Amnesia Haze Automatic | RQS + PLAGRON

DutchBarnacle 🌱 Welcome to veg! While we're not entirely in veg yet, I'm pretty sure we will be by this weekend. For the record, we will not 'start' grow weeks in the middle of actual weeks but rather mark them starting on Mondays. Nutrition: At the start of this week (Monday, it's Wednesday now) we gave her another watering of 2L relatively high concentration of Alga Grow and Sugar Royal to prime the soil. About a third of this solution was added to the topsoil, whereas the remaining two-thirds was poured into the drip-plate as a bottom feed. The PPM of the solution was about 1200 which is quite high, but she took it like a champ, additional feeding this week will only be Sugar Royal. The reason for this rather high PPM was threefold: 1) Alga Grow is an organic feed, so there's little less chance of overfeeding (while not zero) 2) The soil mix exists of a quite large portion of re-used soil from previous grow which hasn't been ammended yet 3) With the bottom feed we hope to create a nutrition gradient to encourage pheno to spread her roots, thanks to molecule size, osmosis and gravity we reckon the bottom will contain more nutrients than the top. Lights: PPFD = 500 at apex - alternating between a 18/6 and 24/0 schedule. After watering a 24 hour light cycle, then back to 18/6. Environmental factors: Temperature is fine, humidity could be higher - about 60% might be too low for this stage. Can and will not purchase a humidifier. Soil condition: A few fungus gnats live in the growspace, which is why we opted for a 2L watering and a full dry back instead of multiple smaller waterings. The situation does not seem to escalate yet. Aside from the fungus gnats, the soil is buzzing with springtails. There's a lot of trim waste and old roots in the soil which makes for a perfect environment for these little jumpers. When the top soil is disturbed (to check for dampness) we are met with a circus of tiny jumpers all around. Most of them work their way back inside, some of them jump over the edge of the canvas bag, down to their unfortunate demise into the puddle of water at the drip-plate - which is still being absorbed.

DutchBarnacle Week 2 Not too much going on. 2L on Monday and 2L on Saturday. Nutrition remains unchanged. For training we stick with the familiar defoliation and folding of leaves. Light power is at 80% and will stay there until late flower - about 80 watts over a 18/6 schedule. Every now and then the automatic timer of the light is turned off for a single cycle of 36/0. After the first defoliation it took quite some time for the upper nodes to pick up momentum again. The coming week should move us towards the first stretch.

DutchBarnacle Week 3! Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures over the weekend so this week's images end at Thursday. Irregardless, she's definitely picking up pace. We've stuck with the familiar defoliation technique and some slight pinching to move branches and leafs into position and - while not obvious from the images - we held two of her branches down with some training stakes for a couple of days. One epiphany happened during the umpteenth leaf tucking session: perhaps her natural growth will automatically push aside the branches and all we really need to do is to slow down the apical meristem by defoliation. Nutrition happened as usual, sticking with the grow schedule as suggested by PLAGRON.

DutchBarnacle Week 4! As expected, this week she gained a lot of mass and branches - the stretch is in full motion. Also, at Saturday the first pistils started shooting out, signalling bloom is near! Next week we're switching to bloom nutrition and, even more exciting, Plagron Green Sensation! For training, this time we're abstaining from defoliation during the stretch as much as we can. As you can see in the third image of this week, we're not removing leaves but rather folding the and using them as a free, natural brace to position branches as best we can. Note for next week: 2mll / 4.5mll

DutchBarnacle Week 5! She's stretching wild. We tried supercropping but she bounced right back up. Then we tried supercropping and holding her down with a trellis net, but she bounced up again. In any case, she really wants to grow and we're currently counting about 12 branches with decent light exposure and bud sites - and about 20 budsites in total. We're keeping all bud sites - even the minor ones - and defoliation is only performed on those leaves that cannot be tucked away. Light cycle is 18/6 and PPFD varies between 450 - 1100. The growing light had to be raised twice this week. While the PLAGRON directions suggest adding Green Sensation starting in week 4 of bloom, we're ignoring those instructions and we'll add it right away. Reason being that those instructions probably reference photo periods. As for the nutritional density, she's holding up quite well so we're providing a higher dose than suggested until she starts showing signs of deficiency (nutrient lockout). Furthermore, the recommended PLAGRON feeding schedule does not specifically mention Power Buds, but their additional information mentioned it to be complimentary and compatible with Green Sensation.

DutchBarnacle Week 6! Well, even though she was restrained by the trellis net, the stretch was untamable. During two days on her own, she wrestled herself free and we had to reconsider our strategy. We opted for supercropping her and laying her down in a spiral. ..and still.. she's fiesty. She's mostly flat now, and: wow, she takes first spot in the amount of viable bud sites. Most of these sites receive more than 500 PPFD on an 18/6 schedule while some of the escaped branches take in well over 900 PPFD. Since she's not showing signs of any burn, we upped the nutrients once again! We also defoliated her bottom 3rd, as well as thinned out her center canopy.

DutchBarnacle Week 7! During this week her stretch has come to a halt. Given her current canopy, we've removed the SCRoG net to allow for easier access - there's enough room for decent light penetration. As for nutrition, nothing much changed; we're still on the higher concentration on 2L every other day, we've stopped the PH adjustments so we cannot report on the solution PH anymore. Aside from that, after each watering (top-side) we also empty an additional milk jug of water onto the drip tray. What's very interesting, is that there a zero signs whatsoever of any deficit or nute-burn. We'll see how that holds up the coming week. Eventually senescence should set in. Until then, we'll see how she bulks up, most of her buds are stacking nicely now. Additional note after some research: So, this grow we're not defoliating as much as we're used to. At the same time, we're astounded by the health and vigor she's showing. Professor Bruce Bugbee - we view him as an objective authority on growing cannabis - mentioned that there's a benefit to minimal defoliation, compared to schwazzing. You can find the specific Reddit comment here: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/paoigz/comment/ha67rqw Long research story short, 'supposedly': New leaves require energy to grow, matured leaves deliver a net plus to energy - so don't remove them. Additionally, older leaves act as back-up for nutrition. Covered leaves have a different metabolism than uncovered (receiving direct light) leaves. Leaves provide energy for the bud they're located under. Take this as you wish, it's our current understanding of why (aside from genetics) this pheno might be doing so well.

DutchBarnacle Week 8! As expected, senescence has set in. She's still bulking up but she's not as vibrant / dark green as before. Nothing to be too concerned about currently, we know she's not experiencing nutrient lockout. Hence, we'll keep up the high nutrient concentration and we've even upped the amount of water we're supplying. The oscillating fan broke, as its not oscillating anymore, so we've pointed it straight into the foliage from the bottom. The senescence is actually a good thing because it'll slowly eat away her canopy which should improve airflow.

DutchBarnacle Week 9: She'll start falling apart some day, but not this week! Aside from a few lower fan leaves she's as healthy as she can be. We removed the Power Buds from the nutrient solution halfway last week and haven't been using it this week either. There's no need for a 'cue' to develop more buds, we reckon. But heck, she's starting to fatten up nicely. We're wondering how much she'll retain of this size and how long it'll take for her to seriously thin out her leafs but for now, we'll just enjoy these marvelous photos.

DutchBarnacle Week 10! Well she's still with us. Her leaves show signs of progressing senescence - and we're defoliating anything that isn't green anymore to open up the underside of the canopy to improve airflow. Her buds have started to slowly grow foxtails - something we haven't seen in this strain before. In any case, this too could be considered as a sign that she has plenty of nitrogen. We'll come back to her next Sunday, we'll be lowering the nutrition the coming week to promote the leaf shedding and have her use up some of her stored nutrients. We'll also start lowering the amount of water to keep up with her diminishing thirst.

DutchBarnacle Week 11! Look at the girth on those buds and to the vast amount of budsites. She's truly a beauty and we believe she'll yield a significant amount. This week was about preparing her for harvest next week. She's slowly fading, as expected at the end of bloom. Last week we've already slightly defoliated her and this week we're picking off leaves too. We're becoming less picky to which leaves must go, to slowly but surely prepare her for the final dry out and eventual harvest - perhaps next week? As she's nearing harvest, this was het last week of nutrition. Not because we want to flush. But because most of the nutrition we provide now, will not have been broken down in the soil during harvest and thus serves little purpose. But that's something for next week. The majority of her trichomes are cloudy and we had to search hard to any amber trichomes. We have to be patient because of that, but we expect to harvest her next week! P.S. We added a spoon full of diatomaceous earth to one of the waterings this week - just so we've got that out of the way for next cycle.

DutchBarnacle Week 12! Earlier diary entry than usual, but here's a tribute to this amazing strain by Royal Queen Seeds and the nutrients by PLAGRON - as well as a few additional pictures from Tuesday. We're nearing harvest, we've dialed back the growlight to about 25% to slightly reduce the temperature and prevent her from crisping up too fast. From now on, we'll just have to be patient. The past few days she's began to drive out more and more foxtails. Perhaps from the heat, perhaps genetics - most likely the heat. Irregardless, we don't mind foxtails in this form. (In week 13) We aimed to stop watering her in week 12, but since her trichomes still haven't turned amber we picked up one final watering to get her through week 13. We're picking off more and more leaves as she goes.

DutchBarnacle So, quick recap, regarding the yield. We used a 100 watt panel, turned up to max 80% so aprox 80 watts on an 18/6 light cycle throughout - occasionally leaving it on for a double cycle. [edit: I mistook 18/6, I should have worked with 16/8 - calculations below are understated, first yield/watt is higher than described] We used about 50% for the first two weeks after germination, 80% for 8 weeks and 25% for two weeks in late flower. We assume to have used about 120kWh over the entire grow, including fans. For the yield per watt we used 2x50 + 8x80 + 2x25 = 790 / 12 = 65.833.. watt on average throughout the grow. Multiply that by 0.75 for the 18/6 cycle and we end up with a avg of 49.38 watt. So, technically that's a yield/watt of 3.69gr/watt. If we use the max wattage we used (80%), it's 2.275gr/watt. If we use the manufacturer wattage, it's 1.82gr/watt. Not bad, not bad at all. It seems our goals was accomplished, we achieved our highest yield, and yield/watt ever! We're growing outside this summer, which we'll not log on GrowDiaries. However, we will start a new diary for the White Widow Autoflower up next so stick around to see what we can do with it.