2022 is upon us and I find myself in a need for speed. A speedy grow cycle that is. So how do I participate in the NYGC when time is of the essence? With a little head start of course. I'll plant a couple of teen clones from a reputable supplier. And what better strain for this could there be than SPICOLI. A nod to Sean Penn's stoner character in the movie, Fast Times at Ridgemont High. This strain is a cross of Fire OG x Manic. Reportedly an Indica strain with a 6-8 week flowering period. If all goes as planned, I should be able to harvest and cure before I need to travel. Oh yes! The plan.
3x3 Vivasun Tent
HLG 300L R-Spec
Humidifier
4" Ventilation with HEPA active intake - exhaust vented outdoors
3 - small circulations fans
5 gal fabric pots
Hand watered with Earth Juice SeaBlast Nutrients
Let's see if we can make this happen!
Done & Done! After a full tent spray down with Zerotol I began familiarizing myself with the equipment that has layed dormant for a while. I added a HEPA filter to my active intake. I have some WiFi equipment that I have to remember how to access or find the manuals. Hmm. Got lights. Got ventilation. That should get the ball rolling.
Clones sequestered for 3 days. No apparent bug activity. Dowse with Lost Coast as the beginning of IPM protocol. Transplant to 5 gal containers. Set lamp timer for 18/6 veg cycle. All looks well after transplant. Plants a currently 16 inches tall. Lights on full @ 18 in. above tops.
Mixed 1/2 tsp. Earth Juice SeaBlast Grow with 1 gal tap water. EC 450 This gets fed at every watering which will likely be 1/2 gal to each plant every other day (roughly). I think I can afford to veg these at least 1 more week, perhaps 2 weeks. Being under a time crunch is new to me with this hobby. Come to think of it, I may not even need the Grow nutrients if I am going to flip so quickly. Always new territory. Love it.
I believe it's time to think about flipping these over to flower. I will continue to feed with the Grow nutrient until I see some pistils and then start the Bloom nutrients at the same ratio. I like the simplicity of the feed mixing and scheduling, but I do wonder if I might get better results by pushing the EC up closer to my regular targets. I am only at a medium feed rate now and by the EC numbers, I have a lot of leeway.
There has been some good growth over the last 2-3 weeks. They are pushing 2 feet now but, I can't take too much stretch with my current light setup. I think I'll need all the room I can get.
I'm no acrobat but I'm calling that a flip. As clumsy as it was, I think things will progress. The plants suffered through my artificial solstice and caught 24 hrs of light before their first 12 hour rest period. I had to raise the light just to get 15 inches clearance. I was not planning on super cropping and was hoping I could get away without a scrog. I want to see if I can just grow 2 plants without a crowd situation. I am already well past where I put my scrog last time. It's hard to complain about vigorous plants. The conditions have been a bit off for veg but are better for flowering. Temps have been in the mid 60s and RH between 35 and 45. Tomorrow morning they will get their twice weekly Lost Coast plant therapy at lights out. Plants look great for such a simple fert schedule. I'm liking it so far.
Yaaa. About that. Hmm. These babies are already 30 inches now. I think they are going to need some taming/training. I'll have to try to muster the energy to go get some more SCROG netting. My wife was just commenting on how robust the stems are so I'm not going to supercrop. Maybe I can slow the vertical progress with some good old fashion resistance. I was hoping to keep things uncrowded so I get better air flow but it may not be in the cards. I'm striving to keep every leaf but I can't sacrifice the flow. I still haven't figured out the right way to utilize this setup. I have not abandoned the idea of the perpetual harvest, but I think autos might be the way to go. Judging by the size of my last run of autos I could easily get 4 smaller plants in here no problem. But every time I put 2 photoperiods in there, I get a jam packed tent. I need to find some strains that have one central cola and not all the branching perhaps. Always an adventure.
Like a new puppy owner that has never raised a dog, my early training neglect has resulted in snarling, gnashing, unruly pets plants. Well not yet but the potential is there. So I have called in SCROG Romero- Plant Whisperer. A little late but maybe some leash training will do them good. They are pretty robust and resistant to bending so this might be more of a long game. I may not be able to get a really even canopy, but it might serve to keep the majority of tops away from the lights. I have shortened the leash on the lights as well and have gained some height and future adjustment to boot.
With that done I can get back to rolling.
The plants appear to be responding to the training favorably. I allowed the top to grow a little past the SCROG near the back of the tent and then eased the whole pot towards the front a little each day. This stretched them out a bit and the lowers started making a move towards the light. Tonight I removed a few of the larger fan leaves that were either crossing or completely covering bud sites. They looked quite healthy, so I am happy with the Earth Juice Sea Blast nutrients. These last two feedings I have added a 1/4 tsp of Fox Farms Beastie Blooms. This raised the EC to 850. The next feeding I will switch from Veg to the Bloom nutrients. As soon as I see pistils, I will add Rock Resonator to the regular feedings. I lowered the lights just a smidge so I hope they don't get too crazy when I'm not looking.
A long 4 days away and the plants seem to have thrived. Just in time to water and raise the lights. I had one leaf show signs of a problem that I have yet to look into. This is probably the result of the Beastie Blooms addition. It was a lower leaf and it was the only one. I switched over to Bloom nutrients for their first feeding in 4 days. I sprayed with Lost Coast at lights out. Temp remains around 66 degrees and RH 37. Both temp and RH fluctuate a couple points.
The first pistils are showing so I still have 8 full weeks of growth. The ceiling was giving me worry so I went a bit hard on training of the tops. Super Cropped. I hate doing it so late but it had to happen. Now I have something else to worry, nah, wonder about. Tomorrow will tell. If all goes well, they will start turning towards the light almost immediately. They are unsupported right now. Tucked under the trellis actually. Although the bends are severe, I don't think they snapped all the way through. Fingers crossed. The canopy is pretty flat now.
Oddly, I have not seen any other signs of stress other than that one yellow leaf. The super cropped tops made a speedy recovery and have been tucked under the scrog a couple more times. Very vigorous. I had to do some light defoliation near the bottom because it is pretty crowded. Other than that, I have not sacrificed any limbs or nodes. Each plant is getting a full gallon at each watering now. The scrog has been pretty efficient at slowing the vertical progress.
It is nice to open the tent each time and gaze upon healthy plants. I hope I don't jinx it by saying but things are looking good. A gallon each of Earth Juice enhanced water with 4 ml of Rock Resonator. I have not done PH once yet, but our water supply has been pretty consistent and hasn't let us down for years. And it is hard to argue with heathy plants. There are not alot of changes happening, but I did have to move the hygrometer because it was blocked by a branch. That is progress anyway. No significant stretch yet.
Chuggin' along. The vertical growth seems to have been suspended entirely. They are still between 33 and 36 inches tall. Most of the energy seems to be going into the buds. I added an additional 1/4 tsp of nutrients which should bring the EC to about 1200. That is about half of what I would normally be running at this stage. But these babies are getting nutrients at every feeding where my previous Fox Farms schedule would only feed twice a week. There should be between 3 and 5 weeks to go and things seem to be progressing nicely.
I have been a little lax in my IPM because my sprayer is on the fritz. Clearly, I have not learned my lesson because I think I spotted a little WPM. I plucked the leaf that I thought had it and sprayed with my fritzy spritzer anyway. Fingers crossed. I will defoliate the bottoms a little more tonight. There are already 3 circulation fans running and the RH has been in the upper 30s so I am surprised to see WPM. It may just be fibers from the SCROG which I have seen before.
Another week of growth and things are looking good. I have not seen any further signs of WPM if that is even what it was. Fingers crossed. The leaves are starting to change a bit, getting some purple color and some of the older leaves yellowing. I pluck them before they fall off completely. I have noticed a lot more frost forming on the buds and some of the pistils have started to brown. Shouldn't be too much longer now.
Maturing nicely. The aroma from the tent is quite sweet and the unfiltered exhaust is quite skunky. There are quite a few amber trichomes and there are still a couple weeks to go. Definitely ready in 6-8 weeks. I need to get some photo ideas because there is a sameness to most of my pictures. My unsteady camera phone hand leaves a bit to be desired on trichome shots but close inspection with the loop reveals plenty of amber trichomes. I think I'll let these go one more week and harvest between week 7 and 8. This is supposed to be an ass kicker indica so letting them go a little longer should yield the desired knockdown effect.
We are drawing to an end here. The plants got their final stressing and then were rewarded with their final watering. They were drooping a bit before watering because I gave them an extra day without water. This final feeding was just 1 gal water and 4 ml of Rock Resonator. In keeping with my timeline, Darkness Thursday. I will chop on Friday. Dry for 10 days. Burp for 2 weeks in jars.
OK. Our world has been turned upside down. I trimmed the majority of the leaves from the stalks and left the sugar leaves. The SCROG was doing it's job because the plants slumped over when I cut it away. I utilized the unused straps from the carbon filter and slipped a lower branch through the loop to hang the plants whole. The intake fan, exhaust fan and just one circulation fan are running in the tent. The reduction in air circulation and the plants releasing moisture have the temp and humidity at 60 F @ 50 RH.