June 9, 2024 Day 50
This week we upgrade the nutrient schedule and adjust the DLI. The environment will continue to be a mess as I have no control over it. Shame that.
Sour Diesel A is light. She's taking in around the same amount of water as everyone else, but her container is light. She got a full gallon of the new nutrients. Hopefully she starts taking in some weight. If not, I may have to top feed her a half gallon dose of Recharge. She's around 23" tall now.
Sour Diesel B is officially the shortest plant of the group. Who knew. Lol. She got a riser to bring her up to the rest of the canopy. She's 21" tall.
Sour Diesel C is the tallest of the bunch. She is a total of 26.5" tall and I feel like she still has a way to go. I think we have our winner. Maybe. She has immature buds, so I can't tell how big they will get, but B has the fattest buds by far.
Sour Diesel D is looks great! She's around 24" tall now. Plenty of space for the buds to grow. And grow they will. The stacking is looking fantastic. She definitely won't be needing any top feeding for the rest of the run.
The light was raised back up to 24" and the power was increased from 70% to 80%. The DLI is now roughly around 45 mol/mยฒ/d.
As for nutrients, I've increased all the doses up to 3 ml/gal. I've also added B-52, Tasty Terpenes, Silica Blast and Bud Factor X. This should definitely help with bud production and overall health of the plants.
The environment remains a horrible mess. I don't know what to do. Still don't know and it doesn't seem to be improving. The humidity is at 62% and the temp is at 77ยฐ.
Grow System Environment:
Temp: 75.2ยฐ
RH: 60.2%
VPD: 1.16 kPa
June 10, 2024
I did some moving around today. It made more sense. Not much else for the day though.
Sour Diesel A looks great. She has stacks and stacks. I'm starting to think I should have used the base nutrients from Advanced Nutrients from the start of Veg. I feel like I would have gotten a lot more side branching. Alas. None of them did that. Strange. I wonder if it's just the strain?
Sour Diesel B is covered in buds. Huge, fat buds with long fat pistils. I can tell she will have some insane nugs. Can't wait. I may have to use another riser for her though, she is significantly shorter than C. In fact, I will have to use a riser for all 3 plants with the extra under B. I really want a nice level canopy, so plants don't have such different light intensity.
Sour Diesel C was moved to the back left across from where she was. It was time. She is the biggest and therefore must be put in the back for easy access to all the plants. She towers over the rest of the plants at 26.5". Not a big plant I know, but the bud to branch ratio is amazing. She looks like she's slowing down though. Maybe she will have another burst of growth this week. I don't expect it though. She is well into flowering now. Ok, maybe not well, she is about a week behind everyone else in development, but that also means she stayed in Veg longer and got bigger.
Sour Diesel D is still looking good as ever. She definitely stopped stretching. Shame that, I was hoping for a taller plant. But then again, she was originally the smallest, so I'm not surprised she's a small plant. Next run I'll ensure to use not only 5 gallon containers, but the whole nutrient schedule from Advanced Nutrients. I just don't have the grow from the base right now. I'll be getting that in a few weeks.
She was also moved and took the place of C in the front right quadrant. It made the most sense to put her there. I was considering putting B there and D in front of C, but with the current riser setup, B is a bit taller than D. Honestly, A is the second tallest and I considered putting her in front of C, but it just didn't make sense. She stayed in the back where she has been.
The lighting is a little strange to be honest, the DLI is definitely 45 mol/mยฒ/d, but the plants are all reaching. Like there isn't enough light. Maybe there isn't. Maybe they like a whole lot of light. I'll test that today and see how they do. I'll just turn the power up to 100%. That should hopefully do the trick. It better. I'm still around 24" from the canopy. 21" from C. Also, moving them changed the position of the light for C and D. So it may help with leveling out the DLI. Also, raising the plants up to C's canopy will certainly help level the canopy light spread.
The environment is still a bloody mess. Still over 60% humidity. However, the temp dropped to 74ยฐ. Right where I want it for now. I think I'll let it go up to 76ยฐ. Just below the threshold for trichomes. This strain likes a really warm climate and dry. I don't have the dry, so I really can't put the temp up that much or else I risk mold. Granted, I have plenty of airflow, so I shouldn't have to worry about mold or mildew or any pathogens. Let's hope I'm right.
Anyway, we are looking at 4 well rounded plants. Not big, but I don't expect every plant I grow to end up being 5 ft tall in a 3x3 tent. These ladies are no different. I'm happy with a 26" plant. The rest aren't that far behind, so I can manage much easier. Happy days for me.
As for nutrients, it looks like they have all taken well to the added nutes and increased doses. It shouldn't give any issues at all. Especially because I'm only using a third of a dose. I'm using living soil, or super soil, or whatever it is. It's hot. Lol.
Update: Upon pondering and observing these ladies, I have noticed 3 distinct phenotypes. A and B are definitely a 50/50 mix hybrid. C is a straight up sativa dominant phenotype. And finally D who is completely indica dominant. It's quite interesting to see these differences and how they grew.
Where A and B grew similarly hybrid looking leaves and kept their structure the same ( mostly from my training), C and D are polar opposites.
C has the thinnest leaves and the longest branches. She definitely stretched like a sativa. D being the untrained one ended up with beautiful, fat green leaves. The internodal spacing is tight just like an indica. Her branches did not stretch much and the main cola is made up of quite a few of these short nodes bud sites. You can't call them branches as there is not branchy part. But there should be a branch. Oh well. Super fat cola coming my way.
One similarity with all of them is their bottom. They didn't grow any bud sites half way down the plant. All 4 are like that. It's quite interesting. I would chalk it up to my training, but D did the same thing. The lowest node has no bud sites except for the top third. Don't get me wrong. They lollipopped themselves with out me interfering much. Plenty of room to work and top water if need be. Kind of like A. She needs a top feeding I think. I'll add recharge to the nutrients in a half gallon. Just to make sure the soil is moist all the way through. It definitely doesn't feel like it. She's so light compared to the rest. Weird. I'll keep an eye on that and update as needed.
Grow System Environment:
Temp: 74.4ยฐ
RH: 61.3%
VPD: 1.10 kPa
June 11, 2024
Not much going on today. It's picture day.
Sour Diesel A needed to be top watered. She was entirely too light. She is still drinking the same as C, but still super dry. So she got a half gallon of water with Recharge in it. Just recharge though. No sense in adding even more nutrients when I'm just trying to moisten the soil. That should be fine. She also got a riser to match up with the canopy.
Sour Diesel B looks great. She may need another riser. C hasn't stopped stretching apparently, so this little lady is being left behind. She actually hasn't had much to drink in the last day or 2. Her soil is still moist, but the reservoir is still very full.
Sour Diesel C is still stretching. She's now 28" tall and I don't think she's done yet. I'm going to have to think about maybe super cropping to keep the canopy level and not too close to the light. I'll also run out of risers as well. We will see what happens over the next couple of days. She's also showing signs of clawing. Nitrogen toxicity, but I haven't added any nitrogen. Are there other issues that can cause clawing? Too much light? Too humid? It can't be the temp as that's fine and it can't be the nutrients. That would make no sense. Especially because she is the biggest and clearly will become bigger.
Sour Diesel D needs a riser as well. With B still stretching, I'm going to need to either move the light up if I can or drop the power down. Dropping the power down will take away from some of the depth the light can go, but I won't get light burn or foxtails. I really don't want the light less than 20" from the canopy if I can help it.
As it stands with Sour Diesel C, I may have to remove the exhaust fan and run it from the outside of the tent. It's fine, but I'm not really a fan of not having a carbon filter. And I'm definitely not a fan of not having the sound insulation from the tent. It's nearly silent in the tent. But a little louder outside of it.
The light needs to be changed again. I need to lift the other plants first to get an accurate DLI. I'll do that later on today I think.
The environment is a shame to exist. It's ruining the whole grow. I think the humidity caused a bit of stunting. It's way too high and should have been below 50% 2 weeks ago. I don't know what to do. I'm definitely going to have flowering problems.
Grow System Environment:
Temp: 75.0ยฐ
RH: 59.8%
VPD: 1.16 kPa
June 12, 2024
It's watering day. Not much else though.
Sour Diesel A needed a bit more top feed. So I filled the reservoir with .75 gallon and top fed the rest. She is thirsty. Not like reservoir thirsty. She seems to prefer the top feed. I think. Her buds are growing nicely. The pistils are now super fat. I can only imagine how dense these buds are going to be at the end. Another thing, she by far has the most trichomes. And I mean by far. She's covered in them. The next most covered is B. Sour Diesel C and D are about the same. Not much in trichomes. I expect that from C as she is a bit behind. Bud D should have plenty of trichomes as well. I'm very curious to see what happens in the end.
Sour Diesel B needed no extra water on the top. She got a full gallon reservoir refill. Her buds are pretty big now. I wonder if this will be the first plant to finish up.
Sour Diesel C looks absolutely wonderful. I think she stretched a bit more. Not much, maybe an inch or so. I didn't bother measuring her today though. I'll do that tomorrow. She also got a small amount of top feed today. About the same as A. Close to a quarter gallon.
Sour Diesel D is looking great as well. She also needed no top feeding. Her buds are getting bigger along with the pistils. I may also need to snip a few leaves off. They got big and are covering bud sites.
The lighting has to be messed with yesterday. The plants were praying really hard at 70% power. So I increased the power back to 80% and recorded a DLI of 50 mol/mยฒ/d in the center of the tent. The outside is around 45 mol/mยฒ/d. Before that, the center was 45 mol/mยฒ/d. I guess it made that much of a difference. The plants aren't praying as much and have a slight lift to them. Perfect I think.
The environment is still a hot mess as usual. I cannot for the life of me get the damned humidity to drop. It just hovers at 60% regardless of the humidity. Well, no. If the humid climbs at all, the RH increases as well, but when the humidity drops, the tent RH stays at 60%. It's maddening. And I'm super confused as to why. I have a 3rd dehumidifier I forgot about. I might put that in as well. But I doubt it will do anything. The 2 more powerful ones do absolutely nothing.
Grow System Environment:
Temp: 74.9ยฐ
RH: 59.6%
VPD: 1.17 kPa
June 13, 2024
Picture Day! I did a little bit today. Took some measurements, removed a few leaves here and there and rotated a couple of the plants.
No watering today. The reservoirs are still full. It actually shows that this strain doesn't seem to need much water.
Sour Diesel A looks great! She is 23" tall now and I think that's where she will be staying. Unless she isn't done stacking. We shall see. She doesn't seem to have lost any weight from the top watering I did the other day, so that's good. It means the bottom feed system is working correctly. I snipped a few leaves off her today. Just a few that were blocking other bud sites and overlapping other leaves. Plus it opened the canopy up a bit more for even better airflow. One great thing with this plant is her trichome production. It's insane. I can expect an extremely frosty plant at the end.
Sour Diesel B has massive buds for her age. She isn't quite as frosty as A is, but she is a close second. However, the bud size makes up for the lack of trichomes for the moment. I'm sure she will be packing them on in no time. She is 21" tall and will definitely be staying there. One really good thing about her height and stature is light penetration. With such a shallow canopy, she will get all the way to the bottom of the plant, possibly even deep enough to not have any popcorn. We shall see.
Sour Diesel C is looking great at her 30" height. I removed a few leaves off of her as well. She only needs a few. Just to open more light penetration and of course unblock previous bud sites. Her internodal spacing is perfectly on point. Especially because her buds should be a bit longer due to her sativa dominance.
Sour Diesel D looks normal. Nothing really special to say about her. I popped off a few leaves yesterday that were covering the main cola and some of the canopy. But today was just a picture. She's also 23" tall just like A. But she should definitely be taller because of the lack of training I did. Oh well. Little baby plant.
The lighting is staying the same. I have a feeling that my Photone app needs to be calibrated again. So I'm doing this by what the plants are showing me. All of them reached pretty hard at 70% power and 40 mol/mยฒ/d. Then they were reaching at 45 mol/mยฒ/d. They shouldn't be reaching at that level, so I'm only using the Photone app for reference for now. Currently the power is at 80% and all ladies are slightly praying. Just like they should be.
Oh, I turned a few plants.
Sour Diesel A got a quarter rotation. Just to give the most outside buds some light and get them away from the wall.
Sour Diesel B also got a quarter turn. Same reason and to also adjust for fitting in the tent.
Sour Diesel D was rotated a half turn to make more space and give the other side some time under the light.
The environment is still unfortunate. Temp is fine at 76ยฐ but the humidity is at 62% and won't come back down. I'll continue opening the tent periodically to remove the humidity for a bit. The room is down to 55% and it's really nice out with the humidity being around 45%. Everything should be fine. But it's not. Damnit. But I'll work with what I have.
Grow System Environment:
Temp: 75.1ยฐ
RH: 58.8%
VPD: 1.20 kPa
June 14, 2024
Nothing going on today except for the Daily Picture. Other than that, a quick review of each plant.
Sour Diesel A looks fantastic. Tons of frost and good stacking. The buds aren't that big yet, but I expect them to swell up in the next 3 weeks. That's how long the Big Bud is supposed to be administered.
Sour Diesel B is catching up with A in regards to trichomes. Her buds are massive now for her age and size. She may be done a week or 2 earlier than the rest. I'll keep her in the regular schedule. Mostly because this should be a 6 week flowering period with a week of flush.
Sour Diesel C is also catching up to A in trichome production. It's to be expected as the plants get further into flowering. I hope to see frost like A on all the plants.
Sour Diesel D is the second frostiest her leaves are super sticky and oily. Sour terps all the way. I'm not getting any gas yet, but I'm assuming that will come with more trichomes and when they start to swell up and turn cloudy.
I ended up snipping a few leaves off her today my just ones that were really covering a lot. And there are a lot of leaves that are covering. I just can't snip them now. But she is seriously compact and I'm not sure how well the buds are going to grow. I've found that tight plants don't have the best bud production. It's like the leaves just block everything. And because this plant hasn't been trained, the main cola is mostly leaves. Buds are kind of hard to see. Not the best outcome, but this is the experiment. She is the control. Lol. Not much of an example, but there you have it.
The lighting stays the same. No changes at all. The plants are really liking where it is I think. Slight praying and a bit of a reach. The pistils are all standing straight up as well. I'm hoping this is a sign that they may need more light vs light stress. However, I'll need to measure the light distance at the beginning of next week. I'm topped out with the light now, so it will be a matter of either increasing the light power or dropping the light down a bit. But that's only if they are light hungry. I'll have to research.
The environment was pretty good for a lot of yesterday afternoon. It was down to 52% humidity with the temp at 76ยฐ. It was great! Not perfect but still much better than over 60%. It's another beautiful day today, so the humidity shouldn't be all that hard to control. So far today we are back over 60%, but I don't expect it to stay that high for long. It should go back down to 52% in the next few hours.
Grow System Environment:
Temp: 75.1ยฐ
RH: 57.8%
VPD: 1.23 kPa
June 15, 2024
The last day of week 3 of flower. I did some last minute leaf removal this morning. Not much. Just some leaves that were being crushed by the wall and some overlapping inner leaves. Nothing crazy. A few from each plant.
No watering today. They still don't need it. I'm not sure if that's good or bad, but they all have roots showing now and all but one have wet bottoms.
Sour Diesel A is the problem child when it comes to the bottom feed system. She's still lighter than the rest, but shows no signs of under watering or anything. The roots are growing right where the wicks are and that isn't normal. It should be the whole bottom of the container. Not really sure what to do. Maybe submerge the bottom again and see if it activates properly. Either way, the reservoir will be refilled tomorrow. Maybe I'll make a second batch for her and submerge her in that and let her soak it up. That's what I'll probably do. She's still frosty as ever which also tells me she's very happy. I feel like she could be doing better with bud production. They aren't as fat as I'd hoped. I know it's only the 3rd week of flower, but B has huge buds and has since she started flowering.
Sour Diesel B looks great with her big ole buds. She suddenly got really frosty overnight, finally. I can only imagine how she will look in a few weeks. It's a 45 day flowering time, so we are half way there. All of the buds on the whole plant look fantastic. Even the lowers look promising. They will most likely be tight popcorn. I can't complain about that. It will just get pressed anyway.
Sour Diesel C is the star of the show now. Just like B, she got really frosty overnight. Her buds are swelling pretty quickly now that we are in the second half of flower. I can only expect her to get much fatter buds in the weeks to come.
Sour Diesel D got frosty as well, not as much as the others, but still pretty frosty. Her buds are starting to swell as well. It looks like this lady will be right on time. All of the plants look like they will be right on time. Except for B. She looks like she will finish early. Or not and will just be a massive plant of colas.
I'll be adjusting the light if I need to tomorrow. I don't think I'll need to at all. The plants seem to be very happy with it.
The environment is starting to calm now that the weather has cleared up. The central air has been kicking on earlier in the day so the humidity in my room has been hovering around 53%. The tent however, is still high at 60% humidity. But the central air isn't on yet. So I just open the door every hour or so.
Grow System Environment:
Temp: 75.5ยฐ
RH: 59.8%
VPD: 1.18 kPa