PH What?

Hey Everyone, Happy summer to all in the Northern hemisphere. My typical outdoor season got completely screwed up this year...but with much debate and cursing I decided to throw together a last minute outdoor. Neighbors and city be damned! This blueberry cookie from Dinafem got thrown straight into a soaked peat pod and sprouted 3 days later. She had amazing growth in the first seven days. I thought she was stretching a bit but I think it's actually from being in the pod and not having the usual support of a soil cup. I'm very hopeful for this plant based on her first week. For this grow I want to try to Keep It Simple! So I'm going to attempt to keep grow technology out, and let mother nature work her magic. I'll let this baby spend a couple weeks in the window and under cfls but then that's hopefully it. I looked up the water report for my area and it's showing our Ph is coming in between 6.5-8..I think that should be alright with growing in soil, plus the majority of any nutrients added usually brings my ph down. Happy growing. ✌️

Whoo great second week. Nice fast growth. She had roots poking out of the pod by the 2nd week and she got her transplant the 2nd day. I added extra perilite to help with aeration and breaking up the soil space. I love this early stage of growth, there's so much happening in such a short period of time. Germination, root building, the transition from the first two cotyledons and seedling stage into making leaves and branches in the vegetative stage...very exciting stuff. The abilities of plants never stops amazing me and all that they build and overcome in such a short life cycle. We are still ph free in this second week...although I can't brag much on that as most of my seedlings thrive without ph adjustments. One positive thing though, I did check my tap waters ph in the beginning and it was sitting steady at about 6.8. Usually in my area we have two ph zones, 6.5-7 in the late spring/early summer and then a higher ph of about 7.2-8.5 for the fall/winter time. I'm not sure why this is, possibly all the snow runoff and higher water levels versus the low, very dry climate of the fall season when there is not snowmelt. Thanks for tuning in. Happy Growing all.✌️

She's really growing now. No more seedling stage for this little girl. I went ahead and gave her a dose of Green Buzz More Roots and Superthrive. I've noticed that my seedlings get growing a lot faster and stronger with these two nutrients at this young stage. Now I typically use this combo for all my grows around 2-3 weeks. I can't decide which kind of training I want to do on this plant once she gets outside so I did just the basic Lst of the main stem. I'm sure I'll eventually Top her also and when that time comes ill decide whether to keep the Lst or not. I recently had a bit of fungus gnat troubles with a previous plant so I'm keeping yellow sticky cards around to keep monitoring their population. I'm trying hard not to over water to keep any numbers low and she got a little droopy one day, but bounced back quickly. Happy growing everyone, thanks for all the advice and good wishes.✌️

Whoo what an exciting week! A perfect time frame for a rushed outdoors grow, 4 weeks inside and out she goes! Now we'll spend the rest of the summer vegging out, and flower towards the end of summer, with a tentative harvest in October. There were a few big changes this week. Not only has she had a dramatic decrease in humidity and a big increase in temperature. But she also had her LST taken away, and her big move to the outdoors. This 3 gallon pot will be used until she gets a few weeks older and bigger, then we'll transplant into a large SmartPot which she'll finish her life in. I had a couple days where I was bad with my watering practices and she was a droopy mess because of it. But ultimately it was a good thing to knock down any pests but also to remind me it's time to get outdoors. Much longer and she would be a big root bound mess! An amazing end to a great week. Now let's hope she handles the transplant well, and looks perky tomorrow. Happy growing everyone. ✌️

WOW! Ok the amount of growth since she moved into the new bigger container and got sunshine full time is mind blowing! There's just no competing with nature for one, and a larger substrate....it really shows how limited your growth can be by container size and lighting choices. Amazing! I worried a little about stretching for light but I think it's just been a great boost of changes in a short time. Just one day after her transplant she looked more full and taller...which was great because it can count as a successful transplant. But doing about 6 inches of growth in a week is spectacular! We're full swing into summer now and the temperatures are in the 90s every day, and mid 60s each night, the only negative is how low the humidity is here...a good day around here is still below 35%. I didn't notice any drooping or other irritation so I think she's acclimated nice and quick. I went ahead and decided to start doing some Topping on her...first the main and most likely a few more down the road. She handled it beautifully, no negative effects as of yet. I'm not going to be giving much nutrients over the next couple weeks as her new pot full of Fox Farm Strawberry Fields and Ocean Forest should be enough for a while. Just plain old hose water! No PH'ing! Thank you all for the continued support. ✌️

Week 6 of the vegetative stage is looking wonderful. I can't believe how big those fan leaves have gotten! If i was going to say what type of cannabis this strain is just off it's look, I think we could definitely say Indica dominant. Not only are the leaves big but their fingers are huge and wide also...no skinny sativa fingers for this gal. Well we've continued to stay successful with the "No PH'ing" plan so far. I've only been giving this plant water straight from my hose and I haven't seen anything negative yet. A perfectly healthy, green plant so far. I will of course say that I do recommend that people know what their starting water is though. Because even though this grow is doing well without using a ph meter, I had a general idea as to what the tap is putting out on a regular basis. If you have good soil and a decent microbial life I usually find my plants do well regardless of ph'ing...however I have had some grows go horribly wrong(typically indoors) when I haven't bothered with ph. Hopefully if I can keep a decent sized pot of soil and the water doesn't suddenly change, this plant will continue to stay happy and healthy for the rest of the grow. We had another great week for growth, coming in about 4 inches higher than last week and some better branching growth also. Our temps went back down to the 80s and I was happy for her to have a more mild comfortable environment. Happy Growing everyone, I hope your garden's are all strong and promising.

This has been a thoroughly satisfying week. She's absolutely green and healthy, enjoying her place in the sun. I wish this part of the yard got more direct sunshine hours but it's definitely adequate this time of year. Our humidity continues to stay low like always...but I feel like plants in this region have just learned to accept it and require watering everyday other than every 2-4 like other places might. This plant has pretty big internodal spacing and at first I was a little worried that it was from stretching but @Dinafem says that this strain typically has large spacing and enables good light penetration which is great for any outdoor growing but also handy for an indoor environment where light is crucial. So far I'm very satisfied with this plant and would definitely recommend it to someone who has a decent growing season. It was another great week for growth also, put on another several inches, her new 2 mains from topping look incredibly healthy and strong, those several large fan leaves have just gotten bigger...they're like massive solar panels. I expect ill top once more to two branches and get another split leaving 4 main colas and then just let her grow naturally to the end. With the grow starting late in the season I don't expect she'll be much bigger than 5 feet or so, but more than adequate for a quick outdoor season. I hope everyone is having an enjoyable growing season. ✌️

It's been a beautiful week here in the desert, amazing temperatures and just gorgeous. A perfect plant growing environment if the humidity could be a little higher. I decided to top the main branches one more time each and will not top them anymore. The plant has finally gotten some discolored leaves... but it's hard to fully pin down the cause. Paling lower leaves, brown spots on the lower leaves but the upper plant is generally healthy looking. I was worried she might have had a ph slightly too high, but she's also been very low fed and also looks like she could use a larger container soon. Unfortunately right now with life so crazy, covid madness, nonstop "essential worker" duties and just life get in the way of a perfect grow. So I decided to give the soil 2 tablespoons of organic granular sulfur which helps lower soil ph. It can be handy in soil grows and helps to maintain a lower soil ph for many weeks. I'm hopeful this will manage my slightly higher ph and let the plant continue naturally without having to adjust much. I also need to be better about more consistent feedings because it's now been about 4 weeks since transplant and probably the nutrients are used up. I'll keep watching and thinking. Happy growing.✌️

wow I can't believe it's already the end of July! The Summer Solstice has already come and gone, the days are getting shorter... I'll be honest it doesn't even feel like summer yet. With everything Covid related happening it's completely robbed me of my concept of time. It's hot outside and that's pretty much the only indicator that summer is here and passing. Typically my outdoor starts flowering in mid-late August so I really need to stop dicking around and transplant this girl before she starts flowering and it's too late. I've been bad about feeding her....she's really only been getting a nutrient watering once, maybe twice a week....other than that it's been straight HOSE WATER! 😁 which given that I'd say she's looking pretty damn good. I'll try to free up some quality plant time soon so she can get her 10 gallon smart pot settled in. Happy growing. ✌️

Ok wow what a rough week. The shop I was with for 8 years finally closed it's doors and I've been working as much as I could before it closes....what a dark week.☹️ Due to this overwhelmingly busy week I totally let my girl get a little underwatered...you can see how droopy she got in that last photo. I'm sure my plant is very unhappy with me, but hopefully I'll be able to give her the time and energy she deserves now. Happy growing. ✌️

Wow! What you find in your outdoor gardens never stops surprising me. I had to cut down 2 auto flowers this week and underneath one of the pots...BAM! Black Widow! 😱 Normally I have a live and live policy....but unfortunately black widows are exempt from that. It's been very hot here the last couple weeks...everyday being in the 90-100 F range, and with the humidity being so low as it always is here it can quickly dry your plants out. Typically I have to water every single day, which is sometimes a pain. I'm a little envious of people who only need to water every 3 days or so. She had another wilted day, but she's resilient and bounces back quickly. Happy growing.

Wow what an amazing week. It's incredible how much a plant is affected by having a container that is too small and by a nice transition into a larger container. She looks healthier now than she has in many many weeks. Great green color, some pistils are poking out and all the branches and leaves look happy and healthy. Typically a 10 gallon smart pot is a good size for my outdoor photoperiod strains. On the last day of this week she started to finally show signs of beginning her flowering period. This is a bit late compared with previous grows but there's more than enough time to flower and harvest. Happy growing.

Flowering Finally began on August 24th, which being the last week in August I was starting to get a bit impatient. Usually my outdoor grows start flowering earlier on in August. However once it did start, the amount of progress she made in just that first week was incredible. Dinafem says that the blueberry cookies usually need around 8 weeks to complete flowering. Fortunately I will be able to harvest before the first frost and still reach an 8-10 week range. I'm only having one problem right now...and that is sunlight hours. Unfortunately the safest part of the yard is only getting direct sunshine after 11 am and stops getting direct light around 3 pm. Four hours of direct sunlight is in my opinion the absolute minimum you should have, and even still you'd possibly experience some stretching. I've been lucky in that my internodal spacing is actually perfect and she's stayed fairly short and bushy. Throughout the grow I've still managed to maintain the No PH'ing rule that I wanted to achieve with this plant. There was definitely some yellowing earlier on, but since she completely bounced back after being transplanted I'm attributing that to a too small container and often drought stress from drying out too quickly. All in all I'm satisfied where the plant has gotten so far. Happy growing. ✌️

What a liberating week! I've always debated...and wanted to put my plants right in the middle of the garden, but always worried it might be too visible....piss off the neighbors or get stolen close to harvest. However, my plant needed more sunlight hours and I figured with the peach trees, sunflowers, tomatoes, etc etc it isn't but one more green and growing thing to most passers-by. However very smelly...more and more everyday. Almost immediately after being moved you can just tell the plant is so much happier. They only that it needed was to start supporting the branches with a cage of green stakes and crossbeams to keep all the branches upright. Unfortunately during her move across the yard my mom managed to break one of the bigger branches, for some reason whenever she comes over and attempts to help...something goes wrong. So i taped that branch up and made sure it had extra support. Now if only all the unpleasant smoke from the wildfires would stop and we'd be perfect! She's still doing incredible without being ph'ed, and receiving a moderate regimen of @greenbuzzliquids . I've tried to run her nutrients fairly low as I'm curious how much a plant really needs and what's just excess and wasted money. Her flowers continue to develop beautifully and I'm really excited to see any possible color changes over the next several weeks. Happy growing everyone. ✌️

WHAT A WEEK! Incredible how quickly the flowers get maturing...trichome development going great and next to no leaf discoloration. The nights have started to finally start dropping into colder ranges even though the days are still very warm. I expect we'll be seeing some of those cool weather bud colors start coming on over the next few weeks also. More mild training using the plant stakes, but really just positioning. I did some mild defoliation just to open up a few shade pockets and get rid of a few low larf buds. This is a very happy plant, I'm so glad I moved her to the Garden.

Wow we're 4 weeks into flowering and the mass and sparkle she's already developed is amazing. I feel very confident in saying that if I hadn't moved her to where more sunlight was...it wouldn't be looking this strong or promising. I have many things that live in or visit my garden, and I've found this Cookie has a few guardians but also some critters making a mess. The birds are dropping shells everywhere, and I even spotted a couple of tiny spots of "waste" on a few leaf tips. I don't mind the sunflower shell but if they could but if they could shit somewhere else I'd sure appreciate it! The buds have gotten a decent boost in trichomes, but more noticeable is that her pistils are starting to change colors as well. I'm so thrilled by this because she was a late flowering plant and I would hate to see her develop slowly and get attacked by the first frosts. Her smell has started to become mildly intense and obvious to anyone who gets near her or down wind. There's also several plants getting their fall colors which is making her previous impeccable green camouflage a little less than perfect lately. That combined with the smell is something I'll have to think on fixing since harvest time is still several weeks off. Cheers to everyone, happy gardening. ✌️

Gardening. Defoliating. Flowering. Pistils. Trichomes. AND still NO PH'ING! She's absolutely gorgeous and healthy for being a container plant with no ph adjusting. I give her hose water and occasionally mix in some bottled nutrients. Of coarse big business wouldn't want us to be aware that this is possible because then we wouldn't need to buy all this extra stuff....outdoors I get lucky, and my city water isn't bad, however I rarely manage to get away with this in an indoor grow. However this outdoor grow has gone spectacular with no ph drops or pens or pains in my ass!

I can't believe the season is passing so quickly. All these Covid months have been completely insane. This Blueberry Cookie has matured beautifully, She's finally showing some of her purple hues with the lower night temps. I should have done a more thorough defoliation on her earlier on but I'm always conflicted about how many leaves a plant truly needs and how much is an overkill nutrient sinkhole. I got her about as comfortable as I can predict for the moment. Being she was a late outdoor plant, she looks fairly bushy, healthy and happy. Happy growing. ✌️

It's been a great week for this blueberry cookie. It's basically just focusing all It's energy on bulking up and boosting trichomes now. The smell has gotten pretty pervasive now and I doubt anyone passing by isn't either thinking, "Ooh that smells nice" or "whoa call animal control, there's a skunk loose in the neighborhood!"

Home grown Halloween. Happy Holidays.

I managed to get one blue cookie clone this year, and here she is all dressed up in her Christmas finest.