Bag Seed Adventure!

OB-GYN-Kenobi Chapter 2: Overwatering. All four seedlings were moved out of the collective Miracle-Gro pot and into their own 5-gallon fabric pots, filled with Fox Farms and Nature's Living Soil. I was worried about transplantation at this age, but initially it went quite smoothly, with all of them bouncing back quite quickly. A few days later, problems started. Two out of the four seedlings simply collapsed, thinned out where the stem meets the soil. After reading and learning about damping off and its causes, I think I might be making the number one newbie mistake: too much water. This seems especially problematic now that the remaining two seedlings are in big pots now, unable to drink all the water those pots can hold. I'm going to need to be careful here. Despite all of the above problems, the healthiest seedling is already showing what looks like a duckfoot mutation.

OB-GYN-Kenobi Chapter 3: Mo pH Mo problems. Growth has completely stalled out and the bottom leaves are turning yellow. Something is clearly wrong. I've pulled back a lot on watering, but it's possible there's still stagnant water at the bottom of these pots. I've been trying to keep them a little propped up so that air can get to the bottom of the pot and dry it out a bit. However, after a lot of research, I suspected pH problems. I bought a decent pH meter (Apera), calibrated it, and discovered the water from my backyard tap was coming in at a very high 9.5 - 10.0. Pretty sure that's high enough to cause all kinds of nutrient lockout. Thankfully this week ended a lot better. A bottle of pH down + a couple days, and I'm finally seeing new growth again. Hopefully back on the right path now. I've heard an awful lot "it's a weed, it grows everywhere!" but honestly I've never had this many problems in any vegetable garden I've grown.

OB-GYN-Kenobi Chapter 4: Full veg + new friends. This plant definitely rewards you when you get it right. That pH of 10 was making everyone very unhappy. It also probably helped with the other two seedlings damping off. Now that I've dialed in a pH of 6.5, we're growing again nicely. Two seedlings damping off means I also now have two 5-gallon pots filled with premium soil / mycorrhiza and nothing growing in them. I decided to go with one of my favorite strains, purchased a couple Dutch Passion Strawberry Cough seeds and germinated them with just a water cup, no issues there. I'm trying to apply what I've learned so far: I'm starting these new seeds in a small pot and will work my way up to the 5-gallons. Focusing on good drainage, mixed about 50/50 Fox Farms Ocean Forest with Perlite. Is that too much Perlite? I really want to avoid overwatering, but maybe I'm over-correcting. Once she gets a few nodes, I'll transplant into the 5-gallon pots with Happy Frog and Nature's Living Soil. Considering some Dynomyco for that transplant, too. Again, this is all about learning and experimenting for me...otherwise I wouldn't be starting seeds outside in late July.

OB-GYN-Kenobi Chapter 5: Where we learn again that seedlings are fragile. Things had been looking great for all 4 plants - the two (Z x GMO) going full throttle into veg growth, and the two Strawberry Cough seedlings starting strong in their high-drainage homes. Soon after the group photo above, I discovered the youngest seedling, Bride of Snake-Hat, had collapsed in the hot afternoon Sun. Unlikely it was damping off this time - I hadn't been watering much at all. The seedling pots felt quite hot. I've been reading up on VPD, I'm guessing it just got too hot and too dry for the little one. Turns out using little black pots is probably not the best. Every mistake a lesson. I managed to revive the seedling in the shade, and stood it back up, but you can see the damage is already done; those wilted tips aren't coming back. Might be slow-growing from here, but I've made an improvised humidity dome and it definitely seems to be helping. In the meantime, the two original Cannabiotix (GMO x Z) bag seeds are doing great. First experiments with training here: I just topped the larger of the two (Duckfoot), while I'm starting to tie down the smaller one so it lays flat. Also removed the single leaves of the first node - yellow from earlier pH problems and probably not doing any good at this point.