Skywalker: DWC Small Batch

Following the success of my last run, I thought I'd grow another strain from local breeder, Niagara's Own Seeds. This time around it will be Skywalker: "Our Skywalker Feminised is a cross of Skywalker and OG Kush making it a strain which is 85% indica. It boasts high yields and a THC content which can go sky high." Flowering Time: 63 – 70 days Taste / Flavour: Citrus, Diesel, Fuel, Lemon, Spicy / Herbal, Sweet I started her off 9 days ago by soaking a seed overnight in filtered tap water. I moved the seed into a pete plug the next day and dropped her in the seeding tray under a fluorescent light. She popped her head within a couple of days. I moved her into her bucket today with filtered water and a teasing of nutrients. For this grow, I will be taking on the no-defoliation challenge issued to me by @NuggetPawn. I believe I am allowed to prune branches (for shaping purposes) but no plucking of leaves is allowed. Those of you who have followed my previous grows know that I have not been shy about employing schwazzing techniques. I will do my best to restrain myself. Looking forward to this grow. It should be another interesting adventure.

Start of Week 2: D8 Rough week for the Skywalker. She came into the tent lanky and spindly and never really found her legs - she spent much of the week limp and lying on her side. I suspect the bright lights of tentville were too much for her at this stage of her life(I'm temporarily storing my outdoor pots in here as well for the moment and the light is more optimum for them). Anyway, despite lying on her side and wilting, she made a small effort to raise her head over the past day or two. Today I thought I'd give her one last fighting chance and reset her a little deeper in the pot to give her more stability. I was happy to see was pushing out roots when I pulled her out so perhaps all is not lost. I raised up the lights a bit and moved her off to the side a bit so she's not getting full intensity. We'll see if the force is strong in this one or not. The next week should be telling. Thanks for checking in ✌️

Start of week 3: D15 The Skywalker has rallied and is looking a bit better. Her roots have broken through the basket and her leaves are starting to get a little bigger. Rez change today with a gradual increase in nutes. I wouldn’t say “the force is strong in this one” at this point, but it does seem adequate 👍 Thanks for checking in ✌️

Start of Week 4: D22 Fine. I'll say it. "The force is strong in this one." The Skywalker has bounced back and is looking much better than she did a couple of weeks ago when she was a spindly seedling, laying on her side. Roots are continuing to develop nicely and I'm keeping with a relatively light feeding regime. I'll see how things shake out over the next week and will look to start some LST and/or FIMMing. Thanks for checking in ✌️

Start of week 5: D29 Early troubles are behind the Skywalker. She’s growing vigorously now and feeding accordingly. FIMed her a few days ago on day 25. Perhaps another round of FIMing in her future. We’ll see how things unfold. Thanks for checking in. ✌️

Start of Weeks 6: D36 Explosive growth from the Skywalker this week; she gained about 10" and her main stem and branches are already unbelievably thick. She's been feeding like a beast - I gave her a res change about 5 days ago and upped her feed; she was running about 665 PPMs at the time of the change; down to 500 by today. PH has been stable throughout the week - low 6's. Gave her another rez change today with another little increase in nutes. Typically, at this stage of the game I would have gone to schwaz town and done some liberal defoliation but I've stuck to the challenge issued to me and left the fan leaves alone (with the exception of pruning away a couple of lower branches). I was initially thinking I might top/ or FIM her again, but she's responded very well to the first round of FIMing and I don't know that I need to her to spread out much more than she already has. Leaving her be. Flipping lights to 12 hour schedule starting today - I've got my fingers crossed for a moderate stretch but I'm not holding my breath. Thanks for checking in. ✌️

Week 7: D44 A little late with this week's update but things have been shaking in tent. After consulting with my green-guru, the wise and enthusiastic @NuggetPawn, I've decided to make some changes in the tent. I've added another Mars Hydro TS1000 and put in a SCRoG net. I still need to add something between the rear tent poles so I can pull the middle of the net back tighter but we're off to the races. Going to try handle feedings and rez changes with a manual transfer pump since I will no longer have the luxury of being able to move my buckets in and out of the tent. Hoping the changes will net me a better harvest and greater bud quality. The Skywalker continues to hulk up like no plant I've grown to date. She's got a thick trunk and some pretty substantial branches. Her roots are filling my bucket. She's starting to get quite fragrant as well - more skunky at this stage. She drinks/feeds very steadily and her PH is quite stable - she get's a gallon of water with a top-up of nutes every other day. I still haven't taken a leaf from her head 😇 Thanks for checking in 👍

Start of Week 8: D50 With the addition of the SCRoG net and the new light last week, the tent is now wall to wall green. She started showing signs of flower early last week and is starting her stretch; she's put on about 5" since last week. There may be some supercropping in my future if she stretches too much as I don't have a lot of vertical space to work with. We'll make it work though. She's been slightly less hungry the past week I'd say but drinking quite a bit - maybe a bit more than 1/2 gallon a day now. I did a rez change today and used the manual transfer pump for the first time. It worked just fine. It added a few extra minutes to the process - I'd say it took less than 5 minutes on either side to drain and fill a bucket using the pump, and I got to work the guns. LOL. I'll definitely look to automate the process for future grows though. Gave her a little lighter feed today; I'll pump it up through the week if she wants more. Thanks for checking in ✌️

Start of week 9: D57 The Skywalker grew another 6" during the stretch this week. Given my limited headroom I bit the bullet and super-cropped a few branches. I was really worried I would snap a branch but they actually proved to be quite easy to work with and didn't require much more than a firm pinch to get them to bend. I soon found out though if I didn't tie the bent branch down it would soon bounce right back up. I managed to anchor most of the bent branches to the SCRoG net With the exception of one or two branches I had a hard time reaching. Lights in the tent are pretty much raised as high as they will go now. I think I'll definitely be exploring a tent with more headroom for future grows. She drank quite a lot during the week - nearly 3/4 gallon day. Not feeding as intensely as a couple of weeks ago. Top-up feedings have been light, skewing heavier to bloom nutes and much less (if any) on the Gro. Humidity in our neck of the woods has been less than ideal the past week; ranging from 65-75%. I feel lucky I've been able to keep humidity in the tent between 55-60%. I have just a tiny dehumidifier in there but it seems to keep it 5-10% lower than the rest of the house. Cleared away a fair number of dead, old fan leaves that fell off the lower branches of the two plants in the tent - nice to see the plants cleaning themselves up. I'm staying true to the no defoliation challenge. ✊ Looks like there should be a good number of bud sites. Hopefully, things stack up well. Thanks for checking in ✌️

Start of Week 10: Day 64 A bit of a rough week for the Skywalker. About the only good thing that happened is that she finally stopped stretching. I ended up having to supercrop the main stem as she was making her way into the light - it's pretty much as high as I can get it now. There's still a couple of tall stems in there but away from the light so I'll just let them do their thing. I so need a taller tent. I think she has a phosphorus deficiency based on the discolouration on the leaves and her red stems (seemed to have missed uploading that pic - doh!). Her PH has been plummeting through the week, from 6.2 one day and down below 4 within 24 hours, with PPMs increasing. I gave her a rez change mid week a with a higher concentration of bloom nutes. She's been a bit more stable but still has sudden fluctuations. Top-ups have featured more bloom nutes as well. I'm hoping she comes around. Always happy to hear anyone's thoughts on this issue - could be I've missed the mark on my diagnosis. She continues to drop old leaves, as expected. I cut a few of the lower scraggly branch bud sites that had no hopes of busting through the canopy and achieving their super cola dreams. Should make things slightly more airy which is good as humidity is still running high this summer: it's over 65% RH in my house so doing well keeping it under 60% in the tent. Crossing my fingers the Skywalker bounces back this week. Thanks for checking in ✌️

Start of Week 11: D71 Better week for the Skywalker. Her PH has been much more stable and the spread of the leaf issues has stopped since I raised EC to 1.4-1.5 range. I folded over 2 or 3 more of the taller stems in an attempt to even out her janky canopy a little more - there's stuff growing every which way now. Her buds are certainly smaller than those of the fast flowering Grandaddy Purps growing next to her but she still has 4-5 weeks to go. Excited to see how she turns out. Thanks for checking in ✌️

Start of week 12: D78 Smoother week for the Skywalker. PH has been much more stable since EC adjustments although there were some blips earlier in the week. I gave her a rez change a few days ago and lowered her EC slightly from 1.5/1.6 to the 1.3/1.4 range. Sadly, some of her leaves still bare the scars of those earlier PH fluctuations but I think she's on the right side of things now. Unfortunately, the canopy is the most uneven on this side of the tent due the stretching issues and my subsequent attempts at supercropping; some bends were definitely more successful than others. Things seem to be fattening up however so we'll just ride it out and see how it all ends up. Still at least 4 weeks to go. Thanks for checking in ✌️

Start of Week 13: D85 The poor old battle-scarred Skywalker is chugging along. She continues to have the odd PH fluctuation but nothing as dramatic as a few weeks ago. I've kept her EC around 1.3 and she's generally pretty happy there. Humidity in the tent at night has been awful; 70-72%. I'm hoping my airflow is good enough to stave off any mould problems or bud rot. I did more lollipopping and cut away more lower branches. I also added in an extra fan beneath the canopy in addition to the two fans that are near the top (I assume they're still there - they were consumed by growth weeks ago). Her buds are starting to bulk up more and looking more frosty. Some purples setting in on the leaves now too; beyond the previous phosphorus deficiencies (I hope). A few more weeks to go. C'mon finish line 😉 Thanks for checking in ✌️

Start of Week 14: Flower D50 It hasn't been the most comfortable growing situation for the Skywalker with the earlier phosphorus deficiencies, high night time humidity and having to grow so close to the light, but despite all that she seems to be doing pretty well. Her buds are getting nice and chunky and stacking up pretty well. Getting a bit more fragrant now too - citrus and skunk. Gave her rez change towards the end of last week. Still running an EC of 1.3-1.4. She's been pretty stable PH wise; especially the past 2 or 3 days. Advertised flowering time is 63-70 days for this baby so just a couple of weeks to go. Would love to see her summon the force and see those buds get even fatter 👊 Thanks for checking in ✌️

Start of Week 15: Flower D57 Despite some light burn and crispy leaves (can't wait to move into the bigger tent), the Skywalker continues to fatten up nicely. Gradually lightening her feed as we head to the finish; a week or two away. Thanks for checking in ✌️

Stumbling toward the finish line with the crispy old Skywalker. It's been hotter than I'd like in the tent (mid 80s) and she's wearing the effects of being so close to the lights. Started her on the flush 2 days ago. Leaves transitioning to nice purple colours - not positive if its a trait of the strain or signs of a prior/ongoing deficiency 🤔 In any event, she produced some nice chunky buds. Harvest in a few days. Looking forward to setting up a new tent for the next grow that will give me more headspace and, hopefully, allow me to keep the plants out of the lights. Thanks for checking in ✌️

Wow. Considering the rough start and some bumps along the way, I was amazed by the end result. This was by far my most bountiful harvest and the quality of the buds is top-notch. The addition of the second light to the tent made a huge impact on the end result, producing some dense, chunky buds. Unfortunately, my small tent and the limited headroom really presented challenges and the top of the canopy felt the effects of some heat/light stress. There were some crispy leaves. It was my first attempt at a ScrOG and I think it worked out really well; especially combined with the FIMing. She really produced a lot of nice branches that were ideal for spreading through the net. I was amazed how many tops I was pulling out of her when I was cutting the branches during harvest. The big thing that held me back about trying a ScrOG with previous grows was doing rez changes/feedings and checkups. Turned out to be not a big deal at all. Initially, I used a manual transfer pump to both empty and fill the buckets for rez changes, but after a couple of changes I found that it was far easier to add feed back to the bucket by simply sliding the lid over and pouring the water back using a a small pail. For checkups I just use a turkey baster to draw samples for testing. Techy as heck in my yard. I was encouraged to not defoliate for this grow and I stuck to it - I cut a few branches but I took no leaves. The plant dropped plenty of leaves on her own as she progressed through her life cycle without my intervention. During mid to late flower I was picking out a few hand fulls of dead leaves every day. I filled 2/3 of a 5-gallon with large fan leafs when I trimmed her after harvest. Faced a a few challenges for this grow - the low height of my tent (as previously mentioned) along with a phosphorus deficiency (I think) early in flower and terribly high humidity later in flower. I think I underestimated the nutritional requirements of this strain; especially with the extra light thrown into the mix. It probably took me a bit too long to realize she needed more than I was giving her. She bore some scars as a result but I don't think it had a big impact on the end result - thank goodness. Humidity. It was terrible. As high as 80% at night. Typically, around 74%. I only recently got a hydrometer that gives my daily highs/lows so I can't compare this to previous grows where I defoliated heavily. However, as worried as I was about mould and bud rot, I had good airflow in the tent so that was huge in keeping things healthy. Another one in the books. I'll definitely drop another bean in one of my buckets in the future and grow her again. The new tent is finally set up and ready for the next run. Seeds are sprouting and I should be moving them in soon. Thanks for tuning in ✌️