Black Sugar Freebie

Here is the beginning of my fall photo grow. Plants will be in 3g canvas pots. I'm using a 50/50 mixture of Ocean Forest and Happy Frog. I want to thank Remo Nutrients for sending the Recharge Kit to me. This will be the first time using their line. I've heard great things. BS will be grown under a 240w QB. I plan on creating a SCROG in this tent. I'll prune nodes 1-2 when the plant reaches 3 nodes. I'll start LST to spread out the canopy at that point. I'll top after 5 nodes. I don't plan on going full blown mainlining. I'd like to do a little less stress and rely on my screen. I am feeding the sprouts a 20% strength solution of Grow, MagniCal, Micro, VeloKelp, and Nature's Candy. This is mostly done through daily misting. When BS grows her first true set of leaves, I'll begin her normal feeding schedule. I'll up the strength to 50%. My watering/feeding schedule will be determined as the grow proceeds. I will be feeding with every watering though. Every third feeding I'll just use MagniCal and VeloKelp.

1. BS was transplanted to her final home, a 3g square smart sack, on Tuesday. 2. She had not not developed a great deal, but her root system was already extensive. Her roots were already growing out of the drainage holes in the bottom of the plastic cups. 3. After transplanting, BS was fed with 2Q of Filtered Water and an 80% strength nutrient solution. Currently she is being fed/watered this amount every other day. I will probably extend the time between watering to 2-3 days depending on how quickly the soil dries out and how much BS drinks.

1. BS took off after the 2nd node. She is currently on her 4th node. 2. Starter node and leaf was removed. I'm debating on pruning 2nd node. I'm leaning towards keeping it. The growth has been pretty strong. I think the 2nd node could be a viable bud site. 3. Currently I'm watering/feeding every 2nd day with 2l Filtered Water+5ml/g concentration of nutes. Feeding schedule has me increasing ml/g by 1 each week up to 8ml/g. 4. I'm still foliar feeding each morning with a 20% solution of veg. nutes. I also mist a few times a day. 5. My plan is to top her at the 5th node then start spreading out the bud sites.

1. BS was topped, defoliated and tied down like a sail in a windstorm. 2. She was topped at the 5th node. I also removed node 1. I plan on creating a Compass Rose pattern. Nodes 2-3 are the Cardinal Directions. Nodes 4-5 are the Intermediate Directions. 3. I won't LST the topped buds until I start to weave them through the SCRoG netting. 4. I finally removed the fan leaves for nodes 3-5. This will allow more light penetration for some of the interior bud sites. 5. I'll continue LST on nodes 1-5 until they are as close to the edges of the container as possible. Once that happens, I'll flip to flower and weave the stretch through the netting. 6. Feeding strength increased to 6ml/g. I will increase to 7ml/g next feeding cycle and top out at 8ml/g for the remainder of veg and through stretch.

1. BS is pretty much on auto-pilot until I flip her. I've completed training on nodes 1-3. I'll keep training nodes 4-5 horizontally until nodes 1-3 catch up and form an even canopy. She is a very dense plant. LST is a bit difficult because there isn't a lot of distance between nodes. I've been doing a lot of spot defoliating to keep bud sites clear of leaves. 2. I've put the netting in place. It's a bit high for my purposes, but I'm going to let her grow a bit vertically once the canopy evens out. I can also either put a box underneath the pot, or not use the netting. BS is also a good 4 inches shorter than her tent mate, so that presents a SCRoG problem. Oh well, it in place in case I need it. 3. I've increased feeding dosage to 7ml/g. I'll do this for 1 round then increase to 8ml/g until i flip her to flower. BS is almost to the point of needing water every other day. I noticed her leaves were a bit droopy this morning when I was doing work in the tent.

1. This is the last week of veg. for BS. I'm done with all of the LST. She has a nice even canopy of some nicely develped bud sites. I'll give her a couple more days of vertical growth then I'll give her a 24hr. dark period then flip her to 12/12. 2. She should stretch into the netting. I'll weave the tallest bud stalks horizontally allowing the lower bud sites a chance to catch up and fill in the gaps in the canopy. 3. I'm feeding at a rate of 8ml/g every other day. I'll continue feeding at this rate until BS shows clear signs of flowering. My thought is that continuing veg. nutes during stretch will aid in the rapid growth.

1. Last Saturday I gave BS a 24hr. dark period then flipped the lights to 12/12. 2. So far there has been minimal stretch. I don't expect her to reach the netting. 3. The only evidence of flowering I've seen are the pre-flowering pistils that show up when a plant is mature enough to flower and 2" of stretch. 4. I've defoliated some of the inner fan leaves to open up the canopy. I have numerous bud sites in the middle of the plant. She is going to be a fine producer. 5. I'm still feeding veg. nutes to help feed the plant during stretch. I'll switch to flowering nutes when I see more evidence of true flowers.

1. We are officially flowering. It took 11 days for her to show true flowers after switching to 12/12 lights. That's pretty efficient! 2. She's stretched about 5 inches so far. I have 8 bud stalks at the SCroG and another half dozen just below that canopy. I think she is going to be a round mound of buds in the end. 3. I did a little clearing of the under canopy. I'll let her flower for about a week then really clear out all the undergrowth and potential popcorn buds. I'm going to have great cola development at the net. I don't want to waste the plant's energy on canna butter quality buds. 4. I switched to flowering nutes. I stopped using Grow and replaced it with Bloom and Astro Flower. Basically I keep the same strength of nutes. I increase the strength by 1ml/g each week until I reach 10ml/g. Remo Nutrients assumes an 8 week feeding length. For me, I feed/water every other day. Every 3 feedings will equal 1 week.

1. BS is cruising right along. She has a stretched a bit since last week. She is finally taller than the netting that's supposed to support her. 2. I've been clearing out the under canopy little by little. I don't want to do too much at one time. It's a bit difficult to reach the back of the plant, so It might end up with some popcorn buds at the end. I'll do my best. 3. Flowering nutes will remain the same for the next 2 weeks at least. Remo has you starting out at 8ml/g then increasing it to 10ml/g midway through flowering. I guess I could put a 9ml/g step in there if I wanted.

1. BS is filling in bud stalks! She has pretty much reached her final height of 23 inches. 2. Currently I'm watering/feeding 2l every other day @8ml/g of flowering nutes. I'll increase that to 10ml/g next week. That will mark the halfway mark of flowering. 3. I've finally finished cleaning out the under canopy. I might do a little bit more, but its really difficult to get in there, especially the back of the tent.

1. BS is packing on the bud weight. This is my favorite time. The buds really start to swell and the colas start to fill in and take their final shape. I should see some fading in the next couple of weeks. I haven't really started checking trichomes yet, she is about a month away from harvest. 2. I've increased feedings from 8ml/g to 10ml/g. I will keep it at this strength for the next 4 rounds of feedings/waterings. After 2 rounds of feedings/waterings, I will stop using Cal-Mag. Finally, I will do 2 rounds with just watering with filtered water. I'm guessing this is Remo Nutrients way of flushing. BTW A round of feedings currently takes 6 days.

1. BS is heading for the homestretch. I figure another 2 weeks of flowering nutes then 2 weeks of water only. 2. I'm starting the late flowering portion of our show. I'll be leaving out Cal-Mag, but keeping the other nutes the same. I'll do this for 2 watering cycles, so about 2 weeks. I might add another watering cycle depending on how she looks after 2 weeks. So far she doesn't look nearly as mature as her tent mate. The buds are sill immature, pistils are still extended and white. I expected her to finish first in the tent, but now I'm not so sure.

1. We've entered the late flowering stage of this grow. She is looking incredible! The Colas are stacking nicely. It's like a bud metropolis. 2. Late stage flowering nutes are being used for the next 2 watering cycles. Basically I just stopped using Cal-Mag for the next 2 weeks. All other nute strengths remain the same. 3. After the 2nd watering cycle, I will stop using nutes altogether. I'll just be giving her filtered water until harvest. I like this idea better than flushing soil with large quantities of water. We'll see if there is any difference in the outcome of this grow. 4. I'm thinking I have another 3 weeks until harvest. However, the buds don't look to be 3 weeks from finishing. All I can do is keep checking trichomes and bud maturity. If she wants to go longer then I'm along for the ride.

1. We are about 3 weeks from harvest. So far trichomes are a mixture of clear and glassy. Pistils are dying back to the buds. The buds themselves are packed. Finally she is drinking less water. I'll keep an eye on fade as I wind down the use of nutes. I'll also look at the calyxes to see how they are maturing. 2. BS will get one more feeding prior to plain filtered water for the duration of her life. Remo Nutrients likes to let the plant finish slowly it seems. I'll go through 2 watering cycles giving her just filtered water.

1. We are nearing the end. Pistils have receded, buds are beefing up, and the trichomes are looking cloudy. By the time I harvest she should have a bit of amber. 2. She will only have water for the next 2 weeks. Then I'll give her a dark period of 2 days prior to harvest.

1. BS received her final watering yesterday. I tried to use only water for the final 2 weeks prior to harvest. I got pretty close. This is a new process for me. I'm hoping it helps the cure by using up all the excess nutrients over a longer time period. 2. I'll let her go for 4 days then I'll put shut down the lights in the tent and give her a 48hr. dark perod. 3. Harvest should be on Wednesday. I'll probably wait a week and post the harvest the following week. 4. This has been the easiest grow. My biggest issue was dealing with 2 different strains using the same SCroG net. This girl ended up getting a booster seat since she grew pretty squat.

This was my first real attempt at a SCRoG net. I had done some mainlining, but this was different. I like how organized the grow becomes when you are topping, and doing LST in order to fill up the net. I had a few kinds in the grow though. Firstly, it was really difficult to prune out all of the lower popcorn buds once the net was in place. Secondly, I had another plant in the tent and that became a slight problem since it was a bigger plant. The next time I think I will prune and defoliate earlier and try to only grow 1-2 plants of the same strain instead of different strains.