2026 Balcony Grow Experiment

Gardens_of_Of This grow is going to be a bit of an experiment, and I’m quite excited to see how it turns out. The plan is to start the girl in the tent for the first couple of weeks and then move her out onto the balcony, where she’ll spend the rest of the grow. This time, though, I’m planning to try something different: I’ll set up a small tent on the balcony and attempt to induce flowering early by moving her in and out of darkness at 12-hour intervals. Theoretically, I don’t see any reason why this shouldn’t work, as long as I can keep the humidity under control. But theory and practice are two different things, so let’s see how it goes. I’m definitely excited about this one! For the start, I planted the seed directly into the soil and gave her 0.2 L of tap water. She germinated without any issues and broke through the soil after just two days. She’ll now spend the first 2–3 weeks of veg in the tent, getting established before moving out onto the balcony for the next stage of the experiment.

Gardens_of_Of This week was pretty straightforward. She just kept growing steadily and has already managed to fill up her first pot with roots, so it was time to give her a little more room. I transplanted her into a bigger pot, and during the transplant I added Mycrolyzer around the root zone, as I usually do, to help everything get established nicely in the new soil. The transplant went smoothly, and she’s looking happy and healthy so far. Now she has plenty of fresh soil and space to continue developing before the move to the balcony. On to the next week! 🌿

Gardens_of_Of She’s growing fast and has already filled out her new pot horizontally. She really seems to like the Plagron All Mix. To be fair, pretty much all of my plants have loved this soil in the past, so no surprises there. Anyway, this week marked the first big change of the grow: she has officially moved out to the balcony! Thanks to the great May weather we’ve been having in Berlin this year, the timing worked out perfectly. For now, I’ll let her settle into her new environment and continue developing naturally. Next week, once she reaches around 4–5 nodes, I’m planning to start topping her. The plan is to top her three times throughout veg, eventually ending up with 8 main tops and a nice, even structure. Let’s see how she enjoys her new home! ☀️🌱

Gardens_of_Of She just keeps growing steadily and putting out healthy new leaves. This week, she reached 5 nodes, so I decided it was time for her first topping. As expected, she took it really well. She doesn’t seem to mind training at all and bounced back quickly, continuing to grow without showing any signs of stress. The weather wasn’t quite as cooperative this week, though. We had quite a bit of rain, so I had to move her back inside temporarily and place her next to the balcony door. Luckily, she seems perfectly happy with her temporary spot and hasn’t slowed down. She’s still growing nicely and looking healthy. First topping done — two more to go before we hopefully end up with those 8 main tops! 🌱✂️

Gardens_of_Of By the end of last week, she was already asking for more space and had clearly outgrown her pot. So, it was time for the final transplant. I moved her into her final 19 L pot, applying Mycrolyzer around the roots as I always do during transplanting. This time, I also mixed around 10% worm humus into the soil. As soon as she landed in her new home, the growth just exploded! She settled in immediately and hasn’t looked back since. I’ve been topping her roughly every 4–5 days, and honestly, it feels like she actually enjoys it. Every time I top her, she just comes back with even more growth. And now we’re exactly where I wanted to be: 8 main tops, all sitting at almost the same height. Mission accomplished! 🎯🌿 From this point on, the focus will be on maintaining that structure. I’ll keep defoliating where necessary and use LST to make sure all 8 tops stay roughly at the same level and get their fair share of light. For now, she’s spending her days outside and enjoying the amazing Berlin weather we’ve been having this year. Let’s see how much I can spread her out from here! ☀️🌱

Gardens_of_Of She’s absolutely loving her new pot and her spot on the balcony. Growth has been vigorous all week, and at this point, she’s pretty much just cruising through the summer. I’ve continued with regular defoliation to keep everything open and under control. She keeps responding well and doesn’t seem bothered by the training at all. I did mess up the watering a little this week, though, and it seems like the extra moisture invited a few fungus gnats to the party. Nothing too dramatic at this point, but definitely something I want to get under control before they become more annoying. Next week, I’m planning to introduce nematodes to deal with the fungus gnats and hopefully stop them before they can establish themselves properly. Other than that little issue, everything is looking great. She’s healthy, growing vigorously, and enjoying the summer weather on the balcony. ☀️🌱

Gardens_of_Of Just like last week, she keeps growing steadily and seems perfectly happy with life on the balcony. At this point, there really isn’t much to complain about — she’s healthy, vigorous, and just doing her thing. I’m still not using any vegetative nutrients. The soil should have enough nutrition to keep her fed for around 6 weeks after the last transplant, so for now, I’m simply letting the soil do the work. The plan is to send her into flowering around 6 weeks after that final transplant. If everything goes according to plan, that should line up nicely with the point where the nutrients in the soil start running low. From there, I’ll introduce the flowering nutrients and adjust as needed. For now, the only extra she’s getting is Green House Feeding BioEnhancer, which seems to be doing its magic. ✨🌱 So far, everything is going smoothly. Just a little more veg time before the real balcony experiment begins!

Gardens_of_Of Berlin summer is still treating us growers well! We’ve had a few rainy days here and there, but whenever the weather turns bad, I simply cover her with my transparent tarpaulin and let her ride it out. Naturally, the humidity fluctuates quite a bit with these changing conditions, but so far she seems to be handling it without any problems. Just like last week, there isn’t much drama to report — she simply keeps growing, getting bigger, and enjoying her balcony life. The nematode treatment also seems to be doing its job. The fungus gnats are almost completely gone for now, which is definitely good news. The spiders, on the other hand, have apparently decided that my balcony is prime real estate. 😅 Almost every morning I clean away their webs, and by the next morning they’ve already built new ones. So far, they’ve done absolutely zero harm to my girl, but having to clean up after them every day is still pretty annoying. We’re also getting close to the next stage of the experiment. I’m planning to send her into flowering within the next two weeks. With an expected flowering time of around 8–9 weeks, the goal is to have her ready for harvest toward the end of August. Not long now until the balcony flowering experiment officially begins! 🌿☀️

Gardens_of_Of She just keeps getting bigger and bigger, and I’m continuing with regular defoliation to keep everything open and the canopy under control. Toward the end of this week, she received a pretty heavy lollipopping in preparation for flowering, which is planned to start at the end of next week. I wanted to get the major cleanup done now so she has enough time to recover before making the transition into flower. Other than that, there really isn’t much drama to report. Since the last transplant and the final topping, she has simply been cruising along, growing vigorously and developing healthy tops. The structure is looking good, the canopy is where I want it, and now she has a little time to recover from the lollipopping. One more week of veg, and then the real experiment begins! 🌿☀️

Gardens_of_Of And that’s it — the final week of the vegetative period is over! She completed her veg time healthy, strong, and with the structure I was aiming for. Now she’s ready for the next chapter. Around the middle of this week, I added Green House Feeding BioBloom to prepare the soil for flowering. I also added a small amount of BioGrow just to support her lower nitrogen needs throughout the flowering period. Next week, I’m planning to add another 10 g of BioBloom to make sure there is enough nutrition in the soil to carry her through the final weeks of flower. I also added a thin layer of worm humus as a top dressing. At this stage of growth, I really like giving the soil that extra boost going into flowering. But the most exciting part of this week is that the original experiment is finally beginning! I’ve built a 60x60 small tent on the balcony that I’ll use to manually control her light cycle. Starting at the end of this week, I’ll move her into the tent every evening at 7 PM and take her back out at 7 AM the following morning. That should give her a consistent 12 hours of light and 12 hours of uninterrupted darkness and hopefully trigger flowering while still allowing her to spend her days outside under the sun. I’m super excited about this part. The whole grow was planned around testing this idea, and after 10 weeks of veg, we’re finally here! Now let’s see how she reacts to the new routine and whether everything works as planned. The balcony light-deprivation experiment officially begins! 🌸☀️⛺

Gardens_of_Of The first week of flowering is officially over, and so far, things are looking very promising! She’s enjoying the hot Berlin weather, and most importantly, the experiment seems to be working. I can already see her starting to develop flower sites, and she has begun stretching as she transitions into flower. Luckily, she doesn’t seem to be a huge stretcher, which is exactly what I was hoping for with this setup. Since she needs to fit inside the balcony tent every evening, keeping her height under control is pretty important. Hopefully, she’ll continue stretching at a manageable rate so I don’t run into any space issues later on. So far, she seems perfectly happy with the new routine and just keeps getting bigger. Inside the tent, I have an exhaust fan pumping air outside, together with two inline fans keeping the air moving around her. With the hot weather and the plant going into the tent every evening, maintaining good airflow is definitely something I’m keeping an eye on. As a side note, this El Niño weather has been a pretty big favor for us Berlin growers this year. 😄☀️ One week into flower, the light-deprivation experiment is working, flower sites are appearing, and she seems happy. So far, so good! 🌸🌿

Gardens_of_Of The second week of flowering is over, and the bud sites are becoming quite visible now. More and more white pistils are showing up, so there’s no question anymore — she has entered flowering. I can also see a slight change in the overall color of the leaves, with the green becoming a little lighter and moving toward a yellowish tone. Other than that, she looks healthy, continues growing, and seems perfectly happy with the routine. Most importantly: the experiment works, and I’m happy! 😄 This week did bring a few challenges, mainly because of the rainy Berlin weather. I’ve been very disciplined about making sure she doesn’t get wet, moving or covering her whenever necessary and constantly keeping an eye on the weather forecast. I have to admit, living on my toes and checking the forecast all the time is a little exhausting. With an outdoor grow combined with a manually controlled 12/12 schedule, there’s always something to keep track of. But so far, all that effort seems to be paying off. She’s healthy, the flowers are developing, and the balcony experiment continues exactly as hoped. Now let’s see those buds start stacking! 🌸☀️

Gardens_of_Of Flower Week 3 is over, and it looks like the stretch phase has officially come to an end. She has developed exactly the structure I was hoping for: 8 beautiful towers, all sitting at roughly the same height of around 60 cm. Each one is already packed with flower sites, with the buds starting to stack nicely on top of each other. She is simply a beauty. 🌿 Tomorrow, she’ll receive her final lollipopping together with a pretty heavy defoliation. She’s definitely a bushy girl, just as expected, so it’s time to clean her up one last time and open up the structure a little. One thing that continues to amaze me about this strain is its consistency. This is now the third phenotype I’ve grown, with the other two grown indoors last year, and all three plants look incredibly similar. I’ve been comparing this grow with my previous ones, and it’s hard not to notice the resemblance. The same leaf structure, the same overall growth pattern, and so far, the same impressive resistance to mold. At this point, I can confidently say that these genetics seem extremely consistent. Even with this girl growing outdoors in a completely different environment and under my experimental light-deprivation setup, she still looks remarkably similar to her indoor sisters from last year. Three weeks into flower, eight even towers, plenty of bud sites, and the experiment is still going strong. I couldn’t be happier with how she’s developing! 🌿☀️

Gardens_of_Of Flower Week 4 is over, and she’s now fully focused on what matters most: developing those flowers! At the beginning of the week, she received her last major defoliation and lollipopping. Once again, she didn’t hesitate for even a second. No noticeable slowdown, no drama — she simply carried on with her growth as if nothing had happened. At this point, she’s no longer getting much bigger in overall size. Instead, all that energy seems to be going into the flower sites. The white pistils are at their peak now, the buds are getting noticeably bigger every day, and trichome development has officially started. There isn’t much smell coming from her yet, but everything appears to be developing right on schedule. Toward the end of the week, I also started noticing some of the older leaves beginning to yellow. I expect this to continue gradually as we move closer to harvest and the plant progresses through the later stages of flowering. Now that all the major training and defoliation is behind us, it’s mostly about letting her do her thing and watching those flowers develop. Really excited to see how much they’ll bulk up over the coming weeks. The most fun part begins now!

Gardens_of_Of Flower Week 5 is over, and this was an extremely stable week — something both she and I are very grateful for! She continues to focus entirely on maturing her flower sites. The buds are stacking nicely on top of each other and getting bigger, while the trichome coverage has now become noticeably visible. She’s starting to get that frosty appearance I remember very well from my previous Blackberry Moonrocks grows. The smell still isn’t particularly strong, but what is there is unmistakably the classic Blackberry Moonrocks aroma that I know from the previous runs. The yellowing of the older fan leaves continues as expected, but now we’re also getting some beautiful colors. With the temperature difference between day and night, some of the leaves are gradually turning a deep purple. Combined with the fading greens and yellows, she’s slowly turning into an absolute visual beauty. I’m really curious to see whether those purple tones will eventually make their way into the flowers as well. So far, the buds are maturing nicely, stacking well, and getting increasingly covered in trichomes. We’re now a little past the halfway point of flowering, and I have to say that the experiment continues to work just fine. Five weeks down. Now let’s see what she does during the final weeks!

Gardens_of_Of Flower Week 6 is over, and the girl is simply doing her thing while putting on an amazing display of fall colors. The tips of the leaves have started turning a beautiful dark purple against a bright green background, creating an amazing contrast across the canopy. At this point, the video really speaks for itself. :) 💜 The older fan leaves at the bottom continue to fade as the plant pulls the last bits of nitrogen from them. I’ve been letting them do their job and removing them once they turn brown, just before they’re ready to fall off by themselves. This week, she also received another dose of BioEnhancer. Other than that, there isn’t much intervention needed anymore. She’s just cruising along, focusing her energy on the flowers and slowly but surely making her way into the final couple of weeks. The experiment is still running smoothly, the colors are getting better by the day, and now it’s all about watching her finish. 🌸💜✨