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Hello and welcome back to a new diary! A couple changes from last entries, I have switched from rockwool cubes to peat pellets for germination and I love em! They seemed to have enjoyed them well because they popped QUICK. Very excited for this go around as I have some mistakes from last journal I am to correct to produce better results. Longer veg time of about two to three more weeks, removal of sucker branches prior to light flip, and more careful defoliation to maximize plants power. This is also my first time growing new strains, as my first two grows were both Amnesia Haze so I'm very excited to see the results and what I can accomplish with these two. Soon I will have two journals going as well, this will be due to me setting up a veg tent soon. I will then consistently have a 9-10 week rotation of four different strains at one time. I love variety and I can accomplish this with two tents and consistent flips. Hopefully by the end of the year I can have a separate tent from this grow area for custom breeding. I collected lots of strains over Black Friday and intend on making feminized crosses of some of my favorite strains. I'm hoping to breed one of the sweetest and most citrus tasting strains I possibly can, as those are my favorite flavors of bud. I hope you follow along and witness some growth, not only from the plants but my green thumb as well! 😄
Not a whole lot to say this week. Growth is steady, they got a little too tall so had to remove them and bury them deeper to make sure they rooted well. One malfunction in an air pump, I immediately ordered a new one upon discovery, luckily we aren't so far in the root will suffocate. I think I know what is wrong with the pump, and with some tinkering I may be able to repair it permanently and have a third pump in my equipment. Then I'll just need to order one more for the veg tent coming next month. Already gathering photos for week two, excited for the progress on these two girls!
Air pump has been replaced so no worries about equipment. Will upgrade air stones when flowering kicks in. Surprised the Orange Cookies are doing a tad bit better than the Wedding Cake, but there's still tons of time to see who will be the victor between the two. Going to begin implementing nutrients in week three. Only two more growth nodes to grow up and then it will be healthy enough to top to prepare for the Nebula Mainline technique I enjoy using. Then comes low stress training to bend it to a desirable shape. Taking it slow and steady hoping to correct the mistakes from the Amnesia Haze journal. Not a whole lot more to say about this week, they are still just little babies. Also I apologize for all of the overexposed images in this journal, from this week forward will be decent pictures lol
Week 3 of veg and we are closing in on one of my favorite parts! Monday I will be topping at the third node and clearing everything beneath to prepare it for mainlining! Then begins LST after recovery for a nice even star shape. Nebula Manifold is my go to technique, I love the shape, the ease of access to bud spots, and the easy harvest at the finish. So far we have some steady growth as always in the first month. I just now added some nutrients into the water reservoirs now that the root systems and branching out nicely and absorbing plenty of moisture. You can find the measurements per gallon of distilled water in my buckets. Orange Cookies is doing slightly better than the Wedding Cake, but not a huge gap in performance which is nice. Hopefully we can get a nice even full yield compared to the last journal.
UPDATE: Ended up mainlining the babies a tad earlier than expected because they are just growing so fast and strong! Pictures included above.
Recovery from the topping this past Friday has gone very well. New nodes will now grow horizontal making an easy shape to maintain. Once a set of four nodes are formed on each side I will top down to the third, and clear off the second nodes on each side. This trims the resulting main branches down to eight, four on each side, which will form into eight main colas come flowering. Doing this focuses energy and nutrients more efficiently on fewer top colas which in return produces larger buds. This part is always the worst for me because I'm really hands on with my plants, and this technique makes veg relatively boring due to all the training I'm saving myself from doing compared to other methods. However, it's efficient, easy, and tidy in the end thus making it worth it in my opinion. As always I'll be updating every couple days throughout the coming weeks.
UPDATE: Almost through the week now, and the maturing nodes are now strong and long enough to tie down. I use a wooden shish kebab skewer and some easily bendable ties from bread or toy boxes over Christmas to keep them growing squat. This will help make an even canopy at the top as well as provide me with an easy visual to determine what needs to be pruned and defoliated before the flip to flower. As you can see, they are delicate and it takes a calm, steady hand to tie down these baby nodes. I removed a fan leaf by mistake during this process, but I believe she will do just fine without it now that more new nodes are quickly pushing out. I will be topping at the third and pruning the second nodes in probably a few days depending on how mature they appear to be. Stay tuned!
A new week is here and things are shaping up, pun intended. The girls are growing out along the skewer as planned, I have to readjust the ties every day or so just to make sure they aren't cutting into the stems. However, this method is worth it due to the very symmetrical shape and level shape that results. The canopy, come time to flower, will be of even height allowing for proper distribution of light to the best parts of the plant. The even arrangement of branches also allows for even distribution of nutrients. The third node is currently growing out, once the fourth is nice and established, I'll be ready to go ahead and top once more.
UPDATE: The plants have been topped and trimmed up as stated above, and now begins the real exciting part. The girls get to grow out the main growth nodes I left behind to form eight main branches that will produce large colas, no popcorn buds! My new hydro gear for the veg tent is coming very soon, hopefully I will have the grow space ready to go before the week before flipping to flowering. I want to have a perfect 9-10 week rotation taking in account the weeks of germination and harvest/drying. I have a couple light leaks on my closet I need to patch asap if I don't want the same result as my last diary, accidentally flowering too early, or worse, herming my plants.
Welcome to week six of veg, so far we have topped the girls twice creating the desired shape I would like. Now we just let her grow! I've gotten all the main training out of the way, I'll continue to adjust the ties as needed to maintain an even canopy along my eight main growth shoots. As I type this I'm actually planning on going to remove the ties for a day or two to let them stretch. Then I will retie the branches if the end nodes grow taller than the center nodes. Just about one more month left and I get to heavily defoliate and prune before the flip. I will also be experimenting with Kyle Kushman's Chiropractic technique the same week before the flip. This involves slight twisting of the stems to gently break the inside of the plant, doing so increases nutrient flow and strengthens the plant upon recovery. I will link a YouTube video of him demonstrating and explaining how he goes about doing this. I'm trying to combine techniques claimed to increase yield due to me growing a small number of plants at a time. I'm practicing getting the most out of my plants before I construct new spaces to grow. Also, I'm receiving new hydro equipment today for the veg tent, super stoked to get two new girls going, hopefully I'll have a third tent by the end of the year. Updates coming throughout the week like always.
Kyle Kushman's chiropractic technique: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdfW2p-lHN0&ab_channel=GreenFlower
UPDATE: Very slight defoliation this week, I removed the largest fan leaves below the new growth to divert energy to parts that need it the most. Moving alone nicely, hopefully she will be the height I like by week 9 of veg, I'm hoping to not have to veg longer than that. My brand new veg tent is almost done with it's construction. New diary coming soon!
EXTRA UPDATE: So somehow my digital timer for my lights was on sixteen hours on eight hours off???? I don't know how this happened, I was wondering why my plants were so small so far into veg. I'll be kicking up to twenty hours on and four off to catch up. I should be able to reach my desired height before ten weeks of veg, so I should still be on target. Good thing I did some investigating because something wasn't adding up. I've updated the hours of light in the previous weeks to provide a little background of why the girls are so small. Fingers crossed I can reach the goals I set 😬
Plants are definitely responding well to the additional two hours of light I'm giving them each day. If my predictions are right I will be at my desired size by week nine of veg, right on schedule. Nothing much to say for these next couple weeks other than just watching them grow. Topping off the nutrients today, hopefully that will boom their growth some too. Last week of veg comes the major defoliation, pruning, and the Kushman chiropractic technique of breaking the inner herd of the plants stems. The chiropractic technique is supposed to improve rigidity in the plant as well as allow for a higher flow of nutrients concentrating on the best parts of the plant. Stick around there may be something interesting this week.
UPDATE: The plants are bushing out, but local temperatures have been below freezing for a few days now which may have slowed them down a slight bit. Temps are warming up however, and it looks like the two girls are growing nicely. As soon as they reach the height I want them too I will be germinating a couple more strains for the next journal in a new closet I've constructed, as well as doing all the work stated in the above paragraph before the flip. More pictures at the end of the week.
EXTRA UPDATE: So I had to move both the girls and my equipment to my Dad's tent for a little while for safety reasons. I hope I can get them back home soon. Added another gallon of nutrients to the buckets. Hopefully they will be the height I need in a week and a half, so I go ahead and flip to flowering. That's about it for this week.
Just this week and next left of veg before the flip. Things are getting exciting again. Next week you will also see the start of a new journal from me, two new strains entering their veg stage while this journal flips to flowering. I'm attempting to sell my house and needed to move all equipment, lol luckily my Dad had some space for me. Win-win because now he pays electricity and I help out with his plants. He doesn't mainline like me so there's some learning I get to soak in as well as I mess with other techniques. They are just sucking up the nutrient water like crazy now. Updates coming as the girls beef up. Major defoliation coming next week before the flip.
UPDATE: Plants have pretty much reached the size I would like them to be before the flip. Going to give them a heavy defoliation in a few days then give them the rest of the week to recover. They will then be moved to the closet I have set up for them to flower in away from my Dad's veg tent. Very excited and happy to be at my desired height with a full lush canopy like this, if I do enough manipulation without overdoing it I should be able to pull a pretty nice yield off of these girls. New update coming next week.
Here we are at the last week of veg! Exciting week ahead of us. Already got a jump on some defoliation and pruning on the lower thirds of my ladies. This will open up airflow at the bottom which will make sure no pests come around, and divert nutrients to the spots that matter the most, the tops. Root system is nice and hefty, soaking up nutrients as soon as I throw them in. This will be a good grow for sure compared to my last two. A couple tops on each plant haven't yet pushed through the plant wires I put at the top of the tomato cages, but they will get along just fine in the next week. A lot more pruning and defoliation coming in the next few days as well as the Kyle Kushman Chiropractic technique, so updates will be posted soon.
UPDATE: So I've been doing some defoliation slowly throughout the week rather than all in one sitting. This helps me not make mistakes taking too much off, and I can come back later on to remove everything necessary before the flip. Before next Monday every growth tip except the very top ones will be removed. I won't be taking anymore fan leaves than I already have for the purpose of good light absorption. Taking too much is a bad idea. Went ahead and helped my Dad's plants too since they were looking kind of bad. He will be flipping his to flowering Monday as well. One more update coming with results from the chiropractic technique as well as final defoliation.
EXTRA UPDATE: The very end of veg, whew. It's been a journey with a few mistakes, none too detrimental like my two previous grows, thankfully. Learned some things, and will probably achieve even better results next time with the information I have now. I was nervous to attempt the chiropractic method on the ladies, but I was pleased to find it was a very easy process and I didn't damage anything. If it works as claimed it will strengthen the inside of my plant allowing for better flow of nutrients to the upper bud spots. After I spot the knots forming from this chiropractic session I will give it another, and perhaps another after I spot the new ones come up, we will just have to see. I also finished pruning all the underneath growth as well as removing all the growth tips all the way to the top. This will maximize bud production at the top of the canopy rather than the bottom where little light is absorbed. My plants are now separated from my Dad's in a tent I set up next to his. That way we both have plenty of space to flower these coming weeks. I also may need to bend some of these tallest branches down under my wires to prevent the stretch from shoving them into the lights above. The journey obviously isn't over yet, we still have a whole 9-10 weeks of flowering to do! The fun has just started, follow along for results!
So the really fun part begins! A little branch management this very first day of flowering. Used a combination of methods for leveling out the canopy. First off, I took the easy to bend branches and tied them down to the sides of the tomato cages. This allowed more elbow room to do the higher stress training on the tallest main stems. Luckily not a ton of HST was needed since my Wedding Cake wasn't as tall as the Orange Cookies. Second, I performed some super cropping on a couple branches of the Orange Cookies. They were too tall to just tie down by themselves or bend under the frame, so I was left with one choice. Super crop and tie down, definitely not my first choice, but I got it handled. I wouldn't suggest super cropping this close to flowering if it can be helped, but in this case it had to be done to avoid the main cola from growing into the lights. Last, but not least, I took each branch that was just the right height, and bent them under the wire frame I created, simulating a sea of green. Hopefully the time I took to do this will help the light penetration reach all the parts that matter and increase my overall yield. Now over this next week I'll be watching out for the flowering stretch to make sure nothing gets too close to the LEDs. I may have to do another round of tying down if it stretches too bad, I'm really comfortable with the height I have now. I'll attempt to keep it at this height as much as I can. Updates in the next few days.
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So I was doing some research on the origin of the Orange Cookies x Nicole strain and found some interesting info from a reddit post. According to a customer who contacted support at Seedsman, the seedbank I use, this is a custom strain included in the freebies for paying with crypto currency. I knew that already because that's how I got this strain lol, but was pleased to see they also included the actual genetics. Lots of different crosses were made to compose this genetic, seven different strains combined over time to create one. I'm lucky to have gotten my hands on this gem.
Strain info is as follows:
Orange Cookies from Franchise Genetics (Sonic's Orange x Cookies & Cream [Starfighter x Girl Scout Cookies]).
Nicole Kush from the Marimberos Collective teamed with DNA Genetics ([MK Ultra x Blue Satellite] x [Shishkaberry x Blueberry]).
Indica-dominant
Height: Short - Medium
Yield: Medium - High, 400 - 500 gr/m2 indoors.
Flowering: 8 - 9 weeks
THC: Very high - 20%+
Taste: Complex, citrus, creamy, earthy.
Effect: Potent, relaxing, long-lasting.
But the question remains, who crossed this strain? Was it one of the farms above, or was it Seedsman themselves? Still unclear, either way I'm ready and excited to see the end result of these girls!
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UPDATE: The girls have drank nearly two gallons of water in 5 days. A good sign of proper nutrient absorption. I will gave to surely stay on top of keeping her fed as the weeks go on. I am also pleased to see the girls have recovered well from the chiropractic technique I have been talking about for a few weeks now. As far as how well it will make my plant perform if it all, is up for discovery. I will do a defoliation probably at the start of week three when lots of leaves have been produced and will need some more taming. More heavily underneath than up top to the largest fan leaves not receiving light, I will also do some slight defoliation to center facing fan leaves up top that may be blocking bud spots, which I don't expect many considering the training I've done. Some smell is definitely starting to emanate in the air around the grow space, luckily some ona gel is coming in the mail soon to hopefully eliminate that problem. Not much else to do other than wait for some flower production. Updates coming next Monday!
These girls are getting big. I did not anticipate the stretch correctly lol. If things get too bad I can hang my lights from the ceiling, but I like this height and would like to avoid it if possible. I may need to slightly defoliate towards the end of this week. I will try to only take growth towards the center blocking light to other bud sites. I would like to leave the bottom leaves as I've created a blanket underneath to absorb all available light. I will try to be as minimal as possible with my clippings as I've had bad experience with over defoliating in my past grows. I want to go slow and steady this time to not make any unnecessary errors. As we get further into flowering smells will become a larger issue for my makeshift closet. I am using Ona Gel Fresh Linen to combat odors and keep the room my closet is in smelling clean. My Dad got a vent to put on my exhaust that help with sound from the fan, I have to keep my speed higher during this stage to avoid any stagnant air. Stagnant air would mean chances of mold, airy buds, plant deficiencies, increased odor, etc. I may even need to hang my carbon filter from the ceiling because I feel it isn't getting the proper airflow in the tent I would like it to. I've got some tweaks to do this week to ensure the best environment for these plants. Updates soon.
UPDATE: So the Wedding Cake had some growth nodes I missed while pruning, which made it a bit bushier than its neighbor Orange Cookies. Not a problem I just may have to take some fan leaves here and there from the Wedding Cake a bit more often than the other, depending on how things go. They are steady gulping water and I'm starting to see signs of bud production which leads me to believe the stretch is nearly over. I went ahead and did one more heavy defoliation this week to further push nutrients upwards and create more bud spots for the top colas. I won't be doing anymore heavy defoliation, rather I will take very large fan leaves covering bud sites I can't bend out of the way, which I don't believe will be a huge issue. I bent the majority of these bud sites into their own little territory to avoid that problem. I don't want to take anymore fans that I don't have to at this point, I'll be losing major energy sources of the plant which will hurt my final yield if overdone. So basically the rest of this grow diary is us just hanging out waiting for the girls to do their things. I was able to get my humidity down to 55%, but I'd be more comfortable hanging around 45%. I still need to hang my carbon filter and I may upgrade the shitty desktop fans hanging inside the tent to further drop that percentage. Excited for the upcoming weeks when I crank up the bloom nutrients.
Welcome back! Been a bit since I've updated, it's been a pretty hectic week for me. Due to me being so busy I had a hard time getting over to check my plants which resulted in them growing up into my lights. Luckily I caught it before any burns produced on the bud spots. To fix the issue I had to get some metal hooks, drill them into the ceiling above, and hang them from one ratchet each. I told myself last week I wouldn't do any more defoliating if not necessary, however some necessary trimming was needed this week. Sucker branches popped up under the canopy on the Wedding Cake during the stretch as well as hand sized fan leaves I couldn't tuck away. I removed those and I believe the plant will benefit from it greatly. I did so much tying down to the Orange Cookies that it resulted in a weird shape lol, but plenty of light penetration to bud spots. I believe the Wedding Cake will be the champion out of the two, due to shape and size. Hopefully I will have some pretty colas at the end of this run. Not much else to say at the moment other than stick around. Buds will be getting fat asf soon.
Been lacking this past week on the updates, been super busy with work. Due to me not being around to check on them, they grew up into the lights again! I raised the lights some and even bent a couple of the tallest branches over. No more defoliation because of the stage of flowering we are in. Halfway through flower so fans won't reproduce well if I take them off, therefore I will only be tucking the fans and very very selectively remove fans that can't be tucked out of the way. I feel like the stretch has prevented the buds from fattening well and may result in a longer flowering time? I don't know we will just have to see. Not much else to really do for the duration of the grow other than keep the girls watered, in good view of the lights, and I may do a pruning on the very bottom of the canopy. A large shade is being cast and I feel some lower branches may be sucking away from the top colas. Updates coming soon.
So this week I have come to the conclusion my plant stalled a bit during the flip to flowering. Instead of producing buds the first few weeks it just stretched like crazy. Now it is staying at a singular height and buds are forming nice now. One thing I noticed is my Orange Cookies is producing significantly less than my Wedding Cake. To help balance this a little bit I decided to go through a pruning session. I went underneath the canopy and pruned away any immature growth nodes not receiving light. Hopefully this will go a good job at sending those much needed nutrients upwards to the top colas and increase my yield a bit. Due to the long stretching period I may add a few weeks of flowering on here depending on if they are ready to harvest or not. I'll keep an eye on the pistils and trichomes to double check when they are ripe and ready to chop down. Hopefully they don't finish too early and I can make up that time lose from the beginning of the flip. Sorry for lack of updates, I've been super busy with work, plus I try to not overcheck my plants during this time. I start chopping things away and if I spend too much time around the plants I'll get carried away. Updates coming of course.