ILGM Cali Strains

Rips_Van_Weedle Happy End of Week 1 Everybody, I had a few hiccups with the initial transition from seed to seedling this week. When the seeds were transplanted to the Earthboxes, the grow tent light was set to 18 inches above the soil level. I think the light was set too high because the seeds all stretched toward the center of the light. The seeds are all planted at the back of the Earthboxes which probably worsened the stretch. To correct this I lowered the light to ~ 8inches above the soil and covered the seedling with a bigger cloche. Together, the combined effect increased the air temp around the seedlings to 75-80 degrees when the lights were on. At the end of the week I drenched the soil with a mix of mychorrizal and microbial ingredients. My biggest concern at this point is that the of the seedlings being so close to the back wall may limit the plant grow once they get bigger. I'm running the Kind grow light at 25%. The winter air here is about 35% RH. Right now I'm not doing anything to manage the environmental conditions other than run an 18:6 light cycle. Thanks for checking in!

Rips_Van_Weedle Happy Week 2! Still trying to dial in the grow tent set up for the remainder of the grow. The Earthbox instructions recommend placing a single seedling on the opposite side of the water fill tube. I noticed right away that doing in my tent this puts the seedlings very close to the back wall. I transplanted the seedlings into the middle of the earth box on day 8. They receive more even light there and should have more room for growth when they get older. I cut through the sour diesel's tap root during the transplant. Other than some droopy leaves for a couple days, there wasn't any major consequence. By the end of the week she was standing tall like her tent mates. The plants all look healthy and green right now. They sprouted their second set of true leaves on day 10. I watered once when I saw that. The next day I got rid of the cloches. At some point this week I changed the light cycle to 20:4. This was done mostly to help keep the plants warm under the light. I'll change back to an 18:6 cycle when they are a bit bigger. The lights are 8-10 inches from the plants. Air temp is 80ish during the day. I'm not tracking the night temp too closely. The house gets down to 64, so maybe 64? RH ~35-40%. Still haven't begun actively regulating the VPD. Thanks for checking in!

Rips_Van_Weedle Happy Week 3! The plants are really taking off this week! They look healthy; deep green, hearty leaves with stalks now starting to thicken. I reapplied the soil drench this week. When I looked closely at the soil I was able to see very small mushroom pins and a few feeder roots poking through the surface of the soil. I started bottom watering the plants this week as well. They each got about 1/2 gal. The first watering was absorbed by the next day, so I re-watered another 1/2 gallon each. This is being taken up more slowly. Unfortunately, I noticed some fungus gnats this week. I ran an extension cord into the grow tent and plugged in a small bug catcher. It's keeping the tent from being overrun with gnats, but I'm still working on a better long term solution. Environmental conditions are largely the same this week as last week. Temps ~ 80-81 during the day, RH low 30s. The light was raised to about 16 inches above the plants. The light intensity was increased to 50% at the start of the week and again to 75% on day 21. Other than the fungus gnats I'm happy so far with everything I'm seeing from the earthboxes and the build-a-soil nutrients. Have a nice week!

Rips_Van_Weedle Hi All, Happy Week 4! Pre-Flower! This week the plants started to show their first pistils along their stems. I topped dressed the earth boxes with a layer of worm castings and a layer of build a flower for an extra nutrition boost. The plants were watered twice this week: 1/4 gal/each on days 26 and 28. I've noticed that the soil in the front corner of the boxes has been drying out. This is because the cover (for reasons I don't understand) has a pre-cut opening there, exposing the soil to the grow light. I can't see any feeder roots growing in the dry soil, and the earthbox jr is too small to have any ungrowable space. So I patches the opening with a piece of black trash bag. After, the soil underneath was no longer dried out. Hopefully some roots will grow in there over the next couple weeks. Grow conditions are mostly the same this week: high-70s to low-80s during when the light is on, mid-60s during the night cycle. The grow light intensity was increased to 100% this week. I'm keeping the light ~ 16-18 inches from the top of the smallest plant (LA Kush Cake). This week, the humidifier was added. It is set to auto-regulate to a target VPD of ~1.10. With a leaf offset of -4 degrees, this works out to about 55%RH. Finally, the Zevo seems to have killed off all the gnats. There are no more flying around the tent, and I didn't see any when I uncovered the boxes to top dress the soil or to add the garbage bag patches. Have a nice week!

Rips_Van_Weedle Happy Week 5 Everybody! Another fast week has passed and these beautiful ladies are charging! All three strains are flowering in multiple sites. This week, some of the bigger fan leaves were tucked down and the longer branches were CAREFULLY bent using a chiropractic technique to help better expose the lower flower sites to the light, and to create better air flow through the center of the plants. There is still a lot of large vegetation, probably too much in places. I will most likely defoliate it next week when the plants really start to push in to flower. But right now I like the aesthetic of the lush canopy, so it stays. I noticed some discoloration on a few of the top leaves of the sour diesel plant. I googled some images and it looks similar to a calcium deficiency, which I have not been supplementing. All three plants have been on the exact same feed and water schedule, so unless the SD plant needs more calcium than the others, I'm not sure why there would only be spots of the deficiency on one plant and not a more global presentation. This plant is the tallest of the three, and as such is always closest to the grown light. My other thought is that the spotting may be a thermal burn from the lights. I treated for both and will keep watching to see if it improves. The LA Kush plant is the bushiest and shortest of the three. There is about a 4-6 inch height difference between LAK and SD. I raised the LAK box up on 2 x 4s and now the canopy is even, with the light a more uniform 16-18 inches above the canopy. Changes in grow conditions this week are as follows: The grow light continues to run at 100% intensity, with the IR channel now started at 25%. The plants are drinking about 1/2 gallon of water a day. Filling the earthbox containers with enough water for them has raised the RH to about 70%. To prevent any moisture build up/ mold growth there are 2 fans running. And the soil in the earthboxes looks super healthy. Lots of feeder roots are peaking through the soil! Looking forward to the week ahead! See you next week.

Rips_Van_Weedle Hi All, Happy Week 6! Not much this week. Some defoliation of the largest leaves on day 37, and then a second round on day 41, to remove the last few light blocking leaves and the lowest/ weakest flowers. I'm very surprised at how much OG Kush stretched. She's the same height at her Sour Diesel sister. Next to each other they look like twins....so much so, that I counted my remaining SD and OGK seeds to make sure I didn't mislabel one! Last week I noticed some of the top leaves on the SD plant were yellowing and curling. I now think this is light burn from the grow light. She is the tallest plant and sits underneath the middle of the lamp where the light is most intense. I've been trying to keep the light ~ 18 inches from her top, but it seems like the more I adjust the light, the more she stretches in response. This is something I have to work with for now, but will keep in mind when planning my next grow. La Kush Cake is looking short, squat, dense, and delicious! This plant was the most in need of defoliation. Removing the leaves exposed a good number of buds which I didn't even see before! BONUS! Environmental conditions this week: Keeping the light settings the same as last week: intensity 100% with UV/IR channel at 25%. I will keep the settings there until the plants are done stretching and I can set my final light height, especially with the SD getting sun-burned. The exhaust fan is on full speed 10/10. It's helped bring down the humidity into the mid-50s, but unfortunately is also dropping the air temp. Temps are low-60s to low-70s. I'm not going to do anything more to adjust RH or temp. With the winter settling in, the house is cold at night and only a little warmer during the day. And right now, my drive not to fight an uphill battle is more powerful than my drive to obsessively manage VPD. Regardless, the plants look very happy and healthy! See you all next week. Thanks for checking in!

Rips_Van_Weedle Hi All! Happy Week 7! Another quick week for this mixed bag of ILGM Autos has passed. All 3 strains are in full flower. So much so that the oldest, lowest leaves on the SD and OG Kush plants are yellowing. I've been keeping them on the plant as long as I could, but this week started trimming them off. The LAK foliage is still dark green and healthy throughout. All the plants are starting to frost up the bud sites and sugar leaves! Very exciting. The tent smells wonderful. All the plants are hungry. They were top-dressed mid week with build a flower and worm castings, which was watered in with the microbial/ mychorrizal stew I've been calling pond water. Later in the week I bottom watered with horticultural coconut. Foliar spraying with aloe every 3 days or so. Most days the plants get about 1/2 gal of water each. Other than increasing the UV/IR light channel to 50% this week, tent conditions are the same as last week. Full exhaust power to keep the humidity down and an 18:6 light cycle. Temps 72-60, RH, ~ 58-65%, VPD ~ 0.9-1.10 based on a leaf offset of 0 degrees. Thanks for checking in! See you next week!