Grape Ape: DWC Small Batch

Overall, the Grape Ape was really easy to grow. She had an interesting start and I almost evicted her from the tent early on when she stopped growing at the top. Following the advice of @GreenMachine I pulled her over and let the tiny side branches that were forming lower down take over. Things took off from that point on - it was like she topped herself and started growing with two main stems. I topped each of those once in week 4. I maintained a relatively light feeding schedule throughout and she was just fine with it. No signs of deficiencies or any kind of lockout throughout the grow. Her roots ended up looking whiter and healthier than anything I've seen on any of my previous grows - I think this could be attributed to the addition of the Diamond Nectar. It seemed to work really well. I was really surprised how much she stretched and wish her nodes were spaced more tightly togetherI I was disappointed the buds were so light, and was frankly hoping for a bit more weight out of this harvest. I ended up with nearly 3 ozs. (my average haul) of dried and trimmed bud, and some nice trim for the butter machine. On the plus side, the buds are quite coated in crystals and the smoke is top-notch. I've seen other example of this strain grown where the buds looked much tighter so not sure what I can do to improve on that. I'm also wondering if my heavy defoliation may also have something to do with my flowering periods running much longer than expected. I'll definitely drop another bean in the future and grow her again. I'd love to try to see if there is something I can do to improve on the bud structure and the yield of this monkey. I've been challenged by @NuggetPawn to put my scissors away and try my next grow without defoliating. I'm going to take up the challenge and see if that doesn't help improve things. I can't argue with NP's results - his grows are spectacular. Until next time. The next batch is germinating and will be starting up soon. Thanks for riding along. ✌️