Zkittlez Fem

Popping seed using paper towel method, then planted into coco (1 gal. fabric pots) that has been inoculated with Plantonix Mycorrhizal Inoculant and Azos Beneficial Bacteria. Will be transplanting into 7 gal. fabric pots. After planting in coco, the seed was above ground the very next day! Got thru the first week. Sorry for being a couple of days late posting, but been trying to prepare for the Coronavirus as best we can. Feeling pretty good about week 1. Started the week with the single HLG 320w at a height (48in.) that is giving the plant approx 20K lumens. Gradually lowered the light to where the plant was getting aprox. 30K lumens.

Starting out the week with good growth however, the color is looking a little light. The ppm's are fine so, I'm thinking it must be the pH. I'm mixing just one gal. at a time at this stage so, instead of adjusting the pH for the gal. and just leaving it there, I start adjusting the pH everytime I give the plant any nutes. Got just a touch of nute burn on the first set of true leaves, not sure what went on, maybe pH, but on the other hand everything has checked out. Nonetheless, things seem to be fine now. I am starting to crank the light levels up - started out with about 20K lux, up to about 40K lux currently. I'll keep a close eye on this and reduce if necessary. Made it to the end of week two. Had some minor pH issues at the beginning of the week which caused some discoloration of the first set of leaves but, I think we are past that now. I think we are about to open this thing up and see what this girl can do!!

Starting out the week strong, will probably transplant by the end of the week. Also, bumped up the FloraGro in order to boost the nitrogen. Went ahead and transplanted today, day 17. The new home is a 7 gal. fabric pot. The reasoning behind transplanting so soon is that, by the look of the rate of growth, it will be time to top very soon. So, I want the plant to get over the transplant shock before topping. Also, today I included a picture of the entire tent for the first time - note, there is a plant not included in this grow in the pic. The transplant went well, she seems to have gotten over the shock quickly. However, the plant was leaning a bit, I may have not compacted the coco enough. To compensate I added a small bamboo support. Well, finally at the end of week three. Feeling good about this little lady, she almost doubled her height this week. Great structure, looking forward to topping next week.

Fourth week of veg - I've learned much the past couple of weeks; the main one being I need to flush coco thoroughly with nutrient solution immediately after transplanting. I didn't do that and it resulted in a minor deficiency rearing it's head for a few days. I bumped up the Cal Mag about 20% to compensate. Day 25 - I'm really liking this strain (first time growing this one), it's really growing strong with great structure. This lady appears to have gotten over the shock of topping and is starting to show additional branching. Also, during feeding, I'm intentionally drifting the pH between 5.7 and 6.2 for maximum nutrient availability. This girl seems to respond best to around 6.1 pH. Day 26 - Did some very light defoiliation today, mainly to try to open up for the new branches that are developing. Day 28 - Satisfied with this lady after getting thru the first month. She's going strong and showing lots of new branching. I'll probably flip her after week six.

Day 30 - Continuing to do some light defoiliation, but the big news today is the start of LST'ing. I'm always conflicted on how early to start this - I don't want to start too soon for fear of harming the plants, but this one looks like I should have started sooner. Anyway, everything is looking good, even getting some 9 and 11 leaf scattered among the defoiliated leaves. I'm hoping the plant will gain some more height before the flip in a couple of weeks. Day 31 - Did a bit more LST'ing today. Also, did a top dressing/feeding of mycorirza and beneficial bacteria. Getting really good branching. Day 33 - Continuing to do some light defoiliation, also LST'ing whenever I find a branch that needs it. Also, thinking about taking some clones in a few days - as mentioned earlier, I'm really liking the way this lady is developing. Day 35 - Got thru week five; one more week to the flip!! Took a couple of clones to start a new diary! One more thing, I've already noticed a weak smell coming from this lady, I believe this is the first time I've noticed a smell before the flip - hope this is a sign of things to come!!

Starting out the week good. The only problem was just a tiny bit of yellow looking leaves. There were just a few leaves involved so, I increased the FloraGro by .5ml/gal for a couple of feedings. This seemed to solve the issue. Also, continuing to LST. One more thing, in anticipation of flipping next week, I went ahead and connected my DIY automated watering system - hand watering is getting old ;-} Day 39 - Continuing defoiliation, just taking a handful of leaves every day or two so as to not stress the plant so much. Also, working on getting the automatic watering system dialed in so as to provide the proper amount of water. Who knows, I might get to leave the house someday once this pandemic gives us a break. Day 42 - End of six weeks - finally time for the flip!! I've been looking forward to this day for a minute now. I'm feeling good about putting this lady into flower. I would have liked to have seen she gain some more height, but she made up for it in girth. Will be lollipoping and performing more LST in the upcoming days.

F3 - I'm excited about this week, made it to the flip. She has really bushed out this past week and I'm already starting to see early signs of the stretch. I've been testing the runoff from feeding, and I'm consistently getting about 100ppm less than what's going in. So, she's taking up the nutes (and water) like a champ ;-) F4 - Just noticed the very first signs of pistils!!! There are very small, but noticeable if you look close. F6 - It's continuing to be busy taking care of the ladies; I'm doing minor defoiliation and adjusting the LST daily. Every other day I'm mixing up enough nutrients to give each plant well over a gallon - the ladies are definitely thirsty!

D53 F9 - Well, the girls finally got wide enough that they wouldn't fit side-by-side in the tent anymore. So, I rearranged the tent a bit and changed the two HLG 320W lights from being side-by-side, to an "L" shaped design - I included some pics of the tent above. Also, continuing to defoliate lightly and adjust the LST, if not every day, every other day. D56 F12 - She's starting to flower! - it seemed really soon after the flip, but this is a good thing ;-) Now is the fun part! I really enjoy seeing them start to stretch and go thru the changes they do. She's a thirsty girl though, this past week I've been giving her a bit over 2.5 gallons every other day, but I believe I'm going to feed every day starting this upcoming week - the bag is just getting a bit too light watering every other day.

D57 F13 - The week is off to a good start. This lady continues to bush out AND stretch at the same time! I started doing some minimal HST - just to try to keep her going as much "out" as possible, as opposed to "up." D59 F15 - Feeding every other day was just not cutting it anymore, therefore, I started feeding daily this week. There are two other plants in the tent besides this Zkittles, one Sour Diesel and one 707 Headband. So, I'm currently mixing up 12 gal. of nutes in a batch, feeding 6 gal every day - 2 gal/day per plant. Check out the ladies getting fed in the video I included above ;-) Also, I took several pics today; some of those pretty buds getting of to a good start.

D66 F22 - The ladies remain healthy and are stretching like crazy right now. Mixing the nutes and feeding every day is somewhat of a chore, but like they say, you get out of it what you put in ;-) So, I believe the effort will pay off in the end. I have continued to do light defoliation and tightening up the plant ties whenever needed, but I decided during this grow I wouldn't as much as I usually do in order to see what kind of difference it makes. Also, I had debated using Mammoth-P during flowering but I think I'll wait until the next grow, then compare notes. All in all, she continues to remain healthy and the buds are fattening up.

F28 - The plant remains healthy. She seems to have paused as far as stretching, however the buds are fattening up nicely as well as getting a decent bit of frost on them. Speaking of frost, I just couldn't wait to take a pic using a new microscope/camera I bought from Amazon. This pic is just from a leak and not a bud, but just wanted to test the scope out. It seems to take pretty good pictures for the money and, it should come in real handy in a few weeks. F31 - She continues to bulk up bit by bit everyday. Also, the resin is starting to feel like semi-moist sugar. The smell is also starting to pick up. To be honest, since I've never grow or smoked this strain before, I was a little doubtful how any cannabis could smell like Skittles. However, although not smelling like Skittles yet, she is developing a smell that I can only describe as sickly sweet; if that makes any sense. Looking forward to those terpenes developing further.

F40 - It's been a good week. The vertical growth has pretty much come to a halt (however, I've seen a few that took back off even after I thought they were thru) but, the flowers continue to fatten up and get more frosty.The terpene profile is really starting to develop now. To be honest, since I'm not familiar with Zkittles, I was pretty dubious that a plant could ever smell like such a candy, lol. To my surprise, she's starting to change from just that sickly sweet smell I mentioned last week, to something that truly reminds you of candy!! Also, due to the extremely high humidity we've had here the past few weeks, I had to break down and finally get a dehumidifier. I went with the Homelab 30 pint; seems to be doing alright so far. At least I can get the RH down from 65-70% to around 55%. Take care, and happy growing!

F47 - It's been another good week, the plants are staying healthy. The stretch is over and, this week, the buds continue to bulk up and add weight. Also, the flowers are continuing to get more frosty. Although the smell in the tent isn't that strong yet, you can rub the stem/buds just a bit and get that wonderful sweet, sticky, candy smell I've read about. It's early yet, but I went ahead and did a trichome check just for the heck of it. They were pretty much clear, some are getting a bit cloudy with a touch of amber here and there. Starting to hit the home stretch now, I really enjoy watching them finish ;-) Take care, and happy growing!!

Been awhile! I got a bit behind on getting my diary updates, it's been a busy couple of weeks. Thanks to RastaGrow for checking up on me; I appreciate that!👍 The Zkittles is doing well, the sweet, citrus smell is really kicking in now. The colas have been swelling up some more, that's always good to see 😃 I've included a lot of pictures of the trichs, I'm trying to show the progression from clear to cloudy, etc. I personally try to harvest when they get about 25-30% amber. It's still a guessing game that I'm trying to get used to. As you can see, she's getting real close! Happy growing to everyone!

D103 - Another busy week trying to survive the days of the coronavirus pandemic. Got a little behind on updating my diary, but trust me, I always take time to take care of my ladies 😁 Anyway, she is finally nearing the finish. As you can see from these trichome pics, she's got about 20% amber. I usually shoot for around 20-30%, so I suspect I'll be chopping this lady in just a couple of days. Next posting will be a harvest!!!

I have been through a few coco grows up until this one. I have been loosely following cocoforcannabis.com's feeding schedule and regimen up until this coco grow. This time, I thought I would follow Dr. Coco's recommended way of growing as close as I could. This included the pre-grow coco prep (washing, soaking in Cal-Mag) as well as following the feeding chart to the letter. The only thing that I didn't do to the letter was feeding multiple times per day. Instead, I fed every day until there was 30-40% runoff - this is a lot of nutrient mixing. I would recommend this type of growing especially to beginners. Mainly because, if you run into any problems, you can correct them quickly just by flushing the coco with new nutrients. The reason I gave this strain eight stars instead of higher, was due to the lower weight than expected and the mild THC content. Nonetheless, this is a good, solid strain. It's easily grown, not picky about anything that I could tell, and produces very nice looking, good tasting buds.