Zkitzz in Self Watering AC Infinity pots (Coco)

Update….This grow will be about the use of self watering bases with coco coir. I’m planning to bottom feed exclusively with a flush between veg and flower to flush out the residual salts from the fertilizer. I ran into that with soil the last time I used these pots, but I’ve never run with the coco. This is all new to me. Transplanted from the germination station (under T5 fluorescent lights) to the grow tent under LEDs. I expect much stronger light from the LED in the tent. Adjusted lamp to 6500 lux (recommended lux for seedlings is 5-7000). I had been giving them 2500 lux under the T5 fluorescent bulbs. Watered in with RO Water with seaweed extract (1oz/gallon) and CalMag (3ml/g) and then 1ml/g each of the General Hydroponics Flora Series nutrients. Adjusted ph to 6.0, which required about 1ml/g of ph down. Humidifier set to 70%. I wish I could raise the temperature (70 degrees) by a few degrees, but I’m not willing to put a heater in the tent. My lamp will put off more heat as I increase intensity too, so the tent will be warmer in the future. Exhaust fan is set up to turn on if humidity hits 80% or if the temperature hits 78 degrees. Daily Updates: TUESDAY- Adjusted light to 6900 lux level. Plants looked great under 6500 lux yesterday. Topped off the self-watering bases with 6.0 ph nutrient solution. The wicks are likely slowly transferring liquid to the bottom of the 5 gallon fabric pots. I’m questioning the health of the Godfather OG. Leaves look abnormal and growth is slow…..likely overwatered early on. Might replace Godfather OG with another backup seedling if she doesn’t start looking healthier. See photo above. WEDNESDAY- raised tent temperature to 75 degrees and 70% humidity. Measured plants to see growth over time. Godfather OG might be replaced soon if she doesn’t show any growth. She seems stunted considering she’s over one week older than the other two plants. Keeping the VPD less than 1. THURSDAY-Topping off the self watering bases every day or two as nutrients are sucked up into the soil through the wicks and fabric pot. These self-watering pots generally moisten the bottom 1/3 of the fabric pot, so the roots need to grow down to the bottom third before the self-watering pots become effective. I’m going to modify these self watering bases so that I can check the ph and ppm in the bases without dis-assembly…see photo of before and after. I replaced the Godfather OG with the spare Zkittz seedling. She was much more robust and showing growth compared to the sluggish Godfather seedling. Godfather seemed stunted before and after transplant….possibly over fed too early as a seedling. FRIDAY - Added soil around long stem of new Zkittelz transplant so that she’s sturdier in the pot without wanting to tip over during watering. Watered each plant with nutrient solution.

I normally update diaries on weekends, so I’m adjusting my start day for this diary to weekends too. I update and modify this weekly post on a daily basis. Continuing to top-feed the planters while I wait for the roots to stretch to the bottom third of the pot. Once they do, the self feeding pots will take over all feeding and watering. Also adjusting the water in the feeder reservoirs to maintain a 6.0 ph and 800 or lower ppm. I was really impressed when I used these with soil….hoping for a similar result using coco coir. Plants are growing quickly… Once they grow 6 nodes, I will top them above the fourth node. Currently at 9500 lux compared to 7,000 last week. Will continue to increase. recommended lighting is Seedling stage: 5000 to 7000 lux Vegetative stage: 15,000 to 50,000 lux Flowering stage: 45,000 to 65,000 lux DAILY UPDATES: SUNDAY: added 1.5 gallons of coco coir to the top of 2 pots to bury the stems a little more. Lowered the fan intensity on the plants. Late evening. I Increased lighting to 17,000 lux. That’s a Daily Light Interval of 25 which is in line for a 3 week old plant. Also added two more wicks to each feeder to increase transfer rate to the 5 gallon pots. MONDAY: Checked lighting again using the Photone App on a mini iPad. See screen prints for Monday lighting (DLI). Checked PPM in the reservoirs which turned out to be 1150 ppm and 1400 ppm. This high ppm is driven by even a small amount of runoff from top feeding. So….no more top feeding unless absolutely necessary. Drained all nutrient reservoirs, cleaned them, and filled with 600ppm / 6.0 ph nutrient solution. Decided to do a foliar feed….1 gallon RO water, 2ml/g of Armor Si Silica, 4ml/g of CaliMagic CalMag, 1ml/g of GH Flora Gro and Micro, 10ml/g of Maxicrop seaweed extract and .8ml ph down to get a 6.0ph solution. Solution ppm at 480. Turned off grow lights and sprayed tops and bottoms of leaves. Lights to remain off while the plants dry. I’ve never been one for foliar feeding, but it seemed like an excellent way to get silica and CalMag directly to the plant instead of through the wick action from the feeder. TUESDAY: noticed some yellowing between the veins of one plant, so I top fed with a small amount of nutrient water that incorporated epsom salts. I fed her some RO water mixed with Epsom salt, seaweed extract, silica, CalMag and a very small dose of GH Flora Micro and Gro. Ppm under 800. Hope I don’t hurt the plant with this feed. I saw a lot of positive discussion here about epsom salts and decided to add that to the mix. Ph’d to 6.0. (I have been advised to target 5.8 ph in coco for better results) Installed new Mars Hydro 45 watt UV/IR lights using zip ties to affix the bars to my cob led frame. Easy install. Running IR alone at this growth stage. Will add UV later in the grow. (I paid for these lamps….i am not associated with Mars Hydro) WEDNESDAY: as part of quadline training, I removed lowest node branches from two largest plants. Goal is to remove bottom two nodes from each plant and topping above the 4th node, but I don’t want to stress them out by doing it all at once. I also lowered the ph in the reservoirs from 6.0 to 5.8 based on feedback from other growers. THURSDAY: ordered seaweed extract with IRON to address the discoloration between the leaf veins. It’s a stretch, but I plan to flush her with 5.8 ph nutrient solution containing seaweed extract (with iron this time). The discoloration of the leaves on the small Zkittz plant is Edie to ph fluctuation, iron deficiency, a virus or mutation according to one leaf diagnosis application. Im betting on ph and iron. FRIDAY: no activity planned. I will update week 3 over the weekend.

Welcome to the start of week #3. Last week I removed some of the side branches for plant training, Those low branches usually grow larfy bud anyway, so away they go. I have decided to keep node #2 on two of the plants, so those two plants will train 6 branches instead of four. I really don’t have enough space with three plants to use the quadline to its full potential, so I’m considering just doing a few more toppings and grow a SCROG. A SCROG with these self watering bases could prove challenging for weekly clean outs of the reservoirs. Won’t know until I try. I’m also in a small 2x4 tent so it should be easier to manage. Fed 12oz of 850ppm solution to each plant that included 1oz/g of MaxiCrop Seaweed with Iron to address some yellowing between the veins. I had also lowered my ph from 6.0 to 5.8 last week to address. Made a definite improvement by Sunday. These plants are stretching more than any other grow I’ve experienced. About 5” of growth last week vertically!! Grew an inch on Saturday alone. The only element that has changed is lighting…..I’ve been slower to acclimate them to the full intense lights. I’ve also been running infrared lamps at the start and end of every lighting cycle. An expert grower also indicated that the coco coir provides a faster growing environment too (compared to soil) I have traditionally grown very short plants….probably due to too much light. Today I raised them from 25 DLI to 28 DLI. (Daily Light Integral). I had backed off the intensity a few days ago due to leaf curl on one plant. I’d like to shorten the distance between nodes slightly…..so hoping that more light will accomplish that. More details to follow as I add daily information to this summary: DAILY UPDATES: SUNDAY: Topped plants above the 4th node. Fed 8oz of nutrients with iron to each plant. (MaxiCrop Seaweed Extract with Iron at 28ml/g). Not using with every feeding….I do not want too much iron. MONDAY: emptied reservoirs and replaced nutrients, turned on side LED lights, added SCROG net (I’m still undecided whether to SCROG. It could be difficult to empty reservoirs with SCROG in place). Nutes at 880ppm (a little high) and 5.6 ph (a little low). Will address tomorrow. TUESDAY: added 20oz of RO water to each reservoir base to reduce ppm and raise ph slightly. Now at 5.9ph and 780ppm. One plant had drooping leaves in the morning which could be caused by high ppm of nutrients. By evening, her leaves had restored vigor. I also changed the method of bending the branches for quadline training. I’m using branch clips instead of using twist tie to bend the branches. Let’s see how these red clips work at each base. Finally, I broke a bottom branch on the LA Peyote Kush when trying to use the branch bending clips 🤬🤬🤬, so I removed the bottom two nodes of that plant. She’s now a true quadline (4 branches). WEDNESDAY: my wife has me painting several rooms today, so the garden gets a break. No activity planned. THURSDAY: water levels look good. Zkittz #2 is going to be difficult to train and very tall…..I think I need a taller tent by flower time. FRIDAY

TL:DR. I regret using plant clips to bend branches. Several broken branches to show for it. I also completely failed at training these as a “quadline”…so they’re topped once and growing naturallly from there. Wow have they grown…..fan leaves are over 8 inches long and the plants are over a foot tall even after topping. These are growing much faster in coco than soil. Added two gallons of nutrient solution to the reservoirs using RO water and the modified Lucas Formula for coco (Micro and Bloom nutrients plus CalMag). So far the plants are doing well without any top feeding. I’m frustrated by my poor plant training. These seedlings grew too tall for doing the LST that I had hoped to accomplish, so I’m using branch clips. Ive broken two branches so far attempting to use these too, so I’m not sold on them. 🤬🤬🤬. I update my journal daily, so updates will be added below this week. DAILY UPDATES: SUNDAY MONDAY. Another branch snapped under the pressure of the branch clips. Removing those from the rest of the branches. I don’t recommend these 90 degree bends. Considering going 12/12 lighting next week to start flowering. TUESDAY: Topped off 3 feeding reservoirs with 2 gallons of nutrients WEDNESDAY: no work done. Wow have I failed at plant training! . They grew fast and got away from me. So I won’t be growing out a quadline. THURSDAY: topped off nutrients with 2.5 gallons. They’re getting thirstier. I started to blend tap water with RO water now 50/50. Due to chloramines and chlorine in my tap water, I add aquarium drops to neutralize what I can. My seedlings and young plants don’t like my tap water. Increased speed of oscillating fans to full speed after observing moisture between leaves. Removed lower leaves and branches to provide more room for airflow under the canopy. Removed lower branches that will never reach high enough to get enough light. Height is 18” now…..almost ready to flip to flower. Roots are starting to grow out of the bottom of the fabric pots and into the wicks. I will need to lift pots daily to prevent the pots from becoming attached to the wicks. FRIDAY

These girls grew 8” last week up to 20”. At this rate of growth, I anticipate flipping to flower next week. I am disappointed in my training attempts….these are poorly trained. I have removed lower leaves and branches to enocurage growth closer to the canopy. Replaced one gallon of nutrient solution from each reservoir. Replaced with fresh solution at 6.0 ph and 1080 ppm. The watering bases are working great so far…..wonder if I will need a flush in early flower? Considering that approach at week 2 of flower. I am doing all watering and feeding through the bases….no top feeding. Removed lower leaves, small lower branches, and large fan leaves that were blocking bud sites. Topped a few branches….last topping before I flip to flower. DAILY UPDATES SUNDAY Topped off reservoirs with one gallon of nutrients (used .33 gallons per reservoir since last night). Turned on second LED lamp and adjusted dimmers to target a 45 DLI at 18 hours per day. MONDAY TUESDAY: getting too tall. Ending veg and flipping to flower at 23” tall. WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY

TUESDAY: Plants are up to 23” tall, so I need to flip now due to space issues. Flipping to a 12/12 light schedule 7am-7pm. Will adjust dimmers to achieve target Daily Light Integral at 12 hours per day. I’m turning the LED off today, so they will get a full 24 hours of darkness to kick this flowering period off. Self watering pots are still doing great with all nutrients delivered via the reservoir and wicks. I’m adding at least .5 gallons to each reservoir daily. Leaves look very healthy for self feeding….better than when I top-feed. My basil plants in the first picture are growing quickly too… WEDNESDAY: plants are now up to 24”, so I raised lights and adjusted dimmer to target 25 Daily Light Integral. Added a tower fan for more air movement below the canopy. Fed them 1.25 gallons of nutrient solution. I have room for 15 inches of growth up to 38”. If they exceed that, I’ll have to order an 8’ tall gorilla grow tent to save the grow. I’d rather keep my current tent, but it’s only 6’ tall. The tent is getting crowded with plant growth, fans and basil plants. Roots are growing into the wicks of the feeding reservoir. Lifted each plant to break roots off wicks. Definitely seeing air pruning of the roots….one of the benefits of these fabric pots. Still impressed with the simplicity of the bottom feeding reservoirs. FRIDAY: fed .7 gallons to each plant reservoir. Grew another inch to 25” or even taller. I’m really worried about my expected stretch with flowering. SATURDAY: grew another inch to 26” today. topped off reservoirs….estimate at .7 gallons per reservoir. Forgot to add CalMag to RO water today. Raised lamps 4 inches…it’s near the top of the tent now. Hoping for little flower stretch. Later, I added 1.5ml of CalMag to each reservoir to fix mistake. SUNDAY: added 1.1 gallons to the three reservoirs. Didn’t forget the CalMag today either. I trimmed a few more lower branches that wouldn’t ever see the top of the canopy since I don’t like to process larf. I removed the extra wicks I had added from the watering bases so that I’m not directing as much water into the root zone. Busy morning……. I’ve been on 12/12 lighting since Tuesday and now waiting for budlets to form. MONDAY: up to 27” today. I topped off with 1 gallon of nutrient solution. TUESDAY: Start of flowering week #2

TUESDAY: welcome to week 2 of flower. These watering bases are still working perfectly. I’m adding .7 gallons of nutrients to the bases daily. Still growing over 1” per day. Up to 30” today. Whoa…..slow down ladies! I’m limited on how much more height I can handle. I’m tempted to flush one pot and see the ppm of the runoff. There must be a salt buildup at the root zone with this bottom wicking technique. I see the salts on the fiber pots, and I believe I ran into a need for flushing mid-flower last time. I’d rather avoid flowering issues….so I will flush this week. Flushed one plant to test runoff ppm. First runoff at 2600 ppm, so I suspect the other two plants will need a flush as well. I want to see how this one responds before I flush the other two. By flushing, I used 5 gallons of 6.0 ph tap water with FloraKleen through the coco. Then….i fed 3.5 gallons of nutrient solution at 1000 ppm to flush out the rest of the salts and replenish with nutrients. So not a true flush, but a significant impact. WEDNESDAY: the flushed plant looks happy and healthy today. No signs of any leaf stress on any of the three plants, but I anticipate issues with salt buildup at the roots will come up before harvest on the plants that I did not flush. Almost 32 inches tall today. Flushed the LA Peyote Kush w/ 7 gallons. I will leave the one plant alone to see if salt buildup occurs. THURSDAY: up to 33”. I’m running out of vertical room, so a taller tent is ordered and scheduled to arrive on Friday. Moving from a 6’ tent to an 8’ tent. Still a 2x4 size. FRIDAY: Gained another inch to 34” tall. New 7’11” tall tent coming today, so growing space won’t be an issue any more. I like the AC Infinity tent I was using except that it’s too short for my liking at 6’0”. Nice quality. Planning to assemble the new tent overnight so that I don’t disrupt the light cycle. (Will place the plants in a fully dark room overnight for 12 hours of darkness). I decided to flush the last plant today. Ran 5 gallons with Florakleen through the coco. Then 3 gallons of tap water, then 2 gallons with cal mag which resulted in a 995 ppm runoff at the end. Fed 1.5 gallons of nutrient solution at 5.9 at the end. Disassembled old tent and assembled components in the new tent overnight. SATURDAY. Finished assembling new grow tent. Plant is up to 35” tall. Now light is 19” above most colas. I cleaned out the reservoirs which had some algae on the walls. Filled the reservoirs with 5.9ph and 1100ppm nutrient solution. Adjusted lighting to a Daily Light Integral of 35 at 12 hours of light. SUNDAY: Grew to 35.5 inches….slowing down? Filled the reservoirs with 3 gallons of 1050ppm and 5.9ph nutrient solution. MONDAY: up to 36.5 inches….still growing. Budlets are tiny….wondering if I had a light leak or other issue that delayed the start of flowering. I’ve double and triple checked all lighting….definitely on 12/12. Fed .5 gallons to each reservoir.

Overall….self watering bases are working great! I did flush once between veg and flower to prevent salt buildup at the roots. I don’t know if that is recommended….but I believe it was a good preventative move before going into the more fragile flower growing phase. All I do is top off the reservoirs daily with almost .7 gallons of nutrients per reservoir. No runoff, no overwatering, no mess, no wasted nutrients. It’s almost too easy compared to other growing methods. I’m also appreciating the coco coir over soil….no bugs, lighter, less expensive, easier to flush and change nutrient levels with coco, perfect air/water ratio at the roots. Irrigating from the bottom is also called a SIP (sub-irrigated planter)….i plan to test another SIP next time called an Octopot. TUESDAY: BEGINNING of week 3 of flower. Zkitzz #1 is up to 37”, so I’m glad I upgraded my tent to a taller model. Leaves looking extremely healthy….no nutrient burn or deficiencies showing. I am glad that I flushed the plants last week in preparation for flower. I’ve been slowly defoliating a few leaves these first two weeks of flower…..almost time to stop picking leaves. I hope that I defoliated enough. WEDNESDAY: up to 38 inches tall. Really happy about the new taller tent. THURSDAY: Happy Thanksgiving! Plant is up to 39.5 inches today. Budlets are starting to be more prominent. SATURDAY: Up to 42 inches tall today…..hoping they stop stretching soon. Raised lights by 2 inches.

Up to 49 inches tall now. Roughly 5-6 more weeks until harvest. Self watering pots are still working great….leaves are very healthy. Topped off each reservoir with .7 gallons of nutrient solution. I was using InfraRed lighting for the past few weeks and I believe that encouraged more stretch than usual. Now I’m using UV lighting intervals during the day and I turned off the IR. Saturday….identified a phosphorous deficiency in one plant. Added Liquid Koolbloom (0-10-10) to nutrient mix to address deficiency. Monday…added three 5’ stakes (2 3’ stakes zip tied together) to support tallest colas at 54”. This was on one of the Zkitzz. The other Zkitzz would benefit from stakes too as she puts on weight. They stretched so much that they are weak stems. This could get interesting once the buds put on weight.

Welcome to the grow with the absolute worst plant training on the web. It all comes down to changes in lighting as I will explain. A quick rundown of my mistakes on this grow. I experimented with infrared lighting on this grow, and it encouraged much much more stretch between nodes than I wanted. My LEDs are old COB lights and I always thought that more red light would be helpful. Maybe this was overkill. They grew so quickly that quadline plant training felt impossible. My plants are normally short, so the only explanation is the supplemental IR lights. I don’t anticipate using these again. Here is a quote from the Mars Hydro site…. “IR lights utilize far-red wavelengths to elicit a shade avoidance response in plants, leading to accelerated stem growth. There are two procedures known as PS1 and PS2 which contribute to plant growth. Plants exposed to supplemental IR light alongside both blue and red light showed an increase in photosynthesis, the promotion of robust stem growth, proper node spacing along with more flower buds. IR light also appears to help plants transition between different stages of growth, sleep and wake cycles, during the later stages of development. In addition to this, flowers will not bloom until adequate levels of IR radiation have been introduced.” - Mars Hydro website and seller of my UV/IR lamp. I had to buy a new 8’ tent to accommodate their height. Never experienced growth like this….never! I also messed up some early plant training by using branch clips to bend branches which resulted in several broken branches. Between quadline training, which cuts the plant back to four primary branches, and then breaking some of those limited branches, it won’t have nearly as many bud sites as possible. I failed to add silica, so the stems are long and weak from their excessive stretch….so if these buds put on much weight I could have a mess in my tent. Overall, I feel I could have done much better without adding IR lighting. If it weren’t for the fact that I’m using these feeding reservoirs, I would have performed better with converting to a SCROG. However, these reservoirs need to be removed every few weeks and rinsed out for algae. I still highly recommend these AC Infinity watering bases…very effective growing tool. I simply add about .7 gallons each day and they take care of themselves. As a reminder, I’m using Coco Loco as my medium. Start of week photos uploaded. I am amazed at them reaching 54 inches tall. Wednesday: on the Flora nutrient trio, I reduced micro, added more bloom to nutrient mix. Also using Liquid KoolBloom (0-10-10) to attempt to bulk up the flowers at 5ml/g. Forgot to add it, but planning to add homemade Terpinator to future feeds. Friday: Up to 57 inches tall today. Unbelievable stretch even with IR light turned off. Decided that the stretch should be over, so I’m turning the IR light back on to help with flowering. Supercropped one very tall branch. Sunday: two plants drinking considerably less from the reservoir. Will research to see if late flwering plants drink less. Really amazed at how tall these plants are under infrared lighting.

Welcome to the start of week 11….my sixth week of flower. First things first….the point of this test. AC Infinity self watering pots still working great! Minimal effort needed….i just top them off with .7 gallons of nutrients every day. I have not been cleaning them out as often as recommended (every 2 weeks), so there could be some algae in my reservoirs. I did flush the pots one time between veg and flower to avoid salt buildup at the roots. In testing the runoff ppm, I firmly believe that flushing mid-grow was the right move. (I paid for my self watering pots, so this is not a paid promotion). Rating 10/10 Mars Hydro UV/IR lamp worked too well. I used it in a smaller than recommended tent (2x4) and the IR lighting really resulted in some extreme stretch. If you’re ever in the mood to grow tall cannabis plants, then try the IR light. Personally, I plan to retire it because I prefer short plants. Rating 7/10. (I paid for this lamp…not a paid promotion) I know that week 6 of flower isn’t the ideal time to defoliate. I removed a few larger fan leaves that were blocking bud sites, especially on the LA Peyote Kush and Zkitzz #1. Zkitzz #2 has grown into the grow lights….which are over 6’ off the ground. Huge stretch with this plant and the IR lighting. Leaves are looking extremely healthy…..no signs of any deficiencies. Buds on LA Peyote Kush starting to turn brown and curl in. The Zkitzz is a 7-8 week flowering strain that seems to be running behind. Meanwhile, the LA Peyote Kush is a 9-11 week strain that appears to be moving quickly. Hopefully I can harvest all on the same day since I use my tent for drying. My attempt to train these as short “quadline” plants failed miserably as these are the tallest plants I’ve ever grown. Oh well…..

HAPPY HOLIDAYS! Note, this diary doesn’t let me specify the use of General Hydroponics Flora Series, but that is the nutrient line I am using, along with their Liquid Koolbloom and Diamond Nectar. I like their products. I’m not paid or reimbursed in any way. Starting to see the beginning of nutrient burn on one plant. Planning to back off the nutes slightly and add straight water to the reservoirs tomorrow. I flushed pots between veg and flower modes, and I’m hoping that’s the last needed flush. I do plan to fade nutrients before harvest, but I’d like to feed them for three more weeks at least without risking nutrient burn. They are actively drinking .7 gallons each per day. Pistils are starting to darken and curl into the buds, but still plenty of white pistils. Not ready to start scoping the trichomes yet since it’s still too early. Tuesday: Fed water with CalMag and liquid Koolbloom at 5.8ph. Skipped the fertilizer this round. After adding water, the reservoirs read a ppm of 950 and ph of 5.8. Thursday: photographed trichomes. Nowhere near ready yet, but cloudier than I expected them to be. Friday: Turned off the infra red lights. They continue to get UV light exposure 4x times per day in 20 minute increments. Saturday: topped off with water, but not using as much water as usual Monday; End of week 7 of flower. Today added .5 gallons of nutrient solution to top off reservoirs. They are quickly slowing down their water intake. Mixed Nutrients at 5.8 ph and 1050 ppm. Leaves showing no signs of over feeding or salt buildup at the root zone. I really like these self watering pots. I plan to run them again next time. The Liquid Koolbloom definitely stopped that Phosphorous deficiency. Leaves looking healthy.

My weeks start on Tuesday and end on Mondays, so here is the latest update. I update my journal every day, so it is always work in progress. The self feeding reservoirs continue to impress. However, I believe a 10 gallon flush is warranted by week 2 of flower due to salt buildup at the roots. An additional flush might make sense on long running strains like my one Zkitzz#2 which appears to have weeks to go. Note, this diary doesn’t let me specify the use of General Hydroponics Flora Series, but that is the nutrient line I am using, along with their Liquid Koolbloom and Diamond Nectar. I like their products. I’m not paid or reimbursed in any way. Plants are drinking less now in late flower. Im increasing my liquid koolbloom (0-10-10) for more P and K nutrients. I’m also using less Flora Micro, More FloraBloom and no FloraGro at all as I top the reservoirs. Tuesday: Checked trichomes….plenty of cloudy, a few clear and a few amber. I’m close, but waiting another week or two. One plant is maturing VERY slowly and growing very tall….its likely expressing its Sativa genetics and will take a lot longer to mature. She’s at 56” tall after only 4 weeks of veg. Tallest plant that ive ever grown. I’m concerned by the fact that I am seeing the start of nutrient burn on her leaves…..is it worth all of the work to move her into a bathtub for a flush? The other two plants will finish in the next two weeks, so I will likely start to fade nutrients. I decided to flush her with 10 gallons of water with Florakleen added. This is her second flush, with the last flush 5 weeks ago. Runoff ppm from the initial runoff was 4,150ppm!! After ten gallons, runoff was 950ppm. So a lot of salt was flushed away from her roots. Hoping this prevents any additional nutrient burn and buys me more time while this slow grower matures. In the process of removing this 56” tall plant, I discovered that she’s burning her top colas on the LEDs. So, while I don’t want to do it, I was forced to supercrop her two tallest colas in week 7 of flower. Not ideal…. I also raised the light by 2 inches and dimmed slightly to achieve a Daily Light Integral of 50 max. Wednesday: added nutrients to reservoir, but no Flora Series nutes this time. Just CalMag and Liquid Koolbloom and Terpinator. Ph to 5.9. Starting to fade nutrients as we near the finish line for two plants. Also added a plant yo-yo to support the newly Supercropped branches. Thursday: all looks good today. Much better now that they’re not touching the lights. Friday. Topped off reservoirs….very little nutrient water needed. Seeing some foxtailing on LA Peyote Kush…not due to heat and not that close to the LED, so it could be genetic. Saturday: ignored the plants completely. Not drinking much, no need to fill the reservoir today Sunday: LA Peyote Kush almost ready to harvest. Monday: Last day of the week. Topped off reservoirs with 1150ppm nutrient solution at 5.7ph. Not ready to fully starve them yet. Waiting 1-2 more weeks for amber. Checked trichomes and not ready yet.

Finally harvested the LA Peyoe Kush because I expected that my tent needed more airflow or else I’d have bud rot issues. I like a lot of air flow! This plant was ready after 9 weeks of flower. Interestingly, she was foxtailing despite being kept at a good temperature and good distance from the lights. Infrared lighting caused more stretch between nodes, so she was relatively tall. I won’t do that again. Self-watering bases worked perfectly. I flushed the 5 gallon fabric pot one time (10 gallon flush) after switching from veg to flower. Beyond that, the self-feeding mechanism didn’t overfeed, didn’t burn any leaves, and all nutrients were delivered from the base (no top watering was done). It’s an excellent system.

Welcome to week 9 of flower! We are down to 2 Ganja Farmer Zkitzz plants now that the Seedsman LA Peyote Kush has been harvested. Zkitzz #1 is ready to harvest in 1-2 weeks. Zkitzz #2 has several weeks to go….pistils haven’t even changed to brown yet. The zkitzz #2, which I had to supercrop in week 8 of flower, is surviving well. I’m using plant yo-yos to hold up the two bent colas. She was up to 56” tall before supercropping and I burned her top buds with the LED COBs. Wednesday: added some closeup shots of the colas. New microscope arrived. Yesterday’s harvest of the LA Peyote Kush was ok based on brown pistils and cloudy trichomes. Not much amber. The Zkittlez #1 that has brown pistils and appears ‘ready’ still has glassy immature trichomes. So I will wait another week and test again since I’m trying to obtain more amber with this next plant. Thursday. Evaluated LA Peyote Kush trichomes with new microscope. I really like these coin microscopes with built-in displays as my hands aren’t steady enough for a handheld microscope. It appears that I harvested earlier than ideal in my effort to reduce overcrowding in the tent. A few glassy trichomes still present. Could be a good daytime batch. I also lowered the target humidity to 50 percent, so the in-line fan is running at a higher speed now. (Worried about mold) Topped off reservoirs with tap water….no added nutrients. New ppm at 845 in reservoir as a result. Also lowered light duration from 12 hours to 11 hours of daylight this week. Friday: working on using sugar leaves with the new microscope to evaluate plant maturity. That would allow me to test without removing immature buds from the plant. Sugar leaves tend to show amber before the buds do, so I plan to harvest when there are no more clear (glassy) trichomes on the sugar leaf. My theory is that the least developed trichomes on the sugar leaves match the trichomes on the buds. Saturday: Tried to remove Zkitzz #1 from the tent. Her long limbs are falling all over the place due to heavy buds and weak stems. Needed to tie her up before putting back in the tent. Zkitzz number one showing phosphorous deficiency, so I emtied her reservoir and replaced with nutrient solution. Topped off Zkitzz #2 without nutrients added. Also added Maxicrop liquid seaweed and Floralicious Plus to both reservoirs.

I update this diary daily, so changes happen regularly. Firstly, an update on the AC self watering bases that use wicks to feed water and nutrients to the plant. Last week I made a terrible mistake and added some MaxiCrop Seaweed Extract WITH IRON that I had around. That was a BIG MISTAKE WHEN USING AN AUTOFEEDER THAT USES WICKS. I have now learned that IRON CLOGS WICKS!! Mine were completely clogged and the plant was dry and light. So if you’re considering these self watering reservoirs, they work well but be aware that the wicks can clog. I will need to completely clean these tomorrow to remove all iron residue and get the nutrients flowing perfectly. I am left wondering whether it’s safe to use silica with wicks without clogging issues. Tuesday: start of week 15. Posted a photo of top cola from each Zkitzz plant. Zkitzz #1 is almost ready while Zkitzz #2 is weeks away. I’m going to let Zkitzz #1 develop heavy amber as a nighttime smoke. Two distinctly different appearances despite being the same strain. I’m getting some brown spots on the leaves. It’s my own fault for fluctuating nutrients. She will be harvested soon anyway, but I do want to do a small flush beforehand. Wednesday: cleaned out both reservoirs and cleaned wicks. Both were clogged from using seaweed extract WITH IRON. Iron clogged the wicks, so the plants weren’t being fed enough nutrients or water. Should be almost as good as new now. Checked trichomes on Zkitzz #1 and they’re still clear. Zkitzz #2 has weeks to go, so no rush. Thursday: I’m glad I cleaned the wicks and rinsed out the solution with iron. Plants are drinking again. I will continue to top off reservoirs daily and wait patiently for some amber to appear. Sunday: plants have been taking up large quantities of water to rehydrate the root balls. Back to around .7 gallons of nutrients being consumed per plant per day. (Some is evaporated away too)

Welcome to Tuesday, the beginning of week 16 of growth and week 11 since flip to flower. Zkitzz #1 will be ready in one week it looks like. Zkitzz #2 is taking her sweet time and could be weeks behind. She was also considerably taller than Zkitzz #1, so one person pointed out that she may be expressing some Sativa traits. All pictures this week are at of the start of the week unless otherwise noted. I could harvest Zkitzz #1 now, but I’d ideally prefer to harvest them together and use the tent for drying. I’m going to wait another week. The AC Infinity self feeding pots with wicks are working perfectly. Assuming the plants finish well, I plan to adopt these as my regular growing method as I’ve come to appreciate sub irrigated planters. Much less fertilizer waste than any drain to waste method. No runoff at all. I may still try an occasional GroBucket or Octopot planter, but the AC Infinity is my preference. I will try it using 3 gallon pots of coco next time instead of these 5 gallon pots. As a reminder, I did find it beneficial to flush the fiber pots between veg and flower. Zkitzz is supposed to be a 7-8 week strain, so it’s definitely running behind schedule here at week 11 as I wait for cloudy with a few amber trichomes….especially Zkitzz #2. I’m removing a sample of each plant for drying and “testing”. Zkitzz number one’s harvest window appears “open”, but still in the early phase. Photos of Zkitzz #1 and Zkitzz #2 plus microscope shots above. Thursday update: she’s continuing to take .5-.6 gallons of nutrients per day. Feeding full nutes. Waiting for maturity or at least 20% amber trichomes on Zkitzz #1. I might harvest the tops and allow the lower buds to get more sunlight soon when I harvest….

Today I’m harvesting the tops from Zkitzz #1 and allowing more sunlight to the lower buds before I harvest altogether. More photos will be posted as progress is made this week.

I didn’t keep the larf and just harvested the tops. Plenty of smoke for my needs. She is a nice quality smoke….just didn’t like the way one of them grew. Edit…. She produced a lot of seeds in a tent with feminized plants. So not a good smoke, but this could be my fault. She should make a nice pain salve.