8 Ball Kush - Spring/Summer 2019

We are starting this journal on the plants 8th week of vegetation. The 8 Ball Kush has been one of the easiest plants we’ve grown. She is very hardy and has responded well to super-cropping, topping, and FIM’ing techniques with minimal stress and quick recovery time. We intended to stay completely organic this grow, but might slip in a few synthetic nutrients towards the blooming period. We’re noticing the plant seems to have an unlimited love for organic fertilizers, so we’re quickly depleting a Mission Fertilizer Organic Nutrient Starter Kit between this 8 ball Kush and 5 other plants. This is our first time using Mission Fertilizer, which is a company that is produced locally in the Central Valley of California. The nutrients are extremely fresh (farm manure smell, be warned) and the 8 Ball Kush has stayed incredibly healthy with little to no nutrient burn experienced thus far. In fact, I think we could’ve easily doubled the suggested nutrient dosage amounts with even better results, but we decided to play it safe and stick to recommended doses since it’s our first time using the nutrient line. We’ve pulled about 10-12 healthy clones for friends and family from this plant over the past four weeks and she’s never responded negatively or weakened as a result. We plan to defoliate the plant a bit to help with airflow and increase Sun penetration to multiple colas/bud sites, as well as increase nitrogen to the plant since her color green is lightening and some lower leaves are yellowing. This might help her finish the vegetation stage strongly.

Increased nitrogen since the plants green color was fading and some lower leaves were yellowing rapidly. Plant darkened in color within 4-5 days and appears to be growing taller once again. Signs of pre-flowering so hopefully she will be in flower very soon.

The 8 ball Kush is chugging along nicely. She’s still only showing preflowers, but I expect that to change soon. Ran out of Mission Fertilizer, so switched to FloraNova trio since they did not carry Mission Fertilizer at the hydro shop. The plant seems to like it and responded positively within 24 hrs of feeding. Getting close to the home stretch, so we defoliated a bit more to help bud sites get more light and encourage airflow.

The end of the first week of flowering was a cake walk. This 8 ball kush has been one of the easiest plants we’ve grown. Clone rate has been about 90% success and the failed ones were solely user error. Pests are almost non existent on plant since we’ve only found 1 caterpillar and a few spiders it’s whole life (knock on wood). We plan to defoliate fan leaves at the end of week 2 since she’s very bushy/leafy and we want to get more light to inner bud sites and maximize airflow around the plant. No strong scent or sticky leaves yet.

Our 8 ball kush was moved to a morning sun only location for 3 days since we were out of town. The weather was 100+ during that time, so it wasn’t worth the risk to fry her in the heat. She was given only plain water during that time and had no health issues once we got back. Started her with more bloom fertilizers to prepare for flowering. Plan to feed her at least 4 times a week with FloraNova trio, once with molasses, and twice with plain water. Will adjust up if she can take more, or down if she shows signs of burning tips/leafs. Plucked most of her inner fan leaves to allow for more light penetration to canopy and increase airflow. Doing daily morning pest checks to eliminate any possible pests/caterpillars. Smell is starting to appear on plant, but only when up close.

8 ball kush has been a trooper during the last heat wave. Health has stayed consistent and she produced more leaves since last defoliation. We had to pull more leaves since signs of powdery mildew appeared on some inner/lower leaves that were bunching together, so didn’t want to chance it and removed them before it could spread. Humidity had been rising in the hot summer evenings since some days it’s still 80 degrees at 11pm. Weather appears to be cooling, so hopefully it will just focus on further bud development.

We’ve been pumping the 8 ball kush with nutrients hard this week. She finally started showing some signs of burning with some tips/leaves turning brown after a 4 day binge of daily watering with micro, bloom and a small dose of grow. Gave her molasses and water for two days and she seems to have bounced back. Just plucked affected leaves and she’s still growing happily. Slipping in some remaining organic flower boosters I have on hand at least 1-2 times a week for the next 2 weeks, then plan to flush. Very vigorous strain, regret not putting her in ground as she’d probably be huge. Have two clones of her in 3 gals that are a little over 2 ft and both should yield nicely.

At the beginning of week 5 of flower, I realized we finally pushed the 8 ball kush too far with nutrients and the heat. She started showing signs of heat stress and nutrient burn, as well as the smaller clones we pulled from her (which we should’ve have given a much weaker dosage to begin with). Flushed the plants with distilled water for two days and moved them to an afternoon shady spot during the 97+ degree weather. It took about 4-5 days to get them looking ok again, so will probably only feed lightly for a week a week and begin flush. It looks like she has under 3 weeks to go. Frost is coming in and buds are slowly fattening.