An Epsilon Adventure

Hello growmies! Welcome to week three of An Epsilon Adventure! Week three already! These six ladies were each planted into their final 30l pots, fertigated for the first time, and put under the light two weeks ago. As you know if you have been following, last week I switch to full nutes earlier than planned as I was seeing deficiencies. Those deficiencies progressed quicker than the plants could respond to the new nutrition. To combat this I fertigated them more frequently and with more volume, as you have the option to do in a coco/perlite substrate mix. I have just given them their third full range fertigation after taking todays photos. All in all so far I am blown away by their progress, they are by far and away the most advanced 15 day old plants I've ever grown. I just wish I had started fertigating with everything earlier. I will certainly report back to Shogun that the coco schedule is too slow for the fastest autos. I do not know if there is a record for fastest start to finish result, but if there is this strain needs to compete because it is really, really, REALLY fast. Massive thanks to both Shogun and Royal Queen Seeds for sponsoring this grow. Daily Updates: ### Week 3 Day 1 21:00 9/7 2m/l Start + 2.5ml/l Katana Roots & Zenzym + 1.5ml/l Coco A & Coco B + 1ml/l Zilicon & CalMag + 1m/l PH down - fertigated ~1.5l each In case you are wondering why I am adding start into this mix, it's because my other grows need it still, but I am also starting them on full nutes at 7-8 days to try to avoid the issues you have seen here last week. I decided therefore to just mix one batch up for them all and see how it goes. I really do not think a bit of extra start and roots will bother these girls, but it will make the difference for the others. With a 10l watering can as my only watering tool, part-mixes are highly error prone as I found out last grow series with Queen Citronella and the poisoning incident, and if I mixed up two batches I have to throw most of one away with a + b nutes such as this they don't store for very long once mixed. Anyway the colour is looking better in the new growth and they haven't missed a beat in terms of piling on greenery and height, I think these six girls are going to really put this "50-70cm" claim to the test. ### Week 3 Day 3 20:30 11/7 Photographed. ### Week 3 Day 5 11:00 13/7 2m/l Start + 2.5ml/l Katana Roots & Zenzym + 2ml/l Coco A & Coco B + 1ml/l Zilicon & CalMag + 1m/l PH down - fertigated ~3l each Today for the first time since I planted them up I moved everything out of the tent, and while I did so I inspected and photographed each girl. I found one aphid on one of the plants, which I tried to kill but it evaded my sausage fingers. So I sprayed all 6 plants with Neudorff BugFree. I made the stupid mistake of bringing in a sad little pepper plant for a bit of a boost, I obviously didn't check it. I will keep an eye on it but if the spray doesn't kill them then I will go and find some ladybird larvae. These are all pretty close to each other but I am starting to see two phenos. One is taller the other is thicker. See for yourself! Plants 1-4 are the slimmer/taller plants 5 and 6 are chonkier. I also labelled each plant and will note which plant is which in future photographs as you can follow an individual plant if you like. Anyway these girls are insane . Look at the size and development; 19 days!!!! Tallest is 40cm (plant 1) Shortest is 27cm (plant 6) Lastly, I have been keeping a decent handle on the temps it is now extremely rare for them to exceed 30 degrees unless there is a heatwave, which I sincerely hope there is not. I'll see you in a couple of days to round off this incredible week. ### Week 3 Day 6 23:00 14/7 Photographed wide shot. Really inspected each plant again and I am confident the only deficiency is magnesium. I checked the runoff PH it is sitting somewhere around 6.3. I am going to further increase the CalMag to 1.5ml/l ### Week 3 Day 7 23:00 15/7 Photographed individually. Flushed through with 3l of fertigate with increased CalMag dosage to 1.5ml/l which is now 50% above the recommended amount. I have gone off-piste with the nute schedule... be it on my own head I suppose. Fingers crossed. So the symptoms of the Mg def are on all plants but some worse than others, which has made me think perhaps there was some inequality in the distribution of the reused coco vs new amongst the pots. I suspect that maybe I should have rinsed the old coco first. I have had success with flushes in the past, and considering this issue is relatively minor I am not prepared to take them all out and individually flush through with 30l+. Instead I have overwatered them by about double when they were already fairly saturated so about 70% of the fertigate came through as runoff. Below is my current assessment of the different plants: Plant 1 -------- Previously the tallest plant, now only 2nd she current stands at 57cm tall having put on 17cm in the last TWO DAYS. She is one of the least affected by the Mg def. Her stem is about the 4th thickest. Plant 2 -------- The 2nd tallest plant on day 19 is now only third the tallest plant at 52cm, she also has the second thinnest stem. Plant 3 -------- Around the same height as 3 other sisters on day 19, in the last two days this plant has grown to 58cm tall and is now the tallest plant in the series, as well as having by far the thinnest stem. This girl has put on at least 20cm in the last two days. This plant was the 2nd worst Mg def symptoms. Plant 4 -------- The 3rd shortest plant at 47cm, she has the third thickest stem, and seems to be somewhere between the two phenos. This plant is the most affected by the Mg def. Plant 5 -------- Standing at only 40cm but with a really chunky stem and the 2nd thickest this girl is clearly a different pheno to plants 1-3 and 4. Her leaves are much fatter and bigger and her stem is much much thicker than plants 1-4. Plant 6 -------- Last but by no means least is plant 6, this girl is my favourite, though she is the shortest plant standing at only 39cm tall, she has tight internodes, massive fat leaves, and by far and away the thickest stem I have ever seen on a 3 week old plant. Seriously, seriously chonky. Her stem is approximately double the girth of the 2nd thickest (plant 5). I think this girl is going to be the star of the grow and the highest yield. What do you think? Thanks for reading growmies! 👊 ========== Tent: 120cm x 120cm x 180cm Light: 600w HID Elite Dual Spectrum HPS + Angel Wing Reflector Air: 5" duct fan system with carbon filter ~300 m3/hour + RAM 9" floor fan + 4" intake fan Pots: Air Pruner Fabric Pots 30l - UGro XL Coco + horticultural grade perlite (~20%) Seeds supplied by Royal Queen Seeds https://www.royalqueenseeds.com Nutrients supplied by Shogun Fertilisers https://www.shogunfertilisers.com/en ==========