The Garden 2025 Part 2

Total days above groundd: 6 to 7 for the ones that matter Based on a 2.5-4 day range of the sprouts showing promise, this is 6 or 7 days above ground depending on the seedling in question. Seven are no-brainers. About 4 others are probably good enough to use. The other five have various problems or been thrown out already. One doesn't have a growth tip - just 2 cotys chilling for a week. A few others look to have a leaf defect that i've seen before and never bodes well long-term. Even the first-sprouting Oreoz with the damaged cotyledons is looking okay, albeit smaller than the rest. The first set of serated leaves are big enough to help carry the load, now. At the very least the decision to use 8 or 10 plants won't be a forced decision. I've treated these a little better than normal by employing a humidifier set at 60%. The heat mat has been off for a few days at this point, too. Will pot-up in 5-7 days. I let the rootball develop a few more days than normal last grow cycle and liked the results. Leaning toward 8 plants. Four zoap, three oreoz and one garlic storm^2. I might pot-up more than 8 due to how few resources/effort it takes to let them tag along a bit longer. ---------- Fem Breeding Cycle Day 12 for the STS-applied plant and day 5 for the other 4 plants.

Oldest plant is 14 days old, the rest are 1-2 days younger. Zoap is the left row. Oreoz is in the middle. Garlic Storm^2 is the right row of 3 plants. The zoaps demanded a transplant and probably did the others 1-3 days earlier than I prefer, but turned out fine. Yet again, 11 transplants and zero shock. It's almost as if someone made some shit up and repeated it ad nauseum until the mob believed it. In six years I've yet to see a plant get 'shocked' from potting up. The Oreoz that sprouted with little nubs for cotyledons is falling too far behind. That leaves seven keepers among the Zoaps and Ooreoz. Have two weeks to decide between 8 plants and 10 plants. The yield from the first cycle should be good enough that either is fine. Put a little more effort into the seedling stage. Maintaining a 60% RH instead of a typical 35-40% in winter due to furnace. They might be a day faster than normal? Not seeing a huge difference but will continue to use the humidifier as it's only 35-watts and simple enough to refill. A slight logistical issue is brewing. At least 2 of my flowering plants look to be slow as fuck developing. I may need more time than was alotted. Luckily, if I only transplant 8, that number of 5-gallon pots will still fit the 4x4. Ten would be tight given a 11-12" diameter of the pots. Hopefully, I don't have to waste a few days of electricity twiddling my thumbs for 2 slow flowering plants to get the fuck out the way, lol.

Total Days Completed - 21 They looked a bit droopy to start the day. While I did irrigate, the pots were not light enough for that to be the reason. Raised light 1/2" but based on internode length of all the plants I doubt it is the light. I'm sure they'll be fine. Upped calcium nitrate dose. but tonight was the first application. One plant was showing slight signs of light damage. It was moved to the side. Fairly sure it was more about lacking nutrients than light damaging the leaves. Had a couple plants do this last cycle, too, and they grew out of the issue. I've got some laggards in the flower area, so the ~60-65 day time alottment needs a little help. I'll delay pruning/topping as long as I can. Hopefully, I can avoid a transplant to 5-gallon pots in 4x4 tent as that'd be a tight squeeze in short order. Also, need to make an adjustment to tent setup. Need to tie a few loops into rope hangers holding scrog about 24" above first level. Possibly put in a middle bar to prevent bowing over 10' sides. Will cull 3 plants sometime this week, too. The less robust ones are fairly obvious at this point. Something I've never noticed before - A plant skipped the 5-finger progression. It went 1-3-7-9 on initial growth nodes. Update(s) - Hours later it was a case of irrigation, surprisingly. The pots had some heft to them but all but 1 perked up after irrigation. I have a lot more vermiculite in this substrate than last cycle. It might be drying a bit faster around top/edges/drain holes despite the remaining moisture/weight of the pot feeling "heavy enough." Too many dry zones and the plant lost turgor pressure. - At 23 days completed I topped above 3rd node and pruned lowest axilla. This is technically in week 4, not week 3. This cut off the best leaves, as you can tell, but creates a nice even starting point for my 4 primary branches. Each will be topped one more time as it grows out into position for a total of 8 colas per plant.

28 days completed. Topped after 23 days? It is noted in previous week with a picture. Still a bit droopy, but I think they are just begging for a transplant. Still waiting on a few plants to get the f*ck out of the way in the big tent. If the growth is impeded in anyway, It's fine as more vege time only results in over-crowding mid flower. Wanted to test how large of a plant to expect from 35 days of vege, but I prefer to wait a minimum of 5-7 days after transplant before flipping to flower. Will try first cycle of next winter, I guess. I'll top each branch again, soon. This time I'll top above the node with best orientation for future training. If i have to go 1 node longer on a pair of branches, that extra length will be useful reaching farthest pairs of future vertical colas from apical meristem ('trunk'). EDIT - Definitely a bit too much light causing the droop. Reduced power slightly and raised 1", all the plants look much better within 24 hours. Will 90-degree plant trainers on plants as the length of branches allow. Breeding cycle update: Pollen donator (STS) - 33 flower nights Pollen receivers - 26 flower nights So, i used soft water by accident instead of distilled when mixing the 3 millimole STS. It most definitely had an impact as i've had 99.9% conversion all previous times I've used STS. This time I ended up with one branch with 2/3rds pollen sacs at each bud site, another branch with a couple budsites below top cola with 2/3rds coverting, and one site at the bottom on trunk. I was not hopeful. So, the softened water greatly diminished the concentration, but I'm seeing brown pistils at FD 25-26 after agitating the pollen donator over the other plants the last ~5 days. FD 26 is unusually early to see rusty pistils. I've gone from pessimistic to optimistic about at least some pollination. Only need a handful of seeds to accomplish what I want to do. Since i want to make some F1 of similar flavors, a thousand seeds at this step is not necessary. Just 10-20 would be great. Threw out a ouple pollen receivers due to popping nanners or other traits i didn't like based on late flower. Only the SCO2 x SCO1 cross matters, but i'll get a toss-in F1 with cherry diesel, too. The SCO x GS would be a great combo. Both are fruity and sweet. I'd like to find something skunky to cross with BBGS. I'll continue to use the first crop cycle to find worthy plants and start doing a 2nd breeding cycle only when I have a good pairing for an F1. If anything is stellar from Zoap, GS, or Oreoz, i might revege it and plop it outside somewhere to take clones later. I really hate keeping mother plants, so they'd have to be fucking amazing. I've only had one plant truly worthy in 6 years, so... not likely. The S1 GS is not dependable, but is from that "1" plant. I planted 9 GS S1 seeds and only 3 weren't deformed sprouts. I am taking 2 of those 3 to flower in this diary. I didn't cull the weak last time i grew them. If these turn out well, I'll definitely search for a decent pheno.

1 dark cycle short of 35 completed days from earliest sprouts. After I harvested the last strawberry cookies og, I did some necessary remodeling and light cleaning. Both scrog frames adjust with a 24" gap between. Took a bit to level it (enough), but just have to count the clicks, now. Can retract 2nd scrog when plants are shorter than 6-8" above first scrog for lights to pass through. Added a center bar to each frame to prevent bowing - zip ties and duct tape weren't cutting it. Zip ties still hold the scrog frames to the tent frame. Based on use, it's only ever dropped down to plant level after setup, so they stay on. Nice and sturdy and no more mistakenly leaving it too close. Anything shorter isn't the type of plant that flops over. Transplanted 8 plants to 5-gallon pots. Staked the irrigation system down and off she goes. Waiting on a humidifier wick, so I'm not expecting record breaking growth this coming week, but I'll have RH% where it needs to be when it matters most. Hopefully, the 8 colas on each plant are in position to go vertical within 5-7 days. If there's enough axillary growth, I'll top tomorrow. Rather not do that so quickly after a transplant but it's a matter of not over-growing the space due to delay from 74FD plant in previous cycle. After 70 days of flower, it starts to become a problem for my schedule. I wanted to do a 35 day vege this cycle but that was squashed. Good thing the wick went bad and growth slowed down or it'd be overgrown by day 40-42, which is what it is looking like due to transplant delay. I was going to tough it out until the drying room humidifier was available, but it's a significant impact I can't ignore another 10+ days. Four days of shipping time plus a few more days prior is enough. I like having fewer plants, though 10 might fit better as the plants are a bit oblong in shape. Plus, I removed a 230w light (12h operation wattage) - down to 1150w for 12h operation / 710 watts 16h operation. That spare 230w light will be much better suited for future coinciding breeding cycles than the XS1500. The remaining lights can cover a larger footprint than I am filling, but that only means my corners and margins will be stronger.

Total days Completed - 42 Flower nights - 0 First cycle of 12/12 as of this posting. My humidifier wick got tainted a bit earlier than expected, so these suffered through 2.0-2.1 VPD for 9 days. Growth was significantly impeded. The growth the last 2-3 days is already significantly more than what occured over the previous 9 days of high VPD. It even brought temps down 3-4F to 75F, which got the VPD about where I want it, relative to atmospheric calculation, which is slightly higher than actual VPD due to cooler temps that sorround a leaf. Soon the canopy will provide the RH and the dehumidifier will be turned back on. It'll cost more electricity, but RH% will be easier to maintain. The humidifier can barely maintain RH due to room size and extremely low ambient RH in winter. It took 2 days to creep back up to the targetted range. I usually let them grow out a bit more, then prune them back at flip to flower phase to ensure even the smallest of the bunch fills in the alotted space. Since the first cycle was so good, attempting to eliminate that first wave of pruning altogether. Losing a minimal amount of yield is inconsequential vs learning a more optimal plant size to minimize cost/effort and trigger flip to flower. Can simply count the scrog squares it fills for an accurate size estimate that will translate and aid future choices. One plant is definitely under-sized and another is a tad on small side compared to the rest. Everythng else should fill in nicely. Extra plant spacing should provide excellen bud formation deep into canopy. Despite the setback with the bad wick, things are back on track and growing better each day. Before the end of the first week of flower, colas should be in position and growing vertically. I'll prune off any axilla before the bend upward, but should not require any additional pruning. A 24" or greater canopy should result. Definitely dialing back the fertilizer. This is usually the case as I enter flower, but exacerbated by high VPD and increased rate of drinking. Will drop N to 100ppm on next refill and slightly reduce Jacks Part A. Triple superphosphate will be increased to bring Ca levels back up. ------------ Breeding cycle pics included this week. Thankfully, despite the low percentage conversion of the STS-applied plant, I did get some fem seeds. There was obviously some pollination before i realized it as some are nearly poping out already. It's been 9-10 days since I removed the pollen-donator and last peppering of the plants with pollen. Pollination probably started 3 weeks ago, but I'll give 5 weeks from the point at which the pollen donator was removed. About a month remains, then let it get dry AF and harvest seeds. Sadly, the cherry diesel used was very meh with fluffy buds and overly leafy compared to other plants, but the main concern was strawberry cookies og#1 x strawberry cookies og#2, which was also a bit of a let down. Smells like strawberries, yippty shit, but other traits are not ideal in regard to bud formation. Another generation of inbreeding, even if not selfed, won't help matters. Using less STS did seem to improve pollen viability - exacerbated by accidentally using soft water causing a lower resulting concentration than intended. In future the goal won't be 100% conversion, but rather as much conversion as possible while still getting the most viable pollen possible. Will shoot for erring short of 3mM concentration next year, but remaining safely over 2mM.

49 Total days completed 6 Days of Flower nights completed Forgot to reset timers, so it got 43 days of vege. As stated last week, once the VPD got in check, growth resumed at a good rate. Probably cost me at least 1 week of vege time. Colas are nearly in the proper location. As they grow out I'll angle them out a few more inches with some training and some well-placed garden wire to hold it steady. I've already stripped lower growth, but will probably need a second wave by FD14. Any stretch axilla at bottom will be pruned off at that point. Feel a lot better not that it has all recovered from the ramification of a broken humidifier and me thinking it would produce it's own moisture soon enough, which it did not, lol. The canopy is now helping a bit in this regard. While the humidifier was struggling to maintain 50% with the lights on, now it is staying above 55%. Within a week I'll probably need to turn off the humidifier and turn on the dehumidifier. Another benefit to slimming down number of plants should reduce dehum use. It's a 960w beast vs the 35w humidifier. This should shave off a week or 2 of dehum use each cycle. Maybe, with 8 plants covering a slightly smaller area will result in an equilibrium that doesn't need much help in that regard. Can always hope. If I can get just a little better g/sq ft out of this smaller area, I'll downsize the first cycle, too. The plants are better spaced and will get better light penetration etc. Definitely possible with better canopy management. All plants are pictured in same order each week. e.g. The first zoap is always the same plant etc. A 3-week range of images shows rate of growth. At day 34, it was still recovering, but the last 10-14 have been strong. Lowered nute concntration to 1.2EC. the damage seen is mostly likely leftover from 1.8-2.2 VPD when the humidifier was broken. The plants aren't overly lush, so still providing ~120ppm of N. That will drop at first hint of darkness creeping into canopy. A little embarassed by the fugliness on the first Zoap plant pictured. A couple others have some similar blemishes, but this one reacted the worst, yet still is one of the bigger plants, so far. New growth is showing a little chlorosis. My guess was too much P of VPD-caused issues and the primary element reduced when I dropped fertilizer concentration to 1.2EC, so we'll see if that clears up, too. ------------------------- Breeding Cycle: Been giving water-only for a few days now. Lushness has drawn back a bit and so far has not caused additional symptoms. Not too worried about these plants. The buds won't be smoked and the seeds are clearly developing really well.

56 total daily cycles 13 flower nights As the vpd has gotten better the last several weeks, the lights need to be much closer than before - about 3-4" difference. Shows how many variables are involved with finding "ideal" light intensity. Just allowing the node spacing to dictate distance from canopy. I can already see the point at which I'll trim off lower, weak axilla. I'll get in there tomorrow and clear out 90% of future larf. With ~14 more days of strong vege growth, should get at least 14" of new growth. Should end up with 18-24" length of buds per cola, and I'll HST if any stretch beyond that. Spread out some plants this week with some garden wire - just angling it outward and breaking dominance of anything outpacing the rest of the canopy. ------------- Breeding cycle - all is well. Three weeks from pollen-donator removal, proably four weeks from initial pollination. The plants look quite ripe at this point. I'll give it another two weeks unless it starts to die on the branches. This will be a minimum of 5 weeks of seed development and most of it was incepted before removal of pollen-donator.