Clementine

I grow using topfed DWC in a 10 gallon tub and a LED light (rated 450w, actual ~210w draw on flower setting, ~150 on veg). I have two air stones. I tend to have 6 gallons of water in my reservoir. Up until recently, I also tended to grow one plant at a time from seed in my smallish tent in a closet. I don't have a distinct seedling, veg and bloom space but I've been experimenting with my last couple grows on how to have two plants going at the same time. See my Dinafem Purple Moby Dick grow that I had as a seedling in the same tent as my Dutch Passion Think Different Autoflower was finishing. I could do this because I kept their reservoirs distinct using a little bucket for the seedling inside the main reservoir, the Think Different was on a 20 hour light cycle because it was an Auto which worked for a seedling photoperiod plant, and I used heavy glass to protect the seedling from the LED light while it was really little. So it took some doing, but I had a 2 plants going at once. For this grow, I'm wrapping up the Dinafem Purple Moby Dick on 12-12 so I couldn't have a seedling in there if I wanted a real veg period, which I do. My solution was take one of my two air stones and run it outside my grow tent and leave the other in the main reservoir. I put that air stone in a two gallon bucket with a lid that I got at Home Depot for less than $5. I am referring this as my seedling rig. The two gallon bucket was big enough for a top feeding pump as well. I am using a weak fluorescent light for the first few weeks until the main tent and LED light are available. It is still topfed DWC, but it should only be used for the first couple weeks of a seedling's life as I don't have airflow and the florescent light is not powerful enough for a real plant. I used the paper towel method to start the seed. She started to crack after 24 hours and I put her in the medium at 48 hours. No issues with germination. I didn't put the weak fluorescent light close enough to the seedling so I am dealing with some stretch right now. My bad. I am not used to weak lights. Otherwise though, she is a week old and already has a root in the reservoir and others on the way. The picture above is not great but you can see the little white roots heading down.. I am not sure but I don't think my few other plants have ever had a root in the reservoir that fast. I just need to protect her and keep her from stretching and I think she'll be beastly when I get her under some real lights. I am super excited to try these genes!

At 11 days from seed, she is doing well under the big light and continues to create new leaves and new root mass in the reservoir. The part of the leaves resting against the florescent bulb looks to be damaged and will likely die. She is otherwise growing vigorously though so I consider this a minor setback. Still a little on the lanky side but holding herself up and not stretching anymore. I would consider her stabilized and a viable plant that I am probably going to harvest assuming no natural disasters and sustained loss of power. Yay! At 14 days from seed, her growth is starting to accelerate. The burnt leaf doesn't even matter anymore. I'm upping the nutrients slowly. In another week, I'll do my first reservoir change.

At 21 days from seed, she was growing vigorously and looked healthy enough for the stress of starting the manifolding technique. I have screwed it up in the past so I am trying to stick to the playbook and do it right. She looked really healthy and was growing fast right before I chopped everything off down to the third node other than one set of fan leaves and one set of growth tips.

At 28 days from seed, and 7 days after I chopped everything but a growth tip and fan leaf on each side. I chopped the old fan leaves on each side a couple days ago, I started tying both sides down and at this point a couple days ago as well. At this point, I am just keeping her tied down and waiting for each branch to develop. I don't know yet how much extra time manifolding is adding to my veg time but I'll document it when I figure that out. I would typically have a 5 week veg. As I'm already at 4, I estimate that I am going to add at least 1 and maybe as much as 3 weeks of veg time due to the manifolding process.

Not much to report. Still waiting for everything to develop enough to top again. She has been looking pretty perky for the last week or so. Not sure why she doesn't look that great in these photos.

At 37 days from seed, I topped each of the two main branches back to the 3rd node. The directions for manifolding on growweedeasy,com said to wait until there were 4 nodes on each side and then top down to the 3rd one and prune away the growth at the second node entirely. Only the first and third should remain when you're done. What I didn't realize when I read those directions the first time is that the growth tips at the first and third nodes grow on either side of the branch (like you'd want for a flat canopy) and the growth tips at the second and fourth grow on the top and bottom of the branch. So removing the growth when at the nodes where half the plant is going down makes sense. At 39 days I also switched up to the 10 gallon reservoir. The first 5 weeks of her life were in a little 2 gallon reservoir. I probably should have done that sooner. The length of her root mass is different than I'm used to in my grows that are done entirely in the 10 gallon reservoir. I can only assume she wasn't getting something she needed in the little two gallon bucket. This is the only plant I have going right now so laziness was the only thing that kept her in the little reservoir. At 42 days from seed, the manifold is pretty well establish with 8 growth tips at basically the same height. I'm going to give her one more week to get a little bigger and then switch her 12-12. That will make for a 7 week veg though. If I would have vegged for 7 weeks without all the topping, I would have a much bigger plant right now. We'll see how the manifolding technique impacts the flowering stage and yields. Environment has been good lately because there haven't been too many hot days and I'm not running my light during the hottest part of the day. I'm excited for the stretch!

At day 43, I exfoliated everything from the center of the plant other than the growth tips. It looks like a crown of tops. Now I'm seeing if I can get some of the growth tips on the branches of the 8 colas to stretch too for more colas. Right now, they are closer to the center of the plant but just a little lower than the 8 main colas. Also, I read last night on Leafly that this plant is stretchy. I'm thrilled to read this as I think manifolding works best with tall, stretchy strains. At day 46, (6.5 weeks) I changed the nutrients to transition and the lights to 12-12. I hadn't understood quite how stretchy this strain is until I looked up some strain reviews. She's supposed to stretch 250%-300+%. She is already ~8" tall so I don't want to veg her too long and run out of room in the tent. At day 49 this will be the last update for veg. She is just starting to stretch. I took all tie downs off. She looks happy to me. Lots of new, explosive growth. Her root mass is still funny looking. It is filling out close to the base of the plant but still has a long roots. Otherwise, not much to report.

At day 56 from seed, 10 days since the switch to 12-12 the stretch is on!! I didn't realize how stretchy this strain was when I decided to try manifolding. Manifolidng is supposed to work best with tall, stretchy strains so I just got lucky that I happened to try it with an appropriate strain. She is just starting to smell a little. Her tops are all around the same height. I defoliated from the center of the plant and any leaves that block a growth tip. I also did a light version of lolly popping so she doesn't waste a bunch of energy growing stuff that will ultimately be blocked out by the top of the plant. I'm digging manifolding. I'm excited to see what her final shape will be but so far, her tops are at a similar height and I'm hoping she stretches into a great shape that doesn't need much support through flower.

At day 63 from seed, 17 days since the switch to 12-12, I'm seeing the very beginning of buds. The canopy height looks like it'll be a pretty even height as long as everything stops stretching soon or keeps growing at the same pace. I'm also hoping it doesn't need much support later in flower. I've continued to defoliate the bottom of the plant and to prevent big fan leaves from blocking flowering sites. Otherwise, not much to report. I'm really happy with the rigor and shape of this plant so far.

At day 70 from seed, 24 days since the switch to 12-12, she has stretched tremendously. I'm glad I switched her to flower when I did and didn't veg her another week. I'm hopeful that she is close to done stretching as I can only increase the height of my light another 4"-6". I've continued to defoliate. I'll stop soon as she will likely stop making new leaves in a week or two. I took another pass at lollipopping her and was more thorough this time. I'm glad I manifolded her. Of the 8 colas that she had at the beginning of flower, they've all grown and stretched 10"-12". This is ideal as even though she is stretchy, her colas are all at basically the same height. We'll see how much support she needs later in flower, but right now this whole manifolding / main-lining technique is sweet! The unknowns right now are yield and if she'll need support later in flower. Genes will definitely impact both but I'm hoping for a bountiful harvest and no tying or bracing needed.

At day 77 from seed, 31 days since the switch to 12-12, I hope she is done stretching because my light is as high as I can make it and as close as I want the plant. This girl is one stretchy beast. She is starting to smell a little more but still not strongly. I'm excited to watch her fill out. I will do very little defoliation from here on. She looks happy to me so far even though it looks like she has filled my tent out.

At day 84 from seed, 38 days since the switch to 12-12, she is a little closer to my light than I want. She looks happy to me though so I hope I get away with it. She is just entering that part of her life cycle where she is developing and putting on weight. Not much to do much wait and see if she ends up too close to my light and if she'll need support later in flower.

At day 88 from seed, 42 days since the switch to 12-12, most of the tops of her 8 main colas were already 15"-17" from the light. I have experienced foxtailing before from plants being too close to my light. I know people will suggest that I do anything buy cut the tops off my plant but it just wasn't worth it. The benefit of manifolding is that you end up with long colas. If a cola is only 16" instead of 20", who cares? So I'm not thrilled I needed to chop the tops to avoid foxtailing but chopping is preferred to airy buds that don't ripen properly. As part of topping a plant half way through flowering, I also defoliated again to have tops without too many fan leaves. At day 91 from seed, 45 days since the switch to 12-12, she is looking good to me. I'm glad I cut her tops off even though I felt horrible doing it. She is now 18"-20" from the light which is better than before. It is also better for the fan height to keep air moving without it blowing too hard right on a cola. Nothing to do now but wait.

At day 98 from seed, 52 days since the switch to 12-12, she is looking fine to me. Based on a 10 week flowering period, assuming it starts from when I switched her to 12-12, she is 18 days from harvest. If you assume the 10 weeks started when I observed the first flowers, she is 35 days from harvest. I'm guessing the actual harvest is somewhere in the middle. I'm guessing she'll be ready in more than 3 but less than 5 weeks from now. Time will tell. I'll mainly be using trichomes to tell when she's ready. For now, she's not even close.

At day 105 from seed, 59 days since the switch to 12-12, she is looking fine to me. I estimate that she'll be ready in 21 days from now but we'll see. She smells great, like sweet citrus and skunk, but not strongly. Not much to report.

At day 107 from seed, 61 days since the switch to 12-12, she kind of half way fell over. It was more of lean than a fall. Her net pot isn't fastened down at all and I think she is getting a little top heavy and not in a perfectly symmetrical way. I tied her stalk to my reservoir to prevent that from happening in the future. I caught it quick so I don't think she suffered much. She seems to be ripening up pretty quickly to me. I don't know when she'll be done but I think it'll be before the 13 weeks like I was guessing in my previous post. I am still guessing 12 though. If she is done between 12 and 13 weeks after the switch to 12-12, then that will be 10 weeks from observing the first flowers. I'm not complaining as she has been a great plant but no one should expect her to be an 8 week indica. At day 112 from seed, 66 days since the switch to 12-12, I think I was wrong to doubt the breeder. I am seeing an occasional amber trichome and I'm thinking she'll be done in less than 80 days total or maybe a week from now. I am also regretting not using a net or something to hold up the colas a little better. Some of them are leaning on each other and that isn't great for light penetration and air movement. Manifolding was a good strategy but she is so stretchy and has a fairly heavy harvest so she needed some support.

At day 119 from seed, 73 days since the switch to 12-12, I think I was wrong to doubt the breeder and think this plant was going to go 13 weeks. She is filling out and looking frostier by the day. I think she'll be done at around 80 days of flower, so a week from now. I am regretting not using a net or something to hold up the colas a little better. I'm going to piece something together later this week even though its late in flower. Some of her colas are leaning on each other and that isn't great for light penetration and air movement. Overall though, the last couple weeks have been gratifying as she has developed well. I'm excited for the harvest!

At day 126 from seed, 80 days since the switch to 12-12, I think she is done! This is my last update before I harvest. I started the flush last night (Wednesday) and I plan to actually chop her on Saturday. When I harvest her Saturday, that will be just shy of 12 weeks (83 days) since the switch to 12-12 and just over 9 weeks (65 days) since the first flowers were observed. Her trichomes look mostly white to me but there is some isolated amber and some even look clear to me. I like the psychoactive and euphoric stone so I don't want to wait too long and end up going to sleep when I smoke. I created a jenky grid out of bungees and gardening wire that is surprisingly effective. I wish I would have used the grid for support earlier on this grow and on some of previous grows too. I'll update after the harvest and then do a smoke report a week or so after that.

Harvest went well. I'm unhappy I had to chop the top of her colas off to keep her from out growing my space early in flowering. Otherwise though, I thought I harvested at the right time and got good yields of sticky, pretty buds.