Strawberry Gorilla and Gorilla Cookies

November 15, 2023 Day 71 A new week. Everyone got a full top feed today. Reservoirs are all topped off except for Strawberry Gorilla 2. She is all enough to not need a full reservoir. Plus the gallon of water I fed her should hold her for at least a few days easy. This week will focus on Growth and Lighting. That being said, I started Overdrive and will be stopping Big Bud in the next top feed. I also changed around the nutrient amounts. Dropped the base grow in half. Left the other base nutrients alone. Nirvana, Big Bud and Overdrive are all getting 3 ml each. It calls for 2 ml per liter, but these are autoflowers with a bottom feed wick system. Less nutrients should be for better intake. Not to mention, the plants will get constant nutrients as the system works, so less equals the same as they recommend, just more constant. Strawberry Gorilla: Never 1 looks fantastic now. She is packing on weight and happy as a clam. However, I noticed that she is getting burnt tips. Leaves are a dark green. I can only assume at this stage, she has too much nitrogen. Good thing today is the day of half grow nutrients. She will be ready for flushing in the next two weeks I think. Honestly, based on how she looks, she might be ready for flushing at the end of this week. I'll still hold off for a bit. I want at least a week of fade before thinking about harvesting. Plus I still need a second plant to finish up before I can harvest this one. Number 2 is still tiny and still packing on weight. I was thinking she might be done at the same time as Number 1, but it looks like she is about a week behind. Stunted plant? No idea. Her leaves aren't quite as dark as her sister plant, but still dark enough to remove the grow nutes. Gorilla Cookies: Number 1 is amazing with her branches of colas. It's absolutely insane. There is this one branch that's lower, but so covered in buds it looks like the best cola I've ever seen. About 10" long. There are other ones that are just about as good, but not quite there yet. Everything is developing evenly as well. Even though there are branches significantly taller, I think the way I have this plant positioned is getting equal light throughout. The larger branches are outside the canopy, so the light doesn't reach as far over. Number 2... Number 2. This plant is absolutely insane. I don't even know what to do with this beast. She got a full top water today. Grow nutes stayed the same for now. Next week I'll cut them down and add Big Bud. I think I'll increase the Nirvana next week as well. She is big enough to handle the extra. Anyway, this plant is 45" tall now and is still stretching. I hope it slows down soon. Although a 4 ft plant would be hilarious on my 3x3 tent. Still have no way of lifing the light any higher. I did drop the intensity down to 50% and it seems to have worked. I'm not seeing any stress at all now. Not that I really saw any in the first place. Not to mention the leaves are reaching for the center of the light. Strange. I would think they would be trying to avoid the light. Maybe this plant handles super high intensity lighting. Also, how do you set a 2000 watt light 12" from the canopy without severely burning the plants? Anyone have any answers on that? Does it mean my 240 watt light can be run at a much higher rate than I am thinking? All the questions. Anyway, the whole canopy is at the same height. It's actually really amazing to look at. I honestly cannot wait to see how she turns out with her bud production. Such a tall plant and I left nearly all of it intact. There was about a third removed, but since then, the plant has grown significantly. So now it's closer to 20% removed. However, I have been chipping away at the lowest parts of the canopy. Just to clear up stuff that has no pistils. Those just won't make it. Or will end up like teeny tiny popcorn buds. All the fluff. Again, when she is alone in the tent, she will be spread out as wide as the plant will let me. So much potential. Grow System Environment: Temp: 74.3° RH: 56.8% VPD: 1.21 kPa November 16, 2023 Strawberry Gorilla: Number 1 looks pretty good. She's definitely the closest to harvest. Maybe a week or two left. Her buds are dense and covered in trichomes. There's already a couple amber but nothing to write home about. Still too many clear. She will be an insane smoke, I can tell that much. Number 2 has about two to three weeks left until harvest. Her two main tops are looking absolutely fantastic. The rest of the plant has plenty of bud on it, but not very big. 8t seems they are matching the size of the plant. Interesting. Gorilla Cookies: Number 1 looks great! Her bottom feed system is working wonders and her buds are getting fatter everyday. I did notice they take a bit longer to grow than they of the Strawberry Gorilla strain. At least so far that's what I am seeing. Still nothing bad. She will definitely be a heavy yielder. Trichome production is a bit slow. Nothing to worry about. I think it will get much better as the buds develop. Number 2 is three inches away from the light now. 46" or 47" plant. Let's just call it four feet and be done with it. I have a feeling if I had more light height, I would be running into the same problem. The tent just isn't big enough for this lady. What I would give for a Harry Potter camping tent... Just saying. Lol. She has fantastic internodal spacing and her buds are starting to pop up everywhere. I ended up cleaning out some more new growth from the bottom. Just a bit that must have been growing without my notice. I pulled a few branches that were completely blocked and just not long enough to capture any light at all. I read that Scrogging requires the whole bottom of the plant to be cleaned up to the trellis net. I understand the concept, but I don't think it's a viable option during this stage. I think I'll keep my canopy three feet deep for now. I don't think I'll need anymore trimming. I will have to pull some leaves here and there to open up more space. As it stands, she has a decent amount of space, with the exception of a couple spots I really need to work on that I just can't get to. I'll have to pull the rest of the plants out to get her all around. I still believe that once everyone else is out of the tent, the spread I'm going to perform may not need to do any defoliation. Maybe a tuck or two and maybe just a couple central leaves. We shall see. She also got another gallon of water top feed and I refilled the reservoir to the brim. Now, there should be no issues with watering. She might need another top feed in a couple days from how she is growing. And she will need even more when the buds really start bulking up. Hell, it might be a gallon a day if not more. I may have to water more than once a day. Who knows. But she is definitely thirsty. I also dropped the Micro and Grow Base Nutrients in half. I'm trying to prevent any nitrogen toxicity. It seems to be an ongoing issue I have. I also started the Big Bud in the reservoir today. It's technically week two of flower and that's when it calls for it. Weeks two through four of flower if not a bit longer. Then the last two weeks will have the Overdrive instead. After that we have a week of flushing with Flawless Finish. Both a bottom and top feed requirement. Grow System Environment: Temp: 73.4° RH: 56.2% VPD: 1.20 kPa November 17, 2023 Lots going on today. New stuff, watering, leaf removal. Strawberry Gorilla: Number 1 had a few leaves snipped off today. Just a few that were covering bud sites. Honestly I'd much rather cut anything that has a visible stem. But the time for that has passed. I'll have to cut those before harvest I guess. Everything else looks good. Dense nugs, great color, purple hues all over. I can't wait to see how her fade goes. It should start soon now that I'm dropping nitrogen. Number 2 is now even more overshadowed by the big one. I may try something in a few days to see if I can get some light to the bowels. She got a full reservoir refill today. I dropped the Micro down to 3 ml as it has a lot of nitrogen in it. I also started Overdrive today. Why not? She has a couple weeks left and that's what it calls for. I'll be stopping Big Bud next week though. Hopefully I can get some bigger more flavorful buds out of her. They are fairly fat for the size of the plant, but nowhere near what I would have expected. Gorilla Cookies: Number 1 is packing on the weight. With her bottom feed system working perfectly and her buds swelling up, she is going to be a nice heavy yielder. Trichomes are becoming more abundant as well. Number 2 had some new training done today. Her branches are just too tall now. I had one that grew above the light and a couple that were nearly an inch away from the light. So as a first time attempt, I supercropped the 5 tallest branches and I honestly think I did it perfectly. At least that's what the pictures look like. Anyway, she has tons of bud sites everywhere. Internodal spacing is near perfect. I cannot wait to see her in the next few weeks. I hope I get some really good bud from this plant. I'm hoping for at least a half pound of dried and trimmed nugs. I don't count the trimmings or the kief. She was also a little bit light today. I'll let her drain some of the reservoir before giving another top feeding. Maybe 2 days? Maybe less. She is super thirsty. Update: I'm pretty sure I did the Supercropping right. All of the buds are starting to stand right up. The tops have curved up already. It looks like the plant is big enough to handle 5 supercrops. I won't do anymore. This was a good first time and I don't want to ruin the plant. I'm sure I'll be happy with the results. Hopefully they don't upset the growth below them too much. That was my biggest concern. I didn't have any open area in the canopy to begin with. So the branches are just resting on lower branch tops. Grow System Environment: Temp: 72.7° RH: 60.1% VPD: 1.07 kPa (The probe was in the plant) November 18, 2023 Temp and RH are a little wonky now that Gorilla Cookies 2 has hit the light. There just isn't anywhere to place the probe for an accurate reading. The temp is the weird part. It's 73° in the lung room and with the light on, it's only 71° in the tent. Very strange indeed. I may need to lower the exhaust fan power a bit. Maybe that will help with the temps. But then I run into the issue of high RH. Currently it's at a high 60%. My concern is how much higher will it go with a lower exhaust rate. Strawberry Gorilla: Number 1 looks pretty good. Nice fat buds glistening with frosty trichomes all over. She's definitely almost done. I guess she will be the late harvest. I can then see how much different the smoke will be from a more mature plant vs the ones that I seem to be on point (15% amber trichomes) Number 2 is actually swelling her buds up pretty nicely. She looks pretty good, all things considered. She needs the least amount of attention as she doesn't drink much and she is in full flower, so no messing with her. I may switch her back to the front to see if I can get a bit more light penetration. I would have to see if number 1 would fit in the back. I don't think so. Anyway, she looks alright. Gorilla Cookies: Number 1 swelled her buds up quite a bit last night. Nearly doubled in size. I can only assume this will be the rate of growth for the next week or two. She's definitely shaping up to be a pretty high yielder. As I expected, the buds are completely covering the branches. Number 2 has hit the light. She is now officially 48" tall. A 4ft plant. And completely covered in branches with buds and tops. She will need a other gallon of water today. I'm not sure why the reservoir isn't keeping up anymore, but it definitely has slowed down a bit. So top watering is the only other option. She's down to 25% moisture level. And I like to keep it around 35% to 45%. Especially with this plant. I am not going to stop anything or change anything at all. She is too healthy and too big to ruin anything. However, I did find some three finger leaves in one little spot. Why does this happen? Regardless, she looks great and nothing seems to be able to stop her. The supercropped branches are super happy. Haha. Everything looks pretty good. I'll have to wait until it's completely finished the healing process. I feel really good about it though. If anyone is reading, leave a comment if I did it right or not. Update: I decided to touch my grow light to see how hot it was. It's not hot at all. I know it's down to 40%, but it's not hot. So maybe that's why they climbed so close without stress. There was no heat stress. Light stress is another thing. No clue how to fix this except for super cropping everything down on top of the rest of the plant. There just isn't room. I hope she holds off on any stress for a bit. I really need plants to come out of this tent. I also decided to change the whole feeding regimen for the rest of the plants. I changed just about everything. I completely took out the Cal/Mag, Base Micro and Grow. Basically anything with nitrogen in it. These ladies are starting to show they have too much, so it's gone now. I added Overdrive to 3 ml, Tasty Terpenes at 5 ml and Bud Candy at 5 ml. The Base Bloom stayed at 6 ml. Let's hope this does what I need it to do. The fade should start happening in a week or 2 and I don't want any nitrogen issues to prevent it. I think that's why I get grassy smoke sometimes. Too much green at harvest. Anyway, Gorilla Cookies 2 is only getting a slight change. She will keep the Base Micro, Grow and Cal/Mag in for the rest of this week. Big bud has been started and next week will start the new feeding regimen. Grow System Environment: Temp: 73.3° RH: 59.5% VPD: 1.11 kPa November 19, 2023 Very little to do today. Strawberry Gorilla: Number 1 is looking great. Nothing to do today. No watering needed. Her buds are fat and pistils are nearly all orange. Now it's time to wait for the trichomes to come in. Finally I have to wait for another plant to finish up. Number 2 is now even more buried. No clue how to fix this. I think I just have to take it as it is. Nothing to do with her today either. Gorilla Cookies: Number 1 is beautiful. Her buds, or I should say colas, are getting bigger and fatter. I can't wait to see what the new nutrient regimen does for her. No watering and nothing else to do today. Number 2 actually needed a little bit here and there. Her tops have officially hit the light in several spots. I had to super crop 4 of the branches that were getting fried. There is also a few branches that are taller than the light. I think I'll wait for another day to super crop them as well. I'm really hoping I don't cause too much stress. I also removed a few leaves and accidentally broke a top. It's ok though, I cut the branch down to the next node. Not to mention, I think I can afford to lose a fried top anyway. She will definitely need a reservoir top off today. Most likely later this afternoon. She's still a super thirsty girl. Just gotta keep up. Her soil moisture level is around 34% saturation. I try to wait for 25% so I know she has had some time to breathe. It's very interesting to see that even with the reservoir, she still needs a top watering every couple of days. It just tells me how healthy she really is. Hopefully all the HST I have been doing doesn't slow her down at all. Maybe just those branches. I'll have to see in the upcoming days. Also, I think I did even better with this round of HST. There was a bit of splintering on a couple from the first super crop. But still very much connected and hardening off. All that being said, I think I have to leave her alone for at least a week. So I'll just ensure to keep her watered and touch nothing else no matter how badly I want to. If need be, I'll try some LST if that even works. Honestly, I'd love to have her in her own tent. Alas, I do not have one. Sad really. But in a few weeks she'll be alone and will then get all the LST I can do. Mostly just pulling side branches out and readjusting the plant. I may have to work around the super cropped branches. 🤔🤔 Didn't think about that. Damn. I'll figure it out. Maybe I'll have to rotate her in place to see if I can move her to the middle of the tent. I would think some lifting and pulling should do it. I figure the majority of the branches in the corner will need to stay there anyway, they will just get stretched out in the process of moving the plant. Then lifting the net to bring in branches that need to fill the rest of the tent out. Update: I decided to clean up a bit of Gorilla Cookies 1 and Strawberry Gorilla 1. I didn't remove a lot, just leaves that I neglected to remove a month ago. Hopefully that does even better for the lower buds and for making space for the fat nugs. Both plants definitely needed it. Strawberry Gorilla 1 has massive colas now and they are only getting bigger. They have completely engulfed some of the largest leaf stems and parts of the leaves. Super fat colas. Gorilla Cookies 1 has a whole lot of tops and bud sites. They are stacked pretty well and are really starting to swell. Removing the leaves will certainly help those buds grow to their full potential. Grow System Environment: Temp: 71.8° RH: 58.0% VPD: 1.09 kPa (I'm assuming the readings are a bit off due to the size of the plant. Or they aren't off and I need to get drier air in the tent. A defoliation may be in order in about a week. Maybe not. It all depends on her stress levels. And what I can actually safely reach. Hence the need to center this plant. Definitely not soon enough though) November 20, 2023 Strawberry Gorilla: Number 1 looks really good. Super fat buds now. Excellent colas and beautiful purple hues on the tops. Nothing to do today with her. Number 2 is even more buried. My poor baby! I was thinking that when Number 1 finishes up, I'll move this one to that spot. I'll have to pull the Gorilla Cookies from the overflow tent into the big tent in the back next to Gorilla Cookies 2. That plant is 34" tall and should be able to fit in the space. Her buds are pretty decent but definitely small except the 2 main tops that aren't even close to finishing up. They are all dense buds. Gorilla Cookies: Number 1 is absolutely amazing. Nowhere near as big as her sister plant, but has buds ALL over the plant top to bottom. She's drinking a decent amount of water. A little over a half gallon a day. Number 2 is out of control. I was forced to super crop four other branches that were hitting the light. I have about 5 more that will hit the light most likely tomorrow. So another round of super cropping. Hopefully spacing it out a bit won't cause too much stress. Honestly, I haven't seen any signs of stress, but at this point, I'm not really sure if she is stressed or not. Anyway, she'll be needing a watering tomorrow. I was going to see if she can hold off for another 2 days, but she's already at 25% and is getting light. Not quite light enough, but just about there. I may check on her later today and see what she needs. The feeding system seems to be inactive again, and this time I don't have a way to reactivate it. I could wait for one of the other reservoirs to empty and carefully swap them out. Anyway I removed some leaves here and there. Not many but some that were pretty big and some that were covering bud sites. Other than that, she looks great and has bud sites popping up everywhere. Not to mention the speed they are growing. I wonder how quickly she will finish up. Hopefully it takes the 7 weeks to fully mature. Then she will have massive buds. One can only hope. But from what I've seen on other diaries I should be expecting some extremely massive colas. Update: I decided to give Gorilla Cookies 2 a half gallon top feed just to help her get through tomorrow. Then she should be good for a full top feed at the start of next week. I also did a small defoliation on Strawberry Gorilla 1. I know it's pretty late to do it, but the outer leaves were crushed up against the wall. I don't want any wet spots or mold or anything like that. I'll see how bad the stress is tomorrow. Grow System Environment: Temp: 72.0° RH: 57.0% VPD: 1.12 kPa November 21, 2023 Last day of week 10. Everyone looks good and are all moving along nicely. Did some work on a couple plants today. Strawberry Gorilla: Number 1 had a couple more leaves pulled off and I rotated her a bit for more space. She took fantastically to her defoliation. So I don't see any issues with her. Either way, her colas are massive and DENSE. Trimming looks like it will be a breeze. No water needed today. I'm not even sure if she will need a top watering tomorrow. She needs the nutrients though, so I'll just water til runoff. I don't think it will be a gallon. Maybe half to three quarters. Number 2 is still tiny as ever. I finally pulled her out and did a minor defoliation on her and rotated her for more light penetration. She's still too small for it to make a major difference, but she does have more light now. Her buds are pretty sense as well. Not as big as number 1, but still pretty good. Super sticky. The aroma is magical. And it lingers too. It's sweet and heady and just right. At least for my tastes. She will definitely need a top watering tomorrow as I believe the bottom feed system is only running about half strength. Just need a kickstart. The wicks are wet, but the bottom of the container is nearly dry. Tomorrow will make it all better. Gorilla Cookies: Number 1 is just building her buds and colas up. Getting fatter everyday. She has a great smell and her bottom feed system is definitely working full force. She's a very happy plant. I've been observing her leaf development and her sugar leaves are not only scarce, but they are big. It should make for easy trimming. Number 2 is still the beastly beast she is. As I expected, the last 4 tops hit the light today, so they were super cropped as well. I really hope she isn't stressed out and I can't tell. I mean she hasn't stopped growing yet, and her buds production is fantastic. So I think she is happy. But again, HST should have caused some sort of stress. Drooping leaves, something. There's nothing like that. However, there is so much of the plant that I don't think I could tell either way. I don't really know what to look for. She reacted more to a top feeding than she did with the super cropping. And it's not like I didn't do a lot of tops. I think I bent 15 tops. Maybe 14. Still, it seems like a lot to me. But it's done now and the canopy is all level again with the dozens of other tops that came up. Maybe 6" from the light now. So I might be able to get away with 50% light power. Maybe. Grow System Environment: Temp: 70.8° RH: 55.2% VPD: 1.11 kPa (I think my probe is misreading the environment because the Gorilla Cookies 2 is so big. Maybe not but the lung room is warmer than the grow tent with a bright light. Weird.)