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This grow, I'm just using straight Pro Mix BX, nothing added to start withhh. That should work for the first 2 weeks or so, when I start using some Botanicare ProMix.
Paper towel germination worked fine, and they went to their 5 gallon pots on June 7, in my backyard.
Day 9, they're looking good developing secondary leaves now. It's been raining most days so I haven't had to water much. Watered this morning with 1/3 gal each dechlorinated, pH 6.7.
So, I went to my local grow store on day 13 to get some nutrients. Up til then the plants were nutrient free, just Pro Mix BX and they looked like they were nute-deficient. I bought bottles of the Botanicare Promix Grow and the Bloom. I didn't get to feed them those nutes yet since it's been rainy but I decided to use the SuperThrive foliar spray. I followed the directions on the bottle and two hours later there was nutrient burn on the leaves. So, I won't be using SuperThrive again. It's been a tough few days but I'm sure they'll recover.
update day 19: They're looking good, about 3.5 inches tall each.
They've really shot up in the past few days, all three are at about 11". The Queen's Banner seems to have a slight leaf deformity which causes the leaf tips to be a little twisted. But still looking good. All three plants started flowering on day 25. I wasn't expecting that since they're all different strains from different breeders. I'm checking them for bugs and have picked a lot of but the only damage is on the Queen's Banner, and it's not bad. It's been hot with heat index around 100F and pretty rainy the past few days which is cooling things off a little. No LST yet, but I should start.
7.6 Day 28 update I tied down the main stem to horizontal for all 3 plants. They all look healthy and vigorous. 💪
I tried starting LST last week by bending the main stalks over but really they were too far along by then so I undid that. Next grow I need to do it earlier. So I'll be doing some other LST this week. I taped fly paper to the outside of the pots to get more caterpillars etc. Should be sunny the next couple of days, so I'll water them later today with nutes.
Update Day 35/July 13: They're about halfway through their journey. Mango Smile and Mint Jelly are at 21", and Queen's Banner is close behind at 20". These three have been in lock step the whole way, it's almost like they're communicating with each other. I cut down a bunch of monkey grass which was close to plants and was harboring bugs, so hoping I'll have fewer of those. Every day I pick a few off, but again, the Queen's Banner seems most affected and the other two are pretty resilient.
I'm watering them with nutrients every other watering, more or less, since I'm guessing the daily directions on the bottle (Botanicare Pure Blend Pro Bloom) are for photoperiods. So far no sign of nutrient burn, which is a first for me - also first time I'm using Botanicare instead of Fox Farms nutrients.
I also did some light pruning, took off branches and leaves from the lower quarter of each plant.
End of week 7 they're staying healthy. I think they're done growing vertically, and the buds are fattening up. All 3 I've pinched and sniffed the buds and they smell citrusy and good. I did some light pruning, mainly fan leaves that are covering bud sites. Mango Smile is at 29", Queen's Banner 28" and Mint Jelly is 23".
I'm using the Botanicare Bloom nutes every other watering since these are autos. The nutrients lower the tap water pH from 8 to under 6 so I add a little pH up to get it to around 6.2. No signs of nutrient deficiencies or overfeeding so that's going well.
I still pick off a few bugs per day but the fly paper is working pretty well and the songbirds in my yard also eat the flies around the plants. The birdfeeder and bird bath are right next to the plants. It's been hot AF I'm in southeast US and the heat index has been over 100 but the plants are still thriving.
It was another hot week with heat index at or above 100 a few days but the plants are doing fine. They're starting to smell stronger and I can smell them from about six feet away. They're getting nice and frosty, will post more close-up pics soon. They've been pretty mold resistant and I've managed to keep the bugs under control, mostly.
They're looking more mature at day 56 than I would have expected. It'll be rainy for the next week or so and I'm debating harvesting one and letting the other two keep going. Just worried they'll get moldy right before I want to harvest. Normally all three would need 70+ days seed to harvest but again, they're looking good.
It was a rainy week and they all looked ready prematurely early, plus the bugs were getting them so I decided to do a phased harvest. I had flushed them pretty well a few days before. I harvested the mint jelly on day 57. On day 62 I harvested the mango Smile and then on day 64 I harvested the Queen's Banner which was the biggest of the three plants. I'll post the harvest notes soon.
I'm 6+ months overdue for this update. Been busy. She did great outdoors, and took some heat waves with 100F+ temps just great. She was ready for harvest at day 57, WAY before I would have expected. I'm assuming it's related to the heat waves, but the buds turned out great, and there didn't seem to be any negative effects from the heat. So Mint Jelly is a hardy plant, I can say... this past winter I kept another MJ outside in 40 degree F cold on some nights and she did great with that too. (that'll be in a diary coming soon)
My only complaint is, I only got 18.2 grams dry. But the buds smelled amazing , lots of citrus, frosty too. Next time I'll give more nitrogen early on to hopefully get a better harvest.
Mango Smile did great, handled the heat waves well, and kept up with her neighbors. Smelled amazing, fresh mangoes all the way. She only yielded 22 grams dry but hey I'll take it!
Chunga
