Here she goes!

Germinated Betty from seed and opened within 24 hours!

Sprout started to emerge 2 days later.

By day 7 she has fully emerged. Cotyledons and her first two real leaves looking good.

Today, day 9, she is already starting two new leaves!

Another weekly update on Betty:

This week the main electric switch needed to be changed out, so for a day she was taken out of the Bloom and placed under an AeroGrow. It gave a great opportunity to see her excellent root growth.

Once she was happily back in the Bloom it was time for a stage change to Veg and a significant increase in nutrients. She exploded in growth shortly after!

Seeing some of the other cannabis in this forum got very large quickly, Betty is going to be getting frequent trimming, topping, and likely LST. This week, (Day 22) she had her lower leaves trimmed and her first topping. Here is a quick video and some close-up photos of that process for anyone interested.

Video_20210113_084125.MOV

Here is a photo from today (Day 24) of Betty that shows the two new growth points already starting from the topping. Let's GROW!

@dj I don't see any pistils yet so I think it is still a touch early too tell. Have you gone to a 12/12 light cycle yet?

I don't see any stems with a ball which would be an indication it is a male. If I were to guess I think we are seeing the very early calyx of a female plant because those small features don't seem to have a stem and are starting to curl. This could be a very early sign of a female. It still needs more time before you can be sure though. If you start to see pistils, like tiny hairs, emerge from those calyx you can confirm it is a female. Patience for now!

@I_like_plants, what do you think?

Exciting reveal today...

First, here are two pictures from last Friday (Day 40) and she has already bounced back stronger than before.

Today (Day 44) she was ready for another pruning - only 11 days since the last trim - incredible!! My advice to other cannabis growers is you pretty much can't over prune a strong healthy plant in the veg and early flower stages in a BLOOM. The growing conditions are so optimal they grow back stronger and thicker after a good haircut, so get in there with your shears or scissors!

Today's haircut took off all the lower undergrowth that was shaded, both fan leaves and bud sites, they won't get enough light and won't develop into strong buds. I also got aggressive and took off a lot of the biggest upper fan leaves that created shade on other parts of the plant. This will let in more light and air circulation. Lastly, I pulled the outside stems further out on the trellis to give every stem plenty of breathing room and space to get big.

This will likely be the last major prune for Betty as she heads later into the flowering cycle. I'll still be removing crowded fan leaves here and there, but now with 8 strong large stalks from pruning and training, she is ready to grow up and put her energy into growing large dense buds and colas!

Gender reveal time...she's definitely a girl!! :tada:

Updates on Betty!

Day 51, she was a nice large bush again. You can see I installed a second trellis to help with continuing to train the plant and spread the stems for maximum bud production. I'm not using the trellis to support the plant so much as actually push the stems away from each other and let more light in.

I did some big leaf pruning to remove the largest sun leaves that are shading the plant. They grow back so fast and big this will be an ongoing process. You can see I took a lot off!

Day 53, bouncing back from the last prune.

Day 57, the colas are really starting to develop and she is smelling amazing! Betty loves the BLOOM. I am starting to see a slight discoloration right on the tips of her new growth. Likely a sign of nutrient burn. This makes sense because with the rapid growth she is sucking up lots of water and the reservoir is getting overly concentrated. I usually have to add more water every other day now to keep the nutrients within the correct range. I'll continue to monitor this.

Oh nice, I'm excited!

Day 65! Seeing lots of vertical growth now, so I'm very happy I pruned and trained so diligently early on. You can see she has some very big happy sun leaves which is great, but they are going to shade the buds lower on the plant so they have to go!

Betty, before and after a big leaf trim. You can see I took off a lot of foliage, but I only targeted the largest darkest green leaves that have their own stem and are not part of the bud development. There were so many little buds hiding down underneath, and this trim gives them all the light and air circulation they need to grow big like the colas on top.

Here are just a few more pics from today, Day 66, plus some close up of the buds. We are approximately one month out from harvest now, so these buds are going to get big and dense from here! I'm starting to get very optimistic about the yield!

Thanks @pdxbloom!

@Gr0w3r Yes, that is the plan, and I'll be sure to upload the slightly modified recipe. Mostly stuck with the original but I changed the temps and extended the grow time in flower. At 94 days that will give Betty another 2 weeks, but if I take it all the way to 100 days it's nearly 3 more weeks.

I've read a grow journal for this strain that went for 120 days! I don't think I'm going to go that long, but we will be patient and see :)

Cheers!

@pdxbloom, the trainwreck is looking good! You're right in thinking you can prune the underlayer of weak growth, take it off! I put a blue line around the smaller weak growth near the base you can easily remove without shocking the plant below. You could possibly even get more aggressive, but that is a good place to start for now.

I also think you are ready or nearly ready to start training some of the 6 branches out horizontally. You can use the trellis which I found to be very easy and effective, or you can individually pull the branches away from the center with twine. You'll still want the main stem going straight up but you can pull the other 4 or 5 branches out away from the main stem to give them more room and light, and ultimately a bigger harvest!

Day 87 and into the final stretch here. Betty's buds bulked up more since the last post and really got some nice purples and pink colors going on now. It seems like her growth has been slowing so I'm going to let the Bloom go into the final stage change today. I do think adding an extra week on this strain was beneficial though.

All that is left is 7 days in flush and then we harvest, and I have to say what a fun and exciting grow this has been for me!

MMMM, who doesn't love pancakes. I'm growing the same strain as @I_like_plants, but a month or two behind. She's definitely a very indica dominate strain with a very short and stout phenotype, so it should be perfect for the Bloom.

Here's the progress so far:

Sprouted after 2 days

About 3 weeks and a nice vacation later Mrs. Griddle was already looking beautiful!

First pruning went well, and loped off some massive fan leaves!

At the end of the veg cycle she had exploded into a small bush.

Today, after a second trim and water change heading into an early bloom stage.

@SpicyPeppers123, already looks healthier than every bell pepper plant I've ever grown in my outside garden!

Of course @GrowerPicker!

For those interested, we took out about half of the side stems and all of the undergrowth. Going to let her have a day or two to bounce back, and then more trimming to keep this beast of a plant in check with the humidity from excessive perspiration, and help direct more growth into the main stems to drive good cola growth and get less 'larfy' (small) buds.

@Rainville your plant looks great! New growth is commonly a lighter green color, and it darkens in green as the leaves mature. Looking forward to watching this grow!

So I got antsy and started sampling the harvest during trimming, hahaha, but I came out around 11.9oz total. We'll call it 12+!!!

I don't have a good photo of the total harvest as I quickly started sharing with friends, but here are some highlights. On to the next grow!!

Yes, these are 7in+ buds!

I had about three of these 2L ball jars full after harvest!

She's a monster! Well, you are going to be the test subject on just what the limits of the Bloom are, good on you for this necessary 'research' :D

Cheers, Bud!

Wow! Beautiful!

Personally, I wouldn't trim any of those flowers yet, you are still just getting into flowering cycle. Let them grow and plump up over the next month or two.

I'd say everything is looking good!

Quick addition, I pulled out my DLSR camera with a macro lens to have some fun, as well as show anyone unfamiliar with trichomes what we are talking about!

Glamor Shot:

Sisters:

Trichomes:
You can see the glandular trichomes here covering the plant. Some are clear, some translucent, and others amber, which is a great time to harvest. If you harvest late they will all be amber and lead to a heavier indica like high, which is desired for some strains.

I'll post a final yield in dry weight in about a week. I'm optimistic it will be close to 1/2 a lb!

Cheers BLOOMERS

Day 95 - Harvest!

I loved you Betty and I think you loved the Bloom, but today is your day.

I hate dry trimming so I went for a pretty significant wet trim. I thought it would look cool to see a fully trimmed plant in the Bloom so I trimmed before I cut anything down. I thought it came out pretty neat.

Cut and hung for a 5-7 day dry in the Bloom. Temperature, light, and humidity controlled dry is something I've never experience, how cool! Once the buds are dry I'll do a quick final dry trim to manicure the buds. Then I'm going to go with a long slow cure in Ball jars with daily 'burping' to get these buds smelling and looking top shelf.

Thank you Bloom!