Echoes of Empires: A Diary of Afghan Heritage

19.7 After the first week, the temperatures and humidity levels averaged between 80-85F and 75-80% respectively. Having the Spider Farm LEDs fixed to 75W certainly helped to keep the temperatures warm. Around twice per day, typically before lights out and around midday the inline fan was switched on for around 10 minutes to cool the tent and bring in some fresh air. I began with slow watering, around 250mL and gradually upped it to 500 mL, with watering every other day. Toward the end of the first week I began adding the nutrient-regimen recommended by BioBizz. Despite these fairly optimal conditions, the second plant in the clay pot appears to be stunted in growth. I'm not sure if this is due to a bad seed or poor planting on my part. In any case, I will keep monitoring the situation until the end of the week. If she remains like the little runt that she is then I may have to cull her 😢 so that other plant can have all of the light and attention that she deserves. 21.7 New developments: the runt plant has been culled and is no more. Added some more soil to the bigger plant for stability, since the stem was starting to become quite long. Furthermore, the inline fan was then switched on (at lvl 5 on the spider farm's controller), and stayed on 24/7, resulting in a temperature of 80-85F and relative humidity between 60-65%. I think these settings will stay like this for the rest of week. 23.7 Afghani girl is growing well and strong. The soil is still moist from the water from two days back, so I'll skip watering for another day or two. There are some blemishes on the leaves, but I think they're the scars of decades-long war, or maybe just a birthmark

29.7 She is growing well. The second layer of nodes started to grow so I decided to top it, reducing the height from 4 inches to 3. There should now be about 8 nodes where they are all at the same height. Let me know if this was a good idea or if I went overboard... Also clipped some of the lower nodes that wouldn't be receiving any sunlight. Watering is about every other day, with once of the watering sessions without any fertilizer. After I water her, I fill the watering can with water and let it sit until the next session to help de-chlorinate it. Since I do not have a humidifier or de-humidifier, my only way to control the relative humidity is through the inline fan. So I decided to keep the inline fan off during lights off, whereby the relative humidity goes up to 75%, and during lights on with the inline fan on, the relative humidity drops to 55%. I still haven't figured out why she has blemishes, but given that they were there since she was a seedling, I'm not too alarmed. Afterall, this indica strain is quite soft (and maybe furry) to the touch and appears mat, as opposed to some of the shinier and slippier strains. 31.07 The topping went well without the plant stressing out too much. So I decided to do some LST to separate the nodes a bit, get a wider grow, and improve the air circulation. I have been testing the pH of the pure water, as well as the fertilized solution with some basic strips - the color codes indicated a pH of 7 every time. I grew a little suspicious and invested in a digital, calibrated pH meter. It turns out that the pH of the water is quite alkaline, with values around 7.0 +- 0.1. So now I'm waiting for some pH regulators to arrive to that I can maintain a lower, and recommended pH between 6.2-6.5. Since the plant is well into the vegetation stage I also increased the power of the LED lamp to 100 W, and kept the distance as is - since the plant has grown a bit since measuring 25 inches from LED to soil, the distance to the top leaves should be between 20 and 21 inches. If I observe an increase in the blemishes (or any other detrimental effects for that matter), I'll have to reduce the power. But she's a tough little cookie :)

3.8 As it turns out, the pH of the water that I have been feeding was quite high (~7.1), so I got myself the BioBizz pH- to bring it down to 6.5. After last weeks topping, it has taken some time for the plant to recover, and it's growth has slowed down, at least with regards to the growth of the new leaves. However, the stem and branches appear quite strong. I am still operating the inline fan in the same way: the speed is at 5 and is switched off during the 6 hours of dark for the humidity level to go up to around 75% (with the fan on, depending on the weather during the day, the relative humidity can go as low as 55% but 60% seems to be the average). I also noticed some insects crawling around the soil - for now, I am not alarmed and accept that this may just be the kind of ecosystem that has been built. In any case, may their poop be plentiful in nutrients. However, one thing that is bothering me is that the leaves seem to be curling down a bit. There are far too many conflicting reasons for why it is so when searching the web, but for now, I will assume that it is either due to the oscillating fan speed (it's always on and pointing down at the plants at an angle of about 30-45 degrees from the normal), or over-watering ever since I increased the dosage from 1 litre 2 litres every 2-3 days. As a result of this, I reduced the fan speed and will halt the water for at least 3, maybe 4 days and monitor the situation closely. There is still the possibility that the topping, defoliation of the larger base leaves, and the LST took a toll on the poor afghan girl. But if there's one thing I know about afghan girls (and I don't really know much), is that they're fighters 💪😏 5.8 Two days later and the plant looks to be doing relatively well. I think it was a combination of both, over-watering and the trauma from the topping, de-foliation and LST. The former because I started seeing 'holes' in the leaves, which I suspect are coming from the insects (gnats?), which are caused by overwatering or soil that is too moist. The fact that the bottom of the cloth pot is still a little damp confirms this. Because of this, I propped up the pot to leave a gap between it and the surface to hopefully allow for better filtration and faster drying. This also allowed me to adjust to height of the lights again, where it's now back to 24 inches at 100 W. I also upped the speed of the inline fan to 7 to recycle the air better, and to keep the humidity below 65% so as to ensure a more arid environment that better resembles the dry and sandy slopes of the Hindu Kush mountains. As such, I will end my experiment of turning the fan off during nightfall. It's been 48 hours since the last watering, and I think I will leave it for another 48 hours to make sure that the last of the gnats are gone (hopefully). Moving forward, I will have to watch out for the over-watering - water sufficiently but seldomly. Although I take some of the blame, I have a sneaking suspicion that those insects were already present in the soil before evening opening the bag; the soil was unusually damp when I opened it...

9.8 It is officially day 25 since she sprouted from the soil. She's still growing well and strong. I think that I have been overwatering, and will greatly reduce the amount to 1.5 L every 3 to 4 days. The pests are really becoming problematic, as they're chewing on the leaves on a regular basis. I bought some yellow stickers, but finding a place for them other than laying on top of the soil is difficult. I hope I can move past this with reducing the amount of the water and preventing the soil from getting too damp. If this problem persists, I may have to take some drastic measures. The topping and LST have been successful, as the canopy is flat and wide, ensuring that all of the top leaves are getting the same amount of light. Probably next week I'll remove some of the lower leaves which are not getting as much sunlight. I'm still following nutrient regimen prescribed by BioBizz- although slightly less than recommended. The pH is consistently brought down to 6.5 (water + nutrient mixture). The fan is always on at 5, providing temperatures between 80 and 85F, and humidity levels between 50 and 60%. The height at where I topped is about 10 cm, and to the top of the canopy is 15 cm. I'm hoping to stay in the vegetation stage for at least another two weeks before switching to the 12-12 light schedule and entering the flowering stage. Is it just me or do some of the leaves (in the last image from today) look a little purple 😲? 12.8 Cutting down on the water, and the yellow strips have really helped in getting rid of the insects. There doesn't seem to be any more damage to the leaves. On the other hand, she is getting quite dense now, so next week I'll clip the bottom-most leaves and begin strategizing on how I would like to de-foliate her moving forward. With the exception of one of the lowest nodes, all of the leaves appear to be healthy. Moreover, this strain is also known to be short and stocky (and was one of the reasons why I chose her, given the small space of my 2x2 tent), so with that regard, I may just let her be until she reaches flowering, which will be anywhere between weeks 6-8. She is also beginning to give off a faint smell, but that's more of a plant/bush smell than cannabis.

17.8 Day 34! She is becoming very dense and bushy. I think later tonight when she wakes up and I feed her (which is about 1.7 L every 3 or so days), I'll begin trimming her from the bottom up. It's looking quite dark down there. 18.8 Chopped off the larger leaves in the bottom that weren't getting enough light. Also, they were growing quite large, and I was becoming weary that they would be consuming too much resources that I would rather go to the newer leaves. Also, removed the leaves higher up that were growing toward the center of the plant and were shading the new nodes that were growing. After wiring down the 4 main branches, all of the nodes are at the same level getting more-or-less equal amounts of light.

23.08 Day 40! The plant is doing very well. She's starting to smell a little already and some her stems are turning dark purple. The pest problem has been totally solved. I've now upped the air intake fan to 7 and also increased the power on the oscillating fan. The lights and distance have been kept constant, and it looks like she really liked the 100W that are coming out. As a result, she's taking in a lot more water, so I've increased from 1.7 L per serving, to double that. I also added about an inch of soil to the point, as I began to notice that the roots were quite close to the surface. She isn't growing much taller, but is becoming significantly more bushier! Therefore, some of the new nodes growing in the center had to be removed, as eventually they would be fighting for the light that would probably never reach them. This is exacerbated by virtue of her Danny DeVito characteristics. The trimming wasn't too severe, as I'm waiting for the flowering stage to hone in on which nodes get to stay and produce bud. Hopefully all of them if I can manage to spread her out enough. Which is why the ScroG net came out - to spread out the 4 main branches more and begin distributing the cells/compartments to each of the branches, and for when she enters the flowering stage and gets her growth spurt, I can have the markers set for where to lollipop. In any case, this will be decided on a week to week basis. Depending on how she looks by the end of the week, so day 47, I'll decide whether to switch the light cycle to 12-12 and start flowering or not. Given that she's so stocky yet so bushy (day 40 and only 10 inches? And that's only to the top of the leaves, if I measure to the top of where I topped in week two where the branches split left and right it's only 3 inches), it may be worthwhile to let her go for another week. Afterall, there's enough space in this 2x2 tent so why not?

2.9 Day 50! After a long week away, and having not had the plant watered in the last 4 days, the leaves started looking a little down :(. Furthermore, my friend who was looking after the plant kinda messed up wit h the fertilizer dosage, so the bottom leaves really started to wilt, turn light green, and have some more coloration and had to be removed. Nevertheless, I'm optimistic that she will bounce back, given that the stems are strong and healthy looking, and only the leaves are droopy. I'll give it a day and update on her health. The plan is now to switch to flowering this weekend, on day 57 of vegetation. 3.9 7 hours after watering she is doing great again. 4.9 Day 52! After watering the plant with 3L and lollipopping a bit, the light cycle was switched to 12-12. Time to start flowering! (I decided to switch to 12-12 earlier than expected - the plan was this weekend - the reason being that I found out that during flowering the plant stretches quite a significant bit; around twice the size it is now. And already, the leaves are touching the walls of my 2x2 tent. Moreover, I counted about 18 nodes in total. I think that's enough for now...

6.9 Day 54. Already seeing some pistils! 10.9 Seems like there is still a pest problem. I noticed some of the leaves deep inside were chewed on. I did some more lollipopping and removed some of the fan leaves. She is still quite bushy in the center. Given that she is now in flowering, I started adding Bio-Bloom and Top-Max, as per the recommendation from Bio-Bizz. I guess when a plant is in flowering she requires different ratios of N:K:P.

13.9 The stretch is real! She's up to 20 inches now, but the various branches are not growing at the same rate. So every few days or so, I've been adjusting the net (while also clipping the lower leaves). The temperatures here are starting to get cold, so hopefully I can maintain an indoor temperature of 70-75F during the days hours and 65-70F during the nights. The humidity seems quite stable, between 50-60%, so hopefully this can carry over until the end. 17.9 Clipped off the lower, smaller leaves and thinner branches. There isn't much to do, as she is growing well.

20.9 The flowers are filling up fast. They're growing everywhere too! I don't know where to defoliate anyhow, So I'll just leave it the way it is for a few more week. I had a bit of a scare sometime last week, with the humidity levels going up even to 70%. It's at 55% now, and I've also bought a dehumidifier. So I hope that I can bring the humidity down to 45% until harvest.

28.9 Day 76! Buds are growing well, but I'm not sure what to do with the lower ones - should they be clipped off because they're not getting enough light and let the plant as a whole focus on the higher ones, or just leave them and let them ride it out to the end. A couple of the buds pistil tips have started browning as well - I hope that this is part of the natural cycle and not something more sinister. The pest problem is still there, but they're affecting the lower leaves more than the top. I may have to add some more yellow stickers closer to the plant. My watering schedule is still the same - about 4 litres of water every 4 days, so she really is not a water-hungry plant. However, the humidity is a major problem. Currently she is at 60%, but for some time during the last week this had gone up to even 70%. The documents show that humidity during flowering should be between 45% and 55%. I've ordered a dehumidifier, but it will not be here for another couple of weeks. I hope she makes it until then (and also hope that the dehumidifier is effective). The buds are still young and small enough that there shouldn't (fingers crossed) be a mold problem until then. 1.10 There will be 6 main colas and a bunch of smaller ones. Dehumidifier still hasn't arrived maybe a week or two more...). I've also reduced the water from 4 litres to 3… maybe that also helps in reducing the plant transpiration. Humidity level is around 67%.

4.10 Day 82 since sprouting! The humidity is still around 70%, so I'm sticking to watering 3L once every 3 days as opposed to 4L every 4 days. I also did some intensive defoliation and lollipopping - removed some dying leaves, leaves too far down to get any meaningful light, and those ones high above that are shading the buds below. Hopefully it was not too stressful considering that she's quite busy producing those buds. She's starting to smell quite a bit, but as of now, no purpling. I think she still has a long way to go...

11.10 All good here. Some burnt tips, but given that they're more on the top surface I guess it's a little light burn. 12.10 De-humidifier arrived and already brought the humidity level down to 50%. This is also resulted in an increase in the temperature to 77F.

18.10 A lot of brown splotches on my leaves. Not sure if this just part of the grow cycle or if their dying/rotting. 22.10 Looking through the digital.microscope it appears that most of the trichomes are transparent, a couple are milky, and one or two are amber - although I wonder if they're really amber or some reflection of light from somewhere else. The brown splotches on the leaves I would guess are from calmag, so I've decided to stop the calmag until harvest. I'm almost out of bioheaven and activera, so next watering session will be the last I use them. I expect harvest time to be in two weeks...so close to 10 weeks of flowering. But we shall see. Sadly, nothing purpled - could be that it's just too warm in the tent with th dehumidifier blowing in, the lights, and the relatively warmer autumn weather.

25.10 Some trichomes appear to be milky, but no amber. Aside from the 7 main bud sites, the rest of them will just be little nuggets. Humidity varies between 55-65%, but temperatures quite high, around 78F currently with the lights and humidifier on. I guess these conditions aren't exactly conducive to producing the purple colors. The smell is quite strong. It's hard to describe what it smells like, but mostly fruity. In any case, it's some good shi. 29.10 Harvesting will be this weekend! I don't plan to wait any longer. The temperatures are becoming too warm with the lights and dehumidifier (78F), and I reacted too late to it. The sugar leaves are browning and spreading to the bud, and they're not smelling as nice as they did the other week.