One Week from Harvest (Maybe two)

MASTER

Water

Mildew has begun to spread underneath the canopy towards the back of the room. I'm not sure that fungicide is even working. I sprayed it twice within the last week, both times with a strong dose of two caps per spray. For the mildew to come back only within a matter of days suggests that the fungicide has a minimal effect, if any, on the spread of mildew. I sprayed again in the affected area and it still hasn't completely gotten rid of the problem. nor does it prevent the spread of the mildew. The next thing I'll try is a combination of neem oil and baking soda, perhaps with a small amount of liquid soap. Hopefully the problem won't persist over the next few weeks.

MIDDLE

What a shitshow here. I'm about a week away from having to harvest and everything doesn't look as big as I'd hoped. I may have made a huge mistake by not using Phosphoload. In the last harvest, Phosphoload seems to have brought out the "calyx crowding," where the calyxes were so densely packed together that it seemed to be a fully flower, whereas most buds would usually form into cones rather than bulbs.

I expect this harvest to be somewhere in the range of 3-3.5lbs, although I seem to frequently underestimate the yield right before harvest. I seem to have a mix of four different strains, including a "Mystery" strain which I believe to be either True OG or GG. In either case, the buds look full and healthy. Mildew is going to be a problem with regard to Bubba, but with a thorough hydrogen peroxide bath and rinsing, they should be okay for sale. I also have one other strain that seemed to bud well at the tops, but seem pretty underdeveloped past inside and under the canopy. Usually the discrepancy in growth between tops and mids aren't as big, but in this case it'll probably hurt the yield more than usual.

VEG

Had to throw away about ten clones because of mildew. Dipping the clones in fungicide didn't seem to work here either, but I also could've made a huge mistake by opening the humidity dome too early. It's possible that I allowed too much mildew-infested air to get into the clone tray, which I knew might be a risk. I dipped the Phantom tray in fungicide again and replaced the water for all the trays. The mixed tray, with Abusive and other strains, hasn't seem to be affected by mildew at all, probably because I haven't opened the humidity dome. I need to keep humidity domes closed from now on, and replace the water more frequently to prevent any algae or mold to infect my clones. I have close to 150 clones, of which I only need about 60, but the margin for error gets smaller with every clone I have to throw away.

The rest of the room doesn't seem to be moving fast enough. I expected my next rotation to at least be a foot taller than it is now, but trimming and cloning may have pushed my schedule back another week. I also have to top some of them soon, which is going to delay vertical growth even further. I'm thinking about vegging them in the bloom room for another week to ensure a solid yield.

The Master rotation is also looking sketchy. The net cups haven't progressed as well as they should have. An entire set of Phantom hasn't grown at all, and I'll probably have to throw them away. I was hoping to have replacements from the clone trays rooted by now to avoid having a shortage, but as of now I only have about maybe twelve plants that I'll actually be able to bloom in six weeks. I also need these clones to root soon so that I can plant them and get both rotations adequately supplied.

The Veg problem is becoming more of a concern with every plant that doesn't make it. Originally I had a full 30 I could've picked from, but I'm down to such a low number that, in the worst case scenario, I'll end up having to split both rooms into two separate harvests each. This is generally acceptable given the workload of harvesting an entire room, but I still need my clones to be properly maintained. I'm considering purchasing an extra florescent light and putting the clones under a 24-hour cycle. This might help them root and grow faster and would also help in preventing mildew contamination.

Master Extension

Today I set up the Master extension. I haven't set up the trellis or even the frame yet, but the plants should be able to hold until then. I'll have to set it up soon because the plants will get too tall for the Gavita to be effective. Right now, the Gavita is sitting about 3 feet above the canopy, and that distance is expected to shorten quite a bit in the coming weeks.

VEG
Base
~10 gal

With the Master extension, I have room to plant more trees. Unfortunately, I don't have many more trees to work with at the moment. The old Phantom clone tray hasn't rooted enough to plant into the net cups, and I don't have any other alternatives. The net cups themselves aren't progressing as well as I'd hoped, although this is probably due to the lack of water over the past few days. I placed them under MH now that MH was transferred to HPS. I cloned Abusive and GG to back up the clones that might not make it with the newer tray. I also opened the humidity dome about halfway to allow the clones to breathe. It's been said that gradually opening the dome increases the likelihood of survival, but I'll have to wait and see how it'll affect these clones.

With cloning came trimming, and the last trimming session I should have with this HPS rotation. I have about two weeks to Veg these for bloom, and one more week if I decide to stretch it. It's a slightly risky move since these plants are way shorter than what I'm used to working with, but that should work to my benefit since every rotation has been too tall to begin with. Today these plants average at about one foot tall. I expect that under a max power HPS, they should be about double that size by the time I transplant them. If I top them in about seven days, they should grow only slightly taller, if at all. That leaves me with plants that are about half the size, but with 25 plants rather than 16, I shouldn't have too much of a problem, and it may even work to my benefit to have shorter plants.

MIDDLE
Yesterday I sprayed a heavy dose of fungicide to combat the spider mites and mildew, and it seemed to keep all the pests at bay. The Bubba seems to have ripened fully, although the buds are about half the size as some of the biggest buds I cut down from the Master. Interestingly, the dehumidifier and air conditioner aren't pulling as much moisture as with previous rotations. This could be because both are working simultaneously; if I leave the dehumidifier turned off, it takes about two days for the air conditioner to collect about 3-4 gallons of water, whereas if both are working, it might take up to a week for both the waste bucket and dehumidifier tank to fill up. I don't have a thermostat to check the humidity in the room, but it shouldn't be more than 40%. This could be a big reason why mildew hasn't spread as much.

The plants themselves are looking healthy on top of the canopy, except for a few buds that are being burned by their proximity to the light. Nothing I can do at this point, since some of the lights are at their max height. I need to make a note of where I'm putting the taller strains, since the ceiling is slanted after all. Underneath the canopy are a bunch of dead leaves which I'll have to remove soon, but for now this room looks on track to hit an average yield of possibly 3 lbs.

MASTER
Base nutrients
Terpinator

With the Master extension completed, both rotations are exactly two weeks apart. Temperature has risen slightly because of the added light, but not as much as two HPS lights. I set up the dehumidifier to run continuously and hooked up a water hose to drain the excess water into the Master bathroom toilet. I also put another fan in the back corner of the room oscillating around the "Gavita" section of the room, and I can feel the air moving around from the opposite corner. This will change once the trellis frame is added and the plants grow taller, but if temperatures don't rise too much it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

I'm a little concerned about the light distribution of the Gavita. The light doesn't appear to be reaching the edges of the canopy as much as I'd hoped, and I feel that this could hurt yields. It doesn't help much that the height is pretty uneven. There's about a two foot difference between the tallest and shortest trees, and the bottom part of the taller trees won't be getting much light. The reflection of the light on the wall actually shows a slight cascade. It'll be interesting to compare the results of these 12 trees against the 16 that I have under 4000 watts of HPS lights. For a fair comparison, I'll have to subtract a third of the yield from the Gavita when it finishes, because there would be only 8 trees under normal circumstances. If the Gavita produces a yield similar to two HPS lights, I'll strongly consider replacing all the lights with Gavitas and use only half the number of lights I use now.

Fungicide has been working so far in terms of keeping the mildew at bay. Combined with humidity control, I feel that I can take care of the mildew problem for the most part as long as I try not to grow too much Bubba. I still don't know why Bubba seems to have the highest concentration of mildew compared to all the other strains, but I don't care. Bubba sells well, but not as well as Phantom, Abusive, Sour, or GSC. If I keep spraying the fungicide with a more aggressive dose and keep humidity low enough in the bloom rooms, I can at least keep the mildew from spreading to other strains. Just to be sure, I'll also be harvesting with hydrogen peroxide to wash off any mildew I couldn't eradicate, as well as any excess fungicide and spider mite webs.

For now, I won't clone any more Bubba and try to introduce more Phantom and Abusive in the rotations. GSC sells well, but doesn't nearly yield enough to justify its place in the rotation, especially considering that I have to sell GSC at the same price as everything else. I'm also dealing with the last remnants of all the experimental strains I decided to work with from months ago, like GG and White Fire, both of which turned out to be mediocre strains at best. I have to be more careful when selecting new strains to work with.

Fuck Mildew

Watered Master only.

VEG
Clones are looking as good as they can for having been made only a few days ago. The older tray is surprisingly picking up since they were treated for mildew and essentially rejuvenated with root accelerator. They'll probably be dry tomorrow so I'll have to put more water in both trays.

The T5 is looking a little sketchy. A couple of more of these trees don't look like they're going to make it. Tomorrow I'll have to probably plant the older clones to replace them, even if they're barely rooted. I actually need these plants to pick up without delay since my rotation will be slightly modified for the Master expansion.

Both sides of the Veg are still looking promising. Growth has slightly slowed down on the HPS Veg since they were trimmed, which is good considering how tall they are. MH Veg is picking up fairly quickly, and I'll have to decide when I want to trim and clone these plants.

MIDDLE
Some pots were a little drier than others, but I decided to wait until tomorrow to water them. The light had turned off by the time I got back to water, and it would've been a waste to feed nutrients when the plants weren't going to absorb them anyway without photosynthesis. Mildew and spider mites are beginning to take their toll on this room, but not as heavily as what happened in the Master. All buds are looking pretty strong in size, and should become denser over the next couple of weeks. A lot of branches are even leaning, which is usually a good sign.

MASTER
Trimming hasn't seemed to stunt growth much. There's good air flow underneath and above the canopy ever since the wall fan was mounted. I should've done this sooner. I haven't installed the dehumidifier for continuous use yet, but I will tomorrow. I'll also be installing the special Gavita reflector in the back of the room to accommodate the HPS Veg coming in.

It's going to be a long day tomorrow. I have to make clones wherever I can in the Veg, replace the net cups under T5 that didn't make it, and spray down as much fungicide as safely possible throughout the entire grow. I won't be able to work on the Master until at least 5:30 PM, since that's when the lights turn on, so between working on the Middle and Veg, I'll be paying bills, managing finances, and taking care of household chores. I'll also be cleaning the work areas most of the day. I'll have to go to Home Depot and pick up some PVC pipes to make the trellis frame, but this won't be a huge priority yet seeing as I can just use bamboo sticks to support the branches. I'll definitely have to install the dehumidifier tomorrow, since the raise in temperature will undoubtedly raise humidity. I'll have to install another wall fan on the opposite side of the room from the one that's already mounted.

With the Master being extended, I'll have about a week and a half gap between harvests. I could speed up the extension with Phosphoload to close that gap to a few days, but that largely depends on how these plants grow under the new light. I probably won't use it so I can measure the differences in yield and quality between HPS and this new reflector.

I'll also have to decide how long I should veg for the Middle rotation. With the current schedule, I would have about two whole weeks to make these 25 plants ready for bloom. This should be adequate time if nothing goes wrong. If I trim tomorrow, it'll have to be the final trimming to avoid any stunting. I can top these plants after a week, and they'll be able to recover just in time for bloom. I could also stretch their veg time while I harvest the Middle room as well, and even veg in the bloom room for added growth. This will cost more, but with the weather change reducing my power consumption drastically over the last month, I feel that this is an opportune time to do it. Moving the plants around will also give me a chance to clean out the Veg and get rid of any lingering mildew that might be on the trays and equipment, and my best chance to do so would be when the Master extension is set up.

I'm also looking into ways to get rid of mildew on dried buds, but haven't found any solutions thus far. I'll just have to test the hydrogen peroxide bath tomorrow while I try to salvage what I can from the harvest. I'll be looking into different methods of eliminating PM as well. So far, the Master hasn't shown any signs of PM, even on the Bubba. I feel like changing out the tarp was the best move I could've made, but humidity will be low for now with the light foliage, so I'll have to see how it progresses to know if there's any real change in the mildew spread.

This last harvest was a clear reminder that mildew is a serious problem. I've lost a significant number of sales opportunities so far, with three major lines of distribution rejecting product. It's clear that a hydrogen peroxide wash will now have to be a standard part of the process. The product will be void of anything toxic, and I've noticed that the aroma is a lot thicker when bathed in the hydrogen peroxide solution. I'll have to do more research on different ratios of hydrogen peroxide and water, as well as the different grades of the solution I'll need for an efficient wash.

Bad Harvest

I tried to sell Bubba today, but no one wanted it. No surprise there since it's all covered in mildew. For now I'll have to pick out some of the more unaffected buds and simply throw away the rest. I estimate that I'll lose at least half of the batch, leaving me with 400 grams of Bubba instead of 800 if I'm lucky. That cuts into my total yield dramatically, and my profit for this harvest will be close to nothing if everything else still sells. And there's no guarantee that I can still sell the remaining Bubba or the other strains either.

VEG
Water
pH 5.8

I watered the HPS Veg lightly so as to avoid overwatering. The temperature in the veg is cold, so it won't add too much humidity even if I water heavily, but I don't want to stunt the plants. There's a lot more space between branches and underneath the canopy after I trimmed and cloned yesterday. A few of the trees look like they've been trimmed too much, but given that I still have a few days to set up the Master to receive these plants, it shouldn't be a big deal.

MH Veg is progressing rapidly. I trimmed all the Bubbas and left only the top three branches on all of them. I haven't trimmed the other strains yet because I want to clone them first. I only have a few weeks before I have to flower this rotation, so I have to be careful about the timing. If I clone too soon, the clones might be underdeveloped and won't survive. If I trim too late, these trees won't have adequate time to recover before they have to be flowered.

Not much going on with the clones yet since they were just made yesterday. The older Phantom clones that survived the mildew attack are also showing a total reversal. All of them were dipped in fungicide, and I also left some of the cloning water in the tray to soak the rockwool. One of the clones actually rooted, which is a good sign that these clones are going to make it to the net cups.

MIDDLE
Water
pH 5.8

I have this strong feeling that not using Phosphoload was a mistake. The quality seemed to come out a lot better than usual in the Master, and without PM I would've been able to sell all of it without any problems.

Master Harvest 3.2

It's been a while since I updated this because I've simply been busy as fuck. I harvested a week and a half ago and I've had to juggle harvesting, cleaning, cloning, more cleaning, and basic chores around the house over the past week. Since Christmas just passed, I also had to show my face around with the family for a couple of days. I would've rather enjoyed staying my ass home and completing all my work.

The Master hit roughly 3.2 lbs for this month. The weight distribution is as follows;

Bubba - 800 grams
Abusive - 300 grams
GG - 350 grams
Candyland? - 120 grams

I say roughly 3.2 because there will be shake. Considering that I didn't expect anything over 2, it wouldn't be a bad harvest, except that there's mildew all over the Bubba, which I happen to have the most of. I tried to sell a small amount of it to one of my more loyal customers, and he noticed the problem right away and refused to buy. It was a rushed trim job, but it's still demoralizing. I'll have to do a better job of eliminating the mildew, otherwise I'll have to either find another way to deal with it or drop the price completely, if that would even work. The market isn't too hot for mildew-infested weed.

MASTER
The Master looks a lot better going into the next rotation, but I spent part of today trimming the bottom leaves. I told myself I would leave it alone this time around, with all the research I did on trimming during flowering, but it would really be a waste for those branches to stay on the trees. I didn't trim the Middle and it seems to have caused a bottleneck in growth somewhat. I changed the tarp this time around. The old one was nasty and probably covered in mildew. I also mounted the wall fan by the entrance to the bathroom. It seems like this has helped the humidity problem a little, although not much. I haven't set up the dehumidifier yet, so that's one more thing I'll have to do as this rotation progresses.

The trees themselves are looking healthy as they should. I didn't water as often as I usually do because of time constraints (and some laziness). I figured they wouldn't need that much water since they were just transplanted. The lack of watering didn't seem to harm them as much, if at all, but they're generally more forgiving during the first few weeks of flowering anyway, so I shouldn't take it for granted. While I trimmed, I also rearranged a lot of the top branches to allow more light distribution. This was a huge problem with the previous Master rotation, so I'm trying to fix that problem this time around.

MIDDLE
The Middle still looks promising, but I'll have to keep a close eye on mildew and spider mites. It doesn't seem like there's any problem with the growth so far, only that it's smaller than I would've liked. (What a surprise) I didn't use Phosphoload this time around for fear of stunting growth too much, but I may have made a mistake. Hitting 3.2 in the Master changes things a bit, especially with regards to the Bubba. I noticed a lot of the buds had what I would call "calyx crowding." It's like more calyxes being bunched up together on the same bud, adding density and weight to the flower. It completely destroyed the other trees, so maybe there's a certain time frame in which I can use it? For now, I'll just have to compare the results of this rotation to the Master's. Hopefully it'll be better.

I chose not to trim these trees because the canopy was looking a little thin to begin with, but now I feel like that might have been a mistake since the flowers don't seem to be as big as they should be. I also used a lot of Big Bud this time around, so hopefully that will have some positive effects on the yield.

VEG
This room is an absolute shitshow. For starters, the HPS Veg that I tranferred from the MH is now overgrown. I transplanted them into the PW Heavy pots and now they're growing even more aggressively. I've decided to use this towards an expanded Master rotation rather than for the Middle. Considering I have about three weeks to veg for the Middle, this shouldn't be a problem. I have 14 trees total under HPS, of which I can only use 12 for a decent flowering. I figured I can use either two 1000 watt HPS bulbs or one special Gavita bulb for this. If I decide to go with HPS with the reflectors I have now, I'll have to purchase another two bulbs which could cost up to 350 bucks, not to mention I'd have to draw another 2000 watts and add additional ventilation. I also suspect that I'd have to find a way to cool the room even more, since HPS bulbs tend to produce more heat. If I decide to go with a single Gavita, it'll cost me about the same amount of money but would draw less power and produce less heat, but I'm still somewhat skeptical about how it'll perform. I'll have to test it here, side by side with two HPS bulbs, to know what they're really worth.

The MH Veg is looking good. I have a total of 25 pots in PW Mid pots. I think this was a good move, since the growth seems to be accelerated ever since I transplanted. I should stick to this type of rotation from now on. I haven't trimmed these plants yet because I need the clones from them. I lost a lot of the Abusive clones I wanted from the previous trays I made, and I want to continue using it for future rotations. It's a popular strain and I need to be very selective from now on regarding the strains I use.

Clone trays are a different story. I think leaving the humidity domes on them was a bad idea. Mildew completely infected the Phantom tray, which turned out to be a disaster. Ideally, I wanted about 60 clones to survive for the net cups, but now I only have close to half that amount. A lot of them also look pretty weak, and I had to throw some away today. I even had to plant the older clones I made about a month ago, which is even more upsetting since I know those Phantom clones would've been strong had they survived.

I made a new tray today consisting of mostly Phantom, with some GSC and No-Q, which is probably also GSC. I dipped each one at the cut in a generous amount of Clonex and then dipped the heads in a fungicide solution before stabbing each clone into the rockwool plugs. Hopefully this will help the plant resist any mildew that might infect it in the weeks to come. I expect that these clones should root in about two weeks, when the Middle cuts down. This will still fit into the rotation I've set up here. I have two weeks until the MH goes to flower, and I have a few days to set up the Master to receive the HPS Veg. If I wait a few days to clone off these trees, I'll have about a week and a half until they have to go into the Middle. They'll be shorter than usual, and I'll have to time the topping and trimming accurately to allow enough branches to fill out, but I have 25 trees to work with instead of the usual 16, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem. In all likelihood, the increased number of trees might actually be much better.

I still have some leftover Phantom clones that survived the mildew attack, not to mention lack of water. I threw away all the duds and dipped the remainder into the same fungicide solution and I added the cloning water, (with root accelerator) into the tray. Hopefully these will root in a few days to replace the net cups I had to throw away.

All in all, not really a successful month, but not horrible. I had a decent harvest, but I'll have to keep working on the Bubba to get rid of all the mildew so I can actually sell it. I have enough money to take care of bills for now, seeing as I probably won't be able to clear out my entire inventory before the bills are due. The Middle room comes down in a few weeks, and with proper maintenance I should be able to get a decent harvest out of there as well. It doesn't look like the 4+ lbs I wanted, but then again, the Master initially looked like it was only going to give me 2 lbs, so I'll have to just wait until the final weigh-in. The Veg seems to be coming along, although I'll have to adjust the rotation slightly to accommodate for the fact that I'm short on plants for an entire room.

I think I'm going to go forward with the Gavita plan, as I'm calling it. If these 13 trees are under HPS for another two weeks, they'll be massive and disproportionate. I don't have the space to accommodate these trees in the veg. They're already just as tall as the trees in the Master anyway, despite being nearly two weeks behind in terms of flowering time. This plan hinders on the ability for the MH veg to catch up, but I can stretch their veg time if I have to, even if I have to trim and clone them. This will also be a good opportunity to test the Gavita against the HPS, and from then on I'll have up to 30 trees for an entire rotation, which was the first step towards expansion anyway. All of this is pointless without more 4+ harvests, and I'll definitely be able to get there with another light. Ironically, one problem has presented multiple opportunities.

I'll have to stay more current with posts from now on. It's no coincidence that my work seemed to fall off as I stopped posting.

Weak Harvest, Master Too Tall

Actions:
-Finished harvest
-HPS Veg transplanted, transferred to Master
-New tarp in Master
-Feed/water
-Full veg rotation

VEG
300ml base
1000-1100 ppm

HPS Veg was too tall this time around, but may have been ideal height five days ago when the harvest was supposed to have been finished. I'll have to trim bottom branches and constantly adjust tops to evenly bend, thereby executing a correct SCROG. My other option is to allow the tree to simply grow to its full height without any restraints, but possibly at the cost of light penetration to the lower part of the canopy.

MH Veg is also overgrown, and I'm conflicted about what to do with it. Although this veg was initially meant for the Middle rotation, I may have an opportunity to open two more lights in the Master for these trees, as long as I can control the temperature in that room. I could also expand into my bedroom, but that'll take more time, effort, and money, although it'll be the only time I'll have to make any more modifications to the setup for at least six months. My main option is to continue the rotation as planned, but with two rounds of cloning; one tomorrow and another round in two weeks, to contain vertical growth and sprout more heads. With four weeks to go, they should have enough time to recover and I'll have maximized light distribution in the Middle with a shortage of trees.

Clones look like shit. The Phantom tray has been afflicted by heavy mildew, and I had to throw about ten of them away. It seems that dipping them in fungicide is now mandatory. Only a couple of these rooted. Some of the other strains rooted just fine or better than usual. The older trays are still holding on, surprisingly, or perhaps unsurprisingly, at this point. These fuckers were dipped in fungicide, so it's no wonder they've made it this long (almost a month).

MIDDLE
300ml base
150ml Terpinator
6 tbsp Big Bud
100ml Overdrive
1400-1600 ppm

I decided to introduce Overdrive at 2/3 strength while still using Big Bud at full dosage. It's possible that I may have been underfeeding during the mid-flowering stage of the rotation. 1400-1600 ppm seems like the right range for mid to late flowering, as said on forums and other sources. Without a combination of Big Bud and Overdrive, PPM might be reduced to 1200-1400, which might be inadequate considering the plant is entering its prime physical and reproductive state. It's too soon to gauge the effects this may have had, but I can always simply flush if the PPM is too high.

Colas are already looking bigger in this room than they were in the Master, although that isn't saying too much since the Master colas were pitiful. Thankfully I haven't seen a single tree with unusual development other than the ones being covered from light.

Mildew has returned, and of course, it's all over the Bubba. Fucking Bubba. Fucking mildew. Fuck everything.

MASTER (DAY ONE)
300ml base

This room is tall as fuck. There's going to be some heavy training over the next few weeks in this room, but I'll have to refrain from cutting as much as I usually do. The only consolation I have is with the amount of branches all these trees have despite all this overgrowth. If I had harvested sooner, I may have avoided this problem, but it's soon enough that I can take appropriate action. I'll most likely rely on proper SCROG or simply just allow everything to grow into the trellis. Humidity will be the main concern here. I cannot afford to have this room, or any for the matter, affected by mildew. I'll have to keep air flow constant as well. I've mounted a wall fan at the corner of the room blowing halfway into dead space, and another into the canopy. I'll have to put the other fan in the opposite corner to evenly shift the air. I'm also considering opening a hole in one of the AC tubes to point into the wall fan so it can blow cool air into the canopy.

The challenge in this room is going to be controlling the height. I could use Phosphoload in Week 2 to keep the trees short, but this will immediately halt vertical growth. I can only use it if I feel like I have the appropriate amount of heads to get a good yield. If I decide not to use it, I'll have to rely on bending the branches up to Week 3 to get a proper spread on the canopy. I also have to trim bottom branches tomorrow as well, which will probably stall growth for the next few days.

I'm also fucked with regards to the timing. Today is the 20th (or 21st) and I'm on track to harvest this rotation on February 21. If I decide to cut down a week early, it'll be February 12. Not exactly an ideal date to be working my ass off.

Harvest Notes
The Bubba was surprisingly bigger than expected. Many of the colas were actually hidden by excess foliage. Most of them were also pretty dense. The problem is that they're all covered in mildew. I tried to trim most of the mildew off, but there are still many colas that will have to be trimmed even further before I can sell them.

The GG is fucking horrible. Had it not been soft, it may have contributed to the yield significantly, but the weight is so light that I might have a problem selling it. There also seems to be an absence of aroma despite all the Terpinator I gave it. One of the trees didn't even grow beyond the mid sized pot; an indicator of some type of root disease. Either way, I'll probably have to break even, or actually take a loss on this yield.

There is another strain here that wasn't identified. Colas were tiny, but THC was more abundant on these trees than others, although it could've been because there was less surface area for the THC to cover. Colas were also pretty dense, and hopefully they won't shrink too much so I can actually sell these too.

I estimate that this yield is probably in the 1.5 to 2 range. Shitty, but it's enough to keep me going for now. Throughout the harvest I noticed that many of the trees still showed pretty decent growth despite all the trouble it went through. Bubba, in particular, had some beautiful well-rounded colas as long as it had sufficient exposure to light. This has led me to believe that light distribution played a key role in the yield here. Bottom colas were unsurprisingly small, but not by much.

How I Fucked Up

Action:
-Replace clone tray water
-Water
-Fungicide Middle
-Calibrate pH meter

VEG
Water
pH 5.9
~17 gal

HPS Veg has shown relatively rapid vertical growth over the past few days, peaking at about one foot from the reflector. The canopy as a whole is almost too tall for Veg at this point, and these trees need to be transplanted within the next couple of days to prevent disproportional growth. In the future it will be necessary to do a second trimming/cloning to stall growth. I will have to trim/clone this veg anyway, but it would be more ideal to trim earlier to allow the plants to recover so growth isn't stalled during flowering.

The veg tables are also showing their limitations; plants seem to be growing taller rather than wider since the table sits in the corner of the room. However, this hasn't been a problem until this week, which probably could've been prevented if I had trimmed this veg last week to stall growth. Ideally, the plants would have recovered from trimming by now.

MH Veg is also growing taller and wider, as is expected. Distance between the reflector and canopy is about one foot. Although this shouldn't be dangerous in terms of light intensity since the ballast is running at 750 watts, the heat is still substantial enough to curl the leaves. Branches are wide and thick, which is good. I'll have to top/trim/clone when I trim the HPS veg, since the rotation is about to shift. I will probably trim again two weeks into HPS as part of a pre-flowering preparation.

Older clone trays are about a month old now and the success rate has been better this time around, with a rough estimate of about 70%. I'll know the exact number once they're planted. The newer clone trays are two weeks old now, and are showing signs of a mildew infestation. Some clones deteriorated at the base rather than the leaves and branches, which means that dipping clones in fungicide during cloning was a success. A few of the other clones that most likely weren't dipped in fungicide are showing mildew infestation at the leaves. Interestingly, a few of the clones have rooted above the rockwool as a result of 100% humidity, although this also helped the mold spread more rapidly.

MIDDLE
Water
pH 5.8
Fungicide (2 caps/1.5 gal)

Spider mites have returned, which is odd considering fungicide was sprayed aggressively above and below the canopy merely three days ago. There is a dangerous amount of yellow mite trails on the leaves and I will have to spray this room throughout the week to prevent further deterioration. Mildew is mostly absent from this room.

There also seems to be a pungent aroma emanating from these plants now, more so than previous harvests. It's hard to determine if this is merely the result of consistent growth or heavy use of Terpinator, but either way it's a good indicator of a favorable yield. Bubba is increasing in size rapidly, whereas the other indica-dominant strains seem to be noticeably less so. I've opted not to use Phosphoload here because I don't want to hinder cola production as I did in the Master. Whether or not I use Overdrive in the next feed will largely depend on how this room progresses over the next couple of days. If colas are still underdeveloped, I will wait until next week and continue with Big Bud.

MASTER

I've opted not to water today so the soil can dry for tomorrow, as most of the pots seem moderately moist. Upon examining the buds, I've noticed that many of the main colas in this room are Bubba, and are either leaning sideways on the trellis or propped closer to the light than other trees. It's possible that ineffective light distribution was a factor in underdevelopment of colas, but it's more likely that it was a combination of factors that lead to a low yield. On the bright side, THC production has stayed constant, and the colas are covered in THC, which will be the determining factor in how these flowers are sold.

HOW I FUCKED UP
Here I will identify the reasons why this room had a lackluster performance this rotation, and I'll order them by how much of an effect I think they had:

Trimming
If all the other mistakes were made here without trimming, this yield may would have probably been much higher. These trees were trimmed during Week 3-4 to promote growth on the upper portion of the canopy, but what happened instead was that the trees themselves were weakened to the point that it probably took close to an entire week (if not longer) to recover. During the first few weeks (pre-flower) light trimming may have been acceptable, even encouraged, to regulate growth, but during a time when the trees had already halted vertical growth and were trying to produce colas, trimming was counter-effective. On a technical note, the tree may have been stripped of valuable chlorophyll, among other nutrients, to effectively photosynthesize, thereby causing a bottleneck in the metabolic functions of the plants. Whatever the case may have been, it is imperative to limit trimming to veg only, and instead physically train the plants to allow for light penetration if the plants grow disproportionately.

Phosphoload
I intended to use Phosphoload as a means to boost cola production while not recognizing the chief function of Phosphoload as a plant growth regulator rather than a bud booster. Phosphoload may have been beneficial during the first few weeks to inhibit vertical growth, considering that this rotation consisted of overly tall plants, but it probably would've been better to avoid using Phosphoload altogether since I already had contained the growth with the trellis. Phosphoload should be used if the plants themselves are already formed in a manner that has allowed for even light distribution and height needs to be contained.

Growth Manipulation Techniques
Using the trellis to bend branches down here would have produced favorable results without Phosphoload, but the trellis still needs to be used more as a structural support tool rather than a growth manipulator. During past rotations, bending heads down didn't guarantee that lower branches would grow taller. The trellis only served to keep the heads lower than their natural height, but much of the top foliage still outgrew the bottom. It would have been much safer to instead bend all the branches outward from the center stalk, if at all. With proper training techniques implemented in veg, however, I wouldn't have to physically bend any branches at all, and the trellis would merely serve to keep the plants from falling over, as was initially intended.

Veg
Incorrect veg techniques and timing between trimming and cloning was also a factor here. From what I remember, these trees were left to grow tall and lanky, which is clearly a result of bad timing. Had growth been contained in veg, accounting for trim recovery time and vertical growth rates, I wouldn't have had to trim or bend branches in the first place. Phosphoload may have even been able to regulate growth for efficient light distribution, which also could have resulted in a higher yield.