Gelato #1

Busy week! Raised lights multiple times to prevent light burn and heat stress. Plant continued to stretch and showed signs of possible Nitrogen deficiency. Week 2 of flower finally noticing significant pistil formation.

Gelato is Tallest plant Front/Right. I gave it a large feed this week. Dissolved 2 TBSP of Molasses into some dechlorinated PH 6.5 water. 4 Litres of water added to my 5 Gal. fabric pot. She stretched another 6 - 7 inches and many adjustments were made with light height and angle during week 3 to maximize potential growth sites.

This strain has grown like a weed and used up every amount of Nitrogen I have given it. It could have easily been 5-6 feet tall at this point if it were not for LST/HST. I should have been more aggressive tying it down but I was not expecting so much vertical growth so quickly. I feed 6 Tbsp (recommended 5 Tbsp) Blood Meal to try to catch up with its requirements. As with my other strain this has mostly been feed from 2 Compost Tea's and a few minor dry amendment tweaks for added benefit. I started adding Molasses into every other watering which has caused vigorous feeding from the plants. It will easily take another litre or two after the day after a 5 Litre feed.

Week 5 Flower was a busy one for the Gelato. 2 rounds of defoliation, Feed, and a new light! Stretch has stopped with only about 1 inch of growth on the Main Cola. Other bud sites have caught up some thanks to the additional light. Daily breakdown of anything significant below. Dec. 6 - Small defoliation and Feed of 4 Litres of Molasses water. (1 TSBP of Molasses for approx. 8 Litres of water) Dec. 10 - Lowered RH to 45-47% on advice from a more experienced grower. - Trimmed any fan leaves that were pushing directly into another grow site - Trimmed small fan leaves at the bottom of the plant that lacked light or a major growth spot - Removed any unintended bud growth from the lowers - Raised and secured several lower Cola's that had stretched but unable to support their own weight Dec. 11 - Installed additional light fixture, Vivosun "Full Spectrum" "600W" (270W)

With all the additional heat from my secondary light I have been working hard to mitigate the heat and increase airflow to the center of the tent to help circulate the air more evenly. Dec. 14 - Gelato Height 39 inches - Fed 1Tbsp Molasses per 8 Litres of water, Gelato gets 4 Litres - Added side lighting. 2x, 4 foot, 41w Bloom LED Dec. 15 - Added 2 more 6 inch intake holes at bottom of tent - Added 2 duct tunnels in side tent to help direct air flow to center of tent Dec. 16 - Fed 2oz of Organic Rev in 8 Litres of water, Gelato gets 4 Litres

Well, this was the worst week of the grow by far. The additional top light was too close and started to cause heat and light stress the previous week. I was able to raise it a few more inches with zip ties. The Gelato was least affected but did have some yellowing on the upper leaves near the center of the tent. I possibly over trimmed as well which was my worst fear, I should have cut maybe half the amount off that I did on the second trim. I wanted to remove leaves that were growing into other bud sites and lower leaves that I did not want to get any larger but I want way overboard as you can see in the picture from Dec. 24. I have NOT been checking PPM of run off or testing the soil at all. Noob mistake. I did a Compost Tea at 2400 PPM which may have negatively effected the plants as well but I cannot be certain. Upon testing run off from non PH'd (another mistake?) 1140 PPM Epsom Salt flush my meter gave an Error for 500 and 700 PPM scale. Presumably this means my PPM is over 7000! The Gelato does not seem to be affected it was very nutrient hungry and a large plant. Dec. 20 - Fed 2 Tbsp of Kelp Extract per 8 Litres of water. Gelato gets 4 Litres Dec. 21 - Temp at canopy: 22C, RH 48% - Temp below canopy: 19C, RH 56% Dec. 23 - Fed 2 Litres of 2400 PPM Compost Tea at lights out - Started Defoliation Dec. 24 - Fed 2 Litres of 2400 PPM Compost Tea, with 1 Litre run off Dec. 26 - Epsom Salt Flush at 1140 PPM, PH 7.7 run off reading ERROR (over 7000 PPM?), PH 7.2

Not much happened this week with the Gelato, continuing to mature and a bit of new growth but nothing substantial visually. Switched to 10 hrs Light at some point. Started checking trichomes. some look burnt but most are still clear. Dec. 30 - 2OZ of Organic Rev in 8 Litres of water, Gelato gets 2 Litres Dec. 31 - 2 more litres of Organic Rev in water Jan. 2 - Water PH'd to 6.4 with tsp of Epsom Salt (700 PPM). Gelato gets 3 Litres - Run off PH 7.1 - Run off PPM, 3500 / 4500

Preventative measures due to nutrient burn on different strain* (Gelato did not suffer any nute burn [only light burn] due to having extreme feeding demands; but the soil is over 5000 PPM and my other strain is showing serious signs of light/heat/nute burn. Flawless Finish was used solely to help prevent any serious damage from excessive salt build up and not as an effective "flush" as it would be impossible in the time frame I was working with and a waste of effort.) Jan. 5 - Used 16 ml of Flawless Finish PH'd to 6.1 in 8 Litres of water. Gelato gets 4 Litres - Run off PH 7.1 - Run off PPM ERROR (over 5000) Jan. 7 - Lights out for 24 hrs in preparation for Harvest

This Gelato grew very aggressively, I attempted at least 2 major bends to break dominance that did help slow growth of the main Cola but it still wanted to stretch. Finishing at 39 inches tall with aggressive training I suspect it could have easily been over 6 feet tall if left to grow on its own. It had high nutrient requirements including adding healthy amounts of Epsom Salt regularly to my PH'd water which prevented yellowing. This strain was almost impossible to over feed. Near the end my run off PPM was over 5000 and the plant showed NO major signs of nutrient burn. Comparatively the Do-Si-Dos reacted very negatively and pretty much stopped growing after the nute burn and heat/light stress. I DID find 2 tiny "bananas" (hermie seeds?) from what my eye could see. It was one of the first buds I trimmed and I never found anymore after that. The last 3 weeks very overly stressful for the plants and I am surprised how well the Gelato handled it. I would suggest heavy LST/ HST / Scrog. Topping optional if you can break dominance. Do not veg much longer than 3-4 weeks if you have a small space. A single plant would work well for my 3x3 tent with good training I had a significant amount of stretch which needs to be accounted for in early flower. I would consider using a 3 Gal pot next time. I had lots of even root growth throughout but it was certainly more soil that root. This could have been from my damaging the roots or not having enough healthy biology in the soil not sure. The Gelato did very well in regards to heat and light stress. Only suffering some minor damage from lights being to close. Recovery was overall very quick and no long term problems after removing the leaves that had yellow and adjusting lights. The smell while growing was a Sweet, Cereal, Cream smell. Very pleasant for me. That smell has mostly stayed while mellowing slightly near the end of the grow. I grew this to press into Rosin and so far it is working very well even on a Hair Straightener. I suspect the returns and texture will improve over the next few weeks of pressing. Overall I am very happy with this strain as an amateur grower and I would definitely try to grow it again trying to increase yield and quality.