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This is technically my second grow! My first attempt at Slurricane (OG, not the #7) failed even before this stage, as the seedlings all damped off after germinating in a peat/perlite mix. Classic mistake of too much love I guess. I thought I was being safe just keeping the soil slightly damp with very high temps and humidity. It felt like a humiliating loss at the time after years of research, and holding onto those seeds for so long - but we've come back with some even stronger genetics so you could say it's turned out for the best.
This time around I used some "Root !t" plugs which are a spongey plug made from who knows what recommended by the hydro shop. They come pre-soaked in a nutrient solution which I know is unnecessary, however they look very happy to me so far.
I found that once removed from their pack the plugs started to dry out so they have been given just a few ml's of water every now and again to keep them from fully drying out and remain spongey though I would not call them damp or moist. They also sat above a seedling mat which I felt exacerbated the issue, though temps never rose above 21c. 2 and a half days later, we had some lil ladies popping through their lids!
They're currently sitting in an oversized humidity dome with water spritzed on the sides, under some 55w CFL's in a small seahawk propagation tent. There is a fan blowing the warm filtered exhaust air from the 5x5 currently working on the cover crop in my organic/living soil mix!
The OMFG on the bottom right sprouted first and with great vigour. Last night I pulled that plug out to assess the moisture at the bottom of the plug and was surprised to see a good 5-6 cm root popping out the bottom already. Meanwhile, the Slurricane on the 2nd from the left/top has sprouted, though it's root is barely a cm or 2 in length. The seeds all sprouted quite well, though because of the plug's structure, I thought they were having a little trouble growing correctly, getting caught etc so I gave them a bit of a hand readjusting them to grow outwards, and deshelled a few of them last night. I wondered if I had interfered too much and went to bed anxious, but fortunately I woke up to them all looking great - bar the top right OMFG and the runt of the Slurricanes which I have not touched. I'm sure they will figure it out.
I feel like I am still helicoptering the shit out of them, but I can't help it! I could watch them all day.
Day 2/3: I removed the dome, added a humidifier and rearranged the plugs to be next to each other so I could position them to get an even amount of wind generated by the small broken fan heater. Woke up to temps at 30c and RH at 40%. The biggest OMFG was leaning very hard, but over the course of the day readjusted and is standing up a bit straighter. Added some water to the bottom of the tray for the plugs to wick upwards. They drank a lot more than I anticipated and I ended up putting the inner tray on a paper towel to remove excess moisture before putting them back into the tent. The cover crop is looking incredibly good despite earlier mould problems killing off a bunch of seedlings. Dark vigourous green with a healthy waxy layer. Top dressed with some soft rock phosphate and watered it in possibly too much dechlorinated water that had a small amount of AMF Myco added. Not as much growth as I expected today to be honest though looking at the photos I'd say the first true set of leaves have almost doubled in size. I also tried to support the runt(z) of the OMFG with some toothpicks and extra fibre in the hole as it's not looking super strong. The root is slightly extended past the top of the plug unfortunately. I'm definitely fucking with them too much.
Temps ~23c
rh - 40-60%rh
Water - distilled
It's been a week or so since the first entry. Plants are doing their thing. I transplanted into some smaller than I would have liked pots, but due to some severe lockdowns it was all I had available. They absolutely loved the new soil. I've given them some supplements to increase the microbial activity in the pots and help with their nutrient uptake. I.E fulvic/humic acid. They will just go straight into their final pots from here. 2x5 + 2x7 gallon pots for the 4x4 tent with some HPS lights for flower, and 4x7 gallon pots for the 5x5 with the 650Rspec. 2 of each strain will go into each tent so it'll be an interesting side by side comparison of HPS vs LED.
The weather is starting to heat up where I am at so there have been some hot days. They have grown a lot since their first transplant, but already I've noticed their growth slow down so time to chuck them in their final pots! I felt they wouldn't last longer than a couple of weeks in those little things, so I preemptively destroyed the cover crop to make way for them. They definitely had a little bit of root circling going on, but overall nothing unhealthy so I think I've timed that well!
Unfortunately the seeds from the cover crop keep germinating, which is a bigger problem than you'd think, because the buckwheat has a 90% chance to helmet, and from there develop powdery mildew from inside the shell...so there are all of these little PM bombs constantly popping up, meaning I have to scout for them multiple times a day. Do I mind? No, because I can stare at them for way too long.
I treated them with a milk/water solution, and raised the temp to 32c each day for 20 or so minutes to mitigate any spores propagating through the tent. I have now bought some castile soap in case the problem develops into something. So far, I don't believe it's affected the girls. The paranoid self in me keeps looking at the milk residue and wondering, is THAT PM?? But it hasn't been. With the increased heat has come some pretty dry days where the tent refused to go above 50RH, so I put the girls just in their top tray pretty much on top of the humidifier with the funnel just acting to redirect the mist outwards instead of up. Genius or am I just asking for mould problems??
The next day after their transplant they were looking happy as could be, just like after their first transplant into this soil! I was preparing to see some droopy girls for the next couple of days, but they barely seemed to notice, even after one of the root balls almost disintegrated when taking it out of her pot. Don't transplant while the soil is wet! It'll just fall apart. I knew that, but thought they had dried out more than they had. I gave the transplant pits a sprinkle of AMF myco before plopping those bad girls in. Can't wait to see how they'll grow!
Girls are growing strong! Some moreso than others. One of the Slurricanes seems to be having what looks like a nitrogen deficiency, but I've just let her do her thing and she seems to be doing better. Overall the OMFG's are a lot bigger. OMFG #1 and #3 are looking fantastic. I've certainly seen much more vigorous looking plants at this age, but that's why I'm running photos! Can just keep vegging them til the flip.
Today we trained them using the very helpful guide from Northern Scrogger's YT channel. For anyone unaware of him, he has some jaw dropping canopies. Go give him some love!
I wish I had more to do than just watch them! They're going strong, have been re-training them little by little as needed. Some girls are growing more than others, as well as responding better to the training. I'm not sure if that's because I've made a mistake, or just simply the growth pattern of the plant.
Plants doing well! Just sprayed them with some kelp/agisil. The tent found its first run in with pests against a couple of fungus gnats that quickly turned into a dozen fungus gnats. Ordered some predatory mites which arrived way sooner than expected, thankfully. Don't think I've seen a measurable increase in their numbers since. They did cause some leaf damage, as well as potential stress to the roots. Not too big of a deal overall.
Been ages since the last update, I've had a bunch of different "deficiency" issue's which seemed to have cleared up after I dramatically raised the lights. I would have massively stunted them, but all part of the learning experience. Intentionally played with how much/how little water they could handle. Made a bunch of other small dumb mistakes. Top dressed with some kelp meal, fin n feather meal, alfalfa meal, some nutrient tea kits just used as a dry amendment because I couldn't be bothered brewing them. They seem super happy but still random buts of problems here and there. Added some beautiful worm castings as a top dress a few days ago.
Flipped today (21/11/21).
DevlinBeanington
