RQS Royal Runtz, Sweet ZZ & Joanne's CBD

12 out of 15 seeds germinated. Well they all germinated but 3 couldn't find out which way was up. Anyways, I end up with 3x Sweet ZZ, 4x Joanne's CBD and 5x Royal Runtz. 7 days after sprouting, their roots have developed enough to put the Eazy plugs into the larger Eazy blocks. They can grow for another 2 weeks in this blocks, waiting for their spot in the flowering room. I surround the blocks with clay pebbles so the roots can also develop outwards of the blocks.

Grow day 14 Seeing these ladies grow up, I have decided to select the strongest 4 to go through the next round. They will each get a 25L textile pot to flower in. Before flowering, each plant will be topped twice to get 4 main stems per plant. For the first time I will try cocos instead of clay pebbles. Cocos has arrived, the new pots should be delivered soon. One Sweet ZZ on the left is really standing out. She has earned her place in my flowering room. On the right, 3 Joanne's CBD plants are growing beautifully. The largest one will be selected. In the middle, one Royal Runtz looks really healthy. Another Runtz is not far behind, so I'm hoping I can select those 2 to complete the dream team. One Sweet ZZ isn't doing good, stays really small. She won't make it. One Runtz and one Joanne are growing twisting. Both of those plants had twisted stems while they were sprouting. Those 3 won't beat any records, but I will find another purpose for the remaining plants that are healthy, as I don't like killing my darlings. I harvested my last plant yesterday, so the chosen 4 will be transplanted to their final spot soon.

Week 3 was a bit of a challenge. My pots arrived a few days too late, so my young plants had some extra days to grow more roots before transferring them to the large pots. Their roots were already well developed and they dried up very fast so I'd preferred moving them to cocos earlier, but I had no choice. Some leaves were already turning light green/yellow so it was really time to give them growing space and nutrients. Finally at grow day 18 I got the pots and transferred the plants to the 25L pots. At the same time I trimmed the lower leaves and FIMed all plants at node 5. Sweet ZZ far left, far right and front left are Runtz, front right is Joanne's CBD. The medium was pretty dry and the PH a bit too high, so I watered it well after planting. I noticed the EC kept dropping. The day after the plants didn't look 100% happy. Maybe too wet, so I stopped watering for a few days. Or too much light intensity, so raised the light to the max. Some plant's leaves were too light green and curled as if PH was too high. I read about cocos buffering some of the nutrient's calcium, so added 1/3 of the recommended dose of calmag. Surely my plants are looking much better every day, water PH and EC are stable. First time I try cocos, so this is getting used to. But I'm getting there.

All 4 plants were FIMed twice. The final 4 main branches are appearing. Sweet ZZ and Joanne's CBD are easily bended and manipulated, but both Runtz aren't really suitable for main lining or LST. Runtz appear to be small stocky bushes, very thick and heavy leaves, thick branches that break easily. I broke 2 while trying to make the first T bend. Luckily they didn't break off all the way, so just left them to heal and grow naturally. Both Runtz have to make up some height anyway so it is not a problem. I will try again to bind their 4 main branches in a Y bend later this week. I like my first experience with cocos, watering is kept to 1 minute every 24h, 2 hours after the lights go on. PH and EC are perfectly stable.

I've been torturing my plants for 4 weeks now, trying to get them to grow exactly how I want. Joanne's CBD (front right) is easily trained, perfectly what I had in mind. Sweet ZZ (back left) is less happy with all the bending and binding, but she'll end up more or less as I hoped. I accidentally broke off the fresh shoot on one of her main branches. Shit happens, but a new leaf is growing so I hope that branch isn't lost. The 2 Runtz hate being trained. They are some tough plants! I let the first split grow naturally, but am now trying to bend the 4 final branches to grow horizontally wider apart for a while before turning to 12/12. I will now lead all main branches to the sides of the pots. Once they reach their final starting positions, it's time for lift-off. Looking forward to that!

I start week 6 by switching the lights to 12/12. I'm expecting to see the first flowers about 18 days from now. Except for the Runtz on the left who is still a bit behind, branches of all plants were easy to lead outwards. Once al the bends have been made it's more straightforward. Some have almost reached the side of the pot, thats when I will start leading them upwards using sticks. Switching the lights to flowering, I also took the time to clean the reservoir, pump, tubes, drippers, probes etc, and filled it up with fresh water, also changing the feeding to pre-flower week 1.

During week 7 I took photo's every 2 days to show the progress. Everything is going as planned. All plants are gaining height by now. I slow the Sweet ZZ down with some sticks. This week I started breaking all stems beneath every fresh shoot. I will continue this torture in between every node until flowers start to show. Speaking of flowers, I am expecting to see the first within 8 days. But already I can smell the plants are getting ready to flower. Also when I was removing the side shoots today, I felt the fresh leaves are very sticky. My fingers sticked together as if I touched buds. I guess that's a good sign. Update day 53: the long awaited moment has arrived. All plants are growing their first flowers. As expected, Sweet ZZ took off like a rocket, she doubles the size of the smallest bush. I might cross her branches to lower her down if necessary. From day 3 she was by far the largest seedling of 15, so I'm expecting a lot from that monster. Both Runtz also grow flowers, the smallest one in the front is a tiny bit behind. And finally there's Joanne's CBD, she's also getting into bloom. Her largest fan leaves are so beautiful I didn't remove them. Stunning plant. After almost 2 months of grow, it is now time to let the real fun begin and start growing some bud finally! For the last time I pinched and broke all branches right below the first flowers. I did that on the last five nodes the past weeks, but I won't stress them any more from now on. I emptied the reservoir and refilled with fresh water, and changed the nutrient dosage to flowering. PH lowered itself down over the past days to 5.1, and the plants seem perfectly fine with that. EC is now at 1.7 which might be a bit too much, but will see how they react to the recommended 8, 16 & 24 ml / 10l

End of flowering week 1. Flowers are growing beautifully. I crossed sweet ZZ's branches to level it's height with the others plants. I stopped intake of outside air because the weather is already too hot. Instead I keep the house ventilated and am using air from inside to cool the growing room. Humidity is kept very low under 40% day and night by a dehumidifier. I also placed a extra fan to blow air underneath the canopy.

The second week of flowering comes to an end, and I am happy with what I'm seeing. My ladies are doing very well, and 16 smelly flowers are swelling every day. I'm even seeing frosty leaves and buds already. The smell has become very strong by now. Filling the reservoir is all I had to do over the past week. They are very thirsty. And I also spread the branches of both Runtz to let some more light shine through. I won't be needing the SCROG net this time, it will be more like a SOG.

Didn't have enough time to report about week 10

It has been 10 days since I posted an update about my garden because I have been too busy. I am happy to report my ladies are doing great. They just finished third week of flowering, these photos are from today, flowering day 24. Especially when using flash, the shiny white flowers are really showing and looking delicious. The smell is already very strong. Last week I raised EC to 1.9, but it kept dropping slowly so yesterday I raised to 2.1. Over night EC stabilised at 2.2. Now they seem perfectly happy with the amount of nutrients they get.

Joanne's CBD (right front) is expected to flower for 7-8 weeks. That means she's half way. Royal Runtz (front left & far right) are almost halfway, they are expected to finish after 8-9 weeks of flowering. Sweet ZZ back left should finish somewhere between 7 and 9 weeks of bloom. The flowers are developing beautifully. All buds are covered with a carpet of sparkly shiny white trichomes. The CBD plant has more green/yellow buds. If I imagine them doubling in size by the time I harvest, I will be a very happy grower.

Last day of week 5 of flowering. These photos need no words, but let me shortly summarise past week. Joanne's CBD and Sweet ZZ started growing rastas, both their buds keep swelling and growing in all directions. Both Runtz seem a bit behind, but they need a few more weeks to finish flowering. Tomorrow I will remove Joanne's dripper. Over the next week she can drink all the water there's left in the pot, so I can start flushing her at the start of week 7. I have never grown CBD plants, so I don't even know if her trichomes will turn amber when she's ready. I'm just guessing the 7-8 weeks that RQS mentions is pretty correct. I don't mind flushing her for two weeks if she isn't ready after one week. Still no leaves changing color so I think she's good for a few more weeks. Sweet ZZ definitely will be second to be flushed, starting in 2 weeks probably. By the looks both Runtz can go another 3 weeks before flushing I'm guessing. Happy note: after months of drought it finally rained. My well was empty for weeks now, so didn't have the chance to clean the reservoir for the last 3 weeks. Normally I do that weekly. I could just refill it with rain water I got from a neighbour. Very happy with all the water I collected, I cleaned the reservoir and gave my ladies some fresh water. EC is at 2.2, PH around 5.0

Nearing the end of flowering week 7. Out of her thick heavy cola's, Joanne's CBD (front right) continues to grow thin buds in all directions, with leaves and all. She acts as if the light went back to 18/6. With the end nearing, she's probably producing a maximum of surface area to get pollinated. I can't think of any other stress that caused this reaction, all conditions stayed the same. I stopped watering her 5 days ago, and there's still plenty of moisture in her pot. I will start flushing her in a few days. I also stopped watering Sweet ZZ (far left). Her buds are also very dense and heavy, and they still continue to swell. Most of her bright white hairs have darkened and the buds look very frosty. She doesn't drink a lot either so her end is also nearing. Will start flushing her in a week. Royal Runtz front left has always been the smallest plant, and her buds are rather thin. The difference between the other plants is that her buds look the most frosty. She has the most trichomes, and I'm sure she will make up the lack of quantity with a high quality smoke if I harvest at the right time. The second Royal Runtz in the back has a few more weeks to go, she still has a lot of white hairs. One of her branches carries a huge christmas tree like bud, the other 3 branches don't look bad either. When I started this grow, I had 11 healthy seedlings to choose from. The largest 4 were selected for this grow, but I had other plans with the remaining 7 ladies. The 4 second largest plants went into a second small grow tent (DR60) I normally only use for seedlings. 1 Sweet ZZ, 1 Royal Runtz and 2 Joanne's CBD. I didn't start a diary for my second grow tent cause keeping one grow log updated is enough work. But I would like to join some images of the second tent. Same plants. Germinated on the same day, went into flowering on the same day, they were split once instead of twice, the light is the same as in my larger tent but the 200W version. These plants also grow in hydroponics with clay pebbles, the medium I've always used before, and they got the same nutrients. Both Joanne's CBD on the right grew enormous cola's. Very dense and heavy, they don't look like the one I have going in my large tent. Buds on Royal Runtz front left are rather thin, like in my other tent. But this plant is even looking more frosty than the other ones. The thick layer of trichomes all over her bud and leaves is impressive. I'm happy to have a well producing Sweet ZZ in my large tent, because on the leftover plant I accidentally broke one of the branches. Shit happens. Was hoping one large cola on her other branch would compensate the loss, but buds on the other branch are thin like on the Runtz. But than again, the amount of trichomes that is covering the whole plant is amazing. She looks frozen solid. All plants in my leftover tent are ready to be flushed at the same time. I cleaned the reservoir today and filled it with filtered rain water, PH down to 5.0 In 10 days I will start checking for trichomes turning amber for harvest. (The 3 last seedlings I had left found a spot in nature, somewhere. I don't have high hopes they survived last month's drought, but will check on them by the end of september). Cause you never can have enough weed. Cheerio!

Dark trichomes! Royal Runtz in my leftover grow room is harvested. Flowering day 47, day 100 from germination. She was flushed for 7 days (clay pebbles). Not a record breaking plant when it comes to weight, but she is so full of trichomes the buds look frozen. I will definitely have some good stoner weed from this one. Checked all the other plants, no more coloured trichomes to see yet.

3 of 4 plants were harvested. The last Runtz still has a few more weeks to go before harvest, her hairs only start to turn yellow. I put her in the middle of the tent and supported her branches cause she's collapsing under her own weight. I have already started flushing her. She can stay in the tent until my seedlings are big enough to take her place in the flowering room.

The long awaited moment has arrived. I spotted brown trichomes on 3 of 4 plants. Even on Joanne's CBD, that answers my question: trichomes of CBD plants do turn amber. Joanne was harvested first. Of all the plants, she has the most spicy pungent smell. I'm looking forward to taste her. And to experience the effect of course. Didn't weigh her wet, I will weigh her up when she's dry.

The first of 2 Runtz was ready to harvest. I thought she was skinny, but once out of the tent and cut, she fills up my drying rack pretty good. The other Runtz is still a few weeks from harvest, her hairs only start to turn brown right now.

My favourite of 4 plants, Sweet ZZ turned into the most beaitully coloured cannabis plant I've ever grown. Her buds turned purple/magenta, she looks and smells like candy. Really looking forward to taste her dry flowers!