Grandmommy Purple 1st Ever Grow

I was gifted 3 clones. They all initially sat under a 60W cheap LED light for a week until all my equipment shipped in. I’m 85% certain they were started in not the best soil, so they were not doing so hot in the beginning. I was informed that the two large ones were starting Mid-February, and the small one was cloned on May 5th. I think that makes the two large ones actually 17 weeks old at this point, so I have a lot of repairing to do before I even think about flipping these girls.

After getting in all my equipment piece by piece, I went ahead and transplanted them all into FF Happy Frog, which they LOVED. Much happier plants now. I am giving them local spring water until my pH drops and TDS meter come in. I’m sure the spring water is alkaline, but it’s what I’ve got. I am reluctant to use tap water as my area uses chloramine and fluoride. At this point I’m just waiting for the rest of my supplies to come in, but they seem much happier now. My tent has also been commandeered for the vegetable garden my partner is growing, so I have corn and pumpkin seeds staring out. That's what all the little brown pots are. I also have an anise plant that has also just been chilling in the tent.

I topped the smallest clone, and accidentally split her stem training her, so I tapped that up and we shall see how she heals. I am worried about burning then with the HF soil being fresh so I gave them a half dose of FF Big Bloom. The stems are getting noticeably thicker. They all were initially about the width of a pencil, maybe a little smaller, so I am excited to see them really perk up.

I’m currently fighting heat waves rolling through, I don’t have an AC in this area, and my portable AC is giving it all she can for the rest of the house. I’m pretty sure I am starting to have nutrient uptake issues due to the heat, specifically Cal-Mag. I’ve pitched down the humidity to increase the plant’s transpiration rate, so hopefully that helps to keep them cooler. If I had the free cash, I’d invest in a mini-swamp cooler, but fans and airflow seem to be my only options right now. I went ahead and transplant the littles one to a 5 Gal pot, and topped her for the last time, I should have 8 colas from her now. I chopped the tops off the larger clones that I didn’t train because of their age. In hindsight I prolly could have just bent them over, but this works too. I set everyone up with the ScrOG net, and I am planning on flipping to flower as soon as the smallest plant touches the screen.

They need some water in the photos, I know. They are still recovering from the high heat, some really explicit signs of cal-mag and potassium deficiency. They should be recovering shortly. Now I’m just waiting for the little clone to hurry up and grow so I can flip them to flower. Also with the Smell Data Collection, since I work professionally in cannabis extraction, I have become really nose blind, so I may not be providing the best info .

This week was pretty uneventful, I went ahead and flushed them a few days ago to like 40-50% runoff just because I’ve read a lot about the FF nutes leaving salt build up, but my run-off tested around 200ppm with a 6.5ish pH so I am glad that there seems to be little issue with that so far. The girls are still recovering from the high heat and I might pick up a bag of Turkey Tail mycelium to fortify them.

The entire tent got infected with spider mites, and after a few weeks of cycling treatments between capsaicin, garlic, and insecticide soap and neem oil and soap, the girls didn't make it. While I am sad that I never got to harvest, I learned a few valuable lessons and definably feel more confident in LST and Scrogging. I think the most valuable lesson that I already knew but didn't take to heart is No Outside Plants. The mites most likely came from the little anise plant I had chilling in there. So when my partner starts their garden next spring, I am putting a rule that they can only start seeds in the tent, but no seedlings from stores or plant swaps. Luckily we already had a rule of changing clothes before opening the tent if we had been gardening, which will stay in place, since our pumpkins got pretty bad powdery mildew. I have started attempt #2 with some Blueberry Muffin seeds I picked up, so I will be setting up that diary soon.