Bubble Kush Simple Grow

Hey what's up! Keeping this grow ball rolling with some different genetics. I really wanted to try a bit of the Seedsman stuff to see how good it is. This has some high reviews on their site so I wanted to see how it would stand up. I'm going super simple on this one and really trying to revert back to a less is more approach on my growing style and eventually get into organic growing or maybe no till. I've been doing a lot of mainlining in my last 2 or 3 runs so I really want to take a chance to go this plant in a more natural sense and just let it do it's thing, more or less. I will probably top it once or twice and LST the branches to spread them out a little bit. Nutrition wise I will keep it as simple as possible with the basics and really try to work off a medium level of nutes. I keep burning my leafs tips on all my plants so I need to break it down and figure out what's causing that. I may try a method where I cycle through a few supplements on a daily bases but feed the base nutes daily. So I will always go with Micro, Gro and Bloom but then my supplement schedule would be like Monday = add Calmag, Tuesday = add Floralicious, Weds = add Koolbloom, etc etc. Looking forward to this one as this is the most ideal temperature and conditions for my grow space and a time where I have achieved solid results when growing during this period a year ago. First week notes: - I mixed a very small amount (maybe a tsp to 1000ml of distilled water) of 3% Hydrogen Peroxide into my distilled water to germinate the seeds and it worked very well as you can see in the photo - In my last bunch of germinations I have not achieved such long stems popping out from the seeds - I literally gasped when I opened the paper towel as I probably left them a bit too long but it all worked out - Seeds were germinated inside of a DVD case, inside of paper towel. I wrap the DVD case in a small towel and set it in the oven with the light on and the door slightly ajar to create an slightly warmer environment at approx 28 degrees celsius - I am careful to check the temperature often and open or close the door in order to raise or lower the temp if needed and try to avoid as much fluctuation as possible - Once seeds are showing tails, they were placed in the jiffy pellet and in the tent under 24 hrs of light until petioles opened - Once opened lights were set to 18/6 - Nute solution was diluted to 400 EC and incremented up by 50 EC at each feeding, once feeding in the morning then one at night until 1000 EC was reached Here we go!

- She's a bit of a slow one but seems to be hanging in there - Up-potted out of the fabric pot mid way through the week and she wilted slightly for about a day but then bounced back nicely after that - Nute levels going up but diluting to EC 1100 and she seems to be responding well - Struggling with keeping humidity levels up and she seemed to be a bit finicky but rebounded by weeks end - Main stalk seems to be thickening up nicely after I added a fan and slowly weened her out of the humidity dome

- I added silicate to the feeding regime this week as I had heard on a few podcasts it's good to boost strength in the plants stems, starting out slow with it - By weeks end I could definitely see some more rigidity in the main stalks of the plant but this could just be from natural growth - The T5 LED I use for vegging my plants has 2 bulbs, one is a white spectrum and one is a blue spectrum - The combination of LEDs keeps the plants growing short and stout as you can see in the final image above - I picked up a book called "Organic Marijuana Some Style" recently and after reading it decided I wanted to try supercropping - The book is slightly dated but loaded with some pretty useful information that has opened my mind to some different styles of growing - Supercropping is a way to boost plant vigor and mainly in the side branching while maintaining a reasonable height and will fit in perfectly for my grow space due to the fact I have a slight height limitation - In the past I have implemented Main Lining or Manifold training but want to branch out and try different methods by keeping it simple with this grow in order to continue learning - My plan is to bend the main stalk (90 degrees) instead of topping (removing the top of the stalk completely) and letting it heal and continue growing - First time trying this so it will be a fun experiment for me - Plant showed some good vigor in the first few days of week 3 and became almost root bound by weeks end - Transplanted to 5 gal fabric pots near the end of the week (V20) - She showed a slight shock for a few hrs by drooping her leaves a bit initially after the transplant but recovered quickly after about 12-16 hrs - Run off EC is showing 1350 EC and input is about 1220 EC so she's in a good place - Really going to try to avoid over feeding on this run as most of my plants from past grows have showed burnt tips so I'm definitely going to try to avoid that in the "simple" grow.. we'll see if I can pull it off!

- Week 4 of veg and she is showing good growth but nothing great - The side branching is growing in slowly so I'll have to wait a little while to implement some supercropping (HST) as a training method as soon as she gains a bit of height - Plant was shifted around in the tent a little and light was placed at a distance until my light meter had a reading of approximately 5000 Lux - Plant seemed to respond positively to the position change and showed better growth rates after looking a little stagnant - Growth from 1st and 2nd nodes removed at end of wk 3 and start of wk 4 - Not exactly sure why I did this but I wanted to see if it would concentrate growth in the higher growth tips and it seemed to work - I figure that the lower most nodes probably won't reach the canopy and I'll be lollipopping the plant anyways in the first few weeks of flower - Silicate has only been added to the feeding schedule for 2 days on then 2 days off - I will ride this feeding schedule out until I flip to flower - My first time using a silicate product but I can really see the difference in the stems of the plant, they look a little more robust.. maybe I'm just crazy

- Well I screwed up.. big time - I snapped the main stem while performing supercropping... Don't drink and garden friends! - I got a bit overzealous and wasn't paying attention and just snapped her main stalk - This will set me back at least 3-4 weeks I think as I now need to main line the new branches - Really frustrated with myself on this one.. Otherwise the plant is in good health - A bit of a slow vegger this one.. but then again it doesn't help when you break her in half :( - Onwards and upwards!

- So after last weeks blunder she is starting to grow out nicely - I have 4 branches so I have a lot of options on how to grow out this plant - Right now she's very symmetrical with 4 nice branches in a perfect circle - I could grow out those branches to their 4th node and top them all at the same time, remove all the lower growth tips and just grow out those 8 branches - OR, I could keep the 2nd and 3th nodes from each branch and grow those out.. But I'm worries that the colas will be too close together and I don't want to make that mistake again - I ties down the 2 top branches to make them at equal height with the 2 branches below them in order for them all to grow evenly - By weeks end all 4 branches are pushing out their 4th node - I will wait until the 5th node is free and clear of the 4th and top all 4 branches, use LST to separate all of the remaining branches and try to get this plant to grow up into a perfect circle of 8 main colas with minimal side branching - I am probably looking at about 3 more weeks of veg time unfortunately, which will throw off my harvest with my other plant that shares the flowering room with it.. sucks but I will adapt

- So I was going to keep all 4 branches but I decided to cut 2 of the lower branches due to the fact I noticed some very unbalanced growth - In order for this plant to grow properly I would need very even growth in all 4 branches but the top 2 were taking apical dominance, this would have been no good in later stages - Because of the uneven growth I decided just to create a mainline and have the 2 top branches supporting 4 branches each - So I have kept the growth tips from the 2nd and 5th nodes and topped both branches just above the 5th node - Typically you would keep the 1st and 4th but I had already removed the 1st growth tips - There should be enough space in between the 2nd and 5th for these branches to grow out with enough space in between them - LST was used to even out the branches - Will probably take a few more weeks to get these branches to gain some height before flipping to flower

- This is by far the worst plant I've ever grown - I keep breaking shit on her unfortunately so I'm chalking this grow up to a learning curve - First I snapped the main stem a few weeks back while attempting supercropping so I decided to mainline her but the main stem split! - She's all twisted up and not growing evenly at all - She's a short plant who's very slow growing in veg so I'm finding this one very difficult to train - The only reason I am main-lining is bc I broke the main stem and this plant is definitely not built for this type of training - Her inter-nodal spacing is very short so I'm having a hard time separating the growth tips using LST - She's a mess... literally growing at a snails pace - I'm doing my best to keep the growth tips even but I'm getting a lot of uneven growth - Will probably just skip a few weeks of updates until these 8 growth tips gain a few inches, she probably needs another 2-3 weeks until the tips gain some height and I can flip her to flower

Combining updates here for the last 3 weeks of flower. Lot's of small screw ups led to me breaking a few important branches so I vegged longer and used LST to spread the plant out and get some of the side branches level with the main branches. She's looking a lot better now and will flip to flower next week. Not expecting much from this one but we might get a few ounces out of her yet!

- This girl has surprised me after the first week in flower - She bushed out quit nicely and gained a bit of height as well - Doing my best to use LST to add some space between the blooms! - Keeping the nutrients to a minimum for this grow, typically I add a gallon of water to water down the 4 gal nute mix in order to keep the EC levels low

- Pretty straightforward week, Obviously the PM has spread over to this plant FFS! - Defo at the end of the week - Overall she's doing good, starting to stretch a little - She got a bit thirsty but bounced back nicely - I'm really not expecting much out of this girl since I screwed with her in veg but she may surprise me yet

- She gained another few inches by the end of this week again - Slight bubble gum smell is starting to emerge and I LOVE it! Can't wait for more of that deliciousness - Defoliation continues, just slightly here and there throughout the week - Keeping the leaves clean from PM daily! - Starting to bud up really nicely - This is one squat and bushy plant, hopefully I spread the main branches apart enough so it gives them room to breathe!

- PM is awesome! (kill me) - Going to heat stress the crap out of the tent when this run is over - Daily cleaning of every single fan leaf has been tedious - She's blooming nicely though and starting to smell a bit more - Learning a lot from this grow and will keep it as a "practice" grow - Have to stay on top of the PM and keep her as happy as possible

- Not my best grow so far to be honest - This PM problem has been a real pain to deal with and costing a lot of extra effort and time - The other plant in the tent is gone so I've moved things around she seems to be doing a little better - She's starting to give off some stronger smells - Really just want to finish this one off with some salvageable bud

- This was a nice turn around week! Finally! - I heard on a podcast that you can try to spray the plant with a 9 to 1 water to milk solution to get rid of the PM - I tried it and it seems to have kept it away for the last 6 days now!! - Not saying it won't pop up but at least it's not infesting the leaves - Plant seems to have responded nicely and is showing some purple expression in the calyx areas - She's fattening up nicely also, finally! - I also learned about a Lactic Acid Bacteria Spray (LABS) so I'm making one and will spray her down when it's ready - the LABS foliar is good for keeping molds and other bacteria at bay so this should work out nicely - After this week we're onto the home stretch!

- PM started creeping back so I gave her another foliar spray of a diluted milk solution (9:1 water:milk) - seems to keep the PM at bay for about 7-10 days - planning on going about 63-65 days with her - keeping a close eye on trichomes - light feeding this week with a flush of enzymes and water at the end of the week - purple buds forming at the top - hoping she fills out a bit more in the final week next week

- Flush Week! - Trichomes are getting close, not too much amber and still a bit opaque - Not too much frost on this girl.. Could've been due to my growing style or how much stress I put on the plant or it's the genetics - Again, this was mainly an experiment grow for me but I messed her up in veg so much that I'm not expecting much out of this crop - She's purple-ing up on the tops, which is cool - The smell is also not too strong due to the fact I've sprayed that milk solution, it smells a bit sour in the tent so I'm hoping it will come out more during the cure