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Placed seeds on paper towel on 7/28. Seeds did not germinate but showed some signs of it. Unfortunately, I had to go out of town for a few days and needed to get them planted so I put them in soil on 8/2 and when I returned home on 8/6, the LA Confidential Auto ("LAC") had sprouted but the Gazzurple ("Gazz") had not. LAC was kind of leggy, despite being in the AC Infinity Germination station. The following morning, less than 12 hours later, Gazz had sprouted as well. I was a happy camper. Sadly, a few days later LAC had suffered from dampening off and eventually died. This was entirely my fault as the soil I mixed was not proper for germinating seeds. As sad as I was, I had just previously grown that strain and was really most interested in the Gazz, so not a total loss. Focusing now solely on Gazz, I have been spraying the surface of the seedling only when the surface is showing as dry. Taking my time to allow the seedling to get comfortable and adapt to this new world. There should be plenty of nutrients in the soil for her to live off of for the next few weeks. My main focus will be to be make sure the soil always stays moist, but not damp. I have the lights on an 18/6 schedule with the light intensity on the AC Infinity germination station at power level 2. She has her first pair of true leaves but I'm waiting on the second pair to up the light intensity to power level three where I'll probably leave it for the majority of the remainder of her time in the germination station.
Week 1: Nothing really to report. The growth is slow, but steady. Each day her set of true leaves are getting larger and wider. I've been spraying the top of the soil to mainly moisten and keep her hydrated. I'm wondering if I should add more water and that could make her grow more. As it is now, I'm misting the top of the soil about two to three times a day, as the temps outside an in the room where my AC Infinity humidity dome are located.
Week 2: Assurance that things are moving in a positive direction, as reflected by the picture. Her first set of true leaves have at least doubled in size and the second set are coming up now. Still no "fingers" on the second leaves, that I can see at this point. Once I get three fingers, I'll consider her officially in the vegetation stage. For now, still a seedling. On Monday (8/19) I watered her about 8 oz of water thinking she may more than what she was getting when I was misting a few times a day but the soil still has not completely dried out. Next watering I will reduce the volume by 50% (4 oz) and if she takes that in faster. The AC Infinity humidity dome has been doing a decent job keeping the climate dialed in, making minor adjustments to the vents to maintain as much of the optimal VPD range as possible, which is about .8. Lighting, using the AC Infinity Ionbeam U2 at the setting of 3 since the end of week 1. Now that she's put on a little more size, I feel like she can handle a bit more light intensity to promote more vigorous growth so, I bumped her intensity up to level 4 with the PPFD of 149-160, which is right in range for her size and stage of life.
UPDATE (8/23/24): Updated the light intensity to level 6 (60%) as I am now factoring in the distance from the plant to the light. At level 3/4 being 6" away it was only about 130 PPFD where I'm aiming for something along the lines of 300-600. I don't have a reliable PAR meter (I use a makeshift paper filter on a free light app) but according to the AC Infinity manual for its humidity dome, with plants 6" away from the light source, its okay to put the light intensity to level 6, which is estimate is closer to 300 PPFD. I'll keep monitoring this but I will likely keep it at this level until I mover her to the tent.
Week 3:
-8/28: VPD .8
Another good week of growth for her, as she's starting to grow her third pair of true leaves, second "three-finger" set of leaves, which means she's about a full week now into vegetation and officially out of the seedling stage. Got some stretching between the first and second nodes, but the spacing has tightened up between the second and third (although it may be too soon to tell) for sure displaying some sativa traits early on in the grow.
Leaves are a good, green color and she looks happy and healthy with the light and water she's receiving, often "praying" throughout the day. Some slight wrinkling of the second set of leaves (appears to be fan leaves) at the tips. I think this may be due to some of the higher temps over the past week. It's been pretty hot for the last few days and with the lights turned up to 6 it gets a lot warmer in there which is also causing some fluctuations in the humidity as well. Despite all of that, no signs of deficiencies.
Stem is growing in size as well looking a lot sturdier after three weeks of growth.
As mentioned last week, I dropped the water to 4 oz in the hopes that it will take up the water faster, but it still took about 3-4 days for the soil to dry out enough to water again. Will be monitoring the intake closer this week and have returned to spaying the top instead of hand pouring water. However, given the new growth she's putting on, I suspect we'll be taking in 4 ounces of water much easier this week as the roots continue to grow.
I'm hoping this will be the last week in the humidity dome before moving her to the grow tent. I just need to get the supplies before I make the transplant as well as ensure the plant is healthy and mature enough to survive. We'll see what another week does and re-evaluate.
Week 4:
She's doing great and no doubt in the vegetative stage, putting on a lot more growth this week than any other week so far. Five nodes in with the sixth developing as well. This weekend she'll be moving to her 5-gal fabric pot using Fox Farms Ocean Forest in my grow tent. I will also start gradually introducing her to the Fox Farms nutrients once she's settled. At the moment, no signs of any deficiencies but she's quickly running out of clearance in the humidity dome. Plus, I don't want her to get root bound, so it seems as good a time as any.
The plan is to transplant her and then after a few days' time, top her between the fifth and sixth nodes. She is a bit more sativa leaning, so I expect she will be a taller plant. I'll be sure keep an eye on this as I only have a 2X5 tent, so space is really at a premium.
I've been watering about 2-4 ounces about every handful of days. I would have expected her to be a bit thirstier and the soil medium to be dryer sooner, but I'm being very careful not to overwater. My estimates is she's about three weeks into actual vegetation from the seedling stage, so her roots are still developing. Hopefully she'll be taking in more water as the week progresses.
I'm not sure if I'm just imagining it but I swear there are faint gassy smells coming from the humidity dome once I lift the top. Maybe its just wishful thinking.
Week 5: Lots of transition this week as we transplanted her to her final, 5 gal. fabric pot and moved her to the grow tent. Which I was excited about since I finally got to hook up my new AC Infinity osculating clip fan., which is so quiet! I also love that I can adjust the fan speed and even target the range of motion.
On Sunday (9/8) I transplanted her to the fabric pot (5 gal.) using Fox Farms Ocean Forest. I used some Great White granular mycorrhizae to help reduce some of the shock of transplanting and promoting healthy root growth by sprinkling it in the hole prior adding the plant. I watered in fairly well but not too much, as I have been guilty of doing that in past runs. Top of plant had a slight smell of gas, which was exciting. I hope this is a sign of some loud flowers to come. My 150W grow light, which came with my MarsHydro tent, is set to about 30% putting out approximately 400 PPFD, which is right about where I want it for the vegetative stage. My plan to gradually increase the intensity as the plant continues to grow to a maximum of about 600 PPFD before flipping into flower.
On Friday (9/13) I topped her between the fifth and sixth node. Made sure there was enough time between the transplant and the topping to minimize the stress levels. Moving forward I'll be administering some LST using some garden stakes to help spread out the branches and canopy. Today I also provided her with her first feeding of nutrients. I used 1.5 tsp of Fox Farm Grow Big, 1.5 tsp Fox Farms Big Bloom, and 1/8 tsp of Fox Farm Open Sesame in a half gallon of water from my tap. Took a pH reading after the addition of these nutrients and it registered in at 7.7. Not having any pH down on hand, I opted for a 1/8 tsp of baking soda to lower the pH to 6.6. Using my sprayer, I applied about 1/4 gallon of nutrients to the soil. Having upped the water volume this time, I expect a few days before needing to water again. The amount I provided on Sunday (9/8) was not enough and I was having to water nearly every day.
Air temp (as of 4PM on 9/13): 66 F
Relative humidity (as of 4PM on 9/13): 58%
Leaf Temperature (as of 4PM on 9/13): 68 F
Air Vapor Pressure Deficit (AVPD): .9 kPa
Leaf Vapor Pressure Deficit (LVPD): 1.1 kPa
Week 6:
-She's coming along nicely. She looks happy and healthy, but not growing as quickly as I had expected. Only 1" of height this week but I wonder if that could be due to the some lack of water. It had been a busy week and was not able to check in on her as often as I would like. As a result, I think she dried back a bit and that could be some of the cause for the slower growth this week.
-I managed to get two feedings in this week and expect to be able to do that moving forward. Although, I do feel like she could use some more growth so I may dial back the Tiger Bloom and opt for some more Grow Big to boost up the nitrogen for a few more weeks (e.g., repeating week 4 on the soil FF feeding schedule until I'm ready to filp her to flower.
-I have also noticed a big up tick in needing to water the soil medium. I'm sure the fan is assisting in that dry back process, but she's taking up 1/4 gal in about a day.
-I plan to actually get some large garden stakes to do some LST and see if I can spread out that canopy a bit more. For the meantime, I've used a stake I found in the gargage and some straightened paperclips to gently hold down some of the side branches. Not pretty to look at for now but it will hold until I'm able to get some proper stakes.
Height: 7"
Air Temp: 74.7 F
Humidity: 58%
Substrate Temp: 72 F
@Legendaryseedthumb, Thanks for the support! This is my third grow, so still very much learning but I love it. I'll be sure to stop by your page and see what you're growing in your garden.
Shmee2528
