Apollo, Super Orange Haze, Cinderella J.

Pete_vs_Nature Week 2, instead of smoothly sailing before the more intense training weeks, provided another good opportunity to zero in on a couple of issues. I had never experienced this before, but as soon as environment, lighting etc. can be ruled out for troubleshooting - everything else presents itself much more clearly. When one plant is drooping in the morning but the bottom leaves are praying a little too hard, it's one thing to notice and contemplate. It's another thing to see a completely different plant do exactly the same thing a couple feet to the left. Now, suddenly, it's back on me and what I do. Something was off. ACJ#1 (culled) already started out like a bad memory from run#3, where my new medium composition gave me headaches about how highly I should dose my nutrient curves. Back in the day, Ca availablity & ratio to Mg, K were identified and fixed. But this time, just with one seedling again, I got bright white leaf-tips on their first set that decayed off quickly. Also, I got some early grey, round spots appearing, with the occasional brown spot reminiscent of Ca problems with Orange & Apollo. The only thing I was sure about and didn't revisit was the pH input required for keeping my new medium happy & root friendly. Turns out - especially now that I had obtained terrible quality living soil for this run, that my plants were receiving +0.5pH at all times. Problem solved, lesson learned, anger and pride swallowed - and now we were finally on track. With all stretching protocols in place, this clearly explained why their initial, powerful start got interrupted and why they started behaving more like average plants in merely decent conditions. Fixing the pH issue (wait.. let me swallow some more pride) put them straight back on track and up they went, trying to find the best spot in the sun. It's not the greatest feeling to start out an entire grow cycle like this (20% impaired seedling dev will affect harvest with Autos), but finding / fixing the problem and seeing plants respond quickly definitely is. Some other things of note: - slowly introducing Nights into the equation, plants getting acquainted with dark periods / metabolism shift - watering still tricky with medium, cultivars can show over- and underwatering signs at the same time: low moisture retention top 3rd of medium - root zone temps on the high side for oxygen availablity, but better than run#4 16°C nightly drops - introduced "Cloud" for younger ACJ (-9 Days) to arrive at proper PPFD with same light - ACJ has special slot for nutrient composition analysis: receives dosages 9 days ahead of her age. (Guess who started burning first in week 3? Correct. Orange.) I attached a height chart so you can see that stunt going on and how they recovered. Until next week! Let me know if you see something worrying I am missing 👊

Pete_vs_Nature Week 3 is in the books, and boy did that pH discovery help. (I missed to re-calculate pH for my medium mix, assumed a whopping 0.5 pH higher for 2 weeks straight and noticed some early grey round spots appearing with rare brown pigmentation as well, so Ca-Mg was likely inaccessible - and it was.) The plants took about 2 days to rejuvenate, until they were so happy with the changes they shot up straight into the air. The stunt was real, and I am so glad I started tracking their heights daily now. This is hands down the best way to check how the plant is doing? They were doing so well in fact, that I started to get worried that I flipped too many of my available leavers to encourage stretching. "But hey, I always wanted to see what those huge 1.50m plants were all about.." - goes my train of thinking usually, before I realize that 2m vertical space is not enough for a big plant container, a light hanging down, distance to that light, oh, and a huge plant. So consequently the scrog-plan is back in the books, I am trying to look at ways to span nets in this big new space that used to be my bedroom, trying to get clever, but ultimately just realizing how I am locking myself out of the tent no matter how :) With height constraints back on the table I also am going to super-crop, as this has been, hands down, the least stressful way for the plants to accept harsh training decisions. The idea is that one HST event (ideally slightly before pistil formation) stresses the plant less in total, than constant, repeated daily training events, constantly changing plant orientation and also, apical dominance spread. I might be wrong about this, let's talk during week 4-5! Everything else has been, dare I say it, fairly straight forward. Looking good now!

Pete_vs_Nature Week 4 started pretty great, the plants were finally exploding in ways I did not see coming. They also grew up nicely into the high lights that used to be at ~65cm, so PPFD adjustment was not necessary for the big girls as they grew into the range by themselves, ACJ (9 days younger) had her "cloud" to slightly shield her from the sun. Nutrients: Work on the plants was fairly limited. I did notice some early burn on Orange (not surprising), accompanied by a lot of deep green, slightly wrinkled leave borders. So this was my nitrogen curve shooting up way too early, expecting vigorous branching and foliage creation for 10 week Hybrid averages, when this strain can take it easy for up to 13 weeks. I wonder whether the N-toxicity caused the burned tips for Orange as well, but I am convincing myself this can't be the only factor. Guess what we can learn from this? I'll tell ya: Cinderella Jack with 9 days younger is receiving that same ramp 9 days -ahead- and is showing absolutely no signs of excess N or burn. When I read: "N-tox" and "nutrient burn", I should read: "Sativa / Landrace" and "likes lighter feed" amongst other things. Train decisions: Once again, I did try to employ leaf tucking in order to expose shoots and perhaps prevent super-cropping entirely. But I just cannot find a way to do it as long as everything is stretching out nicely. The internodal stretching on well fed and tended for Autos on Haze / Sativa genes with protocols supporting stretch, leaves me with leaves that are way too high up to tuck down without breaking them. The shadowing fan-leaves are always 2 nodes up and provide just some shade for those young nodes to stretch. Those nodes seem to have two modes to me: stretch out high and shoot up -in between- their shadowing fan leave petioles and stem (those will be big); or bend outwards and kinda stop stretching, as they are "thankful" as low priority shoots. Nothing else to add, trucking on, the scrog-net is looming over their heads. I am loving their heights but I have a confession to make: First day week 5? Those beautiful plants will receive their single HST "training" session and will be VERY upset for a day or two (during which I will also lollipop cleanly).

Pete_vs_Nature | It is always awkward for me to approach training time. On my 5th grow, late super-cropping my the weapon of choice for the second time, to try to zero in on several goals: - largely increase uniformity in flower maturity - keep 'total' stress impact / ethylene stacking minimal, or else (nanners, run#4 Mango) - allow for more balanced VPD zones with reduced banding | this just amplifies your protocol efficiency, making the numbers from the sensors more meaningful for automation So much for the stuff on paper. I did delay for a few days with the stressful HST event (for my nerves, mind you), as there are so many things to keep in mind. I decided to pick the middle of node 4-5 of the main stem as my single break point. For the first time, the colas were too woody to massage out, as I had feared. For both Apollo and Orange, the sections slightly splintered and were not able to support the weight of the large growth above without hanging supports. I also used garden wire again to prevent sharp bents, , then taped over them to reduce exposure. Both plants healed up vigorously and within 2-3 days, the troubles were mostly forgotten. They got sorted into the scrog and after gaining some more height, I moved colas out- or inward depending on flexibility. The result is never quite stunning to me, as symmetry is off the table but it does work. The new space for the plants comes with a new learning curve. I am no longer managing climate *around* a tent or in a hybrid lung room coupling formation (that kept me guessing wether I was still on earth, trying to grow 3 plants). Instead I got a clean, nice isolated chamber that is asking me very troubling questions about my understanding of climate dynamics, energy conservation and general sanity; as my mind tries to place entropy at the core of the issue. Unfortunately no controller (AC-I 69 Pro or SF GGS) really offers the granularity needed (0.1 - 0.5°C differentials instead of 1°C, dumb dead-zone management without any advanced controlling schemes) and I almost want to just transfer everything into a custom system, working on better rules. This means AC activity in the tent is now a very meaningful climate event that will crush my VPD every 4 minutes, unless I figure out how to balance the system. This is possible with delayed "day times" for certain devices, preventing harsh swings on activation, deliberate sensor-miscalibration where suddenly -0.1°C is possible, creative functions (have fan blow more wind on low VPD) or just opening a door flap at the right time. I'm rambling myself into week 6, so hard cut - I'll see you over there! 💨 |