Perpetual Pie

Both seeds popped after 3 days in the soil. I’m really sold on the approach of putting them straight into the final substrate. 12 out of 12 attempts. I make ~2cm deep hole and drop the seed in. Then I sprinkle soil in until it is full, but I don’t pack it down. I mark the point so I can find it. I continually spray with pure water just on that spot to keep it wet. After 3 days I’ll use a soft paint brush to remove some of the soil and make sure something is happening. If the seedling is there I cover it again and just let it go. Previously, with pucks, paper towels or water in jars, I was down at 50% success rate. That is an expensive waste. I have to be careful not to overwater them once they pop. I water multiple times a day and never water far beyond the reach of the current leaves. My main problem with this grow is that they will be in the veg tent for at least 5 weeks before they go under the scrog net in the flowering tent. I’ll have to use an LST approach that allows me to transfer them at that point.

Nothing much to report this week. The seedlings are at about the right stage. Second leaf nodes with three fingered leaves are fully out and the third leaf nodes are popping. I’ll start the feed this week and maybe even get to simple LST before the week is out.

Good growth this week. The Gorilla Cookie is a bit more developed than the Strawberry Pie. I’ve started LST on it. Third nodes are out on both and side shots are starting to sprout. I plan to have less bud sites on this grow than I left on the last one (Two Tents). If too many develop I will remove them early when the stress is smaller. I’m beginning to think the quality/quantity balance here is about how many competing bud sites there are and how big you manage to make them. Clearly the more soil in the tent, the more potential. So this perpetual grow will exist in the same tents as my next crop (Fruit Salad). I’m keeping the Root Juice in the feed for a bit longer this time. I would normally have stopped by now. I’ll start flowering nutes this week as well.

The plants are both pulled over. I’m spreading the side shoots out. I’ll remove a bit more of the smaller growth this time. If it isn’t going to be a main cola then I don’t want it taking up energy. The Strawberry Pie is showing signs of overfeeding. Dark clawing new leaves. I’ll feed with pure water next time. I’ve been mixing in flowering nutes so I’m also looking for signs of flowering over the next week.

The plants both started flowering early this week. I probably could have called last week preflower. I’ve been training and removing lower growth to allow growth in the upper parts only. I’m aiming for ~12-16 stems supporting buds on each plant. I also dropped the feed on the Strawberry Pie and just went with water. I’m letting it use up the nutes in the soil. It seems to have appreciated that. New growth looks healthy. The Gorilla Cookie is hungry and continues to soak up the feed. I’ve just moved them to the flowering tent after harvesting the previous grow (Two Tents). Using the scrog net now.

I think I’ve removed all the growth I should atm. I have only the primary, secondary and a few tertiary shoots. I even started removing the lowest secondary shoots. I have ~12 shoots on each now. The Gorilla buds are already a good size and are showing plenty of frost. This will be a good plant to grow I think. I have three more seeds. The Strawberry is still just small cotton buds. It still looks a little overfed. I’ll back off with water only again in the next feed. I can see a bit of a stretch starting. I’ve read about the DIF technique. So I have been concentrating on keeping the daily temperature differential as low as possible. I shifted the lights out to middle of the day and turn the two auxiliary UVB fluorescents on and off as needed. I also have a small heater with a thermostat that trips on when the room gets too cold. I turn the extractor up and down as needed. I also shift the extractor duct to different parts of the tent. The idea is that controlling average temperature difference between night and day controls the stretch, so I don’t have to tie it all down too much. I am aiming to keep the diff < 5c. In the tent it ranges from 22-24c so the diff is <2c. If growth is too slow then I will just push it closer to 5c. I’ve also started super cropping the Strawberry just to keep the height down.

Apart from a few lapses I have been keeping the temp diff under 3c for weeks. It may have had an impact. The Gorilla is very short and compact. The Strawberry has stretched a bit. Neither have shot up like the other grows though. In fact the Gorilla stems went hard over a week ago. I couldn’t do super cropping on them now even if I wanted to. I am still hoping it grows a bit taller. It has room. The Strawberry has stretched just right. I’ve super cropped most of it and tied down. I think the stems are starting to harden on her too. I’m pleased with the bud sites on both plants. The Gorilla has ~12 colas with big thick bud sites already well developed. They are only going to get fatter. The Strawberry has smaller buds atm, but maybe closer to ~20 sites. I just pushed the nutes up to 1000ppm. I start by feeding the veg tent at ~400 then add further flowering nutes and continue to feed them. The leaves on both plants are dark and healthy. But they look close to clawing on the Strawberry. I’m maxing out nitrogen. I’ll do a water only feed next time. The Gorilla looks like it can handle it but I’ll water down the Strawberry feed in future.

There is no more stretch. The buds are now fattening up and getting stickier. The Gorilla is a smaller plant than the Strawberry. But the buds are much fatter. Still only looks like 1.5oz on it. The Strawberry could give 2oz. It has more bud sites but they have some weight to put on. The smells are really coming on too. The Gorilla has a spicy diesel smell. The Strawberry really is starting to smell like sweet creamy strawberry. Literally. It is, as promised, covered in trichomes already. Even the bud stems are covered and they go all the way out to the end of a lot of leaves. Trichomes on both are significantly cloudy with a lot still clear and almost no amber. With the last grow running out yesterday, the biggest problem is letting them both go to full term and curing. Lockdown and Christmas aye. Went through it too quickly. I’ll be cropping as little as possible this time. Maybe just the Strawberry, which officially should take a week or two less than the Gorilla. UPDATE: Made cannabutter out of a discarded bag of trim from the last grow (Two Tents). Baked peanut cookies a day later. Had a test today. So stoned! Enough for a week or two for my wife’s needs. That will get me close enough to the projected end for the Strawberry at 9 weeks. I’ve only fed it water the last feed. I’ll just keep flushing it now. Sorted.

I’ve started cropping from the Strawberry. 1/4 oz dry weight so far. I dry it on a metal plate over water on the stove. I’m definitely feeling the high but I’d like to get the full taste experience. It has reached 9 weeks, which is the described flowering time. Trichomes look like they are peaking at full cloudy with maybe 1/10 amber. I’ve harvested maybe half of what is there. I’ll leave the rest till next week to see how it matures another week. That will also give the next grow (Fruit Salad) room to expand in the tent. I’ll mostly leave the Gorilla alone and do one big crop at 10-11 weeks. Mostly. It is short but chunky with solid balls of bud. Trichomes are a bit behind the Strawberry. Still turning cloudy. But it looks impressive. Time to flush it.

I’ve harvested the remaining Strawberry Pie (1/2oz) and most of the Gorilla (1oz). There is about 1/2oz Gorilla left. This is giving the next grow (Fruit Salad) more room in the tent as well. Ideally I would go a week longer maybe before touching the Gorilla. But I need to be moving the perpetual cycle along atm. So far I’m using everything I grow and I need to build up a supply that is curing. With that in mind my next grow (Purple Pair) needs to be germinated this week. These plants from Fastbuds are quick though!

The last of the Gorilla Cookie has been harvested. It has stopped drinking that much in the last week. The Gorilla had golf ball sized buds that were very easy to harvest. It was short and chunky but ended up with 2oz. The lankier wider Strawberry Pie had 1.3oz. With 12g trim. Plenty of room in the flowering tent now. Three Sisters will move into the flowering tent to join Fruit Salad. My next grow (Purple Pair) will go into the veg tent to join King & Kong.

I did the usual light scrogging but also had some super cropping applied to keep it under control. I cropped the Strawberry over 3 stages between 9-11 weeks. Just as I needed it really. Not what I want to do really atm. But needs must. It was a good quality vape even treated this way. Gets a bit lanky during the stretch but was able to keep it under control with training. Wet trimming then drying in brown paper bags is my preferred method. It is easy to manage and slow enough to be gentle. After less than a week in the bag the buds are ready to use.

I did the usual light scrogging with both. It had all tertiary growth removed. This is a really good stealth plant. Short and not too stinky but powerful! It was short and wide but really delivered with the target 2oz per plant as well. Big chunky bud. Not really any larf to deal with. Pretty easy grow and harvest. I’ll experiment with that approach again. Wet trimmed and dried in brown paper bags.