Beleaf Sampler Tent: Chimera #3, Tricho Jordan, Hawaiian Lion (fem seeds)

We start this week with six young, somewhat disfigured, partially malformed, nuggets of pure potential. Three Hawaiian Lions emerge triumphant in their early vigor. Two Chimera remain, one worse off than the other, but neither ready for a beauty contest. And then there's the helmet head. The last of the Tricho's! My man, Mr. Jordan. His bros are dead, and this ones refusing to shed the helmet from its head. I do not want to start over with a fresh batch, and I don't want to wait for the next run, so I guess I'm performing baby surgery. I'm gonna be baby plant surgeon! I'll spare you the drama and just let you know now that it worked. It frickin' worked! That little shell hung on tight, but I was delicate yet firm, and my resolve was beyond reproach. We got this one. That's all I can say. We entered uncharted territory with both eyes facing forward, and when I freed it of its shell shackle, that little bugger flipped out its baby leaves and starting making its own food with the light above just as nature (and this guy) intended. Just, wow. I'm floored by my strength. I stewarded that little bugger to life, and I know one day soon I'll fondly think back on this memory while torching the living F out of that plant. May it burn bright, oh shining star. I'm at a quarter strength nutrients. ~250ppm. I largely use the coco for cannabis website's feed chart with some minor deviations. I'm generally a touch higher in concentration, as I use municipal tap water that's good by tap standards. Compared to how the plants started this week, I'm feeling really good that all six are going to make it. I initially fed every day, and then skipped a day at the end of the week to let the coco lose a touch of moisture. I'm also starting to lower humidity. We've been riding at equatorial plant nursery levels, but now I'm starting to believe we're developing some noteworthy roots. It's time to start normalizing the environment.

This week started at a lights-on VPD of 0.80 and has since been moved up 0.9. This coincided with a nutrient strength increase to about ~450ppm. I'm feeding to run off, which isn't too much liquid by volume, as the medium does both a good job of retaining moisture and air, especially in a reasonably high humidity environment. I suspect that these plants will start drinking a little more with the reduced humidity, their increasing size, and their growing root zones. They're really starting to show signs that they're liking their living quarters. My concern now is in keeping them in this tent while the other tent finishes it's cycle. I need them to live here for about three, maybe four more weeks. In a few days, I'll top them and start training them, which will slow them down a touch.

They are starting to grow fast. I'll top all six within the the next day or so, and then start a little training towards the end of this week. We'll also get them up in strength on their nutrients, and hopefully they stay short and stout for a little bit. I need them to live in their current home for about 20 more days before their new home is ready. It's been a day or so, and the toppings been done. The small Chimera may have benefitted from more time, but I went for consistency and topped them all. Rearranged them a tad, too. Fed them to run off, and letting them sit in the run off for a bit. Noticed some roots popping out of one, which is a good bad sign. Nice roots, but need ya to chill for twenty days please. Let's hope the top and train approach buys me some time. Might need to repot and go to four before the move. Hope not.

We're firmly in veg. These six plants will need to be trimmed down to four plants, and then they'll need to stay put for a little less than two weeks before they can move into the larger tent. We'll do some training and perhaps another topping before we make the move. They're drinking more. Their feeding strength is fairly modest and I am not trying to promote vigorous growth, but they are rapidly growing. They're staying stalky and they're all developing a nice, strong main stem. We'll just stay with the program for now. The plan is to take one Hawaiian lion, one tricho jordan, and two chimera 3's into flower. And then there were four! I've donated two Hawaiians, and kept four to run into flowering.

Big week! Transplanting into autopot system and into the 4x4 tent, but I'm missing a gasket in the autopot kit, but that shouldn't delay the set-up. The plants will need a little time to put their roots down in their new pots before we can bottom feed anyway, so there will be no delays as a result of the missing part. So, I've transplanted into 5gal fabric pots and begun some needed training.

Autopots are fully set-up and the system was turned on about 5 days after transplanting. The plants didn't miss a meal. No issues whatsoever with the system. The only minor concern is that the tricho (bottom left) is slightly yellower than the rest, and the Chimera on the top-right is an obvious runt. I probably shouldn't have kept it into flower, as it showed a jagged-leaf anomaly early in its growth, and it never caught up to its buddies in size. However, I thought I'd take a chance, so here we are. We'll see if the runt produces. At the start of the week I wasn't sure if I'd be flowering the next week, but these plants started flying in the autopot system, so I decided to flip at the end of this week.

These plants exploded into their stretch. The canopy rapidly filled, giving me the feeling that this grow might get away from me. As the foliage thickened, humidity controls began to have a harder time keeping up. This is expected. The only thing that's going to improve that will be a massive defoliation around day 21 of flowering, so I'm not concerned about it now. It's not outrageously humid anyway. Just more so than I'd like at the moment. Since the autopot system was turned on, I've been running nutrients at around 700ppm, about half of my strength last run, which was top-feeding in coco daily with a self watering bases. I slightly burnt those plants, and decided not to push hard this time. So far so good. The girls are growing fast, and for the most part really lush, so I'm not motivated to increase the nutrient concenrtations at this time.

The canopy continues to thicken and humidity continues its upward trajectory. I'm counting down the days to defoliation and trying not to worry and overreact about Tricho's yellowing ways. They're all connected to the same reservoir, and I am not interested in a foliar feed at this stage/humidity level, so it'll just have to be. I added the second trellis so that I can continue shaping the canopy. It's filled, but I'm worried about two things now. (1) The uneven nature of the canopy due to the uneven growth of the for different strains. (2) The headroom I'll have if these tall ones don't stop stretching. These worries don't exist when working with clones of the same plant, but this is the price we pay for taking chances on seeds. Worth it.

The runty nature of the Chimera on the top right is super noticeable now. It's so healthy otherwise. I just hope it flowers normally, but it's the least resinous of the four right now, with Hawaiian Lion in the lead. The tent is really starting to smell nice now, with mixes of sweet fruit, truffles, and gas, and the rest of really starting to show their potentials. I'm excited! The defoliation day finally came! I love this day. It seems like it's going to be detrimental, but these plants loved it. They didn't miss a beat or droop a leaf. What leaves remained continued to pray.

With no detrimental effects from the defoliation work, and the environment falling in line for flowering, the only thing left for me to do is slight de-leafing, and some tie downs to the trellis here and there to make sure the tops are being covered by the lights. I added a smaller 100W light into the tent to better cover the Tricho, as the primary light was moved to accommodate the runty Chimera a little better. The additional heat is manageable, and actually a little helpful with regards to VPD and CO2 absorption. The plants are starting to get stinky, and I'm loving that. The flowers are starting to come together nicely. They're not going to be huge colas, and this was absolutely expected. Each of these ladies has White Truffle as the primary genetic contributor, and that lady is all about small, beautiful, tight, and resin packed clusters of perfect buds. I love those so much more than super dense donkey d's. The resin to plant material ratio is just so much better with the bud formations of these genetics.

The plants are starting to pack on the flowers, and aside from the truffle-mushroom nose, it's taking on a sweet tropical. The Hawiian Lion is the most resinous plant and the largest, followed by Tricho Jordan, and then the non-stunted Chimera #3. All three of those plants are likely winners. The stunted Chimera is developing flowers, too, but its resin production is about a week behind its cousins and sister. I still do think she'll produce fire, at least that's the hope ;) Autopots are still a win. Watering twice per week as opposed to once or twice per day is nice. I'm Ph'ing the reservoir to around 5.4-5.6 over the last few cycles, and this is keeping the individual reservoirs around 6.0-6.1. PPMs are still around 750. I don't feel compelled to increase nutrients. Aside from a slightly yellow color that has been with the Tricho plant since she was in late veg, the plants have shown only vigorous growth with no signs of deficiency. I'm operating on the principle that less is more with autopots. I feel a little under informed tbh. My last runs' PPM's were almost double, and that system ran hot in the tips. That always bothered me, so I'm going to try to get through this run with my tips intact. We shall see how it goes.

Autopot recommends 1100ppm in flowering, and my system's been at just over 700ppm, so I'm raising the strength of my feed. I changed the reservoir, and increased the levels to around 850ppm. I'll stay there for a week, and then try to top off at 1000ppm. These plants are showing no signs of wanting more, but I want to maximize bud size, so here we are...tinkering. The first signs of bud swelling are starting to appear. A couple of the tops are starting to take on a more rounded, full shape. This is a good sign. While these plants are beautiful, resin-packed, stink machines, their node spacing is far apart. Just like with the Truffaloha, we're looking at a sexy mid-sized nugs, and not huge colas, which is fine by me. These are for my consumption, and what I want are the most resin packed nugs I can grow. I think these ladies will not dissapoint ;) And, we're now at the end of the week and the reservoir is at 1000ppm. I don't think we're going higher next week, but I've been wrong before. I'm happy with where the buds finished this week. They put on size and that's all we can ask. The Hawaiian Lion is the frostiest and the best producer. The others are not too far off, though, and they seem to want to compete. The stunted chimera is showing signs of frost, but no signs of its buds fattening quite yet. She has decent numbers of pistols, and all mostly white, so there is still hope for a late finish out of her and I'd say the arrow is pointing up. On the last day of the week, and on the bottom third of the Hawaiian Lion, I spotted a tiny, sparkling, purple flower. And then I spotted no more than four more. If this is a sign for what is to come for this one, HOLY SHIT is it going to be disgusting?!

*********************************************************************************************************** START OF WEEK The Hawaiian Lion (right) and Tricho Jordan (left) are the two plants that dominate the face-on tent photos, and for good reason. Each of those plants is twice the mass of either Chimera. The HL is superior in bud sites, resin, and terp intensity, but the Tricho and the good Chimera #3 are both not too far off in resin production and aroma profiles. The weird runt is frosting up too, so we're looking at getting something unique and quality from each. That is, if I don't muck this up. I fed last night, and as part of that process, I mix my nutrients in a four gallon batch at a double(ish) strength. I then add that to my reservoir, which is shut off at that time. This allows me to work in the res, to both get the ppms right and the ph within range. I just use plain water to level off the ppms and then I adjust for ph. What I didn't do last night is TURN back on the flow of water from the reservoir. However, you wouldn't have guessed it from how the plants woke up today (see first image). I normally check the bases of each plant daily, and in doing so today, I noticed that one felt slight dry. All tanks were empty, but all plant bases were somewhere between wet to moist. This is how I spot check, and it's worked in the past. This isn't the first time these tanks have had a catastrophic issue leading to an unexpected no flow sitch. There's a filter that sits between the reservoir tank and the primary feed line. That has unexpectedly clogged on me in the past, but with no deleterious effect to the grow. That was caught within a day as well by testing the plant bases. I don't blame autopot for either event. Obviously, last night I was a baked potato and just forgot a step. The clog is because I use yucca in my mix, which is an organic material that over time in the reservoir leads to build up. I'm afraid to introduce hydrogen peroxide into the set-up, so I'm just maintaining my reservoir by cleaning it fully every other week for now. I don't want to kill off the bacteria in the environment. I'm also using some fungus, too, so I'd rather promote coexistence of a microbiome than serialize it, especially considering the plants seem to be on pace. **************************************************************************************************************************************************************** END OF WEEK Shit! I've got a herm. I've found four nanner clusters this week, all on the lower third-ish of the Hawaiian Lion. Someone, thankfully, spotted it in the purple flower pics. Turns out, while super fun to look at, those sweet violet flowers turned into harbingers of mother fucking doooooommm. I've never seen this before. I guess I've been fortunate, but I've also never had a camera this capable before either. I had no idea how small these pee pee's were. I guess I was expecting girth, but shame on me for not knowing. I rapidly learned as much as I could over the last two days, and I've come to the conclusion that I may or may not be screwed. The consensus on my situation ranges from either burn my tent down to thank ja for the blessings of feminized seeds. We're riding this baby out. I think I have fifteen to twenty days left and I think these little nanners might have been in action for ten days, hopefully less. I don't know what kind of damage will be done in that time, but honestly, I'm not too worried. While disappointing, my use case is a personal supply of bubble hash and flower rosin. If it's seedy, I'll wash most of it. I don't know what caused it, but I'm thinking a light leak or genetics. The environment is dialed and that plant hasn't shown one sign of anything less than vigor throughout. The spots that developed the purple flowers (lower bottom half to bottom quarter) are all in the vicinity of where I found the herms (four locations) and these locations are close to the edge of the tent along the zipper. I'm vigilant about keeping my tent and grow space in order, but a light leak can't be ruled out. I'll have to test that after the harvest. The herm flowers are minuscule and I'm surprised I found them. The camera was a great tool in this case. I sprayed the areas that I removed the nanners and then dried it, but for what it's worth, I think the damage was already done. That water bit felt more like ritual, but I'm still feeling optimistic that I'm not totally hosed.

******************************************************************** START OF WEEK I'm coming to terms with the hermie situation. I'm not seeing any more nanners, but I am starting to see the end of the grow and that's exciting. I'm still feeding at just under 1100ppm, and heavy on the PK side. N was cut from the mix about 10 days ago. The fade has begun on TJ, and the HL is starting to show signs, too. Both Chimera's are seemingly going to be longer finishers, and while the stunted one is producing a reasonable amount of trichomes, the buds are not fattening like her sisters. And, her sisters girth is nothing to write home about. I'm mainly planning on washing both those plants into bubble, so it's all about the resin. The terp profiles of each is off the freaking charts. As they're all related strains, they share similar nose characteristics. Chief among the aroma profiles are funky mushroom, jet fuel, dirty sock but in a pleasing way, tropical fruit, citrus, and a gentle touch of butt. I'm serious. The TJ smells of lemon, gasoline, with a touch of it. Sounds gross? You. are. wrong. It is wonderful with its contradictions. If you like the smell of stinky blue cheese, you'll get what I'm saying. ******************************************************************** END OF WEEK R.I.P. S44 Ionboard. On the last day of the week, and after a six month run, she gave out. That light lived hard, and it died fast. Within the first two days of ownership, I reached out to AC Infinity support to inquire about the blistering hot driver and if it was normal. I was told it was, and it carried on, but I always had a feeling it was a little too hot and now I think I was right, but what a tremendous pain in the ass. I'm in the last two weeks with no plans for another immediate grow, and now I'm confronted with unanticipated work and unforeseen bills. Sahhh-weeet These plants are tall, and I'm a one man show, and now I need to yank the dead light, and move the small light into the middle, and give these ladies a cloudy day 56 of flower. This is how I ended week 8, with that, and an email to AC infinity support.

******************************************************************** START OF WEEK Went to the grow store and wound up with an AC Infinity EVO6. It should be a nice light for the future, and when my warranty replacement comes back, assuming that won't be an issue, it'll be nice to have a decent back-up. That's the bright side, but I am a little bummed about laying down the cash with ten to 14 days left. That part is the kick in the nutes. Fine, moving on. As for the grow, it's plowing forward. These plants are doing all the things we want them to do right now. They're getting fat, they're getting sticky, and the fade is fading away. Some branches may call for some last minute support, but for now the sucked-in tent walls will continue to suffice. The feed is still at 1100ppm and pk boosted, but the plan is to finish this week around 750. ******************************************************************** END OF WEEK Day 63 of flowering has arrived. I've backed off the nutrients. We're now sitting at 850ppm with about 6-8 gallons in the system remaining. This should equate to a Thursday refill with no feed, and then a Saturday or Sunday chop. VPD has been running a touch high this week, but that's not a concern. It's staying in the ideal range for most of the lights on period, and then trailing up in the last few hours to around 1.7-1.8. No biggie. The new light is really nice, but it runs hotter than the combo of the S22 and S44 (500W total), and that's with the EVO6 driver outside of the tent. This also isn't a big deal. The max tent temp is around 84, and before that wouldn't get past 82. Not a huge difference, and potentially better for the plants with the additional heat. I've got two CO2 mushroom bags in there, so more temp should mean more production at that level. I'm excited for this grow to finish and I'm looking forward to sampling the variety. I'm definitely using half, if not more, to make bubble hash. I'm probably just going to run it all together, as opposed to having runs for each pheno. I'll sample the tops independently, and smash rosin by pheno, but I'm not sold on isolating the hash. Seems like triple the work, but I've got a week to make further considerations, so we'll see. This will be my last grow until I sell this place and move into my next place. I'm going to miss growing. It's brought me a ton of peace by giving me something to anticipate, study, and take pride in. It's such an enjoyable hobby. I'll miss it in the time being, but I'm grateful that I won't need to step foot inside of a dispensary in 2024. Big win there! Everyone should grow their own.

----------------------‐---------- START OF WEEK This is looking to be a short week. Today is day 65 of flowering, and if all continues according to plan, I'm planning on chopping on day 67. I'll run a two-day flush starting this evening. I'll also check the trichomes on each plant just to make sure I'm not jumping the gun, but these girls are likely very near peak. That is with the exception of the Chimera runt. That girl is weird AF. She's resinous, has some decent bud shaping, but very little by way of bud density. However, she's going into the wash, at least most of her, so she's coming down with the rest. I'm going to make some harvest weight guesses here, and then I'll report back on this in a couple of weeks. Hawaiian Lion: ~6-7oz Tricho Jordan: ~5-6oz Chimera #3 S1 (normal pheno): ~3-4oz Chimera #3 S1 (runt): ~1oz My last run in the same space was all from clone, so I was able to keep a nice, consistent canopy. That netted 24 ounces. I'd be really happy with 16 ounces given the uneven shape of my canopy. However, I am not disappointed in the slightest. Growing from seed is super rewarding. There's the mystery of it, the uncertainty, and all the newness of it. That outweighs the inconsistency, in my opinion. ----------------------‐----------------- LAST DAY The PPM's in the reservoir is at 400ppm today, and my guess is that we'll finish tomorrow morning at 200ppm. Good enough! The trichomes on each plant are nearly at the same ripeness levels (90-5-5) cloudy, clear, amber. These girls are coming down in the morning!