“Stella” DarkStar #2

7/23/22 We have finally reached the flushing stage in Stella’s life cycle. I’m so excited to be just 2 weeks away from harvest!! I was meaning to get nice microscopic pics of her trichomes today, but ran out of time. In all honesty, I barely got all of the plants back in the tent before the light was scheduled to turn off, but I made it. But no trichome pics. My bad. At least my little microscope is now fully charged and ready to go. Trichome pics are an absolute necessity if you want to harvest your plants at the right time. They tell you when to harvest, not your growing schedule. However, if you’ve grown a strain/cultivar before, then you can make an educated schedule that may most likely resemble what your trichomes tell you. We’ll have to wait a day and see. Stella received a gallon of tap water today that was adjusted to the proper pH level and nothing else. The initial pH was 7.5, so I added some pH DOWN to adjust it. NOTE: if you’re not familiar with pH UP or pH DOWN; it’s extremely important to know the difference in how to use each. PH UP isn’t that strong and you can expect to use a lot more to adjust your pH up. Usually 2 ml’s of pH UP will adjust your pH up about .3 to maybe .4 of a single point. For example, an initial pH if 5.9 will adjust to approximately 6.2 - 6.3. PH DOWN is much, much stronger. Today is a great example; my initial pH was 7.5, I only added 0.5 ml to it which brought it down to 6.3. I hope you’ve read that clearly and you realize what is written. 2.0 ml’s of pH UP may adjust a level up by just a few decimal points. 0.5 ml of pH DOWN lowered my pH by 1.2 points. That’s a big difference! Stella gave back plenty of runoff with a pH of 5.6. I tried to use my TDS meter today because knowing the TDS level in the runoff is what let’s you know that you’ve flushed enough and that the plant is ready to harvest. However, my TDS meter is still being a useless b!+ch, so I couldn’t use it effectively. I hate that thing! She looks good, and I moved her around a bit today and she was able to support her own weight and not fall over when she was alone in the tent. However, to provide space for all the others she got tied up in the corner again, but rearranged a bit. Her tent was 83.7F, with humidity at 54%. The end is near!! Happy growing everyone! 7/25/22 Feeding time for Stella! She’s continuing to get fresh, properly pHed water today, and will until harvest time. I love when we get to the flush! It’s so much easier and takes a lot less time. I wish my TDS meter was working, but I’m not going to waste money on another one. 🤷‍♂️ Today she received a gallon of water that had an initial pH of 7.4. I added 0.4 ml of pH DOWN which adjusted the pH to 6.4. She had plenty of runoff with a pH of 5.6. I was able to get some Trichome pics today, but none of them are spectacular. I was hoping to get some better pics, but it is what it is. I’ll get some more next time. The tent was 82.1F, and humidity was 58%. Time is ticking, and I can’t wait till she’s ready to cull. Happy growing everyone! 7/27/22 Time to continue the flush with my Lady Stella. She’s looking well, and her buds continue to fatten up. It’s really quite nice. She received another gallon of fresh, properly pHed water today. The gallon had an initial pH of 7.4 like the other day. And also like the other day, I added 0.4 ml of pH DOWN to it which adjusted the pH to 6.4. She gave back plenty of runoff with a pH of 5.7. The runoff solution is clearing up nicely, but that is a poor substitute for a TDS reading. Too bad mine isn’t working properly (still), and I have no desire to spend money on a new one. They don’t last for shit!! Anyway; I took several new Trichome pics of multiple buds located all over the plant today to get a good look at the plant as a whole. The tent was 80.6F, and humidity was 55%. Things continue to go well. Happy growing everyone! 7/29/22 Today is the last day of week 15. Only 1 more week on the schedule till harvest for my dear Stella. Of course it will all depend on how her trichomes look at the end of next week, but per the schedule, we’re almost done. Today she took another gallon of properly pH’ed water to help flush out all the nutrients from the buds built up during the grow. The initial pH of the water was 7.4. Again, I added 12 ml’s of pH DOWN to adjust it to 6.3. She gave back plenty of runoff which is beginning to be more clear-yellow instead of deep amber, which is what we want to see. Her runoff pH was 5.6. Her tent was 82.6F, with humidity at 61%. I didn’t take any new pics today. Next week will have more. Till then; happy growing everyone!