Mutant GSC

Day 1: She poked through the dirt today. Day 6: I didn't have room to move her closer to the light for a few days, so she is a bit tall and under-developed, but I corrected this today, raising her to be about 1 inch from the LED. Day 7: She's slightly taller and more developed, so I raised the lamp 1 chain link, which is about 1/2".

Day 8: Fed tap water without nutes today. Day 9: She looks like she's doing great close to the tube LED. I will be starting her on a simple nutrition today, after having only supplied her with tap water so far. Day 10: I fed her tap water again today. I'm not ready to start feeding her yet. I decided I am going to attempt to veg her out as long as I can under low-wattage tube LED lamps. I have a few more of them to hang at differing heights as needed, and will be an interesting experiment while my tent is busy flowering another grow.. Day 12: Looks good. I uploaded some photos for today. I also decided today that I am not going to provide her any additional nutes other than what can be obtained by the soil mixture, until signs of deficiency are observed. This is so that I can gauge this soil mixture that I never used before for future grows. She got water today. Day 14: No maintenance today, but uploaded a couple photos for today.

Day 15: She was transplanted from a 0.125 gallon plastic cup to a 0.7 gallon planter. Day 16: She got tap water today. After watering, I accidentally knocked her off of my shelf and onto the floor! It's a very good thing she just got watered and the soil was saturated, else the loose soil and her roots would have went everywhere. Luckily, only a small clump from the corner came out, and her main stem got a little bruised, but she'll survive. Photos for today were taken 6 hours after watering. I added supplementary lighting in the form of another 3ft LED light, this one 32W 4000K. PPFD readings look good for the current DLI threshold. This should come in handy later to promote the growth below the main canopy. If I can, might eventually add a third light. Day 17: She's enjoying the extra sunshine today. Day 19: She has outgrown her temporary 0.7gal pot already, as I see a glimpse of white that found its way to a drainage hole. Unfortunately, it will have to wait until tomorrow. I was hoping this pot would hold me until the weekend when I can get out to buy some larger pots, as my others are in use. She got tap water today. Day 20: I transplanted her to a 4-gallon pot. I don't intend on letting her get any bigger than this, so this is her final home. She got tap water today.

Day 22: After a lot of thinking, I decided that I am going to pull this plant out of the experiment. This is a photoperiod that is honestly doing the best I have ever seen a plant grow under my low-wattage tube lamp. I want to slowly introduce her to my tent's higher intensity light, and giving her nutrients needed to utilize it. Sorry folks, but this is no longer a low-wattage, no nutes grow, but check out my diary #3 if you're into low-wattage grows. This plant is just incredible. It's working on it's 6th internode and it's 4 inches tall, about half of its width. I'd like to see how well I can make it flourish in the tent with better light and more room for height than on my germination shelf (where I've been veging things temporarily while I wait for new lights to get shipped). I'm also curious to see if I will need to top it. As of now, she sits in the tent under a 100W LED. I'll upload some pictures with the next update. Day 23: She's loving her new home with her new friends (see pictures). Her leaves are really tilting towards that new source of light, giving her an additional 2 inches since measuring yesterday, putting her up to 6". And it's too late now, but I am such a dummy. Her new home...well that tent is on 12/12. She is officially in "flower when she's ready mode", and her growth should slow down a bit due to the light schedule change. I really don't mind that at all, as I wasn't planning on letting her outgrow this 4-gallon pot anyway. She should still continue to veg for a while, if she's anything like the last two strains I made this mistake on. It did help make the size manageable without needing LST though, so maybe I'll get lucky again, as I'm dealing with a small light.

Day 28: Ok so first of all, sorry for the lack of updates. I've been quite busy with other work lately. She is doing well in her new home, with slower growth as expected due to her light schedule flipping a little early. Today I woke up to a rather amusing surprise: she is self-replicating herself! The root system is producing new seedling growth (see image close-up). Just because this was a freebie seed, I'm going to let the little ones grow just to see what happens. I find it more amusing than anything that it decided to start cloning itself. Besides, just saying "root defoliation" sounds funny, so not going to do it :) Edit: After further research, this root sprouting of new seedlings is not that rare, but what is rare is that when it happens, they aren't supposed to have cotyledon leaves. The fact that this just got transplanted with new soil a few days ago has me suspicious though. I didn't plant any other seeds in quite a long time, so unless some came in this FoxFarm soil that I just opened when I transplanted, or I somehow knocked some seeds into it that I never even knew I had, I am assuming these are sprouting from the root system. The only way to know for sure, is to try to dig one of them up to see where it's coming from, but that's too risky. Instead, I decided I'm going to let them grow for a week or two. I will know by then at the very most if these are the same genetics. This plant has extremely indica growth patterns, and shows wide leaves very early, when all of my previous grows have been very sativa-like in appearance and growth characteristics. Day 29: I couldn't wait. The mystery was too much suspense for me lol. I tried digging them up carefully. In the process I found about a dozen more than haven't broken through the surface yet, that i just yanked out. The 6 or so that are growing, well, they are very long. The roots of the big plant did not yet escape their previous pot size, and these seedlings seem to be growing frow very deep and curved underneath the old pot's blob of soil (see image). It's hard to tell exactly what happened here. It's very strange that every one of about 20 seedlings sprouted from the same place. Regardless, I ripped them all out. Problem solved lol. Day 30: Unfortunately, I somehow slept 16 hours myself today, straight through her lights on period. This means she did not get her scheduled feeding today, and I didn't get to check on her at all. It'll have to wait for tomorrow's update. Day 31: Ok, well what the heck? Those little seedlings are back with even more than before...even though I ripped up 6 and another dozen yellow ones that never made it to the surface just 2 days ago. The ones I ripped up all converged to a single point at the bottom of the root ball of the main plant. Their stems were over 8 inches long. I ripped up everything in that location. Today they are back in the SAME place ABOVE the surface, with even more than before. How is this possible? This is absolutely bonkers. Help? Ok, I'll let a couple of them grow for a week just to see if they look anything like the "mother". Thank you everyone for the likes! I reached 1000 today. I guess my diaries aren't as horrible as I thought? I'm not very good at writing... Day 32: Looking at her this morning, she is definitely a lot taller since moving into her new home. I'll have to take some measurements in a little while during her upkeep. Day 33: She is doing great. She needed a good feeding today and that she got. Her little seedling friends are still alive. I am going to let the strongest one or two survive to see if the genetics are anything like the "mother". I moved a small autoflowering plant next to her/on top of her pot to give her some more company. This smaller plant is from my diary #3, where it was not doing so well with the lighting it had, and this was the only option I had to try saving her. She measures 12 inches tall today. I measured her just 2 days ago and she was 9 inches, and 2 days before that she was 8.5. She had the biggest growth spurt in her life these past two days. I'll take it! Day 34: It's official. They got the "girl" part right at the very least. I don't have high hopes for this being anything like GSC in appearance or taste from what I have seen so far, but girl she is. We have some really long pistils starting to take hold in key locations. Images coming soon.

Day 38: She grew 7 inches in 7 days, under indirect light with a cheap 100W, and started showing pistils yesterday. There's a couple images posted. Day 39: She's putting on quite the stretch. 2 more days and 3 more inches -- up to 16.

Day 44: Today is a special day. The tent she is growing in got a couple upgrades. 1) She is now much happier under a brand new Mars Hydro FC-3000 fixture. 2) The tent now has a 21 inch (lol) house fan mounted for air circulation. I uploaded an image of the new setup. Day 45: She measures 21.5in today. I think she's about done with her stretch and buds are now beginning to take form. Day 47: Her top cola is starting to form. Day 48: I want to derail for a minute and talk about some things I did differently with this grow. This is the first plant I have tried two very different things than what I am used to. 1) This is the first plant I ever grew in any potting soil (FF HF). My other grows have been grown hydroponically in coco coir. 2) This is the first plant I didn't perform any training or alter her structure in any way, including not defoliating or pruning anything, tying down, etc. Let's talk about #1 first. In the last 3 months, I have grown approximately 40 plants in soil, across 6 strains, with this one being the first. It is the only one strain and plant that has done well with the combination of soil and feed program I provide her. Every other one experience severe stunted growth, and general unhappy-looking, although they do grow without any concerns apart from slower (which is a concern for the autoflowers of those). This plant was the opposite. It started off very slow, and began to explode when I introduced it to my feed program. As for #2... I decided this freebie seed would be a good chance to just let something grow untrained indoor to see what happens, and hope it's a short indica mystery seed. Well, it did indeed turn out to be very indica-dominant, so that's a plus, and it's height is very manageable, possibly even most of the way through it's bloom stretch already at a pretty short height, but, it looks like this is going to have a lot of dense bud sites. That leads me to the decision I am now making, which is, that I may, and probably will, do some defoliating soon. I want her to focus her energy on bud site production right now without any additional stress, but when it starts to fill out and I get an idea of what her final figure will look like, I am going to defoliate, and possibly even prune some lower branches with foliage and flowers not worth wasting the energy on. The internodes on this plant were always incredibly short for the first 6 or 7.. There's just so much going on in this little plant to make sure I keep an eye on, and I need to defoliate for that anyway. I am thinking I will give her some nice airflow with a hair cut in a few days. I'm not ready yet, but close. And for a bonus if you made it this far: Remember those little mutant seedlings that were spontaneously appearing that I just stopped talking about? Well, nothing changed...they still come, maybe less frequently, about 1-2 per day, but I pinch them off every time they do pop up. Except for the last 2. Instead of pinching the stem off, I tried something: I simply lifted the stem vertically slowly out of the soil. I was expecting the root, or a part of it to snap eventually, but surprisingly, the entire thing came out. The taproot is long...close to a foot. It comes to a fine filament at the end, with a few small root hairs branching out if you look close. I could not find a single breakage point, even for those tiny root hairs. So I tried it with the other one, same thing, and we have 2 clones, transplanted by just yanking them out of the substrate completely, and into my veg box under 2x100W. They have been growing for 3 days now, slowly. They haven't died though. A few things to note from all of this in case you were left scratching your head like me: 1) How were these seedlings able to be pulled out of the soil so easily without any damage? 2) Why weren't these seedlings' roots attached to the mother plant? 3) Why do these seedlings look exactly like the mother plant did at their age, and they were not even attached to her, and so willingly released themselves from the soil when I just yanked their stem upwards (in wet soil)? This diary is turning more and more into my questions about life, the universe, and everything. Have fun 😂

Day 52: She's 2 feet tall today :) Her buds are really working now. She will get a big defoliation in a day or two. Day 54: She got a major defoliation today. Day 56: Finally got around to taking a picture of her pruned.

Day 57: She's 25 inches tall today. Day 58: Looking perfect and starting to get some frost. Day 60: Up to 26 inches.

Day 64: She experienced some calcium deficiency the last few days that got bad before I noticed. I think it's under control now, and I don't think she'll mind much, but I'll keep a close eye on the condition. Day 65: Today when I opened the tent I got a big whiff of fruit. Sure enough, her main cola smells like hardcore strawberry. Ok, sure, I'll take it for a freebie seed. Today, I also did a very light defoliation of about 5 upper leaves in the way. I uploaded some sticky strawberry-smelling trichomes! Day 66: Today, I have another profile shot, and a very shaky handheld video this time. Whatevs. Day 70: It's been a pretty boring week waiting for her to mature, so here to just upload some photos. Her trichomes are all clear still.

Day 73: Sorry. I've really been slacking lately. I haven't had a chance to make an update or share any pictures in a few days, but a lot has changed. Sometime last week, I made a really dumb mistake. During some organizing, I plugged the lights for my two grow spaces back in. It wasn't until 3 days later that I realized that I plugged my photo bloom light into my autoflower timer, and my autoflower light into my photo bloom timer. Her neighbors, 3 custom strain plants of mine that were just starting to bloom after a long 14 week veg, hermaphrodited almost immediately, and there was no stopping them. They kept coming back and it was pretty bad in the flower. Out of the 3 plants in the autoflower tent, one wasn't actually an autoflower, but a clone that was growing for 3 weeks. It also hermaphodited very badly. The four hermaphrodites got cleaned up as best as they could and got placed outdoors. This plant, the immitation GSC, is doing quite well. 3 days ago, I was quite nervous, looking very closely for any signs of male preflowers like her neighbor had. I didn't find any at all, but to be absolutely sure, I pruned off her smallest branch, one with a cola that is enough for 2-3 pipes worth. I quick-dried it using my usual method just to get a glimpse of the taste, and to be able to open them up and inspect them under a loupe carefully. I recently had a plant that didn't seem like it hermaphrodited, but under magnification the start of very tiny seeds could be seen, and cannibinoid content decreased towards the convergent point of the bud where all the little tiny sticks meet up and connect with the branch node. Luckily, this plant did not show any signs of hermaphroditism, nor did it taste that way (the previous one was horrible, due to the almost microscopic seeds). Infact, it tasted actually kind of great, or well, green for sure, but it gave me an idea of what to expect. Before I say what it tasted like, I just want to say that this plant is STINKY. It fills my room up for hours every time I open the tent. The smell is unmistakably like fresh strawberries. Fruit. But... I can definitely taste hints of a garlicky diesel taste coming through in the sample test. It's way too early to tell, but I don't think this smoke report is going to have much to say about any strawberry flavor. I have been inspecting her trichomes daily. She sort of paused on growth for a bit, and started using some of her stored energy, due to me being sick and not taking care of her as much as I was, and she wasn't so used to that. That was a few days ago now, and she is looking much better now. That it for this week. Thanks for stopping by, and wishing you the best on creating the next wonderful flower that you will remember for the rest of your life!

So, after 77 days, exactly 11 weeks, she got the axe. I wasn't planning on chopping her down yet, but this morning her branches were sagging severely, ready to snap, both side branches and top cola. This is mostly because I made a mistake a couple weeks ago, and she went into reveg. I have been trying to get her to finish flowering for a while now, but I'm only seeing her get taller and leafier. This was a freebie seed, and to be honest, I'm getting bored and she is just taking up way too much room in my tent to go to the trouble of tying her down and trying to get her to reflower without any herming. Besides, I took a clone of her which is still kicking. She was a weird plant. This thing grew dozens of "rootlings" -- seedlings that sprouted by the dozen each day directly from the roots, complete with embryos (cotyledon leaves). Such an unusual trait, that I had to pull one out and transplant it. Check out my Mutant clone diary for more on that. She was forced into flower early due to space issues, and grew to a nice and manageable height of 28 inches right before chop. Her aroma is unmistakably like fresh strawberries. I actually never tried the original GSC or any of its hybrids, so I don't know if that is unusual. This is from an unknown breeder, as part of a buy-one-get-one deal at a seed bank. Regardless, she smells amazing and I look forward to the smoke!