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- #21
Today marks the end of flowering week 8. Our total daylight hours today is 11 hours, 22 minutes. This week the weather has been sunny until the rains set in yesterday. Our average temps are trending down with highs in the low to mid 50s and overnight lows in the low to mid 30s. This is day 13 of the flush.
Weed, weed everywhere yet not a nug to vape. Every few hours I wander into the garden to see if just one freaking branch will be ready for me to chop, only to be teased with colas that are so close, but just aren't there yet.
KG2 has the best main cola of all her sisters. I stare at her a lot. Starting to feel like a creepy voyeur.
Remember how I complained about Fox Farm's Tiger Bloom a few weeks back, how it yellowed all the girls who received it while KG5 who had no exposure, was green and lush? Well, it seems the tables have turned. Though the girls who got TB, became visibly yellowed a week later, I have to admit they also have the best colas. KG5 isn't doing so hot. She still has most of her leaves, but her colas look pretty weak, immature pistils with barely any trichomes. She is dark green, purple and super leafy. I learned this is normally a sign that the plant is receiving too much nitrogen, but how can that be when she is the only one who did not receive fertilizer? I am going to do a massive defoliation on her later today to see if that helps speed up her bud development.
A side branch of WW1. What you can't see is the buds underneath all those leaves match the one at the top. All the pistils have darkened and curled in. What is fascinating about this is that Wonder Woman is advertised as having a flowering period of 8 to 10 weeks, while Kaya Gold is advertised as having a 7 to 9 week flowering period. Well, here we are at the end of week 8, and the Wonder Woman group is closer to harvest than Kaya. I've been so focused on the KGs, thinking they would be ready first that I ignored how much progress the WWs had made. How can this be? I spent the better part of yesterday pondering what could have caused WW to mature faster, and I have some theories. The first one is the daylight clock. 14.5 hours is the rule of thumb for outdoor growing, but maybe Wonder Woman's clock is set to flower earlier than most. Perhaps flowering was triggered by environmental factors, by genetics, or a combination of both. When I went back through my notes, I saw that WW did begin flowering a solid week before KG. The other theory is weather. It got too cold, too fast. Wonder Woman is a high maintenance gal. She likes very little fluctuation in temps and isn't as cold hardy as the Kayas. It may be she was developing at a normal rate of speed, but after a few nights of temps dropping into the low 30s, her rate of maturation accelerated. WW has a solid rep of producing huge dense colas, but what I have are tiny little buds sparsely spread on sticks. I take this as possible evidence they never had a chance to reach their full potential because they had to hurry up and mature before they die. I cut a small branch from WW1 yesterday and today. I tried speed drying what I had yesterday and vaping it. That was a waste of time......it tasted like grass and only got me mildly high for like ten minutes.
Which brings me to the next topic of conversation....bud washing. Some people see this as unnecessary and potentially damaging to the trichomes, while others insist bud washing removes unwanted residues from the weed without any negative repercussions. Now, I'll fess up my own bias. I really like the idea of having the cleanest weed possible, especially if that equates to edibles that aren't harsh to my tummy as well as a smoother vaping experience. Earlier this week, I found a handful of leaves that had PM which I promptly removed. Still......it had me thinking for every spot of PM I can see, there are probably thousands of microscopic spores I can't see. So I made a solution of 1 part Hydrogen Peroxide, 1 part baking soda, 2 parts lemon juice, 10 parts cold water. I also filled one sink with the hottest water available from the tap, then filled the other sink with the coldest water available from the tap. I agitated the branch in the wash solution for about 30 seconds, swirling it gently. Then I dunked it in the hot water rinse for a few seconds, followed by a final cold rinse to stop the blanching process.
Here is a photo before the bud washing
And here is a photo after. I tried to take matching photos, but that is hard to do with strong magnification. I took many before and after photos. After scrutinizing them several times over, I don't see any damage to the trichomes at all.
I'm not posting any photos of the mystery seed group because it is over for them. We had two nights this week of temps dropping to 32 degrees. SA and ADS are alive, but the flowers that were just emerging, have dried and turned brown. HH and NN's bud growth has completely stopped. Their flowers are beginning to wither and whole branches are dying. There is no point trying to help them because they are at least 3 or 4 weeks out, and sadly for all the girls, they will not make it the end of week 9. Our weather is trending down. The forecast calls for rain for the next week. On the night of October 11th, the forecast predicts temperatures will drop to 24 degrees and bring lots of snow. That goes well beyond my acceptable risk so come hell or high water, all the plants worthy of harvest, will come down on the 11th, one day shy of completing their 9th week. I wish I had more time.
Weed, weed everywhere yet not a nug to vape. Every few hours I wander into the garden to see if just one freaking branch will be ready for me to chop, only to be teased with colas that are so close, but just aren't there yet.
KG2 has the best main cola of all her sisters. I stare at her a lot. Starting to feel like a creepy voyeur.
Remember how I complained about Fox Farm's Tiger Bloom a few weeks back, how it yellowed all the girls who received it while KG5 who had no exposure, was green and lush? Well, it seems the tables have turned. Though the girls who got TB, became visibly yellowed a week later, I have to admit they also have the best colas. KG5 isn't doing so hot. She still has most of her leaves, but her colas look pretty weak, immature pistils with barely any trichomes. She is dark green, purple and super leafy. I learned this is normally a sign that the plant is receiving too much nitrogen, but how can that be when she is the only one who did not receive fertilizer? I am going to do a massive defoliation on her later today to see if that helps speed up her bud development.
A side branch of WW1. What you can't see is the buds underneath all those leaves match the one at the top. All the pistils have darkened and curled in. What is fascinating about this is that Wonder Woman is advertised as having a flowering period of 8 to 10 weeks, while Kaya Gold is advertised as having a 7 to 9 week flowering period. Well, here we are at the end of week 8, and the Wonder Woman group is closer to harvest than Kaya. I've been so focused on the KGs, thinking they would be ready first that I ignored how much progress the WWs had made. How can this be? I spent the better part of yesterday pondering what could have caused WW to mature faster, and I have some theories. The first one is the daylight clock. 14.5 hours is the rule of thumb for outdoor growing, but maybe Wonder Woman's clock is set to flower earlier than most. Perhaps flowering was triggered by environmental factors, by genetics, or a combination of both. When I went back through my notes, I saw that WW did begin flowering a solid week before KG. The other theory is weather. It got too cold, too fast. Wonder Woman is a high maintenance gal. She likes very little fluctuation in temps and isn't as cold hardy as the Kayas. It may be she was developing at a normal rate of speed, but after a few nights of temps dropping into the low 30s, her rate of maturation accelerated. WW has a solid rep of producing huge dense colas, but what I have are tiny little buds sparsely spread on sticks. I take this as possible evidence they never had a chance to reach their full potential because they had to hurry up and mature before they die. I cut a small branch from WW1 yesterday and today. I tried speed drying what I had yesterday and vaping it. That was a waste of time......it tasted like grass and only got me mildly high for like ten minutes.
Which brings me to the next topic of conversation....bud washing. Some people see this as unnecessary and potentially damaging to the trichomes, while others insist bud washing removes unwanted residues from the weed without any negative repercussions. Now, I'll fess up my own bias. I really like the idea of having the cleanest weed possible, especially if that equates to edibles that aren't harsh to my tummy as well as a smoother vaping experience. Earlier this week, I found a handful of leaves that had PM which I promptly removed. Still......it had me thinking for every spot of PM I can see, there are probably thousands of microscopic spores I can't see. So I made a solution of 1 part Hydrogen Peroxide, 1 part baking soda, 2 parts lemon juice, 10 parts cold water. I also filled one sink with the hottest water available from the tap, then filled the other sink with the coldest water available from the tap. I agitated the branch in the wash solution for about 30 seconds, swirling it gently. Then I dunked it in the hot water rinse for a few seconds, followed by a final cold rinse to stop the blanching process.
Here is a photo before the bud washing
And here is a photo after. I tried to take matching photos, but that is hard to do with strong magnification. I took many before and after photos. After scrutinizing them several times over, I don't see any damage to the trichomes at all.
I'm not posting any photos of the mystery seed group because it is over for them. We had two nights this week of temps dropping to 32 degrees. SA and ADS are alive, but the flowers that were just emerging, have dried and turned brown. HH and NN's bud growth has completely stopped. Their flowers are beginning to wither and whole branches are dying. There is no point trying to help them because they are at least 3 or 4 weeks out, and sadly for all the girls, they will not make it the end of week 9. Our weather is trending down. The forecast calls for rain for the next week. On the night of October 11th, the forecast predicts temperatures will drop to 24 degrees and bring lots of snow. That goes well beyond my acceptable risk so come hell or high water, all the plants worthy of harvest, will come down on the 11th, one day shy of completing their 9th week. I wish I had more time.
Woohoo look at all that hanging! Congratulations on your harvest!
Go, go, go. You're crossing the finish line! Trim them ladies!
Here, take another puff, it looks like you'll need it. That's a lot of plants.
I'm so happy for you! This was amazing for your very first grow, outdoor to boot! Congratulations on being done with the harvest. Now you can vape the rewards. 
