Organic #2

I popped these seedlings in late July. The plants were kept small, in the shadow of larger plants, with minimal care until I harvested the last grow in late September. Only then did I try to actually start growing them out. They vegged for about 2 weeks with proper care, and then I began the transition to 12/12 and warm lights, completing the transition on Oct 19. Because of their age and the slow transition, I believe the actual flip happened shortly before that, hence my inclusion of "~" in later posts. I use Dr. Earth as fertilizer and make my own potting soil from whatever the hell is around. Much of the dirt in this grow came from 3cu yards we had delivered in June for some landscaping. I have no idea where it came from, but it seemed to be rich, albeit poorly draining. That was amended with a bunch of peat moss that's been sitting in our berry bushes for upwards of a decade. It was teaming with soil mites that I've been making sure survive and continue to help the soil. The berry bushes had infiltrated it. Further, I added about 1/6 perlite to aid in drainage/oxygenation of the root system. Pots are whatever the hell we have around/given to me by a plant wholeseller that throws them away after a single use. I've drilled numerous holes to aid in drainage and oxygenation. They sit on a plate full of pea pebbles; and yes the roots do run into the plates (not great but its fine I guess.) For water, our tap is fairly soft (around 115ppm) for city stuff, but the PH is somehow always above 8. I use citric acid to PH to between 6-7. I use tap water dechlorinator to help my microbial life. I also make my own calcium acetate 2.5% that gets added if I feel like it. I also add epsom salts. I don't really add sugars as much as I should, but when I do, I just use normal granulated sugar. I'll get some blackstrap when I can.

Organic, I'm on day ~55, but the flash photo was taken on day 50. I've had some problems, but it's looking like they'll hold out until fully ripe. Trichs are starting to look cloudy, but new pistils are still forming aggressively. I'll try for 1 more week. Lower nugs are taking their time to finish.

I don't flush or allow runoff with organic, but it's clear they're having some serious fade from lack of nutes. I definitely ended that early. Maybe I had the UV turned up too high as well; I've since turned it off to try and keep the plant alive until its ready (still not convinced about the value of UV; buds seems smaller than they should, but sugar leaves are utterly covered in full on trichs. Somehow, AC infinity allowed me to try them for free so I tried them). New pistils continue to come roaring in, but cloudy trichs are present. My goal is to keep this going until the first sign of amber on the calyxes, new pistil growth finally ends, or the rich sugar leaves start fading. I want more of a body stone this time. Hopefully I can get there, but I know I'm going to have to do a rolling harvest.

Well, it's clear to me the UV (and lights in general) was far too bright. Don't follow AC infinity's instructions in the manual--1/2 their recommendations is appropriate. Probably cost me a bit in yield, but hey, I got some purple buds?? I'm new to growing these flowers; I'm happy to count it up to a learning experience. Despite the incredible burn, I'm holding on to these for a bit longer while the lower buds finish ripening. Still plenty of clear trichs all around; minimal to no amber on calyxes yet. Honestly, I've been having a hell of a time identifying what is what. I have plenty of ways to look at them, from cheap loupes to full-on microscopes, but I feel I get a different result every time I look. It's all dependent on lighting and equipment so I'm going to stop placing significant stock in how they look. I have enough green fan leaves left to make it work for at least another week if I need to. Advice would be appreciated. I went back and checked my photos. It's been about 8 weeks of flower since the actual buds appeared, 9+ since the 12/12 switch. I definitely messed up the schedule some but again, LEarNing. Christmas update, 3 days later: pistil production seems all but finished on the plant on the left, but I'm still not happy with how the trichs are looking. Upper nugs are mostly cloudy, lowers are 50/50 clear, maybe less. For the plant on the right, calyx production continues with vigor. Seems the plant is taking it's dying breath, but I want to give these new buds a chance to swell a bit and flesh out the colas. Trichs are *slightly* ahead of the other plant. I found a seed(?) but am not worried with widespread pollination with how the plants looked/this late. Either way, keep on keeping on seems to be right the choice. To note: Sorry about the hair in photos. I have cats, and despite not letting them near the grow space, their hair makes it in. I don't disturb the buds while growing but instead meticulously clean anything after hang/dry/trim. I find most of it just falls off after the plants lose their stick anyway.

FYI about the schedule, I'm 8+ weeks into budding, 10+ into 12/12. I messed up pretty bad... I move those small fans around pretty regularly but didn't realize the one in the middle was still plugged into the mechanical timer. I found a fan leaf that grew into another, and with the lack of airflow at night with that fan off, made a little pocket for mold. I pulled out the real microscope, prepped a sample, looked at 1000x and saw plenty of spores to confirm it is in fact a fungus and not a spiders nest or anything like that, but I didn't get a good, intact, sporocarp in the sample to confirm the genus. Spores were ovoid, clear, and relatively small which looked like Botyritus to me... I inspected both plants thoroughly and found this SINGLE leaf is the only one with an active infection, but I wasn't taking any chances and immediately chopped that limb. The following morning, I chopped the rest. I did my best to remove any necrotic material or even vaguely yellow leaves, but I've been taking pretty good care of that and was actually surprised at how many healthy fan leaves were still on each plant. It was hard to see with all those crispy, burned leaves up top. I think they could have used another week, looked like another swell was coming in, but this is fine if they make it through jar/cur without rot. Still looks like a pretty good yield, albeit fairly larfy from me burning them to bits and them trying to compensate with larger than average sugar leaves. The test buds I've thrown in the dynavap have been pretty solid; very tasty and smooth. Solid, relatively clearheaded high that has really surprised me a few times. Smoking the endo/mature buds will hopefully be able to floor me more consistently, but I'll wait for the dry before trying that. Thanks for watching, I'll update with a proper dry weight/harvest week when dry is done. Review after cure.

Chopped on day 73 of finishing the transition to 12/12, 64(?) of budding. Total weight came in a 55g+63g; pretty good weed, but I over dried/dried too fast. Still hit my goal of 2oz per plant which is cool considering how small my space is -- not even 20" deep, and less than 21" of plant growth before they get too close to the lights. Btw, I won't rate anything above 8 unless it's the dopest dope I ever smoked, and finding that might be impossible--been a long time since I was a naive teen that gets floored easily... White Widow on the right produced 63g. I was almost certain the other would out perform it, but the smoke doesn't lie. This pheno is much more skunky, and produces a more incapacitating stone than the other, however it produced weaker stems, was more inclined to stretch, and made WAY too many sugar leaves (even before I burned them with the UV starting week 6). Not a keeper. WW Left produced 55g (but is almost certainly overdry from my inexperience). This one tastes amazing from the dynavap, like a sort of gin/plum aperitif, but the stone is a bit too zippy/light for me. This is more in line with the high end, for sure, WW I've smoked in the past. Good bud, I just prefer the other. Also not a keeper.