Sticky Broccoli

love_2_grow This first week started with transplanting the girls into solo cups, or rather, that is how it should have started, but I got sidetracked. (Normally, I want to transplant the day after germination to reduce the risk of any shenanigans.) The next day, I mixed up the substrate for this grow: a simple 50/50 blend of Coco and Perlite. For nutrients, I'll be running Plagron for two reasons: first, I already have it since the last competition, and second, as a redemption run. (I screwed up badly the first time due to being too dumb to read a feed chart.) Ultimately, I'll use an AutoPot, but for now, I'll transplant the girls into solo cups. They'll stay in the cups for a couple of weeks before I decide which one to keep. I'm not sure what'll happen with the other one - I might decide to keep it and do a small solo cup grow in the corner of my big tent, or I might give it away, or even scrap it. After checking and double-checking the feed chart, I mixed nutrients at 1/3 strength so they would have some food in the inert media, but hopefully not too much. (I have no clue what I'm doing when it comes to bottled nutrients, so I'm just whinging it. Basically.) I placed humidity domes over the cups for the first day after the transplant, then increased the tent's humidity once I removed the domes. They started out looking very similar, but now at the end of the week, there are some differences. Both plants have the same height, but one is bigger, with broader leaves, while the smaller plant has minor leaf-tip burns. It's still early in this smallest possible pheno hunt (lol) so let's just see what happens.

love_2_grow This was an easy week, where all I did was make sure the girls had enough water. Something they didn't have enough of seems to be nutrition. They looked fine at the start of the week, but looked sadder as the week wore on. Especially the larger one. Maybe because it has a bigger need? I don't know. I'm clueless about bottle feeding. In any case, feeding at 1/3 the strength seems too low based on the pants, so from now on, I will follow the feed chart exactly. I decided to transplant the larger one into the AutoPot. I'm keeping the other one around for now, but I'm not sure what I will do with it eventually. Maybe I keep it as a solo cup grow if I can fit it in my big tent, or maybe I give it away to a friend. We'll see.

love_2_grow She looked absolutely terrible for most of the week. I suspect I overwatered when transplanting. But the good news is that for a couple of days, she has been looking a bit better. Granted, she still looks pretty bad, but I'll take the improvement. The second plant in the Solo Cup looks even worse. We'll see if I even bother keeping her. I might just trash her. Meanwhile, the plants in my other tent (my own living soil recipe) are raging. But somehow, each time I use bottled nutes, I struggle. I still have loads to learn about using bottled nutrients.

love_2_grow This week, she was finally starting to look better, so I thought, 'Let's cut off her head.' Besides that, all I did this week was turn on the AutoPot system with the airdome, and adjust the light spectrum from seedling to veg. Rock on.

love_2_grow She spent the week recovering from losing her head, and as soon as she had bounced back, I violated her again. Twice! I also removed a few of her lower branches, but kept a couple to go with the four tops, creating six main tops. It's not a true mainline, but something close to it, using similar techniques. In any case, my goal with this grow (besides sucking less using bottled nutrients) is to just have fun with training.

love_2_grow All I did this week was to continue the LST to spread her out. That's it. The grow is running on auto otherwise. I'm happy with how flat she is, but she needs a bit longer to fill the tent. Hopefully, she will be big enough to flip in a week or so.

love_2_grow This week, I continued to spread her out, and she has now filled the tent enough that it's time to flip her. Besides the LST, all I did this week was a very minor defoliation by removing a few of her lower leaves. My main goal with this grow was to have fun training her, and I think it has been a success. She has been a slow grower and is on the small side for her age, but the canopy is flat and full, and I'm happy with how she looks. I'm curious to see how she will stretch. I have side/under canopy lighting installed in the corners of the tent, but I'll see if I need to turn them on. It all depends on how much she will stretch.

love_2_grow This first week of flower was uneventful. The stretch has started, but only barely.

love_2_grow She has stretched a bit this week and started to show flowers. I removed a few leaves, and I did another refill of the reservoir. That's all that happened this week.

love_2_grow Another easy week. Besides checking in on her once per day and filling the reservoir when needed, I just let her do her own thing. Seriously, growing in AutoPots is great for a lazy stoner like me. The hedgehogs have arrived in full force, and she stretched quite a bit this last week, which I'm pleased with, as I thought she was a bit small. Also, the side-lighting will be useful now, and I'm happy I already installed it ahead of time. However, I just discovered that when you connect the side-lighting to the recipe in the Vivosun app, the lights automatically dim to the same level as the main light, and they can't be adjusted separately. Instead, I had to disconnect the lights from the recipe and instead run them as their own device. To make matters worse, you can't even run the lights on a schedule when you do this, as the app only controls them by recipe or cycle. Cycle is ok(ish), but c'mon, Vivosun – it's weak that you can't set a schedule or control different lights separately within a recipe.

love_2_grow An utterly uneventful week. I filled up the res once. That was it. She stretched more, even though we're in the fourth week of flower. She has stretched 3x, and I'm now really happy about those side-light LED bars. She has quite an open structure, and the light from those bars will penetrate the canopy well. I never grow for yield, but I won't be unhappy about the boost these lights will give :)

love_2_grow This week, she showed signs of overfeeding. Her leaf tips were a bit yellow before, but now they look more burnt. It seems the feed was a bit too heavy for her, even though I was following the official feed chart. I went ahead and emptied the reservoir and the AutoPot tray, then filled it with a 20% weaker solution. (28 ml instead of 35 ml per 10 liters.) Let's see if that makes her happier. She has started to smell - a lovely sour aroma. No citrus, just sour. I'm excited to see how her terps will develop in the coming weeks. The humidity in the tent is rather low, but better safe than sorry, as we're moving further into flower.

love_2_grow Another uneventful week. The only thing worth mentioning is that I discovered mold in the Power Buds bottle, so I threw it away. I found that a bit surprising, as I thought synthetic nutrients wouldn't mold.

love_2_grow This was an uneventful week, where nothing exciting happened at all. At this point, it's mostly just waiting for her to finish, as her buds are fattening up. The terps are nuts. She has a strong sour odor, with a hint of bleach in the background. I've never grown anything that smells this sour, and it'll be interesting to see how she finishes.

love_2_grow Yet another uneventful week, waiting for the chop. Her buds smell amazing, and even the lower, smaller buds are rock-hard. Seems like the side-lighting is working well.

love_2_grow This week, there was some action in the tent. I wanted to give her a dry cycle, so I let the reservoir go empty, then left it for 36 hours before filling it. I haven't had a single problem with the AutoPot before, but for some reason, the AquaValve didn't shut off properly after the dry period, and the tent got flooded. Fortunately, I only fill the reservoir with 10 liters at a time, so the tent liner contained all the water, and nothing leaked on the floor. Phew! I live in a 600-year-old house, and a leak would be catastrophic. Other than that, there's not much to report. Her trichomes are slowly showing amber, and I will chop her within a week.