Tent Grow #2

JazzBerries Starting up another grow--putting in moderate effort this time. I bought these seeds off the NASC dollar menu about a year ago. I've run mixed nutz and ICCxCC on a low effort indoor/outdoor grow before I had this tent setup ironed out. ICCxCC was culled early flower; Mixed Nutz fought hard through my neglect and made bud better than I expected. I think they should do well with a bit more attention. Direct sow into 60% cheap bagged dirt from Menards and 40% perlite with 100% success. I have about 20-30 gallons of better organic dirt stewing with the above mix--Rich dirt, perlite, verm, coir, Dr. Earth organics. It should be ready when they need to transplant.

JazzBerries It was a hard week on these little seedlings, but it looks like they're starting to get established. I felt they were stretching too much. Probably a stressful combination of huge humidity swings (living space is very dry this time of year), light not being designed for grow/too high or low, and too little moisture in the soil. Either way, the backfill seemed to be what they needed and their growth seems more normal now.

JazzBerries I'm growing some ugly little plants here, but they're growing quick enough. My best guess is its from a combination of huge humidity swings when opening the tent, misting to try and compensate for the low humidity when I can't be around the plants, temperature build up when I turn off tent ventilation in order to keep humidity up, and wind burn from a small fan. Stoma can't react adequately to those swings, leaves dry out in an ugly way. I turned down the lights and moved them up. This will let me turn off tent ventilation and control VPD a bit better--its fine if they stretch this week.

JazzBerries Growth is slow (at least to me), leaves are still weak, some is discoloration starting to show, and they're extraordinarily dramatic to watering. Not setting up good soil ahead of time was a mistake, and when I backfilled, I mixed in about tbsp of Dr. Earth Pot of Gold/Homegrown per plant. I suspect the fertilizer started becoming available to the plants before they needed it or they need more calcium and magnesium to make good use of it. When I've made good organic soil in the past, pH has been a complete nonissue, but I suppose I didn't make good soil this time. It kind of goes against "moderate effort" but I'll check pH of water and soil sometime this week. At least stems look great all around. -ICCxCC is growing long stems and big ugly leaves; this is what got it culled last time but I will be able to control it better in the tent -Mixed Nutz is growing much larger leaves and stems than last time -Blueberry OG; never ran it before, but it looks like kush and blueberry crosses I've ran. Looks great

JazzBerries This has turned into a comedy of errors, but I'll keep posting--epigenetics be damned. Issues: -Air too dry, bad VPD, stressful and fast transpiration -Too much perlite and not enough moisture retention -Tap water they've been getting has too high of a pH; high perlite soil wasn't an adequate buffer -Nutrient (or root zone) issues; possibly indicating too much nitrogen, too little cal, mag, and phosphate I should have taken the menagerie of symptoms, particularly their sensitivity to water, as a sign the plants were becoming root bound. I've grown in these 1 gallon pots before and gotten MUCH larger plants before they start showing signs, but I've also never used this much perlite. I figured that root development would be better (it was) and that it would hedge against over watering (it didn't, transpiration was too high for that to be useful). I wasn't able to repot them until the weekend, day 29, and by then, all plants had eaten their first 2 sets of true leaves and started on the 3rd. Root development honestly shocked me, wish I took a picture. All had completely colonized the pot, even the recently backfilled soil, and devoured much of the organic material. The first one I pulled out honestly looked like a white mass of mold/myc, but nope, only hairy roots and perlite. No loose material fell off the root ball. They went into 3 gallon containers with about 1/2 of my good dirt with 1/2 sphagnum (which I feel bad about but I needed a neutral buffer and water retention). The mix will likely be hot/plants showing signs of nitrogen toxicity until they grow a bit more, but they started recovering immediately. Beyond repotting, I will be pHing, de-chlorinating, and adding calcium acetate, epsom salts, and occasional compost tea/cultures to the water moving forward because the soil makeup still isn't what I like; I will also prune the damaged leaves when. I also put the lights on a timer currently set to 20/4 to reduce stress and facilitate some stretching toward the net height. Plan is to top when they reach net height and then repot into final containers.

JazzBerries It's been 8 days since they were repotted, 6 since the last update--strong recovery. I've been too busy to do all the water stuff so still no cal or mag, likely high pH, likely leading to signs of nitrogen toxicity, but growth is good enough to give them a bit more light and start trying to train the ugly out of em

JazzBerries Corrected Issues: -Water pH now acidic and outward signs of nutrient problems fading -tall plants topped a few days ago -Pruned the previously damaged leaves New Issues: -Fungus gnat outbreak despite letting them show signs of underwatering regularly -Blueberry OG will not stretch upward while the weak mixed nutz plant shows signs of light burn Continued issues: -Growth is still slow -Still sensitive to water -VPD is still high -tap water is super cold/not letting it sit out long enough; I've probably been shocking the roots -I'm both lazy and busy Plan this week: -Get them some Dr. Earth before they consume the soil--looks like enough nitrogen so I'll skip pot of gold (2-2-2) and give both flower girl (3-9-4) and home grown (4-6-3) -Get the net hung and start scrog -Get lights set to 18/6 from 20/4 -Might water with BTI I'm having a hard time here, and I question if I can get them back on track with organic and DIY methods. It might be time to pick up some synthetic ferts, real calmag (people keep throwing away my saved egg shells) and buffered pH correcter because they got such a poor start. Structure is also kind of weird; makes me worry about potential diseases. Advice would be appreciated.

JazzBerries Corrected issues: -Adult fungus gnat population is gone; saw soil mites walking the perimeter of the pots, happy to see them -Scrog started; working toward a normal canopy -Started up the fan in the back, plenty of air circulation now -Light strength and timing are more balanced -VPD is in check Continued issues: -Growth still seems slow to me on BBOG and Mixed Nutz -Leaves are limp most of the time regardless of watering -Still need cal/mag; Mixed Nutz seems like it wants it bad Goals this week: -Get them into their final pots before they become one with the net -Defoliate old leaves shading lower colas

JazzBerries Finally got them some mag and they loved it, mixed nutz especially. They started showing some splotchy fading of older leaves so I gave them some Dr. Earth. They seem a bit hot on nitrogen, but growth has been better. Beyond that, a bit of defoliating/scrog. ICCxCC is still a droopy monster; I have a vague memory of reading in an old HSC catalog that one of the parents essentially needs abnormally well draining soil. It would make sense, but I might be wrong Overall, I'm pretty happy with how this week went even if I didn't get them in bigger pots--might be too late/canted too far/growing too fast at this point but also necessary if I let them get much bigger

JazzBerries Literally did nothing this week but water. They seem happy enough. Still gotta get them in bigger pots before the switch, but still questioning the slow growth, if they're diseased and if I shouldn't just rush through flower and start over.

JazzBerries Another good week, finally got them some calcium and into their final containers; they weren't completely root bound but were going to be soon. It was an easy transplant for their size. These are supposed to be 7 gallon containers, but it seems like I shoveled far more than 4 gallons into each of them. Used up all my "good" well established organic dirt and had to finish it off with some sphagnum. Going to let them recover from the stress of transplanting/a hard scrog, but I'd like to get them defoliated and transitioned this week. Pray for no herms!