Ménage a ScrOG

Growing 4 different strains, 1 of each. Had some problems germinating, because was using 1 year old seeds that were stored improperly. Acapulco Gold and LSD were germinated, then put into soil on 10/6/22. Finally got 2 more seeds to germinate, and the Critical Kali Mist and Tangerine Dream were put into soil 10/14/22. So a week stagger between the 2 pairs. Starting them under LED, then will switch to 600W MH once they are a little larger. Will eventually top and then do individual SCROGS for each plant. Interested to see how these ladies get along in the same tent.

10/18 - LSD and Acapulco are looking healthy. Tangerine Dream and Critical Kali Mist both look kinda sickly. Not sure how well they will fare. They took forever to germinate, and appear slow to develop. We'll see if it's worth keeping them around. No nutes yet, just tap water and soil. 10/19 - Tangerine Dream appears to be dead. CKM is struggling along. Turned on 600W MH today. 10/22 - Got rid of Tangerine Dream, it died. CKM is still growing slowly. The others are healthy and will be transplanted soon.

10/23 - Transferred LSD and Acapulco Gold to 5 gallon pots. Healthy roots. About a 1:3 - perlite:soil mix. Watered. 10/25 - Watered all plants. Rotating them 90 degrees daily to even out light exposure. 10/26 - LSD and AG have started their 5th nodes. Will be topping soon. 10/28 - found some tiny gnats crawling around in the dirt. Probably from an old open bag of dirt I used to top off the pots. It was about time for their first Azamax treatment anyway, so mixed up 20 ml Azamax in 1.5 gallons water and split it between all the plants, in the soil. Hopefully will stop the problem before it gets any worse.

10/31 - Not quite enough space between the 5th and 6th node to top yet, should be ready in the next couple days. Will also transplant Critical Cali this week too. 11/1 - Topped Acapulco and LSD. Acapulco above 5th node, LSD above 6th, as it actually was a node ahead of AG. Watered with .5 gallons each. 11/2 - Transferred Critical Kali Mist to 5 gallon pot. Watered. Dusted top of soil with DE to try to kill the gnats in the soil of AG and LSD. Have never used DE before, wasn't sure exactly how much to use, just went for a light coating on the surface. That powder is not fun to work with, even if it is food grade. All 3 ladies are in their final pots, now it's just a matter of waiting until they're tall enough to install the individual ScrOGs. Moving right along. I will not be topping the CKM, since it is lagging behind the other 2. LST only for her.

11/6/22 - gnats seem to be gone, hooray for DE. AG and LSD have recovered from topping and are growing quickly again. By the end of this week am hoping they will be tall enough to install the ScrOGs. They're not growing super fast, but I also don't think it's time to give them nutes yet. There is still plenty left in the soil, and they look healthy. This may be a longer veg than expected. 11/7/22 - girls seem to really be taking off today. AG and LSD are pushing their lower branches up now, are responding well to topping so far. CKM may turn out to be a stretcher, which wouldn't be a bad thing since it's younger than the other 2 plants and needs to catch up. 11/9/22 - Watered and treated with Azamax today. 20ml Azamax per gallon of water. Measured runoff ppm just to get a gauge on what's still left in the soil nutrient-wise, but still will not feed until until the plants start showing deficiencies. Leaving the lower leaves on for now to monitor Nitrogen deficiency when it starts to show itself. They are just about as tall as the ScrOG nets now, should be ready for install by the end of the week. 11/11/22 - ScrOG's are in! Plants are 10 inches tall, and are right at the height of the nets now. Will begin tying down the branches as they reach the net and will switch to flower when the net is mostly full. Am interested to see how it goes with the Critical Kali, I've never ScrOGed an un-topped plant before. It definitely won't fill out the entire net, but hopefully can still get more good bud sites than just letting it grow naturally. Still haven't given any nutrients. 11/12/22 - Can't rotate the pots themselves anymore because of the ScrOGs, so have started rotating the entire formation clockwise. Will need to do some defoliation of the lower branches soon. Probably right before the next watering.

11/13/22 - Defoliated the lowest leaves and branches from all 3 plants. Going to wait before doing heavier defoliation. Staked up LSD because it started growing at a weird angle early on and I never fixed it, so it was leaning heavily. The tips of new-growth leaves on the CKM plant are yellow, and some tips of old-growth are purple/brown - I'm thinking I may have given it too much water at the last watering, or too much Azamax. Haven't given any nutes yet, so it can't be that. Going to let it dry out real good before the next watering. Also, turned on the LED grow light as well today. 11/14/22 - Watered and gave Cal-Mag @ 5ml/gallon. Measured runoff ppm to start establishing a baseline before I start giving nutes. 11/15/22 - We have our first tie-down today! CKM shot up over night and needed bent down under the net. Hopefully the other plants follow suit soon. Side note: In comparing this grow to my last grow at the same stage, these plants are much smaller and further behind. I think the difference is the bulbs - I used an HPS 600 watt during veg last time, and I'm using a Metal Halide 600 watt this time. I've read HPS puts out more lumens than MH, and judging by the growth rate between these 2 grows, I'd say I agree. I'll be using HPS for the entire grow in future operations, and may switch bulbs early here soon. The only thing I like better about the MH is the more natural light color, which makes it easier to inspect the plants! 11/16/22 - Made the switch to HPS bulb 11/17/22 - did some light defoliation of lower fan leaves on LSD and AG. Think I will start feeding next watering. 11/19/22 - Watered and gave nutes today. Lower leaves have started showing some yellowing, so it's time. Also treated with Azamax at 15ml per gallon.

11/20/22 - Did some heavier defoliation of lower branches on all 3 plants. Starting to look more lollipopped. I may do one more removal of lower branches during the flower/stretch stage but I'm still a week or 2 away from that. 11/22/22 - Watered and gave more nutes today. There is some yellowing of lower leaves on the LSD and AG, so the soil seems to be pretty much depleted now. Will slowly start upping the nute levels. Still not much to tie down, hopefully with the increased nutes and another day or 2 of recovery from the defoliation, they should start to take off. 11/24/22 - Starting to fill out. Will probably switch to flower within the next week and let them finish filling out the net during stretch. 11/26/22 - Watered and fed. Next time will give just plain water. Have been defoliating bit by bit underneath the net, trying not to take too much at once to avoid shocking the plants.

11/27/22 - Trimmed a few more fan leaves off of the plants to expose bud sites. They are coming along nicely, and I will switch to flower this week. LSD has super densely-packed nodes, which I will need to monitor for bud rot. The CKM is the exact opposite, a super stretcher that may get taller than I want it to. AG looks to be right in the middle. Will be an interesting flower. 11/29/22 - Watered and fed. Switched lights to flower, officially in the transition stage! 12/1/22 - stretch has begun

12/4/22 - watered and fed all. 12/5/22 - business as usual, continuing to tuck and tie down as needed. Filling out nicely. 12/6/22 - Watered CKM only, it is burning through water faster than the other 2. No nutes this time. 12/8/22 - Watered LSD and Acapulco. No nutes.

12/11/22 - Added some more soil to each pot because the top roots were starting to show. Mixed in perlite and diatomaceous earth. Watered and fed, giving bloom nutes now along with everything else. About 1000ppm's. After another week or 2 of stretch, will go in and defoliate hard one last time. 12/12/22 - big overnight growth spurt! Upped the nutes a little bit and they seem to have responded well. 12/14/22 - Watered with plain water. 12/16/22 - not much to report, they are continuing to fill out and stretch. Have had to raise the lights several times the past week and a half. Am anxious to defoliate and really see the buds start fattening up, will do sometime next week. 12/17/22 - gave nutes today. CKM is losing more leaves than I want, but seems to be healthy overall. Will have to keep an eye on that. All are continuing to stretch.

12/18/22 - really filling in the past few days. 12/19/22 - CKM is getting taller than the other ladies. Not sure how much of that is due to not topping and how much is just her genetics. She's definitely very sativa-looking. LSD looks like it's going to have some very dense buds. We'll see if CKM lives up to its Critical Mass heritage, but right now it's looking pretty spindly and thin. 12/20/22 - did the post-stretch pruning. Took off all the suckers, and thinned up the fan leaves. All plants are looking nicely structured and ready to plump up over the next few weeks. Looking forward to it. Watered. Also got some lights-out photo action in. 12/21/22 - bent down the tallest stems of CKM because it was getting too close to the light. Think I will have to defoliate Acapulco more eventually, it is just too dense in there. 12/23/22 - watered and fed.

12/25/22 - Merry Christmas. The ladies are really starting to turn into good-looking plants. 12/26/22 - watered. 12/27/22 - some light defoliation of LSD and Acapulco to get some separation between branches and hopefully ward off any potential bud rot later on. Ladies are looking beautiful. 12/30/22 - watered and fed.

1/3/23 - watered 1/4/23 - Man, they're starting to look good. Removed a bunch of yellow/dead leaves from Acapulco and CKM. A little worried about Acapulco - maybe it's just paranoia from past grows, but it's giving me bud rot vibes a little bit. I feel like it's too early for that to happen, but I'm not liking the look and feel of some of the leaves; we'll find out over the next couple weeks. LSD looks absolutely gorgeous, CKM smells delicious. Coming up on the most problem-ridden part of the grow for me historically, hopefully we can push through to the end successfully 💪 1/5/23 - Turned up the oscillating fan speed to medium, because I'm paranoid about bud rot. 1/6/23 - Watered and fed. May start cutting back on the nitrogen next week, but then again I may not. Feel like I'm giving a low enough dose where it shouldn't hurt them.

1/8/23 - CKM is starting to bulk up, may actually get a good harvest from it. It smells very citrusy. 1/9/23 - Watered plain water today. Acapulco is starting to show some purpling of the leaves. Think it's natural, and not a sign of any deficiency. 1/11/23 - They are looking so beautiful. Acapulco smells incredible. 1/12/23 - watered and fed.

1/15/23 - watered. 1/18/23 - watered and fed. Just trucking along, they are smelling great and putting on weight. Still got another 2-3 weeks for the AG and LSD I think, and probably another 3-4 for the CKM. 1/21/23 - watered. Looking good. CKM has so many new white hairs, wondering if she will bulk up over the next couple weeks. AG is starting to get frosty, and LSD is getting some red hairs. End of week 7 of flower.

1/22/23 - really plumped up after yesterday's watering. Just looking gorgeous. 1/24/23 - watered and fed today. Cutting back on the nitrogen. Acapulco has super high TDS readings lately, may give it double the water next watering to try to flush some salts out of the soil. Could be the reason for its purple/mottled leaves. Other than that, looking great. 1/26/23 - Did a little photo shoot of the ladies. The buds are continuing to get bigger. Checked the trichomes on Acapulco and LSD, they are still almost entirely clear, although LSD actually had a good amount of amber on some leaves which was weird. Still not really close to being done yet. I was worried for a while, but Critical looks like it's going to live up to its heritage. Some of its single buds are 3" long on their own. 1/27/23 - watered today. Will do no nutes again next watering cus all the plants were high in runoff TDS. I think this is about the time in the grow my soil pretty much dies completely and the plants take a turn for the worst even they're not quite done finishing up. But since they're almost done anyway I don't mind too much. Still stresses me out when they get all sickly looking at the end though.

1/29/23 - Beginning of Week 9 of flower. Should be finishing up soon. 1/30/23 - Watered no nutes again. Just waiting on pistils to turn red, and triches to start turning milky. Not much change over the past few days. 2/2/23 - Watered and fed today. Lowered the amount of nutes, they're getting close to finishing up. Acapulco has mostly milky trichomes, think it will be done by the end of next week at the latest. LSD still has mostly clear, and CKM is just starting to turn milky. So close! 2/4/23 - Decided to raise the lights, because I've had problems with grows taking forever to finish in past cycles, and I've noticed some foxtailing on the top of the CKM buds. Leads me to believe the lights are too close/intense at this stage in flower. So have raised them to try to signal to the girls that it is time to finish up. Will also only be giving low level nutes every 3rd watering now, instead of every other watering. Believe it will speed things up. Also going to give a half hour less light per day - why not?

2/5/23 - watered. CKM and LSD buds are now both so big they are starting to fall over. Need to get some stakes for CKM cus the plant ties are not cutting it. Looking good! 2/6/23 - some bad news. Found a seed in the Acapulco. Looked and found some nanners on the LSD. Probably too much heat and light stress if I had to guess, the temp was in the upper 80s for most of flower, and I used an unenclosed bulb/fixture that has no glass separator on it. Oh well, you live you learn. (Edit from the future: seems like the pollen in the nanners was mostly inviable because no other seeds were found throughout grow.) I raised the light up another couple inches and have them on 11 hours light now, it's time for these girls to finish. Their buds are still looking great and overall seedless. 2/8/23 - watered today, no nutes. Started pulling some nanners off LSD then realized there were so many it would take forever, so I stopped. Inspected and only found 1 baby seed on the entirety of the 3 plants, so I think we should get through without any more seeds really. Checked trichomes yesterday, Acapulco is milky but no reds still. LSD and CKM are still at least 50% clear. 2/9/23 - checked triches, still mix of clear and milky. 2/11/23 - watered and fed today. No change in triches. Giving about 800ppm for feedings now. Feeding every 3rd watering, lights on for 11 hours, about 20 inches from plants.

2/12/23 - since cutting back on the nutes and raising the light the plants continue to actually look healthier than they have recently. More orange hairs are starting to appear, and there are less clear trichomes. But they still need at least another week I think. Have reduced the lights further to 10.5 hours on. Everything is so plump and heavy, looking beautiful. 2/14/23 - watered today. No change in triches. May raise the light even more and cut down to 10 hours on soon. Really don't need any more size to these ladies, just need them to mature. 2/16/23 - raised the lights another couple inches. The trichomes are finally mostly cloudy on all the plants. Still only a few amber though. Thinking will harvest at the end of next week, and possibly leave a branch or 2 of each to go another week or 2. Would love to be able to compare different harvest dates from the same plant. 2/17/23 - watered today.

2/19/23 - Will be harvesting Acapulco and LSD at the end of this week. They are done. CKM will continue on its ripening journey. 2/20/23 - Watered today. No nutes. 2/23/23 - watered AG and LSD today. Looking like a definite harvest for LSD this weekend, but AG might need longer. Watered and gave light nutes to CKM cus it's looking a little ragged but is not ready yet. Getting excited to get these things chopped and drying. 2/25/23 - chopped LSD today, but left the bottom 2 branches to go another week or so. Tons of huge, dense buds from this one. Hanging to dry now. Will see if Acapulco is ready to chop next weekend, it still has no amber triches really.

Will update after cure and smoke test.

2/26/23 - watered today with no nutes. 3/1/23 - watered today no nutes for AG and LSD. Watered CKM with some Cal-Mag. It still has a lot of white hairs but it's starved of nutrition, so trying to give it a little more so it can mature a bit more before I chop. Still smells lovely and has monster buds. I think I have to take the Acapulco this weekend, its leaves are just done for and drying up. Most of the trichomes are cloudy, still barely any amber, but I think it's ready. Will leave a couple branches to continue maturing like I did with the LSD.

3/5/23 - watered CKM and LSD. Harvested entire Acapulco plant. Jarred the cut and dried LSD for curing. 3/7/23 - will be harvesting the remaining plants this week. This grow cycle is finally done. CKM buds are huge and dense, and they smell citrusy and great. Can't wait to get it chopped. 3/9/23 - did a final light watering to prepare the girls for chop. 3/10/23 - chopped CKM and the remaining LSD! Dry begins. Trimmed and jarred the Acapulco to start curing.

Chopped and hung on 3/5/23. Trimmed and jarred on 3/10/23.

Will update after cure