White Banana X Sonnenerde

Aircoholic Germination took about a week - not remarkably fast, but not worry-inducingly slow either. She germinated, that's what really matters. She looks really cure as well, but the little pair of real leafs poking through already.

Aircoholic This grow feels so calm, it's almost zen. She has a few spots on one leaf, but I assume that has some mechanical cause (water droplets maybe) rather than nutrient issues, so no reason to panic, everything else develops fine.

Aircoholic She's continuing to grow very relaxed and calm - steady not flashy. She's getting to the point, where I'm starting to think about topping her - not quite yet, but in a couple of days. She's looking very healthy, so I think she could be topped, but she's also growing a bit slower than other plants and I don't want to stunt her growth, or would topping inspire new growth? Well, I still have a few days to consider this - if you want to share your experience and thoughts, I'd be happy to hear!

Aircoholic The question whether to do topping or not, has been decided - to be fair, it's not really a big question anymore. I do consider it, seriously, but I've topped all my plants for at least 2 years now, and I didn't feel like making an exception - why change it, if it works? So far she seems to take it well, no shock, no slow growth or even a pause. Keep on going little White Banana!

Aircoholic Alright, here we go, White Banana Auto is starting to show early flowering signs - not quite there yet, but we're getting there. The stretch is about to kick in, and I decided to apply some LST clips to the top most branches, to even out the canopy a little. The branches on the lowest node are super small and probably won't survive the first defoliation round, but that's okay. She's growing very calm and relaxed, which allows me to be very hands-off, which I really enjoy for a change!

Aircoholic After last wee already hinted at the beginning of flower, we've now fully arrived. She's beginning to stretch and grow and build more structure and future bud sites. There's not much else to report on, really, things are just good overall. No deficiencies or toxicities, no pests, no problems at all, as far as I can tell. I'll lean back and enjoy the hands-off grow experience for now. Checking back in about a week. Thank you for your attention!

Aircoholic She's stretching, but overall she's a rather small plant - small and bushy - which might have genetic causes, but also the lower temperatures in the grow room over winter time didn't help. Nevertheless, she's pretty happy and healthy, showing very good bud development, continuing her clam grow style and allowing me to remain very hands-off.

Aircoholic She ain't stretchin' much, she's gonna stay this tiny and bushy - she's got character and I really like that. Her internodes are so short, that the tiny pompom pistil buds are already almost touching each other. I'll have to defoliate her a bit, there's basically no airflow happening. Her leafs look pretty dark green and shiny, as in a little too much Nitrogen, but nothing to worry about - I'm curious to see, how the living soil will deal with this, if it does. She's forming loads of tiny little trichome heads and starting to smell, very fresh and still young, but already with some nice citrus notes.

Aircoholic She's starting to struggle a bit - which, of course, is absolutely my fault. She clearly shows signs of N-toxicity, and when I fed her some PK Boost ACT, I have overdone it a little, I gave her 3 L, apparently because in my head that seemed like an appropriate amount of liquid for a rather small plant. You might've guessed it, but it was not an appropriate amount, it was too much and thus her roots were cut off from oxygen for too long, which caused problems with Phosphorous uptake, which then leads to these rusty/brown-ish interveinal spots on some sugar leafs. I'll be running her a little more on the dry side from now, to avoid any further water boarding of this poor thing. But besides all that, did you notice her buds? Looking really promising, with lots of trichomes, smelling quite fresh, lemon-y, sour - maybe she could benefit from a little more defoliation though.

Aircoholic She reacted pretty well to the PK Booster ACT - her bulking buds are nicely covered in trichomes, she smells really nice already. Also, she recovered pretty well from the overwatering issue - the Phosphorous issues haven't spread any further, which is an excellent sign. She seems to enjoy being a little more on the dry side of the soil for now, also I don't want to risk stressing her again - she only has a few weeks left, don't want to risk any further trouble. Oh, and I accidentally changed the white balance of my camera, so the images appear a little too warm, other than the usual too cold temp. I'll change that for next week's update.

Aircoholic These rusty/orange spots, I thought looked like Phosphorous uptake issues caused by overwatering, but since they're actually spreading, albeit slowly, I'm now wondering if it might actually be Calcium deficiency. Whatever it is, it's not spreading very fast and thus is not a reason to worry too much. I'll feed her some ACT soon and some CalMag after, to give her another last boost for the last leg of flower. Hope that slows or even stops any further spread of the orange freckles. Besides that, she looks gorgeous! Her buds are getting really thick and due to the short internodes, she's mostly consisting of buds by now.

Aircoholic About 3 days after feeding her 2 Liters of PK Booster ACT, I fed her some regular RO water with added CalMag, to take care of the spots on the leafs. I'm still not 100 % sure, if it really is calcium deficiency, but it's my best guess so far. She responded well to the ACT, her buds smell stronger, still a little fresh, green, unripe, but getting noticeably stronger. Her buds are getting ridiculously fat by now, she looks so funny and so cute, so short and bushy and full of fat buds on all branches. I love her very much!

Aircoholic Looking at the macro shots and the trichome heads, I see a couple of amber dots. We're getting close, the harvesting window is opening. In the next week, I'd estimate her time will come. I'll aim for a harvest close to peak THC, will check her trichomes every few days now. The rusty colored spots are spreading, but since harvest is so close by, I'm not worried about it. The same goes for the yellowing sugar leaf tips on some top buds - not great, but doesn't make a difference by this point. Besides that, I've raised her platform a little higher to get her a little more light - don't ask why I didn't think of that earlier. I'm looking forward to harvesting her thick chunky buds and even trimming her sounds like fun, and I'm super curious, how much yield she'll bring in the end, I have a feeling, it might be more than it seems.

Aircoholic She was ready, but my camera wasn't - somehow the autofocus stopped working when filming, so there's only photos this harvest. The yield seems pretty decent for her size, let's see how much it'll be dry - and the effect, I'm so curious about the effect!