4 * Sticky Beast auto, LED (first grow)

INTRODUCTION About 22 years ago I got a 75 paged printed document from the (at time very new and modern) internet about how to grow cannabis. It was from my nephew, he downloaded it. I was still a teenager. I never used cannabis at that time, but it was extremely intriguing to me. I wanted to grow my own! I was never in the position to start a grow for various reasons, but I kept on reading on the internet. Tutorials, grow journals and later on video's. From time to time I'd study in depth, planning my future grow. I saw LED enter the market in around 2010, but it wasn't a viable option at that time. During a new period of research in 2016, I noticed LED had become a more serious option. I liked the idea of having a cooler 'plug and play' light. When we moved to the house we now live in (2 years ago), I knew I would finally start a grow, because we own the house (before, we always rented) and we have enough space. My spouse didn't object and now, 22 years after the seed was planted in my head, I finally, finally planted 5 seeds Sticky Beast Automatic. HARDWARE OVERVIEW Secret Jardin DS120W R4.0 Darkstreet 120x60x178 cm Mars Hydro TSL 2000 Vents TT 125 UnR1 inline exhaust (280 m2/hr, temperature controlled, buildin dimmer) Sonoconnect ducting (sound insulated) CAN Original Filter (200 m2/hr) Secret Jardin Monkey Fan 19 cm Secret Jardin TNEON 2 * 55 watt 6500k (for the first few days, but ,mainly bought for future motherplants and clones) 2 thermo/hygro meters EcoSavers Energy meter Still on the shopping list: Oscillating fan I'll elaborate further on some other equipment and products I use next week. GENERAL REMARKS In the evening of december 5, the 5 seeds were put in the Easy Start kit, watered with a included bacteria solution and put in a humidity dome with a 55 watt neon light above it. 80 hours later, december 9, all seeds had germinated and the young seedlings were transferred to a small 0.2 L pot filled with soil and 30% perlite. December 9 is day 1. They were no longer in the humidity dome, a small fan was blowing gently above their heads and the light (110 watt neon) was on for 24 hours. Only 4 of them will flower, so one of them will be killed brutally. Or maybe I keep her in the small cup and perform some sick experiments on her. We'll see. LIGHT On day 3, my new LED light (Mars Hydro TSL 2000) arrived. The light was hanged 75cm (30 inch) above the seedlings and dimmed as far as possible. With my energy meter I checked the usage: at full power the light pulls around 320 watt, fully dimmed it pulled 90 watt. On day 5, I lowered the light to 70 cm and intensified the light a bit, so that it is pulling 120 watt. It is something I'm struggling with. Am I being overly careful and should I intensify and/or lower the light? I've checked other growers using the same light and I found some cases of burning plants. Advice on this would be very welcome. For now, I'll keep on slowly intensifying the light. It is now on a 18/6 schedule and it will be like that until the end of the grow. HUMIDITY AND TEMPERATURE Temperature in the room with the tent is around 18c, but can go as low as 15c. With the light on, it is around 23c in the tent, but off it gets down to 18 degree. When I intensified the light (from 90 watts to 120 watts), temperature was a bit higher. I guess when the light around 150+ watts, I have to startup my exhaust fan. I leave it off for now and only have a fan blowing just over the heads of the seedlings. I tested the exhaust for 2 hours and it made the temperature lower to somewhere in the 20,5, which is a bit too low. I think, when the lights are more powerful, the temperature won't be a problem anymore when using the exhaust. Humidity is quite low in our house. Around 40 to 45%. I can get humidity up in the tent to around 55% using some wet washcloths, but it fluctuates between 40% and 55%. THE FIVE GIRLS My spouse named our 5 babies: Anna is the biggest one, but she also stretched the most. She was the first that germinated. Other than the stretch, she's looking healthy. Benthe is the second biggest and doing just fine. She is just a tad bit smaller than Anna, they're almost like twins. Ceylin also germinated fast and developed big leaves, but she stayed shorter than the others. However, her grow is vibrant, she looks strong and if I had to guess, I'd say she is the most healthy of the five girls. Dana germinated almost as fast as the former three, but when she was above the soil, I noticed her growtip (not the cotyledons) was way, way smaller than the other three. Also, when the second pair of real leaves started to show, they were again way smaller compared to the former three. Last: Elin. She germinated around 8 hours later and was never able to get rid of her shelf by her self. In fact, the shelf pulled off one of her cotyledons while growing and she had to start live with only one. However, it never looked she was having a dead struggle. The structure of her real leaves differ from the others: the veins are closer together. But remarkably enough, her second true leaves are growing faster than those from Dana. They are long and thin. Hopefully, you enjoyed reading my first entry. Let me know if you have any tips, especially advice according to how to use the light (power and distance) would be great. Thanks and see you next week!

Today I worked hard to improve my grow environment. Well, actually the environment where the growtent is located. It’s in our attic. About two and a half years ago we moved here and we couldn’t put our stuff behind the wooden wall on the sides of our pitched roof (no idea how that space is called in English), since the concrete floor of our newly build house was still moist, hence it needs to ventilate for at least 6 months. During the 2,5 years the attic became some sort of end station for stuff we couldn’t place anywhere else. It’s a large and high attic, heated by two radiators and with the concrete floor basically another living room; but we filled it with endless amounts of unopened movingboxes with all kinds of trash and also loads and loads of tools, machines and other equipment. Dust and hair from our dog accumulated and the spaces became narrow. It was not a convenient working place, it was a trashhole. We bought the laminate flooring 2,5 years ago and it’s still in the packaging. With the attic cleaned and the laminate flooring installed, we’ll have a really nice and clean room, the flooring will isolate a bit (since the concrete is very cold), reduce possible vibrations from the growtent and I’ll end up with a huge space to work in. So today I cleaned the attic out, opened all boxes, putted a lot of stuff in a organized way behind the wooden walls on the sides and got rid of a lot trash. Tomorrow I still have to clean out a bit, put in the underfloor and then install the laminate flooring. I can’t wait to work with my plants in my new, clean and spacy room! THIS WEEK On day 8 I filled four 25L fabric pots with Canna Terra Professional soil, to which I added around 30% perlite. It became a very airy mix. In every pot, I was able to throw around 5 liters of pH’ed (to around pH 6,5) water before I saw some drain. Then I mixed de pots again, to make it an airy, moist, but not soaking wet, mix. The girls were growing rapidly and I felt they might be another day, maybe two days away from transplant. Since that didn’t fit very well in my schedule, I decided to transplant right away. I was surprised to see the roots from the 3 bigger girls running around the bottom and sides of the pot. They were already close to being root-bound in those small 0,2L pots. The 25L fabric pots turned out to be too big to arrange nicely in my growtent. I did some math, but apparently the pots are a little bigger than the seller noted in his description. I tossed Dana, since she was the slowest and smallest. However, Elin is also a lot behind on her 3 sisters and if space gets a problem in the growtent, I’ll toss her too and just focus on my 3 stars, Anna, Benthe and Ceylin. As for why I have these huge pots: around new years I won’t be able to take care of them for 4, maybe 5 whole days, because I leave for a short holiday. I’m pretty sure these pots are big enough to keep enough moist during those days. Next time, I’ll use bigger pots (maybe 1L instead of 0,2L) for the first two weeks or so, to grow after germination and then transfer to 18L pots to finish in. But for now, we’ll have to do with the huge pots. After transplantation, growth was definitely stunted. The day after, there was barely any grow visible. I also knew I didn’t have to water for a while. During the next couple of days I did nothing, except checking on them. Since the exhaust had to run to get rid of all the moist damping of the pots and the soil (humidity got up to 75% without exhaust running), temperature was a little on the cool side, around 20 degree C. But around 36 hours after transplantation, growth slowly started to accelerate and the top layer of the soil started to dry out. Yesterday, on day 13, they were clearly growing fast and strong again. The soil was completely dry for the first 2 centimeters or so and only very lightly moist below that. Also, little Eline was looking droopy, but the 3 stars were looking very good. On the bag of the soil, instructions said the soil is lightly fertilized and feeding should start after the first dry-out. I decided to give them all 1L of water with a very light dose of nutes, to see if it would boost their growth. I mixed 0,6 ml/l GHE micro and gro and 0,2 ml/l of GHE bloom. I gave them all 1L of the mix, except Eline, she only got around 0,7L since she is so small. Also, I intensified the lights and it’s now pulling around 175 watts and hanging around 25 inch above the top of the plants. If my calculations are correct, it should measure around 500 par, which is perfect for rapid vegetative growth. And boy oh boy did they like it! Elin was looking happy within an hour, she was definitely dried out and therefor looking droopy. Probably, her roots don’t reach as far as those from her 3 big sisters. They probably could reach the moist in the lower area’s of the pot, but for Eline, the water was apparently out of reach. Today, new growth developing everywhere and the nodes are stacking up fast. In the armpits (is this the correct name??) new sidebranches are developing and I’m pretty sure I’m now in a phase of rapid vegetative growth. Also, because the light gets a bit warmer, it is now a comfortable 22 degrees C in the growtent. I think a bit higher would be even better, but it’s the best I can get right now and it’s not that bad. I’m really looking forward to the next few days, with hopefully a lot of new green stuff growing in the tent and a finished, clean and spacy attic to work in. I’ll start LST when the fourth node is in development and the internode with the third node is big enough to bend them over to the sides. That will probably be tomorrow or the day after. I decided not to top them, since it’s my first grow and I’m supper worried I will cause stunted grow once again and end up with small plants and small harvest. Next grow, I’ll definitely grow photoperiods, so I can really dive into all kinds of plant training. In the next update, I’ll show the results of the LST and also show some of the safety measures and other preparations I took for my five days of forsaking the girls. I wish you all a happy Christmas and a lot of big harvests in 2020!

An early update, as I’m leaving tomorrow for a couple of days to celebrate new years eve. Tomorrow in the morning I’ll check on them one last time and then leave the girls alone for 4 days. Since the last update, 5 days ago, the girls grew really fast and overall I’m happy with this week. Also, I finished putting in the new laminate flooring and the room is now a pleasure to work in. Elin didn’t make it. I tossed her. When working on the floor, the girls were taken out of the tent a couple of times, because I had to replace it. When I was putting the girls back, I just couldn’t stand the lack of space for the 4 pots and Elin just didn’t grow; well, she pushed out new nodes, but everything stayed so small. I decided to toss her, make up space and focus on my 3 rocking girls. It gave me an opportunity to do some destructive research on the plant and the soil. Her root system was really small, I don’t think this plant would yield a lot. Also, I found that the soil throughout the pot was almost dry, but very airy. NITROGEN EXCESS Hence, on day 15, I gave the 3 girls 2 liter of water and nutrients. I used the same amount as I wrote about in my previous update (0,6 ml/l GHE Gro and Micro and 0,2 ml/l GHE Bloom). A day later, I noticed some of the leaves were curling down (clawing). This spread a bit to other leaves in the following day. One of the girls had it more than the other two. I also noticed new growth was a darker green and not lime green like it used to be. However, the girls kept on growing really fast and besides those few clawing leaves, they looked fine. Since yesterday, it doesn’t get worse anymore. I was pretty sure it were the first signs of a nitrogen excess, especially since all other possibilities (like over- or under-watering, heat stress, light stress) are ruled out. Timing is bad, because I’m leaving tomorrow for a few days and I can’t monitor them. Therefor, I flushed the girls just before writing this update. I gave them all about 4 to 5 L of pH’ed water and they all drained 1 to 2 liters. Hopefully, this will reduce nitrogen levels in the soil enough. I think I made the nutrients mix too strong. I used 50% of the recommended amount for a young plant, but I probably should have used 25%, maybe even less. Apparently, this strain doesn’t need much. Since they are now watered properly, they won’t dry out during my absence the following days; the pots are 25L, so I guess they will be fine. SAFETY AND PREPARATIONS FOR ABSENCE I’ve put in some photos of the preparations for my absence the following days. I installed a fire alarm and automatic fire extinguisher above the tent. The latter product works very fast when it comes into contact with open fire. The resultant fire can be fought immediately at the start, so that any subsequent damage will be limited. Hopefully, I’ll never need it. I also installed the power strip next to tent against the concrete wall. I’m using a timer with a build-in relay for the light, which is also installed to the wall next to the tent, however, this probably isn’t really necessary, but I’m rather safe than sorry. I’ve used a 1,5 mm IP44 connection cord to power the relay (and thus the lights). It is plugged in a socked that’s on an empty group (it was actually designated for the dryer, but we never bought one). Also, I used Sonoconnect ducting, which is sound-isolated (I just used regular ducting inside the tent though, as Sonoconnect might not be fully airtight and the filter is in the tent). The tent is resting on some isolation material, which is normally used to install wooden flooring on. I also made sure the tent is not touching the wall or the roof. This way, I prevent any vibrations traveling next doors, making my neighbors wondering wtf I’m doing. Last, just after flushing but before I wrote this update, I performed some LST. I just bowed the main stem to get those young side branches more into the light. With all this prevention measures, I’ll won’t be worrying during my short holiday. Hopefully I’ll come back and be completely amazed by the huge growth. Well, if they’re still alive, I’d also be very happy. Have a great new years eve and see you in 2020!

It’s 9 days since the last update and lots of new growth has emerged. The tent is filling up quickly and there wouldn’t be more room for a fourth plant, so I don’t regret tossing Elin. They also started to smell a bit, so I installed my filter. It completely eradicates the smell, works perfect! However, not everything went smoothly this week. When I came back after 4 days of holiday, on day 24, I found the plants in good health. They had grown a lot and some nodes were showing white pistils. There was still some clawing (tips of the leaves curled down) as seen in my previous update, but nothing bad. However, the day after I returned, they looked a lot worse, especially Anna. She also had some mosaic spots on some leaves. It still looked like a N excess to me. Despite that, there were now pistils everywhere on all three plants. I noticed the ground was dry and it had been 5 days since I last watered them. Hence, I watered again on day 25, with just plain, pH’ed water, as there were still no signs of any deficiencies, on the contrary, it still looked like a bit of nitrogen excess. I watered until 15-30% run off, just like the last time, as discussed in my previous update. During that previous watering, I noticed pH of the run off water was around 5,5. This is slightly too acid and might cause some deficiencies (f.e. calcium). Therefore, this time pH’ed the tap water down to 7 instead of 6.5. Hopefully, my run off water will be a bit higher in pH when I do the next watering, which is probably tomorrow. During day 25 after watering, Ceylin started to show yellowing tips, especially the newest and highest growth. The plants had grown quite a bit. The distance between the tops and the lights had decreased a lot. I figured it might be light stress, hence, I raised the lights. The yellowing of tips seems to have stopped now. Temperature was still a issue, only 20-21 degrees Celsius with lights on. I raised the light a bit more, but gave it a bit more power, around 225 watt. I also placed a fan above the drivers, slightly aiming down; trying to get some of the warm air from the LED drivers down. It worked and temperature is now at 22,5 degree. So, to summarize: Anna is the smallest of the three, she has some heavy curling here and there, especially on the top of here mainstem, and some mosaic spots, but since the last watering it stopped spreading and new growth looks good. Benthe does great, she is by far the biggest and LST worked like a charm on her. She doesn’t show any signs of problems. Ceylin is also doing fine, but she has some burned tips on some of the top growth, probably caused by light stress. All the symptoms had stopped spreading, but then, yesterday. Disaster struck. I LST’ed all three plants and rearranged al stems further. All seemed fine, but when I came back a few hours later, I found Benthe’s mainstem was broken down, like 3 nodes from the top. It was completely snapped off, probably for a few hours. Also, there was little room at the remaining stem to ducktape the top back on. It was just beyond repair and I threw the top away. I noticed the stem was really hollow, so I closed it with a little tape and a small rope. This would definitely shock this plant a lot and probably diminish yield. Especially since preflowers are already showing. However, today, it seems like she is growing like nothing happened. There are now 2 mainstems and they got bigger in just 18 hours. She still looks perky and no symptoms of stress are visible. Wow, is she really this resilient? I was very careful not to overdo during my LST sessions. Also, the stem broke on a spot where there wasn’t even bending, that was 2 nodes higher up. I think I bended her quite far, but because of the rapid upward growth, the tension just became too big and she snapped. It’s also possible it happened when placing the plant back in the tent, but that seems unlikely to me, as I always check everything after placing a plant back. Today, I tried to overcome my fear and continued to LST, but I’m now even more careful. All in all, they’re growing fast and I can still expect some good yield, despite the problems I experience. It’s a rocky grow, lots of lessons learned already. Any tips or advice are always welcome. See you next week!

It’s official, the 3 girls are flowering! Week 5 was a solid week; they made quite a jump and grew several centimeters every day. From 32 cm last week to 52 cm today. Also, after watering Anna with plain pH’ed water with a few liters run off on day 29, she finally fully recovered from the N excess. Not only is new growth no longer clawing, but also a bunch of affected leaves fully recovered. She grew the most this week, as she was a little smaller compared to the other 2, but she’s about the same size now. On day 30, the other 2 girls were watered with plain pH’ed water too with 20% run off. LST was a daily task, especially with Ceylin; I have not succeeded to break her apical dominance. Her mainstem seems to be a little Houdini, breaking out of her chains every time. Her mainstem is therefor a bit higher compared to the rest of the canopy and her side stems are thinner compared to those of the other 2 girls. Her canopy is looking somewhat chaotic. However, Ceylin is a day or two ahead of the other girls with producing flowers. With Benthe, apical dominance was already broken with LST, but after accidently topping her last week, she has an almost perfect canopy; all her side stems look strong and all the bud sides are on the same level. The topping didn’t stun her growth and even seems to have been beneficial. Anna is somewhere in between, her mainstem has a nice S-shape and her side stems are developing nicely. The girls also started to drink more. On day 34 the soil was already dry and the pots were light. I watered them again with plain pH’ed water until 20% drain, but after that I gave them all 2 liters of a very light feeding mix: 25% of recommended quantity on bottle and even reduced the N a bit more by giving less Gro. I was worried their needs for Phosphorus is now increasing, because they are flowering and the soil (Canna Terre Professional) was lightly fertilized with a 24-12-24 ratio according to the label on the bag, which is more suited for vegetative growth. They seem to be handling it fine, 24 hours later, no new signs of excesses are showing. I will be feeding 25% of recommended dose once or twice a week, unless deficiencies manifest themselves. The run off water was at pH 5.8, while the water that goes in is at pH 7. Because of their grow, I had to raise the lights every other day, but I also increased power to around 265 watts. I’ll guestimate (using the information of Mars Hydro and some common sense) they are now receiving around 650 PPFD. I will slowly increase to around 900 PPFD mid to late flower. Last, I defoliated quite a bit this week and even lollipopped a bit of flimsy growth at the lower parts. Nothing extreme and spread out over multiple days. I removed some of the big lower fanleaves (but also left a few) and removed a fanleaf here or there at the top. I tried tucking away leaves as much as I could to free up budsides, but if that wasn’t possible, I removed it. Still, the top of the canopy is thick and casting a shadow to the lower sides of the plants. Therefor, I wonder if I should defoliate more and if so, when and what leaves should I remove? Should I remove everything below say 1/3th of the plant? Should I also remove some of the bigger leaves at the top, creating more light penetration and airflow? Any advice would be more than welcome!

A solid week without any problems, just a lot of growth and increasing bud development. Anna’s flowering stretch was amazing, she is now the longest of them all, 72 cm, but she was the smallest. The last few days, the vertical grow rate of Benthe and Ceylin has decreased, however, trichomes are now visible on their flowers. Hopefully, Anna’s flowering stretch is also coming to an end now, so the differences in height won’t become too big. In the beginning of the week I did do some serious defoliation. Reasons for this: - They were very bushy, leaves were laying on top of each other (creating wet spots) and bud sides were completely blocked from air and light; - They were (and are) very healthy; - They had shown good response to smaller defoliation sessions (and even unintentionally topping) and LST; - Other growers also reported good results when defoliating this strain. I removed about 5 to 8% leave mass, mostly in the bottom and in the middle of the plants. It didn’t bother them and they just kept on growing. A lot of bud sides are now getting the light and air they need to develop into solid nugs. I also continued LST every day, except for the last few days. On day 38, I gave them plain pH’ed water until 10-20% drain and after that 2 liters of a light nutrients mix, with N reduced and increased P compared to the mix of week 5. pH of the first run off water was at 6, while 7 is going in. Since they were doing fine after the defoliation, I also increased the light to full power. RH went down to below 50% because of a whether change this week, it would be great if it stays like this for the rest of the growth. The top of the soil is now dry and the pots are light, hence tomorrow it’s time to water and feed again. I’ll probably also defoliate a bit more tomorrow (just removing a few more leaves that are in the way of things) and perform some LST on Anna, but I expect that will be the last bit of applying training techniques. From then, it’s just water & feeding until harvest.

This week, there were a number of problems I had to deal with, but all in all, the girls progressed nicely: buds are swelling up and despite a few dying leaves, everything looks quite healthy. The buds are looking more frosty every day and smell increases. Vertically, they only grew a few centimeters. They fully switched from growth to flower. I started the week on day 43 with some defoliation and a water & feeding session. Since I already removed most leaves that were in the way of things in week 6, I didn’t defoliate too much. Just a leave here and there. I gave them plain pH’ed (to pH 7) water until 20% runoff. The pH of the first runoff was at 6, while 7 was going in. After that, I gave them 2 liters of nutrients mix, which was still very light at 0,1 ml/l Gro, 0,5 ml/l micro and 0,5 ml/l bloom. The next day, day 44, when I opened the tent, it was clear there were problems. All the leaves from the top 1/3th of the plant that were exposed to light, were looking pale, more lime green. Some leaves in the bottom were also showing (interveinal) chlorosis. A few leaves had some small brown speckles on them. Like half the leaves had red stems (although, this was already the case for several weeks, even as a seedling some of the plants had a red stem), but also some complete side stems were turning red. The edges of Benthes leaves, were also turning red (like a very narrow red line on the edge of the leaves). My first reaction was to raise the lights. It seemed the only logical thing to do immediately, since the symptoms were the heaviest at all the exposed parts of the plants. I also noticed the temperature of the soil was only 14 degrees Celsius, while it was 24 degrees in the tent on canopy level, but only 20 on the floor. It had been a very cold night after watering. The floor got really cold that night: the wet fabric pots filled with 25L of soil, just didn’t warm up. Hence, I isolated the floor with some left over isolation material. I took the rest of the day to study the symptoms and do some research. The next day, day 45, the affected leaves at the middle and bottom of the plant, looked worse, but the paling and chlorosis at the top of the canopy didn’t look worse. After some research, it became clear for me the plants were seriously underfed. Because of the N excess in week 3 and 4, I drained them with plain pH’ed water every time before adding limited amounts of nutrients; I was flushing all the buffers away and not adding enough to the mix. The cold soil didn’t help and probably impeded intake of the already barely available nutrients. Because of this, the plants were no longer able to cope with the bright light. There were calmag issues showing, maybe a little shortage of N and probably also a phosphorus issue (because a few leaves at the bottom were turning dark and some fingers of the leaves got brown and died). Basically, there was a shortage of all macro and meso nutrients. I’ve added some pictures of removed leaves that show the progress of the deficiency. Since pH was in check, it just had to be underfeeding, with the cold root zone and the bright light as catalysts. Hence, I gave them all 2 liters mixed with 0,2 ml/l gro, 0,7 ml/l micro and 1 ml/l bloom. I made sure the mix was a little warmer than normal (25 degrees Celsius instead of 20) Since then, the temperature of the rootzone has been at about 18 degrees Celsius, they just needed that temperature boost after a very cold night. The next day, day 46, progress of the problems was definitely slowed, but not completely halted. On day 47 I gave them another 2 liters of the same mix. After that, I was out of town for a few days. When I returned on day 49, things looked ok: the already affected leaves had deteriorate further, but new growth (some sugar leaves) looked good and the problems hadn’t spread to other leaves. The pots were already light and the top soil dry, meaning they drink a lot. About 1,5 to 2 liter every day. Today, day 50, I gave them a full water and feeding. I didn’t water with plain pH’ed water, but instead gave them all about 7 liters of nutrients mix (0,2 ml/l gro, 0,7 ml/l micro and 1 ml/l bloom, which is 50% of recommended quantity, except for gro, which is even less, because I don’t want to add too much N in this phase), which resulted in 1 to 2 liters of drain. pH of the run off was a little on the acid side (5,5), but the nutrients mix I added was close to 7. The next days will be important: are the problems effectively dealt with, or do I have to take more measures? If the symptoms do not spread any further, I can slowly move the lights a little closer. Hopefully, the girls will reward all my efforts and use their last few weeks to swell those buds.

This was another solid week: the buds are developing good. They’re gaining weight and look really frosty. The deficiencies I reported about in the previous update, stopped spreading 24-48 hours after the watering/feeding on day 50. In fact, some of the affected leaves started to get greener again. New growth (mainly sugar leaves) are looking nice and green. This confirms that it was definitely a case of underfeeding. The scent of the girls is amazing right now. Skunky, with lots of citrus tones and a hint of mint. On day 54 I needed to water and feed again, as the pots were feeling light. I used the same mix at the same strength and added about 7 liters of the feeding mix to each plant, resulting in 1-2 liters run off. The pH of the rootzone was exactly 6, while 6.8 is going in: perfect! Besides watering and feeding, I removed a dying leaf here and there at the bottom of the plants. Harvest is getting closer by the day, maybe 2 weeks or so, maybe even less. I expect to harvest around 15 February, based on other grow diaries with the same strain. However, I bought an USB microscope, which allows me to take a close look at the trichomes. Right now, most trichomes are still clear and glassy. Also, most pistils are still white and the few that turned brownish haven’t curled in yet. The harvest window is not open yet. It was really hard to stabilize the USB microscope when holding it in front of a bud side. Therefor, I removed a tiny bit of the sugar leaves of each plant (no more than 1/4th of a rice grain) and got a real close look. I added some pictures to this post. The only thing that worries me now, is humidity. It’s around 55%, but during lights off, it peaks at 65%. Right now, the weather is humid, but it’s expected to become dryer next week. Nevertheless: I am working on a better exhaust system. Right now, the ducting is just positioned at an open window, therefor, cold and moist air is entering the room via the window. I’ll cover the window with a plate and the ducting will go through it. This way, the air from the grow tent, will be exhausted outside, but the humid and cold air from outside will not flow into the room as easily. Off course, you can’t see anything from outside. If I can only reduce RH with 5%, I’ll guess I’m fine, since there is plenty of airflow in the tent (2 fans, two passive intakes at the bottom on both sides and the exhaust in the top of the tent). Another minor issue: Anna’s buds are a bit behind in development (it’s been like that since the start of flowering), about 5 to 7 days or so. Since I have to harvest all the plants at once (the drying has to be done in the same growing tent), it might be a little bit difficult to get the timing right. It’s getting close now: my first harvest as grower. Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

Due to a busy personal schedule, a later update than usual. First: the date is set. Next Sunday I’ll chop them: it will be day 70 of the grow. It is way too early for Anna and for Benthe and Ceylin, a couple of extra days would be beneficial for them too. However, I’m running out of time and I’d like to have enough time left, before I’ll go on my holiday, to properly dry and cure the harvested buds. It’s been said to me that it’s better to harvest slightly early than to rush through drying and curing and that seems to make sense to me. So, I fed the girls twice in the last 1,5 week and today I gave Benthe and Ceylin both 10 liters of plain, pH’ed water, resulting in about 5 liter runoff; this will be my only flushing activity. Since Anna’s buds are still gaining size, I gave her light mix with 0.5 ml/l bloom and 0.1 ml/l micro. Basically, as you might see from the pictures, Anna gets harvested about 2 weeks too early, Benthe and Ceylin are a lot riper, but a few extra days would be beneficial. RH is ideal for flowering the last 10 days or so: somewhere between 40-45%. It’s unfortunate I have to chop early, but I knew this could happen: when I started preparations in November, some suppliers delivered way too late (over 2 weeks waiting), so I started the grow later than planned. The limited time was the reason I chose this strain. The most important goals were to learn in practice and get to harvest with some plants that produced some nice nuggets. Both goals are achieved (unless some disastrous mold takes hold of my crops), hence I’m satisfied. The next grow, I’ll have plenty of time to finish them , I have almost 20 weeks available for that grow. With the experience I’ve gotten from this grow, I’m sure the results will get better. However, the focus is still on the current grow, as another important phase is about to commence. I’ll post another update on Sunday or Monday with some pictures of the harvest. Than, the drying and curing, which will be another, very interesting learning opportunity.

Yesterday, 70 days after the seeds germinated, I harvested the buds. I figured harvest was going to be a lot of fun. Well, the first hour it was, but after a while it became a lonely night of hard work, while finding myself stuck for hours in intoxicating scents. It took me almost 6 hours to trim and hang all the buds in the tent. However, the next day, when I opened the tent, I was proud to see these large buds sparkle in the light of my phone flashlight. The buds of Benthe and Ceylin were quite ready for harvest. Most trichomes were cloudy and even spotted an amber here and there. For Anna, harvest came too early. She also had a lot of popcorn buds in the bottom. I threw the popcorn buds of all plants into the trim pile, which is also drying right now. I have no idea how the quality of the buds will turn out. They don’t look like some of the smooth, stylized buds of experienced growers, but they are frosty, have a strong smell and some of them are really dense. The buds and the trim are both in the grow tent in total darkness. The exhaust is on 50%, no ventilator. Temperature hovers between 17 and 19 degrees C, RH is between 50-55% constantly. I mix the trim every 8 hours, to make sure it dries even. Almost 24 hours later, the buds are still wet to touch. I am relieved they haven't dried superfast and I think it will take at least 4 more days, but 7 days is more likely, before they’re dry to the touch and ready to go in the jars. Today, I had the chance to do some destructive research on the remains of the plants. The 25L pots were completely colonized by hairy roots. Other than that, I couldn’t do much more than wait. I’ll post the final results in the second week of March. At the same time, I’ll start my next grow.

The final results: Ceylin: 85 gram Anna: 80 gram Benthe: 89 gram Total: 254 gram Great yield! I'd never expected to get this much. And the many popcorn buds that went into the trimpile are not even included. After about 5 days of drying, the I jarred the buds. At that time, they felt dry, but not brittle. RH in the pots went up to 59-64%, so I was in the sweet spot immediately. The first week, I burped the jars every day for about 15 minutes. Every other day, I removed the buds from the jars and rearranged the once on the top to the bottom and vice versa. The second week, I was on holiday and expected not to burp for 7 days, however, after 4 days, we had to return, because of a family emergency. The father of my spouse passed away at the beautiful age of 90 years. Since we returned, I burped the pots every other day. The cure is now going on for over 2 weeks and taste and smell are still improving. I'll burp them 2, maybe 3 times next week, and than only burp once a week for the next month. All in all: what a great experience, what a nice hobby. I am extremely happy with the results and round 2 has already commenced: 5 seeds are germinating right now and my new diary will start soon.