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Hi, NASATrainer here on my first grow. I wondered about harboring a plant for years and ordered seeds one hazy night. My seeds from Southern Oregon sprouted and now I'm committed to giving this plant my most tender loving care. My intentions are to research trichome formation on a Sativa leaning Gorilla Girl.
I consider the GWE articles to be the Holy Growing Manual. After reading the top guides several times, here's what I'm going to attempt: Grow 1 plant in a 5 gallon DWC bucket under a 300W equivalent LED. The grow space will be limited to a 2' x 2.5' x 6.7' tent.
Would've grown sooner if someone told me I could have 8 colas instead of 1.
-NASATrainer
Nebula's Manifold Method: https://www.growweedeasy.com/manifold
Feeding Chart: https://www.growweedeasy.com/general-hydroponics-nutrients
Day 1: Seed sprouted between wet paper method and Ziploc bag. My local nursery doesn't carry rockwool cubes so I transplanted to a small cup with soil.
Day 3: Transplanted to 1.5" rockwool. Soaked cube in plain PHed water for 30 mins, lightly squeezed, then in some lightly nuted water.
Day 4: Worried that the plant is growing tall.
Day 6: Started noticing yellow discoloration on the new growth. I'm guessing it's either nutrient burn or light is too close at 2". Rockwool also started splitting.
I transplanted to new rockwool with 1/4 the nutrients, in the process killed a little root growth. Also moved my bulb 4" away and doing 20/4 schedule instead of 24.
Day 7: Eventful week for the plant, but it's still inching towards the light. Hope it stays alive.
Day 11: Plant growth is stunted since day 6 when I transplanted from soil to rockwool. I had damaged and torn off some of the root. Tips are getting more yellow and crisp.
Day 12: I see a little bit of root coming out the bottom of the rockwool. Am wanting to transplant it to a real bucket, but equipment still in transit. I decided to try to experiment with a small DWC simulation and feed my plant some nutes.
Day 14: Other diaries have shown a lot more growth on day 14. I feel like I'm a week behind, but the burnt tips have stopped. Most of the new development has been from the last 2 days, so I haven't been feeding it enough nutrients.
Day 15: Much exciting day, my beginners pack came in the post.
She's pretty small, but looking geometric for the first time. The way nature is governed by mathematics is beautiful.
Day 16: Finally swapped out the 8W LED bulb for the Mars Pro 600W LED. Was about time 😁 I'm optimistic about the the gram/wattage output nearing the equivalent of a 300W HID. The spectrum is really intense without green sunglasses, but it runs really cool--currently 75-80F in my grow area. Hope to make a true recommendation on the Mars Pro after seeing my girl bloom.
Day 19: Fan leaves coming along. I have also doubled my nutes, now following week 3 of the GrowWeedEasy feeding chart for the GH trio.
Day 22: The plant is hardly drinking any water so I'm hesitant to move into the 5 gallon bucket. I still haven't plugged in the water stone and pump -- later this week when I pick up an intermediate bucket.
One note about smell after rubbing leaves between my thumb and index. Newest growth on top is most similar to basil, but the oldest fan leaf is ripened tangerines and citrus. Be interesting to try these tempura fried when the fan leaves are laced with milky trichomes.
Day 25: Picked up a 3 gallon bucket for vegetation phase. My airstone has been running for about 2 days. Not sure why I didn't do this sooner. What I've learned is that plants like light, nutes and oxygen.
Day 30: Started the base of my manifold at the third node. She has a cool little diamond shaped gap where the two branches meet. I'm gonna call her Emerald.
Day 31: I stringed together a LST scaffold with items around the home. I wonder if anyone has done this NASATrainer style parallel bar LST before.
In the process, I also broke one of the two fan leaves. This will make for an interesting experiment, though. Will the arm with the fan leaf grow faster?
Day 35: Can confirm the side with the fan leaf grew noticeably faster after 4 days. Decided to chop it off so my plant can stay balanced.
Am feeling a little disappointed with progress this week. I'm estimating 9 weeks of vegetation. Next time around, I'll definitely top a few days earlier.
Day 37: My plant ties were too aggressive and her arms started severing at the joint. Am calling this MST, as she's a little hurt but has achieved 180 degrees quickly.
Day 38: Received my grow tent today. Ordered the 2x2.5, got the 2x4 instead. I was starting to wonder why it was taking up so much space.
First thing that came to mind was extending Nebula's manifold technique to 12 colas. When there's 6 nodes on both arms, I'll top off and retain nodes 1, 3, and 5. Guides will tell you to remove the even nodes, and I am learning that it's because they grow perpendicular to the odd numbered ones.
Day 41: Decided to remove all growth on the 2nd and 4th set of leaves on both sides.
I think it would be better to try to keep the size around 2x3 to make sure you get enough light intensity to all the buds. The bud density will suffer if there isn't enough light. You would probably have to add a second light to supplement your 300 watt to get enough light to do a 2x4.
Day 45: Topped again at the 5th node despite the shoots being a bit young.
My Gorilla Girl appears to be the Indica pheno because the bushiness is almost uncontrollable. The plant has been a constant 4" in height as I train her to lay flat, but now she's ready to go vertical.
Day 49: Shes around 6" now. Hoping to add another 12" of height before I switch to flower.
Day 46: Introducing the NASATrainer manifold -- Nebula's method enhanced with a ladder scaffold made from dowels, and plant trained to stay flat and grow like a crown.
Day 49: Been feeling very impatient about height gain on my plants. It grows about 2 inches a week, but because of the training, I'm only seeing 1 inch vertical.
She has a lot of potential, so I'm gonna give it another 2 weeks of veg for a total of 10 weeks.
Do you guys know any tricks to get my plant to grow taller? Goal is to increase space in between nodes.
I've tried raising the LEDs to 30 inches for a few days. Also tried leaving it in complete darkness for 24 hours.
Hi @NASATrainer! What makes plants stretch: 1/ dark cycles, you can increase your night duration up to 14 hours with 10 hours of light, 2/ nitrogen, you could add some more Nitrogen during the stretch phase, but be careful not to over-do, a plant stunted with Nitrogen during flowering will result in weird buds or 'the claw'. 3/ plant-to-lamp distance, increasing this value should result in vertical growth, as the plant will look for more light. Hope this will help, keep us updated and happy growing! 👊
Day 60: Upgraded to 10W air pump that produces almost no noise. Also hard to find something this powerful with only 2 ports.
Day 61: My plant is around 9" in height, equal to the length of each pre-cola. I've come to the conclusion that the blue LEDs on my Mars Hydro are responsible for making my plant so bushy.
This entire time I've been running on Growth mode, which is a predominant blue full spectrum at ~85W. The Flower switch adds the red for blooming, bringing it to ~270W total.
Next time, I'm going to hang the lights higher and run the lights at maximum much earlier.
Day 63: Last entry I said I'd give her 10 weeks. Getting too impatient now, flipping her tonight.
Day 1: The Mars LEDs run warm with the tent closed, but a 4" inline fan keeps the grow around 85 degrees. It's also been raining outside and raising humidity to high 50s. She's been drinking about a half gallon of water a day.
Day 3: Measured at 2' x 2' today. I don't see anywhere else for her to go but upwards to space. I've enrolled her for the official NASA training program.
Day 7: The flowering stretch is real. She grew 3 inches this week. Been struggling to get her to grow upwards, so 12" is a major milestone for me.
In the last couple days of veg, I kept lights on for 24 hours hoping it would delay flowering hormones. 16- 18" final height would make for a respectably sized plant.
10W pump for a 5 gallon is bordering excessive, but the O2 bubbles are violent and many. I've seen root mass pics post-harvest and some plants have occupied the entire 5 gallon. My girl's looking like one of those.
Day 12: The day before, I accidentally left lights on for 18 hours. Had a mini anxiety attack reading online about hermies and fluffy buds from interrupting the light cycle. I've shortened the light cycle to 10/12 so that in 3 days, she will enter the day cycle at the original time.
Day 14: Last two days have been the most exciting so far. Am witnessing wispy white tops form on every branch for the first time. Much beauty, very flower.
I noticed how droopy the leaves were today, and rightly so given water was PHed at 4.0. She deserved a reservoir change going into week 3: clean bucket, fresh tap water, synthetic nutrients.
I'm also not hesitant about defoliation given how crowded city center looks from above. Gave her a quick trim before snapping photos.
Tallest cola in the back measures 16 inches from the base. Happy farming all.
Day 17: A dehumidifier became a hard requirement for my environment as I entered flowering. A couple weeks back it reached 90 % humidify in my tent. After investing all this time, didn't feel like letting my buds rot. It's currently anywhere from 45% - 65% RH when lights are off/on. My unit is a 2L that filled up after 5 days -- I wouldn't get a smaller one 'cuz you'd have to dump it more often.
Day 21: Plant appears to be reaching final height of around 20". I think these LEDs have enough light penetration for 2' colas, but I'm already thinking bout my next quantum board purchase 😁.
Throughout this entire grow, I've been a student of continual defoliation. Little bits at a time, though. Then the heavy trimming before week 1 and 3 as described in literature. Today, I took a hard stance in removing any fan leaf that was covering a flowering site, and even a few sugar leaves.
Bud sites are getting so dense. Am ok if final shape looks more like pyramids and less of a cone. They will just be wide at the hips.
Day 28: Been busy recently and have not been tending to my girl.
Last couple days, I noticed the pistil tips on the shorter flowers turning brown and falling off. About 40% of the sites are experiencing some pistil death. I found it interesting how the main colas don't have this problem on the top parts, but just a little browning at the bottom.
Naturally, I suspected the lights being too close, but they've been at 12" in prior weeks and I don't see any discoloration on leaves. Checked PH and am not surprised that it went down to 4.0 level, despite replenishing with fresh tap water last night to 6.0. Today is also 2 weeks since I refreshed my reservoir, and I always get extreme PH fluctuations at the end.
Not sure what the deal is. Changed reservoir and raised lights to be cautious.
Trichome production is evident on all the top as little crystals line the sugar leaves.
Any ideas what is causing some pistils to turn brown and crisp on my lower bud sites? Especially the ones in the middle of the crater. Taller bud sites not affected, and leaves are healthy.
Hi there @NASATrainer your plants are fine the browning off of pistils is a completely normal occurence and will continue as the buds mature. If they were all to suddenly change colour then you could have experienced pollination but I don't beleive it's the case with your your plants. Best of luck with the grow Mate
Day 32: One of the most beautiful things I am experiencing is seeing the calyxes growing out from the main flower. If it is any indicator, my buds could be growing twice as fat in a few weeks. Trichomes are also gaining height and taking up their mushroom form.
Hovering closely, the flowers smell like green pear and young mint. Rubbed between my fingers, she turns into a sugar laden mango and overripe cantaloupe. Am I just making this stuff up?
Some of my bottom buds were looking rather leafy so I decided to tuck back any fan/sugar leaves that were covering a site. Problematic ones I snipped off. Feeling over-involved, I also started tugging at some of the flowers away from the stem. In theory, greater exposure to light and air will increase final yield.
Can we call this method bud socketing? I would hold the main stem back, then pull at a sugar leaf to dislocate a bud from its original position. I did this form of LST to mid and lower bud sites to utilize greater 3D spacing.
Day 35: Found myself with a good laugh reviewing these photos. Grow tent is full of phallic imagery, I cant escape it.
Day 38: Can't really recommend growing a plant this size in a 5 gallon bucket. Experienced some root bounding, and also had to fill reservoir every 2 days. Anticipating a week of travels, I swapped out the bucket for an 18 gallon bin.
Day 42: Week 6 is really interesting. New pistils are growing out on all bud sites as if it's preparing to repeat weeks 3-5.
In the way that plants and nature in general adhere to the golden ratio, I can expect to see calyxes growing out of each other in a fractal like pattern.
Also, very little smell coming from my room. Sweet Seeds, how did you make this possible??
Day 49: Last week on full strength nutes. Am having humidity issues in my corner of the world, sometimes reaching 80% RH in the tent. Else, she is gaining noticeable bulk.
Day 50: For week 8, I've reduced my nutes to 1/4 strength from previous week. Really glad I've upgraded to the 16 gallon bucket. Have to go on a trip across the country, but am confident she'll have no issues up to 10 days.
Day 56: Returned home this weekend to find some of the leaves turning deep purple. I was hoping it was the genetics changing shades. Reservoir pH was dipping below 5.0 so I corrected to 6.0 with fresh tap water.
Day 57: I had to go away again this week, at a very critical time. I've matched her coloring symptoms to a copper deficiency as shown on GWE. However, am also seeing purple leaves in other diaries. Not really worried since flowers are visibly bulking.
Anticipating the 9th week, I've decided to top her off with tap water without adding any more nutes. There should be enough fan leaves to power her through the final week.
Day 63: A number of fan leaves are nearing end of life, turning yellow and purple at the same time. Trichomes are still shooting outward without toppling over, but are still milky white/clear and void of any amber. There is considerable marbling on all colas, you can see pockets of frost tucked underneath the swollen calyxes. Shades of pink are starting to express itself on a few sugar leaves and calyxes, eventually taking a deeper purple. So beautiful, am wanting a 1000x zoom.
Most of the brown pistils have not curled inwards. Feels like she needs to go the full 10 weeks, if anything there'll be more purple and reds.
Smell is floral, overripe citrus, mangoes, bruised apricots.
20 - 25% THC? 😬👊😁
I think she is beautiful! Looks like she is reaching the end of her life cycle fading out nicely. The leaves are heavy on nitrogen though. I would cut all of the nitrogen out of the feed if you havent already. Looks like she is close and going to be some killer smoke.
My first harvest exceed expectations several times over. I was hoping to break even for the initial investment in lights and tent, but ended with over 6 ounces of medicine.
After drying for a week, the hay smell is receding to cool, earthy pine. When crushed, she gives off a pronounced sweetness that one could derive from a basket of mandarin and mint. The smell is intoxicating.
She smokes really smooth from low nutes, and a week long flush. The sensation is more for experienced smokers. Let me try to explain::
On the come up, the sativa driven Gorilla delivers an energetic rush of euphoria and clarity. He appears to be in a panic, because he brought with him a gift of wild thin mints that quickly dissolves all forms of anxiety. The Indica leaning GSC pheno induces a healing wave of sleepiness that is characteristic of its most powerful Kush ancestors.
See you space cowboy.
NASATrainer
