I dropped one scuffed and soaked seed of each cultivar at 00:00 on 2023-01-01. I didn’t have any peat pellets or rapid rooters left, so they went straight into coco pellets. They are both up this morning. I dropped one more of each the next day, as backups, and expect to see their heads tomorrow.
Watering with warm tap water. EC is 225, which is mostly calcium carbonate from the acid neutralizer on my 85EC well water.
Light is on 20/4 at about 50umol PPFD.
First seeds are up. Just like the last time I used these coco pellets, the seeds pushed themselves up out of the medium, so I had to do a little first aid.
Gently removed them, made a hole all the way to the bottom of the pellet and carefully replanted and then firmed the coco around the stem and watered. I carefully removed the seed coat while I was at it.
After a week, they look ready to plant the pellets in 500ml solo cups
Rinsing and warming up some buffered coco.
Ready to go from 50ml to 500ml! Roots are just showing so it’s a good time.
Soaked and drained the coco with nutrients at an EC of about 650 and pH of 6.3.
The second set of seeds that I started a day or two later as an experiment (pre-cracked!) have done nothing. My guess is I killed them with the pre cracking. I won’t be trying that again!! Fortunately, the first two are growing fine so I didn’t need them anyway.
Still fertigating only twice a day. They are looking a bit light on nitrogen and the leaves seem to want more calcium. I added a bit more Jack’s Art B (calcium nitrate) and diluted back to about 920 using my tap water (EC 220 of which more than half is calcium and carbonate). Anyway, didn’t measure but it felt about right and I didn’t feel like mixing up new nutes.
Rebuffered some coco yesterday using my fancy new sink. So much easier.
Today I potted up the plants to their final pots: #3 air pots, which hold about 8.4 L or 2.2 gal depending on how high up you set the bottom. I still have to connect up the autogertigation system, but I need a rest first.
Did the first topping a few days ago.
Next day everything was looking good, so I increased the light to 75% and moved it farther away from the plants.
Yesterday, I noticed some leaf damage, and realized I had forgotten to refill my res in the morning and hadn’t measured the PPFD when I changed the light intensity! It was up at 750 umol/s/m2!!! Way too much of an increase since it was about 400 before. I know this looks just like spider mite damage, but there is no sign anywhere if mites, larvae, eggs, or frass. just to be sure, I removed the most damaged leaves and went over them end to end and both sides with a scope. The damage pattern is consistent with the places where the leaves had been shaded the most before topping. Leaf photosystems are relatively plastic (adaptable) but there is a limit!
I also raised the light to 60cm. I know I could get the same PPFD WITH 50% and having the light closer, but it’s cold and I need the heat, so I might as well have perfect distribution and use the light for heat too!
Today, the plants are doing well, and I don’t see any further damage. The new top leaves are growing in a higher light environment and should be adapted to more light.
Everything is looking good. No further leaf damage. Started some gentle LST to spread the main branches out and removed growth tips from branch nodes 1 and 2.
Mimosa is definitely growing faster than the Alaskan Thunderfck. Mimosa should be ready for the second topping tomorrow, but AT probably it until the weekend. I just realized I haven’t looked at the breeder notes for estimate length of flower. I hope they aren’t too different.
Fertigating 5 times a day with a custom mid-veg recipe of Jack’s A+B+Epsom (and some GH Armor Si). Inflow EC is 1305 and pH 5.97 with 90 EC well-water, and outflow remains low at 1219 but rising slowly each day (1140-1184-1200-1209-1219). I suspect it is so low because I am fertigating larger quantities than I really need but that’s out of laziness since I don’t feel like adjusting the timer and it won’t hurt them.
I just installed some water distribution mesh to spread out the water from the halos and to keep the coco from splashing around. Thanks to @SmotPoker for the idea. I tested the plastic mesh under a solid stream of water in the sink, and it spread it out perfectly. This looks like a real win for distributing the water more evenly with my auto system.
I also removed the second branch nodes, topped Mimosa (Alaskan Mumblefork isn’t ready yet) and tied them back down, using @HempWithGG’s awesome LST bending technique to avoid snapping anything or splitting the stem.
Outflow EC is up to 1240, so still lower than the inflow of 1305. I’ll be mixing up late veg nutrients tomorrow and refilling the reservoir.
Oops. I had a power failure, but the power came back on before it got too cold.
So I did a little more gentle LST. Or unfortunately not so gentle. I snapped a main branch on the Mimosa. Tried to wrap it and splint it, but it soon became clear it was beyond saving.
Now I have 1.5 plants, and I guess I will be keeping them in vegetative growth for a couple of extra weeks to fill the tent. She’s gonna be awfully lopsided!
Late veg nutrient recipe at 1340 EC 6.03 pH with 90EC water. Outflow still down at 1280EC.
Did the third topping on the surviving branch of Mimosa, but the Alaskan ThumperDuck needs another day or two.
I rotated Mimosa 90 degrees, so that as the final 4 colas grow, I can train them into the brighter part of the light.
Still on that first reservoir of Late Veg nutrients with an outflow EC of 1305. The plants were getting too close to the light and max PPFD was up to just over 1000 umols, so I raised the light back to 50cm, except this time, that only brought the max PPFD down to 850 over the Aleutian HungerCluck, because of its position, I guess. I didn’t want to starve Mimosa of light while she recovers, and max PPFD way over on her edge of the tent is 700.
Did the third topping on the surviving branch of Mimosa, but the Alaskan ThumperDuck needs another day or two.
I rotated Mimosa 90 degrees, so that as the final 4 colas grow, I can train them into the brighter part of the light.
Still on that first reservoir of Late Veg nutrients with an outflow EC of 1305. The plants were getting too close to the light and max PPFD was up to just over 1000 umols, so I raised the light back to 50cm, except this time, that only brought the max PPFD down to 850 over the Aleutian HungerCluck, because of its position, I guess. I didn’t want to starve Mimosa of light while she recovers, and max PPFD way over on her edge of the tent is 700.
Did the 3rd topping on the Alaskan Tinderduck and refilled the reservoir on day 41. I found a lower branch I had missed removing earlier, so I cut that off and stuck it in a cup of water to root to give away.
Mimosa has recovered nicely from her bisection, and should have 4 nice colas. Given how she has been growing, though, I suspect I will be scropping during the bolt.
I changed the light timer to come on 2 hours later and turn off 4 hours earlier, flipping to 12/12.
Some day, I will figure out what it is about my current grow method that makes my leaves get so huge. Here’s a few of the Alaskan Bumpershoot leaves, with a normal, full-size Bic lighter for scale.
Four days since flip. The plants aren’t bolting yet, but they are getting that dense growth of lightly more lime green leaves and shoots that I associate with the flip as the plant gets ready to bolt and start flowering.
I refilled the reservoir with my recipe for transition nutrients. Inflow EC is 1205 (90EC well water) and pH 5.92, and outflow EC is up to 1490. While that’s right about at the limit of where I want the outflow, I suspect it may be lower than that really because I am being lazy and just measuring my outflow bucket every day. That has been through the drain pipe and sat in the condensate pump until it filled, then sat in in the uncovered bucket for most of a day evaporating. I’ll have to try to catch some fresh the next time I fertigate so I can compare.
The plants have started bolting (a technically more accurate term than “stretch”) and grew nearly 10cm overnight. No sign of pistils yet.
