RQS - Royal Highness

Teh_Saccade The RQS CBD mix have popped up nicely, with Royal Highness being the smallest plant so far. Unfortunately, Royal Medic didn't germinate... It took over a week for them all to germinate, and a bit longer past that to push out, so I am thinking that the temperature was a bit too low still - it has been almost freezing at night..! There's no issue with seed shells being stuck or ripping leaves or stems. The propagation light was a Favrison Castnoo 54LED, that was advertised as being as good as a 300w HPS, but it was really more like 3w :d I tried using two, but that didn't help - they are no good at all, really - may as well use the window ledge! That's gone in the trash..! So, this guy is going under the MarsHydro TS-600, which is a 100w LED and is a quality light, imo :)

Teh_Saccade This week has been a little warmer - especially at night. Overnight, they've been going under the light. During the day, sitting out the front in the sunshine. Switching the light seems to have helped, although this guy is still the least developed of the bunch. I think it's the temperature, as well as having such a low power light during the first week. Either way - the plant is looking healthy and seems to be developing better than it would outside.

Teh_Saccade Going under the light at night is really helping..! Royal Highness is now called, Royal Lowness, as it is so short (which isn't a bad thing, really) I'm thinking that at this rate, it will be ok to split it next week or so... This one being a little underdeveloped, it might be wise to leave it a little longer before the chop. Being outside in the breeze, the stems are becoming a little stronger with the agitation. They've been watered once or twice only this week. I think that the roots will be ok. When the roots start to break through the fibre cups, they will be potted into some square, plastic pots. The potting soil is a mix: - The bottom layer is some dug from the garden, with a handful of pebbles - A layer of regular potting soil, a few handfuls, is spread over this - Then a layer of houseplant potting mix, which is good at retaining moisture to seep into the other soil, and also contains some extra nutrients similar to that provided by leaf mulch and other things. - Handfuls are then mixed on top of this, so as to create striations of soil and mulch - Near the top, a handful of blood, bone and fish is mixed in to the layers - Before the final layers, some tree & shrub powder is mixed in as well. This contains some friendly fungus mix to help out :) This recreates the same type of soil that is in the garden, as each year the leaves and flowers mulch and then top-soil is washed over it, plus anything else that dies and decomposes to enrich the soil. Potting into the square plastic pots is useful not only for cramming them into a smaller space under the lights, but the lips are useful for tying stuff down, as well as poking holes in the sides in order to secure any wires or strings. I use these for starting off bonsai plants, before moving them into very shallow ceramic pots once they are a few years old. Royal Highness has been a bit of a slow starter, but it really picks up and starts to look really healthy after getting used to the new environment under the lights :)

Teh_Saccade The plant appears to have developed enough by this point, despite being a little behind the others, to give it a chop. Hopefully it isn't too early, but I'd like to keep everything on a similar schedule. There's no need to feed it right now, as the soil mix in the pot will have enough to keep it going for a while longer yet. The plant will let me know when it needs more fodder. I might water it with a bit of cal-mag and the Terra Aquatic Tri-nutrients mixed in... I'm thinking that Royal Highness needs a little higher temperature than the other plants in this mix, but seems to be responding well to the TS-600 (100w) bathing it for a little over 18hrs a day at the moment. After the chop, it will be transferred to the TS-1000, which is a slightly more powerful light (150w), to give it an extra boost. This light will be the one used for flowering, but currently has a few autos I am trying out - the space is limited right now, but I think that it will fit in ok. It was a bit of a shame to lose the top, but it's preferable to have it split a few times for a regular growth pattern. The top will hopefully produce a nice clone for someone else to look after. A good gift to give away..! :D The fan leaves have been left on the new shoots, as they seem a little small. It is really lifting the leaves to the light - so I think that it is a little stressed out. The chop was probably a little early, and perhaps it ought not to have been taken back so far... Whoops :/ // Another whoops..! I saw today that one of the new spurs had dropped off..! It may be that I knocked it off when adjusting the branches for the manifold D: D: D: Hopefully it will be ok, as it was so little before anyway... I don't mind if it is little - I just want it to live..! Please live, little guy - I'm so sorry I broke you in your adolescence! I'm such a bad father! :( I've added some feed in the water for these guys today. Next time, it will be diluted, then next week - only the flowering plants get food - these guys can have good, clean, healthy water! I'm going to increase the light to give them a boost - another 2 hours. Back to 20. // Emergency..! Don't panic!!! D: The gnats are driving me fucking ballistic today, but the soil feels dry up top - so I thought, since Painkiller is showing some leaf issues without cause - I'll check the pH. I check the pH, ok about 6.7-6.8, not too bad - so I switch the meter to moisture and it says it's soaking! I've barely watered these guys, so I think, wtf is wrong? These gnats are here, the pH is fine, there's a little burn on a leaf, not been overwatered, surely..? Turns out - the reason Royal Highness is Royal Lowness (and MM being small) is because there were no drainage holes in the pot! So they have been sitting in their own juices all this time! No wonder there were gnats and the plants aren't getting their ready brek! So, rather than use newspaper and a bigger pot to soak it all up, I took off the top soil (about 3cm) after drying it under a high fan. Taking the plant out of the pot, the bottom soil (quite wet) is spread out on a tray and also fan dried, before being mixed with the top soil. The top soil is mixed with the bottom, to soak it up even more, and put back into the bottom of the pot. The plant is then reseated inside and tamped down on a hard surface - knocking everything into place without compacting it, but not leaving big air holes. These guys are all under a high fan and there's no sign of the gnats, for now..! No drainage holes..! How did I forget to poke them in the bottom?! Glad the gnats and the leaf showed me this now, before things became worse..! All roots appear healthy and the plants still seem OK. Crisis, averted! :D

Teh_Saccade Not much to say, other than I will be waiting a few weeks before I can split this one again..! If at all, in fact! If I can fit all four of these into the same space for the flip (which won't be happening on schedule, I must say, since they're not recovering as well as I hoped), then that will be good. As such, I think that I will leave them with 4 mains only. Maybe one or two with 8, idk... maybe all of them with 8... idk..! Royal Highness is still Royal Lowness, and is spreading over the ground a mere 4-5cm from the soil :D // Ok, so Royal Highness is: Respect 13 x Dancehall 24 (60% sativa, 40% indica, 14% THC!!! High CBD) Wow, this is a strong one, and it is related to both Painkiller XL and Danceworld! So, the only one that is not related to this family is Medical Mass... ok... and Medical Mass is the only one that is indica dominant. So... this means that this little guy ought to spring up at some point..! Maybe it is slightly more indica than it says on the info-sheet..! It will forever be, however, Royal Lowness in my book :p I feel as if this one ought to be in Bennies Custom Motorworks, in Los Santos..! haha :D Damn, I love that game... I want to play it, now... I'm going to play it today... I love driving around to the music... So much.

Teh_Saccade Her Royal Highness is continuing to be Royal Lowness! :D It's growing ok ... I think that the stunty little plant will soon start to become quite strong! Well, I'm hoping. I've removed some of the lower fan leaves off the new stems, that are continuing to grow and put out internodal buds and new leaves. As with the others, there's not really much I can do right now other than correct the shape. I've twisted the stem so that it is growing at right angles to the pot - this makes it much easier to deal with and also helps it fit in the grow space with the others. I'm a little concerned that it's lowness might become an issue - if it is overshadowed, it will either stretch out and be a bit wonky, or it will remain short and just accept the scraps of light that fall inbetween the others as the fan brushes the air around... The pH is starting to increase, so I'll have to give it some food soon as it seems the soil is depleting. I'm using tap water that has sat for a while until the bubbles go - but I also have given it a lot of rain lately as this has been in good supply... :/ Perhaps the rain is a little too off... the soil usually mitigates and helps convert the rain to a lower pH, but these pots are very small and .. well - it doesn't really matter until it does, right..? :D hahaha! Good day, your Lowness! :D