Dark Star Diary

25 April 2021 Feeding schedule apparently needs to be adjusted. I initially watered the plant every 3-4 days, then as the plant grew it needed more as it dried out faster, or used water faster (however you choose to look at it). I started feeding every 2 days, but now it seems like it was dry again just 24 hours later. My wife pointed out that it looked dry, and it was, so right at the point the lights were to go out for the night, I decided to feed it again instead of waiting till tomorrow. Today starts week 4 of flower, so I adjusted the nutrients for the new week. Only a minor adjustment, but still an adjustment. I gave CALiMAGic 5ml, FloraMicro 7.5ml, FloraGro 2.5ml, and FloraBloom 12.5ml added to a gallon of water. Initial pH was 5.79. I added pH UP 2.5ml in two 1ml increments and then a .5ml addition which raised the pH to 6.42. That’s what I fed the plant, and the runoff pH was 5.79. As the lights went off during the feeding, I took the opportunity to take some pics in the dark using a flash to see how it looks without the strong LED’s overhead. I’m still trying to decide if I should trim away all of the smaller branches and leaves under the main canopy above the cargo net I have installed. I may ask the community for advice on this issue. I’m just unsure if the toll it will take on a plant at this stage of growth. 27 April 2021 The plant wasn’t all that dry yesterday, so I decided not to feed it until today. I’m seeing some funny orangish/rusty colored streaks on some of the leaves, but the rest of the leaves look fine. I’ve also found some more leaves with small holes or bite marks on them. I mainly see them on the smaller leaves, and not so much on the larger ones. The smaller buds under the cargo net that I was thinking about cutting off are fattening up like the rest of them above the cargo net. Not all of them, but a lot. I may still defoliate some of them, but I will probably keep any that look like they’ll fully mature. As far as nutrients go, I’m still following the feed chart from the other day. So; I gave CALiMAGic 5ml, FloraMicro 7.5ml, FloraGro 2.5ml, and FloraBloom 12.5ml. The initial pH was 5.86, and I added pH UP 2.5ml which elevated the pH to 6.45 which is what I gave the plant. The runoff water pH was 5.82. Temperature was 81 degrees, and relative humidity was 41. I’m going to try and only update my grow diary at the end of the week and add the weekly totals to the log to see if that makes more sense, or if I should keep doing it like I was before. Previously I edited the week after each feeding, so the totals on the log only show the nutrients and water amount for a single feeding, and doesn’t show an aggregate amount for the whole week. Since there are no instructions on the website I figured that I’d try it that way this week instead of how I was doing it. We’ll see what works best and go from there. 29 April 2021 I should have fed yesterday, but got busy and by the time I saw that it could be fed, it was time for lights out. I didn’t want to do that again, so I just waited till today. I also decided to cut off a couple of the smaller and uglier branches that didn’t have a lot of promise so that nutrients and water could be used elsewhere. The sugar leaves are getting sugary a little more each day. It’s like the leaves are frosted and it’s a lovely development. Seeing how all of the coated leaves have appeared this week, I feel it necessary to make a mental (as well as written) note about when to expect that in future grows. Today, as with the previous feedings this week, I added the following: CALiMAGic 5ml, FloraMicro 7.5ml, FloraGro 2.5ml, and FloraBloom 12.5ml. Initial pH was: 5.88. I added pH UP: 3ml, which adjusted the pH to 6.56. That is what I fed the plant today. I was thinking about something completely unrelated after I drained the runoff water/nutrients and poured it out before checking the runoff pH. My bad. The plant is looking great for the most part. Some tiny bite marks on a leaf here and there, but still no sign of what’s doing it. Also, some leaves have some weird rusty, orange looking lines on them, but just a few. So far so good though and I’m happy with its progress. 30 April 2021 Watering/feeding the plant again today because we’re going out of town for the weekend. I’m hoping to come back Sunday morning in order to feed again before 8pm when the lights go out. Today is the last feeding for this week, so I’ve been planning to input my data differently this week to see how it goes. Previously I’ve been adding all of the information after each feeding, so each new feed was overwritten by the previous feeding in the same week. This week I’m going to try and input all of the data for all of the feedings into a single entry to encompass the whole week as a whole. We’ll see how it goes.