Girl Scout Cookies (Garden of Green)

Growing one of my favorite strains, GSC. This is my first entry in GrowDiaries, but not my first grow. My last grow in this tent (4x4) had two massive girls (Blue Cheese and Wedding Gelato) that eventually overlapped a lot. So I'm keeping this grow to a single plant in a 17gal container (10gal filled), which is much more than my usual 5gal buckets for a DWC setup. I opted for the bigger container to minimize maintenance and pH changes

There's been some solid growth over the last week. Light schedule has been changed to 18/6 and the lights are currently running at 40% roughly 2ft away. I originally had them at ~60% until I noticed dark discoloration on one of the leaves. I'm not sure what it could be, but in case it's light stress I've dimmed the light from 60 to 40%. Hopefully newer leaves won't have discoloration There wasn't a meaningful drop in PPM, which is expected since the roots reach the water just a few days ago. Also means there's no need for additional nutrients this week. I topped it off with a couple of cups of RO water. I plan to use the FIM method to top the plant in a couple of days, just waiting for a few more nodes. My goal is to use FIM and ScrOG to grow it more like a bush than a Christmas tree. I'm expecting a 4-5 week vegetation phase EDIT - Looking into it more, and feel like the brown spots are due to a CalMag deficiency. Could be that I went too light with nutrients the first week. I added 10ml of CALiMAGic this week to help top off last week's light dose.

The first week I was a bit too light with the nutrients, and at this feeding I was a bit to heavy handed. Hopefully she's a hungry girl. Aside from CalMag it's unlikely I'll need to feed her for the remaining 2-3 weeks of vegetation. The fan leaves on her are massive, they're already larger than my hand!. GSC looks to have indica characteristics which may require a round of defoliation in the coming days. I'm currently tucking the big fan leaves down to expose the new nodes. But I expect periodic trimming is going to be needed for this one. I'm probably going to wait another week before putting on the ScrOG net. The brown spots that appeared early on are not showing up on the new growth, it appears the CalMag corrected did the trick. I FIM'd her last week fairly close to the stem and within a day there was noticeable growth Also, when I returned from a 3-day vacation I noticed a hint of green in the air. It was a nice welcome home surprise yet the smell isn't strong enough make use of the carbon filter this early on.

In the middle of last week I decided to top her and install a net to spread out the remaining branches. I also defoliated a bit as the fan leaves were starting to get crowded resulting in some condensation. This week I'm not planning to much, just let her grow through the net which the goal of switching to flowering next week

Last week - didn't do much, just let it grow out. I kept tucking branches under the net to help the plant cover more space. Last week she covered 3x3 squares in the next, and this week she's close to 5x5 This week - I will be switching her to a 12/12 light schedule tonight to trigger flowering. For nutrients she was around 1180 before feeding, and is now around 1500ppm. Still a little high so I'll keep adjust for next time. At the current rate she's consuming around 1L of water daily, and lowers ppm ~50 parts daily. So she's drinking, eating, and growing 😀. Hoping this continues through flowering

I kept this week's feeding super light since the end of week PPM was a higher than I would like (1290). I'm planning on topping it off once mid week with RO water , then letting water levels drop to about halfway before exchanging 1/2 that concentrated water with RO water before next week's feeding. I'm doing so to kinda reset, and I have a feeling the higher PPM readings are due to residuals from the clay pebbles. They were washed and presoaked but I still feel it's playing a role With that said, GSC is tolerating the higher PPM levels well. I'm not seeing any burnt tips which is usually the first indicator of nutrient burn. She's an all green bush that's getting bigger. I'm trimming off a few leaves here and there, but nothing major. I'll likely do a major defoliation in ~2weeks

She's getting bigger in every direction. In the last week she's grown ~7inches in height, and has expanded sideways enough to extend over the trellis net. I'll likely add a 2nd trellis net next week after she's grown a bit more. I exchanged ~3gals of the nutrient solution with RO water, then added nutrients for this week. Every couple of days I trim off a few fan leaves, especially towards the center where it's getting crowded.

The 2nd trellis net was added the middle of last week a few branches have already grown through it. There are small bud sites developing everywhere which is always a great sign. I've taken off a fistful of leaves and small lower branches almost daily. I'll slow that down this week with only a couple of trimming sessions expected. She's growing strong with no issues so far, lets hope it stays like this

I noticed a few burnt tips this past week which is usually a sign of overfeeding. So this week's nutrients are about 1/2 of last week. And I'll likely change out the water over the coming weekend Also, the water pressure is horrible at my place which makes it harder/longer to utilize an RO filter. I've switch to filtered water instead and that usually has ~125ppm as a starting point I've continued to prune some of the lower branches, particularly the ones growing inward with no chance of getting direct light. I'd say 10 of these small branches in the last week I'm not expecting any pruning/trimming this week, just letting her grow out

Looks like the stretch phase completed since the tallest branch only grew about an inch. The buds are starting to fill up nicely. The smell for GSC isn't super strong, but I love the smell of my hands after tending her. I actually should start wearing gloves because there are likely oils rubbing off too There are a few low hanging branches i wished I cut off earlier. I still do remove ~5 fan leaves every couple of days to help with light penetration I kept the PPM on the low side this week at 1180. If the PPM falls below 1000 at midweek I will give her a 1/4 dose to help get through the week.

Kept the nutrient solution the same as last week, but divided the feedings to 2x a week (1/2 on weekend, and 1/2 midweek). This helps keep the nutrient solution stable throughout the week because at ~1200ppm the nutrient and water intake are almost equal. For example, if I start off the week at 1200ppm I know the PPM is not going to spike up by midweek even if she consumes 2-3 gals by then. So when I top her off midweek with fresh water the reading drops to around 1000ppm, then back up to ~1200ppm when I add in the other half of nutrients. I'm finding this helps keep pH within an ideal range of 5.7-6.0. I think I'll split the feedings in future grows as well The smell is definitely more noticeable in the last couple of weeks. The air filter eliminates most of the exhaust smell, but now I need to open up my Ona deodorizers whenever I open the tent. This is a good problem to have 😁 Buds are getting chunkier and covered in sugar leaves. Only a few weeks left 🙏

Entering week 8 of flowering and she just received Dry Koolbloom to help maximize the harvest. Many of the buds have orange hairs now, which is a sign they're near harvest time. I'm also checking trichomes with a 60-100x magnifier but most are still clear. Since I prefer a more heady high I'll likely start the flush when the first few amber trichomes appear

I'm starting a mini flush this week. I replaced about half of the nutrient solution with plain water, which lowered PPM to the 700s. I'm planning on letting her consume whatever nutrient solution remains until red/amber trichomes start to appear. At that point I'll perform a full flush with RO water for a few days then harvest Currently the trichomes are mostly clear which is why I'm waiting on the full flush. I've started to see some leaves yellow and hopefully a lot more by end of week. Overall she looks and smells great. Looking forward to the harvest

I'm looking forward to the curing process to really bring out the scents and flavors, I'll update this post in a few weeks . So far we're getting hints of citrus and a smooth smoke. In total the plant yielded 8oz of high grade bud, and 1-2oz of low/mid grade bud we'll use for edibles.