Blue Gelato 41: Growing a MILF

I started the first week of veg by preparing the pots I'll need to up-pot her. I then transplanted her into the smallest pot. As always, I added myco during the transplant and put on a humidity dome to keep the microclimate nice and humid for her. It's pretty dry right now (mid-high 30s) so a humidity dome definitely helps since my humidifier was in use in my drying tent. The week has been uneventful, as the first week usually is, and all I've done is check in on her every few days. I gave her a little bit of water on D5. Height: 6 cm, Width: 6 cm I slowly ramped up the DLI across the week, starting around 9 on D1 and increasing to 16 on D7.

The second week is over and it was about as exciting as the first week. I put in the SIP in the tent on the first day of the week, and all that extra soil increased the humidity so the humidity dome wasn't needed anymore. All I've done after that is to check in on her every few days. She has almost outgrown her first pot with roots coming out of the bottom, so I plan to transplant her in a day or two. Height: 9 cm, Width: 12 cm I left the DLI at 16 all throughout the week but increased it to 20 today. Oh, I gave her a name. It truly was a shower thought as I was showering after a run, high as a kite of an edible, when I realized I had never named any of my plants. Right away, a name popped into my head. No idea where that name came from as I have never even met anyone with that name. The name is fitting though as she will be a mom plant, who will "birth" clones. So, I present to all of you: Bertha, the MILF.

I started the week by transplanting Bertha. She looked a bit sad for half a day after the transplant but has since recovered just fine. In fact, today, I already saw a root peaking out of the larger pot. At this rate, I will probably transplant her again in a week or so. Today, I mixed an enzyme and growth hormone cocktail for her by blitzing malted barley with kelp powder, fulvic acid, and humic acid. It's the first time I gave her something other than plain water. I left the DLI at 20 all throughout the week but increased it to 25 today. Height: 12 cm, Width: 17 cm

It's the end of the fourth week of veg, and it's been a chill week. Berta was rocking the tent, and I only checked on her every few days. I fimmed her on day 24. It's the first time I tried to FIM, so I'm excited to see the results. I'm hoping the extra tops will be useful for clones. I gave her another enzyme/hormone cocktail today. I'm pleased with how she is progressing. She is healthy and vibrant with a nice structure. Her leaves are dark green and luscious, but I see some slight interveinal chlorosis on a couple of them. She might be running low on nutrients in her smaller pot, but I plan to transplant her next week into her final pot. She will have a lot more soil then, which should help, and in the meantime, I'll foliar feed her epsom salt. I didn't change the DLI throughout the week but Bertha increased it herself to around 27-30 by growing. I'll adjust it once I have transplanted her. Height: 17 cm, Width: 27 cm

Bertha is loving life and was starting to outgrow her pot so I transplanted her into her final pot. Everything was already prepared so I dusted the roots and the hole with myco and plopped Bertha into her forever home - a 31-liter sub-irrigated planter with a 7,5-liter reservoir. (About 8-gallons of soil and a 2-gallon reservoir.) I'll let her settle into her new home for a week or so before I fill the res. I added straw mulch after the transplant and also added an Ecowitt soil moisture sensor, which is somewhat pointless in a SIP, but I had it lying around, so I might as well use it until the clone grows is up and running. I gave her a foliar feed with epsom salt to help with the interveinal chlorosis, although Bertha probably doesn't need it now when she has a lot more soil. The rest of the week Bertha was on her own as I was out of town for a few days. She is looking great overall, but I'm seeing a few necrotic spots on a couple of lower leaves. A new USB clip fan arrived while I was gone. It's more powerful than the previous fans and will improve circulation in the canopy.

The end of another week, and we are getting closer to cloning. Bertha is on autopilot, and after filling up the reservoir in the SIP, I don’t even need to water her, so I let her do her thing. She is bushing out nicely, and I'll soon be able to take at least eight cuttings from her. I only keep four clones but play it on the safe side instead. I can gift any remaining clones to a friend. One challenge with growing in a tiny tent is the lack of environmental controls. There is no space room for a heater, humidifier, etc. 
We have had quite a bit of rain lately, which made the humidity spike, pushing the VPD out of whack. I cranked up the light to increase the temps in the tent and thus get the VPD in a decent range, and finally, raised the light to keep the DLI the same.

Yay! Bertha was finally large enough this last week to offer eight clones. Time to get to work! I use Root Riot plugs for germination and cloning, so I started by dissolving a healthy glug of Clonex into some water and then soaking the plugs in that solution. I also prepared a milder Clonex solution in another container for the cuts. I removed the bottom four nodes to get clones of sufficient size and used scissors to snip off each branch before directly putting each branch into the Clonex solution. The clones sat in that solution for three hours as I was busy with other things. When I returned, three of the cuts stood proudly, while another three were semi-wobbly, and the last two were almost completely limp. Dafuq? I only had those eight cuts, and Bertha would have to grow more for additional cuts, so I had to roll with it. I removed unnecessary leaves and made a new cut on each clone with a fresh razorblade (a bit below a node) before dipping the end into Clonex and putting it into a plug. (Note: Put some Clonex in a shot glass and then dip the clones to avoid contaminating the Clonex bottle. I learned that the hard way…) The plugs went into a germination tray with a humidity dome over them, and the tray was placed under a T5 LED light, which is part of the germination/seedling set-up I use for my veggies and herbs. I also placed a heat mat underneath. The mat is on a 15-mins-on / 15-mins-off schedule to keep everything nice and warm but not toasty. The humidity under the dome is around 95% (+/- 3%). I also started the peppers I’m growing this year and put them in coco plugs on another tray next to the clones. Super-hot peppers aren’t my jam, so my selection is all on the milder side of things. This year, I’m growing Serrano Purple, Chihuacle Negro, Cayenne Yellow, and Penis Pepper Red. it’s a colorful mix this year! (I grow my peppers close together and think they look purty in many colors.) Yes. I picked that last pepper entirely due to its name. My girlfriend will have a blast talking about and showing off my proud Penis Peppers to everyone. (I know her well enough after 20 years together…) Also, a few of those seedlings will become fabulous gifts to some of our gay friends. The next day, the semi-wobbly clones had straightened up, and the limp ones turned into semi-wobbly ones. Now, after a few days, all clones are looking great. Healthy and vibrant. I reduced the light in the small tent to slow down Bertha's grow rate, as I don't want to flip her into flower until the clones are rooted. I also threw in a scrog net to help tame her when I do flip. She only has a tiny tent with very limited height, so I hope it'll work out, considering her size. Berth and her kids smell A LOT. I have never had a cultivar smelling this strongly in veg. I'm concerned about how the four clones will smell in full-flower...

I flipped Bertha at the start of this week. I planned to wait until the clones were rooted, but she was getting too big, so if I was to have any chance for a harvest in my tiny tent, I had to flip her. I looked at many other diaries growing this cultivar, and the stretch isn't that bad. Fingers crossed! That said, she almost doubled in height in this first week, and  I hope she will calm down, or I will run out of room in the tiny tent. She looks healthy and vibrant, but she is one stinky lady! Let's see how bad it will be once she actually has some buds. The kids are just chilling out in their tray. It's been over a week, so I’d like to start seeing roots soon. I put a small USB fan inside the tray to provide some airflow under the humidity dome, and I directed the fan away from the clones so they don't get dried out by direct wind. 
I also gave them a very light foliar feed, using a very mild solution of liquid organic nutrients for veggies I had standing around. I'm not going out to buy some expensive cannabis nutrients to feed my clones a few times. Cannabis is just a plant, after all. I have been preparing the tent for the kids so it is ready when they are. Hanging the fan and filter, installing the new light, pulling cables, etc. The usual. Finally, the BIG news: Our government voted through cannabis legalization a couple of days ago, which will take effect in seven weeks. Sure, there is a bunch of silliness in the law, but I take silly-legal over stupid-illegal any day! Plus, we're getting legal home-grow. YEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!! 🎉🚀🍾🎊  

The second week of flower is at an end, and Bertha is loving life. In fact, she is loving life a little too much as she is starting to get dangerously big for my tiny tent. I supercropped her today to try to keep her down. I gave her some topdressing earlier this week to ensure she has all the goodies she needs, considering her size. She better stop stretching soon, or I will have real trouble... A few days ago, I saw the first visible root on one of the clones (took 13 days) and today, seven of the eight clones showed visible roots, so I transplanted the four best-looking ones since their leaves started showing signs of deficiency. Well, I transplanted all of them, but the rest are going to a friend of mine. As these clones are now rooted and on their way, they will have their own diary, while this one will be dedicated to Bertha alone.

Hedgehogs have invaded the tent! 🦔🦔🦔 We're at the end of the third week of flower, and Bertha is looking great. Fortunately, it looks like the stretch is over, which is awesome, as I was running out of space in the tent. Earlier in the week I removed the exhaust fan and placed it outside the tent to maximize the space inside. Today, I shaved Bertha's legs by removing all leaves and branches down low. I kept a few cuttings even though Bertha is in flower because why not 🙂 Finally, I installed another grow light, to provide some side-lighting and under-canopy light. It might not help that much, but I already had the light lying around, so I might as well use it.

We are at the end of an uneventful week. The most exciting thing was that I changed the power cable for the light to a cable with an angled connector. This allows me to raise the light another couple of centimeters. Every millimeter counts when the space is tight! That's it. That's the excitement of the week. Cruise control on!

This was another uneventful week. Bertha is just chilling in her tent, slowly fattening her buds. Judging from her progression, I'd guess we have another three, maybe four, weeks to go. Her buds have a strong scent of pine. The only "exciting" thing that happened this week was letting the reservoir in the SIP go dry. Currently, we have tons of fungus gnats in our house plants, so I ordered enough nematodes to treat all the decorative plants in the house, all the tomato and pepper seedlings, Bertha, and her clones. So I had to let Bertha dry out a bit before I could apply the nemos by top watering. Speaking of clones... It has been a wild ride with the clones. Somehow, the clones went into flower while waiting to get roots. I have absolutely no idea how that happened since they were on 18 hours of light all the time. After transplanting the four clones I selected to keep, I changed the light cycle to 20 hours and put them under their regular, more powerful light to force them back into veg. It has now been three weeks, and they are finally starting to veg again after looking terrible the entire time. They still look pretty funky, though, as re-vegged plants often do. Two of them managed to top themselves since the top was flowering. I also see a clear difference between the soil recipes, so even though the clone grow has barely started, I have already learned valuable information. I planted my clones into my soil mix but used commercial soil for the other clones I planned to give to a friend. I don't know what's up with that soil, as all four clones died within four days! I used the same soil for my peppers and tomatoes, and they all look great. Weird shit.

Yet another week has passed, and I suspect we are about to start the end sprint. Another two, maybe three, weeks to go for Bertha to fatten up her buds and hit senescence. The week was utterly devoid of anything exciting. Besides filling the reservoir when empty, I didn't do anything, really. Well, except for putting a small dehumidifier in the tent to help with the high humidity. It brought the humidity down somewhat, but I still saw +70% RH, which is way too high for comfort this late in flower. We just went legal (YAY!!!) so I don't need to worry about any smell anymore. My girlfriend suggested that I keep the tent door open as she is totally cool with a weed-smelling apartment now when we are legal :) So, this is now my ghetto solution to dealing with high humidity: I open the tent door and keep it open until the lights are out. I then turn on the dehumidifier and let it run throughout the night. The next day, I rinse and repeat.

I thought last week was uneventful, but it was an exciting adventure compared to this week. Open the tent door at lights-on. Close it at lights-off. Fill up the reservoir when empty. Rinse and repeat. That. Was. It. I hate late flower. Sigh. It is so booooooooring. It shouldn't be that much longer. Bertha is turning frosty, which shows that the trichomes are becoming cloudy. No senescence yet, though. One... maybe two weeks? I'll start scouting trichomes next week. Let Bertha show me when she is ready.

Another exciting week... Oh well, we are almost done. Bertha still shows no senescence, but her buds are getting frostier. I scouted the trichomes for the first time today, and she clearly isn't there yet. A week to go? Ten days? Something like that. No matter, I'll check the trics every few days and let her tell me when she is ready.

There's light at the end of the tunnel! Bertha has started to show senescence in her upper leaves, and I'm seeing an increase in amber trichomes. I've dimmed the light and will lower it a bit for a few more days to give her time to ripen and finish before the chop.

Touchdown! I left Bertha alone all week, letting her finish up quietly, but now, after 16 weeks, she is done. Her buds look great, and the leaves have a dark purple hue towards the end. Quite striking which makes me excited about how her clones will look when they are ready. I removed all larger fan leaves before chopping her and hanging her upside down in the tent. I have set the Inkbird controller to 60% (+/- 2%) Now, we wait at least 14 days for her to dry.

We are finally at the end of this grow, although the clones are still going strong in my other tent. I let her dry for 17 days before trimming and jarring the buds. The trim wasn't all that horrible because it was only one plant. I estimated that I would get 120 grams out of her, but the final weight was a bit higher, at 133 grams. Not bad from a tiny tent with a small light :)