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Welcome to the Grape Diamonds diary! Unfortunately this time around I had a hard time germinating. I popped one of the grape diamonds using the glass of water/paper towel method on 11/23 (same time as the Bubba Kush) and she sprouted a good sized tap root. Unfortunately the shell would not come off and the seedling died. The second seed managed to germinate as well, but the shell was stuck on her cotyledon just like the first time! Thankfully the shell was easier to pry off this time, but I still had to baby her to make sure she made it.
From what I understand, if seeds are not planted directly into soil they can have a hard time coming out their shells as the friction of the soil helps to shed the shell. I've never had an issue with seeds doing this before with the paper towel method which makes me a skeptical of this information, but its something to keep in mind I guess. Regardless, she has sprouted and just like with the bubba kush hopefully we can grow a big and healthy plant :D.
Welcome to the first week of the Grape Diamonds! She's taken off well after issue in germ which is a relief, although she is a little bit behind the bubba kush. This shouldn't really be an issue and I expect to veg her out in this tent for a good while. I'm using Happy Frog in a red solo cup and plan on transplanting around week 3-4. I think I'm going to move away from 100% happy frog for germination and early vegging as the consistency isn't very good. There's alot of annoying large woodchips in the Happy Frog. I think for future grows I'll use a mix of Happy Frog and something else like Light Warrior.
I've positioned the two plants about 3 feet below the light. I'm looking to have both plants stretch up into the light to avoid having super stout plants. Other than that, just watering her with PH'd water and some Great White Myco here and there.
Second week and good growth on the Grape Diamonds. She is a beautiful vibrant green and her leaves look nice and healthy. I'm expecting this level of growth until she needs to be transplanted. Just feeding PH'd water.
Transplanted her on day 17 in a 7 gallon pot with 50% ocean forest, 50% happy frog and some dolomite lime. It seems she took the transplant well and is on track 👍. My only concern is the bottom leaves are starting to yellow a bit, perhaps maybe because they are resting on soil. Will top when she gets a bit bigger.
Its getting chilly out! With the dehumidifier back in the tent it reached 57f at night. Hope it doesn't drop much lower.
Still good consistent growth in the 4th week of veg. She took the the transplant well but like the Bubba Kush her growth rate is slow. Both cultivars are just a measly 7-8 inches tall after 4 week of veg! I attribute some of this to the cold weather we have been having recently. With the humidifier in the tent at night, the lowest it dropped was to 54f! While its not enough to hurt the plant, I definitely want the temperature around 65-80f.
Both the Grape Diamonds and Bubba Kush are now in the AC infinity flower tent. To combat the cold weather I've added a heated seedling mat to the bottom of the tent as well as lowered the light to around 19 inches. I also have changed my light schedule so lights are on during the night and off in the morning when the weather warms. I have a feeling that if the environment is right for the next week or two she will take off. I want to top her as well as the bubba but I don't want to slow the growth down at all. Maybe top in the next week or two?
Looks like I was correct with last weeks prediction! As you can see she has really taken off (along with the bubba) and is enjoying the nice 76 degree temps. Take a look at the growth between day 29 and day 35 👍. Some of her fan leaves are getting very large and I expect her to grow well for the next 3 or so weeks until I flip her.
I topped her on day 32 and she has responded well. As soon as the new tops start getting some length I plan on putting the scrog net up. I don't really want to have to veg them longer than 8 weeks and I want at least a week or two of her being under the scrog net before flower. I don't think I'll have to give her nutrients before I flip as she is in a 7 gallon but we'll see what she does.
I put the SCROG net up at day 38 and have been tucking branches under it to try to keep an even canopy. She definitely needs to be pruned a bit as some of the fan leaves are gigantic and not really doing anything other than shading out lower branches and restricting airflow to the bottom of the canopy. Will probably prune soon but I'm going to leave a good amount on now considering I want to do a heavy lollipop and defoliation around day 50-51. Hoping to fill the net out as much as possible until then as I want to flip on day 56.
As you can see like the bubba she is short and stocky. Fat fan leaves and short internodal spacing. I can tell her buds are probably going to be fat. I think I'll be feeding her as soon as i flip to flower. Until next week :D.
Pruned the girls this week. Been training her under the net nicely for a bit and decided that it was time to give her a haircut. On day 48 I stripped most of lower fan leaves and branches. I want to increase airflow and light to the bottom of the canopy while at the same time removing node sites that take up energy during flower. The idea is to put as much energy into the top buds so every bud you get is high quality instead of having crappy airy buds develop at the bottom.
I'm a bit confused on the best way to defoliate/prune/lollipop so I like to do a bit of experimentation. This time around I left a few big fan leaves at the bottom. This will restrict airflow a bit but will allow me to diagnose problems with the plant as I feel most problems show on the lower leaves first. Most of the foliage below the canopy is gone though which puts me in a bit of a pickle because I didn't take off too many of the fan leaves at the top of the canopy. This prevents light from getting to future budsites which kind of sucks but to mitigate the shade I've been tucking those leaves under the net.
I took two clones of each cultivar just for fun and also just in case the bubba or grape turn out to be 10/10. You can see on day 48 I've cut clones and placed them into the humidity dome. No clonex or anything fancy like that so hopefully they both root properly.
After her lollipop and defoliation I fed her some dry amendments. The recommendation is 1-2tbsp per gallon of medium for both All Purpose and Kelp meal but I fed her about half of that and plan to do that every 2 weeks from now on. Will add Seabird Guano starting in flower.
I'm going to flip both the Grape Diamonds and Bubba Kush in about 4 days. Will continue to train them under the net until flip and will probably do a once over for the lollipopping. I'm also going to defoliate her in flower but I probably will stop doing so after week 2 or 3.
See you next week!
It seems like my Grape Diamonds may have a possible K deficiency. Edges of leaves are starting to fade and brown with the veins staying green. Lower leaves seems to be greener and they're showing signs of the K deficiency but not as bad. Would appreciate your thoughts, thanks!
I’m not a full time organic grower tho I do have experience with it and understand it pretty well.
Could just be showing up in the one plant first and it will show up later in the other.. I’d definitely up that kelp meal and try to source something with more K without other ingredients.. or at least something with a solid amount of PK and less N. (For when you flip to flower)
Langbienite looks like a pure K source from down to earth. Maybe even azomite?
Grape diamonds is a terpy girl man, I’ve run the cross with it planet of the grapes.
Welp, we've done the classic "wait until the plant shows signs of deficiency and then feed dry amendments" move with the grape diamonds (and also the bubba). Seems I didn't feed early enough to prevent a potassium deficiency and now I'm paying the consequences. You can see the serrations yellow. New leafs are thin and weak. Spotting starting to show up now. Flipped her on day 53 and I don't plan on keeping her in veg to fix the deficiency. Pray for me fellas 🙏.
I fed her some more kelp meal this week in hopes that she will bounce back quickly. I also made a batch of compost tea and fed her today with it. Getting some Langbienite in a few more days to top dress with for the P deficiency. Hopefully it won't be too late and I'll be able to stay on track for a good harvest.
This is my second time trying out dry amendments over liquid nutrients so its to be expected that I make mistakes. Next grow I'll have to tweak my feeding to make sure we don't get any deficiencies.
Well boys, I think she might be no good. She hasn't picked up like the bubba but hypothetically if she is receiving the proper nutes now do you think I'll be able to get to harvest? Or should I pull her now?
Well boys I done fucked up. Got a major K deficiency (since fed them). Didn't want to save them with liquid nutes as I'm trying organics. Assuming they live (I think the Bubba may have bounced back?) should I try to get a harvest or should I just pull them now? 1 week into flip.
Whether or not you try to save them or pull them is going to be your decision here.... but if you want to try to save them organically, use some Langbeinite ... with an NPK of 0-0-22, it will get that K to them! Normally, when growing in soil, I use it as a top-dress (1 tablespoon once a month) throughout the grow as it is difficult to dissolve...but it IS possible to dissolve it - just needs to be ground up to a fine powder and then bubbled in water for 24 hours (I'll give a link at the bottom here)... Personally, I'd put the effort into it because this looks like it would be a great grow and there IS a lot of life left in those plants.... it's a weed, after all, and it doesn't particularly want to just give up the ghost when something goes wrong.
Here's the link I promised... at the very bottom, it will tell you how to make it more quickly available to your grow in a nutrient tea: https://www.organicgardeningsolutions.com.au/products/langbeinite
Good luck!
All of her leaves are damaged and alot of them are starting to fall off the plant. That being said, the plant IS stretching and producing pistils. The leaf growth on the top seem to be decently healthy and I wonder if they're actually going to make it. I also wonder if the results will be any good.
Fed her some dry amendments and compost tea this week. Picking off completely dead leaves and noticed alot of the dead leaves are still strongly attached to the plant. The bubba's leaves just come right off but the Grape doesn't seem to want to let go of them.
Will continue to grow unless bud formation isn't good in which case I'll chop them and start over. Feeling pretty bummed but hopefully we can get a decent result.
Looks like the grape is starting to bounce back slightly. Alot of the leaves have come off but there's a small amount of green coming back at the tops. Hopefully bud production wasn't impacted too much and we will get nice flowers at the end of her life. Still hoping I don't have to chop her and restart but that is still a possibility if the results will be bad.
Out of the two the Grape Diamonds looks the best. Not saying much since she looks a bit like crap but she is producing. The smell is starting to come through and its like a strong artificial grape smell. Not as many leaves are dying off compared to the Bubba and it looks like I'll be able to harvest her give another 5 or so weeks. Obviously the stretch has ended and she hasn't stretched nearly as much as a Bubba. I would have liked the canopy to be even but I dared not train the plant during the potassium deficiency. She is still close to the light and there should be no problems with that.
Looks like shes filling out relatively well. Her buds are getting bigger and trichs are blanketing the leaves. She currently has developed quite the smell. Its similar to pine and a heavy (almost artificial) grape. Excited to see her fill out more. Not going to get the best quality or heaviest harvest but she will be just fine. Hopefully the bubba ends up reaching the Grape's level in terms of quality and production.
Fed her some calmag because some of her leaves are displaying signs of calmag deficiency.
Finishing up week 6 and the Grape is on track for a good harvest. She is still producing trichs and her pistils are changing color. Her buds are forming quite well, with the tops buds being pretty impressive. I'm surprised the Grape has done this well considering how much damage I caused it right before flower.
She has a very distinct piney-grape smell. Its almost like a heavy, artificial grape smell. Very terpy. Excited to chop her in about 3 or so weeks and try her out.
Just like the Bubba, the grape looks like she's just about done. She is still producing new pistils but it looks like she doesn't have that much more mass to pack on. She is covered with trichs and her bud structure looks very appealing. Her sugar leaves and some of her fan leaves are turning purple/black and it looks very beautiful. I'm surprised at the resilience of this plant as I really abused her. She won't be perfect, but it will be good enough.
I'm going to start looking at her trichs under the microscope in the next few days to make a determination on when to pull her. Going to pull both her and the Bubba at the same time. My target is next week, but we will see. Looking forward to it!
Well boys, she's ready to be chopped. Taking a look through the microscope, I can see that the majority of buds have mostly cloudy and some amber trichcomes. Chopped her on day 114 and hung the entire plant to dry in the tent.
Chopped her on 3/24 after 114 days of growing. She spent 11 days drying in the tent for a perfect dry. The humidity in the jars is 58-62 which is perfect.
To summarize, I'm pretty disappointed with this grow. As you've seen, both the Grape Diamonds and Bubba Kush were hit with a pretty bad potassium deficiency right before flower and it definitely effected the quality and yield of the buds. I got 1.5oz on both cultivars, which is less than half of what I normally pull with this tent and light.
That being said, the quality of the Grape Diamonds is still pretty good. As you can see the top buds are of medium size and very frosty. Moving the bud around in the light you can see the sparkle of the trichomes and the smell is out of this world. The Grape Diamonds is very terpy and the aroma is top tier with it being similar to a strong, artificial grape smell.
Out of the two plants, the Grape definitely performed and bounced back the best. Despite the Grape showing signs of deficiency first, she was pretty vigorous and bounced back pretty well. I stressed the fuck out of this plant and abused her and she still rewarded me with decent buds. If I enjoy the effect of the Grape Diamonds I will definitely be growing her again with the intent to grow her to her full potential. While I don't want to rate this cultivar (as I achieved a subpar harvest via user error) I will say that Ethos is legit and has some fire genetics. She may be a keeper.
The buds are more dense than fluff and range from small to medium size. Bud to leaf ratio was solid and trimming her wasn't too bad. Jarred the buds with 1.5oz on the scale.
What could I have done better this grow?
1. Feed dry amendments earlier (in this case, 2 weeks earlier).
2. Give her more soil via bigger pot (7 gallon to 10 gallon).
3. Use better dry amendments (moving on from Down to Earth to BuildaSoil Craft Blend.)
That's about it. I'm glad this grow is over. 17 weeks for a measly 1.5 ounce of usable bud is pathetic. I would have been better off vegging for half the time and would have probably gotten a better result. That being said, you live and you learn. I will adjust and get better for future organic only grows. :D
Gold1
