Cream Auto Summary Wk 1: Germination, game plan, equipment, and prepping the room. Wk 2: Germination progress, fertigation, and a new light. Wk 3: Two phenotypes. Wk 4: Woe and wonder, nutrients, and water source. Wk 5: Growing like a weed, and max power. Wk 6: Soaking up rays and consuming the nutrients. Algae remediation and proactive pest control. Wk 7: Will the size difference begin to fall in line with the predictions, and rearranging the wind. Wk 8: Time slows down, as buds build and plants are thirsty. Wk 9: A cone shaped bush, and trichome hunting season begins. Wk10: Playing the guessing game and learning is doing. Wk11: Escaping from Distancing. Wk12:Trichome Hunting and Changes in diet. Wk13:Lessons Wk14:When will it be the ‘right’ time? Wk15: This is the right time. Wk16: Harvest time and Summary. Final Weights: Cream 1gallon 157g (5.5oz); Cream 3gallon 299g (10.5oz); Combined 456g (16oz) ((Individual plant weight logs in pix)) New names for the Jars, 1 Cream for the 1 gallon plants buds and 2 Cream for the 3 gallon plants buds. 👉The 1 gallon plant was harvested the 3rd day of the week, It had only a couple of white pistols on each bud and wasn’t producing anymore fresh calixs. There was still very few amber trichomes, but the majority were definitely milky. Very frosty sugar leaves, and overall the buds are mega frosty and remind me of the Gorilla Glue I grew. However the buds are more airy. I started trimming from the top, and worked my way down. I recorded the wet weight for each bud and placed it on a clip with a number that corresponded to the order it was removed. I do this to monitor the % of weight loss due to moisture loss and aim for 20-25%. I did a partial dry trim and left all the frosty sugar leaves to be dry trimmed before going into jars. It had minimal actually larfy buds. I trimmed those not part of the main cola group for each branch and placed them on the rack for drying. The process went fairly easy and I might have spent 3hrs total. The sweet smell of sweet creamy citrus and the overwhelming funky stank was very fun. 👉After 2 1/2 days I placed the buds in paper bags, each cola in its own bag. The main cola was too long so reluctantly I cut it down so it would fit. After another 2 days I placed in jars, some with hygrometers and moisture packs. The overnight humidity in the jars was on average 52%. I added some damp paper towels hung off the lids to restore a bit of the humidity. This worked well and the humidity is now average 62%. I added moisture packs to some of the jars. The jar aroma is sweet cream orange zest and funky stank. 👉I had expected to harvest the one gallon plant during week 16. Given the way the 3 gallon was going, I figured the 3 gallon had another week or so. I assumed that because it had been so slow to develop in all of its phases. After I had harvested the 1 gallon I finally had a chance to really inspect the 3 gallon really closely. I couldn’t inspect it as closely as I had been the 1 gallon because it was further back in the tent and the 1 gallon hindered access. I didn’t think it was a big deal. I hadn’t rotated the 3gallon for two weeks I think. So during my close inspection, I was rotating the plant and it actually took me a while to notice…a dried up tip of a cola. This cola had been sitting on the far side. It hadn’t been against the tent wall. As soon as I saw it it was like a slap in the face…its what I feared would happen to this plant since the buds were so fat and dense….botrytis. Budrot. Nasty, grey fuzziness. My heart sunk as my fears were realized. How many more buds would be affected? Will it be like my Critical Purple and all the best big buds have this hidden scourge? I immediately inspected a few of the bigger buds. I didn’t see any. But there are over 20 colas. The only way to know for sure is to harvest. I didn’t have time to harvest the whole plant right then, so I had to wait for the next evening after work. 👉I took off work a little early to get a head start. The buds were full of sugar leaves still a lot of fan leaves so lots of trimming to do. It took a total of 6 hours from start to finish. I started doing a partial wet trim leaving the smaller frosty sugar leaves to be trimmed dry. I experimented with full wet trim on some of the smaller buds that ended up on the drying net and not left on the branch. I needed the buds to dry slow enough not to taste like hay, and fast enough the botrytis gremlin wouldn’t pay a visit. A close thorough wet trim seemed to look like it could be optimum for these buds. On the 7th branch I started giving the buds a meticulous wet trim. I took the liberty to enjoy some of my Tangerine Dream from a year ago. I listened to Physical Graffiti, Animals, Frank Marino Live, Foxtrot, and some dead air when the album ended and I needed to pick another one. I scrutinized each bud closely for any signs of the evil spores. But I saw none, such a relief after each buds inspection to see nothing but happiness. 👉I had 28 total branch end colas. Most were chunky pine cones. I recorded each branch in the order it was removed. I started at the bottom and labeled them alphabetically. 4 of the branches were smaller near the top in the middle of the canopy and one branch had the bud-rot. I trimmed the buds off the branches but left the bud group forming the cola intact. I put small larfy buds on a separate rack from the good buds trimmed of the branches, I didn’t weigh the larf, and had 72g of good chunky branch buds. The colas when dried to approx 22% weighed in at 227g. The total in the jars is 299g. Very happy! The chunky colas were slow to dry on the interior. I took special care to monitor the buds, not let them get too dry and would spread the buds open a bit to prevent wet spots that could turn into botrytis. When they got a little dry to the touch I would place them in paper bags. That slowed the drying down and allowed the moisture to equalize on the bud. I would weigh the buds and calculate the % of weigh left to help determine how dry they were. When they were below 25% of its wet weight I placed them in jars with many of them getting a hygrometer to monitor the humidity in the jars. I had to take them back out of the jars after one day and back into paper bags because the humidity climbed as high as 80% in some fo the jars. This meant the interiors were still moist. The bigger the buds the longer they needed to stay in the paper bags. The final weights on the buds were after they were dry enough to be at 62% or lower humidity in the jars wish was still around 20% of the wet weight. The jar aroma is not very strong. The aroma is a light sweet orange zest. It should improve over time. The buds are dense and sticky. Not all the colas got their own jars unless they were big enough. Some of the colas I separated from the branches and placed in smaller jars, even combining some of them. The intact colas got the large jars and some were combined in those as well. 👉I have one of those Trim-trays with the screen in the bottom with a tray underneath to catch keif. I trimmed off fans leaves and leaves with no fuzziness on them. I trim the fuzzy leaves over the tray. I did this for both plants. When doing the 3 gallon plants trimming I also snipped up some of the larf and small buds into small pieces to add to the pile. I let the trim sit in the tray till it was crispy dry. I then used my hands to grind the trim into smaller bits. I used a plastic card to scrape the pile back and forth across the screen. I continued to grind up the trim with my hands and alternately scrape the screen and sift the pile. It was hard to tell how much I had got till I used the plastic card to scrap the catch tray. I was pleasantly surprised to see a nice pile form. I made 4 pucks. 👉The bud is cured and stable humidity in jars. I’m doing the typical jar burping and inspection daily for another few days. I have tested both plants and am extremely pleased! Both have a sweet creamy orange zest like aroma (but not like an orange creamsicle). The 1gallon, now called 1Cream, is the strongest jar aroma. When hit on the bong both have a sweet creamy smooth after taste, and again the 1Cream is the strongest flavor. Both are very sticky when pinching off a bit for the bong, and the 1 gallon is the stickiest. Both pass the one hit test with flying colors! Hard to tell the difference between the two as far as the high goes, creeper buzz, with a nice uplifting energy, settling into couch lock and sleep-inducing trail-off. Perfect for night time use. I’m surprised at how nice it is already. The typical 6 week cure review will be updated in the review. If its anything like the other plants Ive grown so far 6 months is when it really hits its stride and is at its best flavor and effect. 👉Methodology Summation: I am really happy with the fruits of my labor. Its not perfect, and I believe I have learned a lot of knowledge and insight. All my grows so far have been in 3 gallon cloth pots with coco coir mixed with 30% total volume of expanded clay pebbles for hydro. The one gallon plant got bigger than I expected it could. I believe that’s due to frequent fertigation I the coco/cloth pot. The problems of being in an undersized pot were somewhat mitigated but not eliminated. The 3 gallon was also showing some of the issues of an undersized container but not as severe as the one gallon. Knowing this will help if I choose to grow in a smaller pot again. Obviously the draw backs to the under sized pots is the issues show up during flower when the plant is at its biggest. Maybe next time I wont exacerbate the issues by chasing my tail. But the drawbacks are not enough to say its bad news to grow good big buds in undersized pots. There is a drawback to frequent fertigation method, the amount of time spent tending to the plant. Two times a day, every day. That is actually the minimum recommended. If I could have automated it I would have done 3 times a day. I am curious what my results might be if I was able to fertigate 3xs a day. I chose this method so I would be spending a lot of time tending my plants anyway, and with coco I avoid the pitfalls of over watering soil when you’re an overzealous gardener. 👉Growing Summary: The 3gallon was actually the second seed to germinate. The first seed petered out, and the 1 gallon was put in four days after the 3gallon had germinated. The 3 gallon was slow to straighten and open its cotyledons up. The cotyledons had a yellow tinge to part of them. It was slow grow for the rest of the grow when compared to the 1 gallon plant which started flowering 12 days before the 3 gallon and seemingly was always almost 2 weeks ahead of the 3 gallon. The trunks of both plants became very stout. I was wondering if somehow I had been given mismatched seed pack, but in the end I think they are the same strain due to the similarities such as aroma and high. The leaves were identical. Both had fat stout trunks, and both had super sturdy branches. I didn’t use one support for the 3 gallon plant, a first for me, and the buds were very dense and heavy. I put some on the 1 gallon plant but that was for its protection from me since it was at the front of the tent. Both plants also smelled similar, sweet caramel cream when sniffed up close. But different in the natural canopy both made around its queen cola, and in the structure of the flowers. Its been very fun and interesting watching these plants grow and seeing two phenotypes of the same strain!😻