Primetime Grow

Commander_Keen The first days of the germination phase are now over, just like the first week after the first serrations appeared on the leaves. The documentation thus begins here in the veg phase, week 2, day 1. If you count from the point when the seedlings pushed through the soil with their seed caps... we're at day 12. But I think the preamble is more informative. When I talk about the veg phase, the appearance of the plant counts for me, and I start counting the days from the appearance of the first serrated shapes on the leaves. How was it planted? Well, first the very airy substrate was mixed with 2.5g BioGrow / L + Dynomyco Mycorrhiza and completely lightly moistened, then filled into 1L Airpots and pressed down. Afterwards, I removed the substrate-fertilizer mixture in the shape of a small seedling pot in the center and replaced it with lightly moistened substrate without any additional fertilizer. The previously soaked seeds landed in there and germinated on the second day. The third lady in the bunch was supposed to be a Garlic Budder from Humboldt Seeds, but she was removed after a few days and a curious start with deformed growth. None of the replacement seeds germinated, so it looks like all the attention this round will go to the two ladies mentioned above. Let's see if this will be a speedrun or a lovingly nurtured grow. The lights were hung in such a way that I measured just over 200 µmol/m²/s with a VBR-100 PAR meter. I’m starting the week with this intensity and will check the growth every day, gradually increasing the intensity evenly to 400 µmol/m²/s by the end of the week. The exhaust is still running in intervals, every 2 hours for 5 minutes, pulling in fresh air into the tent at a very low level. Additionally, a USB oscillating fan hanging from the ceiling turns on at random intervals, blowing just over the tops of the plants, providing movement without blowing the little ones away. At the opposite end of the tent, a towel is stretched out, which, when moistened, maintains a pretty decent 60% RH over a long period. The whole setup is tracked with a Bluetooth hygrometer. Update 10.10. The humidifier is now in front of the air inlets in the tent. The towel is gone, even though it worked really well! Currently, the RH is nicely stable in the 60% range. It’s enough to turn on the humidifier now and then when fresh air is cycled in. So far so good with the introductory words - let it grow. Update 13.10. The Blueberry Muffin leaves are mutating... no idea if I should sort them out too, or just ride it out until the mutant bloom 😆 The Purple Kush looks good. Update 14.10. It’s rooting hard through the pot, so repotting into the 10L final pot. The HP substrate mixed 1:1 with Plagron grow + a bit under half the dose of Greenhouse Feeding grow (2.5g /L) + more Dynomyco Mycorrhiza. I want to maintain the super drainage capability of the HP while having an even nutrient distribution of a pre-fertilized soil. I topped it off with the Greenhouse feeding. I mixed in a slight gradient. Weaker fertilization around the plant and the lower layers have a bit more, so the plant can grow into nutrient-rich areas and won’t get shocked after repotting :). It was an idea, let’s see how it goes.

Commander_Keen Everything is growing nicely. And indeed, the Blueberry Muffin might finally be showing the first non-mutated leaves. The light intensity has been increased to 400 µmol/m²/s.

Commander_Keen Today, I watered with Greenhouse Booster and removed the lowest layer of leaves and shoot tips. I'm still a bit unsure, but actually, topping shouldn't be done this time because the focus is more on time. A round of topping usually takes... 1, 2 weeks?

Commander_Keen It's day 29 since the beginning of the vegetative phase. Aside from removing a few leaves that were completely in the shade, nothing has happened. It's time to apply the bloom nutrients, and then after a few days of transitioning to 12h/12h, the flowering will start. I think the transition will take about three days, during which the light will be gradually adjusted.

Commander_Keen Day 36 since the start of vegetation and Day 5 since the complete switch to 12/12 lighting. Today, the second watering was done with Greenhouse Feeding Bio Enhancer. A concentration of 1g/L was used with a total watering volume of 1.25L per plant. Aside from the fact that the plants occasionally bend the outermost tips downwards, while otherwise appearing healthy, I am satisfied. Still have about a week to let them stretch before flowering. Grown on.

Commander_Keen It's week two of flowering. The ladies are still stretching nicely and getting thirstier. The lamp is already running at 100%. Since I just want to be quick this time and create little stress, I've defoliated less than ever before. The Purple Kush is really bushy, so some defoliation will be necessary after the stretch. I've tied some branches outwards to at least open the plant a bit. The Blueberry Muffin is different. It has gained good volume and height and is now almost the same height. It grows more airy on its own, so significantly more light is already reaching the plant. Overall, it's really nice to see how it has developed after starting with mutated leaves. So far, everything looks quite healthy. At the time of the photos, the ladies were surprisingly dry; they can no longer manage with 1.25L every two days, at least the Purple Kush. And I've noticed that the position of the plant in the tent is quite significant. Since I still have good space around the plants, the air circulation doesn't run continuously. Every hour, the circulation turns on and runs randomly for at least 20 minutes straight. A fan on the floor distributes fresh air, and a fan above the plants stirs the air above the ladies. Now, here comes the influence of the plant's position in the tent. There are two air inlets on one side at the bottom, and from there, the airflow goes directly diagonally up to the carbon filter, which hangs almost in the middle of the tent. Thus, the plant at the air inlet is in a constant draft. The other one feels significantly less, if anything, and you can tell that this affects the water consumption of the ladies.

Commander_Keen We are on day 19 since the complete switch to 12/12 and day 50 since the start of vegetation. It's getting more interesting for several reasons. The most important one - the ladies have stretched nicely. The Blueberry Muffin... has become airier on its own, all side branches are nicely free. Keep in mind that not much defoliation or wild tying was done. I like the structure. In the next run, the strain will be back in action. Then with more training. In terms of scent, it hasn't really made an appearance yet. No worries, I firmly believe the smell will start soon. I think I'd be the first person for whom a Blueberry Muffin doesn't smell delicious - and I'm just going to reject that idea 😆 The Purple Kush. I had no expectations for the strain since I found only a few reports beforehand. But Kush should be in the mix this time, and I had a freebie in the fridge. So far, I’m really excited about the plant. Like the Blueberry Muffin, it looks absolutely vibrant. Very compact and bushy. Completely green. At some point, it will be back in action and then with training. In terms of scent, it’s starting to become slightly noticeable that we are in flowering. And what I’m smelling is an enticing aroma. I’d describe it as velvety spicy, but not sharp - classic Kush, delicious. As you can see, the ladies are still thickly dressed... Defoliation is scheduled (today?) for later. The first leaves and shoots of the Kush have just fallen... unfortunately, already before I took the first picture... hence at the end 👆 a picture from recently with absolutely all the laundry under the skirt. It will also be exciting to deal with unwanted guests. Fungus gnats have moved in and received a dose of neem oil with bio enhancer today. Since I think the flowering will last longer than 8 weeks, there was a BioBloom top dressing with about 10g per 10L pot. So, the course should be set to have enough nutrients until the end. The enhancer will go into the gruel water every 2 weeks, and that should be it unless any problems arise. So far, everything is good in this relatively freely growing run... OK, the fungus gnats still need to go, but luckily there aren’t too many yet, and it shouldn’t get worse. Edith 21.11. I removed more sun sails and too low flower sites. I was rather cautious and not too wild about it. However, there is now a noticeably better exposure.

Commander_Keen The stretch is over and a light resinous coating is forming on the buds. It looks like the Blueberry is missing some nitrogen. The oldest fan leaves that were still there have noticeably aged, meaning they've turned yellow.

Commander_Keen It's going on and on. Unfortunately, the pictures are a bit late coming online, but they are from the middle of this week, so it still fits. There were 2 days in between where the ladies didn't get enough water. They were never completely dry, though. I have no idea if that led to the deficiencies appearing, or if it's just normal. This time I really left a lot of leaves on the plants, and then didn't remove as much foliage during flowering. But it could also be a VPD issue. In the meantime, I gave a bit of BioBizz Grow, which I still had. But I don't think it will do much anymore. It will probably just end like this. The scent is noticeably more intense, the Blueberry Muffin really smells nice like blueberries, very interesting. It gets really delicious when you rub the leaves. The Sensi also smells very strong, currently her scent dominates, even though the Blueberry Muffin looks frostier. I wonder if the fresh air supply could have something to do with the deficiencies. Actually, the Blueberry shouldn't be a heavy feeder if I'm correctly informed. Both have the same substrate-fertilizer mix. The Purple Kush is next to the air inlets, which are both located at the bottom on one side. The carbon filter hangs almost in the middle. The constant fresh air flow pulls from the inlets diagonally to the center up to the filter. So the air is constantly flowing through the Purple Kush. Every hour, a circulation fan above the flowering canopy turns on for about 20-30 minutes and also creates air movement through the Blueberry Muffin. I have the impression that the Purple Kush is transpiring a bit more and thus pulling more nutrients. For the next run, I'm considering adding an air inlet with a hose and placing it in the opposite corner so that fresh air comes from both corners in the tent and flows more evenly through all the plants. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that I've had a Q1W hanging for over a week now. It's also lighting up the Purple Kush additionally, quite close, so that the first tier after the headbud gets good lighting too. I once did this with a Mimosa x Orange Punch from Barney and it produced one of the most potent buds I had up to that point. Let's see what this one gives....

Commander_Keen It's now day 72 since the start of vegetation and day 42 of flowering. The ladies look more mature than they are; I suspect the nitrogen deficiency is causing things to go a bit differently than 100% ideal. The scent is beautifully intensifying. The blueberry aroma is really very intense. Since I was away for a week, they were well watered, and I installed a WiFi-enabled drip irrigation system. It's nice to be able to control the watering remotely and see if it's working. And now we come to my deluxe carelessness... the pump has a really nice green LED for the power supply indicator! I just happened to notice it today when I briefly opened the tent 2 minutes after the dark phase started. I felt completely different when I saw how bright the LED was in the tent! I hope I didn't trigger any hermaphroditism; that condition has been present for exactly a week now. At least it's a green LED; I really hope it didn't ruin the run. It's pretty close to the end, maybe 3-4 weeks until harvest, I estimate. I've switched to my DSLR camera now; as you can see, I still need to practice with it, so please be patient until the photos of the settings are top-notch. I don't want to keep testing for too long since it already smells too strong. :)

Commander_Keen We are on day 50 of flowering. The plants are clearly approaching the finish line again. Another week of absence unfortunately meant auto-watering only. But the climate values are nice and consistent, staying around 26 degrees / 50% humidity during the day and 20 degrees at night. This continuity without fluctuations should actually be good for the plants. The smell is increasing, and the buds seem to be swelling a bit more. I'm already on the lookout for the first amber trichomes, but I don't really see any. Edit 12/23. I don't see any amber trichomes? Aha - I see. The Blueberry is going to be a Christmas gift 😄. I just checked with my new magnifying glass after the dark phase started (a great gift from a grow shop when buying a Sanlight Stixx) and I did see some amber trichomes. It's five to twelve for the harvest. The purple colors of the Blueberry Muffin are really nice. More pictures will follow before the harvest.

Commander_Keen It's day 57 of flowering in the photos. I'm only watering now and watching the Purple Kush get a bit riper and hopefully catch up to the Blueberry. The Blueberry is almost done; I can't see the 20% amber trichomes yet, but everything indicates that it will be soon. The Blueberry still smells very strongly of... blueberries, closely followed by something earthier. I'm curious if I can manage to keep this fruity aroma somewhat intact. The earthier accent that follows is familiar to me and will surely be tasty. The Purple Kush is lagging a bit in ripeness, just as expected if it's going according to breeder's specifications. But we're soon going to be in a reasonable range for harvesting here as well. The aroma is somewhat classically sweet cannabis-like; I have no idea how to describe it right now. For me, it's really delicious. A bit weaker in intensity than the Blueberry, but still very good. Both plants have clearly gained a frostier appearance. However, the Blueberry still looks whiter; you can tell the strain is about 1 week to 10 days faster than the Purple Kush.

Commander_Keen It's day 61 of flowering. As you can see, the finish line is almost reached. The tent smells delicious. The Purple Kush has caught up with its sweet "Classic Weed scent" and definitely dominates the overall aroma in the tent. But when I rub the trichomes, it's clear that the Blueberry is something else. I've never smelled such extreme berry notes on a cannabis plant - truly impressive. The scent has evolved with the ripeness. It now smells like very ripe fruits with an increasingly stronger earthy tone that follows the fruity beginning. This is going to be something, I'm excited.

Commander_Keen When looking at the trichomes in the dark, only with the LED of the magnifying glass, I see a lot of cloudy trichomes and at least 20% amber on the Blueberry. On the Kush, a bit less, but everything is still milky, porcelain-like in appearance. It's flower day 64 when the scissors come into play. Currently, the ladies are hanging upside down in the tent at 18 degrees and 62 & RLF. The goal is to keep these values roughly for 7-10 days. After that, they will be partially cured in jars with Integra Boost Packs and partially without dry packs in Terp Loc Groove Bags.

Commander_Keen It was a joy throughout the entire run. Nice and vibrant in the grow, quite a bit of foliage, and bushy in structure compared to the Blueberry Muffin. It's advisable to pull the branches a bit outward to get light into the plant. Possibly also a bit more defoliation is recommended if grown closely with other plants. You can see it well, it roots nicely in the substrate.