Seedsman Fast 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.

BalconyBoy 26.05. I continued to tie down branches on all plants except the quick sherbet. Steady growth and no deficiencies or other ills. I'm contemplating on where and when to start cutting away tiny branches and lower shoots to steer growth to robust parts.

BalconyBoy 02.06. the previous week I took to cutting back everything except 8-10 branches per plant. Each arm remains with sprouts at the top only (like lollipoping but with the leaves still on). I contemplated for a while before doing this an compared with last year's growth. Definitely want less little stuff in the lower region and a cleaner structure overall. TMV on the Quick Sherbet leaves looks contained. White clover growing along well, gave 1g / L of greenhouse feeding bio enhancer. This week is mostly cloudy and rainy so expect slower growth but good progress.

BalconyBoy 09.06.25 the photos are developing nicely and following the structure I intended by taking out lower sprouts. each plant now has 7-10 main branches to focus the growth on. no deficencies or pest visible. I keep an eye on the Quick Sherbet that has/had the TMV, it's the only plant with low leave tension even when watered properly. The future will tell if the virus is affecting yield, for the moment growth is normal.

BalconyBoy 16.06.25 the previous week had more sunshine than anticipated, good for the plants. I start to see the first lower leaves turning yellowish so I added 70g of "Bavarian Krauts Bio Grow" fertilizer mixed with a handful of soil as top dressing. Friday is the longest day of the year, but it will take till mid august to drop to 14h sunlight and start photos to flower, so another 8 weeks of pure growth ahead with an adequate amount of nutes in the soil.

BalconyBoy 23.06.25 The weather is splendid. Plants growing well, they need more water, which I add by hand to get the surface evenly wet, one week after topdressing. Still one or two leaves turning yellow but it takes time for the organic fertilizer to seep into the system. I observed little damage on leaves probably by some invisible insect. I have been spraying H2O2 last week, which the plants liked. The change in growth structure from taking away the lower sprouts is really coming along well, I'm happy I did this early on this year.

BalconyBoy 30.06.25 summer temperatures keep hitting and the plants grow accordingly. Last Wednesday I received and deployed organic pest control in the form of five bags with 'Neoseiulus cucumeris' to fight what I think are thrips. I Hope they do the trick despite the tough sunlight. Besides I put 70g of 'Bavarian Krauts grow' fertilizer and 4g of bio enhancer in a 8l bucket of water plus a bubbler pump for a day and then hand watered after adjusting pH to 6.6. the reason for this being leaves at the plant base turning yellow, indicative of nitrogen deficiency. Despite these minor issues I really enjoy the season so far and have confidence in a tasty harvest.

BalconyBoy 07.07.25 high temperatures and decent sunlight keep the plants growing well. All but the Tangerine Snow seem to be fine with nitrogen now. Maybe I'll give her another fertilizer Tea this week to counter yellowing leafes at the bottom. Thrips seem contained and today I even spotted two ladybugs patrolling the turf.

BalconyBoy 14.07.25 the thrips damage seems contained but I keep an eye on it. Each pot got 30g of Vegitative fertilizer top dressing. I'll wait till pistils start to show for the flowering fertilizer to be deployed. For now I still see enough vegetative growth. I couldn't resist putting the clay pebbles on top of the pots to see if the roots would grow to the very top.

BalconyBoy 22.07.25 All photo plants got a vegetative push to the top after a phase of branching out rather than grow tall, probably because of the fertilizer kicking in. The weather has been less hot past week. After discovering Aphids and their eggs under multiple plants leaves I wasted no time and took down what I could find plus I ordered 30 ladybug larvae. they arrived today and where deployed in super cute cardboard houses that now hang in every plant. Next week I plan on top dressing with fertilizer for flower and hope the Ladybugs raided those Aphids.

BalconyBoy 28.07.25 all plants are doing fine, pests are contained and yesterday each plant got 95g of flowering fertilizer top dressing. This should last until I return from the holidays. While tip dressing I noticed that the pots are now full of root webs almost to the top, the extra layer of soil and fertilizer is definitely welcome. The empty spot from the auto Lemon Kix was filled with a quick sherbet clone.

BalconyBoy 04.08.25 during last week I saw the first appearance of pistils at the top of each branch an top of the photoperiodic plants except the Quick Sherbet. I'm very happy to see that the seedsman genetics chosen for the faster flowering do actually deliver on this first part of the promise. flower fertilizer is doing its thing and plants look healthy. To avoid powdery mildew during flower I went to spray everything repeatedly with 1% H2O2 solution especially the affected Sherbet. The peroxide canister is from last year so I can add some more for for the potential loss of potency from storage at room temperature. Interesting to see that the Quick Sherbet seems vulnerable to the fungus while the others don't catch it besides a leave or two. The humid and colder weather is perfect for spraying the plants with peroxide, night temperature went as low as 13*C . Plant heights range from 110-120cm

BalconyBoy 12.08.25 weather is back on Sommer Mode and the plants continue to start flowering except the Quick Sherbet which still lacks visible signs. I installed a smart plug and camera to be able to give additional water on hot days based on leave tension while on vacation. The setup was super easy. I plan on top dressing flower fertilizer a second time at the end of August. Enjoy the weather if you can and happy growing to everyone!