King's Tart / Z Pointer (Diary #7)

Seedling week: Just trying to keep the environment consistent and in target range. Starting to prep the coco for larger containers as well. My pH reader took a shit (and out of warranty) so I grabbed a bluelab pen to replace it. Apparently the cheaper Hanna reader is garbage and rarely lasts a year. I got 3 out of it so s'all good. I'll keep the seedlings in these square pots until roots start coming out the bottom. Then into 3 gallon bags for the rest of the way. Really want to focus on not stressing them out this time, as I've had some hermies in past grows. Will be trying to stay on top of substrate pH and EC as well. Coco is buffered to 1.0 EC with a heavy dose of Calmag. I will flush the EC down to around 0.7 with a light compost tea before transplanting. At least another week to go before that though. Ambient humidity is getting closer to range so I've started taking off the dome and giving the seedlings a bit of a breeze to strengthen up. Week(end) update: Started my fertigation schedule on day 6. I'm mixing 1/4 strength compost tea with some CalMag for the first two weeks. Events are every 36 hours. Started to measure the runoff values to see where the substrate was at and after the first watering, EC was at 1.5. Likely some salts leftover from the old coco spiking that number so I watered again and everything seems to be where it should be. Feb 27 EC / pH IN: 0.5 EC / 6.1 pH Runoffs: KT1: 0.5 EC / 6.1 pH KT2: 0.6 EC / 6.0 pH KT3: 0.5 EC / 6.1 pH ZP1: 0.5 EC / 6.1 pH ZP2: 0.6 EC / 6.0 pH ZP3: 0.6 EC / 6.0 pH Seedling week 1/2 COMPLETE

Seedling week 2: Everything going smoothly so far. Environment is dialed in with consistent temperatures and humidity. I'm starting to take the dome off for extended periods of time to acclimate the seedlings to the ambient room air. No signs of damping off. Coco is prepped and ready to receive transplants. Mar 3 update: ZP3 and KT3 are the fastest growers so far. KT1 might be an indica leaning pheno (or runt) KT2 frequently drooping near end of light cycle. ALL ZPs are the exact same height. ALL KTs are at different heights. Gave all a CalMag Foliar spray at lights on Raised the pH to 6.3 for calcium uptake Raised the solution strength from 0.5-0.6 EC My base water EC is 0.3 so it shouldn't be too strong Mar 5 update: KT2 displaying some brown spots on the single blade leaves (not on new growth). The same plant that's drooping towards the end of the day. I'm going to stop watering for a day or two and see what happens. The others all look great. Mar 6: KT1 was slumped over this morning. Hoping there isn't some damping off going on...I staked it and put a few drops of 3% hydrogen peroxide at the base of the stem. Hope she bounces back but so far 2/3 of these King's Tart are proving to be a bit problematic. Zero issues with the Z Pointer. End of week EC/pH Runoffs: Solution: 0.7 EC / 6.3 pH EC Runoffs: KT1: 0.6 EC/6.2 pH KT2: 0.6 EC/6.1 pH KT3: 0.6 EC/6.1 pH ZP1: 0.6 EC/6.1 pH ZP2: 0.6 EC/6.1 pH ZP3: 0.6 EC/6.1 pH

Mar 7 (Late seedling stage/early Veg) - Roots starting to reach the bottom of 4" pots - KT1 is still alive after the Hydrogen Peroxide treatment - KT2 is still drooping - KT3 looks happy - ZPs all look happy - Foliar sprayed with CalMag an hour before lights off (0.4 EC/6.3 pH) This will be Veg Week ONE starting around Friday. Since there isn't any fully formed 5-7 blade leaves yet, it's technically still in the seedling stage. I'm planning 4 weeks of actual "VEG" time, putting the "total" around 6 weeks from seed before flipping to 12/12. KT1 seems to have taken the H202 treatment well... I took the plant tie off and moved the stake a bit. She didn't fall over but the issue was when the fan comes on so just keeping her staked for now. I'm guessing the issues with KT1/2 are from overwatering. With the humidity as high as it was (65-75%), I don't think the substrate was drying out quickly enough. I had also mixed in some peat pellets with the coco/perlite in the seedling bags and the peat could be what's holding all the moisture in. Won't use peat anymore going forward. The tricky part is keeping the substrate EC down when I'm not watering for two or three days (as it will rise until the next watering event). Once they establish more of a root base and start drinking more it should solve itself but I hate starting off with early plant stressors. The ZPs don't seem to mind as they're all the same size, same height and look good. Which just leads me to believe I've got a few divas on my hands. I'll call them Katie (KT1) and Kayla (KT2). Most of these seedlings have roots starting to reach the bottom of the containers so they should be ready to transplant within a few days. I'll give all the 3 gallon bags of prepped coco a final flush with a CalMag dose @ 0.7 EC / 6.0 pH and mix in some Myco (for root innoculation) before potting up Heights (Mar 7): KT1: 2.5" KT2: 3" KT3: 3.5" ZP1: 3.25" ZP2: 3.25" ZP3: 3.5" Mar 11 After letting the containers dry out for 3 days, KTs have bounced back. Transplanted 5/6 into their final containers. Mar 13 KATIE still doesn't want to pot up...looks sturdier now at least. KAYLA stopped being a droopy B and seems to be taking to her new place. These Z Pointers... homogenous as it gets so far. All the same height, basically same size, same node spacing...I likey. I need ONE cut of each of these to find the keeper. Just 4 more Z Pointer seeds and 2 more King's Tart left to try again if nothing spectacular happens. Will post the week-end EC/pH Runoffs on the next update

Switched to the Metal Halide lamp this week. Finally repotted Katie. Lots of notes to update but I'm in the middle of a bathroom gut and rebuild so my days are pretty slammed right now. Back soon growmies

All plants topped to node 3. 3/6 have a pair of curled up, crispy looking leaves. I don't know what it is. All other growth looks ok but I'm starting to worry they won't bounce back. I've been neglecting them the past week so maybe a nice flush with a compost tea is in order. I raised the lamp a few inches in case it's the light intensity. Humidity swings into the 70s so I'm working the fan timers to be on all night and hourly during the day. After a few days, there's noticeable growth from the two new mains. As shitty as the fan leaves look, it doesn't seem to be affecting the rest of the plant. I left the other leaves on and only took the growth tips below node 3 off to make sure there was still a way for photosynthesis. Will be doing a runoff analysis after the next watering to see where the substrate is at. Results to come 🌡️: 23-27c (DAY) 20-23c (NIGHT) ☁️: 50-60% : 1.0-1.1 EC / 5.9 pH 💧: 1-2 L Mar 28 (Day 36) - No water Mar 29 (Day 37) - Watered PM @ 1.0 EC / 5.8 pH 2L each - Try turning lamp to 50% at lights ON, then up to 75% until morning, then back to 50% when I wake up. (Sunrise/set) - Turned lamp up to 75% after an hour at 50% Mar 30 (Day 38) - No water - Turned lamp down to 50% two hours before lights off - Filled bucket (AM) - Turned lamp up to 75% after one hour Mar 31 (Day 39) - Turned lamp down to 50% two hours before lights off - Remove alternate intake/exhaust fan events between 4-7 - Turned lamp up to 75% two hours after lights on Apr 1 (Day 40) - Turned lamp down to 50% 2 hours before lights off - Water AM @ 1.4 (1.1) EC / 5.8 pH 2L each Runoffs: KT1 - 1.1 EC / 6.2 pH (too high) KT2 - 1.1 EC / 6.2 pH (too high) KT3 - 1.1 EC / 6.3 pH (too high) ZP1 - 1.1 EC / 6.2 pH (too high) ZP2 - 1.5 EC / 6.1 pH (water again before others) ZP3 - 1.2 EC / 6.2 pH (too high) After looking at these numbers, it's easy to tell I've been underfertilizing all but ZP2. It also looks like the pH swings up while in the substrate, which tracks for underfertilizing. As it sits, the pH is too high for veg stage. I should be able to level out these numbers by keeping to the schedule of 1L every day. I'll start mixing my nutrients at least 6 hours before watering in to take out some of the pH swings, and pH all solutions to 5.8. I haven't really been taking into account my tap water coming out at 0.3 EC so a 1.4 EC solution is really 1.1 and that could be why I've been underfertilizing as well. I think they'll bounce back but I'm not loving where they're at after 40 days. Still some droopiness, which is likely underwatering/bad pH. Apr 2 (Day 41) - Turn lamp down to 50% an hour before lights off ✅ - Staked down mains of 4/6 (LST started) Apr 3 (Day 42) - Watered AM @ 1.3 EC (1.0) / 5.8 pH 2L each - Filled water bucket AM Runoffs: KT1 - 1.3 EC / 6.2 pH KT2 - 1.3 EC / 6.2 pH KT3 - 1.4 EC / 6.1 pH ZP1 - 1.5 EC / 6.1 pH ZP2 - 1.2 EC / 6.2 pH ZP3 - 1.4 EC / 6.1 pH pH is still a little high coming out but I'm not sure how much I should worry about it. It will likely get closer to 5.8 as fertigation events get closer together. EC out is a little hot on ZP1 but still in acceptable range at + 0.2 EC. Runoff EC SHOULD be a little higher coming out as the solution sits in the substrate for 36 hours before the next event. Most of the plants just got their mains staked down so I've still got a few weeks of veg left.

GOALS: - Have substrate EC and pH leveled off around 1.3-1.4 EC / 5.8-6.0 pH - Increase light intensity to 75-100% (Sunrise/set 75%) - Second topping on all plants (8 mains) 🌡️: 23-27c (DAY) 19-21c (NIGHT) ☁️: 50-60% : 1.2-1.3 EC / 5.8 pH 💧: 1-2 L each event Apr 4 (Day 43) - Turned lamp down to 50% at 8 AM - 2nd topping done on 4/6 plants Notes: It's funny that the two divas (KT1/2) are the strongest looking right now. I don't know if the ZPs stalled or what but the stalk development just isn't there yet. Out the King's Tarts, #3 looks to be stretchier than 1 & 2. Node spacing is much longer so could be more of a sativa dominant phenotype. ZP2 is the strongest of the 3 and the only one to receive a second topping. The other two have tiny branches and haven't been staked yet. If there isn't any noticable growth by the end of the week, I'll determine whether to bother keeping #1/3 or not. SHOWWW ME WHAT YOU GOTTTT

Been working on stabilizing the substrate EC this week in preparation for bloom. Runoffs were a little hot so I've been watering in 1L plain water @ 5.8 pH, then a 2nd litre @ 1.2 EC/5.8 pH. I feel like this is a more efficient way to water because you're flushing slightly with the plain water, breaking up the salts while also saturating the substrate. Then you're using half the fertilizer to get the runoff. I'm hoping this is the last week of veg as I'm closing in on 60 days now. There's a few plants showing offset growth tips so they're mature enough to flower. I just want them to get a bit bigger so I can take some cuttings before I send them to bloom.

This won't be a full VEG week. I'll flip to 12/12 at day 60. I did a light clean up at the bottoms of each plant, removing the first node on all secondary branches. I also pruned off the fan leaves on any branches with 5 nodes. I want good airflow under the canopy/above the substrate throughout the bloom stage and keeping that lower inside under control should get me there. I've been keeping up my simulated sunrise/sunset schedule. The lamp for the first and last hour of each day is at 75% strength, the rest of the time it's at 100%. Noticeable increase in heat, with the room reaching a week-high 28.5c. I've had to keep the exhaust fan on low to maintain humidity so that decreases my ability to let heat out. For now I'm using an intake fan providing cool air from a lung room. This won't be an issue once flower development kicks in as I won't need the humidity as high. It should actually help later in bloom to decrease the overnight temperatures. Runoff EC levels are more consistent now with most events only 0.1 EC higher than the solution going in. Substrate is sitting at 1.3 EC with a pH around 6. Flowering stage begins Saturday!

The canopy is pretty level across the board to kick off the bloom stage and I'm relatively happy with how they look right now. All plants are between 9-10" so even if they quadruple in height, I'll still have a safe distance from lamp to canopy. I'm using bloom nutrients throughout the entire cycle this time. In the past I always used veg nutes in pre-flower for the nitrogen but AN's bloom nutes has pretty high values there and they say to use it all the way through sooo call it following directions...call it an experiment...idk. I feel like I always have PK deficiencies (red stems on fan leaves and streaks on branches) so maybe this helps. I'm also trying to keep temperatures a little higher to encourage resin production. Past runs temps generally haven't been above 25c during lights on. This run I'm aiming for 27-30c. I may grab a small C02 bag for the first few weeks if I can maintain that kind of heat. Another thing worth noting...I've taken 15 minutes off the 12/12 light schedule to GUARANTEE 12 hours of darkness. I'm trying to figure out why a few of my plants in past grows are herming or displaying intersex traits. This adjustment is to rule out the lamps taking time to dim out and cutting into the 12 hour dark period. Pretty strong skunky smell already, not even a week in. I can't remember that happening before. It's either time to change my carbon filter or these are gonna STINK.

Switched out the MH bulb for HPS and fired up the second HPS lamp. Both are set to 400w and will increase to 600w at the end of the week. The girls are spaced nicely and have room to stretch out now.

Pretty chill first two weeks...plants aren't stretching too much, some staying more compact than anticipated so nothing to complain about. They're drinking a shit ton so I'm trying to water twice a day now. Environment is pretty stable outside of slightly high humidity halfway through lights off. Temperatures rarely crest 28c and lights on humidity is between 55-60% so VPD should be right in the pocket. Small flowers are forming so I'm letting the temperatures dip a bit more overnight for bud development. It's getting skunky in here! UPDATE: KT2 AND ZP3 HAVE HERMED I don't know what the fuck is going on but it seems every run I get 2 plants that throw pollen sacs. Really starting to piss me off. I know there isn't light leaks, the environment is consistent and I didn't prune anything in bloom to this point. Would love to know if it's something I'm doing (or not doing) or if it's just unstable genetics. Either way, I'm just going to let them go and pick off balls every day 🤬

86'd the HERMIE (ZP3). She was throwing too many pollen sacs to bother trying to pick them off twice a day. Never saw any open sacs so fingers crossed there won't be a ton of seeds. Humidity has dipped after removing one of the girls. It's also been unseasonably hot (and dry). Sits between 42-55% which I'm fine with. Temperatures are good, with highs around 26-27c. Watering events are twice a day now at 2L each. Added Precision bloom to the feed to boost PK values. Still using CalMag every feeding and no signs of deficiencies so I'll probably drop it after week 6. Very gassy pungent aromas in the room right now.

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Made some adjustments to the fertilizers this week, dropping the CalMag, Sensizym and Precision Bloom from the mix and adding Overdrive. Likely the last two weeks of feeding. I'm also trying to lowe the humidity and temps slightly for the rest of the way (40-50% / 18-25c MAX) Update: The heat wave in Ontario is making it difficult to keep temps in the room down (High 27.2c / Low 20.5c) I'd like to be below 25c at lights ON and around 18c at lights OFF, but that's not gonna happen with outside temps in and around 30c this week. I'll be turning the AC on today which will add humidity to the room. I've set a dehumidifier to 45% so it SHOULDN'T get over 60%. The added heat from the dehumidifier will fight the cold air coming in through the venting so I'll be trying to keep an eye on it. 4 weeks to go!

Finally starting to see some swelling. Nice aromas going on too. Flowers are frosty, dense and starting to bend their stalks. Took the CalMag and Bloom A+B out of the feed schedule. Just Overdrive and Compost tea for the week at a lowered EC (1.3). I'm starting to dump 2L of water @ pH 6.2 before feeding. Idea is to rehydrate, break down salts and flush the old fertilizer BEFORE adding more fertilizer. There just wasn't enough runoff after 2L so instead of dumping 3-4L of fertilizer every feeding, I think the water first makes sense. It should keep the EC at the root zone a little closer to the inflow as well. At the end of the week I'll be doing a thorough flush, followed by a re-innoculation of compost tea. Lamps have been turned down to 75% to simulate the lower amount of light during the fall season. It will also keep temperatures down a bit and help the colours come out. The heat wave last week kept my overnight temperatures higher than I'd like (21c), which in turn, led to higher daytime temperatures (27c). Things cool down after tonight. Humidity has actually been perfect between 40-50%. Super happy there. Will try to lower that to 40-45% for the week.

Seasonal weather is back so my room temperatures are back down to normal. Trying to stay below 25c during lights on. Purple hues are starting to come in and the frost is heavy. Finding conflicting information about flowering times for King's Tart with some sites saying 7-8 weeks, while others state 63 days. I'm going with 63 days. Z Pointer is an 8-9 week strain. Will be looking to harvest when all trichomes are cloudy and just a bit of amber. This week is the beginning of a gradual flush. I started the week by pouring 2 gallons of water into each plant, followed by a light compost tea. Every day they'll get 1 gallon of water/Flawless Finish @ 0.5 EC/6.2 pH until I switch to unadjusted water only at the end of the week. UPDATE: A week of rain has started so humidity in the house is way up. The dehumidifier has been running non stop and has the temperatures back up again. Lights on 27c, lights off 24c. I've raised the lamps as high as they can go and turned them down to 50% as both part of the "simulated fall sky" thing and to drop the temperatures. After 2 hours we're back under 25c. Gotta love a fight at the finish line! UPDATE: Changed the HPS lamps to MH for the last 10 days. Really nothing to lose here...the yield is what it is at this point. Rumour is the blue spectrum is preferred by ripening cannabis plants and can help boost oil and trichome production. Who knows. Definitely makes photos look better lol FINAL UPDATE: Day 5 in a row with rain and with ambient humidity well over 80% outside, my final stretch is severely compromised. The heat wave last week (week 7) kept humidity low (great!) but had overnight temperatures higher than usual (24c vs 19c). Now with this rain, the humidity is so high all the time that the dehumidifier never shuts off creating a massive amount of heat. Since humidity spikes when the lights go off, the temperature never drops because of the dehumidifier. If I turn if off, the humidity would go over 60% within an hour (64% in the house) 🤬. The cooler I make the room, the higher the humidity gets, then the dehumidifier kicks in.... literally can't fuckin win here. So instead of slowly dropping temps to get those nice colour expressions, I'm just fuuuckin roasting terpenes away and creeping closer to mold territory, fuckin right dude. Starting to wonder if I should save myself the hour or two a day for 125 days, plus the cost of hydro and fertilizer and all that bullshit and just buy rez weed. FML

Just plain water going in for the most part. Giving them Flawless finish 2 times this week. I'm not adjusting the pH anymore because there probably isn't any nutrients left in the substrate. This will let the plant use up anything stored as they finish up. Still having a hard time keeping both temperatures and humidity down during the dark period. The dehumidifier keeps the humidity around 48-53 but in turn, has the temperature sitting around 22-24c. That's really only a few degrees cooler than with the lights on. So that's annoying...won't be getting much colour out of this run. There's still a lot of clear trichs but with 4 days left in week 9, there's still a chance she's ready for day 63 chop. Kinda confused about breeders flowering times...I feel like when they say "8-9 weeks" it means from the time the pistils show, NOT when you flip to 12/12. Anyone have anything to add to this? I always use a loupe to check the trichomes but I'd probably stop looking during week 7-8 from flip if the bloom transition doesn't count in the quoted flowering time. Probably post a question to get some opinions.

Well there's a few plants that are about ready and a few that need more time. Might try to go to day 70 but the weather is throwing my temps and humidity way off. Currently running a dehumidifier in the lung closet and that's keeping the humidity around 52-55%... definitely higher than I want right now. The alternative is to put the dehumidifier IN the grow room but that raises the lights off temperatures higher than the lights ON temperature. It also boosts lights on temperatures to 29c so that's not feasible either. I've been gradually flushing for 2 weeks (started too early but thought I was overfeeding) with alternating doses of Flawless Finish and plain water. PPM is down to below 200 in all containers so technically I could probably chop them all at any time but what's a few more days after 125? Still seeing some clear trichomes so may as well be patient here. I'll reassess after the weekend but this a battle down the stretch. Currently 63% ambient humidity in the house (literally 100% outside) and it's supposed to rain until Tuesday. This is why I dislike growing into the summer months. My house is basically an extension of the weather outdoors...in a bad way. UPDATE: Day 67. Not sure I can let them go any longer with the weather like this. Humidity is getting worse and worse in the house and creeping up to 60% in the flowering room. The dehumidifier runs non stop and if I don't empty it right away, the humidity skyrockets. There's two days with sun and then rain the whole weekend so I don't really know what to do now. Already had enough hiccups on this run, definitely don't want mold now.

End of the line! Super easy week just large doses of plain water, tying branches and clipping big fans. PPM runoff was below 150 at the last event so that's a successful flush. Plants will get no light and no water for the next 2 days. There's another 5 days of rain coming and that might actually help keep the room around 55-60%. I'd like to hang dry low and slow for 7-14 days but it might be a challenge to keep the temperature down with the dehumidifier running. The smell is unreal right now...gassy, creamy, spicy, skunky...super pungent, just an absolute treat. It's been a long road and I'm ready for a King's bounty!! What's left? 2 days dark ✅ CHOP ✅ 7+ days drying ✅ 4+ weeks curing July 3 Update: After 2 days of total darkness, all plants have been cut down and hung up to dry. The rain hasn't stopped in days and looks to continue through the week so there's no way I'll get a low and slow dry. Temperature sits at 22-24c because of the hot air produced by the dehumidifier that never stops running.

This grow had a ton of hiccups. Specifically at the worst time possible (weeks 6-10 of bloom). The weather outside just killed the consistent environment I had going. My house doesn't really stay cool or dry when it's hot and humid outside, even with AC cranked and good ventilation, it affected the grow room big time. Couple weeks of rain, then a scorching week, then another week of rain wrapped up a rather disappointing run (yield wise) of what is probably a super strain. Got a few seeds to try again. There were two pretty distinct phenos out of the three plants. #1: - 28" tall - Thin branching - VERY resinous - Purple hues - Loose bud structure - Horrible yield (61 grams + larf) #2: - 30" tall - Solid branching - Covered in trichomes - No purple colours - Tight but smaller buds - Low yield (84 grams + larf) #3: - 40" tall - Lanky structure with very strong branching - Caked with frost - Big tight buds - At least 5 inches between nodes - Average yield (140 grams + larf) They all had at least 15 grams of larfy nonsense that I couldn't be bother trimming. Just threw it all into the Johnny Joneser bag. I definitely slacked off measuring my runoffs this time and it clearly made a difference from my last run. The timing of the grow was bad too. I started 4 weeks late and vegged a few weeks longer than I should've for a 3 gallon bag. Still learning lessons but this was a tough one.

Out of three seeds, two hermed...I caught one. Found a ton of male flowers on one of the two after the 48 hr dark period...probably won't do that again. The only pheno worth anything was a short bushy plant that yielded a whopping 69 grams. I fucked this grow up in multiple ways so I'm chalking it up as an L. I didn't measure runoffs nearly enough, played around switching lamps, flushed way too early...the list goes on. Disappointed because Grounded Genetics has big promise and their shit looks fire. I'll likely run them again in the fall along with their Rainbowz strain. Not giving up just yet!