Black Sugar

Shmoogs All 3 seeds germinated and the taproots started sprouting with in 48 hours. I used the paper towel method between two plates. Once the the tap roots were going I moved them into rapid routers with a humidity dome. As you can see they germinated st different rates. One is growing like a bean stalk so i had to readjust it a few times. The other two are growing at a closer pace to each other . This was all in a small closet where it was easy to adjust as needed. On the 29th I moved them into the grow tent and into the 1 gal nursery pots. I had run out of my 3/4 water bottles as individual humidity domes so I had to improvise with random clear plastic items around the house. ***Added #'s to the labels (9/30/18) to make it easier to follow each plant *** Currently using a Vespar LED 300 watt grow light set at 30% roughly 80 watts right now on 24/0. I'll increase it as them grow and them switch to MH lighting after 2 weeks. I also will most likely switch to a 18/6 light schedule this week. Soil is made in batches for about three 5 gallon containers. I'll just be using ph'd water until they move into flowering. 1.3 gal perlite 3 gal peat moss 1 Gal worm castings 1/2 cup Dr. Earth Fert 1/2 cup Alfalfa meal 1/4 Garden lime 1/4 cup blood meal

Shmoogs On 10/01 I switched from a 24 hour light cycle to 18/6 light cycle. I slowly increased the LED light wattage from the starting point of 80 watts, to 150 watt on 10/3, 225 watt on 10/04 and today it is at 300 watts. Tomorrow I will be removing the LED and installing a 400 watt MH hood light. I am going to start that one around 200 watts and slowly bring it to full power as to not stress out plants. I've been hand watering just enough, every other day, around the base of the stem to wet the soil around the tap root. I will begin a full water schedule this upcoming week. I am rotating the plants positions daily because I think it might help strengthening the stem by slightly moving them in the direction of the light. Its most likely not helping at all but I also don't see any harm in it. I added a small fan just for air flow and turned on my vent system at its lowest setting.

Shmoogs Another week of step increases. I changed out the led light for a MH on Tuesday 10/09. I set the MH light at 200 watts 10 inches away to start with. On Wednesday I watered the girls at 6pm until slight runoff. On Thursday 10/11 I added a floor fan that oscillates to get air movement below the plants. I also increased the MH light to 300 watts and moved the light to 12 inches away from the plants. After the light increase I started to have a huge dip in humidity. I added water to the plant saucers in the tent to bring it up. It’s getting better but still not where I want it. I will be monitoring this. Saturday 10/13 I turned up the light to 400watts at 7 pm and increased the light distance to 15inches. It’s keeping the temp right around 80f without having to increase fans or any other adjustments. I also did the hand test and it was hot but it was warm so I believe it is in the sweet spot. I watered them again today until runoff. I moved #2 off to the side a bit because it is showing some yellowing that I think might be due to the heat and light as none of the other plants are showing it. Hopefully in a few days it’ll rebound and I’ll move back under more direct light soon.

Shmoogs Humidity was low so I put a small room humidifier in my tent on Monday the 15th in the am. I feel like the plants perked up a bit and now the humidity is hovering around 58%. I watered all the plants Wednesday in the morning until a slight runoff. I also checked the roots to see if it was time to move to a new container. They looked like a few more days wouldn’t hurt so I left them in the 1-gallons pots. On Friday 10/19 after the dark cycle I transplanted all 3 into their final homes of 5-gallon containers in the evening. I watered the soil in the new container so it was lightly moist before moving them. I also decided to try something. I am using one fabric 5 gallon pot to see if there is any noticeable yield difference. They all to seem to have taken to the transplant okay but #1 & #2 might have some slight shock. I turned the MH light up to the max setting of 460 watts on Saturday the 20th in the morning.

Shmoogs **Monday** I updated the venting to include the light which increased the negative pressure by quite a bit. Started to do LST with #1 today. **Tuesday** Added wall supports by cutting flex tubing to length which works well to keep the walls off of the plants. I also watered all plants at 8:30am 1/3rd of a pint each. **Wednesday** Added more drainage to the plastic pots. I also moved the light to 18 inches. **Friday** Watered all plants in the evening. Did some additional bending of #1. **Sunday** All are looking pretty good. I am going to starting LST with # 2 and I plan on topping it after the stems grows a bit from the 6th node with has just shown up. So far #1 is responding well to the LST and the goal is to horseshoe it with some branches being able to grow in the middle.

Shmoogs **Sunday PM** I setup a temperature-based outlet for my venting to keep the temperature a bit higher than it was. **Monday** Watered all plants **Tuesday** Topped # 3 in the AM. Its my first time topping but it seems straightforward. I’ll keep extra pictures incase there are issues. **Wednesday** Topdressed the soil with Jobes 2-5-3 mix and watered the plants in the evening. Also looked into the leaves being that yellow and it appears I am PHing too low. So I am going to change the ph from 5.82 to 6.25. **Thursday** Topped #1 & #2 in the PM. #1 seemed to take to it fairly well so I figured in for a penny in for a pound. **Saturday** Defoliated a bit and I also cut off some of the underside bud sites. **Sunday AM** So I had an issue with overwatering a different strain to death so I installed Blumats as I had great success with them on my previous grow. I use a 5 gallon bucket reservoir that should let me get my whole system automated for at least for a week if needed,

Shmoogs **Thursday** Looked back into my soil recipe and the soilless base used had additional lime and my base doesn’t. I added a tablespoon of garden lime and blood meal as top dress and a mix-in. I also took cuttings from #3 and I’m in the process of cloning them. Also attempt so more extreme LST with #2. **Saturday** I had to disconnect the water supply for the girls for about 16 hours as I had to move the grow tent and adjust somethings due to not being able to keep the temp as consistent as I want. **Sunday AM** All moved in and the temperature is way more stable. Eased up the LST on #2 as the stem started to get a horizontal crease.

Shmoogs Had to leave mid week for a bit. Set everything to be hands off and tried my hand at some super cropping techniques on all three.

Shmoogs Well had a plant fie on me. it was the one in the fabric pot so I thought that would help prevent over-watering. luckily the mom I cloned took to the super cropping very well.

Shmoogs **Wednesday** Switch the light to a CMH 315 Watt. ***Friday** Did some serious bending to make the canopy level. should be switching to 12/12 soon.

Shmoogs *****Sunday**** Switched to 12/12 today Bent the main plant down so the canopy was levelish at 16 inches. ***Thursday***** With that one plant exploding I decided to get a new tent that came with a scrog net. I also switched the light to a 400 Watt HPS. I directed each cola into the individual holes. ****Saturday**** Defoliated the main plant so the bottom 1/3 is bare. also moved the netting up to stay with the stretch. Also the netting seems to really be helping maximize potential

Shmoogs really stretching this week. Using the scrog net in my tent to the full advantage. The canopy of the main plant is 1/3 of the available space

Shmoogs The strectching seemed to slow down towards the end of the week so I think I'll be seeing budlets soon. I keep bending down branches to keep the canopy even. As you can see by the pictures the one plant is taking over the netting. Not sure why the growth from the other black sugar isn't as strong as everything is the same.

Shmoogs Spent this week really trying to keep the canopy at roughly the same level with the net before the stems turned woody. Slight defoliation underneath. Mainly just smaller bud sites that are not going to amount to much. Shouldn't have much more of that going forward. By my count there are 10 "main" colas with multiple offshoots on the main plant.

Shmoogs Right now just using clean water to feed and both girls are doing well. I cut away 2 branches on the smaller plant that didnt look promising early in the week. The rest of the plant seemed to perk up after a few days. The Main plant has slowed down its stretch and the stems have lost most of the bendyness. Now I am just trying to keep the net out of the budlets way so they can grow. She is showing no sign of slowing.

Shmoogs All in All in a good week until saturday night. Looks like an overwatering issue. I reorganized the tent so there was more space the watering system may have messed up. So i will be keeping an eye on this