Stackin’ Up & Frostin’ Over ❄️🔥 Time for another Red Hot Cookies update—and things are getting thick out here! 💥 We’ve officially entered Week 3 of flowering, and the buds are swelling up beautifully. They're starting to frost over with trichomes too, which makes every morning check-in feel like unwrapping a tiny gift. 🎁✨ She’s been looking vibrant and strong, with no signs of stress despite the intense heat lately. We had several days pushing over 34°C, so I’ve been watering daily to keep her happy and hydrated. The grow routine this week looked like this: 🔸 Dosed with BioBizz Grow + Bloom + TopMax every 3 days 🔸 A round of compost tea for those living soil boosts 🌿 🔸 Effective Microorganisms to keep things biologically buzzing ⚠️ I’ve paused the silica spray now that the buds are forming Oh—and some extra good news: Spider mites? Gone. 🕷️🚫 They picked the wrong grow to mess with, and it feels great to see clean leaves again. Can’t wait to see how she stacks over the next few weeks. This one’s got potential written all over it. Stay tuned! 💪🌸

End of week 7 going into week 8. Lots of pistils popping out but still don't have that bud fattening I was hoping for, not enough light and temperature a little lower than normal are slowing it down I suppose. The plan is very compact and sturdy and start to smell everyday more. Buds appears to concentrate on the main cola, all the side branches are not giving much. I defoliate it a little bit to help sunlight to reach inside buds, I think i removed less than 10% of its leaves, some of which were half eaten already by my cat. Feeding schedule is getting heavy but the plant doesn't seem to feel any stress about it. Thanks for passing by and happy growing 🌱🌲🌳

this ogkush breath cross zkittles from humboldt is amazing deffo keepin this cut and cotton candy out of this run

This week has been awesome with these ladies! Have moved them to the flowering tent and letting them get acclimated in here. Will prolly do 1 more week then switch to flower for this tent! Have got all 6 ladies all stacked in here all tight together. They are already demanding alot of water so I can see how a drip system might be nice but idk if would work for coco Still doing same 5.6- 5.7 ph declorinated water with a heavy feed. Still doing some training as these girls grow so have more tops as they streach. I maintain about a 60%RH for this room for now and give them ladies about 1400ml every 2 or 3 days. Will do a pre-flower check again in the next couple days should be showing havnt looked much! Fingers crossed!! Much

26.12.24: These are my 2 best plants P1 and P2 Purple Punch, they are looking great! Not sure what happened to P3. They are in early flower/ pre-flower with the pistils clearly seen on P2. I am also hoping to tie some of the branches down to help light penetration on the lower canopies. I have noticed light stress on my plants. I had moved the lights further away and increased the light intensity to 70%. Unfortunately that created some issues. Namely severe palour of the leaves. To try and rectify the situation, I've dimmed the lights to about 30%, staying at the same distance, about 30 inches away. I measured the par levels, after I did this. They should a reading of anywhere between 40 and 150, at the canopy of the plants. They are all different sizes. This seems to have improved the colouring on all plants. After this evenings watering, I will monitor recovery and increase lighting intensity again slowly. I am also using the light cycle of 21/3, so the plants have many hours more light to absorb, than for example 12/12 or 18/6. I am pleased with the progress, considering all of my mistakes! 29.12.24: So I finally gave LST a shot, it's probably a bit too late, however I really want to get the most of the triploid pheno, and I went a little crazy and LST'd all plants except 2, as they're too small. I did that late last night, this afternoon I was amazed to see the plants turn their leaves back to the light source. I'm glad I overcame my fear of trying it. I'm very excited to see them adapt and progress! 😁 there are videos above with before and after of my LST process. Thanks for checking out my diary 🍃 ✌️

Ich musste den Filter tauschen und etwas gegen den Geruch unternehmen. Die Sorte duftet ordentlich stark. Eine Mischung aus süße und sehr erdigen/ Kieferartigen Gerüchen. Dies ist mein 3. Durchlauf mit dieser Sorte Do Sweet Dos, sie ist manchmal etwas zickig aber bringt gut was an Harz und Geschmack mit.

Day 63 This plant now shows a much fuller canopy, with strong lateral growth and dense foliage. The training earlier in veg has clearly paid off — multiple tops are reaching upward, giving the structure a wide and balanced appearance. The node spacing is fairly tight, and the plant has developed into a bushy, healthy shape. Leaf color is a deep, rich green, a sign of good nutrient uptake. The canopy is vigorous and energetic, with new shoots continuing to push through. The posture of the leaves is upright and responsive, indicating that the plant is currently in a comfortable environment. No major signs of deficiencies are visible from this angle. At this stage, the plant looks ready to transition soon if the goal is flowering. The main considerations now are airflow and light penetration: the canopy is dense, so a light defoliation of older fan leaves could help improve circulation and ensure even bud development later on. Next steps will be to maintain a steady feeding schedule, monitor watering carefully, and prepare for the upcoming stretch once the light cycle is switched.

ES: Segunda semana, 26/09/2021 a 03/10/2021, al parecer todo va bien, aun con la duda acerca de como contar las semanas, ya estan soltando un olor ligero lo cual es interesante. No mucho mas que decir, la temperatura se ha regulado bastante, hace mas calor lo cual es bueno. EN: Second week from 26/09/2021 to 03/10/2021 it seems like everything goes accordingly, still with doubts about how to count up the weeks, the plants are starting to give off an scent which is interesting. Not much to say, temperature levels have been sorted out so that's good.

Die letzte Woche ist bei den beiden nicht mehr viel passiert....... Sie haben nur noch ph-angepasstes Wasser bekommen und ansonsten habe ich sie in Ruhe reifen lassen. Dann endlich hat das Verhältnis der Trichome gepasst und ich konnte ernten.....😁 Habe sie in mehrere Teile zerlegt und zum trocknen mit der Dry-Rocket in Zelt gehängt........ Das hat mal wieder ohne Probleme geklappt und ich bin happy wie klebrig und fest die Buds geworden sind.😎 Möchte mich bei allen bedanken, die mein Diarie verfolgt und mir die Daumen gedrückt haben! 😎🙏💪👍😀 Ein Rauchbericht kommt natürlich auch noch 😁

Hey now, this week went pretty good, she grew 6 inches to 22" tall, so I am going to veg her for one more week and then flip her to flower next week. She seems to be fairly healthy, but she is not growing super fast like I am used to, but I also have only grown autoflowers and mainly sativa dominant autos. I don't think this Planet of the Grapes will stretch too much being an indica dominant plant, but I have another 24 inches of usable space for her to grow if needed. I am getting super excited to see what this little lady can do in flower. My plan is to flip the lights next week, but continue with veg nutes for another week, then slowly start to transition her to flower nutes in the 2nd week of flowering, and be totally switched over and adding bloom boosters by week 3 of flower. I hope everyone had a great weekend, Thanks for stopping by, be safe and blaze on!

🌸 Week 9 – Opening the Door for the Flowers Blueberry Muffin has always had an interesting personality in this tent. She's not the tallest plant. She's not the largest plant. But she's been quietly building herself into a compact flowering machine. And that's exactly why I decided that a little selective defoliation was appropriate this week. We're not trying to strip her. We're not trying to make her naked. We're simply opening some space. A few leaves here. A little overlap there. Removing foliage that is no longer helping the structure we're trying to maintain. The goal is simple: More breathing room. Better light movement. Better airflow. Less unnecessary congestion. And when you have twelve different plants sharing the same room, sometimes opening one plant slightly also helps the environment around her. That's the beauty of working with the whole garden rather than looking at each plant in isolation. ✂️ Defoliation – It's About Purpose, Not Punishment I've talked about this before, but this week is a perfect opportunity to repeat it. Defoliation isn't about removing leaves because leaves are somehow "bad." They're not. Healthy leaves are incredibly valuable. They're photosynthetic organs. They're producing the energy the plant uses to grow and develop. So when I remove a leaf, I want to have a reason. Maybe it's heavily overlapping another leaf. Maybe it's sitting inside an increasingly congested section of the canopy. Maybe it's shading a developing flower while contributing relatively little to the structure. Maybe removing it creates a much better pathway for air. And sometimes... it's simply part of cleaning the plant. That's the approach we're taking with Blueberry Muffin. Selective. Intentional. Moderate. We're not trying to win a defoliation competition. We're trying to create a healthier, more manageable flowering plant. 💨 Airflow Becomes More Important as Flowers Develop This is where the timing becomes particularly interesting. As the plant gets deeper into flower, the canopy naturally becomes more complicated. Flowers get larger. Leaves overlap. Branches carry more biomass. And spaces that were wide open earlier in the grow can gradually become pockets of dense vegetation. That's not automatically a problem. But it's something worth managing. One of the reasons I wanted to open Blueberry Muffin a little more this week was simply to maintain air movement through the plant. Good airflow doesn't mean blasting the flowers with a hurricane. It means avoiding stagnant pockets of humid air trapped inside dense vegetation. And as we move further into flowering, that's increasingly important. Because nobody wants to discover a problem after flowers have already become dense. Prevention is much easier than trying to fix a problem later. 💧 Helping the Room Breathe There's another interesting side effect to opening the canopy. The plants are collectively producing and moving a lot of moisture through transpiration. When twelve plants are sharing a relatively enclosed environment, the canopy itself becomes a major part of the room's microclimate. Opening congested areas gives moving air more pathways through the plants. That can help reduce pockets of trapped humidity around the foliage. And when the canopy breathes better, the whole room benefits. Again, this isn't about expecting defoliation to magically control room humidity. The ventilation system is still doing the heavy lifting. But good canopy management can make the environment easier to manage. And that's exactly what we're looking for. 💡 Every Photon Has Somewhere to Go Blueberry Muffin is also at an interesting size. She's approximately 75 cm tall. That's not a huge plant. And because she's relatively compact, I want to make sure the available light isn't unnecessarily intercepted by layers of foliage sitting on top of other foliage. Yes, she has support from the under-canopy and inner-canopy lighting strategy. And that's fantastic. But additional lighting doesn't mean we should deliberately create unnecessary barriers between the light and the flowers. If we can open a section naturally and allow more photons to travel through the canopy, why not? We're not trying to expose every square centimetre of the plant. We're simply making the canopy a little more efficient. Sometimes the best lighting upgrade is simply... removing something that doesn't need to be in the way. 🌸 The Flowers Are Taking Over Now And this is where the photographs become particularly exciting. The flowers are becoming increasingly obvious throughout the plant. The white pistils are still doing a lot of the visual talking, but the individual flowering sites are gaining structure and substance. She's moving away from that early-flower appearance where everything is basically a collection of little pistil-covered points. Now we're beginning to see the plant building actual floral mass. The branches are carrying their flowers with confidence. The canopy has become more compact. And the whole plant feels like she's entering another chapter. This is the stage where I stop being interested in how much she's going to stretch... and become much more interested in how much she's going to stack. ? The Blueberry Muffin Personality One thing I really appreciate about this phenotype is how different she looks when compared with some of the other genetics in the tent. She's not trying to dominate. She isn't the tallest. She doesn't have the most dramatic structure. But she's developing her own little architecture. And that's what this entire 8×8 Adventure is about. Twelve genetics. One room. One general environment. And twelve completely different answers. Blueberry Muffin's answer seems to be: "Give me some time." And now she's starting to show us why. 💚 Nutrition – Staying the Course There's no reason to reinvent the feeding programme this week. We're keeping nutrition essentially unchanged. Current feeding remains: Terra Bloom — 2.2 ml/L Pure Zym — 1 ml/L Power Buds — 1 ml/L Sugar Royal — 1 ml/L pH Plus / Lemon Kick — as required The plant continues receiving the same flowering nutrition rather than reacting to every small visual change with another adjustment. That's important. We made a structural intervention this week. We don't need to simultaneously start changing everything else. One change at a time makes the plant much easier to read. 🌡️ The Room Has Changed And this week we do have a small but interesting environmental change. The daytime temperature remains around: 29°C But the night temperature is now approximately: 26°C Last week we were around 25.6°C, so the difference isn't dramatic, but the overall night temperature is slightly warmer. That means our day/night temperature differential is now smaller. We're also sitting around: RH: 60% Solution temperature: 25°C Root-zone/substrate temperature: 25°C CO₂: ~693 ppm Light schedule: 12/12 Watering: ~1.3 L per plant / 24h Container: 15 L And I actually like observing these little changes. The room doesn't have to remain frozen in time. What matters is understanding what changed and watching how the plants respond. At this stage, with flowers getting denser, keeping the canopy open and maintaining good air movement becomes even more valuable. 🌙 Day vs Night – The Difference Matters One of the things I enjoy about documenting these numbers is that they tell us more than a single temperature reading. We're running approximately: 29°C during the day → 26°C at night. That's only about a 3°C difference. Earlier in the run, the difference was a little larger. As the room changes, so does the relationship between temperature, humidity, transpiration and plant development. And this is why I don't like looking at temperature or humidity as isolated numbers. The plant doesn't experience "29°C." It experiences: temperature + humidity + light + airflow + root-zone conditions + CO₂ + time of day. Everything interacts. And right now, I'm happy with what the room is showing us. We're watching it. We're measuring it. And we're adjusting when necessary rather than reacting to every little fluctuation. 🔬 One More Reason I Like This Defoliation There's something else happening here that I think is easy to overlook. Cleaning the plant isn't only about what remains. It's also about what we can see afterward. Once some of the unnecessary foliage is removed, I can see the flowering structure much more clearly. I can see which branches are developing strongly. I can see where flowers are stacking. I can see where the canopy remains dense. And I can see what might need attention later. In other words... defoliation also improves observation. And for this project, observation is half the fun. 🔮 Looking Ahead From here, I want to keep things relatively simple. No unnecessary training. No dramatic interventions. No chasing numbers just because they're numbers. We'll continue watching the flowers develop, monitoring the canopy and paying attention to how she responds to the cleanup. The next stage should increasingly be about: 🌸 flower stacking 🌸 calyx development 🌸 increasing resin production 🌸 increasing flower density 🌸 maintaining airflow 🌸 keeping the environment stable The framework is already there. Now we're entering the part of the journey where patience becomes more important than intervention. We've done our job. Now... let Blueberry Muffin do hers. 💭 Final Thoughts – Making Space for What's Coming I think this week is a really good example of how I like to grow. We didn't defoliate because someone told us: "Week 9 means defoliation." We did it because the plant changed. She's becoming more compact. She's developing more flowers. The canopy is getting denser. She isn't a particularly tall plant, so making the available photons work efficiently matters. And with twelve plants sharing the same room, keeping air moving through the garden matters too. So we opened her up. Not dramatically. Not aggressively. Just enough. And now she looks cleaner, more open and easier to read. That's what I wanted. Not a naked plant. A better-organised plant. And honestly... she looks fantastic. Blueberry Muffin may not have started this journey as the plant that immediately grabbed everyone's attention. But she's slowly becoming one of those phenotypes where you look back at the earlier photographs and think: "Oh... now I see what she was doing." She's been building toward this. And now she's starting to show it. ?🌸🔥 🙏 Thank You A huge thank you once again to Zamnesia for giving us the opportunity to explore these genetics, Plagron for supporting the garden throughout the journey, Future of Grow for providing the light that powers this experiment, Lumiflora for bringing additional light into the inner and lower canopy, TrolMaster for helping maintain environmental stability, and of course everyone following this 8×8 Adventure on GrowDiaries. Every week gives us another little lesson. Sometimes it's about nutrition. Sometimes it's about environment. Sometimes it's about genetics. And sometimes... it's simply about knowing when to take a few leaves away and give the plant a little more room to breathe. Blueberry Muffin is entering another chapter now. The canopy is open. The flowers are developing. The room is stable. And there's still plenty of story left to write. Until next week... Growers Love and happy growing! 🌱💚?

These ladies have become extremely tall!!! Sativa phenos as it seems

Boom! Touchdown. I decided to cut her a bit early so I have her dried properly before I leave on vacation in a couple of weeks. She is now hanging in my drying tent together with the other two girls. Now we wait.

Very easy strain to grow. I grew the White Critical Express previous to this grow, I really liked it and wanted to try growing an Autoflower so I went for the Critical 2.0 and it was worth the grow.

Man it’s so hot these girls are drinking up so much water!!! Watering everyday. Might be Sweet skunks last nutrient dose, gonna start flush for harvest after today. Plants are starting to fatten up nicely, hopefully we keep this same progress!

Olá companheiros, mais uma semana que passou, tudo está bem, a rainha continua a crescer bem, desta vez só cresceu 10cm numa semana mas as ramas laterais cresceram muito e estão muito ramificadas, uma rama de baixo partiu-se com o peso.. e ainda não tinha flores.. a planta continua com um desenvolvimento espectacular, esta semana borrifei óleo de neem para combater algumas pragas, e tudo vai bem, estou muito contente 🌲🌲✌️

I used overdrive fertilizer again this week. My God, girls get more beautiful like this. The last weeks make me very happy.😍🌷💐💥⚘️👽👽🎍 From now on, I will be very careful because the more I improve the conditions, the better results I get Especially the temperature difference between night and day. humidity Box ambient temperature 👊👊💧♠️