GG4 - Mainling

Slightly unconventional mainlining trained for 16 colas. All topping and HST done. Going forward - LST as required but should be maintainence mostly + selective defoliation Currently waiting for a batch of Autos to finish so it will be another 2-3 week before I flip to flower 1.2m stakes at the ready to train/coax each cola into a par drenched space. GG4 from Original Sensible Seeds germinated within 24 hours and grew vigorously from the get go. Once translpanted into a 5 gallon airpot it has thrived despite my best attempts to mutilate it with multiple toppings/twisting/bending. The plant has shown no signs of distress whatsoever and has bounced back within a day or two. No nutrient issues at this stage and I am now hoping that those damn autos do not take too long to finish as I need to allow this rampant little weed some room to stretch. It has no issues with variable humidities, as I started a batch of autos and GG4 off together in a 60-65 RH and temps of around 80f. As the autos have proceeded to go through their flower cycle, I have lowered the RH to 50-55 and the temps to 75f and GG4 has smashed it in both. Leaves are a light green colour which is a nice change for me as all I seem to had a run of dark leaved hybrids lately. Will continue to train and defoliate to select the viable side branching and to make use of any avaliable space in the canopy. Stakes will help 'splay' the main and side branches and aid light penetration and airflow through the canopy. It will also be bnecessary to decide what bud sites are going to make it and those who sadly are not. I am looking to get a canopy of colas and so will look to remove all pop corn potential elsewhere on the plant to allow all its focus to be on those colas. Previously used Bio Bizz (soil/nutrients) which is a quality product. However my ragamuffin OG's told me to try Plant Magic which they swore was just as good at half the price. Have been very surprised and pleased so far the soil quality is fantastic and even after multiple waterings it does not become compacted. That means that it does dry out a little quicker than other soils so you have to adjust your watering schedule, for example mine changed from every 3 days to every 2 days. Same goes for The oldtimer bloom and grow (both organic) which has the plants reaching for the sky with no sign of nutrient burn. So far I have been pleased with the plant magic organic range I have tried, it is definately as good if not a bit better than Bio Bizz (at least for my growing style) and massively cheaper. At the end of the day for the home consumers like me, despite the slick marketing of nutrient companies, it all boils down to N:P:K and some micro - nutrients. Will continue to post as the training heads towards the flip to flower.

Have used grafting tape as a precautionary measure on mainline cross split. I always top at least 1" above the node to help provide support and prevent the topping site from splitting later on as it dries out and dies back a bit. As I have trained this plant for 16 colas there should be quite a bit of weight eventually. Even though the mainline cross split is healthy and strong I always reinforce with grafting tape - hope for the best/prepare for the worst! The alternative is to watch in horror as 8 lovely colas snap off on one main branch 😭 GG4 is now starting the turn up to the sky and already the middle is starting to fill in. Will really need to stay on top of this to ensure things do not get too crowded.

Filling in and stretching up. Requires a bit more training to spread evenly but the canopy is pretty manageable. Will defoliate poor bud sites lower down and perhaps the odd leaf or two if airflow is poor.

So, new light landed, installed in situ and it has taken me a few days to figure out and adjust my temp/RH control for my grow space. The first thing I decided was to flip the 12/12 light schedule to night, i.e. lights on at 12.00am and lights off at 12 pm. We have suffered a good dose of cold and wet weather lately and the nights have been getting down to 54f. By running the lighting at night it helped to negate the cold drop without supplementary heating. I also reduced the airflow on the extractor fan to help keep some of the heat in the growspace for longer. My dehumidifier kept things at at a peachy 47 - 53 RH as well as being a supplementary source of heat. Growing on a shoestring 🙂 This did help me discover something that GG4 does not like (despite bending, twisting, topping, etc) and that is cold. Her leaves looked a little sorry for themselves but perked up as the temp rose. The environment is now more stable and I have tweaked lighting routines, dehumifier settings and RH controller settings to keep things a bit more consistent at 79/80f lights on and 68f lights off. That said, I will still be scrutinising and adjusting the Temp/RH/Day/Night environment for several weeks. Nutrient wise, I have not yet started with the bloom/flower supplements and will wait until around the end of week 2 into flower before starting. Gave a good organic nitrogen and Cal/Mag feed and two PH'd water feeds in the week that I flipped to leave a reasonable charge of nitrogen in the soil for the initial stages of flower, when nitrogen is still necessary albeit in reduced amouts to the veg phase. I have stopped the bio-silicon and will adjust my PH range to 6.6 - 6.8, going forward, this is the best range suited for Phosphorus and Potassium uptake. It is worth knowing that Phosphorus in particular, cannot be absorbed as well at PH's under 6.6. Will do a little more LST to even out the canopy and a little defoliation of 'larf' bud sites lower down but I am going to leave the leaves as far as possible, alone. I have always defoliated around the bottom third of my previous plants, however, there is plenty of current thinking from clever folk with PHd's in plant biology that say do not touch those photosynthetic power panels (leaves), so I thought I would give it a try. There are plenty of sages on this forum who would also advise the same. So that is about two thirds through week one of flower, pretty busy few days, though I still need to clean my growspace up following my recent autoflower harvest. The pictures are from shortly after lights on.

Did a little canopy maintainence. Spacing out, levelling off with soft ties. Also trimmed a few lower larf sites but left the leaves more or less alone. Too cold in the grow room at the moment during lights off and I will be digging the oil fired radiatoer out at te weekend to keep things toasty. GG4 doesn't like the cold much but is soldiering on. Switched to daily watering - small amounts twice a day. GG4 has shown she much prefers this rather than a heavy drench every three days or so. GG4 seems to like my new light and I am getting thick strong internodal spacing and growth all the way down each stem. The increased light penetration is reaping visible results already.

Half way through week 3 of flower. Maintainence LST to keep good separation. Minor defoliation to aid airflow and remove shading leaves. Excellent node growth - short stocky stems - lots of bud sites Looking at harvest circa Dec 25th - Jan 1st Not a bad way to bring in the New Year.

3rd week of flower completed. Each of the 16 cola stems are fatter than my middle finger - good genetics (well done Original Sensible Seeds) and Plant Magic Bio-Silicon have worked there charms here, unlikely that they will need additional support as the buds put on weight but we will wait and see. Still researching, cogitating and deliberating on late flower supplements.

Day 1 of week 5 of flower. Stepping up the nutes, also adding DutchPro Explode as a bloom hardener GG4 is quite a greedy feeder and I have not found her nute-burn limit yet! Will probably supplement with booster PK

Final day of week 5 of flower Buds are starting to put on weight Dutchpro Explode is working well and would recommend to others as a bloom hardener, but watch out this is very concentrated stuff and easy to burn your plants Long colas (minimum 12") on most with thick node growth all the way down So far, So good Very little larf on the plant which is what I am after.

Day 1, week 7 of flower. Grow survived a major flood midweek which was exciting Will start the real 14 day flush at week 8. 😉 Harvest circa New Year's day.

Trichomes mostly milky - flush started Harvest between 25 - 31st December Lots of nutrient pull from the leaves - not much larf, mostly colas

Week two of flush. Trichomes starting to really pack on, quite a visible increase in just a week. Trichomes fully milky - around 10 - 15 % amber Harvest - any day now 👍

Fan leaves trimmed, rest will be hung to dry and then a dry trim of the sugar leaves Wet weights at the moment with estimated dry weight Great genetics from Original Sensible Seeds - lots of trichomes, strong and vigerous growth thoughout, strain doesn't like the cold so you need to keep on top of grow room temps , lovely piney/sweaty armpit/smelly socks aroma (sounds bad but it is good!). Will be adding this to my 'All time favourites ' list. Update to follow with smoke report and actual dry weights rather than estimated UPDATE: Actual dried bud weight = 164g. SMOKE REPORT: 2 weeks curing and already a good smell and taste, nice hit which can be layered upon nicely with sucessive joints, will be excellent in another 4-6 weeks. RH is stable at 63% in the jar and the buds have a nice spring to them but still grind nicely and the grind is sticky to the touch. Piney/skunky taste and a stealth defeating smell, not a doobie for a discreet moment! Trim produced a bit of bubble hash which was frozen, micro-planed and partially de-carbed to produce a bonus 5g temple ball!