My 1st Grow. Featuring 'Gorilla Glue'.

Ironblimp For my 1st grow, I decided to go for a feminized GG#4 clone, (secretly I wanted to germinate), but I wanted to get a head start before the summers hot and dry weather comes rollin' in. My clones came in a moist Rockwool cubes of 1.5'', with roots barely poking from the bottom and sides. I Immediately transplanted into .5(16oz)cups as soon as I got home and PH watered till runoff. 5 days later, after seeing the roots emerged from the bottom of the cups, I decide to transplant to their permanent home and gave them there 2nd watering. I keep and like to raise the led to 24'' once a day. On day 6, Girls were about 10-12 inches both, I began to LST with twist wire, to expose their lower shoot stems. A day later and I see a nice spread of leaves with plant height being 8''.

Ironblimp 1.Plants looks healthy, burnt tips are gone from first week, maybe FFOS to strong for 1 week old clone. 2.Purposely, I waited 5 days to water, to witness for myself sings of under watering. Soil was dry 1.5" deep. 3.Water, fed with Cal-Mag plus 3ml. It has 2-0-0 ratio, but no signs of Nitrogen burn in following days. 4.And I'm also Leaf tucking and LST the lower branches outwards with twist wire. 5.My light schedule 12pm off, 6pm on. Outside mid day temperatures are 85°f, lowers 65°f. Next week average might be 75°f high, 65°f lower. 6. Over the weekend I added a reflective film.

Ironblimp 3rd week: After some hard LST work for the past 2 week, the side branches and main stem are starting to even out in height and spread out, to the point where most branches are 6 inches long. On day 16 and throughout the week, I periodically defoliate fan leafs blocking the center branches/nodes from getting light. I'll be doing this through out veg and flower as long as it causes no problem And so insure a even canopy. Watering is every 4-5 days. Haven't seen any sign's of under watering. I'm looking forward to the end of next week, to see how much of a difference LST and topping made, and to get everything dialed down before I switch to flower.

Ironblimp Week 4. I defoliated 2-4 leaf's all week, unlike like last week I did 10 fan leafs per plant. Lst training is going quite well...because I'm seeing more vertical growth and the center branches had no problem pushing up after defoliating.

Ironblimp My plants seem to be healthy, I was worried I might have put too much Nitrogen nutes last schedule nutrient watering during week 4 veg, but nope, no sign of nute burn. With the extra foliage growing and the flower mode stretch, the top soil (ffos smart nurtients) dries quicker to the touch then normal, so therefore I will start watering a day earlier every watering. At the end of week 5, I'm intrigued to say the least, to some pistols forming.

Ironblimp To begin the week I gave the plants a lite-defoliation under their skirts, to be specific, I pruned all the bottom fan leaves, and, I did more pruning, removing fan blades covering bud sites. I gave each plant a nutrient-watering, and also a separate ph watering once this week. I'm seeing good leaf growth, and lots of Calyx and Pistols forming on the tops and between nodes that seem to pop up everywhere on the plants. And so far, plant health wise...nothing alarming to be seen yet.

Ironblimp For this week, plants are still looking healthy, followed the usual regime of normal water and nutrient feed pattern. I didn't fill the need to defoliate, so I mostly did some leaf tucking. At his stage, the two plants have filled up the box, and they still have room to grow horizontally, so a note to self to flower 2 clones a week early next grow.

Ironblimp End of week 8. Plants are looking healthy, but unfortunately the left plant grew some pollen sacs. Fortunately, since I religiously look at the plant everyday(1st grow,must learn/see everything), I caught them while they were small. I crushed them open and found no pollen. They're easy to find because of the sharp yellow contrast against the normal green leaves, white pistols and trichomes I'm accustomed to, and they were all over the place. I ended up spending a good hour picking about 20 sacs and later decided to lollipop(removed weak lower buds and stems), leaving the fan leaves alone, so I can find the pollen sacs much easier.

Ironblimp The gg#4 twins seem to be advancing well, been feeding them ffos recommended dosage,etc...In the transition into the weekend, I added 4 bamboo sticks in the corners of the pots. I also bound all 4 bamboo with additional sticks in the middle, in a shape resembling a square. This setup is kinda modular. Using string too. My goal is to maximize my lights penetration by slowly bringing the cola's/tops, into the maximum flowering area provided by my led light, tying them with string loosely and without cracking them. I brought them 4 inches closer from all directions. But the left and right sides still need another 4 inches each to come towards the center. Because of this manipulation, the top canopy is nowhere near flush anymore, with the outer-edge buds reaching 4-8 inches higher, being slightly bulkier, and more mature(a week part), then the center lower colas. Its end of 5 week flower, with 4 to 6 weeks until harvest.

Ironblimp They have 3-5 weeks of fattening until harvest day...Outside temps have been better then good for the past 3 weeks. Cool days (light off temp 65-70°), and cozy nights (Lights On temp :70-75°), but summer is close and outside I'm expecting med, high to occasional triple digits days next month. My goals will be to make sure temps are 78° or better with the help of an automated windowed-ac, which will also marginally help drop humidity a bit. Also expecting to change watering cycle after next watering...

Ironblimp End of week 11. Now I can say the scent permeates , if you lean in to take a sniff. It is a surgery-sweet, lemony smell( in the past, getting trichomes on my finger tips left that smell). Multi-pull buds are taking shape, but there's no clear winner, no cola I can call a main cola. If were to 'eye weigh it' each cola has about in estimated 2.5-3.5grams at the most. Plants are fed the same. 1 or 2 leaves show nitrogen deficiency.. will start to flush now(stopping nutrient feeding).

Ironblimp I fed the plants 75% nutrients for it's very last feeding although 6 or more leaves are showing signs of nitrogen deficiency but the buds are still growing, all signs show that I think they need 2 more weeks. Most pistols are amber, and a few new pistols still grow from the tops or sides of each bud. New sugar leaf growth on the tops look more rounded. The trichomes on the oldest sugar leaves have turned amber, less so on middle and top. Trichomes on the buds range from appearing clear, cloudy and milky, but not amber. I want the trichomes on the buds to be anywhere between 10-30% amber.

Ironblimp End of Week 13, marks the end of Week 9(63days) of Flowering. Trichomes are less clear, more cloudy-milky, and frosty, but all I'm waiting on is anywhere between 10-30% of the trichomes to change its color to amber to decide when to harvest. After the gradual down shift in nutrient feeding and flushing transition, the buds still grew almost 1/2'' or so since last week, with slow signs of deficiencies(nitrogen only), but instead could be the natural plant cannibalizing process in action. I will continue to flush with water only until harvest, to effectively drain away the extra nutrients and salts, which should be enough to keep it's natural flavor and smell before harvest.

Ironblimp Week 14(f:10), 2 weeks since last nutrient feeding(75% of usual), but plants are surviving, and deficiencies are creeping slowly. I spotted amber trichomes on the lower half of the top cola's, but very few on the top half of the cola's. In the following days I'm going to watch and see how the amber trichomes creep in. When I'm satisfied with what I see I'll begin the harvest and I'll be using the grow room to dry and later cure.

Ironblimp Watered and flushed this week. I lowered the temperature further(65° every night). I'm checking on trichomes every other day. Deficiencies of leaves at 30 percent. Next week I will harvest.

Ironblimp I made it to week 12 flower. Visual changes are, trichomes of top colas range from 15-30 amber, there's some purpling of the leaves from the cooler temps. After waiting longer then I wanted this week, I found a day to harvest comfortably(after record breaking heat)...I've harvested both plants already, and they are drying while suspended from hangers. Next week, and after the drying period I will have dry weight and more pics of the harvest. Temperature is 70-65°, and humidity is 45-50 during drying, and I'm going for a 6 day dry.