No grow plan survives the first contact with water - HPD

Still popped 2 Black Domina seeds but only one will end up in a big bucket for tent space logistics reasons.  The second seed will go in an 18oz bucket as a side challenge plant that I'll try to run all the way from the beginning with the others getting their start 2-3 weeks from flip day.    

Both seeds did sprout and are accidentally identical.  Initially I only started one Monday at midnight since I'd decided only one large main plant and when it didn't crack by 8pm Monday night I was sure I'd cooked it and screwed it up and blown my streak and put another one in h202 at that point.   Tuesday at 8pm they both had 1/4 tails because of course they did and now my plan that was changed got changed again.   But on the plus side I'm now 11 for 11 in the last year so the pressure will be immense when I start the seeds for the second part of this grow next month.

Today they went into rockwool cubes and the clone dome under a sunny 80µmol which is a happy coincidence where my Photontek lands at 25% at this distance.  First time actually starting seeds under this light instead of my little Viparspectra xs1000 and it has much more red in general plus 730nm which the XS1000 doesn't have any of, be interesting to see if I get a lot of initial stretch.  Its a pretty consistent 80F and 95-97%rh in the dome, the temp is kinda high but it is what it is because it's New Mexico and it's August and our A/C is set to 79 because I don't want a stupid electric bill.   

Week 2 day 8

These two are not the quickest of cats but they look more or less ok.  The younger seed came out of the cube 24 hours before its older sister and that late arrival was kind of jacked.  The first node looks ok now but it has one coty pointing up, misshapen and not a pretty color while the other one is like Nemo's lucky flipper.

I ditched the dome after just a day to keep them from getting too weak in such cozy environment, my last move to the tent when I let the plant chill in the dome for 2 weeks went poorly.   Put the tent at about 72f 85% to start and walked down the rh over the next 36 hours to the current 70-72% 75f and no sign I pissed them off.   Light is up to 250µmol and they are on a 20/4 light cycle now with night starting at 5pm so I'm only getting maybe 2-3f temp differential.

Also finished getting everything set up the way I want it and much cleaner than last year.

Graduation Day!  

2 weeks in the bag and both girls have 3 nodes showing.  The slower one made a good comeback and looks healthier in some ways but I think thats because she has likely had roots in her rez for 3-4 days already and the other one might still be working its way there.

I'll drain and flush whatever has built up in the rez today from 6 days of trickle feeding and refill to have a good starting point to watch.  Unlike the first 2 weeks everything is going sterile now, no more root excelurator and yes H2O2.

Still trying to keep a solid environment but A/C coming on and afternoon rains always mess with those plans.  Been fairly stable this week from 72-78F and 60-68%rh.   Lights will be going up to about 350µmol over the next few days and on up to 420-ish for week 4.

Guessing the first topping en route to mainline will come by Friday unless something slows down.   Had to bag my fun training idea for plant 2 so I'll just mainline both as far as possible by flip day.   Based on how far these 2 get this week I'll determine when to start my other 3 challenge pots.   I'd like them to have 3 fully open nodes at flip day so probably start them 16-17 days before that.

Week 4 starting

Usually my plants don't take a shit on me till week 5 of flower...so I guess I'm improving? 🙄 

There is no nute schedule for hempys so I follow Lotus' DWC schedule which doesn't call for any calmag first 2 weeks.  That's probably fine if you run the grow powder as strong as they call for (1400ec!) but since I was only doing a total of about 600 during week 2 I should have expected it.   So my node 1 and 2 ate themselves this week and I just had to watch because I know the calmag is in there now and spots mean you fucked up *last* week and there is nothing you can do about it unless you want to cause different problems.   Node 1 and 2 will go away during mainlining so whatever, some spotting will likely carry on to node 3 just to piss me off.   Probably had more pronounced seedling trouble with this hempy run because my last try was autos that were cool will lower nutes but this strain likes a lot.  I'll have some calmag in the mix from day one on the party cup start and do foliars for good measure.

The little pot has had roots in the rez the whole last week at least and it shows in it's height.  I stopped doing 3 a day perlite wetting on the big bucket early last week and paid the price, she is behind and sad so I'm back to multiple daily top wetting till I'm sure the roots are all the way down.   This might just be too big a bucket for 100% perlite hempy style, 2 gal could be the sweet spot.

They both got topped Saturday night from 5 to 3 at lights on and didn't complain a bit.  I'm still not sure how far I'll go with either of them but I'd like to have 16 tops on the big bucket and 8 on the little one but right now the growth rate on the big bucket has me wondering.   The little one is drinking about half her rez everyday already, I imagine in about 10 days I'll be filling it twice a day and probably 3-4 times by flip day, could get tedious.

My big problem from last run was Ph stability from algae and other things growing which went away when I went sterile.  So this run I still put in some root juice for the first 2 weeks that I know has some flavor of bugs and then went to h202 in week 3.  My rez Ph still moves up about .6-.8 over 24 hours which is much better than the 1.0+ I was seeing in just 8 hours last time.   Ph drift in hydro is to be expected unless you get the nute level perfectly dialed so I'm fine tuning a bit each day.   My EC when I pour off is in a decent place of about +100ec, if I can pull it back just enough to be at +0 I expect my Ph increase to nearly halt as well.

First day of week 5

50/50 right now.  Big bucket is fine, seems to have *finally* gotten into the rez, got over the early cal mag shortage and things are growing well at the moment, fingers crossed.   The little pot however is the thing under the bed, holy shit is it a mess.  It's still being allowed to live just out of morbid curiosity.   Maybe it still hasn't gotten over the being cooked as a seed thing or maybe the tiny pot is keeping the cube soaking wet and thats doing weird shit, her mother didn't hold her enough, last picked at kickball, whatever...I'm out of ideas and honestly out of fucks to give for it.  The rez on the other hand is fabulous, like the way you can only dream about for hydro.  Water level dropping while ec and ph hold steady but from the look of the plant you'd think it was full of Roundup and Drain-o.

Next move toward mainline should come Wednesday or Thursday on the big bucket. The party pooper cup I'm considering making into some kind of hideous monster just bending and chopping things off when the mood strikes me with no real plan or consideration of plant health.  Sink or swim, loser.

Short veg party cup seeds will get wet midnight of the 13th/14th.  Still on the fence about doing 2 or 3.

Party cup start midnight Wednesday the 14th

3 seeds - Stardawg by MSNL, Euphoria and Painkiller XL by Royal Queen

Stardawg was a freebie, supposed to be fast flowering. Euphoria and Painkiller are 1:1 THC/CBD strains that are also supposed to finish quickly in 8-9 weeks. 

Got a 2mm tail on the Stardawg by hour 17 and cracks on the other 2.  Dropped into perlite filled 18oz party cup sized cut down kefir bottles at hour 23, put in the dome and top watering every few hours to wet the trail down to the rez.  Unlike the Black Domina party cup these are straight to perlite, no rockwool cube.  Water is just enough calmag to hold ph and a bit of House and Garden Roots Excelurator,  about 200ec including Ph down.

Plan is for 17 days of veg time to get 3 -4 nodes by flip day and end up single cola.  No training planned beyond  harsh language and rough handling unless they get too tall.   Hoping the bullshit going on with my first micro bucket is due to the rockwool cube or just a lame plant so I don't have to watch these 3 go emo and torch their leaves too.

Last day of week 5 

Early update, going out of town.

Second round of topping toward mainline on both Black Dominas.  Big bucket is running fine and not showing a continuance of the calmag problems but the little pot still has it spread to each new node after a few days.   It's got to be some sort of issue preventing uptake on the little one, of the 960ec total mix 600ec is calmag.   Rez pour off is still peachy, EC and PH are stable while the water level falls.  So I think I have my Ph problem from last run figured out as mostly due to algae and other shit growing in the bucket.

Side challenge pots all popped so I'm 14 for 14 on seed starts this year.  All 3 emerged from the perlite but only 2 are likely to survive, Stardawg did something weird and crawled up out of the perlite and then fell over.  I'll give it a few days before flushing that one to see if it figures something out.   Painkiller looks fine and normal, Euphoria had some trouble with her helmet not cracking all the way open and it was difficult to remove so now the cotys are a bit goofed but it's upright and growing.    Now is the hard part based on my July straight to perlite experiment, getting them to root out the cup enough to stabilize themselves.  Right now it is very dangerous to move them without the sprout falling over or accidentally grinding up the roots.    

With luck my plants will still be alive when I come home Wednesday.

Got home to find my main plant had exploded in the 2 days I was away and ready for the 3rd round of topping which it got at lights on tonight, had enough stem space to have done it last night but I was beat.   So I'm sitting at 8 tops right now and for sure will go at least to 16 and might have the time to get 32.   It was only 4 days from 2 to 3 and I could have done it in 3 so if that growth rate keeps up I could get to 32 between the 27th and 29th.   My worry with 32 is crowding but it seems like fun which is always job one.

Rez numbers are still in the goldilocks zone, seems h202 is the magic beans for these buckets but I still want to try a different nute line with them.   Dogshit lower nodes aside she is running very well, *almost* worth the 5 weeks of baby sitting it took to get into the rez.   Still worried I'll get some micro nute defs later since the grow powder is such a small fraction of the total EC, currently 980, but she just craves the calmag like Brawndo™.

Original small pot plant still looks fairly pathetic and its really slowed down but continues to drink a full rez every 24 hours, I'll be topping it up 2x daily soon, tomorrow even.    Slow down could be lack of nute water or its rootbound or a bit of both.

Party cup plants survived my absence except for Stardawg which was gone before I left, somehow it sliced off it's own roots and fell over dead as it tried to flee the pot.   Painkiller looked to be doing the same sort of jacking itself out of the perlite when I got home but I was able to excavate and reposition the roots and not only did it not die the seemingly stalled first node doubled in size over last night so no complaints.

Starting week 7 of the main plants.

I'll be going into 12/12 5pm Friday the 30th so my first long night be be the first half of Oct 1.  First night is actually going to be 17hours, 5pm to 10am, since my 4 hour nights start at 5 right now.  10pm to 10am sounds like a good plan since it will become 9 to 9 in November.

Big bucket is going gangbusters, ready for another topping to 16 heads which is where I'm going to stop.   The rez is staying in Ph range for 48 hours and that is good enough for me.  Could probably push it to 3 days before it drifts over 6.5 but so long as I don't have to drain and fill daily or like last run 3x per day I'm happy.   Right now I'm going in at 5.8 and ending up around 6.2 after 48 hours.   Ec has gone up to 1100 last 2 days.

Mini mainline cup still looks awful but slightly less so.  Suspected root rot so I'm nuking it with fairly high amounts of H2O2 in the 2x per day fillings.   Very little to pour off now even with 2x per day which seems positive but also means I don't have much to go on as far as EC to check, so I'm just not caring about that.  Even though she looks a bit sickly I'm still bending some things here and there to get it back centered over the cup.  It was growing crooked and was sure to tip over once the first hint of flowers formed.   Currently thinking I'll stay at 4 heads and bend them around level and let the side branches come up.

Late start party cups are going super slowly.  My summer test seed in 100% perlite was similar but hit the rez in 10 days and got moving and while I think these have too I'm still top watering so be sure.   The very slow leaf development has picked up speed in the last 36 hours and they are on day 13 today.   Stopped putting the root juice on them a few days ago and went sterile to hopefully avoid the root rot I've got in the first party cup.   Desperately hoping these get at least another open node and an inch taller before Friday.  I really need to get them in the big tent to adjust to the climate and light there but they are still so fragile.

Final topping tonight.  16 and 8 tops respectively and that will do it, just recovery time and a bit of bending till flip day.

Ok, I said I wasn't going to put 8 mains on the party cup but I was in the tent and holding scissors and next thing I know I'm chopping heads off.  It was looking better last couple of days so what the hell.

Big bucket rez is in the zone.  48 hours and the pour off was minus 100ec and +.1ph, pretty much the hydro holy grail situation.  New rez got a little bump in ec and I couldn't be happier with this one headed to flip day.

Got to toss in a pic of the fluffy, feathery roots running under the foil hat on the big bucket too.

Last day of veg, going into the long dark at 5pm.

Big bucket is just fine, the tiny party cup seedlings continue to be impossibly slow and one mutated to have no 3rd node and the mainline party cup plant is alive.

I don't want to jinx it and use the 'F' word about the mini mainline but how about 'less broken' and trending further in that direction.   Maybe don't hand out the best recovery trophy yet, but polish it up just in case.

Just a quick post to flip the counter.

The day after all the final tops got scropped on both Black Domina plants and all have turned back up, one very eager top had to get smashed again and put back in a bigger brace to keep her from being taller than the rest already.   The short veg party cups are finally getting moving but still painfully small, I'd have started them a week sooner had I known they'd run this slow.

The screwed up mainline party cup continues to get better and I took more action against the root rot today in the form of grape seed extract added to the morning top up.  Supposed to be a powerful anti fungal magic bullet for root rot but there isn't much info about it so I'm not putting it on my main plant or the small cups till I see how the already chewed up plant reacts.   

Once some new calmag comes in the mail all the party cups will be getting a nute line change.  I've got leftover Organics Alive sample stuff I used for SAFC that I really liked but the NPK powders lack any sort of micro nutrients as they are intended to run in dirt with top dressings that handle that end of the equation.   Found a liquid calmag that is 0-0-0 and includes micros so I can test how these nutes adapt to hydroponics.   In theory since they aren't salt based it's very difficult to use too much but they also don't read correctly on an EC meter so I have to kind of wing it.   The little pots will be getting refreshed 2-3 times a day so I'm not worried about non hydro specific nutes having settling issues in this setup and I loved how easily the OA stuff mixed and the plant seemed really happy on them.

One week of flower done, no pistils yet but nodes are stacking up.

Well, the good news is grape seed extract didn't kill my party cup mainline.  Did it do anything to the rot is the question since the rot was pretty much handled with h202 by the time I tried it.   Plus since it's sort of  obscure I'm not sure which is supposed to be the root rot magic, grape seed extract or grapeFRUIT seed extract.   Both get abbreviated GSE by people writing about it and I've seen both referenced for root rot.   So I'll throw some in my big bucket tonight as its been getting some sulfur smell in the rez recently and I've also got some grapefruit seed extract coming in the mail to try as well.

Might try drilling a lower hole in the big bucket to reduce the rez size so it uses up the water faster and gets more dry time in between fillings every 48 hours.   Letting it run longer to the get the same drying isn't as good an option just from a ph drift perspective.  Might just be that 2" high drain hole isn't a universal magic height for hempys.  It gave me a 25oz rez in my 2 gals but more than double that in the 3 gal and a 5oz rez in my party cups.  Going forward I won't be running any as large as 3 gal again, way too long to get roots into the rez and seems more prone to rot from sitting water.  Still think the rot in the mainline cup had to do with the rockwool cube, my perlite only cups are 3 weeks old and show no signs of rot.  They are also still like 3 inches tall which sucks.  They aren't dying or struggling, just not, ya know, *growing*.  

Got a final round of supercropping done on both mainlines today to get closer to the height, flat canopy, cola and leaf spacing I'm after.   I'm sure I have another week+ of safe time to bend if necessary after running this strain before.  Main bucket is looking great and mini mainline is doing really well.  Fully recovered might be too strong a term but it's close.  It's taking  scropping well, turning up fast and the most recent 3 node levels haven't been cursed yet.