Now things are getting interesting.  Last night I had both of NERCs moved from paper towels into Jiffy pellet thingys.  This morning the other 2, Diesel Candy, had sprouted sufficiently to move them to the Jiffy.  Not much to see at this point but I do have a pic.  New England Rock Candy on the left and Diesel Candy on the right.  Only a parent would be proud, right?  LOL

I am also excited to mention that I have finished my DIY veg light.  And, not a minute too soon.  It is basically 2 @ChilLED Logic royal blue pucks, a Mean Well  HLG-185H-48B driver, some 2020 aluminum extrusion and some wire.  Looks good,  Hope it works as good.

Thanks for taking a look and hope all is well with you and your grow

Oh, boy.  I think I may have the first fatality.  One of the NERCs is looking a little sickly.  All 4 sprouted and looking a little spindly at the moment.

The NERC in the back needs some support to stand up!  We'll keep an eye on her and see if she can pull it out.  If I don't see improvement by tomorrow I will drop another seed.

The Diesel Candy OTOH, seem to be a bit sturdier but also spindly.

Ok.  I'm happy to report that the NERC that I didn't think was going to make it after all.  Major props to Kyle at @predicativebreeding for his strong genetics.  These girls are fighters!  At Kyle's suggestion I will lower my light in an effort to prevent them from stretching more than they should at their tender young age.

NERCs.

Not much to show at this point but tomorrow I do hope to get them into some larger containers to set them up for early growth.  BTW, if someone knows how to rotate the damn pics to make them easier to view, I would be grateful for the assistance.

Diesel Candy.

Same here.  Seem to be doing OK, if a bit too leggy/spindly.

Ok.  It's been too long since I've posted.  I have transplanted all the plants into Solo cup-sized pots and, after a couple days of stalled growth, all seem to be going quite strong.  I wasn't happy with my "veg"  structure and decided I could/should fabricate a more permanent structure.  With some wood I had laying around I came up with a 17" x 24" x 35" box with an open top to allow my light to move up and down as needed.  I lined the inside some reflective insulation.  Should I paint the inside white instead?

This pic and the next are from last week

Diesel Candy.  Before transplanting.

NERC. Before transplanting.

Now they're recovered from transplant shock and seem to be well on their way, if not a little bit behind from late germination and having my light too far away, causing them to stretch more than they should.

Diesel Candy

New England Rock Candy

Sigh.  The drama seems to never end.  I had to make a management decision this morning:  I kicked out my 2 old Gold Leaf plants from my flower tent in order to put the NERCs and DCs in.  I had hoped to time it such that the GLs would be finished and harvested by the time these new plants would outgrow the new veg structure.  Unfortunately, I am unable to control my humidity - it's been ~22% - and the new plants need more love than what they're getting in the veg tent.  So, out they go and the new girls have taken up residence in the flowering tent.

Diesel Candy.  The leaves are dry as a popcorn fart and, I expect not long for this world if conditions don't improve.

Temps and RH are now 76* and 55%.  Feeling much better about them now.

So, about the two Gold Leaf plants...  This grow has been a clusterfuck almost since day 1.  When I bought the seeds I thought they were autoflowering - all the other seeds I bought are autos.  First big no-no.  When I found out they're photos I flipped them to 12/12 to get them moving, probably well after they should be have been flipped.  Mistake #2 came about when I found that my light timer had a second program also running and turning the lights back on about an hour after the first program turned them off.  That fuck-up is only trumped by the fact that I'm growing them in water-only soil in 5-gallon pots.  They're now 163 days old and nowhere near being ready for harvest.  The soil ran out of nutrients- the leaves are turning yellow and dying!  Ahh, the joys of growing cannabis as a newbie!!! 

These are the Gold Leaf plants.  So, rather than just cut them down and throw them out I grabbed the rest of the Reflectix insulation I have left over from lining the the veg box and circled the plants. Relocated the new light above the Gold Leaf plants.  I will keep watering them and see if they can finish out but I won't be trying anything special to keep them growing.

So, I up-potted all the plants and they seem to be a bit sad.  The older leaves are dry and leathery.

These are the NERCs.

And these are the Diesel Candy.

I am going thru loads of water in my humidifier but can't seem to make them happy.  My temps are ~75* with an RH of ~50-55%.  What else can/should I be doing?

BTW, I am using Great Lakes Water Only soil from Detroit Nutrient Co.  My lights are set at about 90% of max and are 24" from the tops of the plants.  What other info can I relate that will help bring these girls to the happy side of the ledger?

ANY assistance would be greatly appreciated.

WOW!  While checking out the other PBreeding journals I couldn't help but notice how much of a wuss I've been with topping.  I guess I don't have the nerve to cut that much of the plant and still expect it to survive.

Is it too late?  If not, how much can/should I cut?

New England Rock Candy

Diesel Candy

Thoughts?/

Did the *rotate image* function stop working?  I tried about 6 times and couldn't rotate them.

Hello all.  Take a look at this pic below.  Any ideas on what's going on?  My first thought is that my heater - an oscillating forced air-type - may have been too close.  Is this likely?  I have since moved it further away and directed one of my fans to blow across the heated air from the heater.

I have another question related to flipping and up-potting: Should the plants be in their final pots prior to flipping?  Mine are still in smaller one-gallon fabric pots.

TIA

Sigh!  We're going from bad to worse.

This is NERC #1 and it does not look happy.  Gotta be hot soil, right?  I've done nothing other than give pH'd water since day 1.  The lights are 24" from the top of the plants, temps are 78 to 80 with 50% to 55% RH.  Anybody got any thoughts?  I'm too new to have a clue...

Chef & JG, thanks for the responses.  These are things I have not heard before; I naively expected the water-only soil would take care of the plants throughout its lifetime.  I will go the store-bought route and buy some Roots Organics or Happy Frog so we can back on track sooner rather than later - it's winter here and the ground is frozen and snow-covered - but I like the DIY soil idea.

JG - what function does mycelium serve?

Deep breath.  Last night I up-potted all 4 plants into 7-gallon fabric pots.  @chefomj suggested that I use some light mix potting soil to assist in getting past the hot soil conditions I seem to be dealing with...  So I did just that: in the 7-gallon pots I put several inches of the super-soil on the bottom.  I removed the plant from the 1-gallon pot and lightly brushed away some of the super soil from the root ball and placed it in the new pot and added the light mix around the sides so that the roots will more quickly get into the new soil, followed by more super-soil around the outside to the edge of the pot.  Then, I gave them a good watering in an effort to facilitate the transition into the new pots.  Time will tell...

Well, it has been awhile since my last post as I was kinda bummed out at out how this has been a challenging undertaking, at least for me.  I was trying to make it as simple as possible: I mean with super / water-only soil, how much easier can it be?  Oh well.  I will use this as a learning opportunity.  Before I created this post I was looking at our fellow @PredicativeBreeding growers in the Challenge and noticed just how much I need to learn.  You people are terrific growers.  I will be taking notes.

These are the New England Rock Candy.  As others have mentioned in their respective posts, these plants are short and squat.  Mine have started recovering from the hot soil but still are not nearly as far along as I would like.  I did top them today and will wait at least until the weekend before flipping to 12/12.

And these are the Diesel Candy.  They seem to have been less affected than the NERCs by the hot soil or, at least they have recovered quicker.  These DCs are much bushier and I have attempted to engage them in some LST to get them to spread out more in preparation for flipping.

Oh yeah, almost forgot... I added some Blumat automatic watering thingeys.  We will be heading out for a bit of vacation shortly and no one will be home to water them.  I think I may be getting this part dialed in.  LOL

Well, I just may not embarrass myself afterall. LOL.  I flipped them to 12/12 last night.  They're about as ready as they're gonna be.  I also adjusted temp and RH to 74* and 50%

Diesel Candy

DC02 is easily my biggest plant and yet it looks to be struggling with some clawing (nitrogen toxicity?) and discolored leaves.  If recall correctly this plant may have been the one that I didn't do as good a job of scraping the original (hot) soil off the root ball when I transplanted to the 7-gallon pots.

DC01 on the other hand is a bit smaller but looks quite content.  Right?

New England Rock Candy

NERC01 is the smallest and a bit scrawny but she, too, is looking better each day.

NERC02 is also smallish and has a few leaves with some discoloration but also looks relatively happy.

Watering question: Can anyone give me suggestions as to how I should go about getting the plants some PK or tea?  You can see from the pics that I have Blumats doing the plain watering for me - in preparation for us being away on vacation for a few days.  They are pretty cool, BTW.  Makes watering very convenient.  I added an air pump and air stone to the mix.   Even though I'm using water-only soil, it has been suggested that I should feed the plants some tea and/or PK.  Since I can't put the tea or PK in the water reservoir for the Blumats, can I just lightly hand feed them?  Full disclosure: I did it that way once a couple days ago without any obvious issues but not sure if this was/is a good long-term strategy.  Thoughts?

This is fun!

I think the girls are rolling right along post-transplant...

New England Rock Candy

Diesel Candy