Northern Lights Auto Hydroponics

Hello fellow growers 👋 Welcome to my 1st diary & Cannabis grow 📔 With 4 years of active veggie Hydro growing I hope to find this challenging and rewarding! My Grow Environment: 🏕️ Tent Size: Vivosun 4 X 4 X 8. 💡 Veg: Mars Hydro TS 1000 & Exlenvce 1200TW 🌊 Hydroponic DWC Bubbleponics. 🌊 TaoTronics Humidifiers, 4L Cool Mist Ultrasonic Humidifier 🍯 5 GL Pots Craftsman container bought at Lowes $6.00 with Grodan Delta 4 Rockwool Blocks 3" x 3" x 2.5" With Hole Pack of 8 💨 1-2 Air pumps each pot / Tetra Whisper 100 dual output with Pawfly 4 Inch Air Stone Disc Bubbler for Aquarium Fish Tank Air Pump per container. 💨 PELONIS PFT40A4AGB Electric Oscillating Stand Up Tower Fan, 40-inch & Hurricane HGC736520 Classic Series Clip Fan, 6", 6", White 💨 Afloia Dehumidifier for Home 2000ML(68 oz) Water Tank, Portable Quiet Dehumidifier 2200 Cubic Feet(269 sq.ft) 🌪️ AC Infinity CLOUDLINE S6, Quiet 6” Inline Duct Fan with Speed Controller. 🌪️ iPower GLFILT6M 6 Inch Air Carbon Filter ⏲️ Light Schedule 18/6. Misc: PGarden-EZ Green Soft Twist Tie Tomato Plant Tie TPR. GROWNEER Flexible Net Trellis for Grow Tents, Fits 4x4ft BN-LINK Heavy Duty Mechanical 24 Hour Timer Dual Outlet 3-Prong VIVOSUN 1-Pack Gardening Hand Pruner Pruning Shear with Titanium Coated Curved Precision Blades ThermoPro TP55 Digital Hygrometer Indoor Thermometer Humidity Gauge with Jumbo Touchscreen and Backlight Temperature Humidity Monitor VIVOSUN 6-Pair 1/8 Inch 8-Feet Long Adjustable Heavy Duty Rope Clip Hanger, Quick Adjust Design, Reinforced Metal Internal Gears,150lb Capacity Inkbird Humidity Controller Humidistat Pre Wired Plug Digital Sensor Humidifier Decided to germinate the last 4 seeds on 9/4. They seem to be stronger than the 1st four which are now in the Aerogarden. - used the scratch method on the seeds before soaking them. It worked a lot better and will use this method for all future seeds. - 9/6/20 all 4 seeds germinated. Moved them to a paper towel and placed in a dark location ( no baggie or saucer placed over them ). I put them into 2 inch rockwool cubes which fit tighter in the 3 inch net pots. - 9/8 just awaiting sprouting. Lights off and an aerogarden dome over the seedlings for extra humidity. - 9/7 transferred to rockwool cubes. - I cut 2 of the rockwool cubes 3/4 of the way to place the seeds with long tap roots. The hydroton pebbles will strengthen any future LST strain placed on the plants. - 9/9 3 of the 4 are now seedlings. Fan on rotating setting and lowest speed. Mars at 25% intensity. Placed the air pumps on the outside of the containers to center containers under the light. - 9/10 added another light to reduce angel stretching, reduced height, added additional hydroton to protect the seedling stems. - 9/11 Week 1 completed. No Nutes added. Week 1 lesson's learned. * Scratch seeds lightly before soaking to increase water intake. * taller humidity dome would work better. * lower light during initial sprouting. * add additional hydroton once they sprout to add protection to seedling stems. ** I've contacted Sunwest Genetics on their 80% guarantee (currently at 37% germination). I was told to call back in 2 days after attempting emergency germination technique. Will update at the end of week 2. **

9/13 Day 9. Red and Yellow now have visible roots, nice and white. Still awaiting on Blue to show root sign. Green hmmm not sure if it will make it. - added 2 mil of UC roots additive, and 8 ml of Aerogarden nutes 4-3-6. This is at 25% recommended amount based per gallon. - Added vent ducting bringing in A/C into the tent via a 4 inch tubing. Will see if this reduces air temp within the tent. - Fan is back on rotating at the lowest setting. 9/14 Day 10. Started a 18 hrs on 6 hrs off light schedule. 9/18 Day 14. Re-arranged setup for now just 3 plants. Did another light feeding using GHE products and Cal Mag. - Re-PH'd the water back down to 6.1 - Green is no longer with us .... RIP :o( - Good news SunWest Genetics is graciously sending additional seeds for the one's that didn't germinate. Will provide follow-up as to how many did they send? ** Week 2 Lessons Learned ** - Should have given them a 1/4 amount of nutes at the end of week 1 instead 1/2 way through week 2. - Grow diaries doesn't save each weeks nutes amounts, so I will have to log them here in the week comments. This way anyone or myself can either follow my plan or I can make tweaks for future grows. - Last picture is just called "Nutrients" and it will pull up the screen shot of this weeks feeding amounts.

9/20 Day 16. Trying to just maintain environment and not pamper them. New leaves are not showing any signs of nutrient deficiencies. 9/21 Day 17. Keeping the fan on, but directly on them. Will get a small clip on fan to gently keep a breeze on them. Thinking at the end of week 3 will start some LST, not going to top them. Blue is still the runt. 9/24 Day 20. Added a 6'' hurricane fan to blow lighter air. Raised the lights to 21". Red PH 6.42 TDS @ 681 EC 1.3. Blue PH 6.4 TDS 654 EC 1.3. Yellow PH 6.3 TDS 621 EC 1.2 Tap water TDS 250 EC .527 ** SunWest Genetics sent me 8 new seeds! You guys Rock! Will buy from you again and thank you for honoring your guarantee! **

9/28 Day 24. Raised air pumps above the water line using two 5 gal buckets. Removed the inline air backflow valve and this increased aeration greatly! - Feeding day. Red TDS 850. EC 1.8 / Blue TDS 800. EC 1.7 / Yellow TDS 785. EC 1.6 / 10ml CalMag, 10ml Micro, 5ml Grow, 5ml Bloom, 2ml UC Roots. Will check TDS & EC through the week as they are starting to drink up the water. - LST started today. I will be adjusting them daily to pull off shoot branches in different directions. 9/30 Day 26. Added water for the first time. Used purified drinking water from the grocery store (Ph 7.45 TDS 95 EC .2) and PH'd it down to 5.9 10/1 Day 27. Readjusted the LST wires and added some new ones on the stems that can now be pulled in different directions. Red suffered a break on the main stem that went 1/2 through the stalk. I decided to use the LST wire to push it back together so that it can heal. I will still train the other shoots in different directions and let the main stem just do it's thing. Blue and Yellow pulled in new directions to open up the middle and spread out the stems. - I defoliated (light amount) some of the 3 leaf blades that were touching the container lids, and any larger 5 leaf blades that were blocking light to any new shoots with new stem growth and potential bud sites. I wanted to allow the air flow at the lower section of the plant. 10/2 Day 28. Everyone is bouncing back from the LST. Keeping a close eye on Red and the injury healing. I've decided to do a 1/2 of a weekly feed every 4 days instead of a mass feeding once a week. I will test the TDS and EC, see what the plants are telling me before I feed of course. (All values before feeding) - Red PH 5.98 TDS 720 EC 1.512 - Blue PH 6.17 TDS 728 EC 1.544 / Will add .25 PH down and re-test all in an hour after the feed to check PH values. - Yellow PH 5.93 TDS 708 EC 1.497 Feeding: 5ml CalMag, 5ml Micro, 4 ml Gro, 2ml Bloom, 2ml UC Root Guard. Post Feed values: - Red PH 5.78 TDS 808 EC 1.695 - Blue PH 5.90 TDS 846 EC 1.796 - Yellow PH 5.73 TDS 803 EC 1.700 Lessons learned week 4. 1. Be a little more gentle on LST. 2. Mark the water sight gauge at each 1 gallon increment so that I can track water replenishment levels. 3. Started a spreadsheet to monitor feeding value changes.

10/5 Day 31. I've added a dehumidifier now that the plants are starting to show signs of pre-flower or flower. Maybe one of the expert growers can let me know. :o) 10/6 Day 32. I did some more defoliation to open up the air flow at the base of the stem (mini lollipoping). I also re-arranged the pots and lifted the air pumps so that I could have more room for training them. This should also improve air flow. I moved the rotating fan so that it is pulling air from the lower tent intake. Move the 6'' hurricane fan so that it is blowing down at the center of the tent. More LST training after giving everyone some more "elbow" room! I will allow them to recovery for a few days after the defoliation, but will keep adjusting the LST wires. - Added 1 gallon of purified H2O to each plant. No signs of any deficiencies on the leaves. Nice and Green with new nodes popping up (I think). Red - PH 5.54 TDS 703 EC 1.459 Blue - PH 5.77 TDS 735 EC 1503 Yellow - PH 5.6 TDS 693 EC 1.482 Blue (runt) is finally showing a growth spurt and has almost caught up to Red who seems to have healed from the partial stem tear. Yellow seems to still be the front runner in size and horizontal stretching. I will continue to train them until they definitely show signs of vertical growth and bud formation. At that time I will switch over their feeding to decrease N and increase P & K. SO far the GHE products are doing well, I might switch over to advanced nutrients for the next grow. Roots in all 3 pots are filling up and are still nice and white. Thankfully I am able to keep the water temp around 74-75 F. The UC Roots product is doing it's job as well. As of right now I'm not using any type of extra CO2 generator, but have watched some videos on You Tube on making a DIY. I wish there was more community involvement on questions and the need help section of this site. Also a lot of the You Tube sites that claim to cater to the "beginner grower" seem more interested in their "hip" music selection, video shots of their plants, and talking a lot of nothingness just to get viewers, verses providing quality content to really help the newbie growers. Ok off my soap box. I am really enjoying this grow and today after spending about an hour in the tent it was quite relaxing and therapeutic tending to the plants. 😊 10/7 Day 33. Rest in Peace Eddie Van Halen! Your influence in rock and roll will always be remembered! Feeding day! I am liking the 4 day schedule giving them 1/2 of the weekly recommended amounts per a consensus of growers who all say it's better to feed a little less, and make any additional increases as needed. The extra day helps to spread it out too. Also the importance of looking at the plants daily to see if there are any issues. Yellow is drinking more water that the other 2 and is still the front runner in overall growth and size. To think Yellow almost didn't make it past the seedling stage due to a "stretching bend" injury during week 1. - Amounts total in 4 gallons. UC Roots 8ml, CalMag 5ml, Micro 6ml, Gro 2ml, Bloom 6ml. These amounts are overall as the pots have 4 gallons of water in them. I adjusted to pot size in the description above. I made some small adjustments to the LST wires. All of the plants are now competing to who will become "Top Cola." I've also decided to name the plants per their growing pot color. Ruby, Bertha, Yuki. I picked Bertha as she was the runt, hopefully the name with inspire a great weigh in on dried flowers! 10/8 Day 34. Plants showing some signs of heat stress. I raised the lights up 2 inches. Now that I'm in flowering, heat and humidity reduction will get more of a focus. Tested the PH and it dropped to 5.2. I re-calibrated the pen just to make sure. Since they are starting to really drink more water I added 1/2 gallon of regular tap water that had been de-chlorinated. Checked PH 3 hours later and it is back up to 5.8. I have some PH up solution that I use for the aquarium, so will decided if I should adjust PH with watering using purified store water to lower PH and tap water to raise it since I anticipate them needing a gallon of water added every other day. Or I could just PH up the store bought water. 10/9 Day 35. Heat stress seems to be subsiding, but have noticed a few of the leaf tips are showing signs of nute burn. Overall they are looking great. I will monitor the leaf's for any additional issues. I know autoflowers like to be under feed compared to what the fertilizer companies recommend. I might look at going to a feed every 5 days using 1/2 of the recommended feeding amounts, along with seeing what the plant leaf's, water chemistry is telling me. As this is my first Cannabis grow it feels like I'm trying to "learn how to fly this particular model while I'm building it!" Anyone else feel like that on their 1st grow? 10/11 Day 37. All is growing well. Added a mixture of store water and tap to make adjustments to PH dropping. Each girl needed 1 gallon of water. Flowers are starting to grow :O) Ruby - PH 5.0 TDS 786 EC 1.651 (added PH up water to correct and an extra dose of 5ml UC Roots) Bertha - PH 5.96 TDS 858 EC 1.831 Yuki - PH 6.09 TDS 753 EC 1.725 Week 5 Lessons Learned: 1. Bought some Botanicare Silica Blast for the next grow. 2. Need to ensure the lid holes for adding water, and the air stone line is placed correctly with the water level sight guage. Yuki (Yellow) will need a new lid for the next grow. 3. More and a bit larger bore drill holes for the LST tie down points on the edges of the lids.

10/12 Day 38. I did another round of defoliation to try and reduce the humidity levels, open up air flow through the plants and light penetration. I mainly focused on the lower growth that was shaded and larger fan leaves that were blocking light from possible forming bud sites. I also spread the containers out further from each other as they are growing into each other. I've been reading other diaries that are using RDWC and seeing what I can learn from their week 6 grow. I am considering using a ScrOG net to further stretch out the bud sites. The problem is the tower fan that will interfere with the net. 10/13 Day 39. Tested water chemistry this morning and added 1/2 gallon to each. Will test again in a few hours and try to make a decision on a feeding today. Ruby PH 6.33 TDS 645 EC 1.380 / Bertha PH 6.23 TDS 760 EC 1.617 / Yuki PH 6.53 TDS 653 EC 1.393 Plants are still looking well so I will hold off on feeding. UC Roots added 5ml per gallon. 10/15 Day 41. Feeding day! CalMag 5ml Micro 5ml Bloom 5ml. I decided to hold off on the Gro as the leaves are still a dark green color, and the nutes I used have N already in them. Topped them off with 1/2 gallon of water as well. Will check water chemistry and make PH adjustments as needed along with some pictures. Bertha has finally caught up with Ruby. Yuki is having a lopsided growth height which you can see in the pictures. I've rotated her container to put the smaller growth areas towards the center of the lights. 10/16 Day 42. I topped them off with more water. I will be gone for 2 days, so i opened the tent to allow the room to keep the humidity at 50%. 10/18 Day 44. I came home and found some discoloration on the budding fan leaves on Bertha, and a little on Ruby. The PH had risen to 6.5, so I PH'd it back down to 5.8. Decided to do a feeding. Ruby PH 6.52 TDS 637 EC 1.325 / Bertha PH 6.54 TDS 738 EC 1.528 / Yuki PH 6.71 TDS 670 EC 1.429 I PH'd all 3 down to 5.8 so hopefully this will allow the needed nutes to be taken in. I decided to add some more Grow as it has K 2-1-6 is the ratio. Judging from the pictures maybe some slight N deficiency?? I will take some more pictures as Week 7 starts tomorrow and I want to see how the corrections are doing. Happy growing!! Week 6 Lessons learned. - Check PH daily! - Secure the net pot baskets to the lid to prevent tipping during LST or Scrogging. I will have to do this for the next grow.

Week 7 has the ladies during their own version of the 7th inning (week) stretch! Maybe I should play them some Harry Carey "Take me out to the ball game" 10/19 Day 45. PH is holding steady a 5.9 I did a light defoliation on some leaves that are not receiving much light, and one's that are blocking light from flower sites. Judging from the pictures today Bertha is bouncing back and is experiencing a growth spurt. Yuki is still ahead of everyone in flowering. Ruby is now starting to create flowers too. Will continue to monitor daily. They are all now stretching and I've raised the lights as high as I can for now. I can always wrap the metal cable that came with the lights around the top of the tent frame. If they keep increasing in height, that will be the solution. Water chemistry, humidity, and Air flow is the challenge this week. Judging from other grow diaries in DWC I think they have one more month to go. I just need to research ways to fatten up the flowers! 10/20 Day 46. PH is still good. I decided to take them out of the tent to do another good defoliation on them at the kitchen table, do some light cleaning in the tent as this should be the last time I remove any fan leaves. The focus was to remove all the lower leaves not getting much light and all the larfy growth playing vampire on the flowers. I also took a picture of the root mass. Finally I secured the stem in each direction so that the net pots won't tip over any more. I know they look a bit bare, but I'm hoping all the energy will go towards the flowers. Air flow increase and humidity decrease was the focus, while not removing too much that will stunt their flower power production. Looking at Yuki I believe she has a different phenotype, as Ruby and Bertha look the same. Tomorrow might be another 1/2 feeding depending on the EC levels. 10/22 Day 48. Feeding day. I'm not sure if I'm under or overfeeding them. I'm leaning towards under, but they have some signs of tip burn. I know everything I've read says autos don't like the recommended amounts suggested by the hydro-fertilizer companies. The flowers on yuki seem to be small compared to other auto-growers in week 7 here on grow dairies. The flowers on Yuki all have the appearance of "popcorn nugs." I'm debating if I should take one plant and go to 3/4 of the recommended amounts or not to see if the flowers fatten up?? At least they are all bouncing back from their haircuts. Humidity at night still is a problem even though I have a small to medium size dehumidifier in the tent. Will need to do some more shopping for a bigger unit, and one that doesn't put out too much heat. Ruby - PH 5.67 TDS 726 EC 1.544 / Bertha - PH 5.82 TDS 796 EC 1.774 / Yuki - PH 5.96 TDS 756 EC 1.578

10/26 Day 52. House keeping and water bucket cleaning. Probably a week or 2 too late, but better than never. Pulled each one out of the tent and placed them one at a time in the green bucket while I cleaned. Roots looked ivory white and no smell so the UC Roots is doing its job! There was a slight amount of algae in Yuki's sight/drain tube so a little bleach fixed that. I was able to reset the air stone disk and finally put gallon increment marks on the sight gauge as well at 2, 3 gallons while the zip tie is right at 4. I used store bought spring, purified, and drinking water. The purified had the lowest TDS / EC of the 3. I will see how they do for a few days with their refreshed water supply. I also added a bloom booster "beastie bloom" from fox farm which came in a yummy green powder mix, St Paddy's day coming early ladies. I am hoping that this will work to fatten up the buds. Feeding. Ruby - PH 6.03 TDS 383 EC .810 Drinking water. Bertha - PH 6.10 TDS 413 EC .874 Spring water. Yuki - PH 5.75 TDS 188 EC .442 Purified water. I will check the chemistry tomorrow. Since the levels are low I am considering a boost on their feeding levels. 10/27 Day 53. I decided to double the feed. Will monitor PH, water chemistry, and what the leaves will tell me. I also added 3ml of PH down for Bertha to get her PH down from 6.5 to 5.9 as right now she is really hitting her stretching and packing on the flowers. From what I've read the last few weeks is when the flower growth should pack on size and weight. 10/28 Day 54. I moved the tower rotating fan so now it will blow on the plants verse deflection air off the walls. Today's Chemistry values Ruby - PH 5.6 TDS 537 EC 1.127 / Bertha - PH 5.87 TDS 599 EC 1.255 / Yuki - PH 4.56 TDS 512 EC 1.087 Researching why the PH values can swing up or down drastically. I know in hydroponics that is a downside. I am seriously considering advanced nutrients line for the next grow. Using small amounts of PH up and retesting Yuki. 10/30 Day 56. Refilled almost 2 gallons of water after being away for 2 day. Slight nute burn on the tips, but clear trichomes on all 3 plants. Yipee! 10/31 Day 57. Happy Halloween All. Did a 1/2 gallon re-fill on each after testing the water chemistry. Ruby PH 4.91 (will up to 6.0) TDS 504 EC 1.061 / Bertha PH 5.64 TDS 558 EC 1.178 / Yuki PH 5.94 TDS 549 EC 1.161. Did a 1/2 strength feeding for the spooky plants! UC 10ml, CalMag 5ml, Micro 5ml, Grow 4ml, Bloom 6ml, Beastie Bloom 1/2 tsp. I will check PH again in an hour and adjust to 6.0 as best I can. Bertha is now the biggest girl in the tent. This grow has been so much fun so far and I've learned so much compared to my years of growing hot peppers and herbs in Hydro! 11/01 Day 58. I had to make a final height adjustment to my Burple light as Bertha has stretched to the point I needed to increase the distance to prevent light burn. I will probably hit Lowes and get some wire cable to make a shorter length. I also tried out the new USB camera, it's hard to hold it steady to snap pictures. I'm still using the jewelers loop to inspect the trichomes and they do still look clear, the camera is giving a false milky white appearance due to my inability to hold the camera still. I'm thinking Yuki is getting close to harvest soon! Lessons Learned: - Have some extra cable lengths to have the right distance from lights to flowers.

Week 9 11/02 Day 59. I was watching a video on Kyle Kushman doing his 50% rule on defoliating again towards the end of flowering. Will do some more reading to confirm, but it all makes sense to push resources and energy to the buds. I have germinated 4 more Northern Light's seeds for the next diary. Excited to implement the lessons learned from this first grow. Of course there is still a lot of work to do with this one. 11/3 Day 60. Election day! All 3 of the girls voted for President Trump! My personal belief is that if the Demon-crats win, they will still not remove Cannabis from being scheduled 1, and it will be 4 years of a shit show overall! OK off my soap box. NO feeding today. I added 1 gallon to each, with Bertha getting 1.25 gallons. I made a slight PH up adjustment and will re-check in an hour. I'm looking into a countertop R/O water device for future grows. Buying store water and mostly using tap water is wrecking havoc on trying to correctly monitor water chemistry and how the girls are using their feeds. Trichomes are still clear and some browning on the pistils. Ruby - PH 5.17 TDS 650 EC 1.380 / Bertha PH 5.49 TDS 781 EC 1.638 / Yuki PH 5.84 TDS 742 EC 1.565 11/4 Day 61. Why can't states figure out their voting?? Well here is some great NEWS! All the states that voted to be 420 friendly passed!!! OK onto why you're all here. I decided to do another and final defoliation. It was a good thing as I found some lower leaves with a Potassium (K) deficiency. Which makes sense as we're in flower. I am hoping that the defoliation will help resources as Kyle Kushman says will be directed to the buds. Bertha was the one suffering, with Ruby just a little. Yuki didn't get a haircut and all the leaves look nice and dark green. I am just going to let Yuki keep as is to the finish line as an experimentation. Here is today's water values. Ruby - PH 5.62 (1ml ph ^) TDS 652 EC 1.323 / Bertha PH 5.82 TDS 680 EC 1.438 / Yuki PH 5.99 TDS 673 EC 1.421 As I'm looking at the water values, I will feed today. CalMag 2.5 UC 10 Micro 5 Gro 4 Bloom 6 Beastie Bloom 1 tsp per gallon. 11/7 Day 64. Adjusted PH and added more water. They are drinking almost a gallon a day except for Yuki, she is only drinking 1/2 a gallon.

Week 10 .... or is it week 9 ?? I love that this site has finally added a germination tab. No it's week 10! 11/9 Day 66. Feeding day. Still seeing some deficiencies in the newer leaf's on Bertha. So now I'm believing it's low Calcium. PH is at 5.85 so it's not a lock out. Everyone received a plus up on water too. The ladies have a special visitor you can see in the pictures,,,, how did you get in here?? I tried to catch him, but after he lost his tail ... I decided to try to catch him later. I haven't seen any pests in the tent, but if there are any ... they are toast now! Ruby PH 5.81 TDS 806 EC 1.702 / Bertha PH 5.82 TDS 885 EC 1.874 / Yuki PH 5.96 TDS 874 EC 1.846 / Feeding UC Roots 10ml, CalMag 12ml, Micro 10, Gro 8ml, Bloom 10ml, Beastie Bloom 1/4 tsp a gallon. Let's see if this corrects the deficiencies with no new spots on the leaves. I will check the PH in a few hours and adjust Ruby and Bertha to 5.8 as best as possible. Trichomes are still clear, but more pistils are turning rust color. I am hoping that Yuki will be harvested before thanksgiving. The other 2 slowpokes will be after the holiday. 11/14 Day 71. Over the past few days just been maintaining water levels and monitoring H2O chemistry. I decided today that it was time to defoliate all the Major fan leaves on Yuki, leaving only the sugar leaves. I did this after doing some research on pre-flush activities. Lets just say it takes a steady hand and part artist. Thank god all those years of playing the game operation paid off lol 😄. I also decided to do a complete water change again which was needed. From the pictures on Yuki I believe she is about 50% cloudy on the trichomes. Getting close so I've decided to give her small feedings every other day. Feeding levels. Ruby - 5.98, TDS 406, EC .865. Bertha - PH 6.01, TDS 406, EC .865, Yuki PH 6.15, TDS 573, EC 1.238. CalMag 10ml, UC Roots 15 ml, Micro 10ml, Grow 4ml, Bloom 10ml, Beastie Bloom 1 tsp in 4 gallons of purified water

Week 11 11/16 Day 73. Monitoring water chemistry and the plants tell tale signs of what they need. I will be looking at doing some defoliation of Ruby and Bertha of their major fan leaves to send resources towards the buds. 11/18 Day 75. Checking trichomes this morning and several of the bud sights on Yuki had some amber, so she is getting flushed with 3 gallons of purified water. From my research i will give her 2-3 day and she how many of the lower leaves start turning yellow before I chop her. Ruby and Bertha are now starting to have some of their trichomes turning cloudy and their pistils are now starting to turn amber, so today was probably the last feeding for them. I'm getting excited about the drying and curing parts. I will be getting some mason or ball jars and those humidity packs too. Overall I had hoped to have fatter looking buds, but just happy to have been successful so far on my first grow. Still lots of work to do though. Water chemistry is looking good and the feed is in the bar graph above. I added 2 pictures for fun! Enjoy 😍 11/20 Day 77. Two full days on the flush for Yuki, no changes yet in her bottom leaves colors. I will keep checking the trichomes on her to see how the flush is effecting them. The other 2 get checked daily of course. 11/22 Day 79. Checking the trichomes daily. There seems to be a mixture of clear and milky still on Ruby and Bertha, but no amber yet. Yuki has to be getting close, she is on day 4 of flushing and no signs of yellowing leaves!!

Week 12 11/23 Day 80. Since Ruby and Bertha don't seem quite ready I'm doing another feeding. I've been watching a lot of videos and doing some reading. I check the trichomes daily. I'm cutting Yuki tomorrow morning, so when I go to bed tonight I will shut off the lights. My research says to make the harvest cut before the lights come on and the nutrients that the plant sent down to the roots during the night, won't have an opportunity to come back up to the leaves during photosynthesis. We shall see if it makes a difference. 11/24 Day 81. Yuki harvest day. She is now hanging in the closet. After watching Kyle Kushman's harvesting video, I've decided to not wet trim and dry the plant as a whole. I will put a link at the end in case anyone else wants to see what I've learned. I do have a fan blowing into the closet, but not directly on the her. She is in the same room as the tent, so humidity is being controlled. As for Ruby and Bertha, I will allow them to continue on their path. I will try to harvest them together, but will probably allow maybe 20% amber, and hopefully the trichomes will turn more white/plastic looking when I cut them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPgHKpOpZYA&has_verified=1

Week 13 11/30 Day 88. The trichomes are now to start looking like white from cloudy, but very little amber. I am going to start the flush either tomorrow or the next day. I will also be giving them 48 hours of darkness to see what that does for them. 12/2 Day 90. Ruby and Bertha are ready to be flushed. It's also day 8 for Yuki on her dry, no snap of the stems and will keep checking daily. They were flushed and now in PH water, lights off and moved the Mars light to the 5x5 tent. Overall this has been quite the learning experience in a positive way. 12/7 Day 95. Bertha has been wet trimmed and hanging in the closet. 12/8 Day 96. Ruby has only the fan leaves trimmed and she and Bertha are hanging in the 4x4. I will dry trim her. Also I can't get Yuki's humidity in the Jars above 55%, so I've put a 65% humidity pack in them. It's day 3 for them and I've been burping the jars every 8 hours for 15 min. No hay or ammonia smell. Course being a newb, I don't know if the scent in the jars is good. No mold though 😄

Week 14 12/7. Bertha has been harvested and hanging in the closet. Ruby will be done today. 12/14. I've started to check on the branch snapping part of the drying process. As of today they are still just bending. Not ready yet. Also the humidity packs in Yuki are struggling to get the % to 62. 😟 I'm only burping the jars now once a day for 10min. I'm also giving the jar a shake so that the buds don't stick together, keeping a close eye for mold!

This was a great strain for beginners just as everything I've read said it would be. Very hardy and forgiving plants that endured this newbies over-care at times, and neglect at other times. I would recommend this strain for anyone wanting to feel like they too can successfully grow some high value medicinal plants!