Zkittles/Nirvana/Indoor/Coco

The seedling stage is kinda rough as a grower. 90% of this time is fighting the urge not to love the young things to death. I busy myself with prep work for when it's time to up my pot size. Hydrating coco for the first time was interesting. I probably used about 12 or 13 gallons of water at least to expand a 5kg brick. Impressed with the water retention. After a thorough rinse I mixed in roughly 30% perlite and filled my 5 gal pots and the solo cups I'll be transferring the seedlings into from their shot glass cups. The day after transfer, I give the seedlings their first "feeding", though it's so dilute it's barely worth mentioning. 1/8 tsp each of my trio(BTW, when did General Hydroponics become Terra Aquatica? lol) to a gal of water. The well water I have is pretty hard so I'm gonna mix it with bottled water(spring preferably) to get the PPM down under 200(before nutes) at least lol. If I was using soil it would be straight water but since coco is inert I figured a small smattering of micro nutrients might be wise in case they need anything. Will flush with water between feedings and I like to let little ones run a little dry to get those roots really searching. The eager beaver in me won out momentarily and I upped my light to 75% after feeding but turned it back to 50% after about 12 hrs. Little early for all that yet- not enough leaf realistate for much photosynthesis anyway. I was mostly concerned about stretching but I'll just lower the light a little more if I think it's an issue for now. ** 11/1 Edit. Gave a light 30ml watering on 10/31. Progressing nicely.

Normally I'd wait until Sunday but it was a busy week. When checking up on the ladies late on 11/2 I noticed roots already working their way out of the drainage holes in my Solo cups. Crazy root growth for only a week time. On 11/3 I went ahead and repotted into the 5 gal pots I plan to finish in, they look ridiculous in these big ol pots but once they adjust I expect a nice burst of growth. Upped the concentration of my nutes and gave a small feeding, the bottoms are wet but no runoff. I'll give it a few days then give each a good soaking with pHed water to eliminate dry spots. This coco has dried out a bit since hydrating but I didn't want to drown them yet. I'll let them adjust to their new home and take in a few nutes first. Going to my bigger pots, it became decision time...I only had 3 pots available for this strain and 4 seedlings. It really came down to Z3 &4. Z3 is a little more runty. I think I'll slow roll it for now and maybe run some clones off it later. Z4 is our new Z3 for purposes of this journal. From here on it's about maximizing growth without going overboard. I plan to run each plant on a 2(well 3 really) cut modified manifold to achieve 8 colas per plant. First chop will be above node 3, lollipoping the bottom. 2nd cut will be above the 3rd node of both branches, stripping off the 2nd node of each for spacing and symmetry. I have a SCROG net but dunno if I'll use it yet. Running two strains and the other one is supposed to stretch a little more than this one, so good chance I do. **11/6 Edit- Gave each pot a gallon on straight water pHed down to 5.8, 20ish% runoff. Humidity should climb now that there's more moisture in the tent, probably more in the 60s.

Plants rebounding after a little slowdown after repotting. I have decided to turn the light up to 75%. They're getting big enough to handle it. Also gve a good feeding on 11/9. They seem happy enough. I've been using a "skinny" feeding schedule and tempted to up my nutes a little bit but I'll push it another week or so, maybe I'll wait until after the first topping. **11/13 Edit- Spacing between nodes is growing. Gave another feeding and rotated plants. Z3 is probably the current star of the tent....she's a pretty girl. Think I'll be topping by this time next week.

I should be topping these on my Sunday edit of this week. In prep of topping, I went through and removed growth at the 1st and 2nd nodes so the plant doesn't waste any more energy developing those areas. For those crying about removing growth, we're talking about a couple leaves that were mostly shaded and their associated branch nubs...it's minimal lol. Defoliation and pruning are fine as long as it serves a purpose. I'm just encouraging the plant to focus growth elsewhere. I expect the 5th nodes to show soon, then I'll top back to the 3rd. Gave my "grow" nutes a slight bump up. Z1 is staying short but growing broad, Z2 and 3 have a little more height. My other strain looks a lot more uniform at the moment. My humidity is running upper 40s while the light is on and upper 50s when off. ***11/17 Checked up on the plants, only about 30 hours later and you can already see a difference at the 3rd node. Didn't break out the tape measure but they look taller lol. I reshuffle the photos for easy comparison. ***11/19 Update-Haircut day!! I'll be honest, I was like a kid on Christmas Eve last night.....sooooo excited for today. Lol Each plant has a before and after. It's not always obvious due to camera angles, but I left a healthy stump on each. Made my cuts just below the 4th nodes. Pots still had a little weight to them so I'm giving them another day or two at least to feed.

So after noting some mild leaf irregularities before topping, I broke down and began incorporating a CalMag supplement into my regimen with my feeding on the 21st. Have grown for years without it with slightly hard well water in both soil and hydro, but either these two strains are a little more demanding for it or it's because I'm using coco....I've heard coco required a little extra. The girls are adjusting well after topping. Explosive growth at the hub compared to how they would have grew untopped. Branches are thickening quick. I'd prefer they be a little taller before beginning LST but I'm worried they'll be too stiff by then. Just gonna baby step them. They're already starting to swell a knuckle where they attach to the main trunk, I'll just be careful not to split them. Gonna be a solid foundation once they put on weight. All branches are working on their 2nd nodes at the moment. I'll have to evaluate spacing before I decide when I'll do my 2nd cuts. Probably another week off at least. I'll keep 2 nodes that are parallel to the ground on each branch, for a total of 8 tops once I allow them to go vertical. I just wanna make sure I'm leaving enough space in between. The original plan was first and third but if spacing is tight I might go third and fifth. I also gotta remember I'm running 6 plants in a 4x4, I can't spread out too wide to house 48 tops lol. ***11/25 Edit The plants have responded well to training(mostly). They turned up later the same day. Repositioned ties both yesterday and today to continue to spread things out. They have their 2nd nodes and starts of 3rd on branches. Had my first major "oops" moment of the grow yesterday during a training session. If you'll see today's photo on Z1, half the plant looks very very sad. When repositioning my ties I pulled a side down, the when applying pressure to the other side the first branch just popped off. No not a snap or break....it made an audible "pop" and the whole branch knuckle came free of the main stem. It was like the arm of an action figure popping off lol. I tried to crutch it the best I could but I doubt it reattaches. Had there been ANY sort of material holding the two pieces together I might have more hope, but I don't think the curative powers of duct tape are enough for this one. I'll give it a day or two and then start devising a plan B for this one training wise. Might just run 4 colas on it, or maybe 6... don't think I can manage 8 on it without getting too far behind the others. It was my mistake. When retraining I should have moved the tie out to the next node(like I did today) instead of applying more pressure at the same node. I was in a hurry and was overconfident it could handle the stress. Otherwise the plants are really doing good so far. Gave another feeding today.

Growth is trucking right along. Upped nutes a little more on my feeding the 29th. This is probably where it will stay until the flip unless they show some issues. Been retraining the branches daily to run them flat. On the 29th while training I removed the growth tips at the second nodes in prep for the next topping. I would have topped then too but I wanted to get another days growth to give a little more room. Today's pics(30th) are after training again and topping above the 3rd nodes(except for Z1). Once the new tops grow out a little bit I'll clean up the older leaves and you'll be able to see the manifold better. It's getting pretty thick lol. You can see it a little better in the Z3 pic. ***12/2 Edit- Fed again today. Removed the top leaves that I left attached at the old 2nd nodes. They were shading too much for my liking. Even the leaf stems are getting beefy from this manifold, I'm super impressed. I'll be training on the 1st node branches soon.

So most of the "work" of this grow is behind me. Toppings are done. Z1 is topped at 6 branches. I'll still do a little minor training if any branches outpace the rest but it's mostly easy street from here on out. I'm starting to allow things to go vertical finally lol. I expect I'll be switching to a flowering schedule in a week or two. Thus far I've been removing the plants to water them but I need to come up with a system to start watering in the tent. Milk crates would make nice stands for drainage, though something shorter would be better. Speaking of, did another feeding on 12/6. They're drinking more, I've graduated to a 5 gal bucket for my watering needs. ****12/9 Edit**** OK, so I might have been slightly premature declaring the work done lol. Gave haircuts today to clear out the lower leaves to make watering easier. Did a round of training to open things up a bit more. Had another "oops" moment while training Z2. Another clean break...no saving the branch so I gave it a dip in CloneX and popped it into a Rapid Rooter. For future reference, really need to stay on top of training with these Zkittles, train young before things stiffen up. Found some low profile plant stands on Amazon that should be here in a few days. Lots cheaper than milk crates and saves me about 10 inches in vertical space. Gave another feeding today too. 12/10 ***Responded well to training. Turned light up to 100% and raised it 2 inches. Getting them used to the full light and also a little head room to stretch into. There's about 22 inches currently. Manufacturer recommends 18-24 for veg and 12-18 in flower. Still kinda debating how far I'll let these veg before the flip. I want to be a little cautious because I don't know how much they'll stretch but I also wanna test this light a little, see how deep it pushes.

Growth is booming. All that extra room I gave myself last week is gone....only 18 inches from light currently. I'll raise it a little more in a day or two. On my 12/12 pics the plants measured 10 inches(average) and they're 12 inches by the 15th. Believe it or not but I gave these a little haircut in the middles of the plants on the 13th but you'd hardly know it today without examining nodes. The previously hidden branches immediately filled the space. On Z1 I pulled the leaves back so you can see how huge the stalk has grown. I'm itching to put them in flower but I'm waiting another week I think. Want to give my other strain a few more stacks, it's not supposed to be very stretchy in flower....they might need booster seats if they can't keep up with these Zkittles here. We'll see. ***12/17 Edit. I was really busy yesterday so I didn't really mess with the plants beyond a quick glance in the morning. Today I check them and laugh at how I keep underestimating how quick these plants grow. They've put on another inch or two. My tallest (Z3) is standing at 15 inches but Z2 and C1 and 2 and from my other journal aren't that far behind at 14. I think I need to go ahead and flip. As is I'll probably end up having to wrangle these Zkittles a little bit lol. Today I raised the light a touch, it was at 17 inches but I lifted it to 20 but when flipped I'm gonna allow it to stretch to about 12. I'm giving it one last day of veg but I'll do the actual flip tomorrow when I feed. Will give haircuts tomorrow too for the flip. Nothing crazy, just the long stems. Since a flip typically takes 2 weeks to transition I'll document next week as my last veg week and will begin flower notes afterward. Next week I'll maintain current nute levels and begin transitioning the following week. I use GH's( or TA....whatever) chart at half strength and I like how they include a transition phase between veg and flower. After transition I'll begin to incorporate Kool Bloom into the regimen too.

Technically my 12/18 photos should be in the prior week at day 56 but it's all prep for my flowering flip that I'm journaling this week so it's included here. Gave small haircuts, just removed massive leaves that were bigger than my hand. Even though I did remove several leaves from each plant, none of them are stripped naked-plenty of foliage remaining. I honestly could have removed more but I'll get a little more aggressive after the stretch. Next day photos show full recovery and by today(the 20th) you'd not even know leaves were removed without being told. Plants grew another 2 inches since defoliation, so no slow down in rate of growth. For those that have bad experiences with defoliation, it's usually a case of either going overboard with it or trying to do it with stretchy sativas without a lot of leaves to spare....or doing it on plants that aren't growing well. Initiated 12/12 this week. Now that I'm moving into flower I won't be rotating plants anymore. They're gonna get too big and I prefer to keep the Zkittles up front since it is supposed to stretch more, aka require more work/training. Plus Z1 is missing a main branch and trained/grown differently than the rest. Since it leans to the one side of the pot, I think it would work best by the fan...so there's a little more space from it and maybe a little better airflow. Also fed on the 18th. Sticking with veg ratios this week but will begin transitioning them next week to something more flower appropriate. I think some jump into their flowering nutes a little early causing a lot of yellowing in early flower. ***12/23 Edit: The tent is so full and lush. They're at about 18 inches with the exception of Z1, I've given that one a bit of a booster seat to bring it up more to canopy level(after the photo). A few of them are already showing a couple white pistils here and there though most haven't yet. They got their last feeding at the current ratios on the 22nd. Christmas Day I'll start to give them the "transition" of an equal 1/1/1 ratio of grow/micro/bloom. I think it's less shocking to the plants than jumping right into a 1/2/3 ratio like I'll use in full flower. Kinda regretting not doing more in my defol. This jungle is producing a bit of humidity and the outside RH isn't helping. I even noticed a little dew on them when I checked on them a few minutes after the light kicked on. I'm holding course for now unless I notice some PM developing, I want to wait for the stretch to taper off if I can. I don't typically have to worry too much about humidity control indoors but if this persists I'll have to break down and get a dehumidifier.

The plants are booming, almost too booming. The canopy is too dense and humidity has been a little bit of an issue - it spiked to 80% Christmas night. I'm gonna need to switch to AM feedings to help this out. They're now all showing early flower signs. Switched to the transition nute schedule with my 12/25 feeding. On 12/27 while checking over things I saw a couple tiny spots of PM deep in a couple of the plants so decided to bite the bullet and do another defol. Still just huge leaves on long stems. Also had to raise the light a little bit, currently about 13 inches above canopy. ***12/31 Edits: After defol the plants have responded well and overnight humidity is improving but still not as low as I'd like. Belatedly remembered that I've actually been running my exhaust fan on low so far in the grow and cranked it up to high....that should help a lot. The tallest plants in the middle are now 24 inches from soil(coco) level, about 32 from floor level. The tower fan in the corner is 40 inches(just over a meter) as a reference point. They've grown to about 10 inches from the light. Though I haven't yet, I'll be raise it to 14 inches either later today or tomorrow. Trying to keep it +/- 2 of 12 inches during the stretch. Gave another feeding of the transition phase nutrients. I think I will run it for one more week before moving to the flowering phase of 1/2/3 grow/micro/bloom. Want to get through the bulk of the stretch before lowering the grow nutes. I'll begin incorporating KoolBloom liquid into the regimen around then too. The early stretch is producing a nice stack of nodes up top that I expect to fill out nicely.

Turning up the exhaust has helped immensely on the humidity. Back into the 55-60 range. The tops are beginning to transition into flower. Gave a feeding on the transition schedule on 1/3, will do one more on Saturday and then begin the flower schedule next week. ***1/6 Edit: Flowers are progressing nicely. Gave the last transition feeding today. Tomorrow I'll do my defol(will include those pics in next week's entry). Technically my next week doesn't start until Tuesday and I'd defol then but with work I don't really have enough time to work it in while the lights are on. Two days won't matter that much. The plants are still growing a little vertically but they might be slowing down a little bit. Really like how well stacked that nodes are at the tops on the Zkittles, the Cali is a little more stretchy. I think the Zkittles will outperform the Cali on yield based off early budsite development, we'll see if that holds true.

Major defol on 1/7, though again it's not like we're stripping these down naked. Including before and after pics. Some of the branches have moved towards the center so I used a few ties to help reshape a little. Much more open with better airflow. While I had the tent empty I took the opportunity to correct an early setup regret. I had initially set my tent up in a corner, but it unzips around 3 sides, so I couldn't access the back of the tent as well. I moved it out and set it up next to an old woodstove(not in use) so I could also take advantage of the flu to route the exhaust out of the house. Result....humidity dropped about a lot! Running in the 40s now. Gave my first bloom feeding today. With the switch to Terra Aquatica I don't know the equivalent to KoolBloom so I tried to add it manually(unsuccessfully lol...good job site administrators, this update ). All my nutes are still under the General Hydroponics label. /shrug ***1/13 Edit: Still stretching, keep having to move the light to keep in the 10-12 inch range. Hopefully it's about done, I only have about 6-8 more inches to work with before the light is touching the filter. Might have to get a little bendy on some taller stuff if not. After only a few days you could hardly tell the plants had a defol so I gave them another session this morning. Really the Zkittles is more leafy than the Cali, but they were both getting pretty bushy. Really opened up the middles and cleaned up some thickets. I was encountering some damp spots(even with an RH of 45%!!) in the corner furthest from my fan so glad I was proactive about it. With the way these have handled defols, I imagine more of the little leaves will bulk up in a few days lol. Gave a feeding on the 12th.

Like most of North America, been dealing with a wicked arctic blast. My temps have been ok for the most part but it's also made things rather dry, 35% RH. For the entire grow Z3 has been the most aggressive grower but C3 from my Cali Orange Bud diary has finally stretched taller, though I stress stretched- the node spacing is still much tighter on the Zkittles. Gave a feeding on the 15th and plan another in the morning(18th). ***1/21 Edits: Nothing new to report. Giving a feeding today and adding more pics. See ya next week.

All is well. Temps outside are cooler but it's also very wet. Humidity is rising but nothing drastic. Things are leafing out quite a bit but I'd like to give it another week before I think about any more defoliation. Flowers look like they might be beginning their initial swell. Photos should start to get more exciting soon. These Zkittles have some nice stacks of flowers, I'm excited to see how well they bulk. Gave a feeding today. Moved the light up another inch but I'm hoping they're finished with their stretch. ***1/27 Edit: Was time to feed again today and decided to pull all the girls out and give them all one more good defol. Those that have been following the grow may notice this defol is a little more aggressive than previous ones. Both these strains have shown they handle defols well and should be fine. With luck this will be my last defol until my harvest prep. Also included pics of each plant's manifold....they're pretty beefy. Sooo many flower sites on these .

Really not a whole lot to report since my last update. I fed on 1/30. Aromas are picking up a little more. Next few weeks are just a waiting game. Breeder calls these 8-10 weeks of flower. We'll see, I expect it will be 10+. Flowers still have a long way to go. ***2/4 Edit: They were fed on 2/2, will feed again in the morning. They're slowly putting on weight, checking in on them daily kinda makes it hard to put into perspective until you start looking at older photos. I'm hitting that part in my grow where I'm looking towards what to start up for my next run once the tent opens back up. I kinda felt like I over crowded the tent a bit in this run. I might only flower 4 next time or if I keep 6 not let them veg as long lol. Still working on my cloning setup, my environment is still not quite right. It might be a little cool in the basement to not use some sort of heating mat. My first batch of cuttings wasn't too successful, 2/6....but it could also be my CloneX(it's like 3+ years old, opened). I honestly prefer growing from seed anyway- I like the predictable, symmetrical growth. I might just flower the 2 cuttings plus the two extras I had on this run and start up a fresh batch of something new afterward. I still have seeds of both these strains stashed away if I wanna come back to them later. I'm probably gonna reveg my Z3 plant(it's just been too impressive to not try to preserve)after harvest since the cuttings I took off it haven't taken yet. They were cut in early flower and had just hoped that slowed them up a bit but I'm beginning to loose faith in their chances.

Slowly swelling. Mix of clear and cloudy, mostly clear. Will feed again tomorrow(the 8th). The aroma off these is fantastic. These next few weeks are gonna be excruciating waiting for these to finish. ***2/11 Edit: Bulking continues. Gave a light maintenance defol on the 10th, mainly just cleaning up the middles a bit for airflow. Fed today. Getting so frosty the reflecting light washes out the photos from certain angles lol.

Week 8 of flower. By breeder recommendations the next two weeks are the average harvest window. Looking about 25/75 clear to cloudy on the trichomes, still no amber yet. We'll see how it rolls, I think they still have some bulking to do yet. Last feeding was 2/14. Noticing a bit more runoff than typical the last couple feedings. **2/17 Edit: Fed and took more pics.

These last couple weeks are always the hardest part of the grow in my opinion. There's not a lot to keep you busy and the time seems to drag on. They're putting on a little weight but still a lot of clear trichomes. Was hoping to chop in about 10 days but I might have to push it an extra week. Fed yesterday(20th).

Ripening is progressing. Starting to see a little amber but still clears present too. I've gone to straight pHed water for yesterday's feeding. Plants are showing other signs they're close to finishing, leaves are getting a little dry, etc. I'll probably do a pre-chop defol over the weekend and chop and hang Monday or Tuesday. *** 3/3 Edit: Gave the girls a little cleanup. Nothing too aggressive. Thinking of chopping sometime over the next week. We'll see how things go.

Chopped 3/9. Ignore the wet weight, I don't actually weigh anything until it's dried. As you can see by my pics, I kinda strayed from the typical mainline structure and let the lower fluff go. I wanted plenty of fodder for edibles on this run. I think running 6 plants of this size in a 4x4 was a little overcrowded, in the future I need to either flip sooner or just run 4 to give more room to open things up. Z1 will probably kill my grams per plant average on this strain but I think it did admirably for half a plant lol. Gonna try to reveg Z3, included pics of cutting down it's root ball Will update with weights and early smoke reports once things dry.