Overflow Strawberry Gorilla/Cookies

October 18, 2023 Day 43 This week is the first true week of flowering. Both ladies are officially out of Veg and will start their stretch even more. We will be focused on keeping the canopy clean and level. Watering is starting to increase exponentially. Even in a 1 gallon container, they are still drinking around 1/4 gallon a day. I've learned the technique for hydroponics and wicking into soil. Nutrients are constantly needed as the plant isn't getting a top feed. So her roots will be growing into the wicks and then will take all their nutrients from the reservoir. Especially due to the size of the containers. They are small enough to keep the soil perfectly moist. Both also got pruned today. Just a bit. Clearing out lower branches and leaves that just won't make it to the light. Strawberry Gorilla is definitely slower to grow. She is around 15.5" now and about 2" shorter than Gorilla Cookies. So I lifted her up to match the canopy height. She needed a bit of water today, so I added around a 1/2 gallon for nutrient water. Gorilla Cookies: This plant is fantastic. She is around 17" now and is filling out the right side of the tent. Her branches are strong and tall. She's actually not quite as thirsty as Strawberry Gorilla which is kind of surprising considering her mass is just bigger all around than Strawberry Gorilla. Grow System Environment: Temp: 72.9° RH: 63.8% VPD: 1.03 kPa October 19, 2023 I had to move the light up another inch today. Much growth. Strawberry Gorilla: I flipped her around to allow both sides of the plant to spread a bit more. She isn't as vigorous as Gorilla Cookies, but she's doing quite well. She is also a bit behind in development. Her leaves are super green and lush. Her bud sites are opened up for the most part. She still a bit cramped in the tent, but is still growing nicely. Gorilla Cookies: She is super vigorous. She grew about 1.5" last night and doesn't look like she will be stopping anytime soon. The branches have spread out nicely and wide, leaving room for all the bud sites to grow. I cleaned up a tiny bit under the canopy. Just cleared out super low growth and some really small auxiliary branches were just a waste of energy. I also hand bent down the 2 tallest branches. I'll have to do it multiple times today to get it to stick, but it needs to be done to keep the canopy level help prevent overtaking the whole tent. Grow System Environment: Temp: 73.9° RH: 62.2% VPD: 1.09 kPa October 20, 2023 It's warm and rainy today. So it's naturally wreaking havoc on the tent environment. Not too bad. Temp is perfectly fine. Humidity on the other hand is bouncing between 62% and 71%. Such a big swing. I'll be fighting this all day. Both reservoirs got topped off today. The next watering I think I'll drop the amount of Nirvana. To help prevent nitrogen toxicity. Strawberry Gorilla: She got a small pruning and cleaned up underneath. I figure as long as I continue to remove useless plant matter, it should keep the top of the canopy happy and healthy. She has beautiful leaves and has a compact but level structure. Compact mostly because of the space available. I'll check back with her this afternoon to see if there was any stress from the pruning. Gorilla Cookies: This plant is crazy. Tons of growth, strong branches and tons of side branches. As I thought, the stretch so far has kept the foliage manageable and well spaced. I'll do a final defoliation in the second week of full flower. Her leaves are lush and a beautiful green. Both of these plants are getting more and more thirsty. They are drinking roughly the same amount as the ones in the main tent which are in 5 gallon containers. And they are thirsty as well. But these 2 are plowing through a gallon of water in roughly 3 days. Considering the size of the containers, these 2 are really impressive. By far bigger than all of the plants in the main tent... For now anyway. I don't think they will max out at the same level as the main tent, but will definitely be more productive in the mean time and will certainly have a great yield. Grow System Environment: Temp: 74.4° RH: 64.0% VPD: 1.06 kPa October 21, 2023 I noticed that the reservoirs are nearly half empty from yesterdays top off. I wonder if it's evaporating too fast. There is a dehumidifier on the floor in front of them. Oh well. I'll be turning that off in no time. Or I'll have to move it somewhere else. Small tent though. Not much space at all. I may move it to the back of the tent. That seems to be where all the humidity congregates. The light was lifted and inch today. These 2 are growing pretty quickly. Especially the Gorilla Cookies. I'm really starting to wonder how big the Strawberry Gorilla gets. So far all 3 that I'm growing in this tent and my main tent are small. I keep expecting them to take off, but they don't seem to want to. I don't know why either. Maybe the light is too close, but it's 26" away from the canopy and the DLI is 41 mol/m²/d from the 45 it was before I lifted it. I will be stopping at 45 and I'll keep it there when they stop growing. Strawberry Gorilla: She has lush beautiful leaves. Mostly thin finger leaves, but still lots of foliage. I may take more off to free up some very much needed light penetration. I'd also like her to take off so I can take her off the riser and rest on the floor again. It may be later in the stretch? Who knows. Gorilla Cookies: This plant is insane. She grew roughly 2" last night in most spots. Some of the side branches are still catching up, but they are getting there. Either way, I'm expecting a bountiful harvest from this one. I'll be able to estimate the harvest size when I see how fat the buds get. But with a plant this size and with this many side branches and tops, I would wager a guess of 3 oz. The 1 gallon container doesn't seem to be an obstacle for this plant. She's definitely more than 3 times the size of it and still going super strong. My last grow, I had a shorter and more compact plant with lighting issues and still got 2.5 oz out of it. The Gorilla Cookies is larger, wider, has more tops and no issues whatsoever. She's also supposed to be a much bigger plant with a larger yield potential. All that being said, a sound guess would be 3 oz. I don't think I'll get more than that, but if the buds grow as fat and dense as they are supposed to, the plant would theoretically yield 4 oz. But I doubt I'll get that. We shall see though. Update: I was looking at the setup and had a difference in about 2" of height between the plants. So I stacked another riser under Strawberry Gorilla and brought it level with Gorilla Cookies. In turn, the DLI increased to 45. So I had to raise the light another inch. The DLI now rests just above 40. Grow System Environment: Temp: 74.4° RH: 64.0% VPD: 1.06 kPa October 22, 2023 These 2 are thirsty. Both need a top off today. Gorilla Cookies is empty and Strawberry Gorilla is right behind. They got a full top off today. No recharge though. I'll do that next watering. I also decided to top water both of them. Just to barely runoff. Considering how thirsty they are, I don't expect that top feed to last long. Strawberry Gorilla: She started stretching finally. Not too much, but I have a feeling this is how the strain works. She looks great with beautiful leaves and great internodal spacing. No stacking yet, but she is still in very early flower. I'm very excited to see how much she stretches. I cleaned up the bottom of the plant. Just cleaning out unwanted new growth. Gorilla Cookies: This plant is 21.5" tall and still growing. She is officially 3 times the size of the container. It's wide and has excellent internodal spacing. Great foliage. Beautiful color and not too dense. I removed a few leaves that were blocking some bud sites. I can't wait to see how much she grows. I still have about 4" of light space and the canopy is currently 17" away. So I may have to raise the light to the top of the tent for this grow. Not complaining. Grow System Environment: Temp: 72.1° RH: 65.5% VPD: 0.93 kPa October 23, 2023 These 2 are taking up the entire tent. It's only a 2x2, but it's full. Especially from the size of Gorilla Cookies. Anyway, the weather is starting to cool and the humidity is dropping. Which is perfect, because they just started to flower. So low temps and RH are certainly welcome. The RH is still a bit higher than I want it, but it's fine for the time being. I will give it another week before I start bringing it down. 55% is next week's goal. This week was 60% to 65% Strawberry Gorilla: She is small. Just like the ones in the Main Tent. I don't understand. I know it's supposed to be a more compact plant, but her hasn't really stretched at all in the last few days. Her structure is pretty good though. Canopy is level and her foliage is just about where it should be. Maybe a selective defoliation in a week or so. I might wait an extra few days to see if she gets some stretch going. Also, she's a different phenome as the ones in the main tent. Different leaf structure. Also not stacking the same. Maybe she needs a few more days. Internodal spacing should also be addressed. It's very nicely spaced. Maybe an inch apart. Great for big solid colas. I removed a couple of leaves to make space for a couple other tops to come through. Also, I topped off the reservoir with the rest of her nutrient gallon. Gorilla Cookies: This lady is now 24.5" tall. By far the tallest of the 3 I'm currently growing. Definitely not the biggest though. Anyway, her branches are nicely spread and her canopy is quite level. There's 2 main branches that are just above the rest, but it seems fine. Plus, I don't have space to pull them down. Internodal spacing is nearly perfect. About an inch and a half. I also gave her a tiny pruning and removed some leaves. I took off some tiny branches that were never going to make it and removed some leaves that were too deep into the canopy and facing inward. Grow System Environment: Temp: 73.7° RH: 58.6% VPD: 1.18 kPa October 24, 2023 This tent is where it's happening. Only because the 1 gallon containers are giving me better plants. I raised the light to the near top of the tent because of the stretch Gorilla Cookies is in. Strawberry Gorilla: She's still short. Only about a third the size of her counterpart. It's just like the 2 in the main tent. I really don't understand what I did wrong for all 3 plants. Or did I do anything wrong and these are supposed to look like this? Seriously don't get it at all. The annoying part here is the set up is completely different from this tent to the main tent. Different brand and style smaller light. Much smaller space, smaller containers. Different location in the room with cooler pockets and higher humidity... For the most part. They are nearly the same in DLI and environmental aspects. Where they are similar is with soil and nutrients. I mostly keep the DLI the same as the main tent, so that shouldn't be a problem. This tent is smaller and is producing bigger plants. Or it seems to be. The Gorilla Cookies in the main tent aren't as tall, but they are definitely more massive. So it's all catching up now, but the Strawberry Gorilla is the concern. Why is it so small? Does it take off later in the stretch? Did I do something wrong? I don't know. The fabric pots in this tent are as we know, 1 gallon with a homemade bottom feed wick system much like the bottom feed bases in the main tent. The 5 gallons in the main tent are about the same size as the 1 gallon. Maybe a bit wider due to the pot size, but not as many tops and nowhere near level canopies. This one looks the best, but is in the 1 gallon pot. Whaaaaaaaa?! I guess I'll have to see in about 2 to 3 weeks when all the stretching is supposed to stop. She will definitely need a defoliation when she is done stretching. Also, from what I have seen, flowering time on this strain is 5 to 7 weeks. Total grow time on average looks to be between 10 and 11 weeks. So I can expect to see a harvest in about a 4 to 5 weeks. Maybe 6? And to make an overestimate, she still has 7 to 8 weeks left. I doubt it though. She's been in flower for a week already. Gorilla Cookies: This one is still taking off. She grew another 2 inches yesterday. Her tippy top tallest colas are kinda close to the light, but I've learned that the 100 watt light takes a lot to cause light stress. As long as I keep it at least 12" above the canopy, it should be perfectly fine. So this plant has quite a few tops and because of that, I'll barely need to trim anything. It will certainly need a final defoliation, but it should be pretty selective. I'm not exactly sure when she will be harvested, but I believe based on the week of flower, she should be done in about 6 to 7 weeks. Maybe 8. Let's shoot for 6 to 7. Grow System Environment: Temp: 73.6° RH: 62.9% VPD: 1.05 kPa