Initiative Recovery

First week is done. I've been overwatering them, maybe a little. Gotta be more conservative on that from now on. I turned fan on yesterday (24.11.2021) and they've been receiving a little cold treatment, but CO2 is now guaranteed. So far, response has been good. I think they get enough warmth from lamp, which is very close to the babies. They also had troubles standing up, I used some support on them for a while, but removed them yesterday. I think they'll stand up on their own. I also cut the protective film, (black and silver) to prepare for separation (giving them some room between, so roots won't get interconnected to the cubes), and now that cover looks kinda messy and awful. Glad it's just temporary. I make more precise equipment to the next project. Yesterday's droopiness is also gone. I gave them unmeasured amount of AHF Grow, Micro and Bloom, also little bit of Microbe Life All-In-One. Photos aren't the best atm, I'll try to up the game for future.

I changed light covers to a better ones, also separated the cubes from each others because roots have hit the bottom. I wonder if my water pump comes in time, or do I have to get another for temporary installment, plants are getting quite big already. One month of waiting is starting to be too much at this rate of growth. Also, there's some damage in the leaves because I sprayed them with a plant steroid spray called Jaakontaika. It contais various alcohols, butanol, triacontanol and urea. Can cause burn damage on young plants. Did it just once, I'm gonna start to use it more often when these grow big enough. Fed them once with under a liter this week, cubes sucked it in instantly.

I got the speed controller for the fan, it's very quiet even on max airflow, surprised me! Plants are now moved to main growing positions, there's about 70 liters of water, which needs to be cut down to 60 liters once I buy water cooler for that setup, next month. I made a water meter to the pool, it's gonna be very convenient on a long run. Upper table draws about 30 liters of water when the pump is on. Btw, this three plant "curse" is still going on. If you've seen my previous setups, it's always the bottom left plant which doesn't grow very well, compared to the others. Maybe it's God's joke or something lol. I'm also looking for proper colors for the HPS pictures. They tend to be violently orange. At least there's no banding!

Few changes this week. I wasn't happy with that HPS orange color, neither were the plants. I did a little test by putting that 125 W FL lamp back in there, as a supplement, and those bottom two plants jumped due that. So I went to the shop and bought 600 W Metal Halide lamp with cool 5000K color. They're now much less droopy than with that old orange bulb. So that FL 600W isn't actually that. It's MH! Kinda miss my SK 602 LED though.. :( But it's what it is. For flowering I'm gonna buy 20 % blue 80 % orange bulb. Also there's no need to edit photos now due that new bulb! Plants have accepted it (the light), it seems. Those roots also, they're really spreading out, which is kinda concerning since my parts for water intake and outflow protection haven't arrived. Once, back in the history, one pool flooded my floors when they clogged those channels. Then, I wasn't in charge of the growing process, and it was quite adrenaline jolt, medium panic and quick phone calls for the grower then. I really don't want that to happen, before Christmas the water system must be able to work reliably without me being in here, up to 3 days.

They've really started growing now. Roots are white, wide and well, and we're below target temperatures now. Maybe I can postpone the purchase of water cooler, for now. Did some major defoliation, as they're growing faster and faster. It should delay height growth and give more opportunities for bud growth when leaves are not shading young nodes. I've been bit busy / lazy, so there's no daily pictures. Also should've taken pictures before defoliation. Anyways. That Jaakon Taika is working pretty well, as a growth steroid. I'm not being precise with nutrient intake atm, I'm just rolling with intuition, so they're not 100% precise. I was also gonna postpone defoliation for week or two, but just before making this weekly post I decided to run with it anyways. I think it was a good choice.

Last week of vegging! I'll run that blue MH until 4th of January, when I'm gonna go buy balanced (20% blue, 80% red) bulb. I haven't done anything special for them, I'll let them be as natural as it can be, and see how it goes. So, no defoliation or anything. They seem happy, afaik. Pool has been so cool that I'm reconsidering the purchase of water cooler, for now.

I take my words back, more vegetation incoming. I bought Exhale CO2 bag. Just added it in there, also put fans because those stems are so weak. Also the reason why I postponed flowering. Trimmed bottoms too. Let's see how much we can boost this structure until flowering. Measures are from the highest point.

Alright, it's time to put these on flower. By snapping I mean squeezing of main stem, kinda like in high stress training but without bending. I thought that it's enough, but then I also decided to top two highest mains stems. Bottom left is so weak - still - that there's no need to top it, and top left also is pretty shy compared to right ones. I changed my light bulb now to Osram Plantastar. No 13 hour stunts this time, maybe once they're already flowering. I'm gonna be away for couple of days so root filter is cleaned up and a reservoir is filled to 45 liters. That water meter I made is also really paying off! While I'm there, I make those "original" root filters. Necessary tools and resources are gathered, all I need is a proper hacksaw. :) Another plan is not to defoliate nor do anything stressful for them while going to flowering. Or at least try to minimize any stress to the plant. If leaves die on their own, so be it, but no extra defoliation. My first own grow was left as a quite jungle. There's no pictures in here but I'm gonna try it. There's a chance that even bottom leaves and nodes may develop some kind of buds. Later quality assurance may discard those, but I gotta try it.

Goddamn Photoshop, Goddamn orange light.. It's quite hard to work with it. Photos will get overexposured so easily. At least they're trippy! Probably gotta do night shots from now on, like in the past.. I have worries about height, there's some light burns (of what you probably don't see from the pictures) in top leaves, but there's not a whole lot I can do about it, at the moment. Topping was a very good decision, but rather bit too much than too little. :) *...what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger, plants...*

Shit, I think I overdid it.. 😂 I started taking RAW photos from the plants again, gives more room to adjust insane lighting conditions, also photos are reasonably accurate now. That thin plant, bottom left, I didn't topped it as a test, and it's now 150 cm tall. Glad I did it for the two other plants. They really should stop growing now lol. Otherwise, not much has changed. Screen helps a bit, and CO2 eases light burns etc. The lamp is as far as it can be; this is taller than my first project with NL. The next project will probably be with same seed, but with clones. Got one seed left. Unless, I'm gonna try to regrow this after a harvest, you know, for science. :D I'm gonna let it to be a jungle, I like it that way. Leaves die when they die.

I got my trusted Photosynthesis Plus back! Also a lot of twisting and bending, around the tent, so the plants will get maximum amount of light, without burning up. I'm not very happy with the results atm, but at least I got some scientific evidence about topping for the future grows. Two were topped, two weren't. I'm really hoping that this would yield at least 200 grams. 300 grams would be nice. Well, I'm gonna re-veg this whole thing after harvest, to see how they respond to that after buds have been cleared out. That's why bottoms are untrimmed. This is pretty out of control. 😅 Fingers crossed... I'm also considering using clones in the next one, we'll see. Hard to photograph too... I need a bigger tent.

This week is a bit late. Photos ain't the best atm, it's hard to get good angles currently. Kinda forgotten this, it happens in every grow at this point.. Everything runs on relative automation, tested a bit of it also, it's decent already. Looks bonkers... 😂 Removed dead leaves.

They're budding nicely, I tilted some of those overgrown stems to the light so they can ripe properly. Also removed some of the most curled leaves. Water reservoir concentrations are a bit heavy, hopefully it doesn't spoil until it's time for flushing. There's money in it. :)

25th day's photos are taken on dark time, using flashlight as a light. I got camera flash from a friend, but it was broken. Idk how those images would've panned out with it, since all walls are reflective. Those branches which were meant for regrow, died naturally, so I'm not gonna do that test where I'd re-veg / regrow them after the harvest. I scrambled my leftover seeds and freebies, and I'm gonna do a short grow before summer ends. Another project is underway. And, I'm not gonna overgrow them like I did with this project... x) They're gonna be T.H. Seeds' Critical Hog, Royal Queen Seeds' Critical, and one RQS's Triple G. I had couple of seeds from Humboldt's Chocolate Mints, but I have no idea where they are. I bought some hermied weed a year ago, and seeds were from there. Anyways, just couple of weeks more and this is finished. I'm gonna start the next project along with this. I also bought those same seeds about two years ago, but none of them sprouted.. Thumbs up! 👻

I did some defoliation for these, so the light reaches better to the bottom. There were also some big branches which didn't grew any bud at all. It's such a shame. Basically this whole grow it depending on that bottom right plant. Top right plant grows like one "big" bud atm, rest of them didn't created anything. I sprayed them today with Jaakontaika, a Finnish product, which is basically a photosynthesis steroid. I need to use net earlier in the next grow, the light distribution on this is really bad. And maybe position the branches better. And not to grow them so damn big.. 😂

Partial harvest. I let those leftovers roll until next batch is ready for powerful lights. I haven't really added much nutrients to it, since it's going around 3,4 EC. I've been adding mostly water to keep concentrations manageable. And, I didn't flushed these. It looks cauterized lol.

Partial harvest. I'll combine the rest with these, once they're ready enough. 76 + 80 grams, although it's basically one plant which yielded these. Top plants failed in vegging, which is my fault. Well, this is Initiative Recovery! Final edit, 16/03/2022, other half yielded 133 grams. Added rest of the pictures. I thought I can add them to the other harvest, but anyways. It didn't let down though, in the end. :) Project is finished!