FastBuds Variety - First medical grow

Week 1 Summary - Seedling Phase: All seeds planted on 2018/09/03 LSD-25 and Blackberry Autofems broke the surface of the coco five days after initial planting. Gorilla Glue followed on day 6 from planting. All plants were standing upright with cotyledons fully unfurled within 24 hours of breaking the surface. Watering daily, but sparingly, with distilled water containing low dose of Calimagic and double dose of Real Grower's recharge. Alternate watering days the plants receive half seedling strength dose of Canna Coco A+B and Rhizotonic. All water PH'd to approx. 5.5-6.5. Shoot apical meristem above ground for LSD-25/Blackberry = 2018/09/07 Shoot apical meristem above ground for Gorilla Glue = 2018/09/08

The plants seem to have established a decent root system and are now turning their focus toward vertical growth. At the time of this update (day 9) all three plants are currently developing the third set of true leaves. Internodal spacing is very tight due to the MH; I couldn't be more pleased with the lighting setup and air flow in the tent. Laser thermometer readings at shoot apical meristem are almost always 72F. Daytime tent environment at plant height remains ranges from 72-77F. Night temps range between 67-70F. I continue to feed daily with seedling strength nutrient solution and will likely begin increasing that dosage slowly over the next few days to 5ml of A+B.

The plants seem to be progressing along nicely. Now comes the last minute internal debate about whether I am going to LST these girls to try and coax a larger overall yield. I hesitate to do anything that might slow them down but the promises of more dry weight may prove to be too much. :) FastBuds documentation for Gorilla Glue does mention she performs best when not stressed in the slightest fashion; I am definitely taking this into consideration. Going into this third week, all three are working on their fifth set of true leaves. Side branching has begun on all available growth sites. Nutrient mix/schedule unchanged from previous week. UPDATES: • 2018/09/25 - Day 19 ○ All plants positively identified as female. ○ Blackberry shows the most white pistils with several sites showing well developed examples. ○ Gorilla Glue has preflowers with no visible pistils. This makes sense as she is a day behind the others. ○ LSD-25 exhibits preflowers with some visible pistils on shoot apical meristem and secondary growth sites closest to the top. ○ Approximate height: BB = 14cm | GG = 11cm | LSD-25= 13.5cm ○ Given these girls are in early flowering stage, their thick main stalks, and the fact that this is my first grow, I have decided to save LST for another run.

Going into week four and two of three plants are exhibiting prolific growth of pistils. Only Gorilla Glue, who is technically one day younger than the others, has yet to show pistils as of day 22. She does, however, show plenty of preflowers so I have no doubt she is not far behind. All three show expedient growth at primary and secondary growth sites with Blackberry growing 5cm of vertical growth in the previous 24h period! Nutrient and watering schedule remains the same for this week. As soon as the vertical growth begins to slow I will begin the Canna PK13/14, likely during week five. As specified during last week's update, I have decided to forgo full-on LST during this run but I have done a bit of leaf tucking to permit the side branches to receive better lighting. For now, the name of the game is to maintain a good buffer in my medium that will sustain growth for this last week or two of proper vegetative growth. If you're reading this, I'd love to hear your thoughts 😃 UPDATES: • 2018/09/30 - Day 24 ○ LST regimen started for Blackberry due to explosive vertical growth not matched by the other two strains. ○ Blackberry shoot apical meristem bent at double 90 to achieve same height as LSD-25. ○ Side branches wrapped with a loose circle of plant-ties to pull side growth in toward the center and up to match height of shoot apical meristem. ○ Height: BB = 35.5cm | GG = 21cm | LSD-25= 26.5cm (Measured at noon rather than the usual 22:00) • 2018/10/01 - Day 25 ○ Blackberry has taken well to LST without visible stress or damage. All LST targeted side growth and shoot apical meristem are of equal height. ○ LSD-25 same approximate height as Blackberry. ○ Gorilla Glue exhibits very short dense bushy phenotype this run. She is several centimeters shorter than the other two. I have rearranged the placement of the pots within the tent to, hopefully, coax the GG into stretching a bit. ○ Gorilla Glue still does not exhibit pistils. I see no major cause for concern until the end of this coming weekend. No visible pollen sack under magnification. ○ Now that one plant has been trained others may be as well if necessity warrants. ○ Height: BB = 32cm (Trained) | GG = 23cm | LSD-25= 32cm

Going into week 5 I am feeling pretty good about how things are progressing! Unfortunately, the photos will be a bit off color going forward. I'll do my best to get them in natural light when I can. Blackberry has received enough LST to allow side branching to level with the shoot apical meristem and keep her canopy even with LSD-25's. Though heavier LST has left her less attractive than her tentmates, I am confident it will pay off once she fills out. Currently, she is showing the most prolific flowering with pistils already forming dense knots. Gorilla Glue is a truly beautiful plant that exhibits the healthiest/densest growth of the three; unfortunately she is almost 20cm shorter and has not shown any pistils as of this update. I am hopeful that once she hits flower, likely this week if other diaries are any indicator, her stretch will get her more in line with the others. Light LST applied like a tomato cage around her base has kept her side branching very close to the top. Once she gets there, I have a feeling she will be set up for a nice flower. I would like to do a run with just several GG phenos at some point. Luckily, I have 9 seeds left! :) LSD-25 is the well-behaved one of the lot. She doesn't shine quite as much as her sisters in terms of dense vegetative growth or prolific preflowers but she is steady, doesn't give me trouble, and I could easily see her being the one to provide a proper bumper crop. Her lower waist was also cinched up with plant ties, similar to GG, to encourage her side branches to train closer to the top of the plant. . I will wait for stretch to slow before applying Canna PK 13/14 but have started Canna Boost and will likely phase out Rhizotonic in favor of Cannazym starting with the day 29 watering. I'll try to post updates this week! Thanks for following along. UPDATES: • 2018/10/06 - Day 30 ○ Some very mild yellowing in spotty fashion on Blackberry and even less so on LSD-25. I suspect I may have had last night's PH too low. Forgot to check the gallon again just before feeding. Later realized another gallon mixed at the same time with same ratios was PHd way too low Into the red zone! ○ 2gal nutrient solution mixed @ 1000ppm, dispersed between 3 plants to correct root zone PH and EC. ○ Additional leaf tucking on GG and light LST on LSD-25. • 2018/10/07 - Day 31 ○ Height: BB = 66cm (Trained) | GG = 40cm | LSD-25= 69cm ○ 2gal nutrient solution dispersed between 3 plants. Inflow solution @ 930ppm ○ Additional leaf tucking on GG. ○ Blackberry is the most sensitive to fertigation in general and seems to be the first to show drooping after daily feeding. ○ LSD-25 and GG will readily absorb any amount of water in well drained medium. ○ Some mild signs of nitrogen toxicity in LSD-25 and BB. This is likely from the accidental low PH feeding on Day 29. Yesterday's flush seems to have corrected. ○ Light positioned ~ 23cm from top of BB. • 2018/10/08 - Day 32 ○ Height: BB = 73cm (Trained) | GG = 44cm | LSD-25= 76cm ○ 1 gal nutrient solution dispersed between 3 plants, 20% runoff achieved. ○ Inflow solution @ 1110ppm. Outflow solution @ 1987. ○ Gorilla Glue finally shows pistils! :) ○ Light positioned ~ 20cm from top of BB. • 2018/10/09 - Day 33 ○ Height: BB = 79.5cm (trained) | GG = 47cm | LSD-25= 86cm ○ Inflow solution Gallon #1 @ 900ppm - Gallon #2 @ 1080 ○ 1st Gallon Outflow solution: BB = 2105 | GG = 1807 | LSD = 2225 ○ 2nd Gallon Outlfow solution: BB = 1850 | GG = 1600 | LSD = 1840 ○ BB & LSD-25 suffering from early nitrogen toxicity. Corrective action in progress. • 2018/10/10 - Day 34 ○ Height: BB = 85cm | GG = 50cm | LSD-25= 92cm ○ Inflow solution @ 736ppm ○ Outflow solution: BB = 1725ppm | GG = 1680ppm LSD = 1767ppm • 2018/10/11 - Day 35 ○ Height: BB = 89cm | GG = 53cm | LSD-25= 100cm ○ 4 gallons evenly dispersed across three plants for tonight's fertigation. ○ Inflow solution @ 430ppm (PHd CalMg filtered tap water only) ○ Final outflow solution: BB = 1450ppm | GG = 1330ppm | LSD = 1391ppm ○ Hopefully lower ppm readings for outflow solution indicate nitrogen toxicity will soon be under control. Lessons learned this week: ○ Always flush coco coir reconstituted from bricks no matter what the manufacturer says about pre-washing. Proper prewash and initial buffering is paramount to a successful coco grow. ○ Always water to 20% runoff in coco and never let coco dry to the point it changes color. I was bad about this in the early weeks and paid for it with constant outflow ppms of 2100-2300 in week 5. ○ Always measure inflow and outflow EC. The HoneForest TDS meter I bought this week was $14. There is no excuse not to know your EC and having this metric earlier on in my grow could have saved me a lot of time and effort.

Going into week 6, I have a newfound appreciation for just how quickly things can go off the rails. I start this week on the heels of and facing several issues. - Failure to monitor EC and keep the entire medium continuously soaked from the beginning left me with outflow ppms of 2200 during week 5. By the time I had the issue corrected BB suffered possibly irreparable nitrogen toxicity and both her and LSD-25 stretched as result. Excessively high root zone EC allowed for reverse osmosis and water to be drained from the plant and leaves to become dessicated. Coupling this with nitrogen toxicity caused severe canoeing of sugar leaves and fan leaves close to the top. - Failure to train LSD-25 and issues with stretching have caused the plant to reach too close the light and I can no longer raise the light without changing the setup as the light hangers have no additional slack to take up. Gorilla Glue is just starting her stretch and is far away from the surface of the light, leaving her in a less than ideal configuration. On the plus side I have the outflow ppms consistently around 1300 now. Inflow solution is averaging around 600ppm and I will leave it there until things stabilize before moving up gradually. I have increased fertigation to two events per day to maintain low outflow EC. Blackberry is looking quite rough these days and I wonder how much I can expect from her after the shock she endured during week 5. I will, of course, do my best to nurse her back to a more ideal state of health and attempt to salvage whatever harvest I can from her. She still shows the fattest flowers and leaves near the tops are beginning to display a vibrant purple color along with the calyxes. LSD-25 handled the nitrogen toxicity much better but is leggy and stretched as a result. Overall she still looks healthy and I anticipate she will not be affected to adversely by the wild EC swings. I may have to tie her main cola back to keep her from knocking into the light if the PK boost doesn't slow her down. LSD also has deep purple calyxes, more so than BB but no purple on the leaves yet. Gorilla Glue is still short and bushy, a lovely plant. However, her pistil growth is much slower. I am balancing dosing her with light PK and boost to induce more vigorous flowering but also want to get a bit of a stretch out of her to get her closer with the canopies of the other two girls. At this point the ball is entirely in her court and I'm mostly just along for the ride. Nitrogen toxicity did not affect her as much due to her beginning flowering much later. Thanks for reading and following along! More updates to come later this week! CONSOLIDATED WEEKLY UPDATE: - Light moved to hang directly from tent support bars to accommodate LSD-25 who has reached the high end of her possible height range. - Gorilla Glue is now in stretch. - Final height stats for week 6: BB = 96.5cm | GG = 75.5cm | LSD-25= 123cm Outflow TDS currently hovers around 900-1000ppm with inflow around 700ppm for most fertigations. All plants have stabilized with signs of nitrogen toxicity having subsided. Some very obvious damage remains on Blackberry, especially with upper sugar leaves, that she will probably never recover from fully. She certainly won't be the prettiest of the bunch but this isn't a beauty contest, thankfully. To her credit, she still shows decent flower production in spite of her bout with nutrient burn. Remaining plants look to be healthy and fully recovered with no immediate pressing concerns. Sorry for the sparse updates this week. Hope to be more active during week 7.. Cheers!

Going into week seven, I am happy to report that the situation is much better than it was going into the previous week. I have stabilized the outflow TDS around 950ppm and am consistently within 200ppm of my inflow fertigation solution. The leaves of all three ladies are healthy with no clawing and reverse osmosis/nutrient burn is no longer an issue. Blackberry is still not the prettiest plant at close to her final height of 98.5cm but she looks better each day and her buds are still the most impressive of the three. While early calyxes had a definite tinge of light purple her color production does not seem to be as apparent now. No matter, looking at her bud sites, I have a feeling she will impress with the final result even if she is a bit homely due to my early mismanagement of the fertigation process. Gorilla Glue is an absolute beast at 84cm. She is slow to show pistils but has definitely taken on a healthy stretch, picking up about 3-4cm per day. She has a beautiful canopy with at least a dozen side shoots that are all, more or less, level with the shoot apical meristem. I cannot wait to see how she fills out. She seems sensitive to wind on new growth but less so once it becomes established. LSD-25 has finally finished up her stretch and tops out at around 125cm, the upper end of the breeder’s listed height range. I suspect a lot of this had to do with the nitrogen toxicity in early flower. Except for some sparse bud sites, I am confident in a decent end product. The colors are spectacular with this strain. Already so dark purple that she looks black in some spots. I have added an extra fan and a dehumidifier to assist with humidity control; both are located lower in the tent at pot level. More updates to come later this week. Let me know what you think in the comments! CONSOLIDATED WEEKLY UPDATE: Week 7 seven was all quiet with no major issues that required my attention. Humidity was getting a bit out of hand but defoliation for the ever bushy Gorilla Glue combined with leaving the tent open 24hrs/day until I can sort about a better fix will keep RH between 40-55% over the next week or two. Inflow PPMs are steady at 675-725 per gallon depending on whether I add Recharge to a given gallon. Runoff TDS is within 300ppm of inflow solution consistently.

Going into week 8 things seem to be steady and, outside of some humidity issues currently in progress of being corrected, I am pleased with the overall status! Smell and bud production are increasing for BB and LSD-25 by the day. I am starting to get some great macro shots with my cell phone; I will post more once I have the hang of the app. Blackberry recovers more every day from her bout with excessively high EC. Even more than I thought she would be capable of with regard to some of the damged leaves. I am cautiously optimistic that, in the end, she may impress after all! Gorilla Glue should be nearing the end of her stretch and I have completed a thorough but not terribly invasive defoliation to help mitigate issues with humidity and light penetration. She seemed to bounce back perfectly within 24 hours and resumed vertical growth. I am starting to see clumps of pistils but she is definitely a late bloomer and will likely go long into 12-13 weeks. I may take more upper fan leaves in the next few days. I have moved GG to the right side of the tent as she is now taller than Blackberry and was overshadowing her. This arrangement seems to be ideal and will likely be the final configuration until harvest. Inflow/Outflow TDS remains within acceptable ranges with +300 being the average spread between the two. Currently it requires approx. 96oz of fertigation solution each for GG/LSD-25 and 64oz for BB to achieve the desired 20% runoff. This equates to 2 gallons of solution for all three plants per day. As always, thanks for your interest, comments, critiques and happy growing!

Things are still going smoothly in week 9 of flowering. TDS of daily 20% outflow solution is still well within comfortable ranges. Plants show no sign of nutrient lockout or stress. Inflow TDS around 700-750ppm Typical outflow TDS between 850-1200 Blackberry is almost sure to be a bit of a disappointment due to my early mismanagement. Her buds are airy and beginning to foxtail significantly leading me to believe harvest will be subpar. She is farthest from the light with her topmost flowers being 40cm from the lamp. Expectations are not too high at this point but I have only myself to blame for it and will continue to take care of her as if she were my top producer. I'm chalking this one up to lessons learned. LSD continues to impress with dense buds that are beginning to show orange pistils. Daily trich checks are now part of my routine with her and Blackberry. She is closest to the HID at around 22cm for the topmost flowers. I anticipate she will be ready for harvest within the next week. Florakleen on standby to begin flush. Gorilla Glue remains an absolute beast but also an enigma as, now in week nine, she shows only two to four pistils max on each available bud sites; some still have none. She seems to be finishing up her stretch and, at 118.5cm, is well beyond the breeder’s listed max height for the strain. That coupled with the fact that pistils are visible indicates to me that any day she should explode with buds and this long wait and extended veg will be worth it. However, I am not so sure that it will not take some intervention from me to get her going properly. Hopefully @FastBuds takes notice of this diary and can provide some advice as to what I should do with her.. 😊 Thanks for following along. I’ll try to be better about updates going forward. Comments and insight always welcome.

I began week 10 by running a gallon of plain water with 5ml of FloaKleen split between Blackberry and LSD-25. Based on pistil color and the state of the trichs I suspect both will be ready to harvest near the end of week 10. I will work to keep the EC of fertigation solution as low as possible between now and then to encourage the plants to use up what resources they have stored within the fan leaves. LSD-25 is looking great while BB continues to foxtail and produce thin, airy, buds. No matter though as, I have a feeling, LSD's harvest will more than make up for the loss with BB. At the end of week 9 I lollipopped GG and performed another defoliation of the canopy to provide better light penetration and remove excess vegetation. As with previous defoliations, within 36 hours you can hardly tell I took anything. This plant’s genetics continue to impress, even though she is not fully autoflowering at the time of this post. I did hit her with another dose of PK 13/14 to hopefully jump start flowering. Her growth has slowed to around one cm per day, so I am hoping she is finally finishing up her stretch (for real this time) as I am running out space within the enclosure to accommodate further vertical growth. LSD/GG still require occasional LST to support and provide optimal light penetration. If you have any questions, comments, or critiques, please feel free to leave them in the comments below! As always, thanks for following along.

The cycle was about what I had anticipated for these genetics based on breeder recommendations plus the typical week or two I add to their estimate. She stretched a little later than her Blackberry counterpart but ended up taller than her in the end. The purple pheno displayed within the first week of flowering and became more impressive with each day that passed. Smell was not diesel but more varnish-like and not terribly difficult to control with a halfway decent carbon filter setup. I enjoyed documenting my process here and gaining insight from others who popped these amazing beans. Look forward to growing FastBuds LSD-25 again in the very near future.

LSD-25 was harvest on the first day of week 11! Blackberry is still being flushed in prep for her harvest. Only Canna BOOST is being applied with each watering at this point. She is yellowing nicely, consistent with end of life cycle and flush. Gorilla Glue is finally beginning to show proper clusters of pistils after having been forced to flower by switching to a 12/12 photoperiod. One portion of her canopy is not under direct light and is not as full as a result. This is due to the space required to keep her from shading Blackberry and because she is tool tall to properly fit under the light with adequate clearance to prevent heat burn. Her proximity to the light will obviously still be an issue even after Blackberry has been harvested, so I will need to formulate a game-plan to accommodate Gorilla Glue for the remainder of her flowering period.

With LSD-25 and Blackberry having been cut only Gorilla Glue remains. This is good as her canopy has taken up almost the entirety of the 2x4 footprint available to her, even with additional defoliation. She also has reached dangerously close to the HID in spite of tying and training her canopy flat. I will be ordering a HLG QB120 260W to help alleviate this issue and also mitigate some temperature issues caused by running HIDs. I’m maintaining EC at around 700-800ppm outflow remains within 50-100pm of inflow so all is good there. I have induced flowering via 12/12 photoperiod and I am seeing almost immediate results.

It was a strange run with FastBuds Blackberry. Initial CalMag imbalance seemed to get things off to a bad start from which she never really seemed to recover. EC swings mid-run didn't help much either. In the end, I was happy to harvest what I did and, to her credit, the buds were very resinous and cured up beautifully. I will say, the smell is not invasive while finishing; a very light berry smell that does not give her away. In all, I will likely not grow the remaining two seeds I have of this strain nor do I recommend her to beginners. She is just too sensitive and does not recover well from end-user errors. That said, I see other grow diaries that are quite impressive, so perhaps it's just me. I don't fault the genetics but I don't think I'll be back for more of this one.

HLG Quantum Boards arrived on the first day of week 13 and made a huge difference immediately with both temps and distance from the canopy to the lamp. Flowering is in full effect now that she was forced via photoperiod. Thanks to all who answered my grow question regarding stalled autoflower genetics. Indeed, forcing flower is the way to go to get a late bloomer back on track. If I weren’t so intent on maintaining homeostasis, I might be tempted to switch back to 18/6 at this point to maximize yield but, again, I’m not trying to fuck things up and herm her out by playing with the lighting. With that said, I am keeping my interference at a minimum; I tie tops back to keep them from getting too close to the LEDs and continue light defoliation as needed to promote good airflow and light penetration. Inflow EC in maintained around 700ppm with +100ppm being the norm for outflow fertigation solution. I am please that things seem to be getting back where they should be with this last female from my first medical grow. Sorry for the scant updates these lasrt few weekes.

Flowering is going well for Gorilla Glue and I am very happy with the HLG 3000k Quantum Board 260w in the context of a 2’x4’x7’ footprint. She has responded well to the intense LEDs and the additional headroom was much needed. As with my last update, I am trying mostly to keep the ship steady at this point. I tie back and defoliate where needed but as little as possible. Inflow and outflow EC maintained between 650-800ppm as she seems to be doing fine in this range with good bud production and no signs of deficiency; as a result, I see no need to push extra nutrients on her. Honestly, I feel I should be doing more defoliation to promote larger colas with more airflow around the buds but I am afraid of stressing her too much. Any advice anyone has on this topic would be much appreciated. To her credit, she never seems to mind when I take leave and even smaller lower limbs. She bounces back almost immediately, if she shows any stress at all. As always, thanks for your interest and comments.

Things are still moving along well for Gorilla Glue going into week 15. Bud density increases by the day and the number of sites is off the chart with this one, due to her long veg time. I have done my best to train and keep a respectable distance (20-25cm) between the LEDs and the tops but some are just too woody to tie back and two or three are getting close enough to the light to be cause for concern. I’m not sure what I should to mitigate at this point… I am tempted to cut those tops back while the buds are still small and lose a bit of production rather than let those buds fatten only to get bleached and possibly foxtail. This looks to be the biggest challenge for the remainder of this first run; That is, keeping her within the footprint and height constraints now that she is so bulky. I am sure humidity will also be a factor once the buds start to get dense and crowd each other for airflow. I am still keeping EC low around 600-700 with runoff at +-50ppm. This seems so low for such a big plant in flower but she does not appear to be suffering from lack of nutrients and I would rather err on the side of too little than too much. A catch 22 with nutrients that come in A+B format is they say on the bottle to always use a 1:1 ratio but I don’t particularly need the extra N that part A provides as much as I do the extra P/K in part B. Any advice from those of you who are seasoned coco growers of automatic genetics, with regard to EC during flowering, would be much appreciated. Thanks for following along as this first grow stretches into overtime. Cheers!

Week 16 saw Gorilla Glue progressing through flower as expected. Buds are fattening up nicely and the plant is taking on quite the aroma; an acrid cat piss type smell fills the room with the tent opened up but agitation of the buds reveals a lovely piney tangerine scent that I can’t wait to taste out of my VaporBrothers desktop unit. As I am currently unable to achieve two fertigation events per day, outflow TDS is hovering around 1050-1100ppm with inflow around 650-720ppm. If this continues to rise, I will take additional corrective steps but for now I am keeping 20% runoff and the outflow remains steady. This beast is thirsty and the dry winter air makes for quick evaporation. I’ll be honest when I say that the spike is partly my fault as a during a few hasty watering sessions over the holiday, I neglected to achieve a full 20% runoff. This is what I get for breaking routine. 😊 Thanks for following along! If you have questions or comments please feel free to leave them below.

Week 17 progressed nicely with minor issues. The plant is much closer to the LED than I would like but at this point I can’t do anything about it and resigned myself to finishing this run with some of the tops possibly being affected by bleaching or light burn. Lesson learned, I’ll take aggressive steps to keep my ladies short going forward. Thankfully she doesn’t seem to be suffering too badly from the over exposure. Some yellowing is occurring very low on the plant as nitrogen begins to run low due to low ratios in the fertigation solution. I’m not concerned quite yet as this is on par with what I would expect at this point in the flowering stage. Outflow TDS continues to be consistently around 1050ppm. Over the coming weekend I may supplement an additional gallon of solution with only CalMag and PH buffer to help lower things back in the 800-900ppm range. My preference is not to be above 1000ppm for the last few weeks of flower. Inflow is between 600-700ppm currently. It’s hard to get good photos of the action now as the good dense buds are so close to the LED and she is too tall and tied-up to remove from the tent without serious risk of damage and shock. I tried to get pics that conveyed her current state well but I do apologize for the quality. Thanks for following along! If you have questions or comments please feel free to leave them below.

Week 18 is nearly in the books and she suffered a bit of lockout due to high EC. Tracking outflow solution ppm over the last two weeks I can see where I should have intervened earlier. I hate using Florakleen in coco as one works so hard to get a stable medium with proper CEC but, as I’ve learned earlier in this grow and again here, it’s better to flush and get things back in range rather than trying to slowly lower things via excess fertigation events. Luckily I have my outflow solution back down around 850ppm for the past few days and am hoping the lockout, and more importantly lower leaf curling and dropping, will clear up. You will immediately notice in the photos that my colas are much too close to the HLG board. You can also see that I am completely out of headroom so I have resigned myself to some loss via bleaching and foxtailing but there are some dense and impressive colas that are far enough away to still provide good meds when this run is all said and done. The buds are dense as hell, covered in sticky resin that coats your hands as they brush past, and the smell is a delightful tangerine scent. Sorry for the quality of the pics… I have to hold my phone inside the tent outside of my line of sight to get these shots. I am taking the pics via voice command and hoping they come out decent. Take a lesson from my folly… train your girls early and often. 😊 I have a feeling the next 1.5-2 weeks will see an impressive increase int eh size of these buds which, given their current state, will be quite a sight to behold. Thanks for following along. Cheers!

Week 19 is done and we are nearing the end of this ride. Things are looking great despite the plant getting closer to than the light than I would like. She is taking it like a champ and still producing quite well. RH is around 38-45% on average which is making for some nice endgame resin production. Smell is potent and varied. From a distance there is the definite odor of cat piss. As you get closer it turns more into a traditional floral cannabis scent. Muck about and disturb her colas and you are rewarded with a pungent tangerine bouquet with a strong undertone of cheese. This girl is going to be a heavy hitter I can already tell.. This week I have been flushing with a very mild pH’d solution of CalMag (to maintain a good buffer in the coco) and 5ml CannaBoost per gallon. Inflow TDS around 330pm and outflow is steady at +150-200ppm relative to the starting solution. During the upcoming week I will begin stepping down to nothing but the Boost. All in all I am very happy with the way this unusual first grow is wrapping up as I head into week 20. Any day now I will be rewarded with an amazing yield from this monster. Thanks for your interest!

I was happy with this grow as my first foray back into home gardening. So glad to be in a legal state where I can enjoy this amazing hobby. I had some hiccups with this one but they all made for great learning experiences. I was mostly happy with FastBuds genetics, aside from the stability issues with the GG phenotype being a photo, and will be back for more!