First Greenhouse 2019

~START 4/14/19~ (UPDATE 4/24/19) Going backwards in time to update my dates as to not loose track. This journal has already evolved one week to the next, seeds popped now include non-feminized (4) Dreamband, (4) Chernobyl OG; Suspected Feminized bag seeds (2) Orange Daiquiri, (2) Wedding Cake, (2) Sundae Driver; known Feminized (2) Girl Scout Cookies. My intent is to grow one of each as a big monster and hopefully get some decent males from the Chernobyl OG and Dreamband to individually pollinate branches on my (6) main plants. ~UPDATE 4/15/19~ (2) naturally surfaced seedlings looking strong, (2) replanted looking OK. Purchasing GSC seeds today. Seedlings are in Roots Organic Micro-Greens, water filtration system not currently set up. Assuming all goes well seedlings will receive GO Bio Root and GO BioThrive Grow starting next week. Final home will be 45 gallon grow pots in either Roots Organic Original or Nectar For The Gods #4 with a base of Nectar for the gods #4 recycled Super Soil. Grow is planned for ~90% organic grown with most nutrients in dry organic form; Nectar for the Gods One Shot, Roots Organic uprising, Roots Organic Bat Guano as needed; Alternating Roots Organic Terp Tea and Extreme-Gardening Extreme Tea blended 16:1 with Carbon Filtered water via inline Venturi.

~UPDATE 4/24/19~ As I am putting dates to help me keep track I realized I had a short first week before jumping to Week 2, actual Week 2 starting date would be 4/21/19. The plants are all looking healthy, and I am actually looking at adding my Bio-Thrive Grow sooner then previously stated. This is my first from seed run in Root Organic's Micro-greens, this stuff is definitely light in nutrient as I have noticed a slight paleness in my 10-12 day old seedlings, I think 10 days may be my number for starting to add light grow nutrient. could also be due to not fostering a good microbial environment prior to planting, normally I give my soils at least a couple weeks to "activate" prior to planting. - Chernobyl OG (TGA Chernobyl X Headband OG) These seem healthy and somewhat vigorous, still just starting to send out their first set of leaves though. Still on Bio-Roots 2.5ml/L but added 0.5% H2O2 due to the tray water getting a touch green and polluted. - DreamBand (Blue Dream X Headband OG) These are taking off faster then all other plants, I suspect they may even pass up the Orange Daiquiri which is currently the quickest developing. I am surprised because they went from the very last seeds to crack open to the front runners, I'm guessing that is the Blue Dream in them. Still on Bio-Roots 2.5ml/L but added 0.5% H2O2 due to the tray water getting a touch green and polluted. -Girl Scout Cookies (OG Kush X Durban Poison) The slowest runts in the bunch, they are creeping forward but nothing to brag about, I'm just hopping for some delicious GSC at the end, never expected or wanted great yields here only great quality. Still on Bio-Roots 2.5ml/L but added 0.5% H2O2 due to the tray water getting a touch green and polluted. - Orange Daiquiri (Orange Daiquiri X Unknown) Surprisingly these are passing up to the Wedding Cake despite an almost 3 day head start, one of the plants appears to have a leaf curl to one side, the other plant seems to have a similar minutely slower growth on the same side, I will keep an eye on this as neither plant looks unhealthy but it is a Unique looking trait. Bio-Thrive Grow will be added to this plants schedule tomorrow as it appears to be a bit on the pale side but I also want to let the soil dry out a touch for the roots. - Sundae Driver (Fruity Pebbles OG X Grape Pie) Just received and put on wet paper towels with 0.5% H2O2 36hrs ago but they shells have cracked open, excited to see what these will give me. - Wedding Cake (Wedding Cake X Unknown) Nothing too special here, just healthy seedlings. Bio-Thrive Grow will be added to this plants schedule tomorrow as it appears to be a bit on the pale side but I also want to let the soil dry out a touch for the roots. ~UPDATE 4/21/19~ Alright, so I promised an update on 4/20 with more pictures...it turns out life got in the way of that happening so my day of final push to complete the greenhouse got cut very short. If nothing else all of it is collected in the greenhouse so setup from this point should go quickly. I am still awaiting the Sundae Driver seeds, I was hopping for a 4/20 miracle delivery but alas here we are and they are not here yet. In the mean time I have started adding BioRoot to the seedlings to help them establish themselves, I love BioRoot for all of my clones and seedlings, they seem to enjoy it also so win-win. I will start next week with Bio-Thrive Grow, I've like the results and what goes into this product but that f*cking smell...woof. Anyways enjoy the update and I'd love to hear back form the community on their experiences with greenhouse humidification via mister fans, it's probably my most approachable option to both humidify and cool on a budget but I have my concerns with mold and spotting from intense light and water droplets. ~UPDATE 4/19/19 SEED GERMINATION Girl Scout Cookies(GSC), Dreamband, and Chernobyl OG seeds have all popped out of their shells. To germinate them I used the paper towel method in a plastic bag to prevent dry out. The water to wet the paper towels is actually a 0.5% H2o2 solution, this gave three advantages over water; 1) it helps to penetrate the seeds shell and there is some research indicating that it acts as a hormonal trigger during the germination process; 2) the H2O2 helps to sterilize the seeds, its not a cure-all but especially with hot pepper seeds I have seen a significant reduction is black mold issues that normally kill several seeds; 3) since they are in a bag oxygen is at a premium, as the H2O2 degrades it releases oxygen keeping the environment O2 rich for the roots and prevent anaerobic conditions form happening. All I know for sure is since I have started using this method I have had 100% germination rate with Cannabis seeds, some fairly old and not optimally stored at times. I am waiting on receiving my Sundae Driver seeds this week/end, if you've never heard of this strain you will soon, it is KILLER in so many ways. Super frosty, smells like a cross of blueberries, grapes, oranges, diesel, lavendar and sweet vanilla, very tasty, very strong. My seeds are from a friend who grew the clones I got him last year, that was my first outdoor experience, great results and a small handful of seeds have emerged, with only two plants both Sundae Driver I am confident it will be a feminized clone of the original genetics. SEEDLING GROWTH UPDATE Both genetics from bag seeds, the Orange Daiquiri and Wedding Cake are going strong, seems like the Orange Daiquiri is sending out its secondary leaves at a faster rate then the Wedding cake, no complaints about either. I have started adding 2.5ml/L of General Hydroponics Bio Root as my first nutrient, General Hydroponics Bio-Thrive Grow will be added once Secondary leaves are fully emerged. My seedling soil of choice is Roots Organic, Micro-Greens. It is a great ultra-light weight soil for seedlings or clones with just a touch of organic nutrients and beneficial bacteria built in to carry the first few weeks of growth. SOIL RECIPE This soil recipe was created partially from prior experience and partially from the reality of needing to use left overs. It is a simple version of layered super soil, all organic goodness mostly from ocean based ingredients, it also gets a great bacteria charge from the BioLive mixed nutrient. I set these up in 3 distinct layers, the base which is heaviest in P-K and lighter in N overall, it also contains green sand for some long term micro nutrients as I intend to recycle this soil long term. The second or middle layer which swaps seabird guanos to give a heavier nitrogen boost for some nice lush mature growth. Finally the top layer which is fresh Nectar #4 which is a fairly mild mix that won't burn, I added BioLive for some nutrient breakdown and beneficial bacteria, and One Shot for some good slow release bone meal and nitrogen along with its molasses coating that will help to feed the microbes slowly. My recycled soil and the "green mulch" is mostly crimson clover and some local greens for a slow breakdown nitrogen source. The local sandy loam is comprised mostly of decomposed granite and ancient riverbed silt loaded with a mix of slow to release micro nutrient and my favorite loads of silica. Here are a few companies I swear by for all of my (mostly)organic soil grows. I always us Nectar for the Gods soil, currently I am in love with their one shot dry nutrient, and I often use their liquid nutrients, can't say enough good stuff about this company and their support. Roots Organic I am only using their Seabird Guano (Granular) and their Micro Greens for my seedlings this run. Roots is another great company I find it hard to say anything but positives about, oddly these companies (Roots and Nectar) have a storied past with each other and a common founding chemist but have very different nutrient line-ups. My third and final company I absolutely love for organic soil is Down To Earth, I use their dry amendments for everything I grow, BioLive is an absolute requirement in all of my plantings. Finally I used some Buried Treasure Seabird Guano, I've had this laying around for some time and figured I should finally use it up, I don't particularly like or dislike this product but you won't be seeing it in my future grows. Base Layer - 15 gallons Recycled Soil w/green manure+local sandy loam - 2/3 cup Nectar for the Gods, One Shot 3-10-0 - 1/2 cup Down to Earth, Biolive 5-4-2 - 1/2 cup Down to Earth, Kelp Meal 1-0.1-2 - 1/2 cup Down to Earth, Green Sand - 1/2 cup Roots Organic, Seabird Guano (granular) 0-12-0 - 1/4 cup Down to Earth, Fish Bone Meal 3-16-0 Second Layer - 15 gallons Recycled Soil w/green manure+local sandy loam - 1 cup Nectar for the Gods, One Shot 3-10-0 - 1/2 cup Down to Earth, Biolive 5-4-2 - 1/2 cup Down to Earth, Kelp Meal 1-0.1-2 - 1/4 cup Buried Treasure, Peruvian seabird guano 12-10-3 - 1/8 cup Down to Earth, Green Sand Top Layer - 10 gallons Nectar for the Gods, Soil #4 - 2/3 cup Nectar For the Gods, One Shot 3-10-0 - 2/3 cup Down to Earth, Biolive 5-4-2 STRAIN INFO - Chernobyl OG (TGA Chernobyl X Headband OG), I don't know much about this as it is a new cross from The High Church. With Chernobyl genetics I expect a possibly tall sativa like structure, there is some good Haze genetics buried in the Chernobyl line, and some great Sour D and OG Kush from the Headband, if nothing else I hope this will be a nice sativa forward hybrid loaded with Trichomes, and with any luck a good hash strain. Hopping for a Citrusy Lemon/Lime flavor from this girl. - DreamBand (Blue Dream X Headband OG), This is another Haze and OG cross from The High Church, so I'd expect similar growth, given its Blue Dream and sour Diesel heritage I expect this to be a yielder, and hopefully that OG lineage gives some good frost. I'd also hope it comes out with a bit more of an OG flavor as I'm not huge on the Blue Dream flavor everyone else loves. I don't love Headband and I don't love BlueDream, but the 4 grand-strains of Dreamband (Blueberry, Haze, Sour D, and OG Kush) are all probably in my top 10 all time strains so why the hell not grow it. -Girl Scout Cookies (OG Kush X Durban Poison), This is a Feminized GSC seed from The High Church. I do not know the cut, and have never grown GSC so this will be knew to me. I do not believe this is the Forum Cut I would prefer but is likely just a standard GSC as the cookies I have seen and purchased from The High Church were a nice bright green with not evident dark purple I associate with the Forum Cut...Great smoke regardless. - Orange Daiquiri (Orange Daiquiri X Unknown), Full disclosure before I start here I do not know the true origins of this seed, it is a true bag seed, while grinding up (2) very tasty strains (Orange Daiquiri and Lemon Tree) together I found a seed, the second seed was found in the exact same way so it may end up being Lemon Tree after all, due to the Cookies Genetics in the OD I am going to just assume it is more likely than the Lemon tree to have hermied, or it could be a totally different cross because I do not know the grow room it came from. The terps should be pretty telling though in flower, one is extremely Orange, almost Tangie levels of orange aroma, and the other is extremely Lemon and sour. - Sundae Driver (Fruity Pebbles OG X Grape Pie), Historically I never re-run genetics but this one was too damn good. Anyone that has had this strain knows how damn frosty and tasty this strain can be, it is a very happy uplifting hybrid edging on Sativa-ish. It grew like a monster both indoors and outdoors, my only complaint is it is very susceptible to Powdery Mildew, luckily outdoors is a bit too hot for PM around Bloom and harvest time so outdoors its not a significant threat. The flavor on this is pure berry, citrus, lavender, vanilla, and diesel goodness, the frosting on it screams for hash making, and it didn't seem to mind our 20+ days over 43C last year, even withstood a 47C day without stressing to hard. With the exception of a guaranteed minor Hermi each grow this strain is one of the best I've ever grown. - Wedding Cake (Wedding Cake X Unknown) Again full disclosure I do not know the lineage here; however I do know the grower and other strains in the greenhouse so here are the potential pollen donors TK Larry, Capulator's MAC, Wedding Cake. My assumption would be self pollinated but I'm secretly hoping it was Capulator's MAC because that strain is amazing in almost all ways, although I'm not huge on the BlueDream like flavor it has. But with Wedding Cake I can assume I will end up with a great earthy, sweet vanilla forward taste, nice and relaxing weekend smoke.

~UPDATED 5/2/19~ Getting back around to this week I received my cheap temporary pH meter to replace my hanna which got wrecked...damn shame...now I have a clue on pH and its not where I want it (7.41pH) so you can see I have added some micro amounts of MicrobeLife Plus-C, Xtreme Gardening Mykos wettable powder, Gaia Mania, Herculean Harvest, and Mammoth P. The reason for this "microbial-cocktail" is pretty straight forward, my pH is too high so I am adding in more bacteria to my fermenter to help boost the overall bacterial and fungal colony strength in my soils as much as possible, hopefully it will self regulate enough. Gaia Mania which has a micro amount of sugars is helping as a very mild feed of 30ml per day into the fermenter, enough to help them replicate, not enough to help them go nuts and over acidify or go alcoholic. I was also utilizing Herculean to acidify my Fermentor so that the blended water would drop pH a bit, that didn't work since I can barely add any to my RO solution without the pH going nuts, I will have to rethink this strategy this week. Outside of that most of my plants are doing great, my humidity and temps are in a very happy place currently but due to the heavy amount of water that rests on the plants from the misters I will have to also rethink that strategy. I finally did the math on my dilution from my hose that is siphoning from my fermenter, I am going in at a 25:1 ratio so the math is fairly easy to do from there. I almost forgot, as I am working on making this an organic as possible of a grow I brought in a handful red wriggler worms into each grow bag, a couple small containers of lady bugs, and praying mantis eggs. I am also going to be growing a mix or culinary herbs along side the plants to help deter any pests that may be interested, the mix will be Lavender, Catnip, Rosemary, and Dill then inside I will have Italian Basil, Thai Basil, Chocolate Peppermint, Spearmint, and Parsley. Finally in the pots themselves I will have some low cut Oregano, Thyme, and Cilantro. Hopefully this cocktail of plants is fairly pungent and keeps most of the nasty bugs and rodents away, if nothing else they will be tasty! - Chernobyl OG (TGA Chernobyl X Headband OG) All (4) are going well, COG#2 is clearly the fastest growing but all seem very healthy and with the exception of #2 which has already thrown its first leaf set out the rest are following suit and should have there first set of 3 started within a couple days. - DreamBand (Blue Dream X Headband OG) This strain is surprising me in a good way with its extreme vigor, I believe this will be my largest plant this year with ease as all (4) have taken off, DB#2 is leading, and DB#1 is slacking but even DB#1 is beating COG#1 -Girl Scout Cookies (OG Kush X Durban Poison) These are sad, GSC#1 is just looking ugly with its curled over leaves and near total lack of vigor, GSC#2 is also extremely lacking in vigor but at least doesn't look deformed...I really hope these have some FIRE nugs at the end of this slow journey. - Orange Daiquiri (Orange Daiquiri X Unknown) These girls are looking good if not a touch pale in color but I am being cautious with nutrients as they are so young and sharing their nutrient with the Wedding Cake which is showing no paleness. Progressing well but the DreamBand may end up over taking them in size sometime next week - Sundae Driver (Fruity Pebbles OG X Grape Pie) They have popped their shells off and reach the surface, they have not opened up yet but they should soon enough. These also do not seem to be extremely vigorous at this point but too early to tell. - Wedding Cake (Wedding Cake X Unknown) Healthy and almost happy, they seem to be suffering from a bit of wet feet at the moment so watering is cut back and I am letting them set up some nice roots! ~UPDATE 4/27/19~ I am starting this week a day ahead of schedule just to get myself on a better schedule. Since my last update I have gotten the Sundae Driver seeds in the ground and gotten most of the Greenhouse set up and nearly complete. I will add a plant update later this week, all in all everything is going well except the one Wedding Cake appears to have been nibbled on by something and the Girl Scout Cookies which are the obvious runts of the bunch, I am a bit disappointed by their growth so far as everything else is thriving, that said I never expected it to blow me away with massive plants but I do expect some incredible buds in the end! ~GREENHOUSE BUILD~ COOLING + HUMIDITY This last week I managed to get my 3 wall mount fans ceiling mounted to keep my greenhouse both cooler and the air in constant motion, getting these going actually dropped my peak day temps from 38+C to 32C, this was a huge improvement but not enough so I also installed 5 misters mounted on the ceiling and that has dropped my temps down to 27C. The misters are also a major help with humidity, my humidity had been down in the 20's, so a pretty brutal environment for most plants, the misters are helping to keep it closer to 50%-55% landing me in a VPD between 15-20, not quite the ideal 5-12 but a lot closer then my 40+ I was achieving earlier this week. I have also put down some cedar mulch, my hope here is 3-fold. First I want the greenhouse to not be a muddy mess with the misters as my native soil turns to hell when wet, second and more important is Cedar helps drive some pests away and the less pests the better, and finally, also most important, is I want the mulch to absorb the water from the misters and slowly release that even when the misters are not running to help maintain a better more humid environment. This last point is particularly important because the misters which are on a timer can only run 6 hours a day because of said timer, its also worth noting that they put out enough water to scare me for mold if they ran all day every day, so running them during the hottest and driest part of the day is the logical way to utilize them anyways. ~PEST + DISEASE~ So far I'm doing ok with pest and disease but I did notice what looks to be some insect bite marks on one of the Wedding Cakes, I also noticed a lot of fungus gnat and fly action around the pots, probably because I've been keeping them too saturated due to the extremely low humidity and high temps which are robbing my soil of moisture too rapidly to let them dry out too much without risking the plants health. That problem is now solved so onto the insects, I was hesitant to use much of anything on them as they are so young so I made a very simple solution of Trifecta, MicrobeLife Plus-C, and GO CaMg+. Trifecta is a unique product I have not used before but have used other versions of the same spray, essentially this type of spray is a fully organic, non-bee killing, non-ladybug harming, soft bodied insect suffocating, mold killing super spray. Trifecta is different in that it contains a hell of a beneficial oil package, just check out the picture of the label, it has tons of oils and extracts to help not only repel the pests it doesn't kill on contact but also help reduce mold spores from going airborne and spreading; if that wasn't enough it also has Isopropyl alcohol to beat back mold and bacteria, and finally citric acid and vinegar to leave an acidic environment that mold cannot grow in...So far it is the best of its type I have used, the reason I'm liking it so much is the aromatic oil package appears to have significantly reduced the amount of insects willing to hang out in my greenhouse, plus a little clove oil smell isn't the worst thing in the world. The other two in the spray, MicrobeLife Plus-C, which is used as a photosynthetic bacterial leaf inoculant is used in this solution because I wanted to make sure that if any bacteria did survive the spray, then I want it to be my bacteria. The CaMg+ is in there because I can't stand not utilizing some micronutrients in every spray if I have the choice, also my preferred Seaweed extract was not on hand at the time so I improvised. Also worth noting that 100% of my water contains a very diluted worm casting tea in solution. ~Spray Recipe~ 1gal (3.8L) worm casting water (~20:1-30:1) 2oz(60ml) Trifecta 1/2oz(15ml) MicrobeLife Plus-C 1/2tsp(2.5ml) CaMg+ One final note I have my UV-C lights up, I am not sure they will be sufficient as they were meant for a much much smaller indoor grow tent but I don't see the harm in putting them up. As a side not for anyone looking to use UV-C, do yourself a favor and get UV-C protective glasses and only enter the room while activate if you absolutely must, I make it a point to never be in the room while they are on unless I am checking them for maintenance for a total of 30 seconds. ~WATER SYSTEM~ My watering system starts with some pretty hard tap water heavy in Chloramine, I run this through (1) Carbon Block Filter rated 2gal per minute, that then going into my main hose tree inside of the greenhouse, where it is then split into (4) directions on a timer or manual setting via switch. Direction 1) goes to my misters, I really need a calcium inhibitor filter but that will come later, this runs for 6 hours in the peak heat of the day. Direction 2) goes to no where, planned for automated irrigation in the event I'm not around for an extended time. Direction 3) goes to another Carbon Block filter giving me 4gal per minute of combined 100% chloramine free water that then is fed by a Venturi siphon in the worm casting tea fermenter. Direction 4) this goes to my stealth RO system which feeds the fermenter, there is also an accessory low flow water from this incase I need small amounts of clean water. As you can see the water is barely getting softened at all, in fact the incoming water is at 0.95ec, but hopefully that will be ok in the long run because it is an organic soil system. Also I hate to see RO discharge water wasted so I have it feeding a tree outside of my greenhouse just to say I'm being more sustainable. I have also added a flow meter onto my hose to keep track of my water use to keep things accurate and consistent.

~UPDATED 5/7/19~ It's been a cold long couple weeks here, I have the greenhouse all buttoned up but heat is still pretty low, I'm lucky if my temperatures break 22C during the peak of the day. I also have have some time to start regretting my choose in seedling soil this year, the Roots Organic Micro-Greens seedling mix probably shouldn't have been used in the 10cm x 10cm pots I have currently, if I could go back in time I would have either stuck with my old stand by of Nectar For the Gods #4 soil which has worked very well in the past or gone with what @Gugne is working with which is a heavy blend of worm castings for nutrients and coco for aeration, the results speak for themselves. As a whole I have seen a slowing in growth this week probably due to temps and lack of nutrition so to combat this I have begun adding pretty heavy doses of pure worm casting tea, this is an EC of 1.55 from RO water that starts at 0.04 EC, this is sucked in from the bottom to avoid any damage to the little guys (GSC and Sundae Driver) but still feed the ones with the roots just starting to pop out at the bottom. Heating is not in my game plan though, being that where I am located should be pretty moderate-hot temps this time of year I did not expect this cool weather we have been seeing so not heating systems where put in place, I'll just be happy when its over. Watering has been another issue with the Micro-Greens I have not gotten a great handle on, you can see the algae and mold growing on the Orange Daiquiri and Wedding cake pots, this is pretty normal when your over saturating, that along with drooping leaves and poor root development tells me all I need to know so those are currently drying out. On the other hand my watering for the others has been really good and accurate, good root development already showing through and nice upright growth with minimal signs of stress. They do all have a paleness from lack of nutrition but I am working on that. Gadgets, lets talk about the weird silver mushroom thing with all of the wires. that is actually a temporary install of my DIY aspirated air monitor. It works by shielding the temp probe (and eventually humidity) from direct sunlight and moisture, it also has a fan that constantly pulls air through for the most accurate temps possible. The temperature monitor actually controls the misters which do a good job at dropping temps, but produce too much water, I will be changing to an evaporative fan unit for temps and moving the misters to humidity only but that is down the line. For now this has dramatically improved my environmental monitoring ability. Final notes for the day, the GSC still suck, but #1 is showing promise so its a good thing I only need (1) in the end. My Sundae Drivers are also out, and one of them died before it even opened its cotyledons, that was sad but again #1 to the rescue, it is looking good and in a few days I will have a better idea. For now I will go forward with boosting my worm population, and I think I have a good idea on how to do that rapidly with some avocados and a crazy idea from Colorado, I'll post some results once I give it a try.

~Update 5/16/19~ -Transplanting Day!- Finally I have seen good root growth coming from every pot, now they are going into 12L fabric pots with a mixture of Coco coir and Worm Castings at a ration of (5) parts and (1) part respectively or 83% Coco Coir and 17% Worm Castings. To most of this mix was added Great White dry mycorrhizae at 1ml/L, unfortunately on the 3rd and final batch this was accidentally omitted, luckily I have my Tea Brews so hopefully in the end this won't be an issue. The pots used were purchased online and you can see the brand in the picture, I wanted white pots so I went with a brand I am not used to, and that will likely turn out to be a mistake. The pots fabric is decent quality and thick but the stitching is absolutely terrible and sloppy, it also seems very low strength, I doubt these will last more then 1 or 2 uses and I definitely do not think they could be machine washed before the next run. I put slits on the sides of each Peat Pot, the reason for this is I have found the claim of roots being able to easily penetrate this pots to be total bullshit. I have pulled up too many plants in my soil bed SOG grows wondering why they didn't do as well as they plant next to them just to find out that for some reason that plant kept ~80%-90% of the roots still restricted within the peat pot. I am looking forward to using fabric nursery pots that will be removed next time around. I added 1.25ml/L of Roots Organic Nitro Bat Guano (9-3-1) to each planting hole and mixed it in to the surrounding layer as a booster nutrient. Finally, each Peat Pot, after being slit, were soaked in a solution of 100% Xtreme Tea that has bubbled for 24 hours with Malt Extract to boost the microbial population, and 5ml/L each of Great White Mycorrhizae and Xtreme Mykos to heavily inoculate the root zones. -The Avocados- Last week I was doing so research and ran across an interesting idea about worms and avocados. The worms are apparently extremely attracted to the fats in the avocado and congregated heavily in that area which leads to an increase in breeding, so more worms, if you look at the picture above you will see that this is pretty damn true. The method for this is to get over ripe avocados, cut an X into the side and give a gentle squeeze to break it open and place X side down into the soil, the worms will find it and do their thing. In my area Avocados are cheap, basically free actually, so this is a huge win for me when it comes to growing a healthy worm population for cheaper than purchasing thousands of worms. -Bacterial Analysis- So far this is not up and running yet, I got busy and didn't get my graphs prepared for this week, next week I will not be able to start this either, and to top it off my pH pen I purchased died on me. So look forward to this still coming around week 7 or 8, at that point I should have everything in place to start my trials and see how much bacterial biomass I can create in a Worm Casting Tea situation and hopefully I will also be able to do some soil samples to get an overall idea of what effect these teas may be having on the soil. And finally a plant update. -Chernobyl OG- Middle of the pack is the best way to describe these, not the rockstars of my garden this week but some real potential, I have noticed (1) plant in particular that has a slight purpling on the new growth, nothing nutrient wise I am worried about so I think this may be genetic. -Dreamband- These are my pride and joys at the moment, the growth is explosive and beautiful, much like the Chernobyl OG I have one plant in particular where the new growth is purple, but it is far more beautiful and prevalent that that on the Chernobyl OG. You can see this in an above picture, I have never encountered this but it seems to fluctuate with Temps not nutrients so again I am thinking this may be genetic. -GSC- Sad, very sad...new seeds are in the ground, that's all I've got for now. -Orange Daiquiri- This plant has recovered well from its nutrient deficiency early on, one notable feature of this is the very short and fat indica leaves it is throwing out, I expect this to be a stocky little beast when its all done. -Sundae Driver- The leaves on this one are a bit chewed up, not sure what has happened but I will be spraying at the end of the day, always good to spray during transplant in my opinion. Other than that it appears healthy and has impressive roots for its size, I think I'm going to be happy with this one. -Wedding Cake- Same story as the Orange Daiquiri, it has recovered from its nutrient deficiency early on and is growing healthy. It is slightly faster than the Orange Daiquiri but neither are going to win any awards for explosive growth. ~Update 5/13/19~ Ok so week 5, I've been a bit behind on updating so there has been a lot of growth progress since my last post. To start out you'll notice I have shifted my nutrient scheme pretty hard, I know have the Terp Tea I was intending to use along with my dry malt extract to feed the microbes, I'll go into detail further down. Since changing to the new nutrient scheme my plants have responded very well, I have seen an overall increase in vigor to every plant in my greenhouse I have feed with this. Temperatures locally are warming up which is also helping. - Aerated worm casting tea When I began this journal I intended to use an RO, aerated, worm casting tea blended inline with my carbon filtered tap water to give me a nice beneficial "water-only" source that also had benefits. the aeration was to be done by a large non-diffused air bubble source to avoid micro-bubbles that could cleave and destroying moulds that would form along side the aerobic bacterias I hoped to raise. Then once a week I was to add the Terp tea to brew for 24 hours and water that solution straight. Growth of extra bacteria and moulds would be aided by Brewers Malt extract, which in my opinion is the best possible source for bacteria grow nutrition as it contains everything from Free Amino Nitrogen (FAN) and sucrose/glucose for the quick bacterial and simple mould growth to larger proteins and Maltose for the slower growing moulds and bacterias that can actually break these larger molecules down. As a major side benefit Brewers Malt extract also contains a ton of micro nutrients, here is a link for anyone who is interested in knowing the breakdown of barley malts nutrient values https://www.muntonsmalt.com/products/nutritional-data-sheet/. I feed the malt extract at a ration of 1g/L once per day to achieve a 0.1 degree plato solution, this is a method called Batch Feeding and is generally considered to be to best way to grow and maintain yeast colonies, seems like a good option for any tea brewer. As of today this theory is just that as I am a bit nervous that my solution is going to become anaerobic and possible breed the wrong microbial life, so to address this I picked up a few of my toys from the lab and will now be monitoring my dissolved oxygen levels in mg/L to make sure that I am getting enough aeration and the population of bacteria is not overwhelming the system. I also grabbed my microscope and will be doing cell counts and maybe look into special identifications or groupings, although this may be difficult as I'm rusty with my microscope at the moment. Hopefully I will be able to get some data and make a decent study out of this, in the mean time expect some cool pictures in the coming days. - New Nutrients (Terp Tea) I've had my eyes on this since it was released, I just haven't had the right system to run it. I now have that system, my goal here is to take advantage of good quality rich, organic-microbiologicaly driven soil with this nutrient to drive home the ultimate and purest "organic-flavor" that each strain has to offer. So far the growth I have seen with this stuff is great, my plants responded to it within the week and perked up with much more vigors growth, this wasn't limited to my cannabis plants either, this was every plant in my greenhouse just suddenly seemed to wake up and grow at much faster rates. So far I'm very very pleased with this product. -The bad news So as everything else was going well and times were cheery, the Girl Scout Cookies are still not growing, the deformed one has put out some new twisted and ugly growth, at this point I am pretty sure it has a genetic defect. the second one has literally not grown in 3 week. So I put my last 2 seeds into a paper towel and will restart this whole thing again with them, I am definitely disappointed in these seeds as of today but the other seeds from this breeder are good, very good actually.

~Update 5/19/2019~ Simplicity, that was the story of this week. As I was super busy I didn't get this post up until a week later but essentially the only progression this week was adding a 5cm thick layer of worm castings followed by 4cm of shredded cedar mulch. That involved some removal of the lower leaves, I pulled all of the lower leaves until I got to the first set of 5 finger leaves, on all but the Chernobyl this meant the first two sets of true leaves and shoots. Then I watered them in and left on vacation and will continue my progress in next weeks journal. Enjoy the couple pictures I managed to get!

~5/26/19~ So I missed getting this week up in time but a quick re-cap, I have been feeding with a combination of Roots Organic Terp Tea at 30ml of dry powder per 5 gallons of Aerated RO water twice per week, this also includes Xtreme Gardens Mykos fed with 15ml of Brewers Dry Malt Extract all bubbled for 24 hrs. Once Per week I am watering with Xtreme Gardens Tea with Mykos and Brewers Dry Malt Extract bubbled for 48hrs. Overall everything is going well, plants are healthy and loving the Coco and 80/20 Coco and Worm Castings and worm casting top dress. Temps are still cooler then usual for the year but everything seems to be super happy.

~6/8/19~ PHENOTYPES Beginning Week 8 I'm starting to see a serious increase in growth and overall health in the plants, I'm also starting to see some major differences in Phenotypes. A few are even showing sex but it is too early to judge that, maybe by week 10 I can sort through the keepers, breeders, and mulchers. DreamBand The biggest difference in phenotypes is with my DreamBand it appears to have at least 3 distinct Phenotypes, the First is the Sativa Phenotype, since this plant has Sour Diesel and Haze lineage I'm not surprised it is showing, but unfortunately I am challenged on height so as much as I want a Sativa in my garden I don't think this will be the year, beautiful plant and a strong grower though. The Second Phenotype is a short indica dominate with tons of purple on all of the stems, petioles, and new growth, the stem rub smells like berries, very fruity and sweet compared to a slightly cheesy smell from the Sativa dominate one. Finally is a 3rd Phenotype that has two plants, they are middle ground, very hybrid with not dominate indica or sativa, strong growers and the first plants to show sex, at least one female so far. Chernobyl OG These are all fairly uniform with only one stand out visibly on growth is one that has showed more of a purple flush on the petioles and stem base. My favorite of the bunch though is the best grower, not by much but slightly faster, that's not why its my favorite though, most of these don't have a heavy Terpene smell when rubbed, but this one in particular has a fantastic lemony kush smell, not dissimilar from Fire OG. The rest are all Hermi Seeded so the variance isn't big at all. That said they still deserve their own mention Wedding Cake This has to be the most well rounded strong grower in the garden, the stocks are thick already, much thicker than anything else, nice tall structure but good branching, it's shaping up to be a beast of a plant. The aroma from this is fairly potent with sweet OG notes and a slight vanilla sweetness that reminds me of a bakery and why it got its name. Orange Daiquiri Orange Daiquiri is the quintessential short stubby indica, it internodes are fucking stacked and once topped the side branches came right up to the surface, but where this shines is the smell. For anyone that has followed this diary from the beginning you will remember that I was unsure of the origins of this plant because of how I found the seeds, after doing a stem rub there is 0% that these are not Orange Daiquiri, they smell 100% like oranges, just a classic tangie smell profile. Sundae Driver This one is the youngest plant but it has basically caught up in overall mass even though it is a full node behind, it did have some leaf damage early on but now appears to be fully recovered. The terps on this one are the strongest of them all, it is funky, dank, fruit, OG, and above all else it is pungent. I am stoked for this strain again, it smelled so damn good I the garden last grow I'm just hopping for some good Powdery Mildew free results this run. Girl Scout Cookies IT'S ALIVE!!! After sever weeks of pure hatred for this worthless strain I have gotten it to wake up and it might produce some viable buds, it will be small but I want to keep the cookies genetics in my personal seed collection even if it is "Abby-Normal" I still love the little monster so maybe there is some real hope after all. I honestly don't know what got it going but I have been giving it the same nutrients and mychorrizea as everything else so maybe it is just a greedy plant. ~The White Film~ So the images from this week require a quick explanation, for anyone that hasn't used Calcium Carbonate as foliar before it leaves behind a white residue once dry. I am specifically using the CalCarb from Xtreme Gardening which uses a form of calcium carbonate that rapidly breaks down into calcium and CO2, I don't think you can go wrong and it provides a nice pH barrier to help reduce powdery mildew. ~The Mycorrhizae Propagation Experiment~ After a few weeks of disappointing results on growing any Mycorrhizae in my propagator I set to doing some research and realized that without roots I was missing a specific hormone that triggers the Mycorrhizae to grow, Strigolactones to be specific. Without roots this does happen, it also seems like nobody has had much luck at mass propagating in a liquid solution, so basically I don't have a good way to grow them currently. In the future I may be able to work with a Coco medium and some plants that are compatible with both Rhizophagus Intraradices and Glomus Mosseae. Which brings me to my next revelation, if I would have done my research before starting I would have also known that Cannabis has only ever been shown to work with two strain of Mycorrhizae, TWO that's it, so virtually all products on the market have over 6 different species yet they don't do anything so your paying for less of the good stuff and more useless stuff. Not to say that it is all useless, I am a huge believer in a diverse soil ecosystem but I am really trying to maximize the best stuff, so upon finding this out I realized my Great White is a great soil builder to start with but subsequent feedings should really be left to Xtreme Gardening Mykos which is a source of Rhizophagus Intraradices with 3.6x the amount of beneficial Mycohrrizae. The only good results I did gain is that over 72 hours of aeration with two doses of Dry Malt extract at 0.1% (or 0.1 degrees plato) I had maxed out my microbial load and available oxygen. I prefer to keep a 6ppm concentration of oxygen to promote only aerobic bacteria, any less and you begin to get anaerobic bacteria, they are easy to notice because of the heavy sulphur aroma, these aren't normallyyour friends and you don't want them in your feed if you can avoid it.

~Update 07/13/19~ It's been a while, so this will be a big info drop on what has happened and how things are going today. The first thing you may have noticed in the pictures is how bad the plants looked at one point. They were beautiful plants, and I went and f*cked that up royally in the span of 4 days, more on this later. Luckily my plants are back on track and healthy once again and I have really tightened down what I am doing to avoid getting sloppy again. You probably noticed the male flower, I found my male plant so the fun little breeding project will be real! I got lucky with this, it was one of my 2 favorite plants of the bunch, again I'll jump into this later in more detail. Before we jump in, here is my current feeding schedule. Also note worthy is the plants are now potted up into their permanent homes, 45gal. ~Current and Final Nutrient Regiment~ - CalMg+ at 2ml added to every RO per gallon - ALL NUTRIENT AMOUNTS ARE ml/1gal - ALL FOLIAR done after dusk Monday - FLUSH EarlyVeg: Terp Tea V (7.5ml) LateVeg: Terp Tea V (10ml) Bloom: Terp Tea B (10ml) Tuesday VegFoliar: Plant Therapy EarlyVeg: RO Water LateVeg: RO Water Bloom: RO Water Wednesday EarlyVeg: SST Corn+Barley/Mykos + DME (5) LateVeg: SST Corn+Barley + DME (5) Bloom: SST Corn+Barley + DME(10) Thursday VegFoliar: Kelp Extract (30) BloomFoliar: Bloom Khaos (5) + Bud Factor X (5) EarlyVeg: RO Water LateVeg: RO Water Bloom: RO Water Friday EarlyVeg: Xtreme Tea + Azos/Mykos (15)+ DME (10) + NitroGuano (10) LateVeg: Xtreme Tea + Azos/Mykos (5) + DME (10) + PhosGuano (10) Bloom: Xtreme Tea + DME (10) + BudX + PhosGuano (10) Saturday (Start SST) EarlyVeg : Terp Tea V (7.5) LateVeg: Terp Tea V (10) Bloom: Terp Tea B (10) Sunday VegFoliar: Kelp Extract (30) EarlyVeg: RO Water LateVeg: RO Water B: RO Water SST = Corn 1cup/10gal & barley 0.5cup/10gal + 1ml Bloom Khaos, 18hr soak 3 days sprout ~Active Aerated Teas~ So lets talk about the evolution of my nutrient scheme, I went with the concept of a built up semi-"SuperSoil" with minimal inputs and I went a little overboard as I usual do, but finally I was able to get all of the nutrients I had set out to do in the first place. That is to say I am using RO water with a General Organics CalMg+ supplement, weekly Xtreme Worm Casting Teas, my "terpene enhancing" Roots Organic TerpTea, along with some mycorrhizae and bacteria all fed by Dry Malt Extract for 24hr as they bubble away in an actively aerated tea. Now that my schedule is consistent my plants seem extremely happy and are dealing with the heat in stride this week. Also worth talking about is how I have them spread out, basically I have such a heavily built up soil that I can't imagine feeding them daily would be a good thing so I have broken them up into a well balanced chart that feeds a little each day in a predictable and thought out way, the only thing that may not make it long run is the weekly flush, this has a lot to do with the soil I built but that is for the next part of this update. For now I went with a cycle that hits everything in a predictable way to keep consistent and hopefully not wreck my plants. ~Soil~ I went into this with a shotgun approach utilizing all of my left over nutrients from prior grows, I believe my amounts were right in the zone so I'm not overly concerned there but I am concerned about the soil composition. I wanted this bud to have the "terroir-of-the-land" in it and thought my heavily decomposed granite might have some micro nutrient value, well upon transplanting the other day I realized I added too much. My soil is now in the lowest zone very dense and compact, not very breathable and airy like I would prefer. So while I transplanted I also removed a little extra soil and mixed in some Coco and WormCastings to help break that up a bit. I think I will be fine but it's the one devil in the details that keeps me up at night, next year I intend to do a much heavier Coco and WormCasting based soil as opposed to the Sandy-Loam, peat, and Worm Castings I have this year. ~The Mishap~ So you will probably have spotted the eagle clawing and burning in the pictures, luckily at this time I can say the plants are healthy again but it was a serious scare. I've gone over the events that lead up to this devastating day in my head several hundred times to figure out what happened, so first I'll give you the events with no interpretations, then I'll explain what I believe happened and finish with explaining my corrective action. Please feel free to add your own 2 cents and maybe we can gain some extra insight into what happened and how to avoid it. Day 1: Plants Healthy, heatwave starting with early 90F+ (32.2C+) weather, preemptively sprayed with CalCarb as a calcium carbonate sunblock early in the morning just as sun is rising but hour away from direct sun, watered with filtered tap water. Day 2: Plants Healthy, heatwave hitting hard around 95F+ (35C+), Water plants with 10ml/gal of TerpTea Grow (first time at 10ml vs 7.5ml). Day 3: Plants heat stressing but healthy, instructions on CalCarb say to rinse after 36hrs, I'm at 72hrs so I rinse but instead of a water rinse I spray with Trifecta (trifecta contains an array of essential oils such as Clove, Thyme, Garlic, etc... also it contains citric acid and Acetic Acid) sprayed early in the morning as before, Watered with filtered tap water. Temps spikes today to 114F (45.5C), for everyone in Paris welcome to my normal hell. Day 4: WTF happened to my plants, burn marks on all leaves, mostly congregated on edges and veins, leaves curled into tight eagle claws, generally looks like hell. Noted similar burns on all other plants in the greenhouse treated with the same Foliar, but no nitrogen toxicity noted on other plants. Knee-jerk reaction is to flush, so I flush and flush hard, I also prep a WormCasting tea to feed the next day to replenish the soil with mild nutrients. Day 5: Nothing looks good, watered in the Xtreme Tea Worm Casting Tea. Day 6: Sever yellowing and obvious nutrient deficiency so Started a Temp Tea 7-1-1 Day 7: Just Sad, TerpTea 7-1-1 added Day 8: Dead leaves pulled to make them look very sad. NitroGuano tea 9-3-1 started and fed next day. Day 9-14: Overall stunted growth, but around day 9 new growth showed proper green color again. Day 15+: In full recovery mode, everything looks ok and they are healthy again. I personally believe that a "perfect storm" is the only way biological systems get so out of whack so I'm not going to blame one singular event here. That said I believe it all started with the Trifecta, to clarify this is a great product and I am to blame for spraying Acetic acid on calcium carbonate and not expecting a reaction. Although I couldn't see it chemistry dictates that an acid base reaction would have happened, as these reactions like baking soda and vinegar make a great cleaning agent I expect that the waxy layer was washed off my plants. I followed this reaction up with more Acetic Acid and Clove oil, two substances that in higher concentrations make excellent weed killers by removing the way layer and dehydrating the plant to death. I also did this during the day in high temperatures, with a simultaneous high nitrogen feeding. Naturally when a plant looses part or all of it's waxy layer it will evaporate more rapidly, that means it is taking up more water and nutrient. With my nitrogen feeding flooding into the plants they rapidly went into toxicity almost like a bad hydro mix. Now knowing that it had more to due with evaporation then soil nutrient concentration I know that I caused the second half of the damage with my heavy flush and slow to work organic nutrients. In the end I lost 2 weeks of vigorous growth and damn near lost my plants, the picture above are from day 4, imagine how they looked on day 8 after I pulled off 60% of each plant in dead leaves. ~The Lesson~ I learned a few things from this, like never follow up a calcium foliar spray with an acid based foliar spray. I have also changed away from Trifecta, partially due to price, partially due to self induced trauma. Currently I am using Plant therapy, a gently and better smelling product with similar results. I have also moved all sprays to night time only after the sun has gone down. My nutrient use has actually increased with the addition of Nitro Bat Guano Teas and the plants haven't complained once, they have actually been happy about it. ~The Male~ Out of all of the seeds I popped I have had 2 clear favorites, both of them were Dreamband seeds, a cross of Bluedream x Headband OG so it is quite a mix of OG, Haze, Blueberry, and Sour Diesel. The male I found from the start was the fastest sprouted and grower, it also shows some Sativa forward traits, things such as thin long leaves and tall stretching, this may not be the best for a commercial grower but it also comes with a fairly strong fruity/cheesy smell almost as potent as its purple stemmed sister. As my goal is to grow greenhouse/outdoor terpene forward plants this guy fits the bill almost perfectly. Also for bonus points the maturing early flowers are all turning a nice lavender/purple shade, so hopefully I end up with some good purple genetics. ~Breeding Project~ I have to say, I am stoked for this, to create my own strains that only my friends and I get to smoke is fun and I think I'll learn a lot by the time I'm done. Just to clarify so there is no confusion I am doing these crosses for myself, I do not intend to ever sell them so doing them is just purely for fun, if everything goes well maybe I'll stabilize them but with the still ridiculously low plant count laws we still have I can't legal do this the right way with 1000+ phenohunt and back crossing to stabilize is hard too because I am limited in the amount I can grow for my personal stash, and I really like variety so to hell with growing only 3 strains just to back-cross. One of the best things in this whole project is thinking up names for my crosses that aren't already taken so I can reference them in a legit way. One thing is for sure though, the name has to be over the top and ridiculous otherwise how could the smoke be good?😂 So if anyone can think of a better and more over the top name for these strains please let me know! Here is my current list of potential seeds from this project: Honeymoon Haze Wedding Cake (F) X Dreamband (M) Orange Dreamsicle Orange Daiquiri (F) X Dreamband (M) Unicorn Cookies Girl Scout Cookies (F) X Dreamband (M) Dae Dreamer Sundae Driver (F) X Dreamband (M) Dreamband F2 Dreamband Indica (F) X Dreamband Sativa (M) UtopiaBand Chernobyl OG (F) X Dreamband (M) ~Phenotype Selection~ Alright so lets wrap this up by talking about the particular plants I choose to keep and most importantly why. I do feel like the phenotypes I chose all had their good and bad to them but overall my selection process was dominated by a desire for the tastiest buds. As only (2) of my strains were really part of a pheno-hunt I will cover those first then finalize with updates on my selected "strongest" plants. DreamBand So this one had (3) distinct Phenos that I saw in my (4) seeds, (1) Sativa dominate, (2) Hybrids, and (1) Indica dominate that has strikingly red stems and a sweet orange/blueberry smell. In the bunch the wining smell went to the Indica, it also had the best growth structure being nice and bushy with strong side growth. The Indica also had a unique feature, its side branches are all a very deep red/purple that does not appear to be do to any nutrient issues as it has had that color since day one as a sprout. I did however find out during my mishap that it was a more delicate plant than the others. This became my pheno of choose, if I'm honest then I would have probably preferred this to be my male to pass on those red stems (hopefully flowers are colorful also) and it's structure. The runner up in smell was my Sativa, now the male, it was also the most vigorous grower in the garden and has some desirable traits, but what sets it apart to me is the wonderful sweet berry/cheese smell, reminiscent of blueberry stilton. to top this off it had lavender purple shades on its side branches from the beginning and it seems its flowers have also kept this so with any luck I will have some good purps next year. The losers here were the two I'm calling hybrid because neither showed fat or thin leaves, nor did they display any stretching or bushing, just middle of the road. To finish off their middle of the road mediocrity neither displayed a unique smell like the other two, although I'm sure they would have produced some good quality bud they didn't make the cut, so they got mulched. Chernobyl OG From the start these have not done anything too impressive but I'm hoping in flower that changes. The one thing that always stood out to me was the lack of terpenes. As with the DreamBand I had (2) in the bunch that stood out from the others and (2) that were muted in comparison, but unlike the DreamBand every plant had minimal to no smell. Of the two that did have a pleasant aroma I had (1) giving off Lemons/citrus and another giving off a Berry Kushy smell. unfortunately for the Lemony one the smell was so faint I went with the stronger berry/kushy aroma, both showed similar purpling with the Lemon forward one having a bit more but overall neither stood out. The other two that didn't make it were unique in the fact that a stem rub resulted in absolutely no fragrance at all. Wedding Cake This plant is strong, the branches are the thickest in the group so hopefully it's yield will follow suit, the smell is a sweeter kush like aroma but nothing too crazy, I'm hopping for some nice Vanilla notes in subsequent generations but we will see. Orange Daiquiri This girl is the stockiest and most stacked plant in the tent, paired with its extreme orange forward smell reminiscent of Purple Tangie I think I'm going to enjoy the hell out of this smoke but time will tell. I'm hoping to capitalize on that aroma paired with the purple of the DreamBand and the overall good terps in both will get me to my own version of a Purple tangie with better bud structure. Sundae Driver This girl is a keeper, I'm super happy I still have more of these seeds as this will be a mainstay in my grow rooms for now on. It's not just one trait that makes this girl worth growing, its several, to start with the smell is the most pungent in the greenhouse. With its signature mix of Berries, Oranges, Vanilla, and straight Funk it is what you smell when you walk in my greenhouse, and to think it we still have months until real flowers exist. Aside from the smell, the growth is strong and sturdy with a nice stalky stature, I know I will have to start worrying about Powdery Mildew later in the year as I was hit with it last grow but overall this is a hell of a strain. Anything crossed with this just has to be great. Girl Scout Cookies Yes, you read that right, Girl Scout Cookies, that deformed little seedling I wrote off and nearly killed on 3 occasions because I thought it was a lost cause is now growing strong! Its first topping was today so yields will be lower than my other strains and not much to report besides a clean bill of health as of today.

As I look out at the sunset and enjoy the sweet, skunky, and hash heavy flavor of a well dried and cured bowl of Wedding Cake, I come to realize that I really fucking missed out on documenting the more exciting parts of my first venture into greenhouse growing. As my memory isn’t going to be able to recall all of the important details I will instead end this journal with a quick overview of last years trials and successes. For starters I really learned that assuming gender in this day and age isn’t the way to go, turns out my prized Sundae driver Feminized seed was a dude in disguise the whole time. In fact it wasn’t even Sundae Driver at all, if it had been then the seeds from a hermi’d female plant pollinating itself would be female 100% but I got a male. If anyone knows otherwise please do share I would be interested to know as the odds of a male cannabis plant growing near mine are astronomical to say the least. But with the complex and amazing aroma and just amazing growth of this plant now known as Sundae’s Best forced me to reconsider my other breeding project and instead used this male. I will follow all of this up along with the more memorable details of each strain in the harvest section along with pictures and smoke reports. I found my plants ranged from the pungently orange tasting smoke of my life to the most off putting Amarillo Hop flavored smoke, some plants went to bubble hash while others were cured and put into a jar to cure for a few months. For anyone that followed this and enjoyed it, you will have another chance this year to follow my grow, The same greenhouse, new premium soil, and lessons learned from last season will hopefully keep the work down so I can keep the journal updated the whole cycle. Hope to see you this year!

Well this strain turned out killer! Couldn’t be much more pleased with it, from the get fo the structure of the plant was very sturdy and put out some great fat leaves to catch the suns rays, not unlike a smaller Bubba Kush. When it came to the smell it had a unique Creamy baked goods even Vanilla cake like notes to it, not sure if that’s why it got its name but from my experience it could be, it’s uniquely “round and fat” smelling and comes with a nice Kush and skunk backdrop for flavor that lightly coats the tongue on the exhale. Overall the flavor was really good but not the most pungent I’ve ever had so I’d give it 8/10. The high is mellow, relaxing, and happy. Excellent for pain relief, watching Tiger King, or trying to forget that the world as we know it has ceased to exist and in its place is some plague infested hellscape ran by a cheeto colored moron telling us all the shoot-up bleach to stay healthy...I’m gonna need some more of this strain before it’s all over.

Ok so this all boils down to one problem with the plant that crippled it, that problem is getting root bound. You’ll remember early on in this journal I mentioned I’d had issues in the past with the biodegradable Peat Pots and I took the action of running a knife threw the pots to give the roots better roads out. Well it didn’t help in this case, after it was pulled the roots were all matted up inside of the shitty peat pot, so I’m done with them forever. This root bound caused such bad stress in the plant that it began to flower early, I got the plant back up to health but the damage was done. I did everything I knew that could help and the plant did revert back to veg and then flowered at the appropriate time, unfortunately this meant the flowers that had begun early and were just 1-5 calyx each died inside of the clusters and rotted out half of the buds before I harvested 2 weeks ahead of schedule. The high is short lived and pretty lively, a good smoke for work so that’s good. But the FLAVOR is ridiculous! It’s tastes pungently of Orange flavored cough syrup or over the top levels of Tang drink. So I guess it wasn’t a total waste, but between it’s terrible yield and pathetic high I just can’t help but imagine what it could have been. As an extra kicker none of the clones too due to the stress and no seeds were crossed from this, that is the real shame.

Overall I couldn’t get excited about this strain. It always was the smaller, less pungent, and sickly cousin to the Wedding Cake. It is striking how similar the buds look, the difference was Wedding cake was frostier, sweeter, and bigger; it did come with some dark orange hairs that kind of looked cool I guess. That coupled with its finicky start and just ok yield makes me not want to grow it again.

Although the harvest was low and took forever, a full 3 weeks later than any other plant. The plant was amazing in most ways from a color stand point it had bright maroon red stems through its life, it ended up with the coolest collage of yellow, reds, and lime green at harvest. The trichome coverage was extensive and greasy, and the aroma of fresh lemon-lime fruityness was so refreshing. Disease like mold or insect was so minimal this plant practically grew itself. The yield wasn’t great but hey who cares when you have buds this good and easy to grow. One downside I have found is this is a paranoid high so inexperienced smokers need not apply, great energy though if you want to get out in your garden, just don’t plan on smoking this If you have meeting or anything require brain power, too strong! Also worth noting is the loose leaf structure of this did very well in the Trim bag.

All in all, this strain would have impressed 16 year old me, but that was pretty easy back in the day. Today I wouldn’t smoke it, I did turn it into hash then compost so not all was wasted but truely it was a wasted year to grow this plant. It was highly susceptible to mold and powdery Mildew so defoliation to prevent spread was a weekly occurrence and the smell that I do cherished this pheno for never emerged in the final smoke, it’s flavor was weak and tasted like the weed I smoked in high school so pretty mediocre. The harvest looked impressive with huge buds but once all of the leaves were removed I was actually left with some pretty light airy buds. Sadly that’s All I have on this one, good genetics but just not a winning pheno like I had thought.

Well if nothing else I was able to permanently add the Sundae Driver genetics to my Grow line up. I intend to keep breeding my own backyard genetics in this way and hopefully this as one of my base starts. From these crosses I have kept the Chernobyl OG x Sundae and the Wedding Cake x Sundae, all of the parent plants performed exceedingly well and very importantly they had Terp profiles I loved, so all in all this was a happy surprised.