'Blue Cookies' by i49

Hello and welcome to Week 3 of bloom with Blue Cookies. If you all actually read these things, I've decided to add a short "What I learned this Week" section at the bottom. This will be a short blurb on new techniques, methods or general cannabis knowledge that has helped me. Most importantly, it will include the information I've gathered from other members that have helped me see past false information and notions about cannabis growing that I had believed... Anyways! The deets: The Good: -The stretch has come to an end.... This is the most important thing I have to report. By mid week she noticeably stopped pushing upwards and started to flower/bulking outwards. This saves me from having to make some serious changes and jury rigging to the tent system I currently have set up. If I had to make those changes, it would be if she reached an 80% stretch, but she seems to have tapped out at 60ish%. So happy! I still have 6 inches of play room with the current set up! Note too self: Don't let them get this tall, ever again. -With the stretch ended and the lights at their recommended buffer space, the tent space has a quality 4x4 flowering footprint. Not perfect, but a vast improvement from grow one👍. -Her being the first thing I see when I open the tent every morning is the best way to start my day. She is consistently impressive to me. When I feel she can't get bigger, lusher or stronger....she does. Blue Cookies is a goddess to me. That's bias, yah, but I love her the most😍 -Under-Canopy is cleaning itself up well. I leave my sugar makers and give them a little tap everyday to see when they're ready to go. If they're rotting, I take them. But if they're still green and being cannibalized I let her tell me when It's time to take them. A little tap and the ones that fall gotta go. -I've officially deemed Sturdy Stalk as a successful addition to my personal grow feeds. Three weeks now, and the strength of her laterals is very evident. It has fantastic tensile strength but is still malleable enough to move when needed. Great stuff. Personally, it took about 2 weeks before I started to notice a difference, but it is doing it's job. Would recommend a potassium silicate supplement to any one thinking about it. Doesn't need to be Sturdy Stalk, but something you're comfortable with. You won't regret it. Credit to Larimar for pointing this out and recommending this application. Great results. The Bad: -No bad with BC, I think. I noticed a couple circular burn marks that were reminiscent of septoria. Very localized and only affecting 3 blades (5 spots in total, mid section of plant). My humidity is good but my circulation was lacking. As a precaution, I removed these 3 blades (and they were small blades too...no biggy at all), upped my intake and outtake ventilation and added another fan to keep air moving constantly. Really high chance it was nothing, but I took these steps anyways. Been 5 days and nothing has popped back up👍. I don't have pictures of it too show you either, and I really wish I took some so I could officially diagnose it and if it was anything at all. If it comes back, I will take the blade and post some update photos. The 'Meh': -Still the same meh's mostly. That random mutation keeps popping up. It does nothing at all. Will affect a single blade of 7-9 blades and doesn't spread. Just a random discoloration/mutation. It's not aesthetically pleasing, but it is nothing. Notes of the week: -After a suggestion by another member I have changed my lighting set up...again. SF-2000 is now over the largest two girls and are placed in the front, now (BC and NL #2). The blurple will be taking care of the two smallest ladies from here on out (NL #1 and DSD) and will be rotated, but stay in the back for the remainder of the grow. I didn't think this through too well and the advice I received made total sense. More intense light over the big girls to slow stretch and less intense blurple over the little ones to encourage a little upwards movement, evening them out a little better with the rest of the canopy. -Stretch is essentially over, thankfully. All girls have seemed to tap out and have maintained the same height (maybe an inch here or there). It stopped at the perfect time... -Increased intake and out take airflow/fan speed and have put vent line under the canopy. Previously it was blowing above to reduce wind burn, but the girls are tall and have cleaned up bottoms. This air flow doesn't hurt them anymore and I really need to keep that circulation under there since they're so bushy. -Defoliation of every plant is going very well. Taking a bit at a time and I can now see light penetration to the soil on all girls. Not much, but open enough to allow light to pass through. A few more sessions and it will be all said and done👌 -I see some shoots I could have taken, even after taking 11-12 last week, but I feel it's too late. Even if it's not, I would prefer to leave them be and it is what it is. I will simply have to adjust for my next grow and defo/pruning will still be another learning curve of mine. This is waaaaay better then the first and already less LARFy, but it could be better and I know that. Next time's the charm👍 -I have been a little complacent with my update photos! All photos posted are end week 12 with no progression pics throughout the week. Need to up my pictures and details. -Lastly, I have a new friend that's into photography on the macro level. She loves taking shots of plant life, most of all, and also loves her cannabis. I offered to have her come over to take pictures of the girls and she agreed. Hopefully at end of week 13 or 14, there should be some much better pictures, on the macro level, showing her beauty far better then my phone can... I'm really excited about it, actually. I want to see what they look like up close, too😊👍 New things I learned: -Two weeks ago, when humidity was very low, my plants started to pray and I immediately took this as a bad sign. Then I found an article to justify my concern. Though the article was right about a few things and that praying can be bad, they do NOT explain that praying is also good, pending on parameters. If your plants are praying, it's a sign of vigorous health and happiness, not a symptom of light stress/intensity. If the praying is accompanied by burning, bleaching or there's furling of leaf tips and leaflets, then yah! that's not good and is a sign that the light needs to be backed off or turned down. -Took a suggestion and have been doing a trial run with new feeding methods. It is working very well... I am no longer allowing my plants to go into complete drought. Between feedings I have started to add about 800ml to 1 liter of balanced tap (or distilled at 6.0). I may also throw the smallest amount of one or two of my supplements in, pending on what I feel her greatest needs are. It's not much but it carries her through to the next feed and with re-moistening the media, it re-activates the uptake of nutrients already in the soil. I'm finding it's helping the girl take up the essential nutrients that may be left over from the last feed that wasn't needed at the time or dried out before it could be used. When I go to do my actual feed a day or two later, the soil is very receptive to liquid and takes the feeds very well. They have stopped drooping out completely when I feed, now. This is very important to me. I didn't like the recovery time it took when the plants were subjected to 2 gallons of liquid after a few days of drought. It was almost like shocking them and I didn't like doing this... With this new method I'm testing out there hasn't been a shock to their system and they hardly droop at all, even after an additional 2 gallons thrown in. Has NOT effected RO numbers or caused any problems. I'm really liking this. Thank you kindly for stopping by and I hope all is well with you and your girls👌. Have a great week and we'll see you next Saturday.