Canna-Cheese

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Raised the lights for the first time today. Going to watch night time temps as December starts. Damn, I will likely have to raise lights a second time this week.

Man she's growing like crazy. Removed the 3rd, 4th, and 5th node shade leaves. Moved the light again, after a day. I've had to move the light a second time and did I bit more defoliation (non-shade leaves). I am officially concerned about her height, she will likely max out the tent. Made the decision to "supercrop" the main stem into a slight S (pics will be coming soon). I did the math and she will certainly outgrow her environment. I wanted to just do a straight-forward grow considering it's my first AF, but alas, the fates have conspired against her and me. There are pics attached after the "supercropping". I should mention that this is not true cupercropping, but a later stage LST to achieve the same results. The plant was not damaged in any way and it will not need time to recover, only time to turn the leaves upright. Defoliation was extended to include some, but not all, inward-facing leaves.

I guess plant bondage is a thing now. I did a nice tie-down early in week 5, including some defoliation and even a cannabis chiropractic session. What started as a hands-off operation to set up a baseline has gone 180 and turned into a full, hands-on, plant management situation. I'm NOT complaining, it's simply humorous how this lady just noped right out of the planned operation. She's a stubborn girl with a mind of her own. The height has stayed pretty consistent the past week(s) because of my training and pruning. That's about over as she has reached the walls of the grow space (2'x2'). Everything will be vertical now. Gave her a good watering/feeding after the session today. Nearly a full gallon, all the way to runoff. I try to not water through to run off very much because I am starchly opposed to standing water (and I don't have a vac system to handle the runoff yet). I water right to run-off, but I stop just shy of it. Today I went all the way through. Then I went through by hand afterward and individually watered each chiropractic site a few times with rainwater. The stems seemed to be grateful for the water. We'll see how it turns out in the next couple of days. I'll be watching the humidity levels (I try to stay at or below 50%) as well as the girl.

Still working on getting the soil temperature up. Trying to be very incremental with any changes at this point. No more trimming or chiropractic from here out, just pure pampering.

I have solved the temp issues (for now at least). I have a 10$ 350W desk heater that I put in the bottom right side of the tent. My tent has a 2x2 grow space and then the other half is divided into 2 more spaces (3 total). I moved some other plants into the top of the right side and put a small fan, the 350W heater, and several gallons of water (as heat sinks). This also warms the solution which is helping the soil temps as well. My day temps are around 82F air and 56F soil. Much happier with this situation, and it only cost me 10$ and a few days of doing frequent temp readings. I really need to stay up all night and get some night time readings, but sheesh......... The smell is beginning to develop. Right now it is leaning towards the grapefruit side, very bright, clean, and cheery. I'm curious to follow olfactory development as citrus isn't normally listed among the scents. I am very happy with the spacing of the branches and the light that every site is receiving. I keep looking for any overlaps or shade patches, and I don't see any. The training with strings and wires and cannabis chiropractic appears to have all created a posture that I'm happy with. The outer ring has 4/5 taller colas and the interior has a lower level of probably 8 colas. This allows me to keep the lights about 6' from the outer tops and that works out to be about 12" from the interior patch. I am hoping to help develop more even light strength across the canopy.

Sad report this week. I found some spider mites in the other half of my tent. Sadly I found some on the Cheese Queen. I have removed the last remaining leaves not covered in trichs. I have added 2 more fans to the 2x2 side of the tent. I have also done a soil dressing with diatomaceous earth. The opposite side is now in full quarantine. I need to save the next 2 weeks. Then I can really get after the tent disinfections. December 30th, the predatory mites came today and I just set them loose. Phytoseiulus persimilis from Nature's Good Guys. Followed the instruction and lightly misted leaves before shaking some mites into a small folded paper and resting it in the branches. According to Nature's Good Guys I needed 10-15 mites but of course, the whole bottle is thousands of mites. I certainly overapplied the number of mites, hopefully, that won't be a problem.

I haven't seen any bugs in two days. It appears that my proactive measures are holding off the full infestation. I know better than to declare victory, it's just about buying enough time to get this harvest. I'm encouraged at this point. The smell is becoming stronger and almost reverting back to the grapefruit. It becomes quite pungent when the branches are disturbed. She seems to be almost stuck in time. The last 2 weeks have seemed like a month and there're are more than that to come.

I continue to hunt for spider mites, but I haven't had any luck finding them the past week. I'm not giving up that easy, I know these little buggers better than that. This week she will be reaching the MSRP (manufacturers suggested ripe point). I'll start really looking at the trichs towards the end of the week. Just have to wait for the paint to dry. This week she's really showing some deep colors and I added some posts to help hold her up.

Likely going to harvest sometime this week. Getting very excited. I get a smell that reminds me of GMO and I'm getting a bit of the roast beef. There's also a little cilantro in the back of the smell. It's becoming more pungent. I still don't really have a fade though. I have not been flushing so maybe that has something to do with it? I've just been slowly dialing back the nuets

I will update later with info on tastes and effects. I am stoked to put some butter together with the wet trimmings. The smell at harvest 1/25/21 was strong and oddly "beefy". I still get a GMO type of smell from it. Very sticky! Cleared 2.8 oz, / 80 g on my first auto grow. Quite stoked. Now to wait for cure. Lukcy I have another round coming to occupy my attention. But, well, patience is not my virtue