The Garden 2026-2- HSC Vanilla Creme Pie

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. Second batch of seeds with poor germination rates bought from Seeds Here Now. Is it a bad batch from Humboldt Seed Co? Is it poor stoage from the seed reselller, seeds here now? I have no idea, but very unhappy with my purchases. Their replacement policy is a scam, too. I had to pay more for an unwanted strain of seeds as a replacement. I only got a 33% germination rate and 1 of those grew upside down, which required a replant. I would wager SHN does not store their seeds in a professional manner. It's a WA company, so maybe they weren't controlling all that humidity? The medium and methods germinated 100% of everything esle. 20 other seeds were fine... 20 seeds from SHN/HSC were piss-poor over the last 2 grows. So, only 2 of 6 Vanilla Creme Pies. Not much else to say about them at this stage. I don't number them until final transplants. Pictures will not be in the exact same order like my other diaries have been. Little cold, a little dry... I need to fix this sooner than later. 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. Vanilla Creme Pie looks ... well, I have 2 live plants. One may have a deleterious mutation - time will tell. Both are exhibitng less than ideal growth rates, but no transplant shock for the 431st time, lol. Just kidding on the precise number but it's a fairly accurate estimate, too. Hopefully at least one of these is respectable by day 24-25. I'll take both to flower for variety, if possible. Again, a combination of inconsistent health and poor germination rates. I think this is both a SHN and HSC issue at this point. Twenty seeds of other breeders planted at the same time as 20 HSC seeds... Nonstop problems and failures from one and nothing but consistency from the other group. Two packs of 10 seeds is not a large enough sample to be confident, but I'll think twice before buying more. The 'replacement' Farmer's Daughter seeds will be used next year. Three 10-packs is also a small sample, but if those have poor results, I don't see any more reason to give them my money. 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. Both Vanilla Creme Pies have concerns. One is an entire growth node behind, so I couldn't top it with the rest. Both show leaf mutations and may or may not grow out of it. I might flower both of these simply because yield is of no concern, especially if I go with the full 35-36 sq ft (eight plants). 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. 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. Two Vanilla Creme Pies - 3rd and 4th plant in the front and back rows, respectively.

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. These plants may turn out fine, but they clearly show some signs of genetic depression compared to the rest. The poor structure and the poor germination rates / viable robust plants make this less than ideal. To be fair to HSC, i think Seeds Here Now did not store their seeds properly, because they aren't old and ~100% germination should be expected. Yield is of no concern. One should be okay, but the other still seems underwhelming. Mountaintop Mint surprised me in that regard, so a lot can happen between now and harvest. Progression of canopy is shown from day 28 - 49. The Vanilla Creme Pie 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. Glad I kept the sketchy vanilla creme pie. It dialed up the growth in flower and turned out okay. VC1 got a bit lanky but more than tolerable. Fruity smell from stem rubs. Think this is the 2nd best strain of these three. Pinepple Express is leading in stank early on. 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 Can't get a readon a stem rub, yet. VC2 has certainly performed better than it's humble beginnings. I did find a pollen sack underneath the first trellis on VC2. A bit concerning.I'm willing to accept 5-10 seeds if they happen at all. None of the bud sites display hermaphroditism, and based on age this was probably caused by the lollipop. it formed at a barren node and matured over ~3 weeks. I found it early in the week, so that puts its origins back to the first week of flower or just after. I'd chalk this one up to user error and isolated. Had a heat wave of sorts which made controlling humidity difficult. I removed the lowest couple sets of leaves out of necessity, which mitigated some of the problem as well as colder ambient temperatures returning to the area. 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 These girls are turning out well. Had a pollen sac scare on VC2, but was isolated to a couple lower nodes in undercarriage. Glad i left a little extra lower growth on VC1 to help it fill out. At least these don't look like 75-80 day flower phases like Mountaintop Mint was, lol. 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 Vanilla Creme Pie has turned out well. VC2 is fast. It's not far behind BC1 and BC3, if at all. It could by 55 long nights and VC1 looks to be a mnimum of 60 long nights. These plants were nice and tall which lead to a deep zone of good quality buds. I used to prefer a stockier plant, but these plants are less maintenance while growing and an easier trim more times than not. remove a couple fan leaves, snip around the bottom of the golf ball nugs, and done. 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 Vanilla Creme Pie remains. She's finishing fast but still needs 2-3 more days at the least. It seems to be a trend with the HSC seeds i've grown.. they don't look especially robust early on, but they turn out okay, lol. I blame the poor germination rates on the vendor. I'd wager seeds here now goes cheap on climate control in their storage 'facility.' "Facility" = filing cabinet in some baement better categorized as a swamp. 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 Had some viability issues, but 90% certain that was Seeds Here Now's fault. They must have shitty storage facilities. The ones that did sprout didn't look especially healthy or robust. The first one harvested was a very weak plant, initially, but turned out well with a strong finish. I wasn't going to bother with pictures of that one but it ended up with some good looking buds. No larf and an easy trim. I'll add pictures of VC#1 when it finishes. - VC2 - 57 nights of flower - VC1 - 60 nights VC1 pics include larf, tops of larf and the 'better' buds above the lower axilla.