Chem OG!

This is my first grow in anything larger than 2sq ft. I am growing two strains (Kosher Sorbet from DNA Genetics and this one!) in a 4 x 4, each strain in their own 48 Qt cooler (2 plants per). I started germinating 3 today utilizing the paper towel method. I expect some growing pains :) as I get used to the larger setup and any feedback is greatly appreciated! Working through Germination and Veg they look good overall. My other cooler (Kosher Sorbet) had some stretching so I slowly increased the light and lowered it. Germination/Seedling- 26 Jan - 31 Jan Veg Wk1 1 Feb - 7 Feb Equipment 4x4x6.5 Tent HLG 260 Watt Quantum Board V2 (QB-288) - Plan to run 1 for Veg and add an additional 260 Watt kit for Flowering AC Infinity CLOUDLINE T6 VIVOSUN Air Pump 32W 60L/min - 1 each per cooler: 4" air stone disc, 12" air stone bar, 4"x 2" Cylinder air stone 48qt Coleman Marine Cooler x 2

I had my light distance incorrect and burned 1 of the plants. It didnt seem to bother her as much as my other cooler (kosher Sorbet). Overall they look good and now that my environmental condtions are more stable I should see healthier plants.

I decided to move the Chem OG tank out of the tent and into a closet with a MARs 300W (120 true watt). I am running hte Mars light ~21" from the top. I expect some stretching at that height, but the light reduction will help recovery time. I am confident that light burn/heat stress caused the issues I currently have. I started with my Quantum boards WAY too close ~18 inches and I had some trouble keeping my environment stable for the first two weeks of their life. I slowly worked my Quantum boards up in wattage, but I guess it takes a day or two sometimes to show the stress and I didn't read the plants properly (live and learn!).I have the tent stable now, but the closet is a better place for them. I also topped them, which in hindsight prob isn't the best idea when they are stressed, but I am not in a rush to get them to flower. Plants themselves have very big fan leaves and the fact they survived the burning lol, they seem to be pretty resilient.

My goals for this week were to allow the plants to recover from the topping and all the early issues I had. I did do a slight defoliation on Plant 2 to prepare it for a defoliation during week 3 of flower. Plant 1 looks like she will pull through! She still looks a bit unhealthy, but the new growth is looking better every day. I plan to bring these into flower in the next 3-5 days. Plant 1 is 6" and and Plant 2 is 8-9". I pushed the feeding a bit and the PPMs would rise from 585 to a bit over 600, so I lowered them to ~530 and they like that a bit better.

I decided to make the switch to flower a day or two earlier than I originally planned for various reasons (wanting to do a res change, needing the space in my veg room, etc.). They are both looking healthier and were due for a res change. I ended veg at around 550 PPMs, which seemed to be pushing them a little. It will be nice to see these girls stretch out a bit so I can do some more training.

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This week I started to see buds developing! They started developing buds at about day 4 this week. I did a res change and increased my nutrients to ~800 PPMs. The PPMs were slowly rising throughout the week, so when I do a res change this week I am not going to raise the nute levels by much. I still have the front one (Steve) tied down to try and spread the canopy a bit.

After thinking long and hard I decided to defoliate on F27.. Everything I read says it is too late to do it blah blah blah, but I plan to run 2-3 more grows of these girls and I wanted to see how much I can push them. I defoliated about 4-5 handfuls off of the front plant (Steve) and only a handful off of Larry (filled up a shopping bag). When I did my first defoliation on F12, they didnt miss a beat and I didn't see buds until 2 weeks into flower, so in reality it is a bit earlier in the plants flowering cycle than Week 4. I am trying a bloom booster out this run (hydroplex). I added it to my res F27 at the rate of 1.5m/gal. I lowered my Bloom nutrient mix a little to compensate for bloom booster. My PPMs are ~750 right now. I did a 60% res change on F22 and a 30% change F27. I plan to do a full res change F29-30. It looks like I have 2 different phenos. They both have large fan leaves and thick stems, but you can notice how differently the buds are forming.

On Day 3 I raised the light 5" to a height of 21-24" above the canopy. I am pushing the PPM's to ~750 and they slowly rise. PH swing isn't too bad either at this stage. I am adding 1 gallon of water a day with a light nute mix (Cal-mag and other's depending on PPM) and I could probably increase the amount of daily water added if I wanted to top off my res.

Fairly easy week. I did a 50% res change and added 4 gallons throughout the week. The last 2 weeks I was having PH swing issues, nothing too crazy but a lot of drops. After I increased the cal-mag the PH was stable, so I am going to keep that at a higher amount for the next 10 days before I start reducing nutrients in prep for harvest in ~3 weeks. The plant in the back is pretty jacked up but she is pushing through 💪. I don't think it is a nutrient/solution issue, but having some of the roots left out for ~24 hours 😳.. which in turn causes nutrient uptake issues and the leaves looking how they are. It doesn't look like the buds were stunted much and they started to really plump up in the last couple days. She is EXTREMELY stinky. A very chem/diesel smell. The front plant is more of a citrus/piney smell and it growing very well but nowhere close to the stank as Larry in the back. Day 5 (F39) I removed a small handful of fan leaves to allow some light penetration to some of the lower bud sites and the bright green undergrowth. Day 7 (F42) I added 2 of those gallons and started to bring down the PPMs. I plan to do a res change in the next 2 days and remove the hydroplex from the feed and start to reduce the nutrients to 500-600 PPMs. (7.5ml/gal bloom, 3ml/gal cal-mag, 4ml/gal karma and hydroguard).

Still no amber trichomes! Both the plants still seem to be growing well. Over the last week I pulled a few fan leaves each day to expose some of the lower and middle bud sites. The stems and the fan leaves are so large on these plants. As I said before, the plant in the back is really stinky and sticky. Every time I go back there to move some colas around my hand stinks of Chem. The front plant looks frosty, but doesn't have the smell anywhere near the back plant. The front plant has a more OG Kush smell to it; lemony with a hint of chem. The buds feel pretty dense, but I am going to use my better judgement and not molest the buds until harvest 😂. F45 (Day3) - I did a res change and lowered the PPMs from 650 --> 530-550. Reduced the hydroplex from 2.5ml/gal --> 1.5ml/gal and brought the bloom down to 10ml/gal. Originally I did a nutrient mix of 8ml/gal bloom, 1ml/gal hydroplex, 3.25ml/gal cal-mag, 3.25ml/gal karma. F46 (Day4) - The PPMs were dropping. It was too light of a feed, so I increased the hydroplex by .5ml/gal and bloom by 2.5ml/gal. PPMs and PH seem pretty stable since then On top of the reservoir change (9 gallons), I added 5.5 gallons throughout the week. Over the next 2+ weeks I plan to lower the nutrient mix a bit more and watch as they ripens and get closer to harvest. I am hoping for a harvest around F62-F65.

On Day 3 (F52) I noticed seeds in 2 buds 😭😭. I had a circuit breaker trip ~F35 so I am assuming that is what caused both plants to hermie! I opened the tent up immediately to let them get some natural light and reset the breaker in under 5 minutes, but it was enough for them to hermie. The other 2 plants in the tent weren't effected, or I haven't been able to identify any signs of hermie or pollination. Both of the Chem's hermied. The plant in the front, had a lot of pollen sacks and the one in the back only had 1. If I were more confident in my ability I probably would have left the plant in the back and removed the nanners, but I was worried the Gorilla and Kosher would get pollinated. So I decided to cut them on F52. I didn't want whatever was left to become seedy and I was worried I wouldn't be able to stop them from pollinating the whole tent. The Plant in the back has less than 5% amber and probably should have gone another 10 days. The front plant had no amber, 80-90% milky and probably had another 2 weeks for optimal ripeness.

My yields were: 45 Grams - Indica Pheno 50 Grams - Sativa Pheno 50 Grams of frosty trim/small buds for edibles More pics to come as they cure longer! 😁