Sam's Crack #2 - Mandy Capable

Hexus This gal is a struggler! She came out of the dirt half formed, blackened, missing 1.25 cotyledons and generally looking like poo. She has since recovered and is growing like gangbusters! Great Lakes Water Only live soil, 3x Cree COBs at 63w each, (195w), PHed water and not much else. She probably won't put out as much of a yield as her sister, but it looks like she still wants to deliver the goods.

Hexus This period of time seemed to be the "Make her or break her" phase. I think she was riding a razors edge between making it and croaking. She made it! From here on out she sort of bursts into action, seemingly to make up for lost time.

Hexus Our girl Mandy here decided that she was going to be one of those girls who wasn't much of a looker in high school and shows up at the five year reunion married to a dude who owns a couple islands and travels more via helicopter than by automobile. She shot up and out in every direction, and looks to lean more toward her sativa genes than Sam's Crack #1, who wants to be round and short but bulky. This girl looks like she wants to be a tall drink of water.

Hexus Into week three for Mandy Capable! She's eaten up the damage of being born deformed and is coming on strong. She really stinks considering how young she is. Day 27 - It may just be the smaller pot, but LST seems to be having a more drastic effect on her mass than on the others. The last two days, I have been a tiny bit worried because her leaves have been slightly clawing/downwards cupping, but I noticed it was only on her new growth. The leaves that were hooked downward yesterday are flat today, so it appears that her leaves are bunching up so fast in the middle where growth starts that that is what is causing the effect. Is clawing due to rapid growth a thing? I'll have to read up. One thing is for sure, whatever is happening, she is growing like a fiend. :-D

Hexus Day 29 - Pulled a hidden fan leaf out, that looks a little pale. Will probably chop off if it seems to be useless. She seems to want to curl her leaves downward, which is odd because she's not over watered and she's getting no nutes at this point. A possible side effect of the air pot? She's still growing like mad and showing no signs of burn so I'm not going to worry about her. Day 30 - In retrospect, she probably should have been in a real 3 gallon pot like the others, but she's here and representing, in her semi-stunted way. She just. Keeps. Growing. So I'll treat her nice and take what she gives. Day 32 - She had a rough couple days, turning pale on the bottom, and new growth. her leaves were curling under as well. Gave her some nitrogen. Seems to have perked up? She looks much better at least and grew an inch. Day 34 - Much better! Great Lakes Water Only seems nitrogen poor and I will accommodate for this as long as I use it. Not cool enough to use Coco Coir at this point.

Hexus Day 36 - She's on week six! Very happy to see how she's recovered from so many trials. Strating off half rotted really held her back, but she's looking great now! Day 38 - Still hugening! So happy with this girl, she may be my teacher's pet. Day 42 - Sam #2, And here we end week six! Mandy Capable: Official Mascot of Defeating Adversity. She's thriving, maybe a little behind her sister Sam #1, but promising to deliver the goods! Swapped her out with Saour Crack #1 to make room for the other plants in the grow. Sour Crack #1 is not half her size, vertically, so she's less of a hog than Mandy here.

Hexus Day 43 - Week Seven! How far we've come! She's probably 14-15 inches tall from the dirt and still stretching up! So happy that she survived. Day 47 - She's just doing her thing. Uneventful is good.

Hexus Day 50 - So Sam #1 is 51 days old, Sam #2 Mandy is 50 days old, and 3 Bears OG #1 is 47 days old but much larger than the others. They are all showing the same symptoms. I have been underfeeding them out of fear of... overfeeding them. So yeah. They get more food now. Day 52 - Food seems to have worked! Luster is back and color is richer. Will be less stingy with the food from now on. Day 53 - Anomalous behavior detected. Mandy just threw one of her bud sites up an inch in the last 24 hours. No idea why but she seems to want to grow more before she starts fattening up her buds more. No changes to lighting or position in tent, although she was rotated a bit when I took her out to water her. She's got secrets. Day 56 - This new weirdo top of hers is still growing. She's sixteen inches tall after a full and thorough LST job, and now a bigass cola decides to shoot up out of her in week eight. Second flowering stretch? Weird pheno? Leprechauns?

Hexus Day 57 - Week nine! Her weird additional stretch, post flower stretch, sent up a big top for some reason. She's weird but she's putting on flowers and the flowers are putting on mass so I'll just smile and nod at her. She smells like Smarties (American kind, not the M&M UK thing) candy or Pixie Sticks. I like her, and she seems to like me, so we're a happy family. Day 59 - Looks like that new top has stopped growing up and started growing sideways. Day 61 - Is it weird to get sentimental about a particular plant? Mandy Capable had such a rough start, looking like a dead plant walking, that nurturing her back into the relative monster she's turned into has been kind of bittersweet. No I have so much heart invested into her that giving her the chop is going to be a sad day. She'll probably be the one I remember most from my first grow.

Hexus Day 64 - Week 10! She's probably got another week? Sam #1 will definitely finish faster as I plan on chopping her in two days maybe. Mandy here seems to have a slower growing pheno. I'm actually glad for this because of her early troubles. Gives her more time to give it the extra push she needed. She's big, bushy, and has 12-14 inch colas (Apart from that weird top) so it seems like her yield will be really nice, for a 3 gallon pot grow. Day 66 - Ever have a girl suddenly change her smell entirely within a day or two? Up until yesterday she smelled exactly like sour candy. Super sweet, super sour. And now, she switched, within maybe a 36 hour stretch, to a really rank ass skunky just plain WEED smell. Very, very different. Day 69 - Think she has maybe three days left. Will watch and wait. Sam #1 is on day three of drying, so she may come out of the box and go into the jars on the same day Mandy goes into the box. That would be super convenient. Day 67 - Sam is out of the tent, and I crammed a couple spare 3d printed trellises into her mass to get some more light into her middle, as she is rather tightly packed. Also removed a couple handfuls of fan leaves to uncover some colas. She's not going to yield like Sam #1, being in a 3 gallon pot rather than a 6 gallon, but she still seems like she's going to be super respectable when the chop comes.

Hexus Mandy was a bumpy experience at first. She sprouted after eight days under the dirt with one cotyledon and it was almost black. She struggled, and struggled. I had the room and being my first grow, I was determined to keep her going. She went! She was a few days behind her sister, all the way through, but this morning I gave her a once over and she had 10-15% amber, which is my chop trigger. Luckily Sam #1 was officially dry today (Four days, but she doesn't smell like hay so we're good.) This tenacious girl was in a 3 gallon Rootmaster, so she had half the dirt to work with that her sister did, and she managed to come out with almost 14oz of wet bud! If she dried like Sam #1 did, that will put her in the 3ozish zone! An all around win for our girl Mandy! Edit: She came in a 2.5oz. Not 3 like I had hoped, but good enough! Also gave me 19g of frosty trim.