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Happy palindromic 4202024.
To help celebrate I’m starting a couple of Euphoria seeds and making the first diary entry of the season.
This year i’m doing two photoperiod plants, starting today, and two autos that I’ll start in mid-May.
Apr 22: moved into soil after about 48 h in 25 C water in the dark. Have a ripe apple beside the seeds under the foil because apparently the ethylene gas that is given off helps. Science paper I happened across last winter - will post reference when I remember.
Apr 25: removed foil (and apple) and left on a 25 C heat mat beside a light that is going for tomatoes and peppers. Weak light, warmth, and high humidity is what they need at this stage.
Apr 27: and they’re off. Both seeds germinated very strongly.
I’m keeping the soil drier this time. I think maybe I’ve had soil too wet when starting seeds before and that slowed them down a bit. Will focus on keeping the seedlings moist to make up for the low air humidity. Once they get some roots going then I’ll start normal watering.
Apr 30: snow day but plants are all still inside under lights. So far so good.
May 1: one seedling is a bit bigger than the other at this early stage. I’ll pick one to keep and adopt out the other one.
May 3: transplanted to intermediate pot to raise the soil level.
May4: nice spring day so plants were outside in the afternoon. Some direct sun but also protected in small greenhouse. Light watering with some nutrients.
I’m using Monster Maxx this year. I used a free sample of it last year making compost teas and it seemed to work great. Early to use any nutes but I think it is okay. This stuff has regular N fertilizer (nitrate, urea, and ammonia) but also two bacteria strains that have been shown to work. I was looking at last year’s roots today and they are the densest and most intricate I’ve seen, so I think this stuff works as advertised. Will still use compost teas later this season but for now this should do fine.
Prepped most of the soil. Cannabis gets the Grade A+ soil, and tomatoes and peppers get last years cannabis soil and some fresh compost.
May 9: weather is great so decided to transplant into the final container. Culled second seedling that was slower and had asymmetrical leaves.
May 10: still misting leaves to provide moisture. So far so good.
May 11: wildfire smoke rolled in this morning for the first time this year. Last year was horrible but hopefully this year won’t be as bad. Today was stay inside the house sort of bad smoke but it’s supposed to blow over soon. Hope.
Plant looks good and happy in the final container.
May 12: took out a couple of small cedars and I have a new sunniest spot in the yard, or at least for the next 12 weeks or so.
Today’s sunlight is like what it will be like in early August (6 weeks to solstice).
May 16: cool and rainy today but some sun at the end. She’s still doing great, and definitely better than most of my previous starts. I think I had the soil too wet before, or maybe the apple thing actually works. Either way she’s off to a good start and we’re on schedule with the May long weekend coming up.
May 17: cool and rainy all day. Left plant in the mini-greenhouse all day.
May 18: foliar spray of Extreme Blend from Kelp4Less this morning.
Cool and overcast this weekend but it can be hot inside the mini-greenhouse. Was 9 C outside earlier today but 23 C inside greenhouse which heats up really fast in direct sun.
So far so good. Still spraying plant a few times a day with water to counteract the low humidity.
May 19: rain and clouds with forecast high of 8 C today. Not sunny so greenhouse won’t help and plants will have to stay indoors today and likely tomorrow too.
May 20: indoors under a cheapo LED grow light that works great. Much easier than setting up a tent with a serious grow light.
May 21: still cool today but should be some sun so the greenhouse will work today. Moved back outside into greenhouse in morning.
May 22: mostly in greenhouse again today but they also got some direct evening sun. Good growing day if a bit cool.
May 23: in greenhouse all day but evening sun again. She grew 2 inches in five days which is good for this early stage. In full veg mode it should/will be a bit over 1” per day.
May 24: nice enough to be outdoors all day again. Watered with Monster Max.
May 25: growing quickly and looking quite good for the end of May. Fifth node is forming and the first topping for the manifold will likely be tomorrow.
May 26: raised soil level using Pro-Mix and compost. Got rained on.
May 27: first topping down to third node (removed 5 and 4). The only growth tips left are the two on the third node. In about a week these will be topped again. And then again. Manifolding (or mainlining) is totally easy and really is just topping at the right stages of development. Highly recommended technique.
May 31: it’s been cool since the topping and seems a bit slow getting going again but I’m sure it’ll be fine. I probably could have waited a few more days before topping but oh well.
June 1: May was a cool month and she has been slow to recover since the topping five days ago. This week should be better and the week after is perfect cannabis weather.
Did foliar spray of Extreme Blend this morning.
June 2: watered with molasses.
June 3: rained all day.
June 6: starting manual LST to gently keep the two stems from growing close together.
June 7: brought back inside because it will be too cold for the next two days. Daytime high of only 8 C and the overnight low will be 1 C. That’s pretty cold for early June.
June 8: crazy cold here the last few days and that’s likely cuz of a heat dome in the SW states and Mexico. So cold the forecast tonight is only 1 C which is crazy two weeks from the summer solstice.
June 9: nice enough day and she was back outside again. Using LST to shape the stems and rotating second node to see if I can six nodes on each side all pointing in the same direction. If that works, there would be 12 nodes rather than just 8. And then at the next stage there would be 24 not 16. Huh. Better smoke another one and think about it.
June 10: watered in morning with first compost tea.
June 11: looks great after the tea.
June 13: supercropped, taped, and tied down using pipe cleaners and paper clips. This tie down method works great, is easily adjusted, and is super easy. Probably less than a week for ttie down will be needed.
June 14: damnit, hermied with a banana forming (no pics). Removed male flower buds and will continue on. Not as bad to have this problem outdoors as it is indoors. She’ll still do great.
June 15: going good and will do second round of topping tomorrow. Adjusted tie downs.
June 16: adjusted tie downs and watered with soluble seaweed extract and a bit of Epsom salts.
June 17: topped this morning leaving four bud sites on each side. Leave first and third node growth tips, but remove them at the second node. This will now be 8 colas, but I’ll top once more for 16.
June 18: adjusted tie downs and did foliar spray of Extreme Blend in the evening.
June 20: released tie down in the morning.
Started the second batch of compost tea. Video shows the recipe I started using last year. Leave overnight and use within 24 hours. It should smell fresh, and if it smells ‘off’ or sulphurous it’s gone anaerobic and should be thrown out.
Use whatever you want in your compost tea recipe. Key things are blackstrap molasses (sugar and trace metals), some fresh compost, and I use coco coir to provide a substrate or matrix for the bacteria to grow on. Seems to work.
June 22: nice weather has finally arrived, and the plant is at the perfect growth stage to take advantage of warm 17 hours of sunlight days. She’s started into the “inch per day” vegetative growth stage which is always fun.
She had compost tea yesterday morning and is looking really good right now.
Cool spring has likely slowed growth but she’s ready to rock now with the arrival of nice weather.
June 22: tied down with SCROG net attached to bag with large clips. Trying to keep the Eight growth tips at the same elevation and exposed to sun.
June 24: tie down seems to have worked as there’s now 8 nice colas forming and lots of time to go for 16 before starting flowering in mid-July.
June 25: looking good. Watered with some soluble seaweed extract and molasses.
June 26: final round of topping to get 16 growth tips. Removed and replaced scrog net but still clipped to edge of bag. Seems fine for now and will readjust as the 16 colas form.
June 29: watered with compost tea. The bacteria in these teas help to retain water in the soil and I don’t have to water as much.
Misting leaves frequently to make up for low daytime humidity. Did foliar spray of potassium silicate and soluble seaweed extract. Looking really nice and green and healthy.
June 30: forecast for the next week is hot and the week after is a bit hotter. Plants should be ready for a strong vegetative growth phase with the nicer weather.
July 1: Happy Canada Day. Was some rain yesterday and overnight but still doing at least an inch a day vertical growth.
July 5: she’s doing great in the warmer weather. Looks like she grew 7 inches this week so that’s in the good “inch a day” range I want to see over the next couple weeks.
Will start force flowering (12 h darkness in the garage) in about two weeks.
July 6: looking good stating week 11. Nice response to the last round of topping to form a 16 cola manifold. After a couple more days of growth I’ll do another scrog layer to open it up further to the sun.
So far so good. 👍
July 7: added scrog net. This is tied to half filled water bottles that can move if the plant catches some wind. Main reason at this growth stage is to help expose the growth tips and to hold down the fan leaves. Basically, I’m doing this instead of tomato cages because cannabis plants are tough and a net is better than a metal cage.
July 8: hot 33 C today. Extra water, misting during peak sun, and some seaweed extract in the water. Continuing to mist regularly to make up for low humidity. Plant looks nice and green and vigorous. Growing at more than an inch per day now.
July 9; hot again. Misting every few hours and foliar of seaweed extract and potassium silicate to help beat the heat.
July 10: hot but this should be the peak day. Re-scrogged using a loose scrog layer. The overnight low here was almost 20 C which is super warm.
Started another (third) lazy compost tea. Ingredients in a 5 gallon pail are 4 gallons (16 L) of water, compost, shredded coco coir fibre so bacteria have physical media to grow on, 1 tbsp of seaweed extract and humic acid blend, and 0.8 mL/L of Monster Maxx. About 1.5 tbsp of blackstrap molasses. No pH adjustment yet, and will let stand until end of day to allow some bacterial growth.
July 12: made it through the heat wave and she looks great this morning.
July 13: first heat wave of the year was last week, and there is another forecast for next week, but for now this is pretty ideal cannabis weather.
Added a third Scrog layer and tied it off to some weights (partly filled water bottles) to open up the canopy further. Works, simple, and easy to move around the yard as needed.
I really like this plant and how it’s going so far.
July 14: re-scrogged again to widen the canopy further. Supercropped the ends to maintain the same elevation at the various growth tips. Four stems in middle were topped to keep them from getting ahead of the others. Experimenting to see how it goes.
July 16: hot again. Increased water volume and sometimes misting air with garden hose water for the evaporative cooling. She looks great.
July 17: another 32 C day. Watered four times today so likely 7-8 L in the heat with the growing plant.
July 18: hot again. Mixed Power Bloom and malted Barley with some soil and added as a top dressing.Hit 34 C and 20% relative humidity which is far too hot and dry for cannabis. Lots of watering, and misting of leaves and air to provide some moisture and cooler temperatures.
July 20: smoke arrived this morning to go with our heat wave. Awesome. Extra watering, misting air, and wetting the sides of the grow bags with hose water to keep things cooler and hydrated. So far so good in the heat.
Did foliar spray of Extreme Blend and potassium silicate.
Also note that for all my grows I use apple cider vinegar for pH adjustment and a Dr Bronners liquid soap as a wetting agent (surfactant).
Euphoria is doing great, but to ensure that it finishes early enough for this latitude (53N) where the UV light gets very weak after mid-August, I’m starting the force flowering tonight. Already starting to flower but I want a strong flower set and as much flower growth under strong sunlight as possible.
Force flowering schedule is 2-3 weeks of in dark garage at 9 pm followed by 730 nm far red light and then back out at 7 am. The light initiates dark mode 2 h faster so it’s like having a 26 h day. Good trick use as a bloom booster, also moves up the finish 2-4 weeks. So, 10+2 is 12 h dark and 14 h daylight. Might sound bogus but it works.
July 21: first night of force flowering caused a big stretch. Notably stretched after darkness in hot garage overnight. Hot outside overnight too but was much hotter inside garage and recorded here as 24 C. Seems okay and high overnight temperature might be ideal at this early flowering stage. Warm overnight temperatures continue for a few more days.
July 22: record hot overnight low forecast for tonight of 24 C and feels like 27 C with humidity. Wow, that is really incredible for here and 13 C above historic average.
July 26: six days into flowering and she is doing fine. 👍👍
July 27: starting the second week of force flowering by providing 10 h darkness in garage plus ‘2 bonus hours’ from the 730 nm far red light. The use of the far red light is like getting a 26 hour day. So 12 h dark plus 14 h sunlight.
Anyway, she is stretching a bit and clearly starting to flower. Looks good.
New growth is pretty yellow so did a foliar spray of Epsom salts to give her Mg and S.
July 30: great conditions the last few days and she is growing great. Mostly just pHed water lately to avoid over-doing it on the nutes. Looks healthy and happy.
Aug 2: watered with some molasses and about 1 tbsp per gallon of Epsom salts (MgSO4). Still doing 10 h in dark garage and using the 730 nm far red light to get an extra 2 h in dark mode.
Aug 3: still going strong starting the third week of flowering. I’m putting her in the garage at 9 pm, doing the 730 nm far red light to put plant into dark mode 2 h faster, and then out of garage at 7 am. So 10+ 2 h is 12 h dark and 14 h daylight or a 26 h day. The far red light definitely works as a bloom booster and helps the plants finish faster when the sun is stronger.
Did morning foliar spray of Extreme Blend and potassium silicate.
Aug 4: always some defoliation to be done and I took out all the small stuff that was growing into the centre. If I had a longer season I could have left some of these small branches but I want the energy directed toward the prime bud sites. Also removing leaves makes it more stable in the wind. Yet another growing trade-off.
Aug 5: she looks great coming out of the dark garage this morning. Lots of colas with lots of buds 👍👍
Aug 6: added UV lights from AC Infinity. This far north we run out of strong sunlight before it gets too cold in the fall. By adding UV lights, this will make Edmonton in September seem like California in July.
Along with genetics, UV light is the main factor controlling trichome and THC production. Adding UV light for a couple of hours per day centred at peak sun (currently 1:39 pm) should help a lot this far north.
At the other end of the light spectrum, I use Forever Green Indoor (FGI) 730 nm far red light. This is the third season using the far red light as a bloom booster and it definitely works. A few seconds at dusk is all it takes to put the plant into dark mode two hours faster, and is like getting a 26 h day. Bud ripen earlier and therefore under stronger sun. Both of these lights are low power LED used for a few hours (UV) or just a few seconds (far red). Gotta love science and technology when it allows us to figure this kind of out.
Aug 10: Divine Seeds Euphoria is doing great. No trichomes forming yet but that should start this week. Beautiful day is perfect cannabis weather.
Got a batch of lazy compost tea happening and they’ll get some this evening. Watered with the compost tea in the evening.
Using UV lights at mid-day to promote trichome production.
Aug 14: buds are more sativa style than my other photoperiod and are a bit slower, of course. Nice development over last few days.
Added 3 tbsp of a 50:50 mix of Power Bloom and malted barley. This is the second round after previous one about four weeks ago.
Aug 16: cool, overcast, a bit of rain, and smoky so likely not very much growing happened today. Did some defoliation to open up the middle to improve airflow. I have some nearby peony plants that are covered in powdery mildew so I’m now worried about that a bit. Airflow is the best prevention.
Aug 17: she is looking happy at the start of the fifth week since I started force flowering. Buds are forming and everything is on track.
Very nice plant.
Aug 18: nice enough day after a small bit of rain early. Tops are progressing nicely.
Aug 20: hot and sunny so extra water again despite some rain last night.
Aug 23: added another Scrog layer. This seems like a really good way to stabilize the plant while holding things in place for maximum sunlight exposure.
Aug 24: starting the sixth week of flowering. I’ve added another Scrog layer mostly to help keep fan leaves out of the way and expose the bud sites. This “loose Scrog” or whatever technique works quite well.
She’s fairly leafy but the buds are coming. 👍
defoliated to remove fan leaves that were growing toward centre. Don’t want to overdo it but there needed to be some removed.
Aug 25: nice sunny day and had the UV lights going. Took flash pics just before using the 730 nm far red light. Don’t use a flash like this if you don’t have the red light as you might cause it to hermie. But you can get great flash pics. 👍
Aug 26: looking good. Watered with potassium silicate this evening. It’s a strong base and it takes a fair bit of vinegar to get the pH back down to about 6.4. That’s fine though because the microbiota (‘bugs’) will appreciate a serving of easily digested acetate. That’s part of why it’s better to use vinegar than HCl. Chloride would not help but the organic acetic acid does help.
Aug 31: end of August and now six weeks into flowering. I force flowered by putting her in the dark garage for 10 h a night plus “bonus two hours of darkness” from the use of a 730 nm light at dusk as a bloom booster. She’s not a super fast flowering plant but she is coming along. There is a nice lemony or citrus smell to the buds which is a personal fave. Should be good.
Aug 4: nice weather lately and Euphoria is looking good. Great smell, but quite leafy and the buds are a bit slow to form, or at least slow for this far north. Should be good for an early October finish and September is supposed to be summer like here this year.
Sep 7: nice lemony smell happening and the buds are forming. Not a particularly fast flowering plant but it’s going good.
Sep 8: got some time under the UV light this afternoon. Once the Blueberry Pie is done she’ll get more UV light hours but for now she has to wait her turn.
Sep 12: cool nights starting to cause some purple colour. Nice smell to her, but really leafy and seems a bit slow. Watered with potassium silicate and cal-mag today.
Northern_Ent
