08/2019 - ILGM Purple Haze

Plants are on Day 16 since the seeds popped. They are currently in a 50/50 mix of Fox Farm Ocean Forest and Happy Frog in solo cups but will be moved into their 7 gal fabric pots mid week which will be filled with a 70/30 mix of ProMix HP and Perlite. It's also worth noting that these plants are currently in a 32" x 32" tent and have been growing under a 65W HLG Quantum Board. When they are transplanted into their 7 gallon pots they will be moved into a 48" x 48" tent and will be under 600W (draw from the wall) of COB LED lights.

Day 22 from germination: The plants have been growing well, although I was hoping for there to be more root density when I transplanted them into their final 7 Gallon fabric pots. This is my first time using Pro-Mix HP with Mycorrhizae and I have to say this soil looks and feels amazing. I mixed it 3:1 with perlite so it will drain better based on recommendations from other growers and, after feeding them for the first time since they've been transplanted, I have a feeling this soil, and the fact that I'm using larger pots, is going to require a lot more water than I'm used to. In previous grows (50/50 mix of Fox Farms Ocean Forest & Happy Frog) I was getting plenty of overflow when I gave them each a gallon of water. I fed them each 1 gallon today, so I can see how long it takes for the pots to dry back out, and I didn't get any overflow. I'm have a very good feeling about this grow. The plants have been growing wonderfully since they sprouted, and the weather should be cooling down soon, which will help keep the tent environment where it needs to be. I'm hoping to train the plants well enough to where I won't need a trellis net, because removing the plants from the net at harvest is really difficult unless I cut every branch, but I prefer to hang the entire plant to dry, so pulling each plant through the net at harvest is such a hassle.

Day 29 from germination: I'm still getting used to how to water this ProMix HP soil. The plants seem happy, even when the pots feel light, so I'm having a difficult time knowing when to water. I fed them each 1 gallon of water a week ago, today, and they haven't needed any water since then. The plants still looked happy today, but I felt like a week is a long time to go between watering, so I fed them each 1.5 gallons today so I could get a little run-off. I'm hoping the slow dry-out was caused by the plants just being young and not needing much water and that I'll see a difference this week since they are starting to grow much faster (doubled in size over the last week). I will keep an eye on them daily and see if I notice any change in water consumption and/or pots drying out. The plants look great, and I plan on giving them each their first topping either today or tomorrow. I haven't noticed any deficiencies yet so I'm very happy compared to my last grow cycle.

Day 36 from germination: These plants are really taking off. Instead of topping them a second time, I've decided to flip the lighting timer over to a flowering schedule today, because these four plants seem like they just want to grow, and I'm just feel like I may regret keeping them in veg longer. I haven't tied down any branches yet but probably will once it starts stretching during the first weeks of flower. I did not feed the Sensi Grow nutrients today, because these pots aren't drying as quickly as I'm used to, and they haven't had a watering without nutrients in two weeks, because they have only needed water once a week. I'm hoping the rapid growth of the first few weeks of flower will cause them to soak up the water faster, but will start the Sensi Bloom and Bud Candy nutrients next week.

Day 43 from germination: All four plants have done great for their first week of flower and have been growing very quickly. They still have only required watering once a week so I'm sticking with that unless I run into any signs of issues. The pistils are starting to show on the plants and the odor is starting to come out. The only maintenance that has been done, other than today's feeding, was to top dress the soil with some gardening lime.

Day 50 from germination: Wrapping up week two of flower, and I hope the stretch is done, because these girls are growing very tall very fast. The tallest plant is only 6" from the light so I'm going to get the scrog trellis built this weekend to get the entire canopy the same height. They are finally drying up a little faster than they have but now the humidity is too high for my liking. I'm going to defoliate some of the large fan leaves this weekend and hope that will get it back in line because the RH in room the tent is in is where I want it. All of the girls are showing pistils now and I can see the buds starting to form. The smell is amazing already and I'm even stuffed up from a cold :)

Day 57 from germination: All plants were lollipopped, super cropped where necessary, and defoliated on day 51 and, admittedly, I went overboard but didn't realize until it was too late. They are going through water at a faster rate now and are requiring 1.5 gallons each, every 4-5 days, which is 2-3 days more frequently than the prior weeks. The plants still look great, so I'm not too concerned about the extra nodes that I probably should have left on the plant. I also built a trellis on the same day and built it in a way that will make harvest easier than I'm used to. The thought behind the trellis was to use dowels, instead of strings, to make the trellis stronger as well as make disassembly/reassembly of the trellis an easier process for future grows. Humidity has been higher than I would like, but it hasn't been too far out of range, and the temperature has been holding well. The growth of the flowers seemed a little slow at the start, but they are taking off now and look great. I've stopped tracking the height of the plants since I've super cropped and they are all over the place.

Day 64 from germination: The plants are still in their flowering stretch so I'm hoping they stop that very soon. All 4 plants have flowers that grew as tall as, and sometimes even over, the lights..and the lights are as high as they will go (about 3" from the top of the tent). I've been super-cropping the branches that get too high to keep them from getting light stress. The leaves are starting to show signs of Nitrogen toxicity, so I skipped the Sensi bloom nutrients this week, and will wait to see how long it takes for the leaves to look better. I may give them a flush this weekend, just to make sure things don't get worse before they get better, but will test my soil before I do anything. The flowers and leaves are getting nice and sticky/stinky and I'm very happy with these plants so far...except for the size of the plants. I think this strain is probably better suited for an outdoor grow and will definitely plant some outside next season.

Day 71 from germination: The plants seem to have finally stopped their upward stretch and have started focusing on fattening up the buds. I've noticed a some brown pistils, which made me concerned about possible pollen sacs forming in the tent, but I have not been able to find any signs of pollen sacs by any of the nodes, or any stamens in the buds, so I'm crossing my fingers and hoping there hasn't been any pollination. The plants smell absolutely amazing already so I have a feeling I'm going to love this strain. I've also noticed that some of the flower calyx are getting some nice purple in them already and I'm excited to see how they look when they mature. I'm also blown away by the amount of trichomes on the fan leaves. I've had strains with a decent amount of trichomes on the fan leaves but I don't think I've seen so many so early.

Day 78 from germination: The plants still seem to be very happy. The two tallest colas that I left in place seem to be flowering nicely. I'm starting to see some heat stress on the leaves of those colas so I cut the ones that were closest to the lights. I also removed a fair amount of fan leaves to provide better air circulation in the tent. It was getting very crowded in there, and the humidity was holding at a good 8%-10% higher than the room humidity, so I'm hoping this will help keep the humidity closer to where I would like it. The purples are starting to show more in the calyxes and leaves (probably due to the cooler temperatures) and the trichome density on the flowers and leaves looks incredible and the smell of the plants is nice and strong.

Day 85 from germination: The buds are fattening up nicely on all of the plants and they smell amazing. A lot of purple is coming through in the leaves. I've been told this is normal for this strain but I'm going to test the soil this weekend just to make sure everything looks normal. I've added a carbon filter to the exhaust and am now exhausting the tent into the room to help keep the room and tent more in line while also reducing the amount I will need to heat the house during the winter. I've also noticed a leaf mutation on plant #3 where an additional leaflet is coming out of the center "hub" of where all the leaflets meet.

Day 99 from germination: I don't know where I messed up my count, but I think I messed up the day from the very beginning, so these are a week further along from germination than I had logged previously. The plants are still doing very well. Still no signs of any issues and the buds continue to fatten up. The trichomes under the loupe still look mostly clear with some turning cloudy and the plants still smell amazing.

Day 106 from germination: This strain is advertised as taking 7-9 weeks in flower and I think that estimate might actually be close. I'm just barely able to find any amber at all...not even a single trichome that has a fully amber head, so last weeks feeding will be their last. The two colas I left high in the tent are showing some signs of stress (some fox tails and crispy leaves) but they are, by far, the largest colas in the tent. I removed any leaves that were dry/drying today. The frost on these flowers is nice and dense and the aroma is unreal. I will give the plants a good watering tomorrow and then next week, depending on how the trichomes are looking, I may give them some Flawless Finish from Advanced Nutrients. I don't know how well that stuff actually works, but I used it on one previous grow, and I was very happy with the results. I figure that if it didn't hurt the end results of that grow then I might as well use it since I have it here.

Day 114 from germination: The plants seem to still be holding up well and the only issues I'm seeing is leaves that are curling up high which I think is due to heat stress and the plant coming to a finish. The buds have fattened up more over the last week and they look great. I flushed each plant around 9 quarts of water with Flawless Finish and will see how they look over the course of the next week. I'm still not seeing much amber so I'm hoping this plant will be ready soon.

Day 120 from germination: Amber is starting to come in a little more, but it is coming in slowly. I watered each plant with some Flawless Finish, again and am hoping I can let them go one more full week so I can harvest them next Friday or Saturday. Also took off a lot of curling fan leaves today.

All 4 plants were harvested yesterday. I gave them a quick wet trim and will give them a final dry trim, before going into curing jars, once they are done drying. I will update with the dry weight when they are dried and the tastes/effects once they have cured for a bit. Added 12/16/2019 Dry trimming and jarring has been done. I yielded a lot less than I was hoping but I'm still happy with what I got since the quality is really nice. The flavor of this bud is the best I've had in a long time. It has a strong berry flavor and I'm getting almost a candy grape flavor on the exhale which really surprised me.