Good morning and welcome to day 1 of week 11 for Karen, this Kings Kush Auto from Green House Seed Co. The first plant in my second grow and first grow series [G2].
If you haven't been following along so far, I recommend starting at the beginning as I have put some effort into this diary and I hope you can follow the story. Karen had a bad start in life back before she became Karen, looking at her now you will be shocked by week 3 and before.
Day 71: Fertigated 6l. Karen is shaping up, against all the odds, to be a really stunning plant. She is packed with bud sites and colas and is piling on frost as if her life depended upon it. Which it does. For this week's diary I decided to try to maximize the little photography equipment I have (1 old phone and a light) to try to get better photos. I am inspired by a fellow growing SSSC Purple OG Punch Auto.
So today I spent some hours reading about photography and tinkering with my phone settings and cleaning the lens. So let me present to you my first efforts at quality photos. These all marked "pro" are referring to "pro" mode on my phone and do not comment on the capability of the photographer. The main difference is I've adjusted the white balance to the exact colour temp of my photography light.
So these photos are as close to what the plants looks like in real life as I have taken so far. Enjoy!
Day 72: More experimental photos from different angles. I made a fail yesterday and set the wrong colour temp for the bulb, it was confusing because I had some light leaking out of my tent and this was throwing it off. Anyway I fixed that today. Only 1 light source at 4000k, I bounced it off the ceiling for the softer lighted shots. Some direct light, and experiments with side lighting.
The colour of today's photos are, at least to my eye, pretty close to how they look.
Day 74: Fertigated 6l
Day 75: Fertigated 5l. Got some fungus gnats which mostly seem interested in the chamomiles. Have added a butterwort and a pitcher into the tent.
Day 76: Another solid day. The tent has more room now that Bertha is gone! Penultimate day of the week. Buds developing extremely well. Smell amazing. Frost off the chart for this strain. Not too long now. Still weeks though.
Day 77: End of week 11. Trich development has slowed. Buds are swelling fast. Couple more weeks I think. Sorry for lazy photos.
So I have been spending some time looking for other King's Kush Auto grows, and I have looked at, well all of them on here. Karen is, at least in my opinion anyway, already way more frosty looking than any of the other grows I have found. Hard to quantify but I have developed a theory, which in a future grow I will test.
@@@Sinsemii, sure okay, well. I think there are two primary factors that can be variable that I think have made this difference, one is stress and the other is the companion plants. I suspect that both have combined good effect. It is just a theory but I think at least part of my next grow will be running comparison experiments. To test this I propose something like:
Uniform single strain seeds - the F1's would be good for this I think.
Identical containers
Identical substrate
Identical nutrition
Identical environment
The idea here is to plant the following combinations:
For my space I'd probably choose 20l pots.
2 x no companions
2 x One companion only
2 x Other companion only
2 x both companions
Then from this group one half would be trained with regular LST and defoliation, the other not trained.
This way I get to see the following combinations:
No training:
1 x no companions
1 x One companion only
1 x Other companion only
1 x both companions
Full training:
1 x no companions
1 x One companion only
1 x Other companion only
1 x both companions
This way I can really compare and see what is making the difference. I may use smaller pots and more numerous plants due to space but it is one for the future. Who knows perhaps someone will beat me to it. I do not know if my diaries have had any influence at all, I rather doubt it, but I seem to have started to notice a few more diaries with companion plants lately.
@Z4Z0Z, The tent smells mostly of Basil and Chamomile - especially when I brush against it. Karen is the strongest smelling cannabis plant in the tent and you can certainly smell her above everything else, but the overall smells is a combination of basil chamomile lemons and weed. lol
@UnorthadoxDude, Looks great to me! I understand, it is hard to get good photos that can really show the details and capture all the magic that is happening.
@MedicineMaker, Thanks! They're still not really where I want them to be. I need to get a better photography setup - better camera, better lighting, etc. It is nice to see that the level of frost is clear with the different photos.
@SmokieMcPot, no, joking I was not! Hah! Look at the state of her in week 2 and 3, I am not sure how she even survived my "care and attention". Then in week 4 she starts growing and, well just doesn't bloody stop! Week 4 by the way, is when I stopped pissing about and started taking it a bit more seriously.
Karen making such a nice recovery! Wishing ya the best of luck. I had to look a few timesโฆI thought ya were growing dill herb in the same pot, and maybe some basil? When I did my outdoor grow, I surround her in dill and basil, they seemed to love each other as company, but just not the same pot. Lol.
Love your grow though! ๐
@NorthEquinoix, haha that's awesome thank you. Yeah give them a try, or wait and see how it pans out for me! I love watching them grow I should have done diaries for the herbs. Basil increases terpene profile and improves flavour, chamomile stimulates the production of essential oils in most nearby plants... together they should amplify each other's effects. That is my theory. I'm just having a look at your grows now... in the middle of a big reorganisation and I have stopped for a smoke. ๐
@UnorthadoxDude, no worries at all! I loved seeing it actually. And German chamomile! Thanks for letting me know what that was,lol. I love herbs of any kind but have been a little Leary of adding them to my indoor tents, hopefully I get more courage on the next run. Lol Iโll be sending ya good grow vibes for Karen and the other girls! Woot woot!๐
@NorthEquinoix, thanks man! Hah it's basil and german chamomile! They have to be connected via the roots for the effects that I want to happen so they have to be in the same pot!
Don't worry though there is plenty of nutes for all.