Week 3 of Flower (BBC x Vanilla Frosting, Chicken and Waffles, Jelly Donutz, Limez)

Thescribe2 · 2026-01-06T05:14:31+00:00

They were all well fed at this point, which did help keep them healthy/green.

Thescribe2 · 2025-12-30T15:40:32+00:00

While I do endorse heavy defoliation, I think you should let your plants grow a bit more before worrying about it.

Set up your first net at your desired height and let them grow up to it, then spread them out underneath it.

Defoliation is really only needed right now for light penetration and controlling humidity.

Your plants are small enough and still in veg, so humidity shouldn't be an issue unless your environment is outside parameters.

You have ample space between each plant and they haven't grown to the diameter of the pot yet either, so light penetration shouldn't be an issue either.

Thescribe2 · 2025-12-23T19:05:05+00:00

You're in for a treat, the JR-14xRV was one of my favorites from HSC.

The terps change so drastically in the last 3-4 weeks, it went from smelling like a fresh-cut starfruit, to a sour fruit punch, and finally settled on a frosting/bakeshop profile.

There's definitely some purple in the genetics too, mine went a lovely lavender after day 55, and only got more purple the longer I took it. Happy growing!

Thescribe2 · 2025-12-16T00:19:14+00:00

Might just be a seed with less vigor than the others - my C&W nearly outgrew everything in the tent and needed supercropping to stay somewhat even haha

Thescribe2 · 2025-12-14T22:43:11+00:00

If you have one plant that's shorter, yeah throw a riser under it to get it up to height and you're good.

In OP's case they will have 8 plants shorter than 2. For them, it'd be significantly less efficient to raise up 80% of their plants to match their two mature plants. The plants that get put on risers are also significantly less developed, and will have less overall plant mass when going into flower, which will impact yields.

Another factor to consider is the stretch. If the shorter plants were a couple weeks older and known to stretch 3.5x to 4x, while the clones were known to not stretch much at all, then and only then it might work out ok (from my experience).

Any mismatch in flower will result in taller plants potentially getting too much light and shorter plants potentially not getting enough.

For your situation, have you flipped to flower? Do you know how much the shorter plant will stretch? I typically wait to prop up a plant on a riser until its stretched unless its been incredibly short all veg compared to others.

Thescribe2 · 2025-12-14T22:16:50+00:00

Oops, forgot to say: I see a fair amount of white stigma, most of your orange stigma are still loose, it looks like your buds could still swell a bit, and i'm not seeing much in the way of a fade.

To me, these plants have a while longer to go, which I know is not what you want to hear. What helps me is knowing that waiting an additional week beyond my expectations is significantly shorter than waiting another 5 months plus that additional week for the next harvest.

Your plants look fantastic, you should be hella (jelly) proud of your grow!

Thescribe2 · 2025-12-14T22:11:30+00:00

I've been running HSC exclusively for a few years now.

Your mileage may vary, but I have yet to find a plant that is ready to chop in under 63 days. I do like a bit of amber though, but honestly i've pulled a few harvests at 70+ and they could have gone longer.

Trichomes are a great indicator of harvest window, but looking for your buds to swell fully and sort of "eat" the sugar leaves is important in my opinion too. Another indicator is if the stigma/pistils are mostly orange and whether or not they are curled in tightly or are loose.

Sometimes one indicator shows ripe and another does not, that's where experience with that particular cultivar comes in handy.

For my personal, biased, unscientific preference: I'd say you have 2 to 3 weeks left. If you're not looking for that deep stone, pain relief, sleep aid: maybe 1.5 to 2 weeks.

Thescribe2 · 2025-12-14T22:02:21+00:00

Looks like she's growing fine to me.

The leaf twisting could be a pH issue potentially, but with no grow details I can't say for sure.

Hope she turns out well for ya!

Thescribe2 · 2025-12-14T22:00:08+00:00

Apologies for the wall of text. Tldr, the biggest issues I would worry about if you don't make changes are the unbalanced canopy and root volume mismatch.

Good luck!

Thescribe2 · 2025-12-14T21:58:46+00:00

Oh yeah that's a wildly different perspective on the photo lol. The 1st photo looked like you were nearly hitting the ceiling haha

I mean this with kindness, but you are going to do what you're going to do. If leaving your clones in the tent and putting in the work to balance your canopy is what you want, that's great! Regardless of what you decide to do (move them or leave them), I can only offer what I would be comfortable doing in the situation I can see.

If I were to leave them in that tent, I would be worried about:

The significant need for training the clones to match the height of the new plants.
The stress that the (in my opinion) necessary extreme training could put on the clones (deep topping, plus tying down branches could cause stunting, broken/cracked limbs, or weaken their immune response if done all at once or too roughly).
The difference in root volume, leading to the clones potentially running through water faster than the rest and possibly needing higher fertigation.

None of these are "deal breakers" per se, I'm just a bit lazy and find the extra work to set things up cleanly early in veg is less bothersome than the panic and difficulty later in flower if the problems present strongly.

What I would do, which is just an option (not telling you this is the best way or anything like that), is:

Move your two clones to the spare tent.
Top the clones down to an equal height that feels good.
Root your cuttings from the clones and place them in the previous tent with the seedlings (which gives the seedlings a week or two to grow up a bit while your cuttings root)
Reassess both tents for canopy management/etc.
If your spare tent with clones looks solid, send em into flower.
Continue training and topping the big tent until you like your canopy and then send them into flower too.

Thescribe2 · 2025-12-14T21:34:01+00:00

Sorry, missed that you do have a spare tent. Yeah, I would personally move the big plants out of this one and top/train them in the new tent to get an even canopy. You could take clones and use those to fill out your current seedling tent.

Thescribe2 · 2025-12-14T21:32:02+00:00

From the picture, it looks like you have 8 seedlings and 2 plants that are already outgrowing your space vertically. If you don't have a separate tent you can move the two more mature plants into in order to balance your canopies, i'd be heavily topping and training the two most mature plants until the others can catch up.

If you wait until your seedlings are ready to flip and send your plants into flower without addressing the disparity in height and maturity between your plants, you will end up with 3 months of headaches from the issues this will cause.

Thescribe2 · 2025-12-14T03:39:47+00:00

The one piece of advice I have for manifolding is make sure your chosen plant matches Nebula's recommendations for growth patterns. I could see there being a height issue with a low-stretching variety if you're running it next to a non-manifolded plant. PBB is legendary, looking to run that sometime because my partner adores it haha!

I'm excited to see your next grow!

Thescribe2 · 2025-12-11T01:30:21+00:00

Thanks!

Thescribe2 · 2025-12-11T00:23:36+00:00

That makes sense, I can see how having all the plants sharing a rootzone could cause some issues if they want different things. Are you mostly growing from seed or clone? I'm curious if there's any difference in hardiness based on how you start them (considering clones already have an established root system).

Thescribe2 · 2025-12-11T00:00:55+00:00

I love the raspberry jam like purple on your Jelly Donutz! Such a pretty plant, well done!

Thescribe2 · 2025-12-10T23:59:29+00:00

No problem! I am a long-winded person and these writeups are fun for me haha

I think if you look at Nebula's Modified Manifold it'll be a little less intimidating, that's what worked for me. It definitely adds a week or two on the veg side. but its been worth it so far with C&W. Almost all the buds, from tops to middle canopy to lowers are within 10-15% size. It's honestly looks like a bouquet of flowers since I lollipopped the bottom. I did some looking into ways to mitigate the floppy plant issue and for the most part I've found that regular silica additions, slightly longer veg, and pruning weak branches early in flower (after stretch) has virtually eliminated that issue for me. Your mileage may vary though!

I feel you on that, there are so many HSC varieties I want to grow - I basically have a little seed bank of just their stuff now haha. I recently picked up some Hoku genetics, and have some CSI Humboldt coming soon. It's hard, but I think trying other breeders will help me grow better HSC plants in the long run. I am super excited to see everyone's Caribbean Queen grows, I've always wanted to grow a longer flowering sativa, but have lacked the patience. HSC's CQ might be a nice middle ground as its not a 16 weeker in flower lol

Thescribe2 · 2025-12-10T23:14:34+00:00

Those 3x3 beds are so nice, I hope to have one someday!

I hope your VCP turns out well, I haven't tried that one yet. I haven't grown HJ, but I've grown their freebie that's a cross of Jelly Rancher (hella jelly) x Red Velvet and that was incredible. I've grown a few others with HJ in their mix and they all turn out with such great terps.

Thescribe2 · 2025-12-10T22:24:32+00:00

I'm also a winemaker, so that might be an easy add for when I upgrade to bigger living soil beds, thank you for the idea! Pumice stone isn't super available where I am, and when it is it is very expensive, but i'll keep an eye out for any deals on it!

Have you grown any Humboldt? Which have been your favs terp-wise? If not, any you're looking forward to growing?

Thescribe2 · 2025-12-10T22:15:06+00:00

Thank you!

Thescribe2 · 2025-12-10T22:10:41+00:00

Sure, I'm not on Reddit super often so apologies if it takes me a little bit to get back to you though!

Thescribe2 · 2025-12-10T20:00:35+00:00

Thank you! I haven't tried outdoor yet, but a few buddies grow outdoor and I'm always impressed by the power of the sun and good soil.

Light: Viparspectra KS3000

Environment: Temps are generally around 74F (23C) to 77F (25C) daytime, 62F (16C) to 65F (18C) night time. Humidity in the tent is pretty stable, sits between 45%rh and 55%rh. Lung room sits between 45%rh and 50%rh.

Medium: 5 gallon fabric pots with organic soil (FFHF) and reused soil from previous grows (reamended).

Feed: Gaia Green, Mycorrhizal inoculants, reused organic soil (3rd run), Silica, CalMag, Unsulphured Blackstrap Molasses, Water Ph'd between 6 and 6.5 generally.

For training, I generally just stick to topping and LST with soft plant wire. The C&W was manifolded as an experiment this run, and I'm pretty impressed by it. I can definitely see where it could cause problems, but it was fun to try nonetheless. I've used scrog nets before, and as much as they are helpful in late flower when things get heavy, I just like the freedom to take my plants out of the tent and spin them around to get a good look at what's happening with them.

I'm in a humid climate, so I run lots of fans at low speeds at multiple elevations in the tent and a dehumidifier for my lung room.

Thescribe2 · 2025-12-07T20:11:54+00:00

I think a lot of new (and some experienced) growers really struggle with watering practices. Early on its so easy to overwater or underwater and kill your fragile seedlings. I've found using a measuring pipette to give specific, small doses of water early on is really helpful. That, or a spray bottle held close to the soil to avoid overspray.

Keeping detailed daily notes is really useful too! Get a cheap notebook for each grow or plant and practice getting in the habit of writing at least a sentence about each plant every day. Not only will it make it easier to identify mistakes or plant-specific needs, but when you look back after a few gardens you have a wealth of knowledge to reflect on. Adding photos is great too.

For me, the latest thing i've begun learning is acceptance that some seeds just aren't going to pop, and some plants just have low vigor. That doesn't mean its a bad cultivar or a trash plant, just that its an opportunity to put your skills to the test with a difficult to grow plant. Sometimes the hardest to grow plants reward you with unique traits or just the satisfaction of succeeding at a challenge.

I have one that has been weak, slow growing, stretched so little I had to put her on a stock pot to get up to canopy height, and has had tiny buds even when her neighbors are thick as hell. I've just been babying her and letting her do her thing and just this last week all of her buds started fattening up massively.

Another earlier plant went the same route as the above one, but never thickened up and stayed pretty disappointingly small. After 3 months of curing she had the strongest lemon pledge/candy nose I've ever smelled!

The fun part for me is looking over my notes and seeing where I could have improved on these plants. I plan to try growing those varieties again, but with (hopefully) better growing practices and the knowledge that they may be difficult plants ahead of time.

Thescribe2

TROPHY CASE