Gelato 2021

Resiliency. I had to be away for two days, and they didn't get the attention they needed in those first few days as they were unattended and just sitting by the window. And of course, when I'm around, I talk to them, share funny videos, and try to keep them spiritually fulfilled - all important things I believe, that they missed out on! So they lost a little momentum in the first critical week - but it got worse. When I returned, I was getting them moved to their comfy place, and - I kid you not - I dropped the grow light on them. Straight dropped it and crushed the 4 day old girls. Perhaps I'm not ready to be a real parent. One of the girls took the corner of the light smack dab in the face. Crushed straight down. I lifted it off and she was laying flat on the soil, her poor stem shattered right at the soil line. She so tiny there is no way to tape or try to prop her up, and I figured she was a goner. I left her laying there as didn't dare even try to straighten her up for fear of her breaking into two completely. Miraculously, the next morning her top turned up slightly from the soil as she looked at the light. There was hope. Somehow she has survived. I made a little ledge support out of a paperclip (she's too weak/tiny to tie anything to her, so just kind of leaned her up against it to get her off the ground. Two days later and she's standing up!! she's small and clearly delayed - second set of leaves just starting to come in - but there is hope! Again, being photoperiod, feeling OK as she only a few days behind the others. Will be interesting how it plays out.... will she get back on track, or be stunted forever. Just watered so soil looks a bit damp but they looking good and praying up happily towards the light. Humidity is a real challenge right now. Outside temps are below 0F here so dewpoints are -10F. When you heat it inside, you end up with humidity under 20%. Even with the humidifier, hard to get it above 40%. Not much more I can do unless I want to bring them into the shower with me. On to a better week 2....

Good start to the week - bad ending. After dropping the light on them and crushing them in week 1, I was just happy they were still alive this week. They strengthened all week and were looking good. It's been very very cold here, so had a heater nearby to keep the temps up into the upper 70s/low 80s, as they really perked up with the slightly higher temps. Then... The thermostat on the heater failed and I found them at 132degrees. Leaves were all brown and curled up and thought they were dead, especially the little one (that I broke her stem in week one :( ). They've recovered a bit over last two days. They have stopped growing (they were doing amazing.... Really great growth for just two weeks!!),but now nothing last two days as they struggle to recover. The top growth though hasn't wilted, and the stem has stayed strong and doesn't appear to be going limp. I think the bigger one will make it - not sure about the little one yet. Will know in a few days. Assuming they survive, will transplant into bigger pots, and hopefully top late next week. Holding off on adding nutes so far... Will start this week. Been a rough ride for these girls these first two weeks

Goodbye seedling, hello veg - Week 3 - Beginning of week - replanted to their 5gallon home - soil roughly 70% OF, 10% HF, and 20% perlite. (The HF primarily because I had some left). pH tested the mix and it tests right at 7.0. Girls moved into the tent now as well. They are still recovering from being dropped (week 1) and cooked (Week 2) (sigh), but new growth looking good, healthy, praying up nicely. The one plant (that got her stem completely broken in week 1) is still struggling. Sorry forgot to get a picture of her (and a bit embarrassed of her, anyways). Seems to be OK, just going to grow slower and need more attention than the other. I'll cut off those damaged leaves next week, but given I just transplanted and plan to top tonight, will wait a few days to make sure all is OK. Node spacing looks good. I'm topping above the 3rd node - removed the 1st node, and haven't decided yet if I'll remove the 2nd node. Mycorrhizae added to the soil during transplant. Starting nutes at 1/4 strength (Big Bloom, Cal-Mag) yesterday. Water at 6.5 pH, TDS 300. Things seem back on track....

Slowly recovering from being crushed and over-heated in weeks 1 and 2, topping and replant in week 3. Added more cal-mag both spray and to the water as they seem to want more.

Second and final topping today. Plants are doing well but a bit slower grower, more finicky, than their tent mates. They've lived a tough life so far though. I broke one of the branches last week during LST tie down; Taped back together. A couple leaves shriveled up but branch recovering now. Nutes are going in full and they seem to want more. Humidity is high in the tent (60%) so will start to lower this week, but plants still seem to be drinking a lot. Hoping to keep them in veg for another two weeks and then move to flower. (The two seedlings in the picture.... I didn't think two of the plants were going to survive my mistakes early on and started new seeds. Now they all growing.. .. Not sure what to do with them as going to run out of room....)

Day 40 / 12" tall. Look really good. No signs of burnt tips, nice shade of green, plants growing fast.... I'm out of room in the tent - I thought I'd get to day 50 but at 12" and filling out length/width wide the tent. Will flip to 12/12 here in next two days.... Day 36/Just starting week 6 and they are growing very fast. Was thinking I would keep them in veg until around day 50, but I'm quickly running out of room and going to have to make the flip sooner, I believe. I've been misting with cal-mag solution as well to help stay ahead of that as they were showing some deficiency earlier. Just trying to keep them tied down and spread out as much as I can to maximize the coverage. Smell is starting to pick up as well.

day 42: All is well; Flipped to 12/12 at end of last week. Plants look good, no burnt tips, growing quickly. I'm very worried they are going to outgrow their home at this point as the filled out so quick. The littler plant is about 1.5" shorter than her friend. She's the one I broke her stem in week one, but mostly recovered. day 47: They are growing toooooo fast. I'm going to have to find a new home for them within two weeks... They do seem happy though.

Day 50, start of week 8. A little bit of stretch last 10 days for them as I went into flower. Tried some LST but pointless now as nowhere to bend to (no lateral room in the tent to spread them out anymore). Just going to have to go with it. They got big fast. Overall doing well; No noticeable issues. Switched to TPS Base A/B nutrients as ran out of foxfarm. Will see if they like. Too cold outside still to get natural light. I'm going to run out of room (already have) in the tent, both laterally and up, so will need to find a new solution in a few weeks. For now, carry on....

Day 59 from sprout. Plants doing well, but got a lot of stretch out of one of them. One is 30" and nicely built, the other 39" and all stretchy. They were getting similar light as I rotate them, but she clearly wanted more.. It's warm here so trying to get them some natural daylight now to help. Not much to do at this point but ride it out! No signs of leaf issues so just continuing on with nutrients on schedule. Smell is starting to become stronger as flowers develop. All good.

So misjudged how big these would get. The tall one that stretched is going to be a beast to find room for at this point. Having trouble keeping her far enough from the light, and it's too cold outside to take her out there. Limping through the next week or so. I did upgrade the lighting to add another 150W(actual) LED, so 400W total now for these two and their friends. Doing well; Leaves look good. Lower leaves are getting shaded out so pruning as I go. Keeping nutrients a little light as the routine seems to be working. Smell is getting pretty strong. The plan now is to just keep them happy for another month.

Not much to update; Girls continue to do well. No major changes as they seem happy, leaves are good. Continuing on with nutrients as planned as no signs of burn. Been able to water pretty much seed to now at 6.3ph without needing any changes. Been remarkably smooth. Flowers are starting to put on weight, so added some stakes/ties to help support over last few weeks. Some of the lower leaves on the large plant at starting to die, which seems fine as rest of her is happy. Defoliating a little every day. Scent is getting pretty strong but delicious. End of week update: Starting to look like a phosphorous deficiency as several leaves showing purple stems and brown spots/coloring changes. Runoff is looking a little low on PH (5.9), so increasing the Flower Fuel (1-34-32) and moving watering up to 6.6ph going in (vs 6.3).

Hit some obstacles this week. Plants started to show signs of phosphorus deficiency mid last week, and it accelerated very quickly! Started to see a lot of leaves impacted. I've been adding flower fuel which is like (1-32-34) ; Did a flush as I hadn't done before, thinking ph was getting low in the soil (Been watering at 6.3, but runoff around 5.9.) perhaps locking out as read phosophours uptake needs a little higher ph than the overall plant. Flushed, and then watered with the flower fuel. Went to just 11 hours light to try to slow her down a bit and time to recover. Looks like it worked as it hasn't gotten any worse and they seem overall OK. I've trimmed off the most impacted leaves but left the ones that were just showing a little deficiency. For the larger girl, she doesn't have a lot of fan leaves so don't want to take too many away! So seems like back on track here. Thinking another 2 weeks for these. The larger plant is starting to show yellowing leaves down low but seems roughly right for the last few weeks. Going to keep feeding them nutrients for another week here, and then cut it off for the finish. Other than above, just keeping them in the light, humidity down. Trying to give them some colder nights to stress a bit. Buds aren't quite as fat as I hoped but happy overall and we'll see what happens next two weeks.

Day 90 in total, day 48 in flower. Heading into 8th flowering week... Doing well. Still seeing impacts from what I think was phosphor deficiency, but not getting any worse. Trimming off the final set of damaged leaves. Lower leaves starting to yellow and drop, but seems appropriate for now. Watering tomorrow for final time with nutrients then flushing and heading to the finish. Both tall and short girl fattening up. Strange plants as grew them in very similar conditions, rotated around the light, etc - but tall girl 48" and short girl 30". Perhaps different genetics for the 2 seeds I got. Flowers are not quite as frosty as I hoped but still look good. These plants smell delicious. Love carrying them around and getting that deep intense smell lofting about! No amber yet.

Update: Post cure and smoking for awhile... Damn. This ended up being pretty intense smoke. I have a pretty high tolerance and doesn't take much to really feel it. A friend wrote a few days after trying "That knocked me the f#$@ out". and then a few days later "I'm scared of gelato". ha. It's a different high.... Nearly impossible to do anything on it - not in an indica sleepy way - just a.... you just lose all track of time and what's going on. You come out of the high and it's like, "What just happened?". Very relaxing, lose track of time, no anxiety...yet your mind is open. I like, but yea not the one to do before work, that's for sure. In the jars. Will update the rest later... 102 days from seed to harvest, 62 days in flower. I like the head high so harvest a bit early. Probably could have let them go another week but I'm happy. Looks like a bit more than 5oz dried total from the 2 plants. Buds are quite aromatic and sticky. They don't look as frosty as others have posted pictures, but they are sticky as can be. Waiting for the cure to finish to try! Gelato girls grew well without a lot of challenges. Handled the topping well. They really liked cal-mag and had to make sure to keep adding all the way through; They got a little phosphorous hunger in flower but I caught it quickly. pH got a little low about 1/2 way through that I had to adjust for. Even with the extra light I put on them, that should have been enough, they still seemed to want more light. It stayed cold enough outside that was only about to get them real sunlight for a few days unfort and had to live with the LEDs. The buds seem a little more airy and less dense than I hoped for - not sure if that genetics or again just couldn't get them the light they needed. Growth wise, they ended up bigger than I expected and outgrew the tent, especially one that really stretched right when I flipped to 12/12. However, the stretch helped her grow better flowers as opened it all up a bit. Really liked the photoperiods vs autos. Longer grow time and a bit more challenging, but very nice to be able to have time to solve issues, train, recover.... vs the flat out sprint that is autos... Cons --- Wow the scent on these was strong. A very unique, pungent citrus/dirty earthy scent. Stealth wasn't a big issue for me, but if it was, the smell would have been hard to fully mask. I kind of liked the unique scent, but a few friends aren't sold on it (waiting for the smoke).