420 Magazine's Official Girl Scout Cookies Comparative Grow By Emilya

[Emilya Green]

Veg, Day 40
We are 6 days into the feeding cycle and 2 days into the wet/dry cycle. Some of these huge plants will want water tomorrow and some will not be quite ready, but it is clear that again we see the wet/dry cycle shortening dramatically on each watering. No signs of deficiency of any kind can be seen... the @GeoFlora Nutrients and the @DYNOMYCO are doing their jobs amazingly well.

@Sierra Natural Science has delivered my 209 and I am going to apply it as soon as I water the next time. The goal is to completely eliminate the fungus gnats and keep them gone as we transition into bloom.

Only a few snips needed to be made today and it is becoming clear that we are getting to the end of what we are going to be able to do as far as shaping these plants. We are not going to achieve 30+ bud sites on each of these plants, because we waited too long to start snipping. Lesson learned... next time, start topping at node 5. My lofty goals for a huge harvest will need to be scaled back just a bit, but I will be satisfied with a large one instead, with each plant easily showing 16-20 bud sites that will go to harvest. As I reflect back on what happened, this decision, maybe a 2 day window when I decided to top at 7 instead of 5, has actually made a huge difference in final yield... maybe as much as an ounce or two per plant at the end. In the final analysis, timing is all important.

Here are some of the girls, this time actually trying to show off a little bit.

 

[Mdlroad]

Veg, Day 40
We are 6 days into the feeding cycle and 2 days into the wet/dry cycle. Some of these huge plants will want water tomorrow and some will not be quite ready, but it is clear that again we see the wet/dry cycle shortening dramatically on each watering. No signs of deficiency of any kind can be seen... the @GeoFlora Nutrients and the @DYNOMYCO are doing their jobs amazingly well.

@Sierra Natural Science has delivered my 209 and I am going to apply it as soon as I water the next time. The goal is to completely eliminate the fungus gnats and keep them gone as we transition into bloom.

Only a few snips needed to be made today and it is becoming clear that we are getting to the end of what we are going to be able to do as far as shaping these plants. We are not going to achieve 30+ bud sites on each of these plants, because we waited too long to start snipping. Lesson learned... next time, start topping at node 5. My lofty goals for a huge harvest will need to be scaled back just a bit, but I will be satisfied with a large one instead, with each plant easily showing 16-20 bud sites that will go to harvest. As I reflect back on what happened, this decision, maybe a 2 day window when I decided to top at 7 instead of 5, has actually made a huge difference in final yield... maybe as much as an ounce or two per plant at the end. In the final analysis, timing is all important.

Here are some of the girls, this time actually trying to show off a little bit.

They show off very well

 

[Emilya Green]

Veg, Day 41
Today was a big day. The girls are still growing like crazy and trying to send nodes up to the top. I trimmed about 16 ends again today, waiting for the lower nodes, now the outer nodes, to rise up to the top and need that first trim. Many of the buds up top are now throwing out alternating nodes, so trimming them again is out of the question and from here on out they will just continue to stack nodes. If they get out of hand with it, I can always nip them again to slow them down, but I would like to avoid that if possible.

The girls also showed me that every single one of them needed to be watered, at a new record rate for the 1 gallon containers, at a 3 day wet/dry interval. Very soon, I expect the wet/dry cycle to shrink to 2 days, and we are probably looking at uppotting to the final 7 gallon containers early to mid next week. Please note that there is nothing arbitrary about when I uppot... it is totally dependent on the performance of the plants.

Look at how low these lower fans were hanging when I walked in this evening... it made me laugh, seeing how dramatic they were being. The first picture, look at the plant on the front right, and then check out the poor pitiful thing in the second picture.

The SNS 209 was applied to the water this time, at 8ml / gallon, and I will continue to do this as recommended for the rest of the grow.

The bugs are few and far between at the moment, so I put up a new yellow sticky card in each room so we can see just how bad it really is. Tomorrow we will take a count of the bugs that have been captured and we will try to see if we are indeed seeing declining numbers.

I also put up some more bling up on the walls in the until tonight, barren mother room... and I must say that it looks a lot better in there.

 

[cr8grow]

Emilya, Plants look fantastic, no pun intended. You have built a fine foundation for the flowers, nice. For F-gnats I put down a handful of Mosquito Bits as a top dress when I up-potted to 5 gallons. I haven’t had a single gnat this grow so far. My soil choice always has F-gnats and M Bits always knock them out completely. I flip to 12/12 tomorrow. Cheers

 

[Emilya Green]

Veg, Day 43
Day 2 in the Wet/Dry cycle
Day 9 of the 2 week feed cycle

I am sorry that my updates have not been as frequent the last few days, because I have been preparing for Ham Radio Field Day! Every year on the last full weekend of June, hams in the US and Canada simulate a continent wide disaster. All the power is out and most antennas have fallen to the ground. We began setup in a field this morning and put up antennas for several bands and emergency power. At 1pm, we started making contacts as far as our signals can go. We will keep this up for a full 24 hours and end tomorrow afternoon.
I am the club's secret weapon. The whole idea of this thing is to draw in interested public and media, so they can see what the hams are all about, and maybe get their licenses too. First attraction, I am a female radio geek. That draws the curious in right away, but in addition to that, I am deaf, and I have a special talent. I have set up special equipment that I plug in instead of a speaker so that I can read Morse Code via light, instead of sound. My eyes can tell when the LED lights go off and on much faster than most audio capable hams can hear the changes in the sound that they use to copy morse code, and because of this I can receive the code at a ridiculously fast rate. It is always a spectacle and people come every year just to watch.

So I took a break and came home to do my update and trim my plants. I will go back later and work at the Field Day site overnight. Right now though, I had to trim over 30 bud tips that were rising up to dominance. The plants are getting massive, but they are still on a 3 day watering cycle... the roots have not yet caught up with what we are forcing at the top. Let me show you our former runt. She is still short, but that is good right now, she will have time to stretch. Check this Sauga view of this little beauty:

There are 30 bud sites showing right now. She dares anyone to call her a runt, now.

The SNS 209 is working already. In the back room, zero bugs are showing on the sticky card. In veg room #1 we have gathered about 50 bugs in 2 days, and I know why. I have one random plant in the room on a different watering schedule, and it didn't yet get the 209... so the bugs have all went there to thrive. This evening that plant needed watering too, so this problem should go away quickly.

So I am going to leave you with a moment of zen while we admire two other plants and the group while I go get a little cat nap before getting back to playing ham radio at night, racking up mad points for the club at 65 words per minute. Have a good night everyone! CQ Field Day!

 

[Emilya Green]

Veg, Day 44
Day 3 in the Wet/Dry cycle
Day 10 of the 2 week feed cycle

Just a quick update this evening because it has been a long day and it is time to give the plants a little extra drying time this round, just to build some more roots. They all could have been watered tonight, but I am going to wait till tomorrow. This extra hit of oxygen deep down in the roots should greatly accelerate things over this next week as we get ready to transplant one final time.

The bugs continue to show themselves in veg room 1's yellow sticky card, but a visual examination of the planter in question shows much less bug type activity this evening... and it has to be because the SNS is starting to kick in.

It doesn't look like it in Veg Room #1 with both the tallest and the shortest plants in there, but a look at the Mother Room shows how even this canopy is going to be, and how many hundreds of bud sites we are looking at taking into bloom.

 

[Websissy]

I used diatomaceous earth on top soil too when I saw those thirps. I have very few fungus knats but want those gone too. I also sprayed my plants a few times with SNS-209 after the lights go off at night. I haven’t seen a gnat or bug in about a week and half. Been using the SNS-209 though per the instructions since the start of my grow.

Your plants look healthy!

 

[bobrown14]

Looking good @Emilya - props to the radio thing. I build tube amps for audio. We've run across some pretty cool radio tubes in our travels. Big mofo's lots of scary voltages. Outta my league.

Plants look like they getting ready to flower. Good job. In for the flower pics!

 

[RetiredRN]

Veg, Day 41
Today was a big day. The girls are still growing like crazy and trying to send nodes up to the top. I trimmed about 16 ends again today, waiting for the lower nodes, now the outer nodes, to rise up to the top and need that first trim. Many of the buds up top are now throwing out alternating nodes, so trimming them again is out of the question and from here on out they will just continue to stack nodes. If they get out of hand with it, I can always nip them again to slow them down, but I would like to avoid that if possible.

The girls also showed me that every single one of them needed to be watered, at a new record rate for the 1 gallon containers, at a 3 day wet/dry interval. Very soon, I expect the wet/dry cycle to shrink to 2 days, and we are probably looking at uppotting to the final 7 gallon containers early to mid next week. Please note that there is nothing arbitrary about when I uppot... it is totally dependent on the performance of the plants.

Look at how low these lower fans were hanging when I walked in this evening... it made me laugh, seeing how dramatic they were being. The first picture, look at the plant on the front right, and then check out the poor pitiful thing in the second picture.

The SNS 209 was applied to the water this time, at 8ml / gallon, and I will continue to do this as recommended for the rest of the grow.

The bugs are few and far between at the moment, so I put up a new yellow sticky card in each room so we can see just how bad it really is. Tomorrow we will take a count of the bugs that have been captured and we will try to see if we are indeed seeing declining numbers.

I also put up some more bling up on the walls in the until tonight, barren mother room... and I must say that it looks a lot better in there.

Hi Emilya! Great looking girls! I have a question. Do you put your plants on that table to make it easier to care for them instead of in the floor?

 

[Emilya Green]

Hi Emilya! Great looking girls! I have a question. Do you put your plants on that table to make it easier to care for them instead of in the floor?

Thanks RN! Yes indeed, and for several reasons. First, the floor is not level and there is a definite south eastern slope, so the table allows me to level things out so water settles evenly into the containers. Second, this forces me to keep the plants on the short side, and when the ceiling is only 6'6" tall, this is essential. Even a standard 7' tent will not fit in my grow rooms. Third, I like having a little bit of storage area in the grow room, and under the table is perfect and away from the direct light for important items, such as bags of @GeoFlora Nutrients. Lastly, my 63 year old father, who lives with us, can not easily get up from the floor if he comes up to water, sit with the plants or otherwise help out. The table brings things up to a workable height from the rolling office chair I have installed up there for him (and me) and it makes things a whole lot easier for everyone.

It works up there in the veg rooms to have them on tables, but in the larger bloom room where the plants tend to be much larger and heavier, we set them right on the floor in drip trays.

 

[Emilya Green]

Looking good @Emilya - props to the radio thing. I build tube amps for audio. We've run across some pretty cool radio tubes in our travels. Big mofo's lots of scary voltages. Outta my league.

Plants look like they getting ready to flower. Good job. In for the flower pics!

We are just starting to get pistils on some of the plants... all of them still are not showing. We are definitely close to being ready to bloom though and we will be ready in a couple of weeks, maybe 3. The other room just finished up yesterday and now is in the dark for 36 hours, and then we harvest. This frees up the big room for 12x 7 gallon containers after we transplant later this week, and then for a couple of weeks anyway, we will turn off the lights on the Veg side while we figure out what we want to grow next.

 

[RetiredRN]

Thanks RN! Yes indeed, and for several reasons. First, the floor is not level and there is a definite south eastern slope, so the table allows me to level things out so water settles evenly into the containers. Second, this forces me to keep the plants on the short side, and when the ceiling is only 6'6" tall, this is essential. Even a standard 7' tent will not fit in my grow rooms. Third, I like having a little bit of storage area in the grow room, and under the table is perfect and away from the direct light for important items, such as bags of @GeoFlora Nutrients. Lastly, my 63 year old father, who lives with us, can not easily get up from the floor if he comes up to water, sit with the plants or otherwise help out. The table brings things up to a workable height from the rolling office chair I have installed up there for him (and me) and it makes things a whole lot easier for everyone.

It works up there in the veg rooms to have them on tables, but in the larger bloom room where the plants tend to be much larger and heavier, we set them right on the floor in drip trays.

Those are all great ideas! Thanks

 

[Emilya Green]

I used diatomaceous earth on top soil too when I saw those thirps. I have very few fungus knats but want those gone too. I also sprayed my plants a few times with SNS-209 after the lights go off at night. I haven’t seen a gnat or bug in about a week and half. Been using the SNS-209 though per the instructions since the start of my grow.

Your plants look healthy!

Hey Sissy! I am about to water again today, so that will be the 2nd soil application of the 209 and I also intend to spray some on the plants today too. I am excited about being able to use the @Sierra Natural Science SNS 209 in this extended test and after smelling it the first time I already liked it better than the other methods I have been using. If I can actually get rid of all of the bugs in here for an entire grow, I am going to be a very happy camper!

 

[Emilya Green]

Happy 420!

 

[Azimuth]

The other room just finished up yesterday and now is in the dark for 36 hours, and then we harvest.

Can you give us your reasons for the dark period?

 

[RetiredRN]

Can you give us your reasons for the dark period?

I believe the dark period fills the tricomes with thc.

 

[Emilya Green]

Can you give us your reasons for the dark period?

Yes I can.
The trichomes are finishing up here at the end, developing faster than ever before in the grow. Bright light however, degrades those trichomes. I have found that after 36 hours in the dark, before the plant actually dies from lack of light, the trichomes will finish out very nicely. They will become much longer, sometimes twice as long, and thicker. The cured quality DEFINITELY goes way up. The point is that I let them finish out in the dark, without there ever being another bright light in their future. They are harvested in dim light, trimmed in room light and then put in the dark for drying and curing. Bright lights never get to degrade these now upgraded trichomes. This one simple trick GREATLY increases the potency, taste and weight of my buds and I have proven this over and over again with side by side tests. Everyone reading these words should try this and see for yourself.

 

[cr8grow]

Yes I can.
The trichomes are finishing up here at the end, developing faster than ever before in the grow. Bright light however, degrades those trichomes. I have found that after 36 hours in the dark, before the plant actually dies from lack of light, the trichomes will finish out very nicely. They will become much longer, sometimes twice as long, and thicker. The cured quality DEFINITELY goes way up. The point is that I let them finish out in the dark, without there ever being another bright light in their future. They are harvested in dim light, trimmed in room light and then put in the dark for drying and curing. Bright lights never get to degrade these now upgraded trichomes. This one simple trick GREATLY increases the potency, taste and weight of my buds and I have proven this over and over again with side by side tests. Everyone reading these words should try this and see for yourself.

Emilya, I will give it a try this GSC comparative grow. Interesting update on the amateur ham radio activities. I’ve noticed a ham sign and antenna not too far away, perhaps they participated as well. Cheers

 

[Emilya Green]

Emilya, I will give it a try this GSC comparative grow. Interesting update on the amateur ham radio activities. I’ve noticed a ham sign and antenna not too far away, perhaps they participated as well. Cheers

I would bet that they at least know what Field Day is, if they didn't also participate. Even though this is a North American contest, people all over the world participate. Overnight I worked many stations in Europe, the Czech Republic, Sweden and the Slavic nations. This year I didn't see China or the Middle East, but surely it was just band conditions... the sun really isn't cooperating right now. I ended up making 429 contacts in about 12 hours of operating time.

 

[Emilya Green]

Veg, Day 45
Day 4 in the Wet/Dry cycle
Day 11 of the 2 week feed cycle
The plants are all on strike today, and again they are too heavy to water. A few of them have those hang dog lower fan leaves that tells me the water is starting to run out, but I am going to make them wait till they get back on their game. I see this often about this time in a whack-a-mole grow, because of all the aggressive trimming. They are dazed and confused and terrified of a crazy woman who keeps coming in and chopping off their best and fastest growing growth tips. I would be frustrated too.

So, the trick is to be aware enough of what is going on, so that I don't accidentally overwater by watering before they need it. They went only 3 days that first round in these new containers, and now we are going to go 5 days. It is shock... we have done too much, too fast. No real harm has been done though, and they will bounce back quickly as the trimming starts to slow down. We will see what happens, but please notice that we are 3 days from Feeding day. That is going to set up an interesting question tomorrow when it is time to water. Do I feed early so as to get it in on a watering day, or do I give the next dose of @GeoFlora Nutrients VEG on the correct day by giving them a light early watering, or do I wait till the next watering, presumably 4 or 5 days from now to do the feed, being one or two days late? I tend to think the 14 day period is sacrosanct, and lightly watering it in on the correct day is the best move here. What do you all think?

So today, not wanting to chop on them again right at the moment and not having much else to do, I gave them a foliar application of the @Sierra Natural Science SNS 209 to keep working on eradicating the gnats. I got a new sprayer just for this job, and I love it! Everyone should get one of these very reasonably priced tools for their gardens and I am wondering why I waited till now to get one.

The girls are still growing and there were definitely nodes that I could have whacked on this evening, but we will save that for tomorrow. Tonight I expect them to work on finding the last of that water and sending up the few remaining nodes that will need to be chopped. Tomorrow will be a big day.