Bonus Seed Round

Decided to use up the bonus seeds i've collected for this grow. Strain Descriptions from vendor: Northern Lights: "Northern Lights is one of the best-known strains of cannabis, noted for its terpene hints of herbs, pepper and a touch of citrus. This strain is a pure Indica variety and hits the spot if you like juicy, resinous buds. Flowering is both abundant and rapid, with a recommended indoor flowering time of between 45 and 50 days, and the plant itself is very resilient during early growth. As the crystal-coated buds begin to appear, they sometimes develop a purple hue, while more usually giving off a sweet, spicy and aromatic scent. Reports of Northern Light’s psychoactive effects include muscle relaxation and a sense of euphoria. Other reports include good pain reduction and positive effects on depression, stress and sleeplessness. Northern Lights has its origins in Afghan and Thai Landrace strains and has, itself, helped to produce popular hybrids including Super Silver Haze and Shiva Skunk." Afghan Kush: "One of the original landrace strains, this is a highly potent pure Indica which is indigenous to the Afghan Kush mountain range that forms part of the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. This is a purer Indica strain that has a reputation for its seriously sedative, virtually narcotic properties as well as its abundant flowers. Large, clustered green buds are incredibly sticky, and the THC content of Hindu Kush is often measured at up to 20%. Trichome-rich buds produce scents reminiscent of pine, spice, sandalwood and damp soil, and when smoked, there is a distinct flavour of incense and herbs. Hindu Kush I well-known for a high that takes time to get there and which induces a form of mental fogginess and heaviness in the body’s muscles. If you are more into lazy contemplativeness, then Afghan Kush will suit you well, while it is also popular for those who have trouble sleeping or who suffer from chronic pain and also nausea." Dr Dos Si Dos: "This indica dominant hybrid came as a result of crossing Girl Scout Cookies with Face Off OG. Dosi has a sweet cookie flavour combined with a sweet minty aroma that will absolutely blow your mind. The high is very powerful as Dosi can reach THC levels close to 30%. The flowering time of Dosi is around 10 weeks." Crack & The Beanstalk: "While it would be wonderful to plant this seed and wake up the next day to discover a cannabis plant that had grown so high it reached up into the sky, that isn’t the case here. However, with a flowering time of between six and seven weeks, the speed of growth is still something quite remarkable. Better still, with myrcene as the dominant terpene and a THC level of 17% and a modest CDG level at 1%, expect an energising buzz from this sativa strain of cannabis plant. This is likely the result of crossing Skunk #1 with an indica plant of unknown origin to make this strain already popular with those of you who need a pick-me-up when feeling tired, stressed, or depressed. Because Crack is a name usually associated with hard drugs, you may find this strain referred to as Cush, with a ‘C’, not ‘Kush’ with a ‘K’." No idea about these seed banks or strains, just gonna see what happens.

Dr Dosi seedling randomly died so I popped in another seed, Gushers from Cali Seeds which is another bonus seed. All fans and ventilation are still currently off to maintain high humidity for seedlings. Light is still on its minimal setting might raise it to 20% in the next couple of days when the Northern Lights and Afghan Kush are large enough to benefit. Didn't bother draining the reservoir and refilling at this point. Added Silver Bullet, CalMag and Nutrients. Raised the EC to 1, was aiming for 0.9. Strain information on Gushers from the vendor: "If you're looking for an extraordinary flavour that combines sour tropical fruits and creamy cookies, you came to the right place. This delicious indica dominant hybrid came as a result of crossing Gelato #41 with Triangle Kush. With THC levels reaching well beyond 20%, Gushers offers a pleasant relaxing high making it an ideal strain for chilling on your sofa after a hard day at work. Reportedly, Gushers is very effective for treating various conditions such as anxiety, depression, and chronic pain. The flowering time of this beauty is 9 - 10 weeks and you can expect a moderate yield of bright green buds with amber hairs and hints of purple."

Topped The Northern Lights leaving 4 main branches to train horizontally. Will top the Afghan Kush soon. The CATB is 1 week behind the NL and AK and the Gushers is 2 weeks behind. I'm going to run my schedule off the CATB so the NL and AK will have an extra week of veg and the Gushers will have 1 less, then I can hopefully train the larger NL and AK plants into the space left by the under-vegged gushers and CATB. I've increased the light intensity to 40%, don't want to have it too high because the reservoir starts heating up too much. Have turned the airflow on which has drastically reduced the humidity but is necessary to reduce the temperature inside the tent now that the light intensity has been increased. Planning 2 more weeks of veg then flip. Might add an additional week if there's still a lot of space to fill out.

Northern Lights: Looking good, easily the largest plant, have now tied down the top 2 stems to try and allow the lower 2 to catch up. Afghan Kush: Only just topped her. Growing slower than Northern lights, much tighter inter-nodal space, lovely broad leaves, hoping to use some to make cannagars after defoliation. Crack & The Beanstalk: Growing fast, catching up with the Afghan Kush, topped her to create 4 main shoots. Gushers: slight burn on the leaf tips, probably due to the low humidity and maybe high nutrient content. Certainly not optimal conditions for a seedling but I have to compromise with the other plants and she seems to be surviving ok. I didn't get a pic of the roots but they are all looking nice white and healthy. Light intensity is still currently at 60%, might bump it up to 80% soon but I'm worried it will increase the temperature too much and decrease the humidity for the smaller plants. Not sure whether to veg for 1 more week or 2, these are all indica dominant plants so the stretch shouldn't be crazy, especially not compared to the Malawi I grew last time but that was mental.

Entering vegetation week 5. This might be the final veg week or I might do 1 more. Light intensity is now at 80%, full power still gets too hot and dry. Northern Lights: Still easily the largest plant, I've tied down the top 2 growth shoots and the lower 2 seem to have caught up creating an equal 4 growth shoots I'm hoping to train horizontally throughout stretch. I'll continue to add soft ties across the bamboo frame to try and maintain apical parity among the 4 shoots. The smaller gushers plant should allow more space for the northern lights. Afghan Kush: This plant has a very short inter-nodal space so it may not need any LST at all or perhaps just during stretch. Crack & The Beanstalk: I've now tied down the top 2 branches similar to the Northern Lights and the lower shoots are catching up so looks like this plant is also reaching apical parity. Gushers: I've now topped the gushers, hoping that by the time I flip I have 4 decent growth shoots on this one. One thing I'm going to desperately try to avoid is the larger plants over growing and crowding out the smaller ones, specifically the Northern Lights growing over the Afghan Kush during stretch. I might try to mitigate this by topping the ends of the main growth shoots adjacent to the neighbouring plants.

Now flipping to 12/12. EC is 1.6 which is just below 1.7 target. pH is 6.0, temperature and humidity seem fine. The Northern Lights is by far the largest plant followed by the Crack & The Beanstalk. The Gushers is growing vigorously but is 2 weeks behind the NL and AK and one behind the CATB. The Afghan Kush is growing slowly and resisting training. I've lightly defoliated the NL, AK and CATB to allow light to reach the new growth shoots. I removed a larger number of leaves from the Afghan Kush plant which revealed a number of light deprived growth shoots that had been covered by thick leaves. I've lowered the light and raised it to full power. I've continued to LST the plants using soft ties on the bamboo frame, trying to get the plants to grow as low and flat as possible. I've decided that since the Northern Lights and CATB plants are larger i'm going to train them outward. The Gushers and Afghan Kush i'll initially train outwards but then leave them to stretch upwards mostly. This should allow these 2 plants to reach the same height as the NL and CATB and allow them the horizontal space.

Now entering 2nd week of flower. No pistils appearing yet but getting lighter around the shoot centres. No major stretching so far, can probably expect that this week. Will probably SCROG at the beginning of next week try to make sure each bud site has it's own space to form and a decent amount of light exposure. The plant training has generally gone really well, I'm pleased with the plant structure, I think we should have a decent number of colas and the colas should be a fairly equal distance from the lamp. May do some lolipopping at the beginning of next week to remove any newly forming undergrowth that's unlikely to go anywhere.

Plants have stretched out quite a bit, especially the Gushers which is now the largest plant despite having 2 fewer weeks of veg. I've defoliated again so light can reach the lower parts of the plant. I have also lollipopped, removing all lower growth on each plant. Not sure whether I'll end up using a SCROG. If I do will probably install that beginning of next week. Pistils are now starting to appear.

So after thinking the Northern Lights would be the largest plant it's now the smallest and Gushers is by far the biggest! This is despite the fact that Gushers had 2 weeks fewer vegetation time! Having a slightly difficult time with the height disparity. The light is currently 28cm from the Gushers canopy which is a bit too close but about 60cm from the Northern Lights canopy which is too far away really but what can you do? The Gushers actually hermied last week. Not exactly sure why. I think it might be the stress of changing the reservoir at a delicate time of the plant's growth cycle. However the balls just appeared around the bottom of the plant. I removed all the balls and I don't think any more will appear. I call this "bollock syndrome", dealt with it before. Another funny thing about this grow is that Crack and The Beanstalk is supposed to be a fast flowering strain but it's actually the furthest behind in flower.

Buds developing beautifully. Due to the height disparity, the top of the Gushers/CATB are only 15cm from the light but the Northern Lights canopy is about 57cm away so it;s a tricky dance. My favourite plant at the moment is the Afghan Kush, the buds are absolutely stunning and smell incredible.

Everything seems to be going well. Obviously still trying to manage the height disparity. There's a bit of light stress on the highest cola tips but this is a sacrifice I need to make to make sure the lower plants have adequate light intensity. I looked back at the strain information on the website and they are all supposed to be 'Medium' in height. I was thinking the disparity could be due to the fact that CATB and Gushers are hybrids with more sativa genetics whereas Afghan Kush and Northern Lights are closer to pure indica but I remember having a Hindu Kush plant that really took off so I'm putting this down to phenotypic variation from the seeds. The good news is I haven't seen any bollocks on any of the plants for the last couple weeks which means I was correct about 'bollock syndrome'. I've seen some growers saying you should pull a plant as soon as you see a bollock but I think this is wild overeaction. There is a fair bit of undergrowth on the CATB plant and some on the Gushers that is somewhat starved of light and will not produce good bud. My plan is just to leave this and dry and sift it along with the trim.

Still going strong, buds fattening, not much more to add. Gushers and Crack and The Beanstalk putting out some real tower blocks! Kept the nutrients the same for this week. The plan for next week it to just use CalMag and something called Dragon Force which should help the buds put on some last minute extra weight. Then the week after that is flush week. It looks like the Afghan Kush is the most matured plant followed by Northern Lights, then Gushers then CATB. Since NL and AK are Indicas I'll probably go for a larger amber trichome porportion like 30-40% amber whereas Gushers I'll go for maybe 10-20% and CATB just when the first ambers appear

Buds getting super chunky now. This is probably my best grow to date. Afghan Kush looks the most mature, I'll likely harvest this one first Crack and The Beanstalk has a huuuge main cola. Gushers colas are fucking phat at this point Smell is louuuuud! I've increased the airflow to try and reduce the relative humidity. The air in general is just quite humid so increasing airflow and circulation reduces humidity around the colas. This is supposed to be the penultimate week. Next week is flush week. I'll likely harvest AK after about 3 days of flush, CATB will probably flush to close to 14 days simply because it needs more time to mature.

I've started flushing. Harvest time predictions: Afghan Kush - I reckon some time this week maybe Friday Northern Lights - I reckon Tuesday in a week exactly Gushers - Some time between next Tuesday and next Friday Crack and THe Beanstalk - Some time between next Friday and next Tuesday

I HAVE NO IDEA WHY THIS HAS APPEARED AS 'VEGETATION' THE WEBSITE SEEMS TO BE GLITCHING OUT. THIS IS STILL A FLOWERING WEEK! I DO NOT KNOW HOW TO CHANGE THIS I've now harvested the Northern Lights and Afghan Kush, will add the harvests once they've dried and I've had a chance to weigh up and smoke up. The Gushers and CATB still need a fair bit more time so I have added nutrients again and will decide whether to flush Tuesday next week or extend further. The harvest of the AK and NL means I can spread out the branches out further allowing light to penetrate deeper into the plant (giggity). I've put in a SCROG to hold up the colas and round the back I've used some string to hold up the colas that have fallen over. I think I flushed 1 week too early. In hindsight I should have done 1 more week with the EC at 1.2 then last week should have been the week with Dragon Force with an EC of 2 and I should have started the flush this week. That probably would have been perfect but we live and we learn. I'm gonna er on the side of extending the schedule in future. I think I harvested the Northern Lights and Afghan Kush a lil too early as well, definitely could and should have pushed them 1 week further. I'm not gonna make the same mistake with the other 2. So far the harvest has been modest but the 2 much larger plants should easily make up for it.

SO The Afghan Kush didn't stretch much, I should have defoliated much more because the thick leaves really blocked a lot of light lower down in the plant. However itls a lovely smoke. There were also a few seeds in the lower buds which must have been pollinated from some undetected nanners. This was rare though so not really an issue

This one started out as the largest, it had an extra 2 weeks of veg on the gushers and CATB but stretched substantially less. It does however make the most of its stocky size with a very small inter-nodal space and a lot of side-branching.

So the main cola for the CATB suddenly went brown and dry. When I checked the trichomes they were all amber. Didn't understand what happened until I harvested the plants and realised the bud had rotted. This was likely due to the persistent high humidity. I have now purchased a dehumidifier for the latter part of the flowering period to prevent this issue and enhance quality. I also should have defoliated and lollipopped all plants mire aggressively, this is something I will do next grow.

The buds foxtailed a lot partly due to light stress but also due to genetics. This made it a bastard to trim. Unfortunately when drying the buds I noticed some mould had infected a few of the large buds which was a great shame but I'm still pleased with the yield.

Really good sativa, was supposed to be 'fast-flowering' but was not, however it grew to the largest plant of the 4. Would grow this one again. Unfortunately the main cola ended up rotting due to high humidity which was a great shame.