Creme de la Chem, Francesca

Super slow seedling period, in my admittedly limited experience. I've heard she's a slow starter, but geeze. Ngl, thinking about what I'll start next if I end up yanking her. But I've also heard that some of the slowest starting cdlc end up being the most purple.... so, gonna at least go three weeks to see what happens.

Had really started to set my mind around well, maybe this one won't take off. Maybe the transplant, however gentle, was too much. I did choose the smallest, runtiest seed in the pack. But one more good water before I decide. And now she's showing a wiggle of life. Still tiny, but bigger. Screw it, I'll give her 14 weeks if needed. Or at least one more. By the end of week she was finally rapidly developing every day, with initial fan leaf segments so fat they looked like they were twinned or something. Have increased the light to 40% on the dimmer.

Beginning of week : She's finally moving, outward if not much upward. Theorizing that she spent too much time coming out of her shell and her proto leaves or whatever they are got fused together, but could be I'm wrong. Looks to be starting her third proper node, but she's barely two inches tall. Not to be short over it, but I think any plan of scrogging as usual might be a bit of a..... stretch. Yeaaaaaah. End of week: She's starting to come up a little, and out a lot. She's a Dwarven warrior princess! Leaves are huge compared to the rest of her, and her stem is actually quite thick for her height - the stem is starting to peel gently with growth, as they do. Side branches are starting show future bud sites, so gonna take off some of those upper pretty frillies and uncover them in the next day or so.

Finally starting to feel more committed and interactive than wait-and-see. She started pushing out her fifth node so I pounced and snipped her down to just above her third, racing those pistils. Took off two of her lowest three- fingered leaves, as they were big enough to be laying on the soil. She's still short as heck, but her stem is sturdy and beginning to bark slightly, with white adventitious roots developing at the base. She's actually stretched up a tiny bit, towering at just under 6 inches. Bud sites seem to be coming from everywhere, though. Gonna take out some of those leaves in the center tomorrow, the nodes coming up from the top can't even be seen. Also maybe some lower bits coming up. Waiting till tomorrow because I like to water/ feed after a cut but she could be a tad drier.

Really booming week, big anticipatory energy. As nervous as I was to maybe further stunt her, she's been responding to everything I've thrown at her with enthusiasm. Wired down her main branches to open up the central mess of tops and snipped a good handful of leaves that were either covering tops or dragging on the ground. She bounces back from everything within hours, looking lusher than ever. Finally got in a cheap humidifier to battle the dryness, she seems to like it quite a bit. Was just starting to consider whether maybe I could top her one more time, lol, when I finally found the pistils I've been searching for for the past week. Let the flowering commence!

Finally starting stretch and bushing out like mad. Taking about a dozen leaves from her every other day but maybe she thinks I'm collecting them because she keeps bringing me more. Had a mild panic attack over some browning scuffed looking spots on lower leaves that were all on one side, a helpful answer had me realize it was probably a bit too much mist from the humidifier so I've dialed that way back, and she really seems happier with the reduced humidity. Was dead tired when I was giving her her last feeding, realized in retrospect that I gave her tiger bloom instead of the grow big I'd meant to. Whoops. Gonna have to trust that one mess up isn't the end of the world...I hope.

Started the week with some moderate defol, taking 2-3 dozen larger fans that were clogging up airflow through the middle and blocking light from bud sites around the edge. Applied a bit more wire to open up the central four branches. She started showing a weird and rather dramatic color change with very dark middles and almost neon tips, but after some questioning and research I'm chalking that up to simply dramatic coloring, lucky me. I hope. But I also raised the light to 22" above canopy, from 14. Pushing the bloom nutes more, she's started the smallest little nuteburned tips but some of the tips I'm seeing aren't brown at all - they're blushing red, and quite supple. She's been rather weird and dramatic from every turn, I'm quite glad I didn't try this as my very first grow but I'm really enjoying this journey.

Getting puffy, tiny bit of stretch, whole lot of leaves. Upping the bloom nutes, staying consistent on the 1/4 dose of calmag every watering, seems to be working great. Starting to sugar up. Colors and stuff. Very pleased with her. And for once I just can't think that much about weed. My first grandbaby was born today, y'all. Teodor was born a lovely fat healthy baby, my very first grandchild. And I can't wait to teach him everything I'm learning...25 years down the road. Special thanks to those teaching me to be the very best terrible influence and grandparent I can be. Shoutout to all of us, trying to make the next gen better than ours was, so theirs can be even better than that. Love to you all. Oh yeah, and trichs and stuff. Smells like garlic and... jock itch powder?? I swear she changes perfumes every other day.

Stacking up, getting smelly. She's settled on the pervasive odor of puppy breath currently. Revolting, yet lovable. Started easing back on nutes with a couple of light calmag and molasses only waterings after getting some lightly burned tips last week, easing back into the tiger bloom after seeing some splotchy leaves suddenly today (they definitely weren't there 12 hours ago). Frost is really starting to amp up. Can't predict how long she'll end up running, but starting to consider that I might end up harvesting those four biggest colas before letting the lowers go for a couple of weeks.

Into the swell stage. No real sign yet of dramatic color changes, but haven't given up hope. Continuing the feeding, assuming she has some weeks left to go. Seeing the start of a little P(?) deficiency but not nearly as bad as the AK did. Starting to get my new grow setup together for the next run and my new light is already in transit, so I'm pretty excited about finishing this girl up under her new Mars Hydro TS3000 - I should have pics of how she responds, if at all, next week (along with pics of her new younger siblings, if all goes well! Yay for 420 sales).

Finishing up another week and fighting panic that she's starting to show the same signs of deficiency that Mags the AK did, though not nearly as badly and not as early, as she's now finishing 12 weeks from germination. My whole time-line is wonky because I counted the first two weeks as germ, with her delayed reaction and all. Next go round I'm just keeping it simple and week one is week one, whatever they look like. Keeping on keeping on with the tiger bloom and cal mag for now, she got a surprise feast of 5ml fish sh!t this week as I'm starting to get in my supplies for my next, slightly more advanced grow. (Moving into a 4x4 with a much more powerful light and gonna be bringing in some hitters like silica and, ofc, fish sh!t.) She is finally getting much thirstier, wanting her most recent watering almost 2 days earlier than usual. Come to think of it, she got a lot thirstier shortly after I gave her the fish stuff. Hm. But correlation =/= causation and I figure the timing feels about right. Some few white hairs left, and there's a bit of senescence going on under that deficiency, but her trichs are just mostly milky, some clear. The stink is huge, though. Hooooly fuck. The puppy breath is gone, which turned both more sweet and more meaty. Kinda berries and rotten meat? Almost. But now she's, I just don't know. Pungent to be sure, and that chemical smell is way sharper. My husband says it's just like diesel fuel. I'm not an expert on that, but I acknowledge I can be a bit nose blind and have zero problem acknowledging that whatever this smell is, it's all up in your face. There is nothing stealth about this stank. You've heard of silent and deadly, but this bitch is loud and lethal. On that note, yeah, I did a bad thing. Popped a little lower bud to "test" and junior high'ed it into the air fryer at 125 for about an hour. Judge all you want, it was a really shitty day. But, as she was in the air fryer, I swear tf she smelled like incense. I even searched the house to make sure no one was burning any. A little patchouli-ey, a little spicy, a little hashy and a little like this weird cactus scented incense I got once. Really, really lovely actually. I really really hope that quirk is preserved through her final maturing and dry, I love oddities like that. Like Cat Piss, which does in fact smell like cat piss (as the guardian of 4, I'm an expert on that) but tastes delicious. Ofc the air fryer dry tasted shit, but the high was interesting. A bit of a creeper, I took one strong pipe hit, waited a moment and didn't feel very much, and took another. I then went about 4 hours till I realized that heeyyyyy, there's still half a bowl! Yay! For some immature assed broccoli, she definitely pulled her weight. Not much body high yet, but my frustrations and anxieties just sheeted off me. Absolutely not touching anything else till she's ready though, I promise. She's so little. She looks fat and reasonably healthy if a little grumpy, but she's so fucking little. Never even got a foot tall. I was expecting her to be squat and bushy but...geeze. I've got 3 more of these seeds and I'm absolutely going to be popping them after I get my perpetual grow setup going, I wonder how similar the next ones will be.

I've lost my darned loupe during all my reconfiguration chaos, but she's still trucking along. Think she's gotten just about as fat as she's going to, just waiting on her to get that shaggy "I'm ready" look. I've kinda thrown my hopes for a crazy fade out the window, maybe those leaves got pruned off. Been trying to play amateur PAR sudoku with the lights in my tent, got it going pretty satisfactorily with the Mars low and low over the kinder while Frankie keeps the Famurs higher and higher. Her thirst level is definitely waning off, only wanting a watering every 4 or 5 days. The diesel fuel smell is still strong, as is the growing scent of pencil erasers.

This one does everything at her own pace. Just really popped out with some serious fade between days 96-98. Bright golden yellow, no red, but that is likely due to the low variation in day and night temps - I barely get above 81 but rarely get below 75F now that things are getting warmer outside. I give up on trying to get pics of my trichs but my loupe is showing me all milky with some amber on top, all milky with some clear on the bottom. I want to wait until I see more amber on top, than clear below. She's bursting with stink, barely regulated by my little 4" fan and filter. Even I recognize the diesel fuel smell now, with an equal smell of rubber pencil erasers. But that incense smell lurks too, earthy sweet and spicy. Definitely complex, and perhaps an acquired taste. That I've acquired. But eager as I am, I expect to be back in one more excruciating week with her update.

Just waiting on my new exhaust to come in so I can convert my old setup into a dry tent, and she's coming down. Haven't watered in about 4 days, and she has little moisture left in her pot but not completely dry. Interior leaves have all mostly yellowed out, exterior leaves are starting to die off. Buds are tipped and trimmed in red with a greasy grey blue green shade and bright orange pistils, the camera doesn't do them justice. Scent is permeating, but has settled into something rather nice - or I'm a victim of olfactory Stockholm syndrome. Definitely skunky but there's something earthy and natural about the rubber smell, and sweet. It's own scent, rather polarizing. Like patchouli in a way.

Chopped at day 108 after 6 day drought, dried 5 days and 50g trimmed and into jars for cure. Initial smoke burns easy but still has a little green over the sweet and perfumy flavors. High starts like a torque on the crown of the head, expanding through the chest. Should have rethought my timing on sampling the first good weed I've had since I finished up Maggie the AK. I thought I had plans today.