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.

OB-GYN-Kenobi Week 6: Really, just avoid using humidity domes. Duckfoot and Cannabonsai (both of the Z x GMO bagseeds) are looking good and continuing to grow nicely. Cannabonsai is taking well to training, while topping Duckfoot has really kicked its other branches into high gear. The seed that was actually meant to be grown is not doing great. Strawberry Cough is just continuing to look more unhappy and getting yellower by the day. Concerned she's just got too much perlite, I transplanted her into her final home of living soil. I also decided to try giving the humidity dome another chance, and that turned out to be a terrible idea, shriveling a couple leaf tips in the process. Fool me once...

OB-GYN-Kenobi Chapter 7: Keep on veggin'. Duckfoot and Cannabonsai are both doing great and training well. The Living Soil means I've been adding nothing but water - after pH balancing to 6.5, that is. Strawberry Cough #1 is looking a bit less yellow, but now Strawberry Cough #2 (which has just not been growing much the past couple weeks) has now decided to do the lean. I really expected these purchased seeds to outperform the bag seeds, but it seems like just the opposite is happening.

OB-GYN-Kenobi Chapter 8: Outdoor grows, outdoor problems. Someone has been snacking on Strawberry Cough #1. First it was bits of leaf here and there (first image). I quickly added some diatomaceous earth to the upper leaves, and I was met the next day with almost all the lower leaves eaten (second image). Even worse, right at the base near the soil, everything green had been eaten around the stem, leaving only a thin brown stick. I'll try to keep her on life support, but I don't think this plant can survive like this. Anyone have any ideas what could've done this? My best guess is something big like a cricket or grasshopper, though I haven't seen any. Z x GMO Bag seeds, meanwhile, continue to do amazing. Duckfoot got a bit of trimming of its early fan leaves, including its eponymous duckfooted leaf. After checking and checking for weeks, there's a hint of pre-flowers on Cannabonsai. Stay tuned...

OB-GYN-Kenobi Chapter 9: She's a lady. We've got our first flowers, and both Z x GMO bagseeds are female! Maybe that's not too surprising...if these seeds were from a herm event, then it could only every grow more females, for the same reason that selfing S1 seeds are always feminized. Both plants seem to be stretching, as well. Since this is an outdoor grow I'm not exactly sure when flowering officially starts, but this seems as good a time as any to call this Flowering Week 1. Strawberry Cough #1 is looking very, very bad, like it was just melting. Strawberry Cough #2 is still just a runt and not doing much. Might be time to do something here.

OB-GYN-Kenobi Chapter 10: We cut our losses. There's no way that Strawberry Cough is coming back, and its sibling has been a dud. Pulling those plants, it looks like the roots just never really developed much. Weird, I wonder if they would've done better inside. In the meantime, plenty more flowers starting to pop out now. In the spirit of the Living Soil grow, I did my very first addition of something besides water - a bit of organic blackstrap molasses.

OB-GYN-Kenobi Chapter 11: Two down, two left With only the original two Z x GMO bag seeds still going, the grow is now looking a lot more optimistic. I've read that flowering is a much more delicate time than veg, but so far everything seems good. No obvious deficiencies or issues with these plants since the original pH issue their first couple weeks. Flowers are getting thick now, and trichomes are coming in. Treated with some blackstrap molasses, but I think I'll be ordering a Living Soil Compost tea meant for flower, just to keep everything happy.

OB-GYN-Kenobi Chapter 12: Do you smell that...? Flowers are really starting to develop now, and both plants are getting a frosty sheen to them. They also seem to be developing weak but distinct smells - Duckfoot is leaning into the GMO with Donny Burger-like dank fumes, while Cannabonsai smells like pure Z candy terps. I've also done a compost tea of Girl Flower Power + molasses...their Living Soil has been great, so I figured their flowering formula (high in P & K fixing microbes) is worth a shot, too. It smells just as terrible as their Living Soil, but Stink in, Stink out. Late-breaking development: after careful searching, I found what I believe are two male flowers on Duckfoot, see last pics. I knew this was a possibility with bag seed, but still don't love seeing it. I'm pretty sure after dissecting it, these are not nanners, but fully developed male flowers appearing at the internode below the female flowers - a true herm rather than stress-induced herming. Going to have to be extra vigilant for these from here on out, but hopefully not too much longer now.

OB-GYN-Kenobi Chapter 13: He who smelt it... Added another compost tea of flower power and molasses, just a couple tablespoons now for the past 3 weeks. No more male flowers, I think I was just freaking out about some pre-flowers that never really developed. That said...it's suddenly starting to smell quite strongly now, both plants are leaning into their GMO genetics. At this point I'm probably going to need to do some something or the neighbors will start complaining the plants are creating a "public nuisance"... Stay tuned for some desperate measures.

OB-GYN-Kenobi Week 14: Everything is about to change. The smell is getting quiet strong. Solution coming soon.

OB-GYN-Kenobi Chapter 15: ...And then it became an indoor grow. So this is the solution to my stinky outdoor grow: move it inside. New tent (ACInfinity 2x4), new light (HLG 350R), exhaust fans, circulation fans, AI controllers, etc. Still just getting used to everything working together, but the plants do seem to like it, and no more chasing the Sun for me. They very quickly started changing colors. I think some of that is switching to LED, but we're also at week 7 of flower, so maybe some of this is the fade? Pretty autumn colors, regardless. Unfortunately I'm starting to notice some pests the plants brought with them - I wonder if the caterpillar came with the rains last week.

OB-GYN-Kenobi Week 16: This is why we don't bring outside grows inside. Getting into late flower, I've switched to 11/13, dimmed the lights 10%, and pushed the VPD to 1.5. The buds are really fattening up now, and Duckfoot continues to turn exciting colors, again leaning into her GMO genetics. Getting some amber trichomes on the sugar leaves but still none on the flowers themselves. This must be what they mean by "two more weeks". And then...the infestation happened. One caterpillar after the next, I keep finding them. Those rains must've brought the moths when this was still an outdoor grow; now that it's inside, the predatory insects to deal with it are now missing. I hate to use any pesticide and I haven't yet, but this needs to be dealt with or I'm going to lose the whole crop. Honestly, this is not just caterpillars, either. I noticed a little bit of thrip damage here or an occasional scale bug on a leaf there when it was outdoors, but it was always low-level. Now that we're indoors, these minor issues are starting to become major. I may need to harvest soon whether they're ready or not. Lesson learned for next time - keep outdoor outdoors. I'll have to scrub the tent thoroughly when we're done with this grow, too.