still a bit too humid in the tent so I think I need to move something out. Raised mini dehumidifier up to canopy level and it seems to more effective and the exhaust fan isn’t running as hard to keep humidity down.
Apr 23: Borax seems to have done the trick meaning it was a B deficiency. The lower fan leaves are much happier.
Apr 25: Alaska fish fertilizer at 1 ml/l.
Apr 26: this plant may be too much of a low growing indica for a 16 cola manifold to be a good idea. Candyland was started at same time and is stretching to reach the peony ring, but this one the branches are staying shorter. But there’s still lots of veg time before I start force flowering in early July.
Mars-hydro.com for the awesome FC-4800 light and tent. Thanks again you guys.
Apr 27: still looking good, but she likely needs to be further thinned. I’ll wait a bit longer as I want to try cloning but the timing is not quite right yet. Soon.
Also I’ve decided that this plant will go in one of the 70 L garbage cans that usually have a big tomato plant. Currently in a 5 gallon bag due to size limits in tent but I’m sure that will be too small for this 16 cola plant.
Apr 28: took 15 cuttings. She was too bushy anyway.
Apr 29: Foliar Friday but I didn’t do it until 6 pm instead in morning. Foliar of Extreme Blend at 1/4 tsp per L and FPJ at 1 mL/L with a few drops of Dr Bronners as a surfactant. Remainder watered in.
May 1: added a small bit of Borax again to address B deficiency.
May 3: yellowing new leaves means I overdid it with the Borax. Oops, but should be okay as Hash Bud is the only one complaining. She’ll get over it.
May 4: another week or more inside until weather warms up a bit more, but looking good. Flushed yesterday as I seem to have overdone the Borax to fix the B deficiency. Not disastrous anyway.
May 5: yellowing seemed worse this morning but maybe no worse this evening. Might also be exacerbated by this being the only 5 gallon bag and it just really wants to be transplanted.
May 8: took second round of cuttings. Now have cycle timer so pump doesn’t run continuously which makes water too hot.
May 12: the soil from last year looks great when dry, but is NFG for likely three reasons: 1) soil has too much K but not enough Ca or Mg 2) water last year had way too much sodium (280 mg/L or something like 95 %meq/L, or a sodium adsorption ratio SAR >20) and 3) lactic acid bacteria (LAB) shredded all the peat and silt in the soil and removed whatever structure or tilth was there. It’s now a fine silt or clay with no structure when hydrated and just forms a solid ‘gel’. Unreal. The soil looks pretty good when dry or moist.
And the runoff pH from the flush is strongly alkaline at pH 9. This will likely be great soil next year but now it is exactly wrong on both pH and structure. It’s fucked and I’m so glad I noticed this early enough to get another few cubic metres of fresh soil. New and innovative ways to mess up. Rock on. 👍
May 14: water is always quite cold from the RO unit (well source) so I warm it to mid-20s C before use. Still lots of yellow leaves but the new growth looks better. Should be much better in a few more days with the nice new soil and container.
May 16: this new yellowing is likely due to the attempted transplant into high pH soil. Hopefully this improves soon.
May 18: doing well in new home after the initial trauma of being transplanted into pH 9 soil by mistake. The pH swings show up on a certain age of leaf that likely corresponds to the roots that hit the alkaline soil. Should improve.
May 20: forecast for -1 C tonight but she’ll be alright. Not showing purple stems like Bubble OG but gave same P heavy foliar.
May 22: this Hash Bud did better with the frost two nights ago than the other two big manifolded plants.
May 25: growing again after the frost night and the alkaline soil mishap. She has done the best of the three big manifold plants with the transition to the coolish spring outdoors. Looking promising again/still.
May 27: staked with bamboo poles.
Putting main poles in on angle means it’s really easy to friction fit the cross pieces exactly where needed. Another great idea from Growdiaries. 👍
May 28: I’ve realized the low humidity slows growth a lot so I’ve been misting with plain water several times a day. The plants all seem to appreciate it so I’ll try to keep doing it.
Plant certainly looks a lot better than it did at start of the week. Frost and a botched transplant into what was surprisingly alkaline soil. Seems to have recovered.
May 31: she’s thriving now. The weather has been warm enough with lots of sun so all plants are doing well these days. 👍
June 1: took another 11 cuttings. Not sure if the timing will work but I’ll try it. Still planning to start force flowering on July 4.
June 2: planted out 11 Bubble OG clones which means there was room in the cloner for another 11 Hash Bud clones. Plant is doing great.
June 6: looking good. Very impressed with these Quebec Cannabis Seeds genetics. This and Bubble OG are great strong plants.
June 7: check out coyowolves howling on video.
June 8: more defoliation.
June 13: not getting as tall as the Bubble OG but she looks great.
June 14: very majestic plant. Lots of rain this week with overnight lows of 11 C so bearable.
June 25: scrog net looks funny draped over the plant rather than pulled tight with the plants growing through it. Still helps support and separate the branches. Used a 5 foot wide net with 6 inch cells.
July 3: added another layer of bamboo spacers. Added Gaia Green Power Bloom and a handful of malted barley as a top dressing. The malt provides some P and K but the main benefit apparently are enzymes such as phosphatase that allows the microbes and ultimately the plant to access phosphorus. The idea to use malt is from Clackamas Coot and I can easily get malt from my regular job client at the malting plant. 👍
July 9: looking good.
July 11: sunny and hot finally and should hold for two weeks. Should be some great growth happening soon. I didn’t think it would reach the top of the 6 foot bamboo poles, but now I think she will make it. Started light deprivation,
July 23: looks good. Another week of force flowering still to go and things are clearly starting to happen.
There’s always some defoliation to be done (I’m always doing it to all my plants as needed) but this one is still a bit too bushy and will be thinned out soon.
July 26: switched to gypsum as a Ca source.
Ju28: last night of 12:12 light cycle.
July 29: defoliated lower half and thinned it out a bit. Likely should be thinned further but I might want to put another Scrog layer first to keep things further apart.
July 31: second round of Power Bloom and malt. Started using soluble wood ash as a K source. See today’s Gorilla Gelato diary entry for details.
Aug 1: rain overnight so I sprayed the plants with the biggest flowers with LAB serum this morning. The idea being that the lactic acid bacteria will out-compete any other micro-organisms like mould that might otherwise have a chance to get going with the wet buds. LAB serum was used as a 40 mL/L spray solution with 1 mL/L potassium silicate for the hell of it, and yucca extract as a surfactant.
Aug 20: hot today and late summer thunderstorm happening right now. Seems to be mostly lightning with quite an impressive light show. This plant and a few others have some hail netting protection, but we have to wait until tomorrow morning to check for damage. Please be nice to my trichomes. 😎
Sep 5: still going strong. This has been the most hassle free plant.
Sep 7: late season hailstorm did some minor damage to other plants but this one is fine. Lost some trichomes but no major damage overall.
Sep 15: a lot of lower fan leaves turned yellow in the last two days and the buds have gotten harder. Nearly ready. The clones from this plant were force flowered at the same time and the clones are now ready. Will likely take a first round soon…I took the first round from the Candyland manifold yesterday so it’s likely about time.
Sep 21: at end of week 30. Plant is nearly done but I think I need to start another diary to finish this off. The weather is nice for another couple of weeks so I should keep it going.
Sep 25: continued in new diary.
Northern_Ent
