Blue Cookies Mainline in Coco

Quarantine got to me and so I decided to start another run. I will be growing Blue Cookies from Crop King Seeds, and decided to try Coco Coir/Perlite 80/20 as my medium. Germinated using the paper towel method. Giving the rapid rooters a try this time around.

Transplanted the rapid rooters into solo cups with holes cut for runoff. So far so good. Started the week with an EC of 400 and slowly increased by 50 mS/cm with each subsequent feeding.

Transplanted from the solo cups to the 1 gallon pots. They all seem to be growing well and look happy. Feeding twice/day until runoff at EC of 1100. Lowered the light to 32 inches.

Setup the 4x4 tent with the new Gavita 1700e LED, self draining saucers, and the auto pumping drain to waste bucket. Topped all 5 plants for the first time.

Transplanted to final 5 gallon fabric pots and a few days later started building the manifolds. The plants started showing signs of overwatering so I've cut down on the frequency in these larger containers. Only watering every 2-3 days now until they develop a larger root mass and are drinking more.

Even at 50 inches away, the plants were showing signs of stress under the Gavita so I put the ViparSpectra back in at 32" and have kept it on 24 hours/day. The temperature in the tent has come down from 28-29 deg C at the canopy to 24 deg C and the growth rate appears to have accelerated.

5.17 Watered after 5 days. Definitely let them dry too long, but wanted to experiment after over watering. Gave 5 liters to each plant with an EC of ~700 and the runoff EC was 2000! Obviously 5 days was too long. I gave another 2 liters at ~600 and it brought the EC down to 1100. Gave 1 more liter with an EC of 1100 and Recharge. Plan is to water again on the 20th and see how much the EC rises after only 3 days. Open to suggestions. 5.18 Final topping and tied down the 2 strongest phenos. Next step is to tie the 8 mains to a support ring. Curious to see how they all respond to the various amounts of stress and how long it will be until they're ready to flip. Took pictures of leaves showing stress of some kind. Will post a question to ask for help diagnosing.

The plants continue to grow although slowly. I turned the Gavita back on this week and even at 42 inches it seems to be too much light at full power because although they're getting adequate nutrients, the leaves appear to be showing signs of damage to the chlorophyll pigments. I'd like to splurge and get the adapter and controller so that I can dim the light and slowly increase the intensity to allow for a more gradual photo acclimation period, but I will probably hold off until my next run. I've also considered adding supplemental Co2 to help the plants more effectively tolerate and take advantage of the light intensity, but it seems like a big expense for an uncertain benefit considering all of the other variables that are sub-optimal. Perhaps I'll give those Excellofizz Co2 pucks a try. Someday I'll build sealed grow room with automated Hvac, feeding, and Co2 enrichment but for now I'll soldier on and hope for the best as the flip to 12-12 approaches. More to come next week!

6.02 Growth has picked up since raising the PH of my nutrient solution to 6.25-6.5. I also began foliar feeding at lights off with 5 ml/g of Cal-Mag Plus. I added .25 tsp/gallon of recharge when feeding today. It raised the PH of the solution to 7.0 and will monitor over the next 48 hours for results. 6.04 When I tied down the big plant I split the stems where they were topped the 2nd time. Taped them up and cinced with plant ties. 6.06 End of week 9. Installed my automatic watering manifold with hydro halos. I've been feeding 3 times/day for the past week, and I won't have time to hand water 5 or 6 times a day during flower. Will probably need 1 more full week of veg before I flip to 12-12.

The tallest colas on the larger plants are 16 inches tall. The shortest are only 10 inches tall. The plants are growing vigorously but not very fast vertically so I gave them a haircut and their first 12 hours of darkness to end week 10. Will be watching for pistils next week.

They stretched a bit this week and have started popping a few pistils under the 12/12 lighting, but I'm not sure whether they've officially transitioned into the flowering phase yet. I'm feeding at an EC of 1.2 and PH of 6.0-6.1. I've set the automatic watering system to 5 feedings per day: At lights on (7:00 AM) 3.5 hours later (10:30 AM) 3.5 hours later (2:00 PM) 3.5 hours later (5:30 PM) 5.5 hours later (11:00 PM) This morning (end of the week) I cleaned up all of the wispy growth tips and the shoots that won't ever reach the canopy. Until next week...stay tuned!

I needed a bigger reservoir, runoff catchment, and dehumidifier drain bucket because I had to go out of town for 5 days. Fortunately I calculated the volumes accurately and so when I got home I had at least another 24 hours of solution in the rez, and space in the runoff and dehumidifier catchment buckets. The other fortunate thing is that I came home to very happy and vigorously growing plants. The tallest colas are now 30 inches above the coco, and 20 inches from the light. There is one cola (pictured) whose stem is as thick as a sharpie! I ran out of the AN base nutrients and decided to switch over to GHE because the PH perfect buffers in the Advanced Nutrients line have been a huge pain in the ass. Also, I decided to mix my own bloom booster from Potassium Sulphate (0-0-53), Monopotassium Phosphate (0-52-34), and Epsom Salt after finding a DIY recipe (https://www.thcfarmer.com/threads/diy-hammerhead-confusions.47992/) to achieve a (0-9-18) NPK ratio. Significantly cheaper, but will be interesting to see what the results are in the end. I will be doing one more heavy defoliation on day 21 of flower because there are so many fan leaves laying on top of each other that its hard to keep the humidity down. Stay tuned!

July 4th: 92 days from seed. 21 days since the flip to 12/12. Removed the fan leaves that were either blocking lower growth tips, or laying on top of each other. Less concerned about increasing yield than I am about preventing mold or white powdery mildew. The RH gets down to 50% during the day at 27 C, and spikes up to 65% overnight at 21 C. It's been extremely humid outside over the past few weeks and so I'm hoping that the defoliation helps to keep the RH in check. If not I'lll add another dehumidifier to the equation. I also tried to open up the inner canopy on the 2 largest plants by attaching the few remaining free standing mains to the support rings. The plants look happy and healthy and I hope they'll respond well to their haircuts. With any luck I'll be able to stay pretty hands off the rest of the way and simply focus on feeding and environment. Once my rez is empty I'm going to hand water them with Recharge & Tidal Vision High Tide (https://www.amazon.ca/Tidal-Vision-High-Tide-32oz/dp/B06XBQ1W7W). After that I'll be adjusting my nutrient recipe for a higher ratio of P/K. Until next week, stay frosty!

End of Week 4 of Flower (day 28): Some flowers look like they're starting to swell. Resin production has begun in earnest. I put a tower fan with 180 deg. oscillation into the tent in order to increase overall airflow. Noticed a slight tip burn showing up on some of the leaves and realized I had stopped getting adequate runoff after each fertigation event. I increased the volume (+16%) of nutrient solution they were getting during each of the 5 daily feedings and there have been no further spread of the tip burn. Seems like the plants are all on cruise control. Here's hoping I can avoid any stupid mistakes the rest of the way. Until next week!

End of week 15 and the ladies are in full blown bloom. Stretch appears to have finished in the past day or so. This week I added Perpinator to the nutrient solution, and dropped overnight temperatures to 18 deg C. Hoping to really bring out the colors on this strain. Other than they they're pretty much on autopilot. I refill the rez every 4 days and other than opening the tent to stare at them lustfully, its been completely hands off these past 2 weeks. 5 feedings a day with an EC of 1300 and PH of 5.6-6.0. The PH drifts up ~.1 every day over the 4 days between cleanings and refill. Thanks for stopping by. Until next week.

End of week 16 from seed. 43 days since the flip to 12/12 lighting. The grow has been on autopilot all week. A bit of purple has started to show on the edges of the sugar leaves and the tips of the calyxes. Only a few fan leaves appear to have begun fading with purple hues starting to show. Excited to see the colors come through as the plants ripen. The buds continue to fatten up with their early pistils turning orange and white pistils bursting from new calyx growth. Resin production has increased substantially, but the smell is considerably weaker than the cheese strain I grew last winter. However, I have considerably more airflow and carbon filtration this time around. Time will tell whether this is due to the strain, the additional airflow, or the fact that I've been fertigating with a sterile nutrient solution in coco vs a soil grow with the CBC cheese. 2 of the plants appear to be maturing faster than the others, but I plan on harvesting them all on the same day regardless. That said, I'd push the more mature plants to the end of the harvest window and so this run has another 3-5 weeks depending on how the trichomes ripen down the stretch. I noticed some weird looking growth on a couple buds that has me concerned about nanners. I'll post a grow question and continue to monitor closely over the next 48 hours. Until next week!

Found a couple buds with seeds, but the pollination from the two bananas seems to have been limited. No new nanners this week which was great to see. Hope I can get through another 2 weeks while these flowers finish. They’re getting very frosty and they appear very dense as well. I lowered the light a few inches and there has been no noticeable stress to the plants. Until next week.

Many of the buds starting showing seeds 😞. There must have been more pollen released from the nanners than I had originally thought. The only stress I can think of is light stress. Either light leaks, light intensity, or perhaps a combination of both. All other conditions have been damn near optimal. I guess it could be genetics as well but I'm giving Crop King the benefit of the doubt. Its a shame too because they were just starting to show their fall colors and it seems like another 2 weeks is all I needed. I will start the flush and as soon as I can get the runoff EC below .2 I'll unplug the light and let them dry in the dark for 48 hours before I chop them down. Thanks for stopping by!

Almost ready to harvest. I have been flushing for the past 5 days with flawless finish at 2ml/L. I've been giving each plant ~5 liters in the morning right after the lights come on, and another ~5 liters an hour before lights off. The runoff EC has come down to .4 and so I'm guessing another day should do it. I will water again tonight, and once more in the morning and then let the pots dry out for a few days before I chop the plants down. The resin production has noticeably increased over the past 5 days. I've included some closeups from a few of the frostier flowers to show what I mean. In spite of the hermies and the seeds, it looks like I'm going to wind up with a decent harvest. Next update I've have the plants hung up to dry!

Harvest day on the 140th day from seeds. They got their last flawless flush 5 days ago. They had the last 40 hours in darkness. This morning the pots had dried out completely but there was still plenty of water in the plants. It was cool to see how they had begun drying out. I didn’t expect that much change in appearance could occur before chopping them down. It took all day to prep the tent for drying, and then chop down and hang up the plants. A lot of work but a job well done if I do say so myself. I’m paranoid about mould so I went a little bit dexter on the tent with bleach and water after I got everything out. Then I rigged up the dehumidifier inside the tent and set my controller to 55% humidity. Then I chopped each main and trimmed most fan leaves to be on the safe side. With the drying process already started in the pots, I hope they’ll be dry by next weekend. If so I’ll update the Final Harvest report. If not...wait longer 😜.

Final Numbers AAA nugs = 312 grams Mid Grade, Larf, and Sugar Leaves = 736 grams Total Yield = 1048g Curing the AAA nugs, and my friend is still working on machining a larger chamber for his supercritical co2 extraction rig. Excited to see how much oil we will be able to yield from the 736 grams. A few lessons learned this run. Overwatering. As seedlings and especially after transplanting to the final 5 Gallon containers, I over watered the plants. Following a high frequency fertigation regimen with an 80:20 coco:perlite ratio in 5 Gallon fabric pots was a mistake. I don’t think there's anything wrong with that ratio, and I’m sure I could’ve avoided overeating issues by a) using either 3 gallon fabric pots or 5 gallon equivalent airpots as my final containers, or b) fertigating a lot less often until the roots had fully colonized the containers. However I will be trying a 50:50 coco:perlite ratio in 5 gallon airpots next time. The automatic watering system, self draining saucers, and auto pumping catchment bucket allow for as many feedings/day as you want, so next time I’ll experiment with a lighter medium and faster drying containers. Light Stress. This Gavita is extremely powerful and at full power it puts out far too much light for plants in veg, and once the plants had stretched to their full height the tallest colas were only 14 inches from the light which meant they were getting ~1200 PPFD. I’ve been told that anything over 1000 PPFD, without supplemental Co2, will cause photo protection responses in cannabis plants, and then if that is insufficient they will enter photo-inhibition which dramatically slows photosynthesis. Had I bought the adapter and controller I could have dimmed it down as much as 50% and I think I had enough height in the tent to dial in the proper intensity for atmospheric Co2 levels. However, I bought the light knowing it might be too strong hoping I could get away with it because for my next run I plan to build a sealed room and run supplemental Co2 to take full advantage of this light. Training. I learned a lot during this run simply by trying so many new techniques for the first time and making a lot of mistakes. I snapped off a quadrant, almost snapped off another, and I split the stems on both sides of the strongest pheno’s manifold. Also, If I could do it over again I would have pruned the side branching more aggressively after I had finished training the 8 mains, and I would have defoliated more aggressively 3 weeks into 12-12. I’m guessing that would have resulted in a lower yield overall, but a much higher percentage of that yield would have been top shelf quality. Thanks for following along. Until next time, stay frosty!