Strawberry Gorilla Automatic (Lifetime Grow #4)

27AUG2024 - Transplanted into 5 gal fabric pots. -Astyn & Charlize planted into 75% Tilth Bloom, 25% perlite -Brigid & Delphine planted into 75% Fox Farm Ocean Forest, 25% perlite (changed from the originally planned Happy Frog w/ perlite, mainly b/c I've used Ocean Forest before) -B. took some root damage, losing the bit of her runner that was extending below the drainage hole in the seedling cup (😭), which I'm hoping doesn't set her back too much. -Watered-in with 10mL/gal each of FF Microbe Brew and Kangaroots -Set up tent automations 30AUG2024 -All three ladies are coming along! Brigid doesn’t seem too perturbed by the root insult in transplant, and Delphine is distinguishing herself as the most vigorous so far!

—31AUG2024— -Watered all 4 of the ladies this evening. Leaf nodes are showing up rapidly, and Delphine is still racing to the head of the class. Ordered the Advanced nutrients starter set (still waiting on it), and I’m planning to follow their soil sensi schedules, grabbing the needed bits that aren’t in the kit in the next day or so. I've been using just the FF Kangaroots and Microbe Brew that I have on hand thus far, and the soils they're in are pretty hot so that's all they should need for another week or so. I've only used FF stuff in my few grows so far, and I have nothin' but love for 'em, but I figure it's silly to not try some of the other big names out there as well. --06SEP2024-- What a difference a week makes at this stage, eh? The girls are all looking quite good, excepting Brigid -who seems notably stunted after her root insult at transplant time- and the ever-overachieving Delphine, who continues to race ahead of the rest of the class. --07SEP2024-- AdvancedNutrients starter kit arrived today! Tomorrow the gals will get their first proper feeding per the schedule (though cut in half, as they're in pretty spicy soil, to see how they respond) to mark their entry into week 3! We're getting into exciting times! I have to say, I'm super impressed by this AN kit. Opening that box was just a great experience, from the "Not for tomatoes" which had me about rolling on the floor (yes, of course, I was a bit high), to the goodie box of stickers, pipettes and a trich magnifier that's an upgrade to my current one, to the good vibes note from Big Mike. Way to go folks @AdvancedNutrientsLtd ... keep doing the work of good! This kit brought more happiness to my evening than I had ever anticipated. Thanks to any who pop in to check out the grow, share some love, and above all, thanks to those who actually read my spectral ramblings! That's curtains for week 2!

--08SEP2024-- Welcome to week 3 of Grow 4! We're really seeing some movement out of these ladies. I'm glad to get them started on their official feeding schedule now, as they all look like they could do with a bit of a nitrogen kick (though not as badly as it looks in the photos... thanks LEDs). They each got a gallon of RO this morning, supplemented with, per gallon, 4mL each of Sensi Grow A&B, B-52 and Voodoo Juice. This is half the recommended 8mL (but orders of magnitude less than what's printed on the box, of '8ML'. This is a bit tongue in cheek, of course... they do say Milliliters. But ML is Megaliters 😜) I will say the biggest note on the soil comparo so far is that the FF Ocean Forest drains _much_ more quickly than the Tilth Bloom, despite both being mixed with 25% perlite. Hopefully as the girls grow and get thirstier, this will be less apparent. For now, Astyn and Charlize got fed while still being quite moist, as I want to keep the available nutrients the same until I get some signs from them that I should do otherwise. Fingers crossed that this won't lean into overwatering, but hell, it had been days! And they're looking quite happy all in all, so onward and upward! Brigid looks like she's going to be healthy, if small, based on the look of her new growth. So while I feel badly about the hit she took, I'm glad she looks like she's still gonna rock on. Delphine, sweet Delpine... what a rock star she's being. ...hey, that was kinda musical. But she's seriously about half a node ahead of everyone else. I'll be watching height closely over the next few days, as I intend to try my hand at a ScrOG, this being my first homogenous grow, AND I've got that exciting sq.m. milestone in the bag. (....but now I've got 4 of the 5 photos that @Fast_Buds dropped for this year on order, and if I want to grow out a large batch to select my first momma from, I'm gonna need a bigger tent. Then this one can be the momma tent... right? Right??) Anyway, that's more than enough for a week-start post, I think. Keep on keepin on growmies! —10SEP2024– Well, the two girls in FF ocean forest (B. & D.) definitely have some burn on their oldest leaves after feeding. I flushed Brigid this morning with 10mL/gal of Sledgehammer, as her state is more precarious, and I’ll monitor her for signs of further stress and try to suss out what she needs next. Delphine seems to be weathering the burn well thus far, but keeping a close eye on her as well.

Week 4! Big exciting week, as we’re strolling towards flower. Dialing back on photo volume a bit as these ladies fill out. I’ve also noted some important things about the soils being used. For one, the Ocean Forest definitely has the edge on draining a bit more quickly. Conversely, despite the early phenotypic edge in vigor, Delphine seems to be growing a bit less fully and robustly than the two plants in the Tilth Bloom. Aston and Charlize are both looking very happy, and are putting out 7-fingered leaves to Delphine’s 5. I think I’ll be aiming to recycle a combination of the two soils for grows moving forward, and see how that plays. But for all that, they’re all looking pretty good. Mostly training and only watering about once a week at the moment. Brigid gets to do her own thing, as she will. Maybe she’ll present one large record-breaking nug, who knows?!

Off we go into the first week of flower! Following the advanced nutrients starter kit schedule to the letter for the moment. The coming week I’ll add some Fox Farm CalMag to the mix as well, because it seems silly to acquire new CalMag just to do CalMag things. I’ve been checking the gals daily, slowly training them into the scrog net and giving light haircuts here and there. Again, excepting Brigid who just gets to live her best life however she sees fit. All in all, happy ladies I think. Signs of stretch are looking good! The two in Tilth Bloom are still generally looking happier, with 7- and in some cases 9-fingered leaves, where Delphine is sitting locked at 5. Living soil FTW, folks!

And we’re into the second week of flower! Pulled the scrog net off, and the branches had all firmed up and the net was mostly just impeding watering at this point. I’ll watch the stretch and set the net back up higher if/as needed, but for now this allowed for a bit of shuffling and reorganizing to, in conjunction with mild LST and less-mild defoliation, get more even light to everyone. Astyn is taking charge as the boss bitch in the room, for sure. She’s stretching a bit less, but I’m guessing that’s mostly just her being a bit more indica-bushy than the others. The gals are definitely getting thirstier, as expected. Brigid is just doing her petite thing, and we all love her for it. Saturday morning of this week (last day of week 6 (flowering week 2), I added some yeast and sugar in a half gal jar (1 packet of active dry yeast, 1 cup of raw sugar, ~ 6 cups room temp water) for some co2 generation, and I’m starting them on 24 hours of light. As of Saturday night, they seem to really appreciate the addition! Everyone got a bit more perked up, a bit more green, and leaf growth seems to have stepped up, based on typical start-to-end of day observation. “Let’s goooooo!” they say. Let’s go indeed, ladies.

The ladies are all loving the addition of some co2 (via active yeast nomming sugar), and thus far seem to be handling the shift to 24 hours of light quite well. I dropped the intensity to 50% (~= 250W) and raised the light to avoid burn. The main struggle with the shift seems to be calmag. No surprise, watering with RO, but I’m bumping their calmag at tomorrow’s (13Oct) feeding to 10ml/gal from 5 to try to address signs of calcium deficiency, as nutrient and soil ph look to be on target.

Woof! Life has been straight up bananas lately. I've been keeping up with the gals, of course, though not so much with photos and diary entries. C'est la vie! The ladies are moving nicely through flower. Charlize is looking like she's dealing with CalMag stress, but otherwise seems to be coming along nicely. Upping calmag to 10mL/gal to see if that remediates things. By and large, though, they're all bulking up nicely and starting to cloud up their magical sticky goodness. I snipped the top half of a less dominant branch, and dried out a decent sized nug (which flopped over due to its own density once the stem started to dry and lost its turgor 😂... and let me tell you, this is right up there with the tastiest stuff i've ever run through the vape (without any sort of 'proper' drying out, and certainly no curing). I'm super stoked for the fully developed and cured flowers. Great work, @Fast_Buds !! Definitely doubly excited to pop the latest release of feminized photos now 😁

Doing some more post-facto updating here... Charlize didn't really respond in either direction to the increase in CalMag, so it could be thjat she was dfealing with fungus gnat stress (they're being impossible to get rid of) or just late life stuff. Her trichomes had gotten to about 10-15% amber by the end of this week, so she got chopped on 10/28, and I'll add a harvest entry for her next. Everyone else is rocking out super dense and bushy, fattening and clouding up on schedule! Home stretch! Daily trichome checks all around and we're just waiting to chop and hang. Maybe this weekend? Maybe one more week?

Charlize, chopped 10/27. 169g wet weight, fresh frozen for bubble extraction. More to come… Chopped Astyn, Brigid and Delphine 09Nov, after 4 days resting in the dark and letting the trichomes ripen slowly the last little bit. The gals ran hard, so I figured they deserved the breather in the cool as a bit of recompense. Could be psychosomatic, but I swear they smelled a tad sweeter for it. Don't quote me on it though. I don't want any part of all those do you/don't you battles .- Brigid was all frosted up, despite her absolutely waifish proportions, and looking at her in photo, for her stem size I think she out in some decent enough little buds! I wonder if she could turn into the world's biggest Thai Stick... I'd better decide fast, lol. Super impressed with my first run on Advanced Nutes, though! Granted I'm still a newbie, but Charlize, but particularly Astyn and Delphine, all out on easily the chonkiest, densest nugs I've grown to date. I think frost levels are pretty close to my super soil and water grow, but that's mostly down to good genes both runs! Brigid is drying (though maybe not for any longer, now...) whole, and Astyn and Delphine are chopped at main-ish branch points, and at then the two nodes below where the original apical meristem was topped, for a nice little 4 stem crown. I will say, topping on these girls was probably a mistake, as they didn't want to stretch at all, after a quick spurt of a day or two. Trimming is going to be an adventure, to be sure. If I wasn't about out of flower, I'd definitely be highly tempted to fresh freeze and extract the majority! ...but that would be a little sad, because from what I've pre-cut and dried, and subsequently tried, of Char and Del, these are some tasty ladies, and are a very nice vape AND smoke (despite the --surprisingly mild-- harshness of not being treated properly, but ya can't fault them that).