🌿 Lava Cake – Week 5 (First Week Flower) | Pre-Bloom & Heat Talk 🌿 The Lava Cakes have officially stepped into their flowering tent… though, to be fair, they’re still enjoying a little extra veg time before showing pistils. Both phenos are healthy, lush, and stretching beautifully, clearly ready for the show ahead. ⸻ 📸 Photo Studio Glam We took them out for another studio shoot, bright lights, clean background, and every angle showing off their deep greens and perfect branching. Soon, their beauty will be dressed in flowers, but for now, the leaf structure alone is worthy of the spotlight. ⸻ 🌡️ Current Conditions • Room Temp: 31°C • Humidity: 50.3% • VPD: 2.23 kPa • PPFD: 766 µmol/m²/s • Soil EC: ~2.0 • Soil Temp: 25.6°C Yes, the temperature is running hot — AC unit is on the way to lock it back into our ideal zone. ⸻ 💬 Heat in the Grow Room – Risks & Benefits Potential Risks: • Faster substrate drying = more frequent irrigation needed • Higher transpiration rates can stress plants if roots can’t keep up • Slightly increased risk of light stress at high PPFD without proper cooling • Possible reduced terpene retention if sustained into late flower Possible Benefits (short term in veg/pre-flower): • Accelerated metabolism — plants grow and stretch faster • Increased water/nutrient uptake (if well-fed and watered on time) • Can improve CO₂ usage efficiency if levels are high enough Bottom line: As long as they’re hydrated, fed, and ventilated, short bursts of high temp are manageable. But for flowering, we want to keep daytime temps closer to 24–28°C for optimal quality. ⸻ 💧 Watering Strategy We water when the soil dries to about 25% moisture remaining, this encourages: • Stronger root growth searching for water • Better oxygenation of the root zone • Less risk of root rot in warm temps Right now: They’re drinking daily due to the heat, so we’re feeding daily as well. ⸻ Current Feeding (per L of water) • Aptus Regulator – 0.15 ml • Aptus CalMag Boost – 0.25 ml • Aptus All-in-One Liquid – 1 ml • Aptus Top Booster – 0.25 ml With the increased drinking rate, nutrient uptake has increased — meaning no signs of deficiency, just steady lush green. ⸻ 🚀 Looking Ahead • AC installation will stabilize temps, allowing tighter VPD control • First signs of pistils should appear within the next 7–10 days • We’ll begin adjusting feed ratios for early bloom once flowers set • Light intensity will climb further as stretch continues ⸻ 💚 Closing Note: This week is all about momentum, heat or no heat, the Lava Cakes are pushing upward, prepping themselves for a heavy flower load. The environment tweaks are on the way, and we’re building them the perfect stage for their bloom performance. 📲 Don’t forget to Subscribe and follow me on Instagram and YouTube @DogDoctorOfficial for exclusive content, real-time updates, and behind-the-scenes magic. We’ve got so much more coming, including transplanting and all the amazing techniques that go along with it. You won’t want to miss it. • GrowDiaries Journal: https://growdiaries.com/grower/dogdoctorofficial • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dogdoctorofficial/ • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dogdoctorofficial ⸻ Explore the Gear that Powers My Grow If you’re curious about the tech I’m using, check out these links: • Genetics, gear, nutrients, and more – Zamnesia: https://www.zamnesia.com/ • Environmental control & automation – TrolMaster: https://www.trolmaster.eu/ • Advanced LED lighting – Future of Grow: https://www.futureofgrow.com/ • Root and growth nutrition – Aptus Holland: https://aptus-holland.com/ • Nutrient systems & boosters – Plagron: https://plagron.com/en/ • Soil & substrate excellence – PRO-MIX BX: https://www.pthorticulture.com/en-us/products/pro-mix-bx-mycorrhizae • Curing and storage – Grove Bags: https://grovebags.com/ ⸻ We’ve got much more coming as we move through the grow cycles. Trust me, you won’t want to miss the next steps, let’s push the boundaries of indoor horticulture together! As always, this is shared for educational purposes, aiming to spread understanding and appreciation for this plant. Let’s celebrate it responsibly and continue to learn and grow together. With true love comes happiness. Always believe in yourself, and always do things expecting nothing and with an open heart. Be a giver, and the universe will give back in ways you could never imagine. 💚 Growers love to all 💚

Por lejos este ha sido mi mejor cultivo hasta ahora, han sido los cogollos más grandes, densos y llenos de tricomas que he cultivado, comparado con el cultivo anterior en el que usé el mismo tipo de planta, está vez fue muy superior. Los motivos de la mejora pueden ser varios, incluidos más luz, ya que en el cultivo anterior solo tuve 480w, ahora fueron 720w, también usé tutores y palitos de madera para crear una estructura firme en algunas plantas, y fueron estás mismas las que tuvieron los cogollos más grandes, así que lo usaré en todas las plantas del siguiente cultivo. Además el tiempo de cultivo se redujo de 4 meses a 3 meses y medio, aprox. Ahora solo queda esperar unas 2 semanas para el secado y ver cuánto fue la cosecha total en gramos secos, la anterior fue de 635 gramos secos, está yo creo que por lo menos rondará los 700 gramos secos, incluso puede que me sorprenda y sea mucho más.

Over the past week my plants have been growing a lot quicker. I'd say about an inch every night or so. They still have 0 signs of any pests. The only bug I've seen are a rainbow dragonfly, and above is a picture of a ladybird black/orange ladybug. Ladybugs in general are good, this one specifically is actually supposed to mean good fortune. Hopefully this means my plants. This past week I have been giving my plants longer to run their feed - giving them 48 or 72 hours to run through the watering mix - and almost fully dry it out before I feed them again. I also have added the nutrient 'terpinator' 0-0-4 ... This is giving aid to my plants potassium for it's later veg and leading into flowering stages. I will slowly increase the ml of this to around 30 for my three gallon watering pot I use. Slowly increasing the potassium as it begins to enter flowering should make sure the trichome production and buds are juicy and dank! That all for now, excited to come into the later stages!! WOO HOO!

Nothing to say

Buds growing well. I placed the fan at the back of the canopy to ensure hot air from the lamps are well extracted.

7 weeks later and she's flowering nicely, not too much verticle growth but the buds are getting bigger every day. Stoked! Nothing new, might make another compost tea up this week. I'm giving them 1L of water every 2nd day, 500mL top feed and 500mL bottom feed. Until next week friends, thanks for checking in.

Extremely frustrated with bugs that got taken care of with some neem oil and ladybugs. Now this Northern Lights went from a front runner to completely sick and dying. Idk how it happened to just one plant and in a short period of time. All in all though, everything else growing is fine besides the Northern Lights.

This is my first grow in 25 years and it was a pleasure. Now that it's legal to grow 4 plants in Virginia, I did not waste any time getting started. Maintenance was easy. Well water in Autopots with Sohum living soil. All I needed to do was train the plants.

Léger ajout de nutriments plagron stimulateur racine et croissance, sa commence a grandir tranquillement, les 5 sont pareil , vaillante ! J'attend de voir des racines bien développé avant de remporter en 3,5 litres ! Quelques petit souci d'humidificateur d'air qui se vide beaucoup trop rapidement, mais j'arrive a tourné au alentour de 24 degré celsius pour 60 -70% RH Bientôt la taille apical ( topping)

This will be the ladies last week of Veg, they will be flipped to flower at the end of the week. I have been increasing the nutrients steadily, and rotating between heavy, light and low nutrient mixes. They have been steadily getting taller and bushier. Temps have remained steady in the high 70’s and low 80’s while RH has come down a bit to between 55 and 60%. I won’t be doing much training for these girls, and I won’t be running a SCROG this time around. I’ll need to make another custome size for my tent now that I have a much larger setup. Happy Gardening 😊👊❤️

Week 13 not a bad week if I do say so my self …guna tie down this week and begin spraying silver thiosulfate on donor plants then next week I’ll throw the donor plants into flower and begin the actual breeding project …which ever specimen reverses first shall be collected and used to pollinate which ever one doesnt will be killed and removed acord

Getting close harvest!! The fan leaves 🍃 started releasing nitrogen and buds are starting to ripe I have have decreased amount of nutrients since she’s getting closer to harvest I’ll be watering her with water to remove any excess nutrients buildup from the bottom and to allow her to take the rest of nutrients left till her times comes.. I also did not add plant Height because I had done LST on her so I will be hard to know exact Height on mine

French Macaron hit peak purple and trichs are all ready to roll. Chem Brulee smelling amazing and packing on weight. Pineapple Meatball remainders have now started going DEEP purple. Could end up with a few head stash nugs off of this late harvest.

Dry weight of quality buds was 34g. I don’t wet weigh as it’s completely pointless. Quite a lot of trim for the hash bag. Tastes great

Love testing out genetics thank you so much , next round incoming ! 🚀 So this grow clearly a very neat grow, kept right on top of things with VPD, always in the optimal ranges even if i had to manually tinker with the mister , the exhaust, the fans, the lights. Speaking of the lights i applied a "pumping technique" meaning moving the lights up a down : down going into flower, then up then down again towards the end of flower to trigger rippening. The smart proteins were used through out the grow meaning the veg went nuts, started smelling loud right out of seedling stage, then at flower stretch i think it does help give it a kick, mid flower though it makes the trichomes rippen quicker than the plant can put on biomass, meaning you get strong , ripe colas that come out a bit thin. Cut and harvested at 30% amber believe it or not, to me that's late but i couldnt believe it when i noticed the plant was ripe at 10 weeks so i let it go on a bit longer. wet trimmed and dried over 10 days, Jarred and cured for 2 months.

So had a reet little photo shoot today.. loving these plants the buds are gonna be something special.. this plant does NOT like a lot of feed.. I have burned some of the leaves pretty badly by adding slightly too much nutes.. how ever it doesn't seem to have stunted bud swell much.. had to tie a couple of side branches up as buds be pretty dense and heavy allready.. cannot wait to crop. Smells amazing.

This is an easy strain to grow. I didn't have to use any LST. I am just waiting on some amber trichomes and I will chop.

Mini Wool Cube, placed in an 11 liter pot, peat, perlite Watered without much drainage, this mini cube has settled into its new location, a vision of how pH can be managed by mixing these media. Light soil only peat/perlite, so I am watering avoiding high runoff. Just what it takes to see the output track Foliar application, certain time after the twilight of the lights. I placed the LED closer to the cup.

Have been using half strength this far and switching to full strength for nutes & continuing to use tap water.