She’s a special 1 alright

Week one of this special queen. This one has been a struggle. I tried to order strains that said they were easy for beginner and fit for the outdoors or greenhouses. This one is testing me. I mean she has made it which is more than I can say for my other royal queen seed. ☹️ She is pushing through. Wasn’t even sure I was going to give her a diary. But here it is.

Had a photo not sure if I deleted it. Oops. Growing slow. And funny looking.

Maybe over watered. Maybe wonky from birth. Definitely some issues. Looking like it has some deficiencies. Flushed it. And waited for it to dry real well. Then added back in some Nutes and phd water using ac vinegar. And new growth is starting to look ?normal? Transplanting next week into final resting place. Have 30gallon bags coming for the full season plants.

Transplanted wonky queen at the beginning of the week. To a 30gallon grow bag. Probably a little large for her size but she’s has had enough stress in her life between overwatering and nutrient problems. So I’m just watering around the base of plant and not entire pot. She has shot up. And new growth is looking less wonky. Less flea beetles. And hoping it continues on the straight and narrow. Greenhouse is getting hot. Heat wave here at 85 degree days outdoor causing greenhouse to max out in high 90s. I hung a screen and put a bigger fan in. But still hot as hell. Being in 30 gal bag I can’t move it outdoors. Like I do the others in 5gal bags. Oops. Well she’s wonky anyway. Hope she likes the heat. Don’t want to over water her any more. Bags don’t seem to dry out in heat. Not sure if that’s a good or bad thing.

Clip off some of the lower wonky leaves that were curled under and did not seem like the were useful or going to correct. She is growing better and more normally now. Ph correction have been great. I guess I didn’t realize how important it was. But I have a meter now and can get it just right. Still using acv to adjust water. Working well. Plants seem to be doing good. No signs of stress from the very light defoliation. Some signs of heat stress due to high temps in greenhouse. But can’t move the 30gallon pot easily like I can the smaller plants so she stuck. I check regularly, water regularly. And most them all in the heat. There is plenty of air flow. And night temps are good. Day temps are extreme. But we are having a heat wave and a drought. I think there is a cold front moving in. Hopefully this will help.

Doing much better. So tall. She clearly loves her huge pot. Only 6 weeks old with months to go. I want to top her and I keep thinking about it. But my newbie status makes me nervous. Though my gardening skills with other plants is pretty high. I’m over here topping all my veggies and herbs and watching them flourish. Something about these that I just don’t want to screw up. First time jitters. I even researched and questioned cloning the top I pull off. But not even sure what I’d do with if it took. Since I’ll be maxing out my legal number of plants for a few weeks if I did such things. (Little goodie two shoes doesn’t want to be law breaking over here.... I just know how hard we all worked to get it legalized here. I don’t want o jeopardize that by not following the dumb rules) Still I could gift it I suppose. Still contemplating topping and attempting a cloning. In other news the stem I busted off my blueberry I dipped in take root for shots an d giggles and thought it died, has actually started growing 😂 oops. And I put it ina clear cup to see if roots form. Yup. Almost totally neglected it when I thought it died off. Um. I don’t have much hope for it’s growth since my blueberry is about 3-4weeks from harvest. And this thing is 1 inch tall. Hahaha. (Fun with plants) Levels up my cloning confidence anyway!

Probably need to top this girl. She is lanky. She is teaching to the top of my greenhouse now but not filling out as I had hoped. Topping her is inevitable. She is my only special queen so I hate to do it and kill her or stunt her. Booo. But I think it will help To fill her out. And maybe thicken her trunk. She’s the size of a tree with the stem of a plant. Luckily she is indoor in greenhouse and wind isn’t. A problem. I put the light fan on her in the evening in hopes that some movement would thicken the stem. I’ve secured her with stakes. And tied it down. She’s a sun lover! Reaching for the stars!

Topped her last week and she started to fill out. And grew even taller than she was before I topped her. Holy moly. Cloned the top and it seems to be thriving. Away on vacation this week so they are getting a lot less attention. Been really hot so I swung home to water well. Was worried. But greenhouse is handling the heat well. Soo... not much to worry about. (I hope)

Topped a second time. She is outgrowing her home. I took her off her rolling cart to give her a few more inches and topped the highest branches. So she has some breathing room. Had some leaves spotting. Not exactly sure what kind of Def she’s experiencing. could be heat stress. I was away for 2 weeks but I’m back to daily care for her. Cloning the tops I removed. Already rooted first topping and she took like a champ. And gifting to a friend. See if I can clone these others. All an experiment at this time. First season lessons to be learned.

Got some cal mag. My ph has been off and honestly these pots are huge and I’m back to work full time. It been hot and times been short so I’ve just been hiding these girls down when they get too dry. My well water is about 7.5. With some heavy rains I noticed it jumped up a bit close to 8. And some of the deficiencies on the leaves pointed to Calcium def due to high ph. Soooo order the cal mag and gave the whole crop a feeding. With PH’d water at 6.5 and 1tsp per gal and a 2 gallon water feedbing for the big mamas like my special queen here. Let’s see what this does. As I’m very new and this is my official first season. It’s all an experiment to me. I super appreciate all the advice I get here. I’m so glad I found this site. Everyone helps and points me in the right direction for better knowledge and learning. Some of my friends/family really enjoy watching this part of my garden grow and I’ve cloned some of this plant and the white og and gifted them. And am hopefully passing on some good advise for their first grow! Looks like 9/25 is when my sunlight will convert to 12/12 so I still have some veg time. This girl keeps out growing her space. “Gunna need a bigga boat”

Spider mite issue. Cleaned greenhouse. Soaked planted. Sprayed with de and then again with pyrethrum. Then washed them after a day to remove any. Washed them again. And today I added lady bugs to the greenhouse. Fight those mites my ladies. Nomnom 🤤 She is touching the roof. And I believe beginning to flower. I heavily defoliated after the mite battle. Removing all lower blocked leaves and dead or eaten leaves and anything yellow. She is going to need a good heavy feeding (big bloom) coming up this week. Need to take a picture for this week. As I totally missed her today 😱

Well.... she was getting to tall. Hi loved the whole green house around to accommodate the sun and this giant plant/tree! I asked for help and many of you recommended tying her down. I got her in a place where I could do this effectively and still be able to move around my plants. Well I started on the outter limbs and lightly tied them back and down for optimal sunshine. And to keep them from touching the roof of the greenhouse. Well as I slightly (I mean so gently) pulled the main center two stems (I had topped twice so there are 2 main colas) I snapped the center stem right down the middle. Ouch. I taped with plant tape and then covered that with duct tape. She seems to be fine. And still flowering nicely. But I can’t believe I did that. Ugh. At that point I stopped tying her down because I was so upset and thought I’d killed her. But it’s been about 5 days and she is thriving so I think it’s ok? Defoliating as many of the lower leaves are yellowing deeply. She is quite a lollipop. But at least she almost not touching the roof any more. Flowering nicely. Calling this first week of flower even though she started showing about 10days age. We are well into bidding process and I can see them all forming. Smell is still weak. Or my nose is getting more used to the smell. As everyone who comes anywhere near my house and greenhouse tell me it smells strong. But I do have one harvestable blueberry I need to work on today. So it might be her. Once I get her out of there today I’ll know but when I smell the flowers on the queen she is still weak. I doubt that will last long 😂 Going to water well and feed more tiger bloom today too! See you next week.

Emergency harvest. I had to harvest the other plant in the night as I checked it late and the bud rot had set in. I didn’t have time to get to this girl until morning. Luckily she wasn’t nearly as bad. Lost one big cola and a couple small bids but not much. Let all the trim go to compost. Due to mites. Ended up doing a 3 bucket wash and set up a hang dry. Will move to my mesh drying rack in a week to give it a long dry out. For maybe 2 weeks post hang dry. Didn’t weigh it all yet. As I was in panic mode. Wanted to send an update as it’s been a while. Had lots of time At beginning of grow due to shut downs but now that I’m back to work full force not as much time for my hobby. Probably wouldn’t have had the final issues had I been able to keep up with them like at the beginning but work calls. This girl was a monster. Had to top twice. Tie down at the end because she was growing out the roof of my 10ft tall greenhouse. Over all the yields are more than I will ever need. Can someone say Christmas gifts for everyone!!!! Can wait to weigh Her and try her out. I’ll be back for some updates in the coming weeks. Happy growing y’all