Bubba Kush - CSI

ElNass 🌱 Week 1 — Learning Bubba’s Pace The first real week of this journey is officially underway. 💚 After waiting more than two years to finally grow something from CSI Humboldt, it’s pretty exciting to finally see this little Bubba Kush starting her life. Before beginning the run, I spent quite a bit of time researching Bubba Kush and talking to other growers about what to expect from her. One thing comes up again and again: Bubba is slow. Really slow. Some growers even recommend extremely long vegetative periods, sometimes around three months, if the goal is to build a sizeable plant before flowering. I’ve also come across claims suggesting that Bubba’s naturally slow growth may be related to relatively inefficient respiration or metabolism. I haven’t found enough solid scientific evidence yet to treat that explanation as fact, but it’s something I’d really like to investigate further during this run. Another recurring observation is that Bubba doesn’t seem to appreciate very high light intensity. Because of that, I’m deliberately starting with relatively low PPFD rather than trying to push her from day one. I’ll gradually adjust the intensity according to her response and document how she behaves along the way. ? A different start this time I’m also approaching the beginning of this run differently from my previous grows. Instead of planting directly into my 113 L living soil/no-till bed, Bubba will spend her first few weeks in a small plastic pot filled with a very simple light mix: peat moss + worm castings + pumice + a small amount of kelp meal. There’s a practical reason behind this decision. If Bubba really is as slow during early vegetative growth as everyone says, there’s little reason to occupy the entire grow space with the 113 L container from day one. Starting small allows me to use the space much more efficiently while she establishes herself. Once the root system has properly colonized the starter pot and the plant is ready for the next stage, she’ll be transplanted into the 113 L established living soil, where she’ll have access to the full volume of soil and the mature ecosystem that has developed through the previous cycles. That’s when the real experiment begins. ? Another cycle for the living soil Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to perform a soil analysis before starting this cycle, so there’s still some uncertainty regarding the current nutrient balance of the 113 L bed. During the previous run, I noticed some foliage lightening around the stretch, which made me suspect that nitrogen mineralization may have struggled to keep pace with peak plant demand. But I’m deliberately not correcting a problem before it actually exists. Bubba’s slow vegetative development should give me plenty of time after transplant to observe how she interacts with the soil. If I begin seeing a consistent deficiency developing, I’ll intervene early with an appropriate top dress. Until then, I’m letting the ecosystem work. Observation over assumptions That’s probably going to be the theme of this entire run. I’ve read plenty about Bubba Kush before growing her: slow growth, relatively low light preference, unusual metabolism, long vegetative periods… Now I finally have the opportunity to see how much of that actually translates into the plant growing in front of me. So rather than forcing Bubba into the way I normally grow, I’m going to adapt the environment to her response and document everything along the way. Growth rate, PPFD tolerance, morphology, nutrient demand, root development, branching, stretch, aroma and eventually flower development. For now: Low PPFD. Gentle VPD. A simple light mix. No unnecessary feeding. And absolutely no rush. If she wants to take her time, she can. Once she’s ready, 113 litres of established living soil will be waiting for her. ?🌱 This time, Bubba sets the pace. 💚

ElNass WEEK 2 — BUBBA KUSH 🌱 | CSI Humboldt Slow means slow. 😅 Week 2 is over, and Bubba Kush is already showing me exactly why this cultivar has a reputation for taking its time. Growth has been pretty slow, but during the last few days I also started noticing some yellowing on the cotyledons and first leaves. Since she was growing in a very lightly amended mix, my first thought was that she might simply be starting to run out of available nutrition. But when I transplanted her, I found something else: the root zone was much drier than I expected and still relatively underdeveloped. So the issue may have been a combination of limited nutrition, low moisture and simply Bubba being Bubba. Instead of trying to fix everything with more inputs, I decided to move her into the 113 L living soil bed a little earlier than originally planned. The soil has been rehydrated and now I’ll let the biology, the roots and the plant do their thing. Light is still intentionally conservative at around 220 PPFD. No reason to push photosynthesis while the root system is recovering and adapting to its new home. Not every week has to look perfect. Sometimes the most interesting part of a grow is figuring out what the plant is trying to tell you. Now she has space, moisture and an entire living ecosystem underneath her. Let’s see what Bubba does with it. 🌱💚 Bubba Kush — CSI Humboldt Week 2 | Living Soil | No-Till

ElNass Week 3 Veg — Root Exploration 🌱 Day 21 of vegetative growth. This week I tried a little experiment with the root system. On Day 14, I transplanted the plant into a much larger volume of soil. Since the new container already held a significant amount of moisture, I deliberately kept irrigation on the lighter side during the first days after the transplant. The idea was simple: rather than saturating the entire root zone immediately, I wanted to avoid making water freely available everywhere and allow the roots to explore the surrounding soil as the plant established itself. The hypothesis was that this could encourage the root system to progressively expand through the new substrate in search of water, helping the plant colonize the available volume instead of remaining concentrated around the original root ball. And honestly… it worked out pretty interestingly so far. 👀 The plant has continued developing steadily after the transplant, with new growth looking considerably stronger than the older leaves. The stem is extending nicely and the new leaves are becoming larger and more vigorous. There is still some damage on the older leaves from the transition, but the new growth is what matters most to me right now, and it looks healthy and active. Of course, there is another possible explanation for the whole experiment: Maybe I wasn’t conducting a sophisticated root-development experiment… Maybe I was just being lazy with watering and now I’m writing a scientific justification for it. 😂 Either way, the roots don’t seem to be complaining. Day 21 and the plant is finally starting to look properly established in its new home. Next week should be interesting. 🌱

ElNass WEEK 4 — Finally picking up the pace 🌱 After a pretty rough and slow start, Bubba finally seems to be settling into her new home. This week the difference became much more noticeable. New growth started coming in faster, the stem is getting stronger, and the lateral shoots are finally beginning to develop. The old damaged lower leaf is still there as a little reminder of the stress she went through early on 😂, but most importantly, that damage never progressed into the newer growth. I also increased the light from around 220 to 300 PPFD. There has been a very slight amount of tacoing on some of the upper leaves, so for now I’m keeping the intensity right where it is and watching how she responds rather than pushing it any further. What I’m happiest about, though, is that she finally seems comfortable in the 113L living soil bed. After deliberately keeping irrigation on the conservative side following the transplant, this week I focused more on stability and simply letting the plant and soil do their thing. Still not exactly the fastest plant I’ve ever grown… but considering Bubba Kush’s reputation, I knew patience was going to be part of this run. 😅 Day 28 and she’s finally starting to look like she means business. Let’s see what Week 5 brings. 💚🌱

ElNass WEEK 5 — Topping & the First 48 Hours ✂️🌱 This week marked the first significant training intervention of the run. After the difficult start and the slow recovery following transplanting, Bubba has now entered a much more consistent vegetative growth phase. The main stem has thickened considerably, new growth is coming in faster, and the axillary shoots have become increasingly active. Rather than topping according to age or node count alone, I decided to wait until the plant was showing sustained growth and enough overall vigor to handle the intervention comfortably. Once I was satisfied with her condition, I removed the main apical growth. The goal is now to reduce apical dominance and allow the existing lateral shoots to play a larger role in building the future canopy. What surprised me most was how quickly the response became visible. The before-and-after photos in this update were taken only two days apart. Within roughly 48 hours of topping, the growth surrounding the cut had already become noticeably more active, and the upper architecture was beginning to reorganize. Considering how slowly this plant developed during the first few weeks, seeing such a clear response in such a short period of time was particularly encouraging. The plant remains in the 113L living soil container, and I’m keeping other variables as stable as possible so I can observe the response to topping without introducing unnecessary changes. The older damaged lower leaf from the early problems is still hanging around as a little fossil from the beginning of the run 😂, but none of that damage has progressed into the newer foliage. From here, the interesting part will be watching which shoots establish dominance and how quickly Bubba begins building a wider structure. Slow start, fast response. On to Week 6. 🌱💚

ElNass WEEK 6 — DAY 42 | Building the Structure 🌱 Week 6 is complete, and Bubba is finally showing a completely different pace compared with the beginning of this run. Following the slow start and the initial transplant stress, vegetative growth has become increasingly consistent. The response to topping has been particularly good: several lateral branches are now developing as strong competing tops, the main stem has thickened considerably, and the overall architecture is becoming much wider and bushier. This week I decided to do some selective defoliation. I deliberately wouldn’t call it lollipopping yet. The goal wasn’t to completely strip the lower part of the plant, but rather to open up the internal structure, improve light penetration and airflow, and expose some of the developing lateral shoots. Several lower branches were intentionally left untouched for now. I want to give them a little more time to develop before deciding which ones will eventually be removed and which ones might still be useful. The upper part of the plant is now becoming the main focus. Multiple tops are approaching a similar height, which should give me a good foundation for the next stage of training. I’m planning to introduce the SCROG net soon, but after today’s defoliation I’d rather give her another couple of days of uninterrupted growth before adding another intervention. She remains in the same 113L living soil, and at this point I’m trying to keep everything else as stable as possible. No corrective feeding or unnecessary inputs — just observing the plant and letting the soil system do its job. Looking back at the first few weeks, the difference is pretty dramatic. Bubba definitely lived up to her reputation for being slow at the beginning, but once she became established, the entire growth pattern changed. Day 42. Six weeks of veg completed. Next step: let these branches stretch a little further, then start building the canopy under the SCROG. 🌱💚 On to Week 7.

ElNass Weekly Update 🌱 | SCROG Training & Light Experiment This week was mainly focused on canopy management and continuing to work the plant through the SCROG net. After the latest training session, I decided to start experimenting with a higher light intensity. I gradually moved from around 300 PPFD to roughly 500 PPFD to see how this phenotype responds. So far, I’m treating it purely as an experiment and watching the plant closely before deciding whether to push any further. The main downside has been temperature. Increasing the light output brought the tent from roughly 27°C up to 29.7°C, so that’s definitely something I’ll be keeping an eye on. On the positive side, the smell is already surprisingly intense for this stage. She’s putting out a very noticeable aroma and, if this is any indication of what’s coming later, things are looking extremely promising. I also spoke with a few growers who have experience with CSI Humboldt genetics, and I was told that this particular expression looks like it could potentially pass very well for the mother. Obviously I’m taking that with a grain of salt — I’ve only popped one seed, so there’s absolutely no phenotype hunt or meaningful comparison behind that statement. Still… it’s definitely enough to get me excited about what I might have found. 👀 For now: keep spreading the canopy, monitor the response to ~500 PPFD, and see what she tells me. Slowly filling the net. 🌱🕸️

ElNass WEEK 8 — DAY 56 | Building the Canopy Another week of vegetative growth completed, and Bubba’s supposedly slow nature is becoming much less obvious. The plant has developed a very dense structure with strong lateral branching and a thick main stem. The work done with topping earlier in veg is really starting to show now, with multiple branches reaching the upper canopy and enough vegetative mass to begin properly shaping the plant through the SCROG. This week I started spreading the branches more aggressively across the available area. Something worth noting about this phenotype is how stiff the branches already are. They’re noticeably less flexible than I expected, so I’m trying to redistribute the canopy gradually rather than forcing everything into position at once. Some branches still needed a little extra persuasion though… which explains the dumbbell in the pictures. 😂 The final photos were taken immediately after training. The plant obviously looks rougher there: several leaves are flipped, the center has been opened and the branches have been pulled outward to redistribute the growth across the net. That temporary mess is intentional. Now the plan is to let her recover and watch how quickly the tops reorient themselves toward the light before deciding the next training step. Overall, I’m very happy with her development at Day 56. The rough start from the first few weeks feels pretty far away now. Day 56 🌱 Bubba Kush — CSI Humboldt ? 113L Living Soil / No-Till ✂️ Topped + SCROG 🌿 Still in vegetative growth Slow girl… apparently she just needed some time. 💚

ElNass WEEK 9 — DAY 63 | Ready for Flower… Almost 🌱 Nine weeks of veg, and I think we’re finally there. Bubba is ready to flower. The canopy has reached the point I was looking for, the plant has built a seriously thick main stem and plenty of lateral growth, and at this stage I don’t see much value in extending veg for structural reasons. There also wasn’t much aggressive training this week. After completely snapping one of the main branches during the previous training session, I realized just how much the structure has changed. The main branches are now very thick, woody and surprisingly rigid, and trying to force them further through the SCROG simply doesn’t feel worth the risk anymore. Lesson learned the hard way. 💀 Fortunately, the plant didn’t seem particularly bothered by losing the branch. Growth continued throughout the week and, looking at the canopy now, the missing section is already much less noticeable than I expected. ENVIRONMENT & PLANT RESPONSE Light intensity is currently around 550 PPFD at canopy level. This is particularly interesting considering how cautiously I approached light intensity earlier in the run. I had heard a lot about Bubba being relatively sensitive to high light, so I deliberately started low and increased intensity gradually while observing her response. So far, she’s handling the current intensity well. Another thing that has surprised me is the smell. She is still completely in vegetative growth, yet the aroma is already very strong — much stronger than I would normally expect from a plant that hasn’t even entered flower yet. I’m definitely curious to see what that develops into once flowering and resin production really begin. ONE LAST DECISION BEFORE FLOWER There is actually only one reason I haven’t flipped her yet: I want to preserve this phenotype. After spending nine weeks with this plant, I’d really like to take clones before flowering. I’ve contacted a few companies to see whether anyone would be interested in supporting the cloning side of the project with the materials I’m currently missing. So I’m giving it approximately one more week. If I manage to get what I need, I’ll preserve the phenotype, do the final cleanup/defoliation and then move forward. If nobody gets back to me, I’m not going to keep extending veg indefinitely just for that. I’ll continue with the run without cloning her. And since I already know that I won’t reveg after harvest, that would mean this particular Bubba phenotype ends here. One seed, one plant, one expression of the genetics. Hopefully I get the chance to keep her around. 🤞💚 DAY 63 🌱 Bubba Kush — CSI Humboldt ? 113 L Living Soil / No-Till ☀️ ~550 PPFD ✂️ Topped + SCROG 🌿 Vegetative growth 👃 Already surprisingly loud ⏳ Flowering next Week 9 might be the last week of veg.

ElNass Week 10 — Bubba Kush by CSI Humboldt This week turned into a proper troubleshooting week. The plant is still growing vigorously and the canopy is well developed, but the chlorosis has become much more obvious. The main symptoms I’m seeing are interveinal yellowing, especially on the upper and intermediate growth, some purple veins and petioles, a slightly rough/crinkled leaf texture, and a few small necrotic spots. At first I suspected iron, but manganese could also be involved, and I still don’t want to call it a confirmed deficiency. In a reused living soil, nutrient availability can be affected by several things at the same time: irrigation, root-zone conditions, pH, microbial activity, depletion after multiple cycles, or actual micronutrient deficiency. One thing I definitely changed this week was irrigation management. I had been seeing the tensiometer move from almost 0 kPa after watering to around -20/-30 kPa before the next irrigation. I’m now trying to keep the soil much more stable, roughly around -7 to -15 kPa, using smaller and more frequent irrigations instead of allowing such large wet/dry swings. Since this is already the 4th run in the same 113L living soil, and the previous Fruity Durban showed a somewhat similar issue when the plant became large, I think the root zone and nutrient availability deserve more attention than simply adding more fertilizer. Today I also made a first foliar test with Plagron Vita Race, which contains 8% water-soluble iron. The product is quite old and very viscous, but after shaking and diluting it, it dispersed normally in water. I applied it as a foliar spray shortly before lights-off. For now I want to keep the irrigation stable and watch the new growth over the next few days before changing anything else. The goal is not to chase symptoms with multiple products at once, but to understand what the plant is actually responding to. Let’s see how she reacts. 💚🌱

ElNass Bubba Kush — CSI Humboldt 🌱 This week has been all about troubleshooting rather than chasing a perfect-looking canopy. Over the last couple of weeks, Bubba developed a pronounced chlorosis, mainly affecting the upper and newer growth. The pattern has been mostly interveinal, with the younger leaves becoming pale/lime while much of the lower and older foliage has remained noticeably darker. Despite the colour issues, the plant itself has never really stopped growing. The trunk is thick, branching is vigorous, the canopy is still expanding and there has been no general collapse or major loss of turgor. That made me start thinking less in terms of “what nutrient is missing?” and more in terms of “what is preventing the system from supplying it correctly?” The first major variable I found was irrigation. I had been hand-watering around 5 L every other day, and my tensiometer was showing large moisture swings: close to 0 kPa after watering and sometimes down to around -20/-30 kPa before the next irrigation. At those lower readings, the leaves would also start to droop slightly. I’ve now changed the irrigation strategy completely, using smaller and more frequent applications and trying to keep the root zone much more stable, roughly around -7 to -15 kPa. Iron availability then became my main working hypothesis, with manganese still somewhere in the differential. I first tried an old foliar iron product, but because its condition and age made that test difficult to interpret, I later made a root-zone iron application using a fresh soluble iron sulfate product. Now I’m deliberately avoiding adding more variables. No extra kelp, alfalfa, guano, bone meal, LAB, teas or additional micronutrients for the moment. I want to see how the system responds to stable irrigation + the iron correction before changing anything else. The old chlorotic leaves are not my main reference anymore. What I’m watching is the tissue being produced now. One interesting sign is that some of the newest stems, which had previously been coming out purple/red, are starting to return green. A few of the newest meristems also appear healthier than the older chlorotic growth. I’m definitely not calling it fixed yet — but the progression seems to have slowed, and there may finally be the first signs of stabilization. This is the 4th consecutive cycle in the same 113 L living soil, with increasingly minimal re-amendment between runs. That makes this whole situation especially interesting to me. My background is engineering, and this is honestly how I learn best: Observe → identify the variables → form a hypothesis → change one thing → measure the response → repeat. Perfect runs teach you consistency. Problematic runs teach you the system. And I have a feeling this Bubba is going to teach me a lot. 🌱💚