Overflow Strawberry Gorilla/Cookies

October 11, 2023 Day 36 This week will focus on keeping the canopy level and clean. I'll definitely be cleaning both ladies up by the end of the week. The lower canopy is riddled with branches that won't make it and leaves that are pointing straight down inside the container. These 2 have taken over the width of the tent and they have about 3 inches of space in the back and front. At this rate, the tent will be full in a matter of days. I may have to defoliate just to keep them from overlapping each other. I think it will all depend on how they stretch. Longer nodes should help with air flow and less leaf coverage. Which means less defoliation... In theory that is. Either way, they will both need to be cleaned up more than just the bottom. I'm also hoping the stretch will give me some space to work under the canopy. As it stands both plants are about 2 inches from the soil, so even top watering with a wand is kind of difficult. And obviously the tie downs are also in the way. I may actually remove them after the stretch to hopefully get a bit more space if I need it. We shall see. Strawberry Gorilla: This plant is fantastic! She has a beautiful canopy. Perfectly level, and beautiful colors. Nice deep lush greens. She isn't quite done with vegetation yet, but when she is, I'll be very impressed I think. No training needed today. Gorilla Cookies: This lady is in pre-flower full force. She's a bit further ahead of Strawberry Gorilla, but not too far ahead. Her canopy is near perfect. Branches are almost all level. The main top is still a bit higher than the rest of the plant, but not by much at all. Specs: Height: 10" Water: half full DLI: 41 mol/m²/d Grow System Environment: Temp: 71.6° RH: 66.8% VPD: 0.89 kPa October 12, 2023 Both ladies grew a couple inches last night, so I raised the light to match. I'm fighting a bit of a humidity issue. I can't get it below 70% it's definitely due to the size of the plants in the space. Hopefully I can do something to bring it down. Maybe a defoliation? I already have a dehumidifier in there. I may put the bigger one in instead if I can't find another way to keep the RH down. Strawberry Gorilla: This lady is doing the absolute best of all 6 plants I'm currently growing. She has a perfect canopy and beautiful coloring. The nodes spacing is starting to show and I must say they are a good distance. She's still in veg, but that just means she will be a really big plant. Gorilla Cookies: This plant is beautiful. Even with the partial topping, she is super healthy and strong. Her branches are all level now and she looks like she is going to be in flower in a few days. Grow System Environment: Temp: 73.5° RH: 69.1% VPD: 0.88 kPa October 13, 2023 Happy Friday the 13th! No training done today. But I did take a picture of the tabletop canopy I have going. All the branches are growing at the same pace. There's a couple that aren't quite as tall, but training the other branches down will cause more space to be used when I need it for later on. Both ladies got a reservoir top off today. No recharge though. Strawberry Gorilla: She is going through an easy quarter gallon a day. Her colors are amazing and the smell is getting there as well. Very potent and pungent. Not quite strong enough to say it's a normal smell yet. In the next week or so when the buds start to come up, she will be a beautiful stinky plant of awesomesauce. She is still in veg with pre-flower right around the corner. Gorilla Cookies: This lady needs nothing. She isn't going through water as quickly as Strawberry Gorilla, but still thirsty enough. She is almost out of pre-flower. I suppose the flowering time is one of the differences in the two strains. Gorilla Cookies flowers faster than Strawberry Gorilla. Not by much, but definitely enough to notice. This is to be expected though. Sativa dominant strains such as the Strawberry Gorilla takes longer to grow than indica dominant strains and even hybrids. However, we are on week 5 and I would expect both to be in flower already, but that's fine. Update: I turned my heater on to 72° and now have it pointing at the tent. The RH dropped to 58% within minutes. However, the main tent RH is now a little high. Also, as I was looking at DLI and whatnot with the environment, I noticed that Strawberry Gorilla is actually in pre-flower. It must have happened overnight. Sweet! Another Update: I decided to defoliate both ladies to help drop the RH and to open space for new growth. Not much though. Maybe 10% of each plant. Grow System Environment: Temp: 70° RH: 66.6% VPD: 0.84 kPa October 14, 2023 Not a lot to do today. Water is good, training is perfect. The canopy is flat and happy. I had to raise the light 2 inches to accommodate the stretch from last night. Strawberry Gorilla: She's a bit shorter than Gorilla Cookies at 12" vs 13". It's just because she just started pre-flower. Looking great! She is definitely drinking more. Gorilla Cookies: She is nearly out of pre-flower. Her top has a nice cola starting and the side branches are right behind. She's not drinking as much as Strawberry Gorilla, but she is still drinking a decent amount. Both plants are growing fairly fast now. Definitely in the flowering stretch for Gorilla Cookies. While even in pre-flower, Strawberry Gorilla is still growing quickly and keeping up. Grow System Environment: Temp: 74.9° RH: 63.8% VPD: 1.08 kPa October 15, 2023 Both ladies look absolutely fantastic! They are growing at the exact same rate and are definitely in the stretch. They will be receiving reservoir refills today. Full nutrient watering. Top watering as it is definitely not needed. No training as well. They don't need it quite yet. Plus I think I kept them at a decent height in the veg stage. From here on out, I will be doing some very light LST and maybe some adjustments to some of the tie downs already in place. I'll also be doing selective defoliation. I don't want to stress either of them at all. I don't think these will need a trellis as they should crowd enough to hold themselves and each other up. I'll definitely have to clean up the bottom of both plants a bit better than it already is. I'll have to wait for the stretch to end I think. That way I know what I want to keep and what I don't want to keep. Strawberry Gorilla: The result of her FIM. She grew a total of 3 main tops. I found that with the LST before the tops formed caused more or less a reaction that continued normal node development, and then finally landed on 3 total tops. Not the expected 4, but better than 2. The branches are all about the same height with some of the auxiliary branches a little bit behind. Maybe an inch or so. I did cut a couple leaves here and there. Just trying to open bud sites up. Gorilla Cookies: She is looking great! The top bend really paid off for this one. She has a very level canopy the stretch is giving the nodes a good distance from each other. As hoped, this should really help with air flow and space for more bud production. Update: I ended up doing a light defoliation on each plant. Maybe 10% of the leaves are now off. Hopefully that helps keep the RH down. I also opened up a bunch of auxiliary branches and bud sites. Gorilla Cookies didn't really need a lot, but Strawberry Gorilla was too crowded and collecting condensation. Now she is all better. Grow System Environment: Temp: 72.7° RH: 68.5% VPD: 0.88 kPa October 16, 2023 These ladies are taking off like mad. What I don't get is how they are so far ahead now in height and size but the larger containers in the main tent are still short with the same growth coming out. I guess I'll have to wait for them to really fill up their containers with roots. Strawberry Gorilla: This lady is a bit shorter than her sister plant, but still looks fantastic. She's also a bit crowded. Her size isn't a problem yet, but I'm concerned about Gorilla Cookies overtaking the whole tent before she can start to really stretch. After all, this is a super large plant and should be able to hold it's own in the tent. Gorilla Cookies: This plant on the other hand is phenomenal! She's big and tall and absolutely thriving. Her branches are reaching quite nicely where I can't trainer her anymore because of the size of the container. She definitely won't be needing any more training at all. Unless I put the trellis net up. But again, I don't think I'll need that. She's also perfectly open for airflow, but not too open. The top leaves are pretty well spread apart and mostly have their own space without crowding and overlapping too much. Just a perfect plant. I can't even call it little. It's over 14" tall now and I don't expect the stretch to end anytime soon. So maybe I'll get a nice 2 foot plant from a 1 gallon container. Maybe even 3 oz of yield. At this rate, I honestly wouldn't be too surprised. Especially based on the specs of the strain. Heavy yielder and big plant with big fat buds tells me quite a lot. We shall see though. Also, I raised the light an inch to keep up with the growth of the plant. I will soon be running out of space for the light and will have to remove the hangers and stick it to the very top of the tent. Then I should have enough room for 30" tall plants. At least that's about the max height I can grow in this setup. Would be kinda cool if I had a 6ft. Tall tent. I'm stuck with this 2x2x4.5 tent. No biggy, but still. Anyway, these ladies are going to be awesome for what they have going on. Grow System Environment: Temp: 72.4° RH: 65.9% VPD: 0.94 kPa October 17, 2023 Last day of veg. No watering today, but I did notice Strawberry Gorilla is drinking more. At least, that's what it seems like. Strawberry Gorilla: She's a bit behind now. Not at tall or big as the Gorilla Cookies, but still looks great! I took a couple leaves off to make space for branches with bud sites. She's about 14" and has a rectangle shape dues to the confinements of the grow tent. I also removed a couple of leaves to open up space between both plants. My concern is that Gorilla Cookies will get too big and overshadow this plant. Gorilla Cookies: This plant is fantastic! She is about 16.5" tall now and super wide for a plant in a 1 gallon container. The canopy is perfectly level. I removed a few leaves along the inside edge of the plant and flipped her around to free up more space between the two. Her leaves are amazing and colors are spot on. Branching is perfect. So many tops and bud sites. I have concerns with not being able to train anymore. I don't know how I'm going to keep the plant from outgrowing the tent. I wonder if a SCROG net will work. I had to raise the light another inch to keep up with the growth. However, I need to remove the hangers and run a different setup so I can get another 5 or 6 inches. All the way to the top if I have to. I had a grow that hit 36" in this tent. It was too tall I think, but I used the same setup. This time around I have the entire exhaust system mounted outside the tent. I should have plenty of space. Grow System Environment: Temp: 72.2° RH: 64.5% VPD: 0.98 kPa