Royal Highness #001 and #002

Start of a new year and new plants to grow, excited! Setup: Mars Hydro TS-1000 Garden High Pro 15cm/6inch 5W Ventilator Secret Jardin Hydro Shoot 60 (60cm x 60cm x 160cm - 24inch x 24 inch x 63 inch) Both seeds have the same setup, and start of germination.

Begin of the new week, will update with more later on. Im slightly disappointed with the progress of the plants. I will test one of my theories, by providing one of the plants an additional small 12watt LED growing light. To see if it can give a growth boost. I dont believe that the factory recommendation is correct and the Mars Hydro light actually should hang a bit lower.

The supplemental 12w grow light did not yet really have an impact on #001 which is falling behind to #002. Will keep it there for some time, to hopefully boost it to the same condition as the sister plant.

End of week 4, both made some nice progress especially #002. #001 is 5cm/2inch high; #002 is 7cm/2.75inch high The continuous additional 12watt grow light did not boost the growth of #001, I will try by daily breathing (CO2, Carbon dioxide) on it to see if this can get it on par with its sister. If I dont like the result, I will sacrifice #001 for my first experimental FIMing. With this batch, I really like how the plants are not overstretching to reach for light at all.

Great progress of #002. It got a growth sprint, grows lots of additional leaves. The stem is nicely getting strong and sturdy. Progress of #001 is stunting. The stem is luckily also nice strong and sturdy. As both have the same genetics and are grown under the same conditions + have the same inception date. My theory on the stunt of #001 now is no longer with amount of light or CO2. Potentially, I think it could be due to the wind fan, which has an air flow just some cm/inch above it (fan blows from high above on the right, towards the bottom left). Seeing this progress, compared to my first batch without proper gear, makes me extremely happy.

I'm under the impression that #001 had a slower growth due to the wind pushing/slowing down growth. Despite of that I'm more happy that the stem and roots are more sturdy compared to my previous growth without wind. As with #002, I almost ruined her. As I sprayed with a little bottle the top of the soil with 50ml/0.013gl water, and the next day I saw her become droopy, I thought that I overwatered her. And therefore left her to dry out her soil for two days. Only to figure out, that actually the water was not reaching the roots in the soil properly. On the day before the last day of the week, I gave both of the plants a mixture with Nutrients (as #002 lacks Nitrogen) of 100ml/0.026gl water. On the final day of the week #002 started to brighten up again. Normally I planned to start blooming phase in the next week, but due to the plant stress I will postpone it at least another week. Untill they both are back in full colour and standing sturdy. I was still unsure if I was under or over watering, when queueing a question for help a lot of other growers were confused. Got some really good help from XeenRecoil (wave and kudos), he gave me some very clear good tips/tricks on observing and managing a proper customized watering schedule. The plants were underwatered, planning to perform a threeday cycle watering schedule with 600ml/0.16gl water and adjust when needed. I will also daily weight it by hand and a scale. In the end I also voted for the most neutral/objective answer which could potentially help other growers, if they ever end up on this page.

#002 seems to be recovering properly. Keeping up this pace of recovery I will initiate blooming light schedule next week. She grew a fair amount again, both are also starting to grow an additional branch. Color is not entirely back, it seems to look like a potential Magnesium deficit (noticable up close at some of the bottom leaves). #001 is still in a good state, the stem is properly thick and only a bit skewed, she luckily did not encounter too many issues like #002 did.

Confusing deficiency analysis... There are two great books out there about growing weed: "Marijuana Horticulture - The Indoor-Outdoor Medical Growers Bible" ~ Jorge Cervantes "Marijuana Grower's Handbook" ~ Ed Rosenthal Jorge Cervantes also has a more recent updated deficiency chart online on his website. I'm guessing on a deficiency from either Potassium (K), which does not seem to make sense as Flowering did not yet started (I plan to start this starting next week). But does make sense as there is undercurl happening (the oldest and the newest leaves are affected). Or Magnesium (Mn) similar leaf/colouring symptoms as seen with Potassium (K). My best gamble now would be Potassium (K) as it is the main influencer for water uptake and the drought of two weeks ago was the start of all the mayhem. Despite all of this, I will start Blooming phase, lesson learned: for my next growth I will use smart pots for ease of watering/weighting/air-ventilation. I put my money on the plagron nutrients schema for now: Terra bloom (2-2-4) Green sensation (0-9-10) I've also got rid of some of the used up fan leaves at the bottom (not a bad thing perse, as they were in the way anyways for watering).

It has been a crazy great week. As I am watering both plants properly now, they are growing extremely hard. I've also changed from watering every 3 day intervals to watering every 2 days. Both plants are opposites of eachother. What #001 lacks in height, it compensates by growing in width with lots of branches (around 7 last time I counted). While at the same time #002 grows rapidly in height (one day it even grew 10cm/4inch). Plant status of #001 is ok and perfectly stable, I removed like 1-2 used up baby seedling leaves from the bottom. As #001 is dwarfing on me I put two thin sticks to keep the bottom fan leaves and branches up, this allows me to water the plant evenly and easier without disturbing the plant too much everytime. Plant status of #002 is ok and perfectly stable, same story here where I removed like 1-2 used up leaves. Due to the height of #002, I raised the lamp a little bit. Therefore I now also put #001 on a pedestal (picture for next week) to raise it closer to the light, to keep it within the optimal range. I hope to see very soon some more signs (pistils) of one of the plants that it starts to flower. (otherwise it might indicate that my tent and room are not blocking light sufficiently)

Growth is going exactly how I want it to go. Flowering has kicked in for both plants. Both encounter a nice flower starting growth. #001 is 25cm/09.84" in height, with a distance to lamp of 37cm/14.57". #002 is 52cm/20.47" in height. with a distance to lamp of 20cm/07.87". I put #001 on a higher plateau, raised with 10cm/3.94", to bridge the gap of distance to lamp. The factory recommended range should be between 35-45cm/13.78-17.72" for flowering. So #002 is getting too close, but I will raise the lamp again and put #001 on an even higher plateau. And additionally another luxury problem: I will have to raise the wind fan as well now :D #001 looks like a perfect naturally born LST strain for a ScrOG. As I am not applying those techniques yet for these growths, this is a gigantic bonus for me. I must admit that due to #001 "dwarfing" on me, it does make it a tad more difficult to water it evently with a 60ml/2oz syringe. The stem is also extremely sturdy here. For #002 the distance between nodes are OK in my opinion, the stem is resiliently strong, some minor signs of defficiency for the lower leaves which is OK in my opinion as I would trim them away anyways. The feeding is keeping up with the plant. Currently I am only defoliating used up leaves at the bottom, and some small leaves with defects which also have no chance to receive proper lighting. There is no reason for panic, as I still have the big bottom fan leaves to help me indicate on any potential issues. This strain is normally expected to grow between 80-110cm/31.5-43.3". I don't think I will reach that, as I made some mistakes this growth during vegetation, but then again with the progress of #002 it could just potentially hit the 80cm/31.5" mark.

(Both Royal Highness strains: #001 on the left dwarfed but ScrOG'ed naturally and beautifully, #002 on the right and the tall one) So I changed my setup slightly. Every two days when watering the plants, I increased the height of the lamp a little. Due to this #001 would have been out of optimal reach 30-45cm/11.81-17.72inch of the lamp. Currently I solved this by adding a bucket below the pot of #001. So it closed the gap a little. I'm in doubt if I should raise it further, to stimulate little bit more growth for #001 and allow #002 to have a better distance. Or to keep it as is, to keep #001 dwarfed so it can focus its energy on the buds and to allow the lower leaves of #002 to receive stronger light. For now I will keep it as is I think, untill I notice that the top leaves #002 are praising the sun again. Plant #001 is 27cm/10.63inch tall with a lamp to plant top distance of 30cm/11.81inch. Plant #002 is 62cm/24.41inch tall with a lamp to plant top distance of 22cm/08.66inch. Health condition of both are great. Leaves are nice green, due to the height of #002 it requires more energy and it started to consume the lowest fan leaves. I will have to perform a bit more research, to know if it is still natural or if I should start to think about finding some solutions for adding more Nitrogen.

(Both Royal Highness strains: #001 on the left dwarfed but ScrOG'ed naturally and beautifully, #002 on the right and the tall one) Plant #001 is 28cm/11.02inch tall with a lamp to plant top distance of 35cm/13.78inch. Plant #002 is 64cm/25.20inch tall with a lamp to plant top distance of 27cm/10.63inch. Health condition of both are great. Leaves are nice green. Bottom leaves are becoming consumed one by one. Overall no issue on that end, as we are nearing almost completion of this growth. The buds are far from ripe in my opinion, only the biggest buds have started to have their very first brownish pistils. My guesstimate is that it will be ready for harvest in 2weeks. I'll give it a closer inspection with a magnifier, anyhow they still look pretty clear to me.

(Both Royal Highness strains: #001 on the left dwarfed but ScrOG'ed naturally and beautifully, #002 on the right and the tall one) That was it folks... Around 50% give or take of the pistels are amber, all trichomes were nice cloudy/opaque. Depending on the angle and the environment light, the plant gives a fantastic sparkling magical view. I harvested the plant (pictures will be for next week, together with the proper weight after drying for 1 week). The usual thing happened, some of the lowest solar fan leaves were consumed for the buds. So far the results are in, after clipping everything properly to minimal sizes (freshly harvested): Plant #001 gave 36.5grams / 1.29ounces Plant #002 gave 51.7grams / 1.82ounces No picture of the roots this time. #001 had underdeveloped roots, it also grew in a strange curve. Maybe that was the reason after all on why it dwarfed. It did manage to grow its roots all the way to the bottom. #002 had strong developed roots, I could lift the plant with all the soil holding together, if I would have kept the plant for a couple more months longer then it would have become root bound constricted. I'm very happy with the result so far and look forward to using my new RQS smartpots starting in my next growth. Enough work for this week! Time to chill...

Thanks to this harvest, I technically have a complete return on investment for resources and material used. Got a little shocker that the harvest after drying and curing dropped by ~77% in weight, however I was warned and expecting a drop. This harvest dried better and faster, compared to the previous harvest in my growdiaries. Initially I had two jars for each plant. Initially the smell of the jar of the smallest plant was not that pleasant, luckily after curing it became pleasant like the jar of the largest plant. The buds are sticky on the fingers and preserved very nice (when handled appropriately). The taste while vaping is in my personal opinion one of the (maybe the) best I've ever had untill now. It tastes/smells very natural like a Christmass tree (for me it also tasted fresh/refreshing like mint without being pungent mint at all). I was very curious on what the effects would be as this is Sativa dominant strain with CBD content. The CBD:THC ratio is around 1 to 1.2 or around 12% to 14%. The CBD is in there as I could feel the usual total relaxation effect on my body joints and muscles. I normally inhale around 5 times in a first round, and depending on the strain go for a second round some 15-30mins later. As the THC is within a normal to lower range, the effects kicked in slow and gradually allowing me to go for a second round and enjoy it more and longer. Before going into the deeper highness. I can totally recommend others to try out these type of strains. If you are more into Indica's I recommend you to look at RQS Royal Kush which also contain a good balance of THC with CBD allowing a good mental and bodily high. I'm very happy and slowly becoming a fanboy of all of Royal Queen Seeds products. Looking forward to start growing a different strain of RQS in one of my next growths.