First Grow

2 out of 3 seedlings are doing OK, despite my overwatering and very cold temperatures. However these mistakes led to Jelly Donutz "damping off" which I unfortunately learned about, when I discovered poor JD growing mycelium-like white hairs. Pulled the pot and proceeding with the other 3 only. A bit upset but mistakes are expected, and I have learned from it. The temps are too low and a heater is on the way to hopefully fix the issue. Will be adding an oil heater near the intake to raise the temps to acceptable levels. Nearing the end of week 1, BBM is 2in tall, CMOG is 2.5 in. The OC is starting to put out lots of healthy looking new leaves. I managed to raise the average temperature a couple degrees, around 68-69° daytime temp, and improved nighttime temps up to about 66°, which has made for a much better vpd of .75-.8 I learned the hard way that rock bottom vpd caused by cold temps and high humidity is the perfect breeding ground for fungal pathogens. I'm letting things dry out a bit before adding any more water, because I definitely went overboard early on.

On the first day of week 1, I went to pick up nutrients, and the hydro store had all kinds of clones on display. Like a kid who sees the puppy in the window, I couldn't just leave those poor babies there, knowing I had a nice spot for one... so the replacement for JD is Permanent Marker. I'm debating doing a single strain diary for that one (and future grows generally) because it seems like this site incentivizes those types of diaries. The seedlings seem to be doing fine and are growing real leaves instead of just cotyledons . I have eased all the way into 100% power on the light. No signs of stress, and the extra heat is helping, since the heater isn't scheduled to arrive until nearly week 3. Once veg is fully underway and the plants are bigger, I have a second light to add, similar in power to the TS600 but not dimmable. It seems one of the hardest parts of starting to grow is doing nothing. I just want to check on them and water them and feed them and love them when I should really just LITFA. Brewing my first compost tea, excited to give it a try. I'm hoping to see the effect on growth and supercharge these things into veg. Fed the tea on day 3, it was about 400ppm and 6.3ph. Gave the seedlings 12-16oz and the potted OC about 24-30oz. I also watered the empty pots, both to feed the microbes and to test how much water can go through until runoff. After about 3l there was a bit of runoff, ph was about the same 6.3 but ppm seemed high at over 4k. I think it's just because the soil is still untouched and full of the starting nutrients. A small disaster, when I poured some tea into the Chocolate Mint OG, the poor little thing fell over. I gently propped it back up with some garden wire, hoping for the best. Since it was probably stretching a bit too much, I moved the light down to about 30 inches instead of 36. I'll see how the plants like it, but maybe it will be time to add my second light... A bigger disaster was discovering what appeared to be powdery mildew on the Orangecello... the grow space historically had a high chance of mold/mildew, so I've been half dreading and half expecting this. I'm still getting the hang of dialing in the environment, so I'm guessing this is a result of all that. I blasted the leaves with neem and cut off a couple spots. The neem seemed to do the trick for now but I'll need to be extra careful and get everything in line before flower. The heater finally arrived and now temps are around 80° so with 65% RH I'm around 1.2 vpd. Hopefully fewer horror stories in future updates. Update: I'm pretty sure I burned them on day 5 of this week...

ATTN: transplant question answerers - the question is bugged and won't let me select an answer to close the question. Anyway... Week 3 started with the first topdress and a good watering with calmag. 3ml for 1gal tap water, bubbled 1-2 days. PH down from 8 to 6.5 with a few drops. Sprayed in over 1/3rd of this mix slowly over time. Debating the best time to transplant. The babies are just about on the edge of seedling to young veg, 6 leaves but no fully developed true leaves yet. They are just starting to show roots at the bottom of their solo cups. Decided to give them a bit of food and the tentative plan is 1 more week. Topdress: For 3 solo cups 3tbsp castings 2.5tsp roots organics grow For the 5gal 1/4cup castings 2tsp roots organics grow Added a bit of soil from each cups main pot to help mix in, then watered it in. Over the next couple hours after watering, it was cool to see life surge back into the plants that were just drooping and sad. I do hate seeing those burnt leaf tips though... I've never grown anything really, so it's been fascinating to learn about and work with these living things. I've loved weed for at least 20 years now, but I'm gaining a whole new perspective and appreciation for these magical plants. The smell is already coming through, the fresh leafy "green" smell with hints of dank, and the Permanent Marker even has a weedy grapefruit smell when disturbed. I love opening the tent and breathing in that "spring fresh" humid air. It's only gonna get better when it gets into flowering. Playing with LST is like a bonus experiment in this whole first grow experiment. Watching videos and learning is one thing, but hands on experience up close and personal is so much different. I'm blown away when I tie the plant down, and hours later those little solar panels have already reoriented. Day 3 of week 3 turns out to be transplant day. After asking for input here and in a few other spots, seems like they were ready. The roots were nicely developed. I did mess up the Blueberry Muffin by accidentally removing the bottom 1/3rd of the roots when it got stuck in the cup. Transplanting is hard and scary is the lesson of the day. Prayers that the girls pull through fine despite my fumbling around with their roots. I gave a light spray with the pump sprayer to help them settle in.

Week 4 has officially begun. It feels like things have finally settled into a groove: temperature and humidity controls dialed, plants happy and healthy and growing, etc. Although all of them are probably a bit behind where they should be, due to their rough starts... The plants seem to be settled in fine after last week's transplant. Orangecello in particular is exploding with growth, but it is the oldest of the bunch by a week or so. While this is "week 4", these plants are all on slightly different time. OC and PM were clones, and BBM & CMOG are both from seed. Having both of these side by side has been interesting. The plants from seed are stacking nodes very neatly, with 2 leaves directly opposite - this seems "normal"... but the clones grow a bit more chaotically, with alternating leaves that do not seem to be pairs. I'm sure there's a better way to explain it. When learning about growth, I have seen the paired leaf nodes for veg and the alternating leaf nodes for flower stretch, so it was surprising to see this alternating growth during veg. The plants from seed look very perfectly symmetrical. I am tempted to let them grow without training as much as possible, while experimenting with training the clones. LST on Orangecello has been fun, pulling the tops down and around the edges of the pot. It's impressive how quickly they adapt. I have to start making note of the smell. As I've started to pull the plants out and touch the leaves and pinch the stems and just generally handle them, they are already smelling fantastic. There is of course a fresh, leafy vegetative smell, but also each plant has trace scents, like orange, grapefruit, basil, and more that I can't place exactly. The Orangecello actually smells like orange rind, the Permanent Marker has grapefruit and basil. I have only picked up leafy green smells from the smaller plants. The hot and humid tent environment even has a nice weedy smell, I can't help but peek in a few times per day. This week started with a tea (ok so technically it was day 7 of last week...) The PM and BBM were showing some signs of deficiency, with yellowing around the edges and dark green veins. This looked like potassium so I'm adding in a scoop of the bloom with this batch of tea. 2gal water plus 6tbsp molasses bubbling for 36hr with a "nut milk bag" full of: 1cup earthworm castings 2tbsp uprising grow 1tbsp uprising bloom 550ppm, PH to 6.3 and watered in .75l per pot, .25l at a time. I also gave a very light spray of plain water with a dash of calmag, I like how evenly my sprayer moistens the soil and I think this should help everything evenly distribute. After the tea, everything sprang to life and is continuing to flourish. Day 3, I used a bit more tea, diluted with water 2 parts water to 1 part tea. PH was 6.3 and about 440ppm. I added 3ml calmag into about 1/2gal water/tea mix. The soil had dried down a few inches and the pots felt light. The soil is drying faster this week, with the light lower and the plants getting more thirsty. I sprayed in about 1/4gal between all the pots. I got out the trimming scissors and cleaned up the clones. Cleared out airflow for OC and got rid of anything too small to be a potential top. PM had a bunch of strange small growth near the original clone leaves, cleared all of that out. Cotyledons removed from BBM and CMOG. I removed the first single leaflets from CMOG but I'm leaving BBM alone because it's just finally looking healthier after the early struggle.

Week 5 has officially begun! Day 1 started with the 2nd topdress of the grow. I started with a base mix of 2 parts coco loco to 1 part earthworm castings, making 1L for each pot. On top, added 1 heaping tsp of uprising grow. Mixed up about 2gal of water for my sprayer with 7.5ml calmag, 7.0 PH. Lightly sprayed the soil to help everything settle in. There was a moment of disaster in the very last days of last week, when I accidentally snapped the top growth on Orangecello. I tried the whole plant band aid thing but no luck. You can see the scar clearly in this week's photos (#7). This maybe wasn't the worst thing because it seemed to redirect growth to other tops nicely. Everyone looks happy and healthy. I know I said I wasn't gonna train Blueberry and CMOG but I have since topped them both. I don't have a lot of vertical space so I think it's better to play it safe. Permanent Marker is also getting very tall, but I'm less sure how best to top it... The fan leaves are getting massive now, and I've spotted my first 7 leaflet leaves growing in. The last week has really been the start of explosive growth, I'm blown away how quickly these ladies are growing now. Mid week now, and the plants have a couple tiny signs of deficiencies, I am again seeing some yellowing on multiple plants. I am still not the best with identifying these signs... I tried a soil ph test and it was a bit high I think at 6.6. I lowered the ph of my calmag water to 6.0 and watered about .3 liters. I started another tea, and mixed up my notes where it said tbsp instead of tsp, so my tea might be a bit strong. 1 cup earthworm castings plus 1 heaping tbsp each of grow and bloom. I'll probably dilute it and use over 2 feedings. Right now I'm not doing much day to day, occasionally I will bend stems and tuck leaves. Usually just any excuse to pull the plants out and get hands on. Pinching and twisting stems makes for surprisingly strong scent from the plants. Orangecello is sweet citrus/orange, Permanent Marker is funky citrus/grapefruit, and I finally smelled Chocolate Mint OG, a shocking burnt tire smell, borderline unpleasant. Blueberry Muffin is still too much of a runt to be bending stems and stressing the plant.

Week 6 is underway! Since the middle of last week, some of the leaves on every plant are showing deficiencies. Some mild interveinal chlorosis, some purple stems, some chlorosis along leaf edges, and some rust spots. Since it's happening on every plant I think it might have been my water. Last water was a bit high at 7.0 because everywhere I read said that living soil could buffer water that's not very far out of ideal range. It seemed either overwatering, underwatering, micronutrients, or ph was at fault... the plants spent the last few days drying out, I lowered humidity by increasing airflow so the vpd could get closer to 1.5. Here on day 1, it's the first day there was a bit of drooping in the morning, so these girls are thirsty. It's tea time! The base tea was very strong, 1000 ppm 5.5ph with a nice foam on top. Starting with 1 gal pure tea, I added 18ml micro and 1 tsp great white. I diluted it with 1 gal calmag water that had already been ph to 6.0, and then needed to add 1 gal plain tap water around 7.2 ph. The final 3gal mix was 6.3ph and just under 800ppm. I watered in about 1.5 gal over all 4 plants - that's about .375gal or 1.4L. I did not get any run off aside from a few drops here and there that went through the sides of the fabric pots, partly because I watered it all in slowly over a few hours with my sprayer. Praying that the tea should have everything possibly needed to stop the yellowing and get back into perfect health. I suspect there could have also been an issue with nutrients running out. I had just topdressed last week so the nutrients were/are still breaking down. There's a chance some of these issues were just from cutting it too close to feed time. Another factor is that I've only used grow and bloom nutrients, but no micro. I thought that might be fine to skip, but maybe that hurt. Either way, I grabbed a bottle of CES micro since my hydro shop did not have the roots organics uprising foundation I was looking for. I also added a dash of great white, in hopes of boosting microbial life and powering up the mycorrhizal network so that all those nutrients will get taken up. This was the most involved feeding yet, hopefully I didn't screw anything up by combining the fixes into a single potion. Up to day 5 now, and the plants seemed to like the tea. I haven't seen any additional chlorosis, although maybe slightly burnt tips on a few leaves. Today was the first day they started a bit droopy, ready for another drink. Just plain water with calmag this time, ph 6.3, 6ml/gal calmag. I left my sprayer by the heater so water was 70°. Watered in about a gallon between all 4 plants. Later in the day everyone had perked back up. The tent is filling up nicely and should be getting ready to flip in a couple weeks. Tax money coming anytime and I'll be upgrading to a real light for flowering. Eventually these lights will be for a dedicated veg/mom tent, but they're too weak to get 4 plants to a good harvest. Next week is time for another and likely the final topdress of veg nutrients. The tent is smelling a bit like weed, especially at peak temp and humidity. This was the first week I could smell the tent as soon as I got to the basement, mostly just a fresh green smell with a hint of dank. End of week update: Found a good deal on an SE3000 300w light, it should be here next week sometime. Excited to see how they react to the upgrade, plus I'll be able to spread the plants out better. Accidentally snapped a leaf on CMOG when training, so maybe a bit more aggressive than planned...

Week 7 is already halfway over! This week starts with what might be the last veg topdress. 1tsp uprising grow per 5gal pot, mixed with a 3:1 mix of coco loco soil & earthworm castings. Watered in with calmag water ph to 6.3 This week also started with some IPM in the form of some samples of Dr Zymes Eliminator. Soaked them 2 days in a row before lights out. Some health issues still persisting. The plants had been growing into the light, but I hadn't moved them, plus running the inline fan during the full light meant vpd got a bit high. Low humidity plus high temp meant the plants started clawing and tacoing. Plus I think the PH/watering may still not be quite as dialed as I thought. I have some supplies coming this week to help prepare for flower and further dial in the environment. I've been leaving the heater running all the time and manually turning the inline fan on and off every morning and night, but a few more mechanical timers should help me automate things a bit better. I have a big fan to hang at the top and will be able to move more air inside the tent. The biggest and best part will be the SF3000, very excited to gear up for flowering. Unfortunately this week I also snapped a bit off Permanent Marker while bending stems... I put it in water with myco overnight and planted it in a bit of dirt. I don't have a cloning setup so I made do with what was on hand... it was destined for the trash anyway so why not try to save it. Training has been interesting and seems to be going well, as the tent is filling out nearly wall to wall. Things look on track to flip to flower sometime in the next couple weeks. I did decide to trim the big beautiful leaves off Blueberry Muffin, they were blocking the tops... with those gone I started LST for that runt of the batch. I'll have to retry this strain sometime because I'm definitely not doing it justice this time around. The Permanent Marker accidental clone might survive to be a mom, it hasn't died yet and it's been a couple days, so fingers crossed. My light arrived broken! The replacement part is on the way and I should still be on track to install upgrades this weekend as week 8 begins.

The last week of veg is here! The plants are seeming a bit happier and healthier. I think I was underwatering a bit, and they are definitely getting more thirsty. The tea, calmag, and lighting adjustments all helped get things under control. I made another tea this week, 1cup earthworm castings, 9ml/gal micronutrients, 7.5ml/gal calmag, 1 tsp great white. PH to 6.5 and it was right about 1000ppm. Each plant got about 1.5 liter. I found a great deal on a 300w spider farmer light, which arrived this week, but one of the light bar power connections was broken. The seller is sending a replacement, which has now been delayed in the mail. I need this light for flower, and I want the plants (and my environmental settings) to have a few days to get acclimated. Toward the end of this week, assuming all goes to plan, I'll be topdressing for flower, and reconfiguring the tent, with increased circulation and a much better light. Everything should be in place to start week 1 of flower this coming weekend. Day 4 update: pre-flower topdress is complete. 1tsp uprising grow 1tsp uprising bloom Watered in with a bit of calmag water ph to 6.5. Day 5 update: the light is here! Pulled everything out, gave it a quick clean, rearranged wiring, hung the new fan and light, and got everything situated. The humidifier is coming out of the tent for flower. A cloning setup would be really helpful at this point, I want to save the Orangecello and Permanent Marker. I will take a few cuts for experimental purposes and pray things work out...

Finally time to flip to flower! They went from 6am-12am daylight to 11am-11pm. I didn't like them waking up before me! Now I can be ready for watering right at "sunrise". I made the newbie mistake of only changing my light timer... a day or two later I realized I needed to change the fan and heater timers as well. Fan still exhausting every 30 min of every hour. The new circulation fan is amazing, air is moving really well through the tent. I catch myself staring into the tent at the leaves dancing in the breeze, it's hypnotic. Tea to start the week: 2 gallons water 1 cup earthworm castings 2 tbsp/gal molasses 2 tbsp uprising bloom 6 ml/gal micro 6 ml/gal calmag PH to 6.5 and watered in about .5gal/plant. Near zero runoff, mostly just what escapes through the sides of the pots. Plants are looking healthier than ever, loving the new light. Every day they are praying up, looking lush and full. The tent is pretty much wall to wall now. One of the clone attempts died, I have 2 more Orangecello and 1 permanent Marker sitting in water trying to root As the week is coming to an end, the plants have definitely kicked into flower. The first traces of pistils coming through, and the plants have all started to stretch. Can't wait to see how big they get!

Week 2 of flower is underway. The plants are all stretching hard, a couple inches of growth over the last week. There are pistils coming in, but just barely. I cranked the SE3000 to full power, and the plants still pray until lights out. I've already had to raise the light a couple times due to how fast they're growing. The uprising grow/bloom directions have me alternating between bloom and earthworm castings with each weekly topdress, so I added 1/4c EWC to each pot. I watered in with bubbled tap water PH to 6.4, with about 8ml/gal calmag. Starting another tea, the girls really seem to love it. I've started including more molasses because I've read that it helps with flowering and terps. The tent is definitely starting to put off some good smells... I can smell it as soon as I walk into the house, the smells are starting to escape the downstairs! The tea ended up being really acidic, below 5.5. I added an extra 1.5 gal plain water, but it still was very acidic. I don't have a ph up, so I ended up finding some old baking powder. It took A LOT of baking powder to get anywhere near an acceptable level. I gave them about 1.5L each. A few days later the tea had grown some interesting scum, and the air stone was gross and furry. This hasn't happened with any other teas, and the only different thing was the baking powder, so I'll probably avoid that from now on. I almost went to start the 3rd week defoliation but then realized it's the END of week 3 not the start. Aiming for a day 21/day 42 defoliation schedule. Looking and smelling fantastic every day. Tent looking like it should be sponsored by Spider Farmer. The SE3000 and SF3x3 look meant to be, but wouldn't it look better if they sent me some fans?

Week 3 flower started with a small crisis. I checked the tent at the end of week 2 and found a bit of powdery mildew on Orangecello. I had been lazy with the defoliation and slacked on Dr Zymes applications. I trimmed it up and checked the rest. I had to go back to work before I could check Blueberry Muffin, but when I came back to finish up, I was horrified to see it was the worst of all. I had to really go heavy with defoliation, removing any visible PM. That night I sprayed again with more Dr Zymes, and a small bit the following night to kill anything I couldn't see. I will have to spray weekly until finish and pray it doesn't come back. I had planned to wait a week to defoliate but nature had other plans. Now everyone is slightly lollipopped and trimmed up nicely. First week for the bloom boost/terpene enhancer. Added that and calmag to the watering this week, and planning to give another bit of micro next watering. Made another tea this week: 1cup Earthworm Castings 2 tbsp Uprising Bloom 9ml/gal micro 6ml/gal calmag 5ml/gal bloom booster 1 dash Great White The tent is really smelling amazing these days. The little buds are fattening up and starting to frost nicely. Can't wait to see them get huge!

Late update for this week 4 of flower... Went on a quick trip, a couple days away from the ladies. They did get thirsty but didn't droop much, and perked up after watering. To start the week, earthworm topdress per the uprising bloom feed chart. 1/2c per pot. Finished off the tea and have watered a few more times with just calmag and bloom boost. The trichomes are finally coming in, things are looking beautiful as the buds fatten and the leaves frost over. The smell is getting stronger every day. Speaking of smell, I've fallen in love with every strain all over, because I can finally touch and smell the sticky resin. From worst to best so far: Blueberry Muffin does not have a strong smell yet. It smells like sweet syrup spilled in a cedar cabinet. Chocolate Mint OG is complex. Rubber, roasted chocolate, fresh damp earth, dank, and more... Permanent Marker smells very much like one of my favorite strains, Chemdog. Pungent gassy chemical funk, backed by a bit of citrus, with hints of mossy earth. Orangecello is the star of the show. It has a strong smell I've found in strains like Forbidden Runtz and other high terpinolene strains. It smells like a sweet candy paint. I've heard it described as rotten fruit. It also smells a bit like sunscreen, like nail polish remover and fake chemical tropical coconut scent. Things are really getting close to the home stretch. I think the plants are done stretching and are ready to fatten up those buds and frost over. I can't wait to taste!

Week 5 and things are going great! Lots of buds all fattening up and looking frostier by the day. The smells are amazing, they look stunning, and Permanent Marker is even turning purple. I was a bit worried about Permanent Marker looking splotchy, so I gave everyone a plain watering. It was PH to 6.4/6.5 and I gave enough to just barely give runoff, about 2L. The ppm was 2400 and PH was a bit high at 7. I have a tea brewing for this week, mostly EWC and uprising bloom. Been spraying Dr. Zymes once a week to keep the PM away. Another great week, closing in on the final weeks. Thanks everyone who reads these and follows the grow! Late week update to add a bunch more pictures. They're so pretty now I can't help but take a few extra glamor shots. Fed the tea today, 1.5L each of 1500ppm 6.1 ph tea with micro and calmag added to the base of earthworm poop, uprising bloom, and molasses.

We are now over halfway through week 14 of this grow, and victory is so close I can smell it... this is the 6th week of flower and things are getting pretty serious. 😍 The buds have swollen dramatically, pinched a few here and there and they feel nice and dense. It's been cool to see the difference between how the strains stack the buds - Orangecello is stacking big connected colas, Chocolate Mint OG has tons of separate smaller buds. I am interested to see how all the bottom buds come out, as I trained this plant the least and minimized removing any potential bud sites. It seems to have the right structure to reward that style of maintenance. The smells are all amazing and continue to develop and change. Chocolate Mint OG keeps being a mystery - the rubbery smells have receded in favor of a sour fruit & grape candy scent, but I'm not even sure that's accurate. Permanent Marker has a bit less chem and now has a rich sweetness, almost toasted butter and sugar, like a caramel. Orangecello is still my personal favorite with a tropical sunscreen smell. The Permanent Marker is super frosty, and the Chocolate Mint OG isn't far behind. They all look so beautiful, you can see my infatuation grow along with the number of pictures each week. This week's post should put me over 700 views! That's crazy, thanks to everyone who stopped to read or check out the grow or drop a comment. Only a few more weeks left. Topdressing is over, maybe 1 or 2 more teas, but otherwise mostly just "plain" water (pretty much always has a dash of calmag) and an occasional bit of signal bloom boost.

Nearing the end of the line! The smell is getting much stronger and is making the whole house smell amazing. (I have a carbon filter, but honestly it smells great and I'm not worried about doing anything illegal so why block the smell of it...) Life is easy right now - no tea, no topdress, just water with calmag and a dash of bloom boost. Adding those gets the water to just about the right PH, been aiming for 6.3-6.5. Watering 1.5L each every 2 days. Buds are getting fat, still swelling this week. I would rather let them go a bit long than take it too early. I tested the environment of my drying area and it's about 61°F/57%RH which seems pretty ideal. It's basically a cellar type space so that makes sense. Blueberry Muffin is still pretty wimpy... the runt of the grow by far, but I'm sure it was my fault. I might let it run longer than the others to give it a chance to fully finish up. I don't have anywhere near the experience to judge how much weight to expect from each plant. Chocolate Mint OG will have the most, but Orangecello and Permanent Marker are looking juicy too. Permanent Marker trim will be super frosty, hoping to wash it for bubble eventually. About one more week after this! Watching trichomes and pistils and bud density to make sure it looks like the right time. A 4/20 chop date feels like the right time. Over 150 views last week was some kind of record! Thanks for stopping by and reading all this stuff.

Week 8 of flower is in the books! We are on the home stretch, no more nutrients, just plain water ph to 6.2-6.5. Just letting buds swell & ripen, checking trichomes, and waiting for the right time. Really loving the colors on the fade, especially Chocolate Mint OG. Happy 420 everyone! This was one of my best ever, because I got to enjoy my first ever homegrown smoke! (...but aren't the plants still growing? You might ask...) Yes, I'm still waiting to harvest, but I did take sample cuts at the start of this week. There were a couple reasons: have a 4/20-ready sample, test my drying environment, compare ripeness vs main harvest, but mainly to satisfy my bloodlust and burning desire to chop these things down. After a whole week of drying to prep for 4/20, they were not quite dry, but still worthwhile. The smaller stems snap but the main stalk just bends. Either way, the tastes and smells are already off the charts, and translating nicely from the live flowers. I've never had my fingers get so sticky with resin as when I was trimming up these testers. Speaking of trimming, I also got a sample of that... I can see why it's a running joke to hate on it. Tedious, sticky, and generally annoying, but a necessary evil. The test cuts were definitely early, both in effect and bud density. Lots of sugar leaves hiding little buds, I'm hoping leaving things for another week or two will let those buds fatten even more. There was a big delay between last update and this one so I could switch to posting the update after the week ends instead of during the week. I expect 1 or 2 more flower updates before everyone is chopped down, and I'll be sure to post harvests and final smoke reports as they happen. Thanks again for stopping by and checking out my grow 😎

Welp... that sucks. I had my whole update built out and ready to post, but growdiaries had an error adding one of the very last pictures, and it wiped everything...... 😢 😭 (Update: looks like GD is having issues, front page hasn't updated in nearly 24hr, the diary thumbnail will not change, etc) edit: looks fixed now on 4/29.. Anyway.. Week 9 in the books. Time to bring this show to an end! The fades are beautiful 😍 I chopped Chocolate Mint OG this week on day 61. Spoilers: today is week 10 day 2, and I've just chopped both Orangecello and Blueberry Muffin. Nothing but water for anyone left standing. Permanent Marker should probably be coming down next week, letting that one run its full course. Harvest reports coming soon after I dry/trim/smoke.

The final week of flower is here. Time for this grow to come to an end. The last plant standing will be getting the chop tomorrow, which will actually be day 75. Permanent Marker was listed as 8-9 weeks but even now the trichomes aren't going very amber. They are mostly cloudy with even some clear remaining. The buds feel full and have stopped swelling. The leaves are drying out and it's drinking way less water. I have just finished trim jail for the first 3 plants, harvest updates coming real soon. Spoilers: they're amazing, but increasing yield will be something to work towards. I'm already popping the next batch, new diaries coming soon too. Thanks for checking out my grow 😎 it's been a wild ride. I'm definitely hooked and will be running many more in the future. I'll be expanding operations and possibly even trying outdoors...

Chopped Chocolate Mint OG on day 61. It's been a pleasure to grow and looked like it was going to be my biggest yield. This was definitely the bushiest plant in the tent. She was very photogenic toward the end. The stem rubs smelled like burning tires and dill pickles, but when the buds came in they were surprisingly sweet. The smell tickles some weird nostalgia, like a candy you had growing up but can't quite remember. It's like a sweet grape tea, but with real grape instead of candy grape. It is maybe reminiscent of grandma perfume - ambiguously sweet, fruity, and floral. After the dry and trim, this came in at just over 40g. I definitely smoked a bunch before weighing, plus this plant had 2 sample cuts taken before harvest, so maybe actual weight would have been 7-14g higher than the actual result. Overall this plant was phenomenal and I would gladly run it again in the future.

In veg, it responded well as I learned about how to best train it. In flower, the smell was insane... after the first smell my eyes rolled back. Sweet floral orange citrus with a hint of chemical cleaner smell that comes together to smell like a tropical sunscreen. When I was trimming the tester, my friend was walking by and stopped in his tracks, "whoa which one is that!?" - this one is loud! The smell is super strong even after drying, and really translates into the smoke. This was the star of the show, and made the best smoke. 10/10 would grow again. One small issue was that this plant was by far the most susceptible to powdery mildew. It started on this plant, and any time it popped up in the tent, this plant had some. I had to stay on the Dr Zymes and trimming any affected leaves, but it was worth it. Overall I ended up with just under 40g, but I smoked a bunch while trimming and took a sample cut, so really it was 7-10g more... this one was chopped on day 64. The buds were fat and firm and the trichomes looked ready, with a good mix - probably 5% clear 85% cloudy 10% amber. I trimmed this plant 2nd and was getting better at it, ended up with some really nice looking nugs... so of course I took a ton of pics!

Blueberry Muffin was also chopped on day 64. It never seemed to take off and was the smallest and weakest in the tent. Honestly it was out of frame in so many pictures just because it was embarrassingly small. The terps never really became the Blueberry Muffin that was promised. At most, there is a sweet cedar hardwood spice smell, kind of like men's cologne, on top of a classic dank weedy taste. There's a hint of something like pastry crust when I smell it in the bag. It does kind of remind me of a classic well rounded smoke from decades ago. One friend even preferred this strain over the others in the grow due to the simple classic flavor... not me though, I rank this 3rd out of the 3 harvests so far. It was tiny and so was the yield, with the official weight coming in at 20g. It was truthfully a little less on the scale but I also tested more than a gram, so I'm calling it an even 20. I'll definitely try this again sometime, I support HSC and think they have quality genetics, I don't want this to sour my perception of them.

Permanent Marker was the last one standing and got the chop at day 75 of flower, nearly 11 weeks. The trichomes were still not very amber anywhere except the top sugar leaves, but it was about 90% milky white, and the leaves were all drying out. I bagged 36g of larfy buds and trimmings, 20.5g top buds, and 12g small buds. 32g smokable is not bad. I will update with smoke report in a couple weeks, but initial tests were promising. Strong chemical taste not far off from its namesake, with a KO strength punch.