Durban Poison 2022

GreenEnigma The seedlings poked through the soil on day 8 and appear healthy green color. It is still very cold outside (southern Ontario), so we have put the seedlings under T5 6400K lamps that are suspended 6 inches above the pots. The lights were purchased locally from Astral Grow as a kit by SunBlaster. We have them on 18/6 cycle set by a manual timer. The lights come on at 6 am and turn themselves off at midnight. They are not overly hot lights, but they do provide slight temperature warmth for the soil to be optimal for the growth. On day 12, the seedlings are growing their second set of leaves. I water them every other day with about 50 ml/per plant of room temperature water.

GreenEnigma By day 17, the seedling has developed 4 sets of leaves and has a wing span of 2.5 inches. It has a healthy green color. On day 20, I am giving the seedlings small amount of nutrients (including CalMag) for the first time. I am only giving them 1/4 of the recommended dose to avoid initial nute burn. The plants have grown an inch this week. Their stalks are quite thin, so I have propped some of them with thin wooden skewers to support them till they get a bit stronger. I am introducing a fan blowing at them few hours a day to hopefully make them stronger.

GreenEnigma The young plants seem to accept the nutrients quite well and grow at an amazing rate. Their stalks are getting stronger. I tried pinching some of the weaker stalks, but I am not sure about how much I can squeeze before it causes too much damage. The plant repairs itself and makes the stalk stronger. The lights being 6 inches above the plants prevent the overstretching of stalks (an issue we had last year having the plants on a window sill). The fan keeps the plants cool and makes slight movement for them to strengthen them.

GreenEnigma The plants are now strong enough and tall enough to be able to clip the top to produce multiple colas. My first topping, (I only top twice), is on day 30 of the grow. I clip the plants just above their 4th or 5th node. Some of the tips are so tiny that I have to use a magnifying glass to pin point the exact spot of the cut. It will take few days for them to recover, but they do pretty well. On day 32, the temperatures outside have finally reached above 20ºC (68F), so I can start hardening them off for later outdoor replanting. They are first spending few hours a day in shade, before introducing full sun to them. Last year we learned the hard way when we burned all our plants initially and had to wait for them to recover. Day 34 - plants are put in full sun for about an hour and half. No sunburn or leaf yellowing. I have eased off on nutes a bit, to let them recover from topping and hardening and give them only water for few days. Day 35 - weather has turned bad and cold, so back inside we are under the lamps. We have had to raise the lights by 7" now to accommodate for the new growth. They are getting taller with each day.

GreenEnigma I had to pull back on the nutes this week as the plants started to show a bit of Nitrogen toxicity. Some minor clawing and leaves getting very dark green. Continuing to harden them outside on the balcony - few hours of sun every day.