Here we are, at the last week of the grow! I've learned a lot from this grow that I'm hoping to apply to my next one. I think I under fed these by a good bit. Plant #1 has been trying to yellow on me for over a month at this point. I started giving it more grow and bloom nutrients 5-6 weeks ago now, it certainly helped add some green back but I wasn't going to try to completely compensate for everything I had missed up till that point. I will feeding my next plants more aggressively particularly in the late veg, and transition to bloom phase. Adding a little Cal Mag to my RO water each time I water made a noticeable difference, as did adding a good layer of straw mulch to the tops of the pots.
I started these with little in the way of expectations. This was really supposed to be a test run for my next grow. With that being said I'm pretty impressed with how these grew. For small plants (under 20") they really filled in nicely. The buds are resinous and have been showing some hints of purple. Hard to really put my finger on the smell at the moment, but you can tell it's some old school genetics. Smells incredible when you rub some of the trichomes and give it a smell.
I'm going to be separating the large branches of each plant from the main stalk when I harvest. I will then trim all the non-trichome leaf matter I can get to without separating the buds from the branches and hang the branches to dry for 7-14 days. After that, I will separate all the buds off the branches, give them their final trim and jar them for curing.
I will update with pictures from the harvest when it happens at the end of the week!
Hey buddy. Would you be alright with me offering some pointers? This is some very handy generalized advice to get all growers off to a good start. So cannabis plants LOVE heat and humidity. It is the buds that hate it. In veg we want to take advantage of this fact to help our plants grow along much quicker and more vigorously. In veg we can look for temps of 79-84 MAX with lights on & no more than 9 degrees less with lights off. If we allow for too much temperature swing between lights on and lights off while the plant is still growing vertically up to day 20 of flower, We will cause the plant to stretch ALOT which we do not want. So in veg & early flower, Keeping our temperature gaps nice and close between lights on and off is key. Utilizing humidity in our rooms during veg will also help out a lot with more rapid growth but we must introduce it properly. In our rooms we have our temperature and humidity set-points, But when we combine those 2 it forms a third set-point which is the most important & that is called VPD, Vapor pressure deficit.
I strongly recommend every new grower or old grower who has not learned it yet, To study and understand it & implement it into your room, Logging your numbers daily.
https://cerescann.com/importance-of-measuring-vpd/
For soil, We generally want to go for a PH of 6.1.
This website does a GREAT job of illustrating it with a nice graph & very good detailed explanation for soil.
https://autoflowerseedshop.com/cannabis-ph-chart-guide/
As we briefly touched on before, During veg & early flower we want our temperature gap's nice and tight to avoid stretch. Why exactly our plants stretch in response to this is a genetic trigger being activated by the environmental stress essentially telling the plant the end of the season is closer than it really is. In veg & early flower the plant is still in its first stage of development which is to grow up wide and tall so when it produces seed, It can cast them out nicely. Remember, Whether we are growing our plants for seed or bud their genetic responses do not change as they gh sidedo not know any different. Once the plant has finished that first stage of growth by weeks 4-6 of flower with most strains, It is by day 20 of flower. Autoflowers you have to watch for it, But once the plant has finished this goal its new mission is to focus 100% on producing nice big flower clusters & to get very sticky so it can attract pollen to it successfully.
So once that vertical growth is finished, We actually now want to begin to expose our plants to larger temperature swings between lights on and lights off. This will help activate that genetic response and allow us to draw out the most potential from the strain utilizing the plants genetic triggers to environmental stresses at the right times. When we are in flower temperature will really play a big role how our buds form up, If our rooms are too cold below 75 they will form very small buds but very very dense. If we grow our buds out at temperature over 80 degrees we get bigger buds, But they can develop airy and foxtail which we do not get much weight from. Also higher temps will defuse the resin glands over time destroying them. We can also take this a step further with doing light deprivation in the last 2 weeks using less light to simulate cloud cover. Very cold feed temps on the last flush is very good too. If you do not have them already, Get yourself a good PAR meter & thermal laser temp gun to monitor your plant top temperatures & optimize how much light your plants are getting. When we do the pull down, We never want to trim the plant wet or break it down at all. We want to hang it hole in a environment set to 45-50 degrees at 60% humidity for up to 16 days. This allows the plant to break down any potential left over starches or sugars or nutrients within it during this time the plant will produce even more resin & terpenes, This is where you get the true craft cannabis finish.
Happy growing friend!