Pineapple(Skunk, Express)

Just getting going again after some mods to my grow box. I’ve replaced the main CFL bulb with an LED and it is much brighter. I also removed the second carbon filter to create more space in the box. The new setup allows for more even space and light distribution and overall more growing space. With the additional light I thought I would try out CO2 so I added an Exhale365 bag. Starting out with 3 plants, 2 Pineapple Express and 1 Pineapple Skunk. There was some type of burn on the first seedling but that was earlier on and it has grown a lot since I first noticed it. I planted the seeds days apart so a few are behind. Growbox summary: * grow space: 19”H x 17”W x 21”D * 4 small, 1 medium internal fans * 3 gallon hydro reservoir * 6 inch exhaust fan + 4 inch exhaust fan in sequence * 150W Mars Hydro TS-1000 (new) * 3 X 20W LED side lights (+1 new) * Exhale CO2 bag (new) Water temps are ranging from 68 up to 70. It’s a small space, but with light covering all sides I think I can get a decent yield. Last time 3.2 ounces were harvested from it. Hoping to hit 5 ounces this time by creating fewer, but larger colas. Day 6 update: * The pinex-1 is looking a little funky. It has weird leaf growth, some minor defects in color, super short compared to the others, and the first leafs are starting to canoe a little. * pinex-2 and pskunk are looking good and growing well, but the leaves aren’t very green. * decided to bump up nutrients a little by moving to week 2 on the schedule and diluting to 60%. That took the ppm up from 400(200 base) to 630(210 base). Hoping if they weren’t getting enough nutrients that this will fix it. * the new light might be a little to bright for these babies. Dimmed it to about 75% power.

Update 1/19 (day 9): * The plants are maturing a bit more so I increased the light output back up to 100% (up from 75% at the end of last week). I bought a light meter and they are getting about 48.6K LUX at the top of the plants (I checked each plant individually and they are getting the same amount of light). I have mostly been not using the side lighting during veg. * Still riding the last nutrient swap at the end of last week (with week 2 ratios) at 60% dilution and in a few days I will get them closer to 80%. * Root development is looking really good for all of them. The biggest plant is getting its second full set of leaves and the others are about 1 stage behind at the moment. * Humidity has been challenging with winter in full force. I have the humidifier blasting right outside the box but it can barely crack 50% at the moment. Update 1/21 (day 11): * The oldest plant started to branch out before I wanted it to so I trimmed off all the small branches yesterday. It didn't seem affected and has been growing strong since. * Starting to see more vigorous growth. * Exchanged the nutrient water after a quick flush with only PH'd water. Now nutrients are at about 73% strength and 740 PPM with a 230 PPM base, the highest PPM I plan to go during veg. Update 1/23 (day 13): * Discovered that water was increasing in PH to the point I couldn't control it. After some troubleshooting I determined that the CO2 bag was working, and working well. My DWC pump was in the box and pumping CO2 into the water which increased the acidity every day. I have moved the pump to the outside of the box so it is pumping fresh air into the water now. * Had to replace the water because of the CO2 incident, the water became very cloudy and didn't look right. At about the same strength level as before for nutrients, sitting currently at about 75% strength. * The Pineapple Skunk is directly next to the CO2 bag and it seems to be working because it is really starting to grow vigorous and is a darker green than the other two. Noticeable differences that correlated with when the water was becoming acidic. I need to buy a CO2 monitor but haven't felt like dropping $100 for it.

Update 1/25 (day 15): * Dimmed the light again after noticing the plants weren't happy and everything else seemed to be in check. Now they are getting 34K LUX (down from about 42K LUX) at the tops of the plants. I will probably need to keep this in check as they grow but its not too much hassle with the dim-able LED and LUX meter. I dimmed it the night before and they looked substantially happier the next morning 3 hours into the light cycle. * I re-positioned each plant to evenly space out their branching after I top them. So far, only the oldest, Pineapple Express #1 is ready to be topped. I left 4 branches after topping but will likely trim off one more to give it 3 main colas. I am still planning to allow 2 colas on each of the other two plants. * I am going to wait a few more days and then top the other two plants. Then, after a few days rest I might start the 12-12 cycle. This box is quite small so I have to be prompt about switching to flower. Update 1/26 (day 16): * Topped remaining plants after lower branching became more visible. * Leaving the larger fan leaves in an attempt to create less shock from topping. Update 1/28 (day 18): * Removed all of the larger fan leaves. Focusing on post-topping growth. The plants kept trying to branch out and I didn't want to miss a branch because of the fan leaves blocking the view. * Switched the light schedule to 12/12 Update 1/29 (day 19): * Starting training the biggest plant. Update 1/30 (day 20): * Started training on remaining plants. Try to create even spacing for the 7 colas (3, 2, 2). At the end of the week I found some spores growing in the hydro reservoir, and it freaked me out. I sprayed it with hydrogen peroxide and removed what I could. A few days later and there is no sign of anything weird growing down there. I have a theory about why this happened and will just say be cognizant about where you put your DWC pump! I broke down and bought a CO2 gauge. 2 things I learned. * 1: I don't think the Exhale 365 bag is doing what I thought it would, doesn't seem to emit any CO2. * 2: By just having humans and pets in the same room as the box, CO2 reaches the target 1,000-1,200 PPM. On days I am gone, the CO2 is about 400-500. I thought about further experiments, such as removing the bag and testing the CO2 on a day I'm at work and may try that to further verify.

Update 2/4 (day 25): * Turned the lights back up to 100%. The top of the canopy is getting 50K Lux and they seem to be enjoying it. * Very small signs of flowering in the two smaller plants. Nothing yet from Pineapple Express #1, which was surprising since it's older. * Trimming bigger fan leaves to leave a clear top and bottom to the canopy. * Trying to train the colas to an even distribution and without getting too close to the sides. I am going all in on fewer-but-larger colas to try to boost the harvest. I hope I don't learn a hard lesson by not letting side branching to occur but want to give it a shot.

Well this was a tough week, but not because of the grow. We moved to a new apartment so I had to transfer the box in a rented flat-bed truck in single digit outside temperatures! It was a lot of work but it all worked out and they didn't seem to stress at all. They had about 36 hours without lights! They all finally started flowering around mid-week. Since then I bumped the light schedule down to 11 hours of light in an effort to escalate the flowering process. That seems to be working but could just be a coincidence. We have a week long vacation planned in about 11 weeks so I need the whole process to be complete by then and have them already curing so I don't need to be there. I put the scrog net on at the end of the week and spent a little more time removing extra branches, trimming crowded fan leaves, and LST'ing to continue to reduce the height. One branch broke a little at the base but it hasn't been an issue since it's still strongly attached. I also lowered the main light a few inches to give them some extra light. They seem to really be enjoying it. Holding off on the side lighting until the stalks start to raise above the scrog net. This will be my first grow with the current main light so I'm still figuring things out. The nutrients seem to be spot on, although I think Pineapple Express #2 prefers more nitrogen. I met it in the middle and just added slightly more nitrogen to the mix. When compared to my last grow, the color looks much better now and there are no signs of nitrogen toxicity. I think the grow is going really well now. I was a little concerned the last few weeks that they weren't going to start flowing on time. So far I haven't been able to get plants to flower until at least 5 weeks in to the grow.

At about mid-week the canopy was becoming very full so I defoliated to let light hit all of the bud sites. I found an article that mentioned "Schwazzing" and it seems close to how the approach this grow has gone. They got heavy defoliation just before flower and then also a few weeks in. The broken stem has healed dramatically even though I didn't reconnect it but let it stay split. I put rooting gel in the wound and then duck taped it. Now it looks like its going to seal itself back up within a few more weeks. The light is intense, 70-75K LUX on the top of the canopy. I have a little room left to raise the top light before I have to start dimming it. Hopefully I can manage to keep them at max 75K LUX without dimming, or may try supercropping depending on how the stretching goes. This week all the side lights are on along with the main light. They all seem to be loving the light and the heat has been manageable. They are drinking about a half gallon of water a day and TDS started at 1100 and ended at 800 by the end of the week. * Pineapple Express 1 is the furthest along and I can already tell the smell is going to be amazing, very fruity. * Pineapple Express 2 is very lush but flowering a notch slower. * Pineapple Skunk has a concentrated number of buds sites compared to the others, I'm very excited for this one. Day Temp: 75 degrees F Night Temp: 65 degrees F

Went ahead and supercropped as they were getting a little tall. It seemed to have gone mostly well as they have recovered quickly and there are many more bud sites than before. It’s still early in flower but the Pineapple Express 1 is already full of crystals. The rest are behind but looking good. They all seem to love their nutrients. This week I will try topping off with a nutrient mix just to keep the TDS from dropping like it did last week. The LUX is around 70K on the top of the canopy! The growth seems to have slowed. There are many bud-sites but I wonder how much this will yield if there isn’t much more vertical growth. Overall feels to be going in the right direction. Learning how to maximize in this space can be challenging!

At cruising altitude now. Moved the nutrients to full bloom mix and just keeping the PH even. Defoliated only a bit to keep as many buds exposed to direct light as I can. Around mid-week everyone’s crystals showed up to finally catch up to Pinex1. Pinex 1 is much further in bud development and I can tell she is going to be a fat one. Pinex 2 is a vigorous grower. I happened to take 2 clones from her and both are rooted and happy. She had the fattest stems and I can never seem to give her enough nutrients. Her leaves are a lighter green and clearly want the light. I’m interested to see if I want to make another grow from the clones or not. Pineapple Skunk is a very attractive plant. The leaves are dark green and the buds are bright white. Now that the crystals are coming in there is even more white and they just look awesome. The buds are starting to fill in more. I hope they get really fat by the end of flower but hard to imagine anything catching up to Pinex1.

* Early in the week I spent some time removing smaller fan leaves in the middle of the canopy. My goal has been to allow as much direct light to the bud sites as possible. * I've been working from home a lot more so I have been able to keep the PH on point fairly consistently. * The buds are really starting to fatten up and I've been noticing more hairs turning orange. Probably still at less than 5% overall orange so a long ways to go still. Pineapple Express #1 continues to impress. The buds are getting FAT!!! I can't wait to hold them in my arms. The lower sugar leaves have so much sugar on them that I literally panicked thinking I had a mold problem. On closer inspection is just solid crystals. I added a photo (maybe I'm exaggerating just a tad but see for yourself). Pineapple Express #2 is starting to pick up steam but it is the furthest behind. And I am thinking that might be for a reason if it keeps growing like is has been. I was taking a few leaves off and got to smell the trichomes, and I am telling you this smells like the best fruity pebbles you've ever had. I took 2 clones from her and both are looking great, so this won't be the last of her. Pineapple Skunk is middle of the road. It is further ahead than the others as the orange hairs are probably right at 5-10%. The buds are starting to get fatter and they are full of trichomes. I haven't been able to isolate a smell from her yet but there is a lot of competition in that tiny box. I think this one will yield a little less than the others but there are still many weeks to go so we'll see. Thanks for stopping by!

Just cruising along still. I’ve moved a few branches here or there for even lighting but that’s about it. Trichomes are starting to become more prominent, especially in Pineapple Skunk, check out the photos!! Buds continue to bulk up here or there. I only see amber trichomes on sugar leaves and haven’t seen any on the buds yet. Most are still clear. Less than half of the hairs are orange so I think my schedule is still on track. I have 2 more weeks before the flush starts. I might start it early if I notice any one of them starting to mature. Since there are 3 plants and I want a single harvest day, I will try and time it so they are spread across the spectrum of early to mid harvest timing. Thanks for stopping by!

These girls are getting super frosty, especially the Pineapple Skunk. In the middle of the week I learned a lesson. I chopped off a few larger leaves from Pineapple Express 1 and that stressed it out sending out just one (hopefully) banana. I pulled the banana and since I didn't see any other bananas or signs of stress I decided to carry on and not harvest early. The smell started to become stronger this week, I can get a big whiff of it when I open the door early in the morning before the fans take all the smell out. In the middle of the week I moved from "Late Bloom" nutrient mix into "Ripen". I want this to be on the early side of the harvest so it is more awake. At the end of this week I saw little to no amber trichomes. Nothing exciting except the awesome photos! They have all become very fat and crystallized. I have no idea what to except for harvest weight. Maybe the same as my last grow which had taller but thinner stalks in the same grow space. Stay-tuned for the final week and the harvest updates! I have already started my next grow and I'll be raising 2-3 Blue Dream plants. Hoping to get that monster harvest I've been shooting for! That might not be this time but maybe next.

This was the final week of flower! I harvested at the end of the week and they are currently drying as I type this. Since I have multiple strains I am going to use this update to cover the chopping, and use the strain specific harvest updates once they have dried and are ready for curing. General updates: * At the beginning of the week Pineapple Express 1 was starting to look more mature. There was new growth but most of the hairs were orange and there were some amber trichomes on the buds. * I think Pineapple Skunk was the furthest behind. There was no yellowing of the lower leaves, but the yellowing of some sugar leaves might tell me that nitrogen was cut too early. * Throughout the week Pineapple Express 2 started turning purple!! At the end of the week most of the leaves were purple and the buds were almost all purple. * 4 days into the week I decided it was time to start the flush. I glanced at as many trichomes as I could and saw mostly cloudy, a few clear, and a few amber. We like early harvests around here so this felt right. * By Friday the lower leaves on Pineapple Express 1 were looking yellow and I harvested after the light cycle. * I left the other two over night and harvested them before the light cycle the next morning. Collective Harvest Information: **Pineapple Express 1:** * Wet weight: 10.1 ounces * Winner of fattest nug contest with the largest nug at 2.0 ounces wet. Huge! See pics of me holding it in my hand * The smell...is....amazing **Pineapple Express 2:** * Wet weight: 15.2 ounces * Winner of the total weight contest. And winner of the most beautiful plant. The purple buds and leaves mixed with green and orange hairs was something else. * The smell....is also amazing **Pineapple Skunk:** * Wet weight: 10.6 ounces * Winner of the best trichomes, I can't touch a nug without having to wash my hands. * Winner of the best smell. Can you believe it? If only I could share that part with you all. * P-Skunk also started to get purple buds! Such a beautiful plant. Check out the solo photo above! **Totals:** * Wet weight: 35.9 ounces * Estimated dry weight: 8-11.5 ounces (based on 65%-75% water weight and -1 ounce for good measure) * My last grow was 3.2 ounces dry, so this is a major step up. It was a great grow and I'm excited to update you all on the individual strains after they dry and cure! Thanks for watching my grow! Tune in next for Garden of Green's Blue Dream. I'll be doing 3 plants in the same exact setup and some minor modifications to the process to try and squeeze out even more weight.

This was a great grow and only my second one so far. I am starting to figure out more about my setup and just keep learning things. My final harvest weights were more than I expected and I couldn't be happier!

This was a fantastic plant to grow, and although it doesn't have the strongest resistance to mold, I think that if I were to grow it again I could avoid the issue. I am starting to figure out how to maximize my grow space! Come check out my next grow when you get a chance!