Wedding Cake + Orange Cookies x Nicole

So the really fun part begins! A little branch management this very first day of flowering. Used a combination of methods for leveling out the canopy. First off, I took the easy to bend branches and tied them down to the sides of the tomato cages. This allowed more elbow room to do the higher stress training on the tallest main stems. Luckily not a ton of HST was needed since my Wedding Cake wasn't as tall as the Orange Cookies. Second, I performed some super cropping on a couple branches of the Orange Cookies. They were too tall to just tie down by themselves or bend under the frame, so I was left with one choice. Super crop and tie down, definitely not my first choice, but I got it handled. I wouldn't suggest super cropping this close to flowering if it can be helped, but in this case it had to be done to avoid the main cola from growing into the lights. Last, but not least, I took each branch that was just the right height, and bent them under the wire frame I created, simulating a sea of green. Hopefully the time I took to do this will help the light penetration reach all the parts that matter and increase my overall yield. Now over this next week I'll be watching out for the flowering stretch to make sure nothing gets too close to the LEDs. I may have to do another round of tying down if it stretches too bad, I'm really comfortable with the height I have now. I'll attempt to keep it at this height as much as I can. Updates in the next few days. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So I was doing some research on the origin of the Orange Cookies x Nicole strain and found some interesting info from a reddit post. According to a customer who contacted support at Seedsman, the seedbank I use, this is a custom strain included in the freebies for paying with crypto currency. I knew that already because that's how I got this strain lol, but was pleased to see they also included the actual genetics. Lots of different crosses were made to compose this genetic, seven different strains combined over time to create one. I'm lucky to have gotten my hands on this gem. Strain info is as follows: Orange Cookies from Franchise Genetics (Sonic's Orange x Cookies & Cream [Starfighter x Girl Scout Cookies]). Nicole Kush from the Marimberos Collective teamed with DNA Genetics ([MK Ultra x Blue Satellite] x [Shishkaberry x Blueberry]). Indica-dominant Height: Short - Medium Yield: Medium - High, 400 - 500 gr/m2 indoors. Flowering: 8 - 9 weeks THC: Very high - 20%+ Taste: Complex, citrus, creamy, earthy. Effect: Potent, relaxing, long-lasting. But the question remains, who crossed this strain? Was it one of the farms above, or was it Seedsman themselves? Still unclear, either way I'm ready and excited to see the end result of these girls! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- UPDATE: The girls have drank nearly two gallons of water in 5 days. A good sign of proper nutrient absorption. I will gave to surely stay on top of keeping her fed as the weeks go on. I am also pleased to see the girls have recovered well from the chiropractic technique I have been talking about for a few weeks now. As far as how well it will make my plant perform if it all, is up for discovery. I will do a defoliation probably at the start of week three when lots of leaves have been produced and will need some more taming. More heavily underneath than up top to the largest fan leaves not receiving light, I will also do some slight defoliation to center facing fan leaves up top that may be blocking bud spots, which I don't expect many considering the training I've done. Some smell is definitely starting to emanate in the air around the grow space, luckily some ona gel is coming in the mail soon to hopefully eliminate that problem. Not much else to do other than wait for some flower production. Updates coming next Monday!