Glookies

8/12-8/18 Not much to report. 7 days from germination and everything is going fine. One of the seedlings is a little yellow. The small fabric pots have 10% worm castings. No other nutrients were added. One other thing: I decided to put the little starter bags on top of the AC Infinity self-watering pot base to see if it would keep them wet. Each bag is only in contact with about 4" of the wicking string, so we'll see. 8/15: The AC Infinity pot base works perfectly for keeping the small fabric bags wet. I haven't watered them once and the coco is staying evenly moist. I'm curious if the constant uniform moisture is bad for seedlings. Regardless, they are growing well. I wish I would have separated out a control seedling for hand watering to compare.

8/19-8/25 Seedlings are still in the fabric pots. They have been sitting on the AC Infinity pot base and I am absolutely blown away by it. I still don't know how it will work for a 5-gallon pot, but I do know that I will never again start my seedlings without one. The coco medium has been kept at an ideal moisture level without any intervention from me. As you can see in the pic, I have five little pots sitting on the base and all are in great condition. For new growers: The seedling stage is the hardest part for most people, and the difficulty almost always has to do with getting the moisture levels right. Too much water or too little can really impact a seedling's ability to thrive (and even kill it). This setup solves that issue 100%: First of all, it's almost impossible to overwater a coco/perlite mix because the medium density is low enough to retain enough oxygen for the roots no matter how much water you throw at it. Second, since the ACI pot base works by capillary action, it is only going to drink as much as it wants. I'm going to transplant into the final 5-gallon pots at the start of next week when there will be three fully developed nodes. The two seedlings on the left side of the photo are my winners so far--they look slightly larger and healthier than the others. There's a little leaf variegation on a couple of them, which is cool. Stripes! The roots coming out of the sides of the fabric pot are thick, fuzzy, and bright white. Just beautiful so far. Recharge notes: Today, I cleaned the pot base and refilled with new water. I added 1/2 teaspoon of Recharge to the basin. I hope that doesn't mess anything up in terms of bacteria or mold growing in the basin--going to keep a close eye on it. I have read that people have issues when they add organic material (molasses or other sugary boosters) to the basin, but I don't think a half tsp of Recharge is going to matter. Recharge does have a tiny bit of molasses in it to feed microbes. The reason I added to Recharge is to boost root production and nutrient uptake. Although they don't advertise it on their website, Recharge also includes humic and fulvic acids. I am also adding silicon to the reservoir. 8/22: Well, I changed my mind about the pot bases. I decided to try out the Blumats and just use the bases as a runoff catcher for now. There shouldn't be much runoff, so I'll probably switch to a saucer when the plants are bigger for more headroom. I transplanted into the 5-gallons today. The Blumat system is set up. Hope I can dial in the right water flow rate. I covered the top with a thin layer of hydroton as a mulch layer. I haven't done that before, but I figure they're light enough that they won't compact the coco. Seedlings are looking a little yellow. I thought the worm castings would take care of what they needed until the Grow Dots kicked in, but I guess not. I have used a CalMag foliar spray a couple times to try to correct a slight Ca deficiency (as seen in the misshapen lower leaves). Lights have been increased to 300 PPFD (18hrs). 8/22: Lights increased to 350PPFD Tent staying steady at 80F and 60RH. Blumat Reservoir has 5.8pH H2O with Armor SI (silicon) at 1/2 tsp per gallon. I hope it's okay to add silicon to the res--no other way to get it in there right now. 8/25: Tomorrow will be end of Week 3 since the seeds popped (the 21st day). So, my diary is a week behind. There is no way to edit the week numbers on this website, so I'm going to put in a dummy week and jump to week 4 for updates. What I learned about Grow Dots: They don't kick in immediately, so I've been feeding GH trio nutes for a couple days. Seems to have taken care of the slight yellowing. Disappointed that the worm castings I added to the medium seemed to do absolutely nothing in terms of feeding the plants. Guess I'll go with 60/40 coco & perlite next time. I realized that I prefer the control of hand watering at this early stage.

Dummy Week. I messed up the diary and there's no way to change the number of the week. Germination was 8/5. Today is 8/26, which is the first say of Week 4.

8/26-9/1 8/26: First day of Week 4 from germination date. The yellowing and slow growth that occurred from trying to rely on the worm castings has been corrected by feeding twice daily (100-150ml per plant) with GH trio, CalMag, and Recharge. The plants now look great. They might be a little behind schedule, but the growth rate has really sped up. Both plants are working on the 5th node. I don't expect that the slow start will have much impact in the long run. The plants have been in the 5-gallons for about a week. I'm going to stop hand watering tomorrow or the next day. The roots have surely expanded beyond the original pot circumference into the areas where the Grow Dots are. So, it's just water from here on out (with Recharge once a week and silicon in the reservoir). Light has been increased to 450 PPFD (using Photone app) as per the DLI calculator on the Photone website: https://growlightmeter.com/calculator/ temp, RH, and VPD stats in pic.

9/1-9/8 9/3: Plants were topped a couple days ago. The pic is after some light defoliation and plant training. I used the red plant bender clips for the first time. After doing the first plant, I was like "This is so easy. I love it." Then I broke the first branch I bent on the second plant. The second plant (not pictured) is very squat and compact. The fan leaves are the size of my head and the plant is only 7-8" tall. I ended up trimming off a few fan leaves and I put 3-4 benders on it. I will need to wait for it to grow out a little more before I do more training. I taped up the broken branch in hopes that it heals. I haven't fed anything but pH'ed H2O in more than a week (maybe 2 weeks). So, the Grow Dots appear to be working. The Blumats are keeping the plants watered perfectly. I read a lot of horror stories about Blumats, but I have had no issues so far. Not much else to say. Weekly average stats in pic. Update on plant #2. (Plant #1 is the plant on the left in the tent. Plant #2 is the plant on the right--just using these designations for this diary.): Plant #1 is doing great. Vigorous growth. Plant #2 is being a little weird. First, it's showing signs of nutrient burn at the tips of new leaves. Second, it produced the largest fan leaves I have ever seen--bigger than my head. Third, it is also the most squat plant I've ever grown. It's a chode in every respect. I defoliated the giant fan leaves, and the growth underneath is twisted and weird looking. My guess is that the leaves underneath were not uniformly finding the light because of the large fan leaves, so they twisted around randomly. That's what it looks like , anyway. The leaves also have a different texture than the healthier plant. Somewhat papery and thin. I think it's all because the whole plant was completely shaded by 4 huge fan leaves. Hoping some time under the light will fix things. I may turn the light down a bit to give it a chance to ease into its new context. I posted a pic of the second plant to illustrate. See how the new growth is yellowish and twisted? Hopefully, it's just lack of light. 9/8: Plants have grown a lot over the last few days. The squat plant is still very squat, but the foliage is getting very dense.

9/9-9/15 9/10: Plants are growing great. The larger one (but not the smaller one for some reason) has slight nutrient burn at leaf tips on new growth--so, at least I know the Grow Dots are going hard. The medium felt a little dry to the touch so I set up the ACI auto-watering plant bases. Now I'm worried about overflow.... I'm not really worried that one plant is half the size of the other. This summer, I grew some tomatillos and the same thing happened: one big, one small. By the end of the summer you couldn't tell the difference between the two. I have faith that the little one will catch up. This is only the second time I've grown two plants at once, so maybe this always happens. The humidity has been a little high in the tent, but I've more or less been hitting my VPD number (0.8-1.1 for veg). The reservoir has ArmorSI (and half-strength CaliMagic because I can't resist fiddling with everything--no actual sign of calmag deficiency). PH tested every day and adjusted to 5-8-6.0. The res pH has a tendency to drift up, but never more than 6.2-6.3. I have been defoliating here and there because of the higher humidity. The big defoliation is going to happen on 9/12, and then at the end of the week I will flip to flower. I normally would have flipped this week, but because I only got the Grow Dots in the medium 3 weeks ago I need to go one more week. Grow Dots are time release, and set up for a 4-week vegetative phase. The tent is going to get really crowded. It already is. Other than the light defoliation, this has been a really hands-off and problem-free grow so far. 9/12: Defoliated a lot. I defoliate leaves that are: covering bud sites, pressing against the tent walls (moisture accumulation), shaded out by the canopy, dying, or pointed inwards. The plants are very squat and dense, which made defoliation difficult. 9/15: Plants are thriving. I'm using the ACI base and the Blumats. The plants, it turns out, were under-watered from the Blumats on their own. So, I pulled the Blumat sensors higher in the medium (2" under surface). Now, the Blumat drip waters the top half of the container and the ACI base waters the bottom half. So far, it's working great. The smaller plant's internodal spacing is so tight that I couldn't use the red clips--back to tying the branches down with string. It's very bushy and I didn't defoliate much at all. It's crowded in there, but the canopy is actually very even. MOST IMPORTANT INFO: I had completely forgotten that Grow Dots are temperature-release, not water-release. The larger plant started to get nute burn, so I lowered the temperature in the tent (luckily the weather is cooperating) to around 73-75F. It looks like the new growth is less burnt since I lowered the temperature. I wonder if I need to push the nutrients harder later on, can I raise the temp a little bit to do so? What degree of control do the Grow Dots give you? 9/16: Flipped to flower. Lights on 12/12.

9/16-9/22 9/18: Top watered with Recharge. Worried that Recharge runoff in the ACI pot bases is going to cause bacteria or mold to grow in there because there's sugar in Recharge. I only use 1/2tsp per gallon though, so maybe I don't need to worry. In any case, I'm going to pull out the bases this weekend and inspect/clean them. Plants look bushy and super healthy. Since I dropped the temps, signs of nute burn have been minimal. I also moved a dehumidifier into the room. The dehumidifier is a game changer. I can now keep a perfectly stable temp/humidity at all times. When the lights are out the temps drop about 10 degrees F. I set the humidifier for 50%, and the tent has been staying at between 55-60%. Temps between 65-75. Really ideal conditions, just in time for the onset of flower. I lowered the light intensity. I am following the curve that has been making the rounds (see pic). There's a significant drop off in light intensity for the first couple weeks of flower, which I haven't done before. We will see how it goes. If nothing else, it allows me to be gentler on the plants. I don't like being around stressed out plants that are over-fed and over-lit. I also have a completely non-science based superstition that stressed out plants will produce stress-inducing buds. 9/22: Did another major defoliation. A little bit early, but it was getting really crowded in the tent and the weather has been hot. I left on a bunch of smaller branches that I was afraid to cut off. Maybe I'll cut them later if they don't develop. I cleaned out the ACI pot bases and top-watered with Recharge. This will be the last major defoliation. Now I'll just cut off leaves that get in the way of bud development. The plants have been drinking almost nothing from the Blumats, but the medium is staying nice and moist. I'm glad the Blumats are there as backup, but the ACI pot bases do great all on their own. Next time I think I will grow two 3-gallons in the tent (2 5gals is a little too crowded) and only use the ACI pot bases for water.

9/23-9/29 9/28: The tent is extremely full at this point, and I've realized that two 3-gallon (instead of 5-gallon) pots would be ideal for this size tent. I doubt the yield will be that much different in the end. Bud sites are emerging. I erred on the side of caution with the defoliation, and as a consequence I've had to trim off a few small branches since the switch to flower. Every day, I go look at it, put some clean water in the dishes, maybe trim a couple leaves, and that's it. The Blumats are contributing very little, and the top 3 inches of the soil is staying pretty dry. I don't love that, but it doesn't really matter. It just cuts the total volume of medium the plants can use. Since I already have more usable medium than I can handle with the 5-gallons, I guess that's actually good. The plants continue to look extremely healthy. I would say that this Grow Dots cycle has resulted in the healthiest plants I've ever had. I'm not sure if they're the biggest or fastest growing, but who cares. The proof will be in the pudding after the buds develop. I'm still reserving judgment on the Grow Dots until I see the yield. Training note: I put on a trellis net because I expect these buds to get big and might need something to hold them up. However, I now have no way to remove the ACI pot bases for the remainder of the grow cycle. That means no more cleaning the bases, which means I can't add anything like Recharge in any amount that will promote bacterial growth. I actually don't know what it's okay to add to the base water at this point, and I'm scared to risk it. I might actually take off the trellis net. Not sure yet. Reminder: upload pic of temp/humidity/VPD numbers 10/1: Final major defoliation. I've never taken off this much before. This is as close to full lollipopping I've ever done, and it's terrifying. The plants look twisted and abused right now. Luckily, the environment is dialed in so they should recover quickly. I've never needed to lollipop before because I've never had to deal with the space limitation I'm having on this grow. I think I probably worry about WPM too much and that leads me to being fussy about removing fan leaves. I pull a few off every day, and that's probably not the best way to do it. I think the way to do it is to schedule your defoliations ahead of time, and carry them out on schedule. Anyway, everything is looking great. I would say that the branches are a bit more flexible on this plant than they normally are for me, which has led to some crimped bends on a few of them. They tend to heal quickly. At this point I cannot really tell whether this will be a bigger or smaller harvest than normal. I average about 3.5oz per plant when I do one at a time. If I get 6oz. out of this I'll be really happy. Could be more, could be less. Should have a better idea in a couple weeks. Interestingly, it turns out the smaller plant had more bud sites at the canopy (because it's squat), so that one might end up being the big producer! No sign of any nutrient deficiency. pH upped to 6.1-6.2 to promote Ca uptake. Temp/RH are on point (see pic).

9/30-10/6 10/4: Today, we are halfway through the third week of flower. Bud sites everywhere. Leaves look great. Environment on point. No issues. The smaller plant has completely caught up and is now the larger plant by a little. The plants are sliiiiiightly different colors. It's not yet possible to tell if it's phenotypic variation or just different N levels in the medium. Curious to see how things turn out. The one other time I grew a Barney's Farm plant was the only other time I've grown two plants at once. They looked extremely different from one another. One looked like the pic on the package, and one didn't at all. One had the advertised terpene profile, one didn't. pH upped to 6.1-6.2 I got really paranoid about the pot bases because people online were complaining that roots grew into the wicks and stopped water flow. So, I pulled off a delicate and difficult operation where I pulled out (one of) the bases and swapped in a clean one. In the second one I replaced the wick lines. Neither seemed to be particularly rooty. I think that's because I didn't use the bases through most of the veg stage when the roots are growing. Anyway, the bases are clean now. One last thing: I put ArmorSi and CalMag in the reservoir of the "smaller" plant. In the other one, I only put ArmorSi. It seems like the branches are pretty flimsy, but it's still early in flower.

10/7-10/13 10/10 Update: I have been running the tent at 80F and 60RH. I noticed some tip burn on all leaves--including those that don't get direct light. So, it seems like there is some slight nutrient burn. I suspect the increased temperature has caused the Grow Dots to release nutrients faster. I lowered the temp today. If it works, I will be very impressed with Grow Dots. However, I'm guessing there's already accumulated nutrients in the medium and the burn will increase. I wonder if it's possible to do a flush with Grow Dots...? 10/11: Proud of my flat canopy. I had to break out some string for the plant on the right. The back side of the plant on the left is too close to the light (9-12in away), and that's also where the biggest buds are. There's no way to bend them down without covering up a whole bunch of other good looking buds. Just gonna roll with it and see what happens. Watering is becoming a hassle. I thought I smelled sulphur, which is a sign of root rot, so I stopped using the ACI pot bases. I let them dry out and went back to the Blumats. However, I'm finding it tougher to get the Blumats dialed in now for some reason. I might end up going back to the pot bases and just let them sit dry for a day before refilling instead of keeping them full all the time. The sulphur smell stopped almost immediately after I let the bases dry out. Hopefully no real damage was done. I any case, the bases will need to be used in tandem with the Blumats to keep the whole pot moist.

10/14-10/20 10/14: After lowering the temperature in the tent about 5 degrees, the leaf tip burn has stopped. This is the second time I believe I have successfully controlled the Grow Dots release rate with temperature adjustments (maybe--more experiments are needed, but it sure seems like it gives you a great amount of flexibility). The tent is crowded, but the temp/RH/VPD have been perfect (see image). Branches seem too spindly. I'm worried that the buds aren't going to fatten up enough. We'll see. Lots of time left. Still hand watering (1/2gal per day per plant) 10/16: The lower fan leaves on one plant are yellowing a lot (the left side, or "bigger" plant with the larger light). They also happen to be below the largest buds. The largest buds also happen to be closest to the light. After reading around a bit, here's what I think happened: The parts of the plant closest to the light were getting too much light, which caused the fan leaves to yellow and start to die. The DLI was close to 60 for those parts of the plant, which is WAY too high. I turned it down, and now it's around 45 for the big buds, and 35-40 for the remainder of the plant. I wish there was a way to move the larger buds further away from the light, but there's not because of space limitations. I still have some concern about the size of the buds. I think I'm going to end up with a whole bunch of apricot-sized buds and no big kahunas. It doesn't seem like it will be the yield I hoped for, and I am no sure why. A common comment in the Glookies diaries I've seen is that the yield was below expectation. Lots of time left--maybe they'll fatten up a lot. 10/16 (again): I had a little extra time today so I built a DIY CO2 generator. See video. There's some chance it will overflow and/or explode and spray yeast and sugar all over the place. I plan to watch carefully. The pump and heat mat are on a timer so that they're only going when the lights are on. 10/20: Last day of this week. I turned down the light and the leaves stopped yellowing. So, problem solved. The plants look as good as any other Glookies diary I see on here for this far along. I am using every available inch of this tent. I've been as careful as I can about keeping things spaced for airflow. Daytime temps: 78F; nighttime: 67F. Humidity staying steady at 55. I didn't water yesterday because the bags felt too wet on the bottom. The pot bases are bone dry today, so I should be good to water again tomorrow. I hit them with Recharge day before yesterday.

10/21-10/27 10/23: I didn't water at all for 5 or 6 days. The pot bottoms were pretty soggy, so I decided to let things dry out a little. Hand watered plain, pHed H20 today. I have been keeping the tent at 78F in the day and 67F at night. This has been causing some humidity spikes in the night, so I put the dehumidifier back in there today. Going to set it at 45RH (it's outside the tent, so inside the tent RH will be somewhat higher). Otherwise, nothing to report. Buds are developing. The leaf yellowing did stop once I turned down the lights. Both plants are around an average of 38-40 DLI right now. 10/27: Still hand watering. I just gave up on the autowatering system. It was good while it lasted, but this late in the process, I just don't trust either the pot bases or the Blumats to deliver the necessary consistency. Fed them Recharge today. Still letting the temp drop to 66-67 at night. Lights on is at about 80F (a little hot--I'm dropping the temp to 75-76F starting today). RH fluctuating a little between 50-60RH. Need to dial in the dehumidifier a little more. Development-wise, the buds are definitely fattening up. Still have no idea what yield will be. 5oz? I'm surprised all of the pistils are still white. They should begin to change soon. I also see a lot of Glookies with late-stage purple hues coming in. None of that yet. The room smells very strong and the buds are very frosty. I'll have to get some microscope pics soon.

10/28-11/3 10/29: I'm coming to terms with the fact that these plants aren't going to produce monster buds. I wondered if it was the lollipopping that slowed down growth or if there was something lacking from the Grow Dots. However, after looking at a bunch of Glookies diaries on here, I can say that the other grows I've seen are either right where I'm at or smaller at this point in the grow. This just isn't a strain that looks like it grows forearm-sized buds. It has me a little nervous about harvest weight. Hopefully they fatten up. I saw one diary on here where someone let the buds ripen an extra week and I gotta say they looked better than the ones in other diaries. Anyway, these suckers aren't anywhere close to harvest yet. Pistils are starting to redden here and there.

11/4-11/10 11/4: Buds still look pretty immature. They are very dense. Still at least two more weeks to harvest. 11/5: I took som scope pics. My scope stand broke and I'm holding it in my hand, which make it tough to get a stable image. This is the best I could do. Anyway, not seeing any amber and few cloudy trichs, so looks like we have some time. 11/5: Watered with Recharge, ArmorSi, and CaliMagic in recommended amounts. Temps: 66F @ night; 76F @ day RH: ~50% on average. It goes up and down a little bit, but never over 55 or under 45. I'm hand watering every 3-4 days. It's actually easier than using the pot bases or Blumats. Here's my plan for the future: Grow Dots + hand water. You're not mixing nutrients most of the time, so hand watering only takes five minutes. I will use the ACI pot bases as runoff catchers for hand watering, and I can fill them if I need to go out of town. That turns out to be the easiest, lowest touch grow method I've found (if you don't want to set up an electrical auto-watering system, which I do not). I have zero complaints about the Grow Dots so far, and it's hard to imagine them fucking anything up at this point because the buds are just maturing and don't need many nutrients. I won't add any more Si or CalMag after the next water (and it's probably overkill that I'm doing it anyway). I would love to do a side-by-side comparison of Grow Dots/Recharge vs. some high-end nutrient regimen. I know the Grow Dots aren't really anything special (basically Ozmocote tweaked for weed plants). Aroma review: The last strain I grew was Girl Scout Cookies. The plants grew exactly as advertised: They were peppery and grassy, very warm, welcoming and cozy. One of my favorite buds. The Glookies is definitely NOT that. The current aroma is an aggressive sweetness that made me think of strawberry Kool-aid packets. Maybe that's not quite right, but it's very fruit-forward. Not really citrus--sweet not tangy. I'm not saying it's bad--it's really nice. It's still not mature, so I'm sure the aroma will soften and develop more nuance.

11/11-11/17 Week 9 of flower...getting close! One of the plants has significant fade. The other doesn't. I'm just adding pH ~6.0 H2O at this point. No nutrients. I'm going to look at the trichs with a scope a few times over the week, but they're still almost all clear at this point with some milky and zero amber. So, I'm not going to rush it. If it takes 10 weeks of flower, that's fine. 11/15: Watered with Recharge on 11/14. Fade continues to accelerate. I'm picking off the totally yellow/dead leaves. A couple of small branches collapsed under their own weight. Had to cut one off (it was larf anyway). Shooting for an 11/22 harvest, which will be 67 days of flowering.

11/18-11/25 The buds are very dense and covered in trichomes. The sweet berry smell I mentioned a couple weeks ago has mostly gone away. It smells different now. I dried and vaped a sample bud. Very potent. As of now, the trichomes still aren't showing they're ready for harvest. Some clear, mostly cloudy, no amber. Tent temps are averaging around 75-77 in the daytime, which is higher than I'd like. The humidity is good at around 45 average. 11/22: After putting the trichomes under the microscope, I'm making the call. Harvest day will be 11/24. This morning I turned the lights off and am going to give them 48 hrs of darkness prior to harvest to increase terpene production. I've never done that before, and suspect it's a myth. 11/24 will be 69 days of flower.

11/23: Harvested late night after Thanksgiving. 69 days of flower; 111 days from seed. The plants had exactly 48 hours of darkness prior to harvest. I took a couple pics of the plant just before harvest and the hanging branches. Even after harvesting, I still have no idea what the yield is going to be. I typically top and do a little LST, getting that traditional plant shape. I haven't lollipopped before and the structure is totally different than what I'm used to. If I had to guess, I'd say 5-6 oz, but it could be an ounce in either direction. I have the environment on lockdown. 65F & 55RH (first two days at 60/60). One great thing about growing where I live is that drying and curing are typically easy. I don't have to deal with AC units. Just a little space heater and a humidifier. Both are outside the tent. The tent is in a very small and cool basement room (about 10x4), so I heat and humidify the air in that room, and then the exhaust brings the air into the tent. I am still running the inline fan exhaust on a low setting. There is also a fan down at the floor of the tent on a very low setting. A perfect, gentle flow of 60/60 air moving around the plants at all times. 11/29 update: Dried harvest came in at 9.8oz! I think the flat canopy created an optical illusion or something. I thought it was going to be far less than that. There are a lot of popcorn buds and smaller, airy mid-size buds. But, there are also a ton of large, dense ones. It turned out to be a fantastic haul of top shelf marijuana. I'll update with a smoke report later on. p