The Corona Quest of 2020

Week 1 | Day 3 Veg Days: 3 Flower Days: 0 Another new setup paired with the daunting task of trying to obtain a successfully harvest, here we go again! Setup: I ran a trial 2-bucket system with the inlet 5cm from the base and the overflow 28cm from the top. It worked very well and the double bucket system with the white bucket on the outside really helps bring the water temperature down. By a degree or two for sure. This setup is a four bucket (well, eight) setup. There is 18L of water in each bucket and a 30L reservoir (~102L system)- calculating all nutrients at 100L system so might be a bit strong near the end when I start pushing the bloom. Plants: There are four plants in total, two being Orange Sherbert and the remaining Blue Gelato 41. Haven't tried either of these so looking forward to a good home grown smoke. Expectations: I have a 2.25m2 tent with two HID lights (1 x 400w & 1 x 600w). I am aiming for 500g dry yield considering it is a new setup, I only have four plants and the 400w light might not penetrate far down enough when it's 1.4m from the base of the plant.

Week 2 | Day 9 Veg Days: 9 Flower Days: 0 The plants are looking much happier since I was able to reduce the water temperature to below 21C. Roots are happy and healthy, looking like strings of fresh ramen noodles. The Blue Gelato 41 clones were about a week older than the Orange Sherberts, so I have to take it into consideration when comparing the two. All in all both strains are happy and pushing new growth. In the coming week I will be doing a full flush of the system and will be increasing the nutrients slightly, I am just waiting for the OS to start picking up a bit more before I hit it with a more concentrated dose.

Week 2 | Day 9 Veg Days: 19 Flower Days: 0 Start Date: 9 May Plants started filling out but I ran into a problem with the roots. The CarboPump chemical I used seemed to have a bad reaction with my system and the roots started to darken a lot. I caught a little bit of slime before it started to spread. So ran a 24hr flush and refilled with the same nutrients to ensure it wouldn't have any further problems.

Week 4 | Day 25 Veg Days: 25 Flower Days: 0 Start Date: 9 May After sorting out the root problem, the plants have started growing wild. I have had to trim a few of the leaves to give additional light onto lower level nodes. Wondering if I need to do some sort of training with the clones. I've always done a form of mainlining and LST with clones but have only been trimming off a few leaves and bud spots. Going to let the plant run until its about 60cm then switch to flower, I want to grow some large monster buds and need a massive root system for that.

Week 5 | Day 33 Veg Days: 33 Flower Days: 0 Start Date: 9 May The plants are looking amazing and have hit the final stages before they move into flower. I did a big trim to remove a lot of leaves that were sitting near the main vertical stem. It work well and the additional growth has been superb. In the coming days I will do one more severe trim to prepare them for flower. During this trim I will assess how many stems and bud spots I want to have- I have a lot of space in the tent so considering filling it all won't happen this time round. I would need another 2 plants in the mix to maximize the canopy space. As I switch to flower I am going to use the Metal Halide light for the first week- just to try and ensure there is no VAST stretch that happens. I'll then move onto the HPS to give them the light they need. Watch this space!

Week 5 | Day 40 Start Date: 9 May Veg Days: 35 Flower Days: 5 All plants are well underway in flower. They have reacted well to the flush and new nutrient volumes I put in. I will leave it for about two weeks before I do another nutrient top-up, planning on lowering the grow and increasing the bloom as the plants start sucking up more potassium. I took a series of clones, but they didn't even make a dent in the amount of nodes that have started stretching. Will have to clear up a few stems to get light in amongst the trees. The two strains are starting to show their true colours- the orange sherbert isn't growing particularly tall and the blur gelato seems to definitely be the strong er of the two strains, but only final yield will tell! The BG plant closest to the fan is thiiiiiic. Stem is looking amazing an cannot wait to see what it yields.

Week 5 | Day 52 Start Date: 9 May Veg Days: 35 Flower Start: 13 June Flower Days: 14 The plants are loving life and moving upwards rather quickly. 10cm (4inch) in the last 6 days. Very happy with the growth and the root systems are MONSTERS. Probably 1/3 of the bucket is just root. Looking forward to next week when the plants get to the end of week 3 and I can complete the last round of defoliation.

Week 8 | Day 52 Start Date: 9 May Veg Days: 35 Flower Start: 13 June Flower Days: 17 The plants are seriously coming to life. I have increased the Bloom amount and added in some Bloombastic flower nutrients for an extra push in the last 6 weeks. These ladies are extremely happy, even though my pH is slightly higher than I would like it. Unfortunately these nutrients are a problem and do not react well to an pH formulas, so trying to figure out what can be done. In the mean time, they'll carry on starting to develop loads of bud sites.

Week 8 | Day 65 Start Date: 9 May Veg Days: 35 Flower Start: 13 June Flower Days: 30 Wow, wow, wow. The ladies have decided to start a second stretch with avengance. The Blue Gelato have grown roughly 40cm in the past ten days to two weeks, I am concerned they are too close to the light, but as it is strapped onto the roof as high as it goes, I can't do much else other than bend the plant over. The extra nutrients and addition of Bloombastic has helped the plants node sites, apart from general new growth the pistols just look whiter and healthier. Definitely something to use again! I am hoping to see the plants slow down a little and start pushing more bud development over the next few days. New leaves are growing back quickly, and I will hold off on trimming some more until they become a real problem for the lower node sites in another 10 days or so. Super excited to see how they are and where they are heading!

Week 8 | Day 71 Start Date: 9 May Veg Days: 35 Flower Start: 13 June Flower Days: 36 The ladies continue to push new growth into the buds. I'm a little concerned I did a bit too much defoliation on the Blue Gelato and may have stunted some of the bud growth- AKA popcorn buds. Since I have introduced Bloombastic into the mix the trichomes have really started to push out and show some length to them. Keeping an eye on my pH as I was also concerned it was a bit high. But it turned out it was at 6.1 to 5.9 so not complaining. Been a relatively simple grow so far!

Week 11 | Day 78 Start Date: 9 May Veg Days: 35 Flower Start: 13 June Flower Days: 44 The ladies are doing great and have started to really push trichome growth. The Blue Gelato stretched wildly in flower weeks 2 to 4 growing over 40cm in the period. I should have used my Metal Halide to keep the stretch down a bit and to keep the plants a bit more stumpy. The stretched means I am going to have to tie up a number of arms due to heavy buds on thin stems. Also, next grow, I am definitely controlling the amount of stems that grow out the clones! Too much to manage at the moment and the tent is too full to get around. Looking forward to the buds fattening out as I still have a suspicion they will turn popcorns.

Week 11 | Day 84 Start Date: 9 May Veg Days: 35 Flower Start: 13 June Flower Days: 50 Only one photo this week as my lazy ass had been ignoring the plants (well, just giving them time to do their thing). I'll take some better ones with my dslr next week. The buds are starting to show their true form and are starting to swell. I really hope my nutrient mix is optimal and they are going to fatten like a fat kid on cup cakes. I haven't done any flushing or changes to the nutes in a while- I may do one last flush and increase the dosages of them in the last two weeks or so just to ensure they have what they need. I only have a little bit of Bloombastic left and you can't get any in the country anymore, Thanks Corona!

Week 13 | Day 91 Start Date: 9 May Veg Days: 35 Flower Start: 13 June Flower Days: 57 As we near the end of flower the plants have really started to push the trichomes to another level. They are super long and everywhere! I just feel that the bud sizes could have been bigger. I had to run my water pump constantly to keep the overall water temp low- around 20C. When I let it sit for a while it would increase to 23C and that's where shit starts to hit the fan a bit. By doing so, I didn't let the roots stretch for water and extend to fill the 25L bucket. So in the final stages of flower, the buds are smaller than my usual size.... it's a pity because I was aiming for the mother of all harvests. Nevertheless, the buds are coming along nicely with the Blue Gelato pushing serious trichomes and the Orange Sharbert starting to fatten. Trichomes are clear still with some milkiness coming in, so looking forward to the final ripening.