Sweet Zenzation 2023

~ 1st week ~ Zen1 acclimatized nicely to the conditions in the grow room (i try to make them as good as possible). She has already developed her first true leaves this week. Zen2, however, is a bit strange - looks like a bird has pecked her. And that's probably what happened, because right after germination, before they were repotted, they were outside in the sun for a few hours. I guarded them, but it turns out not very well. (Since i live in the forest, this kind of thing happens to me often, unfortunately.) And i noticed this only in the photos at high magnification - after replanting. The plant lives and grows, but poorly - i don't see her recovering soon, if at all. We'll see. Either way, she'll grow outside if she gets better - i don't want to get in trouble with all the rest here because of her. For now, she's still a tasty morsel for birds, so she'll stay in the grow room for some time. I sowed another Sweet Zenzation seed as soon as i noticed the thing (just sprouted yesterday) and today was transplanted in place of the sick one. And she seems to be fine here. So she is Zen2 from now. But wait - there's a strange thing with her too - she has only one cotyledon, the second is bright yellow and completely undeveloped. But she grows and develops better than the previous one - pecked by a bird. Although now i don't know if it was the bird or bad seed genetics - i didn't catch the bird in the act, it was just the prime suspect. Anyway the fact is that the next Zenzation seed has a problem with germination. Two by three. Not so good. But we'll see how things develop. Starting from seedlings, throughout the vegetative phase, the plants will be well nourished with HESI nutrients two times a week : · Root Complex - 5 ml / 1 l of water · TNT Complex - 5 ml / 1 l of water · SuperVit - 1 drop / 5 l of water The substrate in the pots is a half and half mixture of peat soil and coconut fiber with a small addition of perlite. This time i also added a bit of grind hemp fiber into the substrate (about 10%). The room temperature is set at 28°C in light and 20°C in darkness. Lamps hung at a height of 40 cm above the plants and set to 20% power for now - according to the manufacturer's recommendations and my own previous positive experience. Also due to my previous experiences i am NOT going to use any stressing 'techniques' nor 'train' plants - unless necessary. Hope, that will not be necessary. All i'm going to do is feed the plants and please them, not torment them. Besides - the plants are auto-flowers, so even for this reason no 'techniques' are likely to come into play. And very well - harvest will be earlier.

~ 2nd week ~ At the beginning of this week Zen1 was about 5 cm tall and have a developed first floor of true leaves. At the end of the week, she is 9 cm tall and already has a second layer of leaves quite developed. Zen2 is much smaller - 6 cm tall (but she's a week younger) and have a developed first true leaves. Despite the lack of one cotyledon, she manages to grow - slowly, but that's something. Zen3 doesn't grow tall at all - she's still 3 cm and has very thin stem. But her leaves are definitely bigger than they were at the beginning of the week and something new is popping up on top so... she'll be alive. Though alas, she'll be dwarfed so she will grow in the garden outside when recovers. The lamps are still hanging 40 cm above the plants, but i turned up their power to 40%. The plants look and feel much better now.

~ 3rd week ~ Zen1 is developing quite well - she's 15 cm tall and has reached the fifth floor of leaves. The space between nodes is about 2 cm. Zen2 (a week younger than Zen1) is about 10 cm tall and begins to develop the fourth layer of leaves. The lack of one embryonic leaf caused slowdown of growth in the last stage of germination. But that's over - she's fine now. It's important that she doesn't bloom too soon - before reaches the right size. But, unfortunately, i have very little influence on this - since she's an autoflower. Zen3 also feels much better - significantly accelerated the rate of growth this week and size is similar to Zen2 - 10 cm. Although the lower leaves clearly indicate that it needs something (more nitrogen probably), but the most important thing is that she has them at all - after all, only the stem sprouted from the ground without any leaves. So, that's already a big success. At the end of the week i sprayed the plants with a solution of neem oil - prophylactically.

~ 4th week ~ Zen1 is 20 cm tall at the beginning of the week, the side branches are also the same length. At the end of the week, she's 28 cm tall and the first signs of flowering appears - hair on nodes. Zen2 and Zen3 are 15 cm tall and both have recovered fully. Finally, they started to grow upwards, and the new leaves have a healthy, intense green color. In the middle of the week i transplanted Zen3 to a larger - 12 liter pot. Plants look nice, fresh and healthy. I increased the power of the lamps to 100 %.

~ 5th week ~ Zen-1 started blooming rapidly in the middle of the week. Zen-2 & Zen-3 have fully recovered over the past week and are now looking and growing nicely. Originally, i was going to put Zen-3 outside in the backyard when she recovers, but i changed my mind - as she seems to really like the vibe in the grow room and is growing quite nicely now, so she'll stay here. There's enough space. Zen-1 is 36 cm tall Zen-2 is 25 cm tall Zen-3 is 20 cm tall I used Neoseiulus Californicus - an effective pest-fighter. I hung the preparations on two plants (Gorilla-1 & and Jack-1) - one bag would be enough for the entire crop such as this, but two also don't hurt. And i started to use HESI nutrients for the flowering phase: · Bloom Complex ➝ 5ml / 1l of water · Phosphorus Plus ➝ 3ml / 1l of water · SuperVit ➝ 1 drop / 5l of water (twice a week) also: · PowerZyme ➝ 2ml / 1l of water · Boost ➝ 2ml / 1l of water (every second week) The plants are nice and healthy. The lamps shine at max.

~ 6th week ~ All three Zenzations are currently the same height - 40 cm. And they are all blooming nicely. Zen-3 in particular - expands upwards and sideways. Zenzations are the youngest in this set, and so far they were also the smallest - now they are on par with the rest. Now finally i can evenly level up the lamps.

~ 7th week ~ Zenzations bloom beautifully - Zen-1 is the most developed of the three, as she's the oldest. Zen-3 (the one pecked by a bird) is the tallest and widest of the three, surprisingly. She's over 50 cm tall. I've increased the watering frequency - now they get half a liter a day (per plant).

~ 8th week ~ Zenzations - the buds are getting denser with each passing day and are starting to get coated in resin. They emit a very intense, but pleasant smell - like in an old pharmacy. Overall - they're doing great.

~ 9th week ~ Zenzations - although they are younger than the rest of the crop by almost 2 weeks, they match them in maturity, which means they are the fastest. The buds are beautifully frosted with resin. Their hair hasn't turned red yet, but they're starting to. They took on nice autumn colors and emit a pleasant smell of an old pharmacy. I forgot to mention last week that i've stopped fertilizing them all - they only get water now and in modest amounts.

~ 12th week - HARVEST ~ Since i am currently renovating my house (mainly so that my plants have better living conditions) and i do everything myself - i haven't had time to photograph recently. I also don't have time to write much, so for now i'm just posting a few final photos. I will update & describe everything later - when i finish the renovation.