Grow #5 - Blueberry (New Light)

TugMasterson The grow is going well aside from the fungal gnats. While this may seem like the obvious outcome from using the same soil as I did last grow (which had gnats), but to my credit the soil was out in the garage all winter and I assumed the freezing temps would have killed them all - guess not. I ordered some fresh nematodes which worked amazing last grow. I plan on adding them after I transplant. I am a bit worried that the new light gives off too much heat. While so far things are good, I am only at level 3 during the seedling phase, and plan on upping it to 5 for Veg. If things get too hot I may remove the LED driver to outside of the tent.

TugMasterson Ended up transplanting on 4/21/26. This is earlier than I typically would, but I'll be honest, I am not at all confident in my approach to late seedling watering. I'm too impatient and anxious to get to the easy approach of the base watering system. I'm sure this will change over time with more experience, but it is hard with only one grow and it being such a short period of time in the plant's life cycle. Regardless, I did the typical transplant approach that makes things a breeze (gave more details on this in past grows). A bit concerned with the color of the plant being so light, I've never started to feed nutes this early, figuring Happy Frog has enough goods to carry things a bit, but if the situation doesn't improve soon I will get the nute ball rolling. Bumped the light to level 4, temps still manageable, but I may need to reevaluate when it gets really hot outside. Actually, it makes me wonder if the heat from the light will be enough during winter. Not having to run the heater all the time would be nice. Will cross that bridge when I get there.

TugMasterson This grow has really surprised me with how fast the plant is growing. It is the shortest I've seen a plant (height) with 7 nodes already. I went ahead and topped it before things got out of hand. I'll admit things don't look great now, but due to the immense growth I think I'm behind on nutes so I'll be more aggressive in bumping those up. I'm waiting for the little side shoots to make their way out of the "bush" so I can start some LST and keep things even. Now the obvious question, is the new light and/or recharge to blame for this surge of growth? At the end of the day I'm not sure it matters, I will continue to use both and see where things go.

TugMasterson This grow has been weird. I think the plant grew so fast it got too heavy and tipped over which caused issues. That said, it looks like it has recovered and is doing its thing. I upped the light to level 5 and temps are decent but the cool weather is helping out a ton there. Hoping this week the growth will allow for a bit of separation in the branches.

TugMasterson I just can't seem to hit my stride with this grow. It seems the techniques I've become accustomed to aren't doing the trick. Going to keep pushing on and trying to adapt. I plan on mixing things up even more with the next grow when I start using different nutes (locally sourced). I also keep reminding myself that every plant/strain is different, maybe this strain doesn't do well under a more powerful light * shrugs *. I tried pushing more nutes today than I normally do under the thought that a more powerful light means the plant needs more nutrients compared to what I am used to? We shall see.

TugMasterson I am a big dumb animal :( Many thanks to the good DoctorWeedthumb for knocking me out of my stupor! I was just being dumb and lazy when it came to ph, and was so focused on the new light and its potential effects. I even committed the cardinal sin of forgetting that the nutes are ph correcting and added the down drops like normal - so dumb! Now that I am actually measuring ph and doing things properly, my hope is to turn this grow around. It doesn't look good but hopefully it will improve in time to switch to flower * fingers crossed *

TugMasterson Things seem to be improving. In addition to sorting out the ph issue I also lowered the light intensity and moved it up higher. The plant is better structurally but the color could still use some improvement. Still hoping to get the plant into the best place it can be before switching to the flower schedule.

TugMasterson Made the switch to the 12/12 flower light schedule today 6/5/26. Figured she looked good enough to send it. I was hoping those two shorter branches would have some time to catch up, but with the ph and lighting issues, there wasn't much chance. I found a youtube video where someone measured the same light I have in the same size tent (at different distances from plant), so I have a much better understanding of how to wield this beast and it confirmed I pushed it too hard too early. I got to be honest though, I'm already thinking about my next grow and how much better I hope to do.

TugMasterson Things are looking good. I plan to bump up the light intensity once buds start to form and then around half way through flower. This is where I hope the new light truly shines (*pun intended). By that I mean, being able to really ramp up the light in flower beyond what I was formally capable of is hopefully going to produce fatter buds. * fingers crossed * Currently sitting at 18 inches, intensity lvl 5, which according to the video I found puts the ppfd at its highest around 719.