WEEK 9
I defoliated the plants on day 57. I got a bit over enthusiastic and ended up taking off much more than I should have. But they seem to recover over the next several days, and by the end of the week were looking a lot better. Overall the plants seem to be doing fairly well and there are a lot of nice bud sites all over the tent which is a pleasing sight! The plants water intake went down after the defoliation, as it probably dramatically reduced their ability to transpire. I left the watering for a few days longer than usual, and the pots were quite dry by the time I did water them. Overall not my best week as far as plant care goes, but they seem to have survived it and at the end of the week are looking on track again. The distinct odour of lemons is very noticeable in the tent. It's quite strong, and surprisingly lemony.
DAY 57 - Fed plants with nutrient mix with EC=1.4 and PH=6.2 and volume of 3000ml per plant. Run-off had an EC of 1.4 and was around 500ml per plant.
DAY 58 - No changes today
DAY 59 - No changes today - Would normally have fed plants today but they haven't been drinking much since the defoliation, so I'm postponing watering for a few extra days.
DAY 60 - No changes today
DAY 61 - No changes today.
DAY 62 - Pots got pretty dry. Left the watering for too long. Double Doh. Fed plants today with nutrient mix with EC=1.4 and PH=6.4 with 3000ml per plant. Run-off had an EC of 1.4 and was about 500ml per plant.
DAY 63 - No changes today.
@ProfessorSkiSlopes, I like the fact that you think twice before doing. Its gonna get you far in the long run imo.
Personally i dont really worry too much about the yield, i'd rather advance further into quality of my bud before anything else!
You are definitely doing something right as far as i can see π
@@GreenHeart420, Heh, yeah you are right, I was having a bit of a brain-sizzle that night. I guess I'm still quite new to this, and I'm pretty fixated on mastering the art of growing the highest yield and so I can easily overthink small things. To be honest, over the last several grows I'd sort of come to the conclusion that in general, the plant is going to produce a fairly predictable yield, and that unless there were major screw ups, most folks were probably getting fairly similar results regardless of technique or any specifics of the growing method. But then I noticed the correlation with the look of the GSC, and it struck me that maybe it was the opposite, and perhaps the treatment of the plant, especially in the seedling stage, could have dramatic impact on final yield. I guess the only real answer is going to be found by doing some comparative grows with clones, and measuring final yields after varying nutrient levels for different sets of plants. Not sure that I'm going to ever get around to doing that, but given how much it is bugging me, maybe I will. I generally haven't had any major struggles with my grows so far (except the first time, when I drowned 14 seeds), and I had a pretty spectacular yield with my Zkittles grow (just under 1 kilo in 12 weeks from a 4by4 tent) so I'll keep on trying to get my coco technique perfected. Although I am keen to automate the watering with a pump fed halo system, and also automate the collection of run-off with some full 4x4 sized trays I've found online. That would cut my workload by a massive amount. Speaking of which, I guess I better go hand-water the tents now... Thanks for the feedback, it's good to be reminded not to take it quite so insanely seriously LOL, I tend to get a bit over-focused on things I think I'm seeing. In the end, the harvests are pretty sweet, and it's actually supposed to be an enjoyable hobby (which in large part it really is).
@ProfessorSkiSlopes, Thats alot of thinking on just a plant, i would get headaches haha. π
But on the more serious side.. If you are in a struggle with the early stages of plants life you should try to mixing coco with soil.
I do a ratio of 50/50, therefor i dont have to think about feeding the plant at all for the first stage cause it will pull nutrients from the soil.
If you wanna advance more into my techniques, you can also try to find some dry powder nutrients to mix into the soil or top dressing.
It works very well for me to say the least, its actually freaking amazing cause i dont really have to take too much care of them, i'm even thinking about growing with that in a autopot system so everything will be automated.
Remember! Its a plant, it came onto this planet before humans so it can survive without our full attention.
Take it easy and happy growing! βοΈ
@Warzouz_grass, Thank you! They seem to be doing pretty well overall, two of the Lemon AK plants especially are looking like they might be heavy yielders. The Girl Scout Cookies are a bit smaller and less branchy, but they seem to be budding up nicely! Will be interesting to see how they go over the next 3 weeks.
@Belverde, Thank you very much man :) I reckon are looking pretty healthy so far. The Girl Scout Cookies seem to be loving it the most. The Lemon AK's have put out lots of laterals with lots of nodes... I probably should have done some LST on the Lemons, oh well, next time. LOL./
@BlackCousin, Thank you! They seem to be doing good... the leaves on the biggest seedling have just reached the edge of the pot, and they're keeping a good colour. This grow I've dialed back the level of nutrients and the intensity of the light, and it seems to be working well!
Hey there!
Thanks so much for growing our genetics :)
Good luck with your Lemon AK ππΌ
Let us know if you need any assistance
Happy Growing! ππ±
@ProfessorSkiSlopes, Thanks for the feed back. I've been having issues with my Blackberry light green phenotype she is drinking slower than the rest and feeding slower not sure if she may have been too wet or I caused some root issues but I made the mistake of giving her plain water and not feeding her as often and think I may have been starving her cause she yellowed out like she was flushing. The shorter green BB phenotype looks nice with a shorter denser leaves and buds. The 3rd tall pheno looks good but the bud density is not good. I suspect that I was under feeding them and lack of cal/mag produced lower bud growth/density. I think getting the proper potassium/calcium/magnesium proportions are playing into this issue they should be 4 parts K /2 parts Ca/1 part Mg. I will try them again at some point. I've seen both good and bad diaries on this strain I was under the impression they didn't like ultra heavy feedings from some of the diaries I've read but I wonder if maybe they need more cal/mag and to have their nutrients tweaked up a bit.
@Philindicus, I think you are potentially right there. The fact the two light green plants turned out to be so spindly and yes, had hollow stems, whilst being totally different phenotypes suggests that the environment in the medium was not ideal. I am not sure how to address the cal/mag issue. I have been adding the cal/mag/micronutrient additive at full strength during the majority of the plants life (as opposed to the primary nutrient and other additives which are generally added at between 25%-44%, to give it higher levels of calcium and magnesium to compensate for the ionic action of the coco, but it doesn't seem to work to great effect. I might have to introduce a regular foliar feed. Or maybe changing to a coco specific nutrient range such as CANNA or CX. EIther way, I was pretty quick to call Blackberry an inconsistent strain with poor genetics, but I must give full consideration to it simply being a sensitive strain that requires a more optimised nutrient regiment, which would explain why I've done reasonably well growing other strains, and so relatively poorly with blackberry.
@ProfessorSkiSlopes, I'm growing some LAK-47 also but I tend to like mostly Indica dominant strains but I was looking for a daytime smoke for me and my friends to try. My Black berry are inconsistent also. Maybe the strain hasn't been stabilized as well as their other strains. I have noticed that my blackberry stems are pretty hollow which tells me they want more calcium. Let me know when you chop your Blackberrys down especially those light green ones if their stems are hollow. Could be the strain is Cal/Mag hungry.
@@@GreenHeart420, Thank you very much! I'm looking forward to seeing how the Lemon AK plants turn out, they are really busy and have a multitude of bud-sites. They Girl Scout Cookies are looking pretty solid and seem to be enjoying the environment.
They're looking good. I had two different phenotype on my FB LAK-47 they took about a week longer than the other two to amber up for me. I had to kick them out of my tent to make room for my next batch. I'm running a bit behind on my diary updates.