First run in a LONG time

Issues starting to arise. Small yellowing on one top leaf, trying to decide if it's: 1). Manganese deficiency 2). Light burn from a little water getting on the leaf. I tested runoff and it was .1 higher than the input water, so things are fine in the medium. If it was a manganese deficiency, then this first feeding of the grow should help given that grow big has at least a little Mn in it. Finally, grow diaries doesn't have the Humboldt Headband from HSC listed. That is the specific type of HH from HSC I am growing. Finally, tomorrow is the start of week 4, and I THINK I see some pistils on the HH but it's too early to tell.

These two started flowering 2-3 days after my first post. I had been slow to prune my Humboldt Headband and I'm paying the price for being lazy. It is extremely bushy in a way that I haven't dealt with before as I rarely grew heavy indicas. I need to do more pruning next week but between flower, LST, and starting nutrients I don't want to overstress the plant more than I already have. The bluematic, while slower than the HH all grow, is growing very nicely. Great nodal spacing, plenty of room for light to hit multiple bud sites with full intensity. Also is responding to LST extremely well. Also is starting to smell just a bit sweet which is always fun. Adding another clip fan so I can have one hitting the canopy and one hitting underneath the canopy and towards the bottom. Dehumidifier is adding heat to the tent causing it to hit the top end of what I'm comfortable with in flower. I will be putting some fans around to help circulation outside of the tent to hopefully bring temps down a couple degrees.

At the end of week 5! An interesting week to be sure: 1) raised my light another ~6" as it became clear there was some light stress affecting the bluematic. I didn't upload the pictures but things were looking rough. Couple days later, bluematic became very happy again and we were off to the races. 2) My bluematic runoff pH got as low as 5.7. The runoff measure the week prior was at 6.2. Despite measuring my inputs' pH at 6.2-3 each time, after the addition of tiger bloom the runoff pH plummeted. For now I gave the bluematic a good but minor flush and she looks really happy again. From here on out I will be checking my runoff pH each feed and will be shooting for an input pH of 6.6-7. 3) I believe I accidentally delayed the flowering on my headband by over-pruning. The plant is just stout. I've removed 20+ leaves now and it's just still a monster. I am done removing anything from the plant and I'm instead running an additional dehumidifier outside the tent and another rotating fan inside the tent. 4) Bluematic was getting a little too much direct fan work so I now have one fan that circulates mostly indirectly above/near the canopy and one that circulates semi-indirectly under the canopy. Both plants seem happy overall. 5) Bluematic displayed very slight nutrient burn signs on its leaf-tips. I am backing the amount of nutrients down a slight amount until the plant tells me it wants more. 6) My tent smells lovely. The Headband doesn't have much smell at all yet but the Bluematic smells like sugar and berries.

Week six is almost done! Bluematic: I tried seeing if my bluematic was getting thirstier given its massive stretch and was wrong! She still prefers 1/2 gallon every 3 days, with nutrients added every other watering. The leaves are drooping and match symptoms of overwatering. I'll let her dry out for at least 3 days and see how she's doing then and adjust. Humboldt Headband Auto: Did my final pruning earlier in the week and in total have removed a total of 45 leaves/bud sites since the start of the grow. This plant heavily leans indica but I'll wait to see if it stretches at all in the next week or two. I unintentionally delayed its flower by over-pruning too much at once. Otherwise the plant seems healthy. Overall I'm very happy with my first grow so far. I've made some mistakes but those are just ways to improve my future grows so I'm feeling pretty positive about everything overall. I'm hoping to get some new smells going in my tent soon here, as the main reason I selected the Humboldt Headband auto from HSC is that I just love that whole family line's smell so much. Finally, I will be asking a question about the bluematic to make sure that what I think is over-watering on the bluematic is indeed overwatering.

Buds finally starting to show triches. Lovely plants. The headband can take a beating and will pretty much eat anything you throw at it. Buds still smell like funky plant material, but it is roughly one week behind the bluematic. Bluematic is a tad bit more sensitive but still doing great. The developing buds are starting to really take on a sweet scent. Parts of my soil in both are showing signs of hydrophobia, but are still able to get what they need. Next run I'll be making use of bottom feeding.

Bluematic starting to pack on weight, though she easily has another 2-3 weeks in my opinion. She's experiencing some nutrient issues as seen on her tips, which I have a suspicion is more from parts of her soil becoming extremely hydrophobic. Next watering will be more of a slow, yet thorough flush. Her lower leaves are starting to yellow fairly uniformly in a way reminiscent of end-stage flowering. Slightly more sensitive than my HH auto but also that's probably due to my mistakes. Buds smell of citrus, sweetness. Humboldt Headband auto is trucking along. I want to run this one again for sure to practice my defoliating and pruning. Too many bud sites covered by leaves and too many remain for me to easily tuck them over and over. Super sturdy and has only shown one nutrient issue. Would love to run this one again but I already have my PPD auto seeds getting ready to germinate for my next run. Looking forward to seeing what next week holds for me.

Getting closer and closer to chop day! Bluematic is slowly but surely continuing to fatten up. Several mistakes were made earlier in the grow that has led to hydrophobic soil and slow water/nutrient uptake, so I've stopped adding nutrients to her water entirely, and I'm watering much less. I also added several bamboo stakes as several of her branches weren't strong enough to fully stand up on their own. Thankfully none of them were so heavy that they collapsed before adding in the supports. I've started checking trichomes and most are either clear or slightly cloudy. When I combine both the status of the trichomes and the size of the buds, she easily has another 1-2 weeks left before she's ready to go down. Headband is definitely hardening up as well, but hasn't gone through as dramatic of a thickening as the bluematic. I attribute that to my too-intense defoliation in week 4. It caused the plant to basically check out for a week before resuming its growth into flower. Ever since, it has been at least a week behind the bluematic. Clear trichomes, maybe a slightly cloudy one here and there. Smells great, looks great. Definitely an extremely forgiving strain and one that I'd like to grow again with more experience. What I've learned from this grow is that I have: 1) Over-watered 2) Waited too long to LST 3) Waited too long to properly defoliate 4) Should consider lollipopping any future headbands 5) I love growing this shit. Cheers!

Waiting for both plants' calyxes to swell up before I harvest. The harvest window is "open" but it would still be slightly too early to pick. Headband has maybe 5% amber, 75% cloudy and 20% clear. Bluematic has 0% amber, 60% cloudy 40% clear. Going to wait until there are at least no more clear left on both. I imagine the headband will be finished by the end of next week and the bluematic will be done in 1.5-2 weeks. I have to travel for several days in a few weeks so no matter what they're getting harvested by then Lots of mistakes were made in this grow but as Sir Anthony Hopkins says in Westworld, there's no greater tool in nature than the mistake. I am about to start a new diary for my 2x2 tent in which I am growing one PPD auto in Coco coir. Looking forward to that one.

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