Fastbuds trifecta!

Hey there growmies! We are back! It’s week 2 of our fast buds grow and we have more exciting news! We have some more friends that have joined the party and without further adew it is time to introduce you to the newest members of our team! I will start with another company who has been here in the garden with me since literally day one, same as fast buds- and that is Mars hydro! While they offer a range of products, I personally went with them to light multiple grow spaces of mine! I had originally found out about them from dr.coco and found that they are a perfect balance of being high quality while still being budget friendly and I have had nothing but success with those lights and I have a couple different models- so their quality is consistent among their various lines and offerings. And another friend that will be joining the party is future harvest nutrients! While they are new friends, their reputation proceeds them and I have seen beautiful results from people that run their nutrient line! They have sent us their Holland tri pack to test out and I will also be trying to acquire some of their additives down the road to make sure I am maximizing the potential of this line and really getting a chance to see what they can do! I feel extremely fortunate to have these wonderful groups of people in my corner on this journey- and although we are only at the start of week 2, despite my experience, it is certainly already to be proving to be an adventure- sit back relax and I will explain… Ok let’s set the scene- it’s fall, but geographically where I reside, one moment it’s gorgeous low 60’s high 50’s, all the leaf peepers traveling in droves to our area to enjoy some of those beautiful fall colors- and then you blink…. You blink and it’s freezing, all the leaves have fallen and all those beautiful colors have dulled to a gray… and this year did not disappoint…. (That’s actually a lie…. It’s always disappointing hahah.. disappointing, but expected) Anyways things got cold a bit hastier than I was prepared for so things had to be shuffled- the locations of my spaces would be a definite problem as far as heat is concerned so I was going to acquire another tent and set up a couple tents in my wife’s jewelry studio (yes my wife is awesome for not only letting me grow, but being gracious enough to let me take over or at least share her space for the duration of the winter due to the fact that there is a nice little propane heater in there) So far I have been trying to stick with 3x3 spaces- not only is it what I started with, but I have a few, so I can switch out my equipment interchangeably no matter if I am in a tent or the closet. So I was trying to get another 3x3 tent and my buddy who introduced me to the wonderful world of growing had text me that same day, not knowing that I was in need- told me he had just come across an unopened 3x3 that he had ordered a long time ago when he was ordering a few 5x5s and he had asked me if I would be interested in taking it off his hands… I felt like the stars had aligned and was quick to jump at that opportunity I had been talking to Mars at the time and was planning on trying to get a 3x3 as I had mentioned but due to recent events, I pivoted and decided to go with a 4” ventilation kit (which should be arriving tomorrow actually) and to light the space, I was planning on taking the light I had in the closet and throwing it in the new tent- well Murphy is a fan of mine…. 🤦‍♂️🏻 (as in Murphy’s law..) I had gone to set up this new tent to get everyone moved in and settled into their new home and quickly realized that I wasn’t dealing with a 3x3…… I was in fact putting together a 5x5.. I immediately called my buddy to let him know about the mix up but he said if I could use it, I was still welcome to have it. It didn’t even take me five minutes before I came up with plan B (more like 5 seconds) I was going to take down two 3x3s, and put all that equipment into the one 5x5 and basically have two of everything from lights to fans- what I plan on doing is just turning the power down a bit on their adjustment knobs and control everything that way so I am not overwhelming the little ones. I moved everything over and am absolutely loving the fact that (at least as of now) I can walk right in there and do what I need to do- the downside is I had one plant nicely scrogged and I had to undo all that and re set that up in the bigger tent- I’ll get that back to where I had it but decided to let it grow a bit to make it easier to weave.. ( that one hurt a little…😢) but everything was going well and was looking pretty happy in their new home UNTIL… the cold weather hit❄️….THAT is when things started to go wrong- that nice little heater I mentioned earlier decided to play not so nice and absolutely refused to turn on- I’m not familiar with this type of stuff and don’t feel comfortable having a technician coming to look at it with my whole set up right there so I had to start brain storming… what did I come up with? Well my mother in law has this beefy space heater- I will be picking that up from her tonight- I’m not sure what this will mean for my electricity bill and I may have to come up with another plan sooner than later if it’s a noticeable jump in cost, but for right now- my concern is keeping these girls alive! So now an update on our girls! They have all sprouted, I really like that germination method- growdiaries says it’s not super popular but it’s super effective.. I don’t understand why it’s not more popular but I’ll probably stick with this method until I have a seed that decides not to sprout.. All the seeds have sprouted and the gorilla cookies was first to pop up and the others weren’t far behind, by the next day everyone had sprouted and had been reaching for the sky- It was at that point I decided it’s time to get them out of those little pouches, and time to put them in their new homes that are the next size up. Usually when doing this, I like to sprinkle a mycorrhizal product on the roots but alas I am fresh out and we’re getting closer and closer to the holidays and I had to make some sacrifices and not resupply at this time. Now with those pouches that the peat pellets come in, keep teaching me lessons- I come up with a technique that I think works and then yet again I am proven wrong and it’s back to the drawing board- a technique I have developed is tearing the top and bottom of the pouch as to not obstruct the natural pathway of the seedling whether it be the taproot or the sprout itself… well like I said- I keep learning lessons… would anyone care to take a guess at who has two thumbs and ripped off almost every taproot from the seedlings as they made their best efforts to CAREFULLY remove the pouch? This guy!!!! Yes… this guy…. 🤦‍♂️🏻 I probably just answered my own question on why this isn’t a more popular germination method… anywho that is the situation and unfortunately it is quite likely that I have stunted them due to that little mishap… but I’m just going to have to roll with it, and roll with it I shall! I usually like to top my plants, even autos..but considering the taproot massacre and the super cold temps, I have undoubtedly stunted their growth (touché, don’t get over confident folks) I am going to need to change up my strategy and stay away from anything that might hinder their growth and may adversely affect their yield. We will see what happens… I get excited in the moment so anything can happen.. only time will tell! Much more fun is headed our way, so stay tuned and be sure to catch us at the same time in the same place next week and we will continue our journey through some of the wonderful offerings that can be found in the fastbuds strain library! Until next time, happy growing everybody! Grower love!! 💚🤙🌱