Nutter Budder x Pistachio

Water wasn't draining well on soil, so they were placed on a solid surface for better drainage. Only 1 photo this week, nothing too exciting. Waterings with saponin and BoS B6 3x times a day. #1 looking nice. #2 leaning, used garden wire for support while it corrected itself.

Humidifier issues lead to some watering issues. Sacrificial plant vegetation used to shade topsoil from led light on #2. #1 is fat enough to shade herself. I should transplant. But I don't...

Week 3: Neglected them this last week or so. Up-potted them to give me more time, as the main grow tent was still in use for drying. This is a scheduling issue as well, I planted the next round too early and it caused some issues. I don't want to transplant more than once if I can help it, so I wanted to try and transplant into the final container (Earthbox) before they got too big. When I picked up their little seedling containers to transplant them their roots had grown through and into the EB's soil. No pictures as I knew it needed to get done ASAP and didn't think about it.

Week 4: Day 28, looking improved from the last photo that was posted in week 3 (2 days prior to this). At this point my main tent is able to be used but I was waiting to see a little more recovery before transplanting again. Watered daily in the morning, I'm getting better at intuitively knowing how much and when to water. This is only my 2nd grow, plenty to learn still. Day 30 is looking even better still. That damn clone is growing out of control and blocking out #2. #1 was supercropped to help keep it in check.

Week 5: Finally got the main tent cleaned and prepped, and the EB's amended and top watered. Transplant went fine besides the stupid cheap covers they provide. I am sure if you zoom in enough there is dirt on these plants from trying to slip them through the not so tiny holes I made in those plastic covers. Of note this week: They are now in a better humidity controlled zone, it does take a couple days but I do dial in the VPD to 1-1.1 eventually. The lights in this tent are a bit stronger possibly, Mammoth White 680w 6 bar vs. ACInfinity T22 130w. PPFD at leaf height is around 550. They have been poorly kept and it shows. Though as I write this I have just taken a peek into the tent and I will say that think it is going well despite my absence. These plants can live through a lot, if I ever get around to posting the clone grow it is an interesting journey. *This is an aside, but I have been giving more and more thought to just buying a big living soil bed. I like the idea of a 4'x4' bed in the 4'x4' tent (humidifier will be routed into tent). Logic: EB's can contain around 15 gallons of soil, 3x3 bed 84 gallons, and 4x4 164 gallons. I can reasonably fit and manage three EB's, one 3x3 bed, or one 4x4 bed in the 4x4 tent at a time. Soil per Plant via Earthbox x3: 3 plants = 15 gal/plant 6 plants = 7.5 gal/plant Soil per Plant via 3x3 LS bed: 3 plants = 28 gal/plant 4 plants = 21 gal/plant 9 plants = 9 gal/plant Soil per Plant via 4x4 LS bed: 4 plants = 41 gal/plant 9 plants = 18 gal/plant 16 plants = 10 gal/plant So as you can see, giving myself that massive 4x4 bed allows me to do a (mini-) pheno/geno-type hunt more easily and with 10 or 18 gals of soil per plant to fight over still. I still believe the EB's work very well but to make them work at their best I must be much more attentive than I have been, and I am busy with life so a large bed with more soil should give me a better buffer. I may wait until I can give the EB's a better effort at least before moving on from them but time will tell. Update: Recent BuildaSoil YT video, Jeremy states a new "basically larger earthbox" is in the works with him and the livingsoil company, so that might be an option as well.

Day 42: Some defoliation for both, topped as well. I pushed the taller stems down daily to get them used to some LST. Fed the usual for veg, they are just getting back to normal now. Still top watering, as they are not big enough to have shot roots into the reservoir yet. I don't exactly wait until I see roots through the tube, I usually go by size and plant mass but if I see new roots through the tube its a go ahead for switching to filing the reservoir. No change to environment since last week.

Week 7: Well they sure shot up in six days. Way too close to the lights, so I lifted those up and plucked a few damaged fan leaves in the process. Fully amended for pre-flower with kashi and craft blend, topped with a ~1/2" layer of Buildaflower, and lightly wetted in with big6 and saponin infused water. Did you see Figure 4, those feeder roots were gorgeous. I had so many issues with the first grow that I never saw any feeder roots pop up before I did my final topdress. This was exciting to see, especially on these which didn't have the best beginnings. The reservoirs were also finally dry and ready to be topped off again. The first time I fill the reservoirs in the EBs during a new grow they have always taken 7-12 days before fully drinking it completely. They usually take around 1.75-2.25 gallons depending on the root mass and soil moisture, they both took 2 gallons this time around. Water that goes into the reservoir is straight tap and no I have never done a pH test. Bought a cheap set recently but the calibration procedure seems tedious so I haven't done it. Now that these have mass and size I expect to be filling the reservoirs daily soon. I am going to try and push these 2 to make up for the reduced plant number. Next week's photos really start to showcase the differences between these two plants. I think one will lean heavy towards the Nutter Budder lineage and the other towards the Pistachio lineage. I am just not experienced enough to hazard a guess as to which is which right now.

Week 8: well there was a need for removing some of the foliage, but I think I got a little too focused and went too far. But then they bounced back fine. So I'd say they have fully settled into their earthboxes now. Hopefully they'll spread out here and reach the corners so I can flip soon, this is getting excessive. I definitely won't be starting the next grow early until I have fully harvested, dried, and trimmed this one. These suffered from having to sit and share space and my fight for my time and attention. So that's the plan. Water reservoir when dry, tuck leaves and branches to fill canopy, and defoliate one last day before the pre-flower week.

Week 9: Nutter Budder x Pistachio The good first: Both are okay now, plan to flip to flower within days, and I have spotted some absolutely beautiful feeder roots poking out of the topsoil from BOTH plants when I lift the mulch cover. I didn't get any pics but I will hopefully the next time I top dress, which might be next week, since I have already seen some nutrient deficiency issues. NBP2 (formerly refered to as #2 or plant #2) is developing an issue. In the pics you may be able to see the thin purpling branches, and some indication on the leaves. I ignored for longer than I should have. She slowed her drinking and in the last week she hasn't emptied her reservoir, yet NBP1 has already been refilled once. This should have been an obvious sign, as they usually pull at the same rate. After the 3rd day of looking worse I drenched the soil with a gallon of saponin water, thinking maybe it just needed some of the topdress watered in better. Day 4 saw no worsening of symptoms but not looking better. So I did some research, settled on it not having some kind of nutrient which is stopping it from up taking water. The whole nutrient balance is still confusing to me. So I mixed a heavy dilution of buildabloom and saponin into my 2 gallon pump sprayer and dispersed about 1.5 gallons over the topsoil of NBP2 and .5 gallons over NBP1 (started to see some of the same early symptoms as on NBP2). This was done in the AM for the plants day. I checked later and though the rest of the plant looked alright or marginally improved. At this point, feeling like I have a handle on things again, I stepped back and noted how hard these plants were pushing up on the net. I am not picking this further and will flip next week. Knowing this, I turned down the lights to 16 hours of daylight. And will knock it down every couple days until I hit 12 hours, which will be day 1 of flower for this journal. NBP1 is just cruising. I love it. She is stacked and thick. So much foliage. But I can see how, if I had started LST earlier, this could have filled it's half of the tent easily. Since she doesn't have an issue with water uptake so her mains bend and move easy as I tuck and clean her up every couple days. Last update for this week: Got a pic of the feeder roots, I think. That's what I am familiar with them as.

Week 10: I don't know, maybe this is a lesson in not buying $2 seeds and basing my entire grow on two of those seeds. Plant #1, or NBP1, is a treat. I love her, she is thick and stout. I hate defoiliating her though. Plant #2, or NBP2 on the right has had issues. Purple stems, some kind of nute issues that the other EB didn't have. Maybe the plants are different enough that their needs are this different. But I am thinking this is what I get for buying phenohunt seeds for $2. Either way. I needed another week to try and get NBP2 back on track. Got some liquid comfrey fertilizer and amended for another veg week with some buildabloom. There was a defoiliation somewhere in this week. Next week is flower.

Flower, Day 1: You missed out on the defoliating that happened after the pictures from last week. I decided they were too bushy to let go another week plus I wanted to flip. So what you see in the pics is 4 days after the defoliation, which is also day 1 of Flower. Yeah, maybe I flipped a little to quickly after defoliating. Oh well. Looks fine to me. NBP2 (on the right) is not drinking nearly as fast and has constantly had purple stems since mid veg. I hate how this plant looks. I have seen more than a few plants growing and this one just looks sick or like it needs something. Maybe it's the red stem variety that is more picky that I have heard about? NBP1 is looking stellar as always. I like this plant during veg stage more than the last strain I ran. The leaves on it stay smaller in scale. In comparison, I just took some fan leaves off the cloned weddiding cake that is in veg and the leaves were as nearly wide as my chest. These are more manageable. Still, thick as ever. Left way too much. Will be lollipopping at the end of week 3. Amended for bloom/stretch, ingredients are almost all correct but serving size was just what the bags recommended since I can't be bothered to do the conversions to the only 3 units this site provides... They should fix that. Anyways, instead of the peach fertilizer I bought and applied the watermelon ferment. Additionally, instead of Kashi BLEND I used their new Kashi BLOOM. Everything except the buildabloom, big 6 micros, and saponin was mixed and topdressed. Then watered in with the remaining 3 amendments. The day after the first bloom feeding they both drank up their water and needed refilling. The one on the right, NBP2, doesn't drink as fast, but I expect to be filling NBP1's resevoir every day or every other day for awhile. I am slightly worried that NBP1 will outstretch and out grow NBP2, time will tell. Flower Day 6: Looking full again. I think NBP2 is about a week behind NBP1 because of its issues. Harvest will be interesting. Updated with the last set of pics for this week. NBP1 looking amazing. It's fan leaves are cool looking, some are weird with 8 leaflets (terminology?) Instead of 7. The scrog net is getting beat up. I have another net to toss up if they really stretch. Light intensity for the past week has been as follows: Start of Flower Week 1 - 650 PPFD, End of Week - 800 PPFD. I will continue to increase until I see negative feedback or I hit my lights max setting, the latter of which is unlikely to happen. I feel better about this grow now, but I just want to get this run over with. I am going to put a 4x4 bed in here I think. Gonna go from 19 gallons of living soil per plant to 160 gallons to split between 4 (80 gallons each).

Week 2: Okay, so some of the first pics are from the end of week 1, day 7. Anyways, it was so dark under the canopy and full of foliage, so I had to clear out the overgrowth. Lots of pictures this week, don't count on this being the norm, I'm just avoiding another part of my life currently. Light Intensity: Start-of-week 800 PPFD, Mid-week 1000 PPFD, End-of-week 1200 PPFD. NBP2 is starting to drink. But she looks to be a good 4-7 days behind NBP1 right now. Not much else going on after the defol. I will likely do some light lollipoping on day 20-ish flower and send it from there. I gave a full feeding on Flower Day 12, as they are still praying hard and stretching that scrog net to its limits. The earthboxes are now mounded to the point that I have to be careful when watering in my topdressing. I feel like my first grow I didn't feed enough ahead of time. I also didn't have the watermelon liquid ferment or the Kashi BLOOM so that may help hasten the breakdown of topdressing. Gave both gals 2 gallons of fresh water into their reservoirs as well. Hopefully they are getting onto the same water schedule now.

Week 3 Flower: PPFD: 900-1100, upper canopy Leaf temp is 80F at the hottest/tallest bud. EB's are overflowing, and my mister is busted so watering amendments in has become tedious and messy. Added Buildaflower, wetted in with saponin/B6/buildabloom/coconut water, 1/2 gallon each. NBP2 is still the slower drinker but she started to stretch the last day of this week so I have no idea what it's going to do. Filling NBP1's reservoir every other day like clockwork. NBP2's is like 1.5-2 days in between right now. I defoliated heavily, lollipped also (I think it qualifies as lollipopping) on day 20, right after the pictures for day 20 were taken. I was super nervous to cut away too much on my first grow. It was a jungle and I had so much popcorn because of that, but not this time. Left at least 1, usually 2 of the top fan leaves, and any outer lower fan leaves that are not blocking any other buds. There are still a few fan leaves here and there that are going to be in the way, but I will tuck or pluck them later. Soft plan to defoliate once more, if necessary, around day 40. I feel good about this though. My only worry is running out of food, but I fed these beds heavily. So as long as I keep up with watering in buildabloom and mounding what more I can, I think I should be alright. I have the setup for a quick compost tea so that is always an option, this soil will need to be refreshed anyways after this run. Hopefully it's smooth sailing now, I will be watching closely for deficiencies and will consider tossing up another net for support if they start stacking weight.

Week 4: 12 hrs daylight @ 900-1000 PPFD at canopy Watering every other day (reservoir filled) I was worried about the amount of leaf material removed last week (first time taking that much from the main crop) but all is looking well. Still not too strong of a smell. Pulled the lights up a bit to reduce the fan leaf temp from 79F down to 77F at the highest leaf. They really started to pack on the weight the last two days. NBP2 is still a week behind I think. Saw a huge earth worm burrowing in NBP1. Lots of worm compost under the top soil. I am certain now I will need to remix all my soil after this run. Trying to decide on how I would water If I buy a 4x4 or 3x3 bed.

Week 5 Flower: In a word, Easy. I'm thankful for these weeks. I gave the regular feedings as mentioned in previous flower weeks. Went lighter on the Buildaflower because I simply can't mound much more onto the EB's. PPFD is around 1000 at the highest point in the canopy, and that lower middle section of NBP2 (right) is sitting at 650 PPFD, not too terrible for the range across the main budsites. Filling reservoirs with 2 gallons of cold tap water every other day like clockwork. Except on the feeding day, in which there's usually an extra day I wait before filling up the reservoir, since I only top water in 1 gal per plant with the amendments. I have been feeding about every 8-10 days, not exactly every week. Might start dropping the light schedule soon by 15 minutes ever few days until I get to 10 hrs of daylight or they're done. Update: Added a Par Map of the highest points in the canopy. So NOT the Par Map of the light. But the Par Map of the light against uneven elevation (my uneven canopy). It's about what I'd expect, and the front-left or bottom-left section is likely lower than the other corners because this is the corner my humidifier and lower oscillating fan sit, as well as the cable covers for electrical, all which are black. The fan likely causes stress and from the last grow, stunted some growth in that corner. Still, that corner had the frostiest kolas in the end.. so pick your poison I guess. Anyways, par maps for reference will likely be a norm going forward. I will want to track this info myself to reference for efficiency comparisons and yields later. May be nice to see for others. If you already know how I measure these from previous posts then stop reading. I will explain my process for light measuring. 1. Buy Uni-T UT383 BT (others may work but the app I use specifically called out for it initially, and it was cheap, but BT stands for bluetooth). AliExpress or Amazon. 2. Find PPFD METER app on your app store. 3. Find your light's specifications for: A. Wattage B. Provided parmaps. (Note the light height, light intensity, and the tent sizes for provided par maps) 4. Clean tent walls and floor. Mark off your tent floors with tape or something to make sections. (I just estimated the placement though, no messing around. And you don't have to match the same amount as in your mfgs map, just use your best judgement for placement) 5. Hook up your light, match the height, and power settings listed on the provided parmaps from the mfg. A. Note: Find the best choice of light in the app that matches your lights diodes. (Example, I use the "5000K + 10% + 660 nm" for my lights. But it isn't too far off from the 3000K or 4000k spectrum results when compared either. Setting it to natural sunlight will screw your readings up bigtime) B. For proper DLI reading you must edit the hours of daylight the lights are receiving. If you do not do this when flipping to flower. You may screw up and not turn your lights up enough. Or you may turn them down when they don't need to be if you have your daylight hours too long. This is only for the DLI calculation though. 6. Use app and the easy walkthrough instructions to measure those points and then use that data to calibrate the app. (It may need to adjust, which it needs the mfg parmaps data to help calculate the difference constant.) 7. Create parmaps to save of your light's ppfd readings at certain heights and power levels/marks on your dial so you can just set it without measuring in the future. Or like me, I will use this to see how light intensity affect yield and quality over time as I use grows to experiment with. I still check it every day as if it is going to change suddenly or something. 8. Remember that it's a tool that can fail and your plants will tell you themselves what it wrong more than any tool can, at least at this point, 2023. Note: Follow proper cleaning and maintenance on this tool, it's cheap and you're trusting it tell you how much energy to throw at your plants, and that costs money. Will I buy an apogee meter in the future? I'd rather wait for a middle of the line product that doesn't require me hopping into a whole new ecosystem for my grow equipment or spending the same amount of money I could on a whole complete new tent kit. If ACInfinity could whip up a cheaper version of what pulse has with their CO2/lux/hygrometer thing that actually works and works with their ecosystem then they already have my money.

Week 6 Flower: 💡 No change to intensity or height 🚿 Top watered 1 gallon 1x (with Saponin, BuildaBloom, Coconut powder) 💧 2 gallons 1x every 2 days (via EB resevoirs) 🍴 KashiBloom with light covering of Buildaflower Details: Gave a light feeding due to the curled tips from the last feeding not fully correcting. Ran out of Buildaflower topdress so I gave a light covering with the KashiBloom. I have ordered replacements for amendments but I can't add much more anyways, the EB's are overflowing. They started to really chunk up. They don't smell very strong or like anything in particular when just opening the tent or in the lung room. A typical light flowering smell. But if I tuck a leaf and rub up against some sugar leaves or just grab a nose full of a bud, Holy Shit. The aroma is beautiful. It's a light, soft, like sweet and creamy but not fruity or sugary smell. It's just this amalgamation of scents that I can't pinpoint, that come together to form this lovely aroma. I think I just said "oh wow," and sat there smelling my gloves and the buds for 5 minutes after the first time I got a whiff. They both smell like this, but of course it's NBP2 that smells the strongest and most unique. I have successfully cloned these and the clone that did survive from NBP2 is just tall and super lanky and reaching, while the clones from NBP1 have stayed nice and uniform looking. I am not looking forward to it, but I will attempt to keep NBP2's clone alive in case it's "the one". But it would have to stand out so much to overcome how it was to grow so far. 3 More weeks based on their parents approximate flower time. I will be watching the color, and size of trichome heads going forward.

Flower Week 7: 💡 No change 🍽️ Topdressed each: Kashi BLOOM (1/3 cup), Worm castings (cover) 🚿 Top watered 1 gallon each: Buildabloom, Big 6 micros, Saponin, Coconut Water 💧 Earthbox reservoirs filled every 2 days, 2 gallons each Easy week. Took so many pictures, they just started changing color so quick after last week's pictures. There was a really cold day this last week and temps got down to 59°F at night a few nights. Smell is so amazing. NBP1 is dark and getting chunky. NBP2 is more of a reacher and a bit lankier. But NBP2 looks frosty AF. Still early, the trichomes aren't as long in the stem as the wedding cake clone, but I think there is more is general, especially NBP2. That dark corner of NBP1 has some red leaves now. Colors are stellar, NBP2 is following closely behind the fade of her sister. No liquid ferment this week because honestly every time I add that the tips burn just a bit. At this point I want it to be way street for these ladies. So while the BuildaSoil method recommends 2 oz per gallon of water for a soil drench, I decided to let them ride with one less amendment this week. Random notes: Soil is still teeming with what I have accepted as beneficial insects, since they only come out when I water and, well, look at these beauties. Tucking fan leaves every once in awhile but I defoiliated pretty well, and these ladies are very stiff and sturdy. A bend more often then not turns into a snap. Just how this ran shook out due to equipment constraints. 2 more weeks. Or more. We'll see.

UPDATE Dec. 14: Chopped and Hung. I almost dropped NBP2 when the smell hit me. No shit, sweet tarts. Strongest smell of just bright sweet maybe a little sour. Jesus. Its amazing. NBP1 has that smell but it's secondary to this really beautiful floral scent. Like from those kinds of flowers fancy restaurants put on your food to eat. My mouth was literally watering. I'm praying I don't screw up this dry and cure. Wish me luck. (I'll do the harvest week and smoke report all at once, I hate how they have it set up. So maybe 1 - 2 months before the next update) Original Entry Below: Flower Week 8: 💡 Raised about 6" over a few days, overall PPFD lowered by about 10% (verified via lux meter) 🍽️ Topdress: None this week 🚿 Top watered 1/3 gallon 1x each: Light mix of saponin, BuildaBloom, big 6, & coconut water 💧 Earthbox reservoirs filled when dry, 2 gallons cold tap • Notes: Simple week, no top dressings and only a light soil drench of the listed water soluble amendments. Lights were raised a bit which dropped PPFD a touch (960-650) to reduce leaf temp, less stress on the plant these last two weeks is the plan. I noticed the water uptake just started to slow on NBP1. Related? Maybe, NBP2 still on the "every other day" cycle still. The main colas really started to fatten up overnight, at least more noticable than I have seen so far. Going to just go day by day, as I have been. Won't be ready for Christmas at this point anyways, so I am going to finish this correctly.

Harvested, chopped at the trunk, and hung the whole plants upside down. Mentioned last week, but NBP2 smells exactly like a box of sweet tarts, it's amazing. Didn't weigh, but it was over the 2.5 lbs since I hang the entire plant when I dry. Almost dropped NBP2 when the aroma hit me, and it's a bit awkward to perform the flip from right side up to upside down anyways. Dry conditions were perfect to start. 60/60. Eventually settled to 63/54. Dry done on day 15, moved to staging container for trimming.