Vegan Widows

My wife was very happy with my first grow (Snow White). But she has asked if I could make the next one organic, plant based and preferably vegan as well. Ok! So I’ll use Biobizz nutes, not the Fish-mix though. They are all organic, with a range that is primarily plant-based. Some are even vegan. I might try a few household nutes as well, like coffee grounds, if I think I need to. I have put 6 seeds in a paper towel to pop. They will go straight into 4 separate 5 gallon fabric pots. I will watch the over-watering this time. I don’t want to shock them by having to transplant them later. I want enough veg time to do a few LST trials. I’ll try a circular LST on the first one, pulling the plant over, then I’ll see if I can circle it around the pot. I’d like to try lollipopping on the second one. I’ll also try to pull the all the branches straight outwards from the middle. I also wonder what a more heavy pruning would do to an auto plant. All the plants in my first grow had masses of leaves. It crowded the tent. Can autos handle more pruning? Not as far as shwazzing it, just significantly more than I did the first time. I’ll probably try this on the 3rd. I’m considering putting all remaining 1-3 seedlings in the final pot. But I don’t want the same crowded mess I had last time. So I would like to try some sort of training that keeps these ones really compact. Maybe topping or fimming? I don’t mind if it impacts the yield a bit for these ones. I’d like to do something I can learn from. I’ll also increase the lighting with a 150w flowering lamp. That will bring my main hanging lighting up to 400w for flowering. That puts me where I think I should be at 100w per square foot. I will probably still just use the 250w mars hydro with the 50w goose necks during veg though. Here I go again! UPDATE: At the end of the first week, four out of the five sprouted seeds have popped up this week. I put two in one pot, but only one popped. That puts me at 73% success rate from seed. The first seedling has 3 nodes already, with some 3 fingered leaves. The smallest one took some time to pop. It still had the seed head covering it for days while I slowly moistened it and coaxed it off. I’ll start the feeding sometime this week, just need the small one to catch up a bit. I made a heavy garden wire ring to go around the inside of each fabric pot. It sits just where the soil meets the fabric. I’ll wire them to the pot and use them to tie the training wires to. The fabric isn’t sturdy enough to tie them directly to.

The seedlings have bushed out very quickly this time round. Except for the last one to sprout. The new runt. They already have a lot of secondary growth coming out of the main stem nodes. I have been feeding them Rootjuice and Bioheaven this week. I’ve also been foliar spraying with Activera solution. I’m going to roughly follow the Biobizz nutrient feeding chart since I have brought the set. So far the plants look really healthy. Way better than last time. I have ended up buying a second full spectrum LED light. It is 600w but doesn’t actually look much brighter than the 300w I already have. I was going to replace it but right now I have them each hanging from a single hanger. I’ll possibly end up using the goose necks under the foliage this time as well. Lots more light! I’m attempting LST this time round. So I have just bent two of the fastest growing ones over. Both will be spread out as much as possible as the side shoots come out. I might heavily crop one and let the other one bush out. Maybe. The other fastest growing one has been topped. I felt bad doing it. I hope it recovers quickly! The Runt is too small to do anything to yet. But given it is off-centre in the pot, I will need to pull it over, when it eventually stretches. Last grow, the Runt ended up stretching massively. I’ll keep the training going this week as the plants continue to stretch. I’ll also introduce Biogrow and phase out the Rootjuice as the plants establish a good root stretch this week. We are getting through the last harvest faster than I thought we would. I’m going to need this one to go well!

Lots of LST this week. I have been spreading the 3 big plants out as wide as possible. Two in a bent down pattern that I am slowly trying to corkscrew. The topped plant is just being spread straight out centrally. It seems to have had the most explosive growth. So much so that I have topped the new runt as well. It grew very healthily this week. You won’t hear me call it the runt from now on. I’m going to add the gooseneck lights this week. Also transitioning to the flowering nutes phase. I’ll stop using the Rootjuice and bring in Biobloom, Topmax and the Algamic. I’ve also switched my lights-off phase from late afternoon to early morning. I had been thinking of protecting them from the heat of the afternoon a bit. But I have realised it is probably better to align this with the coolest part if the day. I’ve read about temperature differential (DIF) techniques and I don’t want to be restricting their growth too much. I also don’t want them to stretch like some of them did last time. The diff is currently 5 deg c. 22-27. But the temps this week are going to reach 33. As long as the diff stays the same though I won’t be worried. It’s going to be hot! Happy growing!

I feel like the high temps this week have slowed the plant growth a bit. Daytime high was 33c in the tent. Night time 28c. Back down to 21-26c. I can see a few preflower pistols appearing on one of the plants. The preflower stretch also looks like it is starting. I have continued to train them, adjusting the wires to pull them into shape. I have also continually defoliated. I’m slowly lollipopping them as the lower growth looses out to the canopy above. I’ll keep training till a few weeks into flowering. Hopefully I am establishing an even canopy. The Rootjuice is totally phased out and the flowering nutes are in the mix. I mostly brought 250ml bottles because I wanted to try them first. I’m liking the way the plants respond to them. I think I’ll need the same again for most if the nutes to complete the grow. One third through my second grow.

All 4 plants are in flowering phase. The latest plant is just showing preflower pistols. The other 3 have tiny cotton buds appearing. I‘m trying some light supercropping on the plants. Mostly where I want to slow the growth down. I’m not fully bending them, just squeezing the branches until I feel a pop between my fingers. Trying not to go over board with it. It feels weirdly addictive. Some of the branches droop slightly afterwards. But after a week of doing this the results are visible. I have big thick branches everywhere. Every branch that drooped has bounced back strong. I’ve also been defoliating heavily. I started slow last week. This week I have finished with one big defoliation and a final LST to a couple of the plants. I was just going to trim two and leave two. One of the topped and one corkscrew. But the plants already given a trim seem to have responded really well. I got too tempted to trim them all... Perhaps I should be careful. There is a lot of debate about how well autos take to intense training. But these plants are just so vigorous. The growth after 35 days is massive. It far surpasses my first grow. The pots are bigger, I’ve been training and defoliating. I also foliar sprayed regularly. Dropping the Activera from the foliar spray this week as the flowers come in. I’m putting it in with the feed instead. Otherwise I’m set into the flowering nutes now. Almost halfway...

The plants are stretching in their early flowering stage atm. The canopy is still pretty even though. I’ve pulled a few early starters back down, but I think I’m done with training them now. I’ve also stopped foliar spraying. The buds are really forming after 2nd week of flowering. The defoliating continues as well. Big fan leaves first. Starting top down. I’m just trying to open up as much bud growth as possible at this stage. I might be a believer though... The soil ph has crept up to 7.5. Nutrient TDS is currently ~1000. I’m feeding 12ml per litre Biobizz nutes every second day... Maybe I’m pushing it too far? I’m not waiting around to find out this time. PhDown ordered. Despite the ph concern, this grow looks really green and vigorous. No leaf issues, apart from maybe a few thin pointy growths on one plant. I’ll look into that. I’m at least half way. This strain is meant to be ready in as little as 10 weeks. That is with a short 2 week veg. I think this will be a 12 week grow, given the flowering didn’t really start until the 4th week. I let the first grow go too long at 15 weeks.

The good news is that there are buds everywhere in the tent this week. Definitely way more than the first harvest. My prediction right now. Up from 6.5oz to close to 10oz maybe?... I’m still trying to get the ph down. I’ve added an organic ph down solution when watering and have also cut back on nutes. Not sure the plants are showing any issues relating to that though. One plant is stretching taller than the rest, 50cm where the rest have stopped at 35-40cm. One plant is only just still on the brink of flowering. Almost like it has stalled. But I think that has more to do with the fact I topped it and trained when it was possibly too slow to take off. I haven’t given up on it yet though. Topping and training has been good for the most part. Next time I will likely top the healthy ones and just LST any slow starters. The topped healthy plant is the biggest and bushiest. I think it will be the best producer. Other than that I am still defoliating the plants that are in full flower. No big defoliation since the last one. Just little by little to keep the canopy open. The bad news is the last harvest is going to be gone before this one is ready. The overall quality of it means we are going through it quicker. But I’m learning. I’ll get better each time.

The stretch is pretty much stopped this week. The plants still look very healthy. But the ph is still up at ~7.5. I have stopped feeding them and have just been watering with ph down. It seems to be working. The stalled plant is clearly flowering now. I was going to cut it down this weekend so it has a stay of execution. All the other plants have swelling buds. I’ve given them another big defoliation and have also lollipopped. I’ve also removed all the training wires. Some of them were growing into the stems a bit. Because of the limited space, I need to keep things tidy. I need to make sure there is a good air flow. My next concern is going to be humidity. It is getting colder and wetter. I’ll need to be careful of mildew and bud rot. The tent is packed. The buds are tight together. Even though I’m indoors I can’t fully escape the weather. I closed the outside window but the humidity still hit 85% last night! I have gone from 7 plants down to 4, but the tent is solid with compact growth. So much more than first time around. But I have 20 gallons (4x5) of soil up from 14 gallons (7x2). Also I have switched from ~300w to ~900w lighting. Meanwhile my existing supply is down to the last few weeks. I’m going to just fall short.

I removed the stalled plant from the tent this week. It is now compost for my garden. Even if the buds grew, there were so few of them. It would have been a waste of space. I’ve also realised that filling the tent with pots is a mistake. Mould was starting to grow up the the sides of the fabric. Now I can put the dehumidifier in there. I’m probably going to give the tent a real good clean this weekend. With 3 sets of lights, a fan and a dehumidifier, the temps are about 4 deg c higher in the tent. The humidity is about 10% lower. This is good. 24c/60% instead of 20c/70%. Other than that the progress is good. Buds are swelling. Getting really sticky. Not too big at the moment though. I’ve got about a week or two until I flush at least the first plant. Maybe the second good one too. The stretched plant might take a little longer. But I think it will produce the most. As soon as there is space available for another 5 gallon fabric pot, I have some Gorilla Glue auto seeds I’m going to germinate.

I’m at the home stretch now. Two weeks till harvest. This grow has flown by! The buds are really swelling. They don’t yet look as big as some of the clusters on the last harvest. But those were all untrained and had way fewer bud sites. The difference this time is there are way more buds. PH is now good too. Soil is 6.5-7.0 in most tests. I’ve just given the final feed. From now on I’m just flushing them with PH adjusted water. The Biobizz nutes are PH neutral. I suspect micro organisms in the soil are raising the PH with their waste. I’ll always add PH- to the feed from now on. There are rusty spots appearing on some of the leaves of the most stretched plant. Possibly low in magnesium. I’ve feed with calmag. The affected leaves were all close to one of the lights though. Maybe that has something to do with it? Temps and humidity are bang on. The rig in the tent is keeping the temps in the high 20s. Outside the tent it is sometimes dropping into the high teens. The humidity in the tent is around 50%. About 10-15% down on the outside room. I’m really pleased with the impact of training Seems to have had on the plants. The LST, topping and super cropping has definitely had an impact. Even with autos. Ok. So one plant stalled. It was the weakest plant, was late and was not planted in the centre of the pot. I should have LSTed only. But I topped it. Pushed it too far. I’ve learnt a massive amount on this grow.

I’m watching the trichomes daily now. I got a digital handheld microscope, that connects to my phone, to get photos of them. It is really hard to keep it still enough, but I have attached it to a cane stick for support. I have a few of the shots in this weeks diary. I’m seeing a roughly 50-50 split of clear and cloudy trichomes. Based on the state of the trichomes, I think the 3 plants are all in their last week. I’ll just keep flushing with water over the last week then lights out for the last few days. I’ll plan the chop for next weekend. No wet trimming. I’ll just hang them whole. Last harvest over dried in the space of a few days. I want to make sure the dry isn’t too quick this time. A full week would be great.

I chopped and hung the plants in the tent yesterday. No ceremonies. Just cut them down and hung them whole. Trichomes all looked cloudy with a few still clear and the occasional one turning amber. The temp is good for drying at 21c. But due to a lot of rain the humidity is too high at 70%. The weather this week looks cold but dry. I might have to find ways to drive it down. As soon as they are a bit drier I will start to trim the non sugar leaves away. I’ll also start trimming at some smaller nugs for sampling. The cupboards are bare! Looking forward to having it all dried weighed and in the jars.

The environment has been good for this dry. 20c and 50% humid the whole way. When temps dropped on the first night to 15c in the tent, I got a small isolating heater with a thermostat. Last harvest dried too quickly. The good smell disappeared. This time it is heady in the air. Shit, the whole house stinks. I have spent the weekend harvesting the 3 plants. The two LSTed plants produced 2.5oz each of bud. The topped one produced 2.1oz. A bit less than I expected, even considering the 4th plant failed to flower. I’m left wondering how to increase production in the 2x2 foot space I have. This is keeping a supply, not really any backup though. I went from 7x 2 gal pots to 3x 5 gal pots. Pretty much the same amount of dirt. Less plants. But more room to grow. The plants didn’t actually grow any taller. But training kept that in check. They were bigger though. The base stems were giants compared to my first grow. But 4 pots filling the tent caused mould issues at the base of them. The airflow only returned when I went down to 3. Topping has made a more compact plant, but not more buds. To be honest, I’m not sure I even did it properly. But loosing the main stem hasn’t given it a bigger advantage than just LST in this grow. There are more good quality buds, but they are smaller than last harvests good buds. Defoliation may have helped but I have no comparison as I trimmed them all. I’m sure more lights helped a lot. More energy to the plants. Maybe next time I’ll try to keep them a little further from the plants as the stretched plant was showing some light burn. Almost all the trichomes were cloudy. Big impact on the smoke. I’m just about to pop 4 more seeds and do it all again. Gorilla Glue this time. Thank you for the support and interest. Happy growing!