Tidy Scrog

From March 12: Besides watering and feeding, I left the last grow to itself. I wanted to see what would happen. It was a mess. Planning on training this time to keep things tidier. I’m going to scrog. Had trouble popping seeds using a paper towel again. Wasted about six seeds with only two taking. I went back to putting the last two seeds I have straight in the soil. They all popped first time. I’ll stick to that method from now on. Three white widow autos and one gorilla glue auto are in the tent. Unfortunately two of the white widows are two weeks behind the first two.

From 19th March: Just simple LST to begin with. I have bent the main stalks over and nothing more. The big difference this time that I am setting up a scrog net. I’m also starting the flowering nutes much earlier. Still using Biobizz range. I left to topmax till after 7 weeks last time but I found another schedule which has them starting at 3 weeks. I could do with less green growth and more flowering this time. I’ll try the new chart.

From 26 March: Flowering started for the two older plants. But the two younger plants (~2 weeks) joined in and showed flower at the same time. I wonder if they get a signal from the other two? I’ve bent them over as per the older ones. Just got to wait for them to grow more into the net, so I can really start to spread them out.

From 2nd April: I have been spreading and threading the plants through the net. Tying them down where they are stretching too quickly. Also lollipopping and trimming a few times. I’ll keep trimming lightly as the buds come on to give them space.

From 9th April: The lollipopping is complete. The scrogging is in place. I think I have threaded and tied as many stems as I can. Things are looking good. I’m ready for the stretch next.

For 16th April: The stretch has happened across all the plants harder to tell on the older ones as they have been tied down more. The two young ones at the front have added 5 inches in a week. Lots of tiny popcorn buds everywhere. The bud sites are really setting in and I have done one big defoliation to expose them as much as I can. Ph is perfect in three of the pots. 6-6.5. But one of the youngest one is 5.5. Too low for soil. I will give the ph down a rest. Plant looks pretty good. No rust spots. If anything it looks too well feed with dark fat leaves slightly yellowing at the very tips.

For 23rd April: Slowed down on the trimming. Return of the rust spots this week. Seems to be an issue with the White Widow, not the Gorilla. The most mature widow has begun to show signs of it. The other two widows are 1-2 weeks behind. I gave them all a good dose of calmag. Will continue with this to see if it helps stop the other two getting it. True to their names, gorilla glue has dark sticky but loose buds. The white widow has lots of smaller popcorns atm. But they are covered in white pistols. Good to see two different phenoms side by side. I’v replaced one of the small goose neck LED bulbs in the tent with a 26w CF UV bulb (365nm). I want to try to boost THC production as much as possible. Other than that, not too much going on. Feeding as much as i dare. I am pushing it to 1000ppm. Totally run out of my last grow early. Lockdown has changed things. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting.

For 30th April: The aroma in the tent is ramping up. It is pure correlation, but it seemed to have increased as soon as the UV light was installed. The white widows all have a delicate perfumed lemon mango smell. The gorilla glue is spice and pine. Ph is good at 6-7 in all four pots. Still fighting the deficiencies in one of the widows. The brown spots didn’t seem to slow down my last widow grow. But it also has very pointy leaves, where the other two younger widows have fat dark leaves. She’s bigger, older and hungrier than the other two. She might just need more feed. I need to keep the calmag going. I have been sporadic with it but I’ll make it a regular feed addition from now on.

I haven’t kept track of the exact number of days since sprouting. But the two oldest plants are in their tenth week. In calendar this would probably be the last week of feeding before flushing. I’ll try to keep going with these ones until the younger two are more ready too, currently only in their eighth week. The last grow had a younger plant which I cut a little early. It was a nice, bright clear headed smoke. But i think we prefer the more mature end. The white widow buds are dense in white pistols. They are smaller, but there are a lot of them. They feel more dense than any I have grown so far. Interested to see if that density is still in the dry bud. I’m sick of fluffy buds. The gorilla glue buds are dark and bulbous, but way looser. They are thick with sticky trichomes. The trichomes in the older plants are about 3/4 clear 1/4 cloudy with no amber yet. The younger ones are still all clear.

I started the week by flushing the plants. It was time. The oldest two plants have two weeks max. The run off started at 1900ppm and went down to 400ppm. By that time I had pumped about 60 litres through the four of them. The tap water is already 300ppm, so this is a good level I think. The leaves are responding. I can see the nutrients being drawn out of them. They are withdrawing. I am also looking at trichomes daily now. The mature plants are 1/3 clear, 2/3 cloudy, with a few amber. The younger plants are 2/3 clear, 1/3 cloudy, with no amber. I couldn’t wait any longer. I cropped and chopped 3 buds from under the canopy and dried them slowly on a metal plate over boiling water. It took 1/2 hour, but it produced a nicely dried pile of smelly weed. If I lost any potency in the process we didn’t notice. We got really really stoned. If this sample is any indication, I think it will easily be my best grow yet in terms of potency. Now I’m curious about the weight.

I chopped the plants down at 12 weeks. I wet trimmed for the most part. I didn’t manage to give the last plant much of a trim. But it was the bushiest plant. I also made sure to catch a good pile of sugar leaves. I’m going to have to make some kief. The scrog net is also a great hanging rack. I hung the three smaller plants from it an the big one on string. I’m going to buy more of these scrog nets for my next grow. I can see them working up the sides of the tent maybe even.

I got 4 ounces off the biggest widow. 2 ounces each off the other two widows and 2 again off the gorilla. The sugar leaves came in at an ounce. That is 11 up from 8.4. The dry gorilla buds are still a bit fluffy like last time. The widows liked the scrogging much more and stretched over the gorilla. The widow buds are mostly small and firm and still smell lightly of mango. It’s all jarred and curing.

I got 4 ounces off the biggest widow. 2 ounces each off the other two widows and 2 again off the gorilla. The sugar leaves came in at an ounce. That is 11 up from 8.4. The dry gorilla buds are still a bit fluffy like last time. The widows liked the scrogging much more and stretched over the gorilla. The widow buds are mostly small and firm and still smell lightly of mango. It’s all jarred and curing. Scrogging definitely made a big improvement given my small setup. Next time i might try two big containers, or one giant one maybe. I probably pushed the nutes a bit too far. The flush run off was almost 2000ppm. But the ratio of good nugs to larf was much higher this time. The thing I need to really step up next time is lights. My 300w blurple mars hydro has been a good start. But the unbranded “600w” white led is not very bright at all. The uvb lamp probably added to the potency. But i think I’ll set up a new flowering tent with a much better 600w high end led lamp. I’m sure i could draw air through both with the same extractor fan. Gotta pack it all away for a while now. I probably won’t be able to start again till September. Hopefully that s Christmas. I’m going to miss it.