Critical Kush Appraisal

Hello. This is the end of germination and the first week of veg. Been busy this week, so I'll just make a quick report. I'll fill out the nutrients part next week. I've neglected my plants a little this week. I need to get in there and do some LST and defoliation this week and then switch to flower after a few days of healing. Ok. Got lots to do. Good Luck. Chuck.

Hello. This is the end of week 1 and the beginning of week 2 of veg. The little seedlings are doing good. I moved them to the tent because I made clones and needed the warm cloning closet. They look a little lighter green than I want, so they will get more food when I water next time. We are starting the Fabulous Furry Freak Brother's 1st book. If it was a first printing it would be worth four hundred Canadian dollars But, this is the 15th printing and it's only worth 6 Can. dollars. The first printing has 50 cents in the top right. This book was printed in Jan 1980 by one of my favorite cartoon artists, Gilbert Shelton. How did he come up with these ideas for the cartoons? I think he was a pot head too. 😉 Ok. More next week. Chuck.

Hello. This is the end of week 2 and the beginning of week 3 of veg. About 3 days ago, when I last watered, I saw the lower or first leaf had some brown spots on it. I thought I had got some mixed nutrient on it. I went in today to get pictures and saw it had gotten worse. I think I'll ask a grow question and see what others think. Other than that, things are doing well in here. It's getting cold in the basement now. I have the exhaust fan on as low as it will go. It makes negative pressure in the basement, so we don't smell it upstairs unless it really strong-smelling pot. We have wood heat upstairs, but just grow room lights to heat up the basement. I've had the heater on through the plant's nights to keep them warm. Keep Growing Straight. Chuck.

Hello. This is the end of week 3 and the beginning of week 4 of veg. I trimmed some bottom leaves and topped these plants to get the bottom branches growing faster. Another couple of weeks and I'll start training them to go out. I had a plant that showed some brown spots on the leaves, and I thought I would ask a grow question about it. Was disappointed with the answers. It seems some people have to comment on things that weren't asked in the question just because I asked a question and they looked at my diary. 😒 More Freak Brothers this week. I hope you're enjoying the comics.

Hello. This is the end of week 4 and the beginning of week 5 of veg. Things are going fairly well in here. I got some browning on the end of some leaves. About a week and 1/2 ago a left these plants get too dry for a day and I got some dead spots on the end of some leaves. I also was giving them my complicated nutrient mix with too cold of water. I have since given a simpler nutrient mix with warmer water and they seem to be doing better. It's winter here. The tent isn't getting much over 22*c with the lights on. I've also got an electric heater on low in the room with the tent trying to keep them warm enough. I ordered some more seeds and they just got here yesterday. I got some free seeds with the order. I got free from Mr. Nice, Critical Mass, 30 reg seeds. So now I can breed Barneys Critical OG x with MR. Nice's Critical Mass and hope for something good.

Hello. This is the end of week 5 and the beginning of week 6 of veg. I can't quite figure up these plants. I'm treating them the same as all the other plants, but they are showing brown spots on their leaves. I thought I was giving too much food but now that I'm giving less the leaves are going a bit lighter in color. I'll keep trying. I think these plants are ready for bigger pots. I'll think about it this week. Keep Growing Straight. Chuck.

Hello. This is the end of week 6 and the beginning of week 7 of veg. I can't quite figure out this 1 plant. I'm treating all the plants the same but 1 plant develops brown spots on the lower fan leaves. I'll keep trying. I cut off 4 fan leaves off each plant to stimulate more branch growth. The branches where I topped are growing good now. It's been cold here for the last couple of days. -4*c For the last 2 nights. The potting soil I bought to repot with is now frozen in the greenhouse. That should get rid of any small pests I don't want to deal with. I will probably repot this week when it warms up, so I don't have to chisel the soil to get it into the pots. I found a Nova OG clone I'm going to put in here, because there are only 3 plants of Critical Kush and 4 plants do better in a 5x5 tent. OK. Keep Growing Straight. Chuck.

Hello. This is the end of week 7 and the beginning of week 8 of veg. Man, this one plant is still giving me grief. I got out my books and diagnosed the problem as potassium deficiency. So, I gave flowering nutrients this week and plant #1 still looks bad. I'll keep trying. It's been winter here, with snow and freezing temps, so I didn't get to repot these plant last week like I wanted to. The repotting might help plant #1 to feel better, so I'll try to get to that this week. The other 2 plants seem to be doing well. They are a little yellow because I've been feeding with flowering nutrients this week to try to help plant #1. Hope your liking the comics. Thanks. Chuck.

Hello. This is the end of week 8 and the beginning of week 9 of veg. I just didn't get around to repotting these plant over the New Years break. We had people visit and things to do and when I did have a bit of time I had a nap instead. I'll get to it this week for sure. I'm having a bit of a problem with Plant #1. It looks better than last week. I thought the problem with this plant is it's potassium deficient, so, I've been adding a bit of Big Bud into the solution I've been watering with this week. The plant looks better, not as many brown spots and the leaves aren't hanging as much. It looks better this week. I'll get them repotted this week so I can begin training. Ok. Get blasted. Chuck.

Hello. This is the end of week 9 and the beginning of week 10 of veg. Well, I got them repotted. The leaves are still sort of droopy, with the repotting stress on the roots. They will recover. I also sprinkled 2 teaspoons of blood meal, for some extra nitrogen, around the stock and watered in. The blood meal was 12-0-0 so I didn't want to use too much. In the repotting pictures I tried to show; That I drilled extra holes in the bottom of the pot and that I cover them up with some gardeners felt. The felt drains well but still holds on to some moisture. As the water drains it pulls in extra air to the roots through the felt. I try to have the branches at the top of the soil, so I bury the root ball deeper and cover up the stock. Like tomato's, cannabis grows extra roots on the buried part of the stock. The root ball gets bigger, faster, than just putting to root ball level with the soil. I thought I was going to cut off the bottom loop of the tomato cages but when I measured, they fit tightly inside the top of the pot to make the whole thing more stable. The soil I use; Sunshine Mix #4 by SunGro Horticulture - sungro.com I live in Canada, the soil is made in Canada. It doesn't have to be shipped half way across the world like coco coir. I also use nutrients from Canada so I don't have to pay more and it's better for the planet. Ok, we've finished book #1, on to book #2 next week. Chuck.

Hello This is the end of week 10 and the beginning of week 11 of veg. This one plant is still giving problems. I was hoping that the repotting would fix the brown spot problem on plant #1. I dislike finicky plants. This one might disappear. We'll see. The others are doing good. I'll start training this week, pulling them down and out. We are starting a new Freak Brothers Book this week. It's book #2, printed in Jan 1980. By Gilbert Shelton, a great cartoonist. Love his stuff. I bought it new and have read it many times over the years. I spent some time on my crystals and gemstones this week. I cleaned and recharged them and couldn't figure why I couldn't get to sleep that night. I moved the biggest ones so I could get to sleep. I have picked up these stones over time, a few here and a few there and the odd big one too. I was a garbage man (G-Man) when I was younger, and found some while scrounging for beer bottles and cans. Thanks For Looking In. Chuck.

Hello. This is the end of week11 and the beginning of week 12 of veg. I got in here this week and pulled all the branches down for the main lines. I like to use copper. It doesn't rust. We are going up from here. I'm glad I put in the tomato cages in early, it will give me something to tie the branches to when they start to gain weight. I should start flowering in a couple of weeks, but I have to take clones first. Have Fun. Chuck.

Hello. This is the end of week 12 and the beginning of week 13 of veg. I've been harvesting my main room. With my new Mars Hydro LED lights, its increased my harvest by about 2/3. So it took 4 days to cut down 6 plants, and another 2 to put into paper bags for curing. Everything in this room is about the same as last week. The plants have recovered from the repotting stress and are growing up now. It looks like plant #3 some how got over watered stressed roots and is recovering now. Plant #1 has recovered from the brown spots on it's leaves. I think it just needed more food. I still have to take clones and then switch to flowering, maybe this week or maybe the next, we'll see. Good to go. Chuck.

Hello. This is the end of week 13 and the beginning of week 14 of veg. I was busy this week applying for my Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and my Old Age Pension (OAP) and a tax credit check for not making the preset amount this year. It took up more time than I was expecting. With the going to get the application, finding the info to fill it out, getting certified copies of the needed photocopies and spending 3 hours waiting inline for a pension person to look over the applications and OK them. But I'm glad I finally got that going. My employer of 35 years, paid for a 2 day course to make sure we were ready for this point in our lives and help us understand the proper way fill out the paper work. So I didn't have time to do some LST and switch over to flowering until last night. Worked from after supper to near midnight working on the girls. Doing a good LST on them. Taking off enough leaves to just barely see the floor through the plant. At this point I take off a lot of the top fanleaves that block the branch tips from growing up. In the pictures you see the light green on the branch tips that were covered by big fanleaves. I also made sure I got most of the sucker branches off the bottom branches. I'll let the plants heal for 3 days, and then turn them over to flowering. My next LST and final trimming is in the 2 1/2 to 3rd week of flowering, a couple of days before the resin production starts. Happy Growing. Chuck.

Hello. This is week 1 in flowering. I turned them over to flowering about 3 days ago. Lots to do today. Chuck.

Hello. This is the end of week 1 and the beginning of week 2 of flowering. Man, am I stiff and tired. We have a local site for used stuff for sale. On this site it has a "free" page, on it I found free wood. Someone had cut down a cypress tree in their back yard and was offering it for free. I contacted them quick and got all the wood from that tree and another stack. I'm guessing about 2 cords total. I moved it in 2 days from their back yard to my driveway. But it's free and it saved us 6 to 8 hundred dollars. I'm a cheapy and I love free. But I'm stiff and tired, I think a nap is in order when I finish. Things are going well in here. I can see the beginnings of flowerings forming. I watered them last night and my shirt brushed against them. When I put my shirt on this morning it still smelt of Critical Kush :) They will be left alone this week and I'll do the final trim/prune in the middle of the next week, before the resin starts. OK. Good to go. Chuck

Hello. This is the end of week 2 and the beginning of week 3 of flowering. Quite week. Just watered once this week. I sure can see the flowers starting now. Getting a good smell now, sort of a sour dank smell. I'll get in here this week and do my final trim/prune before the resin starts. Then I'll leave them to heal before the resin starts. When I trim I take off the fan leaves that don't get much light along the bottom and in the middle, I also take off fan leaves that block the buds from above, but I don't take all of them off. The plant needs them for making great taste. The LST at this point, is to get the plant to do more of it's photosynthesis through the smaller leaves. This produces bigger, tighter and more dense buds depended on the strain. I also look for sucker branches to take off. If a small branch is not near the canopy, and hanging inside the plant, not getting enough light, take it off. They suck the energy from the plant trying to make lots of little buds. You get better at this with experience. 😊 Try not to take too much off. You should just be able to see through the plant to the table/floor. That way every bud site gets enough light. Be Great. Chuck.

Hello. This is the end of week 3 and the beginning of week 4 of flowering. I got in here and did some fan leaf removal and some sucker branch removal. I put a string around each plant to hold the heavy branches against the tomato cage. My buds seem to lean over and head to the floor in the last 2 or 3 weeks. That's a good thing. 😃 They all got food this week, and are looking a healthy green, with no visible problems. Best wishes. Chuck.

Hello. this is the end of week 4 and the beginning of week 5 of flowering. Things are going well this week. Everyone got another feeding. Saw a yellow fan leaf on plant #2, and wanted to make sure they all got enough food. I see the resin production is really picking up now. You can see it in the pictures. I saw on eBay a weight calibration kit that I've wanted for a while. It had a 15 dollar price on it so I bought it. I was using Canadian dollar coins called Loonies (because of the bird on the front). Each coin is supposed to be 7 grams. But when I used the calibration weights I find the loonies were a bit light. I added a 200 mg weight to the scales in the last picture to have it about 50 mg over. I trust the Ohaus calibration weights over the Canadian Government coin weights. The Government is trying to save money. 😄 I see that's the end of book #2 so on to book #3 next week. See ya next time. Chuck.

Hello. This is the end of week 5 and the beginning of week 6 of flowering. Another quite week in here. Everyone got a watering and a feeding this week. I forgot to take the pictures with the lights on, so I used the flash. I can really see the resin flowing now. Not bad for the end of week 5. I had gone out in the morning to do rounds. While I was standing at the bottom of the stairs doing up my jacket, I was buzzed by a humming bird. This is not unusual in my yard, I have feeders, and plants that flower at all times of the year to support them. They are my favorite bird. So I watched her catch a bug and fly back to her nest 😮😃😍in the tree about 12 feet up. You can see that she is not much bigger than the pine cone by her. The nest is made of spider silk and moss and lichen to expand as the chicks grow. They lay 2 eggs about as big as your little finger, finger nail. This means that she was sitting on the nest last week when the temp went down to 2 c with white frosty roofs on the houses. Just amazing. And we are starting book #3 of the Fabulous Furry Freak Bros. First printing Jan 1980, worth 15 Can. dollars now. Rip Off Press still has some new Freak Bros. comic books for sale. Enjoy. Ok. Have Fun. Chuck.

Hello. This is the end of week 6 and the beginning of week 7 of flowering. Things are going good in here. Plant #1 has it's brown spots back. The plants had both a watering and feeding this week. I think I will grow these plants to 9 weeks of flowering. I need to have these plants finished and harvested by the time the other tent is ready to cut down at week 10. So I like to flush before harvest. This is the last week of food for these beautiful girls. More about flushing next week. Chuck.

Hello. This is the end of week 7 and the beginning of week 8 of flowering. The plants got their last feeding last night. I only gave 1/2 strength nutrients. I flush for the next 2 weeks and they are ready starting to turn a bit yellow. I'll try to get 3 to 4 good flushes in. That should get rid of most of the nutrient build up in the soil, where the plant will start drawing in the last of it's food from the big fan leaves. This is one of the main reasons to leave some big fan leaves still on the plants. I flush with dechlorinated water and some Hydrogen Peroxide. My mix is 1 oz. of 30% HP to 5 gallons of water. The HP adds more oxygen to the medium when it's flushing to prevent root rot and it stops the friendly fungi from feeding so the plant can't get the sugar it's use to so it has to draw it from the big fanleaves, that's why they go yellow during the flush. Look at the leaves if you want to know if it was a good flush. There should be yellow and dying leaves at the end. This is done for the taste and the white ash when smoked. Keep Growing Straight. Chuck.

Hello. This is the end of week 8 and the beginning of week 9 of flowering. One more week of flowering for these plants and then harvest after 9 weeks of flowering.. Things are good here. I got 1 big flush in. Should be able to get 2 more flushes in this week. And I like a couple of days of dark before harvest. I'll show some pictures of, before the harvest, next week. I see some of the buds are heavy enough to start heading for the floor. I though I tied them up tight. 😏 Ok. Be Great. Chuck.

Hello This is the last pictures of Critical Kush, after 9 weeks of flowering. This is the last look of these beautiful plants, I'll give them 2 days of dark and then harvest. I usually flowering for 10 weeks, but the tent next to this one is going to be harvested next week, at 10 weeks of flowering, so I have to cut this tent down at 9 weeks. The breeders seed description said 8 to 9 weeks of flowering, anyway. Here we are!!! 9 weeks of flowering and they look great. Good sized buds. With the squeeze the bud test and smell your fingers, it's plant #2 that I will regrow. It had the longest smell on the fingers and was the stickiest. I could still feel the sticky resin after 10 minutes. With the other plants, the smell disappeared rather quickly and they just weren't as sticky on the fingers. And plant #1 had the brown spots so I would not regrow that one. I weigh the branches before I wet trim them. I hang the branches for 3 to 4 days the then I cut the buds off the branches into paper bags for the curing. The paper bags are the size you can fit a six pack of cans into them. Because I don't want mold, I just fill the bags 2 to 3 inches - 5 to 7.5 cm then close the bag and hang on the same lines you hung the wet trimmed branches. Check after a week, no looking. You might have to rehang the bag if the buds in the middle of the bag seem a bit moist still. Then its straight into the jars. The buds are cured. you won't have to burp the jars or dump them out and fluff them up like I've read other grower do. OK. Back with pictures in a couple of weeks. Keep growing Straight. Chuck.

Hello. This is the end comment for Critical Kush by Barney. This strain was a little heavier than the last few strains I've grown in this tent. Worthy of the name Critical. Overall it was easy to grow. Plant #1 had the brown spots on its leaves but the other 2 were fine. All produced a good amount of buds. I think this is a fairly stable strain, all the plants were about the same size and weight in the end. I'll regrow plant #2, but it doesn't have the big taste I was looking for. This strain has a strong sweet cat pee type of taste I've had so many times in the past. The branching was strong except for the last 2 weeks where some of the bigger buds headed for the floor and needed support. Plant is pretty strong. My wife says it is a happy stone. Not bad couchlock I can still do things, but I could also sit around too. Plant #1 Wet Weight - 1052 g Dry Weight - 138 g Plant #2 Wet Weight - 1124 g Dry Weight - 151 g Plant #3 Wet Weight - 1047 g Dry Weight - 150 g Nova OG It's not part of this diary, so I didn't wet weight it. Dry Weight - 150.5 g So all 4 plants = 589.5 g or 21.05 oz. I love my hobby! Thanks for your help. Be Great. Chuck.