Original OG Kush / Alaskan Purple *AUTO*

So far the ride has been absolutely smooth. The vigor from these seedlings are outstanding from the moment they broke from their shell. The Alaskan Purple seems to be abit more resevered compared to the taproot growth of the OG Kush, but they are both in retrospect just flying up from the soil. I have been lightly watering the top of the substrate enough to provide about 3 inches of moisture to be felt from the top using my finger. I have been watering the guys when they have been asking for it, and making sure to let them dry out abit so they can get that oxygen. When watered they really take advantage of every drop, I can tell these guys will be really thirsty but I am mindful of over watering, just water them when they ask for it! Not really too much else, just make sure that your intervals of watering are spread out enough, with my soil mixture, I was spraying the soil about twice a day. For hanging my light, I had to place the light as high up as possible in my grow tent, due to the high intensity of my light. I was about 47 inches from the top of the pot. After the seedlings had hit day 4, I lowered the light to 37 inches and they responded so well to the light!

1) The monster of the group so far, this was the biggest taproot from germination. Loving the soil, light, and distilled water, absolutely healthy! If I were to be picky about something, the first set of leaves had abit of a twist/pinch from the soil's nutes but that’s all as far as problems. 2) Just slightly stunted during seedling phase from shell being stuck abit longer, appears to be moderately hot in the soil due to this fact but growth cleared this issue up fast. 3) Nutes in the soil seem to be a bit strong but is taking it well, indicated by the darker leaves. Growth remains similar to 1. Had slight stunt from shell being stuck. 4) No significant changes besides growth, seems to maybe be a potential for the control of the pair because of the consistency in growth and proportions. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Overall thoughts: Since I planted in a 3 Gal pot to start, the watering was the most important step, not to drown them when they start to spread their roots, but to also not dry them up by only watering small areas. My soil mixture was really friendly and was able to help me fit into this watering issue by retaining water but also allowing plenty of airflow throughout the substrate. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ At Day 11, I noticed that 2 and 3 were taking the soil to be too warm, causing them to darken up. 1 and 4 did not receive these same aliments due to their initial growth seedlings not being hindered by the shells being on longer. This slight growth advantage the 1 and 4 had proved enough to make that much of a difference. This issue is really nothing to be afraid of but It is noteworthy for sure to know for future soil amendments and improving my ratios. To fix this problem I just increased the amount of water that I gave them in their next watering. Up until this point I have only been lightly spraying the surface of the soil for about .1 Gal per plant every 12-24 hours. The watering on the 12th day consisted of .5 Gal per plant. This amount of water was enough to start producing runoff from the bottom of the fabric pots within 3-5 minutes. Within 10 minutes of the watering the plants all lightened up in color and all wilted nice and heavy. They eventually sprung back up and by Day 14 the soil was still moist but starting to dry. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Alaskan Purple Notes: Extra sensitive to nutes at early stages of seedling. OG Kush Notes: Ok with light nutes in seedling phase. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ If I had to take something from this week, it would be that If you are going straight into your final container from germination, your soil is EXTREMELY important in terms of drainage and water retention! Without these things your seedling will have a lot of unnecessary and easily avoidable problems. Only take this step to final plant in your largest pot if you can handle the extra time and attention that the watering will require. This method is beneficial and important because of the auto-flowers not having as much time to recover from a transplant shock as well as a photo-period would, since my flower stage is predetermined by the genetics. Doing this allows me to skip any transplant phases without suffering traditional issues from planting into large pots :). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Side note* In the pictures I reference to Top Left, Bottom Left, Top Right, and Bottom Right. This is from the perspective of the front door of the grow tent. This picture can be found in the Week 1 Diary Entry and it will be used consistently throughout this grow.

1) Absolutely healthy, loving the light, water, and nutes! No remarkable issues. 2) Taking nutes abit hard still, but it is catching up in size from before in comparison to 1. 3) Lightly warm from nutes, also catching up in size from before in comparison to 3. 4) Loving all conditions, initial serrated leaves are clearing of dark green into green. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Overall thoughts: Looking at the developmental growth from days 14 to 21, I noticed that the initial substrate levels of nutrients are relatively important if you are growing with sensitive seedlings. Noticing the initial stunt in growth from the shells being on 2 and 3 longer, have significantly impacted their development in terms of being compared to their counterparts 1 and 4. I would estimate about a 20% increase in growth from 1 and 4 versus 2 and 3 being due to these conditions. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ At Day 16, I decided to give my plants the first interval of nutrient feeding. I used .5 Gal of distilled water per plant. The total amount of water and nutrients used was, 2 Gal with 6 tsp of FoxFarm’s Big Bloom, 2 tsp of FoxFarm’s Grow Big, and ½ tsp of Powdered Great White Mycorrhizae. I mixed the nutrients and bacteria in the water jugs that held the distilled water, adding half of the total nutrients for each gallon (Remember to add the nutrients one at a time to the water and that they are completely dissolved into the water before adding the additional). After the mixtures were complete, I watered the substrate directly until the surface was completely submerged, but not to an excessive amount. Once the surface was completely submerged, I would pause and wait for the liquid to soak into the substrate. After watering all 4 pots, I received about 10-15% runoff per pot. It seems to be around 3ish days at this point for the soil to need re-saturation. Also, this week I put more attention to ensuring that the night air temperatures were lower than the previous week, levels being around 5-8 degrees lower than day time air temperature. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Alaskan Purple Notes: Clears up well with distilled water if over saturated with nutrients. OG Kush Notes: Light nutrients are absorbed well at this stage. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ If I had to take something from this week, it would be that my initial ratio of substrate may be a bit too high in nitrogen from the FoxFarm Ocean Forest, causing the darker green leaves my plants have been displaying. In the next grow I will change the ratio from 50/50 to 60/40. Also another important change in the substrate structure is in the craters I made in the soil during the initial pot filling. I filled the craters with Foxfarm’s Happy Frog potting soil and the seedlings really enjoyed this, but the depth and width of the crater could be increased to allow more Happy Frog potting soil accessible to the roots of the early seedling stage to reduce the over intake of nutrients. Besides this observation, these plant genetics are really awesome 😊. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Side note* If you are finding yourself watering your plants too quickly and need to slow down, don’t be afraid to listen to some music while you take care of them, its pretty relaxing to do it slowly actually, and its beneficial to keeping your substrate in proportions and it ensures an even distribution to the roots. https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=vvO4kib-vRQ&feature=share

1) Still the most vigorous of the group, took LST well, nice one! 2) Super-cropped (HST) 65% main stem above second node, LST started at end of week. 3) Took LST well, made a great recovery from the nitrogen surplus, its eating it up now! 4) Small growth stun from defoliation, made a strong recovery within 1-1 ½ days, loved the LST. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Overall thoughts: LST was absolutely crucial into being able to have so many new bud sites. If you look at 2 (which received minor LST, due to recovering from super-cropping) compared to 1, you can see the noticeable difference just from daily LST. The goal is to expose those baby leaves that are near the main stem (ex. 3 Day 24). I used some Garden Flexi Ties and some wood/bamboo skewers to spread the leaves apart and at the same time start bending over the main stem into a singular direction until the top reaches the edge of your container. From there you just make the top of the plant follow a circular shape around the container like the shape of a spring, except you want to keep the surface area of the top as consistent as possible. This consistency is easier to achieve by filling parts of the canopy with the baby leaves that the LST is exposing, which will eventually grow into bud sites themselves. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ At Day 21, I used .5 Gal of distilled water per plant. The total amount of water and nutrients used was, 2 Gal with 3 tsp of FoxFarm’s Big Bloom, 3 tsp of FoxFarm’s Grow Big pH'ed at 6.2. At Day 23, I gave the plants a .5 Gal watering each of distilled watered pH’ed at 6.2. For the entirety of the grow so far, my tent clip on fans have been running at low, and at 1:30pm I switched them to high (the only other setting lol). Same day super-cropping was applied to 2 at 7:30pm. Once 2 had been snapped, I applied a small amount of electrical tape enough to wrap around the main stem 1 ½ times and one Garden Flexi Tie to just help hold the main stem upright to ensure for a nice recovery. At Day 24, Defoliation occurred from a top 7 leaf on 4 (indicated by the red Day 24) being lost from improper LST practices (being abit too rough). The blue indicates the sister leaf of the missing one. Besides this, the light was dropped from 35” to 32”, I was waiting for abit more leaves to be present to absorb the amount of light that I was exposing them to. At Day 26, I gave the plants .5 Gal each of distilled water pH’ed at 6.1. The reason I skipped an interval of nutrients was because of the EC reading I was getting, but by the double cycle of water feedings, I brought the EC readings to a more stable number to ensure my plants are able to uptake the nutrients present in the substrate. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Alaskan Purple Notes: Not a fan of high-stress defoliation at this stage but not much of a difference in terms of development. OG Kush Notes: Ok with more stressful training than expected. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ If I had to take something from this week, it would be that LST is absolutely important to the expedited growth and yield potential of a plant. The process of LST should be implemented as soon as the plant has produced a second node (ex. Day 21). The Garden Ties are to tie down large fan leaves and the change the growth direction of the main stem. If you have ever heard of Bonsai, then you can have an idea of the concept of what this process is achieving. For the remaining smaller leaves that are still too small or fragile for this method of LST, you can apply a lower stress training which is when you layer the different leaves on top of each other based on the growth development that you want to have. Basically, it is just a gentle movement of the plant using your fingers or a stick to pull larger leaves down and push the small leaves up above them. You are looking for the larger leaves to be lower than the small leaves and by tucking the plant under itself. This can be done in a healthy and natural way that occurs in nature all the time from wind. The result should look like 1 at Day 27, notice how the lower small leaves have almost appeared to have busted out from the bottom, that did not occur without the leaves being directly exposed to the light. You can also use wooden/bamboo stakes that you would attach the Garden Ties to, you can bend their leaves around the stakes to open more light into the canopy to reach the lower sites. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Side note* Do not be afraid to start LST early on because of fear of hurting the plant. If you move slow and make every adjustment one step at a time, it makes it difficult to deviate from correct procedures. If the plant should be adjusted in any way, try do so when the substrate is near watering time. The less water that the plant has inside it, the better when it comes to LST. The plant will be more flexible and willing to bend versus when fully hydrated. But it is ok to LST every day, just adjust your intensity to your plant’s current health. https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=zojCw8_AdRg&feature=share

1) Moderate LST applied, midway into pre-flower, defoliation, 1, 7 leaf. 2) Moderate LST applied, midway into pre-flower. 3) Light LST applied, just started pre-flower, defoliation, 1, 9 leaf. 4) Moderate LST applied, just started pre-flower. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Overall thoughts: Another week of LST but definitely a lot more intense. Day 31 is a good example of how much LST was applied to the plants and it was maintained daily to ensure continuous light to the lower canopy, which resulted in all these new bud sites rising! I noticed within the week that there were a few fungus gnats hopping around the topsoil, so I picked up some sticky traps and placed them on top of the substrate. Also the light intensity increase that occurred this week also helped dry out the top of the substrate out faster, so the issue was resolved within a few days. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ At Day 29, I used .5 Gal of distilled water per plant. The total amount of water and nutrients used was, 2 Gal with 3 tsp of FoxFarm’s Big Bloom, 3 tsp of FoxFarm’s Grow Big pH'ed at 6.2. Also, on Day 29, I decided to flip on the bloom switch on my light which increased the intensity of my light and provided an extended light spectrum. This increased the number of real watts being produced from the light from 273 watts (600 theoretical wattage) to 542 watts (1200 theoretical wattage). With this increase of power, it was accompanied by a drop in height from 32” to 24” from the top of the highest bud site. This change was induced by the auto-flower choosing to start the pre-flower cycle by producing its first white pistils. On Day 31, I used .5 Gal of distilled water per plant pH’ed at 6.1. On Day 31, some defoliation occurred on 1 and 3, which were both medium sized fan leaves which were blocking some potential bud sites, so it was a win for sure this week! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Alaskan Purple Notes: Loves the low profile LST and handled the side shoot bud sites well. OG Kush Notes: Easy to LST and produces leaves from lower sites very quickly if exposed. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ If I had to take something from this week, it would be that keeping up with LST is just as important as starting LST to begin with. If you do not keep up with all of the new bud sites and fan leaves you are producing, they will crowd each other and not give each site optimal light exposure and it could lead to a poor air circulation within the canopy of the plant, which is definitely something you should be mindful about preventing at around this stage of the growth, due to the plant being extra sensitive at this transitional phase. At this point in the plants life, it can handle abit more stress than it previously could, so if you start to lose some leaves here and there, do not worry too much as your plant has many more to rely on now. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Side note* This is your time to try to ensure that the top sites are as even as possible, in the next coming week the plant is going to stretch up and the vertical growth is going to be a lot harder to manipulate. An example of trying to achieve this concept is 3, Day 31, if you pay your attention the top site and watch its growth into Day 34, you can understand how much you are able to maneuver your plant if you need to. https://youtu.be/_QZjJU-mtFU

1) Healthy and developing bud sites well. 2) Right behind 2 in growth of bud sites, lost one small bud site in LST. 3) Coming to the middle of pre-flower, pistils developed 4) Same as 3, middle of pre-flower, pistils also developed. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Overall thoughts: This week was the least intensive in terms of training and maintenance. The plants are all going through the stretching phase and are all climbing very quickly, so I made sure to adjust my light fixture every day or so to ensure optimal coverage and intensity. 1 and 2 (OG Kush) are showing lots of new pistils and small buds. 3 and 4 (Alaskan Purple) are just abit behind to switching over to flowering but they are making a nice canopy to transition into. Honestly, a nice hands off week with light LST and light defoliation and just letting the plant do its thing 😊. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ At Day 34, I used .5 Gal of distilled water per plant. The total amount of water and nutrients used was, 2 Gal with 3 tsp of FoxFarm’s Big Bloom, 2 tsp of FoxFarm’s Grow Big, 2 tsp of FoxFarm’s Tiger Bloom, and 1/2tsp of Great White Mycorrhizae pH'ed at 6.2. On Day 37, I used .75 Gal of distilled water pH’ed at 6.2 per plant. At Day 40, I used .5 Gal of distilled water per plant. The total amount of water and nutrients used was, 2 Gal with 3 tsp of FoxFarm’s Big Bloom, 2 tsp of FoxFarm’s Grow Big, and 2 tsp of FoxFarm’s Tiger Bloom pH'ed at 6.2. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Alaskan Purple Notes: More LST is ok with flowering timeline. OG Kush Notes: Started flowering and stretching, branches are much more stiff now, ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ If I had to take something from this week, is that when you are growing multiple strains of flowers, you must account your LST into the developing times of the different plants. For example the Alaskan Purple is about 1 week behind the OG Kush in terms of overall lifecycle development and this is just a genetic thing that is absolutely normal since the flip from Veg to Flower is automatic, it just means more time in Veg so a slightly larger body to hold more nugs 😉. But also understand that whichever plant is larger in terms of vertical height, needs to be LST’ed to the height of all the other plants to ensure your flowers develop together and evenly. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Side note* The light defoliation that took place this week, consisted of about 4 to 8 leaves per plant, that includes small underdeveloped leaves under the bottom of the canopy and dead or dying leaves that were inefficient to the plant indicated by discoloration or physical deformations. https://youtu.be/z3JmMF6dGGk

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Plant #1 after 1 Week Dry/1 Month Cure = 86.5 G Plant #2 after 1 Week Dry/1 Month Cure = 111.2G

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Plant #1 after 1 Week Dry/1 Month Cure = 156 G Plant #2 after 1 Week Dry/1 Month Cure = 105 G