Ice Cream Cake (DWC)

MontanaManMedical The week count is not an accident. I was using different nutrients and had some reservoir problems. Over a month later after switching back to Lotus, replacing the reservoir as I did, and the plant has finally bounced back. I’ll be switching over to flowering starting on Saturday. Given that this is apparently a 75% Indica, I doubt it will stretch that much. I’m not sure the breeder, as it was a freebie I got a year or so ago. I’m curious what I’ll get after the roughly 8 week flowering time.

MontanaManMedical I switched to 12/12 on Saturday, so this Saturday will be the 1st week of flowering and this diary will be updated on Saturday from now on. As you can see, growth is steady and the plant looks hardy. I’m curious how much stretch I’ll get with such a heavy indica.

MontanaManMedical The first week of flowering has passed and the plant is already showing signs of flowering. The stretch wasn’t that bad so far, and the color on the newer leaves is nice. The plant might stretch a few more inches in the next week or so, but I’m not worried about it getting too close to the light.

MontanaManMedical She’s still stretching, so I’ve begun to pinch the stems to keep that to a minimum, as I don’t want the canopy much taller than what it currently is. I’m not pinching the lower branches yet, so hopefully the plant will redirect the energy into those branches, which hopefully will be the same height as the higher ones are right now. I’ve cut off the Myco+ and Nitro-Mino, as well as the amount of Cal-Mag, as the plant was showing signs of a little too much. I’ll see how she looks next week and make further adjustments if necessary. I’m used to more nitro and other nutrients, as I love Sativas and have learned to deal with their stretch. The addition of Boost should cause rapid bud development.

MontanaManMedical I chopped several of the lower branches a little bit after I took the photos last week. In retrospect I should’ve done that the prior week. This improved the light situation with the plant, which finally stopped stretching, a little bit higher than I wanted, but not by too much. The remaining branches are budding up quite nicely. Things seem stable, so hopefully this means a nice harvest. There’s no smell yet, but that’s not much of a surprise this early in.

MontanaManMedical Turns out my water is back to being hard, at over 500ppm. So I’ve ditched the Cal-Mag for now. That should fix the problems in each of my plants, which were showing the signs of excess. The last little bit of stretch is over with and the heat where the main cola is isn’t much higher than elsewhere in the tent. Growth of buds is steady. Still no smell.

MontanaManMedical She continues to swell as the plant seems to have recovered from the excess cal/mag caused by the once again hard water. There’s still no smell, but I have a feeling that will be on its way. I’m really curious about this strain. Like a lot of the gelatos, I’ve heard of them, but haven’t had the chance to try.

MontanaManMedical On Wednesday we were hit with the strongest wind storm that I’ve personally experienced in my 16+ years in Montana. I lost power for roughly 2 hours. My lights and inline fans are surge protected, but only my air pumps have battery backup, as larger UPS units are REALLY expensive and wouldn’t last that long anyway. After about 90 minutes my UPSs began chirping constantly, alerting me to the fact that they were low on battery power. Thinking quickly, I shut off the air pumps that were getting the 3 buckets in the veg tent ready for the next set of strains I’ll be growing, and dumped out the water. I quickly moved each plant from its feeding bucket to the empty bucket. I then smoked a hemp cone full of Desfrán as I waited for the power to be restored. Once it was, I quickly moved the plants back and began powering up the UPSs. Close call! She’s swelling up quite nicely. Squeezing the buds reveals how dense they’re getting. She now has a slight smell after squeezing, with your fingers smelling a little bit like sweet ice cream cake. Simply amazing! I’m looking forward to the next few weeks even more now. I’ve grown Wedding Cake S1 and loved it, so this should be more of the same.

MontanaManMedical She continues to swell up as she enters the final two weeks of flowering. The smell is even more pronounced, with a little bit of sweetness hitting your nose every time you open up the tent. I’ve been tapering down the nutrients as usual, and will be feeding the plant for the final time next week, before harvesting on January 10,2026. This is really shaping up to be something special!