Chocolate & Cheese

Day 1: Ok, so here's the deal. I wanted to grow Seedsman Chocolopez, and when I was collecting the seed from storage, it accidentally got mixed with a Sweet Seeds Sweet Cheese Fast Version seed, so I am planting both in the same diary, in separate pots. We will just have to guess which one is Chocolopez! Judging from what I already see, I'm going to say #2 is Chocolopez. I recently grew Sweet Cheese and its seedling shot up very tall like #1. But, that's really just a guess at this point. Day 7: Both are looking good.

I will now be posting media daily but giving weekly updates at the end of each week. Stay tuned.

Day 19: She suffered from a week without food or water like the rest of my plants, and she is the one that handled it the best. She has been transplanted into a 5gal pot and placed under 12/12 in my tent (the only place with room). This will be an almost-from-seed 12/12 grow. Unfortunately, the image for today is only of plant #2. Her sister is also in a 5gal pot, but outside where there is more room, and it is dark out there right now. I'll try to get one of her uploaded soon. That's it for this week. As always, thanks for stopping by, and don't be afraid to reach out if you have any questions!

Day 23: Today is the first day their tent is no longer flowering any photoperiods. I will be gradually increasing their daylight hours back up to around 18 over the next week or two. After that, the tent will function as a perpetual auto grow from mid-veg until harvest, with initial veging in my other tent. Hopefully no more lighting mistakes when everything is constant and matched up with both of my tents. At some point, these 2 plants will be going outdoors to finish. Plant #2 was FIM'ed today above the 5th node. Day 24: They are up to 13h of light after a couple days of incrementing the daylight hours. They seems to be improving, branching out and stacking up a few more nodes since the drought correction. However #1 still hasn't shown an improvement from her nitrogen deficiency. I will be keeping an eye on it and try to remedy it over the next few days.

Day 30: Plant #1 finally seems to be a shade of green that makes both of us happy. It took her a while to recover from the drought, but she seems to be in high gear now. As such, I FIM'd her today. Plant #2 was FIM'd 3 days ago, and she is already extremely bushy. In general, I'm liking the shape they are taking. They may get separated in another week. Some of my plants need to migrate to the outside garden to make room for the new. I haven't yet decided which one, if either of these, that will be.

Day 37: Well they are both doing wonderful and really bushing out. We're getting lots of new FIM heads. It's too thick in #2 to even see what's going on without pulling everything out of my tent. #1 was cut a little later and is only a few days behind. These are two completely different strains, that happen to be growing together by pure luck: me dropping a seed next to another, and not knowing which is which. That said, they both look very similar, and are both responding to feed and train equally well. I am happy so far. I am not going to do any defoliation for a while. They are doing just great without my help. These are photos so we will let them do their thing and take their time. Not much else to report. See you next time, and thanks for stopping by. Day 38: #1 is getting bushier, with her FIM starting to give depth to her even more each day. I performed some light defoliation of old lower growth. #2 is looking like a mini jungle. I can't make heads or tails from anything. I tried digging into it to see what I could defoliate, but it's just too thick to bother. I decided I am going to let her grow naturally until at least she gets flipped. One thing to note that I may have forgot to mention: #1 and #2 are in 2 different containers. #1 is in a 5-gallon fabric pot, and #2 is in a 4-gallon plastic pot. So far, both plants look too similar in their leaf structure to tell which is the Sweet Cheese I grew a few months ago. Once they start pre-flowering, I will almost surely be able to tell. I am planning to begin flowering both #1 and #2 around week 9 or 10. Day 40: They are both thriving. I have decided that this will be their last week indoors. We will continue to vegetate them naturally outdoors, and plan for a Fall harvest. They both look like they would be excellent producers if trained properly outdoors.

Day 45: The guessing game is now over! On the very first week I guessed correctly. I guessed #2 would be the Sweet Cheese. The reason why was because when Sweet Cheese was very young its taproot was very flimsy and took several weeks for it to really anchor itself with lateral root branching. For the first 3 or 4 weeks, the last time I grew Sweet Cheese, 2 plants could not stand without propping them up with a stick. I woke up several mornings to them both laying flat on the ground. If you can manage to keep them upright, they really take off and get strong after about 3-4 weeks though. I had the same problem early on with #2 of this diary that I had on my 2 previous Sweet Cheese plants. Additionally, wow! #1 must be the Chocolopez because I have never seen this size of a fan leaf grow in a 4-gallon pot before. Look at this thing (in the image): it's about the diameter of the entire plant! I defoliated a lot of undergrowth on the bottom of #1 today. Day 49: I am transitioning away from synthetic liquid fertilizers, and these two plants are my first guinea pigs for a recipe I'm trying in an effort to be more frugal and produce less waste. I started their new feed supply today. I am no longer using Fox Farm nutrients for the duration of this grow. Today, Chocolopez for the first time is stretching to be 1 inch taller than the Sweet Cheese. Both plants were FIM'd for a second time about 3 days ago. Chocolopez is looking like she will now get a topping in the next day or two. There is a strong chance that this is their last week indoor. I am playing it by ear. The weather has been pretty wacky, and also I am not in a rush. I don't yet need the tent space. They have at least another couple weeks before they get in my way :)

Day 52: They're growing a little too fast for me horizontally. I have stopped topping and FIMing them for the past week or so. I haven't yet decided if both are going outdoors, or just one of them, or when that will be. They both have been doing well with the new fertilizer for more than a week now, with no leaf symptoms.

This is now an outdoor diary.

Day 64: Welcome to the start of week 10. The girls have been outdoors for more than a week now and loving it soaking up the sun. We have a long while before we even start flowering. I think we might have monsters this year again. Edit: 2 shots of each today. Some of my plants were overexposed from the sunshine we had today, so went around again! Day 65: Today I gave a large defoliation and pruning to one side of Sweet Cheese. There was a lot of growth in there giving it too many moisture pockets and places for bugs to hide. There was also an alarming amount of dead growth once I got to the middle, so I'm glad that's taken care of. I haven't defoliated her at all in the 10 weeks, so this was much deserved to give room for new growth to surface. Tomorrow I will do the other side. I will be back then with the new look she be sporting. Edit: Ok, so as I am back sooner than I expected with some pictures, because I may not get to update for a day or two. We are having thunderstorms for a couple days. Rain. Finally. It's been dry for 2 weeks. I am up to carrying 30 gallons of water around my yard everyday. I can finally stop for a little bit! Day 66: Today I finished the heavy defoliation and pruning of lower growth on Sweet Cheese. I also topped a few tops off of Miss Chocolate. Day 68: They got rained on a bit the last couple days, and are looking very happy. Chocolopez got a light defoliation of undergrowth yesterday. Day 69: They liked the sun coming out today. So umm, this is the point where I just wait. For about 2 more months until we start flowering. I'll do light maintenance here and there, but they are looking pretty well for their age and minimal nutes supplied. We'll slowly up the feeding program and let them build, now that they are mature and handled my heavy pruning with ease.

Day 71: Welcome to week 11 of my 2 largest outdoor plants for this season. Sweet Cheese F1: 25in tall Chocolopez: 26in tall Maxing out yesterday, we have been gradually increasing their nutrients over the last week, now that summer weather is here, they are well-adjusted to the outdoors, and they have recovered from the heavy pruning last week. We should start to see these girls take on a fuller volume in the coming weeks, which, I may run out of room for and might have to get creative. These girls have plenty of time to grow before we even start flowering -- about 2 to 2 1/2 months before the stretch begins. Day 73: Sorry, but it is back to storming pretty constantly around here (see image). I'll get proper images as soon as weather permits! On the plus side, I haven't had to manually water in a long time. :) Day 74: We're fertilizing the lawn today, so I couldn't really get any pictures except for this diary. Chocolopez made a lot of new friends this week. We have lots of ladybugs, some like the one shown in the picture, and some yellow/black ones. I think this plant is mite-proof! I started pruning and defoliating some of Sweet Cheese F1 (again). I want her to focus her energy on the top now that there is ample branching there.

Day 78: Welcome to week 12 of these monsters! We've been having lots of storms lately, but it's beautiful outside today and they're loving it. They are both quite a lot larger, though I did prune Sweet Cheese F1 last week some more, to try to even things out. Chocolopez looks huge in comparison, but give it another week :) This week summer starts, so we still have a long ride ahead! Day 79: I didn't spend much time outside today as I was getting quite dizzy from the heat wave, only enough time to get a quick height measurement: Chocolopez: 35in tall Sweet Cheese F1: 29in tall Edit: Back at dusk for some pictures! Day 82: It's 91F today and the girls are loving it! More thunderstorms forecasted on and off for the next week, so I get to put my feet up and let up on the lugging water around. Day 83: At least 10 days of pretty major thunderstorms here. It's never been like this before. Well, I'll try to get out and take pictures over the next couple of weeks when it isn't pouring. For now, here's what they look like now, at 41in tall for Chocolopez and 33in tall for Sweet Cheese F1.

Day 87: Chocolopez continues to tower over Sweet Cheese F1.

Day 94: They both grew a lot over the last few days. Chocolopez is 53 inches tall. Sweet Cheese F1 is 44 in tall. Day 97: I defoliated and pruned the bottom of Sweet Cheese F1. Chocolopez seems to have attracted some bad bugs in the last couple of days. A few large fan leaves near the top were severely damaged by some leaf chomper. I sprayed the entire plant down with a dilluted peppermint oil solution. I have no idea if that will help, but it's worth a try. I do not mind the smell or moisture pockets from the oil this early in the season. Day 98: Peppermint oil might have been a bad move. I'm seeing some wilting and necrosis on and around 1 bud site on Sweet Cheese F1 (see images). I will evaluate the situation and try to remedy it to the best of my ability. Edit: The pictures from before were just after sunrise when the leaves were dewy and not in photosynthesis mode yet. 2 hours later, the purplish leaves turned into a rust color, and the wilted leaves were completely crispy. I did like 5 toppings and some defoliation. She has a bare spot now, but I'm hoping she'll recover from this stress and fill out again.

Day 100: Well, last week's mysterious sudden death was figured out. My wife happened to use my watering bucket with bleach. Oops. Only Sweet Cheese F1 was affected, and quite a bit of one side of her had to be topped. Chocolopez height: 58in Sweet Cheese height: 52in Day 101: Today I began pruning small branches from Chocolopez's bottom - the ones that are tiny and buried inside/under her canopy. There are a lot of them, and I am going to be doing this over the next week or so a little bit at a time. I don't want to interrupt her incredible volume that is increasing very fast. The bugs seemed to have stopped biting Chocolopez. She is doing quite well now after my peppermint water treatment. I use a diluted peppermint or habanero water to combat bugs. It usually helps. Just keep the concentration low, especially with peppermint. I'm confident Sweet Cheese will have plenty of time to recover. I may even top her right before flowering starts to set it (which should be in approximately 1 month from now), to put all of her potential energy into buds and keep her short and bushy. Day 102: Sweet Cheese is already starting to look better. I bet in two weeks it'll be almost as if nothing happened. Chocolopez is still climbing tall, and she's a very wide bush, but that doesn't matter outdoors I guess. Today we have a severe wind/rain storm heading our way. I put some stakes around some of the plants in my garden and hung a large tent rain fly over them diagonally to catch as much wind and rain as I can. Last year a storm like this only tore off 1 branch late into flower when we weren't prepared. This time I am somewhat. I can't find my tarp or else I would have protected more plants. In this diary, Chocolopez is protected. Sweet Cheese is not. :) Day 103: Both plants survived the storm thanks to my shelter! Today, Chocolopez is 61in tall and Sweet Cheese F1 is 55in tall.

Day 106 I keep picking off bleached leaves from Sweet Cheese. Still not completely recovered from that mistake, but she is starting to fill in her amputated area. She is growing tall though - up to 57in. Chocolopez slowed down her vertical growth because the rain tarp I rigged up gave her a slight bit of HST on a few of the young new heads. That's fine by me. She's now 64in tall. My neighbor, this little nice old lady asked me what kind of plant Miss Chocolopez was about 2 months ago. I told her, it's cannabis. She said "it's such a lovely thing". Tonight she commented for the second time "oh my, i never saw a bush grow that fast". I think I just said "yep" but I was pretty blasted at the time.

Day 113: Chocolopez is now 69in tall. Sweet Cheese F1 is now 61in tall. They both started stretching like crazy the last couple days. Chocolopez was 65in just yesterday, and today 69in. Here we go! Day 114: The pre-flowering stretch has begun for most of my garden, including these two plants. Outdoor the stretch is slow but long. Considering the rate of growth we are getting this week, it might not be so slow this year, but even longer, because I'm normally expecting it to begin in 2-3 weeks. :) In any case, I have begun doing the next step for these girls. My plan is to lollipop them, with Sweet Cheese F1 getting a fuller treatment. But first, before any cutting is done, we need to train their new growth a bit. We will start by opening up Sweet Cheese F1. First, today, I'm putting tent stakes in the ground, and pulling some of her perimeter branches outward to make her wider. After she grows accustomed to this, we will see what we got, doing some light defoliation to get a better picture of how she is going to grow. We will not be pruning anything quite yet, just opening her up and doing some light defoliation as we watch her formation. We will be pulling and tying branches away from her neighboring friend Chocolopez in the process. Chocolopez is not going to get as much of a pruning as Sweet Cheese. I don't plan on training her by tying down any of her branches, and I will not be removing as much lower growth. In any case, I'm not doing much to her yet, except giving her more light and room to grow by adjusting her neighbor that is in her bubble currently. Day 115: Some more tying of Sweet Cheese F1. Still not done but just taking my time with her :) Day 116: Finished tying Sweet Cheese for this week. We'll do some more growth redirection at the start of next week! Chocolopez and Sweet Cheese F1 are both definitely starting to flower now! Day 117: Chocolopez is 71in tall. Sweet Cheese F1 is 64in tall. Day 118: Chocolopez has exceeded my own height. Up to 73in today :)

Day 126: Some preflowers here and there. No buds yet 😁

Day 130: Removed ties from Sweet Cheese. Partially lollipopped Sweet Cheese and Chocolopez. Getting ready for those first buds. We will defoliate more when the time comes. Still waiting for a clear sign of flowering. Right now we're stuck in purgatory, though it looks like they are trying to find their way. Day 131: Chocolopez stopped stretching a couple days ago, reaching a final height of 76 inches, and today we have the first glimpse of actual buds 😍 Sweet Cheese stopped stretching I think. I didn't get to measure her today yet. She doesn't have buds yet but looks extremely close. I'm not worried about her though. I grew this strain twice indoor and she takes a little while to start blooming, but this is a fast version strain, and finishes in a fraction of the time Chocolopez will. I think Chocolopez will be ready mid October, while Sweet Cheese should be ready mid-late September. Day 132: Ok, now both plants have buds. Home stretch 😍

Day 135: Things are starting to progress nicely for both plants. Day 138: Is it October yet? Day 140: Buds are starting to really develop now.

Day 147: Chocolopez and Sweet Cheese buds are really starting to take over the plant now. Leaves are starting to thin out as I pluck the yellow ones off. I can finally see the middle in some places. Chocolopez is starting to smell very slightly like pine. Sweet Cheese, slightly sweet.

Day 154: Chocolopez is starting to fade today. Her buds are also starting to smell like pine. She seems completely immune to mold and pests. Very good strain to grow outdoors. Sweet Cheese is not doing so well. She got hit by powdery mildew a few days ago, and if she looks smaller, it's because I already lopped off about 10% of her, and I think I'll have to do more soon. Outdoor sucks in this very humid climate.

Day 161: Chocolopez is going to be ready sooner than later I think. Sorry for the crappy picture. Wife was filling in for the usual photographer today 😁 Sweet Cheese I know takes a long time, even though she is a fast version. I guess the parent is super long to flower. We're getting there though!

I have some very sad news, especially since I know a lot of people were looking forward to these two monsters finishing. 2 weeks ago, bad hurricane weather hit my area. It knocked down a tree that hit these two plants. They were instantly decimated. 75% of both of them were chopped right off. For the last two weeks I have been trying desperately to keep them alive. Chocolopez died very fast. The 25% that was left turned into like 10% over 2 days, and bud rot soon after. When a plant loses too much foliage, the rest just can't survive. There was no saving her unfortunately. When she was destroyed by the storm she had nothing but pistils and no bud, so there was nothing to salvage. Bummer. Sweet Cheese lost about the same amount from the storm, leaving about 25% left. She actually survived for 2 weeks and her buds got a chance to swell up. I started to see her take a turn for the worse with rapid dying off for two days, so I cut down what was left today. It's hanging to dry. I don't have pictures yet. Sorry. This whole grow is disappointing, but maybe I'll get something out of it. If you want to see some other monster plants I'm growing outdoors (though not as big) that I really like the looks of, check out my Kannabia Kiss and Kannabis Mataro Blue diaries I am still growing out there now. I'll be back shortly with some drying pictures. I'm not even going to bother with a weight because yeah. Have fun, and thank you so much for all the support to everyone throughout this growing experience! Edit: Added a picture of the crop hanging. This is all I got out of both plants. This is about 25% of Sweet Cheese only. Chocolopez didn't make it. It has been drying for 4 days. Tomorrow I trim it all.

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