Kush n' Cookies CBD - First grow

Just starting out with my very first grow! Lots of things will be sub optimal here, but I'm trying my best with a very limited budget. The grow is in a spare utility closet. 70/30 mix of Coco/Perlite. No ventilation other than the door opening to check on it and/or water. Combined with a California summer means high temps and low humidity. Light is a Viparspectra 450W (200W actual). Right now it's in a nursery pot but its final destination is a 5gal smart pot. All EC values I give will be in uS/cm, NOT mS/cm. I apologize for any out of focus photos in the beginning. Getting my phone's camera to focus on the little sprout is surprisingly difficult! During the plant's early life, the nute water base will be distilled water as my tap water is pretty awful (335 EC). As mentioned earlier, I'm trying to keep costs low, so as my EC allowance grows further into veg, I will switch back to tap water and suffer the consequences of using a little less nutes. Who knows, maybe it won't be so bad? Maybe cut a little CalMag out and do a supplemental CalMag foliar spray. Will have to invest in a RO filter at some point down the line.... I'm also going to be doing a full strength dose of Armor Si throughout the plants entire life to help with heat tolerance. I am very curious to see how much it does or doesn't help. Day 3 - Water, ph'ed tap water Day 4 - Water at 400 EC Day 5 - Water at 440 EC Day 6 - Water at 500 EC - Light lowered to 34" Day 7 - Water at 540 EC

Starting this week I turned on the bloom switch on the light. My goal for this week is to start pushing the plant harder. I will be aiming for around 1100 EC water by week's end, as well as having the light at 24". I will be keeping an eye out for how the plant responds. This week is hot! And I severely underestimated how much having the light at full power would heat the room more. The high in the grow room today was 95. The plant doesn't seem to mind so far though... Silica supplement putting in work? I'd love to hear your guys' thoughts on this. Day 8 - Water at 610 EC - LED Bloom switch toggled on Day 9 - Water at 690 EC - Light lowered to 30" - Think I found a consistent way to keep temps down Day 10 - Water at 770 EC - Light lowered to 28" Day 11 - Water at 850 EC - Light lowered to 24" Day 12 - Water at 920 EC Day 13 - Water at 1000 EC - Light lowered to 22" Day 14 - Water at 1100 EC - Transplanted into final container

The plant seems to be responding well to being continuously pushed harder, and it seems to love its new home! Before anybody mentions, yes, I know I should have transplanted into a 1 gallon container and gradually went up from there to the 5 gallon. To be completely honest, I just don't really feel like doing that. I think I'm going to continue to gradually lower the light until I begin to observe light burn. The base for my nutrient solution is now my tap water since I'm going to be going through potentially several gallons of water per day (It's looking like it's just a gallon per day right now, but that's going to change fast as this plant matures more!) Because of the high EC of my tap water, I'm reducing the amount of nutrients that goes into the water by 20% (from the feed chart I'm following). Let's hope this doesn't end up being a big deal. I'm going to have to find a way to quickly mix larger batches of nute water. I've been using 1 gallon containers up until now, and it's becoming clear that this is not going to be enough and I'm going to have to be mixing multiple batches every day at this rate.... I think I'm finally going to get to top this week! I've been waiting for the third multi-fan node until I try to top this plant, and it seems to be developing in full swing. I'm not sure if I'm going to do any defoliation yet. I've done a bit of research on it and it seems like an easy way for me to screw up the plant, especially since this is my first grow. The 5 gallon pot being in use now is helping raise humidity quite a bit! I'm seeing it fluctuate now between 40-45% RH. I'm still far into the red on a VPD chart, but it's an improvement over 90º and 25% RH for sure. I don't think there's much more I can do here without expensive equipment. Sorry for pH being general estimations, I'm using the dripper from GH pH kit and I find it somewhat difficult to read accurately. Day 15 - Water at 1200 EC - Light lowered to 20" - Clawing observed on several leaves. I don't think it's wind burn but I'm going to turn the oscillating tower fan off temporarily to see if that helps. Will check tomorrow the moment lights go on to see if I can rule out light burn or not. Runoff pH 6.3-6.6, runoff EC 990. Will perform a flush if I can rule out most other forms of stress. Day 16 - Water at 1200 EC - Light raised to 22" - Much less clawing when I peeked inside right before the lights came on. Raised the light and turned on the oscillating fan. Clawing again later at night, turned the fan off again. I need to situate this fan better. I also learned a lesson to not change too much all at once. This clawing would've been much easier to figure out had I not added the new fan AND raised water EC AND lowered the light all in one day. Day 17 - Water at 1200 EC - Topped - More clawing again this morning, pretty badly too. If my medium wasn't coco/perlite, I'd be sure I was overwatering it..... Later in the evening though, the clawing is mostly gone? I have no idea what is going on with this plant and clawing, but it's growing vigorously and showing no other signs that something might be wrong. I might start playing around with my nute water, maybe the contents of the hard tap water is causing some kind of toxicity... Think my first alteration tomorrow is cutting back on CalMag and see how it fares. Day 18 - Water at 1200 EC - Light lowered to 21" - Had enough water left over from yesterday that I didn't get to try my nute experiment detailed in the previous day. Random clawing is continuing. The 2nd (3-leaf) node fan leaves have been drooping and are now touching the grow medium. It and the 1st node leaves are getting next to no light at this point. I think I'm going to cut them off tomorrow. I also noticed that one of the fan leaves at the 4th node may be a mutant? Two leaves are growing into each other. Not worried about this, just an oddity that I noticed. Day 19 - Water at 1170 EC - Fan leaves at first two nodes removed - Instead of doing the experiment with the calmag, I instead opted to use distilled water as the base today, allowing me to mix in nutrients at full strength. I'm not going to do this all the time, but if the plant shows to really love it, I'll do it here and there in the future. Day 20 - Water at 1200 EC - Light distance 19" - Growth is really starting to explode! Day 21 - Water at 1300 EC - Light distance 18" - The two sets of large fan leaves are quite droopy this evening... I randomly decided to test the EC of my tap water again. Now it's 470 uS/cm... I'm going to change up how I mix the nute water. I am going to match the values per gallon per the feed schedule I'm following, and dilute with distilled water until I'm at my target EC. I have no idea why my tap water is now 470 EC when it was 330 the first time I checked it... I'm pretty ticked about that. Here's hoping the plants don't mind too much. Kind of getting the feeling I should just use soil instead for future grows, until I can afford to get a RO filter.

Her growth is really starting to explode! Tops are getting quite lengthy, it's looking like this is the week that I'm going to start practicing with some LST. She's already giving off a very faint smell if you stick your face into the plant, I love it! - Week end edit: Wow this thing is getting smelly! It seems like over the course of just a few days it went from a subtle scent you had to look for to filling the room. I certainly don't agree with others have grown this strain claiming no smell until well into flower; it's already getting quite loud. I will be aiming to keep the light at 18" for the rest of veg, this is ~620 PAR for my light. I understand that around 600 is the upper limit for what the plant will use in veg (please correct me if I'm wrong!) New to the closet as of day 24 is AK-48 Auto from Nirvana! She's about a week behind. I started her in the closet on the side to get a head start in veg, intending for her to go outside the remainder of her life. Well, I learned yesterday that even though cultivation is legal in California,my county has banned all outdoor cultivation! What a******s. Given that police helicopters are a common sight around here, I take it they actually enforce this. I'm not taking the chance so it's staying in here. I'm not confident that this light can flower 2 plants at optimal ppfd levels. The light is going to stay over my photoperiod plant and the auto is just going to get what it can. There is no diary for the auto and I don't intend to start one, nor will it be here, aside from the occasional photobomb. It was supposed to just be a side experiment to see how it did outside. Day 22 - I'm going to stop giving daily water EC and light height values as these will no longer be changing on a regular basis. What is shown above on the week info is accurate. The pairs of large fan leaves at the 3rd and 4th node are now sagging and resting on the coco. They're also not getting very much light anymore... Maybe it's time for them to come off soon. Day 23 - Small, infrequent brown spots observed on leaves. Suspect calmag deficiency. - The growth this girl is starting to go through is staggering! I had to raise the light 2" today, she definitely needs to be tied down soon. I took a picture a few days ago of a leaf I noticed had some rather odd looking damage. That entire fan leaf appears to have the same kind of damage. No visible signs of pests, no other leaves experiencing the same issue... Day 24 - LST, topped, very light defoliation. Mixing another batch of nute water tomorrow, will be adding more calmag. Day 25 - Increased calmag, cut back on silica. If this is how much calmag is required for the coco, there's no way I can keep the EC near my current target of 1250. I'm going to aim for around 1400 and hope the she manages. Day 26 - I keep seeing more and more yellow spots and discolored splotches than the day before. It's still a very insignificant amount, but it is noticeable. - Water pH 6.0 EC 1480 uS - Runoff pH 6.5 EC 1220 - It was my understanding about coco going into this that runoff EC should usually always be 0-300 higher than the water going in, yet this has not been true for this entire grow. My runoff EC seems to always be 50-200 lower than the water going in. Day 27 - Problems with yellow spots continuing to persist... Going to ask for help here, I can't seem to figure this out. - Day end edit: problem is getting worse fast. My AK-48 Auto is starting to show initial symptoms as well,it switched over to tap water around a week ago. Think it's some kind of toxicity. Flushed the coco with regular ph'ed water. Will need to figure out what to do with nutrients... I'm thinking that there must be large amounts of calcium in the tap water and increasing the calmag the other day exacerbated this. Think I'm gonna see how it fares if I just cut calmag altogether. I hope my tap water isn't just unusable :( Day 28 - New nute mix. Will leave the old one in the week info above for reference, new one will be reflected next week. 1ml/gal ArmorSi, 2.5ml/gal FloraMicro, 2.5ml/gal FloraGro, 1.2ml/gal FloraBloom. EC 1140 uS/cm (tap water base at ~400 EC [seems to fluctuate daily]), 5.8pH. I'm curious to see if calcium in the tap water alone is enough for the coco. I did properly double buffer my coco with calmag water before starting, so I think I've just been throwing way too much calmag at it. Time will tell though. Need to find the sweet spot, so if I do need to add calmag again, I'm going to do it in very small increments until I find the balance that works with my tap water.

After a few days of not much growth while figuring out what the problem was last week, this morning she's perked up and seemed to have resumed the explosive growth! It looks like a flush and cutting out the calmag was exactly what it needed, though only time will tell if relying on the tap water for calcium will suffice. I'm fairly certain the yellow spots are permanent... I'm looking forward to cutting those off in the future. I'm anticipating switching to flower at the start of week 7, though that is entirely dependent on if more problems arise or if I'm in the clear and it grows to what I'm aiming for this week. One thing is certain though, I'm keeping it in veg until I figure out the balance between the nutes and my tap water. I'd love to hear any and all thoughts on my grow so far! Day 29 - She seems to be responding very well to the flush and removal of calmag from the feed. Fairly confident the issue was either calcium toxicity or nutrient lockout via salt buildup. I feel the latter is more likely. Day 30 - Still looks like I'm in the clear. She's getting thirsty! I've been watering once per day since the transplant, I will likely need to start doing two waters per day very soon. Day 31 - Actually bothered to do the math on how much vertical space the plant *actually* has. It's less than what I thought it was. I might have to flip it into flower by the end of this week or else I won't have room for the stretch. That said, I was thinking about doing that regardless; she's growing very fast! Day 32 - Good Lord she's growing fast. I wanted to wait until Tuesday (end of my week) to flip but she might force my hand sooner if she keeps putting on an inch every day. Day 33 F(1) - Flipped to 12/12. Maybe I waited a little too long to do this. She's 14" tall right now, and that's about the full extent of her vertical space, assuming she exactly doubles in height and not an inch more. It'll be fiiiiiiiine. I'm going to let her start growing into the light until she gets to about 13-14" (that's around 1000 PAR for my light) and do my best to maintain that for the rest of flower. Day 34 F(2) - I'm seeing the cycle start again, clawing with a rare blemish here and there. This is exactly what happened a week prior to what happened last time. Inbound/outbound pH normal, watering to at least 20% runoff (probably more tbh). I've watered the feed down to 900 EC and watered to about 50% runoff, and I'll see how it is tomorrow. Day 35 F(3)- Looks like the clawing is letting up. Keeping a close eye looking out for new blemishes or yellow spots, nothing yet. Maybe this strain is just a bit sensitive to nutes. Might just aim to keep it around 900 EC in the future.

First official week of flowing, though I flipped her a few days ago due to height constraints. To recap some goals from late last week, I'm going to aim to keep my light at around 13-14" away from the canopy. I'm still trying to keep nutrients on the low side, and it seems to be working out well so far. I know she needs to be pruned pretty badly; I'm aiming to do that around when she's done stretching in a couple week (I hope). Everything is going well so far, aside from some minor clawing at the tips. I think I might need to reintroduce the oscillating tower fan at some point to keep air flowing through the leaves. Day 36 F(4) - Minor clawing, but nothing else to indicate something's wrong. Day 37 F(5) - Nothing noteworthy to report. Day 38 F(6) - Noticed a leaf fall off while I was watering. Went around and plucked 8 or so more sickly looking leaves. All bottom growth. I know the older fan leaves are supposed to yellow and fall off during flower, but I can't help but feel like this is a little soon, and there's something else going on... I might continue to mess with the water. I've definitely been seeing I'm feeding considerably less than average in coco. Day 39 F(7) - Switched from transition to early bloom following my feed chart. Reintroducing calmag. Feed mix came out to around 1300 EC. I think before when I was playing around with the water I was messing with the root zone EC too quickly. This time I'm going to gradually move up to full strength feed. I've been watering feed at 900 EC. Today's feed was 975 EC. - Pruned a lot of the dying leaves and bottom growth getting zero light. I also removed a handful of shoots that were also in the dark and had no chance of reaching the canopy. Day 40 F(8) - Watered at 1075 EC Day 41 F(9) - Watered at 1150 EC - RO filter purchased! It should be in use in a few days. Day 42 F(10) - Watered at 1200 EC, now up to full strength. I really hope she stops stretching soon, I only have about 8" left to raise my light to!

I desperately need her to stop stretching soon..... Have about 7" left to keep raising the light before I have to figure out a plan B. When she grows another 3" she'll have doubled in size since the flip. Gives me a lot less wiggle room than I hoped for... Now I know for the future I guess, that I let this plant get TOO DAMN TALL in veg! I have an RO filter now! Just set it up this morning, actually. I will adjust the nutrients listed above when I actually make the switch to using the water. Day 44 F(12) - Started using RO water. Current feed strength is 950 EC. Have some headroom, so I'll have to consider getting a bloom booster. Day 49 F(17) - My AK-48 Auto runt is departing to go outdoors since this plant is completely hogging the grow light. I'll have to keep it fairly tucked into our backyard porch so it doesn't get seen, but it should be getting more light than it's getting right now regardless.

She's an absolute unit. Stretching seems to be considerably slowing down finally, which is great, because I only have about 2" left to raise the light. Nothing much else to report other than that. My watering frequency is starting to get pretty high, topping off the coco every few hours when I'm home (no automatic watering, so she gets thirsty while I'm at work). I'll be transitioning to mid-bloom feed in a few days. Smell hasn't changed much since it first started in veg. I'll be back at the end of the week with non-blurple photos! Day 50 F(18) - Did one last round of pruning. Removed all suckers on the bottom half of the plant, as well as dying fan leaves. There were still some healthy ones that haven't been cannibalized yet, so I'll pick those off as they're ready to fall off in the future. Day 52 F(20) - She's starting to show some frost. I find myself getting lost just staring at her, she's lovely. Day 53 F(21) - Transitioned to mid-bloom feed.

She finally stopped stretching, with only an inch to spare, too! Bud growth is increasing rapidly. Weather has been abnormally cool and dry lately, still managing to keep the grow environment more or less perfect without much effort! I'll be back at week's end with non-blurple photos. Day 61 F(29) - Put the plant in a small tub instead of a plant saucer to allow me to pump out the runoff. Moving the plant to remove runoff has been becoming problematic. Several branches are not strong enough to hold themselves up. I put in some hooks to tie up said branches, and combined with pumping away the runoff, the plant should never have to move again until it's ready for harvest! Day 63 F(31) - Yet another week comes to a close. The buds are really starting to put on some weight, and there's still a lot of time left to go!

Checked my runoff today, it was sitting around 1600 EC. Yikes! Will need to spend some time bringing that down with more watering events and watering to increased amounts of runoff. The buds are already looking so thick to me.... It's crazy thinking that she still has another 4-5 weeks to go! Day 67 F(35) - Runoff EC back down to ideal levels

Coming down to the last few weeks, how exciting! I haven't said anything since I got it, but switching out the plant saucer for a shallow tub has been extremely helpful. It's making removing (and testing) the runoff an extremely easy process, and will transition very nicely into my next grow, where I plan on setting up an automatic watering system for the coco! Doubly exciting, not having to hand water my plants multiple times a day. Day 71 F(39) - Transitioned to Late Bloom 1 on my feed chart

Yet another week passes without much to say. This girl is getting stinky. I clipped off a test bud yesterday that I have hanging to dry, will test that in a couple days. All the larf on the bottom of the plant has to be good for something! I have received all the equipment I need to set up my automatic watering system for coco. These also enable me to try DWC should I wish to, but... Coco is basically hydroponics anyway, just a different form of it. I won't be setting it up on this grow though, it's for the next one. I've also been thinking a lot lately about what I want to do differently with my next grow. One thing I'm definitely not happy about with this grow is that the bottom 2/3s of the plant is useless. It's not even doing its job as bare branches because they're starting to fall over! Most of the colas have supports in place now. I let this thing get way too tall and have nothing to show for it, not yet at least.

Two more weeks! I'm aiming to chop around November 13-15th, assuming the breeder's flowering duration is to be trusted. That's also with some correction that I guess I'm counting flowering days incorrectly; I started counting from the flip to 12/12, you're apparently supposed to start counting when you see the first pistils. Either way, I will be keeping a close eye on the trichomes as those days draw closer. A lot of the main colas are developing some foxtails! D: I am unsure if these are genetic foxtails or due to environmental stress. Temperature and RH has been more or less perfect. My light is a bit closer than the manufacturer suggests, but, I have it positioned so that it should be giving the plant around 1000 umols. I included a picture of the bud that is foxtailing the worst. I'm leaning towards genetic abnormalities because there are a couple buds under the canopy that are also foxtailing; buds that I know for an absolute fact cannot be light stressed. I'm still racking my brain trying to figure out what I want to grow next! I have: Kush n' Cookies CBD (This grow!) Cali Bay Dream (GDP x OG Kush) Northern Lights Gorilla Cookies (Seedsman freebie) Alaskan Purple (Seedsman freebie) AK-48 Auto (Seedsman freebie) I find myself leaning towards Northern Lights, just because it's a classic! I only have one seed of it, unfortunately.