Hey there and welcome (back) to Free the Tree!
This week the flowering stage has officially started with the appearance of the first pistils 🙂
These 5 plants really grew a lot during the stretch, especially the Cheese and the Blue Kush (bottom middle and right) so we’re fighting an un-event canopy.. Apart from that they’re just beautiful!

Let’s go through the main events of the week, if you want to skip straight to a section here’s what we’re going to cover:


End of Vegetative Growth

During this second week of the stretch we kept seeing strong growth across the board but, as we said in the intro, especially on the Cheese and Blue Kush strain.
Since the start of the stretch all the plants grew at least half their size except the Blue Thai. She’s a bit more shy which is a little bit of an issue canopy wise.

Here’s a couple pics of their evolution this week, as always click on them to see the full version.

Start of the second week, super cropping just done

Start of the Second week – Room left in some area’s of the grow room
(Super Cropping just done)


End of the stretch approaching, vertical growth still continuing

Mid way through week 2 – Grow Room is full


Stretch ended first pistils started showing

End of the Stretch – Vegetative growth has ended and first pistils are showing.

Just in one week it’s pretty crazy how much they’ve grown no? And compared to where the beginning of last week it’s even crazier! I love this plant haha

From now on they’re going to focus on developing those nice flowers that we love so much, some exciting weeks are ahead of us!


Results of Super Cropping

Last week and at the beginning of this one, we super cropped a bunch of the colas that were too tall.
There were 2 objectives for this, the first evening out the canopy, the second was so strengthen the stems and creating knots so the plant can store more nutrients within the stems.
Here’s how the Cheese plant reacted to it

apex folded and tied with string

Cheese plant super-cropped


String holding stem removed a couple days later


couple days later stem straight and knot formed

Colas standing back up – Knot starting to be visible

During the time that the main stem was super cropped the side branches grew massively, we pinched them a little so that they would strengthen also. I feel like this plant is going to give a niiice yield 🙂


Automatic Watering

We haven’t mentioned this in our previous posts but for the past month or so we’ve been watering our plants with our home made drip system and honestly it’s been wonderful!
It takes about 5 minutes to prepare the mix and then the the drip system waters the plant. We’ve been serving about 13L of water over about 6 hours of time. No water loss and the medium is well irrigated, the plant’s have been loving it! and honestly, so have I.


15L container providing water flow to drippers

Water and Nutrients flowing into the grow room


drip irrigation system automatically and slowly watering the plant

Drips slowly irrigating the soil


With this system in place, I don’t have to choose between taking the time to water them well (about 2hours) or quickly water them to be able to get back to business or whatever. We’ve done the later many times in our previous grows and you can definitely tell on the plant when the soil isn’t well irrigated.

It’s a win-win, I save time and the plants get a nicely watered and nutrient full soil on a regular basis.


Changing to the Sodium Bulb

I think this time around we waited a little too long to change from the Metal Halid bulb.
This time around we changed it the last day of the stretch, which might explain why we haven’t seen any pistils until now.. Next time we’ll definitely get it in there at the beginning of the second week of the stretch in order to avoid over-vegetating our plants.


Metal Halid vs High Pressure Bulb

Changing from HP to HPS bulb


High Pressure Sodium bulb installed in an Air Cooled Hood



First Pistils appear

We’re finally in business! About 2 weeks after changing the photoperiods to 12/12 the bud sites have clearly showed up 🙂 How exiting!
This time around it really took them a while to grow, which I know for a fact isn’t normal for the Big Buddha Cheese and the Blue Thai. I really think it’s linked to the change in light, since the redder HPS light pushes the plant to flower.

Here’s a couple pics of these first signs of the flowers


first pistils growing at the apex of plant

First Apex pistils growing


Bud sites starting to appear at the end of stretch

First pistils of another colas appearing


Alright folks that’s all for this one!
Until next time, be safe and grow easy 😉

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