Imperium X - Purple Thumb

Had some germination issues. I had two 3 packs from different suppliers and nothing in one of the three pack took off. Looks like I’ll have 2 IX seedlings take root.

After a couple of failed germinations - finally have one a couple weeks into growth and another just breaking ground. Imperium X THC: 36% Yield Indoor : 500 gr/m2 Height Indoor: 120-140 cm Flowering time: 9-10 weeks Genetic Background: (City of God x The White Angel) x Future #1 Type: 60% Sativa, 40% Indica Flavor: Pineapple, Sandal

Finally got another seedling to start and its sprung up pretty well. Its a couple weeks behind the first but at least now I have the second plant going as I wanted two for a large 5x5 scrog. Info from Anesia Seeds: IMPERIUM X®️ Imperium X is one of the strongest strains in the world, combining outstanding traits like no other cannabis strain before. She is based on three extremely THC-rich cannabis strains: the rare City of God, The White Angel and our overwhelmingly potent Future #1. The 3-way cross has resulted in a strain that exceeds all expectations and pushes the boundaries of what is possible. Imperium X can reach THC levels of 36% and more in the upper range, and her powerful, deep and far-reaching effects cannot be explained by the cannabinoid THC alone. We assume that the strain also has a relatively high THCP value. It makes you fly higher than any other strain and is a whole universe of positive, euphoric, stimulating, sensory-expanding and narcotic effects that rolls over your mind and body like a massive energy-filled roller. The effects last endlessly, are out of this world and include, both intense relaxing components and euphoric effects that send you into a real frenzy of creativity and give you a powerful energy boost. Users with a high tolerance will find it an exceptionally intense experience, and inexperienced users can quickly and easily underestimate it with only a small dosage. Once it is dosed a little too high (and this happens very easily), it can easily tie you to the couch for hours and beam you away completely. The strain is the epitome and the ultimate in cannabis effects. So complexly versatile and intense that we could write pages and pages about it, but some things can’t be described, they can only be felt.

Both IX plants are looking good, one of which is getting ready to be trimmed and trained. The other is a couple weeks behind but should get close enough before getting to 12/12.

The more mature plant received some training this week. topped and cleaned out, now waiting for each of the 4 stems to get to 3 nodes each and then will top each of those.

Added natural nutrients this week and every moving forward. Both plants are doing well, topping each offshoot so I can try to get 16 colas for each plant. Started CO2 as well keeping it between 800 - 1000 PPM.

Nicely growing along. Working toward 16 colas on the more established plant. The small was topped and then this weekend started to train its 4 off shoots. Decided to trim after the second node as the others seems to stretch further than I would have liked, however the older IX plant is really not stretchy at all - so well see how it turns out. The smaller one needs alternative training in order to move the second node from an up/down growth to a side to side. Lots of training - noticing that the ground cover is a bit too aggressive and getting in the way of light distribution so having to trim that back quite a bit. Also its making it hard for the training ties to stay in the ground. Weekly nutes continue with same mix above.

So moving forward, I will label as Plant #1 and Plant #2. Plant #2 is about 3 weeks behind plant #1 for various reasons but trying to get it a bit further along so I can move to 12/12. Plant #1 is SUPER compact and it is interesting to try to train it as I seem to have tiedowns over each other because if this. #2 is more lanky and I guess more normally what I'd see at this stage. It will be interesting to see how they compare once they are in flowering stage. Both smell great. #1 has some purplish tint to it - so I am super excited in hopes that she will be a colorful flower.

Plant 1 - doing great with regular defoliation. I'm continuing to train and lollipop and she continues to move along well. Still super compact and strong. Plant 2 - final topping to get the ends to split so I have 16 cola shoots. Probably another week for those to mature and then will turn to 12/12.

Weekly nutes now includes preflower additives and will add a top layer next week. Plant #1 - The older plant is super compact and not flexible - so scrogging will be very interesting. Looks very healthy though. Plant #2 - Still playing catch up but getting there. She is coming along well.

Laid out the Srog nets with intention to change the light setting next week. Added pre-flower nutes as well as a 1" top dress - with some added nutrient mix. Thoroughly watered and ready to start training. Plant #1 - Super thick/compact, and SCROG will be a bitch. Plant #2 - More lanky but 3 weeks behind its sister. Going to go to flower as it does have my 16 bud sites.

Finally! Starting flower this week. After settling the SCROG net and getting some initial cola grow shoots tied down, I have moved to a 16/8 light schedule which I only plan to do for a few days, then I will move it to a full 12/12. Figured that this would be good to ease it in. This weekend I plan to get the UVB bulbs in place to start scheduling intermittent rays. Also, need to refill the CO2 as I ran out quite fast - thinking the used Titan's Photocell isn't working and is why I got such a good deal on it. So will likely have to manually turn off between waterings. Increased LED output to 60% on both and will monitor to go higher as the grow continue towards flowering. Plant #1 - training where is can. Might have to use HST to get it where I want to, but maybe when she really starts to stretch I will have an easier time to get it where I want it. Plant #2 - Feels like she it way behind but I know with the light change she will catch up nicely.

Busy week: Over the weekend, I rigged up my UVBs lights and have then set up on a timer to run 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours prior to sleep. My plan is to run this schedule through flower – if I see any yellow tips, then I will start backing off by 15min on each side. The UVBs are sitting about 20 – 24in away from the canopy. I have read that others have gotten them closer but I wanted to be careful with possibly burning the plants. Its been a week since starting the 16/8 light schedule and today I have moved it to 12/12 – so I expect to see these beauties start to stretch over the next couple weeks. Still training under the netting and have cleared the underside fairly well. I added a new top layer mix and have added nutrient tea in between my usual weekly nute feeding. Plant #1 - I knew it, this sucker is super stiff and trying to train one of the colas into the netting turned out to be a serious break. I reattached and taped but I think she is a goner. Luckily I have 15 other bud sites. She just will continue to be a challenge to train. Plant #2 - Looking very good just hasn't popped up as high as I would have thought by now. Maybe with the change to 12/12 it will make more progress.

The last weekend, I added a new top layer with some great nutes embedded in order to prep them for flower. Just a week in on 12/12 and I can see over the last day or so that they are really starting to stretch. My plan is to continue to train under the SCROG over the next two weeks and then let them up and pop. Also - started using compost tea in my daily watering in between weekly natural nutrient add. Plant #1 – Successfully repaired the broken cola from last week but it definitely has slowed the growth down considerably. Unfortunately broke another cola trying to train it under the mesh – taped and tied it back and after a day it seems to be okay. This sucker does not want to be trained at ALL. Plant #2 – Getting closer to the mesh to train and seems to be very unlike its sister – she is much easier to train. Both got somewhat of a defoliate/haircut to maximize light penetration.

Starting to get some nice frosty flowers. The cycling UVB has really made the terps start early. Regular tea and water regimen and weekly nutes. I plan to add another layer of topsoil with nutes next week. Humidity control has been a slight issue. After watering I am typically hitting 80 - 85 rH - so will need to watch this. I could open the grow room door to reduce the rH but then I lose the CO2 buildup. Will stay the course for now. Plant #1 - Purple baby! This one has started to show some purple on the new inner leaves next to the new flowering sites. I am super stoked that one of the IX plants turned out to be a purple pheno. Just wish both did. Plant #2 - Flowering well considering it was behind all of the others. It doesn't have the purple pheno like its sister. Maybe it will still turn but not looking like it for now.

Added a top layer of soil with added nutes so that only needed to water normally and let the top mix do the work down below. Will mix in more compost tea every other day and towards the end of the week, hit it with my normal organic nutes mix. The plant is looking healthy and continues to flower out and each cola is starting to thicken nicely. I have a few leaves here and there showing some discoloration so will watch closely to ensure I don’t have a light or nute issue. Will move the light intensity to 80% on the LED panels after this next week and as long as the leaves still look good. The grow room is fairly warm (80F) and rH is high (75 – 80rH) but my CO2 levels are fairly high as well so the plants should be fine. Running 2 x HO Solarcure UVBs for 2 hours about an hour after the LED lights turn on at the beginning of the 12 hour set and for 2 hours about an hour before the LEDs turn off at the end of the set. Plant #1 – Really starting to get colorful, very purple and frosty. Sorry for all of the bud shots but can’t help it! Super excited to see how she starts to fill out.

Mid week check in with grow issue (mostly on the Future #1 and Future Island - other strains in my grow room). Will post for feedback. Held of on any nutes this week as I try to get my grow issue under control. Looks like either calcium or potassium or both. I initially bought some lime and added that to some well water instead of the RO water I had been using. I also fully flushed out all of them in order to ensure that I didn't have any lingering issues. A little unsure how it got to this point as I have used RO in past grows. My RO is barely 6.0 ph and the well is well over 7...closer to 7.5. I had not changed my diary's ph since veg since I think I had mixed up the reading between the RO and well water. Either way, I plan to feed them all well water and balance the ph to 6.5. Except for some of the leaves showing some stress, the bud development is looking very nice. I plan to ease back into a more reserved nute blend later this week. Trying to get the humidity under control but with the excess heat the humidifier gives off it has been a bit of a struggle. Going to set up the unit on a timer so it dehumidifies at night where there is less heat in the room. Plant #1 - Continued fattening of the bud locations as well as more turpentine development. Looking good. Plant #2 - no more stretching, bud development is coming along just lagging behind a bit.

Plant has been getting straight pH balanced water this last week and minimal nutes. It is showing some slight nute burn so I let off a bit and raised the light canopy about 6”. I discovered that what I thought was a calcium or potassium deficiency was actually a rookie grower error by me. I have an RO system that I use to water all my strains in the grow room including this one, but when adding nutes to the water, it takes too long so I had been filling them up with well water. When I had originally tested the well water, I must had used a faulty testing agent as after testing it this last week, I was showing a pH of 7.5 vs. my RO of 6.2. Thus, every time I was adding nutes (multiple times a week) I was significantly fluctuating the pH between regular feedings and nutrient additions. To make matters worse, when I originally thought it was nute burn, I flushed each plant with well water and likely caused additional stress. Anyway, I have since learned that the well water needs to be treated, I only utilize RO water the last few days and plan to do so over this next week. Also, I have turned off the CO2 system as I was starting to see signs of heat stress on a couple of the strains (Plant #1). The literature I have reviewed suggested that these strains might be able to handle heat closer to 90F but it was also causing issues with high humidity so when I added a dehumidifier, it pushed the day temp to between 90-92F and the overnight temps were not getting low enough (maybe 85F or so). Maybe I could leave out the dehumidifier, but I was getting rH of 70% and didn’t want to risk any bud rot or mildew growth. So for now, I have turned off the CO2 and am getting high temps of 81F with 60% humidity and overnight temps of 74F and 50% humidity. Plant #1 had some heat related curling of leaves as well as some of the lower leaves showing impact of the pH fluctuations. My hope is we will be steady until harvest. Plant #2 has shown the least signs of stress and is fattening up its buds very nicely. Late in the week, some of the leaves started turning brown from the pH issue but my hope is that with RO water only, we will be on the right track. Over the next few weeks I will start monitoring the trichomes for a nice milky color for harvesting.

5/14 - Coming along well. No noticeable changes to the leaves that seemed impacted by the heat. Still working through the pH damage but seem to have a good line on it and doesn't seem to be continuing to affect the buds. The strain with the purple buds (Plant #1) still continues to fatten up and is only keeping the purple color within the bud and not much on the leaves. The other is really getting some fat buds - much fatter than the purple strain. Noticing some slight foxtail on the bud closest to the light, so I might raise the light and dial back the intensity some if need be.

5/21/23- Seemed to show a bit of light stress so I back off the intensity and raised up the main LED by about 6in. Also turned off the UVBs for a few days. My plan is to modify the schedule so that the UVBs come on for an hour in the morning and evening. Limited nutes. With three strains in my grow room, I am trying to time out the harvest with inspecting the terps regularly. So far this Plant #1 is a mix between clear, white (40/60) and Plant #2 is mostly white (80%). I am trying to be careful that I harvest at the most opportune time for each. This weekend will be 9 weeks and likely time for harvest. Also, this coming week will be at a 11/13 (day/night) schedule. Plant #1 - Buds are fattening up but am noticing some small fox tail on the tallest bud (closest to the light) and is why I moved the light this week. Still going strong. Plant #2 - Buds are really fat, much fatter than #1. Other than the initial pH struggle, her buds look outstanding.

Final week report: Buds look ready for harvest and terps are showing a good mix of colors. Mostly white on both with the purple starting to show some amber. Only watered this week (heavily watering to flush a bit), no nutes and backoff the lighting schedule (UVBs) as well as added a small amount of distance between the light and the plant. My thought was there was some additional strain with the CO2 being turned off and the light level remaining the same.

Two phenotypes - one purple and one white/green. The purple was very difficult to train and resulted in a couple inadvertent breaks - luckily it was repairable. The other trained very well, very flexible and worked very good for SCROG. Both produced heavily and are beautiful. The purple tends to be much more fluffy, with very long pistil hairs - the longest of any grow I have done. The white was super dense, very crystally and sticky. It will be very interesting to see how they smoke. Also, the purple tended to do very well with some nute mistakes I made as well as fluctuating pH in my water feeding. The white did not do as well in this regard but was able to get to harvest fine. Wet bud weight is prior to trimming. The buds off of these plants were HUGE!!!! Plant #1: (Purple): Wet weight - 76.58oz prior to trim; 15 colas; Terps: White - 60%, Clear - 20%, Amber - 20% Plant #2: (White): Wet weight - 71.65oz prior to trim; 16 colas; Terps: White - 70%, Clear - 30%, After 3 days of drying, took them down to trim for my jars. After a few hours filled mostly quart jars 3/4 full but also tried an Infinity jar and a gallon mason jar to minimize the number of smaller jars. Dry weights into jars: Plant #1: 14.79 oz Plant #2: 11.76oz I did pull them after a day to dry rack them for 12 hours due to a little bit higher moisture content then I would have liked ( 70%rH). Re-jarred on 6/1/23 and now holding steady at around 60% rH. Cure Check In (Week 2): 6/10 - 6/12/23: rH ~ 63 - 66%. Daily air exposure & fanning. Very smelly. Looking good - another couple weeks and will be ready.