Pineapple Express - Photoperiod

Purchased the plant as a clone on 5/18/22, believed to have been propagated on 4/29/22. Began on an aggressive veg fertilizer regime, and allowed the clone some time to acclimate to the new environment in the grow tent. Plant was approximately 9" tall, with 7 active side branches.

Week started on 5/24/22, the plant grew to about 13" tall, and developed about 13 active side shoots. This was the first pruning of the plant, we did a topping to bring the height down, and some pinching of lateral branches to develop more shoots. Plant was fertilized again with a aggressive veg blend of general hydroponics series. We also used the trimming material to produce a cutting to maintain vegetative material for the future.

Week 3 veg, starting on 5/30/22, we did another topping to continue developing addition side shoots and manage plant height. After topping the plant was a approximately 14" tall, with 13 active side shoots, and 14" wide also.

Week 4 veg, beginning on 06/06/22, no topping was done this week, the plant was transplanted into a 2 gallon pot with more AeroGrow pre-mixed potting soil. During the transplant we incorporated a mycorrhizal powder in the root zone to help improve root and soil bio-activity. The plant was returned to veg to allow the plant time for rooting before beginning the flowering cycle.

Officially moved the plant into a flowering light schedule, at 10 hour days, on 6/13/22. We are now using 4X - 24 watt light bars that are positioned vertically around the plant to provide inter-canopy lighting. Later on we added an additional 86 watt grow light positioned overhead of the plant as it outgrew the height of the grow bar lights, in the future I would install this right away. The plant was now transitioned to an equal part blend of the fertilizer to allow the transition to bloom process to begin. Now that we have started the flowering process we have also began adding an organic based nutrient additive, which is high in potash and sourced from bat guano, and also contains kelp extracts. The purpose is to provide more organic sources of nutrients to help feed biodiversity in the soil. A note about the manual irrigation, we allow the pot to become quite dry between watering, but not to the point of wilting. When we do water we make sure to flush lots of excess water through the pot to prevent salt accumulations, and to make sure that the fertilizer ratios are staying in the correct balance.

Second week of flowering starting on 6/20/22, we continued irrigating with equal parts of the fertilizer blend. We also used a few pieces of string to slightly train branches to be equal distant from each other, and provide more even canopy lighting. You can also see in this photo that the additional grow light has been added above the plant.

Week 3 of flower, starting on 6/27/22. Routine fertilizing with equal parts of general hydro, and the bat guano tea. No smell, or significant flower development yet, but it does appear like the stretching period may be slowing. There was some very small powdery mildew development and the plant was sprayed with Plant Therapy to knock it down early. It was probably a result of slightly warmer temperatures this week.

Flowering week 4 began on 7/4/22, continuing the same fertilizer routine. The plant has grown significantly, and the bud development is occurring rapidly, the stigmas are very obvious, but not much fattening of the buds yet. A few fungus gnats were observed and are being trapped using a yellow sticky card. This seemed like enough to keep it in control. Some more gentle tying and staking was done to keep the plant even under the lights and make sure there is still good air circulation around all the buds and branches. I did a little bit of very light pruning on the lowers of the plant, removing any congested or poorly lit leaves, and removing small buds that would not develop into a quality final product.

Flower week 5 has begun on 7/11/22, we have officially changed the fertilizer routine to focus on heavy flower development by reducing the amount of nitrogen being provided and increasing the amount of Potash and Potassium. The plant has a very wonderful sweet, fruity, and musky scent to it. It is very tropical and quite nice. It only seems to make the house smell if it is a warm day and all the windows are closed. Keeping one window open seems to be enough to keep all the smell down. The buds are beginning to fatten and we have observed a couple of stigmas begin to turn orange, the final development is just beginning. We also learned that Pineapple Express is a much faster flowering strain and usually flowers to completion in 7-9 weeks instead of 10. With this new information, and the recent observations I would say that the fertilizer should have been switched to the flowering formula a week earlier. I have altered the rest of the fertilizer schedule to begin final flushing of nutrients one week earlier than initially scheduled. There is some powdery mildew occurring. I think this is again due to warmer temperatures this week, in the 80-90 range outdoors. It is too late in the flower cycle to apply a foliar spray again, so I will try to manage it by increasing airflow with a fan installation.

This week we were able to get the powdery mildew under control with increased ventilation and air circulation, and more precise temperature control. Our temperatures were very moderate, hovering in a narrow range of 75 +/- 5 degrees, by widening this range between day and night it seemed to help. We increased the length of time that the lights are running from 10 hour days to 12 hour days, this will help us get more light energy on the plants each day and hopefully maximize growth! :) The fruity/tropical smell is increasing, and the buds are continuing to swell. The stigmas have started turning brown at the very tips. The trichomes are still quite clear, very little becoming milky, and certainly now amber color occurring yet. The plant is requiring water on every 2-3 days, closer to 2. When we water it usually takes about 1/2 gallon of solution before it drains out of the bottom of the pot. This is the last week that we will be feeding at full strength, going forward for the last 2-3 weeks of its flowering period we will be watering at 1/2-1/4 strength in lieu of a final flushing period. We want to make sure that we are not overfeeding and causing strange bursts of growth, fox-tailing, or tender growth, but also do not want to completely starve the plant while it is still actively producing secondary metabolites. We will do a period of heavy flushing with plain water in the last 3-5 days of growing before harvest.

This week we brought the feeding rates down to 1/4 strength of the bloom formula from the flora-grow series by general hydroponics, to ease into the flushing process. Then on Friday 07.22, we officially began the flushing process with plain water after we observed the first amber trichomes forming on the buds. The buds are still getting more dense, I do not think that they have grown in size very much, but I can see subtle differences in the density of the flowers, and they are certainly more frosty looking. We are experiencing much higher temperatures recently and are struggling to keep the grow room cool during the last week, and probably the next week as well. Some powdery mildew problems are persisting because of the warmer weather as well. Nothing much else to report this week, things have slowed down on the plant a lot. We are very antsy to harvest, but are going to keep waiting until the trichomes tell us they are ready, were expecting to wait another week at the minimum.