Toof Decay - 3rd Grow

Started 5 Toof Decay seeds in Rapid Rooter plugs I've had in the fridge for a year. I wasn't sure if they'd still work because they were starting to fall apart. I recharged them with a little tap water and all the seeds popped in about 24 hours. I transplanted them to the final 3 gal fabric pots once the tap root started poking out the bottom of the rooting plug. I didn't expect all five to sprout so quickly, and I only have a 2'x4' tent, so the one that sprouted last is going to be a micro grow in a small terracotta pot for the whole grow. Pots are filled with 80% FF Happy Frog, 5% Vermont Compost Fort Lite (leftover from last grow), and 15% perlite. I usually do closer to 30% perlite, but the Happy Frog seemed like it had quite a bit already mixed into it.

This has been an interesting grow so far. The plants are growing really slowly but seem healthy so I'm not sure what is up. The environment is great so I suspect it's something with the soil. I'm wondering if I didn't mix enough perlite in and the roots were having a harder time getting established early on. I have been taking it easy with the watering and only giving 6-7 oz every other day. I'm hoping to see a lot more growth this week, otherwise I don't think I'll get much of a yield from this grow.

Finally starting to see some growth this week. I think the slow growth has been due to not mixing enough extra perlite into the Happy Frog soil. It took them longer to establish their roots. The leaves are on the light green side so I have been adding CalMag+ that has nitrogen and a small dose of Mega Crop. They are still on the lighter side so I may up the Mega Crop next feeding.

I started doing some LST on the plants this week trying to keep them as short as possible. My tent is only 5' tall and the plants were showing signs of light stress during my last two grows, so I'm hoping this helps. A few of them began shooting their first pistils earlier in the week. The plants are still on the small side, but I am happy with the progress over the last 7 days. They all look super healthy and are starting to drink more water. They seem very happy with the Mega Crop too. I'm planning to lower the Mega Crop over the next couple weeks and introduce their Bud Explosion P/K booster as it gets further into flower.

The plants are looking really good as they go into flowering. There is some slight leaf curling that looks like N toxicity, but it's pretty mild compared to my last two grows. I've cut out the CalMag+ because it contains N and cut back on the Mega Crop. I've also started supplementing with Bud Explosion and Sweet Candy. I've also been adding Recharge and Mammoth P to help the plants get as much from the soil as possible. They are drinking about 32oz water every 48 hours. They've stretched a few more inches this week and I've slowed down on training. I'm doing some leaf tucking, but I'm happy with the over all structure so I'm going to leave them alone now. They're about 24" from the lights and will start raising the lights if they get < 20". I have a little room to work with so as long as they don't stretched another 12" I should have plenty of height.

Despite my training efforts and increased lighting (150W HPS + 2x 55W Autocob), the plants are still stretching like crazy. They've more than doubled in the last week and are growing 1-2" a day. The tallest plant is almost 2 feet tall and not showing any signs of stopping. My tent is only 5' tall and the lights are as high as they can go so I ordered a new 2'x4' tent that is 6'7" tall, which should help considerably. My light schedule has been 17/7 since the second or third week. In hindsight, I should have gone with something closer to 20/4, but didn't anticipate this much stretching and am hoping it's almost over. With all the growth, the plants have been super thirsty and are drinking about a gallon every other day. The N toxicity I was seeing appears to have resolved itself after I did a flush with FoxFarm Sledgehammer last weekend. The runoff pH was a little on the low side (6.0) and run off ppm was on the high side (one plant was 2000ppm), but I only did 1.25 gal, rather than 2-3x the pot size as some people recommend. Sledgehammer seems to do a great job without needing as much water. Overall I'm happy with the progress, but I wish they would stop stretching and put more effort into the bud sites. I've cut back on the nitrogen by reducing the amount of Mega Crop and no longer using CalMag+. I'm also adding some Bud Explosion and Sweet Candy. I'm hoping this encourages the plants to focus more energy on flowering.

Another week of lots of stretching! It seems to have slowed down, but the plants outgrew my 5' Vivosun tall tent and I had to get a taller Gorilla tent that's 6'7" just to raise the lights. The new tent has so much more headspace and it seems to keep the humidity closer to 50% rather than mid 60s where it was with the shorter tent. Overall the plants seem happy. They're a bit cramped in the tent, but they have good airflow. Now that the humidity has dropped, I'm less concerned about mold and mildew too. I've been continuing with the same feeding schedule - 3g/gal Mega Crop, 0.5g/gal Bud Explosion, 0.5g/gal Sweet Candy, 1/2tsp Recharge, and 0.6ml Mammoth P mixed into 1 gal of tap water. Wait 3 days until pots are light. Then do 3g/gal Mega Crop, 0.5g/gal Bud Explosion in 1 gal of tap water. Wait three days. Repeat. I usually don't feed every watering, but I'm getting plenty of runoff and so far they're not complaining. I added a new carbon filter and exhaust fan this week too. The filter is a G-Hydro 4" off Amazon and I've been impressed with the quality and effectiveness for such an inexpensive product. The fan is an AC Infinity S4. I couldn't recommend this fan enough. It's quiet and powerful enough to pair with the filter. Some reviews complained it was too weak but I suspect those people have clogged carbon filters because that's not the case for me.

Things have been pretty smooth this week so I've been keeping to the same schedule I've been on with nutrients and watering. 1 gallon of tap water every 3 days. One feeding is 3g Mega Crop, 0.5g Sweet Candy, 1.0g Bud Explosion, 1/2 tsp Recharge, and 0.6 ml Mammoth P. The next feeding is 2-3g Mega Crop by itself. I noticed a couple of the plants have some leaves that are on the darker side and I think I might be pushing the Nitrogen a bit too much. I've been giving about half the recommended Mega Crop dose so I might do a Sledgehammer flush next watering and cut the MC back even more. One of the plants has what appears to be a Phosphorus deficiency on the lower, oldest fan leaves. I can't tell if it's actually a deficiency or if the leaves are just old. I've been adding a little P/K booster with some Mammoth P so it seems weird it would not be able to get enough P from that. The other plants are looking good so I'm not super concerned.

I seem to have two different phenotypes. Two of the plants are shorter, dark green, and buds are more developed. The other two are a bit taller/lankier and lighter green. They seem to be about a week behind too. I've been feeding them accordingly. The darker plants I've cut back on the nitrogen and have been keeping the P/K about the same. The lighter/taller plants I've been keeping N about the same. I also did a light flush with Sledgehammer on the two darker plants. Runoff on both has been in range (6.4-6.5 pH, < 1000 ppm) so I'm happy with that. I've been noticing a little bit of spotting on the taller plants so I may bump up the feeding a little this week in case they are hungry. I don't suspect it's pH or excess nutes causing lockout. I don't think I'll ever run 4 plants in a 2'x4' again unless I know they'll be really small plants. Even though the humidity has been in the mid-to-low 40s and I have 4 fans going, I've noticed some moisture on the walls of the tent. I've been trying to move the plants around a little during the day to prevent any wet spots from being targets for mold. Also trying to keep the colas off the sides of the tent.

Plants seem to be doing mostly well. One of the plants is showing some signs of a deficiency. The upper leaves are yellowing and spotting, and it almost looks like a normal late-flower fade. The pistils haven't started getting dark yet though so I don't think it's healthy. I did a light Sledgehammer flush this morning in case it's experiencing a nute lockout. The runoff PPM was high last watering so that is very likely. The flush got the pH and PPM back in range. I found a fungus gnat flying around the tent when I was watering during the week. I killed it and bought some sticky traps just in case there were more. It's been a few days and I haven't seen any others so I think I'm in the clear. Otherwise things are going smooth. One plant has mostly brown pistils and clear trichs. I'm guessing it has about 2-3 weeks left. The other plants are probably closer to 3-4 weeks from harvest. Just riding things out and hoping everything is smooth the rest of the grow.

The difference a week can make! The plants are finally looking like they are starting to finish up. Most of the pistils have turned a bright orange color and the top leaves are turning dark and fan leaves are fading. I've had to add some supports to hold up the side colas so they are closer to the light. Most of the buds are fattening up too. I'm still feeding a bit of the Bud Explosion P/K booster and Sweet Candy. I stopped giving Recharge but am continuing with the Mammoth P. One of the plants seems a few weeks behind the others though. Almost none of the pistils have darkened up, but it has the largest cola out of all of them. I'm hoping to harvest most of the plants in about 2 weeks and will wait for the others to finish up.

Getting into the final stretch. I thought I might be chopping this weekend, but there are still a lot of clear trichomes, especially further down the plants. I'll probably start chopping the top buds in the next couple days and then work my way down the plant and let the lower buds develop a bit more. I'm seeing a little bit of foxtailing on all the plants and am wondering if it's genetic. It's all over the buds and not just the tops of the colas.

Almost there! I actually chopped the tops of a couple of the plants earlier in the week because the trichs were mostly cloudy with a couple of ambers. The humidity in my drying room started high, but it got really cold and dry one night and they dried out a little too quick. I jarred them after 4 days of hanging and luckily they were not over dry. I have mixed feelings about the buds I'm curing. They are a bit on the airy side but are incredibly frosty and smell great. I wish the buds were a little tighter, but I plan on making edibles so it's not the end of the world. The sugar leaves are covered in trichs so I've been mostly leaving them alone. The other plants are getting close to harvest too. I'll probably chop more of the tops this weekend. The last, tallest plant has at least another week left. The leaf tips on that plant are tacoing a bit and are starting to get really light. I'm wondering if it's getting too much light or something.

I've been slowly harvesting over the past couple weeks and am now down to the last two plants. The largest one (shown in this week's pictures) is pretty much ready. It's still shooting new pistils and is foxtailing a bit. It's also has almost no green leaves left. I stopped feeding N a few weeks ago which might have been a little too early. It seems very hungry but hopefully will make it to the end without the leaves getting too crispy. The other smaller plant is a little farther behind. I harvested the main cola off it a few days ago, but the rest of the plant is still pretty green. There's another cola that's looking done so I'll probably chop that over the next couple days and wait for the rest of the plant to finish up.

I had one huge plant that yielded some amazing dense buds, but the other three were very leafy. I'm not sure if it was genetic or if they just didn't get enough light or room in the tent. I'm planning to make edibles with the leafy buds so it's not the end of the world. They still smell amazing and are covered in sticky frost so I'm sure they will taste great. If I had to change one thing about the grow, I would have made the lights closer and started at a 20/4 light cycle. I was also growing in a cold basement at the end and the plants took forever to finish. I might move it to a warmer spot next time too.