Half Pound White Widow

Slow start on the surface. But I've been careful with my watering so I know the roots are off to a good start. It's a trick watering such a small pot as it dries out within 12 hours. Just one dose of nutrients at the beginning of the week. Rinsed for the rest of the week.

Started to see some roots poking through the bottom of my little pot so I transplanted her into a 1 gallon. Dusted mychorizzae in the new pot and noticed minimal transplant shock. I've got a lot of perlite in this mix so I'm noticing it drying out well. Going on two days since moving in to the bigger pot and she clearly likes it. The nutrients will continue at close to half power throughout veg. Looking forward to some upward growth!

Topped her at the end of the week with 8 branch sites. I'll be topping once more for a total of 16 top colas. This round I'm going to use less training techniques to see if I can fill out the tent a bit quicker. I'll set up the scrog net down the road when we get closer to bloom. Plant health is good. The widow has responded well to the half dose of nutrients. I've been feeding 1.5L every 3rd day in the one gallon pot. There's no burnt tips and I plan to keep it that way. I'll let the plant chew at the low dose and watch for any deficiencies. With the spread of nutrients I'm delivering I doubt I'll see too many nutrient related problems. The pH has been high to start but is slowly dropping. With the pH balancing Advanced Nutrients I've learned to trust them and not adjust the pH myself. Levels balance out to about 6.4 eventually. Looking forward to seeing some branch development this week!

Plant is boosting upwards now. I successfully topped this one. No FIM. Considering trimming the bottom two branches which seem runty. Taking water every third day still. Not ready for the big pot yet. She's going into a five gallon grow bag after this. Later that week: Big week for branches. The bottom two branches aren't going anywhere. They don't seem to be sucking any energy from the plant so I've left them for now. I'm thinking one more week in the one gallon before moving on up. Gave a litre of h2o to tide her over.

The widow has doubled in size this week. Now almost a foot tall, she was starting to dry out the one gallon pot within two days. To protect her from any droughts I have moved her into her final home in a five gallon grow bag. I added a good dusting of mychorizzae. Hopefully I'll get lucky twice and she'll cruise through transplant with little sign of shock. Once she's adjusted to the new pot I'll top the leaders to boost lower branches. I'm going to be doing some selective trimming to encourage a broad canopy to prepare her for the trellis. I'm not going to install the trellis until I'm ready to send this lady into bloom. Later that day: 8 hours was all it took for this girl to rebound from her transplant. The root system was perfectly established and ready for a new home to grow in. The coming week will have a bit of branch selection and some topping. At this point I'm enjoying not tying the plant down for LST. Sometime the next day: Since she looked so happy the day after transplant I decided to go ahead with some trimming. I removed the middle branches to encourage the lower ones to continue to grow up towards the canopy. To accompany the bottom trim I've gone ahead and topped the top two leaders. No scissors for the tops. I just bent the top over with my thumb behind the stem to prevent breaking the top off lower than intended. On my research binges I've read that scissor cuts take longer to heal than other breaks. In other news; I have started to set up a second grow tent and have rearranged the entire grow room/ ski shop (pics next week). The second tent will inherit the full spectrum LED and this grow will be getting an upgrade. I'll be using the slightly smaller tent to start up new cheebas to run a continuous cycle of fresh dope. There will also be room for me to grow other plants. The Italian sunflower is starting to form blooms and the lavender smells wonderful. Both are currently in with the widow but are about to be overgrown in the next couple of weeks.

As you'll notice in the pictures I wasn't able to resist some LST. Topping the plant was not going to produce as many tops while maintaining a shorter canopy. I easily doubled the tops by bending the top four branches out. The leaders that were topped have recovered and grown a little over an inch during the week.The Widow has shown the first indications of female sex. Small pistils are visible at some branch junctions. Watering every 3 days with 10 litres of quarter strength nutrients. My pH pen needed some tlc; as a result the pH is lower than I expected. The beginning of the week levels were low, around 5.7. Last water was up to 5.9. I haven't added any pH up as the water out of my tap is usually around 7.0. Growing in peat is showing some of its limitations. The next week I'll let her stretch out by possibly raising the light a few more inches. My Italian sunflowers are about to bloom! Diversity is nice to look at and gives me another reason to open up the tent and do some maintenance daily. Cheers eh

Pretty much just letting her rock out. The pH has stabilized at 6.5ish finally. Watering with plain water every third drink. She's taking 10 litres every 2 days now. Will be upping nutrients slightly before going into flower.

Got her stretched out under the scrog net finally. Thanks to letting her stretch up to the light for a few weeks I was easily able to fill out the corners of the tent. I'll let her break up through the net for a week or until there's some good leaders turning up. There are so many little branches that are going to become big colas in a month. I've done minimal trimming to encourage a full canopy with minimal undergrowth. My Italian sunflower and lavender have been moved out of the tent. Now would be a good time for my new light to arrive.

The widow has adjusted well to the trellis net. There are a ton of tops about to start boosting up. Some rusty spots have been popping up on a couple leaves but so far nothing to panic about. The pH seems to be steady at 6.7 and the plant is taking the added nutrients well. I'll be switching to a different nutrient line for this flower run. Should be interesting to compare some different fertilizers. At least another week before flower.

Shes a beast! The tent is the fullest it's ever been in veg. I'm hedging my bets on a half pound. This week has been low maintenance. Watering every other day now. The end is near for Advanced Nutrients. I'm really looking forward to moving to a two piece base nutrient system from Green Planet. Hopefully the learning curve with the new nutrients isn't too steep. And my new light has finally shipped out and should be here this week. I'll be switching the lights around the tents and seeing what the Electric Sky ES180 can do during bloom! Mass production is nye!

Big upgrade for the Widow this week. The Electric Sky ES180 is a pretty slick unit. She took no time to set up and is well balanced. The rectangular light pattern perfectly suits the tent and the spectrum is a warmer coulour than my previous light. The light is as high as it gets. I hope this plant doesn't stretch more than 2 feet. I would be greatly suprised if that happens. No signs of shock from switching the light over. The plant is begging to go into flower and now that the stars have aligned I will hit the switch. Going to struggle to get the humidity down throughout bloom as this girl is drinking 10L every 36 hours. Giving regular h2o occasionally to avoid salt build up. Did some minor HST to try and keep the canopy even along with a good haircut on the bottom half of the plant. All energy is now focused to stretching into lots of colas.

Big stretch this week. The canopy is looking nice and even wall to wall. Lots of budding starting throughout plant. She's drinking 10L every day now. The only problem I'm having is that my plant is needing water right when the lights go off and not in the morning. Trying to turn the watering schedule around, but struggling to do so. I'm giving plain h2o regularly to avoid lockout. This also allows me to see how much food the plant is eating from each dose of nutrients. The transition to Green Planet Nutrients has been seamless. I see nothing but a happy plant right now. When I run out of Bud Factor X I will switch to Green Planet's Rezin.

Big stretch! But I think she's done now. I've given her a big haircut at the end of the second week to try and reduce humidity and increase light to bud sites. There's still lots of leaf coverage throughout the plant. Buds are developing well considering it's just the end of the second week. The light has been lowered a few inches to try and reach down to the bottom nugs. Hopefully she bounces quickly from her haircut!

Some burly looking colas throughout the canopy. Thirsty girl is always keeping me on my toes for water. I'll be letting her juice up for a couple more weeks before stripping the leafs. Foliage is already dense after the last defo.

Double header diary entry to catch up to the plants calendar. Orange hairs are developing en mass. Buds are swelling right in the thick of the canopy. The light penetrates down better since the last defo around week two of flower. I'll probably schwazz her near week six. The pH has dropped to a concerning level of 5.7. This appears to be from when I add nutrients to my tap water. Out of the tap the pH is pretty close to 7.0. I'll be adding some pH Up to dial her back in. Watering with tap water every third feed seems to help bring pH back above 6 but I'd like to bounce around a bit less.

Branches are starting to get some serious sag. I'm resistant to put up another trellis but it might be unavoidable. Colas are bulking nicely under the wideband spectrum. Lots of orange hairs on this plant. I did a bit of defoliation but didn't find too many big leafs. Light is penetrating through the canopy well. I may drop the light a bit more for the last two weeks of nutrients before flush. After some troubleshooting I realized the top up of peat that I added last week made my entire mix very acidic. Note for future. Things appear to have balanced back to safe levels within a few waters. Good thing I aim for lots of runoff. Cheers eh!

Full on flush now. She's bulked up and has been supported by a secon trellis. Adding some Ph Down to help absorb any trace nutrients. Bottom buds look pretty under developed compared to the top colas...