vanilla frosting - first Indoor

Clone drop 6/25/20 bought 7/5/20, put into final pot on 7/10. I don't have photos of this clone, think of it as a any basic, kinda crappy looking clone. I had to store this outdoors under a canopy for the first few days, so like ten hours per day for the first four days, then 24/7 for three, then 18 on 6 off now. Photo from https://darkheartnursery.com/strains/vanilla-frosting/ August 23 note: I lost probably two weeks in the beginning because I am a noob, didn't do stuff right in the beginning. So when you see 8-9 weeks of vegging, know its probably me. But I have to say, this Vanilla Frosting clone seems slower than a seed IMHO.

Will be moving to a larger tent to accommodate ventilation and second light. This is first grow in a tent, and my second grow ever. I have some more gear coming. 3x3x6 tent, HPS 150W flowering supplemental light, 6 inch inline fan, carbon scrubber. Hoping to push the veg three more weeks. Only took off two leaves that were the original clone leaves, no other defoliation. Using FoxFarm Bush Doctor Kangaroots to liven things up, made sure soil is not covering the clone rockwool. Setup timer today and its working for 18 hr on 6 hr off. I got some cactus mix from Dr. Earth and used that to top the clone grow area, along with some kelp meal in the surrounding soil, added crimson clover from Johnny's seeds to the grow in the outside ring of the fabric 30 gal pot, need those to boot strap the biome a little. There are worms in this soil from my garden and some soil from there as well. Prior to this, the start was getting compost tea made from legit stuff. Main issue now is it seems dry, so I need to figure out humidity. The original grow tent I bought is too small, so bought another one. Now I can add a humidifier, water tank, and extra light and a full blown awesome ventilation system. More soon. Last day pf week -- Grew almost 1.5" - 2" Figured out lighting for now, temps, humidity good, watering figured out, and new gear has arrive but no 3'x3'x6' tent so next week new setup will get going. Peace.

Wednesday July 22, 2020 Things did well last few days. The leaves started having a pink tinge to the stalks that was beautiful. Stalk is nice and thick at the bottom, tripling in size. Been on top of the clone and it bushed out beyond what I thought it would. It pushed roots down 7-8" from the rock wool. How do I know this? I transplanted the clone from the 30 gal, which was a temp solution (hey I'm not outside ppl and got to make room for the seeds on order). I filled a new Air Pot 5.6 Gal with a new custom mix of Coco Coir (coarse), Perlite (super coarse), small amounts of Sphagnum Moss and Ocean Forest. (2-3 parts OF, 1 part of perlite, 1 part coco -- layering SM around edges of airpot to help with H2O retention a bit.) I am experienced with transplants, air layering, etc. When the clone finally started drooping, I already had the light down, the roots full of Kangaroots and Big Bloom, with Boogie Brew. She came back within about two hours to perfection letting her rest in cool humid dark. I was shocked because she was wilting, maybe this is normal. Lights back on, party re-started. All my new gear came in just today, but I can't really assemble now. So I will continue to watch vegetative growth on this plant for some time. Also, FIMing -- I figured with the stress of the transplant might as well relieve pressure on the roots by reducing foliage. I was gonna wait a lot longer to top/fim but oh well... I took off more than I thought I would, but the leaves I left are nice looking already. Lets see how she does with all the stress. Look at how much I cut... was it too much? More next week. Photos are coming... Sunday July 19, 2020 This week, we start at about 10.5", running only water and some misting. Also cutting water in half this week and will monitor, I think we need a bit drier soil. I want to get things as close to "good" as can be without a legit ventilation system. I have begun misting the plants with a very diluted spray of Kangaroots, and water. I am talking like a 1/2 teaspoon (~2-5ml) in a large spray bottle 24 oz (700-750ml) I have been doing this for about 4-5 days to attempt to resolve the stress induced by too much light in the early stages (week 1) and stress is reduced. I have been accidentally interrupting the dark cycle occasionally because I am a newb to indoor I am running light from 4pm tp 10am -- keeps heat down during the days (heat has been up to 90 degrees (32C). I may slowly change the time a bit once the new tent is setup in week 4. Like maybe get darker earlier a few mins each day as we approach flowering -- I will play with this since this clone is starting so slowly and I have at least three more weeks of veg. Also will remedy any light leaks in week 4. Right now, I am still learning everything. Exhaust system in week 4 will also dramatically improve the biome. I have some yellow tips on new growth, so I dropped light even further down to like "4.5" on the dial of the SF1000. It was just too close even at level 6, and at 26" from canopy. Now the SF1000 is set at 4.5 at 32" from canopy. (No HPS lighting yet) The crimson clover is sprouting now, it is planted around the outer ring of the planter and will help the soil improve its biome with its two types of roots -- without overly competing, I am a companion plant believer. This is organic as I can make it -- this is my medicine. See https://bit.ly/crimsoncloverorganic. The only thing I am yet to get for my ideal grow is gorilla hair redwood My setup by week 4 will be: Tent: Spider Farmer 36"x36"x72" 1680D canvas, frame supports 140lb, 100% reflectivity stone pattern, light-proof SBS zippers, double stitching, double layer) Light: Spider Farmer SF-1000 LED (Samsung LM301B Diodes, MeanWell Driver, Full Spectrum, Dimmable) HPS Light: Sun System Grow Lights - HPS 150W (meant to be always on to overlap LED) Inline Fan: AC Infinity CLOUDLINE T6, Quiet 6” Inline Duct Fan with Temperature Humidity Controller Scrubber: G HYDRO 6 Inch Air Carbon Filter Upgraded Hexagonal Hole with 1200+ RC48 Ducting: AC Infinity Flexible 6-Inch Aluminum Ducting, Heavy-Duty Four-Layer Protection Fans: Genesis 6-Inch Clip (x2), Lasko 4000 Air Stik Ultra-Slim Oscillating Fan Hangers: iPower GLROPEX2, VIVOSUN 2-Pair 1/8 inch Rope Hanger, Trellis: Flexible Net Trellis (bungie type 2x2 works for 3x3) Tooling: VIVOSUN Digital Indoor Thermometer and Hygrometer, iPower 7 Day Heavy Duty Digital Programmable Electric Timer, VIVOSUN Digital Hygrometer Indoor Outdoor Thermometer Humidity Monitor with Touchscreen LCD Backlight (this remote device is AWESOME) Nutrients: rough scheduling: https://bit.ly/ffwgrow FoxFarm Ocean Forest Soil (20 gal) Minimal other soil additives: small amount of dry boogie brew/boost, some earth worms from my garden, and about a cup of garden soil, kelp meal) Boogie Brew (brew base plus booster) - compost tea FoxFarm Kangaroots - stress relief foliar and once a week FoxFarm Big Bloom - during all phase FoxFarm Grow Big - during veg FoxFarm Tiger Bloom - during first flowering Companion plantings: Crimson Clover (https://bit.ly/crimsoncloverorganic)

Ok, so finally able to update here. Had to turn down the lights and let everything chill after last weeks chopping. Here is what she looks like now. New tent, second light. Ventilation and filter all in the new tent, which is huge BTW. I'm really hoping to get some vegetation going. Still doing 18/6.

Last week of vegetation. I need to get it up to about 12" before I switch. The root system is finally working well, so I've finally seeing some lush grow spurts starting. I've been grooming the clone to open up the center and new growth is just happening everywhere. Week six we switch to flowering, unless growth is terrible, so I gotta make this week count. The height not changing much doesn't bother me, last week, the plant switched on and grew out a lot compared to previous weeks. I expect a lot of growth.

Yeah, I went a bit crazy today with the trimming. No worries, gonna veg until it is ravenous to flower. Update: 8/12 added new light Phlizon COB Cree 1000w (250w) and now using SF1000 to veg a new crop. Update: 8/14 so its pretty hot and my grow is outside but sheltered. Had to turn off all lights on the new Phlizon light, WAY more light. Way hotter than SF1000, but the plant is starting to fire... in a good way. Once this heat wave subsides, I think I won't have too many heat issues until September. Weather Channel it was 102° today so I think without dedicated cooling I am just gonna be stuck, makes me think the SF1000 is the perfect second light for a 3x3 tent. Tons of light, but not a ton of heat. Fortunately I don't think its gonna stay this hot, keeping close to my plants today. Update: 8/15 everything got moved around because of the heat, had to change things up, and got the temps down. My other grow is going ok, so the new friends are some WW seeds. Sunday I will close the week with pics. Thanks!

Still vegging, and due to some new seeds and recent defoliation, I took the lights down to "6", still vegging nicely at that light output, but not as vigorously as with the hotter light from last week. Update: 8/17 still vegging on lower lights, my other grow is starting and I'm gonna try to make the White Widow catch up to this, but I think I'm gonna have to flower this in two weeks, which means I will veg the WW in the other smaller tent for like six weeks!!! Update: 8/19 the heat struggles are not over, mainly because I want to run so much light on these plants. I should just calm the f*ck down and be fine with a slower grow until it cools down, gives the WW a chance to catch up anyway with the VF. Update: 8/20 Just feeding today with nutes and update a pic showing new leaf development, looking good so far. Check out the WW seedlings. Update: 8/22 - 8/23 Canopy is about 14"-16" across. Maybe 18" in a couple spots. Moved tents around for space, humidity and heat issues. Now VF has the 3x3 with the Phlizon COB and the WW plus NL have the 2x2 with the SF-1000. I think this will work short term. Check out the new growth on the previously mega chopped VF canopy? I am gonna switch it to flower in a week I think. Should have more control. I did a lot of HST and LST and some defoliation on the VF, but its seems to be ready to take off. Gonna let her dry out some, get ready for flush with water before flower this week, and NO I am not gonna use a "product" to do that, just clean water with a decent Ph. Oh yeah, moved the TexMX mystery seed to the 3x3 cause it is ready to grow. I don't care it if gets flowered early in the VF tent. I still can't sex the TexMX, but hoping it is a female. Otherwise I may accidentally become a breeder LOL. Update: See you next week, everything is just gonna be in stasis til then -- pics coming soon BTW I think I was pretty naive to think I could flower these together. The WW will just have to wait in its own tent ;)

Week 8 will start to coincide with my other grow on 8/25 (adding two days to veg before flower on 8/25) That way I can keep track of things better. See you then! Update: 8/25 So all is well on the veg of the VF. Is getting more and more lush and I have done very little in the way fo training other than keeping things tight, some minor defoliation, super cropping, bending. I can see that I will have to trim underneath once I start to flower in a week or two. I want a lot from this and its in a 6.5 gallon airpot, if I have to grow this for 6 months, I want a heavy yield! TexMX can't sex yet, even though I have magnification, I can't tell as the third set of leaves hasn't fully developed its node yet, so no pre-flowers just yet, I think we need one more week, which makes me think this is actually about 3.5 weeks old. Part of me hopes its a male so I can cross the VF and the TexMX for fun. Update: 8/26 VF is looking good. It was so bushy that I decided to go ahead and thin it, but this time less aggressively and more just pinching off leaves and leaving future bud sites. Two more weeks of vegetative growth needed for the size I want, I am giving pre-flower nutes now, tiger bloom addition every four or so days. Pre-flower until Sept. 9 and then make the switch, then I will flower NL and TexMX with it even though they will be small -- VF is gonna be BIG. I hope TexMX its a male and I get seeds. Update: 8/27 So, I got busy last night and took off some more from the VF, got pretty aggressive since I have decided to flower on Sept. 9. which is 2 more weeks -- just a little over 12 weeks of veg. I feel like I got some sort of bonsai action going here, but I think by then I will have nicely developed colas for flower. I am doing pre-flowering nutes and will start to adjust the clock soon, just a bit. Feeding only a quart of 6.5 Ph, BB, TB -- she is dry but without leaves dont want to slow things more than needed. I topped the TexMX in honor of hurricane Laura, I don't care if it's male, nothing to pollenate. So we will have to wait until next week prolly to sex it.

Week 11 started 9-11 OMG the fires in Cali screwed up my plans. Anyway, getting back on track. Been keeping stuff vegging. The Vanilla Frosting looks like a mother and I took a clone a few days ago and its in rock wool looking good! VF is pretty vegged out, kinda scared how much she is gonna stretch. I flipped the switch today to flower because its already looking to stretch. I added a metric F ton of Ceylon Cinnamon to all my plants surfaces and another ginormic portion of diatomaceous earth on them too. Screw those fungus gnats. I made a special concoction with some Dynomyco after calibrating my PH meter (6.5Ph) and drenched all the ladies except VF and then added some Tiger Bloom and drenched VF. I light burned all the plants a little with the Vanilla Frosting the worst. Looks like I only lost a few leaves though cause I caught it in time. The bleaching was mild and she is back to super light green and looking relieved. I see WAY less gnats. (THIS IS NOT AN INDOOR GROW) Update 9-20 So I saw what I wanted with some pre-flowering and super glad I flipped, this plant has been my first indoor and man have I learned so much about literally everything. I enjoy doing this so much. VF was almost healed up from light and heat bleaching that happened during the Bay Area fires. She was pretty bushy and I spread her out on the netting for first scrog attempt. Sure hope I am rewarded, humidity is spiking at night but for now it will have to be that way. During the day humidity is 60 then 50 and at night goes into the mid 70s. Heat is still a problem, and she is so thirsty right now, dropping water a lot and nutes every 3-4 days. I have new flowering goodies on the way, OG Biowar, don't want to use FF Tiger Bloom anymore because I heard its not fully organic. Fuck that noise. This is an organic grow. Take look and tell me what you think!

Everything the same, just flowering still. Had to move everything under one tent again...

Everything is the same, since moving everything to one tent, the NL auto started flowering a bit more. The Vanilla Frosting started stretching, and the White Widow is finally pre-flowering a little. The VF gets dry every day, and weather has been wild again but I have managed to keep everything healthy. The addition of OG Biowar has really seemed to put the critters out of work (https://ogbiowar.com/). Granted I have also used Boogie Brew Black, and it takes me friggin 20-30 mins to get everything mixed and ready, but the plants are not complaining. I make a compost tea in a five gallon bucket and bubble for about 24 hours with a serious air pump and huge air stones, then I add all my nutes to it. I would say this is a 95% organic grow. Check out the video and check out the meds I made from the leaves of these plants. Packed a mason jar with clean leaves and poured in regular isopropyl alcohol - a few days later and its so green you cant see through it. I learned about this from a friend from South of the border. It seems to work well on muscle aches. -shrug- at least for me. FIVE MORE WEEKS For those who wonder how much light/heat I am putting down, its like 1807.8 umol/s at dead center over the Cree light, the Spider Farmer puts down way less, but the two lights together are working well and fuck it, its 82 degrees in the tent during the day and they are all pretty happy. So it is what it is. If it gets super hot I keep the CREE part of the Phlizon on, and turn of the LEDs, the SF1000 has plenty of light to help.

Ok, so week 14 is here. Everything was going pretty well, except the VF seemed to be drying out and production was stalled, not that flowers were not progressing -- its just they were small and leaves were not as lush and rocking like before. I was not sure what was up, but one thing that bothered me was that no matter how often I watered, the soil seemed compressed like a rock and would dry out super super fast, like overnight. The good thing about being in a 5 gallon airpot is that transplants are supposedly painless. Well, my dumb ass decided to go for it. The deciding factors to re-pot this were: 1. It's in an airpot so actually there were almost no roots visible when I peeled off the airpot. 2. I am having a surgery in 8 days that will make it almost impossible to take care of these plants the way I have been, no lifting no major movements that will aggravate stuff. I transplanted to a huge pot I got at Costco for a lemon tree. The hardware store only had some brand I have'nt used Mother Earth (https://www.mother-earthproducts.com/product/groundswell-performance-soil/) so I went ahead with that, if I'm gonna screw it up, well might as well just go for it. The transplant was perfect. The air pot trimmed the roots like a champ... maybe too much. So now she will have the water and room she is craving. I doused the whole thing with about two gallons of brewed awesomeness. Added Dynomyco to the roots and never even turned the lights off (just lifted them up). Took about thirty minutes to do it. What about the other plants? I just sent them back to the two by two until VF finishes. Turned on the 180 watt HPS on them, and vent right over the light to intake that air into the larger tent, using my scrubber for both tents. It worked like a champ. Everyone got the water and nutes they wanted. By the way, there are WORMS in my soil! I hope I didn't mess stuff up but if this goes sideways, it will help me learn.

10/15 Same stuff, just keeping it stable is all I'm trying to do. Update 10/18 - Heat was ridiculous this week, had to turn one or more light features off, for example, turned off the HPS -AND- the LED circuit on the Phlizon on the hottest day because inside the tent it was like 91 degrees F. Yeah it may not be the perfect environment, but look at the growth from the 15th til today. Major flowering happening, unless I am tripping. I see a lot more healthy growth now, which in my opinion means the transplant idea was SO WORTH IT. I see a lot of crystals forming now and the tops the leaves are turning more white that I could hav imagined -- with two more weeks at least to go, I think I may have some bomb flowers if I dont fuck anything up. Northern light to the left in video has more to go and is not as far along as the Vanilla Frosting. 10/20 Added some new nutes for the last two weeks of flower, bubbling like a madman wanting this grow to finish. White Widow (three plants outdoors) will probably finish in the tent, its just really in stasis but it is getting some frosting of its own. BTW when I smelled the flowers yesterday I was blown away by how awesome they smell, like seriously boutique top shelf aromas going on, this is my first grow indoors and really the first time I have been able to give the attention and care these babies need. I have learned SO much. Especially about stuff I was clueless about before. Like which lights are good. What tent size to get. Ph, nutes, watering, relative humidity, cloning... all new stuff. I have become a better gardener as a result and my 200 sq ft community garden plot is doing way better and I expect next year to be bonkers because I really get the whole ecosystem thing now and how mycorrhizae helps everything. This video helped me a ton: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ID9rE5JewVg&ab_channel=ApogeeInstrumentsInc. and this one too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jq_wl8XRUK4&ab_channel=GrowersNetwork Also, really check out Phlizon lights (CREE COB) if your tent can handle the heat. I am already planning my next grow, and I am going high CDB autos... solomatic and fast eddy.

10/21 Leaving things alone except doing final nutes before flush. I figure I am two weeks out from considering harvest. Watching heat situation in Cali right now, as we may have some heat again... but generally things have cooled off enough to where I can leave all three lights on and temps stay OK. I do worry that some terpenes etc may have evaporated in the high temps, but its not like I can move anything now, so it is what it is. ;) Yesterday I defoliated the big VF plant, taking off fan leaves that were shading or looked ugly. I also cut off suckers that had no chance of being legit flowers. The outdoor White Widow is going to be fluffy and not anything to write home about, or so I think at this point. Hard to say. I feel positive about this grow. I learned a lot about what to do and what not to do. The next grow will be a lot more technical and using a test strain of auto and new lighting schedules. Should be fun. Looking forward to posting the seedling stage soon. I hope to have faster growth and better LST. More pics soon. 10/22 Just checked the plants since its been about 24 hrs since last nutes dropped on them. Everyone is happy so my dosing isnt too awful, that's good. Clones from WW are taking, see roots already on 3-4 of them, have to choose two from each pheno. I don't even know if I will grow them, but I can have six plants in Cali, so I will choose two from the four if I decide to veg them. Autos seem more appealing in the short term, especially over Winter. The outdoor White Widow is putting on some crystals and the flowers are getting fatter, but nothing to get crazy about. Nice to see the buds growing in a natural setting, just wish I had more sun in the spot. Only getting about 8 hours on them outside, and my lights inside are brighter than the sun at this time of year. (measured with meter) Maybe I will get 4-5 grams or less. The Vanilla Frosting is going bonkers, I de-foliated a bunch more useless leaves and every time I do that now, I get rewarded with all this new flower growth. Starting to shape up into some really amazing smelling buds and I think we will harvest in two weeks, which is actually right about on time. I am guessing I get a little 30-35 grams dry weight, but two weeks is a long time, and I have been souping up the nutes lately, maybe more? Re-potting == WIN, SCROG==WIN, All that vegging time == WIN, well sort of, I could have done better had I known more about lighting. I will be happy if I get anything over 45 grams. The Northern Lights Auto just keeps putting on weight, for a non LST, single plant in about 2 gallons soil, this plant is a great performer, especially when you consider all the screw ups, and heat issues I have had. My first auto will probably give me 3-5 grams if I am lucky dry weight, maybe even more!

10/28 Last 10 days or so... no more nutes, just ph 6.5 water, minding environmentals and keeping an eye out for random crap like my 15 amp breaker going out in the early AM -- but fine in the heat of the day, go figure. I added another heat pad so I am sure that is running hot in the colder temps and drawing more power. I have an idea how to fix it, I'll keep you posted. Humidity is naturally so perfect right now, weather finally helping me out. Humidity is 55% naturally and 50% in tent with no lights on. With lights on it was 33% to 40% during the day. Day temps 82 F 28 C degrees. Night temps down to the 50s F 13-14 C. So the colds temps and relatively low humidity are helping my last weeks of flower, hurray for once. Pretty excited to harvest and pensively planning and muttering about the impending curing cycle to come! Got the AC Infinity on seven, all three fans are moving air. Two seedling heat mats keeping stuff warm (kinda low tech, buy hey), little de-humidifier churning. Got five plants still flowering and not much time left before it gets cold cold! As long a weather holds I know its gonna help. Update 10/30 Mando! Anyway, new video showing what is in the flowering tent. It's hard not to get excited looking at the fruits of all this labor and time ... and money spent. It's like worse than golf or something, all I look at are new growing techniques, new tools, new lights. I have to avoid Amazon! I think the key is buying the best stuff you can afford and what you think you need, then adding 20% that way you will end up not regretting it later when your light is too weak. I ended up running three lights in a 3x3 to get the coverage and lumens I needed. Still not happy with my setup. Anyway, back to the video. Left side is Northern Lights, middle is Vanilla Frosting, towards the front all along from left to right, those are the three trimmed White Widows, and those are some dank buds... they are pungent. The VF smells like candy, the NL smells like some indica drama. The WW is almost skunky its so heavy, but not.

11/4 next week starts: No nutes except a little molasses in water, not much water at this point - flushed twice but this is an organic grow for the most part and living soil (got the worms to show for it). Trying to finish this grow but Vanilla Frosting is still putting on weight and hairs not turning red percentage wise as needed so still waiting -sigh-. Northern Lights has a few more days but looks the furthest along, go figure. White Widow probably needs two weeks, but the whole tent is gonna be treated equally so its either one or two more weeks total. If the VF starts to finish then I will shut down everything at once regardless of WW being a little behind. Still waiting and anticipate 2-3 days of darkness before harvest. Sure hope weather holds.

First real grow, it was great and I learned a ton. Keep it simple, keep it clean, don't overwater, get your light height figured out -- curing is just as important as the grow