June 2, 2024 Day 43 A new week and some decent changes going on. Lighting, watering and environment. This week we focus on training and leveling out the canopy. The main stretch should be starting any day now and I want to have the canopy level to start. Then I can make small adjustments as needed throughout the rest of the stretch. Sour Diesel A had a couple more branches pulled out today. She's looking super good. Healthy, strong branches and beautiful green. Plenty of foliage, but not too much yet. She will certainly need a defoliation after the stretch. Just to open up some space. Outer leaves and the main stem leaves. That should be all I need to trim. Maybe a couple more here and there. She's 19" tall right now. Mostly because I keep pulling branches down. I'll leave her alone in a few days when I have all the branches spread out evenly. Sour Diesel B also had a couple more branches pulled out. She's a bit of a rectangle to be honest. I'd rather her be square over rectangular. Better space management. Right now, she is overlapping Sour Diesel C. Not too much, but she is. She also is up against the wall. It should t be a huge deal for now. And it should even out and square up over the next couple of weeks. She's also 19" tall. Again, because I tied her down. So the top is actually 19" the rest were about an inch and a half taller. No longer. Sour Diesel C is looking pretty good. She's still about 2" shorter than the others, but still looking good. The riser works wonders. She's still only 17", but again it's because of the tie downs. I'll leave her alone in a couple days. She's almost where I want her to be. Sour Diesel D is looking great! Amazing structure and beautiful branching. Her buds are coming in quite nicely and I can tell they will be stacked on the main cola. I'm very excited to see how she turns out. Especially because I've never let a plant go naturally. Well, kinda with a Skywalker OG, but that was defoliated a bit more than I plan on doing with this lady. She's 21" tall and I can tell she will start to stretch a bit more in the next week or 2. I'm hoping for 3.5 ft. Watering has officially changed. I've installed the bottom feed basins with the wick system. Filled them up with a gallon of the new nutrients. Speaking of which, I've made some changes to the nutrient regimen based on the feeding schedule. I've increased the Bud Candy and Sensizym. I've also added Big Bud and a 2 ml dose of Cal/Mag. I'll only be adding Cal/Mag once a week. It's not going to be needed anymore than that. As I said earlier, the lighting has changed. It's changed completely. The light distance is now 24" to the canopy. The light power was increased to 80%. And the DLI is a flat 40 mol/m²/d for A, B and C. But D, being taller, has a DLI of 45 mol/m²/d. The environment is finally at a reasonable level for this stage. Maybe a bit warm, but the humidity is hanging out around 53% and that's fine for now. Soon enough it will get really hot out and the central air will be on more often and keep the room dry. Maybe it will go below 50%. The room stays at 70° with the A/C on, so I'm not worried about that. I can even drop it down to 68° to bring the tent down to 74°. Grow System Environment: Temp: 78.4° RH: 53.7% VPD: 1.49 kPa June 3, 2024 Not much going on today. Sour Diesel A is looking really good. Her canopy is level for the most part. Lush green leaves. They're starting to get thin though. Not really sure why, but they are, but they are. Either way, they still have beautiful color. Sour Diesel B is my golden girl for this run most definitely. She has wonderful side branching. She is definitely more developed than the rest with D coming in at a ose second. Her buds are really big compared to the rest. 2 to 3 times the size of the others. Her curved top is looking great as well. Stacking buds like mad. I think I'll do another small bit of training tomorrow. She's already taking up her whole quadrant and a bit of D's as well. Sour Diesel C has finally caught up to the rest of the group. However, there are some noticable differences. Her leaves are a much lighter green than the rest. She doesn't look unhealthy or stressed, so I'm not sure what's going on with her. I'll have to research extensively. Sour Diesel D is looking fantastic. She's still growing big fan leaves and stretching nicely. Not as fast as I expected, but still a nice pace. I assume she will pick up the pace in a day or 2 when the roots hit the bottom feed system. At least that's my experience. All 4 ladies took perfectly to the bottom feed system. They all have a nice damp bottom and have a good weight to them. The soil moisture meter is reading 71% saturation, but it's just adjusting to the system. In a matter of a couple days, they will be down to about 45%. Right where I like it to be. I had to move the light up about 3/4 inch today. Just to keep the DLI at the proper intensity. I'll keep it at 40 mol/m²/d for the rest of this week and will increase it to 45 mol/m²/d next week for the rest of the grow until the last week. I'll drop it down to 36 mol/m²/d. It's humid today. Really humid. Like 79% humid. So naturally, the tent is a mess. The temp is fine at 76°, but the humidity is back over 60%. I don't know what to do about it. Too much moisture not only in the tent, but in my room as well. Uncomfortable to sleep in. Shame on that weather. Anyway, I'll be fighting that for the day. It should be fine in a few days when the weather calms down. It should also stay that way through the rest of June into July. A note about the bottom feed system: The reservoir isn't supposed to dry out or it causes water flow issues. However, I have noticed that if the roots don't break through the fabric container the bottom of the container gets soaked. So if you are using them or something similar, you can let the reservoir dry out while the roots still work their way down. This should keep the bottom from saturating. Once the roots hit bottom, you can resume constant feeding. There's more info about this bottom feed system. I'll go through it as we progress through the rest of the run. Btw, it's the one from AC Infinity. Grow System Environment: Temp: 78° RH: 58.4% VPD: 1.33 kPa June 4, 2024 Looking good today. Everyone has had the same amount of water. It's interesting how accurate they are with water intake. Really cool. Sour Diesel A has a wonderful square structure. Branches are almost all spread evenly. After the stretch I'll be removing some of the lowest bud sites and maybe the very lowest node. They just aren't up to the canopy yet and I don't expect them to keep up during the rest of the stretch. We will see after the stretch what we are looking at for options. I'm probably going to remove them regardless of size. Sour Diesel B is still the best of the group. The buds are looking great! The bud sites are really starting to pop up. I expect significantly more as the stretch continues. Sour Diesel C finally got her main cola tied down toward the center of the plant just like A and B. Her main cola was starting to take off and was taller than the rest of the plants and the canopy. So it got tied down. I knew she would catch up. Still a lighter green than the rest, but caught up and still very healthy. Sour Diesel D is looking wonderful. She is stretching and stacking perfectly. Her side branches are stretching as well and are starting little stacks of their own. They will be big by the end. Her structure is the most uniform of the whole tent. Honestly it is to be expected. Training can be a messy business. At least until they stop stretching and final adjustments can be made. So with an all natural grow, she looks great! The light is staying in place today. I'll check the DLI tomorrow and see what to do. I'll most likely raise the light back up to 24" instead of dropping the power. I considered dropping the power, but then there wouldn't be as deep of penetration. The environment is back to being a mess. The temp is fine at 76°, but the humidity is ridiculous again at 65%. Really?! It's hot today, so the central air should kick on around noon. That always fixes the humidity. It's this stupid portable A/C. Too much condensation on the condenser and it's just leaking back into the room at a rapid pace. Hence the super high humidity. Grow System Environment: Temp: 75.5° RH: 60.1% VPD: 1.18 kPa June 5, 2024 A bit of a to do today. We have some defoliation, reservoir refills and light movement. All 4 ladies got their main stem leaves cut off today. Now there's much more light penetration and space for these ladies to breathe. I was going to wait for week 3, but I think 11 days into flower should be fine. They will still stretch, but I think better as they have more space to grow and more light penetration. Airflow of course increased as well. Sour Diesel A had 1 of the branches from the lowest node snipped off with the fan leaves. She looks great with her partial haircut. Just enough. I don't need to stress her out anymore than just those leaves. She may stress for a day or 2, but she will be perfectly fine. Strong plant. Very healthy. Sour Diesel B had both branches on the bottom node removed. They were too small and underdeveloped. So they had to go. I also took the lowest auxiliary branches off of node 2. Just cleaning up the popcorn and larf. I might snip a few more in the coming weeks. We shall see. The defoliation should help with the lower growth anyway. Sour Diesel C is now the tallest and I think I figured out why she had lighter green leaves. She was infact nitrogen deficient. Based on her sudden growth vigor and the fact that she was the dryest and lightest today tells me she is wanting to stretch even more. I wish I had some grow based nutrients, but I ran out. I might be able to get some in 4 days, but that for sure won't matter anymore or won't be worth the few days she will need it. Maybe. I have other nutrients that take priority. Bud Factor X and Rhino Skin. Honestly, I don't really think she will need it. Her branches are stiff as it is, but I think it also increases the width of the branches, so that would be helpful to support huge buds. But she is quite the hungry plant from what I'm starting to see. I might be able to bump her nutrients up to have dose from a third. Sour Diesel D had node 1 removed during the defoliation. Speaking of defoliation, it did exactly as I hoped. It made more space for the lowers of this natural grow. I was going to leave her completely alone, but due to the limited space in the tent, I needed to open up the canopy. Now there is light penetration all the way down. Perfect. All 4 ladies drained their reservoirs. Sour Diesel C and A were the dryest. With just barely any moisture in the reservoir where C was completely dry and lighter. 2 ml per gallon for all nutrients. I didn't add Cal/Mag this round. I'll wait til the beginning of next week to add another dose. It will most likely be 3 ml/gal along with the rest. The light finally needed to be moved. I should have moved it yesterday I think. I needed to lift it 3" today. So the ladies were getting blasted with 50 mol/m²/d. It's now back down to 40 mol/m²/d. Next week we will be at 45 mol/m²/d which means I either need to increase the light power or lower the light back down. I also depends on the stretch. I may have to raise the light and increase the power. Raising the light gives me a wider lighting footprint so all parts of the plant get as much light as I can provide. Increasing the intensity brings the DLI up to the 45 mark. This all depends on how the street h goes over the next week or so. The environment is still a hot mess. Today the temp is a bit high at 79°. I'm going to lower it down to 74° if I can. However, the humidity is still really high at 62%. When the air conditioner kicks on later, the humidity will drop back down to around 54%. The temp will also drop to a reasonable number around 74°. The DLI is no good either. It's sitting at 1.26 kPa and should be around 1.33 kPa. Update: So I was looking at Sour Diesel C and noticed her buds aren't quite as developed as the rest of the plants. Maybe she wanted to veg for a bit longer than the rest. I may have screwed up and started Big Bud too early. I'll take it out next watering and resume after that. I'm not giving much. Just 2 ml/gal, it calls for 8 ml, but I have autoflowers and they definitely do not need that much. I might bump it up to 4 ml after next week. We will see how they like the current dose. Second Update: Upon further inspection, I discovered the DLI was actually 45 mol/m²/d when it should be 40 mol/m²/d. No wonder they aren't over 2 ft tall yet. The light distance is still 24" for the footprint, but I turned down the power from 80% to 70%. Now it's between 38 mol/m²/d and 42 mol/m²/d. Ideal for this stage of growth. I should have kept a much closer eye on it though. I may have stunted them? Maybe not. I also read that this strain likes to stretch multiple times. At least 2 different versions I've looked into say the same thing. That and they are finicky with the environment. I really hope I can get this humidity down ASAP. Grow System Environment: Temp: 75.5° RH: 59.1% VPD: 1.20 kPa June 6, 2024 Let me start by complaining about the RIDICULOUSLY high humidity today. The bedroom is at a whopping 70%! WTF! I give up. What the hell do you do with that? I even turned the heat on to absolutely no avail. Honestly, I'm worried that not only will the plants get moldy, but so will my clean ass room. I make a point to not leave anything organic in there. Nothing. But still, the humidity is that high. The tent is about 68%. Seriously, what the hell man. If anyone has any suggestions besides adding a dehumidifier or an air conditioner or a heater, I'd be super grateful. I have all those. Hell, I have 2 dehumidifiers in the tent that are made for grow tents. Nothing can keep this humidity at bay. Anyway, there isn't much else to say today. Nothing to really do. Sour Diesel A looks quite nice. She's definitely stretching now and has caught up to D in height. However, a strange thing is happening. She's barely drinking any water. Unlike the rest of the group, her reservoir is still nearly full. The rest have another day left before they need a refill. However, she has her first signs or roots coming out. So if I'm correct, once the roots are really showing on the bottom, she should pick up the water intake. Unless she just isn't that thirsty of a plant. Who knows. Anyone have experience with this? Sour Diesel B is now the shortest plant in the bunch. I think she has finished her stretch already. Her buds are getting big. Especially compared to the rest. Huge buds and about a quarter water left in the reservoir. I didn't check the roots on her today. I honestly was in the middle of something else while I was working the plants today, so I missed a couple things that I will check out tomorrow. Anyway, she's super sturdy and I can only hope she starts to stretch again in the coming weeks. From what I've read, this strain stretches multiple times during early flower. We shall see. It's only been 13 days into flower so anything can happen. We shall see with this one. Sour Diesel C is officially the tallest of the 4 plants. She also has the least developed buds. Definitely taking more time vegging. Or in pre-flower? Like she's stuck there. Lol. We'll see how she turns out. I may have another monster on my hands just like my Gorilla Cookies run. Sour Diesel D is slowing down I think. She has been surpassed by A and C. If we recall, this plant was the smallest of the bunch in the first place. So maybe she will stretch a bit more and hopefully she does. She's not quite tall enough for my tastes. I prefer a nice 3 ft plant. It fits perfectly in the 3x3. Although, I wonder what kind of nightmare would it be to have 4 plants of that size. It would be a bit difficult to pull them out to work on them. Anyway, pipe dreams for this run. I don't expect much more growth. Maybe a few more inches. The light will be checked later today. I may have to raise it again. If they really take off like I hope, I may have to remove the exhaust fan and run it outside the tent. No big deal, I have it all set up and ready to go if need be. As I said earlier, the environment is an absolute mess today and I have not a clue what to do about it, if I can even do anything about it. But nothing is working and the house A/C probably won't kick on today at all. It's not hot enough. So I may be absolutely screwed today. Update: I checked the DLI and it went up a little bit, so I raised the light a little bit. Just a half inch. But what a difference. Sour Diesel C was hitting 48 mol/m²/d. The half inch put it down to 43 mol/m²/d. The rest of the canopy is between 38 mol/m²/d and 40 mol/m²/d. A little low, but in 2 days I'll be changing it to 45 mol/m²/d. So no need to change it now. I could have left it alone, but the plants are still stretching and I think the light may have been too bright at one point and they stopped stretching because of that? I'm honestly not too sure why they aren't tall like they should be. Grow System Environment: Temp: 74.6° RH: 60.5% VPD: 1.13 kPa June 7, 2024 Not much going on today. All 4 ladies will need water tomorrow. C the most. She is really drinking a lot compared to the others but still has that light green going on. I really wish I had some grow nutrients. Sour Diesel A is looking really good. Kind of lanky, but the branches are super stiff and look fine. It's still really early in flower and I expect these branches to harden up quite a bit more. Her stature is pretty nice with a flat canopy and great leaf to bud ratio. I might do another small defoliation tomorrow morning. I'm not sure though. Sour Diesel B seems to have stopped stretching already and is just working on buds now. Let's hope I'm incorrect. I would love to see some more stacks. She will definitely need another defoliation with her leaves getting big again. Not too many, but enough to block a lot of the canopy. Sour Diesel C is still light green and still needs nitrogen. She'll be needing water before everyone else. She's pretty wet on the bottom of the container, so I may let her dry out while the others catch up. I will most likely give her a small dose of recharge tomorrow with her feeding. Maybe that will get the nitrogen pumping again. It's not too bad. I'm not seeing any signs of yellowing. Just a lighter green. Between pre-flower green and veg green. Not vibrant though. It's hard to explain. I know there's an issue, I know what the issue is, but it looks so early and the other leaves are getting darker. It'll be fine. Sour Diesel D is looking great and she will definitely need another defoliation. The tent is tight with 4 plants in there, and this lady just has too many leaves covering lots of bud sites. I'll probably cut jus the big ones that are facing in and the ones outside the plant. Just to make sure the outer buds have more space to grow. I didn't changed the lighting today. No need. Everyone is happy right where it is. Though I think I'll be checking DLI later today or tomorrow. The environment is a lost cause. I can't do anything about it no matter what I do. Hell, it didn't even drop much yesterday when the central air kicked on. It still stayed above 60%. It was that bad and continues to be that bad. The temp is good though. So that's something. Today we are hanging out at 66% humidity with a temp of 75°. Grow System Environment: Temp: 73.1° RH: 62.9% VPD: 1.01 kPa June 8, 2024 We are doing a bit of work today. The ladies need their final defoliation before week 3 starts. No more defoliation from here on out. Maybe a leaf or 2, but nothing like today. Sour Diesel A looks really naked from the side, but the top is still filled in pretty well with foliage. Sour Diesel B is growing really nice buds. Not much more upward growth, but the buds are starting out pretty fat. What a good sign. I left a bit more on than that of A. Sour Diesel C had about the same amount removed as A. She looks super good and is stacking really well. I like the internodal spacing. Not too short and not too long. She also needed water. So instead of refilling the reservoir with just a half gallon of water, I top fed her with a quarter teaspoon of recharge to help reinvigorate her soil. We shall see what happens. Sour Diesel D looks a bit naked to be honest. I'm pretty sure I took too much. Hopefully not. We shall see how she feels later today. I'll be watering tomorrow as it's a new week. There will also be new nutrients. I have to look at the lighting again today. Sour Diesel C is still stretching. D seems to be stretching as well, but it's hard to tell on the sea of plants. The environment is still as always a mess. I really have no idea what to do about it. Yesterday it kind of cleared up. I got the humidity below 60%, but not by much. Anyway, the humidity is back up over 60% and the temp is at 76°. Grow System Environment: Temp: 74.4° RH: 62.9% VPD: 1.05 kPa