City Bowl CBD

The first 3 germinated exactly a week ago but I kept them in dark warm conditions for a further 2 days which caused them to stretch slightly, whilst I waited for the last 2 to germinate and catch up. Once I took them all out from the germination room, they've been getting regular daylight on a windowsill with an additional 65w CFL giving 24 hour light. I only started feeding them 0.25/0.25 nutrients at the end of week 1, yesterday. I noticed today that the larger 3 are showing roots through the edges of the peat bags I started them in. I'll transplant them into net pots in a 50/50 vermiculite perlite mix tomorrow and start them on a wick system. The original intention was to run them on a passive wick system throughout on my roof terrace. But I have now managed to run a power supply up there, so I may switch to a pumped system after all. If I do I'm planning on putting the net pots into 10 litre buckets of clay pellets. If not I'll put them into 10 litre buckets with 50/50 vermiculite perlite mix and add further wicks.

So this week I added another 65w CFL bulb to the light box that boosts what they get through the window. As we're getting a little more sunshine and warmth they spend daytime out on my balcony in direct sunshine as well. O I've boosted nutes to 0.5ml per litre, but I'm happy to take it nice and slowly rather than risk nutrient burn. They seem nice and dark leaved at present so I don't think they're undernourished in anyway. They've been moved into 1 litre net pots which are fed from a single wick in each pot running down into the reservoir below. They've all evened out in size nicely, not growing in height much but putting on good leaf mass and broadening out.

So, I've transplanted 3 of them now into 10 litre pots in a 50/50 vermiculite/perlite mix and added 5 wicks to them, placing the in 25 litre reservoir containers. I;m going to swap out the white reservoirs for black ones to limit light getting in to roots and also causing algae. Growth has been slow this week, they've bushed out nicely, but haven't grown much in height. Spring is still early and so we've had limited sunlight and they've only spent 2 days out in sunshine, the rest of out has been under the 150w CFLs I've been using. Weather over the next week is getting warmer & sunnier, so hopefully they'll start to make stronger progress. The other 2 are going into the same pot and reservoir arrangement, but will have an active pumped feed running rather than passive wicks. I'll post pics tomorrow.

So, the 5 little plants I've had running in small 1 litre passive wick pots under CFL lights, have all been re-potted out into 10 litre pots. 3 of them are in passive wick systems and 2 of them are running with pumps. 3 wicked pots and 1 pumped pot have been moved onto my roof terrace, taking advantage of this week's Constitutional Court ruling legalising growing at home!!! Yeehaaaaaaaaah!!! The final pumped pot has been moved into an indoor room which I'll set up as a separate post. Growth has been slower than I'd hoped for, but temps are still very low and I know the passive wicks systems are somewhat limited in performance, but I was keen to try them out and see the results for myself. I've now got 3 separate and very different set ups so it's going to be interesting to see the results.

They're all starting to show the first signs of flowering. Daytime and nighttime temps are rising with stronger sunshine starting to show so all good there. I got some silicic acid whilst I was back in the UK last week so I'm looking forward to trying that and seeing the results.

High winds battered these guys this week and resulted in the biggest getting chopped in half. Gutted! I think I've salvaged it and I also moved the others from a passive wick system which just wasn't delivering enough moisture in the increasing temperatures to a pumped system in each pot. I've also added silicic acid into the mix which comes highly recommended.

Everything about these plants is miniature, including the micro buds that are forming. They've been battered by the wind this week but have held up and I added some support for them. The accidentally topped one has bounced back nicely and is bushing out really well.

The smallest is gaining very little height whilst the tallest seems to be stretching right out, but on all of them the buds are starting to form nicely on lots of nodes and are gaining density as well.

Buds are filling out nicely with some frosting here and there

All 4 plants are showing strongs signs of pistils darkening all over and as best as i can judge through a small eyeglass the trichomes have turned milky but I'm surprised because they've only been flowering for 4 weeks.

These ladies are about ready to harvest. Can't wait to sample my first harvest in over 20 years. Theres a real variety of colour smell and shape to each of them.

Currently waiting for everything to dry and cure then I'll fill in the tasting notes. Overall given a winter start, an outdoor grow and my first in 25 years I've learnt a lot and the plants have been very easy to grow.