The Garden 2024-2025 Part 2

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.