Space Cookies / Substrate Wars

These seedlings are doing a lot better than the ones I started earlier because I’ve been more careful not to overwater them in the big pots. Don’t really have a grow plan. Might leave them alone to grow straight or do some light LST. I have no experience with autos so not sure how much training they can handle anyway.

Practicing the LITFA technique this week. These girls are doing just fine without me fussing them. Day 18 and interestingly they are growing at 3 different rates, yet all 3 are stretching out wider than other strains that I started a full week earlier. The substrates must be causing the difference, the largest and smallest seedlings are both in the same type pot but the largest is in a light substrate mix and the smallest one is 50:50 with the heavier mix. The seedling with the light mix is filling up her 1 litre pot fast. I’m wondering if it would be best to leave her in that pot to compare to the 3 gallon girls or if I should transplant to another 3 gallon pot and see what effect transplanting has on growth. Either way I’m excited to see how these girls grow. Day 20 one girl got wind burnt on 2 leaves, no big deal I fixed the wind. When the damaged leaves continued to get crispy I decided to take them off and open some nodes. Gave her a ponytail to expose the stem. Take ponytail off during lights off and repeat for a couple days. Don’t want to do much training with this grow, I want to see what the substrate/pot size difference.

Well this is giving nice data for the indoor experiment, they are still growing at very different and predictable speeds, please, this is not a genetics review, we’re testing the setup. Day 22 #1 peat seeding mix very small pot 8 inches she had the best setup and is the largest and healthiest plant at 8 inch, fertigated every 2 days to run off and pushed to grow fast but.. the last few days she’s needed daily watering and she looks sad at the end of the light cycle. Roots growing from her stem base and coming out the bottom, she’s root bound of course and needs out of this pot or we’re going to have real problems. But she’s an auto and that’s exactly why we can’t use the small pot. We expect no advantage over her overwatered sisters now because she’s going to have to deal with the transplant shock. Yes she should get potted up in more of the same substrate for best chance but don’t have more and don’t want to buy more, so fuck it, we are upgrading to promix cx grow bag with ´biostimulant’ for curiosity. I enjoy the brief moment of watching the brick rehydrate 😌a squeeze of the little pot and gently tapped out, didn’t touch the roots, planted into charged coco grow bag, watered in with full strength feed and some vitathrive and dimmed her light 50% for one cycle 🤞 #2 peat/soil 11l pot 4 inch She is the middle girl and she’s average in every way, watered 3-5 days, getting easier as judge water as she grows, didn’t like direct wind but doesn’t seem upset with leaves removed and is responding nicely to short Ponytailing sessions. For over all this growth is as expected the ‘lightened’ soil is working better than soil alone, but far heavier than no soil at all. Her growth is only slightly faster than soil in fabric pots. #3 potting soil 11l pot 3.5 inch watered 4-6 days, didn’t like the wind either but didn’t show severe damage so didn’t remove anything (there’s nothing removable!) well she’s still unhappy about it, she’s been struggling from the beginning because it’s heavy for her roots to expand and her canopy is so narrow but she seems determined to try nonetheless. If anyone deserves a change of substrate it is this lady but it’s not happening. Added more drainage holes, is all we can do. She’s going to be one of those unintentional bonsais and I’m sure when I dig her up her root ball will be tiny. I’m loving the representation of things we all know 🙃 seedlings in large pots are disadvantaged with watering, plastic pots take longer to dry out (good for the little pot, unfortunate for the oversized pots), soil that’s amazing for perennials is too heavy for annuals, and treating fast growing crops like houseplants will surely send them to their watery graves I continue supporting these plants to best express their natural self in poor conditions 😂 they are truly struggling plants so I’m adding vitathrive to the feed going forward to give them a little extra support and only very gentle short ponytailing sessions as needed to encourage the branches. *** Day 24 and stunted #3 has started flowering 😂 she’s going to be a truly pathetic yield 😂 I’d toss her but I’m enjoying this. Man, I really hope I do better with these seeds outside 😂

So the girls have started flowering. Stunted little weeds in large pots 😂 they have not been watered in a week and they still don’t feel dry yet. The one I transplanted is doing great, lots of growth and stretch. I’m sure her yield will be reduced by the fact that she is busy putting down new roots but she’s proved the point I was making about substrate conditions. She’s getting 500ml water a day and thriving. I love the coco grow bag and so does she. I added green planet liquid weight to the feed. No training. Letting them do their thing.

Ok.. our transplanted into coco girl is doing amazing. She’s stretched to 20 inches and is drinking a full litre a day. She’s still putting a lot of growth into leaves and branches and I hope she will have enough time left to bulk up her flowers. Her stem is thick, she would have been a beauty grown outside. We stole a few big fan leaves for wrapping cannagars 😋 Our stunted rejects, have been officially rejected. They are 12 inches tall and now live in my friend’s kitchen 🤷‍♀️ we made them festive and gifted with grow lights and fertilizer. Buddy is stoked and can’t wait to hang his own harvest 😂

She really took off! She was only 8 inches tall and root bound before going into coco and 2 weeks later she was crowding out everything in the the 3x3. We built our mom/veg tent and moved our Space Cookies girl in her 1 gallon coco grow bag into her new 2x2 home. She has 105 watts of sunstream blurple all to herself as well as side lighting from 2 more 100 watt qbs from viparspectra. I think she will be ok for light! She adjusted to her new home fast and has already stretched out and put another 2 inches in height. I water her once or twice a day to runoff, she drinks about a litre. Removed only the shrivelled bottom leaves and removed the 2 branches I broke last week. The repair didn’t work this time so we clipped off our sad mistakes and moved on. This girl is the come back queen! Buddy who adopted the stunted girls will send me a pic to update their progress. It’s been a busy week moving things around to give this plant all the space we can to allow her to flourish. From now it will just be watering, monitoring the environment and admiring her. According to the breeder, she should be ready to cut down between November 23-December 6. I can’t imagine she will be finished in 2 weeks but then again, I wasn’t expecting her to almost quadruple in size either so who knows! Update: we tied the top cola of #1 to a corner of the tent so that all tops are even to the light. And my buddy sent photos of #2 & #3 looking festive 😍 Happy growing friends 🌱

I am so glad I up potted this plant. She’s doing amazing. Her tallest colas are 30inches and I’ve tied them down so the canopy is an even 24inches. She drinks a litre a day, divided into 3 waterings. The side lighting from the the additional leds in the tent are definitely helping too, her lower branches have filled out a lot. Really nothing much happening this week except her growing beautifully. My friend has managed to keep the runts going and says they are making the house smell delicious 😋 I hope he gets a joint or two out of his efforts. Photo update soon.

She’s getting close to harvest breeder timeline says she’s ready now or within 2 weeks. I defoliated and will chop her soon.. not seeing any amber yet but trichs are cloudy on top and lower buds and pistils turning orange so I will be taking her down any day now. And she smells LOUD 😋 I’m excited! Stunted runts are still alive at buddy’s house. He almost killed one with a draft but they are holding on 🤭 Happy growing 🌱

Cut down our big girl and hung to dry. Her stalk was so tough that it snapped the blade and then the handle of my secateurs 😂 Letting the runt go on.. I think she’s stunted again there’s been no progress and she’s not drinking water but I’m waiting for her to either ripen or die 😂

Final week for the runts! Buddy has been nursing and worrying over his girls. I think he’s hooked! 🌱

These are good genetics because I tried my hardest to kill them and once I stopped hurting #1 she trippled in size and gave me lots of tasty buds. And the 2 that I stunted never died and still produced sticky bud. I’m definitely going to grow this one again. The smell is divine and deserves another run.