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

[Emilya Green]

Can you explain back build IDK what you mean

If around week 5, you simulate a deer nibbling off the very tip top of a bud by snipping just a tiny bit off of the top, the bud will stop growing in a vertical cone shape and will start expanding horizontally, giving the buds a chunky look at the end, and many think that it also adds to the overall weight of the bud.

LA's Quick Guide To Simple Backbuilding Technique For Buds!

OK firstly this is just a simple technique that gives you dense tear drop buds that will look uniform and presentable! I was told this tech by an old friend who grew on a professional scale! to me it would seem a good process for anyone providing herb for legit sales So here goes firstly some...

www.420magazine.com

 

[Mdlroad]

If around week 5, you simulate a deer nibbling off the very tip top of a bud by snipping just a tiny bit off of the top, the bud will stop growing in a vertical cone shape and will start expanding horizontally, giving the buds a chunky look at the end, and many think that it also adds to the overall weight of the bud.

LA's Quick Guide To Simple Backbuilding Technique For Buds!

OK firstly this is just a simple technique that gives you dense tear drop buds that will look uniform and presentable! I was told this tech by an old friend who grew on a professional scale! to me it would seem a good process for anyone providing herb for legit sales So here goes firstly some...

www.420magazine.com

TY for fast response. Learned something new today

 

[Emilya Green]

Bloom, Day 7
Geoflora Feed, Day 13
Wet/Dry Cycle, Day 3
7 Days since last SNS Foliar, SNS 209 given on each watering
Length of Grow: 11 weeks, 2 day

This is going to be a little confusing, but this update is from last night, not actually today, Monday, and another update will be coming again after I water and feed this afternoon. Last night I took my pictures and made sure everyone was ok, but after a long and active day I fell asleep in my chair before getting in here to do the actual update.

No signs of deficiencies were noted. The VEG Geoflora did just fine during this first week of bloom and 7 days of transition... VEG formula is definitely what is needed during stretch. Tomorrow is feeding day, and I believe the girls are going to respond in a big way to the BLOOM nutes.

The canopy has risen to now being 13 inches from the light and it looks like this is going to be the final height. Stretch is just about over, and the room has with just a couple of exceptions, reached an average height of about 48 inches. We still have a little room for vertical adjustment if needed, but it looks like things are well in hand.

Here is the top of the canopy as measured from the light:

Note here how far down into the canopy we expect to get good light.... can anyone say foot long buds?

Our clipped leaf showed no stress marks at all, just a folded leaf... but I am holding out for a few more days to see if we can get that pattern on the leaf like the one we chopped off.

Here are a couple of shots from chair height, looking into the room with all the plants towering over me.

And here are the buds... looking good one week into bloom.

 

[cr8grow]

Emilya, Your garden is looking great. Cheers

 

[Emilya Green]

Bloom, Day 8
Geoflora Feed, Day 14
Wet/Dry Cycle, Day 4
8 Days since last SNS Foliar, SNS 209 given on each watering
Length of Grow: 2 months, 2 weeks, 5 days

This evening as I worked with the girls it was clear that the bugs are trying to make a comeback. They are not even to the level of being annoying yet, but they are there on the surface of the soil if you look. They aren't able to do a lot of damage since the plants now taste bad to them, but the discontinuation of the mosquito dunks in my water holding barrel is being noticed. Probably tomorrow I will stop just talking about spraying again, this time with PC, and I will actually do it.

Each day further convinces me that we are now at the end of stretch and we have found the final height of these plants, and to my total relief, we are right in the sweet spot of the Nextlight MEGA. What is about to happen in here is going to be glorious!

Today was the 2 week point in the @GeoFlora Nutrients schedule and time to feed the first application of the BLOOM product. 2/3 cup was dumped in the middle of each of the containers and then watered in, spreading it all over. The girls did not disappoint; they had again achieved enough water usage that it was time to water, again showing me a 4 day wet/dry cycle. I am still hopeful that we can get that down to 3 days as the bloom cycle kicks into high gear. The room again took an amazing amount of water, each plant averaging about a gallon and a half, and about a quarter gallon more than they could take at the flip. Along with the @Sierra Natural Science SNS 209 being applied with each watering, I have added a couple of more goodies. Simply because it is good stuff and the plants need a lot of potassium about now, and because I still have gallons of the stuff x2, I have added Terpinator to the water. Also, because of the extreme size of these plants we have decided that it is probably a good idea to add some silica to strengthen the branches. These three supplements will be given for the rest of the grow unless I see a good reason not to as we move forward.

Here, right as predicted, on a few of the larger plants we see a real grown up bloom deficiency starting up. It has started down low, so we know it is one of the 3 mobile elements or the one semi-mobile element, and it looks to me like it is phosphorus that is being robbed from these lower leaves so as to supply the top growth with what it needs. This has just started and there is no doubt in my mind that with the application of the BLOOM product this evening, this problem will be non-existent in 48 hours. This also further amplifies my belief that bloom nutes are not needed until right at this point, as the buds really start developing in earnest. I really believe that if I had given BLOOM formula on the last feeding, these plants would be significantly smaller than they are now. There is of course, a time and a place for everything... the trick is finding it.

Lastly, the all important buds. Even the large main kolas are full into the act now and throwing out pistils at an amazing speed. Look at how some of the pistils already have some color to them! These are going to be some beautiful buds!

All is looking good so far in this garden, and I hope you are enjoying similar results. I also hope that I am explaining my methods in a way that makes sense to you and that you are especially seeing the effectiveness of the Geoflora Nutrient system as well as being able to see the amazing results of my watering techniques in action.

And that reminds me, @InTheShed made a great observation on another comparative journal when discussing the fact that I not only water to a good amount of runoff in this organic grow, but I also let my cloth containers sit right down in the drip trays to suck it all back up into the soil. He analyzed that I am only doing this because it is an organic grow, so no synthetic salts are being moved out of the soil as would happen in a synthetic nutrient grow. This is exactly right, and to further elaborate on my use of drip trays and my watering method, if this were a synthetic grow, such as with Fox Farm nutrients, I would be using large river rocks as risers to keep my containers out of the runoff, and I would be sucking that junk up and moving it out of the room shortly after watering. This would also cause me to lose 2 to 3 valuable inches of vertical height before hitting the lights and over the length of the grow it would add several hours of maintenance time that could be much better spent relaxing in a comfortable chair with a big fatty. These are just a couple of the reasons that I am so enamored with organic gardening and really loving the Geoflora... it just doesn't get any easier than this.

 

[Abstrakt]

Gorgeous buds as always Emilya. Love that picture from the chair height! Great detailed write ups. Always learning so much from your journals. Happy Growing

 

[Emilya Green]

Bloom - 1 week, 2 Days
Geoflora Feed - Day 1
Wet/Dry Cycle - Day 1
9 Days since last SNS Foliar, SNS 209 given on each watering
Length of Grow - 2 months, 2 weeks, 6 days

Tonight we sprayed. The foliar application of SNS PC insecticide was carefully given to each plant one by one, as I reworked the reusable tomato cages around them to make more sense with this final shape of our blooming plants. Many of the bottom supports that were so important a few weeks ago were able to be removed and reused up higher where support is now needed. All of the plants now are ready for building heavy buds up top and are much neater looking without branches sprawling about hither thither and yon.

Here is someone hiding behind a bush as she cleans it... someone who didn't hide the camera.

A typical bush after its final cleanup and spraying

The required bud shots

And the money shot... with all my little duckies in a row.

 

[Emilya Green]

Bloom - 1 week, 4 Days
Geoflora Feed - Day 3
Wet/Dry Cycle - Day 3
2 Days since last SNS Foliar, SNS 209 given on each watering
Length of Grow - 2 months, 3 weeks, 1 days

The view across the top:

Oh what a difference a couple of days makes! All of the buds are pointing upwards with everyone reaching for the light. I am going to declare that stretch has reached its end and we are now officially at what some call budset or about 20 days or so from the flip. We have reached an almost perfect average height of just about 12-14 inches away from the light.

Long bud filled branches are beginning to fill in, at least 1 foot deep into the canopy:

Water use has indeed accelerated and I could have watered today and the room would have taken 90% of the water it took last time. This is very good and tomorrow, after waiting an extra day we will have teased as much out of the roots as we will be able to this grow, and it will be time to water. This extra day starts the clock on the one out of 4 waterings where I will let it go a little bit dryer, and as of tomorrow's watering we will be watering every 3 days for the next three cycles, pushing as much water on these girls as they will take. If water use stagnates because I am drowning them, I will back off, but I think they will take to this quite well. We have been grooming these roots for a while now, and they are ready to go to work.

I like this picture... it says a lot about what is happening here. @GeoFlora Nutrients rock!

The gnats seem to have been decimated by the @Sierra Natural Science SNS PC and in my quick inspection tonight I failed to find even one. Already the bud growth has sped up after applying the BLOOM Geoflora and you can see just how dramatically this has happened by comparing the last bud shots with those from tonight. I will estimate that every bud has stacked another layer on itself in just the last 48 hours. There are no signs of anything bad on any of the leaves, except those very few that were already tagged for cannibalization earlier. The room is a perfect shade of green from top to bottom and at the moment I just see a few yellow tips that indicate they are being fed just right. Everything seems to be going remarkably well as we get close to the 1/4 bloom point. I can now take a deep breath and congratulate myself on a great veg and now we are going to be able to coast in to a spectacular finish, building on all the hard work we have done so far. It is at this point where the plants and I really get working hard though, them building buds, and me hauling lots of water and carefully, slowly and lovingly applying it to each plant with my little 3 quart watering pitcher.

Check out the natural spread of the buds at the top of the tomato cage:

And lastly, centering in on the buds:

 

[Fudo Myoo]

Bloom - 1 week, 4 Days
Geoflora Feed - Day 3
Wet/Dry Cycle - Day 3
2 Days since last SNS Foliar, SNS 209 given on each watering
Length of Grow - 2 months, 3 weeks, 1 days

The view across the top:

Oh what a difference a couple of days makes! All of the buds are pointing upwards with everyone reaching for the light. I am going to declare that stretch has reached its end and we are now officially at what some call budset or about 20 days or so from the flip. We have reached an almost perfect average height of just about 12-14 inches away from the light.

Long bud filled branches are beginning to fill in, at least 1 foot deep into the canopy:

Water use has indeed accelerated and I could have watered today and the room would have taken 90% of the water it took last time. This is very good and tomorrow, after waiting an extra day we will have teased as much out of the roots as we will be able to this grow, and it will be time to water. This extra day starts the clock on the one out of 4 waterings where I will let it go a little bit dryer, and as of tomorrow's watering we will be watering every 3 days for the next three cycles, pushing as much water on these girls as they will take. If water use stagnates because I am drowning them, I will back off, but I think they will take to this quite well. We have been grooming these roots for a while now, and they are ready to go to work.

I like this picture... it says a lot about what is happening here. @GeoFlora Nutrients rock!

The gnats seem to have been decimated by the @Sierra Natural Science SNS PC and in my quick inspection tonight I failed to find even one. Already the bud growth has sped up after applying the BLOOM Geoflora and you can see just how dramatically this has happened by comparing the last bud shots with those from tonight. I will estimate that every bud has stacked another layer on itself in just the last 48 hours. There are no signs of anything bad on any of the leaves, except those very few that were already tagged for cannibalization earlier. The room is a perfect shade of green from top to bottom and at the moment I just see a few yellow tips that indicate they are being fed just right. Everything seems to be going remarkably well as we get close to the 1/4 bloom point. I can now take a deep breath and congratulate myself on a great veg and now we are going to be able to coast in to a spectacular finish, building on all the hard work we have done so far. It is at this point where the plants and I really get working hard though, them building buds, and me hauling lots of water and carefully, slowly and lovingly applying it to each plant with my little 3 quart watering pitcher.

Check out the natural spread of the buds at the top of the tomato cage:

And lastly, centering in on the buds:

Looks awesome! Ok, lots of questions. 1. I’ve noticed you leave lots of foliage. Why? I do because I don’t trust my soil completely and like to leave a little something to draw on. But we’ve been experimenting and the more we strip the bigger the buds. The better my soil gets the less foliage I leave. Is this strain dependent? 2. I don’t even try to mimic your watering practices, don’t have the patience. But I do remember somewhere where you said get them to every other day for flower. That’s what I’ve been doing with success. Why 3 day cycle now? Had more questions but forgot, just smoked one, I’ll get back with ya. Thanks Em.

 

[Emilya Green]

Looks awesome! Ok, lots of questions. 1. I’ve noticed you leave lots of foliage. Why? I do because I don’t trust my soil completely and like to leave a little something to draw on. But we’ve been experimenting and the more we strip the bigger the buds. The better my soil gets the less foliage I leave. Is this strain dependent? 2. I don’t even try to mimic your watering practices, don’t have the patience. But I do remember somewhere where you said get them to every other day for flower. That’s what I’ve been doing with success. Why 3 day cycle now? Had more questions but forgot, just smoked one, I’ll get back with ya. Thanks Em.

Hi Fudo! Thanks for stopping in! I do strip a lot of foliage, especially down below, and the piles of leaves and chopped off branches that will never reach the canopy that I have had to sweep up the last couple of weeks attest to that. Up top, I don't strip a lot, except deep in the middle and center of the canopy, trying to thin it out as best I can without sacrificing future buds, mainly looking at air flow and light penetration. I don't believe in lollypopping or stripping it down further than I have, not just for keeping available reserves, but for the photosynthesis energy and transpiration ability of those leaves. If the plant doesn't think it needs a leaf here or there, it will let me know, and I trust the plant to show me if there is a difficulty with having too many leaves in any one spot. I figure more energy is better than not enough, so without a really good reason, I tend to not chop on my plants as much as some people do.

The watering frequency depends a lot on the container size. Typically in the past I was greatly limited by my grow space (tents) and tended to run smaller containers, mostly 5's and even some 3's. Getting a 3 or 5 gallon container down to a 3 day wet/dry cycle is pretty easy, and I would oftentimes find that in bloom I was able to water every other day. It is a little more difficult to get that kind of response out of a 10g or a 7g such as the ones I am running now, but it can be done, given enough patience. Given 2 more weeks in veg to grow roots and I could have accomplished this, but all things being compromises, I settled for the 4 day cycle I am now seeing so as to get on with bloom, and now I will be trying to shorten the cycle to 3 days with my aggressive watering.

Hope you remember what else you had questions about. I would smoke another one and hope that brings those thoughts lofting back into your consciousness.

 

[DeeBoy]

Uncle Ben taught us to patiently wait until the 5th node was just starting to pop up and could be snipped off, but instead, we do a very drastic topping between nodes 2 and 3, taking off a good portion of the plant. This causes nodes 1 and 2 to become primary and the plant develops 4 main kolas. Topping a plant between nodes 3 and 4 produces at least 2 main kolas, but sometimes it acts like a FIM cut and can develop 3, 4 and very rarely 5 main kolas. Topping between 4 and 5 always produces 2 main kolas, as does any topping higher than that before alternating nodes start occurring.

This is gold! I'm catching up...

 

[Fudo Myoo]

Hi Fudo! Thanks for stopping in! I do strip a lot of foliage, especially down below, and the piles of leaves and chopped off branches that will never reach the canopy that I have had to sweep up the last couple of weeks attest to that. Up top, I don't strip a lot, except deep in the middle and center of the canopy, trying to thin it out as best I can without sacrificing future buds, mainly looking at air flow and light penetration. I don't believe in lollypopping or stripping it down further than I have, not just for keeping available reserves, but for the photosynthesis energy and transpiration ability of those leaves. If the plant doesn't think it needs a leaf here or there, it will let me know, and I trust the plant to show me if there is a difficulty with having too many leaves in any one spot. I figure more energy is better than not enough, so without a really good reason, I tend to not chop on my plants as much as some people do.

The watering frequency depends a lot on the container size. Typically in the past I was greatly limited by my grow space (tents) and tended to run smaller containers, mostly 5's and even some 3's. Getting a 3 or 5 gallon container down to a 3 day wet/dry cycle is pretty easy, and I would oftentimes find that in bloom I was able to water every other day. It is a little more difficult to get that kind of response out of a 10g or a 7g such as the ones I am running now, but it can be done, given enough patience. Given 2 more weeks in veg to grow roots and I could have accomplished this, but all things being compromises, I settled for the 4 day cycle I am now seeing so as to get on with bloom, and now I will be trying to shorten the cycle to 3 days with my aggressive watering.

Hope you remember what else you had questions about. I would smoke another one and hope that brings those thoughts lofting back into your consciousness.

Thanks Em! …been trying that, still not lofty enough! Maybe a different strain? I’ll think of it.

 

[Emilya Green]

Bloom - 1 week, 5 Days
Geoflora Feed - Day 4
Wet/Dry Cycle - Day 4
3 Days since last SNS Foliar, SNS 209 given on each watering
Length of Grow - 2 months, 3 weeks, 2 days

Today was watering day, and the girls did not disappoint... they took their usual amount and seemed a little bit droopy that I made them wait so long. Next watering is in 3 more days. A few more leaves have dropped showing signs of phosphorus deficiency. The problem is over, but the plants are still showing me that they didn't like the treatment that they got going into bloom. I am wondering now if I should have timed things so that I could have given the bloom formula right at the start of actual bloom. More experiments need to be done.

Tonight I will start off with some individual plants that looked so good standing up all together that I just had to snap a picture.

And then, the bud shots... really piling it on now!

 

[Moto258]

Bloom - 1 week, 5 Days
Geoflora Feed - Day 4
Wet/Dry Cycle - Day 4
3 Days since last SNS Foliar, SNS 209 given on each watering
Length of Grow - 2 months, 3 weeks, 2 days

Today was watering day, and the girls did not disappoint... they took their usual amount and seemed a little bit droopy that I made them wait so long. Next watering is in 3 more days. A few more leaves have dropped showing signs of phosphorus deficiency. The problem is over, but the plants are still showing me that they didn't like the treatment that they got going into bloom. I am wondering now if I should have timed things so that I could have given the bloom formula right at the start of actual bloom. More experiments need to be done.

Tonight I will start off with some individual plants that looked so good standing up all together that I just had to snap a picture.

And then, the bud shots... really piling it on now!

Looking great Em! Loving that dense jungle!! Any signs of terps coming on early!!?

 

[Roy Growin]

Looking great @Emilya
Nice pics

 

[Emilya Green]

Looking great Em! Loving that dense jungle!! Any signs of terps coming on early!!?

Nothing yet!

 

[Emilya Green]

Bloom - 1 week, 6 Days
Geoflora Feed - Day 5
Wet/Dry Cycle - Day 1
4 Days since last SNS Foliar, SNS 209 given on each watering
Length of Grow - 2 months, 3 weeks, 3 days

All is looking extremely excellent today, and after a good second watering yesterday with the bloom formula running things, we can see that it is working well and that the phosphorus complaint is going away. Yesterday had me second guessing myself because literally while I was watering, I saw several damaged leaves spontaneously fall down to the soil, as if they were picking the best time to get maximum notice. Today there was none of that drama, and no extra leaves had fallen in the last 24 hours. There still are leaves that were affected, all down low, and I am sure that having been tagged that they are on their way to Valhalla soon, but for now, these at least are content to stay attached. I am now convinced that this problem is resolved, having now given the bloom nutes time to work. Could this have been avoided by giving them a week earlier or even giving half and half when I did that previous feeding? Not enough data exists to answer that question, but I still believe that part of the size we have achieved here, has to do with continuing the veg nutes as long as I did and that this temporary deficiency was well handled by the plants. I also do not believe that this had any effect on the buds nor a significant amount of the lower fans. It was a compromise that appears to have been neatly taken care of by the plants.

Other than this, no signs of overages or deficiencies can be noted. These look like very happy plants.

Meanwhile, now that we have bloom nutes running through the system, blooming is what they are doing... ferociously. Some of the buds have stacked several times on themselves in the last couple of days and we are well on our way to filling in the gaps between the bud sets on these branches.

The plants are still gaining some height, so stretch isn't quite over, and a few are now 8" to 12" away from the light. I could raise the light a few more inches, but I am content to let things ride for now... lets not jump before we are bitten.

Tonight, instead of top of the bud shots, we will do this study from the side so you can see how rapidly they are filling in and looking every bit the 2 week buds they are about to become. There is still no dramatic new smells coming from the room and no early trichomes have been spotted, but I have no doubt that both events are just on the horizon.

 

[Websissy]

So pretty! Hope the nutrient issue doesn’t worsen.

 

[BooWho2]

Hi Emilya! Your plants are your usual shade of gorgeous. I notice you are adding the SNS at every watering vice the recommended amount…..I’ve been doing that too (and I’m running out of the SNS 209). My reason for it is that I also have 3 GSCs growing outside and we have soooo many kinds of bugs in VA, as I learned during last years outdoor grow, and I thought it couldn't hurt? What is your reasoning?

 

[Emilya Green]

Hi Emilya! Your plants are your usual shade of gorgeous. I notice you are adding the SNS at every watering vice the recommended amount…..I’ve been doing that too (and I’m running out of the SNS 209). My reason for it is that I also have 3 GSCs growing outside and we have soooo many kinds of bugs in VA, as I learned during last years outdoor grow, and I thought it couldn't hurt? What is your reasoning?

Hi Boo! Great to see you! What are you thinking is the recommended amount?

From the web: Mix 1/2 Tablespoon (8 mL) of concentrate to 1 gallon (3.79L) of water. Mix well. Gently feed SNS- 209™ solution directly onto the root area of the plants every time you water or fertilize for a minimum 5 consecutive watering's (may be added to reservoir) or until infestation reduces.

Have I missed something important?

With these natural remedies that are not poison, but change the plant in a way to make it undesirable to the pests, it makes sense to keep doing it as long as it is needed. I was fighting the bugs on a third front, by attacking the larvae with the poison in mosquito dunks, but I stopped doing that a month ago... and the bugs continue to be held back. I have resigned myself to the reality that I am no longer in a zipped up enclosed tent... I am out in the open in an attic. Bugs do get in and when running all the yummy organic soil, nutrients and microbeasties, of course the bugs will come to play too. I can either seal the rooms or resign myself to constantly battling the bugs. Now that I know that a natural remedy actually works as long as you get on it right away, I am sold. If I am going to have to use something anyway, it totally delights me that I don't have to use poisons in my grow rooms and I am now a @Sierra Natural Science customer for life. Outdoors, I can only imagine the numbers and variety of critters that come to be pests on your plants. SNS seems to be a fitting addition to the other natural things we can do in the garden to repel pests, such as marigolds, mint plants and liberal use of lactobacillus spray.