Stress testing new cultivar Moon Clouds

This is a clone from my main (Moon Clouds) plant. I'm doing experiments that others might not want to try. This clone was a very small cutting (1.5 inches tall) that came from the lowest part of the mother plant. Mother had a magnesium deficiency at the time and was about a month old. Used cloning gel and placed right into dirt. (Happy frog soil) This is 1 of 2 clones I made. Mother plant - indoor, clone #1 - indoor (this diary) and clone #2 - outdoor, to see the differences. Both clones will get the same feeding. This diary will just show clone #1 indoor experiment. But I'll mention any major differences from the others as they come up. Going to try all the stress techniques that I know of and want to try. I'm sure it will hermie.

This clone took a week and some change to root. Then about a week after that to start decent growth. Using RO water with a filter that adds back some nutrients. Natural PH before adding any nutes is a perfect 6.5 and PPM is around 35 to 65 depending on the day. Terps are strong already! To get ready for transplant, I feed her a small amount of cal-mag and Big Bloom. 24 hours later I transplanted to the 3 gallon fabric pot. I broke up the roots a bit then added mycorrhiza directly to her roots, then fed her again after transplanting. I swear Big Bloom is amazing. Did not see any transplant shock, and noticed fast growth a day later. Because the soil is mostly Happy Frog, I'm going to feed with more nutes then I normally would at this stage. Also, this clone has staggered nodes. Something I've noticed that happens when you flip a fem to flower. But didn't know it happens to clones in Vegg. Staggered growth makes topping difficult/confusing. Stress techniques I did - - 3 days after transplanting I topped it. I thought it was okay because she was growing so good. And I wanted to see how much it would stress or stunt because of it. - transplanting. - feeding nutes when it's really not needed yet. Overall doing great so far.

The chart says 2 teaspoons per gallon but I'm using a half gallon. And will be for a while. After topping last week I thought it would have stalled or stunted for a time but it hasn't. I've actually never seen such fast growth in just a 5 day period after transplanting. The only strange thing I've noticed after topping is the new growth. The leaves only have 2 or 3 arms instead of the standard 5 or 6. After feeding with nutes, a day later while soil still damp, I gave 1/4 teaspoon of Recharge in a half gallon of distilled water, which has a PH of 5.8. Had to add PH Up after adding Recharge to reach the 6.5 range. Some say to not do this, but I care more about good PH. Noticed some slight tip burn on older bottom leaves. And maybe a slight Nitrogen toxicity on other leaves. But new growth seems perfect. Stress techniques this week - - I bent the plant over pretty harshly. Made an S shape. The leaves turned toward the light just a few hours after bending. I feed her before doing this. - Giving the plant Vegg nutes already. Fox farm grow big is pretty high in nitrogen and like I mentioned, I'm already starting to see a slight N toxicity(really dark green leaves). But the growth speed is insane. At least in my experience. But I know adding this nute at this point is not needed yet so I'm considering it a stress.

This is 1.5 weeks later from last post. Im seeing insane growth. (In my experience) And smells strong. I started to mainline this in a strange way. Kind of like a dear antler structure. I'm plucking off new lower nodes to channel the energy to top nodes for this antler shape. Every other day I'm plucking fan leaves and new nodes off. I started seeing curled (taco) leaves at the top, so I raised the light as high as it can go in my 2x2 tent. A few days later it was completely fixed. I really think these LEDs in small tents are way more powerful then we think. In larger tents the light has more room to bounce around and dissipate. But I think in a smaller tent the light is actually more intense. Stress techniques - - Defoliation and node removal every other day - Stem bending and mainlining. - Overfeeding in nitrogen. Leaves are still pretty dark. But growth is fast! - Putting a tight ring around the lower main stem to keep it down. Curious to see what happens. Noticing some scaring already. - Started super cropping (bending stem 90° over) branch grows back up half a day later and the next day large knots show up where I bent. Love this technique. Might be why it's growing so fast.

Growing fast! So my goal is to have a few main branches, and make them as thick as possible. Want to see if this creates larger colas. Added silica for 1 feeding so far. The stuff raises PH quite a bit FYI. Added it first before all other nutes. Also feed Recharge a day after watering while soil still moist. Stress techniques - - Super cropped a lot more. I would bend harshly without breaking in between each node just before watering. Did it on all stems at once, entire plant looked so sad but perked right back up later in the day. Maybe I'm triggering it's survival mode because growth seems to speed up after initial stress. - I keep taking off new nodes as they appear to keep the growth structure I want. I'm taking something off almost everyday and might be the most stressful thing I'm doing. - The tight ring around the base of the stem is showing heavy scaring and buildup. I'm keeping it on so it stays tied down, and to see how the plant deals with it. I like to think the plant thinks it's bugs attacking its stem. I have noticed the main stem hardening up. - First week I did a heavier feeding. Want to see how far I can push the nutes without burning the tips. No tip burn yet apart from some light stress (maybe). Crazy how this 100 watt light is doing. You think 100 isn't enough but it most definitely is. At least for 1 plant in tent.

Opening the tent makes the entire place smell. And it's in Vegg. Super strong skunky and sweet smells. Cool thing I learned = Each node spacing has a huge knot from super cropping. But overtime I notice the entire branch thickens up to match the size of the knot making the entire branch really thick. I probably would have flipped to flower by now but I can't due to many reasons. The plant overall is looking super healthy but I am starting to notice a slight magnesium deficiency on middle leaves. Very slight. The mother plant had the same thing around the same age. Seeing nitrogen toxicity still on older lower leaves. Stress techniques - - I'm super cropping every node space up the entire branch, on all branches. 1 day I will bend all branches, the next day it's fully healed and a knot forms. Then the day after that I'll do it again on the node above it. And continue. Smaller branches I'll do 2 node spaces on the same day. Doing an S shape. I know this stresses the plant out but honestly, I'm seeing insane growth. - Poked holes in the dirt with chopsticks for more airflow. I felt a few roots snap from doing this. The soil has been wet/moist for a while now and it's gotten pretty compact. Hoping this helps. I'll wait until entire medium is dry before watering again.

Pics show 1.5 weeks from last post. Really wish I could flip her into flower but still can't. I think she is begging to be flipped. So many pre-flowers. Wonder if pre-flowers in Vegg can get pollinated? This thing might get too big before I can flip. Still growing so fast. Probably because I'm focusing all growth to the mainlined stems. Which are so tall now. Most all leaves are dark. Going to start backing off the nitrogen (FF Grow Big) Also seeing tip burn, as well as edge burn on the leaves. Definitely over feed. The soil is probably caked with salt by now. Stress techniques - - Still super cropping all nodes every other day. See image on how big some of these knots get. All stems are super thick and hefty. Which was a goal of mine. - Defoliation every other day. Taking leaves and new nodes off. Definitely think doing this almost every day is the worst stress its dealing with. - Branch squeezing/tie down. Still noticing heavy scaring or buildup where I have it tied down at the base. Will keep it there to keep seeing what happens. All stems/branches around it have hardened. Also noticing red/purple streaks in areas. Wouldn't say it's the healthiest plant but it sure is a sturdy fast growing one.

1 more week and I can get her in the flower tent. Finally. She has officially grown out of her 2x2. Just inches away from the light. Had to tape a screen mesh to the light so it wouldn't burn the leaves. (Had no choice) Also created a way to muffle the sound coming from the fan. It works so well. Full speed is just a whisper. See image. Flower tent = 2x4x5 Had to do crazy branch bending to get her spread out evenly, and at perfect distance from the light (which is as high as it can go) Couldn't use a scrog net because the branches were too thick and hard. Used the clips instead and worked great. Scraped some branches. It was rough. You will also see in an pic that I had to cut a few of the tallest branches as bending them would still not make it fit. Thank God I left secondary branches on all mainlines. Other issues - I've been dealing with a deficiency on the middle growth leaves. Tips and edges burnt. And yellowing. Research says it's a cal-mag deficiency but I use cal-mag in every watering. I checked PH in soil, and in my runoff. All good. I'm thinking too much salt buildup. So I did a flush. Just 1 gallon of distilled with couple teaspoons of Sledgehammer and everything gets cleaned so well. Stuff is the best flushing agent. No need to continually run gallons upon gallons of water.

Over a 2 week period: Before I flip to flower I need to fix this deficiency. - Checked PH in soil (6.7) and run off (6.5) - Flushing the soil didn't seem to help. - Tried TPS Signal as I thought it was a K deficiency. - Also using a stronger Cal-mag. - finally decided to transplant into fresh soil. I shook off as much of the old soil from the roots ball as much as possible. A week later it seemed to look slightly better but still same leaf issue. None of this is fixing it. But I did end up fixing it: I've been using RO water this whole time. I found some dry up in a tray, and saw rainbow oil colors. Thought right away that maybe my water is the issue. Don't think RO water should have that. Come to find out this whole time it actually was some toxicity in my RO water. Switched to distilled and everything is fixed. Even the purple stems and streaks I was getting are gone. New growth is fast and super healthy looking again. Tip = Adding bottles nutes to distilled water seriously either raises or lowers PH dramatically. Find myself using a whole lot more PH up. And my PPms are lower as well. - Cut another massive branch off to make room for other branches. This thing is massive!

Finally finally flipped to flower. Should have happened well over a month ago, maybe 2. (Couldn't, because reasons) This has been a very long Vegg. But it gave me the chance to do all the stress techniques I wanted to try. Officially fixed my deficiency or toxicity as I come to find out.(I think) Waited at least 5 days before I felt safe to flip. Doing literally everything I can to bend this crazy tall girl down and at the right distance from the light. Some branches do a loop da loop. Haha. Some sweep way down then come back up. It's crazy! I am not trying to get quantity here. In fact, I'm doing everything I can to make sure I have very few tops and absolutely no lower canopy anything. Don't want any small larfy buds. Pushing all that energy to the few mainlines to see how large I can get the colas.

Skipping ahead a bit. This is almost 3 weeks since I flipped light to 12/12. Slowly going to stop feeding Nitrogen nutes. I start with - FF tiger bloom (2 nitrogen) - TPS cal-mag (4 nitrogen) Then after around the 3 to 4 weeks mark, I'll stop all those and only use nutes that have little no nitrogen. Took all the clips off and defoliated everything up to the top few nodes. Want all the energy to go to the very top. She is growing great with a pretty decent stretch. Leaves are always praying to the light. My tiny MarsHydro 150watt is at 100%

Showing a bit under 2 weeks of growth in this slot. I water every 2 days. But on the 3rd, the plant gets dramatic. Haha. Seriously 1 extra day without water and she freaks. Obviously she perked right back up after feeding and all is well. Down sides of growing a massive plant in a tiny container I guess. Just 6 days later from the drought day, I'm noticing crazy bulking of flower. The mother plant that this clone came from took a bit longer to get to this point. The mother plant did not get this much stress during vegetation either. Also am using UVb. And I have to say I'm noticing a massive difference in trichomes compared to the mother plant that didn't get any UVb. Trichs came in sooner and look thicker. I took a look with jewelers loop on older fan leaves and even they have tiny little trichomes. Can't say it raises the potency of it but it definitely adds more. Stopped feeding anything with nitrogen in it around week 3 of flower. Noticing some slight yellowing already from it. Maybe I cut of N a bit too early. Should have continued through week 4. Now I know. I feed Recharge once a week. I like to think it helps as I do notice slight differences a few days after using it. I have gotten rid of root rot before with it. Or so I believe.

Week 5 since light switch to 12/12 The terps are AMAZING and very very strong. Entire place smells when I open the tent. And lingers for way too long. So hard to pin down the exact smell as it changes through the weeks. Sweet creamy skunky gas with a slight new shoe smell. Like that strong brand new fresh rubber or plastic smell you get when you open a brand new pair of sneakers. Everything the same as last few weeks. Same feeding and nutes. I switched to nutes that have zero nitrogen around week 3 but wish I waited another week as my leaves are getting yellow pretty fast already. Assuming it is the nitrogen that's causing it. Buds look super frosty though!!

Purple colors coming in fast. Night temps get pretty low. The lack of nitrogen in feeding is really starting to show. Such potent terpenes from this girl. Super loud smells. Strong gas, sweet cotton candy sugar, cream, new shoe smell, and skunk. Trichome production is insane! The UV light does not disappoint.