1st Grow

Grow media got a little too dry, gave around 100ml of water about 3 days in. 1st real watering took place 1 week after Northern Lights germinated, which was a day behind the Strawberry Cheesecake.

Had the Strawberry Cheesecake stretch on me a bit as a seedling, but seems to have leveled out. Adjusted both my light height and levels, increased by 10% and the ladies seem to love it. Almost always praying mid day. Been watering once a week, and bumped up the silica blast this week from 2mLs to 4mLs.

This week has been somewhat interesting, have been working the stems of each plant when the Northern Lights decided it didn't want to stand, so I LST'd both plants. Started noticing some odd holes on the Strawberry Cheesecake a day before feed. I searched the plant for a couple of hours for bugs with a jewlerys loop and found nothing. Strawberry Cheesecake also started showing signs of pre-flower, which this strain apparently shows signs at week 3. Also removed a leaf from the S.C. to expose all the sites that were underneath a huge leaf. Hoping for the best and that all these ladies needed was a good feed.

It has been a somewhat stressful week. I believe that I've been battling some wind burn, which initially I thought was due to adjusting my light intensity too fast. I currently seem to have worked it out for now. I've been somewhat working the plants daily, trying to ensure that I expose as many bud sites as I can. I trimmed up some of the stuff on the bottom and decided to leave the fan leaves and just start tucking them or "cuffing" them to each other or the stem, been working out fairly decent. Also going to slowly just up my nutes from veg to flower, the Strawberry Cheesecake just started budding a bit today(6/4/2023) so it's next feed I'll kick it up into flower levels. The Northern Lights is slightly behind and starting to get some really nice pre-flower pistils going. I don't know if it's cultivar specific or just this pheno, but it is a fairly thick with foliage. These ladies are looking more and more beautiful each day and I am having so much fun.

It's been a decent week for growth as well as beginner mistakes. Broke two branches this week, one wasn't able to recover and I have to remove the stem. While the other is so far looking like it will mend. My previous feed I had crazy high runoff come up, around 3000 and looks like I'm developing a bit of nute burn on the tips. Watered with silica as they haven't had any in a few weeks. Also have been slowly increasing the light intensity over the past couple of weeks. As of today(6/11) I have it adjusted to 80% I decided that I would test my runoff with a different TDS meter this go around, and it registered nearly 1000 ppm less. So I'm gonna go ahead and say my meter is off. While the pH is spot on. These ladies also started their week off around a foot or so tall and as of today(6/11) they are both about 19 inches tall. I have been working the plants somewhat daily by either LST or tucking big fan leaves. It's definitely starting to smell pretty dank. I can smell the cheese from the Strawberry Cheesecake while the Northern Lights still hasn't developed a specific smell besides just dank. Minus my screw ups this week, both plants seem to be thriving and I will continue to give these ladies love. I did also notice that I will probably have to switch up my watering frequency soon her from about once a week to every 5 days.

Another interesting week for my ladies, noticing that my tips were yellowing and also browning but in spots. Leads me to believe that I had some salt build-up in prior weeks, however the growth that I have seen in the last two weeks is unbelieveable, so it's hard to believe that I may have burned my plants, unless they're just that resilliant but also thought it could be a deficincy . It's also showing way more on the Strawberry Cheesecake opposed to the Northern Lights. As far as the super cropping goes, it was 100% accidental. This week I went back and forth in my head from "letting them just go and grow" to "I'm gonna LST so I can even out the canopy" Strawberry Cheesecake was up first, and I had my doubts with how strong the stem was but still seemed a bit pliable at the top. As I was getting ready to adjust my tie down I hear it...... *SNAP*.... "FUCK! Welp, guess it's super cropped now" and thus we are here. Considered letting Northern Lights go, but couldn't resist, so I worked that stem and bam, she went nice and easy. I did create a "bandage" for both plants, N.L.'s stem cracked a bit, the bandage actually seems to help support the branch as well. Within a couple of hours, both tops were hailing the light as well as some of the fan leaves. Another great week with some Super Ladies!

Nothing too crazy this week, both ladies seem to have recovered well from the super cropping. The Nothern Lights main cola is pushing hard to go back vertical, while the Strawberry Cheesecake is getting nice and plump. Seeing calyx starting to swell. Tapered back the nutes a bit this week just to ensure I didn't fry my plants. Diluted the nutes in a gallon and a half. I did have issues with runoff once or twice. Watering frequency has gone up to about every 5 days. Both are starting to develop very distict smells. Strawberry Cheesecake has a fruity as well as the typical cheese smell. Northern lights is starting to develop a dank citrusy scent. Both plants are starting to become noticably stinkier. Sugar leaves are starting to show really nicely on both plants, but still early. Another week down.

It's been a week of chasing VPD as well as upgrading the dehumidifier. Both ladies seem to be doing great minus the stresses that I have put them through. The Strawberry Cheesecake is one strong lady and is COVERED. She's looking fire and frosty. The Northern Lights is looking greaty as well, she has a multitude of budsites, and is starting to plump up just as well. I've been letting them do their thing. Got a great flush in, measuring the runoff, ppm was in decent range for this stage of flower from what I've been researching,however I believe I had issue that started in week 3 of veg, didn't get any runoff on the Strawberry Cheesecake on the first feed and less than adaquate on the 2nd feed. Still learning and now I have a flow to my watering style as well as the frequency down. These ladies genetics are amazing in my novice opinion, no matter what kind of stress I've put them through, they both have recovered gracefully and are producing some great looking flowers. I am very excited for the next couple of weeks and hope to be having a nice harvest here in a month or so.

Thought it would be another easy week, but fed my ladies full strength today(7/9/23) and the PPM on the Strawberry Cheesecake was stupid high again, so will montior, as I just seen new growth with no yellow tips..... Northern Lights on the other hand is right on track. Been on the Feed/Flush schedule, get about 2 waterings in a week. Buds are looking really nice and plump. Been doing trichome checks every watering, I am starting to see more cloudy ones, but still a decent amount of clear trichomes. Environment has been on point this week.

Been mainly a week of plant gazing, this last watering I gave no nutrients what so ever, just decholrinated tap water pH'd to 6.5. Tomorrow (7/17/2023) will most likely be the ladies last actual feed. Starting to see more and more cloudy trichomes and seeing slight amount of amber on the Northern Lights, which she is also starting to put on some really nice purple tones to her. Everything looks like it is starting to finish up nicely and if everything goes accordingly, hoping to harvest around day 90. Ran into a couple of humidity spikes that were handled fairly quick. Been maintaining a RH of 40%-50% Both plants have a fruity aroma but also slightly different, I think both will be an equally enjoyable smoke.

Another week down and both the Strawberry Cheesecake and Northern Lights are maturing nicely, They are both putting on some weight. If the Strawberry Cheesecake throws any more weight on the main cola I'll have to support it as it's already starting to bend due to the weight. Watered both ladies again with only dechlorinated tap water pH'd to 6.5. Northern Lights has a handful of amber trichomes and is really starting to turn to a nice purple. Strawberry Cheesecake is filled with cloudy trichomes but still has a few clear. Seems like both plants could benefit for going close to another 2 weeks, still looking to harvest on day 90 as long as the signs are there. Been pretty much smooth sailing from here until harvest, environment has been pretty much on point. Super fuckin stoked

Decided to give both ladies a diluted feed, runoff PPM got down to around 300, so just to ensure that some of the other trichomes finish off in this last week, I gave the measurements above in 1.5 gallons of dechlorinated water. Both ladies have done a fine job of putting on some weight as well as trichomes turning mainly frosty. I did see a handful of amber on the Strawberry Cheesecake, her main cola also needed to be supported as it was trying to bend out of the pot so to speak. The Northern Lights has faded into one beautiful looking lady. Sticking to my plan on harvesting on day 90, which would be day 90 from seed. So both cultivars are running nearly right on time. 😀 Can't wait to swap the dehumidifier out for the A/C unit.

This last week I went ahead and let this lady dry back. Two days prior to harvest I defoliated most of the fan leaves and switched the lights to 24 hours on, wanted to try this out after seeing a video of Dr. Bruce Bugbee on Mr. Grow it's youtube channel. Also, I dropped the temps down to the high to mid 60's to help preserve as much terpenes as possible during the dry. It was a bit bittersweet to chop her down, however I had so much fun growing to a successful harvest and can't wait for my next run. Thanks to everyone who has stopped by to check my diary out, all of those who liked and commented. I appreciate all the love Growmies! There's no better community I rather be a part of. Seedsman, thanks for hooking it up with awesome genetics that allowed me to harvest some fat dense buds!

What a beautiful and bushy lady, I loved growing her and watching her mature. I am thankful for successfully growing 2 ladies to a harvest. Again, I would like to thank everyone that has stopped by and checked out my first grow, those of you who liked, commented and subscribed. It means a lot, and I hope that I was able to show everyone how passionate I am about cannabis. Seedsman, again thank you for the great genentics and giving me the opportunity to grow fat dense sugary buds.