Apple Fritter [Auto #3]

Muuuy Our little ones are growing rapidly! We passed the first week and everything is looking pretty. Included CalMag into every watering due to our osmosis system. This is plant #3/3. It's the tallest one of them; the 2cm are no significant difference, though.

Muuuy Second week of our Apple Fritter Experiment! Our Ladies are still growing strong, increasing in height every day. No problems occured so far, everything's going as planned. We spotted an increase of red colouring inside of the petioles of plant #2 compared to the other ones! Might be the first indicator of a different phenotype? This is plant #3/3. Nothing to say at all. She's growing. Just like she should. Looking good!

Muuuy Just look at these fine ladies! All of them are growing nicely, even showing signs of early flower phase already. #3 was getting a few yellow spots on the tips of the leaves, which indicated nutrient deficiency, so we included some in the watering for all plants; additional to the already provided CalMag. We have to constantly monitor and adjust the lamp, so #3 doesn't grow too closely to it. Since the other two would be too far away from the light source, we made sure to place them in an elevated position. This is plant #3/3. She was the first one showing signs of pre-flower but also the first one with a small nutrient-defiency though. We got ahead of it and now she's looking like a fine, ordinary grow!

Muuuy Week 4 is flower-week! All of our ladies showed signs of pre-flower last week, now there are already visible buds growing. We had to adjust the height of #1 & #2 once again because #3 is just growing crazy. Can't go any higher than the current position without redesigning our whole setup so this will be the final adjustment (hopefully!). #2 is obviously very different from the other ones, she's a little behind in growth. Though, she does have outstanding red colored petioles in comparison to her mostly just green sisters. We increased the amount of nutrients for them since they'll need much more now. This is plant #3/3. She grows way too high for our liking but that's what we expected from the beginning anyways. We continuosly had to adjust the light and the height of the other plants until we can't go higher right now. So wherever #3 wants to grow to now, she's probably getting sunburned from our lamp.

Muuuy Welcome to week 5! #1 and #3 are developing the same red-coloring on their petioles like #2 did from the very beginning! Buds are growing nicely, getting visibly bigger everyday. Smell went from a rather unpleasant sweet-sour aroma to an almost pure sour scent. We set the humidity to 55% for all of our ladies to prevent budrot, since they are definitly in flower right now (big shoutout to our dehumidifier working his butt off). We noticed, that we need to water them more often; we just checked the pots and were greeted by a very dense rooting system. Being used to a big 20L pot we didn't expected that kind of thirstiness! This is plant #3/3. She's still growing in height like crazy, thats why she's already got some burn marks on the top leaves. The perfect example of Icarus flying too close to the sun! Apart from that, she's doing fine, developing buds, that grow bigger everyday. A few signs of nutrient deficiency are visible, but nothing to worry about, as we adjusted the nutrient intake a bit further. We're still hoping, that she won't grow in height anymore, otherwise she would end up directly inside our lamp.

Muuuy Week 6, still going/growing strong! Yep, we raised the lamp again. We had to, because silly plant #3 just wouldn't stop growing directly into it, of course getting sunburned like crazy while doing so. #1 and #2 are now slowly starting to differentiate more and more. While #1 stopped growing in height at all, #2 almost grew 10cm this week. She's still, and will always be, lacking behind, though. The early induced stress was most likely the reason for that, could be a phenotypical thing as well. Today we defoliated all of them a bit, removing old leaves and the ones, that would get in the way of the light hitting the buds underneath. This is plant #3/3. She's a mess, having all those nutrient deficiency and burn marks on her leaves. They even curl up a bit at the very top! But I guess that's all part of the experiment, even if it hurts a bit so see that!

Muuuy Already in week 7 of our little experiment! They are all growing slower while prioritizing on thickening their buds. #3 is still and will for ever be a problem, though! But we have definitly learned a lot from our fine ladies so far. The smell is getting better every week, mostly consisting of a sour-apple-ring-aroma, which is actually kinda delicious! Adjusted nutrient intake by increasing the amount of Bio-Grow because #2 showed signs of deficiency by her leaves slowly turning pale. Watering every two days due to them living in that small 4,4L pot and probably having an dense root system by now. This is plant #3/3. Absolutely a one-of-a-time kind of thing for us! She's constantly trying to hug the lamp by growing that high, it's hilarious. Buds are developing fine, while the leaves are constantly screaming of getting burned. No possibility of changing her conditions though, so she just has to live with that until it's time to harvest!

Muuuy Welcome to fabulous week 8! The ladies are looking fantastic, they have stopped growing in height and are focussing on thickening their buds. Definitly developing sugar leaves, especially #2 tried her best to catch up to her sisters and now she's actually the one with the most frosty looking leaves, which will also prove our thesis of her differentiating from the others due to genetics. Smell intensified a bit, but didn't change much this time. Reduced the amount of Bio-Grow again as they are looking pretty fine now. This is plant #3/3. Probably the most boring one of them. Still burning in the "sun" but developing some huge, thick buds! Unbelievably happy that she stopped growing in height, though!

Muuuy Week 9 and still looking fine! Not much happening right now, we don't expect them to grow in height anymore. We're just waiting for the buds to grow thicker and the trichomes to ripen until ~20% have an amber color. We took a look at them under our microscopic lens and estimated about 2-3 weeks until harvest, but we will constantly check them from now on. Their smell is slowly growing stronger, mostly consisting of sour aromas. This is plant #3/3. Nothing special about her. She's just huuuge af! :D

Muuuy Week 10, slowly getting there! Buds are definitly thickening in every plant. When comparing the trichomes at each main bud you can clearly tell that #3 is ripening quicker, or at least the main bud is, which, in addition, is the closest one to the light. Pretty happy how they turned out so far. Added some sticky traps to cope with our gnat fly infestation. Adjusted the amount of Bio-Grow, as they won't grow much anymore and therefore won't need that much. Personally I don't like the smell that much, it has a pretty sharp sour aroma and didn't change much in the last few weeks. This is plant #3/3. Handling her is definitly difficult to say the least. She's pretty build into the growing tent, making it easy for her branches to grow upwards without needing a strong structure to hold themselves. When making pictures today one of those branches snapped due to the lack of structural support from the other plants. Tried to fix it using tape and a wooden stick, let's see how it goes!

Muuuy Welcome to smelly Week 11! And by smelly I really mean SMELLY. They are developing a very unpleasant sour aroma, although when handling them or just slightly touching the buds, it's not that bad anymore. Still rather stinky in my opinion, I would prefer something fresher. Their buds are thickening even more and the trichomes are slowly ripening to the prefered stage. Adjusted the amount of Bio-Grow even further now, also decreasing the amount of CalMag due to the results of a small water analysis we did earlier last week. This is plant #3/3. Nothing interesting to say about her! (:

Muuuy Week 12 and we're still not there yet! However, the ladies are growing thicker every week. #2 & #3 are growing so thick, they can barely support the weight of their own buds. Really have to be careful when handling them, the risk of snapping a branch by accident is way too high right now. The reason for that is probably due to the crowded space in the growbox, in which there isn't much airflow despite having the little fan running nonstop when the light is on. Looking at the trichomes they can all take a few more weeks, just have to be patient now! This is plant #3/3. Had to fix one of her branches about 2 weeks ago and thankfully it really worked, but handling her is almost impossible at this stage right now. Her buds are definitly way too heavy for her stem and branches, so everything is already bend to the sides of the growbox. Really excited to harvest that one to be honest, just to make sure not to snap another twig.

Muuuy Beginning of week 13 was harvest time! Checking the trichomes on their main buds led to the decision to harvest them. Almost all of them had already milky looking heads and some of them even turned amber. Their incredibly sour smell was barely tolerable as well. Made the decision to harvest them all at once, so the grow room can be turned into a drying room for them. Since this is considered an experiment after all, we wanted to try out wet trimming as well to compare it to the dry trim we're used to. So considering #3 had the least amount of effort due to the low amount of head buds overall, we choose that one to be wet trimmed. It surely was a very sticky and still time-consuming activity, but we're pretty happy with the result. Can't wait to see and taste them when they're finally ready, dried properly and cured a bit! This is plant #3. Plant #3 was the one being wet trimmed, leaving that super smelly, sour apple aroma in the air until the day after, of course, sticky hands while trimming included! She was pretty easy to trim, yet dry trimming seems to be just a lot more easier and relaxed by having the leaves fall down more effortlessly then without sticking to just everything.