Marisol - First Grow

Four days after the seed went straight into gardening soil the sprout named "Marisol" saw its first light of day. The pot was sitting on my windowsill (southside) for the first week, in order to keep temperature fluctuations at night as low as possible, to not overstress the young plant. Only minimal amounts of water added around the edges as soon as the soil's surface became dry.

This week she moved outdoors, onto the balcony that faces south. There she'll get more light in the form of sunlight. I gave her two wood skewers that support her when heavy gusts would bend her too much, at least in this stadium.

Now she stands without her wind-crotches, she seems to be able to withstand even strong gusts on her own. Watering is still regulated by the soil's surface, whenever it gets dry I give her a cup of water, pouring it along the edges of the pot, so that the soil is wetted but the roots aren't suffocated. I started rotating her 90° clockwise each day, so that the entire plant gets enough sunlight.

This week the weather's not cooperating as much as I had hoped for, so Marisol isn't getting much sunshine. Nevertheless, I still rotate her daily, 90° clockwise, thinking that she'll get more light on her colas. Since she's now in a spot where she's getting rain I did not water her at all - given the current weather situation there's absolutely no need for watering. Since two of her leaves started to show single brighter spots, I decided to add some plain and simple NPK fertilizer. It's a long-term fertilizer as I am still going to keep her as low-maintenance as possible. Occasionally, when sitting on the balcony, a very light scent of her is noticeable.

Day 29: at the beginning of week 5 i topped her. She was growing strong, looking healthy, good color, so I was hoping it would not stress her too much. Day 31: topping seems to not have stressed her too much, she is looking stronger, healthier and prettier than ever, more and more pistils show up on her nodes Day 33: as her colas stretch the first signs of flowers are visible on the top Day 34: she's definitely starting to flower now I keep rotating her each day, hoping to give her more light, still being convinced it'd pay off eventually. As the weather is becoming warmer and drier she gets an occasional cup of water, based on her and the soil's condition.

Day 35: at the beginning of week 6 she's got a minimalistic LST to fan out the lower branches a bit, as her top leaves begin to create more and more shade. Other than that there's nothing out of the ordinary, she recovered beautifully from the topping - which in hindsight should've happened sooner. Day 36: new growth consists solely of flowers Day 39: she's got additional LST in the form of pipe cleaners equipped with one or two nuts as weight. This seems to work nicely, as I am able to bend upper branches into the light as well. The growth of flowers supports this theory - so far. Day 42: Marisol got additional, fresh soil

Day 47: She's looking good, the LST has brought the desired results, as the two main (top) colas are separated nicely, allowing air to flow through and light to reach the leaves. I removed most of my LST helpers apart from pipe cleaners for the lowest branches and the weights on two single branches. The flowers are fattening up, with healthy looking fan leaves, more and more stigmas and trichomes are building up on the sugar leaves Day 49: As beautiful as ever, however with two of her leaves (the two biggest fan leaves) turning towards a brighter green/yellowish color. Since all the other leaves look healthy with a strong, dark green, I can only assume that it has to do with flowering. Day 50: Finally, the temperatures dropped a bit, and the forecast looks promising that the current heatwave is declining. The trichomes are starting to look amazing. In this week I changed the daily clockwise turning routine. From now on I'll let my gut decide in the morning, which side needs more sun-exposure. Generally speaking, due to the increase of temperature, I moved her to a more airy and bit more shaded spot.

Day 58: After another week (week 7) she's starting into week 8, looking beautiful as ever. I took her inside whenever temperatures were too high, keeping her in the sun as much as possible, even though behind a window. Apparently she did not mind, as her buds are fattening up, with trichomes overflowing her sugar leaves. The oldest/biggest fan leaves are now almost done dying, I guess they'll fall off any time soon. However, the smaller/younger leaves look strong and healthy so I am not worried all too much. Her buds are full of pistils, with more pistils growing out the top of the flower. The lower branch pistils are slowly turning amber. Day 59: Today I couldn't take it anymore and removed the dead/dying fan leaves as they were already starting to dry out. So I figured they'd just prevent sunlight reaching the lower branches while not providing anything anymore. I hope she doesn't mind that either and keeps up the good work 😊 Day 62: End of week 8 and I'm quite happy. Marisol's looking good, the buds are ever-growing with fresh pistils on top. The pistils on lower parts of the buds are fading towards amber more and more while her scent is now definitely noticeable. A bit minty, lemony with a few hints of coffee - according to my nose at least. Her sugar leaves are almost completely covered up in trichomes now. Unfortunately I misplaced my looking glass, they'd surely look fascinating under it. The flowers are all looking healthy & clean plus I haven't noticed any insects munching away on her leaves lately which is nice. 👨‍🌾

So we are in week 9 now, and as last week, she's doing just fine. Day 66: I removed other fan leaves that started to die, because eventually that would've been their end anyway. This way they don't create shades on lower flowers and Marisol can use her energy for the more important parts. Day 68: What a beautiful sight at sunrise, with a bit of morning dew on her leaves, bathing in the sun. She's looking prettier by the day and I keep thinking she can't get fatter, but she does. The summer-sun really suits her

Day 72: Based on the answers I got from my grow question, but also on the feeling in my gut, I think it's time to harvest. She stagnated pistil production and the existing ones turn to amber more and more. Her sugar leaves are full of milky trichomes and also her remaining fan leaves start to become yellow. I do not want to let her ripe for too long as I prefer a energizing head high instead of a couch lock body high. Day 73: Oh boy, what a day. Today I got my jeweller's loupe, so I was ready to check her status and see whether the trichomes were already milky. And they were, with a couple of them already starting to turn amber throughout her buds. In combination with yesterday's findings I was convinced it was only a matter of days now, before harvesting. I didn't know what was still waiting for me that day. I was already skeptical due to the changing weather, with lots of rain. The last couple of days we had heavy showers in the evening but yesterday it started to rain and wouldn't stop at night. Which meant that temperatures dropped to ~20°C while RH dropped to just ~75% at night while staying at 100% during the day. So even though everything looked fine in the morning I kept a close eye on her buds. Luckily I did, otherwise I wouldn't have seen one of the sugar leaves turning yellow. Having read that this is a clear sign of bud rot I turned to action immediately, pruning the affected parts and those around it. After I've seen the forecast for the next week I knew that this wouldn't get any better, so I decided that her time had come.

I don't know why, but Marisol seemed to be a bit early in terms of vegetative to flowering stage and (as far as it went) with her ripeness. In hindsight it seemed af she was two weeks early with her flowering phase. On the other hand she grew fast in her early days, after all she developed 6 nodes with 12 branches, all of which had nice flowers, so it seemed okay. What I'd like to change: • plant my next grows earlier (two weeks perhaps?) • no more topping (at least for one trial) (on autos) • feed nutrients: I wouldn't want to go too professional, but throwing her the occasional handful of fertilizer might not hurt. I'd like them to grow a bit bigger/bushier/chunkier • no more daily plant rotation: that was well-intended but I think plants should find their own way to the sun, instead of having to adapt daily What I'd like to keep: • the pipecleaner & nut combo as a LST technique, as this worked really well • the terracotta pot and saucer: moisture control, temperature control, nice optics. bit bigger, but terracotta all the way