Fast flowering Season

BalconyBoy I'm being impatient from the very beginning. Checking if seeds germinated, checking growth daily, worrying about the soil... After last year's fail with supermarket soil that turned out to be at pH 8.2 I did my homework this time around. Last year's soil is used for the seedlings wich comes at pH 7.2 but still has more than 1600 ppm, which according to the Internet this is ok when talking about organic soil. So far the seedlings show no problems with it. I accidentally used the new mix with good compost on two other seedlings and even that seems to work out fine.

BalconyBoy I'm leaving the seedlings for a full week of vacation. I'm not confident the automated watering box will be enough since it didn't distribute evenly when turned on. I have a friend check every third day to avoid disaster.

BalconyBoy Only on the way back home I had the idea of placing a small wet towel under the seedling pots to evenly disperse water pumped into the tray. Next time I'm better prepared for such a case but for now I have lost one seedling to drying out. Good thing I have a couple extra ones to select and give away.

BalconyBoy 14.03.25 This is the first few days in new pots. I will not use those cardboard pots again, the roots grow into the material and ripping them apart during transplanting is unnecessary stress. Growth is increasing in the new much bigger pots. I have one triple top mutant with the surplus seedlings, curious to see how that one grows.

BalconyBoy 21.04. The plants are developing at a good speed now. All four have been gently topped and are now starting to switch to bushy growth. I still watch how the mutant is doing and still can't tell how many heads there are. Glad to see that the plants handle the soil mix well since repotting

BalconyBoy 28.04. all four plants handled last week's topping well and startet to branch out. Tangerine Snow was the slowest to start side branches. Plants look healthier in the bigger pots, only the quick sherbet has some funny colored patterns on half the leaves but doesn't seem to affect growth. Two more weeks and the ladies move on to the balcony or friends gardens. Water uptake has increased lately, so I assume root development is good but not showing at the bottom of the pots yet.

BalconyBoy 05.05.25 the plants are having their last week indoors and continue to perform well, after topping all oft them they branch out visibly, I bend the two top branches sideways. The balcony setup is already in place and irrigation working fine. I put some tiny white clover seedlings in their and will add plants at the end of the week when temperatures are expected to rise above 15*C again. The extra seedlings I still hold will also find a new home till end of the week to make room for the autos I popped to fill the two remaining spots on the 6 seat balcony. The two autos will get a separate report soon.

BalconyBoy 12.05. transplanted on 09.05. all plants handled the transition well. Wind on the weekend was no problem, nighttime temperature dropped to 3*C.

BalconyBoy 19.05. the weather is getting sunnier and warmer now, the plants have accommodated well and I tied some branches down to achieve multiple heavy colas later on. I identified a mild version of the tabacco mosaic Virus on the quick sherbet plant but decided to just ignore it. I know it can't be dealt with other than toss the plant and after some research (Mr. Canuk) showed that mild forms of the virus don't do much I ignore it and see what happens. I try hard to not touch the plant and spread it myself. This is the first year the plants get white clover as companions.