Northern lights (Overkill)

DapperDabber I forgot to update with my 5x5 last week so I'll have another update tomorrow. Only one popped up continuing my poor luck with Sensi Seeds. She looks a little deformed which is a reoccurring theme with the Sensi Seeds I've had that germinated. Could be a bad luck streak.

DapperDabber It seems she's taken off quite vigorously. She hasn't been watered since the soil has been initially mixed and it might be time soon considering her growth. I'm happy to see one of the Northern Lights made it, I'd like to get quite a few different breeders under my belt.

DapperDabber While this Northern lights from Sensi Seeds may have been the sole survivor, she's impressively vigorous! I began sub irrigation this week, being the first watering since sowing with real Growers Recharge. I have some small lights that came with my mini tent under the canopy hoping to encourage lateral branching. I've never used under canopy lighting before because of irrigation complications but with sub-irrigation it seems a non issue. Continuing on with my personal "overkill" method i lowered the lights as well. The light is on 24/7 maybe I should do some calculation on DLI but my intention is to push the lighting hard with organic inputs in an oversized container. I'll probably refer to it as Living Soil Over-Kill maybe LSOK for short. I like the idea of pushing genetics to their potential limits under organic practices.

DapperDabber She is filling in quite nicely! I began trellis training as the flower stretch appeared to begin. This is most likely the last week of veg as the nodes are getting the dense swell of flower setting! I have continued to bottom watered exclusively (so far 3 times or so via flooding the bottom of the tent) Now that her flowers are setting and the fungus gnats have been defeated she'll probably get a thorough top watering with recharge and big 6. I'm happy to see success on one of the sensi seeds. Their northern lights appear to be one of their most popular strains so I have a bit of hope for the last 4 seeds of NL from Sensi. I'll be starting them soon outside of tents in 10 Gallons because I love having a full garden ☺️ Thanks for tuning in, I'll be back next week! Hopefully we get to see some NL flowers by then🤞

DapperDabber Really blew up this week! What a flowering stretch 😀 I removed the scrog net as per my usual training. I abhor harvesting with a net on, mostly because I do full plant hangs with my terrible humidity around here! I've decided to control the humidity only during drying, to keep things simple. All of my plants have survived through the low humidity over the past year and the only reasonable way to control it in a cost effective manor is with industrial options and I've been more financially focused on trying to start a music studio for live full-band recordings, rehearsals and demo productions. I feel like I should be fine with everything I have thus far in the grow room! Thanks for sticking around, I know this post got a bit more personal but living in Colorado and doing this legally is a far stretch from where and when I forst started as a young-in. I'm happy in my garden 😊 I have such a surplus of flower so far I either need to take a break from growing or find a way to share my homegrown.

DapperDabber Wow what a vigorous lady! She's been drinking more, or at least I've been sub-irrigating more frequently. It's up to once a week or more. I don't really track it too well. It's more of an art than a science,at least as I do it. I'm going to top dress some time in the next week or two. Before flowering sites start ripening. I'm impressed with the vigorousity of the plant! Still bummed about the germination rate, but that's just part of the game I suppose. Thanks for reading! Even though the buds are small I'm glad we got to see some pistils this week!

DapperDabber I really couldn't have asked for a more vigorous lady. Her lateral branching is the most extensive I've ever personally grown! Today she got a top dressing of both Gaia Green's Grow and Bloom as well as BAS's bio-char and Elemental's amino-calcium complex. I didn't measure it, I feel like I've broken away from concrete measurements and go by feel. The closest measurement I can give you was that I used a plastic bowl from Walmart as a scooper and it was 70~90 % full of Gaia green and it was a conservative scoop of the other two. I tilled the top inch of soil to massage the ammendments in. When I top dress I do a deep watering from the top. I use a small pump for recirculation of the run-off to minimize waste. It was my Garden upkeep day and between watering everybody and filling humidifiers I used a bit over half of my 55 gallon drum! I use absorbic acid to neutralize chlorides and phosphoric acid to adjust pH to at least under 6.5 it's usually between 5.8~6.3 My main goal is to keep the soil from getting too alkaline. I use many calcium sources and that cause a constant pH drift upwards. I have a 5mL dropper I fill mostly full of phosphoric acid give or take a few mL depending on how much water was already present when I'm filling it. If it wasn't already clear, I decided to just get a second humidifier to keep both tents controlled. I really didn't want to but wow the humidity dropping to %20 really did a number on the Strawberry gorilla in my 5x5. I've been letting the temps stay ambient while focusing on controlling humidity to alter the vpd. I'm aiming for a 1.2-1.4 vpd and I'll push for 1.6 in late flower. Around the second week of flowering here and I lollipopped the crap out of her, she had an insane amount of buds popping out everywhere! I'm super stoked at the absolute unit of a plant this lady has become. Truthfully I couldn't imagine how much trimming I'd have to do if all 4 germinated. Heck, even two plants this size would have me lollipopping %75 of the plants! I would also like to point out the last photo for those convinced a plant cannot make use of this much soil. The roots have broken through the fabric all around the pot at the base! This lady happily grew into 65+/- gallons of soil! I wasn't even sure if 2 plants could make use of the full container but wow! Thanks for checking in! Sorry for the long read, I've been busy recently but found some time to really make a difference in the garden! My Sweet Cherry Kush have germinated in the 5x5 If your interested in watching me try to grow absolutely massive monsters! I'll also be starting some more in 10 Gallon pots using hydro halos and automated watering! Keep calm and Grow-on my brothers and sisters!

DapperDabber What an absolute monster! 70 Days ago I sown the seeds into the ground and she has become a whole a** 🌲tree! 🌲 She was given Big 6 Micros from Buildasoil and Bio-catalyst from Root-wise today. A few days ago I innoculated the 65 gallon pot with about 100 red wigglers to kick start some life in there and get some nutrient cycling going for the next run. I might have to do a staggered harvest as it's too late for me to comfortably lollipop again! Thanks for reading and take care!

DapperDabber She's gonna be the longest autoflower I've had so far, I can see it. If I were to guess, I would say she's easily got another 4-6 weeks before harvest. I like that though! The next seeds I pay for will be some old school genetics. I want something from the original breeder or as best as possible such as agseedco. She's shedding on her own, many lower leaves and branches are light lime green from lack of light exposure. This lady truly deserved to be in the 5x5 all on her own, I'm beyond impressed. I didn't know autoflowers could be so robust and well... big! I set up automated watering because she's gonna be busy flowering and drinking like crazy. I used drip depot's 0.5 gph drip emitters and 1/2" tubing with vivosun's smallest water pump set to the lowest setting. When I measured using a graduated bucket, it took about 10min 30 seconds to water a quantity of 3.25 gallons which is 5% of the volume of the 65 gallon pot. This is buildasoil's guideline and it's been the most helpful starting point for every pot size and type as soon as the roots have taken over for daily watering. I will adjust the on-duration of the water pump timer to adjust watering volume. I will increase the amount of water until there is runoff and then back it off. I want zero runoff, as there is nothing in the soil or water that I believe needs to be flushed out. I am strict about my inputs. AANYWAY, nerdy stuff aside, she's a monster and I'll likely need to top dress again before the end of flower. I believe she has the ability to eat like crazy. Thanks for sticking around and take care friends!

DapperDabber I saw some fungus gnats on the traps so I treated with WDG3000 and covered with rice hulls. I also added a controller for my lung room to control the temps better, they really love the heat. I broke two rules, I defoliated and lollipopped because she was just too unruly. I also added the scrog net back on to spread out the center of the canopy. I really didn't want to, but I think it's for the best. I think she will likely grow on autopilot for the next few weeks with no real work on my end! Take care fellow Growers!

DapperDabber Comment coming soon - long story short I killed her with love and simple mistakes in a matter of 3 days It's heartbreaking truly. I walked into the tent to a fried plant, but before that I walked into the lung room at 98f The plant was in a large puddle of water, she hasn't drank in a while. Back to three days before: It was the day before the start of my work week, I work long days and during the work week I cannot tend to the garden. This is a large factor for the grow room having large soil containers and as much automation as I can. I was excited to do some maintenance and cord management. What ended up happening was a three-fold, and entirely my fault. While doing cord management I didn't plug the extraction fan into the correct port, there wasn't any fresh air or temperature and vpd based extraction for 3 days. The probe for the humidifier for the 3x3 was moved into a temporary location but wasn't returned. The real VPD was at 2.8kPa for 3 days and the humidifier thought it was the expected 1.5kPa. The probe for used for the new heater and lung room controller was faulty and the heater didn't turn off at all for 3 days. It really sucks to think that I can really only do major things on either my Friday or beginning of my weekend but for the safety and consistency moving forward I think that's the only safe thing to do. Next time I need to be able to catch issues before I am unavailable during the work week. I popped another Northern lights from Sensi (Four left, three after this) into a shot glass, I'll start it in a 1 gallon pot and let this lady senesce at a gentle 20 DLI, 1.0kPa and mid 70's leaf surface temperature. All of her pistils have died back orange and the buds have stretched airy. She's hurt and won't recover kindly, but I feel obligated to baby her on her way out.