Grape Ape - first cannabis garden

Started a single Grape Ape feminized seed and had a sprout 3 days after putting her in the dirt (peat, perlite, worm castings)(in hindsight I should not have added the worm castings while going soilless. I did not understand how the worm castings would be adding to the nutrients I'm supplementing) with a sprinkle of mycorrhizae. Initial sprout was kept in a seedling dome under two small fluorescent tubes, but was moved to a 2' x 2.5' x 6' tent. The temperature drops at night in the house to well below 70 degrees so I'm glad to be growing in a contained space. I am using the ioBionics tent kit and everything included seems to be very solid quality. Only question is how the light will perform throughout the different growth stages...

Gave first light round of nutrients this week. The plant is looking steady eddy in the tent with the 3rd node of tiny leaves sprouting. Environment controls are key. The Inkbird thermostat and humidistat that I am using are sweet. I can see wanting a control system in the future that could have multiple programs scheduled at one touch. For now it is fun to play with the environment a bit and get to understand how things flex together. The idea is to stay within the best growing parameters without having all the various pieces of machinery fighting against each other. I've dialed the de-humidifier back so that it's not being used unnecessarily. So far the exhaust fan has not had to run very much and I have it set with a speed control to about 25% power so that it doesn't remove all of the humidity without the humidifier keeping up. I also set up the ScrOG net just to get the tent construction complete. Now it's just feeding and watching her grow! The next day... Gave a watering with same nutrient solution but was able to collect runoff for measurements. The pH was good at 6.5 but the ppm was way higher than I expected at 620. I'm thinking this is because of the worm castings I added to initial mix. I'll be sure to water with plain ol' water next time and check ppm again. It would be better to have ppm under 400 at this stage. Later that week... Watered with pH 6.8 and collected runoff. Ppm down to 525 with a pH of 6.6.

Week 3, Day 14: She looks a tad droopy this morning. Thought she would've perked back up after watering last night? I'm nervous to let the pot dry out too much. The house I'm gardening/living in is very dry due to being heated by a woodstove. Got to let her get a bit thirsty though. Day 15: Transplanted to final pot (5 Gallons) with mycorrhizae sprinkled on the root ball. I naively over-watered when she was in the small pot in an effort to get information from the runoff. Then after watering her into her new pot she seems to be continuing with the droopy behaviour. The topsoil looks quite dry but when I dip my finger in the peat a couple of inches there is definitely moisture. Not wet, just damp. No water in the last 24 hours and I will give another 24 before hopefully giving the big pot a good soak. Im curious what the ppm will read out of the worm casting mix? Day 17: Fed 1 litre of nutrients. Solution - ppm 225, pH 6.6. Runoff - ppm at 548, pH at 6.1. I think this will take a few days to dry up. Grow roots! Grow! As her root system gets more established I think she will start to put some more energy into going upwards. Although, my homework on this strain leads me to believe it is not going to be a very tall plant. Hopefully she'll go no higher than 30" in flower or I may have to get creative to get my light higher. Good training with the trellis should stop things from getting too wild. I'll cross that bridge when I get there. Day 18: Looks stoked this morning! Soil has lots of moisture but seems to be drying up slowly on the surface. Day 19: Plant is looking fired up! Soil surface is dry but there is still lots of moisture in the pot. I will water tomorrow morning with the first full dose of vegetative nutrients (3mL/1.5 Litres). Day 20: Gave nutrients this morning. Took the whole 1.5L. Solution had a ppm of 290 with a pH of 6.7. Runoff had ppm of 500 with pH at 6.0. I want to try and raise the pH of the soil a few points at least. I will continue to water with a pH closer to neutral (7.0) until I see it bounce back. Happy to have 'er in a big pot so I don't have to worry about it drying out if I want to take off for a weekend.

Day 21: Little girl is starting to send it! The first set of seven digit leaves are opening up on the fourth node. Branching looks like it's about to get started this week too. Last week was still fairly mild on the nutrients so this week will start with a regular watering and then revert to a heavier feeding schedule. I would like to get the runoff ppm to read above 700 by the end of this week. Although, I'm unsure how the soil will disperse of nutrients, which is why it will be good to do a regular watering every once in a while. The pH was a little low at the last feed (6.0) but fine as long as it doesn't spiral down. I think the soil will take a bit of time for the pH to respond to the solution which I am keeping around a 6.5 - 6.7 for now. Here's to a healthy week! Day 22: Looks like she's happy. Soil surface is dry but I will let the roots drink up what they can find today before watering tomorrow. There is moisture just under the surface. Since I have such a small plant in such a big pot there isn't a huge danger of her drying out. I worry that smaller pots would have the moisture baked out of them by the heater that's in the tent. Day 27: Gave water and FIM'd her. The worm castings don't seem to be having too big of an impact on the ppm readings anymore so I am not worried about giving her too much food now. Next feed is a couple days away and will be about 700 ppm. The pH has risen one point each watering. No need to panic there. The plant has really started to develop branching around all 4 nodes. FIM'd at the fifth node. As this is my first plant ever I'm curious to see how she reacts. Throughout my harvests I will practice different techniques and learn what I like for my rather small tent. See you next week!

Day 28: 12 hours after FIMing her she had perked up. Just need to let her dry up now so I can juice her. Increasing fertilizer to raise the ppm to 700 this week. The ppm was low at the last runoff check (275). I will dial in the solution to get it close but will continue to do a regular watering at least once a week to avoid nutrient burns and lock up. I want her to kick it into veg over the next couple weeks so I may up to 1000 ppm for week 6. We'll see how she likes her food this week. I won't start LST until next week. This week is all branch development. Day 29: Research and development day today. I know I said there wasn't going to be any further training until further branch development, but I was unhappy with the FIM method. It didn't seem to slow down growth very much at the top. Maybe I did not shave low enough? Topping and bending seems to be a more surefire approach since I am trying to create an even canopy for the trellis. I believe that I could have topped sooner and potentially had a bushier plant at this point. That's okay though. This is the learning curve. Today's training gave some light to the lower branch nodes and she has been officially topped. Looks a little scary but I think that she'll tough it out. We'll see if my methods pay off over the next week. Was also able to feed today. Solution - pH 6.3, ppm 875. Runoff - pH 5.8, ppm 710. Now I know she's got some food to help her push through the stress of any training. Fingers crossed I'm not making a rookie move by taking off a few fan leaves... Later on Day 29: The power went out at 3:30pm while the lights are supposed to be on until 10pm. Brought the plant out onto a window to keep some light on her. In the meantime I hustled down to the hardware store and purchased a 1500 watt generator. Came home and flashed it up. The generator runs the grow tent and our fridge without a hitch, so I think it is not a bad investment. On another note, I found some bamboo stakes to ring around the pot for future LST. Looks better than the carpentry pencil I used earlier. I think that the plant is looking good after training today. Now we'll see how she reaches for the light over the rest of the week. Day 31: Looking good. I wish I had topped two weeks ago so I had some branches to work with. Day 32: Gave the ape regular tap water today. She took an extra day to dry out after watering every other day last week. So until the plant starts to drink more I will be watering every third day with alternating fertilizer and regular tap water rinsing. Lucky for me our tap is linked up to a spring on the property and the water quality is awesome. Out of the tap the pH is usually just above 7.0. Today's water came out at 7.2 which I did not pH down at all in a (successful) attempt to raise the pH of the soil from 5.8 to above 6.0. The pH of the runoff today was 6.3. :) The solution that I fed last was over 800 ppm with the runoff just over 700. With todays water the ppm of the runoff was 260 ppm! I think that this increase in nutrient uptake is awesome. This means that the root system has established itself and is now able to deliver and use nutrients effectively. At the next feeding I will juice her back up with 12mL fertilizer /1.5L water to boost her back up to 700 ppm. Research leads me to believe it is healthy to let the plants get a bit hungry for nutrients between each feeding. Burning the plant will be very unlikely if I stick to the alternating schedule. Maybe it will also be easier to flush the plant at the end? I will be sticking with the Advanced Nutrients lineup as they seem to have awesome reviews and I can justify the expense as I'm only growing one plant. For the flower cycle I'll be using Bud Ignitor, Bud Factor X and Rhino Skin. My goal is to have quality smoke firstly, and around 6 ounces dried. The quantity may be ambitious as I have no idea what to expect in my first garden and small tent, but I believe that I can get some good quality bud regardless. It may take several more weeks of vegetative light before she's filled out into the trellis. In my next garden cycle I think that I may grow two plants in an effort to fill up the tent a few weeks sooner. Efforts in the next grow will be a direct evolution from this one. On the subject of training... She seems to have taken quite well to the bending, topping and light defoliation I've given her this week. I am glad that I topped instead of running with the FIM. By topping and removing a few leaves it has really allowed the lower branches to sprout up. The difference in the lower branches is visible daily. Though they are still too small to work with right now, I know that I will be able to do some LST with them soon.

Day 36: This plant is a little chunk right now. I have raised the light an inch. Manufacturers recommendation is between 25" - 30". Last week was the first full week out of seedling mode and in veg. She is responding well to being bent over and the branches are starting to get going. Still too short to do any effective training so I will give her this week to stretch a bit and drink up the nutrients which are now at full dose every other watering. I am curious if I should have left the big fan leaves on the sides? Either way, too late now. She's been without them for a few days and I think she's built up a good layer of foliage to photosynthesize some shit. I will avoid doing any more defoliation until going into flower. Now that she has been topped and the branch sites all have room to grow it's time for me to be patient and let her girth up again. Day 37: Looked a little thirsty this morning. Gave 'er tap water with pH of 7.2. Runoff was at a pH of 6.3 with 340 ppm. Being able to read the dissolved solids is awesome. I can see that the plant is starting to use more nutrients with each feeding, but I can also see that she is not using up the full dose between waterings. This reassures me as I was wondering whether I could feed every watering. Judging that there is still over 300 ppm it would quickly stack to over 1000. With no signs of any nutrient burn or deficiencies I'll continue at the recommended full veg dose of 4mL/L. Supposedly Grape Ape can handle a moderate feeding schedule. The branches are reaching for the sides of the pot and she's really starting to look like a little shrub. Dense foliage makes it difficult to see the branching, but the nodes are close together. About 1" spacing. I have my eyes on a few of the branches and am starting to plan where to aim them. Later on Day 37: I went through the plant and explored her branch structure. There are a total of twelve branches working off the main stem. With a bit of very low stress training I was able to expose most of the branch tips. The plant looks well balanced despite being pulled off to one side of the pot. I will work to bring the plant back to a centred stance as the branches are able to be trained to the edges of the pot. My trellis net conveniently has 12 squares, so I will aim to get one main branch into each section before turning her into flower. Day 38: After exposing many of the branch tips yesterday they have all boosted for the light. Training this week is just tucking leaves and making sure the branches aren't blocked by any foliage. I am keeping an eye on the two leaders and will tie them down when they gain a couple more inches. I can't believe how tight the node structure is on this little girl. Later on Day 38: Got stoned and thought it would be a good idea to go and bend a few things around. She's still rather small... And I broke part of one of the top branches whilst tweaking it down. One leaf immediately wilted but the rest of the branch looks good. I'm just going to leave her alone for a few days now. Woops. But the rest of the LST attempt went pretty alright. Day 39: Fed her today with 1.5L. Solution - pH 6.3, ppm 930. Runoff - pH 5.8, ppm 830. I'm curious why the pH is continuing to drop so dramatically after each feeding. I wonder if it is because of the pH balancing base nutrients? I may top dress with dolomite lime to try and stabilize things. She's in grow mode for sure now. Each day this week there are measurable differences. I removed my LST wires. Longer branches are needed before they can be effective. The damaged top branch seems to have recovered and opened it's leaf, although there does seem to be a bit of permanent damage around the tips. Couldn't be happier with how she's bounced back! Now I know how delicate things can be. Day 40: Happy 2020 eh! The cheeba plant is looking great today. I can tell she is drinking up her nutrients with a thirst. The branching has once again reached the edge of the pot and this time I'm going to let her grow up through the trellis net before attempting any serious training. There has been some serious snowfall resulting in sporadic power outages. I am worried that this may freak the plant out. I don't want her to hermie on me. Can feminized plants become hermaphrodites with enough stress? I ran the tent on the generator for a few hours while I was out today to make sure she was good to go, but I won't be able to do that every day. I may look into making a battery bank that can keep things growing without running a noisy generator. Day 41: Week six comes to an end today, and what a week of progress! I can't wait to see what the next week will bring. I have reigned in on the LST and am currently just trying to get one of the lower branches exposed to the light so that she can make it up to the trellis. The branch that I broke a few days ago appears to be stunted compared to it's neighbours, but still green and healthy. She must be struggling to get nutrients to flow past the break. Hopefully she can recoup and keep up to the other branching. This may have worked as a sort of topping. I imagine that hormones are getting pushed all over the place to compensate for the trauma. Today I gave a regular watering. Solution (tap) - pH 7.2, ppm 110. Runoff - pH 6.2, ppm 550. The pH of the runoff continues to drop with each feed which results with me trying to bounce it back every other watering. I would prefer for the pH to be a bit more stable. Any ideas why this might be happening? I am considering adding some pH up to the base nutrients but am unsure if that's okay with the Advance Nutrients pH Perfect line? The ppm was also higher than I expected at 550. I might lower the dose if the ppm looks out of whack at the next feed. All in all, I could not have asked for a better week. I was quite stressed that she was lagging due to late topping, but now I am mollified. Once again, this is the learning curve and I must exercise patience.

Day 43: This week she enters the ScrOG! I've brought the nutrient dose down to around 700 ppm. Still reading a low pH with each feed. I wonder if the runoff is lower than the actual medium? The water going in is usually about 6.3. Solution - pH 6.3, ppm 772. Runoff - pH 5.8, ppm 760. I am just letting her grow this week, although I am considering pruning her two lowest branches as they don't look like they're going to make it out from under the rest of the canopy. This may also help juice up the upper branching this week. Day 44: Today I took some time to plan out where the branches will be trained. I pruned off the bottom two branches with some really dull clippers (will replace) to try and boost the upper branches. I'm now working with 10 main branches all of which have good light. There appears to be the start of what I think may be a magnesium deficiency. I will try to amend the soil and raise the pH closer to 7 while also lowering the nighttime temperature to 68°F. I may try adding some magnesium sulphate with my rinse cycle, but I think the main issue is the low pH of the soil. Day 45: Watered from the tap. Solution - pH 7.4, ppm 80. Runoff - pH 6.0, ppm 810. The ppm was higher than the last feed. I'm going to keep upping the pH until the runoff is consistently 6.5. It seems that the auto-balancing nutrients aren't quite perfect... The plant is growing well but I am noticing some spotting on older leaves. Hoping this is not the start of powdery mildew. I am going to raise daytime temperature to 80° with night-time at 70°. The humidity has been rock solid around 50% r.h. so I will keep that rolling. I have some foliar spray that I will use if I become confident that the fungus is indeed present. Microscope on the way so I can take a closer look at these spots. I'm not totally convinced that there's an issue yet since I've been keeping the tent pretty clean and there is good air circulation. She's reaching up into the trellis and I've been able to wrangle a few branches, angling them to primo positions. The broken branch looks to have recuperated and is producing some healthy new growth. This will end up being the centre cola so I'm curious to see if she'll develop comparably to the other branches. Day 46: Just groovy. I think the lack of nutrient uptake may be result of a low pH. I will do a regular watering again in a couple days with high pH and low ppm. The root zone also needs to get good and dry between waterings. I'll hold off on the water tomorrow unless she looks real dry. Might do a foliar spray instead. Took the plant for her first haircut today! She looks great with the bottom 2/3rds cleaned up. Not bad for my first trim I think. I tried not to take too many leaves that were in direct light. Just giving the sub-branching room to grow up into the canopy and allowing better airflow throughout the plant. I was able to bend a few of the top branches towards their various corners and provide more light to the two lowest tips which I'm trying to coax towards the trellis. This is the first training that I feel confident I haven't done something terrible. Next grow I will top sooner and let the branches hit the trellis before worrying about doing much LST. Day 47: Adding some cal/mag to the mix today. Solution - pH 6.9, ppm 950. Runoff - pH 5.9, ppm 1070. I started adding some pH up with the fertilizer to bring the soil up above 6.0. The ppm was higher than I would have liked. We'll see how much she uses by the next watering. She has recovered well from the defoliation yesterday and now has room to breathe and grow.

Day 53: Things have been slow going for the last week. Almost no growth :( I think this is due to low pH combined with overfeeding. I have stabilized the pH to 6.2 and brough the ppm down to 520 with a flush. First flush. The rest of this week is just making sure the pH stays where I want it and keeping her environment steady. I'll be waiting to give nutrients until I see some improvement. Hoping she bounces up in the next few days... Day 54: She looks pretty soggy this morning after yesterday's flush. I purchased a moisture meter to help make sure I'm not over-watering. Jade plant and Mexican hat plant are moving in to the nursery to keep cheeba some company. Day 55: I've definitely been over-watering my sweet cheeba. I'm glad I picked up a moisture meter while I learn the ropes. The plant is now up on a platform so that it drains better and I'll be able to flush it out in the tent whilst she's all tied up. No water today. Probably not tomorrow either I think. I'm learning fast and hope that she'll recover accordingly.

Day 57: Spent the last week learning all about nutrient lock-up. Good times. Now I know how to flush my plant effectively. The first flush that I did wasn't nearly thorough enough. The next time that I watered the ppm was way high, so I was forced to do a second flush with a full 8 gallons. The plant looks immediately happier! Reaching back for the light. There's definitely some deficiencies coming through on a few leaves but I think that's just a result of being locked up for a week. She's going to be on half strength nutrients this week with the next water. I'll hopefully be switching her over to flower in a week or two. I bet she'll flesh out quickly this week and next. Day 58: Gave her a dose of fertilizer today. Half power on all the nutrients. Solution - pH 6.6, ppm 575. Runoff - pH 6.2, ppm 725. I'll let the medium dry right out before the next rinse. A couple of days for sure before she'll need water. Gave 1.5 litres of solution. I made a few adjustments to the environment today as well. Added another oscillating fan to try and spread the hot air around a bit better from the space heater. I noticed that the side of the pot that is closer to the heater is drying out and I don't want to damage the root zone. This made it so I could remove the fan that I had beside the humidifier which has always been in the way when I need to refill the reservoir. Things are looking good in the tent. There are lots of branch tips starting to poke through the canopy. I am optimistic about the next couple of weeks leading up to flower. Day 59: The cheeba has dried out faster than I thought she would. No water today but likely tomorrow. Looks like I'll be sticking to the every-other-day schedule for now. She's certainly growing well again after the flush and boost of nutrients. I'll be keeping the nutrients at half power unless I start to see some new deficiencies. My research has led me to believe that a regular flush once a month will prevent future lock-ups. Every time I learn something new I get stoked, so this whole process has been awesome. And there is still lots to learn! Also picked up the rest of the nutrients that I'll need for flower. I am ready! Day 60: Third times the charm I hope. I misread my watering jug. The last flush that I did was only 8 litres when I thought it was 8 gallons. So naturally the ppm was spiked to 1500 when I read todays runoff. After a full 8 gallons I feel like I've finally done the right thing. The pH rose up to 6.8 and I was able to fully flush the ppm down to 100. She's been repositioned under the scrog net and things are looking good. Lots of little branch tips poking through the canopy. I'm just going to let her get a bit bigger before going to the flower schedule. I took the time to write out a full nutrient schedule last night (in pencil), so I feel fairly organized for the future. Day 61: She's back on the nutrients today. Started adding a bit of B-52 and Voodoo Juice. I've been doing lots of research and I am hoping that I'm not overlapping too many nutrients. I think I've done a good job of collecting the full spectum of complementary ingredients. Now it's back to letting her juice up for a week. Ive done a bit of LST on the taller branches which seems to really be encouraging branch growth from lower down on the plant. I can't quite imagine her covered in buds, but I'm sure she'll do just grand. Day 62: She's drinking every day now. Taking about 2 litres each morning. I think this may be because I've turned the exhaust fan up to increase airflow. Things are green and growing. I called the Advanced Nutrients help line to talk about ppm levels. The levels seem to be increasing without me adding nutrients. Supposedly this is because of humic acids and or sediment in the solution which adds to electrical conductivity in the runoff. Advanced Nutrients recommends that I continue with the full feeding schedule or risk underfeeding the plant. I'm curious to see if the full dose would be beneficial but I do not want to burn my plant. I think that I will try and juice it up a bit since I know that I've done a solid flush this week. I will continue with the alternating water/feed schedule for now to ensure that salts do not build up. Solution - pH'd to 6.4. Runoff - pH 6.4, ppm 700. Found a fungus gnat. Preventative measures incoming.

Day 63: Just learned how to properly water my plant... Seems basic, but holy, so many different ways to do one thing. I learned that I must be letting 25% of my solution run out the pot in order to prevent salt build up. Today is the first day where I've watered until the runoff was the same as the solution. Cheeba took 3 litres to get 750 mL of runoff. Ppm - 1080, pH - 6.2 Later that day: Looks pretty overwatered. Since I've done the flush I've watered every day. Too much, Matt! Will post a picture tomorrow morning. Hopefully the leaves perspire lots tonight. I'm running the tent with higher temps and more airflow to help her get lots of fresh air through the root zone. Day 64: She's drying out today and looks happy. It might just be me but I think she's a darker shade of green today. This is the last week that I'll let her veg. I want to get some smoke off this baby and get another plant started! I did some defoliation to prepare for flower and give light to all the little sub-branches. I feel like I finally understand the idea of how to water and feed her, so I'm taking this as the last chance to do any stressful training and adjustments. I want her going into flower with some zest. She's got five days to recover and show me what she's got. Consistency will be my main goal from now until chop. Some root hairs were showing on the soil surface. I mixed a bit of extra soil to cover up any exposed roots. Added about an inch and will water it in tomorrow. Day 65: She drank 5 litres this morning. Got one litre of runoff. Ppm - 1100, pH - 6.2. Things look good with the addition of topsoil and defoliation. No real signs of stress from the trim which is awesome. I may add a litre of tap water tomorrow to keep the medium from drying out too much. I'll see how the top couple of inches feel tomorrow morning. Day 66: Cheeba looks great today. She's opening up some big leaves around the main tips and the sub-branching is coming up into the canopy. The foliage is much darker green than it has been. I didn't realize how yellow she was getting. I'm thinking she was locked out of magnesium due to over watering and an acidic medium. It's taken way to long to get to this point... But at least she's well trained and I've got my act together for flower. I think that I could have stripped a few more bottom branches at the last trim. There are some that don't look like they're going to make it to the top. If they don't have good access to light at the end of this week I'll probably trim them so the plant doesn't waste any more energy on them. The additional soil was a good call. While protecting the root mass it will also help hold a bit of extra water. I added some mychorizzae into my top soil mix. I wonder if they are why she's shown no stress at all after her trim? Later that day: I noticed that some of the leaves were standing up around the edges a bit. Looks almost serrated. My handy book tells me this is the plant trying to transpire as much water as possible. I want to make sure she's not heat stressed now that I'm dosing her with the nutrients, so I have lowered the temperature to hover around 75F. I figure this is good anyways as I want to roll with lower temperatures throughout flower. It would be cool to see some of her purple expressions if there's any in this phenotype. After I'm through with the nine remaining seeds I have I will be a Grape Ape aficionado. Day 67: Gave her 6 litres this morning. Runoff - pH 6.1, ppm 1200. Heading into flower with the next watering in a couple days. I'm going to dial back the nutrients just a bit for the start of flower, especially as I'm going to be adding a few more ingredients to my potion recipe. Things are a little spicy in the root zone right now. I'll bounce the pH up to 6.5 at the same time. Gave the lower part of the plant a serious hack back. I took out any branches that weren't looking at the light. There were a few fan leaves in the way on top of the canopy, but most of the foliage came out from underneath. Previous trims had been mostly fan leaves while hoping all the branches would find their way up. Twas not to be. I can now let 'er buck. Although that's what I though a month ago... A couple more days under 18 hours then I'm flippin' the switch. Day 68: Looking good in the tent today. Once again there was no signs of shock after the trim, and yesterdays trim was not forgiving. This baby must be feeling pretty good right now. I'll try and keep the theme rolling. Now she's been pruned to the branches I want to turn into bud, I'm wondering if I should do another week under 18 hours of light? Thinking this might allow the smaller sub-branches to beef up a bit more rather than send her into flower with a bunch of little tops. I really don't know how much she's going to stretch and I want the branches to be able to support some weight. A second trellis might be a better option and allow me to throw her into flower this week... After staring at my plant for half an hour I've decided to go to flower. She'll be what she'll be. Day 69: The plant had its first night with 12 hours darkness. Now the clock ticks until harvest! Gave first round of bloom nutrients today. I put 8 litres through her to get the ppm even with my mix. She probably only needed about 5 litres but I noticed the ppm jumping up. When I checked the first little bit of runoff today she was up at 1800. Got 2 litres of runoff. Ppm - 1160, pH 6.2. Hopefully I'll have some fuzzy pictures to post next week.

Day 71: Bloom has begun! Flipped the switch at 10". She's already filled in a lot of greenery since the trim I gave her last week. I hope theres enough room for the branches to stretch up and bud out without too much crowding. I will use the second trellis net to make sure things don't get out of hand on the upper level. Gave 8 litres of nutrients. Ppm - 1200, pH - 6.2. Day 72: Day 4 of bloom today. She's stretched a couple of inches since starting flower. 12" tall now. I see a few hairs popping out, but nothing too wild yet. Most branch tips have good light access. I won't do another trim as I want to see how she'll stretch over the next couple of weeks. I'm also curious to see how the light performs at developing buds lower on the plant. Day 73: Found powdery mildew. Fack. Nuked the plant with a sulphur fungicide, but I'll have to find something else to use throughout flower while spot checking leaves. We'll see how this goes... Choked because I thought I had the environment on point. I'm keeping humidity low now that flower has begun. Gave a litre of tap water to coax her and extra day before feeding. Day 74: Gave 8 litres of food again, but this dose I have dropped the Pro-Cal. I had been doubling up with the same nutrients as are in the Micro. Raising ppm unnecessarily. No bueno. So far the Bud Ignitor hasn't done anything crazy... Day 6 of flower. Day 75: Not too much to report. A few hairs popping out, but nothing too exciting. Letting her roll without too much interference from here on out. Let's see some bud soon! Day 78: Yesterday was the first fresh water Friday, start of a new tradition. Cheeba seems to like it. I was able to bring the ppm under 400 with 8 litres of tap water. She will enjoy the next boost of nutrients. I'm trying to water every thrid day, but she looks pretty sad by the third morning without a litre on the second 'dry' day. She's revived from a mild wilt and has reached the second trellis. I hope the majority of tips reach up through the second trellis, and have raised the light a couple of inches to encourage some stretch throught the next week. Budding has started to show it's signs around the plant. Little white hairs are abundant at all the tips. Airflow is at maximum and humidity is around 40%-45% R.H. Temperature is steady at 74°F for now.

Day 85: Things are looking mostly sweet! The stretch is up to 7" at this point. She grew an inch in the last 24 hours, so maybe she'll stretch a bit more? I've got about 4" left to raise the light. Pretty close to maximizing the tent space. She's thirsty every 48 hours. Fresh water Fridays are a hit. Brings things to a happy medium for the next weeks nutrient cycle. I'm trying to keep the ppm below 1500 but as the soil dries the ppm spikes. I've noticed some very high ppm with the first bit of runoff, but it balances out. Usually the runoff is about 100 ppm higher than the solution at the end of the runoff. This is likely due to worm castings and the dolomite lime that is in the mix. Next round will definitely cut the worm castings. The lime will be needed to balance the pH of the medium. I wonder if the high ppm may be causing the brown, burnt looking, tips on the calyxes? Only some buds have brown tips. Maybe this strain will be more orange throughout flower? I backed the light up an inch to make sure I'm not burning them. The Bud Ignitor is done. And the Voodoo Juice. So that will help lower the ppm for week 3. B52 will come back at half dose and I will bump the Massive up to 2ml/L. Now she's gonna swell up!

Day 92/ Bloom 25: She's cruising. Frosting up all over and on lower buds as well. The tent is as full as I can ask. The light is 2" from the top of the tent. I'll need a different light if I ever want to grow a taller plant. Bud sites are well established throughout the canopy and are thick with white hairs. Some of the hairs are brown at the tips. She drinks every other day. 8L in the top and 3L out the bottom. I'm using a turkey baster to remove runoff. High tech eh? Fresh water once a week. I'm curious about when to drop the temps in flower. I don't want to take the root zone too low and halt production too early. I'll likely wait until the buds fatten up a bit and drop temps during the last 3 weeks with the flush cycle. There is a surprising lack of stink. I wonder when she'll kick out some fumes?

Day 99, Bloom 31: Buds are getting thicker. The canopy is denser than I would like. I am considering doing a bit of defoliation from the bottom up to try and drop the humidity a bit more. Air circulation is good, but the tent is quite full. The temps are steady at 74°. For some reason my stats above are being switched to 50° after I save...? Ppm is up a bit with the added Massive. The next week I'll drop down to minimum GMB 1ml/L and bump the Massive up some more. This should be a sweet couple of weeks as things bulk up. I want to grow two plants on the next round and run a couple of different nutrient schemes to see how effective the additives really are. Lots of pistils are turning orange now but still mostly white. No signs of purple on this plant yet. Smells like grapes now. Still not super strong but she is starting to creep past the carbon filter which has been on 24/7 for a few months now. Probably could save the filter until a couple weeks into flower next time.

Day 107, Bloom 39: Lowered the light a bit to try and beef up some of the lower buds. Crystals are spreading out on to the fan leaves around the colas. Starting to get a bit stinky. Smells like very fruity. Like grapes funny enough.

Day 114, Bloom 46: She seems solid. This week it's hard to see much change but I think the buds are swelling a bit. I lowered the light again to see how much the plant can take. Seems to be no problem at 20". Trichomes are well developed with a few cloudy and most are still clear. Starting the flush and will run it two to three more weeks.

Day 121, Bloom 53: She's turning all sorts of cool colours. Buds are looking purple. The flush seems to be going well. Ppm at the end of the week is down to 90. My tap water comes out at about 50. Should be cruisy for her last week!

Day 121, Bloom 56: She's been chopped! There's lots of buds on all branches. The lower buds are definitely underdeveloped due to lack of light. Next round I'll have to do a heavy haircut going into flower. The trichomes are mostly cloudy with a few clear and a few amber. Trimmed the fan leaves off and hung the branches individually with sugar leaves intact. Ill give the wet and dry weights in the harvest review. Super stoked to smoke this bud!

Marijuana is a really cool plant. I was impressed by the Ape all the way through the grow. The vegetative cycle was long but worth it in the end with 3.5 dry ounces to smoke and a small amount of trim to run into butter. The lower buds are all that I've smoked so far while I wait for the good buds to cure up for a couple weeks. The high is stoney and relaxed. Things can get done as long as you don't sit down. The couch lock is real. And the munchies seem very far away once I sit down. The dry herb smells super fruity and tastes like grape when I roll a doobie. The bong yields less flavour but packs a good punch. Packed a second bowl and forgot about it for an hour. I will be growing Grape Ape for a couple more rounds to try and really get to know how she grows best.