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Firstly, thanks for tuning in. Its my 3rd grow so still learning. First week is pretty routine. Just taking care of the ladies nice and easy. It's a Coco coir medium so I'm keeping it. wet. Very low Ec
I hate the seedling stage but has to be done.Gains are slow but sure. This week has been textbook. Keeping feeding EC low with gradual increase. The green gelato is winning the race so far. She looked most vibrant but all of them are progressing. Humidity is between 62% and 68% and temps are nice and warm. From day 19 things are looking up and up.Ladies showing some gains. slow but sure. I reduced humidity by a few points as the roots are working fine on its own. .......Thanks for looking through.
I changed over to my optics 2 led for more of the blue spectrum and they responded well. The ec was increased slightly. Environmental conditions are holding well at this stage.
This week was a busy week with the girls. They all got transplanted to 1gal air pots. Applied RAW microbes directly to the root Mass. All plants responded well with no effects of shock. All ladies have started their low stress training. They have all been topped. The Orange Sherbert and Green Gelato are heading towards a mainlining of some sort. A few large leaves were removed that were blocking the lower and newer leaves. My heavy handed actions damaged the blue Gelato lead stem as I tried to tie down.
Good week start for the ladies. I had a slight mishap with my feeding. Through foolish actions the girls got fed with an Ec of 2.something. Had to do a lower nutrient flush out. The good some lst and did some selective defoliation. The kush's are some talk bushy ladies. The Orange Sherbert and Green Gelato have recovered after there mainlining pruning. I'm hoping to only do 60 days of veg so I'll increase nutrient strength by a point and climb slowly. End of week 6 and transplant into 3 gall pots coming next week
The ladies are doing well. Cant complain really but the hard work is yet to come. The different strains are getting bushy and the Blue Gelato #2 has the biggest canopy thus far. They all have been transplanted into 3gall pots. No strong smell even from stem rubbing but the orange Sherbet has a distinctive smell that's so citrusy. feeding has gone well this week. I may run into a pending issue when i bring out the 4x4 tent as I have been using a 2x2 for most of the veg period.Lets see what challenges week 8 brings to this run. The Vanilla Kush is taking training so well. So short and stumpy.
The girls are progressing well. The scrog net is on and looking forward to filling out the space. Bit of an issue.. All six plants couldn't fit in a 4x4 tent so I flipped the tent on its side where i had more floor space but a limited amount of height which was 4feet. The plants need to stay short and stout. Hoping not too much of a mad stretch as I will have new issues. Not sure if this is a problem or not but the runoff from the green Gelato is always on the low side even after increasing the nutes. I water at an EC OF 1.3 but runoff is always around .9 -1.1. Always. The plant looks healthy and no issues but unsure if Im under fertilizing. When compared to my last grow, growing in Coco is a definite plus cause at the same stage last period my former girls were so much smaller.
Thanks for tuning in again. The ladies have been flipped. Few days before i have been adjusting my light schedule by reducing the light period by 15 every day to get them accustom to the longer nights. must say that the RH in the tent which used to be around 65 on a good day is now around 70%. Will have to ring out the dehumidifier. They are still on the same water regime but i think during this flower period they consume more water. Also I am unsure how to properly defoliate these ladies. So much mixed literature on the topic. I need to though as the girls are getting bushy and I have found some leaves on laying on top of other leaves and forming wet surfaces. A prime environment for PM and other shit that wanna mess with my harvest.
THANKS FOR DROPPING ROUND.... It's been a nice start to flower but loads of chores needs being tended to. The girls are still in going for that stretch especially the green gelato and Orange Sherbert.
From left to right back row is
Green Gelato, Blue Gelato #1 and Vanilla Kush #2
From left to right front shows Orange Sherbert, Blue Gelato #2 and Vanilla Kush #1
There is also lots of foliage but Im just removing the leaves that needs to be removed ie those blocking bud sites and those resting on top other leaves causing condensation. Relative humidity needs to be controlled even though the dehumidifier and extraction fan is on. Only first week of flower though so I'll tend to that seriously when pistils start showing.
I've had a real issue with defoliation. Not really sure how much leaves to remove without causing harm to the plant. Where should I start and what is a good procedure to follow.
Hey @MRTHC, I have been struggling with the same thing with my current grow. My girls have been super bushy from the get go. At first my research pointed me towards defoliation. Clearing out the excessive fan leaves that were covering up bud sites would expose them to light and airflow. Makes sense right?
I've ended up doing 2 defoliations for my first grow so far (check out my diary). I did the 1st round around week 5 of Veg and the 2nd round at the end of the 1st week of flower. Each time was super stressful as a first time grower. Mainly because I had no idea how much to remove, where to remove it from or even how the plants would respond.
Fortunately, both times my plants recovered. All that being said, I likely won't be incorporating defoliation as a technique in my future grows.
After the last round I didn't see the positive changes I expected so I decided to do some more research into the science behind it. Turns out that there really hasn't been many (if any) clear cut studies of people testing it against a control to see it's impact on yields.
Long story short, there are a few reasons to consider not defoliating. The biggest one for me was understanding the leaves are acting as solar panels collecting energy for the plant. Each leaf collects energy for the plant as a whole, not just the bud site the leaf is connected to. That along with the fact that the actual buds don't collect light like the leaves. Those two things alone disproved my original logic behind defoliation which was exposing those buds so they could get more light and removing extra leaves to free up the energy wasted on growing them.
Sorry for the super long response but wanted to give you some insight into my very similar experience. For some more food for thought on the subject check out this article https://www.cocoforcannabis.com/community/photons_corner/to-defoliate-or-not-to-defoliate/.
Bottom line, if you do decide to go for it, do it very selectively and over a period of days to minimize plant stress. Anything more than 25% runs the risk of stressing them too much. Hope all of this helps or at the very least gives you a few things to consider on the subject!
.... Really good week but the work continues. The stretch is on. The 2 ladies on the extreme left has a proper stretch going on. It may be due to those are the girls I mainlined or it could be the blurple lights that both of them are under. Still removing some of the thick lower growth below the netting. its think but i remove just a little everynight for a gentle reduction in foliage. Not pictured here but on Day 12 white hairs were beginning to show. A few issues with high humidity during lights on or high heat when the dehumidifier is on. No strain specific smells as yet. Huge difference observed between the mainlined strains ( Orange Sherbert and Green Gelato) and the other LST strains in the tent. The stems of the mainlined strains tend to be fatter and there is a significant reduction on foliage on the mainlined strains. The LST strains (Blue Gelato 41 and the Vanilla Kush) are more bushy, squat with heavy foliage. Also not so much as a long stretch.
Sorry for the lack of content.. Its been a hectic past 10 or so days.. I am challenged by the height conditions in my tent.. The lights are about say 10 inches or less from my top canopy and the use of a Scrog net has severely reduced my mobility inside the tent. Its been issues trying to get to the ladies in the back and lack of defoliation in an issue. I almost have the whole canopy under light coverage but there are a few dull spots... There are a few leaves showing the stress of light burn but I am trying to move the lights around to spread the light intensity all over as opposed to one heat spot of the entire 12 hr light period. Also keeping the room cool during lights on.
Other than that the ladies are doing well. No other deficiencies really. Had a slight salt build up in the coco from lack of sufficient run off but I corrected that immediately using a very low EC solution of CalMag and base nutrients.
Very busy week. So much changes in my garden. Firstly, you can see that I took down the scrog net and put my tent back upright. Looking at the results that path I took did more harm than good. Most of the buds that were not getting direct light are under developed. Some leaves showed effects of intense light being to close to the canopy. The under growth was thick. Fuck all that, Im back on track now. Getting these plants staked to open them out and allow that light to penetrate. Oh almost forgot, I had a few high EC issues from insufficient runoff. I forgot that during weeks 4 and 5 the plants consume so much more water and I didn't adjust my fertigation length period. When I tested the run it came out to over and EC of 3. I did a very low strength nutrient feed to correct the problem . The green Gelato is such a knarly and lanky thing. Looks so good in veg from the mainline but now she is all over the place. She is my next bamboo staking project. There is definitely more sativa then indica than that was stated.
Day 36... Went through 4 of the girls and had a massive clean up. That canopy needed to be sorted and now so much more light getting down in the lower buds. Got rid of all the sucker buds at the bottom too. Used those bamboo stakes and spread those ladies wide open.... Show them love and they will show you that love come harvest
Knowing when and how to defoliate is causing me headache. Please have a look at week 15 pics and tell me how much more defoliation do I need. I'm worried about stunting the growth of the buds.There is too much of a shaded undergrowth.
I do see a few leaves on top that are blocking some of your buds. You can remove a few leaves from the top that are blocking light and give her a few days before removing any more. You can also remove some of the smaller buds on the bottom of the plants that aren't getting any light at all. That will direct the plants energy to building the top buds. Good luck finishing them up!
Pretty cool week with the ladies. They all smelling stinky in a good way. The feedings have been on point and the runoff have been within good margins most times. I found that the Blue Gelato 2 and the green are continually having a high EC runoff. I water heavy at around 1.5EC and then 12 hrs later the EC has shot up to about 2. I have lowered the nutrition strength for those two plants. The Vanilla Kush 1 is taking its time to full out. I think I am going to take this run to its full maturation as this seems to be slow bloomer. Sorry but not much to talk about. Its been a slow week.
Mixed emotions about this week. Not sure if my vanilla kushes are ripening up or not. Seems like the bud formation has stalled. I think I will have to take this run all the way with no early harvesting. The trichomes on the blue gelatos where checked and they were all clear. Will be checking on those daily. The flush is going to start on day 50 where I will be only feeding RO water and intervals of unsulfered molasses. All and all the tent is smelling stinky lovely. ...
Well week 8 it's upon us and the flush has started. I'm not doing one of those flushes where I run gallons through all at once. I'm watering now with water around 150ppm with molasses and other organic stuff which should keep the Microbes happy. ( If you know anything else I can use please let me know in comments). Trichomes still clear so I'm hoping next 12-13 days they should be ready. Love the purple hues in the vanilla Kush trichomes.. the bud from Both gelatos are frosty and very hard to the touch. The vanilla's need some more fattening to go. The green gelato was a weird one. Very funny plant structure and not growing so well but smells great and a very defined bud structure. After the second day of feeding with low ppm the run off is already very low.
These last two weeks I'm going to move to a 13 hrsoff to a 11hrs which should enhance bud flavors. . I'll let you know how that works out
things are still on the go..Looking at the tricomes the are still clear with hints of cloudy.. Coming along pretty well. Im just watering with plain water now and just enough for a light runoff. Ec is low already and I don't think I can get it to anything less. Just doing routine maintenence this week. There has been no change in the colour of the leaves and this is the 11th day of. plain water.. Its all a waiting game.. I also changed the light schedule to a 11-13...... its supposed to help in trichome ripening... I hope. 😀 The vanilla Kush looks ready but I'm not sure. If anyone has an opinion on how much longer please share
Well we finally reached the end. The last week was more cruise control. Just trying to remove the big fan leaves that's blocking any flowers. The trichomes looking kinda ready but still acceptable. During the last few days I maintained a daytime Humidity of around 60 and nighttime of 55. Temperatures are between 73 degrees and 67 degrees.
Two days before chop they got 48 hrs of dark and 3 days of no water to add to the stress. After the 48hrs darkness all the ladies Came out extra frosty. Loving the change of hues on the blue gelato. The vanilla Kush is very oily and very very strong smell. Not a strong smell coming off the OrangeGelato though. The green gelato has a creamy smell.
..Happy with the outcome. I knewI could have don't better if I had sorted out my light issues better. Some light stress from weeks 1-3 in flower. I needed to defoliate more as so many buds were in the shade. The buds that were exposed to the full light were rocky with a slight hue of violet. Despite top buds or lower larf all buds were very frosty.
MRTHC
