The Garden 2026-2 - MSNL Blue Cookies

00110001001001111O Total days - 6 to 8 depending on seedling. In future weeks, this will be based on 'today' being day 7. It will make a difference early on but no discernable difference later on. Blue cookies is on their way. All of them look strong and viable. Not much to say at this stage. Climate is less than optimal. Humidifier is struggling to maintain 40% and is often less than that. The reusable wick is not as effective as the throw-away wicks, so i'll see if that helps. Second humidifier will be used in drying room, so I may just have to suffer through a less than ideal growth rate.

00110001001001111O Totdal days (avg): 14 Potted up to 1 gallon on day 13. Some plants were begging for it and a couple were lagging behind pace. Because of the excellent outcome in 2026-1, yield is irrelevant beyond principle. Only potted up 9 and a couple of those are on the smaller side. There are 2 factors related - RH% wasn't well-controlled the first few days and onyl 1 of 6 HSC seeds produced a viable plant.. possibly 2 if the other grows out of its mutation. So, cutting down to 8 plants will not be much of a decision in 10-12 days. Since production is irrelevant, I'll favor variety a bit more. Blue Cookies looks good. No transplant shock for the 431st time, lol. Just kidding on the precise number but it's a fairly accurate estimate, too. These plants have similar structure and consistent growth rates. No problems expected. Not much to type out. Things are boring. Temperatures are warmer under the FC4800, so that should help. Humidifier is keeping things 52-55% RH. 2026-1 harvests should be out of the way by the time these need to be potted up into 5 gallons. ----------------------------- Forgot to write out some goals for this grow in germination week: -Further streamline incorporation of 0-12-26 No-N Part A -Adjust 12-cola training -- Be more flexible about it. Some may be better off with 10 or 11 colas. There was enough room for 12 colas on the more ideally growing plants, but anything on the small side is better off with fewer. Most goals/changes from 2026-1 went well, so it's more a matter smoothing things out.

00110001001001111O Total Days - 21 Pruned off lowest pair of axilla. Topped all but one Vanilla Creme Pie. I'll let them recover a minimum five days before potting up to final 5-gallon pots and moving to the big tent. All three of the Blue Cookies are phenomenol plants. Best strain of the bunch so far in vegetative phase. They are all growing fast and displaying ideal structure. Vegetative phase only paints a partial picture, but it certainly correlates to good results. I'm not 100% sure how many of these plants I will flower. I may drop down to six plants instead of eight. I can box up one of the 226w DIY lights, If I do. If i do go with six, it'd be hard to not include all three of these Blue Cookies. Think the 2 smaller PE and 1 smaller VC would be eliminated. Even though yield isn't too important for this cycle, taking the worst plant and culling one of the strongest is difficult to justify. The climate is well-balanced with eight plants. Going with six may add the hassle of running a humidifier to make up the difference. Not much else to say. Early vege is a bore. Just waiting around... filling humidifier reservoir... fertigating to runoff. Same shit; different day (SSDD).

00110001001001111O Total days above ground: 28 Well, these have been delayed by a very slowly developing Mountaintop Mint from 2026-1 grow. They are showing a little stress lately. Drooping and less than ideal pigmentation. They should have been transplanted day 21-24, ideally. Intend to harvest MM and pot these up to 5 gallons tonight. While growth up top has slowed, I'm confident the roots will be thick, so they should improve quickly after potting up. I'll give a minimum 10 days before flip to flower after that point. If i need to go to 40 days of vege phase, that's tenable, too. Whatever I choose to do, next week will show marked improvement across the canopy and they'll be days away from starting flower phase. I'm about a week behind compared to 2026-1, but I expect to make up some of that ground after potting up.

00110001001001111O - Total days above ground: 35 Lazy update this week. Procrastination mode is on. No individual plant photos this week. I don't even have a plant map, So, I'm not sure what each plant is by location at this moment. I need to do some canopy management tonight, but fuck it. I'll put it off until tomorrow because I like to self-sabotage. They'll get a little less time to recover than normal heading into flower. They are healthy and happy, so I doubt there will be any repercussions. Second humidifier is still tied up in the drying area, so VPD continues to be less-than-ideal. By the time I flip to flower, the climate will be in a much better place. I'll have to cut some corners and get a little creative to mitigate the effects of a suboptimal vege phase. Things will turn out fine, but inevitably fall a bit short of expectations. I'll selectively prune lower axilla and top tomorrow but leave a couple opportunities for cuttings. Hopefully, there's enough growth for a proper clone by flip to flower (day 40). A second breeding cycle may or may not happen.

00110001001001111O - Total days above ground: 42 Total flower nights: 2 We'll call this a vegetative week, but it's now on a 12/12 schedule the last couple nights. VPD has been an ongoing struggle, but now that previous drying cycle is done, two beefy humidifiers should maintain a proper RH until the canopy produces enough moisture on its own. So, the less than ideal climate and delayed potting up to 5 gallons has added 3-5 days to the vegetative cycle. I took cuttings from 3 of the stronger plants. The look healthy, but a bit under-sized, so we'll see if enough root for a 2nd fem breeding cycle. Three Blue Cookies plants pictured - 2nd plant in front row and 2nd and 3rd plant in back row

00110001001001111O - Total days above ground: 49 Total flower nights: 9 Procrastinating on some training. I will bend the primary branches into a more distributed pattern, which will also improve light absorption and penetration, so sooner is better than later. Blue cookies are some fine plants. Excellent strcutre and easy to work with. Enough branching but not so much you have to do a bunch of extra work thinning it out. Once again, the consistent growth pattern of MSNL plants is clearly something they select for in the breeding process. Progression of canopy is shown from day 28 - 49. The Blue Cookies plants are shown in the same order each week (while in the big tent), if you want to compare individual growth of plants over time.

00110001001001111O - Total days above ground: 56 Total flower nights: 16 Got a little more stretch than I prefer. If i had to guess, I'd attirbute it to maintaining a proper RH. As stated in earlier weeks, i was not able to maintain RH as one of the humidifiers was used in the drying area. Growth improved immediately, but obvioulsy the plants could handle more light per day than previous and they reached higher for more intense light. The node spacing is good at the top, now, so I'll just maintain the current light distance going forward. I spread the plants out with wire and stretched out the 2nd trellis net. Another 7-10 days of vege growth remains. Anything that doesn't reach it probably doesn't need additional support. A few plants already have a few nodes above it. I wasn't certain it would fill in fully given vege vpd and less-than-ideal growth rate, but the remaining vege growth should fill in at least 99% of the space. It just took an extra vege time and starting flower a bit sooner than I would normally relative to plant size. Ended up being a good guesstimate to fill in the space and reduced pruning needs. I only took 1 set of axilla off above first net on most branches. Think one was a bit bushier than the others, but don't recall which strain it was.

00110001001001111O - Total Days: 63 Total Flower Nights: 23 All the extra stretchy plants are coincidentally under the light with greater proportion of blue wavelengths. Just shows what a minimal effect it has. I think the vast majority of this stretch is related to a better climate causing plants to want more light than previously capable and not reacting quickly enough to it. Node spacing is better at the top and I've kept a shorter distance to the lights since then. These will still do fine as far as yield and nothing truly detrimental to the outcome. Thay are all about done with vege growth. I hestitate to comment on size differences because of the suboptimal VPD for a long period of time. What matters most is they are all healthy and happy. This is about when i had to give plain water for 17 days in the previous grow. So far, that has been avoided with previous tweak to process. I'll probably drop the concentration another 10-15% as vege growth ends. We'll see if the timing of that jives with plant health or not and adjust accordingly, next time... which will be ~9 months from now, lol. Notes help. Probably won't fill in all the gaps of canopy, but sometime this week as vege growth ends I'll do some final work spreading out plants with wire and trellis. As is, it's mostly there. I like the extra airflow and light penetration. It mitigates some of the loss. The production of the second grow isn't too important for me, so I stuck to a schedule to avoid seasonal humidity - 40 day vege was already 3-5 days late. Progression pics probably end next week. I'll take more pictures of developing colas at that point, too. Something worth looking at isn't too far away.

00110001001001111O :Total days - 70 Flower nights - 30 Just beyond 4 weeks into flower and vege growth has been done for a few days. Lights have been adjusted to final height. Bud sites will continue to fill in and will see some ripening by next update. The Blue Cookies #3 plant is ahead of the game but also found 2 pollen sacs. I couldn't find any more, but wouldn't be suprised if there were. It's difficult to thoroughly inspect. I didn't pick as well as i did in 2026-1. I've got 2 under-sized plants out of 8. The 2nd plant in front didn't even reach the 2nd scrog. Just shows that early vege growth correlates but does not gaurantee above average flower growth. I should cut and burn the hermie plant because it compromises the rest of the crop, and it's looking like a leaf monster, anyway, so not much of a loss. Despite those logical reasons, I'm going to leave it for now. If i see any more pollen sacs, I'll cut it down. One was already opened so whatever damage was done is done. Pistils are lily white on every other plant, so I am not too worried. I did see some colored pistils in the undercarriage of the least important buds nearest where i found the pollen sacs. I only need half this grow's yield, so i'm willing to risk it. Continuing to refine fertilization in mid to late flower. I should have dropped to 500ppm a bit sooner. Leaves are a bit lush, so I've topped off 20gallon of plain water and that should come out to ~300-330ppm for the next 4 irrigations. I'll re-assess at that point and adjust as needed. I have already deviated in significant ways compared to 2026-1. I gave plain water for over 2 weeks at this juncture last cycle. I do not expect it to take as long to reduce lushness in canopy this time. I had already started to drop on last rez refill (FD26), but decided today to topoff the rez and dilute futher. It's borderline. So, next time I'll drop to ~500ppm around FD21 and see how that goes. 500ppm should be a level of nutes that causes a very slow degredation based on past experience. I want to consistently avoid overfed plants late in flower, so that's the goal.... find a level that maintains or allows a very slow degredation over time from this point forward.

00110001001001111O : Total days - 77 Total flower nights - 37 Two (#1 and #3) of the Blue Cookies are in a rush. Had visible plumping last week and that's continued. The more stretched out pheno looks to be on a different schedule. Anyway, two are likely an 8 week variety and I'd expect 9-10 on BC2. Week 10 is the last of the progressive pictures. Had a heat wave of sorts which made controlling humidity difficult. I removed the lowest couple sets of leaves out of necessity. I'd much rather have kept them, but VPD was starting to drop just below 1 kPa based on atmospheric temps, so it was dropping entirely too low at leaf surface. The leaves already look better in that regrad. Some lowers were curling in due to the high RH. Plants were looking a bit too lush, so I've been topping off reservoir with plain water. The last 6 irrigations have been 150-300 ppm or less of fertilizer. The next 4 irrigaitons will be around 50ppm or less. Once I see a hint of a symptom or confidently see the canopy draw back to a healthier green, I'll jump back up to ~500ppm of a similar ratio I always provide. Still trying to smooth the process out. The plants are mostly healthy, so this isn't anything major or pending doom. I'll dial back a bit before flower in the Fall and try to avoid water-only irrigations mid flower. I'd assume it's more efficient for the plant to get building blocks from the roots rather than anything being stored in leaves... though it's possible that's irrelevant, too.

00110001001001111O : Total Days - 84 Flower Nights - 44 One common trait among the Blue cookies: They ripen fast. Two are quite advanced for FD44 and BC2 is only a few days behind. BC1 and BC look like less than 8 weeks is possible. BC2 might go a day or 2 beyond 8 weeks. BC2 has the best structure, in my opinion. None are big yielders, but I think that is at least partly the fault of some less-than-ideal climate control on my part. Otherwise, the quality is there and lookingn forward to smoking some Blue Cookies. After dropping fertilizer concentration for ~7 days, some fade was seen in BC2. The rest are fairly lush, still. As i top off 66-75% of rez, I'm adding ~500ppm of a simialr balance I always provide. This week has been 400-460ppm. Next refill will basically get it back up to what I mix at. Plants are healthy. BC2 as stated has some fade, but that'll slow or stop, now. It only has 14-18 days remaining, so some further degredation is tolerable. Baed on how this grow played, shouldn't be long to amend fertilization to avoid any extra dilution in mid-to-late flower.

00110001001001111O : Total Days 91 Total Flower Nights 51 Two Blue Cookies are still in a major rush. They look nearly ripe at this point. BC2 is not far behind. Quite surprised by BC3 bulking up. For a short plant and a less-than-idea vege phase, the colas beefed up over time. Two of the three had a stockier structure and then BC2 is a bit of an oddball with a taller structure by comparison. General notes - HST'd three plants. I prefer to avoid this and accept some minor damage, but I saw some bleaching on a cola and that's beyond what is tolerable in that regard. I should have done it a few days earlier, but was living in denial, lol. I'll probably start topping off the rez with plain water. Time to be a little lazy and let the plant use up some of those nutrients I paid for that are stored in the leaves. BC2 already showed some fade last time i was giving diluted fertigations, but it's close enough at this point that it'll be fine. Reservoir will drop to 40% of 500ppm on next refill, give or take. That won't hit the pots until FD53 and should sustain themelves comfortably for ~14 days. I don't expect any of these plants to last beyond FD65.

00110001001001111O : Total days - 98 Total flower nights - 58 One blue cookies has been harvested. It was stocky and chunky. This one ceased vege growth quickly and ripened fast, but considering that context yielded better than expected. The 2 that remain are better plants but with distinctly different physical characteristics. All three of them for that matter. Four plants are imminent and the last two plants are not far behind that. Ceased fertiization on day 54 of flower phase. The only plant showing advanced degredation is BC2, and that's getting the chop within 1-2 days. Do see some hints of deficiency creeping in elsewhere, but mostly lush. This canopy is plenty strong enough to save a little effort and pollute the water table a bit less.

00110001001001111O BC2 is chopped down. Nice long colas with solid buds fairly deep. I cut off the lowest axilla and occasionally the set of buds above that for the hash bin. Not the biggest yielder, but as stated throughout this diary, some early vege problems may have played a role in that. Regardless, the buds are quality and looking forward to smoking them. I like the BC2 and BC3 plant significantly more than the BC1 plant. I will add some BC3 pictures when it is harvested. - BC2 Total Days - 99 Total flower nights - 59 - BC3 Total days - 101 Total nights - 61 BC3 was heavy and contributed a good chunk to the hash bin, even if some of that was good enough to smoke.