Finally, some diesel!

Jazaam The weather wasn't the best, but it was OK overall. There's nothing special to report.

Jazaam The sunny weather and perfect conditions gave the ladies a real boost in growth. Unfortunately, during a routine leaf check, I discovered the first aphid eggs and a few black-winged intruders. I acted quickly and started treating them with neem oil that same evening. Luckily, it worked like a charm. The ladies handled it like champs, bounced back beautifully, and so far there have been no more signs of aphids.

Jazaam Week 4 has kicked off and the ladies are doing great. No aphids or any other pests in sight. Two of the Northern Lights have slightly started to show preflowering. I will wait for more obvious signs before starting to give them Bloom and TopMax. I'm also thinking about adding BioBizz CalMag in small doses to prevent any potential deficiencies. Since I’m only using rain and well water, which are both very soft, and the soil doesn’t contain much calcium or magnesium either, it might be a smart move. I’ll probably start with that next week.

Jazaam Week 5 🌸 Bloom is on Both strains are starting to flower, so I’m calling today Day 1 of bloom (Even though Northern Light was already a few days earlier, the Sour Diesel still needs 2-3 more days imo). The weather’s been kinda meh lately, so the girls had to chill in the greenhouse. 👀 Found a few aphid eggs on the lower leaves yesterday. Gave them one last neem oil spray and hoping that’s the end of it. Over the next few weeks, I’ll try collecting some ladybirds and their larvae instead of spraying again. Also spotted a few fungus gnats flying around. Nothing wild yet but I’ll keep an eye on it. If they get out of hand I’ll have to bring in the nematodes and let them handle business underground. BioBizz-Calmag is on the way and should arrive next week. Read in a forum that people using the same soil often run into deficiencies starting around week 2 or 3 of flower. So I’ll start adding a dose next week just to stay ahead of it. So far the girls are looking happy and healthy. No signs of trouble yet😌

Jazaam Haven’t really been home this week. The buds are developing nicely but I’ve got a thrips situation going on. Not sure yet if I should order predatory mites or if it might just sort itself out. Most of the girls are already showing some calcium deficiency on the lowest leaves. Calmag arrived a bit too late but they got their first dose now. Let’s see how they bounce back.

Jazaam Harsh July with really bad weather wasn’t the best, but overall they’re looking pretty good in my opinion. One Northern Light headbud had mold unfortunately. I’m guessing they’ll be ready in about one to two weeks.

Jazaam I was away for over a week, leaving the ladies pretty much unsupervised except for watering. That turned out to be a mistake. Poor air circulation in the greenhouse caused mould on the buds and weakened the plants badly. In the end I had to harvest all the Northern Lights a bit early because of mould, plus another round of thrips and even some spider mites. A big part of the plants had to go. Towards the finish they just kept getting worse and more problems piled up. I still managed to save a little though, so let’s see how it cures over the next few weeks. Overall I’m a bit disappointed. This strain is supposed to be quite robust but mine really wasn’t. Right from the start it attracted pests and never came close to Diesel in performance. On top of that I also made some mistakes myself, like forgetting to feed them properly and honestly they didn’t get nearly as much love as the Sour Diesel. A good friend of mine had some NLs and they performed really well, so I guess I just had really bad luck with the phenos + my mistakes. Still, it was a gift from a friend and more of an experiment for me, so at least I learned a lot that I can carry into my next grow.

Jazaam Unfortunately I had to harvest both Sour Diesel plants about a week early, since they were about to get hit by thrips and spider mites and I didn’t want to risk a repeat of what happened with the Northern Lights. Most of the trichomes were milky, with perhaps around 5% amber. Fine for me, but I think an extra week would have made them even better. Thankfully, they had the best weather and almost full sunshine for the last two weeks, which I think made up for the rough July. Overall I’m really satisfied with how they performed. Big fat buds, hardly any issues the whole run and such a beautiful plant to grow. One of them showed a calcium deficiency towards the end, but nothing too serious. I'm looking forward to the finished cure, as it looks very promising. I think I'll run 2-3 of the NY Sour Diesel again next summer.