Humboldt Pound Cake - Blondie's First Grow!

8/5 It's been 1 week since she popped up from the substrate. The presoaked seed is still a no show. If it doesn't germinate this week then I will plan to get a clone to grow alongside the successful seed. Haven't started feeding nutes yet. Once there are 3 good sets of leaves I will start dosing. The substrate should be rich enough at the outset, since there's a lot of worm castings in there. ----- Update 8/9 Took some measurements after the seedling started showing some stress: SOIL Ph - 7.18 TDS - 563 WATER Ph - 8.1 TDS - 182 LIGHT 520 PPFD So some adjustments need to be made. •Light level dropped to get to ~250PPFD. •I will be watering with a slightly acid watering solution (aiming for Ph 6.0) until the soil is a bit below 7. I'll be adding molasses to the water to drop the PH and add some nutrients. • removing the cover feom the germination tray all together. ----- Strain: Humboldt Pound Cake - Feminized : Humboldt Seed Company Substrate: 60% Jiffy Organic Seed Started 40% Back to the Roots Organic Earthworm Castings Nutes: worm juice + molasses (1 liter/5ml)

8/13 - fed/watered with molasses solution 2 c water 4g molasses Dosed at 1/2 cup on soil at stem base. 8/14 - fed/watered with molasses solution Dosed at 1/2 cup on soil at stem base. 8/16 - watered. 1/2 c at base Stem is strengthening. I'm keeping it staked for now with toothpicks. If it still needs it when it's taller I will use chopsticks. 8/17 - fed/watered with molasses solution Dosed at 1/2 cup on soil at stem base. Strain: Humboldt Pound Cake - Feminized : Humboldt Seed Company Substrate: 60% Jiffy Organic Seed Started 40% Back to the Roots Organic Earthworm Castings Nutes: worm juice + molasses (1 liter/5ml)

8/19 Started off the week with a slurry test. 7.3 pH 636 ppm Time to start feeding more deliberately. Also need to slightly acidify the soil. Doing some pH tests by adding 6% vinegar to water. I'll be transplanting tomorrow. Hoping to get the soil today and do the slurry test to see if I need to amend it. I watered with Dr. Earth liquid 1:1:1 fert. ----- 8/20 Transplanted to 5g grow bag Fed with 1/4 cup dry fert Watered deeply Adjusted light (490-500 ppfd) ----- 8/22 She's got 3 nodes, starting LST Not topping for a while yet, but opening up the canopy and exposing all the leaves. ----- 8/25 Nitrogen is balancing out. Growing bushy like crazy. Feeding liquid nutes today with added molasses. Soil is neutralizing. ----- Strain: Humboldt Pound Cake - Feminized : Humboldt Seed Company Substrate: Fox Farms: Happy

Getting big and bushy. Way more leaf growth on the nodes than growth from the central stem. Fed with molasses & Dr Earth Liquid food Pure Gold. Watered deeply on 8/30. Doing a pH test today. Tried watering with slightly acidic water (citric acid solution) to even out the alkalinity of our tap water and the soil. Run off (from acidic water) 5.9pH, 1262 Doing a slurry test now. 9/5 Broke a branch during LST earlier this week. May set up a clone. She recovered well. Had some high temp spikes this week, but didn't go over 85° f. Fed and watered deeply last night.

9/9/24 Some scant yellowing tips. Will do a PPM read after I water next. LST is working well. Moving on to 2nd stage Nutes next week. Very bushy, very low. Light is 18", 500

9/18/24 Consistently doing LST to keep her low ans even. No defoliation, just letting it grow for now. Have some tips yellowing and curling. Looks like pH/nute imbalance. After a week of research and deliberation, I realized that while I had tested my water for *Chlorine* I hadn't tested (and had forgotten about) ~Chloramine~. I think I may have scorched the microbes in my live soil, so there weren't enough to break down the organic nutes. I have started filtering my water, which is also making it slightly more acidic. I've started doing RO tests every time I water, to keep a better eye on the running trends. I have moved on to stage 2 nutrients, I fed once, with molasses water as well, and I will not be feeding again until the RO levels out, If I don't see enough of a change by the end of next week I may have to consider a flush. Fortunately, fox farms has an organic soil flush. The fertilizer I am using has live microbes, so I am hoping the colony will restart and chomp through the nutes in the soil. My RO on the 15th had a PPM difference of 1232, and today (9/18) it was down to a difference of 727. So that is a great start. I have also started managing and charting my light levels a little more deliberately. Shes so low and bushy, with VERY short internodal differences on the first couple branches. I want to keep it low, and even, but I also want to make sure that there is enough green mass for a nice yield. I think it may be time to lift the light higher and increase intensity. (9/18 - Changed to 24", 630 ppfd) 9/19 light change was too intense. I've dialed back to 500 ppfd. 9/20 Dosed with gentle liquid nutes (1 squirt Dr. Earth 1:1:1, 1 tbsp Molasses, 1 qt water - Applied evenly to soil AFTER watering), RO is leveling out. Some claws forming on older leaves, but it's not widespread. May need to alkalize my water a bit. Pull back to above the 6.5 mark.

9/23 Levels have been good, consistent with minor spikes 2-3 days after feeding. We will see if this continues. I have been watering daily with filtered water, testing the PPM/EC/pH of the water going in, letting it drain and testing the RO after 20 minutes or so. Early pre-flowering signs are happening, so I will be keeping an eye on that. May switch to 6/18 lights next week, and then 12/12 a couple weeks after that. There are still some signs of imbalance (leaf tips curling up AND clawing down, as well as some light discoloration of the top-most leaves and a few fan leaves. We got a tomato cage to help encourage the sideways growth and to be able to keep LST going until she is filled up and in the screen. 9/24 Babies first pistil! Fed today, watered, keeping an eye on the imbalances. Not sure what's going on. Will he switching to 12/12 next week and moving to flower nutes.

10/01 tried watering 1 gal every other day after some chastisement on another forum. She did not respond well, so back to daily watering. Set up the scrog yesterday along side some LST. Tweaked the scrog today, then fed her phase 2 nutes. Updated automation for the pre-flowering levels.

10/8 Tried watering every other day (4L) and I'm not sure if it's a good match or not. Going to keep trying it and see what happens over the next week. Took the run off water, mixed in molasses and liquid nutrients, fed her today. Going to have to move the exhaust out of the tent this weekend. Starting her on 12/12 lights today.

Cleaned up the lower stems. Working on establishing a nice even canopy. Early budsites emerging all over.

Successfully transitioned to flowering. Continuing to train, keeping the canopy even. I've been slowly working branches out the the edges, and LST training the middle ones.

Canopy is almost done. I have about 2 feet of additional height in the tent, so I may keep training them down, adjusting once a week. We will see how the next few weeks go.

11/1 Rotated the scrog 180°, cleaned up the under canopy. Trichomes are developing nicely on the sugar leaves which is cool to see. Watering 1 gallon (4L) every other day, which seems to be the happy amount at this phase. I'll be moving the tent into a different room next week and will (hopefully) be able to drop the humidity a little bit.

11/17 I got lazy about checking run off and ran into some nutrient lockout. It's also been very dry lately, so I have added a vpd automation to my tent. Dosed with CalMag last week, and Dosed again today along with some molasses.

11/24 I've managed to flush out the pH imbalance, so I fed a gentle slurry today. 1/2 tbsp CalMag, 1 Tbsp molasses, 5 pumps pot of gold, watered in at the usual watering rate. The buds are puffing up nicely, thought they are starting to catch the errant fungus gnat. I installed a second fan under the canopy to keep them low. I'm removing them feom flowers where I find them. She's stayed consistent at about 3 feet, so I've removed all the LST ties in order to get to the soil easier. Some bud clusters are heavy enough to fall over a but! I trimmed away much of the damaged foliage from the pH/CalMag issue, so many stalks are essentially defoliated above the scrog. Trichomes are developing nicely, mostly clear still. I anticipate christmastime will be my harvest window.

12/14 - the end of week 18, the pH imbalance came back, so I've just been flushing water without much nutes. I gave a small feeding earlier this week. I did a slurry test on the soil and it's just below 6 pH. So locked out of Phosphorous, Calcium, and maybe magnesium. The trichomes are developing well and I'm starting to see a few amber heads. On track to harvest in 2 weeks or so. Leaves are in rough shape, but it's to be expected with the acidic soil causing nute lockout. I'll be buffering water to 8 now and watering daily. As well as CalMag Foliar spray at night.

12/21/24. Harvest day! Cut branches away from main plant and hung from the scrog net with clothea pins. I can't wait to see how it dries and cures. 12/30/24 I trimmed some of the thinner branches that had dried out. First harvest was 12g. 1/3/25 I rolled some joints to share with a few folks in town. Early flavor profile was minty, citrus, but still a bit grassy. 1/15/25 Trimmed all the large buds of leaves, and just clipped the popcorn buds into a separate jar. Ended up with 4.5 oz of bud and 1.5 oz of trim, that will get used for Bhang or for topicals.