First Golden Girl-Blanche

heis0070 Transplanted seedling into 5 gallon pot. Using Coast of Maine’s Stonington blend coco/perlite medium. Using a heavier dose of grow dots, as all of my plants have gotten hungry one way or another in flower, plus Real Growers has bumped up their recommended dosing on their website. Will water weekly with Recharge, and will supplement with Cal Mag the first two weeks, per the manufacturer’s recommendation when running coco.

heis0070 Growth took off after transplanting to a 5 gallon pot and moving to the tent from the nursery space. The tent is a much more controlled environment, warmer and more humid, so this does not surprise me. One thing I want to try this run is topping multiple times, so with that in mind I topped her during the week after she had passed the fourth node. I’ll let her recover for a week or two or three, depending on how she grows, and then top the lateral branches again. The goal for this training is to yield more consistent branch and top development; the way I’ve been scrogging has worked pretty well but I think it can be improved further with another topping.

heis0070 She’s growing tall and skinnier, so to even out the developing nodes and to control the height better I used low stress training (LST) and tied the plant down at a 90 degree angle. As shown in the newest pic, the nodes are much more level now and will develop more consistent tops, etc. I’m still planning on topping again, and will likely end up removing the lowest node branches as they are pretty heavily shaded.

heis0070 She continues to grow well using LST. I decided to top all six mains early in the week. Plant responded well, and new tops only paused a few days before they began growing faster. I also removed the branches from the lowest node, as they were getting swallowed up and had no chance to reach the top of the canopy. I should now have twelve main tops for this grow. I’m planning to keep things happy for the next week and flipping to flower then. I won’t begin flower with a net up this time since I’m doing a much more aggressive LsT instead.

heis0070 Finished the last week of veg and have officially adjusted the lights and settings to flip to flower today. I kept up LST by tying down taller plants this week, and the canopy looks great without using a net! I’m really pleased with how level the canopy has ended up and am really looking forward to seeing how big all these tops will grow!

heis0070 First week of flower saw Blanche stretch pretty hard. She put on 6” after I added a net on day 7. I moved my upper oscillating fan to a different corner of the tent after a few days to try to even out any effect of the fan on the canopy height. I decided to add the trellis net to flatten down a few tops that were outgrowing the rest of the canopy as well as to help support the borderline tops that need some help to reach the canopy line. I won’t do a full scrog this run, and only tucked a few tops today that didn’t get under the net well initially yesterday. My plan is to let these tops grow taller l than last grow. She’s gotten super thirsty along with the stretch and flip to flower, and I’ve been watering a gallon+ each day. I’ve been supplementing cal mag each watering and will continue to do so for another week to help overcome any calcium deficiencies this grow before they start. Still adding Recharge once a week to boost growth and support the soil microbiome. I’ve been increasing my light intensity 30 minutes a day to start hardening the plant up to increasing the light permanently without completely blowing up the expected DLI. She seems to be responding well to the light (or at least isn’t getting mad).

heis0070 Starting week three of flower. Supplemented with extra cal mag through the end of week two, and will let her ride with the grow dots unless I see a deficiency crop up. Blanche has had a pretty strong stretch so far. I’m hoping she’s slowing down. She’s over 2.5 feet tall, which is way taller than either of my last two grows. Flowers are starting to develop across the tops, which is always a good sign. I’ve been upping my light intensity a bit every day, timing it so that I’ll up my light to 75% permanently around weeks 3-4. I’ll let that ride for a week or two and then ramp it back down as flower ends.

heis0070 I think she’s finally come to a stop as the third week of flower ends. The tallest cola is about 38 inches from the soil. Branches are long and skinny throughout the plant, and my light has been brought up all the way to the fan. I think, with this in mind, I’ll limit my light intensity this grow a bit as the top colas are only 8 or so inches from the light. I’m entering the maintenance phase of flower for the next month or so.

heis0070 She’s done stretching and now the flowers are filling in nicely. Defoliate the odd leaf and small larfy new lower buds from time to time, but this grow is entering maintenance mode. I can’t adjust the light up any higher due to the tent height and the intensity needs to stay where it is to avoid blowing out the tallest colas. The light is still good where it’s at, PPFD ranges between 700-900 across the tops and goes higher for the tallest buds, which are getting 1200-1400 and loving it. Heat from the light does not seem to any kind of an issue due to the intensity being relatively lower, which is good for me. No nutrient issues so far. Will be watching closely over the next few weeks for the any sign of a calcium deficiency. To no surprise, watering more frequently during flower in coco has seemed to make the plant happier. In my next indoor grow, I will be more aggressive with training to avoid growing the three feet of fiber.

heis0070 We’ve officially entered maintenance mode. Water about a gallon daily. Shift ph around. Recharge once a week. Pluck off any new flowers that show up in the lower part of the plant. Buds are developing nicely. She’s starting to get stinky. I could have been a little more aggressive clearing out the larf as a few of the lowers look pretty shabby, but overall my best looking canopy still this stage so far in my opinion. No signs of calcium deficiencies yet, knock on wood.

heis0070 A single bud showed signs of wind burn mid week, primarily pistils that were maturing too early and turning dark before the other hairs on other buds. After looking at a picture of the amber hairs, I was relatively convinced of the wind burn diagnosis and moved my circulating fans around a touch. The problem did not worsen over time after adjusting the fans so I think that should be that. Fingers crossed. I saw the first signs of calcium deficiency this week and immediately started supplementing with cal mag with every watering. She seems to have perked up a touch and no more signs of deficiency are being noticed so far.

heis0070 Continuing to supplement cal mag this week. Skipped a couple waterings as she is not drinking as much as during early flower.

heis0070 Continuing maintenance, just watering most days and feeding Recharge once a week. Getting stinky and sticky, and buds are starting to get big.