Got a ton of black friday special seeds from MSNL so I have more than I know what to do with. Since I got 7 GDP seeds including 2 that were freebies it seemed the logical one to throw 4 of at an experimental grow. Fun to run a legendary name too.
Main focus is trying the TPS One™ single part start to finish all included bottled magic bean juice. Claims to have enough calmag to be run in coco without additional calmag in addition to aminos, micros, macros and microbes all in one bottle. The only thing left out is the silica and it seems like many people add other things at different stages rather than going true one and done like I plan on here. My only extra will be silica. It's kinda spendy by the quart bottle but pretty concentrated and if it works as advertised it would be worth it in simplicity alone but I'm skeptical. Plan to run this same TPS One for NYGC but unless this experiment goes super smooth I'll kick in a bit of extra cal mag, some more N in veg and a bit of PK boost in flower for that run.
To make things interestinger I'm going to run start to finish in a little 2'x2'x4' under my Viparspectra XS1000 120w light in 1 qt yogurt tubs filled with just perlite in a passive hydro double bucket system I'm sort of making up as I go.
I'll veg just long enough to get to 4 top mainline and flip. Calculated the max plant height above the bucket at 21" which shouldn't be an issue.
End of week 1
Seeds got wet at midnight last Sunday, 3 got cracks/tail by hour 20 and put into rockwool cubes. 4th seed was given several days in hopes of preserving my streak but went nowhere, would not have run it had it popped since it looked like some diseased monster seed on closer inspection. Streak ends at 13 months, 17/18 successful seed starts.
All 3 got out of the cube by the end of day 3 but 2 are running much faster than the runt 3rd. Roots out of the bottom of the cube by the end of day 4 which is unusually fast, cubes into perlite buckets the next morning. Changed from 24/0 to 18/6 after day 6. 2x2x4 tent is a huge pain in the ass to balance an environment so I'm being content with ok vs good or great. 70-72F 55-62%rh is roughly what I can hold in a stable way till I make some intake changes.
New TPS One nutes are super easy to work with, not just because its just one bottle but they are easy to measure, mix quickly, come out fairly close to the right ph and best of all stay really stable in a jug overnight. They have the same benes that are in Hydroguard which is nice since that was something I considered adding to this run and don't have to. Are they any good as fertilizer is a question thats gonna take a lot longer to answer.
Day 14 today.
Yesterday, 9 days since the cubes went into perlite I stopped the frequent top watering and intend to let them go 48 hours to see if they have hit the rez yet. 24 hours in and nobody is dying, yet.
As usual the first leaves look wavy, this has happened on every single perlite grow I've done and I'm thinking it might just be because growing roots through rock isn't comfortable but it hasn't yet preceded any real issues. All 3 are stacked up really tight, less than an inch from the cotyledons to node 3 so maybe the light is a bit stiff but I'll probably just let them get used to it rather than dim at this point.
Day 21
Slow going, the most stable place to keep this tent is about 72-73F and 52-55%rh which ain't great but it works. Trying an experiment today that's giving 80F/65% right now but remains to be seen if it will be stable or go to hell if something looks at it funny.
3 plants, 3 different heights but otherwise all at the same development speed more or less with 5 nodes emerged and a 6th peeking out but there is zero chance of them getting topped today or tomorrow, even on the tallest plant there is only 1/8th" internode from 3 to 4. Crossing my fingers for Monday topping, Pretty doubtful I'll be flipping on NYE unless I abandon the 4 top mainline and go another route to speed things up.
TPS One continues to be very easy to use and stays stable in the jug at least 48 hours but just based on the Ph rise over 15 hours in the bucket there isn't as much N as these plants would like. This isn't unexpected in a one part, there has to be just barely enough N to make it through veg but not so much as to screw up flower totally. It's been tough to hold firm on the one part plan when the N booster, calmag and bloom are already at my house but I've got to have a baseline before I start messing with the plan next run.
Topped yesterday, day 24.
Finally figured out a combination that will give me roughly 80F and 70% rh and stay stable. Got more growth the second half of yesterday and today than the whole previous week. Shame I didn't figure it out till 90% of the way through veg.
End of 4 weeks of veg, 12/12 started at 9:30pm NYE. Expected harvest around March 19th.
Great growth with a good environment now and the plants look fantastic finally just in time for flower. TPS One gets a passing grade at midterms, finals will likely be a bigger test.
Day 35
One week of flower complete, no pistils but the nodes are stacking so tight I expect them tomorrow or Monday.
All 3 got scropped and braced 4 days ago and things were going well till disaster struck this afternoon. Dropped all 3 plants when moving them out to water, they all came out of the buckets and I'm sure there is root damage, one had a stem break all the way off and its been taped and wired back. What sucks is I was going to toss it out today as its the runt and I'm out of space, hence the bobble getting them out of the tent, but now I need to save it first before I throw it away.
Day 37
After being very gentle with the broken limb plant for a day I decided Ain't Nobody Got Time For That and chopped it down to node 2. So it survives and still has a spot in the tent but this frees up a lot of horizontal space. Took the lower clips off of all of them now they've moved outward from the stem and now can head up into the light. Deleted a couple growth tips along the top branch for spacing and now A and B have a decently even 8 site canopy, C will be a 2 node mainline.
Day 43
Plants are back to looking light and unhappy, possibly cold but it is what it is. The steam humidifier went to the NYGC tent a few days ago and the heater yesterday so I'm back to letting them deal with a mediocre environment. Pistils came in about day 11 and I did my last round of canopy leveling yesterday, pretty sure they will turn back up.
TPS One still doing ok, rez ec started to climb by day 5 after the flip to about +360 by the end of the day and was lowered from it's high of 1350 to 1080 currently which ends the day with a +140ec. This EC reduction might be part of the light coloration returning.
End of week 7, 3rd of flower.
Cold, dry and sad pretty much sums it up. Got pom poms but there is no joy in this tent right now, most of the day is about 75F 39%rh. Its gonna just have to deal with the ambient temp and rh of the house from here on out.
End of week 8, 4th week of flower
They have all rallied from the environment being snatched away far better than I could have hoped. Typical day is about 77F 36rh now and they don't seem to mind a bit other than some crispy tips. Largest plant is drinking its rez twice a day and the other 2 are coming close. The real shocker is plant C which had always been the smallest and got injured the worst falling out of the bucket is now looking the best overall for color, size and visible roots. Still just plugging along with the TPS One only but with the very high VPD I've cut the EC to the 860-900 range.
Week 9 comes to a close today.
Lots of purple coming in, started about 6 days ago on the C plant and now the A and B are getting in on the act. C is still far better looking than the other 2 above and below ground. I think in this small of a bucket that 2 colas is a sweet spot for the rootmass which is why the A/B both have such light leaves and far smaller flowers, 8 tops vs 2.
Tip burn has stopped with the EC reduction, things are holding fairly steady at 840ec in and from +100 to +260 out depending on the plant, still have 77-79F and 30-36%rh all day. The tallest plant is right at 8.5" and the shortest is 7"
Day 70, 6 weeks of flower done.
Usual flower boredom, watching trichs grow. C plant fans are almost totally a deep purple now with some purple lines starting into the sugar leaves and flowers as well, pistils still mostly all white. A and B seem to be ripening much quicker based on the pistil colors and how quickly the fans are looking like fall, they both have purple but not nearly to the same extent as C. Nutes continue to be the same thing, 800ec changed twice a day as they slurp down water in a tent that remains roughly 77F 35% most of the time. Even though they have roughly 4 weeks left the flowers look fairly airy. I'd like to think they'll firm up with so much time left but I bet the constant low humidity is going to result in some outdo looking nugs, at least they are pretty.
Day 77 - end of week 7 since flip day
Same old story, nothing new or different since last entry. There is a lot to like about having a tent I can't control, very chill once you accept its going to be what it's going to be. Feels like 1995 again.
Took a group picture today and it made my phone have a stroke, simply couldn't understand the dark purple on C plant in the same frame as the lime greens on the other 2, the whole shot looks almost like a color negative.
Week 8 flower finishes today.
Trichs are clouding up very fast at least in the higher parts, my only guess is stress from the really lousy VPD which hovers around 2 all day. This is supposed to be a long flowering strain, breeder estimate of 10-11 weeks, I'll be shocked if it makes it a day or 2 past 9.
