By continuing to use the website or clicking Accept you consent to our cookies and personal data policy and confirm that you are at least 18 year old. For details please see Privacy Policy and Terms
Germination started on Tuesday with 3 seeds using the paper towel method. Super simple and the most effective method that I have found to date. Simply placed the seeds between two sheets of paper towels and sprayed with water. Gently put the paper towels inside a bag and sealed it up around 80% before blowing into it to create a humidity bubble for the seeds. Closed it off quickly to keep as much air in the bag as possible. Placed them in a dark cupboard and waited.
....And 48 hours later they had sprouted. Straight into soil plugs that had been soaked in a Plagron Power Roots solution of 1:1000ml and put under the lights dimmed to 30% power. The height of the lights is about 75 cm or 30inches from the stand (not the seedlings). Light schedule is on 18hrs / 6hrs with an automatic humidifier set to 70% and a small fan to keep the airflow consistent.
24 hours later (Friday evening - start of day 3) - the little seedlings had really found their way towards the light, but they were struggling to get rid of their shells. Sprayed a fine mist over the leaves to soften the shells and removed them gently.
Day 4 - The best of the remaining two unnamed seeds were chosen and aptly named "Max" after a famous Gorilla. "Max and "Chong" were repotted into the hydroponics system. Two different systems in order to facilitate an experiment (or rather a friendly bet). One system made from a simple black car wash bucket with a lid and the other from a more expensive brand, specifically designed for hydroponic growth. The substrate used in the netted buckets are clay pebbles. Air pumps have been placed into the bottom of each of the buckets with an air stone. In the black buckets, extra care was taken to try avoid any light entering the holes that were made for the air pump by using tape. The water has a solution of 1:1000ml of Plagron Power Roots solution as well. The seedlings were looking healthy with their first leaves starting to show.
Day 8 - First official day of veg and both ladies are looking good and on schedule for a couple of changes.
Nutrients: 10ml of Hydro A & Hydro B were added to both buckets (10L of water in each bucket)
PH: the Milwaukee PH controller was set to work - starting at a PH of around 7.6 - 7.8, it slowly worked down to a perfect 6.0 over about 50minutes.
Lights: The lights were readjusted to be 60cm from the seedlings who are all between 8-10cm tall and the intensity of the lights were increased to about 70% brightness.
Day 9 - Both plants are taking nicely to the adjustments and I am happy with the progress. Temp and humidity are stable and PH is controlled.
Day 11 - The second nodes are clearly visible today for both Chong and Max which would hopefully put them at 3 nodes by the end of the week - right on schedule!
Day 13 - The ladies seem to be showing some signs of heat stress, so thinking about adjusting the lights after their period of dark today because they are due to be adjusted tomorrow anyway for the new week of veg
Day 15 - The new week meant a change of water, nutrients and an adjustment of lights.
Chong is looking like a short, but sturdy little seedling with broad fan leaves and big roots. Max is 10cm vs. Chong at 7cm and her leaves are perky and the stem is thick. They both look good for their own individual reasons. Looking at the roots specifically, Chong seems to be facing similar problems as Cheech in the Cookies Gelato grow - the aeration in the bucket appears to have “dead zones” because of the colour the roots and the manner in which they are sticking together. I’ve adjusted the air stone to be more central in the bucket and cleaned the air tubes because the nutrients stick on the tubes.
Other than that, I’ve controlled the PH back down to 6.0 after the addition of the nutrients using the Milwaukee PH controller and decided not to adjust the height of the lights because there was only about 2cm growth this week.
Also added the first wire to give Chong a bit of a better bend in her stem, gently starting off the process of LST.
Day 20 and the ladies are getting closer to topping. Both are showing clear third nodes with the fourth node opening up. I am sure we will be topping during this next week of veg.
Day 22 - starting this week off with fresh water, nutrients, adjustment in lights and controlling the PH back to 6.0. I am happy with the size and colour of the roots, the fan leaves have grown big and strong and the stems are looking healthy. Going to be topping plants at five nodes is the next couple of days.
Day 25 - topping day for the ladies and had some thinking to do - do we keep node 3 or node 4? Because of their height, decided to top at node 4 and keep node 3. That meant cleaning node 1 & 2. Light LST on Max because the stems of the axillary buds are already well developed.
Day 27 - In general, both ladies look healthy and happy. I have adjusted the light for Chong because the leaves show some signs of stress and rechecked the PH. Light LST twice a day to the mainline
This is a big week for the plants - planning on switching them into veg next week, so all nutrients, topping and mainlining should be completed this week.
All nutrients stay the same and lights still at 60cm from the plants. I noted some stress on Chong’s leaves last week and so I also adjusted the water to 7l instead of 10l.
Topped the plants on the first node of the mainline again and gentle LST.
Day 32 update - Chong has lost a mainline stem. During the changing of the PH controller, one of the lines were pulled too tight and snapped off an entire stem. Going to try save the other half of the mainline and split it into 4 main cola’s.
Day 37 and it’s time for the final topping of the ladies. Chong (who only has two of four mainline stems remaining) is being topped to create four bud sites from two and Max is being topped to create eight sites from four. Gentle LST on all stems, bending them down softly before tying them down firmly to the buckets.
Light, PH and nutrients all remain unchanged. Cleaned buckets and changed water.
Day 42 (first day of week 6) lights off for 72 hours to switch the plants into flowering.
Before lights went off: left the main fan leaves on, spread them out and tied them down to create additional tension on the mainline. Tied the axilliary bud stems to the fan lines to help spread the new stems.
Day 45 lights back on: trimmed off fan leaves to allow nutrients to be directed only to bud sites. Changed water, nutrients and lights adjusted to full intensity and lowered to 45cm above the plants. Trained plants to adjust for growth.
Day 48 and Max is ready for a final defoliation - a cleaning of all fan leaves and axillary bud sites to allow maximum nutrients and light to bud sites
Day 52 - Happy with the progress and recovery from topping and defoliation last week. Changed water, adjusted PH and re-applied gentle LST techniques to keep the fan leaves from creating too much shade over the axillary buds. Getting some spray for the possibility of spiders because I saw a really small web or two on the stems this week.
Day 59 and the ladies had a change of water and nutrients. I am not happy with the spider spray…. It affected so many of the leaves, so it may impact the end result - we shall wait and see….
A good week for the ladies to stretch, grow and recover from the topping and defoliation and they are looking more lively every day.
Chong has a ways to go - smaller than the others, a little behind in flowering stage and in height, but I have hope when I look at the bud sites!
Loving the addition of the scrog nets and not a moment too soon. The ladies have stretched and the root systems look unreal. Not much to add other than that we are no longer adding Power Roots to the nutrients.
There are still some fan leaves that seem to have survived the spider spray, albeit barely 😅
Max has really surprised this week. She has stretched so much taller than Chong. The stems are looking fat and strong and the bud sites are growing every day. The scrog net and lights have been adjusted for the growth and water and nutrients changed for the week.
Gentle defoliation of lower fan leaves and fan leaves that are preventing light from hitting axillary bud sites in the centre.
The smells coming from the plants are fruity and intense. Max has stretched taller than all the other plants sharing the space, but the axillary buds are starting to fill up the space quickly now.
Chong never truly recovered from the broken mainline, but the smaller nugget sites are looking to be a surprise with some good pistols emerging
Ladies are smelling really strong this week. We had to make a decision to take Chong out early and flush her this week, even though she isn’t ready. Max and the other Cookies Gelato strain ladies (Venezia and Cheech) will remain in the tent for a couple more weeks before we flush - we are just waiting on the major pistol changes.
Full flush this week - no nutrients, only fresh water. Looking good - roots are healthy and strong, stems are thick and bud sites are closing up and changing colour
Buds are still wet and sticky. They have been cleaned and put in the drying rack with a humidity control. Once dried, they will be stored in jars with humidity packs. Smell is fruity and pistols seem almost perfect in colour. Will keep an eye on humidity in the coming days so that we don’t dry out the plant too much
Alice_in_Wonderland
