Got a bunch of seeds dropped. Not sure which ones are going to come up. I have my environment dialed in but the seeds are taking forever to germinate. I am starting to think the tap water is not good for them. 🤣 🤣
I will be patient and give them a few more days. I have three autos I have started for the one cola challenge. There are two Cherry Suckers from SOFEM and one Bruce Banner from HGC co.
Alright! So I have found that going right into coco coir once the seedling opens is working for me perfectly. I'm loving it actually. Fuck Jiffy Peat Pellets.
I say that because I believe I finally have pinpointed my struggles with seedlings. I think the real problem is that I am drowning them. The peat pellets can get too water logged and I am an expert at getting them too wet. 🤣 🤣
I went to check on a seedling that looked weird and had dropped its shell. So I started inspecting it and when I touched the cotyledons the whole seedling turned to mush. 🤣 🤣 🤣 That was my fault, obviously. So since it is hard to overwater Coco Coir I went straight to that from the paper towel and it seems to have fixed my issues.
Unfortunately, the Zombie Death Fuck is not going to make it and I do not have any more of those seeds. I have replaced it with a seed I got from @berkshire.bud and named it Berkshire Blueberry. A few other seeds didn't make it either so I dropped two Apple Bars From Honeycomb Farms along with a Gelato Cake from THseeds.
The one cola Auto flower are about to go into the 4x4 under the 660watt Medic Grow Fold-6. It is all cleaned and ready to go. The flower room is also ready to go. I am pretty excited to get these ladies going. 😀 😀 😀 😎 😎 Hoping the Nasty Nanna comes out Stank Nasty!! 🤣 🤣 🤣 I will give an update on the strains that survived and which ones will be making it to the dance on the next post. 🤩 😎 🤣
It has been a little over a week since the last update. The autos in the 4x4 are doing fantastic and I have got the larger seedlings into the pots in the flower room.
Right now I have the two Cherry Sucker Autos and a Bruce Banner Auto in the 4x4. In the flowering room it looks like I will be growing 2 Mimosa X Orange Punch , Bomb Shoes, Pepe Le Glue, 2 Apple Bars, Blueberry, Gelato Cake and I think the Nasty Nana might make it also. 😀 😀 😀 🤗 🤗
The Bomb Shoes looks different than anything I have grown so far. It has a lot of 3 point leaves and heavy Indica looking. It doesn't look sick or stressed, just different, in a good way. 🤩
Everything looks good I think. I gave the Auto-flowers in the 4x4 a clean up by removing a couple lower nodes I and completed the first topping of a mainline on the four plants in the grow room. I feel like things are moving a little slow but that is ok. I like to take my time and make sure I do a decent job.
I will be moving the other ladies in the seedling tent into the grow room in another few days probably. Depending on time and size, I may need to flower these other ones sooner than I would like. I am not sure though so we will see.
I have the PH of the nutrient solution at 5.6 and let it rise to about 6.5 before I bring it back down to the proper range again. With the reservoir at 50 gallons it takes about 35ml of PH down to go from 6.5 to 5.6.
I am still following Dr MJ Coco's feed schedule, found in his book. I scale back the KoolBloom by at least 1/2 to 1/3rd strength, which is the only modification I make to it.
Here are some updated Pics.
So far, everything is smooth sailing. I just cleaned out the reservoir yesterday. It hadn't been cleaned in over 3 weeks and still looked fantastic. The reservoir is on a cement floor and keeps the water temps in an acceptable range. It will fluctuate between 70 and 75 degrees. I really wish it was about 5 degrees cooler.
I have included pictures of the EC , temperature and PH of the reservoir AND of the tap water I use. The tap water is HARD and contains mostly Ca and Mg. It's EC is within the acceptable range for indoor gardening. I do have to add a little more PH down to get it into proper range after mixing. (5ml per gallon)
The reservoir readings were taken 24hrs after cleaning and refilling it. The PH has crept up just slightly from yesterday. I am still happy with the data but I wish the temps were 5 degrees lower.
The first topping was completed on the 5 plants in the back of the flower room yesterday and the final mainline topping on three of the four larger front area plants were done yesterday as well. I have dialed in the watering amount just by visually observing runoff and adjusting as needed.
Here are some updated pics. I am super happy with them right now but they do seem to be growing a little slower than my last grow, but still very pleased. I am going to wait another week or two before flipping them to flower, probably.
Here are the autos!! One of these lucky ladies is going to get a major ONE COLA haircut!! 🤣 🤣 Not sure which one it will be and I am running out of time to decide.
They are doing fantastic and I believe the Cherry Sucker has started it's flowering period and the Bruce Banner is not far behind. I need to get to chopping some nodes off. The smaller Cherry Sucker auto was a bit of a freak and branched off four ways right from the start. So she is likely not a good candidate for the one cola challenge.
Flip Day! there is not much going on. I have just been topping the plants and keeping the reservoir filled. I did switch from 34% H2O2 to beneficial bacteria to keep the reservoir clean and I am liking the change so far.
I was not able to bring myself to top the auto before it started flowering. So I guess I am bailing from the one cola challenge. I will participate in a side challenge one of these times. 😎 I am kind of bummed. The one plant I wanted to top for the one cola challenge grew in like a freak and I didn't want to mess with the mutant. The other 2 autos were just to pretty to chop up I thought.
I have the auto flowers on an 18/6 regiment and fertigating 6 times a day. The flower room plants will be receiving 5 waterings a day until harvest.
I can't wait to see these ladies stretch. I may take some clones in the next day or two. The Bomb Shoes Berkshire Bud gave me looks and smells incredible in vegetation. It has some really unique traits. I am really excited for that one.
I will be spending quite some time doing some light selective defoliation over the next few days and couple of weeks. I find week 2 to week two and a half is a good time to stop cutting on the plants.
Here are some pics taken yesterday, the 12th of February, right before they were flipped.