25 Sunday Punch EV

Northern_Ent April 26: seedling looks strong. Using soil blocking this year to minimize use of plastic. Soil is wetter than usual when starting seeds and the cannabis doesn’t seem to like it. Got one strong one going so that’s all i need. April 30 Day 5: transplanted into 7 gallon grow bag. Very early start but we’re now past last frost which is historically around May 6 here. Forecast is 28C this weekend so I wanted the seedlings to be hardened off in time for that. She’s definitely the biggest of the seedlings and should be a good one. oh, and the main risk being out so early are (damn) magpies and other birds looking for something to eat. Under protective cover for now.

Northern_Ent May 3: it was sunny and hot today and yesterday and the young seedlings made it through safely. This Sunday Punch is the biggest and most robust at this early stage. plants are moved into the enclosed but unheated garage to help make it through cold nights. This is risky having them outside this early but it should be okay. May 7: foliar spray of Extreme Blend from Kelp4Less. Highly recommended. Also watered with Monster Maxx last night.

Northern_Ent May 10: looking good. She’s outdoor quite early this year but i am putting the cannabis plants in the unheated but enclosed garage each night. Also watering in the early morning with warmed water. So far so good. May 15: growing quickly. This is still the biggest and most robust of the strains this year. The ruderalis genetics in these fast varieties also gives them better cold tolerance. Great stuff.

Northern_Ent May 17 Day 22: she looks great and is growing quickly. The fifth node is starting to form so I’ll be doing the first topping in a day or two. This will be done as a 16 cola manifold. May 22: been quite cool and rainy last four days. First topping this morning for the manidfold.

Northern_Ent May 24 Day 29: finally warmed up and is sunny again today. There should be some serious vegetative growth kicking in this week with warm weather and the plant old enough to be ready to take advantage. May 25 Day 30: rained enough lately that I didn’t water it today. May 26: warm enough overnight now to leave outside full time. Until force flowering starting in mid-July at least. May 28: hit 30 C today. May 29: hot again today and brief windstorm took out out a big tree across the street. My yard was untouched though. Shape looks great and will likely tie the two growing stems down tomorrow for a couple of days. May 30: tied down using pipe cleaners and paper clips onto edge of grow bag. This will keep the two main stems in the manifold nicely separated. A couple days of this is all it takes.

Northern_Ent May 31: up and down weather again this week but Sunday Punch EV just keeps on growing. Very robust and fast growing plant is nicely far along for the end of May. She’s likely going to be quite big. June 1: pipecleaners attached to the grow bag with paper clips worked for a couple days of growth, but replaced with loose scrog net today. Did this last year and it works great. Outdoor Scrog nets don't need to be tight. Loose Scrog layers work great. As a campaign slogan it needs work, but loose scrog layers are a good tip.

Northern_Ent June 7: Sunday Punch EV is an excellent plant. I’m very impressed. June 8: using the scrog net to keep the fan leaves from shading the growth tips. Loose scrog nets are great when doing a manifold outdoor. Very effective and easy. At this early stage just the weight of the string is enough so there’s no need to tie it down. June 9: video tip about making up for dry air by moistening the leaves a couple time a day. Quick gentle shot with the hose is all it takes. June 10: she’s growing fast now. Entering the stage of fast vegetative growth where it will be growing by over an inch per day. Fun times. June 12: Sunday Punch EV is really growing fast now. Re-arranged Scrog net and clipped it down to spread it out and provide some stability. Leaves are quite big and catching wind. The eight main colas are ready to be topped tomorrow, and there are another 8 inner growth tips that i can leave and they’ll be big enough to reach for sun like the soon to be 16 main colas…so 16 legit colas and 8 bonus cheaters for a nice and uniform 24 cola plant…sure why not?

Northern_Ent June 14: this Sunday Punch EV is a very fast growing plant that can handle some cool weather. The ruderalis genetics from the autoflower used to create this fast flowering (Early Version) add some toughness that make it well suited to short season areas. Likes to stretch too. 😎 it was to be a 16 cola manifold but it has grown so fast i realized I can also match another 8 colas from the next lower node. So i did that final round of topping this morning and we’ll see how it goes. Added second layer of Scrog net to stabilize it and keep the fan leaves from shading the growth tips. June 15: did the weekly foliar spray with Extreme Blend this morning. Rained last couple days which cleared the air of smoke and now it’s a nice sunny Sunday.

Northern_Ent June 21: Sunday Punch EV is doing just great. Very vigorous and robust plant. Manifolded to 16 colas with a bonus 8 colas from inner branches. Started another compost tea for use tomorrow morning. A five gallon bucket with 26 C ish water adding compost, shredded coco coir, molasses, and a weak-ish dose of Monster Maxx. Leave it overnight and give it a brief stir a few times. Works great. A surprising benefit of using the bacteria from compost tea like this is that they regulate moisture to the plant and you don’t need to water as much. Course it’s rained lately so I haven’t had to do much watering. June 23: adjusted net. June 24: some holes have been burned through some of the leaves. My new sprayer made it easier to apply a foliar spray, and I think it was just a bit overdone. Some holes in big fan leaves are likely minor hail damage. Lesson is don’t over do the foliar spray. June 25: new growth is a bit yellow so did a foliar spray with Epsom salts (Magnesium sulphate). June 26: looking good after Epsom salt foliar spray. Guesstimated at about 0.5 g per litre. June 27: warm days, long sunlight hours and fast vegetative growth. 3 inches of growth in 3 days. Right on.

Northern_Ent June 28: Sunday Punch EV continues to impress with its rapid growth. I love the late veg stage where plants grow more than an inch per day. June 30: two inches in two days. July 2: hot today at about 33C.

Northern_Ent July 5: Sunday Punch EV is getting nice and big. She’s starting to preflower but i’ll do one more week of veg before force flowering starting next Saturday. These EVs might not need to be forced but the buds are better when formed under stronger summer sun. Great plant. July 8: added Power Bloom and barley in a 1:1 mix as a top dressing. July 10: still growing fast and definitely starting to flower.

Northern_Ent July 12: Sunday Punch EV is definitely the star plant this year. Very impressive grower and is doing great. Force flowering by putting in dark garage for 10 h per night plus using far red light at dusk. Far red light puts plant into dark mode two hours faster so its like having a 26 h day. This is a great trick if you have daily access to tour plant. Added a 1:1 mix of malted barley and Power Bloom. I had added barley a few days ago, but those sprouted, and then I remembered that its supposed to be malted barley. Removed the barley and replaced with malted barley. July 13: obviously stretching even after just the first night of force flowering. She seems really good. July 15: still stretching.

Northern_Ent July 19: second week of force flowering for Sunday Punch EV. She is a very robust and fast growing plant that can handle the cool overnight temperatures that we get here sometimes. July 21: still looking great and maybe starting to smell a bit. But that’s outdoors, with my general lack of dope smell awareness, so it would likely smell indoors to most people. That sentence sort of makes sense. July 23: added another loose Scrog net layer and using water bottles as weights to open up the canopy. July 25: watering yesterday included some water leftover from steaming beets. Seems that contained a lot of N because they’re looking really green today.

Northern_Ent July 26: very nice flowers forming on Sunday Punch EV after two weeks of force flowering. Will continue doing that for at least another week. Did a fourth lazy compost tea. See video explainer how I make it using blackstrap molasses and Epsom salts, both of which are cheap at the grocery store. July 29: sunny and nice today. July 31: defoliated lower fan leaves and small bud sites that won’t mature in time. Directs the plant’s energy to the bigger buds up top. Aug 1: Added another top dressing of malted barley and Power Bloom as the plants seem to be a bit P deficient. There is a blue-ish tint to the leaves and another plant is showing reddish petioles (leaf stems) both of which are signs of P deficiency. More 50:50 barley and Power Bloom should work. Otherwise she looks great.

Northern_Ent Aug 2: Sunday Punch EV continues to be a great plant. Third week of 12 h darkness is now done and lots of nice buds are starting to form. The buds even have their first bit of frosting showing this morning. Quite hot today but it will cool off a bit tomorrow. Aug 3: started leaving plant outside again so back up to 15.5 h of daylight here now. Continuing to use far red light at dusk as a bloom booster. Aug 7: rained over the last few days. Have been shaking water from the colas to keep them dry to prevent bud rot. Some rain on young buds is fine and plants love the rain, but wet buds can cause bud rot. Have stopped using molasses now. Great for growing, but not for smoking, so avoid using in the last four weeks or so of flowering.

Northern_Ent Aug 9: defoliated again to remove lower branches and shaded fan leaves that can prevent air circulation. She is doing great with the buds thickening fast. Starting to get smelly too. Got the UV lights out today. This helps Edmonton in August or September be more like California in June or July. Maybe not that effective but that’s the idea. Second year using the UV lights and worked great last year. Aug 10: UV lights going again today. Aug 13: rainy last few days. Shaking water off the buds periodically. Plant was up against house to protect from heavy rain and potential hail.

Northern_Ent Aug 16: Sunday Punch EV is a strong plant and it will likely be my biggest yielder this year. Have the UV lights going again today and the buds are looking great. Natural UV drops really fast here after mid-August so the UV lights should help them finish strong with higher potency. Aug 18: flash pics before using red light at dusk is okay, but don't take flash pics if you don't have a far red light. Bad idea. Likely. Video shows how to use the far red light at dusk. Just a few seconds at the right time of day is all it takes. I use Civil Twilight for my location as listed on timeanddate.com which is a few minutes earlier each night at this time of year.

Northern_Ent Aug 23: Sunday Punch EV is very fast and is getting close to ready. The buds are getting quite big and are weighing down the branches. Without the Scrog net she would be too floppy for all these buds. Plants are a bit too green lately so maybe there’s too much N still, but she’ll grow out of it. For pH adjustments I use apple cider vinegar normally but I ran out last week and was using malt vinegar. That must be one of the sources of excess N so I switched to regular white vinegar. Anyway, she is a very impressive plant. Aug 27: getting noticeably frostier. Hot again today. Increased water volume to about 9 L per day done as three 3 L waterings in morning, afternoon and finally in evening. Adding potassium silicate still to water and adjusting pH with vinegar and then adding a squirt of Dr Bronners Peppermint Soap as a wetting agent (surfactant) and the smell supposedly keeps bugs away. Unfortunately there are hardly any insects around any more, so, yay. Aug 28: flash pics before using red light. Don’t do flash pics of your plants if you don’t follow it up with a red light. Still seems a bit risky but this is the fourth year doing it and it seems fine.

Northern_Ent Aug 30: it’s still hot (too hot at peak for photosynthesis) so lots of water, watering outside of growbag, etc to cool things off a bit.