Second time lucky!

Week commencing Monday 8th March Moved the girls in their peat pellets directly into the 10l pots. I used a transitional pot last time but most feedback recommended straight to big pot. If it reduces shock and makes life easier, why not? I'm using the cut off 5l water bottles from last crop as makeshift domes. I remove the domes for a few hours every day and put them on at night with the lids removed. Hopefully, this traps the humidity in which the seedlings love. Also, using the mini hygrometers I purchased for the curing jars of the previous crop. I moved the 9 week old Northern Light into finish her off. I haven't introduce a fan yet as the girls are mostly in their domes and air circulation isn't too important this week. Next week I might remove the domes and definitely introduce a fan.

Week commencing Monday 15/03/21 Not much to report really. The girls are getting around 75-100ml of filtered water every other day. I'm definitely not going to make the mistake of seriously underwatering again! I'm still using the plastic domes to insulate them a bit at night and boost humidity in their immediate area. Interestingly, the two GSCs are looking healthy and vibrant whereas the two WW are looking a bit floppy and bedraggled. They're all in exactly the same space/conditions so I'm guessing it's genetics. The GSC produced their next pair of leaves earlier also - not that it's a race.

Week ending 22/03/21 Not a lot happening at this stage. The girls are increasing their leaves in number and size. I started feeding nutes - Guanokalong to match with the complete soil. I fed this at 50% of the manufacturers 'substrate cultivation chart' as these are autoflowers. I set the clip on fan to 30 mins on 30 mins off. I also redirected the duct from the grow tent to vent into my cupboard (the last of the previous harvest is hanging/drying in the tent). My logic here is that as I don't have cupboard extraction, I can just leave the door open when I'm in with the fan going and the duct pumping air in to improve the air exchange. Not ideal but as soon as the tent is no longer in use for drying I will switch this crop to the tent. Height: GSC 1 = 13cm GSC 2 = 11cm WW 1 = 12cm WW 2 = 6 cm

Week ending 29/03/21 The girls are really starting to take off now. The feeding cycle is still every other day and nutrients every other feed. The GSCs are growing quicker then the WWs but that doesn't really mean much. I found in my last grow (which was my first) that the shorter plants ended up with the fattest main cola buds. So who cares? Next week I'm going to switch the CFL bulb to HPS driven at 250w for a week or so before relocating them to the main tent for flowering. In the main tent, they will have much better air exchange and will have HPS 600w. They are almost at LST height. So I intend to start that this week also.

Week ending 05/04/21 I substituted the CFL for the HPS on a 250w setting. When I cam back around 10 hours later the temperature was c. 30 degrees! Clearly the cupboard is not compatible with HPS lighting. Looks like full spectrum CFLs only from this point. Switched the girls from the veg cupboard to the gorilla tent and tried some LST. GSC 2 responded well but when I tried WW 2 there was a snap at the base of the stem. So I didn't try any more LST. That was a few days ago. When I tried LST this morning, as I was lifting GSC 1 out, she simply fell over. I'm pretty sure over watering has led to the stems being weakened! Not sure if GSC 1 will survive. She has been loosely tied to a stick support. Watering every 3 days from now on!

Week ending 12/04/21 A bit of a disaster this week. White Widow 2 died!!! Having underwatered last diary I was determined not to make the same mistake twice. Unfortunately, I went too far the other direction and overwatered to the detriment of GSC 2 and WW1. GSC 2 I was able to repair and rehabilitate, albeit with some damage to the lower fan leaves, but WW 2 completely fell over due to a 'softened' stem! So down to 3 plants. In order to address the dramatic drop in temperature in the evenings I purchased a 80w, 603mm tube heater from Lighthouse. According to the hygro it has only increased the evening temp but 1 degree but I feel it's probably much better than that at the plants level. I altered the LST this week. Instead of tying down the entire stem I used wire to tie down the best bud branches and pull them away from overshadowing.

Week ending 19/04/21 The girls are much thirstier these days. I'm giving them almost a litre every day and there's no run off. The pots are also bone dry within 24 hours, so I'm adding nutes to every feed. The nutes and calmag are at half dosage and there's no sign of burn, lockout etc just crazy growth - GSC 1 grew 35 cms in one week! The greenhouse heater wasn't bringing the temp up enough so I picked up a Pro Breeze mini ceramic fan heater which has been great. As well as two heat settings it also has a simple fan mode which could come in handy. The tube heater is going to the veg cupboard along with the new Mars Hydro ts600. Onwards and upwards...

Week ending 26/04/21 - The plant heights are GSC 1 100cms, GSC 2 60cms and WW1 70cms. - GSC 1 is huge and also stringy. I don't have high hopes for it's buds at all. The stretch is too much. It is also impacting on how far the smaller plants are from the light. Looking forward to the next run with the new light and the scrog net. - Feeding/watering every other day. Just cycling from a dry pot to pot with run off. I hear that works best. - Some very minor defoliation. Just removing leaves that are completely shaded or are yellowing. - Regarding the yellowing leaves, I'm hoping they turning up as a result of entering the final phase before harvest. The breeder says 70 days to harvest. So far I'm 50 days in.

Week ending 03/05/21 The girls are very thirsty. They're getting 1.4l each roughly 2 days out of 3. I'm giving them nutes every time now and alternating calmag every other feed. There's no sign of nute burn etc so I'm just pressing on with the drive to the finish line. I reckon 2-3 weeks before chop. The White Widow's pistils are already turning brown, so not long left for her. She's short and fat and I'm thinking definitely one to add to the 'regulars' list (smoke depending!) I removed the wire tie downs this week. I don't think they were doing much at this point. I also defoliated any big leaves that were obscuring main bud sites and couldn't be tucked as well as low level new buds that won't amount to much.

14/05/21 I held off posting this week until today because I was installing a new light in the flower tent - Migro Aray 8! The old HPS set up with all the heat problems is a thing of the past. Looking forward to seeing all the other benefits of the upgrade most particularly the increased yield! Feeding the girls 1.5l of filtered water and nutes every other day. They're still drinking every drop. I'll know it's near the end when the liquid is no longer being absorbed in the same volumes and is running off. The buds continue to fill out. I reckon I will be chopping the Widow within a week and the GSCs within two weeks. Some very light defoliation of dead or dying leaves. I also added a 60cms x 60cms x 160cms tent which is linked to the main tent for drying in when needed.

Week Ending 21/05/21 The buds continue to fill out and upward growth has completely stopped. The WW is almost there but both GSCs are a week or so away. The plants are still taking on a lot of water. There is almost no run off on 1.5l.