Flowering Bonsai Momma Shark

This is my beauuuutiful White Shark mother plant ... aka Momma Shark ... who I have had for over a year, during which time she has provided hundreds of clones and has withstood the regular chopping and hacking like a champion! Now, though, it's time for her final performance. She has been kept in a 2' x 2' x 39" grow box ("Mothership" from BC Northern Lights). I'm going to begin training her down in this space, then move her to a 2' x 3' x 39" got ("Bloombox") to finish veg and then flower. I am considering transplanting her to a larger pot, as I am certain she is now root bound in this 3.9 gal Autopot. The goal of training this week is to bend as well as possible her very thick branches, with an end goal of developing a somewhat even canopy at a workable height.

Moved Momma over to the Bloombox. Still under 400W MH. Training to continue. Transplanting to larger pot on the horizon before flipping.

Started the week by doing a bit of cleaning up this week. Got rid of most of the little shoots ... there were a lot! Gave some recovery time, then installed a screen - somewhat haphazardly! - to help in levelling out the canopy and more bending and pruning. I was having problems with the Autopot flood/drain cycle. After exhausting every possible troubleshooting step, I'm fairly certain that the plant is seriously root bound. She's been in that pot for almost 1 year! Notice the date on her ID tag from when I received her last year from WeedMD - a Canadian Licenced Producer. I'm going to be potting up very soon (just waiting for some supplies) but I've also decided to switch from the bottom feeding AutoPot to a top-feeding Blumat drip system. At the end of this week, I installed the two "carrots" as well as a moisture sensor.

This week, I trimmed each branch, leaving only 1-2 nodes

This was a stressful week for both me and Momma! She became VERY stressed (drooping, discolouration, slow growth). I knew that I had been introducing a lot of stressors to her world: - moved her to a new box, and introduced CO2 - changed from bottom-feeding Autopot to top-feeding Blumats - significant restructuring of her “architecture” including bending, tying down and pruning back to 1-2 nodes on each branch - But, this seemingly sudden turn for the worst seemed to be due to more than that. Thankfully, I think I figured out what happened ... various consultations helped me understand that when using Autopots, the top 1-2” of coco (which is very dry with the bottom feeding) becomes very high in salts. Consequently, when I switched to top-down Blumats, I was likely slowly washing that salt buildup from the top layer down to the root zone (already compressed and bound in an undersized pot), causing damage. So, I did a very thorough top-down flush with Clearex in balanced water to reset the medium. After some drying time, I slowly started manually adding a weak nute solution to the Autopot tray until I was seeing her drinking it up. Top layer of coco became dry again as desired. Colour improved and growth picked up again. By the end of this week she was looking perky once again! >> PLAN: - continue to veg; gradually remove unwanted thin branches - continue to develop “table” structure to maximize use of space - transplant into 5 gal SmartPot that will be placed in a new Autopot XL tray (both arriving in about 1 week) - Flip ‘n’ Flower!

Another action-packed week! Transplanted Momma into a 10 gal SmartPot. Chose to use a dremmel tool to cut the AutoPot off to minimize trauma removing her from the pot. That went well, though a very awkward one-person job! SmartPot was prepped and root well was sprinkled with Myco Jordan (mycorhizzae). I decided to abandon the AutoPotXL plan in favour of the larger SmartPot with Blumats (1 regular + 1 large). She responded very well and toward the end of the week she is ... READY ... TO ... FLIP!!!

Flipped to 12/12 light scheduled. Changed bulb to 400W Hortilux Eye HPS. Did some cleanup throughout the week of unwanted leaves/shoots. Already seeing those pistils develop :)

Started to stretch a bit this week, which is typical for this strain. Flowers developing nicely. Blumats providing just-enough fertigation, and she is responding very well to the top feed. Removing fans here and there as needed for airflow. I'll do a full defoliation after Day 21 of Flower.

Pic taken at the beginning of Week 3. Buds stacking up nicely! Defoliation scheduled for the end of the week, but still plucking fans here and there as needed in the meantime. Also removing any new shoots that pop up.

She seemed to respond well to the Day 21 defoliation, although there wasn't a lot I needed to remove. Buds are really building up nicely ... and starting to get stickier and smellier! Blumats are doing a great job.

Generally, all is going really well. A bit of tip burn, and a bit of wind burn here and there, but nothing serious. I've backed off the nutes a bit over the past couple of weeks, and I'll do so even more now.

Full steam ahead!!

On the home stretch! Should see some decent bud swelling this week (at least that’s how this strain develops in DWC ... haven’t flowered White Shark in coco before 😬). Trichomes starting to cloud up more, as are the pistils browning and curling in.

Start of Wk 8 of Flower 😎 I dropped nutes down continually over the past week by topping Blumat Rez with plain RO daily. Today, I changed out to Flawless Finish + RO @ pH 6.1. Trichomes about 70% cloudy and a few Amber here and there.

Momma is just about ready for her 36-hr pre-harvest dark period. Going to give her 1, maybe 2, more short light cycles (~10 hrs). Trichomes are mostly cloudy with some amber. Pistils have darkened and curled in. Buds are plump and firm. It’s time! 😎

Momma offered only beautiful tops for this harvest, which made trimming a dream! Virtually no popcorn at all. 60 oz wet weight should give me just under 1 lb dried and cured. Not bad for 400W in a 3x2 space. Update: 3/5/19: Final dry weight 12.3 oz (344g). See my comment below 😎