The Garden 2024

Room setup rundown, examples of bud, et al in pictures... Seedlings/Clones lights - Viparspectra XS1500. Vege lights - Mars Hydro FC-4800 Flower Lights - 650w 3400K 1900umol/s PAR, (3) 226w DIY 2900K 630umol/s PAR (678w and 1890umol/s), Substrate - 50/50 sphagnum peat moss and vermiculite in 5-gallon pots Climate Control - Luckily, the lights, winter and normal furnace use all equate to a decent temperature, though a bit on colder side in in vege phase, sadly. Humidifier is needed early and later a dehumidifier is needed when canopy develops. I only grow in the winter months. Irrigation - do not use the emitters in this diary. They suck a big fat dick to skip a line to suck a bigger dick. Use the pressure compensating type. https://growdiaries.com/diaries/232811-strawberry-cookies-og-r1-cherry-diesel-bbgs-ego-epg-ebg-grow-journal-by-001100010010011110/week/1366923 -- use something similar to those. They come in different shapes, too. Basic process The little light takes care of seedlings in 2.5" wide seedling pots until first up-pot. The 1-gallon pots fit well under the FC4800 in a 4x4 tent until day 21 after sprout. I plant 150% or more of what i need, so i can kill the weak without concern. The goal is for every plant that makes it to the 5-gallon up-pot being capable of producing a minimum of 160 grams with a maximum of a 35-40 day vegetative phase. Third up-pot is into 5-gallon nursery pots and now under the 3 DIY lights and the 650W light in the big tent for a couple more weeks of vege. An irrigation system in the big tent saves a lot of time. One scrog for training and another for support, just in case. Reverting back to a more systematic approach to canopy composition moving forward. About 2.3 colas per sq ft and 8 primary colas per plant. Yields were similar when over-crowding and being less systematic, but the proportion of less dense nugs is greater and trim time is needlessly elevated because of that fact. I was very controlling about this the first couple years but got away from it for far too long at this point. Drying / Curing - Into mesh racks for 9 days. I wet trim and cut down to similarly sized buds for even drying. Temps are controlled around 68F and RH is set to 60%. Then into some 5-gallon buckets with gamma seal lids and (3) 2-way 67g boveda humidipaks (58% or 62%) in each bucket - 1 at bottom, 2 at top. Temp/RH probe confirms that they hold the RH steady at 60-63%. Cost - 0.33 cents (USD) per gram produced. This includes an accelerated depreciation expense for all equipment used, fertilizer, water, electricity for all equipment used, new filters and other yearly purchases - bti, ph strips, sticky traps, etc. I'm a finance guy, so these numbers are comprehensively accurate and purposely err slightly on high side of cost. The only facet not included is the cost of my labor.

Pollen Donators: FD 35 Pollen Receivers: FD 27 Pollen sacs started to open the last few days in earnest. Some signs of pollination (a darkened pistil here and there). Will continue to shake the 2 hermie females over the 4 receiving plants for another 2-3 days, then another 5 weeks for seeds to fully develop. Accidentally applied a 20mM concentration of silver thiosulfate. The recommendation is 2-3mM, LOL. So, the pollen donators look rough and probably delayed flower slightly. With an 8-day head start this should have been done by FD25 of the receivers. Live and learn. It was leftover from previous breeding run. I forgot that the stock solution was not diluted from the original product of the double replacement chemical reaction that took place. UPDATE - So, the accidental overdose of STS seemed to be okay. It caused 100% conversion with a ton of male pollen sacs, as you can see in the pictures. I then dusted each plant for a week while they remained in the same tent together for that entire time, too. No seeds. Either this is simply a slim chance to occur, or the STS overdose caused inviable pollen. Based on only a few fem breeding cycles,, the number of seeds that result does seem to corerlate to STS concentration. My best results were when i skipped the third application - 1000+ seed on each 40-50gram pollen receiving plant. When i followed the instructions to a "T", i had few seeds result. Next breeding cycle i'm going to mimic what i accidentally did for my first successful fem breeding cycle and if i get 1000s of seed, i'll feel pretty confident that pollen viability is defnitely related to how concentrated the STS is and how many applications i use. Maybe, 100% conversion is less important than it seems. I'll take 80% conversion and 1000 seeds, if that is the case.

testing

All done for 2023-2024. Back again in Fall of 2024. Maybe, do a proper diary for it. See "Week 1" for recent grows. See "Week 2" for a failed fem seed run despite 100% conversion.